Joseph Balsamo (31 page)
” A letter from a person concerned for her royal highness the dauphiness, and who thinks it singular that any one should dare to affront her.”
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” Ha ! ” cried the king, ” more mysteries, secret correspondences, plots ! Every one is beginning again to plan annoyances for me, as in the time of the Marchioness de Pompadour ! “
” No, sire,” said the minister ; ” this affair is no plot, and can be settled very simply. It is the crime of treason in the second degree. Let the guilty person be punished, and all will be settled ‘
At this word, punished, Louis XV. saw in fancy the conntess furious, and Chon in a rage he saw peace flying from his dwelling peace which he had been seeking all his life, but had never been able to find , and intestine war with crooked nails and eyes red with tears entering in her stead.
” Punished I” cried he, ” without the accused having been heard ? without knowing which side is in the right ? You make a very extraordinary proposal to me, duke you wish to draw odium on me !”
” But, sire, who will henceforward respect her royal highness the danphiness if a severe example is not made of the person who first insulted her ? “
” Certainly, sire,” added the dauphin, ” it would be a scandal.”
” An example ? a scandal ? ” cried the king. ” Mordieu ! if I make an example of all the scandalous things that go on around me, I may pass my life in signing arrests for the Bastile. I have signed enough of them as it is, Heaven knows ! “
” In this case it is necessary, sire,” said the duke.
” Sire, I entreat your majesty,” said the dauphin.
” What, do you not think him punished already, by the wound he has received ?”
” No, sire, for he might have wounded the Chevalier de Taverney.”
” And in such a case, what would you have done ? “
*’ I should have demanded his head.”
” Bnt that was only what was done in the case of Monsieur de Montgomery, for killing King Henry II.,” said the king.
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” He killed the king by accident, sire. Viscount Dubarry insulted the dauphiness intentionally ‘
” And you, sir,” said the king, turning to the dauphin, ” do you wish to have Jean’s head ? “
” No, sir ; I am not in favor of the punishment of death, as your majesty knows ; I shall merely demand from you the viscount’s banishment.”
The king started up.
” Banishment for a tavern quarrel ? Louis, you are severe, notwithstanding your philanthropical notions ; it is true that before becoming philanthropist you were a mathematician, and “
” Will your majesty deign to proceed ? “
11 A mathematician would sacrifice the universe to his problem.”
”’ Sire,” said the dauphin, ” I have no ill-will toward Viscount Dubarry, personally.”
” With whom, then, are you angry ? “
” With the insulter of her royal highness the dauphiness.”
” What a model for husbands ! ” cried the king, ironically ;” but I am not so easy of belief. I see very well who is attacked under all this I see to what people would lead me with their exaggerations.”
” Sire,” said M. de Choiseul, ” do not be misled ; nothing has been exaggerated ; the public are indignant at the insolence which has been shown in this affair.”
” The public ? There is another monster with which you frighten yourself, or, rather, with which you would frighten me. Shall I listen to this public, which by the thousand mouths of libelists, and pamphleteers, and ballad-mongers, tell me that I am robbed, tossed in a blanket, betrayed on all hands ? No, no; I let the public talk, and I laugh. Do as I do. Pardieu ! close your ears and when your great public is tired of bawling, it will stop. There you are again, making your discontented bow and Louis is putting on a sulky face ! Heavens ! is it not singular that what is done for the lowest individual can not be done for me ? I cannot be allowed to live quietly in my own fashion. Everybody hates what I love, and
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eternally lores what I hate. Am I in my sense or am I a fool ? Am I the master, or am I not ? “
The dauphin took up his file, and returned to his work in the clock. The Duke de Choiseul bowed exactly as before.
” There, now no answer ! Answer something, will yon ? Mordieu ! yon will kill me with vexation first at your talk, then at your silence with your petty hatred and your petty fears ! “
” I do not hate the Viscount Dubarry ‘ said the dauphin, smiling.
” And I do not fear him, sir,” said the minister, haughtily.
” You are both very ill-natured ‘ cried the king, pretending to be in a great passion when he was in reality only out of temper ; ” you wish to make me the laughing-stock of all Europe to give my cousin of Prussia something to make jests on to make me realize the Court of King Petaud, which that rascal, Voltaire, has described ; but I will not be what you wish no ; you shall not have that satisfaction. I know what concerns my own honor, and I shall attend to it in my own way, and only as I choose myself.”
“Sire,” said the dauphin, with that immovable mildness which characterized him, but at the same time with that constant perseverance of his, ” this is not a matter which concerns your honor it is the dignity of the dauphiness which has been attacked *
His royal highness is right, sire ‘ said the duke; “let but your majesty speak the word, and no one will again dare to insult her ! “
” And who would insult her ? No one intended to insult her. Jean is a stupid fellow, but he is not malignant ‘
“Well, then, sir ‘ continued the minister, “let it be placed to the account of stupidity, and let him ask pardon of the Chevalier de Taverney for his mistake.”
” I said before,” cried the king, “that I have nothing to do in the affair ; let Jean ask pardon, heis at liberty to do so ; or let him decline, he is at liberty also.”
” The affair given up in that way, sire, I must take the liberty to inform vour majesty, will be talked about.”
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” So much the better ! ” exclaimed the king ; ” let it be talked about until I am deafened with it, provided I don’t hear all this nonsense of yours.”
” Then,” replied the minister, with his imperturbable coolness, ” I am authorized by your majesty to say that Viscount Dubarry did right ?”
” Authorized by me authorized by me ? and in an affair of which I understand nothing ! You mean, I see, to drive me to extremities ; but take care, duke ! take care ; and, Louis, I advise you to be more cautious how you conduct yourself toward me. I shall leave you to think of what I have said, for I am tired out I cannot bear this any longer. Good-by, gentlemen. I am going to see my daughters, and then I shall take refuge at Marly, where I may hope for some tranquillity, if you do not follow me.”
At this moment, and as the king was going toward the door, it was opened, and an usher appeared.
” Sire,” said he, ” her royal highness the Princess Louise is awaiting your majesty in the gallery to bid you farewell.”
” To bid me farewell ? ” exclaimed the king, in alarm, e ‘ where is she going ? “
” Her royal highness says that she has had your majesty’s permission to leave the palace.”
” Ha ! another scene. This is my bigot daughter going to show off some of her follies. In truth, I am the most wretched of men ! ” And he left the apartment, running.
” His majesty has given us no answer,” said the Duke de Choiseul ; “what has your royal highness decided on?”
” Ah ! there it strikes ! ” said the young prince, listening with either a real or a pretended joy to the clock which he had made to go once more.
The minister frowned and retired backward from the Saloon of Time-pieces, leaving the dauphin alone.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
MME. LOUI9E OF FRANCE.
THE king’s eldest daughter awaited him in the great gallery of Lebrun, the same in which Louis XIV., in 1683, had received the Doge Imperial! and the four Genoese senators sent to implore pardon for the republic.
At the further end of the gallery, opposite the door by which the king must enter, were three or four ladies of honor, who seemed in the utmost consternation. Louis arrived just at the moment when groups began to form in the vestibule, for the resolution which the princess had taken only that morning was now spreading on all sides through the palace.
The Princess Louise possessed a majestic figure, and a truly regal style of beauty, yet a secret sadness had left its lines on her fair forehead. Her austere practise of every virtue, and her respect for the great powers of the state powers which for the last fifty years had only obtained a semblance of respect from interest or from fear had caused her to be regarded with veneration by the court. “We must add that she was loved even by the people, although a feeling of disaffection toward their masters was now general. The word tyrants had not yet been heard.
She was loved because her virtue was not stern. She was not loudly talked of, but all knew that she had a heart. She manifested this every day by works of charity, while others only showed it by shameless self-indulgence. Louis XV. feared this daughter for the simple reason that he esteemed her. There were even times when he went so far as to be proud of her ; and she was the only one of his chil= dren whom he spared in his sharp raillery or his silly familiarities. He called hermadame, while the Princesses Adelaide, Victoire, and Sophie he named Loque, Chiffe,
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and Graille.* Since the period when Marshal Saxe carried with him to the tomb the soul of the Turennes and the Condes, and with the Queen Maria Lezinska passed away the governing mind of a Maria Theresa, all became mean and worthless around the throne of France. The Princess Louise, whose character was truly regal, and, compared with those around her, seemed even heroic, alone remained to adorn the crown, like a pearl of price amid false stones and tinsel. We should be wrong in concluding from this that Louis XV. loved his daughter. Louis, it is well known, loved no one but himself ; we only affirm that he preferred her to all his other children.
When he entered, he found the princess in the center of the gallery, leaning on a table inlaid with crimson jasper and lapis lazuli. She was dressed entirely in black, and her beautiful hair, which was without powder, was covered by a double roll of lace. A deeper shade of sadness than usual rested on her brow. She looked at no one in the apartment, but from time to time her melancholy gaze waiidered over the portraits of the kings of Europe, which ornamented the gallery, at the head of whom were those of her ancestors, the kings of France.
The black dress which she wore was the usual traveling costume of princesses. It concealed large pockets, still worn as in the times of the good house-wife-like queens, and. the Princess Louise, imitating them in that, also, had the numerous keys of her chests and wardrobes suspended at her waist by a gold chain.
The king’s face assumed a serious expression when he saw how silent all in the gallery were, and how attentively they awaited the result of the interview between him and his daughter. But the gallery was so long that the spectators at either end might see but they could not hear what passed ; they had a right to see it was their duty not to hear.
The princess advanced a few steps to meet the king, and taking his hand, she kissed it respectfully.
* Tag, rag, and scrap.
JOSEPH BALSAMO. 23Y
” They tell me you are setting out on a journey, ma-dame,” said he, ” are you going into Picardy ? “
” No, sire,” she replied.
” Then, I presume ‘ said he, in a louder voice, ” that you are about to make a pilgrimage to Noirmoutiers ?”
” No, sire. I am going to retire to the convent of the Carmelites at St. Denis, of which you know I have the right to be abbess. “
The king started, but he preserved his countenance unmoved, although in reality his heart was troubled.
” Oh, uo, no, my daughter !” he said ; “you will not leave me. It is impossible you can leave me ! “
” My dear father, it is long since I decided on abandoning the world. Your majesty permitted me to make that decision ; do not now, I entreat you, my dear father, op-pose my wishes.”
” Yes, certainly, you wrung from me the permission of which you speak. I gave it, but still hoped that when the moment of departure came, your heart would fail you. You ought not to bury yourself in a cloister ; by acting so, you forget what is due to your rank. It is grief or want of fortune which makes the convent besought as a refugo. The daughter of the King of France is certainly not poor ; and, if she be unhappy, the world ought not to know it.”
The king’s thoughts, and even his language, seemed to become more elevated as he entered more and more into the part he was called on to play that of a king and a father. This is, indeed, a part never played ill, when pride and regret inspire the actor.
” Sire,” replied the princess, perceiving her father’s emotion, and fearful that it might affect her more deeply than she desired at that moment, “sire, do not, by your tenderness for me, weaken my resolution ; my grief is no vulgar grief, therefore, my resolution to retire from the world is not in accordance with the usual customs of our day. “
” Your grief ?” exclaimed the king, as if from a real impulse of feeling. ” Have you, then, sorrows, my poor child?”
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“Heavy, heavy sorrows, sire.”
” Why did you not confide them to me, my dearest daughter ? “
” Because they are sorrows not to be assuaged by any mortal hand.”
” Not by that of a king ? “
” Ah, no, sire “
” Not by a father’s hand ? “
” No, sire, no ! “
“Bat you are religious, Louise ; does not religion give you strength ? “
“Not sufficient strength yet, sire ; therefore I retire to a cloister in order to obtain more. In silence God speaks to the heart of man in solitude man communes with God.”
” But, in acting thus you are making a sacrifice for which nothing can compensate. The throne of France casts a majestic shadow over the children of is kings. Ought not this reflected greatness to be sufficient for you ? “