Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Three Musketeers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship and Loyalty
Honor
Class and Power
The Secrets of the Past
Seduction and Romance
Summary
Analysis
Milady is still furious because of her encounter with Athos. As quickly as she can, she makes her way to England, although she is briefly delayed by bad weather. When she arrives in England, Milady is interrogated by an officer; he is a man she does not recognize who seems to be sizing her up. When Milady gets off the ship, the man tells her that he is her escort. However, he does not say where he is escorting her to. Milady quickly realizes that she is this man’s hostage.
Milady’s delays mean that Planchet was able to go to England ahead of her and deliver the musketeers’ letter to Lord de Winter. Of course, Milady does not know this, so she has no idea why an English officer would be after her. Evidently, Lord de Winter quickly put a plan into action and captured Milady before she could do any further damage or escape his grasp.
Themes
The man takes Milady to a carriage and implores her to get in. He then takes her way out into the country, far away from her intended destination of London. At one point, Milady thinks about throwing herself from the carriage, but her driver warns her against it. No matter how much Milady speaks to her captor, she cannot manage to get any information out of him.
This scene creates dramatic tension as Milady is slowly taken to an unknown destination. Additionally, it provides characterization for Milady’s captor, who will become an important character as the novel reaches its climax.
Themes
Eventually, the carriage comes to a castle that sits on a cliff. Milady is then removed from the carriage, taken into the castle, and thrown into a jail cell. This terrifies Milady, who still has no idea what is going on. Moments later, Lord de Winter enters the room. He tells her that this whole thing was his doing and that he brought her to his castle because the two of them need to have a talk.
Clearly, Lord de Winter trusts d’Artagnan much more than he does his own sister-in-law. After all, a single letter led him to take such drastic measures. Evidently, the musketeers’ letter confirmed much of what Lord de Winter suspected all along about Milady.
Themes
