At his house in Blois, Athos, alone in his old age, becomes increasingly depressed. He often stays in bed past the hour for his first two meals, he speaks little and stares at nothing, and he sleeps with a book under his pillow but does not ever read from it. Eventually, a doctor visits him and tells him quite plainly that if he does not start taking care of himself, he will surely waste away. Athos explains that he is not killing himself but simply waiting for his son to come home; as long as Raoul lives, so will he. One night, he dreams Raoul tells him that Porthos has died. In the morning, a servant brings him a letter from Aramis in Spain, telling him that exact thing. Athos faints.

When Athos recovers from his fainting spell, he decides to go see Porthos’s resting place and pay his respects. As he journeys there, he is suddenly overcome with inexplicable fatigue, and his horse also refuses to go any further along the path. Athos thinks that some unseen force does not want him to visit Porthos’s grave, so he returns home.