Joseph Balsamo (32 page)
” The shadow of the cell is better, sire ; it refreshes the weary spirit ; it soothes the strong as well as the weak the humble as well as the proud the high as well as the low.”
” Do you fear any danger by remaining ? In that case, Louise, cannot the. king defend you ?”
” Sire, may God, in the first place, defend the king ! “
” I repeat, Louise, that mistaken zeal leads you astray. It is good to pray, but not to pray always and you so good, so pious ! can you require such constant prayers ?”
” Oh, my father ! never can I offer up prayers enough to avert from us the woes which threaten us. If God has given me a portion of goodness if for twenty years my only effort has been to purify my soul I fear, alas ! that I am yet far from having attained the goodness and the purity necessary for an expiatory sacrifice.”
The king started back and gazed at the princess with surprise.
” Never have I heard yon speak thus before, my dear
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child,” said he ; “your ascetic life is making your reason wander.”
” Oh, sire, do not speak thus of a devotion the truest that ever subject offered to a king, or daughter to a father, in a time of need. Sire, that throne, of which you but now so proudly spoke as lending a protecting shade to your children that throne totters. You feel not the blows which are dealt at its foundations, but I have seen them. Silently a deep abyss is preparing, which will ingulf the monarchy ! Sire, has any one ever told you the truth ? “
The princess looked around to discover whether the attendants were far enough to be out of hearing of her words, then she resumed :
” Well, sir, I know the truth. Too often have I heard the groans which the wretched send forth, when, as a Sister of Mercy, 1 visited the dark, narrow streets, the filthy lanes, the dismal garrets of the poor. In those streets, those lanes, those garrets, I have seen human beings dying of cold and hunger in winter, of heat and jhirst in summer. You see not, sire, what the country is you go merely from Versailles to Marly, and from Marly to Versailles. But in the country there is not grain I do not say to feed the people, but even to sow for a new harvest for the land, cursed by some adverse power, has received, but has given nothing back. The people wanting bread, are filled with discontent. The air is filled in the twilight and at night with voices telling them of weapons, of chains, of prisons, of tyranny ; and at these voices they awake, cease to complain, and commence to threaten. The parliaments de-mand the right of remonstrance that is, the right to say to you openly what they whisper in private, ‘ ‘ King, you are running the kingdom save it, or we shall save it ourselves.” The soldiers with their idle swords furrow the land in which the philosophers have scattered the seeds of liberty. Men now see things which they formerly saw not, for our writers have laid all open to them ; they know all that we do, and frown whenever their masters pass by. Your majesty’s successor is soon to be married. When Anne of Austria’s son was married, the city of Paris made
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presents to the new queen ; now it is not only silent, and offers nothing, but you have been obliged to use force to collect the taxes, to pay the expense of bringing the daughter of Caesar to the palace of the sou of St. Louis. The clergy have long ceased to pray to God ; but, seeing the lands given away, privileges exhausted, coffers empty, they have begun again to pray for what they call the happiness of the people. And then, sire, must I tell you what you know so well what you have seen with so much bitterness, although you have spoken of it to none ? The kings, your brothers, who formerly envied us, now turn away from us. Your four daughters, sire, the princesses of France, have not found husbands, and there are twenty princes in Germany, three in England, sixteen in the States of the North, without naming our relations, the Bourbons of Spain and Naples, who forget us, or turn away from us like the others. Perhaps the Turk would have taken us had we not been daughters of his most Christian majesty. Not for myself, my father, do I care for this, or complain of it. Mine is a happy state, since it leaves me free, since I am not necessary to any one of my family, and may retire from the world in meditation and in poverty pray to God to avert from your head, and from my nephew’s, the awful storm I see gathering on the horizon of the future.”
” My child, my daughter ! it is your fears which make the future appear so dreadful.”
” Sire, sire, remember that princess of antiquity, that royal prophetess. She foretold to her father and to her brothers war, destruction, conflagration, and her predictions were laughed at they called her mad. Do not treat me as she was treated. Take care, oh, my father ! reflect, my King ! “
Louis XV. folded his arms, and his head sunk on his bosom. “My daughter,” said he, “yon speak very severely. Are those woes which you announce caused by me?”
” God forbid that I should think so ! They are the fruit of the times in which we live. You are whirled on in the career of events as we are all. Only listen, sire, to the ap-
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plause in the theater which follows any allusion against royalty. See, in the evenings, what joyous crowds descend the narrow stairs of the galleries, while the grand marble staircase is deserted. Sire, both the people and the courtiers have made for themselves pleasures quite apart from our pleasures. They amuse themselves without us ; or, rather, when we appear in the midst of their pleasures, they become dull. Alas ! ” continued the princess, her eyes swimming with tears, ” alas ! poor young men, affectionate young women ! love, sing, forget, be happy ! Here, when I went among you, I only disturbed your happiness. Yonder, in my cloister, I shall serve you. Here, you hid your glad smiles in my presence, for fear of displeasing me. There, I shall pray oh, God ! with all my soul for my king, for my sisters, for my nephews, for the people of France for all whom I love with the energy of a heart which no earthly passion has exhausted.”
” My daughter,” said the king, after a melancholy silence, ” I entreat you not to leave me not at this moment, at least ; you will break my heart ‘
The princess seized his hand, and fixing her eyes, full of love, on his noble features, ” No,” said she, ” no, my father not another hour in this palace ! No ; it is time foe-me to pray. I feel in myself strength to redeem, by my tears, those pleasures for which you sigh you, who are yet young. You are the kindest of fathers, you are ever ready to pardon ! “
” Stay with us, Louise stay with us ! ” said the king, pressing her to his heart.
The princess shook her head. ” My kingdom is not of this world,” said she, disengaging herself from her father’s embrace. ” Farewell, my father ! I have told you to-day what for ten years has lain heavy on my heart. The burden became too great. Farewell ! I am satisfied see, I can smile ; I am now, at length, happy I regret nothing.”
” Not even me, my daughter ? “
” Ah, I should regret you, were I never to see you again, but you will sometimes come to St. Denis ? You will not quite forget your child ?”
.-” DUMAS VOL. VI. K
24:2 JOSEPH BALSAMO,
” Oh, never, never ! “
” Do not, my dear father, allow yourself to be affected. Let it not appear that this separation is to be a lasting one. My sisters, I believe, know nothing of it yet ; my women alone have been my confidantes. For eight days I have been making all my preparations ; and I wish the report of my departure should only be spread when the great doors of St. Denis shall have closed on me ; their heavy sound will prevent me from hearing any other.”
The king read in his daughter’s eyes that her resolution was irrevocable. He wished, therefore, that she should go without disturbance. If she feared that sobs might shake her resolution, he feared them still more for his nerves. Besides, he wished to go to Marly that day, and too much grief at Versailles might have obliged him to put off his journey. He reflected, also, that, when issuing from some orgies unfit both for a king and a father, he should never more meet that grave, sad face, which seemed always to reproach him for the careless, worthless existence which he led ; and this thought was not disagreeable to him.
” Be it then, as you wish, my child,” said he ; “but at least receive, before you go, the blessing of a father whom you have always made perfectly happy.”
” Give me your hand only, sire, and let me kiss it. Be-stow your precious blessing on me in thought.”
To those who knew the decision of the princess, it was a solemn spectacle to see her at every step she made advancing, yet in life, to the tombs of her ancestors those ancestors who, from their golden frames, seemed to thank her that she hastened to rejoin them.
At the door of the gallery the king bowed, and returned without uttering a word. The court, according to etiquette, followed him.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
LOQUE, CHIFFE, AXD GRAILLE.
THE king passed on to what was called the Cabinet of the Equipages. It was there that he was accustomed, be-fore going to hunt or to drive out, to pass a few minutes in giving particular orders concerning the vehicles and attendants he should require during the rest of the day.
At the door of the gallery he bowed to the courtiers, and, by a wave of his hand, indicated that he wished to be alone. When they had left him, he passed through the cabinet to a corridor which led to the apartments of the princesses. Having reached the door, before which hung a curtain, he stopped for a moment, shook his head, and muttered between his teeth :
” There was but one of them good, and she is gone ! “
This very flattering speech, for those who remained, was answered by a shrill chorus of voices ; the curtain was raised, and the furious trio saluted their father with cries of :
” Thank you, father, thank you !”
” Ha, Loque I ” said he, addressing the eldest of them, the Princess Adelaide, ” you heard what I said so much the worse for you. Be angry or not, just as you like I only spoke the truth.”
“Yes,” said the Princess Victoire, “you tell us nothing new, sire. We always knew that you preferred Louise to us.”
” In faith, quite true, Chiffe ! “
” And why do you prefer Louise ? ” asked the Princess Sophie, in a sharp voice.
” Because Louise never gave me any trouble,” replied the king, showing that good-humored frankness of which, when he was perfectly pleased, Louis XV. was so complete a type.
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” Oh, but she will give you trouble yet, rest assured,” replied the Princess Sophie, with such a peculiar emphasis that it drew the attention of the king more particularly to her. ” I should be rather surprised if she did not, for she is not very fond of you.”
” r And pray, what do you know about her, Graille?” said he. ” Did Louise, before going away, make you her confidante ? “
“I can say most truly,” answered the princess, ” that I return her affection with interest.”
” Oh, very well ! Hate one another detest one another as much as you choose ; I am perfectly content ; only do not summon me to restore order in the kingdom of the amazons. However, I should like to know how poor Louise is to give me trouble.”
” Poor Louise ! ” repeated the three princesses, making different grimaces at the words. ” You wish to know how she will give you trouble ? Well, I shall tell you,” said the Princess Sophie.
The king stretched himself in a large easy-chair, placed near the door so that he could at any moment make his escape.
“Louise is retiring to a convent because she wishes to carry on some experiments which she cannot make so well in the palace.”
” Come, come ! ” said the king, ” no insinuations against the virtue of your sister. No one beyond these walk has ever dared to sully that, though many things are said of you for which it were well there were no grounds. Do not you begin this subject ! “
“I?”
” Yes, you ! “
“Oh, I was not going to attack Louise’s virtue,” said the Princess Sophie, very much hurt by the peculiar accent her father had given to the you, and by the marked repetition of it ; “I only said she was going to make experiments.”
” Well, and if she does make experiments in chemistry, if she does make fire-arms, and wheels for chairs, if she does
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play on the flute, the drum, or the harpsichord, or even the violin, what harm would there be in it ? “
” The experiments to which I alluded were experiments in politics.”
The king started. The princess on :
” She is going to study philosophy and theology. She will continue the commentaries on the bull < Unigenitus ‘ indeed, we must seem very useless beings when compared with her a lady who writes theories concerning governments, systems of metaphysics, and theology.”
“And if these pursuits lead your sister to heaven, what harm can you see in them ?” said the king, struck, however, with the connection there was between what the Princess Sophie was saying and the manner of the Princess Louise’s departure, accompanied as it had been by a political exhortation. ” If you envy her happiness, you are very bad Christians.”
” No, on my honor !” said the Princess Victoire, “she has my full permission to go ; but I shall take care not to follow her.”
” Nor I,” responded the Princess Adelaide.
” Nor I,” said the Princess Sophie.
“Besides, she always detested us,” said the first.
” You all ? ” the king asked.
” Yes, detested us all,” they replied.
“Oh, then, I see,” he said, “poor Louise has chosen to go to heaven that she may not meet any of her family again.”
This sarcasm made the three sisters laugh, but rather constrainedly, and Adelaide, the eldest, brought all her wit into play, in order to deal her father a more weighty blow than he had given them.
” Ladies,” said she, with the sneering tone which was peculiar to her when roused from that habitual indolence which had procured for her the name of Loque, “you have either not found out, or you do not dare to tell the king, the real cause of Louise’s departure.”