UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES BROWSING ROOM THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Jgonore tie J^onorfc tie MILITARY AND POLITICAL LIFE VOLUME IV LIMITED TO ONE THOUSAND COMPLETE COPIES NO. 713 IN DORLANGE'S STUDIO "The sister that you had not, madainc," lie said abruptly, "/ have taken the liberty of giving you, and I venture to ask you to see if yoii can distinguish some slight family resemblance to yourself." As he spoke he drezu azvay the curtain behind zvhich his work was concealed, and behold, inadaine, I appeared to myself in the guise of a saint. THE NOVELS OF HONORE DE BALZAC NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME COMPLETELY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS BY G. BURNHAM IVES WITH TEN ETCHINGS BY PIERRE PAGNIER, GABRIELLE POYNOT, PAUL-EMILE LETERRIER, CHARLES-RENE THEVENIN, LOYS-HENRI DELTEIL, FREDERIC- EMILE JEANNIN AND GUSTAVE-RODOLPHE SCHLUMBERGER, AFTER PAINTINGS BY ORESTE CORTAZZO VOLUME I PRINTED ONLY FOR SUBSCRIBERS BY GEORGE BAR&IE & SON, PHILADELPHIA COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY GEORGE BARRIE * SON ; V '. . . .- THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS PART FIRST THE ELECTION THE ELECTION * It is hardly necessary to observe, before entering upon a description of a provincial election, that the town of Arcis-sur-Aube was not the scene of the events therein described. The arrondissement of Arcis votes at Bar-sur-Aube, which is fifteen leagues from Arcis; there is therefore no deputy from Arcis in the Chamber of Deputies. The reserve demanded by the history of contemporary manners has dic- tated these precautions. It may be, too, that it is an ingenious device to describe a town as the theatre of events which did not take place there. Several times already, in the course of the COMEDIE HUMAINE, that method has been employed, despite its inconvenience, which consists principally in this that the frame is thereby often made of as much importance as the canvas. In the latter part of the month of April, 1839, about ten o'clock in the morning, the salon of Madame Marion, widow of a former receiver-general of the department of the Aube, presented a strange spectacle. Of all the furniture of the apartment, naught remained save the window-curtains, the (3) 4 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS ornaments on the mantel-shelf, the chandelier and the tea-table. The Aubusson carpet, taken up a fortnight beforehand, encumbered the front steps of the house, and the floor had just been vigorously rubbed, but without making it any brighter. It was a sort of domestic presage concerning the result of the elections then in preparation throughout the length and breadth of France. It often happens that things are as clever as men. That is an argument in favor of the occult sciences. The old servant of Colonel Giguet, Madame Marion's brother, had finished brushing away the dust that had insinuated itself into the cracks of the floor during the winter. The maid and the cook, with an alacrity that indicated an enthusiasm equal to their attachment, were bringing the chairs from all the rooms in the house and piling them up in the garden. Let us hasten to say that the trees had already put forth their large leaves, through which could be seen a cloudless sky. The spring air and the May sunshine made it possible to open the long door-window as well as the two windows of the salon, which was oblong in shape. Directing the attention of the two servants to the rear of the salon, the old lady ordered them to arrange the chairs four rows deep, and to leave a passage-way about three feet wide between each two rows. Soon each row presented a front of ten chairs of different varieties. A line of chairs also extended along by the windows and the glass door. At the other end of the salon, facing the forty THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 5 chairs, Madame Marion placed three armchairs behind the tea-table, which was covered with a green cloth and upon which she placed a bell. Old Colonel Giguet arrived upon the battle-field just as his sister had conceived the idea of filling the empty spaces on each side of the fireplace with the two benches from her reception-room, notwithstanding the shabby condition of the leather coverings, which already counted twenty-four years of service. "We can seat seventy people," she exclaimed triumphantly to her brother. "God grant that we have seventy friends!" replied the colonel. "If, after we have received the society of Arcis- sur-Aube every evening for twenty-four years, a single one of our regular habitues should fail us at this crisis!" said the old lady with a threatening expression. "Nonsense," rejoined the colonel with a shrug of his shoulders, as he interrupted his sister, "I will give you the names of ten who cannot and will not come. In the first place," he said, counting on his fingers, "Antonin Goulard, the sub-prefect, one! Frederic Marest, the king's attorney, two! Monsieur Olivier Vinet, his deputy, three! Monsieur Mar- tener, the examining magistrate, four! The justice of the peace, " "Of course," said the old lady, interrupting her brother in her turn, "I am not foolish enough to expect people who are in office to attend a reception of which the purpose is to give the opposition an 6 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS additional deputy. And yet, Antonin Goulard, Simon's playmate in childhood and his school- fellow, will be very glad to see him chosen deputy; for" "Well, well, sister, leave us men to do our part. Where is Simon?" "He is dressing," she replied. "He did well not to breakfast, for he is very nervous, and, although our young advocate is accustomed to speaking in court, he dreads this meeting as if he were about to face an assemblage of his enemies." "Faith! I have often had to stand the fire of an enemy's battery; at such times my mind, I don't say my body, never trembled; but, if I had to take my stand here," said the old soldier, walking to the tea-table, ' 'and look at the forty bourgeois who will be sitting in front of me, open-mouthed, with their eyes fastened on mine, and anticipating eloquent and grammatical periods, why, my shirt would be wet through before 1 had found my first word." "However, my dear father, it will be necessary for you to make that effort for me," said Simon Giguet, entering through the small salon; "for if there is, in the whole department of the Aube, a man whose words carry weight, you surely are that man. In 1815, " "In 1815," interrupted the wonderfully well pre- served little old man, "I did not have to speak, I simply drew up a little proclamation that caused two thousand men to rise in twenty-four hours. And there's a vast difference between putting my THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 7 name at the bottom of a paper that will be read by a whole department and speaking to a crowd! Napoleon himself made a failure of that trade. On the 18 Brumaire he talked utter nonsense to the Five Hundred." "But, my dear father, my whole life, my fortune, my honor are at stake," said Simon. "Just look at one single man and imagine you are speaking to him; you will get through all right." "Mon Dieu! I am only an old woman," said Madame Marion; "but, at such a time, and know- ing how much depends on it, why I could be eloquent!" "Too eloquent, perhaps!" said the colonel. "And to overshoot the mark is not to hit it. But how is there so much at stake, anyway?" he continued, with a sharp glance at his son. "For two days past you have expressed ideas on the subject of your candidacy that If my son is not chosen, so much the worse for Arcis, that's all." Those words, worthy of a father, were in harmony with the whole life of the man who uttered them. Colonel Giguet, one of the most highly esteemed men in the Grande Armee, was possessed of one of those characters whose basis is perfect uprightness combined with great delicacy of feeling. He never put himself forward; favors must come in search of him; so it was that he remained for eleven years a simple captain of artillery in the guard, in which he was made major in 1813, and lieutenant-colonel in 1814. His almost fanatical attachment to Napoleon 8 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS would not permit him to serve the Bourbons at the time of the first abdication. In fact, his devotion to the Emperor in 1815 was so notorious that he would have been banished but for the intervention of the Comte de Gondreville, who succeeded in having his name stricken from the order, and finally obtained for him a retiring pension and the rank of colonel. Madame Marion, born Giguet, had another brother who became colonel of gendarmes at Troyes, and whom she had accompanied to that place. There she married Monsieur Marion, receiver-general of the Aube. The late Monsieur Marion, the receiver-general, had a brother who was first president of an imperial court. That magis- trate, being then a simple advocate at Arcis, had lent his name during the Reign of Terror to the famous Malin of the Aube representative of the people, for the purchase of the estate of Gondreville. So that all the influence of Malin, become a senator and a count, was at the service of the Marion family. In that way the advocate's brother obtained the office of receiver-general of the Aube at a time when, far from having to choose between thirty eager applicants, the government was very glad to find a subject willing to accept such slippery positions. Marion, the receiver-general, inherited the property of his brother the president, and Madame Marion that of her brother the colonel of gendarmes. In 1814 the receiver-general suffered reverses. He died simultaneously with the Empire, but his THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 9 widow found an income of fifteen thousand francs among the ruins of those various fortunes. Giguet, the colonel of gendarmes, had left his property to his sister, upon learning of the marriage of his brother the artillery officer, who had espoused, about 1806, one of the daughters of a rich banker at Hamburg. Every one knows the extravagant fondness of all Europe for the sublime troopers of the Emperor Napoleon! In 1814, Madame Marion, practically ruined, returned to live at Arcis, her native place, where she purchased one of the finest houses in the town, on the principal square, a house whose location indicated that it had once been a dependency of the chateau. As she was accustomed to receive a large number of people at Troyes, where the receiver-general held sway, her salon was thrown open to the notabilities of the liberal party in Arcis. A woman accustomed to salon sovereignty does not readily renounce it. Of all habits those of vanity are the most tenacious. First a Bonapartist, then a liberal for, by one of the strangest of metamorphoses, the soldiers of Napoleon almost all fell in love with the constitu- tional system, Colonel Giguet was, during the Restoration, the natural president of the advisory committee at Arcis, which committee was composed of Grevin the notary, his son-in-law Beauvisage and Varlet the younger, the leading physician of Arcis, Grevin's brother-in-law, and of some other liberal notabilities. "If our dear child is not elected," said Madame 10 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS Marion, after a glance into the reception-room and the garden to see that no one was listening, "he will not get Mademoiselle Beauvisage; for a marriage with Cecile is involved in the success of his candidacy." "Cecile!" exclaimed the old man, opening his eyes and staring at his sister with an air of stupe- faction. "I fancy that you are the only person in the whole department, brother, who is able to forget the dowry and expectations of Mademoiselle Beauvi- sage!" "She is the wealthiest heiress in the department of the Aube," said Simon Giguet. "But it seems to me that my son is not to be despised," rejoined the old campaigner; "he is your heir, he already has his mother's property, and I myself expect to leave him something more than my bare name!" "All that put together does not make thirty thousand francs a year, and there are people with that income, to say nothing of their rank, who have already offered themselves, and " "And ?" queried the colonel. "And have been refused!" "What do the Beauvisages want, in God's name?" exclaimed the colonel, looking from his sister to his son. It may be thought surprising that Colonel Giguet, brother of Madame Marion, in whose salon the best society of Arcis had assembled every day for THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 1 1 twenty-four years, whose salon echoed all the rumors, all the slander, all the gossip of the depart- ment of the Aube, perhaps it was manufactured there, should be ignorant of events and facts of that nature; but his ignorance will appear perfectly natural as soon as we have noted the fact that that noble remnant of the old Napoleonic phalanxes went to bed and rose with the fowls, as all old men do who wish to live their whole lives. Therefore he was never present at the confidential conversations. There are in the provinces two sorts of confidential conversations, those which are held officially when everybody is present, playing cards and chatter- ing; and those which simmer, like a well-watched soup, when three or four friends only are left in front of the fire, friends whose discretion is sure and who repeat nothing that is said, except by their own firesides to three or four other friends equally discreet. For the past nine years, ever since the triumph of his political principles, the colonel had lived almost outside of society. Rising always with the sun, he had devoted himself to horticulture, he adored flowers and, of all kinds of flowers, he cultivated roses alone. He had the black hands of the professional gardener, he tended his own squares of flowers. His squares! that word reminded him of the squares of multicolored men drawn up on the battle-field. Always in conference with his gardener, he had mingled little, especially during the last two years, in society, of which he caught occasional glimpses. He took but one meal with 12 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS the family, dinner; for he rose too early to breakfast with his son and sister. We owe to the efforts of the colonel the famous Giguet rose, with which all lovers of flowers are familiar. The old man, having become a sort of domestic fetich, was exhibited, as may be imagined, on great occasions. Some families are blessed with a demigod of that sort, and decorate themselves with him as with a title. "I have imagined that I could detect, since the Revolution of July," said Madame Marion to her brother, "an aspiration on Madame Beauvisage's part to live in Paris. Being compelled to remain here as long as her father lives, she has transferred her ambition to the head of her future son-in-law, and the fair lady dreams of the glories of political life." "Do you love Cecile?" the colonel asked his son. "Yes, father." "Does she love you?" "I think so, father; but it is equally necessary for me to please the grandfather and the mother. Although Goodman Grevin is trying to defeat my election, my success would induce Madame Beau- visage to accept me, for she will hope to govern my actions as she pleases, to be a minister under my name " "Ah! a very pretty idea!" cried Madame Marion. "For what does she take us, pray?" "Whom has she refused?" the colonel asked his sister. "Why, they say that within three months Antonin THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 13 Goulard and the king's attorney, Monsieur Marest, have received equivocal replies which are all they want except ayes!" "Oh! bless my soul!" exclaimed the old man, raising his arms, "what times we live in! Why, Cecile is the daughter of a cap-maker and the grand-daughter of a farmer. Madame Beauvisage wants a Comte de Cinq-Cygne for a son-in-law, does she?" "Don't sneer at the Beauvisages, brother. Cecile is rich enough to be able to choose a husband anywhere, even in the party to which the Cinq- Cygnes belong. But I hear the door-bell announcing the arrival of some electors, so I leave you, very much regretting that I can not hear what is going to be said." Although 1839 i s > politically speaking, a very long way from 1847, we can still remember the elections that produced the coalition, an ephemeral experiment made by the Chamber of Deputies to carry out the threat of a parliamentary government; a threat d, la Cromwell which, without a Cromwell, could lead to no other result, under a prince who was the foe of fraud, than the triumph of the present system, wherein the Chambers and the ministers resemble wooden actors moved about by the proprietor of Guignol's show, to the immense satisfaction of the passers-by, who are always wonderstruck. The arrondissement of Arcis-sur-Aube was at that time in a curious situation, it believed itself to be free to elect a deputy. From 1816 to 1836 it had 14 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS always chosen one of the dullest orators of the Left, one of the seventeen who were all called great citizens by the liberal party, to wit, Francois Keller of the house of Keller Freres, and son-in-law of the Comte de Gondreville. Gondreville, one of the most magnificent estates in France, is situated about a fourth of a league from Arcis. The banker, recently created a count and peer of France, expected undoubtedly to transmit to his son, then thirty years of age, his seat in the Chamber, in order to make him a fit subject some day for a peerage. Already a major on the staff, and one of the favorites of the Prince Royal, Charles Keller had been made a viscount and belonged to the party of the Citizen King's court. The most exalted destiny was apparently in store for a young man immensely rich, full of courage, notoriously devoted to the new dynasty, grandson of the Comte de Gondreville, and nephew of the Marechale de Carigliano; but that election, so essential to his future, presented some obstacles very difficult to surmount. Since the accession to power of the bourgeois class, Arcis was conscious of a vague desire to exhibit its independence. So that the last election of Francois Keller had been disturbed by a few republicans, whose red caps and scrubby beards had not intimidated the good people of Arcis over- much. By working upon the prejudices of the province, the radical candidate might get together some thirty or forty votes. Some of the inhabitants, humiliated to see their town included among the THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 15 rotten boroughs of the opposition, joined the demo- crats, although they were opposed to democracy. In France, when elections are at hand, divers politico-chemical products are evolved in which the laws of natural affinities are overthrown. Now, to elect the young military officer Keller, in 1839, after electing the father for twenty years, would denote genuine electoral servitude, against which the pride of several newly-rich bourgeois rose in revolt, for they deemed themselves quite as good as Malin, Comte de Gondreville, the bankers Keller Freres, the Cinq-Cygnes and even the King of the French himself! And so the numerous partisans of old Gondreville, the king of the department of the Aube, were awaiting a new manifestation of his adroitness, so often demonstrated. In order to avoid endangering the influence of his family in the arrondissement of Arcis, that old statesman would doubtless propose as his candidate some resident of the province, who would retire in favor of Charles Keller and accept some public office; a situation which makes the choice of the people eligible for re-election. When Simon Giguet sounded, on the subject of the election, the ex-notary Grevin, the count's loyal friend, that old gentleman replied that, having no knowledge of the count's intentions, he proposed to make Charles Keller his candidate, and should exert all his influence to secure his election. As soon as that reply of Goodman Grevin became known in Arcis, there was a reaction against him. Although during a notarial service of thirty years, 16 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS that Champagne Aristides had possessed the confi- dence of the town, although he had been Mayor of Arcis from 1804 to 1814 and during the Hundred Days; although the opposition had accepted him for its leader down to the triumph of 1830, a time at which he declined the honor of the mayoralty on the pretext of his great age; and although the town, to testify its regard for him, had then taken his son- in-law, Monsieur Beauvisage, for its mayor, they rebelled against him, and some young people went so far as to accuse him of being in his dotage. The adherents of Simon Giguet turned to Phileas Beau- visage, the mayor, and used him to the better advantage because, without being on bad terms with his father-in-law, he affected an independence which degenerated into coldness, and which his crafty father-in-law allowed him to display, seeing in it an excellent means of extending his own influence over the town of Arcis. Monsieur le maire, when questioned the day before upon the public square, had declared that he would vote for the first name inscribed on the list of eligible candidates in Arcis, rather than give his vote to Charles Keller, for whom however he had the highest esteem. "Arcis shall not be a rotten borough any longer," he said, "or I will emigrate to Paris." Encourage the passions of the moment and you become a hero everywhere, even at Arcis-sur-Aube. "Monsieur le maire," people said, "has put the seal on the firmness of his character." THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 17 Nothing progresses more rapidly than a legal rebellion. During the evening Madame Marion and her friends arranged for the next day a meeting of independent electors in the interest of Simon Giguet, the colonel's son. That next day dawned and turned the whole household topsy-turvy to receive the friends upon whose independence they relied. Simon Giguet, the native-born candidate of a small town desirous to return one of its own children, had, as we see, taken advantage of this agitation of the public mind to become the representative of the needs and interests of Champagne Pouilleuse. And yet, all the consideration and the fortune of the Giguet family were the work of the Comte de Gondreville. But is there such a thing as sentiment in election matters? This Scene is written for the information of countries which are so unfortunate as not to know the advantages of national represen- tation, and are consequently in the dark as to the intestine wars and the sacrifices a la Brutus by which a small town gives birth to a deputy! A majestic natural spectacle comparable only to that of child-birth: the same struggles, the same un- pleasant features, the same agony, the same triumph! The reader may wonder how an only son, of ample means, happened to be, like Simon Giguet, a simple advocate in the little town of Arcis, where advocates are almost useless. A word concerning the candidate becomes neces- sary at this point. Between .1806 and 1813 the colonel had by his l8 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS wife, who died in 1814, three children, the eldest of whom, Simon, survived the two younger, one of whom died in 1818, the other in 1825. Until he was left alone, Simon was brought up as a man to whom the practice of a lucrative profession was necessary. Having become an only son, Simon met with a reverse of fortune. Madame Marion had made many plans for her nephew in anticipation of the grandfather's inheritance, the Hamburg banker, but that German died in 1826, leaving his grandson only two thousand francs a year. The banker, being endowed with a vast procreative faculty, had beguiled the tedium of business by the pleasures of paternity; and so he discriminated in favor of the families of eleven other children who were clustered about him afld who made him believe, what was by no means improbable, that Simon Giguet would be rich. The colonel was determined that his son should embrace an independent profession. For this reason: The Giguets could look for no favors from the ruling powers while the government of the Restoration endured. Even if Simon had not been the son of an ardent Bonaparfist, he belonged to a family all of whose members had incurred the just resentment of the Cinq-Cygne family in connection with the part taken by Giguet, the colonel of gen- darmes, and the Marions, Madame Marion included, as witnesses for the prosecution in the famous trial of Messieurs de Simeuse, unjustly convicted in 1805 of the sequestration of the Comte de Gondre- ville, then a senator and formerly a representative THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 19 of the people, who had laid hands upon the for- tune of the Cinq-Cygne family. Grevin was not only one of the most important witnesses but one of the most ardent instigators of that affair. The sub- ject of that prosecution still divided the arrondisse- ment of Arcis into two parties, one of which insisted upon the innocence of the accused and consequently was favorably disposed toward the family of Cinq- Cygne, the other favored the Comte de Gondreville and his adherents. If the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, under the Restoration, exerted all the influence the return of the Bourbons gave her to rule as she pleased in the department of the Aube, the Comte de Gon- dreville was able to offset the royalty of the Cinq- Cygnes by the authority he secretly exerted over the liberals through the medium of Colonel Giguet, the notary Grevin, his own son-in-law Keller, who was always elected deputy from Arcis-sur-Aube in spite of the Cinq-Cygnes, and lastly by the influence he retained in the crown counsels so long as Louis XVIII. lived. Not until after that king's death was the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne able to procure the appointment of Michu as president of the court of first instance at Arcis. She was bent upon giving that place to the son of the steward who died on the scaffold at Troyes, the victim of his devotion to the Simeuse family, and whose full- length portrait adorned her salon, both at Paris and at Cinq-Cygne. The Comte de Gondreville had sufficient influence to prevent the appointment of Michu until 1823. 20 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS It was by the Comte de Gondreville's advice that Colonel Giguet's son was bred a lawyer. Simon was the more likely to shine in the arrondissement of Arcis because he was the only advocate there, it being customary for solicitors to try their own cases in such small places. Simon had won some triumphs at the assize court of the department; but he was none the less a favorite subject of the satire of Frederic Marest, the king's attorney, Olivier Vinet, his substitute, and President Michu, the three ablest functionaries of the tribunal. Simon Giguet, like most men, paid large tribute to the great power of ridicule. He liked to hear himself talk, he gave his views on every subject, he solemnly emitted dull, endless sentences that passed for eloquense in the upper middle class of Arcis. The poor fellow belonged to that class of bores who insist upon explaining everything, even the simplest things. He explained the rain; he explained the causes of the Revolution of July; he explained impenetrable things as well; he explained Louis-Philippe; he explained Monsieur Odillon Barrot; he explained Monsieur Thiers; he explained the Eastern question; he explained Champagne; he explained 1789; he explained the customs tariff and the humanitarians, magnetism and the theory of the Civil List. That thin, bilious-looking young man, of sufficient stature to justify his sonorous nullity it rarely happens that a very tall man has remarkable faculties sur- passed the puritanism of the men of the Extreme Left, self-conscious as they all were after the THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 21 manner of prudes who have intrigues to conceal. Always dressed in black, he wore a white cravat, which he allowed to hang down far below his neck; thus his face seemed to emerge from a horn of white paper, for he retained the high, starched shirt collar, which fashion has very fortunately proscribed. His coats and trousers always seemed to be too large. He had what is called in the provinces dignity, that is to say he held himself very straight and stiff, and was very tiresome: his friend Antonin Goulard accused him of imitating Monsieur Dupin. In very truth the advocate was somewhat overshod with his buckled shoes and coarse black grogram stockings. Protected by the general esteem with which his old father was regarded, and by the influence which his aunt exerted in a small town whose principal inhabitants had been frequenting her salon for twenty-four years, Simon Giguet, already possessed of about ten thousand francs a year, without count- ing the fees yielded by his practice and his aunt's fortune, which could not fail to fall to him some day, Simon Giguet, we say, had no doubt of his election. Nevertheless the first stroke of the bell, announcing the arrival of the most influential electors, echoed in the ambitious youth's heart, awaking vague apprehensions there. Simon did not shut his eyes to the adroitness or the vast resources of old Grevin, nor to the effect of all the heroic methods to which the ministry would resort in support of the candidacy of a gallant young officer then in Africa, attached to the service of the Prince Royal, son of one of the 22 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS ex-great cftizens of France and nephew of a mar- shal's wife. "It seems to me," he said to his father, "that I have the colic. I feel an insinuating warmth below the pit of the stomach that causes me some anxiety." "The most experienced soldiers," replied the colonel, "used to have a similar sensation when the cannon began to roar at the outset of a battle." "What will it be in the Chamber then?" said the advocate. "The Comte de Gondreville told us," replied the old soldier, "that more than one orator expe- riences some of the little inconveniences which used to attend the beginning of battles for us old leather-breeches. All that for a few tiresome words. However, you want to be deputy," said the old man, shrugging his shoulders, "so take the consequences!" "Triumph, father, means Cecile! Cecile means a great fortune! In these days a great fortune means power." "Ah! how times have changed! Under the Emperor, all one needed was to be brave!" "Every age can be summed up in a word!" said Simon, repeating a remark of the old Comte de Gondreville which gives an excellent idea of that old man. "Under the Empire, when they wanted to kill a man, they said: 'He's a coward!' To-day they say: 'He's a swindler!' " THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 23 "Poor France! where are they taking you!" cried the colonel. "I am going back to my roses." "Oh! stay, father! You are the keystone of the arch!" The mayor, Monsieur Phileas Beauvisage, was the first to appear, accompanied by his father-in- law's successor, the busiest notary in town, Achille Pigoult, grandson of an old man who held the office of justice of the peace at Arcis during the Revolution, during the Empire and during the early days of the Restoration. Achille Pigoult was about thirty -two years old; he had been for eighteen years clerk to old Grevin, with no hope of ever becoming a notary. His father, the son of the justice of the peace, had died of what was said to be apoplexy; he had been unfortunate in business. The Comte de Gondreville, with whom old Pigoult was connected by the bonds of 1793, had lent the money required to be deposited as security and had thus facilitated the purchase of Grevin 's office by the grandson of the justice who held the original exami- nation in the Simeuse affair. Achille had established his office on the church square, in a house belonging to the Comte de Gondreville, which that peer had let to him at such a low rent that it was easy to see how anxious the cunning politician was to have the leading notary of Arcis always in his hand. Young Pigoult, a little, dried-up man, whose eyes seemed to pierce the green spectacles which did not di- minish the maliciousness of his expression, familiar with all the interests of the province and owing to (25) 26 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS his long experience in legal matters a certain readi- ness of speech, was considered a joker, and certainly introduced many more witty remarks in his conver- sation than the majority of the natives in theirs. He was still a bachelor, awaiting an advantageous marriage from the kind offices of his two patrons, Grevin and the Comte de Gondreville. Wherefore Giguet the advocate made a gesture of surprise when he saw Achille beside Monsieur Phileas Beauvisage. The little notary, whose face was so scarred by the small-pox that it resembled a net with white meshes, presented a striking contrast to the corpulent person of monsieur le maire, whose face resembled a full moon, but a moon of a jovial turn of mind. The lily and rose complexion was height- ened in Phileas by an amiable smile, due not so much to any special amiability of disposition as to that tendency of the lips which the word poupin has been invented to describe. Phileas Beauvisage was blessed with such abundant self-satisfaction that he always smiled at everybody under all circumstances. His poupin lips would have smiled at a funeral. The animation which abounded in his childlike blue eyes did not contradict that everlasting, intolerable smile. That inward satisfaction passed the more readily for benevolence and amiability in that Phileas had created a language of his own, remarkable for the immoderate use of the forms of courtesy. He always had the honor, he added to all his inquiries relative to the health of persons not present the THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 27 adjectives dear, good or excellent. He lavished com- plimentary phrases in regard to the petty miseries or petty joys of human life. He thus concealed under a deluge of commonplaces his incapacity, his absolute lack of education, and a weakness of character which can be expressed only by the somewhat antiquated word weathercock. But have no fear! that weathercock had for the axis upon which it revolved the fair Madame Beauvisage, Severine Grevin, the noted woman of the arrondisse- ment. And so, when Severine heard of what she called Monsieur Beauvisage's freak, apropos of the election, she said to him it was that very morning: "It wasn't a bad idea of yours to put on independ- ent airs; but you shall not go to the Giguet meeting without Achille Pigoult, and I have told him to call for you!" To give Beauvisage Achille Pigoult for his mentor, was simply to send a spy of the Gondreville party to the Giguet meeting. So that everyone can now imagine the grimace that distorted Simon's puritan face when he was compelled to extend a friendly greeting to an habitue of his aunt's salon, an influ- ential elector, in whom he at once detected a foe. "Ah!" he said to himself, "I did very wrong to refuse to provide the money for his deposit when he asked me for it! Old Gondreville was brighter than I. Good morning, Achille," he said aloud, assuming a jaunty air. "You are going to put a drag on my wheels, I suppose!" "I don't think that your meeting is a conspiracy 28 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS against the independence of our votes," rejoined the notary with a smile. "Aren't we playing a fair game?" "Fair game!" echoed Beauvisage. Whereupon the mayor laughed that expression- less laugh with which some persons conclude every sentence, and which should be called the refrain of conversation. Monsieur le maire then assumed what we must call his third position, standing straight, his chest bent in, his hands behind his back. He wore a black coat and trousers, and was resplendent in a white waistcoat, thrown partly open in such way as to show two diamond studs worth several thousand francs. "We will fight and be none the less good friends," said Phileas. "That is the essence of constitutional manners! Ha! ha! ha! That's how I understand the alliance of monarchy and liberty. Ha! ha! ha!" Thereupon monsieur le maire took Simon's hand, saying: "How are you, my dear friend? Your dear aunt and our worthy colonel are as well. to-day doubtless as they were yesterday at least it is fair to pre- sume so. Ha! ha! ha!" he added, with an air of perfect beatitude, "a little disturbed perhaps by the ceremony that is about to take place. Ah! on my word, young man, we are entering on a political career. Ha! ha! ha! This is our first step. There's no drawing back it's a great risk and I prefer that you, rather than I, should embark upon the stormy, tempestuous sea of the Chamber, hi! hi! however THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 29 agreeable it may be for a man to feel that in his person hi! hi! hi! resides one four hundred and fifty -third of the sovereign power of France! Hi! hi! hi!" Phileas Beauvisage's voice had a pleasant sonor- ousness quite in harmony with the full curves of his pumpkin-colored face, with his broad back and his inflated chest. That voice, which resembled a tenor in volume, had a velvety softness like a baritone, and there was a silvery tinkle in the laugh with which Phileas accompanied the ends of his sen- tences. If God had desired a specimen of the provincial bourgeois in His terrestrial paradise, to complete His collection, He could not have made with His hands a finer and more perfect specimen than Phileas Beauvisage. "I admire the devotion of those who can determine to throw themselves into the tempests of political life. Eh! eh! eh! to do that one needs nerves that I have not. Who would ever have said in 1812 or 1813 that we should reach this point? For my part I am ready for anything, at a time when asphalt, India rubber, railroads and steam are changing the ground we walk on, the style of overcoats, and distances Eh! eh!" These last words were largely flavored with the laugh with which Phileas embellished the poor jests in which bourgeois delight; but he accompanied them with a gesture which he had made his own: he clenched his right fist and inserted it in the hollowed palm of his left hand, and kneaded it 30 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS gleefully. That manoeuvre coincided with his laugh on the frequent occasions when he thought that he had said a good thing. Perhaps it is superfluous to say that Phileas was looked upon in Arcis as a most amiable and delight- ful man. "I will try," Simon Giguet responded, "to represent worthily " "The sheep of Champagne," retorted Achille Pigoult quickly, interrupting his friend. The candidate swallowed the epigram without replying to it, for he was obliged to greet two other electors. One was the proprietor of Le Mulct, the best inn at Arcis, located on the principal square at the corner of Rue de Brienne. The worthy inn- keeper, one Poupart, had married the sister of a man-servant in the employ of the Comtesse de Cinq-Cygne, the famous Gothard, one of the prominent performers in the prosecution. In due time Gothard was acquitted. Poupart, although he was one of the most devoted partisans of the Cinq-Cygnes to be found in Arcis, had been sounded within a day or two by Colonel Giguet's servant so perseveringly and dexterously, that he believed that he was playing a trick on the mortal enemy of the Cinq-Cygnes by exerting his influence in favor of Simon Giguet's election, and he had conversed upon that subject with a druggist named Fromaget, who, as he did not receive the trade of the Chateau de Gondreville, asked nothing better than to join a cabal against the Kellers. Those two prominent THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 31 members of the petty bourgeoisie were able, by virtue of their business connections, to control a certain number of floating votes, for they advised a multitude of men who cared nothing whatever for the political opinions of the candidates. The advo- cate took possession of Poupart and turned the druggist Fromaget over to his father, who came in and greeted theelectorsalready arrived. The sub-engineer of the arrondissement, the secretary to the munici- pality, four bailiffs, three solicitors, the clerk of the local court and the clerk to the justice of the peace, the receiver of taxes and the recorder, two physicians, rivals of Grevin's brother-in-law Varlet, a miller named Laurent Coussard, leader of the republican party of Arcis, Phileas's two deputies, the printer-publisher of Arcis and a dozen or more bourgeois entered one after another, and walked about the garden in groups, waiting until the assemblage should be sufficiently numerous for the meeting to open. At last, toward noon, some fifty persons, all in their Sunday best, took their seats on the chairs Madame Marion had arranged for them, the majority having come from curiosity to see the beautiful salons which were so celebrated throughout the arrondissement. The windows were left open, and soon there was such absolute silence that the rustle of Madame Marion's silk dress could be distinctly heard, as, unable to resist the tempta- tion, she stole down into the garden and took up a position where she could hear the electors. The cook, the chambermaid and the manservant stood 32 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS in the dining-room and shared the emotions of their masters. "Messieurs," said Simon Giguet, "some of you desire to do my father the honor of offering him the chairmanship of this meeting; but Colonel Giguet requests me to express his acknowledgments to you, with all the gratitude induced by that desire, which he looks upon as a reward for his services to his country. We are in my father's house, he con- siders it his duty to decline the honor, and he suggests the name of an honorable merchant, upon whom your suffrages have conferred the chief magistracy of the town, Monsieur Phileas Beau- visage." "Bravo! bravo!" "We are agreed, I believe, upon the wisdom of adopting for this meeting an essentially amicable occasion, but entirely free, and in no way binding upon the great preparatory meeting at which you will question the candidates and weigh their deserts of adopting, I say, the constitutional rules of the elective Chamber." "Yes! yes!" the assemblage exclaimed with one voice. "I have the honor therefore, in accordance with the desire of the meeting, to request Monsieur le maire to take the chair." Phileas rose and crossed the salon, conscious that he had become as red as a cherry. And when he was behind the table, he saw, not a hundred eyes, but a hundred thousand candles. The sun, too, THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 33 seemed to be playing the part of a conflagration in the room, and he had, to use his own expression, a salt-store in his throat. "Thank them!" said Simon in an undertone. "Messieurs " There was such a profound silence that Phileas had an attack of colic. "What shall I say, Simon?" he asked in a low tone. "Well? "said Achille Pigoult. "Messieurs," said the advocate, stung by the little notary's cruel interpellation, "the honor you confer upon Monsieur le maire may well take him by surprise without astonishing him." "That is how it is," said Beauvisage; "I am too sensible of the compliment paid me by my fellow- citizens not to be exceedingly flattered by it." "Bravo!" cried the notary all by himself. "May the devil take me," said Beauvisage to himself, "if they ever get me again where I have to make a speech!" "Will Messieurs Fromaget and Marcelin under- take the duties of inspectors?" said Simon Giguet. "It would be more regular," said Achille Pigoult, rising, "for the meeting itself to elect the twD members, if we are to imitate the Chamber." "That would be the better way," said the bulky Monsieur Mollot, the clerk of the court; "otherwise what we are doing now would be a farce, and we should not be free. Why shouldn't we do every- thing as Monsieur Simon says, in that case?" 3 34 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS Simon whispered a few words to Beauvisage, who rose to give birth to a "Messieurs!" which might be said to be of thrilling interest. "I beg your pardon, Monsieur le president," said Achille Pigoult, "but your duty is to preside, not to discuss." "Messieurs, if we are to conform to parlia- mentary customs," said Beauvisage, prompted by Simon, "I will request the honorable Monsieur Pigoult to address you from this table " Pigoult walked quickly to the tea-table, stood there with his fingers resting lightly on the edge, and demonstrated his audacity by speaking without embarrassment, almost like the illustrious Monsieur Thiers, as follows: "It was not I, messieurs, who made the suggestion that we should imitate the Chamber; for hitherto the Chambers have seemed to me to be truly inimitable; nevertheless, I could readily conceive that an assemblage of some sixty or more notables of Champagne should provide itself with a chairman, for no flock can do without a shepherd. If we had voted by secret ballot, I am very sure that the name of our estimable mayor would have received your unanimous suffrages; his opposition to the candidate supported by his kinsfolk proves that he possesses civic courage in the highest degree, as he is brave enough to disregard the strongest of all ties, those of the family! To place one's country before one's family requires such a mighty wrench, that, in order to accomplish it, we are always compelled to THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 35 remind ourselves that Brutus has been looking down upon us from his judgment-seat on high for the past two thousand five hundred and some odd years. It seems natural to Master Giguet, who is entitled to the credit of divining your wishes relative to the chairmanship, to act as our guide once more in the matter of inspectors; but, by approving my observation, you expressed your opinion that once was enough, and you were right! Our common friend, Simon Giguet, who is to come forward as a candidate, would have the air of coming forward as a master, and might thereupon lose the benefit in our minds of the modest attitude assumed by his father. Now what does our worthy chairman do when he accepts the method of presiding suggested to him by the candidate? he takes away our liberty! I ask you: is it proper for the chairman of our choice to tell us to choose the two inspectors by a rising vote? Why, that is in itself a selection, messieurs! Should we be free to choose? Can a man remain seated when his neighbor stands? It would be suggested, I imagine, that everybody should rise, as a matter of courtesy; and, as we should all rise for each one of us, there would be no choice, for each of us would necessarily be unani- mously elected." "He is right," said the sixty electors. "Let each of us therefore write two names on a ballot, and they who shall take their places beside Monsieur le president will be entitled to look upon themselves as two ornaments to society; they will 36 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS have authority, conjointly with Monsieur le presi- dent, to decide as to the result of subsequent rising votes. We are here, I believe, to promise to some candidate such influence as each of us has at his disposal at the preparatory meeting which will be attended by all the electors of the arrondissement. This is a serious matter, I solemnly declare. Is not a four-hundredth part of the power of the State involved, as Monsieur le maire observed just now, with the quick wit for which he is noted and which we all appreciate so highly?" During this harangue Colonel Giguet was engaged in cutting a sheet of paper into small slips and Simon sent for pens and an inkstand. The meeting was suspended. This preliminary discussion concerning the form of procedure had disturbed Simon beyond measure and had aroused the attention of the sixty bourgeois present Soon they began to write their ballots and the crafty Pigoult succeeded in securing the choice of Monsieur Mollot, the clerk of the court, and Monsieur Godivet, the recorder. That result of course dispjeased Fromaget, the druggist, and Marcelin, the solicitor. "You have served," said Achille Pigoult to them, "as the instruments by which we have made our independence manifest; you should be more proud to be rejected than if you had been chosen." Everybody laughed. Simon Giguet restored silence by addressing the chairman, whose shirt was already moist and who summoned all his courage to say: THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 37 "Monsieur Simon Giguet has the floor." "Messieurs," said the advocate, "I beg leave to thank Monsieur Achille Pigoult, who, although our meeting is entirely friendly " "It is a meeting preliminary to the great prelimi- nary meeting," observed Marcelin, the solicitor. "That is what I was about to explain," rejoined Simon. "I thank Monsieur Achille Pigoult above all for having introduced parliamentary procedure in all its rigor. This is the first time that the arrondissement of Arcis will make use freely " "Freely!" echoed Pigoult, interrupting the orator. "Freely!" shouted the meeting. "Will make use freely," continued Simon Giguet, "of its rights in the great battle of the general election to the Chamber of Deputies; and as we shall have, within a few days, a meeting of all the electors to pass upon the merits of the candidates, we should esteem ourselves very fortunate in having this opportunity to become accustomed here, among ourselves, to the usages of such meetings; we shall be the better equipped to deliberate con- cerning the political future of the town of Arcis, for the question at issue to-day is whether a town shall be substituted for a family, the province for a single man " Simon thereupon gave the history of the elections for twenty years past. While approving the suc- cessive elections of Francois Keller, he said that the moment had come to shake off the yoke of the house of Gondreville. Arcis must not be a liberal 38 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS fief any more than a fief of the Cinq-Cygnes. There were springing up in France, at that moment, advanced theories of government, which the Kellers did not represent. Charles Keller, having become a viscount, belonged to the court party; he would have no independence at all, for, in presenting him as a candidate for their suffrages, his sponsors thought much more of securing for him the succes- sion to his father's peerage than the succession to a seat in the Chamber, etc., etc. And finally Simon offered himself for the choice of his fellow-citizens, promising to take his seat beside the illustrious Monsieur Odillon Barrot, and never to desert the glorious banner of progress. Progress! one of the words behind which people strove at that time to marshal many more treacherous ambitions than ideas; for, after 1830, it represented nothing more than the pretensions of a few famished democrats. Nevertheless that word still produced much effect in Arcis, and gave an appearance of solidity to him who inscribed it on his banner. To style one's self a man of progress was to proclaim one's self a philoso- pher in all directions and a puritan in politics. That was the formula for declaring in favor of railroads, mackintoshes, penitentiaries, wood-paving, abolition of slavery, savings banks, seamless shoes, illumi- nating gas, asphalt sidewalks, universal suffrage and the reduction of the Civil List. Furthermore, it was a declaration against the treaties of 1815, against the elder branch, against the Colossus of the North, perfidious Albion, against all the THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 39 enterprises of the government, good or bad. As we see, the word progress might mean no as well as yes! It was a refurbishing of the word liberalism, a new password for newly-risen ambitions. "If I rightly understand what we are here for," said Jean Violette, a hosiery manufacturer who had purchased the Beauvisage plant two years before, "it is to agree, all of us, to do all we can to help elect Monsieur Simon Giguet deputy in place of Comte Francois Keller. If we all understand that we're to combine for that purpose, why, all we have to do is just to say so." "That would be coming to the point too fast! Political affairs can't be rushed through like that, for in that case they would not be politics at all!" cried Pigoult, as his grandfather, eighty-six years of age, entered the room. "The last speaker assumes to decide what, in my feeble opinion, should be properly discussed. I claim the floor." "Monsieur Achille Pigoult has the floor," said Monsieur Beauvisage, able at last to utter that phrase with municipal and constitutional dignity. "Messieurs," said the little notary, "if there is one house in Arcis where no voice should be raised against the influence of the Comte de Gondreville and the Kellers, is not this the house? The excel- lent Colonel Giguet is the only inmate of this house who has not felt the effects of the senatorial power, for he certainly never asked any favors of the Comte de Gondreville, who caused his name to be stricken from the list of those proscribed in 1815, 40 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS and secured for him the pension he now enjoys, without the venerable colonel, the glory of us all, lifting a finger." A murmur complimentary to the veteran greeted that sentence. "But," continued the orator, "the Marions are covered with the count's benefactions. Except for his protection, the late Colonel Giguet would never have commanded the gendarmerie of the Aube. The late Monsieur Marion would never have been president of the imperial court except for the support of the count, to whom I shall always be under obligation! You will not think it strange therefore that I am his advocate in this presence! Indeed there are few people in our arrondissement who have not received favors from that family." There was a commotion among the audience. "A candidate takes his place in the witness-chair," continued Achille warmly, "and I have the right to scrutinize his life before investing him with my powers. Now I do not choose to have an ingrate for my deputy, for ingratitude is like misfortune: one instance leads to another. We have been, you say, the stepping-stone of the Kellers; ah! but what I have just heard leads me to fear that we are to be the stepping-stone of the Giguets. We live in a positive age, do we not? Very good, let us consider what will be the results of the election of Simon Giguet, so far as the arrondissement of Arcis is concerned. They talk about independence! Simon, of whom I speak slightingly as a candidate, is my THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 41 friend, as he is the friend of all who listen to me, and personally I should be delighted to see him become an orator of the Left, take his place between Gamier-Pages and Laffitte, but what will the arrondissement gain by it? The arrondissement will have lost the support of the Comte de Gondre- ville and the Kellers. We shall all have need of them both within five years. We go to see the Marechale de Carigliano to obtain the discharge of some rascal who draws an unlucky number. We resort to the influence of the Kellers in many matters that are decided upon their recommendation. We have always found the old Comte de Gondre- ville ready to do us a service: that a man is from Arcis is all that is necessary to be admitted to his presence without cooling one's heels in the ante- chamber. Those three families know everybody in Arcis. Where is the strong-box of the Giguet family, and what will its influence amount to in the departments? What credit will it have on the Bourse at Paris? If it becomes necessary to rebuild in stone our wretched wooden bridge, will the Giguets obtain the requisite funds from the depart- ment and the coffers of the State? By electing Charles Keller we prolong a compact of alliance and friendship which, up to this day, has been productive of nothing but advantage to us. By electing my worthy, my excellent schoolfellow, my good friend Simon Giguet, we shall suffer for it until the day that he becomes a minister! I know his innate modesty so well that I do not think he 42 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS will contradict me if I express some doubt of his very speedy elevation to that dignity!" Laughter. "I attended this meeting in order to oppose a step which I consider fatal to thisarrondissement. Charles Keller belongs to the court! some one will say. Why, so much the better! we shall not have to pay the cost of his apprenticeship in politics, he knows the needs of the province, he is familiar with parlia- mentary customs, he is nearer to being a statesman than my friend Simon, who will not pretend that he has fashioned himself into a Pitt or a Talleyrand in our little town of Arcis." "Danton went from this town!" cried Colonel Giguet, furious at those extremely just extempora- neous remarks. "Bravo!" The word was an acclamation; sixty persons were clapping their hands. "My father is very bright," said Simon Giguet to Beauvisage, in an undertone. "I do not understand," said the old colonel, springing suddenly to his feet, as a hot flush over- spread his face, "I do not understand why the bonds that unite us to the Comte de Gondreville should be dragged into election discussions. My son's fortune comes from his mother, he has never asked any favors from the Comte de Gondreville. If the count had never lived Simon would be what he is: the son of a colonel of artillery who owes his rank to his services, and an advocate whose political opinions have not changed. I would say aloud and THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 43 to the Comte de Gondreville's face: 'We elected your son-in-law twenty years; to-day we propose to prove that in electing him we were acting voluntarily, and we take a native of Arcis, in order to show that the old spirit of 1789, to which you owe your for- tune, still lives in the country of the Dantons, the Malins, the Grevins, the Pigoults and the Marions.' That's all 1 have to say!" And the old man took his seat. Thereupon there was a great uproar. Achille opened his mouth to reply. Beauvisage, who would not have considered himself chairman unless he jangled his bell, added to the confusion by demand- ing silence. It was then two o'clock. "I will venture to remind the honorable Colonel Giguet, whose feelings it is easy to understand, that he took the floor without permission, which is contrary to parliamentary custom," said Achille Pigoult. "I do not think it necessary to call the colonel to order," said Beauvisage. "He is the father " Silence was restored. "We didn't come here," cried Fromaget, "to say amen to whatever the Messieurs Giguet, father and son, choose to say." "No, no!" cried the meeting. "This is going badly!" said Madame Marion to her cook. "Messieurs," said Achille, "I confine myself to asking my friend Simon Giguet the categorical question, what he proposes to do in our interest?" 44 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS "Yes! yes!" "Since when," said Simon Giguet, "have worthy citizens like those of Arcis chosen to make the sacred mission of deputy the subject of barter and sale?" It is difficult to realize the effect produced by noble sentiments upon an aggregation of men. They applaud high-sounding maxims, but they vote none the less for the degradation of their country, just as the galley-slave, who longs for the punish- ment of Robert Macaire when he sees the play, goes away and murders Monsieur Germeuil or somebody else. "Bravo!" cried several pure-blooded Giguet electors. "You will send me to the Chamber, if you send me there at all, to represent principles, the principles of 1789! to be one of the ciphers, if you will, of the opposition, but to vote with the opposition, to warn the government, to make war on abuses, and to demand progress in everything " "What do you mean by progress? So far as we are concerned progress would consist in putting Champagne Pouilleuse under cultivation," said Fromaget. "Progress? I propose to explain it as I understand it!" cried Giguet, irritated by the interruption. "It means the Rhine frontier for France," said the colonel, "and the destruction of the treaties of 1815!" "It means that wheat is always to be sold at a THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS 45 high price, and bread to be always cheap," cried Achille Pigoult mockingly, thinking that he was perpetrating a witticism by repeating one of the nonsensical catch-phrases so popular in France. "It means the happiness of all, secured by the triumph of humanitarian doctrines." "What did I say?" the cunning notary inquired of his neighbors. "Hush! silence! let us hear!" exclaimed several curious bourgeois. "Messieurs," said the bulky Mollot, with a smile, "the discussion is beginning; give your attention to the speaker, let him explain his views." "In every period of transition, messieurs," resumed Simon Giguet gravely, "and the present is one of those periods " "Baa! baa!" exclaimed a friend of Achille Pigoult, who was a master of the art a sublime art at election time of ventriloquism. A general laugh ran through the assemblage, which was Champenois before everything. Simon Giguet folded his arms and waited until the storm of laughter had passed over. "If it was the purpose of that interruption to give me a lesson," he resumed, "to remind me that I march with the glorious flock of the defenders of humanity, who utter cry upon cry, issue book upon book, of the immortal priest who pleads for dis- membered Poland, of the courageous pamphleteer who keeps watch upon the Civil List, of the philos- ophers who demand sincerity in the conduct of our 46 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS institutions, then I thank my unknown interrupter! To me progress means the fulfilment of all the promises made to us at the Revolution of July, it means electoral reform, it means " "So you're a democrat, are you?" queried Achille Pigoult. "No!" replied the candidate. "Is it to be a democrat to desire the regular, legitimate develop- ment of our institutions? To me progress means the re-establishment of brotherhood between the members of the great French family; and we can not blind our eyes to the fact that much suffering " At three o'clock Simon Giguet was still giving his idea of progress, and some of his audience were giving utterance to rhythmical snoring which denoted sound sleep. The malevolent Achille Pigoult had urged everybody to listen religiously to the orator, who floundered about and was lost to sight in a sea of phrases and periphrases. At that moment several groups of bourgeois, electors and non-electors, were standing in front of the chateau of Arcis, whose main gateway opened on the square, at right angles to Madame Marion's door. The square is a point at which several roads and several streets converge. There is a covered market there, and opposite the chateau, on the other side of the square, which is neither paved nor macadamized, so that the rain hollows out little ravines, extends a magnificent promenade called the Avenue of Sighs. Is it so called in honor of or by way of rebuke to the women of the town? That ambiguous appellation is doubtless an example of provincial wit. Two beautiful cross-paths, bordered by old lindens with very dense foliage, lead from the square to a circular boulevard which forms another promenade, neglected like all promenades in the provinces, which are much more noticeable for their heaps of undisturbed filth than for throngs of animated promenaders like those in Paris. (47) 48 THE DEPUTY FROM ARCIS At the height of the discussion, to which Achille Pigoult, with the self-possession and courage of an orator of the real Parliament, imparted all the elements of drama, four persons were walking in a row under the lindens of one of the cross-paths of the Avenue of Sighs. When they reached the square, they stopped by common accord and looked at the people of Arcis who were buzzing about in front of the chateau, like bees returning to their hive at night. Those four persons were the whole ministerial party of Arcis: the sub-prefect, the king's attorney, his deputy, and Monsieui Martener, the examining magistrate. The president of the court was, as we already know, a partisan of the elder branch and a devoted adherent of the house of Cinq-Cygne. "No, I don't understand the government!" the sub-prefect repeated, pointing to the groups, which were growing more numerous. "At such a serious crisis I am left without instructions!" "You resemble many other people in that respect!" observed Monsieur Olivier Vinet with a smile. "What have you against the government?" asked the king's attorney. "The ministry is sadly embarrassed," said young Martener; "they know that this arrondissement belongs to the Kellers in a certain sense, and they will be very careful not to run counter to them. They have to deal cautiously with the only man who can be compared to Monsieur de Talleyrand. THE AVENUE OF SIGHS "Well, Monsieur Groslicr?" said the sub-prefect, walking fonvard to talk with the commissioner a few steps aivay from Ids three companions. "Monsieur" replied the commissioner of police in a low tone, "Monsieur le prefet bade me tell you a sad piece of news: Monsieur le Vicomte Charles Keller is dead" A