XXXI: Statecraft explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• The Geas of Obligation

  Manuel is bound by marriage to provide for his wife and child, leading him to accept a secret compact with Horvendile.

• Appearances vs. Reality

  Manuel must preserve appearances by reclaiming Poictesme, while the true terms of his tenure remain secret.

• The Inevitability of Misery

  The children placed in one cradle are fated to bring sorrow and death to each other.

Characters to notice

• Dom Manuel

  Negotiates with Miramon Lluagor to reclaim Poictesme, accepts Horvendile as overlord, and reflects on his obligations to provide for his wife and child.

• Miramon Lluagor

  Arrives with a grand retinue, negotiates the terms for Manuel's tenure of Poictesme, and reveals Horvendile as the overlord.

• Horvendile

  Revealed as the overlord of Poictesme; Manuel recalls their first meeting and Horvendile's cryptic talk.

• Niafer

  Wakened to meet Gisèle; the two women compare their babies, and the children are placed in one cradle, foreshadowing future sorrow.

• Madame Gisèle

  Wife of Miramon Lluagor, meets with Niafer to compare their infants.

• Melicent

  Mentioned as Manuel's child, for whom he must provide.

Key passages

• “Thus all men stayed at no larger liberty to criticize its provisos than his circumstances had granted to Dom Manuel, upon whom marrying had put the obligation to provide, in one way or another way, for his wife and child.”

  No one was freer to question the terms than Manuel had been, since marriage forced him to support his family.

  Highlights Manuel's constrained choice due to marital obligations.

• “A great while afterward were these two again to lie together thus, and from this mating was the girl to get long sorrow, and the boy his death.”

  Long afterward, the two children would lie together again, and that union would bring the girl lasting grief and the boy his death.

  Foreshadows the tragic fate of Melicent and Demetrios.