Part 10 (1/2)

It was the case now--as it had often been!--the king had seen some threescore letters marked with the senders' names or initials; and there was one he had not seen.

He seemed a little weary this morning--nay, had he not been so great a king, as well as a man who had almost every impulse under control, it would almost have appeared that he was a little irritated at the contents of the first portfolio, that one inscribed ”Letters opened at the Post.” ”For,” he continued, after descanting on the art of letter-writing which his subjects appeared to have lost, ”the responsibility given to the masters of our royal post seems to me, my good Louvois, to be greater than their minds--provincial in most cases--appear able to sustain. They mark letters from the local seigneurs as worthy of perusal by us in Paris ere being forwarded to their destination, which, in truth, are barren of interest. To wit,”

he went on, with that delicate irony for which he was noted, ”we have opened fifty-five letters, and in not one of them is there the slightest hint of even murmuring against our royal authority, no suggestion of resisting our, or the seigniorial, imposts, not even the faintest suggestion of an attack against our royal person. They are harmless, and consequently wearisome.”

”I regret,” replied Louvois, softening his raucous voice to the tones absolutely necessary when addressing Louis, ”that your Majesty finds the system so barren of interest. But, I may with all deference suggest, perhaps, that it has one gratifying result. All these letters are from the most important persons among your Majesty's subjects, yet there is, as your Majesty observes, no one word hostile to your rule or sacred person. The system--my system--testifies at least to that agreeable fact.”

”Yes,” replied the king, in the calm, unruffled voice, ”it testifies to that. You are right. What else is there to do?”

”But little, your Majesty. Yet, with your permission, something. May I also suggest that Monsieur Pajot and the Vicomte de Rouillier may retire?”

Louis signified by a bend of his head that they might do so, whereon the two ”farmers,” after profound obeisances, left the room, and the king and his minister again applied themselves to the work before them.

It was of a multifarious nature, since it dealt with the contents of each of the portfolios, exclusive of the first--the one whose contents had been so barren of interest to the king, and which contents would never now arrive at their destination in spite of his Majesty's remark about their being forwarded on. For, since the seals and thread had necessarily to be broken ere those contents could be perused, it would be impossible to send them on to those to whom they were addressed.

But what became of them instead, probably Louvois only knew. It may be that they were put away carefully, to be brought out years afterward, if needed, and when their present harmless contents might, in the movement of time, have altered their nature and have become, if not d.a.m.ning, at least compromising.

Taking up the second portfolio, marked ”Conduct of Princes and Lords,”

Louvois extracted one paper and read out briefly: ”The young Count de Quince has eloped with Mademoiselle le Brun, daughter of a rich mercer in Guise. Her brother, attempting to stop the carriage in which they were setting out for Paris, was slain by the count's body-servant.”

After reading which, Louvois looked up at his master.

”Write,” said Louis in reply, ”that De Quince is not to enter Paris.

He is to be arrested at the gate and taken to the Bastille. There he will be judged. Proceed.”

Selecting from the third portfolio two papers, Louvois went on: ”The Bishop of Beauvais referred in a sermon, delivered three weeks ago, to the birth of Madame de Maintenon in the prison of Niort, and pointed a moral as to how----”

”One may rise by good works,” interrupted the king. ”The bishop is indiscreet, but truthful. Let it pa.s.s. Proceed.”

”The Grand Prior of Chavagnac entertains daily in Paris many courtesans at his table.”

”Write that he retires at once to his priory. If he refuses, arrest him and bring him before me. Above all, the Church must be kept pure.

Continue.”

The work was done, however, since Louvois informed the king that the contents of the fourth and fifth portfolios scarcely needed his attention. Yet, since he knew that Louis would not be satisfied without himself seeing the reports which they contained, he rose, and, bringing each in its turn to the king, placed it before him.

”So,” his Majesty said, when he had glanced at them, ”our morning's work is done and easily done. The reports are meagre, and, in the latter cases, deal with persons better left to the magistrates. Now,”

as a clock above the mantelpiece struck eleven, ”I am expected,” and he rose from the table as though to depart.

”There are a few papers requiring your Majesty's signature,” the minister said, ”though none of great importance. Will your Majesty please to sign?”

”Let me see them,” and, as before, the papers were placed before the king for him to read ere affixing his signature.

He glanced at each ere he did so, but, since he already knew their purport, made no remark as he signed, until, at last, he came to one addressed to ”Monsieur Georges St. Georges, Lieutenant des Chevaux-Legers de Nivernois, en garnison a Pontarlier,” when he stopped and began to read it all through; while Louvois, pretending to be busy at some other papers, watched him stealthily from under his eyebrows.

”Georges St. Georges,” he said at last--”Georges St. Georges--I recall the name and that I ordered this letter to be prepared last week.

Repeat the circ.u.mstances.”

”Your Majesty will remember that this gentleman's commission was obtained from you by the late Duc de Vannes, and that you ordered me to watch his career, and, when the time came, to recommend him to you for promotion, should he have proved himself worthy of it.”