“An hour which others select, it seems, for amusing themselves,” replied the prince, grumblingly.
This untoward remark was the signal for a general rout; the women fled like a flock of terrified starlings; the guitar player vanished like a shadow; Malicorne, still protected by Montalais, who purposely widened out her dress, glided behind the hanging tapestry. As for Manicamp, he went to the assistance of de Guiche, who naturally remained near Madame, and both of them, with the princess herself, courageously sustained the attack. The count was too happy to bear malice against the husband; but Monsieur bore a grudge against his wife. Nothing was wanting but a quarrel; he sought it, and the hurried departure of the crowd, which had been so joyous before he arrived, and was so disturbed by his entrance, furnished him with a pretext.
“Why do they run away at the very sight of me?” he inquired, in a supercilious tone; to which remark Madame replied, that, “whenever the master of the house made his appearance, the family kept aloof out of respect.” As she said this, she made so funny and so pretty a grimace, that de Guiche and Manicamp could not control themselves; they burst into a peal of laugher; Madame followed their example, and even Monsieur himself could not resist it, and he was obliged to sit down, as, for laughing, he could scarcely keep his equilibrium. However, he very soon left off, but his anger had increased. He was still more furious because he had permitted himself to laugh, than from having seen others laugh. He looked at Manicamp steadily, not venturing to show his anger towards de Guiche; but, at a sign which displayed no little amount of annoyance, Manicamp and de Guiche left the room, so that Madame, left alone, began sadly to pick up her pearls and amethysts, no longer smiling, and speaking still less.
“I am very happy,” said the duke, “to find myself treated as a stranger here, Madame,” and he left the room in a passion. On his way out, he met Montalais, who was in attendance in the anteroom. “It is very agreeable to pay you a visit here, but outside the door.”
Montalais made a very low obeisance. “I do not quite understand what Your Royal Highness does me the honor to say.”
“I say that when you are all laughing together in Madame’s apartment, he is an unwelcome visitor who does not remain outside.”
“Your Royal Highness does not think, and does not speak so, of yourself?”
“On the contrary, it is on my own account that I do speak and think. I have no reason, certainly, to flatter myself about the receptions I meet with here at any time. How is it that, on the very day there is music and a little society in Madame’s apartments—in my own apartments, indeed, for they are mine—on the very day that I wish to amuse myself a little in my turn, everyone runs away? Are they afraid to see me, that they all take wing as soon as I appear? Is there anything wrong, then, going on in my absence?”
“Yet nothing has been done today, Monseigneur, which is not done every day.”
“What! do they laugh like that every day?”
“Why, yes, Monseigneur.”
“The same group of people simpering and the same singing and strumming going on every day?”
“The guitar, Monseigneur, was introduced today; but when we have no guitars, we have violins and flutes; ladies soon weary without music.”
“The deuce!—and the men?”
“What men, Monseigneur?”
“M. de Guiche, M. de Manicamp, and the rest of them?”
“They all belong to Your Highness’s household.”
“Yes, yes, you are right,” said the prince, as he returned to his own apartments, full of thought. He threw himself into the largest of his armchairs, without looking at himself in the glass. “Where can the chevalier be?” said he. One of the prince’s attendants happened to be near him, overheard his remark, and replied—
“No one knows, Your Highness.”
“Still the same answer. The first one who answers me again, ‘I do not know,’ I will discharge.” Everyone at this remark hurried out of his apartments, in the same manner as the others had fled from Madame’s apartments. The prince then flew into the wildest rage. He kicked over a chiffonier, which tumbled on the carpet, broken into pieces. He next went into the galleries, and with the greatest coolness threw down, one after another, an enameled vase, a porphyry ewer, and a bronze candelabrum. The noise summoned everyone to the various doors.
“What is Your Highness’s pleasure?” said the captain of the Guards, timidly.
“I am treating myself to some music,” replied the prince, gnashing his teeth.
The captain of the Guards desired His Royal Highness’s physician to be sent for. But before he came, Malicorne arrived, saying to the prince, “Monseigneur, the Chevalier de Lorraine is here.”
The duke looked at Malicorne, and smiled graciously at him, just as the chevalier entered.
106
M. de Lorraine’s Jealousy
The Duc d’Orléans uttered a cry of delight on perceiving the Chevalier de Lorraine. “This is fortunate, indeed,” he said; “by what happy chance do I see you? Had you indeed disappeared, as everyone assured me?”
“Yes, Monseigneur.”
“A caprice?”
“I to venture upon caprices with Your Highness! The respect—”
“Put respect out of the way, for you fail in it every day. I absolve you; but why did you leave me?”
“Because I felt that I was of no further use to you.”
“Explain yourself.”
“Your Highness has people about you who are far more amusing that I can ever be. I felt I was not strong enough to enter
