Athos Wounded when d'Artagnan first meets him, Athos will later prove to be the person who wrote his memoirs about these adventurers. He is the most aristocratic of the three musketeers and also the oldest, but d'Artagnan feels closer to Athos than to the other two. Long before Athos reveals that he is the young nobleman who married the wicked Milady (Lady de Winter) during his youth, d'Artagnan is deeply impressed by him. Athos's real name is Count de La Fere.
Aramis He is supposedly passing his time as a musketeer until the queen provides France with an heir, at which time Aramis will enter the priesthood. He was brought up in a monastery, and it was assumed that he would become a priest, but when he was nineteen, he met a young lady and became extremely devoted to her. An officer ordered him never to speak to her again, and so Aramis left the monastery, took fencing lessons for a year, and eventually challenged and killed the haughty officer. Even though we are never told so directly, the lady in question is apparently Madame de Chevreuse, a close friend to the queen. She now lives in exile in Tours.
Porthos The most worldly of the three musketeers, Porthos is extremely proud of his worldly good looks and his fine physique, which he shows off to its best advantage by dressing to impress the women of society, who seem to fully appreciate his good looks and his courtly attentions. He is devoted to good food and comfortable surroundings. At the end of the novel, Porthos gives up musketeering in order to marry an older woman who has inherited a fortune.
