Виктория Холт - The Road to Compiegne

That which she had always feared had happened. He loved someone else, really loved her, not because she had been forced upon him, not because she had determined to do her duty, but simply because she so charmed him that there was no help for it.

The Dauphin was in turn melancholy and truculent.

Sometimes he was so tender, calling her his dear little Marie-Josèphe, recalling the time when she had braved death or disfigurement to nurse him through a dangerous illness. Then she had to leave him as quickly as possible, for she feared she would burst into tears and implore him to give up this woman.

At other times he would strut about her apartment, almost as though it was no concern of his that she suffered, rather indeed that he thought her a fool to suffer, not to understand that every man must have his mistress.

Her women shook their heads philosophically. The Dauphin had been faithful so far, and that had been quite remarkable. How many women did she know with husbands who in the course of many years took only one mistress! they implied.

One is as hard to bear as ten would have been, she thought; perhaps harder. If he had been as his father, I should have become accustomed to his infidelities.

The Queen, realising what was happening, took to spending more time with her daughter-in-law.

She herself remembered too well those days when she had first discovered the King’s infatuation for Madame de Mailly.

Poor little Marie-Josèphe suffered even as Marie Leczinska had done.

The Queen would dismiss her women when her daughter-in-law came to her; she would make the Dauphine sit at her feet and lean her head against her lap while she stroked the young woman’s hair.

‘Weep if you wish, my daughter,’ said the Queen to her one day. ‘There is no one to see you but myself. It is good to weep sometimes. It cleanses the mind of bitterness.’

So the Dauphine sobbed until she was exhausted; then she sat quietly at the feet of the Queen.

‘It will pass,’ said Marie Leczinska. ‘It always passes.’

‘I did not think it would ever happen . . . to us. We were different.’

‘We are all different, or so we think until we make the discovery that we are all alike. You are as I was, my daughter. The Dauphin is as his father.’

‘With the King there are so many.’

‘In his youth he might have been called a faithful man. It was only later that there began to be so many.’

‘You mean that my Louis will be . . .’

‘Who knows, child? It is well to be prepared for any eventuality.’

‘I think I should die.’

‘You would live, as I have lived.’

‘You Majesty gives me great comfort.’

‘Perhaps you comfort me. My grief was so like yours. But weep no more, for it is useless to weep. Queens . . . Dauphines . . . they learn to accept what is thrust on them, you know.’

‘I know, Your Majesty.’

‘When he comes to you, you must give no sign of resentment. You will remain his friend, and if you are wise, you need not lose his affection.’

‘You do not understand,’ cried the Dauphine vehemently. ‘It was once a perfect thing, and now it is . . . besmirched.’

‘But give no sign of your resentment, my child. Take my advice. Had I been a wiser woman I might have been a happier one. I will show you something. This day I had a letter from the King. All our communications are by letter. He no longer cares to converse with me.’ The Queen’s voice trembled slightly. ‘But this letter . . . shall I tell you what it contains? It is a request from the King that I make a certain lady one of my dames du palais.’

‘And this lady is?’

‘Madame de Pompadour of course. You see it is not enough that he honours her on every occasion; I also must do so.’

Marie-Josèphe had sprung to her feet. ‘I would not do it. If he were to bring that woman to me . . .’

‘Let me tell you how I answered this request, my child.’

‘Yes, Your Majesty.’

‘I wrote to my husband that I had a King in Heaven from whom I drew strength to endure my burdens, and that I had a King on earth to whom I should always offer obedience.’

The Dauphine clenched her fists and cried: ‘You do not love him as I love the Dauphin.’

‘My dear child, calm yourself,’ answered the Queen. ‘In time you will learn forbearance . . . even as I have. You will understand that women like us are born to endure without complaint.’

Then the Dauphine fell to her knees and in silence buried her face in the Queen’s lap.

Marie Leczinska smiled sadly as she laid her hand tenderly on the head of her daughter-in-law.

* * *

The people were bewildered. The French at war, and the Austrians were their allies! Such a reversal of policy could not easily be understood, for the Austrians had been their enemies for a long time and they did not trust them.

France was committed to a war in their colonies and war in Europe, and wars meant taxation. They did not want war; they wanted bread.

Moreover Madame de Pompadour had been made a dame du palais in the Queen’s household and was parading her piety before the world. They did not trust Madame de Pompadour; they did not respect the King.

Madame de Pompadour was the First Minister of France, it was said; and France was now engaged in a bitter struggle on two fronts.

Depend upon it, said the people of Paris, this is a sad day for France.

The King found great solace during these days of stress in being able to slip from the Palace into the little house which had become known as the Parc aux Cerfs, where one, two or even three little charmers would eagerly be waiting for his arrival.

It was pleasant to enter that little house as a petty nobleman, and call Louise . . . Jeanne . . . or whatever the name of the favourite of the moment might be, and then hear the light running footsteps, to see a charming child – none of them was much more – running to greet him and fling herself into his arms in an access of joy.

It had been a brilliant inspiration to select these young girls from the poorer quarters of Paris. It ensured their gratitude. Le Bel was a connoisseur; he spent a great deal of time prowling about the streets of Paris, selecting likely candidates for a term in the little house.

Already the good fortune of some of its inmates had become known, and mothers were asking each other how their daughters could be received into this establishment which ensured them not only meals which were more than adequate, fine clothes, a life of luxury for as long as they were considered to deserve it, but finally a handsome present and possibly a good marriage.

Le Bel seemed to have no difficulty in keeping up the supply, for there were rarely more than three girls living at the Parc aux Cerfs at one time. There was not really sufficient room for more, and the King had no wish that the place should resemble a harem. Three was a pleasant number and, since the girls could be dismissed when they began to pall, there could not have been a more satisfactory arrangement. There was one very charming child in residence, and the King was spending a great deal of time with her. He had given her a name of his own – Louison; he was addicted to nicknames, and, as his little friends did not know who he was, he liked them to preserve their anonymity.

Louison had bright intelligent eyes; she was observant – a characteristic which might not have been so appealing had it not been accompanied by such a charming appearance. She could be as passionate as he could wish and sometimes she seemed like a child; she would sit on his knee and examine his clothes. They were very fine, she said; she knew because it had been a custom of hers to go to the Place de Grève on Mondays when the sale of second-hand clothes was being carried on.

She would take the cloth between her fingers and feel it, her head on one side.

‘It must have cost a great deal,’ she would say. ‘It is a fine piece of cloth. My lord, you must be a very rich man indeed.’

But that was obvious. Only a rich man could afford to keep an establishment such as the Parc aux Cerfs.

One day the King arrived wearing the order of the cordon bleu – which was immediately noticed by Louison.

She did not mention it however, because she knew that her patron could grow impatient of too many questions, and when he was a little irritated, although he rarely showed it, he might send for one of the other girls either to share his company or to monopolise it completely, and so result in Louison’s being dismissed.

That was something which Louison found very hard to bear. She was engrossed in her new life; she found the Parc aux Cerfs luxurious in the extreme, but she could only be completely happy when the owner of the establishment called and she was with him, for she had fallen passionately in love with him.

She had never dreamed there could be such a person. He bore his years with grace, and if he lacked the freshness of youth he well made up for that by his tender and courteous manners. Never had Louison heard such a musical voice; never had she seen any person move with such grace. His habit of taking her hand and kissing it when they met made her aware that she had stepped into a world far from the crudity of the faubourgs.

Here were all the trappings of romance. The spiriting away from a garret to what seemed like a miniature palace; after having slept on a sack to sleep on a bed which was shaped like a sea-shell and trimmed with pale pink satin; to wear beautiful clothes; to have jewels; to have food and wine and learn the accomplishments of a lady; but chiefly to be loved by a man who was surely too gallant, too charming to belong to this world. Being more imaginative than her companions, Louison often wondered whether she had died and gone to Paradise.