Monsieur le Duc d'Orleans Wishes to be Governor of a Province.--The
King's Reply.--He Requires a Fauteuil for His Wife.--Another Excellent
Answer of the King's.
In marrying Monsieur, the King consulted only his well-known generosity,
and the richly equipped household which he granted to this prince should
assuredly have made him satisfied and content. The Chevalier de Lorraine
and the Chevalier de Remecourt, two pleasant and baneful vampires whom
Monsieur could refuse nothing, put it into his head that he should make
himself feared, so as to lead his Majesty on to greater concessions,
which they were perfectly able to turn to their own enjoyment and profit.
Monsieur began by asking for the governorship of a province; in reply he
was told that this could not be, seeing that such appointments were never
given to French princes, brothers of the King.
Monsieur le Duc d'Orleans hastened to point out that Gaston, son of Henri
IV., had had such a post, and that the Duc de Verneuil, natural son of
the same Henri, had one at the present time.
"That is true," replied the King, "but from my youth upward you have
always heard me condemn such innovations, and you cannot expect me to do
the very thing that I have blamed others for doing. If ever you were
minded, brother, to rebel against my authority, your first care would,
undoubtedly, be to withdraw to your province, where, like Gaston, your
uncle, you would have to raise troops and money. Pray do not weary me
with indiscretions of this sort; and tell those people who influence you
to give you better advice for the future."
Somewhat abashed, the Duc d'Orleans affirmed that what he had said and
done was entirely of his own accord.
"Did you speak of your own accord," said the King, "when insisting upon
being admitted to the privy council? Such a thing can no longer be
allowed. You inconsiderately expressed two different opinions, and since
you cannot control your tongue, which is most undoubtedly your own, I
have no power over it,--I, to whom it does not want to belong."
Then Monsieur le Duc d'Orleans added that these two refusals would seem
less harsh, less painful to him, if the King would grant a seat in his
own apartments, and in those of the Queen, to the Princess, his wife, who
was a king's daughter.
"No, that cannot be," replied his Majesty, "and pray do not insist upon
it. It is not I who have established the present customs; they existed
long before you or me. It is in your interest, brother, that the majesty
of the throne should not be weakened or altered; and if, from Duc
d'Orleans, you one day become King of France, I know you well enough to
believe that you would never be lax in this matter. Before God, you and
I are exactly the same as other creatures that live and breathe; before
men we are seemingly extraordinary beings, greater, more refined, more
perfect. The day that people, abandoning this respect and veneration
which is the support and mainstay of monarchies,--the day that they
regard us as their equals,--all the prestige of our position will be
destroyed. Bereft of beings superior to the mass, who act as their
leaders and supports, the laws will only be as so many black lines on
white paper, and your armless chair and my fauteuil will be two pieces of
furniture of the selfsame importance. Personally, I should like to
gratify you in every respect, for the same blood flows in our veins, and
we have loved each other from the cradle upwards. Ask of me things that
are practicable, and you shall see that I will forestall your wishes.
Personally, I daresay I care less about honorary distinctions than you
do, and in Cabinet matters I am always considered to be simpler and more
easy to deal with than such and such a one. One word more, and I have
done. I will nominate you to the governorship of any province you
choose, if you will now consent in writing to let proceedings be taken
against you, just as against any ordinary gentleman, in case there should
be sedition in your province, or any kind of disorder during your
administration."
Hereupon young Philippe began to smile, and he begged the King to embrace
him.