The tender loving secret of Olympe and Louis (XVI), Act II : the lover patriot !

by Jean-Jacques COURTEY, Doctor in Economic Geography, Ph. D
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In 1788, one year after the failure of Calonne - once nicknamed "Mister deficit" -, who wanted to create a "territorial subvention" by ignoring the outdating division in three estates (Clergy, Nobility and Third Estate), Olympe de Gouges tries to save her beloved King. As Calonne, who took refuge in London, she would have wanted to avoid the convocation of General States for May 1789.
She is aware about the persistant game of Breteuil near the Crown and more precisely the Queen :  his inappropriate intervention launched the obscure "affair of the diamond necklace" (1785-1786) with the scandaleous arrest of Cardinal de Rohan in Versailles ; and after that, the same Minister Breteuil was at the origin of Calonne's final disgrace, officially because he was impopular.

She is meeting secretly Louis (XVI) since three years already in his "black cabinet" in Versailles, for love sake.

Scene I : In the "black cabinet" : the King confides to Olympe he is annoyed by the impossible tax reform

Louis :
Happy to see you again here Madam.

Olympe :
You seem tired your Majesty.

Louis :
Well, this question of Tax reform which never lead anywhere really gets on my nerves.
It seems there is no issue. I am always ending up with the blockade of Privileged or the refusal of the assembly of the 174 notables once established for the occasion by my ex-General Controller of Finances, Calonne.

Olympe :
If you allow me, I could try something to call at public opinion for you, Majesty ?

Louis :
Well, at the point we arrived, why not ! Do the way you feel Olympe, I trust you.

Olympe :
Come near me my good King, you need my care at the hour.

Louis :
You always know how to talk to me, my dear. And you really put me on when I feel I am off.

Olympe :
Well, I am just a woman in love Louis, in love with you.

Louis :
Yes, I know, and this gives me strength to battle everyday with my sneaky and unfrank surroundings.

Olympe, pressing Louis against her opulent breast :
Come to me, my King. I'll give you still more strength.


Scene II : Trying to gain support to the cause of the King in La Comédie Française (near Palais Royal)

Since her liberation from La Bastille Olympe de Gouges was seen differently by her surroundings. Everybody was paying attention to her ideas, even they were unusual.

In the following dialog, she is talking about them with an actor, while some others are listening.

Actor :
When you were prisoner in La Bastille in september 1785, did you see the cardinal de Rohan, who was overthere since august 16th ?

Olympe :
I saw him in the yard, but Breteuil had given orders, and no prisoner could really approach him to talk : his face was so white and atuned, like a terribly humiliated man. Everybody was saying he didn't understand why he was in jail. And guards were seeing in this bad fate the hand of Breteuil, his most serious political rival at the court, more than the one of the King.

Actor :
This affair of the diamond necklace of the Queen was tenebrous, wasn't it ?

Olympe :
Yes, and the cardinal de Rohan was finally declared not guilty and freed by the Parliament of Paris in june 1786. But the damage was huge for the dignity of the Queen Marie-Antoinette, yet totally innocent, and then the King himself in the public eyes.
Breteuil shouldn't have let the scandal arising and happening, with this avoidable arrest in Versailles : it would have been better for everybody's sake.

Actor :
What do you think about this idea of equality upon tax (1/20th), the King tries unsuccessfully to pass since Turgot and Calonne ?

Olympe :
I think it's great to be considered equalilly, even there are a lot of resistances still.

Actor :
Do you think it's rather revolutionary as an idea ?

Olympe :
Our good King is not a "révolutionnaire" actually. He just wants simply to save the country's treasure for the sake of France. The patry is on heavy debts since the war of America that La Fayette brought to France. But a lot of factions are against the King's ideas, in the court of Versailles itself.

Actor :
So, there is no way he can succeed then.

Olympe :
There could be a way, but it will depend on people like us to spread it amongst the public opinion through our plays.

Actor :
Which idea ?

Olympe :
If public opinion was favourable to a kind of "volunteer patriotic tax" for instance, it could help him to reestablish the balance with those factions and the "Privileged".

Actor :
You mean that by putting shame on the "Privileged" for their selfishness and un-patriotic attitude, they would be obliged to listen this time ?

Olympe :
Yes.

Actor :
But how can he overcome obstacles then ?

Olympe :
Well, it started a bit with the faction of his younger brother, the Count of Artois, who finally agreed on this, at the difference of his first brother, the Count of Provence.

Actor :
You mean there is an invisible but real evolution of minds about tax equality ?

Olympe :
It may look slow, but the "Privileged" wouldn't be able to hold on the way they did till now. And when it will happen, everybody will be surprised at the sudden unavoidable result.

Actor :
So, you are rather optimistic ?

Olympe :
Not really ! It may also occur in another way, more violently. And the King himself could be overwhelmed.

Actor :
So you don't wish this to happen ?

Olympe :
I wish it will pass peacefully through the King, and not through troubles, riots and civil war. The "Privileged" of Clergy and Nobility are ready to do anything to stop him, even by making a counter-nature alliance with the notables of the Third Estate. That's why I think the convocation of General States for May 1789 is not a good news at all.

Artist :
You are in doubt then ?

Olympe :
Yes, but there is one good thing at least about it : the King allowed women to participate the vote of representatives of the three orders for the General States. And this is great in a way.



- Scene III :  The King and Olympe's plan : an alliance of the King and her with the Nation against the Privileged !


We are in the very beginning of november 1788, just before Olympe's publications in the Journal Général de France (November 6th, and december 15th, 1788).

Louis :
Madam, I'm very pleased to see you again.

Olympe :
I know Louis, my King.

Louis :
You told me last time about your project of "Letter to the people" of France. What is it about ?

Olympe :
I want to propose the creation of a "volunteer patriotic tax" to save the Crown treasure, so then you wouldn't be blocked by the Privileged, the Notables assembly...or Breteuil !

Louis :
You really don't like this man, Olympe.
But you know, in a way we owe him our tender friendship," ma chérie". And he is not anymore Minister since july 24th.

Olympe :
To me Breteuil is playing a funny game towards you and the Queen, Majesty. And I am sure you can feel something strange about him. It's you who saved me from him and La Bastille, my lovable King.

Louis :
So you see him as bad for my crown, dear ?

Olympe :
Certainly, your Majesty.

Louis :
And you  conside he can put me in malencontrous or irreversible situations, even he is not  doing it on purpose.

Olympe :
This was shown by his attitude towards the Cardinal of Rohan, who was finally freed by the Parliament of Paris two years ago, your Majesty. And to me, he is certainly harsh enough to provoke an uncontrollable revolt from the people of Paris if in power again.

Louis :
As much as that ?

Olympe :
Well, it's what I think. And I am not alone in that case.
By the way, if you don't see any objection, I'd like to write about new political propositions to reform our society, with your kind agreement, Majesty... Louis.

Louis :
Which measures, dear ?

Olympe:
Like me you are aware France needs to modernize. We talked about it so many times together after love. It's about the Crown help for workers on the dole, this ambitious agrary reform for waste lands, and  those "houses of heart" for widows, orphans, and old people.

Louis, while caressing tenderly her hair :
I know that heart matters a lot for you, dear Olympe. And I can assure you I'll do what I can to help you.
But first, I let you write your epistles in the Journal General de France to see how people react. After all, my ancestor Louis XIV, did the same with Molière, when he let him write all his plays , including "Tartuffe", to see the reactions of clergy and the public.

Olympe :
Then, it will be an association of you, Majesty, the Nation, and my modest person as a third part.
But let's forget a bit about politics for today. And kiss me deeply, Louis !


Scene IV :  Queen Marie- Antoinette tells about Olympe's epistles published in the "Grand Journal de France" (November 6th, and December 15th 1788) to her husband, Louis XVI.

The two epistles of Olympe in the Journal General de France are benefitting a quite favourable welcoming and assessment. In the first one she defends "a volunteer patriotic tax" to save the royal treasure. And in the second, she proposes the deep reforms of the French society she talked about with the King, and adds some more about children - legitimate or natural -, divorce, civil marriage and... a strange union of people already engaged with someone else, just taken for an imaginative and eccentric idea.

Marie-Antoinette:
Have you read what wrote your "protégée" in the Grand Journal de France recently ?

Louis :
Which "protégée" ?

Marie-Antoinette :
Well, you know who I mean. This playwright and actress you freed from La Bastille by cancelling the order of Breteuil, at the time Rohan was just detained...and maintained overthere.

Louis :
Oh I see : Olympe de Gouges !

Marie-Antoinette :
So you read it also. And what she wrote in order to modernize France doesn't provoke any reaction from you ?

Louis :
Which reaction, "mon amie" ?

Marie-Antoinette :
She is suggesting the creation of a kind of union by contract between people who are already engaged somewhere else !

Louis (hiding rather well he is a bit annoyed) :
Ah that's a surprisingly strange idea indeed  ! However, I thought you didn't like, as Breteuil, what she proposed about tax for the "Privileged", because it's a subject which is annoying us from so long now.

Marie-Antoinette :
Someone has to pay at the end anyway. And the kingdom of France for its sake should take money where it is, after all.

Louis :
Thanks Antoinette, for your support.

Marie-Antoinette :
Is that all you can say about her ? This young widow must be in love with a married nobleman. I wander who he is ? She has to be mad about him to dare writing such a thing about a civil union ignoring a religious marriage.

Louis :
Have you ever been mad about a man, "ma mie" ?

Marie-Antoinette :
Well, if you mean I don't show enough my love for you, you know the answer. It took me time, but I am fond of you and our beautiful children, Louis. When I watch Louis-Charles who is so cute, he reminds me about you.
 
Louis (proud), is silently whispering :
She thinks the same thing also.

Marie-Antoinette :
What did you say dear ?

Louis :
I was just agreeing with you, Antoinette... And I have to add I appreciate your kindness and patience with me. We were too young when we married anyway. And it took some time to both of us to get to know and appreciate each other.

Marie-Antoinette :
Coming back to her, she is quite pretty and her verb can charm a man without any doubt.
She is coming from the South West of France, Montauban in Gascony I heard : she must be rather hot and passionate as a woman...or mistress. I really wander which lucky man can be the object of such a burning and loving creature ?

Louis :
D'Artagnan was also from Gascony. And he was devoted to the Bourbon house.
Are you reading also her plays for La Comédie Française, darling Antoinette ?

Marie-Antoinette :
Mmm, no...yes ! Well a little bit ! I couldn't write this way, because she is so bold and wild...

Louis is approaching the wife and kisses her forehead. She is replying a bit wildly by daring to give him a very sweet kiss on the lips, which is delighting him...


Scene V : The rumor about Olympe's ancestry from louis XV is pointed out by the King Louis XVI

Louis XVI has read integrally the content of the two epistles. And he has realized how much Olympe is suffering to be herself a natural child. He wants to talk about it with her at the occasion of her new coming in his "black cabinet".

Louis:
"Bonjour Madame", I'm pleased to have you here again in my "black cabinet".

Olympe :
So do I, your Majesty.

Louis :
I have a mystery to tell about and it's concerning your birth, dear Olympe.

Olympe :
Well, I have never hidden from you I'm a natural child, dear Louis.

Louis:
Oh, I didn't mean to doubt about you, darling.

Olympe :
I don't understand then.

Louis :
Well, I made some research about your ancestry, and what I found amazed me.

Olympe :
Really !

Louis :
According to some of my sources you might share the same blood as me.

Olympe :
What ?

Louis :
You know that my grand-father Louis XV loved women, and had so many mistresses.
There is a strong possibility that your mother, the beautiful linen maid Anne Mouisset, was one of them when he passed Montauban in 1747.
And it would make you a natural female descendant of my ancestor...our common ancestor then.

Olympe :
It's probably better to forget about those details your Majesty. We are anyway relatives for our thoughts and that counts a lot more for me.

Louis :
As you wish Olympe, but I am pleased to know we share so much together.  Give me a kiss, my "far cousin" !

Olympe kisses him amorously.


             (to be followed, with a reminding of "Thibermesnil 2-6-12" )