We should not be content with a fugitive favor.""You may expect everything from the charms of the comtesse; I am certain they will have the utmost success; but for me, I can give you no guarantee. You must run the chance.""Your protection, however, is the only thing which encourages my sister-in-law in this affair. But tell me when is this meeting to take place?""Instantly. The king is impatient to see the comtesse and I have promised that she will sup with him to-morrow evening in my apartment at Versailles.""How is she to be introduced to the king?""I am to entertain four of my friends."
"Who are they?"
"'First, the baron de Gonesse."
"Who is he?"
"The king himself."
"Well, who next?"
"The duc de Richelieu."
"Who else?"
"The marquis de Chauvelin."
"Well?"
"The duc de la Vauguyon."
"What, the devotee?"
"The hypocrite. But never mind: the main point is, that you must not appear to recognize the king. Instruct your sister-in-law to this effect.""Certainly; if she must sin, she had better do so with some reason."While these gentlemen were thus disposing of me, what was Idoing? Alone, in my room, I waited the result of their conference with mortal impatience. The character I had to play was a superb one, and at the moment was about to enter on the stage, I felt all the difficulties of my part. I feared I should not succeed, but fail amid the insulting hisses of the Versailles party.
My fears at once disappeared, and then I pictured myself sitting on a throne, magnificently attired; my imagination wandered in all the enchantments of greatness; --then, as if from remorse, Irecalled my past life. The former lover of Nicholas blushed before the future mistress of Louis XV. A thousand different reflections crowded upon me, and mingled in my brain. If to live is to think, I lived a whole age in one quarter of an hour. At length I heard some doors open, a carriage rolled away, and comte Jean entered my chamber.
"Victory!" cried he, embracing me with transport. "Victory! my dear Jeanne, to-morrow you sup with the king."On this information I turned pale, my strength forsook me, and Iwas compelled to sit down, or rather to fall into a chair; for, according to Jean Jacques Rousseau, my legs shook under me (). This, however, was the only movement of weakness which I betrayed. When I recovered a little, the comte Jean told me the conversation he had had with Lebel. I joked about the title of baron de Gonesse, and I promised to treat the king as if ignorant of his incognito. One thing only made me uneasy, and that was supping with the duc de Richelieu, who had seen me before at madame de Lagarde's; but the idea that he would not remember me gave me renewed courage.
On so important an occasion, comte Jean did not forget to repeat his instructions over again. These are nearly his words, for Ithink I learnt them by heart.
"Remember that it is on your first interview that your safety depends. Let him learn, through you, those utter tendernesses which have been sought for him in vain heretofore. He is like the monarch of old, who was willing to pay the half of his crown for an unknown pleasure. Lebel is wearied in seeking every week for new fruit. He is quite disposed to serve you, and will second you in the best manner. You are about to become the centre of attraction to all courtiers, and noble . You must expect that they will endeavor to cry you down, because you will have carried off from them a gem to which every family has its pretensions. You must at first stand firmly before the storm, but afterward you will find all enlist themselves under your banner, who have no wife, sister, nor daughter; that is, all who have no mistress to offer to the king. You must attach these to you by place and favor: they must be first thought of, and then you must think of yourself and me, my dear girl.""All this is well enough," I replied, "but as yet I am nothing.""! to-morrow you will be everything," cried comte Jean, with his determined energy. "But we must think about this morrow. Make haste, noble comtesse; go to all the milliners, seek what is elegant rather than what is rich. Be as lovely, pleasing, and gay as possible; this is the main point, and God will do all the rest."He pronounced this blasphemy in a laughing tone, and I confess Icould not help joining in the laugh, and then hastened to comply with his directions.
