Milady rears up and tries to kill d'Artagnan and as they scuffle, her nightgown is torn and d'Artagnan sees the mark of a convict branded on one of her shoulders. The discovery of this secret is so terrible that Milady vows that d'Artagnan will die. By a stroke of good fortune, however, and some help from Kitty, d'Artagnan escapes.
Relating the adventure to Athos later, the two men discover that Milady is Athos's wife, a woman whom he thought he hanged after he discovered that she was a branded criminal. Athos and d'Artagnan decide to sell Milady's "tainted" ring — which originally belonged to Athos's family — and now they are both able to buy their equipment for the siege of La Rochelle. Meantime, Porthos has obtained his equipment from his aging, miserly mistress, and Aramis has obtained his equipment from his beloved friend, Madame de Chevreuse.
Before d'Artagnan and the musketeers leave in their separate regiments for the siege, the king becomes ill, and d'Artagnan's group moves out first, leaving the musketeers behind for the time being to await the king. d'Artagnan is lonesome for his friends and, one day, he wanders off alone — not a wise decision, because he is fired at by two of Milady's hired assassions. Later, during a dangerous mission that d'Artagnan is leading, the same two assassins again try to kill him. When this attempt fails, Milady decides to have some poisoned wine delivered to d'Artagnan -compliments of "the three musketeers." D'Artagnan does not realize that the wine is poisoned, and he is so busy talking that he fails to drink the wine immediately. Instead, another soldier drinks the wine — and falls dead.
Meanwhile, the three musketeers are enjoying their leisure time, drinking and joking, and, by chance, they meet the cardinal, who is going to a meeting with Milady, who is staying at the inn which the musketeers just left. The musketeers accompany the cardinal and listen through a broken stovepipe to the conversation.
