- D’Artagnan shows up to talk to M. de Tréville, who smiles upon seeing the young Gascon.
- Before they start talking, however, Tréville calls for Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.
- Porthos and Aramis immediately hustle over and everyone outside the room starts gossiping about the summons.
- Tréville chews them out. It turns out that on the day before yesterday, the Musketeers were rioting in the streets and had to be arrested by the Cardinal’s Guards. Said Musketeers included—you guessed it—Aramis, Porthos, and Athos.
- Tréville starts swearing at his men, cursing himself for picking them, and then realizes that Athos isn’t present.
- Aramis and Porthos tell Tréville that Athos is sick with smallpox. (A total lie.)
- Tréville points out that Athos is too old to have smallpox, and speculates that Athos is likely wounded.
- Tréville tells them that all the misbehaving needs to stop, ASAP. It is horribly embarrassing to have the Cardinal’s men (the Musketeers’ biggest rivals) arrest the Musketeers for indecent behavior.
- Porthos and Aramis shuffle uncomfortably. Outside the door, all the rest of the Musketeers listen intently. Soon the entire hotel knows what’s going on.
- Tréville continues to rant, threatening to resign. It took only six of the Cardinal’s guards to arrest six Musketeers.
- Everyone outside the room starts yelling and cursing. D’Artagnan feels awkward.
- Porthos is angry; he confesses that two Musketeers were killed before anyone could draw their swords, and Athos was badly wounded. All the Musketeers continued to fight, but the Cardinal’s guards dragged them away. Porthos and Aramis managed to escape, and Athos was left for dead.
- Not to be outdone, Aramis tells his boss that he (Aramis) killed one of the guards with the guard’s own sword.
- Tréville is happy to hear that. Obviously the Cardinal kept that on the down-low.
- Aramis then asks Tréville not to tell anyone that Athos is wounded.
- Right on time, Athos shows up. He’s pale and obviously in a great deal of pain. He’s hiding it well though.
- Tréville is excited to see him. He tells Athos that the Musketeers shouldn’t risk their lives needlessly. He then grips Athos’s hand.
- Athos cringes in pain and grows even paler.
- Everyone listening outside the door gets excited and a few people poke their heads in.
- Tréville is about to yell at them when Athos faints.
- Tréville immediately starts freaking out and calling for the doctor in charge of the King.
- Luckily, the King’s doctor happens to be in the building. He rushes over to Athos and demands that the Musketeer be carried into another room.
- Porthos and Aramis carry their friend into another room and the surgeon follows.
- Meanwhile, all the men left in Tréville’s room start yelling and cursing the Cardinal and his guards.
- Porthos and Aramis return, along with Tréville. The surgeon declares that Athos fainted due to loss of blood but that he’s okay now.
- Tréville orders everyone out so only D’Artagnan is left.
- For a moment, Tréville has to be reminded of why D’Artagnan is there. Based on his respect for D’Artagnan’s father, he asks what he can do for D’Artagnan.
- D’Artagnan says his dearest wish is to become a Musketeer, but that he realizes the enormity of the request.
- Tréville says yes, it’s hard. You need the King’s approval and you need to be an awesome fighter. The easy way in is to serve with a lesser regiment for two years.
- Tréville offers to get D’Artagnan into the Royal Academy, where he can learn to be a proper gentleman: horsemanship, swordsmanship, dancing. He then tells D’Artagnan to drop by sometime and say hi.
- D’Artagnan realizes that Tréville is being a bit cold, and laments the loss of his letter out loud.
- Tréville expresses his surprise that D’Artagnan has no such letter. D’Artagnan says: well, I lost it. He proceeds to tell Tréville all about what happened at Meung.
- Tréville recognizes the description of the man who got D’Artagnan beaten up.
- Tréville asks about the stranger’s interaction with the beautiful woman. It’s clear that Tréville knows the man’s identity.
- D’Artagnan begs to be told the man’s identity so he can go avenge himself.
- Tréville warns him away from this course of action, and then starts getting suspicious of D’Artagnan’s true intentions. Maybe D’Artagnan is really the Cardinal’s spy! Who knows in these uncertain times?! He resolves to test D’Artagnan’s loyalties.
- Tréville assures D’Artagnan that despite all their quarreling, the King and the Cardinal are actually BFFs, and that he is perfectly devoted to both. If D’Artagnan is going to do anything against the Cardinal, Tréville wants nothing to do with him.
- Tréville assumes that if D’Artagnan is truly a spy from the Cardinal, he will overcompensate and start ranting about the Cardinal’s flaws.
- To Tréville’s surprise, D’Artagnan agrees. He says that his father told him to respect only the Cardinal, the King, and Tréville.
- Tréville says that he’ll wait and see how D’Artagnan conducts himself. D’Artagnan tells the elder man that he will not have to wait long.
- Tréville goes to write the letter of recommendation to the director of the Royal Academy. D’Artagnan paces around the room and gazes out the window. Right before he’s about to receive the letter of recommendation, he spots the Man from Meung and runs away.
- Tréville suspects this may be another ploy.