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The Red and the Black · Book II · Chapter 15

Will it be a conspiracy?

LovePride

Chapter summary

Julien Sorel reads the note as a possible trap and wavers through the afternoon: refusing would be cowardice in the eyes of Mathilde de La Mole and of his own people. He copies the last two letters, hides the copies in a volume of Voltaire, takes the originals to the post and writes to Fouqué with instructions to publish an account if anything happens to him. At dinner, afraid, he studies the faces of the servants and Mathilde's pallor; he examines the weight of the ladder and spends a horrible night.

Analysis

Julien reads the note as a trap and takes precautions: he copies the letters, hides the copies, and gives instructions to Fouqué. But he cannot refuse. To fear Mathilde's room and not go would be, in his own eyes, cowardice, and he prefers a clear risk to an eternal doubt. The same honor he despises in the salon decides for him.

Ch. XV. Julien recalls Corneille's Cid, in the voice of old Don Diego: But honor is only one!

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