The Royal Life Guard; or, the flight of the royal family. Read online

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  PRICE, 25 CENTS. No. 81.

  THE SUNSET SERIES.

  By Subscription, per Year, Nine Dollars. March 1, 1894. Entered at the New York Post Office as second-class matter.

  Copyright 1891, by J. S. OGILVIE.

  THE ROYAL LIFE GUARD.

  BY Alex. Dumas.

  NEW YORK: J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 57 ROSE STREET.

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  THE ROYAL LIFE-GUARD; OR THE FLIGHT OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.

  A HISTORICAL ROMANCE OF THE SUPPRESSION OF THE FRENCH MONARCHY.

  BY ALEXANDER DUMAS.

  Author of "Balsamo the Magician," "Monte Cristo," "The Queen's Necklace," "The Three Musketeers," "Chicot the Jester," "The Countess of Charny," "The Knight of Redcastle," etc.

  TRANSLATED FROM THE LATEST PARIS EDITION. BY HENRY LLEWELLYN WILLIAMS.

  NEW YORK: J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 57 ROSE STREET.

  _Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1892, by A. E. Smith & Co., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington._

  THE ROYAL LIFE-GUARD.

  CHAPTER I.

  A NEW LEASE OF LIFE.

  France had been changed to a limited monarchy from an absolute one, andKing Louis XVI. had solemnly sworn to defend the new Constitution. Butit had been remarked by shrewd observers that he had not attended the TeDeum at the Paris Cathedral, with the members of the National Assembly:that is, he would tell a lie but not commit perjury.

  The people were therefore on their guard against him, while they feltthat his Queen, Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Austria, was evertheir foe.

  But the murders by the rabble had frightened all property holders andwhen the court bought Mirabeau, the popular orator, over to its causeby paying his debts and a monthly salary the majority of the betterclasses, who had not fled from France in terror, thought the RoyalFamily would yet regain their own.

  In point of fact, Mirabeau had obtained from the House ofRepresentatives that the King should have the right to rule the armyand direct it and propose war, which the Assembly would only have thesanction of. He would have obtained more in the reaction after theTaking of the Bastile but for an unknown hand having distributed fullparticulars of his purchase by the royalists in a broadside given awayby thousands in the streets.

  Hence he retired from the senate broken by his victory, though carryinghimself proudly.

  In face of danger the strong athlete thought of the antagonist, not ofhis powers.

  On going home, he flung himself on the floor, rolling on flowers. He hadtwo passionate loves: for the fair sex, because he was an ugly thoughrobust man, and for flowers.

  This time he felt so exhausted that he resisted his attendant feebly,who wanted to send for a doctor, when "Dr. Gilbert" was announced.

  A man still young though with a grave expression like one tried inthe furnace of personal and political heats, entered the room. He wasclothed in the wholly black suit which he introduced from America, whereit was popular among Republicans, for he was a friend of Washington andMarquis Lafayette, who like him had returned to make a sister Republicof France to that of the Thirteen United States.

  Dr. Gilbert was a friend of Mirabeau, for he wished to preserve the Kingat the head of the State though he knew it was but the gilded figureheadwithout which, if knocked off in the tempest, the Ship rights itself andlives through all without feeling the loss.

  Nevertheless, Gilbert, who was one of the Invisibles, that SecretSociety which worked for years to bring about the downfall of monarchyin Europe, had been warned by its Chief, the Grand Copt Cagliostro,_alias_ Balsamo the Mesmerist, _alias_ Baron Zannone--since he hadescaped from the Papal dungeons under cover of his being supposed deadand buried there--that the Queen cajoled him and that royalty wasdoomed.

  "I have come to congratulate you, my dear count," said the doctor to theorator, "you promised us a victory, and you have borne away a triumph."

  "A Pyrrhic one--another such and we are lost. I am very ill of it. Oh,doctor, tell me of something, not to keep me alive but to give me forcewhile I do live."

  "How can I advise for a constitution like yours," said the physician,after feeling the nobleman's pulse: "you do not heed my advice. I toldyou not to have flowers in the room as they spoil the air, and you aresmothered in them. As for the ladies, I bade you beware and you answerthat you would rather die than be reft of their society."

  "Never mind that. I suffer too much to think of aught but myself. Isometimes think that as I am slandered so that the Queen hesitated totrust me, so have I been physically done to death. Do you believe in thefamous poisons which slay without knowing they are used until too late?"

  "Yes; I believe," for Gilbert frowned as he remembered that his secretbrotherhood was allowed to use the Aqua Tofana where an enemy could notbe otherwise reached: "but in your case it is the sword wearing out itssheath. The electric spark will explode the crystal chamber in which itis confined. Still I can help you."

  He drew from his pocket a phial holding about a couple of thimblefuls ofa green liquid.

  "One of my friends--whom I would were yours--deeply versed in naturaland occult sciences, gave me the recipe of this brew as a sovereignelixir of life. I have often taken it to cure what the English callthe blue devils. And I am bound to say that the effect was instant andsalutary. Will you taste it?"

  "I will take anything from your hand, my dear doctor."

  A servant was rung up, who brought a spoon and a little brandy in aglass.

  "Brandy to mollify it," said Mirabeau: "it must be liquid fire, the
n!"

  Gilbert added the same quantity of his elixir to the half-dozen drops ofeau-de-vie and the two fluids mixed to the color of wormwood bitters,which the exhausted man drank off.

  Immediately he was invigorated and sprang up, saying:

  "Doctor, I will pay a diamond a drop for that liquor, for it would makeme feel invincible."

  "Count, promise me that you will take it only each three days, and Iwill leave you a phial every week."

  "Give it, and I promise everything."

  "Now, I have come for another matter. I want you to come out of townfor carriage exercise and at the same time to select a residence there."

  "It chances that I was looking for one, and my man found a nice house atArgenteuil, recommended by a fellow countryman of his, one Fritz, whosemaster, a foreign banker, had lived in it. It is delightful and beingvacant could be moved into at once. My father had a house out there,whence he drove me with his cane."

  "Let us go to Argenteuil, then," said Gilbert; "your health is sovaluable that we must study everything bearing upon it."

  Mirabeau had no establishment and a hack had to be called for thegentlemen. In this they proceeded to the village where, a hundred paceson the Besons Road, they saw a house buried in the trees. It was calledthe Marsh House.

  On the right of the road was a humble cottage, in front of which sat awoman on a stool, holding a child in her arms who seemed devoured withfever.

  "Doctor," said the orator, fixing his eyes on the sad sight, "I am assuperstitious as an ancient. If that child dies, I would not live inthis house. Just see what you think of the case."

  Gilbert got down while the carriage went on.

  A gardener was keeping the house which he showed to the inquirer.It belonged to St. Denis Abbey and was for sale under the decreeconfiscating Church property. Over against the gardener's lodge wasanother, a summerhouse simply overgrown with flowers. Mirabeau's passionfor them made this sufficient lure; for this alone he would have takenthe house.

  "Is this little cottage, this Temple of Flora, on the property?" heasked.

  "Yes, sir: it belongs to the big house but it is at present occupied bya lady with her child, a pretty lady, but of course she will have to goif the house and estate are bought."

  "A lovely neighbor does no harm," said the count: "Let me see theinterior of the house."

  The rooms were lofty and elegant, the furniture fine and stylish. Inthe main room Mirabeau opened a window to look out and it commanded aview of the summerhouse. What was more, he had a view of a lady, sewing,half reclining, while a child of five or six played on the lawn amongflowering shrubs.

  It was the lady tenant.

  It was not only such a pretty woman as one might imagine a Queen amongthe roses, but it was the living likeness of Queen Marie Antoinette andto accentuate the resemblance the boy was about the age of the PrinceRoyal.

  Suddenly the beautiful stranger perceived that she was under observationfor she uttered a faint scream of surprise, rose, called her son, anddrew him inside by the hand, but not without looking back two or threetimes.

  At this same moment Mirabeau started, for a hand was laid on hisshoulder. It was the doctor who reported that the peasant's child hadcaught swamp fever from being set down beside a stagnant pool while themother reaped the grass. The disease was deadly but the doctor hoped tosave the sufferer by Jesuit's Bark, as quinine was still styled at thisdate.

  But he warned his friend against this House in the Marsh, where theair might be as fatal to him as that of the senate house, where badventilation made the atmosphere mephitic.

  "I am sorry the air is not good, for the house suits me wonderfully."

  "What an eternal enemy you are to yourself? If you mean to obey theorders of the Faculty, begin by renouncing the idea of taking thisresidence. You will find fifty around Paris better placed."

  Perhaps Mirabeau, yielding to Reason's voice, would have promised; butsuddenly, in the first shades of evening, behind a screen of flowers,appeared the head of a woman in white and pink flounces: he fancied thatshe smiled on him. He had no time to assure himself as Gilbert draggedhim away, suspecting something was going on.

  "My dear doctor," said the orator, "remember that I said to the Queenwhen she gave me her hand to kiss on our interview for reconciliation:'By this token, the Monarchy is saved.' I took a heavy engagement thattime, especially if they whom I defend plot against me; but I shall holdto it, though suicide may be the only way for me to get honorably out ofit."

  In a day Mirabeau bought the Marsh House.