The names of all three of the musketeers (Athos, Porthos and Aramis) were based on those of real musketeers but their adventures were pure fiction. The real d'Artagnan, however, Charles de Batz-Castelmore, Comte d'Artagnan, was indeed a celebrated soldier. He was a Gascon and did rise to be leader of the real Musketeers, eventually being killed at the siege of Maastricht. Later, his life story was published in a heavily fictionalised way and it was this version which formed the basis for Dumas' stories.