Memoirs of a Physician (50 page)

circumstances our almost poverty “

” Yes, yes ; rest easy on that point,” said Louis ; ” but she seems very young there is no haste.”

” The less, sire, that I am aware your majesty dislikes marriages.”

” Ha ! ” said Louis, rubbing his hands and looking at Richelieu. ” Well ! at all events, Monsieur de Taverney, command me whenever you are at all embarrassed.”

Then, rising, the king beckoned the duke, wHo approached.

” Was the little one satisfied ? ” asked he.

“With what?”

” With the casket.”

” You majesty must excuse my speaking low, but the father is listening, and he must not overhear what I have to tell you.”

” Bah ! “

” No, I assure you, sire.”

“Well! speak.”

” Sire, the little one has indeed a horror of marriage ;

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but of one thing I am certain viz., that she has not a horror of your majesty.”

Uttering these words in a tone of familiarity which pleased the king from its very frankness, the marshal, with his little pattering steps, hastened to rejoin Taverney, who, from respect, had moved away to the doorway of the gallery.

Both retired by the gardens. It was a lovely evening. Two servants walked before them, holding torches in one hand, and with the other pulling aside the branches of the flowering shrubs. The windows of Trianon were blazing with light, and, flitting across them, could be discerned a crowd of joyous figures, the honored guests of the dauphiness.

His majesty’s band gave life and animation to the min-uet, for dancing had commenced after supper, and was still kept up with undiminished spirit.

Concealed in a dense thicket of lilac and snowball shrubs, Gilbert, kneeling upon the ground, was gazing at the movements of the shadows through the transparent curtains. A thunderbolt, cleaving the earth at his feet, would scarcely have distracted the attention of the gazer, so much was he entranced by the lovely forms he was following with his eyes through all the mazes of the dance. Nevertheless, when Kichelieu and Taverney passed, and brushed against the thicket, in which this night-bird was concealed, the sound of their voices, and, above all, a certain word, made Gilbert raise his head; for this word was an all-important one for him.

The marshal, leaning upon his friend’s arm, and bending down to his ear, was saying:

” Everything well weighed and considered, baron it is a hard thing to tell you but you must at once send your daughter to a convent ‘

” Why so ? ” asked the baron.

” Because, I would wager,” replied the marshal, ” that the king is madly in love with Mademoiselle de Taverney.”

At these words Gilbert started and turned paler than the flaky snowberries which, at his abrupt movement, showered down upon his head.

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CHAPTEE XLVII.

PRESENTIMENTS.

next day, as the clock of Trianon was striking twelve, Nicole’s voice was heard calling Andre, who had not yet left her apartment :

” Mademoiselle, mademoiselle, here is Monsieur Philip ! “

The exclamation came from the bottom of the stairs.

Andre, at once surprised and delighted, drew her muslin robe closely over her neck and shoulders, and hastened to meet the young man, who was in fact dismounting in the courtyard of Trianon and inquiring from the servants at what time he could see his sister.

Andre therefore opened the door in person, and found herself face to face with Philip, whom the officious Nicole had run to summon from the courtyard, and was accompanying up the stairs.

The young girl threw her arms around her brother’s neck, and they entered Andre’s apartment together, followed by Nicole.

It was then that Andre for the first time remarked that Philip was more serious than usual that his smile was not free from sadness that he wore his elegant uniform with the most scrupulous neatness, and that he held a traveling-cloak over his arm.

” What is the matter, Philip ? ” asked she, with the instinct of tender affection, of which a look is a sufficient revelation.

” My sister,” said Philip, ” this morning I received an order to join my regiment.”

” And you are going ? “

“I must.”

c ‘ Oh ! ” said Andre ; and with this plaintive exola^ mation all her courage, and almost all her strength, seemed to desert her.

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And although his departure was a very natural occurrence, and one which she might have foreseen, yet she felt so overpowered by the announcement that she was obliged to lean for support on her brother’s arm.

” Good heavens ! ” asked Philip, astonished, ” does this departure afflict you so much, Andre ? You know, in a soldier’s life, it is a most commonplace event.”

” Yes, yes, it is in truth common,” murmured the young girl. fe And whither do you go, brother ?”

” My garrison is at Rheims. You see, I have not a very long journey to undertake. But it is probable that from thence the regiment will return to Strasbourg.”

” Alas ! ” said Andre ; ” and when do you set out ? “

“The order commands me to start immediately.”

” You have come to bid me good-by, then ? “

“Yes, sister.”

“A farewell !”

” Have you anything particular to say to me, Andre ?” asked Philip, fearing that this extreme dejection might have some other cause than his departure.

Andre understood that these words were meant to call her attention to Nicole, who, astonished at Andre’s extreme grief, was gazing at the scene with much surprise ; for, in fact, the departure of an officer to his garrison was not a catastrophe to cause such a flood of tears.

Andre therefore saw at the same instant Philip’s feelings and Nicole’s surprise. She took up a mantle, threw it over her shoulders, and, leading her brother to the staircase :

” Come,” said she, “as far as the park gates, Philip. I will accompany you through the covered alley. I have, in truth, many things to tell you, brother.”

These words were equivalent to a dismissal for Nicole, who returned to her mistress’s chamber, while the latter descended the staircase with Philip.

Andre led the way to the passage, which still, even at the present day, opens from the chapel into the garden ; but although Philip’s look anxiously questioned her, she

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remained for a long time silent, leaning upon his arm, and supporting her head upon his shoulder.

But at last her heart was too full ; her features were overspread with a deathlike paleness, a deep sigh escaped her lips, and tears rushed from her eyes.

” My dear sister my sweet Andre ! ” exclaimed Philip, ” in the name of Heaven, what is the matter ? “

“My friend my only friend,” said Andre, “you de-part you leave me alone in this great world which I entered but yesterday,’ and yet you ask me why I weep ? Ah, remember, Philip, I lost my mother at my birth ; it is dreadful to acknowledge it, but I have never had a father. All my little griefs all my little secrets I could confide to you alone. Who smiled upon me ? Who caressed me ? Who rocked me in my cradle ? It was you. Who has protected me since I grew up ? You. Who taught me that God’s creatures were not cast into the world only to suffer ? Yon, Philip you alone. For, since the hour of my birth, I have loved no one in the world but you, and no one but you has loved me in return. Oh! Philip, Philip,” continued Andre, sadly, “you turn away your head, and I can read your thoughts. You think I am young that I am beautiful and that I am wrong not to trust to the future and to love. And yet you see, alas ! Philip, it is not enough to be young and handsome, for no one thinks of me.

‘ ‘ You will say the dauphiness is kind, and she is so. She is all perfection, at least, she seems so in my eyes, and I look upon her as a divinity. But it is exactly because she holds this exalted situation, that I can feel only respect for her, and not affection. And yet, Philip, affection is necessary for my heart, which, if always thrust back on itself, must at last break. My father I tell you nothing new, Philip my father is not only no protector or friend, but I cannot even look at him without feeling terror. Yes, yes, I fear him, Philip, and still more now since you are leaving me.

” You will ask, why should I fear him ? I know not. Do not the birds of the air, and the flocks of the field,

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feel and dread the approaching storm ? You will say they are endowed with instinct ; but why will you deny the instinct of misfortune to our immortal souls ? For some time past everything has prospered with our family ; I know it well. You are a captain ; I am in the household, and almost in the intimacy, of the dauphiness. My father, it is said, supped last night almost tete-a-tete with the king. Well ! Philip, I repeat it, even should you think me mad, all this alarms me more than our peaceful poverty and obscurity at Taverney.”

” And yet, dear sister,” said Philip, sadly, ” you were alone there also ; I was not with you there to console you.”

” Yes, but at least I was alone alone with the memories of childhood. It seemed to me as if the house where my mother lived and breathed her last, owed me, if I may so speak, a protecting care. All there was peaceful, gentle, affectionate. I could see you depart with calmness and welcome you back with joy. But whether you departed or returned, my heart was not all with you ; it was attached also to that dear house, to my gardens, to my flowers, to the whole scene of which formerly you were but a part. Now you are all tome, Philip, and when you leave me I am indeed alone.”

“And yet, Andre, you have now a protector more powerful than I am.”

” True.”

” A happy future before you.”

” Who can tell ? “

” Why do you doubt it ? “

” I do not know.”

” This is ingratitude toward God, my sister.”

” Oh ! no, thank Heaven, I am not ungrateful to God. Morning and evening I offer up my thanks to Him ; but it seems to me as if instead of receiving my prayers with grace, every time I bend the knee, a voice from on high whispers to my heart : ” Take care, young girl, take care ! “

” But against what are you to guard ? Answer me. I

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will admit that a danger threatens you. Have you any presentiment of the nature of this misfortune ? Do you know how to act so as best to confront it, or how to avoid it?”

” I know nothing, Philip, except that my life seems to haug by a thread, that nothing will look bright to me from the moment of your departure. In a word, it seems as if during my sleep I had been placed on the declivity of a precipice too steep to allow me to arrest my progress when roused to a sense of my danger ; that I see the abyss, and yet am dragged down ; and that you, being far away, and your helping hand no longer ready to support me, I shall be dashed down and crushed in the fall.”

” Dear sister ! my sweet Andre ! ” said Philip, agitated in spite of himself by the expression of deep and unaffected terror in her voice and manner, ” you exaggerate the extent of an affection for which I feel deeply grateful. Yes, you will lose your friend, but only for a time ; 1 shall not be so far distant but that you can send for me if necessity should arise. Besides, remember that except chimerical fears, nothing threatens you.”

Andre placed herself in her brother’s way.

” Then, Philip,” said she, ” how does it happen that you, who are a man, and gifted with so much more strength, are at this moment as sad as I am ? Tell me, my brother, how do you explain that ? “

“Easily, dear sister,” said Philip, arresting Andre’s steps, for she had again moved forward on ceasing to speak. ” We are not only brother and sister by blood, but in heart and affection ; therefore we have lived in an intimate communion of thoughts and feelings, which, especially since our arrival in Paris, has become to me a delightful necessity. I break this chain, my sweet love, or rather it is broken by others, and I feel the blow in my inmost heart. I am sad, but only for the moment, An-dree. I can look beyond our separation ; I do not believe in any misfortune, except in that of not seeing you for some months, perhaps for a year ; I am resigned and do not say ‘ farewell but rather, * we shall soon meet again.’ “

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In spite of these consolatory words, Andre could only reply by sobs and tears.

“Dearest sister,” exclaimed Philip, grieved at this dejection, which seemed so incomprehensible to him, ” dearest sister, you have not told me all you hide something from me. In Heaven’s name, speak ! “

And he took her in his arms, pressing her to his heart, and gazing earnestly in her eyes.

“LI” said she. “No, no, Philip, I assure jou solemnly. You know all the most secret recesses of my heart are open before you.”

” Well, then, Andre, for pity’s sake, take courage ; do not grieve me so.”

” You are right ‘ said she, ” and I am mad. Listen : I never had a strong mind, as you, Philip, know better than any one ; I have always been a timid, dreaming, melancholy creature. But I have no right to make so tenderly beloved a brother a sharer in my fears, above all, when he labors to give me courage, and proves to me that I am wrong to be alarmed. You are right, Philip ; it is true, everything here is conducive to my happiness. Forgive me, Philip ! You see I dry my tears I weep no longer I smile, Philip I do not say adieu, but rather ‘ we shall soon meet again.’ “

And the young maiden tenderly embraced her brother, hiding her head on his shoulder to conceal from his view a tear which still dimmed her eye, and which dropped like a pearl upon the golden epaulet of the young officer.

Philip gazed upon her with that infinite tenderness which partakes at the same time of a father’s and a brother’s affection.

” Andre,” said he, ” I love to see you bear yourself thus bravely. Be of good courage ; I must go, but the courier shall bring you a letter every week. And every week let me receive one from you in return.”

” Yes, Philip,” said Andre ; ” yes, it will be my only happiness. But you have informed my father, have you not ? “