Chapter summary
The absence had made the previous day's nonsense be forgotten, but that night Julien Sorel, without waiting for dark, whispers in Madame de Rênal's ear that he will come to her room at two o'clock, and she answers with genuine indignation. He spends a miserable night and, when the two strokes of the clock wake him, as the cock's crow in the Gospel reminded Saint Peter that he had denied Christ, he goes barefoot down the corridor, trembling, and opens the door of the room, where a lamp was burning. She leaps out of bed and calls him a wretch. Julien, forgetting his plans, falls at her feet and dissolves in tears, and Madame de Rênal, who believes herself condemned, pushes him away and at once throws herself into his arms. Back in his room, Julien goes over his own conduct as a soldier does when he returns from parade.
Analysis
Julien goes to her room at two because he told her, in her ear, that he would, and backing out would be the defeat he most wants to avoid. He spends the night unhappy and walks trembling, like someone carrying out an order he gave himself. What disarms Madame de Rênal is the opposite of the plan: he forgets everything and weeps, and she, who believed herself condemned, moves from rejection to embrace.
Victory does not bring him what he expected:
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