Two men share the same family name in this novel — without being the same man. One serves the King in the light of day; the other serves the duchess in the shadows. For the author, this accident of a shared surname became a narrative thread in its own right.
Louis Le Prévost du Barail
A Picard gentleman, he climbs every rung of the soldier’s trade, from cadet to governor of the fortress of Landrecies. A man of honour decorated by Louis XIV with the cross of the Order of Saint-Louis, he also carries an inner life he keeps carefully apart — one bound to his valet, Nicolas.
Louis’s valet and trusted man. Quick, instinctive, loyal to a fault, his closeness to his master cracks the established order and unsettles certainties.
Louis’s wife, possessed of a calm intelligence and a learned piety. She embodies the stability of a household exposed to the winds of power.
The youngest of them. Withdrawn and watchful, he learns too soon the violence of human bonds, and how hard it is to exist within a world built on obedience.
Nicolas’s wife. Her presence is a reminder that Nicolas’s loyalty to Louis carries a cost, and that other bonds are forged at the margins of service.
Henri de Barail
A Gascon gentleman, loyal to the duc de Lauzun and trusted by the duchesse de Montpensier. He knows everything about the Court, and about the dangerous bond between Lauzun and the duchess — yet he himself remains always in the shadows.
A flamboyant favourite, later a prisoner of Pignerol. To Henri he is protector as much as burden, embodying the muffled brutality power shows toward those it has loved too well.
The novel brings Henri and Louis together at Bourbon-les-Bains, at the moment Lauzun’s custody changes hands upon his release — one namesake crossing the other’s path, for the length of a single handover.
Another Lineage
A child with a future ahead of him.