Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 11.pdf/98

 An Unfortunate French Lawyer. of their prison, was led to think that His Majesty was being kept in confinement. On his mentioning this fact to Spifame, the latter observed, with a knowing look, that his ministers were playing a very deep game, but he had fathomed their schemes, and when his trusty chancellor, Raoul Spi fame returned, the king would undoubtedly be set free from bondage. This release, however, did not come about, and, growing impatient, the two began to issue proclama tions and edicts commanding the people to rise and set free their monarch from the captivity in which he was held by perfidious councillors. These documents they rolled up, weighted with small stones, and threw out between the bars of their window, where, unfortunately, most of them were lost by falling into a pig-stye. Finding that these manifestoes had no effect in rousing the populace, Vignet con ceived the idea that the fault was their being in manuscript. To mend this, he set to work and carved out twenty-five rude wooden letters, and with ink compounded of oil and lampblack, he laboriously printed succeed ing edicts letter by letter. These docu ments met a better fate than their written predecessors, for many of them got abroad, and they have from time to time been re printed. Among the most curious of them was the one which declared that King Henry the Second, in council, having heard the pitiful complaints of his good subjects against the perfidies and injustices of Paul and Jean Spifame, brothers of the faithful subject of that name, condemned them to be tortured, flayed and boiled; and the un grateful daughter of Raoul Spifame to be publicly whipped and pilloried and there after shut up in a nunnery. All the edicts were issued in the name of the king, and most of them treated of justice, war, finance, and other broad affairs of the kingdom. Time passed, and, to the astonishment of the two, no steps were taken by the Paris ians to free their imprisoned monarch. At

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length they resolved upon another course. They set to work composing lampoons and incendiary proclamations, and of these they struck off a large number of copies, which they carefully concealed. Early one morn ing, while their keepers were yet sleeping, they managed to unfasten the bars of their window and make their escape. Once free from the precincts of the mad-house, they took no further precaution of concealment. It was only necessary, they thought, for the citizens to recognize their royal master to fly to his side and defend him with their lives. As they traveled along, Spifame confided to his companion a secret. He was jealous. He feared that his beautiful mistress, Diana of Poitiers, had transferred her affections to another, as he had heard or seen nothing of her for weeks. It was his intention to go to her residence without delay. Walking along at a lively pace, they came to the square near the Church of the Inno cents. It was market-day, and the place was crowded with bustling humanity. Tak ing this stir for excitement consequent upon his arrival in their midst, Spifame could not conceal his satisfaction. Suddenly, how ever, his face became clouded with anger. "Look! " he cried to his companion. "Do you not see that pillory, retained in spite of my ordinances? Sir, the pillory is abolished, and I shall make a clean sweep of the city officials. Ho! good people of Paris," he shouted, "come hither and listen!" "Hear the king, who himself desires to speak with you! " added Vignet, at the top of his voice. There was a large stone near by, and the two leaped upon it, while the people crowded round, thinking it was a fakir who had some thing to amuse them. Spifame pulled off his hat, and, throwing back his mantle, dis played a sparkling collar of orders, an affair of glass and tinsel which his keepers had allowed him to retain.