CHAPTER XV.

Monsieur le Duc d’Orleans Wishes to be Governor of a Province.—­The King’s Reply.—­He Requires a Fauteuil for His Wife.—­Another Excellent Answer of the King’s.

In marrying Monsieur, the King consulted only his well-known generosity, and the richly equipped household which he granted to this prince should assuredly have made him satisfied and content.  The Chevalier de Lorraine and the Chevalier de Remecourt, two pleasant and baneful vampires whom Monsieur could refuse nothing, put it into his head that he should make himself feared, so as to lead his Majesty on to greater concessions, which they were perfectly able to turn to their own enjoyment and profit.

Monsieur began by asking for the governorship of a province; in reply he was told that this could not be, seeing that such appointments were never given to French princes, brothers of the King.

Monsieur le Duc d’Orleans hastened to point out that Gaston, son of Henri IV., had had such a post, and that the Duc de Verneuil, natural son of the same Henri, had one at the present time.

“That is true,” replied the King, “but from my youth upward you have always heard me condemn such innovations, and you cannot expect me to do the very thing that I have blamed others for doing.  If ever you were minded, brother, to rebel against my authority, your first care would, undoubtedly, be to withdraw to your province, where, like Gaston, your uncle, you would have to raise troops and money.  Pray do not weary me with indiscretions of this sort; and tell those people who influence you to give you better advice for the future.”

Somewhat abashed, the Duc d’Orleans affirmed that what he had said and done was entirely of his own accord.

“Did you speak of your own accord,” said the King, “when insisting upon being admitted to the privy council?  Such a thing can no longer be allowed.  You inconsiderately expressed two different opinions, and since you cannot control your tongue, which is most undoubtedly your own, I have no power over it,—­I, to whom it does not want to belong.”

Then Monsieur le Duc d’Orleans added that these two refusals would seem less harsh, less painful to him, if the King would grant a seat in his own apartments, and in those of the Queen, to the Princess, his wife, who was a king’s daughter.

“No, that cannot be,” replied his Majesty, “and pray do not insist upon it.  It is not I who have established the present customs; they existed long before you or me.  It is in your interest, brother, that the majesty of the throne should not be weakened or altered; and if, from Duc d’Orleans, you one day become King of France, I know you well enough to believe that you would never be lax in this matter.  Before God, you and I are exactly the same as other creatures that live and breathe; before men we are seemingly extraordinary