CHAPTER IX.
A PRINCE, AN AUDIENCE, AND A SECRET EMBASSY.
THE Regent remained silent for a moment: he then said in an altered andgrave voice, "_C'est bien, Monsieur_! I thank you for the distinctionyou have made. It were not amiss" (he added, turning to his comrade)"that _you_ would now and then deign, henceforward, to make the samedistinction. But this is neither time, nor place for parlance. On,gentlemen!" We left the house, passed into the street, and moved onrapidly, and in silence, till the constitutional gayety of the Dukerecovering its ordinary tone, he said with a laugh,--
"Well, now, it is a little hard that a man who has been toiling all dayfor the public good should feel ashamed of indulging for an hour or twoat night in his private amusements; but so it is. 'Once grave, alwaysgrave!' is the maxim of the world; eh, Chatran?"
The companion bowed. "'Tis a very good saying, please your RoyalHighness, and is intended to warn us from the sin of _ever_ beinggrave!"
"Ha! ha! you have a great turn for morality, my good Chatran!" cried theDuke, "and would draw a rule for conduct out of the wickedest _bon mot_of Dubois. Monsieur, pardon me, but I have seen you before: you are theCount--"
"Devereux, Monseigneur."
"True, true! I have heard much of you: you are intimate with MilordBolingbroke. Would that I had fifty friends like _him_."
"Monseigneur would have little trouble in his regency if his wish wererealized," said Chatran.
"_Tant mieux_, so long as I had little odium, as well as littletrouble,--a happiness which, thanks to you and Dubois, I am not likelyto enjoy,--but there is the carriage!"
And the Duke pointed to a dark, plain carriage, which we had suddenlycome upon.
"Count Devereux," said the merry Regent, "you will enter; my dutyrequires that, at this seductive hour, I should see a young gentleman ofyour dangerous age safely lodged at his hotel!"
We entered, Chatran gave the orders, and we drove off rapidly.
The Regent hummed a tune, and his two companions listened to it inrespectful silence.
"Well, well, Messieurs," said he, bursting out at last into open voice,"I will ever believe, in future, that the gods _do_ look benignantly onus worshippers of the Alma Venus! Do you know much of Tibullus, MonsieurDevereux? And can you assist my memory with the continuation of theline--
"'Quisquis amore tenetur, eat--'"
"'tutusque sacerque Qualibet, insidias non timuisse decet,'"*
answered I.
* "Whosoever is possessed by Love may go safe and holy withersoever helikes. It becomes not him to fear snares."
"_Bon_!" cried the Duke. "I love a gentleman, from my very soul, whenhe can both fight well and read Latin! I hate a man who is merely awinebibber and blade-drawer. By Saint Louis, though it is an excellentthing to fill the stomach, especially with Tokay, yet there is no reasonin the world why we should not fill the head too. But here we are.Adieu, Monsieur Devereux: we shall see you at the Palace."
I expressed my thanks briefly at the Regent's condescension, descendedfrom the carriage (which instantly drove off with renewed celerity), andonce more entered my hotel.
Two or three days after my adventure with the Regent, I thought itexpedient to favour that eccentric prince with a visit. During the earlypart of his regency, it is well known how successfully he combated withhis natural indolence, and how devotedly his mornings were surrenderedto the toils of his new office; but when pleasure has grown habit, itrequires a stronger mind than that of Philippe le Debonnaire to give ita permanent successor in business. Pleasure is, indeed, like the geniusof the fable, the most useful of slaves, while you subdue it; the mostintolerable of tyrants the moment your negligence suffers it to subdueyou.
The hours in which the Prince gave audience to the comrades of hislighter rather than graver occupations were those immediately before andafter his _levee_. I thought that this would be the best season forme to present myself. Accordingly, one morning after the _levee_, Irepaired to his palace.
The ante-chamber was already crowded. I sat myself quietly down in onecorner of the room, and looked upon the motley groups around. I smiledinly as they reminded me of the scenes my own anteroom, in my youngerdays of folly and fortune, was wont to exhibit; the same heterogeneousassemblage (only upon a grander scale) of the ministers to the physicalappetites and the mental tastes. There was the fretting and impudentmountebank, side by side with the gentle and patient scholar; theharlot's envoy and the priest's messenger; the agent of the police andthe licensed breaker of its laws; there--but what boots a more prolixdescription? What is the anteroom of a great man, who has many wantsand many tastes, but a panorama of the blended disparities of thiscompounded world?
While I was moralizing, a gentleman suddenly thrust his head out of adoor, and appeared to reconnoitre us. Instantly the crowd swept up tohim. I thought I might as well follow the general example, and pushingaside some of my fellow-loiterers, I presented myself and my name to thegentleman, with the most ingratiating air I could command.
The gentleman, who was tolerably civil for a great man's great man,promised that my visit should be immediately announced to the Prince;and then, with the politest bow imaginable, slapped the door in my face.After I had waited about seven or eight minutes longer, the gentlemanreappeared, singled me from the crowd, and desired me to follow him; Ipassed through another room, and was presently in the Regent's presence.
I was rather startled when I saw, by the morning light, and indeshabille, the person of that royal martyr to dissipation. Hiscountenance was red, but bloated, and a weakness in his eyes addedconsiderably to the jaded and haggard expression of his features. Aproportion of stomach rather inclined to corpulency seemed to betray thetaste for the pleasures of the table, which the most radically coarse,and yet (strange to say) the most generally accomplished andreally good-natured of royal profligates, combined with his otherqualifications. He was yawning very elaborately over a great heap ofpapers when I entered. He finished his yawn (as if it were too briefand too precious a recreation to lose), and then said, "Good morning,Monsieur Devereux; I am glad that you have found me out _at last_."
"I was afraid, Monseigneur, of appearing an intruder on your presence,by offering my homage to you before."
"So like my good fortune," said the Regent, turning to a man seated atanother table at some distance, whose wily, astute countenance, piercingeye, and licentious expression of lip and brow, indicated at once theability and vice which composed his character. "So like my good fortune,is it not, Dubois? If ever I meet with a tolerably pleasant fellow,who does not disgrace me by his birth or reputation, he is always soterribly afraid of intruding! and whenever I pick up a respectablepersonage without wit, or a wit without respectability, he attacheshimself to me like a burr, and can't live a day without inquiring aftermy health."
Dubois smiled, bowed, but did not answer, and I saw that his look wasbent darkly and keenly upon me.
"Well," said the Prince, "what think you of our opera, Count Devereux?It beats your English one--eh?"
"Ah, certainly, Monseigneur; ours is but a reflection of yours."
"So says your friend, Milord Bolingbroke, a person who knows aboutoperas almost as much as I do, which, vanity apart, is saying a greatdeal. I should like very well to visit England; what should I learn bestthere? In Spain (I shall always love Spain) I learned to cook."
"Monseigneur, I fear," answered I, smiling, "could obtain but littleadditional knowledge in that art in our barbarous country. A few rudeand imperfect inventions have, indeed, of late years, astonished thecultivators of the science; but the night of ignorance rests still uponits main principles and leading truths. Perhaps, what Monseigneur wouldfind best worth studying in England would be--the women."
"Ah, the women all over the world!" cried the Duke, laughing; "butI hear your _belles Anglaises_ are sentimental, and love _al'Arcadienne_."
"It is true at present; but who shall say how far Monseigneur's examplemight enlighten them i
n a train of thought so erroneous?"
"True. Nothing like example, eh, Dubois? What would Philip of Orleanshave been but for thee?"
"'L'exemple souvent n'est qu'un miroir trompeur; Quelquefois l'un se brise ou l'autre s'est sauve, Et par ou l'un perit, un autre est conserve,'"*
answered Dubois, out of "Cinna."
* "Example is often but a deceitful mirror, where sometimes one destroyshimself, while another comes off safe; and where one perishes, anotheris preserved."
"Corneille is right," rejoined the Regent. "After all, to do theejustice, _mon petit Abbe_, example has little to do with corrupting us.Nature pleads the cause of pleasure as Hyperides pleaded that of Phryne.She has no need of eloquence: she unveils the bosom of her client, andthe client is acquitted."
"Monseigneur shows at least that he has learned to profit by my humbleinstructions in the classics," said Dubois.
The Duke did not answer. I turned my eyes to some drawings on the table;I expressed my admiration of them. "They are mine," said the Regent."Ah! I should have been much more accomplished as a private gentlemanthan I fear I ever shall be as a public man of toil and business.Business--bah! But Necessity is the only real sovereign in the world,the only despot for whom there is no law. What! are you going already,Count Devereux?"
"Monseigneur's anteroom is crowded with less fortunate persons thanmyself, whose sins of envy and covetousness I am now answerable for."
"Ah--well! I must hear the poor devils; the only pleasure I have is inseeing how easily I can make them happy. Would to Heaven, Dubois, thatone could govern a great kingdom only by fair words! Count Devereux, youhave seen me to-day as my acquaintance; see me again as my petitioner._Bon jour, Monsieur_."
And I retired, very well pleased with my reception; from that time,indeed, during the rest of my short stay at Paris, the Prince honouredme with his especial favour. But I have dwelt too long on my sojourn atthe French court. The persons whom I have described, and who alone madethat sojourn memorable, must be my apology.
One day I was honoured by a visit from the Abbe Dubois. After a shortconversation upon indifferent things, he accosted me thus:--
"You are aware, Count Devereux, of the partiality which the Regenthas conceived towards you. Fortunate would it be for the Prince" (hereDubois elevated his brows with an ironical and arch expression), "sogood by disposition, so injured by example, if his partiality had beenmore frequently testified towards gentlemen of your merit. A mission ofconsiderable importance, and one demanding great personal address, giveshis Royal Highness an opportunity of testifying his esteem for you.He honoured me with a conference on the subject yesterday, and has nowcommissioned me to explain to you the technical objects of this mission,and to offer to you the honour of undertaking it. Should you acceptthe proposals, you will wait upon his Highness before his _levee_to-morrow."
Dubois then proceeded, in the clear, rapid manner peculiar to him, tocomment on the state of Europe. "For France," said he, in concluding hissketch, "peace is absolutely necessary. A drained treasury, an exhaustedcountry, require it. You see, from what I have said, that Spainand England are the principal quarters from which we are to dreadhostilities. Spain we must guard against; England we must propitiate:the latter object is easy in England in any case, whether James orGeorge be uppermost. For whoever is king in England will have quiteenough to do at home to make him agree willingly enough to peace abroad.The former requires a less simple and a more enlarged policy. I fear theambition of the Queen of Spain and the turbulent genius of her minionAlberoni. We must fortify ourselves by new forms of alliance, at variouscourts, which shall at once defend us and intimidate our enemies. Wewish to employ some nobleman of ability and address, on a secret missionto Russia: will you be that person? Your absence from Paris will be butshort; you will see a very droll country, and a very droll sovereign;you will return hither, doubly the rage, and with a just claim to moreimportant employment hereafter. What say you to the proposal?"
"I must hear more," said I, "before I decide."
The Abbe renewed. It is needless to repeat all the particulars ofthe commission that he enumerated. Suffice it that, after a briefconsideration, I accepted the honour proposed to me. The Abbe wishedme joy, relapsed into his ordinary strain of coarse levity for a fewminutes, and then, reminding me that I was to attend the Regent on themorrow, departed. It was easy to see that in the mind of that subtle andcrafty ecclesiastic, with whose manoeuvres private intrigues were alwaysblended with public, this offer of employment veiled a desire to banishme from the immediate vicinity of the good-natured Regent, whose favourthe aspiring Abbe wished at that exact moment exclusively to monopolize.Mere men of pleasure he knew would not interfere with his aims upon thePrince; mere men of business still less: but a man who was thought tocombine the capacities of both, and who was moreover distinguished bythe Regent, he deemed a more dangerous rival than the inestimable personthus suspected really was.
However, I cared little for the honest man's motives. Adventure tome had always greater charms than dissipation, and it was far moreagreeable to the nature of my ambition, to win distinction by anyhonourable method, than by favouritism at a court so hollow, sounprincipled, and so grossly licentious as that of the Regent. There tobe the most successful courtier was to be the most amusing profligate.Alas, when the heart is away from its objects, and the taste revoltsat its excess, Pleasure is worse than palling: it is a torture! and thedevil in Jonson's play did not perhaps greatly belie the truth when heaverred "that the pains in his native country were pastimes to the lifeof a person of fashion."
The Duke of Orleans received me the next morning with more than hiswonted _bonhomie_. What a pity that so good-natured a prince shouldhave been so bad a man! He enlarged more easily and carelessly than hisworthy preceptor had done upon the several points to be observed in mymission; then condescendingly told me he was very sorry to lose me fromhis court, and asked me, at all events, before I left Paris, to be aguest at one of his select suppers. I appreciated this honour at itsjust value. To these suppers none were asked but the Prince's chums, or_roues_,* as he was pleased to call them. As, _entre nous_, these chumswere for the most part the most good-for-nothing people in the kingdom,I could not but feel highly flattered at being deemed, by so deep ajudge of character as the Regent, worthy to join them. I need not saythat the invitation was eagerly accepted, nor that I left Philippele Debonnaire impressed with the idea of his being the most admirableperson in Europe. What a fool a great man is if he does not study tobe affable: weigh a prince's condescension in one scale, and all thecardinal virtues in the other, and the condescension will outweigh themall! The Regent of France ruined his country as much as he well coulddo, and there was not a dry eye when he died!
* The term _roue_, now so comprehensive, was first given by the Regentto a select number of his friends; according to them, because they wouldbe broken on the wheel for his sake, according to himself, because theydeserved to be so broken.--ED.
A day had now effected a change--a great change--in my fate. A newcourt, a new theatre of action, a new walk of ambition, were suddenlyopened to me. Nothing could be more promising than my first employment;nothing could be more pleasing than the anticipation of the change. "Imust force myself to be agreeable to-night," said I, as I dressed forthe Regent's supper. "I must leave behind me the remembrance of a _bonmot_, or I shall be forgotten."
And I was right. In that whirlpool, the capital of France, everythingsinks but wit: _that_ is always on the surface; and we must cling to itwith a firm grasp, if we would not go down to--"the deep oblivion."