Part 5 (1/2)
And with great facility and lightness of touch, the queen began to play the base of the piece which had been arranged by the Count de Vaudreuil for four hands. But the longer she played, the more the laughter and the unrestrained gayety disappeared from the features of the queen. Her n.o.ble countenance a.s.sumed an expression of deep earnestness, her eye kindled with feeling, and the cheeks which before had become purple-red with the exercise of playing, now paled with deep inward emotion.
All at once, in the very midst of the grand and impa.s.sioned strains, Marie Antoinette stopped, and, under the strength of her feeling, rose from her seat.
”Only Gluck can have written this!” cried she. ”This is the music, the divine music of my exalted master, my great teacher, Chevalier Gluck.”
”You are right; your majesty is a great musician,” cried Lord Vaudreuil, in amazement, ”the ideal pupil of the genial maestro.
Yes, this music is Gluck's. It is the overture to his new opera of 'Alcestes,' which he sent me from Venice to submit to your majesty.
These tones shall speak for the master, and entreat for him the protection of the queen.”
”You have not addressed the queen, but my own heart,” said Marie Antoinette, with gentle, deeply moved voice. ”It was a greeting from my home, a greeting from my teacher, who is at the same time the greatest composer of Europe. Oh, I am proud of calling myself his pupil. But Gluck needs no protection; it is much more we who need the protection which he affords us in giving us the works of his genius. I thank you, count,” continued Marie Antoinette, turning to Vaudreuil with a pleasant smile.
”This is a great pleasure which you have prepared for me. But knowing, as I now do, that this is Gluck's music, I do not dare to play another note; for, to injure a note of his writing, seems to me like treason against the crown. I will practise this piece, and then some day we will play it to the whole court. And now, my honored guests, if it pleases you, we go to meet the king. Gentlemen, let each one choose his lady, for we do not want to go in state procession, but by different paths.”
All the gentlemen present rushed toward the queen, each desirous to have the honor of waiting upon her. Marie Antoinette thanked them all with a pleasant smile, and took the arm of the eldest gentleman there, the Baron de Besenval.
”Come, baron,” said she, ”I know a new path, which none of these gentry have learned, and I am sure that we shall be the first to reach the place where the king is.”
Resting on the arm of the baron, she left the saloon, and pa.s.sed out of the door opposite, upon the little terrace leading to the well- shaded park.
”We will go through the English garden. I have had them open a path through the thicket, which will lead us directly to our goal; while the others will all have to go through the Italian garden, and so make a circuit. But look, my lord, somebody is coming there--who is it?”
And the queen pointed to the tall, slim figure of a man who was just then striding along the terrace.
”Madame,” answered the baron, ”it is the Duke de Fronac.”
”Alas!” murmured Marie Antoinette, ”he is coming to lay new burdens upon us, and to put us in the way of meeting more disagreeable things.”
”Would it be your wish that I should dismiss him? Do you give me power to tell him that you extend no audience to him here?”
”Oh! do not do so,” sighed Marie Antoinette. ”He, too, is one of my enemies, and we must proceed much more tenderly with our dear enemies than with our friends.”
Just then the Duke de Fronac ascended the last terrace, and approached the queen with repeated bows, which she reciprocated with an earnest look and a gentle inclination of the head.
”Well, duke, is it I with whom the chief manager of the royal theatres wishes to speak?”
”Madame,” answered the duke, ”I am come to beg an audience of your majesty.”
”You have it; and it is, as you see, a very imposing audience, for we stand in the throne room of G.o.d, and the canopy of Heaven arches over us. Now say, duke, what brings you to me?”
”Your majesty, I am come to file an accusation!”
”And of course against me?” asked the queen, with a haughty smile.
The duke pretended not to hear the question, and went on: ”I am come to bring a charge and to claim my rights. His majesty has had the grace to appoint me manager-in-chief of all the royal theatres, and to give me their supreme control.”
”Well, what has that to do with me?” asked the queen in her coldest way. ” You have then your duties a.s.signed you, to he rightfully fulfilled, and to keep your theatres in order, as if they were troops under your care.”
”But, your majesty, there is a theatre which seeks to free itself from my direction. And by virtue of my office and my trust I must stringently urge you that this new theatre royal be delivered into my charge.”
”I do not understand you,” said the queen, coolly. ”Of what new theatre are you speaking, and where is it?”