Chicot the Jester | Page 2

Luc, he had believed he was
assuring the royal favor, and now this looked like a disgrace. St. Luc
tried hard to inspire in them a security which he did not feel himself;
and his friends, Maugiron, Schomberg, and Quelus, clothed in their
most magnificent dresses, stiff in their splendid doublets, with
enormous frills, added to his annoyance by their ironical lamentations.
"Eh! mon Dieu! my poor friend," said Jacques de Levis, Comte de
Quelus, "I believe now that you are done for. The king is angry that you
would not take his advice, and M. d'Anjou because you laughed at his
nose."
"No, Quelus, the king does not come, because he has made a
pilgrimage to the monks of the Bois de Vincennes; and the Duc
d'Anjou is absent, because he is in love with some woman whom I have
forgotten to invite."
"But," said Maugiron, "did you see the king's face at dinner? And as for
the duke, if he could not come, his gentlemen might. There is not one
here, not even Bussy."
"Oh! gentlemen," said the Duc de Brissac, in a despairing tone, "it
looks like a complete disgrace. Mon Dieu! how can our house, always
so devoted to his majesty, have displeased him?"
The young men received this speech with bursts of laughter, which did
not tend to soothe the marquis. The young bride was also wondering
how St. Luc could have displeased the king. All at once one of the
doors opened and the king was announced.

"Ah!" cried the marshal, "now I fear nothing; if the Duc d'Anjou would
but come, my satisfaction would be complete."
"And I," murmured St. Luc; "I have more fear of the king present than
absent, for I fear he comes to play me some spiteful tricks."
But, nevertheless, he ran to meet the king, who had quitted at last his
somber costume, and advanced resplendent in satin, feathers, and
jewels. But at the instant he entered another door opened just opposite,
and a second Henri III., clothed exactly like the first, appeared, so that
the courtiers, who had run to meet the first, turned round at once to
look at the second.
Henri III. saw the movement, and exclaimed:
"What is the matter, gentlemen?"
A burst of laughter was the reply. The king, not naturally patient, and
less so that day than usual, frowned; but St. Luc approached, and said:
"Sire, it is Chicot, your jester, who is dressed exactly like your majesty,
and is giving his hand to the ladies to kiss."
Henri laughed. Chicot enjoyed at his court a liberty similar to that
enjoyed thirty years before by Triboulet at the court of François I., and
forty years after by Longely at the court of Louis XIII. Chicot was not
an ordinary jester. Before being Chicot he had been "De Chicot." He
was a Gascon gentleman, who, ill-treated by M. de Mayenne on
account of a rivalry in a love affair, in which Chicot had been
victorious, had taken refuge at court, and prayed the king for his
protection by telling him the truth.
"Eh, M. Chicot," said Henri, "two kings at a time are too much."
"Then," replied he, "let me continue to be one, and you play Duc
d'Anjou; perhaps you will be taken for him, and learn something of his
doings."

"So," said Henri, looking round him, "Anjou is not here."
"The more reason for you to replace him. It is settled, I am Henri, and
you are François. I will play the king, while you dance and amuse
yourself a little, poor king."
"You are right, Chicot, I will dance."
"Decidedly," thought De Brissac, "I was wrong to think the king angry;
he is in an excellent humor."
Meanwhile St. Luc had approached his wife. She was not a beauty, but
she had fine black eyes, white teeth, and a dazzling complexion.
"Monsieur," said she to her husband, "why did they say that the king
was angry with me; he has done nothing but smile on me ever since he
came?"
"You did not say so after dinner, dear Jeanne, for his look then
frightened you."
"His majesty was, doubtless, out of humor then, but now--"
"Now, it is far worse; he smiles with closed lips. I would rather he
showed me his teeth. Jeanne, my poor child, he is preparing for us
some disagreeable surprise. Oh I do not look at me so tenderly, I beg;
turn your back to me. Here is Maugiron coming; converse with him,
and be amiable to him."
"That is a strange recommendation, monsieur."
But St. Luc left his wife full of astonishment, and went to pay his court
to Chicot, who was playing his part with a most laughable majesty.
The king danced, but seemed never