The Book in Brief
Twenty years after their first adventures, D'Artagnan remains a lieutenant without the advancement he expected. Cardinal Mazarin sends him to find the former musketeers. Porthos joins in hope of becoming a baron, but Athos and Aramis support the Fronde and initially oppose Mazarin's agents. The friends repeatedly clash and reconcile as they move through Parisian unrest and court flight.
In England, Athos and Aramis try to save Charles I while D'Artagnan and Porthos are drawn into the same crisis from the other side. All four unite, but they fail to prevent the king's execution. Milady's vengeful son Mordaunt pursues them and dies during their escape. Back in France the friends force Mazarin to honor their demands: D'Artagnan receives his captaincy, Porthos his barony, and each man returns to the life he has chosen.
Important Characters
D'Artagnan: Still a lieutenant at the start, practical, ambitious, and determined to recover his friends and advancement.
Porthos: Wealthy but socially ambitious, joining D'Artagnan in hope of a barony.
Athos / Comte de la Fere: A nobleman devoted to honor, Charles I, and the future of his son Raoul.
Aramis: Now an abbe, politically connected, secretive, and aligned with the Fronde.
Cardinal Mazarin: Anne of Austria's minister, whose survival and self-interest drive much of the French intrigue.
Anne of Austria: Regent for the young Louis XIV and increasingly estranged from the loyalties of the previous novel.
Raoul de Bragelonne: Athos's honorable young son, introduced to court, war, and love.
Mordaunt: Milady's son, consumed by revenge against the men responsible for his mother's death.
Charles I: The English king whom Athos and Aramis try unsuccessfully to save.
The Duke de Beaufort: A popular nobleman whose prison escape energizes the Fronde.
Chapter-by-Chapter Summary
The headings and sequence follow the complete 90-chapter Project Gutenberg edition; chapter recaps were written directly against that text.
Chapter 1: The Shade of Cardinal Richelieu
Mazarin broods alone in the Palais Royal while Paris rages against his taxes and cheers Broussel and Blancmesnil. Deciding to gauge the city himself, he puts on a musketeer's uniform and has D'Artagnan lead him out with an escort.
Chapter 2: A Nightly Patrol
Riding through the restless city, the disguised Mazarin hears Comminges and Guitant discuss the brewing Fronde, and Guitant hints that the imprisoned Rochefort knows the agitators. Back at the palace, Mazarin sends D'Artagnan to the Bastille to fetch a prisoner.
Chapter 3: Dead Animosities
D'Artagnan discovers the prisoner is Rochefort, and the old enemies embrace as friends during the drive. Rochefort praises D'Artagnan to Mazarin but refuses to guard his friend Beaufort at Vincennes, so the cardinal orders him back to the Bastille.
Chapter 4: Anne of Austria at the Age of Forty-six
Mazarin presses Anne of Austria about the four men who once saved her honor in the affair of the diamond studs. She produces the diamond D'Artagnan had sold, bidding Mazarin restore it to him and make use of such a servant.
Chapter 5: The Gascon and the Italian
Mazarin sounds out D'Artagnan, invokes the queen and her diamond, and commissions him to find Athos, Porthos, and Aramis for unnamed work, handing over a bag that proves to hold only silver. The cardinal quietly keeps the ring for himself.
Chapter 6: D'Artagnan in his Fortieth Year
At his lodging D'Artagnan finds Planchet hiding, hunted for freeing Rochefort from his escort during a street tumult. Learning from him that Bazin is now beadle at Notre Dame, D'Artagnan passes Planchet off as the hostess Madeleine's Flemish brother.
Chapter 7: Touches upon the Strange Effects a Half-pistole may have
At Notre Dame D'Artagnan questions Bazin, who indignantly refuses to betray Aramis's whereabouts. A half-pistole to the boy Friquet buys the missing fact: Bazin rides out regularly to Noisy, where a Jesuit convent stands.
Chapter 8: D'Artagnan, Going to a Distance to discover Aramis
Riding to Noisy by night, D'Artagnan and Planchet are attacked outside the convent by horsemen lying in wait for someone else; the leader, realizing this Gascon is not their quarry, withdraws. Aramis then drops down behind Planchet and guides them away.
Chapter 9: The Abbe D'Herblay
In his rooms at Noisy, Aramis fences verbally with D'Artagnan over supper and declines to serve Mazarin. Feigning departure, D'Artagnan doubles back and spies Aramis with the Duchesse de Longueville, proof that he is a Frondeur and her lover.
Chapter 10: Monsieur Porthos du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds
Following Aramis's clues, D'Artagnan traces Porthos through Villers-Cotterets to Pierrefonds. At the gates the enormously fattened Mousqueton greets the travelers joyfully and rides ahead to announce them, while the estate's splendor makes D'Artagnan fear his errand must fail.
Chapter 11: Wealth does not necessarily produce Happiness
Porthos, a rich widower with three estates, confesses he is bored and hungry for rank. D'Artagnan offers Mazarin's service with the promise of battles, and Porthos agrees to fight for the cardinal on condition that he be made a baron.
Chapter 12: Porthos was Discontented with his Condition
Mousqueton, now a stately steward, asks to be called Mouston. D'Artagnan directs Porthos to follow him to Paris within a week and lodge at the Hotel de la Chevrette, then writes Mazarin that one recruit is secured and rides for Blois.
Chapter 13: Two Angelic Faces
Braced to find a ruined drunkard, D'Artagnan reaches Bragelonne and finds Athos serene, youthful, and prosperous, with the boy Raoul at his side. Little Louise de la Valliere sprains her ankle leaping from a woodpile at Raoul's approach, and Athos sends him to Blois with apologies.
Chapter 14: The Castle of Bragelonne
Athos shows D'Artagnan his modest estate and family relics, saying nothing of Raoul's parentage. Over supper the boy listens entranced as the old friends recall the bastion of Saint-Gervais and D'Artagnan's youthful swordsmanship.
Chapter 15: Athos as a Diplomatist
After wary probing, Athos rebuffs D'Artagnan's overture, declaring that the king's cause is not Mazarin's. D'Artagnan departs with a terse recall letter from the cardinal and two hundred pistoles from the Blois treasurer, while Athos abruptly tells Raoul they leave for Paris that night.
Chapter 16: The Duc de Beaufort
Mazarin overhears his guards repeating Coysel's prophecy that Beaufort will escape and, superstitious, summons La Ramee from Vincennes. The jailer laughs off the danger, praising his stern new deputy Grimaud, but Mazarin still writes to hasten D'Artagnan's return.
Chapter 17: Duc de Beaufort amused his Leisure Hours in the Donjon of Vincennes
Five years a prisoner at Vincennes, Beaufort torments the governor Chavigny with insulting caricatures and jokes against Mazarin. La Ramee, ordered never to leave the duke alone, gladly accepts a substitute recommended through the Duc de Grammont's steward: the silent Grimaud.
Chapter 18: Grimaud begins his Functions
Grimaud plays the merciless jailer, confiscating the duke's comb, then privately reveals himself as the agent of Beaufort's friends and arranges the tennis-court signal. A note from Madame de Montbazon and La Ramee's chatter about a new confectioner confirm that deliverance is near.
Chapter 19: Pates made by the Successor of Father Marteau are described
During tennis Beaufort knocks balls into the moat, where Rochefort, posing as a gardener, throws them back; one hides a letter announcing a pie from the new confectioner, secretly his old servant Noirmont. Grimaud reveals it will hold two poniards, a rope, and a gag.
Chapter 20: One of Marie Michon's Adventures
In Paris, Athos presents Raoul to the Duchesse de Chevreuse and, through a veiled tale of Marie Michon's flight and a night at a country priest's house, lets her understand Raoul is their son. Delighted, she undertakes to place the boy in the prince's army.
Chapter 21: The Abbe Scarron
At the salon of Scarron, newly stripped of his pension for receiving the coadjutor, Fronde partisans pass secret notes under cover of literary chatter. Athos, Aramis, and Gondy exchange meaningful farewells, Madame de Chevreuse kisses Raoul, and Athos announces the boy joins the army tomorrow.
Chapter 22: Saint Denis
Athos equips Raoul and takes him to the royal vault at Saint Denis, where beside the coffin of Louis XIII he charges him to serve the principle of royalty faithfully. He gives the boy a sword he himself has worn, embraces him, and prays after he rides off.
Chapter 23: One of the Forty Methods of Escape of the Duc de Beaufort
On Pentecost eve the smuggled pie yields the daggers, cord, and pear gag. Beaufort and Grimaud truss and gag La Ramee and slide down from the donjon; the rope snaps and Grimaud falls hurt into the moat, but Rochefort waits with horses and the duke gallops away free.
Chapter 24: The timely Arrival of D'Artagnan in Paris
Back in Paris, D'Artagnan presents Porthos to Mazarin, bargaining for a barony and hinting at a captaincy. When word comes that Beaufort has escaped, Mazarin signs pursuit orders, and the two friends gallop off with guards, riding down a passer-by on the way.
Chapter 25: An Adventure on the High Road
Told at Vincennes that Beaufort's four rescuers have barely a two-hour start, D'Artagnan and Porthos press the chase through the night, wearing out horses and escort alike. Dead and dying mounts on the road, then distant lights, show they are closing on the fugitives.
Chapter 26: The Rencontre
Charging Beaufort's rear guard in the dark, D'Artagnan kills one rider and Porthos unhorses another; Mousqueton is wounded. Dueling two masked defenders, they discover Athos and Aramis; Beaufort stops the fight and rides on, leaving Grimaud holding fresh horses sent by Athos.
Chapter 27: The four old Friends prepare to meet again
D'Artagnan gives Mazarin a report that shields his friends, claiming fifty foes overwhelmed two men. Despite dark suspicions of Aramis, he and Porthos ride armed to the agreed rendezvous, where Aramis obtains the key to the locked enclosure of the Place Royale.
Chapter 28: The Place Royale
Under the limes of the Place Royale the four explain their conduct; hard words pass, but Athos's nobility carries the night. All swear on Aramis's diamond crucifix, the gift of a Frondeuse, to remain united in friendship even while fighting on opposite sides.
Chapter 29: The Ferry across the Oise
On the road to the army, Raoul reaches the ferry over the Oise just as a young traveler's horse plunges into the river with its rider, who cannot swim. Raoul pulls him out; he is the Comte de Guiche, Marshal de Grammont's son, and the two swear friendship.
Chapter 30: Skirmishing
Raoul and Guiche travel on past Arras trading confidences, then surprise Spanish marauders butchering travelers. In Raoul's first fight his horse is shot and falls on him; Guiche saves his life and takes the Spaniard prisoner before they turn to the victims.
Chapter 31: The Monk
One victim, the curate of Bethune, lies dead; his dying escort begs for confession, so the young men compel a reluctant young monk to attend him at the inn. Grimaud, passing through, recognizes the wounded man, forces the bolted door, and finds him stabbed, the monk gone.
Chapter 32: The Absolution
Alone with the false confessor, the dying man, once executioner of Bethune, confesses beheading Milady at her judges' bidding. The monk declares himself John Francis de Winter, her son, refuses pardon, drives the poniard into him as his absolution, and flees toward Paris dressed as a cavalier.
Chapter 33: Grimaud Speaks
The executioner tells Grimaud that his murderer was Milady's son, who learned of her death through the confession, and dies when a surgeon draws out the blade. Grimaud warns Raoul and Guiche to crush the monk without mercy if they ever meet him, then posts toward Paris.
Chapter 34: On the Eve of Battle
Raoul and Guiche bring the Prince de Conde first word of the advancing Spanish army, and Raoul serves as interpreter while the prince frightens their prisoner into talking. Conde arrays his forces before Lens, and the two friends exchange sealed letters on the eve of their first battle.
Chapter 35: A Dinner in the Old Style
At a supper at the Hermitage the four friends thaw over champagne and old stories until Grimaud bursts in: the executioner has been murdered, and Milady's son lives, lately disguised as a monk. He flings the bloody dagger on the table, and all four reach for their swords.
Chapter 36: A Letter from Charles the First
In the Carmelite convent Queen Henrietta Maria and her daughter live on charity, praying for Charles I. Lord de Winter brings a letter in which the king asks whether France will receive him; the queen resolves to petition Mazarin, while De Winter hopes to enlist four old friends.
Chapter 37: Cromwell's Letter
A young Puritan, Mordaunt, brings Mazarin a confidential letter from Oliver Cromwell seeking an understanding with the cardinal ahead of the coming decision in England. Mazarin sends him to await a reply at Boulogne; leaving, Mordaunt glimpses De Winter and grimly shadows the queen's carriage to the Louvre.
Chapter 38: Henrietta Maria and Mazarin
Henrietta Maria begs Mazarin to aid her husband or at least shelter him in France. The cardinal smothers her in compliments while refusing everything, advising Charles to stay and fight and offering only to consult the queen and parliament; Henrietta leaves in scornful despair on De Winter's arm.
Chapter 39: How, sometimes, the Unhappy mistake Chance for Providence
Raoul, bearing Marshal de Grammont's letter, brings Queen Henrietta the news of Lens and unknowingly reveals that his guardian is the Comte de la Fere. De Winter hails the chance as Providence, and the queen entrusts him with her last jewels to fund an attempt to save the king.
Chapter 40: Uncle and Nephew
Mordaunt appears in De Winter's rooms; the uncle disowns him, but the nephew declares he knows five men murdered his mother and vows to call each to account, sparing De Winter for now as his means of finding the rest. De Winter thanks God the others are unknown.
Chapter 41: Paternal Affection
Athos savors Raoul's account of Lens. De Winter arrives, tells of Mordaunt's threats, and asks Athos and Aramis to wait on the queen of England next morning; Athos has Raoul escort him home, then sends the boy to Madame de Chevreuse, glad to have him away from Paris.
Chapter 42: Another Queen in Want of Help
Received by Queen Henrietta, Athos and Aramis pledge to cross to England and stand by Charles I, taking her letters to the king. Athos writes commending Raoul to D'Artagnan, who unknowingly sends half his purse; Porthos adds two hundred pistoles; the pair join De Winter to depart.
Chapter 43: In which it is proved that first Impulses are oftentimes the best
Traveling to Boulogne, Athos, Aramis, and De Winter are dogged by a young stranger who accosts them on the jetty. As their boat puts out, De Winter knows him for Mordaunt; Aramis levels a musket, but Athos spoils the shot, and Mordaunt shouts that they will meet in England.
Chapter 44: Te Deum for the Victory of Lens
During the Te Deum for Lens, Comminges seizes Broussel at his own table on the queen's order, and Friquet's cries turn the arrest into a riot. Raoul, misreading the fray, fights beside the guards until D'Artagnan cuts him free; by Athos's letter he becomes the boy's interim guardian.
Chapter 45: The Beggar of St. Eustache
Mazarin and Anne reward D'Artagnan and Porthos with promises of a captaincy and a barony while Broussel and Blancmesnil sit imprisoned. The affronted coadjutor Gondy turns to revolt, recruiting through his curates Planchet, Rochefort, and the beggar Maillard of St. Eustache, who is paid to raise barricades overnight.
Chapter 46: The Tower of St. Jacques de la Boucherie
Gondy enlists Planchet through the curate of St. Merri, then Rochefort, who promises fifty horsemen and will summon Beaufort from Vendome. At the tower, the mendicant reports ten thousand men ready for the rising and begs the coadjutor's blessing.
Chapter 47: The Riot
Overnight Gondy watches the beggars barricade Paris; by morning the Marechal de la Meilleraie's sortie is bloodied by Rochefort, Louvieres, and Planchet until Gondy extricates him in exchange for a pledge to demand Broussel's release. Mazarin consults D'Artagnan and Porthos, who advise giving Broussel up.
Chapter 48: The Riot becomes a Revolution
Hidden in a closet, D'Artagnan and Porthos overhear Anne of Austria defy Seguier and Gondy over Broussel; when the mob storms the Palais Royal gates she finally signs the prisoner's release, then vows revenge on the coadjutor.
Chapter 49: Misfortune refreshes the Memory
Broussel re-enters Paris in triumph while Mazarin demonstrates to Anne of Austria that guarded gates and cellars make her effectively a prisoner. Humiliated, the queen suddenly remembers D'Artagnan, unrewarded for twenty years, and writes to summon him.
Chapter 50: The Interview
Anne of Austria receives D'Artagnan secretly, invoking his old service and her confidence in him alone, and orders him back at five. Mazarin separately quizzes him, tests him with a sealed dispatch, then bids him return armed with Porthos.
Chapter 51: The Flight
Mazarin hands D'Artagnan full direction of the court's escape to Saint Germain, and the queen confirms the midnight plan in person. At half past nine, D'Artagnan and Porthos carry the disguised, trembling cardinal by carriage through the murderous crowd at the gate to Cours la Reine.
Chapter 52: The Carriage of Monsieur le Coadjuteur
A rumor that the king has fled brings the mob to the Palais Royal; on D'Artagnan's advice the crowd files past young Louis XIV feigning sleep. At midnight D'Artagnan, playing coachman, drives the royal family out in Gondy's stolen carriage to rejoin Mazarin.
Chapter 53: How D'Artagnan and Porthos earned by selling Straw
The court camps at bedless Saint Germain, where D'Artagnan and Porthos buy up every truss of straw and resell it to freezing courtiers at a louis apiece. Mazarin then dispatches the pair to England with a letter, promising a captaincy and a barony.
Chapter 54: In which we hear Tidings of Aramis
At their Paris hotel a farewell letter from Athos entrusts Raoul to his friends, with Aramis's postscript urging them to wring Mordaunt's neck. After consoling Raoul with an invented tale that Athos is in Constantinople, D'Artagnan and Porthos embark at Boulogne on Mordaunt's own vessel.
Chapter 55: The Scotchman
In the camp near Newcastle, Athos and Aramis discover that Lord Leven's Scots have sold Charles I to the English. When two clan chiefs move to seize the king, Aramis runs one through, Athos fells the other, and they gallop off with Charles and Winter.
Chapter 56: The Avenger
The king's last stand collapses and Mordaunt shoots his uncle Lord Winter dead. D'Artagnan and Porthos, riding with the victors, hold Athos and Aramis in a protective sham capture, while Charles breaks his sword, surrenders to Colonel Tomlison, and is sent toward Holdenby.
Chapter 57: Oliver Cromwell
Mordaunt sets a sergeant to shadow D'Artagnan and Porthos, then visits Cromwell's tent. Refusing gold or rank, he begs the day's two prisoners as his sole payment; Cromwell consents, privately reflecting that the young man has slain his own uncle.
Chapter 58: Jesus Seigneur
Guarded at Newcastle with their nominal prisoners, the four friends dine while D'Artagnan schemes. By tormenting his horse into apparent frenzy and shouting the agreed signal, he scatters the guards; Athos and Aramis ride free with the others, and Mordaunt arrives with Cromwell's order to find them gone.
Chapter 59: Noble Natures never lose Courage, nor good Stomachs their Appetites
Halting in a wood, D'Artagnan urges an immediate return to France, but Athos declares that he and Aramis promised Queen Henrietta to save King Charles, even at the cost of their lives. Won over, the reunited four resolve to stay in England together.
Chapter 60: Respect to Fallen Majesty
In a plundered house the friends find Parry's brother bleeding, struck down while helping the king attempt a cellar escape. D'Artagnan proposes hiding among the pursuers themselves; they join Colonel Harrison's escort, dine near the captive Charles, and Athos vows to carry him off before London.
Chapter 61: D'Artagnan hits on a Plan
D'Artagnan cultivates Groslow, who invites the four to play cards in the king's room at Ryston, where they mean to overpower the eight guards. Harrison bursts in with Mordaunt bearing Cromwell's order for London; denounced, the friends cut their way out and hide beneath a bridge.
Chapter 62: London
Resolved to see the tragedy through, the friends lodge in London with the Spaniard Perez. They learn that Parliament, purged of its royalist members, will try the king, that Mordaunt brokered his sale, and that the sittings open the next day.
Chapter 63: The Trial
At the trial Charles keeps his hat on and denies the court's authority, saying it bought him from the Scots. When Athos shouts that the accusers lie, Mordaunt orders muskets turned on the bench; the friends escape, and Porthos's fist later crushes a butcher who fouled the king's face.
Chapter 64: Whitehall
Charles is condemned. D'Artagnan spirits away the London headsman, locking him in a cellar with money raised on the queen's diamond, while Aramis, wearing Bishop Juxon's robes, reaches the king at Whitehall promising rescue; a letter meant for carpenter Tom Lowe lets the four join the scaffold workmen.
Chapter 65: The Workmen
Building the scaffold by night, the friends cut a passage toward the king's room, and Parry recognizes Athos; Aramis returns with the real Juxon. The escape collapses when an officer announces execution that very day, an unknown volunteer having replaced the vanished headsman.
Chapter 66: Remember!
Charles takes leave of his children, then goes to the block while Athos waits helplessly beneath the scaffold. Through the planks the king tells him of a million in gold buried at Newcastle, cries the agreed word Remember, and the masked executioner strikes off his head.
Chapter 67: The Man in the Mask
The grieving friends regroup at their inn, Athos carrying a handkerchief soaked in the king's blood. D'Artagnan has trailed the masked headsman to a lone house; Grimaud climbs to the window, sees Cromwell inside, and identifies the unmasked executioner as Mordaunt.
Chapter 68: Cromwell's House
Inside, Mordaunt reports to Cromwell, who admits he knew of the rescue plot and would have preferred Charles to escape the scaffold. After Cromwell withdraws, the four friends seize Mordaunt at the door and march him back upstairs for a reckoning.
Chapter 69: Conversational
Cornered, Mordaunt trades taunts about Armentieres with his captors and obtains a sword-to-sword settling with D'Artagnan. Pricked three times but only slightly hurt, he backs to Cromwell's hidden panel and vanishes through the wall, and the frustrated friends make for their hotel and France.
Chapter 70: The Skiff "Lightning."
Racing ahead to Greenwich, Mordaunt finds Groslow posing as Captain Rogers of the felucca Lightning, its hold stocked with disguised gunpowder, and hides aboard. The unsuspecting friends embark for France; D'Artagnan searches the ship, finds only port wine casks, and lets everyone sleep.
Chapter 71: Port Wine
While the masters sleep, the thirsty servants resolve to tap a cask of the cargo. Sent below, Grimaud scoops up gunpowder instead of wine and watches Mordaunt fix a fuse to the barrels, ordering Groslow to have the longboat ready at a quarter past midnight.
Chapter 72: End of the Port Wine Mystery
Warned by Grimaud, D'Artagnan quietly rouses his friends. They slip overboard to the towed longboat, Porthos pitching the terrified Blaisois and Mousqueton into the water and hauling them along, and Athos cuts the cable, leaving the mined felucca to sail on.
Chapter 73: Fatality
Finding the boat gone, Mordaunt is caught by his own fuse as the Lightning explodes with Groslow and the crew. Swimming to the longboat, he is refused by all but Athos, drags his rescuer under, and surfaces dead with the count's poniard in his breast.
Chapter 74: How Mousqueton had a Narrow Escape of being eaten
Adrift overnight, the friends tease the plump Mousqueton about castaways who eat their fattest companion, until provisions turn up under a bench. A Dunkirk bark carries them to the French coast, where they separate, since D'Artagnan and Porthos must answer to Mazarin for a betrayed mission.
Chapter 75: The Return
While parliament outlaws Mazarin and princes rally the besieged capital, Athos, Aramis, and Grimaud reach Paris at the start of February. Planchet, now commanding citizen soldiers at the gate, vouches for them without passports and gives Athos news of Raoul.
Chapter 76: The Ambassadors
Crossing flooded Paris, Athos and Aramis reach Queen Henrietta just as Chatillon and Flamarens assure her that Charles was rescued by an outraged people. Kneeling, Athos gives her the diamond order and her husband's wedding ring, and the truth of the execution breaks her.
Chapter 77: The three Lieutenants of the Generalissimo
Calling on Bouillon, Beaufort, and the coadjutor, Athos and Aramis find each Fronde chief nursing a private bargain, while Mazarin himself, cloaked and escorted by Chatillon and Flamarens, quietly makes the rounds as Monsieur de Bruy. Convinced his arrest would help no one, they head for Charenton.
Chapter 78: The Battle of Charenton
When the truce talks fail, the royal army storms Charenton and Chanleu falls. Amid the melee Aramis kills the Duc de Chatillon as promised, Raoul unknowingly attacks him and becomes his friends' prisoner, and Raoul's confiscated dispatch shows Mazarin guarding two captives resembling D'Artagnan and Porthos.
Chapter 79: The Road to Picardy
Following carved inn marks, a chalk drawing at Peronne, and words scratched under a boulder, Athos and Aramis learn at the Peacock in Compiegne that soldiers overwhelmed and carried off D'Artagnan and Porthos. They part ways, Athos to petition the queen, Aramis to raise a force against Rueil.
Chapter 80: The Gratitude of Anne of Austria
At Saint Germain Athos wins an audience and asks Anne of Austria to free D'Artagnan and Porthos, recalling old services. The queen dissembles, then sends Comminges to demand his sword; arrested, Athos manages to call to Aramis watching in the courtyard.
Chapter 81: Cardinal Mazarin as King
Facing the Paris deputation, Mazarin theatrically offers to resign, and Anne of Austria pointedly leaves him free to do as he pleases, with conferences set for Rueil under Seguier. To the queen he boasts that three of the four troublesome Frenchmen now lie locked up at Rueil.
Chapter 82: Precautions
Escorted to Rueil, Athos exchanges a silent signal with Aramis before being lodged in the orangery pavilion, Mazarin refusing to house him with his friends. From Comminges, Athos hears that the two captives have grown strangely docile and guesses D'Artagnan is ripening a plan.
Chapter 83: Strength and Sagacity
Caged at Rueil, D'Artagnan vetoes Porthos's idea of simply smashing doors and asks Comminges for an audience with Mazarin, feigning sad resignation. Told that Athos is now imprisoned there too, he embraces Porthos, declaring the news means their deliverance.
Chapter 84: Strength and Sagacity—Continued
Luring the two Swiss sentries to the window with promised wine, Porthos plucks each inside to be gagged and stripped of uniform and sword. When a cloaked cavalier crosses their room by night with a lantern, the pair barricade the door behind him and follow.
Chapter 85: The Oubliettes of Cardinal Mazarin
Trailing the cavalier into the orangery, the friends find an orange tub swung aside from a hidden staircase and surprise Mazarin below among his gold. D'Artagnan announces that the cardinal is now their prisoner and must buy back his freedom, then demands the door to Athos's room.
Chapter 86: Conferences
Mazarin unlocks Athos's chamber, reuniting the three, then offers a liberty they say they already possess. Forced to guide them out along the park wall, he watches them find horses under Grimaud's guard, posted by Aramis, who has ringed Rueil with sixty of the coadjutor's men.
Chapter 87: Thinking that Porthos will be at last a Baron, and D'Artagnan a
Aramis joins the escape and Raoul gallops up to embrace Athos; the friends carry Mazarin overnight to Porthos's chateau of Pierrefonds. Preferring terms to a siege, the cardinal signs their treaty on Athos's word of honor and sends D'Artagnan to the queen.
Chapter 88: Shows how with Threat and Pen more is effected than by the Sword
D'Artagnan warns Porthos and Aramis against freeing the hostage, then at Saint Germain wrings signature after signature from Anne of Austria before disarming her by handing every paper back unconditionally. Moved, she grants all; Mazarin returns, the Treaty of Paris rewards the Fronde chiefs, and only Gondy gets nothing.
Chapter 89: Difficult for Kings to return to the Capitals of their Kingdoms
Aramis and Athos urge Madame de Longueville and Madame de Chevreuse toward peace; then a planned riot erupts during the king's entry into Paris. D'Artagnan unwittingly kills its leader, his old enemy Rochefort, while Porthos mortally wounds the mendicant, who confesses to Gondy and leaves Friquet his gold.
Chapter 90: Conclusion
The four friends part: Aramis leaves for Normandy in Madame de Longueville's service, Athos returns to Bragelonne after entrusting Raoul to D'Artagnan for the Flanders campaign, and Porthos rides home to his barony, finally recalling that the beggar he struck down was Bonacieux.
Ending Explained
Do the musketeers save Charles I?: No. They infiltrate the execution machinery and attempt rescue, but the king is beheaded before they can free him.
What happens to Mordaunt?: He attacks the escaping friends at sea and appears to drown. Athos tries to save him, but Mordaunt attempts murder even then, and Athos finally lets him sink.
How do the friends obtain their rewards?: They capture Mazarin and force him to negotiate. D'Artagnan gains the captaincy, Porthos becomes a baron, and protections are secured for their allies.
Are the four permanently reunited?: Their friendship is restored, but their lives remain distinct: Athos returns to Raoul, Aramis to political and clerical designs, and D'Artagnan and Porthos to royal service.
Themes and Motifs
Friendship across political division: The four men disagree deeply without allowing faction to erase their shared history.
Age and deferred reward: Twenty years have produced wealth, children, disappointments, and ambitions that youthful courage cannot simply reset.
Monarchy and legitimacy: France's Fronde and England's regicide expose the vulnerability of royal authority.
Revenge inherited: Mordaunt turns Milady's death into a second generation of violence.
Content Notes
Includes war, assassination attempts, execution by beheading, drowning, and frequent combat; political imprisonment, betrayal, revenge, and threats against families; dated national, religious, class, and gender stereotypes.
About the Book
Best for: readers returning to the musketeers twenty years on — older, divided by politics, and racing to save a king they cannot save. Narrative shape: 90 chapters across the Fronde in France and the regicide in England. Central contrast: friendship across factions versus the state violence no swordsmanship can outfight. Overall assessment: 4.5/5 for its darker, richer sequel energy. Source-checked scope: 90 distinct reading units in Project Gutenberg eBook #1259; no front matter was counted as narrative content.
Primary text: Alexandre Dumas, Twenty Years After, Project Gutenberg eBook #1259. The complete text contains 90 numbered chapters. The review, plot account, ending analysis, and every structural recap in this guide were checked against that edition.
Selection evidence: Project Gutenberg Top 100 EBooks in the last 30 days — rank #52 with 81,921 downloads in the August 4, 2026 snapshot. Books already completed in the preceding batches were excluded.