Constance Bonacieux
The mercer's wife and the queen's seamstress, who sends d'Artagnan to London and pays for it with her life.
To protect the queen, and then to be safe long enough to love d'Artagnan.
The book
The Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas
At a glance
- Twenty-five or twenty-six
- Monsieur Bonacieux, a mercer of the Rue des Fossoyeurs, d'Artagnan's landlord
- Seamstress to Queen Anne of Austria; goddaughter of Laporte, the queen's valet
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeConstance is twenty-five or twenty-six, dark-haired and blue-eyed, married to the elderly mercer who is d'Artagnan's landlord. She is the queen's seamstress and the goddaughter of Laporte, the queen's confidential valet, which puts her at the centre of the diamond affair. She is abducted in the first chapters, escapes, and is the first person to trust d'Artagnan with the secret of the studs.
She loves the queen before she loves d'Artagnan, and the book keeps her in the queen's service and the queen's danger. She is carried off from a pavilion at St. Cloud, hidden in a convent at Béthune, and found there by the wrong visitor first.
How Constance Bonacieux Is Portrayed
- The portrait, Chapter XA charming woman of twenty-five or twenty-six with dark hair, blue eyes, a nose slightly turned up, admirable teeth and a rose-and-opal complexion. Her white hands lack delicacy and her feet are not a lady's, which d'Artagnan is too green to notice.
- The queen's seamstress, Chapters VIII and XIIIHer husband Bonacieux describes her as seamstress to the queen and goddaughter of Laporte, the queen's valet. Laporte arranged the marriage. It is that connection that gets her abducted by the cardinal's men.
- Through the Louvre, Chapter XIIShe leads the Duke of Buckingham through the dark corridors of the Louvre to the queen's apartments and back out again, knowing every turn.
- The commission, Chapter XVIIIShe sends d'Artagnan to London with the queen's letter and watches him turn the corner of the street, then falls on her knees and asks God to protect the queen and herself.
- The pavilion at St. Cloud, Chapters XXIII and XXIVHer note fixes a meeting at ten in the evening at St. Cloud, opposite the pavilion of Monsieur d'Estrées. When d'Artagnan arrives the pavilion is wrecked and she has been carried off.
- The convent at Béthune, Chapters LXI and LXIIIThe queen hides her with the Carmelites at Béthune. Milady arrives first, calls Rochefort her brother, and pours her a small glass. Constance drinks and dies in d'Artagnan's arms with a kiss.
Milady poisons her in the parlour of the Carmelite convent at Béthune minutes before the four friends arrive. She dies in Chapter LXIII, and her death is the first charge d'Artagnan brings at Milady's trial.
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