The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [322]
61. Saint-Paul: The Bastille belonged to the parish of the church of Saint-Paul-des-Champs, which no longer stands. Prisoners who died in the Bastille were buried in the ancient church cemetery, dating from a.d. 632, but it is unlikely that any were actually executed there.
62.the place de Grève: State criminals were executed on the place de Grève and buried in the cemetery of Saint-Jean-de-Grève, to the east of the Hôtel de Ville. It has been renamed the place de l’Hôtel de Ville.
63.the Croix-du-Trahoir: The intersection of the rue Saint-Honoré and the rue de l’Arbre-Sec was long a place for hangings. A gibbet (arbre sec, i.e., “dry tree”) and a wheel stood there, and a large stone cross (croix) was erected beside them to aid the last prayers of the condemned.
64.duc de Nevers…La Rochelle: Dumas’s chronology is inverted here. Louis XIII and Richelieu crossed the Alps in 1629 to support the succession of the duc de Nevers, Charles de Gonzague-Clèves, to the duchy of Mantua; it was also in 1629 that the last campaign against the Protestants, which included the taking of Nîmes, Castres, and Uzés, took place; whereas the English landed on the Île de Ré, off the coast of La Rochelle, in July 1627 and were driven from the island that same November, and it was in 1627–28 that Richelieu besieged La Rochelle.
65.Mme de Lannoy: Probably Charlotte de Villiers Saint-Pol, dame de Lannoy, who was a maid of honor to Anne d’Autriche, though there was also a Marie de Lannoy connected to the court, whose daughter is the subject of the following note.
66.Mme de Fargis: Madeleine de Silly, daughter of Antoine de Silly and Marie de Lannoy, was married to the comte de Fargis, a state councillor and ambassador to Spain. Lady-in-waiting and keeper of the royal rings, she was loyal to Anne d’Autriche, for which Richelieu exiled her to the Netherlands in 1631.
67.keeper of the seals: Pierre Séguier (1588–1672) became keeper of the seals only in 1633 and chancelier de France in 1635. He was one of the founders of the Académie Française (see note 8).
68.Vitray: Perhaps Antoine Vitray, or Vitré (1595–1673), who was said to have been associated with Richelieu in the latter’s efforts to be reconciled with Marie de Medicis, and who later became an important bookseller-publisher.
69.criminal lieutenant: A magistrate established in a royal seat, such as the Châtelet in Paris, to hear criminal cases.
70.Samson…Philistines: See Samson’s encounter with the Philistines in the Book of Judges, 15:14: “The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the ropes which were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.”
71.le comte de Châlus: Charles Samaran (see note 58) suggests that Dumas may have in mind Charles de Levis, comte de Charlus, who was a captain of the guards of Louis XIII, but Gilbert Sigaux, in his notes to the Pléiade edition of the novel (Gallimard: Paris, 1961) thinks it more probable that Dumas simply chose the name, as he did many others, for the sound of it.
72. Mme de Longueville…Condés: Henri d’Orléans, duc de Longueville (1595–1663), had two wives, Louise de Bourbon (d.1637) and Anne-Geneviève de Bourbon (1619–79), daughter of Henri II de Bourbon, prince de Condé (1588–1646). The first is not known to have been a conspirator, though her husband plotted against Richelieu in 1626; the second later became deeply involved in politics, but at the time of the novel was only eight years old. The Condés, Henri II and his son Louis II, known as le Grand Condé (1621–86 ), were both rebellious: Henri led the revolt of the princes against the regency of Marie de Medicis; Louis was involved in the Chalais affair (see note 19) and later in the civil war known as la Fronde.
73.maréchale d’Ancre: Eleonora Dori, known as Galigaï (1576–1617), wife of Concino Concini, the maréchal d’Ancre (maréchale is the feminine of maréchal), was the foster sister and favorite of Marie de Medicis. She shared the disgrace of her husband