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The Three Musketeers

By ALEXANDRE DUMAS Condensation by CAPT. ANDRE MORIZE "ALL for one; and one for all!"

This was the oath of the four comrades: of d'Artagnan, the young guardsman, and of Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, the three musketeers. Only three months had d'Artagnan been in Paris, yet already he was the chosen companion of the noblest three in M. de Treville's picked company of Musketeers, in the service of Louis XIII. A true Gascon, fiercely proud, ready to fight at a word, the eighteen-year-old provincial lad had won the respect of the glorious three by challenging them, and their friendship by helping them to drive off the cardinal's guards who would have arrested them for dueling. Indeed, this latter exploit had won for d'Artagnan more than a glance from the king himself, who was not displeased to see Richelieu's men worsted by his own.