Aramis

Also known as: Abbe d’Herblay / D’Herblay / M. d'Herblay / M. de Vannes / M. d’Herblay / Monseigneur d'Herblay / Monsieur de Vannes / Monsieur d’Herblay / bishop of Vannes / d’Herblay / the Chevalier d'Herblay / the bishop of Vannes · Family: French court · Role: Bishop of Vannes · First appears: Chapter 21

In chapter 21, Aramis, Bishop of Vannes, is identified by D’Artagnan as a friend and by Fouquet as the man appointed to the bishopric on his recommendation. He secured Baisemeaux de Montlezun’s Bastille governorship by standing surety for the payments to Louviere and Tremblay: “on the thirty-first of May, every year, M. d’Herblay himself comes to the Bastile.” In chapter 22, Aramis offered to devise a remedy for Fouquet’s financial crisis, while acknowledging that the Bastille arrangement involved repaying a debt and that Baisemeaux de Montlezun was an accomplice.

At the Bastille in chapters 23–26, Aramis’s influence enabled Baisemeaux de Montlezun to pay the required sums and led to Seldon being treated as a fifteen-franc prisoner. He questioned Seldon about the veiled woman who visited him, theorized that Seldon had witnessed a poisoned murder, sought his pardon, and warned Baisemeaux de Montlezun not to spread the claim that Seldon resembled Louis XIV. He also destroyed Baisemeaux de Montlezun’s receipts and accepted a 150,000-franc acknowledgment payable at his pleasure.

In chapter 47, Fouquet’s recommendation and Louis XIV’s signature established Aramis as bishop of Vannes, after which Louis XIV promised him a better bishopric. In chapter 52, Aramis left Fouquet and departed in a cavalier’s costume; in chapter 53, he referred to the secret preserved since 1655 through Madame de Chevreuse, received supreme authority from the dying Franciscan, and exposed the grand council’s substance in Grisart’s potion. By chapter 60 at Belle-Isle, he reported that the garrison belonged to himself and Fouquet, planned to return Porthos as its engineer, and proposed replacing Louis XIV with a king devoted to Fouquet, offering ten million francs in support. In chapters 62–63, he urged Fouquet to recover his letter to La Vallière, abandon his pursuit of her as a lover, and become her devoted friend, while identifying Toby as a traitor.