St. Cloud

St. Cloud, a suburban town situated on the Seine a few leagues west of Paris, becomes the stage for one of the most critical and tragic episodes in d'Artagnan's early career. It is here that the young Gascon, having received his first billet-doux from Constance Bonacieux, hurries for a secret meeting, only to find the pavilion ransacked and his beloved vanished. The events at St. Cloud transform d'Artagnan's romantic hope into a quest for vengeance and set in motion the chain of actions that will define his conflict with Milady and the cardinal.

The Rendezvous and the Pavilion

Constance Bonacieux's letter, which d'Artagnan finds mysteriously on his table, instructs him to be "this evening about ten o'clock at St. Cloud, in front of the pavilion which stands at the corner of the house of M. d'Estrees." This is the first rendezvous ever granted to d'Artagnan, and he approaches it with the intoxication of a novice in love. He crosses the quays, leaves Paris by the gate of La Conference, and follows the road to St. Cloud, which at that time was more beautiful than the modern route. The night is dark, and the Bois de Boulogne, through which he passes, fills his lackey Planchet with unease. Arriving at St. Cloud, d'Artagnan turns behind the chateau, enters a retired lane, and finds himself before the designated pavilion. It is a secluded spot, with a high wall at one angle and a little garden protected by a hedge on the other side. A single window on the first floor casts a soft light, silvering the foliage of nearby linden trees, and d'Artagnan waits, his eyes fixed on this beacon, certain that the pretty Mme. Bonacieux is within.

The Scene of Violence

D'Artagnan waits for half an hour without impatience, but when the belfry of St. Cloud strikes half past ten, a cold shiver runs through him. He re-reads the letter and confirms the appointment was for ten o'clock. Growing uneasy, he claps his hands three times—the ordinary signal of lovers—but receives no reply. He then climbs a linden tree that overhangs the road to peer into the pavilion's interior. What he sees fills him with terror: the room is in fearful disorder. One window is broken, the door is split in two and hangs on its hinges, a table with an elegant supper is overturned, decanters are broken, and fruits are crushed on the floor. He even fancies he sees fragments of garments and bloody spots on the cloth and curtains. Descending hastily, he finds the ground trampled by men and horses, and the deep impression of carriage wheels that come from Paris, stop at the pavilion, and then turn back toward the capital. Near the wall, he discovers a woman's torn glove, perfumed and of irreproachable odor.

The Aftermath and the Witness

D'Artagnan, almost wild with anguish, interrogates the ferryman, who recalls taking a young woman wrapped in a black mantle across the river at about seven o'clock. He then returns to the lane and knocks at a nearby cottage. An old man, after much hesitation, tells him what he saw: three men on horseback, a carriage, and a little, stout, elderly man in dark clothes. The little man ascended a ladder, looked in at the window, and whispered, "It is she!" Then the leader of the party opened the pavilion door with a key, and soon great cries were heard. A woman appeared at the window as if to throw herself out, but fell back. The men carried her to the carriage, the little old man got in after her, and the whole party drove off at a quick pace, escorted by the three horsemen. The description of the leader—a tall, dark man with black mustaches and dark eyes—matches the man of Meung, d'Artagnan's persistent nemesis. The little old man, d'Artagnan later deduces, is none other than Constance's own husband, Monsieur Bonacieux, who has presided over the abduction of his wife. The rendezvous at St. Cloud thus becomes the site of Constance's second and final disappearance, a blow that shatters d'Artagnan's happiness and hardens his resolve against the cardinal's agents.