The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-11-10
BOOK III-FRANCE
CHAPTER !,
The Grand Monarque.

CHAPTER It.
The Grand Monarque.
On a great bed of state. satin draped,
Ranked with ancient tapestries. piled sick
eningly soft with heaps Of pillows there
LAY thin. withered little man-old. old
and very feeble. His face was shrunken
and drawn with pain. his brow. formerly
tn,perIous. had lost its arrogance. Under
the coverings which, in the unrest of i'll
ness, he now pulled L. high about
his face now tossed restlessly
aside, his figure i" lay. elon-
gated. shapeiess blot showing
beneath the silks One limb. twitched
and drawn up couvulsively, told Of a def
mite seat of patti. The hands. thin and
wasted lay out upon the coverletS; and
the thumbs were creeping, creeping ever
more mistakenly. under the cover of the
fingers. telling that the battle for life was
lost, that the surrender had been made.
1t was a death bed. this great bed of
state: a death-bed situated in the heart
of the grea test temple Of desire ever built
IN all the world. He who had been master
there, who had set in order those miles of
stately columns, those seas of glittering
gilt and crystal he who had been magi-
clan, builder. creator, perverter, debaser-
he. Louis Of France the Grand Monarque
now lay suffering like any ordinary human
being, like any common man.
Last night the four and twenty violns,
under the kings command. had shrilled
their chorus. as had been their wont for
years while the master dined. This NOR
ming the Gordon Of drums and hautboys
had pealeo their high and martial music
Useless. The one or the other music fell
upon ears too dull to hear. The formal
tribute to the central soul for a time con-
tinued Of its own inertia; for time royal
II had still its worship; yet the custom
vas but a tagging one The musicians
grimaced and made what discord they
liked openly, insoently scorning this
weak and withered figure on the silken
! bed. The Gordon of the white and blue
guards OF the Household still swept about
the vast pleasure grounds of this fairy
temple; yet the officers left their posts
and conversed one with the other Musi-
clans and guards, spectators and populace
all were waiting, waiting until the end
should come. Farther out and beyond
where the peaked roofs Of Paris rose
back Of that line which this
imperious mind had decreed should
not be passed by the dwellings Of
Paris, which must not come too near this
temple Of luxury, nor disturb the king
while he enjoyed himself-back of the
perfunctorily loyal guards Of the house
hold there reached the ragged, shapeless
masses Of the people of Paris and of
France. waiting, smiling. as some animal
licking its chops In expectation Of some
satisfying thing. They were waiting for
news Of the death Of this shrunken man,
this creature once so full Of arrogant
lust. then so full Of sombre repentance,
now so full Of the very taste Of death.
On the great tapestry that hung above
the head of the curtained bed shone the
double sun of Louis the Grand, which
had meant death and devastation to so
much of Europe. 1t blazed, minlicking
the glory that was gone: but toward it
there was raised no sword nor scepter
more in vow or exaltation. The race was
run, the sun was sinking to it's setting.
Nothing but a mana weary. worn-o out,
dying man-was Louis, the grand mon
argue, king for seventy-tWO years Of
France, almost king of Europe. This
deathbed lay in the center of a land OPP
pressed, ground down, impoverished The
hearts and lives Of thousands were in
these colonnades. The people had paid for
their king. They had fed him fat and
kept him full Of loves. In return. he had
trampled the people into the very dust.
He had robbed even their ancient mobiles
of honors and consideration. Blackened.
ruined, vast graveyard, monumental
starving-g ground. France lay about his
death-bed. and its people were but wait
ing with grim impotence for their king
to die. What France might do In the
future was unknown; yet 1t was unthink-
able that aught could be worse than this
glorious reign of Louis, the grand mon
argue. this crumbling clod this resolving
excrecence, this phosphorescent. disinteg-
rating fungus of diseased life and time
Seventy-two years a king; thirty years
q libertine twenty years a repentant
Son. grandson, great-grandson. all gone
as though to leave not one Of that once
naughty breed. For France no hope at
all: and for the house of Bourbon, al
the hope there might be in the life of q
little boy, sullen. tiny, timid. Far over
in Paris, busy about his games and his
loves, TESTING, long-curled gallant. the
Duke of Orleans, nephew OF this king
was holding a court of his own. And from
this court which might be, back to the
court which was, but which might moi
be long, swung back and forth the fawn
ing creatures of the former court. This
was the central picture Of France, ant
Paris and Of the New World on this day
Of the year IT'S.
In the room about the bed Of state
uncertain groups Of watchers whispered
noisily The five physicians who
had tried first one remedy and then an
other: the rustic physician whose nostrun
had kept life Within the king for some
unexpected days; the ladies who hac
waited upon the relatives Of the king
rome Of the relatives themselves; Vii.
leroy, guardian of the young king soor
to be: the bastard, and the wife of thai
bastard, who hoped for the kings shoes
the mistress Of his earlier years, for many
wears his wife-Maintenon, that peerless:
hypocrite Of all the years-all these passed
and hesitated, and looked, waiting, as die
the hungry crowds in Paris toward the
Seine, until the double sun should set, ant
the crawling thumbs at last should fine
their shelter. The, Grand Monarque wa:
losing the only time in all his life wher
he might have learned human wisdom.
T"Madame!' whispered the dry lips
family. g."
She who was addressed as madame, this
woman Maintenon, pious murderer, un
rivaled hypocrite, unspeakably self-con
tanned dissembler. the woman who los
for France an empire greater than al