Chapter IX
Original French
Arrivée de l’Ingénu à Versailles. Sa réception à la cour.
L’Ingénu débarque en pot-de-chambre[a] dans la cour des cuisines. Ildemande aux porteurs de chaise à quelle heure on peut voir le roi. Lesporteurs lui rient au nez, tout comme avait fait l’amiral anglais. Illes traita de même, il les battit; ils voulurent le lui rendre, et lascène allait être sanglante, s’il n’eût passé un garde du corps,gentilhomme breton, qui écarta la canaille. Monsieur, lui dit levoyageur, vous me paraissez un brave homme; je suis le neveu demonsieur le prieur de Notre-Dame de la Montagne; j’ai tué des Anglais,je viens parler au roi; je vous prie de me mener dans sa chambre. Legarde, ravi de trouver un brave de sa province, qui ne paraissait pasau fait des usages de la cour, lui apprit qu’on ne parlait pas ainsi auroi, et qu’il fallait être présenté par monseigneur de Louvois.—Ehbien! menez-moi donc chez ce monseigneur de Louvois, qui sans doute meconduira chez sa majesté. Il est encore plus difficile, répliqua legarde, de parler à monseigneur de Louvois qu’à sa majesté; mais je vaisvous conduire chez M. Alexandre, le premier commis de la guerre; c’estcomme si vous parliez au ministre. Ils vont donc chez ce M. Alexandre,premier commis, et ils ne purent être introduits; il était en affaireavec une dame de la cour, et il y avait ordre de ne laisser entrerpersonne. Eh bien! dit le garde, il n’y a rien de perdu; allons chez lepremier commis de M. Alexandre; c’est comme si vous parliez à M.Alexandre lui-même.
[a] C’est une voiture de Paris à Versailles, laquelle ressemble à unpetit tombereau couvert.
Le Huron tout étonné le suit; ils restent ensemble une demi-heure dansune petite antichambre. Qu’est-ce donc que tout ceci? dit l’Ingénu;est-ce que tout le monde est invisible dans ce pays-ci? il est bienplus aisé de se battre en Basse-Bretagne contre des Anglais, que derencontrer à Versailles les gens à qui on a affaire. Il se désennuya enracontant ses amours à son compatriote. Mais l’heure en sonnant rappelale garde du corps à son poste. Ils se promirent de se revoir, lelendemain, et l’Ingénu resta encore une autre demi-heure dansl’antichambre, en rêvant à mademoiselle de Saint-Yves, et à ladifficulté de parler aux rois et aux premiers commis.
Enfin le patron parut. Monsieur, lui dit l’Ingénu, si j’avais attendupour repousser les Anglais aussi longtemps que vous m’avez faitattendre mon audience, ils ravageraient actuellement la Basse-Bretagnetout à leur aise. Ces paroles frappèrent le commis. Il dit enfin auBreton: Que demandez-vous?—Récompense, dit l’autre; voici mes titres:il lui étala tous ses certificats. Le commis lut, et lui dit queprobablement on lui accorderait la permission d’acheter unelieutenance.—Moi! que je donne de l’argent pour avoir repoussé lesAnglais? que je paie le droit de me faire tuer pour vous, pendant quevous donnez ici vos audiences tranquillement? je crois que vous voulezrire. Je veux une compagnie de cavalerie pour rien; je veux que le roifasse sortir mademoiselle de Saint-Yves du couvent, et qu’il me ladonne par mariage; je veux parler au roi en faveur de cinquante millefamilles que je prétends lui rendre: en un mot je veux être utile;qu’on m’emploie et qu’on m’avance.
Comment vous nommez-vous, monsieur, qui parlez si haut? Oh! oh! repritl’Ingénu, vous n’avez donc pas lu mes certificats? c’est donc ainsiqu’on en use? Je m’appelle Hercule de Kerkabon; je suis baptisé, jeloge au Cadran bleu, et je me plaindrai de vous au roi. Le commisconclut, comme les gens de Saumur, qu’il n’avait pas la tête biensaine, et n’y fit pas grande attention.
Ce même jour, le révérend P. La Chaise, confesseur de Louis XIV, avaitreçu la lettre de son espion, qui accusait le breton Kerkabon defavoriser dans son coeur les huguenots, et de condamner la conduite desjésuites. M. de Louvois, de son côté, avait reçu une lettre del’interrogant bailli, qui dépeignait l’Ingénu comme un garnement quivoulait brûler les couvents et enlever les filles.
L’Ingénu, après s’être promené dans les jardins de Versailles, où ils’ennuya, après avoir soupé en Huron et en Bas-Breton, s’était couchédans la douce espérance de voir le roi le lendemain, d’obtenirmademoiselle de Saint-Yves en mariage; d’avoir au moins une compagniede cavalerie, et de faire cesser la persécution contre les huguenots.Il se berçait de ces flatteuses idées, quand la maréchaussée entra danssa chambre. Elle se saisit d’abord de son fusil à deux coups et de songrand sabre. On fit un inventaire de son argent comptant, et on le menadans le château que fit construire le roi Charles V, fils de Jean II,auprès de la rue Saint-Antoine, à la porte des Tournelles.
Quel était en chemin l’étonnement de l’Ingénu! je vous le laisse àpenser. Il crut d’abord que c’était un rêve. Il resta dansl’engourdissement, puis tout-à-coup transporté d’une fureur quiredoublait ses forces, il prend à la gorge deux de ses conducteurs, quiétaient avec lui dans le carrosse, les jette par la portière, se jetteaprès eux, et entraîne le troisième, qui voulait le retenir. Il tombede l’effort, on le lie, on le remonte dans la voiture. Voilà donc,disait-il, ce que l’on gagne à chasser les Anglais de laBasse-Bretagne! Que dirais-tu, belle Saint-Yves, si tu me voyais danscet état?
On arrive enfin au gîte qui lui était destiné. On le porte en silencedans la chambre où il devait être enfermé, comme un mort qu’on portedans un cimetière. Cette chambre était déjà occupée par un vieuxsolitaire de Port-Royal, nommé Gordon, qui y languissait depuis deuxans. Tenez, lui dit le chef des sbires, voilà de la compagnie que jevous amène; et sur-le-champ on referma les énormes verrous de la porteépaisse, revêtue de larges barres. Les deux captifs restèrent séparésde l’univers entier.
Musean translation
Complete machine-assisted Musean translation made directly from the French, independently of the Plain English edition. All twenty chapters and Voltaire’s three author notes are retained; Beuchot’s editorial apparatus is omitted.
The Ingénu arrives at Versailles. His reception at court.
The Ingénu alights from a "chamber pot"[a] in the kitchen courtyard. He asks the sedan-chair carriers at what hour one can see the king. The carriers laugh in his face, just as the English admiral had done. He treated them in the same fashion and beat them; they meant to return the favor, and the scene would have turned bloody had a royal bodyguard, a Breton gentleman, not come by and scattered the rabble. "Sir," the traveler said to him, "you seem to me a worthy man. I am the nephew of the prior of Our Lady of the Mountain; I have killed Englishmen; I have come to speak to the king. Please take me to his room." The guardsman, delighted to find a brave man from his own province who seemed unfamiliar with the ways of court, explained that one did not speak to the king in that fashion, and that one had to be presented by His Lordship de Louvois. "Well then! Take me to this Lord de Louvois, who will doubtless conduct me to His Majesty." "It is even harder," replied the guardsman, "to speak to His Lordship de Louvois than to His Majesty; but I shall take you to Monsieur Alexandre, chief clerk at the War Office. It is as good as speaking to the minister." So they go to this Monsieur Alexandre, the chief clerk, but could not gain admittance: he was busy with a lady of the court, and there were orders to admit no one. "Well," said the guardsman, "all is not lost. Let us go to Monsieur Alexandre's chief clerk; it is as good as speaking to Monsieur Alexandre himself."
[a] A conveyance that runs from Paris to Versailles and resembles a small covered tipcart.
The astonished Huron follows him. They remain together for half an hour in a little antechamber. "What does all this mean?" said the Ingénu. "Is everyone invisible in this country? It is far easier to fight the English in Lower Brittany than to find the people one has business with at Versailles." To relieve his boredom he told his fellow Breton about his love. But the striking of the hour called the bodyguard back to his post. They promised to meet again the next day, and the Ingénu stayed another half hour in the antechamber, dreaming of Mademoiselle de Saint-Yves and of the difficulty of speaking to kings and chief clerks.
At last the great man appeared. "Sir," the Ingénu said to him, "if I had waited to repel the English as long as you have made me wait for an audience, they would now be ravaging Lower Brittany at their leisure." These words struck the clerk. At last he said to the Breton, "What do you want?" "A reward," the other said. "Here are my credentials." He spread out all his certificates before him. The clerk read them and said that he would probably be granted permission to buy a lieutenant's commission. "What! I am to give money for having driven back the English? Pay for the right to get myself killed for you, while you sit here calmly receiving visitors? You must be joking. I want a cavalry company for nothing; I want the king to take Mademoiselle de Saint-Yves out of the convent and give her to me in marriage; I want to speak to the king on behalf of fifty thousand families I intend to restore to him. In short, I want to be useful: give me employment and advancement."
"What is your name, sir, you who speak so loudly?" "Oh, indeed!" the Ingénu retorted. "So you have not read my certificates? Is that how things are done? My name is Hercule de Kerkabon; I am baptized; I am staying at the Blue Dial, and I shall complain of you to the king." The clerk concluded, like the people of Saumur, that he was not quite sound in the head, and paid little attention to him.
That same day, the Reverend Father de La Chaise, Louis XIV's confessor, had received his spy's letter, accusing the Breton Kerkabon of favoring the Huguenots in his heart and condemning the Jesuits' conduct. Monsieur de Louvois, for his part, had received a letter from the inquisitive bailiff, who portrayed the Ingénu as a scoundrel bent on burning convents and carrying off young women.
The Ingénu, after strolling through the gardens of Versailles, where he grew bored, and supping like a Huron and a Lower Breton, had gone to bed in the sweet hope of seeing the king the next day, obtaining Mademoiselle de Saint-Yves in marriage, securing at least a cavalry company, and putting an end to the persecution of the Huguenots. He was cradling himself in these pleasing thoughts when the constabulary entered his room. They first seized his double-barreled gun and his great saber. An inventory was made of his ready money, and he was taken to the fortress built by King Charles V, son of John II, near the Rue Saint-Antoine, at the Porte des Tournelles.
What was the Ingénu's astonishment on the way? I leave you to imagine it. At first he thought it a dream. He remained in a stupor; then, suddenly seized by a fury that doubled his strength, he takes two of the men escorting him in the carriage by the throat, hurls them through the door, leaps out after them, and drags along the third, who was trying to restrain him. The effort brings him down; they bind him and lift him back into the carriage. "So this," he said, "is what one earns by driving the English out of Lower Brittany! What would you say, beautiful Saint-Yves, if you saw me in this state?"
At last they reach the lodging appointed for him. He is carried in silence into the room where he is to be confined, like a dead man borne into a graveyard. This room was already occupied by an old recluse of Port-Royal named Gordon, who had been languishing there for two years. "Here," the head of the guards told him, "I have brought you some company." At once the huge bolts were shot back across the thick door, sheathed in broad iron bars. The two prisoners were left cut off from the whole universe.
Plain English translation
Complete machine-assisted Plain English translation made independently and directly from the French, not from the Musean edition. All twenty chapters and Voltaire’s three author notes are retained; Beuchot’s editorial apparatus is omitted.
The Ingénu reaches Versailles and is received at court.
The Ingénu gets out of a "chamber pot"[a] in the kitchen courtyard. He asks the chair carriers what time people can see the king. They laugh in his face, just as the English admiral did. He treats them the same way and beats them. They try to hit back, and there would have been bloodshed if a royal bodyguard, a Breton gentleman, had not passed by and driven the rabble off. "Sir," the traveler says, "you look like a good man. I'm the nephew of the prior of Our Lady of the Mountain. I've killed Englishmen, and I've come to speak to the king. Please take me to his room." Delighted to find a brave man from his own province, who seemed not to know court customs, the guard explained that people did not speak to the king like that. They had to be introduced by His Lordship de Louvois. "Then take me to this Lord de Louvois. He'll surely take me to His Majesty." "Speaking to Lord de Louvois is even harder than speaking to His Majesty," the guard replied. "But I'll take you to Monsieur Alexandre, the chief clerk for war. It's as good as speaking to the minister." They go to Monsieur Alexandre, the chief clerk, but cannot get in. He was occupied with a lady of the court, and nobody was to be admitted. "Well, nothing's lost," said the guard. "Let's see Monsieur Alexandre's chief clerk. It's as good as speaking to Monsieur Alexandre himself."
[a] This is a carriage running between Paris and Versailles, shaped like a small covered tipcart.
The astonished Huron follows him. They spend half an hour together in a little waiting room. "What does all this mean?" the Ingénu asks. "Is everyone invisible in this country? Fighting Englishmen in Lower Brittany is much easier than finding the people you need to deal with at Versailles." He passed the time by telling his fellow Breton about his love. But the clock struck and called the bodyguard back to his post. They promised to meet again the next day. The Ingénu spent another half hour in the waiting room, thinking about Mademoiselle de Saint-Yves and how hard it was to speak to kings and chief clerks.
At last the man in charge appeared. "Sir," the Ingénu told him, "if I'd waited to drive the English back as long as you've made me wait to see you, they'd now be ravaging Lower Brittany at their leisure." This struck the clerk. Finally he asked the Breton, "What do you want?" "A reward. Here are my credentials." He spread out all his certificates. The clerk read them and said he would probably be allowed to buy a lieutenant's commission. "What! Pay money for having driven back the English? Pay for the right to get killed for you while you sit here calmly receiving visitors? You must be joking. I want command of a cavalry company for nothing. I want the king to have Mademoiselle de Saint-Yves released from the convent and give her to me in marriage. I want to speak to him on behalf of fifty thousand families I intend to bring back to him. In short, I want to be useful. Give me a job and promote me."
"What's your name, sir, who speaks so loudly?" "Oh!" the Ingénu answered. "So you haven't read my certificates? Is that how things are done? My name is Hercules de Kerkabon. I've been baptized. I'm staying at the Cadran bleu, and I'll complain about you to the king." Like the people of Saumur, the clerk decided he was not quite right in the head and paid him little attention.
That same day, the Reverend Father de La Chaise, Louis XIV's confessor, had received his spy's letter. It accused the Breton Kerkabon of secretly supporting the Huguenots and condemning the Jesuits' conduct. Monsieur de Louvois, meanwhile, had received a letter from the questioning bailiff. It described the Ingénu as a scoundrel who wanted to burn convents and carry off girls.
After walking in the gardens of Versailles, where he was bored, and eating supper like a Huron and a Lower Breton, the Ingénu had gone to bed. He happily hoped to see the king the next day, win Mademoiselle de Saint-Yves in marriage, get at least a cavalry company to command, and stop the persecution of the Huguenots. He was soothing himself with these pleasant thoughts when the mounted police entered his room. First they seized his two-shot gun and his large saber. They made an inventory of his cash and took him to the castle that King Charles V, son of John II, had built near the rue Saint-Antoine, at the Tournelles gate.
You can imagine his astonishment on the way. At first he thought it was a dream. He remained stunned. Then, suddenly filled with a rage that doubled his strength, he grabs two of the men escorting him in the carriage by the throat and throws them out through the door. He jumps out after them, dragging along a third who tries to hold him back. The effort brings him down. They tie him up and put him back in the carriage. "So this is what you get," he said, "for driving the English out of Lower Brittany! Beautiful Saint-Yves, what would you say if you saw me like this?"
At last they reach the lodging chosen for him. They carry him silently into the room where he is to be locked up, like a dead man being carried into a cemetery. An old recluse from Port-Royal named Gordon was already there. He had been wasting away in that room for two years. "Here," the leader of the guards told him, "I've brought you company." Immediately they closed the huge bolts on the thick door, reinforced with broad bars. The two prisoners were cut off from the entire world.
About this section
Chapter IX is part of L’Ingénu, histoire véritable tirée des manuscrits du P. Quesnel by Voltaire. This page sets the French original beside 2 direct-source translations, so any line can be checked against the source. It is chapter 9 of 20 in the work, which is kept in the European tradition.
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