By the time that the emperor Napoléon’s extraordinary reign of conquest, imperial grandeur and tragedy was finally brought to an end in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, Dr. Émile Blanchard was a wealthy man and ready to retire to the pleasant house he had purchased in Fontainebleau.

Not that the fall of the emperor affected him professionally. He was secure, he was fashionable. The restoration of the monarchy brought him more aristocratic patients than he could possibly accept.

It also caused him, quite inadvertently, to do a final good turn to the family of de Cygne.

In the year 1818, one of his noble patients asked the good doctor if he’d like to be presented to the king. Naturally, Blanchard was happy, and somewhat intrigued, to accept.

He found the king much as he’d expected: very corpulent, but with a certain nobility and dignity in his face. When the nobleman told the king that Blanchard had treated such people as Danton, Robespierre and others in the days of the Revolution, Blanchard was a little taken by surprise.

He was afraid that this information would not make him a very welcome visitor with the king, and he would hardly have blamed him. But not at all. The king was rather curious, and asked him to tell him about them. Then he asked what had been Blanchard’s most memorable experience from that time. And Émile was just wondering what to say when he remembered poor Étienne de Cygne and his son—whom he hadn’t thought about for several years.

He told the king the whole story, start to finish.

“And so this lie you told, that the lady was pregnant, not only saved her life, but turned out to be true?”

“Exactly, sire. Conception must have been a day or two before, I think.”

“It was a miracle.”

“The boy was named Dieudonné, sire, since he was clearly a gift from God. Thanks to his birth, the family continues.”

“A family, my dear doctor, who have served my own for many centuries. I had not known of this wonderful circumstance.”

He seemed quite delighted.

“Well,” he suddenly declared, “if God shows such favor to the de Cygnes, then so should their king. I shall make the boy a vicomte.”

And it gave Dr. Blanchard great pleasure, soon afterward, to write to Dieudonné and his mother to congratulate them on this happy addition to the family’s ancient honor.

Chapter Twenty-five

•  1936  •

When Roland de Cygne had first proposed to her, Marie had made a mistake. She’d refused.