Memoirs of a Physician (71 page)

The countess, terrified at the ominous and insulting expression which she saw already pictured on every face around her, hastened to withdraw. In an hour she was without the walls of Versailles, seated beside the Duchess d’Aiguillon, who, like a trustworthy and grateful friend, was taking the disgraced favorite to her chateau of Rueil, which had descended to her from the great Richelieu.

Bordeu, on his side, shut the door of the king’s chamber against all the royal family, under pretext of contagion. Louis’ apartment was thenceforward walled up ; no one might enter but Religion and Death.

The king had the last rites of tUe Church administered to him that same duy, and this news soon spread through 23 DUMAS VOL. VII.

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Paris, where the disgrace of the favorite was already known, and circulated from mouth to mouth.

All the court hastened to pay their respects to the dauphin, who closed his doors and refused to see any one.

But the following day the king was better, and sent the Duke d’Aiguillon to carry his compliments to Mine. Dubarry. This day was the ninth of May, 1774.

The court deserted the pavilion occupied by the dauphin, and flocked in such crowds to Eueil, where the favorite was residing, that since the banishment of M. de Choiseul to Chanteloup such a string of carriages had never been witnessed.

Things were in this position, therefore : would the king live and
Mme.
Dubarry still remain queen ? or, would the king die, and
Mme.
Dubarry sink to the condition of an infamous and execrable courtesan ?

This was why Versailles, on the evening of the ninth of May, in the year 1774, presented such a curious and interesting spectacle.

On the Place d’Armes, before the palace, several groups had formed in front of the railing, who, with sympathetic air, seemed most anxious to hear the news.

They were citizens of Versailles or Paris, and every now and then, with all the politeness imaginable, they questioned the gardes-du-corps, who were pacing slowly up and down the Court of Honor with their hands behind their backs, respecting the king’s health.

Gradually these groups dispersed. The inhabitants of Paris took their seats in the pataches or stage-coaches to return peaceably to their own homes, while those of Versailles, sure of having the earliest news from the fountain-head, also retired to their several dwellings.

No one was to be seen in the streets but the patrols of the watch, who performed their duty a little more quietly than usual, and that gigantic world called the Palace of Versailles became by degrees shrouded in darkness and silence, like that greater world which contained it.

At the angle of the street bordered with trees which extends in front of the palace, a man advanced in years

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was seated on a stone bench overshadowed by the already leafy boughs of the horse-chestnuts, with his expressive and poetic features turned toward the chateau, leaning with both hands on his cane, and supporting his chin on his hands.

He was, nevertheless, an old man, bent by age and ill health, but his eye still sparkled with something of its youthful fire, and his thoughts glowed even more brightly than his eyes.

He was absorbed in melancholy contemplation, and did not perceive a second personage, who, after peeping curiously through the iron railing, and questioning thegardes-du -corps, crossed the esplanade in a diagonal direction, and advanced straight toward the bench with the intention of seating himself upon it.

This personage was a young man with projecting cheek-bones, low forehead, aquiline nose, slightly bent to one side, and a sardonic smile. While advancing toward the stone bench he chuckled sneeringly, although alone, seeming to reply by this manifestation to some secret thought.

When within three paces of the bench, he perceived the old man and paused, scanning him with his oblique and stealthy glance, although evidently fearing to let his purpose be seen.

“You are enjoying the fresh air, I presume, sir?” said-he, approaching him with an abrupt movement.

The old man raised his head.

” Ha I” exclaimed the newcomer, “it is my illustrious master ! “

” And you are my young practitioner ? ” said the old man.

“Will you permit me to take a seat beside you, sir ?”

” Most willingly ‘ And the old man made room on the bench beside him.

” It appears that the king is doing better ? ” said the young man ; ” the people rejoice.” And he burst a second time into his sneering laugh.

The old man made no reply.

532 MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN.

” The whole day long carriages have been rolling from Paris to Rueil, and from Eueil to Versailles. The Countess Dubarry will marry the king as soon as his health is re-established ! ” And he burst into a louder laugh than before.

Again the old man made no reply.

” Pardon me, if I laugh at fate,” continued the young man, with a gesture of nervous impatience, ” but every good Frenchman, look you, loves his king, and my king is better to-day.”

” Do not jest thus on such a subject, sir,” said the old man, gently. “The death of a man is always a misfortune for some one, and the death of a king is frequently a great misfortune for all.”

“Even the death of Louis XV.?” interrupted the young man, in a tone of irony. ” Oh, my dear master, a distinguished philosopher like you, to sustain such a proposition ! I know all the energy and skill of your paradoxes, but I cannot compliment you on this one.”

The old man shook his head.

” And, besides,” added the newcomer, ” why think of the king’s death ? Who speaks of such an event ? The king has the smallpox. Well, we all know that complaint ; the king has beside him Borden and La 31ar-tiniere, who are skilful men. Oh ! I will wager a trifle, my dear master, that Louis, the well-beioved, will escape his turn. Only this time the French people do not suffocate themselves in churches, putting up TOWS for him, as on the occasion of his former illness. Mark me ! everything grows antiquated and is abandoned.”

” Silence !” said the old man, shuddering; “silence! for I tell you you are speaking of ?. man over whom at this moment the destroying angel of God hovers.”

His young companion, surprised at this strange language, looked at the speaker, whose eyes had never quitted the facade of the chateau.

” Then you have more positive intelligence ? ” inquired he.

” Look ! ” said the old man, pointing with his finger to

MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 533

one of the windows of the palace, “what do-you behold yonder ?”

“A window lighted up ; is that what you mean ?”

” Yes ; but lighted in what manner ? “

” By a wax candle placed in a little lantern.”

“Precisely.”

“Well?”

” Well, young man, do you know what tho flames of that wax-light represent ? “

” No, sir.”

“It represents the life of the king.”

The young man looked more fixedly at his aged companion, as if to be certain that he was in his perfect senses.

” A friend of mine, Monsieur de Jussien,” continued the old man, ” has placed that wax-light there, which will burn as long as the king is alive.”

“It is a signal, then ?”

“A signal which Louis XV.‘s successor devours with his eyes from behind some neighboring curtain. The signal, which shall warn the ambitious of the dawn of a new reign, informs a poor philosopher like myself of the instant when the breath of the Almighty sweeps away at the same moment an age and a human existence.”

The young man shuddered in his turn, and moved closer to his companion.

” Oh ! ” said the aged philosopher, ” mark well this night, young man. Behold what clouds and tempests it bears in its murky bosom. TJie morning which will succeed it I shall witness, no doubt, for I am not old enough to abandon hope of seeing the morrow ; but a reign will commence on that morrow which you will see to its close, and which contains mysteries which I cannot hope to be a spectator of. It is not, therefore, without interest that I watch yonder trembling flame, whose signification I have just explained to you.”

” True, my master,” murmured the young man, ” most true.”

” Louis XIV. reigned seventy-three years,” continued the old man ; ” how many will Louis XVI. reign ? “

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” Ah ! ” exclaimed the younger of the two, pointing to the window, which had just become shrouded in darkness.

” The king is dead,” said the old man, rising, with a sort of terror. And both kept silence for some minutes.

Suddenly a chariot, drawn by eight fiery horses, started at full gallop from the courtyard of the palace. Two outriders preceded it, each holding a torch in his hand.

In the chariot were the dauphin, Marie Antoinette, and
Mme.
Elizabeth, the sister of the king. The flames of the torches threw a gloomy light on their pale features. The carriage passed close to the two men, within ten paces of the bench from which they had risen.

” Long live King Louis XVI. ! Long live the queen ! ” shouted the young man, in a loud, harsh voice, as if he meant to insult this new-born majesty instead of saluting it.

The dauphin bowed, the queen showed her face at the window, sad and severe. The carriage dashed by and disappeared.

” My dear Monsieur Rousseau,” said the younger of the two spectators, “there is our friend, Mademoiselle Dubarry, a widow.”

” To-morrow she will be exiled,” said his aged companion. ”Adieu! Monsieur Marat.”