Taking the Bastile (28 page)

If you understand it in that sense, no; I love the king

‘And I too,’ said Gilbert; ‘and everybody at this moment loves him as we do. If I were to say this to a mind of less calibre than yours, I should be hooted and laughed at; but believe what I tell yon, Monsieur de Necker.’

‘I would readily do so, indeed, if there were any probability of such an event; but ‘

‘Do yon know any of the secret societies?’

‘I believe in their existence, but I do not believe they are very extensively disseminated.’

‘Are you affiliated to any one of them?’

‘No.’

‘Well, then, Monsicnr de Necker, I am a member of them all. Yes, to all of them. Beware, Monsieur de Necker; they form an immense net that surrounds every throne. We form a brotherhood of about three millions of men, disseminated throughout all classes of society. We have friends among the people, among the citizens, among the nobility, among princes, among sovereigns themselves. Your life i not yours your fortune is not your own your honour even is not yours. All this is directed by an invisible power, which you cannot combat, for you do not know it, and which may crush you, because it knows you. Well, these three millions of men, do you see, who have tlready made the American republic, these three millions u men will try to form a French republic; then they will try to make a European republic.”

‘But,’ said Necker, ‘their republic of the United States does not alarm me much, ana I willingly accept such a (arm government.’

MADAME DE STAfiL 183

‘Yes, but between America and ourselves there is a deep gulf. America is a new country, without prejudices, without aristocratic privileges, without monarchy. It has a fertile soil, productive land, and virgin forests. Tust consider how much it wonld be necessary to destroy in France before France can resemble America.’

‘But, in fine, what do you intend to prove by this?’

‘I mean to point out to you the path into which we are inevitably forced. But I would endeavour to advance into it without causing any shock, by placing the king at the head of the movement.’

‘As a standard?’

‘No, but as a shield.’

‘A shield I’ observed Necker, smiling. ‘Yon know but little of the king if you wish to make him play such a part.’

‘Pardon me I know him well, I know full well he is a man similar to a thousand others whom I have seen at the head of small districts in America; he is a good man without majesty, incapable of resistance, without originality of mind. But what would you have? Were it only for his sacred title, he would still be a rampart against those men of whom I was speaking to you a short time ago; and however weak the rampart may be, we like it better than no defence at all.’

‘You seem to view things in colours of blood, doctor.’ ‘

‘Yon would have seen them in the same light if you had been, as I was, on the Place de Greve to-day.’

‘ Yes, that it true; I was told that a massacre had taken place there.’

‘There U something magnificent, do you see, in the people but it in when well disposed. Oh 1 human tempests I’ exclaimed Gilbert, ‘how much do you surpass in fury all the tempests of the skies 1’

Necker became thoughtful.

‘ Vhy can I not have you near me, doctor?’ said he; ‘you would be a useful counsellor in time of need.’

‘Near you, Monsieur d Necker? I should not be so useful to you, and to useful to France, as where I wish to go.’

‘And where do you wish to go?’

‘Listen to me, sir; near the throne itself there is a great enemy of the throne; near the king there is a great enemy of the king; it is the queen. Poor woman 1 who

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forgets that she is the daughter of Maria Theresa, or rather, who only remembers it in a vainglorious point of view; she thinks to save the king, and ruins more than the king, for she destroys the monarchy. Well, it is necessary that we who love the king, we who love France, should unite together to neutralise her power and to annihilate her influence.’

‘Well, then, do as I said, sir : remain with me, assist me.’

‘ If I were to remain near you, we should have but one sphere for action; you would be me, and I should be you. We must separate pur forces, sir, and then they will acquire a double weight.’

‘And with all that, what can we accomplish?”

‘We may retard the catastrophe, perhaps, but certainly we cannot prevent it, although I can answer for the assistance of a powerful auxiliary, the Marquis de Lafayette.’

‘Is not Lafayette a republican?’

‘As far as a Lafayette can be a republican. If we are absolutely to submit to the level of equality, believe me, we had beter choose the level of nobility. I like equality that elevates, and not that which lowers mankind.’

‘And you can answer for Lafayette?’

‘Yes, so long as we shall require nothing of him but honour, courage, and devotedness. ‘

‘Wei, then speak; tell me what is your desire?’

‘A letter of introduction to his majesty, Louis XVI.’

‘A man of your worth does not need a letter of introduction; he may present himself without it.’

‘No, it suits me that I should be your creature; it is part of my project to be presented by you.’

‘And what is your ambition?’.

‘To become one of the king’s physicians in ordinary.’

‘Oh, there is nothing more easy. But the queen?’

‘Once I have seen the king, that will be my affair.’

‘But do you not think that having been imprisoned in the Bastille is but a sorry recommendation for you, who wish to become the king’s physician?’

‘On the contrary, it ia the very best. Have I not been persecuted for the crime of philosophy? 1

‘I fear such is the case.’

‘Then the king will vindicate his reputation the king will become popular by taking as his physician a partisan

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of the new doctrines a prisoner who has left the Bastille, in short. The first time you see him, make him duly weigh the advantage of such a course.’

‘You are always in the right; but when once you are employed by the king, can I rely upon you?’

‘Entirely.’

Necker seated himself at his table to write to the king. While he was thus occupied, Gilbert was again examining the letter demanding his arrest; he several times repeated, ‘The Countess de Charny? who can she be?’

‘Here, sir,’ said Necker, a few moments after, while he presented Gilbert with the letter he had just written.

Gilbert took the letter and read it.

It contained the following lines :

‘SiRH, Your majesty needs the services of a trust-worthy person, with whom he may converse upon his affairs. My last gift, my last service in leaving the king, is the present I make him of Doctor Gilbert.

‘It will be sufficient for me to tell your majesty that Doctor Gilbert is not only one of the most skilful physicians living, but also the author of the works entitled Administrations and Politics, which made so lively an impression upon the mind of your majesty.

‘At your majesty’s feet,

‘BARON DB NECKER.’

Necker did not date the letter, and gave it to Doctor Gilbert, closed only with an ordinary seal.

‘And now,’ added he, ‘I am again at Brussels, am I not?’ ‘Yes, certainly, and more so than ever. To-morrow morning, at all events, you shall hear from me.’

The baron struck against the panel in a peculiar manner. Madame de Stael again appeared; only this time, in addition to her branch of pomegranate, she held one of Doctor Gilbert’s pamphlets in her hands. She showed him the title of it with a sort of flattering coquetry. Gilbert took leave of M. de Necker, and kissed the hand of the baroness, who accompanied him to the door of the cabinet.

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THB interview between Gilbert, Madame de Stafl, and M. de Necker had lasted about an hour and a half. Gilbert re-entered Paris at a quarter past nine o’clock, drove straight to the post-house, ordered horses and a post-chaise; and while Billot and Pitou were gone to rest themselves, after their fatigue, in a small hotel in the Rue Thiroux, where Billot generally put up when he came to Paris, Gilbert set off at a gallop on the road to Versailles. He arrived at Versailles at naif-past ten; in ordinary times, every one would have been in bed and wrapped in the profoundest slumber; but that night no eye was closed at Versailles. They had felt the counter-shock of the terrible concussion with which Paris was still trembling, and were anxious to ascertain how the King of France would reply to the insult offered to the throne, and the deadly wound inflicted on his power. To narrow-minded and short-sighted persons the question seemed easy of solution. In the eyes of military men in particular, who were accustomed to see nothing more than the triumph or defeat of brute force in the result of events, it was merely necessary to march upon Paris. Thirty thousand men and twenty pieces of cannon would soon reduce to a nonentity the conceit and the victorious fury of the Parisians. Never had monarchy so great a number of advisers, for everybody uttered his opinions loudly and publicly.

‘It is a very simple matter,’ said they. ‘Let them begin by obtaining from the National Assembly a sanction which it will not refuse. Its attitude has, for some time, been reassuring to every one; it will not countenance violence committed by the lower classes, any more than abuses perpetrated by the upper.

‘The Assembly will plainly declare that insurrection is a crime; that citizens who have representatives to explain their griefs to the king, and a king to do them justice, are wrong to have recourse to arms and to shed blood.

Being once armed with this declaration, which could certainly be obtained from the Assembly, the king could not avoid chastising Paris, like a good parent, that is to say. severely.

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‘And then the tempest would be allayed, and the monarchy would regain the first of its rights. The people would return to their duty, which is obedience, and things would go on in the usual way.’

It was thus that the people in general were settling this great question, upon the squares and the boulevards. But before the Place d’Armes, and in the vicinity of the barracks, they treated the subject very differently. There could be seen men altogether unknown in the neighbourhood, men with intelligent countenances and sinister looks, disseminating mysterious advice to all around them, exaggerating the news which was already sufficiently serious, and propagating, almost publicly, the seditious ideas which during two months had agitated Paris and excited the suburbs,

‘During eight centuries that the people have struggled, one orator was saying to them, ‘what have they obtained ? Nothing. No social rights; no political rights. What is their fate? That of the farmer’s cow, from whom its cal is led to the shambles, its milk to be sold at the market, its meat to be taken to the slaughter-house, its skin to be dried at the tannery. In short, pressed by want, the monarchy has yielded, it has made an appeal to the States; but now that the States are assembled, what does the monarchy? Since the day of their convocation it weighs heavily upon them. If the National Assembly is formed, it is against the will of the monarchy. Well, then I since our brethren of Paris have just given us such vigorous assistance, let us urge the National Assembly onward. Forward I forward, citizens I The Bastille is but the outwork of tyranny 1 The Bastille is taken the citadel is before us I

In remote corners other meetings were formed, and other words pronounced. Those who pronounced them were men evidently belonging to a superior class, who had sought in the costume of the vulgar a disguise with which their white hands and pure accent contrasted strangely.

‘People,’ exclaimed these men, ‘in truth, you are deceived on both sides I Some ask you to retrace your steps, while others urge you onward. Some speak to you of political rights, of social rights; but are you happier for having been permitted to vote through the medium of your delegates? Are you any the richer since you have been represented? Have you been let* hungry, now that

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the National Assembly makes decrees? No. Leave politics, then, to those who can read. It is not a written phrase or maxim that you need. It is bread, and again oread; it is the well-being of your children, the tranquillity and security of your wives. Who will give you all that? A king, firm in character, young in mind, and of a generous heart. That king is not Louis XVI. Louis XVI. who is ruled by the iron-hearted Austrian. It is search carefully round the throne; search there for him who can render France happy, and whom the queen naturally detests, and that because he loves the French, and is beloved by them.’

Gilbert observed several of these groups, and then, having perceived the state of the public mind% he walked straight to the palace. When he arrived at the Hall of the CEil-de-Bo3uf, he was stopped by one of the bodyguards. Gilbert drew from his pocket the letter of Monsieur de Necker, whose signature he showed. The guard cast his eyes over it. ‘The order, sir, to allow no one to visit the king is positive,’ said he; ‘but as the case of a person sent by Monsieur de Necker was evidently not foreseen, and as, according to all probability, you are the bearer of important information to his majesty, go in. I will take the responsibility upon myself.

Gilbert entered. The king was not in his apartments, but in the council-room. He was just receiving a deputation from the National Guard of Paris, which had come to request the dismissal of the troops, the formation of a guard of citizens, and his presence in the capital. Louis had listened coldly; then he had replied that the situation of affairs required investigation; and that, moreover, he was about to deliberate on the subject with his council. And, accordingly, he deliberated. During this time the deputies were waiting in the gallery; and, through the ground-glass windows of the doors they could observe the shadows of the royal councillors and the threatening Attitude which they assumed, and could foresee that the answer would be unfavourable. In fact, the king contented himself with saying that he would appoint some officers for the national militia, and would order the troops at the Champ-de- Mars to fall back. As to his presence in Paris, he would only show this favour when the rebellious city had completely submitted. And satisfied with this manifestation of a power which he no longer