Balsamo, the Magician; or, The Memoirs of a Physician

by Alexandre Dumas

  CHAPTER XVI.

  THE KING'S FAVORITE.

  In the apartments of Princess Adelaide, daughter of King Louis X., hehad housed the Countess Jeanne Dubarry, his favorite since a year, notwithout studying the effect it would have on the realm. The jolly,mirthful, devil-may-care mad-cap had transformed the silent palace intoa monkey-house, where any one was tolerated who kept the fun alive.

  At about nine in the morning, the hour of her reception, JeanneVaubernier, to give her her true name, stepped out of her couch,wrapped in an embroidered gauze gown which allowed a glimpse throughthe floating lace of her alabaster arms. This seductive statue,awakening more and more, drew a lace mantle over her shoulders andheld out her little foot for a slipper which, with its jewels, wouldenrich a woodcutter in her native woods had he found it.

  "Any news of Chon, or the Viscount Jean?" she asked at once of herchambermaid.

  "None, and no letters, my lady."

  "What a bore to be kept waiting!" pouted the royal pet, with a prettywry face. "Will they never invent a method of corresponding a hundredmiles apart? Faith, I pity anybody I visit with my vexation this day.But I suppose that, as this star the dauphiness is coming, I, the poorglowworm, will be left alone. Who is waiting, tell me?"

  "Duke Daiguillon, Prince Soubise, Count Sartines and President Maupeou."

  "But the Duke of Richelieu?"

  "He has not yet come."

  "No more than yesterday. That political weathercock has turned from me.He is afraid to be injured, Doris. You must send to his house to askafter him."

  "Yes, my lady; but the king is here."

  "Very well; I am ready."

  The Fifteenth Louis entered the room with a smile on his lips and hishead upright. He was accompanied solely by a gentleman in black, whotried by a smile to counteract the baleful effect of thin, hard lipsand severe gray eyes. It was Lieutenant of Police Sartines.

  The waiting maid and a little negro boy were in the room; but they werenot counted.

  "Good-morning, countess," hailed the monarch; "how fresh we are lookingto-day. Don't be afraid of Sartines; he is not going to talk business,I trust. Oh, how magnificent Zamore is looking!"

  The blackamoor was appareled with the barbaric splendor in whichOthello was attired at that period.

  "Sire, he has a favor to crave of your Majesty."

  "He seems to me very ambitious, after having been granted by you thegreatest boon one can desire--being your slave, like myself."

  Sartines bowed, smiling, but bit his lips at the same time.

  "How delightful you are, sire," said the countess. "I adore you,France!" she whispered in the royal ear, and set him smiling.

  "Well, what do you desire for Zamore?"

  "Recompense for his long service----"

  "He is only twelve years old!"

  "You will be paying him in advance; that is a good way of not beingtreated with ingratitude."

  "Capital idea! What do you think, Sartines?" asked the king.

  "I support it, as all devoted subjects will gain by it."

  "Well, sire, I want Zamore to be appointed governor of my summerresidence, Luciennes, which shall be created a royal place."

  "It would be a parody and make all the governors of the royal placesprotest, and with reason."

  "A good thing, for they are always making a noise for nothing. Zamore,kneel down and thank his majesty for the favor. Sire, you have anotherroyal property from this time forward. Get up, Zamore. You areappointed."

  "Sartines, do you know the way to refuse this witch anything?"

  "If there is one, it is not yet out into practice, sire."

  "When found, I wager it will be by Chief of Police Sartines. I amexpecting him to find me something--and I have been on thorns about itfor three months. I want a magician."

  "To have him burnt alive?" asked the sovereign, while Sartines breathedagain. "It is warm weather, now; wait for winter."

  "Not to burn him, but to give him a golden rod, sire."

  "Oh, did he predict some ill which has not happened?"

  "Nay, a blessing which came to pass."

  "Tell us, countess," said Louis, settling down in an easy chair, likeone who is not sure he will be pleased or oppressed but will risk it.

  "I am agreeable, sire, only you must share in rewarding him."

  "I must make the present entirely."

  "That is right royal."

  "I listen."

  "It begins like a fairy tale. Once upon a time, a poor girl was walkingthe streets of Paris, what time she had neither pages, carriages, negroboy to hold up her train and enrage the dowagers, or parrot or monkey.Crossing the Tuileries gardens, she suddenly perceived that she waspursued."

  "Deuce take it! thereupon she stopped," said the king.

  "Fie! It is clear that your experience has been in following duchessesor marchionesses. She was the more alarmed as a thick fog came on, andthe chaser emerged from it upon her. She screamed."

  "For the rogue was ugly?"

  "No, he was a bright and handsome young man; but still she sued him tospare her from harm. He smiled charmingly and called heaven as witnessthat he had no such intention. He only wanted her pledge to grant him afavor when--when she should be a queen. She thought she was not bindingherself much with such a promise, and the man disappeared."

  "Sartines is very wrong in not finding him."

  "Sire, I do not refuse, but I cannot."

  "Cannot ought not to be in the police dictionary," said Dubarry.

  "We have a clew."

  "Ha, ha! that is the old story."

  "It is the truth. The fault is that your description is so slight."

  "Slight? she painted him so brightly that I forbid you to find the dog."

  "I only want to ask a piece of information."

  "What for, when his prophecy is accomplished?"

  "If I am almost a queen, I want to ask him when I shall be placed inthe court."

  "Presented formally?"

  "It is not enough to reign in the night; I want to reign a little inthe daytime."

  "That is not the magician's business, but mine," said Louis, frowningat the conversation getting upon delicate ground. "Or rather yours, forall that is wanted is an introductress."

  "Among the court prudes--all sold to Choiseul or Praslin?"

  "Pray let us have no politics here."

  "If I am not to speak, I shall act without speaking, and upset theministers without any further notice."

  At this juncture the maid Doris entered and spoke a word to hermistress.

  "It is Chon, who comes from traveling and begs to present her respectsto your majesty."

  "Let us have Chon in, for I have missed something lately, and it may beher."

  "I thank your majesty," said Chon, coming in, and hastening to whisperto her sister in kissing her:

  "I have done it."

  The countess could not repress an outcry of delight.

  "I am so glad to see her."

  "Quite so; go on and chat with her while I confer with Sartines tolearn whence you come, Chon."

  "Sire," said Sartines, eager to avoid the pinch, "may I have a momentfor the most important matter?--about these seers, illuminati, miracleworkers----"

  "Quacks? make them take out licenses as conjurers at a high figure, andthey will not be any cause of fear."

  "Sire, the situation is more serious than most believe. New masoniclodges are being opened. This society has become a sect to which isaffiliated all the foes of the monarchy, the idealists, encyclopedistsand philosophers. Voltaire has been received at court."

  "A dying man."

  "Only his pretense. All are agitating, writing, speaking,corresponding, plotting and threatening. From some words dropped, theyare expecting a leader."

  "When he turns up, Sartines, we will turn him down, in the Bastille."

  "These philosophers whom you despise will destroy the monarchy."

  "In what space of time, my lord?"
/>
  "How can I tell?" said the chief of police, looking astonished. "Ten,fifteen or more years."

  "My dear friend, in that time I shall be no more; tell this to mysuccessor."

  He turned away, and this was the opportunity that the favorite waswaiting for, since she heaved a sigh, and said:

  "Oh, gracious, Chon, what are you telling me? My poor brother Jean sobadly wounded that his arm will have to be amputated!"

  "Oh, wounded in some street affray or in a drinking-saloon quarrel?"

  "No, sire! attacked on the king's highway and nearly murdered."

  "Murdered?" repeated the ruler, who had no feelings, but could finelyfeign them. "This is in your province, Sartines."

  "Can such a thing have happened?" said the chief of police, apparentlyless concerned than the king, but in reality more so.

  "I saw a man spring on my brother," said Chon, "force him to draw hissword and cut him grievously."

  "Was the ruffian alone?"

  "He had half a dozen bullies with him."

  "Poor viscount forced to fight," sighed the monarch, trying to regulatethe amount of his grief by the countess'; but he saw that she was notpretending.

  "And wounded?" he went on, in a heartbroken tone.

  "But what was the scuffle about?" asked the police lieutenant, tryingto see into the affair.

  "Most frivolous; about posthorses, disputed for with the viscount, whowas in a hurry to help me home to my sister, whom I had promised tojoin this morning."

  "This requires retaliation, eh, Sartines?" said the king.

  "It looks so, but I will inquire into it. The aggressor's name andrank?"

  "I believe he is a military officer, in the dauphiness' dragoon guards,and named something like Baverne, or Faver--stop--it is Taverney."

  "To-morrow he will sleep in prison," said the chief of police.

  "Oh, dear, no," interrupted the countess out of deep silence; "thatis not likely, for he is but an instrument and you will not punishthe real instigators of the outrage. It is the work of the Duke ofChoiseul. I shall leave the field free for my foes, and quit a realmwhere the ruler is daunted by his ministers."

  "How dare you?" cried Louis, offended.

  Chon understood that her sister was going too far, and she struck in.

  She plucked her sister by the dress and said:

  "Sire, my sister's love for our poor brother carries her away. Icommitted the fault and I must repair it. As the most humble subject ofyour majesty, I merely apply for justice."

  "That is good; I only ask to deal justice. If the man has done wrong,let him be chastised."

  "Am I asking anything else?" said the countess, glancing pityingly atthe monarch, who was so worried elsewhere and seldom tormented in herrooms. "But I do not like my suspicions snubbed."

  "Your suspicions shall be changed to certainty by a very simple course.We will have the Duke of Choiseul here. We will confront the parties atodds, as the lawyers say."

  At this moment the usher opened the door and announced that the princeroyal was waiting in the king's apartments to see him.

  "It is written I shall have no peace," grumbled Louis. But he was notsorry to avoid the wrangle with Choiseul, and he brightened up. "I amgoing, countess. Farewell! you see how miserable I am with everybodypulling me about. Ah, if the philosophers only knew what a dog's life aking has--especially when he is king of France."

  "But what am I say to the Duke of Choiseul?"

  "Send him to me, countess."

  Kissing her hand, trembling with fury, he hastened away as usual,fearing every time to lose the fruit of a battle won by palliatives andcommon cunning.

  "Alas! he escapes us again!" wailed the courtesan, clenching her plumphands in vexation.