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Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas – D’Artagnan Romances #2

twenty-years-afterThe action begins under Queen Anne of Austria regency and Cardinal Mazarin ruling. D’Artagnan, who seemed to have a promising career ahead of him at the end of The Three Musketeers, has for twenty years remained a lieutenant in the Musketeers, and seems unlikely to progress, despite his ambition and the debt the queen owes him. By chance, however, he is summoned by Mazarin, who requires an escort, as the French people detest Mazarin, and are on the brink of rebellion (La Fronde). D’Artagnan is sent to the Bastille to retrieve a prisoner, who turns out to be his former adversary, the Comte de Rochefort.

After renewing his acquaintance with d’Artagnan and making a promise to aid his advancement, Rochefort is brought to his audience with Mazarin, where he learns that the cause for his imprisonment was his refusal to serve Mazarin at an earlier stage. He does, however, remember his promise, and though he offers his own service to Mazarin, he refuses to watch over the Duc de Beaufort, who is imprisoned at the time, and soon learns that, in consequence, he is to be returned to the Bastille, though this does not deter him from speaking highly of the achievements of d’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers.

Having determined that d’Artagnan was the man he sought, Mazarin enters the chambers of the Queen to let her know that he has enlisted the man who had served her so well twenty years earlier. The Queen, feeling guilty for having forgotten d’Artagnan’s service, gives Mazarin a diamond ring which she had previously given d’Artagnan to be returned to him, which d’Artagnan had sold in her service. The avaricious Mazarin, however, merely uses the diamond to show d’Artagnan that he is once again to enter the Queen’s service. He commissions d’Artagnan to go in search of his friends…

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