Chapter summary
On the night of 3 September, a guard arrives at a gallop in Verrières with the news that the king of ***, whose name the book omits, will visit the town the following Sunday, and the governor requisitions the formation of an honor guard. The mayor, Monsieur de Rênal, sets about getting command of the guard for the devout and timid Moirod, who has never mounted a horse and accepts the honor like a martyr, because it would qualify him for the post of deputy mayor. Madame de Rênal, for her part, uses all the influence she has to have Julien Sorel named to the honor guard in place of the sons of rich manufacturers, because she desires, without ever having dared to confess it, to see him for one day cast off his black clothes, and she has his uniform made in Besançon to surprise him. On Sunday, Julien parades on horseback, on one of Valenod's Norman horses, under the indignation of the town, which will not tolerate the carpenter's son in that post, and for a moment he feels himself Napoleon's orderly.
After the parade, Julien swaps the uniform for the cassock and goes to Bray-le-Haut, where the king goes to venerate the relic of Saint Clement, accompanying the old curé, Abbé Chélan, who was invited only after three days of negotiations between the mayor and the new curé, Maslon, who rejected him as a Jansenist. While the clergy waits for the bishop of Agde, the young nephew of the Marquis de La Mole charged with showing the relic to the king, Julien, barred by the footmen, roams the abbey. He finds the bishop alone in a Gothic hall, rehearsing blessings before a mirror, and goes to fetch the mitre he was expecting. Dazzled by the young man's courtesy, he begins to think about how much the bishopric of Agde yields. The ceremony brings together the Te Deum, incense, and cannon salvos, and in the chapel of the relic the bishop makes the twenty-four girls of Verrières swear hatred of the impious. The marquis, who accompanies the king, has ten thousand bottles of wine distributed among the peasants.
Analysis
Madame de Rênal brings all her influence to bear because she has a desire she has never confessed, for fear of shocking him: to see Julien cast off, even for a day, his black clothes. She hides the order for the uniform in Besançon to surprise him. Julien, in the parade, is the happiest of men, and when the cannon shot makes the horse leap from the ranks, he feels himself Napoleon's orderly, while the town, which knows nothing of this, reads only the scandal.
The announcement of the king's visit mobilizes Verrières in one blow: On 3 September, at ten o'clock at night, a guard woke the town of Verrières by galloping up the main street; he brought the news that His Majesty, the king of ***, would arrive the following Sunday, and it was already Tuesday. The governor authorized, that is, requisitioned the formation of an honor guard; it was necessary to display all possible pomp.
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