Memoirs of a Physician (59 page)

As he gave this confident reply to Balsaino, he attacked Sultan with a whip and spur, and the good steed started off, astonished at this unusual aggression, and neighing piteously.

Balsamo, by degrees, resumed his composure, and took the road to Paris, which he entered three-quarters of an hour afterward, his features almost unruffled and his look calm but pensive.

Balsarno was right. However swift Djerid, the neighing son of the desert, might be, his speed was powerless, and thought alone could hope to overtake Lorenza in her flight from prison.

From theKue St. Claude she had gained the boulevard, and, turning to the right, she soon saw the walls of the Bastile rise before her. But Lorenza, constantly a prisoner, was entirely ignorant of Paris. Moreover, her first aim was to escape from that accursed house in which she saw only a dungeon ; vengeance was a secondary consideration.

She had just entered the Faubourg St. Antoiue, hastening onward with bewildered steps, when she was accosted by a young man who had been following her for some moments with astonishment.

In fact, Lorenza, an Italian girl from the neighborhood of Koine, having almost always lived a secluded life, far from all knowledge of the fashions and customs of the age, was dressed more like an Oriental than a Eu-ropean lady ; that is, in flowing and sumptuous robes, very unlike the” charming dolls of that time, confined, like wasps, in long tight waists, rustling with silk and muslin, under which it was almost useless to seek a body, their utmost ambition being to appear immaterial.

Lorenza had only adopted, from the French costume of that period, the shoes with their two inch-high heels that strange-looking invention which stiffened the foot,

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displayed the beauty of the ankle, and which rendered it impossible for the Arethusas of that rather mythological age to fly from the pursuit of their Alpheuses.

The Alpheus who pursued our Arethusa easily overtook her, therefore. He had seen her lovely ankles peeping from beneath her petticoats of satin and lace, her unpo v-dered hair, and her dark eyes sparkling with a strange fire from under a mantilla thrown over her head and neck, and he imagkied he saw in Lorenza a lady disguised for a masquerade, or for a rendezvous, and proceeding on foot, for want of a coach, to some little house of the faubourg.

He approached her, therefore, and walking beside her hat in hand :

“Good heavens! madame,” said he, f ‘you cannot go far in that costume, and with these shoes, which retard your progress. Will you accept my arm until we find a coach, and allow me the honor of accompanying you to your destination ? “

Lorenza turned her head abruptly, gazed with her dark, expressive eyes at the man who had thus made her an offer which to many ladies would have appeared an impertinent one, and stopping :

” Yes,” said she, ” most willingly.”

The young man gallantly offered his arm.

” Whither are we going, madame ? ” he asked.

“To the hotel of the lieutenant of police.”

The young man started.

“To Monsieur de Sartines ?” he inquired.

” I do not know if his name be Monsieur de Sartines or not ; I wish to speak to whoever is lieutenant of police.”

The young man began to reflect. A young and handsome woman, wandering alone in the streets of Paris, at eight o’clock in the evening, in a strange costume, holding a box under her arm, and inquiring-for the hotel of the lieutenant of police, while she was going in the contrary direction, seemed suspicious.

” Ah, diable ! ” said he, ” the hotel of the lieutenant of police is not in this direction at all.”

” Where is it, then?”

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” In the Faubourg St Germain.”

” And how must I go to the Faubourg St. Germain ?”

‘* This way, madame,” replied the young man, calm, but always polite ; ” and if you wish, we cau take the first, coach we meet “

” Oh, yes, a coach ; you are right.’”’

The young man conducted Lorenza back to the boulevard, and, having met a hackney-coach, he hailed it. The coachman answered his summons.

” Where to, madame ?” asked he.

” To the hotel of Monsieur de Sartines,” said the young-man.

And, with a last effort of politeness, or, rather, of astonishment, having opened the coach-door, he bowed to Lorenza, and, after assisting her to get in, he gazed after her departing form as we do in a dream or vision.

The coachman, full of respect for the dreadful name, gave his horses the whip, and drove rapidly in the direction indicated.

It was while Lorenza was thus crossing the Place Eoyale that Andre, in her magnetic sleep, had seen and heard her, and denounced her to Balsamo. In twenty minutes Lorenza was at the door of the hotel.

” Must I wait for you, my fair lady ?” asked the coachman.

” Yes,” replied Lorenza, mechanically.

And, stepping lightly from the coach, she disappeared beneath the portal of the splendid hotel.

CHAPTER LV.

THE HOTEL OF M. DE SARTIXES.

THE moment Lorenza entered the courtyard she found herself surrounded by a crowd of soldiers and officers. She addressed the garde-franqaise who stood nearest her, and begged him to conduct her to the lieutenant of police. The guardsman handed her over to the porter, who, seeing a beautiful stranger, richly dressed, and holding a mag-MEMOIRS OF A PHYSICIAN. 441

nificent coffer under her arm, thought that the visit might prove not to be an unimportant one, and preceded her up the grand staircase to an antechamber, where every coiner could, after the sagacious scrutiny of the porter, be admitted to present an explanation, an accusation, or a request to M. de Sartines, at any hour of the day or night.

It is needless to say that the two first classes of visitors were more favorably received than the latter.

Lorenza, when questioned by the usher, only replied :

” Are you Monsieur de Sartiues ? “

The usher was profoundly astonished that any one could mistake his black dress and steel chain for the embroidered coat and flowing wig of the lieutenant of police ; but as no lieutenant is ever angry at being called captain, as he marked the foreign accent of the lady, and as her firm and steady gaze was not that of a lunatic, he felt convinced that the fair visitor had something important in the coffer which she held so carefully and so securely under her arm.

But as M. de Sartines was a prudent and suspicions man, as traps had been laid for him with baits not less en thing than that of the beautiful Italian, there was good watch kept around him, and Lorenza had to undergo the investigation, the questioning, and the suspicions of half a dozen secretaries and valets. The result of all these questions and replies was, that M. de Sartines had not yet returned, and that Lorenza must wait.

Then the young woman sunk into a moody silence, and her eyes wandered over the bare walls of the vast antechamber.

At last the ringing of a bell was heard, a carriage rolled into the courtyard, and a second usher entered and announced to Lorenza that M. de Sartines was waiting for her.

Lorenza rose, and crossed two halls full of people with suspicious-looking faces, and dresses still more strange than her own. At last, she was introduced into a large cabinet of an octagon form, lighted by a number of wax-candles.

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A man of from fifty to fifty-five years of age, enveloped in a dressing-gown, his head surmounted by a wig profusely powdered and curled, was seated at work before a lofty piece of furniture, the upper part of which, somewhat resembling in form a cupboard, was closed with two doors of looking-glass, in which the person seated could, without moving, see any one who entered the room, and could examine their features before they had time to compose them in harmony with his own.

The lower part of this article of furniture formed a secretaire. A number of rosewood drawers composed the front, each of which closed by the combination of some letter of the alphabet. M. de Sartines kept in them his papers, and the ciphers which no one in his lifetime could read, since the drawers opened for him alone, and which none could have deciphered after his death, unless in some drawer, still more secret than the others, he had found the key to the cipher.

This secretaire, or, rather, this cupboard, contained be-hind the glasses of the upper part twelve drawers also closed by an invisible mechanism. This piece of furniture, constructed expressly by the regent to contain his chemical or political secrets, had been given by that prince to Du-bois, and left by Dubois to M. Dombreval, lieutenant of police. It was from this latter that M. de Sartines had inherited the press and the secret. However, M. de Sartines had not consented to use it until after the death of the donor, and even then he had had all the arrangements of the locks altered.

This piece of furniture had some reputation in the world, and shut too closely, people said, for M. de Sartines only to keep his wigs in it.

The grumblers, and their name was legion at this period, said that if it were possible to read through the panels of this secretaire, there would most certainly have been discovered, in one of its drawers, the famous treaty by virtue of which Louis XV. speculated in grain, through the intervention of his devoted agent, M. de Sartines.

The lieutenant of police, therefore, saw reflected in the

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glass the pale, serious face of Lorenza, as she advanced toward him with the coffer still beneath her arm. In the center of the apartment the young girl stopped. Her costume, her figure, and the strangeness of her proceedings struck the lieutenant.

” Who are you ? ” asked he, without turning round, but looking at her in the glass. ” What do you want with me ? “

” Am I in the presence of Monsieur de Sartines, lieutenant of police ? ” replied Lorenza.

” Yes,” replied he, abruptly.

” Who will assure me of that ? “

M. de Sartines turned round.

” Will it be a proof that I am the man you seek,” said he, ” if I send you to prison ?”

Lorenza made no reply. She merely looked around the room with that indescribable dignity peculiar to the women of Italy, and seemed to seek the chair which M. de Sartines did not offer her.

He was vanquished by this look, for M. the Count d’ Alby de Sartines was a remarkably well-bred man.

” Be seated,” said he, sharply.

Lorenza drew a chair forward and sat down.

” Speak quickly,” said the magistrate. ” Come, let me know what you want.”

“Sir ” said Lorenza, “I come to place myself under your protection.”

M. de Sartines looked at her with the sarcastic look peculiar to him.

“Ah, ah !” said he.

“Sir,” continued Lorenza,”! have been carried off from my family, and have, by a false marriage, fallen into the power of a man who for the last three years has oppressed me and made my-life miserable.”

M. de Sartines looked with admiration upon this noble countenance, and felt touched and charmed by this voice, so soft that it seemed like a strain of music.

” From what country do you come ? ” he asked.

“I am a Roman.”

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” What is yonr name ? “

” Lorenza.”

” Loreuza what ? “

“Lorenza Feliciani.”

” I do not know that family. Are you a demoiselle ? “

Demoiselle at this period meant a lady of quality. In our days a lady thinks herself noble enough when she is married, and only wishes thenceforth to be called madame.

” I am a demoiselle,” replied Lorenza.

” Well, what do you demand ? “

” I demand justice against this man who has stolen and incarcerated me.”

” This is no affair of mine,” said the lieutenant of police. ” Are you his wife ? “

” He says so, at least.”

“How says?”

” Yes ; but I do not know anything of it, as the marriage was contracted while I slept.

” Peste ! you sleep soundly.”

” What do you say ?”

‘ ‘ I say that it is not in my province. Apply to a procure’ur and commence an action ; I do not like to meddle in family matters.”

Upon which M. de Sartines waved his hand with a gesture which meant ” Be gone ! ” Lorenza did not move.

“Well ?” asked M. de Sartines, astonished.

” I have not done yet,” said she ; and if I come to you, you must understand that it is not to complain of a trifling matter, but to revenge myself. I have told you that the women of my country revenge themselves, but never complain.”

” That is another affair,” said M. de Sartines ; ” but speak quickly, fair lady, for my time is precious.”

” I told you that I came to you to ask for your protection ; shall I have it ? “

” Protection against whom ? “

“Against the man upon whom I wish to revenge my-self.”

“Is he powerful ?”

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” More powerful than a king.”

” Come, explain, my dear madame. Why should I protect you against a man who is, in your opinion, more powerful than a king, an act which is perhaps a crime ? K you wish to be revenged on this man, revenge yourself. That is nothing to me ; only if you commit a crime, I shall have to arrest you, after which we shall see that is the routine.”

“No, sir,” said Lorenza ; “no, you will not have me arrested, for my vengeance is of the greatest utility to you, to the king, to France. I shall revenge myself by revealing this man’s secrets.”

” Oh, ho ! he has secrets ? ” said M. de Sartines, beginning to feel interested in spite of himself.

” Mighty secrets, sir.”

” Of what kind ? “

“Political ones.”

” Mention them.”

” But in that case, will you protect me ?”

” What sort of protection do you require ? ” said the magistrate with a cold smile, ” gold or affection ?”

” I only ask permission, sir, to retire to a convent and to live there concealed and unknown. I ask that this convent may become my tomb, but that this tomb may never be violated by any one in the world.”