On the first Monday of April 1625, the population of the town of Meng on the outskirts of Paris seemed excited as if the Huguenots had decided to turn it into the second fortress of Larochelle: a young man of eighteen years old rode into Meng on a red gelding without a tail. His appearance, clothing and manners caused a flurry of ridicule in the crowd of citizens. The horseman, however, does not pay attention to them, as befits a noble who considers it shameful to find out relations with commoners. Another thing is an insult inflicted by an equal: d’Artagnan (that’s the name of our hero) throws himself with a bare sword at a noble gentleman in black; however, several townspeople with oak trees have come to the rescue. Waking up, d’Artagnan finds neither the offender, nor - much more serious - the letter of recommendation from his father to his old comrade, captain of the royal musketeers, Mr. de Treville, asking to determine the offspring of military age.
The Musketeers of His Majesty are the color of the guard, people without fear and reproach, for which they get away with independent and reckless behavior. At the same time that d’Artagnan is waiting for a reception at de Treville, Mr. Captain is setting off another headwash (not entailing, however, sad consequences) to his three favorites - Athos, Porthos and Aramis. De Treville, it should be noted, was not indignant that they had a fight with the guards of Cardinal Richelieu, but allowed to arrest themselves ... What a shame!
Talking with de Treville (who received the young d’Artagnan very affectionately), the young man sees a stranger from Meng outside the window and scoots headlong into the street, hitting three musketeers in turn on the stairs. All three challenge him to a duel. The stranger in black manages to sneak out, but at the hour of class, d’Artagnana Athos, Porthos and Aramis are waiting at the appointed place. The case gets an unexpected turn; the swords of all four are bared together against the ubiquitous guards of the Duke of Richelieu. The musketeers are convinced that the young Gascon is not only a badass, but also a real brave man who owns weapons no worse than them, and accept d’Artagnan in his company.
Richelieu complains to the king: the musketeers are completely insolent. Louis XIII is more intrigued than distressed. He wants to know who this unknown fourth, the former with Athos, Porthos and Aramis. De Treville introduces the Gascon to His Majesty - and the king enrolls d’Artagnan to serve in his guard.
The haberdasher Bonacieux is talking to d’Artagnan, who has stayed in his house, whose rumors are circulating in Paris, yesterday: his young wife, chambermaid of Her Majesty Queen Anne of Austria, was kidnapped. By all accounts, the kidnapper is a stranger from Meng. The reason for the abduction was not the charms of Madame Bonacieux, but her proximity to the Queen: in Paris, Lord Buckingham, the beloved of Anna of Austria. Madame Bonacieux can lead to his trail. The queen is in danger: she was left by the king, she is pursued by Richelieu lusting for her, she loses faithful people one after another; in addition to everything (or above all), she is a Spanish woman in love with an Englishman, and Spain and England are the main opponents of France in the political arena. Following Constance, Mr. Bonacieux himself was abducted; a trap is set up in their house on Lord Buckingham or someone close to him.
One night, d’Artagnan hears in the house fuss and squeezed female cries. This Ms. Bonacieux, who had escaped from custody, again fell into a mousetrap - now in her own house. D’Artagnan captures her from Richelieu’s people and hides her in Athos’s apartment.
Watching all her exits into the city, he lies in wait for Constance in the company of a man in a musketeer uniform. Did Athos’s friend decide to recapture his saved beauty? The jealous man quickly resigns: the companion of Madame Bonacieux is Lord Buckingham, whom she leads to the Louvre on a date with the Queen. Constance dedicates d’Artagnan to the secrets of his mistress. He promises to protect the Queen and Buckingham as her very self; this conversation becomes their declaration of love.
Buckingham leaves Paris, taking away the gift of Queen Anne - twelve diamond pendants. Having heard about this, Richelieu advises the king to arrange a big ball, at which the queen should appear in pendants - those that are now stored in London, in the box of Buckingham. He foresees the shame of the queen who rejected his claim - and sends to England one of her best secret agents, Milady Vintor: she must steal two pendants from Buckingham - even if the other ten and miraculously return to Paris to the big ball, the cardinal will be able to prove the queen’s faultlessness. Racing with milady Wynter rushes to England d’Artagnan. Milady succeeds in what the cardinal instructed her; however, time works for d’Artagnan - and he delivers ten queen pendants to the Louvre and two more exactly the same, made by a London jeweler in less than two days! The cardinal is put to shame, the queen is saved, d’Artagnan accepted into the musketeers and rewarded with the love of Constance. There are, however, losses: Richelieu learns about the prowess of the newly-made musketeer and instructs him to patronize the insidious milady Vinter.
Weaving intrigues against d’Artagnan and instilling in him a strong and contradictory passion, milady at the same time seduces Count de Ward, the man who served as an obstacle to the Gascon during his trip to London, sent by the cardinal to help milady. Catti, the servant of milady, being crazy about the young musketeer, shows him the letters of her mistress de Ward. D’Artagnan, in the guise of Count de Vard, comes to see Milady and, unrecognized by her in the dark, receives a diamond ring as a token of love. D’Artagnan hurries to present his adventure to friends as a joke; Athos, however, becomes dark at the sight of the ring. The ring of milady evokes a painful memory in him. This is a family jewel given to them on the night of love by the one he revered as an angel and which in reality was a stigmatized criminal, a thief and a murderer who broke the heart of Athos. Athos’s story is soon confirmed: on the naked shoulder of milady, her ardent lover d’Artagnan notices the lily stamp - the seal of eternal shame.
From now on, he is the enemy of milady. He is initiated into her secret. He refused to kill Lord Winther in a duel - he only disarmed him, after which he reconciled with him (the brother of her late husband and uncle of her young son) - and after all, she has long been striving to take over the whole fortune of the Winterers! Nothing happened to my lady, and from her plan to set d’Artagnan and de Bard out of the way. The pride of milady is wounded - but also the ambition of Richelieu. Inviting d’Artagnan to go to serve in his guards regiment and receiving a refusal, the cardinal warns the young insolence: “From the moment you lose my protection, no one will give a penny for your life!” ...
The soldier's place is in the war. After taking a vacation from de Treville, d’Artagnan and three of his friends set off for the environs of Larochely, a port city that opens the gates to the French within the English. Closing them for England, Cardinal Richelieu completes the work of Joan of Arc and the Duke of Guise. The victory over England for Richelieu is not so much to save the king of France from the enemy, but in revenge on a more successful rival in love for the queen. The same is with Buckingham: in this military campaign he seeks to satisfy his personal ambitions. He prefers to return to Paris not as a messenger, but as a triumph. The true stake in this bloody game played by two powerful powers is the supportive look of Anna of Austria. The British besieged the fortress of Saint-Martin and Fort La Pre, the French - La Rochelle.
Before baptism of fire, d’Artagnan sums up the results of a two-year stay in the capital. He is in love and loved - but does not know where his Constance is and whether she is alive at all. He became a musketeer - but has an enemy in the person of Richelieu. Behind him there are many unusual adventures - but also the hatred of milady, who will not miss the opportunity to take revenge on him. He is noted for the patronage of the queen - but this is a bad defense, rather, an occasion for persecution ... His only unconditional acquisition is a diamond ring, whose brilliance, however, is overshadowed by the bitter memories of Athos.
By chance, Athos, Porthos and Aramis accompany the cardinal in his nightly incognito walk in the vicinity of Larochelle. Athos in the restaurant "Red Dovecote" hears a conversation between the cardinal and milady (it was to meet her that Richelieu was guarded by the musketeers). He sends her to London as an intermediary in negotiations with Buckingham. Negotiations, however, are not entirely diplomatic: Richelieu presents an ultimatum to the opponent. If Buckingham dares to take a decisive step in the current military confrontation, the cardinal promises to publicize documents defaming the queen, evidence of not only her favor with the duke, but also her collusion with the enemies of France. “And if Buckingham stiffens up?” - asks my lady. “In this case, as happened more than once in history, a fatal woman should appear on the political stage, who will put a dagger in the hand of some fanatic killer ...” Milady perfectly understands Richelieu's hint. Well, she is just such a woman! .. Having accomplished an unprecedented feat - having dined for a bet on a bastion open to the enemy, repelled several powerful attacks of the Larachelians and returned to the army location unscathed - the musketeers warn the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Winther about the mission of milady. Vinter manages to arrest her in London. The protection of my lady is entrusted to the young officer Felton. Milady learns that her guard is a Puritan. It is called his self-believer, allegedly seduced by Buckingham, slandered and branded as a thief, while in reality he suffers for faith. Felton was struck down by milady, Religiosity and strict discipline made him a man inaccessible to ordinary seduction. But the story told to him by my lady, shook his hostility towards her, and with her beauty and ostentatious piety she won his pure heart, Felton helps Milady Winter escape. He instructs the acquaintance captain to deliver the unfortunate captive to Paris, and he himself penetrates the Duke of Buckingham, whom, in the execution of Richelieu's script, is killed with a dagger.
Milady hides in the Carmelite monastery in Bethune, where Constance Bonacieux also lives. Upon learning that d’Artagnan should appear here from hour to hour, milady poisons the beloved of her main enemy and flees. But she cannot escape retribution: the musketeers rush in her wake.
At night, in the dark forest, judgment is carried out on milady. She is guilty of the death of Buckingham and the seduced Felton. On her conscience is the death of Constance and the incitement of d’Artagnan to the murder of de Wardes. Another, her very first victim, was a young priest seduced by her, whom she persuaded to steal church utensils. Condemned for this to hard labor, the shepherd of God laid hands on himself. His brother, the executioner from Lille, set the goal of his life to take revenge on my lady. Once he had already overtaken her and branded it, but the criminal then disappeared into the castle of Count de la Fer - Athos and, keeping silent about the unfortunate past, married her. Inadvertently discovering a fraud, Athos in a rage committed lynching of his wife: he hung her on a tree. Fate gave her another chance: the Countess de la Fer was rescued, and she returned to life and to her vile deeds under the name of Lady Winther. Having given birth to a son, milady poisoned Vinter and received a rich inheritance; but this was not enough for her, and she dreamed of a share belonging to the brother-in-law.
Having presented to her all the above charges, the musketeers and Winther entrust milady to the Lille executioner. Athos gives him a purse of gold - a fee for hard work, but he throws gold into the river: "Today I do not do my craft, but my duty." In the moonlight, the blade of his broad sword shines ... Three days later, the musketeers return to Paris and appear to their captain de Treville. “Well, gentlemen,” the brave captain asks them. “Well, did you have fun on vacation?” - “Great!” - Athos is responsible for himself and for friends.
