The Hero of the People
Copyright© 2024 by Alexandre Dumas
Chapter 26: Gamain Proves He Is the Master.
THE reader will not be much surprised, after the permission Lafayette gave for the King to have his locksmith call to relieve him of a trouble in lockmaking, that Gamain should present himself at the palace with his apprentice who gave the name of Louis Lecomte.
Though there was nothing in the pair aristocratic, King Louis ran to the forge door on hearing the announcement and bade them enter.
“Here I am,” returned Gamain, with the familiarity of a crony.
Whether he was less used to royal company, or endowed by more respect for crowned heads under whatever attire they appeared, the boy kept on the sill, at a space from his master, with his cap in his hand near the door closed by the valet behind both.
He may have been better placed there to catch the gleam of glee in the King’s dull eye, and to give unseen a respectful nod.
“Glad to see you, my old Gamain,” said Louis; “I really did not look for you—I thought you had forgotten old times.”
“And that is why you have taken on a ‘prentice,” said Gamain. “You did right enough to have help when I was not on hand, but unfortunately an apprentice is not a master.”
“How could I help it? I was assured that you did not care to come near me from fear of injuring yourself.”
“Faith, it was not hard to learn at Versailles that it was not healthy to be friend of yours—as witness that brace of your Lifeguardsman whom they cut off the heads of! ay, and by the same token had the Queen’s barber Leonard dress them in the latest fashion, which I saw in a saloon at Secres.”
A cloud passed over the royal brow and the apprentice hung his head.
“But folks say that you are getting on nicely since you came back to town, and that you can make the Parisians do anything you like; not that it is astonishing, for the Parisians are ninnies and the Queen is such a weedler when she likes to be.”
Louis made no remark, but his cheeks were colored. The young man seemed pained by the locksmith’s familiarity. After wiping his forehead with a handkerchief, rather fine for a locksmith’s help, he approached the King to whom he said:
“Does your Majesty allow me to tell how we have Master Gamain here and how I am in your employment?”
“Yes, my dear Louis,” said the King.
“That is the style! ‘My dear Louis!’ as long as your arm. To a fortnight’s acquaintance, a workman, a ‘prentice! why, what are you going to call me, who has known you these five and twenty years? who put the file in your fist? who am the master? this is the advantage of having white hands and a glib tongue.”
“I will call you ‘My good Gamain’ if you like. I speak to the lad affectionately because I owe to him the joy of seeing my old master again: not because he speaks prettily or keeps his hands smooth, for you know I think nothing of these fine ways—but I like him for proving it was false what they said about my never seeing you any more.”
“Well, it was not me that held back, but that wife of mine. She was always saying: ‘Gamain, you have bad acquaintances, those who fly too high for you. It is not good to hobnob with aristocrats nowadays. We have a little property—look after it. Let us rear our young ones: and let the Dauphin learn locksmithing from others than you, if he wants to, like his father before him. There are plenty of smiths in France.’”
Louis glanced at the apprentice, and stifling a sigh, partly sad and partly rallying, said:
“No doubt, but there are few like you.”
“Just what I said to the master when I called on him,” said the young man, “I told him the King was making a hidden-bolt lock; and that he had got along very well till he came to the sliding bolt itself——”
“I should think so,” interrupted Gamain: “bless you, the bolt is the backbone of a lock. It is not given to everybody to get over that difficulty.”
“No, nor mine in passing the examination you put me through to be convinced I came from the King,” replied the young man, laughing. “You said it was a trap laid by your enemies; but the twenty-five yellow boys sent by his Majesty convinced you. So off we started, and here we are.”
“And welcome,” said the royal smith, thanking the speaker with a glance; “and now, Master Gamain, as you appear in a hurry, let us tackle the job.”
“You have hit it. I promised the mistress that I should be home by evening. Let us see this puzzler of a lock.”
The King put in his hands a lock three-parts finished.
“Lord help us,” said the man, grinning: “this is not a secret bolt but a trunk lock. You have three wards on it and the second ought to catch while the first is released by the key.”
He was using the key as he spoke and the others contemplated his demonstration with awe for his learning.
“But the second ward catches, like the Assembly when you want it to do something your way and says: ‘I won’t budge.’”
“But there must be some way of getting over the fix,” said the King.
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