A beautiful but insidious woman…

There in a manor house on the banks of the River Lys in the village of Lille, she sat; smiling at her reflection. With a thin comb she pulled back her long braids of blonde hair, and with each hard tug of her locks, she gazed admiringly. She was not a young woman, nor did her age do justice to the youthfulness and innocence that exuded – when, and only when, she wished to charm. Her voluptuous frame had caught the eye of many a man, with the same magnetic power as the light that attracts the moth to its doom. In her youth, she had been a nun who had corrupted a priest. Then she had stolen and had been branded with the mark of a thief. Finally she had abandoned her defrocked lover and married a noble, sincere, but star-eyed youth, the Count of la Fère. Their marriage lasted long enough for her to arrange that his estate be robbed, and for his good family name to be disgraced. In shame, he would join the service of the French King, and change his name to Athos. She would marry again, to the Count de Winter, a foolish cuckold, whom she would eventually murder, and bearing his name and title would become in Alexandre Dumas', Les Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers, 1844), the beautiful but insidious, Countess de Winter.

Cover of Les Trois Mousquetaires

Throughout the course of Dumas' work the Countess de Winter sets upon a 'delicate' rampage of death. She murders d'Artagnan's wife, the young, naïve and virtuous, Constance Bonacieux, by preying on her sympathy; she assassinates the Prime Minister of England, the Duke of Buckingham (the lover of the Queen of France and of de Winter), by preying on his lust.

Too often portrayed in modern day films as the hero, d'Artagnan, is indeed the young, ardent, swashbuckler of the novel, but not hero enough not to fall in love with de Winter; he is too shallow and too young to be wary of her charms. As the novel progresses the true heroic figure begins to emerge – it is Athos. He is at the opening, a very skilled swordsman, with a penchant for dueling, a man of mysterious past, who has a weakness for alcohol. In mid-novel, after d'Artagnan returns from a liaison with de Winter, bearing the gift of a ring, Athos' demeanour and stature in the novel changes. It is the wedding ring that he had given de Winter when she had become his bride. He warns d'Artagnan, but d'Artagnan will not hear any wrong said of the woman who is rapidly stealing his heart. He accuses Athos of bitter misogyny – and leaving Athos goes to de Winter for a further rendezvous, a meeting that will see him nearly lose his life.

Only one person has the strength of will, as well as the insight into de Winter's character to stop her deadly mission. She shudders at his memory. There in Athos' family home, which has now been given to her by Richelieu as a prize for her murderous endeavours – she looks into the mirror. The door opens behind her, and in the gilded reflection appears Athos. He has followed her. In abject horror she recoils, knowing that there is nothing she can use against him in her Pandora's box of death to fool him. As Count of the region, he tries her. As chief-judge, he sentences her. She begs for mercy. There at the door of his ancestral home he stands – impervious to any thought of protestation from his comrades about the impending course of action, He sends de Winter away with the executioner of Lille in a small boat, to an island within the lake to be beheaded. His jaw does not move, his brow does not become furrowed, his eyes show no change of demeanour, there is no quiver in his cheek – but one tear forms, and falls down his face.

An instruction manual to the young for leading a virtuous life…

It has often been said that experience is a harsh teacher. Harsh or not in their instruction, our life experiences have the power, (if we so desire and wish to learn from them), to smoothen our paths for the future. There are some indeed who live by the edict that the only wisdom worth knowing is that which you discover from the lessons of your own life, but in reality, who would be as foolish as to accept only that Truth, which one has to suffer a torment so as to obtain? Despite how wealthy our individual experiences may be, we cannot all have the same breadth and depth of experiences, and therefore being deprived of some of these 'harsh' lessons from 'first-hand' knowledge, we are required in the majority of times in our lives, to listen to sages and to the wise, in order to avoid traps and tribulations — to learn from 'collective' and 'ancient' experience. The Old Testament, contains such a Book, in the form of Proverbs. Introduced by its author, King Solomon, as an instruction manual to the young for leading a virtuous life, Proverbs has for thousands of years been a guide in order to provide life-changing and evil-averting wisdom. Yet aside from faith in the Book having been Divinely inspired, the Book of Proverbs requires from the reader, (as with any good learning), an open and humble heart, a person willing to be taught, a person who realizes that they do not have all life's answers, a person wise enough to already admit they are ignorant, and willing to be challenged regarding their actions.

The Book of Proverbs is also based on the precept that if the meaning of life is to be happy, then Ultimate happiness relies on Ultimate wisdom in order that mistakes once made, are not repeated and so that the individual's path to God is made the smoother. It requires an acceptance of the thought that no man would willingly commit his life to a series of everlasting errors, refusing to make the best of life's brevity, by learning what wisdom can be offered by God through others, in particular through the Scriptures.

Cardinal Newman: "The reason why people do not 'act upon the truths they utter' is 'because they do not realize what they are so ready to proclaim'; it is only when people 'realize a truth' that 'it becomes an influential principle within them'."

Thus returning to the characters trapped within the imbroglio of Les Trois Mousquetaires. Neither Constance, nor d'Artagnan, nor Buckingham, nor Count de Winter, nor the younger Athos, have sought deliberately to be caught up in the Countess' web – yet each of them, accordingly, have fallen to her spell; each one of them, for want of wisdom. By sheer Providence, it is only Athos, having survived a taste of her evil, who seems to have the immunity to ward off her depravity – it is an immunity based on experience, an immmunity based on tragic hindsight. Athos has lived the words of Aeschylus: "And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God". He has learnt primarily because not to learn would have been to die.

Although, Les Trois Mousquetaires is a work of fiction, Oscar Wilde teaches that "it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life". There are indeed people in this world, amoral and immoral; there do exist people who in the blackness of their hearts, seek to trade death for innocence. Solomon when he wrote his Proverbs, knew spirits as bleak as Dumas', Countess, and Prosper Mérimée's, Carmen. He wrote having known about the perennial adverse side of human nature. As such, Solomon's words are as fresh and immediate in their instruction as they ever were. But whether we understand this Truth and reality, before we too stand in sad reflection as Athos, is the difference between reading Proverbs as a guide for a better life, or as a crutch for rueful consolation. For as John Henry Newman concluded, knowledge of the Truth and acceptance of it as a practical reality, are the true keys of wisdom: "The reason why people do not 'act upon the truths they utter' is 'because they do not realize what they are so ready to proclaim'; it is only when people 'realize a truth' that 'it becomes an influential principle within them'". (Ker, 1988, p. 97) Let us not be as the child who is told by their parent that the stove is hot – and so has the knowledge – but still seeks to burn his hand in order to prove it for himself. Instead, let us trust in the words of God and grow in wisdom – and thus to our fullest reality.

Photo Credit:
The background image for today's headline comes from the website of Ken Ludwig an actor who has played roles in The Three Musketeers. See: www.kenludwig.com/the_three_musketeers/the_three_musketeers.php

©2008 Dr Andrew Thomas Kania

[Andrew Kania's Archive]