Belle-Rose — page 364: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A RAY OF SONSHENE, ; 303 Monsieur de Luxembourg bowed. **His name:”” added the King. ‘*Belle-Rose. ’ “To what regiment does he belong?”’ *“To the regiment of La Ferté, artillery.”’ Louis XIV. meditated a moment. **It is not,’’ he resumed, presently, ‘‘the first time that I have heard this officer spoken of.’’ ‘*No, sire, I have had the honor to converse with Your Majesty concerning an affair in which he is interested.”’ . “Ah! I recollect! Is it not a question of the firing of a convent and the abduction of a nun?”’ ‘No, sire. Persons who hate Belle-Rose because he is - devoted to me have misrepresented facts to Your Majesty. Belle-Rose has delivered his fiancee who had been placed in a cloister against her will, and he has made her his wife as soon as she was free.’’ Louis XIV. knew admirably his trade of king; he posed eternally before the court, before Europe, and before him- self. An occasion presented itself to accomplish an act of justice in favor of an officer who had bravely done his duty, and to whom the army owed its first victory; his pardon was then, take it all in all, an act of public repara- tion, emanating from the throne, and which made royalty _ play the role of Providence which rewards the good. Louis XIV. took advantage of the occasion. “Tt is well,’’ said he; ‘‘the officer who has fought so well under my eyes cannot be guilty. To-morrow you will bring him to us.”’ A flattering murmur. traversed the circle of courtiers, and the king could read upon all faces the expression of a lively pleasure. Belle-Rose, warned by Monsieur de Lux- embourg, held himself in readiness to appear before the king. It was the first tims that he was going to find him- self in the presence of a sovereign whose name filled Europe with fear, and if his heart did not beat much at the moment of a battle, it beat very strongly when he fol- lowed the duke to the royal residence. That air of majesty which Louis XIV. always wore dazzled Belle-Rose; he bent his knee and waited in a respectful silence. ‘‘Rise, monsieur,’’ the king said to him; ‘‘you conducted yourself well yesterday, and we wish, in order to reward. your good services, that every trace of the past should be effaced. What you have been you are no more; you will know at Paris what I have made of you.”’ ° **At Paris!’’ exclaimed Monsieur de Luxembourg. ‘' Does Eomicboo “S (E(@)