Devereux — Complete by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton (best free novels txt) 📖

was accosted by an old man of evident rank, but of a countenance more strikingly demonstrative of the little cares of a mere courtier than any I ever beheld. “What news, Monsieur le Marquis?” said Fleuri, smiling.

“Oh! the greatest imaginable! the King talks of receiving the Danish minister on Thursday, which, you know, is his day of domestic business! What can this portend? Besides,” and here the speaker’s voice lowered into a whisper, “I am told by the Duc de la Rochefoucauld that the king intends, out of all ordinary rule and practice, to take physic to-morrow: I can’t believe it; no, I positively can’t; but don’t let this go further!”

“Heaven forbid!” answered Fleuri, bowing, and the courtier passed on to whisper his intelligence to others. “Who’s that gentleman?” I asked.

“The Marquis de Dangeau,” answered Fleuri; “a nobleman of great quality, who keeps a diary of all the king says and does. It will perhaps be a posthumous publication, and will show the world of what importance nothings can be made. I dare say, Count, you have already, in England, seen enough of a court to know that there are some people who are as human echoes, and have no existence except in the noise occasioned by another.”

I took care that my answer should not be a witticism, lest Fleuri should think I was attempting to rival him; and so we passed on in an excellent humour with each other.

We mounted the grand staircase, and came to an ante-chamber, which, though costly and rich, was not remarkably conspicuous for splendour. Here the Bishop requested me to wait for a moment. Accordingly, I amused myself with looking over some engravings of different saints. Meanwhile, my companion passed through another door, and I was alone.

After an absence of nearly ten minutes, he returned. “Madame de Maintenon,” said he in a whisper, “is but poorly to-day. However, she has eagerly consented to see you; follow me!”

So saying, the ecclesiastical courtier passed on, with myself at his heels. We came to the door of a second chamber, at which Fleuri scraped gently. We were admitted, and found therein three ladies, one of whom was reading, a second laughing, and a third yawning, and entered into another chamber, where, alone and seated by the window in a large chair, with one foot on a stool, in an attitude that rather reminded me of my mother, and which seems to me a favourite position with all devotees, we found an old woman without rouge, plainly dressed, with spectacles on her nose and a large book on a little table before her. With a most profound salutation, Frejus approached, and taking me by the hand, said,—

“Will Madame suffer me to present to her the Count Devereux?”

Madame de Maintenon, with an air of great meekness and humility, bowed a return to the salutation. “The son of Madame la Marechale de Devereux will always be most welcome to me!” Then, turning towards us, she pointed to two stools, and, while we were seating ourselves, said,—

“And how did you leave my excellent friend?”

“When, Madame, I last saw my mother, which is now nearly a year ago, she was in health, and consoling herself for the advance of years by that tendency to wean the thoughts from this world which (in her own language) is the divinest comfort of old age!”

“Admirable woman!” said Madame de Maintenon, casting down her eyes; “such are indeed the sentiments in which I recognize the Marechale. And how does her beauty wear? Those golden locks, and blue eyes, and that snowy skin, are not yet, I suppose, wholly changed for an adequate compensation of the beauties within?”

“Time, Madame, has been gentle with her; and I have often thought, though never perhaps more strongly than at this moment, that there is in those divine studies, which bring calm and light to the mind, something which preserves and embalms, as it were, the beauty of the body.”

A faint blush passed over the face of the devotee. No, no,—not even at eighty years of age is a compliment to a woman’s beauty misplaced! There was a slight pause. I thought that respect forbade me to break it.

“His Majesty,” said the Bishop, in the tone of one who is sensible that he encroaches a little, and does it with consequent reverence, “his Majesty, I hope, is well?”

“God be thanked, yes, as well as we can expect. It is now nearly the hour in which his Majesty awaits your personal inquiries.”

Fleuri bowed as he answered,—

“The King, then, will receive us to-day? My young companion is very desirous to see the greatest monarch, and, consequently, the greatest man, of the age.”

“The desire is natural,” said Madame de Maintenon; and then, turning to me, she asked if I had yet seen King James the Third.

I took care, in my answer, to express that even if I had resolved to make that stay in Paris which allowed me to pay my respects to him at all, I should have deemed that both duty and inclination led me, in the first instance, to offer my homage to one who was both the benefactor of my father and the monarch whose realms afforded me protection.

“You have not, then,” said Madame de Maintenon, “decided on the length of your stay in France?”

“No,” said I,—and my answer was regulated by my desire to see how far I might rely on the services of one who expressed herself so warm a friend of that excellent woman, Madame la Marechale,—“no, Madame. France is the country of my birth, if England is that of my parentage; and could I hope for some portion of that royal favour which my father enjoyed, I would rather claim it as the home of my hopes than the refuge of my exile. But”—and I stopped short purposely.

The old lady looked at me very earnestly through her spectacles for one moment, and then, hemming twice with a little embarrassment, again remarked to the Bishop that the time for seeing the King was nearly arrived. Fleuri, whose policy at that period was very like that of the concealed Queen, and who was, besides, far from desirous of introducing any new claimants on Madame de Maintenon’s official favour, though he might not object to introduce them to a private friend, was not slow in taking the hint. He rose, and I was forced to follow his example.

Madame de Maintenon thought she might safely indulge in a little cordiality when I was just on the point of leaving her, and accordingly blessed me, and gave me her hand, which I kissed very devoutly. An extremely pretty hand it was, too, notwithstanding the good Queen’s age. We then retired, and, repassing the three ladies, who were now all yawning, repaired to the King’s apartments.

“What think you of Madame?” asked Fleuri.

“What can I think of her,” said I, cautiously, “but that greatness seems in her to take its noblest form,—that of simplicity?”

“True,” rejoined Fleuri; “never was there so meek a mind joined to so lowly a carriage! Do you remark any trace of former beauty?”

“Yes, indeed, there is much that is soft in her countenance, and much that is still