Saint-Florent’s attack on Therese in the Forest of Bondy is a reversal in which apparent rescue becomes a new betrayal: after she has helped restore his life and fortune, he takes advantage of her trust, abandons her, and steals her money. Recounted later as part of Therese’s testimony to Madame de Lorsange and Monsieur de Corville, the episode also links her physical and material vulnerability to her renewed appeal to God.

The Promise of Safety

After Therese refuses Saint-Florent’s offer of marriage, she asks instead to travel with him to Lyon and be placed in a respectable household. He assures her that he can help, claiming to have relatives in the city and proposing that she stay with one of them near Bondy. Therese, grateful for his apparent generosity and unaware of his intentions, accepts the plan.

They rest at Luzarches before setting out on foot. Saint-Florent says the weather is fine and presents the walk as an enjoyable way to reach his relative’s estate. His conduct has seemed consistently proper, and Therese believes herself as safe with him as she would be with her father. The journey thus begins under the sign of trust; the forest destination, which she expects to be a route to shelter, becomes the setting of her assault.

Attack and Robbery

They enter the Forest of Bondy in the late afternoon and follow narrow paths as darkness approaches. Therese walks ahead, then turns to ask whether they are on the right trail and whether they will arrive soon. Saint-Florent answers by striking her with his cane and knocking her unconscious. When she regains awareness, she understands that he has assaulted her, taken her purse, and left her alone in the forest.

The theft sharpens the betrayal: the money he takes is the same money Therese had generously offered him when he was in need. Her clothes are torn, and she is injured and without resources or hope of immediate help. In her account, she recalls wishing she could end her life, a measure of how completely the episode has overturned the security she thought Saint-Florent had promised.

Prayer and the Frame Narrative

Therese interprets the attack through the contrast between her effort to help Saint-Florent and his violence toward her. She asks what she had done to deserve such treatment and condemns the rule of human passion that permits a beneficiary to turn against the person who saved him. Her accusation makes the episode more than a personal misfortune: it is one instance in her larger testimony about innocence exposed to exploitation.

After the first shock and exhaustion, Therese looks toward the night sky and prays. She credits God with preventing her from taking her own life, asks for mercy, and insists on her innocence even as she tries to accept that her good intentions have brought punishment rather than protection. The prayer does not undo the attack; it marks the means by which she endures its immediate aftermath.

Therese recounts the episode years later while bound and under guard, accused of murder, theft, and arson and being transferred from Lyon toward Paris. At Montargis, Monsieur de Corville takes responsibility for her, and Madame de Lorsange urges her to tell the story of her troubles. Their reception of her account—especially their compassion—makes the forest episode part of a larger contest between her testimony and the criminal identity imposed on her. In the course of that testimony, the sisters recognize one another, and Monsieur de Corville acts to protect Therese and seek the clarification of her case.