Recap of Part 3: Behind the Mask

The end of our story “Behind the Mask”,  leaves our heroes facing many calamities and enemies, old and new. Most importantly, at the end of our story all kinds of secrets are revealed and masks are dropped. 

King Louis has discovered the truth that he is Aramis’ son.  He retaliates by exiling his mother, and by imprisoning Aramis at the Conciergerie and ordering his execution for treason. He blames Athos, Porthos, and d’ Artagnan, as well as his own father, for failing to kill Rochefort many years ago.  

Lucien Grimaud shares with his daughter Layla a common motivating force to protect those they love. Lucien Grimaud is not interested in politics, nor do his ambitions include advancing in social status.  Loyalty is a deeply held value, but he eschews oaths, believing firmly that a yes or a no should be enough in a person of integrity and if that is lacking, the oath is not compensatory. In the aftermath of the fighting in Spain, on land and at sea, with the French King married to the Spanish Infanta, Lucien, Porthos and d’ Artagnan meet to assess the losses. They have won this skirmish, but Rochefort has escaped.  Lucien passes along information he got from a ship captain for the Company of the Orient that Rochefort intends to target his entire family and that their families may also be at risk. Lucien knows the scale of Rochefort’s operation and he urges them to work together as separately they cannot succeed against this threat.  It is this that motivates Lucien to continue to fight an ongoing war at sea and on land against the Company of the Orient, drawing him in further to the drama that envelopes Aramis, Porthos, d’ Artagnan and Athos.   Unknown to Lucien is that  Rochefort’s organization has passed to the hands of Raoul. 

Returning from Constantinople, after being betrayed by Louis, Raoul, still the Spymaster of France, and in possession of Louis’ secret, has also realized that all his life, Rochefort educated him to become his heir. He sees this as an opportunity to get closer to Rochefort and protect those he loves from Rochefort’s vengeance. He is also certain that Rochefort plays a much deeper game behind the obvious threat against Louis and Queen Anne with the real heir to the throne of France, Henri Bernard, whom he adopted when he married the young man’s mother, Agnes.

Despite the joyous celebrations for his wedding to the Spanish infanta, Louis unleashes a vicious persecution against Rochefort and against everyone who knows that he is the son of Aramis and not of a legitimate King: Rochefort, Porthos, d’ Artagnan, and Athos, who is no longer protected by Venice, having relinquished his position as Venetian ambassador so that he could search for his son. Louis mistreats Queen Anne, his mother, and locks her in Val de Grace. 

Louis’ enforcer as he removes all witnesses and those who know the truth is his new Captain of the Musketeers, Fabien Marchal. Captain Marchal aspires to more: he aspires to a high position in good society and to replace Raoul as Spymaster of France. Captain Marchal will stop at nothing, including ignoring his Musketeer oath and sacrificing innocents and his own heart. His most innocent victim is a young woman he secretly loves, Esther Bodavin. Esther’s only crime is that she is Milady’s maid, and that Milady managed to get too close to Agnes Bernard. 

Pretending to be a physician’s widow, Alessandra (Milady) has managed to become friends with Agnes Bernard, Rochefort’s wife, at Saint-Fargeau. Her purpose is to take revenge for her son, believing that Raoul may be lost to her and that Rochefort was behind Raoul’s disappearance. At Saint-Fargeau, however, Alessandra is recognized by Gitaut, the brother of Comminges. Gitaut has few loyalties and works for his brother.  He is a Musketeer only by order of Louis, who wants to keep their enemies as close as possible. Discovering Milady at Saint-Fargeau and close to Rochefort’s wife, allows Gitaut to ingratiate himself to his new commander, Captain Marchal. 

Lucien, Layla, Rohan and others return to Royaumont for Rohan’s recuperation from his torture by his father at the Tower of Mendoza.  While there, Layla, sensitive to her grandmother’s darkening mood and preoccupation, asks Marie de Combalet the Duchess d’ Aiguillon to accompany her to Bicetre. Layla  thinks a short trip to view the improvements she has funded will be beneficial to Marie. Bicetre has changed, there are still orphans, but also more people with ‘disordered minds.’ The two women walk through Bicetre, including the dungeons and it is there that Layla is shocked to discover Agnes Bernard, Rochefort’s wife and Henri’s mother, chained to a wall, inside a dark dank cell, starved and beaten. She has been imprisoned on Rochefort’s order, claiming she is insane and dangerous. Marie is angry, convinced that Agnes Bernard is an innocent woman used and now discarded by Rochefort just as he did to his first wife.  Layla believes Agnes can help them find Rochefort and that she will know the locations of his houses where he hides.  Layla and Marie decide to rescue her.  Layla rides to Paris to recruit her father into the effort and Marie returns to Royaumont for more help.

By chance, Lucien and Constance’s brother Malcolm are nearby when Marchal’s musketeers try to arrest Porthos and d’Artagnan.  Lucien recognizes Gitaut, brother to Comminges, a man Rochefort uses. Infuriated with taunts about the King charging them with treason and with Aramis already at the Conciergerie, d’ Artagnan, Porthos, and Lucien realize what they feared has already started.  They must get everyone out of Paris. To buy enough time to make a plan Lucien takes them to a safe house he uses which is the old Bonacieux house, now owned by a different Bonacieux cousin, also a draper.  At that safe house  Athos, Porthos, d’ Artagnan and Lucien, along with Constance and Malcolm discuss various plans.  Constance cautions Lucien that their intent to free Agnes could be seen by Rochefort as an attack.  Lucien is adamant that they cannot win against Rochefort if they do not attack.  Athos and Lucien are surprised to find themselves in agreement. While Athos, Porthos, d’Artagnan, and Constance hide and wait in the safe house, making plans to move their families from Paris, Lucien deliberately stays is public view, skirmishing with Marchal’s guards and purposely taunting Marchal who wants him arrested. 

Marchal uses Esther, Milady’s maid, to spy on her mistress. When the young maid is no longer useful, and under Louis’ orders to leave no witnesses, but also seduced by Chevreuse’s games and challenged by her to prove himself worthy of good society, Captain Marchal lures Esther to Paris for the celebrations of the King’s wedding. He allows her to be attacked by a frenzied mob that Gitaut has gathered for him and the young woman is killed– an atrocious death. Unbeknownst to Marchal, however, there are witnesses and he is recognized. Esther’s death prompts Milady to come to Paris from Bragelonne, to claim her maid’s body and take her home to be buried. 

Back in Bragelonne, with Esther’s body, Alessandra finds Athos waiting for her. Prompted by Constance’s imputations and his concern about the safety of his daughter Bianca, Athos returns to Bragelone. The homecoming is not a happy one. Alerted by Constance, to whom Catherine de Renard cunningly imparted the information about Alessandra befriending Agnes Bernard, Athos storms Alessandra’s rooms, discovering one of Rochefort’s threatening letters. It proves that Alessandra knew the truth about Rochefort long before anyone else and kept it to herself. The fact that upon his return she was not in Bragelonne enforces his mistrust of her. Athos accuses her of endangering their children and causing their daughter’s abduction and their son’s demise. In a fit of anger, Athos takes their daughter from Alessandra and demands that she never sees her daughter again. 

Athos has returned to France from Venice with Aramis and a young monk, Ignazio, having discovered the truth about Rochefort, Agnes, and Henri. He knows that Raoul has discovered the truth also, and that Raoul–betrayed by Louis– may have perished at sea, chained in the bowels of a slave ship, between Sale and Constantinople. Upon their return to France he and Aramis first seek shelter at Noisy-le-Roi where they learn that their friends, d Artagnan and Porthos are not only in disfavor but in danger. The four friends reunite at Noisy-le-Roi and that is where Constance reveals to Athos what she knows about Alessandra and her secret dealings at Saint-Fargeau. 

Constance, now Comtesse d’ Artagnan, learned this from Catherine de Renard. Catherine who is married to Harry de Winter, Rochefort’s right-hand man and Alessandra’s brother-in-law, is determined to take revenge for the death of Athos’ brother, Thomas de la Fere, and claim the family titles and estates for her son Thomas de Renard. She is at court because Queen Anne accepted her as one of her ladies-in-waiting, at first because she was seeking leverage against Athos who was a dangerous Frondeur. Even though the Queen regretted that decision, she kept Catherine at court, because the woman proved a useful pawn to the Queen and the Queen’s enemies alike.  But Catherine is resentful, vindictive, ambitious, and cunning. She is no fool even if she assumes the role of the victim often.  At times Catherine has served as the Queen’s first lady–in-waiting especially when Queen Anne wanted to teach her best friend, the duchess de Chevreuse a lesson. Chevreuse and Catherine despise each other and Thomas de Renard, Catherine’s son, was for a brief time Chevreuse’s lover but she rejected him, thinking him ridiculous. 

Thomas de Renard, a schemer, has managed to keep himself at court through his mother’s influence but also by perfecting the art of blackmail. He is attracted to Chevreuse’s companion, the wily Mademoiselle Sylvine Mercier, who is groomed by Chevreuse. Sylvine uses Thomas as much as he uses her, although she aspires to marry Captain Marchal who is far more powerful and closer to the King. It is through Sylvine, during a clever game of trading valuable secrets, that Thomas–and thus his mother, Catherine–learns that Milady has been at Saint-Fargeau pretending to be a widow to befriend Agnes de Renard. 

Constance imparts this information to Athos because she cares for him and his daughter and sees Milady as a danger to both of them and to Raoul. Constance will once more act on her dislike of Milady, when at a soiree at her new house at the Marais, meant to cover the escape of Porthos’ family from Paris, she will–in turn–let slip to Catherine de Renard that Athos has left Alessandra and that she is alone–and unprotected– at Bragelonne. 

Constance, however, has her own secrets, and they begin to surface from the moment her half-brother Malcolm shows up in Paris, seemingly to see his infant niece, Constance’s baby daughter Juliette, and send news of the baby to their mother. In fact, her brother has arrived to help Lucien’s men secure safe passage for stolen goods arriving from the Wrecks. With the all-out war between Lucien and the Company of the Orient all these routes are threatened. Constance’s family, under the leadership of Constance’s formidable mother, is a family of smugglers from the Wrecks. They have been notorious since the days of Benito de Soto, before Lucien became a privateer and a pirate. Lucien knows Constance because he first met her when she was a girl, and he had started working for Benito de Soto, moving pirated cargo from the Wrecks. Constance later agreed to marry an old distant relative–Bonacieux–in Paris, whose mercantile offered a perfect cover for the family business and permitted them to sell their loot. 

Constance’s secret is indeed revealed when Lucien, Porthos, d’ Artagnan, Aramis, and Athos must use Bonacieux’s old house as a shelter for themselves as well as others: Porthos’ family escaping Paris, Agnes Bernard escaping the dungeon in Bicetre where Rochefort has condemned her, and Henri Bernard. Faced with the truth about his wife, unlike Athos, d’ Artagnan finds that his love for her removes everything else, and that her secret matters little to him. He wonders too if he had always known. 

In Paris, Lucien’s wharf is attacked by a mob that he believes Rochefort incited to disrupt his business.  Forced to protect the goods in his warehouses, Lucien orders his men to move the cargo to more secure locations, wasting valuable time and effort.  He is furious that he is only reacting to Rochefort and has not figured out a way to attack him.  Layla arrives to persuade her father to help her free Agnes Bernard from Bicetre.  Lucien immediately sees that this is what he has been looking for.  Rochefort dumped his wife in a dungeon, never expecting anyone to find her.  Rescuing her, reuniting her with her son and keeping Agnes safe is exactly the move he wants against Rochefort. Lucien,  Layla, Rohan, Afonso, Olivain, Yusuf, Martin and the Duchess d’Aiguillon, launch an ambitious plan to rescue Agnes.

Meanwhile, Henri, who has learned the truth about his adopted father and his real heritage from Raoul and Marie Cessette, is arrested by Captain Marchal at Saint Sulpice. Having failed to stop Aramis’ escape from the Conciergerie and arrest those who helped him, Marchal must prove himself to Louis and Rochefort’s adopted son is easy prey. 

At the same time, Athos realizes that in taking Bianca from her mother and leaving Alessandra in Bragelonne he has exposed his wife to danger. It is, however, too late. Alessandra has disappeared. Frantically, Athos looks for her, while his friends do not believe that it is possible for Milady to be in danger. His friends prepare to escape Paris with their families to Royaumont, where Lucien, still in the King’s favor and about to be invested with new titles, offers them protection. Athos, however, returns to Bragelonne in search of Alessandra.

He discovers that something bad has indeed happened to her, and that she is pregnant. Tormented by his old dreams, Athos finally realizes that they are not dreams but memories, that he must have known Alessandra when they were both children, and that he has loved her all his life. His search for her points to Marchal. Athos finds out that men trespassed into Bragelonne and one of them was Gitaut, who is a Musketeer. He also begins to see Marchal’s reasons for attacking Alessandra, when he learns about what the Captain did to Esther, and that Alessandra challenged the Captain in his own Garrison to bring the girl to Bragelonne and have her buried. Enraged, and without thinking, Athos seeks out Marchal, only to find him at the Louvre, at the investiture of Lucien and Layla—a ceremony, before the King, the new queen, and the entire court. The King is awarding titles to Lucien and Layla in recognition of their service in Spain and to bring both Lucien and Laya to his side as allies. While Lucien and Layla realize they are being manipulated,they can hardly refuse the honor.  

In the middle of the investiture ceremony Athos breaks into the hall, causing chaos as he accuses Marchal of attacking the innocent. Lucien intervenes, fearing Athos has gone too far and could be arrested or executed on the spot and gets him out of the palace, and takes him to his wharf.  Lucien does not demand an explanation for Athos’ rash acts, instead he offers a horse to ride to Royaumont and his daughter. But Athos chooses to stay. Perhaps realizing Lucien is the only one who would care about Alessandra, Athos tells Lucien about Alessandra’s disappearance, and why he suspects Marchal is behind it.  Lucien becomes increasingly worried, but when Athos describes  Esther’s killing and Gitaut, Lucien becomes enraged. Marchal has crossed a line and Gitaut is in league with Comminges and it all leads back to Rochefort. Together they connect the dots of Lucien’s involvement with Rochefort and with warnings of the risk Lucien takes, Athos finally, entrusts Lucien with the secret which he, his three friends, and Alessandra, have known and protected for decades and continue to protect against Rochefort: that Louis is not a legitimate King but the son of Aramis. Desperate to find Alessandra, Athos asks for Lucien’s help. Alessandra is an old and dear friend to him and his entire family and Lucien is already determined to go with him and readily agrees.

For the first time, despite the bad blood between them, Lucien sees Athos’ despair. He too loves Alessandra and will do anything for her. He also appreciates the trust Athos has shown with that secret, but, the practical man that he is,  Lucien, can see that he has become implicated in something that–he thinks–-should not concern him. When Raoul arrives at the wharf looking for his father, whom the King is not inclined to arrest–yet– the three agree to join forces to find Alessandra and save Henri from the Bastille where he is kept. Raoul explains to Lucien that he, Layla, Rohan, and Marie Cessette have become keepers of the same deadly secret and, to Lucien’s dismay, that they have taken the Musketeer oath to protect it. 

Raoul returns to his double life as Spymaster of France at court and as Rochefort’s heir with the Company of the Orient. He has commissioned a ship, the Belladonna, one of the Ogre’s ships sailing west, to return to France, to the Wrecks, which are part of the estate M. de Rohan was given by the Queen upon his marriage to Layla. Raoul, Layla, Rohan, and Marie Cessette have agreed to get Henri out of the Bastille and smuggle him to the Wrecks, to M. de Rohan’s lands, where he can board the Belladonna for the West Indies. The plan works for Rochefort too, since, it appears that Rochefort does not wish any harm to come to Henri, who is a valuable pawn. As the Belladonna sails toward the Wrecks in bad weather, one man on board  eager to be as far from France as possible seems to know a lot about France and her King, including the fact that he is not a legitimate king. 

Athos and Lucien return to Bragelonne in search of Alessandra. They follow a trail left by Gitaut and the men who trespassed into Bragelonne. When they recover the bodies of two dead musketeers it becomes clear that even if Gitaut was sent by Marchal, what happened to Alessandra was not ordered by the Captain of the Musketeers. Their suspicions turn to Rochefort, as witnesses mention an Englishman–whom they recognize as de Winter. However, the trail goes cold, and they are attacked by a group of armed men. In the uneven battle, Lucien almost drowns in a frozen river. Athos takes Lucien back to Bragelonne where the two wait for any news that will help them pick up Alessandra’s trail again or discover Rochefort’s whereabouts. 

In Paris, Raoul presides over the Company of the Orient in new headquarters and with new associates. It is from one of these new associates that Raoul learns the exact whereabouts of Rochefort. The information is too specific and he fears that it is meant to entrap him: if he shares it with his father and Lucien who are looking for Rochefort it will be clear to Rochefort that the information came from him. However, surprisingly, Rochefort affords Raoul a way out. 

Raoul and his closest friend, M. de Beaumont, plan a soiree at Zola’s infamous house, where they will invite everyone who matters: Louis’ allies, Rochefort’s allies, and scheming men like de Renard. M. de Beaumont, who owns part of Zola’s business, however has an even more astonishing story for Raoul. Not only did Rochefort return to Zola’s for one night, but he made sure that even a simple-minded maid heard him speak the exact place where he lives. It is clear to Raoul that Rochefort wants to be found, so much so that he is affording Raoul a way to alert his father while covering for himself. 

It is in this manner that Athos and Lucien, waiting at Bragelonne, find out that Rochefort waits for them at a small chateau at Bourron-Marlotte near Fontainebleau and to that chateau they go, knowing it is a trap. They are indeed expected. It is in Rochefort’s study at Bourron-Marlotte, that Lucien will be challenged with the memory of his dead son, Gabriel, and Athos will find himself facing Rochefort’s pistol aimed directly at his head, but not before Rochefort has revealed not only that he has intimate knowledge of Alessandra since childhood, but that Athos and Lucien are brothers. They are the sons of Richelieu by his niece, Marie d’ Aiguillon.