Here is the story which I always liked from the book of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. I sculpted the lady doll in polymer, then finished her in porcelain. Athos is from John Parker's mold. He is dressed and painted by me. The dolls are 5 3/4 inches tall. France, 1625 or a few years earlier. Athos was a young noble count. At twenty-five years of age he "fell in love with a girl of sixteen, beautiful as fancy can paint. Through the ingenuousness of her age beamed an ardent mind, not of the woman, but of the poet. She did not please; she intoxicated. She lived in a small town with her brother, who was a curate. Both had recently come intothe country. They came nobody knew whence; but when seeing her so lovely and her brother so pious, nobody thought of asking whence they came. They were said, however, to be of good extraction. My friend, who was seigneur of the country, might have seduced her, or taken her by force, at his will - for his was master. Who would have come to the assistance of two strangers, two unknown persons? Unfortunately he was an honorable man; he married her."..."He took her to his chateau, and made her the first lady in the province; and in justice it must be allowed that she supported her rank becomingly. "Well, one day when she was hunting with her husband", continued Athos, in a low voice, and speaking very quickly, "she fell from her horse and fainted. The count flew to her help, and as she appeared to be oppresed by her clothes, he ripped them open with his poniard, and in so doing laid bare her shoulder. D'Artagnan," said Athos, with a manical burst of laughter, "guess what she had on her shoulder." "How canI tell?" said D'Artagnan. "A fleur-de-lis," said Athos. "She was branded!" "Horror!" cried D'Artagnan. "What do you tell me?" "Truth, my friend. The angel was a demon; the poor young girl had stolen the sacred vessels from a church." "And what did the count do?" "The count was of the highest nobility. He had on his estates the rights of high and low tribunals. He tore the dress of the countess to pieces; he tied her hands behind her, and hanged her on a tree." Lady Winter was rescued later by the paople of the Cardinal. Milady (Lady Winter) revenged till the day she died.