“You think it impossible, sire? Well, listen to me. Your Majesty knows that Madame is very fond of perfumes?”
“Yes, she acquired that taste from my mother.”
“Vervain, particularly.”
“Yes, it is the scent she prefers to all others.”
“Very good, sire! my apartments happen to smell very strongly of vervain.”
The king remained silent and thoughtful for a few moments, and then resumed: “But why should Madame take Bragelonne’s part against me?”
Saint-Aignan could very easily have replied: “A woman’s jealousy!” The king probed his friend to the bottom of his heart to ascertain if he had learned the secret of his flirtation with his sister-in-law. But Saint-Aignan was not an ordinary courtier; he did not lightly run the risk of finding out family secrets; and he was too a friend of the Muses not to think very frequently of poor Ovidius Naso, whose eyes shed so many tears in expiation of his crime for having once beheld something, one hardly knows what, in the palace of Augustus. He therefore passed by Madame’s secret very skillfully. But as he had shown no ordinary sagacity in indicating Madame’s presence in his rooms in company with Bragelonne, it was necessary, of course, for him to repay with interest the king’s amour propre, and reply plainly to the question which had been put to him of: “Why has Madame taken Bragelonne’s part against me?”
“Why?” replied Saint-Aignan. “Your Majesty forgets, I presume, that the Comte de Guiche is the intimate friend of the Vicomte de Bragelonne.”
“I do not see the connection, however,” said the king.
“Ah! I beg your pardon, then, sire; but I thought the Comte de Guiche was a very great friend of Madame’s.”
“Quite true,” the king returned; “there is no occasion to search any further, the blow came from that direction.”
“And is not Your Majesty of opinion that, in order to ward it off, it will be necessary to deal another blow?”
“Yes, but not one of the kind given in the Bois de Vincennes,” replied the king.
“You forget, sire,” said Saint-Aignan, “that I am a gentleman, and that I have been challenged.”
“The challenge neither concerns nor was it intended for you.”
“But I am the man, sire, who has been expected at the Minimes, sire, during the last hour and more; and I shall be dishonored if I do not go.”
“The first honor and duty of a gentleman is obedience to his sovereign.”
“Sire!”
“I order you to remain.”
“Sire!”
“Obey, Monsieur!”
“As Your Majesty pleases.”
“Besides, I wish to have the whole of this affair explained; I wish to know how it is that I have been so insolently trifled with, as to have the sanctuary of my affections pried into. It is not you, Saint-Aignan, whose business it is to punish those who have acted in this manner, for it is not your honor they have attacked, but my own.”
“I implore Your Majesty not to overwhelm M. de Bragelonne with your wrath, for although in the whole of this affair he may have shown himself deficient in prudence, he has not been so in his feelings of loyalty.”
“Enough! I shall know how to decide between the just and the unjust, even in the height of my anger. But take care that not a word of this is breathed to Madame.”
“But what am I to do with regard to M. de Bragelonne? He will be seeking me in every direction, and—”
“I shall either have spoken to him, or taken care that he has been spoken to, before the evening is over.”
“Let me once more entreat Your Majesty to be indulgent towards him.”
“I have been indulgent long enough, comte,” said Louis XIV, frowning severely; “it is now quite time to show certain persons that I am master in my own palace.”
The king had hardly pronounced these words, which betokened that a fresh feeling of irritation was mingling with the recollections of old, when an usher appeared at the door of the cabinet. “What is the matter?” inquired the king, “and why do you presume to come when I have not summoned you?”
“Sire,” said the usher, “Your Majesty desired me to permit M. le Comte de la Fère to pass freely on any and every occasion, when he might wish to speak to Your Majesty.”
“Well, Monsieur?”
“M. le Comte de la Fère is now waiting to see Your Majesty.”
The king and Saint-Aignan at this reply exchanged a look which betrayed more uneasiness than surprise. Louis hesitated for a moment, but immediately afterwards, seeming to make up his mind, he said:
“Go, Saint-Aignan, and find Louise; inform her of the plot against us; do not let her be ignorant that Madame will return to her system of persecutions against her, and that she has set those to work who would have found it far safer to remain neuter.”
“Sire—”
“If Louise gets nervous and frightened, reassure her as much as you can; tell her that the king’s affection is an impenetrable shield over her; if, which I suspect is the case, she already knows everything, or if she has already been herself subjected to an attack of some kind or other from any quarter, tell her, be sure to tell her, Saint-Aignan,” added the king, trembling with passion, “tell her, I say, that this time, instead of defending her, I will avenge her, and that too so terribly that no one will in future even dare to raise his eyes towards her.”
“Is that all, sire?”
“Yes, all. Go as quickly as you can, and remain faithful; for you who live in the midst of this state of infernal torments, have not, like myself, the hope of the paradise beyond it.”
Saint-Aignan exhausted himself in protestations of devotion, took the king’s hand, kissed it, and left the room radiant with delight.
198
King and Noble
The king endeavored to recover his self-possession as quickly as possible, in order to meet M. de la Fère with an untroubled countenance. He clearly saw it was not mere chance that had induced the comte’s visit, he had some vague impression of its importance; but he felt that to
