CHAPTER XVII.
A ROYAL CLOCK-REPAIRER.
In the Hall of the Clocks, in Versailles Palace, a pink-cheeked andmeek-eyed young gentleman was walking about with a somewhat vulgarstep. His arms were pendent and his head sunk forward. He was in hisseventeenth year. He was recognizable as the king's heir by being theliving image of the Bourbon race, most exaggerated. Louis Auguste,Duke of Berry and heir to the throne as the dauphin, soon wearied ofhis lounge and stopped to gaze with the air of one who understoodhorology, on the great clock in the back of the hall. It was auniversal machine, which told of time to the century, with the lunarphases and the courses of the planets, and was always the prince'sadmiration.
Suddenly the hands on which his eyes were fastened came to astandstill. A grain of sand had checked the mechanism, and themaster-piece was dead.
On seeing this misfortune, the royal one forgot what he had come to do.He opened the clock-case glazed door, and put his head inside to seewhat was the matter. All at once he uttered a cry of joy, for he hadspied a screw loose, of which the head had worked up and caught anotherpart of the machinery. With a tortoise shell pick in one hand, andholding the wheel with the other, he began to fix the screw, with hishead in the box. Thus absorbed he never heard the usher at the door,cry out: "The king!"
Louis was some time glancing about before he spied the prince's legs ashe stood half eclipsed before the clock.
"What the deuse are you doing there?" he asked, as he tapped his son onthe shoulder.
The amateur clockmaker drew himself out with the proper precautions forso noble a timepiece.
"Oh, your majesty, I was just _killing time_ while you were notpresent."
"By murdering my clock! Pretty amusement!"
"Oh, no, only setting it to rights. A screw was loose and----"
"Never mind mechanics! What do you want of me? I am eager to be off toMarly."
He started for the door, always trying to avoid awkward situations.
"Is it money you are after? I will send you some."
"Nay, I have savings out of my last quarter's money."
"What a miser, and yet a spendthrift was his tutor! I believe he hasall the virtues missing in me."
"Sire, is not the bride near at hand yet?"
"Your bride? I should say fifty leagues off. Are you in a hurry."
The prince royal blushed.
"I am not eager for the motive you think."
"No? So much the worse. Hang it all! You are sixteen and the princessvery pretty. You are warranted in being impatient."
"Cannot the ceremonies be curtailed, for at this rate she will be anage coming. I don't think the traveling arrangements are well made."
"The mischief! thirty thousand horses placed along the route, with menand carts and coaches--how can you believe there is bad managementwhen I have made all these arrangements?"
"Sire, in spite of these, I am bound to say that I think, as in thecase of your clock, there is a screw loose. The progress has been rightroyally arranged, but did your majesty make it fully understood thatall the horses, men and vehicles were to be employed by the dauphiness?"
A vague suspicion annoyed the monarch, who looked hard at his heir;this suggestion agreed with another idea fretting him.
"Certainly," he replied. "Of course you are satisfied, then? The bridewill arrive on time, and she is properly attended to. You are rich withyour savings, and you can wind up my clock and set it going again. Ihave a good mind to appoint you Clockmaker Extraordinary to the RoyalHousehold, do you hear?" and, laughing, he was going to snatch theopportunity to slip away, when, as he opened the door, he faced a manon the sill.
Louis drew back a step.
"Choiseul!" he exclaimed. "I had forgotten she was to send him to me.Never mind, he shall pay for my son irritating me. So you have come, mylord? You heard I wanted you?"
"Yes, sire," replied the prime minister, coldly. "I was dressing tocome, any way."
"Good; I have serious matters to discuss," said the sovereign, frowningto intimidate the minister, who was, unfortunately, the hardest man tobrowbeat in the kingdom.
"Very serious matters I have to discuss, too," he replied, with aglance for the dauphin, who was skulking behind the clock.
"Oho!" thought the king; "my son is my foe, too. I am in a trianglewith woman, minister and son, and cannot escape."
"I come to say that the Viscount Jean----"
"Was nearly murdered in an ambush?"
"Nay, that he was wounded in the forearm in a duel. I know itperfectly."
"So do I, and I will tell you the true story."
"We listen," responded Choiseul. "For the prince is concerned in theaffray, so far as it was on account of the dauphiness."
"The dauphiness and Jean Dubarry in some way connected?" questionedthe king. "This is getting curious. Pray explain, my lord, and concealnothing. Was it the princess who gave the swordthrust to Dubarry?"
"Not her highness, but one of the officers of her escort," repliedChoiseul, as calm as ever.
"One whom you know?"
"No, sire; but your majesty ought to know him, if your majestyremembers all his old servants; for his father fought for you atFontenoy, Philipsburg and Mahon--he is a Taverney Redcastle."
The dauphin mutely repeated the title to engrave it on his mind.
"Certainly, I know the Redcastles," returned Louis. "Why did he fightagainst Jean, whom I like--unless because I like him? Absurd jealousy,outbreaks of discontent, and partial sedition!"
"Does the defender of the royal princess deserve this reproach?" saidthe duke.
"I must say," said the prince, rising erect and folding his arms, "I amgrateful to the young gentleman who risked his life for a lady who willshortly be my wife."
"What did he risk his life for?" queried the king.
"Because the Chevalier Jean in a hurry wanted to take the horses setaside by your majesty for the royal bride."
The king bit his lips and changed color, for the new way of presentingthe case was again a menacing phantom.
"Yes, Chevalier Dubarry was putting the insult on the royal house oftaking the reserved royal horses, when up came the Chevalier Redcastle,sent onward by her highness, and after much civil remonstrance----"
"Oh!" protested the king. "Civil--a military man?"
"It was so," interposed the dauphin. "I have been fully informed.Dubarry whipped out his sword----"
"Was he the first to draw?" demanded the king.
The prince blushed and looked to Choiseul for support.
"The fact is, the two crossed swords," the latter hastened to say, "onehaving insulted the lady, the other defending her and your majesty'sproperty."
"But who was the aggressor, for Jean is mild as a lamb," said themonarch, glad that things were getting equalized.
"The officer must have been malapert."
"Impertinent to a man who was dragging away the horses reserved foryour majesty's destined daughter?" exclaimed Choiseul. "Is thispossible?"
"Hasty, anyway," said the king, as the dauphin stood pale without aword.
"A zealous servitor can never do wrong," remarked the duke, receding astep.
"Come, now, how did you get the news?" asked the king of his son,without losing sight of the minister, who was troubled by this abruptquestion.
"I had an advice from one who was offended by the insult to the lady ofmy choice."
"Secret correspondence, eh?" exclaimed the sovereign. "Plots,plots! Here you are, beginning to worry me again, as in the days ofPompadour."
"No, this is only a secondary matter. Let the culprit be punished, andthat will end the affair."
At the suggestion of punishment, Louis saw Jeanne furious and Chon upin arms.
"Punish, without hearing the case?" he said. "I have signed quiteenough blank committals to jail. A pretty mess you are dragging meinto, duke."
"But what a scandal, if the first outrage to the princess is allowed togo unpunished, sire."
/> "I entreat your majesty," said the dauphin.
"What, don't you think the sword cut was enough punishment?"
"No, sire, for he might have wounded Lieutenant Taverney. In that caseI should have asked for his head."
"Nay," said the dauphin, "I only ask for his banishment."
"Exile, for an alehouse scuffle," said the king. "In spite of yourphilosophical notions, you are harsh, Louis. It is true that you area mathematician, and such are hard as--well, they would sacrifice theworld to have their ciphering come out correct."
"Sire, I am not angry with Chevalier Dubarry personally, but as heinsulted the dauphiness."
"What a model husband!" sneered the king. "But I am not to be gulledin this way. I see that I am attacked under all these blinds. It isodd that you cannot let me live in my own way, but must hate all whomI like, and like all I dislike! Am I mad, or sane? Am I the master, ornot!"
The prince went back to the clock. Choiseul bowed as before.
"No answer, eh? Why don't you say something? Do you want to worry meinto the grave with your petty hints and strange silence, your paltryspites and minute dreads?"
"I do not hate Chevalier Dubarry," said the prince.
"I do not dread him," added Choiseul.
"You are both bad at heart," went on the sovereign, trying to befurious but only showing spite. "Do you want me to realize the fablewith which my cousin of Prussia jeers me, that mine is the Court ofKing Petaud? No, I shall do nothing of the kind. I stand on my honor inmy own style and will defend it similarly."
"Sire," said the prince with his inexhaustible meekness but eternalpersistency, "your majesty's honor is not affected--it is the dignityof the royal princess which is struck at."
"Let Chevalier Jean make excuses, then, as he is free to do. But he isfree to do the other thing."
"I warn your majesty that the affair will be talked of, if thusdropped," said the prime minister.
"Who cares? Do as I do. Let the public chatter, and heed themnot--unless you like to laugh at them. I shall be deaf to all. Thesooner they make such a noise as to deafen me, the sooner I shall ceaseto hear them. Think over what I say, for I am sick of this. I am goingto Marly, where I can get a little quiet--if I am not followed outthere. At least, I shall not meet your sister the Lady Louise there,for she has retired to the nunnery of St. Denis."
But the dauphin was not listening to this news of the breaking up ofhis family.
"It is going," he exclaimed in delight, real or feigned, as the clockresumed its regular tickings.
The minister frowned and bowed himself out backward from the hall,where the heir to the throne was left alone.
The king going into his study, paced it with long strides.
"I can clearly see that Choiseul is railing at me. The prince lookson himself as half the master, and believes he will be entirely sowhen he mounts with this Austrian on the throne. My daughter Louiseloves me, but she preaches morality and she gives me the go-by to livein the nunnery. My three other girls sing songs against me and poorJeanne. The Count of Provence is translating Lucretius. His brother ofArtois is running wild about the streets. Decidedly none but this poorcountess loves me. Devil take those who try to displease her!"
Sitting at the table where his father signed papers, his treaties andgrandiloquent epistles, the son of the great king took up the pen.
"I understand why they are all hastening the arrival of thearchduchess. But I am not going to be perturbed by her sooner than canbe helped," and he wrote an order for Governor Stainville to stop threedays at one city and three at another.
With the same pen he wrote:
"DEAR COUNTESS: This day we install Zamore in his new government. I am off for Marly, but I will come over to Luciennes this evening to tell you all I am thinking about at present.
FRANCE."
"Lebel," he said to his confidential valet, "away with this to thecountess, and my advice is for you to keep in her good graces."