CHAPTER XI.
A MARVEL OF MAGIC.
Humble was Balsamo's bow; but immediately raising his intelligent andexpressive brow, he fixed his clear eye, though with respect, on thechief guest, silently waiting for her to question him.
"If you are the person Baron Taverney has mentioned, pray draw nighthat we may see what a magician is like."
Balsamo came a step nearer and bowed to Marie Antoinette.
"So you make a business of foretelling?" said the latter, sipping themilk while regarding the new comer with more curiosity than she likedto betray.
"I make no business of it, but I do foretell, please your royalhighness?" was the answer.
"Educated in an enlightened faith, we place faith solely in themysteries of our religion."
"Undoubtedly they are worthy of veneration," responded the otherdialoguist with a profound conge. "But the Cardinal de Rohan here,though Prince of the Church, will tell you that they are not the onlyones worthy of respect."
The cardinal started, for his title had not been announced.
Not appearing to notice this revelation, Marie Antoinette pursued:
"But you must allow that they alone cannot be controverted."
"There can be fact as well as faith," replied Balsamo, with the samerespect but with the same firmness.
"You speak a trifle darkly, my lord Baron of Magic. I am at heart agood Frenchwoman, but not in mind, and do not yet understand all thefineness of the language. They say I shall soon pick it up, even to thepuns. Meanwhile, I must urge you to speak more plainly if you want mycomprehension."
"I ask your highness to let me dwell obscure," said the baron, with amelancholy smile. "I should feel too much regret to reveal to so greata princess a future not equal to her hopes."
"Dear me, this is becoming serious," said Marie Antoinette, "andAbracadabra whets my curiosity in order to make me beg my fortune to betold."
"Heaven forbid my being forced into it," observed Balsamo coldly.
"Of course, for you would be put to much pains for little result,"laughed the princess.
But her merriment died away without a courtier's echoing it; allsuffered the influence of the mystic man who claimed the wholeattention.
"Still it was you foretold my coming to Taverney?" said the mightylady, to which Balsamo silently bowed. "How was the trick done, my lordbaron?"
"Simply by looking into a glass of water, my liege lady," was the oldnoble's answer.
"If that be truly your magic mirror, it is guileless at any rate; mayyour words be as clear!"
The cardinal smiled, and the master of the place said:
"Your highness will not have to take lessons in punning."
"Nay, my dear host, do not flatter me, or flatter me better. It seemsto me it was a mild quip; but, my lord," she resumed, turning towardBalsamo by that irresistible attraction drawing us to a danger, "if youcan read the future in a glass for a gentleman, may you not read it fora lady in a decanter?"
"Perfectly; but the future is uncertain, and I should shrink fromsaddening your royal highness if a cloud veiled it, as I have alreadyhad the honor to say."
"Do you know me beforetimes? Where did you first see me?"
"I saw you as a child beside your august mother, that mighty queen."
"Empress, my lord."
"Queen by heart and mind, but such have weaknesses when they think theyact for their daughters' happiness."
"I hope history will not record one single weakness in Maria Theresa,"retorted the other.
"Because it does not know what is known solely to your highness, hermother and myself."
"Is there a secret among us three?" sneered the lady. "I must hear it."
"In Schoenbrunn Palace is the Saxony Cabinet, where the empress sitsin private. One morning, about seven, the empress not being up, yourhighness entered this study, and perceived a letter of hers, open, onthe writing-table."
The hearer blushed.
"Reading it, your highness took up a pen and struck out the three wordsbeginning it."
"Speak them aloud!"
"'My dear Friend.'"
Marie Antoinette bit her lips as she turned pale.
"Am I to tell to whom the letter was addressed?" inquired the seer.
"No, no, but you may write it."
The soothsayer took out his memorandum book fastening with a giltclasp, and with a kind of pencil from which flowed ink, wrote on aleaf. Detaching this page, he presented it to the princess, who read:
"The letter was addressed to the marchioness of Pompadour, mistress ofKing Louis XV."
The dauphiness' astounded look rose upon this clearly speaking man,with pure and steady voice, who appeared to tower over her although hebowed lowly.
"All this is quite true," she admitted, "and though I am unaware howyou could learn this secret, I am bound to allow, before all, that youspeak true."
"Then I may retire upon this innocent proof of my science."
"Not so, my lord baron," said the princess, nettled; "the wiser youare, the more I long for your forecast. You have only spoken of thepast, and I demand the future."
Her feverish agitation could not escape the bystanders.
"Let me at least consult the oracle, to learn whether the predictionmay be revealed."
"Good or bad, I must hear it!" cried Marie Antoinette with growingirritation. "I shall not believe it if good, taking it for flattery;but bad, I shall regard it as a warning, and I promise any way not tobear you ill will. Begin your witchcraft."
Balsamo took up the decanter with a broad mouth and stood it in agolden saucer. He raised it thus high up, and, after looking at itshook his head.
"I cannot speak. Some things must not be told to princes," he said.
"Because you have nothing to say?" and she smiled scornfully.
Balsamo appeared embarrassed, so that the cardinal began to laugh inhis face and the baron grumbled.
"My wizard is worn out," he said. "Nothing is to follow but the goldturning into dry leaves, as in the Arabian tale."
"I would have preferred the leaves to all this show; for there is noshame in drinking from a nobleman's pewter goblet, while a dauphinessof France ought not to have to use the thimble-rigging cup of acharlatan."
Balsamo started erect as if a viper had bitten him.
"Your highness shall know your fate, since your blindness drives you toit."
These words were uttered in a voice so steady but so threatening thatthe hearers felt icy chills in their veins. The lady turned palevisibly.
"Do not listen to him, my daughter," whispered the old governess inGerman to her ward.
"Let her hear, for since she wanted to know, know she shall!" saidBalsamo in the same language, which doubled the mystery over theincident. "But to you alone, lady."
"Be it so," said the latter. "Stand back!"
"I suppose this is just an artifice to get a private audience?" sneeredshe, turning again to the magician.
"Do not try to irritate me," said he; "I am but the instrument of ahigher Power, used to enlighten you. Insult fate and it will revengeitself, well knowing how. I merely interpret its moves. Do not fling atme the wrath which will recoil on yourself, for you can not visit on methe woes of which I am the sinister herald."
"Then there are woes?" said the princess, softened by hisrespectfulness and disarmed by his apparent resignation.
"Very great ones."
"Tell me all. First, will my family live happy?"
"Your misfortunes will not reach those you leave at home. They arepersonal to you and your new family. This royal family has threemembers, the Duke of Berry, the Count of Provence, and the Count ofArtois. They will all three reign."
"Am I to have no son?"
"Sons will be among your offspring, but you will deplore that oneshould live and the other die."
"Will not my husband love me?"
"Too well. But his love and your family's support will fail you."
"Those of
the people will yet be mine."
"Popular love and support--the ocean in a calm. Have you seen it in astorm?"
"I will prevent it rising, or ride upon the billows."
"The higher its crest, the deeper the abyss."
"Heaven remains to me."
"Heaven does not save the heads it dooms."
"My head in danger? Shall I not reign a queen?"
"Yes--but would to God you never did."
The princess smiled disdainfully.
"Hearken, and remember," proceeded Balsamo. "Did you remark the subjecton the tapestry of the first room you entered on French ground? TheMassacre of the Innocents; the ominous figures must have remained inyour mind. During that storm, did you see that the lightning felled atree on your left, almost to crush your coach? Such presages are not tobe interpreted but as fatal ones."
Letting her head fall upon her bosom, the princess reflected for aspace before asking:
"How will those three die?"
"Your husband the king will die headless; Count Provence, legless; andArtois heartless."
"But myself? I command you to speak, or I shall hold all this as apaltry trick. Take care, my lord, for the daughter of Maria Theresais not to be sported with--a woman who holds in hand the destinies ofthirty millions of souls. You know no more, or your imagination isexhausted."
Balsamo placed the saucer and the decanter on a bench in the darkestnook of the arbor, which thus resembled a pythoness' cave; he led herwithin the gloom.
"Down on your knees," he said, alarming her by the action; "for youwill seem to be imploring God to spare you the terrible outcome whichyou are to view."
Mechanically the princess obeyed, but as Balsamo touched the crystalwith his magic wand, some frightful picture no doubt appeared in it,for the princess tried to rise, reeled, and screamed as she fell in aswoon.
They ran to her.
"That decanter?" she cried, when revived.
The water was limpid and stainless.
The wonder-worker had disappeared!