Twenty: Of the Monk in White

On the road after Auxerre, Delphine insists they need a raft, reasoning that wine travels by river faster than a mule. She outlines a route: Beaune to the Saône, then the Rhône to Avignon, warning to steer around Beaune due to monsters. A sign warns Vézelay is dead as they continue, drinking salvaged wine and making for the southeast.

They camp in an abandoned grain loft. During the night, the hungover Père Matthieu seeks water and meets a serene Cistercian monk in white. The monk challenges Matthieu’s faith in Delphine, implying heresy and manipulation, and leads him through disorienting scenes: a warm home where an imagined wife and daughters demand he renounce priesthood and kill Delphine, then a command to take up a rusty sword.

Back at the stream, an apparition of Michel Hébert seduces Matthieu toward the act, promising affection if he kills Delphine. Matthieu climbs the ladder with the sword and nearly strikes, but pulls back in horror. The monk returns, now monstrous, taunts him for weakness, forces him to vomit, and vanishes.

Delphine, awake, tells Matthieu she too dreamt of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux making him kill her, calling Bernard a man-made saint now in Hell or escaped. She asks for protection; Matthieu, shaken, promises he would not let her be harmed, not even for wine. Dawn approaches as their resolve and route are set.