The Man Who Laughs Part 41

Here was the problem. Barkilphedro set himself to solve it. This problem solved, he might go further.

Divers chances served Barkilphedro--his tenacity at the watch above all.

Anne was, on her husband's side, slightly related to the new Queen of Prussia, wife of the king with the hundred chamberlains. She had her portrait painted on enamel, after the process of Turquet of Mayerne.

This Queen of Prussia had also a younger illegitimate sister, the Baroness Drika.

One day, in the presence of Barkilphedro, Anne asked the Russian amba.s.sador some question about this Drika.

"They say she is rich?"

"Very rich."

"She has palaces?"

"More magnificent than those of her sister, the queen."

"Whom will she marry?"

"A great lord, the Count Gormo."

"Pretty?"

"Charming."

"Is she young?"

"Very young."

"As beautiful as the queen?"

The amba.s.sador lowered his voice, and replied,--

"More beautiful."

"That is insolent," murmured Barkilphedro.

The queen was silent; then she exclaimed,--

"Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"

Barkilphedro noticed the plural.

Another time, when the queen was leaving the chapel, Barkilphedro kept pretty close to her Majesty, behind the two grooms of the almonry. Lord David Dirry-Moir, crossing the ranks of women, made a sensation by his handsome appearance. As he pa.s.sed there was an explosion of feminine exclamations.

"How elegant! How gallant! What a n.o.ble air! How handsome!"

"How disagreeable!" grumbled the queen.

Barkilphedro overheard this; it decided him.

He could hurt the d.u.c.h.ess without displeasing the queen. The first problem was solved; but now the second presented itself.

What could he do to harm the d.u.c.h.ess? What means did his wretched appointment offer to attain so difficult an object?

Evidently none.

CHAPTER XII.

SCOTLAND, IRELAND, AND ENGLAND.

Let us note a circ.u.mstance. Josiana had _le tour_.

This is easy to understand when we reflect that she was, although illegitimate, the queen's sister--that is to say, a princely personage.

To have _le tour_--what does it mean?

Viscount St. John, otherwise Bolingbroke, wrote as follows to Thomas Lennard, Earl of Suss.e.x:--

"Two things mark the great--in England, they have _le tour;_ in France, _le pour_."

When the King of France travelled, the courier of the court stopped at the halting-place in the evening, and a.s.signed lodgings to his Majesty's suite.

Amongst the gentlemen some had an immense privilege. "They have _le pour_" says the _Journal Historique_ for the year 1694, page 6; "which means that the courier who marks the billets puts '_pour_' before their names--as, '_Pour_ M. le Prince de Soubise;' instead of which, when he marks the lodging of one who is not royal, he does not put _pour_, but simply the name--as, 'Le Duc de Gesvres, le Duc de Mazarin.'" This _pour_ on a door indicated a prince or a favourite. A favourite is worse than a prince. The king granted _le pour_, like a blue ribbon or a peerage.

_Avoir le tour_ in England was less glorious but more real. It was a sign of intimate communication with the sovereign. Whoever might be, by birth or favour, in a position to receive direct communications from majesty, had in the wall of their bedchamber a shaft in which was adjusted a bell. The bell sounded, the shaft opened, a royal missive appeared on a gold plate or on a cus.h.i.+on of velvet, and the shaft closed. This was intimate and solemn, the mysterious in the familiar.

The shaft was used for no other purpose. The sound of the bell announced a royal message. No one saw who brought it. It was of course merely the page of the king or the queen. Leicester _avait le tour_ under Elizabeth; Buckingham under James I. Josiana had it under Anne, though not much in favour. Never was a privilege more envied.

This privilege entailed additional servility. The recipient was more of a servant. At court that which elevates, degrades. _Avoir le tour_ was said in French; this circ.u.mstance of English etiquette having, probably, been borrowed from some old French folly.

Lady Josiana, a virgin peeress as Elizabeth had been a virgin queen, led--sometimes in the City, and sometimes in the country, according to the season--an almost princely life, and kept nearly a court, at which Lord David was courtier, with many others.

Not being married, Lord David and Lady Josiana could show themselves together in public without exciting ridicule, and they did so frequently. They often went to plays and racecourses in the same carriage, and sat together in the same box. They were chilled by the impending marriage, which was not only permitted to them, but imposed upon them; but they felt an attraction for each other's society. The privacy permitted to the engaged has a frontier easily pa.s.sed. From this they abstained; that which is easy is in bad taste.

The best pugilistic encounters then took place at Lambeth, a parish in which the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury has a palace though the air there is unhealthy, and a rich library open at certain hours to decent people.

One evening in winter there was in a meadow there, the gates of which were locked, a fight, at which Josiana, escorted by Lord David, was present. She had asked,--

"Are women admitted?"

And David had responded,--

"_Sunt faeminae magnates!_"

Liberal translation, "Not shopkeepers." Literal translation, "Great ladies exist. A d.u.c.h.ess goes everywhere!"