Devil's Dance

Episode 8

Big news! Book Six of Alexandre Dumas’ Musketeers Cycle, Court of Daggers, which wrapped up its serialization right here just a few weeks ago, is now available as a complete book in both ebook and trade paperback editions! Look for Court of Daggers by Dumas on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk. And Happy New Year to you all!

Devil’s Dance

~ or ~

Louise de La Vallière

By Alexandre Dumas

Edited and Translated by Lawrence Ellsworth

In Last Week’s Episode

Madame de Bellière, Monsieur Fouquet’s noble lady-love, was visited by her old friend and new rival for Fouquet’s heart, Madame Vanel, who came to torment La Bellière with the news that the king had demanded four million livres from Fouquet, his Minister of Finance, within four days, a demand that could lead to Fouquet’s ruin.

Chapter VII

Madame de Bellière’s Gold and Silver

The blow had been all the more painful for being unexpected. It took the marquise some time to recover, but once she did, she began to consider carefully the news she’d received. And then she examined, in her own way, the thoughts and ideas that her implacable friend had forced her to face.

Treachery and dark threats veiled by the semblance of the public interest, these were the tactics of Colbert. Malicious joy at impending ruin, unceasing efforts to that end, seductions as criminal as the crime itself: these were the means of Marguerite. It was Descartes’s atomes crochus25 triumphant, the man without valor mated to the woman without heart.

The marquise saw, more with sorrow than indignation, that the king was tangled in a plot that rivaled the duplicity of the aging Louis XIII united with the avarice of the young Mazarin, before the cardinal had fully gorged himself on French gold. But as the spirit of this courageous woman revived, she set aside backward-looking lamentation and turned toward the future. The marquise was not one of those to waste time in tears when it was the moment to act, to bewail misfortune when she had the means to mitigate it.

For about ten minutes she clutched her brow with icy hands, and then, raising her head, she rang for her women with a quick and steady grip. She had decided what to do.

“Is everything prepared for my departure?” she asked the first maidservant to come in.

“Yes, Madame, though it was expected that Madame la Marquise wouldn’t leave for Bellière for another three days.”

“However, all my jewelry and valuables are in their coffer?”

“Yes, Madame, though we usually leave those things in Paris for safekeeping; Madame doesn’t usually take her jewelry to the country.”

“But it’s packed up?”

“It’s in Madame’s dressing room.”

“And the goldware?”

“In the chests.”

“The silver?”

“In the large oak armoire.”

The marquise was silent, and then said, in a quiet voice, “Send for my goldsmith.”

The woman withdrew to execute the order.

Meanwhile the marquise went to her dressing room and carefully considered the contents of her jewelry coffer. Never before had she paid such attention to the rich adornments that are so often a woman’s pride; she had never thought much about them except as ornaments to accent her outfits with their metal or gemstones. Now she admired the size of the rubies and the clarity of the diamonds, and regretted every flaw and defect, thinking the gold too lightweight and the stones mediocre.

When he arrived, the goldsmith surprised her in this occupation. “Monsieur Faucheux,” she said, “you’ve always provided my gold place settings, haven’t you?”

“Yes, Madame la Marquise.”

“I don’t remember how much they’re worth.”

“The new set, Madame, or that which Monsieur de Bellière presented you when you were wed? Because I supplied both.”

“Well! The new set, first of all.”

“Madame, the set of dishes in their cases, plus the ewers, goblets, ice buckets, preserve plates, and tea and coffee pots cost Madame la Marquise sixty thousand livres.”

“Mon Dieu, no more than that?”

“Madame thought it very expensive at the time.”

“Yes, quite so! I remember I thought the price rather high. It was the quality of the work, wasn’t that it?”

“Yes, Madame, the casting and engraving.”

“The work accounts for how much of the price? Tell me true.”

“About a third of the value, Madame. But….”

“And then there’s the other service, the old one of my husband’s.”

“Oh, that’s worth much less than the newer one, only about thirty thousand livres, mainly in materials.”

“Maybe seventy thousand total,” murmured the marquise. “But, Monsieur Faucheux, there’s also my mother’s silverware; you know, that heavy stuff I kept for its sentimental value.”

“Ah, Madame, now there’s a liquid asset for those who, like Madame la Marquise, might prefer to keep their dishes. Back then we didn’t work lightly like we do today, we measured a set’s weight in ingots. Such tableware is no longer really presentable, but, oh, how it weighs.”

“That’s all I care about. And that weight is worth…?”

“Fifty thousand livres, at least. Not to mention those enormous buffet urns worth five thousand livres each, ten thousand the pair.”

“One hundred and thirty thousand,” murmured the marquise. “You’re sure of these figures, Monsieur Faucheux?”

“Quite sure, Madame. Besides, one can always weigh them.”

“The weights are already in my accounts.”

“Oh! You are a woman of order, Madame la Marquise.”

“Let’s move on to something else,” said Madame de Bellière. And she opened the jewelry coffer.

“I recognize these emeralds,” said the merchant. “I was the one who made their settings, they’re the finest emeralds at the Court—no, I tell a lie, the best are those of Madame de Châtillon, who got hers from Messieurs de Guise. But yours are the second finest, Madame.”

“And their value?”

“In their mountings?”

“No, suppose I wanted to sell them quickly.”

“I know just who would buy them!” said Monsieur Faucheux.

“That’s why it’s you whom I ask. So, they could be sold?”

“All of your jewelry could be sold, Madame; everyone knows you have the finest collection in Paris. You’re not one of those changeable women; when you buy something, it’s worth buying and worth keeping.”

“So, what would these emeralds bring?”

“One hundred thirty thousand livres.”

With a pencil, the marquise recorded the goldsmith’s figure in a notebook. “And this ruby necklace?” she said.

“Are they spinel rubies?”

“See for yourself.”

“These are beautiful, superb, even. I didn’t know you had these stones, Madame.”

“Your estimate?”

“Two hundred thousand livres. The middle one alone is worth a hundred thousand.”

“Yes, excellent, that’s what I thought,” said the marquise. “Now, these diamonds. I have quite a few: rings, necklaces, pendants and girandoles, studs and clasps. Estimate, Monsieur Faucheux, estimate.”

The goldsmith peered through his loupe, weighed on his scales, whispered and calculated, reached his total, and said, “Borrowed against, these stones would give Madame la Marquise an income of forty thousand livres a year.”

“So, eight hundred thousand if sold?”

“Just about.”

“As I thought. What about the settings?”

“Madame, as per usual, if I were asked to sell these stones, I would be content to take the gold of the settings as my profit, which would still net me a good twenty-five thousand livres.”

“A pretty profit!”

“Yes, Madame, very pretty.”

“Will you accept that profit as the price of selling these stones?”

“But Madame!” the goldsmith cried in shock. “You can’t be serious about selling your diamonds!”

“Hush, Monsieur Faucheux, don’t concern yourself with that, just give me an answer. You’ve been an honest merchant who’s furnished our house for thirty years; you knew my father and mother, whom your father and mother served as well. Will you take the gold of the settings in return for placing in my hands the cash for the stones?”

“Eight hundred thousand livres! That’s an enormous sum!”

“I realize that.”

“An impossible sum!”

“Surely not.”

“But, Madame, think of the scandal in society at the news of the sale of your gems!”

“No one will know. You will make me paste replicas that look just like the real items. Not another word; I insist. Remove the stones and sell them piecemeal.”

“Well, yes, that would work. Monsieur is looking for naked stones to fill out Madame’s jewel coffer. Several will be bidding to supply them, but I can easily place six hundred thousand livres worth with Monsieur. Your stones are the best quality.”

“How quickly?”

“Three days at most.”

“Well, you’ll just have to find individuals who will buy the rest. For the present, give me a guaranteed sales contract, payment within four days.”

“I beg you to consider, Madame, that if you rush the sale, it could cost you a hundred thousand livres.”

“I’ll lose two hundred thousand if I must. I want everything drawn up today. Do you accept?”

“Madame la Marquise, I accept. I won’t pretend that I’m not making fifty thousand livres from this bargain.”

“Excellent. How will I receive the money?”

“In gold or in notes on the Bank of Lyon, payable at the office of Monsieur Colbert.”

“Done,” the marquise said quickly. “Now go home, and come back as soon as you can with those bank notes.”

“Yes, Madame, but heavens above….”

“That will do, Monsieur. But wait, I forgot about the silverware. What is that worth?”

“Fifty thousand livres, Madame.”

“Almost a million,” the marquise said to herself. “Monsieur Faucheux, you will also take the goldware, the silverware, and all the plates. Say I contemplate a redesign to new models more to my taste. Sell it for its weight in metal and give me the proceeds in gold immediately.”

“Very well, Madame la Marquise.”

“You will place all the gold in a chest, send it to me escorted by one of your clerks without my people knowing about it, and this clerk will come for me in a carriage.”

“Perhaps that of Madame Faucheux?”

“If you like. I’ll make sure it gets back to you.”

“Yes, Madame la Marquise.”

“I’ll have three of my people bring the gold and silverware to your address.”

“Yes, Madame.”

The marquise rang. “Prepare the heavy coach,” she said, “and place it at the disposal of Monsieur Faucheux.”

The goldsmith bowed and went out, ordering the coachman to follow him closely, while announcing that the marquise was having her old gold and silverware melted down to update it to more modern styles.

Three hours later she paid a visit to Monsieur Faucheux and received eight hundred thousand livres in notes on the Bank of Lyon, plus two hundred and fifty thousand livres in gold coins, locked in a trunk which a sweating clerk wrestled into Madame Faucheux’s carriage—for Madame Faucheux had her own carriage. The daughter of a Judge of Accounts, she had brought a dowry of thirty thousand crowns to her husband, who was himself a Syndic of Goldsmiths. Those thirty thousand crowns had been earning interest for thirty years, so the modest goldsmith was a millionaire. For his household, he’d purchased an old-fashioned carriage made in 1648, ten years after the birth of the king. This heavy carriage, or rather this rolling apartment, was the admiration of the Gold Quarter, ornamented with allegorical images and clouds strewn with gold and silver stars.

Into this vehicle, garish though it was, the noble lady entered and sat opposite the clerk, who nervously turned aside his knees lest they touch the marquise’s billowing dress. This same clerk called to the coachman, who was proud to be driving a marquise, “Take the road to Saint-Mandé!”

Notes on the Text of Devil’s Dance

25.  DESCARTES’S ATOMES CROCHUS: Descartes’s concept of “hooked atoms” that connected with each other to form matter prefigured the theory of molecules; Dumas uses the idea here to explain the attraction of differences.

ALEXANDRE DUMAS’ MUSKETEERS CYCLE

Devil’s Dance is part of a series. Everyone has heard of The Three Musketeers and its heroes d’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, but what’s less well known nowadays is that Dumas followed up his greatest novel with a series of sequels that are just as great. Your Cheerful Editor Lawrence Ellsworth has been compiling all-new contemporary translations of these novels, and the entire series, when complete, will fill nine volumes:

-        The Three Musketeers, Book One

-        The Red Sphinx, Book Two

-        Twenty Years After, Book Three

-        Blood Royal, Book Four

-        Between Two Kings, Book Five

-        Court of Daggers, Book Six

-        Devil’s Dance, Book Seven

-        Shadow of the Bastille, Book Eight

-        The Man in the Iron Mask, Book Nine

The first five volumes are in print and available from Pegasus Books, while Court of Daggers is now available as an independent publication. Each week now brings a new episode in the serialization of Book Seven, Devil’s Dance. Welcome, and enjoy the ride!

—Lawrence Ellsworth

Copyright © 2022 Lawrence Schick. All rights reserved.