Marie-Josèphe trains the sea monster to appear before visitors

Marie-Josèphe trains the sea monster to appear before visitors after Louis XIV orders the public admitted to the enclosure. The encounter is at once a court spectacle and a test of a different kind of authority: Marie-Josèphe must bring the hidden animal into view, yet she refuses to make fear or punishment the price of doing so. The sea monster’s appearances remain voluntary, and the scene’s small reversals—from hiding to surfacing, from obedience demanded to trust offered—define what Marie-Josèphe means by training.

The King Opens the Enclosure

The public feeding begins with a change in access. Marie-Josèphe stands out among the visitors in velvet and lace, protected by her position at His Majesty’s court. When a family leaves the crowd, the eldest child still pleading to see the sea monster, she calls for a guard. A musketeer makes a path through the visitors and leads her into the open tent, where she discovers why the crowd has been allowed in: Louis XIV ordered his subjects to see the creature.

Visitors file through one open side of the tent, inspect the previous day’s sketches, peer through the bars, and leave by another raised section of canvas. The sketches on view are not the drawings from the secret dissection; Marie-Josèphe has kept those safe in the chateau. The water, meanwhile, lies still. The arrangement makes the animal’s visibility a royal decision, but it does not guarantee that she will perform. Marie-Josèphe has to approach the creature as a living, wary presence rather than as an exhibit that can simply be produced on command.

Drawing Her Out with Fish

Marie-Josèphe uses fish as both food and invitation. She nets one and calls to the sea monster, asking the visitors to be quiet so the animal might emerge. Beneath the dawn horses’ hooves, the sea monster first gives only a glimpse of movement with her tails. When a ripple crosses the fountain, her long dark hair streams behind her, shielding her back from the sun and disguising her copper-colored skin. She hesitates as Marie-Josèphe holds out the fish.

The sea monster comes closer at the invitation and repeats the word fish. She surfaces, snatches the offering, and eats it in several messy bites, with fish guts and fin fragments falling into the water. The visitors respond with awe, surprise, and disgust. Their noise startles the animal, who slips under again. Marie-Josèphe recognizes that any future appearance before Louis XIV or visiting heads of state will require the sea monster to tolerate an audience, but she does not treat the audience’s expectations as more important than the creature’s alarm. She reassures her that the noise cannot hurt her and offers another fish.

Instead of standing back, Marie-Josèphe dips her hand into the water. The sea monster swims near enough for Marie-Josèphe to feel the intense warmth radiating from her, then rises suddenly, splashing the stairs. Her tangled hair whips around her bare shoulders, and one paler green strand sticks out awkwardly. The visitors gasp, cry out, and applaud. A musketeer turns from the animal to manage the crowd, prepared to bully or cajole the spectators if the King’s gardens become disorderly. But the visitors press closer in fascination rather than fleeing; those at the front peer through the cage bars while others try to see over them.

Training Without Force

Marie-Josèphe continues the exchange by luring the sea monster nearer with more fish. The animal slithers halfway out of the water and rests her elbows on the platform as the visitors whisper in amazement. Marie-Josèphe then lets her swim away, calls her back, and offers another fish. After three repetitions, the sea monster stays just beyond reach. She sings but does not come closer, and Marie-Josèphe briefly imagines that she ought to understand the song before chiding herself for expecting to understand it as readily as a familiar bird’s call.

When Marie-Josèphe calls again, the sea monster stops singing, snorts, spits, splashes with her tail, and snarls from a distance of ten feet. The musketeer recommends beating her so that she will obey. Marie-Josèphe refuses: she would only frighten the animal, and the sea monster will not be beaten while in her charge. She holds out a fish, but the creature answers by kicking a wave against the platform, soaking the hem of Marie-Josèphe’s riding habit and her shoes. After singing a peremptory phrase, she dives and disappears.

Marie-Josèphe revises her understanding of the refusal. The sea monster may be bored because she has already learned what the repeated exercise asks of her; insisting on another return would confuse training with submission. Marie-Josèphe therefore releases a fish into the water as living prey rather than demanding that the sea monster come back for a reward. The choice leaves her with a doubt: if the animal obeys only when she chooses, can Marie-Josèphe honestly claim to have trained her? The question makes the limits of her control part of the scene rather than a problem she can conceal.

A Voluntary Return

The sea monster soon surfaces again, whistling and swimming at a distance. The crowd exclaims as she splashes her tails on the surface and surges closer to Marie-Josèphe. This return follows the moment when Marie-Josèphe gave up insistence, not an act of punishment or confinement. She tells the sea monster that more fish may be available later if she comes when called, and, on a whim, adds an extra portion if she shows herself to the visitors again. The playful offer acknowledges the practical purpose of the training while leaving the next appearance to the animal.

The episode contrasts Louis XIV’s interest in displaying his quarry with Marie-Josèphe’s effort to establish trust. The King’s order brings the public to the tent and makes the sea monster’s visibility a matter of courtly spectacle; Marie-Josèphe’s careful invitations, reassurance, and refusal to beat her shape how that spectacle unfolds. The audience does not simply watch a creature being exhibited: it sees her hide, approach, startle, resist, and return on her own terms. By the end, Marie-Josèphe has not secured predictable obedience. She has achieved something less absolute but more meaningful to her—the sea monster’s willingness to come close again.