23 December 1628

On 23 December 1628, King Louis XIII made his formal entry into Paris, returning from the successful siege of La Rochelle. The city received him in triumph, with verdant arches erected along the Faubourg St. Jacques, as if he were returning from the conquest of a foreign enemy rather than from the subjugation of French subjects. This public celebration, however, masked the private resolutions and departures that would follow the campaign's end.

The King's Triumphal Return

The surrender of La Rochelle on 28 October 1628, after a year-long siege, had deprived the Huguenot rebels of their last major stronghold and removed the threat of English intervention following the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham. The king's entry into Paris on 23 December was thus both a military victory parade and a political statement of royal authority restored. The elaborate reception, with its arches of greenery, underscored the monarchy's claim to have pacified the kingdom, even though the war had been fought against French subjects.

Aftermath for the Four Friends

In the wake of the king's return, the fates of d'Artagnan and his three companions diverged decisively. D'Artagnan took possession of his lieutenant's commission in the Musketeers, the reward for his services to the queen and his role in the downfall of Milady. Porthos left military service altogether, marrying the wealthy widow Madame Coquenard and inheriting a coffer of eight hundred thousand livres. Aramis, after a journey into Lorraine, disappeared from his friends' lives, eventually retiring into an unknown convent, his vocation finally fulfilled. Athos remained a Musketeer under d'Artagnan's command until 1633, when he too quit the service after a journey to Touraine, claiming a small inheritance in Roussillon.

The Resolution of Personal Conflicts

The king's entry also marked the end of the personal vendettas that had driven much of the novel's action. D'Artagnan fought three duels with the Comte de Rochefort, wounding him each time, before the two men reconciled, Rochefort admitting that he could have had d'Artagnan killed after their first encounter. Planchet, d'Artagnan's loyal lackey, obtained from Rochefort a sergeant's rank in the Piedmont regiment. Monsieur Bonacieux, Constance's husband, imprudently reminded the cardinal of his existence and was last seen leaving his house at seven o'clock in the evening to go to the Louvre, never to return; the best-informed opinion held that he was lodged in some royal castle at the cardinal's expense. The novel thus closes with the king's triumph, the dispersal of the four friends, and the quiet settling of accounts that followed the great events of the siege.