Cardinal's instructions to Milady

Cardinal Richelieu's instructions to Milady, delivered in a clandestine meeting at the Red Dovecot inn near the camp at La Rochelle, represent a pivotal moment in the novel's political and personal intrigues. The cardinal commissions his most dangerous agent to travel to London and deliver an ultimatum to the Duke of Buckingham, threatening to expose the duke's secret love for Queen Anne of Austria unless he abandons his military campaign against France. This set of orders reveals the cardinal's willingness to use intimate secrets as weapons of state, his deep personal rivalry with Buckingham, and his readiness to contemplate assassination as a final resort.

The Meeting and Its Setting

The instructions are given during a nocturnal encounter at the Red Dovecot, a solitary inn where the cardinal has come to meet Milady in secret. The meeting occurs shortly after the three Musketeers—Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—have intervened to protect a lady inside the inn from drunken intruders, a fact that later proves significant when Athos overhears the conversation through a broken stovepipe. The cardinal arrives with only his esquire, and after exchanging rapid words with a messenger who departs toward Paris, he ascends to Milady's chamber. The three Musketeers, left waiting in a ground-floor room, become unwitting eavesdroppers on one of the most consequential conversations in the novel.

The Blackmail Strategy

The cardinal's primary strategy is psychological intimidation rather than direct military threat. He instructs Milady to present herself to Buckingham "frankly and loyally as a negotiator" and to inform him that the cardinal possesses detailed proof of the duke's secret meetings with the queen. The cardinal enumerates specific pieces of evidence: the ball at Madame the Constable's, where Buckingham attended disguised as the Great Mogul; the night at the Louvre when he entered as an Italian fortune teller, wearing a white robe with black tears and death's heads; the adventure at Amiens, which the cardinal threatens to turn into a satirical romance with a plan of the garden and portraits of the actors; the arrest of Montague, who is in the Bastille and may be tortured; and a compromising letter from Madame de Chevreuse found in Buckingham's abandoned lodging on the Isle of Re. The cardinal's tone is cold and precise, demonstrating his vast intelligence network and his ability to weaponize personal secrets for political ends.

The Contingency Plan for Assassination

When Milady presses the question of what to do if Buckingham persists despite the threats, the cardinal reveals a darker contingency. He speaks of "events which change the destinies of states," citing the assassination of Henry IV in 1610 as a historical precedent. He suggests that a fanatic—perhaps a Puritan, since their preachers already denounce Buckingham as the Antichrist—could be found to carry out the deed. The cardinal's language becomes deliberately vague, but his meaning is unmistakable: if blackmail fails, assassination is the acceptable alternative. He speaks of needing "some woman, handsome, young, and clever, who has cause of quarrel with the duke" to place a knife in the hands of a fanatic, and Milady immediately recognizes herself in this description. The cardinal's willingness to contemplate regicide-style murder reveals the depth of his personal vendetta against Buckingham, which is driven as much by jealousy over the queen's affections as by political calculation.

The Exchange of Favors

The conversation also includes a reciprocal arrangement. In exchange for Milady's service against Buckingham, the cardinal agrees to help her eliminate her own enemies, particularly d'Artagnan. Milady reveals that d'Artagnan is "the evil genius of both of us," responsible for foiling the diamond studs affair, wounding the cardinal's agent de Wardes, and learning her secret. The cardinal, who already knows of d'Artagnan's exploits, agrees to provide a written order for his imprisonment in the Bastille once Milady supplies proof of his connection to Buckingham. This quid pro quo demonstrates how the cardinal's instructions to Milady are part of a larger web of mutual manipulation: he uses her as an instrument against Buckingham while she uses him as a shield for her personal vendettas. The scene ends with the cardinal writing the order, which Athos later seizes from Milady, turning it into a weapon against her.