Chapter summary
On tidying the room where the Marquis de La Mole slept, Julien Sorel finds the servile petition of a certain Cholin, who asks for the lottery agency of Verrières, and eight days after the king's passage, what still occupies the town is the indignation over his having been an honor guard. When the youngest, Stanislas, falls ill, Madame de Rênal is seized with remorse, reads the fever as God's punishment for adultery, and asks Julien to leave. One night she almost confesses everything to her husband, who takes her for a romantic. Julien leaves and is called back two days later, and the crisis changes their love, which becomes more intense and somber. The maid Élisa, whom Julien refused as a husband, tells everything to Valenod, and Monsieur de Rênal receives a long anonymous letter.
Analysis
Madame de Rênal sends Julien away because she reads her son's fever as divine punishment for adultery: in her faith, God collects with the child's life the love she has lived. Out of the same fear she almost confesses everything to her husband, and only does not because he takes her for a romantic. The crisis does not end the love between them; it makes it more intense and somber.
Cholin, a subject of Verrières, writes to the Marquis de La Mole to ask for a post on the strength of loyalty shown, not merit: I beg the lord marquis for the lottery agency of Verrières, which will certainly soon be vacant one way or another, since its holder is very ill and, moreover, votes badly in elections, etc.
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