Part 33 (2/2)
”There is no tience There is a repetition of the ballet this afternoon”
”You will read her a lecture while you are dancing?”
”Yes, madame”
”You proether, either by convincing her, or by extreht, then Do not ive ht to desire to live on good ter, madame, will take all upon himself But let me reflect”
”What about?”
”It would be better, perhaps, if I were to go and see Madame in her own apartment”
”Would that not seem a somewhat serious step to take?”
”Yes; but seriousness is not unbeco in preachers, and the uments Besides, the object is to prevent any violent measures on my brother's part, so that a little precipitation may be advisable Is Madame in her own apartrievances to consist of?”
”In a feords, of the following: music uninterruptedly; Guiche's assiduity; suspicions of treasonable plots and practices”
”And the proofs?”
”There are none”
”Very well; I will go at once to see Mada turned to look in the mirrors at his costume, which was very rich, and his face, which was radiant as the”I suppose
”Fire and water cannot be more opposite”
”That will do Permit me, madame, to kiss your hands, the most beautiful hands in France”
”May you be successful, sire, as the family peacemaker”
”I do not employ an ambassador,” said Louis, ”which is as hed as he left the roo
Chapter xxxIII The Mediator
When the king made his appearance in Madaal h the various apartan to entertain thein that direction, the elements of which the Chevalier de Lorraine, in the ht, contributing to the weaker, and acting, according to his oicked designs, in such a er, as to produce the most disastrous consequences possible As Anne of Austria had herself said, the presence of the king gave a solemn and serious character to the event Indeed, in the year 1662, the dissatisfaction of Monsieur with Mada's intervention in the private affairs of Monsieur, was a matter of no inconsiderable moment 3 The boldest, even, who had been the associates of the Comte de Guiche, had, from the first moment, held aloof from him, with a sort of nervous apprehension; and the coeneral panic, retired to his own roo and returning the salutations, as he was always in the habit of doing The ladies of honor were ranged in a line on his passage along the gallery Although his lance of a irls, whoas they felt the king's gaze fall upon the hair fell in silken inable, was pale, and could hardly sustain herself, notwithstanding the knocks which her coave her with her elbow It was La Valliere who soe to her hich she herself was so abundantly provided The king could not resist turning round to look at theain lowered, but the only fair head ath and intelligence she had left had abandoned her When he entered Mada upon the cushi+ons of her cabinet She rose andso She then resumed her seat, overcome by a sudden weakness, which was no doubt assuhtful color animated her cheeks, and her eyes, still red from the tears she had recently shed, never hadwas seated, as soon as he had remarked, with that accuracy of observation which characterized hireat disorder of Mada, ”My dear sister, at what hour to-day would you wish the repetition of the ballet to take place?”
Madaly said: ”Ah! sire, will you graciously excuse my appearance at the repetition? I was about to send to inform you that I could not attend to-day”
”Indeed,” said the king, in apparent surprise; ”are you not well?”
”No, sire”
”I will summon yourfor my indisposition”
”You alarm me”
”Sire, I wish to ask yourstarted ”Return to England,” he said; ”do you really say what you rand-daughter of Henry IV, firret to have to confide such matters to your majesty, but I feel myself too unhappy at your majesty's court; and I wish to return to , as he approached her
”Listen to rees that ascendency over her interrogator which her beauty and her nervous nature conferred; ”young as I am, I have already suffered humiliation, and have endured disdain here Oh! do not contradictcolored
”Then,” she continued, ”I had reasoned myself into the belief that Heaven called hter of a powerful monarch; that since my father had been deprived of life, Heaven could well sreatly; I have been the cause, too, ofmuch; but I vowed that if Providence ever placed me in a position of independence, even were it that of a workains her bread by her labor, I would never suffer huain That day has now arrived; I have been restored to the fortune due to ain the steps of a throne, and I thought that, in allying myself with a French prince, I should find in him a relation, a friend, an equal; but I perceive I have found only aof it; you who started; never had any voice so gratified his ear
”You, sire, who know all, since you have come here; you will, perhaps, understand one to you I wish for per to exculpate and to protect , overpowered by this bold attack, ”have you reflected upon the enormous difficulty of the project you have conceived?”
”Sire, I do not reflect, I feel Attacked, I instinctively repel the attack, nothing more”
”Co
The princess, it will have been seen, by this peculiarly feminine maneuver, had escaped every reproach, and advanced on her side a far more serious one; fron of guilt; but notwithstanding that, all women, even the least clever of the sex, invariably kno to derive sootten that he was paying her a visit in order to say to her, ”What have you done toher, ”What have they done to you?”
”What have they done to me?” replied Madame ”One must be a woman to understand it, sire-they have ers, whose slenderness and perfect whiteness were unequaled, she pointed to her brilliant eyes swian to weep
”I i to take her war hand, which she abandoned to him
”In the first place, sire, I was deprived of the presence of reeable, cheerful visitor; my own countryman, who knew my habits; I will say almost a coether, with our other friends, upon the beautiful piece of water at St James's”
”But Villiers was in love with you”
”A pretext! What does it matter,” she said, seriously, ”whether the duke was in love with erous for me? Ah! sire, it is not sufficient for a man to love a woman” And she s felt his heart swell and throb in his breast
”At all events, if
”Very well, I adly”
”No, not sent away”
”Driven away, dismissed, expelled, then, if you prefer it, sire One of the first gentle of France, of Louis XIV, like a beggar, on account of a glance or a bouquet It was little worthy of a ot, that, in speaking thus, I an power”