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I think he kept changing as he went along. For example, the Cardinal starts off being painted as a villain, but in the end he is painted for the most part as a good guy after all, and rather relieved to have had Milady dealt with - as if he couldn't have dealt with her himself if he wanted to. Mind you, there was the reference to Constance's husband being "disappeared" when he made a bit of a nuisance of himself. I suppose nobody cared about him, so that didn't matter.
I assumed that Constance was done in by Milady because (despite other liaisons) D'Artagnan claimed she was his one true love, she was a married woman, and so that would have been too sinful to contemplate as a permanent relationship. Though why that would matter given that everyone else seemed to have one or more mistresses apart from Athos ...
I don't think a high moral tone was Dumas' aim somehow!
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