Comment on A Cabal of Paris

  1. Deiseach (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sun 30 Dec 2018 02:00AM UTC

    Yeah, Aramis is a tiny bit self-deceiving: oh, if only I were not entrapped by my duties to my flock and to politics, I could soar on the wings of inspiration to true fame! Meanwhile, he gets indulgences on account of his delicate health to avoid any of the hardships of his religious role, lives in a Little Nest o'Luxury at the Jesuit convent (while telling d'Artagnan "You see I live as minimally as a Trappist") and keeps wistful and romantic souvenirs of his military career (while, when he was an active Musketeer, he was always sighing over how he really was meant for the religious life).

    I do think he most fully enjoys himself at the very end, when he's an old man, on the run for treason, and ends up as a Duke and the Spanish ambassador back to the French court - now that's getting perfect revenge on all your enemies! And all the while he's complaining over his ill health and how he hasn't much longer to live, and he survives them all! He's a tricky, scheming, ambitious and not over-scrupulous survivor, and at the back of his mind he knows it, but he enjoys deceiving by misdirection so much he even deceives himself.

    And to do him justice, he does have virtues, and he did love the three (two) of his comrades very, very dearly and loyally to the end.

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