An old sword

Chapter summary

After the night when Julien Sorel climbed to her room, Mathilde de La Mole does not appear at dinner and, in the following days, pretends not to see him. Julien looks for the reason and rules out religious scruple, because she does not believe in religion and values it only for its usefulness to the interests of her caste; at other times he suspects she reproaches herself for having yielded to someone of humble origin. Mathilde, for her part, feels she has surrendered to a gentleman and fears he will take revenge by revealing the affair, and so she insults him. On the third day Julien follows her to the card room; the two quarrel and declare themselves estranged forever. Only then does he discover that he loves her, resolves to leave for Languedoc and reserves a seat on the mail coach to Toulouse.

While waiting for the marquis in the library to announce his departure, Julien meets Mathilde and asks her tenderly whether she no longer loves him, and she replies that she is horrified at having surrendered to the first man who came along. Julien throws himself at an old medieval sword that adorns the library, and the effect on Mathilde is the opposite of what one would expect: when he, recalling the Marquis de La Mole, his benefactor, draws back and hangs the weapon up again with a slow gesture, she, who imagines she was nearly killed by her lover, looks at him without hatred and flees, afraid of relapsing. The marquis, informed of the departure, refuses to let him go: he says Julien is destined for higher fates, declares him detained in the mansion and orders that he never be absent for more than two or three hours. Julien locks himself in his room, with no one to turn to.