Beauvouloir rushed to the platform, took the young man in his arms, and carried him away, saying to his master, "You have killed him by not preparing him for this ceremony.""He can never have a child if he is like that!" cried the duke, following Beauvouloir into the seignorial chamber, where the doctor laid the young heir upon the bed.
"Well, what think you?" asked the duke presently.
"It is not serious," replied the old physician, showing Etienne, who was now revived by a cordial, a few drops of which he had given him on a bit of sugar, a new and precious substance which the apothecaries were selling for its weight in gold.
"Take this, old rascal!" said the duke, offering his purse to Beauvouloir, "and treat him like the son of a king! If he dies by your fault, I'll burn you myself on a gridiron.""If you continue to be so violent, the Duc de Nivron will die by your own act," said the doctor, roughly. "Leave him now; he will go to sleep.""Good-night, my love," said the old man, kissing his son upon the forehead.
"Good-night, father," replied the youth, whose voice made the father--thus named by Etienne for the first time--quiver.
The duke took Beauvouloir by the arm and led him to the next room, where, having pushed him into the recess of a window, he said:--"Ah ca! old rascal, now we will understand each other."That term, a favorite sign of graciousness with the duke, made the doctor, no longer a mere bonesetter, smile.
"You know," said the duke, continuing, "that I wish you no harm. You have twice delivered my poor Jeanne, you cured my son Maximilien of an illness, in short, you are a part of my household. Poor Maximilien! Iwill avenge him; I take upon myself to kill the man who killed him.
The whole future of the house of Herouville is now in your hands. You alone can know if there is in that poor abortion the stuff that can breed a Herouville. You hear me. What think you?""His life on the seashore has been so chaste and so pure that nature is sounder in him than it would have been had he lived in your world.
But so delicate a body is the very humble servant of the soul.
Monseigneur Etienne must himself choose his wife; all things in him must be the work of nature and not of your will. He will love artlessly, and will accomplish by his heart's desire that which you wish him to do for the sake of your name. But if you give your son a proud, ungainly woman of the world, a great lady, he will flee to his rocks. More than that; though sudden terror would surely kill him, Ibelieve that any sudden emotion would be equally fatal. My advice therefore is to leave Etienne to choose for himself, at his own pleasure, the path of love. Listen to me, monseigneur; you are a great and powerful prince, but you understand nothing of such matters. Give me your entire confidence, your unlimited confidence, and you shall have a grandson.""If I obtain a grandson by any sorcery whatever, I shall have you ennobled. Yes, difficult as it may be, I'll make an old rascal into a man of honor; you shall be Baron de Forcalier. Employ your magic, white or black, appeal to your witches' sabbath or the novenas of the Church; what care I how 'tis done, provided my line male continues?""I know," said Beauvouloir, "a whole chapter of sorcerers capable of destroying your hopes; they are none other than YOURSELF, monseigneur.
I know you. To-day you want male lineage at any price; to-morrow you will seek to have it on your own conditions; you will torment your son.""God preserve me from it!"
"Well, then, go away from here; go to court, where the death of the marechal and the emancipation of the king must have turned everything topsy turvy, and where you certainly have business, if only to obtain the marshal's baton which was promised to you. Leave Monseigneur Etienne to me. But give me your word of honor as a gentleman to approve whatever I may do for him."The duke struck his hand into that of his physician as a sign of complete acceptance, and retired to his own apartments.
When the days of a high and mighty seigneur are numbered, the physician becomes a personage of importance in the household. It is, therefore, not surprising to see a former bonesetter so familiar with the Duc d'Herouville. Apart from the illegitimate ties which connected him, by marriage, to this great family and certainly militated in his favor, his sound good sense had so often been proved by the duke that the old man had now become his master's most valued counsellor.
Beauvouloir was the Coyctier of this Louis XI. Nevertheless, and no matter how valuable his knowledge might be, he never obtained over the government of Normandy, in whom was the ferocity of religious warfare, as much influence as feudality exercised over that rugged nature. For this reason the physician was confident that the prejudices of the noble would thwart the desires and the vows of the father.
