CHAPTER V.

THE DWARF AND THE DAUPHINESS.

On the second day after this scene in the favorite’s bower room, Zamara came unsummoned into the presence of his mistress, and laid a ring, with its green scarabee in her hand. She started up with a shriek, and dashed the ring from her vehemently.

The dwarf picked up the ring, and stood holding it with a frightened look, astonished at the excitement it had occasioned.

“Madame commanded that Zamara should not return without it,” he said, with tears in his eyes. “Is it wrong?”

“Lay it down—do not touch it, Zamara. Yet stay. An hour—a single hour can do little harm. Zamara, do you know the palace? Have you ever been at Versailles?”

“Often, madame. No one regards Zamara when he is not in these clothes, especially if it should be night.”

“Could you find your way into the apartments occupied by the Dauphiness, Zamara?”

“To give madame pleasure, Zamara would find his way anywhere.”

The countess patted the dwarf’s head with her white and beautiful hand.

A small enameled box stood on a _chiffonniere_ among other articles of expensive jewelry. She opened the box, and bade Zamara drop the ring into it; then she folded the box in a piece of silver paper, and gave it again to the dwarf.

“You understand,” she said, “this must go directly into the hands of the Dauphiness?”

“Madame, I understand.”

“And you will convey it there, at once?”

“At once.”

“But how? It must be done secretly, or you may come to harm, Zamara.”

“The harm will be welcome, if it comes in madame’s service,” answered the dwarf.

“Then go. It is getting late, shadows are gathering over the Park; but be careful. If any one sees you, say that you have a message for the king. There is not a creature in the palace who will dare molest you. Stay, I will write.”

The dwarf waited patiently till madame had completed a fanciful little note, which she gave to his charge. Concealing this with the box in his bosom, the dwarf set forth on his errand.

It was no unusual thing for Zamara to be seen coming and going to the king’s apartments; but that night he seemed lost in the vast building, and wandered about from room to room, hiding when the guards appeared, and darting across each illuminated space like some deer in an open glade. At last he found himself in a wing of the vast palace that he had never visited before. The dwarf passed several persons unavoidably on his way; but if any one observed him, he asked innocently if the king was yet at dinner, and passed on.

At length, after trying several keys, he entered a spacious bedchamber, dimly lighted, and rendered somewhat gloomy from the massive high bed mounted on a dais, from which curtains of crimson damask swept almost from the frescoed ceiling to the floor. In a smaller room, beyond this chamber, Zamara saw a toilet brilliantly lighted up, and a casket of jewels lying open upon it, from which a rope of pearls had fallen loosely, and lay gleaming like frozen moonlight across an azure satin cushion, on which the casket was placed.

Zamara knew that this was Marie Antoinette’s dressing-room. He moved across the bedchamber cautiously, and looked in. The room was empty, but a robe of some glittering white gauze lay upon a sofa near the toilet; and near that was a pair of white satin shoes, with high, red heels, and an enormous pearl in the center of each rosette. These preparations warned the dwarf that he might any moment be discovered. Quick as lightning he darted across the room, removed the casket from its azure cushion, and laid the enameled box, containing the scarabee, in its place. Before his hand left the box, he heard voices, and a gush of sweet laughter, as of young persons approaching and conversing together. That minute the room was empty again.

Zamara had just found time to flee across the bedchamber and hide himself behind the voluminous curtains, when the Dauphiness came into the dressing-room, followed by several of her ladies. She had just come up from dining in public, where some strange characters among the people, permitted by an old custom, to see the monarch dine, had excited her mirthfulness.

The Indian looked upon her with admiration, increased by her youth and wonderful beauty; the light from a dozen wax-tapers fell upon her rounded arms, shaded at the elbows with a mist of lace; and her neck, white as the purest leaves of a water-lily, gleaming through a kerchief of lace so thin that it lay upon it like a shadow. That string of pearls had fallen entirely from the casket when Zamara lifted it from the cushion, and this attracted the attention of the Dauphiness. She stooped and took them from the floor; then saw that the casket had been removed, and its place occupied.

“What is this?” she exclaimed, unfolding the silver paper, and opening the box. “Some new gift from my august father-in-law, no doubt. How strange! Look ladies! what a singular thing!”

She took the Egyptian ring from its box and examined it curiously. “A beetle with such strange writing on its breast; a serpent coiled around it. Some valuable antique, I suppose.”

“A talisman, rather, which will bring good fortune to your Highness, and to France,” said one of the ladies in waiting. “I have heard of such things.”

“And I,” said the Dauphiness, removing one of the many jewels from her finger, and putting the scarabee in its place. “It seems to have come here by a miracle, and we will at least test its virtues.”

Here the dressing-room door was closed, and Zamara stole from his hiding-place.

An hour after he rushed into the presence of his mistress, wild with triumph.

“Madame! Oh, madame! she has got it! She accepts! I saw the serpent coiled around her finger! It looked alive—it looked alive!”

In her gratitude for this evil act, the Countess Du Berry drew Zamara, the dwarf, toward her, and kissed him on the forehead.