Athos, without looking at the woman, left the inn, mounted his horse,
and galloping across country, managed to get in front, on the road,
before the cardinal had passed.
For a second, Milady thought of pursuing the cardinal in order to
denounce Athos; but unpleasant revelations might be made, and it seemed
best to carry out her mission in England, and then, when she had
satisfied the cardinal, to claim her revenge.
_IV.--The Doom of Milady_
Milady accomplished the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham at
Portsmouth, and Richelieu was relieved of the fear of English
intervention at La Rochelle.
But the doom of Milady was at hand.
The king, weary of the siege, had gone to spend a few days quietly at
St. Germains, taking for an escort only twenty of the musketeers, and at
Paris the four friends had obtained from M. de Treville a few days'
leave of absence.
Aramis had discovered the convent where Madame Bonacieux was confined;
it was at Bethune, and thither the musketeers hastened. Unfortunately,
Milady reached Bethune first. She had come there to await the cardinal's
orders, and having ingratiated herself with the abbess, learnt that
D'Artagnan was on his way with an order from the queen to take Madame
Bonacieux to Paris. Milady immediately dispatched a messenger to the
cardinal, and at the very moment when the musketeers were at the front
entrance, she poured a powder into a glass of wine and bade Madame
Bonacieux drink.
"It is not the way I meant to avenge myself," said Milady, as she
hastily left the convent by the back gate, "but, _ma foi_, we do what we
must!"
The deadly poison did its work. Constance Bonacieux expired in
D'Artagnan's arms.
Then the four musketeers, joined by Lord de Winter, who had arrived from
England in hot pursuit of Milady, his sister-in-law, set out to overtake
the woman who had wrought so much evil.
They came up with Milady at a solitary house near the village of
Erquinheim.
The four servants of the musketeers guarded the house; Athos,
D'Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos, and De Winter entered.
"What do you want?" screamed Milady.
"We want Charlotte Backson, first called Countess de la Fère, and
afterwards Lady de Winter," said Athos. "M. D'Artagnan, it is for you to
accuse her first."
"I accuse this woman of having poisoned Constance Bonacieux, and of
having attempted to poison me, and I accuse her of having engaged
assassins to shoot me," said D'Artagnan.
"I accuse this woman of having procured the assassination of the Duke of
Buckingham," said Lord de Winter. "Moreover, my brother, who made her
his heiress, died suddenly of a strange disease."
"I married this woman and gave her my name and wealth, and found
afterwards she was branded as a felon," said Athos.
The musketeers and Lord de Winter passed sentence of death upon the
miserable woman.
She was taken out to the river bank, and beheaded, and her body dropped
into the middle of the stream.
"Let the justice of Heaven be done!" they cried in a loud voice.
Within three days the musketeers were back in Paris, ready to return
with the king to La Rochelle. Then the cardinal summoned D'Artagnan to
his presence.
"You are charged with having corresponded with the enemies of France,
with having surprised state secrets, and with having attempted to thwart
the plans of your general," said the cardinal.
"The woman who charges me--a branded felon--Milady de Winter, is dead,"
replied D'Artagnan.
"Dead!" exclaimed the cardinal. "Dead!"
"We have tried her and condemned her," said D'Artagnan. Then he told the
cardinal of the poisoning of Madame Bonacieux, and of the subsequent
trial and execution.
The cardinal shuddered before he answered quietly, "You will be tried
and condemned."
"Monseigneur," said D'Artagnan, "though I have the pardon in my pocket I
am willing to die."
"What pardon?" said the cardinal, in astonishment. "From the king?"
"No, a pardon signed by your eminence." D'Artagnan produced the precious
paper which Athos had forced Milady to give him before her journey to
England.
For a time the cardinal sat looking at the paper before him. Then he
slowly tore it up.
"Now I am lost." thought D'Artagnan. "But he shall see how a gentleman
can die."
The cardinal went to a table, and wrote a few lines on a parchment.
"Here, monsieur," he said; "I have taken away from you one paper; I give
you another. Only the name is wanting in this commission, and you must
fill that up."
D'Artagnan took the document with hesitation. He looked at it, saw it
was a lieutenant's commission in the musketeers, and fell at the
cardinal's feet.
"Monseigneur, my life is yours. Dispose of it as you will. But I do not
deserve this. I have three friends, all more worthy----"
The cardinal interrupted him.
"You are a brave young man, D'Artagnan. Fill up this commission as you
will."
D'Artagnan sought out his friends, and offered the commission to them in
turn.
But each declined, and Athos filled in the name of D'Artagnan on the
commission.
"I shall soon have no more friends. Nothing but bitter recollections!"
said D'Artagnan, thinking of Madame Bonacieux.
"You are young yet," Athos answered. "In time these bitter recollections
will give way to sweet remembrances."
* * * * *