Taking the Bastile (31 page)

‘Your majesty hears that; in what part of Versailles does Madame de Charny reside?’

‘Where do you reside, countess?’

‘On the Boulevard de la Reine, sire.’

‘Sire, your majesty has heard everything. That casket belongs to me. Does the king order it to be returned to me?’

‘Immediately, sir.’

And the king, having drawn a screen before Madame de Charny, which prevented her from being seen, called the officer on duty, and gave him an order in a low voice.

A STRANGB preoccupation for a king whose subjects were undermining his throne. While not was raging in all its fury without, Louis, forgetting the terrible events of the day, was concentrating his mind on this examination of a theory; and the revelations of this strange scene absorbed him no less than the most vital interests of his government. And thus, as scon as he had given the order which we have mentioned to the captain of his guards, he returned to Gilbert, who was removing from the countess the excess of fluid with which he had charged

ROYAL PHILOSOPHY 103

her, in order that her slumber might be more tranquil than under the effects of this convulsive somnambulism.

For an instant the respiration of the countess becamr calm and easy as that of a sleeping child. Then Gilbert, with a single motion of his hand, reopened her eyes, and put her into a state of ecstasy. It was then that on could see the extraordinary beauty of Andre, in all its splendour. Being completely freed from all earthly agitations, the blood, which had for an instant rushed to her face, and which momentarily had coloured her cheeks, redescended to her heart, whose pulsations had recovered their natural state. Her face had again become pale, but of that beautiful pallor of the women of the East; her eyes, opened rather more than usual, were raised towards heaven, and left the pupils floating, as it were, in the pearl-like whiteness of their eye-balls; the nose, slightly expanded, appeared to inhale a purer atmosphere; and her lips, which had preserved all their vermillion, although her cheeks had lost a little of theirs, were slightly separated, and discovered a row of pearls of which the sweet moistness increased the brilliancy.

The king gazed at her as if dazzled. Gilbert turned away his head and sighed. He made a sign without even turning his head towards Andre, and her eyes closed instantly. The king desired Gilbert to explain to him that marvellous state, in which the soul separates itself from the body, and soars, free, happy, and divine, above all terrestrial miseries. Gilbert, like all men of truly superior genius, could pronounce the words so much dreaded by mediocrity, I do not know.’ He confessed bis ignorance to the king. He had produced a phenomenon which he could not explain. The fact itself existed, but the explanation of the fact could not be given.

‘Under whom did you study this science?’ asked the king; ‘was it with Mesmer?’

‘Oh, sire 1’ said Gilbert, smiling, ‘I had seen the most astonishing phenomena of the science ten years before the name of Mesmer was pronounced in France.’

‘Was it Deslon? Was it Puysegur?’

‘No, sire, no. My master was a man far superior to all the men you have named. I have seen him perform the most marvellous things, especially with regard to wounds. No science was unknown to him. He had impregnated his mind with Egyptian theories. He had penetrated the

*o 4 TAKING THE BASTILLE

arcana of ancient Assyrian civilisation. He was a profound scholar, a formidable philosopher, having a great knowledge of human life, combined with a persevering will.’

‘Have I ever known him?’ asked the king.

Gilbert hesitated a moment.

‘I ask you whether I ever knew him?’

‘Yes, sire.’

‘And you call him ?’

‘Sire,’ said Gilbert, ‘to pronounce that name before the king would perhaps render me liable to his displeasure. Now, especially at this moment, when the majority of Frenchmen are depreciating all royal authority, I would not throw a shade on the respect we all owe your majesty.’

‘Name that man boldly, Doctor Gilbert; and be persuaded that I too have my philosophy a philosophy of sufficiently good material to enable me to smile at all the insults of the present, and all the threats of the future.’

Gilbert still continued to hesitate.

‘Sir,’ said he to Gilbert, laughing, ‘call him Satan, if you will, I shall still find a shield to protect me from him the one which your dogmatisers do not possess one that they never will possess one which I alone perhaps in this century possess, and bear without feeling shame religion.’

‘Your majesty believes as St Louis did. It is true,* said Gilbert.

‘And in that lies all my strength, I confess, doctor. I like science; I adore the results of materialism; I am a mathematician, as you well know; you know that the sum total of an addition or an algebraical formula fills my heart with joy, but when I meet people who carry algebra to atheism, I have in reserve my profound, inexhaustible, and eternal faith a faith which places me a degree above and a degree below them above them in good, and beneath them in evil. You see, then, doctor, that I am a man to whom everything may be said, a king who can hear anything.’

‘Sire,’ said Gilbert, with a sort of admiration, ‘I thank vour majesty for what you have just said to me; for

Siu have almost honoured me with the confidence of a end.’

‘Oh 1 I wish,’ the timid Louis hastened to exclaim, ‘I wish all Europe could hear me speak thus. If Frenchmen

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were to read in my heart all the energy of feeling, the tenderness which it contains, I think they would oppose me less.’

‘Sire, since you insist upon it, my master was the Count de Cagliostro.

‘Oh I’ cried Louis, colouring, ‘that empiric I’

‘That empiric 1 yes, sire !’

‘Ah, sir, this Cagh’ostro was a great enemy of kings !’

Gilbert recollected the affair of the necklace.

‘Is it not rather the enemy of queens your majesty intended to say?’

Louis shuddered at this sharp home-thrust.

‘Yes,’ said he, ‘he conducted himself, in all the affair of Prince Louis de Rohan, in a manner which was more than equivocal. But we are forgetting the Countess de Charny, and perhaps she is suffering.’

‘I will wake her up, sire, if your majesty desires it; but I had wished that the casket might arrive here during her sleep.’

‘Why?’

‘To spare her a too harsh lesson.’

‘Here is somebody coming at this moment,’ said the king. In fact, the king’s order had been punctually obeyed. The casket found at the hotel of the Countess de Charny, in the possession of the agent Wolfsfoot, was brought into the royal cabinet, under the very eyes of the countess, who did not see it. The king made a sign of satisfaction to the officer who brought the casket. The officer then left the room.

‘Well I’ said Louis XVI.

‘Well, then, sire, that is, in fact, the very casket which had been taken away from me.’

‘Open it,’ said the king.

‘Sire, I am willing to do so, if your majesty desires it; but I have only to forewarn your majesty of one thing.’

‘What is that?’

‘Sire, as I told your majesty, this box contains only papers which are easily read, and might be taken, and on which depends the honour of a woman.’

‘And that woman is the countess?’

‘Yes, sire. That honour will not be endangered while this matter is confined to the knowledge of your majesty. Open it, sire,’ said Gilbert, approaching thie casket, and presenting the key of it to the king.

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‘Sir.’ replied Louis XVI. coldly, ‘take away this box; it belongs to you.’

‘Thank you, sire, but what are we to do with the countess?’

‘Oh, do not, above all, wake her up here. I wish to avoid all recriminations and painful scenes.’

‘Sire,’ said Gilbert, ‘the countess will only awake in the place where you wish her to be carried.’

‘Well, let her be taken to the queen’s apartment, then.’

Louis rang the bell. An officer entered the room.

‘Captain,’ said he, ‘the Countess de Charny has just fainted here, on hearing the news from Paris. Have her taken to the queen’s room.’

‘How long will it take to carry her there?’ asked Gilbert of the king.

‘About ten minutes,’ replied the latter.

Gilbert laid his hand on the countess.

‘You will awake in three-quarters of an hour,’ said he.

Two soldiers entered the order having been given by the officer who carried her away in an armchair.

‘Now, Monsieur Gilbert, what more do you desire?’ asked the king.

‘Sire, I desire a favour which would draw me nearer to your majesty, and procure me at the same time an opportunity to be useful to you.’

‘Explain yourself,’ said he.

‘I should like to be one of the physicians in ordinary to the king,’ replied Gilbert; ‘I should be in the way of no one; it is a post of honour, but rather a confidential than a brilliant one.’

‘Granted,’ said the king. ‘Adieu, Monsieur Gilbert. Ah I by the bye, a thousand compliments to Necker. Adieu.’

WHTLB the king was learning to oppose the revolution philosophically, by going through a course of occult sciences, the queen, who was a much more substantial and profound philosopher, had gathered around her in her large cabinet all those who were called her faithful adherents, doubtless because there had been no opportunity afforded to any one of them cither to prove or to

IN THE QUEEN’S APARTMENTS 107

try his fidelity. In the queen’s circle, also, the events of that terrible day had been related in all their details. She had even been the first to be informed of them, for, knowing her to be undaunted, they had not feared to inform her of the danger.

Around the queen were assembled generals, courtiers, priests, and ladies. Near the doors and behind the tapestries which hung before them, might be seen groups of young officers, full of courage and ardour, who saw in all revolts a long desired opportunity to evince their prowess in presence of the fair sex, as in a tournament. The queen was seated at a table. Perceiving Monsieur de Lambesq, the queen made one of those gestures indicative of unbounded joy, which mean, ‘At last we shall know all.’

Monsieur de Lambesq bowed, with a sign that asked pardon at the same time for his soiled boots, his dusty coat, and his sword, which, having been bent in his fall, could not be forced into its scabbard.

‘Well, Monsieur de Lambesq,’ said the queen, ‘have you just arrived from Paris ? What are the people doing ? ‘

‘They are killing and burning.’

‘Through maddening rage or hatred?’

‘No; from sheer ferocity.’

The queen reflected, as if she had felt disposed to be of his opinion with regard to the people. Then, shaking her head,

‘No, prince,’ said she, ‘the people are not ferocious; at least, not without a reason. Do not conceal anything from me. Is it madness? is it hatred?’

‘Well, I think it is hatred carried to madness, madame.’

‘Hatred of whom? Ah I I see you are hesitating again, prince. Take care; if you relate events in that manner, instead of applying to you as I do, I shall send one of my outriders to Paris.

M. de Dreux Breze stepped forward, with a smile upon his lips.

‘But, madame,’ said he, ‘of what consequence to you is the hatred of the people ? That can in no way concern you. The people may hate all, excepting you.

The queen did not even rebuke this piece of flattery.

‘Come, come, prince,’ said she to M. de Lambesq, ‘speak out.’

‘Well, then, madame, it is true the people are acted upon by hatred,’

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‘Hatred of me?’

‘Of everything that rules.’

‘Well said I that is the truth ! I feel it,’ exclaimed the queen resolutely.

‘I am a soldier, your majesty said the prince.

‘Well ! well ! speak to us then as a soldier. Let us see what must be done.’

‘Nothing, madame.’

‘How nothing?’ cried the queen, taking advantage of the murmurs occasioned by these words among the wearers of embroidered coats and golden-sheathed swords of her company; ‘nothing 1 You, a Prince of Lorraine you can speak thus to the Queen of France at a momen: when the people, according to your own confession, are killing and burning, and you can coolly say there is nothing to be done.’

A second murmur, but this time of approbation, followed the words of Marie Antoinette. She turned round, fixed her gaze on all the circle which environed her, and among all those fiery eyes sought those which darted forth the brightest flames, as if she could read a greater proof oi fidelity in them.

‘Nothing 1* continued the prince; ‘but allow the Parisian to become calm and he will become so for he is only warlike when he is exasperated. Why give him the honours of a struggle, and risk the chances of a battle? Let us keep quiet, and in three days there will no longer be a question of a commotion in Paris.’

‘But the Bastille, sir?’

‘The Bastille ! Its doors will be closed, and those who took it will be taken, that is all.’

‘Take care, prince; you are now reassuring me too much. But where is Madame de Charny, the intrepid woman? We need her assistance to reassure us, I think.’

‘The countess was about to go out, when she was summoned to the king’s apartments.’

‘Ah ! the king’s,’ absently answered Marie Antoinette.

And only then did the queen perceive the strange silence which pervaded all around her.

‘Can no one advise me?’ said she. ‘Be it so; I will advise myself.’

They all drew nearer to Marie Antoinette.

‘The people,’ said she, ‘are not bad at heart, they ars

IN THE QUEEN’S APARTMENTS 209

only misled. They hate us because we are unknown to them; let us become better friends.’

‘To punish them, then,’ said a voice, ‘for they have doubted their masters, and that is a crime.’

The queen looked in the direction from which the voice proceeded, and recognised M. de Bezenval.