In these chapters, we have an ambiguous view of the cardinal. His request to the three musketeers, his acknowledgment that they are loyal and brave men, and his affirmation of the trust he has in them indicate that he is a man who recognizes good qualities in others. However, when the cardinal learns from Milady that d’Artagnan has been in collusion with Buckingham, he is determined to make sure that d’Artagnan is punished.
In Chapter 44, the device of having the three musketeers overhear the conversation between the cardinal and Milady is an easy, often used fictional gimmick that good writers rarely use. In the romantic fiction of the nineteenth century, however, it was a favorite device. Sometimes a person hid behind a screen in the same room, or behind a shrub outside, or listened through a broken stovepipe, as we see here. (Actually, this “stovepipe device” is an anachronism on Dumas’s part because the time period for the novel is the 1620s, and the stovepipe was not invented until the 1760s, by Benjamin Franklin in America. Dumas’s novel was written in 1843-44, when the stovepipe was an established feature of many households.)
While the cardinal is giving Milady instructions, we are once again aware of how all-powerful and omniscient he is. He reveals that he knows almost every movement which the duke has ever made in France, including the duke’s role in the intricate misadventures of the diamond tags. The cardinal is a shrewd diplomat; he knows that the duke will go to almost any length to protect Anne of Austria, the queen of France, and since there is an allegiance between England, Spain, Austria, and Lorraine against France, he must take drastic measures to assure France’s safety and protect her powers. His ability to find the right methods to accomplish these things is what makes him such a powerful and feared man.
In Chapter 45, we learn Athos’s real name—Count de La Fere and we should recall that in the preface, Dumas wrote that he found a manuscript by Count de La Fere that recounts the events of this novel. During Athos’s confrontation with Milady (alias Anne de Breuil, alias Countess de La Fere, alias Lady de Winter), he is stunned at the depths of her evil nature, her vile soul, and her infamous behavior. He thought he had killed her once and although he is on the verge of killing her now, he relents. He merely takes away her valuable “letter of protection,” a letter which d’Artagnan will put to profitable use later on in the novel.
