The Queen's Necklace by Alexandre Dumas père (best e books to read .TXT) 📕

that she was suffering. But pardon me, doctor, I scarcely know what I an saying." In fact, she seemed on the point of fainting.

The doctor supported her. She rallied by a strong effort. "Doctor," she said, "you know I am nervous in the dark; I lost my way in these intricate passages, and have grown frightened and foolish."

"And why the devil should you be wandering about these dark passages, since you came for nothing?"

"I did not say I came for nothing, only that no one sent me."

"Well, if you have anything to say to me, come away from here, for I am tired of standing."

"Oh, I shall not be ten minutes; can any one hear us?"

"No one."

"Not even your patient in there?"

"Oh, no fear of his hearing anything."

Andree clasped her hands. "Oh, mon Dieu!" she cried, "he is, then, very ill?"

"Indeed he is not well. But tell me quickly what brings you here, for I cannot wait."

"Well, doctor, we have spoken of it; I came to ask after him."

Doctor Louis received this confession with a solemn silence, which Andree took for a reproach.

"You may excuse this step, doctor," she said, "as he was wounded in a duel with my brother."

"Your brother! I was ignorant of that."

"But now that you know it, you understand why I inquire after him."

"Oh, certainly, my child," said the good doctor, enchanted to find an excuse for being indulgent; "I could not know this."

"A duel between two gentlemen is a thing of everyday occurrence, doctor."

"Certainly; the only thing that could make it of importance would be that they have fought about a lady!"

"About a lady!"

"About yourself, for example."

Andree sighed.

"Oh, doctor! they did not fight about me."

"Then," said the doctor, "is it your brother that has sent you for news of M. de Charny?"

"Oh, yes, my brother, doctor."

Dr. Louis looked at her scrutinizingly.

"I will find out the truth," thought he. Then he said, "Well, I will tell you the truth, that your brother may make his arrangements accordingly; you understand."

"No, doctor."

"Why, a duel is never a very agreeable thing to the king, and if it makes a scandal, he often banishes or imprisons the actors; but when death ensues, he is always inflexible. Therefore counsel your brother to hide for a time."

"Then," cried Andree, "M. de Charny is--dangerously ill?"

"My dear young lady, if he is not out of danger by this time to-morrow, if before that time I cannot quell the fever that devours him, M. de Charny is a dead man."

Andree bit her lips till the blood came, and clenched her hands till the nails stuck into the flesh, to stifle the cry that was ready to burst from her. Having conquered herself, she said, "My brother will not fly; he wounded M. de Charny in fair fight, and if he has killed him, he will take his chance."

The doctor was deceived. She did not come on her own account, he thought.

"How does the queen take it?" he asked.

"The queen? I know not. What is it to her?"

"But she likes your brother."

"Well, he is safe; and perhaps she will defend him if he is accused."

"Then, mademoiselle, you have learned what you wished. Let your brother fly, or not, as he pleases; that is your affair. Mine is to do the best to-night for the wounded man; without which, death will infallibly carry him off. Adieu."

Andree fled back to her room, locked herself in, and falling on her knees by the side of her bed, "My God!" cried she, with a torrent of burning tears, "you will not leave this young man to die who has done no wrong, and who is so loved in this world. Oh! save him, that I may see a God of mercy, and not of vengeance." Her strength gave way, and she fell senseless on the floor. When her senses returned to her, her first muttered words were, "I love him! oh, I love him!"


CHAPTER LII.

DELIRIUM.

M. De Charny conquered the fever. The next day the report was favorable. Once out of danger, Doctor Louis ceased to take so much interest in him; and after the lapse of a week, as he had not forgotten all that had passed in his delirium, he wished to have him removed from Versailles: but Charny, at the first hint of this, rebelled, and said angrily, "that his majesty had given him shelter there, and that no one had a right to disturb him."

The doctor, who was not patient with intractable convalescents, ordered four men to come in and move him; but Charny caught hold of his bed with one hand, and struck furiously with the other at every one who approached; and with the effort, the wound reopened, the fever returned, and he began to cry out that the doctor wished to deprive him of the visions that he had in his sleep, but that it was all in vain; for that she who sent them to him was of too high rank to mind the doctor.

Then the doctor, frightened, sent the men away, and dressed the wound again; but as the delirium returned stronger than ever, he determined to go once more to the queen.

Marie Antoinette received him with a smile; she expected to hear that the patient was cured, but on hearing that he was very ill, she cried:

"Why, yesterday you said he was going on so well!"

"It was not true, madame."

"And why did you deceive me? Is there, then, danger?"

"Yes, madame, to himself and others; but the evil is moral, not physical. The wound in itself is nothing; but, madame, M. de Charny is fast becoming a monomaniac, and this I cannot cure. Madame, you will have ruined this young man."

"I, doctor! Am I the cause, if he is mad?"

"If you are not now, you soon will be."

"What must I do, then? Command me, doctor."

"This young man must be cured either with kindness or coercion. The woman whose name he evokes every instant must kill or cure him."

"Doctor, you exaggerate. Can you kill a man with a hard word, or cure a madman with a smile?"

"If your majesty be incredulous, I have only to pay my respects, and take leave."

"No, doctor; tell me what you wish."

"Madame, if you desire to free this palace from his cries, and from scandal, you must act."

"You wish me to come and see him?"

"Yes."

"Then I will call some one--Mademoiselle de Taverney, for example--and you have all ready to receive us. But it is a dreadful responsibility to run the risk of kill or cure, as you say."

"It is what I have to do every day. Come, madame, all is ready."

The queen sighed, and followed the doctor, without waiting for Andree, who was not to be found.

It was eleven o'clock in the morning, and Charny was asleep, after the troubled night he had gone through. The queen, attired in an elegant morning dress, entered the corridor. The doctor advised her to present herself suddenly, determined to produce a crisis, either for good or ill; but at the door they found a woman standing, who had not time to assume her usual unmoved tranquillity, but showed an agitated countenance, and trembled before them.

"Andree!" cried the queen.

"Yes, your majesty; you are here too!"

"I sent for you, but they could not find you."

Andree, anxious to hide her feelings, even at the price of a falsehood, said, "I heard your majesty had asked for me, and came after you."

"How did you know I was here?"

"They said you were gone with Doctor Louis, so I guessed it."

"Well guessed," replied the queen, who was little suspicious, and forgot immediately her first surprise.

She went on, leaving Andree with the doctor.

Andree, seeing her disappear, gave a look full of anger and grief. The doctor said to her:

"Do you think she will succeed?"

"Succeed in what?"

"In getting this poor fellow removed, who will die here."

"Will he live elsewhere?" asked Andree, surprised.

"I believe so."

"Oh, then, may she succeed!"


CHAPTER LIII.

CONVALESCENCE.

The queen walked straight up to where Charny lay, dressed, on a couch. He raised his head, wakened by her entrance.

"The queen!" cried he, trying to rise.

"Yes, sir, the queen," she replied, "who knows how you strive to lose both reason and life; the queen, whom you offend both dreaming and waking; the queen, who cares for your honor and your safety, and therefore comes to you. Is it possible," continued she, "that a gentleman, formerly renowned like you for his loyalty and honor, should become such an enemy as you have been to the reputation of a woman? What will my enemies do, if you set them the example of treason?"

"Treason!" stammered Charny.

"Yes, sir. Either you are a madman, and must be forcibly prevented from doing harm; or you are a traitor, and must be punished."

"Oh, madame, do not call me a traitor! From the mouth of a king, such an accusation would precede death; from the mouth of a woman, it is dishonor. Queen, kill me, or spare me!"

"Are you in your right mind, M. de Charny?" said the queen, in a moved voice.

"Yes, madame."

"Do you remember your wrongs towards me, and towards the king?"

"Mon Dieu!" he murmured.

"For you too easily forget, you gentlemen, that the king is the husband of the woman whom you insult, by raising your eyes to her--that he is the father of your future master, the dauphin; you forget, also, that he is a greater and better man than any of you--a man whom I esteem and love."

"Oh!" murmured Charny, with a groan, and seemed ready to faint.

This cry pierced the queen's heart; she thought he was about to die, and was going to call for assistance; but, after an instant's reflection, she went on: "Let us converse quietly, and be a man. Doctor Louis has vainly tried to cure you; your wound, which was nothing, has been rendered dangerous through your own extravagances. When will you cease to present to the good doctor the spectacle of a scandalous folly which disquiets him? When will you leave the castle?"

"Madame," replied Charny, "your majesty sends me away; I go, I go!" And he rose with a violent effort, as though he would have fled that instant, but, unable to stand, fell almost into the arms of the queen, who had risen to stop him.

She replaced him on the sofa; a bloody foam rose to his lips. "Ah, so much the better!" cried he; "I die, killed by you!" The queen forgot everything but his danger; she supported his drooping head on her shoulders, and pressed her cold hands to his forehead and heart. Her touch seemed to revive him as if by magic--he lived again; then she wished to fly, but he caught hold of her dress, saying:

"Madame, in the name of the respect which I feel for you----"

"Adieu, adieu!" cried the queen.

"Oh, madame, pardon me!"

"I do