Publisher's Synopsis
The serial chronicled the adventures of D'Artagnan -- a young swordsman intent on joining the king's musketeers. Young D'Artagnan becomes embroiled in court intrigues, international politics, and ill-fated affairs between royal lovers. In this second serial, Twenty Years After, the year is now 1648. It has been twenty years since the close of the The Three Musketeers. Louis XIII has died, as has Cardinal Richelieu, and while the crown of France may sit upon the head of Anne of Austria as Regent for the young Louis XIV, the real power resides with the Cardinal Mazarin who is secretly her husband. D'Artagnan is now a lieutenant of musketeers, and his three friends have retired to private life. Athos turned out to be a nobleman, the Comte de la F�re, and has retired to his home with his son, Raoul de Bragelonne. Aramis, whose real name is D'Herblay, has as intended followed his intention to shed the musketeer's cassock for the priest's robe. Porthos has married a wealthy woman, who left him her fortune upon her death. Trouble is stirring in both France and England. Cromwell menaces the institution of royalty itself while marching against Charles I, and at home the Fronde is threatening to tear France apart. D'Artagnan brings his friends out of retirement to save the threatened English monarch, but Mordaunt, the son of Milady, who seeks to avenge his mother's death at the musketeers' hands, thwarts their valiant efforts. Undaunted, our heroes return to France just in time to help save the young Louis XIV, quiet the Fronde, and tweak the nose of Cardinal Mazarin. (Volume II of II.)
