Giletta Disguises Herself as a Florentine Woman and Sleeps with Bertram

Gillette de Narbonne’s secret substitution for the woman Bertrand de Roussillon believes he loves transforms his desire for another person into the means of restoring their marriage. By securing his ring and bearing his twin sons, she gathers the proof that will eventually make him acknowledge her as his wife. The encounter is not an isolated seduction: it is the carefully negotiated center of a longer effort to regain a husband who had rejected her and left her behind.

The marriage refused

After Gillette cured the French king, she claimed Bertrand as the husband she had loved since childhood. The king, bound by his promise, ordered Bertrand to marry her. Bertrand objected to the match, treating Gillette as beneath his rank and refusing his consent. Though the king insisted that he must honor his pledge, Bertrand left for his county, and Gillette was left to find a way to bring him back to her.

She followed him to Florence in a pilgrim’s habit and lodged quietly at an inn. The next day she saw Bertrand riding past. Although she recognized him, she asked the innkeeper who he was; the woman described him as a courteous stranger, passionately enamoured of a poor unmarried neighbor. Gillette listened closely to this account and learned where the young woman lived. The scene gives her the information on which the substitution depends: Bertrand’s desire is real, but the woman he thinks he seeks is not the person with whom Gillette can make the marriage hold.

An agreement with the young woman’s mother

Gillette visited the young woman’s mother privately, still dressed as a pilgrim, and first secured her confidence by recounting her identity and the hardships that had brought her there. She explained that the two things she needed in order to recover her husband could be obtained only through the mother’s help. The mother initially did not know whether Bertrand’s affection was sincere, but Gillette had a specific means of testing it: the ring he wore and prized.

The proposed arrangement required the mother to tell Bertrand that her daughter would grant his wishes if he sent the ring as proof of his love. Once the ring arrived, the mother was to say that the daughter was ready to receive him, bring him secretly to the house, and put Gillette in the daughter’s place in bed. Gillette hoped that she might conceive by her husband; with the ring and a child of his, she would have the proof needed to reclaim her place as his wife. The mother hesitated because the plan might bring blame upon her daughter. She nevertheless judged that helping a wronged wife recover her husband was an honorable purpose, and agreed to act with discretion.

The substitution and its consequences

The mother obtained Bertrand’s ring, though he was reluctant to part with it, and arranged the secret meeting as Gillette had instructed. Bertrand believed that he was meeting the young woman he loved; in fact, Gillette had been put to bed in her place. The deception therefore depended not only on the mother’s cooperation but also on Bertrand’s mistaken understanding of whom he was embracing. By God’s favor, Gillette conceived twin sons during these encounters. The mother repeated the arrangement several times, while Bertrand continued to believe that his visits were to the young woman.

Bertrand gave the woman he thought he loved precious jewels on different occasions. Gillette carefully kept them. Once she knew she was pregnant, she chose not to burden the mother with arranging further encounters. The mother had asked for a hundred pounds to provide her daughter with a marriage portion, and Gillette gave her five hundred pounds, together with rare and precious jewels worth perhaps as much again. The payment exceeded the request; it provided the daughter with a dowry while also recognizing the mother’s part in the scheme. The mother then moved away with her daughter, removing Bertrand’s further reason to visit their house. Hearing that Gillette had left the country, Bertrand returned to his own county.

Public recognition at Roussillon

Gillette remained in Florence until she gave birth to two boys who closely resembled their father. She then traveled, still unknown and in the pilgrim’s clothing she habitually wore, to Montpellier, where she learned that Bertrand would hold a great gathering of knights and ladies at Roussillon on All Saints’ Day. She arrived at the feast with the children in her arms and made her way through the assembled company to Bertrand.

There, before his guests, she identified herself as his unhappy wife, presented the two sons and showed him his ring. She asked him to fulfill the promise made under the condition she had arranged: the ring and the children made her claim visible in a way that a private account alone could not. Bertrand recognized the ring and saw how closely the boys resembled him, but still asked how the events could have occurred. Gillette recounted them in order, explaining the substitution and the secret meetings. Faced with her account, her constancy, the ring, and their two children, Bertrand abandoned his resistance. He embraced her, acknowledged her as his lawful wife, and recognized the boys as his children.

Secrecy made public

The episode moves from concealed identity to public acknowledgment. At first, Bertrand’s belief that he is with the poor woman he desires allows Gillette to secure the ring and conceive his children without his knowledge. At the feast, the same elements that made the secret possible—the ring, the children, and the account of their origin—become evidence that can no longer be privately managed or dismissed. The substitution thus serves a practical purpose within Gillette’s struggle to recover her marriage, while the public recognition supplies its resolution: Bertrand’s private desire and Gillette’s claim as his wife are finally brought into the same story.