Why warn against Mordaunt?
2 August 2025 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI had vaguely assumed that Athos and Aramis, having arrived in England at the tail-end of the Civil War, had served for several months in the King's army before the final surrender. But in fact the King describes them on that last morning as deux amis de huit jours que je n’oublierai jamais; apparently they have been in England for only about a week (in which case, to be honest, it is very surprising that he places such trust in them -- and astonishing that Aramis, who speaks English but unlike Athos has not lived there, is able to understand what is said to be the Lowland dialect of the sentry with whom he converses :-p)
The letter that Athos sends to d'Artagnan to say that they are in a very bad situation (and that his friend should assume that he is dead if no further word is heard for a space of two and a half months) must therefore have been written almost immediately when they arrived in England, which seems an improbably swift descent into despair; I certainly hadn't interpreted it as the letter that one would send back to a friend from whom one had only just been parted.
(If it would take ten or eleven weeks without communication to be certain that they were dead, given the same rate of information how could Athos be certain within a couple of days that the cause he had only just entered was almost undoubtedly lost? Not to mention that it must have taken them some additional time to join the King if the latter was en route to Newcastle with the remnants of his army...)
It is true, however, that Dumas only describes a few days' action in detail back in Paris in the course of the intervening chapters, so if nothing happens in d'Artagnan's life *except* what is explicitly described (which includes Raoul being shut up to keep him from taking part in the initial Fronde uprising, travelling down to rejoin his regiment, and being left alone there without news or friends for long enough to become seriously lonely and distressed -- just how many days could he actually have been in camp before d'Artagnan visits on his way to Boulogne?) I suppose it could have been only a week or so between Athos' departure and the arrival of his letter on the day after the queen's escape to Saint-Germain...
But what I was already wondering was just what Mordaunt could possibly have got up to in England that would cause both Athos and Aramis to write post-scripts warning their friends to beware of him. However, since Mordaunt is kicking his heels in Boulogne for ten days before d'Artagnan is sent to meet him there, it seems clear that he was in fact in France the entire time that Athos and Aramis were in England (which is confirmed by the fact that they see him on the quayside before their departure, thus confirming the very short nature of their stay in the country!) So the warning can have had nothing whatsoever to do with Mordaunt's underhand Roundhead activities -- whatever they may have been -- and must presumably have referred entirely to the young man's appearance watching them from the rocks at Boulogne, the occasion on which Athos stopped Aramis from killing him on the (undeniable) grounds that he hadn't yet actually *done* anything to harm them in any way.
Since all four of them already know that 'the son of Milady' is on the loose (this having been revealed in equally dramatic fashion by Grimaud during their reunion dinner), Athos' warning, while it makes for good theatre, doesn't really make a lot of sense: Si vous rencontrez par les routes un M. Mordaunt, défiez-vous-en. Je ne puis vous en dire davantage dans ma lettre.
If the aim is to simply inform their friends that her son is now calling himself Mordaunt, the obscurity of the reference seems unnecessary -- and is indeed excessive, since even the quick-witted d'Artagnan fails to make the connection. (Presumably Athos is afraid of betraying d'Artagnan's identity to Mordaunt if the latter should intercept the letter, since Mordaunt is as yet ignorant of the names and faces of the two whom he has not yet met).
It does at least explain why he would send a message directly on arrival in England, since this is the first available opportunity of communication after they see Mordaunt. But it doesn't, in that case, really explain why both Athos and the very unsuperstitious Aramis are so convinced at that stage of their own probable imminent demise, sachant bien que vous viendriez mourir avec nous, that they 'bequeath' tasks for d'Artagnan to carry out (Athos vous lègue Raoul, et moi je vous lègue une vengeance). It cannot surely be merely because Mordaunt shouted "See you in England" after their boat as it rowed away?
The letter that Athos sends to d'Artagnan to say that they are in a very bad situation (and that his friend should assume that he is dead if no further word is heard for a space of two and a half months) must therefore have been written almost immediately when they arrived in England, which seems an improbably swift descent into despair; I certainly hadn't interpreted it as the letter that one would send back to a friend from whom one had only just been parted.
Cher d’Artagnan, cher du Vallon, mes bons amis, peut-être recevez-vous de mes nouvelles pour la dernière fois. Aramis et moi nous sommes bien malheureux; mais Dieu, notre courage et le souvenir de notre amitié nous soutiennent[...]
(If it would take ten or eleven weeks without communication to be certain that they were dead, given the same rate of information how could Athos be certain within a couple of days that the cause he had only just entered was almost undoubtedly lost? Not to mention that it must have taken them some additional time to join the King if the latter was en route to Newcastle with the remnants of his army...)
It is true, however, that Dumas only describes a few days' action in detail back in Paris in the course of the intervening chapters, so if nothing happens in d'Artagnan's life *except* what is explicitly described (which includes Raoul being shut up to keep him from taking part in the initial Fronde uprising, travelling down to rejoin his regiment, and being left alone there without news or friends for long enough to become seriously lonely and distressed -- just how many days could he actually have been in camp before d'Artagnan visits on his way to Boulogne?) I suppose it could have been only a week or so between Athos' departure and the arrival of his letter on the day after the queen's escape to Saint-Germain...
But what I was already wondering was just what Mordaunt could possibly have got up to in England that would cause both Athos and Aramis to write post-scripts warning their friends to beware of him. However, since Mordaunt is kicking his heels in Boulogne for ten days before d'Artagnan is sent to meet him there, it seems clear that he was in fact in France the entire time that Athos and Aramis were in England (which is confirmed by the fact that they see him on the quayside before their departure, thus confirming the very short nature of their stay in the country!) So the warning can have had nothing whatsoever to do with Mordaunt's underhand Roundhead activities -- whatever they may have been -- and must presumably have referred entirely to the young man's appearance watching them from the rocks at Boulogne, the occasion on which Athos stopped Aramis from killing him on the (undeniable) grounds that he hadn't yet actually *done* anything to harm them in any way.
Since all four of them already know that 'the son of Milady' is on the loose (this having been revealed in equally dramatic fashion by Grimaud during their reunion dinner), Athos' warning, while it makes for good theatre, doesn't really make a lot of sense: Si vous rencontrez par les routes un M. Mordaunt, défiez-vous-en. Je ne puis vous en dire davantage dans ma lettre.
If the aim is to simply inform their friends that her son is now calling himself Mordaunt, the obscurity of the reference seems unnecessary -- and is indeed excessive, since even the quick-witted d'Artagnan fails to make the connection. (Presumably Athos is afraid of betraying d'Artagnan's identity to Mordaunt if the latter should intercept the letter, since Mordaunt is as yet ignorant of the names and faces of the two whom he has not yet met).
It does at least explain why he would send a message directly on arrival in England, since this is the first available opportunity of communication after they see Mordaunt. But it doesn't, in that case, really explain why both Athos and the very unsuperstitious Aramis are so convinced at that stage of their own probable imminent demise, sachant bien que vous viendriez mourir avec nous, that they 'bequeath' tasks for d'Artagnan to carry out (Athos vous lègue Raoul, et moi je vous lègue une vengeance). It cannot surely be merely because Mordaunt shouted "See you in England" after their boat as it rowed away?