"A very short Note," I replied, "in which Henry would protest against Philip's usurpation."
M. de Saint-Priest conveyed my words to Madame. My resistance continued to occupy the minds of the Princess's environment Madame de Saint-Priest, with her nobility of sentiment, appeared to entertain the keenest regret. Madame de Podenas had not lost the habit of that serene smile which shows her beautiful teeth: her calm was the more perceptible in the midst of our agitation.
We were not unlike a strolling company of French actors playing at Ferrara, by permission of the worshipful magistrates of the town, in the Fugitive Princess or the Persecuted Mother. The scene represented, on the right, Tasso's prison; on the left, Ariosto's house; at the back, the castle in which the feasts of Leonora and Alphonsus took place. This royalty without a kingdom; those anxieties of a Court contained in two wandering carriages and having the Hôtel des Trois-Couronnes for its palace at night; those State councils held in a room at an inn: all that completed the variety of the scenes of my fortune. I put off my knight's helm in the wings and resumed my straw hat; I travelled with the de jure monarchy rolled up in my portmanteau, while the de facto monarchy flaunted its baubles at the Tuileries. Voltaire calls upon all the royalties to spend their carnival in Venice with Achmet III.[211]: Ivan[212] Emperor of All the Russias, Charles Edward King of England, the two Kings of the Polacks[213], Theodore[214] King of Corsica and four Serene Highnesses.
"'Sire, Your Majesty's post-chaise is at Padua, and the bark is ready.'
"'Sire, Your Majesty may set off when you please.'
"'Troth, Sire, they will trust Your Majesty no longer, nor myself neither; and we may both of us chance to be sent to gaol this very night.'"
For myself, I will say with Candid[215]:
"Gentlemen, how came you all to be kings? I must confess that neither my friend Martin here nor myself have any such titles."
It was eleven o'clock in the evening; I was hoping that I had won my case and obtained my exeat from Madame. I was very far out in my reckoning! Madame does not so soon relinquish a wish; she had not questioned me about France, because, preoccupied as she was with my resistance to her plan, she was making that her business of the moment. M. de Saint-Priest entered my room and brought me the rough draft of a letter which Her Royal Highness proposed to write to Charles X.:
Her persistency.
"What!" I exclaimed, "Madame persists in her resolve? She wants me to take that letter? But it would be impossible for me, even materially, to cross Germany: my passport is only for Switzerland and Italy!"
"You will accompany us as far as the Austrian frontier," replied M. de Saint-Priest; "Madame will take you in her carriage; after crossing the frontier, you will return to your calash and you will arrive thirty-six hours before us."