Sébastien had been impressively good-looking since his teens. Even today, in approaching middle age, he still had a firm chin, the chiseled cheekbones of certain Native Americans, a straight and patrician nose and a full, sensuous, almost feminine mouth. Together, his fine traits gave him the look of a seductive and very intriguing man. Only his eyes, bright, piercing and deep blue, betrayed a possible hint of cruelty in his character. Several men and a woman or two had sometimes affirmed that he perfectly personified Saint Sébastien, the Christian martyr of the third century. The beautiful young man, depicted by so many painters and sculptors of the Renaissance, presented the same erotic and ambiguous allure: at once that of a virile male and of a submissive homosexual. He sighed, out of
