Fight with the Cardinal's Guards

The Fight with the Cardinal's Guards marks the moment when the four heroes—d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—first stand together as a single fighting unit, transforming a series of personal quarrels into a sworn brotherhood that will shape the rest of the novel. The encounter, which takes place near the Convent of the Carmes-Deschaux in Paris, pits three Musketeers and a young Guardsman against five of the Cardinal's most feared men, and its outcome not only establishes the quartet's reputation but also sets them on a collision course with the most powerful minister in France.

Background and Causes

The fight grows directly out of the dueling culture that pervades the novel's opening chapters. D'Artagnan, newly arrived in Paris, has managed to offend all three Musketeers in a single morning: he collides with Athos, aggravates Porthos by exposing the sham of his golden baldric, and embarrasses Aramis over a handkerchief. Each challenges him to a duel at a different hour behind the Luxembourg. When d'Artagnan arrives at the Carmes-Deschaux for his noon appointment with Athos, he finds that Athos's seconds are Porthos and Aramis—the very men he is also scheduled to fight. The three Musketeers, known as the "Three Inseparables," are astonished to discover that they all have the same quarrel with the same young Gascon. Before any of the duels can begin, a company of the Cardinal's Guards, commanded by Jussac and including Cahusac and Bicarat, appears on the scene. The Guards, who are the sworn enemies of the Musketeers, immediately seize the opportunity to enforce the king's edicts against dueling—or, more accurately, to humiliate their rivals.

The Battle

Jussac orders the Musketeers to sheathe their swords and submit to arrest. Athos, still wounded from a previous skirmish, recognizes Jussac as one of the aggressors from the day before and refuses. The three Musketeers, outnumbered five to three, prepare to fight to the death rather than surrender. At this critical moment, d'Artagnan steps forward and declares, "You said you were but three, but it appears to me we are four." Though he wears the uniform of the Guards, not the Musketeers, he insists that his heart is that of a Musketeer. Jussac offers him a chance to withdraw, but d'Artagnan refuses. The nine combatants rush upon each other with fury. Athos fixes on Cahusac, Porthos engages Bicarat, and Aramis finds himself opposed to two adversaries. D'Artagnan springs directly at Jussac himself, the leader of the Guards. The young Gascon, though inexperienced, fights with the agility of a serpent and the ferocity of a tiger, constantly changing his ground and his guard. Jussac, a renowned swordsman, grows impatient at being held in check by a mere boy and makes a mistake. D'Artagnan parries his thrust, glides beneath his blade, and runs him through. Jussac falls like a dead mass. D'Artagnan then turns to aid his companions. Aramis has killed one of his two opponents and is pressing the other hard. Porthos and Bicarat have exchanged wounds—Porthos through the arm, Bicarat through the thigh—but neither is disabled. Athos, wounded anew by Cahusac, has changed his sword to his left hand and is fighting on his knee. D'Artagnan springs to Athos's aid, disarms Cahusac, and allows Athos to finish him with a thrust through the throat. Aramis forces his remaining adversary to beg for mercy. Bicarat, alone against four, refuses to surrender until Jussac commands him to yield. He then breaks his sword across his knee and crosses his arms, whistling a cardinalist air. The Musketeers salute him for his bravery.

Consequences and Aftermath

The fight leaves four of the five Guardsmen dead or wounded and the Musketeers and d'Artagnan victorious. They walk arm in arm back to M. de Treville's hotel, gathering other Musketeers as they go until their procession becomes a triumphal march. D'Artagnan, marching between Athos and Porthos, declares, "If I am not yet a Musketeer, at least I have entered upon my apprenticeship." The affair makes a great noise throughout Paris. M. de Treville scolds his Musketeers in public but congratulates them in private. The king, Louis XIII, hears the story from Treville and is delighted that four men—one of them a mere boy—have defeated five of the cardinal's best Guards. He summons d'Artagnan and the three Musketeers to the Louvre, rewards d'Artagnan with forty pistoles, and later arranges for him to be transferred into the Musketeers. The cardinal, furious at the defeat of his men, absents himself from the king's gaming table for eight days. Most importantly, the battle forges the bond between the four friends. Immediately after the fight, d'Artagnan proposes their famous motto: "All for one, one for all." Athos and Aramis immediately agree; Porthos, after some grumbling, joins them. The four friends repeat the formula together, and d'Artagnan declares, "From this moment we are at feud with the cardinal." The fight thus transforms a set of accidental acquaintances into a sworn brotherhood that will face the cardinal's enmity, Milady's vengeance, and the dangers of the siege of La Rochelle together.