Chapter 6: His Majesty King Louis XIII

Summary

     The titular monarch is, in this novel, a well-intentioned but silly, childish man. The cardinal and M. de Treville constantly battle for his favor by manipulating him and so the king switches his allegiance often; from the Musketeers, to the cardinal’s guards, and so on. The chapter opens with aforementioned king playing on his gaming table, and winning. This puts the fickle king in an excellent mood, and so he receives M. de Treville quite warmly. Since he is winning, he will not leave the game to speak to M. de Treville. Only when he starts to lose does he agree to talk to M. de Treville in private, so he can escape from the game.  M. de Treville lies scandalously about whose fault the duel between the Musketeers and guards was, claiming that the Fearsome Four was merely having a party and the guards attacked. The king totally believes the embellished and rather well-told story, and especially admires d’Artagnan’s valor, which is the only part not exaggerated or made-up. The pleased king tells M. de Treville to bring the Fearsome Four the next day, at noon, so he can congratulate them.

     M. de Treville passes on the word to the Fearsome Four when he gets back to his office. The Musketeers are used to the fickle king’s praise, so this hardly means much to them; but d’Artagnan is over the moon! He can hardly sleep that night from excitement and nerves. The next morning, he shows up bright and early at Athos’s apartment. Eager for noon, d’Artagnan agrees to play a bit of tennis with the three Musketeers to pass the time. So, they stroll over to the tennis courts and start to play. Unfortunately, Athos’s wound forces him to step out of the game soon, and it becomes d’Artagnan all alone against Aramis and Porthos. D’Artagnan is awful at tennis, since he’s never played before, and almost gets smacked in the eye by one of the balls flying over the net. Eventually, d’Artagnan says he too will no longer play, since the difference in skill level makes it less fun for him. He sits aside near Athos, and watches Porthos and Aramis play.

     A guard, wanting revenge for the day before, deliberately makes fun of d’Artagnan within earshot, saying loudly that d’Artagnan is scared of the ball. Our lovely, hot-tempered Gascon immediately asks him if he wants to take this outside. The guard agrees, but not without first dramatically revealing his name – Bernajoux – obviously expecting a fearful reaction. The oblivious d’Artagnan pretty much tells him ‘that’s nice, but we got dueling to do’ and they take it to the street corner. D’Artagnan is awesome with a sword, and hurts Bernajoux badly. In pain, Bernajoux calls his fellow guards (this branch of guards belongs to M. de la Tremoille) for help, and the three Musketeers come to back d’Artagnan up and call for more Musketeers to help. Soon, it turns into an all-out brawl, which only ends when the Fearsome Four remember they must not be late for their meeting with the king. Unfortunately, the king has already heard the cardinal’s version of the latest duel, and has left to sulk and hunt for stags in the mountains instead of showing up at the meeting. M. de Treville brilliantly gets M. de la Tremoille to take the Musketeers’ side by having him visit the fatally wounded Bernajoux, who confesses the truth of his provoking and attacking the Fearsome Four. Since M. de Treville does not need to lie about the duel’s origins this time, he allows M. de la Tremoille to tell the king the truth when King Louis XIII returns from the hunting trip. I also must mention that the king has a servant boy with an amusing name and the worst job ever; satisfying the moody and fickle king’s requests. Let’s give a hand to…La Chesnaye the servant boy!

     The king comes back from the trip in a terrible mood, because the cardinal has told him a false version of the duel that vilifies the Musketeers. However, when M. de la Tremoille tells the king the truth, it turns his frown upside-down! M. de la Tremoille bumps into M. de Treville on the way out of his meeting, and the two men act like old friends. The king hears their kind words to each other, and loudly instructs Treville to tell Tremoille that he should visit more often. M. de la Tremoille, who obviously hears him, tells the king he is loyal to him and will visit. The king is just shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that M. de la Tremoille heard his words directed to M. de la Treville, but he forgives him for eavesdropping and M. de la Tremoille parts from the other two amiably. The king then comes out of his room, and acts pleasantly surprised to see M. de Treville, whom he was just conversing with. He asks M. de Treville to send for the Fearsome Four. Since they have been waiting outside, they troop into the hallway in relatively little time. The king and the three Musketeers praise d’Artagnan extravagantly, and the king gives him some gold (fetched by La Chesnaye), which he accepts gratefully and shares with the three Musketeers. The king tells M. de Treville that d’Artagnan still cannot be a Musketeer, but he can be a guard for M. de Treville’s brother-in-law for now. The king also is very condescendingly sympathetic towards the furious cardinal.

Reaction

     The king is completely crazy. I fear for France. But meanwhile, while the leader of the nation is manipulated easily and France may fall any moment if the king gets influenced by someone even slightly evil, Louis XIII is entirely great as a comic character. Also, I need to take back anything I said about M. de Treville being off his rocker, because the man is brilliant as a diplomat and obviously has been successfully manipulating the king for years. As morally dubious as that is, it’s pretty genius. The other parts I enjoyed are the whole tennis scene (PE flashbacks!), d’Artagnan not being too proud to accept the gold, and eventually sharing the money with his new friends. Dumas must have had a whole store of unique and entertaining characters in his head, because they just keep coming! Also, he stopped the excessive praise of d’Artagnan in this chapter, for which I am grateful.

     My favorite line was basically the king being a big baby, in a royal 17th century way: “Ah, pardieu, Treville! I enjoy beforehand the face the cardinal will make. He will be furious; but I don't care.”