Page 108 "..."John the Baptist?" he reflected, finishing his own brandy."



"Preaching of St John the Baptist" by Baciccio, 1690

From page 108 of the book:  "..."Fr. Revenent," I looked across the room, out of focus, out of color, "how did you know I was going to follow you?"
He sat up, gazed at the couch opposite him, facing the dormant fireplace and the two fragile, antique end-tables.  A leather hassock lay in front of his feet; I could tell that he rarely used it.
"I didn't know you would follow me," he said.  "It was a discovery that was as wonderful to me as it was to you."
We smiled together at his conclusion.  My eyes roved over indistinguishable shapes of pictures on the walls, as well as over two ceramic cherubim heads which hung near the doorway.  The unlighted figures of a fresco hailed from the last wall as I brought my perusal to a complete stop.  I sipped my brandy and winced from its strength.
"Who painted that thing?" I asked, trying to sound less like a critic and more like a friend.
 "John the Baptist?" he reflected, finishing his own brandy. "It was here when I arrived. Painted by a young art student, I'm told. He was eventually killed in Indochina, in October 1950. A certain General Carpentier had delivered his soldiers along Rout Coloniale 4, to retreat from a Viet Minh onslaught. My dear Walter, there were six thousand French troops lost; they just disappeared, in the jungle, without a trace."
It was the worst overseas defeat of the French since Wolfe beat Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec, in 1759." 



Lambert Sustris, "Baptism of Christ"
(1591)

 
















Gen. Carpentier





Route Coloniale 4 (RC4, also known as Highway 4) is a road in Vietnam, bordering the Chinese border from Hanoi to Cao Bang. It is famous for a French military disaster in 1950 in which several units of the French army, including some battalions of the Foreign Legion, were decimated by the Viet Minh and essentially ceased to exist as fighting units.



Rout Coloniale 4




French troops in Vietnam, circa 1950




Along the Rout Coloniale 4




Map showing whereabouts of Rout Coloniale 4

The Battle of Quebec (aka The Battle of the Plains of Abraham), September 13, 1759


Essentially the outcome of this battle, the military defeat of the French forces, represented a transfer of colonial power from one European country to another. The British ejected the French elite, installed their own, and picked up the colonial project where the French had left off. The remaining French-speakers were relegated to second class citizenship, and the First Nations were not consulted at all, despite the fact that this is their ancient territory. Despite francophone re-empowerment following the Quiet Revolution, the Plains of Abraham battle is still a touchy subject because it signifies domination over French-speakers by the British and later on Canadian governments.



French General Montcalm

 

British General Wolf





Postcard showing Quebec City. The yellow line and
dot points to the Plains of Abraham