Chapter I. The Desperate Rescue.
Chapter II. The Field Of The Dead.
Chapter IV. An Aerial Journey.
Chapter VI. What Gilbert Expected.
Chapter VII. The Trap To Catch Philosophers.
Chapter VIII. The Little Trianon.
Chapter X. A Seance Of Mesmerism.
Chapter XI. The Downfall And The Elevation.
Chapter XIII. Nicole Is Valued Properly.
Chapter XIV. One Man’s Meat Is Another’s Poison.
Chapter XV. The Road To Premiership Is Not Strewn With Roses.
Chapter XVI. The Endless Law Suit.
Chapter XVII. The Secret Society Lodge.
Chapter XVIII. The Innermost Circle.
Chapter XX. The Diamond Collar.
Chapter XXI. The King’s Private Supper-Party.
Chapter XXIII. Father And Daughter.
Chapter XXIV. The Richelieu Elixir.
Chapter XXVI. Sartines Believes Balsamo Is A Magician.
Chapter XXVII. Love Versus Science.
Chapter XXVIII. The Ultimate Test.
Chapter XXIX. The Liquor Of Beauty.
Chapter XXXIII. The Fainting Fits.
Chapter XXXV. The Misunderstanding.
Chapter XXXVII. The Guilty One.
Chapter XXXVIII. Father And Son.
Chapter XXXIX. Gilbert’s Project.
Chapter XL. December The Fifteenth.
Chapter XLII. A Strange Encounter.
Chapter XLIII. The Last Absolute King.
Chapter I.
The Desperate Rescue.
On the thirteenth of May, 1770, Paris celebrated the wedding of the Dauphin or Prince Royal Louis Aguste, grandson of Louis XV. still reigning, with Marie-Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria.
The entire population flocked towards Louis XV. Place, where fireworks were to be let off. A pyrotechnical display was the finish to all grand public ceremonies, and the Parisians were fond of them although they might make fun.
The ground was happily chosen, as it would hold six thousand spectators. Around the equestrian statue of the King, stands were built circularly to give a view of the fireworks, to be set off at ten or twelve feet elevation.
The townsfolk began to assemble long before seven o’clock when the City Guard arrived to keep order. This duty rather belonged to the French Guards, but the Municipal government had refused the extra pay their Commander, Colonel, the Marshal Duke Biron, demanded, and these warriors in a huff were scattered in the mob, vexed and quarrelsome. They sneered loudly at the tumult, which they boasted they would have quelled with the pike-stock or the musket-butt if they had the ruling of the gathering.
The shrieks of the women, squeezed in the press, the wailing of the children, the swearing of the troopers, the grumbling of the fat citizens, the protests of the cake and candy merchants whose goods were stolen, all prepared a petty uproar preceding the deafening one which six hundred thousand souls were sure to create when collected. At eight at evening, they produced a vast picture, like one after Teniers, but with French faces.
About half past eight nearly all eyes were fastened on the scaffold where the famous Ruggieri and his assistants were putting the final