By Lawrence Ellsworth
Court of Daggers is the second volume of Alexandre Dumas’s mega-novel Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, his epic conclusion to the lives and adventures of the author’s most beloved characters, the Four Musketeers, as well as their friends, families, allies, and enemies. Published in serial form in the Parisian weekly papers over three and a half years, the sprawling Bragelonne ’s ensemble cast, interleaved episodes, and long character arcs were an innovation in the modern novel form that hearkened back to earlier eras, to the serial pastorals of the 17 th century and the French Arthurian epics of the 13 th . Dumas’s experimental approach opened up the form from the conventional structure used in The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After , utilizing extended storytelling methods that prefigured 21 st -century long-form television series such as Game of Thrones, Deadwood, and Westworld.
The previous volume in this series, Between Two Kings, belonged to d’Artagnan, telling the tale of his swashbuckling escapade in England that restored the throne to Charles II. In Court of Daggers, the focus widens to the now-adult King Louis XIV and the key members of his newly established royal court, all vying for power and prestige in Dumas’s intricate and interlaced web. Moving from viewpoint to viewpoint, the great storyteller introduces or expands upon the plots of d’Artagnan and Aramis, now covertly opposed to each other, of the money men Fouquet and Colbert, the romantic rivals Buckingham and de Guiche, the mismatched royal couple Madame Henrietta and Monsieur Philippe, courtiers and lovers Montalais and Malicorne, and the young demoiselle Louise de La Vallière, all come to pursue their ambitions at the Court of Louis XIV in the orbit of a young king who is the most ambitious of any of them.
Amid the intrigues of these many agendas and aspirations, one character stands out from the others: the son of Athos, Vicomte Raoul de Bragelonne. Court of Daggers is his book, depicting the previously rather passive Raoul now come into full maturity, combining Athos’s nobility and stoic resolve with d’Artagnan’s convincing eloquence and even more convincing mastery of arms. Amid the overwrought passions of love and hatred swirling around the young king, Raoul emerges as the calm voice of sanity; when Buckingham, de Guiche, or de Wardes is about to commit some rash and unforgiveable act, it’s Raoul who stops them with sheer moral force—and if that isn’t enough, with a judicious flick of his sword. After having been lectured by his idol, d’Artagnan, for his naïveté for three volumes, Raoul even respectfully reproaches the musketeer when d’Artagnan contemplates defying their newly ascendant king.
There’s only one force Raoul cannot master: his own heart. In this he is also his father’s son, for in his youth, Athos had conceived an all-consuming passion for a young woman named Anne de Breuil—and when she betrayed him, he killed her. (Or so he thought: she survived and returned as Milady de Winter.) Raoul in his turn is devoted to the young and innocent Louise de La Vallière, but it’s a devotion that’s possessive and borders on obsession. When Athos asks his son what he would do if he discovered he had a rival for Louise’s affection, Raoul simply says he would kill him.
Le Vicomte de Bragelonne is a novel of the Romantic Era, and in the tropes of that time obsessive love always leads to tragedy. Court of Daggers establishes Raoul’s admirable traits, his courage, resolution, loyal heart, and dedication to a knightly code of honor. This book is his, but the next volume belongs to Louise de La Vallière, and in it she’ll display her own strengths—and Raoul will find himself faced with a rival he cannot kill without betraying himself.
What Has Gone Before
The previous volume, Between Two Kings, commenced ten years after the events of Blood Royal but continued that book’s plots and themes. D’Artagnan had achieved the rank of Captain of the King’s Musketeers at the end of Blood Royal, but in the interim, with the end of the rebellion of the Fronde, the promotion had been rescinded and d’Artagnan had returned to serving in the lower rank of lieutenant. With his three comrades once again scattered, and France at peace under the able but miserly rule of Cardinal Mazarin, d’Artagnan was bored. The young King Louis XIV had technically reached the age of majority, but in practice the duo of Queen Anne and Mazarin held onto the power of the regency and Louis lacked all authority.
In England, following the execution of King Charles I, a fate the Four Musketeers had tried to forestall, the country had been ruled by Oliver Cromwell while the late king’s son and heir, Charles II, lived in exile in the Netherlands. After Cromwell’s death, rule of England was contested by two factions led by military leaders, Generals Monck and Lambert. In this division Charles II, though destitute, thought he saw an opportunity to regain the throne, and secretly visited Louis XIV to ask for his support in either money or troops. Louis wanted to help but the idea was quashed by Mazarin, and Charles was turned away.
As commander of the king’s guards, d’Artagnan overheard the whole thing. Furious and disgusted with his French masters, he decided to take action himself on Charles’s behalf, and resigned his position in the musketeers to do it. Bankrolled by his former lackey Planchet, now a successful Paris business owner, d’Artagnan conceived a bold exploit: with a few hired rogues, he would infiltrate Monck’s army, abduct the general, and conduct him to Charles II in Holland, where the king-in-exile could decide how best to take advantage of the situation.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to d’Artagnan, in France Charles had encountered the musketeer’s old comrade Athos, who was keeper of a secret legacy confided to him on the scaffold by King Charles I: the location of a hidden cache of a million in gold to be spent to restore the Stuarts to the throne. Athos revealed this secret to Charles and undertook to personally recover the treasure—from the middle of General Monck’s army.
By courage, wit, and luck, both d’Artagnan’s and Athos’s interlocking schemes were successful. Monck was convinced to support the restoration of the no-longer-destitute Charles II, England became a monarchy once more, and its young monarch was grateful to both musketeers, rewarding Athos with knightly honors and d’Artagnan with a moderate fortune. D’Artagnan was introduced to Charles’s sister, the lively Princess Henrietta, and also met the young second Duke of Buckingham, who was hopelessly smitten with Henrietta.
Meanwhile, in France, Cardinal Mazarin had died, and aspirants jockeyed to fill the resulting power vacuum. Mazarin had ruled France by controlling the public funds, and Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finance, intended to continue that policy and step into Mazarin’s shoes. But Louis XIV, finally freed from Mazarin’s grip, wanted to rule on his own behalf rather than through ministers, which meant he’d need control of his own sources of wealth. Louis allied with the conniving but capable Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Mazarin’s financier, who gave him access to the cardinal’s hidden millions. That went a long way toward solving the king’s money problem, but to rule, Louis would need a strong right arm as well. Learning of d’Artagnan’s role in the Restoration of Charles II, Louis resolved to bring d’Artagnan back to his side and finally take full advantage of his talents. As Louis said in the novel’s final words, “Colbert holding my purse and d’Artagnan wielding my sword: I am king!”
A Note on the Translation of Court of Daggers
The 44 chapters of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne that comprise Court of Daggers were first published in 1848 in Le Siècle, a Parisian weekly. They were collected almost immediately into book form by the publisher Michel Lévy Frères in Paris, followed just as rapidly by the first English translation by Thomas Williams, an American, for publisher W.E. Dean of New York. When Bragelonne was completed in 1851 a full translation was published by Thomas Pederson of Philadelphia, followed in 1893 by another complete version by yet another American, H.L. Williams. These Victorian-era translations, endlessly reprinted, have been the only versions of the first four volumes of Bragelonne available for over a century. Those early translators did their work well, but they were writing for a market that was uncomfortable with frank depictions of violence and sexuality. Moreover, they employed a style of elevated diction that, though deemed appropriate for historical novels in the 19 th century, seems stiff, stodgy, and passive to today’s readers. It also does a disservice to Dumas’s writing style, which was quite dynamic for its time, fast paced and with sharp, naturalistic dialogue. Court of Daggers , the first significant new translation of this part of the work in over a century, attempts to restore Dumas’s edge and élan, aiming as well to recapture some of the bawdy humor lost in the Victorian versions. I hope you enjoy it.
Historical Character Note
The first time a notable character from history is mentioned in the text, their name is marked with an asterisk.* A brief paragraph describing that person appears in the Historical Characters appendix at the end of the book.