Aramis and Moliere travel to St. Mande. While Aramis is annoyed by his run-in with D’Artagnan, Moliere much enjoyed his time with Porthos. Pelisson, Loret, and La Fontaine work separately on writing projects in honor of the upcoming fete. Pelisson insults La Fontaine’s rhyming abilities, an insult which, according to Moliere, is usually worth dueling over. The men work to write a prologue to the play (one of Moliere’s compositions) that will be performed at the fete. Aramis distributes invitations from Fouquet, and he then offers his carriage to take any of the men to supper with him. Before leaving, Aramis visits Fouquet and gets him to write to the Bastille to, unbeknownst to him, arrange release papers for Philippe. Aramis claims that he intends to release a young man named Seldon, who wrote “two lines of Latin” against the Jesuits. Fouquet also gives Aramis a hefty sum of money for the prisoner’s mother, and Aramis departs for the Bastille.

Aramis has supper with Baisemeaux at the Bastille. Baisemeaux tells Aramis he knows of his past as a musketeer, as Baisemeaux himself was in the musketeers, too.