Chapter 30: D’Artagnan and the Englishman

Summary

     While Porthos and his mistress chat unpleasantly, d’Artagnan stares at the pretty Milady. Oh man, this cannot be good. When the church members disperse, he keeps all his senses trained on Milady, so he hears her when she orders her coachman to takes her to St. Germain. D’Artagnan decides to follow her. So, he goes to find Planchet to prepare for the fairly short journey. He finds Planchet loitering outside a bakery, staring longingly at a piece of cake. Oh my goodness Dumas, are you serious? FEED PLANCHET. D’Artagnan is as usual oblivious to Planchet’s normal human needs, so he orders Planchet to go and prepare two horses. Meanwhile, he goes to Athos’s place to have a little chat with him. I can’t believe d’Artagnan is going to act as if Athos did not hang his wife. It happened. It needs to be talked about. Anyway, d’Artagnan gossips with Athos about Porthos and his mistress. Then, Planchet magically knows where d’Artagnan is and pops his head in to tell d’Artagnan that the horses are ready for the journey. Athos, naturally, asks where d’Artagnan is going. D’Artagnan seems kind of embarrassed about admitting that he’s following Milady, but Planchet has forced him into it with his impeccable timing. Athos suddenly pulls an amazing cut-the-crap attitude and tells d’Artagnan that it’s clear he is as in ‘love’ with Milady as he claimed to be with Madame Bonacieux. D’Artagnan denies this strongly, claiming that he loves his “dear Constance” more than ever. Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

     Planchet and d’Artagnan set off for St. Germain. When they get there, Planchet proves his usefulness yet again by recognizing Lubin. Remember Lubin? He was the servant of the Comte de Wardes, who d’Artagnan first stabbed repeatedly, and then impersonated in order to travel by boat to England. Planchet approaches Lubin, to test if the aforementioned servant recognizes him. Lubin has apparently no idea who Planchet is, so Planchet begins to chat with him, and soon the two are gossiping like long-lost friends, despite having been wrestling violently for the upper hand not too long ago. Meanwhile, d’Artagnan is idly looking at the streets. He suddenly spots Milady! He follows her down a side-street and observes her handing a note and directing orders to her pretty maid. As d’Artagnan stalks Milady, Planchet finishes his conversation with Lubin and stands in the street, gazing in all directions, wondering where d’Artagnan went. Poor thing, he must be having flashbacks of his abandonment in London! Seeing a young, sharp-looking servant, the maid mistakes him for Lubin, the servant that Milady told her to deliver the note to. So, the maid hands the message to Planchet, asking him to give it to his master. Just then, d’Artagnan emerges back into the main street. Spotting him, Planchet runs over, and reports to d’Artagnan that according to Lubin, the Comte de Wardes is still alive, though in pain from the four stabs d’Artagnan delivered to him. And feeling rather confused, Planchet hands the message to him. D’Artagnan takes this message (meant for the Comte de Wardes) and reads it. Milady wants to secretly meet the Comte de Wardes, and judging by the tone of the note, she probably has (or is pretending to have – she seems wily!) romantic feelings for de Wardes.

     D’Artagnan pockets the note and approaches Milady, who is arguing heatedly with a man. D’Artagnan rather boldly asks her if she needs help. She explains in good French that he is her brother, so d’Artagnan cannot punish him.  Unfortunately, the man and d’Artagnan suddenly recognize each other – the man is none other than the Englishman from Amiens that Athos and d’Artagnan gambled with! They are evidently still quite angry with each other, and decide to have a duel at 6:00 pm. At this point, Milady leaves without a backward glance (to be honest, I don’t really blame her). The man introduces himself as Lord de Winter, and d’Artagnan in turn shares his name and position. They each agree to bring three other comrades to the duel. Then, d’Artagnan calls a Fearsome Four meeting and he tells the others about the duel. I actually love how they don’t even question it, and just prepare in their own ways. Athos is glad to fight an Englishman, because he hates them for some reason. Porthos begins fighting an imaginary opponent to practice, because he’s cool like that. Athos sits down and continues his poem, because he is boring.* D’Artagnan smiles to himself and plots, because he is creepy.

Reaction

*I have nothing against poetry in general, but according to d’Artagnan, Aramis’s poems are frightfully dull.

     I appreciate this chapter because of the plot development and intrigue. It also frustrates me because of those same two reasons. First of all, I don’t think I’m being too harsh on d’Artagnan for following Milady. Keep in mind that d’Artagnan has absolutely no reason to think Milady has anything to do with the kidnapping of Madame Bonacieux or with the diamond studs, because the duke told him about ‘Lady de Winter’ being a spy, and d’Artagnan knows her as ‘Milady.’ So, to me at least, there is no logical reason for him to be so interested in her other than being romantically interested in her. After all, he did seem struck by her beauty when he saw her for the first time way back when Rochefort stole his letter to M. de Treville.  Also, in this chapter d’Artagnan admits that since he has tried very hard but failed to find any traces of Madame Bonacieux, he needs to distract himself. No prizes for guessing who this ‘distraction’ is! Also, it annoyed me that once d’Artagnan gets more information, he still does not realize who Milady is. The clues are all there! See, d’Artagnan knows that the Englishman, Milady’s brother, is named Lord de Winter. Logically then, his sister would be Lady de Winter! And the Duke of Buckingham clearly told him that Lady de Winter is the cardinalist spy that cut the two studs off his doublet. Overall, d’Artagnan somehow is lucky enough to have gotten back on track on his mission to find Madame Bonacieux, but it is frustrating that he got this lead by being disloyal to her and that he has no clue that he is on track.  

     I must say that I love chapters like this one where there is so much to discuss. The last one, with Porthos and his mistress, was particularly lacking in interesting material. For this chapter, my favorite line was Athos shutting d’Artagnan down bluntly: “‘That is to say, you are in love with this lady as you were with Madame Bonacieux,’ said Athos, shrugging his shoulders contemptuously, as if he pitied human weakness.” I love how Athos seems so above it all. It’s getting very hard to reconcile the Athos-we-know, who has been consistently delivering amazing lines recently, with the crazy-remorseless-drunk-murdering Athos.