Epilogue

Summary

      Officially the end of the novel! On October 28, 1628, after a year of fighting, England surrenders and the French win the siege of La Rochelle. On December 23^rd, King Louis enters the city, proud as can be. He is welcomed heartily by all of Paris. D’Artagnan then takes over the Musketeer regiment. Porthos leaves the service and marries Madame Coquenard; and now is quite rich. That is all fine and well, but again, I disapprove of Porthos and Madame Coquenard’s shallow, money-based relationship. What really makes the wedding excellent news is that dear Mousqueton’s dream finally comes true. All his young life, Mousqueton wanted to have a fancy uniform and drive a gilded carriage, and now he gets exactly that! One thing I appreciate about Porthos is his treatment of Mousqueton, who is awesome and deserves all the gilded carriages and uniforms he wants. 

     Aramis, true to his word for once, does become an abbe in a convent, and unfortunately and disappointingly does not stay in touch with any of the other Musketeers or servants. Bazin also gets his dream fulfilled though, which is nice – he becomes a Brother in a convent. Athos stays with d’Artagnan in the Musketeer regiment for five years, upon which he retires with Grimaud in a nice little Russian cottage that he inherited. I hope he never hurts a woman again, allows Grimaud to speak over there, and stays in his hilariously, zany, and peaceful mode! Rochefort and d’Artagnan duel a bunch of times, but eventually hug and become friends. Yep. I’m not exaggerating in the slightest. M. Bonacieux retires and lives off the cardinal’s money. He doesn’t care to find out what happened to his wife. And now, for the news you’ve all been waiting for….Planchet! Our lovely little Planchet becomes a sergeant in the Piedmont regiment! Ah Dumas, at least you wrote Planchet’s ending perfectly.

Reaction

     This is a very bittersweet ending! The Fearsome Four splitting up makes me quite sad, but I can hope that at least Athos, Porthos, and d’Artagnan still hang out regularly. The Hungry Quadruplets of Joy probably do hang out – they all seem to have a more stable friendship than the Fearsome Four anyways. However, the epilogue has its nice moments. All the servants are happy, which makes me glad, and all the ‘good guys’ have relatively pleasant lives.

     I’m a bit upset that Dumas decided to tell us M. Bonacieux’s fate while ignoring those of many other characters.  I mean, M. Bonacieux? Really? He is just so irrelevant at this point. 

Here is a list of characters whose fates I would rather hear about: 

• Lord de Winter
• Felton
• Queen Anne
• Kitty
• The Comte de Wardes
• The Duchesse de Chevreuse
• M. de Treville
• Laporte
• Aramis’s cousin
• Madame Bois-Tracy
• dad’Artagnan
• mom’Artagnan
• horse’Artagnan
• The Swiss man
• The man in the red cloak
• The groaning curator
• Lubin
• Bicarat
• Jussac
• Cahusac
• Bernajoux
• M. Seguir, keeper of the seals 

Anyone but M. Bonacieux.