Athos slowly raised his pistol until the weapon almost touched the woman’s forehead.  Milady knew too well that with this terrible man death would certainly come unless she yielded.  She drew the paper out of her bosom and handed it to Athos.  “Take it,” she said, “and be accursed.”

Athos returned the pistol to his belt, unfolded the paper, and read: 

      It is by my order, and for the good of the state, that the
     bearer of this has done what he has done.

     Dec. 3rd, 1627.

     RICHELIEU.

Athos, without looking at the woman, left the inn, mounted his horse, and galloping across country, managed to get in front, on the road, before the cardinal had passed.

For a second, Milady thought of pursuing the cardinal in order to denounce Athos; but unpleasant revelations might be made, and it seemed best to carry out her mission in England, and then, when she had satisfied the cardinal, to claim her revenge.

IV.—­The Doom of Milady

Milady accomplished the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham at Portsmouth, and Richelieu was relieved of the fear of English intervention at La Rochelle.

But the doom of Milady was at hand.

The king, weary of the siege, had gone to spend a few days quietly at St. Germains, taking for an escort only twenty of the musketeers, and at Paris the four friends had obtained from M. de Treville a few days’ leave of absence.

Aramis had discovered the convent where Madame Bonacieux was confined; it was at Bethune, and thither the musketeers hastened.  Unfortunately, Milady reached Bethune first.  She had come there to await the cardinal’s orders, and having ingratiated herself with the abbess, learnt that D’Artagnan was on his way with an order from the queen to take Madame Bonacieux to Paris.  Milady immediately dispatched a messenger to the cardinal, and at the very moment when the musketeers were at the front entrance, she poured a powder into a glass of wine and bade Madame Bonacieux drink.

“It is not the way I meant to avenge myself,” said Milady, as she hastily left the convent by the back gate, “but, ma foi, we do what we must!”

The deadly poison did its work.  Constance Bonacieux expired in D’Artagnan’s arms.

Then the four musketeers, joined by Lord de Winter, who had arrived from England in hot pursuit of Milady, his sister-in-law, set out to overtake the woman who had wrought so much evil.

They came up with Milady at a solitary house near the village of Erquinheim.

The four servants of the musketeers guarded the house; Athos, D’Artagnan, Aramis, Porthos, and De Winter entered.

“What do you want?” screamed Milady.

“We want Charlotte Backson, first called Countess de la Fere, and afterwards Lady de Winter,” said Athos.  “M.  D’Artagnan, it is for you to accuse her first.”

“I accuse this woman of having poisoned Constance Bonacieux, and of having attempted to poison me, and I accuse her of having engaged assassins to shoot me,” said D’Artagnan.