The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge Chapter 17: December 5, 1823 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Professeur wakes up the next morning and walks toward the bushes to relieve his bladder, stumbling across Charbonneau's sleeping frame along the way.
  • Suddenly, Professeur feels an odd, burning sensation in his chest. How strange.
  • But there's a perfectly logical explanation for this, the Professeur realizes after looking down and discovering multiple arrows sticking out of his chest. Huh. He dies.
  • It's an ambush, y'all. Charbonneau lets off a few shots and high-tails it back to camp.
  • This wakes everyone up—and quick. There are two Arikara warriors heading straight toward them, so Glass and La Vierge let off two perfectly aimed shots…that hit the exact same target. That's bad. The remaining warrior lunges at La Vierge with his battle-axe, but La Vierge manages to "block the blow" with his rifle (2.17.9).
  • Langevin gets hit with a glancing shot, but he seems okay. He tells Charbonneau and the brothers to ready the boat while he and Glass hold back the assault.
  • While Glass and Langevin are locked in a deadly firefight, things are going poorly on the shoreline. In his haste to escape, Charbonneau inadvertently pushes the boat into the river, leaving the brothers (and our pistol-packing homies) stranded.
  • The brothers grab the rope and try to pull the craft back to shore, but lose it. That's when La Vierge realizes that something horrible has happened—he's been shot.
  • Langevin is killed after turning his head to survey this chaos. With no other option, Glass sprints to the river and tells the brothers to swim for it.
  • Glass grabs hold of the brothers, and they're pulled away by the river's current. After only a few minutes, however, Dominique swims his way to the shoreline with La Vierge. Glass follows.
  • La Vierge is still alive, but he's on his way out. Glass really, really, really wants to leave, but Dominique is in a state of shock.
  • In the distance, Glass sees the Arikara warriors approaching. Ahh—the tension. He tries to convince Dominique to leave but before he can, the remaining brother is shot in the shoulder.
  • Dying, Dominique pulls his brother into the river, tells him that he "won't let them cut [them] up," and lets the current take them to parts unknown (2.17.58).