Ange Pitou by Alexandre Dumas part two

“But Monsieur Necker has sent you to me, and the warrant of imprisonment was signed by him.”

“It was so undoubtedly.”

“Then explain yourself more clearly. Review your past life. See if you do not find some circumstance in it which you had yourself forgotten.”

“Review my past life! Yes, Sire; I shall do it, and aloud; do not fear, it will not occupy much time. I have labored without intermission since I attained the age of sixteen: the pupil of Jean Jacques, the companion of Balsamo, the friend of Lafayette and of Washington, I have never had cause to reproach myself, since the day that I left France, for a single fault, nor even an error. When acquired science permitted me to attend the wounded or the sick, I always thought myself responsible to God for every one of my thoughts, and every action. Since God has given me the care of human beings as a surgeon, I have shed blood for the sake of humanity, while ready to give my own to soothe or to save my patient; as a physician, I have always been a consoler, and sometimes a benefactor. Fifteen years have thus passed away. God has blessed my efforts: I have seen return to life the greater part of the afflicted, who have all kissed my hands. Those who have died, have been taken away by the will of God. No, I repeat, Sire, since the day when I left France, and that was fifteen years ago, I have done nothing with which I can reproach myself.”

“You have in America associated with innovators, and your writings have propagated their principles.”

“Yes, Sire; and I forgot this claim to the gratitude of kings and men.”

The king was silent.

“Sire,” continued Gilbert, “now my life is known to you; I have neither offended nor wounded any one,—neither a beggar nor a queen,—and I come to ask your Majesty why I have been punished.”

“I shall speak to the queen, Monsieur Gilbert; but do you think the lettre de cachet comes directly from the queen?”

“I do not say that, Sire; I even think the queen merely recommended it.”

“Ah! you see,” cried Louis, quite joyfully.

“Yes; but you are aware, Sire, that what a queen recommends, she commands.”

“At whose request was the lettre de cachet granted? May I see it?”

“Yes, Sire,” said Gilbert. “Look at it.”

And he presented him the entry in the jail-book.

“The Countess de Charny!” exclaimed the king. “How, it is she who caused your arrest? But what can you have done to this poor Charny?”

“I did not even know that lady by name this morning, Sire.”

Louis passed his hand over his brow.

“Charny,” murmured he, “Charny,—sweetness, virtue, chastity itself.”

“You will see, Sire,” said Gilbert, laughing, “that I was imprisoned in the Bastille at the request of the three theological virtues!”

“Oh, I will clear this up at once!” said the king.

And he pulled a bell.

An usher appeared.

“See if the Countess de Charny is with the queen,” said Louis.

“Sire,” said the usher, “the countess has this instant crossed the gallery; she is about stepping into her coach.”

“Run after her,” said Louis, eagerly, “and request her to come to my cabinet on an affair of importance.”

Then, turning towards Gilbert:—

“Is that what you desire, sir?” said he.

“Yes, Sire,” answered Gilbert, “and I return a thousand thanks to your Majesty.”

Chapter XXIII

The Countess de Charny

GILBERT, on hearing the order to send for Madame de Charny, had retired into the recess of a window.

As to the king, he was walking up and down in the room called the Œil-de-Bœuf, preoccupied at times with public affairs, at others with the pertinacity of this Gilbert, by whom, in spite of himself, he felt strangely influenced, and at a moment when nothing ought to have interested him but the affairs of Paris.

Suddenly the door of the cabinet was thrown open, the usher announced the Countess de Charny, and Gilbert, through the closed curtains, could perceive a woman, whose flowing and silken robes grazed the half-opened door.

This lady was dressed, according to the fashion of the times, in a déshabille of gray silk, striped with a variety of colors, with a petticoat of the same stuff, and a sort of shawl, which, after being crossed over the chest, was fastened behind her waist, and showed to great advantage the beauties of a full and well-developed bosom. A small bonnet, coquettishly fixed on the summit of a high head-dress, high-heeled shoes, which showed the exquisite shape of a beautiful instep, a small cane twirled by the gloved fingers of a slender and delicate hand, with tapering and perfectly aristocratic fingers: such was the person so anxiously expected by Gilbert.

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