The Mesmerist's Victim Read online

  CHAPTER VIII.

  THE LITTLE TRIANON.

  When Louis XIV. built Versailles and perceived the discomfort ofgrandeur, he granted it was the sojourneying-place for a demi-god but nohome for a man. So he had the Trianon constructed to be able to draw afree breath at leisure moments.

  But the sword of Achilles, if it tired him, was bound to be ofinsupportable weight to a myrmidon. Trianon was so much too pompous forthe Fifteenth Louis that he had the _Little_ Trianon built.

  It was a house looking with its large eyes of windows over a park andwoods, with the wing of the servant's lodgings and stables on the left,where the windows were barred and the kitchens hidden by trellises ofvines and creepers.

  A path over a wooden bridge led to the Grand Trianon through a kitchengarden.

  The King brought Prime Minister Choiseul into this garden to show himthe improvements introduced to make the place fit for his grandson theDauphin, and the Dauphiness.

  Duke Choiseul admired everything and passed his comments with acourtier's sagacity. He let the monarch say the place would become morepleasant daily and he added that it would be a family retreat for thesovereign.

  "The Dauphiness is still a little uncouth, like all young German girls,"said Louis; "She speaks French nicely, but with an Austrian accentjarring on our ears. Here she will speak among friends and it will notmatter."

  "She will perfect herself," said the duke. "I have remarked that thelady is highly accomplished and accomplishes anything she undertakes."

  On the lawn they found the Dauphin taking the sun with a sextant. LouisAguste, duke of Berry, was a meek-eyed, rosy complexioned man ofseventeen, with a clumsy walk. He had a more prominent Bourbon nose thanany before him, without its being a caricature. In his nimble fingersand able arms alone he showed the spirit of his race, so to express it.

  "Louis," said the King, loudly to be overheard by his grandson, "is alearned man, and he is wrong to rack his brain with science, for hiswife will lose by it."

  "Oh, no," corrected a feminine voice as the Dauphiness stepped out fromthe shrubbery, where she was chatting with a man loaded with plans,compass, pencil and notebook.

  "Sire, this is my architect, Mique," she said.

  "Have you caught the family complaint of building?"

  "I am going to turn this sprawling garden into a natural one!"

  "Really? why, I thought that trees and grass and running water arenatural enough."

  "Sire, you have to walk along straight paths between shaped boxwoodtrees, hewn at an angle of forty-five, to quote the Dauphin, and pondsagreeing with the paths, and star centres, and terraces! I am going tohave arbors, rockeries, grottoes, cottages, hills, gorges, meadows---- "

  "For Dutch dolls to stand up in?" queried the King.

  "Alas, Sire, for kings and princes like ourselves," she replied, notseeing him color up, and that she had spoken a cutting truth.

  "I hope you will not lodge your servants in your woods and on yourrivers like Red Indians, in the natural life which Rousseau praises. Ifyou do, only the Encyclopaedists will eulogise you."

  "Sire, they would be too cold in huts, so I shall keep the out-buildingsfor them as they are." She pointed to the windows of a corridor, overwhich were the servant' sleeping rooms and under which were thekitchens.

  "What do I see there?" asked the King, shielding his eyes with his hand,for he had short-sight.

  "A woman, your Majesty," said Choiseul.

  "A young lady who is my reading-woman," said the princess.

  "It is Mdlle. de Taverney," went on Choiseul.

  "What, are you attaching the Taverneys to your house?"

  "Only the girl."

  "Very good," said the King, without taking his eyes off the barredwindow out of which innocently gazed Andrea, with no idea she waswatched.

  "How pale she is!" remarked the Prime Minister.

  "She was nearly killed in the dreadful accident of the 30th of May, mylord."

  "For which we would have punished somebody severely," said Louis, "butChancellor Seguier proved it was the work of Fate. Only that fellowBignon, Provost of the Merchants, was dismissed--and--poor girl! hedeserved it."

  "Has she recovered?" asked Choiseul quickly.

  "Yes, thank heaven!"

  "She goes away," said the King.

  "She recognized your Majesty, and fled. She is timid."

  "A cheerless dwelling for a girl!"

  "Oh, no, not so bad."

  "Let us have a look round inside, Choiseul?"

  "Your Majesty, Council of Parliament at Versailles at half-past two."

  "Well, go and give those lawyers a shaking!"

  And the sovereign, delighted to look at buildings, followed theDauphiness who was delighted, also, to show her house. They passedMdlle. de Taverney under the eaves of the little kitchen yard.

  "This is my reader's room," remarked the Dauphiness. "I will show you itas a sample of how my ladies will fare."

  It was a suite of anteroom and two parlors. The furniture was placed;books, a harpsichord, and particularly a bunch of flowers in a JapaneseVase, attracted the King's attention.

  "What nice flowers! how can you talk of changing your garden? who themischief supplies your ladies with such beauties? do they save any forthe mistress?"

  "It is very choice."

  "Who is the gardener here so sweet upon Mdlle. de Taverney?"

  "I do not know--Dr. Jussieu found me somebody."

  The King looked round with a curious eye, and elsewhere, beforedeparting. The Dauphin was still taking the sun.