“Tumbril bait”
Across the River and into the Trees“Tumbril bait” is Richard Cantwell’s phrase for Renata’s readiness to join him even in an imagined march toward death. Its meaning shifts from comic bravado to painful recognition: she will not leave him to face danger alone, but that devotion makes both of them vulnerable to loss.
The Phrase in Their Banter
The expression first takes shape in a conversation about buying a small object. Richard jokes that he would climb into a tumbril with Renata and still be able to spit; she has just teased him that he would not have made a very good Louis XVI. The exchange makes the execution cart an image of defiance as well as doom. Renata then proposes forgetting the tumbrils and everyone’s sorrows, buying the object, and going for a walk. The grim image briefly becomes something they can laugh around and put aside.
Renata’s Willingness to Share His Fate
Later, Richard addresses Renata directly: “You were tumbril bait from the start.” The phrase casts her not as a literal victim but as someone exposed to the danger of being drawn into his fate. Her earlier declaration that she would get up to the tumbril with him and still be able to spit supplies the emotional meaning: she imagines standing beside him even at the point of death, retaining her defiance. Richard’s wording is harsh, but it recognizes the force of that loyalty.
The Phrase Recalled at Goodbye
In a later inward reflection, Richard returns to the image while trying not to think of Renata. He remembers their goodbye as complete with tumbrils and imagines that she would have climbed into the cart with him, so long as it were a real one. He calls loving and leaving a rough trade in which people can get hurt. The phrase thus links their earlier joking to the cost of separation: what once served as theatrical gallows humor now expresses how seriously Renata’s willingness to share his fate weighs on him.
