Shadow of the Bastille is the fourth part of Dumas’s mega-novel Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, a prelude leading to the epic climax of The Man in the Iron Mask. The previous volume, Devil’s Dance, belonged to Louise de La Vallière, fiancée of Athos’ son Raoul, as she was swept away by her love affair with King Louis XIV. At the French Court, romance and politics are two sides of the same coin, and in Shadow of the Bastille the intrigues finally boil over. Here the Four Musketeers return to the foreground in events that remind the reader why we fell in love with these heroes in the first place. While Aramis plots, d’Artagnan, Athos, and Porthos each, in his own distinctive way, get involved to support Raoul in his time of need, unexpectedly clashing with their royal master the king.