 | The Duchess de la Vallière |  |
SCENE III.
The King's Cabinet at Fontainebleau; the King seated at a table, covered with papers, &c., writing.Enter Lauzun.
LOUIS.
Lauzun, I sent for you. Your zeal has served me,
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The lands and lordship of De Vesci.
LAUZUN.
Sire,
How shall I thank your goodness?
LOUIS.
Hush!—by silence!
LAUZUN
(aside.)
A king's forbidden fruit has pretty windfalls!
LOUIS.
This beautiful Louise! I never loved
Till now.
LAUZUN.
She yields not yet?
LOUIS.
But gives refusal
A voice that puts ev'n passion to the blush
To own one wish so soft a heart denies it!
LAUZUN.
A woman's No! is but a crooked path
Unto a woman's Yes! Your Majesty
Saw her to-day?
LOUIS.
No!—Grammont undertakes
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That pray a meeting.—I await his news.
(Continues writing.)
LAUZUN
(aside.)
I'll not relate my tilt with Bragelone.
First, I came off the worst.—No man of sense
Ever confesses that! And, secondly,
This most officious, curious, hot-brained Quixote
Might make him jealous; jealous kings are peevish;
And, if he fall to questioning the lady,
She'll learn who told the tale, and spite the teller.
Oh! the great use of logic!
LOUIS.
'Tis in vain
I strive by business to beguile impatience!
How my heart beats!—Well, Count!
Enter Grammont.
GRAMMONT.
Alas! my Liege!
LOUIS.
Alas!—Speak out!
GRAMMONT.
The court has lost La Vallière!
LOUIS.
Ha!—lost!
GRAMMONT.
She has fled, and none guess whither.
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Fled!
I'll not believe it!—Fled!
LAUZUN.
What matters, Sire?
No spot is sacred from the king!
LOUIS.
By Heaven
I am a king!—Not all the arms of Europe
Could wrest one jewel from my crown. And she—
What is my crown to her? I am a king!
Who stands between the king and her he loves
Becomes a traitor—and may find a tyrant!
Follow me!
[Exit Louis.
GRAMMONT.
Who e'er heard of maids of honour
Flying from kings?
LAUZUN.
Ah, had you been a maid,
How kind you would have been, you rogue!—Come on!
[Exeunt Lauzun and Grammont.
To some it may be interesting to remember that this cabinet, in which the most powerful of the Bourbon kings is represented as rewarding the minister of his pleasures, is the same as that in which is yet shewn the table upon which Napoleon Bonaparte (son of a gentleman of Corsica) signed the abdication of the titles and the dominions of Charlemagne!
| The Duchess de la Vallière | |