H.J. Gaudreau - Betrayal in the Louvre Read Online Free Page B

traditional seating area for the royal family and guests.  It served as a private altar and was not visible from the nave.  Two guards stood in front of the communion table.
    “Leave”, he said. 
    “Mon General, we cannot leave, we are representatives of the King.  It is our duty, I must ask you your business.”  The Sergeant stood at attention; fear streaked across the man’s face. 
    Luckner sympathized with the man.  The Sergeant was in an awkward position.  But he didn’t have the time.  Raising the sword he had taken from the shrine to the Knights of the Holy Spirit he placed the point at the man’s throat.  The Sergeant’s eyes met his.  “In the name of the King remove yourselves from this place,” Luckner said.  His eyes locked on those of the Sergeant; this was a good man Luckner thought, there were too few like him.  Few would have questioned a General, orders or no.  He could see a fire in the man’s eyes.  Luckner sensed the man’s confusion.  The Sergeant decided there was no doubt a sword would be driven through his neck if he objected further.  He lowered his eyes, glanced at his man and acquiesced.
    “Oui, Mon General, I intended no offense,” said the Sergeant.  He and the Private hurried off. 
    The small altar was made of marble, with a simple gold cross standing in the middle of the communion table.  Behind it, recessed into the wall was an ambry.  To this storage area General Luckner proceeded.  In front of, and level with the lower edge of the ambry was another communion table, this one also made of white marble.  The ambry itself was made up of five wooden doors forming the shape of a U; one central door nearly four feet long and hinged at the bottom and, on each side two square doors of similar construction, one over the other.  In the center of the U was a painting of King Solomon holding a sword and a baby, one woman crying, another simply watching.  He did not know the artist.  The structure was of a beautiful dark Lebanon cedar, with a carved scene of the Archangel Gabriel slaying a demon.  The sword of Christ poised above the demon’s heart as its central motif.  The four smaller doors had similar scenes of holy triumph over evil.
    He opened the small door on the bottom right.  This compartment held the Patents of the extended family of the House of Bourbon.  Inside was a stack of wooden cylinders, butt ends facing outward.  A Patent was actually a vellum document, in this case made of calf’s leather, attesting to the family tree of a royal.  Each of the individual’s ancestors and blood relatives were identified.  Their portraits painted onto the leather in painstaking detail.  It documented the how and why of the bearer’s claim to royalty.  He closed that door and opened the one above it.  Inside this door were only six cylinders; these were the Patents of the King, his Queen, and their three surviving children and one dead child.  The cylinders, twenty inches long, were actually hollow elephant tusks.  Each end was covered with a gold cap.  Engraved into each cylinder was a name.  He quickly examined one, then the next, until he finally found the one labeled “Louis-Joseph”.  Withdrawing the cylinder he secured it in the small knapsack he carried. 
    Luckner went to the other end of the ambry and opened the top door.  Inside was a square box, of Lebanon cedar, a fleur-de-lis inlaid in ivory and the words “The House of Bourbon” inlaid in gold and mother of pearl decorating the top.  He removed the box and put it on the altar.  Carefully he felt for the small clasp hidden in a relief carved on the front.  Finding it, he opened the box.  There, cushioned in a purple pillow was a Crown.  Certain he had the correct crown Luckner stood to his full height, and listened intently.  All the while carefully studying the walls, nooks and shadows of his surroundings.  Convinced he was alone, he removed the crown and placed it on the