LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Mr - H. H. KM iani 
 
Stt LIBKAR1 
 
H. DE BALZAC 
 
 THE COMEDIE HUMAINE 
 

COME IN.-* 
 
H. DE BALZAC 
 
 (L'ENVERS DE L'HlSTOIRE CONTEMPORAINE) 
 
 AND OTHER STORIES 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 CLARA BELL 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY 
 
 GEORGE SAINTSBURY 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE GEBBIE PUBLISHING Co., Ltd. 
 1898 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 MMB 
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY 
 
 FIRST EPISODE : MADAME DE LA CHANTERIE ... I 
 
 SECOND EPISODE: INITIATED . . . . . .122 
 
 AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET . . 229 
 
 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN 291 
 
 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR . .371 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 "COME IN" (p. 47) Frontispiece. 
 
 PACK 
 "I AM ALAIN, MONGENOD'S FRIEND" ...... 55 
 
 "I BEG YOUR PARDON A THOUSAND TIMES, MONSIEUR" . . 137 
 
 "HERE, MY DEAR, IS OUR NEIGHBOR OF WHOM I SPOKE TO 
 
 YOU" 174 
 
 Drawn by y. Ayton Symington. 
 
 ISAURE WOULD PUT HER LITTLE FOOT ON A CHAIR. ... 336 
 Drawn by W. Boucher. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THERE is in "L'Envers de 1'Histoire Contemporaine " an 
 ominous atmosphere of flagging, combined with a not less 
 ominous return to a weaker handling of ideas and schemes 
 which the author had handled more strongly earlier. We 
 have seen that the secret-society craze a favorite one with 
 most Frenchmen, and closely connected with their famous 
 panic-terror of being " betrayed " in war and politics had an 
 especially strong hold on this most typical of French novelists. 
 He had almost begun his true career with the notion of a league 
 of " Devorants," of persons banded, if not exactly against so- 
 ciety, at any rate for the gratifying of their own desires and 
 the avenging of their own wrongs, with an utter indifference 
 to social laws and arrangements. He ended it, or nearly so, 
 with the idea of a contrary league of Consolation, which 
 should employ money, time, pains, and combination to supply 
 the wants and heal the wounds which Society either directly 
 causes or more or less callously neglects. 
 
 The later idea is, of course, a far nobler one than the earlier; 
 it shows a saner, healthier, happier state of imagination; it 
 coincides rather remarkably with an increasing tendency of the 
 age ever since Balzac's time. Nay, more, the working out of 
 it contains none of those improbabilities and childishnesses 
 which, to any but very youthful tastes and judgments, mar the 
 " Histoire des Treize " [The Thirteen]. And it is also better 
 written. Balzac, with that extraordinary " long develop- 
 ment " of his, as they say of wines, constantly improved in 
 this particular ; and whatever may be the doubts on the point 
 referred to above, we may say with some confidence that had 
 he lived, he would have written, in the mere sense of writing, 
 ever better and better. Yet again, we catch quaint and pleas- 
 ant echoes of youth in these pages, and are carried back nearly 
 
 (ix) 
 
x PREFACE. 
 
 fifty years in nominal date, and more than twenty in dates of 
 actual invention, by such names as Montauran and Pille-Miche 
 and Marche-a-Terre. 
 
 But when all this is said, it cannot, I think, be denied that 
 a certain dullness, a heaviness, does rest on Madame de la 
 Chanterie and L'Initie. The very reference to the "Medecin 
 de Campagne," which Balzac with his systematizing mania 
 brings in, calls up another unlucky contrast. There, too, the 
 benevolence and the goodness were something fanciful, not to 
 say fantastic; but there was an inspiration, a vigor, to speak 
 vulgarly, a " go," which we do not find here. Balzac's awk- 
 ward and inveterate habit of parenthetic and episodic narra- 
 tives and glances backward is not more obvious here than in 
 many other pieces ; but there is not, as in some at least of these 
 other pieces, strength enough of main interest to carry it off. 
 The light is clear, it is religious and touching in its dimness ; 
 but the lamp burns low. In the very interesting preface, 
 dated July, 1842, which Balzac prefixed to the first collection 
 of the Comedie Humaine, he endeavors, naturally enough, to 
 represent the division into Scenes de la Vie Parisienne, etc., 
 as a rational and reasoned one. Although not quite arbitrary, 
 it was of course to a great extent determined by considerations 
 which were not those of design ; and we did not require the 
 positive testimony which we find in the Letters to tell us that 
 in the author's view, as well as in our own, not a few of the 
 stories might have been shifted over from one division to an- 
 other, and have filled their place just as well in the other as in 
 the one. 
 
 "La Maison du Chat-qui-Pelote, M however, which orig- 
 inally bore the much less happy title of " Gloire et Malheur " 
 [Fame and Sorrow], was a Scene de la Vie Privee from the 
 first, and it bears out better than some of its companions its 
 author's expressed intention of making these "scenes" repre- 
 sent youth, whether Parisian or Provincial. Few of Balzac's 
 stories have united the general suffrage for touching grace 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 more than this ; and there are few better examples of his 
 minute Dutch-painting than the opening passages, or of his 
 unconquerable delight in the details of business than his sketch 
 of Monsieur Guillaume's establishment and its ways. The 
 French equivalent of the "Complete Tradesman" of Defoe 
 lasted much longer than his English counterpart ; but, except 
 in the smaller provincial towns, he is said to be uncommon 
 now. As for the plot, if such a stately name can be given to 
 so delicate a sketch, it is of course open to downright British 
 judgment to pronounce the self-sacrifice of Lebas more ignoble 
 than touching, the conduct of Theodore too childish to de- 
 serve the excuses sometimes possible for passionate incon- 
 stancy, and the character of Augustine angelically idiotic. 
 This last outrage, if it were committed, would indeed only be 
 an instance of the irreconcilable difference which almost to 
 the present day divides English and French ideas of ideally 
 perfect girlhood, and of that state of womanhood which cor- 
 responds thereto. The candeur adorable which the French- 
 man adores and exhibits in the girl ; the uncompromising, 
 though mortal, passion of the woman ; are too different from 
 any ideal that we have entertained, except for a very short 
 period in the eighteenth century. But there are few more 
 pathetic and charming impersonations of this other ideal than 
 Augustine de Sommervieux. 
 
 "La Maison Nucingen" has interests of various kinds. 
 The story of Madame Surville, and the notary, and his testi- 
 mony to Balzac's competence in bankruptcy matters, have been 
 referred to in the General Introduction. "La Maison Nu- 
 cingen" is scarcely less an example of this than " Cesar Birot- 
 teau." It is also a curious study of Parisian business generally, 
 showing the intense and extraordinary interest which Balzac 
 took in anything speculative. Evil tongues at the time iden- 
 tified Nucingen with the first Rothschild of the Paris branch, 
 but the resemblances are of the most general and distant kind. 
 Indeed, it may be said that Balzac, to his infinite honor both 
 
rii PREFACE. 
 
 in character and genius, seldom indulged in the clumsy lug- 
 ging in of real persons by head and shoulders which has come 
 into fashion since his time, especially in France. Even where 
 there are certain resemblances, as in Henri de Marsay to 
 Charles de Remusat, in Rastignac to Thiers, in Lousteau to 
 Jules Janin, and elsewhere, the borrowed traits are so blended 
 and disguised with others, and the whole so melted down and 
 reformed by art, that not merely could no legitimate anger be 
 aroused by them, but the artist could not be accused of hav- 
 ing in any way exceeded his rights as an artist and his duty as 
 a gentleman. If he has ever stepped out of these wise and 
 decent limits, the transgression is very rare, and certainly 
 Nucingen is not an example of it. For the rest, the story 
 itself is perhaps more clever and curious than exactly in- 
 teresting. 
 
 "L'Envers de 1'Histoire Contemporaine," as above stated, 
 was, in part, one of the very latest of Balzac's works, and was 
 actually finished during his residence at Vierzschovnia. "Ma- 
 dame de la Chanterie," however, was somewhat earlier, part 
 of it having been written in 1842. It appeared in a fragmen- 
 tary and rather topsy-turvy fashion, with separate titles, in the 
 " Musee des Families," from September in the year just named 
 to November, 1844, and was only united together in the first 
 edition of the Comedie two years later, though even after this 
 it had a separate appearance with some others of its author's 
 works in 1847. "L'Initie," or, as it was first entitled, "Les 
 Freres de la Consolation," was not written till this latter year, 
 and appeared in 1848 in the "Spectateur Republicain," but 
 not as a book till after the author's death. In both cases 
 there was the usual alternation of chapter divisions, with head- 
 ings and none. 
 
 "La Maison Nucingen" (which the author also thought of 
 calling "La Haute Banque") originally appeared with "La 
 Femme Superieure" ("Les Employes") and that part of 
 " Splendeurs et Miseres " entitled " La Torpille," in October, 
 
PREFACE, xiii 
 
 1838, published by Werdet in two volumes. Six years later 
 it took rank as a Scene de la Vie Parisienne in the first edition 
 of the Comedie. 
 
 G. S. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 FIRST EPISODE. 
 
 MADAME DE LA CHANTERIE. 
 
 ONE fine September evening, in the year 1836, a man of 
 about thirty was leaning over the parapet of the quay at a 
 point whence the Seine may be surveyed up stream from the 
 Jardin des Plantes to Notre-Dame, and down in grand per- 
 spective to the Louvre. 
 
 There is no such view elsewhere in the Capital of Ideas 
 (Paris). You are standing, as it were, on the poop of a vessel 
 that has grown to vast proportions. You may dream there of 
 Paris from Roman times to the days of the Franks, from the 
 Normans to the Burgundians, through the Middle Ages to 
 the Valois, Henri IV., Napoleon, and Louis Philippe. There 
 is some vestige or building of each period to bring it to mind. 
 The dome of Saint-Genevieve shelters the Latin Quarter. 
 Behind you rises the magnificent east end of the cathedral. 
 The Hotel de Ville speaks of all the revolutions, the Hotel 
 Dieu of all the miseries of Paris. After glancing at the splen- 
 dors of the Louvre, take a few steps, and you can see the rags 
 that hang out from the squalid crowd of houses that huddle 
 between the Quai de la Tournelle and the Hotel Dieu ; the 
 authorities are, however, about to clear them away. 
 
 In 1836 this astonishing picture inculcated yet another les- 
 son. Between the gentleman who leaned over the parapet 
 and the cathedral, the deserted plot, known of old as le Ter- 
 rain, was still strewn with the ruins of the archbishop's palace. 
 As we gaze there on so many suggestive objects, as the mind 
 takes in the past and the present of the city of Paris, religion 
 
 (1) 
 
2 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 seems to have established herself there that she might lay her 
 hands on the sorrows on both sides of the river, from the 
 Saint-Antoine suburb to that of Saint-Marceau. 
 
 It is to be hoped that these sublime harmonies may be 
 completed by the construction of an episcopal palace in a 
 Gothic style to fill the place of the meaningless buildings that 
 now stand between the Island, the Rue d'Arcole, and the 
 Quai de la Cite. 
 
 This spot, the very heart of old Paris, is beyond anything de- 
 serted and melancholy. The waters of the Seine break against 
 the wall with a loud noise, the cathedral throws its shadow 
 there at sunset. It is not strange that vast thoughts should 
 brood there in a brain-sick man. Attracted, perhaps, by an 
 accordance between his own feelings at the moment and those 
 to which such a varied prospect must give rise, the loiterer 
 folded his hands over the parapet, lost in the twofold contem- 
 plation of Paris and of himself ! The shadows spread, lights 
 twinkled into being, and still he did not stir ; carried on as 
 he was by the flow of a mood of thought, big with the future, 
 and made solemn by the past. 
 
 At this instant he heard two persons approaching, whose 
 voices had been audible on the stone bridge which they had 
 crossed from the Island of the Cite to the Quai de la Tour- 
 nelle. The two speakers no doubt believed themselves to be 
 alone, and talked somewhat louder than they would have 
 done in a more frequented place, or if they had noticed the 
 propinquity of a stranger. From the bridge their tones be- 
 trayed an eager discussion, bearing, as it seemed, from a few 
 words that reached the involuntary listener, on a loan of 
 money. As they came nearer, one of the speakers, dressed 
 as a workingman, turned from the other with a gesture of 
 despair. His companion looked around, called the man back, 
 and said 
 
 "You have not a sou to pay the bridge-toll. Here!" 
 and he gave him a coin " and remember, my friend, it is 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 3 
 
 God Himself who speaks to us when a good thought occurs to 
 any of us." 
 
 The last words startled the dreamer. The man who spoke 
 had no suspicion that, to use a proverbial expression, he was 
 killing two birds with one stone ; that he spoke to two un- 
 happy creatures a workman at his wits' end and a soul with- 
 out a compass ; a victim of what Panurge's sheep call Progress, 
 and a victim of what France calls equality. 
 
 These words, simple enough in themselves, acquired gran- 
 deur from the tone of the speaker, whose voice had a sort of 
 magical charm. Are there not such voices, calm and sweet, 
 affecting us like a view of the distant ocean ? 
 
 The speaker's costume showed him to be a priest, and his 
 face, in the last gleam of twilight, was pale and dignified, 
 though worn. The sight of a priest coming out of the great 
 cathedral of Saint Stephen at Vienna to carry extreme unction 
 to a dying man persuaded Werner, the famous tragic poet, to 
 become a Catholic. The effect was much the same on our 
 Parisian when he saw the man who, without intending it, had 
 brought him consolation ; he discerned on the dark line of 
 his horizon in the future a long streak of light where the blue 
 of heaven was shining, and he followed the path of light, as 
 the shepherds of the Gospel followed the voice that called to 
 them from on high, " Christ the Lord is born ! " 
 
 The man of healing speech walked on under the cathe- 
 dral, and by favor of Chance which is sometimes consistent 
 made his way toward the street from which the loiterer had 
 come, and whither he was returning, led there by his own 
 mistakes in life. 
 
 This young man's name was Godefroid. As this narrative 
 proceeds, the reader will understand the reasons for giving to 
 the actors in it their Christian names only. 
 
 And this is the reason why Godefroid, who lived near the 
 Chausee d'Antin, was lingering at such an hour under the 
 shadow of Notre-Dame. 
 
4 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 He was the son of a retail dealer, who, by economy, had 
 made some little fortune, and in him centred all the ambitions 
 of his parents, who dreamed of seeing him a notary in Paris. 
 At the early age of seven he had been sent to a school, kept 
 by the Abbe Liautard, where he was thrown together with 
 the children of certain families of distinction, who had 
 selected this establishment for the education of their sons, out 
 of attachment to religion, which, under the Emperor, was 
 somewhat too much neglected in the lycees, or public schools. 
 At that age social inequalities are not recognized between 
 schoolfellows; but in 1821, when his studies were finished, 
 Godefroid, articled to a notary, was not slow to perceive 
 the distance that divided him from those with whom he had 
 hitherto lived on terms of intimacy. 
 
 While studying the law, he found himself lost in the crowd 
 of young men of the citizen class, who, having neither a 
 ready-made fortune nor hereditary rank, had nothing to look 
 to but their personal worth or persistent industry. The hopes 
 built upon him by his father and mother, who had now 
 retired from business, stimulated his conceit without giving 
 him pride. His parents lived as simply as Dutch folk, not 
 spending more than a quarter of their income of twelve 
 thousand francs ; they intended to devote their savings, with 
 half their capital, to the purchase of a connection for their 
 son. Godefroid, reduced also to live under the conditions of 
 this domestic thrift, regarded them as so much out of pro- 
 portion to his parents' dreams and his own that he felt disheart- 
 ened. In weak characters such discouragement leads to envy. 
 While many other men, in whom necessity, determination, 
 and good-sense were more marked than talent, went straight 
 and steadfastly onward in the path laid down for modest 
 ambitions, Godefroid waxed rebellious, longed to shine, 
 insisted on facing the brightest light, and so dazzled his eyes. 
 He tried to "get on," but all his efforts ended in demon- 
 strating his incapacity. At last, clearly perceiving too great 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 5 
 
 a discrepancy between his desires and his prospects, he con- 
 ceived a hatred of social superiority; he became a Liberal, 
 and tried to make himself famous by a book ; but he learned, 
 to his cost, to regard talent much as he regarded rank. 
 Having tried by turns the profession of notary, the bar, and 
 literature, he now aimed at the higher branch of the law. 
 
 At this juncture his father died. His mother, content in 
 her old age with two thousand francs a year, gave up almost 
 her whole fortune to his use. Possessor now, at twenty-five, 
 of ten thousand francs a year, he thought himself rich, and he 
 was so as compared with the past. Hitherto his life had been 
 a series of acts with no will behind them, or of impotent 
 willing; so, to keep pace with the age, to act, to become a 
 personage, he tried to get into some circle of society by the 
 help of his money. 
 
 At first he fell in with journalism, which has always an open 
 hand for any capital that comes in its way. Now, to own a 
 newspaper is to be a Personage ; it means employing talent 
 and sharing its successes without dividing its labors. Nothing 
 is more tempting to second-rate men than thus to rise by the 
 brains of others. Paris has had a few parvenus of this type, 
 whose success is a disgrace both to the age and to those who 
 have lent a lifting shoulder. 
 
 In this class of society Godefroid was soon cut out by the 
 vulgar cunning of some and the extravagance of others, by 
 the money of ambitious capitalists or the manoeuvring of edi- 
 tors ; then he was dragged into the dissipations that a literary 
 or political life entails, the habits of critics behind the scenes, 
 and the amusements needed by men who work their brains 
 hard. Thus he fell into bad company ; but he there learned 
 that he was an insignificant-looking person, and that he had 
 one shoulder higher than the other without redeeming this 
 malformation by any distinguished ill-nature or wit. Bad 
 manners are a form of self-payment which actors snatch by 
 telling the truth. 
 
6 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Short, badly made, devoid of wit or of any strong bent, all 
 seemed at an end for a young man at a time when for success 
 in any career the highest gifts of mind are as nothing without 
 luck, or the tenacity which commands luck. 
 
 The revolution of 1830 poured oil on Godefroid's wounds; 
 he found the courage of hope, which is as good as that of 
 despair. Like many another obscure journalist, he got an 
 appointment where his Liberal ideas, at loggerheads with the 
 demands of a newly established power, made him but a re- 
 fractory instrument. Veneered only with Liberalism, he did 
 not know, as superior men did, how to hold his own. To 
 obey the Ministry was to him to surrender his opinions. And 
 the Government itself seemed to him false to the laws that had 
 given rise to it. Godefroid declared in favor of movement 
 when what was needed was tenacity ; he came back to Paris 
 almost poor, but faithful to the doctrines of the opposition. 
 
 Alarmed by the licentiousness of the press, and yet more by 
 the audacity of the republican party, he sought in retirement 
 the only life suited to a being of incomplete faculties, devoid 
 of such force as might defy the rough jolting of political life, 
 weary, too, of repeated failures, of suffering and struggles 
 which had won him no glory; and friendless, because friend- 
 ship needs conspicuous qualities or defects, while possessing 
 feelings that were sentimental rather than deep. Was it not, 
 in fact, the only prospect open to a young man who had al- 
 ready been several times cheated by pleasure, and who had 
 grown prematurely old from friction in a social circle that 
 never rests nor lets others rest ? 
 
 His mother, who was quietly dying in the peaceful village 
 of Auteuil, sent to her son to come to her, as much for the 
 sake of having him with her as to start him in the road where 
 he might find the calm and simple happiness that befits such 
 souls. She had at last taken Godefroid's measure when she 
 saw that at twenty-eight he had reduced his whole fortune to 
 four thousand francs a year ; his desires blunted, his fancied 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 7 
 
 talents extinct, his energy nullified, his ambition crushed, and 
 his hatred for every one who rose by legitimate effort increased 
 by his many disappointments. 
 
 She tried to arrange a marriage for Godefroid with the only 
 daughter of a retired merchant, thinking that a wife might be 
 a guardian to his distressful mind, but the old father brought 
 the mercenary spirit that abides in those who have been en- 
 gaged in trade to bear on the question of settlements. At 
 the end of a year of attentions and intimacy, Godefroid's 
 suit was rejected. In the first place, in the opinion of these 
 case-hardened traders, the young man must necessarily have 
 retained a deep-dyed immorality from his former pursuits ; 
 and then, even during this past year, he had drawn upon his 
 capital both to dazzle the parents and to attract the daughter. 
 This not unpardonable vanity gave the finishing touch ; the 
 family .had a horror of unthrift ; and their refusal was final 
 when they heard that Godefroid had sacrificed in six years a 
 hundred and fifty thousand francs of his capital. 
 
 The blow fell all the harder on his aching heart because the 
 girl was not at all good-looking. Still, under his mother's 
 influence, Godefroid had credited the object of his addresses 
 with a sterling character and the superior advantages of a 
 sound judgment ; he was accustomed to her face, he had 
 studied its expression, he liked the young lady's voice, man- 
 ners, and look. Thus, after staking the last hope of his life 
 on this attachment, he felt the bitterest despair. 
 
 His mother dying, he found himself he whose require- 
 ments had always followed the tide of fashion with five 
 thousand francs for his whole fortune, and the certainty of 
 never being able to repair any future loss, since he saw him- 
 self incapable of the energy which is imperatively demanded 
 for the grim task of " making a fortune." 
 
 But a man who is weak, aggrieved, and irritable cannot 
 submit to be extinguished at a blow. While still in mourn- 
 ing, Godefroid wandered through Paris in search of something 
 
8 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 to " turn up ; " he dined in public rooms, he rashly introduced 
 himself to strangers, he mingled in society, and met with 
 nothing but opportunities for expenditure. As he wandered 
 about the boulevards, he was so miserable that the sight of a 
 mother with a young daughter to marry gave him as keen a 
 pang as that of a young man going on horseback to the Bois, 
 of a parvenu in a smart carriage, or of an official with a rib- 
 bon in his button-hole. The sense of his own inadequacy told 
 him that he could not pretend even to the more respectable of 
 second-class positions, nor to the easiest form of office-work. 
 And he had spirit enough to be constantly vexed, and sense 
 enough to bewail himself in bitter self-accusation. 
 
 Incapable of contending with life, conscious of certain 
 superior gifts, but devoid of the will that brings them into 
 play, feeling himself incomplete, lacking force to undertake 
 any great work, or to resist the temptations of those tastes he 
 had acquired from education or recklessness in his past life, 
 he was a victim to three maladies, any one of them enough to 
 disgust a man with life when he has ceased to exercise his 
 religious faith. Indeed, Godefroid wore the expression so 
 common now among men, that it has become the Parisian 
 type ; it bears the stamp of disappointed or smothered am- 
 bitions, of mental distress, of hatred lulled by the apathy of 
 a life amply filled up by the superficial and daily spectacle of 
 Paris, of satiety seeking stimulants, of repining without talent, 
 of the affectation of force ; the venom of past failure which 
 makes a man smile at scoffing, and scorn all that is elevating, 
 misprize the most necessary authorities, enjoy their dilemmas, 
 and disdain all social forms. 
 
 This Parisian disease is to the active and persistent coalition 
 of energetic malcontents what the soft wood is to the sap of a 
 tree ; it preserves it, feeds it, and hides it. 
 
 Weary of himself, Godefroid one morning resolved to give 
 himself some reason for living. He had met a former school- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 9 
 
 fellow, who had proved to be the tortoise of the fable while 
 he himself had been the hare. In the course of such a con- 
 versation as is natural to old companions while walking in the 
 sunshine on the Boulevard des Italiens, he was amazed to find 
 that success had attended this man, who, apparently far less 
 gifted than himself with talent and fortune, had simply re- 
 solved each day to do as he had resolved the day before. 
 The brain-sick man determined to imitate this simplicity of 
 purpose. 
 
 "Life in the world is like the earth," his friend had said; 
 " it yields in proportion to our labors." 
 
 Godefroid was in debt. As his first penance, his first duty, 
 he required himself to live in seclusion and pay his debts out 
 of his income. For a man who was in the habit of spending 
 six thousand francs when he had five, it was no light thing to 
 reduce his expenses to two thousand francs. He read the 
 advertisement-sheets every morning, hoping to find a place 
 of refuge where he might live on a fixed sum, and where he 
 might enjoy the solitude necessary to a man who wanted to 
 study and examine himself and discern a vocation. The 
 manners and customs of the boarding-houses in the Latin 
 Quarter were an offense to his taste ; a private pension, he 
 thought, would be unhealthy ; and he was fast drifting back 
 into the fatal uncertainty of a will-less man, when the following 
 advertisement caught his eye : 
 
 " Small apartments, at seventy francs a month ; might suit a clerk in 
 orders. Quiet habits expected. Board included ; and the rooms will be 
 inexpensively furnished on mutual agreement. Inquire of M. Millet, 
 grocer, Rue Chanoinesse, by Notre-Dame, for all further particulars." 
 
 Attracted by the artless style of this paragraph, and the 
 aroma of simplicity it seemed to bear, Godefroid presented 
 himself at the grocer's store at about four in the afternoon, 
 and was told that at that hour Madame de la Chanterie was 
 dining, and could see no one at meal-times. The lady would 
 
10 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 be visible in the evening after seven, or between ten and 
 twelve in the morning. While he talked, Monsieur Millet 
 took stock of Godefroid, and proceeded to put him through 
 his first examination "Was monsieur single? Madame 
 wished for a lodger of regular habits. The house was locked 
 up by eleven at latest. 
 
 "Well," said he in conclusion, "you seem to me, mon- 
 sieur, to be of an age to suit Madame de la Chanterie's 
 views." 
 
 "What age do you suppose I am?" asked Godefroid. 
 
 "Somewhere about forty," replied the grocer. 
 
 This plain answer cast Godefroid into the depths of misan- 
 thropy and dejection. He went to dine on the Quai de la 
 Tournelle, and returned to gaze at Notre-Dame just as the fires 
 of the setting sun were rippling and breaking in wavelets on 
 the buttresses of the great nave. The quay was already in 
 shadow, while the towers still glittered in the glow, and the 
 contrast struck Godefroid as he tasted all the bitterness which 
 the grocer's brutal simplicity had stirred within him. 
 
 Thus the young man was oscillating between the whisper- 
 ings of despair and the appealing tones of religious harmony 
 aroused in his mind by the cathedral bells, when, in the dark- 
 ness, and silence, and calm moonshine, the priest's speech fell 
 on his ear. Though far from devout like most men of the 
 century his feelings were touched by these words, and he 
 went back to the Rue Chanoinesse, where he had but just 
 decided not to go. 
 
 The priest and Godefroid were equally surprised on turning 
 into the Rue Massillon, opposite the north door of the cathe- 
 dral, at the spot where it ends by the Rue de la Colombe, and 
 is called Rue des Marmousets. When Godefroid stopped 
 under the arched doorway of the house where Madame de la 
 Chanterie lived, the priest turned round to examine him by 
 the light of a hanging oil-lamp, which will, very likely, be 
 one of the last to disappear in the heart of old Paris. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY, 11 
 
 " Do you wish to see Madame de la Chanterie, monsieur? " 
 asked the priest. 
 
 " Yes," replied Godefroid. " The words I have just heard 
 you utter to that workman prove to me that this house, if you 
 dwell in it, must be good for the soul." 
 
 "Then you witnessed my failure," said the priest, lifting 
 the knocker, "for I did not succeed." 
 
 " It seems to me that it was the workman who failed. He 
 had begged sturdily enough for money." 
 
 "Alas! " said the priest, "one of the greatest misfortunes 
 attending revolutions in France is that each, in its turn, offers 
 a fresh premium to the ambitions of the lower classes. To rise 
 above his status and make a fortune, which, in these days, is 
 considered the social guarantee, the workman throws himself 
 into monstrous plots, which, if they fail, must bring those 
 who dabble in them before the bar of human justice. This is 
 what good-nature sometimes ends in." 
 
 The porter now opened a heavy gate, and the priest said to 
 Godefroid 
 
 " Then you have come about the rooms to be let ? the ' little 
 suite,' we call it." 
 
 " Yes, monsieur." 
 
 The priest and Godefroid then crossed a fairly wide court- 
 yard, beyond which stood the black mass of a tall house, 
 flanked by a square tower even higher than the roof, and 
 amazingly old. Those who know the history of Paris are 
 aware that the soil has risen so much round the cathedral 
 that there is not a trace to be seen of the twelve steps which 
 originally led up to it. Hence what was the first floor of this 
 house must now form the cellars. There is a short flight of 
 outer steps to the door of the tower, and inside it an ancient 
 Vise or stairs, winding in a spiral round a newell carved to 
 imitate a vine-stock. This style, resembling that of the Louis 
 XII. staircases at Blois, dates as far back as the fourteenth 
 century. 
 
12 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Struck by these various signs of antiquity, Godefroid could 
 not help exclaiming 
 
 " This tower was not built yesterday ! " 
 
 " It is said to have withstood the attacks of the Normans 
 and to have formed part of a primeval palace of the kings of 
 Paris ; but according to more probable traditions, it was the 
 residence of Fulbert, the famous canon, and the uncle of 
 HeloYse." 
 
 As he spoke the priest opened the door of the apartment, 
 which seemed to be the first floor, and which, in fact, is now 
 but just above the ground of both the outer and the inner 
 courtyard for there is a small second court. 
 
 In the first room a servant sat knitting by the light of a 
 small lamp; she wore a cap devoid of any ornament, but its 
 gauffered cambric frills. She stuck one of the needles through 
 her hair, but did not lay down her knitting as she rose to open 
 the door of a drawing-room looking out on the inner court. 
 This room was lighted up. The woman's dress suggested to 
 Godefroid that of some gray sisters. 
 
 "Madame, I have found you a tenant," said the priest, 
 showing in Godefroid, who saw in the room three men, sitting 
 in armchairs near Madame de la Chanterie. 
 
 The three gentlemen rose ; the mistress of the house also ; 
 and when the priest had pushed forward a chair for the 
 stranger, and he had sat down in obedience to a sign from 
 Madame de la Chanterie and an old-fashioned bidding to 
 " Be seated," the Parisian felt as if he were far indeed from 
 Paris, in remote Brittany, or the backwoods of Canada. 
 
 There are, perhaps, degrees of silence. Godefroid, struck 
 already by the tranquillity of the Rue Massillon and Rue Cha- 
 noinesse, where a vehicle passes perhaps twice in a month, 
 struck too by the stillness of the courtyard and the tower, 
 may have felt himself at the very heart of silence, in this 
 drawing-room, hedged round by so many old streets, old 
 courtyards, and old walls. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 13 
 
 This part of the Island, called the Cloister, preserves the 
 character common to all cloisters ; it is damp, and cold, and 
 monastic ; silence reigns there unbroken, even during the 
 noisiest hours of the day. It may also be remarked that this 
 part of the city, lying between the body of the cathedral and 
 the river, is to the north and under the shadow of Notre- 
 Dame. The east wind loses itself there, unchecked by any 
 obstacle, and the fogs from the Seine are to some extent en- 
 trapped by the blackened walls of the ancient metropolitan 
 church. 
 
 So no one will be surprised at the feeling that came over 
 Godefroid on finding himself in this ancient abode, and in 
 the presence of four persons as silent and as solemn as every- 
 thing around them. He did not look about him; his curiosity 
 centred in Madame de la Chanterie, whose name even had 
 already puzzled him. 
 
 This lady was evidently a survival from another century, 
 not to say another world. She had a rather sweet face, with 
 a soft, coldly-colored complexion, an aquiline nose, a benign 
 brow, hazel eyes, and a double chin, the whole framed in 
 curls of silver hair. Her dress could only be described by 
 the old name of fourrcau (literally a sheath, a tightly fitting 
 dress), so tightly was she cased in it, in the fashion of the 
 eighteenth century. The material silk of carmelite gray, 
 finely and closely striped with green seemed to have come 
 down from the same date ; the bodice, cut low, was hidden 
 under a mantilla of richer silk,* flounced with black lace, and 
 fastened at the bosom with a brooch containing a miniature. 
 Her feet, shod in black velvet shoes, rested on a little stool. 
 Madame de la Chanterie, like her maidservant, was knitting 
 stockings, and had a knitting-pin stuck through her waving 
 hair under her lace cap. 
 
 "Have you seen Monsieur Millet ?" she asked Godefroid 
 in the head voice peculiar to dowagers of the Saint-Germain 
 * Poult-de-soie. 
 
14 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 suburb, as if to invite him to speak, seeing that he was almost 
 thunderstruck. 
 
 "Yes, madame." 
 
 " I am afraid the rooms will hardly suit you," she went on, 
 observing that her proposed tenant was dressed with elegance 
 in clothes that were new and smart. 
 
 Godefroid, in fact, was wearing patent-leather shoes, yel- 
 low gloves, handsome shirt-studs, and a neat watch-chain 
 passed through the button-hole of a black silk vest sprigged 
 with blue. 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie took a small silver whistle out of 
 her pocket and blew it. The woman-servant came in. 
 
 " Manon, child, show this gentleman the rooms. Will 
 you, my dear friend, accompany him ? " she said to the priest. 
 "And if by any chance the rooms should suit you," she 
 added, rising and looking at Godefroid, "we will afterward 
 discuss the terms." 
 
 Godefroid bowed and went out. He heard the iron rattle 
 of a bunch of keys which Manon took out of a drawer, and 
 saw her light a candle in a large brass candlestick. 
 
 Manon led the way without speaking a word. When he 
 found himself on the stairs again, climbing to the upper floors, 
 he doubted the reality of things ; he felt dreaming though 
 awake, and saw the whole world of fantastic romance such as 
 he had read of in his hours of idleness. And any Parisian 
 dropped here, as he was, out of the modern city with its 
 luxurious houses and furniture, its glittering restaurants and 
 theatres, and all the stirring heart of Paris, would have felt as 
 he did. The single candle carried by the servant lighted the 
 winding-stair but dimly ; spiders had hung it with their dusty 
 webs. 
 
 Manon's dress consisted of a skirt broadly pleated and 
 made of coarse woolen stuff ; the bodice was cut square at the 
 neck, behind and before, and all her clothes seemed to move 
 in a piece. Having reached the third floor, which had been 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 15 
 
 the fourth, Manon stopped, turned the springs of an antique 
 lock, and opened a door painted in coarse imitation of knotted 
 mahogany. 
 
 " There ! " said she, leading the way. 
 
 Who had lived in these rooms? A miser, an artist, who 
 had died of want, a cynic indifferent to the world, or a pious 
 man who was alien to it? Any one of the four seemed pos- 
 sible, as the visitor smelt the very odor of poverty, saw the 
 greasy stains on wall-papers covered with a layer of smoke, the 
 blackened ceilings, the windows with their small dusty panes, 
 the brown-tiled floor, the wainscot sticky with a deposit of fog. 
 A damp chill came down the fireplaces, faced with carved stone- 
 work that had been painted, and with mirrors framed in the 
 seventeenth century. The rooms were at the angle of a square, 
 as the house stood, inclosing the inner courtyard, but this 
 Godefroid could not see, as it was dark. 
 
 " Who used to live here ? " Godefroid asked of the priest. 
 
 " A councilor to the Parlement, madame's granduncle, a 
 Monsieur de Boisfrelon. He had been quite childish ever 
 since the Revolution, and died in 1832 at the age of ninety- 
 six ; madame could not bear the idea of seeing a stranger in 
 the rooms so soon ; still, she cannot endure the loss of rent." 
 
 " Oh, and madame will have the place cleaned and fur- 
 nished, to be all monsieur could wish," added Manon. 
 
 "It will only depend on how you wish to arrange the 
 rooms," said the priest. "They can be made into a nice 
 sitting-room and a large bedroom and dressing-room, and the 
 two small rooms round the corner are large enough for a 
 spacious study. That is how my rooms are arranged below 
 this, and those on the next floor." 
 
 "Yes," said Manon; "Monsieur Alain's rooms are just 
 like these, only that they look out on the tower." 
 
 " I think I had better see the rooms again by daylight," 
 said Godefroid shyly. 
 
 " Perhaps so," said Manon, 
 
16 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 The priest and Godefroid went downstairs again, leaving 
 Manon to lock up, and she then followed to light them down. 
 Then, when he was in the drawing-room, Godefroid, having 
 recovered himself, could, while talking to Madame de la 
 Chanterie, study the place, the personages, and the sur- 
 roundings. 
 
 The window-curtains of this drawing-room were of old red 
 satin ; there was a cornice-valance, and the curtains were 
 looped with silk cord ; the red tiles of the floor showed be- 
 yond an ancient tapestry carpet that was too small to cover it 
 entirely. The woodwork was painted stone-color. The ceil- 
 ing, divided down the middle by a joist starting from the 
 chimney, looked like an addition lately conceded to modern 
 luxury ; the easy-chairs were of wood painted white, with tap- 
 estry seats. A shabby clock, standing between two gilt candle- 
 sticks, adorned the mantel. An old table with stag's feet 
 stood by Madame de la Chanterie, and on it were her balls of 
 wool in a wicker basket. A clockwork lamp threw light on 
 the picture. 
 
 The three men, sitting as rigid, motionless, and speechless 
 as bronzes, had, like Madame de la Chanterie, evidently 
 ceased speaking on hearing the stranger return. Their faces 
 were perfectly cold and reserved, as befitted the room, the 
 house, and the neighborhood. 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie agreed that Godefroid's observa- 
 tions were just, and said that she had postponed doing any- 
 thing till she was informed of the intentions of her lodger, or 
 rather of her boarder ; for if the lodger could conform to the 
 ways of the household, he was to board with them but their 
 ways were so unlike those of Paris life ! Here, in the Rue 
 Chanoinesse, they kept country hours ; every one, as a 
 rule, had to be in by ten at night; noise was not to be 
 endured ; neither women nor children were admitted, so that 
 their regular habits might not be interfered with. No one, 
 perhaps, but a priest could agree to such a rulei At any rate, 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 17 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie wished for some one who liked plain 
 living and had few requirements ; she could only afford the 
 most necessary furniture in the rooms. Monsieur Alain was 
 satisfied, however and she bowed to one of the gentlemen 
 and she would do the same for the new lodger as for the old. 
 
 "But," said the priest, "I do not think that monsieur is 
 quite inclined to come and join us in our convent." 
 
 " Indeed ; why not ? " said Monsieur Alain. " We are all 
 quite content, and we all get on very well." 
 
 "Madame," said Godefroid, rising, "I will have the 
 honor of calling on you again to-morrow." 
 
 Though he was but a young man, the four old gentlemen 
 and Madame de la Chanterie stood up, and the priest escorted 
 him to the outer steps. A whistle sounded, and at the signal 
 the porter appeared, lantern in hand, to conduct Godefroid to 
 the street ; then he closed the yellow gate, as heavy as that 
 of a prison, and covered with arabesque ironwork, so old that 
 it would be hard to determine its date. 
 
 When Godefroid found himself sitting in a hack, and being 
 carried to the living regions of Paris, where light and warmth 
 reigned, all he had just seen seemed like a dream ; and, as he 
 walked along the Boulevard des Italiens, his impressions 
 already seemed as remote as a memory. He could not help 
 saying to himself 
 
 " Shall I find those people there to-morrow, I wonder?" 
 
 On the following day, when he woke in the midst of the 
 elegance of modern luxury and the refinements of English 
 comfort, Godefroid recalled all the details of his visit to the 
 Cloister of Notre-Dame, and came to some conclusions in his 
 mind as to the things he had seen there. The three gentle- 
 men, whose appearance, attitude, and silence had left an im- 
 pression on him, were no doubt boarders, as well as the priest. 
 Madame de la Chanterie's gravity seemed to him to be the 
 result of the reserved dignity with which she had endured 
 2 
 
18 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 some great sorrow. And yet, in spite of the explanations he 
 gave himself, Godefroid could not help feeling that there was 
 an air of mystery in those uncommunicative faces. He cast 
 a glance at his furniture to choose what he could keep, what 
 he thought indispensable ; but, transporting them in fancy to 
 the horrible rooms in the Rue Chanoinesse, he could not help 
 laughing at the grotesque contrast they would make there, 
 and determined to sell everything, and pay away so much as 
 they might bring; leaving the furnishing of the rooms to 
 Madame de la Chanterie. He longed for a new life, and the 
 objects that could recall his old existence must be bad for him. 
 In his craving for transformation for his was one of those 
 natures which rush forward at once with a bound, instead of 
 approaching a situation step by step as others do he was 
 seized, as he sat at breakfast, by an idea : he would realize his 
 fortune, pay his debts, and place the surplus with the banking 
 firm his father had done business with. 
 
 This banking house was that of MM. Mongenod & Co., estab- 
 lished in Paris since 1816 or 1817, a firm whose reputation 
 had never been blown on in the midst of the commercial de- 
 pravity which at this time had blighted, more or less, several 
 great Paris houses. Thus, in spite of their immense wealth, 
 the houses of Nucingen and du Tillet, of Keller Brothers, of 
 Palma & Co., suffered under a secret dis-esteem whispered, as 
 it were, between lip and ear. Hideous transactions had led 
 to such splendid results; and political successes, nay, mon- 
 archical principles, had overgrown such foul beginnings, that 
 no one in 1834 thought for a moment of the mud in which 
 the roots were set of such majestic trees the upholders of 
 the State. At the same time, there was not one of these 
 bankers that did not feel aggrieved by praises of the house of 
 Mongenod. 
 
 The Mongenods, following the example of English bankers, 
 make no display of wealth ; they do everything very quietly, 
 and carry on their business with such prudence, shrewdness, 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 19 
 
 and honesty as allow them to operate with certainty from one 
 end of the world to the other. 
 
 The present head of the house, Frederic Mongenod, is 
 brother-in-law to the Vicomte de Fontaine. Thus his numer- 
 ous family is connected, through the Baron de Fontaine, with 
 Monsieur Grossetete, the receiver-general (brother to the 
 Grossetete & Co. of Limoges), with the Vandenesses, and 
 with Planat de Baudry, another receiver-general. This rela- 
 tionship, after being of the greatest service to the late Monge- 
 nod senior in his financial operations at the time of the 
 Restoration, had gained him the confidence of many of the 
 old nobility, whose capital and vast savings were intrusted to 
 his bank. Far from aiming at the peerage, like Keller, Nuc- 
 ingen, and du Tillet, the Mongenods kept out of political life, 
 and knew no more of it than was needed for banking business. 
 
 Mongenod's bank occupies a magnificent house in the Rue 
 de la Victoire, with a garden behind and a courtyard in front, 
 where Madame Mongenod resided with her two sons, with 
 whom she was in partnership. Madame la Vicomtesse de 
 Fontaine had taken out her share on the death of the elder 
 Mongenod in 1827. Frederic Mongenod, a handsome fellow 
 of about thirty-five, with a cold manner, as silent and re- 
 served as a Genevese, and as neat as an Englishman, had ac- 
 quired under his father all the qualifications needed in his 
 difficult business. He was more cultivated than most bankers, 
 for his education had given him the general knowledge which 
 forms the curriculum of the Polytechnic School \ and, like 
 many bankers, he had an occupation, a taste, outside his 
 regular business, a love of physics and chemistry. Mongenod 
 junior, ten years younger than Frederic, filled the place, 
 under his elder brother, that a head-clerk holds under a 
 lawyer or a notary ; Frederic was training him, as he himself 
 had been trained by his father, in the scientific side of bank- 
 ing, for a banker is to money what a writer is to ideas they 
 both ought to know everything. 
 
20 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Godefroid, as he mentioned his family name, could see how 
 highly his father had been respected, for he was shown through 
 the offices at once to that next to Mongenod's private room. 
 This room was shut in by glass doors, so that, in spite of his 
 wish not to listen, Godefroid overheard the conversation going 
 on within. 
 
 "Madame, your account shows sixteen hundred thousand 
 francs on both sides of the balance sheet," Mongenod the 
 younger was saying. "I know not what my brother's views 
 may be ; he alone can decide whether an advance of a hun- 
 dred thousand francs is possible. You lacked prudence. It 
 is not wise to put sixteen hundred thousand francs into a 
 business " 
 
 "Too loud, Louis!" said a woman's voice. "Your 
 brother's advice is never to speak but in an undertone. There 
 may be some one in the little waiting-room." 
 
 At this instant Frederic Mongenod opened the door from 
 his living rooms to his private office ; he saw Godefroid, and 
 went through to the inner room, where he bowed respectfully 
 to the lady who was talking to his brother. 
 
 He showed Godefroid in first, saying as he did so: "And 
 whom have I the honor of addressing? " 
 
 As soon as Godefroid had announced himself, Frederic 
 offered him a chair; and while the banker was opening his 
 desk, Louis Mongenod and the lady, who was none else than 
 Madame de la Chanterie, rose and went up to Frederic. Then 
 they all three went into a window recess, where they stood 
 talking to Madame Mongenod, who was in all the secrets of 
 the business. For thirty years past this clever woman had 
 given ample proofs of her capacity, to her husband first, now 
 to her sons, and she was, in fact, an active partner in the 
 house, signing for it as they did. Godefroid saw in a pigeon- 
 hole a number of boxes, labeled "La Chanterie," and num- 
 bered i to 7. 
 
 When the conference was ended by a word from the senior 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 21 
 
 to his brother, "Well, then, go to the cashier," Madame de 
 la Chanterie turned round, saw Godefroid, restrained a start 
 of surprise, and then asked a few whispered questions of Mon- 
 genod, who replied briefly, also in a low voice. 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie wore thin prunella shoes and gray 
 * silk stockings ; she had on the same dress as before, and was 
 wrapped in the Venetian cloak that was just coming into 
 fashion again. Her drawn bonnet of green silk, in the style 
 of a good woman's, was lined with white, and her face was 
 framed in flowing lace. She stood very erect, in an attitude 
 which bore witness, if not to high birth, at any rate to aristo- 
 cratic habits. But for her extreme affability, she would per- 
 haps have seemed proud. In short, she was very imposing. 
 
 "It is not so much good-luck as a dispensation of Provi- 
 dence that has brought us together here, monsieur," said she 
 I to Godefroid. " I was on the point of declining a boarder 
 whose habits, as I fancied, were ill-suited to those of my house- 
 hold ; but Monsieur Mongenod has just given me some informa- 
 tion as to your family which is " 
 " Indeed, madame monsieur " said Godefroid, ad- 
 dressing the lady and the banker together, " I have no longer 
 any family, and I came to ask advice of my late father's 
 banker to arrange my affairs in accordance with a new plan 
 of life." 
 
 Godefroid told his story in a few words, and expressed his 
 desire of leading a new life. 
 
 "Formerly," said he, "a man in my position would have 
 
 turned monk; but there are now no religious Orders " 
 
 "Go to live with madame, if she will accept you as a 
 boarder," said Frederic Mongenod, after exchanging glances 
 with Madame de la Chanterie, "and do not sell your invest- 
 ments ; leave them in my hands. Give me the schedule of 
 your debts ; I will fix dates of payment with your creditors, 
 and you can draw for your own use a hundred and fifty francs 
 a month. It will take about two years to pay everything off. 
 
22 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 During those two years, in the house to which you are going, 
 you will have ample leisure to think of a career, especially 
 as the people you will be living with can give you good 
 advice." 
 
 Louis Mongenod came back with a hundred thousand-franc 
 notes, which he gave to Madame de la Chanterie. Godefroid 
 offered his arm to his future landlady, and took her to her 
 coach. 
 
 "Then we shall meet again presently," said she in a kind 
 tone. 
 
 "At what hour shall you be at home, madame?" said 
 Godefroid. 
 
 "In two hours' time." 
 
 "I have time to get rid of my furniture," said he with a 
 bow. 
 
 During the few minutes while Madame de la Chanterie's 
 arm had lain on his as they walked side by side, Godefroid 
 could not see beyond the halo cast about this woman by the 
 words, "Your account stands at sixteen hundred thousand 
 francs," spoken by Louis Mongenod to a lady who buried 
 her life in the depths of the Cloister of Notre-Dame. 
 
 This idea, "She must be rich!" had entirely changed 
 his view of things. " What age is she, I wonder ? " 
 
 And he had a vision of a romance in his residence in the 
 Rue Chanoinesse. 
 
 " She looks like an aristocrat ; does she dabble in banking 
 affairs? " he asked himself. 
 
 And in our day nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of 
 a thousand would have thought of the possibility of marrying 
 this woman. 
 
 A furniture dealer, who was also a decorator, but chiefly an 
 agent for furnished flats, gave about three thousand francs for 
 all that Godefroid wished to dispose of, leaving the things in 
 his rooms for the few days needed to clean and arrange the 
 dreadful rooms in the Rue Chanoinesse. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 23 
 
 Thither the brain-sick youth at once repaired ; he called in 
 a painter, recommended by Madame de la Chanterie, who 
 undertook for a moderate sum to whitewash the ceilings, clean 
 the windows, paint the wainscoting like gray maple, and color 
 the floors, within a week. Godefroid measured the rooms to 
 carpet them all alike with green drugget of the cheapest de- 
 scription. He wished everything to be uniform and as simple 
 as possible in his cell. 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie approved of this. With Manon's 
 assistance she calculated how much white dimity would be 
 needed for the window curtains and for a simple iron bed- 
 stead ; then she undertook to procure the stuff and to have 
 them made for a price so small as to amaze Godefroid. With 
 the new furniture he would send in, his apartments would not 
 cost him more than six hundred francs. 
 
 " So I can take about a thousand to Monsieur Mongenod." 
 
 " We here lead a Christian life," said Madame de la Chan- 
 terie, "which is, as you know, quite out of keeping with 
 much superfluity, and I fear you still preserve too many." 
 
 As she gave her new boarder this piece of advice, she 
 glanced at the diamond that sparkled in a ring through which 
 the ends of Godefroid's blue necktie were drawn. 
 
 "I only mention this," she added, "because I perceive 
 that you are preparing to break with the dissipated life of 
 which you spoke with regret to Monsieur Mongenod." 
 
 Godefroid gazed at Madame de la Chanterie, listening with 
 delight to the harmony of her clear voice ; he studied her face, 
 which was perfectly colorless, worthy to be that of one of the 
 grave, cold Dutchwomen so faithfully depicted by the painters 
 of the Flemish school, faces on which a wrinkle would be 
 impossible. 
 
 " Plump and fair ! " thought he, as he went away. " Still, 
 her hair is white " 
 
 Godefroid, like all weak natures, had readily accustomed 
 himself to the idea of a new life, believing it would be perfect 
 
24 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 happiness, and he was eager to settle in the Rue Chanoinesse ; 
 nevertheless, he had a gleam of prudence or, if you like, of 
 suspicion. Two days before moving in he went again to 
 Monsieur Mongenod to ask for further information concern- 
 ing the household he was about joining. During the few 
 minutes he had spent now and then in his future home, to see 
 what alterations were being made, he had observed the going 
 and coming of several persons whose appearance and manner, 
 without any air of mystery, suggested that they were busied in 
 the practice of some profession, some secret occupation with 
 the residents in the house. At this time many plots were afoot 
 to help the elder branch of Bourbons to remount the throne, 
 and Godefroid believed there was some conspiracy here. 
 
 But when he found himself in the banker's private room 
 and under his searching eye, he was ashamed of himself as he 
 formulated his question and saw a sardonic smile on Frederic 
 Mongenod's lips. 
 
 " Madame la Baronne de la Chanterie," he replied, "is one 
 of the obscurest but one of the most honorable women in 
 Paris. Have you any particular reason for asking for infor- 
 mation?" 
 
 Godefroid fell back on flat excuses he was arranging to 
 live a long time with these strangers, and it was as well to 
 know to whom he was tying himself, and the like. But the 
 banker's smile only became more and more ironical, and 
 Godefroid more and more ashamed, till he blushed at the step 
 he had taken, and got nothing by it ; for he dared ask no 
 more questions about Madame de la Chanterie or his fellow- 
 boarders. 
 
 Two days later, after dining for the last time at the Caf6 
 Anglais, and seeing the two first pieces at the Varietes, at ten 
 o'clock on a Monday night he came to sleep in the Rue 
 Chanoinesse, where Manon lighted him to his room. 
 
 Solitude has a charm somewhat akin to that of the wild life 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY, 25 
 
 of savages, which no European ever gives up after having once 
 tasted it. This may seem strange in an age when every one 
 lives so completely in the sight of others that everybody is 
 inquisitive about everybody else, and that privacy will soon 
 have ceased to exist, so quickly do the eyes of the Press the 
 modern Argus increase in boldness and intrusiveness ; and 
 yet the statement is supported by the evidence of the six first 
 Christian centuries, when no recluse ever came back to social 
 life again. There are few mental wounds that solitude cannot 
 cure. Thus, in the first instance, Godefroid was struck by 
 the calm and stillness of his new abode, exactly as a tired 
 traveler finds rest in a bath. 
 
 On the day after his arrival as a boarder with Madame de 
 la Chanterie, he could not help cross-examining himself on 
 finding he was thus cut off from everything, even from Paris, 
 though he remained under the shadow of its cathedral. Here, 
 stripped of every social vanity, there would henceforth be 
 no witnesses to his deeds but his conscience and his fellow- 
 boarders. This was leaving the beaten highway of the world 
 for an unknown track ; and whither would the track lead 
 him ? To what occupation would he find himself committed ? 
 
 He had been lost in such reflections for a couple of hours, 
 when Manon, the only servant of the establishment, knocked 
 at his door and told him that the second breakfast was served; 
 they were waiting for him. Twelve was striking. 
 
 The new boarder went downstairs at once, prompted by his 
 curiosity to see the five persons with whom he was thence- 
 forth to live. On entering the drawing-room, he found all 
 the residents in the house standing up and dressed precisely 
 as they had been on the day when he had first come to make 
 inquiries. 
 
 " Did you sleep well?" asked Madame de la Chanterie. 
 
 " I did not wake till ten o'clock," said Godefroid, bowing 
 to the four gentlemen, who returned the civility with much 
 gravity. 
 
26 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 11 We quite expected it," said the old man, known as Mon- 
 sieur Alain, and he smiled. 
 
 "Manon spoke of the second breakfast," Godefroid went 
 on. " I have, I fear, already broken one of your rules with- 
 out intending it. At what hour do you rise?" addressing 
 the lady. 
 
 " We do not get up quite by the rule of the monks of old," 
 replied Madame de la Chanterie graciously, "but, like work- 
 men, at six in winter and at half-past three in summer. We 
 also go to bed by the rule of the sun ; we are always asleep 
 by nine in winter, by half-past eleven in summer. We drink 
 some milk, which is brought from our own farm, after prayers, 
 all but Monsieur 1'Abbe de Veze, who performs early mass at 
 Notre-Dame at six in summer, at seven in winter and these 
 gentlemen as well as I, your humble servant, attend that 
 service every day." 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie finished this speech at table, where 
 her five guests were now seated. 
 
 The dining-room, painted gray throughout, and decorated 
 with carved wood of a design showing the taste of Louis XIV., 
 opened out of the sort of anteroom where Manon sat, and ran 
 parallel with Madame de la Chanterie's room, adjoining the 
 drawing-room, no doubt. There was no ornament but an old 
 clock. The furniture consisted of six chairs, their oval backs 
 upholstered with worsted-work evidently done by Madame de 
 la Chanterie, of two mahogany sideboards, and a table to 
 match, on which Manon placed the breakfast without spreading 
 a cloth. The breakfast, of monastic frugality, consisted of a 
 small turbot with white sauce, potatoes, a salad, and four 
 dishes of fruit : peaches, grapes, strawberries, and green 
 almonds ; then, by way of side-dishes, there was honey served 
 in the comb as in Switzerland, beside butter, radishes, cucum- 
 bers, and sardines. The meal was served in china sprigged 
 with small blue cornflowers and green leaves, a pattern which 
 was no doubt luxuriously fashionable in the time of Louis 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 27 
 
 XVI., but which the increasing demands of the present day 
 have made common. 
 
 "It is a fast day ! " observed Monsieur Alain. " Since we 
 go to mass every morning, you may suppose that we yield 
 blindly to all the practices of the church, even the strictest." 
 
 "And you will begin by following our example," added 
 Madame de la Chanterie, with a side-glance at Godefroid, 
 whom she had placed by her side. 
 
 Of the for~ boarders, Godefroid already knew the names 
 of the Abbe de Veze and Monsieur Alain ; but he yet had to 
 learn those of the other two gentlemen. They sat in silence, 
 eating with the absorbed attention that the pious seem to 
 devote to the smallest details of their meals. 
 
 "And does this fine fruit also come from your farm, 
 madame ? " Godefroid inquired. 
 
 "Yes, monsieur," she replied. " We have our little model 
 farm, just as the Government has ; it is our country house, 
 about three leagues from hence, on the road to Italy, near 
 Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. ' ' 
 
 " It is a little estate that belongs to us all, and will become 
 the property of the survivor," said the worthy Monsieur 
 Alain. 
 
 "Oh, it is quite inconsiderable," added Madame de la 
 Chanterie, who seemed afraid lest Godefroid should regard 
 this speech as a bait. 
 
 "There are thirty acres of arable land," said one of the 
 men unknown to Godefroid, "six acres of meadow, and an 
 inclosure of about four acres of garden, in the midst of which 
 our house stands; in front of it is the farm." 
 
 "But such an estate must be worth above a hundred thousand 
 francs," observed Godefroid. 
 
 "Oh, we get nothing out of it but our produce," replied 
 the same speaker. 
 
 He was a tall man, thin and grave. At a first glance he 
 seemed to have served in the army ; his white hair showed 
 
28 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 that he was past sixty, and his face revealed great sorrows and 
 religious resignation. 
 
 The second stranger, who appeared to be a sort of com- 
 pound of a master of rhetoric and a man of business, was of 
 middle height, stout but active, and his face bore traces of a 
 joviality peculiar to the notaries and attorneys of Paris. 
 
 The dress of all four men was marked by the extreme neat- 
 ness due to personal care; and Manon's hand was visible in 
 the smallest details of their raiment. Their coats were per- 
 haps ten years old, and preserved, as a priest's clothes are 
 preserved, by the occult powers of a housekeeper and by con- 
 stant use. These men wore, as it were, the livery of a system 
 of life ; they were all the slaves of the same thought, their 
 looks spoke the same word, their faces wore an expression of 
 gentle resignation, of inviting tranquillity. 
 
 "Am I indiscreet, madame," said Godefroid, "to ask the 
 names of these gentlemen ? I am quite prepared to tell them 
 all about myself; may I not know as much about them as 
 circumstances allow? " 
 
 "This," said Madame de la Chanterie, introducing the 
 tall, thin man, " is Monsieur Nicolas ; he is a retired colonel 
 of the Gendarmes, ranking as a major-general. And this 
 gentleman," she went on, turning to the little stout man, 
 " was formerly councilor to the Bench of the King's Court 
 in Paris; he retired from his functions in August, 1830; his 
 name is Monsieur Joseph. Though you joined us but yester- 
 day, I may tell you that in the world Monsieur Nicolas bore 
 the name of Marquis de Montauran, and Monsieur Joseph 
 that of Lecamus, Baron de Tresnes ; but to us, as to the outer 
 world, these names no longer exist. These gentlemen have 
 no heirs; they have anticipated the oblivion that must fall 
 on their families ; they are simply Monsieur Nicolas and 
 Monsieur Joseph, as you will be simply Monsieur Godefroid." 
 
 As he heard these two names one so famous in the history 
 of Royalism from the disaster which put an end to the rising 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 29 
 
 of the Chouans at the beginning of the Consulate, the other so 
 long respected in the records of the old Parlement Godefroid 
 could not repress a start of surprise; but when he looked at 
 these survivors from the wreck of the two greatest institutions 
 of the fallen monarchy, he could not detect the slightest 
 movement of feature or change of countenance that betrayed 
 a worldly emotion. These two men did not or would not 
 remember what they once had been. This was Godefroid's 
 first lesson. 
 
 "Each name, gentlemen, is a chapter of history," said he 
 respectfully. 
 
 "The history of our own time," said Monsieur Joseph, 
 "of mere ruins." 
 
 "You are in good company," said Monsieur Alain, smiling. 
 
 He can be described in two words : he was a middle-class 
 Paris citizen ; a worthy man with the face of a calf, dignified 
 by white hairs, but insipid with its eternal smile. 
 
 As to the priest, the Abbe de Veze, his position was all 
 sufficient. The priest who fulfills his mission is recognizable 
 at the first glance when his eyes meet yours. 
 
 What chiefly struck Godefroid from the first was the pro- 
 found respect shown by the boarders to Madame de la Chan- 
 terie ; all of them, even the priest, notwithstanding the sacred 
 dignity conferred by his functions, behaved to her as to a 
 queen. He also noted the temperance of each guest; they 
 ate solely for the sake of nourishment. Madame de la Chan- 
 terie, like the rest, took but a single peach and half a bunch 
 of grapes; but she begged the new-comer not to restrict him- 
 self in the same way, offering him every dish in turn. 
 
 Godefroid's curiosity was excited to the highest pitch by 
 this beginning. After the meal they returned to the drawing- 
 room, where he was left to himself; Madame de la Chanterie 
 and her four friends held a little privy council in a window 
 recess. This conference, in which no animation was dis- 
 played, lasted for about half an hour. They talked in under- 
 
30 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 tones, exchanging remarks which each seemed to have thought 
 out beforehand. Now and again Monsieur Alain and Mon- 
 sieur Joseph consulted their pocketbooks, turning over the 
 leaves. 
 
 "You will see to the faubourg," said Madame de la Chan- 
 terie to Monsieur Nicolas, who went away. 
 
 These were the first words Godefroid could overhear., 
 
 "And you to the Saint-Marceau Quarter," she went on, 
 addressing Monsieur Joseph. 
 
 " Will you take the Saint-Germain suburb and try to find 
 what we need ? ' ' she added to the Abbe de Veze, who at once 
 went off. "And you, my dear Alain," she added with a 
 smile, " look into matters. To-day's business is all settled," 
 said she, returning to Godefroid. 
 
 She sat down in her armchair, and took from a little work- 
 table some under-linen ready cut out, on which she began 
 to sew as if working against time. 
 
 Godefroid, lost in conjectures, and seeing in all this a 
 Royalist conspiracy, took the lady's speech as introductory, 
 and, seating himself by her side, watched her closely. He 
 was struck by her singular skill in sewing; while everything 
 about her proclaimed the great lady, she had the peculiar 
 deftness of a paid seamstress ; for every one can distinguish, 
 by certain tricks of working, the habits of a professional from 
 those of an amateur. 
 
 "You sew," said Godefroid, "as if you were used to the 
 business." 
 
 "Alas!" she said, without looking up, "I have done it 
 ere now from necessity " 
 
 Two large tears rose to the old woman's eyes, and rolled 
 down her cheeks on to the work she held. 
 
 "Pray, forgive me, madame ! " cried Godefroid. 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie looked at her new inmate, and 
 saw on his features such an expression of regret, that she 
 nodded to him kindly. Then, after wiping her eyes, she 
 

 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 31 
 
 recovered the composure that characterized her face, which 
 was not so much cold as chastened. 
 
 "You here find yourself, Monsieur Godefroid for, as you 
 know already, you will be called only by your Christian name 
 amid the wreckage from a great storm. We have all been 
 stricken and wounded to the heart through family interests or 
 damaged fortunes, by the forty years' hurricane that overthrew 
 royalty and religion, and scattered to the winds the elements 
 that constituted France as it was of old. Words which seem 
 but trivial bear a sting for us, and that is the reason of the 
 silence that reigns here. We rarely speak of ourselves ; we 
 have forgotten what we were, and have found means of sub- 
 stituting a new life for the old life. It was because I fancied, 
 from your revelation to the Mongenods, that there was some 
 resemblance between your situation and our own, that I per- 
 suaded my four friends to receive you among us ; in fact, we 
 were anxious to find another recluse for our convent. But 
 what do you propose to do ? We do not enter on solitude 
 without some stock of moral purpose." 
 
 " Madame, as I hear you speak, I shall be too happy to 
 accept you as the arbiter of my destiny." 
 
 " That is speaking like a man of the world," said she. 
 "You are trying to flatter me a woman of sixty ! My dear 
 boy," she went on, "you are, you must know, among people 
 who believe firmly in God, who have all felt His hand, and 
 who have given themselves up to Him almost as completely 
 as do the Trappists. Have you ever observed the assurance 
 of a true priest when he has given himself to the Lord, when 
 he hearkens to His voice and strives to be a docile instrument 
 under the fingers of Providence? He has shed all vanity, all 
 self-consciousness, all the feelings which cause constant offenses 
 to the worldly ; his quiescence is as complete as that of the 
 fatalist, his resignation enables him to endure all things. 
 The true priest an Abbe de Veze is like a child with h ; s 
 mother; for the church, my dear sir, is a good mother. 
 
32 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Well, a man may be a priest without a tonsure; not all priests 
 are in orders. If we devote ourselves to doing good, we imi- 
 tate the good priest, we obey God ! I am not preaching to 
 you; I do not want to convert you; I am only explaining 
 our life." 
 
 "Instruct me, madame," said Godefroid, quite conquered. 
 "As I would wish not to fail in any single particular of your 
 rules." 
 
 "You would find that too much to do; you will learn by 
 degrees. Above all things, never speak here of your past 
 misfortunes, which are mere childish vexations as compared 
 with the terrible catastrophes with which God has stricken 
 those with whom you are now living " 
 
 All the time she spoke, Madame de la Chanterie went on 
 pulling her thread through with distracting regularity; but at 
 this full stop she raised her head and looked at Godefroid ; she 
 saw that he was spellbound by the thrilling sweetness of her 
 voice, which had indeed a sort of apostolic unction. The 
 young sufferer was gazing with admiration at the really extra- 
 ordinary appearance of this woman, whose face was radiant. 
 A faint flush tinged her wax-white cheeks, her eyes sparkled, a 
 youthful soul gave life to the wrinkles that had acquired 
 sweetness, and everything about her invited affection. Gode- 
 froid sat measuring the depth of the gulf that parted this 
 woman from vulgar souls ; he saw that she had attained to an 
 inaccessible height, whither religion had guided her ; and he 
 was still too much of the world not to be stung to the quick, 
 not to long to go down into that gulf and climb to the sharp 
 peak where Madame de la Chanterie stood, and to stand by 
 her side. While he gave himself up to a thorough study of 
 this woman, he related to her all the mortifications of his life, 
 all he could not say at Mongenod's, where his self-betrayal 
 had been limited to a statement of his position. 
 
 "Poor child! " 
 
 This motherly exclamation, dropping from the lips of 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 33 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie, fell, from time to time, like healing 
 balm, on the young man's heart. 
 
 " What can I find to take the place of so many hopes de- 
 ceived, of so much disappointed affection?" said he at last, 
 looking at the lady, who seemed lost in reverie. " I came 
 here," he went on, "to reflect and make up my mind. I 
 have lost my mother will you take her place " 
 
 "But," said she, "will you show me a son's obedience?" 
 
 "Yes, if you can show me the tenderness that exacts it." 
 
 " Very well ; we will try," said she. 
 
 Godefroid held out his hand to take that which the lady 
 offered him, and raised it reverently to his lips. Madame de 
 la Chanterie's hands were admirably formed neither wrinkled, 
 nor fat, nor thin ; white enough to move a young woman to 
 envy, and of a shape that a sculptor might copy. Godefroid 
 had admired these hands, thinking them in harmony with the 
 enchantment of her voice and the heavenly blue of her eyes. 
 
 " Wait here," said Madame de la Chanterie, rising and 
 going into her own room. 
 
 Godefroid was deeply agitated, and could not think to 
 what he was to attribute the lady's departure; he was not 
 left long in perplexity, for she returned with a book in her 
 hand. 
 
 "Here, my dear boy," said she, "are the prescriptions of 
 a great healer of souls. When the things of every-day life have 
 failed to give us the happiness we looked for, we must seek in 
 a higher life, and here is the key to that new world. Read a 
 chapter of this book morning and evening ; but give it your 
 whole attention ; study every word as if it were some foreign 
 tongue. By the end of a month you will be another man. 
 For twenty years now have I read a chapter every day, and 
 my three friends, Nicolas, Alain, and Joseph, would no more 
 omit it than they would miss going to bed and getting up 
 again ; imitate them for the love of God for my sake," she 
 said, with divine serenity and dignified confidence, 
 3 
 
34 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Godefroid turned the book round and read on the back 
 "Imitation of Jesus Christ." The old lady's artlessness and 
 youthful candor, her certainty that she was doing him good, 
 confounded the ex-dandy. Madame de la Chanterie had 
 exactly the manner, the intense satisfaction, of a woman who 
 might offer a hundred thousand francs to a merchant on the 
 verge of bankruptcy. 
 
 "I have used this book," she said, "for six-and-twenty 
 years. God grant that its use may prove contagious ! Go 
 and buy me another copy, for the hour is at hand when cer- 
 tain persons are coming here who must not be seen." 
 
 Godefroid bowed and went up to his rooms, where he 
 tossed the book on to a table, exclaiming 
 
 " Poor, dear woman ! There " 
 
 The book, like all that are constantly used, fell open at a 
 particular place. Godefroid sat down to arrange his ideas a 
 little, for he had gone through more agitation that morning 
 than he had in the course of the most stormy two months of 
 his life ; his curiosity especially had never been so strongly 
 excited. His eyes wandered mechanically, as happens with 
 men when their minds are absorbed in meditation, and fell on 
 the two pages that lay facing him. He read as follows : 
 
 "CHAPTER XII. 
 "Op THE ROYAL WAY OF THE HOLY CROSS." 
 
 He picked up the volume, and this paragraph of that grand 
 book captivated his eyes as though by words of fire : 
 
 " He has gone before you carrying His cross, and died for 
 you, that you too might have strength to carry your cross, and 
 be willing to die upon the Cross 
 
 "Go where you will, try what you will, you cannot find 
 a grander way, or a safer way, than the way of the holy cross. 
 Arrange and order all your life as you like or think fit, still 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 35 
 
 you will find that you will always have something to suffer, by 
 your own choice or by necessity ; and so you will always find a 
 cross. For either you will have bodily pain to bear or some 
 trouble of the spirit. 
 
 " Sometimes God will leave you to yourself, sometimes you 
 will be vexed by your neighbor, and, what is harder than all, 
 you will often be weary of yourself, and there is no remedy 
 or solace by which you can be delivered or relieved. You 
 will have to bear your trouble as long as God decrees. For 
 He wishes you to learn to surfer trial without consolation, to 
 yield humbly to His will, and to become humbler by means 
 of tribulation." 
 
 "What a book ! " said Godefroid to himself, as he turned 
 over the pages. 
 
 And he came upon these words : 
 
 " When you have come to feel all trouble sweet and pleasant 
 for the love of Christ, then indeed you may say that all is well 
 with you ; you have made for yourself a heaven on earth." 
 
 Irritated by this simplicity, characteristic of strength, and 
 enraged at being vanquished by this book, he shut it ; but on 
 the morocco cover he saw this motto, stamped in letters of 
 gold 
 
 " Seek only that which is eternal, and that only." 
 
 "And have they found it here? " he wondered. 
 
 He went out to purchase a handsome copy of the "Imita- 
 tion of Christ," remembering that Madame de la Chanterie 
 would want to read a chapter that evening. He went down- 
 stairs and into the street. For a minute or two he remained 
 standing near the gate, undecided as to which way he would 
 go, and wondering in what street and at what bookseller's he 
 might find the book he needed ; and he then heard the heavy 
 sound of the outer gate shutting. 
 
 Two men had just come out of the Hotel de la Chanterie 
 
36 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 for the reader, if he has understood the character of the old 
 house, will have recognized it as an ancient family mansion. 
 Manon, when she had called Godefroid to breakfast, had 
 asked him how he had slept the first night at the Hotel de la 
 Chanterie, laughing as she spoke. 
 
 Godefroid followed the two men, with no idea of spying 
 on them ; and they, taking him for an indifferent passer-by, 
 talked loud enough for him to hear them in those deserted 
 streets. The men turned down the Rue Massillon, along by 
 the side of Notre- Dame, and across the Cathedral Square. 
 
 "Well, old man, you see how easy it is to get the coppers 
 out of 'em ! You must talk their lingo, that is all." 
 
 " But we owe the money." 
 
 "Who to?" 
 
 "To the lady " 
 
 "I should like to see myself sued for debt by that old 
 image! I would " 
 
 " You would what ? You would pay her, I can tell you." 
 
 "You're right there, for if I paid I could get more out of 
 her afterward than I got to-day." 
 
 " But wouldn't it be better to take their advice and set up 
 on the square?" 
 
 "Get out!" 
 
 " Since she said she could find some one to stand security ? " 
 
 "But we should have to give up life " 
 
 " I am sick of ' life ' it is not life to be always working in 
 the vineyards " 
 
 " No; but didn't the abbe throw over old Marin the other 
 day. He wouldn't give him a thing." 
 
 "Ay, but old Marin wanted to play such a game as no one 
 can win at that has not thousands at his back." 
 
 At this moment the two men, who were dressed like work- 
 ing foremen, suddenly doubled, and retraced their steps to 
 cross the bridge by the Hotel-Dieu to the Place Maubert ; 
 Godefroid stood aside ; but seeing that he was following them 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 37 
 
 closely, the men exchanged looks of suspicion, and they were 
 evidently vexed at having spoken out so plainly. 
 
 Godefroid was indeed all the more interested in the conver- 
 sation because it reminded him of the scene between the 
 Abbe de Veze and the workman on the evening of his first 
 call. 
 
 "What goes on at Madame de la Chanterie's?" he asked 
 himself once more. 
 
 As he thought over this question, he made his way to a 
 bookshop in the Rue Saint-Jacques, and returned home with 
 a very handsome copy of the best edition of the Imitation 
 that has been published in France. 
 
 As he walked slowly homeward to be punctual to the din- 
 ner-hour, he went over in his mind all his experience of the 
 morning, and found his soul singularly refreshed by it. He 
 was possessed indeed by intense curiosity, but that curiosity 
 paled before an indefinable wish ; he was attracted by Mad- 
 ame de la Chanterie, he felt a vehement longing to attach 
 himself to her, to devote himself for her, to please her and 
 deserve her praise ; in short, he was aware of a Platonic 
 passion ; he felt that there was unfathomed greatness in that 
 soul, and that he must learn to know it thoroughly. He was 
 eager to discover the secrets of the life of these pure-minded 
 Catholics. And then, in this little congregation of the faith- 
 ful, practical religion was so intimately allied with all that is 
 most majestic in the Frenchwoman, that he resolved to do his 
 utmost to be admitted to the fold. Such a vein of feeling 
 would have been sudden indeed in a man of busy life ; but 
 Godefroid, as we have seen, was in the position of a ship- 
 wrecked wretch who clings to the most fragile bough, hoping 
 that it may bear him, and his soul was ploughed land, ready 
 to receive any seed. 
 
 He found the four gentlemen in the drawing-room, and he 
 presented the book to Madame de la Chanterie, saying 
 
 " I would not leave you without a copy for this evening." 
 
38 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "God grant," said she, looking at the splendid volume, 
 " that this may be your last fit of elegance ! " 
 
 And seeing that the four men had reduced the smallest 
 details of their raiment to what was strictly decent and useful, 
 noticing, too, that this principle was rigorously carried out in 
 every detail of the house, Godefroid understood the purpose 
 of this reproof so delicately expressed. 
 
 " Madame," said he, " the men you benefited this morning 
 are monsters. Without intending it, I overheard what they 
 were saying as they went away, and it was full of the blackest 
 ingratitude." 
 
 "The two iron-workers from the Rue Mouffetard," said 
 Madame de la Chanterie to Monsieur Nicolas, " that is your 
 concern " 
 
 " The fish gets off the hook more than once before it is 
 caught," said Monsieur Alain, laughing. 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie's entire indifference on hearing of 
 the immediate ingratitude of the men to whom she had cer- 
 tainly given money amazed Godefroid, who became thought- 
 ful. 
 
 Monsieur Alain and the old lawyer made the dinner a 
 cheerful meal ; but the soldier was constantly grave, sad, and 
 cold ; his countenance bore the ineradicable stamp of a bit- 
 ter sorrow, a perennial grief. Madame de la Chanterie was 
 equally attentive to all. Godefroid felt that he was watched 
 by these men, whose prudence was not less than their piety, 
 and vanity led him to imitate their reserve, so he measured 
 his words carefully. 
 
 This first day, indeed, was far more lively than those which 
 came after. Godefroid, finding himself shut out from all 
 serious matters, was obliged, during the early morning and 
 the evening when he was alone in his rooms, to read " The 
 Imitation of Christ," and he finally studied it as we must 
 study a book when we are imprisoned with that one alone. 
 We then feel to the book as we should toward a woman with 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 39 
 
 whom we dwelt in solitude ; we must either love or hate the 
 woman ; and in the same way we must enter into the spirit 
 of the author or not read ten lines of his work. 
 
 Now it is impossible not to be held captive by " The Imita- 
 tion," which is to dogma what action is to thought. The 
 Catholic spirit thrills through it, moves and works in it, 
 truggles in it hand to hand with the life of man. That book 
 
 a trusty friend. It speaks to every passion, to every diffi- 
 
 ilty, even to the most worldly; it answers every objection, 
 it is more eloquent than any preacher, for it speaks with your 
 own voice a voice that rises from your own heart and that 
 you hear with your soul. In short, it is the Gospel inter- 
 preted and adapted to all times and seasons, controlling every 
 situation. It is strange indeed that the church should not 
 have canonized the Archbishop Gerson,* for the Holy Spirit 
 certainly guided his pen. 
 
 To Godefroid the Hotel de la Chanterie contained a woman 
 as well as a book ; every day he was more and more be- 
 witched by her. In her he found flowers buried under the 
 snow of many winters ; he had glimpses of such a sacred 
 friendship as religion sanctions, as the angels smile on as 
 bound those five, in fact and against which no evil could 
 prevail. There is a sentiment superior to all others, an affec- 
 tion of soul for soul which resembles those rare blossoms that 
 grow on the loftiest peaks of the earth. One or two examples 
 are shown us in a century; lovers are sometimes united by it; 
 and it accounts for certain faithful attachments which would 
 be inexplicable by the ordinary laws of the world. In such 
 an attachment there are no disappointments, no differences, 
 no vanities, no rivalries, no contrasts even, so intimately 
 fused are two spiritual natures. 
 
 It was this immense and infinite feeling, the outcome of 
 Catholic charity, that Godefroid was beginning to dream of. 
 At times he could not believe in the spectacle before his eyes, 
 
 * Claimed by the French to be the author of the " Imitation of Christ." 
 
40 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 and he sought to find reasons for the sublime friendship between 
 these five persons, wondering to find true Catholics, Christians 
 of the most primitive type, in Paris, and in 1836. 
 
 A week after entering the house, Godefroid had seen such a 
 number of people come and go, he had overheard fragments 
 of conversation in which such serious matters were discussed, 
 that he understood that the existence of this council of five 
 was full of prodigious activity. He noticed that not one of 
 them slept more than six hours at most. Each of them had, 
 as it were, lived through a first day before they met at the 
 second breakfast. Strangers brought in or carried away sums 
 of money, sometimes rather considerable. Mongenod's 
 cashier came very often, always early in the morning, so that 
 his work in the bank should not be interfered with by this 
 business, which was independent of the regular affairs of the 
 firm. 
 
 One evening Monsieur Mongenod himself called, and 
 Godefroid observed a touch of filial familiarity in his tone to 
 Monsieur Alain, mingled with the deep respect he showed to 
 him, as to Madame de le Chanterie's three other boarders. 
 
 That evening the banker only asked Godefroid the most 
 ordinary questions : Was he comfortable ? Did he mean to 
 stay ? and so forth, advising him to persevere in his deter- 
 mination. 
 
 " There is but one thing wanting to make me happy," said 
 Godefroid. 
 
 "And what is that?" said the banker. 
 
 "An occupation." 
 
 " An occupation ! " cried the Abbe de Veze. " Then you 
 have changed your mind ; you came to our retreat in search 
 of rest." 
 
 " But without prayer, which gives life to the cloister ; with- 
 out meditation, which peoples the desert, rest becomes a 
 disease," said Monsieur Joseph sententiously. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 41 
 
 "Learn bookkeeping," said Mongenod, smiling. "In the 
 course of a few months you may be of great use to my friends 
 here " 
 
 " Oh, with the greatest pleasure," exclaimed Godefroid. 
 
 The next day was Sunday. Madame de la Chanterie 
 desired her boarder to give her his arm and to escort her to 
 high mass. 
 
 "This," she said, " is the only thing I desire to force upon 
 you. Many a time during the week I have been moved to 
 speak to you of your salvation ; but I do not think the time 
 has come. You would have plenty to occupy you if you 
 shared our beliefs, for you would also share our labors." 
 
 At mass, Godefroid observed the fervency of Messieurs 
 Nicolas, Joseph, and Alain. Having, during these few days, 
 convinced himself of the superior intellect of these three 
 men, their perspicacity, extensive learning, and lofty spirit, 
 he concluded that if they could thus abase themselves, the 
 Catholic religion must contain mysteries which had hitherto 
 escaped his ken. 
 
 "And, after all," said he to himself, "it is the religion of 
 Bossuet, of Pascal, of Racine, of Saint-Louis, of Louis XVI., 
 of Raphael, Michael-Angelo, and Ximenes, of Bayard and 
 du Guesclin and how should such a poor creature as I com- 
 pare myself with these great brains, statesmen, poets, war- 
 riors?" 
 
 Were it not that a great lesson is to be derived from these 
 trivial details, it would be foolish in such times as these to 
 dwell on them ; but they are indispensable to the interest of 
 this narrative, which the readers of our day will, indeed, find 
 it hard to believe, beginning as it does by an almost ridiculous 
 incident the influence exerted by a woman of sixty over a 
 young man who had tried everything and found it wanting. 
 
 "You did not pray," said Madame de la Chanterie to 
 Godefroid as they came out of Notre-Dame. "Not for any 
 one, not even for the peace of your mother's soul? " 
 
42 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Godefroid reddened, but said nothing. 
 
 " Do me the pleasure," Madame de la Chanterie went on, 
 " to go to your room, and not to come down to the drawing- 
 room for an hour. And for the love of me, meditate on a 
 chapter of the Imitation the first of the Third Book, entitled 
 'Or CHRIST SPEAKING WITHIN THE FAITHFUL SOUL.'' 
 
 Godefroid bowed coolly, and went upstairs. 
 
 "The devil take 'em all ! " he exclaimed, now really in a 
 rage. " What the deuce do they want of me here ? What 
 game are they playing? Pshaw! Every woman, even the 
 veriest bigot, is full of tricks, and if madame " (the name the 
 boarders gave their hostess) " does not want me downstairs, it 
 is because they are plotting something against me." 
 
 With this notion in his head, he tried to look out of his own 
 window into that of the drawing-room, but the plan of the 
 building did not allow of it. Then he went down one flight, 
 but hastily ran up again ; for it struck him that in a house 
 where the principal inhabitants held such strict principles, an 
 act of espionage would lead to his immediate dismissal. Now, 
 to lose the esteem of those five persons seemed to him as 
 serious a matter as public dishonor. 
 
 He waited about three-quarters of an hour, resolved to take 
 Madame de la Chanterie by surprise, and to go down a little 
 before the time she had named. He intended to excuse him- 
 self by a fib, saying that his watch was in fault, and twenty 
 minutes too fast. He went down cautiously, without a sound, 
 and on reaching the drawing-room door opened it suddenly. 
 
 He saw a man, still young but already famous, a poet whom 
 he had often met in society, Victor de Vernisset, kneeling on 
 one knee before Madame de la Chanterie, and kissing the hem 
 of her gown. The sky falling in splinters as if it were made 
 of crystal, as the ancients believed, would have amazed Gode- 
 froid less than this sight. The most shocking ideas besieged 
 his brain, and the reaction was even more terrible when, just 
 as he was about to utter the first sarcasm that rose to his lips, 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 43 
 
 he saw Monsieur Alain standing in a corner, counting thou- 
 sand-franc notes. 
 
 In an instant Vernisset had started to his feet. Good Mon- 
 sieur Alain stared in astonishment. Madame de la Chanterie 
 flashed a look that petrified Godefroid, for the doubtful ex- 
 pression in the new boarder's face had not escaped her. 
 
 "Monsieur is one of us," she said to the young author, in- 
 troducing Godefroid. 
 
 "You are a happy man, my dear fellow," said Vernisset. 
 "You are saved! But, madame," he went on, turning to 
 Madame de la Chanterie, " if all Paris could have seen me, I 
 should be delighted. Nothing can ever pay my debt to you. 
 I am your slave for ever ! I am yours, body and soul. Com- 
 mand me whatever you will, I will obey ; my gratitude knows 
 no bounds. I owe you my life it is yours." 
 
 "Come, come," said the worthy Alain, "do not be rash. 
 Only work; and, above all, never attack religion in your 
 writings. And remember you are in debt." 
 
 He handed him an envelope bulging with the bank-notes 
 he had counted out. Victor de Vernisset's eyes filled with 
 tears. He respectfully kissed Madame de la Chanterie's hand, 
 and went away after shaking hands with Monsieur Alain and 
 with Godefroid. 
 
 " You did not obey madame," said the good man solemnly ; 
 and his face had an expression of sadness, such as Godefroid 
 had not as yet seen on it. " That is a capital crime. If it 
 occurs again, we must part. It would be very hard on you, 
 after having seemed worthy of our confidence " 
 
 " My dear Alain," said Madame de la Chanterie, "be so 
 good, for my sake, as to say nothing of this act of folly. 
 We must not expect too much of a new-comer who has had no 
 great sorrows, who has no religion who has nothing, in fact, 
 but great curiosity concerning every vocation, and who as yet 
 does not believe in us." 
 
 "Forgive me, madame," replied Godefroid. "From this 
 
44 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 moment I will be worthy of you ; I submit to every test you 
 may think necessary before initiating me into the secret of 
 your labors ; and if monsieur the abbe will undertake to en- 
 lighten me, I give myself up to him, soul and reason." 
 
 These words made Madame de la Chanterie so happy that a 
 faint flush rose to her cheeks, she clasped Godefroid's hand 
 and pressed it, saying, with strange emotion, " That is well !" 
 
 In the evening, after dinner, Godefroid saw a vicar-general 
 of the diocese of Paris, who came to call, two canons, two 
 retired mayors of Paris, and a lady who devoted herself to the 
 poor. There was no gambling ; the conversation was general, 
 and cheerful without being futile. 
 
 A visitor who greatly surprised Godefroid was the Countess 
 of Saint-Cygne, one of the loftiest stars of the aristocratic 
 spheres, whose drawing-room was quite inaccessible to the 
 citizen class and to parvenus. The mere presence of this 
 great lady in Madame de la Chanterie's room was sufficiently 
 amazing; but the way in which the two women met and 
 treated each other was to Godefroid quite inexplicable, for it 
 bore witness to an intimacy and constant intercourse which 
 proved the high merit of Madame de la Chanterie. Madame 
 de Saint-Cygne was gracious and friendly to her friend's four 
 friends, and very respectful to Monsieur Nicolas. 
 
 As may be seen, social vanity still had a hold on Godefroid, 
 who, hitherto undecided, now determined to yield, with or 
 without conviction, to everything Madame de la Chanterie 
 and her friends might require of him, to succeed in being 
 affiliated by them to their Order, or initiated into their 
 secrets, promising himself that until then he would not defi- 
 nitely commit himself. 
 
 On the following day, he went to the bookkeeper recom- 
 mended by Madame de la Chanterie, agreed with him as to 
 the hours when they were to work together, and so disposed 
 of all his time; for the Abbe de Veze was to catechise him in 
 the morning, he spent two hours of every day learning book- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 45 
 
 keeping, and between breakfast and dinner he worked at the 
 exercises and imaginary commercial correspondence set him 
 by his master. 
 
 Some few days thus passed, during which Godefroid learned 
 the charm of a life of which every hour has its employment. 
 The recurrence of the same duties at fixed hours, and perfect 
 regularity, sufficiently account for many happy lives, and 
 prove how deeply the founders of religious orders had medi- 
 tated on human nature. Godefroid, who had made up his 
 mind to learn of the Abbe de Veze, had already begun to feel 
 qualms as to his future life, and to discover that he was igno- 
 rant of the importance of religious matters. 
 
 Finally, day by day, Madame de la Chanterie, with whom 
 he always sat for about an hour after the second breakfast, 
 revealed some fresh treasures of her nature ; he had never con- 
 ceived of goodness so complete, so all-embracing. A woman 
 as old as Madame de la Chanterie seemed to be has none of 
 the triviality of a young woman ; she is a friend who may 
 offer you every feminine dainty, who displays all the grace 
 and refinement with which Nature inspires woman to please 
 man, but who no longer asks for a return ; she may be exe- 
 crable or exquisite, for all her demands on life are buried 
 beneath the skin or are dead; and Madame de la Chanterie 
 was exquisite. She seemed never to have been young ; her 
 looks never spoke of the past. Far from allaying his curiosity, 
 Godefroid's increased intimacy with this beautiful character, 
 and the discoveries he made day by day, increased his desire 
 to know something of the previous history of the woman he 
 now saw as a saint. Had she ever loved ? Had she been 
 married? Had she been a mother? There was nothing in 
 her suggestive of the old maid ; she had all the elegance of a 
 woman of birth ; and her strong health, and the extraordinary 
 charm of her conversation, seemed to reveal a heavenly life, a 
 sort of ignorance of the world. Excepting the worthy and 
 cheerful Alain, all these persons had known suffering; but Mon- 
 
46 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 sieur Nicolas himself seemed to give the palm of martyrdom 
 to Madame de la Chanterie ; nevertheless, the memory of her 
 sorrows was so entirely suppressed by Catholic resignation, 
 and her secret occupations, that she seemed to have been 
 always happy. 
 
 "You are the life of your friends," said Godefroid to her 
 one day. "You are the bond that unites them; you are the 
 housekeeper, so to speak, of a great work ; and as we are all 
 mortal, I cannot but wonder what would become of your as- 
 sociation without you." 
 
 "Yes, that is what they fear; but Providence to whom 
 we owe our bookkeeper," said she with a smile "will 
 doubtless provide. However, I shall think it over " 
 
 "And will your bookkeeper soon find himself at work on 
 your business?" asked Godefroid, laughing. 
 
 "That must depend upon himself," she said with a sweet 
 smile. 
 
 " If he is sincerely religious, truly pious, has not the smallest 
 conceit, does not trouble his head about the wealth of the 
 establishment, and endeavors to rise superior to petty social 
 considerations by soaring on the wings God has bestowed on 
 us " 
 
 "Which are they?" 
 
 " Simplicity and purity," replied Madame de la Chanterie. 
 " Your ignorance proves that you neglect reading your 
 book," she added, laughing at the innocent trap she had 
 laid to discover whether Godefroid read the " Imitation of 
 Christ." " Soak your mind in Saint Paul's great chapter on 
 Charity. It is not you who will be devoted to us, but we to 
 you," she said with a lofty look, "and it will be your part to 
 keep account of the greatest riches ever possessed by any 
 sovereign ; you will have the same enjoyment of them as we 
 have ; and let me tell you, if you remember the Thousand 
 and One Nights, that the treasures of Aladdin are as nothing 
 in comparison with ours. Indeed, for a year past, we have 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 47 
 
 not known what to do ; it was too much for us. We needed 
 a bookkeeper." 
 
 As she spoke she studied Godefroid's face ; he knew not 
 what to think of this strange confidence ; but the scene be- 
 tween Madame de la Chanterie and the elder Madame Mon- 
 genod had often recurred to him, and he hesitated between 
 doubt and belief. 
 
 " Yes, you would be very fortunate !" said she. 
 
 Godefroid was so consumed by curiosity, that from that 
 instant he resolved to undermine the reserve of the four 
 friends, and to ask them about themselves. Now, of all 
 Madame de la Chanterie's boarders, the one who most 
 attracted Godefroid, and who was the most fitted in all ways 
 to invite the sympathy of people of every class, was the 
 kindly, cheerful, and unaffected Monsieur Alain. By what 
 means had Providence guided this simple-minded being to 
 this secular convent, where the votaries lived under rules as 
 strictly observed, in perfect freedom and in the midst of Paris, 
 as though they were under the sternest of priors? What 
 drama, what catastrophe, had made him turn aside from his 
 road through the world to take a path so hard to tread across 
 the troubles of a great city? 
 
 One evening Godefroid determined to call on his neighbor, 
 with the purpose of satisfying a curiosity which was more 
 excited by the incredibility of any catastrophe in such a 
 man's life than it could have been by the expectation of listen- 
 ing to some terrible episode in the life of a pirate. 
 
 On hearing the reply: "Come in," in answer to two 
 modest raps on the door, Godefroid turned the key, which 
 was always in the lock, and found Monsieur Alain seated in 
 his chimney-corner, reading a chapter of the Imitation before 
 going to bed by the light of two wax-candles with green 
 shades, such as whist-players use. The worthy man had on 
 }iis trousers and a dressing-gown of thick gray flannel ; his 
 
48 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 feet were raised to the level of the fire on a hassock worked 
 in cross-stitch as his slippers were also by Madame de la 
 Chanterie. His striking old head, with its circlet of white 
 hair, almost resembling that of an old monk, stood out, a 
 lighter spot against the brown background of an immense 
 armchair. 
 
 Monsieur Alain quietly laid his book, with its worn corners, 
 on the little table with twisted legs, while with the other hand 
 he waved the young man to the second armchair, removing 
 his glasses, which nipped the end of his nose. 
 
 "Are you unwell, that you have come down so late?" he 
 asked. 
 
 " Dear Monsieur Alain," Godefroid frankly replied, " I am 
 a prey to curiosity which a single word from you will prove 
 to be very innocent or very indiscreet, and that is enough to 
 show you in what spirit I shall venture to ask a question." 
 
 "Oh, ho! and what is it?" said he, with an almost mis- 
 chievous sparkle in his eye. 
 
 "What was the circumstance that induced you to lead the 
 life you lead here? For to embrace such a doctrine of utter 
 renunciation a man must be disgusted with the world, must 
 have been deeply wounded, or have wounded others." 
 
 " Why, why, my boy?" replied the old man, and his full 
 lips parted in one of those smiles which made his ruddy mouth 
 one of the most affectionate that the genius of a painter could 
 conceive of. "May he not feel touched to the deepest pity 
 by the sight of the woes to be seen within the walls of Paris? 
 Did Saint Vincent de Paul need the goad of remorse or of 
 wounded vanity to devote himself to foundling babes?" 
 
 "Such an answer shuts my mouth all the more effectually, 
 because if ever a soul was a match for that of the Christian 
 hero, it is yours," replied Godefroid. 
 
 In spite of the thickening given by age to his yellow and 
 wrinkled face, the old man colored crimson, for he might 
 seem to have invited the eulogium, though his well-known 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 49 
 
 modesty forbade the idea that he had thought of it. Gode- 
 froid knew full well that Madame de la Chanterie's guests had 
 no taste for this kind of incense. And yet good Monsieur 
 Alain's guilelessness was more distressed by this scruple than 
 a young maid would have been by some evil suggestion. 
 
 "Though I am far from resembling him in spirit," replied 
 Monsieur Alain, " I certainly am like him in appearance " 
 
 Godefroid was about to speak, but was checked by a gesture 
 from the old man, whose nose had in fact the bulbous appear- 
 ance of the saint's, and whose face, much like that of some 
 old vine-dresser, was the very duplicate of the coarse, common 
 countenance of the founder of the Foundling Hospital. "As 
 to that, you are right," he went on ; " my vocation to this 
 work was the result of an impulse of repentance in conse- 
 quence of an adventure " 
 
 "An adventure! You!" said Godefroid softly, who at 
 this word forgot what he had been about to say. 
 
 " Oh, the story I have to tell will seem to you a mere trifle, 
 a foolish business; but before the tribunal of conscience it 
 looked different. If, after having heard me, you persist in 
 your wish to join in our labors, you will understand that feel- 
 ings are in inverse proportion to our strength of soul, and 
 that a matter which would not trouble a Freethinker may 
 greatly weigh on a feeble Christian." 
 
 After this prelude, the neophyte's curiosity had risen to an 
 indescribable pitch. What could be the crime of this good 
 soul whom Madame de la Chanterie had nicknamed her Pas- 
 chal Lamb? It was as exciting as a book entitled "The 
 Crimes of a Sheep." Sheep, perhaps, are ferocious to the 
 grass and flowers. If we listen to one of the mildest republi- 
 cans of our day, the best creatures living are cruel to some- 
 thing. But good Monsieur Alain ! He, who, like Sterne's 
 Uncle Toby, would not crush a fly when it had stung him 
 twenty times ! This beautiful soul tortured by repentance ! 
 
 These reflections filled up the pause made by the old man 
 4 
 
50 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 after he had said, "Listen, then!" and during which he 
 pushed forward the cushion under Godefroid's feet that they 
 might share it. 
 
 " I was a little over thirty," said he; " it was in the year 
 '98, so far as I recollect, a time when young men of thirty 
 had the experience of men of sixty. One morning, a little 
 before my breakfast hour at nine o'clock, my old housekeeper 
 announced one of the few friends left to me by the storms of 
 the Revolution. So my first words were to ask him to break- 
 fast. My friend, whose name was Mongenod, a young fellow 
 of eight-and-twenty, accepted, but with some hesitancy. I 
 had not seen him since 1793 " 
 
 " Mongenod ! " cried Godefroid, " the ?" 
 
 " If you want to know the end of the story before the be- 
 ginning," the old man put in with a smile, " how am I to 
 tell it?" 
 
 Godefroid settled himself with an air that promised perfect 
 silence. 
 
 "When Mongenod had seated himself," the good man 
 went on, " I observed that his shoes were dreadfully worn. 
 His spotted stockings had been so often washed that it was 
 hard to recognize that they were of silk. His knee-breeches 
 were of nankin-colored kerseymere, so faded as to tell of 
 long wear, emphasized by stains in many places, and their 
 buckles, instead of steel, seemed to me to be of common iron ; 
 his shoe-buckles were a match. His flowered white vest, yel- 
 low with long use, his shirt with its frayed-pleated frill, re- 
 vealed extreme though decent poverty. Finally, his coat a 
 houppelande, as we called such a coat, with a single collar like 
 a very short cape was enough to assure me that my friend 
 had fallen on bad times. This coat of nut-brown cloth, ex- 
 tremely threadbare, and brushed with excessive care, had a 
 rim of grease or powder round the collar, and buttons off 
 which the plating had worn to the copper. In fact, the whole 
 outfit was so wretched that I could not bear to look at it. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 51 
 
 His crush hat a semicircular structure of beaver, which it was 
 then customary to carry under one arm instead of wearing it 
 on the head must have survived many changes of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " However, my friend had no doubt just spent a few sous to 
 have his head dressed by a barber, for he was freshly shaven, 
 and his hair, fastened into a knob with a comb, was luxuriously 
 powdered, and smelt of pomatum. I could see two chains 
 hanging parallel out of his fobs, chains of tarnished steel, but 
 no sign of the watches within. It was winter, but Mongenod 
 had no cloak, for some large drops of melting snow fallen 
 from the eaves under which he had walked for shelter lay on 
 the collar of his coat. When he drew off his rabbit-fur gloves 
 and I saw his right hand, I could perceive the traces of some 
 kind of hard labor. 
 
 " Now, his father, an advocate in the higher court, had left 
 him some little fortune five or six thousand francs a year. 
 I at once understood that Mongenod had come to borrow 
 of me. I had in a certain hiding-place two hundred louis in 
 gold (about one thousand dollars), an enormous sum at that 
 time, when it represented I know not how many hundred 
 thousand francs in paper assignats. 
 
 " Mongenod and I had been schoolfellows at the College des 
 Grassins, and we had been thrown together again in the same 
 lawyer's office an honest man, the worthy Bordin. When 
 two men have spent their boyhood together and shared the 
 follies of their youth, there is an almost sacred bond of sym- 
 pathy between them ; the man's voice and look stir certain 
 chords in your heart, which never vibrate but to the particular 
 memories that he can rouse. Even if you have some cause to 
 complain of such a comrade, that does not wipe out every 
 claim of friendship, and between us there had not been the 
 slightest quarrel. 
 
 "In 1787, when his father died, Mongenod had been a 
 richer man than myself; and though I had never borrowed 
 
52 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 from him, I had owed to him certain pleasures which my 
 father's strictness would have prohibited. But for my friend's 
 generosity, I should not have seen the first performance of the 
 ' Marriage of Figaro.' 
 
 " Mongenod was at that time what was called a finished 
 gentleman, a man about town and attentive to 'the ladies.' 
 I constantly reproved him for his too great facility in making 
 friends and obliging them ; his purse was constantly open, he 
 lived liberally, he would have stood surety for you after meet- 
 ing you twice. Dear me, dear me ! You have started me on 
 reminiscences of my youth ! " cried Monsieur Alain, with a 
 bright smile at Godefroid as he paused. 
 
 "You are not vexed with me?" said Godefroid. 
 
 "No, no. And you may judge by the minute details I 
 am giving you how large a place the event filled in my life. 
 Mongenod, with a good heart and plenty of courage, some- 
 thing of a Voltairean, was inclined to play the fine gentle- 
 man," Monsieur Alain went on. " His education at the 
 Grassins, where noblemen's sons were to be met, and his 
 adventures of gallantry, had given him the polish of men 01 
 rank, in those days termed Aristocrats. So you may imagine 
 how great was my consternation at observing in Mongenod 
 such signs of poverty as degraded him in my eyes from the 
 elegant young Mongenod I had known in 1787, when my 
 eyes wandered from his face to examine his clothes. 
 
 " However, at that time of general public penury, some 
 wily persons assumed an appearance of wretchedness ; and as 
 others no doubt had ample reasons for assuming a disguise, I 
 hoped for some explanation, and invited it. 
 
 " ' What a plight you are in, my dear Mongenod ! ' said I, 
 accepting a pinch of snuff, which he offered me from a box oi 
 imitation gold. 
 
 " 'Sad enough ! ' replied he. 'I have but one friend left 
 and you are that friend. I have done everything in the 
 world to avoid coming to this point, but I have come to ask 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 53 
 
 you to lend me a hundred louis. It is a large sum,' said he, 
 noticing my surprise, ' but if you lend me no more than fifty, 
 I shall never be able to repay you; whereas, if I should fail 
 in what I am undertaking, I shall still have fifty louis to try 
 some other road to fortune, and I do not yet know what in- 
 spiration despair may bring me.' 
 
 " ' Then, have you nothing? ' said I. 
 
 " ' I have,' said he, hiding a tear, ' just five sous left out of 
 my last piece of silver. To call on you, I had my boots 
 cleaned and my head dressed. I have the clothes on my 
 back. But,' he went on, with a desperate shrug, ' I owe my 
 landlady a thousand crowns in assignats, and the man at the 
 cookstore yesterday refused to trust me. So I have nothing 
 nothing.' 
 
 "'And what do you propose doing?' said I, insistently 
 meddling with his private affairs. 
 
 " ' To enlist if you refuse to help me.' 
 
 " ' You, a soldier ! You Mongenod ? ' 
 
 " ' I will get killed, or I will be General Mongenod.' 
 
 "'Well, 1 said I, really moved, 'eat your breakfast in 
 peace ; I have a hundred louis ' 
 
 "And here," said the good man, looking slily at Godefroid, 
 "I thought it necessary to tell a lender's little fib. 
 
 " ' But it is all I have in the world,' I said to Mongenod. 
 ' I was waiting till the Funds had gone down to the lowest 
 mark to invest my money, but I will place it in your hands, 
 and you may regard me as your partner ; I leave it to your 
 conscience to repay me the whole in due time and place. An 
 honest man's conscience,' I added, ' is the best possible secur- 
 ity.' 
 
 " Mongenod looked hard at me as I spoke, seeming to 
 stamp my words on his heart. He held out his right hand, I 
 gave him my left, and we clasped hands I, greatly moved, 
 and he, without restraining two tears which now trickled down 
 his thin cheeks. The sight of those tears wrung my heart ; 
 
54 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 and I was still more unnerved when, forgetful of everything 
 in such a moment, Mongenod, to wipe them away, pulled out 
 a ragged bandana. 
 
 " 'Wait here,' said I, running off to my hidden store, my 
 heart as full as though I had heard a woman confess that she 
 loved me. I returned with two rolls of fifty louis each. 
 
 " ' Here count them.' 
 
 " But he would not count them ; he looked about him for 
 a writing-table in order, as he said, to give me a receipt. I 
 positively refused to have one. 
 
 " 'If I were to die,' said I, 'my heirs would worry you. 
 This is a matter between you and me.' 
 
 " Finding me so true a friend, Mongenod presently lost 
 the haggard and anxious expression he had worn on entering, 
 and became cheerful. My housekeeper gave us oysters, white 
 wine, an omelette, kidneys a la brochette (spitted), and the 
 remains of a Chartres pasty, sent me by my mother ; a little 
 dessert, coffee, and West Indian liqueur. Mongenod, who 
 had fasted for two days, was the better for it. We sat till 
 three in the afternoon talking over our life before the Revolu- 
 tion, the best friends in the world. 
 
 "Mongenod told me how he had lost his fortune. In the 
 first instance, the reduction of the dividends on the Hotel de 
 Ville had deprived him of two-thirds of his income, for his 
 father had invested the larger part of his fortune in municipal 
 securities; then, after selling his house in the Ruede Savoie, he 
 had been obliged to accept payment in assignats ; he had then 
 taken it into his head to run a newspaper, 'La Sentinelle,' 
 and at the end of six months was forced to fly. At the present 
 moment all his hopes hung on the success of a comic opera 
 called ' Les Peruviens.' This last confession made me 
 quake. Mongenod, as an author, having spent his all on the 
 'Sentinelle,' and living no doubt at the theatre, mixed up 
 with Feydeau's singers, with musicians, and the motley world 
 behind the curtain, did not seem to me like the same, like my 
 
"/ AM ALAIN, MONGENOD'S FRIEND. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 55 
 
 Mongenod. I shuddered a little. But how could I get back 
 my hundred louis ? I could see the two rolls, one in each fob 
 like the barrel of a pistol. 
 
 " Mongenod went away. When I found myself alone, no 
 longer face to face with his bitter and cruel poverty, I began 
 to reflect in spite of myself; I was sober again. 'Monge- 
 nod,' thought I to myself, 'has no doubt sunk as low as pos- 
 sible ; he has acted a little farce for my benefit ! ' His glee 
 when he saw me calmly hand over so vast a sum now struck 
 me as that of a stage rascal cheating some Geronte. I ended 
 where I ought to have begun, resolved to make some inquiries 
 about my friend Mongenod, who had written his address on 
 the back of a playing-card. 
 
 "A feeling of delicacy kept me from going to see him the 
 next day ; he might have ascribed my haste to distrust of him. 
 Two days after I found my whole time absorbed by various 
 business ; and it was not, in fact, till a fortnight had elapsed 
 that, seeing no more of Mongenod, I made my way from La 
 Croix-Rouge, where I then lived, to the Rue des Moineaux, 
 where he lived. 
 
 " Mongenod was lodged in a furnished house of the meanest 
 description ; but his landlady was a very decent woman, the 
 widow of a farmer-general who had died on the scaffold. 
 She, completely ruined, had started with a few louis the pre- 
 carious business of letting rooms. Since then she has rented 
 seven houses in the neighborhood of Saint-Roch and made a 
 fortune. 
 
 " ' Citizen Mongenod is out,' said she. ' But there is some 
 one at home.' 
 
 "This excited my curiosity. I climbed to the sixth floor. 
 A charming young woman opened the door ! Oh ! A per- 
 son of exquisite beauty, who, looking at me doubtfully, stood 
 behind the partly opened door. 
 
 " ' I am Alain,' said I, ' Mongenod's friend.' 
 
 "At once the door was wide open, and I went into a hor- 
 
56 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 rible garret, which the young woman had, however, kept 
 scrupulously clean. She pushed forward a chair to the hearth 
 piled with ashes, but with no fire, where in one corner I saw a 
 common earthenware foot-warmer. The cold was icy. 
 
 " 'I am glad, indeed, monsieur,' said she, taking my hands 
 and pressing them warmly, ' to be able to express my grati- 
 tude, for you are our deliverer. But for you I might never 
 have seen Mongenod again. He would have God knows 
 have thrown himself into the river. He was desperate when 
 he set out to see you.' 
 
 "As I looked at the young lady I was greatly astonished to 
 see that she had a handkerchief bound about her head ; and 
 below its folds at the back and on the temples there was a sort 
 of black shadow. Studying it attentively, I discovered that 
 her head was shaved. 
 
 " 'Are you ill ? ' I asked, noticing this strange fact. 
 
 " She glanced at herself in a wretched, dirty pier-glass, and 
 colored, while tears rose to her eyes. 
 
 "'Yes, monsieur,' said she hastily; 'I had dreadful head- 
 aches; I was obliged to cut off my hair, which fell to my 
 heels ' 
 
 " ' Have I the honor of speaking to Madame Mongenod ? ' 
 I asked. 
 
 "'Yes, monsieur,' said she, with a really heavenly ex- 
 pression. 
 
 "I made my bow to the poor little lady, and went down- 
 stairs, intending to make the landlady give me some informa- 
 tion, but she was gone out. It struck me that the young 
 woman had sold her hair to buy bread. I went off at once to 
 a wood merchant, and sent in half a load of wood, begging 
 the carter and the sawyers to give the lady a receipted bill 
 in the name of Mongenod. 
 
 "And there ends the phase of my life which I long called 
 my foolish stage," said Monsieur Alain, clasping his hands and 
 uplifting them a little with a repentant gesture. 
 

 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 57 
 
 Godefroid could not help smiling ; but he was, as will be 
 seen, quite wrong to smile. 
 
 "Two days later," the good man went on, "I met one of 
 those men who are neither friends nor strangers persons 
 whom we see from time to time, in short, an acquaintance, as 
 we say a Monsieur Barillaud, who, as we happened to speak 
 of ' Les Peruviens,' proclaimed himself a friend of the au- 
 thor's. 
 
 " ' Thou know'st Citizen Mongenod ? ' said I for at that 
 time we were still required by law to address each other with 
 the familiar ///," said he to Godefroid in a parenthesis. 
 
 " The citizen looked at me," said Monsieur Alain, resuming 
 the thread of his story, and exclaimed 
 
 " ' I only wish I had never known him, for he has borrowed 
 money of me many a time, and is so much my friend as not 
 to return it. He is a queer fellow ! the best old boy alive, but 
 full of illusions? An imagination of fire. I will do him 
 justice ; he does not mean to be dishonest, only as he is always 
 deceiving himself about a thousand things, he is led into con- 
 duct that is not altogether straight.' 
 
 " ' How much does he owe you? ' 
 
 " ' Oh, a few hundred crowns. He is a regular sieve. No 
 one knows where his money goes, for he, perhaps, does not 
 know that himself.' 
 
 " ' Has he any expedients?' 
 
 " ' Oh, .dear, yes ! ' said Barillaud, laughing. 'At this mo- 
 ment he is talking of buying up land among the wild men in 
 the United States.' 
 
 " I went away with this drop of vitriol shed by slander on 
 my heart to turn all my best feelings sour. I went to call on 
 my old master in the law, who was always my counselor. As 
 soon as I had told him the secret of my loan to Mongenod and 
 the way in which I had acted : 
 
 " 'What,' cried he, 'is it a clerk of mine that can behave 
 so? You should have put him off a day and have come to me. 
 
58 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Then you would have known that I had shown Mongenod the 
 door. He has already borrowed from me in the course of a 
 year more than a hundred crowns in silver, an enormous sum ! 
 And only three days before he went to breakfast with you, he 
 met me in the street and described his misery in such desperate 
 language that I gave him two louis.' 
 
 " 'Well, if I am the dupe of a clever actor, so much the 
 worse for him rather than for me ! ' said I. ' But what is to 
 be done?' 
 
 " 'At any rate, you must try to get some acknowledgment 
 out of him, for a debtor however worthless may recover him- 
 self, and then you may be paid.' 
 
 " Thereupon Bordin took out of one of the drawers of his 
 table a wrapper on which was written the name of Mongenod ; 
 he showed me three acknowledgments, each for a hundred 
 livres. 
 
 " ' The first time he comes,' said he, ' I shall make him add 
 on the interest and the two louis I gave him, and whatever 
 money he asks for ; and then he must sign an acceptance and 
 a statement, saying that interest accrues from the day of the 
 first loan. That, at any rate, will be all in order; I shall find 
 some means of getting paid.' 
 
 "'Well, then,' said I to Bordin, 'cannot you put me as 
 much in order as yourself? For you are an honest man, and 
 what you do will be right.' 
 
 " ' In this way I remain the master of the field,' replied the 
 lawyer. ' When a man behaves as you have done, he is at 
 the mercy of another who may simply make game of him. 
 Now I don't choose to be laughed at. A retired public prose- 
 cutor of the Chatelet ! Bless me, what next ? Every man to 
 whom you lend money as recklessly as you lent it to Mon- 
 genod, sooner or later thinks of it as his own. It is no longer 
 your money ; it is his money ; you are his creditor, a very in- 
 convenient person. The debtor then tries to be quit of you 
 by a compromise with his conscience, and seventy-five out 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 59 
 
 of every hundred will try to avoid meeting you again to the 
 end of his days ' 
 
 " 'Then you look for no more than twenty-five per cent, of 
 honest men ? ' 
 
 " ' Did I say so ? ' said he, with an ironical smile. ' That 
 is a large allowance ! ' 
 
 "A fortnight later I had a note from Bordin desiring me to 
 call on him to fetch my receipt. I went. 
 
 " ' I tried to snatch back fifty louis for you,' said he. I 
 had told him all about my conversation with Mongenod. 
 ' But the birds are flown. You may say good-by to your 
 yellow-boys ! Your canary-birds have fled to warmer climes. 
 We have a very cunning rascal to deal with. Did he not 
 assure me that his wife and his father-in-law had set out for 
 the United States with sixty of your louis to buy land, and 
 that he intended to join them there? To make a fortune, as 
 he said, so as to return to pay his debts, of which he handed 
 me the schedule drawn out in due form ; for he begged me to 
 keep myself informed as to what became of his creditors. 
 Here is the schedule,' added Bordin, showing me a wrapper 
 on which was noted the total. * Seventeen thousand francs 
 in hard cash ! With such a sum as that a house might be 
 bought worth two thousand crowns a year.' 
 
 "After replacing the packet, he gave me a bill of exchange 
 for a sum equivalent to a hundred louis in gold, stated in 
 assignats, with a letter in which Mongenod acknowledged the 
 debt with interest on a hundred louis d'or. 
 
 " ' So now I am all safe ? ' said I to Bordin. 
 
 " ' He will not deny the debt,' replied my old master. 
 * But where there are no effects, even the King that is to say, 
 the Directory has no rights.' 
 
 " I thereupon left him. Believing myself to have been 
 robbed by a trick that evades the law, I withdrew my esteem 
 from Mongenod, and was very philosophically resigned. 
 
 " It is not without a reason that I dwell on these common- 
 
60 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 place and apparently unimportant details," the good man 
 went on, looking at Godefroid. " I am trying to show you 
 how I was led to act as most men act, blindly, and in con- 
 tempt of certain rules which even savages do not disregard in 
 the most trifling matters. Many men would justify themselves 
 by the authority of Bordin ; but at this day I feel that I had 
 no excuse. As soon as we are led to condemn one of our 
 fellows, and to refuse him our esteem for life, we ought to 
 rely solely on our own judgment and even then ! ought we 
 to set up our own feelings as a tribunal before which to arraign 
 our neighbor ? Where would the law be ? What should be 
 our standard of merit ? Would not a weakness in me be 
 strength in my neighbor ? So many men, so many different 
 circumstances would there be for each deed ; for there are no 
 two identical sets of conditions in human existence. Society 
 alone has the right of reproving its members ; for I do not 
 grant it that of punishing them. A mere reprimand is suffi- 
 cient and brings with it cruelty enough. 
 
 " So as I listened to the haphazard opinions of a Parisian, 
 admiring my former teacher's acumen, I condemned Monge- 
 nod," the good man went on, after drawing from his narrative 
 this noble moral. 
 
 "The performance of 'Les Peruviens' was announced. I 
 expected to have a ticket for the first night ; I conceived my- 
 self in some way his superior. As a result of his indebtedness, 
 my friend seemed to me a vassal who owed me many things 
 beside the interest on my money. We are all alike ! 
 
 " Not only did Mongenod send me no ticket, but I saw 
 him at a distance coming along the dark passage under the 
 Theatre Feydeau, well dressed nay, almost elegant; he af- 
 fected not to see me ; then, when he had passed me, and I 
 thought I would run after him, he had vanished down some 
 cross-passage. This irritated me extremely ; and my annoy- 
 ance, far from being transient and subsiding, only increased 
 as time went on. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 61 
 
 " This was why. A few days after this incident I wrote to 
 Mongenod much in these words : 
 
 " 'Mv FRIEND: You should not regard me as indifferent 
 to anything that can happen to you, whether for good or 
 ill. Does the "Peruviens" come up to your expectations? 
 You forgot me you had every right to do so at the first 
 performance, when I should have applauded you heartily ! 
 However, I hope, all the same, that you may find Peru in the 
 piece, for I can invest my capital, and I count on you when 
 the bill falls due. Your friend, 
 
 " 'ALAIN.' 
 
 " After waiting for two weeks and receiving no answer, I 
 called in the Rue des Moineaux. The landlady told me that 
 the little wife had, in fact, set out with her father, at the date 
 named by Mongenod to Bordin. Mongenod always left his 
 garret early in the morning, and did not come in till late at 
 night. Another fortnight passed; I wrote another letter in 
 these terms : 
 
 " ' MY DEAR MONGENOD : I see nothing of you ; you do 
 not answer my notes ; I cannot at all understand your conduct; 
 and if I were to behave so to you, what would you think of 
 me?' 
 
 "I did not sign myself 'Your friend.' I wrote 'With 
 best regards.' 
 
 "A month slipped by; no news of Mongenod. The 
 ' Peruviens ' had not obtained so great a success as Mon- 
 genod had counted on. I paid for a seat at the twentieth 
 performance, and I found a small house. And yet Madame 
 Scio was very fine in it. I was told in the green-room that 
 there would be a few more performances of the piece. I went 
 seven times to call on Mongenod ; he was never at home, and 
 
62 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 each time I left my name with the landlady. So then I wrote 
 again : 
 
 " ' Monsieur, if you do not wish to lose my respect after 
 forfeiting my friendship, you will henceforth treat me as a 
 stranger that is to say, with civility and you will tell me 
 whether you are prepared to pay me when your note of hand 
 falls due. I shall act in accordance with your reply. Yours 
 faithfully, ALAIN.' 
 
 "No reply. It was now 1799 ; a year had elapsed all but 
 two months. 
 
 " When the bill fell due I went to see Bordin. Bordin 
 took the note of hand, and then began legal proceedings. The 
 reverses experienced by the French armies had had such a 
 depressing effect on the Funds that five francs a year could be 
 purchased for seven francs. Thus, for a hundred louis in 
 gold, I might have had nearly fifteen hundred francs a year. 
 Every morning, as I read the paper over my cup of coffee, I 
 would exclaim 
 
 " ' Confound that Mongenod ! But for him, I could have 
 a thousand crowns a year ! ' 
 
 " Mongenod had become my chronic aversion ; I thundered 
 at him even when I was walking in the street. 
 
 " ' Bordin is after him ! ' said I to myself. ' He will catch 
 him and serve him right ! ' 
 
 " My rage expended itself in imprecations : I cursed the 
 man ; I believed him capable of any crime. Yes, Monsieur 
 Barillaud was quite right in what he said. 
 
 " Well, one morning my debtor walked in, no more discon- 
 certed than if he had not owed me a centime ; and I, when 
 I saw him, I felt all the shame that should have been his. I 
 was like a criminal caught in the act ; I was quite ill at ease. 
 The iSth of Brumaire* was past, everything was cjoin? on 
 
 i f O O O 
 
 * Second month of the Republican Kalendar, Oct. 25 to Nov. 21. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HIS TO X Y. 63 
 
 well, and Bonaparte had set out to fight the battle of Ma- 
 rengo. 
 
 "'It is unlucky, monsieur,' said I, 'that I should owe 
 your visit solely to the intervention of a bailiff.' 
 
 " Mongenod took a chair and sat down. 
 
 " ' I have come to tell you,' said he, with the familiar /fc, 
 'that I cannot possibly pay you.' 
 
 "'You have lost me the chance of investing my money 
 before the arrival of the First Consul at that time I could 
 have made a little fortune ' 
 
 " ' I know it, Alain,' said he; 'I know it. But what will 
 you get by prosecuting me for debt and plunging me deeper 
 by loading me with costs ? I have letters from my father-in- 
 law and my wife ; they have bought some land and sent me 
 the bill for the necessaries of the house; I have had to 
 spend all I had in those purchases. Now, and nobody can 
 hinder me I mean to sail by a Dutch vessel from Flushing, 
 whither I have sent all my small possessions. Bonaparte 
 has won the battle of Marengo, peace will be signed, and 
 I can join my family without fear for my dear little wife was 
 expecting a baby.' 
 
 " ' And so you have sacrificed me to your own interests?' 
 cried I. 
 
 "'Yes,' said he ; ' I thought you my friend.' 
 
 "At that moment I felt small as compared to Mongenod, 
 so sublime did that speech seem to me, so simple and grand. 
 
 " ' Did I not tell you so,' he went on ; ' was I not absolutely 
 frank with you here, on this very spot? I came to you, 
 Alain, as being the only man who would appreciate me. 
 Fifty louis would be wasted, I told you; but if you lent me a 
 hundred, I would repay them. I fixed no date, for how can 
 I tell when my long struggle with poverty will come to an 
 end? You were my last friend. All my friends, even our 
 old master Bordin, despised me simply because I wanted to 
 borrow money of them. Oh ! Alain, you can never know the 
 
64 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 dreadful feelings that grip the heart of an honest man fighting 
 misfortune when he goes into another man's house to ask for 
 
 help ! and all that follows I hope you may never know 
 
 them ; they are worse than the anguish of death ! 
 
 " ' You have written me certain letters which, from me 
 under similar circumstances, would have struck you as odious. 
 You expected things of me that were out of my power. You 
 are the only man to whom I attempt to justify myself. In 
 spite of your severity, and though you ceased to be my friend 
 and became only my creditor from the day when Bordin asked 
 me for an acknowledgment of your loan, thus discrediting the 
 handsome agreement we ourselves had come to, here, shaking 
 hands on it with tears in our eyes ! Well, I have forgotten 
 everything but that morning's work. 
 
 " 'It is in memory of that hour that I have come now to 
 say, " You know not what misfortune is ; do not rail at it ! I 
 have not had an hour, not a second, to write you in reply ! 
 Perhaps you would have liked me to come and pay you com- 
 pliments? You might as well expect a hare, harassed by dogs 
 and hunters, to rest in a clearing and crop the grass ! I sent 
 you no ticket ! No ; I had not enough to satisfy those on 
 whom my fate depended. A novice in the theatrical world, I 
 was the prey of musicians, actors, singers, the orchestra. To 
 enable me to join my family over seas, and buy what they 
 need, I sold the ' Peruviens ' to the manager with two other 
 pieces I had in my desk. I am setting out for Holland with- 
 out a sou. I shall eat dry bread on my journey till I reach 
 Flushing. I have paid my passage, and have nothing more. 
 But for my landlady's compassion, and her trust in me, I 
 should have had to walk to Flushing with a knapsack on my 
 back. And so, in spite of your doubting me, as, but for you, 
 I could not have sent my father-in-law and my wife to New 
 York, I am entirely grateful." No, Monsieur Alain, I will 
 not forget that the hundred louis you lent me might at this 
 time be yielding you an income of fifteen hundred francs.' 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 65 
 
 "'I would fain believe you, Mongenod,' said I, almost 
 convinced by the tone in which he poured out this explanation. 
 
 "'At any rate, you no longer address me as monsieur,' 
 said he eagerly, and looking at me with emotion. ' God 
 knows I should quit France with less regret if I could leave 
 one man behind me in whose eyes I was neither half a rogue, 
 nor a spendthrift, nor a victim to illusions. A man who can 
 love truly, Alain, is never wholly despicable.' 
 
 "At these words I held out my hand; he took it and 
 pressed it. 
 
 " ' Heaven protect you ! ' said I. 
 
 " ' We are still friends? ' he asked. 
 
 " ' Yes,' I replied ; ' it shall never be said that my school- 
 fellow, the friend of my youth, set out for America under the 
 ban of my anger ! ' 
 
 " Mongenod embraced me with tears in his eyes, and rushed 
 off to the door. 
 
 " When I met Bordin a few days afterward, I told him the 
 story of our interview, and he replied with a smile 
 
 " ' I only hope it was not all part of the performance ! He 
 did not ask you for anything?' 
 
 " ' No,' said I. 
 
 " ' He came to me, too, and I was almost as weak as you ; 
 but he asked me for something to get food on the way. How- 
 ever, he who lives will see ! ' 
 
 "This remark of Bordin's made me fear lest I had yielded 
 stupidly to an impulse of feeling. 
 
 " 'Still, he too, the public prosecutor, did the same,' said 
 I to myself. 
 
 "It is unnecessary, I think, to explain to you how I lost all 
 my fortune excepting the other hundred louis, which I in- 
 vested in Government securities when prices had risen so high 
 that I had barely five hundred francs a year to live upon by 
 the time I was four-and-thirty. By Bordin's interest I ob- 
 tained an appointment at eight hundred francs a year in a 
 5 
 
66 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 branch of the Mont de Piete (the State pawn-office), Rue des 
 Petits Augustins. I lived in the humblest way ; I lodged on 
 the fourth floor of a house in the Rue des Marais, in an apart- 
 ment consisting of two rooms and a closet, for two hundred 
 and fifty francs. I went out to dinner in a boarding-house 
 where there was an open table, and for this I paid forty francs 
 a month. In the evening I did some copying. Ugly as I am, 
 
 and very poor, I had to give up all ideas of marriage " 
 
 As he heard this verdict pronounced on himself by poor 
 Alain in a tone of angelic resignation, Godefroid gave a little 
 start, which proved better than any speech could have done 
 the similarity of their fate; and the good man, in reply to 
 this eloquent gesture, seemed to pause for his hearer to speak. 
 
 " And no one ever loved you ? " asked Godefroid. 
 
 "No one," he replied, "excepting madame, who returns 
 to each of us alike our love for her a love I might almost 
 call divine. You must have seen it ; we live in her life, as she 
 lives in ours ; we have but one soul among us ; and though 
 our enjoyments are not physical, they are none the less very 
 intense, for we live only through the heart. How can we 
 help it, my dear boy ? By the time women are capable of 
 appreciating moral qualities, they have done with externals, 
 and are growing old. I have suffered much, I can tell you ! " 
 
 " Ah ! that is the stage I am at- " said Godefroid. 
 
 "Under the Empire," the old man went on, bowing his 
 head, " dividends were not very punctually paid ; we had to 
 be prepared for deferred payment. From 1802 to 1814 not a 
 week passed that I did not ascribe my difficulties to Mongenod : 
 'But for Mongenod,' I used to think, 'I might have been 
 married. But for him I should not be obliged to live in 
 privation.' But sometimes, too, I would say to myself, 'Per- 
 haps the poor man is pursued by ill-luck out there ! ' 
 
 " In 1806, one day when I found my life a heavy burden 
 to bear, I wrote him a long letter that I dispatched via Hol- 
 land. I had no answer ; and for three years I waited, found- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 67 
 
 ing hopes on that reply which were constantly deceived. At 
 last I resigned myself to my fate. To my five hundred francs 
 of dividends, and twelve hundred francs of salary from the 
 Mont de Piete, for it was raised, I added five hundred for my 
 work as bookkeeper to a perfumer, Monsieur Birotteau. Thus 
 I not only made both ends meet, but I saved eight hundred 
 francs a year. By the beginning of 1814, I was able to invest 
 nine thousand francs of savings in the funds, buying at forty ; 
 thus I had secured sixteen hundred francs a year for my old 
 age. So then, with fifteen hundred francs a year from the 
 Mont de Piete, six hundred as a bookkeeper, and sixteen 
 hundred in dividends, I had an income of three thousand 
 seven hundred francs. I took rooms in the Rue de Seine, 
 and lived in rather more comfort. 
 
 " My position brought me into contact with many of the 
 very poor. For twelve years I have known, better than any 
 one, what the misery of the world is ; once or twice I have 
 helped some poor creatures ; and I felt the keenest pleasure 
 when, out of ten that I had assisted, one or two families were 
 rescued from their difficulties. 
 
 "It struck me that true beneficence did not consist in 
 throwing money to the sufferers. Being charitable, in the 
 common phrase, often appeared to me to be a sort of premium 
 on crime. I set to work to study this question. I was by 
 this time fifty years old, and my life was drawing to a close. 
 
 " 'What good am I in the world ?' I asked myself. ' To 
 whom can I leave my money? When I shall have furnished 
 my rooms handsomely, have secured a good cook, have made 
 my life suitably comfortable, what am I to do with my time?' 
 
 " For eleven years of revolutions and fifteen years of pov- 
 erty had wasted the happiest part of my life, had consumed it 
 in labors that were fruitless, or devoted solely to the preserva- 
 tion of my person ! At such an age no one can make an 
 obscure and penurious youth the starting-point to reach a 
 brilliant position ; but every one may make himself useful. I 
 
68 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 understood, in short, that a certain supervision and much 
 good advice would increase tenfold the value of money given, 
 for the poor always need guidance to enable them to profit 
 by the work they do for others, it is not the intelligence of 
 the speculator that is wanting to deceive them. 
 
 "A few happy results that I achieved made me extremely 
 proud. I discerned both an aim and an occupation, to say 
 nothing of the exquisite pleasure to be derived from playing 
 the part of Providence, even on the smallest scale." 
 
 " And you now play it on a large scale?" said Godefroid 
 eagerly. 
 
 "Oh, you want to know too much ! " said the old man. 
 " Nay, nay. Would you believe it," he went on after a 
 pause, " the smallness of the means at my command constantly 
 brought my thoughts back to Mongenod ? 
 
 "'But for Mongenod I could have done so much more,' 
 I used to reflect. ' If a dishonest man had not robbed me of 
 fifteen hundred francs a year,' I often thought, ' I could have 
 helped this or that family.' 
 
 " Thus excusing my inability by such an accusation, those 
 to whom I gave nothing but words to comfort them joined 
 me in cursing Mongenod. These maledictions were balm to 
 my heart. 
 
 "One morning, in January, 1816, my housekeeper an- 
 nounced whom do you think ? Mongenod. Monsieur Mon- 
 genod. And who should walk in but the pretty wife, now 
 six-and-thirty, accompanied by three children ; then came 
 Mongenod, younger than when he left, for wealth and happi- 
 ness shed a glory on those they favor. He had gone away 
 lean, pale, yellow, and haggard ; he had come back fat and 
 well-liking, as flourishing as a prebendary, and well dressed. 
 He threw himself into my arms, and, finding himself coldly 
 welcomed, his first words were 
 
 " 'Could I come any sooner, my friend? The seas have 
 only been open since 1815, and it took me eighteen months to 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 69 
 
 realize my property, close my accounts, and call in my assets. 
 I have succeeded, my friend ! When I received your letter 
 in 1806, I set out in a Dutch vessel to bring you home a little 
 fortune ; but the union of Holland with the French Empire led 
 to our being taken by the English, who transported me to the 
 coast of Jamaica, whence by good-luck I escaped. 
 
 " 'On my return to New York I was a victim to bank- 
 ruptcy ; for Charlotte, during my absence, had not known how 
 to be on her guard against swindlers. So I was compelled to 
 begin again to accumulate a fortune. 
 
 " ' However, here we are at last. From the way the children 
 look at you, you may suppose that they have often heard of 
 the benefactor of the family.' 
 
 " ' Yes, indeed,' said pretty Madame Mongenod, 'we never 
 passed a day without speaking of you. Your share has been 
 allowed for in every transaction. We have longed for the 
 happiness we enjoy at this moment of offering you your for- 
 tune, though we have never for a moment imagined that this 
 " rector's tithe " can pay our debt of gratitude.' 
 
 "And, as she spoke, Madame Mongenod offered me the 
 beautiful casket you see there, which contained a hundred and 
 fifty thousand-franc notes. 
 
 "'You have suffered much, my dear Alain, I know; but 
 we could imagine all your sufferings, and we racked our brains 
 to find means of sending you money, but without success,' 
 Mongenod went on. ' You tell me you could not marry; but 
 here is our eldest daughter. She has been brought up in the 
 idea that she should be your wife, and she has five hundred 
 thousand francs ' 
 
 " ' God forbid that I should wreck her happiness ! ' cried I, 
 as I beheld a girl as lovely as her mother had been at her 
 age ; and I drew her to me, and kissed her forehead. 
 
 " ' Do not be afraid, my pretty child,' said I. 'A man of 
 fifty and a girl of seventeen and so ugly an old fellow as I ! 
 Never!' 
 
70 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 " 'Monsieur/ said she, 'my father's benefactor can never 
 seem ugly in my eyes.' 
 
 "This speech, made with spontaneous candor, showed me 
 that all Mongenod had told me was true. I offered him my 
 hand, and we fell into each other's arms once more. 
 
 " ' My friend,' said I, ' I have often abused you, cursed 
 
 you 
 
 "'You had every right, Alain,' replied he, reddening. 
 * You were in poverty through my fault 
 
 " I took Mongenod's papers out of a box and restored them 
 to him, after canceling his note of hand. 
 
 " ' Now, you will all breakfast with me,' said I to the family 
 party. 
 
 " 'On condition of your dining with my wife as soon as we 
 are settled,' said Mongenod, ' for we arrived only yesterday. 
 We are going to buy a house, and I am about to open a bank 
 in Paris for North American business to leave to that young- 
 ster,' he said, pointing to his eldest son, a lad of about fifteen 
 years. 
 
 "We spent the afternoon together, and in the evening we 
 all went to the theatre, for Mongenod and his party were 
 dying to see a play. Next day I invested in the Funds, and 
 had then an income of about fifteen thousand francs in all. 
 This released me from bookkeeping in the evening, and al- 
 lowed me to give up my appointment, to the great satisfaction 
 of all my subordinates. 
 
 "My friend died in 1827, after founding the banking-house 
 of Mongenod & Co., which made immense profits on the first 
 loans issued at the time of the Restoration. His daughter, 
 to whom he subsequently gave about a million of francs, 
 married the Vicomte de Fontaine. The son whom you know 
 is not yet married ; he lives with his mother and his younger 
 brother. We find them ready with all the money we may 
 need. 
 
 " Frederic for his father, in America, had named him after 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 71 
 
 me Frederic Mongenod, at seven-and-thirty, is one of the 
 most skillful and respected bankers in Paris. 
 
 " Not very long since Madame Mongenod confessed to me 
 that she had sold her hair for two crowns of six livres to be 
 able to buy some bread. She gives twenty-four loads of wood 
 every year, which I distribute among the poor, in return for 
 the half-load I once sent her." 
 
 " Then this accounts for your connection with the house 
 of Mongenod," said Godefroid. "And your fortune " 
 
 The old man still looked at Godefroid with the same expres- 
 sion of mild irony. 
 
 " Pray go on," said Godefroid, seeing by Monsieur Alain's 
 manner that he had more to say. 
 
 " This conclusion, my dear Godefroid, made the deepest 
 impression on me. Though the man who had suffered so 
 much, though my friend had forgiven me my injustice, I 
 could not forgive myself." 
 
 "Oh!" said Godefroid. 
 
 "I determined to devote all my surplus income, about ten 
 thousand francs a year, to acts of rational beneficence," Mon- 
 sieur Alain calmly went on. " At about that time I met an 
 examining judge of the department of the Seine named Popi- 
 not, whose death we mourned three years ago, and who for 
 fifteen years practiced the most enlightened charity in the 
 Saint-Marcel quarter. He, in concert with the venerable vicar 
 of Notre-Dame and with madame, planned the work in which 
 we are all engaged, and which, since 1823, has secretly 
 effected some good results. 
 
 "This work has found a soul in Madame de la Chanterie ; 
 she is really the very spirit of the undertaking. The vicar 
 has succeeded in making us more religious than we were at 
 first, demonstrating the necessity for being virtuous ourselves 
 if we desire to inspire virtue for preaching, in fact, by 
 example. And the further we progress in that path, the 
 happier we are among ourselves. Thus it was my repentance 
 
72 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 for having misprized the heart of my boyhood's friend which 
 led me to the idea of devoting to the poor, through myself, 
 the fortune he brought home to me, which I accepted without 
 demurring to the vast sum repaid to me for so small a loan ; 
 the application of it made it right." 
 
 This narrative, devoid of all emphasis, and told with 
 touching simplicity of tone, gesture, and expression, would 
 have been enough to make Godefroid resolve on joining in 
 this noble and saintly work, if he had not already intended 
 it. 
 
 "You know little of the world," said Godefroid, "if you 
 had such scruples over a thing which would never have 
 weighed on any other conscience." 
 
 "I know only the wretched," replied the good man. "I 
 have no wish to know a world where men misjudge each other 
 with so little compunction. Now, it is nearly midnight, and 
 I have to meditate on my chapter of the Imitation. Good- 
 night." 
 
 Godefroid took the kind old man's hand and pressed it with 
 an impulse of genuine admiration. 
 
 "Can )'ou tell me Madame de la Chanterie's history?" 
 asked Godefroid. 
 
 " It would be impossible without her permission, for it is 
 connected with one of the most terrible incidents of imperial 
 politics. I first knew madame through my friend Bordin ; 
 he knew all the secrets of that beautiful life ; and it was he 
 who led me, so to speak, to this house." 
 
 "At any rate, then," said Godefroid, "I thank you for 
 having told me your life ; it contains a lesson for me." 
 
 " Do you discern its moral ? " 
 
 "Nay, tell it me," said Godefroid; "for I might see it 
 differently to you " 
 
 "Well, then," said the good man, " pleasure is but an ac- 
 cident in the life of the Christian ; it is not his aim and end 
 and we learn this too late." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 73 
 
 "What then happens when we are converted?" asked 
 Godefroid. 
 
 "Look there ! " said Alain, and he pointed to an inscrip- 
 tion in letters of gold on a black ground, which the new-comer 
 had not seen before, as this was the first time he had ever 
 been into his companion's rooms. He turned round and 
 read the words : TRANSIRE BENEFACIENDO. 
 
 "That, my son, is the meaning we then find in life. That 
 is our motto. If you become one of us, that constitutes your 
 brevet. We read that text and take it as our counsel at every 
 hour of the day, when we rise, when we go to bed, while we 
 dress. Oh ! if you could but know what infinite happiness is 
 to be found in carrying out that device ! " 
 
 "In what way?" said Godefroid, hoping for some ex- 
 planations. 
 
 " In the first place, we are as rich as Baron de Nucingen. 
 But the Imitation prohibits our calling anything our own ; we 
 are but stewards ; and if we feel a single impulse of pride, we 
 are not worthy to be stewards. That would not be tran- 
 sire bcnefaciendo ; it would be enjoyment in thought. If 
 you say to yourself, with a certain dilation of the nostrils, 
 ' I am playing the part of Providence ' as you might have 
 thought this morning, if you had been in my place, giving 
 new life to a whole family, you are a Sardanapalus at once 
 and wicked ! Not one of our members ever thinks of 
 himself when doing good. You must cast off all vanity, 
 all pride, all self-consciousness ; and it is difficult, I can tell 
 you." 
 
 Godefroid bid Monsieur Alain good-night, and went to his 
 own rooms, much moved by this story ; but his curiosity was 
 excited rather than satisfied, for the chief figure in the picture 
 of this domestic scene was Madame de la Chanterie. This 
 woman's history was to him so supremely interesting that he 
 made the knowledge of it the first aim of his stay in the 
 house. He understood that the purpose for which these 
 
74 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 five persons were associated was some great charitable en- 
 deavor ; but he thought much less of that than of its heroine. 
 
 The neophyte spent some days in studying these choice 
 spirits, amid whom he found himself, with greater attention 
 than he had hitherto devoted to them ; and he became the 
 subject of a moral phenomenon which modern philanthropists 
 have overlooked, from ignorance perhaps. The sphere in 
 which he lived had a direct influence on Godefroid. The law 
 which governs physical nature in respect to the influence of 
 atmospheric conditions on the lives of the beings subject to 
 them, also governs moral nature ; whence it is to be inferred 
 that the collecting in masses of the criminal class is one of 
 the greatest social crimes, while absolute isolation is an experi- 
 ment of which the success is very doubtful. Condemned 
 felons ought, therefore, to be placed in religious institutions 
 and surrounded with prodigies of goodness instead of being 
 left among marvels of evil. The church may be looked to for 
 perfect devotion to this cause ; for if she is ready to send mis- 
 sionaries to barbarous or savage nations, how gladly would she 
 charge her religious orders with the mission of rescuing 
 and instructing the savages of civilized life ! Every criminal 
 is an atheist often without knowing it. 
 
 Godefroid found his five companions endowed with the 
 qualities they demanded of him; they were all free from pride 
 or vanity, all truly humble and pious, devoid of the pretenti- 
 ousness which constitutes "devoutness " in the invidious sense 
 of the word. These virtues were contagious ; he was filled 
 with the desire to imitate these obscure heroes, and he ended 
 by studying with ardor the book he had at first scorned. 
 Within a fortnight he had reduced life to its simplest expres- 
 sion, to what it really is when regarded from the lofty point 
 of view to which the religious spirit leads us. Finally, his 
 curiosity, at first purely worldly and roused by many vulgar 
 motives, became rarefied. He did not cease to be curious; it 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 75 
 
 would have been difficult to lose all interest in the life of 
 Madame de la Chanterie ; but, without intending it, he 
 showed a reserve which was fully appreciated by these men, 
 in whom the Holy Spirit had developed wonderful depths of 
 mind, as happens, indeed, with all who devote themselves to 
 a religious life. The concentration of the moral powers, by 
 whatever means or system, increases their scope tenfold. 
 
 " Our young friend is not yet a convert," said the good 
 Abbe de Veze ; " but he wishes to be." 
 
 An unforeseen circumstance led to the revelation of Madame 
 de la Chanterie's history, so that his intense interest in it was 
 soon satisfied. 
 
 Paris was just then engrossed by the investigation of the case 
 of the Saint-Jacques barrier, one of those hideous trials which 
 mark the history of our assizes. The trial derived its interest 
 from the criminals themselves, whose daring and general 
 superiority to ordinary culprits, with their cynical contempt 
 for justice, really appalled the public. It was a noteworthy 
 fact that no newspaper ever entered the Hotel de la Chanterie, 
 and Godefroid only heard of the rejection of the appeal to 
 the Supreme Court from his master in bookkeeping ; the 
 trial had taken place long before he came to Madame de la 
 Chanterie. 
 
 " Do you ever meet with such men as these atrocious scoun- 
 drels?" he asked his new friends. "Or, when you do, how 
 do you deal with them? " 
 
 "In the first place," said Monsieur Nicolas, " there is no 
 such thing as an atrocious scoundrel ; there are mad creatures 
 fit only for the asylum at Charenton ; but with the exception 
 of those rare pathological exceptions, what we find are simply 
 men without religion, or who argue falsely, and the task of the 
 charitable is to set souls upright and bring the erring into the 
 right way." 
 
 "And to the apostle all things are possible," said the Abbe" 
 de Veze; " he has God on his side." 
 
76 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "If you were sent to these two condemned men," said 
 Godefroid, "you could do nothing with them." 
 
 "There would not be time," observed Monsieur Alain very 
 seriously. 
 
 "As a rule," said Monsieur Nicolas, "the souls handed 
 over to be dealt with by the church are in utter impenitence, 
 and the time is too short for miracles to be wrought. The 
 men of whom you are speaking, if they had fallen into our 
 hands, would have been men of mark ; their energy is im- 
 mense; but when once they have committed murder, it is 
 impossible to do anything for them ; human justice has taken 
 possession of them " 
 
 "Then you are averse to capital punishment?" said Gode- 
 froid. 
 
 Monsieur Nicolas hastily rose and left the room. 
 
 " Never speak of capital punishment in the presence of 
 Monsieur Nicolas. He once recognized in a criminal, whose 
 execution it was his duty to superintend, a natural child of his 
 own " 
 
 "And who was innocent ! " added Monsieur Joseph. 
 
 At this moment Madame de la Chanterie, who had not been 
 in the room, came in. 
 
 "Still, you must allow," Godefroid went on, addressing 
 Monsieur Joseph, "that society cannot exist without capital 
 punishment, and that these men, whose heads 
 
 Godefroid felt his mouth suddenly closed by a strong hand, 
 and the Abbe de Veze led away Madame de la Chanterie, pale 
 and half-dead. 
 
 "What have you done?" cried Monsieur Joseph. "Take 
 him away, Alain," he said, removing the hand with which he 
 had gagged Godefroid ; and he followed the Abbe de Veze 
 into madame's room. 
 
 " Come with me," said Alain to Godefroid. "You have 
 compelled us to tell you the secrets of Madame de la Chan- 
 terie's life." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 77 
 
 In a few minutes the two friends were together in Monsieur 
 Alain's room, as they had been when the old man had told 
 Godefroid his own history. 
 
 " Well ? " said Godefroid, whose face sufficiently showed his 
 despair at having been the cause of what might be called a 
 catastrophe in this pious household. 
 
 " I am waiting till Manon shall have come to say how she 
 is going on," replied the good man as he heard the woman's 
 step on the stairs. 
 
 "Monsieur, madame is better. Monsieur 1'Abbe managed 
 to deceive her as to what had been said," and Manon shot a 
 wrathful glance at Godefroid. 
 
 " Good heavens ! " exclaimed the unhappy young man, his 
 eyes filling with tears. 
 
 "Come, sit down," said Monsieur Alain, seating himself. 
 Then he paused to collect his thoughts. 
 
 " I do not know," said the kind old man, " that I have the 
 talent necessary to give a worthy narrative of a life so cruelly 
 tried. You must forgive me if you find the words of so poor 
 a speaker inadequate to the magnitude of the events and catas- 
 trophes. You must remember that it is a very long time since 
 I was at school, and that I date from a time when thoughts 
 were held of more importance than effect from a prosaic age, 
 when we knew not how to speak of things except by their 
 names." 
 
 Godefroid bowed with an expression of assent, in which his 
 worthy old friend could discern his sincere admiration, and 
 which plainly said, " I am listening." 
 
 "As you have just perceived, my young friend, it would be 
 impossible for you to remain one of us without learning some 
 of the particulars of that saintly woman's life. There are cer- 
 tain ideas, allusions, words, which are absolutely prohibited 
 in this house, since they inevitably reopen wounds, of which 
 the anguish might kill madame if it were once or twice re- 
 vived " 
 
78 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "Good heavens!" exclaimed Godefroid, "what have I 
 done?" 
 
 "But for Monsieur Joseph, who happily interrupted you 
 just as you were about to speak of the awful instrument of 
 death, you would have annihilated the poor lady. It is time 
 that you should be told all ; for you will be one of us, of that 
 we are all convinced. 
 
 " Madame de la Chanterie," he went on after a short pause, 
 "is descended from one of the first families of Lower Nor- 
 mandy. Her maiden name was Mademoiselle Barbe-Philiberte 
 de Champignelles of a younger branch of that house ; and 
 she was intended to take the veil unless a marriage could be 
 arranged for her with the usual renunciations of property that 
 were commonly required in poor families of high rank. A 
 certain Sieur de la Chanterie, whose family had sunk into utter 
 obscurity, though dating from the time of Philippe-Auguste's 
 crusade, was anxious to recover the rank to which so ancient 
 a name gave him a claim in the province of Normandy. But 
 he had fallen quite from his high estate, for he had made 
 money some three hundred thousand francs by supplying 
 the commissariat for the army at the time of the war with 
 Hanover. His son, trusting too much to this wealth, which 
 provincial rumor magnified, was living in Paris in a way cal- 
 culated to cause the father of a family very great uneasiness 
 and alarm. 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Champignelles' great merits became 
 famous throughout the district of le Bessin ; and the old man, 
 whose little estate of la Chanterie lay between Caen and 
 Saint-L6, heard some expressions of regret that so accom- 
 plished a young lady, and one so capable of making a husband 
 happy, should end her days in a convent. On his uttering a 
 wish to seek her out, some hope was given him that he might 
 obtain the hand of Mademoiselle Philiberte for his son if he 
 were content to renounce any marriage portion. He went to 
 Bayeux, contrived to have two or three meetings with the 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 79 
 
 Champignelles family, and was fascinated by the young lady's 
 noble qualities. 
 
 "At the age of sixteen, Mademoiselle de Champignelles 
 gave promise of what she would become. She evinced well- 
 founded piety, sound good-sense, inflexible rectitude one of 
 those natures which will never veer in its affections even if 
 they are the outcome of duty. The old nobleman, enriched 
 by his somewhat illicit gains, discerned in this charming girl 
 a wife who might keep his son in order by the authority of 
 virtue and the ascendency of a character that was firm but not 
 rigid ; for, as you have seen, no one can be gentler than 
 Madame de la Chanterie. Then, no one could be more con- 
 fiding ; even in the decline of life she has the candor of inno- 
 cence ; in her youth she would not believe in evil ; such 
 distrust as you may have seen in her she owes to her misfor- 
 tunes. The old man pledged himself to the Champignelles 
 to give them a discharge in full for the portion legitimately 
 due to Mademoiselle Philiberte on the signing of the marriage- 
 contract ; in return, the Champignelles, who were connected 
 with the greatest families, promised to have the feof of la 
 Chanterie created a barony, and they kept their word. The 
 bridegroom's aunt, Madame de Boisfrelon, the wife of the 
 councilor to the Parlement who died in your rooms, promised 
 to leave her fortune to her nephew. 
 
 " When all these arrangements were completed between the 
 two families, the father sent for his son. This young man, at 
 the time of his marriage, was five-and-twenty, and already a 
 master of appeals ; he had indulged in numerous follies with 
 the young gentlemen of the time, living in their style ; and 
 the old army contractor had several times paid his debts to a 
 considerable amount. The poor father, foreseeing further 
 dissipation on his son's part, was only too glad to settle a part 
 of his fortune on his daughter-in-law; but he was so cautious 
 as to entail the estate of la Chanterie on the heirs male of the 
 marriage 
 
80 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "A precaution," added Monsieur Alain in a parenthesis, 
 " which the Revolution made useless." 
 
 " As handsome as an angel, and wonderfully skilled in all 
 athletic exercises, the young master of appeals had immense 
 powers of charming," he went on. "So Mademoiselle de 
 Champignelles, as you may easily imagine, fell very much in 
 love with her husband. The old man, made very happy by 
 this promising beginning, and hoping that his son was a re- 
 formed character, sent the young couple to Paris. This was 
 early in 1788. For nearly a year they were perfectly happy. 
 Madame de la Chanterie was the object of all the little cares, the 
 most delicate attentions that a devoted lover can lavish on the 
 one and only woman he loves. Brief as it was, the honey- 
 moon, beamed brightly on the heart of the noble and unfortu- 
 nate lady. 
 
 " As you know, in those days mothers all nursed their in- 
 fants themselves. Madame de la Chanterie had a daughter. 
 This time, when a wife ought to be the object of double 
 devotion on her husband's part, was, on the contrary, the 
 beginning of dreadful woes. The master of appeals was 
 obliged to sell everything he could spare to pay old debts 
 which he had not confessed, and more recent gambling debts. 
 Then, suddenly the National Assembly dissolved the Supreme 
 Council and the Parlement, and abolished all the great law 
 appointments that had been so dearly purchased. Thus the 
 young couple, with the addition of their child, had no 
 income to rely on but the revenues from the entailed estate, 
 and from the portion settled on Madame de la Chanterie. 
 Twenty months after her marriage this charming woman, at 
 the age of seventeen and a half, found herself reduced to 
 maintaining herself and the child at her breast by the work of 
 her hands, in an obscure street where she hid herself. She 
 then found herself absolutely deserted by her husband, who 
 fell step by step into the society of the very lowest kind. 
 Never did she blame her husband, never did she put him in 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 81 
 
 the least in the wrong. She has told us that all through the 
 worst time she prayed to God for her dear Henri. 
 
 " The rascal's name was Henri," remarked Monsieur Alain. 
 " It is a name that must never be spoken here, any more than 
 that of Henriette. To proceed : 
 
 " Madame de la Chanterie, who never quitted her little 
 room in the Rue de la Corderie-du-Temple unless to buy food 
 or fetch her work, kept her head above water, thanks partly 
 to an allowance of a hundred francs a month from her father- 
 in-law, who was touched by so much virtue. However, the 
 poor young wife, foreseeing that this support might fail her, 
 had taken up the laborious work of a staymaker, and worked 
 for a famous dressmaker. In fact, ere long the old contractor 
 died, and his estate was consumed by his son under favor of 
 the overthrow of the Monarchy. 
 
 "The erewhile master of appeals, now one of the most 
 savage of all the presidents of the revolutionary tribunal, had 
 become a terror in Normandy, and could indulge all his pas- 
 sions. Then, imprisoned in his turn on the fall of Robes- 
 pierre, the hatred of the department condemned him to in- 
 evitable death. Madame de la Chanterie received a farewell 
 letter announcing her husband's fate. She immediately placed 
 her little girl in the care of a neighbor, and went off to the 
 town where the wretch was in confinement, taking with her a 
 few louis, which constituted her whole fortune. This money 
 enabled her to get into the prison. She succeeded in helping 
 her husband to escape, dressing him in clothes of her own, 
 under circumstances very similar to those which not long after 
 favored Madame de la Valette. She was condemned to death, 
 but the authorities were ashamed to carry out this act of re- 
 venge, and she was secretly released with the connivance of 
 the Court over which her husband had formerly presided. 
 She got back to Paris on foot without any money, sleeping 
 at farmhouses, and often fed by charity." 
 
 "Good heavens ! " exclaimed Godefroid. 
 6 
 
82 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "Wait," said the old man, "that was nothing. In the 
 course of eight years the poor woman saw her husband three 
 times. The first time the gentleman spent twenty- four hours 
 in his wife's humble lodgings, and went away with all her 
 money, after heaping on her every mark of affection, and 
 leading her to believe in his complete reformation. ' For I 
 could not resist,' said she, ' a man for whom I prayed every 
 day, and who filled my thoughts exclusively.' The second 
 time Monsieur de la Chanterie came in a dying state, and 
 from some horrible disease ! She nursed him, and saved his 
 life j then she tried to reclaim him to decent feeling and a 
 seemly life. After promising everything this angel begged of 
 him, the revolutionary relapsed into hideous debaucheries, 
 and in fact only escaped prosecution by the authorities by 
 taking refuge in his wife's rooms, where he died unmolested. 
 
 " Still, all this was nothing ! " said Alain, seeing dismay 
 in Godefroid's face. 
 
 "No one in the world he had mixed with had known that 
 the man was married. Two years after the miserable crea- 
 ture's death, she heard that there was a second Madame de la 
 Chanterie, widowed and ruined like herself. The bigamous 
 villain had found two such angels incapable of betraying him. 
 Toward 1803," the old man went on after a pause, " Mon- 
 sieur de Boisfrelon, Madame de la Chanterie's uncle, having 
 his name removed from the list of proscribed persons, came 
 back to Paris and paid over to her two hundred thousand 
 francs that the old commissariat-contractor had placed in his 
 keeping, with instructions to hold it in trust for his niece. 
 He persuaded the widow to return to Normandy, where she 
 completed her daughter's education, and, by the advice of 
 the old lawyer, purchased back one of the family estates under 
 very favorable conditions." 
 
 "Ah!" sighed Godefroid. 
 
 " Oh ! all this was nothing ! " said Monsieur Alain. " We 
 have not yet come to the hurricane. To proceed. In 1807, 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 83 
 
 after four years of peace, Madame de la Chanterie saw her 
 only daughter married to a gentleman whose piety, whose 
 antecedents, and fortune seemed a guarantee from every point 
 of view ; a man who was reported to be the ' pet lamb ' of 
 the best society in the country-town where madame and her 
 daughter spent every winter. Remark : this society consisted 
 of seven or eight families belonging to the highest French 
 nobility the d'Esgrignons, the Troisvilles, the Casterans, 
 the Nouatres, and the like. 
 
 "At the end of eighteen months this man deserted his wife 
 and vanished in Paris, having changed his name. Madame 
 de la Chanterie could never discover the cause of this separa- 
 tion till the lightning flash showed it in the midst of the 
 storm. Her daughter, whom she had brought up with the 
 greatest care and the purest religious feelings, preserved abso- 
 lute silence on the subject. 
 
 " This lack of confidence was a great shock to Madame de 
 la Chanterie. Many times already she had detected in her 
 daughter certain indications of the father's adventurous spirit, 
 strengthened by an almost manly determination of character. 
 The husband had departed without let or hindrance, 
 leaving his affairs in the utmost disorder. To this day 
 Madame de la Chanterie is amazed at this catastrophe, which 
 no human power could remedy. All the persons she privately 
 consulted had assured her before the marriage that the young 
 man's fortune was clear and unembarrassed, in land unen- 
 cumbered by mortgages, when, at that very time, the estate 
 had, for ten years, been loaded with debt far beyond its 
 value. So everything was sold, and the poor young wife, 
 reduced to her own little income, came back to live with her 
 mother. 
 
 " Madame de la Chanterie subsequently learned that this 
 man had been kept going by the most respectable persons in 
 the district for their own benefit, for the wretched man owed 
 them all more or less considerable sums of money. Indeed, 
 
84 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 ever since her arrival in the province, Madame de la Chanterie 
 had been regarded as a prey. 
 
 " However, there were other reasons for this climax of 
 disaster, which you will understand from a confidential com- 
 munication addressed to the Emperor. 
 
 " This man had long since succeeded in winning the good 
 graces of the leading Royalists of the Department by his 
 devotion to the cause during the stormiest days of the Revolu- 
 tion. As one of Louis XVIII. 's most active emissaries, he 
 had, since 1793, been mixed up in every conspiracy, always 
 withdrawing at the right moment, and with so much dexterity 
 as to give rise at last to suspicions of his honor. The King 
 dismissed him from service, and he was excluded from all 
 further scheming, so he retired to his estate, already deeply 
 involved. All these antecedents, at that time scarcely known 
 for those who were initiated into the secrets of the Cabinet 
 did not say much about so dangerous a colleague made him 
 an object almost of worship in a town devoted to the Bour- 
 bons, where the crudest devices of the Chouans were regarded 
 as honest warfare. The Esgrignons, the Casterans, the 
 Chevalier de Valois, in short, the aristocracy and the church, 
 received the Royalist with open arms, and took him to their 
 bosom. This favor was supported by his creditors' earnest 
 desire to be paid. 
 
 " This wretch, a match for the deceased la Chanterie, was 
 able to keep up this part for three years; he affected the 
 greatest piety, and subjugated his vices. During the first few 
 months of his married life he had some little influence over 
 his wife ; he did his utmost to corrupt her by his doctrines, 
 if atheism may be called a doctrine, and by the flippant tone 
 in which he spoke of the most sacred things. 
 
 "This backstairs diplomatist had, on his return to the 
 country, formed an intimacy with a young man, over head 
 and ears in debt like himself, but attractive, in so far that he 
 had as much courage and honesty as the other had shown 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 85 
 
 hypocrisy and cowardice. This guest at his house whose 
 charm and character could not fail to impress a young woman, 
 to say nothing of his adventurous career was a tool in the 
 husband's hands which he used to support his infamous prin- 
 ciples. The daughter never confessed to her mother the gulf 
 into which circumstances had thrown her for human prudence 
 is no word for the caution exercised by Madame de la Chan- 
 terie when seeking a husband for her only child. And this 
 last blow, in a life so devoted, so guileless, so religious as 
 hers, tested as she had been by every kind of misfortune, filled 
 Madame de la Chanterie with a distrust of herself which isolated 
 her from her daughter; all the more so because her daughter, 
 in compensation for her ill-fortune, insisted on perfect liberty, 
 overruled her mother, and was sometimes very rough with her. 
 
 "Thus wounded in every feeling, cheated alike in her 
 devotion and her love for her husband to whom she had 
 sacrificed her happiness, her fortune, and her life, without a 
 murmur ; cheated in the exclusively religious training she had 
 given her daughter ; cheated by the world, even in the matter 
 of that daughter's marriage, and meeting with no justice from 
 the heart in which she had implanted none but right feelings, 
 she turned more resolutely to God, clinging to Him whose 
 hand lay so heavy on her. She was almost a nun ; she went 
 to mass every morning, carried out monastic discipline, and 
 saved in everything to be able to help the poor. 
 
 " Has any woman ever known a more saintly or more 
 severely tried life than this noble creature, so mild to the 
 unfortunate, so brave in danger, and always so perfect a 
 Christian?" said the worthy man, appealing to Godefroid. 
 "You know madame, you know whether she is deficient in 
 sense, judgment, and reflection. She has all these qualities 
 in the highest degree. Well, and still all these misfortunes, 
 which surely were enough to qualify any life as surpassing all 
 others in adversity, were a trifle compared with what God had 
 yet in store for this woman. We will speak only of Madame 
 
86 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 de la Chanterie's daughter," said Monsieur Alain, going on 
 with his narrative. 
 
 "At the age of eighteen, when she married, Mademoiselle 
 de la Chanterie had an extremely delicate complexion, rather 
 dark, with a brilliant color, a slender form, and charming 
 features. An elegantly formed brow was crowned by the most 
 beautiful black hair, that matched well with bright and lively 
 hazel eyes. A peculiar prettiness and a childlike countenance 
 belied her real nature and masculine decisiveness. She had 
 small hands and feet ; in all her person there was something 
 tiny and frail, which excluded any idea of strength and will- 
 fulness. Never having lived away from her mother, her mind 
 was absolutely innocent, and her piety remarkable. 
 
 "This young lady, like Madame de la Chanterie, was 
 fanatically devoted to the Bourbons, and hated the Revolu- 
 tion ; she regarded Napoleon's empire as a plague inflicted on 
 France by Providence, as a punishment for the crimes of 1793. 
 Such a conformity of opinion between the lady and her son- 
 in-law was, as it always must be in such cases, a conclusive 
 reason in favor of the marriage, in which all the aristocracy of 
 the province took the greatest interest. 
 
 "This wretched man's friend had at the time of the rebel- 
 lion in 1799 been the leader of a troop of Chouans. It would 
 seem that the baron for Madame de la Chanterie's son-in- 
 law was a baron had no object in throwing his wife and his 
 friend together but that of extracting money from them. 
 Though deeply in debt, and without any means of living, the 
 young adventurer lived in very good style, and was able, no 
 doubt, to help the promoter of Royalist conspiracies. 
 
 "Here you will need a few words of explanation as to an 
 association which made a great noise in its day," said Mon- 
 sieur Alain, interrupting his narrative. " I mean that of the 
 raiders known as the Chauffeurs. These brigands pervaded 
 all the western provinces more or less ; but their object was 
 not so much pillage as a revival of the Royalist opposition. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 87 
 
 Advantage was taken of the very general resistance of the 
 people to the law of conscription, which, as you know, was 
 enforced with many abuses. Between Mortagne and Rennes, 
 and even beyond, as far as to the Loire, nocturnal raids were 
 frequent, commonly to the injury of those who held national 
 lands. These bands of destroyers were the terror of the 
 country. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that in some 
 Departments the arm of Justice was practically paralyzed. 
 Those last thunders of civil war did not echo so far as you 
 might suppose, accustomed as we now are to the startling 
 publicity given by the press to the most trivial acts of political 
 and private life. The censor allowed nothing to appear in 
 print that bore on politics, unless it were accomplished fact, 
 and even that was distorted. If you will take the trouble to 
 look through old files of the ' Moniteur ' and other news- 
 papers, even those issued in the western provinces, you will 
 find not a word concerning the four or five great trials which 
 brought sixty or eighty of these rebels to the scaffold. 
 ' Brigands,' this was the name given under the Revolution to 
 the Vendeens, the Chouans, and all who took up arms for the 
 house of Bourbon ; and it was still given in legal phraseology 
 under the Empire to the Royalists who were victims to 
 sporadic conspiracies. For to some vehement souls the Em- 
 peror and his government were ' the Enemy,' and everything 
 seemed good that was adverse to him. I am explaining the 
 position, not justifying the opinions, and I will now go on 
 with my story. 
 
 "So now," he said, after a pause, such as will occur in a 
 long story, " you must understand that these Royalists were 
 ruined by the war of 1793, though consumed by frantic pas- 
 sions ; and if you can conceive of some exceptional natures 
 consumed also by such necessities as those of Madame de la 
 Chanterie's son-in-law and his friend the Chouan leader, you 
 will see how it was that they determined to commit, for their 
 own private advantage, acts of robbery which their political 
 
88 THE SEAMY SIDE OP HISTORY. 
 
 opinions would justify, against the Imperial Government for 
 the advantage of the Cause. 
 
 " The young leader set to work to fan the ashes of the 
 Chouan faction, to be ready to act at an opportune moment. 
 There was, soon after, a terrible crisis in the Emperor's affairs 
 when he was shut up in the island of Lobau, and it seemed 
 that he must inevitably succumb to a simultaneous attack by 
 England and by Austria. The victory of Wagram made the 
 internal rebellion all but abortive. This attempt to revive 
 the fires of civil war in Brittany, la Vendee, and part of 
 Normandy was unfortunately coincident with the baron's 
 money difficulties; he had flattered himself that he could 
 contrive a separate expedition, of which the profits could be 
 applied solely to redeem his property. But his wife and 
 friend, with noble feeling, refused to divert to private uses 
 any sums that might be snatched at the sword's point from 
 the State coffers; these were to be distributed to the rebel 
 conscripts and Chouans, and to purchase weapons and ammu- 
 nition to arm a general rising. 
 
 "At last, when after heated discussions the young Chouan, 
 supported by the baroness, positively refused to retain a hun- 
 dred thousand francs in silver crowns which was to be seized 
 from one of the Government receivers' offices in the west to 
 provide for the Royalist forces, the husband disappeared, to 
 escape the execution on his person of several writs that were 
 out against him. The creditors tried to extract payment from 
 his wife, but the wretched man had dried up the spring of 
 affection which prompts a woman to sacrifice herself for her 
 husband. 
 
 "All this was kept from poor Madame de la Chanterie, but 
 it was a trifle in comparison with the plot that lay behind this 
 merely preliminary explanation. 
 
 " It is too late this evening," said the good man, looking 
 at the clock, " and there is too much still to tell, to allow of 
 my going on with the rest of the story. My old friend Bordin, 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 89 
 
 who was made famous as a Royalist by his share in the great 
 Simeuse trial, and who pleaded in the case of the Chauffeurs* 
 of Mortagne, gave me when I came here to live two docu- 
 ments which, as he died not long after, I still have in my pos- 
 session. You will there find the facts set forth much more 
 concisely than I could give them. The details are so compli- 
 cated that I should lose myself in trying to state them, and it 
 would take me more than two hours, while in these papers you 
 will find them summarized. To-morrow morning I will tell 
 you what remains to be told concerning Madame de la Chan- 
 terie, for when you have read these documents you will be 
 sufficiently informed for me to conclude my tale in a few 
 words." 
 
 He placed some papers, yellow with years, in Godefroid's 
 hands ; after bidding his neighbor good-night, the young man 
 retired to his room, and before he went to sleep read the two 
 documents here reproduced : 
 
 "BILL OF INDICTMENT. 
 
 " Court of Criminal and Special Justice for the Department 
 of the Orne. 
 
 " The Public Prosecutor to the Imperial Court of Justice at 
 Caen, appointed to carry out his functions to the Special 
 Criminal Court sitting by the Imperial decree of September, 
 1809, in the town of Alenc.on, sets forth to the Court the 
 following facts, as proved by the preliminary proceedings, to 
 wit : 
 
 "That a conspiracy of brigands, hatched for a long time 
 with extraordinary secrecy, and connected with a scheme for 
 a general rising in the western departments, has vented itself 
 in several attempts on the lives and property of citizens, and 
 
 * Royalists who robbed the mail-coaches conveying government funds, 
 also levying tribute on persons who had bought the confiscated property 
 of emigres. 
 
90 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTOR Y. 
 
 more especially in the attack with robbery, under arms, on a 
 vehicle conveying, on the of May, 18 , the Government 
 moneys collected at Caen. This attack, recalling in its de- 
 tails the memories of the civil war now so happily at an end, 
 showed deep-laid designs of a degree of villainy which cannot 
 be excused by the vehemence of passion. 
 
 "From its inception to the end, the plot is extremely com- 
 plicated and the details numerous. The preliminary examina- 
 tions lasted for more than a year, but the evidence forthcoming 
 at every stage of the crime throws full light on the preparations 
 made, on its execution, and results. 
 
 " The first idea of the plot was conceived of by one Charles- 
 Amedee-Louis- Joseph Rifoe'l, calling himself the Chevalier du 
 Vissard, born at le Vissard, a hamlet of Saint-Mexme by Ernee, 
 and formerly a leader of the rebels. 
 
 " This man, who was pardoned by His Majesty the Emperor 
 at the time of the general peace and amnesty, and whose 
 ingratitude to his sovereign has shown itself in fresh crimes, 
 has already suffered the extreme penalty of the law as the 
 punishment for his misdeeds ; but it is necessary here to refer 
 to some of his actions, as he had great influence over some of 
 the accused now awaiting the verdict of justice, and he is con- 
 cerned in every circumstance of the case. 
 
 " This dangerous agitator, who bore an alias, as is common 
 with these rebels, and was known as ' Pierrot,' used to wander 
 about the western provinces enlisting partisans for a fresh 
 rebellion ; but his safest lurking-place was the Castle of Saint- 
 Savin, the home of a woman named Lechantre and her 
 daughter named Bryond, a house in the hamlet of Saint- 
 Savin and in the district of Mortagne. This spot is famous 
 in the most horrible annals of the rebellion of 1799. It was 
 there that a courier was murdered, and his chaise plundered 
 by a band of brigands under the command of a woman, helped 
 by the notorious Marche-a-Terre. Hence brigandage may be 
 said to be endemic in this neighborhood. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 91 
 
 " An intimacy for which we seek no name had existed for 
 more than a year between the woman Bryond and the above- 
 named Rifoe'l. 
 
 " It was close to this spot that, in the month of April, 
 1808, an interview took place between Rifoe'l and one Bois- 
 laurier, a superior leader, known in the more serious risings in 
 the west by the name of Auguste, and he it was who was the 
 moving spirit of the rising now under the consideration of 
 the Court. 
 
 " This obscure point, namely, the connection of these two 
 leaders, is plainly proved by the evidence of numerous wit- 
 nesses, and also stands as a demonstrated fact by the sentence 
 of death carried out on Rifoe'l. From the time of that meeting, 
 Boislaurier and Rifoe'l agreed to act in concert. 
 
 "They communicated to each other, and at first to no one 
 else, their atrocious purpose, founded on His Royal and Im- 
 perial Majesty's absence, in command, at the time, of his 
 forces in Spain ; and then, or soon thereafter, they must have 
 plotted to capture the State moneys in transit, as the base for 
 further operations. 
 
 " Some time later, one Dubut of Caen dispatched a mes- 
 senger to the Castle of Saint-Savin, namely, one Hiley, known 
 as le Laboureur, long known as a robber of the diligences; 
 he was charged with information as to trustworthy accomplices. 
 And it was thus, by Hiley's intervention, that the plot secured 
 the cooperation from the first of one Herbomez, called 
 General-Hardi, a pardoned rebel of the same stamp as Rifoel, 
 and, like him, a traitor to the amnesty. 
 
 " Herbomez and Hiley recruited in the neighboring villages 
 seven banditti, whose names must at once be set forth as 
 follows : 
 
 " i. Jean Cibot, called Pille-Miche, one of the boldest 
 brigands of a troop got together by Montauran in the year 
 VII., and one of the actors in the robbery and murder of the 
 Mortas:ne courier. 
 
92 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 " 2. Francois Lisieux, known as Grand-Fils, a rebel-con- 
 script of the department of the Mayenne. 
 
 "3. Charles Grenier, or Fleur-de-Genet, a deserter from the 
 69th half-brigade. 
 
 " 4. Gabriel Bruce, known as Gros-Jean, one of the fiercest 
 Chouans of Fontaine's division. 
 
 "5. Jacques Horeau, called Stuart, ex-lieutenant of that 
 brigade, one of Tinteniac's adherents, and well known by 
 the share he took in the Quiberon expedition. 
 
 " 6. Marie-Anne Cabot, called Lajeunesse, formerly hunts- 
 man to the Sieur Carol of Alencon. 
 
 " 7. Louis Minard, a rebel conscript. 
 
 "These, when enrolled, were quartered in three different 
 hamlets in the houses of Binet, Melin, and Laraviniere, inn 
 or tavernkeepers, all devoted to Rifoe'l. 
 
 "The necessary weapons were at once provided by one 
 Jean-Frangois Leveille, a notary, and the incorrigible abettor 
 of the brigands, serving as a go-between for them with several 
 leaders in hiding ; and, in this town, by one Felix Courceuil, 
 called le Confesseur, formerly surgeon to the rebel army of la 
 Vendee ; both these men are natives of Alencon. Eleven 
 muskets were concealed in a house belonging to Bryond in a 
 suburb of Alengon ; but this was done without his knowledge, 
 for he was at that time living in the country on his estate 
 between Alencon and Mortagne. 
 
 " When Bryond left his wife to go her own way in the fatal 
 road she had set out on, these muskets, cautiously removed 
 from the house, were carried by the woman Bryond in her 
 own carriage to the Castle of Saint-Savin. 
 
 " It was then that the Department of the Orne and adja- 
 cent districts were dismayed by acts of highway robbery that 
 startled the authorities as much as the inhabitants of those 
 districts which had so long enjoyed quiet ; and these raids 
 prove that the atrocious foes of the Government and the Em- 
 [NOTE. This is contemporary with " The Chouans."] 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 93 
 
 pire had been kept informed of the secret coalition of 1809 
 by means of communications from abroad. 
 
 " Leveille the notary, the woman Bryond, Dubut of Caen, 
 Herbomez of Mayenne, Boislaurier of le Mans, and Rifoe'l 
 were the ringleaders of the association, which was also joined 
 by those criminals who have been already executed under the 
 sentence passed on them with Rifoe'l, by those accused under 
 this trial, and by several others who have escaped public ven- 
 geance by flight, or by the silence of their accomplices. 
 
 "It was Dubut who, as a resident near Caen, gave notice 
 to Leveille of the dispatch of the money. Dubut made several 
 journeys between Caen and Mortagne, and Leveille also was 
 often on the roads. It may here be noted that, at the time 
 when the arms were removed, Leveille, who came to visit 
 Bruce, Grenier, and Cibot at Melin's house, found them ar- 
 ranging the muskets in an inside shed, and helped them him- 
 self in so doing. 
 
 " A general meeting was arranged to take place at Mor- 
 tagne at the Ecu de France (Crown of France) inn. All the 
 accused were present in various disguises. It was on this 
 occasion that Leveille, the woman Bryond, Dubut, Herbomez, 
 Boislaurier, and Hiley, the cleverest of the subordinate con- 
 spirators, of whom Cibot is the most daring, secured the co- 
 operation of one Vauthier, called Vieux-Chene, formerly a 
 servant to the notorious Longuy, and now a stableman at the 
 inn. Vauthier agreed to give the woman Bryond due notice 
 of the passing of the chaise conveying the Government 
 moneys, as it commonly stopped to bait the horses at the 
 inn. 
 
 "The opportunity ere long offered for assembling the brig- 
 and recruits who had been scattered about in various lodgings 
 with great precaution, sometimes in one village and some- 
 times in another, under the care of Courceuil and of Leveille. 
 The assembly was managed by the woman Bryond, who af- 
 forded the brigands a new hiding-place in the uninhabited 
 
94 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 parts of the Castle of Saint-Savin, at a few miles from Mor- 
 tagne, where she had lived with her mother since her hus- 
 band's departure. The brigands established themselves there 
 with Hiley at their head, and spent several days there. The 
 woman Bryond, with her waiting-maid Godard, took care to 
 prepare with her own hands everything needed for lodging 
 and feeding these guests. To this end she had trusses of hay 
 brought in, and went to see the brigands in the shelter she 
 had arranged for them, going to and fro with Leveille. Pro- 
 visions were procured under the orders and care of Courceuil, 
 Rifoel and Boislaurier giving him instructions. 
 
 "The principal feat was decided on and the men fully 
 armed ; the brigands stole out of Saint-Savin every night ; 
 pending the transit of the Government chest, they carried out 
 raids in the neighborhood, and the whole country was in terror 
 under their repeated incursions. There can be no doubt that 
 the robberies committed at la Sartiniere, at Vonay, and at the 
 chateau of Saint-Seny were the work of this band ; their daring 
 equaled their villainy, and they contrived to terrify their vic- 
 tims so effectually that no tales were told, so that justice could 
 obtain no evidence. 
 
 "While levying contributions on all who held possession of 
 the nationalized land, the brigands carefully reconnoitred the 
 woods of Le Chesnay, which they had chosen to be the scene 
 of their crime. 
 
 " Not far away is the village of Louvigny, where there is an 
 inn kept by the brothers Chaussard, formerly gamekeepers on 
 the property of Troisville, and this was to be the brigands' 
 final rendezvous. The two brothers knew beforehand the part 
 they were to play ; Courceuil and Boislaurier had long before 
 sounded them, and revived their hatred of the government of 
 our august Emperor ; and had told them that among the visitors 
 who would drop in on them would be some men of their ac- 
 quaintance the formidable Hiley and the not less formidable 
 Cibot. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 95 
 
 "In fact, on the 6th the seven highwaymen, under the 
 leadership of Hiley, arrived at the brother Chaussards' tavern 
 and spent two days there. On the 8th the chief led out his 
 men, saying they were going nine miles away, and he desired 
 the hosts to provide food, which was taken to a place where 
 the roads met, a little way from the village. Hiley came 
 home alone at night. 
 
 "Two riders who were probably the woman Bryond and 
 Rifoel, for it is said that she accompanied him in his expedi- 
 tions, on horseback and dressed as a man arrived that evening 
 and conversed with Hiley. On the following day Hiley wrote 
 to Leveille the notary, and one of the Chaussard brothers car- 
 ried the letter and brought back the answer. Two hours later 
 Bryond and Rifoel came on horseback to speak with Hiley. 
 
 " The upshot of all these interviews and coming and going 
 was that a hatchet was indispensable to break open the cases. 
 The notary went back with the woman Bryond to Saint-Savin, 
 where they sought in vain for a hatchet. 
 
 " Thereupon he returned to the inn and met Hiley half-way, 
 to whom he was to explain that no hatchet was to be found. 
 Hiley made his way back and ordered supper at the inn for 
 ten persons ; he then brought in the seven brigands all armed. 
 Hiley made them pile arms like soldiers. They all sat down 
 and supped in haste, Hiley ordering a quantity of food to be 
 packed for them to take away with them. Then he led the 
 elder Chaussard aside and asked him for a hatchet. The 
 tavernkeeper, much astonished, by his own account, refused 
 to give him one. Courceuil and Boislaurier presently came 
 in, and the three men spent the whole night pacing up and 
 down the room and discussing their plan. Courceuil, nick- 
 named the Confessor, the most cunning of the band, took 
 possession of a hatchet, and at about two in the morning they 
 all went out by different doors. 
 
 " Every minute was now precious ; the execution of the 
 crime was fixed for that day. Hiley, Courceuil, and Bois- 
 
96 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 laurier placed their men. Hiley with Minard, Cabot, and 
 Bruce, formed an ambush to the right of the wood of Le 
 Chesnay. Boislaurier, Grenier, and Horeau occupied the 
 centre. Courceuil, Herbomez, and Lisieux stood by the 
 ravine under the fringe of the wood. All these positions are 
 indicated on the subjoined plan to scale, drawn by the sur- 
 veyor to the Government. 
 
 "The chaise, meanwhile, had started from Mortagne at 
 about one in the morning, driven by one Rousseau, who was 
 so far inculpated by circumstantial evidence as to make it 
 seem desirable to arrest him. The vehicle, driving slowly, 
 would reach the wood of Le Chesnay by about three. It was 
 guarded by a single gendarme ; the men were to breakfast at 
 Donnery. There were three travelers, as it happened, beside 
 the gendarme. 
 
 " The driver, who had been walking with them very slowly, 
 on reaching the bridge of Le Chesnay, whipped up the horses 
 to a speed and energy that the others remarked upon, and 
 turned into a cross-road known as the Senzey lane. The 
 chaise was soon lost to sight ; the way it had gone was known 
 to the gendarme and his companions only by the sound of the 
 horses' bells ; the men had to run to come up with it. Then 
 they heard a shout : ' Stand, you rascals ! ' and four shots 
 were fired. 
 
 "The gendarme, who was not hit, drew his sword and ran 
 on in the direction he supposed the driver to have taken. He 
 was stopped by four men, who all fired; his eagerness saved 
 him, for he rushed past to desire one of the young travelers 
 to run on and have the alarm bell tolled at Le Chesnay, but 
 two of the brigands taking steady aim, advanced toward him ; 
 he was forced to draw back a few steps ; and just as he was 
 about to turn the wood, he received a ball in the left armpit, 
 which broke his arm ; he fell, and found himself completely 
 disabled. 
 
 " The shouting and shots had been heard at Donnery. The 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 97 
 
 officer in command at this station hurried up with one of his 
 gendarmes; a running fire led them away to the side of the 
 wood farthest from the scene of the robbery. The single 
 gendarme tried to intimidate the brigands by a hue and cry, 
 and to delude them into the belief that a force was at hand. 
 
 " ' Forward ! ' he cried. ' First platoon to the right ! now 
 we have them ! Second platoon to the left ! ' 
 
 " The brigands on their side shouted : ' Draw ! This way, 
 comrades ! Send up the men as fast as you can ! ' 
 
 " The noise of firing hindered the officer from hearing the 
 cries of the wounded gendarme, and helping in the manoeuvre 
 by which the other was keeping the robbers in check ; but he 
 could hear a clatter close at hand, arising from splitting the 
 cases open. He advanced toward that side ; four armed men 
 took aim at him, and he called out, ' Surrender, villains ! ' 
 
 " They only replied : ' Stand, or you are a dead man ! ' 
 
 " He rushed forward ; two muskets were fired, and he was 
 hit, one ball going through his left leg and into his horse's 
 flank. The brave man, bleeding profusely, was forced to re- 
 tire from the unequal struggle, shouting, but in vain : ' Help 
 come on the brigands are at Le Chesnay.' 
 
 "The robbers, left masters of the field by superiority of 
 numbers, pillaged the chaise which had been intentionally 
 driven into a ravine. They blindfolded the driver, but this 
 was only a feint. The chests were forced open, and bags of 
 money strewed the ground. The horses were unharnessed 
 and loaded with the coin. Three thousand francs' worth of 
 copper money was scornfully left behind ; three hundred thou- 
 sand francs were carried off on four horses. They made for 
 the village of Menneville adjacent to the town of Saint-Savin. 
 
 "The gang and their booty stopped at a solitary house be- 
 longing to the Chaussard brothers, inhabited by their uncle, 
 one Bourget, who had been in their confidence from the first. 
 This old man, helped by his wife, received the brigands, 
 warned them to be silent, unloaded the beasts, and then 
 7 
 
98 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 fetched up some wine. The wife remained on sentry by the 
 castle. The old man led the horses back to the wood and 
 returned them to the driver ; then he released the two young 
 men who had been gagged as well as the accommodating 
 driver. After refreshing themselves in great haste, the brig- 
 ands went on their way. Courceuil, Hiley, and Boislaurier 
 reviewed their party, and, after bestowing on each a trifling 
 recompense, sent off the men, each in a different direction. 
 
 " On reaching a spot called le Champ-Landry, these male- 
 factors, obeying the prompting which so often leads such 
 wretches into blunders and miscalculations, threw their muskets 
 away into a field of standing corn. The fact that all three 
 did so at the same time is a crowning proof of their collusion. 
 Then, terrified by the boldness and success of their crime, 
 they separated. 
 
 "The robbery having been committed, with the additional 
 features of violence and attempt to murder, the chain of sub- 
 sidiary events was already in preparation, and other actors 
 were implicated in receiving, and disposing of the stolen 
 property. Rifoel, hidden in Paris, whence he pulled all the 
 wires of the plot, sent an order to Leveille to forward him 
 immediately fifty thousand francs. Courceuil, apt at the 
 management of such felonies, had sent off Hiley to inform 
 Leveille of their success and of his arrival at Mortagne, where 
 the notary at once joined him. 
 
 " Vauthier, to whose fidelity they believed they might trust, 
 undertook to find the Chaussards' uncle ; he went to the house, 
 but was told by the old man that he must apply to the nephews, 
 who had given over large sums to the woman Bryond. How- 
 ever he bid Vauthier wait for him on the road, and he there 
 gave him a bag containing twelve hundred francs, which 
 Vauthier took to the woman Lechantre for her daughter. 
 
 "By L6veille"s advice Courceuil then went to Bourget,who 
 sent him direct to his nephews. The elder Chaussard led 
 Vauthier to the wood and showed him a tree beneath which 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 99 
 
 a bag of a thousand francs was found buried. In short, 
 Leveille, Hiley, and Vauthier went to and fro several times, 
 and each time obtained a small sum, trifling in comparison 
 with the whole amount stolen. 
 
 " These moneys were handed over to the woman Lechantre 
 at Mortagne ; and, in obedience to a letter by a messenger 
 from her daughter, she carried them to Saint-Savin, whither 
 the said Bryond had returned. 
 
 " It is not now necessary to inquire whether this woman 
 Lechantre had any previous knowledge of the plot. For 
 the present it need only be noted that she had left Mortagne 
 to go to Saint-Savin the day before the crime was committed 
 in order to fetch away her daughter ; that the two women 
 met half-way, and returned to Mortagne ; that, on the follow- 
 ing day, the notary, being informed of this by Hiley, went 
 from Alenc,on to Mortagne, and straight to their house, where 
 he persuaded them to transport the money, obtained with so 
 much difficulty from the Chaussards and from Bourget, to a 
 certain house in Alen^on, presently to be mentioned as be- 
 longing to one Pannier, a merchant there. The woman Le- 
 chantre wrote to the man in charge at Saint-Savin to come to 
 Mortagne and escort her and her daughter by cross-roads to 
 Alencon. The money, amounting to twenty thousand francs 
 in all, in sample-sacks and valises, was packed into a vehicle 
 at night, the girl Godard helping to dispose of it. 
 
 "The notary had planned the way they were to travel. 
 They reached an inn kept by one of their alli.es, a man 
 named Louis Chargegrain, in the hamlet of Littray. But in 
 spite of the notary's precautions he riding ahead of the 
 chaise some strangers were present and saw the valises and 
 bags taken out which contained the coin. 
 
 "But just as Courceuil and Hiley, disguised as women, 
 were consulting, in the market-square at Alengon, with the 
 aforenamed Pannier who since 1794 had been the rebel's 
 treasurer, and who was devoted to Rifoel as to the best means 
 
100 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 of transmitting the required sum to Rifoel, the terror occa- 
 sioned by the arrests and inquiries already made was so great 
 that the woman Lechantre, in her alarm, set off at night from 
 the inn where they were, and fled with her daughter by 
 country byways, leaving Leveille behind, and took refuge in 
 the hiding-places known to them in Saint-Savin Castle. The 
 same alarm came over the other criminals. Courceuil, Bois- 
 laurier, and his relation Dubut exchanged two thousand francs 
 in silver for gold at a dealer's and fled across Brittany to 
 England. 
 
 " On arriving at Saint-Savin, the mother and daughter 
 heard that Bourget was arrested with the driver and the run- 
 away conscripts. 
 
 "The magistrates, the police, and the authorities acted 
 with so much decision that the gang deemed it necessary to 
 protect the woman Bryond from their investigations, for all 
 these felons were devotedly attached to her, and she had won 
 the affections of them all. So she was removed from Saint- 
 Savin, and hid at first at Alencon, where her adherents held 
 council and succeeded in concealing her in Pannier's cellars. 
 
 " Hereupon fresh incidents occurred. After the arrest of 
 Bourget and his wife, the Chaussards refused to give up any 
 more money, saying they had been betrayed. This unex- 
 pected defection fell out at the very moment when all the 
 conspirators were in the greatest need of supplies, if only as a 
 means of escape. Rifoel was thirsting for money. Hiley, 
 Cibot, and Leveille now began to doubt the honesty of the 
 two Chaussards. This led to a fresh complication which 
 seems to demand the intervention of the law. 
 
 "Two gendarmes, commissioned to discover the woman 
 Bryond, succeeded in getting into Pannier's house, where 
 they were present at a council held by the criminals; but 
 these men, false to the confidence placed in them, instead of 
 arresting Bryond, were enslaved by her charms. These ras- 
 cally soldiers named Ratel and Mallet showed the woman 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 101 
 
 every form of interest and devotion, and offered to escort her 
 to the Chaussards' inn and compel them to make restitution. 
 The woman went off on horseback, dressed as a man, and 
 accompanied by Ratel, Mallet, and the maidservant Godard. 
 She set out at night, and on reaching the inn she and one of 
 the Chaussard brothers had a private but animated interview. 
 She had a pistol, and was resolved to blow her accomplice's 
 brains out in case of his refusal ; in fact, he led her to the 
 wood, and she brought back a heavy sack. In it she found 
 copper coin and twelve-sou silver-pieces to the value of fifteen 
 hundred francs. 
 
 "It was then suggested that as many of the conspirators as 
 could be got together should take the Chaussards by surprise, 
 seize them, and put them to torture. Pannier, on hearing of 
 this disappointment, flew into a rage and broke out in threats; 
 and though the woman Bryond threatened him in return with 
 RifoeTs vengeance, she was compelled to fly. 
 
 "All these facts were confessed by Ratel. 
 
 " Mallet, touched by her position, offered the woman Bry- 
 ond a place of shelter ; they all set off together and spent the 
 night in the Troisville forest. Then Mallet and Ratel, with 
 Hiley and Cibot, went by night to the Chaussards' tavern, 
 but they found that the brothers had left the place, and that 
 the remainder of the money had certainly been removed. 
 
 "This was the last attempt on the part of the conspirators 
 to recover the stolen money. 
 
 " It is now important to define more accurately the part 
 played by each of the criminals implicated in this affair. 
 
 " Dubut, Boislaurier, Gentil, Herbomez, Courceuil, and 
 Hiley are all leaders, some in council, and some in action. 
 Boislaurier, Dubut, and Courceuil, all three contumacious 
 deserters, are habitual rebels, stirring up troubles, the implac- 
 able foes of Napoleon the Great, of his victories, his dynasty, 
 and his government, of our new code of laws and of the Im- 
 perial constitution. Herbomez and Hiley, as their right-hand 
 
102 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 men, boldly carried out what the three others planned. The 
 guilt of the seven instruments of the crime is beyond question 
 Cibot, Lisieux, Grenier, Bruce, Horeauj Cabot, and Min- 
 ard. It is proved by the depositions of those who are now 
 in the hands of justice. Lisieux died during the preliminary 
 inquiry, and Bruce has evaded capture. 
 
 " The conduct of the chaise-driver Rousseau marks him as 
 an accomplice. The slow progress on the highroad, the pace 
 to which he flogged the horses on reaching the woods, his 
 persistent statement that his head was muffled, whereas, by 
 the evidence of the young fellow-travelers, the leader of the 
 brigands had the handkerchief removed and ordered him to 
 recognize the men all contribute to afford presumptive evi- 
 dence of his collusion. 
 
 "As to the woman Bryond and Leveille the notary, their 
 complicity was constant and continuous from the first. They 
 supplied funds and means for the crime ; they knew of it and 
 abetted it. Leveille was constantly traveling to and fro. The 
 woman Bryond invented plot upon plot ; she risked everything 
 even her life to secure the money. She lent her house, 
 her carriage, and was concerned in the plot from the begin- 
 ning, nor did she attempt to persuade the chief leader to desist 
 from it when she might have exerted her evil influence to 
 hinder it. She led the maidservant Godard into its toils. 
 Leveille' was so entirely mixed up in it that it was he who 
 tried to procure the hatchet needed by the robbers. 
 
 "The woman Bourget, Vauthier, the Chaussards, Pannier, 
 the woman Lechantre, Mallet, and Ratel were all incriminated 
 in various degrees, as also the innkeepers Melin, Binet, Lara- 
 viniere, and Chargegrain. 
 
 " Bourget died during the preliminary inquiry, after making 
 a confession which leaves no doubt as to the part taken by 
 Vauthier and the woman Bryond ; and though he tried to 
 mitigate the charge against his wife and his nephews the 
 Chaussards, the reasons for his reticence are self-evident. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 103 
 
 " But the Chaussards certainly knew that they were supply- 
 ing provisions to highway robbers ; they saw that the men 
 were armed, and were informed of all their scheme ; they al- 
 lowed them to take the hatchet needed for breaking open the 
 chests, knowing the purpose for which it was required. Fi- 
 nally, they received wittingly the money obtained by the 
 robbery, they hid it, and in fact made away with the greater 
 part of it. 
 
 " Pannier, formerly treasurer to the rebel party, concealed 
 the woman Bryond ; he is one of the most dangerous partici- 
 pators in the plot, of which he was informed from its origin. 
 With regard to him we are in the dark as to some circum- 
 stances as yet unknown, but of which justice will take cogni- 
 zance. He is RifoeTs immediate ally and in all the secrets of 
 the ante-revolutionary party in the West ; he greatly regretted 
 the fact that Rifoel should have admitted the women into the 
 plot or have trusted them at all. He forwarded money to 
 Rifoel and received the stolen coin. 
 
 "As to the two gendarmes, Ratel and Mallet, their conduct 
 most justly deserves the utmost rigor of the law. They were 
 traitors to their duty. One of them, foreseeing his fate, com- 
 mitted suicide after making some important revelations. The 
 other, Mallet, denied nothing, and his tacit confession re- 
 moves all doubt. 
 
 " The woman Lechantre, in spite of her persistent denials, 
 was informed of everything. The hypocrisy of this woman, 
 who attempts to shelter her professed innocence under the 
 practice of assumed devotion, is known by her antecedents to 
 be prompt and intrepid in extremities. She asserts that she 
 was deceived bv her daughter, and believed that the money 
 in question belonged to the man Bryond. The trick is too 
 transparent. If Bryond had had any money, he would not 
 have fled from the neighborhood to avoid witnessing his own 
 ruin. Lechantre considered that there was no harm in the 
 robbery when it was approved of by her ally Boislaurier. 
 
104 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 But how, then, does she account for RifoeTs presence at 
 Saint-Savin, her daughter's expeditions and connection with 
 the man, and the visit of the brigands who were waited on by 
 the woman Godard and Bryond ? She says she sleeps heavily, 
 and is in the habit of going to bed at seven o'clock, and did 
 not know what answer to make when the examining judge 
 observed that then she must rise at daybreak, and could not 
 have failed to discern the traces of the plot and of the presence 
 of so many men, or to be uneasy about her daughter's noc- 
 turnal expeditions. To this she could only say that she was 
 at her prayers. 
 
 "The woman is a model hypocrite. In fact, her absence 
 on the day when the crime was committed, the care she took 
 to remove her daughter to Mortagne, her journey with the 
 money, and her precipitate flight when everything was dis- 
 covered, the care with which she hid herself, and the circum- 
 stances of her arrest, all prove her complicity from the incho- 
 ation of the plot. Her conduct was not that of a mother 
 anxious to explain the danger to her daughter and to save her 
 from it, but that of a terrified accomplice ; and she was an 
 accessory, not out of foolish affection, but from party spirit 
 inspired by hatred, as is well known, for His Imperial Majesty's 
 government. Maternal weakness indeed could not excuse her, 
 and it must not be forgotten that consent, long premeditated, 
 is an evident sign of her complicity. 
 
 " Not the crime alone, but its moving spirits, are now 
 known. We see in it the monstrous combination of the 
 delirium of faction with a thirst for rapine; murder prompted 
 by party spirit, under which men take shelter, and justify 
 themselves for the most disgracelul excesses. The orders of 
 the leaders was the signal for the robbery of State moneys to 
 pay for subsequent violence ; base and ferocious mercenaries 
 were found to do it for wretched pay, and fully prepared to 
 meet resistance with murder ; while the agitators to rebellion, 
 not less guilty, helped in dividing and concealing the booty. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 105 
 
 What society can allow such attempts to go unpunished ? The 
 law has no adequate punishment. 
 
 " The Bench of this Criminal and Special Court, then, will 
 be called upon to decide whether the aforenamed Herbomez, 
 Hiley, Cibot, Grenier, Horeau, Cabot, Minard, Melin, Binet, 
 Laraviniere, Rousseau, the woman Bryond, Leveille, the 
 woman Bourget, Vauthier, the elder Chaussard, Pannier, the 
 widow Lechantre, and Mallet all hereinbefore described and 
 in presence of the Court and the aforenamed Boislaurier, 
 Dubut, Courceuil, Bruce, Chaussard the younger, Chargegrain, 
 and the girl Godard, being absent or having fled, are or are 
 not guilty of the acts described in this bill of indictment. 
 
 " Given in the Court at Caen this ist of December, 180 
 " (Signed) BARON BOURLAC, 
 
 "Attorney- General." 
 
 This legal document, much shorter and more peremptory 
 than such bills of indictment are in these days, so full of de- 
 tail and so complete on every point, especially as to the pre- 
 vious career of the accused, excited Godefroid to the utmost. 
 The bare, dry style of an official pen, setting forth, in red 
 ink, as it were, the principal facts of the case, was enough to 
 set his imagination working. Concise, reserved narrative is 
 to some minds a problem in which they lose themselves in 
 exploring the mysterious deptns. 
 
 In the dead of night, stimulated by the silence, by the 
 darkness, by the dreadful connection hinted at by Monsieur 
 Alain of this document with Madame de la Chanterie, Gode- 
 froid concentrated all his intelligence on the consideration of 
 this terrible affair. 
 
 The name of Lechantre was evidently the first name of the 
 la Chanterie family, whose aristocratic titular name had of 
 course been curtailed under the Republic and the Empire. 
 
 His fancy painted the scenery where the drama was played, 
 and the figures of the accomplices rose before him. Imagina- 
 
106 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 tion showed him, not indeed " the aforenamed Rifoel," but 
 the Chevalier du Vissard, a youth resembling Walter Scott's 
 Fergus in short, a French edition of the Jacobite. He 
 worked out a romance on the passion of a young girl grossly 
 betrayed by her husband's infamy a tragedy then very fash- 
 ionable and in love with a young leader rebelling against 
 the Emperor ; rushing headlong, like Diana Vernon, into the 
 toils of a conspiracy, fired with enthusiasm, and then, having 
 started on the perilous descent, unable to check her wild 
 career. Had it ended on the scaffold ? 
 
 A whole world seemed to rise before Godefroid. He was 
 wandering through the groves of Normandy; he could see 
 the Breton gentleman and Madame Bryond in the copse ; he 
 dwelt in the old Castle of Saint-Savin ; he pictured the win- 
 ning over of so many conspirators the notary, the merchant, 
 and the bold Chouan leaders. He could understand the 
 almost unanimous adhesion of a district where the memory 
 was still fresh of the famous Marche-a-Terre, of the Comtes 
 de Bauvan and de Longuy, of the massacre at la Vivetiere, 
 and of the death of the Marquis de Montauran, of whose ex- 
 ploits he had heard from Madame de la Chanterie. 
 
 This vision, as it were, of men and things and places, was 
 but brief. As he realized the fact that this story was that of 
 the noble and pious old lady whose virtues affected him to the 
 point' of a complete metamorphosis, Godefroid, with a thrill 
 of awe, took up the second document given to him by Mon- 
 sieur Alain, which bore the title : 
 
 "AN APPEAL ON BEHALF OF MADAME HENRIETTE BRYOND 
 
 DES TOURS-MINIERES, ntc LECHANTRE DE LA CHANTERIE." 
 
 " That settles it," thought Godefroid. 
 The paper ran as follows : 
 
 " We are condemned and guilty ; but if ever the sovereign 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 107 
 
 had cause to exercise his prerogative of mercy, would it not 
 be under the circumstances herein set forth ? 
 
 "The culprit is a young woman, who says she is about to 
 become a mother, and is condemned to death. 
 
 " On the threshold of the prison, and in view of the scaffold, 
 this woman will tell the truth. That statement will be in her 
 favor, and to that she looks for pardon. 
 
 " The case, tried in the Criminal Court of Alencon, pre- 
 sents some obscure features, as do all cases where several 
 accused persons have combined in a plot inspired by party 
 feeling. 
 
 " His Imperial and Kingly Majesty's Privy Council are 
 now fully informed as to the identity of a mysterious person- 
 age, known as ' le Marchand,' whose presence in the depart- 
 ment of the Orne was not disputed by the public authorities 
 in the course of the trial, though the pleader for the Crown 
 did not think it advisable to produce him in Court, and the 
 defendants had no right to call him, nor, indeed, power to 
 produce him. 
 
 "This man, as is well known to the Bench, to the local 
 authorities, to the Paris police, and to the Imperial and Royal 
 Council, is Bernard-Polydor Bryond des Tours-Minieres, who, 
 since 1794, has been in correspondence with the Comte de 
 Lille; he is known abroad as the Baron des Tours-Minieres, 
 and in the records of the Paris police as Contenson. 
 
 " He is a very exceptional man, whose youth and rank were 
 stained by unremitting vice, such utter immorality and such 
 criminal excesses, that so infamous a life would inevitably 
 have ended on the scaffold but for the skill with which he 
 played a double part under shelter of his two names. Still, 
 as he is more and more the slave of his passions and insatiable 
 necessities, he will at last fall below infamy, and find himself 
 in the lowest depths, in spite of indisputable gifts and an 
 extraordinary mind. 
 
 "When the Comte de Lille's better judgment led to his 
 
108 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 forbidding Bryond to draw money from abroad, the man tried 
 to get out of the blood-stained field on to which his necessities 
 had led him. Was it that this career no longer paid him 
 well enough ? Or was it remorse or shame that led the man 
 back to the district where his estates, loaded with debt when 
 he went away, could have but little to yield even to his skill ? 
 This it is impossible to believe. It seems more probable that 
 he had some mission to fulfill in those departments where 
 some sparks were still lingering of the civil broils and covert 
 rebellions. 
 
 " When wandering through the provinces, where his per- 
 fidious adhesion to the schemes of the English and of the 
 Comte de Lille gained him the confidence of certain families 
 still attached to the party that the genius of our immortal 
 Emperor had reduced to silence, he met one of the former 
 leaders of the Rebellion a man with whom he had had deal- 
 ings as an envoy from abroad at the time of the Quiberon 
 expedition, during the last rising in the year VII. He en- 
 couraged the hopes of this agitator, who has since paid the 
 penalty of his treasonable plots on the scaffold. At that time, 
 then, Bryond was able to learn all the secrets of the incorrigi- 
 ble faction who misprize the glory of His Majesty the Emperor 
 Napoleon I., and the true interests of the country as repre- 
 sented by his sacred person. 
 
 "At the age of five-and-thirty, this man, who affected the 
 deepest piety, who professed unbounded devotion to the in- 
 terests of the Comte de Lille, and perfect adoration for the 
 rebels of the West who perished in the struggle, who skillfully 
 disguised the ravages of a youth of debauchery, and whose 
 personal appearance was in his favor, came, under the protec- 
 tion of his creditors, who told no tales, and of the most extra- 
 ordinary good-nature on the part of all the ci-devants of the 
 district, to be introduced with all these claims on her regard 
 to the woman Lechantre, who was supposed to have a very fine 
 fortune. The scheme in view was to secure a marriage be- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 109 
 
 tween Madame Lechantre's only daughter, Henriette, and 
 this protege of the Royalist party. 
 
 "Priests, ex-nobles, and creditors, all from different mo- 
 tives, conspired to promote the marriage between Bernard 
 Bryond and Henriette Lechantre. 
 
 " The good judgment of the notary who took charge of 
 Madame Lechantre's affairs, and his shrewd suspicions, led 
 perhaps to the poor girl's undoing. For Monsieur Chesnel, 
 a notary at Alencon, settled the lands of Saint-Savin, the 
 bride's sole estate, on her and her children, reserving a small 
 charge on it and the right of residence to the mother for life. 
 
 " Bryond's creditors, who, judging from her methodical 
 and economical style of living, had supposed that Madame 
 Lechantre must have saved large sums, were disappointed in 
 their hopes, and, believing that she must be avaricious, they 
 sued Bryond, and this led to a revelation of his impecuniosity 
 and difficulties. 
 
 "Then the husband and wife quarreled violently, and the 
 young woman came to full knowledge of the dissipated habits, 
 the atheistical opinions both in religion and in politics, nay, 
 I may say, the utter infamy, of the man to whom fate had 
 irrevocably bound her. Then Bryond, being obliged to let 
 his wife into the secret of the atrocious plots against the Im- 
 perial Government, offered an asylum under his roof to Rifoel 
 du Vissard. 
 
 "RifoeTs character adventurous, brave, and lavish had 
 an extraordinary charm for all who came under his influence ; 
 of this there is abundant proof in the cases tried in no less 
 than three special criminal courts. 
 
 " The irresistible influence, in fact the absolute power, he 
 acquired over a young woman who found herself at the bottom 
 of a gulf, is only too evident in the catastrophe of which the 
 horror brings her as a suppliant to the foot of the throne. 
 And His Imperial and Kingly Majesty's Council will have no 
 difficulty in verifying the infamous collusion of Bryond, who, 
 
110 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 far from doing his duty as the guide and adviser of the girl 
 intrusted to his care by the mother he had deceived, condoned 
 and encouraged the intimacy between his wife Henriette and 
 the rebel leader. 
 
 "This was the plan imagined by this detestable man, who 
 makes it his glory that he respects nothing, and that he never 
 considers any end but the gratification of his passions, while 
 he regards every sentiment based on social or religious mo- 
 rality as a mere vulgar prejudice. And it may here be re- 
 marked that such scheming is habitual to a man who has been 
 playing a double part ever since 1794, who for eight years has 
 deceived the Comte de Lille and his adherents, probably de- 
 ceiving at the same time the superior police of the Empire 
 for such men are always ready to serve the highest bidder. 
 
 "Bryond, then, was urging Rifoel to commit a crime; he 
 it was who insisted on an armed attack and highway robbery 
 of the State treasure in transit, and on heavy contributions to 
 be extorted from the purchasers of the national land, by 
 means of atrocious tortures which he invented, and which 
 carried terror into five Departments. He demanded no less 
 than three hundred thousand francs to pay off the mortgages 
 on his property. 
 
 "In the event of any objection on the part of Rifoel or 
 Madame Bryond, he intended to revenge himself for the con- 
 tempt he had inspired in his wife's upright mind by handing 
 them both over to be dealt with by the law as soon as they 
 should commit some capital crime. 
 
 "As soon as he perceived that party spirit was a stronger 
 motive than self-interest in these two whom he had thus 
 thrown together, he disappeared ; he came to Paris, armed 
 with ample information as to the state of affairs in the western 
 departments. 
 
 " The Chaussard brothers and Vauthier were, it is well 
 known, in constant correspondence with Bryond. 
 
 "As soon as the robbery on the chests from Caen was ac- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF fflSTOR Y. Ill 
 
 complished, Bryond, assuming the name of le Marchand, 
 opened secret communications with the prefect and the magis- 
 trates. What was the consequence ? No conspiracy of equal 
 extent, and in which so many persons in such different grades 
 of the social scale were involved, has ever been so immedi- 
 ately divulged to justice as this, of which the first attempt was 
 the robbery of the treasure from Caen. Within six days of the 
 crime, all the guilty parties had been watched and followed 
 with a certainty that betrays perfect knowledge of the persons 
 in question, and of their plans. The arrest, trial, and execu- 
 tion of Rifoel and his companions are a sufficient proof, and 
 mentioned here only to demonstrate our knowledge of this 
 fact, of which the Supreme Council knows every particular. 
 
 " If ever a condemned criminal might hope for the clem- 
 ency of the sovereign, may not Henriette Lechantre? 
 
 " Carried away by a passion and by rebellious principles 
 imbibed with her mother's milk, she is, no doubt, unpardon- 
 able in the eye of the law ; but, in the sight of our most mag- 
 nanimous Emperor, may not the most shameless betrayal on 
 one hand, and the most vehement enthusiasm on the other, 
 plead her cause ? 
 
 " The greatest of Generals, the immortal genius who par- 
 doned the Prince of Hatzfeld, and who, like God Himself, 
 can divine the arguments suggested by a blind passion, may, 
 perhaps, vouchsafe to consider the temptations invincible in 
 the young, which may palliate her crime, great as it is. 
 
 "Twenty-two heads have already fallen under the sword 
 of justice and the sentence of the three courts. One alone 
 remains that of a young woman of twenty, not yet of age. 
 Will not the Emperor Napoleon the Great grant her time for 
 repentance? Is not that a tribute to the grace of God? 
 
 "For Henriette Lechantre, wife of Bryond des Tours- 
 Minieres, BORDIN, 
 
 " Retained for the defense, Advocate in the Lower 
 Court of the Department of the Seine." 
 
112 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY, 
 
 This terrible tragedy haunted the little sleep Godefroid was 
 able to get. He dreamed of decapitation, as the physician 
 Guillotin perfected it with philanthropic intentions. Through 
 the hot vapors of a nightmare he discerned a beautiful young 
 woman, full of enthusiasm, undergoing the last preparations, 
 drawn in a cart, and mounting the scaffold with a cry of 
 "Long live the King! " 
 
 Godefroid was goaded by curiosity. He rose at daybreak, 
 dressed, and paced his room, till at length he posted himself 
 at the window, and mechanically stared at the sky, recon- 
 structing the drama, as a modern romancer might, in several 
 volumes. And always against the murky background of 
 Chouans, of country-folk, of provincial gentlemen, of rebel 
 leaders, police agents, lawyers and spies, he saw the radiant 
 figures of the mother and daughter ; of the daughter deceiving 
 her mother, the victim of a wretch, and of her mad passion 
 for one of those daring adventurers who were afterward 
 regarded as heroes a man who, to Godefroid's imagination, 
 had points of resemblance to Georges Cadoudal and Charette, 
 and the giants of the struggle between the Republic and the 
 Monarchy. 
 
 As soon as Godefroid heard old Alain stirring, he went to 
 his room ; but, on looking in through the half-opened door, 
 he shut it again, *and withdrew. The old man, kneeling on 
 his prie-Dieu, was saying his morning prayers. The sight ot 
 that white head bent in an attitude of humble piety recalled 
 Godefroid to a sense of duty, and he prayed, too, with fervency. 
 
 "I was expecting you," said the good man when, at the 
 end of a quarter of an hour, Godefroid entered his room. " I 
 anticipated your impatience, and rose earlier than usual." 
 
 "Madame Henriette? " Godefroid began, with evi- 
 dent agitation. 
 
 "Was madame's daughter," replied Alain, interrupting 
 him. " Madame's name is Lechantre de la Chanterie. 
 Under the Empire old titles were not recognized, nor the 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 113 
 
 names added to the patronymic or first surname. Thus the 
 Baronne des Tours-Minieres was ' the woman Bryond ; ' the 
 Marquis d'Esgrignon was called Carol Citizen Carol, and 
 afterward the Sieur Carol; the Troisvilles were the Sieurs 
 Guibelin." 
 
 " But what was the end ? Did the Emperor pardon her? " 
 
 "No, alas!" said Alain. "The unhappy little woman 
 perished on the scaffold at the age of twenty-one. After 
 reading Bordin's petition, the Emperor spoke to the Supreme 
 Judge much to this effect : 
 
 " ' Why make an example of a spy? A secret agent ceases 
 to be a man, and ought to have none of a man's feelings; he 
 is but a wheel in the machine. Bryond did his duty. If our 
 instruments of that kind were not what they are steel bars, in- 
 telligent only in behalf of the Government they serve govern- 
 ment would be impossible. The sentences of Special Criminal 
 Courts must be carried out, or my magistrates would lose all 
 confidence in themselves and in me. And, beside, the men 
 who fought for these people are executed, and they were less 
 guilty than their leaders. The women of the western pro- 
 vinces must be taught not to meddle in conspiracies. It is 
 because the victim of the sentence is a woman that the law 
 must take its course. No excuse is available as against the 
 interests of authority.' 
 
 "This was the substance of what the Supreme Judge was 
 so obliging as to repeat to Bordin after his interview with the 
 Emperor. To re-establish tranquillity in the west, which was 
 full of refractory conscripts, Napoleon thought it needful to 
 produce a real 'terror.' The Supreme Judge, in fact, advised 
 the lawyer to trouble himself no further about his clients." 
 
 "And the lady?" said Godefroid. 
 
 " Madame de la Chanterie was condemned to twenty-two 
 years' imprisonment," replied Alain. " She had already been 
 transferred to Bicgtre, near Rouen, to undergo her sentence, 
 and nothing could be thought of till her Henriette was safe; 
 
114 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 for after these dreadful scenes, she was so wrapped up in her 
 daughter that, but for Bordin's promise to petition for the 
 mitigation of the sentence of death, it was thought that mad- 
 ame would not have survived her condemnation. So they 
 deceived the poor mother. She saw her daughter after the 
 execution of the men who had been sentenced to death, but 
 did not know that the respite was granted in consequence of a 
 false declaration that her daughter was expecting her confine- 
 ment." 
 
 "Ah, now I understand everything ! " cried Godefroid. 
 
 " No, my dear boy. There are some things which cannot 
 be guessed. For a long time after that, madame believed that 
 her daughter was alive." 
 
 "How is that?" 
 
 " When Madame des Tours-Minires heard through Bordin 
 that her appeal was rejected, the brave little woman had 
 enough strength of mind to write a score of letters dated for 
 several months after her execution to make her mother believe 
 that she was still alive, but gradually suffering more and more 
 from an imaginary malady, and it would end in death. These 
 letters were spread over a period of two years. Thus Madame 
 de la Chanterie was prepared for her daughter's death, but for 
 a natural death ; she did not hear of her execution till 1814. 
 
 " For two years she was kept in the common prison with 
 the most infamous creatures of her sex, wearing the prison 
 dress ; then, thanks to the efforts of the Champignelles and 
 the Beause"ants, after the second year she was placed in a pri- 
 vate cell, where she lived like a cloistered nun." 
 
 "And the others?" 
 
 " The notary LeVeiHe", Herbomez, Hiley, Cibot, Grenier, 
 Horeau. Cabot, Minard, and Mallet were condemned to death, 
 and executed the same day ; Pannier, with Chaussard and 
 Vauthier, was sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude; 
 they were branded and sent to the hulks ; but the Emperor 
 pardoned Chaussard and Vauthier. Melin, Laraviniere, and 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 115 
 
 Binet had five years' imprisonment. The woman Bourget 
 was imprisoned for twenty-two years. Chargegrain and Rous- 
 seau were acquitted. Those who had gotten away were all 
 sentenced to death, with the exception of the maidservant 
 Godard, who, as you will have guessed, is none other than 
 our good Manon." 
 
 " Manon ! " exclaimed Godefroid in amazement. 
 
 "Oh, you do not yet know Manon," replied the worthy 
 man. "That devoted soul, condemned to twenty-two years' 
 imprisonment, had given herself up to justice that she might 
 be with Madame de la Chanterie in prison. Our beloved 
 vicar is the priest from Mortagne who gave the last sacrament 
 to Madame des Tours-Minieres, who had the fortitude to 
 escort her to the scaffold, and to whom she gave her last 
 farewell kiss. The same brave and exalted priest had attended 
 the Chevalier du Vissard. So our dear Abbe de Veze learned 
 all the secrets of the conspirators." 
 
 " I see now when his hair turned white," said Godefroid. 
 
 "Alas!" said Alain. "He received from Amedee du 
 Vissard a miniature of Madame des Tours-Minieres, the only 
 likeness of her that exists; and the abbe has been a sacred 
 personage to Madame de la Chanterie ever since the day when 
 she was restored triumphant to social life." 
 
 "How was that?" asked Godefroid in surprise. 
 
 "Well, on the restoration of Louis XVIII. in 1814, Bois- 
 laurier, who was the younger brother of Monsieur de Bois- 
 frelon, was still under the King's orders to organize a rising in 
 the west first in 1809, and afterward in 1812. Their name 
 is Dubut; the Dubut of Caen was related to them. There 
 were three brothers: Dubut de Boisfranc, president of the 
 court of subsidies; Dubut de Boisfrelon, councilor-at-law ; 
 and Dubut-Boislaurier, a captain of dragoons. Their father 
 had given each the name of one of his three several estates to 
 give them a title and status (savonnette a la vilain [wash-ball 
 for the base-born] as it was called), for their grandfather was a 
 
116 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 linen merchant. Dubut of Caen, who succeeded in escaping, 
 was one of the branch who had stuck to trade ; but he hoped, by 
 devoting himself to the Royal cause, to be allowed to succeed 
 to Monsieur de Boisfranc's title. And in fact Louis XVIII. 
 gratified the wish of his faithful adherent, who, in 1815, was 
 made grand provost, and subsequently became a public prose- 
 cutor under the name of Boisfranc ; he was president of one 
 of the higher courts when he died. The Marquis du Vissard, 
 the unhappy chevalier's elder brother, created peer of France, 
 and loaded with honors by the King, was made lieutenant 
 of the Maison Rouge, and when that was abolished became 
 prefect. Monsieur d'Herbomez had a brother who was made 
 a count and receiver-general. The unfortunate banker Pan- 
 nier died on the hulks of a broken heart. Boislaurier died 
 childless, a lieutenant-general and governor of one of the 
 royal residences. 
 
 " Madame de la Chanterie was presented to his majesty by 
 Monsieur de Champignelles, Monsieur de Beauseant, the Due 
 de Verneuil, and the keeper of the seals. ' You have suffered 
 much for me, Madame la Baronne,' said the King; 'you 
 have every claim on my favor and gratitude.' 
 
 " * Sire,' she replied, ' your majesty has so much to do in 
 comforting the sufferers, that I will not add the burden of an 
 inconsolable sorrow. To live forgotten, to mourn for my 
 daughter, and do some good that is all I have to live for. 
 If anything could mitigate my grief, it would be the gracious- 
 ness of my sovereign, and the happiness of seeing that Provi- 
 dence did not suffer so much devoted service to be wasted.' " 
 
 "And what did the King do? " asked Godefroid. 
 
 " He restored to Madame de la Chanterie two hundred 
 thousand francs in money," said the good man, "for the 
 estate of Saint-Savin had been sold to make good the loss to 
 the treasury. The letters of pardon granted to Madame la 
 Baronne and her woman express the sovereign's regret for all 
 they had endured in his service, while acknowledging that the 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 117 
 
 zeal of his adherents had carried them too far in action; but 
 the thing that will seem to you most horrible of all is, that 
 throughout his reign Bryond was still the agent of his secret 
 police." 
 
 " Oli, what things kings can do ! " cried Godefroid. " And 
 is the wretch still living? " 
 
 " No. The scoundrel, who at any rate concealed his name, 
 calling himself Contenson, died at the end of 1829, or early 
 in 1830. He fell from a roof into the street when in pursuit 
 of a criminal. Louis XVIII. was of the same mind as Napo- 
 leon as regards police agents. 
 
 "Madame de la Chanterie, a perfect saint, prays for this 
 monster's soul, and has two masses said for him every year. 
 
 " Though her defense was undertaken by one of the famous 
 pleaders of the day, the father of one of our great orators, 
 Madame de la Chanterie, who knew nothing of her daughter's 
 risks till the moment when the money was brought in and 
 even then only because Boislaurier, who was related to her, 
 told her the facts could never establish her innocence. The 
 President du Ronceret, and Blondet, vice-president of the 
 court at Alencon, vainly tried to clear the poor lady; the 
 influence of the notorious Mergi, the councilor to the supreme 
 court under the Empire, who presided over these trials a 
 man fanatically devoted to the church and throne, who after- 
 ward, as public prosecutor, brought many a Bonapartist head 
 under the axe was so great at this time over his two col- 
 leagues that he secured the condemnation of the unhappy 
 Baronne de la Chanterie. Bourlac and Mergi argued the 
 case with incredible virulence. The president always spoke 
 of the Baronne des Tours-Minieres as the woman Bryond, 
 and of madame as the woman Lechantre. The names of all 
 the accused were reduced to the barest Republican forms, and 
 curtailed of all titles. 
 
 "There were some extraordinary features of the trial, and 
 I cannot recall them all ; but I remember one stroke of auda- 
 
118 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 city, which may show you what manner of men these Chouans 
 were. The crowd that pressed to hear the trials wa? beyond 
 anything your fancy can conceive of; it filled the corridors, 
 and the square outside was thronged as if on the market-days. 
 One morning at the opening of the court, before the arrival 
 of the judges, Pille-Miche, the famous Chouan, sprang over 
 the balustrade into the middle of the mob, made play with 
 his elbows, mixed with the crowd, and fled among the terrified 
 spectators, ' butting like a wild boar,' as Bordin told me. 
 The gendarmes and the people rushed to stop him, and he 
 was caught on the steps just as he had reached the market- 
 place. After this daring attempt, they doubled the guard, 
 and a detachment of men-at-arms was posted on the square, 
 for it was feared that there might be among the crowd some 
 Chouans ready to aid and abet the accused. Three persons 
 were crushed to death in the crowd in consequence of this 
 attempt. 
 
 "It was subsequently discovered that Contenson for, like 
 my old friend Bordin, I cannot bring myself to call him 
 Baron des Tours-Minieres, or Bryond, which is a respectable 
 old name that wretch, it was discovered, had made away 
 with sixty thousand francs of the stolen treasure. He gave 
 ten thousand to the younger Chaussard, whom he enticed 
 into the police and inoculated with all his low tastes and 
 vices ; but all his accomplices were unlucky. The Chaussard 
 who escaped was pitched into the sea by Monsieur de Bois- 
 laurier, who understood from something said by Pannier that 
 Chaussard had turned traitor. Contenson indeed had advised 
 him to join the fugitives in order to spy upon them. Vauthier 
 was killed in Paris, no doubt by one of the Chevalier du Vis- 
 sard's obscure but devoted followers. The younger Chaus- 
 sard, too, was finally murdered in one of the nocturnal raids 
 conducted by the police ; it seems probable that Contenson 
 took this means of ridding himself of his demands or of his 
 remorse by ' sending him to sermon,' as the saying goes. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 119 
 
 " Madame de la Chanterie invested her money in the Funds, 
 and purchased this house by the particular desire of her uncle, 
 the old Councilor de Boisfrelon, who in fact gave her the 
 money to buy it. This quiet neighborhood lies close to the 
 archbishop's residence, where our beloved abbe has an ap- 
 pointment under the cardinal. And this was madame's chief 
 reason for acceding to the old lawyer's wish when his income, 
 after twenty-five years of revolutions, was reduced to six 
 thousand francs a year. Beside, madame wished to close a 
 life of such terrible misfortunes as had overwhelmed her for 
 six-and-twenty years in almost cloistered seclusion. 
 
 "You may now understand the dignity, the majesty, of this 
 long-suffering woman august, indeed, as I may say " 
 
 " Yes," said Godefroid, " the stamp of all she has endured 
 has given her an indefinable air of grandeur and majesty." 
 
 " Each blow, each fresh pang has but increased her patience 
 and resignation," Alain went on. "And if you could know 
 her as we do, if you knew how keen her feelings are, and how 
 active is the spring of tenderness that wells up in her heart, 
 you would be afraid to take count of the tears she must shed, 
 and her fervent prayers that ascend to God. Only those who, 
 like her, have known but a brief season of happiness can resist 
 such shocks. Hers is a tender heart, a gentle soul clothed 
 in a frame of steel, tempered by privation, toil, and aus- 
 terity." 
 
 "Such a life as hers explains the life of hermits," said 
 Godefroid. 
 
 "There are days when I wonder what can be the meaning 
 of such an existence. Is it that God reserves these utmost, 
 bitterest trials for those of His creatures who shall sit on His 
 right hand on the day after their death?" said the good old 
 man, quite unaware that he was artlessly expressing Sweden- 
 borg's doctrine concerning the angels. 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed Godefroid, " Madame de la Chanterie 
 was mixed up with " 
 
120 THE SEAMY SIDE OF H1STOR Y. 
 
 " Madame was sublime in prison," Alain said. "In the 
 course of three years the story of the Vicar of Wakefield came 
 true, for she reclaimed several women of profligate lives. And 
 in the course of her imprisonment, as she took note of the 
 conduct of those confined with her, she learned to feel that 
 great pity for the misery of the people which weighs on her 
 soul, and has made her the queen of Parisian charity. It was in 
 the horrible Bic&tre of Rouen that she conceived of the plan 
 which we devote ourselves to carry out. It was, as she de- 
 clared, a dream of rapture, an angelic inspiration in the midst 
 of hell ; she had no thought of ever seeing it realized. 
 
 "But here, in 1819, when peace seemed to be descending 
 on Paris, she came back to her dream. Madame la Duchesse 
 d' Angouldme the dauphiness, the Duchesse de Berri, the arch- 
 bishop, and then the chancellor and some pious persons con- 
 tributed very liberally to the first necessary expenses. The 
 fund was increased by what we could spare from our income, 
 for each of us spends no more than is absolutely necessary." 
 
 Tears rose to Godefroid's eyes. 
 
 " We are the faithful priesthood of a Christian idea, and be- 
 long, body and soul, to this work, of which Madame de la 
 Chanterie is the founder and the soul that lady whom you 
 hear us respectfully designate as Madame." 
 
 "Ah, and I too am wholly yours ! " cried Godefroid, hold- 
 ing out his hands to the worthy man. 
 
 " Now, do you understand that there are subjects of conver- 
 sation absolutely prohibited here, never even to be alluded 
 to?" Alain went on. " Do you appreciate the obligation of 
 reticence under which we all feel ourselves to a lady whom we 
 reverence as a saint ? Do you understand the charm exerted 
 by a woman made sacred by her misfortunes, having learned 
 so many things, knowing the innermost secret of every form 
 of suffering a woman who has derived a lesson from every 
 grief, whose every virtue has the twofold sanction of the 
 hardest tests and of constant practice, whose soul is spotless 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 121 
 
 and above reproach ; who has known motherhood only through 
 its sorrows, and conjugal affection only through its bitterness ; 
 on whom life never smiled but for a few months for whom 
 heaven no doubt keeps a palm in store as the reward of resig- 
 nation and gentleness amid such sorrows ? Is she not superior 
 to Job in that she has never murmured ? 
 
 " So you need never again be surprised to find her speech 
 so impressive, her old age so fresh, her spirit so full of com- 
 munion, her looks so persuasive; she has had powers extra- 
 ordinary bestowed on her as a confidante of the sorrowing, for 
 she has known every sorrow. In her presence smaller griefs 
 are mute." 
 
 " She is the living embodiment of charity," cried Godefroid 
 with enthusiasm. " May I become one of you? " 
 
 " You must endure the tests, and, above all else, BELIEVE ! " 
 said the old man with gentle excitement. "So long as you 
 have not hold on faith, so long as you have not assimilated in 
 your heart and brain the divine meaning of Saint Paul's 
 epistle on Charity, you can take no part in our work." 
 
 PARIS, 1843-1845. 
 
SECOND EPISODE. 
 
 INITIATED. 
 
 What is nobly good is contagious, as evil is. And by the 
 time Madame de la Chanterie's boarder had dwelt for some 
 months in this silent old house, after the story told him by 
 Monsieur Alain, which filled him with the deepest respect for 
 the half-monastic life he saw around him, he became conscious 
 of the ease of mind that comes of a regular life, of quiet 
 habits and harmonious tempers in those with whom we live. 
 In four months Godefroid, never hearing an angry tone or the 
 least dispute, owned to himself that since he had come to 
 years of discretion he did not remember ever being so com- 
 pletely at peace for he could not say happy. He looked on 
 the world from afar, and judged it sanely. At last the desire 
 he had cherished these three months past to take his part in 
 the deeds of this mysterious association had become a passion; 
 and without being a very profound philosopher, the reader 
 may imagine what strength such a passion may assume in 
 seclusion. 
 
 So one day a day marked as solemn by the ascendency of 
 the Spirit Godefroid, after sounding his heart and measuring 
 his powers, went up to his good friend Alain whom Madame 
 de la Chanterie always called her lamb for of all the dwellers 
 under that roof he had always seemed to Godefroid the most 
 accessible and the least formidable. To him, then, he would 
 apply, to obtain from the worthy man some information as to 
 the sort of priesthood which these Brethren in God exercised 
 in Paris. Many allusions to a period of probation suggested 
 to him that he would be put to initiatory tests of some kind. 
 His curiosity had not been fully satisfied by what the vener- 
 able old man had told him of the reasons why he had joined 
 (122) 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 123 
 
 Madame de la Chanterie's association ; he wanted to know 
 more about this. 
 
 At half-past ten o'clock that evening Godefroid found him- 
 self for the third time in Monsieur Alain's rooms, just as the 
 old man was preparing to read his chapter of The Imitation. 
 This time the mild old man could not help smiling, and he 
 said to the young man, before allowing him to speak : 
 
 " Why do you apply to me, my dear boy, instead of address- 
 ing yourself to madame ? I am the most ignorant, the least 
 spiritual, the most imperfect member of the household. For 
 the last three days madame and my friends have seen into 
 your heart," he added, with a little knowing air. 
 
 "And what have they seen?" asked Godefroid. 
 
 " Oh," said the good man, with perfect simplicity, "they 
 have seen a guileless desire to belong to our community. But 
 the feeling is not yet a very ardent vocation. Nay," he re- 
 plied to an impulsive gesture of Godefroid's, " you have more 
 curiosity than fervor. In fact, you have not so completely 
 freed yourself from your old ideas but that you imagine some- 
 thing adventurous, something romantic, as the phrase goes, in 
 the incidents of our life " 
 
 Godefroid could not help turning red. 
 
 " You fancy that there is some resemblance between our 
 occupations and those of the Khalifs in the ' Arabian Nights,' 
 and you anticipate a kind of satisfaction in playing the part 
 of the good genii in the idyllic beneficences of which you 
 dream ! Ah, ha ! my son, your smile of confusion shows 
 me that we were not mistaken. How could you expect to 
 conceal your thoughts from us, who make it our business to 
 detect the hidden impulses of the soul, the cunning of 
 poverty, the calculations of the needy ; who are honest spies, 
 the police of a merciful Providence, old judges whose code of 
 law knows only absolution, and physicians of every malady 
 whose only prescription is a wise use of money? Still, my 
 dear boy, we do not quarrel with the motives that bring us a 
 
124 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 neophyte if only he stays with us and becomes a brother of our 
 Order. We shall judge you by your works. There are two 
 kinds of curiosity one for good and one for evil. At this 
 moment your curiosity is for good. If you are to become a 
 laborer in our vineyard, the juice of the grapes will give you 
 perpetual thirst for the divine fruit. The initiation looks easy, 
 but is difficult, as in every natural science. In well-doing, as 
 in poetry, nothing can be easier than to clutch at its semblance ; 
 but here, as on Parnassus, we are satisfied with nothing short 
 of perfection. To become one of us, you must attain to 
 great knowledge of life and of such life. Good God ! 
 Of that Paris life which defies the scrutiny of the chief of the 
 police and his men. It is our task to unmask the permanent 
 conspiracy of evil, and detect it under forms so endlessly 
 changing that they might be thought infinite. In Paris, 
 Charity must be as omniscient as Sin, just as the police agent 
 must be as cunning as the thief. We have to be at once frank 
 and suspicious; our judgment must be as certain and as swift 
 as our eye. 
 
 " As you see, dear boy, we are all old and worn out ; but 
 then we are so well satisfied with the results we have achieved 
 that we wish not to die without leaving successors, and we 
 hold you all the more dear because you may, if you will, be 
 our first disciple. For us there is no risk, we owe you to 
 God ! Yours is a sweet nature turned sour, and since you 
 came to live here the evil leaven is weaker. Madame's heav- 
 enly nature has had its effect on you. 
 
 "We held council yesterday; and inasmuch as you have 
 given me your confidence, my good brothers decided on 
 making me your instructor and guide. Are you satisfied with 
 this arrangement?" 
 
 " Oh, my kind Monsieur Alain, your eloquence has aroused, 
 awakened " 
 
 " It is not I that speak well, my dear boy, it is that great 
 deeds are eloquent. We are always sure of soaring high if 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 125 
 
 we obey God and imitate Jesus Christ so far as lies in man 
 aided by faith." 
 
 "This moment has decided my fate; I feel the ardor of 
 the neophyte ! " cried Godefroid. " I, too, would fain spend 
 my life in well-doing " 
 
 " That is the secret of dwelling in God," replied the good 
 man. " Have you meditated on our motto : Transire benefaci- 
 endo. Transire means to pass beyond this life, leaving a long 
 train of good actions behind you." 
 
 "I have understood it so and I have written up the motto 
 of the Order in front of my bed." 
 
 "That is well. And that action, so trivial in itself, is of 
 great value in my eyes. Well, my son, I have your first task 
 ready for you, I will see you with your foot in the stirrup. 
 We must part. Yes, for I have to leave our retreat and take 
 my place in the heart of a volcano. I am going as foreman 
 in a large factory where all the workmen are infected with 
 communistic doctrines and dream of social destruction, of 
 murdering the masters, never seeing that this would be to 
 murder industry, manufacture, and commerce. 
 
 " I shall remain there who knows a year, perhaps, as 
 cashier, keeping the books, and making my way into a hun- 
 dred or more humble homes, among men who were misled by 
 poverty, no doubt, before they were deluded by bad books. 
 However, we shall see each other here every Sunday and holi- 
 day ; as I shall live in the same quarter of the town we may 
 meet at the church of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas ; I shall 
 attend mass there every morning at half-past seven. If you 
 should happen to meet me elsewhere, you must never recog- 
 nize me, unless I rub my hands with an air of satisfaction. 
 That is one of our signals. Like the deaf-mutes, we have a 
 language by signs, of which the necessity will soon be more 
 than abundantly evident to you." 
 
 Godefroid's expression was intelligible to Monsieur Alain, 
 for he smiled and went on 
 
128 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 " Now for your business. We do not practice either benef- 
 icence or philanthropy as they are known to you, under a 
 variety of branches which are preyed upon by swindlers, just 
 like any other form of trade. We exercise charity as it is 
 defined by our great and sublime master Saint Paul ; for it is 
 our belief, my son, that such charity alone can heal the woes 
 of Paris. Thus, in our eyes, sorrow, poverty, suffering, trouble, 
 evil from whatever cause they may proceed and in whatever 
 class of society we find them have equal claims upon us. 
 Whatever their creed or their opinions, the unfortunate are, 
 first and foremost, unfortunate ; we do not try to persuade 
 them to look to our holy mother the church until we have 
 rescued them from despair and starvation. And even then 
 we try to convert them by example and kindness, for thus we 
 believe that we have the help of God. All coercion is wrong. 
 
 "Of all the wretchedness in Paris, the most difficult to dis- 
 cover and the bitterest to endure is that of the respectable 
 middle-class, the better class of citizens, when they come to 
 poverty, for they make it a point of honor to conceal it. 
 Such disasters as these, my dear Godefroid, are the object of 
 our particular care. Such persons, when we help them, show 
 intelligence and good feeling ; they return us with interest 
 what we may lend to them ; and in the course of time their re- 
 payments cover the losses we meet with through the disabled, 
 or by swindlers, or those whom misfortune has stultified. 
 Sometimes we get useful information from those we have 
 helped ; but the work has grown to such vast dimensions, and 
 its details are so numerous, that it is beyond our powers. Now, 
 for the last seven or eight months, we have a physician in our 
 employment in each district of the city of Paris. Each of us 
 has four arrondissements (or wards) under his eye; and we 
 are prepared to pay to each three thousand francs a year to 
 take charge of our poor. He is required to give up his time 
 and care to them by preference, but we do not prevent his 
 taking other patients. Would you believe that we have not 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY, 127 
 
 in eight months been able to find twelve such men, twelve 
 good men, in spite of the pecuniary aid offered by our friends 
 and acquaintance? You see, we needed men of absolute 
 secrecy, of pure life, of recognized abilities, and with a love 
 of doing good. Well, in Paris there are perhaps ten thousand 
 men fit for the work, and yet in a year's search the twelve 
 elect have not been found." 
 
 "Our Lord found it hard to collect His apostles," said 
 Godefroid, " and there were a traitor and a disbeliever among 
 them after all ! " 
 
 "At last, within the past fifteen days, each arrondissement 
 has been provided with a Visitor," said the old man, smiling 
 " for so we call our physicians and, indeed, within those 
 fifteen days there has been a vast increase of business. How- 
 ever, we have worked all the harder. I tell you this secret of 
 our infant fraternity because you must make acquaintance with 
 the physician of your district, all the more so because we de- 
 pend on him for information. The gentleman's name is 
 Berton Doctor Berton and he lives in the Rue de 1'Enfer. 
 
 " Now for the facts. Doctor Berton is attending a lady 
 whose disease seems in some way to defy science. That in- 
 deed does not concern us, but the Faculty only ; our business 
 is to find out the poverty of the sick woman's family, which 
 the doctor believes to be frightful, and concealed with a de- 
 termination and pride that baffle all our inquiries. Hitherto, 
 my dear boy, this would have been my task; but now the 
 work to which I am devoting myself makes an assistant neces- 
 sary in my four districts, and you must be that assistant. The 
 family lives in the Rue Notre-Dame des Champs, in a house 
 looking out over the Boulevard du Mont-Parnasse. You will 
 easily find a room to let there, and while lodging there for a 
 time you must try to discover the truth. Be sordid as regards 
 your own expenses, but do not trouble your head about the 
 money you give. I will send you such sums as we consider 
 necessary, taking all the circumstances of the case into con- 
 
128 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 sideration. But study the moral character of these unfortu- 
 nate people. A good heart and noble feelings are the security 
 for our loans. Stingy to ourselves and generous to suffering, 
 we must still be careful and never rash, for we dip into the 
 treasury of the poor. Go to-morrow, and remember how 
 much power lies in your hands. The Brethren will be on 
 your side." 
 
 "Ah!" cried Godefroid, "you have given me so much 
 pleasure in trusting me to do good and be worthy of some 
 day being one of you, that I shall not sleep for joy." 
 
 "Stay, my boy, one last piece of advice. The prohibition 
 to recognize me unless I make the sign concerns the other 
 gentlemen and madame, and even the servants of the house. 
 Absolute incognito is indispensable to all our undertakings, 
 and we are so constantly obliged to preserve it that we have 
 made it a law without exceptions. We must be unknown, lost 
 in Paris. 
 
 " Remember, too, my dear Godefroid, the very spirit of 
 our Order, which requires us never to appear as benefactors, 
 but to play the obscure part of intermediaries. We always 
 represent ourselves as the agents of some saintly and benefi- 
 cent personage are we not toiling for God? so that no 
 gratitude may be considered due to ourselves, and that we 
 may not be supposed to be rich. True, sincere humility, not 
 the false humility of those who keep in the shade that others 
 may throw a light on them, must inspire and govern all your 
 thoughts. You may rejoice when you succeed ; but so long 
 as you feel the least impulse of vanity, you will be unworthy 
 to join the Brotherhood. We have known two perfect men. 
 One, who was one of our founders, Judge Popinot ; the other, 
 who was known by his works, was a country doctor who has 
 left his name written in a remote parish. He, my dear Gode- 
 froid, was one of the greatest men of our day ; he raised a 
 whole district from a savage state to one of prosperity, from 
 irreligion to the Catholic faith, from barbarism to civilization. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 129 
 
 The names of those two men are graven on our hearts, and 
 we regard them as our examples. We should be happy indeed 
 if we might one day have in Paris such influence as that 
 country doctor had in his own district. 
 
 "But here the plague-spot is immeasurable, and, so far, 
 quite beyond our powers. May God long preserve madame, 
 and send us many such helpers as you, and then perhaps we 
 may found an institution that will lead men to bless His holy 
 religion. 
 
 " Well, farewell. Your initiation now begins. 
 
 " Bless me ! I chatter like a professor, and was forgetting 
 the most important matter. Here is the address of the family 
 I spoke of," he went on, handing a scrap of paper to Gode- 
 froid. "And I have added the number of Monsieur Berton's 
 house in the Rue de 1'Enfer. Now, go and pray God to help 
 you." 
 
 Godefroid took the good old man's hands and pressed them 
 affectionately, bidding him good-night, and promising to 
 forget none of his injunctions. 
 
 "All you have said," he added, "is stamped on my 
 memory for life." 
 
 Alain smiled with no expression of doubt, and rose to go 
 and kneel at his prie-Dieu. Godefroid went back to his own 
 room, happy in being at last allowed to know the mysteries 
 of this household, and to have an occupation which, in his 
 present frame of mind, was really a pleasure. 
 
 At breakfast next morning there was no Monsieur Alain, 
 but Godefroid made no remark on his absence. Nor was he 
 questioned as to the mission given him by the old man ; thus 
 he received his first lesson in secrecy. After breakfast, how- 
 ever, he took Madame de la Chanterie aside, and told her 
 that he should be absent for a few days. 
 
 "Very well, my child," replied Madame de la Chanterie. 
 "And try to do your sponsor credit, for Monsieur Alain has 
 answered for you to his brethren." 
 9 
 
130 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Godefroid took leave of the other three men, who embraced 
 him affectionately, seeming thus to give him their blessing on 
 his outset in his laborious career. 
 
 Association one of the greatest social forces which was 
 the making of Europe in the Middle Ages is based on feel- 
 ings which have ceased since 1792, to exist in France, where 
 the individul is now supreme over the State. Association 
 requires, in the first place, a kind of devotedness which is not 
 understood in this country; a simplicity of faith which is 
 contrary to the national spirit ; and, finally, a discipline against 
 which everything rebels, and which nothing but the Catholic 
 faith can exact. As soon as an association is formed in 
 France, each member of it, on returning home from a meeting 
 where the finest sentiments have been expressed, makes a bed 
 for himself of the collective devotion of this combination of 
 forces, and tries to milk for his own benefit the cow belonging 
 to all, till the poor thing, inadequate to meet so many indi- 
 vidual demands, dies of attenuation. 
 
 None can tell how many generous emotions have been 
 nipped, how many fervid germs have perished, how much 
 resource has been crushed and lost to the country by the 
 shameful frauds of the French secret societies, of the patriotic 
 fund for the Champ d'Asile (emigration to America), and 
 other political swindles, which ought to have produced great 
 and noble dramas, but turned out mere farces of the lower 
 police courts. 
 
 It was the same with industrial as with political associations. 
 Self-interest took the place of public spirit. The corporations 
 and Hanseatic guilds of the Middle Ages, to which we shall 
 some day return, are as yet out of the question ; the only 
 societies that still exist are religious institutions, and at this 
 moment they are being very roughly attacked, for the natural 
 tendency of the sick is to rebel against the remedies and often 
 to rend the physician. France knows not what self-denial 
 means. Hence no association can hold together but by the 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 131 
 
 aid of religious sentiment, the only power that can quell 
 the rebellion of the intellect, the calculations of ambition, 
 and greed of every kind. Those who are in search of worlds 
 fail to understand that ASSOCIATION has worlds in its gift. 
 
 Godefroid, as he made his way through the streets, felt 
 himself a different man. Any one who could have read his 
 mind would have wondered at the curious phenomenon of the 
 communication of the spirit of union. He was no longer 
 one man, but a beirg multiplied tenfold, feeling himself the 
 representative of five persons whose united powers were at the 
 back of all he did, and who walked with him on his way. 
 With this strength in his heart, he was conscious of a fullness 
 of life, a lofty power that uplifted him. It was, as he afterward 
 owned, one of the happiest moments of his life, for he rejoiced 
 in a new sense that of an omnipotence more absolute than 
 that of despots. Moral force, like thought, knows no limits. 
 
 "This is living for others," said he to himself, "acting with 
 others as if we were but one man, and acting alone as if we 
 were all together ! This is having Charity for a leader, the 
 fairest and most living of all the ideals that have been created 
 of the Catholic virtues. Yes, this is living ! Come, I must 
 subdue this childish exaltation which Father Alain would 
 laugh to scorn. Still, is it not strange that it is by dint of 
 trying to annul my Self that I have found the power so long 
 wished for? The world of misfortune is to be my inher- 
 itance." 
 
 He crossed the precincts of Notre-Dame to the Avenue de 
 1'Observatoire in such high spirits that he did not heed the 
 length of the walk. 
 
 Having reached the Rue Notre-Dame des Champs, at the 
 end of the Rue de 1' Quest, he was surprised to find such pools 
 of mud in so handsome a quarter of the town, for neither of 
 those streets was as yet paved. The foot-passenger had to 
 walk on planks laid close to the walls of the marshy gardens, 
 
132 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 or creep by the houses on narrow side-paths, which were soon 
 swamped by the stagnant waters that turned them into 
 gutters. 
 
 After much seeking, he discovered the house described 
 to him and got to it, not without some difficulty. It was 
 evidently an old manufactory which had been abandoned. 
 The building was narrow, and the front was a long wall pierced 
 with windows quite devoid of any ornament ; but there were 
 none of these square openings on the first floor only a 
 wretched back-door. 
 
 Godefroid supposed that the owner had contrived a number 
 of rooms in this structure to his own profit, for over the door 
 there was a board scrawled by hand to this effect : SEVERAL 
 ROOMS TO LET. Godefroid rang, but no one came ; and, as he 
 stood waiting, a passer-by pointed out to him that there was 
 another entrance to the house from the boulevard, where he 
 would find somebody to speak to. 
 
 Godefroid acted on the information, and from the boulevard 
 he saw the front of the house screened by the trees of a small 
 garden-plot. This garden, very ill-kept, sloped to the house, 
 for there is such a difference of level between the boulevard 
 and the Rue Notre-Dame des Champs as to make the garden a 
 sort of ditch. Godefroid went down the path, and at the 
 bottom of it saw an old woman whose dilapidated garb was in 
 perfect harmony with the dwelling. 
 
 "Was it you who rang in the Rue Notre-Dame?" she 
 asked. 
 
 " Yes, madame. Is it your business to show the rooms?" 
 
 On a reply in the affirmative from this portress, whose age 
 it was difficult to determine, Godefroid inquired whether the 
 house was tenanted by quiet folk ; his occupations required 
 peace and silence ; he was a bachelor, and wished to arrange 
 with the doorkeeper to cook and clean for him. 
 
 On this hint the woman became gracious, and said 
 
 " Monsieur could not have done better than to hit on this 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY, 133 
 
 house ; for, excepting the days when there are doings at the 
 Chaumiere, the boulevard is as deserted as the Pontine 
 Marshes ' ' 
 
 ''Do you know the Pontine Marshes?" asked Godefroid. 
 
 "No, sir; but there is an old gentleman upstairs whose 
 daughter is always in a dying state, and he says so. I only 
 repeat it. That poor old man will be truly glad to think that 
 you want peace and quiet, for a lodger who stormed around 
 would be the death of his daughter. And we have two writers 
 of some kind on the third floor, but they come in for the day 
 at midnight, and then for night they go out at eight in the 
 morning. Authors, they say they are, but I do not know 
 where or when they work." 
 
 As she spoke, the portress led Godefroid up one of those 
 horrible stairs built of wood and brick, in such an unholy 
 alliance that it is impossible to say whether the wood is part- 
 ing from the bricks or the bricks are disgusted at being set in 
 the wood; while both materials seem to fortify their disunion 
 by masses of dust in summer and of mud in winter. The 
 walls, of cracked plaster, bore more inscriptions than the 
 Academy of Belles-lettres ever invented. 
 
 The woman stopped on the second floor. 
 
 "Now, here, sir, are two very good rooms, opening into 
 each other, and on to Monsieur Bernard's landing. He is 
 the old gentleman I mentioned and quite the gentleman. 
 He has the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, but he has had 
 great troubles, it would seem, for he never wears it. When 
 first they came they had a servant to wait on them, a man 
 from the country, and they sent him away close on three years 
 ago. The lady's young gentleman her son does everything 
 now ; he manages it all " 
 
 Godefroid looked shocked. 
 
 " Oh ! " said the woman, " don't be uneasy, they will say 
 nothing to you ; they never speak to anybody. The gentle- 
 man has been here ever since the Revolution of July ; he came 
 
134 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 in 1831. They are some high provincial family, I believe, 
 ruined by the change of government ; and proud ! and as 
 mute as fishes. For four years, sir, they have never let me 
 do the least thing for them, for fear of having to pay. A 
 five-franc piece on New Year's Day, that's every sou I get out 
 of them. Give me your authors ! I get ten francs a month, 
 only to tell everybody who comes to ask for them that they 
 left at the end of last quarter." 
 
 All this babble led Godefroid to hope for an ally in this 
 woman, who explained to him, as she praised the airiness of 
 the two rooms and adjoining dressing-closets, that she was 
 not the portress, but the landlord's deputy and janitress, 
 managing everything for him to a great extent. 
 
 "And you may trust me, monsieur, I promise you ! Mad- 
 ame Vauthier that's me would rather have nothing at all 
 than take a sou of anybody else's." 
 
 Madame Vauthier soon came to terms with Godefroid, who 
 wished to take the rooms by the month and ready furnished. 
 These wretched lodgings, rented by students or authors 
 "down on their luck," were let furnished or unfurnished, as 
 might be required. The spacious lofts over the whole house 
 were full of furniture. But Monsieur Bernard himself had 
 furnished the rooms he occupied. 
 
 By getting Madame Vauthier to talk, Godefroid discovered 
 that her ambition was to set up a middle-class boarding-house ; 
 but in the course of five years she had failed to meet with a 
 single boarder among her lodgers. She inhabited the first 
 floor, on the side toward the boulevard ; thus she was herself 
 the doorkeeper, with the help of a big dog, a sturdy girl, and 
 a boy who cleaned the boots, ran errands, and did the rooms, 
 two creatures as poor as herself, in harmony with the squalor 
 of the house and its inhabitants, and the desolate, neglected 
 appearance of the garden in front. 
 
 They were both foundlings, to whom the widow Vauthier 
 gave no wages but their food and such food ! The boy, of 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 135 
 
 whom Godefroid caught a glimpse, wore a ragged blouse, list 
 slippers instead of shoes, and sabots (wooden shoes) to go out 
 in. With a shock of hair, as tousled as a sparrow taking a 
 bath, and blackened hands, as soon as he had done the work 
 of the house, he went off to measure wood-logs in a woodyard 
 hard by, and when his day was over at half-past four for 
 wood-sawyers he returned to his occupations. He fetched 
 water for the household from the fountain by the Observatory 
 and the widow supplied it to the lodgers, as well as the faggots 
 which he chopped and tied. 
 
 Nepomucene this was the name of the widow Vauthier's 
 slave handed over his earnings to his mistress. In summer- 
 time the unhappy waif served as waiter in the wine saloons by 
 the barriere on Sundays and Mondays. Then the woman lent 
 him decent clothes to wear. 
 
 As for the girl, she cooked under the widow's orders, and 
 helped her in her trade work at other times, for the woman 
 plied a trade; she made list slippers for hawkers to sell. 
 
 All these details were known to Godefroid within an hour, 
 for Madame Vauthier took him all over the house, showing 
 him how it had been altered. A silkworm establishment had 
 been carried on there till 1828, not so much for the produc- 
 tion of silk as for that of the eggs the seed, as it is called. 
 Eleven acres of mulberry-trees at Mont-Rouge and three acres 
 in the Rue de 1' Quest, since built over, had supplied food for 
 this nursery for silkworms' eggs. 
 
 Madame Vauthier was telling Godefroid that Monsieur 
 Barbet, who had lent the capital to an Italian named Fresconi 
 to carry on this business, had been obliged to sell those three 
 acres to recover the money secured by a mortgage on the land 
 and buildings, and was pointing out the plot of ground, lying 
 on the other side of the Rue Notre-Dame des Champs, when 
 a tall and meagre old man, with perfectly white hair, came 
 in sight at the end of the street where it crosses the Rue de 
 1'Ouest. 
 
136 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "In the very nick of time!" cried Madame Vauthier. 
 " Look, that is your neighbor, Monsieur Bernard. Monsieur 
 Bernard," cried she, as soon as the old man was within hear- 
 ing* "you will not be alone now; this gentleman here has just 
 taken the rooms opposite yours " 
 
 Monsieur Bernard looked up at Godefroid with an appre- 
 hensive eye that was easy to read ; it was as though he had 
 said, "Then the misfortune I have so long feared has come 
 upon me ! " 
 
 "What, monsieur," said he, " you propose to reside here?" 
 
 "Yes, monsieur/' said Godefroid civilly. "This is no 
 home for those who are lucky in the world, and it is the 
 cheapest lodging I have seen in this part of the town. Madame 
 Vauthier does not expect to harbor millionaires. Good-day, 
 then, Madame Vauthier; arrange things so that I may come in 
 at six o'clock this evening. I shall return punctually." 
 
 And Godefroid went off toward the Rue de 1' Quest, walk- 
 ing slowly, for the anxiety he had read in the old man's face 
 led him to suppose that he wanted to dispute the matter with 
 him. And, in fact, after some little hesitation, Monsieur 
 Bernard turned on his heel and walked quickly enough to 
 come up with Godefroid. 
 
 " That old wretch ! he wants to hinder him from coming 
 back," said Madame Vauthier to herself. " Twice already 
 he has played me that trick. Patience ! His rent is due in 
 five days, and if he does not pay it down on the nail, out he 
 goes ! Monsieur Barbet is a tiger of a sort that does not need 
 much lashing, and I should like to know what he is saying 
 to him Felicite ! Felicite ! you lazy hussy, will you make 
 haste?" cried the widow in a formidable croak, for she had 
 assumed an affable piping tone in speaking to Godefroid. 
 
 The girl, a sturdy, red-haired lass, came running out. 
 
 "Just keep a sharp eye on everything for a few seconds, do 
 you hear? I shall be back in five minutes." 
 
 And the widow Vauthier, formerly cook to the bookseller's 
 
"I BEG YOUR PARDON A THOUSAND TIMES, MONSIEUR.' 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 137 
 
 store kept by Barbet, one of the hardest money-lenders on 
 short terms in the neighborhood, stole out at the heels of her 
 two lodgers, so as to watch them from a distance and rejoin 
 Godefroid as soon as he and Monsieur Bernard should part 
 company. 
 
 Monsieur Bernard was walking slowly, like a man in two 
 minds, or a debtor seeking for excuses to give to a creditor 
 who has left him to take proceedings. 
 
 Godefroid, in front of this unknown neighbor, turned round 
 to look at him under pretense of looking about. And it was 
 not till they had reached the broad walk in the Luxembourg 
 Gardens that Monsieur Bernard came up with Godefroid and 
 addressed him. 
 
 "I beg your pardon a thousand times, monsieur," said he, 
 bowing to Godefroid, who returned the bow, " for stopping 
 you, when I have not the honor of knowing you ; but is it 
 your firm intention to live in the horrible house where I am 
 lodging?" 
 
 " Indeed, monsieur " 
 
 "I know," said the old man, interrupting Godefroid with 
 a commanding air, "that you have a right to ask me what 
 concern of mine it is to meddle in your affairs, to question 
 you. Listen, monsieur ; you are young, and I am very old ; 
 I am older than my years, and they are sixty-six I might be 
 taken for eighty ! Age and misfortune justify many things, 
 since the law exempts septuagenarians from various public 
 duties; still, I do not dwell on the privileges bestowed by 
 white hairs; it is you for whom I am concerned. Do you 
 know that the part of the town in which you think of living 
 is a desert by eight in the evening, and full of dangers, of 
 which being robbed is the least? Have you noticed the wide 
 plots where there are no houses, the waste ground and market 
 gardens? You will, perhaps, retort that I live there; but I, 
 monsieur, am never out of doors after six in the evening. Or 
 
138 THE SEAM* SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 you will say that two young men are lodgers on the third 
 floor, above the rooms you propose to take ; but, monsieur, 
 those two unhappy writers are the victims of writs out against 
 them ; they are pursued by their creditors ; they are in hiding, 
 and go out all day to come in at midnight; and as they 
 always keep together and carry arms, they have no fear of 
 being robbed. I myself obtained permission from the chief 
 of the police for them each to carry a weapon." 
 
 "Indeed, monsieur," said Godefroid, "I have no fear of 
 robbers, for the same reasons as leave these gentlemen invul- 
 nerable, and so great a contempt for life, that if I should be 
 murdered by mistake, I should bless the assassin." 
 
 "And yet you do not look so very wretched," said the old 
 man, who was studying Godefroid. 
 
 " I have barely enough to live on, to give me bread, and I 
 chose that part of the town for the sake of the quiet that reigns 
 there. But may I ask, monsieur, what object you can have in 
 keeping me out of the house? " 
 
 The old man hesitated ; he saw Madame Vauthier in pur- 
 suit. Godefroid, who was examining him attentively, was 
 surprised at the excessive emaciation to which grief, and per- 
 haps hunger, or perhaps hard work, had reduced him ; there 
 were traces of all these causes of weakness on the face where 
 the withered skin looked dried on to the bones, as if it had 
 been exposed to the African sun. The forehead, which was 
 high and threatening, rose in a dome above a pair of steel-blue 
 eyes, cold, hard, shrewd, and piercing as those of a savage, 
 and set in deep, dark, and very wrinkled circles, like a bruise 
 round each. A large, long, thin nose, and the upward curve 
 of the chin, gave the old man a marked likeness to the familiar 
 features of Don Quixote ; but this was a sinister Don Quixote, 
 a man of no delusions, a terrible Don Quixote. 
 
 The old man, in spite of his look of severity, betrayed 
 nevertheless the timidity and weakness that poverty gives to 
 the unfortunate. And these two feelings seemed to have 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 139 
 
 graven lives of ruin on a face so strongly framed that the 
 destroying pickaxe of misery had rough-hewn it. The mouth 
 was expressive and grave. Don Quixote was crossed with the 
 President de Montesquieu. 
 
 The man's dress was of black cloth throughout, but utterly 
 threadbare; the coat, old-fashioned in cut, and the trousers 
 showed many badly-executed patches. The buttons had been 
 recently renewed. The coat was fastened up to the chin, show- 
 ing no linen, and a rusty-black stock covered the absence of 
 a collar. These black clothes, worn for many years, reeked 
 of penury. But the mysterious old man's air of dignity, his 
 gait, the mind that dwelt behind that brow and lighted up 
 those eyes, seemed irreconcilable with poverty. An observer 
 would have found it hard to class this Parisian. 
 
 Monsieur Bernard was so absent-minded that he might have 
 been taken for a professor of the college-quarter, a learned 
 man lost in jealous and overbearing meditation ; and Gode- 
 froid was filled with excessive interest and a degree of curiosity 
 to which his beneficent mission added a spur. 
 
 " Monsieur," said the old man presently, " if I were assured 
 that all you seek is silence and privacy, I would say: 'Come 
 and live near me.' Take the rooms," he went on in a louder 
 voice, so that the widow might hear him, as she passed them, 
 listening to what they were saying. " I am a father, monsieur, 
 I have no one belonging to me in the world but my daughter 
 and her son to help me to endure the miseries of life ; but my 
 daughter needs silence and perfect quiet. Every one who has 
 hitherto come to take the rooms you wish to lodge in has 
 yielded to the reasoning and the entreaties of a heartbroken 
 father; they did not care in which street they settled of so 
 desolate a part of the town, where cheap lodgings are plenty 
 and boarding-houses at very low rates. But you, I see, are 
 very much bent on it, and I can only beg you, monsieur, not 
 to deceive me; for if you should, I can but leave and settle 
 beyond the barrier. And, in the first place, a removal might 
 
140 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 cost my daughter her life," he said in a broken voice, "and 
 then, who knows whether the doctors who come to attend her 
 for the love of God would come outside the gates? - " 
 
 If the man could have shed tears, they would have run down 
 his cheeks as he spoke these last words ; but there were tears 
 in his voice, to use a phrase that has become commonplace, 
 and he covered his brow with a hand that was mere bone and 
 sinew. 
 
 " What, then, is the matter with madame, your daughter?" 
 asked Godefroid in a voice of ingratiating sympathy. 
 
 "A terrible disease to which the doctors give a variety of 
 names or rather, which has no name. All my fortune went, 
 
 But he checked himself, and said, with one of those move- 
 ments peculiar to the unfortunate 
 
 "The little money I had for in 1830, dismissed from a 
 high position, I found myself without an income in short, 
 everything I had was soon eaten up by my daughter, who had 
 already ruined her mother and her husband's family. At the 
 present time the pension I draw hardly suffices to pay for 
 necessaries in the state in which my poor saintly daughter now 
 is. She has exhausted all my power to weep. 
 
 "I have endured every torment, monsieur; I must be of 
 granite still to live or rather, God preserves the father that 
 his child may still have a nurse or a providence, for her 
 mother died of exhaustion. 
 
 "Ay, young man, you have come at a moment when this 
 old tree that has never bent is feeling the axe of suffering, 
 sharpened by poverty, cutting at its heart. And I, who have 
 never complained to anybody, will tell you about this long ill- 
 ness to keep you from coming to the house or, if you insist, 
 to show you how necessary it is that our quiet should not be 
 disturbed. 
 
 "At this moment, monsieur, day and night, my daughter 
 barks like a dog." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 141 
 
 " She is mad, then ? " said Godefroid. 
 
 "She is in her right mind, and a perfect saint," replied 
 Monsieur Bernard. " You will think that I am mad when I 
 have told you all. My only daughter is the child of a mother 
 who enjoyed excellent health. I never in my life loved but 
 one woman she was my wife. I chose her myself, and mar- 
 ried for love the daughter of one of the bravest colonels in the 
 Imperial Guard, a Pole formerly on the Emperor's staff, the 
 gallant General Tarlovski. In the place I held strict morality 
 was indispensable ; but my heart is not adapted to accommo- 
 date many fancies I loved my wife faithfully, and she de- 
 served it. And I am as constant as a father as I was as a 
 husband ; I can say no more. 
 
 "My daughter never left her mother's care ; no girl ever 
 led a chaster or more Christian life than my dear child. She 
 was more than pretty lovely ; and her husband, a young man 
 of whose character I was certain, for he was the son of an old 
 friend, a president of the supreme court, I am sure was in no 
 way contributory to his wife's malady." 
 
 Monsieur Bernard and Godefroid involuntarily stood still a 
 moment looking at each other. 
 
 " Marriage, as you know, often changes a woman's consti- 
 tution," the old man went on. "My daughter's first child 
 was safely brought into the world, a son my grandson, who 
 lives with us, and who is the only descendant of either of the 
 united families. The second time my daughter was expecting 
 an infant she had such singular symptoms that the physicians, 
 all puzzled, could only ascribe them to the singular conditions 
 which sometimes occur in such cases, and which are recorded 
 in the memoirs of medical science. The infant was born 
 dead, literally strangled by internal convulsions. Thus began 
 the illness temporary conditions had nothing to do with it. 
 Perhaps you are a medical student ? " Godefroid replied with 
 a nod, which might be either negative or affirmative. 
 
 "After this disastrous child-bearing," Monsieur Bernard 
 
142 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 went on " a scene that made so terrible an impression on my 
 son-in-law that it laid the foundations of the decline of which 
 he died my daughter, at the end of two or three months, 
 complained of general debility, more particularly affecting her 
 feet, which felt, as she described it, as if they were made of 
 cotton. This weakness became paralysis, but what a strange 
 form of paralysis ! You may bend my daughter's feet under 
 her, twist them round, and she feels nothing. The limbs are 
 there, but they seem to have no blood, no flesh, no bones. 
 This condition, which is unlike any recognized disease, has 
 attacked her arms and hands ; it is supposed to be connected 
 with her spine. Doctors and suggested remedies have only 
 made her worse ; my poor child cannot move without dislo- 
 cating her hips, shoulders, or wrists. We have had for a long 
 time an excellent surgeon, almost in the house, who makes it 
 his care, with the help of a doctor or doctors, for several 
 have seen her out of curiosity to replace the joints would 
 you believe me, monsieur ? as often as three or four times a 
 day. 
 
 "Ah ! I was forgetting to tell you for this illness has so 
 many forms that during the early weak stage, before paralysis 
 supervened, my daughter was liable to the most extraordinary 
 attacks of catalepsy. You know what catalepsy is. She would 
 lie with her eyes open and staring, sometimes in the attitude 
 in which the fit seized her. She has had the most incredible 
 forms of this affection, even attacks of tetanus. 
 
 " This phase of the disease suggested to me the application 
 of mesmerism as a cure when I saw her so strangely paralyzed. 
 Then, monsieur, my daughter became miraculously clairvoy- 
 ante, her mind was subject to every marvel of somnambulism, 
 as her body is to every form of disease." 
 
 Godefroid was indeed wondering whether the old man were 
 quite sane. 
 
 " For my part," he went on, heedless of the expression of 
 Godefroid's eyes, " I, brought up on Voltaire, Diderot, and 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 143 
 
 Helvetius, am a son of the eighteenth century, of the Revolu- 
 tion ; and I laughed to scorn all the records handed down 
 from antiquity and middle ages of persons possessed yes, 
 and yet possession is the only explanation of the state my 
 child is in. Even in her mesmeric sleep she has never been 
 able to reveal the cause of her sufferings ; she could not see 
 it ; and the methods of treatment suggested by her under 
 those conditions, though carefully followed, have had no good 
 result. For instance, she said she must be wrapped in a 
 freshly killed pig; then she was to have points of highly mag- 
 netized red-hot iron applied to her legs; to have melted sealing- 
 wax on her spine. And what a wreck she became ; her teeth 
 fell out ; she became deaf, and then dumb ; and suddenly, 
 after six months of perfect deafness and silence, she recovered 
 hearing and speech. She occasionally recovers the use of her 
 hands as unexpectedly as she loses it, but for seven years she 
 has never known the use of her feet. 
 
 "She has sometimes had well-defined and characteristic 
 attacks of hydrophobia. Not only may the sight or sound of 
 water, of a glass or a cup, rouse her to frenzy, but she barks 
 like a dog, a melancholy bark, or howls, as dogs do at the 
 sound of an organ. 
 
 "She has several times seemed to be dying, and has re- 
 ceived the last sacraments, and then come back to life again 
 to suffer with full understanding and clearness of mind, for 
 her faculties of heart and brain remain unimpaired. Though 
 she is alive, she has caused the death of her husband and her 
 mother, who could not stand such repeated trials. Alas ! 
 Nor is this all. Every function of nature is perverted ; only 
 a medical man could give you a complete account of the 
 strange condition of every organ. 
 
 " In this state did I bring her to Paris from the country in 
 1829 ; for the famous physicians to whom I described the 
 case Desplein, Bianchon, and Haudry believed I was trying 
 to impose upon them. At that time magnetism was stoutly 
 
144 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 denied by the schools. Without throwing any doubt on the 
 provincial doctors' good faith or mine, they thought there was 
 some inaccuracy, or, if you like, some exaggeration, such as 
 is common enough in families or in the sufferers themselves. 
 But they have been obliged to change their views ; to these 
 phenomena, indeed, it is due that nervous diseases have of 
 late years been made the subject of investigation, for this 
 strange case is now classed as nervous. The last consultation 
 held by these gentlemen led them to give up all medicine ; 
 they decided that nature must be studied, but left to itself; 
 and since then I have had but one doctor the doctor who 
 attends the poor of this district. In fact, all that can be 
 done is done to alleviate her sufferings, since their causes 
 remain unknown." 
 
 The old man paused, as if this terrible confession were too 
 much for him. 
 
 "For five years now my daughter has lived through alterna- 
 tions of amendment and relapse; but no new symptoms have 
 appeared. She suffers more or less from the various forms of 
 nervous attack which I have briefly described to you ; but the 
 paralysis of the legs and organic disturbances are constant. 
 Our narrow means increasingly narrow compelled us to 
 move from the rooms I took in 1829 in ihe Rue du Roule; 
 and as my daughter cannot bear being moved, and I nearly 
 lost her twice, first in coming to Paris, and then in moving 
 here from the Beaujon side, I took the lodging in which we 
 now are, foreseeing the disasters which ere long overtook us ; 
 for, after thirty years' service, I was kept waiting for my pen- 
 sion till 1833. I have drawn it only for six months, and the 
 new government has crowned its severities by granting me 
 only the minimum." 
 
 Godefroid expressed such surprise as seemed to demand 
 entire confidence, and so the old man understood it, for he 
 went on at once, not without a reproachful glance toward 
 heaven. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 145 
 
 " I am one of the thousand victims to political reaction. 
 I carefully hide a name that is obnoxious to revenge ; and if 
 the lessons of experience ever avail from one generation to the 
 next, remember, young man, never to lend yourself to the 
 severity of any side in politics. Not that I repent of having 
 done my duty, my conscience is at peace ; but the powers of 
 to-day have ceased to have that sense of common responsibility 
 which binds governments together, however dissimilar; when 
 zeal meets with a reward, it is the result of transient fear. 
 The instrument, having served its purpose, is, sooner or later, 
 completely forgotten. In me you see one of the stanchest 
 supporters of the throne under the elder branch of the Bour- 
 bons, as I was, too, of the Imperial rule, and I am a beggar ! 
 As I am too proud to ask charity, no one will ever guess that 
 I am suffering intolerable ills. 
 
 " Five days since, monsieur, the district medical officer 
 who attends my daughter, or who watches the case, told me 
 that he had no hope of curing a disease of which the symptoms 
 vary every fortnight. His view is that neurotic patients are 
 the despair of the faculty because the causes lie in a system 
 that defies investigation. He advises me to call in a certain 
 Jewish doctor, who is spoken of as a quack ; but at the same 
 time he remarked that he was a foreigner, a Polish refugee, 
 and that physicians are extremely jealous of certain extra- 
 ordinary cures that have been much talked of; some people 
 regard him as very learned and skillful. 
 
 " But he is exacting and suspicious ; he selects his patients, 
 and will not waste time ; and then he is a communist. His 
 name is Halpersohn. My grandson has called on him twice, 
 but in vain ; for he has not yet been to the house, and I 
 understand why." 
 
 " Why ? " asked Godefroid. 
 
 " Oh, my grandson, who is sixteen, is worse clothed even 
 than I am ; and, will you believe me, monsieur, I dare not 
 show myself to this doctor; my dress is too ill-suited 
 10 
 
146 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 to what is expected in a man of my age, and of some dig- 
 nity, too. If he should see the grandfather so destitute as 
 I am when the grandson has shown himself in the same sorry 
 plight, would he devote due care to my daughter ? He would 
 treat her as paupers are always treated. And you must 
 remember, monsieur, that I love my daughter for the grief she 
 has caused me, as of old I loved her for the care she lavished 
 upon me. She has become a perfect angel. Alas ! She is 
 now no more than a soul a soul that beams on her son and 
 on me ; her body is no more, for she has triumphed over pain. 
 
 " Imagine what a spectacle for a father ! My daughter's 
 world is her bedroom. She must have flowers which she 
 loves ; she reads a great deal ; and when she has the use of 
 her hands, she works like a fairy. She knows nothing of the 
 misery in which we live. Our life is such a strange one, that 
 we can admit no one to our rooms. Do you understand me, 
 monsieur? Do you see that a neighbor is intolerable? I 
 should have to ask so much of him that I should be under the 
 greatest obligations and I could never discharge them. In 
 the first place, I have no time for anything : I am educating 
 my grandson, and I work so hard, monsieur so hard, that I 
 never sleep for more than three or four hours at night." 
 
 "Monsieur," said Godefroid, interrupting the old man, to 
 whom he had listened attentively while watching him with 
 grieved attention, "I will be your neighbor, and I will help 
 you " 
 
 The old gentleman drew himself up with pride, indeed, 
 with impatience, for he did not believe in any good thing in 
 man. 
 
 " I will help you," repeated Godefroid, taking the old 
 man's hands and pressing them warmly, " in such ways as I 
 can. Listen to me. What do you intend to make of your 
 grandson ?" 
 
 "He is soon to begin studying the law; I mean him to be 
 an advocate." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 147 
 
 " Then your grandson will cost you six hundred francs a 
 year, and you " 
 
 The old man said nothing. 
 
 "I have nothing," said Godefroid after a pause, "but I 
 have influence ; I will get at the Jewish doctor ; and if your 
 daughter is curable, she shall be cured. We will find means 
 of paying this Halpersohn." 
 
 " Oh, if my daughter were cured, I would make the sacrifice 
 that can be made but once ; I would give up what I am saving 
 for a rainy day."* 
 
 "You may keep that too." 
 
 "Ah ! what a thing it is to be young ! " said the old man, 
 shaking his head. " Good-by, monsieur, or rather au revoir. 
 The library is open, and as I have sold all my books, I have 
 to go there every day for my work. 
 
 " I am grateful to you for the kind feeling you have shown ; 
 but we must see whether you can show me such consideration 
 as I am obliged to require of a neighbor. That is all I ask of 
 you " 
 
 "Yes, monsieur, pray accept me as your neighbor; for 
 Barbet, as you know, is not the man to put up long with empty 
 rooms, and you might meet with a worse companion in misery 
 than I. I do not ask you to believe in me, only to allow me 
 to be of use to you." 
 
 "And what interest can you have in serving me?" cried the 
 old man, as he was about to go down the steps of the cloister 
 of the Carthusians, through which there was at that time a 
 passage from the broad walk of the Luxembourg to the Rue 
 d'Enfer. 
 
 "Have you never, in the course of your career, obliged 
 anybody ? ' ' 
 
 The old man looked at Godefroid with knit brows, his eyes 
 vague with reminiscence, like a man searching through the 
 record of his life for an action for which he might deserve such 
 * Lit. trans.: I will sell the pear I have kept for a thirsty day. 
 
148 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTOR Y. 
 
 rare gratitude ; then he coldly turned away, after bowing with 
 evident suspicion. 
 
 " Come ! for a first meeting he was not particularly dis- 
 tant," said the disciple to himself. 
 
 Godefroid went at once to the Rue d'Enfer, the address 
 given him by Monsieur Alain, and found Doctor Berton at 
 home a stern, cold man, who surprised him greatly by assur- 
 ing him that the details given by Monsieur Bernard of his 
 daughter's illness were absolutely correct ; he then went in 
 search of Doctor Halpersohn, whose address he obtained from 
 Monsieur Berton. 
 
 The Polish physician, since so famous, at that time lived at 
 Chaillot, in a little house in the Rue Marbeuf, of which he oc- 
 cupied the second floor. General Roman Zarnovicki lived 
 on the first floor, and the servants of the two refugees 
 occupied the attics of the little hotel, only one story high. 
 Godefroid did not see the doctor; he had been sent for to 
 some distance in the country by a rich patient. But Gode- 
 froid was almost glad not to have met him, for in his haste he 
 had neglected to provide himself with money, and was obliged 
 to return to the Hotel de la Chanterie to fetch some from his 
 room. 
 
 These walks, and the time it took to dine in a restaurant in 
 the Rue de 1'Odeon, kept him busy till the hour when he was 
 to take possession of his lodgings on the Boulevard Mont- 
 Par nasse. 
 
 Nothing could be more wretched than the furniture provided 
 by Madame Vauthier for the two rooms. It seemed as though 
 the woman was in the habit of letting rooms not to be in- 
 habited. The bed, the chairs, the tables, the drawers, the 
 desk, the curtains, had all evidently been purchased at sales 
 under compulsion of the law, where the money-lender had 
 kept them on account, no cash value being obtainable a not 
 infrequent case. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 149 
 
 Madame Vauthier, her arms akimbo, expected thanks, and 
 she took Godefroid's smile for one of surprise. 
 
 "Oh, yes, I have given you the best of everything, my 
 dear Monsieur Godefroid," said she with an air of triumph. 
 
 " Look what handsome silk curtains, and a mahogany bed- 
 stead that is not at all worm-eaten. It belonged to the Prince 
 de Wissembourg, and was bought out of his mansion. When 
 he left the Rue Louis-le-Grand, in 1809, I was scullery-maid 
 in his kitchen, and from there I went to live with my land- 
 lord " 
 
 Godefroid checked this confidential flow by paying his 
 month's lodging in advance, and at the same time gave Mad- 
 ame Vauthier six francs, also in advance, for arranging and 
 cleaning his rooms. At this moment he heard a bark; and 
 if he had not been forewarned, he might have thought that 
 his neighbor kept a dog in his lodgings. 
 
 " Does that dog bark at night ? " he asked. 
 
 "Oh, be easy, sir, and have patience; there will not be 
 above a week of it. Monsieur Bernard will not be able to 
 pay his rent, and he will be turned out. Still, they are queer 
 folk, I must say ! I never saw their dog. For months that 
 dog for months, did I say? for six months at a time you will 
 never hear that dog, and you might think they didn't keep 
 one. The creature never comes out of madame's room. 
 There is a lady who is very bad ; she has never been out of 
 her bed since they carried her in. Old Monsieur Bernard 
 works very hard, and the son too, who is a day pupil at the 
 College Louis-le-Grand, where he is in the top class for phil- 
 osophy, and he is but sixteen. A bright chap that ! but that 
 little beggar works like a good 'un. 
 
 " You will hear them presently moving the flower-pots in 
 the lady's room for they eat nothing but dry bread, the old 
 man and his grandson, but they buy flowers and nice things 
 for her. She must be very bad, poor thing, never to have 
 stirred out since she came ; and if you take Monsieur Berton's 
 
150 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 word he is the doctor who comes to see her she never will 
 go out but feet foremost." 
 
 "And what is this Monsieur Bernard?" 
 
 "A very learned man, so they say; for he writes and goes 
 to work in the public libraries, and the master lends him 
 money on account of what he writes." 
 
 "The master who?" 
 
 "The landlord, Monsieur Barbet, the old bookseller; he 
 has been in business this sixteen years. He is a man from 
 Normandy, who once sold salad in the streets, and who started 
 as a dealer in old books on the quay, in 1818; then he set up 
 a little store, and now he is very rich. He is a sort of old 
 Jew who runs six-and-thirty businesses at once, for he was a 
 kind of partner with the Italian who built this great barn to 
 keep silkworms in " 
 
 * f And so the house is a place of refuge for authors in 
 trouble?" said Godefroid. 
 
 "Are you so unlucky as to be one?" asked the widow 
 Vauthier. 
 
 " I am only a beginner," said Godefroid. 
 
 " Oh, my good gentleman, for all the ill I wish you, never 
 get any further ! A newspaper man, now I won't say " 
 
 Godefroid could not help laughing, and he bid the woman 
 good-night a cook unconsciously representing the whole 
 middle-class. 
 
 As he went to bed in the wretched room, floored with bricks 
 that had not even been colored, and hung with paper at seven 
 sous the piece, Godefroid not only regretted his little lodging 
 in the Rue Chanoinesse, but more especially the society of 
 Madame de la Chanterie. There was a great void in his soul. 
 He had already acquired certain habits of mind, and he could 
 not remember ever having felt such keen regrets for anything 
 in his previous life. This comparison, brief as it was, made 
 a great impression on his mind ; he understood that no life 
 he could lead could compare with that he was about to em- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 151 
 
 brace, and his determination to follow in the steps of good 
 Father Alain was thenceforth unchangeable. If he had not 
 the vocation, he had the will. 
 
 Next morning, Godefroid, whose new way of life accus- 
 tomed him to rising very early, saw, out of his window, a 
 youth of about seventeen, wearing a blouse, and coming in 
 evidently from a public fountain, carrying in each hand a 
 pitcher full of water. The lad's face, not knowing that any 
 one could see him, betrayed his thoughts ; and never had 
 Godefroid seen one more guileless and more sad. The charm 
 of youth was depressed by misery, study, and great physical 
 fatigue. Monsieur Bernard's grandson was remarkable for an 
 excessively white skin, in strong contrast to very dark-brown 
 hair. He made three expeditions ; and the third time he saw 
 a load of wood being delivered which Godefroid had ordered 
 the night before ; for the winter, though late, of 1838 was 
 beginning to be felt, and there had been a slight fall of snow 
 in the night. 
 
 Nepomucene, who had just begun his day's work by fetching 
 this wood, on which Madame Vauthier had already levied 
 heavy toll, stood talking to the youth while waiting till the 
 sawyer had cut up the logs for him to take indoors. It was 
 very evident that the sight of this wood, and of the ominous 
 gray sky, had reminded the lad of the desirability of laying 
 in some fuel. And then suddenly, as if reproaching himself 
 for waste of time, he took up the pitchers and hurried into 
 the house. It was indeed half-past seven ; and as he heard 
 the quarters strike by the clock at the convent of the Visita- 
 tion, he reflected that he had to be at the College Louis-le- 
 Grand by half-past eight. 
 
 At the moment when the young man went in, Godefroid 
 opened his door to Madame Vauthier, who was bringing up 
 some live charcoal to her new lodger ; so it happened that he 
 witnessed a scene that took place on the landing. A gardener 
 
152 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 living in the neighborhood, after ringing several times at 
 Monsieur Bernard's door without arousing anybody, for the 
 bell was muffled in paper, had a rough dispute with the youth, 
 insisting on the money due for the hire of plants which he 
 had supplied. As the creditor raised his voice, Monsieur Ber- 
 nard came out. 
 
 "Auguste," said he to his grandson, "get dressed. It is 
 time to be off." 
 
 He himself took the pitchers and carried them into the 
 anteroom of his apartment, where Godefroid could see stands 
 filled with flowers ; then he closed the door and came 
 outside to talk to the nurseryman. Godefroid's door was 
 ajar, for Nepomucene was passing in and out and piling up 
 the logs in the second room. The gardener had become 
 silent when Monsieur Bernard appeared, wrapped in a purple 
 silk dressing-gown, buttoned to the chin, and looking really 
 imposing. 
 
 "You might ask for the money we owe you without shout- 
 ing," said the gentleman. 
 
 " Be just, my dear sir," replied the gardener. " You were 
 to pay me week by week, and now, for three months ten 
 weeks I have had no money, and you owe me a hundred 
 and twenty francs. We are accustomed to hire out our plants 
 to rich people, who give us our money as soon as we ask for 
 it, and I have called here five times. We have our rent to 
 pay and our workmen, and I am no richer than you are. My 
 wife, who used to supply you with milk and eggs, will not 
 call this morning either ; you owe her thirty francs, and she 
 would rather not come at all than come to nag, for she has a 
 good heart, has my wife ! -If I listened to her. trade would 
 never pay. And that is why I came, you understand, for that 
 is not my way of looking at things, you see " 
 
 Just then out came Auguste, dressed in a miserable green 
 cloth coat, and trousers of the same, a black cravat, and 
 shabby boots. These clothes, though brushed with care, re- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTOR K J53 
 
 vealed the very last extremity of poverty, for they were too 
 short and too tight, so that they looked as if the least move- 
 ment on the lad's part would split them. The whitened 
 seams, the dog's-eared corners, the worn-out button-holes, in 
 spite of mending, betrayed to the least practiced eye the 
 stigma of poverty. This garb contrasted painfully with the 
 youthfulness of the wearer, who went off eating a piece of 
 stale bread, in which his fine strong teeth left their mark. 
 This was his breakfast, eaten as he made his way from the 
 Boulevard du Mont-Parnasse to the Rue Saint- Jacques, with 
 his books and papers under his arm, and on his head a cap 
 far too small for his powerful head and his mass of fine dark 
 hair. 
 
 As he passed his grandfather, they exchanged rapid glances 
 of deep dejection ; for he saw that the old man was in almost 
 irremediable difficulties of which the consequences might be 
 terrible. To make way for the student of philosophy, the 
 gardener retreated as far as Godefroid's door; and at the 
 moment when he reached the door, Nepomucene, with a load 
 of wood, came up to the landing, driving the creditor quite 
 to the window. 
 
 "Monsieur Bernard," exclaimed the widow, "do you 
 suppose that Monsieur Godefroid took these rooms for you to 
 hold meetings in? " 
 
 "I beg your pardon, madame,'' replied the nurseryman, 
 " the landing was crowded " 
 
 " I did not mean it for you, Monsieur Cartier," said the 
 woman. 
 
 " Stay here I " cried Godefroid, addressing the nurseryman. 
 "And you, my dear sir," he added, turning to Monsieur 
 Bernard, whom this insolent remark left unmoved, "if it 
 suits you to settle matters with your gardener in my room, 
 pray come in." 
 
 The old gentleman, stupefied with trouble, gave Godefroid 
 a stony look, which conveyed a thousand thanks. 
 
154 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "As for you, my dear Madame Vauthier, do not be so 
 rough to monsieur, who, in the first place, is an old man, and 
 to whom you also owe your thanks for having me as your 
 lodger." 
 
 " Indeed ! " exclaimed the woman. 
 
 "Beside, if poor folk do not help each other, who is to 
 help them ? Leave us, Madame Vauthier ; I can blow up my 
 own fire. See to having my wood stowed in your cellar ; I 
 have no doubt you will take good care of it." 
 
 Madame Vauthier vanished ; for Godefroid, by placing his 
 fuel in her charge, had afforded pasture to her greed. 
 
 " Come in," said Godefroid, signing to the gardener, and 
 setting two chairs for the debtor and creditor. The old man 
 talked standing ; the tradesman took a seat. 
 
 "Come, my good man," Godefroid went on, "the rich 
 do not always pay so punctually as you say they do, and you 
 should not dun a worthy gentleman for a few louis. Monsieur 
 draws his pension every six months, and he cannot give you 
 a draft in anticipation for so small a sum ; but I will advance 
 the money if you insist on it." 
 
 " Monsieur Bernard drew his pension about three weeks 
 since, and he did not pay me. I should be very sorry to 
 annoy him " 
 
 "What, and you have been supplying him with flowers 
 for " 
 
 "Yes, monsieur, for six years, and he has always paid until 
 now." 
 
 Monsieur Bernard, who was listening to all that might be 
 going on in his own lodgings, and paying no heed to this dis- 
 cussion, heard screams through the partition, and hurried 
 away in alarm, without saying a word. 
 
 " Come, come, my good man, bring some fine flowers, your 
 best flowers, this very morning, to Monsieur Bernard, and let 
 your wife send in some fresh eggs and milk ; I will pay you 
 myself this evening." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 155 
 
 Cartier looked somewhat askance at Godefroid. 
 
 "Well, I suppose you know more about it than Madame 
 Vauthier ; she sent me word that I had better look sharp if I 
 meant to be paid," said he. " Neither she nor I, sir, can ac- 
 count for it when people who live on bread, who pick up odds 
 and ends of vegetables, and bits of carrots and potatoes and 
 turnips outside the eating-house doors yes, sir, I have seen 
 the boy filling a little basket well, when those people 
 spend near on a hundred francs a month on flowers. The 
 old man, they say, has but three thousand francs a year for his 
 pension " 
 
 "At any rate," said Godefroid, 'if they ruin themselves in 
 flowers, it is not for you to complain." 
 
 " Certainly not, sir, so long as I am paid." 
 
 "Bring me your bill." 
 
 "Very good, sir," said the gardener, with rather more 
 respect. " You hope to see the lady they hide so carefully, 
 no doubt?" 
 
 "Come, come, my good fellow, you forget yourself," said 
 Godefroid stiffly. " Go home and pick out your best flowers 
 to replace those you are taking away. If you can supply me 
 with rich milk and new-laid eggs, you may have my custom. 
 I will go this morning and look at your place." 
 
 " It is one of the best in Paris, and I exhibit at the Luxem- 
 bourg shows. I have three acres of garden on the boulevard, 
 just behind that of the Grande-Chaumiere " (great thatched 
 cottage). 
 
 " Very good, Monsieur Cartier. You are richer than I am, 
 I can see. So have some consideration for us ; for who knows 
 but that one day we may need each other." 
 
 The nurseryman departed, much puzzled as to what Gode- 
 froid could be. 
 
 "And time was when I was just like that!" said Gode- 
 froid to himself, as he blew the fire. " What a perfect speci- 
 men of the commonplace citizen ; a gossip, full of curiosity, 
 
156 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 possessed by the idea of equality, but jealous of other dealers ; 
 furious at not knowing why a poor invalid stays in her room 
 and is never seen ; secretive as to his profits, but vain enough 
 to let out the secret if he could crow over his neighbor. Such 
 a man ought to be lieutenant at least of his crew. How easily 
 and how often in every age does the scene of Monsieur Di- 
 manche recur ! Another minute, and Cartier would have been 
 my sworn ally ! ' ' 
 
 The old man's return interrupted this soliloquy, which 
 shows how greatly Godefroid's ideas had changed during the 
 past four months. 
 
 "I beg your pardon," said Monsieur Bernard, in a husky 
 voice, " I see you have sent off the nurseryman quite satisfied, 
 for he bowed politely. In fact, my young friend, Providence 
 seems to have sent you here for our express benefit at the very 
 moment when all seemed at an end. Alas! The man's 
 chatter must have told you many things. It is quite true that 
 I drew my half-year's pension a fortnight since ; but I had 
 other and more pressing debts, and I was obliged to keep back 
 the money for the rent or be turned out of doors. You, to 
 whom I have confided the secret of my daughter's state who 
 have heard her " 
 
 He looked anxiously at Godefroid, who nodded affirma- 
 tion. 
 
 " Well, you can judge if that would not be her death-blow. 
 For I should have to place her in a hospital. My grandson 
 and I have been dreading this day, not that Cartier was our 
 chief fear; it is the cold " 
 
 " My dear Monsieur Bernard, I have plenty of wood ; take 
 some ! " cried Godefroid. 
 
 " But how can I ever repay such kindness ? " said the old 
 man. 
 
 "By accepting it without ceremony," answered Godefroid 
 cordially, "and by giving me your entire confidence." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 157 
 
 "But what claims have r on such generosity?" asked 
 Monsieur Bernard with revived suspicions. " My pride and 
 my grandson's is broken!" he exclaimed. "For we have 
 already fallen so low as to argue with our two or three creditors. 
 The very poor can have no creditors. Only those can owe 
 money who keep up a certain external display which we have 
 utterly lost. But I have not yet lost my commonsense, my 
 reason," he added, as if speaking to himself. 
 
 " Monsieur," said Godefroid gravely, " the story you told 
 rue yesterday would draw tears from an usurer " 
 
 " No, no ! for Barbet the publisher, our landlord, speculates 
 on my poverty, and sets his old servant, the woman Vauthier, 
 to spy it out." 
 
 " How can he speculate on it?" asked Godefroid. 
 
 "I will tell you at another time," replied the old man. 
 " My daughter may be feeling cold, and since you are so kind, 
 and since I am in a situation to accept charity, even if it were 
 from my worst enemy " 
 
 " I will carry the wood," said Godefroid, who went across 
 the landing with half a score of logs, which he laid down in 
 his neighbor's outer room. 
 
 Monsieur Bernard had taken an equal number, and when 
 he beheld this little stock of fuel, he could not conceal the 
 simple, almost idiotic smile, by which men rescued from 
 moral and apparently inevitable danger express their joy, for 
 there is still fear even in their belief. 
 
 " Accept all I can give you, my dear Monsieur Bernard, 
 without hesitation, and when we have saved your daughter, 
 and you are happy once more, I will explain everything. Till 
 then leave everything to me. I went to call on the Jewish 
 doctor, but unfortunately Halpersohn is absent ; he will not 
 be back for two days." 
 
 Just then a voice which sounded to Godefroid, and which 
 really was, sweet and youthful, called out, " Papa, papa 1 " 
 in an expressive tone. 
 
158 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 While talking to the old man, Godefroid had already 
 remarked, through the crack of the door opposite to that on 
 the landing, lines of neat white paint, showing that the sick 
 woman's room must be very different from the others that 
 composed the lodging. His curiosity was now raised to the 
 highest pitch ; the errand of mercy was to him no more than a 
 means; its end was to see the invalid. He would not believe 
 that any one who spoke in such a voice could be horrible to 
 behold. 
 
 " You are taking too much trouble, papa," said the voice. 
 " Why do not you have more servants at your age? Dear 
 me!" 
 
 " But you know, dear Vanda, that I will not allow any one 
 to wait on you but myself or your boy." 
 
 These two sentences, which Godefroid overheard, though 
 with some difficulty, for a curtain dulled the sound, made him 
 understand the case. The sick woman, surrounded by every 
 luxury, knew nothing of the real state in which her father and 
 son lived. Monsieur Bernard's silk wrapper, the flowers, and 
 his conversation with Cartier had already roused Godefroid's 
 suspicions, and he stood riveted, almost confounded, by this 
 marvel of paternal devotion. The contrast between the 
 invalid's room as he imagined it and what he saw was in fact 
 amazing. The reader may judge : 
 
 Through the door of a third roorn which stood open, 
 Godefroid saw two narrow beds of painted wood like those 
 of the vilest lodging-houses, with a straw mattress and a thin 
 upper mattress ; on each there was but one blanket. A small 
 iron stove such as porters use to cook on, with a few lumps 
 of dried fuel by the side of it, was enough to show the desti- 
 tution of the owner, without other details in keeping with this 
 wretched stove. 
 
 Godefroid by one step forward could see the pots and pans 
 of the wretched household glazed earthenware jars, in which 
 a few potatoes were soaking in dirty water. Two tables of 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 159 
 
 blackened wood, covered with papers and books, stood in 
 front of a window looking out on the Rue Notre-Dame des 
 Champs, and showed how the father and son occupied them- 
 selves in the evening. On each table there was a candlestick 
 of wrought-iron of the poorest description, and in them 
 candles of the cheapest kind, eight to the pound. On a 
 third table, which served as a dresser, there were two shining 
 sets of silver-gilt forks and spoons, some plates, a basin and 
 cup in Sevres china, and a knife with a gilt handle lying in a 
 case, all evidently for the invalid's use. 
 
 The stove was alight ; the water in the kettle was steaming 
 gently. A wardrobe of painted deal contained no doubt the 
 lady's linen and possessions, for he saw on her father's bed 
 the clothes he had worn the day before, spread by way of a 
 covering. 
 
 Some other rags laid in the same way on his grandson's bed 
 led him to conclude that this was all their wardrobe; and 
 under the bed he saw their shoes. 
 
 The floor, swept but seldom no doubt, was like that of a 
 schoolroom. A large loaf that had been cut was visible on a 
 shelf over the table. In short, it was poverty in the last stage 
 of squalor, poverty reduced to a system, with the decent order 
 of a determination to endure it ; driven poverty that has to 
 do everything at home, that insists on doing it, but that finds 
 it impossible, and so puts every poor possession to a wrong 
 use. A strong and sickening smell pervaded the room, which 
 evidently was but rarely cleaned. 
 
 The anteroom where Godefroid stood was at any rate de- 
 cent, and he guessed that it commonly served to hide the 
 horrors of the room inhabited by the old man and the youth. 
 This room, hung with a Scotch plaid paper, had four walnut- 
 wood chairs and a small table, and was graced with portraits 
 a colored print of Horace Vernet's picture of the Emperor; 
 those of Louis XVIII. and Charles X.; and one of Prince 
 Poniatowski, a friend no doubt of Monsieur Bernard's father- 
 
160 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 in-law. There were cotton window-curtains bound with red 
 and finished with fringe. 
 
 Godefroid, keeping an eye on Nepomucene, and hearing 
 him come up with a load of wood, signed to him to stack it 
 noiselessly in Monsieur Bernard's anteroom ; and, with a deli- 
 cate feeling that showed he was making good progress, he shut 
 the bedroom door that Madame Vauthier's boy might not see 
 the old man's squalor. 
 
 The anteroom was partly filled up by three flower-stands, 
 full of splendid plants, two oval and one round, all three of 
 rosewood, and elegantly finished ; and Nepomucene, as he 
 placed the logs on the floor, could not help saying 
 
 "Isn't that lovely? Ain't the flowers handsome? It must 
 have cost a pretty penny ! " 
 
 "Jean, do not make too much noise " Monsieur Ber- 
 nard called out. 
 
 "There, you hear him?" said Nepomucene to Godefroid, 
 " the poor old boy is certainly cracked ! " 
 
 " And what will you be at his age ? " 
 
 "Oh, I know sure enough ! " said Nepomucene; "I shall 
 be in a sugar-basin." 
 
 " In a sugar-basin ? " 
 
 "Yes, my bones will have been made into charcoal. I 
 have seen the sugar-boilers' carts often enough at Mont-Souris 
 come to fetch bone-black for their works, and they told me 
 they used it in making sugar." And with this philosophical 
 reply, he went off for another basketful of wood. 
 
 Godefroid quietly closed Monsieur Bernard's door, leaving 
 him alone with his daughter. 
 
 Madame Vauthier had meanwhile prepared her new lodger's 
 breakfast, and came with Felicite to serve it. Godefroid, 
 lost in meditation, was staring at the fire on the hearth. He 
 was absorbed in reflecting on this poverty that included so 
 many different forms of misery, though he perceived that it 
 had its pleasures too; the ineffable joys and triumphs of 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 161 
 
 fatherly and of filial devotion. They were like pearls sewn 
 on sackcloth. 
 
 "What romance even the most famous can compare 
 with such reality?" thought he. "How noble is the life 
 that mingles with such lives as these, enabling the soul to dis- 
 cern their cause and effect; to assuage suffering and encourage 
 what is good ; to become one with misfortune and learn the 
 secrets of such a home as this ; to be an actor in ever-new 
 dramas such as delight us in the works of the most famous 
 authors ! I had no idea that goodness could be more inter- 
 esting than vice." 
 
 "Is everything to your mind, sir?" asked Madame Vau- 
 thier, who, helped by Felicite, had placed the table close to 
 Godefroid. He then saw an excellent cup of coffee with 
 milk, a smoking hot omelette, fresh butter, and little red 
 radishes. 
 
 " Where did you find those radishes? " asked Godefroid. 
 
 "Monsieur Cartier gave them to me," said she. "I 
 thought you might like them, sir." 
 
 "And what do you expect me to pay for a breakfast like 
 this every day?" said Godefroid. 
 
 "Well, monsieur, to be quite fair it would be hard to 
 supply it under thirty sous." 
 
 " Say thirty sous," said Godefroid. "But how is it that 
 close by this, at Madame Machillot's, they only ask me forty- 
 five francs a month for dinner, which is just thirty sous a day ? " 
 
 "Oh, but what a difference, sir, between getting a dinner 
 for fifteen people and going to buy everything that is needed 
 for one breakfast : a roll, you see, eggs, butter lighting the 
 fire and then sugar, milk, coffee. Why, they will ask you 
 sixteen sous for nothing but a cup of coffee with milk in the 
 Place de 1'Odeon, and you have to give a sou or two to the 
 waiter ! Here you have no trouble at all ; you breakfast at 
 home, in your slippers." 
 
 "Well, then, it is settled," said Godefroid. 
 11 
 
162 ' THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "And even then, but for Madame Cartier, from whom I 
 get the milk and eggs and parsley, I could not do it at all. 
 You must go and see their place, sir. Oh, it is really a fine 
 sight. They employ five gardeners' apprentices, and Nepo- 
 mucene goes to help with the watering all the summer ; they 
 pay me to let him go. And they make a lot of money out of 
 strawberries and melons. You are very much interested in 
 Monsieur Bernard, it would seem? " asked the widow in her 
 sweetest tones. " For really to answer for their debts in that 
 way ! But perhaps you don't know how much they owe. 
 There is the lady that keeps the circulating library on the 
 Place Saint-Michel; she calls every three or four days for 
 thirty francs, and she wants it badly too. Heaven above ! 
 that poor woman in bed does read and read. And at two 
 sous a volume, thirty francs in two months " 
 
 "Is a hundred volumes a month," said Godefroid. 
 
 "There goes the old fellow to fetch madame's cream and 
 roll," the woman went on. "It is for her tea; for she lives 
 on nothing but tea, that lady; she has it twice a day, and 
 then twice a week she wants sweets. She is dainty, I can tell 
 you ! The old boy buys her cakes and pies at the pastry- 
 cook's in the Rue de Buci. Oh, when it is for her, he sticks 
 at nothing. He says she is his daughter ! Where's the man 
 who would do all he does, and at his age, for his daughter? 
 He is killing himself himself and his Auguste and all for 
 her. If you are like me, sir I would give twenty francs to 
 see her. Monsieur Berton says she is shocking, an object to 
 make a show of. They did well to come to this part of the 
 town where nobody ever comes. And you think of dining at 
 Madame Machillot's, sir?" 
 
 "Yes, I thought of making an arrangement with her." 
 
 "Well, sir, it is not to interfere with any plan of yours; 
 but, take 'em as you find 'em, you will find a better eating- 
 place in the Rue de Tournon ; you need not bind yourself for 
 a month, and you will have a better table " 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 163 
 
 *' Where in the Rue de Tournon ? " 
 
 "At the successors of old Madame Girard. That is where 
 the gentlemen upstairs dine, and they are satisfied they could 
 not be better pleased." 
 
 "Very well, Madame Vauthier, I will take your advice and 
 dine there." 
 
 "And, my dear sir," the woman went on, emboldened by 
 the easy-going air which Godefroid had intentionally assumed, 
 '* do you mean to say, seriously, that you are such a flat as to 
 think of paying Monsieur Bernard's debts? I should be really 
 very sorry; for you must remember, my good Monsieur Gode- 
 froid, that he is very near on seventy, and after him where are 
 you? There's an end to his pension. What will there be to 
 repay you ? Young men are so rash. Do you know that he 
 owes above a thousand crowns?" 
 
 " But to whom ? " asked Godefroid. 
 
 "Oh, that is no concern of mine," said Madame Vauthier 
 mysteriously. " He owes the money, and that's enough ; and 
 between you and me, he is having a hard time of it ; he can- 
 not get credit for a sou in all the neighborhood for that very 
 reason." 
 
 "A thousand crowns ! " said Godefroid. " Be sure of one 
 thing ; if I had a thousand crowns, I should be no lodger of 
 yours. But I, you see, cannot bear to see others suffering ; 
 and for a few hundred francs that it may cost me, I will make 
 sure that my neighbor, a man with white hair, has bread and 
 firing. Why, a man often loses as much at cards. But 
 three thousand francs why, what do you think? Good 
 heavens ! " 
 
 Madame Vauthier, quite taken in by Godefroid's affected 
 candor, allowed a gleam of satisfaction to light up her face, 
 and this confirmed her lodger's suspicions. Godefroid was 
 convinced that the old woman was implicated in some plot 
 against the hapless Monsieur Bernard. 
 
 "It is a strange thing, monsieur, what fancies come into 
 
164 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 one's head. You will say that I am very inquisitive ; but yes- 
 terday, when I saw you talking to Monsieur Bernard, it struck 
 me that you must be a publisher's clerk for this is their part 
 of the town. I had a lodger, a foreman printer, whose works 
 are in the Rue de Vaugirard, and he was named the same 
 name as you " 
 
 "And what concern is it of yours what my business is?" 
 said Godefroid. 
 
 "Lor' ! whether you tell me or whether you don't, I shall 
 know just the same," said the widow. "Look at Monsieur 
 Bernard, for instance; well, for eighteen months I could never 
 find out what he was; but in the nineteenth month I discovered 
 that he had been a judge or a magistrate, or something of the 
 kind, in the law, and that now he is writing a book about it. 
 What does he get by it? That's what I say. And if he had 
 told me, I should have held my tongue ; so there ! " 
 
 " I am not at present a publisher's agent, but I may be, 
 perhaps, before long." 
 
 "There, I knew it! " exclaimed the woman eagerly, and 
 turning from the bed she was making as an excuse to stay 
 chattering to her lodger. "You have come to cut the 
 
 ground from under Well, well, a ' nod's as good as a 
 
 wink' " 
 
 " Hold hard ! " cried Godefroid, standing between Mad- 
 ame Vauthier and the door. " Now, tell me, what are you 
 paid for meddling in this? " 
 
 "Heyday! " cried the old woman, with a keen look at 
 Godefroid. " You are pretty sharp after all ! " 
 
 She shut and locked the outer door ; then she came back 
 and sat down by the fire. 
 
 " On my word and honor, as sure as my name is Vauthier, 
 I took you for a student till I saw you giving your logs to 
 old Father Bernard. My word, but you're a sharp one ! By 
 the Piper, you can play a part well ! I thought you were a 
 perfect flat. Now, will you promise me a thousand francs ? 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 165 
 
 For as sure as the day above us, old Barbet and Monsieur 
 Metivier have promised me five hundred if I keep my eyes 
 open." 
 
 "What? Not they! Two hundred at the very outside, 
 my good woman, and only promised at that and you cannot 
 summons them for payment ! Look here ; if you will put me 
 in a position to get the job they are trying to manage with 
 Monsieur Bernard, I will give you four hundred ! Come, 
 now, what are they up to? " 
 
 "Well, they have paid him fifteen hundred francs on ac- 
 count for his work, and made him sign a bill for a thousand 
 crowns. They doled it out to him a hundred francs at a 
 time, contriving to keep him as poor as poor. They set the 
 duns upon him ; they sent Cartier, you may wager." 
 
 At this, Godefroid, by a look of cynical perspicacity that 
 he shot at the woman, made it clear to her that he quite un- 
 derstood the game she was playing for her landlord's benefit. 
 Her speech threw a light on two sides of the question, for it 
 also explained the rather strange scene between the gardener 
 and himself. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " she went on, " they have him fast ; for wher- 
 ever is he to find a thousand crowns ! They intend to offer 
 him five hundred francs when the work is in their hands com- 
 plete, and five hundred francs per volume as they are brought 
 out for sale. The business is all in the name of a bookseller 
 these gentlemen have set up in business on the Quai des 
 
 Augustins " 
 
 "Oh, yes that little what's-his-name ? " 
 "Yes, that's your man. Morand, formerly Monsieur Bar- 
 bet's agent. There is a heap of money to be got out of it, it 
 would seem." 
 
 "There will be a heap of money to put into it," said 
 Godefroid, with an expressive grimace. 
 
 There was a gentle knock at the door, and Godefroid, very 
 glad of the interruption, rose to open it. 
 
166 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "All this is between you and me, Mother Vauthier," said 
 Godefroid, seeing Monsieur Bernard. 
 
 " Monsieur Bernard," cried she, " I have a letter for you." 
 
 The old man went down a few steps. 
 
 "No, no, I have no letter for you, Monsieur Bernard; I 
 only wished to warn you against that young fellow there. He 
 is a publisher." 
 
 "Oh, that accounts for everything," said the old man to 
 himself. And he came back to his neighbor's room with a 
 quite altered countenance. 
 
 The calmly cold expression on Monsieur Bernard's face 
 when he reappeared was in such marked contrast to the frank 
 and friendly manner his gratitude had lent him, that Godefroid 
 was struck by so sudden a change. 
 
 " Monsieur, forgive me for disturbing your solitude, but 
 you have since yesterday loaded me with favors, and a bene- 
 factor confers rights on those whom he obliges." 
 
 Godefroid bowed. 
 
 " I, who for five years have suffered once a fortnight the 
 torments of the Redeemer; I, who for six-and-thirty years 
 was the representative of Society and the Government, who 
 was then the arm of public vengeance, and who, as you may 
 suppose, have no illusions left nothing, nothing but suffer- 
 ings. Well, monsieur, your careful attention in closing the 
 door of the dog-kennel in which my grandson and I sleep 
 that trifling act was to me the cup of water of which Bossuet 
 speaks. I found in my heart, my worn-out heart, which is as 
 dry of tears as my withered body is of sweat, the last drop of 
 that elixir which in youth leads us to see the best side of every 
 human action, and I came to offer you my hand, which I 
 never give to any one but my daughter; I came to bring you 
 the heavenly rose of belief, even now, in goodness." 
 
 " Monsieur Bernard," said Godefroid, remembering good 
 old Alain's injunctions, " I did nothing with a view to win- 
 ning your gratitude. You are under a mistake." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 167 
 
 "That is frank and above board," said the old lawyer. 
 " Well, that is what I like. I was about to reproach you. 
 Forgive me ; I esteem you. So you are a publisher, and you 
 want to get my book in preference to Messieurs Barbet, 
 Metivier, and Morand ? That explains all. You are prepared 
 to deal with me as they were ; only you do it with a good 
 grace." 
 
 " Old Vauthier has just told you, I suppose, that I am a 
 publisher's agent ? " 
 
 "Yes," said he. 
 
 " Well, Monsieur Bernard, before I can say what we are pre- 
 pared to pay more than those gentlemen offer, I must under- 
 stand on what terms you stand with them." 
 
 "Very true," said the old man, who seemed delighted to find 
 himself the object of a competition by which he could not 
 fail to benefit. " Do you know what the work is? " 
 
 " No; I only know that there is something to be made by 
 it." 
 
 " It is only half-past nine ; my daughter has had her break- 
 fast, my grandson Auguste will not come in till a quarter to 
 eleven. Cartier will not be here with the flowers for an hour 
 we have time to talk, monsieur monsieur who ?" 
 
 "Godefroid." 
 
 " Monsieur Godefroid. The book in question was planned 
 by me in 1825, at a time when the Ministry, struck by the 
 constant reduction of personal estate, drafted the Law of 
 Entail and Seniority which was thrown out. I had observed 
 many defects in our codes and in the fundamental principle 
 of French law. The laws have been the subject of many 
 important works ; but all those treatises are essentially on juris- 
 prudence ; no one has been so bold as to study the results of 
 the Revolution or of Napoleon's rule, if you prefer it as 
 a whole, analyzing the spirit of these laws and the working 
 of their application. That is, in general terms, the purpose 
 of my book. I have called it the ' Spirit of the Modern 
 
168 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Laws.' It covers organic law as well as the codes all the 
 codes, for we have five ! My book, too, is in five volumes, 
 and a sixth volume of authorities, quotations, and references. 
 I have still three months' work before me. 
 
 " The owner of this house, a retired publisher, scented a 
 speculation. I, in the first instance, thought only of bene- 
 fiting my country. This Barbet has got the better of me. 
 You will wonder how a publisher could entrap an old lawyer ; 
 but you, monsieur, know my history, and this man is a money- 
 lender. He has the sharp eye and the knowledge of the 
 world that such men must have. His advances have just kept 
 pace with my necessity ; he has always come in at the very 
 moment when despair has made me a defenseless prey." 
 
 "Not at all, my dear sir," said Godefroid. "He has 
 simply kept Madame Vauthier as a spy. But the terms. Tell 
 me honestly." 
 
 " They advanced me fifteen hundred francs, represented at 
 the present rates by three bills for a thousand francs each, and 
 these three thousand francs are secured to them by a lien on 
 the property of my book, which I cannot dispose of else- 
 where till I have paid off the bills ; the bills have been pro- 
 tested ; judgment has been pronounced. Here, monsieur, you 
 see the complications of poverty. 
 
 "At the most moderate estimate, the first edition of this 
 vast work, the result of ten years' labor and thirty-six years' 
 experience, will be well worth ten thousand francs. Well, 
 just five days since, Morand offered me a thousand crowns and 
 my note of hand paid off for all rights. As I could never 
 find three thousand two hundred and forty francs, unless you 
 intervene between us, I must yield. 
 
 " They would not take my word of honor; for further se- 
 curity they insisted on bills of exchange which have been pro- 
 tested, and I shall be imprisoned for debt. If I pay up, these 
 money-lenders will have doubled their loan ; if I deal with 
 them, they will make a fortune, for one of them was a paper- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 169 
 
 maker, and God only knows how low they can keep the price 
 of materials. And then, with my name to it, they know that 
 they are certain of a sale of ten thousand copies." 
 
 " Why, monsieur you, a retired judge !" 
 
 " What can I say ? I have not a friend, no one remembers 
 me ! And yet I saved many heads even if I sentenced many 
 to fall ! And then there is my daughter, my daughter whose 
 nurse and companion I am, for I work only at night. Ah ! 
 young man, none but the wretched should be set to judge the 
 wretched. I see now that of yore I was too severe." 
 
 " I do not ask you your name, monsieur. I have not a 
 thousand crowns at my disposal, especially if I pay Halper- 
 sohn and your little bills; but I can save you if you will 
 pledge your word not to dispose of your book without due 
 notice to me ; it is impossible to embark in so important a 
 matter without consulting professional experts. The persons 
 I work for are powerful, and I can promise you success if you 
 can promise me perfect secrecy, even from your children and 
 keep your word." 
 
 " The only success I care for is my poor Vanda's recovery; 
 for, I assure you, the sight of such sufferings extinguishes 
 every other feeling in a father's heart ; the loss of fame is 
 nothing to the man who sees a grave yawning at his feet " 
 
 " I will call on you this evening. Halpersohn may come 
 home at any moment, and I go every day to see if he has re- 
 turned. I will spend to-day in your service." 
 
 "Oh, if you could bring about my daughter's recovery, 
 
 monsieur , monsieur, I would make you a present of my 
 
 book!" 
 
 " But," said Godefroid, " I am not a publisher." 
 
 The old man started with surprise. 
 
 " I could not help letting old Vauthier think so for the sake 
 of ascertaining what snares had been laid for you." 
 
 " But who are you, then ? " 
 
 "Godefroid," was the reply; "and as you have allowed 
 
170 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTOR Y. 
 
 me to supply you with the means of living better," added 
 the young man, smiling, " you may call me Godefroid de 
 Bouillon."* 
 
 The old lawyer was too much touched to laugh at the jest. 
 He held out his hand to Godefroid and grasped the young 
 man's warmly. 
 
 "You wish to remain unknown?" said Monsieur Bernard, 
 looking at Godefroid with melancholy, mixed with some un- 
 easiness. 
 
 "If you will allow me." 
 
 " Well, do as you think proper. And come in this evening; 
 you will see my daughter, if her state allows." 
 
 This was evidently the greatest concession the poor father 
 could make; and seeing Godefroid's grateful look, the old 
 man had the pleasure of feeling that he was understood. 
 
 An hour later Cartier came back with some beautiful 
 flowers, replanted the stands with his own hands in fresh moss, 
 and Godefroid paid the bill, as he did the subscription to the 
 lending library, for which the account was sent in soon after. 
 Books and flowers were the staff of life to this poor sick, or, 
 rather, tormented woman, who could live on so little food. 
 
 As he thought of this family in the coils of disaster, like 
 that of Laocoon a sublime allegory of many lives ! Gode- 
 froid, making his way leisurely on foot to the Rue Marbeuf, 
 felt in his heart that he was curious rather than benevolent. 
 The idea of the sick woman, surrounded with luxuries in the 
 midst of abject squalor, made him forget the horrible details 
 of the strange nervous malady, which is happily an extraordi- 
 nary exception, though abundantly proved by various histo- 
 rians. One of our gossiping chronicle writers, Tallemant des 
 Reaux, mentions an instance. We like to think of women as 
 elegant even in their worst sufferings, and Godefroid promised 
 himself some pleasure in penetrating into the room which only 
 * A strong, clear soup. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 171 
 
 the physician, the father, and the son had entered for six years 
 past. However, he ended by reproaching himself for his curi- 
 osity. The neophyte even understood that his feeling, however 
 natural, would die out by degrees as he carried out his merciful 
 errands, by dint of seeing new homes and new sorrows. Such 
 messengers, in fact, attain to a heavenly benignity which 
 nothing can shock or amaze, just as in love we attain to a 
 sublime quiescence of feeling in the conviction of its strength 
 and duration, by a constant habit of submission and sweet- 
 ness. 
 
 Godefroid was told that Halpersohn had come home during 
 the night, but had been obliged to go out in his carriage the 
 first thing in the morning to see the patients who were awaiting 
 him. The woman at the gate told Godefroid to come back 
 next morning before nine. 
 
 Remembering Monsieur Alain's advice as to parsimony in 
 his personal expenses, Godefroid dined for twenty-five sous in 
 the Rue de Tournon, and was rewarded for his self-denial by 
 finding himself among compositors and proof-readers. He 
 heard a discussion about the cost of production, and, joining 
 in, picked up the information that an octavo volume of forty 
 sheets, of which a thousand copies were printed, would not 
 cost more than thirty sous per copy under favorable circum- 
 stances. He determined on going to inquire the price com- 
 monly asked for such volumes on sale at the law publishers, so 
 as to be in a position to dispute the point with the publishers 
 who had a hold on Monsieur Bernard, if he should happen to 
 meet them. 
 
 At about seven in the evening he came back to the Boulevard 
 Mont-Parnasse along the Rue de Vaugirard, the Rue Madame, 
 and the Rue de 1' Quest, and he saw how deserted that part 
 of the town is, for he met nobody. It is true that the cold 
 was severe, snow fell in large flakes, and the carts made no 
 noise on the stones. 
 
 "Ah, here you are, monsieur ! " said Madame Vauthier 
 
172 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 when she saw him. " If I had known you would come in so 
 early, I would have lighted your fire." 
 
 "It is unnecessary," replied Godefroid, as the woman fol- 
 lowed him; " I am going to spend the evening with Monsieur 
 Bernard." 
 
 "Ah ! very good. You are cousins, I suppose, that you are 
 hand and glove with him by the second day. I thought, per- 
 haps, you would have liked to finish what we were saying " 
 
 "Oh, about the four hundred francs! " said Godefroid in 
 an undertone. " Look here, Mother Vauthier, you would 
 have had them this evening if you had said nothing to Mon- 
 sieur Bernard. You want to hunt with the hounds and run 
 with the hare, and you will get neither ; for, so far as I am 
 concerned, you have spoiled my game my chances are alto- 
 gether ruined " 
 
 "Don't you believe that, my good sir. To-morrow, when 
 you are at breakfast " 
 
 " Oh, to-morrow I must be off at daybreak like your 
 authors." 
 
 Godefroid's past experience and life as a dandy and jour- 
 nalist had been so far of use to him as to lead him to guess 
 that if he did not take this line, Barbel's spy would warn the 
 publisher that there was something in the wind, and he would 
 then take such steps as would ere long endanger Monsieur 
 Bernard's liberty; whereas, by leaving the three usurious 
 negotiators to believe that their schemes were not in peril, 
 they would keep quiet. 
 
 But Godefroid was not yet a match for Parisian humanity 
 when it assumes the guise of a Madame Vauthier. This 
 woman meant to have Godefroid's money and her landlord's 
 too. She flew right off to Monsieur Barbet, while Godefroid 
 changed his dress to call on Monsieur Bernard's daughter. 
 
 Eight o'clock was striking at the convent of the Visitation, 
 whose clock regulated the life of the whole neighborhood, 
 when Godefroid, very full of curiosity, knocked at his friend's 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 173 
 
 door. Auguste opened it; as it was Saturday, the lad 
 spent his evening at home; Godefroid saw that he wore a 
 jacket of black velvet, black trousers that were quite decent, 
 and a blue silk tie ; but his surprise at seeing the youth so 
 unlike his usual self ceased when he entered the invalid's 
 room. He at once understood the necessity for the father 
 and the boy to be presentably dressed. 
 
 The walls of the room, hung with yellow silk, paneled with 
 bright green cord, made the room look extremely cheerful ; 
 the cold tiled floor was covered by a flowered carpet on a 
 white ground. The two windows, with their handsome cur- 
 tains lined with white silk, were like bowers, the flower-stands 
 were so full of beauty, and blinds hindered them from being 
 seen from outside in a quarter where such lavishness was rare. 
 The woodwork, painted white, and varnished, was touched up 
 with gold lines. A heavy curtain, embroidered in tent-stitch 
 with grotesque foliage on a yellow ground, hung over the door 
 and deadened every sound from outside. This splendid cur- 
 tain had been worked by the invalid, who embroidered like a 
 fairy when she had the use of her hands. 
 
 Opposite the door, at the farther end of the room, the 
 mantel-shelf, covered with green velvet, had a set of very 
 costly ornaments, the only relic of the wealth of the two 
 families. There was a very curious clock ; an elephant sup- 
 porting a porcelain tower filled with beautiful flowers; two 
 candelabra in the same style, and some valuable Oriental 
 pieces. The fender, the dogs, and and-irons were all of the 
 finest workmanship. 
 
 The largest of the three flower-stands stood in the middle 
 of the room, and above it hung a porcelain chandelier of 
 floral design. 
 
 The bed on which the judge's daughter lay was one of 
 those fine examples of carved wood, painted white and gold, 
 that were made in the time of Louis XV. By the invalid's 
 pillow was a pretty inlaid table, on which were the various 
 
174 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTOR Y. 
 
 objects necessary for a life spent in bed ; a light bracket for 
 two candles was fixed to the wall, and could be turned back- 
 ward and forward by a touch. In front of her was a bed- 
 table, wonderfully contrived for her convenience.- The bed 
 was covered with a magnificent counterpane, and draped with 
 curtains looped back in festoons; it was loaded with books 
 and a work-basket, and among these various objects Godefroid 
 would hardly have discovered the sick woman but for the 
 tapers in the two candle-branches. 
 
 There seemed to be nothing of her but a very white face, 
 darkly marked round the eyes by much suffering ; her eyes 
 shone like fire ; and her principal ornament was her splendid 
 black hair, of which the heavy curls, set out in bunches of 
 numerous ringlets, showed that the care and arrangement of 
 her hair occupied a great part Of the invalid's day; a movable 
 mirror at the foot of the bed confirmed the idea. 
 
 No kind of modern elegance was lacking, and a few trifling 
 toys for poor Vanda's amusement showed that her father's 
 affection verged on mania. 
 
 The old man rose from a very handsome easy-chair of Louis 
 XV. style, white and gold, and covered with needlework, 
 and went forward a few steps to welcome Godefroid, who 
 certainly would not have recognized him ; for his cold, stern 
 face had assumed the gay expression peculiar to old men who 
 have preserved their dignity of manner and the superficial 
 frivolity of courtiers. His purple, wadded dressing-gown 
 was in harmony with the luxury about him, and he took snuff 
 out of a gold box set with diamonds. 
 
 "Here, my dear," said Monsieur Bernard to his daughter, 
 " is our neighbor of whom I spoke to you." And he signed 
 to his grandson to bring forward one of two armchairs, in the 
 same style as his own, which were standing on either side of 
 the fireplace. 
 
 " Monsieur's name is Godefroid, and he is most kind in 
 standing on no ceremony " 
 
"HERE, MY DEAR, is OUR NEIGHBOR OF wm 
 
 TO YOU." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 175 
 
 Vanda moved her head in acknowledgment of Godefroid's 
 low bow ; and by the movement of her throat as it bent and 
 unbent, he discovered that all this woman's vitality was seated 
 in her head. Her emaciated arms and lifeless hands lay on 
 the fine white sheet like objects quite apart from the body, 
 and that seemed to fill no space in the bed. The things 
 needed for her use were on a set of shelves behind the bed, 
 and screened by a silk curtain. 
 
 "You, my dear sir, arc the first person, excepting only the 
 doctors who have ceased to be men to me whom I have set 
 eyes on for six years ; so you can have no idea of the interest 
 I have felt in you ever since my father told me you were 
 coming to call on us. It was passionate, unconquerable curi- 
 osity, like that of our mother Eve. My father, who is so good 
 to me ; my son, of whom I am so fond, are undoubtedly 
 enough to fill up the vacuum of a soul now almost bereft of 
 body ; but that soul is still a woman's after all ! I recognized 
 that in the childish joy I felt in the idea of your visit. You 
 will do me the pleasure of taking a cup of tea with us, I 
 hope?" 
 
 "Yes, Monsieur Godefroid has promised us the pleasure of 
 his company for the evening," said the old man, with the air 
 of a millionaire doing the honors of his house. 
 
 Auguste, seated in a low, worsted-work chair by a small 
 table of inlaid wood, finished with brass mouldings, was read- 
 ing a book by the light of the wax-candles on the elegant 
 chimney-shelf. 
 
 "Auguste, my dear, tell Jean to bring tea in an hour's 
 time." 
 
 She spoke with some pointed meaning, and Auguste replied 
 by a nod. 
 
 " Will you believe, monsieur, that for the past six years no 
 one has waited on me but my father and my boy, and I could 
 not endure anybody else. If I were to lose them, I should 
 die of it. My father will not even allow Jean, a poor old 
 
176 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Normandy peasant who has lived with us for thirty years will 
 not even let him come into the room." 
 
 "I should think not, indeed! " said the old man readily. 
 "Monsieur Godefroid has seen him; he saws and brings in 
 wood, he cooks and runs errands, and wears a dirty apron ; he 
 would have made hash of all these pretty things, which are so 
 necessary to my poor child, to whom this elegance is second 
 nature." 
 
 "Indeed, madame, your father is quite right " 
 
 "But, why?" she urged. " If Jean had damaged my 
 room, my father would have renewed it." 
 
 " Of course, my child ; but what would have prevented me 
 is the fact that you cannot leave it ; and you have no idea 
 what Paris workmen are. It would take them more than 
 three months to restore your room. Only think of the dust 
 that would come out of your carpet if it were taken up. Let 
 Jean do your room ! Do not think of such a thing. By 
 taking the extreme care which only your father and your boy 
 can take, we have spared you sweeping and dust ; if Jean came 
 in to help, everything would be broken and done for in a 
 month." 
 
 " It is not so much out of economy as for the sake of your 
 health," said Godefroid. "Monsieur your father is quite 
 right." 
 
 " Oh, I am not complaining," said Vanda in a saucy tone. 
 
 Her voice had the quality of a concert ; soul, action, and 
 life were all concentrated in her eyes and her voice ; for 
 Vanda, by careful practice, for which time had certainly not 
 been lacking, had succeeded in overcoming the difficulties 
 arising from her loss of teeth. 
 
 " I am still happy, monsieur, in spite of the dreadful malady 
 that tortures me ; for wealth is certainly a great help in en- 
 during my sufferings. If we had been in poverty, I should 
 have died eighteen years ago, and I am still alive. I have 
 many enjoyments, and they are all the keener because I live 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 177 
 
 on, triumphing over death. You will think me a great chat- 
 terbox," she added, with a smile. 
 
 " Madame," said Godefroid, " I could beg you to talk for 
 ever, for I never heard a voice to compare with yours it is 
 music ! Rubini is not more delightful " 
 
 " Do not mention Rubini or the opera," said the old man 
 sadly. " However rich we may be, it is impossible to give 
 my daughter, who was a great musician, a pleasure to which 
 she was devoted." 
 
 "I apologize," said Godefroid. 
 
 "You will fall into our ways," said the old man. 
 
 " This is your training," said the invalid, smiling. " When 
 we have warned you several times by crying, ' Lookout ! ' 
 you will know all the blindman's-buff of our conversation ! " 
 
 Godefroid exchanged a swift glance with Monsieur Bernard, 
 who, seeing tears in his new friend's eyes, put his finger to 
 his lip as a warning not to betray the heroic devotion he and 
 the boy had shown for the past seven years. 
 
 This devoted and unflagging imposture, proved by the in- 
 valid's entire deception, produced on Godefroid at this mo- 
 ment the effect of looking at a precipitous rock whence two 
 chamois-hunters were on the point of falling. 
 
 The splendid gold and diamond snuff-box with which the 
 old man trifled, leaning over the foot of his daughter's bed, 
 was the same touch of genius which in a great actor wrings 
 from us a cry of admiration. Godefroid looked at the snuff- 
 box, wondering why it had not been sold or pawned, but he 
 postponed the idea till he could discuss it with the old man. 
 
 "This evening, Monsieur Godefroid, my daughter was so 
 greatly excited by the promise of your visit, that the various 
 strange symptoms of her malady which, for nearly a fortnight 
 past, have driven us to despair, suddenly disappeared. You 
 may imagine my gratitude ! " 
 
 "And mine ! " cried Vanda, in an insinuating voice, with 
 a graceful inclination of her head. "You are a deputation 
 12 
 
178 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 from the outer world. Since I was twenty I have not known 
 what a drawing-room is like, or a party, or a ball ; and I love 
 dancing, I am crazy about the play, and, above all, about 
 music. Well, I imagine everything in my mind. I read a 
 great deal, and my father tells me all about the gay world and 
 its doings " 
 
 As he listened, Godefroid felt prompted to kneel at the feet 
 of this poor old man. 
 
 " When he goes to the opera and he often goes he de- 
 scribes the dresses to me and all the singers. Oh ! I should 
 like to be well again ; in the first place, for my father's sake, 
 for he lives for me alone, as I live for him and through him, 
 and then for my son's I should like him to know another 
 mother. Oh ! monsieur, what perfect men are my dear old 
 father and my admirable son ! Then, I could wish for health 
 also, that I might hear Lablache, Rubini, Tamburini, Grisi, 
 the ' Puritani ' too ! But " 
 
 " Come, my dear, compose yourself. If we talk about music, 
 it is fatal ! " said the old father, with a smile. 
 
 And that smile, which made him look younger, evidently 
 constantly deceived the sick woman. 
 
 " Well, I will be good," said Vanda, with a saucy pout. 
 " But let me have a melodeon." 
 
 This instrument had lately been invented ; it could, by a 
 little contrivance, be placed by the invalid's bed, and would 
 only need the pressure of the foot to give out an organ-like 
 tone. This instrument, in its most improved form, was as 
 effective as a piano ; but at that time it cost three hundred 
 francs. Vanda, who read newspapers and reviews, had heard 
 of such an instrument, and had been longing for one for two 
 months past. 
 
 "Yes, madame, and I can procure you one," replied Gode- 
 froid at an appealing glance from the old man. "A friend 
 of mine who is setting out for Algiers has a very fine one, 
 which I will borrow of him ; for before buying one, you had 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 179 
 
 better try it. It is quite possible that "the sound, which is 
 strongly vibrating, may be too much for you." 
 
 "Can I have it to-morrow?" she asked with the eagerness 
 of a creole. 
 
 "To-morrow!" objected Monsieur Bernard. "That is 
 very soon; beside, to-morrow will be Sunday." 
 
 "To be sure," said she, looking at Godefroid, who felt as 
 though he saw a soul fluttering as he admired the ubiquity of 
 Vanda's eyes. 
 
 Until now he had never understood what the power of the 
 voice and eyes might be when the entire vitality was concen- 
 trated in them. Her glance was more than a glance ; it was 
 a flame, or, rather, a blaze of divine light, a communicative 
 ray of life and intelligence, thought made visible. The voice, 
 with its endless intonations, supplied the place of movement, 
 gesture, and turns of the head. And her changing color, 
 varying like that of the fabled chameleon, made the illusion 
 or, if you will, the delusion complete. That weary head, 
 buried in a cambric pillow frilled with lace, was a complete 
 woman. 
 
 Never in his life had Godefroid seen so noble a spectacle, 
 and he could hardly endure his emotions. Another grand 
 feature, where everything was strange in a situation so full of 
 romance and of horror, was that the soul alone seemed to be 
 living in the spectators. This atmosphere, where all was sen- 
 timent, had a celestial influence. They were as unconscious 
 of their bodies as the woman in bed ; everything was pure 
 spirit. By dint of gazing at these frail remains of a pretty 
 woman, Godefroid forgot the elegant luxury of the room, and 
 felt himself in heaven. It was not till half-an-hour after that 
 he noticed a whatnot covered with curiosities, over which 
 hung a noble portrait that Vanda desired him to look it, as it 
 was by Gericault. 
 
 "Gericault," said she, "was a native of Rouen, and his 
 family being under some obligations to my father, who was 
 
180 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 president of the supreme court there, he showed his gratitude 
 by painting that masterpiece, in which you see me at the age 
 of sixteen." 
 
 " You have there a very fine picture," said Godefroid, "and 
 one that is quite unknown to those who have studied the rare 
 works of that great genius." 
 
 "To me it is no longer an object of anything but affec- 
 tionate regard," said she, "since I live only by my feelings; 
 and I have a beautiful life," she went on, looking at her father 
 with her whole soul in her eyes. " Oh, monsieur, if you could 
 but know what my father is ! Who would believe that the 
 austere and dignified judge to whom the Emperor owed so 
 much that he gave him that snuff-box, and whom Charles X. 
 rewarded by the gift of that Sevres tray" and she looked at 
 a side-table " that the stanch upholder of law and authority, 
 the learned political writer, has in a heart of rock all the ten- 
 derness of a mother ! Oh, papa, papa ! Come, kiss me I 
 insist on it if you love me." 
 
 The old man rose, leaned over the bed, and set a kiss on 
 his daughter's high poetic brow, for her sickly fancies were 
 not invariably furies of affection. Then he walked up and 
 down the room, but without a sound, for he wore slippers 
 the work of his daughter's hands. 
 
 " And what is your occupation ? " she asked Godefroid after 
 a pause. 
 
 " Madame, I am employed by certain pious persons to take 
 help to the unfortunate." 
 
 " A beautiful mission ! " said she. " Do you know that the 
 idea of devoting myself to such work has often occurred to 
 me? But what ideas have not occurred to me?" said she, 
 with a little shake of her head. " Pain is a torch that throws 
 light on life, and if I ever recover my health 
 
 "You shall enjoy yourself, my child," the old man put in. 
 
 " Certainly I long to enjoy life, "said she, "but should I be 
 able for it ? My son, I hope, will be a lawyer, worthy of his 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 181 
 
 two grandfathers, and he must leave me. What is to be done? 
 If God restores me to life, I will dedicate it to Him. Oh, 
 not till I have given you both as much of it as you desire ! " 
 she exclaimed, looking at her father and her boy. " There 
 are times, my dear father, when Monsieur de Maistre's ideas 
 work in my brain, and I fancy I am expiating some sin." 
 
 " That is what comes of so much reading ! " cried the old 
 man, visibly grieved. 
 
 " There was that brave Polish general, my great-grand- 
 father,; he meddled very innocently in the concerns of 
 Poland " 
 
 " Now we have come back to Poland ! " exclaimed Bernard. 
 
 "How can I help it, papa? My sufferings are intolerable, 
 they make me hate life and disgust me with myself. Well, 
 what have I done to deserve them ? Such an illness is not 
 merely disordered health ; it is a complete wreck of the whole 
 constitution, and " 
 
 " Sing the national air your poor mother used to sing ; it 
 will please Monsieur Godefroid, I have spoken to him of your 
 voice," said her father, evidently quite anxious to divert his 
 daughter's mind from the ideas she was following out. 
 
 Vanda began to sing in a low, soft voice a hymn in the 
 Polish tongue, which left Godefroid bewildered with admira- 
 tion and sadness. This melody, a good deal like the long- 
 drawn melancholy tunes of Brittany, is one of those poetic 
 airs that linger in the mind long after being heard. As he 
 listened to Vanda, Godefroid at first looked at her ; but he 
 could not bear the ecstatic eyes of this remnant of a woman, 
 now half-crazed, and he gazed at some tassels that hung on 
 each side of the top of the bed. 
 
 "Ah, ha!" said Vanda, laughing at Godefroid's evident 
 curiosity, " you are wondering what those are for?" 
 
 "Vanda, Vanda, be calm, my child ! See, here comes the 
 tea. This, monsieur, is a very expensive contrivance," he 
 said to Godefroid. " My daughter cannot raise herself, nor 
 
182 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 can she remain in bed without its being made and the sheets 
 changed. Those cords work over pulleys, and by slipping a 
 sheet of leather under her and attaching it by rings at the 
 corners to those ropes, we can lift her without fatiguing her 
 or ourselves." 
 
 " Yes, I am carried up up ! " said Vanda deliriously. 
 
 Auguste happily came in with a teapot, which he set on a 
 little table, where he also placed the Sevres tray, covered with 
 sandwiches and cakes. Then he brought in the cream and 
 butter. This diverted the sick woman's mind ; she had been 
 on the verge of an attack. 
 
 " Here, Vanda, is Nathan's last novel. If you should lie 
 awake to-night, you will have something to read." 
 
 " ' La Perle de Dol ! 'The Pearl of Deceit. That will be 
 a love-story no doubt. Auguste, what do you think ? I am 
 to have a melodeon ! " 
 
 Auguste raised his head quickly, and looked strangely at 
 his grandfather. 
 
 " You see how fond he is of his mother ! " Vanda went on. 
 " Come and kiss me, dear rogue. No, it is not your grand- 
 father that you must thank, but Monsieur Godefroid ; our 
 kind neighbor promises to borrow one for me to-morrow 
 morning. What is it like, monsieur?" 
 
 Godefroid, at a nod from the old man, gave a long descrip- 
 tion of the melodeon while enjoying the tea Auguste had 
 made, which was of superior quality and delicious flavor. 
 
 At about half-past ten the visitor withdrew, quite over- 
 powered by the frantic struggle maintained by the father and 
 son, while admiring their heroism and the patience that 
 enabled them, day after day, to play two equally exhausting 
 parts. 
 
 "Now," said Monsieur Bernard, accompanying him to his 
 own door, " now you know the life I lead ! At every hour I 
 have to endure the alarms of. a robber, on the alert for every- 
 thing. One word, one look might kill my daughter. One 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 183 
 
 toy removed from those she is accustomed to see about her 
 would reveal everything to her, for mind sees through walls." 
 
 "Monsieur," said Godefroid, "on Monday Halpersohn 
 will pronounce his opinion on your daughter, for he is at 
 home again. I doubt whether science can restore her frame." 
 
 "Oh, I do not count upon it," said the old man with a 
 sigh. " If they will only make her life endurable. I trusted 
 to your tact, monsieur, and I want to thank you, for you un- 
 derstood. Ah! the attack has come on ! " cried he, hearing a 
 scream. " She has done too much " 
 
 He pressed Godefroid's hand and hurried away. 
 
 At eight next morning Godefroid knocked at the famous 
 doctor's door. He was shown up by the servant to a room 
 on the second floor of the house, which he had had time to 
 examine while the porter found the manservant. 
 
 Happily, Godefroid's punctuality had saved him the vexa- 
 tion of waiting, as he had hoped it might. He was evidently 
 the first-comer. He was led through a very plain anteroom 
 into a large study, where he found an old man in a dressing- 
 gown, smoking a long pipe. The dressing-gown, of black 
 moreen, was shiny with wear, and dated from the time of the 
 Polish dispersion. 
 
 "What can I do to serve you?" said the Jew, "for you 
 are not ill." 
 
 And he fixed Godefroid with a look that had all the sharp 
 inquisitiveness of the Polish Jew, eyes which seemed to have 
 ears. 
 
 To Godefroid's great surprise, Halpersohn was a man of 
 fifty-six, with short bow-legs and a broad, powerful frame. 
 There was an Oriental stamp about the man, and his face 
 must in youth have been singularly handsome; the remains 
 showed a markedly Jewish nose, as long and as curved as a 
 Damascus scimitar. His forehead was truly Polish, broad 
 and lofty, wrinkled all over like crumpled paper, and recall 
 
184 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 ing that of a Saint-Joseph by some old Italian master. His 
 eyes were sea-green, set like a parrot's in puckered gray lids, 
 and expressive of cunning and avarice in the highest degree. 
 His mouth, thin and straight, like a cut in his face, lent this 
 sinister countenance a crowning touch of suspiciousness. 
 
 The pale, lean features for Halpersohn was extraordinarily 
 thin were crowned by ill-kept gray hair, and graced by a 
 very thick, long beard, black streaked with white, that hid 
 half his face, so that only the forehead and eyes, the cheek- 
 bones, nose, and lips were visible. 
 
 This man, a friend of the agitator Lelewel, wore a black 
 velvet cap that came down in a point on his forehead and 
 showed off its mellow hue, worthy of Rembrandt's brush. 
 
 The doctor, who subsequently became equally famous for 
 his talents and his avarice, startled Godefroid by his question, 
 and the young man asked himself: "Can he take me fora 
 thief?" 
 
 The reply to the question was evident on the doctor's table 
 and chimney-piece. Godefroid had fancied himself the first- 
 comer he was the last. His patients had laid very handsome 
 sums on the table and shelf, for Godefroid saw piles of twenty 
 and forty-franc pieces and two thousand-franc notes. Was all 
 this the fruit of a single morning ? He greatly doubted it, 
 and he suspected an ingenious trick. The infallible but 
 money-loving doctor perhaps tried thus to encourage his 
 patients' liberality, and to make his rich clients believe that 
 he was given bank-notes as if they were curl-papers. 
 
 Mo'ise Halpersohn was no doubt largely paid, for he cured 
 his patients, and cured them of those very complaints which 
 the profession gave up in despair. It is very little known in 
 Western Europe that the Slav nations possess a store of medical 
 secrets. They have a number of sovereign remedies derived 
 from their intercourse with the Chinese, the Persians, the 
 Cossacks, the Turks, and the Tartars. Some peasant women, 
 regarded as witches, have been known to completely cure 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 185 
 
 hydrophobia in Poland with the juice of certain plants. 
 There is among those nations a great mass of uncodified in- 
 formation as to the effects of certain herbs and the powdered 
 bark of trees, which is handed down from family to family, 
 and miraculous cures are effected thereby. 
 
 Halpersohn, who for five or six years was regarded as a 
 charlatan, with his powders and mixtures, had the innate in- 
 stinct of a great healer. Not only was he learned, he had 
 observed with great care, and had traveled all over Germany, 
 Russia, Persia, and Turkey, where he had picked up much 
 traditional lore ; and as he was learned in chemistry, he be- 
 came a living encyclopedia of the secrets preserved by " the 
 good women," as they were called, the midwives and "wise 
 women " of every country whither he had followed his father, 
 a wandering trader. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the scene in " Richard in 
 Palestine," in which Saladin cures the King of England, is 
 pure fiction. Halpersohn has a little silk bag, which he soaks 
 in water till it is faintly colored, and certain fevers yield to 
 this infusion taken by the patient. The virtues residing in 
 plants are infinitely various, according to him, and the most 
 terrible maladies admit of cure. He, however, like his 
 brother physicians, pauses sometimes before the incomprehen- 
 sible. Halpersohn admires the invention of Homoeopathy, 
 less for its medical system than for its therapeutics ; he was 
 at that time in correspondence with Hedenius of Dresden, 
 Chelius of Heidelberg, and the other famous Germans, but 
 keeping his own hand dark though it was full of discoveries. 
 He would have no pupils. 
 
 The setting of this figure, which might have stepped out of 
 a picture by Rembrandt, was quite in harmony with it. The 
 study, hung with green flock paper, was poorly furnished 
 with a green divan. The carpet, also of moss green, showed 
 the thread. A large armchair covered with black leather, for 
 the patients, stood near the window, which was hung with 
 
186 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTOR Y. 
 
 green curtains. The doctor's seat was a study-chair with 
 arms, in the Roman style, of mahogany with a green leather 
 seat. Beside the mantel and the long table at which he 
 wrote, there was in the middle of the wall opposite the fire- 
 place a common iron chest supporting a clock of Vienna 
 granite, on which stood a bronze group of Love sporting with 
 Death, the gift of a famous German sculptor whom Halper- 
 sohn had, no doubt, cured. A tazza between two candle- 
 sticks was all the ornament of the mantel. Two bracket 
 shelves, one at each end of the divan, served to place trays 
 on, and Godefroid noted that there were silver bowls on 
 them, water-bottles, and table-napkins. 
 
 This simplicity, verging on bareness, struck Godefroid, who 
 took everything in at a glance, and he recovered his presence 
 of mind. 
 
 " I am perfectly well, monsieur. I have not come to con- 
 sult you myself, but on behalf of a lady whom you ought long 
 since to have seen a lady living on the Boulevard du Mont- 
 Parnasse." 
 
 " Oh, yes, that lady has sent her son to me several times. 
 Well, monsieur, tell her to come to see me." 
 
 " Tell her to come ! " cried Godefroid indignantly. "Why, 
 monsieur, she cannot be lifted from her bed to a sofa ; she has 
 to be raised by straps." 
 
 "You are not a doctor?" asked the Jew, with a singular 
 grimace which made his face look even more wicked. 
 
 " If Baron de Nucingen sent to tell you that he was ill 
 and to ask you to visit him, would you reply, ' Tell him to 
 come to me?' " 
 
 " I should go to him," said the Jew drily, as he spat into a 
 Dutch spittoon of mahogany filled with sand. 
 
 "You would go to him," Godefroid said mildly, " because 
 the baron has two millions a year, and " 
 
 " Nothing else has to do with the matter. I should go." 
 
 "Very well, monsieur, you may come and see the lady on 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 187 
 
 the Boulevard du Mont-Parnasse for the same reason. Though 
 I have not such a fortune as the Baron de Nucingen, I am here 
 to tell you that you can name your own price for the cure, or, 
 if you fail, for your care of her. I am prepared to pay you in 
 advance. But how is it, monsieur, that you, a Polish exile, a 
 communist, I believe, will make no sacrifice for the sake of 
 Poland ! For this lady is the granddaughter of General Tar- 
 lovski, Prince Poniatowski's friend " 
 
 " Monsieur, you came to ask me to prescribe for this lady, 
 and not to give me your advice. In Poland I am a Pole ; in 
 Paris a Parisian. Every one does good in his own way, and 
 you may believe me when I tell you that the greed attributed 
 to me has its good reasons. The money I accumulate has its 
 uses ; it is sacred. I sell health ; rich persons can pay for it, 
 and I make them buy it. The poor have their physicians. If 
 I had no aim in view, I should not practice medicine. I live 
 soberly, and I spend my time in rushing from one to another ; 
 I am by nature lazy, and I used to be a gambler. You may 
 draw your own conclusions, young man ! You are not old 
 enough to judge the aged ! " 
 
 Godefroid kept silence. 
 
 "You live with the granddaughter of the foolhardy soldier 
 who had no courage but for fighting, and who betrayed his 
 country to Catherine II.?" 
 
 " Yes, monsieur." 
 
 "Then be at home on Monday at three o'clock," said he, 
 laying down his pipe and taking up his note-book, in which he 
 wrote a few words. "When I call you will please to pay me 
 two hundred francs j then, if I undertake to cure her, you will 
 give me a thousand crowns. I have been told," he went 
 on, " that the lady is shrunken as if she had fallen in the 
 fire." 
 
 "It is a case, monsieur, if you will believe the first physi- 
 cians of Paris, of nervous disease, with symptoms so strange 
 that no one can imagine them who has not seen them." 
 
188 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "Ah, yes, now I remember the details given me by that 
 little fellow. Till to-morrow, monsieur." 
 
 Godefroid left with a bow to this singular and extraordinary 
 man. There was nothing about him to show or suggest a 
 medical man, not even in that bare consulting-room, where 
 the only article of furniture that was at all remarkable was 
 the ponderous chest, made by Huret or Fichet. 
 
 Godefroid reached the Passage Vivienne in time to purchase 
 a splendid melodeon before the store was closed, and he 
 dispatched it forthwith to Monsieur Bernard, whose address 
 he gave. 
 
 Then he went to the Rue Chanoinesse, passing along the 
 Quai des Augustins, where he hoped still to find a bookseller's 
 store open ; he was, in fact, so fortunate, and had a long con- 
 versation on the prime cost of law-books, with the young 
 clerk in charge. 
 
 He found Madame de la Chanterie and her friends just 
 come in from high mass, and he answered her first inquiring 
 glance with a significant shake. 
 
 "And our dear Father Alain is not with you? " said he. 
 
 "He will not be here this Sunday," replied Madame de la 
 Chanterie. " You will not find him here till this day week, 
 unless you go to the place where you know you can meet 
 him." 
 
 " Madame," said Godefroid, in an undertone, " you know 
 I am less afraid of him than of these gentlemen, and I 
 intended to confess to him." 
 
 "And I?" 
 
 " Oh, you I will tell you everything, for I have many 
 things to say to you. As a beginning, I have come upon the 
 most extraordinary case of destitution, the strangest union of 
 poverty and luxury, and figures of a sublimity which outdoes 
 the inventions of our most admired romancers." 
 
 " Nature, and especially moral nature, is always as far above 
 art as God is above His creatures. But come," said Madame 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 189 
 
 de la Chanterie, "and tell me all about your expedition into 
 the unknown lands where you made your first venture." 
 
 Monsieur Nicolas and Monsieur Joseph for the Abb6 de 
 Veze had remained for a few minutes at Notre-Dame left 
 Madame de la Chanterie alone with Godefroid ; and he, fresh 
 from the emotions he had gone through the day before, related 
 every detail with the intensity, the gesticulation, and the 
 eagerness that come of the first impression produced by such 
 a scene and its accessories of men and things. He had a 
 success too ; for Madame de la Chanterie, calm and gentle as 
 she was, and accustomed to look into gulfs of suffering, shed 
 tears. 
 
 "You did right," said she, " to send the melodeon." 
 
 " I wish I could have done much more," replied Godefroid, 
 " since this is the first family through whom I have known the 
 pleasures of charity ; I want to secure to this noble old man 
 the chief part of the profits on his great work. I do not 
 know whether you have enough confidence in me to enable 
 me to undertake such a business. From the information I 
 have gained, it would cost about nine thousand francs to bring 
 out an edition of fifteen hundred copies, and their lowest 
 selling value would be twenty-four thousand francs. As we 
 must, in the first instance, pay off the three thousand and 
 odd francs that have been advanced on the manuscript, we 
 should have to risk twelve thousand francs. 
 
 "Oh, madame ! if you could but imagine how bitterly, as 
 I made my way hither from the Quai des Augustins, I rued 
 having so foolishly wasted my little fortune. The Genius of 
 Charity appeared to me, as it were, and filled me with the 
 ardor of a neophyte ; I desire to renounce the world, to live 
 the life of these gentlemen, and to be worthy of you. Many 
 a time during the past two days have I blessed the chance 
 that brought me to your house. I will obey you in every 
 particular till you judge me worthy to join the brotherhood." 
 
 "Well," said Madame de la Chanterie very seriously, after 
 
190 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 a few minutes of reflection, "listen to me, I have important 
 things to say to you. You have been fascinated, my dear 
 boy, by the poetry of misfortune. Yes, misfortune often has 
 a poetry of its own ; for, to me, poetry is a certain exaltation 
 of feeling, and suffering is feeling. We live so much through 
 suffering ! " 
 
 "Yes, madame, I was captured by the demon of curiosity. 
 How could I help it ! I have not yet acquired the habit of 
 seeing into the heart of these unfortunate lives, and I cannot 
 set out with the calm resolution of your three pious soldiers of 
 the Lord. But I may tell you, it was not till I had quelled 
 this incitement that I devoted myself to your work." 
 
 " Listen, my very dear son," said Madame de la Chanterie, 
 saying the words with a saintly sweetness which deeply touched 
 Godefroid, "we have forbidden ourselves absolutely and 
 this is no exaggeration, for we do not allow ourselves even to 
 think of what is forbidden we have forbidden ourselves ever 
 to embark in a speculation. To print a book for sale, and 
 looking for a return, is business, and any transaction of that 
 kind would involve us in the difficulties of trade. To be 
 sure, it looks in this case very feasible, and even necessary. 
 Do you suppose that it is the first instance of the kind that 
 has come before us? Twenty times, a hundred times, we have 
 seen how a family, a concern, could be saved. But, then, 
 what should we have become in undertaking matters of this 
 kind ? We should be simply a trading firm. To be a sleep- 
 ing partner with the unfortunate is not work; it is only help- 
 ing misfortune to work. In a few days you may meet with 
 even harder cases than this; will you do the same thing? 
 You would be overwhelmed. 
 
 "Remember, for one thing, that the house of Mongenod, 
 for a year past, has ceased to keep our accounts. Quite half 
 of your time will be taken up by keeping our books. There 
 are, at this time, nearly two thousand persons in our debt in 
 Paris ; and of those who may repay us, at any rate, it is neces- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 191 
 
 sary that we should check the amounts they owe us. We 
 never sue we wait. We calculate that half of the money 
 given out is utterly lost. The other half sometimes returns 
 doubled. 
 
 "Now, suppose this lawyer were to die, the twelve thou- 
 sand francs would be badly invested ! But if his daughter 
 recovers, if his grandson does well, if he one day gets another 
 appointment then, if he has any sense of honor, he will re- 
 member the debt, and return the funds of the poor with 
 interest. Do you know that more than one family, raised 
 from poverty and started by us on the road to fortune by 
 considerable loans without interest, has saved for the poor 
 and returned us sums of double and, sometimes, treble the 
 amount? 
 
 "This is our only form of speculation. 
 
 "In the first place, as to this case which interests you, 
 and ought to interest you, consider that the sale of the lawyer's 
 book depends on its merits ; have you read it ? Then, even 
 if the work is excellent, how many excellent books have re- 
 mained two or three years without achieving the success they 
 deserved. How many a wreath is laid on a tomb ! And, as 
 I know, publishers have ways of driving bargains and taking 
 their charges, which make the business one of the most risky 
 and the most difficult to disentangle of all in Paris. Monsieur 
 Nicolas can tell you about these difficulties, inherent in the 
 nature of book-making. So, you see, we are prudent; we 
 have ample experience of every kind of misery, as of every 
 branch of trade, for we have been long studying Paris. The 
 Mongenods give us much help ; they are a light to our path, 
 and through them we know that the Bank of France is always 
 suspicious of the book-trade, though it is a noble trade but 
 it is badly conducted. 
 
 "As to the four thousand francs needed to save this noble 
 family from the horrors of indigence, I will give you the 
 money ; for the poor boy and his grandfather must be fed 
 
192 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 and decently dressed. There are sorrows, miseries, wounds, 
 which we bind up at once without inquiring whom it is that we 
 are helping ; religion, honor, character, are not inquired into ; 
 but as soon as it is a case of lending the money belonging to 
 the poor to assist the unfortunate under the more active form 
 of industry or trade, then we require some guarantee, and are 
 as rigid as the money-lenders. So, for all beyond this imme- 
 diate relief, be satisfied with finding the most honest publisher 
 for the old man's book. This is a matter for Monsieur Nicolas. 
 He is acquainted with lawyers and professors and authors of 
 works on jurisprudence ; next Saturday he will, no doubt, be 
 prepared with some good advice for you. 
 
 " Be easy ; the difficulty will be surmounted if possible. At 
 the same time, it might be well if Monsieur Nocolas could 
 read the magistrate's book; if you can persuade him to 
 lend it." 
 
 Godefroid was amazed at this woman's sound sense, for he 
 had believed her to be animated solely by the spirit of charity. 
 He knelt on one knee and kissed one of her beautiful hands, 
 saying 
 
 " Then you are Reason, too ! " 
 
 " In our work we have to be everything," said she, with the 
 peculiar cheerfulness of a true saint. 
 
 There was a brief silence, broken by Godefroid, who ex- 
 claimed 
 
 "Two thousand debtors, did you say, madame? Two 
 thousand accounts ! It is tremendous ! " 
 
 " Two thousand accounts, which may lead, as I have told 
 you, to our being repaid from the delicate honor of the bor- 
 rowers. But there are three thousand more families who 
 will never make us any return but in thanks. Thus, as I have 
 told you, we feel that it is necessary to keep books ; and if 
 your secrecy is above suspicion, you will be our financial 
 oracle. We ought to keep a day-book, a ledger, a book of 
 current expenses, and a cash-book. Of course, we have re- 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 193 
 
 ceipts, notes of hand, but it takes a great deal of time to look 
 for them Here come the gentlemen." 
 
 Godefroid, at first serious and thoughtful, took little part in 
 the conversation ; he was bewildered by the revelation Mad- 
 ame de la Chanterie had just imparted to him in a way which 
 showed that she meant it to be the reward of his zeal. 
 
 " Two thousand families indebted to us ! " said he to him- 
 self. "Why, if they all cost as much as Monsieur Bernard 
 will cost us, we must have millions sown broadcast in Paris !" 
 
 This reflection was one of the last promptings of the worldly 
 spirit which was fast dying out in Godefroid. As he thought 
 the matter over, he understood that the united fortunes of 
 Madame de la Chanterie, of Messieurs Alain, Nicolas, Joseph, 
 and Judge Popinot, with the gifts collected by the Abbe de 
 Veze, and the loans from the Mongenods, must have produced 
 a considerable capital ; also, that in twelve or fifteen years this 
 capital, with the interest paid on it by those who had shown 
 their gratitude, must have increased like a snowball, since the 
 charitable holders took nothing from it. By degrees he began 
 to see clearly how the immense affair was managed, and his 
 wish to cooperate was increased. 
 
 At nine o'clock he was about to return on foot to the 
 Boulevard du Mont-Parnasse ; but Madame de la Chanterie, 
 distrustful of so lonely a neighborhood, insisted on his taking 
 a cab. As he got out of the vehicle, though the shutters were 
 so closely fastened that not a gleam of light was visible, Gode- 
 froid heard the sound of the instrument ; and Auguste, who, 
 no doubt, was watching for Godefroid's return, half opened 
 the door on the landing, and said 
 
 " Mamma would very much like to see you, and my grand- 
 father begs you will take a cup of tea." 
 
 Godefroid went in and found the invalid transfigured by the 
 pleasure of the music ; her face beamed and her eyes sparkled 
 like diamonds. 
 13 
 
194 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 "I ought to have waited for you, to let you hear the first 
 chords ; but I flew at this little organ as a hungry man rushes 
 on a banquet. But you have a soul to understand me, and I 
 know I am forgiven." 
 
 Vanda made a sign to her son, who placed himself where 
 he could press the pedal that supplied the interior of the in- 
 strument with wind ; and, with her eyes raised to heaven like 
 Saint Cecilia, the invalid, whose hands had for a time recov- 
 ered their strength and agility, performed some variations on 
 the prayer in " Mose"* which her son had bought for her. 
 She had composed them in a few hours. Godefroid discerned 
 in her a talent identical with that of Chopin. It was a soul 
 manifesting itself by divine sounds in which sweet melancholy 
 predominated. 
 
 Monsieur Bernard greeted Godefroid with a look expressing 
 a sentiment long since in abeyance. If the tears had not been 
 for ever dried up in the old man scorched by so many fierce 
 sorrows, his eyes would at this moment have been wet. 
 
 The old lawyer was fingering his snuff-box and gazing at his 
 daughter with unutterable rapture. 
 
 "To-morrow, madame," said Godefroid, when the music 
 had ceased, "your fate will be sealed, for I have good news 
 for you. The famous Halpersohn will come at three o'clock. 
 And he has promised," he added in Monsieur Bernard's ear, 
 " to tell me the truth." 
 
 The old man rose, and taking Godefroid by the hand, led 
 him into a corner of the room near the fireplace. He was 
 trembling. 
 
 " What a night lies before me ! It is the final sentence ! " 
 said he in a whisper. " My daughter will be cured or con- 
 demned ! " 
 
 "Take courage," said Godefroid, "and after tea come to 
 my rooms ! " 
 
 " Cease playing, my child," said Monsieur Bernard ; "you 
 * Anglice : " Moses in Egypt." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 195 
 
 will bring on an attack. Such an expenditure of strength will 
 be followed by a reaction." 
 
 He made Auguste remove the instrument, and brought his 
 daughter her cup of tea with the coaxing ways of a nurse who 
 wants to anticipate the impatience of a baby. 
 
 "And what is this doctor like?" asked she, already diverted 
 by the prospect of seeing a stranger. 
 
 Vanda, like all prisoners, was consumed by curiosity. When 
 the physical symptoms of her complaint gave her some respite, 
 they seemed to develop in her mind, and then she had the 
 strangest whims and violent caprices. She wanted to see 
 Rossini, and cried because her father, who could, she imagined, 
 do everything, assured her he could not bring him. 
 
 Godefroid gave her a minute description of the Jewish 
 physician and his consulting-room, for she knew nothing of 
 the steps taken by her father. Monsieur Bernard had enjoined 
 silence on his grandson as to his visits to Halpersohn; he had 
 so much feared to excite hopes which might not be realized. 
 Vanda seemed to hang on the words that fell from Godefroid's 
 lips ; she was spellbound and almost crazy, so ardent did her 
 desire become to see the strange Pole. 
 
 "Poland has produced many singular and mysterious fig- 
 ures," said the old lawyer. "Just now, for instance, beside 
 this doctor there is Hoe'ne Vronski, the mathematician and 
 seer, Mickievicz, the poet, the inspired Tovianski, and Chopin 
 with his superhuman talent. Great national agitations always 
 produce these crippled giants." 
 
 " Oh, my dear papa, what a man you are ! If you were to 
 write down all that we hear you say simply to entertain me, 
 you would make a fortune ! For, would you believe me, 
 monsieur, my kind old father invents tales for me when I have 
 no more novels to read, and so sends me to sleep. His voice 
 lulls me, and he often soothes my pain with his cleverness. 
 Who will ever repay him ? Auguste, my dear boy, you ought 
 to kiss your grandfather's footprints for me." 
 
196 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 The youth looked at his mother with his fine eyes full of 
 tears; and that look, overflowing with long-repressed com- 
 passion, was a poem in itself. Godefroid rose, took Auguste's 
 hand, and pressed it warmly.' 
 
 "God has given you two angels for your companions, 
 madame ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Indeed I know it. And I blame myself for so often pro- 
 voking them. Come, dear Auguste, and kiss your mother. 
 He is a son, monsieur, of whom any mother would be proud. 
 He is as good as gold, candid a soul without sin ; but a 
 rather too impassioned creature, like his mamma. God has 
 nailed me to my bed to preserve me, perhaps, from the follies 
 women commit when they have too much heart!" she 
 ended with a smile. 
 
 Godefroid smiled in reply and bowed good-night. 
 
 "Good-night, monsieur; and be sure to thank your friend, 
 for he has made a poor cripple very happy." 
 
 "Monsieur," said Godefroid when he was in his rooms, 
 alone with Monsieur Bernard, who had followed him, "I 
 think I may promise you that you shall not be robbed by 
 those three sharpers. I can get the required sum, but you 
 must place the papers proving the loan in my hands. If I 
 am to do anything more, you should allow me to have your 
 book not to read myself, for I am not learned enough to 
 judge of it, but to be read by an old lawyer I know, a man 
 of unimpeachable integrity, who will undertake, according to 
 the character of the work, to find a respectable firm with 
 whom you may deal on equitable terms. On this, however, 
 I do not insist. 
 
 "Meanwhile, here are five hundred francs," he went on, 
 offering a note to the astonished lawyer, " to supply your 
 more pressing wants. I ask for no receipt ; you will be 
 indebted on no evidence but that of your conscience, and 
 your conscience may lie silent till you have to some extent re- 
 covered yourself. I will settle with Halpersohn." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 197 
 
 " But who are you?" asked the old man, sinking on to a 
 chair. 
 
 "I," replied Godefroid, "am nobody; but I serve certain 
 powerful persons to whom your necessities are now made known, 
 and who take an interest in you. Ask no more." 
 
 "And what motive can these persons have ?" 
 
 "Religion, monsieur," replied Godefroid. 
 
 " Is it possible ? Religion ! " 
 
 "Yes, the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion." 
 
 " Then you are of the Order of Jesus ? " 
 
 "No, monsieur," said Godefroid. "Be perfectly easy. 
 No one has any design on you beyond that of helping you 
 and restoring your family to comfort." 
 
 " Can philanthropy then wear any guise but that of 
 vanity?" 
 
 " Nay, monsieur, do not insult holy Catholic Love, the vir- 
 tue described by Saint Paul ! " cried Godefroid eagerly. 
 
 At this reply Monsieur Bernard began to stride up and 
 down the room. 
 
 "I accept!" he suddenly said. "And I have but one 
 way of showing my gratitude that is, by intrusting you with 
 my work. The notes and quotations are unnecessary to a 
 lawyer ; and I have, as I told you, two months' work before 
 me yet in copying them out. To-morrow, then," and he 
 shook hands with Godefroid. 
 
 "Can I have effected a conversion?" thought Godefroid, 
 struck by the new expression he saw on the old man's face 
 as he had last spoken. 
 
 Next day, at three o'clock, a hackney coach stopped at the 
 door, and out of it stepped Halpersohn, buried in a vast bear- 
 skin coat. The cold had increased in the course of the night, 
 and the thermometer stood at ten degrees below freezing. 
 
 The Jewish doctor narrowly though furtively examined the 
 room in which his visitor of yesterday received him, and 
 Godefroid detected a gleam of suspicion sparkling in his eye 
 
198 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 like the point of a dagger. This swift flash of doubt gave 
 Godefroid an internal chill ; he began to think that this man 
 would be merciless in his money dealings ; and it is so natural 
 to think of genius as allied to goodness, that this gave him an 
 impulse of disgust. 
 
 " Monsieur," said he, " I perceive that the plainness of my 
 lodgings arouses your uneasiness ; so you will not be surprised 
 at my manner of proceeding. Here are your two hundred 
 francs, and here, you see, are three notes for a thousand 
 francs each" and he drew out the notes which Madame de 
 la Chanterie had given him to redeem Monsieur Bernard's 
 manuscript. " If you have any further doubts as to my solv- 
 ency, I may refer you, as a guarantee for the carrying out of 
 my pledge, to Messrs. Mongenod, the bankers, Rue de la 
 Victoire." 
 
 "I know them," said Halpersohn, slipping the ten gold- 
 pieces into his pocket. 
 
 "And he will go there ! " thought Godefroid. 
 
 "And where does the sick lady live?" asked the doctor, 
 rising, as a man who knows the value of time. 
 
 " Come this way, monsieur," said Godefroid, going first to 
 show him the way. 
 
 The Jew cast a shrewd and scrutinizing glance on the 
 rooms he went through, for he had the eye of a spy; and he 
 was able to see the misery of poverty through the door into 
 Monsieur Bernard's bedroom, for, unluckily, Monsieur Ber- 
 nard had just been putting on the dress in which he always 
 showed himself to his daughter, and in his haste to admit his 
 visitors he left the door of his kennel ajar. 
 
 He bowed with dignity to Halpersohn, and softly opened 
 his daughter's bedroom door. 
 
 " Vanda, my dear, here is the doctor," he said. 
 
 He stood aside to let Halpersohn pass, still wrapped in his 
 furs. 
 
 The Jew was surprised at the splendor of this room, which 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 199 
 
 in this part of the town seemed anomalous; but his astonish- 
 ment was of no long duration, for he had often seen in the 
 houses of German and Polish Jews a similar discrepancy be- 
 tween the display of extreme penury and concealed wealth. 
 While walking from the door to the bed he never took his 
 eyes off the sufferer ; and when he stood by her side, he said 
 to her in Polish 
 
 "Are you a Pole?" 
 
 " I am not ; my mother was." 
 
 " Whom did your grandfather, General Tarlovski, marry?" 
 
 "A Pole." 
 
 " Of what province ? " 
 
 " A Sobolevska of Pinsk." 
 
 " Good. And this gentleman is your father ? " 
 
 "Yes, monsieur." 
 "Monsieur," said Halpersohn, "is your wife " 
 
 "She is dead," replied Monsieur Bernard. 
 
 "Was she excessively fair?" said Halpersohn, with some 
 impatience at the interruption. 
 
 "Here is a portrait of her," replied Monsieur Bernard, 
 taking down a handsome frame containing several good 
 miniatures. 
 
 Halpersohn was feeling the invalid's head and hair, while 
 he looked at the portrait of Vanda Tarlovski nee Comtesse 
 Sobolevska. 
 
 " Tell me the symptoms of the patient's illness." And he 
 seated himself in the armchair, gazing steadily at Vanda dur- 
 ing twenty minutes, while the father and daughter spoke by 
 turns. 
 
 "And how old is the lady?" 
 
 "Eight-and-thirty." 
 
 " Very good ! " he said as he rose. " Well, I undertake to 
 cure her. I cannot promise to give her the use of her legs, 
 but she can be cured. Only, she must be placed in a private 
 hospital in my part of the town." 
 
200 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 11 But, monsieur, my daughter cannot be moved 
 
 " I will answer for her life," said Halpersohn sententiously. 
 " But I answer for her only on those conditions. Do you 
 know she will exchange her present symptoms for another hor- 
 rible form of disease, which will last for a year perhaps, or six 
 months at the very least ? You can come to see her, as you 
 are her father." 
 
 "And it is certain ?" asked Monsieur Bernard. 
 
 " Certain," repeated the Jew. ' ' You daughter has a vicious 
 humor, a national disorder, in her blood, and it must be 
 brought out. When you bring her, carry her to the Rue 
 Basse-Saint-Pierre at Chaillot Dr. Halpersohn's private hos- 
 pital." 
 
 "But how?" 
 
 " On a stretcher, as the sick people are always carried to a 
 hospital." 
 
 "But it will kill her to be moved." 
 
 "No." 
 
 And Halpersohn, as he spoke this curt No, was at the door, 
 where Godefroid met him on the landing. 
 
 The Jew, who was suffocating with heat, said in his ear 
 
 " The charge will be fifteen francs a day, beside the thousand 
 crowns; three months paid in advance." 
 
 "Very good, monsieur. And," asked Godefroid, standing 
 on the step of the cab into which the doctor had hurried, 
 " you answer for the cure ? " 
 
 "Positively," said the Pole. "Are you in love with the 
 lady?" 
 
 "No," said Godefroid. 
 
 "You must not repeat what I am about to tell you, for I 
 am saying it only to prove to you that I am sure of the cure ; 
 but if you say anything about it, you will be the death of the 
 woman " 
 
 Godefroid replied only by a gesture. 
 
 " For seventeen years she has been suffering from the disease 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 201 
 
 known as Plica Polonica, which can produce all these tor- 
 ments ; I have seen the most dreadful cases. Now, I am the 
 only man living who knows how to bring out the///V# in such 
 a form as to be curable, for not every one gets over it. You 
 see, monsieur, that I am really very liberal. If this were some 
 great lady a Baronne de Nucingen or any other wife or 
 daughter of some modern Croesus I should get a hundred 
 two hundred thousand francs for this cure whatever I might 
 like to ask ! However, that is a minor misfortune." 
 
 "And moving her? " 
 
 " Oh, she will seem to be dying, but she will not die of it ! 
 She may live a hundred years when once she is cured. Now, 
 Jacques, quick Rue Monsieur, and make haste ! " said he to 
 the driver. 
 
 He left Godefroid standing in the street, where he gazed in 
 bewilderment after the retreating cab. 
 
 "Who on earth is that queer-looking man dressed in bear- 
 skin ? " asked Madame Vauthier, whom nothing could escape. 
 " Is it true, as the hackney coachman said, that he is the most 
 famous doctor in Paris? " 
 
 "And what can that matter to you, Mother Vauthier?" he 
 asked. 
 
 " Oh, not at all," said she with a sour face. 
 
 "You made a great mistake in not siding with me," said 
 Godefroid, as he slowly went into the house. "You would 
 have done better than by sticking to Monsieur Barbet and 
 Monsieur Metivier; you will get nothing out of them." 
 
 "And am I on their side?" retorted she with a shrug. 
 " Monsieur Barbet is my landlord, that is all." 
 
 It took two days to persuade Monsieur Bernard to part from 
 his daughter and carry her to Chaillot. Godefroid and the old 
 lawyer walked all the way, one on each side of the stretcher, 
 screened in with striped blue-and-white ticking, on which the 
 precious patient lay, almost tied down to the mattress, so 
 greatly did her father fear the convulsions of a nervous attack. 
 
202 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 However, having set out at three o'clock, the procession 
 reached the private hospital at five, when it was dusk. Gode- 
 froid paid the four hundred and fifty francs demanded for the 
 three months' board, and took a receipt for it ; then, when 
 he went down to pay the two porters, Monsieur Bernard 
 joined him and took from under the mattress a very volumi- 
 nous sealed packet, which he handed to Godefroid. 
 
 " One of these men will fetch you a cab," said he, " for you 
 cannot carry those four volumes very far. This is my book ; 
 place it in my censor's hands; I will leave it with him for a 
 week. I shall remain at least a week in this neighborhood, 
 for I cannot abandon my daughter to her fate. I know my 
 grandson ; he can mind the house, especially with you to help 
 him; and I commend him to your care. If I were myself 
 what once I was, I would ask you my critic's name ; for if 
 he was once a magistrate, there were few whom I did not 
 know " 
 
 "It is no mystery," said Godefroid, interrupting Monsieur 
 Bernard. " Since you show such entire confidence in me, I 
 may tell you that the reader is the President Lecamus de 
 Tresnes." 
 
 " Oh, of the Supreme Court in Paris. Take it by all 
 means. He is one of the noblest men of our time. He and 
 the late Judge Popinot, the judge of the lower court, were 
 lawyers worthy of the best days of the old Parlements. All 
 my fears, if I had any, must vanish. And where does he live? 
 I should like to go and thank him when he has taken so much 
 trouble." 
 
 "You will find him in the Rue Chanoinesse, under the 
 name of Monsieur Nicolas. I am just going there. But your 
 agreement with those rascals?" 
 
 " Auguste will give it you," said the old man, going back 
 into the hospital. 
 
 A cab was found on the Quai de Billy and brought by one 
 of the men ; Godefroid got in and stimulated the driver by 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 203 
 
 the promise of drink money if he drove quickly to the Rue 
 Chanoinesse, where he intended to dine. 
 
 Half an hour after Vanda's removal, three men, dressed in 
 black, were let in by Madame Vauthier at the door in the 
 Rue Notre-Dame des Champs, where they had been waiting, 
 no doubt, till the coast should be clear. They went upstairs 
 under the guidance of the Judas in petticoats, and gently 
 knocked at Monsieur Bernard's door. As it happened to be 
 a Thursday, the young collegian was at home. He opened 
 the door, and three men slipped like shadows into the outer 
 room. 
 
 " What do you want, gentlemen ?" asked the youth. 
 
 "This is Monsieur Bernard's that is to say, Monsieur le 
 Baron ?" 
 
 " But what do you want here?" 
 
 " Oh, you know that pretty well, young man, for your 
 grandfather has just gone off with a closed litter, I am told. 
 Well, that does not surprise us ; he shows his wisdom. I am 
 a bailiff, and I have come to seize everything here. On Mon- 
 day last you were summoned to pay three thousand francs and 
 the expenses to Monsieur Metivier, under penalty of imprison- 
 ment ; and as a man who has grown onions knows the smell 
 of chives, the debtor has taken the key of the fields rather 
 than wait for that of the lock-up. However, if we cannot 
 secure him, we can get a wing or a leg of his gorgeous furni- 
 ture for we know all about it, young man, and we are going 
 to make an official report." 
 
 " Here are some stamped papers that your grandpapa would 
 never take," said the widow Vauthier, shoving three writs 
 into Auguste's hand. 
 
 " Stay here, ma'am ; we will put you in possession. The 
 law gives you forty sous a day ; it is not to be sneezed at." 
 
 " Ah, ha ! Then I shall see what there is in the grand bed- 
 room! " cried Madame Vauthier. 
 
204 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 " You shall not go into my mother's room ! " cried the lad 
 in a fury, as he flung himself between the door and the three 
 men in black. 
 
 On a sign from their leader, the two men and a lawyer's 
 clerk who came in seized Auguste. 
 
 " No resistance, young man ; you are not master here. We 
 shall draw up a charge, and you will spend the night in the 
 lock-up." 
 
 At this dreadful threat, Auguste melted into tears. 
 
 "Oh, what a mercy," cried he, "that mamma is gone! 
 This would have killed her ! " 
 
 The men and the bailiff now held a sort of council with the 
 widow Vauthier. Auguste understood, though they talked in 
 a low voice, that what they chiefly wanted was to seize his 
 grandfather's precious manuscripts, so he opened the bedroom 
 door. 
 
 "Walk in then, gentlemen," said he, "but spoil nothing. 
 You will be paid to-morrow morning." Then, still in tears, 
 he went into his own squalid room, snatched up all his grand- 
 father's notes, and stuffed them into the stove, where he knew 
 that there was not a spark of fire. 
 
 The thing was done so promptly that the bailiff, though he 
 was keen and cunning, and worthy of his employers Barbel 
 and Metivier, found the boy in tears on a chair when he 
 rushed into the room, having concluded that the manuscripts 
 would not be in the anteroom. Though books and manu- 
 scripts may not legally be seized for debt, the lien signed by 
 the old lawyer in this case justified the proceeding. Still, it 
 would have been easy to find means of delaying the distraint, 
 as Monsieur Bernard would certainly have known. Hence 
 the necessity for acting with cunning. 
 
 The widow Vauthier had been an invaluable ally to her 
 landlord by failing to serve his notices on her lodger; her 
 plan was to throw them on him when entering at the heels of 
 the officers of justice ; or, if necessary, to declare to Monsieur 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 205 
 
 Bernard that she had supposed them to be intended for the 
 two writers who had been absent for two days. 
 
 The inventory of the goods took above an hour to make 
 out, for the bailiff would omit nothing, and regarded the 
 value as sufficient to pay off the debts. 
 
 As soon as the officers were gone, the poor youth took the 
 writs and hurried away to find his grandfather at Halpersohn's 
 hospital ; for, as the bailiff assured him that Madame Vauthier 
 was responsible for everything under heavy penalties, he could 
 leave the place without fear. 
 
 The idea of his grandfather being taken to prison for debt 
 drove the poor boy absolutely mad mad in the way in which 
 the young are mad ; that is to say, a victim to the dangerous 
 and fatal excitement in which every energy of youth is in a 
 ferment and may lead to the worst as to the most heroic ac- 
 tions. 
 
 When poor Auguste reached the Rue Basse-Saint-Pierre, the 
 doorkeeper told him that he did not know what had become 
 of the father of the patient brought in at five o'clock, but that 
 by Monsieur Halpersohn's orders no one not even her father 
 was to be allowed to see the lady for a week, or it might 
 endanger her life. 
 
 This reply put a climax to Auguste's desperation. He went 
 back again to the Boulevard du Mont-Par nasse, revolving the 
 most extravagant schemes as he went. He got home by about 
 half-past eight, almost starving, so exhausted by hunger and 
 grief, that he accepted when Madame Vauthier invited him to 
 share her supper, consisting of a stew of mutton and potatoes. 
 The poor boy dropped half-dead into a chair in the dreadful 
 woman's room. 
 
 Encouraged by the old woman's coaxing and insinuating 
 words, he answered a few cunningly arranged questions about 
 Godefroid, and gave her to understand that it was he who would 
 pay off his grandfather's debts on the morrow, and that to 
 him they owed the improvement that had taken place in their 
 
206 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 prospects during the past week. The widow listened to all 
 this with an affectation of doubt, plying Auguste with a few 
 glasses of wine. 
 
 At ten o'clock the wheels of a cab were heard to stop in 
 front of the house, and the woman exclaimed 
 
 " Oh, there is Monsieur Godefroid ! " 
 
 Auguste took the key of his rooms and went upstairs to see 
 the kind friend of the family; but he found Godefroid so 
 entirely unlike himself, that he hesitated to speak till the 
 thought of his grandfather's danger spurred the generous 
 youth. 
 
 This is what had happened in the Rue Chanoinesse, and 
 had caused Godefroid's stern expression of countenance. 
 
 The neophyte, arriving in good time, had found Madame 
 de la Chanterie and her adherents in the drawing-room, and 
 he had taken Monsieur Nicolas aside to deliver to him the 
 "Spirit of the Modern Laws." Monsieur Nicolas at once 
 carried the sealed parcel to his room, and came down to 
 dinner. Then, after chatting during the first part of the 
 evening, he went up again, intending to begin reading the 
 work. 
 
 Godefroid was greatly surprised when, a few minutes after, 
 Manon came from the old judge to beg him to go up to speak 
 with him. Following Manon, he was led to Monsieur 
 Nicolas' room ; but he could pay no attention to its details, 
 so greatly was he startled by the evident distress of a man 
 usually so placid and firm. 
 
 "Did you know," said Monsieur Nicolas, quite the judge 
 again, " the name of the author of this work? " 
 
 " Monsieur Bernard," said Godefroid. " I know him only 
 by that name. I did not open the parcel " 
 
 "True," said Monsieur Nicolas. "I broke the seals 
 myself. And you made no inquiry as to his previous 
 history?" 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 207 
 
 " No. I know that he married for love the daughter of 
 General Tarlovski, that his daughter is named Vanda after her 
 mother, and his grandson Auguste. And the portrait I saw 
 of Monsieur Bernard is, I believe, in the dress of a presiding 
 judge a red gown." 
 
 "Look here !" said Monsieur Nicolas, and held out the 
 title of the work in Auguste's handwriting, and in the follow- 
 ing form : 
 
 THE SPIRIT 
 OF THE MODERN LAWS 
 
 BY 
 
 M. BERNARD-JEAN-BAPTISTE MACLOUD 
 BARON BOURLAC 
 
 Formerly Attorney-General to the High Court of Justice at Rouen 
 Commander of the Legion of Honor. 
 
 " Oh ! The man who condemned madame, her daughter, 
 and the Chevalier du Vissard ! ' said Godefroid in a choked 
 voice. 
 
 His knees gave way, and the neophyte dropped on to a 
 chair. 
 
 " What a beginning ! " he murmured. 
 
 " This, my dear Godefroid, is a business that comes home 
 to us all. You have done your part ; we must deal with it 
 now ! I beg you to do nothing further of any kind ; go and 
 fetch whatever you left in your rooms ; and not a word ! In 
 fact, absolute silence. Tell Baron Bourlac to apply to me. 
 Between this and then, we shall have decided how it will be 
 best to act in such circumstances." 
 
 Godefroid went downstairs, called a hackney cab, and hur- 
 ried back to the Boulevard du Mont-Parnasse, filled with hor- 
 ror as he thought of the examination and trials of Caen, of 
 
208 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 the hideous drama that ended on the scaffold, and of Madame 
 de la Chanterie's sojourn in Bicetre. He understood the 
 neglect into which this lawyer, almost a second Fouquier- 
 Tinville, had fallen in his old age, and the reasons why he so 
 carefully concealed his name. 
 
 " I hope Monsieur Nicolas will take some terrible revenge 
 for poor Madame de la Chanterie ! " 
 
 He had just thought out this not very Christian wish, when 
 he saw Auguste. 
 
 " What do you want of me ? " asked Godefroid. 
 
 " My dear sir, a misfortune has befallen us which is turning 
 my brain ! Some scoundrels have been here to take posses- 
 sion of everything belonging to my mother, and they are 
 hunting for my grandfather to put him into prison. But it is 
 not by reason of these disasters that I turn to you for help," 
 said the lad with Roman pride ; " it is to beg you to do me 
 such a service as you, any one, would do to a condemned 
 criminal " 
 
 "Speak," said Godefroid. 
 
 "They wanted to get hold of my grandfather's manuscripts; 
 and as I believe he placed the work in your hands, I want to 
 beg you to take the notes, for the woman will not allow me to 
 remove a thing. Put them with the volumes, and then " 
 
 "Very well," said Godefroid, "make haste and fetch 
 them." 
 
 While the lad went off, to return immediately, Godefroid 
 reflected that the poor boy was guilty of no crime, that he 
 must not break his heart by telling him about his grandfather, 
 or the desertion which was the punishment in his sad old age 
 of the passions of his political career ; he took the packet not 
 unkindly. 
 
 "What is your mother's name?" he asked. 
 
 "My mother, monsieur, is the Baronne de Mergi. My 
 father was the son of the presiding judge of the Supreme 
 Court at Rouen." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 209 
 
 "Ah ! " said Godefroid, "so your grandfather married his 
 daughter to the son of the famous Judge Mergi?" 
 
 "Yes, monsieur." 
 
 "Leave me, my little friend," said Godefroid. 
 
 He went out on to the landing with the young Baron de 
 Mergi, and called Madame Vauthier. 
 
 " Mother Vauthier," said he, " you can relet my rooms ; I 
 am never coming back again." 
 
 And he went down to the cab. 
 
 " Have you intrusted anything to that gentleman?" asked 
 the widow of Auguste. 
 
 "Yes," said the lad. 
 
 "You're a pretty fool. He is one of your enemies' agents. 
 He has been at the bottom of it all, you may be sure. It is 
 proof enough that the trick has turned out all right that he 
 never means to come back. He told me I could let his 
 rooms." 
 
 Auguste flew out, and down the boulevard, running after 
 the cab, and at last succeeded in stopping it by his shouts 
 and cries. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked Godefroid. 
 
 " My grandfather's manuscripts ! " 
 
 "Tell him to apply for them to Monsieur Nicolas." 
 
 The lad took this reply as the cruel jest of a thief who has 
 no shame left ; he sat down in the snow as he saw the cab set 
 off again at a brisk trot. 
 
 He rose in a fever of fierce energy and went home to bed, 
 worn out with rushing about Paris, and quite heart-broken. 
 
 Next morning, Auguste de Mergi awoke to find himself 
 alone in the rooms where yesterday his mother and his grand- 
 father had been with him, and he went through all the miseries 
 of his position, of which he fully understood the extent. The 
 utter desertion of the place, hitherto so amply filled, where 
 every minute had brought with it a duty and an occupation, 
 was so painful to him, that he went down to ask the widow 
 14 
 
210 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Vauthier whether his grandfather had come in during the 
 night or early morning ; for he himself had slept very late, 
 and he supposed that if the Baron Bourlac had come home 
 the woman would have warned him against his pursuers. 
 She replied, with a sneer, that he must know full well where 
 to look for his grandfather ; for if he had not come in, it was 
 evident that he had taken up his abode in the "Chateau de 
 Clichy." This impudent irony from the woman who, the 
 day before, had cajoled him so effectually, again drove the 
 poor boy to frenzy, and he flew to the private hospital in 
 the Rue Basse-Saint-Pierre, in despair, as he thought of his 
 grandfather in prison. 
 
 Baron Bourlac had hung about all night in front of the 
 hospital which he was forbidden to enter, or close to the house 
 of Doctor Halpersohn, whom he naturally wished to call to 
 account for this conduct. The doctor did not get home till 
 two in the morning. The old man, who, at half-past one, had 
 been at the doctor's door, had just gone off to walk in the 
 Champs-Elyse'es, and when he returned at half-past two the 
 gatekeeper told him that Monsieur Halpersohn was now in 
 bed and asleep, and was on no account to be disturbed. 
 
 Here, alone, at half-past two in the morning, the unhappy 
 father, in utter despair, paced the quay, and under the trees 
 loaded with frost, of the sidewalks of the Cours-la-Reine, wait- 
 ing for the day. 
 
 At nine o'clock he presented himself at the doctor's, and 
 asked him why he thus kept his daughter under lock and key. 
 
 "Monsieur," said Halpersohn, "I yesterday made myself 
 answerable for your daughter's recovery ; and at this moment 
 I am responsible for her life, and you must understand that in 
 such a case I must have sovereign authority. I may tell you 
 that your daughter yesterday took a remedy which will bring 
 out the plica, that till the disease is brought out the lady 
 must remain invisible. I will not allow myself to lose my 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 211 
 
 patient or you to lose your daughter by exposing her to any 
 excitement, any error of treatment ; if you really insist on 
 seeing her, I shall demand a consultation of three medical 
 men to protect myself against any responsibility, as the patient 
 might die." 
 
 The old man, exhausted with fatigue, had dropped on to a 
 chair ; he quickly rose, however, saying : 
 
 "Forgive me, monsieur; I have spent the night in mortal 
 anguish, for you cannot imagine how much I love my daugh- 
 ter, whom I have nursed for fifteen years between life and 
 death, and this week of waiting is torture to me." 
 
 The baron left Halpersohn's study, tottering like a drunken 
 man, the doctor giving him his arm to the top of the stairs. 
 
 About an hour later, he saw Auguste de Mergi walk into his 
 room. On questioning the lodge-keeper of the private hos- 
 pital, the poor lad had just heard that the father of the lady 
 admitted the day before had called again in the evening, had 
 asked for her, and had spoken of going early in the day to 
 Doctor Halpersohn, who, no doubt, would know something 
 about him. At the moment when Auguste de Mergi appeared 
 in the doctor's room, Halpersohn was breakfasting off a cup 
 of chocolate and a glass of water, all on a small round table ; 
 he did not disturb himself for the youth, but went on soaking 
 his strip of bread in the chocolate ; for he ate nothing but a 
 roll, cut into four with an accuracy that argued some skill as 
 an operator. Halpersohn had, in fact, practiced surgery in 
 the course of his travels. 
 
 "Well, young man," said he as Vanda's son came in, 
 "you, too, have come to require me to account for your 
 mother?" 
 
 " Yes, monsieur," said Auguste. 
 
 The young fellow had come forward as far as the large table, 
 and his eye was immediately caught by several bank-notes lying 
 among the little piles of gold-pieces. In the position in which 
 the unhappy boy found himself, the temptation was stronger 
 
212 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 than his principles, well grounded as they were. He saw 
 before him the means of rescuing his grandfather, and saving 
 the fruits of twenty years' labor imperiled by avaricious specu- 
 lators. He fell. The fascination was as swift as thought, and 
 justified itself by an idea of self-immolation that smiled on the 
 boy. He said to himself 
 
 "I shall be done for, but I shall save my mother and my 
 grandfather." 
 
 Under this stress of antagonism between his reason and the 
 impulse to crime, he acquired, as madmen do, a strange and 
 fleeting dexterity, and instead of asking after his grandfather, 
 he listened and agreed to all the doctor was saying. 
 
 Halpersohn, like all acute observers, had understood the whole 
 past history of the father, the daughter, and her son. He had 
 scented or guessed the facts which Madame de Mergi's con- 
 versation had confirmed, and he felt in consequence a sort of 
 benevolence toward his new clients ; as to respect or admira- 
 tion, he was incapable of them. 
 
 "Well, my dear boy," said he familiarly, "I am keeping 
 your mother to restore her to you young, handsome, and in 
 good health. Hers is one of those rare diseases which doctors 
 find, very interesting ; and, beside, she is, through her mother, 
 a fellow-countrywoman of mine. You and your grandfather 
 must be brave enough to live without seeing her for a fortnight, 
 and Madame " 
 
 " La Baronne de Mergi." 
 
 "If she is a baroness, you are Baron " asked Halper- 
 sohn. 
 
 At this moment the theft was effected. While the doctor 
 was looking at his bread, heavy with chocolate, Auguste 
 snatched up four folded notes, and had slipped them into his 
 trousers pocket, affecting to keep his hand there out of sheer 
 embarrassment. 
 
 " Yes, monsieur, I am a baron. So, too, is my grandfather ; 
 he was public prosecutor at the time of the Restoration." 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTOR Y, 213 
 
 " You blush, young man. You need not blush because you 
 are a baron and poor it is a very common case." 
 
 "And who told you, monsieur, that we are poor?" 
 
 "Well, your grandfather told me that he had spent the 
 night in the Champs-Elysees ; and though I know no palace 
 where there is so fine a vault overhead as that which was glit- 
 tering at two o'clock this morning, it was cold, I can tell you, 
 in the palace where your grandfather was taking his airing. A 
 man does not sleep in the Hotel de la Belle-Etoile (open air) 
 by preference." 
 
 " Has my grandfather been here? " cried Auguste, seizing 
 the opportunity to beat a retreat. " Thank you, monsieur. 
 I will come again, with your permission, of course, for news 
 of my mother." 
 
 As soon as he got out, the young baron went off to the 
 bailiffs office, taking a hackney cab to get there the sooner. 
 The man gave up the agreement, and the bill of costs duly 
 receipted, and then desired the young man to take one of the 
 clerks with him to release the person in charge from her func- 
 tions. 
 
 "And as Messrs. Barbet and Metivier live in your part of 
 the town," added he, " my boy will take them the money 
 and desire them to restore you the deed of lien on the 
 property." 
 
 Auguste, who understood nothing of these phrases and for- 
 malities, submitted. He received seven hundred francs in 
 silver, the change out of his four thousand-franc notes, and went 
 off in the clerk's company. He got into the cab in a state of in- 
 describable bewilderment, for, the end being achieved, remorse 
 was making itself felt; he saw himself disgraced and cursed by 
 his grandfather, whose austerity was well known to him ; and 
 he believed that his mother would die of grief if she heard of 
 his guilt. All nature had changed before his eyes. He was 
 lost ; he no longer saw the snow, the houses looked like 
 ghosts. 
 
214 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 No sooner was he at home than the young baron decided 
 on his course of action, and it was certainly that of an honest 
 man. He went into his mother's room and took the diamond 
 snuff-box given to his grandfather by the Emperor to send it 
 with the seven hundred francs to Doctor Halpersohn with the 
 following letter, which required several rough copies : 
 
 " MONSIEUR : The fruits of twenty years' labor my grand- 
 father's work were about to be absorbed by some money- 
 lenders, who threatened him with imprisonment. Three 
 thousand three hundred francs were enough to save him ; and 
 seeing so much gold on your table, I could not resist the idea 
 of seeing my grandparent free by thus making good to him 
 the earnings of his long toil. I borrowed from you, without 
 your leave, four thousand francs ; but as only three thousand 
 three hundred francs were needed, I send you the remaining 
 seven hundred, and with them a snuff-box set with diamonds, 
 given by the Emperor to my grandfather ; this will, I hope, 
 indemnify you. 
 
 " If you should not after this believe that I, who shall all 
 my life regard you as my benefactor, am a man of honor, if 
 you will at any rate preserve silence as to an action so unjusti- 
 fiable in any other circumstances, you will have saved my 
 grandfather as you will save my mother, and I shall be for life 
 your devoted slave. 
 
 "AUGUSTE DE MERGI." 
 
 At about half-past two, Auguste, who had walked to the 
 Champs-Elysees, sent a messenger on to deliver at Doctor 
 Halpersohn's door a sealed box containing ten louis, a five- 
 hundred-franc note, and the snuff-box ; then he slowly went 
 home across the Pont d'lena by the Invalides and the boule- 
 vards, trusting to Doctor Halpersohn's generosity. 
 
 The physician, who had at once discovered the theft, had 
 meanwhile changed his views as to his clients. He supposed 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 215 
 
 that the old man had come to rob him, and, not having 
 succeeded, had sent this boy. He put no credence in the 
 rank and titles they had assumed, and went off at once to the 
 public prosecutor's office to state his case, and desire that 
 immediate steps should be taken for the prosecution. 
 
 The prudence of the law rarely allows of such rapid pro- 
 ceedings as the complaining parties would wish ; but, at about 
 three in che afternoon, a police officer, followed by some 
 detectives, who affected to be lounging on the boulevard, was 
 catechising Madame Vauthier as to hei lodgers, and the 
 widow quite unconsciousl) was confirming the constable's 
 suspicions. 
 
 Nepomucene, scenting the policeman, thought that it was 
 the old man they wanted ; and as he was very fond of Monsieur 
 Auguste, he hurried out to meet Monsieur Bernard, whom he 
 intercepted in the Avenue de 1'Observatoire. 
 
 "Make your escape, monsieur," cried he. "They have 
 come to take you. The bailiffs were in yesterday and laid 
 hands on everything. Mother Vauthier, whc had hidden 
 some stamped papers of yours, said you would be in Clichy 
 by last night or this morning. There, do you see those 
 sneaks?" 
 
 The old judge recognized the men as bailiffs, and he under- 
 stood everything. 
 
 "And Monsieur Godefroid?" he asked. 
 
 " Gone, never to come back. Mother Vauthier says he was 
 a spy for your enemies." 
 
 Monsieur Bourlac determined that he would go at once to 
 Barbet, and in a quarter of an hour he was there; the old 
 bookseller lived in the Rue Sainte-Catherine-d'Enfer. 
 
 "Oh, you have come yourself to fetch your agreement," 
 said the publisher, bowing to his victim. " Here it is," and, 
 to the baron's great amazement, he handed him the document, 
 which the old lawyer took, saying 
 
 "I do not understand " 
 
216 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 " Then it was not you who paid up? " said Barbet. 
 
 "Are you paid? " 
 
 "Your grandson carried the money to the bailiff this 
 morning." 
 
 "And is it true that you took possession of my goods 
 yesterday?" 
 
 "Have you not been home for two days?" said Barbet. 
 " Still, a retired public prosecutor must know what it is to be 
 threatened with imprisonment for debt ! " 
 
 On this the baron bowed coldly to Barbet, and returned 
 home, supposing that the authorities had in fact come in 
 search of the authors living on the upper floor. He walked 
 slowly, absorbed in vague apprehensions, for Nepomucene's 
 warning seemed to him more and more inexplicable. Could 
 Godefroid have betrayed him? He mechanically turned 
 down the Rue Notre-Dame des Champs, and went in by the 
 back door, which happened to be open, running against 
 Nepomucene. 
 
 " Oh, monsieur, make haste, come on ; they are taking 
 Monsieur Auguste to prison; they caught him on the boule- 
 vard ; it was him they were hunting they have been ques- 
 tioning him " 
 
 The old man, with a spring like a tiger's, rushed through 
 the house and garden and out on to the boulevard, as swift as 
 an arrow, and was just in time to see his grandson get into a 
 hackney coach between three men. 
 
 "Auguste," he cried, " what is the meaning of this?" 
 
 The youth burst into tears, and turned faint. 
 
 "Monsieur," said he to the police officer, whose scarf 
 struck his eye, " I am Baron Bourlac, formerly a public prose- 
 cutor; for pity's sake, explain the matter." 
 
 "Monsieur, if you are Baron Bourlac, you will understand 
 it in two words. I have just questioned this young man, and 
 he has unfortunately confessed " 
 
 "What?" 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 217 
 
 " A theft of four thousand francs from Doctor Halpersohn." 
 
 " Auguste ! Is it possible ? " 
 
 " Grandpapa, I have sent him your diamond snuff-box as a 
 guarantee. I wanted to save you from the disgrace of im- 
 prisonment." 
 
 "Wretched boy, what have you done?" cried the baron. 
 " The diamonds are false ; I sold the real stones three years 
 ago." 
 
 The police officer and his clerk looked at each other with 
 strange meaning. This glance, full of suggestions, was seen 
 by the baron, and fell like a thunderbolt. 
 
 " Monsieur," said he to the officer, "be quite easy; I will 
 go and see the public prosecutor; you can testify to the delu- 
 sion in which I have kept my daughter and my grandson. 
 You must do your duty, but, in the name of humanity, send 
 my grandson to a cell by himself. I will go to the prison. 
 Where are you taking him? " 
 
 " Are you Baron Bourlac? " said the constable. 
 
 "Oh! Monsieur " 
 
 " Because the public prosecutor, the examining judge, and 
 I myself could not believe that such men as you and your 
 grandson could be guilty ; like the doctor, we concluded that 
 some swindlers had borrowed your names." 
 
 He took the baron aside and said 
 
 "Were you at Doctor Halpersohn's house this morning?" 
 
 "Yes, monsieur." 
 
 "And your grandson too, about half-an-hour later?" 
 
 " I know nothing about that; I have this instant come in, 
 and I have not seen my grandson since yesterday." 
 
 "The writs he showed me and the warrants for arrest ex- 
 plain everything," said the police agent. "I know his mo- 
 tive for the crime. I ought indeed to arrest you, monsieur, 
 as abetting your grandson, for your replies confirm the facts 
 alleged by the complainant ; but the notices served on you, 
 and which I return to you," he added, holding out a packet 
 
218 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 of stamped papers which he had in his hand, "certainly prove 
 you to be Baron Bourlac. At the same time, you must be 
 prepared to be called up before Monsieur Marest, the examin- 
 ing judge in this case. I believe I am right in relaxing the 
 usual rule in consideration of your past dignity. 
 
 "As to your grandson, I will speak of him to the public 
 prosecutor as soon as I go in, and we will show every possible 
 consideration for the grandson of a retired judge, and the vic- 
 tim of a youthful error. Still, there is the indictment, the ac- 
 cused has confessed ; I have sent in my report, and have a 
 warrant for his imprisonment ; I cannot help myself. As to 
 the place of detention, your grandson will be taken to the 
 Conciergerie." 
 
 "Thank you, monsieur," said the miserable Bourlac. He 
 fell senseless on the snow, and tumbled into one of the rain- 
 water cisterns, which at that time divided the trees on the 
 boulevard. 
 
 The police officer called for help, and Nepomucene hurried 
 out with Madame Vauthier. The old man was carried in- 
 doors, and the woman begged the police constable, as he went 
 by the Rue d'Enfer, to send Doctor Berton as quickly as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 "What is tne matter with my grandfather?" asked poor 
 Auguste. 
 
 "He is crazed, sir. That is what comes of thieving !" 
 said" the Vauthier. 
 
 Auguste made a rush as though to crack his skull ; but the 
 two men held him. 
 
 "Come, come, young man. Take it quietly," said the 
 officer. "Be calm. You have done wrong, but it is not 
 irremediable." 
 
 " But pray, monsieur, tell the woman that my grandfather 
 has probably not touched a morsel of food for these twenty- 
 four hours." 
 
 " Oh, poor creatures ! " said the officer to himself. 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 219 
 
 He stopped the coach, which had started, and said a word 
 in his clerk's ear; the man ran off to speak to old Vauthier, 
 and then returned at once. 
 
 Monsieur Berton was of opinion that Monsieur Bernard 
 for he knew him by no other name was suffering from an 
 attack of high fever ; but when Madame Vauthier had told 
 him of all the events that had led up to it in the way in which 
 a housekeeper tells a story, the doctor thought it necessary to 
 report the whole business next day to Monsieur Alain at the 
 church of Saint-Jacques du Haut-Pas, and Monsieur Alain 
 sent a pencil note by messenger to Monsieur Nicolas, Rue 
 Chanoinesse. 
 
 Godefroid, on reaching home the night before, had given 
 the notes on the book to Monsieur Nicolas, who spent the 
 greater part of the night in reading the first volume of Baron 
 Bourlac's work. 
 
 On the following day Madame de la Chanterie told Gode- 
 froid that if his determination still held good, he might begin 
 on his work at once. 
 
 Godefroid, initiated by her into the financial secrets of the 
 Society, worked for seven or eight hours a day, and for several 
 months, under the supervision of Frederic Mongenod, who 
 came every Sunday to look through the work, and who praised 
 him for the way in which it was done. 
 
 " You are a valuable acquisition for the saints among whom 
 you live," said the banker when all the accounts were clearly 
 set forth and balanced. " Two or three hours a day will now 
 be enough to keep the accounts in order, and during the rest 
 of your time you can help them, if you still feel the vocation 
 as you did six months since." 
 
 This was in the month of July, 1838. During the time 
 that had elapsed since the affair of the Boulevard du Mont- 
 Parnasse, Godefroid, eager to prove himself worthy of his 
 companions, had never asked a single question as to Baron 
 
220 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 Bouriac ; for, as he had not heard a word, nor found any- 
 thing in the account-books that bore on the matter, he sus- 
 pected that the silence that was preserved with regard to the 
 two men who had been so ruthless to Madame de la Chan- 
 terie, was intended as a test to which he was being put, or 
 perhaps as proof that the noble lady's friends had avenged 
 her. 
 
 But, two months later, in the course of a walk one day, he 
 went as far as the Boulevard du Mont-Parnasse, managed to 
 meet Madame Vauthier, and asked her for some news of the 
 Bernard family. 
 
 " Who can tell, my dear Monsieur Godefroid, what has 
 become of those people. Two days after your expedition 
 for it was you, you cunning dog, who blabbed to my landlord 
 somebody came who took that old swaggerer off my hands. 
 Then, in four-and-twenty hours, everything was cleared out 
 not a stick left, nor a word said perfect strangers to me, and 
 they told me nothing. I believe he packed himself off to 
 Algiers with his precious grandson ; for Nepomucene, who 
 was very devoted to that young thief he is no better than he 
 should be himself did not find him in the Conciergerie, and 
 he alone knows where they are, and the scamp has gone off 
 and left me. You bring up these wretched foundlings and 
 this is the reward you get ; they leave you high and dry. I 
 have not been able to find any one to take his place, and, as 
 the neighborhood is very crowded and the house is full, I am 
 worked to death." 
 
 And Godefroid would never have known anything more 
 of Baron Bouriac but for the conclusion of the adventure, 
 which came about through one of the chance meetings which 
 occur in Paris. 
 
 In the month of September, Godefroid was walking down 
 the Champs-Elysees, when, as he passed the end of the Rue 
 Marbeuf, he remembered Doctor Halpersohn. 
 
 "I ought to call on him," thought he, "and ask if he 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 221 
 
 cured Bourlac's daughter. What a voice, what a gift she had ! 
 She wanted to dedicate herself to God ! " 
 
 As he got to the Rond-Point, Godefroid crossed the road 
 hurriedly to avoid the carriages that came quickly down the 
 grand avenue, and he ran up against a youth who had a young- 
 looking woman on his arm. 
 
 " Take care ! " cried the young man. " Are you blind ? " 
 
 "Why, it is you!" cried Godefroid, recognizing Auguste 
 de Mergi. 
 
 Auguste was so well dressed, so handsome, so smart, so 
 proud of the lady he was escorting, that, but for the memories 
 that rushed on his mind, Godefroid would hardly have recog- 
 nized them. 
 
 "Why, it is dear Monsieur Godefroid!" exclaimed the 
 lady. 
 
 On hearing the delightful tones of Vanda's enchanting 
 voice, and seeing her walking, Godefroid stood riveted to the 
 spot. 
 
 " Cured ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Ten days ago he allowed me to walk," she replied. 
 
 " Halpersohn ? " 
 
 "Yes," said she. "And why have you never come to see 
 us? But, indeed, you were wise. My hair was not cut off 
 till about a week ago. This that you see is but a wig ; but 
 the doctor assures me it will grow again ! But we have so 
 much to say to each other. Will you not come to dine with 
 us? Oh, that melodeon ! Oh, monsieur ! " and she put her 
 handkerchief to her eyes. " I will treasure it all my life ! 
 My son will preserve it as a relic. My father has sought for 
 you all through Paris, and he is anxiously in search, too, of 
 his unknown benefactors. He will die of grief if you cannot 
 help him to find them. He suffers from the deepest and 
 darkest melancholy, and I cannot always succeed in rousing 
 him from it." 
 
 Fascinated alike by the voice of this charming woman re- 
 
222 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 called from the grave, and by that of irresistible curiosity, 
 Godefroid gave his arm to the hand held out by the Baronne 
 de Mergi, who let her son go on in front with an errand, which 
 the lad had understood from his mother's nod. 
 
 " I shall not take you far ; we are living in the Alice d'Antin, 
 in a pretty little house of English fashion j we have it all to 
 ourselves, each of us occupies a floor. Oh, we are very com- 
 fortable ! And my father believes that you have had a great 
 deal to do with the good-fortune that is poured upon us " 
 
 "I?" 
 
 "Did you not know that a place has been created for him 
 in consequence of a report from the minister for public in- 
 struction, a Chair of Legislature, like one at the Sorbonne? 
 My father will give his first course of lectures in the month 
 of November next. The great work on which he was engaged 
 will be published in a month or so; the house of Cavalier is 
 bringing it out on half-profits with my father, and has paid 
 him thirty thousand francs on account of his share ; so he is 
 buying the house we live in. The minister of justice allows 
 me a pension of twelve hundred francs as the daughter of a 
 retired magistrate ; my father has his pension of a thousand 
 crowns, and he had five thousand francs with his professorship. 
 We are so economical that we shall be almost rich. 
 
 " My Auguste will begin studying the law a few months 
 hence ; meanwhile, he has employment in the public prose- 
 cutor's office, and gets twelve hundred francs. Oh, Monsieur 
 Godefroid, never mention that miserable business of my poor 
 Auguste's. For my part, I bless him every day for the deed 
 which his grandfather has not yet forgiven. His mother 
 blesses him, Halpersohn is devoted to him, but the old public 
 prosecutor is implacable ! " 
 
 "What business?" asked Godefroid. 
 
 "Ah ! that is just like your generosity ! " cried Vanda. 
 "You have a noble heart. Your mother must be proud of 
 you " 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTOR Y. 223 
 
 " On my word, I know nothing of the matter you allude 
 to," said Godefroid. 
 
 "Really, you did not hear?" And she frankly told the 
 story of Auguste's borrowing from the doctor, admiring her 
 son for the action. 
 
 " But if I am to say nothing about this before the baron," 
 said Godefroid, " tell me how your son got out of the 
 scrape." 
 
 "Well," said Vanda, "as I told you, my son is in the 
 public prosecutor's office, and has met with the greatest kind- 
 ness. He was not kept more than eight-and-forty hours in the 
 Conciergerie, where he was lodged with the governor. The 
 worthy doctor, who did not get Auguste's beautiful, sublime 
 letter till the evening, withdrew the charge ; and by the inter- 
 vention of a former presiding judge of the Supreme Court a 
 man my father had never even seen the public prosecutor 
 had the police agent's report and the warrant for arrest both 
 destroyed. In fact, not a trace of the affair survives but in my 
 heart, in my son's conscience, and in his grandfather's mind 
 who, since that day, speaks to my boy in the coldest terms, 
 and treats him as a stranger. 
 
 "Only yesterday, Halpersohn was interceding for him; 
 but my father, who will not listen to me, much as he loves me, 
 replied : ' You are the person robbed, you can and ought to 
 forgive. But I am answerable for the thief and, when I sat 
 on the bench, I never pronounced a pardon ! ' ' You will kill 
 your daughter,' said Halpersohn I heard them. My father 
 kept silence." 
 
 " But who is it that has helped you?" 
 
 " A gentleman who is, we believe, employed to distribute 
 the benefactions of the Queen." 
 
 " What is he like? " asked Godefroid. 
 
 "He is a grave, thin man, sad-looking something like my 
 father. It was he who had my father conveyed to the house 
 where we now are, when he was in a high fever. And, just 
 
224 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 fancy, as soon as my father was well, I was removed from the 
 private hospital and brought there, where I found my old bed- 
 room just as though I had never left it. Halpersohn, whom 
 the tall gentleman had quite bewitched how I know not 
 then told me all about my father's sufferings, and how he had 
 sold the diamonds off his snuff-box ! My father and my boy 
 often without bread, and making believe to be rich in my 
 presence ! Oh, Monsieur Godefroid, those two men are 
 martyrs! What can I say to my father? I can only repay 
 him and my son by suffering for them, like them." 
 
 "And had the tall gentleman something of a military 
 air?" 
 
 "Oh, you know him ! " cried Vanda, as they reached the 
 door of the house. 
 
 She seized Godefroid's hand with the grip of a woman in 
 hysterics, and dragging him into a drawing-room of which the 
 door stood open, she exclaimed " Father, Monsieur Gode- 
 froid knows your benefactor." 
 
 Baron Bourlac, whom Godefroid found dressed in a style 
 suitable to a retired judge of his high rank, held out his hand 
 to Godefroid, and said 
 
 "I thought as much." 
 
 Godefroid shook his head in negation of any knowledge of 
 the details of this noble revenge ; but the baron did not give 
 him time to speak. 
 
 "Monsieur," he went on, "only Providence can be more 
 powerful, only Love can be more thoughtful, only Mother- 
 hood can be more clear-sighted, than your friends who are 
 allied with those great divinities. I bless the chance that has 
 led to our meeting again, for Monsieur Joseph has vanished 
 completely; and as he has succeeded in avoiding every snare 
 I could lay to ascertain his real name and residence, I should 
 have died in grief. But here, read his letter. And you know 
 him?" 
 
 Godefroid read as follows: 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 225 
 
 " Monsieur le Baron Bourlac, the money we have laid out 
 for you by the orders of a charitable lady amounts to a sum 
 of fifteen thousand francs. Take note of this, that it may be 
 repaid either by you or by your descendants when your family 
 is sufficiently prosperous to allow of it, for it belongs to the 
 poor. When such repayment is possible, deposit the money 
 you owe with the Brothers Mongenod, bankers. God forgive 
 you your sins! " 
 
 The letter was mysteriously signed with five crosses. 
 
 Godefroid returned it. " The five crosses, sure enough ! " 
 said he to himself. 
 
 "Now, since you know all," said the old man, "you who 
 were this mysterious lady's messenger tell me her name." 
 
 " Her name ! " cried Godefroid ; " her name ! Unhappy 
 man, never ask it ! never try to find it out. Oh, madame," 
 said he, taking Madame de Mergi's hand in his own, which 
 shook, " if you value your father's sanity, keep him in his 
 ignorance; never let him make any attempt " 
 
 The father, the daughter, and Auguste stood frozen with 
 amazement. 
 
 " But tell it ! " said Vanda. 
 
 'Well, then, the woman who has preserved your daughter 
 for you," said Godefroid, looking at the old lawyer, "who 
 has restored her to you, young, lovely, fresh, and living who 
 has snatched her from the grave who has rescued your grand- 
 son from disgrace who has secured to you a happy and 
 
 respected old age who has saved you all three " he paused, 
 
 " is a woman whom you sent innocent to the hulks for twenty 
 years," he went on, addressing Monsieur Bourlac, " on whom, 
 from your judgment-seat, you poured every insult, whose saint- 
 liness you mocked at, and from whom you snatched a lovely 
 daughter to send her to the most horrible death, for she was 
 guillotined ! " 
 
 Godefroid, seeing Vanda drop senseless on to a chair, 
 15 
 
226 THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 
 
 rushed out of the room, and from thence into the Alice 
 d'Antin, where he took to his heels. 
 
 "If you would earn my forgiveness," said Baron Bourlac 
 to his grandson, " follow that man and find out where he 
 lives." 
 
 Auguste was off like a dart. 
 
 By half-past eight next morning, Baron Bourlac was knock- 
 ing at the old yellow gate of the Hotel de la Chanterie, Rue 
 Chanoinesse. He asked for Madame de la Chanterie, and the 
 porter pointed to the stone steps. Happily they were all 
 going to breakfast, and Godefroid recognized the baron in the 
 courtyard through one of the loopholes that lighted the stairs. 
 He had but just time to fly down into the drawing-room where 
 they were all assembled, crying out " Baron Bourlac." 
 
 On hearing this name, Madame de la Chanterie, supported 
 by the Abbe de Veze, disappeared into her room. 
 
 "You shall not come in, you imp of Satan ! " cried Manon, 
 who recognized the lawyer and placed herself in front of the 
 drawing-room door. " Do you want to kill my mistress? " 
 
 "Come, Manon, let the gentleman pass," said Monsieur 
 Alain. 
 
 Manon dropped on to a chair as if her knees had both given 
 way at once. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the baron in a voice of deep emotion, 
 as he recognized Godefroid and Monsieur Joseph, and bowed 
 to the two strangers, " beneficence confers a claim on those 
 benefited by it ! " 
 
 "You owe nothing to us," said the worthy Alain; "you 
 owe everything to God." 
 
 "You are saints, and you have the serenity of saints," 
 replied the old lawyer. "You will hear me, I beg. I have 
 learnt that the superhuman blessings that have been heaped 
 on me for eighteen months past are the work of a person whom 
 I deeply injured in the course of my duty ; it was fifteen years 
 
THE SEAMY SIDE OF HISTORY. 227 
 
 before I was assured of her innocence ; this, gentlemen, is 
 the single remorse I have known as due to the exercise of my 
 powers. Listen ! I have not much longer to live, but I shall 
 lose that short term of life, necessary still to my children 
 whom Madame de la Chanterie has saved, if I cannot win her 
 forgiveness. Gentlemen, I will remain kneeling on the square 
 of Notre-Dame till she has spoken one word ! I will wait for 
 her there ! I will kiss the print of her feet ; I will find tears 
 to soften her heart I who have been dried up like stubble by 
 seeing my daughter's sufferings " 
 
 The door of Madame de la Chanterie's room was opened, 
 the Abbe de Veze came through like a shade, and said to 
 Monsieur Joseph 
 
 "That voice is killing madame." 
 
 " What ! she is there ! She has passed there ! " cried 
 Bourlac. 
 
 He fell on his knees, kissed the floor, and melted into tears, 
 crying in a heart-rending tone 
 
 " In the name of Jesus who died on the cross, forgive ! 
 forgive ! For my child has suffered a thousand deaths ! " 
 
 The old man collapsed so entirely that the spectators 
 believed he was dead. 
 
 At this moment Madame de la Chanterie appeared like a 
 spectre in the doorway, leaning, half-fainting, against the 
 side-post. 
 
 "In the name of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, whom 
 I see on the scaffold, of Madame Elizabeth, of my daughter, 
 and of yours in the name of Jesus, I forgive you." 
 
 As he heard the words, the old man looked up and said 
 
 "Thus are the angels avenged ! " 
 
 Monsieur Joseph and Monsieur Nicolas helped him to his 
 feet and led him out to the courtyard ; Godefroid went to call 
 a coach ; and, when they heard the rattle of wheels, Monsieur 
 Nicolas said, as he helped the old man into it 
 
 "Come, no more, monsieur, or you will kill the mother 
 
228 
 
 THE SEAMY SIDE OF .HISTORY. 
 
 too. The power of God is infinite, but human nature has its 
 limits." 
 
 That day Godefroid joined the Order of the Brethren of 
 Consolation. 
 
 VIERZCHOVNIA, UKRAINE, December, 1847. 
 
AT THE SIGN OF THE CAT AND 
 RACKET 
 
 (La Maison du Chat-qui-Pelote). 
 Dedicated to Mademoiselle Marie de Montheau. 
 
 HALF-WAY down the Rue Saint-Denis, almost at the corner 
 of the Rue du Petit-Lion, there stood formerly one of those 
 delightful houses which enable historians to reconstruct old 
 Paris by analogy. The threatening walls of this tumbledown 
 abode seemed to have been decorated with hieroglyphics. .For 
 what other name could the passer-by give to the Xs and Vs 
 which the horizontal or diagonal timbers traced on the front, 
 outlined by little parallel cracks in the plaster ? It was evident 
 that every beam quivered in its mortises at the passing of the 
 lightest vehicle. This venerable structure was crowned by a 
 triangular roof of which no example will, ere long, be seen in 
 Paris. This covering, warped by the extremes of the Paris 
 climate, projected three feet over the roadway, as much to 
 protect the threshold from the rainfall as to shelter the wall 
 of a loft and its sill-less dormer window. This upper story 
 was built of planks, overlapping each other like slates, in 
 order, no doubt, not to overweight the frail house. 
 
 One rainy morning in the month of March, a young man, 
 carefully wrapped in his cloak, stood under the awning of a 
 store opposite this old house, which he was studying with the 
 enthusiasm of an antiquary. In point of fact, this relic of the 
 civic life of the sixteenth century offered more than one 
 problem to the consideration of an observer. Each story pre- 
 sented some singularity; on the first floor four tall, narrow 
 windows, close together, were filled as to the lower panes with 
 boards, so as to produce the doubtful light by which a clever 
 
 (229) 
 
230 SZGW OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 clerk can ascribe to his goods the color his customers inquire 
 for. The young man seemed very scornful of this essential 
 part of the house ; his eyes had not yet rested on it. The win- 
 dows of the second floor, where the Venetian blinds were 
 drawn up, revealing little India-muslin curtains behind the 
 large Bohemian glass-panes, did not interest him either. His 
 attention was attracted to the third floor, to the modest sash- 
 frames of wood, so clumsily wrought that they might have 
 found a place in the Museum of Arts and Crafts to illustrate 
 the early efforts of French carpentry. These windows were 
 glazed with small squares of glass so green that, but for his 
 good eyes, the young man could not have seen the blue- 
 checked cotton curtains which screened the mysteries of the 
 room from profane eyes. Now and then the watcher, weary 
 of his fruitless contemplation, or of the silence in which the 
 house was buried, like the whole neighborhood, dropped his 
 eyes toward the lower regions. An involuntary smile parted 
 his lips each time he looked at the store, where, in fact, there 
 were some laughable details. 
 
 A formidable wooden beam, resting on four pillars, which 
 appeared to have bent under the weight of the decrepit house, 
 had been incrusted with as many coats of different paint as 
 there are of rouge on an old duchess' cheek. In the middle 
 of this broad and fantastically carved joist there was an old 
 painting representing a cat playing rackets. This picture was 
 what moved the young man to mirth. But it must be said 
 that the wittiest of modern painters could not invent so comi- 
 cal a caricature. The animal held in one of its fore-paws a 
 racket as big as itself, and stood on its hind legs to aim at 
 hitting an enormous ball, returned by a man in a fine em- 
 broidered coat. Drawing, color, and accessories, all were 
 treated in such a way as to suggest that the artist had meant 
 to make game of the store-owner and of the passing observer. 
 Time, while impairing this artless painting, had made it yet 
 more grotesque by introducing some uncertain features which 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND KACKET. 231 
 
 must have puzzled the conscientious idler. For instance, the 
 cat's tail had been eaten into in such a way that it might now 
 have been taken for the figure of a spectator so long, and 
 thick, and furry were the tails of our forefathers' cats. To 
 the right of the picture, on an azure field which ill disguised 
 the decay of the wood, might be read the name " Guillaume," 
 and to the left, "Successor to Master Chevrel." Sun and 
 rain had worn away most of the gilding parsimoniously applied 
 to the letters of this superscription, in which the Us and Vs 
 had changed places in obedience to the laws of old-world 
 orthography. 
 
 To quench the pride of those who believe that the world 
 is growing cleverer day by day, and that modern humbug 
 surpasses everything, it may be observed that these signs, of 
 which the origin seems so whimsical to many Paris merchants, 
 are the dead pictures of once living pictures by which our 
 roguish ancestors contrived to tempt customers into their 
 houses. Thus the Spinning Sow, the Green Monkey, and 
 others, were animals in cages whose skill astonished the 
 passer-by, and whose accomplishments prove the patience of 
 the fifteenth-century artisan. Such curiosities did more to 
 enrich their fortunate owners than the signs of " Providence,'' 
 "Good-faith," "Grace of God," and "Decapitation of John 
 the Baptist," which may still be seen in the Rue Saint-Denis. 
 
 However, our stranger was certainly not standing there to 
 admire the cat, which a minute's attention sufficed to stamp 
 on his memory. The young man himself had his peculiarities. 
 His cloak, folded after the manner of an antique drapery, 
 showed a smart pair of shoes, all the more remarkable in the 
 midst of the Paris mud, because he wore white silk stockings, 
 on which the splashes betrayed his impatience. He had just 
 come, no doubt, from a wedding or a ball ; for at this early 
 hour he had in his hand a pair of white gloves, and his black 
 hair, now out of curl, and flowing over his shoulders, showed 
 that it had been dressed a la Caracalla, a fashion introduced 
 
232 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 as much by David's school of painting as by the mania for 
 Greek and Roman styles which characterized the early years 
 of this century. 
 
 In spite of the noise made by a few truck gardeners, who, 
 being late, rattled past toward the great market-place at a 
 gallop, the busy street lay in a stillness of which the magic 
 charm is known only to those who have wandered through 
 deserted Paris at the hours when its roar, hushed for a moment, 
 rises and spreads in the distance like the great voice of the sea. 
 This strange young man must have seemed as curious to the 
 storekeeping folk of the " Cat and Racket " as the " Cat and 
 Racket " was to him. A dazzling white cravat made his 
 anxious face look even paler than it really was. The fire that 
 flashed in his black eyes, gloomy and sparkling by turns, was 
 in harmony with the singular outline of his features, with his 
 wide, flexible mouth, hardened into a smile. His forehead, 
 knit with violent annoyance, had a stamp of doom. Is not 
 the forehead the most prophetic feature of a man ? When the 
 stranger's brow expressed passion the furrows formed in it 
 were terrible in their strength and energy ; but when he re- 
 covered his calmness, so easily upset, it beamed with a lumi- 
 nous grace which gave great attractiveness to a countenance 
 in which joy, grief, love, anger, or scorn blazed out so con- 
 tagiously that the coldest man could not fail to be impressed. 
 
 He was so thoroughly vexed by the time when the dormer 
 window of the loft was suddenly flung open, that he did not 
 observe the apparition of three laughing faces, pink and white 
 and chubby, but as vulgar as the face of Commerce as it is 
 seen in sculpture on certain monuments. These three faces, 
 framed by the window, recalled the puffy cherubs floating 
 among the clouds that surround God the Father. The ap- 
 prentices snuffed up the exhalations of the street with an 
 eagerness that showed how hot and poisonous the atmosphere 
 of their garret must be. After pointing to the singular senti- 
 nel, the most jovial, as he seemed, of the apprentices retired 
 
SIGN Of THE CAT AND RACKET. 233 
 
 and came back holding an instrument whose hard metal pipe 
 is now superseded by a leather tube; and they all grinned 
 with mischief as they looked down on the loiterer, and 
 sprinkled him with a fine white shower of which the scent 
 proved that three chins had just been shaved. Standing on 
 tiptoe, in the farthest corner of their loft, to enjoy their vic- 
 tim's rage, the lads ceased laughing on seeing the haughty 
 indifference with which the young man shook his cloak, and 
 the intense contempt expressed by his face as he glanced up 
 at the empty window-frame. 
 
 At this moment a slender white hand threw up the lower 
 half of one of the clumsy windows on the third floor by the 
 aid of the sash-runners, of which the pulley so often suddenly 
 gives way and releases the heavy panes it ought to hold up. 
 The watcher was then rewarded for his long waiting. The 
 face of a young girl appeared, as fresh as one of the white cups 
 that bloom on the bosom of the waters, crowned by a frill of 
 tumbled India-muslin, which gave her head a look of ex- 
 quisite innocence. Though wrapped in brown stuff, her neck 
 and shoulders gleamed here and there through little openings 
 left by her movements in sleep. No expression of embarrass- 
 ment detracted from the candor of her face, or the calm look 
 of eyes immortalized long since in the sublime works of 
 Raphael ; here were the same grace, the same repose as in 
 these Virgins, and now proverbial. There was a delightful 
 contrast between the cheeks of that face on which sleep had, 
 as it were, given high relief to a superabundance of life, and 
 the antiquity of the heavy window with its clumsy shape and 
 black sill. Like those day-blowing flowers, which in the early 
 morning have not yet unfurled their cups, twisted by the chills 
 of night, the girl, as yet hardly awake, let her blue eyes 
 wander beyond the neighboring roofs to look at the sky; 
 then, from habit, she cast them down on the gloomy depths 
 of the street, where they immediately met those of her adorer. 
 Vanity, no doubt, distressed her at being seen in undress; she 
 
234 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 started back, the worn pulley gave way, and the sash fell with 
 the rapid run, which in our day has earned for this artless 
 invention of our forefathers an odious name.* The vision had 
 disappeared. 
 
 To the young man the most radiant star of morning seemed 
 to be hidden by a cloud. 
 
 During these little incidents the heavy inside shutters that 
 protected the slight windows of the store of the " Cat and 
 Racket " had been removed as if by magic. The old door 
 with its knocker was opened back against the wall of the 
 entry by a manservant, apparently coeval with the sign, who, 
 with a shaking hand, hung upon it a square of cloth, on which 
 were embroidered in yellow silk the words: " Guillaume, 
 successor to Chevrel." Many a passer-by would have found 
 it difficult to guess the class of trade carried on by Monsieur 
 Guillaume. Between the strong iron bars which protected his 
 store-windows on the outside, certain packages, wrapped in 
 brown linen, were hardly visible, though as numerous as her- 
 rings swimming in a shoal. Notwithstanding the primitive as- 
 pect of the Gothic front, Monsieur Guillaume, of all the mer- 
 chant clothiers in Paris, was the one whose stores were always 
 the best provided, whose connections were the most extensive, 
 and whose commercial honesty never lay under the slightest 
 suspicion. If some of his brethren in business made a con- 
 tract with the Government, and had not the required quantity 
 of cloth, he was always ready to deliver it, however large the 
 number of pieces tendered for. The wily dealer knew a 
 thousand ways of extracting the largest profits without being 
 obliged, like them, to court patrons, cringing to them, or 
 making them costly presents. When his fellow-tradesmen could 
 only pay in good bills of long date, he would mention his 
 notary as an accommodating man, and managed to get a 
 second profit out of the bargain, thanks to this arrangement, 
 which had made it a proverb among the traders of the Rue 
 * Fenfitre a la Guillotine : Guillotine-sash. 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 235 
 
 Saint-Denis : " Heaven preserve you from Monsieur Guil- 
 laume's notary ! " to signify a heavy discount. 
 
 The old merchant was to be seen standing on the threshold 
 of his store, as if by a miracle, the instant the servant with- 
 drew. Monsieur Guillaume looked at the Rue Saint-Denis, at 
 the neighboring stores, and at the weather, like a man disem- 
 barking at Havre, and seeing France once more after a long 
 voyage. Having convinced himself that nothing had changed 
 while he was asleep, he presently perceived the stranger on 
 guard, and he, on his part, gazed at the patriarchal draper as 
 Humboldt may have scrutinized the first electric eel he saw in 
 America. Monsieur Guillaume wore loose black velvet 
 breeches, pepper-and-salt stockings, and square-toed shoes 
 with silver buckles. His coat, with square-cut fronts, square- 
 cut tails, and square-cut collar, clothed his slightly bent 
 figure in greenish cloth, finished with white metal buttons, 
 tawny from wear. His gray hair was so accurately combed 
 and flattened over his yellow pate that it made it look like a 
 furrowed field. His little green eyes, that might have been 
 pierced with a gimlet, flashed beneath arches faintly tinged 
 with red in the place of eyebrows. Anxieties had wrinkled 
 his forehead with as many horizontal lines as there were 
 creases in his coat. This colorless face expressed patience, 
 commercial shrewdness, and the sort of wily cupidity which 
 is needful in business. At that time these old families were 
 less rare than they are now, in which the characteristic habits 
 and costume of their calling, surviving in the midst of more 
 recent civilization, were preserved as cherished traditions, like 
 the antediluvian remains found by Cuvier in the quarries. 
 
 The head of the Guillaume family was a notable upholder 
 of ancient practices ; he might be heard to regret the Provost 
 of Merchants, and never did he mention a decision of the 
 Tribunal of Commerce without calling it the " Sentence of 
 the Consuls." Up and dressed the first of the household, in 
 obedience, no doubt, to these old customs, he stood sternly 
 
236 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 awaiting the appearance of his three assistants, ready to scold 
 them in case they were late. These young disciples of Mer- 
 cury knew nothing more terrible than the wordless assiduity 
 with which the master scrutinized their faces and their move- 
 ments on Monday in search of evidence or traces of their 
 pranks. But at this moment the old clothier paid no heed to 
 his apprentices ; he was absorbed in trying to divine the motive 
 of the anxious looks which the young man in silk stockings and a 
 cloak cast alternately at his signboard and into the depths of 
 his store. The daylight was now brighter, and enabled the 
 stranger to discern the cashier's corner inclosed by a railing 
 and screened by old, green-silk curtains, where were kept the 
 immense ledgers, the silent oracles of the house. The too 
 inquisitive gazer seemed to covet this little nook, and to be 
 taking the plan of a dining-room at one side, lighted by a sky- 
 light, whence the family at meals could easily see the smallest 
 incident that might occur at the store-door. So much affec- 
 tion for his dwelling seemed suspicious to a trader who had 
 lived long enough to remember the law of maximum prices; 
 Monsieur Guillaume naturally thought that this sinister per- 
 sonage had an eye to the till of the Cat and Racket. After 
 quietly observing the mute duel which was going on between 
 his master and the stranger, the eldest of the apprentices, 
 having seen that the young man was stealthily watching the 
 windows of the third floor, ventured to place himself on the 
 flagstone where Monsieur Guillaume was standing. He took 
 two steps out into the street, raised his head, and fancied that 
 he caught sight of Mademoiselle Augustine Guillaume in hasty 
 retreat. The draper, annoyed by his assistant's perspicacity, 
 shot a side-glance at him ; but the draper and his amorous 
 apprentice were suddenly relieved from the fears which the 
 young man's presence had excited in their minds. He hailed 
 a hackney-coach on its way to a neighboring stand, and jumped 
 into it with an air of affected indifference. This departure 
 was a balm to the hearts of the other two lads, who had been 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 237 
 
 somewhat uneasy as to meeting the victim of their practical 
 joke. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen, what ails you that you are standing 
 therewith your arms folded?" said Monsieur Guillaume to his 
 three neophytes. " In former days, bless you, when I was in 
 Master Chevrel's service, I should have overhauled more than 
 two pieces of cloth by this time." 
 
 " Then it was daylight earlier," said the second assistant, 
 whose duty this was. 
 
 The old storekeeper could not help smiling. Though two 
 of these young fellows, who were confided to his care by their 
 fathers, rich manufacturers at Louvres and at Sedan, had only 
 to ask and to have a hundred thousand francs the day when 
 they were old enough to settle in life, Guillaume regarded it 
 as his duty to keep them under the rod of an old-world des- 
 potism, unknown nowadays in the showy modern stores, where 
 the apprentices expect to be rich men at thirty. He made 
 them work like negroes. These three assistants were equal to 
 a business which would harry ten such clerks as those whose 
 sybaritical tastes now swell the columns of the budget. Not a 
 sound disturbed the peace of this solemn house, where the 
 hinges we re always oiled, and where the meanest article of fur- 
 niture showed the respectable cleanliness which reveals strict 
 order and economy. The most waggish of the three youths 
 often amused himself by writing the date of its first appearance 
 on the Gruyere cheese which was left to their tender mercies 
 at breakfast, and which it was their pleasure to leave untouched. 
 This bit of mischief, and a few others of the same stamp, would 
 sometimes bring a smile on the face of the younger of Guil- 
 laume's two daughters, the pretty maiden who had just now 
 appeared to the bewitched man in the street. 
 
 Though each of the apprentices, even the eldest, paid a 
 round sum for his board, not one of them would have been 
 bold enough to remain at the master's table when dessert was 
 served. When Madame Guillaume talked of dressing the 
 
238 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 salad, the hapless youths trembled as they thought of the thrift 
 with which her prudent hand dispensed the oil. They could 
 never think of spending a night away from the house without 
 having given, long before, a plausible reason for such an 
 irregularity. Every Sunday, each in his turn, two of them 
 accompanied the Guillaume family to mass at Saint-Leu, and 
 to vespers. Mesdemoiselles Virginie and Augustine, simply 
 attired in calico print, each took the arm of an apprentice 
 and walked in front, under the piercing eye of their mother, 
 who closed the little family procession with her husband, 
 accustomed by her to carry two large prayer-books, bound in 
 black morocco. The second apprentice received no salary. 
 As for the eldest, whose twelve years of perseverance and dis- 
 cretion had initiated him into the secrets of the house, he was 
 paid eight hundred francs a year as the reward of his labors. 
 On certain family festivals he received as a gratuity some little 
 gift, to which Madame Guillaume's dry and wrinkled hand 
 alone gave value netted purses, which she took care to stuff 
 with cotton-batting, to show off the fancy stitches, braces of 
 the strongest make, or heavy silk stockings. Sometimes, but 
 rarely, this prime minister was admitted to share the pleasures 
 of the family when they went into the country, or when, after 
 waiting for months, they made up their mind to exert the 
 right acquired by taking a box at the theatre to command a 
 piece which Paris had already forgotten. 
 
 As to the other assistants, the barrier of respect which for- 
 merly divided a master draper from his apprentices was so 
 firmly established between them and the old storekeeper, that 
 they would have been more likely to steal a piece of cloth 
 than to infringe this time-honored etiquette. Such reserve 
 may now appear ridiculous; but these old houses were a 
 school of honesty and sound morals. The masters adopted 
 their apprentices. The young man's linen was cared for, 
 mended, and often replaced by the mistress of the house. If 
 an apprentice fell ill, he was the object of truly maternal at- 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 239 
 
 tendon. In a case of danger the master lavished his money 
 in calling in the most celebrated physicians, for he was not 
 answerable to their parents merely for the good conduct and 
 training of the lads. If one of them, whose character was 
 unimpeachable, suffered misfortune, these old tradesmen knew 
 how to value the intelligence he had displayed, and they did 
 not hesitate to intrust the happiness of their daughters to 
 men whom they had long trusted with their fortunes. Guil- 
 laume was one of these men of the old school, and if he had 
 their ridiculous side, he had all their good qualities j and 
 Joseph Lebas, the chief assistant, an orphan without any for- 
 tune, was in his mind destined to be the husband of Vir- 
 ginie, his elder daughter. But Joseph did not share the 
 symmetrical ideas of his master, who would not for an empire 
 have given his second daughter in marriage before the elder. 
 The unhappy assistant felt that his heart was wholly given to 
 Mademoiselle Augustine, the younger. In order to justify 
 this passion, which had grown up in secret, it is necessary 
 to inquire a little further into the springs of the absolute 
 government which ruled the old cloth-merchant's household. 
 Guillaume had two daughters. The elder, Mademoiselle 
 Virginie, was the very image of her mother. Madame Guil- 
 laume, daughter of the Sieur Chevrel, sat so upright in the 
 stool behind her desk, that more than once she had heard 
 some wag bet that she was a stuffed figure. Her long, thin 
 face betrayed exaggerated piety. Devoid of attractions or 
 of amiable manners, Madame Guillaume commonly decorated 
 her head that of a woman near on sixty with a cap of a 
 particular and unvarying shape, with long lappets, like that 
 of a widow. In all the neighborhood she was known as the 
 "portress nun." Her speech was curt, and her movements 
 had the stiff precision of a semaphore. Her eye, with a 
 gleam in it like a cat's, seemed to spite the world because she 
 was so ugly. . Mademoiselle Virginie, brought up, like her 
 younger sister, under the domestic rule of her mother, had 
 
240 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 reached the age of eight-and-twenty. Youth mitigated the 
 graceless effect which her likeness to her mother sometimes 
 gave to her features, but maternal austerity had endowed her 
 with two great qualities which made up for everything. She 
 was patient and gentle. Mademoiselle Augustine, who was but 
 just eighteen, was not like either her father or her mother. 
 She was one of those daughters whose total absence of any 
 physical affinity with their parents makes one believe in the 
 adage : God gives children. Augustine was little, or, to 
 describe her more truly, delicately made. Full of gracious 
 candor, a man of the world could have found no fault in the 
 charming girl beyond a certain meanness of gesture or vul- 
 garity of attitude, and sometimes a want of ease. Her silent 
 and placid face was full of the transient melancholy which 
 comes over all young girls who are too weak to dare to resist 
 their mother's will. 
 
 The two sisters, always plainly dressed, could not gratify 
 the innate vanity of womanhood but by a luxury of cleanliness 
 which became them wonderfully, and made them harmonize 
 with the polished counters and the shining shelves, on which 
 the old manservant never left a speck of dust, and with the 
 old-world simplicity of all they saw about them. As their 
 style of living compelled them to find the elements of happi- 
 ness in persistent work, Augustine and Virginie had hitherto 
 always satisfied their mother, who secretly prided herself on 
 the perfect characters of her two daughters. It is easy to 
 imagine the results of the training they had received. 
 Brought up to a commercial life, accustomed to hear nothing 
 but dreary arguments and calculations about trade, having 
 studied nothing but grammar, bookkeeping, a little Bible- 
 history, and the history of France in Le Ragois, and never 
 reading any book but those their mother would sanction, their 
 ideas had not acquired much scope. They knew perfectly 
 how to keep house ; they were familiar with the prices of 
 things ; they understood the difficulty of amassing money ; 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 241 
 
 they were economical, and had a great respect for the qualities 
 that make a man of business. Although their father was rich, 
 they were as skilled in darning as in embroidery ; their mother 
 often talked of having them taught to cook, so that they 
 might know how to order a dinner and scold a cook with due 
 knowledge. They knew nothing of the pleasures of the 
 world ; and, seeing how their parents spent their exemplary 
 lives, they very rarely suffered their eyes to wander beyond 
 the walls of their hereditary home, which to their mother was 
 the whole universe. The meetings to which family anniver- 
 saries gave rise filled in the future of earthly joy to them. 
 
 When the great drawing-room on the second floor was to 
 be prepared to receive company Madame Roquin, a Demoi- 
 selle Chevrel, fifteen months younger than her cousin, and 
 bedecked with diamonds ; young Rabourdin, employed in the 
 Finance Office ; Monsieur Cesar Birotteau, the rich perfumer, 
 and his wife, known as Madame Cesar ; Monsieur Camusot, 
 the richest silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, with his 
 father-in-law, Monsieur Cardot, two or three old bankers, and 
 some immaculate ladies the arrangements, made necessary 
 by the way in which everything was packed away the plate, 
 the Dresden china, the candlesticks, and the glass made a 
 variety in the monotonous lives of the three women, who came 
 and went and exerted themselves as nuns would to receive 
 their bishop. Then, in the evening, when all three were 
 tired out with having wiped, rubbed, unpacked, and arranged 
 all the gauds of the festival, as the girls helped their mother 
 to undress, Madame Guillaume would say to them, " Children, 
 we have done nothing to-day." 
 
 When, on very great occasions, " the portress nun " allowed 
 dancing, restricting the games of boston, whist, and back- 
 gammon within the limits of her bedroom, such a concession 
 was accounted as the most unhoped felicity, and made them 
 happier than going to the great balls, to two or three of which 
 Guillaume would take the girls at the time of the Carnival. 
 16 
 
242 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 And once a year the worthy draper gave an entertainment, 
 when he spared no expense. However rich and fashionable 
 the persons invited might be, they were careful not to be 
 absent ; for the most important houses on the Exchange had 
 recourse to the immense credit, the fortune, or the time- 
 honored experience of Monsieur Guillaume. Still, the excel- 
 lent merchant's two daughters did not benefit as much as 
 might be supposed by the lessons the world has to offer to 
 young spirits. At these parties, which were indeed set down 
 in the ledger to the credit of the house, they wore dresses the 
 shabbiness of which made them blush. Their style of dancing 
 was not in any way remarkable, and their mother's surveil- 
 lance did not allow of their holding any conversation with 
 their partners beyond Yes and No. Also, the law of the old 
 sign of the Cat and Racket commanded that they should be 
 home by eleven o'clock, the hour when balls and fetes begin 
 to be lively. Thus their pleasures, which seemed to conform 
 very fairly to their father's position, were often made insipid 
 by circumstances which were part of the family habits and 
 principles. 
 
 As to their usual life, one remark will sufficiently paint it. 
 Madame Guillaume required her daughters to be dressed very 
 early in the morning, to come down every day at the same 
 hour, and she ordered their employments with monastic regu- 
 larity. Augustine, however, had been gifted by chance with 
 a spirit lofty enough to feel the emptiness of such a life. Her 
 blue eyes would sometimes be raised as if to pierce the depths 
 of that gloomy staircase and those damp warerooms. After 
 sounding the profound cloistral silence, she seemed to be 
 listening to remote, inarticulate revelations of the life of pas- 
 sion, which accounts feelings as of higher value than things. 
 And at such moments her cheek would flush, her idle hands 
 would lay the muslin sewing on the polished oak counter, and 
 presently her mother would say in a voice, of which even the 
 softest tones were sour: "Augustine, my treasure, what are 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 243 
 
 you thinking about?" It is possible that two romances dis- 
 covered by Augustine in the cupboard of a cook Madame 
 Guillaume had lately discharged " Hippolyte Comte de 
 Douglas " and " Le Comte de Comminges " may have con- 
 tributed to develop the ideas of the young girl, who had de- 
 voured them in secret, during the long nights of the past 
 winter. 
 
 And so Augustine's expression of vague longing, her gentle 
 voice, her jasmine skin, and her blue eyes had lighted in poor 
 Lebas' soul a flame as ardent as it was reverent. From an 
 easily understood caprice, Augustine felt no affection for the 
 orphan ; perhaps because she did not know that he loved her. 
 On the other hand, the senior apprentice, with his long legs, 
 his chestnut hair, his big hands and powerful frame, had found 
 a secret admirer in Mademoiselle Virginie, who, in spite of 
 her dower of fifty thousand crowns, had as yet no suitor. 
 Nothing could be more natural than these two passions at 
 cross-purposes, born in the silence of the dingy store, as violets 
 bloom in the depths of a wood. The mute and constant looks 
 which made the young people's eyes meet by sheer need of 
 change in the midst of persistent work and cloistered peace, 
 was sure, sooner or later, to give rise to feelings of love. The 
 habit of seeing always the same face leads insensibly to our 
 reading there the qualities of the soul, and at last effaces all 
 its defects. 
 
 "At the pace at which that man goes, our girls will soon 
 have to go on their knees to a suitor ! " said Monsieur Guil- 
 laume to himself, as he read the first decree by which Napo- 
 leon drew in advance on the conscript classes. 
 
 From that day the old merchant, grieved at seeing his 
 eldest daughter fade, remembered how he had married Made- 
 moiselle Chevrel under much the same circumstances as those 
 of Joseph Lebas and Virginie. A good bit of business, to 
 marry off his daughter, and discharge a sacred debt by repay- 
 ing to an orphan the benefit he had formerly received from his 
 
244 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 predecessor under similar conditions ! Joseph Lebas, who 
 was now three-and-thirty, was aware of the obstacle which a 
 difference of fifteen years placed between Augustine and him- 
 self. Being also too clear-sighted not to understand Monsieur 
 Guillaume's purpose, he knew his inexorable principles well 
 enough to feel sure that the second would never marry before 
 the elder. So the hapless assistant, whose heart was as warm 
 as his legs were long and his chest deep, suffered in silence. 
 
 This was the state of affairs in the tiny republic which, in 
 the heart of the Rue Saint-Denis, was not unlike a dependency 
 of La Trappe.* But to give a full account of events as well as 
 of feelings, it is needful to go back to some months before the 
 scene with which this story opens. At dusk one evening, a 
 young man, passing the darkened store of the Cat and Racket, 
 had paused for a moment to gaze at a picture which might 
 have arrested every painter in the world. The store was not 
 yet lighted, and was as a dark cave, beyond which the dining- 
 room was visible. A hanging-lamp shed the yellow light 
 which lends such charm to pictures of the Dutch school. The 
 white linen, the silver, the cut-glass, were brilliant accessories, 
 and made more picturesque by strong contrasts of light and 
 shade. The figures of the head of the family and his wife, the 
 faces of the apprentices, and the pure form of Augustine, near 
 whom a fat, chubby-cheeked maid was standing, composed so 
 strange a group ; the heads were so singular, and every face 
 had so candid an expression ; it was so easy to read the 
 peace, the silence, the modest way of life in this family, that, 
 to an artist accustomed to render nature, there was something 
 hopeless in any attempt to depict this scene, come upon by 
 chance. The stranger was a young painter, who, seven years 
 before, had gained the first prize for painting. He had now 
 just come back from Rome. His soul, full-fed with poetry; 
 his eyes, satiated with Raphael and Michael Angelo, thirsted 
 for real nature after long dwelling in the pompous land where 
 * A Cisterian abbey of severe asceticism. 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 245 
 
 art has everywhere left something grandiose. Right or wrong, 
 this was his personal feeling. His heart, which had long been 
 a prey to the fire of Italian passion, craved one of those 
 modest and meditative maidens whom in Rome he had unfor- 
 tunately seen only in paintings. From the enthusiasm pro- 
 duced in his excited fancy by the living picture before him, 
 he naturally passed to a profound admiration for the principal 
 figure ; Augustine seemed to be pensive, and did not eat ; by 
 the arrangement of the lamp the light fell full on her face, and 
 her bust seemed to move in a circle of fire, which threw up the 
 shape of her head and illuminated it with almost supernatural 
 effect. The artist involuntarily compared her to an exiled 
 angel, dreaming of heaven. An almost unknown emotion, 
 a limpid, seething love flooded his heart. After remaining a 
 minute, overwhelmed by the weight of his ideas, he tore him- 
 self from his bliss, went home, ate nothing, and could not 
 sleep. 
 
 The next day he went to his studio, and did not come out 
 of it till he had placed on canvas the magic of the scene of 
 which the memory had, in a sense, made him a devotee ; his 
 happiness was incomplete till he should possess a faithful por- 
 trait of his idol. He went many times past the house of the 
 Cat and Racket ; he even ventured in once or twice, under a 
 disguise, to get a closer view of the bewitching creature that 
 Madame Guillaume covered with her wing. For eight whole 
 months, devoted to his love and to his brush, he was lost to 
 the sight of his most intimate friends, forgetting the world, 
 the theatre, poetry, music, and all his dearest habits. One 
 morning Girodet broke through all the barriers with which 
 artists are familiar, and which they know how to evade, went 
 into his room, and woke him by asking: "What are you 
 going to send to the Salon ? " The artist grasped his friend's 
 hand, dragged him off to the studio, uncovered a small easel 
 picture and a portrait. After a long and eager study of the 
 two masterpieces, Girodet threw himself on his comrade's 
 
246 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 neck and hugged him, without speaking a word. His feelings 
 could only be expressed as he felt them soul to soul. 
 
 "You are in love?" said Girodet. 
 
 They both knew that the finest portraits by Titian, Raphael, 
 and Leonardo da Vinci were the outcome of the enthusiastic 
 sentiments by which, indeed, under various conditions, every 
 masterpiece is engendered. The artist only bent his head in 
 reply. 
 
 " How happy are you to be able to be in love, here, after 
 coming back from Italy ! But I do not advise you to send 
 such works as these to the Salon," the great painter went on. 
 " You see, these two works will not be appreciated. Such 
 true coloring, such prodigious work, cannot yet be under- 
 stood; the public is not accustomed to such depths. The 
 pictures we paint, my dear fellow, are mere screens. We 
 should do better to turn rhymes, and translate the antique 
 poets ! There is more glory to be looked for there than from 
 our luckless canvasses ! " 
 
 Notwithstanding this charitable advice, the two pictures 
 were exhibited. The " Interior " made a revolution in paint- 
 ing. It gave birth to the pictures of genre which pour into 
 all our exhibitions in such prodigious quantity that they might 
 be supposed to be produced by machinery. As to the portrait, 
 few artists have forgotten that lifelike work ; and the public, 
 which as a body is sometimes discerning, awarded it the crown 
 which Girodet himself had hung over it. The two pictures 
 were surrounded by a vast throng. They fought for places, 
 as women say. Speculators and moneyed men would have 
 covered the canvas with double Napoleons, but the artist 
 obstinately refused to sell or to make replicas. An enormous 
 sum was offered him for the right of engraving them, but the 
 printsellers were not more favored than the amateurs. 
 
 Though these incidents occupied the world, they were not 
 of a nature to penetrate the recesses of the monastic solitude 
 in the Rue Saint-Denis. However, when paying a visit to 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 24? 
 
 Madame Guillaume, the notary's wife spoke of the exhibition 
 before Augustine, of whom she was very fond, and explained its 
 purpose. Madame Roquin's gossip naturally inspired Augus- 
 tine with a wish to see the pictures, and with courage enough 
 to ask her cousin secretly to take her to the Louvre. Her 
 cousin succeeded in the negotiations she opened with Madame 
 Guillaume for permission to release the young girl for two hours 
 from her dull labors. Augustine was thus able to make her way 
 through the crowd to see the crowned work. A fit of trem- 
 bling shook her like an aspen leaf as she recognized herself. 
 She was terrified, and looked about her to find Madame 
 Roquin, from whom she had been separated by a tide of 
 people. At that moment her frightened eyes fell on the im- 
 passioned face of the young painter. She at once recalled 
 the figure of a loiterer whom, being curious, she had fre- 
 quently observed, believing him to be a new neighbor. 
 
 "You see how love has inspired me," said the artist in the 
 timid creature's ear, and she stood in dismay at the words. 
 
 She found supernatural courage to enable her to push 
 through the crowd and join her cousin, who was still strug- 
 gling with the mass of people that hindered her from getting 
 to the picture. 
 
 "You will be stifled ! " cried Augustine. " Let us go." 
 
 But there are moments, at the Salon, when two women are 
 not always free to direct their steps through the galleries. 
 By the irregular course to which they were compelled by the 
 press, Mademoiselle Guillaume and her cousin were pushed 
 to within a few steps of the second picture. Chance thus 
 brought them, both together, to where they could easily see 
 the canvas made famous by fashion, for once in agreement 
 with talent. Madame Roquin's exclamation of surprise was 
 lost in the hubbub and buzz of the crowd ; Augustine invol- 
 untarily shed tears at the sight of this wonderful study. 
 Then, by an almost unaccountable impulse, she laid her finger 
 on her lips, as she perceived quite near her the ecstatic face 
 
248 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 of the young painter. The stranger replied by a nod, and 
 pointed to Madame Roquin, as a spoil-sport, to show Augus- 
 tine that he had understood. This pantomime struck the 
 young girl like hot coals on her flesh ; she felt quite guilty as 
 she perceived that there was a compact between herself and 
 the artist. The suffocating heat, the dazzling sight of beauti- 
 ful dresses, the bewilderment produced in Augustine's brain 
 by the truth of coloring, the multitude of living or painted 
 figures, the profusion of gilt frames, gave her a sense of in- 
 toxication which doubled her alarms. She would perhaps 
 have fainted if an unknown rapture had not surged up in her 
 heart to vivify her whole being, in spite of this chaos of sen- 
 sations. She nevertheless believed herself to be under the 
 power of the devil, of whose awful snares she had been 
 warned by the thundering words of preachers. This moment 
 was to her like a moment of madness. She found herself ac- 
 companied to her cousin's carriage by the young man, radiant 
 with joy and love. Augustine, a prey to an agitation new to 
 her experience, an intoxication which seemed to abandon her 
 to nature, listened to the eloquent voice of her heart, and 
 looked again and again at the young painter, betraying the 
 emotion that came over her. Never had the bright rose of 
 her cheeks shown in stronger contrast with the whiteness of 
 her skin. The artist saw her beauty in all its bloom, her 
 maiden modesty in all its glory. She herself felt a sort of 
 rapture mingled with terror at thinking that her presence had 
 brought happiness to him whose name was on every lip, and 
 whose talent lent immortality to transient scenes. She was 
 loved ! It was impossible to doubt it. When she no longer 
 saw the artist, these simple words still echoed in her ear: 
 "You see how love has inspired me ! " And the throbs of 
 her heart, as they grew deeper, seemed a pain, her heated blood 
 revealed so many unknown forces in her being. She affected 
 a severe headache to avoid replying to her cousin's questions 
 concerning the pictures ; but on their return Madame Roquin 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 249 
 
 could not forbear from speaking to Madame Guillaume of the 
 fame that had fallen on the house of the Cat and Racket, and 
 Augustine quaked in every limb as she heard her mother say 
 that she should go to the Salon to see her house there. The 
 young girl again declared herself suffering, and obtained leave 
 to go to bed. 
 
 " That is what comes of sight-seeing," exclaimed Monsieur 
 Guillaume " a headache. And is it so very amusing to see 
 in a picture what you can see any day in your own street ? 
 Don't talk to me of your artists ! Like writers, they are a 
 starveling crew. Why the devil need they choose my house 
 to flout it in their pictures ? " 
 
 " It may help to sell a few ells more of cloth," said Joseph 
 Lebas. 
 
 This remark did not protect art and thought from being 
 condemned once again before the judgment-seat of trade. As 
 may be supposed, these speeches did not infuse much hope 
 into Augustine, who, during the night, gave herself up to the 
 first meditations of love. The events of the day were like a 
 dream, which it was joy to recall to her mind. She was 
 initiated into the fears, the hopes, the remorse, all the ebb 
 and flow of feeling which could not fail to toss a heart so 
 simple and so timid as hers. What a void she perceived in 
 this gloomy house ! What a treasure she found in her soul ! 
 To be the wife of a genius, to share his glory ! What ravages 
 must such a vision make in the heart of a girl brought up 
 among such a family ! What hopes must it raise in a young 
 creature who, in the midst of sordid elements, had pined for a 
 life of elegance ! A sunbeam had fallen into the prison. 
 Augustine was suddenly in love. So many of her feelings 
 were soothed that she succumbed without reflection. At 
 eighteen does not love hold a prism between the world and 
 the eyes of a young girl ? She was incapable of suspecting 
 the hard facts which result from the union of a loving woman 
 with a man of imagination, and she believed herself called to 
 
250 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 make him happy, not seeing any disparity between herself and 
 him. To her the future would be as the present. When, 
 next day, her father and mother returned from the Salon, 
 their dejected faces proclaimed some disappointment. In the 
 first place, the painter had removed the two pictures ; and 
 then Madame Guillaume had lost her cashmere shawl. But 
 the news that the pictures had disappeared from the walls 
 since her visit revealed to Augustine a delicacy of sentiment 
 which a woman can always appreciate, even by instinct. 
 
 On the morning when, on his way home from a ball, 
 Theodore de Sommervieux for this was the name which fame 
 had stamped on Augustine's heart had been squirted on by the 
 apprentices while awaiting the appearance of his artless little 
 friend, who certainly did not know that he was there, the 
 lovers had seen each other for the fourth time only since their 
 meeting at the Salon. The difficulties which the rule of the 
 house placed in the way of the painter's ardent nature gave 
 added violence to his passion for Augustine. 
 
 How could he get near to a young girl seated in a counting- 
 house between two such women as Mademoiselle Virgin ie and 
 Madame Guillaume? How could he correspond with her 
 when her mother never left her side? Ingenious, as lovers 
 are, to imagine woes, Theodore saw a rival in one of the as- 
 sistants, to whose interests he supposed the others to be devoted. 
 If he should evade these sons of Argus, he would yet be 
 wrecked under the stern eyes of the old draper or of Madame 
 Guillaume. The very vehemence of his passion hindered the 
 young painter from hitting on the ingenious expedients 
 which, in prisoners and in lovers, seem to be the last effort of 
 intelligence spurred by a wild craving for liberty or by the 
 fire of love. Theodore wandered about the neighborhood 
 with the restlessness of a madman, as though movement 
 might inspire him with some device. After racking his 
 imagination, it occurred to him to bribe the blowsy waiting- 
 maid with gold. Thus a few notes were exchanged at long 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 251 
 
 intervals during the fortnight following the ill-starred morning 
 when Monsieur Guillaume and Theodore had so scrutinized 
 one another. At the present moment the young couple had 
 agreed to see each other at a certain hour of the day, and on 
 Sunday, at Saint-Leu, during mass and vespers. Augustine 
 had sent her dear Theodore a list of the relations and friends 
 of the family, to whom the young painter tried to get access, 
 in the hope of interesting, if it were possible, in his love 
 affairs, one of these souls absorbed in money and trade, 
 to whom a genuine passion must appear a quite monstrous 
 speculation, a thing unheard of. Nothing, meanwhile, was 
 altered at the sign of the Cat and Racket. If Augustine was 
 absent-minded, if, against all obedience to the domestic code, 
 she stole up to her room to make signals by means of a jar of 
 flowers, if she sighed, if she were lost in thought, no one 
 observed it, not even her mother. This will cause some sur- 
 prise to those who have entered into the spirit of the house- 
 hold, where an idea tainted with poetry would be in startling 
 contrast to persons and things, where no one could venture 
 on a gesture or a look which would not be seen and analyzed. 
 Nothing, however, cculd be more natural ; the quiet barque 
 that navigated the stormy waters of the Paris Exchange, under 
 the flag of the Cat and Racket, wa just now in the toils of 
 one of these tempests which, returning periodically, might be 
 termed equinoctial. For the last fortnight the five men form- 
 ing the crew, with Madame Guillaume and Mademoiselle 
 Virginie, had been devoting themselves to the hard labor, 
 known as stock-taking. 
 
 Every bale was turned over, and the length verified to ascer- 
 tain the exact value of the remnant. The ticket attached to 
 each parcel was carefully examined to see at what time the 
 piece had been bought. The retail price was fixed. Monsieur 
 Guillaume, always on his feet, his pen behind his ear, was like 
 a captain commanding the working of the ship. His sharp 
 tones, spoken through a trap-door, to inquire into the depths 
 
252 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 of the hold in the cellar-store, gave utterance to the barbarous 
 formulas of trade-jargon, which find expression only in a pri- 
 vate cypher. 
 
 " How much H. N. Z. ? " "All sold." " What is left of 
 Q. X.?" "Two ells." "At what price?" "Fifty-five 
 three." " Set down A. at three, with all of J. J., all of M. P., 
 and what is left of V. D. O." A hundred other injunctions 
 equally intelligible were spouted over the counters like verses 
 of modern poetry, quoted by romantic spirits, to excite each 
 other's enthusiasm for one of their poets. In the evening 
 Guillaume, shut up with his assistant and his wife, balanced 
 his accounts, carried on the balance, wrote to debtors in 
 arrears, and made out bills. All three were busy over this 
 'enormous labor, of which the result could be stated on a 
 sheet of foolscap, proving to the head of the house that there 
 was so much to the good in hard cash, so much in goods, so 
 much in bills and notes ; that he did not owe a sou ; that a 
 hundred or two hundred thousand francs were owing to him ; 
 that the capital had been increased ; that the farm-lands, the 
 houses, or the investments were extended, or repaired, or 
 doubled. Whence it became necessary to begin again with 
 increased ardor, to accumulate more crown-pieces, without its 
 ever entering the brain of these laborious ants to ask " To 
 what end?" 
 
 Favored by this annual tormoil, the happy Augustine escaped 
 the investigations of her Argus-eyed relations. At last, one 
 Saturday evening, the stock-taking was finished. The figures 
 of the sum-total showed a row of O's long enough to allow 
 Guillaume for once to relax the stern rule as to dessert which 
 reigned throughout the year. The shrewd old draper rubbed 
 his hands, and allowed his assistants to remain at table. The 
 members of the crew had hardly swallowed their thimbleful 
 of some home-made liqueur, when the rumble of a carriage 
 was heard. The family party were going to see " Gen- 
 drillon" at the Vari6tes, while the two younger apprentices 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 253 
 
 each received a crown of six francs, with permission to go 
 wherever they chose, provided they were in by midnight. 
 
 Notwithstanding this debauch, the old cloth-merchant was 
 shaving himself at six next morning, put on his maroon- 
 colored coat, of which the glowing lights afforded him peren- 
 nial enjoyment, fastened a pair of gold buckles on the knee- 
 straps of his ample satin breeches ; and then, at about seven 
 o'clock, while all were still sleeping in the house, he made his 
 way to the little office adjoining the store on the first floor. 
 Daylight came in through a window, fortified by iron bars, 
 and looking out on a small yard surrounded by such black 
 walls that it was very like a well. The old merchant opened 
 the iron-lined shutters, which were so familiar to him, and 
 threw up the lower half of the sash window. The icy air of 
 the courtyard came in to cool the hot atmosphere of the little 
 room, full of the odor peculiar to offices. 
 
 The merchant remained standing, his hand resting on the 
 greasy arm of a large cane-seated chair lined with morocco, 
 of which the original hue had disappeared ; he seemed to 
 hesitate as to seating himself. He looked with affection at 
 the double desk, where his wife's seat, opposite his own, was 
 fitted into a little niche in the wall. He contemplated the 
 numbered boxes, the files, the implements, the cash-box 
 objects all of immemorial origin, and fancied himself in the 
 room with the shade of Master Chevrel. He even pulled out 
 the high stool on which he had once sat in the presence of his 
 departed master. This stool, covered with black leather, the 
 horse-hair showing at every corner as it had long done, with- 
 out, however, coming out he placed with a shaking hand on 
 the very spot where his predecessor had put it, and then, with 
 an emotion difficult to describe, he pulled a bell, which rang 
 at the head of Joseph Lebas* bed. When this decisive blow 
 had been struck, the old man, for whom, no doubt, these 
 reminiscences were too much, took up three or four bills of 
 exchange, and looked at them without seeing them. 
 
254 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 Suddenly Joseph Lebas stood before him. 
 
 "Sit down there," said Guillaume, pointing to the stool. 
 
 As the old master draper had never yet bade his assistant 
 be seated in his presence, Joseph Lebas was startled. 
 
 " What do you think of these notes? " asked Guillaume. 
 
 "They will never be paid." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " Well, I heard that the day before yesterday Etienne & 
 Co. had made their payments in gold." 
 
 " Oh, oh ! " said the draper. " Well, one must be very ill 
 to show one's bile. Let us speak of something else. Joseph, 
 the stock-taking is done." 
 
 " Yes, monsieur, and the dividend is one of the best you 
 have ever made." 
 
 " Do not use new-fangled words. Say the profits, Joseph. 
 Do you know, my boy, that this result is partly owing to you ? 
 And I do not intend to pay you a salary any longer. Madame 
 Guillaume has suggested to me to take you into partnership. 
 'Guillaume & Lebas;' will not that make a good business 
 name? We might add 'and Co.' to round off the firm's 
 signature." 
 
 Tears rose to the eyes of Joseph Lebas, who tried to hide 
 them. 
 
 " Oh, Monsieur Guillaume, how have I deserved such kind- 
 ness ? I only do my duty. It was so much already that you 
 should take an interest in a poor orph " 
 
 He was brushing the cuff of his left sleeve with his right 
 hand, and dared not look at the old man, who smiled as he 
 thought that this modest young fellow no doubt needed, as 
 he had needed once on a time, some encouragement to com- 
 plete his explanation. 
 
 "To be sure," said Virginie's father, "you do not alto- 
 gether deserve this favor, Joseph. You have not so much 
 confidence in me as I have in you." (The young man looked 
 up quickly.) " You know all the secrets of the cash-box. For 
 
OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 255 
 
 the last two years I have told you of almost all my concerns. 
 I have sent you to travel in our goods. In short, I have 
 nothing on my conscience as regards you. But you you 
 have a soft place, and you have never breathed a word of it." 
 Joseph Lebas blushed. " Ah, ha!" cried Guillaume, "so 
 you thought you could deceive an old fox like me ? When 
 you knew that I had scented the Lecocq bankruptcy?" 
 
 "What, monsieur?" replied Joseph Lebas, looking at his 
 master as keenly as his master looked at him, " you knew that 
 I was in love ? ' ' 
 
 " I know everything, you rascal," said the worthy and cun- 
 ning old merchant, pulling the assistant's ear. "And I for- 
 give you I did the same myself." 
 
 " And you will give her to me? " 
 
 " Yes with fifty thousand crowns ; and I will leave you as 
 much by will, and we will start on our new career under the 
 name of a new firm. We will do good business yet, my 
 boy!" added the old man, getting up and flourishing his 
 arms. " I tell you, son-in-law, there is nothing like trade. 
 Those who ask what pleasure is to be found in it are simple- 
 tons. To be on the scent of a good bargain, to hold your 
 own on "Change, to watch as anxiously as at the gaming- 
 table whether Etienne & Co. will fail or not, to see a regiment 
 of Guards march past all dressed in your cloth, to trip your 
 neighbor up honestly, of course ! to make the goods cheaper 
 than others can ; then to carry out an undertaking which you 
 have planned, which begins, grows, totters, and succeeds ! to 
 know the workings of every house of business as well as a 
 minister of police, so as never to make a mistake ; to hold up 
 your head in the midst of wrecks, to have friends by corre- 
 spondence in every manufacturing town ; is not that a per- 
 petual game, Joseph ? That is life, that is ! I shall die in 
 that harness, like old Chevrel, but taking it easy now, all the 
 same." 
 
 In the heat of his eager rhetoric, old Guillaume had scarcely 
 
256 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 looked at his assistant, who was weeping copiously. "Why, 
 Joseph, my poor boy, what is the matter ? " 
 
 " Oh, I love her so ! Monsieur Guillaume, that my heart 
 fails me ; I believe ' ' 
 
 "Well, well, boy," said the old man, touched, "you are 
 happier than you know, by Gad ! For she loves you. I 
 know it." 
 
 And he blinked his little green eyes as he looked at the 
 young man. 
 
 "Mademoiselle Augustine! Mademoiselle Augustine!" 
 exclaimed Joseph Lebas in his rapture. 
 
 He was about to rush out of the room when he felt himself 
 clutched by a hand of iron, and his astonished master spun 
 him round in front of him once more. 
 
 "What has Augustine to do with this matter?" he asked, 
 in a voice which instantly froze the luckless Joseph. 
 
 "Is it not she that that I love?" stammered the as- 
 sistant. 
 
 Much put out by his own want of perspicacity, Guillaume 
 sat down again, and rested his long head in his hands to con- 
 sider the perplexing situation in which he found himself. 
 Joseph Lebas, quite shamefaced and in utter despair, remained 
 standing. 
 
 "Joseph," the draper said with frigid dignity, "I was 
 speaking of Virginie. Love cannot be made to order, I 
 know. I know, too, that you can be trusted. We will forget 
 all this. I will not let Augustine marry before Virginie. 
 Your interest will be ten per cent." 
 
 The young man, to whom love gave I know not what power 
 of courage and eloquence, clasped his hand, and spoke in his 
 turn spoke for a quarter of an hour, with so much warmth 
 and feeling, that he altered the situation. If the question 
 had been a matter of business, the old tradesman would have 
 had fixed principles to guide his decision ; but, tossed a thou- 
 sand miles from commerce, on the ocean of sentiment, with- 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 257 
 
 out a compass, he floated, as he told himself, undecided in 
 the face of such an unexpected event. Carried away by his 
 fatherly kindness, he began to beat about the bush. 
 
 " Deuce take it, Joseph, you must know that there are ten 
 years between my two children. Mademoiselle Chevrel was 
 no beauty, still she has had nothing to complain of in me. 
 Do as I did. Come, come, don't cry. Can you be so silly? 
 What is to be done? It can be managed perhaps. There is 
 always some way out of a scrape. And we men are not always 
 devoted Celadons to our wives you understand ? Madame 
 Guillaume is very pious. Come. By Gad, boy, give your 
 arm to Augustine this morning as we go to mass." 
 
 These were the phrases spoken at random by the old draper, 
 and their conclusion made the lover happy. He was already 
 thinking of a friend of his as a match for Mademoiselle Vir- 
 ginie, as he went out of the smoky office, pressing his future 
 father-in-law's hand, after saying with a knowing look that all 
 would turn out for the best. 
 
 " What will Madame Guillaume say to it?" was the idea 
 that greatly troubled the worthy merchant when he found 
 himself alone. 
 
 At breakfast Madame Guillaume and Virginie, to whom the 
 draper had not as yet confided his disappointment, cast mean- 
 ing glances at Joseph Lebas, who was extremely embarrassed. 
 The young assistant's bashfulness commended him to his 
 mother-in-law's good graces. The matron became so cheerful 
 that she smiled as she looked at her husband, and allowed her- 
 self some little pleasantries of time-honored acceptance in such 
 simple families. She wondered whether Joseph or Virginie 
 were the taller, to ask them to compare their height. This 
 preliminary fooling brought a cloud to the master's brow, and 
 he even made such a point of decorum that he desired Augustine 
 to take the assistant's arm on their way to Saint-Leu. Madame 
 Guillaume, surprised at this manly delicacy, honored her hus- 
 band with a nod of approval. So the procession left the house 
 17 
 
258 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 in such order as to suggest no suspicious meaning to the neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 "Does it not seem to you, Mademoiselle Augustine," said 
 the assistant, and he trembled, " that the wife of a merchant 
 whose credit is as good as Monsieur Guillaume's, for instance, 
 might enjoy herself a little more than madame your mother 
 does? Might wear diamonds or keep a carriage? For my 
 part, if I were to marry, I should be glad to take all the work 
 and see my wife happy. I would not put her into the count- 
 ing-house. In the drapery business, you see, a woman is not 
 so necessary now as formerly. Monsieur Guillaume was quite 
 right to act as he did and, beside, his wife liked it. But so 
 long as a woman knows how to turn her hand to the book- 
 keeping, the correspondence, the retail business, the orders, 
 and her housekeeping, so as not to sit idle, that is enough. 
 At seven o'clock, when the store is shut, I shall take my plea- 
 sures, go to the play, and into company. But you are not 
 listening to me." 
 
 "Yes, indeed, Monsieur Joseph. What do you think of 
 painting? That is a fine calling." 
 
 " Yes. I know a master house-painter, Monsieur Lourdois. 
 He is well-to-do." 
 
 Thus conversing, the family reached the church of Saint- 
 Leu. There Madame Guillaume reasserted her rights, and, for 
 the first time, placed Augustine next to herself, Virginie taking 
 her place on the fourth chair next to Lebas. During the 
 sermon all went well between Augustine and Theodore, who, 
 standing behind a pillar, worshiped his Madonna with fervent 
 devotion ; but at the elevation of the host, Madame Guillaume 
 discovered, rather late, that her daughter Augustine was hold- 
 ing her prayer-book upside down. She was about to speak to 
 her strongly, when, lowering her veil, she interrupted her own 
 devotions to look in the direction where her daughter's eyes 
 found attraction. By the help of her spectacles she saw the 
 young artist, whose fashionable elegance seemed to proclaim 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 259 
 
 him a cavalry officer on leave rather than a tradesman of the 
 neighborhood. It is difficult to conceive of the state of violent 
 agitation in which Madame Guillaume found herself she, who 
 flattered herself on having brought up her daughters to perfec- 
 tion on discovering in Augustine a clandestine passion of 
 which her prudery and ignorance exaggerated the perils. She 
 believed her daughter to be cankered to the core. 
 
 " Hold your book right way up, miss," she muttered in a 
 low voice, tremulous with wrath. She snatched away the tell- 
 tale prayer-book and returned it with the letter-press right 
 side up. " Do not allow your eyes to look anywhere but at 
 your prayers," she added, "or I shall have something to say 
 to you. Your father and I will talk to you after church." 
 
 These words came like a thunderbolt on poor Augustine. 
 She felt faint ; but, torn between the distress she felt and the 
 dread of causing a commotion in church, she bravely con- 
 cealed her anguish. It was, however, easy to discern the 
 stormy state of her soul from the trembling of her prayer- 
 book, and the tears which dropped on every page she turned. 
 From the furious glare shot at him by Madame Guillaume the 
 artist saw the peril into which his love affair had fallen j he 
 went out, with a raging soul, determined to venture all. 
 
 "Go to your room miss ! " said Madame Guillaume, on 
 their return home; "we will send for you, but take care not 
 to quit it." 
 
 The conference between the husband and wife was con- 
 ducted so secretly that at first nothing was heard of it. Vir- 
 ginia, however, who had tried to give her sister courage by a 
 variety of gentle remonstrances, carried her good-nature so 
 far as to listen at the door of her mother's bedroom where 
 the discussion was held, to catch a word or two. The first 
 time she went down to the lower floor she heard her father 
 exclaim : "Then, madame, do you wish to kill your daughter? " 
 
 "My poor dear!" said Virginie, in tears, "papa takes 
 your part." 
 
260 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 " And what do they want to do to Theodore?" asked the 
 innocent girl. 
 
 Virginie, inquisitive, went down again ; but this time she 
 stayed longer ; she learned that Joseph Lebas loved Augustine. 
 It was written that on this memorable day, this house, 
 generally so peaceful, should be a hell. Monsieur Guillaume 
 brought Joseph Lebas to despair by telling him of Augustine's 
 love for a stranger. Lebas, who had advised his friend to 
 become a suitor for Mademoiselle Virginie, saw all his hopes 
 wrecked. Mademoiselle Virginie, overcome by hearing that 
 Joseph had, in a way, refused her, had a sick headache. The 
 dispute that had arisen from the discussion between Monsieur 
 and Madame Guillaume, when, for the third time in their 
 lives, they had been of antagonistic opinions, had shown 
 itself in a terrible form. Finally, at half-past four in the 
 afternoon, Augustine, pale, trembling, and with red eyes, was 
 haled before her father and mother. The poor child artlessly 
 related the too brief tale of her love. Reassured by a speech 
 from her father, who promised to listen to her in silence, she 
 gathered courage as she pronounced to her parents the name 
 of Theodore de Sommervieux, with a mischievous little em- 
 phasis on the aristocratic de. And, yielding to the unknown 
 charm of talking of her feelings, she was brave enough to 
 declare with innocent decision that she loved Monsieur de 
 Sommervieux, that she had written to him, and she added, 
 with tears in her eyes : " To sacrifice me to another man 
 would make me wretched." 
 
 " But, Augustine, you cannot surely know what a painter 
 is? " cried her mother with horror. 
 
 "Madame Guillaume ! " said the old man, compelling her 
 to silence. "Augustine," he went on, "artists are generally 
 little better than beggars. They are too extravagant not to 
 be always a bad sort. I served the late Monsieur Joseph 
 Vernet, the late Monsieur Lekain, and the late Monsieur 
 Noverre. Oh, if you could only know the tricks played on 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 261 
 
 poor Father Chevrel by that Monsieur Noverre, by the 
 Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and especially by Monsieur 
 Philidor ! They are a set of rascals ; I know them well ! 
 They all have a gab and nice manners. Ah, your Monsieur 
 Sumer , Somm " 
 
 "De Sommervieux, papa." 
 
 "Well, well, de Sommervieux, well and good. He can 
 never have been half so sweet to you as Monsieur le Chevalier 
 de Saint-Georges was to me the day I got a verdict of the 
 consuls against him. And in those days they were gentlemen 
 of quality." 
 
 " But, father, Monsieur Theodore is of good family, and 
 he wrote me that he is rich ; his father was called Chevalier 
 de Sommervieux before the Revolution." 
 
 At these words Monsieur Guillaume looked at his terrible 
 better half, who, like an angry woman, sat tapping the floor 
 with her foot while keeping sullen silence ; she avoided even 
 casting wrathful looks at Augustine, appearing to leave to 
 Monsieur Guillaume the whole responsibility in so grave a 
 matter, since her opinion was not listened to. Nevertheless, 
 in spite of her apparent self-control, when she saw her husband 
 giving way so mildly under a catastrophe which had no con- 
 cern with business, she exclaimed 
 
 "Really, monsieur, you are so weak with your daughters! 
 However " 
 
 The sound of a carriage, which stopped at the door, inter- 
 rupted the rating which the old draper already quaked at. In 
 a minute Madame Roquin was standing in the midde of the 
 room, and looking at the actors in this domestic scene : " I 
 know all, my dear cousin," said she, with a patronizing air. 
 
 Madame Roquin made the great mistake of supposing that 
 a Paris notary's wife could play the part of a favorite of 
 fashion. 
 
 " I know all," she repeated, " and I have come into Noah's 
 Ark, like the dove, with the olive-branch. I read that alle- 
 
262 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 gory in the 'Genius of Christianity,' " she added, turning to 
 Madame Guillaume ; " the allusion ought to please you, 
 cousin. Do you know," she went on, smiling at Augustine, 
 "that Monsieur de Sommervieux is a charming man? He 
 gave me my portrait this morning, painted by a master's 
 hand. It is worth at least six thousand francs." And at 
 these words she patted Monsieur Guillaume on the arm. The 
 old draper could not help making a grimace with his lips, 
 which was peculiar to him. 
 
 "I know Monsieur de Sommervieux very well," the Dove 
 ran on. "He has come to my evenings these fourteen days 
 past, and made them delightful. He has told me all his woes, 
 and commissioned me to plead for him. I know since this 
 morning that he adores Augustine, and he shall have her. 
 Ah, cousin, do not shake your head in refusal. He will be 
 created baron, I can tell you, and has just been made chev- 
 alier of the Legion of Honor, by the Emperor himself, at the 
 Salon. Roquin is now his lawyer, and knows all his affairs. 
 Well ! Monsieur de Sommervieux has twelve thousand francs 
 a year in good landed estate. Do you know that the father- 
 in-law of such a man may get a rise in life be mayor of his 
 arrondissement, for instance. Have we not seen Monsieur 
 Dupont become a count of the Empire and a senator, all 
 because he went as mayor to congratulate the Emperor on his 
 entry into Vienna? Oh, this marriage must take place ! For 
 my part, I adore the dear young man. His behavior to Au- 
 gustine is only met with in romances. Be easy, little one, 
 you shall be happy, and every girl will wish she were in your 
 place. Madame la Duchesse de Carigliano, who comes to 
 my 'At Homes,' raves about Monsieur de Sommervieux. Some 
 spiteful people say she only comes to me to meet him ; as if 
 a duchess of yesterday was doing too much honor to a Chevrel, 
 whose family have been respected citizens these hundred years ! 
 
 " Augustine," Madame Roquin went on, after a short pause, 
 "I have seen the portrait. Heavens! How lovely it isl 
 
S/G tf OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 263 
 
 Do you know that the Emperor wanted to have it? He 
 laughed, and said to the deputy high constable that if there 
 were many women like that at his court while all the kings 
 visited it, he should have no difficulty about preserving the 
 peace of Europe. Is not that a compliment?" 
 
 The tempests with which the day had begun were to re- 
 semble those of nature, by ending in clear and serene weather. 
 Madame Roquin displayed so much address in her harangue, 
 she was able to touch so many strings in the dry hearts of 
 Monsieur and Madame Guillaume, that at last she hit on one 
 which she could work upon. At this strange period com- 
 merce and finance were more than ever possessed by the crazy 
 mania for seeking alliance with rank ; and the generals of the 
 Empire took full advantage of this desire. Monsieur Guil- 
 laume, as a singular exception, opposed this deplorable crav- 
 ing. His favorite axioms were that, to secure happiness, a 
 woman must marry a man of her own class ; that every one 
 was punished sooner or later for having climbed too high ; 
 that love could so little endure under the worries of a house- 
 hold, that both husband and wife needed sound good qualities 
 to be happy ; that it would not do for one to be far in advance 
 of the other, because, above everything, they must understand 
 each other; if a man spoke Greek and his wife Latin, they 
 might come to die of hunger. He had himself invented this 
 sort of adage. And he compared such marriages to old- 
 fashioned materials of mixed silk and wool, in which the silk 
 always at last wore through the wool. Still, there is so much 
 vanity at the bottom of man's heart that the prudence of the 
 pilot who steered the Cat and Racket so wisely gave way 
 before Madame Roquin's aggressive volubility. Austere 
 Madame Guillaume was the first to see in her daughter's affec- 
 tion a reason for abdicating her principles and for consenting 
 to receive Monsieur de Sommervieux, whom she promised 
 herself she would put under severe inquisition. 
 
 The old draper went to look for Joseph Lebas, and inform 
 
264 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 him of the state of affairs. At half-past six, the dining-room 
 immortalized by the artist saw, united under its skylight, Mon- 
 sieur and Madame Roquin, the young painter and his charm- 
 ing Augustine, Joseph Lebas, who found his happiness in 
 patience, and Mademoiselle Virginie, convalescent from her 
 headache. Monsieur and Madame Guillaume saw in per- 
 spective both their children married, and the fortunes of the 
 Cat and Racket once more in skillful hands. Their satisfaction 
 was at its height when, at dessert, Theodore made them a 
 present of the wonderful picture which they had failed to see, 
 representing the interior of the old store, and to which they 
 all owed so much happiness. 
 
 "Isn't it pretty! " cried Guillaume. "And to think that 
 any one would pay thirty thousand francs for that ! " 
 
 "Because you can see my lappets in it," said Madame 
 Guillaume. 
 
 "And the cloth unrolled ! " added Lebas ; " you might take 
 it up in your hand." 
 
 "Drapery always comes out well," replied the painter. 
 " We should be only too happy, we modern artists, if we could 
 touch the perfection of antique drapery." 
 
 "So you like drapery!" cried old Guillaume. "Well, 
 then, by Gad ! shake hands on that, my young friend. Since 
 you can respect trade, we shall understand each other. And 
 why should it be despised? The world began with trade, 
 since Adam sold Paradise for an apple. He did not strike a 
 good bargain though ! " And the old man roared with honest 
 laughter, encouraged by the champagne, which he sent round 
 with a liberal hand. The band that covered the young artist's 
 eyes was so thick that he thought his future parents amiable. 
 He was not above enlivening them by a few jests in the best 
 taste. So he, too, pleased every one. In the evening, when 
 the drawing-room, furnished with what Madame Guillaume 
 called "everything handsome," was deserted, and while she 
 flitted from the table to the mantel-piece, from the candelabra 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 265 
 
 to the tall candlesticks, hastily blowing out the wax-lights, the 
 worthy draper, who was always clear-sighted when money was 
 in question, called Augustine to him, and, seating her on his 
 knee, spoke as follows : 
 
 " My dear child, you shall marry your Sommervieux since 
 you insist ; you may, if you like, risk your capital in happiness. 
 But I am not going to be hoodwinked by the thirty thousand 
 francs to be made by spoiling good canvas. Money that is 
 lightly earned is lightly spent. Did I not hear that hare- 
 brained youngster declare this evening that money was made 
 round that it might roll. If it is round for spendthrifts, it is 
 flat for saving folk who pile it up. Now, my child, that fine 
 gentleman talks of giving you carriages and diamonds ! He 
 has money, let him spend it on you ; so be it. It is no con- 
 cern of mine. But as to what I can give you, I will not have 
 the crown-pieces I have picked up with so much toil wasted 
 in carriages and frippery. Those who spend too fast never 
 grow rich. A hundred thousand crowns, which is your for- 
 tune, will not buy up Paris. It is all very well to look forward 
 to a few hundred thousand francs to be yours some day; I shall 
 keep you waiting for them as long as possible, by Gad ! So I 
 took your lover aside, and a man who managed the Lecocq 
 bankruptcy had not much difficulty in persuading the artist to 
 marry under a settlement of his wife's money on herself. I 
 will keep an eye on the marriage-contract to see that what he 
 is to settle on you is safely tied up. So now, my child, I hope 
 to be a grandfather, by Gad ! I will begin at once to lay up 
 for my grandchildren ; but swear to me, here and now, never 
 to sign any papers relating to money without my advice ; and 
 if I go soon to join old Father Chevrel, promise to consult 
 young Lebas, your brother-in-law." 
 
 "Yes, father, I swear it." 
 
 At these words, spoken in a gentle voice, the old man 
 kissed his daughter on both cheeks. That night the lovers 
 slept as soundly as Monsieur and Madame Guillaume. 
 
266 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 Some few months after this memorable Sunday the high 
 altar of Saint-Leu was the scene of two very different wed- 
 dings. Augustine and Theodore appeared in all the radiance 
 of happiness, their eyes beaming with love, dressed with ele- 
 gance, while a fine carriage waited for them. Virginie, who 
 had come in a good hired fly with the rest of the family, 
 humbly followed her younger sister, dressed in the simplest 
 fashion, like a shadow necessary to the harmony of the pic- 
 ture. Monsieur Guillaume had exerted himself to the utmost 
 in the church to get Virginie married before Augustine, but 
 the priests, high and low, persisted in addressing the more 
 elegant of the two brides. He heard some of his neighbors 
 highly approving the good sense of Mademoiselle Virginie, 
 who was making, as they said, the more substantial match, 
 and remaining faithful to the neighborhood ; while they fired 
 a few taunts, prompted by envy of Augustine, who was marry- 
 ing an artist and a man of rank ; adding, with a sort of dis- 
 may, that if the Guillaumes were ambitious, there was an 
 end to the business. An old fan-maker having remarked that 
 such a prodigal would soon bring his wife to beggary. Father 
 Guillaume prided himself in secret for his prudence in the 
 matter of marriage-settlements. In the evening, after a splen- 
 did ball, followed by one of those substantial suppers of 
 which the memory is dying out in the present generation, 
 Monsieur and Madame Guillaume remained in a fine house 
 belonging to them in the Rue du Colombier, where the wed- 
 ding had been held ; Monsieur and Madame Lebas returned 
 in their hack to the old home in the Rue Saint-Denis, to steer 
 the good ship Cat and Racket. The artist, intoxicated with 
 happiness, carried off his beloved Augustine, and, eagerly 
 lifting her out of their carriage when it reached the Rue des 
 Trois-Freres, led her to an apartment embellished by all the 
 arts. 
 
 The fever of passion which possessed Theodore made a 
 year fly over the young couple without a single cloud to dim 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 267 
 
 the blue sky under which they lived. Life did not hang 
 heavy on the lovers' hands. Theodore lavished on every day 
 inexhaustible witcheries* of enjoyment, and he delighted to 
 vary the transports of passion by the soft languor of those 
 hours of repose when souls soar so high that they seem to 
 have forgotten all bodily union. Augustine was too happy 
 for reflection ; she floated on an undulating tide of rapture ; 
 she thought she could not do enough by abandoning herself 
 to sanctioned and sacred married love; simple and artless, 
 she had no coquetry, no reserves, none of the dominion 
 which a worldly-minded girl acquires over her husband by 
 ingenious caprice ; she loved too well to calculate for the 
 future, and never imagined that so exquisite a life could come 
 to an end. Happy in being her husband's sole delight, she 
 believed that her inextinguishable love would always be her 
 greatest grace in his eyes, as her devotion and obedience 
 would be a perennial charm. And, indeed, the ecstasy of 
 love had made her so brilliantly lovely that her beauty filled 
 her with pride, and gave her confidence that she could always 
 reign over a man so easy to kindle as Monsieur de Sommer- 
 vieux. Thus her position as a wife brought her no knowledge 
 but the lessons of love. 
 
 In the midst of her happiness, she was still the simple child 
 who had lived in obscurity in the Rue Saint-Denis, and she 
 never thought of acquiring the manners, the information, the 
 tone of the world she had to live in. Her words being the 
 words of love, she revealed in them, no doubt, a certain 
 pliancy of mind and a certain refinement of speech : but she 
 used the language common to all women when they find them- 
 selves plunged in passion, which seems to be their element. 
 When, by chance, Augustine expressed an idea that did not 
 harmonize with Theodore's, the young artist laughed, as we 
 laugh at the first mistakes of a foreigner, though they end by 
 annoying us if they are not corrected. 
 * Fioriture. 
 
268 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 In spite of all this lovemaking, by the end of this year, as 
 delightful as it was swift, Sommervieux felt one morning the 
 need for resuming his work and his old habits. His wife was 
 expecting their first child. He saw some friends again. 
 During the tedious discomforts of the year when a young wife 
 is nursing an infant for the first time, he worked, no doubt, 
 with zeal, but he occasionally sought diversion in the fashion- 
 able world. The house which he was best pleased to frequent 
 was that of the Duchesse de Carigliano, who had at last 
 attracted the celebrated artist to her parties. When Augus- 
 tine was quite well again, and her boy no longer required the 
 assiduous care which debars a mother from social pleasures, 
 Theodore had come to the stage of wishing to know the joys 
 of satisfied vanity to be found in society by a man who shows 
 himself with a handsome woman, the object of envy and ad- 
 miration. 
 
 To figure in drawing-rooms with the reflected lustre of her 
 husband's fame, and to find other women envious of her, was 
 to Augustine a new harvest of pleasures ; but it was the last 
 gleam of conjugal happiness. She first wounded her husband's 
 vanity when, in spite of vain efforts, she betrayed her ignorance, 
 the inelegance of her language, and the narrowness of her ideas. 
 Sommervieux' s nature, subjugated for nearly two years and a 
 half by the first transports of love, now, in the calm of less 
 new possession, recovered its bent and habits, for a while 
 diverted from their channel. Poetry, painting, and the 
 subtle joys of imagination have inalienable rights over a lofty 
 spirit. These cravings of a powerful soul had not been 
 starved in Theodore during these two years ; they had only 
 found fresh pasture. As soon as the meadows of love had been 
 ransacked, and the artist had gathered roses and cornflowers 
 as the children do, so greedily that he did not see that his 
 hands could hold no more, the scene changed. When the 
 painter showed his wife the sketches for his finest compositions 
 he heard her exclaim, as her father had done : " How pretty ! " 
 
SIGN- OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 269 
 
 This tepid admiration was not the outcome of conscientious 
 feeling, but of her faith on the strength of love. 
 
 Augustine cared more for a look than for the finest picture. 
 The only "sublime" she knew was that of the heart. At 
 last Theodore could not resist the evidence of the cruel fact 
 his wife was insensible to poetry, she did not dwell in his 
 sphere, she could not follow him in all his vagaries, his imag- 
 inings, his joys and his sorrows ; she walked groveling in 
 the world of reality, while his head was in the skies. Common 
 minds cannot appreciate the perennial sufferings of a being 
 who, while bound to another by the most intimate affection, 
 is obliged constantly to suppress the dearest flights of his soul, 
 and to thrust down into the void those images which a 
 magic power compels him to create. To him the torture is 
 all the more intolerable because his feeling toward his com- 
 panion enjoins, as its first law, that they should have no 
 concealments, but mingle the aspirations of their thought as 
 perfectly as the effusions of their soul. The demands of 
 nature are not to be cheated. She is as inexorable as neces- 
 sity, which is, indeed, a sort of social nature. Sommervieux 
 took refuge in the peace and silence of his studio, hoping that 
 the habit of living with artists might mould his wife and 
 develop in her the dormant germs of lofty intelligence which 
 some superior minds suppose must exist in every being. But 
 Augustine was too sincerely religious not to take fright at 
 the tone of artists. At the first dinner Theodore gave, she 
 heard a young painter say, with the childlike lightness, which 
 to her was unintelligible, and which redeems a jest from the 
 taint of profanity, " But, madame, your Paradise cannot be 
 more beautiful than Raphael's Transfiguration ! Well, and I 
 got tired of looking at that." 
 
 Thus Augustine came among this sparkling set in a spirit of 
 distrust which no one could fail to see. She was a restraint 
 on their freedom. Now an artist who feels restraint is pitiless; 
 he stays away, or laughs it to scorn. Madame Guillaume, 
 
270 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 among other absurdities, had an excessive notion of the dig- 
 nity she considered the prerogative of a married woman ; and 
 Augustine, though she had often made fun of it, could not 
 help a slight imitation of her mother's primness. This ex- 
 treme propriety, which virtuous wives do not always avoid, 
 suggested a few epigrams in the form of sketches, in which the 
 harmless jest was in such good taste that Sommervieux could 
 not take offense; and even if they had been more severe, 
 these pleasantries were after all only reprisals from his friends. 
 Still, nothing could seem a trifle to a spirit so open as Theo- 
 dore's to impressions from without. A coldness insensibly 
 crept over him, and inevitably spread. To attain conjugal 
 happiness we must climb a hill whose summit is a narrow ridge, 
 close to a steep and slippery descent ; the painter's love was 
 falling down this. He regarded his wife as incapable of ap- 
 preciating the moral considerations which justified him in his 
 own eyes for his singular behavior to her, and believed him- 
 self quite innocent in hiding from her the thoughts she could 
 not enter into, and peccadilloes outside the jurisdiction of a 
 bourgeois conscience. Augustine wrapped herself in sullen 
 and silent grief. These unconfessed feelings placed a shroud be- 
 tween the husband and wife which could not fail to grow thicker 
 day by day. Though her husband never failed in considera- 
 tion for her, Augustine could not help trembling as she saw 
 that he kept for the outer world those treasures of wit and 
 grace that he formerly would lay at her feet. She soon began 
 to find a sinister meaning in the jocular speeches that are cur- 
 rent in the world as to the inconstancy of men. She made 
 no complaints, but her demeanor conveyed reproach. 
 
 Three years after her marriage this pretty young woman, 
 who dashed past in her handsome carriage, and lived in a 
 sphere of glory and riches to the envy of heedless folk incap- 
 able of taking a just view of the situations of life, was a prey 
 to intense grief. She lost her color ; she reflected ; she made 
 comparisons ; then sorrow unfolded to her the first lessons of 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 271 
 
 experience. She determined to restrict herself bravely within 
 the round of duty, hoping that by this generous conduct she 
 might sooner or later win back her husband's love. But it 
 was not so. When Sommervieux, tired with work, came in 
 from his studio, Augustine did not put her work away so 
 quickly but that the painter might find his wife mending the 
 household linen, and his own, with all the care of a good 
 housewife. She supplied generously and without a murmur 
 the money needed for his lavishness ; but in her anxiety to 
 husband her dear Theodore's fortune, she was strictly eco- 
 nomical for herself and in certain details of domestic manage- 
 ment. Such conduct is incompatible with the easy-going 
 habits of artists, who, at the end of their life, have enjoyed 
 it so keenly that they never inquire into the causes of their 
 ruin. 
 
 It is useless to note every tint of shadow by which the 
 brilliant hues of their honeymoon were overcast till they were 
 lost in utter blackness. One evening poor Augustine, who 
 had for some time heard her husband speak with enthusiasm 
 of the Duchesse de Carigliano, received from a friend certain 
 malignantly charitable warnings as to the nature of the attach- 
 ment which Sommervieux had formed for this celebrated flirt 
 of the Imperial Court. At one-and-twenty, in all the splendor 
 of youth and beauty, Augustine saw herself deserted for a 
 woman of six-and-thirty. Feeling herself so wretched in the 
 midst of a world of festivity which to her was a blank, the 
 poor little thing could no longer understand the admiration 
 she excited, or the envy of which she was the object. Her 
 face assumed a different expression. Melancholy tinged her 
 features with the sweetness of resignation and the pallor of 
 scorned love. Ere long she, too, was courted by the most 
 fascinating men ; but she remained lonely and virtuous. Some 
 contemptuous words which escaped her husband filled her 
 with incredible despair. A sinister flash showed her the 
 breaches which, as a result of her sordid education, hindered 
 
272 SIGH OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 the perfect union of her soul with Theodore's; she loved him 
 well enough to absolve him and condemn herself. She shed 
 tears of blood, and perceived, too late, that there are mesalli- 
 ances of the spirit as well as of rank and habits. As she 
 recalled the early raptures of their union, she understood the 
 full extent of that lost happiness, and accepted the conclusion 
 that so rich a harvest of love was in itself a whole life, which 
 only sorrow could pay for. At the same time, she loved too 
 truly to lose all hope. At one-and-twenty she dared under- 
 take to educate herself, and make her imagination, at least, 
 worthy of that she admired. "If I am not a poet," thought 
 she, "at any rate, I will understand poetry." 
 
 Then, with all the strength of will, all the energy which 
 every woman can display when she loves, Madame de Som- 
 mervieux tried to alter her character, her manners, and her 
 habits; but by dint of devouring books and learning undaunt- 
 edly, she only succeeded in becoming less ignorant. Light- 
 ness of wit and the graces of conversation are a gift of nature, 
 or the fruit of education begun in the cradle. She could 
 appreciate music and enjoy it, but she could not sing with 
 taste. She understood literature and the beauties of poetry, 
 but it was too late to cultivate her refractory memory. She 
 listened with pleasure to social conversation, but she could 
 contribute nothing brilliant. Her religious notions and home- 
 grown prejudices were antagonistic to the complete emancipa- 
 tion of her intelligence. Finally, a foregone conclusion 
 against her had stolen into Theodore's mind, and this she 
 could not conquer. The artist would laugh at those who 
 flattered him about his wife, and his irony had some founda- 
 tion ; he so overawed the pathetic young creature that, in his 
 presence, or alone with him, she trembled. Hampered by 
 her too eager desire to please, her wits and her knowledge 
 vanished in one absorbing feeling. Even her fidelity vexed 
 the unfaithful husband, who seemed to bid her do wrong by 
 stigmatizing her virtue as insensibility. Augustine tried in 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND JtACKET. 273 
 
 vain to abdicate her reason, to yield to her husband's caprices 
 and whims, to devote herself to the selfishness of his vanity. 
 Her sacrifices bore no fruit. Perhaps they had both let the 
 moment slip when souls may meet in comprehension. One 
 day the young wife's too sensitive heart received one of those 
 blows which so strain the bonds of feeling that they seem to 
 be broken. She withdrew into solitude. But before long a 
 fatal idea suggested to her to seek counsel and comfort in the 
 bosom of her family. 
 
 So one morning she made her way toward the grotesque 
 facade of the humble, silent home where she had spent her 
 childhood. She sighed as she looked up at the sash-window, 
 whence one day she had sent her first kiss to him who now 
 shed as much sorrow as glory on her life. Nothing was 
 changed in the cavern, where the drapery business had, how- 
 ever, started on a new life. Augustine's sister filled her 
 mother's old place at the desk. The unhappy young woman 
 met her brother-in-law with his pen behind his ear ; he hardly 
 listened to her, he was so full of business. The formidable 
 symptoms of stock-taking were visible all round him ; he begged 
 her to excuse him. She was received coldly enough by her 
 sister, who owed her a grudge. In fact, Augustine, in her 
 finery, and stepping out of a handsome carriage, had never 
 been to see her but when passing by. The wife of the prudent 
 Lebas, imagining that want of money was the prime cause of 
 this early call, tried to keep up a tone of reserve which more 
 than once made Augustine smile. The painter's wife per- 
 ceived that, apart from the cap and lappets, her mother had 
 found in Virginie a successor who could uphold the ancient 
 honor of the Cat and Racket. At breakfast she observed cer- 
 tain changes in the management of the house which did honor 
 to Lebas' good sense ; the assistants did not rise before des- 
 sert ; they were allowed to talk, and the abundant meal spoke 
 of comfort without luxury. The fashionable woman found 
 some tickets for a box at the Francais, where she remembered 
 18 
 
274 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 having seen her sister from time to time. Madame Lebas had 
 a cashmere shawl over her shoulders, of which the value bore 
 witness of her husband's generosity to her. In short, the 
 couple were keeping pace with the times. During the two- 
 thirds of the day she spent there, Augustine was touched to 
 the heart by the equable happiness, devoid, to be sure, of all 
 emotion, but equally free from storms, enjoyed by this well- 
 matched couple. They had accepted life as a commercial 
 enterprise, in which, above all, they must do credit to the 
 business. Not finding any great love in her husband, Virginie 
 had set to work to create it. Having by degrees learned to 
 esteem and care for his wife, the time that this happiness had 
 taken to germinate was to Joseph Lebas a guarantee of its 
 durability. Hence, when Augustine plaintively set forth her. 
 painful position, she had to face the deluge of commonplace 
 morality which the traditions of the Rue Saint-Denis furnished 
 to her sister. 
 
 "The mischief is done, wife," said Joseph Lebas; "we 
 must try to give our sister good advice." Then the clever 
 tradesman ponderously analyzed the resources which law and 
 custom might offer Augustine as a means of escape at this 
 crisis ; he ticketed every argument, so to speak, and arranged 
 them in their degrees of weight under various categories, as 
 though they were articles of merchandise under different quali- 
 ties ; then he put them in the scale, weighed them, and ended 
 by showing the necessity for his sister-in-law taking violent 
 steps which could not satisfy the love she still had for her 
 husband; and, indeed, the feeling had revived in all its 
 strength when she heard Joseph Lebas speak of legal proceed- 
 ings. Augustine thanked them, and returned home even more 
 undecided than she had been before consulting them. She 
 now ventured to go to the house in the Rue du Colombier, 
 intending to confide her troubles to her father and mother; 
 for she was like a sick man who, in his desperate plight, tries 
 gvery prescription, and even puts faith in old wives' remedies. 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 275 
 
 The old people received their daughter with an effusiveness 
 that touched her deeply. Her visit brought them some little 
 change, and that to them was worth a fortune. For the last 
 four years they had gone their way in life like navigators with- 
 out a goal or a compass. Sitting by the chimney-corner, they 
 would talk over their disasters under the old law of maximum, 
 of their great investments in cloth, of the way they had 
 weathered bankruptcies, and, above all, the famous failure of 
 Lecocq, Monsieur Guillaume's battle of Marengo. Then, 
 when they had exhausted the tale of lawsuits, they recapitu- 
 lated the sums-total of their most profitable stock-takings, and 
 told each other old stories of the Saint-Denis quarter. At 
 two o'clock old Guillaume went to cast an eye on the business 
 at the Cat and Racket ; on his way back he called at all the 
 stores, formerly the rivals of his own, where the young pro- 
 prietors hoped to inveigle the old draper into some risky 
 discount, which, as was his wont, he never refused point- 
 blank. Two good Normandy horses were dying of their own 
 fat in the stables of the big house ; Madame Guillaume never 
 used them but to drag her on Sundays to high mass at the 
 parish church. Three times a week the worthy couple kept 
 open house. By the influence of his son-in-law Sommervieux, 
 Monsieur Guillaume had been named a member of the con- 
 sulting board for the clothing of the army. Since her hus- 
 band had stood so high in office, Madame Guillaume had 
 decided that she must receive ; her rooms were so crammed 
 with gold and silver ornaments, and furniture, tasteless but of 
 undoubted value, that the simplest room in the house looked 
 like a chapel. Economy and expense seemed to be struggling 
 for the upper hand in every accessory. It was as though 
 Monsieur Guillaume had looked to a good investment, even 
 in the purchase of a candlestick. In the midst of this bazaar, 
 where splendor revealed the owners' want of occupation, 
 Sommervieux's famous picture filled the place of honor, and in 
 it Monsieur and Madame Guillaume found their chief conso- 
 
276 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 lation, turning their eyes, harnessed with eye-glasses, twenty 
 times a day on this presentment of their past life, to them so 
 active and amusing. The appearance of this mansion and 
 these rooms, where everything had an aroma of staleness and 
 mediocrity, the spectacle offered by these two beings, cast 
 away, as it were, on a rock far from the world and the ideas 
 which are life, startled Augustine ; she could here contemplate 
 the sequel of the scene of which the first part had struck her 
 at the house of Lebas a life of stir without movement, a 
 mechanical and instinctive existence like that of the beaver; 
 and then she felt an indefinable pride in her troubles, as she 
 reflected that they had their source in eighteen months of 
 such happiness as, in her eyes, was worth a thousand lives like 
 this ; its vacuity seemed to her horrible. However, she con- 
 cealed this not very charitable feeling, and displayed for her 
 parents her newly acquired accomplishments of mind, and the 
 ingratiating tenderness that love had revealed to her, disposing 
 them to listen to her matrimonial grievances. Old people 
 have a weakness for this kind of confidences. Madame Guil- 
 laume wanted to know the most trivial details of that alien 
 life, which to her seemed almost fabulous. The travels of 
 Baron de la Houtan, which she began again and again and 
 never finished, told her nothing more unheard-of concerning 
 the Canadian savages. 
 
 "What, child, your husband shuts himself into a room with 
 naked women ! And you are so simple as to believe that he 
 draws them ? ' ' 
 
 As she uttered this exclamation, the grandmother laid her 
 spectacles on a little work-table, shook her skirts, and clasped 
 her hands on her knees, raised by a foot-warmer, her favorite 
 pedestal. 
 
 "But, mother, all artists are obliged to have models." 
 
 " He took good care not to tell us that when he asked 
 leave to marry you. If I had known it, I would never have 
 given my daughter to a man who followed such a trade. 
 
S7GJV OF THE CAT AXD RACKET. 277 
 
 Religion forbids such horrors ; they are immoral. And at 
 what time of night do you say he comes home ?" 
 
 "At one o'clock two " 
 
 The old couple looked at each other in utter amazement. 
 
 "Then he gambles?" said Monsieur Guillaume. "In 
 my day only gamblers stayed out so late." 
 
 Augustine made a face that scorned the accusation. 
 
 " He must keep you up through dreadful nights waiting for 
 him," said Madame Guillaume. "But you go to bed, don't 
 you? And when he has lost, the wretch wakes you." 
 
 "No, mamma, on the contrary, he is sometimes in very 
 good spirits. Not infrequently, indeed, when it is fine, he 
 suggests that I should get up and go into the woods." 
 
 "The woods! At that hour? Then have you such a 
 small set of rooms that his bedroom and his sitting-rooms are 
 not enough, and that he must run about? But it is just to 
 give you cold that the wretch proposes such expeditions. He 
 wants to get rid of you. Did one ever hear of a man settled 
 in life, a well-behaved, quiet man, galloping about like a 
 warlock ? ' ' 
 
 "But, my dear mother, you do not understand that he 
 must have excitement to fire his genius. He is fond of scenes 
 which " 
 
 " I would make scenes for him, fine scenes ! " cried Madame 
 Guillaume, interrupting her daughter. " How can you show 
 any consideration to such a man ? In the first place, I don't 
 like his drinking water only ; it is not wholesome. Why does 
 he object to see a woman eating? What queer notion is that ! 
 But he is mad. All you tell us about him is impossible. A 
 man cannot leave his home without a word, and never come 
 back for ten days. And then he tells you he has been to 
 Dieppe to paint the sea. As if any one painted the sea ! He 
 crams you with a pack of tales that are too absurd." 
 
 Augustine opened her lips to defend her husband ; but 
 Madame Guillaume enjoined silence with a wave of her hand, 
 
278 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 which she obeyed by a survival of habit, and her mother went 
 on in harsh tones: "Don't talk to me about the man ! He 
 never set foot in a church excepting to see you and to be 
 married. People without religion are capable of anything. 
 Did Guillaume ever dream of hiding anything from me, of 
 spending three days without saying a word to me, and of 
 chattering afterward like a blind magpie?" 
 
 " My dear mother, you judge superior people too severely. 
 If their ideas were the same as other people's they would not 
 be men of genius." 
 
 16 Very well, then let men of genius stop at home and not 
 get married. What ! A man of genius is to make his wife 
 miserable? And because he is a genius it is all right! 
 Genius, genius ! It is not so very clever to say black one 
 minute and white the next, as he does, to interrupt other 
 people, to dance such rigs at home, never to let you know 
 which foot you are to stand on, to compel his wife never to 
 be amused unless my lord is in gay spirits, and to be dull 
 when he is dull." 
 
 "But, mother, the very nature of such imaginations " 
 
 "What are such 'imaginations?'" Madame Guillaume 
 went on, interrupting her daughter again. "Fine ones his 
 are, my word ! What possesses a man that all on a sudden, 
 without consulting a doctor, he takes it into his head to eat 
 nothing but vegetables? If indeed it were from religious 
 motives, it might do him some good but he has no more 
 religion than a Huguenot. Was there ever a man known 
 who, like him, loved horses better than his fellow-creatures, 
 had his hair curled like a heathen, placed statues under muslin- 
 covers, closed his shutters in broad day to work by lamplight? 
 There, get along ; if he were not so grossly immoral, he would 
 be fit to shut up in a lunatic asylum. Consult Monsieur 
 Loraux, the priest at Saint-Sulpice, ask his opinion about it 
 all, and he will tell you that your husband does not behave 
 like a Christian." ; 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 279 
 
 "Oh, mother, can you believe " 
 
 " Yes, I do believe. You loved him, and you can see none 
 of these things. But I can remember in the early days after 
 your marriage. I met him in the Champs-Elysees. He was 
 on horseback. Well, at one minute he was galloping as hard 
 as he could tear, and then pulled up to a walk. I said to my- 
 self at that moment, ' There is a man devoid of judgment.' " 
 
 "Ah, ha ! " cried Monsieur Guillaume, " how wise I was 
 to have your money settled on yourself with such a queer 
 fellow for a husband ! " 
 
 When Augustine was so imprudent as to set forth her serious 
 grievances against her husband, the two old people were 
 speechless with indignation. But the word "divorce" was 
 ere long spoken by Madame Guillaume. At the sound of the 
 word divorce the apathetic old draper seemed to wake up. 
 Prompted by his love for his daughter, and also by the excite- 
 ment which the proceedings would bring into his uneventful 
 life, Father Guillaume took up the matter. He made himself 
 the leader of the application for a divorce, laid down the lines 
 of it, almost argued the case ; he offered to be at all the 
 charges, to see the lawyers, the pleaders, the judges, to move 
 heaven and earth. Madame de Sommervieux was frightened, 
 she refused her father's services, said she would not be sepa- 
 rated from her husband even if she were ten times as unhappy, 
 and talked no more about her sorrows. After being over- 
 whelmed by her parents with all the little wordless and con- 
 soling kindnesses by which the old couple tried in vain to 
 make up to her for her distress of heart, Augustine went away, 
 feeling the impossibility of making a superior mind intelligible 
 to weak intellects. She had learned that a wife must hide 
 from every one, even from her parents, woes for which it is so 
 difficult to find sympathy. The storms and sufferings of the 
 upper spheres are appreciated only by the lofty spirits who 
 inhabit there. In every circumstance we can only be judged 
 by our equals. 
 
280 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 Thus poor Augustine found herself thrown back on the 
 horror of her meditations, in the cold atmosphere of her 
 home. Study was indifferent to her, since study had not 
 brought her back her husband's heart. Initiated into the 
 secret of these souls of fire, but bereft of their resources, she 
 was compelled to share their sorrows without sharing their 
 pleasures. She was disgusted with the world, which to her 
 seemed mean and small as compared with the incidents of 
 passion. In short, her life was a failure. 
 
 One evening an idea flashed upon her that lighted up her 
 dark grief like a beam from heaven. Such an idea could 
 never have smiled on a heart less pure, less virtuous than hers. 
 She determined to go to the Duchesse de Carigliano, not to 
 ask her to give her back her husband's heart, but to learn the 
 arts by which it had been captured ; to engage the interest of 
 this haughty fine lady for the mother of her lover's children ; 
 to appeal to her and make her the instrument of her future 
 happiness, since she was the cause of her present wretchedness. 
 
 So one day Augustine, timid as she was, but armed with 
 supernatural courage, got into her carriage at two in the after- 
 noon to try for admittance to the boudoir of the famous 
 coquette, who was never visible till that hour. Madame de 
 Sommervieux had not yet seen any of the ancient and mag- 
 nificent mansions of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. As she 
 made her way through the stately corridors, the handsome 
 staircases, the vast drawing-rooms full of flowers, though it 
 was in the depth of winter, and decorated with the taste 
 peculiar to women born to opulence or to the elegant habits 
 of the aristocracy Augustine felt a terrible clutch at her 
 heart ; she coveted the secrets of an elegance of which she 
 had never had an idea ; she breathed an air of grandeur which 
 explained the attraction of the house for her husband. When 
 she reached the private rooms of the duchess she was filled 
 with jealousy and a sort of despair, as she admired the luxuri- 
 ous arrangement of the furniture, the draperies and the hang- 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 281 
 
 ings. Here disorder was a grace, here luxury affected a 
 certain contempt of splendor. The fragrance that floated in 
 the warm air flattered the sense of smell without offending it. 
 The accessories of the rooms were in harmony with a view, 
 through plate-glass windows, of the lawns in a garden planted 
 with evergreen trees. It was all bewitching, and the art of it 
 was not perceptible. The whole spirit of the mistress of these 
 rooms pervaded the drawing-room where Augustine awaited 
 her. She tried to divine her rival's character from the aspect 
 of the scattered objects ; but there was here something, as 
 impenetrable in the disorder as in the symmetry, and to the 
 simple-minded young wife all was a sealed letter. All that she 
 could discern was that, as a woman, the duchess was a supe- 
 rior person. Then a painful thought came over her. 
 
 "Alas! And is it true," she wondered, "that a simple 
 and loving heart is not all-sufficient to an artist ; that to 
 balance the weight of these powerful souls they need a union 
 with feminine souls of a strength equal to their own ? If 
 I had been brought up like this siren, our weapons at least 
 might have been equal in the hour of struggle." 
 
 "But I am not at home!" The sharp, harsh words, 
 though spoken in an undertone in the adjoining boudoir, 
 were heard by Augustine, and her heart beat violently. 
 
 "The lady is in there," replied the maid. 
 
 "You are an idiot! Show her in," replied the duchess, 
 whose voice was sweeter, and had assumed the dulcet tones 
 of politeness. She evidently now meant to be heard. 
 
 Augustine shyly entered the room. At the end of the 
 dainty boudoir she saw the duchess lounging luxuriously on 
 an ottoman covered with brown velvet and placed in the 
 centre of a sort of apse outlined by soft folds of white lawn 
 over a yellow lining. Ornaments of gilt bronze, arranged 
 with exquisite taste, enhanced this sort of dais, under which 
 the duchess reclined like a Greek statue. The dark hue of 
 the velvet gave relief to every fascinating charm. A subdued 
 
282 SSGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 light, friendly to her beauty, fell like a reflection rather .han 
 a direct illumination. A few rare flowers raised their pel- 
 fumed heads from costly Sevres vases. At the moment when 
 this picture was presented to Augustine's astonished eyes, she 
 was approaching so noiselessly that she caught a glance from 
 those of the enchantress. This look seemed to say to some 
 one whom Augustine did not at first perceive, "Stay; you 
 will see a pretty woman, and make her visit less of a bore." 
 
 On seeing Augustine, the duchess rose and made her sit 
 down by her. 
 
 " And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, madame ? " 
 she said with a most gracious smile. 
 
 "Why all this falseness?" thought Augustine, replying 
 only with a bow. 
 
 Her silence was compulsory. The young woman saw before 
 her a superfluous witness of the scene. This personage was, 
 of all the colonels in the army, the youngest, the most fash- 
 ionable, and the finest man. His face, full of life and youth, 
 but already expressive, was further enhanced by a small 
 mustache twirled up into points, and as black as jet, by a full 
 imperial, by whiskers carefully combed, and a forest of black 
 hair in some disorder. He was whisking a riding-whip with 
 an air of ease and freedom which suited his self-satisfied ex- 
 pression and the elegance of his dress ; the ribbons attached 
 to his button-hole were carelessly tied, and he seemed to pride 
 himself much more on his smart appearance than on his 
 courage. Augustine looked at the Duchesse de Carigliano, 
 and indicated the colonel by a sidelong glance. All its mute 
 appeal was understood. 
 
 " Good-by then, Monsieur d'Aiglemont, we shall meet in 
 the Bois de Boulogne." 
 
 These words were spoken by the siren as though they were 
 the result of an agreement made before Augustine's arrival, 
 and she winged them with a threatening look that the officer 
 deserved, perhaps, for the admiration he showed in gazing 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 283 
 
 at the modest flower, which contrasted so well with the 
 haughty duchess. The young fop bowed in silence, turned 
 on the heels of his boots, and gracefully quitted the boudoir. 
 At this instant, Augustine, watching her rival, whose eyes 
 seemed to follow the brilliant officer, detected in that glance 
 a sentiment of which the transient expression is known to 
 every woman. She perceived with the deepest anguish that 
 her visit would be useless; this lady, full of artifice, was too 
 greedy of homage not to have a ruthless heart. 
 
 " Madame," said Augustine in a broken voice, " the step I 
 am about to take will seem to you very strange ; but there is 
 a madness of despair which ought to excuse anything. I 
 understand only too well why Theodore prefers your house to 
 any other, and why your mind has so much power over his. 
 Alas ! I have only to look into myself to find more than 
 ample reasons. But I am devoted to my husband, madame. 
 Two years of tears have not effaced his image from my heart, 
 though I have lost his. In my folly I dared to dream of a 
 contest with you ; and I have come to you to ask you by what 
 means I may triumph over yourself. Oh, madame," cried 
 the young wife, ardently seizing the hand which her rival 
 allowed her to hold, " I will never pray to God for my own 
 happiness with so much fervor as I will beseech Him for yours, 
 if you will help me to win back Sommervieux's regard I will 
 not say his love. I have no hope but in you. Ah ! tell me 
 how you could please him, and make him forget the first 
 
 days " At these words Augustine broke down, suffocated 
 
 with sobs she could not suppress. Ashamed of her weakness, 
 she hid her face in her handkerchief, which she bathed with 
 tears. " What a child you are, my dear little beauty ! " said 
 the duchess, carried away by the novelty of such a scene, and 
 touched, in spite of herself, at receiving such homage from 
 the most perfect virtue perhaps in Paris. She took the young 
 wife's handkerchief, and herself wiped the tears from her eyes, 
 soothing her by a few monosyllables murmured with gracious 
 
284 SIGN" OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 compassion. After a moment's silence the duchess, grasping 
 poor Augustine's hands in both her own hands that had a 
 rare character of dignity and powerful beauty said in a gentle 
 and friendly voice : " My first warning is to advise you not to 
 weep so bitterly ; tears are disfiguring. We must learn to 
 deal firmly with the sorrows that make us ill, for love does 
 not linger long by a sickbed. Melancholy, at first, no doubt, 
 lends a certain attractive grace, but it ends by dragging the 
 features and blighting the loveliest face. And, beside, our 
 tyrants are so vain as to insist that their slaves should be 
 always cheerful." 
 
 " But, madame, it is not in my power not to feel. How is 
 it possible, without suffering a thousand deaths, to see the face 
 which once beamed with love and gladness turn chill, color- 
 less, and indifferent ? I cannot control my heart ! " 
 
 " So much the worse, sweet child. But I fancy I know all 
 your story. In the first place, if your husband is unfaithful 
 to you, understand clearly that I am not his accomplice. If 
 I was anxious to have him in my drawing-room, it was, I own, 
 out of vanity; he was famous, and he went nowhere. I like 
 you too much already to tell you all the mad things he has 
 done for my sake. I will only reveal one, because it may 
 perhaps help us to bring him back to you, and to punish him 
 for the audacity of his behavior to me. He will end by com- 
 promising me. I know the world too well, my dear, to 
 abandon myself to the discretion of a too superior man. You 
 should know that one may allow them to court one, but marry 
 them that is a mistake ! We women ought to admire men 
 of genius, and delight in them as a spectacle, but as to living 
 with them? Never. No, no. It is like wanting to find 
 pleasure in inspecting the machinery of the opera instead of 
 sitting in a box to enjoy its brilliant illusions. But this mis- 
 fortune has fallen on you, my poor child, has it not ? Well, 
 then, you must try to arm yourself against tyranny." 
 
 " Ah, madame, before coming in here, only seeing you as 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 285 
 
 I came in, I already detected some arts of which I had no 
 suspicion." 
 
 "Well, come and see me sometimes, and it will not be long 
 before you have mastered the knowledge of these trifles, im- 
 portant, too, in their way. Outward things are, to fools, 'half 
 of life ; and in that matter more than one clever man is a 
 fool, in spite of all his talent. But I dare wager you never 
 could refuse your Theodore anything ! " 
 
 " How refuse anything, madame, if one loves a man?" 
 
 " Poor innocent, I could adore you for your simplicity. 
 You should know that the more we love the less we should 
 allow a man, above all, a husband, to see the whole extent of 
 our passion. The one who loves most is tyrannized over, 
 and, which is worse, is sooner or later neglected. The one 
 who wishes to rule should " 
 
 "What, madame, must I then dissimulate, calculate, be- 
 come false, form an artificial character, and live in it ? How 
 is it possible to live in such a way? Can you " she hesi- 
 tated ; the duchess smiled. 
 
 " My dear child," the great lady went on in a serious tone, 
 " conjugal happiness has in all times been a speculation, a 
 business demanding particular attention. If you persist in 
 talking passion while I am talking marriage, we shall soon 
 cease to understand each other. Listen to me," she went on, 
 assuming a confidential tone. " I have been in the way of 
 seeing some of the superior men of our day. Those who have 
 married have for the most part chosen quite insignificant 
 wives. Well, those wives governed them, as the Emperor 
 governs us ; and if they were not loved, they were at least 
 respected. I like secrets especially those which concern 
 women well enough to have amused myself by seeking the 
 clue to the riddle. Well, my sweet child, those worthy 
 women had the gift of analyzing their husbands' nature ; 
 instead of taking fright, like you, at their superiority, they 
 very acutely noted the qualities they lacked, and either by 
 
286 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 possessing those qualities, or by feigning to possess them, 
 they found means of making such a handsome display of them 
 in their husbands' eyes that in the end they impressed them. 
 Also, I must tell you, all these souls which appear so lofty 
 have just a speck of madness in them, which we ought to 
 know how to take advantage of. By firmly resolving to have 
 the upper hand and never deviating from that aim, by bring- 
 ing all our actions to bear on it, all our ideas, our cajolery, 
 we subjugate these eminently capricious natures, which, by the 
 very mutability of their thoughts, lend us the means of influ- 
 encing them." 
 
 " Good heavens ! " cried the young wife in dismay. "And 
 this is life. It is a warfare " 
 
 " In which we must always threaten/' said the duchess, 
 laughing. "Our power is wholly factitious. And we must 
 never allow a man to despise us ; it is impossible to recover 
 from such a descent but by odious manoeuvring. Come," she 
 added, " I will give you a means of bringing your husband to 
 his senses." 
 
 She rose with a smile to guide the young and guileless ap- 
 prentice to conjugal arts through the labyrinth of her palace. 
 They came to a back staircase, which led up to the reception- 
 rooms. As Madame de Carigliano pressed the secret spring- 
 lock of the door she stopped, looking at Augustine with an 
 inimitable gleam of shrewdness and grace. "The Due de 
 Carigliano adores me," said she. "Well, he dare not enter 
 by this door without my leave. And he is a man in the habit 
 of commanding thousands of soldiers. He knows how to face 
 a battery, but before me he is afraid ! " 
 
 Augustine sighed. They entered a sumptuous gallery, where 
 the painter's wife was led by the duchess up to the portrait 
 painted by Theodore of Mademoiselle Guillaume. On seeing 
 it, Augustine uttered a cry. 
 
 " I knew it was no longer in my house," she said, " but 
 here! " 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 287 
 
 " My dear child, I asked for it merely to see to what pitch 
 of idiocy a man of genius may attain. Sooner or later I 
 should have returned it to you, for I never expected the plea- 
 sure of seeing the original here face to face with the copy. 
 While we finish our conversation I will have it carried down 
 to your carriage. And if, armed with such a talisman, you 
 are not your husband's mistress for a hundred years, you are 
 not a woman, and you deserve your fate." 
 
 Augustine kissed the duchess' hand, and the lady clasped 
 her to her heart, with all the more tenderness because she 
 would forget her by the morrow. This scene might, perhaps, 
 have destroyed forever the candor and purity of a less virtuous 
 woman than Augustine, for the astute politics of the higher 
 social spheres were no more consonant to Augustine than the 
 narrow reasoning of Joseph Lebas, or Madame Guillaume's 
 vapid morality. Strange are the results of the false positions 
 into which we may be brought by the slightest mistake in the 
 conduct of life ! Augustine was like an Alpine cowherd sur- 
 prised by an avalanche ; if he hesitates, if he listens to the 
 shouts of his comrades, he is almost certainly lost. In such a 
 crisis the heart steels itself or breaks. 
 
 Madame de Sommervieux returned home a prey to such 
 agitation as it is difficult to describe. Her conversation with 
 the Duchesse de Carigliano had roused in her mind a crowd 
 of contradictory thoughts. Like the sheep in the fable, full 
 of courage in the wolfs absence, she preached to herself, and 
 laid down admirable plans of conduct ; she devised a thousand 
 coquettish stratagems ; she even talked to her husband, finding, 
 away from him, all the springs of true eloquence which never 
 desert a woman ; then, as she pictured to herself Theodore's 
 clear and steadfast gaze, she began to quake. When she asked 
 whether monsieur were at home her voice shook. On learning 
 that he would not be in to dinner, she felt an unaccountable 
 thrill of joy. Like a criminal who has appealed against sen- 
 tence of death, a respite, however short, seemed tp her a life- 
 
288 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 time. She placed the portrait in her room, and waited for 
 her husband in all the agonies of hope. That this venture 
 must decide her future life, she felt too keenly not to shiver 
 at every sound, even the low ticking of the clock, which 
 seemed to aggravate her terrors by doling them out to her. 
 She tried to cheat time by various devices. The idea struck 
 her of dressing in a way which would make her exactly like 
 the portrait. Then, knowing her husband's restless temper, 
 she had her room lighted up with unusual brightness, feeling 
 sure that when he came in curiosity would bring him there at 
 once. Midnight had struck when, at the call of the groom, 
 the street gate was opened, and the artist's carriage rumbled 
 in over the stones of the silent courtyard. 
 
 "What is the meaning of this illumination? " asked Theo- 
 dore in glad tones as he came into her room. 
 
 Augustine skillfully seized the auspicious moment ; she threw 
 herself into her husband's arms, and pointed to the portrait. 
 The artist stood rigid as a rock, and his eyes turned alter- 
 nately on Augustine, on the accusing dress. The frightened 
 wife, half-dead, as she watched her husband's changeful brow 
 that terrible brow saw the expressive furrows gathering 
 like clouds ; then she felt her blood curdling in her veins 
 when, with a glaring look and in a deep, hollow voice, he 
 began to question her 
 
 "Where did you find that picture?" 
 
 "The Duchesse de Carigliano returned it to me," replied 
 Augustine. 
 
 " You asked her for it ? " 
 
 " I did not know that she had it." 
 
 The gentleness, or rather the exquisite sweetness of this 
 angel's voice, might have touched a cannibal, but not an artist 
 in the clutches of wounded vanity. 
 
 " It is worthy of her ! " exclaimed the painter in a voice of 
 thunder. "I will be revenged ! " he cried, striding up and 
 down the room. " She shall die of shame; I will paint her ! 
 
SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 289 
 
 Yes, I will paint her as Messalina stealing out at night from 
 the palace of Claudius." 
 
 "Theodore ! " said a faint voice. 
 
 " I will kill her !" 
 
 "My dear " 
 
 " She is in love with that little cavalry colonel, because he 
 rides well " 
 
 " Theodore ! 
 
 " Let me be ! " said the painter in a tone almost like a roar. 
 
 It would be odious to describe the whole scene. In the end 
 the frenzy of passion prompted the artist to acts and words 
 which any woman not so young as Augustine would have 
 ascribed to madness. 
 
 At eight o'clock next morning Madame Guillaume, surpris- 
 ing her daughter, found her pale, with red eyes, her hair in 
 disorder, holding a handkerchief soaked with tears, while she 
 gazed at the floor strewn with the torn fragments of a dress 
 and the broken pieces of a large gilt picture-frame. Augus- 
 tine, almost senseless with grief, pointed to the wreck with a 
 gesture of deep despair. 
 
 " I don't know that the loss is very great ! " cried the old 
 mistress of the Cat and Racket. " It was like you, no doubt; 
 but I am told that there is a man on the boulevard who paints 
 lovely portraits for fifty crowns." 
 
 "Oh, mother! " 
 
 "Poor child, you are quite right," replied Madame Guil- 
 laume, who misinterpreted the expression of her daughter's 
 glance at her. "True, my child, no one ever can love you 
 as fondly as a mother. My darling, I guess it all ; but con- 
 fide your sorrows to me, and I will comfort you. Did I not 
 tell you long ago that the man was mad ! Your maid has told 
 me pretty stories. Why, he must be a perfect monster ! " 
 
 Augustine laid a finger on her white lips, as if to implore a 
 moment's silence. During this dreadful night misery had led 
 her to that patient resignation which in mothers and loving 
 19 
 
290 SIGN OF THE CAT AND RACKET. 
 
 wives transcends in its effects all human energy, and perhaps 
 reveals in the heart of women the existence of certain chords 
 which God has withheld from men. 
 
 An inscription engraved on a broken column in the cem- 
 etery at Montmartre states that Madame de Sommervieux died 
 at the age of twenty-seven. In the simple words of this epi- 
 taph one of the timid creature's friends can read the last scene 
 of a tragedy. Every year, on the second of November, All- 
 Souls' Day, the solemn day of the dead, he never passes this 
 monument to youth without wondering whether it does not 
 need a stronger woman than Augustine to endure the violent 
 embrace of genius? 
 
 " The humble and modest flowers that bloom in the valley," 
 he reflects, " perish, perhaps, when they are transplanted too 
 near the skies, to the region where storms gather and the sun 
 is scorching." 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN 
 
 (La Maison Nucingeri). 
 
 Translated by ELLEN MARRIAGE. 
 
 To Madame Zulma Carraud. 
 
 To whom, madame, but to you should I inscribe 
 this work ; to you whose lofty and candid intellect is 
 a treasury to your friends ; to you that are to me not 
 only a whole public, but the most indulgent of sisters 
 as well? Will you deign to accept a token of the 
 friendship of which I am proud ? You, and some few 
 souls as noble, will grasp the whole of the thought 
 underlying The Firm of Nucingen, appended to Cesar 
 Birotteau. Is there not a whole social lesson in the 
 contrast between the two stories f 
 
 DE BALZAC. 
 
 You know how slight the partitions are between the private 
 rooms of fashionable restaurants in Paris ; Very's largest room, 
 for instance, is cut in two by a removable screen. This Scene 
 is not laid at Very's, but in snug quarters, which for reasons 
 of my own I forbear to specify. We were two, so I will say, 
 like Henri Monnier's Prudhomme, "I should not like to 
 compromise her /" 
 
 We had remarked the want of solidity in the wall-structure, 
 so we talked with lowered voices as we sat together in the 
 little private room, lingering over the dainty dishes of a dinner 
 exquisite in more senses than one. We had come as far as 
 the roast, however, and still we had no neighbors ; no sound 
 came from the next room save the crackling of the fire. But 
 when the clock struck eight, we heard voices and noisy foot- 
 steps ; the waiters brought candles. Evidently there was a 
 
 (291) 
 
292 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 party assembled in the next room, and at the first words I 
 knew at once with whom we had to do four bold cormorants 
 as ever sprang from the foam on the crests of the ever-rising 
 waves of this present generation four pleasant young fellows 
 whose existence was problematical, since they were not known 
 to possess either stock or landed estates, yet they lived, and 
 lived well. These ingenious condottieri (mercenary soldiers) 
 of a modern industrialism, that has come to be the most ruth- 
 less of all warfares, leave anxieties to their creditors and keep 
 the pleasures for themselves. They are careful for nothing, 
 save dress. Still, with courage of the Jean Bart order, that 
 will smoke cigars on a barrel of powder (perhaps by way of 
 keeping up their character), with a quizzing humor that out- 
 does the minor newspapers, sparing no one, not even them- 
 selves ; clear-sighted, wary, keen after business, grasping yet 
 open-handed, envious yet self-complacent, profound politi- 
 cians by fits and starts, analyzing everything, guessing every- 
 thing not one of these in question had as yet contrived to 
 make his way in the world which they chose for their scene 
 of operations. Only one of the four, indeed, had succeeded 
 in coming as far as the foot of the ladder. 
 
 To have money is nothing ; the self-made man only finds 
 out all that he lacks after six months of flatteries. Andoche 
 Finot, the self-made man in question, stiff, taciturn, cold, and 
 dull-witted, possessed the sort of spirit which will not shrink 
 from groveling before any creature that may be of use to him, 
 and the cunning to be insolent when he needs a man no 
 longer. Like one of the grotesque figures in the ballet in 
 " Gustave," he was a marquis behind, a boor in front. And 
 this high-priest of commerce had a following. 
 
 Emile Blondet, journalist, with abundance of intellectual 
 power, reckless, brilliant, and indolent, could do anything 
 that he chose, yet he submitted to be exploited with his eyes 
 open. Treacherous or kind upon impulse, a man to love, but 
 not to respect ; quick-witted as a soubrette, unable to refuse 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 293 
 
 his pen to any one that asked, or his heart to the first that 
 would borrow it, Emile was the most fascinating of those 
 light-of-loves of whom a fantastic and brilliant modern wit 
 declared that " he liked them better in satin slippers than in 
 boots." 
 
 The third in the party, Couture by name, lived by specula- 
 tion, grafting one affair upon another to make the gains pay 
 for the losses. He was always between wind and water, keep- 
 ing himself afloat by his bold, sudden strokes and the nervous 
 energy of his play. Hither and thither he would swim over 
 the vast sea of interests in Paris, in quest of some little isle 
 that should be so far a debatable land that he might abide 
 upon it. Clearly Couture was not in his proper place. 
 
 As for the fourth and most malicious personage, his name 
 will be enough it was Bixiou ! Not (alas !) the Bixiou of 
 1825, but the Bixiou of 1836, a misanthropic buffoon, ac- 
 knowledged supreme, by reason of his energetic and caustic 
 wit ; a very fiend let loose now that he saw how he had squan- 
 dered his intellect in pure waste; a Bixiou vexed by the 
 thought that he had not come by his share of the wreckage in 
 the last Revolution ; a Bixiou with a kick for every one, like 
 Pierrot at the Funambules. Bixiou had the whole history of 
 his own times at his finger-ends, more particularly its scanda- 
 lous chronicle, embellished by added waggeries of his own. 
 He sprang like a clown upon everybody's back, only to do his 
 utmost to leave the executioner's brand upon every pair of 
 shoulders. 
 
 The first cravings of gluttony satisfied, our neighbors reached 
 the stage at which we also had arrived, to wit, the dessert ; 
 and, as we made no sign, they believed that they were alone. 
 Thanks to the champague, the talk grew confidential as they 
 dallied with the dessert amid the cigar smoke. Yet through 
 it all you felt the influence of the icy shade that leaves the 
 most spontaneous feeling frost-bound and stiff, that checks 
 the most generous inspirations, and gives a sharp ring to the 
 
294 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 laughter. Their table-talk was full of the bitter irony which 
 turns a jest into a sneer ; it told of the exhaustion of souls 
 given over to themselves ; of lives with no end in view but 
 the satisfaction of self of egoism induced by these times of 
 peace in which we live. I can think of nothing like it save a 
 pamphlet against mankind at large which Diderot was afraid 
 to publish, a book that bares man's breast simply to expose 
 the plague-sores upon it. We listened to just such a pamphlet 
 as " Rameau's Nephew," spoken aloud in all good faith, in 
 the course of after-dinner talk, in which nothing, not even the 
 point which the speaker wished to carry, was sacred from 
 epigram ; nothing taken for granted, nothing built up except 
 upon ruins, nothing reverenced save the skeptic's adopted 
 article of belief the omnipotence, omniscience, and universal 
 applicability of money. 
 
 After some target practice at the outer circle of their ac- 
 quaintances, they turned their ill-natured shafts at their inti- 
 mate friends. With a sign I explained my wish to stay and 
 listen as soon as Bixiou took up his parable, as will shortly be 
 seen. And so we listened to one of those terrific improvisa- 
 tions which won that artist such a name among a certain set 
 of seared and jaded spirits ; and often interrupted and resumed 
 though it was, memory serves me as a reporter of it. The 
 opinions expressed and the form of expression lie alike outside 
 the conditions of literature. It was, more properly speaking, 
 a medley of sinister revelations that paint our age, to which 
 indeed no other kind of story should be told ; and, beside. I 
 throw all the responsibility upon the principal speaker. The 
 pantomime and the gestures that accompanied Bixiou's changes 
 of voice, as he acted the parts of the various persons, must 
 have been perfect, judging by the applause and admiring 
 comments that broke from his audience of three. 
 
 "Then did Rastignac refuse?" asked Blondet, apparently 
 addressing Finot. 
 
 "Point-blank." 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 295 
 
 " But did you threaten him with the newspapers? " asked 
 Bixiou. 
 
 "He began to laugh," returned Finot. 
 
 "Rastignac is the late lamented de Marsay's direct heir; 
 he will make his way politically as well as socially," com- 
 mented Blondet. 
 
 " But how did he make his money ? " asked Couture. " In 
 1819 both he and the illustrious Bianchon lived in a shabby 
 boarding-house in the Latin quarter;* his people ate roast 
 cockchafers and drank their own wine so as to send him a 
 hundred francs every month. His father's property was not 
 worth a thousand crowns ; he had two sisters and a brother on 
 his hands, and now " 
 
 " Now he has an income of forty thousand livres," con- 
 tinued Finot ; " his sisters had a handsome fortune apiece and 
 married into noble families; he leaves his mother a life-interest 
 in the property " 
 
 " Even in 1827 I have known him without a penny," said 
 Blondet. 
 
 " Oh ! in 1827," said Bixiou. 
 
 " Well," resumed Finot, " yet to-day, as we see, he is in a 
 fair way to be a minister, a peer of France anything that he 
 likes. He broke decently with Delphine three years ago ; he 
 will not marry except on good grounds ; and he may marry a 
 girl of noble family. The chap had the sense to take up with 
 a wealthy woman." 
 
 "My friends, give him the benefit of extenuating circum- 
 stances," urged Blondet. " When he escaped the clutches of 
 want, he dropped into the claws of a very clever man." 
 
 "You know what Nucingen is," said Bixiou. "In the 
 early days, Delphine and Rastignac thought him 'good- 
 natured ; ' he seemed to regard a wife as a plaything, an orna- 
 ment in his house. And that very fact showed me that the 
 man was square at the base as well as in height," added Bixiou. 
 * See " Father Goriot." 
 
296 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 " Nucingen makes no bones about admitting that his wife is 
 his fortune ; she is an indispensable chattel, but a wife takes a 
 secondary place in the high-pressure life of a political leader 
 and great capitalist. He once said in my hearing that Bona- 
 parte had blundered like a bourgeois in his early relations with 
 Josephine ; and that after he had had the spirit to use her as 
 a stepping-stone, he had made himself ridiculous by trying to 
 make a companion of her." 
 
 "Any man of unusual powers is bound to take Oriental 
 views of women," said Blondet. 
 
 " The baron blended the opinions of East and West in a 
 charming Parisian creed ; he abhorred de Marsay ; de Marsay 
 was unmanageable; but with Rastignac he was much pleased; 
 he exploited him, though Rastignac was not aware of it. All 
 the burdens of married life were put on him. Rastignac bore 
 the brunt of Delphine's whims ; he escorted her to the Bois de 
 Boulogne ; he went with her to the play ; and the little poli- 
 tician and great man of to-day spent a good deal of his life at 
 that time in writing dainty notes. Eugene was scolded for 
 little nothings from the first ; he was in good spirits when Del- 
 phine was cheerful, and drooped when she felt low ; he bore 
 the weight of her confidences and her ailments ; he gave up 
 his time, the hours of his precious youth, to fill the empty void 
 of that fair Parisian's idleness. Delphine and he held high 
 councils on the toilettes which went best together ; he stood 
 the fire of bad temper and broadsides of pouting fits, while she, 
 by way of trimming the balance, was very nice to the baron. 
 As for the baron, he laughed in his sleeve; but whenever he 
 saw that Rastignac was bending under the strain of the burden, 
 he made ' as if he suspected something,' and reunited the 
 lovers by a common dread." 
 
 "lean imagine that a wealthy wife would have put Ras- 
 tignac in the way of a living, and an honorable living, but 
 where did he pick up his fortune?" asked Couture. "A 
 fortune so considerable as his at the present day must come 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 297 
 
 from somewhere ; and nobody ever accused him of inventing 
 a good stroke of business." 
 
 " Somebody left it to him," said Finot. 
 "Who?" asked Blondet. 
 
 " Some fool that he came across," suggested Couture. 
 "He did not steal the whole of it, my little dears," said 
 Bixiou. 
 
 " Let not your terrors rise to fever-heat, 
 Our age is lenient with those that cheat. 
 
 Now, I will tell you about the beginnings of his fortune. 
 In the first place, honor to talent ! Our friend is not a 
 'chap,' as Finot describes him, but a gentleman in the 
 English sense, who knows the cards and knows the game ; 
 whom, moreover, the gallery respects. Rastignac has quite 
 as much intelligence as is needed at a given moment, 
 as if a soldier should make his courage payable at ninety 
 days' sight, with three witnesses and guarantees. He may 
 seem captious, wrong-headed, inconsequent, vacillating, and 
 without any fixed opinions ; but let something serious turn 
 up, some combination to scheme out, he will not scatter him- 
 self like Blondet here, who chooses these occasions to look at 
 things from his neighbor's point of view. Rastignac concen- 
 trates himself, pulls himself together, looks for the point to 
 carry by storm, and goes full tilt for it. He charges like a 
 Murat, breaks squares, pounds away at shareholders, pro- 
 moters, and the whole crowd, and returns, when the breach is 
 made, to his lazy, careless life. Once more he becomes the 
 man of the South, the man of pleasure, the trifling, idle 
 Rastignac. He has earned the right of lying in bed till noon 
 because a crisis never finds him asleep." 
 
 " So far so good, but just get to his fortune," said Finot. 
 
 " Bixiou will dash that off at a stroke," replied Blondet. 
 " Rastignac's fortune was Delphine de Nucingen, a remarkable 
 woman; she combines boldness with foresight." 
 
298 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 "Did she ever lend you money?" inquired Bixiou. 
 Everybody burst out laughing. 
 
 "You are mistaken in her," said Couture, speaking to 
 Blondet ; " her cleverness simply consists in making more or 
 less piquant remarks, in loving Rastignac with tedious fidelity, 
 and obeying him blindly. She is a regular Italian." 
 
 " Money apart," Andoche Finot put in sourly. 
 
 "Oh, come, come," said Bixiou coaxingly; "after what 
 we have just been saying, will you venture to blame poor 
 Rastignac for living at the expense of the firm of Nucingen, 
 for being installed in furnished rooms precisely as La Torpille 
 was once installed by our friend des Lupeaulx? You would 
 sink to the vulgarity of the Rue Saint-Denis ! First of all, 
 'in the abstract,' as Royer-Collard says, the question may 
 abide the ' Kritik of Pure Reason ; ' as for the impure reason 
 that " 
 
 " There he goes ! " said Finot, turning to Blondet. 
 
 "But there is reason in what he says," exclaimed Blondet. 
 "The problem is a very old one; it was the grand secret of 
 the famous duel between La Chataigneraie and Jarnac. It 
 was cast up to Jarnac that he was on good terms with his 
 mother-in-law, who, loving him only too well, equipped him 
 sumptuously. When a thing is so true, it ought not to be 
 said. Out of devotion to Henry II., who permitted himself 
 this slander, La Chataigneraie took it upon himself, and there 
 followed the duel which enriched the French language with 
 the expression coup de Jarnac" 
 
 "Oh! does it go so far back? Then it is noble?" said 
 Finot. 
 
 " As proprietor of newspapers and reviews of old standing, 
 you are not bound to know that," said Blondet. 
 
 "There are women," Bixiou gravely resumed, "and for 
 that matter, men too, who can cut their lives in two and give 
 away but one-half. (Remark how I word my phrase for you 
 in humanitarian language.) For these, all material interests 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 299 
 
 lie without the range of sentiment. They give their time, 
 their life, their honor to a woman, and hold that between them- 
 selves it is not the thing to meddle with bits of tissue paper 
 bearing the legend, ' Forgery is punishable with death.' And 
 equally they will take nothing from a woman. Yes, the 
 whole thing is debased if fusion of interests follows on fusion 
 of souls. This is a doctrine much preached, and very seldom 
 practiced." 
 
 " Oh, what rubbish ! " cried Blondet. " The Marechal de 
 Richelieu understood something of gallantry, and he settled 
 an allowance of a thousand louis d'or on Madame de la 
 Popeliniere after that affair of the hiding-place behind the 
 hearth. Agnes Sorel, in all simplicity, took her fortune to 
 Charles VII., and the King accepted it. Jacques Cceur kept 
 the crown for France ; he was allowed to do it, and, woman- 
 like, France was ungrateful." 
 
 "Gentlemen," said Bixiou, "a love that does not imply an 
 indissoluble friendship, to my thinking, is momentary liber- 
 tinage. What sort of entire surrender is it that keeps some- 
 thing back? Between these two diametrically opposed doc- 
 trines, the one as profoundly immoral as the other, there is no 
 possible compromise. It seems to me that any shrinking from 
 a complete union is surely due to a belief that the union cannot 
 last, and if so, farewell to illusion. The passion that does not 
 believe that it will last forever is a hideous thing. (Here is 
 pure unadulterated Fenelon for you !) At the same time, 
 those who know the world, the observer, the man of the world, 
 the wearers of irreproachable gloves and ties, the men who do 
 not blush to marry a woman for her money, proclaim the 
 necessity of a complete separation of sentiment and interest. 
 The other sort are lunatics that love and imagine that they 
 and the woman they love are the only two beings in the 
 world ; for them millions are dirt ; the glove or the camellia 
 flower that She wore is worth millions. If the squandered 
 filthy lucre is never to be found again in their possession, you 
 
300 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 find the remains of floral relics hoarded in dainty cedar-wood 
 boxes. They cannot distinguish themselves one from the 
 other ; for them there is no ' I ' left. Thou that is their 
 Word made flesh. What can you do ? Can you stop the 
 course of this ' hidden disease of the heart ? ' There are fools 
 that love without calculation, and wise men that calculate 
 while they love." 
 
 "To my thinking Bixiou is sublime," cried Blondet. 
 "What does Finot say to it? " 
 
 "Anywhere else," said Finot, drawing himself up in his 
 cravat, "anywhere else, I should say, with the 'gentlemen;' 
 but here, I think " 
 
 "With the scoundrelly scapegraces with whom you have 
 the honor to associate?" said Bixiou. 
 
 "Upon my word, yes." 
 
 "And you?" asked Bixiou, turning to Couture. 
 
 " Stuff and nonsense ! " cried Couture. " The woman that 
 will not make a stepping-stone of her body, that the man she 
 singles out may reach his goal, is a woman that has no heart 
 except for her own purposes." 
 
 "And you, Blondet?" 
 
 " I do not preach, I practice." 
 
 "Very good," rejoined Bixiou in his most ironical tones. 
 " Rastignac was not of your way of thinking. To take without 
 repaying is detestable, and even rather bad form ; but to take 
 that you may render a hundredfold, like the Lord, is a chival- 
 rous deed. This was Rastignac's view. He felt profoundly 
 humiliated by his community of interests with Delphine de 
 Nucingen ; I can tell you that he regretted it ; I have seen him 
 deploring his position with tears in his eyes. Yes, he shed 
 tears, he did, indeed after supper. Well, now to our way of 
 thinking " 
 
 " I say, you are laughing at us," said Finot. 
 
 " Not the least in the world. We were talking of Rastignac. 
 From your point of view his affliction would be a sign of his 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 301 
 
 corruption ; for by that time he was not nearly so much in 
 love with Delphine. What would you have? he felt the 
 prick in his neart, poor fellow. But he was a man of noble 
 descent and profound depravity, whereas we are virtuous 
 artists. So Rastignac meant to enrich Delphine ; he was a 
 poor man, she a rich woman. Would you believe it? he suc- 
 ceeded. Rastignac, who might have fought at need, like 
 Jarnac, went over to the opinion of Henri II. on the strength 
 of his great maxim, ' There is no such thing as absolute right ; 
 there are only circumstances.' This brings us to the history 
 of his fortune." 
 
 " You might just as well make a start with your story instead 
 of drawing us on to traduce ourselves," said Blondet with 
 urbane good-humor. 
 
 "Aha! my boy," returned Bixiou, administering a little 
 tap to the back of Blondet's head, " you are making up for 
 lost time over the champagne ! " 
 
 " Oh ! by the sacred name of shareholder, get on with your 
 story ! " cried Couture. 
 
 " I was within an ace of it," retorted Bixiou, " but you with 
 your profanity have brought me to the climax." 
 
 "Then, are there shareholders in the tale?" inquired 
 Finot. 
 
 "Yes; rich as rich can be like yours." 
 
 "It seems to me," Finot began stiffly, "that some consid- 
 eration is owing to a good fellow to whom you look for a bill 
 for five hundred francs upon occasion " 
 
 " Waiter ! " called Bixiou. 
 
 "What do you want with the waiter?" asked Blondet. 
 
 " I want five hundred francs to repay Finot, so that I can 
 tear up my I. O. U. and set my tongue free." 
 
 "Get on with your story," said Finot, making believe to 
 laugh. 
 
 " I take you all to witness that I am not the property of this 
 insolent fellow, who fancies that my silence is worth no more 
 
302 THE FIRM OF AUCINGEN. 
 
 than five hundred francs. You will never be a minister if you 
 cannot gauge people's consciences. There, my good Finot," 
 he added soothingly, " I will get on with my story without 
 personalities, and we shall be quits." 
 
 " Now," said Couture with a smile, " he will begin to prove 
 for our benefit that Nucingen made Rastignac's fortune." 
 
 "You are not so far out as you think," returned Bixiou. 
 "You do not know what Nucingen is, financially speaking." 
 
 " Do you know so much as a word as to his beginnings ? " 
 asked Blondet. 
 
 "I have only known him in his own house," said Bixiou, 
 " but we may have seen each other in the street in the old 
 days." 
 
 " The prosperity of the firm of Nucingen is one of the most 
 extraordinary things seen in our days," began Blondet. " In 
 1804 Nucingen's name was scarcely known. At that time 
 bankers would have shuddered at the idea of three hundred 
 thousand francs' worth of his acceptances in the market. The 
 great capitalist felt his inferiority. How was he to get known ? 
 He suspended payment. Good ! Every market rang with a 
 name hitherto only known in Strasbourg and the Quartier 
 Poissonniere. He issued deposit certificates to his creditors, 
 and resumed payment ; forthwith people grew accustomed to 
 his paper all over France. Then an unheard-of thing hap- 
 pened his paper revived, was in demand, and rose in value. 
 Nucingen's paper was much inquired for. The year 1815 
 arrives, my banker calls in his capital, buys up Government 
 stock before the battle of Waterloo, suspends payment again in 
 the thick of the crisis, and meets his engagements with shares 
 in the Wortschin mines, which he himself issued at twenty per 
 cent, more than he gave for them ! Yes, gentlemen ! He 
 took a hundred and fifty thousand bottles of champagne of 
 Grandet to cover himself (foreseeing the failure of the virtuous 
 parent of the present Comte d'Aubrion), and as much Bor- 
 deaux wine of Duberghe at the same time. Those three hun- 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 303 
 
 dred thousand bottles which he took over (and took over at 
 thirty sous apiece, my dear boy), he supplied at the price of six 
 francs per bottle to the Allies in the Palais Royal during the 
 foreign occupation between 1817 and 1819. Nucingen's name 
 and his paper acquired a European celebrity. The illustrious 
 baron, so far from being engulfed like others, rose the higher 
 for calamities. Twice his arrangements had paid holders of 
 his paper uncommonly well ; he try to swindle them? Impos- 
 sible. He is supposed to be as honest a man as you will find. 
 When he suspends payment a third time, his paper will circu- 
 late in Asia, Mexico, and Australia, among the aborigines. 
 No one but Ouvrard saw through this Alsacian banker, the son 
 of some Jew or other converted by ambition ; Ouvrard said, 
 ' When Nucingen lets gold go, you may be sure that it is to 
 catch diamonds.' " 
 
 "His crony, du Tillet, is just such another," said Finot. 
 "And, mind you, that of birth du Tillet has just precisely so 
 much as is necessary to exist ; the chap had not a farthing in 
 1814, and you see what he is now; and he has done some- 
 thing that none of us has managed to do (I am not speaking 
 of you, Couture), he has had friends instead of enemies. In 
 fact, he has kept his past life so quiet, that unless you rake 
 the sewers you are not likely to find out that he was an assist- 
 ant in a perfumer's shop in the Rue Saint-Honore, no further 
 back than 1814."* 
 
 " Tut, tut, tut ! " said Bixiou, "do not think of comparing 
 Nucingen with a little dabbler like du Tillet, a jackal that gets 
 on in life through his sense of smell. He scents a carcase 
 by instinct, and comes in time to get the best bone. Beside, 
 just look at the two men. The one has a sharp-pointed face 
 like a cat, he is thin and lanky; the other is cubical, fat, 
 heavy as a sack, imperturbable as a diplomatist. Nucingen 
 has a thick, heavy hand, and lynx eyes that never light up ; 
 his depths are not in front, but behind; he is inscrutable, 
 * See " f^sar Birotteau." 
 
304 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 you never see what he is making for. Whereas du Tillet's 
 cunning, as Napoleon said of somebody (I have forgotten the 
 name), is like cotton spun too fine, it breaks." 
 
 " I do not myself see that Nucingen has any advantage over 
 du Tillet," said Blondet, "unless it is that he has the sense 
 to see that a capitalist ought not to rise higher than a baron's 
 rank, while du Tillet has a mind to be an Italian count." 
 
 " Blondet one word, my boy," put in Couture. " In the 
 first place, Nucingen dared to say that honesty is simply a 
 question of appearances ; and, secondly, to know him well you 
 must be in business yourself. With him banking is but a 
 single department, and a very small one ; he holds Govern- 
 ment contracts for wines, wools, indigoes anything, in short, 
 on which any profit can be made. He has an all-round 
 genius. The elephant of finance would contract to deliver 
 votes on a division, or the Greeks to the Turks. For him 
 business means the sum-total of varieties ; as Cousin would 
 say, the unity of specialties. Looked at in this way, banking 
 becomes a kind of statecraft in itself, requiring a powerful 
 head ; and a man thoroughly tempered is drawn on to set 
 himself above the laws of a morality that cramps him." 
 
 "Right, my son," said Blondet, "but we, and we alone, 
 can comprehend that this means bringing war into the finan 
 cial world. A banker is a conquering general making sacri- 
 fices on a tremendous scale to gain ends that no one perceives ; 
 his soldiers are private people's interests. He has stratagems 
 to plan out, partisans to bring into the field, ambushes to set, 
 towns to take. Most men of this stamp are so close upon the 
 borders of politics that in the end they are drawn into public 
 life, and thereby lose their fortunes. The firm of Necker, for 
 instance, was ruined in this way ; the famous Samuel Bernard 
 was all but ruined. Some great capitalist in every age makes 
 a colossal fortune, and leaves behind him neither fortune 
 nor a family ; there was the firm of Paris Brothers, for in- 
 stance, that helped to pull down Law; there was Law himself 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 305 
 
 (beside whom other promoters of companies are but pigmies) ; 
 there was Bouret and Beaujon none of them left any repre- 
 sentative. Finance, like Time, devours its own children. If 
 the banker is to perpetuate himself, he must found a noble 
 house, a dynasty; like the Fuggers of Antwerp, that lent 
 money to Charles V. and were created Princes of Babenhausen, 
 a family that exists at this day in the 'Almanach de Gotha.' 
 The instinct of self-preservation, working it may be uncon- 
 sciously, leads the banker to seek a title. Jacques Cceur was 
 the founder of the great noble house of Noirmoutier, extinct 
 in the reign of Louis XIII. What power that man had ! He 
 was ruined for making a legitimate king; and he died, prince 
 of an island in the Archipelago, where he built a magnificent 
 cathedral." 
 
 " Oh ! you are giving us a historical lecture, we are wander- 
 ing away from the present ; the crown has no right of confer- 
 ring nobility, and barons and counts are made with closed 
 doors; more is the pity ! " said Finot. 
 
 "You regret the times of the savonnette a vilain* when you 
 could buy an office that ennobled?" asked Bixiou. "You 
 are right. Je reviens a nos moutons (I return to our muttons). 
 Do you know Beaudenord? No? no? no? Ah, well! See 
 how all things pass away ! Poor fellow, ten years ago he was 
 the flower of dandyism ; and now, so thoroughly absorbed 
 that you no more know him than Finot just now knew the 
 origin of the expression ' coup de Jarnac ' I repeat that sim- 
 ply for the sake of illustration, and not to tease you, Finot. 
 Well, it is a fact, he belonged to the Faubourg Saint-Germain. 
 
 "Beaudenord is the first pigeon that I will bring on the 
 scene. And, in the first place, his name was Godefroid de 
 Beaudenord ; neither Finot, nor Blondet, nor Couture, nor I 
 are likely to undervalue such an advantage as that ! After a 
 ball, when a score of pretty women stand behooded waiting 
 for their carriages, with their husbands and adorers at their 
 
 * Soap-cake for the base-born. 
 20 
 
306 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 sides, Beaudenord could hear his people called without a pang 
 of mortification. In the second place, he rejoiced in the 
 full complement of limbs ; he was whole and sound, had 
 no mote in his eyes, no false hair, no artificial calves ; he 
 was neither knock-kneed nor bandy-legged, his dorsal column 
 was straight, his waist slender, his hands white and shapely. 
 His hair was black ; he was of a complexion neither too pink, 
 like a grocer's assistant, nor yet too brown, like a Calabrese. 
 Finally, and this is an essential point, Beaudenord was not too 
 handsome, like some of our friends that look rather too much 
 of professional beauties to be anything else ; but no more of 
 that ; we have said it, it is shocking ! Well, he was a crack 
 shot, and sat a horse to admiration ; he had fought a duel for 
 a trifle, and had not killed his man. 
 
 " If you wish to know in what pure, complete, and unadul- 
 terated happiness consists in this nineteenth century in Paris 
 the happiness, that is to say, of a young man of twenty-six 
 do you realize that you must enter into the infinitely small 
 details of existence? Beaudenord's bootmaker had precisely 
 hit off his style of foot ; he was well shod ; his tailor loved to 
 clothe him. Godefroid neither rolled his r's nor lapsed into 
 Normanisms nor Gascon ; he spoke pure and correct French, 
 and tied his cravat correctly (like Finot). He had neither 
 father nor mother such luck had he ! and his guardian was 
 the Marquis d'Aiglemont, his cousin by marriage. He could 
 go among city people as he chose, and the Faubourg Saint- 
 Germain could make no objection ; for, fortunately, a young 
 bachelor is allowed to make his own pleasure his sole rule of 
 life, he is at liberty to betake himself wherever amusement is 
 to be found, and to shun the gloomy places where cares 
 flourish and multiply. Finally, he had been vaccinated (you 
 know what I mean, Blondet). 
 
 "And yet, in spite of all these virtues," continued Bixiou, 
 " he might very well have been a very unhappy young man. 
 Eh! eh! that word happiness, unhappily, seems to us to mean 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 307 
 
 something absolute, a delusion which sets so many wiseacres 
 inquiring what happiness is. A very clever woman said that 
 ' Happiness was where you chose to put it.' " 
 
 "She formulated a dismal truth," said Blondet. 
 
 "And a moral," added Finot. 
 
 " Double distilled," said Blondet. " Happiness, like Good, 
 like Evil, is relative. Wherefore La Fontaine used to hope 
 that in course of time the damned would feel as much at 
 home in hell as a fish in water." 
 
 "La Fontaine's sayings are known in Philistia!" put in 
 Bixiou. 
 
 " Happiness at six-and-twenty in Paris is not the happiness 
 of six-and-twenty at say Blois," continued Blondet, taking 
 no notice of the interruption. " And those that proceed from 
 this text to rail at the instability of opinion are either knaves 
 or fools for their pains. Modern medicine, which passed (it 
 is its fairest title to glory) from a hypothetical to a positive 
 science, through the influence of the great analytical school 
 of Paris, has proved beyond a doubt that a man is periodically 
 renewed throughout " 
 
 " New haft, new blade, like Jeannot's knife, and yet you 
 think that he is still the same man," broke in Bixiou. " So 
 there are several lozenges in the harlequin's coat that we call 
 happiness ; and well, there was neither hole nor stain in 
 this Godefroid's costume. A young man of six-and-twenty, 
 who would be happy in love, who would be loved, that is to 
 say, not for his blossoming youth, nor for his wit, nor for his 
 figure, but spontaneously, and not even merely in return for 
 his own love ; a young man, I say, who has found love in the 
 abstract, to quote Royer-Collard, might yet very possibly fi 
 never a farthing in the purse which She, loving and beloved, 
 embroidered for him ; he might owe rent to his landlord ; he 
 might be unable to pay the bootmaker before mentioned ; his 
 very tailor, like France herself, might at last show signs 
 disaffection. In short, he might have lore and yet be poor. 
 
308 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 And poverty spoils a young man's happiness, unless he holds 
 our transcendental views of the fusion of interests. I know- 
 nothing more wearing than happiness within combined with 
 adversity without. It is as if you had one leg freezing in the 
 draught from the door, and the other half-roasted by a brasier 
 as I have at this moment. I hope to be understood. 
 Comes there an echo from thy vest-pocket, Blondet ? Be- 
 tween ourselves, let the heart alone, it spoils the intellect. 
 
 " Let us resume. Godefroid de Beaudenord was respected 
 by his tradespeople, for they were paid with tolerable regu- 
 larity. The witty woman before quoted I cannot give her 
 name, for she is still living, thanks to her want of heart " 
 
 "Who is this?" 
 
 "The Marquise d'Espard. She said that a young man 
 ought to live on an entresol ; there should be no sign of 
 domesticity about the place ; no cook, no kitchen, an old 
 manservant to wait upon him, and no pretense of a perma- 
 nence. In her opinion, any other sort of establishment is bad 
 form. Godefroid de Beaudenord, faithful to this programme, 
 lodged on an entresol on the Quai Malaquais ; he had, how- 
 ever, been obliged to have this much in common with mar- 
 ried couples, he had put a bedstead in his room, though for 
 that matter it was so narrow that he seldom slept in it. An 
 Englishwoman might have visited his rooms and found nothing 
 ' improper ' there. Finot, you have yet to learn the great 
 law of the ' Improper ' that rules Britain. But, for the sake 
 of the bond between us that bill for a thousand francs I 
 will just give you some idea of it. I have been in England 
 myself. I will give him wit enough for a couple of thousand," 
 he added in an aside to Blondet. 
 
 " In England, Finot, you grow extremely intimate with a 
 woman in the course of an evening, at a ball or wherever it 
 is ; next day you meet her in the street and look as though 
 you knew her again ' improper.' At dinner you discover a 
 delightful man beneath your left-hand neighbor's dress-coat ; 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCIMGEN. 309 
 
 a clever man ; no high-mightiness, no constraint, nothing of 
 an Englishman about him. In accordance with the tradition 
 of French breeding, so urbane, so gracious as they are, you 
 address your neighbor 'improper.' At a ball you walk up 
 to a pretty woman to ask her to dance ' improper.' You wax 
 enthusiastic, you argue, laugh, and give yourself out, you fling 
 yourself heart and soul into the conversation, you give expres- 
 sion to your real feelings, you play when you are at the card- 
 table, chat while you chat, eat while you eat ' improper ! 
 improper ! improper ! ' Stendhal, one of the cleverest and 
 profoundest minds of the age, hit off the ' improper ' excel- 
 lently well when he said that such-and-such a British peer did 
 not dare to cross his legs when he sat alone before his own 
 hearth for fear of being improper. An English gentlewoman, 
 were she one of the rabid ' Saints ' that most straitest sect of 
 Protestants that would leave their whole family to starve if the 
 said family did anything ' improper ' may play the deuce's 
 own delight in her bedroom, and need not be ' improper,' but 
 she would look on herself as lost if she received a visit from a 
 man of her acquaintance in the aforesaid room. Thanks to 
 propriety, London and its inhabitants will be found petrified 
 some of these days." 
 
 "And to think that there are asses here in France that 
 want to import the solemn tomfoolery that the English keep 
 up among themselves with that admirable self-possession which 
 you know!" added Blondet. "It is enough to make any 
 man shudder if he has seen the English at home, and recollects 
 the charming, gracious French manners. Sir Walter Scott 
 was afraid to paint women as they are for fear of being ' im- 
 proper ; ' and at the close of his life repented of the creation 
 of the great character of Effie in ' The Heart of Midlothian.' 
 
 " Do you wish not to be ' improper ' in England ? " asked 
 Bixiou, addressing Finot. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Go to the Tuileries and look at a figure there, something 
 
310 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 like a fireman carved in marble ('Themistocles,' the statuary 
 calls it), try to walk like the commandant's statue, and you 
 will never be ' improper. ' It was through strict observance of 
 the great law of the /wproper that Godefroid's happiness be- 
 came complete. Here is the story : 
 
 " Beaudenord had a tiger, not a ' groom,' as they write that 
 know nothing of society. The tiger, a diminutive Irish page, 
 called Paddy, Toby, Joby (which you please), was three feet 
 in height by twenty inches in breadth, a weasel-faced infant, 
 with nerves of steel tempered in fire-water, and agile as a 
 squirrel. He drove a landau with a skill never yet at fault in 
 London or Paris. He had a lizard's eye, as sharp as my own, 
 and he could mount a horse like the elder Franconi. With 
 the rosy cheeks and yellow hair of one of Ruben's Madonnas, 
 he was double-faced as a prince, and as knowing as an old 
 attorney ; in short, at the age of ten he was nothing more nor 
 less than a blossom of depravity, gambling and swearing, 
 partial to jam and punch, pert as a feuilleton (news-skit), im- 
 pudent and light-fingered as any Paris street-arab. He had 
 been a source of honor and profit to a well-known English 
 lord, for whom he had already won seven hundred thousand 
 francs on the racecourse. The aforesaid nobleman set no 
 small store on Toby. His tiger was a curiosity, the very 
 smallest tiger in town. Perched aloft on the back of a thor- 
 oughbred, Joby looked like a hawk. Yet the great man dis- 
 missed him. Not for greediness, not for dishonesty, nor 
 murder, nor for criminal conversation, nor for bad manners, 
 nor rudeness to my lady, nor for cutting holes in my lady's 
 own woman's pockets, nor because he had been ' got at ' by 
 some of his master's rivals on the turf, nor for playing games 
 of a Sunday, nor for bad behavior of any sort or description. 
 Toby might have done all these things, he might even have 
 spoken to milord before milord spoke to him, and his noble 
 master might, perhaps, have pardoned that breach of the law- 
 domestic. Milord would have put up with a good deal from 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 311 
 
 Toby; he was very fond of him. Toby could drive a tandem 
 dog-cart, riding on the wheeler, postillion fashion ; his legs 
 did not reach the shafts, he looked in fact very much like one 
 of the cherub heads circling about the Eternal Father in old 
 Italian pictures. But an English journalist wrote a delicious 
 description of the little angel, in the course of which he said 
 that Paddy was quite too pretty for a tiger; in fact, he offered 
 to bet that Paddy was a tame tigress. The description, on the 
 heads of it, was calculated to poison minds and end in some- 
 thing 'improper.' And the superlative of ' improper ' is the 
 way to the gallows. Milord's circumspection was highly ap- 
 proved by my lady. 
 
 " But poor Toby, now that his precise position in insular 
 zoology had been called in question, found himself hopelessly 
 out of place. At that time Godefroid had blossomed out at 
 the jjrench Embassy in London, where he learned the adven- 
 tures of Joby, Toby, Paddy. Godefroid found the infant 
 weeping over a pot of jam (he had already lost the guineas 
 with which milord gilded his misfortune). Godefroid took 
 possession of him ; and so it fell out that on his return among 
 us he brought back with him the sweetest thing in tigers from 
 England. He was known by his tiger as Couture is known 
 by his waistcoats and found no difficulty in entering the 
 fraternity of the club yclept to-day the Grammont. He had 
 renounced the diplomatic career; he ceased accordingly to 
 alarm the susceptibilities of the ambitious ; and as he had no 
 very dangerous amount of intellect, he was well-looked upon 
 everywhere. 
 
 " Some of us would feel mortified if we saw only smiling 
 faces wherever we went ; we enjoy the sour contortions of 
 envy. Godefroid did not like to be disliked. Every one has 
 his taste. Now for the solid, practical aspects of life ! 
 
 " The distinguishing feature of his chambers, where I have 
 licked my lips over breakfast more than once, was a mysterious 
 dressing-closet, nicely decorated, and comfortably appointed, 
 
312 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 with a grate in it and a bath-tub. It gave upon a narrow 
 staircase, the folding doors were noiseless, the locks well 
 oiled, the hinges discreet, the window-panes of frosted glass, 
 the curtain impervious to light. While the bedroom was, as 
 it ought to have been, in a fine disorder which would suit 
 the most exacting painter in water-colors ; while everything 
 therein was redolent of the bohemian life of a young man of 
 fashion, the dressing-closet was like a shrine white, spotless, 
 neat, and warm. There were no draughts from door or win- 
 dow, the carpet had been made soft for bare feet hastily put 
 to the floor in a sudden panic of alarm which stamps him as 
 your thoroughbred dandy that knows life ; for here, in a few 
 moments, he may show himself either a noodle or a master in 
 those little details in which a man's character is revealed. 
 The marquise previously quoted no, it was the Marquise de 
 Rochefide came out of that dressing-closet in a furious rage, 
 and never went back again. She discovered nothing * im- 
 proper ' in it. Godefroid used to keep a little cupboard full 
 of " 
 
 "Waistcoats?" suggested Finot. 
 
 " Come, now, just like you, great Turcaret that you are. 
 (I shall never form that fellow.) Why, no. Full of cakes, 
 and fruit, and dainty little flasks of Malaga and Lunel ; an 
 en cas de nuit in Louis Quatorze's style ; anything that can 
 tickle the delicate and well-bred appetite of sixteen quarter- 
 ings. A knowing old manservant, very strong in matters 
 veterinary, waited on the horses and groomed Godefroid. 
 He had been with the late Monsieur de Beaudenord, Gode- 
 froid's father, and bore Godefroid an inveterate affection, a 
 kind of heart complaint which has almost disappeared among 
 domestic servants since savings banks were established. 
 
 "All material well-being is based upon arithmetic. You, 
 to whom Paris is known down to its very excrescences, will 
 see that Beaudenord must have required about seventeen thou- 
 sand livres per annum ; for he paid some seventeen francs of 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 313 
 
 taxes and spent a thousand crowns on his own whims. Well, 
 dear boys, when Godefroid came of age, the Marquis d'Aigle- 
 mont submitted to him such an account of his trust as none 
 of us would be likely to give a nephew ; Godefroid's name 
 was inscribed as the owner of eighteen thousand livres of 
 rentes (government stock), a remnant of his father's wealth 
 spared by the harrow of the great reduction under the Republic 
 and the hailstorms of Imperial arrears. D'Aiglemont, that 
 upright guardian, also put his ward in possession of some thirty 
 thousand francs of savings invested with the firm of Nucingen ; 
 saying, with all the charm of a great lord and the indulgence 
 of a soldier of the Empire, that he had contrived to put it 
 aside for his ward's young man's follies. 'If you will take 
 my advice, Godefroid,' added he, ' instead of squandering 
 the money like a fool, as so many young men do, let it go in 
 follies that will be useful to you afterward. Take an attache's 
 post at Turin, and then go to Naples, and from Naples to 
 London, and you will be amused and learn something for 
 your money. Afterward, if you think of a career, the time 
 and the money will not have been thrown away.' The late 
 lamented d'Aiglemont had more sense than people credited 
 him with, which is more than can be said of some of us." 
 
 "A young fellow that starts with an assured income of 
 eighteen thousand livres at one-and-twenty is lost," said 
 Couture. 
 
 " Unless he is miserly or very much above the ordinary 
 level," added Blondet. 
 
 " Well, Godefroid sojourned in the four capitals of Italy," 
 continued Bixiou. " He lived in England and Germany, he 
 spent some little time at St. Petersburg, he ran over Holland ; 
 but he parted company with the aforesaid thirty thousand 
 francs by living as if he had thirty thousand a year. Every- 
 where he found the same supreme de volatile (sublime poultry), 
 the same aspics, and French wines ; he heard French spoken 
 wherever he went in short, he never got away from Paris. 
 
314 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 He ought, of course, to have tried to deprave his disposition, 
 to fence himself in triple brass, to get rid of his illusions, to 
 learn to hear anything said without a blush, and to master the 
 inmost secrets of the Powers. Pooh ! with a good deal of 
 trouble he equipped himself with four languages that is to 
 say, he laid in a stock of four words for one idea. Then he 
 came back, and certain tedious dowagers, styled ' conquests ' 
 abroad, were left disconsolate. Godefroid came back, shy, 
 scarcely formed, a good fellow with a confiding disposition, 
 incapable of saying ill of any one who honored him with an 
 admittance to his house, too stanch to be a diplomatist 
 altogether he was what we call a thoroughly whole-souled 
 good fellow." 
 
 "To cut it short, a kid with eighteen thousand livres per 
 annum to drop over the first investment that turns up," said 
 Couture. 
 
 " That confounded Couture has such a habit of anticipating 
 dividends that he is anticipating the end of my tale. Where 
 was I? Oh ! Beaudenord came back. When he took up his 
 abode on the Quai Malaquais, it came to pass that a thousand 
 francs over and above his needs was altogether insufficient to 
 keep up his share of a box at the Italiens and the opera 
 properly. When he lost twenty-five or thirty louis at play at 
 one swoop, naturally he paid; when he won, he spent the 
 money ; so should we if we were fools enough to be drawn into 
 a bet. Beaudenord, feeling pinched with his eighteen thousand 
 francs, saw the necessity of creating what we to-day call a 
 balance in hand. It was a great notion of his 'not to get 
 too deep.' He took counsel of his sometime guardian. 
 'The funds are now at par, -my dear boy,' quoth d'Aigle- 
 mont ; ' sell out. I have sold out mine and my wife's. 
 Nucingen has all my capital, and is giving me six per cent.; 
 do likewise, you will have one per cent, the more upon your 
 capital, and with that you will be quite comfortable.' 
 
 " In three days' time our Godefroid was comfortable. His 
 
THE FIRM OF NLCINGEN, 315 
 
 increase of income exactly supplied his superfluities; his 
 material happiness was complete. 
 
 " Suppose that it were possible to read the minds of all the 
 young men in Paris at one glance (as, it appears, will be done 
 at the Day of Judgment with all the millions upon millions 
 that have groveled in all spheres, and worn all uniforms or 
 the uniform of nature), and to ask them whether happiness at 
 six-and-twenty is or is not made up of the following items 
 to wit : to own a saddle-horse and a tilbury, or a cab, with a 
 fresh, rosy-faced Toby, Joby, Paddy no bigger than your fist, 
 and to hire an unimpeachable brougham for twelve francs an 
 evening ; to appear elegantly arrayed, agreeably to the laws 
 that regulate a man's clothes, at eight o'clock, noon, four 
 o'clock in the afternoon, and in the evening; to be well re- 
 ceived at every embassy, and to cull the short-lived flowers of 
 superficial, cosmopolitan friendships; to be not insufferably 
 handsome, to carry your head, your coat and your name well ; 
 to inhabit a charming little entresol after the pattern of the 
 rooms just described on the Quai Malaquais; to be able to ask 
 a party of friends to dine at the Rocher de Cancale without a 
 previous consultation with your trousers' pocket ; never to be 
 pulled up in any rational project by the words, 'And the 
 money?' and, finally, to be able to renew at pleasure the 
 pink rosettes that adorn the ears of your three thoroughbreds 
 and the lining of your hat? 
 
 " To such inquiry any ordinary young man (and we our- 
 selves that are not ordinary men) would reply that the happi- 
 ness is incomplete ; that it is like the Madeleine without the 
 altar ; that a man must love and be loved, or love without 
 return, or be loved without loving, or love at cross-purposes. 
 Now for happiness as a mental condition. 
 
 " In January, 1823, after Godefroid de Beaudenord had set 
 foot in the various social circles which it pleased him to enter, 
 and knew his way about in them, and felt himself secure amid 
 these joys, he saw the necessity of a sunshade the advantage 
 
316 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 of having a great lady to complain of, instead of chewing the 
 stems of roses bought for ten sous apiece of Madame Prevost, 
 after the manner of the callow youngsters that chirp and cackle 
 in the lobbies of the opera, like chickens in a coop. In short, 
 he resolved to centre his ideas, his sentiments, his affections 
 
 upon a woman, one woman ! LA PHAMME ! Ah ! 
 
 "At first he conceived the preposterous notion of an un- 
 happy passion, and gyrated for a while about his fair cousin, 
 Mme. d'Aiglemont, not perceiving that she had already danced 
 the waltz in 'Faust' with a diplomatist. The year '25 went 
 by, spent in tentatives, in futile flirtations, and an unsuccessful 
 quest. The loving object of which he was in search did not 
 appear. Passion is extremely rare ; and in our time as many 
 barriers have been raised against passion in social life as barri- 
 cades in the streets. In truth, my brothers, the ' improper ' 
 is gaining upon us, I tell you ! 
 
 "As we incur reproach for following on the heels of portrait 
 painters, auctioneers, and fashionable dressmakers, I will not 
 inflict any description upon you of HER in whom Godefroid 
 recognized the female of his species. Age, nineteen ; height, 
 four feet eleven inches ; fair hair, eyebrows idem, blue eyes, 
 forehead neither high nor low, curved nose, little mouth, 
 short turned-up chin, oval face ; distinguishing signs none. 
 Such was the description on the passport of the beloved object. 
 You will not ask more than the police, or their worships the 
 mayors, of all the towns and communes of France, the gen- 
 darmes and the rest of the powers that be ? In other respects 
 I give you my word for it she was a rough sketch of a 
 Venus de' Medici. 
 
 " The first time that Godefroid went to one of the balls for 
 which Madame de Nucingen enjoyed a certain not undeserved 
 reputation, he caught a glimpse of his future lady-love in a 
 quadrille, and was set marveling by that height of four feet 
 eleven inches. The fair hair rippled in a shower of curls 
 about the little girlish head, she looked as fresh as a naiad 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 317 
 
 peeping out through the crystal pane of her stream to take a 
 look at the spring flowers. (This is quite in the modern style, 
 strings of phrases as endless as the macaroni on the table a 
 while ago.) On that ' eyebrows idem ' (no offense to the pre- 
 fect of police) Parny, that writer of light and playful verse, 
 would have hung half-a-dozen couplets, comparing them very 
 agreeably to Cupid's bow, at the same time bidding us observe 
 that the dart was beneath ; the said dart, however, was neither 
 very potent nor very penetrating, for as yet it was controlled 
 by the namby-pamby sweetness of a Mademoiselle de la Val- 
 liere as depicted on fire-screens, at the moment when she 
 solemnizes her betrothal in the sight of heaven, any solemni- 
 zation before the registrar being quite out of the question. 
 
 " You know the effect of fair hair and blue eyes in the soft, 
 voluptuous decorous dance? Such a girl does not knock 
 audaciously at your heart, like the dark-haired damsels that 
 seem to say after the fashion of Spanish beggars : ' Your money 
 or your life; give me five francs or take my contempt!' 
 These insolent and somewhat dangerous beauties may find 
 favor in the sight of many men, but to my thinking the blonde 
 that has the good-fortune to look extremely tender and 
 yielding, while foregoing none of her rights to scold, to tease, 
 to use unmeasured language, to be jealous without grounds, 
 to do anything, in short, that makes woman adorable the 
 fair-haired girl, I say, will be always more sure to marry than 
 the ardent brunette. Firewood is dear, you see. 
 
 " Isaure, white as an Alsacienne (she first saw the light at 
 Strasbourg, and spoke German with a slight and very agreeable 
 French accent), danced to admiration. H-r feet, omitted on 
 the passport, though they really might have found a place there 
 under the heading ' Distinguishing Signs,' were remarkable for 
 their small size, and for that particular something which old- 
 fashioned dancing-masters used to call flic-flac, a something 
 that put you in mind of Mademoiselle Mars' agreeable de- 
 livery, for all the Muses are sisters, and dancer and poet 
 
318 THE FIRM OF NUC1NGEN. 
 
 alike have their feet upon the earth. Isaure's feet spoke 
 lightly and swiftly with a clearness and precision which 
 augured well for the things of the heart. l Elle a du flic-flac ' 
 (she has some flic-flac), was old Marcel's highest word of 
 praise, and old Marcel was the dancing-master that deserved 
 the epithet of 'the Great.' People used to say 'the Great 
 Marcel,' as they said ' Frederick the Great,' and in Frederick's 
 time." 
 
 " Did Marcel compose any ballets? " inquired Finot. 
 
 "Yes, something in the style of Les Quatre Elements (The 
 Four Elements) and L? Europe galante" (The Gallants of 
 Europe). 
 
 "What times they were, when great nobles dressed the 
 dancers ! " said Finot. 
 
 "Improper!" said Bixiou. " Isaure did not raise herself 
 on the tips of her toes, she stayed on the ground, she swayed 
 in the dance without jerks, and neither more nor less volup- 
 tuously than a young lady ought to do. There was a profound 
 philosophy in Marcel's remark that every age and condition 
 has its dance ; a married woman should not dance like a 
 young girl, nor a little jackanapes like a capitalist, nor a sol- 
 dier like a page ; he even went so far as to say that the in- 
 fantry ought not to dance like the cavalry, and from this point 
 he proceeded to classify the world at large. All these fine 
 distinctions seem very far away." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Blondet, " you have set your finger on a great 
 calamity. If Marcel had been properly understood, there 
 would have been no French Revolution." 
 
 "It had been Godefroid's privilege to run over Europe," 
 resumed Bixiou, " nor had he neglected his opportunities of 
 making a thorough comparative study of European dancing. 
 Perhaps but for profound diligence in the pursuit of what is 
 usually held to be useless knowledge, he would never have 
 fallen in love with this young lady ; as it was, out of the three 
 hundred guests that crowded the handsome rooms in the Rue 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 319 
 
 Saint-Lazare, he alone comprehended the unpublished romance 
 revealed by a garrulous quadrille. People certainly noticed 
 Isaure d'Aldrigger's dancing ; but in this present century the 
 cry is, ' Skim lightly over the surface, do not lean your weight 
 on it ; ' so one said (he was a notary's clerk) : ' There is a 
 girl that dances uncommonly well ; ' another (a lady in a tur- 
 ban) : ' There is a young lady that dances enchantingly ; ' and 
 a third (a woman of thirty) : ' That little thing is not dancing 
 badly.' But to return to the great Marcel, let us parody his 
 best-known saying with, * How much there is in an avant- 
 **.'" 
 
 " And let us get on a little faster," said Blondet ; " you are 
 maundering." 
 
 " Isaure," continued Bixiou, looking askance at Blondet, 
 " wore a simple white crepe dress with green ribbons ; she had 
 a camellia in her hair, a camellia at her waist, another camellia 
 at her skirt-hem, and a camellia " 
 
 " Come, now ! here come Sancho's three hundred goats." 
 
 " Therein lies all literature, dear boy. Clarissa is a master- 
 piece, there are fourteen volumes of her, and the most wooden- 
 headed playwright would give you the whole of Clarissa in a 
 single act. So long as I amuse you, what have you to com- 
 plain of? That costume was positively lovely. Don't you 
 like camellias ? Would you rather have dahlias ? No ? Very 
 good, chestnuts then, here's for you." (And probably Bixiou 
 flung a chestnut across the table, for we heard something drop 
 on a plate.) 
 
 "I was wrong, I acknowledge it. Go on," said Blondet. 
 
 "I resume. 'Pretty enough to marry, isn't she?' said 
 Rastignac, coming up to Godefroid de Beaudenord, and in- 
 dicating the little one with the spotless white camellias, every 
 petal intact. 
 
 "Rastignac being an intimate friend, Godefroid answered 
 in a low voice, ' Well, so I was thinking. I was saying to 
 myself that instead of enjoying my happiness with fear and 
 
320 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 trembling at every moment ; instead of taking a world of 
 trouble to whisper a word in an inattentive ear, of looking 
 over the house at the Italiens to see if some one wears a 
 red flower or a white in her hair, or watching along the Corso 
 for a gloved hand on a carriage-door, as we used to do at 
 Milan ; instead of snatching a mouthful of bun like a lackey 
 finishing off a bottle behind a door, or wearing out one's wits 
 with giving and receiving letters like a postman letters that 
 consist not of a mere couple of tender lines, but expand to 
 five folio volumes to-day and contract to a couple of sheets 
 to-morrow (a tiresome practice) ; instead of dragging along 
 over the ruts and dodging behind hedges it would be better 
 to give way to the adorable passion that Jean -Jacques Rous- 
 seau envied, to fall frankly in love with a girl like Isaure, with 
 a view to making her my wife, if upon exchange of sentiments 
 our hearts respond to each other; to be Werther, in short, 
 with a happy ending.' 
 
 '"Which is a common weakness,' returned Rastignac with- 
 out laughing. 'Possibly in your place I might plunge into 
 the unspeakable delights of that ascetic course; it possesses 
 the merits of novelty and originality, and it is not very expen- 
 sive. Your Monna Lisa is sweet, but inane as music for the 
 ballet ; I give you warning.' 
 
 "Rastignac made this last remark in a way which set 
 Beaudenord thinking that his friend had his own motives for 
 disenchanting him ; Beaudenord had not been a diplomatist 
 for nothing; he fancied that Rastignac wanted to cut him out. 
 If a man mistakes his vocation, the false start none the less 
 influences him for the rest of his life. Godefroid was so 
 evidently smitten with Mademoiselle Isaure d'Aldrigger that 
 Rastignac went off to a tall girl chatting in the card-room. 
 'Malvina,' he said, lowering his voice, 'your sister has just 
 netted a fish worth eighteen thousand francs a year. He has 
 a name, a manner, and a certain position in the world ; keep 
 an eye upon them ; be careful to gain Isaure's confidence ; and 
 
THE FIRM OF AUCINGEN. 321 
 
 if they philander, do not let her send a word to him unless 
 you have seen it first ' 
 
 <; Toward two o'clock in the morning, Isaure was standing 
 beside a diminutive Shepherdess of the Alps, a little woman 
 of forty, coquettish as a Zerlina. A footman announced that 
 ' Madame la Baronne's carriage stops the way,' and Godefroid 
 forthwith saw his beautiful maiden out of a German song draw 
 her fantastical mother into the cloak-room, whither Malvina 
 followed them ; and (boy that he was) he must needs go to 
 discover into what pot of preserves the infant Joby had fallen, 
 and had the pleasure of watching Isaure and Malvina coaxing 
 that sparkling person, their mamma, into her pelisse, with all 
 the little tender precautions required for a night journey in 
 Paris. Of course, the girls on their side watched Beaudenord 
 out of the corners of their eyes, as well-taught kittens watch a 
 mouse, without seeming to see it at all. With a certain satis- 
 faction Beaudenord noted the bearing, manner, and appear- 
 ance of the tall, well-gloved Alsacian servant in livery who 
 brought three pairs of fur-lined overshoes for his mistresses. 
 
 " Never were two sisters more unlike than Isaure and 
 Malvina. Malvina the elder was tall and dark-haired, Isaure 
 was short and fair, and her features were finely and delicately 
 cut, while her sister's were vigorous and striking. Isaure was 
 one of those women who reign like queens through their 
 weakness, such a woman as a schoolboy would feel it incum- 
 bent upon him to protect ; Malvina was the Andalouse of 
 Mussel's poem. As the sisters stood together, Isaure looked 
 like a miniature beside a portrait in oils. 
 
 " ' She is rich ! ' exclaimed Godefroid, going back to Ras- 
 tignac in the ballroom. 
 
 "'Who?' 
 
 " 'That young lady.' 
 
 '"Oh, Isaure d'Aldrigger? Why, yes. The mother is a 
 widow ; Nucingen was once a clerk in her husband's bank at 
 Strasbourg. Do you want to see them again ? Just turn off 
 21 
 
322 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 a compliment for Madame de Restaud ; she is giving a ball 
 the day after to-morrow; the Baroness d'Aldrigger and her 
 two daughters will be there. You will have an invitation.' 
 
 "For three days Godefroid beheld Isaure in the camera 
 obscura of his brain his Isaure with her white camellias and 
 the little ways she had with her head saw her as you still see 
 the bright thing on which you have been gazing after your eyes 
 are shut, a picture grown somewhat smaller; a radiant, brightly 
 colored vision flashing out of a vortex of darkness." 
 
 "Bixiou, you are dropping into phenomena, block us out 
 our pictures," put in Couture. 
 
 " Here you are, gentlemen ! Here is the picture you 
 ordered ! " (from the tones of Bixiou's voice, he evidently was 
 posing as a waiter.) " Finot ! attention, one has to pull at 
 your mouth as a jarvie [cab-driver] pulls at his jade. In Ma- 
 dame Theodora Marguerite Wilhelmine Adolphus (of the firm 
 of Adolphus and Company, Mannheim), relict of the late 
 Baron d'Aldrigger, you might expect to find a stout, com- 
 fortable German, compact and prudent, with a fair complexion 
 mellowed to the tint of the foam on a pot of beer ; and as to 
 virtues, rich in all the patriarchal good qualities that Germany 
 possesses in romances, that is to say. Well, there was not a 
 gray hair in the frisky ringlets that she wore on either side of 
 her face ; she was still as fresh and as brightly colored on the 
 cheek-bones as a Nuremberg doll ; her eyes were lively and 
 bright ; a closely fitting, pointed bodice set off the slenderness 
 of her waist. Her brow and temples were furrowed by a few 
 involuntary wrinkles which, like Ninon, she would fain have 
 banished from her head to her heel, but they persisted in 
 tracing their zigzags in the more conspicuous place. The out- 
 lines of the nose had somewhat fallen away, and the tip had 
 reddened, and this was the more awkward because it matched 
 the color on the cheek-bones. 
 
 " An only daughter and an heiress, spoilt by her father and 
 mother, spoilt by her husband and the city of Strasbourg, 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEff. 323 
 
 spoilt still by two daughters who worshiped their mother, the 
 Baroness d'Aldrigger indulged a taste for rose color, short 
 petticoats, and a knot of ribbon at the point of the tightly 
 fitting corselet bodice. Any Parisian meeting the baroness 
 on the boulevard would smile and condemn her outright ; he 
 does not admit any plea of extenuating circumstances, like a 
 modern jury on a case of fratricide. A scoffer is always super- 
 ficial, and in consequence cruel ; the rascal never thinks of 
 throwing the proper share of ridicule on society that made the 
 individual what he is ; for Nature only makes dull animals of 
 us, we owe the fool to artificial conditions." 
 
 "The thing that I admire about Bixiou is his complete- 
 ness," said Blondet; "whenever he is not gibing at others, he 
 is laughing at himself." 
 
 "I will be even with you for that, Blondet," returned 
 Bixiou in a significant tone. "If the little baroness was 
 giddy, careless, selfish, and incapable in practical matters, 
 she was not accountable for her sins ; the responsibility is 
 divided between the firm of Adolphus and Company of 
 Mannheim and Baron d'Aldrigger with his blind love for his 
 wife. The baroness was as gentle as a lamb; she had a soft 
 heart that was very readily moved ; unluckily, the emotion 
 never lasted long, but it was all the more frequently renewed. 
 
 " When the baron died, for instance, the Shepherdess all 
 but followed him to the tomb, so violent and sincere was her 
 grief, but next morning there were green peas at lunch, she 
 was fond of green peas, the delicious green peas calmed the 
 crisis. Her daughters and her servants loved her so blindly 
 that the whole household rejoiced over a circumstance that 
 enabled them to hide the dolorous spectacle of the funeral 
 from the sorrowing baroness. Isaure and Malvina would not 
 
 o 
 
 allow their idolized mother to see their tears. 
 
 " While the requiem was being chanted they diverted her 
 thoughts to the choice of mourning dresses. While the coffin 
 was placed in the huge, black and white, wax-besprinkled 
 
324 THE FIRM OF NUCIA'GEN. 
 
 catafalque that does duty for some three thousand dead in the 
 course of its career so I was informed by a philosophically- 
 minded mute whom I once consulted on the point over a 
 couple of glasses of petit blanc while an indifferent choir was 
 bawling the Dies irce, and a no less indifferent priest mum- 
 bling the office for the dead, do you know what the friends of 
 the departed were saying as, all dressed in black from head to 
 foot, they sat or stood in the church ? (Here is the picture 
 you ordered.) Stay, do you see them? 
 
 " ' How much do you suppose old d'Aldrigger will leave? ' 
 Desroches asked of Taillefer. You remember Taillefer that 
 gave us the finest orgie ever known not long before he died ? " 
 
 "But was Desroches an attorney in those days?" 
 
 "He was in treaty for a practice in 1822," said Couture. 
 "It was a bold thing to do, for he was the son of a poor clerk 
 who never made more than eighteen hundred francs a year, 
 and his mother sold stamped paper. But he worked very hard 
 from 1818 to 1822. He was Derville's fourth clerk when he 
 came ; and in 1819 he was second ! " 
 
 "Desroches?" 
 
 "Yes. Desroches, like the rest of us, once groveled in the 
 poverty of Job. He grew so tired of wearing coats too tight 
 and sleeves too short for him that he swallowed down the law 
 in desperation and had just bought a bare license. He was a 
 licensed attorney, without a penny, or a client, or any friends 
 beyond our set; and he was bound to pay interest on the 
 purchase-money and the cautionary deposit beside." 
 
 " He used to make me feel as if I had met a tiger escaped 
 from the Jardin des Plantes," said Couture. "He was lean 
 and red-haired, his eyes were the color of Spanish snuff, and 
 his complexion was harsh. He looked cold and phlegmatic. 
 He was hard upon the widow, pitiless to the orphan, and a 
 terror to his clerks ; they were not allowed to waste a minute. 
 Learned, crafty, double-faced, honey-tongued, never flying 
 into a passion, rancorous in his judicial way." 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 820 
 
 "But there is goodness in him," cried Finot ; "he is de- 
 voted to his friends. The first thing he did was to take 
 Godeschal, Mariette's brother, as his head-clerk." 
 
 "At Paris," said Blondet, "there are attorneys of two 
 shades. There is the honest man attorney ; he abides within 
 the province of the law, pushes on his cases, neglects no one, 
 never runs after business, gives his clients his honest opinion, 
 and makes them compromise on doubtful points he is a Der- 
 ville, in short. Then there is the starveling attorney, to whom 
 anything seems good provided that he is sure of expenses ; he 
 will set, not mountains righting, for he sells them, but planets; 
 he will work to make the worse appear the better cause, and 
 take advantage of a technical error to win the day for a rogue. 
 If one of these fellows tries one of Maitre Gonin's tricks once 
 too often, the guild forces him to sell his connection. Des- 
 roches, our friend Desroches, understood the full resources of 
 a trade carried on in a beggarly way enough by poor devils ; 
 he would buy up causes of men who feared to lose the day ; 
 he plunged into chicanery with a fixed determination to make 
 money by it. He was right ; he did his business very honestly. 
 He found influence among men in public life by getting them 
 out of awkward complications ; there was our dear des Lu- 
 peaulx, for instance, whose position was so deeply com- 
 promised. And Desroches stood in need of influence; for, 
 when he began, he was anything but well looked on at the 
 court, and he who took so much trouble to rectify the errors 
 of his clients was often in trouble himself. See now, Bixiou, 
 to go back to the subject How came Desroches to be in the 
 church?" 
 
 " ' D'Aldrigger is leaving seven or eight hundred thousand 
 francs,' Taillefer answered, addressing Desroches. 
 
 " ' Oh, pooh, there is only one man who knows how much 
 they are worth,' put in Werbrust, a friend of the deceased. 
 
 "'Who?' 
 
 " ' That fat rogue Nucingen ; he will go as far as the ceme- 
 
326 THE FIRM OF NUCINGRN. 
 
 tery; d'Aldrigger was his master once, and out of gratitude 
 he put the old man's capital into his business.' 
 
 " 'The widow will soon feel a great difference.' 
 
 " ' What do you mean ? ' 
 
 " ' Well, d'Aldrigger was so fond of his wife. Now, don't 
 laugh, people are looking at us.' 
 
 " ' Look, here comes du Tillet ; he is very late. The 
 Epistle is just beginning.' 
 
 " ' He will marry the eldest girl in all probability.' 
 
 " ' Is it possible ? ' asked Desroches ; ' why, he is tied more 
 than ever to Madame Roguin.' 
 
 " 'Tied he ? You do not know him.' 
 
 "'Do you know how Nucingen and du Tillet stand?' 
 asked Desroches. 
 
 "'Like this,' said Taillefer; 'Nucingen is just the man 
 to swallow down his old master's* capital, and then to dis- 
 gorge it.' 
 
 "'Ugh! ugh!' coughed Werbrust, 'these churches are 
 confoundedly damp ; ugh ! ugh ! What do you mean by 
 "disgorge it?" ' 
 
 " ' Well, Nucingen knows that du Tillet has a lot of money; 
 he wants to marry him to Malvina ; but du Tillet is shy of 
 Nucingen. To a looker-on, the game is good fun.' 
 
 "'What!' exclaimed Werbrust, 'is she old enough to 
 marry? How quickly we grow old ! ' 
 
 " ' Malvina d'Aldrigger is quite twenty years old, my dear 
 fellow. Old d'Aldrigger was married in 1800. He gave 
 some rather fine entertainments in Strasbourg at the time of 
 his wedding, and afterward when Malvina was born. That 
 was in 1801 at the peace of Amiens, and here are we in the 
 year 1823, Daddy Werbrust ! In those days everything was 
 Ossianized ; he called his daughter Malvina. Six years after- 
 ward there was a rage for chivalry, " Partant pour la Syrie " 
 a pack of nonsense and he christened his second daughter 
 * See " Cesar Birotteau." 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 327 
 
 Isaure. She is seventeen. So there are two daughters to 
 marry.' 
 
 'The women will not have a penny left in ten years' 
 time,' said Werbrust, speaking to Desroches in a confidential 
 tone. 
 
 ' There is d'Aldrigger's manservant, the old fellow bel- 
 lowing away at the back of the church ; he has been with 
 them since the two young ladies were children, and he is 
 capable of anything to keep enough together for them to live 
 upon,' said Taillefer. 
 
 ' ' 'Dies ir<z ! ' * (from the minor canons. ) 'Dies ilia / ' (from 
 the choristers.) 
 
 " ' Good-day, Werbrust ' (from Taillefer), ' the Dies ira 
 puts me too much in mind of my poor boy.' 
 
 " ' I shall go too ; it is too damp in here,' said Werbrust. 
 "'InfavMa. 1 
 
 "'A few centimes, kind gentlemen!' (from the beggars 
 at the door.) 
 
 " ' For the expenses of the church ! ' (from the beadle, with 
 a rattling clatter of the money-box.) 
 " 'Amen ' (from the choristers.) 
 " ' What did he die of? ' (from a friend.) 
 " ' He broke a bloodvessel in the heel ' (from an inquisi- 
 tive wag.) 
 
 " ' Who is dead ? ' (from a passer-by.) 
 " ' The President de Montesquieu ! ' (from a relative.) 
 " The sacristan to the poor, ' Get away, all of you ; the 
 money for you has been given to us ; don't ask for any 
 more.'" 
 
 " Done to the life ! " cried Couture. And indeed it seemed 
 to us that we heard all that went on in the church. Bixiou 
 imitated everything, even the shuffling sound of the feet of 
 the men that carried the coffin over the stone floor. 
 
 " There are poets and romancers and writers that say many 
 * Day of Wrath : An antiphonal funeral hymn. 
 
328 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 fine things about Parisian manners," continued Bixiou, "but 
 that is what really happens at a funeral. Ninety-nine out of 
 a hundred that come to pay their respects to some poor devil 
 departed get together and talk business or pleasure in the 
 middle of the church.* To see some poor little touch of real 
 sorrow, you need an impossible combination of circumstances. 
 And, after all, is there such a thing as grief without a thought 
 of self in it?" 
 
 "Ugh!" said Blondet. "Nothing is less respected than 
 death ; is it that there is nothing less respectable? " 
 
 " It is so common ! " resumed Bixiou. " When the service 
 was over, Nucingen and du Tillet went to the graveside. The 
 old manservant walked ; Nucingen and du Tillet were put at 
 the head of the procession of mourning coaches. ' Goot, mein 
 goot friend,' said Nucingen as they turned into the boulevard. 
 'It ees a goot time to marry Malfina; you vill be der bro- 
 dector off dat boor family vat ees in tears ; you vill haf ein 
 family, a home off your own ; you vill haf a house ready vur- 
 nished, und Malfina is truly ein dreashure.' ' 
 
 " I seem to hear that old Robert Macaire of a Nucingen 
 himself," said Finot. 
 
 " ' A charming girl,' said Ferdinand du Tillet in a cool, un- 
 enthusiastic tone," Bixiou continued. 
 
 "Just du Tillet himself summed up in a word!" cried 
 Couture. 
 
 " 'Those that do not know her may think her plain,' pur- 
 sued du Tillet, 'but she has character, I admit.' 
 
 " ' Und ein herz, dot is the pest of die pizness, mein dear 
 poy; she vould make you an indelligent und defoted vife. 
 In our beastly pizness, nopody cares to know who lifs or dies ; 
 it is a crate plessing gif a mann kann put drust in his vife's 
 heart. Mein Telvine prought me more as a million, as you 
 
 *It may be noted that the city churches are without permanent seats; 
 chairs are in readiness at the portals and are carried by the attendants to 
 the position desired. 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 329 
 
 know, but I should gladly gif her for Malfina dot haf not so 
 pig a dot.' 
 
 " ' But how much has she ? ' 
 
 " ' I do not know precisely ; boot she haf somdings.' 
 
 " ' Yes, she has a mother with a great liking for rose-color,' 
 said du Tillet ; and with that epigram he cut Nucingen's diplo- 
 matic efforts short. 
 
 "After dinner the Baron de Nucingen informed Wilhel- 
 mine Adolphus that she had barely four hundred thousand 
 francs deposited with him. The daughter of Adolphus of 
 Mannheim, thus reduced to an income of twenty-four thou- 
 sand livres, lost herself in arithmetical exercises that muddled 
 her wits. 
 
 " ' I have always had six thousand francs for our dress allow- 
 ance/ she said to Malvina. 'Why, how did your father find 
 money? We shall have nothing now with twenty-four thou- 
 sand francs ; it is destitution ! Oh ! if my father could see 
 me so come down in the world, it would kill him if he were 
 not dead already ! Poor Wilhelmine ! ' and she began to 
 cry. 
 
 "Malvina, puzzled to know how to comfort her mother, 
 represented to her that she was still young and pretty, that 
 rose-color still became her, that she could continue to go to 
 the opera and the Bouffons, where Mme. de Nucingen had a 
 box. And so with visions of gayeties, dances, music, pretty 
 dresses, and social success, the baroness was lulled to sleep 
 and pleasant dreams in the blue, silk-curtained bed in the 
 charming room next to the chamber in which Jean-Baptiste, 
 Baron d'Aldrigger, had breathed his last but two nights ago. 
 
 " Here in a few words is the baron's history. During his 
 lifetime that worthy Alsacian accumulated about three 
 millions of francs. In 1800, at the age of thirty-six, in the 
 apogee of a fortune made during the Revolution, he made a 
 marriage partly of ambition, partly of inclination, with the 
 heiress of the family of Adolphus of Mannheim. Wilhel- 
 
330 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEK. 
 
 mine, being the idol of her whole family, naturally inherited 
 their wealth after some ten years. Next, d'Aldrigger's fortune 
 being doubled, he was transformed into a baron by his 
 majesty, Emperor and King, and forthwith became a fanatical 
 admirer of the great man to whom he owed his title. Where- 
 fore, between 1814 and 1815 he ruined himself by a too 
 serious belief in the sun of Austerlitz. Honest Alsacian as 
 he was, he did not suspend payment, nor did he give his 
 creditors shares in doubtful concerns by way of settlement. 
 He paid everything over the counter, and then retired from 
 business, thoroughly deserving Nucingen's comment on his 
 behavior 'Honest but stoobid.' 
 
 "All claims satisfied, there remained to him five hundred 
 thousand francs and certain receipts for sums advanced to that 
 Imperial Government, which had ceased to exist. ' See vat 
 komms of too much pelief in Nappolion,' said he, when he 
 had realized all his capital. 
 
 " When you have been one of the leading men in a place, 
 how are you to remain in it when your estate has dwindled ? 
 D'Aldrigger, like all ruined provincials, removed to Paris, 
 there intrepidly wore the tricolor braces embroidered with 
 Imperial eagles, and lived entirely in Bonapartist circles. His 
 capital he handed over to Nucingen, who gave him eight per 
 cent, upon it, and took over the loans to the Imperial Gov- 
 ernment at a mere sixty per cent, of reduction ; wherefore 
 d'Aldrigger squeezed Nucingen's hand and said, ' I knew dot 
 in you I should find de heart of ein Elzacien. (Nucingen 
 was paid in full through our friend des Lupeaulx.) Well 
 fleeced as d'Aldrigger had been, he still possessed an in- 
 come of forty-four thousand francs ; but his mortification was 
 further complicated by the spleen which lies in wait for the 
 business man so soon as he retires from business. He set 
 himself, noble heart, to sacrifice himself to his wife, now that 
 her fortune was lost, that fortune of which she had allowed 
 herself to be despoiled so easily, after the manner of a girl 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 331 
 
 entirely ignorant of money matters. Mme. d'Aldrigger ac- 
 cordingly missed not a single pleasure to which she had been 
 accustomed ; any void caused by the loss of Strasbourg ac- 
 quaintances was speedily filled, and more than filled, with 
 Paris gayeties. Even then, as now, the Nucingens lived at 
 the higher end of financial society, and the Baron de Nucingen 
 made it a point of honor to treat the honest banker well. His 
 disinterested virtue looked well in the Nucingen salon. 
 
 "Every winter dipped into d'Aldrigger's principal, but he 
 did not venture to remonstrate with his pearl of a Wilhelmine. 
 His was the most ingenuous unintelligent tenderness in the 
 world. A good man, but a stupid one ! ' What will become 
 of them when I am gone ? ' he said, as he lay dying ; and when 
 he was left alone for a moment with Wirth, his old manservant, 
 he struggled for breath to bid him take care of his mistress and 
 her two daughters, as if the one reasonable being in the house 
 were this Alsacian Caleb Balderstone. 
 
 ''Three years afterward, in 1826, Isaure was twenty years 
 old, and Malvina still unmarried. Malvina had gone into 
 society, and in course of time discovered for herself how super- 
 ficial their friendships were, how accurately every one was 
 weighed and appraised. Like most girls that have been 'well 
 brought up/ as we say, Malvina had no idea of the mechanism 
 of life, of the importance of money, of the difficulty of 
 obtaining it, of the prices of things. And so, for six years, 
 every lesson that she had learned had been a painful one 
 for her. 
 
 " D'Aldrigger's four hundred thousand francs were carried 
 to the credit of the baroness' account with the firm of Nu- 
 cingen (she was her husband's creditor for twelve hundred 
 thousand francs under her marriage-settlement), and when m 
 any difficulty the Shepherdess of the Alps dipped into her 
 capital as though it were inexhaustible. 
 
 "When our pigeon first advanced toward his dove, Nucin- 
 gen, knowing the baroness' character, must have spoken 
 
332 THE FIRM OF NUC1NGEN, 
 
 plainly to Malvina on the financial position. At that time 
 three hundred thousand francs were left ; the income of 
 twenty-four thousand francs was reduced to eighteen thou- 
 sand. Wirth had kept up this state of things for three years ! 
 After that confidential interview, Malvina put down the car- 
 riage, sold the horses, and dismissed the coachman, without 
 her mother's knowledge. The furniture, now ten years old, 
 could not be renewed, but it all faded together, and for those 
 that like harmony the effect was not half bad. The baroness 
 herself, that so well-preserved flower, began to look like the 
 last solitary frost-touched rose on a November bush. I myself 
 watched the slow decline of luxury by quarter-tones and semi- 
 tones ! Frightful, upon my honor ! It was my last trouble 
 of the kind ; afterward I said to myself, ' It is silly to care so 
 much about other people.' But while I was in the civil ser- 
 vice, I was fool enough to take a personal interest in the 
 houses where I dined ; I used to stand up for them ; I would 
 say no ill of them myself; I oh ! I was a child. 
 
 " Well, when the erstwhile pearl's daughter put the state 
 of the case before her, ' Oh, my poor children,' cried she, 
 ' who will make my dresses now ? I cannot afford new bon- 
 nets; I cannot see visitors here nor go out.' Now by what 
 token do you know that a man is in love?" said Bixiou, 
 interrupting himself. " The question is, whether Beaudenord 
 was genuinely in love with the fair-haired girl." 
 
 "He neglects his interests," said Couture. 
 
 " He changes his shirt three times a day," from Finot. 
 
 "There is another question to settle first," opined Blondet; 
 "a man of more than ordinary ability, can he, and ought he, 
 to fall in love?" 
 
 "My friends," resumed Bixiou, with a sentimental air, 
 " there is a kind of man who, when he feels that he is in peril 
 of falling in love, will snap his fingers or fling away his cigar 
 (as the case may be) with a ' Pooh ! there are other women in 
 the world.' Beware of that man for a dangerous reptile. 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 Still, the Government may employ that citizen somewhere in 
 the foreign office. Blondet, I call your attention to the fact 
 that this Godcfroid had thrown up diplomacy." 
 
 "Well, he was absorbed," said Blondet. " Love gives the 
 fool his one chance of growing great." 
 
 "Blondet, Blondet, how is it that we are so poor?" cried 
 Bixiou. 
 
 "And why is Finot so rich?" returned Blondet. " I will 
 tell you how it is ; there, my son, we understand each other. 
 Come, here is Finot filling up my glass as if I had carried in 
 his firewood. At the end of dinner one ought to sip one's 
 wine slowly. Well ? " 
 
 " Thou hast said. The absorbed Godefroid became fully 
 acquainted with the family the tall Malvina, the frivolous 
 baroness, and the little lady of the dance. He became a 
 servant after the most conscientious and restricted fashion. 
 He was not scared away by the cadaverous remains of opu- 
 lence ; not he ! by degrees he became accustomed to the 
 threadbare condition of things. It never struck the young 
 man that the green silk damask and white ornaments in the 
 drawing-room were shabby, spotted, and old-fashioned, and 
 that the room needed refurnishing. The curtains, the tea- 
 table, the knick-knacks on the chimney-piece, the rococo 
 chandelier, the Eastern carpet with the pile worn down to the 
 thread, the pianoforte, the little flowered china cups, the 
 fringed serviettes so full of holes that they looked like open 
 work in the Spanish fashion, the green sitting-room with the 
 baroness' blue bedroom beyond it it was all sacred, all 
 dear to him. It is only your stupid woman with the brilliant 
 beauty that throws heart, brain, and soul into the shade, who 
 can inspire forgetfulness like this; a clever woman never 
 abuses her advantages ; she must be small-natured and silly 
 to gain such a hold upon a man. Beaudenord actually loved 
 the solemn old Wirth he has told me so himself! 
 
 "That old rogue regarded his future master with the awe 
 
334 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEK. 
 
 which a good Catholic feels for the eucharist. Honest Wirth 
 was a kind of Gaspsrd, a beer-drinking German sheathing his 
 cunning in good-nature, much as a cardinal in the Middle 
 Ages kept his dagger up his sleeve. Wirth saw a husband for 
 Isaure, and accordingly proceeded to surround Goclefroid with 
 the mazy circumlocutions of his Alsacian geniality, that most 
 adhesive of all known varieties of bird-lime. 
 
 " Mme. d'Aldrigger was radically ' improper.' She thought 
 love the most natural thing imaginable. When Isaure and 
 Malvina went out together to the Champs Elysees or the 
 Tuileries, where they were sure to meet the young men of their 
 set, she would simply say, 'A pleasant time to you, dear girls.' 
 Their friends among men, the only persons who might have 
 slandered the sisters, championed them; for the extraordinary 
 liberty permitted in the d'Aldriggers' salon made it unique 
 in Paris. Vast wealth would scarcely have procured such 
 evenings, the talk was good on any subject ; dress was not in- 
 sisted upon ; you felt so much at home there that you could 
 ask for supper. The sisters corresponded as they pleased, and 
 quietly read their letters by their mother's side ; it never oc- 
 curred to the baroness to interfere in any way ; the adorable 
 woman gave the girls the full benefits of her selfishness, and in 
 a certain sense selfish persons are the easiest to live with ; they 
 hate trouble, and therefore do not trouble other people ; they 
 never beset the lives of their fellow-creatures with thorny 
 advice and captious fault-finding ; nor do they torment you 
 with the waspish solicitude of excessive affection that must 
 know all things and rule all things " 
 
 " This comes home," said Blondet, "but, my dear fellow, 
 this is not telling a story, this is blague (fudge) " 
 
 " Blondet, if you were not tipsy, I should really feel hurt ! 
 He is the one serious literary character among us ; for his 
 benefit, I honor you by treating you like men of taste, I am 
 distilling my tale for you. and now he criticises me ! There 
 is no greater proof of intellectual sterility, my friends, than 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCIXGEN. 335 
 
 the piling up of facts. Le Misanthrope,' that supreme 
 comedy, shows us that art consists in the power of building a 
 palace on a needle's point. The gist of my idea is in the fairy 
 wand which can turn the Desert into an Interlaken in ten 
 seconds (precisely the time required to empty this glass). 
 Would you rather that I fired a story off at you like a cannon- 
 ball, or a commander-iii-chief 's report ? We chat and laugh ; 
 and this journalist, a bibliophobe when sober, expects me, for- 
 sooth, when he is drunk, to teach my tongue to move at the 
 dull jog-trot of a printed book." (Here he affected to weep.) 
 "Woe unto the French imagination when men fain would 
 blunt the needle-points of her pleasant humor! Dies irce ! 
 Let us weep for Candide. Long live the ' Kritik of Pure 
 Reason,' 'La Symbolique,' and the systems in five closely 
 packed volumes, printed by Germans, who little suspect that 
 the gist of the matter has been known in Paris since 1750, and 
 crystallized in a few trenchant words the diamonds of our 
 national thought. Blondet is driving a hearse to his own 
 suicide ; Blondet, forsooth ! who manufactures newspaper ac- 
 counts of the last words of all the great men that die without 
 saying anything ! " 
 
 "Come, get on," put in Finot. 
 
 " It was my intention to explain to you in what the happiness 
 of a man consists when he is not a shareholder (out of compli- 
 ment to Couture). Well, now, do you not see at what a price 
 Godefroid secured the greatest happiness of a young man's 
 dream? He was trying to understand Isaure, by way of 
 making sure that she should understand him. Things which 
 comprehend one another must needs be similar. Infinity and 
 Nothingness, for instance, are like ; everything that lies be- 
 tween the two is like neither. Nothingness is stupidity; 
 genius, Infinity. The lovers wrote each other the stupidest 
 letters imaginable, putting down various expressions then in 
 fashion upon bits of scented paper: 'Angel! ^Eolian harp! 
 with thee I shall be complete ! There is a heart in my man's 
 
836 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 breast ! Weak woman, poor me ! ' all the latest heart-frippery. 
 It was Godefroid's wont to stay in a drawing-room for a bare 
 ten minutes ; he talked without any pretension to the women 
 in it, and at those times they thought him very clever. In 
 short, judge of his absorption ; Joby, his horses and carriages, 
 became secondary interests in his life. He was never happy 
 except in the depths of a snug settee opposite the baroness, 
 by the dark-green porphyry chimney-piece, watching Isaure, 
 taking tea, and chatting with the little circle of friends that 
 dropped in every evening between eleven and twelve in the 
 Rue Joubert. You could play bouillotte there safely. (I 
 always won.) Isaure sat with one little foot thrust out in its 
 black satin shoe; Godefroid would gaze and gaze, and stay 
 till every one else was gone, then say, ' Give me your shoe ! ' 
 and Isaure would put her little foot on a chair and take it off 
 and give it to him, with a glance, one of those glances that 
 in short, you understand. 
 
 "At length Godefroid discovered a great mystery in Mal- 
 vina. Whenever du Tillet knocked at the door, the live red 
 that colored Malvina' s face said ' Ferdinand ! ' When the 
 poor girl's eyes fell on that two-footed tiger, they lighted up 
 like a brasier fanned by a current of air. When Ferdinand 
 drew her away to the window or a side-table, she betrayed 
 her secret infinite joy. It is a rare and beautiful thing to see 
 a woman so much in love that she loses her cunning to be 
 strange, and you can read her heart ; as rare (dear me !) in 
 Paris as the Singing Flower in the Indies. But in spite of a 
 friendship dating from the d'Aldriggers' first appearance at 
 the Nucingens', Ferdinand did not marry Malvina. Our 
 ferocious friend was not apparently jealous of Desroches, who 
 paid assiduous court to the young lady ; Desroches wanted to 
 pay off the rest of the purchase-money due for his connection ; 
 Malvina could not well have less than fifty thousand crowns, 
 he thought, and so the lawyer was fain to play the lover. 
 Malvina, deeply humiliated as she was by du Tillet's careless- 
 
ISAURE WOULD PUT HER LITTLE FOOT ON A CHAIR. 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEff. 337 
 
 ness, loved him too well to shut the door upon him. With 
 her, an enthusiastic, highly wrought, sensitive girl, love some- 
 times got the better of pride, and pride again overcame 
 wounded love. Our friend Ferdinand, cool and self-possessed, 
 accepted her tenderness, and breathed the atmosphere with 
 the quiet enjoyment of a tiger licking the blood that dyes his 
 throat. He would come to make sure of it with new proofs ; 
 he never allowed two days to pass without a visit to the Rue 
 Joubert. 
 
 "At that time the rascal possessed something like eighteen 
 hundred thousand francs; money must have weighed very 
 little with him in the question of marriage ; and he had not 
 merely been proof against Malvina, he had resisted the Barons 
 de Nucingen and de Rastignac ; though both of them had set 
 him galloping at the rate or seventy-five leagues a day, with 
 outriders, regardless of expense, through mazes of their cun- 
 ning devices and with never a clue of thread. 
 
 " Godefroid could not refrain from saying a word to his 
 future sister-in-law as to her ridiculous position between a 
 banker and an attorney. 
 
 " ' You mean to read me a lecture on the subject of Ferdi- 
 nand,' she said frankly, 'to know the secret between us. 
 Dear Godefroid, never mention this again. Ferdinand's birth, 
 antecedents, and fortune count for nothing in this, so you may 
 think it is something extraordinary.' A few days afterward, 
 however, Malvina took Godefroid apart to say, 'I do not 
 think that Desroches is sincere ' (such is the instinct of love); 
 ' he would like to marry me, and he is paying court to some 
 tradesman's daughter as well. I should very much like to 
 know whether I am a second shift, and whether marriage is a 
 matter of money with him.' The fact was that Desroches, 
 deep as he was, could not make out du Tillet, and was afraid 
 that he might marry Malvina. So the fellow had secured his 
 retreat. His position was intolerable, he was scarcely paying 
 his expenses and interest on the debt. Women understand 
 22 
 
338 THE FIRM OF NUC1NGEN. 
 
 nothing of these things ; for them, love is always a million- 
 aire." 
 
 " But since neither du Tillet nor Desroches married her, 
 just explain Ferdinand's motive," said Finot. 
 
 "Motive?" repeated Bixiou; "why, this. General Rule : 
 A girl that has once given away her slipper, even if she refused 
 it for ten years, is never married by the man who " 
 
 "Bosh!" interrupted Blondet, "one reason for loving is 
 the fact that one has loved. His motive ? Here it is. 
 General Rule : Do not marry as a sergeant when some day 
 you may be Duke of Dantzig and Marshal of France. Now, 
 see what a match du Tillet has made since then. He married 
 one of the Comte de Granville's daughters, into one of the 
 oldest families in the French magistracy." 
 
 "Desroches' mother had a friend, a druggist's wife," con- 
 tinued Bixiou. " Said druggist had retired with a fat fortune. 
 These druggist folk have absurdly crude notions ; by way of 
 giving his daughter a good education, he had sent her to a 
 boarding-school ! Well, Matifat meant the girl to marry well, 
 on the strength of two hundred thousand francs, good hard 
 coin with no scent of drugs about it." 
 
 " Florine's Matifat ? " asked Blondet. 
 
 "Well, yes. Lousteau's Matifat; ours, in fact. The 
 Matifats, even then lost to us, had gone to live in the Rue du 
 Cherche-Midi, as far as may be from the Rue des Lombards, 
 where their money was made. For my own part, I had culti- 
 vated those Matifats. While I served my time in the galleys 
 of the law, when I was cooped up for eight hours out of the 
 twenty-four with nincompoops of the first water, I saw queer 
 characters enough to convince myself that all is not dead- 
 level even in obscure places, and that in the flattest inanity 
 you may chance upon an angle. Yes, dear boy, such and 
 such a philistine is to such another as Rafael is to Natoire. 
 
 "Madame Desroches, the widowed mother, had long ago 
 planned this marriage for her son, in spite of a tremendous 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 339 
 
 obstacle which took the shape of one Cochin, Matifat's 
 partner's son, a young clerk in the audit department. M. 
 and Mme. Matifat were of the opinion that an attorney's 
 position ' gave some guarantee for a wife's happiness,' to use 
 their own expression ; and as for Desroches, he was prepared to 
 fail in with his mother's views in case he could do no better 
 for himself. Wherefore, he kept up his acquaintance with the 
 druggists in the Rue du Cherche-Midi. 
 
 ' ' To put another kind of happiness before you, you should 
 have a description of these storekeepers, male and female. 
 They rejoiced in the possession of a handsome first-floor and 
 a strip of garden ; for amusement, they watched a little squirt 
 of water, no bigger than a wheat-stalk, perpetually rising and 
 falling upon a small, round freestone slab in the middle of a 
 basin some six feet across ; they would rise early of a morning 
 to see if the plants in the garden had grown in the night; 
 they had nothing to do, they were restless, they dressed for 
 the sake of dressing, bored themselves at the theatre, and 
 were for ever going to and fro between Paris and Luzarches, 
 where they had a country house. I have dined there. 
 
 " Once they tried to quiz me, Blondet. I told them a 
 long-winded story that lasted from nine o'clock till midnight, 
 one tale inside another. I had just brought my twenty-ninth 
 personage upon the scene (the newspapers have plagiarized 
 with their ' continued in our next '), when old Matifat, who 
 as host still held out, snored like the rest, after blinking for 
 five minutes. Next day they all complimented me upon the 
 ending of my tale ! 
 
 " These tradespeople's society consisted of M. and Mme. 
 Cochin, Mme. Desroches, and a young Popinot, still in the 
 drug business, who used to bring them news of the Rue des 
 Lombards. (You know him, Finot.) Mme. Matifat loved 
 the arts; she bought lithographs, chromo-lithographs, and 
 colored prints all the cheapest things she could lay her hands 
 on. The Sieur Matifat amused himself by looking into new 
 
340 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 business speculations, investing a little capital now and again 
 for the sake of the excitement. Florine had cured him of his 
 taste for the Regency style of thing. One saying of his will 
 give you some idea of the depths in my Matifat. 'Art thou 
 going to bed, my nieces ? ' he used to say when he wished 
 them good-night, because (as he explained) he was afraid of 
 hurting their feelings with the more formal ' you.' 
 
 " The daughter was a girl with no manner at all. She 
 looked rather like a superior sort of housemaid. She could 
 get through a sonata, she wrote a pretty English hand, knew 
 French grammar and orthography a complete commercial 
 education, in short. She was impatient enough to be married 
 and leave the paternal roof, finding it as dull at home as a 
 lieutenant finds the night-watch at sea ; at the same time, it 
 should be said that her watch lasted through the whole twenty- 
 four hours. Desroches or Cochin junior, a notary or a life- 
 guardsman, or a sham English lord any husband would have 
 suited her. As she so obviously knew nothing of life, I took 
 pity upon her, I determined to reveal the great secret of it. 
 But, pooh ! the Matifats shut their doors on me. The bour- 
 geois and I shall never understand each other." 
 
 " She married General Gouraud," said Finot. 
 
 " In forty-eight hours, Godefroid de Beaudenord, late of 
 the diplomatic corps, saw through the Matifats and their 
 nefarious designs," resumed Bixiou. " Raslignac happened 
 to be chatting with the frivolous baroness when Godefroid 
 came in to give his report to Malvina. A word here and 
 there reached his ear ; he guessed the matter on foot, more 
 particularly from Malvina's look of satisfaction that it was as 
 she had suspected. Then Rastignac actually stopped on till 
 two o'clock in the morning. And yet there are those that 
 call him selfish ! Beaudenord took his departure when the 
 baroness went to bed. 
 
 " As soon as Rastignac was left alone with Malvina, he 
 spoke in a quiet, fatherly, good-humored fashion : ' Dear child, 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 341 
 
 please to bear in mind that a poor fellow, heavy with sleep, 
 has been drinking tea to keep himself awake till two o'clock 
 in the morning, all for a chance of saying a solemn word of 
 advice to you Marry! Do not be too particular; do not 
 brood over your feelings ; never mind the sordid schemes of 
 men that have one foot here and another in the Matifats' 
 house ; do not stop to think at all : Marry ! When a girl 
 marries, it means that the man whom she marries undertakes 
 to maintain her in a more or less good position in life, and at 
 any rate her comfort is assured. I know the world. Girls, 
 mammas, and grandmammas are all of them hypocrites when 
 they fly off into sentiment over a question of marriage. No- 
 body really thinks of anything but a good position. If a 
 mother marries her daughter well, she says that she has made 
 an excellent bargain.' Here Rastignac unfolded his theory of 
 marriage, which to his way of thinking is a business arrange- 
 ment, with a view to making life tolerable ; and ended up 
 with, ' I do not ask to know your secret, Malvina ; I know 
 it already. Men talk things over among themselves, just as 
 you women talk after you leave the dinner-table. This is all 
 I have to say : Marry. If you do not, remember that I begged 
 you to marry, here, in this room, this evening ! ' 
 
 "There was a certain ring in Rastignac's voice which com- 
 pelled, not attention, but reflection. There was something 
 startling in his insistence ; something that went, as Rastignac 
 meant that it should, to the quick of Malvina's intelligence. 
 She thought over the counsel again next day, and vainly asked 
 herself why it had been given." 
 
 Couture broke in. " In all these tops that you have set 
 spinning, I see nothing at all like the beginnings of Rastig- 
 nac's fortune, ' ' said he. ' ' You apparently take us for Matifats 
 multiplied by half-a-dozen bottles of champagne." 
 
 " We are just coming to it," returned Bixiou. " You have 
 followed the course of all the rivulets which make up that forty 
 thousand livres a year which so many people envy. By this 
 
342 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 time Rastignac held the threads of all these lives in his 
 hand." 
 
 " Desroches, the Matifats, Beaudenord, the d'Aldriggers 
 and d'Aiglemont? " 
 
 "Yes, and a hundred others," assented Bixiou. 
 
 " Come now, how? " cried Finot. " I know a few things, 
 but I cannot see a glimpse of an answer to this riddle." 
 
 "Blondet has roughly given you the account of Nucingen's 
 first two suspensions of payment ; now for the third, with full 
 details. After the peace of 1815, Nucingen grasped an idea 
 which some of us only fully understood later, to wit, that 
 capital is a power only when you are very much richer than 
 other people. In his own mind, he was jealous of the Roths- 
 childs. He had five millions of francs, he wanted ten. He 
 knew a way to make thirty millions with ten, while with five 
 he could only make fifteen. So he made up his mind to 
 operate a third suspension of payment. About that time, the 
 great man hit on the idea of indemnifying his creditors with 
 paper of purely fictitious value and keeping their coin. On 
 the market, a great idea of this sort is not expressed in pre- 
 cisely this cut-and-dried way. Such an arrangement consists 
 in giving a lot of grown-up children a small pie in exchange 
 for a gold-piece ; and, like children of a smaller growth, they 
 prefer the pie to the gold-piece, not suspecting that they might 
 have a couple of hundred pies for it." 
 
 " What is all this about, Bixiou?" cried Couture. "Noth- 
 ing more bond, fide. Not a week passes but pies are offered to 
 the public for a louis. But who compels the public to take 
 them? Are they not perfectly free to make inquiries? " 
 
 "You would rather have it made compulsory to take up 
 shares, would you?" asked Blondet. 
 
 "No," said Finot. "Where would the talent come in?" 
 
 "Very good for Finot." 
 
 " Who put him up to it? " asked Couture. 
 
 "The fact was," continued Bixiou, "that Nucingen had 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 3-3 
 
 twice had the luck to present the public (quite unintentionally) 
 with a pie that turned out to be worth more than the money 
 he received for it. That unlucky good-luck gave him qualms 
 of conscience. A course of such luck is fatal to a man in the 
 long run. This time he meant to make no mistake of this 
 sort ; he waited ten years for an opportunity of issuing nego- 
 tiable securities which should seem on the face of it to be 
 worth something, while as a matter of fact " 
 
 " But if you look at banking in that light," broke in Cou- 
 ture, "no sort of business would be possible. More than one 
 bon& fide banker, backed up by a bond fide government, has 
 induced the hardest-headed men on 'Change to take up stock 
 which was bound to fall within a given time. You have seen 
 better than that. Have you not seen stock created with the 
 concurrence of a government to pay the interest upon older 
 stock, so as to keep things going and tide over the difficulty? 
 These operations were more or less like Nucingen's settle- 
 ments." 
 
 " The thing may look queer on a small scale," said Blondet, 
 " but on a large we call it finance. There are high-handed 
 proceedings criminal between man and man that amount to 
 nothing when spread out over any number of men, much as a 
 drop of prussic acid becomes harmless in a pail of water. You 
 take a man's life, you are guillotined. But if, for any polit- 
 ical conviction whatsoever, you take five hundred lives, po- 
 litical crimes are respected. You take five thousand francs 
 out of my desk ; to the hulks you go. But with a sop cleverly 
 pushed into the jaws of a thousand speculators, you can cram 
 the stock of any bankrupt republic or monarchy down their 
 throats ; even if the loan has been floated, as Couture says, to 
 pay the interest on that very same national debt. Nobody 
 can complain. These are the real principles of the present 
 Golden Age." 
 
 " When the stage machinery is so huge," continued Bixiou, 
 "a good many puppets are required. In the first place, 
 
344 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEX. 
 
 Nucingen had purposely and with his eyes open invested his 
 five millions in an American investment, foreseeing that the 
 profits would not come in until it was too late. The firm 
 of Nucingen deliberately emptied its coffers. Any liquidation 
 ought to be brought about naturally. In deposits belonging 
 to private individuals and other investments, the firm pos- 
 sessed about six millions of capital altogether. Among those 
 private individuals were the Baroness d'Aldrigger with her 
 three hundred thousand francs, Beaudenord with four hundred 
 thousand, d'Aiglemont with a million, Matifat with three 
 hundred thousand, Charles Grandet (who married Mile. 
 d'Aubrion) with half a million, and so forth, and so forth. 
 
 " Now, if Nucingen had himself brought out a joint-stock 
 company, with the shares of which he proposed to indemnify 
 his creditors after more or less ingenious manoeuvring, he 
 might perhaps have been suspected. He set about it more 
 cunningly than that. He made some one else put up the 
 machinery that was to play the part of the Mississippi scheme 
 in Law's system. Nucingen can make the longest-headed 
 men work out his schemes for him without confiding a word 
 to them ; it is his peculiar talent. Nucingen just let fall a 
 hint to du Tillet of the pyramidal, triumphant notion of bring- 
 ing out a joint-stock enterprise with capital sufficient to pay 
 very high dividends for a time. Tried for the first time, in 
 days when noodles with capital were plentiful, the plan was 
 pretty sure to end in a run upon the shares, and consequently 
 in a profit for the banker that issued them. You must re- 
 member that this happened in 1826. 
 
 " Du Tillet, struck though he was by an idea both pregnant 
 and ingenious, naturally bethought himself that if the enter- 
 prise failed, the blame must fall upon somebody. For which 
 reason, it occurred to him to put forward a figurehead director 
 in charge of his commercial machinery. At this day you all 
 must know the secret of the firm of Claparon and Company, 
 founded by du Tillet, one of the finest inventions " 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCIXGEN. 345 
 
 "Yes," said Blondet, "the responsible editor in business 
 matters, the instigator, and scapegoat ; but we know better than 
 that nowadays. We put, ' Apply at the offices of the Corn- 
 par.}-, such-and-such a number, such-and-such a street,' where 
 the public finds a staff of clerks in green caps, about as pleas- 
 ing to behold as broker's men." 
 
 " Nucingen," pursued Bixiou, " had supported the firm of 
 Charles Claparon and Company with all his credit. There 
 were markets in which you mighty safely put a million francs' 
 worth of Claparon's paper. So du Tillet proposed to bring 
 his firm of Claparon to the fore. So said, so done. In 
 1825 the shareholder was still an unsophisticated being. 
 There was no such thing as cash lying at call. Managing 
 directors did not pledge themselves not to put their own shares 
 upon the market ; they kept no deposit with the Bank of 
 France ; they guaranteed nothing. They did not even conde- 
 scend to explain to shareholders the exact limits of their 
 liabilities when they informed them that the directors, in their 
 goodness, refrained from asking any more than a thousand, or 
 five hundred, or even two hundred and fifty francs. It was 
 not given out that the experiment in are publico was not meant 
 to last for more than seven, five, or even three years, so that 
 shareholders would not have long to wait for the catastrophe. 
 It was in the childhood of the art. Promoters did not even 
 publish the gigantic prospectuses with which they stimulate 
 the imagination, and at the same time make demands for 
 money of all and sundry." 
 
 " That only comes when nobody wishes to part with 
 money," said Couture. 
 
 " In short, there was no competition in investments," con- 
 tinued Bixiou. " Papier-machd manufacturers, cotton printers, 
 zinc-rollers, theatres, and newspapers as yet did not hurl them- 
 selves like hunting dogs upon their quarry the expiring share- 
 holder. ' Nice things in shares,' as Couture says, put thus 
 artlessly before the public, and backed up by the opinions of 
 
346 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 experts ('the princes of science'), were negotiated shame- 
 facedly in the silence and shadow of the Bourse. Lynx-eyed 
 speculators used to execute (financially speaking) the aria 
 Calumny out of 'The Barber of Seville.' They went about 
 piano, piano, making known the merits of the concern through 
 the medium of stock-exchange gossip. They could only ex- 
 ploit the victim in his own house, on the Bourse, or in com- 
 pany ; so they reached him by means of the skillfully created 
 rumor which grew till it reached a tutti of a quotation in four 
 figures " 
 
 "And as we can say anything among ourselves," said 
 Couture, " I will go back to the last subject." 
 
 " Vous ttes orfevre, Monsieur Josse ! "* cried Finot. 
 
 " Finot will always be classic, constitutional, and pedantic," 
 commented Blondet. 
 
 "Yes," rejoined Couture, on whose account Cerizet had 
 just been condemned on a criminal charge. " I maintain 
 that the new way is infinitely less fraudulent, less ruinous, 
 more straightforward than the old. Publicity means time for 
 reflection and inquiry. If here and there a shareholder is 
 taken in, he has himself to blame, nobody sells him a pig in a 
 poke. The manufacturing industry " 
 
 "Ah ! " exclaimed Bixiou, "here comes industry- 
 
 " is a gainer by it," continued Couture, taking no notice 
 of the interruption. " Every government that meddles with 
 commerce and cannot leave it free, sets about an expensive 
 piece of folly ; State interference ends in a maximum or a 
 monopoly. To my thinking, few things can be more in con- 
 formity with the principles of free trade than joint-stock com- 
 panies. State interference means that you try to regulate the 
 relations of principal and interest, which is absurd. In busi- 
 ness, generally speaking, the profits are in proportion to the 
 risks. What does it matter to the State how money is set cir- 
 culating, provided that it is always in circulation ? What 
 * You are a goldsmith, Mister Joss. 
 
THE FIRM OF NVCINGEN. 347 
 
 does it matter who is rich or who is poor, provided that there 
 is a constant quantity of rich people to be taxed ? Joint-stock 
 companies, limited liability companies, every sort of enterprise 
 that pays a dividend, has been carried on for twenty years in 
 England, commercially the first country in the world. Noth- 
 ing passes unchallenged there; the Houses of Parliament 
 hatch some twelve hundred laws every session, yet no mem- 
 ber of Parliament has ever yet raised an objection to the 
 system " 
 
 "A cure for plethora of the strong box. Purely vegetable 
 remedy," put in Bixiou, " les carottes" (gambling specula- 
 tion). 
 
 "Look here!" cried Couture, firing up at this. "You 
 have ten thousand francs. You invest it in ten shares of a 
 thousand francs each in ten different enterprises. You are 
 swindled nine times out of the ten as a matter of fact you are 
 not, the public is a match for anybody, but say that you are 
 swindled, and only one affair turns out well (by accident ! oh, 
 granted ! it was not done on purpose there, chaff away!). 
 Very well, the punter that has the sense to divide up his 
 stakes in this way hits on a splendid investment, like those did 
 who took shares in the Worstchin mines. Gentlemen, let us 
 admit among ourselves that those who call out are hypocrites, 
 desperately vexed because they have no good ideas of their own, 
 and neither power to advertise nor skill to exploit a business. 
 You will not have long to wait for proof. In a very short time 
 you will see the aristocracy, the Court, and public men descend 
 into speculation in serried columns ; you will see that their 
 claws are longer, their morality more crooked than ours, while 
 they have not our good points. What a head a man must 
 have if he has to found a business in times when the share- 
 holder is as covetous and keen as the inventor ! What a great 
 magnetizer must he be that can create a Claparon and hit 
 upon expedients never tried before. Do you know the moral 
 of it all ? Our age is no better than we are; we live in an era 
 
348 THE FIRM OF NUClNGEff. 
 
 of greed ; no one troubles himself about the intrinsic value of 
 a thing if he can only make a profit on it by selling it to some- 
 body else ; so he passes it on to his neighbor. The share- 
 holder that thinks he sees a chance of making money is just 
 as covetous as the founder that offers him the opportunity of 
 making it." 
 
 "Isn't he fine, our Couture? Isn't he fine?" exclaimed 
 Bixiou, turning to Blondet. " He will ask us next to erect 
 statues to him as a benefactor of the species." 
 
 " It would certainly lead people to conclude that the fool's 
 money is the wise man's patrimony by divine right/' said 
 Blondet. 
 
 " Gentlemen," cried Couture, " let us have our laugh out 
 here to make up for all the times when we must listen gravely 
 to solemn nonsense justifying laws passed on the spur of the 
 moment." 
 
 "He is right," said Blondet. "What times we live in, 
 gentlemen ! When the fire of intelligence appears among us, 
 it is promptly quenched by haphazard legislation. Almost all 
 our lawgivers come up from little parishes where they studied 
 human nature through the medium of the newspapers ; forth- 
 with they shut down the safety-valve, and when the machinery 
 blows up there is weeping and gnashing of teeth ! We do 
 nothing nowadays but pass penal laws and levy taxes. Will 
 you have the sum of it all ? There is no religion left in the 
 State ! " 
 
 "Oh, bravo, Blondet! " cried Bixiou, "thou hast set thy 
 finger on the weak spot. Meddlesome taxation has lost us 
 more victories here in France than the vexatious chances of 
 war. I once spent seven years in the hulks of a government 
 department, chained with bourgeois to my bench. There was 
 a clerk in the office, a man with a head on his shoulders ; he 
 had set his mind upon making a sweeping reform of the whole 
 fiscal system ah, well, we took the conceit out of him nicely. 
 France might have been too prosperous, you know ; she might 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCLVGEN. 3!9 
 
 have amused herself by conquering Europe again ; we acted in 
 the interests of the peace of nations. I slew Rabourdin with 
 a caricature." * 
 
 " By religion I do not mean cant ; I use the word in its wide 
 political sense," rejoined Blondet. 
 
 "Explain your meaning," said Finot. 
 
 " Here it is," returned Blondet. " There has been a good 
 deal said about affairs at Lyons ; about the Republic cannon- 
 aded in the streets ; well, there was not a word of truth in it 
 all. The Republic took up the riots, just as an insurgent 
 snatches up a rifle. The truth is queer and profound, I can 
 tell you. The Lyons trade is a soulless trade. They will not 
 weave a yard of silk unless they have the order and are sure 
 of payment. If orders fall off, the workmen may starve ; they 
 can scarcely earn a living, convicts are better off. After the 
 Revolution of July, the distress reached such a pitch that the 
 Lyons weavers the canuts, as they call them hoisted the flag, 
 ' Bread or Death ! ' a proclamation of a kind which compels 
 the attention of a government. It was really brought about 
 by the cost of living at Lyons ; Lyons must build theatres and 
 become a metropolis, forsooth, and the octroif duties accord- 
 ingly were insanely high. The Republicans got wind of this 
 bread riot, they organized the canuts in two camps, and fought 
 among themselves. Lyons had her Three Days, but order 
 was restored, and the silk weavers went back to their dens. 
 Hitherto the canut had been honest ; the silk for his work was 
 weighed out to him in hanks, and he brought back the same 
 weight of woven tissue ; now he made up his mind that the 
 silk merchants were oppressing him ; he put honesty out at 
 the door and rubbed oil on his fingers. He still brought 
 back weight for weight, but he sold the silk represented by 
 the oil ; and the French silk trade has suffered from a plague 
 of 'greased silks,' which might have ruined Lyons and a 
 whole branch of French commerce. The masters and the 
 
 * See " The Workpeople." f Dues collected at the city gates. 
 
350 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 Government, instead of removing the causes of the evil, simply 
 drove it in with a violent external application. They ought 
 to have sent a clever man to Lyons, one of those men that are 
 said to have no principle, an Abbe Terray ; but they looked 
 at the affair from a military point of view. The result of the 
 troubles is a gros de Naples at forty sous per yard ; the silk is 
 sold at this day, I dare say, and the masters no doubt have 
 hit upon some new check upon the men. This method of 
 manufacturing without looking ahead ought never to have 
 existed in the country where one of the greatest citizens that 
 France has ever known ruined himself to keep six thousand 
 weavers in work without orders. Richard Lenoir fed them, 
 and the Government was thick-headed enough to allow him 
 to suffer from the fall of the prices of textile fabrics brought 
 about by the Revolution of 1814. Richard Lenoir is the one 
 case of a merchant that deserves a statue. And yet the sub- 
 scription set on foot for him has no subscribers, while the fund 
 for General Foy's children reached a million francs. Lyons 
 has drawn her own conclusions ; she knows France, she knows 
 that there is no religion left. The story of Richard Lenior is 
 one of those blunders which Fouch6 condemned as worse than 
 a crime." 
 
 " Suppose that there is a tinge of charlatanism in the way 
 in which concerns are put before the public," began Couture, 
 returning to the charge, " that word charlatanism has come 
 to be a damaging expression, a middle term, as it were, be- 
 tween right and wrong ; for where, I ask you, does charla- 
 tanism begin ? where does it end ? what is charlatanism ? do 
 me the kindness of telling me what it is not. Now for a little 
 plain speaking, the rarest social ingredient. A business which 
 should consist in going out at night to look for goods to sell 
 in the day would be obviously impossible. You find the in- 
 stinct of forestalling the market in the very match-seller. 
 How to forestall the market that is the one idea of the so- 
 called honest tradesman of the Rue Saint-Denis, as of the 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 861 
 
 most brazen-fronted speculator. If stocks are heavy, sell you 
 must. If sales are slow, you must tickle your customer; 
 hence the signs of the Middle Ages, hence the modern pros- 
 pectus. I do not see a hair's-breadth of difference between 
 attracting custom and forcing your goods upon the consumer. 
 It may happen, it is sure to happen, it often happens, that a 
 storekeeper gets hold of damaged goods, for the seller always 
 cheats the buyer. Go and ask the most upright folk in Paris 
 the best-known men in business, that is and they will all 
 triumphantly tell you of dodges by which they passed off 
 stock which they knew to be bad upon the public. The well- 
 known firm of Minard began by sales of this kind. In the 
 Rue Saint-Denis they sell nothing but ' greased silk; ' it is all 
 that they can do. The most honest merchants tell you in the 
 most candid way that ' you must get out of a bad bargain as 
 best you can ' a motto for the most unscrupulous rascality. 
 Blondet has given you an account of the Lyons affair, its 
 causes and effects, and I proceed in my turn to illustrate my 
 theory with an anecdote : There was once a woolen weaver, 
 an ambitious man, burdened with a large family of children 
 by a wife too much beloved. He put too much faith in the 
 Republic, laid in a stock of scarlet wool, and manufactured 
 those red-knitted caps that you may have noticed on the 
 heads of all the street urchins in Paris. How this came about 
 I am just going to tell you. The Republic was beaten. After 
 the Saint-Merri affair the caps were quite unsalable. Now, 
 when a weaver finds that beside a wife and children he has 
 some ten thousand red woolen caps in the house, and that no 
 hatter will take a single one of them, notions begin to pass 
 through his head as fast as if he were a banker racking his 
 brains to get rid of ten million francs' worth of shares in some 
 dubious investment. As for this Law of the Faubourg, this 
 Nucingen of caps, do you know what he did? He went to 
 find a pothouse dandy, one of those comic men that drive 
 police sergeants to despair at open-air dancing saloons at the 
 
352 THE FIRM OF NUC1NGEN. 
 
 barriers ; him he engaged to play the part of an American 
 captain staying at Meurice's and buying for the export trade. 
 He was to go to some large hatter, who still had a cap in his 
 store-window, and ' inquire for ' ten thousand red woolen 
 caps. The hatter, scenting business in the wind, hurried 
 round to the woolen weaver and rushed upon the stock. 
 After that, no more of the American captain, you understand, 
 and great plenty of caps. If you interfere with the freedom 
 of trade, because free trade has its drawbacks, you might as 
 well tie the hands of justice because a crime sometimes goes 
 unpunished, or blame the bad organization of society because 
 civilization produces some evils. From the caps and the Rue 
 Saint-Denis to joint-stock companies and the bank draw 
 your own conclusions." 
 
 "A crown for Couture ! " said Blondet, twisting a serviette 
 into a wreath for his head. " I go further than that, gentle- 
 men. If there is a defect in the working hypothesis, what is 
 the cause ? The law ! the whole system of legislation. The 
 blame rests with the legislature. The great men of their dis- 
 tricts are sent up to us by the provinces, crammed with pa- 
 rochial notions of right and wrong ; and ideas that are indis- 
 pensable if you want to keep clear of collisions with justice, 
 are stupid when they prevent a man from rising to the height 
 at which a maker of laws ought to abide. Legislation may 
 prohibit such and such developments of human passions 
 gambling, lotteries, the Ninons of the pavement, anything 
 you please but you cannot extirpate the passions themselves 
 by any amount of legislation. Abolish them, you would 
 abolish the society which develops them, even if it does not 
 produce them. The gambling passion lurks, for instance, at 
 the bottom of every heart, be it a girl's heart, a provincial's, 
 a diplomatist's ; everybody longs to have money without 
 working for it ; you may hedge the desire about with restric- 
 tions, but the gambling mania immediately breaks out in 
 another form. You stupidly suppress lotteries, but the cook- 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 353 
 
 maid pilfers none the less, and puts her ill-gotten gains in the 
 savings bank. She gambles with two hundred and fifty franc 
 stakes instead of forty sous ; joint-stock companies and specu- 
 lation take the place of the lottery; the gambling goes on 
 without the green cloth, the croupier's rake is invisible, the 
 cheating planned beforehand. The gambling-houses are 
 closed, the lottery has come to an end; 'and now,' cry 
 idiots, ' morals have greatly improved in France,' as if, for- 
 sooth, they had suppressed the punters. The gambling still 
 goes on, only the State makes nothing from it now ; and for 
 a tax paid with pleasure, it has substituted a burdensome duty. 
 Nor is the number of suicides reduced, for the gambler never 
 dies, though his victim does. 
 
 " I am not speaking now of foreign capital lost to France," 
 continued Couture, "nor of the Frankfort lotteries. The 
 Convention passed a decree of death against these who hawked 
 foreign lottery-tickets, and procureur syndics used to traffic 
 in them. So much for the sense of our legislator and his 
 driveling philanthropy. The encouragement given to savings 
 banks is a piece of crass political folly. Suppose that things 
 take a doubtful turn and people lose confidence, the Govern- 
 ment will find that they have instituted a queue for money, like 
 the queues outside the bakers' shops. So many savings banks, 
 so many riots. Three streets boys hoist a flag in some corner 
 or other, and you have a revolution ready made. 
 
 " But this danger, however great it may be, seems to me 
 less to be dreaded than the widespread demoralization. 
 Savings banks are a means of inoculating the people, the 
 classes least restrained by education or by reason from 
 schemes that are tacitly criminal with the vices bred of self- 
 interest. See what comes of philanthropy ! 
 
 "A great politician ought to be without a conscience in 
 
 abstract questions, or he is a bad steersman for a nation. An 
 
 honest politician is a steam-engine with feelings, a pilot that 
 
 would make love at the helm and let the ship go down. A 
 
 23 
 
354 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 prime minister who helps himself to millions but makes 
 France prosperous and great is preferable, is he not, to a public 
 servant who ruins his country, even though he is buried at the 
 public expense ? Would you hesitate between a Richelieu, a 
 Mazarin, or a Potemkin, each with his hundreds of millions 
 of francs, and a conscientious Robert Lindet* that could make 
 nothing out of assignats (paper money) and national property, 
 or one of the virtuous imbeciles who ruined Louis XVI.? 
 Go on, Bixiou." 
 
 " I will not go into the details of the speculation which we 
 owe to Nucingen's financial genius. It would be the more 
 inexpedient because the concern is still in existence and shares 
 are quoted on the Bourse. The scheme was so convincing, 
 there was such life in an enterprise sanctioned by royal letters- 
 patent, that, though the shares issued at a thousand francs fell 
 to three hundred, they rose to seven, and will reach par yet, 
 after weathering the stormy years '27, '30, and '32. The 
 financial crisis of 1827 sent them down; after the Revolution 
 of July they fell flat ; but there is really something in the 
 affair, Nucingen simply could not invent a bad speculation. 
 In short, as several banks of the highest standing have been 
 mixed up in the affair, it would be unparliamentary to go 
 further into detail. The nominal capital amounted to ten 
 millions; the real capital to seven. Three millions were 
 allotted to the founders and bankers that brought it out. 
 Everything was done with a view to sending up the shares 
 two hundred francs during the first six months by the payment 
 of a sham dividend. Twenty per cent, on ten millions ! 
 Du Tillet's interest in the concern amounted to five hundred 
 thousand francs. In the stock-exchange slang of the day, 
 this share of the spoils was a ' sop in the pan.' Nucingen, 
 with his millions made by the aid of a lithographer's stone 
 and a handful of pink paper, proposed to himself to operate 
 certain nice little shares carefully hoarded in his private office 
 * Minister of Finance of the Republic. 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 366 
 
 till the time came for putting them on the market. The 
 shareholder's money floated the concern, and .paid for splen- 
 did business premises, so they began operations. And Nucin- 
 gen held in reserve founders' shares in heaven knows what 
 coal and argentiferous lead-mines, also in a couple of canals; 
 the shares had been given to him for bringing out the con- 
 cerns. All four were in working order, well gotten up and 
 popular, for they paid good dividends. 
 
 " Nucingen might, of course, count on getting the differ- 
 ences if the shares went up, but this formed no part of the 
 baron's schemes ; he left the shares at sea-level on the market 
 to tempt the fishes. 
 
 "So he had massed his securities as Napoleon massed his 
 troops, all with a view to suspending payment in the thick of 
 the approaching crisis of 1826-27 which revolutionized 
 European markets. If Nucingen had had his Prince of 
 Wagram, he might have said, like Napoleon from the heights 
 of Santon, ' Make a careful survey of the situation ; on such 
 and such a day, at such an hour, funds will be poured in at 
 such a spot.' But in whom could he confide? Du Tillet had 
 no suspicion of his own complicity in Nucingen's plot ; and 
 the bold baron had learned from his previous experiments in 
 suspensions of payment that he must have some man whom 
 he could trust to act at need as a lever upon the creditor. 
 Nucingen had never a nephew, he dared not take a confidant; 
 yet he must have a devoted and intelligent Claparon, a born 
 diplomatist with a good manner, a man worthy of him, and 
 fit to take office under Government. Such connections are 
 not made in a day nor yet in a year. By this time Rastignac 
 had been so thoroughly entangled by Nucingen, that being, 
 like the Prince de la Paix, equally beloved by the King and 
 Queen of Spain, he fancied that he (Rastignac) had secured 
 a very valuable dupe in Nucingen ! For a long while he had 
 laughed at a man whose capacities he was unable to estimate ; 
 he ended in a sober, serious, and devout admiration of \ucin- 
 
356 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 gen, owning that Nucingen really had the power which he 
 thought that he himself alone possessed. 
 
 "From Rastignac's introduction to society in Paris, he had 
 been led to contemn it utterly. From the year 1820 he 
 thought, like the baron, that honesty was a question of 
 appearances ; he looked upon the world as a mixture of cor- 
 ruption and rascality of every sort. If he admitted excep- 
 tions, he condemned the mass ; he put no belief in any virtue 
 men did right or wrong, as circumstances decided. His 
 worldly wisdom was the work of a moment ; he learned his 
 lesson at the summit of Pere Lachaise one day when he buried 
 a poor, good man there ; it was his Delphine's father, who 
 died deserted by his daughters and their husbands, a dupe of 
 our society and of the truest affection. Rastignac then and 
 there resolved to exploit this world, to wear full dress of 
 virtue, honesty, and fine manners. He was empanoplied in 
 selfishness. When the young scion of nobility discovered 
 that Nucingen wore the same armor, he respected him much 
 as some knight mounted upon a barb and arrayed in damas- 
 cened steel would have respected an adversary equally well 
 horsed and equipped at a tournament in the Middle Ages. 
 But for the time he had grown effeminate amid the delights 
 of Capua, The friendship of such a woman as the Baronne 
 de Nucingen is of a kind that sets a man abjuring egoism in 
 all its forms. 
 
 "Delphine had been deceived once already; in her first ven- 
 ture of the affections she came across a piece of Birmingham 
 manufacture, in the shape of the late lamented de Marsay ; 
 and therefore she could not but feel a limitless affection for a 
 young provincial with all the provincial's articles of faith. 
 Her tenderness reacted upon Rastignac. So by the time that 
 Nucingen had put his wife's friend into the harness in which 
 the exploiter always gets the exploited, he had reached the 
 precise juncture when he (the baron) meditated a third sus- 
 pension of payment. To Rastignac he confided his position; 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 3T,7 
 
 he pointed out to Rastignac a means of making 'reparation.' 
 As a consequence of his intimacy, he was expected to play 
 the part of confederate. The baron judged it unsafe to com- 
 municate the whole of his plot to his conjugal collaborator. 
 Rastignac quite believed in impending disaster; and the 
 baron allowed him to believe further that he (Rastignac) 
 saved the shop. 
 
 " But when there are so many threads in a skein, there are 
 apt to be knots. Rastignac trembled for Delphine's money. 
 He stipulated that Delphine must be independent and her 
 estate separated from her husband's, swearing to himself that 
 he would repay her by trebling her fortune. As, however, 
 Rastignac said nothing of himself, Nucingen begged him to 
 take, in the event of success, twenty-five shares of a thousand 
 francs in the argentiferous lead-mines, and Eugene took them 
 not to offend him ! Nucingen had put Rastignac up to this 
 the day before that evening in the Rue Joubert when our 
 friend counseled Malvina to marry. A cold shiver ran 
 through Rastignac at the sight of so many happy folk in Paris 
 going to and fro unconscious of the impending loss ; even as 
 a young commander might shiver at the first sight of an army 
 drawn up before a battle. He saw the d'Aiglemonts, the 
 d' Aid riggers, and Beaudenord. Poor little Isaure and Gode- 
 froid playing at love, what were they but Acis and Galatea 
 under the rock which a hulking Polyphemus was about to send 
 down upon them?" 
 
 "That monkey of a Bixiou has something almost like 
 talent," said Blondet. 
 
 "Oh ! so I am not maundering now?" asked Bixiou, en- 
 joying his success as he looked round at his surprised auditors. 
 " For two months past," he continued, " Godefroid had given 
 himself up to all the little pleasures of preparation for the mar- 
 riage. At such times men are like birds building nests in 
 spring ; they come and go, pick up their bits of straw, and fly 
 off with them in their beaks to line the nest that is to hold a 
 
368 THE FIRM CF NUCINGRN. 
 
 brood of young birds by-and-by. Isaure's bridegroom had 
 taken a house in the Rue de la Plancher at a thousand crowns, 
 a comfortable little house, neither too large nor too small, 
 which suited them. Every morning he went round to take a 
 look at the workmen and to superintend the painters. He 
 had introduced ' comfort ' (the only good thing in England) 
 heating apparatus to maintain an even temperature all over the 
 house; fresh, soft colors, carefully chosen furniture, neither 
 too showy nor too much in the fashion ; spring-blinds fitted to 
 every window inside and out ; plate and new carriages. He 
 had seen to the stables, coach-house, and harness-room, where 
 Toby, Joby, Paddy floundered and fidgeted about like a mar- 
 mot let loose, apparently rejoiced to know that there would be 
 women about the place and a 'lady! ' This fervent passion 
 of a man that sets up housekeeping, choosing clocks, going to 
 visit his betrothed with his pockets full of patterns of stuffs, 
 consulting her as to the bedroom furniture, going, coming, 
 and trotting about, for love's sake all this, I say, is a spec- 
 tacle in the highest degree calculated to rejoice the hearts 
 of honest people, especially tradespeople. And as nothing 
 pleases folk better than the marriage of a good-looking young 
 fellow of seven-and-twenty and a charming girl of nineteen 
 that dances admirably well, Godefroid in his perplexity over 
 the corbeille (wedding-basket) asked Mme. de Nucingen and 
 Rastignac to breakfast with him and advise him on this all- 
 important point. He hit likewise on the happy idea of asking 
 his cousin d'Aiglemont and his wife to meet them, as well as 
 Mme. de Serizy. Women of the world are ready enough to 
 join for once in an improvised breakfast-party at a bachelor's 
 rooms." 
 
 " It is their way of playing truant," put in Blondet. 
 
 "Of course they went over the new house," resumed 
 Bixiou. "Married women relish these little expeditions 
 as ogres relish warm flesh ; they feel young again with the 
 young bliss, unspoiled as yet by fruition. Breakfast was 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 359 
 
 served in Godefroid's sitting-room, decked out like a troop- 
 horse for a farewell to bachelor life. There were dainty little 
 dishes such as women love to devour, nibble at, and sip of a 
 morning, when they are usually alarmingly hungry and hor- 
 ribly afraid to confess to it. It would seem that a woman 
 compromises herself by admitting that she is hungry. ' Why 
 have you come alone ? ' inquired Godefroid when Rastignac 
 appeared. ' Mme. de Nucingen is out of spirits ; I will tell 
 you all about it,' answered Rastignac, with the air of a man 
 whose temper has been tried. ' A quarrel?' hazarded Gode- 
 froid. ' No.' At four o'clock the women took flight for the 
 Bois de Boulogne ; Rastignac stayed in the room and looked 
 out of the window, fixing his melancholy gaze upon Toby, 
 Joby, Paddy, who stood, his arms crossed in Napoleonic 
 fashion, audaciously posted in front of Beaudenord's cab-horse. 
 The child could only control the animal with his shrill little 
 voice, but the horse was afraid of Joby, Toby. 
 
 " ' Well,' began Godefroid, 'what is the matter with you, 
 my dear fellow ? You look gloomy and anxious ; your gayety 
 is forced. You are tormented by incomplete happiness. It 
 is wretched, and that is a fact, when one cannot marry the 
 woman one loves at the mayor's office and the church.' 
 
 "'Have you courage to hear what I have to say? I 
 wonder whether you will see how much a man must be at- 
 tached to a friend if he can be guilty of such a breach of 
 confidence as this for his sake.' 
 
 "Something in Rastignac's voice stung like a lash of a 
 whip. 
 
 " ' IVJiat? 1 asked Godefroid de Beaudenord, turning pale. 
 
 " ' I was unhappy over your joy ; I had not the heart to 
 keep such a secret to myself when I saw all these preparations, 
 your happiness in bloom.' 
 
 " 'Just say it out in three words ! ' 
 
 " ' Swear to me on your honor that you will be as silent as 
 the grave ' 
 
360 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 11 'As the grave," repeated Beaudenord. 
 
 " ' That if one of your nearest relatives were concerned in 
 this secret, he should not know it.' 
 
 "'No.' 
 
 " ' Very well. Nucingen started to-night for Brussels. 
 He must file his schedule if he cannot arrange a settlement. 
 This very morning Delphine petitioned for the separation of 
 her estate. You may still save your fortune.' 
 
 " 'How?' faltered Godefroid; the blood turned to ice in 
 his veins. 
 
 " ' Simply write to the Baron de Nucingen, antedating your 
 letter a fortnight, and instruct him to invest all your capital 
 in shares.' Rastignac suggested Claparon and Company, and 
 continued ' You have a fortnight, a month, possibly three 
 months, in which to realize and make something ; the shares 
 are still going up ' 
 
 " ' But d'Aiglemont, who was here at breakfast with us, has 
 a million in Nucingen's bank.' 
 
 " ' Look here ; I do not know whether there will be enough 
 of these shares to cover it ; and, beside, I am not his friend, 
 I cannot betray Nucingen's confidence. You must not speak 
 to d'Aiglemont. If you say a word, you must answer to me 
 for the consequences.' 
 
 " Godefroid stood stockstill for ten minutes. 
 
 "'Do you accept? Yes or no?' said the inexorable 
 Rastignac. 
 
 "Godefroid took up the pen, wrote at Rastignac's dicta- 
 tion, and signed his name. 
 
 " ' My poor cousin ! ' he cried. 
 
 "'Each for himself,' said Rastignac. 'And there is one 
 more settled ! ' he added to himself as he left Godefroid de 
 Beaudenord. 
 
 "While Rastignac was manoeuvring thus in Paris, imagine 
 the state of things on the Bourse. A friend of mine, a pro- 
 vincial, a stupid creature, once asked me as we came past the 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 361 
 
 Bourse between four and five in the afternoon what all that 
 crowd of chatterers was doing, what they could possibly find 
 to say to each other, and why they were wandering to and fro 
 when business in public securities was over for the day. 
 'My friend,' said I, 'they have made their meal, and now 
 they are digesting it ; while they digest it, they gossip about 
 their neighbors, or there would be no commercial security in 
 Paris. Concerns are floated here, such and such a man 
 Palma, for instance, who is something the same here as 
 Sinard at the Academic Royale des Sciences Palma says, 
 "Let the speculation be made!" and the speculation is 
 made.'" 
 
 "What a man that Hebrew is," put in Blondet ; "he has 
 not had a university education, but a universal education. 
 And universal does not in his case mean superficial ; whatever 
 he knows, he knows to the bottom. He has a genius, an 
 intuitive faculty for business. He is the oracle of all the 
 lynxes that rule the Paris market 3 they will not touch an 
 investment until Palma has looked into it. He looks solemn, 
 he listens, ponders, and reflects; his interlocutor thinks that 
 after this consideration he has come round his man, till Palma 
 says, 'This will not do for me.' The most extraordinary 
 thing about Palma, to my mind, is the fact that he and Wer- 
 brust were partners for ten years, and there was never the 
 shadow of a disagreement between them." 
 
 " That is the way with the very strong or the very weak ; 
 any two between the extremes fall out and lose no time in 
 making enemies of each other," said Couture. 
 
 " Nucingen, you see, had neatly and skillfully put a little 
 bombshell under the colonnades of the Bourse, and toward 
 four o'clock in the afternoon it exploded. ' Here is some- 
 thing serious; have you heard the news?' asked du Tillet, 
 drawing Werbrust into a corner. 'Here is Nucingen gone 
 off to Brussels, and his wife petitioning for the separation of 
 her estate.' 
 
362 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 " ' Are you and he in it together for a liquidation ? ' asked 
 Werbrust, smiling. 
 
 "'No foolery, 'Werbrust,' said du Tillet. 'You know 
 the holders of his paper. Now, look here. There is business 
 in it. Shares in this new concern of ours have gone up twenty 
 per cent, already ; they will go up to five-and-twenty by the 
 end of the quarter ; you know why. They are going to pay 
 a splendid dividend.' 
 
 '"Sly dog,' said Werbrust. ' Get along with you ; you are 
 a devil with long and sharp claws, and you have them deep 
 in the butter.' 
 
 " 'Just let me speak or we shall not have time to operate. 
 I hit on the idea as soon as I heard the news. I positively 
 saw Mme. de Nucingen crying; she is afraid for her fortune.' 
 
 "'Poor little thing!' said the old Alsacian Jew, with 
 an ironical expression. ' Well ? ' he added, as du Tillet was 
 silent. 
 
 " ' Well. At my place I have a thousand shares of a thou- 
 sand francs in our concern ; Nucingen handed them over to 
 me to put on the market, do you understand ? Good. Now 
 let us buy up a million of Nucingen's paper at a discount of 
 ten or twenty per cent., and we shall make a handsome per- 
 centage out of it. We shall be debtors and creditors both ; 
 confusion will be worked ! But we must set about it care- 
 fully, or the holders may imagine that we are operating in 
 Nucingen's interests.' 
 
 "Then Werbrust understood. He squeezed du Tillet's 
 hand with an expression such as a woman's face wears when 
 she is playing her neighbor a trick. 
 
 " Martin Falleix came up. ' Well, have you heard the 
 news? ' he asked. ' Nucingen has stopped payment.' 
 
 " 'Pooh,' said Werbrust, 'pray don't noise it about ; give 
 those that hold his paper a chance.' 
 
 " ' What is the cause of the smash; do you know? ' put in 
 Claparon. 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 363 
 
 " 'You know nothing about it,' said du Tillet. 'There 
 isn't any smash. Payment will be made in full. Nucingen 
 will start again ; I shall find him all the money he wants. I 
 kno\v the causes of the suspension. He put all his capital into 
 Mexican securities, and they are sending him metal in return ; 
 old Spanish cannon cast in such an insane fashion that they 
 melted down gold and bell-metal and church plate for it, and 
 all the wreck of the Spanish dominion in the Indies. The 
 specie is slow in coming, and the dear baron is hard up. 
 That is all.' 
 
 " ' It is a fact,' said Werbrust ; ' I am taking his paper my- 
 self at twenty per cent, discount.' 
 
 " The news spread swift as fire in a straw-rick. The most 
 contradictory reports got about. But such confidence was felt 
 in the firm after the two previous suspensions, that every one 
 stuck to Nucingen's paper. 'Palma must lend us a hand,' 
 said Werbrust. 
 
 " Now Palma was the Kellers' oracle, and the Kellers were 
 brimful of Nucingen's paper. A hint from Palma would be 
 enough. Werbrust arranged with Palma, and he rang the 
 alarm bell. There was a panic next day on the Bourse. The 
 Kellers, acting on Palma's advice, let go Nucingen's paper at 
 ten per cent, of loss; they set the example on 'Change, for 
 they were supposed to know very well what they were about. 
 Taillefer followed up with three hundred thousand francs at a 
 discount of twenty per cent., and Martin Filleix with two 
 hundred thousand at fifteen. Gigonnet saw what was going 
 on. He helped to spread the panic, with a view to buying 
 up Nucingen's paper himself and making a commission of two 
 or three per cent, out of Werbrust. 
 
 "In a corner of the Bourse he came upon poor Matifat, 
 who had three hundred thousand francs in Nucingen's bank. 
 Matifat, ghastly and haggard, beheld the terrible Gigonnet, 
 the bill-discounter of his old quarter, coming up to worry 
 him. He shuddered in spite of himself. 
 
364 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 "'Things are looking bad. There is a crisis on hand. 
 Nucingen is compounding with his creditors. But this does 
 not interest you, Daddy Matifat; you are out of business.' 
 
 " ' Oh, well, you are mistaken, Gigonnet ;* I am in for three 
 hundred thousand francs. I meant to speculate in Spanish 
 bonds.' 
 
 " ' Then you have saved your money. Spanish bonds would 
 have swept everything away ; whereas I am prepared to offer 
 you something like fifty per cent, for your account with 
 Nucingen.' 
 
 " ' I would rather wait for the composition,' said Matifat ; 
 ' I never knew a banker yet that paid less than fifty per cent. 
 
 Ah, if it were only a matter of ten per cent, of loss ' added 
 
 the retired man of drugs. 
 
 " 'Well, will you take fifteen?' asked Gigonnet. 
 
 11 ' You are very keen about it, it seems to me,' said Matifat. 
 
 "'Good-night.' 
 
 " ' Will you take twelve?' 
 
 " ' Done,' said Gigonnet. 
 
 "Before night two millions had been bought up in the 
 names of the three chance-united confederates, and posted by 
 du Tillet to the debit side of Nucingen's account. Next day 
 they drew their premium. 
 
 "The dainty little old Baroness d'Aldrigger was at break- 
 fast with her two daughters and Godefroid, when Rastignac 
 came in with a diplomatic air to steer the conversation on the 
 financial crisis. The Baron de Nucingen felt a lively regard 
 for the d'Aldrigger family ; he was prepared, if things went 
 amiss, to cover the baroness' account with his best securities, 
 to wit, some shares in the argentiferous lead-mines, but the 
 application must come from the lady. 
 
 " ' Poor Nucingen ! ' said the baroness. ' What can have 
 become of him? ' 
 
 " -He is in Belgium. His wife is petitioning for a separa- 
 * See " Csar Birotteau." 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 365 
 
 tion of her property ; but he has gone to see if he can arrange 
 with some bankers to see him through.' 
 
 "'Dear me! That reminds me of my poor husband! 
 Dear Monsieur de Rastignac, how you must feel this, so at- 
 tached as you are to the house ! ' 
 
 '"If all the indifferent are covered, his personal friends 
 will be rewarded later on. He will pull through ; he is a 
 clever man.' 
 
 " An honest man, above all things,' said the baroness. 
 
 "A month later, Nucingen met all his liabilities, with no 
 formalities beyond the letters by which creditors signified the 
 investments which they preferred to take in exchange for their 
 capital ; and with no action on the part of other banks beyond 
 registering the transfer of Nucingen's paper for the invest- 
 ments in favor. 
 
 "While du Tillet, Werbrust, Claparon, Gigonnet, and 
 others that thought themselves clever were fetching in Nucin- 
 gen's paper from abroad with a premium of one per cent. 
 for it was still worth their while to exchange it for securities 
 in a rising market there was all the more talk on the Bourse, 
 because there was nothing now to fear. They babbled over 
 Nucingen ; he was discussed and judged ; they even slandered 
 him. His luxurious life, his enterprises ! When a man has 
 so much on his hands, he overreaches himself, and so forth, 
 and so forth. 
 
 " The talk was at its height, when several people were 
 greatly astonished to receive letters from Geneva, Basel, 
 Milan, Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, and London, in which 
 their correspondents, previously advised of the failure, in- 
 formed them that somebody was offering one per cent, for 
 Nucingen's paper ! 'There is something up,' said the lynxes 
 of the Bourse. 
 
 "The Court meanwhile had granted the application for 
 Mine, de Nucingen's separation as to her estate, and the 
 question became still more complicated. The newspapers 
 
366 7 HE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 announced the return of M. le Baron de Nucingen from a 
 journey to Belgium ; he had been arranging, it was said, with 
 a well-known Belgian firm to resume the working of some 
 coal-pits in the Bois de Bossut. The baron himself appeared 
 on the Bourse, and never even took the trouble to contradict 
 the slanders circulating against him. He scorned to reply 
 through the press ; he simply bought a splendid estate just 
 outside Paris for two millions of francs. Six weeks afterward, 
 the Bordeaux shipping intelligence announced that two vessels 
 with cargoes of bullion to the amount of seven millions, con- 
 signed to the firm of Nucingen, were lying in the river. 
 
 " Then it was plain to Palma, Werbrust, and du Tillet that 
 the trick had been played. Nobody else was any the wiser. 
 The three scholars studied the means by which the great 
 bubble had been created, saw that it had been preparing for 
 eleven months, and pronounced Nucingen the greatest finan- 
 cier in Europe. 
 
 " Rastignac understood nothing of all this, but he had the 
 four hundred thousand francs which Nucingen had allowed 
 him to shear from the Parisian sheep, and he portioned his 
 sisters. D'Aiglemont, at a hint from his cousin Beaudenord, 
 besought Rastignac to accept ten per cent, upon his million 
 if he would undertake to convert it into shares in a canal 
 which is still to make, for Nucingen worked things with the 
 Government to such purpose that the concessionaries find it 
 to their interest not to finish their scheme. Charles Grandet 
 implored Delphine's lover to use his interest to secure shares 
 for him in exchange for his cash. And altogether Rastignac 
 played the part of Law for ten days ; he had the prettiest 
 duchesses in France praying him to allot shares to them, and 
 to-day the young man very likely has an income of forty 
 thousand livres, derived in the first instance from the argen- 
 tiferous lead-mines." 
 
 " If every one was better off, who can have lost? " asked 
 Finot. 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 367 
 
 "Hear the conclusion," rejoined Bixiou. "The Marquis 
 d'Aiglemont and Beaudenord (I put them forward as two ex- 
 amples out of many) kept their allotted shares, enticed by the 
 so-called dividend that fell due a few months afterward. They 
 had another three 'per cent, on their capital, they sang Nu- 
 cingen's praises, and took his part at a time when everybody 
 suspected that he was going to bankrupt. Godefroid married 
 his beloved Isaure and took shares in the mines to the value 
 of a hundred thousand francs. The Nucingens gave a ball 
 even more splendid than people expected of them on the occa- 
 sion of the wedding ; Delphine's present to the bride was a 
 charming set of rubies. Isaure danced, a happy wife, a girl 
 no longer. The little baroness was more than ever a Shep- 
 herdess of the Alps. The ball'was at its height when Malvina, 
 the Andalouse of Musset's poem, heard du Tillet's voice drily 
 advising her to take Desroches. Desroches, warmed to the 
 right degree by Rastignac and Nucingen, tried to come to an 
 understanding financially ; but at the first hint of shares in 
 the mines for the bride's portion, he broke off and went back 
 to the Matifats in the Rue du Cherche-Midi, only to find the 
 accursed canal shares which Gigonnet had foisted on Matifat 
 in lieu of cash. 
 
 " They had not long to wait for the crash. The firm of 
 Claparon did business on too large a scale, the capital was 
 locked up, the concern ceased to serve its purposes, or to pay 
 dividends, though the speculations were sound. These mis- 
 fortunes coincided with the events of 1827. In 1829 it was too 
 well known that Claparon was a man of straw set up by the 
 two giants ; he fell from his pedestal. Shares that had fetched 
 twelve hundred and fifty francs fell to four hundred, though 
 intrinsically they were worth six. Nucingen, knowing their 
 value, bought them up at four. 
 
 " Meanwhile the little Baroness d'Aldrigger had sold out of 
 the mines that paid no dividends, and Godefroid had rein- 
 vested the money belonging to his wife and her mother in 
 
G68 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 
 
 Claparon's concern. Debts compelled them to realize when 
 the shares were at their lowest, so that of seven hundred thou- 
 sand francs only two hundred thousand remained. They made 
 a clearance, and all that was left was prudently invested in the 
 three per cents, at seventy-five. Godefroid, the sometime gay 
 and careless bachelor who had lived without taking thought 
 all his life long, found himself saddled with a little goose of 
 a wife totally unfitted to bear adversity (indeed, before six 
 months were over he had witnessed the anserine transformation 
 of his beloved), to say nothing of a mother-in-law whose mind 
 ran on pretty dresses while she had not bread to eat. The 
 two families must live together to live at all. It was only by 
 stirring up all his considerably chilled interest that Godefroid 
 got a post in the audit department. His friends ? They were 
 out of town. His relatives? All astonishment and promises. 
 ' What ! my dear boy ! Oh ! count upon me ! Poor fellow ! ' 
 and Beaudenord was clean forgotten fifteen minutes afterward. 
 He owed his place to Nucingen and de Vandenesse. 
 
 "And to-day these so estimable and unfortunate people are 
 living on a fourth floor (not counting the entresol) in the Rue 
 du Mont Thabor. Malvina, the Adolphus' pearl of a grand- 
 daughter, has not a farthing. She gives music-lessons, not to 
 be a burden upon her brother-in-law. You may see a tall, 
 dark, thin, withered woman, like a mummy escaped from 
 Passalacqua's, about afoot through the streets of Paris. In 
 1830 Beaudenord lost his situation just as his wife presented 
 him with a fourth child. A family of eight and two servants 
 (Wirth and his wife) and an income of eight thousand livres. 
 And at this moment the mines are paying so well that an 
 original share of a thousand francs brings in a dividend of 
 cent, per cent. 
 
 " Rastignac and Mme. de Nucingen bought the shares sold 
 by the baroness and Godefroid. The Revolution made a 
 peer of France of Nucingen and a grand officer of the Legion 
 of Honor. He has not stopped payment since 1830, but still 
 
THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN. 369 
 
 I hear that he has something like seventeen millions. He put 
 faith in the Ordinances of July, sold out of all his investments, 
 and boldly put his money into the Funds when the three per 
 cents, stood at forty-five. He persuaded the Tuileries that 
 this was done out of devotion, and about the same time he 
 and du Tillet between them swallowed down three millions 
 belonging to that great scamp Philippe Bridau. 
 
 "Quite lately our baron was walking along the Rue de 
 Rivoli on his way to the Bois when he met the Baroness 
 d'Aldrigger under the colonnade. The little old lady wore a 
 tiny green bonnet with a rose-colored lining, a flowered gown, 
 and a mantilla ; altogether, she was more than ever the 
 Shepherdess of the Alps. She could no more be made to 
 understand the causes of her poverty than the sources of her 
 wealth. As she went along, leaning upon poor Malvina, that 
 model of heroic devotion, she seemed to be the young girl 
 and Malvina the old mother. Wirth followed them, carrying 
 an umbrella. 
 
 " ' Dere are beoples whose vordune I vound it imbossible 
 to make,' said the baron, addressing his companion (M. 
 Cointet, a cabinet minister). ' Now dot de baroxysm off 
 brincibles haf bassed off, chust reinshtate dot boor Peaute- 
 nord.' 
 
 " So Beaudenord went back to his desk, thanks to Nucin- 
 gen's good offices ; and the d'Aldriggers extol Nucingen as a 
 hero of friendship, for he always sends the little Shepherdess 
 of the Alps and her daughters invitations to his balls. No 
 creature whatsoever can be made to understand that the baron 
 yonder three times did his best to plunder the public without 
 breaking the letter of the law, and enriched people in spite of 
 himself. No one has a word to say against him. If anybody 
 should suggest that a big capitalist often is another word for a 
 cut-throat, it would be a most egregious calumny. If stocks 
 rise and fall, if property improves and depreciates, the fluctua- 
 tions of the market are caused by a common movement, a 
 24 
 
370 THE FIRM OF NUCINGEN, 
 
 something in the air, a tide in the affairs of men subject like 
 other tides to lunar influences. The great Arago is much to 
 blame for giving us no scientific theory to account for this 
 important phenomenon. The only outcome of all this is an 
 axiom which I have never seen anywhere in print " 
 
 "And that is?" 
 
 "The debtor is more than a match for the creditor." 
 
 "Oh!" said Blondet. "For my own part, all that we 
 have been saying seems to me to be a paraphrase of the 
 epigram in which Montesquieu summed up /' 'Esprit des Lois" 
 (The soul of the laws). 
 
 "What?" said Finot. 
 
 "Laws are like spiders' webs; the big flies get through, 
 while the little ones are caught." 
 
 " Then, what are you for ? " asked Finot. 
 
 "For absolute government, the only kind of government 
 under which enterprises against the spirit of the law can be 
 put down. Yes. Arbitrary rule is the salvation of a country 
 when it comes to the support of justice, for the right of mercy 
 is strictly one-sided. The king can pardon a fraudulent bank- 
 rupt ; he cannot do anything for the victims. The letter of 
 the law is fatal to modern society." 
 
 "Just get that into the electors' heads ! " said Bixiou. 
 
 "Some one has undertaken to do it." 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "Time. As the Bishop of Leon said, ' Liberty is ancient, 
 but kingship is eternal ; ' any nation in its right mind returns 
 to monarchical government in one form or another." 
 
 " I say, there was somebody next door," remarked Finot, 
 hearing us rise to go. 
 
 "There always is somebody next door," retorted Bixiou. 
 But he must have been drunk. 
 
 PARIS, November, 1837. 
 
AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF 
 TERROR 
 
 (Un Episode sous la Terrfur). 
 
 Translated by JNO. RUDD, B. A. 
 
 ABOUT eight o'clock in the evening of January 22, 1793, 
 an old gentlewoman walked down the steep declivity of the 
 Saint-Martin suburb, ending at the church of Saint-Laurent, 
 Paris. Footfalls could scarcely be heard, for the snow had 
 fallen heavily during the day. The streets were deserted. 
 The fear, natural to a profound silence, was further strength- 
 ened by the terror to which the whole of France was then 
 stricken. The old gentlewoman had not met any one. Her 
 dim and failing sight prevented her from seeing afar off a few 
 pedestrians, thinly scattered as shadows, along the broad way 
 of the faubourg. 
 
 Bravely she walked through the solitude as though her age 
 might prove a talisman against all dangers ; but, after leaving 
 the Rue des Morts, she thought she heard the heavy and firm 
 tread of a man behind her. She felt that unconsciously she 
 had been listening to this tramp for some length of time. She 
 attempted to walk faster, terrified at the thought of being fol- 
 lowed ; the bright light of a store-window seemed to offer a 
 solution of the doubt that troubled her. In the shadow be- 
 yond the horizontal rays of light cast across the pavement, she 
 abruptly turned around and plainly perceived a human figure 
 dimly looming through the mist. That one imperfect glimpse 
 was enough. For an instant she staggered under a stress of 
 terror; no longer was there room for doubt that this man un- 
 known had, step by step, tracked her from her house. The 
 hope of escape from this spy gave strength to her weakened 
 
 (371) 
 
372 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 limbs. She ran for a few minutes, reached a confectionery 
 store, entered it and fell, rather than sat, upon a chair stand- 
 ing in front of the counter. A young woman, who was work- 
 ing embroidery, looked up on hearing the creaking latch of 
 the door, and, recognizing through the glass-door an an- 
 tiquated mantle of purple silk which the old lady wore, hurried 
 to open a drawer as if intending to take from thence something 
 that she had to give her. Both the action and appearance 
 of the young' woman implied a wish to speedily relieve herself 
 of the company of her strange and unwelcome visitor. She 
 found the drawer empty and gave utterance to an exclamation 
 of anger. Without appearing to notice the old lady she came 
 quickly from behind the counter and, going to the rear room, 
 called her husband, who immediately responded. 
 
 " Where have you put ? " she asked him, in a mysterious 
 
 whisper, not finishing the sentence, but calling to his notice 
 the antiquated person, with a meaning glance. 
 
 The confectioner could see nothing but the great hood of 
 black silk encircled with ribbons of purple which the stranger 
 wore; he retired, with a motion to his wife which plainly 
 meant, " Can you imagine I should leave that on the 
 counter?" 
 
 The visitor remained silent and immobile, and the wife, 
 astonished at this, was moved with compassion and curiosity 
 as she viewed her. It was plainly to be seen that some recent 
 terror had spread an extra paleness over the complexion of a 
 face naturally livid, and like that of one given up to secret 
 austerities. The covering of her head was arranged to con- 
 ceal the hair, whitened doubtless by age, for the cleanliness 
 of the collar she wore precluded the idea of her wearing 
 powder. Her countenance was grave and noble, but this con- 
 cealment of its natural adornment gave an air of monastical 
 severity. The young storekeeper was sure that the stranger 
 was one of the proscribed nobles and that she most probably 
 had belonged to the Court. 
 
AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 373 
 
 " Madame?" she said with formal respect, forgetful of the 
 proscribed title. 
 
 The old lady answered not. Some alarming object might 
 have been painted upon the window of the store, her eyes 
 were so fixed upon it. 
 
 " What is the matter, citizeness?" the master of the place 
 inquired as he reentered. He then drew the attention of his 
 visitor to a small, blue cardboard box and held it out to her. 
 
 "It is nothing, my friends, nothing," she made answer in 
 gentlest tones, raising her eyes to give the proprietor a grateful 
 look. Thus seeing a phrygian* cap upon his head, she gave 
 utterance to a low cry: "Ah! you it is that has betrayed 
 me!" 
 
 A shrug, the deprecating gesture of horror, was the reply 
 made by both the young woman and her husband. The un- 
 known lady reddened as she felt a relief of feeling for her un- 
 just suspicion. 
 
 " Excuse me," she said with childish affability. After 
 taking a gold louis from her pocket she tendered it to the 
 confectioner, saying, "Here is the sum agreed upon." 
 
 Poor folk can readily divine a disguised poverty. The 
 storekeeper and his wife gave each a glance at the other which 
 expressed the same thought. The coin was doubtless her last 
 one. Her eyes sadly rested upon it and her hands tremblingly 
 offered it. Yet no avarice showed in this dumb entreaty. 
 The full extent of her sacrifice was manifestly apparent to her. 
 Her features showed the undoubted tracings of hunger and 
 want. They were legible as those of asceticism and timidity. 
 Her attire showed vestiges of luxury. It was silk, well-worn ; 
 the mantle, though faded, was clean ; the laces carefully 
 darned ; it was, in all, the remnants of opulence. The pair 
 of storekeepers were divided between pity and self-interest; 
 they soothed their tradesmen consciences with phrases: 
 
 "Citizeness, you appear but feeble " 
 
 * The distinguishing sign of the Jacquerie. 
 
374 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 "Perhaps madame would take something?" said the wife, 
 cutting off her husband. 
 
 " We have good soup," he added. 
 
 "It is very cold ; it may be that madame is made chill with 
 her walk; you may rest here and warm yourself." 
 
 "He is not so black as he is painted, this devil," cried the 
 husband. 
 
 These kind words won the heart of the old lady. She told 
 them that a man had followed her and she was afraid of re- 
 turning alone. 
 
 "And is that all?" said the man with the phrygian cap. 
 "Wait for me, citizeness." 
 
 He gave the louis to his wife. His storekeeping soul was 
 moved by a resemblance to gratitude which ever slips into such 
 petty minds when an exorbitant price has been received for an 
 article of little value. He donned the uniform of the Na- 
 tional Guard, took up his cap, slung on his sword, and ap- 
 peared under arms. Meantime the wife had been reflecting. 
 As often occurs in many hearts, reflection will close the open 
 hand of benevolence. She was afraid lest her husband should 
 become mixed up in some dangerous affair ; ill at ease and 
 anxious, she pulled the tail of his coat, intending to stop his 
 going. The worthy man, however, obeyed the dictates of 
 Charity and offered himself as the lady's escort. 
 
 " Is it that the man who has affrighted her is now prowling 
 outside?" asked the wife tremblingly. 
 
 " I am afraid so," said the old lady, very simply. 
 
 " Suppose that he is a spy. It may be a conspiracy. Don't 
 go. Take back the box." The sudden compassion that had 
 warmed him was chilled by these words whispered in his ear 
 by the wife of his bosom. 
 
 "Well, there, I will say two words to the fellow and get 
 rid of him," he said. He opened the door and hurried out. 
 
 Passive as a child and nearly paralyzed with fear the old 
 gentlewoman again sat down. The confectioner very shortly 
 
AK EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 375 
 
 returned; his face, red by natuae and further scorched by the 
 fires of his bakery, had suddenly turned pale, and he was in 
 such extreme terror that his legs trembled and his eyes were 
 drunken with fear. 
 
 "Wretched aristocrat ! " he shrieked, in fury, " is it that 
 you would cut off our heads ? Go away from here, move your 
 heels, let me see them, don't you dare to come back; you must 
 not suppose that I will supply you with the means for con- 
 spiracy. " 
 
 Thus saying the confectioner made an effort to regain pos- 
 session of the little box which was ensconced in one of the 
 old lady's pockets. The bold hands of the storekeeper had 
 barely touched her clothes but that she sprang to the open 
 door, preferring to meet danger without protection, other than 
 God's, than to restore what she had purchased. She assumed 
 the agility of youth, disappeared through the doorway, and 
 left the husband and wife crushed with trembling and amaze- 
 ment. 
 
 When she found herself alone on the street she walked 
 rapidly; but soon her strength deserted her as she once more 
 heard the creaking of the snow under the heavy footsteps of 
 the spy. Perforce she stopped short ; the man did likewise. 
 Fain would she have spoken to him, but she dared not ; either 
 by reason of her terror or a lack of wonted intelligence she 
 could not even look at him. Somewhat recovering she slowly 
 resumed her walk. Step by step did the man measure hers, 
 he kept the same distance behind her, moving as her shadow. 
 As the silent couple repassed the church of Saint-Laurent the 
 clock struck nine. 
 
 It is the nature of even the weakest souls to fall back into 
 tranquillity after a time of violent agitation ; for our bodily 
 powers are limited though our feelings may be manifold. So 
 the old gentlewoman, not receiving any injury from her ap- 
 parent annoyer, began to imagine him a secret friend watching 
 over and protecting her. She weighed in her mind the de- 
 
376 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 tails of numerous other appearances of the mysterious attend- 
 ant and tried to find some plausible pretext for this so consoling 
 thought. She took pleasure in giving credit to him for good, 
 rather than discredit for sinister, motives. She walked on 
 with a firmer tread, and forgot the terror he had evidently 
 excited in the confectioner, toward the higher portion of the 
 Faubourg Saint-Martin. 
 
 In about half an hour's time she came to a house near the 
 junction of the main street of the suburb with that one run- 
 ning out to the Pantin barrier. To-day this is one of the 
 loneliest streets in all Paris. The north wind blew from the 
 Buttes Chaumont and whistled among the houses, or properly 
 cottages, sparsely scattered through the thinly inhabited little 
 valley where the fences are built of mud and refuse bones. 
 This woe-begone district is the natural home of poverty and 
 grim despair. The man, intent on following the poor crea- 
 ture courageously threading these gloomy and silent streets 
 appeared struck with the spectacle. He paused reflectingly, 
 standing in a hesitating manner, being hardly visible by the 
 light of a street lantern which flickeringly pierced the fog. 
 Terror gave sight to the gentlewoman and she fancied that 
 she saw a something sinister on the face of this unknown man. 
 Her terrors again revived, but profiting by his curious hesita- 
 tion she swept like a shadow to the portal of the isolated 
 dwelling, touched a spring and disappeared with phantasma- 
 goric alertness. The man stood motionless, gazing at the 
 house, which was, as it were, a type of the miserable buildings 
 of the district. 
 
 The hovel, tottering to its fall, was built of rough blocks of 
 porous stone, its coating of yellow stucco was seamed with 
 cracks, and only seemed to be awaiting a rough wind for its 
 utter demolition. The brown tiled roof, covered with moss, 
 had sunk in numerous spots, giving the impression that the 
 weight of the accumulated snow might crush it down at any 
 moment. There were three windows in each story; their 
 
AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 377 
 
 frames rotten with dampness and shrunken with the heat of 
 the sun, it was plain that the outer cold must penetrate to the 
 interior. This lonely dwelling stood like an ancient tower 
 that Time had forgotten to raze. Irregularly cut in the roof 
 were the garret windows whence gleamed a faint light ; the 
 rest of the house was in dense obscurity. The old lady with 
 difficulty climbed the clumsy stairway, keeping a fast hold of 
 the rope baluster. She lightly knocked on the door of an 
 apartment in the roof, entered and hastily seated herself on a 
 chair offered her by an old man. 
 
 "Hide! hide yourself!" she cried. "It is but seldom 
 we go out, yet are our errands known, our steps watched " 
 
 "What has occurred?" asked another old woman, sitting 
 near the small fire. 
 
 " The man who has been hanging about the house since 
 yesterday followed me to-night." 
 
 The occupants of the place looked at each other in terror. 
 The old man was the least concerned of the trio ; he was 
 in the greatest danger. When misfortune and the yoke of 
 persecution oppress, a courageous man begins, as it were, to 
 prepare for the sacrifice of himself; he looks upon each day 
 as a victory won from Fate. The anxiety which shone in the 
 eyes of the two women, fixed as they were upon the old man, 
 proved conclusively that he and he alone was the object of 
 their fear. 
 
 " Shall we distrust God, my sisters?" he said in a hollow, 
 impressive voice. " Did we not chant praises to Him amidst 
 the cries of assassins and victims in the convent ? Surely if 
 it so pleased Him to save me from that slaughter, it must 
 have been for some destiny which, without a murmur, I shall 
 accept. The good God ever affords protection to His own, 
 He disposes of them according to His ever-gracious will. It 
 is of yourselves that we should think not of me." 
 
 " No," said the first woman ; "what comparison can there 
 be between our lives and that of a priest ? " 
 
378 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 "I have considered myself as dead," said the nun seated 
 near the fire, " since the day that I found myself outside the 
 Abbaye des Chelles." 
 
 "Here," said the one who had lately entered, holding out 
 
 the little blue box to the priest, " here are the holy wafers 
 
 Hark! " she cried, interrupting herself. "I hear some one 
 on the stairs." 
 
 All three listened intently. The noise ceased. 
 
 " Do not be alarmed," said the abbe, " even should any one 
 request an entrance. A faithful and reliable person has ar 
 ranged matters to cross the frontier; he will shortly call here 
 for letters I have already written to the Due de Langeais and 
 the Marquis de Beauseant, telling them what measures they 
 must adopt to get you out of this dreadful country, thus to 
 save you from the death or misery that you must, otherwise, 
 here undergo." 
 
 "Can you not follow us?" said the two nuns, in soft, 
 despairing tones. 
 
 " My place is near the victims," said the priest, simply. 
 
 The nuns sat silent, gazing at him with rapt admiration. 
 
 "Sister Martha," he said, speaking to the nun who had 
 fetched the wafers, " the messenger must answer ' Fiat vol- 
 untas' to the word ' Hosanna.' ' 
 
 " There is some one on the stairway," cried the other sister, 
 at the same time quickly uncovering a hiding-place bored near 
 the edge of the roof. 
 
 This time the steps of a man, sounding in the deep silence 
 of the rough stairs, were plainly to be heard as he encountered 
 the gnarled boards and the cakes of hardened mud. The 
 priest, with much difficulty, slid into the narrow niche and 
 the nuns hastily covered him with clothes. 
 
 "You may shut me in, Sister Agatha," he said, in a smoth- 
 ered voice. 
 
 Hardly was he in hiding when three knocks upon the door- 
 jamb made the nuns tremble with apprehension. They con- 
 
AN EPISODE OF THE REIG.V OF TERROR. 379 
 
 suited each other with their eyes, for speak they dared not. 
 They were like the plants of a conservatory, after their forty 
 years of separation from the world, which wilt when exposed 
 to the outer air. They knew none other than the life of the 
 convent, that only were they accustomed to, no other could 
 they conceive of, their ideas, as their life, were bounded by its 
 walls ; and when, one morning, their bars and gratings were 
 razed to the ground they shuddered to find themselves free. 
 One may imagine the kind of imbecility which the events of 
 the Revolution, enacted under their eyes, must have produced 
 in these simple souls. They were quite incapable of harmoniz- 
 ing the ideas of the convent with the exigencies of ordinary 
 life ; they comprehended not their own situation ; like chil- 
 dren who had ever had parental care, now severed from their 
 maternal guardianship, they had ceased not to pray as other 
 children cease not to cry. Thus in the presence of imminent 
 danger they remained dumb, passive, and had no other defense 
 than the resignation of the Christian. 
 
 The intending intruder was left to interpret their silence as 
 he might, but presently he opened the door and gave view of 
 himself. The consternation of the two nuns was great, and 
 they trembled as they recognized the person who had watched 
 the house for some days past and had seemed to make inquiries 
 about its inmates. They stood stockstill, looking him over 
 with a disturbed curiosity, like as would the children of sav- 
 ages examining a being from another clime. The stranger 
 was very tall and stout, yet there was nothing indicating 
 that he was a bad man. The immobility of the sisters was 
 reproduced in himself, he remained without motion, his eyes 
 roving slowly around the room. On planks were two bundles 
 of straw which served as the nuns' beds In the centre of the 
 room was a table, upon it a copper candlestick, a few dishes, 
 three knives, and a round loaf of bread. The fire in the 
 grate was low, and the few sticks of wood piled in a corner of 
 the room gave unmistakable evidence of the poverty of the 
 
380 AN EPISODE OF THE RE1GX OF TERROR. 
 
 occupants. The walls, once painted, now much defaced, 
 showed the wretched state of the roof through which the rain 
 had trickled, leaving a network of brown stains. A sacred 
 relic, rescued, no doubt, from the looting of the Abbaye des 
 Chelles, adorned the mantel. Three chairs, two chests, and 
 a broken set of drawers comprised the whole of the furniture. 
 A doorway near the fireplace showed the probability of an 
 inner apartment. 
 
 The man had soon mentally possessed himself of the inven- 
 tory of this poor cell. Across his face came an expression of 
 pity, he threw a glance beaming with kindliness upon the two 
 startled women and appeared as much embarrassed as them- 
 selves. The strange silence in which all three stood and faced 
 each other, apparently long, really lasted but a moment, the 
 stranger seeming to realize the weakness and inexperience of 
 the poor helpless creatures. In a voice which he strove to 
 render gentle, he said 
 
 " I have not come as an enemy, citizenesses." He paused, 
 then resuming: " My sisters, should harm happen to you, be 
 sure that I shall not have been the cause. I have come to 
 beg a favor of you." 
 
 Still they remained silent. 
 
 " If I ask too much if I annoy you I will at once de- 
 part; believe me, though, that I am heartily devoted to you; 
 should there be any service I can render you, command me 
 without scruple. I, and I alone, perhaps, am above the law, 
 since the King no longer exists." 
 
 These words given with the true ring of honesty induced 
 Sister Agatha, a nun belonging to the ducal house of Langeais, 
 whose manner showed that she had at one time lived amid 
 the festivities of life and inhaled the breath of Court, to 
 gravely point to a chair as who should say: "Be seated." 
 The unknown showed his pleasure by an exclamation, partly 
 of melancholy, as he interpreted the gesture. He respectfully 
 awaited the seating of the sisters and then obeyed it. 
 
AN EPISODE Of THE REIGN OF TERROR 381 
 
 " You have given shelter," he said, " to a venerable abbe 
 who has not sworn allegiance to the Republic, who most mi- 
 raculously escaped the massacre at the Carmelite convent." 
 
 "Hosantia," said Sister Agatha, suddenly interrupting the 
 stranger, and looking at him anxiously and curiously. 
 
 "That is not his name, I believe," he made reply. 
 
 " But, monsieur, there is no priest here," said Sister Martha, 
 quickly, "and " 
 
 " Then you should be more careful," said the visitor mildly, 
 reaching to the table and taking up a breviary. "I can 
 scarcely think you understand Latin and " 
 
 The extreme distress depicted on the features of the poor 
 nuns warned him that he had gone too far, their agitation 
 was excessive, their eyes filled with tears. 
 
 "Be not afraid," lie said, "I know both the names of 
 your guest and yourselves. During the past three days I have 
 learned of your indigence and your brave devotion to the 
 venerable Abbe de " 
 
 " Hush i " said Sister Agatha, ingenuously placing a finger 
 on her lips. 
 
 " You see, my sisters, that had I had the horrible design of 
 betraying you, that I might easily have done so time and 
 again." 
 
 As he uttered these words the priest crawled from his 
 prison and appeared in the centre of the room. 
 
 "I cannot think, monsieur," he said courteously, "that 
 you can be one of my persecutors. I trust you. What do you 
 desire of me ? : ' 
 
 The saint-like confidence of the aged man and the nobility 
 of soul which showed on his countenance might well have dis- 
 armed an assassin. The mysterious being who had agitated 
 this penurious home, this place of divine resignation, stood in 
 contemplation of the group before him , then he addressed the 
 abbe in a trusting voice, with these words : 
 
 " My father, I came to ask you to celebrate a mass for the 
 
382 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 repose of the soul of of a sacred being whose body can 
 never be laid in holy ground." 
 
 The abbe made an involuntary shudder. The nuns did not 
 know of whom it was that the strange man had spoken ; they 
 stood with their necks stretched, their faces turned toward the 
 speakers, plainly showing eager curiosity. The ecclesiastic 
 looked searchingly at the stranger; undoubted anxiety was 
 discernible on every feature, and his eyes offered an earnest, 
 ardent prayer. 
 
 "Yes," said the priest at length. "At midnight return 
 here and I shall then be ready to celebrate the only requiem 
 mass that we are able to offer as expiation of the crime of 
 which you speak." 
 
 A shiver agitated the unknown ; then a sweet and solemn 
 joy appeared to rise above some great and secret grief. He 
 respectfully saluted the abbe and the two saintly women, and 
 departed with a mute gratitude of which these charitable souls 
 knew so well the interpretation. 
 
 After two hours the stranger returned, knocked cautiously 
 at the garret-door, and was admitted by Mile, de Langeais, 
 who led him to the inner room of the lowly refuge, where all 
 was in readiness for the ceremony. The old set of drawers 
 had been placed by the nuns between the two chimney-flues, 
 its scarred edges being hid beneath a magnificent altar-cloth 
 of green moire. A large ebony and ivory crucifix hung on 
 the discolored wall and stood out in bright relief from the ad- 
 jacent bareness, and immediately caught the eye. Four small, 
 slender tapers, which the sisters had managed to attach to the 
 altar with sealing-wax, cast a dim glimmer hardly reflected by 
 the dingy wall. These feeble rays barely lit up the rest of 
 the chamber, but as their light illumined the sacred objects it 
 looked like an aureola from heaven to enlighten the naked, 
 undecorated altar. 
 
 The floor was damp. The attic-roof sloped sharply on each 
 
AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 383 
 
 side of the room and was filled with crevices admitting the 
 boisterous wind. Far from stately, there was never aught more 
 solemn than this dismal service. A long distant cry might 
 easily have pierced the solemn silence silence so profound 
 that it gave majestic awe to this nocturnal scene. The pov- 
 erty of the surroundings and the grandeur of the ceremony 
 made a strong contrast, arousing the holy terrors of religion. 
 The aged nuns knelt on either side of the altar on the earthen- 
 tiled floor with ne'er a thought of its horrid dampness ; they, 
 with the priest robed in his pontifical vestments, prayed aloud; 
 the latter placed a golden chalice, incrusted with gems, upon 
 the altar no doubt a sacred vessel saved from the pillage of 
 the Abbaye des Chelles. Near this cup, which had been a 
 royal gift, was arranged the wafers and wine of the eucharist, 
 contained in two drinking glasses hardly fit to grace the dingy 
 tables of some mean tavern. The needed missal had been re- 
 placed with the priest's breviary, and lay on a corner of the 
 impromptu altar. An earthen dish served as the ablution cup 
 for the washing of those hands innocent and spotless of blood. 
 It was at once majestic and paltry, poor yet noble, holy and 
 profane in one. 
 
 Between the sisters the unknown knelt with pious mien. 
 Then his eyes caught sight of the crepe draping the chalice 
 and crucifix for bereft of other means of making known the 
 object of this requiem mass the abbe had put God Himself 
 in mourning the mysterious visitor was seized with an all- 
 powerful recollection and great beads of perspiration gathered 
 on his forehead. The four actors in this awful drama gazed 
 upon each other in sympathy, their souls acted each upon the 
 other and communicated the feelings of all in a mysterious 
 blending of holy pity. Their one thought, it seemed, might 
 have evoked from the dead that sacred martyr whose mortal 
 remains had been devoured by quick-lime, but whose ghost 
 rose before them in full majestic royalty. 
 
 They were performing a requiem mass without the presence 
 
384 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 of the dead. Four pious souls knelt in intercession to God 
 for a King of France, they were making his funeral ceremony 
 minus a coffin, in a chamber showing disjointed laths and 
 unplastered beams. No thought of self sullied this purest of 
 all devotions, this act of marvelous loyalty. Maybe to God 
 it was the cup of cold water that weighed in the balance as a 
 myriad of virtues. Monarchy was present in the prayers c f 
 the priest and the two poor women ; it might be that Revolu- 
 tion was also there in the person -of the mysterious visitor 
 whose countenance showed the remorse that caused him to 
 offer this solemn repentance. 
 
 In place of pronouncing the Latin words, "introibo ad altare 
 Dei," the abbe, with an intuition almost divine, looked down 
 upon his congregation of three, who represented Christian 
 France, and said, in words effectually effacing the meanness 
 and squalor of the den: "We enter now into the sanctuary 
 of God." 
 
 Solemn awe seized the hearers at these words, uttered with 
 incisive unction. The great dome of St. Peter's in Rome 
 never canopied God in more awful majesty to humanity than 
 He now was, beneath this trembling roof, in the eyes of these 
 Christians; making patent the truth that no mediation is 
 needed between God and man. His glory descends from 
 Himself alone. The warm piety of the unknown was evi- 
 dently sincere the feeling that held the monarch and these 
 four servants of God was one. The sacred words resounded 
 as celestial music in the silence. At one moment the un- 
 known one broke down and wept ; this was in the Pater 
 noster, to which the abbe added a clause in Latin and which, 
 it was apparent, the visitor understood and applied , Et re- 
 mitte scelus regicidis sicut Ludovicus eis re mi sit scmetipsc, or, 
 "And forgive the regicides as Louis XVI. himself forgave 
 them." The sisters saw the tears coursing down the virile 
 cheeks of their visitor, and splashing fast on the tiled floor. 
 
 The Office of the Dead was intoned. The Domine salvum 
 
AN EPISODE OF THE REIG.\ OF TERROR. 385 
 
 fac regem* chanted in low tones, moved the hearts of these 
 faithful monarchists as their thoughts turned to the infant 
 King, for whom the prayer was offered, and who was now 
 captive in the hands of his enemies. Perhaps fearing a further 
 crime impending, in which he must needs perform an unwill- 
 ing part, the unknown visitor shuddered. The service over, 
 the cur6 motioned to the two nuns and they retired to the 
 outer chamber. When he was alone with the unknown, the 
 old man approached him with a gentle sadness and said, in 
 the tone of a father : 
 
 " My son, if your hands have been steeped in the blood of 
 that holy martyr, the King, confess now yourself to me. 
 There is no crime in the eyes of God which may not be 
 washed away by a repentance as deep and sincere as yours 
 seems to be." 
 
 An involuntary movement of terror escaped the stranger at 
 these words ; but he speedily resumed his stolid manner, and, 
 looking on the priest with calm assurance, he said : 
 
 "My father," in a voice that nevertheless trembled, "no 
 one can be more innocent than myself of the blood shed " 
 
 " I verily believe it," said the priest. 
 
 He paused and further examined the penitent; then, his 
 belief becoming certainty that he was one of those timorous 
 members of the Assembly who sacrificed the sacred and in- 
 violate head to save their own, he proceeded in a grave voice : 
 
 " Remember, my son, that much more than not having 
 taken part in that great sin is necessary to absolve from guilt. 
 Those who retained their sabres in their sheaths, when they 
 should have drawn to defend their King, must render a heavy 
 account to the King of kings. Yes," said the venerable abbe, 
 moving his head expressively, " yes, heavy indeed ! by idly 
 standing by they became the accomplices in a terrible trans- 
 gression." 
 
 "Is it your belief," said the stranger in a tone of amaze- 
 
 * Lord save the King. 
 25 
 
386 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 ment, "that an indirect participation will be punished? The 
 soldier under orders to form the line was he guilty?" 
 
 The abbe hesitated. 
 
 He, the stranger, was glad of the dilemma that placed this 
 royalist between the two canons of passive obedience and the 
 consecrated person of the King the former in the minds of 
 monarchists should dominate the military system and he 
 readily accepted the hesitancy on the part of the priest as 
 solving the doubts that troubled him. Then, so as to allow 
 no time for the old Jansenist to further reflect, he said quickly : 
 
 "It would cause me to blush were I to offer you any fee 
 whatever for the requiem mass you have just celebrated for 
 the rest of the soul of the King and for the ease of my con- 
 science. Inestimable things can only be purchased by offer- 
 ings without price. Be pleased to accept, monsieur, the gift 
 of a holy relic, it is yours ; the time may be when you will 
 realize its value." 
 
 Speaking these words he gave the ecclesiastic a small box 
 of light weight. The priest involuntarily held out his hand 
 and took it, for the solemn tone of the words and the mani- 
 fest awe depicted on the stranger's face as he held the box 
 filled him with fresh amazement. The two nuns were await- 
 ing them as they entered the outer room together. 
 
 "You are residing," said the stranger, " in a house owned 
 by Mucius Scsevola, a plasterer living on the first floor, who is 
 noted in this arrondissement for his patriotism. All the same, 
 he is secretly devoted to the Bourbons. Formerly he was Mon- 
 seigneur le Prince de Conti's huntsman, he owes everything 
 to him. In this dwelling, so long as you may stay, you are 
 in greater safety than you could be in any other part of 
 France. Pray remain. Pious souls will supply your needs 
 and will watch over and protect you ; remain here awaiting 
 without fear the coming of brighter days. A year hence, on 
 that same twenty-first of January "* (he shuddered as he uttered 
 * Louis XVI. was guillotined op this date. 
 
AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 387 
 
 these words), " I shall come again to once more celebrate the 
 mass of expiation " 
 
 He could not end the sentence. He bowed to his silent 
 auditors and, casting a last, lingering look upon the tokens 
 of their poverty, he disappeared. 
 
 This event, to the two simple-minded women, had all the 
 interest of romance. When the venerable abbe spoke to them 
 of his mysterious gift, and in what a solemn manner it had 
 been tendered by the stranger, it was placed upon the table 
 and three anxious faces, dimly illumined by a tallow-candle, 
 betrayed uncontrollable curiosity. Mademoiselle de Langeais 
 opened the little box, she took from it an exquisite handker- 
 chief of marvelous fineness, stained with perspiration. When 
 she unfolded it they saw dark stains. 
 
 " That is blood ! " said the abbe. 
 
 "It is marked with the royal crown!" cried the other 
 nun. 
 
 The sisters let it fall, this precious relic, with gestures of 
 horror. The mystery that enfolded their unknown visitant 
 was inexplicable to these ingenuous minds, and the abbe, 
 from that day on, forbade himself to attempt the solving of 
 the enigma. 
 
 The three recluses soon noticed that, in despite of the Ter- 
 ror, a powerful arm was outstretched above them. They first 
 received firewood and victuals ; then the sisters readily sur- 
 mised that some woman must be associated with their pro- 
 tector, for linen and clothes came mysteriously to them; this 
 gave them opportunity of going out without danger of observa- 
 tion from the aristocratic style of the only apparel they had 
 been able to obtain ; lastly, Mucius Scaevola carried to them 
 certificates of citizenship. 
 
 The necessary means to be taken to secure the safety of the 
 abbe would often come from the most unexpected places, and 
 it always proved so singularly opportune that it was evident 
 
388 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 that it could only have been given by some personage know- 
 ing the secrets of the State. Famine was rampant in Paris, 
 yet they daily found at the door of their hovel rations of 
 white bread, always laid there by invisible hands. They 
 recognized, or thought they did, the agent of their benefac- 
 tions in Mucius Scsevola, as they were ever timely and just as 
 needed, but the noble tenants of the dilapidated garret never 
 doubted that the unknown being who, with them, had cele- 
 brated mass on January 22, 1793, was their secret protector. 
 A special prayer for him was added to their daily supplica- 
 tions ; each night, each day these pious hearts prayed fervently 
 for his happiness, prosperity, and redemption. God was im- 
 plored to keep his feet from snares and to save him from his 
 enemies, and to grant him a happy, long, and peaceful life. 
 
 Their gratitude, renewed daily, as it were, was impregnated 
 with curiosity that grew more intense with each day. All the 
 circumstances attending the advent of the stranger formed a 
 ceaseless subject of conversation, conjectures were endless; 
 this ultimately became a benefit of a special kind from their 
 minds being thus occupied and distracted. They had quite 
 resolved that, when he should attend on the next sad com- 
 memoration of the anniversary of the death of Louis XVI., 
 the unknown should not be allowed to escape the due expres- 
 sion of their gratitude. 
 
 At length that night, so impatiently awaited, arrived. At 
 midnight the heavy footfalls resounded on the wooden stairs. 
 The chamber was already arranged for the sacrament, the altar 
 dressed. This time the sisters opened the door and hurried 
 to show a light at the entrance. Mademoiselle de Langeais 
 even descended a few stairs that she might get a first glimpse 
 of their benefactor. 
 
 "Come!" said she, in an entreating, trembling voice. 
 " Come, thou art expected." 
 
 The man raised his head, looked gloomily at the nun, and 
 made no answer. She felt as if an ice-cold blanket had fallen 
 
AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 389 
 
 upon her, and she kept silence. His aspect dried up the 
 gratitude and curiosity of their hearts. It was probable he 
 was less cold, less taciturn, less terrible than he seemed to 
 these simple creatures to be, whose own emotions led them to 
 expect a responsive echo of their flow of friendship. It was 
 easy for them to decry that this mysterious one intended re- 
 maining a stranger, so they acquiesced with resignation. The 
 abbe, though, fancied he detected a quickly repressed smile 
 upon the visitor's lips, as he noted the preparations made for 
 his reception. He listened to the mass, prayed, and disap- 
 peared immediately, refusing in courteous tones the invitation 
 extended by Mademoiselle de Langeais to remain and partake 
 of the humble fare they had prepared for him. 
 
 After Thermidor the pth the sisters and the Abbe" de Ma- 
 rolles could traverse Paris without fear. The aged abb paid 
 his first visit to the Queen of Roses, a perfumery store kept by 
 Citizen and Citizeness Ragon, formerly the Court perfumers, 
 and esteemed for thek faithfulness to the Bourbons, and whom 
 the Vendeens utilized as a means of communication with the 
 princes and the committees of Royalists in Paris. Abb de 
 Marolles wore the clothing prescribed by the Code ; as he was 
 leaving the portal of the store, situated between the church of 
 Saint-Roch and the Rue des Fondeurs, a mob of people 
 crowding down the Rue Saint-Honor^ prevented his de- 
 parture. 
 
 "What is it?" he said to Madame Ragon. 
 
 " Nothing ! " she replied, "but the tumbril and the execu- 
 tioner going to the Place Louis XV. Oh, we saw more than 
 enough of that last year ! But see now, only four days after 
 the anniversary of the 2ist of January, we can gaze upon it, 
 that most horrid procession, with equanimity." 
 
 " How so? " inquired the abb. " What you are saying is 
 unchristian." 
 
 "But, Monsieur 1'Abbe, this is the execution of Robes- 
 
390 AN EPISODE OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 
 
 pierre's accomplices. They could not prevail to longer evade 
 it, and, now, they in their turn are going the way they sent so 
 many innocent ones." 
 
 The Rue Saint-Honore was choked with the crowd which 
 surged on like a wave. Above the ocean of heads the Abbe 
 de Marolles, yielding to an irresistible impulse, saw, standing 
 upright in the cart, the unknown visitor who but three days 
 agone had joined in the second celebration of the mass of 
 commemoration. 
 
 "Who is that?" he said, "that one standing " 
 
 "The executioner," answered Monsieur Ragon, giving him 
 the name he had under the monarchy. 
 
 " Help ! help ! " cried Madame Ragon. " Monsieur 1'Abbe 
 has fainted." 
 
 She quickly caught up a flask of toilet-vinegar and he was 
 soon restored to consciousness. 
 
 " He must have given me," said the venerable abbe, "the 
 handkerchief that the King used to wipe his brow as he was led 
 to his martyrdom. Poor man ! a heart had that steel-blade 
 when all France was without one." 
 
 The perfumers thought the words of the abbe were those of 
 delirium. 
 
000 525 408 
 
 f