Memoirs of a Physician (33 page)
” Who does not know the Duke de Richelieu ? ” was the reply. ” I should not be a woman if I did not.”
” This she-ape thinks that she is a woman ! ” murmured the conqueror of Mahon, and he made a most graceful bow.
” If I may venture to ask the question,” added he, ” to whom have I the honor of speaking ? “
” I am the Countess de Beam, at your service, ^ replied the old lady, courtesying with courtly reverence upon the dirty floor of the passage, and about three inches from the open trap-door of a cellar, into which the marshal wickedly awaited her disappearance at the third bend.
” I am delighted, madame enchanted,” said he, ” and I return a thousand thanks to fate. You also have lawsuits on hand, countess ? “
” Oh, duke ! I have only one ; but what a lawsuit ! Is it possible that you have never heard of it ? “
” Oh, frequently, frequently that great lawsuit. True ; I entreat your pardon. How the deuce could I have forgotten that?”
” Against the Saluces ? “
” Against the Saluces, yes, countess ; the lawsuii about which the song was written.”
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” A song ? ” said the old lady, piqued ; ” what song ? “
” Take care, madame ; there is a trap-door here,” said the duke, who saw that the old woman was decided not to throw herself into the .cellar ; ” take hold of the balus-trade I mean, the cord.”
The old lady mounted the first steps. The duke followed her.
” Yes, a very humorous song ‘ said he.
” A humorous song on my lawsuit ! “
“Dame! I shall leave you to judge but perhaps you know it ? “
” Not at all.”
” It is to the tune of Bourbonnaise ; it runs so :
” ‘ Embarrassed, countess, as I stand, Give me, I pray, a helping hand, And I am quite at your command.’
It is Madame Dubarry who speaks, you must understand ‘
” That is very impertinent toward her.”
” Oh ! what can you expect ? The ballad-mongers respect no one. Heavens ! how greasy this cord is ! Then you reply as follows:
” ‘ I’m very old and stubborn, too ; I’m forced at law my rights to sue ; Ah, who can help me ? tell me who ? ” ‘
” Oh, sir, it is frightful ! ” cried the countess ; ” a woman of quality is not to be insulted in this manner.”
” Madame, excuse me, if I have sung out of tune ; these stairs heat me so. Ah ! here we are at last. Allow me to pull the bell.”
The old lady, grumbling all the time, made way for the duke to pass.
The marshal rang, and
Mme.
Flageot, who, in becoming a procureur’s wife, had not ceased to fill the functions of portress and cook, opened the door. The two litigants were ushered into M. Flageot’s study, where they found that worthy in a state of furious excitement, and with a pen in his mouth, hard at work dictating a terrible plea to his head clerk.
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“Good heavens, Master Flageot! what is the matter?” cried the countess, at whose voice the attorney turned round.
” Ah ! madame, your most humble servant a chair here for the Countess de Beam. This gentleman is a friend of yours, madame, I presume. But surely oh ! I cannot be mistaken the Duke de Richelieu in my house ! Another chair, Bernardet another chair.”
” Master Flageot,” said the countess, ” how does my lawsuit get on, pray ? “
“Ah, madame! I was just now working for you.”
“Very good, Master Flageot, very good.”
“-And after a fashion, my lady, which will make some noise, I hope.”
” Hum ! Take care.”
” Oh ! madame, there is no longer any occasion for caution.”
” Then if you are busy about my affair you can give an audience to the duke.”
” Excuse me, my lord duke,” said Master Flageot, ” you are too gallant not to understand “
” I understand, Master Flageot, I understand.”
” But now I can attend to y&u exclusively.”
” Don’t be uneasy. I shall not abuse your good-nature; you are aware what brings me here ? “
” The bags which Monsieur Eafte gave me the other day.”
” Some papers relative to my lawsuit of my suit about deuce take it ! You must know which suit I mean, Master Flageot ? “
” Your lawsuit about the lands of Chapenat.”
“Very probably; and will you gain it for me? That would be very kind on your part.”
” My lord, it is postponed indefinitely.”
“Postponed! And why?”
” It will not be brought forward in less than a rear, at the earliest.”
“For what reason, may I ask?”
” Circumstances, my lord, circumstances you have heard of his majesty’s decree?”
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” I think so but which one ? His majesty publishes so many.”
” The one which annuls ours.”
” Very well ; and what, then ? “
“Well, my lord duke, we shall reply by burning our ships.”
“Burning your ships, my dear friend? You will burn the ships of the parliament? I do not quite comprehend you I was not aware that the parliament had ships.”
” The first chamber refuses to register, perhaps ? ” inquired the Countess de Beam, whom Eichelieu’s lawsuit in no way prevented from thinking of her own.
“Better than that.”
” The second one also ? “
” That would be a mere nothing. Both chambers have resolved not to give any judgments until the king shall have dismissed Monsieur d’Aiguillon.”
” Bah ! ” exclaimed the marshal, rubbing his hands.
” Not adjudicate ! on what ? ” asked the countess, alarmed.
” On the, lawsuits, madame.”
” They will not adjudicate on my lawsuit,” exclaimed the Countess de Beam, with a dismay which she did not even attempt to conceal.
” Neither on yours, madame, nor the duke’s.”
” It is iniquitous ! It is rebellion against his majesty’s orders, that ! “
” Madame,” replied the procureur, majestically, ” the king has forgotten himself we shall forget also.”
” Monsieur Flageot, you will be sent to the Bastile, remember, I warn you.”
” I shall go singing, madame, and if I am sent thither, all my fellow-members of parliament will follow me, carrying palms in their hands.”
” He is mad ! ” said the countess to Eichelieu.
” We are all the same,” replied the procureur.
” Oh, ho ! ” said the marshal, ” that is becoming rather curious.”
” But, sir, you said just now that you were working for me,” replied Madame de Beam.
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” I said so, and it is quite true. You, madame, are the first example I cite in my narration ; here is the paragraph which relates to you.”
He snatched the draft from his clerk’s hand, fixed his spectacles upon his nose, and read with emphasis:
” Their position ruined, their fortune compromised, their duties trampled under foot ! His majesty will understand how much they must have suffered. Thus the petitioner had intrusted to his care a very important suit upon which the fortune of one of the first families in the kingdom depends; by his zeal, his industry, and, he ventures to say, his talents, this suit “was progressing favorably, and the rights of the most noble and most powerful lad)-, Ange-lique Charlotte Veronique, Countess de Beam, were on the, point of being recognized, proclaimed, when the breath of discord ingulfing “
“I had just go so far, madame ‘ said the procureur, drawing himself up, ” but I think the simile is not amiss.”
” Monsieur Flageot ‘ said the countess, ” it is forty years ago since I first employed your father, who proved most worthy of my patronage; I continued that patronage to you, you have gained ten or twelve thousand livres by my suit, and you would probably have gained as many more.”
” Write down all that,” said M. Flageot eagerly to his clerk ; ” it is a testimony, a proof. It shall be inserted in the confirmation.”
” But now,” interrupted the countess, ” I take back all my papers from your charge; from this moment you have lost my confidence.”
Master Flageot, thunderstruck with this disgrace, remained for a moment almost stupefied; but all at once, rising under the blow like a martyr who dies for his religion :
” Be it so,” said he. ” Bernardet, give the papers back to madame; and you will insert this fact,” added he, ” that the petitioner preferred his conscience to his fortune.”
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“I beg your pardon, countess,” whispered the marshal in the countess’s ear, ” but it seems to me that you have acted without reflection.’”
” In what respect, my lord duke ? “
” You take back your papers from this honest procureur, but for what purpose ? “
” To take them to another procureur, to another avocat ! ” exclaimed the countess.
Master Flageot raised his eyes to heaven, with a mournful smile of self-denial and stoic resignation.
” But,” continued the marshal, still whispering in the countess’s ear, ” if it has been decided that the Chambers will not adjudicate, my dear madame, another procureur can do no more than Master Flageot.”
“It is a league, then?”
” Pardieu ! do you think Master Flageot fool enough to protest alone, to lose his practise alone, if his fellow-lawyers were not agred to do the same, and consequently support him ? “
” But you, my lord duke, what will you do ? “
” For my part, I declare that I think Master Flageot a very honest procureur, and that my papers are as safe in his possession as in my own. Consequently, I shall leave them with him, of course paying him as if my suit were going on.”
” It is well said, my lord marshal, that you are a generous, liberal-minded man!” exclaimed Master Flageot; ” I shall spread your fame far and wide, my lord.”
” You absolutely overwhelm me, my dear procureur,” replied Eichelieu, bowing.
” Bernardet,” cried the enthusiastic procureur to his clerk, “you will insert in the peroration a eulogy on Marshal de Kichelieu.”
” No, no ! by no means, Master Flageot ! I beg you will do nothing of the kind,” replied the marshal, hastily. ” Diable ! that would be a pretty action ! I love secrecy in what it is customary to call good actions. Do not dis-oblige me, Master Flageot I shall deny it, look you I shall positively contradict it my modesty is susceptible. Well, countess, what say you ? “
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” I say my suit sliall be judged. I must have a judgment, and I will “
” And I say, madame, that if your suit is judged, the king must first send the Swiss guards, the light horse, and twenty pieces of cannon into the great hall,” replied Master Flageot, with a belligerent air, which completed the consternation of the litigant.
” Then you do not think his majesty can get out of this scrape,” said Eichelieu, in a low voice to Flegeot.
” Impossible, my lord marshal. It is an imheard-of case. No more justice in France ! It is as if you were to say, no more bread.”
” Do you think so ? “
” You will see.”
” But the king will be angry.”
” We are resolved to brave everything.”
” Even exile ? “
” Even death, my lord marshal ! We have a heart, although we wear the gown.”
And M. Flageot struck his breast vigorously.
” In fact, madame,” said Eichelieu to his companion, ” I believe that this is an unfortunate step for the ministry.”
” Oh, yes ! ” replied the old countess, after a pause, ” it is very unfortunate for me, who never meddle in anything that passes, to be dragged into this conflict.”
” I think, madame,” said the marshal, ” there is some one who could help you in this affair a very powerful person. But would that person do it ? “
” Is it displaying too much curiosity, duke, to ask the name of this powerful person ? “
” Your goddaughter,” said the duke.
“Oh! Madame Dubarry?”
“The same.”
” In fact, that is true I am obliged to you for the hint.”
The duke bit his lips.
” Then you will go to Luciennes ? ” asked he.
” Without hesitation.”
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” But the Countess Dubarry cannot overcome the opposition of parliament.”
” I will tell her I must have my suit judged, and as she can refuse me nothing, after the service I have rendered her, she will tell the king she wishes it. His majesty will speak to the chancellor, and the chancellor has a long arm, duke. Master Flageot, be kind enough to continue to study my case well; it may come on sooner than you think. Mark my words.”
Master Flageot turned away his head with an air of incredulity which did not shake the countess in the least. In the meantime the duke had been reflecting.
” Well,- madame, since you are going to Luciennes, will you have the goodness to present my most humble respects ? “
” Most willingly, duke.”
” We are companions in misfortune ; your suit is in abeyance, and mine also. In supplicating for yourself you will do so for me, too. Moreover, you may express yonder the sort of pleasure these stubborn headed parliament men cause me; and you will add that it was I who advised you to have recourse to the divinity of Luciennes.”
” I will not fail to do so, duke. Adieu, gentlemen.”
” Allow me the honor of conducting you to your carriage.”
” Once more adieu, Monsieur Flageot ; I leave you to your occupations.”
The marshal handed the countess to her carriage.
” Kafte was right,” said he, ” the Flageots will cause a revolution. Thank Heaven ! I am supported on both sides I am of the court, and of the parliament. Madame Dubarry will meddle with politics and fall, alone if she resists. I have my little pretty face at Trianon. Decidedly Eafte is of my school, and when I am minister he shall be my chief secretary.”
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE CONFUSIOX INCREASES.
MiiE. DE BEARN followed Eichelieu’s advice literally. Two hours and a. half after the duke had left her, she was waiting in the antechamber at Luciennes, in the company of M. Zamore.
It was some time since she had been seen at
Mme.
Dubarry’s, and her presence therefore excited a feeling of curiosity in the countess’s boudoir when her name was announced.
