Serge

Serge is the valet and practical partner of Louis Lucas de Nehon, whose attempt to produce large cast-glass mirrors draws him from the workshop into a contest with Joubert. Across these episodes, Serge’s work spans household service, discreet investigation, demanding technical labor, and preparation for a duel. His importance lies in that continuity: he helps Louis pursue the mirror project and remains at his side when its rivalry turns lethal.

Identity and Position

Serge first appears calling to Louis from behind the workshop door while Louis concentrates on arranging copper forms. Even when interrupted, Louis initially tells him to wait; Serge persists only to explain that Madame Ruebal has arrived. The exchange establishes the terms of their working relationship: Serge controls the flow of visitors, but must press the matter when Louis is absorbed in his work. Once the visitor is admitted, Louis dismisses Serge, who withdraws without protest.

The brief exchange presents Serge as a valet entrusted with both access and service. He is also close enough to Louis’s work to move readily between the domestic and professional sides of his life. Later scenes place him at Louis’s carriage, table, and glassworks, where his responsibilities grow beyond simply answering a summons. The evidence does not give him an independent ambition or a life outside Louis’s service; it defines him through the precision and range of his assistance.

Work on the Mirror Project

During the journey by carriage, Serge holds a leather satchel containing the only six cast-glass mirror specimens in the world. Louis watches him nervously, and Serge, himself fidgeting, asks about their chances. The exchange makes the satchel a measure of the project’s vulnerability: these rare samples are in Serge’s keeping as Louis carries the work toward its next test. The question goes unanswered in the available scene, but it shows that Serge is attentive to the uncertainty surrounding their prospects.

Serge also gathers information about Joubert. After spending the day away with the driver, he returns to the inn, where Louis is eating alone, and reports that Joubert lives in Trianon, keeps his shop in Vaux, is about forty, and has influential connections among wealthy people. The report gives Louis concrete information about the competitor and his social reach. Serge delivers it in the ordinary setting of a shared meal, after waiting until Louis asks what he has found; his investigative role is folded into the same routine service as his work at the carriage.

When Louis prepares to present his work, Serge checks his appearance, circling him to make sure a lock of brown hair is tucked beneath the curled white wig. Louis then hands him the leather case before entering the carriage. The gesture links Serge’s attention to Louis’s person with his custody of the project’s materials: he helps Louis appear ready for the encounter while carrying what the presentation depends on.

At the Glassworks

At Tourlaville, Louis is given access to the equipment and a private shop and office to improve his method. Serge works alongside him through the extended effort. When the first promising weeks become months of only minor improvements in plate size, Serge suggests taking a break, rubbing his tired eyes. His suggestion marks the strain of the work without displacing the project’s urgency; the two continue until Serge announces that a new batch is ready.

The preparation of that batch shows how much Serge’s role depends on practiced coordination. He puts on heavy leather breeches, a sleeved apron, and gloves. Louis likewise aprons himself, and together they use specially made thick leather covers over the iron pot’s handles to carry and maneuver it from the furnace to the forms. Their steps are synchronized through repeated practice, including earlier trips with the pot empty. With molten glass inside, a fall could cause fatal burns to one or both men. They carefully fill all six forms, after which Louis tells Serge to mark the time by turning over the hourglass. Serge’s labor is therefore both physical and procedural: he handles a dangerous part of production and keeps the timing that Louis records in his notes.

Preparation for the Duel

As Louis’s competition with Joubert culminates in a duel, Serge helps make the arrangements workable. After practicing his marksmanship with Ramsay, Louis learns from Serge that the meeting has been set for the following morning, an hour after sunrise, in the royal cherry orchard. Ramsay welcomes the news, and Louis calls the timing perfect. Serge’s report turns the plan into a definite appointment, locating the coming confrontation in both time and place.

On the morning of the duel, Serge waits by the carriage with Jean. Louis asks whether Serge remembers Ramsay’s instructions for checking the pistols. Serge answers that he has practiced most of the night and is prepared. Louis reaches over and squeezes his knee before they go. The moment records trust through action rather than explanation: Louis relies on Serge to carry out an essential precaution before the encounter, and Serge has given up the night to prepare.

After the Shooting

Louis fires first, killing Joubert; Joubert’s shot grazes Louis’s leg. Louis falls, and Serge rushes to him as the referee comes over. Louis is bleeding badly and must be carried several hundred yards through the gardens to the palace, where a royal assistant surgeon treats him. Serge’s presence at the immediate aftermath completes the pattern established in the workshop and on the road: when Louis’s pursuit of the commission has become a deadly personal contest, Serge is still there to help him.

The available episodes do not describe Serge’s response to Joubert’s death or what becomes of him afterward. His documented arc is instead a sequence of concrete acts of support, each suited to a different danger: guarding rare specimens, bringing back intelligence, coordinating work with molten glass, preparing the pistols, and rushing to Louis when he is hurt. That range makes him more than a background servant, while keeping the narrative focus on the practical loyalty his actions demonstrate.