EPILOGUE

The Three Musketeers

by Alexandre Dumas

EPILOGUE, THE THREE MUSKETEERS by Alexandre Dumas
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La Rochelle, deprived of the assistance of the English fleet and of the
diversion promised by Buckingham, surrendered after a siege of a year.
On the twenty-eighth of October, 1628, the capitulation was signed.

The king made his entrance into Paris on the twenty-third of December of
the same year. He was received in triumph, as if he came from
conquering an enemy and not Frenchmen. He entered by the Faubourg St.
Jacques, under verdant arches.

D'Artagnan took possession of his command. Porthos left the service,
and in the course of the following year married Mme. Coquenard; the
coffer so much coveted contained eight hundred thousand livres.

Mousqueton had a magnificent livery, and enjoyed the satisfaction of
which he had been ambitious all his life--that of standing behind a
gilded carriage.

Aramis, after a journey into Lorraine, disappeared all at once, and
ceased to write to his friends; they learned at a later period through
Mme. de Chevreuse, who told it to two or three of her intimates, that,
yielding to his vocation, he had retired into a convent--only into
which, nobody knew.

Bazin became a lay brother.

Athos remained a Musketeer under the command of d'Artagnan till the year
1633, at which period, after a journey he made to Touraine, he also quit
the service, under the pretext of having inherited a small property in
Roussillon.

Grimaud followed Athos.

D'Artagnan fought three times with Rochefort, and wounded him three
times.

"I shall probably kill you the fourth," said he to him, holding out his
hand to assist him to rise.

"It is much better both for you and for me to stop where we are,"
answered the wounded man. "CORBLEU--I am more your friend than you
think--for after our very first encounter, I could by saying a word to
the cardinal have had your throat cut!"

They this time embraced heartily, and without retaining any malice.

Planchet obtained from Rochefort the rank of sergeant in the Piedmont
regiment.

M. Bonacieux lived on very quietly, wholly ignorant of what had become of his
wife, and caring very little about it. One day he had the imprudence to
recall himself to the memory of the cardinal. The cardinal had him informed
that he would provide for him so that he should never want for anything in
future. In fact, M. Bonacieux, having left his house at seven o'clock in the
evening to go to the Louvre, never appeared again in the Rue des Fossoyeurs;
the opinion of those who seemed to be best informed was that he was fed and
lodged in some royal castle, at the expense of his generous Eminence.