CHAPTER XVIII.

THE KING ATTENDS TO PUBLIC MATTERS.

Though the King had been only a fortnight in the Tuileries he had two

places fitted out completely for him. The forge was one, the study the

other.

Charny walked up to the desk at which his royal master seated himself

without looking round at the papers with which he was familiar.

“Count Charny,” began the King at last, yet seeming to halt, “I noticed

one thing, on the night of the attack by the rioters, you stood by me

while you set your brother on guard over the Queen.”

“Sire, it was my right as head of my family, as you are chief of the

realm, to die for you.”

“That made me think, that if ever I had a secret errand, difficult and

dangerous, I could rely on your loyalty as a Frenchman, and on your

heart as a friend’s.”

“Oh, Sire, however the King may raise me, I have no pretension to

believe that I shall be more than a faithful and thankful subject.”

“My lord, you are a grave man though but thirty-six; you have not passed

through recent events without drawing some conclusion from them. What do

you think of the situation and what would be your means to relieve me,

if you were my Premier?”

“Sire, I am a soldier and a seaman,” returned Charny, with more

hesitation than embarrassment, “these high social questions fly over my

head.”

“Nay, you are a man,” said the sovereign with a dignity in holding out

his hand which sprang from the quandary; “another man, who believes you

to be his friend, asks you, purely and simply, what you, with your

upright heart and healthy mind, would do in his place.”

“Sire, in a no less serious position, the Queen asked my opinion: the

day after the Taking of the Bastile, when she wanted to fling the

foreign legions upon the mobs. My reply would have embroiled me with her

Majesty had I been less known to her and my respect and devotion less

plain. I said that your Majesty must not enter these walls as a

conqueror if he could not as a father of his people.”

“Well, my lord, is not that the counsel I followed? The question is was

I right? am I here as a King or a captive?”

“Speaking in full frankness, I disapproved of the banquet at Versailles,

supplicating the Queen not to go there; I was in despair when she threw

down the tricolor and set up the black cockade of Austria.”

“Do you believe that led really to the attack on the palace?”

“No, Sire; but it was the cover for it. You are not unjust for the lower

orders; they are kindly and love you--they are royalist. But they are in

pain from cold and hunger; beneath and around them are evil advisers,

who urge them on, and they know not their own strength. Once started

they become flood or fire, for they overwhelm or they consume.”

“Well, what am I to do? supposing, as is natural enough, I do not want

to be drowned or burned.”

“We must not open the sluices to the flood or windows to the flame. But

pardon me forgetting that I should not speak thus, even on a royal

order----“

“But you will on a royal entreaty. Count Charny, the King entreats

you--to continue.”

“Well, Sire, there are two strata of the lower orders, the soil and the

mud; the one which may be reposed upon and the other which will yield

and smother one. Distrust one and rest on the other.”

“Count, you are repeating at two hours’ interval, what Dr. Gilbert told

me.”

“Sire, how is it that after taking the advice of a learned man, you ask

that of a poor naval officer like me?”

“Because there is a wide difference between you, I believe. Dr. Gilbert

is devoted to royalty and you to the King. If the principle remains

safe, he would let the King go.”

“Then there is a difference between us, for the King and the principle

are inseparable for me,” responded the nobleman; “under this head it is

that I beg your Majesty to deal with me.”

“First, I should like to hear to whom you would apply in this space of

calm between two storms perhaps, to efface the wreck made by one and

soothe the coming tempest.”

“If I had the honor and the misfortune to be the wearer of the crown, I

should remember the cheers I heard round my carriage, and I should hold

out my hands to General Lafayette and Member Mirabeau.”

“Can you advise this when you detest one and scorn the other?”

“My sympathies are of no moment, the whole question is the safety of the

crown and the salvation of the monarchy.”

“Just what Dr. Gilbert says,” muttered the hearer as though speaking to

himself.

“Sire, I am happy to be in tune with such an eminent man.”

“But if I were to agree to such a union and there should be failure,

what think you I ought to do?”

“Think of your safety and your family’s.”

“Then you suggest that I should flee?”

“I should propose that your Majesty should retire with such regiments as

are reliable and the true nobles to some fortified place.”

“Ah,” said the King with a radiant face: “but among the commanders who

have given proof of devotion, you knowing them all, to which would you

confide this dangerous mission, of guarding and removing the King?”

“Sire,” replied Charny, after hesitation, “it is not because ties of

friendship--almost of family--attach me to a certain nobleman that I

name him, but because he is known for his steadfast devotion; as

Governor of the Leeward Islands, he not only protected our possessions

in the Antilles, but captured some islands from the British: he had been

charged with various commands, and at present he is General Governor, I

believe, at Metz--this is the Marquis of Bouille. Were I a father, I

should trust my son to him; a subject, I would confide the King!”

At the name the hearer could not repress an outcry of joy. He held out a

letter, saying:

“Read this address, my lord, and see if Providence itself did not

inspire me to apply to you.”

The address ran: “To Lord François Claude Amour, Marquis of Bouille,

General Commander at Metz.”

“After what has happened, I do not feel that I ought to keep anything

back from you. I have thought of this flight before, but in all the

propositions was the hand of Austria beckoning me into a trap, and I

have recoiled. I do not love Austria more than you do yourself.”

“Sire, you forget that I am the faithful subject of the King and the

Queen of France.” He emphasized the second title.

“I have already told you, count,” went on the King, “that you are a

friend, and I can speak the more frankly as the prejudice I cherished

against the Queen is completely effaced from my mind. But it was against

my will that I received into my house the double enemy of my line, as an

Austrian and a Lorrainer. After ten years’ struggle it was despite my

will that I had to charge Lord Breteuil with the management of my

household and the government of Paris; make the Premier of the

Archbishop of Toulouse, an atheist; lastly, pay to Austria the millions

she extorted from the Low Countries. At present speaking, who succeeds

the dead Maria Theresa, to counsel and direct the Queen? Her brother

Joseph II., who is luckily dying. He is advised by old women of

councillors who sway the Queen of France through her hairdresser Leonard

and her dressmaker Bertin.

“They are pensioned by us while they are leading her to alliance with

Austria. Austria has always been fatal to France, either as foe or

friend, as when she put the dagger in Jacques Clement’s or Ravaillac’s

or Damien’s to slay our kings. Formerly it was Catholic and devout

Austria, but she is abjuring now and is partly philosophical under

Joseph; rashly, she runs against her own sword, Hungary: without

foresight, she lets the Belgian priesthood rob her of the finest jewels

in her crown, the Low Countries; become the vassal of Russia, she wears

out her troops in fighting for it against the Turks, our allies. No, my

lord, I hate Austria and I will not trust to her. But I was saying that

her overtures of flight were not the only ones. I have had one proposed

by Marquis Favras. Do you know him?”

“He was the captain in the Belgunze Regiment, and lieutenant in the

Count of Provence’s own Guards.”

“You have hit it with the latter shot. What think you of him?”

“He is a brave soldier and a loyal gentleman. Unfortunately he has no

means and this makes him restless and fit for mad projects and hazardous

attempts. But he is a man of honor who will die without retreating a

step, or uttering a complaint in order to keep his word. He may be

trusted to make a dash but not to manage an enterprise.”

“He is not the leader,” said the King, with marked bitterness; “that is

Provence, who finds the means and manages all; devoted to the end, he

will remain while Favras bears me hence. This is not the plot of Austria

but of the fugitive princes and peers.”

“But why should not your Majesty’s brother go with you? why would he

remain?”

“Through devotion, and also to be at hand in case the people should be

tired of revolution and seek a regent. I tell you what all know, my dear

count, and what your brother wrote me yesterday from Turin. They debate

about deposing me and ruling by a regent. You see that unless in an

extremity I can no sooner accept the Favras plan than the Austrian. This

is what I have said to nobody, my dear count, but yourself, and I do it

in order that nobody, not even the Queen,” he laid stress on the last

three words, “can make you more devoted to them than to me, since they

cannot show more confidence.”

“Sire, am I to keep the journey a secret from everybody?” inquired

Charny, bowing.

“It little matters, count, that it should be known whither you go, as

long as the design is unknown. You know the situation, my fears and

hopes, better than my Minister Necker and my adviser Gilbert. Act

accordingly; I put the scissors and the thread in your hands--disentangle

or cut, as you see fit.”

He held the letter open for him to read:

TUILERIES PALACE, Oct. 29th.

“I hope, my lord, that you continue contented with your post as

Governor of Metz. Count Charny, Lieutenant of my Lifeguards,

passing through your city, will inquire if among your desires are

any I can gratify. In that event I will take the opportunity to be

agreeable to you as I do this one to renew the assurance of my

feelings of esteem for your lordship.

“LOUIS.”

“Now, my Lord Charny,” said the King, “you have full power to make

promises to Bouille if you think he needs any; only do not commit me

farther than I can perform.”

For the second time he held out his hand.

Charny kissed it with emotion forefending any fresh pledges, and went

forth, leaving his master convinced that he had acquired by his trust,

the heart of the servitor, better than by offerings of wealth and

favors such as he had lavished in the days of his power.