The Three Musketeers and d'Artagnan

The relationship between the Three Musketeers and d'Artagnan is the central fellowship formed when a provincial newcomer turns three potential opponents into his inseparable companions. Its decisive moment comes in the confrontation with the Cardinal's Guards: lacking the uniform of a Musketeer, d'Artagnan nevertheless claims that he possesses its spirit and accepts the danger of opposing the cardinal's authority. The resulting victory converts a quarrel over honor into a durable brotherhood, after which the four men are repeatedly presented as a single social and moral unit.

From Duelists to Companions

Athos first recognizes the quality in d'Artagnan before either man has any reason to trust the other. D'Artagnan proposes postponing their duel, but when Athos asks whether he is in such haste to be dispatched, the young Gascon answers with the same direct simplicity by offering to fight immediately if that is Athos's wish. Athos responds that the answer did not come from a heartless man, declares his liking for men of d'Artagnan's kidney, and foresees pleasure in his conversation if they do not kill one another. The threatened duel therefore already contains the possibility of friendship: courage is not merely an obstacle to be overcome but the quality by which one gentleman recognizes another.

The social identity of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis is then revealed to d'Artagnan through the arrival of their witnesses. Porthos appears first at the end of the Rue Vaugirard, and Aramis follows, prompting d'Artagnan's astonishment that both men are connected with Athos's challenge. Athos explains that the three are never seen separately and are known among the Musketeers and the Guards, at court and in the city, as Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, or the Three Inseparables. Their friendship is thus not an informal convenience limited to one encounter; it is a public reputation and a recognizable collective presence. D'Artagnan enters their orbit initially as an outsider from Tarbes, a man who must learn the “little fact” of their inseparability by witnessing it.

The Choice That Creates the Four

The relationship becomes permanent when the duel is interrupted by a larger political conflict. Athos observes that five opponents stand against the three friends and concludes that they may be beaten and forced to die on the spot rather than appear before their captain as conquered men. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis close ranks while Jussac draws up his soldiers. In that interval d'Artagnan understands the full cost of intervention: fighting means disobeying the law, risking his life, and making an enemy of a minister more powerful than the king. The choice is presented as a choice between the king and the cardinal, and once made it must be sustained.

D'Artagnan does not hesitate. He corrects the Three Inseparables' claim that they are only three by insisting that there are four of them. Porthos objects that he is not one of their number, and d'Artagnan concedes the literal point: he has no uniform. Yet he distinguishes outward membership from inward allegiance by declaring that he has the spirit and that his heart is a Musketeer's. This is the relationship's founding principle. Brotherhood is achieved before official status; a shared risk and a shared code matter more than clothing, rank, or legal enrollment.

The confrontation confirms that claim through action rather than ceremony. When Bicarat is ordered to stop, he obeys the command of his superior but breaks his sword across his knee and throws the pieces over the convent wall rather than surrendering it. The Musketeers salute his bravery even though he is their enemy, and d'Artagnan joins the gesture before helping Bicarat carry the wounded Jussac, Cahusac, and one of Aramis's opponents beneath the convent porch. One adversary is dead, and the victorious group carries away four swords out of five. The new alliance therefore does not erase the code of honor that produced the duel; it demonstrates that the four companions can fight fiercely while still recognizing courage on the opposing side.

The Four as a Fraternal Unit

After the fight, the bond is made visible in the movement of the men through the city. They walk arm in arm, occupying the entire width of the street, and draw every Musketeer they meet into what becomes a triumphal march toward the hotel of M. de Treville. D'Artagnan's heart is carried away by the victory as he walks between Athos and Porthos, pressing them tenderly. His question at the gateway—whether, if he is not yet a Musketeer, he has at least begun his apprenticeship—captures his intermediate position. He is still formally outside the corps, but the fellowship has already admitted him in practice.

The later account of their life describes the change as explicitly fraternal. D'Artagnan arrives from his province without settled habits and easily adopts those of his new friends. The four rise together, at about eight o'clock in winter and six in summer, go to receive the countersign, and visit the establishment of M. de Treville to see how matters stand. D'Artagnan performs the duties of a Musketeer with remarkable punctuality even before he belongs to the corps. He goes on guard whenever one of his friends is on duty, and the Hotel of the Musketeers comes to regard him as a good comrade.

Their attachment is reciprocal rather than merely aspirational. The three Musketeers become strongly attached to their young companion, while the need to see one another three or four times each day keeps all four in constant motion. They pursue one another “like shadows,” appearing together from the Luxembourg to the Place St. Sulpice and from the Rue du Vieux-Colombier back toward the Luxembourg. The repeated crossings give the friendship a rhythm: it is sustained not only by exceptional adventures but by recurrence, habit, and the practical pleasure of shared company in dueling, business, and amusement.

Recognition Before Official Admission

D'Artagnan's formal advancement follows the fellowship rather than creating it. M. de Treville, who recognizes him at first sight and feels genuine affection for him, repeatedly recommends him to Louis XIII. The king eventually commands M. de Chevalier Dessessart to admit d'Artagnan as a cadet in his company of Guards. D'Artagnan accepts the uniform with a sigh, since he would have exchanged it for that of a Musketeer at the cost of ten years of his life, but M. de Treville promises that a two-year novitiate may be shortened by conspicuous service to the king or by a brilliant action.

The response of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis shows that official distinction does not divide them. When d'Artagnan mounts guard, the three Musketeers take turns mounting guard with him. The company of M. de Chevalier Dessessart consequently receives four men instead of one when it admits d'Artagnan. Institutional recognition catches up with a relationship already established through danger, loyalty, and repeated companionship. The narrative makes the order significant: first d'Artagnan proves that he has the spirit of a Musketeer, then his friends behave as though he belongs, and only afterward does the formal military structure begin to acknowledge what the fellowship has already decided.

Narrative and Thematic Significance

The relationship is built through a compact sequence of recognition, choice, ordeal, and routine. Athos's favorable judgment begins the process; d'Artagnan's decision to fight despite the law makes the decisive moral commitment; the victory and the march to M. de Treville's hotel turn that commitment into public fellowship; and the four men's daily habits convert an episode into a way of life. In this structure, the friendship is not sentimental decoration but the mechanism by which the young protagonist is initiated into the novel's world.

The bond also joins personal honor to collective loyalty. D'Artagnan must choose whether prudence will preserve his safety or whether solidarity will place him against the Cardinal's Guards. He chooses the companions before he possesses their title, making identity a matter of conduct rather than institutional privilege. At the same time, the salute to Bicarat shows that the fellowship is governed by a broader gentlemanly ethic: loyalty to one's companions does not require contempt for a brave enemy.

The Three Musketeers and d'Artagnan therefore represent both an alliance and a transformation. Athos, Porthos, and Aramis begin as an already legendary triad, while d'Artagnan is the provincial stranger who mistakes their unity for a curious local fact. By the end of the documented development, he has become their fourth through action, affection, and shared habit, even though the uniform arrives later. The recurring image of the four men moving together—arm in arm, on guard, or seeking one another like shadows—gives their relationship its enduring form: a fellowship in which formal rank follows lived loyalty.