Definition of "chancre"

The nurse stood up and went towards the door. At that point the caretaker said to me, "It's a chancre she's got." I didn't understand, so I looked at the nurse and saw that she had a bandage round her head just below the eyes. Where her nose should have been, the bandage was flat. Her face seemed to be nothing but a white bandage.

1942, Albert Camus, 'The Stranger' (a.k.a 'The Outsider'), Joseph Laredo translation, Ch.1