CATHERINE
:
HER
GREAT JOURNEY
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Book 5
The
accursed
black
Diamond
|
Four years have gone by since Arnaud de Montsalvy, now a
leper, had to go to the Valley of the Lepers. Catherine
grieves and has sworn to wear only black - her only joy is
her little son Michel, who has never seen his father. He is
blond like his uncle Michel, and the pride of his mother and
grandmother Comtesse Isabelle, Sara and all those who live
in the fortress and are part of the household.... |
|
Fortunat, Arnaud's faithful servant, is bringing food to his
master every week. Sometimes Catherine follows him with
Barnaby and watches him from a distance so that he cannot
see her... |
Fortress
Villandrado
|
While Brother Etienne is on his way to Carlat to Catherine
de Montsalvy, carrying a message from 'Queen Yolande', the
mother-in-law of 'Charles VII', he is captured by the
mercenary 'Rodrigo de Villandrado' who has a fortress not
far away. He reads the message, which reveals nothing.
Brother Etienne is far too clever a spy. Villandrado wants
to know if the countess is really as beautiful as they say -
now a widow and all alone at Carlat...! |
|
Brother Etienne arrives with his mule at the Fortress of
Carlat and tells of his adventure with the mercenary
Villandrado and of the reason why he comes to see Dame
Catherine. The queen wishes her to see her in Angers.
They have enough of 'Georges de la Trémoille', the favourite
of 'King Charles VII', and a conspiracy is being prepared.
Catherine does not want to leave Carlat for Arnaud's sake.
But Dame Isabelle says:
«
when the Queen calls, one must obey. Everything must be done
so that the Montsalvy's regain their good name and their
property for the benefit of little Michel, your son.
You were destined for us, Catherine. Go my daughter, you
think like a true Montsalvy
»
! |
|
Indeed, Rodrigo de Villandrado arrived at Catherine's
house with his soldiers and began by flattering her, saying
that he was there to ask her to marry him. It had been
decided by Charles VII, respectively by 'La Trémoille'. When
Catherine hears this, she almost explodes and tells him what
she thought of this plan, after which Villadrado threatens
to return... Messire Hugh Kennedy shows him the door... She
decides to go to Angers with Sara, to support the
conspirators acting on behalf of Arnaud de Montsalvy....!
|
|
They decide to escape through a secret passage. The elder
countess with her grandson to Montsalvy, where they will
find refuge in the monastery of Montsalvy with the new young
abbot 'Bernard de Calmont d'Olt'. Sara, Brother Etienne,
Barnaby and Catherine set off for Angers, taking with
them, among other things, the Black diamond. They
manage to escape without being noticed.... |
At the
inn of Aubusson
|
When they stop at an inn, an old acquaintance of
Catherine's, the merchant 'Jacques Coeur', is also staying
there. Catherine tells him everything that has happened
since her marriage in Bourges. Among other things,
Catherine takes out the black diamond and shows it to
Jacques. She gives it to Coeur because she is convinced that
the diamond is cursed and has only brought her bad fortune.
But Jacques doesn't want it for free and says that thanks to
the diamond he can invest again and he would pay her back a
hundredfold so that she can rebuild Montsalvy and her
son can live up to his old name. But what they don't know is
that the greedy inn keeper has heard everything behind
closed doors and will go to see 'La Trémoille'...... |
|
Queen Yolande receives Catherine very warmly as if she had
never been away. She was always informed of everything by
Brother Etienne. At the reception there is also a stranger
whom the Queen introduces as Tristan l'Hermite, squire of
Constable Arthur de Richemont. Catherine makes it clear that
she is there to support the conspirators. Queen Yolande
smiles and says that she expected no less from Catherine de
Montsalvy ! |
|
Sara and Catherine take possession of the chamber they have
been assigned as guests of the Queen. Catherine is delighted
to take a bath - but suddenly the door opens and a handsome
young knight enters. She stands up, shocked, and asks him
what on earth he is doing here? But the young man is so
stunned to see this beautiful young woman completely naked
that he cannot utter a word. She tells him to leave
immediately. After he leaves, Catherine and Sara burst out
laughing...! |
The
Knights
of the
Queen
|
Catherine had already forgotten the incident but the next
morning when the Queen summoned her, the first person she
saw in the huge court chamber was Pierre de Brézé.
The Queen had gathered her most loyal knights to discuss
what to do against La Trémoille. It was the Constable
Arthur de Richemont himself who took Catherine by the
hand to appear before the Queen. He had seen the very young
Montsalvy fight at Azincourt, and he was very sorry for
Catherine what had happened...! Catherine made it
again clear that she wanted to join and participate as if
she were Arnaud herself, even though the other Knights
objected, especially Pierre de Brézé... |
|
But
she would not be discouraged and said she had a plan to trap
'La Trémoille'. She would disguise herself as a gypsy and go
to the gypsy camp in Amboise. Sara, her faithful wet
nurse, was from the same tribe and would know how to get her
accepted with them... the Fleming Tristan l'Hermite, was
very attracted by the idea - and one could do a lot
with money...! After several discussions, they all swore on
the golden cross of the Bishop present to do everything to
overthrow the monster under which the whole country was
suffering. |
|
After leaving the great Hall, Catherine meets de Brézé
who is completely upset and wants to prevent her from
carrying out her plan! The young knight has fallen madly in
love with Catherine and did not know that 'Arnaud de
Montsalvy' was still alive and that she was not really a
widow...! Catherine did not want to hear about his feelings
of love, but she allowed him to protect her. He swore to
kill himself if he did not succeed... |
Amboise,
the camp
of Fero,
the
Gypsy
Lord
|
Catherine's idea was to go to the Gypsy camp and somehow get
into the Château of Amboise, in order to get La
Trémoille to go to the Château of Chinon, his weakness
for Gypsy girls was well known. When Catherine and Tristan
tell Sara about the plan, she is horrified and thinks it is
a crazy idea that will never work.
Tristan l'Hermite takes Catherine to Master Guillaume
who gives her a bath to darken her skin and dyes her hair
black. He gave her also a small box with the appropriate
utensils, should the colour wear off... |
|
Accompanied by L'Hermite, they travelled to Amboise and went
straight to the camp of Fero, the lord of the
gypsies. Sara went ahead and when she started to sing, they
realised that she was from the same tribe. She introduced
Catherine as 'Tchalaï'. Fero invited her to sit down and
went into the camp wagon with Tristan to settle the
financial matters... he explained to Fero that Catherine was
a noble lady and that she wanted to enter the castle without
being recognised. Fero agreed...
However...soon after Fero fell in love with Catherine and
she tries to keep him at distance.. yet Fero's sister gave
Catherine a love potion! The next day Catherine wanted to
kill herself, even though she had been drugged - but not
enough, now Fero wanted to marry her and Catherine could do
nothing against it... but Dunicha, Fero's fiancée didn't
like that at all and she challenged her to a fight to the
death.... |
|
...suddenly soldiers from the castle arrive and brutally
separate the two young women. Catherine recognises one of
the men, it is 'Gilles de Rais'...! They have come to get
new girls to dance in front of La Trémoille. Fero
does not allow it and says that Tchalaï is his wife
and that they should choose another girl. He knew full well
that the girls they take usually never come back! But he is
overcome and Catherine's plan to enter the castle succeeds.
But at what price...! Gilles de Rais knew precisely
that she was at the camp.
By chance, his cousin Georges de la Trémoille enters
the chamber and wants to take the beautiful gypsy with him.
But Gilles de Rais says: this night belongs to him, he can
have her later. Catherine is brutally raped and abused by
de Rais the whole night. La Trémoille has a fit the next
day and takes the injured Catherine to his chambers... |
|
Catherine/Thalaï is nursed back to health and she can so far
hold off La Trémoille. But Fero, has come to the
castle to try to free Tchalaï, but is captured. When
Catherine recovers, she meets his wife Catherine la
Trémoille, who hard-pressed her to get for her a
love potion - promising her a lot of gold. When Catherine
returns from the camp with the love potion, she finds the
Countess in the dungeon where she has just watched with glee
Fero being tortured to death! When Catherine sees this, she
throws the vial on the floor - and is taken to a cell by a
furious countess. |
|
La
Trémoille comes to visit Catherine in the dungeon to tell
her how stupid she had been and she belonged now to his
wife... while getting up to leave her, Catherine halts him
by telling that she knew where a treasure was hidden at the
Château of Chinon. The greedy La Trémoille wants to
know everything and then leaves Catherine to her fate...
After that La Trémoille immediately sets out to persuade
Charles VII and the whole court to go to the castle of
Chinon...! His wife returns orders that Catherine
should now be tortured.
Yet the two executioners are none other than Tristan
L'Hermite and Pierre de Brézé. They overpower the
Countess and flee the castle without being recognized, with
horses that are already waiting for them... on their way to
Chinon...! |
Chinon
|
Three days have passed since Catherine was rescued from
death by Tristan L'Hermite and Pierre de Brézé.
She and Sara wait in the inn to for news. One evening,
someone throws a rose into her room and she recognises in
the street the young Chevalier Pierre de Brézé. A
tender smile appears on her face - but Sara warns her
against her feelings for the young Knight, saying she will
regret it one day... Catherine tells her that she is tired
of fighting and wants to be happy for once... but Sara
conjures up the image of the proud and arrogant Arnaud de
Montsalvy, who stood before her one night and cried like
a child for his lost love... Catherine tells her that
she is cruel, but Sara admits that a part of heart belongs
to that proud Arnaud... |
|
At
midnight Catherine is brought to the conspirators. The
conspiracy succeeds and La Trémoille is badly wounded
and his power is ended. While there, Catherine retracts her
property, the Black diamond, which she found in
the Comtesse's chamber...!
Catherine is led to the king by the hand of Queen Yolande
- and a knight bursts in holding a scroll of parchment. It
is Pierre de Brézé who has ridden day and night to
Montsalvy and retrieved the scroll from the ruins. It is
officially burnt, the ban against the Montsalvy's is lifted,
they get their domains back and will receive a sum of gold
to rebuild their castle.
Pierre asks Catherine to be his wife - but when Arnaud's
friend Bernard d'Armagnac sees them kissing, he
steps in and challenges him to a duel. He doesn't hurt him
that much and Catherine tells him later that Arnaud is not
dead.
When she enters the wounded young man's chamber, she learns
that de Brézé has told the old countess that he and
Catherine are to be married. On hearing this, she wakes up
as if in a dream and tells him that Arnaud de Montsalvy
is alive and that she will never be his wife... As she bids
farewell to the Queen, she gives Catherine a magnificent
ring as a souvenir thanks her for the support that they were
able to dispose of La Trémoille.. She hopes that if she is
ever in need, this ring with her coat of arms will open
doors for her... |
The
people
at
Montsalvy
|
Catherine finally reaches Montsalvy with Sara. In her
service is now also young Gauthier de Chazay, who
will serve from now on as her squire. The young man
was supposed to become a priest, but he prefers to learn the
profession of a warrior.
She immediately goes to the convent where Dame Isabelle and
her little boy have taken refuge after escaping from Carlat.
But the young and new abbot Bernard de Calmont d'Olt
receives her very frostily... He is surprised that
«
her lover, Pierre de Brézé»,
her future husband is not with her... ! Catherine is
outraged - but she learns that the young Chevalier was at
the convent during his short stay to get the parchment and
that he told everyone that he and Catherine are to be
married. This had struck the old countess enormously, also
due to the fact that she had been ill for some time.
|
|
Accompanied by Sara, she goes to the small cell where Dame
Isabelle is dying. She wakes up and recognises Catherine and
is relieved to see her. Catherine tells her mother-in-law
that it was a misunderstanding on the part of Pierre de
Brézé, that she loves only one man, her son Arnaud...
Dame Isabelle tells her that she has seen Arnaud and that he
was still as handsome as ever.... but that he is suffering
immensely... |
|
Catherine learns from Abbot Bernard that Fortunat,
who is devoted to his master and regularly walked on foot to
bring a basket of food, had gone to tell him about the visit
of 'Pierre de Brézé'...! Catherine is terrified and
immediately wants to see Fortunat, who comes and insults
her...
During the night, she watches over Dame Isabelle, as
she dozes off, she does not notice at first that someone has
entered the room. She wakes up as if in a trance and thinks
she has seen Arnaud - she runs into the dark night and
desperately calls his name - but finds nobody... |
Adieu
Catherine
my
Sweet...
|
Catherine rides with her squire Gauthier de Chazay to
the valley of the lepers, but the monk who looks after the
sick tells her that Arnaud de Montsalvy has left the
valley...! Catherine knows now that she did not dream and
why her horse Morgane and also Rustaud have
disappeared...
A letter is given to the 'Lady of Montsalvy'. It is from
Arnaud, who explains to her in full terms that she is free
to marry Pierre de Brézé. She deserves to be happy -
he will go to Galicia and offer his sword to Saint
Peter to fight the infidels and perhaps, God willing,
his illness might disappear too - she breaks down in tears
and tells Sara that she was right not to listen to Pierre
de Brézé..... Regret over a moment of weakness came
sooner than expected... |
|
After the death of Isabelle de Montsalvy, Catherine
tells Abbot Bernard that she will make a pilgrimage
to Compostela to find Arnaud and bring him back home.
The abbot is initially against it, but he agrees and will
see to it that the construction of the new castle is not
neglected. After all, he is co-Seigneur of Montsalvy and
will look after the little lord Michel, and his subjects.
Catherine gives him the black diamond to take to
Puy-en-Velay to offer it to the Black Madonna so that
the evil of the stone might be be purified. The abbot
blesses Catherine and Gauthier de Chazay, who will accompany
her on this painful journey into the unknown. She says
goodbye to her little Michel and to Sara who wanted to come
with her, but Catherine wants her dear friend to stay with
Michel... |
~~~~~~~~~~
QUEEN
YOLANDE
OF
ARAGON
Queen of four
Kingdoms
(Geneviève
Casile,
sociétaire
honoraire
de la
Comédie-Française)
BROTHER
ÉTIENNE
the spy
in the
service
of Queen
Yolande
of
Aragon
FERO THE
GYPSY
LORD
whom
Catherine
had to
marry
under
disguise
TOP
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