"I a.s.sure you, my dear sister, it was not I who dismissed the Duke of Buckingham; I was charmed with him."
"It was not you?" said Madame; "ah! so much the better;" and she emphasized the "so much the better," as if she had instead said, "so much the worse."
A few minutes" silence ensued. She then resumed: "The Duke of Buckingham having left-I now know why and by whose means-I thought I should have recovered my tranquillity; but not at all, for all at once Monsieur found another pretext; all at once-"
"All at once," said the king, playfully, "some one else presents himself. It is but natural; you are beautiful, and will always meet with men who will madly love you."
"In that case," exclaimed the princess, "I will create a solitude around me, which indeed seems to be what is wished, and what is being prepared for me. But no, I prefer to return to London. There I am known and appreciated. I shall have friends, without fearing they may be regarded as my lovers. Shame! it is a disgraceful suspicion, and unworthy a gentleman. Monsieur has lost everything in my estimation, since he has shown me he can be a tyrant to a woman."
"Nay, nay, my brother"s only fault is that of loving you."
"Love me! Monsieur love me! Ah! sire," and she burst out laughing. "Monsieur will never love any woman," she said; "Monsieur loves himself too much; no, unhappily for me, Monsieur"s jealousy is of the worst kind-he is jealous without love."
"Confess, however," said the king, who began to be excited by this varied and animated conversation; "confess that Guiche loves you."
"Ah! sire, I know nothing about that."
"You must have perceived it. A man who loves readily betrays himself."
"M. de Guiche has not betrayed himself."
"My dear sister, you are defending M. de Guiche."
"I, indeed! Ah, sire, I only needed a suspicion from yourself to crown my wretchedness."
"No, madame, no," returned the king, hurriedly; "do not distress yourself. Nay, you are weeping. I implore you to calm yourself."
She wept, however, and large tears fell upon her hands; the king took one of her hands in his, and kissed the tears away. She looked at him so sadly and with so much tenderness that he felt his heart giving way under her gaze.
"You have no kind of feeling, then, for Guiche?" he said, more disturbed than became his character of mediator.
"None-absolutely none."
"Then I can rea.s.sure my brother in that respect?"
"Nothing will satisfy him, sire. Do not believe he is jealous. Monsieur has been badly advised by some one, and he is of nervous disposition."
"He may well be so when you are concerned," said the king.
Madame cast down her eyes, and was silent; the king did so likewise, still holding her hand all the while. Their momentary silence seemed to last an age. Madame gently withdrew her hand, and from that moment, she felt her triumph was certain, and that the field of battle was her own.
"Monsieur complains," said the king, "that you prefer the society of private individuals to his own conversation and society."
"But Monsieur pa.s.ses his life in looking at his face in the gla.s.s, and in plotting all sorts of spiteful things against women with the Chevalier de Lorraine."
"Oh, you are going somewhat too far."
"I only tell you what is true. Do you observe for yourself, sire, and you will see that I am right."
"I will observe; but, in the meantime, what satisfaction can I give my brother?"
"My departure."
"You repeat that word," exclaimed the king, imprudently, as if, during the last ten minutes, such a change had been produced that Madame would have had all her ideas on the subject thoroughly changed.
"Sire, I cannot be happy here any longer," she said. "M. de Guiche annoys Monsieur. Will he be sent away, too?"
"If it be necessary, why not?" replied the king, smiling.
"Well; and after M. de Guiche-whom, by the by, I shall regret-I warn you, sire."
"Ah, you will regret him?"
"Certainly; he is amiable, he has a great friendship for me, and he amuses me."
"If Monsieur were only to hear you," said the king, slightly annoyed, "do you know I would not undertake to make it up again between you; nay, I would not even attempt it."
"Sire, can you, even now, prevent Monsieur from being jealous of the first person who may approach? I know very well that M. de Guiche is not the first."
"Again I warn you that as a good brother I shall take a dislike to De Guiche."
"Ah, sire, do not, I entreat you, adopt either the sympathies or the dislikes of Monsieur. Remain king; better for yourself and for every one else."
"You jest charmingly, madame; and I can well understand how the people you attack must adore you."
"And is that the reason why you, sire, whom I had regarded as my defender, are about to join these who persecute me?" said Madame.
"I your persecutor! Heaven forbid!"
"Then," she continued, languishingly, "grant me a favor."
"Whatever you wish."
"Let me return to England."
"Never, never!" exclaimed Louis XIV.
"I am a prisoner, then?"
"In France-if France is a prison-yes."
"What must I do, then?"
"I will tell you. Instead of devoting yourself to friendships which are somewhat unstable, instead of alarming us by your retirement, remain always in our society, do not leave us, let us live as a united family. M. de Guiche is certainly very amiable; but if, at least, we do not possess his wit-"
"Ah, sire, you know very well you are pretending to be modest."
"No, I swear to you. One may be a king, and yet feel that he possesses fewer chances of pleasing than many other gentlemen."
"I am sure, sire, that you do not believe a single word you are saying."
The king looked at Madame tenderly, and said, "Will you promise me one thing?"
"What is it?"
"That you will no longer waste upon strangers, in your own apartments, the time which you owe us. Shall we make an offensive and defensive alliance against the common enemy?"
"An alliance with you, sire?"
"Why not? Are you not a sovereign power?"
"But are you, sire, a reliable ally?"
"You shall see, madame."
"And when shall this alliance commence?"
"This very day."
"I will draw up the treaty, and you shall sign it."
"Blindly."
"Then, sire, I promise you wonders; you are the star of the court, and when you make your appearance, everything will be resplendent."
"Oh, madame, madame," said Louis XIV., "you know well that there is no brilliancy that does not proceed from yourself, and that if I a.s.sume the sun as my device, it is only an emblem."
"Sire, you flatter your ally, and you wish to deceive her," said Madame, threatening the king with her finger menacingly raised.
"What! you believe I am deceiving you, when I a.s.sure you of my affection?"
"Yes."
"What makes you so suspicious?"
"One thing."
"What is it? I shall indeed be unhappy if I do not overcome it."
"That one thing in question, sire, is not in your power, not even in the power of Heaven."
"Tell me what it is."
"The past."
"I do not understand, madame," said the king, precisely because he had understood her but too well.
The princess took his hand in hers. "Sire," she said, "I have had the misfortune to displease you for so long a period, that I have almost the right to ask myself to-day why you were able to accept me as a sister-in-law."
"Displease me! You have displeased me?"
"Nay, do not deny it, for I remember it well."
"Our alliance shall date from to-day," exclaimed the king, with a warmth that was not a.s.sumed. "You will not think any more of the past, will you? I myself am resolved that I will not. I shall always remember the present; I have it before my eyes; look." And he led the princess before a mirror, in which she saw herself reflected, blushing and beautiful enough to overcome a saint.
"It is all the same," she murmured; "it will not be a very worthy alliance."
"Must I swear?" inquired the king, intoxicated by the voluptuous turn the whole conversation had taken.
"Oh, I will not refuse to witness a resounding oath," said Madame; "it has always the semblance of security."
The king knelt upon a footstool and took Madame"s hand. She, with a smile that no painter could ever succeed in depicting, and which a poet might only imagine, gave him both her hands, in which he hid his burning face. Neither of them could utter a syllable. The king felt Madame withdraw her hands, caressing his face while she did so. He rose immediately and left the apartment. The courtiers remarked his heightened color, and concluded that the scene had been a stormy one. The Chevalier de Lorraine, however, hastened to say, "Nay, be comforted, gentlemen, his majesty is always pale when he is angry."
Chapter x.x.xIV. The Advisers.
The king left Madame in a state of agitation it would have been difficult even for himself to have explained. It is impossible, in fact, to depict the secret play of those strange sympathies which, suddenly and apparently without any cause, are excited, after many years pa.s.sed in the greatest calmness and indifference, by two hearts destined to love each other. Why had Louis formerly disdained, almost hated, Madame? Why did he now find the same woman so beautiful, so captivating? And why, not only were his thoughts occupied about her, but still more, why were they so continuously occupied about her? Why, in fact, had Madame, whose eyes and mind were sought for in another direction, shown during the last week towards the king a semblance of favor which encouraged the belief of still greater regard. It must not be supposed that Louis proposed to himself any plan of seduction; the tie which united Madame to his brother was, or at least, seemed to him, an insuperable barrier; he was even too far removed from that barrier to perceive its existence. But on the downward path of those pa.s.sions in which the heart rejoices, towards which youth impels us, no one can decide where to stop, not even the man who has in advance calculated all the chances of his own success or another"s submission. As far as Madame was concerned, her regard for the king may easily be explained: she was young, a coquette, and ardently fond of admiration. Hers was one of those buoyant, impetuous natures, which upon a theatre would leap over the greatest obstacles to obtain an acknowledgement of applause from the spectators. It was not surprising, then, that, after having been adored by Buckingham, by De Guiche, who was superior to Buckingham, even if it were only from that negative merit, so much appreciated by women, that is to say, novelty-it was not surprising, we say, that the princess should raise her ambition to being admired by the king, who not only was the first person in the kingdom, but was one of the handsomest and cleverest men in Europe. As for the sudden pa.s.sion with which Louis was inspired for his sister-in-law, physiology would perhaps supply an explanation by some hackneyed commonplace reasons, and nature by means of her mysterious affinity of characters. Madame had the most beautiful black eyes in the world; Louis, eyes as beautiful, but blue. Madame was laughter-loving and unreserved in her manners; Louis, melancholy and diffident. Summoned to meet each other for the first time upon the grounds of interest and common curiosity, these two opposite natures were mutually influenced by the mingling of their reciprocal contradictions of character. Louis, when he returned to his own rooms, acknowledged to himself that Madame was the most attractive woman of his court. Madame, left alone, delightedly thought that she had made a great impression on the king. This feeling with her must remain pa.s.sive, whilst the king could not but act with all the natural vehemence of the heated fancies of a young man, and of a young man who has but to express a wish to see his wish fulfilled.
The first thing the king did was to announce to Monsieur that everything was quietly arranged; that Madame had the greatest respect, the sincerest affection for him; but that she was of a proud, impetuous character, and that her susceptibilities were so acute as to require very careful management.
Monsieur replied in the reticent tone of voice he generally adopted with his brother, that he could not very well understand the susceptibilities of a woman whose conduct might, in his opinion, expose her to censorious remarks, and that if any one had a right to feel wounded, it was he, Monsieur himself. To this the king replied in a quick tone of voice, which showed the interest he took in his sister-in-law, "Thank Heaven, Madame is above censure."
"The censure of others, certainly, I admit," said Monsieur; "but not above mine, I presume."
"Well," said the king, "all I have to say, Philip, is that Madame"s conduct does not deserve your censure. She certainly is heedless and singular, but professes the best feelings. The English character is not always well understood in France, and the liberty of English manners sometimes surprises those who do not know the extent to which this liberty is enriched by innocence."
"Ah!" said Monsieur, more and more piqued, "from the very moment that your majesty absolves my wife, whom I accuse, my wife is not guilty, and I have nothing more to say."
"Philip," replied the king hastily, for he felt the voice of conscience murmuring softly in his heart, that Monsieur was not altogether wrong, "what I have done, and what I have said, has been only for your happiness. I was told that you complained of a want of confidence and attention on Madame"s part, and I did not wish your uneasiness to be prolonged. It is part of my duty to watch over your household, as over that of the humblest of my subjects. I have satisfied myself, therefore, with the sincerest pleasure, that your apprehensions have no foundation."
"And," continued Monsieur, in an interrogative tone of voice, and fixing his eyes upon his brother, "what your majesty has discovered for Madame -and I bow myself to your superior judgment-have you verified for those who have been the cause of the scandal of which I complain?"
"You are right, Philip," said the king; "I will reserve that point for future consideration."
These words comprised an order as well as a consolation; the prince felt it to be so, and withdrew.
As for Louis, he went to seek his mother, for he felt that he had need of a more complete absolution than that he had just received from his brother. Anne of Austria did not entertain for M. de Guiche the same reasons for indulgence she had had for Buckingham. She perceived, at the very first words he p.r.o.nounced, that Louis was not disposed to be severe.
To appear in a contradictory humor was one of the stratagems of the good queen, in order to succeed in ascertaining the truth. But Louis was no longer in his apprenticeship; already for more than a year past he had been king, and during that year he had learned how to dissemble. Listening to Anne of Austria, in order to permit her to disclose her own thoughts, testifying his approval only by look and gesture, he became convinced, from certain piercing glances, and from certain skillful insinuations, that the queen, so clear-sighted in matters of gallantry, had, if not guessed, at least suspected, his weakness for Madame. Of all his auxiliaries, Anne of Austria would be the most important to secure; of all his enemies, Anne of Austria would prove most dangerous. Louis, therefore, changed his maneuvers. He complained of Madame, absolved Monsieur, listened to what his mother had to say of De Guiche, as he had previously listened to what she had to say of Buckingham, and then, when he saw that she thought she had gained a complete victory over him, he left her.