Literature / Les Colombes du Roi-Soleil

"Raised at the gates of Versailles, the Sun King's doves dream of love and freedom..."

Les Colombes du Roi-Soleil (The Sun King's Doves) is a French teen literature series by Anne-Marie Desplat-Duc.

The Saint-Cyr institute, also called the Saint Louis Royal House, a real institution created in 1684 by King Louis XIV's morganatic wife Madame de Maintenon, was meant so that young ladies of good birth aged 7 to 20 would receive the education and dowry that their family were too poor to provide, and learn to hold their places in the world, mostly as nuns or ladies-in-waiting. All of them are raised in strict Catholic ways.

Book one, the shortest, introduces us to all of the cast; the twelve books after that follow one girl in particular and are told in first-person narration, and then the fourteenth reunites most of them. All these girls end up leaving the school for whatever reasons, and through their eyes the readers discover France and the world of the late 17th century.

Louise, Hortense, Charlotte, Isabeau, Eléonore, Henriette, Gertrude, Olympe, Adélaïde, Jeanne, Victoire and Gabrielle all live and study at the Saint-Cyr boarding school, but all of them have a story to tell. When Jean Racine, the famous playwright, comes to offer them to play his latest play Esther, they are ecstatic to see theater come to shake up their monotonous lives, and to act in front of the King and the court. But this play kickstarts many events that will soon take them all away from this place and their friends... To new and exciting adventures!

Books in the series are:

• 1. Les Comédiennes de Monsieur Racine (Mr Racine's Actresses)
• 2. Le Secret de Louise (Louise's Secret)
• 3. Charlotte, la Rebelle (Charlotte, the Rebel)
• 4. La Promesse d’Hortense (Hortense's Promise)
• 5. Le Rêve d'Isabeau (Isabeau's Dream)
• 6. Éléonore et l’Alchimiste (Eléonore and the Alchemist)
• 7. Un corsaire nommé Henriette (A Corsair Named Henriette)
• 8. Gertrude et le Nouveau Monde (Gertrude and the New World)
• 9. Olympe comédienne (Olympe the Actress)
• 10. Adelaïde et le Prince Noir (Adélaïde and the Black Prince)
• 11. Jeanne, Parfumeur du Roi (Jeanne, Perfumer of the King)
• 12. Victoire et la Princesse de Savoie (Victoire and the Princess of Savoy)
• 13. Gabrielle, Demoiselle d'Honneur (Gabrielle, Maid of Honor)
• 14. Retrouvailles à Versailles (Reunion in Versailles)
• 15. Le Défi de Diane (Diane's Trial)

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Les Colombes du Roi-Soleil provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Even by standards of the time, Henriette's mother's treatment of her daughter borders on psychological torture.
• The Ace: Aniaba masters the art of being a French courtier incredibly fast, learning to speak French fluently in a matter of months. He is also an amazing shot, rider, billiard player. His courtesies are as polished as they come, and he slips from footman to prince with ease.
• Action Dad: Most of the girls' fathers are noblemen who lost their fortune because they spent too much serving the King in wars.
• Action Girl: Henriette, as a corsair, takes part in fighting and handling ships.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Charlotte's crude words are enough to shock many people, including her friends, but even the quiet Hortense admits she is sometimes funny.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: King Louis XIV, after watching the girls perform in a choir for him, caresses Louise's cheek with his finger. This causes much havoc and gossip among the girls. This is actually a father's gesture to his secret daughter.
• Africa Is a Country: Averted. Aniaba is from Assinia (current day Ivory Coast), specifically from the Etiholé tribe, while his friend Banga is from the Essouma tribe of the same kingdom.
• All for Nothing:
  • Charlotte's long journey to Siam. Even though, after more than a year of travel, she managed to bring priceless jewels back to France in order to pay for François's caution, they are stolen as soon as she reaches Paris. François was actually freed by Marguerite, who could have done it before Charlotte left.
  • No matter how hard they try, by the end of book 6, Johann, the titular alchemist, still hasn't found the Philosopher's Stone. He found the way to make porcelain instead, being the first European who can produce it.
• All Girls Like Ponies: Henriette has an affinity with horses.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: The reason Charlotte is attracted to François,and Henriette to Luc-Henri.
  • Inverted with Hortense and Adélaïde, who loved their love interests for their gentlemanly ways and were appalled (though not out of love) at their rougher sides.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Some of the girls have several potential love interests. Only one guy gets to be the one, if any.
• All Men Are Perverts: The Prince of Condé, whose wife Isabeau serves, persues her and attempts to rape her. This is Truth in Television: this man was infamous for his perverted, even morbid deeds.
• Alpha Bitch: At Saint-Cyr, Gertrude is this. Due to her upbringing she has a mighty ego. However, this is subverted in that her attitude makes her have few friends.
• Altar Diplomacy: The Princess of Savoy, whom Victoire comes to serve, is wed to the King's grandson to form an alliance between France and Savoy.
• Ambiguously Bi: Gertrude and Anne. Their relationship is presented as one of deep friendship (which was forbidden at Saint-Cyr to avoid cliques) but their attitude and the way their teachers react to it really speaks of a homosexual affair. However, Anne marries a man for love and Gertrude finds a love interest in Native American Nayati.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Jeanne's uncle tells her this after her aunt died, so that he can keep a hand on her estates. Charlotte is also bound to marry an old Marquis who forced her protestant family into submission in the past.
• And Then What?: The question Hortense asks when she elopes with Simon, as they cannot get married in France, now being outlaws.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Roman gives one to Olympe just after she discovered that he killed her father and destroyed her childhood. Obviously, it doesn't go according to his wishes.
• Archnemesis Mom: To Henriette. She is a terrible mother who always bellitled her because she was not pretty and only allows her to live at home if she will care after he crippled father. Part of the reason Henriette becomes a corsair is to escape her.
• An Arm and a Leg: Henriette's father lost both his legs in a sea battle when he was hit by a canonball.
• Arranged Marriage: All of the girls are terrified at the prospect. Those who are presented suitors in their school years are allowed to refuse them, but that implies they will have to become nuns. Adélaïde's marriage to Gabriel was arranged by her parents before she came to Saint-Cyr. Luckily, it's a Perfectly Arranged Marriage.
• Artistic License – Geography: In Book 11, Jeanne and her aunt are visited by Madame de Sévigné and her daughter, who are on their way from Marseille to Grignan. The Montesquiou house is near Sète, which is nowhere near Marseille or Grignan and way out of their itinerary.
• As You Know: The teachers at Saint-Cyr often give speaches to explain the girls things like the arrival of the king (which is why they've been practising their curtsies and singing for days).
• Attempted Rape: Against Isabeau by the Prince of Condé. He is stopped in time by Marie, who knows first-first hand what it means when the prince drags a woman away from a party, and Bazan, whom she turned to for help.
• Attention Whore: Gertrude (at first) and Charlotte. Olympe's love for acting is also treated this way by some people.
• Awful Wedded Life: Gertrude gets repeatedly beaten and, though it's only subtext, raped by her husband. In book 14, Charlotte's turns out to be this, as her ideals and her husband's have become way too different.
• Badass Family: The Lestranges. Though they were forced to renounce their protestant faith, they still secretly fight for it. Charlotte, their daughter, is not called "the rebel" for nothing. Their son Simon elopes with the woman he loves and their other daughter Héloïse, after surviving with their mother in terrible poverty, decides to take on the New World.
• Bait-and-Switch: Aniaba pulls this twice on Adélaïde, both times accidentally.
  • The first time, he tells her that Gabriel will not be able to marry her because he fought a drunken duel defending Aniaba from a racist nobleman. Adélaïde assumes Gabriel is dead, but it turns out he actually killed his opponent, and is now on the run from the law.
  • The second time, he tells her that he himself will ne be able to marry her after her aunt proposed in her name, but only because he has managed to get Gabriel pardoned by the King, meaning she will get to marry the man she loves after all.
• Battle Couple: Henriette and Luc-Henri become this by the end of book 7.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: The girls are often perceived this way. Most of them are pretty, and none of them are inherently bad people.
• Best Friends-in-Law: By the end of book 3, Hortense is married to her friend Charlotte's brother.
• Big Brother Bully: As his cousin, this is what Luc-Henri first was to Henriette. When it turns out he's her brother, Jean is also fairly mean to Jeanne.
• Big Sister Instinct: Isabeau's defining trait. She helps the younger girls and dreams of teaching little girls. Gertrude takes Anne under her wing, repeatedly saying she wants to protect her. Madame de Caylus is also this to all the girls, but mostly Charlotte.
• Big Fancy Castle: Obviously, Versailles, but the Royal House of Saint Louis is not bad either.
  • Played With with the girls' childhood homes: most of them grew up in castles or estates of the sort, but their families are all impoverished and all of their houses are in disrepair. Hortense notably grew up in a roofless ruin.
• Bittersweet Ending: To Book 6. Eléonore and Johann are reunited and about to be married, he has figured out the way to make porcelain and his life is no longer threatened; but they both remain in the custody of the Elector of Saxony, who is showing no sign of letting the only porcelain-maker in Europe walk free ever again.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Louise, Olympe, Anne, Gabrielle and Victoire are blondes; Charlotte, Isabeau, Gertrude and Jeanne are brunettes, Hortense, Adélaïde, Henriette and Diane are redheads. Only Isabeau, Henriette and Diane really fit in the cliché that comes with it.
• Blue Blood: Louise's titular secret: she is one of Louis XIV's bastards. Obviously, the girls meet many royal people.
• Brainy Brunette: Isabeau is the most obvious example, but Jeanne is also brainy in her talent with perfumes.
• Break the Cutie: Eléonore will find herself alone in a foreign country after her husbands's death, Louise will be torn between her duty to the Queen of England and her wish to find her family, Adélaïde will be abandoned by her exiled fiancé.
• Break the Haughty: After she attempts to kill one of her teachers, Gertrude will be humiliated and whipped before her classmates, sent to prison, then to America, and wed without having a say in it to an abusive drunkard in order to populate the colony.
• Call-Forward: The ending of Book 1 gives away the early plot of books 2 (Louise), 3 (Charlotte), 4 (Hortense), 5 (Isabeau), 6 (Éléonore) and 10 (Adélaïde).
• Cannot Spit It Out: Hortense about her feelings for Simon. Her friends have to spit it out for her, because she doesn't even recognize the feeling. Most of the girls are like this, due to their education as chaste, pure young women.
• The Caretaker: Madame de Maintenon acts like this to all of her 250 students, providing them with education and a dowry. More clearly even to Louise, Jeanne and Olympe who were under her care before she created the House.
• Character Development: Gertrude goes from a haughty noble Alpha Bitch to a young woman capable of empathy with everyone, even a cow, due to her experiences. All of the girls end up stronger after their trials.
• Central Theme:
  • To Louise, birth legitimacy. She is a royal bastard herself, and keeps running into the acknowledged and/or legitimated children of King Louis and King James.
  • To Gertrude, similitudes between people in spite of the difference of their circumstances; highlighted by her relationships with Anne, Cléonice, Héloïse, Margot and Nayati.
• The Chief's Daughter: Margot, formerly known as Magena. Complete with a Perfectly Arranged Marriage to the Mighty Whitey.
• Chekhov's Gift: Adélaïde is able to finance her sister's lace-making workshop thanks to the peal necklace Gabriel offered her.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The popularity of fine china in Saxony is established early in Book 6.
  • The birth medal Jeanne had to pledge turns out to be what she needs to compare it with her twin brother's and find her family.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Averted with Aniaba's mother. While he states several times that she survived the massacre of the Etiholé and was sent into exile, she never appears in her son's life again.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Louise's singing is what makes her noticed by King Louis and the exiled Queen of England, who makes her one of her ladies. It also helps her convince the King to free her mother from prison.
  • Jeanne's talent for creating perfumes allows her to rise in the ranks of perfumery in Montpellier and eventually find her family among them.
• Children Are Innocent: As exemplified in book 1 with Gabrielle, most of the girls arrive at the school at a very young age, having barely ever left their homes, speaking regional languages instead of court French, and completely unaware of where they are.
• Comically Missing the Point: During the second performance of Esther, Hortense gets overwhelmed by her budding feelings for Simon, loses her footing with the play, and starts weeping on stage because she thinks that she is ruining the scene. The audience thinks that she's only acting, and being incredibly believable at it.
• Compelling Voice: Louise is a very talented singer. Jeanne is too, though not as well, and Hortense is praised for her agreable voice during her brief stint as a lady-in-waiting/reader.
• Conflicting Loyalty:
  • Louise is torn between her quest for her family and the secrets she can't reveal to her employer, the Queen of England, or her friends, because Madame de Maintenon said she must not.
• Connected All Along: Jeanne and her second employer, who turns out to be her father.
• Continuity Nod:
  • All of the books start around the same point, that is, a Minor Kidtroduction for the title character, her life in Saint-Cyr, and the plot starts unraveling after the events of Book 1. They will often develop things that were just alluded to then.
  • At the end of Book 2, Louise joins the King's Chamber Music. In Book 4, it is this position that allows her to plead Simon's cause for Hortense.
  • In Book 3, Charlotte runs into Louise in Versailles, as she had joined the Queen of England's service in the previous book.
  • Early in Book 3, Charlotte proudly mentions her father's silk mills; in Book 4, Simon and Hortense use this very silk as a cover to justify their trip to Switzerland.
  • In Book 6, Eléonore's father is unreachable because he is in Compostela. In Book 9, he has just returned with Marie and a quest.
  • At the end of Book 6, Eléonore is about to marry Johann. In Book 9, her family receives a letter from her asking them to give their assent to the marriage.
  • At the end of Book 7, Henriette runs into Louise in Versailles; this scene also establishes that Louise wants her friends at her wedding, the plot of Book 14.
  • In Book 9, Olympe meets Charlotte while touring around southern France. While Olympe doesn't really register it, it is clear that Charlotte's relationship with François is growing sour.
  • In Book 1, Adélaïde is the one who tells the girls about the menagerie when they visit Versailles. In Book 10, she is shown visiting it with her father before joining Saint-Cyr.
• Cool Aunt: Madame de La Ferté to Adélaïde: she hosts her after her expulsion, arranges her marriage to her love interest, covers her in gifts, and is generally a cool woman to be around.
• Culture Clash: Gertrude is confronted to this when she befriends the Native American Margot, though she adapts easily into it. Charlotte's travel to Siam (current Thailand) also makes her confront this. Notably, when the girls make commoner friends, they will meet some of this.
• Daddy's Girl: Henriette was one, to differ from her Archnemesis Mom. Louise wishes she could be one, and in all fairness, her father is as much of a Doting Parent as he can be when she reappears in his life.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Olympe does not remember her childhood because of trauma, only death and screams. Next thing she knows, she was an orphan cared for by Madame de Maintenon. Through her book, she remembers: her father was killed by an angry mob because of his misconduct with taxes, by her love interest no less. As a result, this is also Roman's. He killed a man, after all.
• Darker and Edgier: All books have dark events to them: Charlotte's family conversion at gunpoint, the murder of Olympe's family, the difficult life on Aniaba as a newcomer black man in 17th-century France... But the one that takes the cake is Gertrude's.
• Deadpan Snarker: Charlotte, as much of a snarker as you can be in 17th-century language.
• Decadent Court: How Versailles is presented to the girls by their teachers (who are mostly nuns or bigots). In all fairness, they are not completely wrong, as Versailles was home to many scandals indeed.
• Defeat Means Friendship: How Luc-Henri and René finally started treating Henriette with respect: they were playing on a rowboat, telling her that as a girl, she couldn't get on it, and she pushed both of them into the sea and rowed away with passersby cheering.
• Did They or Didn't They?:
  • François and Marguerite clearly had an affair between his liberation and Charlotte's return.
  • It remains a mystery whether Simon and Gabrielle ever did, but even if that's the case, it's clearly in the past for both of them, and they remain good friends.
• Diplomatic Impunity: Eleonore played on this as the widow of the ambassador of Saxony.
• Disappeared Dad: Charlotte's, Olympe's and Jeanne's ( adoptive) fathers are dead.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The outrage caused by Gertrude and Anne's relationship among their bigoted teachers. Both were then told to pray for forgiveness.
• Doomed by Canon:
  • The real prince Aniaba never ruled in Assinia. He died shortly after returning to his country.
  • In book 14, Charlotte joins La Résistance to fight for the Protestant cause. These rebellions were smashed in blood by King Louis.
• Doting Parent: Those who are not evil or dead are generally good parents to their daughters, and only sent them away so that they could afford education, a dowry and even food.
• Downer Beginning: Several of the stories begin this way; after all, the girls wouldn't be in Saint-Cyr if their parents weren't dead, abusive, or too poor to raise them in dignity. Most notable are Louise, Charlotte, Hortense, Henriette and Olympe.
• Dowry Dilemma: Few of the girls' families can afford to give them one. One of the selling points of Saint-Cyr is that each student is granted a 3,000 pound dower upon turning twenty.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Book 1 focused on Louise, Hortense, Charlotte and Isabeau, the others were extras who got more focus on them in the later books. Notably, Gabrielle who was just a newcomer child at the time, and Victoire, who was just mentionned as Isabeau's sister.
    • In fact, every time a student of Saint-Cyr is named, expect her to have a book of her own. At this point, only three students have been named without receiving a POV book: Rose-Blanche de Peyrolles, Rosalie de Forban-Gardanne, and Marianne de Compigny.
  • The unnamed gentleman who comments on the Doves when they visit Versailles in Book 1 turns out in Book 10 to be Adélaïde's betrothed, Gabriel.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first book is in the present tense, while all the others are in the past tense.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Most of the girls also come from provinces with their own languages and have to learn how to speak French in Saint-Cyr (notably, Isabeau, Victoire, Gabrielle and Rose-Blanche speak Occitan, and Hortense speaks Breton).
• Evil Uncle:
  • Jeanne's uncle stole her inheritance money, had her locked up in her room, and meant to force her to marry him. It's also implied he used to beat his wife.
  • Yamoké, King Zena's brother and so Aniaba's adoptive uncle, despises him and tries to get him killed in his youth to make sure Zena won't name him heir.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Book 9. Olympe The Actress is about Olympe, who is an actress.
• Failed a Spot Check: Upon meeting Léon, Gertrude is shocked that he would address her with the informal "you", and claims that no one in her life ever did - not her classmates, not her teachers, not even her parents. Except that Cléonice just did exactly that for six months. Of course, there's a nice way to say "tu", and a less nice one. When Margot does it later, Gertrude is also surprised, but acknowledges that it does not feel disrespectful coming from her.
• Faint in Shock: When the girls are told that one of their teachers was poisoned and are pressured for a confession, Isabeau faints. The teachers mistake this for an admission of her guilt.
• Famous Ancestor: The reason for Gertrude's Pride.
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: The scenes of Isabeau's Attempted Rape and the one where Gertrude's husband beat her for the first time are pretty descriptive.
• Fiery Redhead: Henriette goes great lengths to become a corsair and bring back honor on her family name. She's one of the girls who never could adapt to the strict rules in Saint-Cyr.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Aniaba is completely smitten by his life as a French courtier, but his less lucky friend Banga comes to remind him that he did not come to France to flaunt around, but to get an army to reconquer Assinia for his people, and save his love interest from slavery. But this implies leaving Versailles and its riches...
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling:
  • Héloïse, Simon and Charlotte rank in this order on a responsible-to-foolish spectrum.
  • Adélaïde is the responsible older sister to her foolish and passionate younger sister Marie-Cécile.
• Foreign Fanservice: In-Universe: what French Charlotte is in Siam (Thailand) and what Assinian (Ivorian) Aniaba is in Versailles.
• Foreshadowing:
  • It's mentionned several times in the early books that Protestants who refuse to convert to Catholicism and criminals are sent to populate the colonies. It's exactly where Gertrude meets Héloïse, Charlotte's sister, in Book 8.
  • Early in her book, Charlotte is told by a would-be soothsayer that she would be "happy at cards, unhappy in love." When she and François meet again, she does not recognize him in his courtier's attire. As it happens, his time in prison has changed a lot of things about him and their relationship soon grows very sour.
  • When Jeanne first stumbles upon portraits of her long dead parents, her handmaid Louison comments that she can't tell which one she looks most like. The answer is neither: they are not her biological parents.
• Freudian Trio: The main friend group, Charlotte, Hortense and Isabeau. Charlotte is the id, dreaming of the world, very sensible to everything around her. Isabeau is the superego, aware of her duty, easily able to distance herself from the rest of the world. Hortense is the ego, tortured by her choices and regrets.
• Friendship Moment: Charlotte, Hortense and Isabeau often sneak in each other's bed at Saint-Cyr and at the end of book 1, promise to always help each other even if life separates them. Gertrude has hers with Native American Margot at church, who sends her brother to help Gertrude survive her first Canadian winter.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: All the events between Book 1 (set in 1689) and Book 14 (set in 1694) (bar Books 12 and 13) are happening simultaneously from twelve different points of view ^note Louise, Charlotte, Hortense, Isabeau, Eléonore, Henriette, Olympe, Gertrude, Anne, Aniaba, Adélaïde, Jeanne, making it very difficult to follow the timeline. It is not helped by the fact that some of the books cover up to five years, while some only cover a few months. To make it even more complicated, Books 12 and 13 are set several years after Book 14, when Victoire and Gabrielle leave the institution around 1700.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Downplayed for Louise and Bertrand. He proposes on their third meeting, and they get engaged on the fourth, but they don't tie the knot for four more years, as Louise will not receive her dowry before she turns twenty.
• Generation Xerox: Jeanne has inherited of the talents and even the young looks of her father.
• Genre Savvy: Most of the girls know they are living in an age where they will have little choice over their destinies, but remain optimistic due to being child literature characters.
• Gilded Cage: How Charlotte and Henriette see Saint-Cyr.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Subverted: Henriette's little sister was brought up to despise her by their mother, but Henriette only wishes her well. By the beginning of the second act, they became supportive of each other.
• The Good King: King Louis is seen as this by all the girls (of course, a family loyalty to the king was a requisite to enter Saint-Cyr). Only Charlotte sees him as The Big Bad because his religious politics threatened thousands of Protestants like her and forced her away from her family.
• Happily Adopted:
  • In a case of Oblivious Adoption, Jeanne, who loved and was loved by the parents who abducted her. After their death, she had her (also adoptive) aunt.
  • Played With with Aniaba is full on conflicted feelings about the Essouma. On the one hand, they massacred his people, and he hopes to return the favor to them by going to France. On the other, he was adopted by their king and his favorite wife, and loves Banga like a brother. He states that while he did grow up safe and cherished with them, he was never able to consider Zena and Chiki like his parents.
• Happily Married: Anne by the second half of Book 8.
• Heart Is Where the Home Is: European Adélaïde and African Aniaba respectively marry European Gabriel and African Bama-Li.
• Heir Club for Men: Averted, as Truth in Television. A girl was fully able to inherit. However, if she was married, all of her titles and possessions were her husband's.
• Heroic Bastard: Louise, the title character of Book 2, is the natural daughter of King Louis and Mlle des Oeillets, who was his official mistress's lady-in-waiting.
• The High Queen: Queen Mary of England in Book 2, and Madame de Maintenon is such a figure for the girls (at this time, she is also the wife of King Louis, if not his queen).
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Jeanne's family, the Montesquious, are more or less distantly related to the famous musketeer D'Artagnan (the real one, not the Dumas character).
• Historical Domain Character: A significant par of the supporting cast is historical, most notably the king, Madame de Maintenon, some of the teachers, the members of the court and a few others. While some of the narrators' names were actually lifted from a list of the students of Saint-Cyr, only Louise and Aniaba really existed.
• Historical In-Joke: While the exact origins of the British anthem "God Save the King" are not known, Book 1 adheres to the theory that it was composed in France, and performed in Saint-Cyr for Louis XIV.
• Hollywood Costuming: Not so much in the text itself as in on the covert art, which is more expressive to a young audience than it is historically accurate.
• Homoerotic Subtext: Gertrude and Anne are seen giving each other (innocent) caresses and exchanging notes saying things such as "Your smile today made my day brighter".
• Horrible Housing: Hortense's childhood home is in disarray due to poverty and poor management, and it rains through the roof. Downplayed, as it remains a castle.
• Ho Yay: Aniaba and Gabriel are fencing partners, they go drink together, and Gabriel killed a man to defend Aniaba's honor. Of course, by the end of the book, both are married to women they love.
• Hufflepuff House: At Saint-Cyr students are divided in four classes: red for the girls aged 7-10, green for the 11-13 girls, yellow for 14-16 girls and blue for the 17-20 girls. We focus on the protagonists in every class except red, mostly because they all came later than that.
• Hypocrite: Charlotte spends her time criticizing the severity and bigotry of the Catholics at Saint-Cyr, but does acknowledge at one point that her Protestant mother would definitely scowl at her taste for jewels and colorful fabrics.
• I Am One of Those, Too: When at sea, Henriette introduces herself to everyone she meets as Henri de Pusay, a made-up brother she never had. All is well, until they have to introduce themselves to another ship... whose captain is her cousin Luc-Henri de Pusay. He believes them to be pirates and tries to sink them.
• Iconic Outfit: Saint-Cyr's uniform: brown dresses with ribbons the color of the class.
• I Have No Son!: Luc-Henri's father (Henriette's uncle) disowned his son because he left his studies to become a priest out of lust. Henriette is terrified when she hears that he is dead... to him, at least.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: The Marquis attempted this on Charlotte in the gardens of Versailles. She managed to hide from him in a chest, a chest that was going to Siam...
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: The climax of Book 8 has Gertrude and her pregnant friend Margot locked inside a weak fort while the male colons and their native allies are fighting off Iroquois warriors.
• Impoverished Patrician: All of the students of Saint-Cyr, as the Royal House was created for the purpose of educating impoverished girls of the nobility.
• Interclass Romance: Olympe, the daughter of a nobleman, has an affair with Roman, a commoner actor. Same for Eléonore and Johann. Jeanne turns out to be the daughter of a rich bourgeois and has a relationship with a rose grower.
• In-Universe Nickname: Olympe goes by Olympias when she becomes an actress.
• Jacob and Esau: In the Pusay household; the father is closer to his eldest, Henriette, who is bold and a Little Miss Badass, while the mother (very clearly) prefers her youngest, Bertille, who is more of a Proper Lady.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Being converted at gunpoint into Catholicism at gunpoint when she was a young child forces Charlotte to see Saint-Cyr, where she was sent to comfort her in her "new faith", under this light.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Despite how short money is, Henriette's mother spends fortunes on dresses and tea parties for her younger daughter. Her father lampshades this trope, explaining that since they cannot give her a dowry, showing her off in the best light is the only way to find her a husband who will take her regardless.
  • Though he doesn't have to be so condescending about it, Gertrude's husband rightfully points out that her education has not prepared her at all for her new life and that having to teach her everything makes them lose precious time before winter sets.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Léon, Gertrude's husband, is introduced as a condescending, vulgar man. She later finds out that she actually can handle living with him, as he teaches her new things and is rather hopeful about their future int the New World. But when winter comes, it turns out he spends all of their food money on alcohol, leaving Gertrude to starve in their isolated home, and upon learning Nayati helped her, acts like a Crazy Jealous Guy and starts beating her.
• Karma Houdini: From a legal standpoint. Despite the gravity of her crime, Gertrude is sent to a low security prison due to her birth status, and is released within the year provided that she leaves France to be married off. From a legal standpoint only, considering the rest of her book.
• King Bob the Nth: King Louis XIV, the titular Sun King.
• Kissing Cousins: Charlotte and Henriette are both in love with their respective cousin and end up marrying them. This was normal at the time. Louis XIV and his wife were first cousins on both sides.
• Lady and Knight: Louise's love interest, Bertrand, is a knight and vows to defend and help her.
• Lady-In-Waiting: Louise to the queen of England, Isabeau to the duchess of Bourbon, Victoire to the duchess of Burgundy and Gabrielle to the duchess of Anjou.
• Large Ham: Charlotte when surrounded by the quiet Saint-Cyr girls comes off as this. She is much more discreet in the outside world.
• Like a Daughter to Me: Madame de Maintenon almost admits this to Louise, the first girl she looked after.
• Likes Older Men: Averted. Most of the girls dream of young men if there has to be a man, that is, in their twenties or thirties at best.
• Little Miss Badass: Henriette's Once per Episode childhood introduction reveals she was this.
• Loophole Abuse: Madame de Maintenon forbids Louise to let the King see her after she disobeyed her order to keep her head low. So she hides in a nearby bush and sings his message to him.
• Long Hair Is Feminine: Hortense and Henriette cut off their hair when they need to pass off as boys (and they succeed).
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Louise learns her true parentage from Isabeau, who herself learned it from Madame de Maintenon's niece.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Louise finds her mother and goes to visit her after ten years without seeing each other, so the woman does not recognize her immediately. Similarly, Jeanne finds her family and tells first her brothers, then her father and mother that she is the child they thought died in infancy.
• The Magnificent: The titular Sun King, again.
• Marriage Before Romance: Although they have chemistry with their love interest, the girls often marry them without having spent much time with them. It's a matter of honor after all.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Eleonore is one of six sisters, for whom it is very difficult to provide. Caring for them is one of the reasons she agreed to marry the elderly ambassador of Saxony.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!"!: All the students' reaction to learning that one of their teachers was poisoned, and to Isabeau's fainting, which pointed her as the culprit.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: A religious example. Marie d'Aubeterre receives a vision from the Virgin Mary that a girl named Olympias would save her while on pilgrimage. Madame de Maintenon sends Olympe, who indeed does save her, by correctly diagnosing her with depression more than a physical illness and giving her the will to live again. Was it all a miracle or due to chance?
• The Meddling Kids Are Useless: Played With. Very often, the girls are not the ones who resolve their adventures, and most of their task comes down to finding the person who can. As Sheltered Aristocrats with seldom any money or street smarts, most of their talents lay in pluckiness and connection building.
• A Minor Kidroduction: Each girl gets one at the beginning of her book, as part of How We Got Here.
• Missing Mom: Jeanne's ( adoptive mother) is dead. Louise's is in prison because she was the Fall Guy to a bigger name. Olympe's abandonned her to take the veil after her husband was murdered.
• Mistaken for Gay: On the sea, Henriette has one friend who knows she is a girl, and who is in love with her. Another friend of hers, unaware of her sex, comes to accuse him of pedereasty when it seems he's being a little too friendly.
• Modest Royalty: While gossiping, some of the girls argue that Madame de Maintenon can't be the King's secret wife because she dresses too modestly to be a Queen.
• A Mother To Her Girls: Madame de Maintenon is very protective of all the girls, even the ones that give her trouble like Charlotte, and seems to know all 250 of them by name. Madame de Brinon and Mademoiselle du Pérou are like her (though considering her youth, Mademoiselle du Pérou is more motivated by Big Sister Instinct).
• My God, What Have I Done?: Gertrude's reaction when she realizes that she not only attempted to kill one of her teachers but also that she let Isabeau take the fall for it.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Before her Break the Haughty phase, Gertrude kept repeating "My name is Gertrude de Crémainville" to remind herself of her own importance.
• Mysterious Parent: Obviously, the King to Louise.
• Nephewism:
  • Adélaïde's mother's cousin, called her aunt for simplicity, looks after her after she leaves Saint-Cyr.
  • Jeanne became an orphan at a young age and was raised by her beloved aunt for most of her childhood.
• Nice Girl: Isabeau, Hortense, Louise and Eleonore to quote only them. They are all the Nice Girl to some extent.
• Nice Guy: Most of the love interests.
• Nice to the Waiter: The girls are usually friendly with their maids when they have some.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: May just be a typo, may be so people won't look for Gertrude in the genealogies, but her mother is related to the Condi family instead of Condé or Conti, the lines of princes of the blood.
• Noble Fugitive: Hortense and Simon after they eloped. Charlotte's family after they fled to Switzerland to avoid forced conversion. Queen Mary of England and her court.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Gertrude's Character Development involves her relating to her cellmate Cleonice's story in prison, and to Margot's in New France.
  • King Louis eventually tells Aniaba, in front of an audience no less, that the only difference between them is a matter of black and white. This bit is Truth in Television.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: Henriette's father was maimed at sea while serving the King to provide for his family. Later, Henriette is able to use her own share of the privateer plunder to give her sister a dowry and pay for her father's healthcare.
• Odd Friendship: Plethora over the series; but notably, gentle, studious Isabeau forms one with brash, proud Gertrude after Charlotte and Hortense leave Saint-Cyr.
• Of Corset Hurts: In the first scene of the series, Charlotte complains that she cannot breathe in hers, but Hortense points out that she must have a cinched waist. 17th century stays were not as tight as they were during the Rococo or Victorian era, and served more to highlight the chest than the waist.
• The One Guy: Aniaba is the only male character with a first-person point of view in 14 books, 12 of which have a female first-person narrator.
• One-Scene Wonder: King Louis only appears in a few scenes, there are books in which he doesn't even appear, but the very mention of his name is hot stuff each single time.
• One-Steve Limit: Mostly averted within a single book; though there are two Rosalies in Saint-Cyr, Rosalie de Forban-Gardanne and Rosalie de Boulainvilliers.
  • Book 6 has Johann Böttger and Johann Sigismund Küsser, the latter of is on Middle Name Basis.
• Only Friend: Jeanne and Louise.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: For Hortense, dressing up as boys involves wearing some male clothes and cutting her hair. Henriette and Charlotte don't even cut theirs. Subverted in that it's the 17th century and nobody expects a woman to go around boats dressed up as a cabin boy. People just think they're androgynous kids.
• Parental Favoritism: Henriette's sister is preferred over her because she is prettier and more ladylike. Adélaïde is also her parents' favorite, though they love her sister as well.
• Parental Neglect: As per tradition, noble ladies are brought up by nurses; however most of them have their mothers taking a big place in their education. Henriette was always ignored by her mother, and Jeanne's biological parents had her nursed so far they didn't even realize she didn't become sick and died.
• Parental Substitute: Jeanne's aunt took care of her with all her love. Olympe had the director of her troop. Madame de Maintenon is admittedly a distant mother figure for most of the girls, especially those like Louise she took under her wing even before she created the institute.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Adélaïde was betrothed to Gabriel as a child, and it was love at first sight. For him, who was a teenager at the time, it took for him to see her again as a young woman, but then he is completely lovestruck.
• People of Hair Color: There are four redheaded heroines in the series, and all four stem from Celtic roots in the west of France (Brittany for Henriette and Hortense; Normandy for Adélaïde and Diane).
• Port Town: Henriette grew up in Saint-Malo, one of the biggest French port towns at the time and still today. As a corsair, she also spends time in Brest and Dunkerque.
• Precision F-Strike: When she becomes a sailor, Herientte has a hard time learning to swear casually, but it comes to her. Of course, these are 17th-century insults, like "mordieu" or "sacrebleu" which are not of use today and make readers amused more than shocked.
• Precocious Crush: Adélaïde's love at first sight for her fiancé is quite adorable. Henriette had her cousin Luc-Henri.
• Pregnant Badass: Margot, Gertrude's Native American friend, doens't like it when her husband places her in a convent for her protection while she is with child and he is fighting against another tribe. She would like to fight alongside him and her brother.
• Pretty Boy/Bishounen: What the girls come up as if they have to dress up like men for various reasons.
• Pride: Gertrude's bane. She manages to give it up thanks to her friendships with Anne, Cléonice and Margot, and is forced out of it by the trials life has for her.
• Princess Classic: What the girls are brought up to be at Saint-Cyr. Some of them really are, like Louise or Gabrielle.
• Prison: After Esther and the second play Athaliah, Madame de Maintenon leaves the institute in the hands of a priest who considers the girls are on the wrong side. He forbids drama, a lot of their classes like geography and science, most games during recess and friendship is even more frowned upon. They occupy their time mostly with embroidery and bible study. Most of the girls who are still there during those events compare this new Saint-Cyr to a prison. Amusingly, when Gertrude does end up in a real prison, she notices that her new life and the one she had back there are almost the same.
• Promoted to Parent: During her charity work, Isabeau encounters Madeleine, 14-year-old orphan who is the only one who can take care of her younger siblings. She has them taken to an orphanage in which she teaches, and in Book 14, she gives her a position as Louise's lady's maid.
• Proper Lady: A behavior expected of all the girls. Those who are more rebellious have a hard time in Saint-Cyr.
• Public Secret Message: When Charlotte is visited by her family, she is surprised by her mother and sister's absence. Her father can't tell her that they are in trouble as they are being watched, so he tells her that her mother is sick. Charlotte hears the message, as her mother is healthy as a horse - her sister is the ill girl of the family.
• Racial Face Blindness: In Book 8, when the women are kept in the fort while their men are fighting outside, Margot is verbally assaulted by a woman for being Native American. Even though Margot points out that the enemy outside is Iroquois and she is Huron (an ally of the colons), the woman dismisses them as being all the same.
• Rags to Riches: Louise lived the first few years of her life in a farming family, where she worked on the earth, before Madame de Maintenon came to take her under her wing. By Book 14, she is the acknowledged daughter of the King (though not legitimized) who gave her her own household and a castle, and is marrying a knight.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Eléonore
• Readers Are Geniuses: Averted. Considering this is a children's book series, the author has her narrators give lots of context and explain some late 17th century vocabulary in notes.
  • Played straight for Madame de Brinon's resignation. While a huge deal is made of it, the girls never learn why she left. The readers have to look the lady up to find out that Madame de Brinon disliked the influence of theatre on the girls and had a major falling out with Madame de Maintenon because of it.
  • Also Played Straight for the reason why Madame de Maintenon, unlike the other ladies of Saint-Cyr, shows kindness to Charlotte. She too was raised Protestant.
• Really Royalty Reveal: Downplayed. Louise is revealed early on to be the secret daughter of King Louis XIV. Of course, as a bastard, this doesn't make her a princess.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Madame de Maintenon. When she has to punish her girls, she is never happy about it and just wants them to become good women in the world they live in.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Most of the girls end up giving one to someone, and it's always justified.
• La Résistance: In Book 14, Charlotte joins a band of Protestant bandits who fight for their rights, because it's the only way she can advance on that matter.
• Retcon:
  • The part of Elise in Esther is first given to Eléonore, with Louise as her understudy; but by the time the performances begin, Olympe is the one playing Elise, and Eléonore plays Hydaspes.
  • At the end of Book 1, Charlotte, Hortense and Isabeau vow to remain friends their whole lives. In Book 2, Louise remembers being part of this oath, despite previously being on pleasant but distant terms with the other three.
  • In Book 1, Charlotte claims that she would have been locked away in a convent had her parents not converted. In Book 3, it is precisely because her parents converted at gunpoint that she was taken away to receive a Catholic education.
  • Several of the retcons are due to the fact that the series was initially supposed to end after Book 5, causing several contradictions in the characterizations of the later narrators.
    • Olympe mentions in Book 5 that her father sent her to Saint-Cyr. In Book 9, she is an amnesic orphan. Handwaved in Book 9: she made him up on the spur of the moment to fit in.
    • In Book 2, Jeanne has a living mother and brother. In Book 5, she is very attached to her letters from both her parents. In Book 9, it is revealed that she is an orphan who was raised by her uncle and aunt.
• Riches to Rags: Gertrude starts as a highborn girl and ends up being the widow of a farmer in Québec. Though her life gets significantly easier after his death because she makes friends in high places, she never regains her former wealth or status.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: King Louis is often depicted as going to or coming back from war, and is seen handling matters of diplomacy and justice. His wish is such a command that he might often come off as a Deus ex Machina for the plots.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Charlotte and Hortense both run away from Saint-Cyr. Henriette manages to trick them into sending her home.
• Secret Relationship: When a girl has a love interest, it often starts that way, as culturally speaking it has to be Marriage Before Romance.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: All of the girls realize they are this when they come out in the world, and that they were completely unprepared.
• She's All Grown Up: Gabriel's reaction when he sees Adélaïde again.
• Shipper on Deck: Charlotte and Isabeau ship Hortense and Simon. Hard.
• Shirtless Scene: Between Roman and Olympe.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Henriette and her little sister.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The Protestants in Charlotte's entourage are faced with this. Charlotte is will stop at nothing to fight for her religious freedom, but most of her relatives have been beaten into submission, and her father says that even though he would like to fight, he does have to think of his children and their future.
• Slut-Shaming: Adélaïde is expelled from Saint-Cyr because of this. Note that her slutty act was to accept a note that was handed to her by a man, Gabriel, without even reading it. Apparently, the letter was ungentlemanly (but that comes from nuns).
• Star-Crossed Lovers:
  • Hortense and Simon, à Catholic and a Protestant.
  • Olympe and Roman, due to being in a retelling of Corneille's Le Cid.
• Statuesque Stunner: Henriette is described as very tall for a girl; Gertrude is even taller than her, as she is the tallest of the actresses of Esther.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Madame de Maintenon was famously devout. Even if she wanted to help her girls with all her hearts, it didn't take long for the clergy to convince her that non-biblical studies were leading them all to Hell, even geography.
    • While it's not mentioned in the books themselves, Saint-Cyr was getting a lot of criticism in that time for not being a convent - the teachers were not nuns, but celibate women who had taken temporary vows, which was unheard of at the time since education was considered to be exclusive to the clergy. Madame de Maintenon's intent when founding the school was to provide an education for girls not only to become nuns (which, for ladies of the nobility at the time, required a certain level of education, as well as diplomacy and management skills, given they were much more likely to become prioresses), but also to eventually marry into the nobility. The problem was that the court at the time was aging, and Madame de Maintenon, having been unhappily married to a much older man in her first marriage, was getting increasingly concerned older men would prey on the girls in order to get younger, docile wives (and similarly to Éléonore, this actually happened in real life with one of the actresses for Esther, Claire de Marcilly, and Madame de Caylus' own father, after a pretty intense fight between him and his son, who also wanted to marry her). The pressure from the clergy and the abovementioned fear is what eventually led Madame de Maintenon to turn Saint-Cyr into a convent.
  • Charlotte runs away from Saint-Cyr to go to Versailles for the parties and the glitter... forgetting that Madame de Maintenon lives there. She has to spend her time avoiding her.
  • Charlotte, a (mostly) gender-conforming highborn lady from a landlocked province, raised in a religious institution, attempts to pass off as a sailor on a six-month boat trip to Siam. She gets unmasked on her second day on board.
  • Hortense elopes with Simon... which makes him an outlaw for abducting her and they can't get married anywhere in France.
  • Gertrude's highborn education is of absolutely no use to her when she has to become a homesteader.
  Léon: Ah! Milady can read, write, count, sing, play the harpsichord and dance... What use does that have in a country like that!
  • Léon, Gertrude's abusive husband, is convinced that he is going to become rich by going North looking for furs. This is not only a very dangerous hunt, but also forbidden to those who don't have a permit, and news of his death eventually reach Gertrude.
  • Aniaba is taken to France as an ambassador for his country, Assinia. On the way, he is confronted to others Africans... who are to be sold into slavery. He is abandoned in Paris by the man who took him there and has to work in a jewel shop to survive. No one takes his story as an African prince seriously, thinking he's just making it up. That is, except for Adélaïde and Gabriel.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Frequent with Hortense.
  • Whe she meets Claude-Marie and her mother in a tavern, and that they both mistake her and Simon, in their dirty fugitive attire, for humble pilgrims on the Way of Saint James.
  • When she is scrambling for an excuse for her crossing the border without a passport, the guard assumes that she's being mysterious because she's a spy sent by the King. She quickly confirms.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Roman.
• Team Mom: Isabeau makes it her mission to look after he fellow girls. She dreams of being a teacher.
• That Old-Time Prescription: The girls sometimes volunteer to help the nuns in the hospital wing. Notably, Gertrude and Isabeau are introduced to the properties of hemlock, which is both a cure and a poison. There are often mentions of bleeding as well.
• Their First Time:
  • Éléonore and Johann, during their months of imprisonment in Dresde Castle - this makes them the only couple amongst the Doves and their love interests to canonically have pre-marital sex.
  • Anne and Antonin on their wedding night.
• There Is a God!: After being raised in West African animism, Aniaba feels the presence of the Christian God while visiting Notre-Dame de Paris, and wants to convert. King Louis is delighted, and offers to be his godfather. Banga, however, is horrified by Aniaba's new disdain of the gods of their childhood.
• Those Two Guys: Roman and Dupuis, from Book 9. Subverted in that Roman is also the love interest.
• Title Drop: Hinted at early in Book 1.
  King Louis: This pure and graceful entertainment warmed our heart. You are, mesdemoiselles, the Doves of this house.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Henriette and her sister, Charlotte and hers.
• Trivial Title: Book 11, Jeanne, Perfumer of the King. While Jeanne makes her path in the world of perfumery, she never reaches the title of perfumer of the king; by the end of her book, the client her family is aiming for is the new queen of Spain.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: In Book 8, Gertrude's and Anne's stories are told in alternating chapters.
  • Subverted in Book 10, as half of Aniaba's story is told, before cutting to Adélaïde's for the second third of the book, until they meet.
• Unequal Pairing: Due to being the 17th century, there is not a single occasion in which the man is not more powerful than the woman - although there are a few subversions. Louise's love interest is a mere landed knight, while she is the King's privately acknowledged daughter; Olympe's love interest is a wanted criminal, and she would have reasons to give him away to justice if she wanted to; Gertrude's love interest Nayati is a Native American in the era of colonization, Jeanne's love interest is a farmer, and ends up in her biological father's employment.
• The Unfavorite: Henriette to her mother.
• Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: See right above.
• Walking Spoiler: It is hard to say anything about Louise's story without mentionning that she is King Louis's natural daughter.
• Wedding Episode: Book 14 is Louise trying to gather her old classmates to her wedding.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Book 9 is a retelling of Corneille's Le Cid: a man loves a woman but they can't be together because even though she loves him back, she can't possibly marry the man who killed her father. This is also one of the plays Olympe's troop puts on, although she doesn't play the lead.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Isabeau. Also Hortense, though she grows out of it.
• Will They or Won't They?: Adélaïde and Aniaba. They don't.
• The Women Are Safe with Us: All the women who take care of the girls at Saint-Cyr are very protective of their wards, forbidding men from even talking to them. In their respective stories, the girls always manage to find shelter in a church or a convent.
• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide":
  • The series is set during the hardest parts of the repression of Protestants by Catholics following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Charlotte, who is Protestant, has been taken from her family by force to be given a Catholic education in a convent, and is betrothed to the man who forced her family to convert at gunpoint. Those who did not convert were killed, jailed, or fled France beforehand if they had enough foresight. Of course, all of this is proclaimed to be for the salvation of Protestant souls.
  • The Essouma of Assinia massacred the Etiholé in war some years back, and Aniaba was only saved because King Zena's favorite wife, Chiki, adopted him. He goes to France to try and get an army to return the favor to the Essouma.
• Would Hit a Girl: Lelong, The Prince of Condé, Léon
• Writers Cannot Do Math:
  • Eugène mentions that Madame de Lestrange and his mother are roughly the same age and so she can borrow her passport. However, Eugène is in his early 40's and Héloïse, Madame de Lestrange's eldest child, in her mid-20's at most. Even if Madame Dunoyer had been pregnant very early and Madame de Lestrange comparatively late, the numbers don't quite add up.
    • That said, Madame de Lestrange just spent the past months ill and living in squalor, which may have led to her looking older than her age.
  • Isabeau and Victoire were extremely close growing up and fondly remember each other - however, considering that Isabeau has been in Saint-Cyr seven years when Victoire joined the Red class, that means Victoire was at most two when her sister left.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: When Aniaba is sailing to France as an ambassador while slaves are dying in chains in the holds, one of the French officers explains to him that labor is what they're good for anyway. When Aniaba points out that he too is a "they", the man replies that now that he's dressing like a European and speaking French, it's easy to forget that he's African.
• Young Future Famous People: The little duke of Enghien, who is to be raised by Isabeau, is the future Prince of Condé, a figurehead of the Regency and first prime minister of Louis XV.