The Vicomte De Bragelonne
"He will consent."
"Monsieur, permit me to doubt that. The king has retired this quarter of an hour; he must be now undressing. Besides, the word is given."
"When he knows who I am, he will recall the word."
The officer was more and more surprised, more and more subdued.
"If I consent to announce you, may I at least know whom to announce, monsieur?"
"You will announce His Majesty Charles II., King of England, Scotland, and Ireland."
The officer uttered a cry of astonishment, drew back, and there might be seen upon his pallid countenance one of the most poignant emotions that ever an energetic man endeavored to drive back to his heart.
"Oh, yes, sire; in fact," said he, "I ought to have recognized you."
"You have seen my portrait, then?"
"No, sire."
"Or else you have seen me formerly at court, before I was driven from France?"
"No, sire, it is not even that."
"How then could you have recognized me, if you have never seen my portrait or my person?"
"Sire, I saw his majesty your father at a terrible moment."
"The day-"
"Yes."
A dark cloud passed over the brow of the prince; then, dashing his hand across it, "Do you see any difficulty in announcing me?" said he.
"Sire, pardon me," replied the officer, "but I could not imagine a king under so simple an exterior; and yet I had the honor to tell your majesty just now that I had seen Charles I. But pardon me, monsieur; I will go and inform the king."
But returning after going a few steps, "Your majesty is desirous, without doubt, that this interview should be a secret?" said he.
"I do not require it; but if it were possible to preserve it-"
"It is possible, sire, for I can dispense with informing the first gentleman on duty; but, for that, your majesty must please to consent to give up your sword."
"True, true; I had forgotten that no one armed is permitted to enter the chamber of a king of France."
"Your majesty will form an exception, if you wish it; but then I shall avoid my responsibility by informing the king's attendant."
"Here is my sword, monsieur. Will you now please to announce me to his majesty?"
"Instantly, sire." And the officer immediately went and knocked at the door of communication, which the valet opened to him.
"His Majesty the King of England!" said the officer.
"His Majesty the King of England!" replied the valet de chambre.
At these words a gentleman opened the folding-doors of the king's apartment, and Louis XIV. was seen, without hat or sword, and his pourpoint open, advancing with signs of the greatest surprise.
"You, my brother-you at Blois!" cried Louis XIV., dismissing with a gesture both the gentlemen and the valet de chambre, who passed out into the next apartment.
"Sire," replied Charles II., "I was going to Paris, in the hope of seeing your majesty, when report informed me of your approaching arrival in this city. I therefore prolonged my abode here, having something very particular to communicate to you."
"Will this closet suit you, my brother?"
"Perfectly well, sire; for I think no one can hear us here."
"I have dismissed my gentleman and my watcher; they are in the next chamber. There, behind that partition, is a solitary closet, looking into the ante-chamber, and in that ante-chamber you found nobody but a solitary officer, did you?"
"No, sire."
"Well, then, speak, my brother; I listen to you."
"Sire, I commence, and entreat your majesty to have pity on the misfortunes of our house."
The king of France colored, and drew his chair closer to that of the king of England.
"Sire," said Charles II., "I have no need to ask if your majesty is acquainted with the details of my deplorable history."
Louis XIV. blushed, this time more strongly than before; then, stretching forth his hand to that of the king of England, "My brother," said he, "I am ashamed to say so, but the cardinal scarcely ever speaks of political affairs before me. Still more, formerly I used to get Laporte, my valet de chambre, to read historical subjects to me; but he put a stop to these readings, and took away Laporte from me. So that I beg my brother Charles to tell me all those matters as to a man who knows nothing."
"Well, sire, I think that by taking things from the beginning I shall have a better chance of touching the heart of your majesty."
"Speak on, my brother-speak on."
"You know, sire, that being called in 1650 to Edinburgh, during Cromwell's expedition into Ireland, I was crowned at Scone. A year after, wounded in one of the provinces he had usurped, Cromwell returned upon us. To meet him was my object; to leave Scotland was my wish."
"And yet," interrupted the young king, "Scotland is almost your native country, is it not, my brother?"
"Yes, but the Scots were cruel compatriots for me, sire; they had forced me to forsake the religion of my fathers; they had hung Lord Montrose, the most devoted of my servants, because he was not a Covenanter; and as the poor martyr, to whom they had offered a favor when dying, had asked that his body might be cut into as many pieces as there are cities in Scotland, in order that evidence of his fidelity might be met with everywhere, I could not leave one city, or go into another, without passing under some fragments of a body which had acted, fought, and breathed for me.
"By a bold, almost desperate march, I passed through Cromwell's army, and entered England. The Protector set out in pursuit of this strange flight, which had a crown for its object. If I had been able to reach London before him, without doubt the prize of the race would have been mine; but he overtook me at Worcester.
"The genius of England was no longer with us, but with him. On the 3rd of September, 1651, sire, the anniversary of the other battle of Dunbar, so fatal to the Scots, I was conquered. Two thousand men fell around me before I thought of retreating a step. At length I was obliged to fly.
"From that moment my history became a romance. Pursued with persistent inveteracy, I cut off my hair, I disguised myself as a woodman. One day spent amidst the branches of an oak gave to that tree the name of the royal oak, which it bears to this day. My adventures in the county of Stafford, whence I escaped with the daughter of my host on a pillion behind me, still fill the tales of the country firesides, and would furnish matter for ballads. I will some day write all this, sire, for the instruction of my brother kings.
"I will first tell how, on arriving at the residence of Mr. Norton, I met with a court chaplain, who was looking on at a party playing at skittles, and an old servant who named me, bursting into tears, and who was as near and as certainly killing me by his fidelity as another might have been by treachery. Then I will tell of my terrors-yes, sire, of my terrors-when, at the house of Colonel Windham, a farrier who came to shoe our horses declared they had been shod in the north."
"How strange!" murmured Louis XIV. "I never heard anything of all that; I was only told of your embarkation at Brighelmstone and your landing in Normandy."1
"Oh!" exclaimed Charles, "if Heaven permits kings to be thus ignorant of the histories of each other, how can they render assistance to their brothers who need it?"
"But tell me," continued Louis XIV., "how, after being so roughly received in England, you can still hope for anything from that unhappy country and that rebellious people?"
"Oh, sire! since the battle of Worcester, everything is changed there. Cromwell is dead, after having signed a treaty with France, in which his name is placed above yours. He died on the 3rd of September, 1658, a fresh anniversary of the battles of Dunbar and Worcester."
"His son has succeeded him."
"But certain men have a family, sire, and no heir. The inheritance of Oliver was too heavy for Richard. Richard was neither a republican nor a royalist; Richard allowed his guards to eat his dinner, and his generals to govern the republic; Richard abdicated the protectorate on the 22nd of April, 1659, more than a year ago, sire.
"From that time England is nothing but a tennis-court, in which the players throw dice for the crown of my father. The two most eager players are Lambert and Monk. Well, sire, I, in my turn, wish to take part in this game, where the stakes are thrown upon my royal mantle. Sire, it only requires a million to corrupt one of these players and make an ally of him, or two hundred of your gentlemen to drive them out of my palace at Whitehall, as Christ drove the money-changers from the temple."
"You come, then," replied Louis XIV., "to ask me-"
"For your assistance; that is to say, not only for that which kings owe to each other, but that which simple Christians owe to each other-your assistance, sire, either in money or men. Your assistance, sire, and within a month, whether I oppose Lambert to Monk, or Monk to Lambert, I shall have reconquered my paternal inheritance, without having cost my country a guinea, or my subjects a drop of blood, for they are now all drunk with revolutions, protectorates, and republics, and ask nothing better than to fall staggering to sleep in the arms of royalty. Your assistance, sire, and I shall owe you more than I owe my father, – my poor father, who bought at so dear a rate the ruin of our house! You may judge, sire, whether I am unhappy, whether I am in despair, for I accuse my own father!"
And the blood mounted to the pale face of Charles II., who remained for an instant with his head between his hands, and as if blinded by that blood which appeared to revolt against the filial blasphemy.
The young king was not less affected than his elder brother; he threw himself about in his fauteuil, and could not find a single word of reply.
Charles II., to whom ten years in age gave a superior strength to master his emotions, recovered his speech the first.
"Sire," said he, "your reply? I wait for it as a criminal waits for his sentence. Must I die?"
"My brother," replied the French prince, "you ask of me for a million-me, who was never possessed of a quarter of that sum! I possess nothing. I am no more king of France than you are king of England. I am a name, a cipher dressed in fleur-de-lised velvet, – that is all. I am upon a visible throne; that is my only advantage over your majesty. I have nothing-I can do nothing."
"Can it be so?" exclaimed Charles II.
"My brother," said Louis, sinking his voice, "I have undergone miseries with which my poorest gentlemen are unacquainted. If my poor Laporte were here, he would tell you that I have slept in ragged sheets, through the holes of which my legs have passed; he would tell you that afterwards, when I asked for carriages, they brought me conveyances half-destroyed by the rats of the coach-houses; he would tell you that when I asked for my dinner, the servants went to the cardinal's kitchen to inquire if there were any dinner for the king. And look! to-day, this very day even, when I am twenty-two years of age, – to-day, when I have attained the grade of the majority of kings, – to-day, when I ought to have the key of the treasury, the direction of the policy, the supremacy in peace and war, – cast your eyes around me, see how I am left! Look at this abandonment-this disdain-this silence! – Whilst yonder-look yonder! View the bustle, the lights, the homage! There! – there you see the real king of France, my brother!"
"In the cardinal's apartments?"
"Yes, in the cardinal's apartments."
"Then I am condemned, sire?"
Louis XIV. made no reply.
"Condemned is the word; for I will never solicit him who left my mother and sister to die with cold and hunger-the daughter and grand-daughter of Henry IV. – as surely they would have if M. de Retz and the parliament had not sent them wood and bread."
"To die?" murmured Louis XIV.
"Well!" continued the king of England, "poor Charles II., grandson of Henry IV., as you are, sire having neither parliament nor Cardinal de Retz to apply to, will die of hunger, as his mother and sister had nearly done."
Louis knitted his brow, and twisted violently the lace of his ruffles.
This prostration, this immobility, serving as a mark to an emotion so visible, struck Charles II., and he took the young man's hand.
"Thanks!" said he, "my brother. You pity me, and that is all I can require of you in your present situation."
"Sire," said Louis XIV., with a sudden impulse, and raising his head, "it is a million you require, or two hundred gentlemen, I think you say?"
"Sire, a million would be quite sufficient."
"That is very little."
"Offered to a single man it is a great deal. Convictions have been purchased at a much lower price; and I should have nothing to do but with venalities."
"Two hundred gentlemen! Reflect! – that is little more than a single company."
"Sire, there is in our family a tradition, and that is, that four men, four French gentlemen, devoted to my father, were near saving my father, though condemned by a parliament, guarded by an army and surrounded by a nation."
"Then if I can procure you a million, or two hundred gentlemen, you will be satisfied; and you will consider me your well-affectioned brother?"
"I shall consider you as my saviour; and if I recover the throne of my father, England will be, as long as I reign it, a sister to France, as you will have been a brother to me."
"Well, my brother," said Louis, rising, "what you hesitate to ask for, I will myself demand; that which I have never done on my own account, I will do on yours. I will go and find the king of France-the other-the rich, the powerful one, I mean. I will myself solicit this million, or these two hundred gentlemen; and-we will see."
"Oh!" cried Charles; "you are a noble friend, sire-a heart created by God! You save me, my brother; and if you should ever stand in need of the life you restored me, demand it."
"Silence, my brother, – silence!" said Louis, in a suppressed voice. "Take care that no one hears you! We have not obtained our end yet. To ask money of Mazarin-that is worse than traversing the enchanted forest, each tree of which inclosed a demon. It is more than setting out to conquer a world."
"But yet, sire, when you ask it-"
"I have already told you that I never asked," replied Louis with a haughtiness that made the king of England turn pale.
And the latter, like a wounded man, made a retreating movement-"Pardon me, my brother," replied he. "I have neither a mother nor a sister who are suffering. My throne is hard and naked, but I am firmly seated on my throne. Pardon me that expression, my brother; it was that of an egotist. I will retract it, therefore, by a sacrifice, – I will go to monsieur le cardinal. Wait for me, if you please-I will return."
Chapter X. The Arithmetic of M. de Mazarin
Whilst the king was directing his course rapidly towards the wing of the castle occupied by the cardinal, taking nobody with him but his valet de chambre, the officer of musketeers came out, breathing like a man who has for a long time been forced to hold his breath, from the little cabinet of which we have already spoken, and which the king believed to be quite solitary. This little cabinet had formerly been part of the chamber, from which it was only separated by a thin partition. It resulted that this partition, which was only for the eye, permitted the ear the least indiscreet to hear every word spoken in the chamber.
There was no doubt, then, that this lieutenant of musketeers had heard all that passed in his majesty's apartment.
Warned by the last words of the young king, he came out just in time to salute him on his passage, and to follow him with his eyes till he had disappeared in the corridor.
Then as soon as he had disappeared, he shook his head after a fashion peculiarly his own, and in a voice which forty years' absence from Gascony had not deprived of its Gascon accent, "A melancholy service," said he, "and a melancholy master!"
These words pronounced, the lieutenant resumed his place in his fauteuil, stretched his legs and closed his eyes, like a man who either sleeps or meditates.
During this short monologue and the mise en scene that had accompanied it, whilst the king, through the long corridors of the old castle, proceeded to the apartment of M. de Mazarin, a scene of another sort was being enacted in those apartments.
Mazarin was in bed, suffering a little from the gout. But as he was a man of order, who utilized even pain, he forced his wakefulness to be the humble servant of his labor. He had consequently ordered Bernouin, his valet de chambre, to bring him a little traveling-desk, so that he might write in bed. But the gout is not an adversary that allows itself to be conquered so easily; therefore, at each movement he made, the pain from dull became sharp.
"Is Brienne there?" asked he of Bernouin.
"No, monseigneur," replied the valet de chambre; "M. de Brienne, with your permission, is gone to bed. But if it is the wish of your eminence, he can speedily be called."
"No, it is not worth while. Let us see, however. Cursed ciphers!"
And the cardinal began to think, counting on his fingers the while.
"Oh, ciphers is it?" said Bernouin. "Very well! if your eminence attempts calculations, I will promise you a pretty headache to-morrow! And with that please to remember M. Guenaud is not here."
"You are right, Bernouin. You must take Brienne's place, my friend. Indeed, I ought to have brought M. Colbert with me. That young man goes on very well, Bernouin, very well; a very orderly youth."
"I do not know," said the valet de chambre, "but I don't like the countenance of your young man who goes on so well."
"Well, well, Bernouin! We don't stand in need of your advice. Place yourself there: take the pen and write."
"I am ready, monseigneur; what am I to write?"
"There, that's the place: after the two lines already traced."
"I am there."
"Write seven hundred and sixty thousand livres."
"That is written."
"Upon Lyons-" The cardinal appeared to hesitate.
"Upon Lyons," repeated Bernouin.
"Three millions nine hundred thousand livres."
"Well, monseigneur?"
"Upon Bordeaux, seven millions."
"Seven?" repeated Bernouin.
"Yes," said the cardinal, pettishly, "seven." Then, recollecting himself, "You understand, Bernouin," added he, "that all this money is to be spent?"
"Eh! monseigneur; whether it be spent or put away is of very little consequence to me, since none of these millions are mine."
"These millions are the king's; it is the king's money I am reckoning. Well, what were we saying? You always interrupt me!"
"Seven millions upon Bordeaux."
"Ah! yes; that's right. Upon Madrid four millions. I give you to understand plainly to whom this money belongs, Bernouin, seeing that everybody has the stupidity to believe me rich in millions. I repel the silly idea. A minister, besides, has nothing of his own. Come, go on. Rentrees generales, seven millions; properties, nine millions. Have you written that, Bernouin?"
"Yes, monseigneur."
"Bourse, six hundred thousand livres; various property, two millions. Ah! I forgot-the furniture of the different chateaux-"
"Must I put of the crown?" asked Bernouin.
"No, no; it is of no use doing that-that is understood. Have you written that, Bernouin?"
"Yes, monseigneur."
"And the ciphers?"
"Stand straight under one another."
"Cast them up, Bernouin."
"Thirty-nine millions two hundred and sixty thousand livres, monseigneur."
"Ah!" cried the cardinal, in a tone of vexation; "there are not yet forty millions!"
Bernouin recommenced the addition.
"No, monseigneur; there want seven hundred and forty thousand livres."
Mazarin asked for the account, and revised it carefully.
"Yes, but," said Bernouin, "thirty-nine millions two hundred and sixty thousand livres make a good round sum."
"Ah, Bernouin; I wish the king had it."
"Your eminence told me that this money was his majesty's."
"Doubtless, as clear, as transparent as possible. These thirty-nine millions are bespoken, and much more."
Bernouin smiled after his own fashion-that is, like a man who believes no more than he is willing to believe-whilst preparing the cardinal's night draught, and putting his pillow to rights.
"Oh!" said Mazarin, when the valet had gone out; "not yet forty millions! I must, however, attain that sum, which I had set down for myself. But who knows whether I shall have time? I sink, I am going, I shall never reach it! And yet, who knows that I may not find two or three millions in the pockets of my good friends the Spaniards? They discovered Peru, those people did, and-what the devil! they must have something left."
As he was speaking thus, entirely occupied with his ciphers, and thinking no more of his gout, repelled by a preoccupation which, with the cardinal, was the most powerful of all preoccupations, Bernouin rushed into the chamber, quite in a fright.
"Well!" asked the cardinal, "what is the matter now?"
"The king, monseigneur, – the king!"
"How? – the king!" said Mazarin, quickly concealing his paper. "The king here! the king at this hour! I thought he was in bed long ago. What is the matter, then?"
The king could hear these last words, and see the terrified gesture of the cardinal rising up in his bed, for he entered the chamber at that moment.
"It is nothing, monsieur le cardinal, or at least nothing which can alarm you. It is an important communication which I wish to make to your eminence to-night, – that is all."
Mazarin immediately thought of that marked attention which the king had given to his words concerning Mademoiselle de Mancini, and the communication appeared to him probably to refer to this source. He recovered his serenity then instantly, and assumed his most agreeable air, a change of countenance which inspired the king with the greatest joy; and when Louis was seated, -
"Sire," said the cardinal, "I ought certainly to listen to your majesty standing, but the violence of my complaint-"
"No ceremony between us, my dear monsieur le cardinal," said Louis kindly: "I am your pupil, and not the king, you know very well, and this evening in particular, as I come to you as a petitioner, as a solicitor, and one very humble, and desirous to be kindly received, too."
Mazarin, seeing the heightened color of the king, was confirmed in his first idea; that is to say, that love thoughts were hidden under all these fine words. This time, political cunning, as keen as it was, made a mistake; this color was not caused by the bashfulness of a juvenile passion, but only by the painful contraction of the royal pride.
Like a good uncle, Mazarin felt disposed to facilitate the confidence.
"Speak, sire," said he, "and since your majesty is willing for an instant to forget that I am your subject, and call me your master and instructor, I promise your majesty my most devoted and tender consideration."
"Thanks, monsieur le cardinal," answered the king; "that which I have to ask of your eminence has but little to do with myself."
"So much the worse!" replied the cardinal; "so much the worse! Sire, I should wish your majesty to ask of me something of importance, even a sacrifice; but whatever it may be that you ask me, I am ready to set your heart at rest by granting it, my dear sire."
"Well, this is what brings me here," said the king, with a beating of the heart that had no equal except the beating of the heart of the minister; "I have just received a visit from my brother, the king of England."
Mazarin bounded in his bed as if he had been put in relation with a Leyden jar or a voltaic pile, at the same time that a surprise, or rather a manifest disappointment, inflamed his features with such a blaze of anger, that Louis XIV., little diplomatist as he was, saw that the minister had hoped to hear something else.
"Charles II.?" exclaimed Mazarin, with a hoarse voice and a disdainful movement of his lips. "You have received a visit from Charles II.?"
"From King Charles II.," replied Louis, according in a marked manner to the grandson of Henry IV. the title which Mazarin had forgotten to give him. "Yes, monsieur le cardinal, that unhappy prince has touched my heart with the relation of his misfortunes. His distress is great, monsieur le cardinal, and it has appeared painful to me, who have seen my own throne disputed, who have been forced in times of commotion to quit my capital, – to me, in short, who am acquainted with misfortune, – to leave a deposed and fugitive brother without assistance."