Portsmouth

Portsmouth, the principal naval port on England's southern coast, becomes in August 1628 the focal point of the converging plots that drive the novel's final movement. It is here that the Duke of Buckingham gathers his expeditionary force to relieve the besieged Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle, and here that the cardinal's agent Milady, having escaped from captivity, dispatches the fanatical Puritan John Felton to assassinate the duke. The city thus serves as the stage for the simultaneous triumph of Richelieu's statecraft and the catastrophic end of Buckingham's personal and political ambitions.

The Admiralty and the Fleet

Buckingham's headquarters in Portsmouth is the palace of the Admiralty, where he conducts the final preparations for the expedition that he hopes will force France to lift the siege of La Rochelle and, in his private calculus, win him a look from Queen Anne of Austria. The harbor is crowded with vessels whose masts rise "like a forest of poplars despoiled by the winter" , and the city is filled with troops about to embark. The duke himself, glittering with diamonds and precious stones, a white feather drooping from his hat, is seen on the jetty surrounded by a brilliant staff . It is this spectacle of power and imminent departure that Milady observes from her vessel as she enters the roadstead on the evening of August 22, 1628, and it is against this backdrop that she sets in motion her final act of vengeance.

Felton's Arrival and the Assassination

On the morning of August 23, Felton, having helped Milady escape from Lord de Winter's castle and having chartered a sloop to carry her to France, rides into Portsmouth "covered with dust, and streaming with perspiration" . He carries a letter from Lord de Winter that is in fact the order for Milady's transportation, which Buckingham is to sign. At the Admiralty, Felton gains entry by claiming to be Lord de Winter's messenger, and is admitted to the duke's closet while Buckingham is finishing his toilet, wearing a blue velvet doublet embroidered with pearls . The confrontation that follows is swift and fatal. Felton, having been seduced by Milady's false story of her persecution by Buckingham, demands that the duke sign the order for her liberation instead. When Buckingham refuses and calls for help, Felton plunges into his side the very knife with which Milady had earlier pretended to stab herself (E07314–E07317). The duke falls, crying "Ah, traitor, you have killed me!" .

The Death of Buckingham

Buckingham does not die instantly. As his household and the deputies from La Rochelle crowd into the chamber, he recovers consciousness long enough to receive the queen's letter, brought by her faithful servant Laporte, who has just arrived from France. The letter, read aloud, begs Buckingham to abandon the war for her sake and warns him that his life is threatened (E07346–E07350). The duke, hearing that the queen still loves him, murmurs "God be praised! My death, then, will not be to her as the death of a stranger!" . He then gives Laporte the silver casket containing the queen's diamond studs and her two letters, and adds to them the bloody knife that killed him, saying "you will add to them this knife" . With these last tokens of his love, he dies. The surgeon, arriving too late, pronounces him dead . The news spreads through the city, and a cannon is fired to announce the event .

Consequences and Aftermath

The assassination of Buckingham at Portsmouth has immediate and far-reaching consequences. Lord de Winter, who had arrived moments too late to prevent the murder, captures Felton on the staircase and has him taken into custody (E07320–E07321). The Puritan fanatic, realizing that Milady has sailed for France without him, accepts his fate with the resignation of a martyr, but de Winter swears that her accomplice will not escape . The English fleet, deprived of its commander, never sails for La Rochelle, and the city surrenders two months later. The cardinal's grand strategy—to eliminate Buckingham as a rival for the queen's affections and as a military threat to France—is achieved through Milady's agency, though he will later learn that she has been executed by d'Artagnan and his friends. Portsmouth thus marks the point where the novel's multiple threads of love, politics, and vengeance converge in a single, violent act that reshapes the fate of two kingdoms.