Summary
Lack of money is worrying all of the musketeers; Athos refuses to do anything about it, but the other three set off to try and acquire funds. Porthos directs them to a church where his mistress, Madame Coquenard, is attending service. She is an older woman and the wife of a wealthy lawyer. Porthos coaxes her into lending him money, but D'Artagnan is distracted by a beautiful, younger woman who is also attending service. He recognizes her from Meung, when he saw her with Rochefort and heard her referred to as Milady (the reader knows that she is Madame de Winter, who stole the diamonds from Buckingham on the Cardinal's orders). He follows her from the Church to St. Germain, accompanied by Planchet. As they approach, they recognize Lupin, the servant of Comte de Wardes (the man whom D'Artagnan fought and switched identities with at Calais). Planchet accidentally ends up receiving a message from Milady for the Comte de Wardes, implying the two know each other.
When D'Artagnan and Planchet catch up with Madame de Winter, she is arguing with her brother, whom D'Artagnan recognizes as one of the Englishmen who gambled with Athos at Amiens. D'Artagnan ends up challenging Lord de Winter to a duel; Lord de Winter shows up the following day accompanied by three English friends, while D'Artagnan brings the three musketeers. The musketeers win the duel, and D'Artagnan graciously spares the life of Lord de Winter, who is impressed with both his fighting and gallantry. He invites D'Artagnan to dine with him and Milady. D'Artagnan becomes even more fascinated with the beautiful and mysterious woman and begins visiting her every night.
While D'Artagnan has been flirting with Milady, her maid, Kitty, has fallen in love with him. One night, Kitty confesses her feelings and tells D'Artagnan that Milady will never love him. To prove it, Kitty shows D'Artagnan a letter Milady has written to the Comte de Wardes, which makes it clear that Milady loves de Wardes. Later that night, D'Artagnan hides in the closet and eavesdrops on Milady and Kitty. Milady brags about her ability to manipulate D'Artagnan, and complains that if he had only killed her brother in the duel, she would have become very wealthy. Betrayed and angry, D'Artagnan gets Kitty to intercept the next letter between Milady and de Wardes. In response, he sends a fake note arranging a supposed meeting between Milady and the Comte de Wardes. D'Artagnan then disguises himself and spends the night with Milady, while she believes he is her lover, de Wardes. She gives him a ring, which Athos later recognizes as an heirloom from his family. To complete his revenge, D'Artagnan sends Milady a note appearing to come from de Wardes. It states that he is tired of her and preoccupied with other women.
Meanwhile, Porthos has dinner with his mistress and her husband, and reminds her of her promise to give him money and a horse. She supplies him with a decrepit old horse, which ends up being the very one D'Artagnan rode from Gascon to Paris. Porthos returns the animals, and hints that he can find a new mistress who will be more generous with him. Aramis has secretly received money from his own mysterious lover, but he tells his friends that he earned the money writing poems.
Analysis
This section focuses on an intersection of money, sexuality, and power. Despite seeming to be powerful models of masculinity, at least two of the musketeers are effectively dependent on women. Porthos and Aramis both rely on their mistresses to finance their supplies to embark on their military mission, although they handle the process differently. Porthos is totally unashamed of taking money from a woman, and in fact seems proud of being in a situation where he has access to a wealthy woman. Aramis is more traditional and conservative; he does not like it to be known that he is romantically involved at all, let alone receiving money. He carefully hides this information from the other musketeers, which shows that in spite of their fierce loyalty, there is not absolute trust amidst the group.
Porthos and Aramis at least seem to have the maturity and intelligence to manage their love affairs and choose their mistresses wisely. With Constance Bonancieux out of the picture, D'Artagnan quickly loses his heart to another beautiful woman. Milady's previous connections to the Cardinal and Rochefort should raise his suspicions, and her mannerisms and demeanor also imply that she is not entirely trustworthy. Interestingly, Queen Anne and Constance are both married women, and yet they are presented as pure, trustworthy, and virtuous. Milady is a widow and therefore potentially available for a legitimate courtship and future marriage. However, she is portrayed as sensual and dangerous in a way the other women have not been. Perhaps because Milady is independent and can make autonomous choices about her life, she actually poses a deeper threat to a conservative social order.
Milady also uses her beauty, charisma, and independence to pursue her own sexual gratification. She has no qualms about pursuing a relationship with the Comte de Wardes, while manipulating D'Artagnan for her own ego and amusement. D'Artagnan is a very proud young man; it has been clear since the novel's first scene in Meung that he reacts with deep anger when his pride is hurt. Therefore, he is particularly wounded when he realizes that Milady does not reciprocate his feelings, and instead prefers another man. Given D'Artagnan's youth, lack of wealth, and lack of status, he may assume that she prefers the Comte de Wardes because he is the wealthier and more powerful man. D'Artagnan's reaction mirrors the anger with which Athos lashed out at his wife (readers, of course, will eventually learn that the two women are one and the same). Perhaps because Athos has always been presented as a role model to the younger man, the story of how Athos behaved when he learned a woman had betrayed him may have influenced D'Artagnan, leading him to believe that is acceptable to punish a woman if she hurts or deceives you.
D'Artagnan is particularly treacherous in the revenge he enacts, revealing he has absorbed the wiles of the French court. He wants to hurt Milady's pride in the same way that she has wounded him, and he knows that she is vain about believing in her desirability and power over men. If she thinks the Comte de Wardes has rejected her after she slept with him, she will feel vulnerable and hurt. What D'Artagnan does not reckon on is how different Milady is from most women. Rather than becoming mournful, she becomes enraged. D'Artagnan's impulsiveness and lack of foresight places him on a collision course with an enemy who is more dangerous than he could possibly know.
