Chapter summary
Caught inside the church itself, Julien Sorel is taken to prison and sleeps. Madame de Rênal, whose first bullet passed through her hat and whose second broke her shoulder, survives, and sends her maid Élisa to bribe the jailer so that he treats Julien humanely. To the judge, Julien declares the premeditation and says he deserves death. Later he writes Mathilde de La Mole a farewell letter forbidding her to reply and telling her to marry Croisenois one year after his death. Only when the jailer Noiroud tells him that Madame de Rênal has not died does Julien fall to his knees, weeping, and begin to repent. Transferred to Besançon at night, he is lodged at the top of a Gothic tower, where, without ambition, he thinks of Madame de Rênal and sets aside suicide for now, because Napoleon lived.
Analysis
Julien declares the premeditation and cites the article of the code because he already considers himself dead and wants to speed up the process. The farewell letter to Mathilde, which orders her to marry Croisenois, follows the same logic as someone closing accounts. What changes everything is the jailer: on learning that Madame de Rênal is alive, Julien falls to his knees weeping. What weighs on him is her, not the law.
Julien treats his own trial as a formality he hurries to end. He confesses the premeditation, cites the article of the code, and leaves the judge so astonished that the judge tries to multiply the questions to trap him in a contradiction.
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