The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [115]
The aldermen, dressed in their woolen robes and preceded by six sergeants, each carrying a torch, went to meet the king, whom they came to on the steps, where the merchants’ provost made him a speech of welcome, to which His Majesty responded by apologizing for being so late, placing the blame on M. le cardinal, who had kept him till eleven o’clock discussing affairs of state.
His Majesty, in ceremonial dress, was accompanied by His Royal Highness Monsieur, by the comte de Soissons, the Grand Prieur, the duc de Longueville, the duc d’Elbeuf, the comte d’Harcourt, the comte de La Roche-Guyon, M. de Liancourt, M. de Baradaqs, the comte de Cramail, and the chevalier de Souveray.93
Everyone noticed that the king looked sad and preoccupied.
A dressing room had been prepared for the king and another for Monsieur. In each of these dressing rooms the costumes for various masques had been placed. The same had been done for the queen and for Mme la Présidente. The lords and ladies of Their Majesties’ suite had to dress two by two in rooms prepared for that purpose.
Before going to his dressing room, the king gave instructions that he be informed the moment the cardinal appeared.
Half an hour after the king’s entrance, new acclamations rang out: these announced the arrival of the queen. The aldermen did as they had done before, and, preceded by sergeants, went to meet their illustrious guest.
The queen came into the hall: it was noticed that, like the king, she looked sad and, above all, weary.
The moment she came in, the curtains of a small rostrum, which until then had remained closed, opened, and the pale head of the cardinal appeared. He was dressed as a Spanish cavalier. His eyes fastened themselves on the eyes of the queen, and a smile of terrible joy passed over his lips: the queen was not wearing her diamond pendants.
The queen stayed for some time to receive the compliments of the city fathers and answer the greetings of the ladies.
All at once the king appeared with the cardinal in one of the doors to the hall. The cardinal was speaking softly to him, and the king was very pale.
The king cut through the crowd and, without a mask, the ribbons of his doublet barely tied, approached the queen and said to her in an altered voice:
“Madame, if you please, why are you not wearing your diamond pendants, when you know it would have given me pleasure to see them?”
The queen looked around her and saw the cardinal standing behind the king, smiling a diabolical smile.
“Sire,” the queen replied in an altered voice, “because in the midst of this great crowd I feared they might come to harm.”
“But there you were wrong, Madame! If I made you a gift of them, it was so that you could adorn yourself with them. I tell you, you were wrong.”
“Sire,” said the queen, “I can send for them to the Louvre, where they are, and thus Your Majesty’s desires will be fulfilled.”
“Do so, Madame, do so, and that at once, for in an hour the ball will begin.”
The queen bowed as a sign of submission and followed the ladies who were to lead her to her dressing room.
The king, for his part, went back to his own.
There was a moment of disorder and confusion in the hall.
Everyone had been able to notice that something had gone on between the king and the queen, but they had both spoken so softly that the people around them, who had moved back a few steps out of respect, had heard nothing. The violins were playing with all their might, but no one listened to them.
The king came out of his dressing room first: he was in the most elegant of hunting costumes, and Monsieur and the other lords were dressed like him. It was the costume that looked best on the king, and, dressed thus, he truly looked like the foremost gentleman of his kingdom.
The cardinal went up to the king and handed him a box. The king opened it and found there two diamond pendants.