CHAPTER XXVI.
SARTINES BELIEVES BALSAMO IS A MAGICIAN.
The mesmerist had galloped on the barb through Versailles in a fewseconds and a league on the road to Paris when an idea came as comfortin the midst of his misery at the fear that all he did would be toolate. He saw his brothers of the secret society at the mercy of hisfoes, and the woman who caused all this, through his infatuation forher, going free.
"Oh, if ever she returns into my power---- "
He made a desperate gesture, as he pulled up the splendid horse short onits haunches.
"Let me see," he said, frowning, "is silence a word or a fact? can it door not do? let me try my will, again. Lorenza," he said while making thepasses to throw the magnetic fluid to a distance, "Lorenza, sleep, Iwill it! Wherever you are, sleep, I will it, and rely upon it. Cleavethe air, oh, my supreme will! cross all the currents antipathetic orindifferent; go through the walls like a cannonball; strike her andannihilate her will. Lorenza, I will have you sleep--I will have youmute!"
After this mighty effort of animal magnetism, he resumed the race, butused neither whip nor spur and gave the Arab rein.
It appeared as if he wanted to make himself believe in the potency ofthe spell he exercised.
While he was apparently peacefully proceeding, he was framing a plan ofaction. It was finished as he reached the paving stones of Sevres. Hestopped at the Park gates as if he expected somebody. Almost instantly aman emerged from a coach-doorway and came to him.
It was his German attendant Fritz.
"Have you gathered information?" asked the master.
"Yes, Lady Dubarry is in Paris."
Balsamo raised a triumphant glance to heaven.
"How did you come?"
"On Sultan, now ready saddled in the inn stables here."
He went for the horse and came back on its back.
Balsamo was writing under the lantern of the town tax-gatherer's officedoor with a pen which was self-fed with ink.
"Ride back to town with this note," said he, "to be given to LadyDubarry herself. Do it in half an hour. Then get home to St. Claudestreet, where you will await Signora Lorenza, who will soon be cominghome. Let her pass without staying her or saying anything."
At the same time he said "He would!" Fritz laid spur and whip on Sultan,who sprang off, astonished at this unaccustomed aggression, with apainful neigh.
Balsamo rode on by the Paris Road, entering the capital in threequarters of an hour, almost smooth of face and calm in eye--if not alittle thoughtful.
The mesmerist had reasoned correctly: as rapid as Dejerrid the steedmight be, it was not as swift as the will, and that alone could outstripLorenza escaped from her prison-house.
As Andrea--the other medium had clearly seen, the vengeful Italian hadfound her way to the residence of Lieutenant Sartines.
Questioned by an usher, she replied merely by these words:
"Are you Lord Sartines?"
The servant was surprised that this young and lovely woman, richlyclothed and carrying a velvet-covered casket under her arm, shouldconfuse his black coat and steel chain of office with the embroideredcoat and perriwig of the Lieutenant of Police, though a foreigner. Butas a lieutenant is never offended at being called a captain, and as thespeaker's eye was too steady and assured to be a lunatic's, he wasconvinced that she brought something of value in the casket and showedher into the secretaries.
The upshot of all was that she was allowed to see the Minister ofPolice.
He sat in an octagonal room, lighted by a number of candles.
Sartines was a man of fifty, in a dressing gown, and enormous wig, limpwith curling and powder; he sat before a desk with looking-glass panelsenabling him to see any one coming into the study without having to turnand study their faces before arranging his own.
The lower part of the desk formed a secretary where were kept in drawershis papers and those in cipher which could not be read even after hisdeath, unless in some still more secret drawer were found the key to thecipher. This piece of mechanism was built expressly for the Regent Dukeof Orleans to keep his poisons in, and it came to Sartines from hisPrime Minister Cardinal Dubois per the late Chief of Police. Rumor hadit that it contained the famous contract called the "Compact of Famine,"the statutes of the Great Grain Ring among the directors of whichfigured Louis XV.
So the Police Chief saw in this mirror the pale and serious face ofLorenza as she advanced with the casket under her arm.
"Who are you--what do you want?" he challenged without looking round.
"Am I in the presence of Lord Sartines, Head of the Police?"
"Yes," he curtly answered.
"What proof have I of that?" she asked.
This made him turn round.
"Will it be good proof if I send you to prison?"
She did not reply but looked round for the seat which she expected to beoffered her by right, as to any lady of her country. He was vanquishedby that single look for Count Alby de Sartines was a well-bredgentleman.
"Take a chair," he said brusquely.
Lorenza drew an armchair to her and sat down.
"Speak quick," said the magistrate; "what do you want?"
"To place myself under your protection," answered Lorenza.
"Ho, ho," said he with a jeering look, peculiar to him.
"My lord, I have been abducted from my family and forced into aclandestine marriage by a man who has been ill-using me during threeyears and would be my death."
He looked at the noble countenance and was moved by the voice so sweetthat it seemed to sing.
"Where do you come from?" he asked.
"I am a Roman and my name is Lorenza Feliciani."
"Are you a lady of rank, for I do not know the name?"
"I am a lady and I crave justice on the man who has incarcerated andsequestrated me."
"This is not in my province, since you say you are his wife."
"But the marriage was performed while I was asleep."
"Plague on it! you must enjoy sound sleep! I mean to say that this isnot in my way. Apply to a lawyer, for I never care to meddle in thesematrimonial squabbles." He waved his hand as much as to say "Be off!"but she did not stir.
"I have not finished;" she said "you will understand that I have notcome here to speak of frivolities, but to have revenge. The women of mycountry revenge and do not go to law."
"This is different," said Sartines: "but have despatch for my time isdear."
"I told you that I come for protection against my oppressor. Can I haveit?"
"Is he so powerful?"
"More so than any King."
"Pray, explain, my dear lady: why should I accord you my protectionagainst a man according to your statement more powerful than a king, fora deed which may not be a crime. If you want to be revenged, takerevenge, only do not bring yourself under our laws; if you do a misdeedit will be you whom I must arrest. Then we shall see all about it. Thatis the bargain."
"No, my lord, you will not arrest me, for my revenge is of great utilityto you, the King and France. I revenge myself by revealing the secretsof this monster."
"Ha, this man has secrets," said Sartines interested perforce.
"Great political secrets, my lord. But will you shield me?"
"What kind of shield?" coldly asked the magistrate; "silver orofficial?"
"I want to enter a convent, to live buried there, forgotten. I want aliving tomb which will never be violated by any one."
"You are not asking much. You shall have the convent. Speak!"
"As I have your word, take this casket," said Lorenza; "it containsmysteries which will make you tremble for the safety of the sovereignand the realm. I know them but superficially but they exist, and areterrible."
"Political mysteries, you say?"
"Have you ever heard of the great secret society?"
"The Freemasons?"
"These are the Invisibles."
"Yes; I do not believe in them, tho
ugh."
"When you open this box, you will."
"Let us look into it then," he said, taking the casket from her; but,reflecting, he placed it on his desk. "No, I would rather you opened ityourself," he added with distrust.
"I have not the key," she replied.
"Not got the key? you bring me a box containing the fate of an empireand you forget the key?"
"Is it so hard to open a lock?"
"Not when one knows the sort it is."
He held out to her a bunch of keys in every shape. As she took it, henoticed that her hand was cold as stone.
"Why did you not bring the key with you?" he asked.
"Because the master of the casket never lets it go from him."
"This is the man more powerful than the King?"
"Nobody can tell what he is; eternity alone knows how long he has lived.None but the God above can see the deeds he commits."
"But his name, his name?'
"He has changed it to my knowledge a dozen times--I knew him asAcharat."
"And he lives---- "
"Saint---- "
Suddenly Lorenza started, shuddered, let the casket and the keys fallfrom her hands. She made an effort to speak, but her mouth only wascontorted in a painful convulsion; she clapped her hands to her throatas if the words about to issue were stopped and choked her. Then,lifting her arms to heaven, trembling and unable to articulate a word,she fell full length on the carpet.
"Poor dear!" muttered Sartines: "but what the devil is the matter withher? she is really very pretty. There is some jealousy in this talk ofrevenge."
He rang for the servants while he lifted up the Italian, who seemed withher astonished eyes and motionless lips, to be dead and far detachedfrom this world.
"Carry out this lady with care," he commanded to the two valets; "andleave her in the next room. Try to bring her to, but mind, no roughness.Go!"
Left alone, Sartines examined the box like a man who could value fullythe discovery. He tried the keys until convinced that the lock was onlya sham. Thereupon with a cold chisel he cut it off bodily. Instead ofthe fulminating powder or the poison which he perhaps expected, todeprive France of her most important magistrate, a packet of papersbounded up.
The first words which started up before his eyes were the following,traced in a disguised hand:
"It is time for the Grand Master to drop the name of Baron Balsamo."
There was no signature other than the three letters "L. P. D."
"Aha," said the head of police, "though I do not know this writing Ibelieve I know this name. Balsamo--let us look among the B's."
Opening one of the twenty-four drawers of the famous desk, he took out alittle register on which was written in fine writing three or fourhundred names, preceded, accompanied or followed by flourishes of thepen.
"Whew! we have a lot about this busy B," he muttered.
He read several pages with non-equivocal tokens of discontent.
He replaced the register in the drawer to go on with inventorying thecontents of the packet. He did not go far without being deeplyimpressed. Soon he came to a note full of names with the text in cipher.This appeared important to him; the edges were worn with fingering andpencil marks were made on the margin.
Sartines rang a bell for a servant to whom he said:
"Bring me the Chancellor's cryptographist at once, going through theoffices to gain time."
Two minutes subsequently, a clerk presented himself, with pen in hand,his hat under one arm, and a large book under the other. Seeing him inthe mirror, Sartines held out the paper to him over his shoulders,saying:
"Decipher that."
This unriddler of secret writing was a little thin man, with puckered uplips, brows bent by searching study; his pale face was pointed up anddown, and the chin quite sharp, while the deep moony eyes became brightat times.
Sartines called him his Ferret.
Ferret sat down modestly on a stool, drew his knees close together to bea table to write upon, and wrote, consulting his memory and his lexiconwith an impassible face. In five minutes time he had written:
"Order to gather 3000 Brothers in Paris.
"Order to compose three circles and six lodges.
"Order to select a guard for the Grand Copt, and to provide fourresidences for him, one to be in a royal domicile.
"Order to set aside five hundred thousand francs for his policedepartment.
"Order to enroll in the first Parisian lodge all the cream of literatureand philosophy.
"Order to bribe or in some way get a hold on the magistracy, andparticularly make sure of the Chief of Police, by bribery, violence ortrickery."
Ferret stopped at this passage, not because the poor man reflected butbecause he had to wait for the page to dry before he could turn over.
Sartines, being impatient, snatched the sheet from his knees and readit. Such an expression of terror spread over his features at the finalparagraph, that it made him turn pale to see himself in the glass. Hedid not hand this sheet back to the clerk but passed him a clean one.
The man went on with his work, accomplishing it with the amazingrapidity of decipherers when once they hold the key.
Sartines now read over his shoulder.
"Drop the name of Balsamo beginning to be too well known, to take thatof Count Fe---- "
A blot of ink eclipsed the rest of the name.
At the very time when the Police Chief was seeking the absent letters,the out-door bell rang and a servant came in to announce:
"His Lordship, Count Fenix!"
Sartines uttered an outcry, and clasped his hands above his wig at riskof demolishing that wonderful structure. He hastened to dismiss thewriter by a side door, while, taking his place at his desk, he bade theusher show in the visitor.
In his mirror, a few seconds after, Sartines saw the stern profile ofthe count as he had seen him on the day when Lady Dubarry was presentedat court.
Balsamo-Fenix entered without any hesitation whatever.
Sartines rose, made a cold bow, and sat himself ceremoniously downagain, crossing his legs.
At the first glance he had seen what was the object of this interview.At a glance also Balsamo had seen the opened casket on the desk. Hisglance, however fleeting, had not escaped the magistrate.
"To what chance do I owe this visit, my lord?" inquired the Chief ofPolice.
"My Lord," returned Balsamo with a smile full of amenity, "I have foundintroducers to all the sovereigns of Europe, all their ministers andambassadors: but none to present me to your lordship; so I havepresented myself."
"You arrive most timely, my lord," replied Sartines: "For I am inclinedto think that if you had not called I should have had to send for you."
"Indeed--how nicely this chimes in."
Sartines bowed with a satirical smile.
"Am I happy enough to be useful to your lordship?" queried Balsamo.
These words were pronounced without a shade of emotion or disquietclouding the smiling brow.
"You have travelled a good deal, count," said the Police Chief.
"A great deal! I suppose you want for some geographical items. A man ofyour capacity is not cramped up in France but must embrace Europe andthe world---- "
"Not geographical, my lord, but personal---- "
"Do not restrict yourself; in both, I am at your orders."
"Well, count, just imagine that I am looking after a very dangerous man,in faith, who seems to be an atheist, conspirator, forger, adulterer,coiner, charlatan, and chief of a secret league; whose history I have onmy records and in this casket, which your lordship sees."
"I understand," said Balsamo; "you have the story but not the man. Hangit, that seems to me the more important matter."
"No doubt: but you will see presently how near he is to our hand.Certainly, Proct Proteon Proteus had not more shapes, Jupiter morenames: Acharat in Egypt, Balsamo in Italy, Somini in Sardinia, theMarquis of Anna in Malta, Marquis Pellegrini in Corsic
a, and lastly,Count Fe--this last name I have not been able to make out; but I amalmost sure that you will help me to it for you must have met this manin the course of your travels in the countries I have mentioned. Isuppose, though, you would want some kind of description?"
"If your lordship pleases?"
"Well," continued Sartines, fixing on the other an eye which heendeavored to make like an inquisitor's, "he is a man of your age andstature, and bearing; sometimes a mighty nobleman distributing gold, ora charlatan seeking natural secrets, or a dark conspirator allied to themysterious brotherhood which has vowed in darkness the death of kingsand the downfall of thrones."
"This is vague," replied Balsamo, "and you cannot guess how many men Ihave met who would answer to this description! You will have to be moreprecise if you want my help. In the first place, which is his country bypreference?"
"He lives everywhere at home."
"But at present?"
"In France, where he directs a vast conspiracy."
"This is a good piece of intelligence. If you know what conspiracy hedirects you have one end of a clew in your hands which will lead you upto the man."
"I am of your opinion."
"If you believe so, why do you ask my advice? It is useless."
"It is because I am debating whether or not to arrest him."
"I do not understand the Not, my lord, for if he conspires---- "
"But he is in a measure protected by his title---- "
"Ah, now I follow you. But by what title? Needless to say that I shallbe glad to aid you in your searches, my lord."
"Why, sir, I told you that I knew the names he hides under but I do notknow that under which he shows himself, or else---- "
"You would arrest him? Well, Lord Sartines, it is a blessed thing that Ihappened in as I did, for I can do you the very service you want. Iwill tell you the title he figures under."
"Pray say it," said Sartines who expected to hear a falsehood.
"The Count of Fenix."
"What, the name under which you were announced?"
"My own."
"Then you would be this Acharat, Balsamo, and Company?"
"It is I," answered the other simply.
It took Sartines a minute to recover from the amazement which thisimpudence had caused him.
"You see I guessed," he said; "I knew that Fenix and Balsamo were oneand the same."
"I confess it. You are a great minister."
"And you are a great fool," said the magistrate, stretching out his handtowards his bell.
"How so?"
"Because I am going to have you arrested."
"Nonsense, a man like me is never arrested," said Balsamo, steppingbetween the magistrate and the bell.
"Death of my life, who will prevent it? I want to know."
"As you want to know, my dear Lieutenant of Police, I will tell you--Ishall blow out your brains--and with the more facility and the lessinjury to myself as this weapon is charged with a noiseless explosivewhich, for its quality of silence, is not the less deadly."
Whipping out of his pocket, a pistol, with a barrel of steel asexquisitely carved as though Cellini had chiselled it, he tranquillyleveled it at the eye of Sartines, who lost color and his footing,falling back into his armchair.
"There," said the other, drawing another chair up to the first andsitting down in it; "now that we are comfortably seated, let us have achat."
It was an instant before Lord Sartines was master of himself after sosharp an alarm. He almost looked into the muzzle of the firearm, andfelt the ring of its cold iron on his forehead.
"My lord," he said at last. "I have the advantage over you of knowingthe kind of man I coped with and I did not take the cautionary measuresI should with an ordinary malefactor."
"You are irritated and you use harsh words," replied Balsamo. "But youdo not see how unjust you are to one who comes to do you a service. Andyet you mistake my intentions. You speak of conspirators, just when Icome to speak to you about a conspiracy."
But the round phrase was all to no purpose as Sartines was not payinggreat attention to his words: so that the word Conspiracy, which wouldhave made him jump at another time, scarcely caused him to pick up hisears.
"Since you know so well who I am," he proceeded, "you must know mymission in France. Sent by the Great Frederick--that is as anambassador, more or less secret of his Prussian Majesty. Who saysambassador, says 'inquisitor;' and as I inquire, I am not ignorant ofwhat is going on; and one of the things I have learnt most about is theforestalling of grain."
Simply as Balsamo uttered the last words they had more power over theChief of Police than all the others for they made him attentive. Heslowly raised his head.
"What is this forestalling of the grain?" he said, affecting as muchease as Balsamo had shown at the opening of the interview. "Will youkindly enlighten me?"
"Willingly, my lord. Skillful speculators have persuaded his Majesty,the King of France, that he ought to build grainaries to save up thegrain for the people in case of dearth. So the stores were built. Whilethey were about it they made them on a large scale, sparing no stone ortimber. The next thing was to fill them, as empty grainarers areuseless. So they filled them. You will reckon on a large quantity ofcorn being wanted to fill them? Much breadstuffs drawn out of themarkets is a means of making the people hungry. For, mark this well, anygoods withdrawn from circulation are equivalent to a lack of production.A thousand sacks of corn in the store are the same as a thousand less inthe market. Multiply these thousands by a ten only and up goes the priceof grain."
Sartines coughed with irritation. Balsamo stopped quietly till he wasdone.
"Hence, you see the speculator in the storehouses enriched by theincrease in value. Is this clear?"
"Perfectly clear," replied the other. "But it seems to me that you arebold enough to promise to denounce a crime or a plot of which hisMajesty is the author."
"You understand it plainly," said Balsamo.
"This is bold, indeed, and I should be curious to know how the King willtake the charge. I am afraid that the result will be precisely the sameas that I conceived when I looked through your papers; take care, mylord, you will get into the Bastile all the same."
"How poorly you judge me and how wrong you are in still taking me for afool. Do you imagine that I, an ambassador, a mere curious investigator,would attack the King in person? That would be the act of a blockhead.Pray hear me out."
Sartines nodded to the man with the pistol.
"Those who discovered this plot against the French people--pardon theprecious time I am consuming, but you will see presently that it is notlost time--they are economists, who, very minute and painstaking, byapplying their microscopic lenses to this rigging of the market, haveremarked that the King is not working the game alone. They know that hisMajesty keeps an exact register of the market rate of grain in thedifferent markets: that he rubs his hands when the rise wins him eightor ten thousand crowns; but they also know that another man is fillinghis own alongside of his Majesty's--an official, you will guess--whouses the royal figures for his own behalf. The economists, therefore,not being idiots, will not attack the King, but the man, the publicofficer, the agent who gambles for his sovereign."
Sartines tried to shake his wig into the upright but it was no use.
"I am coming to the point, now," said Balsamo. "In the same way as youknow I am the Count of Fenix through your police, I know you are LordSartines through mine."
"What follows?" said the embarrassed magistrate; "a fine discovery thatI am Lord Sartines!"
"And that he is the man of the market-notebooks, the gambling, the ring,who, with or without the knowledge of the King, traffics on theappetites of the thirty millions of French whom his functions prescribehim to feed on the lowest possible terms. Now, just imagine the effectin a slight degree of this discovery! You are little loved by thepeople; the King is not an affectionate man. As soon as the cries of thehungry are heard, yelling for
your head, the King, to avoid allsuspicion of connivance with you, if any there be, or to do justice ifthere is no complicity, will hasten to have you strung upon a gibbetlike that on which dangled Enguerrand de Marigny, which you mayremember?"
"Imperfectly," stammered Sartines, very pale, "and you show very poortaste to talk of the gibbet to a nobleman of my degree!"
"I could not help bringing him in," replied Balsamo, "as I seemed to seehim again--poor Enguerrand! I swear to you he was a perfect gentlemanout of Normandy, of very ancient family and most noble house. He wasLord High Chamberlain and Captain of the Louvre Palace, and eke Count ofLongueville, a much more important county than yours of Alby. But stillI saw him hooked up on the very gibbet at Montfaucon which was builtunder his orders, although it was not for the lack of my telling him:
"Enguerrand, my dear friend, have a care! you take a bigger slice out ofthe cake of finance than Charles of Valois will like. Alas, if you onlyknew how many chiefs of police, from Pontius Pilate down to yourpredecessor, who have come to grief!"
Sartines rose, trying in vain to dissimulate the agitation to which hewas a prey.
"Well, accuse me if you like," he said: "what does the testimony of aman like you amount to?"
"Take care, my lord," Balsamo said: "men of no account were very oftenthe very ones who bring others to account. When I write the particularsof the Great Grain Speculation to my correspondent, or Frederick who isa philosopher, as you are aware, he will be eager to transcribe it withcomments for his friend, Voltaire, who knows how to swing his pen: toAlembert, that admirable geometrician, who will calculate how far thesestolen grains, laid in a line side by side, will extend; in short whenall the lampoon writers, pamphleteers and caricaturists get wind of thissubject, you, my lord of Alby, will be a great deal worse off than mypoor Marigny,--for he was innocent, or said so, and I would hardlybelieve that of your lordship."
With no longer respect for decorum, Sartines took off his wig and wipedhis skull.
"Have it so," he said, "ruin me if you will. But I have your casket asyou have your proofs."
"Another profound error into which you have fallen, my lord," saidBalsamo: "You are not going to keep this casket."
"True," sneered the other; "I forgot that Count Fenix is a knight of theroad who robs men by armed force. I did not see your pistol which youhave put away. Excuse me, my lord the ambassador."
"The pistol is no longer wanted, my lord. You surely do not think that Iwould fight for the casket over your body here where a shout would rousethe house full of servants and police agents?---- No, when I say thatyou will not keep my casket, I mean that you will restore it to me ofyour own free will."
"I?" said the magistrate, laying his fist on the box with so much forcethat he almost shattered it. "You may laugh, but you shall not take thisbox but at the cost of my life. Have I not risked it a thousandtimes--ought I not pour out the last drop of my blood in his Majesty'sservice? Kill me, as you are the master; but I shall have enough voiceleft to denounce you for your crimes. Restore you this," he repeated,with a bitter laugh, "hell itself might claim it and not make mesurrender."
"I am not going to require the intervention of subterranean powers;merely that of the person who is even now knocking at your street door."
Three loud knocks thundered at the door.
"And whose carriage is even now entering the yard," added the mesmerist.
"Some friend of yours who does me the honor to call?"
"Just as you say, a friend of mine."
"The Right Honorable the Countess Dubarry!" announced a valet at thestudy door, as the lady, who had not believed she wanted the permissionto enter, rushed in. It was the lovely countess, whose perfumed andhooped skirts rustled in the doorway.
"Your ladyship!" exclaimed Sartines, hugging the casket to his bosom inhis terror.
"How do you do, Sartines?" she said, with her gay smile.
"And how are you, count?" she added to Fenix, holding out her hand.
He bowed familiarly over it and pressed his lips where the King had sooften laid his. In this movement he had time to speak four words to herwhich the Chief of Police did not hear.
"Oh, here is my casket," she said.
"Your casket," stammered the Lieutenant of Police.
"Mine, of course. Oh, you have opened it--do not be nice about what doesnot belong to you! How delightful this is. This box was stolen from me,and I had the idea of going to Sartines to get it back. You found it,did you, oh, thank you."
"With all respect to your ladyship," said Sartines, "I am afraid you areletting yourself be imposed upon."
"Impose? do you use such a word to me, my lord?" cried Balsamo. "Thiscasket was confided to me by her ladyship a few days ago with all itscontents."
"I know what I know," persisted the magistrate.
"And I know nothing," whispered La Dubarry to the mesmerist. "But youhave claimed the promise I made you to do anything you asked at thefirst request."
"But this box may contain the matter of a dozen conspiracies," saidSartines.
"My lord, you know that that is not a word to bring you good luck. Donot say it again. The lady asks for her box--are you going to give it toher or not?"
"But at least know, my lady---- "
"I do not want to know more than I do know," said the lady: "Restore memy casket--for I have not put myself out for nothing, I would have youto understand!"
"As you please, my lady," said Sartines humbly and he handed thecountess the box, into which Balsamo replaced the papers strewn over thedesk.
"Count," said the lady with her most winning smile, "will you kindlycarry my box and escort me to my carriage as I do not like to go backalone through those ugly faces. Thank you, Sartines."
"My lady," said Balsamo, "you might tell the count who bears me much illwill from my insisting on having the box, that you would be grieved ifanything unpleasant befel me through the act of the police and how badlyyou would feel."
She smiled on the speaker.
"You hear what my Lord says, Sartines," she said; "it is the pure truth:the count is an excellent friend of mine and I should mortally hate youif you were to vex him in any way. Adieu, Sartines."
He saw them march forth without showing the rage Balsamo expected.
"Well, they have taken the casket but I have the woman," he chuckled.
To make up for his defeat he began to ring his bell as though to breakit.
"How is the lady getting on whom you took into the next room?"
"Very well indeed, my lord: for she got up and went out."
"Got up? why, she could not stand."
"That is so, my lord," said the usher: "but five minutes or so after theCount of Fenix arrived, she awoke from her swoon, from which no scentwould arouse her, and walked out. We had no orders to detain her."
"The villain is a magician," thought the magistrate. "I have the royalpolice and he Satan's."
That evening he was bled and put to bed: the shock was too great for himto bear, and the doctor said that if he had not been called in he wouldhave died of apoplexy.
In the meantime the count had conducted the lady to her coach. She askedhim to step in, and a groom led the Arab horse.
"Lady," he said, "you have amply paid the slight service I did you. Donot believe what Sartines said about plots and conspiracies. This casketcontains my chemical recipes written in the language of Alchemy whichhis ignorant clerks interpreted according to their lights. Our craft isnot yet enfranchised from prejudices and only the young and bright likeyour ladyship are favorable to it."
"What would have happened if I had not come to your help?"
"I should have been sent into some prison, but I can melt stone with mybreath so that your Bastile would not long have retained me. I shouldhave regretted the loss of the formula for the chemical secrets by whichI hope to preserve your marvelous beauty and splendid youthfulness."
"You set me at ease and you delight me, count. Do you promise me aphil
ter to keep me young?"
"Yes: but ask me for it in another twenty years. You cannot now want tobe a child forever!"
"Really, you are a capital fellow! But I would rather have that draft inten, nay five years--one never knows what may happen."
"When you like."
"Oh, a last question. They say that the King is smitten with theTaverney girl. You must tell me; do not spare me if it is true; treat meas a friend and tell me the truth."
"Andrea Taverney will never be the mistress of the King. I warrant it,as I do not so will it."
"Oh!" cried Lady Dubarry.
"You doubt? never doubt science."
"Still, as you have the means, if you would block the King's fancies----"
"I can create sympathies and so I can antipathies. Be at ease, countess,I am on the watch."
He spoke at random as he was all impatience to get away and rejoinLorenza.
"Surely, count," said the lady, "you are not only my prophet of goodbut my guardian angel. Mind, I will defend you if you help me.Alliance!"
"It is sealed," he said, kissing her hand.
He alighted and whistling for his horse, mounted and gallopped away.
"To Luciennes," ordered Lady Dubarry, comforted.