CHAPTER X.
MARIE ANTOINETTE.
As Balsamo had warned them, there was no time to lose. On the highroad, commonly so peaceful, resounded a great tumult of coaches, horsesand voices.
Three carriages stopped at the door, held open by Gilbert, whosedistended eyes and feverish tremor denoted the sharpest emotion atso much magnificence. The principal coach, loaded with gilding andmythological carvings, was no less mud-spattered and dusty than theothers.
A score of brilliant young noblemen ranked themselves near this coach,out of which was assisted a girl of sixteen by a gentleman clad inblack, with the grand sash of the St. Louis order under his coat.She wore no hair powder, but this plainness had not prevented thehairdresser building up her tresses a foot above her forehead.
Marie Antoinette Josepha, for it was she, brought into France a famefor beauty not always owned by princesses destined to share the throneof that realm. Without being fine, her eyes took any expression sheliked; but particularly those so opposite as mildness and scorn;her nose was well shaped; her upper lip pretty; but the lower one,the aristocratic inheritance of seventeen kaisers, too thick andprotruding, even drooping, did not suit the pretty visage, except whenit wanted to show ire or indignation.
On this occasion, Marie Antoinette wore her womanly look and womanlysmile, more, that of a happy woman. If possible, she did not mean to bethe royal princess till the following day. The sweetest calm reigned onher face; the most charming kindness enlivened her eyes.
She was robed in white silk, and her handsome bare arms supported aheavy lace mantle.
She refused the arm of the gentleman in black, and freely advanced,snuffing the air, and casting glances around as though wishful to enjoybrief liberty.
"Oh, the lovely site! What fine old trees! and the pretty littlehouse!" she ejaculated. "How happy they must dwell in this nice air andunder these trees which hide us in so well."
Philip Taverney appeared, followed by Andrea, giving her arm to herfather, wearing a fine royal blue velvet coat, last vestige of formersplendor. Andrea wore a ruddy gray silk dress and had her hair in longplaits. Following Balsamo's hint, the baron had donned the insignia ofthe Knightly Order.
"Your highness," said Philip, pale with emotion and noble in hissorrow, "allow me the honor to present Baron de Taverney, Red Castle,my sire, and Mademoiselle Claire Andrea, my sister."
The old noble bowed low with the style of one who knew how queensshould be saluted; his daughter displayed all the grace of eleganttimidity, and the most flattering politeness of sincere respect.
Regarding the pair, and recalling what Philip had stated on theirpoverty, Marie Antoinette felt with them in their suffering.
"Your highness does Taverney Castle too much honor," said the baron;"so humble a place is nowise worthy to harbor such beauty and nobility."
"I know that I am at the doors of an old soldier of France," was theroyal response, "and my mother, the Empress Maria Theresa, who oftenwent to the wars, says that in your kingdom the richest in glory areoft the poorest in gold."
With ineffable grace she held out her hand to Andrea, who knelt to kissit.
The dauphiness suddenly extricated the baron from his terror aboutharboring the great number of the retinue.
"My lords and gentlemen," she said, "it is not for you to bear thefatigue of my whims or enjoy the privileges of a royal princess.Pray, await me here; in half an hour I shall return. Come with me,Langenshausen," she said to the countess of that house who was herduenna. "Follow me, my lord," she added to the gentleman in black.
His plain attire was of remarkable style; he was a handsome person ofthirty years and smooth manners; he stood aside to let the princessgo by. She took Andrea to her side and motioned Philip to follow. Thebaron fell into place next the fashionable gentleman.
"So you are a Taverney of Redcastle?" queried this fop, as he preenedhis fine honiton lace ruffles with aristocratic impertinence.
"Am I to answer a gentleman or a nobleman?" returned the baron withequal sauciness.
"Prince will do," said the other, "or eminence."
"Well, yes, your eminence, I am a real Taverney," replied the poornobleman, without dropping the insolent tone he usually kept.
The prince had the tact of great lords, for he readily perceived thathe was not dealing with a rustic hobbledehoy.
"I suppose this is your summer residence?" he continued.
"My residence in all seasons," replied the baron, desiring to finishwith this examination, but accompanying his answers with deep bows.
Philip kept turning round to his father with uneasiness; the houseseemed towering up to exhibit more and more of their penury. The baronwas just holding his hand toward the sill, deserted by visitors, whenthe dauphiness turned to him, saying:
"Excuse me not going indoors, but these shady spots are so pleasantthat I could pass my life beneath them. I am rather weary of interiors.For a fortnight I have been received under roofs--and I like open air,flowers and the shade of foliage. Might I not have a drink of milk inthis bower?"
"What a mean refreshment, your highness!" faltered the baron.
"I prefer it, with new-laid eggs, my lord. Such formed my feasts atSchoenbrunn."
All of a sudden, Labrie, puffed up with pride in a showy livery, andholding a damask napkin, appeared in the jessamine hung arbor which thearchduchess was eyeing covetously.
"The refreshment is ready for your royal highness," he said with a neatmingling of respect and serenity.
"Am I housed by an enchanter?" exclaimed the princess, darting into thebower.
The perturbed baron forgot etiquette to leave the gentleman in blackand run after his guest.
Philip and Andrea looked at each other with even more anxiety thanastonishment.
Under the twining clematis, jessamine and honeysuckle an oval table wasset, dazzling from the whiteness of the damask cloth and the carvedbullion plate upon it. Ten sets of silver awaited as many guests. Achoice but strange collation attracted the visitor's gaze. Foreignfruit preserved in sugar; cake and crackers from Aleppo and Madeira,oranges and melons of uncommon size, set in large vases. The richestand noblest wines glittered in all hues of ruby and topaz in fourcut-glass Persian decanters. The milk asked for filled a crystal cup.
"But you must have expected me, since in no ten minutes which I havebeen here could this sumptuous spread be placed." And the princessglanced at Labrie as much as to say: "With only one servant, too?"
"I did expect your royal highness," faltered the baron; "of your comingbeing apprised."
"If your son did not inform you by letter, then it must have been somefairy--I suppose, the godmother of your daughter."
"It was not so much a fairy, as a magician," said Taverney, offeringa seat to the princess. "I do not know anything about how he has donethis, as I do not dabble in magic, but I owe it to him that I am fitlyentertaining your highness."
"Then I will have none of it. It is contrary to the faith--but hiseminence is going to sin, with that liver-pie!"
"We are rather too worldly, we princes of the Church," replied thegentleman in black, "to believe the celestial wrath poisons victuals,and we are too human to visit ill on magicians who provide such goodthings."
"But I assure your eminence that this is a real sorcerer who conjuredup this board ready spread, and who may have produced the gold of thisservice in the same manner."
"Does he know of the stone which changes all into gold?" questioned thechurchman, with his eyes kindling with covetousness.
"This pleases the cardinal, who has passed his life seeking thephilosopher's stone," said the princess.
"I own that I find nothing more interesting than supernatural things,"returned the prince; "nothing more curious than what's impossible."
"So I have hit the vital spot, have I?" said the archduchess. "Everygreat man has a mystery, particularly when he is a diplomatist. Letme warn your eminence that I also am a witch, and that I can see intomatters--if
not curious and impossible--incredible."
This was an incomprehensible enigma to all but the cardinal, for he wasplainly embarrassed. The gentle eye of the Austrian had flared with oneof those fires denoting a storm gathering. But there was no thunderousoutbreak, for she went on, restraining herself:
"Come my lord of Taverney, make the feast complete by producing yourmagician. Where is he? In what box have you put Old Hocus Pocus?"
"Labrie, notify Baron Joseph Balsamo that her Royal Highness theDauphiness desires to see him."
"Balsamo?" repeated the high lady, as the valet started off. "What anodd name!"
"I fancy I have heard it before," murmured the cardinal.
Five minutes passed with none thinking of breaking the stillness, whenAndrea shuddered, for she heard before any other the step beneaththe foliage. The branches were parted and right in front of MarieAntoinette, Joseph Balsamo appeared.
Balsamo, the Magician; or, The Memoirs of a Physician Page 10