A tremendous figure was crossing the road just in front of them.
He wore a short, full blue cloak, with a silver badge on the left breast, a tight-fitting cap of the same colour repeating the same badge, and from beneath his cloak in front hung a tunic, with enormous legs in tight blue hose and shoes moving underneath.
"Ah! that"s a great man," said the priest. "He"s a Butcher, of course----"
"A butcher!"
"Yes; that"s obvious--it"s the blue, for one thing, and the cut, for another. Wait an instant. I shall see his badge directly."
As the great man came past them he saluted deferentially. The priests bowed with equal deference, lifting their hands to their broad-leaved hats.
"Yes: he"s very high up," said the priest quietly. "A member of the Council of the National Guild, at least."
"Do you mean that man kills oxen?"
"Not now, of course; he"s worked his way up. He probably represents the Guild in the a.s.sembly."
"Do all the trades have guilds, and are they all represented in the a.s.sembly?"
"Why, of course! How else could you be certain that the trade was treated fairly? If all the citizens voted as citizens, there"d simply be no fair representation at all. Look; there"s a goldsmith--he has probably been to the King; that"s a journeyman with him."
An open car sped past them. Two men were seated in it; both in clothes of some really beautiful metallic colour; but the cap of one was plain, while the cap of the other blazed with some device.
"And the women? I can"t see any system among them."
"Ah! but there is, though it"s harder to detect. They have much more liberty than the men; but, as a rule, each woman has a predominating colour, the colour of the head of her family, and all, of course, wear badges. There are sumptuary laws, I needn"t say."
"I shouldn"t have guessed it!"
"Well, not as regards price or material, certainly--only size.
There are certain absolute limits on both sides; and fashions have to manage between the two. You see it"s the same thing as in trades and professions, as I told you yesterday. We encourage the individual to be as individualistic as possible, and draw the limits very widely, beyond which he mustn"t go. But those limits are imperative. We try to develop both extremes at once--liberty and law. We had enough of the _via media_--the mediocrity of the average--under Socialism."
"But do you mean to say that people submit to all this?"
"Submit! Why it"s perfectly obvious to every one that it"s simply human--besides being very convenient practically. Of course in Germany they still go in for what they call Liberty; and the result is simple chaos."
"Do you mean to say there"s no envy or jealousy between the trades?"
"Not in the social sense, in the very least, though there"s tremendous compet.i.tion. Why, every one under Royalty has to be a member of some trade. Of course only those who practise the trade wear the full costume; but even the dukes have to wear the badges. It"s perfectly simple, you know."
"Tell me an English duke who"s a butcher,"
"Butcher? . . . I can"t think of one this minute. Southminster"s a baker, though."
Monsignor was silent. But it certainly seemed simple.
They were pa.s.sing up now between the sentry-guarded gates of the enormous and exquisite palace of Versailles; and, beyond the great expanse of gravel on which they had just set foot, rose up the myriad windows, pinnacles, and walls where the Kings of France lived again as they had lived two hundred years before. Far up, against the tender summer sky, flapped the Royal Standard; and the lilies of France, once more on their blue ground, indicated that the King was in residence. Even as they looked, however, the banner seemed to waver a little; and simultaneously a sudden ringing sound from a shadowed portico a couple of hundred yards away brought Father Jervis to a sudden stop.
"We"d better step aside," he said. "We"re right in the way."
"What"s the matter?"
"Some one"s coming out. . . . Look."
From out of the shadow into the full sunlight with a flash of silver lightning whirled a body of cuira.s.siers, wheeled into line, and came on, reforming as they came, at a canter.
A couple of heralds rode in front; and a long trumpet-cry pealed out, was caught, echoed, and thrown back by the crowding walls of the palace.
Behind, as Father Jervis drew him to one side, Monsignor caught a glimpse of white horses and a gleam of gold. He glanced hastily back at the gates through which they had just come, and, as if sprung out of the ground, there was the crowd standing respectfully on either side of the avenue to see its Sovereign. (It was up this avenue to Paris, Monsignor reflected, that the women had come on their appalling march to the Queen who ruled them then.)
As he glanced back again the heralds were upon them, and the thunder of hoofs followed close behind. But beyond the line of galloping guards, in the midst, drawn by white horses, ran the great gilded coach with gla.s.s windows, and the crown of France atop.
Two men were seated in the coach, bowing mechanically as they came--one a small, young, vivacious-looking man with a pointed dark beard; the other a heavy, fair-haired, sanguine-featured, clean-shaven man. Both alike were in robes in which red and gold predominated; and both wore broad feathered hats, shaped like a priest"s.
Then the coach was gone through the tall gilded gates, and a cloud of dust, beaten up by the galloping hoofs on all sides, hid even the cuira.s.siers who closed the company. And as the two turned the banner sank on the tall pole.
"The King and the German Emperor," observed Father Jervis, replacing his hat. "Now there"s the other side of the picture for you."
"I don"t understand."
"Why, we treat our kings like kings," smiled the other. "And, at the same time, we encourage our butchers to be really butchers and to glory in it. Law _and_ liberty, you see. Absolute discipline and the cultivation of individualism. No republican stew-pot, you see, in which everything tastes alike."
(II)
They had to wait a few minutes in an ante-room before presenting their letters, as the official was engaged, and Father Jervis occupied the time in running over again the names and histories of three or four important personages to whom they would perhaps have to speak. He had given an outline of these at breakfast.
There were three in particular about whom Monsignor must be informed.
First, the King; and Monsignor learned again thoroughly of the sensational reaction which, after the humiliation of France in the war of 1914--the logical result of a conflict between a republicanism worked out to mediocrity and a real and vivid monarchy--had placed this man"s father--the undoubted legitimate heir--upon the throne. He had died only two years ago, when the Dauphin, who had ascended the throne, was just eighteen years old. The present King was not yet married, but there were rumours of a love-match with a Spanish princess. He was a boyish king, it seemed, but he played his royal part with intense enjoyment and dignity, and had restored, to the delight of this essentially romantic and imaginative people, most of the glories of the eighteenth-century court, without its scandals. Certainly France was returning to its old chivalry, and thence to its old power.
Next there was the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Guinet, a very old ecclesiastic, very high in the counsels of the Church, who would almost certainly have been elected Pope at the last vacancy if it had not been for his age. He was an "intellectual," it seemed, and, among other things, was one of the first physicists of Europe. He had been ordained comparatively late in life.
Thirdly there was the Archbishop"s secretary--Monsignor Allet--a rising man and an excellent diplomatist.
There were two or three more, but Father Jervis was content with scarcely more than recounting their names. The King"s brother, and the heir-presumptive, was something of a recluse and seldom appeared at court. Of the German Emperor, Monsignor had already learned, it seemed, sufficient.
In the middle of these instructions, the door suddenly opened, and an ecclesiastic hurried in with outstretched hands, and apologies in a torrent of Latin.
("Monsignor Allet," whispered Father Jervis, as he appeared.)
Monsignor Masterman stood bewildered. The dilemma had not occurred to him; but Father Jervis, it seemed, was prepared. He said a rapid sentence to the secretary, who turned, bowing, and immediately began in English without the trace of any accent.
"I perfectly understand--perfectly indeed. These doctors rule us with a rod of iron, don"t they? It"ll be arranged directly.
We all talk English here; and I"ll say a word to His Eminence.
The very same thing happened to himself a year or two back. He was forbidden to talk in French. It is astonishing, is it not?
the subtlety of these doctors! And yet how natural. No two languages have the same mental reaction, after all. They"re perfectly right."
Monsignor caught a glimmering of what he was at. But he thought he had better be cautious.