Members of the Court | Saint-Cyr staff | Louise and her entourage | Charlotte and her entourage | Hortense and her entourage | Isabeau and her entourage | Éléonore and her entourage | Henriette and her entourage | Gertrude and her entourage | Olympe and her entourage | Adélaïde and her entourage | Jeanne and her entourage | Victoire and her entourage | Gabrielle and her entourage | Diane and her entourage
The characters who appear in Book 5, Le Rêve d'Isabeaunote .
Isabeau de Marsanne
The main character of Le Rêve d'Isabeau. A quiet, dutiful girl who wants to become a teacher in Saint-Cyr.
- Big Sister Instinct: Her great motivation. She loves her little sister, helps the younger girls at Saint-Cyr, and wants to be a teacher.
- Celibate Hero: The only Dove without a love interest. While she likes the idea of a love marriage, she believes that it cannot pair with her teaching vocation; but even when Bazan offers to help her set up her work if she marries him, she still refuses him.
- Decoy Protagonist : A not insignificant portion of her story is dedicated to her sattellite involvement in Gertrude and Anne's, which is developed in Book 8.
- Flower Motifs: Daisies, a discreet, simple, pretty flower.
- Friend to All Children: She hits off with every child she runs into, girls from the red class, princesses and destitute orphans alike.
- Guilty Until Someone Else Is Guilty: She is assumed to be guilty of Madame de Crécy's poisonning, as she faints during the line-up, until Gertrude confesses.
- Heroic BSoD: Experiences one after her Attempted Rape by the Prince of Condé, and loses sleep and her appetite.
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Hollywood Homely: Described as plain, but given the very high physical standards to join Saint-Cyr, it is more likely that she is regularly pretty among the very pretty. - Humble Hero: When asked by her fellow ladies-in-waiting if she is not sad to abandon beautiful gowns for a charitable sister's sinister dresses, she takes so little time weighing the two that she offends some of them.
- Lady-In-Waiting: As of the second half of her book, to the Princess of Condé.
- Nice Girl: Probably the clearest example of this trope amongst the narrator. She is unable to think badly of anyone and before all helpful.
- The Paragon: After being told that Saint-Cyr only produces vapid socialites (Charlotte, Adélaïde and Eléonore having maybe played a part in that), Madame de Maintenon is delighted to claim that one of her alumnae has refused a life of luxury to dedicate herself to the education of the less fortunate.
- Parental Substitute: As a teacher. Especially to Toinette, who takes to calling her Mama.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism:
- She initially hesitates between a happy marriage to her prince charming and a life devoted to educating the less fortunate. She decides on the latter when Charlotte points out that her "prince" will most likely be old, toothless, and looking for his next cut of hot young meat.
- When the rules grow far stiffer in Saint-Cyr, she initially believes that it is just a few details, and just a phase, but she soon has to realize that the insitution has been changed in its depths.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Acknowledged. While she complains of the rigor of Saint-Cyr, she is quick to realize how privileged she is when she witnesses the disasters of the Little Ice Age.
- Spell My Name With An S: Downplayed. While a modern audience is more used to the name Isabelle, Isabeau was the most widespread variant of the name at the time.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: A subversion, when Madame de Maintenon praises her for her honest character, possibly in order to coax a confession out of her , as she refuses to name Madame de Crécy's poisoner.
Victoire de Marsanne
Madame de Marsanne
Isabeau and Victoire's mother
- Last-Name Basis: Her first name is never revealed.
- The Ghost: Never appears on page.
Monsieur de Marsanne
Isabeau and Victoire's father
- The Chains of Commanding: Despite his efforts and because of the poverty of his lands, he had to watch his tenants die from hunger and exposure during the winter famines. He very much sent his daughters to Saint-Cyr to save them from death.
- Last-Name Basis: His first name is never revealed.
- The Ghost: Never appears on page.
Naïs
Isabeau and Victoire's wetnurse.
- The Ghost: Never appears on page.
- Witch Doctor: Scorns 17th-century medicine and works with herbs from the area to heal her charges.
Louise-Françoise de Bourbon
Louis III de Bourbon-Condé
Marie-Anne de Bourbon-Condé
Daughter of the Prince and Princess of Condé.
- Adorably Precocious Child: At age two, three at most, she is absolutely adorable and reasons and speaks like a child significantly older.
- Spoiled Sweet: She can be a bit of a brat, but she's a kind girl, eager to help and to learn.
Louis-Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duke of Enghien
Son of the Prince and Princess of Condé. Isabeau is his governess.
- Young Future Famous People: He will be a major figurehead of the Regency and the first Prime Minister of Louis XV some thirty years down the line.
Marie de Montmorency
A young lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Condé.
- Flower Motifs: She dresses as a forget-me-not for Carnival.
- Lady-In-Waiting: To the Princess of Condé; her family have served the Condés loyally for generations.
- Marry for Love: She is in love with the Prince's standard-bearer and wants to marry him.
- Rape as Backstory: She was raped by the Prince of Condé when she was fifteen. She copes through pragmatism, claiming that at least now the Prince has moved on from her, and that the diamond earrings he bought her silence with could feed her for a while if her position was taken from her. She advises Isabeau to see things the same way.
Madame de Maillé-Brézé
Marie-Anne de Bourbon's governess.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: At first, she mistrusts Isabeau and thinks that she might take her place, but eventually she starts appreciating the help and they start covering for each other.
- Grumpy Old Woman: A Stern Teacher who believes that children can't learn anything before they're six and despises most notions of fun.
- Romancing the Widow: She has a secret liaison with the Prince's valet.
Monsieur de Bazan
A courtier in love with Isabeau.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Despite being a very good match, and "not yet fifty years old", he is this by virtue of not taking a hint and Isabeau wanting to remain celibate to be a teacher.
- Big Damn Heroes: Saves Isabeau from being raped by the Prince of Condé during Carnival.
- Foil: To the Prince of Condé. He's an Abhorrent Admirer who won't take no for an answer, but at least he's a gentleman and genuinely cares for Isabeau and her future happiness.
- Last-Name Basis: His first name is never revealed, highlighting his very non-love interest status.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His reward for saving Isabeau from rape is to get exiled from court by the Prince of Condé's scheming, at the very moment Isabeau was begrudgingly considering marrying him.
Madeleine, Toinette and Vonette
Three orphaned sisters who live in misery in the town of Saint-Cyr.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Get an Early-Bird Cameo early in Book 5 before becoming significant much later in the story.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In Book 14, Madeleine enters Louise's service as a lady's maid thanks to Isabeau's recommendation, a good position that definitely saves her and her sister from poverty.
- Promoted to Parent: At fourteen, Madeleine is the only parent left to her two younger sister.
