Three Musketeers Coloring Pages
"All for one and one for all!" is one of the most famous mottos in storytelling. It comes from a book about a country boy who rides into Paris on a skinny pony and upsets three musketeers in a single day, and somehow they end up as his best friends.
The story is set in France in the 1620s, when real-life musketeers wore wide feathered hats and tall cuffed boots with a big cross on their tabards and defended the city and the people within it.
Jump to: Goodbye, Gascony | Paris | The Three Musketeers | The Cardinal | Constance | Queen Anne | Milady | All for One | Fact or Fiction
Goodbye, Gascony
D'Artagnan grew up on a farm in Gascony, a corner of southwest France, and he'd made up his mind to be one of the king's musketeers. His father gave him a sword, a letter for the captain of the musketeers and some advice about never backing away from a challenge. Then he climbed onto a skinny pony that people laughed at before he'd even left the lane. He waved all the way to the bend in the road while his family waved back from the farmhouse, and none of them had any idea how much trouble was waiting between there and Paris.
Paris at Last
Paris was louder and busier than anything D'Artagnan had ever seen. He clip-clopped down the street with his chin up and his feather a little crooked, sure that the captain of the musketeers would take one look at him and hand over a tabard. His letter had gone missing on the road, which didn't help, but he wasn't the sort to let that slow him down. He was so busy staring up at the tall houses that he wasn't watching where he was going, and that's how his first day in the city got complicated.
The Three Musketeers
Bumping into Athos
The first person D'Artagnan crashed into was Athos, a tall and quiet musketeer with a sore shoulder who didn't care to be bumped. D'Artagnan said sorry in a rush and then said something rude without meaning to, which was exactly the kind of thing he did when he was nervous. Athos stayed perfectly calm and agreed to meet him at noon behind a convent to settle the matter. He was the sort of person who never needed to shout to be understood.
Porthos Swaggers By
Porthos was next and he was hard to miss. He was broad and cheerful with the biggest feather in all of Paris and a gold-trimmed sword belt that he was extremely proud of. D'Artagnan upset him within minutes over that very belt, and Porthos puffed himself up and set a meeting for one o'clock. He seemed to be having a wonderful time and found most things funny until someone said something about his clothes.
Aramis and the Handkerchief
Aramis was the neat and dreamy one, always polite and usually carrying a little book. D'Artagnan spotted a lace handkerchief on the ground and handed it over, and Aramis grew very flustered and insisted it wasn't his. It really belonged to a lady, and he didn't want anyone to know about her. By the time D'Artagnan worked out what he'd said, he had a third meeting set for two o'clock.
Surprise! It's All Three
At noon D'Artagnan turned up to meet Athos and found that all the musketeers had been chatting. The boy who'd arranged three separate meetings was now faced with them all at once.. the same three (pretty darn skilled) men standing in a row with their arms folded. D'Artagnan gulped and said he'd be happy to meet each of them in turn, exactly as promised.
Meet Cardinal Richelieu
Cardinal Richelieu was the most powerful man in France after the King, and he made it his business to know everything that went on at court. He was tall and thin and wore a long robe with a cross on a chain, and he liked to press his fingertips together while he thought. The King trusted him with almost everything. The musketeers, who guarded the King himself, felt that something about the Cardinal didn't add up, and his own guards were always getting in their way.
The Cardinal's Guards Arrive
Before anyone could draw a sword the Cardinal's guards marched in. Duelling was against the rules and the guards had come to put a stop to it, and they didn't care for the musketeers anyway. The two groups were easy to tell apart because musketeers wore a big cross on their tabards while the guards wore a plain shield and not a single feather. D'Artagnan could have slipped away. Instead he stepped in beside the musketeers, and what had been three separate challenges turned into one team.
A Room at Constance's House
The King heard about the fight and was delighted, which made D'Artagnan a bit of a hero overnight. He rented a room where Constance worked... she had many jobs, including looking after the Queen's linens at the palace. She was kind and cheerful, and D'Artagnan liked her at once.
Meet Queen Anne
Queen Anne was born in Spain and came to France as a young bride to marry King Louis XIII. She wore pearls and lace and puffy sleeves and carried a small fan wherever she went, and she was gracious and gentle with almost everyone she met. Living so far from home meant she had to be careful about who she trusted at court. She was kind to her servants, including Constance who she considered a friend.
The Queen's Missing Diamonds
Queen Anne had a secret. She'd given twelve diamond studs from the King to a handsome English duke as a keepsake, and now the King wanted her to wear them at a grand ball. She opened the jewel box and found it empty. Her kind friend Constance, who looked after the Queen's linens, knelt beside her chair and tried to help her stay calm.
Constance Asks for Help
Constance couldn't stop worrying about the Queen's plight, and she thought of just the person who might be able to help. D'Artagnan was young and brave and new in Paris, and he'd already shown that he'd ride into trouble without thinking twice. She found him in the street and asked if he'd fetch the studs back from England before the ball. He said yes before she'd quite finished asking, and it didn't hurt that she had a friendly face.
The Cardinal Makes a Plan
Cardinal Richelieu was the most powerful man in France after the King, and he made it his business to know everything that went on at court. He was tall and thin and wore a long robe with a cross on a chain, and when he heard about the Queen's gift he gave a sly little smile. If she turned up at the ball without her diamonds the King would be very cross with her, which suited the Cardinal nicely. He gave his orders to a guard and sent a clever helper off to England to spoil the Queen's plan.
Meet Milady de Winter
Milady de Winter worked for the Cardinal as a spy, and she was very good at it. She had a sweet young face and calm wise eyes that made everyone want to trust her, and she never seemed to be in a hurry. Her fluffy fur collar and fur-lined cloak made her look as if she belonged at every grand party in Paris. People told her their secrets without quite knowing why, and she passed every one of them along to the Cardinal.
Milady and the Two Diamonds
That clever helper was Milady de Winter, who had a sweet young face and calm wise eyes that made everyone want to trust her. At the Duke's ball in London she drifted through the crowd in a fur-lined cloak with a tiny pair of scissors hidden in her hand. Snip, snip! Two of the diamond studs were suddenly hers, and nobody noticed a thing. The Queen's grand ball was only days away.
All for One
The rest of the story is a race against the clock. D'Artagnan hurries to England and back, and on the night of the ball the Queen walks in wearing all twelve of her diamond studs, which leaves the Cardinal with nothing to say. D'Artagnan couldn't have managed it alone though. The three men he'd met by accident had turned out to be the best friends he'd ever have, and the four of them put their swords together in the middle and shouted the motto that everyone still remembers: all for one, and one for all!
Fact or Fiction?
Some of this story really happened and some of it was cooked up by the author. Louis XIII, Queen Anne of Austria, Cardinal Richelieu and the Duke of Buckingham were all real people. So were Captain Tréville and the company of musketeers, and the siege of La Rochelle really took place. There was even a rumour about the Queen and the Duke.
Four men named D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis lived too, but the real D'Artagnan was still a child in 1625 and didn't join the musketeers until years later. The diamond studs, Milady and Constance are mostly the invention of the author, Alexandre Dumas.
Even the Cardinal got a makeover. Richelieu was a very capable statesman, and the scheming version is the one that makes the best story. Dumas got the idea for the whole adventure from an older book of invented memoirs.