r/AlexandreDumas

At first I was like meh, sequels are not always that good...*reads first couple of chapters* SOLD.

Alexandre Dumas and your ghost writers, you rock.

CAUTION SPOILERS

In "The Three Musketeers," it is an important plot point that Athos finds the executioner of Lille (le bourreau de Lille), who knows of the origins of Milady, and whom he persuades to accompany him and the other Musketeers on the voyage to Armentiers, where Milady is found and, after a makeshift trial, executed by the very same executioner.

In the sequel, "Twenty Years After", Mordaunt, the son of Milady, takes revenge on the executioner and stabs him to death...but the executioner is said to be the executioner of Béthune (a town some 40 km away from Lille).

Now, as I understand it, both The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After were written more or less contemporaneously (TTM was published in 1845 and TYA in 1846).

How could Dumas (or his collaborator Maquet) make such a mistake?