Piedmont enters the narrative as the promised destination of Dubois’s proposed escape from Grenoble after robbing the young tradesman Dubreuil. The plan makes the region a marker of both prospective payment and renewed flight, while Therese’s response turns the proposed journey into a test of loyalty and conscience.

The Proposed Route

Dubois describes a scheme in which Therese would accompany Dubreuil on an outing while Dubois stole the money he kept near his bed. She says the stolen property would be sent to Turin before she left Grenoble, and promises that Therese would receive a thousand louis on reaching Piedmont. The destination is thus part of a practical plan: Dubois intends to separate the theft from their departure, obscure their connection to it, and leave Grenoble with Therese once the arrangement is complete.

Therese’s Dilemma

Therese agrees outwardly, but resolves to warn Dubreuil rather than assist in robbing him. She accepts Dubois’s written offer of twenty thousand crowns and pretends that poverty has made her yield to the proposal, using the appearance of complicity to gain time. Her hesitation is not indifference to the intended victim: she also finds it painful to expose Dubois, because she owes her freedom to Dubois’s assistance ten years earlier. She hopes to prevent the crime without bringing punishment upon the woman who proposes it.

Narrative Significance

Piedmont remains a projected destination in this episode, not a recorded arrival. Its importance lies in the choice attached to it: Dubois presents flight and payment as the reward for cooperation, while Therese tries to use the arrangement to avert the theft. The episode makes a journey across a border serve as a measure of competing obligations—to an intended victim, to a former rescuer, and to Therese’s own refusal to commit the crime.