The Queens Necklace | Page 9

seen too many unskilful people. You could not make me accept
in battle the post which many a man would take without thinking,
because I should calculate in a moment the chances of danger at each
point. You will tell me that one cannot foresee a stray bullet; but the
man who has escaped a thousand gun-shots will hardly fall a victim to
one now. Ah, you look incredulous, but am I not a living proof? I do
not tell you that I am immortal, only that I know better than others how
to avoid danger; for instance, I would not remain here now alone with
M. de Launay, who is thinking that, if he had me in the Bastile, he

would put my immortality to the test of starvation; neither would I
remain with M. de Condorcet, for he is thinking that he might just
empty into my glass the contents of that ring which he wears on his left
hand, and which is full of poison--not with any evil intent, but just as a
scientific experiment, to see if I should die."
The two people named looked at each other, and colored.
"Confess, M. de Launay, we are not in a court of justice; besides,
thoughts are not punished. Did you not think what I said? And you, M.
de Condorcet, would you not have liked to let me taste the poison in
your ring, in the name of your beloved mistress, science?"
"Indeed," said M. de Launay, laughing, "I confess you are right; it was
folly, but that folly did pass through my mind just before you accused
me."
"And I," said M. de Condorcet, "will not be less candid. I did think that
if you tasted the contents of my ring, I would not give much for your
life."
A cry of admiration burst from the rest of the party; these avowals
confirming not the immortality, but the penetration, of Count
Cagliostro.
"You see," said Cagliostro, quietly, "that I divined these dangers; well,
it is the same with other things. The experience of a long life reveals to
me at a glance much of the past and of the future of those whom I meet.
My capabilities in this way extend even to animals and inanimate
objects. If I get into a carriage, I can tell from the look of the horses if
they are likely to run away; and from that of the coachman, if he will
overturn me. If I go on board ship, I can see if the captain is ignorant or
obstinate, and consequently likely to endanger me. I should then leave
the coachman or captain, escape from those horses or that ship. I do not
deny chance, I only lessen it, and instead of incurring a hundred
chances, like the rest of the world, I prevent ninety-nine of them, and
endeavor to guard against the hundredth. This is the good of having
lived three thousand years."

"Then," said La Pérouse, laughing, amidst the wonder and enthusiasm
created by this speech of Cagliostro's, "you should come with me when
I embark to make the tour of the world; you would render me a signal
service."
Cagliostro did not reply.
"M. de Richelieu," continued La Pérouse, "as the Count Cagliostro,
which is very intelligible, does not wish to quit such good company,
you must permit me to do so without him. Excuse me, Count Haga, and
you, madame, but it is seven o'clock, and I have promised his majesty
to start at a quarter past. But since Count Cagliostro will not be tempted
to come with me, and see my ships, perhaps he can tell me what will
happen to me between Versailles and Brest. From Brest to the Pole I
ask nothing; that is my own business."
Cagliostro looked at La Pérouse with such a melancholy air, so full
both of pity and kindness, that the others were struck by it. The sailor
himself, however, did not remark it. He took leave of the company, put
on his fur riding coat, into one of the pockets of which Madame
Dubarry pushed a bottle of delicious cordial, welcome to a traveler, but
which he would not have provided for himself, to recall to him, she
said, his absent friends during the long nights of a journey in such bitter
cold.
La Pérouse, still full of gaiety, bowed respectfully to Count Haga, and
held out his hand to the old marshal.
"Adieu, dear La Pérouse," said the latter.
"No, duke, au revoir," replied La Pérouse, "one would think I was
going away forever; now I have but to circumnavigate the globe--five
or six years' absence; it is scarcely worth while to say 'adieu' for that."
"Five or six years," said the marshal; "you might almost as