CHAPTER XXIX.
THE LIQUOR OF BEAUTY.
The beautiful favorite of Louis XV. had been shown into the parlor whereshe impatiently waited for Balsamo while turning over the leaves ofHolbein's Dance of Death, which caught her attention on the table. Shehad just arrived at the picture of the Beauty powdering her cheek beforea mirror, when the host opened the door and bowed to her with a smile ofjoy over his face.
"I am sorry to have made you wait," he said, "but I was a little out inmy calculation about the speed of your horses."
"Gracious, did you know that I was coming?"
"Certainly; at least you gave the orders for your sister to transmitthem for your departure, while lounging in your blue boudoir."
"Wizard that you are, if you can see all that goes on there, you mustapprise me."
"I only look in where doors are open."
"But you saw my intention as regards you?"
"I saw that it was good."
"So are all mine to you, count. But you merit more than mere intentionsfor it seems to me that you are too good and useful to me in taking thepart of tutor the most difficult to play that I know."
"You make me very happy; what can I do for you?"
"Have you not, to begin with, some of the seed which makes oneinvisible: for on the way it seemed to me that one of Richelieu's menwas riding after me."
"The Duke of Richelieu cannot be dangerous to you in any meeting," saidthe mesmerist.
"But he was, my lord, before this last scheme failed."
Balsamo comprehended that here was a plot of which Lorenza had notinformed him. So he smiled without venturing on the unknown ground.
"I nearly fell a victim to the scheme, in which you had a share."
"I, in a scheme against you? never."
"Did you not give Richelieu a philter to make the drinker fail madly inlove?"
"Oh, no, my lady: he composes those things himself; I did give him asimple narcotic--a sleeping draft. He called for it on the eve of theday when I sent you the note by my man Fritz to meet me at Sartines."
"That is it--the very time when the King went to little Taverney'srooms. It is all clear now, for the narcotic saved us."
"I am happy to have served your ladyship, though unawares," he saidwithout knowing the matter.
"Yes; the King must have seen the girl under the influence of thissoporific, for he was seen to stagger out of the chapel corridor duringthe storm, crying 'She is dead!' Nothing frightens the King more thanthe dead, or next to it those in a death-like sleep. Finding Mdlle. deTaverney in a sleep, he took it for death."
"Yes, like death, with all the appearances," said the other, rememberingthat he had fled without reviving Andrea. "Go on, my lady!"
"The King woke with a touch of fever and was only better at noon. Hecame over to see me in the evening, where I discovered that Richelieu isalmost as great a conjurer as your lordship."
The countess's triumphant face, and her gesture of coquetry and gracecompleted her thought, and perfectly encouraged the Italian about hersway over the King.
"So you are satisfied with me?" he asked.
She held out in token of thanks her white, soft and scented hand, onlyit was not fresh like Lorenza's.
"Now, count, if you preserved me from a great danger, I believe I havesaved you from one not to be despised."
"I had no need to be grateful to you," said Balsamo, hiding his emotion,"but I should like to know---- "
"That casket really contained cipher correspondence which Sartines hadhis experts write out plain: That is what he brought to Versailles thismorning, with blank warrants to imprison parties named in the documents:one was filled with your name, but I would not let him slip that underthe royal hand for the signature. Since Damiens stuck him with thepenknife, he can be frightened into anything by the bogey ofassassination. Sartines persisted and so did I, but the King said with asmile and looking at me in a style which I know:
"'Let her alone, Sartines: I can refuse her nothing to-day.'
"As I was by, Sartines did not like to vex me by accusing you direct buthe talked of the King of Prussia bolstering up the philosophers of anumerous and powerful sect formed of courageous, resolute and skillfuladepts, working away underhandedly against his Royal Majesty. He saidthey spread evil reports, as for instance that the King was in thescheme to starve the people. To which Louis replied: 'Let anybody comeforward, saying so and I will give him the lie by furnishing him withboard and lodging for nothing. I will feed him in the Bastile.'"
Balsamo felt a shiver run through him, but he stood firm.
"And the end?"
"It was the day after the sleeping potion, you understand," he preferredmy company to Sartines; and turned to me.
"'Drive away this ugly man,' I said, 'he smells of the prison.'
"'You had better go, Sartines,' said the King.
"Seeing he was in a scrape, he came to me and kissing my hand humbly, hesaid: 'Lady, let us say no more on this head--(your head, count)--butyou will ruin the realm. Since you so strongly wish it, my men shallprotect your protege.'"
The conspirator was buried in thought.
"So you see you must thank me for not having been clapped into theBastile," concluded the countess: "not unjust, perhaps, butdisagreeable."
Without replying Balsamo took from his pocket a phial containing a fluidof blood color.
"For the liberty you give me," he said, "I give you twenty years moreyouthfulness."
She slipped the bottle into her corsage and went off, joyous andtriumphant.
"They might have been saved but for the coquetry of this woman," hemurmured. "It is the little foot of this courtesan which spurns theminto the abyss. Beyond doubt, God is on our side!"
The Mesmerist's Victim Page 29