Just finished this novel. Fun adventure book and thoroughly enjoyed it. With that said I was disappointed at the ending when Milady was executed without defending herself.
I think Dumas failed to remember his characters brilliance. The Musketeers said she could defend herself at her “trail.” They laid out all her crimes and yet for the first time she had nothing to say when it was her turn. There was an easy defense to each item they accused her of – and she wouldn’t have even had to lie.
She didn’t steal the chalice from the church, her lover did – she was wrongly branded anyway.
Athos was a lord in his mid twenties when he married a poor 16 year old – he finds a brand on her so rips off her dress and hangs her in the woods! Clearly, any guilt she had for not telling him about the brand was paid for at this overreaction by Athos. Any marriage after that was not bigamy since she thought Athos was dead and I think the hanging her naked in the woods nullifies even the best consummated marriages.
D’argtanan pretends to be another man and sneaks in to her room and sleeps with her. Basically rape. So she tries to kill him for stealing her honor. If someone had done that to D’Argtanan’s love he would kill him without a doubt. So why is he shocked she would do the same for herself. By the Musketeers own morality she is in the right to kill him.
As to killing Buckingham – she acted at the behest of the Cardinal who was the head of the army fighting a siege with England as the enemy. She killed the head of the English army and saved the day – she literally broke the siege single handed. The Musketeers work for the same King and Cardinal – she obeyed orders as they did and did more for victory than all of them together.
Similarly D’Argtanan’s mistress whom she
Poisoned was a traitor to the crown – helping the queen hide her dealing with the English enemy Buckingham. She had been arrested for this by the Cardinal with the Kings blessing but then escaped. Milady killing her before she escaped again was in the interest of the crown.
Her second husband died suddenly, but it’s only a vague suspicion it was her. No proof at all.
With this simple defense of each accusation they would never have executed her. If she could invent a story on the spot to convince a man to kill Buckingham, she could have utilized the truth to defend herself from death.
by The-literary-jukes