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To my mind there was nothing very remarkable in having my existence acknowledged by two very muddled young men, who in their present state acknowledged also their brotherhood with the roué whom I had seen in the next room or the cabman sitting outside on his box in a half-stupor.
The eccentricities and follies of Lady Caroline Lamb had formed the gossip of several London seasons long years before. Other scandals had gathered round his name, and though they had been to some extent disproven, it was indignantly asked, could there be a more unsuitable and undesirable guide for an innocent royal girl of eighteen than this accomplished, bland roue of threescore?
Only the other day he read in some medical book an article on that very subject. The writer says any great shock of that kind can cause a temporary disarrangement of the moral sense and perceptions. For example, a man who, under ordinary circumstances is a perfect model of a husband, with every good quality and virtue, may suddenly lose all sense of conduct and become am unprincipled roué.
The only king of France who would not have laughed was perhaps Louis XIII; but as for his roue of a father, he would perhaps have banished the young man, either under the accusation that he was no Frenchman or from a conviction that he was setting a dangerous example. Strange contradiction! A young man is equally blamed if he passes life in Holy Land, to use an expression of bachelor life.
Fancy, gentlemen, Monsieur le Vicomte de Gerfaut, a native of Gascony, a roue by profession, a star of the first magnitude in literature, is afflicted by nature with a stomach which has nothing in common with that of an ostrich; he has need to use the greatest care. So we have him drink seltzer-water principally, and feed him on the white meat of the chicken.
With this, Saville began a light and amusing recital of his various and singular life for the last three years. Anecdote, jest, maxim, remark, interspersed, gave a zest and piquancy to the narration. An accomplished roue always affects to moralise; it is a part of his character. There is a vague and shrewd sentiment that pervades his morale and his system.
‘I think he must have gone to propose to the Bluestocking to save her from polygamy and her own opinions,’ drawled the Weary Roué, lighting his cigarette. ‘Stout fella! I believe he has!’ cried the Ass, excitedly. ‘I’ll have a shilling each way on it with any of you I mean it, really!’ ‘Oh! what if he has?’ said the Family Egotist, irritably. ‘What does one fool more in the world matter?
The bandit may turn state's evidence, and the assassin confess beneath the noose; but the roue will die protesting that his mistress is pure as the driven snow. And yet woman is by nature as true to her rightful lord as the needle to the magnetic north, as faithful to her marriage vows as the stars to their appointed courses.
Mademoiselle's bête noir, the marquis, who was a debilitated roue in search of a fortune, attached himself to them upon all occasions. "Bah!" said Clélie with contempt, "she amazes one by her imbecility this woman.
Born in 1696, when Louis XIV. had still nearly twenty years of his long reign before him, Louis François Armand Duplessis, Duc de Richelieu, survived to hear the rumblings which heralded the French Revolution ninety-two years later; and for three-quarters of a century to be known as the most accomplished and heartless roué in all France.
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