And it was done unilaterally, under authority that no one on the expedition had the power to challenge.

The disproportion is stark.

The transgression was a personal moral failure within the framework of sixteenth-century social norms.

The punishment was an action with lethal consequences that left the punisher facing no accountability and the punished person fighting for her life.

The accounts that are most sympathetic to Marguerite — particularly the queen of Navarre’s account — appear to recognize this disproportion and to frame it as at least as significant as the transgression that prompted it.

The sixty-seventh tale of the Heptaméron does not ignore the woman’s failure; but it frames the captain’s response as excessive, and it frames the woman’s survival as a vindication of her character rather than as a miraculous sign that her punishment was appropriate.