The Three Musketeers

70 pages • 2 hours read

The Three Musketeers

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1844

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-14

Chapters 15-31

Chapters 32-46

Chapters 47-58

Chapter 59-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapter 59-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 59 Summary: “What Took Place at Portsmouth August 23, 1628”

Felton rides to Portsmouth, where the Duke of Buckingham is staying. He is let into the duke’s chambers because Felton is well-known at court for his proximity to Lord de Winter, a close friend of the duke’s. To test the duke against what Milady has said, Felton shows him Lord de Winter’s orders for Milady to be sent to a penal colony. When the duke eagerly signs the documents, calling Milady an infamous villain, Felton is driven to “madness.” He yells at the shocked duke and stabs him just as Lord de Winter arrives, eager to find his friend—when Lord de Winter realized that Milady and Felton were gone, he assumed that Felton was under her sway and was likely going to kill the duke.

A cannon sound in the distance implies that something else is also going wrong. As he dies, the duke dictates a note to Queen Anne, requesting it be sent to her alongside the love tokens she gave the duke and the knife that killed him.

Meanwhile, Felton sees Milady sail away early, leaving him behind. He understands that he’s been tricked into murdering the Duke of Buckingham.

Chapter 60 Summary: “In France”

When King Louis hears about the duke’s assassination, he hopes that it means La Rochelle will surrender. The king is bored of war and wants a break; the cardinal gladly encourages him to leave. The king takes a group of 20 Musketeers with him, including Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d’Artagnan. They’re thrilled to follow the king back to Paris because they are eager to retrieve Constance from the convent. Aramis receives authorization from his “cousin” to find Constance, who is technically this “cousin’s” servant. It is by now clear that this “cousin” is actually Aramis’s lover Marie, Queen Anne’s confidante.

The four Musketeers suspect it won’t be easy to get Constance from Bethune. On their way there, d’Artagnan sees Rochefort. Furious, d’Artagnan wants to pursue him, but his friends hold him back. They trick an innkeeper into giving them a note addressed to Rochefort. It says only one word: “Armentieres.” They don’t know what it means, but d’Artagnan recognizes the handwriting as Milady’s.

Chapter 61 Summary: “The Carmelite Convent at Bethune”

When Milady triumphantly returns to France, she sends a note to the cardinal assuring him that the Duke of Buckingham has been taken care of and that she is going to the convent in Bethune. At the convent, she charms the Mother Superior: When she ascertains that the Mother Superior does not support the cardinal, Milady tells her she’s fleeing the cardinal’s wrath. Mother Superior offers her sanctuary and informs Milady that another woman is hiding there from the cardinal as well.

Milady meets Constance, who—not realizing who Milady is—tells Milady that d’Artagnan will come save her shortly. Milady tells Constance that she also knows d’Artagnan, but insists that they were only friends. Milady is worried that d’Artagnan will arrive and see her, but Rochefort pulls up to the convent first.

Chapter 62 Summary: “Two Varieties of Demons”

Rochefort meets with Milady, who reveals that she’s befriended Constance, an enemy of the cardinal. They relish in this good luck and talk about what to do next. Milady can’t go to La Rochelle to meet with the cardinal for fear of being discovered. She also can’t stay at the convent because d’Artagnan and the other Musketeers will soon arrive for Constance. Neither Rochefort nor Milady knows why the cardinal is so nice to the Musketeers and why he won’t imprison them. Milady asks for a carriage to take her to Armentieres, where she will wait for news.

Chapter 63 Summary: “The Drop of Water”

When Constance receives word that the cardinal might be on his way, she warns Milady. Milady tells Constance that Rochefort is her brother, that he helping her escape, and that the message Constance got from the Musketeers is a forgery. Milady proposes that Constance run away from the convent with her; Rochefort’s servant can wait for d’Artagnan at the convent. Constance agrees to the plan.

Milady knows that if she can hold Constance hostage, she can use her as a bargaining chip. However, she worries that this plan won’t work. At dinner, Milady gives Constance a glass of wine for the courage to run away, but the wine is poisoned. Milady runs off in her carriage, leaving Constance behind. Just then, the Musketeers ride up. D’Artagnan only has time to hold Constance as she dies.

Lord de Winter arrives, searching for Milady. He teams up with the Musketeers to avenge Constance’s death and find his sister-in-law.

Chapter 64 Summary: “The Man in the Red Cloak”

In his grief over Constance’s death, d’Artagnan is more determined than ever to find Milady. The four Musketeers, along with Lord de Winter, have different plans to track her down. Planchet finds out where Milady is staying in Armentieres. Athos goes off and returns with a masked man in a red cloak. He leads the Musketeers to Armentieres.

Chapter 65 Summary: “Trial”

The men approach Milady’s house in Armentieres with apprehension. The night is dark and stormy. She sees Athos first, through the window. He breaks in. As she tries to escape, she comes face to face with d’Artagnan’s gun. The others convince d’Artagnan not to shoot her. They tie her to a chair and hold a trial to hold her accountable for her crimes: murdering Constance Bonacieux, attempting to poison d’Artagnan, asking d’Artagnan to murder the Comte de Wardes, arranging for the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham, and murdering Lord de Winter’s brother. The man in the red cloak reveals himself to be the brother of a former priest, whom Milady seduced into stealing from churches, a crime for which he was imprisoned while Milady escaped. The priest ultimately died by suicide. The Musketeers agree that the only fitting punishment is death.

Chapter 66 Summary: “Execution”

Milady begs for mercy. She declares her right to a fair trial in a real court, but Lord de Winter reminds her that he offered her this before and she refused. She says she is too young to die, and offers instead to disappear from society by becoming a nun. But her pleas are to no avail.

The men bring her to a river and tie her up. As Catholic tradition requires, they pardon her for the sins she committed against them and their loved ones. An executioner rows her in a small boat to the opposite bank; there, he decapitates her.

When the Musketeers rejoin Treville, he asks them if they enjoyed their furlough. The men look depleted, but Athos triumphantly declares that he had a great time.

Chapter 67 Summary: “Conclusion”

Queen Anne is devastated to hear of the duke’s assassination.

As the Musketeers dine in an inn, Rochefort arrives to arrest d’Artagnan on behalf of the cardinal. The Musketeers insist on accompanying him. Rochefort agrees because he has other things to do; the men tell him that if he is looking for Milady, he will not find her.

Cardinal Richelieu tells d’Artagnan that he’s been arrested for conspiring against France. D’Artagnan asks whether his accuser is Milady and informs the cardinal that she is dead. After relating everything that transpired, d’Artagnan gives the cardinal a note he stole from Milady, which proves that she was working for the cardinal. Cardinal Richelieu is secretly relieved to be rid of Milady, an unreliable and unpredictable agent. He rips up the note and writes a commission for d’Artagnan to be promoted to lieutenant.

D’Artagnan is shocked by this turn of events. He points out that his friends are more deserving of the promotion. However, Athos rejects it because he believes d’Artagnan has earned it through his suffering. Porthos rejects it because the husband of his mistress has recently died, so a new chapter is beginning. Aramis rejects it because he has decided to leave the Musketeers and join his religious order. D’Artagnan is worried that his promotion will mean he will lose his friends.

Epilogue Summary

In October of 1628, La Rochelle falls. King Louis is lauded as a hero. D’Artagnan becomes a lieutenant of the Musketeers. Porthos marries Madame Coquenard. Aramis disappears into religious life and is never heard from again. Athos stays in the Musketeers under d’Artagnan’s command for a few years, and then retires. D’Artagnan and Rochefort duel three times before agreeing to end their feud. Monsieur Bonacieux never asks about his missing wife. Eventually, he disappears—everyone thinks someone powerful must have set him up in a castle somewhere.

Chapter 59-Epilogue Analysis

Dumas’s take on the genre of historical fiction culminates with the novel’s arguably largest departure from historical fact: Dumas reinterprets the Duke of Buckingham’s real assassin, John Felton, into Milady’s puppet. The historical Felton assassinated Buckingham after serving as a lieutenant during the battles surrounding the siege and capture of La Rochelle. Angry at the failure of the English forces led by Buckingham, possibly having what we would now call post-traumatic stress disorder, and frustrated by his lack of promotion, Felton murdered the Duke of Buckingham and immediately turned himself in. Astoundingly, Buckingham was so unpopular for his military failures that Felton became a kind of folk hero after the assassination; after his execution, Felton’s body was displayed in Portsmouth as a warning, but became an object of public admiration. Dumas’s Felton is nothing like his real-life counterpart. Dumas removes Felton’s agency (in the novel, he kills the duke as an extension of Milady), and he plans to run from the deed rather than declare himself guilty. Moreover, by recasting Felton as an ardent Puritan willing to unceremoniously murder a member of the nobility, Dumas is reminding readers of the strains of civil disorder that would in two decades’ time terminate in a series of civil wars and the beheading of King Charles I, who would be replaced with the Puritan regime of Oliver Cromwell. This free reimagining of Felton gives readers a clue that the novel’s treatment of other real people may be not historically accurate.

Still, it is clear that Dumas does feel constrained by historical fact. This helps explain why the novel’s two main antagonists ultimately diverge. The fictional Milady goes from nefarious spy to cold-blooded murderer. She befriends and then murders Constance, a crime that has no benefit for Milady, whose other assassinations have been motivated by profit, self-defense, or political gain. Constance’s death devastates d’Artagnan, positioning Milady as an antagonist worthy of the ultimate punishment. Conversely, because the historical Cardinal Richelieu stayed in power for many more years, Dumas cannot have the Musketeers kill or depose him. The only solution is to pivot the novel’s cardinal away from Milady, positioning him as a more neutral figure. Characters within the novel acknowledge this turn: Milady and Rochefort grumble that the cardinal is strangely kind to the Musketeers despite their animosity, and the novel reveals that the cardinal has been growing tired of dealing with Milady’s antics—a twist that allows him to promote d’Artagnan to lieutenant for “helping” get rid of her. The novel ends with the cardinal and d’Artagnan in an uneasy truce: Though d’Artagnan has proof that Milady worked for him, he cannot directly connect the cardinal to Constance’s death. Similarly, though the cardinal knows about the mission to England, he has no evidence with which to charge the Musketeers.

Milady’s death, however, warranted, is shocking: Her trial and execution are carried out through vigilante justice. The novel’s complex moral code, which has revolved around the honor culture of the Musketeers, is here called deeply into question—as is, by extension, the monarchy. When the Musketeers capture Milady, they feel entitled to act as her judges, jury, and executioners because they answer directly to the king. She demands to be tried in a real court of law, but has no recourse to civic process: The Musketeers’ high social and military rank entitles them to conduct this extrajudicial tribunal. Readers know that Milady is indeed guilty of many crimes and would be unlikely to find sympathy in a proper court; however, we cannot help but be similarly aware that the Musketeers, the man in the red cloak, and Lord de Winter operate outside of the law. Milady’s fate raises questions about the power of this camaraderie: Should nobles be so powerful that they can sidestep the legal system altogether? If we are in favor of the Musketeers summarily executing Milady, we must then be just as enthusiastic about the cardinal’s abilities to arrest and torture whomever he likes. Dumas asks readers to consider whether this system of government—a monarchy akin to the July Monarchy in power when the novel was written—is truly just.

Equally important is the fact that the Musketeers’ victory is so incredibly anti-climactic. After a novel of swashbuckling derring-do, there is no final battle between Good and Evil. Instead, we get a scene of five battle-tested, armed men who are extremely skilled in combat surrounding and subduing a physically defenseless woman. The grimness of what happens echoes the shocking story of what Athos did to his wife (Milady again, obviously)—a story whose morality was never very cut and dry. Dumas purposefully pulls the machismo rug out from under readers; if we cheer the Musketeers on here, we are condoning murder, not delightful duels between equals.

The novel’s ending tones down the ethical quandary of its last conflict and instead again returns to the theme of Friendship. D’Artagnan tries to give his promotion to the men he has come to deeply respect, but, in keeping with “All for One, and One for All,” each other Musketeer refuses what is clearly d’Artagnan’s dream. They have found their own forms of closure. Aramis joins the religious order he long dreamed of, dropping out of society. Porthos marries his wealthy mistress, securing the lifestyle he has always wanted. Most unsettlingly, Athos is simply satisfied that Milady is finally dead. In a final dismissal of entrenched socio-economic class roles, d’Artagnan becomes a lieutenant, rising unimaginably fast from a humble country boy to a leader in the King of France’s most elite military unit. D’Artagnan’s victory comes with the loss of lives, love, and innocence.