“At my house at Versailles,” said Andrée, bursting into tears, with a nervous trembling which shook her whole frame, “at my house, where Wolfsfoot is waiting for me, as we had previously agreed to meet at eleven o’clock to-night.”
Midnight was heard to strike.
“Is he still waiting there?”
“Yes.”
“In which room is he?”
“They have just shown him into the drawing-room.”
“What place does he occupy in the drawing-room?”
“He is standing, and leaning against the chimney-piece.”
“And the casket?”
“It is on the table before him. Oh!”
“What is the matter?”
“Let us hasten to get him out of the house. Monsieur de Charny, who was not to return till to-morrow, will come back to-night, on account of the events that have taken place. I see him; he is at Sèvres. Make him go away, so that the count may not find him in the house.”
“Your Majesty hears that; in what part of Versailles does Madame de Charny reside?”
“Where do you reside, Countess?”
“On the Boulevard de la Reine, Sire.”
“Very well.”
“Sire, your Majesty has heard everything. That casket belongs to me. Does the king order it to be returned to me?”
“Immediately, sir.”
And the king, having drawn a screen before Madame de Charny, which prevented her from being seen, called the officer on duty, and gave him an order in a low voice.
Chapter XXIV
Royal Philosophy
A STRANGE preoccupation for a king whose subjects were undermining his throne. The inquisitiveness of the erudite man applied to a physical phenomenon, while the most important political phenomenon was taking place that France had ever known,—that is to say, the transformation of a monarchy into a democracy. This sight, we say, of a king forgetting himself during the most terrible period of a tempest, would certainly have caused the great minds of the time to smile, bent, as they had been during three months, on the solution of their problem.
While riot was raging in all its fury without, Louis, forgetting the terrible events of the day,—the taking of the Bastille, the assassination of Flesselles, De Launay, and De Losme, the disposition of the National Assembly to revolt against the king,—Louis was concentrating his mind on this examination of a theory; and the revelations of this strange scene absorbed him no less than the most vital interests of his government.
And thus, as soon as he had given the order which we have mentioned to the captain of his guards, he returned to Gilbert, who was removing from the countess the excess of fluid with which he had charged her, in order that her slumber might be more tranquil than under the effects of this convulsive somnambulism.
For an instant the respiration of the countess became calm and easy as that of a sleeping child. Then Gilbert, with a single motion of his hand, reopened her eyes, and put her into a state of ecstasy.
It was then that one could see the extraordinary beauty of Andrée, in all its splendor. Being completely freed from all earthly agitations, the blood, which had for an instant rushed to her face, and which momentarily had colored her cheeks, redescended to her heart, whose pulsations had recovered their natural state. Her face had again become pale, but of that beautiful pallor of the women of the East; her eyes, opened rather more than usual, were raised towards heaven, and left the pupils floating, as it were, in the pearl-like whiteness of their eyeballs; the nose, slightly expanded, appeared to inhale a purer atmosphere; and her lips, which had preserved all their vermilion, although her cheeks had lost a little of theirs, were slightly separated, and discovered a row of pearls, of which the sweet moistness increased the brilliancy.
The head was gently thrown backwards with an inexpressible grace, almost angelic. It might have been said that this fixed look, increasing its scope of vision by its intensity, penetrated to the foot of the throne of God.
The king gazed at her as if dazzled. Gilbert turned away his head and sighed. He could not resist the desire to give Andrée this degree of superhuman beauty; and now, like Pygmalion—more unhappy even than Pygmalion, for he knew the insensibility of the beautiful statue he trembled at the sight of his own production.