The New Musketeers : Prologue : An Amazing Discovery

It was a typical late November day. The rain was teeming down, the wind was blowing a gale and the forecast for the rest of the day was similarly uninspiring. John leaned back in his chair and watched as the news reported all the usual events. Suicide Bombings in Iraq, Iran and North Korea sabre rattling with the United States, Afghanistan heading further into turmoil.

"Things were so much easier in the past" he thought, as he finished downloading a movie about the Three Musketeers. "You knew who your enemies were, you could eat, drink and be merry and not have to worry about obesity or the like!"

As the movie finished downloading, a pop up box appeared.

"Thank you for downloading your movie, Please take a moment to visit our sponsor"

Usually, John would have ignored pop up boxes, but as he was bored rigid he felt he needed a little fun. He clicked the OK button and "Family welcomed him to their home page.

John was interested in family history, but hadn't got around to actually making a family tree, so decided to waste a few hours doing that. By lunchtime, he had completed his family up to 1892 but had to admit prior to that he had not a clue. He then read something rather interesting.

"This site is unique in that it has a self search function. Based on the data you supply, we can identify, locate and verify ancestors based on a system of probablity. If you would like to use this service, please click here"

John clicked and a box appeared saying "Analysing family data so far inputted" which then changed to "Searching Web". A few moments later, another box appeared.

"We have identified 500,000 possible leads. To search these records in detail will take 2 hours and 15 minutes. To search, click here!"

"Well, I don't see why not" said John, as he ejected the DVD out of his computer and placed it in his DVD player. He clicked the button, switched the monitor off and lost himself in the world of the Musketeers.

When the movie finished, John switched the computer back on and boy had it been busy. What started out as just twelve branches now extended to several hundred. As he scrolled through the names he was amazed at how far back he was going.

He was born in 1974, and he knew his own family history back to 1892, but it went further back that than.

Past the days of the American Civil War, past the Industrial Revolution, past the great European Wars, even past the famed royal familes of Europe. It was while he was looking at the time of the Louis's in France that he thought he saw a familar name. He stopped scrolling and zoomed in.

"It can't be!" he said, as he stared at the screen. "No, I refuse to believe it". He clicked on the box and the following appeared.

"Surname: D'Artangan, First Name: Not known. Born: 1608, Died: 1667. Occupation: Musketeer to King Louis XIII 1625 - 1665. Probabilty of ancestor: 95.5"

John fell over in his chair as he struggled with what the site was saying. It was saying that that it was more likely than not that he was related to D'Artangan. The famed Musketeer that served King Louis. The famed Musketeer who solved the riddle of the Man in the Iron Mask. The famed Musketeer who was the last surviving member of the orginal team.

John saved the file and printed it out, and then an idea struck him. "What about the others?" he wondered, "Aramis, Athos and Porthos? Could their descendents be around today?"