GILBERT'S CANDIDATE.
Dr. Gilbert had not seen the queen for six months, since he had let her
know that he was informed by Cagliostro that she was deceiving him.
He was therefore astonished to see the king's valet enter his room
one morning. He thought the king was sick and had sent for him, but
the messenger reassured him. He was wanted in the palace, whither he
hastened to go.
He was profoundly attached to the king; he pitied Marie Antoinette more
as a woman than a queen. It was profound pity, for she inspired neither
love nor devotion.
The lady waiting to greet Gilbert was the Princess Elizabeth. Neither
king nor queen, after his showing them he saw they were playing him
false, had dared to send directly to him; they put Lady Elizabeth
forward.
Her first words proved to the doctor that he was not mistaken in his
surmise.
"Doctor Gilbert," said she, "I do not know whether others have
forgotten the tokens of interest you showed my brother on our return
from Versailles, and those you showed my sister on our return from
Varennes, but I remember."
"Madame," returned Gilbert, bowing, "God, in His wisdom, hath decided
that you should have all the merits, memory included--a scarce virtue
in our days, and particularly so among royal personages."
"I hope you are not referring to my brother, who often speaks of you,
and praises your experience."
"As a medical adviser," remarked Gilbert, smiling.
"Yes; but he thinks you can be a physician to the realm as well as to
the ruler."
"Very kind of the king. For which case is he calling me in at present?"
"It is not the king who calls you, sir, but I," responded the lady,
blushing; for her chaste heart knew not how to lie.
"You? Your health worries me the least; your pallor arises from fatigue
and disquiet, not from bad health."
"You are right; I am not trembling for myself, but my brother, who
makes me fret."
"So he does me, madame."
"Oh, our uneasiness does not probably spring from the same cause, as I
am concerned about his health. I do not mean that he is unwell, but he
is downcast and disheartened. Some ten days ago--I am counting the days
now--he ceased speaking, except to me, and in his favorite pastime of
backgammon he only utters the necessary terms of the game."
"It is eleven days since he went to the House to present his veto. Why
was he not mute that day instead of the next?"
"Is it your opinion that he should have sanctioned that impious
decree?" demanded the princess, quickly.
"My opinion is, that to put the king in front of the priests in the
coming tide, the rising storm, is to have priests and king broken by
the same wave."
"What would you do in my poor brother's place, doctor?"
"A party is growing, like those genii of the Arabian Nights, which
becomes a hundred cubits high an hour after release from the
imprisoning bottle."
"You allude to the Jacobins?"
Gilbert shook his head.
"No; I mean the Girondists, who wish for war, a national desire."
"But war with whom? With the emperor, our brother? The King of Spain,
our nephew? Our enemies, Doctor Gilbert, are at home, and not outside
of France, in proof of which--" She hesitated, but he besought her to
speak.
"I really do not know that I can tell you, though it is the reason of
my asking you here."
"You may speak freely to one who is devoted and ready to give his life
to the king."
"Do you believe there is any counterbane?" she inquired.
"Universal?" queried Gilbert, smiling. "No, madame; each venomous
substance has its antidote, though they are of little avail generally."
"What a pity!"
"There are two kinds of poisons, mineral and vegetable--of what sort
would you speak?"
"Doctor, I am going to tell you a great secret. One of our cooks, who
left the royal kitchen to set up a bakery of his own, has returned to
our service, with the intention of murdering the king. This red-hot
Jacobin has been heard crying that France would be relieved if the king
were put out of the way."
"In general, men fit for such a crime do not go about bragging
beforehand. But I suppose you take precautions?"
"Yes; it is settled that the king shall live on roast meat, with a
trusty hand to supply the bread and wine. As the king is fond of
pastry, Madame Campan orders what he likes, as though for herself. We
are warned especially against powdered sugar."
"In which arsenic might be mixed unnoticed?"
"Exactly. It was the queen's habit to use it for her lemonade, but we
have entirely given up the use of it. The king, the queen, and I take
meals together, ringing for what we want. Madame Campan brings us what
we like, secretly, and hides it under the table; we pretend to eat the
usual things while the servants are in the room. This is how we live,
sir; and yet the queen and I tremble every instant lest the king should
turn pale and cry out he was in pain."
"Let me say at once, madame," returned the doctor, "that I do not
believe in these threats of poisoning; but in any event, I am under
his majesty's orders. What does the king desire? That I should have
lodgings in the palace? I will stay here in such a way as to be at hand
until the fears are over."
"Oh, my brother is not afraid!" the princess hastened to say.
"I did not mean that. Until your fears are over. I have some practice
in poisonings and their remedies. I am ready to baffle them in whatever
shape they are presented; but allow me to say, madame, that all fears
for the king might be removed if he were willing."
"Oh, what must be done for that?" intervened a voice, not the Lady
Elizabeth's, and which, by its emphatic and ringing tone, made Gilbert
turn.
It was the queen, and he bowed.
"Has the queen doubted the sincerity of my offers?"
"Oh, sir, so many heads and hearts have turned in this tempestuous
wind, that one knows not whom to trust."
"Which is why your majesty receives from the Feuillants Club a Premier
shaped by the Baroness de Stael?"
"You know that?" cried the royal lady, starting.
"I know your majesty is pledged to take Count Louis de Narbonne."
"And, of course, you blame me?"
"No; it is a trial like others. When the king shall have tried all, he
may finish by the one with whom he should have commenced."
"You know Madame de Stael? What do you think of her?"
"Physically, she is not altogether attractive."
The queen smiled; as a woman, she was not sorry to hear another woman
decried who just then was widely talked about.
"But her talent, her parts, her merits?"
"She is good and generous, madame; none of her enemies would remain so
after a quarter of an hour's conversation."
"I speak of her genius, sir; politics are not managed by the heart."
"Madame, the heart spoils nothing, not even in politics; but let us
not use the word genius rashly. Madame de Stael has great and immense
talent, but it does not rise to genius; she is as iron to the steel of
her master, Rousseau. As a politician, she is given more heed than she
deserves. Her drawing-room is the meeting-place of the English party.
Coming of the middle class as she does, and that the money-worshiping
middle class, she has the weakness of loving a lord; she admires
the English from thinking that they are an aristocratic people.
Being ignorant of the history of England, and the mechanism of its
government, she takes for the descendants of the Norman Conquerors the
baronets created yesterday. With old material, other people make a new
stock; with the new, England often makes the old."
"Do you see in this why Baroness de Stael proposes De Narbonne to us?"
"Hem! This time, madame, two likings are combined: that for the
aristocracy and the aristocrat."
"Do you imagine that she loves Louis de Narbonne on account of his
descent?"
(Louis de Narbonne was supposed to be an incestuous son of King Louis
XV.)
"It is not on account of any ability, I reckon?"
"But nobody is less well-born than Louis de Narbonne; his father is not
even known."
"Only because one dares not look at the sun."
"So you do not believe that De Narbonne is the outcome of the Swedish
Embassy, as the Jacobins assert, with Robespierre at the head?"
"Yes; only he comes from the wife's boudoir, not the lord's study. To
suppose Lord de Stael has a hand in it, is to suppose he is master in
his own house. Goodness, no; this is not an embassador's treachery,
but a loving woman's weakness. Nothing but Love, the great, eternal
magician, could impel a woman to put the gigantic sword of the
revolution in that frivolous rake's hands."
"Do you allude to the demagogue Isnard kissed at the Jacobin Club?"
"Alas, madame, I speak of the one suspended over your head."
"Therefore, it is your opinion that we are wrong to accept De Narbonne
as Minister of War?"
"You would do better to take at once his successor, Dumouriez."
"A soldier of fortune?"
"Ha! the worst word is spoken; and it is unfair any way."
"Was not Dumouriez a private soldier?"
"I am well aware that Dumouriez is not of that court nobility to which
everything is sacrificed. Of the rustic nobility, unable to obtain
a rank, he enlisted as a common soldier. At twenty years he fought
five or six troopers, though hacked badly, and despite this proof of
courage, he languished in the ranks."
"He sharpened his wits by serving Louis XV. as spy."
"Why do you call that spying in him which you rate diplomacy in others?
I know that he carried on correspondence with the king without the
knowledge of the ministers; but what noble of the court does not do the
same?"
"But, doctor, this man whom you recommend is essentially a most immoral
one," exclaimed the queen, betraying her deep knowledge of politics
by the details into which she went. "He has no principles--no idea of
honor. The Duke of Choiseul told me that he laid before him two plans
about Corsica--one to set her free, the other to subdue her."
"Quite true; but Choiseul failed to say that the former was preferred,
and that Dumouriez fought bravely for its success."
"The day when we accept him for minister it will be equivalent to a
declaration of war to all Europe."
"Why, madame, this declaration is already made in all hearts," retorted
Gilbert. "Do you know how many names are down in this district as
volunteers to start for the campaign? Six hundred thousand. In the
Jura, the women have proposed all the men shall march, as they, with
pikes, will guard their homes."
"You have spoken a word which makes me shudder--pikes! Oh, the pikes
of '89! I can ever see the heads of my Life Guardsmen carried on the
pikes' point."
"Nevertheless, it was a woman, a mother, who suggested a national
subscription to manufacture pikes."
"Was it also a woman who suggested your Jacobins adopting the red cap
of liberty, the color of blood?"
"Your majesty is in error on that point," said Gilbert, although he
did not care to enlighten the queen wholly on the ancient head-gear.
"A symbol was wanted of equality, and as all Frenchmen could not well
dress alike, a part of a dress was alone adopted: the cap such as the
poor peasant wears. The red color was preferred, not as it happens to
be that of blood, but because gay, bright, and a favorite with the
masses."
"All very fine, doctor," sneered the queen. "I do not despair of seeing
such a partisan of novelties coming some day to feel the king's pulse,
with the red cap on your head and a pike in your hand."
Seeing that she could not win with such a man, the queen retired, half
jesting, half bitter.
Princess Elizabeth was about to do the same, when Gilbert appealed to
her:
"You love your brother, do you not?"
"Love? The feeling is of adoration."
"Then you are ready to transmit good advice to him, coming from a
friend?"
"Then, speak, speak!"
"When his Feuillant Ministry falls, which will not take long, let him
take a ministry with all the members wearing this red cap, though it so
alarms the queen." And profoundly bowing, he went out.