After days becalmed amid weevils, rats, and dying livestock, the wind finally rises as the captain predicts. Roberval, briefly startled, then triumphant, claps his hands in Marguerite's face to jolt her to attention. Soon a cabin boy spots a gull, and shortly after, Jean Alfonse sights New France—the Gulf of Saint Lawrence—after eight weeks at sea. Roberval claims the land in the name of King and God.

Roberval departs in the ship's boat with the navigator and armed guards to survey the gulf, ordering inventory aboard. Freed from his scrutiny, Marguerite seizes the opportunity and goes below with Auguste. Damienne, resigned, says nothing as the lovers shut themselves in the cabinet, where they finally consummate a deeper physical intimacy. Auguste tells Marguerite that even if separated, she has him already.

Damienne urgently warns that Roberval's boat is returning early. The lovers hastily dress, and Marguerite returns to the table feigning needlework. Roberval arrives announcing they have intercepted Jacques Cartier's three ships sailing east. Cartier privately reported that Charlesbourg-Royal had collapsed: thirty-five colonists murdered by natives, twenty more dead of sickness and starvation, and the survivors mutinous, forcing him to abandon the colony. Roberval dictates this to Auguste, then orders him to put away his writing and arm himself for a return visit to Cartier.

On deck, Roberval selects oarsmen and guards, then pointedly orders Auguste to come along. Marguerite, certain Roberval intends to abandon Auguste on Cartier's ship, steps forward; she and Auguste exchange a single sorrowful look. Roberval sees it, and his composure shatters. Trembling with rage, he denounces Auguste as a whoring servant who conceals his purpose and forbids him to come.

Auguste draws his sword and lunges at Roberval but is overpowered, disarmed, bound, and shackled by the sailors. Roberval seizes Marguerite, demanding what should be done to dissemblers and flatterers, and answers his own question: cut out their tongues. He throws her against the colonists. Auguste is dragged below, but Roberval pronounces no formal punishment, mastering his fury. He boards the ship's boat in chilling silence and rows away to meet Cartier.