She also reveals that she detests d'Artagnan for having spared her brother-in-law's life in another duel which lost her the income from her son's potential inheritance. During the assignation, Milady gives him, as des Wardes, a sapphire and diamond ring and swears to have d'Artagnan killed because he wounded the real des Wardes in a duel. Discovering that Milady is infatuated with Comte des Wardes, an equally infatuated d'Artagnan forges the count's reply to a love letter from Milady and arranges a nighttime rendezvous, where he impersonates des Wardes. After she was made her husband's heir, he died violently and mysteriously within a matter of hours, leaving her a widow with a young child, who is Lord de Winter's only heir. When d'Artagnan first spies Milady in Paris, she has married into English nobility some time previously by wedding Baron Sheffield, the younger brother of Lord de Winter. Because the Comte de la Fère effectively ceases to exist when he becomes Athos, Milady makes the same mistake in presuming her first husband is dead. For most of the novel, Athos assumes his deceitful wife is dead by his own hand, not knowing she survived the hanging and that she and Milady are the same person. His wife's "brother", who had married the pair, fled before any retribution could be taken Athos believes he only pretended to be a curate for the purpose of getting his mistress married in a secure position. Dishonored, and having the right to dispense justice on his estates, Athos immediately hanged her from a tree. Cutting away her clothes so she could breathe, Athos discovered the convict brand on her shoulder. While the pair were hunting in the forest one day, Milady fell from her horse and fainted. As seigneur of the county, he could have seduced her or taken her by force, but despite the opposition of his family and her obscure origins, he married her, giving her his wealth and title, and raising her to the nobility. The village where they lived was part of Athos's lands, and he became captivated both by her beauty and her intellect. The priest in turn escaped, and the lovers fled to a small town, where they posed as a country curate and his sister. The executioner who had to brand the priest happened to be his brother, and blaming Milady for leading his brother astray, tracked her down on his own and branded her on the shoulder with the same fleur-de-lis symbol, marking her as a convicted criminal. Milady then seduced the jailer's son and escaped, leaving behind her first lover to be branded for theft. Urging him to steal the church's sacred vessels to finance a new life in another part of the country, they fled together and quickly were apprehended. Athos first knows her as an adolescent Anne de Breuil, but because she already was concealing a scandalous and criminal past at that time, it was probably not her real name.Īs a young Benedictine nun of 16, she seduced the convent's trusting priest. Like Athos, who sheds his true identity as the Comte de la Fère when he joins the musketeers, Milady goes by numerous aliases, so that her identity is concealed for a good part of the novel. Milady later is revealed to be the wife of Athos, originally the Comte de la Fère, one of the three musketeers of the novel's title. She is a classic example of a femme fatale. Ī capable and intelligent French spy who effortlessly can pass as a native Englishwoman, Milady's beautiful exterior hides a diabolically cunning, manipulative, ruthless and cruel interior she is remorseless and unrepentant for her countless "misdeeds" and often described as appearing demonic and frighteningly ugly in the instant when she is thwarted in her aims. Thwarted by d'Artagnan and the other musketeers, Milady's conflict with d'Artagnan carries much of the second half of the novel.ĭescribed as being 22, tall, fair-haired and uncommonly beautiful, with brilliant blue eyes and black lashes and brows, Milady possesses a voice that can seduce and bewitch. Hoping to blackmail the queen, Richelieu orders Milady to steal two diamonds from a set of matched studs given to Buckingham by the queen, which were a gift to her from her husband, King Louis XIII. Her role in the first part of the book is to seduce the English prime minister, the duke of Buckingham, who is also the secret lover of Queen Anne of France. She is a spy for Cardinal Richelieu and is one of the dominant antagonists of the story. Milady Laurence de Winter, often referred to as simply Milady, is a fictional character in the novel The Three Musketeers (1844) by Alexandre Dumas, père, set in 1625 France. For other people of that name, see de Winter. This article is about the fictional character created by Alexandre Dumas from the Three Musketeers.
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