THE TRIO OF LOVE.
Without knowing who was helping her, Andrea began to recover
consciousness but instinctively she knew help had come. At length, with
open but ghostly eyes, she stared at Charny without yet recognizing
him. She pushed him away, with a scream, then.
The Queen averted her eyes although she ought to have played the
woman's part of comforter. She cast off her sister instead of
supporting her.
"Pardon her, my lady," said Charny, again taking his wife in his strong
arms, "but something out of the way causes this. My lady is not subject
to fainting fits and this is, I believe, the first time she has had one
in your presence."
"She must have felt much pain," returned the Queen, going back to her
first impression that Andrea had overheard them.
"No doubt," said the count, "and you might let me have her carried to
her own rooms."
The Queen rang a bell; but at the first tinkle Andrea stiffened in a
culvulsion and screamed in delirium:
"Oh, our Gilbert!"
The Queen shuddered to hear the name and the astonished count placed
his wife on a sofa.
The servant who ran at the call was dismissed.
Queen and nobleman looked at each other as the sufferer seemed with
closed eyes to have another fit. Charny, kneeling by her, had hard work
to keep her on the lounge.
"I think I know this name," said Marie Antoinette, "from its not being
the first time the countess has used it."
But as though the recollection was a menace, Andrea opened her eyes
and made an effort by which she stood up. Her first intelligent glance
was fondly upon Charny, who was now upright. As if this involuntary
manifestation of her mind was unworthy her Spartan soul, she turned her
gaze only to meet the Queen's. She bowed at once.
"Good heavens, what is the matter?" inquired the count: "you alarm me,
for you are usually so brave and strong--to be prey to such a swoon."
"Such dreadful things have happened at Paris where you were, that if
men are trembling at them, women may be excused for fainting. I am so
glad you came away from the city."
"Is it on my account that you felt so ill?" queried the noble.
"Why, certainly, count," said Marie Antoinette as the lady made no
sound. "Why do you doubt it? The countess is not a Queen; she has a
right to be afraid for those she loves."
"Oh, madam," rejoined Charny, perceiving jealousy in the slur, "I am
sure that the countess feels more fear for her sovereign than for
herself."
"Still, why do we find you in the swoon in the next room?" inquired the
royal lady.
"I cannot tell, for I am ignorant, but in this life of fatigue and
terror, led these three days, a woman's fainting is natural enough,
meseems."
"True," said the Queen, knowing that Andrea could not be driven out of
her defenses.
"For that matter, your Majesty has weeping eyes," retorted the
countess, with that recovered calmness which was the more embarrassing
as it was pure effort of her will and was felt to be a screen over her
real feelings.
Charny thought he perceived the same ironical tone that had marked the
Queen's speaking a while ago.
"It is not astonishing," reproved he, with slight sternness to which
his voice was unaccustomed, "that a queen should weep who loves her
people and knows that their blood had flowed."
"Happily God hath spared yours," said Andrea, as coldly and
impenetrably as ever.
"But her Majesty is not in question. We are talking about you. You have
been frightened?"
"I, frightened?"
"You cannot deny you were in pain; has some mishap befallen you?
Is there anybody you want to complain of--this Gilbert, whom you
mentioned, for example?"
"Did I utter that name?" said Andrea with such a tone of dread that
the count was more startled by the outcry than by the swoon. "Strange,
for I did not know it, till the King mentioned it as that of a learned
physician, freshly arrived from America, I believe, and who was
friendly there with General Lafayette. They say he is a very honorable
man," concluded Andrea with perfect simplicity.
"Then why this emotion, my dear?" said the Queen; "you spoke this
Gilbert's name as though it were wrung from you by torture."
"Very likely. When I went into the royal study, I beheld a stern man
clad in the grim black, who was narrating the most sombre and horrid
things--with frightful realism, the murders of Flesselles and Launay.
I was frightened and dropped insensible. I may have spoken in my spell
and the name of Gilbert would be uttered."
"It is likely," said Charny, evidently disposed to let the discussion
drop. "At least you are recovered now?"
"Completely."
"I have only one thing to entreat," said the Queen to her
Lifeguardsman. "Go and tell the generals to camp where their troops are
stationed and the King will issue orders to-morrow."
The count bowed but darted an affectionately anxious look on Andrea
which the Queen remarked.
"Will you not return to the King with me?" inquired she of the countess.
"Oh, no," replied the latter eagerly; "I beg leave to retire."
"Oh, the King has been pleasant but you would rather not see him again?
I understand. You may go, and let the count carry out his instructions."
She glanced at the lord as much as to say: "Return soon!"
And his look replied: "As soon as possible."
Andrea, with a heaving and oppressed bosom, watched her husband's
movements, but as soon as he had disappeared, her forces failed her and
the Queen had to run to her with the smelling salts as she sank on a
stool, apologizing for the breach of etiquette in sitting in the royal
presence.
The feeling between the pair was strange. The Queen seemed to have
affection for her attendant and the latter respect for her mistress,
but they were like enemies at times.
"You know, dear countess, that etiquette is not made for you. But you
have nothing to say to me about this Dr. Gilbert, whose sight made so
profound an impression on you?"
The woman had reflected in an instant. Whatever the relation between
the Queen, who was suspected of having paramours, and the King, perhaps
not so gullible as he looked, Marie Antoinette might draw from her
royal consort the particulars of the mesmeric trance in which Gilbert
had thrown the Lady of Charny. Better her relation than the King's.
With the energy of lunacy, she ran from one door to another, fastened
them all, and when assured that nobody could hear or see, she flung
herself on her knees before her mistress.
"Save me, in heaven's name, save me!" she wailed: "and I will tell you
everything!"