[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Kromm

early musketeers have to decide whether their priority is getting close to people in cuirasses and killing them with pistols, or hanging back and sniping unarmored people and turned backs. Of course, they could also carry weapons suited to doing both.

Early musketeers were as proficient with melee weapons - longswords and spears - as they were their guns. There is a lot more swordfighting in The Three Musketeers than there is gunplay, mostly because no one wants to take 20 seconds to a minute to reload their weapons except in big battles when everyone in the (2 to 4 line) formation was reloading at the same time. They'd fire, reload, fire again, affix bayonets or draw swords, and either brace for a charge or charge into melee themselves.