Originally Posted by Phantasm (Post 2317468)

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.