Виктория Холт - The Road to Compiegne

‘It will be more restful to get right into bed,’ said Madame du Hausset. ‘Is there anything you would like? Milk?’

The Marquise shook her head.

‘If you try a little it would help to strengthen you.’

‘Oh Hausset, Hausset, I am so tired,’ said the Marquise.

‘Yes . . . but you may rest now. Why do you not spend the remainder of the day in your bed? Are you not allowed to be a little indisposed sometimes?’

‘He would miss me so. You know I never stay away from him longer than I can help.’

‘That was all very well once. Now you need your rest.’

The Marquise began to cough, and lights of alarm sprang up in Madame du Hausset’s eyes.

The cough subsided and the Marquise said: ‘I must tell the Duc de Choiseul never again to mention the Estates-General in the presence of the King. It upsets him. It makes him angry. He should not do it.’

‘Well, that is his trouble, Madame. Not yours.’

‘I would wish to see them friendly.’

‘Come, rest while you may, dear Madame.’

The Marquise smiled, and as she did so the blood gushed from her mouth.

It was no use. She could not rise now. Even though she had arranged to be with the King that day, she must stay in bed, because she had not the strength to rise. There had never before been a haemorrhage such as this, and the time had come when it would be useless to attempt to hide the state of her health from the Court.

Madame du Hausset had changed the sheets, had put her into a clean bedgown, and had herself taken the news to the King.

The Marquise had insisted on knowing how he received it.

‘I am afraid I wept, Madame,’ said Madame du Hausset. ‘I could not help it. And, Madame, he wept with me.’

‘Hausset, what do you know of this disease?’

‘Only what I have seen with you, Madame.’

‘These coughs, these headaches, these fevers and night sweats . . . how long before they put an end to my life, Hausset?’

‘You, Madame . . . talk of death! You who are so full of life. The beloved of the King. The First Minister of France. It is not for such as you to talk of death.’

‘I fancy I feel death close to me, Hausset. And I am not unhappy. If I died now I should die the King’s very good friend. I would rather die now than be sent from him as once I feared to be. You remember, at the time of the Damiens affair when I thought that I should be dismissed, I was more unhappy than I am now. Dismissal from life cannot bring me such misery as dismissal from Court would have done.’

‘Madame, you talk too much. Preserve your strength, I implore you.’

She shook her head. ‘Now, Hausset, I am going to do as I wish. It is as though a great burden has been taken from my shoulders. No more need to pretend. I am a sick woman. I am a dying woman. But I am no longer a woman with a secret.’

‘There is someone at the door.’

‘Go and see who it is, Hausset.’

Madame du Hausset came back to the bed almost at once and said: ‘It is the Duchesse de Gramont. She has heard of your indisposition and comes to cheer you. I will tell her that you are too ill to see her.’

‘No, Hausset, bring her to me. I feel rested, lying here. But if I should cough, you must send her away . . . quickly . . . you understand?’

‘Yes, Madame.’

The Duchesse de Gramont came to the bed and threw herself to her knees.

‘My dearest friend . . .’ she said and there was a sob in her throat.

The Marquise did not question its sincerity. This woman was the sister of the Duc de Choiseul whom she trusted completely.

‘You will soon be well,’ she said. ‘You must be well. How can the King be happy . . . how can France be happy without you!’

The Marquise smiled. ‘The King would grieve for me, I believe,’ she said. ‘France, never.’

‘But you will be with us – your gay self – very soon, I’ll swear.’

‘Indeed I shall,’ said the Marquise.

How ill she looks! thought the Duchesse. She cannot live long. She must be near the end. That is blood at the side of her mouth. She is dying, and she knows it.

‘We will give a ball to celebrate your recovery,’ said the Duchesse.

‘It shall be a masque,’ said the Marquise. ‘I remember a masque at Versailles which was a very special occasion for me. I was a huntress . . .’

All will be changed when she has gone, thought the Duchesse. The King will seek consolation. And my brilliant brother and I will be there . . . his greatest friends. The Queen is seven years older than the King. Surely she cannot live long. A great future awaits us. Many women will now seek to become the King’s mistress. But therein lies the difference between the Choiseuls and ordinary men and women. These creatures of the Court plan to be the King’s mistress; I, and Etienne with me, plan that I shall be his wife.

Madame du Hausset came to the bedside. ‘His Majesty has sent word that he is on his way to visit you,’ she announced.

A radiant smile touched the face of the Marquise and she looked almost young again.

‘You had better go, my dear,’ she said to the Duchesse. ‘He will not wish anyone else to be here.’

The Duchesse bent over the bed and kissed the hot brow. She longed to stay; she wanted to see how the King behaved with this woman now. But the Marquise had conveyed her wish that she should leave, and the wishes of the Marquise were regarded as a command.

One day . . . soon . . . thought the Duchesse, I shall be the one to issue commands.

Louis took her hand and looked anxiously into her face.

‘It grieves me,’ she said, ‘that you should see me thus. I am very ill, Louis.’

‘So at last you admit it.’

‘You have known?’

He nodded. ‘And suffered great anxiety.’

‘Yet you never spoke of my illness.’

‘Because I knew that it was your wish that I should not.’

Her eyes filled with tears. They brimmed over on to her cheeks. ‘Forgive me,’ she said. ‘I am so weak now. It is not easy to control my tears. My dearest, I would have you know that the greatest happiness in my life has come from you.’

He kissed the hand he still held. ‘As mine has from you.’ He was brisk suddenly as though he were afraid of this emotion between them. ‘I shall send my physicians to you. They will cure you.’

‘I have Quesnay,’ she said. ‘I could not have a better. He loves me. Love is the best doctor.’

‘Then,’ said the King, his voice trembling with emotion, ‘I should be your doctor, for none could give you more love than I.’

‘You have done me so much good. I feel better already. I will leave my bed. Perhaps, if Your Majesty invites me, I shall sup with you tonight.’

‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘You shall stay in bed.’

‘Dearest . . .’

‘It is a command,’ he said, trying to smile. ‘I shall visit you frequently. I shall stay here at Choisy that I may do so.’

She was deeply moved.

He sat by the bed for a long time; they did not speak, and neither noticed the silence. They were both recalling those days when he had hunted in the Forest of Sénart, and she had ridden by in her dainty carriages painted in those delicate colours which she made fashionable.

They were thinking of the ball at which he had recognised the fair huntress as the lady of the Forest of Sénart; on that night he had decided that they would be lovers.

That had happened twenty years ago. Twenty years of faithful devotion! It was the more remarkable that only for five of those years had she actually been his mistress.

The rest, which accompanied the sudden freedom from responsibilities, had a marked effect on the Marquise. Madame du Hausset hovered about her delightedly, watching her take a little milk.