Ultimate Between Two Kings Quiz & Full Answer Key

Quiz: Between Two Kings by Lawrence Ellsworth

Think you know every twist and turn in the fourth book of the Musketeers Cycle? This 20-question quiz spans the entire novel, from provincial Blois to the shores of England. It mixes multiple-choice and short-answer formats and includes questions on plot sequences, character motivations, themes and symbols, and synthesis across storylines. Grab a quill, choose your answers, and then scroll down to the answer key to see how you did.

Part 1: Plot and Sequence (Questions 1–8)

1. Multiple choice
Why does Raoul de Bragelonne first come to the Château de Blois?
A) To deliver a letter from King Louis XIV ordering Gaston’s arrest.
B) To visit Louise de La Vallière on his own initiative.
C) To convey Condé’s request that the traveling court be permitted to stop at Blois.
D) To escort Cardinal Mazarin on a diplomatic mission.

2. Multiple choice
What key object does the mysterious stranger at the Inn of The Médicis offer as security when he cannot pay his bill?
A) A signed warrant from Parliament.
B) A diamond.
C) A gold-hilted sword belonging to his father.
D) A deed to a Scottish castle.

3. Short answer
When Louis XIV secretly slips out of the palace at dawn, whom does he meet, and what impossible choice does she present to him?

4. Multiple choice
How does d’Artagnan transport General Monck across the English Channel?
A) Disguised as a Dutch merchant in the hold of a warship.
B) Hidden inside a custom-built, padded coffin with a grated visor.
C) Drugged and carried in a closed carriage aboard a ferry.
D) Stowed away in a wine barrel on a fishing smack.

5. Short answer
After resigning from the Musketeers, d’Artagnan forms a partnership with a former servant. Name the partner and the name of the shop where the plan is made.

6. Multiple choice
What final advice does a dying Cardinal Mazarin whisper to Louis XIV?
A) “Always keep a prime minister who can bear the blame.”
B) “Never have a prime minister, and trust Colbert.”
C) “Restore Charles II and bind England to France.”
D) “Forgive Fouquet’s debts and rule through gratitude.”

7. Multiple choice
What is Athos’s great secret that he reveals to General Monck in the Newcastle Abbey crypt?
A) He has a hidden army of musketeer veterans ready to fight.
B) He has proof that Monck is a secret Stuart loyalist.
C) A million gold livres hidden there since 1648, intended for Charles II.
D) The location of Oliver Cromwell’s lost war chest.

8. Short answer
Name the two powerful factions General Monck and General Lambert represent as they begin their final struggle for control of England.

Part 2: Character Motivation (Questions 9–13)

9. Multiple choice
Why does Athos continue to forbid Raoul’s relationship with Louise de La Vallière, even after their reunion?
A) He believes Louise is a spy for Cardinal Mazarin.
B) He has undisclosed future plans for Raoul that conflict with the match.
C) He has sworn an oath to Louise’s mother never to unite the families.
D) He has learned that Louise is already secretly betrothed to the king.

10. Short answer
What drives d’Artagnan to resign his commission as Lieutenant of Musketeers? Point to a specific event that hardens his resolve.

11. Multiple choice
During his secret meeting with Marie de Mancini, why does Louis XIV ultimately refuse to defy the Spanish marriage alliance and flee with her?
A) He fears Mazarin would have him assassinated.
B) Marie reveals she no longer loves him.
C) He cannot summon the will to act against reasons of state, despite weeping and declaring his love.
D) Anne of Austria threatens to disinherit him.

12. Short answer
When d’Artagnan pretends his venture has failed and Planchet still loyally offers him a partnership, what does d’Artagnan reveal that causes Planchet to faint? Why is this moment revealing of Planchet’s character?

13. Multiple choice
Why does Charles II, initially full of purpose, sink into despair and declare himself ready for exile and death in Holland?
A) His servant Parry betrays him and flees with the last of the money.
B) Louis XIV promises support but Mazarin humiliatingly refuses both gold and men.
C) General Monck invades France and demands his extradition.
D) He learns that Athos’s hidden treasure has been seized by Lambert.

Part 3: Theme and Symbolism (Questions 14–17)

14. Multiple choice
The recurring motif of a “window” or watching from a window appears in multiple chapters (e.g., the stranger at the inn, Louis XIV pacing at night). What does this symbol primarily represent?
A) The safety of domestic life.
B) The barrier between a powerless person and the active world.
C) The omnipotent surveillance of Mazarin’s spies.
D) Romantic yearning between separated lovers.

15. Short answer
The novel repeatedly contrasts the “two kings.” Beyond their political status, what personal quality or condition does Charles II possess that Louis XIV expressly lacks, according to their private conversation at Blois?

16. Multiple choice
The ledger and arithmetic of Mazarin’s treasury (Chapter X) function as what controlling device in the narrative?
A) A symbol of the French nation’s growing prosperity.
B) An instrument of humiliation that reduces royal policy to a line item Mazarin can veto.
C) A neutral record that reveals Fouquet’s corruption to the king.
D) A secret code that contained the names of Fronde rebels.

17. Short answer
The novel opens and closes with rapid shifts in a character’s fortune—d’Artagnan resigns, undertakes a risky investment, and is richly rewarded. What wider historical or political theme does this personal cycle of risk and reward reflect?

Part 4: Synthesis (Questions 18–20)

18. Multiple choice
D’Artagnan’s kidnapping of Monck and Athos’s diplomatic mission to Newcastle happen simultaneously. What is the clearest consequence of their actions colliding?
A) Monck has Athos arrested as a co-conspirator in the kidnapping.
B) The two friends quarrel over the honor of the Stuart cause.
C) D’Artagnan realizes his unilateral action has violently disrupted a parallel negotiation for peace.
D) Charles II chooses Athos’s diplomatic strategy and punishes d’Artagnan for his brutality.

19. Short answer
Trace a single through-line from the maids of honor writing a letter in Chapter I to the final pages in which Athos stands as ambassador in Louis XIV’s court. What persistent idea does the letter at the start and the ambassadorial dispatch at the end bookend?

20. Short answer
If you had to argue that Colbert, not d’Artagnan, is the most quietly revolutionary figure in the novel, which two actions of his would you cite, and how do they reshape the power structure?

Answer Key

Question 1
Correct answer: C – Raoul arrives at Blois bearing a letter from the Prince de Condé requesting that Louis XIV’s traveling court be permitted to spend a day at the château. The chapter establishes the royal itinerary and Gaston’s anxiety. Alternatives A, B, and D are contradicted by the outline; Raoul does visit Louise, but that is a private errand, not the official reason for his arrival.

Question 2
Correct answer: B – The stranger (Charles II) offers a diamond when he cannot pay the increased rent. Cropole’s initial greed gives way to shame when he realizes his guest’s noble disdain for money. The other items come from unrelated plot threads.

Question 3
Short-answer guideline: Louis meets Marie de Mancini. She challenges him to defy the Spanish marriage alliance and claims Mazarin would support them if Louis truly wanted it. Louis weeps, declares his love, but cannot summon the will to act against reasons of state. The Dido and Aeneas allusion drives home the “love versus duty” conflict.

Question 4
Correct answer: B – D’Artagnan commissions a carpenter in Calais to build a large, padded coffin-like box with a grated visor. Monck spends two days inside during the crossing while d’Artagnan guards the trunk. The other transport methods are fabrications that have no support in the outline.

Question 5
Short-answer guideline: The partner is Planchet, and the shop is The Golden Pestle (Rue des Lombards). Planchet’s grocery business funds the Restoration plot, blending musketeer daring with bourgeois finance.

Question 6
Correct answer: B – After Louis theatrically tears up the bequest, Mazarin famously whispers that the king should never have a prime minister and recommends Colbert. Louis hears the confession and departs. The other pieces of advice are nowhere in the chapter.

Question 7
Correct answer: C – Athos admits the million gold livres he hid in the Newcastle Abbey crypt in 1648 belong to the exiled Charles II. He stakes his life on the plea, offering the fortune as a bribe or a test of Monck’s honor. The other options are invented.

Question 8
Short-answer guideline: General Monck represents the Rump Parliament and republican (or Presbyterian/royalist) order in Scotland; General Lambert represents military despotism and those who locked up the Parliament in London. The struggle sets the political stage for the Restoration.

Question 9
Correct answer: B – Athos reiterates his prohibition without anger, citing undisclosed plans for Raoul. The chapter “Father and Son” explicitly mentions future intentions that conflict with the match. The other motives—espionage, an oath, or a secret betrothal—are not present in the outline.

Question 10
Short-answer guideline: D’Artagnan is galvanized by witnessing Charles II’s humiliating rejection at Blois (Mazarin refuses both a million in gold and two hundred gentlemen). He murmurs that the service is wretched, that the master may rise but the servant is done, and that he will resign. He acts on this disillusionment the next morning after the final humiliation of Charles.

Question 11
Correct answer: C – Despite his love and tears, Louis confesses he has begged his mother and consulted Rome, but all pleas were crushed by reasons of state. He cannot summon the will to defy the system. Marie leaves comparing their parting to Dido and Aeneas. Options A and D are plausible but not stated; B is false.

Question 12
Short-answer guideline: D’Artagnan reveals the packhorse loaded with sacks of coin—one hundred thousand livres as Planchet’s share. Planchet faints from joy. The moment reveals Planchet’s genuine loyalty (he offers a partnership even when he thinks the venture failed) and his comic, bourgeois sensibility: his body cannot contain the shock of sudden fortune.

Question 13
Correct answer: B – Louis XIV promises to ask Mazarin, but the cardinal mocks the Stuarts as beggars and refuses any aid. The king is powerless. Charles leaves in despair, certain that even the French king’s goodwill is useless against Mazarin’s arithmetic. A, C, and D contain events that do not happen.

Question 14
Correct answer: B – Charles II gazes from the inn window at Louis XIV’s torch-lit procession; Louis paces and looks out while awaiting Mazarin’s death. The window separates the observer from the world of power, emphasizing helplessness, exclusion, and yearning. Options A, C, and D are too narrow or unsupported.

Question 15
Short-answer guideline: Charles II possesses a mastery of his emotions born of suffering and exile—he can plead, wait, and absorb humiliation. Louis, by his own admission, is a “figurehead dressed in velvet fleurs de lys” who has never been forced to develop that inner resource. Charles’s hard-won self-control contrasts with Louis’s timidity and passive resentment.

Question 16
Correct answer: B – Mazarin brandishes the ledger to prove the Crown cannot afford charity and to humiliate the young king’s request. The “arithmetic” becomes a weapon of control, not a neutral accounting tool. It reveals Mazarin’s personal greed, not necessarily Fouquet’s corruption at this stage.

Question 17
Short-answer guideline: The personal cycle reflects the restoration of monarchy itself—a period where daring individuals (d’Artagnan, Athos, Monck) can overturn a seemingly hopeless situation through risk, secrecy, and personal honor, mirroring Charles II’s return from penniless exile to the throne.

Question 18
Correct answer: C – When Charles II tells d’Artagnan that Athos was already negotiating with Monck at Newcastle, d’Artagnan is shocked and fears his kidnapping has disrupted a parallel diplomatic mission, jeopardizing the royalist cause and his investment. Options A and B are not outcomes; D inverts the resolution.

Question 19
Short-answer guideline: The letter in Chapter I is a private, romantic connection across distance; the ambassadorial dispatch at the end is a formal, political connection across nations. Together they bookend the theme of communication that transforms fate—first on a personal, domestic scale, then on a continental stage—showing how private bonds and written words ultimately reshape public power.

Question 20
Short-answer guideline: Colbert’s two revolutionary actions are (1) secretly auditing Fouquet’s accounts and revealing the deficit, which arms the king with the motive to bring down the Superintendent, and (2) persuading Mazarin to draft a bequest that Louis can theatrically refuse while Colbert secretly reserves thirteen million livres for the crown. These moves replace the old system of personal loyalty and aristocratic wealth with bureaucratic, financial control. Colbert thereby supplies the brains that let Louis XIV become the true “brain and brawn” ruler.

Ready for more? Dive deeper into the novel’s secrets with our complete ending explained or browse the full Q&A collection. Return to the main book page for chapter summaries and historical notes.