Alexandre Dumas, Between Two Kings, Chapters 49-50 and Court of Daggers, Chapters 1-4

100 Days of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne; June 1 - August 31, 2026

100 Days of Alexandre Dumas’ Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later

Second sequel to The Three Musketeers

June 1 - August 31, 2026

June 22

Between Two Kings

Chapters 49-50

AND

Court of Daggers

Chapters 1-4

The chapters under consideration contain the immortal passage:

“Thirteen million in my cellar,” the king said, “Colbert holding my purse and d’Artagnan wielding my sword: I am king!”

AND

“Grab your boots, Monsieur d’Artagnan, and saddle your horse.”

PLUS, we are beginning to understand why the second sequel is entitled Vicomte de Bragelonne - Raoul unites all five of these magnificent volumes!!!

The following Court of Daggers chapter clusters will be covered this week - with commentary mid-week and over the weekend - Chapters 5-10, 11-16, 17-22.

49 Enter Colbert

50 The First Day of the Reign of Louis XIV

The deathbed waiting game begins:

“Louis never went to bed. An hour after he’d left the cardinal’s chamber, he heard that the dying man, recovering a little strength, had had himself dressed, rouged, and combed, and had asked to receive the latest ambassadors. Like Caesar Augustus, he seemed to regard the world as a theater and wanted to play out properly the last act of his comedy.

Anne of Austria didn’t visit the cardinal again; she had nothing more to do there. The appearance of propriety was the pretext for her absence. Besides, the cardinal didn’t ask for her, as the advice the queen had given her son still irked him.”

Louis XIV is impatient:

“He leaned his forehead into his hands, as if he were preparing to sleep. But after a moment he raised his head, shook his shining hair, rose, and throwing open the window, bathed his burning forehead in the brisk morning breeze that brought him the bitter scent of the trees and the sweet perfume of the flowers. A resplendent dawn was rising on the horizon, and the first rays of the sun gilded the young king’s brow.

“This golden dawn is the first of my reign,” murmured Louis XIV. “Is this an omen that you send me, Almighty God?””

After naming his associates, Messieurs Breteuil (see my additional posts), Marin, and Hervard, Colbert leaves the stunned king to contemplate his newly stabilized financial standing:

“Thirteen million in my cellar,” the king said, “Colbert holding my purse and d’Artagnan wielding my sword: I am king!”

The End

Yes, I clapped my hands in absolute delight as I finished Between Two Kings!!! To glory, as always!!!

Court of Daggers

Introduction

1 A Passion

2 D’Artagnan’s Lesson

3 The King

4 The Houses of Monsieur Fouquet

Love love love the Lawrence Ellsworth introductions - brief, factual, and to the point! Plus - no spoilers! The first paragraph sets the tone for the second volume of the second sequel:

“Court of Daggers is the second volume of Alexandre Dumas’s mega-novel Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, his epic conclusion to the lives and adventures of the author’s most beloved characters, the Four Musketeers, as well as their friends, families, allies, and enemies. Published in serial form in the Parisian weekly papers over three and a half years, the sprawling Bragelonne’s ensemble cast, interleaved episodes, and long character arcs were an innovation in the modern novel form that hearkened back to earlier eras, to the serial pastorals of the 17h century and the French Arthurian epics of the 13th. Dumas’s experimental approach opened up the form from the conventional structure used in The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After, utilizing extended storytelling methods that prefigured 21s-century long-form television series such as Game of Thrones, Deadwood, and Westworld.”

Raoul is getting fabulous advice - from both Athos and d’Artagnan:

“And I did the right thing,” said Athos hastily. “I’m not a cruel or unjust father, I respect true love, but I foresee a particular future for you, a grand future. We’re at the dawn of a new reign, and war calls to the spirit of our chivalrous young king. What he needs to support this heroic ardor is a brigade of cavaliers who are young and free, who can charge into battle and fall, crying ‘Vive le roi? rather than, Farewell, my wife! You understand that, Raoul. As heartless as my reasoning may seem, I implore you to listen to me and turn your gaze away from your younger days when you lived for love, soft and carefree days that weaken the heart until it can’t stand the strong drink we call glory and adversity. Raoul, I tell you again, see in my counsels only the desire to help you, nothing but the ambition to see you prosper. I believe you capable of becoming a remarkable man; march forward alone, and you will march faster and farther.”

Athos is the model of aristocratic detachment!

“Monsieur, I see you wear an order that’s new to me. Accept my

compliments.”

“The Fleece? Ah, yes. A trifle, my son, the kind of bone they throw to an old dog like me. Bonsoir, Raoul!”

Please recall my Dumas commentary posted before we delved into Between Two Kings. Dumas is writing the early chapters of the second sequel on the eve of the Revolution of 1848 - and d’Artagnan’s negative assessment of the early years of Louis XIV’s rule reflects Dumas’ discontent with the final months of the July Monarchy which is about to be overthrown. Dumas, ever a supporter of the French Republic, is about to create a more positive image of the young French king - a sentiment which derives from his approval of the newly established Second Republic.

“Yes, a king who’s a pleasure-seeker, it’s true, but who knows how to hold a sword, and appreciates those who know what that’s good for. Athos stands well with Charles II. Take service with him and leave behind this crowd of tax-farmers and corrupt officials who steal with French fingers anything the Italian left behind. And leave that little crybaby of a king who will give us another reign like that of François II. Have you studied history, Raoul?”

But the near anarchist discontent with the political momentum does not hinder d’Artagnan’s business schemes - he rents out the attic of his house on the Place de Grève, a notorious execution site, to thrill seekers fascinated by public executions:

“So, no one lives in it. Only, you see that the attic has two windows overlooking the square?”

“Yes, Monsieur.”

“Well! Whenever there’s a hanging, quartering, or breaking on the wheel, those two windows rent for twenty pistoles apiece.”

“Oh!” said Raoul with horror.

“Revolting, isn’t it?” said d’Artagnan.

With the death of Mazarin, d’Artagnan predicts the unbridled rise of finance oligarchy:

“I’m not great statesman, but I keep my eye on affairs, Sire, and I can’t say I see things as Your Majesty does. The reign of Mazarin is over, but that of the financiers now begins. They have all the money, and Your Majesty won’t see much of it. To live under the jaws of these hungry wolves will be hard for a man who’d hoped for independence.”

But will Colbert mind the business of France - in addition to stuffing his pockets?! So far, he found eighteen million livres for the destitute king… Will d’Artagnan offer his sword in the service of the young king - who is desperately in need of men he can trust?…

Ah, but what musketeer could he resist the following summons?!

“Grab your boots, Monsieur d’Artagnan, and saddle your horse.”

This remark reduced me to endless giggles:

“I would no more mistake a fort for a rampart than I would confuse a cuirass with a pie crust.”

The king is sending d’Artagnan undercover to the chateau of Fouquet, whose wealth and political influence threaten to undermine the authority of the king… And Colbert is tightening the noose, literally, around some of Fouquet’s closest business associates, D’Emerys and Lyodot…

Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), the legendary French Minister of Finances who served Louis XIV between 1665 and 1683, by Philippe de Champaigne (1602-1674), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.