All Saints' Day

All Saints' Day provides the date for the public reckoning between Gillette de Narbonne and Bertrand de Roussillon: at a feast in Roussillon, she appears before the assembled company with their two sons and the ring that confirms her claim as his wife. The date anchors the story’s private struggle in a formal gathering, where Bertrand must confront the promise he made and the conditions Gillette has fulfilled.

The Date and the Story’s Timeline

After becoming pregnant, Gillette gives birth to two boys and has them carefully raised. When she learns that Bertrand has left Florence and returned to his county, she waits until her children are old enough to travel with her. She then goes, still wearing the pilgrim’s habit she has used on her journeys, to Montpellier, where she makes inquiries about her husband.

There she learns that Bertrand will hold a great entertainment for knights and ladies at Roussillon on All Saints' Day. The account gives no broader calendar role to the date; its importance here is precise and narrative. It identifies the occasion on which Gillette can reach Bertrand in public, at a gathering where his rank, his household, and the people who will hear her claim are all present.

Arrival at the Feast

Gillette finds the knights and ladies assembled in Bertrand’s palace and about to sit down to table. Without changing out of her pilgrim’s clothing, she enters the hall carrying her children and makes her way through the gathering to Bertrand. Her arrival interrupts a celebration just as its guests are preparing to dine: the feast becomes the setting for a marital claim that cannot be kept private.

She falls at Bertrand’s feet and identifies herself as his unhappy wife. She recalls her long wandering and asks him to honor the promise he made on the condition set by the two knights she had sent to him. The evidence she presents is immediate and concrete: one son in her arms, a second child with her, and Bertrand’s ring.

Recognition and Resolution

Bertrand is confounded, but recognizes the ring and sees that the children resemble him. He asks how this can have happened. Gillette recounts the events in order, explaining how she fulfilled the condition on which he had agreed to receive her as his wife. Her account, the ring, and the children turn what might have remained a contested assertion into a public demonstration.

Convinced by what she tells him, and moved by her constancy and ingenuity, Bertrand gives up his obstinate resistance. He raises and embraces her, acknowledges her as his lawful wife, and recognizes the boys as his children. At the request of his vassals and the women present, he honors her openly; her pilgrim’s dress is replaced with clothing appropriate to her rank, and the feast gives way to celebration that continues for several days.

Narrative Significance of the Occasion

All Saints' Day marks the point at which Gillette’s private endurance becomes publicly legible. The story has brought her through childbirth, travel, and concealment; at the feast, she makes her claim before the very courtly company whose recognition can restore her place in Bertrand’s household. The date thus serves less as background than as a frame for exposure and acknowledgment: Bertrand’s promise, the ring, and the children converge in a single public scene, and his rejection ends in recognition and reunion.