Page:Peterson Magazine 1869B.pdf/133

 136 MARIE ANTOINETTE'S TALISMAN.

was slender, elegant, and bright; but there was something in the curve of the mouth, and a depth of expression about the eyes, which belied the boyish air and foppish costume so completely, that the governor arose to receive him with unconscious humility.

“This letter,”, said the page, “will inform you of my business; after that let me pray that we converse alone.”

“Christopher, you may go,” said the governor, filling another glass of wine, and holding it toward his visitor with one hand while he replenished his own glass with the other. “Now, sir, sit down while I read this. missive.’”

The page accepted the wine, and drank it off, for he felt the need of it after a long and weari- some ride of hours. While the slow color was coming back to his face, the governor was earnestly perusing the letter. It evidently gave him some disturbance as he read, for a flush of hotter red than the Rhenish wine could give rose into his face, while his eyes grew large and opened wide with astonishment

“From her,” he muttered, uneasily. “Why it is years and years since I have seen her name. How came she at Versailles?) Must talk freely with her messenger! As if I wanted anything to do with him or her either! Why it might cost me dear with his majesty, and set the rabble to hunting me down like a dog! Danger! Humph! Humph!” All this was muttered incoherently by the astonished governor, while the page sat keenly regarding him, ¢atching up here and there a disjointed word, which made his eyes sparkle and his lips curve scornfully “Well,” said the governor, crushing the letter slowly in his hand, where he rolled it indolently between his thumb.and finger, ‘“‘you come to me from Madame Du Barry—a beautiful woman in her time, and in some sort a friend of mine.” “In some sort?” repeated the page, alnsost with a sneer, “I thought from what ame said, that she had been a most earnest and all- powerful friend to you in times when her friend- ship was a fortune, and her enmity ruin.” “Did she say that? Very natural. The importance of objects magnifies as they recede. It is many years since I knew the madame; and in those years she has ceased to be powerful, either in love or hate. Even her beauty, they tell me, is all gone—and in that lay the power she makes such boast of. Still I have a tender temembrance of the madame, who had a kind of loveliness that was almost distracting. At one time I almost adored her; and as for the lady——_ Well, it would not be quite proper to

My own safety!

state how much of her boasted kindness sprang from g more tender sentiment than she would have liked to acknowledge before the king; but I have my memories.” Here the young man sprang to his feet, clenched: one white hand under its frills of delicate lace, advanced a step, as if to dash it in that flushed face, and let it fall again with a sharp, unnatural laugh. “Another glass of wine,” he said, unclinching the hand; ‘these reminiscences are so pleasant they amuse me!” The governor lifted the bottle near him, and dashed a flood of the amber liquid over the white hand which held the glass, for his own was rendered a little unsteady by the sudden action of the page.

The young man tossed. off the wine with a laugh that rang mockingly through the rem.

“Well,” he said, “as you and the Du Barry were such intimate friends, we can talk with the more freedom, oth you and thé lady are just now in imminent peril.”

“Peril! How?”

“Both with the king, which is not so threatening, but with the people, who are getting dangerous.”

“As how? Speak me This is the second time to-day I have been Warned of the people's hate, But the king—in what way have I offenied him?”

“In nothing that I know of. But occasions arise in which our best friends act, uacon- sciously, with our worst enemies. The king, in his goodness, works hand-in-hand with the people, who hate him and us.”

‘In what way?” inquired the governor, now deeply interested. “Why should his majesty do aught to imperil an old and faithful officer like me? That he should hold some malice against Du Barry is not remarkable. She was impudent enough, while he was Dauphin to account for,any ill-feeling he may have toward her now; but with me, who have always been a favorite, the thing is impossible.”

The page still kept on his feet and walked up and down the room, forgetting all forms of politeness in his excitement. He paused at last, and flashed a glance of brilliant scorn upon the governor.

“There is no such thing as impossibilities where the selfishness or ingratitude of men are concerned,” he said. ‘The idol of the. people today is not sure of his position for a week.”

“Of the people? .Yes. But I claim nothing of them: my strength lies in the king.”

The page gave his antagonist—for such these