CHAPTER XXII.
THE SMILE AND THE NOD.
As Cagliostro had said and Mirabeau surmised, the King had upset thescheme.
Without much regret the Queen saw the constitutional platform fall whichhad wounded her pride. The King's policy was to gain time and profit bycircumstances; besides he had two chances of getting away into somestronghold, which was his favorite plan. These two plans, we know, werehis brother Provence's, managed by Favras; the other his own, managed byCharny.
The latter reached Metz in a couple of days where the faithful royalistBouille did not doubt him, but resolved to send his son Louis to Paristo be more exactly informed on the matter. Charny remained as a kind ofhostage.
Count Louis Bouille arrived about the middle of November. At this periodthe King was guarded closely by Lafayette whose cousin the young countwas.
To keep him in ignorance of Charny's negociations, the latter worked tobe presented to the King by his kinsman.
Providence answered the envoy's prayer for Lafayette, who had beeninformed of his coming but swallowed his excuse that it was on a visitto a sweetheart in Paris, offered to take him with him on his morningcall on the monarch.
All the palace doors opened to the general. The sentinels presented armsand the footmen bowed, so that Count Louis could see that his relativewas the real King of Paris.
The King was in his forge so that the visitors had to see the Queenfirst.
Bouille had not seen her for three years. The sight of her atthirty-four, a prisoner, slandered, threatened, and hated, made a deepimpression on the chivalric heart of the young noble.
She remembered him at a glance and with the same was sure this was afriendly face. Without busying about General Lafayette she gave her handfor the young man to kiss, which was a fault such as she plentifullycommitted; without this favor she had won Louis Bouille, and by doinghim it before the general she slighted the latter who had never been sogratified; she wounded the very man she most wanted as a friend.
Hence with a faltering in the voice but with the courtesy never leavinghim, Lafayette said:
"Faith, my dear cousin, you want me to present you to the Queen: but itseems to me that you were better fitted to present me."
The Queen was so enraptured at meeting a friend on whom she could rely,and as a woman so proud of the effect produced on the young nobleman,that she turned round on the general with one of the beams of youthwhich she had feared forever extinct.
"General," she said with one of the smiles of her sunnier days, "CountBouille is not a severe republican like you: he comes from Metz, notfrom America; he does not come to bother about Constitutions but topresent his homage. Do not be astonished at the favor shown him by anearly dethroned Queen, which this country squire may esteem a boon----"
She completed her sentence by a playful smile as much as to say: "Youare a Scipio and think nothing of such nonsense."
"It is a pity for me, and a great misfortune for your Majesty," returnedLafayette, "that I pass without my respect and devotion being noticed."
The Queen looked at him with her clear, searching eye. This was not thefirst time that he had spoken in this strain and set her thinking: butunfortunately, as he had said, she entertained an instinctive repugnancefor him.
"Come, general, be generous and pardon me, my outburst of kindnesstowards this excellent Bouille family, which loves me with a whole heartand of which this youth is the chain of contact. I see his whole familyin him, coming to kiss my hand. Let us shake hands, as the American andEnglish do, and be good friends."
The marquis touched the hand coldly.
"I regret that you do not bear in mind that I am French. The night ofthe attack on the Royal Family at Versailles ought to remind you."
"You are right, general," responded the lady, making an effort andshaking his hand. "I am ungrateful. Any news?"
Lafayette had a little revenge to take.
"No; merely an incident in the House. An old man of one hundred andtwenty was brought to the bar by five generations of descendants tothank the Representatives for having made him free. Think of one who wasborn a serf under Louis XIV. and eighty years after."
"Very touching," retorted the Queen; "but I could not well be there as Iwas succoring the widow and child of the baker murdered for supplyingbread to the Assembly."
"Madam, we could not foresee that atrocity but we have punished theoffenders."
"That will do her no good, as she is maddened and may give birth to astill-born babe; if it should live, do you see any inconvenience tostanding godmother to it at the Cathedral of Notre Dame?"
"None: and I take this opportunity of meeting your allusion, before mykinsman, to your pretended captivity. Nothing prevents your going tochurch or elsewhere, and the King may go hunting and out riding, as muchas he likes."
The Queen smiled, for this permission might be useful as far as it went.
"Good-bye, count," she said to Bouille; "the Princess of Lamballereceives for me and you will be welcome any evening with yourillustrious kinsman."
"I shall profit by the invitation," said Lafayette, "sure that I shouldbe oftener seen there and elsewhere by your Majesty if the request hadnot been heretofore omitted."
The Queen dismissed them with a smile and a nod, and they went out, theone with more bitterness because of the nod, the other with moreadherence because of the smile.