"In England," said Madame, "where the report of this young lady"s success will not fail to reach him."
"Oh, Heaven!" murmured La Valliere in despair.
"Very well, mademoiselle!" said Anne of Austria, "we will get this young gentleman to return, and send you away somewhere with him. If you are of a different opinion--for girls have strange views and fancies at times--trust to me, I will put you in a proper path again. I have done as much for girls who are not as good as you are, probably."
La Valliere ceased to hear the queen, who pitilessly added: "I will send you somewhere, by yourself, where you will be able to indulge in a little serious reflection. Reflection calms the ardor of the blood, and swallows up the illusions of youth. I suppose you understand what I have been saying?"
"Madame!"
"Not a word?"
"I am innocent of everything your majesty supposes. Oh, madame! you are a witness of my despair. I love, I respect your majesty so much."
"It would be far better not to respect me at all," said the queen, with a chilling irony of manner. "It would be far better if you were not innocent. Do you presume to suppose that I should be satisfied simply to leave you unpunished if you had committed the fault?"
"Oh, madame! you are killing me."
"No acting, if you please, or I will precipitate the _denouement_ of this _play_; leave the room; return to your own apartment, and I trust my lesson may be of service to you."
"Madame!" said La Valliere to the d.u.c.h.ess d"Orleans, whose hands she seized in her own, "do you, who are so good, intercede for me?"
"I!" replied the latter, with an insulting joy, "I--good!--Ah, mademoiselle, you think nothing of the kind;" and with a rude, hasty gesture she repulsed the young girl"s grasp.
La Valliere, instead of giving way, as from her extreme pallor and her tears the two princesses possibly expected, suddenly resumed her calm and dignified air; she bowed profoundly, and left the room.
"Well!" said Anne of Austria to Madame, "do you think she will begin again?"
"I always suspect those gentle, patient characters," replied Madame.
"Nothing is more full of courage than a patient heart, nothing more self-reliant than a gentle spirit."
"I feel I may almost venture to a.s.sure you she will think twice before she looks at the G.o.d Mars again."
"So long as she does not obtain the protection of his buckler I do not care," retorted Madame.
A proud, defiant look of the queen-mother was the reply to this objection, which was by no means deficient in finesse; and both of them, almost sure of their victory, went to look for Maria Theresa, who had been waiting for them with impatience.
It was about half-past six in the evening, and the king had just partaken of refreshment. He lost no time; but the repast finished, and business matters settled, he took Saint-Aignan by the arm, and desired him to lead the way to La Valliere"s apartments. The courtier uttered an exclamation.
"Well, what is that for? It is a habit you will have to adopt, and in order to adopt a habit, one must make a beginning."
"Oh, sire!" said Saint-Aignan, "it is hardly possible: for every one can be seen entering or leaving those apartments. If, however, some pretext or other were made use of--if your majesty, for instance, would wait until Madame were in her own apartments--"
"No pretext; no delays. I have had enough of these impediments and mysteries; I cannot perceive in what respect the king of France dishonors himself by conversing with an amiable and clever girl. Evil be to him who evil thinks."
"Will your majesty forgive an excess of zeal on my part?"
"Speak freely."
"How about the queen?"
"True, true; I always wish the most entire respect to be shown to her majesty. Well, then, this evening only will I pay Mademoiselle de la Valliere a visit, and after to-day I will make use of any pretext you like. To-morrow we will devise all sorts of means; to-night I have no time."
Saint-Aignan made no reply; he descended the steps, preceding the king, and crossed the different courtyards with a feeling of shame, which the distinguished honor of accompanying the king did not remove. The reason was that Saint-Aignan wished to stand well with Madame, as well as with the queens, and also, that he did not, on the other hand, want to displease Mademoiselle de la Valliere: and in order to carry out so many promising affairs, it was difficult to avoid jostling against some obstacle or other. Besides, the windows of the young queen"s rooms, those of the queen-mother"s, and of Madame herself, looked out upon the courtyard of the maids of honor. To be seen, therefore, accompanying the king, would be effectually to quarrel with three great and influential princesses--whose authority was unbounded--for the purpose of supporting the ephemeral credit of a mistress. The unhappy Saint-Aignan, who had not displayed a very great amount of courage in taking La Valliere"s part in the park of Fontainebleau, did not feel any braver in the broad day-light, and found a thousand defects in the poor girl which he was most eager to communicate to the king. But his trial soon finished,--the courtyards were crossed; not a curtain was drawn aside, nor a window opened. The king walked hastily, because of his impatience, and the long legs of Saint-Aignan, who preceded him. At the door, however, Saint-Aignan wished to retire, but the king desired him to remain; a delicate consideration, on the king"s part, which the courtier could very well have dispensed with. He had to follow Louis into La Valliere"s apartment. As soon as the king arrived the young girl dried her tears, but so precipitately that the king perceived it. He questioned her most anxiously and tenderly, and pressed her to tell him the cause of her emotion.
"Nothing is the matter, sire," she said.
"And yet you were weeping?"
"Oh, no, indeed, sire."
"Look, Saint-Aignan, and tell me if I am mistaken."
Saint-Aignan ought to have answered, but he was too much embarra.s.sed.
"At all events your eyes are red, mademoiselle," said the king.
"The dust of the road merely, sire."
"No, no; you no longer possess the air of supreme contentment which renders you so beautiful and so attractive. You do not look at me. Why avoid my gaze?" he said, as she turned aside her head. "In Heaven"s name, what is the matter?" he inquired, beginning to lose command over himself.
"Nothing at all, sire; and I am perfectly ready to a.s.sure your majesty that my mind is as free from anxiety as you could possibly wish."
"Your mind at ease, when I see you are embarra.s.sed at the slightest thing. Has any one annoyed you?"
"No, no, sire."
"I insist upon knowing if such really be the case," said the prince, his eyes sparkling.
"No one, sire, no one has in any way offended me."
"In that case, pray resume your gentle air of gayety, or that sweet melancholy look which I so loved in you this morning; for pity"s sake, do so."
"Yes, sire, yes."
The king tapped the floor impatiently with his foot, saying, "Such a change is positively inexplicable." And he looked at Saint-Aignan, who had also remarked La Valliere"s peculiar lethargy, as well as the king"s impatience.
It was futile for the king to entreat, and as useless for him to try to overcome her depression: the poor girl was completely overwhelmed,--the appearance of an angel would hardly have awakened her from her torpor.
The king saw in her repeated negative replies a mystery full of unkindness; he began to look round the apartment with a suspicious air.
There happened to be in La Valliere"s room a miniature of Athos.
The king remarked that this portrait bore a strong resemblance to Bragelonne, for it had been taken when the count was quite a young man.
He looked at it with a threatening air. La Valliere, in her misery far indeed from thinking of this portrait, could not conjecture the cause of the king"s preoccupation. And yet the king"s mind was occupied with a terrible remembrance, which had more than once taken possession of his mind, but which he had always driven away. He recalled the intimacy existing between the two young people from their birth, their engagement, and that Athos himself had come to solicit La Valliere"s hand for Raoul. He therefore could not but suppose that on her return to Paris, La Valliere had found news from London awaiting her, and that this news had counterbalanced the influence he had been enabled to exert over her. He immediately felt himself stung, as it were, by feelings of the wildest jealousy; and again questioned her, with increased bitterness. La Valliere could not reply, unless she were to acknowledge everything, which would be to accuse the queen, and Madame also; and the consequence would be, that she would have to enter into an open warfare with these two great and powerful princesses. She thought within herself that as she made no attempt to conceal from the king what was pa.s.sing in her own mind, the king ought to be able to read in her heart, in spite of her silence; and that, had he really loved her, he would have understood and guessed everything. What was sympathy, then, if not that divine flame which possesses the property of enlightening the heart, and of saving lovers the necessity of an expression of their thoughts and feelings? She maintained her silence, therefore, sighing, and concealing her face in her hands. These sighs and tears, which had at first distressed, then terrified Louis XIV., now irritated him. He could not bear opposition,--the opposition which tears and sighs exhibited, any more than opposition of any other kind. His remarks, therefore, became bitter, urgent, and openly aggressive in their nature. This was a fresh cause of distress for the poor girl. From that very circ.u.mstance, therefore, which she regarded as an injustice on her lover"s part, she drew sufficient courage to bear, not only her other troubles, but this one also.
The king next began to accuse her in direct terms. La Valliere did not even attempt to defend herself; she endured all his accusations without according any other reply than that of shaking her head; without any other remark than that which escapes the heart in deep distress--a prayerful appeal to Heaven for help. But this e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, instead of calming the king"s displeasure, rather increased it. He, moreover, saw himself seconded by Saint-Aignan, for Saint-Aignan, as we have observed, having seen the storm increasing, and not knowing the extent of the regard of which Louis XIV. was capable, felt, by antic.i.p.ation, all the collected wrath of the three princesses, and the near approach of poor La Valliere"s downfall, and he was not true knight enough to resist the fear that he himself might be dragged down in the impending ruin.
Saint-Aignan did not reply to the king"s questions except by short, dry remarks, p.r.o.nounced half-aloud; and by abrupt gestures, whose object was to make things worse, and bring about a misunderstanding, the result of which would be to free him from the annoyance of having to cross the courtyards in open day, in order to follow his ill.u.s.trious companion to La Valliere"s apartments. In the meantime the king"s anger momentarily increased; he made two or three steps towards the door as if to leave the room, but returned. The young girl did not, however, raise her head, although the sound of his footsteps might have warned her that her lover was leaving her. He drew himself up, for a moment, before her, with his arms crossed.
"For the last time, mademoiselle," he said, "will you speak? Will you a.s.sign a reason for this change, this fickleness, for this caprice?"
"What can I say?" murmured La Valliere. "Do you not see, sire, that I am completely overwhelmed at this moment; that I have no power of will, or thought, or speech?"