Taking the Bastile; Or, Pitou the Peasant

by Alexandre Dumas

  CHAPTER XXII.

  THE PRIVATE COUNCIL.

  Louis entered briskly but heavily as was his wont. His manner was busyand curious, strongly contrasting with the Queen's cold rigidity.

  His high color had not left him. An early riser and proud of theheartiness he had imbibed with the morning breeze, he breathed noisilyand set his foot vigorously on the floor.

  "The doctor--what has become of the doctor?" he inquired.

  "Good morning, Sire! how do you feel this morning? are you tired?"

  "I have slept six hours, my allowance. I feel very well, and my headis clear. But you are a little pale. I heard you had sent for the newdoctor."

  "Here is Dr. Gilbert," said the Queen, standing aside from a windowrecess where the doctor had been screened by the curtains.

  "But were you unwell that you sent for him?" continued the monarch:"You blush--you must have some secret, since you consult him instead ofthe regular doctors of the household. But have a care! Dr. Gilbert isone of my confidential friends, and if you tell him anything he willrepeat it to me."

  The Queen had become purple from being merely red.

  "Nay, Sire," said Gilbert, smiling.

  "What, has the Queen corrupted my friends?"

  Marie Antoinette laughed one of those dry, half-suppressed laughssignifying that the conversation has gone far enough or it fatigues:Gilbert understood but the King did not.

  "Come, doctor, since this amuses the Queen, let me hear the joke."

  "I was asking the doctor why you called him so early. I own that hispresence at Versailles much puzzles me," said the Queen.

  "I was wanting the doctor to talk politics with him," said Louis, hisbrow darkening.

  "Oh, very well," said she, taking a seat as if to listen.

  "But we are not going to talk pleasant stuff; so we must go away tospare you an additional pang."

  "Do you call business matters pangs?" majestically said the Queen. "Iwould like you to stay. Dr. Gilbert, surely you will not disobey me."

  "But I want the doctor's opinion and he cannot give it according to hisconscience if you are by us."

  "What risk does he run of displeasing me by speaking according to hisconscience?" she demanded.

  "That is easy to understand, madam; you have your own line of policy,which is not always ours; so----"

  "You would clearly imply that the Gilbert policy runs counter to mine?"

  "It should be so, from the ideas your Majesty knows me to entertain,"said Gilbert. "But your Majesty should know that I will speak the truthbefore you as plainly as to his Majesty."

  "That is a gain," said Marie Antoinette.

  "Truth is not always good to speak," observed the monarch.

  "When useful?" suggested Gilbert.

  "And the intention good," added the Queen.

  "We do not doubt that," said King Louis. "But if you are wise, madam,you will leave the doctor free use of his language, which I stand inneed of."

  "Sire, since the Queen provokes the truth, and I know her mind istoo noble and powerful to dread it, I prefer to speak before both mysovereigns."

  "I ask it."

  "I have faith in your Majesty's wisdom," said Gilbert, bowing to thelady. "The question turns on the King's glory and happiness."

  "Then you were right to have faith in me. Commence, sir."

  "Well, I advise the King to go to Paris."

  A spark dropping into the eight thousand pounds of gunpowder in theCity Hall cellars would not have caused the explosion of this sentencein the Queen's bosom.

  "There," said the King who had been startled by her cry, "I told youso, doctor."

  "The King," proceeded the indignant woman, "in a city revolted; amongscythes and pitchforks, borne by the villains who massacred the Swiss,and murdered Count Launay and Provost Flesselles; the King crossing theCity Hall Square and slipping in the blood of his defenders: you areinsane to speak thus, sir!"

  Gilbert lowered his eyes as in respect but said not a word. The Kingwrithed in his chair as though on a red hot grid.

  "Madam," said the doctor at last, "I have seen Paris, and you have noteven been out of the palace to see Versailles, Do you know what Parisis about?"

  "Storming some other Bastile," jeered the Queen.

  "Assuredly not; but Paris knows there is another fortress between itand the King. The city is collecting the deputies of its forty-eightwards and sending them here."

  "Let them come," said the Queen, with fierce joy. "They will be hotlyreceived."

  "Take care, madam, for they come not alone but escorted by twentythousand National Guards."

  "What is that?"

  "Do not speak lightly of an institution which will be a power one day.It will bind and unbind."

  "My lord, you have ten thousand men who are equal to these twentythousand," said the Queen: "call them up to give these blackguardstheir chastisement, and the example which all this revolutionary spawnhas need of. I would sweep them all away in a week, if I were listenedto."

  "How deceived you are--by others," said Gilbert, shaking his head,sadly. "Alas! think of civil war excited by a queen. Only one did so,and she went down to the grave with the epithet of the Foreigner."

  "Excited by me? what do you mean? did I fire on the Bastile withoutprovocation?"

  "Pray, instead of urging violence, hearken to reason," interposed theKing. "Continue," he said to Gilbert.

  "Spare the King a battle with doubtful issue; these hates whichgrow hotter at a distance, these boastings which become courage onoccasion. You may by gentleness soften the contact of this army withthe palace. Let the King meet them. These twenty thousand are comingperhaps to conquer the King: let him conquer them, and turn them intohis own body-guard; for they are the people."

  The King nodded approval.

  "But do you not know what will be said?" she cried, "that the Kingapplauds what was done, the slaying of his faithful Switzers, themassacre of his officers, the putting his handsome city to fire andblood. You will make him dethrone himself and thank these gentlemen!"

  A disdainful smile passed over her lips.

  "No, madam, there is your mistake. This conduct would mean, there wassome justice in the people's grievances. 'I come to pardon where theyoverstepped the dealing of wild justice. I am the King and the chief;the head of the French Revolution as Henry Fourth was head of theLeague and the nation. Your generals are my officers, your NationalGuards my soldiers; your magistrates my own. Instead of urging me on,follow me if you can. The length of my stride will prove that I lead inthe footsteps of Charlemagne.'"

  "He is right," the King said ruefully.

  "Oh, Sire, for mercy's sake, do not listen to this man, your enemy."

  "Her Majesty tells you what she thinks of my suggestion," said Gilbert.

  "I think, sir, that you are the only person who has ever ventured totell me the truth," commented Louis XVI.

  "The truth? is that what you have told?" exclaimed the Queen. "Heavenhave mercy!"

  "Yes, madam," said Gilbert, "and believe me that it is the lamp bywhich the throne and royalty will be prevented rolling into the abyss."

  He bowed very humbly as he spoke, to the Queen, who appeared profoundlytouched this time--by his humility or the reasoning?

  The King rose with a decisive air as though determined on realization.But from his habit of doing nothing without consulting with hisconsort, he asked:

  "Do you approve?"

  "It must be," was her rejoinder.

  "I am not asking for your abnegation but support to my belief."

  "In that case I am convinced that the realm will become the meanest andmost deplorable of all in Christendom."

  "You exaggerate. Deplorable, I grant, but mean?"

  "Your ancestors left you a dreary inheritance," said Marie Antoinettesorrowfully.

  "Which I grieve you should share," added Louis.

  "Allow me to say, Sire, that the future may not be so lamentable,"interposed Gilbert, who piti
ed the dethroned rulers; "a despoticmonarchy has ceased, but a constitutional one commences."

  "Am I the man to found that in France?" asked the King.

  "Why not?" exclaimed the Queen, catching some hope from Gilbert'ssuggestion.

  "Madam, I see clearly. From the day when I walk among men likethemselves, I lose all the factitious strength necessary to governFrance as the Louis before me did. The French want a master and one whowill wield the sword. I feel no power to strike."

  "Not to strike those who would rob your children of their estate,"cried the Queen, "and who wish to break the lilies on your crown?"

  "What am I to answer? if I answer No, I raise in you one of thosestorms which embitter my life. You know how to hate--so much thebetter for you. You can be unjust; I do not reproach you, for it isan excellent trait in the lordly. Madam, we must resign ourselves: ittakes strength to push ahead this car with scythe-bladed wheels, and welack strength."

  "That is bad, for it will run over our children," sighed MarieAntoinette.

  "I know it, but we shall not be pushing it."

  "We can draw it back, Sire."

  "Oh, beware," said Gilbert, deeply, "it will crush you then."

  "Let him speak what the newspapers have been saying for a week past.At any rate he wraps up the bitterness of his free speech," said theKing. "In short, I shall go to Paris."

  "Who knows but you will find it the gulf I fear?" said the Queen in ahollow, irritated voice. "The assassin may be there with his bullet,who will know among a thousand threatening fists, which holds thedagger?"

  "Fear nothing of that sort, they love me," said Louis.

  "You make me pity you for saying that. They love you who slay andmangle and cut the throats of your representatives? The Governor of theBastile was your image. They killed that brave and faithful servitor,as they would kill you in his stead. The more easy as they know you andthat you would turn the other cheek to the smiter. If you are killed,what about my children?" concluded the Queen.

  "Madam," struck in Gilbert, deeming it time he intervened, "the Kingis so respected that I fear that his entry will be like that ofJuggernaut, under whose wheels the fanatics will throw themselves to becrushed. This march into Paris will be a triumphal progress."

  "I am rather of the doctor's opinion," said the monarch.

  "Say you are eager to enjoy this triumph," said the Queen.

  "The King is right, and his eagerness proves the accuracy of hisjudgment on men and events. The sooner his Majesty is, the greater willbe his triumph: by delay the gain may be lost. This promptness willchange the King's position and make the act in some way his order. Losetime, Sire, and their demand will be an order."

  "Not to-day, Master Gilbert," said the Queen, "to-morrow. Grant me tillthen, and I swear not to oppose the movement."

  "But who knows what will happen meanwhile?" expostulated the King indespair. "Marie, you seem doomed to ruin me. The Assembly will send mesome addresses which will rob me of all the merit in taking the firststep."

  Gilbert nodded.

  "Better so," said the Queen with sullen fury, "refuse and preserve yourregal dignity: go not to Paris but wage war from here; and if we mustdie here, let us fall like rulers, like masters, like Christians, whocling to their God as to their crown."

  The King saw from her excitement that he must give way.

  "But what do you expect between whiles?" he inquired: "A reinforcementfrom Germany? or news from town?"

  It was a coat of mail which the King refused to wear, but hermisapprehension of the monarch who knew he was not of the times whenkings wore armor, cost a precious time.

  Without other safeguard than Gilbert's breast, as the latter rode inthe coach beside the monarch, the visit to Paris was made.

  In the Queen's drive, in the Champs Elysees, Mayor Bailly offered himthe city keys, saying:

  "Sire, I bring your Majesty the keys of the good city. They are thesame offered to Henry Fourth. He won his people, but the people havenow won their King."

  On the return, all having passed smoothly, crossing Louis XV. Place,a shot was fired from across the river and Gilbert felt a stroke. Thebullet had hit one of his steel vest buttons and glanced off into thecrowd and killed an unfortunate woman.

  The King heard her scream and heard the shot.

  "Burning powder in my honor?" he said.

  "Yes, Sire," was Gilbert's easy reply.

  It was never known what hand fired this regicidal shot which justifiedthe Queen's fear that her husband would be assassinated.

  While all was festivity at Paris, gloom settled down on Versailles ateventide. With darkness came its retinue of fears and sinister visions,when suddenly uproar was heard at the end of the town.

  The Queen shuddered and ran to a window which she opened with her ownhand.

  A hussar came up to the palace; it was a lieutenant sent by Charny whohad gone on towards Paris to get the news. He reported that the Kingwas safe and sound, and that he would arrive shortly.

  Taking her two children by the hand, Marie Antoinette went down andout upon the grand staircase, where were grouped the servants and thecourtiers.

  Her piercing eye perceived a woman in white leaning on the stonebalustrade and eagerly looking into the shadows: it was CountessAndrea, enrapt in expectation of her husband so that she did not seeher royal mistress, or disdained to notice her.

  Whether she bore the Queen rancor or merely yearned to see her husband,it was a double stab for the beloved of Charny.

  But she had determined on the righteous course: she trod her jealousyunderfoot; she immolated her secret joys and wrath to the sanctity ofthe conjugal oath. No doubt from heaven was sent this salutary love toraise her husband and children above all else. Her pride, too, liftedher above earthly desires and she could be selfish without deservingblame.

  As the coach came up, she descended the steps, and when its door wasopened, and Louis stepped out, she did not notice how the grooms andfootmen hastened to tear off the rosettes and streamers of the newpopular colors with which Billet and Pitou and others of the throng haddecorated the vehicle and horses.

  With an outcry of love and delight the Queen embraced the King. Shesobbed as though she had fully expected never again to see him.

  In her impulse of an overburdened heart, she did not remark thehand-grasp the Charnys exchanged in the darkness.

  As the royal children kissed their father, the elder boy spied thecockade reddened by the torchlight on his father's hat and exclaimedwith his childish astonishment:

  "Oh, papa, what is on your white cockade--blood?"

  It was the national Red.

  Spying it herself, the Queen plucked it off with profound disgust asthe King stooped as if to kiss his daughter but really to hide hisshame. The mad woman did not think that she was insulting the nation,which would repay her at an early day.

  "Throw the thing away," she cried, casting it down the steps so thatall the escort tramped over it.

  This strange transition extinguished her phase of marital love. Shelooked round for Charny without appearing to do so; he had fallen backinto the ranks like a soldier.

  "I thank you, my lord," she said to him, at last: "you have kept yourpromise to restore the King to me unhurt."

  "Who is that?" inquired the sovereign: "Oh, Charny? But where isGilbert, whom I do not see?"

  "Come to supper," said the Queen to change the subject; "Go to thecountess, my Lord Charny, and bring her. We shall have a family supperparty, to-night."

  She was the Queen again; but still she was vexed that the count, whohad been sad, should cheer up at the prospect of his wife being in thecompany.