D’Artagnan was a poor but noble young man from Gascony. He left his home and went to Paris in search of a better future. Before he left his home, his father had given him an introduction letter for his friend Monsieur de Treville, who was the captain of the King’s musketeers, a horse and fifteen crowns.
On his way to Paris, D’Artagnan got into a fight and was robbed of his introduction letter. However, upon reaching Paris, he managed to meet Monsieur de Treville, who promised to let him work in Royal Academy. Monsieur de Treville also said that depending on D’Artagnan’s behaviour and skills he would consider making him a musketeer.
While D’Artagnan was in Treville’s office, he saw through the window the very man who had robbed him. Without thinking of consequences, he ran after him. On his way, he first bumped upon Athos who challenged him to a duel. Next, he ran upon Porthos and then upon Aramis, and offended both of them. Both challenged him to a duel.
Athos, Porthos and Aramis were the King’s musketeers. When all four of them met for the duel, the Cardinal’s guards threatened to arrest them as duelling was illegal. The three musketeers fought against the Cardinal’s guards and D’Artagnan assisted them. As a result, all four of them became friends.
After a few days, they again had an encounter with the Cardinal’s guards and this time, D’Artagnan managed to defeat the best swordsman of the Cardinal. The King met the three musketeers along with D’Artagnan and rewarded him with money. D’Artagnan divided the money equally between his new friends and himself. D’Artagnan rented an apartment above the shop of Monsieur Bonacieux and hoped to become a musketeer soon.
One day, D’Artagnan’s landlord, Bonacieux, came to him because his wife, Constance, had been kidnapped. She was the Queen s maid and knew many of the Queen’s secrets. Bonacieux suspected that the Cardinal was behind it as he wanted to discredit the Queen, who had rejected his romantic advances.
D’Artagnan rescued Constance and in the process, fell in love with her. One day, he saw Constance crossing the bridge with a strange man dressed as a musketeer. D’Artagnan stopped them and demanded to know the identity of the stranger. He found that the stranger was the Duke of Buckingham, the Queen’s secret lover. Constance was escorting him to meet the Queen. That night, as a token of her love, the Queen gave the Duke a gift of twelve diamond tags in a rosewood box. These diamond tags were gifted to her by the King.
One of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting was the Cardinal’s spy. She told him about the gift. The Cardinal asked the King to hold a lavish ball in honour of the Queen and suggested that she should wear the twelve diamond tags.
Terrified, the Queen asked her trusted maid Constance, to help her. Constance asked D’Artagnan to get the diamond tags back for the Queen. On the other hand, the Cardinal too had asked his trusted spy, a beautiful woman Milady, to get the diamond tags back from the Duke so that he might blackmail the Queen.
When D’Artagnan reached London, he informed the Duke about the situation. To his horror, the Duke discovered that two tags were missing. Milady had managed to steal them. The Duke summoned his personal jeweller and asked him to urgently make two exact replicas of the tags
The Duke gave the two replicas along with the ten original diamond tags to D’Artagnan and arranged
horses that would take him to Paris in twelve hours. D’Artagnan handed over the diamond tags to the Queen who wore them to the ball and shocked the Cardinal.
Now, D’Artagnan decided to search for his three lost musketeer friends. He went to each place where he left them. They were all safe and returned to Paris. They were now asked to buy equipment for the King’s next military manoeuvre, the siege of La Rochelle.
After some time, all four of them returned to Paris. They came to know that the Queen had sent Constance to a convent to keep her safe from the Cardinal. Meanwhile, Milady seeking revenge on behalf of the Cardinal had killed the Duke and was now on her way to kill Constance. D’Artagnan along with his three friends went to save Constance, but Milady had already reached there and had given poison to Constance. Milady ran out as soon as they arrived. Constance died in D’Artagnan’s arms.
Determined to take revenge, D’Artagnan and his friends caught Milady. They charged her with the murders of Constance and the Duke of Buckingham. Milady was executed. All four of them asked God to forgive them.
The Cardinal, when he came to know about this, wanted to punish D’Artagnan. But D’Artagnan was carrying the official testimony that stated that whoever was carrying this letter was safe from punishment as he acted upon the state’s favour. The letter was originally written by the Cardinal for Milady
Recognizing the bravery and wit of D’Artagnan, the Cardinal wrote a commission for D’Artagnan to become a lieutenant in the King’s Musketeers.
