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Chapter 13: RIEN NE VA PLUS We meet June, Patricia, Ellen and Nas, who are together in Calais to erect a statue of Emma Hamilton, who fled to Calais with Horatia in 1814 and died there a year later in poverty. June is the president of the Trafalgar Club, Patricia has written a biography of Emma Hamilton, Ellen is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Horatia (she has inherited the miniature), and Nas is a Nelson-expert and chief-editor of the Nelson Chronicle. On the evening of the unveiling of the statue in Parc Richelieu they pay a visit to the Casina de Calais, drink a lot and get into arguments. Meanwhile they all take a retrospective look at their lives and the events that have to do with Emma’s statue. The women are stronger and believe wholeheartedly that Emma should be remembered in this way. Nas is not so sure and they finally humiliate him in a way that brings all the themes of the book together. Louis reappears too. The miniature portrait of Emma is enclosed inside the monument for ever, no man will ever look at it again, no Emma-haters will ever get their hands on it. Nelson breathes a deep sigh of relief now that he finally knows where Emma’s miniature has got to. [English translation by Ina Rilke] |