Chapter 16: In Which M. Seguier, Keeper of the Seals, Looks More Than Once for the Bell

Summary

     The king has a typical Dumas overreaction to the cardinal’s news that the Duke of Buckingham had been in Paris for the last few days; turning pale and red alternately. That can’t be healthy! The king is explosively irate because he knows that the duke loves the queen, and he suspects that Queen Anne returns those feelings. Though he considers the queen to be an enemy (!), he is still highly jealous of the duke. The cardinal feigns sympathy and trust in the queen, but plants the idea in the king’s head that the queen was writing letters to the duke all day. The king goes berserk and demands those papers she was writing on. He then unceremoniously bursts into the queen’s room, and tells her that the keeper of the seals is coming to talk to her. He ignores her queries and storms out.

     M. Seguier, as a young monk, used to feel lustful every so often, in the usual sense. As a church man, he tried to purge these feeling by praying, but he still had trouble, as did some of his colleagues. So, his fellow monks devised a way to help him. When anyone felt lustful, they would ring a bell, and everyone would pray for them. With this little introduction, we go back to the present. M. Seguier has been authorized to search anywhere for the letter. Queen Anne cooperatively gives him the keys to her cupboards and desk, and he rummages through both to no avail. Then, he wants to search the queen’s person. The queen is as indignant and horrified as one might imagine. She tells him that she put the letter down her dress. M. Seguier does not seem much daunted by this, and is willing to grope her to get the letter. He instinctively looks around for a bell, but there is none. The queen absolutely has dignity, and refuses to allow him to touch her. He insists that he must, and now he really wishes there was a bell. Almost fainting with fury, she hands him the letter and he leaves. What an unpleasant scene!

     The king reads the letter, and is happily surprised to see that it is addressed to the king of Spain, asking his help to remove the cardinal. Ha! He shows it to the cardinal, who pretends to still be sympathetic toward the queen. The king tells him that he is too indulgent. The cardinal then casually precipitates his plan to get the queen in trouble. After receiving word from Milady that she has fulfilled her mission, he advises the king to throw a ball to reconcile with the queen. The king agrees after some persuasion, and tells the queen the idea. After a few days of the king being kind to her, the queen forgives him completely and is excited for the ball. The wily cardinal, though, makes it a point to emphasize to the king that the queen ought to wear her diamond studs. Dumas mentions in this chapter that the queen has every reason to dislike the cardinal – he takes away people that care about her, or he turns them against her.

Reaction

     I totally called that Queen Anne would have to wear the diamond studs soon! In other news, the royal family is such a mess. The king is openly hostile towards the queen, the queen is emotionally cheating on him with the Duke of Buckingham, and the cardinal is trying to drive them even further apart though he pretends to wants them to get along. Queen Anne’s sad, persecuted, and isolated life makes my heart go out to her.

     This is a melancholy chapter so I can’t say these are my favorite lines, but they explain my sympathy for the queen: “[Queen Anne] had seen her most devoted servants fall around her, her most intimate confidants, her dearest favorites. Like those unfortunate persons endowed with a fatal gift, she brought misfortune upon everything she touched. Her friendship was a fatal sign which called down persecution. Mme. de Chevreuse and Mme. de Bernet were exiled, and Laporte did not conceal from his mistress that he expected to be arrested every instant.” How can you not hate the cardinal now? Well played, Dumas, well played.