Condemnation & Redemption Pt. 02

Odd is it not? I, who drank blood for my sustenance, felt that it was unwise medical practice not to clean the blood of one's patient off of my hands, face and wherever else it had splattered, before I moved on to the next.

Not to belabor the point, I, too, anxiously waited for Aurora's waters to break and planned to assist (as I had done a number of times) the senior midwife, Madame d'Amboise, in the delivery.

This wise woman was the granddaughter of the famous physician and surgeon, Jacques d'Amboise, and was a source of much of my knowledge of the female anatomy and the birthing process. As a woman, she was not allowed to follow in her gran père's footsteps as a physician, so a midwife was the next closest possibility.

Alas, as the saying goes, 'Man plans and God laughs!'

As I walked back from the Comte d'F...'s apartments towards my own small room, I was intercepted by one of the Royal Guardsmen, who informed me that Louis required my presence at the first possible moment. In modern terms: ASAP!

The guard was not especially sympathetic to my pleas that I needed to at least let my patient know that I had been called away. Indeed, he wasn't going to even allow me to go to my room. I finally convinced him that at a minimum I needed a warm cloak to make the journey to Fontainebleau — it was February, after all. Delivering me to Louis as a frozen corpse would not gain him favor, I argued. He reluctantly agreed.

"Mais vite!" he commanded. Yes, yes I'll be quick about it!

Back in my room I was able to grab a warm fur-lined winter cloak and to hastily scribble out a note to Madame d'Amboise that the King had called me away and to let l'Comtessa d'F... know that 'her health remained my highest priority.' That was a code phrase that Aurora and I had agreed upon for those times when we could not overtly declare our love for one another.

Walking towards the carriage awaiting at the side entrance to the palace, I luckily encountered a servant who I tasked with insuring that my note was delivered to l'Comtessa (as even I called Aurora when we were not together in private), who would, after reading it herself, give it to the midwife.

Immediately after that, I was hustled into a plain carriage and found myself on the road to the King's presence — a distance that would take the rest of the day and into the evening to travel. Today it would be a trifle — 72 km or a bit less than 45 miles. Back then, it was a goodly distance.

It was early evening when I arrived at Fontainebleau, and again I was escorted by a Royal Guardsman up the semi-circular stairs at the front of the palace. As I had not been given any kind of information as to what kind of emergency necessitated my immediate presence, I was very concerned and somewhat frightened. If the King or one of his close circle of advisors (is that not a kinder word than 'sycophants'?) was ill, then I needed to be about my business as quickly as possible.

But I was not taken into the presence of the King, or even into one of the outer chambers leading to his private quarters. I was taken to the office of an officious little bureaucrat who, after I had entered the room, left me standing there before his desk while he pretended to have more important business to complete.

Have I mentioned that I am not an especially patient man?

I stepped forward until my legs touched the front of his desk and put my hands to either side of the papers he had in front of him and leaned over him.

"Excuse me, Monsieur, but I was summoned here by the King of France. I was informed that it was an emergency that necessitated my immediate departure. And now I stand in front of a man at a desk — a very fine desk, I admit — waiting. There is perhaps someone dying who requires my secour?"

The bored bureaucrat looked up at me and shrugged.

"No one is dying. No one is even injured."

I was somewhat dumbfounded at this information.

"Then, dite moi, tell me: why am I here?"

"Because Madame de Montespan's astrologer died suddenly and she needs you to cast a new horoscope for her," he informed me, seemingly amused by my shocked reaction.

He shrugged his shoulders in that classic Gallic movement that indicated his own lack of understanding.

"I have patients who truly require my assistance back at Versailles. Casting someone's horoscope is hardly an emergency!" I said, becoming a bit hot under the collar.

"Mais oui," replied the clerk behind the desk, "But, alors, it is the King who decides what is and what is NOT an emergency."

I could only agree.

At that point, I was finally directed to the chambers of Madame de Montespan to procure the information that I would need to cast her horoscope.

Madame was a long-time mistress of the l'Roi and had given Louis a number of children — seven — (some of whom he eventually made 'legitimate') herself, and some of his children, even those born of the Queen, preferred Madame to their own mother. One of them went so far as to say, 'She was more of a mother to me than my own mother!'

I spoke with one of her maids-in-waiting who was able to provide the information that I required, as well as some of the notes that her late astrologer had been making when he collapsed and died of an apoplexy at his writing desk.

The young woman then took me to the very same chambers in which the astrologer had died and placed me at his desk (where all of his books and astrological reference materials were located) to work, and as well as his bed to sleep in. Given my background, I was not especially disturbed at using the space of a so-recently deceased colleague, but it did seem to lack any sign of compassion for her dedicated servant.

Madame much later told me herself that it was solely an issue that she had no other available space at her disposal, and that while she mourned for the man in her heart, she had an immediate need for her horoscope to help her direct her near term actions.

As soon as I had acquired writing materials, I wrote a note to Madame d'Amboise, the midwife, to inform her of my whereabouts at Fontainebleau, and requested that she update me regarding the condition of Aurora as soon as anything occurred. The same maid-in-waiting who had assisted me in settling into my rooms promised to have the note delivered to Versailles the next day when the dispatch riders were sent.

There remained one small problem. I could feel 'the hunger' coming on, but it was something soon rectified.

I let it be known that a physician was available to treat any serious maladies and within the hour I had several members of the Court requesting my presence.

As I suspected, several of the 'illnesses' were mainly due to an excess of food and wine at dinner. A quick 'bleeding' with my scarificator sufficed, and I informed them that they would feel better by the morning. I collected my vial of blood (as well as my exorbitant fees — a perk of working with the wealthy of the kingdom) and returned to my room for my own feast.

As worried as I was as the result of my separation from my Aurora, I was actually able to focus with great intensity for the next several days on Madame's horoscope. It was complex, fascinating, dangerous and full of import.

Madame was a beautiful woman of middle years (at that time), but more than that, she was intelligent, witty and very insightful. It was no wonder that Louis found her so congenial to be with.

When I had finally completed her horoscope, I informed the same maid who was acting as my liaison and she arranged a time for me to speak with her mistress.

We met in mid-morning in a large room attached to her suite, a room with large windows and enough space that she and I could sit at one end of the room while her courtiers sat at the other and have some semblance of privacy, so long as we sat close together and spoke softly.

"Bonjour, Monsieur Astrologue," she said as I approached her. She was smiling as she called me 'Mister Astrologer.' It was a little joke, for she knew my name as well as the fact that I was a physician as well. She also knew that I was a man of discretion who would keep her business 'her business.'

She was sitting on a dark red brocaded silk sofa patterned with flowers and vines located under one of the windows, just large enough for two. She patted the space next to her indicating that I should sit there. We were fortunate that the sun was shining and the sky was clear, an unusual event for that time of year when the ground all around the palace was covered with snow.

While she smiled as we spoke beneath her outward appearance one could detect a troubled mind.

"So what news do you bring me from the stars?"

I began to spread out my charts and calculations, but she put a hand on my arm to stop me.

"No, I don't need or want that. The details are unimportant. Tell me what you have found that I should know about. Quickly," she said, with some impatience, " I need to have time before I see the King tonight to think about what you see."

"Madame," I replied, "Do you want the fortunate or the unfortunate events that I've seen first?"

She laughed. "Oh, please begin with those things that will lift my spirits before you tell me the worst. And be plain: I have girded my loins today and I need your honesty and candor!"

I nodded. As I had heard, she was a serious woman.

"Madame, the good news concerns your children and their progeny." She nodded her head slightly indicating that I should continue.

"L'Roi will elevate some of them — I cannot see precisely which of them without casting their horoscopes as well — to positions of wealth and power. They will be recognized as his get."

That seemed to please her, although she simply smiled not demonstrating what her internal joy must have been.

"Your progeny will become members of the Royal houses of Europe; but so far as I can tell, not including France."

She received that news stoically.

"Now for the sad news. Sad, but not tragic.

"You have been the mistress to the King for many years, but the stars say that your future time with him is limited. You will not be disgraced, exiled or live in danger, but you will not have the level of influence on the King that you wield now."

Once again she nodded her agreement with my assessment.

She replied to me, "This is not really unexpected. After all, he is the King and while He may age, there is no reason that His lusts should not be satisfied by women still in the bloom of youth. I am not yet old, but I am no longer young. I suspect that I have only lasted as long as I have because He enjoys talking to me and knows that I will not make unreasonable demands on Him." She smiled at her own remark. "Like expecting Him to ignore the periodic serving wench who takes his fancy."

She sat there in silence for a moment as she considered.

"How much longer?" she finally asked.

"It is not entirely clear, but more than a year. Perhaps two or three at the most."

"Merci, monsieur Christian, I am much in your debt. In navigating the politics of the Court, I always need as much information as I can acquire. We will meet again when we both return to Versailles."

That was my signal to leave, so I gathered my papers that I had started to spread out, stood up and bowed and then turned and left her sitting, with a thoughtful look on her face, on the sofa.

Happily now, you might think, I could return to Versailles to oversee the treatment of my angel, Aurora. But at Louis' Court, it was never so simple as that.

End of Part Two