CHAPTER VIII.
The city of Paris, and the country in general, were then in a pitiablestate, owing to every party in the land combining, in the strongestdegree that it is possible to imagine, the qualities of knave andfool. The Parliament was playing the fool in Paris, and yetsacrificing the country to the nicest calculations of its owninterest. The party of the Duke of Bouillon was playing the fool, andletting slip every opportunity of effecting its own objects, while itwas calling a foreign power into the heart of its native country toobtain them. The people were playing the fool in suffering themselvesto be led by an ass, the Duke de Beaufort, and by a knave, theCardinal de Retz, while, at the same time, they took care to enrichthemselves by the plunder of the stores and magazines; and last, notleast, the Court was playing the fool at St. Germain, treating weaklywhere it might have acted vigorously, and yet cheating all the otherparties with the most consummate art.
The situation of France at the time I entered Paris was, in a fewwords, as follows:--Louis XIV. was then a mere boy, under the regencyof his mother, who, in turn, was under the government of CardinalMazarin; and these three personages, together with the Prince ofCond?, and a large body of nobility, were then at St. Germain-en-laye,shut out of the city of Paris, which they were besieging without asufficient body of troops to take even one of the gates. TheParliament, which had begun the war, and the people who had secondedit, remained in the capital, hating Mazarin, and laughing at theCourt; but heartily sick of a war which prevented the butter and creamfrom the country reaching Paris in safety; while a party of clever menand immense rogues, consisting of a number of general officers, withthe Dukes of Bouillon, Elbeuf, Beaufort, the Prince de Conti, and theArchbishop de Retz, laboured night and day to keep both people andParliament in a state of agitation and excitement, in order that eachof these worthy and notable leaders might wring from the weakness of aregency every sort of gift, honour, and emolument. For this purpose,open war had been declared against the Court, while, as usual, theKing's name was used, and the King's standard displayed on both sides.All the people in the realm seemed mad, and a strange spirit ofcontradicting their own established characters appeared to have seizedupon every one. Acknowledged cowards led armies and rushed intobattle, the most faithful turned traitors, the most honest becameknaves, the firm were in a continual state of vacillation, the wiseshowed themselves fools, and the brave ran away. However, as it becameevident to the Parisian generals that the Parliament was inclined toseparate from the people, and make peace with the Court for itself,before the concessions were granted which they, the generals, demandedfor themselves, they determined to do their best, by means of thepeople within the city and of armies without, to compel the Parliamentto be honest to them and dishonest to the Court. Negotiations wereimmediately opened with the Spanish government of the Low Countries,Spanish ambassadors were received in Paris, the Archduke began hismarch into France, Turenne, himself, with the common madness of theday, raised the standard of rebellion against his king in aid of hisbrother the Duke of Bouillon, and the Duc de Longueville promised toadvance also with his forces from Rouen to support the Parisians intheir struggle.
Such was the situation of things externally when I entered thecapital, and became attached to one of the party of general officers.At the same time, it is to be remarked, that deputies from theParliament were treating for peace at Ruel; and though the date oftheir powers had expired, they were still continuing theirnegotiations. A report even was current that they had concluded atreaty with Mazarin; and as I had passed through the town on my way tothe house of Monsieur de Villardin, I had found the people collectedin large bodies, shouting, "Down with Mazarin! down with theParliament!"
By the time that we issued forth into the streets to take our way tothe building where the great judicial body was assembled, the rumourhad become still more general, and the crowds, of course, wereincreased. Nothing was heard but cries and shouts, and what were thencalled Mazarinades. Poniards, muskets, pikes, and swords were in allhands; and so very indiscriminate was the use which the people seemedinclined to make of their weapons, that it was only by constantlyjoining in their shout of "Down with Mazarin!" that we made our waythrough them in safety. The numbers in the neighbourhood of the_palais_ were still more immense and vociferous; and even the crowd ofguards who were keeping the court and the doors of the building seemednot a whit less infuriated than the people. At the same time personswere seen continually coming out from the Parliament, and haranguingthe multitude; and those also who went in seldom failed to treat themto a taste of their eloquence ere they entered the gates; the state ofinsanity to which all this oratory raised the populace may easily beimagined; and at one time I heard a man exclaim from amongst thecrowd, that they should hang the deputies over the gates; while one ofthe town-guard added, that if Monsieur de Villardin, who was justgoing in, would return and point out to them who were really the_Mazarins_ in the Parliament itself, they would drag them out, andponiard them in the court.
Upon this, the Duke, of course, favoured them with an oration also,and a curious piece of composition it was; consisting of a series ofpleasantries upon the Parliament, upon Mazarin, upon himself, upon theCourt, and upon everything, mingled with a few apophthegms uponpolicy, religion, and morals, which all tended to captivate thepeople, and make them think him wondrous wise, without tending in theleast to calm them, or reduce them to order and decency. Now Monsieurde Villardin was not only a polished speaker, and, where his ownpassions were not concerned, a close reasoner, but he was also reallya patriotic, generous, disinterested man; and the fact of his speakingfor half an hour, as he did on the present occasion, a tissue ofhigh-sounding, disjointed nonsense, which could only serve to inflamestill farther the minds of a mad and excited populace, can only beaccounted for upon the grounds of the general insanity which seemed atthat time to have seized upon all ranks and classes.
This oration being finished, we entered the Parliament House; and, bythe special favour of one of the door-keepers, my new lord waspermitted to take me with him into the interior of the building,perhaps anticipating one of those scenes in which the prompt hand andready perception that had been my principal recommendation in hiseyes, might be serviceable to him in more ways than one. We took ourway by the great staircase in the right wing, and soon found ourselvesin what is called the _Salle des pas perdus_, which was full of peopleof all sorts and descriptions; guards, doorkeepers, and officers ofthe _palais_; counsellors, statesmen, members of the differentchambers, and the mixed crowd of attendants belonging to all those whowere thronging to the Parliament on the present momentous occasion.Passing onward, through the small refreshment rooms called _LesBuvettes_, where no obstacle was presented to my following my master,we were soon in the midst of the hall in which the Parliament wereassembled; and such a scene of disgraceful confusion has seldom,perhaps, been witnessed. Half-a-dozen people were upon their feetharanguing at once; and several minutes elapsed before anything couldbe heard except a confused gabble of tongues, which might have donehonour to the top of the tower of Babel.
At length, the Duke d'Elbeuf, whom I had seen before, and who seemedto have the longest breath, the loudest voice, and the most determinedpertinacity of the party, obtained the ascendancy; and one by onesitting down, he was left speaking alone.
"Now, Sir President," he continued, turning to a man of dignifiedappearance, who, habited as a high law officer, occupied one of theprincipal places of the assembly,--"now, Sir President, since I canmake myself heard, I demand distinctly whether you or any of yourfellow-deputies have, at your conference with Mazarin and the Court,made any provision whatever for the security and remuneration of thegenerals and other officers who have sacrificed so much in the causeof the Parliament and the people?"
"Before I reply to any particular questions," answered the President,"I will, with the permission of the Parliament, read the _proc?sverbal_ of our proceedings at the conference at Ruel. Then having seenwhat we have re
ally done, the chambers will be enabled to judgewhether they can approve of the treaty of peace we have concluded."
"You had no power, you had no power," shouted forty or fifty voices atonce,--"you had no power to conclude anything! Your authority expiredfour or five days ago! There is no peace; we will have no peace! Thedeputies have gone beyond their powers; they have abandoneddisgracefully our generals and our friends!"
In vain the Chief President attempted to read the paper which he hadin his hand. Every time he opened his mouth his words were drowned inmurmurs and reproaches; and, even when he abandoned the endeavour andsat down, it was clear that the rest of the assembly only waited forsome new word to break forth again into tumult and invective. Allsolemnity, all dignity, was laid aside: the turbulence had not eventhe impressiveness derived from being terrible: it was simplyridiculous; and the only image presented to the mind by the wholescene was a body of fishwomen scolding in a market.
After the silence of perhaps a minute which ensued, a little paleyoung man, who seemed to be slightly deformed, and who I afterwardsfound was the Prince de Conti, rose near the head of the hall, andsaid, in a mild and sweet-toned voice, that he did wonder that thedeputies from the Parliament had thought fit to conclude a peace withthe Court, without consulting himself and the generals of the army.Another person, who was afterwards addressed as the Duke de Bouillon,with a broad, unmeaning countenance, which, however, lighted up in anextraordinary manner when he began to speak, followed the Prince deConti in addressing the Parliament:--
"Gentlemen," he said, "since you have thought fit to conclude a peacewith the Court, and allowed the Cardinal Mazarin, whose enmity I haveso highly provoked in your service, to remain prime minister, the onlyfavour and reward that I shall require of you is, to obtain me apassport, as speedily as possible, to quit the country with myfamily."
"We have not concluded a peace; we disavow it. The deputies had nopower," cried a dozen voices at once; and everybody again beganspeaking together, as if the sense of hearing had suddenly left thewhole assembly. One man, the Duke de Beaufort, who was handsomeenough, indeed, but whose good looks were principally composed of highhealth and stupidity, laid his hand upon the hilt of his sword, anddeclared that it should never draw blood for Mazarin. Anotherprotested that the Parliament had rendered itself for ever unworthy ofthe confidence of the people; and, what between reproaches and tumult,more than an hour passed without anything being concluded.
In the midst of all this uproar, however, a piece of buffoonery,performed by the well-known Bachaumont, restored some sort of goodhumour to the assembly; for, seizing a momentary pause, when everytongue, as if by common consent, halted to take breath, he passedbehind the famous De Retz, then archbishop-coadjutor of Paris,snatched forth a poniard, which he had espied lying concealed in thebosom of that factious prelate, and, holding it up to the eyes of theParliament, exclaimed, "Gentlemen, gentlemen, look at the breviary ofour archbishop!"
A roar of laughter succeeded, which left the whole of that graveassembly so much out of countenance, that it was some time before theycould speak of any serious business, much more return to the angrydisputation in which they had been interrupted.
Taking advantage of the change, one of the lawyers, called thePresident de Coigneux, rose, and made the most sensible propositionwhich had yet been heard; namely, that, as the deputies had actedwithout authority, and as the responsibility of what they had done, ofcourse rested upon themselves, they should be sent back with thetreaty they had framed, and, though permitted to take it for the basisof a new one, should be directed, in addition, to stipulate forimmunity and recompence to the generals and nobles who had engaged inthe cause of the Parliament.
He had not yet concluded his harangue, however, when a tremendousnoise in the court below, and even in the hall without, together withloud shouts of "Down with Mazarin! Down with the Parliament! Hang upthe deputies! Long live the noble generals! Let us have a republic!Set fire to the _palais!_" and other such sweet and delectableexhortations, roared by the stentorian voices of the crowd, caused theorator to turn very pale, and to sit down before he had finished hisoration. Another lawyer rose, to second the proposal of the first: butby this time the noise had become so tremendous that what he saidcould not be distinguished; and the moment after the great door of thehall opened, and one of the doorkeepers entered, pale and trembling,announcing, in a voice scarcely articulate with fear, that thepopulace had forced their way into the _Salle des pas perdus_, anddemanded to speak with the Duc de Beaufort.
That prince--who, with scarcely common sense to carry him through theworld, was the great popular leader both at that time, and for manyyears afterwards--went out and tranquillised the people for a fewminutes; but scarcely had he again entered the hall when the tumultrecommenced, and it was found absolutely necessary to break up thesitting.
Nevertheless, the Chief President--although against himselfpersonally, as the principal member of the deputation which had signedthe peace, the anger of the multitude was most fiercely excited--stillmaintained his place with calm dignity; and declared, without theslightest shade of fear detracting from his perfect self-possession,that a proposition being before the Parliament, it could not separatewithout coming to some decision on the subject. The motion that thedeputies should be sent back was immediately put, and was carried withsomewhat timid rapidity. The next question was, how to get theobnoxious deputies to their houses with their lives, especially theChief President, who, notwithstanding political differences, wasadmired and esteemed by every nobler spirit present.
He had just taken the voices of the assembly, as calmly as he wouldhave done at any ordinary time, and on any ordinary occasion; and fora moment after, there followed a general pause, while the wholeassembly looked upon him with a feeling of interest and apprehensionthat is difficult to describe. Even I, myself, who had never seen himbefore, and now, as I stood behind, under one of the arches, onlycaught an occasional view of him through the crowd, felt that I wouldhave shed my own blood to save him. Everybody present was well awarethat there existed a thousand chances to one that he would bemassacred the moment he showed his face amongst the infuriated mobwithout; but he himself did not seem to feel that he was an object ofany particular attention, or to suppose that there was any imminentdanger, though he must have been internally convinced that his lifewas not certain for a moment. Calmly rising, however, after he haddeclared the vote of the chambers, and had pronounced the sitting atan end, he prepared to leave the hall without any apparent agitation.As he took the first step towards the door, the Duke de Bouillon andseveral other officers, amongst whom my new lord was one, pressedabout him, and entreated him to pass round by the writing-rooms at theback of the building, by which means he would avoid encountering thepeople.
"Gentlemen," he replied, "the Court of Parliament never concealsitself; and if I were certain of being torn in pieces the moment I setmy foot beyond this hall, I would not commit such an act of cowardiceas to go out by any but the way to which I am accustomed."
"At least," cried the Archbishop, "do not attempt to proceed till Ihave endeavoured to calm the people."
A bitter smile curled the lip of the President, who well knew thatprelate to be the instigator of half the sedition which took place inthe city; but he replied, with a low bow, "Well, well, my very goodlord, go and give them the word, by all means;" and, almost as soon asDe Retz had left him, he again began to move towards the door. Severalof the more popular amongst the officers surrounded him as headvanced, in order to protect him; and Monsieur de Villardin, placinghimself on his right hand, bade me go on immediately before, and dowhat I thought best to assist in clearing the way.
"You seem to have great confidence in your page, Monsieur le Duc,"said the President, in a calm, easy tone.
"You will see whether I have not cause, sir," replied the Duke; "butlet me beseech you not to utter one word, either good or bad, till youare safe in your own dwelling."
It is a certain fact, that
to teach people that we expect great thingsfrom them is the best of all ways to cause them to use greatexertions; and the words that I overheard at once made me determine toleave nothing undone that could show my zeal or activity. The rest ofthe popular nobles and lawyers now approached to protect the otherdeputies, and thus we advanced to the door. When we were close to it,the _huissier_ threw it open, and a sight certainly somewhat appallingpresented itself. The outer hall was filled to suffocation with adense mass of ill-favoured vagabonds, who presented themselves, withfury in their eyes and weapons in their hands, shouting all sorts ofimprecations upon the deputies, upon Mazarin, and upon the Court. Theywere led by a ruined advocate, called Du Boisle, who was almost asragged as his followers, and equally well furnished with arms. Indeed,the combination of swords, guns, and daggers, with rags and tatters,had a very strange effect to the eye when it first lighted upon themultitude, which presented the aspect of a strong force of armedbeggars.
However, we moved on directly towards the opposite door; and as alllooks were turned upon the Parliament, none upon me, I advanced,keeping a step before the President, till I almost touched the frontrank man, in the centre of the crowd. He showed not the slightestdisposition to move out of the way; and, although I kept my hand uponmy dagger, I thought it might be as well to try mild means first; and,therefore, setting my heel upon his toes, I gave them a gentlesqueeze, which made him start back, roaring, upon those behind him.The tumult was still so great, that the cry of pain he uttered passedalmost unnoticed, while his rush back made those behind him retreatalso, so that a passage was cleared for us half way through the hall.We lost no time in taking advantage of this favourable circumstance;but, before we had proceeded far, Du Boisle threw himself in the wayof the President, and addressed him in language which at once showedwhy his oratory was so much more successful in a mob than in a courtof justice. As his harangue was rather lengthy, and a crowd, like damphay, always heats itself by standing close packed together, I soon sawbrandishing of weapons, and caught a sight of two or three menmounting upon the benches at the back, and calmly taking aim, withtheir muskets, at various persons in our little party. It thereforeseemed necessary to bring the advocate's oration to a conclusion; andas he was so near the President as sometimes to take him by the robe,I easily got in behind him, and catching his coat, so as to throw himover amongst the people, I tripped up his heels, in the very fury ofhis declamation. My size, of course, greatly contributed to mysuccess, and also shielded me from notice and retribution; and in theconfusion which followed, the President and his companions pushedforward, and descended the great staircase in safety.
The crowd without were not prepared for our issuing forth without anynotice from their friends within, and thus we got a considerable startof them, which enabled us to convey the President to his house unhurt.Our movements, however, were soon perceived: the multitude followed,shouting imprecations upon us; and as we endeavoured to disperse,after having accomplished our purpose, a thousand scenes of confusionand brutality ensued. What became of the other nobles and counsellors,I did not see. Monsieur de Villardin turned again towards the _palais_to find his grooms and his horses; but as he had made himself one ofthe most conspicuous in defending the President, he was surrounded andattacked by a party of butchers, who threw him down upon the pavement.I was three steps behind: one of his assailants knelt over him with aponiard in his hand, shouting, "Death to the Mazarin!" and as longpractice in cutting throats seemed to have rendered him expert andquick, it is possible that, ere I could have come up to afford anyassistance, Monsieur de Villardin would have lost his life, on thevery first day of my attendance upon him. At that moment, however, ayoung cavalier, of not more than four or five and twenty years of age,followed by two or three servants, dashed in amongst the butchers,received in his own arm the blow of the dagger which was intended forthe duke's throat, and cleared the space round him.
At the same time, though he was sharply wounded, he exclaimed, withthe utmost good humour, "What! gentlemen, are you going to kill yourfriends? This is no Mazarin! This is one of the generals. Do you notremember Monsieur de Villardin?" It is astonishing how few words willconvince a mob of anything under the sun. The butchers looked utterlyconfounded when they heard that they had just been engaged in thelaudable employment of assaulting one of the generals of their ownarmies, though they were told so by a person of whom they apparentlyknew as little. It was quite sufficient for them that some one saidso; and a few more words from the Duke himself, who had by this timeregained his feet, finished the impression, and sent them away toassault somebody else with as much reason.
As soon as we were left alone, the Duke turned to his deliverer, andexpressed his gratitude for the service he had received. "It would bea shame to me," he added, after his first thanks had been pouredforth, "if I were to remain one moment longer ignorant of the name ofone to whom I am so deeply indebted."
"I can well believe that you have forgot me," answered the younggentleman, "for you have not seen me for seven or eight years; whichat my time of life effects a great change; but you cannot haveforgotten the name of Charles de Mesnil, your nearest neighbour, Ibelieve, in Brittany."
"Good Heaven, my dear Count, is it possible?" exclaimed Monsieur deVillardin: "I had indeed forgot you; but you were merely a boy when Ilast saw you. You are changed indeed. I never thought to see you sucha height. You are taller by full two inches than your father was.Gracious Heaven! but you are bleeding," he added, remarking the woundin his arm.
"Oh, it is a mere nothing," answered the other; "I will seek somesurgeon, and have it dressed."
"Nowhere but in my house," replied Monsieur de Villardin. "Call up myhorses. Are those yours standing yonder, Count?"
The reply was in the affirmative; and the young cavalier added, thatseeing Monsieur de Villardin coming out of the _palais_, he hadfollowed on foot to claim acquaintance with him.
I was not long in finding the grooms; and the two gentlemen havingmounted, we rode home, after having spent a morning as full of bustleas even I could wish.
A surgeon was instantly sent for; and the young cavalier's woundhaving been dressed, he was presented by Monsieur de Villardin to hislady, as the son of an old friend, and the saviour of his life. Whatpassed further, I do not know; but the day closed, and I felt myselfvery well contented with my situation.
The Little Ball O' Fire; or, the Life and Adventures of John Marston Hall Page 8