Rescue of Constance from the Mousetrap

The rescue of Constance Bonacieux from the mousetrap is the event that transforms d'Artagnan from a provincial adventurer into a decisive actor in the queen's service, forging his bond with Constance and setting him irrevocably against the cardinal's agents.

The Mousetrap and the Struggle Below

For days, the apartment of Monsieur Bonacieux had been turned into a mousetrap by the cardinal's police: anyone who knocked was seized and interrogated. D'Artagnan, lodging on the first floor above, had converted his own chamber into an observatory, removing a plank from his floor to listen through the ceiling to the interrogations below. On the evening of the rescue, he heard a woman's cries and the sounds of a violent struggle. The victim, resisting four men, cried out that she was Madame Bonacieux and that she belonged to the queen. D'Artagnan, recognizing her voice, sprang up from the floor, seized his sword, and ordered Planchet to fetch Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Rather than wait, he let himself down from his first-story window, landing without injury, and went straight to the door of the mousetrap, murmuring that he would go himself and be caught, but woe to the cats that pounced upon such a mouse.

The Fight and the Rescue

The moment d'Artagnan knocked, the tumult ceased, the door opened, and he rushed in sword in hand, the door closing behind him. A fierce struggle ensued, with loud cries, stamping of feet, clashing of swords, and breaking of furniture. Within ten minutes, d'Artagnan had defeated the four men in black; only one of the officers was armed, and the others had tried to knock him down with chairs, stools, and crockery. Two or three scratches from the Gascon's blade terrified them, and they fled, leaving patches of their clothes and fragments of their cloaks on the ground and furniture. D'Artagnan remained master of the field of battle. Constance, who had been left half-fainting in an armchair, recovered her senses and saw that the apartment was empty and she was alone with her liberator. She extended her hands to him with a smile, thanking him for saving her.

The Aftermath and the Alliance

Constance explained that she had escaped from her abductors by letting herself down from a window with the help of sheets and had come home to inform her husband, believing he could serve the queen. D'Artagnan, realizing the men he had put to flight would return reinforced, urged her to flee. She passed her arm under his, and they descended the Rue des Fossoyeurs rapidly, turning into the Rue des Fosses-Monsieur-le-Prince and stopping only at the Place St. Sulpice. There, Constance gave d'Artagnan the password to the Louvre—"Tours" and "Bruxelles"—to summon Germain, who would fetch Laporte, the queen's valet de chambre. D'Artagnan then escorted her to Athos's empty apartment in the Rue Ferou, where she was to wait in safety, and he himself went to the Louvre to carry out her instructions. This rescue established between them a bond of gratitude that quickly deepened into love, and it placed d'Artagnan at the center of the queen's secret affairs, making him a target of the cardinal's enmity.