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Alexandre Dumas
Richelieu's last sentence from the day before lands like a blow. Buckingham has been in Paris. Louis XIII flushes and pales. The cardinal talks of Huguenots and Spain; the king talks of his honour, Madame de Chevreuse, and a wife he does not believe loves him. He wants the queen's papers. Richelieu will not search Anne of Austria with his own hands. He steers the job to M. de Séguier, keeper of the seals, and lets the king announce the visit himself. He even claims he has tried to prevent a rupture. Louis hears that as softness toward the queen and walks down the corridor to her rooms.
Anne is among her women, only half listening to a reading, turning over exile, divorce, and the friends her trust has ruined. The king stops in front of her, names the chancellor, and leaves by another door. Séguier arrives smiling and blushing, a former penitent who once rang a convent bell whenever temptation struck, until the monks lost their sleep, and who later earned the cardinal's trust by serving his hatred of the queen-mother and of Anne. He asks for her papers. She has the keys given up and lets him open twenty drawers. He already knows the letter of that day is not in a desk.
He says he must search the queen herself. She draws herself up and asks if he dares lift a hand to her. He answers that the king has authorised him to seek the paper on her person. Anne admits the letter is in her bosom and says she will give it only to the king. Séguier steps forward like a man looking for a bell rope that is not there. She goes pale, steadies herself on a table, and holds the paper out. He takes it unread to Louis. The letter asks her brother, the King of Spain, and the Emperor to press France until Richelieu is dismissed. It does not mention love. The king, glad to be wrong about Buckingham and right about a political plot, carries it to the cardinal.
Richelieu reads it twice, offers to resign, and even offers to skip the siege of La Rochelle. Louis promises punishment. Then the cardinal changes tone. He begs clemency, says the king struck first by suspecting her, and proposes a ball, a rare pleasure, so that Anne can wear the diamond studs the king gave her on her birthday. Louis dislikes worldly fêtes, yet the idea of a wife guilty of politics and innocent of a lover makes him ready to mend the quarrel. The next day he tries a reconciliation. Her pride resists, then she lets the fête soften her face. For days the cardinal delays the date. On the eighth day a London letter arrives: the writer has the studs but cannot leave for want of money. Richelieu counts the crossings, names the aldermen's fête on the third of October, and adds one last instruction. The evening before the ball, the king should tell the queen he wants to see how those diamond studs become her.
The person who offers you a party after a search is not making peace. After Séguier takes the letter from the queen's bosom, Richelieu praises clemency, proposes a ball so she can wear the diamond studs, delays the date, and waits for a London note that says the writer has them.
You can treat a public favour as a clock: ask what they need you to wear, and who is timing the day.
It is the second time the cardinal has mentioned those studs. Louis, tired of knowing less than his minister even in his own house, goes to the queen with fresh menaces, then tells her she must wear the birthday diamonds at the Hôtel de Ville ball.
What this chapter proves — the pattern beneath the scene
In this chapter, the lesson is Reading a Political Room — Every Smile Hides a Warrant.
The card below names the pattern this chapter proves — carry it with you into Dumas's yard at Meung, the noon fight, the diamond road, the bastion breakfast, and the trial on the Lys.
Reading a Political Room
Richelieu tells the king Buckingham has been in Paris. Louis wants the queen's rooms searched. Séguier, keeper of the seals, is sent to take a woman's letters and cannot find the bell he needs to stay decent. The search is power pretending to be procedure.
Key Insight
Procedure that keeps looking for a bell is still a search. Politeness is not a limit. It is a costume the file wears while it opens drawers.
Chapter 16
It is impossible to form an idea of the impression these few words made upon Louis XIII. He grew pale and red alternately; and the cardinal saw at once that he had recovered by a single blow all the ground he had lost. “Buckingham in Paris!” cried he, “and why does he come?” “To conspire, no doubt, with your enemies, the Huguenots and the Spaniards.” “No, pardieu, no! To conspire against my honor with Madame de Chevreuse, Madame de Longueville, and the Condés.” “Oh, sire, what an idea! The queen is too virtuous; and besides, loves your Majesty too well.”…
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Draw a short timeline of this chapter only: the demand for papers, Séguier's search, the letter's political contents, the offer of a ball, the London note, and the evening-before request about the diamond studs. Beside the last two beats, write who is being timed.
When has a kindness after an intrusion come with a date and a dress code? What would you now ask before you agreed to appear?
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Other theme-by-theme analyses from this book.
The Cassock He Asked For
Follow the Gascon who wants a cassock and is offered a commission.
The First Fight Was Not the One You Planned
Watch whom you stand beside when the first fight is not the one you planned.
A Trial Honour Will Not Name
Sit the trial on the Lys and ask what honour will not name.
Breakfast on a Bastion
Stay with the diamond run, the bastion, and the ride to Béthune.
A Blank the Cardinal Already Signed
See what it costs to please a king and a cardinal at once.
Deep diving the literary elements.
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