CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
The Story Of The Duchess Of Cicogne And Of
by Anatole France
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Title: The Story Of The Duchess Of Cicogne And Of Monsieur De Boulingrin 1920
Author: Anatole France
Editor: James Lewis May And Bernard Miall
Translator: D. B. Stewart
Release Date: May 9, 2008 [EBook #25409]
Language: English
The Story Of The Duchess Of Cicogne And Of by Anatole France 1
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*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUCHESS OF CICOGNE ***
Produced by David Widger
THE STORY OF THE DUCHESS OF CICOGNE AND OF MONSIEUR DE BOULINGRIN
From "The Seven Wives Of Bluebeard & Other Marvellous Tales"
By Anatole France
Translated by D. B. Stewart
Edited By James Lewis May And Bernard Miall
John Lane Company MCMXX
The Story Of The Duchess Of Cicogne And Of by Anatole France 2
CHAPTER I
THE story of the Sleeping Beauty is well known; we have excellent accounts of it, both in prose and in verse.
I shall not undertake to relate-it again; but, having become acquainted with several memoirs of the time which
have remained unpublished, I discovered some anecdotes relating to King Cloche and Queen Satine, whose
daughter it was that slept a hundred years, and also to several members of the Court who shared the Princess's
sleep. I propose to communicate to the public such portions of these revelations as have seemed to me most
interesting.
After several years of marriage, Queen Satine gave the King, her husband, a daughter who received the names
of Paule-Marie-Aurore. The baptismal festivities were planned by the Duc des Hoisons, grand master of the
ceremonies, in accordance with a formulary dating from the Emperor Honorius, which was so mildewed and
so nibbled by rats that it was impossible to decipher any of it.
There were still fairies in those days, and those who had titles used to go to Court. Seven of them were invited
to be god-mothers, Queen Titania, Queen Mab, the wise Vivien, trained by Merlin in the arts of enchantment,
Melusina, whose history was written by Jean d'Arras, and who became a serpent every Saturday (but the
baptism was on a Sunday), Urgèle, White Anna of Brittany, and Mourgue who led Ogier the Dane into the
country of Avalon.
They appeared at the castle in robes of the colour of time, of the sun, of the moon, and of the nymphs, all
glittering with diamonds and pearls. As all were taking their places at table an old fairy called Alcuine, who
had not been invited, was seen to enter.
"Pray do not be annoyed, madame," said the King, "that you were not of those invited to this festivity; it was
believed that you were either dead or enchanted."
Since the fairies grew old, there is no doubt that they used to die. They all died in time, and everybody knows
that Melusina became a kitchen wench in Hell. By means of enchantment they could be imprisoned in a magic
circle, a tree, a bush, or a stone, or changed into a statue, a hind, a dove, a footstool, a ring, or a slipper. But as
a fact it was not because they thought her dead or enchanted that they had not invited the fairy Alcuine; it was
because her presence at the banquet had been regarded as contrary to etiquette. Madame de Maintenon was
able to state without the least exaggeration that "there are no austerities in the convents like those to which
Court etiquette subjects the great." In accordance with his sovereign's royal wish the Duc des Hoisons had not
invited the fairy Alcuine, because she had one quartering of nobility too few to be admitted to Court. When
the Ministers of State represented that it was of the utmost importance to humour this powerful and vindictive
fairy, of whom they would make a dangerous enemy if they excluded her from the festivities, the King replied
in peremptory tones that she could not be invited, as she was not qualified by birth.
This unhappy monarch, even more than his predecessors, was a slave to etiquette. His obstinacy in
subordinating the greatest interests and most urgent duties to the smallest exigencies of an obsolete
ceremonial, had more than once caused serious loss to the monarchy, and had involved the realm in
formidable perils. Of all these perils and losses, those to which Cloche had exposed his house by refusing to
stretch a point of etiquette in favour of a fairy, without birth, yet formidable and illustrious, were by no means
the hardest to foresee, nor was it least urgent to avert them.
The aged Alcuine, enraged by the contempt to which she had been subjected, bestowed upon the Princess
Aurore a disastrous gift. At fifteen years of age, beautiful as the day, this royal child was to die of a fatal
wound, caused by a spindle, an innocent weapon in the hands of mortal women, but a terrible one when the
three spinstress Sisters twist and coil thereon the thread of our destinies and the strings of our hearts.
CHAPTER I 3
The seven godmothers could modify, but could not annul Alcuine's decree, and thus the fate of the Princess
was determined. "Aurore will prick her hand with a spindle; she will not die of it, but will fall into a sleep of a
hundred years, from which the son of a king will come to arouse her."
CHAPTER I 4
CHAPTER II
ANXIOUSLY the King and Queen consulted, in respect of the decree pronounced upon the Princess in her
cradle, all persons of learning and judgment, notably Monsieur Gerberoy, perpetual secretary of the Academy
of Sciences, and Dr. Gastinel, the Queen's accoucheur. "Monsieur Gerberoy," Satine inquired, "can one really
sleep a hundred years?" "Madame," answered the Academician, "we have examples of sleep, more or less
prolonged, some of which I can relate to Your Majesty. Epimenides of Cnossos was born of the loves of a
mortal and a nymph. While yet a child he was sent by Dosiades, his father, to watch the flocks in the
mountains. When the warmth of midday enveloped the earth, he laid himself down in a cool, dark cave, and
there he fell into a slumber which lasted for fifty-seven years. He studied the virtues of the plants, and died,
according to some, at the age of a hundred and fifty-four years; according to others at the age of two hundred
and ninety-eight.
"The story of the seven sleepers of Ephesus is related by Theodore and Rufinus, in a manuscript sealed with
two silver seals. Briefly expounded, these are the principal facts. In the year 25 of our Lord, seven of the
officers of the Emperor Decius, who had embraced the Christian religion, distributed their goods to the poor,
retired to Mount Celion, and there all seven fell asleep in a cave. During the reign of Theodore the Bishop of
Ephesus found them there, blooming like roses. They had slept for one hundred and forty-four years.
"Frederick Barbarossa is still asleep. In the crypt beneath a ruined castle, in the midst of a dense forest, he is
seated before a table round which his beard has twisted seven times. He will awake to drive away the crows
which croak around the mountain.
"These, madame, are the greatest sleepers of whom History has kept a record."
"They are all exceptions," answered the Queen. "You, Monsieur Gastinel, who practise medicine, have you
ever seen people sleep a hundred years?"
"No, madame," replied the accoucheur, "I have not exactly seen any such, nor do I ever expect to do so; but I
have seen some curious cases of lethargy, which, if you desire, I will bring to Your Majesty's notice.
"Ten years ago a demoiselle Jeanne Caillou, being admitted to the Hôtel-Dieu, there slept for six consecutive
years. I myself observed the girl Léonide Montauciel, who fell asleep on Easter Day in the year '61, and did
not awake until Easter Day of the following year."
"Monsieur Gastinel," demanded the King, "can the point of a spindle cause a wound which will send one to
sleep for a hundred years?"
"Sire, it is not probable," answered Monsieur Gastinel, "but in the domain of pathology, we can never say
with certainty, 'This will or will not happen.'"
"One might mention Brunhild," said Monsieur Gerberoy, "who was pricked by a thorn, fell asleep, and was
awakened by Sigurd."
"There was also Guenillon," said the Duchess of Cicogne, first lady-in-waiting to the Queen. And she
hummed:
She was sent to the wood To gather some nuts, The bush was too high, The maid was too small.
The bush was too high, The maid was too small, She pricked her poor hand With a very sharp thorn.
She pricked her poor hand With a very sharp thorn, From the pain in her finger The maid fell asleep.
CHAPTER II 5
"What are you thinking of, Cicogne?" said the Queen. "You are singing."
"Your Majesty will forgive me," replied the Duchess. "It was to ward off the bad luck."
The King issued an edict, whereby all persons were forbidden under pain of death to spin with spindles, or
even to have spindles in their possession. All obeyed. They still used to say in the country districts: "The
spindles must follow the mattock," but it was only by force of habit. The spindles had disappeared.
CHAPTER II 6
CHAPTER III
MONSIEUR DE LA ROCHECOUPÉE, the Prime Minister who, under the feeble King Cloche, governed the
kingdom, respected popular beliefs, as all great statesmen respect them. Caesar was Pontifex Maximus, and
Napoleon had himself crowned by the Pope. Monsieur de La Rochecoupée admitted the power of the fairies.
He was by no means sceptical, by no means incredulous. He did not suggest that the prediction of the seven
godmothers was false. But, being helpless, he did not allow it to disturb him. His temperament was such that
he did not worry about evils which he was impotent to remedy. In any case, so far as could be judged, the
occurrence foretold was not imminent. Monsieur de La Rochecoupée viewed events as a statesman, and
statesmen never look beyond the present moment. I am speaking of the shrewdest and most far-sighted. After
all, supposing one day the King's daughter did fall asleep for a hundred years, it was, in his eyes, purely a
family matter, seeing that women were excluded from the throne by the Salic Law.
He had, as he said, plenty of other fish to fry. Bankruptcy, hideous bankruptcy was ever present, threatening
to consume the wealth and the honour of the nation. Famine was raging in the kingdom, and millions of
unfortunate wretches were eating plaster instead of bread. That year the opera ball was more brilliant and the
masques finer than ever.
The peasantry, artisans, and shopkeepers, and the girls of the theatre, vied with one another in grieving over
the fatal curse inflicted by Alcuine upon the innocent Princess. The lords of the Court, on the contrary, and the
princes of the blood royal, appeared very indifferent to it. And there were on all hands men of business and
students of science who did not believe in the award of the fairies, for the very good reason that they did not
believe in fairies.
Such a one was Monsieur Boulingrin, Secretary of State for the Treasury. Those who ask how it was possible
that he should not believe in them since he had seen them are unaware of the lengths to which scepticism can
go in an argumentative mind. Nourished on Lucretius, imbued with the doctrines of Epicurus and Gassendi,
he often provoked Monsieur de La Rochecoupée by the display of a cold disbelief in fairies.
The Prime Minister would say to him: "If not for your own sake, be a believer for that of the public. Seriously,
my dear Boulingrin, that there are moments when I wonder which of us two is the more credulous in respect
of fairies. I never think of them, and you are always talking of them."
Monsieur de Boulingrin dearly loved the Duchess of Cicogne, wife of the ambassador to Vienna, first
lady-in-waiting to the Queen, who belonged to the highest aristocracy of the realm; a witty woman, somewhat
lean, and a trifle close, who was losing her income, her estates, and her very chemise at faro. She showed
much kindness to Monsieur de Boulingrin, lending herself to an intercourse for which she had no
temperamental inclination, but which she thought suitable to her rank, and useful to her interests. Their
intrigue was conducted with an art which revealed their good taste, and the elegance of the prevailing
morality; the connection was openly avowed, and thereby stripped of all base hypocrisy; but it was at the
same time so reserved in appearance that even the severest critics saw no cause for censure in it.
During the time which the Duchess yearly spent on her estate, Monsieur de Boulingrin used to stay in an old
pigeon-house, separated from his friend's château by a sunken road, which skirted a marsh, where by night the
frogs among the reeds tuned their diligent voices.
Now, one evening when the last rays of the setting sun were dying the stagnant water with the hue of blood,
the Secretary of State for the Treasury saw at the cross-roads three young fairies who were dancing in a circle
and singing:
"Trois filles dedans un pré Mon coeur vole Mon coeur vole Mon coeur vole à votre gré."
CHAPTER III 7
They enclosed him within their circle, and their light and airy forms sped swiftly about him. Their faces, in the
twilight, were dim and transparent; their tresses shone like the will-o'-the-wisp. They repeated:
"Trois filles dedans un pré!" until, dazed and ready to fall, he begged for mercy.
Then said the most beautiful, opening the circle:
"Sisters, give leave to Monsieur de Boulingrin to pass, that he may go to the castle, and kiss his ladylove."
He went on without having recognized the fairies, the mistresses of men's destinies, and a little farther on he
met three old beggar women, who were walking bowed low over their sticks; their faces were like three
apples roasted in the cinders. From their rags protruded bones which had more dirt than flesh upon them.
Their naked feet ended in fleshless toes of immoderate length, like the bones of an ox-tail.
As soon as they saw him approaching they smiled upon him and threw him kisses; they stopped him on his
way, calling him their darling, their love, their pet, and covered him with caresses which he was powerless to
evade, for the moment he made a movement to escape, they dug into his flesh the sharp claws at the tips of
their fingers.
"Isn't he handsome? Isn't he lovely?" they sighed.
For some time they raved on, begging him to love them. Then, seeing they could not rouse his senses, which
were frozen with horror, they covered him with abuse, hammered him with their staves, threw him on the
ground and trod him underfoot. Then, when he was crushed, broken, aching, and crippled in every limb, the
youngest, who was at least eighty years of age, squatted upon him and treated him in a manner too infamous
to describe. He was almost suffocated; immediately afterwards the other two, taking the place of the first,
treated the unfortunate gentleman in the same way.
Finally all three made off, saluting him with: "Good night, Endymion!" "To our next meeting, Adonis!"
"Good-bye, beautiful Narcissus!" and left him swooning.
When he came back to his senses, a toad near him was whistling deliciously like a flute, and a cloud of
mosquitoes were dancing before the moon. He rose with great difficulty and limpingly pursued his journey.
Once again Monsieur de Boulingrin had failed to recognize the fairies, mistresses of the destinies of men.
The Duchess of Cicogne awaited him impatiently.
"You come very late, my friend," she said.
He answered, as he kissed her fingers, that it was very kind of her to reproach him. His excuse was that he had
been somewhat unwell.
"Boulingrin," she said, "sit down there."
And she confided to him that she would be very happy to accept from the royal treasury a present of two
thousand crowns, as a fitting compensation for the unkindness of fate, faro having for the last six months been
terribly against her.
Informed that the matter was urgent, Boulingrin wrote immediately to Monsieur de La Rochecoupée to ask for
the necessary sum of money.
CHAPTER III 8
"La Rochecoupée will be delighted to obtain it for you," he said. "He is a helpful person and takes pleasure in
serving his friends. I may add that in him one perceives greater talents than are commonly seen in the
favourites of Princes. He has taste, and a head for business; but he is lacking in philosophy. He believes in
fairies, relying on his senses----"
"Boulingrin," said the Duchess, "you stink like a tom-cat."
CHAPTER III 9
CHAPTER IV
SEVENTEEN years, day by day, had elapsed since the fairies' decree. The Princess was as beautiful as a star.
The King, Queen, and Court were in residence at the rural palace of Eaux-Perdues. Need I relate what
happened then? It is well known how the Princess Aurore, wandering one day through the castle, came to the
top of a keep, where, in a garret, she found a dear old woman, all alone, plying her distaff. She had never
heard of the King's regulations, forbidding the use of spindles.
"What are you doing, my good woman?" asked the Princess.
"I am spinning, my dear child," replied the old woman, who did not recognize her.
"Ah, how pretty it looks," replied the Princess. "How do you do it? Give it to me, that I may see if I can do it
as well."
No sooner had she picked up the spindle, than she pricked her hand with it, and fell swooning.{*} King
Cloche, when he heard that the fairies' decree had been accomplished, ordered that the sleeping Princess
should be placed in the Blue Chamber, on a bed of azure embroidered with silver. Shocked, and full of
consternation, the courtiers made ready to weep, practised sighing, and assumed an expression of deep
affliction. Intrigues were formed in every direction; it was reported that the King had discharged his Ministers.
The blackest calumnies were hatched. It was said that the Duc de La Rochecoupée had concocted a draught to
send the Princess to sleep, and that Monsieur de Boulingrin was his accomplice.
* Contes de Perrault, édition Aadré Lefevre, p. 86-108
The Duchess of Cicogne climbed the secret staircase to the chambers of her old friend, whom she found in his
night-cap, smiling, for he was reading La Fiancée du roi de Garbe.
Cicogne told him the news, and how the Princess was lying on a blue bed in a state of lethargy.
The Secretary of State listened attentively.
"You do not believe, I hope, my dear friend, that the fairies have anything to do with it?" he said.
For he did not believe in fairies, although three of them, ancient and venerable, had overpowered him with
their love and their staves, and had drenched him to the skin in a disgusting liquid, in order to prove their
existence to him. The defect of the experimental method pursued by these ladies is that the experiment was
addressed to the senses, whose testimony one can always challenge.
"The fairies have had everything to do with it!" cried the Duchess. "The Princess's accident may have the most
unfortunate results for you and for me. People will not fail to attribute it to the incapacity of the Ministers, and
possibly to their malevolence. Can one tell how far calumny may reach? You are already accused of
niggardliness. According to what is being said, you refused, on my advice, to pay for warders for the young
and unfortunate Princess. Worse than that, there are rumours of black magic, of casting spells. The storm has
got to be faced. Show yourself, or you are lost!"
"Calumny," said Boulingrin, "is the curse of this world. It has killed the greatest of men. Whoever honestly
serves his King must make up his mind to pay tribute to that crawling, flying horror."
"Boulingrin," said Cicogne, "g
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