I put the badge on and fell foul of a sore throat and dizzy head.

I did warn you. They’re unpredictable yokes them badges….

I was poisoned by a pin prick. Apologies for missing the festivities.

Arrf Arrf.

Thanks, Jo.

Sorry.

Alrighty, I’d better go sleep. Night!

Away to d’land-o-nod with you. May your dreams be…colourful. Talk soon.

His madness is completely dismissed, as you’ve pointed out, while she’s the hysterical and murderous female.

Not only is his sadism dismissed, it’s positively normalised! The general feeling is “Well, why shouldn’t he strangle a few dogs – or hang a few peasants – (or “nearly beat to death a young horse”) if they wrong or displease him?”

His behaviour is socially sanctioned. It’s his right to be this vicious! Her story/explanation/actions fit only into the category of “madwoman”.

I’m always all for metaphoric and literal truth co existing

He treats her like his pet, and not too kindly. His madness is completely dismissed, as you’ve pointed out, while she’s the hysterical and murderous female.

…her father had squandered his fortune at cards, and lived almost like a peasant in his little granite manor on the moors

Perhaps that explains her family’s lack of involvement. She became, after all, her husband’s “property” – at least in his eyes:

It was true that her husband seldom spoke harshly to her; but there were days when he did not speak at all. It was true that he had never struck or threatened her; but he kept her like a prisoner at Kerfol, and when he rode away to Morlaix or Quimper or Rennes he set so close a watch on her that she could not pick a flower in the garden without having a waiting-woman at her heels. “I am no Queen, to need such honours,” she once said to him; and he had answered that a man who has a treasure does not leave the key in the lock when he goes out.

And “property” she remains till the end. Perhaps that’s why the dogs linger. Her spirit may still wander the keep and they, at least, love her.