Devil's Dance: Book 7 in The Musketeers Cycle

Devil’s Dance is Book Seven in the Musketeers Cycle by Alexandre Dumas, and the third part of the ambitious mega-novel Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, a prelude leading to the epic climax of The Man in the Iron Mask. Leading characters in these novels are the famous four musketeers, d’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. The previous volume in this series, Court of Daggers, focused on Raoul de Bragelonne, Athos’ son, as the story widened to include the now-adult King Louis and the key members of his newly established royal court. In Devil’s Dance, the story belongs to its young heroine, Louise de La Vallière, taking her from demure provincial demoiselle to maid of honor to the royal Princess Henrietta, to the object of affection of Louis XIV himself. This places the king and Raoul in direct conflict as rivals for the heart of Louise, who must somehow preserve her integrity as she struggles to find her own truth in a headlong dance of intrigue, betrayal, and love.