The Bastard: The Kent Family Chronicles by John Jakes Read Free Book Online Page A

romantic fancies! But on politics—ah, on politics—!” He kissed the tips of his fingers.
    “I’m still surprised he hasn’t been arrested,” Phillipe said.
    “Well, for one thing, the time’s right for his ideas. More and more people are coming to realize that we are all born in a natural state of freedom—and that power is therefore not something which descends in selective rays of light from heaven, to touch only a few of the especially appointed. Such as our good King Louis XV up in Paris—” Girard grimaced. “Or the Hanoverian farmer who holds the throne of England. They don’t care for the notion that power and authority are the results of contracts between the people and the rulers—or that the people may break those contracts at any time.”
    Mock-serious, he tucked the Rousseau work into his capacious side pocket. “Oh, it’s dangerous stuff.”
    “I wonder.”
    “What?”
    “Maybe it’s just a lot of words. Soap bubbles—”
    Girard started to sputter. Phillipe continued quickly:
    “I mean—one of the things I really wanted to ask you was—has any of this actually changed anything?”
    “Changed anything!” Girard rolled his eyes. “My dear pupil! It’s stirring new winds all over the world. Have you ever heard travelers at the inn mention the former British Prime Minister? Monsieur Pitt?”
    “Yes. With curses, mostly.”
    “Of course! The Great Commoner, as his people affectionately called him, directed England’s effort in the late, unlamented Seven Years’ War—and stole most of France’s territory in the New World in the bargain. A few years ago, the ministers of King George attempted to levy various niggling taxes—in such forms as an official stamp on all legal documents, for example. These taxes were to be levied only in Britain’s colonies in America. And Pitt himself—already an earl—actually stood up in Parliament and challenged the king’s right to enact such a tax! He proclaimed injustice being done to England’s sons across the water. And he helped get the stamp tax repealed! How’s that for being a steward of the people? At the same time, there was an Irishman in Parliament—a Colonel Barre, if I recall. He likewise praised the colonists for refusing to pay the taxes because they had no representation in London. He termed the contentious Americans ‘sons of liberty.’ Don’t tell your mother, but I like that touch. Phillipe, do you realize that a hundred years ago, both of those spokesmen for ordinary people might well have had their heads on the block?”
    “I’ll take your word for it.”
    Smiling briefly, the tutor went on. “It amounts to this. Because of books like the ones you’ve been struggling to understand, there’s a test of wills coming in the world. The people against the rulers. It’s reached England already. It will reach France one day.”
    “Well,” said Phillipe, a little smugly, “my mother—and father—chose the side I’m to be on, I guess.”
    Now it was Girard’s turn to squint into the sunlight, unhappily. “For the sake of your future—and your mother’s ambitions—I trust it is not the wrong one.”
    “Do you seriously think it could be?”
    Girard stared at him. “Shall I answer as your paid tutor? The fellow hired only to instruct you from non-controversial texts?”
    “No,” Phillipe answered, oddly chilled. “As yourself.”
    “Very well. Although this may be envy talking, I don’t believe I’d be comfortable belonging to a titled family just now. As I suggested, the British have always loved their liberties a little more fiercely than most Europeans. And done relatively more to secure those liberties—at the expense of their kings and their nobility. When intellectuals such as our mad Master Jean Jacques thunder that contracts between governors and the governed may be broken by the will of the people, should the governors grow too autocratic—and when British statesmen stand up, question the