Volume 3 of The d'Artagnan Romances is divided into three parts. The first begins in 1660, ten years after Volume 2, with d’Artagnan as Lieutenant of the King’s Musketeers. In this post, he is very near to achieving his dream (becoming Captain) and even nearer to his King, being young Louis XIV’s personal guard. Seeing first-hand how powerless the child King was, d’Artagnan resigns his illustrious, but dull, post to turn his sharp wit and sword toward another ambitious aim: restoration of the English monarchy. To the joy of France, Cardinal Mazarin dies, leaving a power vacuum that pulls at the ill-fated ambitions of the rich and powerful, Nicolas Fouquet. To combat Fouquet’s ambitions and wrench the nation back from the brink of bankruptcy, young Louis XIV takes the Cardinal’s dying advice and leagues with the economic and sociopolitical reformist, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Unfortunately, “The Inseparables” again find each other on different sides of the power struggle: Aramis and Porthos with Fouquet, but d’Artagnan and Athos with the King and Colbert. As d’Artagnan advises King Louis XIV, “The reign of Mazarin is over, but that of the financiers is begun. They have the money; your majesty will not often see much of it. To live under the paw of these hungry wolves is hard.” - Summary by jvanstan

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