The month wore on.
"It is the true honeymoon," said the Duke.
In that event he might easily have found a quieter place than Paris wherein
to spend it. Police agents had of late been promised a premium for any
sturdy beggar, whether male or female, they could secure to populate
the new plantation of Louisiana; and as the premium was large, genteel
burgesses, and in particular the children of genteel burgesses, were
presently disappearing in a fashion their families found annoying. Now,
from nowhere, arose and spread the curious rumor that King Louis, somewhat
the worse for his diversions in the Parc-aux-Cerfs, daily restored his
vigor by bathing in the blood of young children; and parents of the
absentees began to manifest a double dissatisfaction, for the deduction was
obvious.
There were riots. In one of them Madame de Pompadour barely escaped with
her life, [Footnote: This was on the afternoon of the famous ball given
by the Pompadour in honor of the new Duchess of Ormskirk.] and the King
himself on his way to Compiègne, was turned back at the Porte St. Antoine,
and forced to make a détour rather than enter his own capital. After this
affair de Puysange went straight to his brother-in-law.
"Jean," said he, "for a newly married man you receive too much company. And
afterward your visitors talk blasphemously in cabarets and shoot the King's
musketeers. I would appreciate an explanation."
Ormskirk shrugged. "Merely a makeshift, Gaston. Merely a device to gain
time wherein England may prepare against the alliance of France and
Austria. Your secret treaty will never be signed as long as Paris is given
over to rioters. Nay, the Empress may well hesitate to ally herself with
a king who thus clamantly cannot govern even his own realm. And meanwhile
England will prepare herself. We will be ready to fight you in five years,
but we do not intend to be hurried about it."
"Yes," de Puysange assented;--"yet you err in sending Cumberland to defend
Hanover. You will need a better man there."
Ormskirk slapped his thigh. "So you intercepted that last despatch, after
all! And I could have sworn Candale was trustworthy!"
"My adored Jean," replied de Puysange, "he has been in my pay for six
months! Console yourself with the reflection that you overbid us in
Noumaria."
"Yes, but old Ludwig held out for more than the whole duchy is worth. We
paid of course. We had to pay."
"And one of course congratulates you upon securing the quite essential
support of that duchy. Still, Jean, if there were any accident--" De
Puysange was really unbelievably ugly when he smiled. "For accidents do
occur.... It is war, then?"
"My dear fellow," said Ormskirk, "of course it is war. We are about to fly
at each other's throats, with half of Europe to back each of us. We begin
the greatest game we have ever played. And we will manage it very badly, I
dare say, since we are each of us just now besotted with adoration of our
wives."
"At times," said de Puysange, with dignity, "your galimatias are
insufferable. Now let us talk like reasonable beings. In regard to
Pomerania, you will readily understand that the interests of humanity--"