Exiled from Paris by order of the king, the adventurers – Riordan O’Neill, King’s Musketeer; Guillaume Sébastien, physician and polymath; and Bruno Faucon, fencing instructor and man of mystery – along with Riordan’s comrade-in-arms, Barthélemy de Courtivron, and a lackey, Jean-Luc, are travelling to Grenoble to join a mercenary company belonging to the comte de Challons.

Warned that the Cardinal‘s agents are seeking them, the group avoids the king’s roads. Courtivron, a native Burgundian, serves as the group’s guide.

In the name of the King!

Killing one Cardinal’s guardsman and wounding another, the adventurers prepare to make their escape with the horses of their ambushers in tow. Sweeping toward the front of the Hôpital Saint-Louis, they hear a shout – a pair of crimson-cloaked Cardinal’s Guards in the main gateway to the pest-house, and recognizing their own horses being led away, they whip up their arquebuses and fire, the shots whistling over head. Ferusac draws on of the two pistols from his saddle-holster and prepares to charge the guardsmen, but Riordan stops him, instead calling for Saint-Alar to come forth and duel as planned.

Moments pass and Saint-Alar appears at the gate. The young suitor steps forward but he is restrained by the leader of the guardsmen, whom the Musketeers recognize as Lieutenant de Lamoye. Lamoye orders the guardsmen to form a skirmish line, then calls out to the adventurers, “You are under arrest, in the name of the King!”

Difference of opinion

Weeks pass and blustery April nears its end. Riordan O’Neill and Charles Petit serve as fencing instructor and tutor, respectively, in the household of the viscontessa di Praz-de-Lys. The eldest boy and heir, Francesco, studies swordsmanship with Riordan; he is an eager student and willing to put in long hours in the improvised salle d’armes in the family’s Place Royale residence. Francesco and his brother Pietro also study Latin, history, and rhetoric with Charles; both boys are good students, Francesco by dint of hard work and Pietro by natural faculty.

One day the viscontessa arrives in the salle d’armes , accompanied by an older man dressed in black silk and velvet with a Greek cross embroidered in red on his doublet, where Riordan and his assistant, Bruno Faucon, are practicing with Francesco.

Sharing the wealth

After receiving a sack of coins and a ring from a mysterious stranger, the adventurers, the King’s Musketeer Riordan O’Neill and the theology student and apothecary Charles Petit, divvy up the haul, setting aside shares for two of their comrades, Charles Duran, a greffier at the Palais de Justice and another Musketeer, Ferusac, as well as the promised bribe for the German ensign, Kalmbach, who passed them into the Louvre with the duchesse de Chevreuse and her wounded companion, the Handsome Man.

Leaving Duran’s coins in his room at the inn, the two adventurers set off in seach of Ferusac.

Halfway across the bridge

After rescuing two poorly-disguised ‘gentlemen’ from an ambush by a band of bravos – and learning that one is a woman claiming to be the duchesse de Chevreuse – friends Riordan O’Neill, a King’s Musketeer, and Charles Duran, a clerk at the Palais de Justice, find themselves contemplating the prospect of sneaking the duchess and her wounded companion into the Louvre while escorting two prisoners as well.

O’Neill, intimately familiar with protecting the king’s palace, knows that two companies guard the royal residence – the Swiss Guards protect the exterior and the King’s Musketeers the interior. Complicating matters is the practice of placing the companies on guard under officers from other companies, to reduce the prospect of treasonous collusion; this means O’Neill cannot count on the officers of the watch to provide assistance, or at least to turn a blind eye.

Soon a plan is formulated.

The course of true love never did run smooth

Following duty guarding the royal residence at the Louvre, King’s Musketeer Riordan O’Neill returns to the hôtel de Tréville to speak to the captain-liuetenant of the musketeers about the strange events days earlier – Tréville says he will make inquiries about the mysterious duelists and urges O’Neill to be cautious in the meantime.

Haunted by the image of the lovely Italian actress he met at the Foire Saint Germain previously, O’Neill, accompanied by his boon companion, Charles Duran, a greffier at the Palais de Justice, returns to the fair to seek out the enchanting performer.

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

It is March 1625. Winter continues, little abated the approaching spring and its promise of impending warmth. Snow flurries are replaced icy rain, drenching the city in slush and laborers hired by the prévôt des marchands watch the Seine to prevent damage to the city’s bridges once the spring flood brings snags and other flotsam down the mighty river.

Easter approaches, the most important holiday in Christendom, and the Foire Saint-Germain prepares to end its annual run, but the fair and its artisans remains a popular attraction for the nobles and wealthy bourgeoisis of Paris, and for the thieves and magsmen who prey upon them.

A Hazy Shade of Winter

It is February 1625. Paris is gripped in winter’s frozen fist. Slushy snow piles up in shadowed spaces and laborers break up chunks of ice resting against the pilings of the bridges over the Seine.

Despite the cold, Paris remains an active city. The annual fair opens at the Foire Saint-Germain, attracting artisans and merchants from across Europe to display their wares for the nobility and bourgeoisie of the French capital; the fair also attracts cutpurses and grifters who prey upong the moneyed crowd thronging the stalls of the Foire or watching the performances of a troupe of players.