"Ha!" exclaimed he, trembling like herself, "I have heard about hypnotism but never saw an exhibition. Is not this magnetic sleep to which you oblige her to succumb, doctor?"
"Yes, my lord. Take her hand, and ask her why she had me arrested."
Astounded by the scene, Louis receded but, interested, he did as directed. As Andrea resisted, the magnetizer touched the crown of her head with his palm, saying:
She sighed and her arms fell; her head sank back and she wept.
"So, countess," said the King, "you wanted to arrest and imprison the doctor?"
"How could I leave that in his hands?" muttered the lady, in a hollow voice.
"Tell me about that," said the King forgetting etiquet and kneeling beside the countess.
"I learnt that Gilbert, who had in sixteen years been twice back in France, purposed another voyage, to settle here. Chief of Police Crosne informed me that he had on a previous return bought an estate at Villers Cotterets: that his farmer enjoyed his trust, and I suspected that the casket with his papers was at his house."
"I--I went to Mesmer's and had myself put into a trance, when, my own medium, I wrote down the revelations I wanted."
"I went to Chief Crosne and he lent me his best man, one Wolfstep, who brought me the casket."
"Where is it?" cried Gilbert. "No lying--where is my casket?"
"In my rooms at Versailles," said Andrea, trembling nervously and bursting into tears. "Wolfstep is waiting for me here by appointment since eleven."
"Standing in the waiting room, leaning on the mantleshelf. The casket is on the table before him. Oh, haste! Count Charny, who was not to return before to-morrow, will be back to-night on account of the events. He is at Sevres now. Get Wolfstep away for fear my lord will see him."
"Your Majesty hears? This casket belongs to me. Will the King please order it to be returned to me?"
Placing a screen before the countess, Louis called the officer on duty and gave him orders what to do.
This curiosity of a monarch whose throne was being undermined to a purely physical problem, would make those smile who expected him to be engrossed with politics.
But he concentrated himself on this private speculation and returned to see the mesmerizer and the medium.