Read Online Pascal's Wager by James A. Connor - Free Book Online Page A

child and, like Blaise, intelligent beyond her years, the kind of child who makes adults coo when they are anywhere nearby. She was also a sunny child, happy most of the time, at least according to her sister, Gilberte—though Gilberte cannot always be trusted, because she tended to idealize her family. But like her brother, Blaise, Jacqueline was also stubborn.
    Her father had once assigned Gilberte the job of teaching Jacqueline to read, and for some time the little seven-year-old seemed impervious to her sister’s instructions. Then, by accident, Gilberte read Jacqueline from a book of verse, and it changed everything, for the little girl seemed captivated by the music and rhythm of the language. From that point on, it was easy. Four years later, along with the two daughters of Madame Sainctot, Jacqueline wrote and performed in a five-act play, written entirely in verse. The play was the talk of the fashionable ladies of Paris, and the sudden notoriety started the young Pascal on a literary career of her own.
    In 1638, the king’s wife, Anne of Austria, conceived after twenty years of waiting, if not twenty years of trying. Her husband, Louis XIII, was a scrupulous man, and cold to nearly everyone, especially his wife. As was all too common in kings at that time, he didn’t like his wife very much. She had been foisted on him as a political choice, not because of any compatibility, but rather as a way of connecting the French throne to the all-powerful Hapsburgs. There is some doubt that he even consummated the marriage. No one would admit that, however, because it would have led to war. The people of Paris had begun to wonder if the king and queen would ever conceive. Mostly, they were simply frustrated with the royal pair: would they ever get around to doing their duty? At a time when producing a legitimate heir to the throne was the principal duty of anyking, this was an important question. No one had forgotten the endless dynastic wars that had beggared Europe throughout the Middle Ages.
    But then, like Sarah the wife of Abraham, Anne came up pregnant just when the people were beginning to lose hope. This child would live to become Louis XIV, the Sun King, the man whose lavish lifestyle would set France solidly on the path of revolution. The court gathered around Anne to pamper her in her delicate condition and schemed to find diversions to keep her entertained. Unlike Louis, Anne was a party girl and had the reputation of someone who liked to have a good time. Just before he went fugitive, Étienne and his friends brought Jacqueline to court to read some of her sweet poetry in honor of the queen and her pregnancy. As expected, the little girl charmed both the king and queen, and both praised her and fawned over her, no doubt to the delight of her father.
    This was the arrow that Étienne’s friends used against the cardinal. Sadly, soon after her triumph with the king and queen, Jacqueline contracted smallpox, a nightmare common enough in Europe throughout the seventeenth century, one that we have nearly forgotten in our time. Hanging near death for days, she struggled against the virus, while her father sat beside her bed. Slowly, she recovered, though her perfect face was marred by the scarring the disease left in its wake. Jacqueline later claimed that it was this loss of her beauty that was God’s greatest gift, for he took her off the worldly path that she had been set upon and set her on a new road that led more directly to God.
    Then came the terrible month of March and the reversal of Étienne’s finances, the ill-conceived protest, and Étienne’s flight from the city. Étienne’s friends quickly wove the three children into their schemes. Jacqueline the charmer would be introduced to the cardinal and read a few poems to him that had been written in praise of him and his administration. The other children would look on as cherubs. It was cleverly done, for the cardinal was likely to be undone by the