Meung Encounter
On the first Monday of April 1625, the market town of Meung was in a state of commotion, and the cause of the hubbub was a young man of eighteen, a Gascon from Tarbes, who had just arrived on a ridiculous yellow Bearn pony. This was d'Artagnan, setting out for Paris with three gifts from his father: fifteen crowns, the horse, and a letter of recommendation to Monsieur de Treville, captain of the king's Musketeers. His father's parting advice had been to endure nothing from anyone but the king and the cardinal, and to seek adventures. D'Artagnan, a hot-headed youth who took every smile for an insult, had already been spoiling for a fight all the way from Tarbes, but it was at Meung that his temper finally found its target.
The Provocation and the Brawl
As d'Artagnan dismounted at the Jolly Miller, he spied a gentleman of forty to forty-five years, with black and piercing eyes, a pale complexion, and a scar on his temple, talking with two companions at an open window. The gentleman was mocking d'Artagnan's horse, and his auditors burst into laughter. D'Artagnan, enraged, advanced and challenged the stranger, who replied with insolent calm, "I was not speaking to you, sir." When d'Artagnan drew his sword, the stranger's two companions, along with the host, fell upon him with sticks, shovels, and tongs. D'Artagnan's sword was broken, and a blow to the forehead brought him to the ground, covered in blood and nearly fainting. The stranger, who had sheathed his sword and become a spectator, muttered, "A plague upon these Gascons!" and ordered the host to replace the young man on his orange horse and send him on his way.
The Theft of the Letter and the First Sight of Milady
While d'Artagnan was being tended to in the kitchen, the host rummaged his valise and found only a clean shirt and eleven crowns, but also the letter for Monsieur de Treville. The stranger, upon hearing this, became attentive and, suspecting that Treville might have set the Gascon upon him, went down to the kitchen alone. When d'Artagnan later searched for his letter, it had vanished. The host, eager to deflect blame, suggested the stranger had stolen it. As d'Artagnan, still weak, descended the stairs, he saw his antagonist talking calmly at the step of a heavy carriage. Inside was a woman of twenty to twenty-two, pale and fair, with large blue eyes and hands of alabaster—the woman the stranger called "Milady." D'Artagnan overheard her say she was to return to England and inform the duke when he left London. The stranger gave her a box, telling her not to open it until she was on the other side of the Channel. When d'Artagnan rushed forward to challenge the stranger again, Milady urged the man to depart, and the two interlocutors separated at full gallop, leaving d'Artagnan to faint in the street, crying "Coward!" but also murmuring, "but she—she was very beautiful."
Aftermath and Departure
The host, having lost two customers, consoled himself with the eleven crowns remaining in d'Artagnan's purse, expecting to keep him confined for eleven days. But the next morning at five o'clock, d'Artagnan arose, composed a balsam from his mother's recipe using oil, wine, and rosemary, and was almost cured by the evening. When he tried to pay for his supplies, he found his letter of recommendation was gone. In a rage, he threatened to destroy the establishment, but the host, terrified by the name of Monsieur de Treville, helped search. The letter was never found. D'Artagnan, convinced the stranger had stolen it, paid the host two crowns and departed for Paris on his yellow horse, which he sold at the gate of St. Antoine for three crowns. He entered Paris on foot, found a garret in the Rue des Fossoyeurs, and, satisfied with his conduct at Meung, slept the sleep of the brave. The encounter at Meung thus established d'Artagnan's first enemy, the man who would later be revealed as the Comte de Rochefort, and introduced the figure of Milady, who would become his most formidable adversary.
