About this story
In the inn yard at Meung, a scarred gentleman at the window makes a joke about the horse, and the quarrel you want ends instead with servants' sticks and your hand in the dust. A carriage waits on the road; the woman inside it mentions the cardinal. Afterwards, your coat pocket is empty.
Who you’ll meet
The scarred stranger of Meung, who has just taken the letter to Treville, with the innkeeper holding out the emptied coat at one edge and the young noblewoman who outranks him watching from the carriage window — the three people the reader, d'Artagnan, is about to lose an introduction to.
How it opens
You left Gascony with a patched horse, a few coins, and your father's letter to Treville.
The road to Paris made the animal's unusual color an announcement at every village.
FatherGuard your honor, seek worthy quarrels, and trust the captain who knew me.
FatherA gentleman may begin poor without permitting anyone to make him small.
Meung InnkeeperThen the gentleman should enter before his horse frightens my customers.
Choose
My horse has survived worse opinions than yours.
Give him oats and reserve judgment until he finishes them.