Athos started, as he replied: “I shall have the honor to recall it to your Majesty. It was with regard to a demand which I addressed to you respecting a marriage which M. de Bragelonne wished to contract with Mademoiselle de la Valliere.”
“Ah!” thought the King, “we have come to it now. I remember,” he said, aloud.
“At that period,” pursued Athos, “your Majesty was so kind and generous towards M. de Bragelonne and myself that not a single word which then fell from your lips has escaped my memory; and when I asked your Majesty to accord me Mademoiselle de la Valliere’s hand for M. de Bragelonne, you refused.”
“Quite true,” said Louis, dryly.
“Alleging,” Athos hastened to say, “that the young lady had no position in society.”
Louis could hardly force himself to listen patiently.
“That,” added Athos, “she had but little fortune.”
The King threw himself back in his arm-chair.
“That her extraction was indifferent.”
A renewed impatience on the part of the King.
“And little beauty,” added Athos, pitilessly.
This last bolt buried itself deep in the King’s heart, and made him almost bound from his seat.
“You have a good memory, Monsieur,” he said.
“I invariably have, on all occasions when I have had the distinguished honor of an interview with your Majesty,” retorted the count, without being in the least disconcerted.
“Very good; it is admitted I said all that.”
“And I thanked your Majesty, because those words testified an interest in M. de Bragelonne, which did him much honor.”
“And you may possibly remember,” said the King, very deliberately, “that you had the greatest repugnance to this marriage?”
“Quite true, Sire.”
“And that you solicited my permission against your own inclination?”
“Yes, Sire.”
“And, finally, I remember also,- for I have a memory nearly as good as your own,- I remember, I say, that you observed at the time: ‘I do not believe that Mademoiselle de la Valliere loves M. de Bragelonne.’ Is that true?”
The blow told well, but Athos did not shrink. “Sire,” he said, “I have already begged your Majesty’s forgiveness; but there are certain particulars in that conversation which will be intelligible in the denouement.”
“Well, what is the denouement, Monsieur?”
“This: your Majesty then said that you would defer the marriage out of regard for M. de Bragelonne’s own interests.”
The King remained silent.
“M. de Bragelonne is now so exceedingly unhappy that he cannot any longer defer asking your Majesty for a solution of the matter.”
The King turned pale; Athos looked at him with fixed attention.
“And what,” said the King, with considerable hesitation, “does M. de Bragelonne request?”
“Precisely the very thing that I came to ask your Majesty for at my last audience; namely, your Majesty’s consent to his marriage.”
The King remained silent.
“The obstacles in the way are all now quite removed for us,” continued Athos. “Mademoiselle de la Valliere, without fortune, birth, or beauty, is not the less on that account the only good match in the world for M. de Bragelonne, since he loves this young girl.”
The King pressed his hands impatiently together.
“Does your Majesty hesitate?” inquired the count, without losing a particle either of his firmness or his politeness.
“I do not hesitate,- I refuse,” replied the King.
Athos paused a moment, as if to collect himself. “I have had the honor,” he said in a mild tone, “to observe to your Majesty that no obstacle now interferes with M. de Bragelonne’s affections, and that his determination seems unalterable.”
“There is my will,- and that is an obstacle, I should imagine!” “That is the most serious of all,” Athos replied quickly.
“Ah!”
“And may we therefore be permitted to ask your Majesty, with the greatest humility, for your reason for this refusal?”
“The reason! A question to me!” exclaimed the King.
“A demand, Sire!”
The King, leaning with both his hands upon the table, said in a deep tone of concentrated passion: “You have lost all recollection of what is usual at court. At court no one questions the King.”
“Very true, Sire; but if men do not question, they conjecture.”
“Conjecture! What may that mean?”
“Almost always the conjecture of the subject impugns the frankness of the King.”
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121