University of Virginia Library

SCENE IV.

An Ante-chamber in the Palace of Fontainebleau.
Enter Lauzun and Grammont, at opposite doors.
LAUZUN.
Ah, Count, good day!—Were you at court last night?

GRAMMONT.
Yes; and the court is grown the richer by
A young new beauty.

LAUZUN.
So!—her name?

GRAMMONT.
La Vallière!

LAUZUN.
Ay, I have heard;—a maid of honour?

GRAMMONT.
Yes.
The women say she's plain.

LAUZUN.
The women! oh,
The case it is that's plain—she must be lovely!

GRAMMONT.
The dear, kind, gossips of the court, declare
The pretty novice hath conceived a fancy—
A wild, romantic, innocent, strange fancy—
For our young King; a girlish love, like that
Told of in fairy tales: she saw his picture,
Sighed to the canvas, murmured to the colours,
And—fell in love with carmine and gambouge.

LAUZUN.
The simple dreamer! Well, she saw the king?

GRAMMONT.
And while she saw him, like a rose, when May
Breathes o'er its bending bloom, she seemed to shrink
Into her modest self, and a low sigh
Shook blushes (sweetest rose-leaves!) from her beauty.

LAUZUN.
You paint it well.

GRAMMONT.
And ever since that hour
She bears the smiling malice of her comrades
With an unconscious and an easy sweetness;
As if alike her virtue and his greatness
Made love impossible:—so, down the stream
Of purest thought, her heart glides on to danger.

LAUZUN.
Did Louis note her?—Has he heard the gossip?

GRAMMONT.
Neither, methinks: his Majesty is cold.
The art of pomp, and not the art of love,
Tutors his skill—Augustus more than Ovid.

LAUZUN.
The time will come! The King as yet is young,
Flush'd with the novelty of sway, and fired
With the great dream of cutting Dutchmen's throats:
A tiresome dream—the poets call it ‘Glory.’

GRAMMONT.
So much the better,—'tis one rival less;
The handsome King would prove a dangerous suitor.

LAUZUN.
Oh, hang the danger!—He must have a mistress;
'Tis an essential to a court: how many
Favours, one scarcely likes to ask a King,
One flatters from a King's inamorata!
We courtiers fatten on the royal vices;
And, while the King lives chaste, he cheats, he robs me
Of ninety-nine per cent!

GRAMMONT.
Ha, ha!—Well, Duke,
We meet again to-night. You join the revels?
Till then, adieu!

LAUZUN.
Adieu, dear Count!
[Exit Grammont.
The King
Must have a mistress: I must lead that mistress.
The times are changed!—'twas by the sword and spear
Our fathers bought ambition—vulgar butchers!
But now our wit's our spear—intrigue our armour;
The ante-chamber is our field of battle;
And the best hero is—the cleverest rogue!
[Exit Lauzun.