Chapter 14: The Man of Meung

Summary

     Luckily for Bonacieux, the carriage stops by the execution spot just for a moment, and soon continues onwards. He is presently brought into the presence of a stern man, about 36 years old, with graying hair and a graying “pair of mustaches.” Goodness sakes, a pair? This man is dressed so that he resembles a soldier, and is haughty and proud. It is the cardinal! M. Bonacieux, the idiot that he is, gives the cardinal damaging information about his wife, such as the addresses of some of the houses she visits on secret missions. Mind you, at first M. Bonacieux thinks that she stops at linen drapers’ houses. After compromising his wife’s mission, Bonacieux pledges longstanding devotion to the cardinal. He is so obtuse that when the letter thief suddenly walks in, he cries out, exclaiming that he is the one that kidnapped his wife. Bonacieux then remembers the unfavorable reaction he received when stating so in jail and retracts his words, crying out that he was mistaken, and the man who walked in never kidnapped anyone. The cardinal rightly calls him a blithering idiot, and has him taken away.

     Then, the cardinal and the letter thief are free to talk in private. It turns out that the ‘letter thief’ is actually the Comte de Rochefort, and an excellent spy. Horrifyingly, Rochefort knows all about the Duke and Queen’s meeting, and even figured out what token she gave him. In the rosewood casket were twelve diamond studs given to her by the king. The Comte de Rochefort is soon dismissed to go to the two house addresses M. Bonacieux told them about. Rochefort soon returns, reporting that a man and a woman respectively were in the houses, but they left recently. The cardinal realizes that these two people were the Duke and the Duchesse de Chevreuse, and they had barely escaped being caught. M. Bonacieux is brought in one last time, and treated very kindly by the cardinal.  The cardinal even gives him money, and then lets him go home. The cardinal explains that now the dimwitted Bonacieux will spy on his wife for him. After Bonacieux is set free, the cardinal sends a message to…wait for it….Milady! Remember her from chapter 1? That pretty woman that the letter thief gave a message to right before he left, with d’Artagnan screaming for him to come back and fight? The cardinal’s letter instructs her to find the Duke at a ball, and to cut off two of the diamond studs that the cardinal predicts that the Duke will wear.

Reaction

     The cardinal is not what I expected him to be. He is younger, and more adroit at his spying and manipulations. M. Bonacieux is an idiot, of course, and I cannot believe he almost got the Duke and Duchesse de Chevreuse into trouble. Dumas has successfully gotten me completely on Madame Bonacieux, the Duke, and the Queen’s side, and against the cardinal’s people. I worry for the Queen’s reputation, because if Milady succeeds in her mission, then eventually, when the king or someone else requires her to wear the studs, she will be in trouble even if the Duke returns what is left of them.

     My favorite lines:

The cardinal – “Hold your tongue! You are stupid.”

Bonacieux – “That's exactly what my wife said, monseigneur.”

And he’s totally serious!