The Petit-Clamart assassination incident enters the novel through its consequences for Jacqueline rather than through a description of the attack itself. In its aftermath, one of the would-be killers stayed at her flat for three nights while on the run. His brief refuge links the failed attempt to the private network of OAS sympathizers and couriers in which Jacqueline was becoming active.

Jacqueline and the Underground

Jacqueline’s commitment to the Secret Army Organisation grew from personal loss. François, who had not known about their baby, returned to Algeria in March 1961. After units of the French Army mutinied on April 21, fighting broke out between mutineers and loyal regiments; François was shot in a skirmish with a loyalist unit in early May. Jacqueline learned of his death in July, attempted suicide, and lost the baby. By December she was working actively for the OAS, driven by a desire to avenge François and Jean-Claude.

Her work initially consisted of errands and message-carrying, sometimes including plastic explosive concealed in a loaf in her shopping bag. She resented the limits placed on her role and believed she could do more. The three-night refuge after Petit-Clamart gave her a more direct connection to a fugitive from the attempted assassination, but the novel does not say that she took part in the attack itself.

The Fugitive’s Refuge and Its Cost

The would-be killer’s stay was a significant risk for Jacqueline: a month later he was caught, yet he said nothing about having lodged with her. The account leaves open whether he had forgotten the stay; it does not establish why he kept silent. To reduce the danger of the connection being discovered, Jacqueline’s cell leader told her to suspend OAS activity for a few months while the immediate pressure subsided.

The pause was temporary. Jacqueline began carrying messages again in January 1963. The episode thus shows both the practical vulnerability of the underground network—one fugitive’s arrest could expose a safe address—and the way its members managed that risk through enforced inactivity.

What the Episode Establishes

The narrative does not recount the planning, execution, or immediate political aftermath of the Petit-Clamart assassination incident in this passage. Instead, it registers the event indirectly, through a fugitive’s brief presence in Jacqueline’s home and the pause imposed on her clandestine work. That narrow focus makes the incident part of her personal trajectory: the failed attempt is not presented as an isolated action, but as a point of contact between the OAS’s violence and the everyday risks borne by its couriers and sympathizers.