The Jackal's Mistress

“Then [Lieutenant Morgan] turned his own horse and spurred it across the field toward the road, his two men studying her—not leering, this was different, they seemed more puzzled by her presence, as if she were a flower too rare for this valley—for lingering seconds before following him.”

This Chapter 1 passage summarizes the novel’s early indirect characterization of Libby. She is self-assured, wise, and strong—qualities that Morgan’s men seem to find off-putting in a young woman. Libby’s circumstances bring these qualities to the surface, but her strength is the very thing keeping her deepest fears hidden deep inside. The insight that the men see her as “a flower too rare for this valley” indicates that they are somewhat attracted to her, even as they find her strange.

“His letters now had become a façade, because he saw no reason to share the brutality and the toll it was taking on him.”

After his quiet New England life and focus on family and academia, once he leaves the relative safety of the nation’s wartime capital, Weybridge is mired in the violence and gloom of war. He sees the world’s true face and humanity’s real capabilities and takes it upon himself to protect his wife in letters to her. However, this passage also indicates the distance that this obfuscation has created between Weybridge and his loved ones, highlighting his isolation even before he is physically abandoned by his fellow soldiers.

“The Yankees gave our boys a black eye today.”

These lighthearted words from Libby’s neighbor, Leveritt Covington, belie the seriousness of the topic, as he uses the metaphor of a “black eye” to describe military defeat.