Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers: Chapter 23
100 Days of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers June 1 - August 31, 2024
100 Days of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers
June 1 - August 31, 2024
All for One and One for All: "The Three Musketeers" at 180
July 5
Chapter 23
What this chapter lacks in swashbuckling adventure, it makes up in delightful worldly wisdom - such as:
“As we know, there is a special god for drunkards and lovers.”
Our hero receives a mysterious letter - delivered in a mysterious way - which alerts his faithful servant Planchet - who plays a crucial role in this chapter.
“There are warm thanks to be given you and transmitted to you. Be at Saint-Cloud this evening at around ten o'clock, across from the pavilion at the corner of M. d'Estrées's house.
C.B.”
A rendezvous!!!
D'Artagnan’s “heart, swollen with the drunkenness of joy, felt as though it was about to fail on the threshold of that earthly paradise known as love.”
Ah, the French!!!
Where do such letters come from?!
"Fall from heaven, my friend, fall from heaven."
But why take a musket and pistols on a love date?!?!?! We shall see…
And here d'Artagnan, intoxicated with love, loses his precarious ability to read people and act accordingly… He delights in the sheer folly of chatting to the husband of the mistress of his heart…
“Besides, how not show a little condescension to a husband whose wife has given you a rendezvous that same evening at Saint-Cloud, across from M. d'Estrées's pavilion! D'Artagnan approached with the most amiable air he could assume.”
Oh no!!! Our hero is missing all the alarming signs:
“A slight cloud passed over Bonacieux's brow, but so slight that d'Artagnan did not perceive it.”
Then ANOTHER “alteration that d'Artagnan noticed no more than he had the momentary cloud.”
D'Artagnan is becoming outright cocky AND careless…
"Well, don't be frightened if I come home at one, or two, or three in the morning; still less so it I don't come home at all."
This time Bonacieux turned so pale that d'Artagnan could not help noticing it and asked him what was wrong.”
But the faithful Planchet noticed - and alerted d'Artagnan - as did his greatest benefactor, M. de Tréville!!! Kissing the hand of the queen and getting a rendezvous at Château de Saint-Cloud does turn a young man’s head…
“My young friend, for it's obvious that your happy return has something to do with the joy of the king, the triumph of the queen, and the humiliation of His Eminence. You must watch out for yourself."
And the handsome diamond?!
“Take care, my dear d'Artagnan, an enemy's gift is not a good thing; isn't there some Latin verse about that? ...
Wait a moment."
"There certainly is," said M. de Tréville, who had a smattering of letters, "and M. de Benserade recited it to me the other day ... Hold on ... Ah! I've got it:
timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.”
The reference to the French poet M. de Benserade or Isaac de Benserade (1613-169I), member of the Richelieu established Académie Française, is amusing - he would have been only a child at the time of the action of the novel!!! But the reference to his quoting from Virgil’s Aeneid is appropriate: the priest Laocoön warned the Trojans about accepting gifts from the Greeks (as in the Trojan horse gift…) - “I fear the Danaans even when they bring gifts."
Ah, but the gift is NOT from an enemy - IT’S FROM THE QUEEN!!!
"She gave it to me herself."
Sell it!!! Or hide the diamond!!!
"Then turn the stone inwards, you poor fool, for everybody knows that a cadet from Gascony doesn't find such gems in his mother's jewelry box."
M. de Tréville is worried d'Artagnan is getting over his head in intrigues…
“Distrust everyone, your friend, your brother, your mistress—above all your mistress."
D'Artagnan blushed.
"My mistress," he repeated mechanically. "And why her sooner than someone else?"
"Because mistresses are one of the cardinal's favorite means, and there is none more expeditious. A woman will sell you for ten pistoles—witness Delilah. You do know the Scriptures?”
In the Scriptures, Delilah betrayed the Israelite hero Samson to the Philistines (Judges 16:4-22). M. de Tréville is worried our young hero is headed in the same direction…
“Take care, I repeat to you: woman was the loss of us, each and every one, and she'll be the loss of us again, each and every one.”
And then he gives the young Gascon one more priceless bit of advice:
“But promise me that if you're not killed tonight, you'll leave tomorrow."
How PERFECT is THAT?!?!?!
Planchet once again alerts the distracted hero:
"From the fact that, while you were talking with him, I was watching without listening to you. Monsieur, his face changed color two or three times."
But he is determined to make it to the rendezvous…
"Quite the contrary, Planchet, the more vexed I am with M. Bonacieux, the more intent I am on going to the rendezvous granted me by this letter which worries you so."
The location Constance notes in her mysterious letter invites us to yet another French royal palace that no longer exists… Château de Saint-Cloud was constructed west of Paris on the bank of the Seine in the 16th century by the Florentine banking family Gondis who established a banking house in France when Catherine de' Medici came to marry Henry II - remember her from my preliminary notes?! The one with the 3 king sons with whom ended the Valois French ruling family…
Eventually the château was purchased by Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (1640-1701) - the son of Anne of Austria and younger brother of Louis XIV, the Sun King. Philippe established the cadet line of the Bourbon, the Orléans dynasty - whose descendant, Louis-Philippe, ruled France 1830-1848. Now you understand the name of the French king we encountered in Les Misérables - Louis-Philippe was the combination of the names of the two sons of Louis XIII!!! But he has no sons, Anna!!! Not yet!!! Please remember we are spending THREE summers with the THREE - or more - musketeers!!!
In 1785 Château de Saint-Cloud was gifted by Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette - YET ANOTHER Austrian queen of France!!!
Do you recall my exuberant notes on the coup Napoleon organised with his brother Lucien - which deposed the corrupt Directory and installed Napoleon as First Consul - ruler of Iowa which was French at that time?! Guess what?! Lucien and Napoleon lured the Council members out of Paris to the suburban Château de Saint-Cloud where they were presented with the news that the Directory was deposed and they had only one choice - support Napoleon… The coup d'état happened in the Saint-Cloud orangery on 18 Brumaire according to the revolutionary calendar or 10 November, 1799.
Four years later Napoleon was declared Emperor of the French - also in Château de Saint-Cloud - on 18 May 1804 - with a SPECTACULAR coronation in December of 1804 at the Notre-Dame!!! Napoleon used Château de Saint-Cloud and the Tuileries Palace - both destroyed in 1870-1871 - as his main residences during his rule.
His nephew Emperor Napoleon Ill of the Second French Empire (1852-1870) - the one despised by Dumas and Hugo - who lived in exile in Russia and Guernsey during his rule - used Château de Saint-Cloud as his main suburban official residence. Here he hosted Queen Victoria and Prince Albert when they attended the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1855.
But why would a building filled with so much French history no longer exist? It couldn’t have been the French Revolution, which happened in 1789… It was the heavy bombardment during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 when Prussian troops encircled Paris September 19, 1870 till January 28, 1871 - which resulted in French surrender, deposition of Napoleon III, the establishment of the French Third Republic - AND the formation of the German Empire. WWI in many ways was a continuation of this war…
Château de Saint-Cloud was under heavy shelling and burned down on October 13, 1870 - a fire destroying 400 years of French history… The roofless ruins were finally demolished in 1891… Today a public campaign advocates for the reconstruction of the gorgeous glory of Château de Saint-Cloud…
Château de Saint-Cloud and gardens, c. 1720.