Delphi Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated) (424 page)

“You would befriend God’s enemies then?”

“No, no; not if they are indeed so.”

“Can you doubt it? Is it possible that your heart still turns towards the heresy of your youth?”

“No, father; but it is not in nature to forget that my father and my grandfather—”

“Nay, they have answered for their own sins. Is it possible that the Church has been mistaken in you? Do you then refuse the first favour which she asks of you? You would accept her aid, and yet you would give none in return.”

Madame de Maintenon rose with the air of one who has made her resolution. “You are wiser than I,” said she, “and to you have been committed the interests of the Church. I will do what you advise.”

“You promise it?”

“I do.”

Her two visitors threw up their hands together. “It is a blessed day,” they cried, “and generations yet unborn will learn to deem it so.”

She sat half stunned by the prospect which was opening out in front of her. Ambitious she had, as the Jesuit had surmised, always been — ambitious for the power which would enable her to leave the world better than she found it. And this ambition she had already to some extent been able to satisfy, for more than once she had swayed both king and kingdom. But to marry the king — to marry the man for whom she would gladly lay down her life, whom in the depths of her heart she loved in as pure and as noble a fashion as woman ever yet loved man — that was indeed a thing above her utmost hopes. She knew her own mind, and she knew his. Once his wife, she could hold him to good, and keep every evil influence away from him. She was sure of it. She should be no weak Maria Theresa, but rather, as the priest had said, a new Jeanne d’Arc, come to lead France and France’s king into better ways. And if, to gain this aim, she had to harden her heart against the Huguenots, at least the fault, if there were one, lay with those who made this condition rather than with herself. The king’s wife! The heart of the woman and the soul of the enthusiast both leaped at the thought.

But close at the heels of her joy there came a sudden revulsion to doubt and despondency. Was not all this fine prospect a mere day-dream? and how could these men be so sure that they held the king in the hollow of their hand? The Jesuit read the fears which dulled the sparkle of her eyes, and answered her thoughts before she had time to put them into words.

“The Church redeems its pledges swiftly,” said he. “And you, my daughter, you must be as prompt when your own turn comes.”

“I have promised, father.”

“Then it is for us to perform. You will remain in your room all evening.”

“Yes, father.”

“The king already hesitates. I spoke with him this morning, and his mind was full of blackness and despair. His better self turns in disgust from his sins, and it is now when the first hot fit of repentance is just coming upon him that he may best be moulded to our ends. I have to see and speak with him once more, and I go from your room to his. And when I have spoken, he will come from his room to yours, or I have studied his heart for twenty years in vain. We leave you now, and you will not see us, but you will see the effects of what we do, and you will remember your pledge to us.” They bowed low to her both together, and left her to her thoughts.

An hour passed, and then a second one, as she sat in her fauteuil, her tapestry before her, but her hands listless upon her lap, waiting for her fate. Her life’s future was now being settled for her, and she was powerless to turn it in one way or the other. Daylight turned to the pearly light of evening, and that again to dusk, but she still sat waiting in the shadow. Sometimes as a step passed in the corridor she would glance expectantly towards the door, and the light of welcome would spring up in her gray eyes, only to die away again into disappointment. At last, however, there came a quick sharp tread, crisp and authoritative, which brought her to her feet with flushed cheeks and her heart beating wildly. The door opened, and she saw outlined against the gray light of the outer passage the erect and graceful figure of the king.

“Sire! One instant, and mademoiselle will light the lamp.”

“Do not call her.” He entered and closed the door behind him. “Francoise, the dusk is welcome to me, because it screens me from the reproaches which must lie in your glance, even if your tongue be too kindly to speak them.”

“Reproaches, sire! God forbid that I should utter them!”

“When I last left you, Francoise, it was with a good resolution in my mind. I tried to carry it out, and I failed — I failed. I remember that you warned me. Fool that I was not to follow your advice!”

“We are all weak and mortal, sire. Who has not fallen? Nay, sire, it goes to my heart to see you thus.”

He was standing by the fireplace, his face buried in his hands, and she could tell by the catch of his breath that he was weeping. All the pity of her woman’s nature went out to that silent and repenting figure dimly seen in the failing light. She put out her hand with a gesture of sympathy, and it rested for an instant upon his velvet sleeve. The next he had clasped it between his own, and she made no effort to release it.

“I cannot do without you, Francoise,” he cried. “I am the loneliest man in all this world, like one who lives on a great mountain-peak, with none to bear him company. Who have I for a friend? Whom can I rely upon? Some are for the Church; some are for their families; most are for themselves. But who of them all is single-minded? You are my better self, Francoise; you are my guardian angel. What the good father says is true, and the nearer I am to you the further am I from all that is evil. Tell me, Francoise, do you love me?”

“I have loved you for years, sire.” Her voice was low but clear — the voice of a woman to whom coquetry was abhorrent.

“I had hoped it, Francoise, and yet it thrills me to hear you say it. I know that wealth and title have no attraction for you, and that your heart turns rather towards the convent than the palace. Yet I ask you to remain in the palace, and to reign there. Will you be my wife, Francoise?”

And so the moment had in very truth come. She paused for an instant, only an instant, before taking this last great step; but even that was too long for the patience of the king.

“Will you not, Francoise?” he cried, with a ring of fear in his voice.

“May God make me worthy of such an honour, sire!” said she. “And here I swear that if heaven double my life, every hour shall be spent in the one endeavour to make you a happier man!”

She had knelt down, and the king, still holding her hand, knelt down beside her.

“And I swear too,” he cried, “that if my days also are doubled, you will now and forever be the one and only woman for me.”

And so their double oath was taken, an oath which was to be tested in the future, for each did live almost double their years, and yet neither broke the promise made hand in hand on that evening in the shadow-girt chamber.

CHAPTER XII
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THE KING RECEIVES
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It may have been that Mademoiselle Nanon, the faithful confidante of Madame de Maintenon, had learned something of this interview, or it may be that Pere la Chaise, with the shrewdness for which his Order is famous, had come to the conclusion that publicity was the best means of holding the king to his present intention; but whatever the source, it was known all over the court next day that the old favourite was again in disgrace, and that there was talk of a marriage between the king and the governess of his children. It was whispered at the petit lever, confirmed at the grand entree, and was common gossip by the time that the king had returned from chapel. Back into wardrobe and drawer went the flaring silks and the feathered hats, and out once more came the sombre coat and the matronly dress. Scudery and Calpernedi gave place to the missal and St. Thomas a Kempis, while Bourdaloue, after preaching for a week to empty benches, found his chapel packed to the last seat with weary gentlemen and taper-bearing ladies. By midday there was none in the court who had not heard the tidings, save only Madame de Montespan, who, alarmed by her lover’s absence, had remained in haughty seclusion in her room, and knew nothing of what had passed. Many there were who would have loved to carry her the tidings; but the king’s changes had been frequent of late, and who would dare to make a mortal enemy of one who might, ere many weeks were past, have the lives and fortunes of the whole court in the hollow of her hand?

Louis, in his innate selfishness, had been so accustomed to regard every event entirely from the side of how it would affect himself, that it had never struck him that his long-suffering family, who had always yielded to him the absolute obedience which he claimed as his right, would venture to offer any opposition to his new resolution. He was surprised, therefore, when his brother demanded a private interview that afternoon, and entered his presence without the complaisant smile and humble air with which he was wont to appear before him.

Monsieur was a curious travesty of his elder brother. He was shorter, but he wore enormously high boot-heels, which brought him to a fair stature. In figure he had none of that grace which marked the king, nor had he the elegant hand and foot which had been the delight of sculptors. He was fat, waddled somewhat in his walk, and wore an enormous black wig, which rolled down in rows and rows of curls over his shoulders. His face was longer and darker than the king’s, and his nose more prominent, though he shared with his brother the large brown eyes which each had inherited from Anne of Austria. He had none of the simple and yet stately taste which marked the dress of the monarch, but his clothes were all tagged over with fluttering ribbons, which rustled behind him as he walked, and clustered so thickly over his feet as to conceal them from view. Crosses, stars, jewels, and insignia were scattered broadcast over his person, and the broad blue ribbon of the Order of the Holy Ghost was slashed across his coat, and was gathered at the end into a great bow, which formed the incongruous support of a diamond-hilted sword. Such was the figure which rolled towards the king, bearing in his right hand his many-feathered beaver, and appearing in his person, as he was in his mind, an absurd burlesque of the monarch.

“Why, monsieur, you seem less gay than usual to-day,” said the king, with a smile. “Your dress, indeed, is bright, but your brow is clouded. I trust that all is well with Madame and with the Duc de Chartres?”

“Yes, sire, they are well; but they are sad like myself, and from the same cause.”

“Indeed! and why?”

“Have I ever failed in my duty as your younger brother, sire?”

“Never, Philippe, never!” said the king, laying his hand affectionately upon the other’s shoulder. “You have set an excellent example to my subjects.”

“Then why set a slight upon me?”

“Philippe!”

“Yes, sire, I say it is a slight. We are of royal blood, and our wives are of royal blood also. You married the Princess of Spain; I married the Princess of Bavaria. It was a condescension, but still I did it. My first wife was the Princess of England. How can we admit into a house which has formed such alliances as these a woman who is the widow of a hunchback singer, a mere lampooner, a man whose name is a byword through Europe?”

The king had stared in amazement at his brother, but his anger now overcame his astonishment.

“Upon my word!” he cried; “upon my word! I have said just now that you have been an excellent brother, but I fear that I spoke a little prematurely. And so you take upon yourself to object to the lady whom I select as my wife!”

“I do, sire.”

“And by what right?”

“By the right of the family honour, sire, which is as much mine as yours.”

“Man,” cried the king furiously, “have you not yet learned that within this kingdom I am the fountain of honour, and that whomsoever I may honour becomes by that very fact honourable? Were I to take a cinder-wench out of the Rue Poissonniere, I could at my will raise her up until the highest in France would be proud to bow down before her. Do you not know this?”

“No, I do not,” cried his brother, with all the obstinacy of a weak man who has at last been driven to bay. “I look upon it as a slight upon me and a slight upon my wife.”

“Your wife! I have every respect for Charlotte Elizabeth of Bavaria, but how is she superior to one whose grandfather was the dear friend and comrade in arms of Henry the Great? Enough! I will not condescend to argue such a matter with you! Begone, and do not return to my presence until you have learned not to interfere in my affairs.”

“For all that, my wife shall not know her!” snarled monsieur; and then, as his brother took a fiery step or two towards him, he turned and scuttled out of the room as fast as his awkward gait and high heels would allow him.

But the king was to have no quiet that day. If Madame de Maintenon’s friends had rallied to her yesterday, her enemies were active to-day. Monsieur had hardly disappeared before there rushed into the room a youth who bore upon his rich attire every sign of having just arrived from a dusty journey. He was pale-faced and auburn-haired, with features which would have been strikingly like the king’s if it were not that his nose had been disfigured in his youth. The king’s face had lighted up at the sight of him, but it darkened again as he hurried forward and threw himself down at his feet.

“Oh, sire,” he cried, “spare us this grief — spare us this humiliation! I implore you to pause before you do what will bring dishonour upon yourself and upon us!”

The king started back from him, and paced angrily up and down the room.

“This is intolerable!” he cried. “It was bad from my brother, but worse from my son. You are in a conspiracy with him, Louis. Monsieur has told you to act this part.”

The dauphin rose to his feet and looked steadfastly at his angry father.

“I have not seen my uncle,” he said. “I was at Meudon when I heard this news — this dreadful news — and I sprang upon my horse, sire, and galloped over to implore you to think again before you drag our royal house so low.”

“You are insolent, Louis.”

“I do not mean to be so, sire. But consider, sire, that my mother was a queen, and that it would be strange indeed if for a step-mother I had a—”

The king raised his hand with a gesture of authority which checked the word upon his lips.

“Silence!” he cried, “or you may say that which would for ever set a gulf between us. Am I to be treated worse than my humblest subject, who is allowed to follow his own bent in his private affairs?”

“This is not your own private affair, sire; all that you do reflects upon your family. The great deeds of your reign have given a new glory to the name of Bourbon. Oh, do not mar it now, sire! I implore it of you upon my bended knees!”

“You talk like a fool!” cried his father roughly. “I propose to marry a virtuous and charming lady of one of the oldest noble families of France, and you talk as if I were doing something degrading and unheard of. What is your objection to this lady?”

“That she is the daughter of a man whose vices were well known, that her brother is of the worst repute, that she has led the life of an adventuress, is the widow of a deformed scribbler, and that she occupies a menial position in the palace.”

The king had stamped with his foot upon the carpet more than once during this frank address, but his anger blazed into a fury at its conclusion.

“Do you dare,” he cried, with flashing eyes, “to call the charge of my children a menial position? I say that there is no higher in the kingdom. Go back to Meudon, sir, this instant, and never dare to open your mouth again on the subject. Away, I say! When, in God’s good time, you are king of this country, you may claim your own way, but until then do not venture to cross the plans of one who is both your parent and your monarch.”

The young man bowed low, and walked with dignity from the chamber; but he turned with his hand upon the door.

“The Abbe Fenelon came with me, sire. Is it your pleasure to see him?”

“Away! away!” cried the king furiously, still striding up and down the room with angry face and flashing eyes. The dauphin left the cabinet, and was instantly succeeded by a tall thin priest, some forty years of age, strikingly handsome, with a pale refined face, large well-marked features, and the easy deferential bearing of one who has had a long training in courts. The king turned sharply upon him, and looked hard at him with a distrustful eye.

“Good-day, Abbe Fenelon,” said he. “May I ask what the object of this interview is?”

“You have had the condescension, sire, on more than one occasion, to ask my humble advice, and even to express yourself afterwards as being pleased that you had acted upon it.”

“Well? Well? Well?” growled the monarch.

“If rumour says truly, sire, you are now at a crisis when a word of impartial counsel might be of value to you. Need I say that it would—”

“Tut! tut! Why all these words?” cried the king. “You have been sent here by others to try and influence me against Madame de Maintenon.”

“Sire, I have had nothing but kindness from that lady. I esteem and honour her more than any lady in France.”

“In that case, abbe, you will, I am sure, be glad to hear that I am about to marry her. Good-day, abbe. I regret that I have not longer time to devote to this very interesting conversation.”

“But, sire—”

“When my mind is in doubt, abbe, I value your advice very highly. On this occasion my mind is happily not in doubt. I have the honour to wish you a very good-day.”

The king’s first hot anger had died away by now, and had left behind it a cold, bitter spirit which was even more formidable to his antagonists. The abbe, glib of tongue and fertile of resource as he was, felt himself to be silenced and overmatched. He walked backwards, with three long bows, as was the custom of the court, and departed.

But the king had little breathing space. His assailants knew that with persistence they had bent his will before, and they trusted that they might do so again. It was Louvois, the minister, now who entered the room, with his majestic port, his lofty bearing, his huge wig, and his aristocratic face, which, however, showed some signs of trepidation as it met the baleful eye of the king.

“Well, Louvois, what now?” he asked impatiently. “Has some new state matter arisen?”

“There is but one new state matter which has arisen, sire, but it is of such importance as to banish all others from our mind.”

“What then?”

“Your marriage, sire.”

“You disapprove of it?”

“Oh, sire, can I help it?”

“Out of my room, sir! Am I to be tormented to death by your importunities? What! You dare to linger when I order you to go!” The king advanced angrily upon the minister, but Louvois suddenly flashed out his rapier. Louis sprang back with alarm and amazement upon his face, but it was the hilt and not the point which was presented to him.

“Pass it through my heart, sire!” the minister cried, falling upon his knees, his whole great frame in a quiver with emotion. “I will not live to see your glory fade!”

“Great heaven!” shrieked Louis, throwing the sword down upon the ground, and raising his hands to his temples, “I believe that this is a conspiracy to drive me mad. Was ever a man so tormented in his life? This will be a private marriage, man, and it will not affect the state in the least degree. Do you hear me? Have you understood me? What more do you want?”