LITERATURE

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 865, 3 April 1877, Page 3

LITERATURE

THE WHITE SPECTRE OF THE LOUVRE.

About daybreak on the 9th of September, 1026', half a dozen young noblemen were seated in a fashionable wine shop in one of the narrow streets in the neighborhood of the Hotel de Vilie in Paris.

All of the young men were considerably under the influence of liquor, and their faces indicated plainly that they had been up all night, and from the strange and outlandish costumes they wore, it could be easily seen that they had been at a masquerade. ‘Messieurs, my friends,’ said the young Vicompte de St Eustache, ‘ it was a splendid ball which the city of Paris last night gave to his Majesty, our gracious King Louis the Thirteenth.’

‘Yes, I don’t remember an occasion when the great hall of the Hotel de Ville appeared to better advantage,’ remarked Monseigneur de Mallefille.

‘ Only one thing was wanting,’ said the young Duke do Lafere. ‘ And what was that, your Grace, asked Elmanseur de Foury. It was that you would nob permit me to appear in the costume of the White Spectre of the Louvre. Would I not have liked to stepped up to the King and spoken to him in sepulchral tones.’ His companions bmsb into loud laughter. i ‘ You are right, Sir Duke,’ said M, de St Eustache; ‘it would ha% r e done me good, too, to see Louis the Thirteenth, the unworthy son of the great King Henry the Fourth, confronted by the very spectre which he dreads so much. But you might have relied on it that it would have cost you your head, Sir Duke.’

‘ That would have been paying a somewhat too high price for the pleasure of scaring our cowardly King a little. But I am ready to give half my fortune to whoso ever will go to the .Louvre in that costume, and show himself in it to at least one person. The news would spread like wildfire that the terrible White Spectre of the Louvre was about again. You know that its appearance, in the belief of the people, indicates the impending death of the reigning King ; and I have been informed from a trustworthy source that an astrologist, a few months ago, told the King to beware of the present year.

‘ From what trustworthy source did you learn that V asked M. de Foury, carelessly. ‘ Why, from the King’s mistress, the charming Dolorez Del Bosos, who happened to be my inamorata too, while his Majesty was bestowing his affection upon her.’

‘ Was not Mile Del Besos believed to be a spy of Cardinal Richelieu ?’ ‘ Of course she was, M. de Foury,’ replied the young Duke, laughing; * but that did not make her by any means less lovely in my eyes. What did I care whether she allowed certain liberties to his Majesty, and amused him at hours when the Cardinal did not want to be disturbed by him? I do not meddle with state affairs, and sc I could kiss and hug the dark-eyed senora without caring a liig for it whether or not she would repeat what I told to his eminence, our great Cardinal. ’

The young nobleman, at M. de Foury’s request, quaffed another goblet of wine. ‘ Sir Duke,’ said M. de Foury, then, ‘supposing you should ever get into trouble, you should be thrown into the Bastile— ’

‘The fairest of the fair, Dolorez Del Besos,’ cried the Duke laughing, ‘ would importune his Majesty and Cardinal Richelieu until they had signed an order for my release.’

‘ If she is so devoted to you, Sir Duke,’ remarked the Yicompte de St Eustache, ‘ you might invoke her influence also in case any of us should get into trouble.’

‘lt would afford me the greatest pleasure to do,’ replied the Duke. ‘But, landlord, lazy Etienne, don’t you see our bottles are empty?’ Bring more wine. What Burgundy have you ? Very well; bring a dozen bottles. ’ So saying, the Duke threw two double gold pistols on the table. The wine made its appearance, and the Yicompte de St Eustache said : ‘ Let us drink the health of that paragon of beauty, the peerless Dolorez!’ The young men touched glasses, and drink a bumper. By this time the Duke de Lafere was almost completely inebriated. Monsieur de Foury, who was now more sober than any other member of the convivial party, had been furtively watching the Duke for some time.

‘Sir Duke,’he said, now, ‘you spoke in such disdainful terms of his Majesty, the King, a few minutes ago. Has Louis the Thirteenth ever done you any harm? ’ The question startled the whole party. All the young men looked with an expression of intense curiosity at the Duke de Lafere. The latter replied with a somewhat heavy tongue;

‘ His Majesty, the King, six years ago, at the tournament of Bonchalot, decided a jousting match between my elder brother, Alvidor, and Guison de Beulatre, unjustly in favour of the latter. My brother took this unjust decision so much to heart that he died three months afterward brokenhearted. On his death-bed the poor fellow said :

‘ Louis, you know that I die because I am unable to revenge myself upon the crowned villain who is too cowardly to wield a lance himself. Watch every opportunity to strike terror into his soul. He is an arrant poltroon; he is superstitious, and lam sure a genuine, thorough fright would kill him. Cause him such a fright; let him die like a scared old woman and you will fulfil the last wish of your dying brother. ‘ And what have you done, Sir Duke, in order to fulfil the last wish of your brother, Alvidor, who, I have been told, was a second Bayard.’

‘ Wasn’t he ? ’ exclaimed the young Duke, ‘As my name is Louis Duke de Lafere et Martingy, my brother Alvidor was a true knight.’

‘ And well worth revenging even upon a King,’ added M. de Foury.

‘ Alas } ’ exclaimed the Duke, ‘ Were I like my brother, I should have challenged the very brothers of King Louis to mortal combat; but nature has not endowed me with strength, and so I have sought by dint of intrigue to attain my object instead of reaching it at the sword’s point.’ ‘ And thus far all you have accomplished, Sir Duke,’ remarked M. de Foury, ‘ has been to share with his Majesty the caresses of the Spanish woman.’

The Duke was nettled by the slightly disdainful tone in which these words were uttered

‘ Indeed, ’he cried, ‘ did I nor intend to frighten his Majesty at the ball last night by appearing before him in the costume of the spectre of the Louvre ? ’ ‘M. de St Eustache,’ said De Foury ‘ remarked awhile ago that this little joke might cost you your head, Sir Duke, but I beg to differ with him. I believe if you had entered the great hall of the Hotel de Ville in that absurd winding sheet, dotted with small black skulls, the King would have ordered one of his archers to kick you into the street without any ceremony whatever.’

The Duke uttered a wild oath, and sprang to his feet.

All the young noblemen looked alarmed. Only M. de Foury, at whom the young Duke was casting furious glances, remained perfectly cool. ‘ Tut, tut, tut, Sir Duke,’ he said, * what is the use of getting angry at a friend who tells you the truth ? Have you forgotten, or are you ignorant of the fact that the White Spectre of the Louvre appears only in the so-called blue room of the Royal Palace between the hours of midnight and one ? If jmu should have courage euough to go there to-night in your costume with the black skulls, and step out for a moment in the corridor, so that the sentinel posted at the end could catch a glimpse of you in your winding sheet, then you would be very near attaining your object; for the King would be frightened to death by the news, which would be certain to reach him in a very short time. But without intending to hurt your feeling, Sir Duke, I will bet five hundred double pistoles that you will not venture to engage in so hazardous an enterprise.’ ‘And I,’cried the Duke, with an angry flush, ‘ I will bet you ten thousand double pistoles, Monsieur Archille de Foury, that you will not have; the courage to do so either.’

‘ Ten thousand double pistoles ! ’ cried the other young men. It is an enormous amount of money.’ ‘ I have ten times that amount at my disposal,’ said the Duke proudly ; but what say you, Monsieur de Foury? You are silent. You do not take up my bet. Ah! I thought so.’ ‘Hold on, Sir Duke,’ replied De Foury ‘ Are you in earnest about your bet ? ’

‘ 1 am in dead earnest, Monsieur, ’ * I accept the bet.’ ‘ Ah ! ah ! ’

‘ But on one condition.’ ‘ Name the condition, Monsieur de Foury.’ ‘Sir Duke,’said Archille de Fourv, ‘you know that my undertaking will be fraught with considerable danger.’ “I know it, Monsieur. ( To be continued .)