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extrait de Catherine,il suffit d'un amour tome 1

Catherine Legoix
Book 1

Michel de Montsalvy
Book 1

Jean de Xaintrailles
Book 1

Abou-Al Khayr
Book 1

       

coming soon !

coming soon !

Barnaby the Cockleshell man
Book1

 

 

Philippe of Burgundy
Book 2

       

Sara
Book 2

Queen Yolande
Book 2

Catherine
Book 2

Catherine
Book 2

       

Garin de Brazey
Book 2

Jean de Xaintrailles
Book 2

Catherine to Arnaud
Book 2

Joan of Arc
Book 2

       

Catherine & Gilles de Rais
Book 3

Arnaud de Montsalvy
Book 3

Jean de Xaintrailles
Book 3

Arnaud de Montsalvy
Book 3

       

coming soon !

coming soon !

 

La Hire
Book 3

Bernard the Younger
Book 3

 

       

coming soon !

Pierre de Brézé
Book 4

Fero, the GypsyLord
Book 4

 

Sara to Catherine
Book 4

       

Gauthier Stronghitarm
Book 5

Abou-Al Khayr
Book 5

Arnaud de Montsaly
Book 5

Princess Zobeïda
Book 5

       

Comtesse Ermengarde
Book 5

dedicated to Juliette Benzoni webmaster 2009 Book 5

Gauthier the Viking
Book 5

Arnaud de Montsalvy
Book 5

       

Abott Bernard
Book 6

Marie Rallard
Book 6

Jean de Dunois
Book 6

Le Dauphin
Book 6

       

coming soon !

coming soon !

Jacques Coeur
Book 6

Béranger de Roquemaurel
Book 6


Book 6

Gauthier de Chazay
Book 6

     

 

coming soon !

Josse Rallard & Gauthier
Book 7

Sara & Catherine
Book 7

Catherine & Arnaud
Book 7

Arnaud de Montsalvy
Book 7

 


" The little golden-haired girl!...I noticed you earlier on when they were tying me up!"

Michel de Montsalvy to little Catherine Legoix

 

" I was just thinking of my own countryside. I was thinking about it on the way to Montfauson as well. I realized that I would never see it again and I think it was that
which distressed me most!"

Michel de Montsalvy to little Catherine Legoix

 

" You will have fame, love and everything...but you will pay dearly for it all. And then...how strange? You will meet an angel!"

Sara to Catherine

 

"I am not of noble birth, but neither am I low-born. I am not a servant. And just because
I have been arrested is no reason to treat me like one.

Catherine to Duke Philippe of Burgundy

 

"I would rather find out first who you are, but it would be churlish to make such a lovely a lady repeat the same question twice. My name is Arnaud de Montsalvy, Lord of the Châtaignerie in Auvergne and I am captain in the service of the Dauphin Charles."

Arnaud de Montsalvy to Catherine

 

"Forget that I saw your eyes change colour, and felt your body tremble und my hands? Forget your beautiful body and the sweet taste of your lips? If I lived to a hundred that would be asking too much of me, Catherine...

Arnaud de Montsalvy to Catherine

 

"One day, you will go down on your knees in front of me to beg my forgiveness for words, Arnaud de Montsalvy, Seigneur de la Châtaignerie. But you will get neither pardon nor mercy from me."

Catherine to Arnaud de Montsalvy

 

"I, Arnaud de Montsalvy, Seigneur de la Châtaignerie and Captain in the service of King Charles VII, whom may God preserve, am come before you, Duke of Burgundy, to bring you my gage of battle. As traitor and felon, I challenge you to single compat at whatever time and place you may choose and with the weapons of your choice. But I demand that it shall be a fight to death...

Arnaud de Montsalvy to Duke Philippe of Burgundy

 

"I thank you, Milord Duke, but as far as I am concerned, my enemies are enemies and foremost among them I place my King's enemies. I only drink with my friends.

Arnaud de Montsalvy to Duke Philippe of Burgundy

 

"You again! Have you taken it into your head to rush to my bedside whenever I get a little bruise or cut? If that's the case, my dear, you are going to have a busy time..."

Arnaud de Catherine to Catherine de Brazey

 

"I love you, I have always loved you since the moment I firs saw you.

Catherine de Brazey to Arnaud de Montsalvy

 

"Forgotten you? Never! I cursed you and hated you..or at least I tried to. But how could I forget you? What man having once held Beauty in his arms could ever forget her

Arnaud de Montsalvy to Catherine

 

"Struth, messire, I deeply regret that you are so loyally attached to my cousin Charles, for I should like to have made your fortune.!

Duke Philippe to Arnaud de Montsalvy


2 : CATHERINE

"A woman like you is made for love. I've been trying to din that into you for months  now. So Arnaud is getting married, is he? So much for that! You can take him as a lover the moment this imbecile war is over...and be as happy as you like...
 Ermengarde de Châteauvillain to Catherine
  
 
"This was not the kind of souvenir I had expected to take away with me my sweet...It looks as it will be the biggest bump on the head I ever had...the only one I shall cherish, at all event" ...
 Philippe of Burgundy to Catherine
 
 
"I shall always be glad I rescued you. But there is nothing you can do for me, Catherine. I am going to stay here in the Abbey. I have already asked the Abbot to receive me as a monk and he has agreed. He is a man after my own heart. I shall be proud to obey him."
 
Landry Pigasse to Catherine
 

 "You were wonderful...but forbidden, inaccessible to me...for ever! And I loved you, I loved you like a madman I all became...
 Garin de Brazey to Catherine
 
 "The most beautiful Lady of the West! That is the name which he, whom they call the Great Duke of the West, has been pleased to bestow on me. Three years...Truly, Jean there is no woman more lonely than I...
 Catherine to Jean Van Eyck Chapter Ten
 
 
..."so Messire de Montsalvy felt he ought to say farewell, did he? What an honour! What an extraordinary mark of esteem from a man of such tender pride!"...
 
Catherine to Arnaud de Montsalvy
 

 ..."Arnaud, yours is the only respect I care about. Have you really made up your mind to hate me all your life?"
 
Catherine to Arnaud de Montsalvy
 

 "I haven't got the right to love you, Catherine, because the souls of my ancestors would rise up and condem me, but I do have the right to make sure you are save and well"!
 
Arnaud de Montsalvy to Catherine
 

 " A Montsalvy, eh? Michel's brother, I suppose! And you really thought I'd believe your little story? Do you take me for a simpleton, or do you think I've lost my memory? Release her? Your accomplice?...Do you think I would, knowing how devoted
 she and her family have always been to the Montsalvy's?"
 
Bishop of Beauvais (Pierre Cauchon) to Arnaud
  

 ...You don't know what you have just done for me, Bishop. Otherwise, I think you would have thought better of it. Catherine, my love...my one and only love...can you ever forgive me?
 
Arnaud de Montsalvy to Bishop Beauvais and Catherine
 

 ...I have nothing to forgive you...because now, at last, I can tell you that I love you...
 
Catherine to Arnaud de Montsalvy


3 : BELLE CATHERINE

"Lady, I owe you my life. Do with me what you will...but allow me to serve you. The fairest lady may have a faithful dog"
 Gauthier the Norman, to Catherine
 

 "Can you hide me and my two servants? I am hunted, cornered...and I am pregnant. And can you help me find Xaintrailles or La Hire?...assuming that they are not in prison too"

 Catherine to Jacques Coeur
 

 "Od's Blood! That's good news! A little Montsalvy! We'll have a great baby and I'll be godfather...you owe me that Catherine."
 Jean de Xaintrailles to Catherine
 

 " I am a Montsalvy and my patents of nobility give me the right to speak to the King, when I want without seeking an audience."
 Arnaud de Montsalvy to Jean de Xaintrailles
 
 "Remember, in the hours of pain and sorrow, which still await you, the old pilgrim from Compostela and to whom you brought help, and who will pray for you..remember Barnaby...
 Blind Pilgrim to Catherine and Arnaud
 
 "My heart is full of love and gentleness, the ice is like a flowering mead and all the snow is green...
 Arnaud de Montsalvy, singing to Catherine
 
 
"Why so sad, Catherine? Our home is destroyed, but the family is intact. We have shelter...and I love you!
 Smile at me, my heart. When you are sad, the whole world is dark.

 Arnaud de Montsalvy to Catherine his wife
 

 "I would recommend you to use other terms when you speak of my wife. And I expect you to rembember this: you are my mother and I respect you and I love you, but she is my wife, flesh of my flesh, the breath of life to me and nothing, no one, will make me give her up."
 Arnaud de Montsalvy to Isabelle de Montsalvy his mother 
 

 "Sir Count! I owe you more than my life, since I owe you also that of my beloved husband. I will not forget  and, for these great gifts, I give you thanks. May I add, that I would love to know who you are?"
 Catherine de Montsalvy to Bernard d'Armagnac
 
 "Little one, you'll always need more courage. More, perhaps than you know, but you will not fail, because you are his wife."
 Sara to Catherine de Montsalvy
 
 
"To the wife of a dear friend, to one who bas been entrusted to my keeping, and is dearer to me than my own kith and kin. Even if it brings down your anger upon me I cannot forgo the duty Montsalvy laid upon me or break my word. You see your husband is my brother-in-arms"!
 Sir Hugh Alan Kennedy to Catherine de Montsalvy

 
 "Michel remains with you...and I...if you want me. I do not know how to say these things, and I know that you have never loved me. However, I am ready to give you all the respect and tenderness I can no longer give to him...
 
Catherine de Montsalvy to Isabelle de Montsalvy her mother-in-law


4 : CATHERINE: HER GREAT JOURNEY

"No mother, I shall not keep the black diamond. It is an accursed jewel. It has brought nothing but misfortune."
Catherine to Dame Isabelle

"No!...God is my witness that I love you too and that I would tear this love from my breast if I could, because it is killing me. But you must go!"
Arnaud de Montsalvy to Catherine his wife

"And what is left to me of it? I am all alone, always aone - I have no more love, no husband...
Catherine de Montsalvy to Gauthier her faithful servant

"Monseigneur, your welcome has moved and touched me more than I can say. But I beg you to make use of me exactly as you would havae made use of my beloved husband had it pleased God to spare him! My only remaining desire on this earth is to avenge him and restore to my son what is rightfully his!"
Catherine to Queen Yolande and her Chevaliers

"I shall call you Tchalai...which means "star" in our tongue...but until we get there you are still Catherine, as you always were!
Sara to Catherine de Montsalvy

"You must realize that I have given a part of this heart to your husband, that Arnaud all stiff with pride and passion and suffering whom I saw one night, weeping like a child for his shattered life and condemned love...
Sara to Catherine de Montsalyv

"Stop...you know very well no man will ever take his place...and that I'll never love another as I loved him...as I still love him!"
Catherine to Sara

"...on your knees! And ask God to pardon you for the evil you have done, for torturing my husband, betraying Jeanne d'Arc, pillaging the kingdom, sacrificing so  many innocent lives...
Catherine to Catherine de la Trémoille

Every time I see you, you look more beautiful, Catherine...Why do you refuse to allow me to care of you for always?"
Pierre de Brézé to Catherine de Montsalvy

"There are so few pretty women, and now you are wanting to leave us! What is there so attractive about this Auvergne of yours?"
King Charles VII to Catherine

"You were rightly destined for our family, Catherine. Almost by instinct you seem to have stumbled on the old tradition by which the châteleines of Montsalvy would go to Puy, in times of war and danger, to implore divine help and offer their most beautiful jewels to the Madonna. Go, my daughter, you think as a true Montsalvy would!"
Isabelle de Montsalvy to Catherine


5 : CATHERINE: A TIME FOR LOVE

" God demands, that we should show mercy to others and pity for their afflictions! Where's the great merit in undertaking this long penance when one is in perfect health? It would be better, sire, if you offered your arm instead of these reproaches!"
Catherine de Montsalvy to Gerbert Bohat
 
"So you have won in the end? It has been written somewhere Catherine, that you should constantly surprise me. What alchemy did you resort to, to tame the intractable Messire Arnaud?
Comtesse Ermengarde de Châteauvillain to Catherine

.
..I have come to offer you my services by way of reparation. If you will allow me to, I will serve you and defend you...I am a beggar, but I am strong and I can wield a sword like a gentleman. On the roads as these one can always do with a strong arm. Will you then pardon me, and take on as your servitor? I swear to to serve you faithfully, 'pon my eternal soul...
Josse Rallard to Catherine de Montsalvy

"Breathe then...but listen to me Catherine! I know what you must be suffering now, but I forbid you to say that you are dead and that your life is finished! All men do not forget so easily. There are some capable of a greater love than you could dream of!"
Jan Van Eyck to Catherine de Montsalvy

"The Gods of my people are witness that I have never loved you as I do now! But it is by virtue of this love that I must now beg you to forget. If you don't my life will be hell...and I would have to leave you..
Gauthier Stronghitarm (Malencontre) to Catherine

"O woman of a single love! Like a moth you prefer to die in the flame to living in the dark, am I not right? Half your heart is here. Who can live with only half heart?
Abou-al-Khayr to Catherine de Montsalvy

" I shall give the wind a blossom picked from your own flowering face, and I shall breathe the scent of the paths where you walk! You are the essence of all the flowers in this garden, Light of Dawn, and your eyes are as clear as lipid water. Who taught you love, O most scented rose?"
Caliph Muhammad VIII to Light of Dawn (Catherine)

" You are too talkative and to inquisitive, yellow-haired woman! And you are trying my patience. Thank Allah that I have no desire to distress my brother by breaking a toy of his before he has had time to get weary of it! But you had better hold your tonque and keep your eyes veiled if you want to keep both the one and the others! Blind and dumb, you would be fit only for the stray dogs in the market-place.
Princess Zobeida to Light of Dawn

"Don't count your chickens too soon, Zobeida...I am not dead yet. It is not the custom among us for brothers to kill their sisters, or husbands their wives.!
Catherine de Montsalvy to Princess Zobeïda

"Poor little one! You were so frightened...so frightened! That evil woman! I knew she was capable of anything...and that was why I stayed outside, watching...but something as vile as that! Now calm yourself
I am here...I will look after you...! We shall flee together, and return home...I love you...
"
Arnaud de Montsalvy to Catherine his wife

"If your husband had been held prisoner in the heart of darkest Africa you would have found some way of rescuing him. Though of course I should have had to make a longer journey then...
Jacques Coeur to Catherine de Montsalvy

"The dark years, of which you have known too many, are ended. You have a long life of love and happiness
before you...and the happy task of setting a whole new generation of thoroughbred Montsalvy's on their feet! Gentlemen and ladies, I ask you to rise now and drink to the happiness of Catherine and Arnaud de Montsalvy, a long life, and great times to the bravest of Christians Knights and the fairest lady of the West!"

J
ean de Xaintrailles to Catherine & Arnaud and their guests at Montsalvy


6 : A TRAP FOR CATHERINE

"It was not wise of you to celebrate the baptism of your daughter Isabelle with such great festivities! No doubt is was splendid to entertain the old Queen and the Constable but it gave some of us a chance to estimate the wealth of your castle and its contents. Ah they are a fine sight, all those great tapestries and silken sheets and huge dresses loaded with gold and silver plate! By my faith, I want my share!"
Bérault d'Apchier to Catherine de Montsalvy

"Augustin says "a lord" - but his daughter thinks of Messire Arnaud. You've only to see how she looks at him when he rides through the town. Like a cat at a cream pot! And when she makes her curtsy to him, it's a wonder she doesn't fall flat on her face!"
Marie Rallard to Catherine de Montsalvy

"You must answer to me, now, Gervais. But do not deceive yourself. My conditions are the same as Dame Catherine's. With this difference only, that I shall add to it absolution from your sins if your repentence is sincere...before I hang you."
Abbot Bernard d'Olt Calmont to Gervais Malrat

"By St Quentin, St Omer and every other saint in Flanders, Catherine, you'll never change! Your imagination
is always running way ahead of your pretty nose, and just as freely as in the days when you dressed up as a gypsy and dyed your hair black to mount an attack on that fat devil La Trémoille and lead him to his ruin! You run on and on! But, good God, have I ever given you cause to doubt my friendship!"
Tristan l'Hermite to Catherine de Montsalvy

"What man worthy of the name could stand by with folded arms and look the other way when his brother's murderer walked past? Not my husband, that I do know! The Montsalvy's have blood in their veins, warm, red blood which they do not hesitate to spill generoulsy for king and country!"
Catherine de Montsalvy to Tristan l'Hermite

"So Madame de Montsalvy, you have come! I was scarcely expecting you and, to be quite honest with you, I'm not at all glad to see you. I may say it's the first time."
Constable Arthur de Richemont to Catherine de Montsalvy

"Arnaud always needs me, always! But no one ever thinks of asking whether I might need Arnaud! I am his property, his rest and recreation, his mistress of his house and his chief vassal, his mistress and his servant, and everyone thinks it perfectly natural and fair and right that I should perform all this unflinchingli!
Catherine de Montsalvy to Tristan l'Hermite

"
Do not thank me! I am not doing this for you, still less to save that troublesome husband of yours who had better take care in future not to give men cause to talk of him except on the field of battle - escpecially when I am king! For I  shall know how to control my nobles, I promise you!"
Le Dauphin, future King Louis XI to Catherine de Montsalvy

"The Lady of Montsalvy has no business with new jewellery while her people are in want. I've told you what ravages we have suffered this spring. It has been so bad that I was intending to ask you to pay us our revenues in kind: in corn and seed, cloth, wool, hide, fodder and all the other things we may be short of next winter"!
Catherine de Montsalvy to Jacques Coeur

"He? Dead? Come, come! You don't believe a word of it and nor do I! When that man dies, something is bound to happen - earthquake or flood, I don't know, but some extraordinary event there must be to tell the world!"
Queen Yolande d'Anjou to Catherine de Montsalvy

"I make war Catherine, and this is what war is! All war is like this, however much it hurts you to believe it. I'm doing no more than I've always done, what they all do, La Hire Xaintrailles and all the rest you are so fond of."
Arnaud de Montsalvy to Catherine his wife

"When you went away, Seigneur Comte, I was already Dame Catherine's page. I am so still and I have followed her wherever she has gone to serve and aid her as best I could. But you Messire - are you still the man she loved so deeply?"
Béranger de Roquemaurel to Arnaud de Montsalvy

"
I won't let him die! I won't! He can't! It must'nt end like this between us, in hatred and anger! God cannot do that to me! He is mine - only mine! I've spent my whole life for him, for love of him! It's not possible...! Save him! Oh please ...save him? I'm the one who is dying.!
Catherine de Montsalvy to Gauthier de Chazey

"My love, I want so much to stay, to stay with you always - even in the grave! I wish I could die too! But there are the children, our children - they need me, you see! I must go back to them - to our home - for their sake! I must go away and leave you, my darling...."
Catherine de Montsalvy to her unconscious husband Arnaud de Montsalvy


7 : THE LADY OF MONTSALVY
first time ever published in English June 2021
 

You’re not stupid or retarded,’ he cried, ‘but you’ve suffered too much – and anguish and clear thinking have never been good companions. Therefore, trust us instead, our lady! You know that we would go all the way to hell if we thought it possible to bring back your lord husband, and a little happiness at the same time!

Gauthier de Chazay to Catherine de Montsalvy 
 

"I am the lady of Montsalvy and I have come to see my uncle Mathieu -  conduct me to him! The reverend mother abbess, whom you aloud yourself to throw out of the house is my own sister. But I would like you to know that you will have much more difficulty to get rid of me!"

Catherine de Montsalvy to Amandine La Verne
 

"Shall I continue, Sire? It seems to me, you have ordered me to undress...exactly as if I was a whore, brought to you for your pleasure!"

Catherine de Montsalvy to King René d'Anjou
 
"My God, how stupid I am, but of course we know each other! You are much too beautiful to be forgotten Madame! Is it not so, that we met at King Charles Court the first time?
The false Jeanne d'Arc to Catherine de Montsalvy
 

"You have cried...and only a short while ago! When I met you, you never cried! However, Seigneur Arnaud had not yet given you the immense honour then, to take you for his wife!"

Jean Van Eyck to Catherine de Montsalvy 
 

"I want you to make love to me, that you love me one more time, the way only you can make love! I want to give you this whole night...and I want to know if the love of a man can do also something else to me than horror!...

Catherine de Montsalvy to Duke Philippe of Burgundy
 
"I have had that honour, since I saw him twice fighting: once at Azincourt and another time at Arras in a duel. A rude fighter - a great warrior...and the most abominable character I have ever known!"
Jean de Saint-Rémy to Gauthier de Chazay -  about Arnaud de Montsalvy
 

"I am not your mistress anymore. Remember, Philippe! At Lille I told you clearly that it was a good-bye...definitely! I do not have the habbit of successives good-bye's...

Catherine de Montsalvy to Duke Philippe of Burgundy
 

" I have not come back to start a revolution, Gauberte. I came back to take back my place and I will take it back, believe me!"

Catherine de Montsalvy to Gauberte
 

"It looks as if you are having guests Messire, but you will have to find another logis for her, than the rooms of our lady. They are not available!"

Sara to Arnaud de Montsalvy
 

"I would go so far to say that he loves her too much, that this love poisons his life because it forces him not only to think about himself, his life as a man of war, or great heroic actions. His Catherine he carries in himself in the depth of his soul - like a crossbowbold which cannot be taken out. Never will he be able to pull it out - and he knows that.

Josse Rallard to Gauthier de Chazay
 

"It's not about you, Arnaud de Montsalvy, and I have already said it! It's about two women..particucalry one...whom you have not given one reason to sacrifice her life for you! Do come here Dame Catherine! Do come here, my child..my poor child!

Abbot Bernard to Arnaud de Montsalvy
 
"I beg you, answer me! In the name of the living God, tell me the truth, your truth! Do you still love me? Has there remained some of the previous love, from the past?
Catherine to Arnaud her husband
 

"My sweet...my incomparable! Do I still love you? But I have adored you my whole life, and I will never stop loving you...never! As long as there remains a thought, a breath within me. I will go on loving you.

Arnaud to Catherine his wife
 


THE END
finished at Saint-Mandé 3 September 1978


see also  →  quotes from some of the other books by Juliette Benzoni



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