In chapter 19, “Betrayal,” of André Lebey’s version of The Romance of the Faery Melusine there are continuous metaphors and euphemisms of sexual innuendos, more  specifically sexual assault. Throughout the chapter the audience gets a third person limited perspective into Raymondin’s thoughts as he enters into Melusine’s private space. Significantly, Raymondin views his relationship with Melusine as the two of them being “the same and ever one flesh, […] At one with the earth, […] its meadows and woods, its sweet and fruitful soil.” (121). Here, their relationship is merging together as “one flesh” and also to nature being “one with the earth.” Their relationship is a physical joining to each other and to the environment that surrounds them. Though this merging may superficially seem beautiful with words such as “sweet” and “fruitful,” the diction is actually a euphemism for something more sinister. The word “sweet” for example is a pretense for the seductive nature of the scene, and “fruitful soil” equates to fertility. The metaphors and euphemisms strewn throughout the chapter can be seen through a feminist ecocritic lens where female bodies and land are seen as commodities to be explored and exploited. 

This notion is apparent through Raymondin’s persistence in trying to get through the door to Melusines (metaphorical and literal) private place. As Raymondin has now discovered where Melusine goes on Saturdays, he is inexorable in leaving well alone. His intrusion is described as follows: “The blade entered [the door] a little, so slowly that he almost began to despair. But he forbade himself to think what he would do next, for he could not, he saw, fully part the adjacent boards. But he might make a crack wide enough to see through! He would soon find out something, no matter how!” (122). The imagery is more explicit in its violent forced entry with the blade opening the entry. The violence does not lie in his brute force but in the way that he chooses to try and enter. Raymondin could very well just knock on the door but instead takes a knife out and jimmies it in and “forbades” himself to think of the wrong he is doing. On that, the blade is a euphemism for penetration, it no longer is an instrument of survival but a tool of destruction. Which would mean that the door and “crack” are symbols of barriers to consent and bodily autonomy as Raymondin does not care for what is right as long as he finds what he seeks “no matter how.” Feminist ecocriticism presents the interconnection of conquering both feminine and environmental nature. This chapter evidently examines this concept through how Raymondin both sees and treats Melusine, something less than human. In this case, both land and women’s bodies are disrespected, pierced, and exposed for knowledge and profit.