‘What did it say?’
‘Basically, that the young King thought that his authority had been sufficiently established by this act of recalling the parliament. He concluded with this terrible phrase: “Clearly he will be disappointed by the end of his reign.”’1
‘May heaven grant that I do not see it! The late King would never have yielded, I’m sure of that.’
‘To get back to our case,’ said Nicolas, ‘the young girl from Brussels has returned home, her mother having immediately come to fetch her. They left in tears, taking back the remains of their sister and daughter. You know the role that corpse played.’
‘Yes, all that was well arranged. What about Chambonas?’
‘The marquis seems to be recruiting again.’
‘And those mysterious creatures whose strange appearance at Trianon you told me about?’
‘They have been seen on two occasions, still dressed in those extraordinary garments. No one has yet been able to explain their presence. The last time, the alarm having been raised, the gardens of the Trianon were surrounded by guards and servants. It was nothing more nor less than a hunt, an attempt to lure the unknown women into a trap. Nothing! No one! In this particular case, my foresight has been called into question. The Queen has gently mocked me. What can I do?’
They were silent for a moment. A log collapsed in ashes in the fireplace.
‘And how is your son?’ asked Noblecourt.
‘Oh, he’s a Breton, which means he adapts well to difficult circumstances. He’s been accepted and has avoided the roughest ragging, although I suspect he’s received and distributed a few blows along the way.’
‘He seems to have his father’s powers of seduction.’
‘And his grandfather’s! In his last letter, he asked me to thank you again for the friponnes from Cotignac that you gave him. They contribute very pleasantly to the transition between day and night and make a welcome change from the dreary repetition of the college routine. Hard bread, stringy beef, beans in rancid oil, lentils with stones, rice mixed with weevils, sour vegetables and dessert noticeable by its absence. I quote him.’
‘It seems,’ said Noblecourt, barely containing his gaiety, ‘nothing has changed in our schools, whether they are Jesuit or Oratory! Your son describes it very well. I predict he’ll be a skilful wielder of the pen. His father knew how to tell a story, the son will know how to write. Like father like son, as our late lamented monarch liked to say. I was sometimes unfair towards him. Despite his many faults, he was a king!’
Darkness was falling. It was a moment of peace, a moment to daydream. Cyrus and Mouchette lay asleep on the floor near the chimney screen. Poitevin entered the room carrying two letters, which he handed to Nicolas. A porter had delivered the first, and the second had been handed in from a well-appointed coach. Asking Noblecourt to excuse him, the commissioner began reading. The old magistrate, who had been dozing off, opened his eyes when he heard a sigh from Nicolas.
‘Bad news?’
‘Some bad, some good.’
‘Then they cancel each other out.’
‘One won’t make up for the other.’
Silence fell again.
Nicolas, as if reluctantly, began speaking. ‘I’ve had a letter from Antoinette, informing me that she’s leaving Paris. She’s sold the business in Rue du Bac and is moving to London to open a lace shop there. She left the city two days ago after paying a visit to Louis in Juilly …’
He stopped, a lump in his throat. So many images and memories had suddenly risen up from the past.
‘She preferred not to see me. She entrusts Louis to me.’
With a grave air, Noblecourt sat up in his armchair. ‘What happened to explain this unexpected gesture?’
‘I think I know, and I alone am responsible. In October, when I was at Versailles for my investigation, I met La Satin in the lower gallery of the palace. She was there on business, selling trinkets from a stall a few days a week. Her presence there upset me, and I wasn’t quite able to conceal my reaction. In addition, at that moment, I recognised Lord Ashbury and set off after him … An unfortunate combination of circumstances.’
‘I understand what was at the bottom of your mind, Nicolas. It wasn’t that her presence was inconvenient to you, am I right?’
‘Of course not! I was thinking of Louis, the last of the Ranreuils. I don’t know if my half-sister Isabelle is married, or if she will ever have any offspring … I suddenly imagined, somewhat frivolously I admit, Louis as a page to the King, or as a bodyguard, to which his name entitles him … And his mother selling things in the gallery.’
Noblecourt was thinking, his head nodding gently. ‘My friend, without absolving you of your reaction, which you were unfortunate enough to reveal, I think you should consider the possibility that La Satin understood the situation perfectly. It would have been better for her to think before she acted and avoid placing you in such a delicate situation. The wrong having been done, she decided to sacrifice her love as a woman and a mother for the future of her son. Understanding you without a word being spoken, she has elevated herself to a kind of heroism, and you should be grateful to her. There’s no point now in feeling remorse. The only thing she can expect of you is to respond to her silent appeal by guiding Louis towards a destiny worthy of the glorious name he will no doubt bear one day. She made the right decision. Remember she’s still young, and so are you. Your life is still ahead of you, and she is entitled to a second chance. It can’t have been easy for her to remain in your shadow, you to whom she owed both love and loyalty.’
‘But what of Louis? What will he think? He’ll be angry with me.’
‘I’m certain La Satin didn’t tell him about your encounter. The reasons she will have put forward won’t set the son against the father. Louis is mature enough to have already understood that your relationship had ended. At his age, he needs you. Reassure him and reassure yourself. And what of the good news?’
‘Oh, a trifle. Admiral d’Arranet has invited me to dinner in Versailles in three days.’
‘That’s very good. You’re young, you should take advantage of such things. They say he has a lovely daughter.’
Noblecourt knew nothing, but always suspected everything. Nicolas sighed. Happiness was never unalloyed. You always had to pay for it, and dearly. This terrible, painful year was coming to an end. Time was slipping away like sand in an ever-open hand, and at the same time strengthening his soul. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The shores of his childhood reappeared, swept by wind and sea spray. He saw the horizon receding in the distance, and a new headland emerging. He was going to have to reach it before discovering the next one. The way appeared clear and free, but he knew now that he would have to allow for the opposing currents of life. Realising that fact nourished his anguish and his hope.
La Marsa, la Bretesche, Glane, Ivry
August 2002–November 2003
Notes – EPILOGUE
1. A genuine quotation from Lord Stormont after the recall of the Parlement in 1774.
NOTES
CHAPTER I
1. See The Nicolas Le Floch Affair.
2. The author would like to thank Professor Daniel Teyssère of the University of Caen for these details about La Borde.
3. A kind of tunic worn over armour in the Middle Ages.
4. See The Phantom of Rue Royale.
5. Saint Greluchon was prayed to in cases of infertility.
6. Boileau, Art Poétique, chant III.
7. The hospice of the Grand-Cour des Quinze-Vingts was founded by Saint Louis in aid of a brotherhood of crusaders blinded by the Saracens. It stretched from the present-day Place du Théâtre-Français to a third of the way down the Cour du Carrousel. In 1779 it was transferred to Rue de Charenton.
CHAPTER II
1. See The Phantom of Rue Royale.
CHAPTER IV
1. Fagon (1638–1718), Louis XIV’s doctor.
2. See The Nicolas Le Floch A
ffair.
3. François de Malherbe, ‘Dure contrainte’.
4. Statue of Henri IV.
5. Place Louis-le-Grand is now Place Vendôme.
6. See The Nicolas Le Floch Affair.
CHAPTER V
1. See The Phantom of Rue Royale.
2. Ramponneau was a famous innkeeper in La Courtille.
3. This debate is taken from contemporary archives, as quoted at length by the historian A. Franklin.
CHAPTER VI
1. See The Châtelet Apprentice.
2. These masks were destroyed in 1793 during the violation of the royal tombs.
3. Rousseau’s Émile.
4. See The Châtelet Apprentice.
5. See The Nicolas Le Floch Affair.
6. Lord Ashbury: a character in The Nicolas Le Floch Affair.
CHAPTER VII
1. This subtle analysis is borrowed from Crébillon.
2. La Harpe (1739–1803) was a critic.
3. See The Phantom of Rue Royale.
4. In August 1901, two Englishwomen, Miss Moberly and Miss Jourdain, were transported to the eighteenth century while walking at Trianon and met people in period dress. This journey through time remains a mystery to this day. I thought it might be amusing to tell the story the other way round.
5. See The Nicolas Le Floch Affair.
6. The Maurepas had been exiled to Pontchartrain by Louis XV.
7. Madame de Noailles was a lady-in-waiting known as Madame l’Étiquette.
8. See The Phantom of Rue Royale.
CHAPTER VIII
1. See The Châtelet Apprentice.
2. The Menus-Plaisirs was the establishment that made sets and costumes for Court celebrations and ceremonies.
CHAPTER XI
1. Jean-Baptiste Massillon (1663–1742), French Catholic preacher.
2. This incident actually happened.
3. A reference to a revolving fireplace used by the Maréchal de Richelieu during an amorous adventure.
4. Many houses collapsed at the time.
CHAPTER XII
1. Iolaos was Hercules’ companion in his struggle with the hydra.
EPILOGUE
1. A genuine quotation from Lord Stormont after the recall of the Parlement in 1774.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I wish to express my gratitude to Isabelle Tujague for devoting such care, and so much of her free time, to preparing the final version of the text. I am also grateful to Monique Constant, Conservateur Général du Patrimoine, for her encouragement over a long period; to Maurice Roisse, for his tireless checking of my manuscripts; and to my publisher and his colleagues for their friendship and support.
THE SAINT-FLORENTIN MURDERS
Jean-François Parot is a diplomat and historian. His Nicolas Le Floch mysteries have been published to much acclaim in French. The first four novels in the series, The Châtelet Apprentice, The Man with the Lead Stomach, The Phantom of Rue Royale and The Nicolas Le Floch Affair were enthusiastically reviewed on publication in English.
Howard Curtis’s many translations from French and Italian include five novels by Jean-Claude Izzo, four by Marek Halter and three by Gianrico Carofiglio, as well as works by Balzac, Flaubert and Pirandello.
Also by Jean-François Parot
The Châtelet Apprentice
The Man with the Lead Stomach
The Phantom of Rue Royale
The Nicolas Le Floch Affair
Copyright
First published in 2010
by Gallic Books, Worlds End Studios, 134 Lots Road, London,
SW10 ORJ
This ebook edition first published in 2011
All rights reserved
© Jean-François Parot, 2010
The right of Jean-François Parot to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 9781906040581
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