St. Valery

St. Valery is a minor but strategically vital port on the French coast, serving as the landing point for d'Artagnan after his secret mission to England. It is the place where the elaborate system of horse relays, organized by the Duke of Buckingham, begins to function, enabling d'Artagnan to cover the nearly sixty leagues to Paris in little more than twelve hours. The village is characterized by a single, nameless tavern that doubles as a fisherman's hut, a location so unremarkable that it is easily overlooked, yet it is the first link in a chain of covert stations designed to speed the young messenger back to the queen.

Arrival and the Password

D'Artagnan arrives at St. Valery on the morning after his departure from England, having crossed the Channel in a brig named the Sund. The port is alive with the news of the impending war between England and France, and the local sailors are carousing in the tavern. D'Artagnan, following Buckingham's precise instructions, seeks out the innkeeper and gives the password "Forward!" ("En avant"). The host immediately recognizes the signal, leads him to a stable where a saddled horse awaits, and provides him with the route: from St. Valery to Blangy, then to Neufchatel, where another relay will be ready at the tavern of the Golden Harrow. The host refuses any payment, stating that everything has already been settled, and sends d'Artagnan on his way with a blessing.

The Relay System

The horse provided at St. Valery is the first of four fresh mounts that Buckingham has arranged along the route. At each subsequent stop—Neufchatel, Eccuis, and Pontoise—d'Artagnan finds a horse already saddled and waiting, with the holsters furnished with pistols. The system is designed for speed and secrecy: the horses are left at the taverns without any prior arrangement with the host, who simply receives the password and hands over the animal. D'Artagnan leaves his Paris address at each relay, ensuring that the horses can be sent on to him later. This network allows him to travel from St. Valery to Paris without the delays of finding fresh mounts or negotiating with innkeepers, a journey that would otherwise take days.

Narrative Significance

St. Valery functions as the threshold between the English and French phases of d'Artagnan's journey. It is the point where the abstract promise of Buckingham's aid materializes into a concrete, functioning system. The port's obscurity—a mere fishing village with a single, nameless tavern—underscores the clandestine nature of the mission. The successful activation of the relay at St. Valery marks the beginning of the final, desperate race against time to deliver the queen's message and retrieve the diamond studs before the cardinal's plot can unfold. The port itself is a place of transition, where the noise of war is heard but the business of the mission proceeds in secret, a microcosm of the larger conflict between the public spectacle of the siege and the private intrigues that drive the plot.