The Seine is the route through which Sherzad’s escape from Versailles becomes a real, perilous possibility. Marie-Josèphe tells her the river can lead her home, and Sherzad plunges into it while Louis XIV’s riders pursue them. Yet the Seine is not a safe passage: its contaminated water, obscuring silt, and armed pursuers make the journey toward the sea a struggle for survival.

Route and Setting

The escape reaches the Seine after a nighttime flight by wagon. The full moon is sinking past midnight, the horses are laboring, and the travelers know the sea remains far away. Behind them, the road seems to become a rushing river of light: Lucien de Barenton, Count de Chrétien identifies the approaching brightness as Louis XIV and his pursuit. The contrast between this illuminated road and the actual river ahead makes the Seine both a destination and a narrow opportunity to break from the royal party.

As the wagon crests a rise, the Seine appears through luminous grey mist. Sherzad smells the water and sings impatiently; the horses respond by fleeing her voice, and the wagon bumps down the switchback slope. The river is close enough to offer a route onward, but not close enough to make escape certain. Marie-Josèphe promises only a few minutes before Sherzad can be free, while the riders crest the hill behind them.

The River as an Escape Route

Marie-Josèphe gives Sherzad practical instructions for using the Seine to reach home: swim as fast as she can and hide underwater whenever she hears men, horses, or dogs. The plan depends on the river’s concealment as much as on its direction. It also makes clear that freedom will require Sherzad to remain alert to the sounds of the people pursuing her.

Before she enters the water, Sherzad sings a farewell to Marie-Josèphe. She rests her head against Marie-Josèphe’s shoulder and kisses the slash across her breast, smearing her cheek with Marie-Josèphe’s blood. At the bridge, Marie-Josèphe and Yves de la Croix help her reach the crest. Sherzad’s anticipation and defiance give way to action: she leaps with a shriek of triumph and plunges into the Seine. Marie-Josèphe calls after her to swim for her life and says goodbye.

Pursuit in the Water

The Seine does not immediately carry Sherzad to safety. Its water is thick with the filth of animals and land-humans; she surfaces to spit in disgust, dives again, and swims on. Bruised and sore after her long imprisonment, she tires quickly. The current helps, but she remains far from the sea, so the route promises escape without guaranteeing it.

The river also limits what Sherzad can perceive. Thick silt makes her nearly sound-blind, undermining the warning system Marie-Josèphe has given her. At the next bend, men and horses block the water, and a long net stretches through the current. Sherzad dives to seek a way around or beneath it, then slips past plunging hooves. When she touches the horses, they scream and thrash, unseating their riders; this dangerous attempt to evade the barrier gives her position away. Riders jab with pikes and fire muskets. A shot boils the water with heat, and another tears away a lock of her hair.

Significance

The Seine changes the escape from a flight across land into a contest within the pursuers’ reach. On the road, lanterns and torches reveal the wagon; in the river, mist, current, and underwater concealment offer Sherzad a chance to get away. But those same waters are dirty, silty, and crossed by human defenses. The river’s function therefore shifts from a promised passage home to hostile terrain where even a momentary advantage can expose her to violence.

For Marie-Josèphe and Sherzad, the Seine is also the threshold of a painful separation. Marie-Josèphe can point out the route and help Sherzad reach the bridge, but she cannot accompany her beneath the water. The leap marks a moment of triumph, not a confirmed arrival: the evidence follows Sherzad into the river only as far as the armed blockade and the gunfire. Her freedom remains an urgent possibility rather than an assured outcome.