Chapter 18: Lover and Husband

Summary

     Indeed, d’Artagnan had been listening the whole time, like a creeper! He comes down to her room, and promptly insults M. Bonacieux. Oddly, Madame Bonacieux does not seem perturbed by either the insults to her husband or the eavesdropping, and is happy to see him. D’Artagnan then volunteers to deliver the message in London, but it is clear that he is doing this for selfish reasons. In other words, he is serving the queen in hopes of gaining Madame Bonacieux’s love. She asks him how she can trust him. He tries offering his friendship with Athos, Porthos, and Aramis as proof, but once again Madame Bonacieux amusingly has never even heard of any of them. D’Artagnan finally offers his love as proof, which she is also slightly suspicious of, though she “involuntarily” returns his feelings to some extent. Because of the urgency of the mission, she agrees to trust him. She also gives him her husband’s money (given to him by the cardinal, as you might remember) for the journey. D’Artagnan is very grateful and professes his adoration again. Suddenly, his zillionth declaration of love is interrupted when they both hear M. Bonacieux talking to Rochefort outside.

     D’Artagnan sneaks them both upstairs into his room, and they eavesdrop on the downstairs conversation. D’Artagnan recognizes Rochefort as the letter thief, and only Madame Bonacieux‘s entreaties stop him from rushing down to fight him. M. Bonacieux has told an evilly delighted Rochefort everything he knows. He plans to find his wife, to pretend to accept the mission to London, and to give Rochefort the letter. Upstairs, Madame Bonacieux is outraged and keeps angrily muttering despite d’Artagnan’s efforts to shush her. Downstairs, her husband suddenly opens his cupboard and notices the missing money. And then the weirdest part so far begins. He literally howls with despair and exits the house, trying to find someone that cares about his loss. No one seems to care that someone stole his money, so he keeps howling and walking away. After M. Bonacieux and Rochefort leave, d’Artagnan departs to ask permission to take a vacation from guard duty so he can complete his mission.

Reaction

     D’Artagnan was a bit more bearable in this chapter, but that is only because Madame Bonacieux seems to return his feelings. I don’t really like them together very much, but I resign myself to the inevitable. D’Artagnan is still annoying though, and he begins to presumptuously address her by her first name, Constance. The howling at the end was exceedingly odd, and it was even odder that no one in the town seemed to give a hoot about M. Bonacieux’s sorrow. I’m not sure if Dumas intended it to be a comical scene, but I found it deeply hilarious. I also happened to notice that all that howling could have been prevented if Madame Bonacieux just gave d’Artagnan the ring instead of her husband’s money! Isn’t that what the queen gave it to her for? Then they wouldn’t have to steal anything.

    My favorite lines were Madame Bonacieux’s angry muttering when she was eavesdropping and hearing her husband’s treachery: “‘The traitor!’ murmured Mme. Bonacieux. ‘Silence!’ said d'Artagnan… ‘The ninny!’ murmured Mme. Bonacieux. ‘Silence!’ said d'Artagnan… ‘Infamous!’ said Mme. Bonacieux, addressing this epithet to her husband. ‘Silence!’ said d'Artagnan.”

In the novel there was more hand-holding between those two, but the dialogue was hilarious. I adore Madame Bonacieux.