The Three Musketeers, Chapter 56 summary

What happens

1. Milady fears that exile and silence destroy her standing with the cardinal, and she treats Felton as her means of escape.
2. Lord de Winter inspects her room, and Felton arrives after midnight under the pretext of preventing her suicide.
3. Milady challenges Felton to keep his promise about a knife, examines the weapon, and returns it before beginning her story.
4. She describes being drugged, imprisoned in a luxurious room, and sexually assaulted by an unnamed persecutor.
5. Her account describes a failed stabbing, threats to expose her captor, and a refusal to eat or drink.
6. Felton grows eager for revenge and nearly collapses, while Milady takes pleasure in the effect of her unfinished account.

In this chapter

What to notice

The narrator explicitly identifies the purpose behind Milady’s storytelling. Felton’s anguish serves her effort to turn him into an agent of revenge.

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