Margarita

Margarita is a seventeen-year-old novice of the Convent of Andouillets who becomes the Abbess’s chosen companion on a journey to the Hot Baths of Bourbon. At once a practical presence and a source of comic tension, she knows a way to get a stubborn animal up a hill, yet the words needed to do so are treated as gravely sinful by the two travelers.

Identity and Selection

Margarita has suffered from a whitlow on her middle finger. By repeatedly putting that finger into the Abbess’s discarded poultices, she has gained the Abbess’s favor. When the Abbess prepares to travel for treatment of a stiff knee, Margarita is selected to accompany her, passing over an older nun described as suffering from sciatica. Her appointment turns an incidental act of care into the reason she shares the journey.

The Journey and Its Rituals

The Abbess and Margarita travel in an old carriage, and the convent community gathers to see them off. Both women wear white, with black rosaries hanging at their breasts; the nuns occupy the carriage windows and wave their veils as the travelers depart. The two women respond by placing their hands on their breasts, looking heavenward and then toward their sisters, and offering a blessing. Margarita’s place beside the Abbess is thus framed by the formal affection and religious observance of the convent.

Counsel on the Hill

When the journey is interrupted by an obstinate animal that will not climb a hill, Margarita tells the Abbess that two words are said to make any horse, ass, or mule go uphill. She describes them as sinful and mortal, and says they cannot be spoken aloud, but could be whispered into the Abbess’s ear. The Abbess, alarmed by the prospect, nevertheless asks to hear them. Margarita’s knowledge offers a practical solution, while her insistence on the words’ danger turns that advice into a test of religious propriety.

Narrative Role

The episode places Margarita’s calm explanation against the Abbess’s horror and eagerness to learn the forbidden words. The narrator then laments that no guardian angel or other timely intervention has stopped the muleteer from returning before they are spoken. The narration announces that the words have just been pronounced, leaving Margarita’s counsel as the pivot of the scene’s comic suspense. The available episode does not establish what follows for Margarita or the Abbess, so her role remains centered on the journey and this decisive exchange.