The Recovery of the Aztec treasure is a turning point in the expedition led by Louis XIV: Sherzad guides the royal party toward the treasure, but vanishes before the divers bring gold and jewels to the surface. The discovery gives the King a tangible reward and a public spectacle, while Marie-Josèphe de la Croix is left without the friend she had hoped to find. The episode’s success is therefore both material and incomplete: the treasure is recovered, but Sherzad is not brought back.

Causes and Stakes

The expedition continues after Louis XIV orders the party to return to Le Havre. A distant splash gives Marie-Josèphe reason to believe Sherzad is nearby, but the captain dismisses the sign as a fish. The prospect of treasure does not overcome his fear of the water; the King’s command does. He follows Sherzad’s direction while keeping a sailor at the bow with a sounding-line, a practical precaution that makes the crew’s unease visible even as they obey.

Sherzad leads the ship to a cove but will not take it inside. The captain studies the chart and the wind and judges that the vessel could enter without being able to get back out. His refusal to risk the ship shifts the expedition into a smaller skiff, but does not remove the danger: submerged stone makes the approach hazardous, and the sailors fear an ambush as well as further deception. Their caution has a specific cause. Sherzad, too, fears the nets, guns, and explosive charges that could force her back into captivity. Neither side approaches the cove in safety or trust.

The Approach to the Cove

The sailors object to Marie-Josèphe’s presence in the skiff, and to Lucien de Chrétien’s as well. Louis XIV nevertheless commands Marie-Josèphe to accompany him. Lucien climbs down after her, and the King does not stop him. The change of vessel does not make Marie-Josèphe more comfortable, but Lucien’s presence eases his own discomfort; the crossing binds the recovery mission to their personal loyalty as well as to the King’s order.

The rowers follow Sherzad nervously, whispering when they think the passengers cannot hear. Marie-Josèphe understands their fear of deception and ambush, and recognizes that she would not have blamed Sherzad for acting against them. Sherzad appears only intermittently near the mouth of the cove, remaining ready to flee if threatened. When the skiff reaches dangerous water among submerged fingers of stone, Marie-Josèphe stops it. Sherzad then leaps from the water, flicks her tails above the surface, dives, and disappears. Her brief appearance marks the limit of her guidance: she has brought the party to the place, but will not surrender control of her movements or come aboard.

The Search and Recovery

The sailors strip and enter the water as divers. Their repeated descents turn Sherzad’s lead into a difficult search rather than an immediate discovery. They grow cold; one surfaces coughing and nearly drowned, and Louis XIV allows him five minutes to rest. When the King says Sherzad has played Marie-Josèphe an ugly trick, she answers that the treasure fleet is there. He orders the exhausted sailor to dive again. The exchange makes the stakes plain: the King wants evidence in hand, while Marie-Josèphe continues to trust the direction Sherzad has given, despite having no further answer from her.

Marie-Josèphe sings to Sherzad to ask for more guidance, but receives none. She believes Sherzad is gone and weeps at the possibility that she may never see her again. Lucien’s touch is what keeps her from breaking down. Then tiny splashes appear far off across the ocean, one after another in a group. Marie-Josèphe trembles, frightened by the sudden signs, and the exhausted diver breaks through the surface, thrashing and shouting incoherently. His companions surface with him. The rowers thrust out pikes and oars because they fear sharks, but the divers have found something: their hands are full of gold and jewels, whose weight pulls them back beneath the water as they struggle toward the skiff.

Royal Return and Meaning

The divers pour their recovered treasure into a heap before Louis XIV. The scene resolves the expedition’s immediate uncertainty with a visible result: the pursuit has yielded not merely a promising location but precious objects lifted from the water and placed before the King. Yet the recovery does not resolve Marie-Josèphe’s personal hope. Sherzad has disappeared, and the successful return of the divers offers no answer about whether Marie-Josèphe will see her again.

The return to Versailles converts the find into a public display. Marie-Josèphe and Lucien travel in a closed carriage at the end of wagons filled with treasure, while Louis XIV leads in an open carriage. Aztec gold covers him like armor, adorns his horses’ harnesses, and spills as far as the wheels. A hundred musketeers guard the convoy; crowds line the road, cheering the King and staring at the wealth. The procession makes the recovery legible as royal glory, placing the treasure and its security in the foreground. Against that triumphant image, Sherzad’s absence remains unresolved: the party returns with riches, but not with the guide whose knowledge brought them to the cove.