Chapter 41: The Siege of La Rochelle

Summary

     Ah, a chapter in which Dumas feels the need to give us historical information! That hasn’t happened in a while. The cardinal, who formulates the war plans, has a few reasons for wanting to lay a siege on La Rochelle. Politically, La Rochelle is the last remaining important city not given up to the Huguenots by Henry IV. So, the cardinal wants to get rid of this last stronghold of Calvinism. In other words, La Rochelle is the only place still open to the English, and France wants to close it. Personally, the cardinal wants to humiliate Buckingham because the cardinal used to be in love with the queen. That makes no sense unless he still has feelings for her, but we’ll let it go. 

     So far, Buckingham gained a slight advantage when he landed unexpectedly on the Isle of Re. Now, the king is struck by fever and the Musketeers have to stop their advances. D’Artagnan and his fellow guards continue onwards. What? D’Artagnan isn’t a Musketeer? Apparently the king gave him a position in the Musketeers but the actual transition has not taken place yet because the cardinal has not approved. Alright then. It’s jarringly clear that the cardinal has all the power, and even the king is under his influence. The following day, d’Artagnan is ambushed by mysterious assassins. They must have been the ones sent by Milady! They shoot his hat and another guardsman, but fail to kill d’Artagnan. D’Artagnan rescues his precious hat, and runs back to camp. He spends a sleepless night worrying about his safety, and spends the next day in his quarters, feigning illness. Actually, I don’t blame him. Being hunted is very unnerving and terrifying. He sits and thinks about how sad his life is – he says that the only woman he loves is Madame Bonacieux, and she has been taken away from him. Yep, and there it goes; I just lost all sympathy for him.

     The day after that, M. Dessessart (the captain of the guards) asks d’Artagnan for a private word. He gives him the honor of performing a dangerous mission along with four other men. D’Artagnan is ecstatic, and they get pumped up for their covert attack.  On the mission, d’Artagnan is attacked again by the two assassins, but this time manages to subdue one and pin him to the ground. He forces the poor, wounded man to tell him who has employed him. Indeed, Milady set up these assassination attempts, and there is an important letter from her in the accomplice’s pocket. The accomplice was shot by actual enemy fire, so he is lying in the middle of the battlefield. D’Artagnan forces the bandit to go fetch the letter, but sees him dragging his bleeding body and feels pity. So, he calls the poor guy a coward (what happened to the pity?), and does it himself. The letter reveals to d’Artagnan that the queen has rescued Madame Bonacieux and taken her to hide in a convent for the time being. Madame Bonacieux was supposed to have been transported to Milady’s place, but she was intercepted. D’Artagnan feels more joyous than, in my opinion, he deserves to feel after caring so little about her when she actually needed him. When he returns to camp after the five successfully perform their mission, he brags to everyone about how he stopped the assassins and gained information from them. To his credit, though, he takes the wounded would-be-assassin back to camp to be treated. He then feels a lot less nervous and lets down his guard. Dumas calls him out on it, saying that his tranquility is misguided.

Reaction

     The transition from adventure story to a war story is surprising, interesting, and kind of disturbing. Too many deaths! Also, D’Artagnan is being ridiculous again. How can he claim to love Madame Bonacieux? We’ve already seen that he is incapable of being loyal to any woman. However, I love that Dumas condemns his carelessness. Some of the time, my real problem with d’Artagnan is that Dumas does not make a ‘this is wrong’ judgment on d’Artagnan. If he did, we could work with our hero having some flaws – I still don’t think d’Artagnan’s behavior with women can be excused as a flaw, but some of his other bad moments could be. Since he doesn’t though, d’Artagnan is sometimes an unsympathetic hero. Also, I feel sad for Madame Bonacieux. She probably thinks d’Artagnan is worrying himself sick about her, and that’s why she allowed him that glimpse of her in the carriage. I hope she figures out his disloyalty and gets all feisty up in his face.

     My favorite line is when Dumas calls d’Artagnan out on his arrogance: “The brave exploit of d'Artagnan resulted in the restoration of the tranquility he had lost…This tranquility proved one thing--that d'Artagnan did not yet know Milady.”