A Royal Scandal

The action in The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas has really picked up. After plowing through a plethora of difficult pages, bursting with vocabulary from an antiquated lexicon, a story has begun to develop. Our hero, D'Artagnan, has fallen in his first love. Unfortunately, the object of his passion is already married, being older than he. However, there is more to Madame Bonacieux than simply being D'Artagnan's first crush; she is one of the maids of the queen. The queen is suspected by her husband and by the cardinal to be having an affair with the Duke of Buckingham, and their suspicions are not too far off. Friendless and lacking in love from her husband, the queen is hard pressed to overcome the temptation of succumbing to the Duke's efforts to woo her. I feel bad for the queen, for she is clearly terribly lonely and obviously likes the Duke, but she still, with difficulty, resists his advances. It is hard enough to experience unrequited love; I cannot even imagine the pain inherent in rejecting someone you love. Poor Queen. People always dream of being royalty, but, in my humble opinion, a much better wish would be for good family, friends, relationships, and health. Those things bring a lot more happiness than royalty! Though I must admit it would be glorious to be a Disney princess, as their stories always have a romantic happily ever after. I would want to be Rapunzel, if I had the choice. Her story is epic and Flynn is amazing :). But I digress. My point in all of these ramblings is that The Three Musketeers is actually interesting now!