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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Penguin Island, by Anatole France
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Penguin Island
+
+Author: Anatole France
+
+Release Date: October, 1999 [eBook #1930]
+[Most recently updated: January 21, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Aaron Cannon and David Widger
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PENGUIN ISLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Penguin Island
+
+by Anatole France
+
+
+Contents
+
+  BOOK I. THE BEGINNINGS 
+  I. LIFE OF SAINT MAËL 
+  II. THE APOSTOLICAL VOCATION OF SAINT MAËL
+  III. THE TEMPTATION OF SAINT MAËL 
+  IV. ST. MAËL’S NAVIGATION ON THE OCEAN OF ICE
+  V. THE BAPTISM OF THE PENGUINS
+  VI. AN ASSEMBLY IN PARADISE
+  VII. AN ASSEMBLY IN PARADISE (Continuation and End)
+  VIII. METAMORPHOSIS OF THE PENGUINS 
+
+  BOOK II. THE ANCIENT TIMES
+  I. THE FIRST CLOTHES
+  II. THE FIRST CLOTHES (Continuation and End)
+  III. SETTING BOUNDS TO THE FIELDS AND THE ORIGIN OF PROPERTY
+  IV. THE FIRST ASSEMBLY OF THE ESTATES OF PENGUINIA
+  V. THE MARRIAGE OF KRAKEN AND ORBEROSIA
+  VI. THE DRAGON OF ALCA
+  VII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)
+  VIII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)
+  IX. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)
+  X. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)
+  XI. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)
+  XII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation)
+  XIII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA (Continuation and End)
+
+  BOOK III. THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE
+  I. BRIAN THE GOOD AND QUEEN GLAMORGAN
+  II. DRACO THE GREAT (Translation of the Relics of St. Orberosia)
+  III. QUEEN CRUCHA
+  IV. LETTERS: JOHANNES TALPA
+  V. THE ARTS: THE PRIMITIVES OF PENGUIN PAINTING
+  VI. MARBODIUS
+  VII. SIGNS IN THE MOON
+
+  BOOK IV. MODERN TIMES: TRINCO
+  I. MOTHER ROUQUIN
+  II. TRINCO
+  III. THE JOURNEY OF DOCTOR OBNUBILE
+
+  BOOK V. MODERN TIMES: CHATILLON
+  I. THE REVEREND FATHERS AGARIC AND CORNEMUSE
+  II. PRINCE CRUCHO
+  III. THE CABAL
+  IV. VISCOUNTESS OLIVE
+  V. THE PRINCE DES BOSCÉNOS
+  VI. THE EMIRAL’S FALL
+  VII. CONCLUSION
+
+  BOOK VI. MODERN TIMES.
+  I. GENERAL GREATAUK, DUKE OF SKULL
+  II. PYROT
+  III. COUNT DE MAUBEC DE LA DENTDULYNX
+  IV. COLOMBAN
+  V. THE REVEREND FATHERS AGARIC AND CORNEMUSE
+  VI. THE SEVEN HUNDRED PYROTISTS
+  VII. BIDAULT-COQUILLE AND MANIFLORE, THE SOCIALISTS
+  VIII. THE COLOMBAN TRIAL
+  IX. FATHER DOUILLARD
+  X. MR. JUSTICE CHAUSSEPIED
+  XI. CONCLUSION
+
+  BOOK VII. MODERN TIMES
+  I. MADAME CLARENCE’S DRAWING-ROOM
+  II. THE CHARITY OF ST. ORBEROSIA
+  III. HIPPOLYTE CÉRÈS
+  IV. A POLITICIAN’S MARRIAGE
+  V. THE VISIRE CABINET
+  VI. THE SOFA OF THE FAVOURITE
+  VII. THE FIRST CONSEQUENCES
+  VIII. FURTHER CONSEQUENCES
+  IX. THE FINAL CONSEQUENCES
+
+  BOOK VIII. FUTURE TIMES
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I. THE BEGINNINGS
+
+
+
+
+I. LIFE OF SAINT MAËL
+
+
+Maël, a scion of a royal family of Cambria, was sent in his ninth year
+to the Abbey of Yvern so that he might there study both sacred and
+profane learning. At the age of fourteen he renounced his patrimony and
+took a vow to serve the Lord. His time was divided, according to the
+rule, between the singing of hymns, the study of grammar, and the
+meditation of eternal truths.
+
+A celestial perfume soon disclosed the virtues of the monk throughout
+the cloister, and when the blessed Gal, the Abbot of Yvern, departed
+from this world into the next, young Maël succeeded him in the
+government of the monastery. He established therein a school, an
+infirmary, a guest-house, a forge, work-shops of all kinds, and sheds
+for building ships, and he compelled the monks to till the lands in the
+neighbourhood. With his own hands he cultivated the garden of the
+Abbey, he worked in metals, he instructed the novices, and his life was
+gently gliding along like a stream that reflects the heaven and
+fertilizes the fields.
+
+At the close of the day this servant of God was accustomed to seat
+himself on the cliff, in the place that is to-day still called St.
+Maël’s chair. At his feet the rocks bristling with green seaweed and
+tawny wrack seemed like black dragons as they faced the foam of the
+waves with their monstrous breasts. He watched the sun descending into
+the ocean like a red Host whose glorious blood gave a purple tone to
+the clouds and to the summits of the waves. And the holy man saw in
+this the image of the mystery of the Cross, by which the divine blood
+has clothed the earth with a royal purple. In the offing a line of dark
+blue marked the shores of the island of Gad, where St. Bridget, who had
+been given the veil by St. Malo, ruled over a convent of women.
+
+Now Bridget, knowing the merits of the venerable Maël, begged from him
+some work of his hands as a rich present. Maël cast a hand-bell of
+bronze for her and, when it was finished, he blessed it and threw it
+into the sea. And the bell went ringing towards the coast of Gad, where
+St. Bridget, warned by the sound of the bell upon the waves, received
+it piously, and carried it in solemn procession with singing of psalms
+into the chapel of the convent.
+
+Thus the holy Maël advanced from virtue to virtue. He had already
+passed through two-thirds of the way of life, and he hoped peacefully
+to reach his terrestrial end in the midst of his spiritual brethren,
+when he knew by a certain sign that the Divine wisdom had decided
+otherwise, and that the Lord was calling him to less peaceful but not
+less meritorious labours.
+
+
+
+
+II. THE APOSTOLICAL VOCATION OF SAINT MAËL
+
+
+One day as he walked in meditation to the furthest point of a tranquil
+beach, for which rocks jutting out into the sea formed a rugged dam, he
+saw a trough of stone which floated like a boat upon the waters.
+
+It was in a vessel similar to this that St. Guirec, the great St.
+Columba, and so many holy men from Scotland and from Ireland had gone
+forth to evangelize Armorica. More recently still, St. Avoye having
+come from England, ascended the river Auray in a mortar made of
+rose-coloured granite into which children were afterwards placed in
+order to make them strong; St. Vouga passed from Hibernia to Cornwall
+on a rock whose fragments, preserved at Penmarch, will cure of fever
+such pilgrims as place these splinters on their heads. St. Samson
+entered the Bay of St. Michael’s Mount in a granite vessel which will
+one day be called St. Samson’s basin. It is because of these facts that
+when he saw the stone trough the holy Maël understood that the Lord
+intended him for the apostolate of the pagans who still peopled the
+coast and the Breton islands.
+
+He handed his ashen staff to the holy Budoc, thus investing him with
+the government of the monastery. Then, furnished with bread, a barrel
+of fresh water, and the book of the Holy Gospels, he entered the stone
+trough which carried him gently to the island of Hœdic.
+
+This island is perpetually buffeted by the winds. In it some poor men
+fished among the clefts of the rocks and labouriously cultivated
+vegetables in gardens full of sand and pebbles that were sheltered from
+the wind by walls of barren stone and hedges of tamarisk. A beautiful
+fig-tree raised itself in a hollow of the island and thrust forth its
+branches far and wide. The inhabitants of the island used to worship
+it.
+
+And the holy Maël said to them: “You worship this tree because it is
+beautiful. Therefore you are capable of feeling beauty. Now I come to
+reveal to you the hidden beauty.” And he taught them the Gospel. And
+after having instructed them, he baptized them with salt and water.
+
+The islands of Morbihan were more numerous in those times than they are
+to-day. For since then many have been swallowed up by the sea. St. Maël
+evangelized sixty of them. Then in his granite trough he ascended the
+river Auray. And after sailing for three hours he landed before a Roman
+house. A thin column of smoke went up from the roof. The holy man
+crossed the threshold on which there was a mosaic representing a dog
+with its hind legs outstretched and its lips drawn back. He was
+welcomed by an old couple, Marcus Combabus and Valeria Moerens, who
+lived there on the products of their lands. There was a portico round
+the interior court the columns of which were painted red, half their
+height upwards from the base. A fountain made of shells stood against
+the wall and under the portico there rose an altar with a niche in
+which the master of the house had placed some little idols made of
+baked earth and whitened with whitewash. Some represented winged
+children, others Apollo or Mercury, and several were in the form of a
+naked woman twisting her hair. But the holy Maël, observing those
+figures, discovered among them the image of a young mother holding a
+child upon her knees.
+
+Immediately pointing to that image he said:
+
+“That is the Virgin, the mother of God. The poet Virgil foretold her in
+Sibylline verses before she was born and, in angelical tones he sang
+_Jam redit et virgo_. Throughout heathendom prophetic figures of her
+have been made, like that which you, O Marcus, have placed upon this
+altar. And without doubt it is she who has protected your modest
+household. Thus it is that those who faithfully observe the natural law
+prepare themselves for the knowledge of revealed truths.”
+
+Marcus Combabus and Valeria Moerens, having been instructed by this
+speech, were converted to the Christian faith. They received baptism
+together with their young freedwoman, Caelia Avitella, who was dearer
+to them than the light of their eyes. All their tenants renounced
+paganism and were baptized on the same day.
+
+Marcus Combabus, Valeria Moerens, and Caelia Avitella led thenceforth a
+life full of merit. They died in the Lord and were admitted into the
+canon of the saints.
+
+For thirty-seven years longer the blessed Maël evangelized the pagans
+of the inner lands. He built two hundred and eighteen chapels and
+seventy-four abbeys.
+
+Now on a certain day in the city of Vannes, when he was preaching the
+Gospel, he learned that the monks of Yvern had in his absence declined
+from the rule of St. Gal. Immediately, with the zeal of a hen who
+gathers her brood, he repaired to his erring children. He was then
+towards the end of his ninety-seventh year; his figure was bent, but
+his arms were still strong, and his speech was poured forth abundantly
+like winter snow in the depths of the valleys.
+
+Abbot Budoc restored the ashen staff to St. Maël and informed him of
+the unhappy state into which the Abbey had fallen. The monks were in
+disagreement as to the date on which the festival of Easter ought to be
+celebrated. Some held for the Roman calendar, others for the Greek
+calendar, and the horrors of a chronological schism distracted the
+monastery.
+
+There also prevailed another cause of disorder. The nuns of the island
+of Gad, sadly fallen from their former virtue, continually came in
+boats to the coast of Yvern. The monks received them in the guesthouse
+and from this there arose scandals which filled pious souls with
+desolation.
+
+Having finished his faithful report, Abbot Budoc concluded in these
+terms:
+
+“Since the coming of these nuns the innocence and peace of the monks
+are at an end.”
+
+“I readily believe it,” answered the blessed Maël. “For woman is a
+cleverly constructed snare by which we are taken even before we suspect
+the trap. Alas! the delightful attraction of these creatures is exerted
+with even greater force from a distance than when they are close at
+hand. The less they satisfy desire the more they inspire it. This is
+the reason why a poet wrote this verse to one of them:
+
+‘When present I avoid thee, but when away I find thee.’
+
+
+“Thus we see, my son, that the blandishments of carnal love have more
+power over hermits and monks than over men who live in the world. All
+through my life the demon of lust has tempted me in various ways, but
+his strongest temptations did not come to me from meeting a woman,
+however beautiful and fragrant she was. They came to me from the image
+of an absent woman. Even now, though full of days and approaching my
+ninety-eighth year, I am often led by the Enemy to sin against
+chastity, at least in thought. At night when I am cold in my bed and my
+frozen old bones rattle together with a dull sound I hear voices
+reciting the second verse of the third Book of the Kings: ‘Wherefore
+his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a
+young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish
+him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat,’
+and the devil shows me a girl in the bloom of youth who says to me: ‘I
+am thy Abishag; I am thy Shunamite. Make, O my lord, room for me in thy
+couch.’
+
+“Believe me,” added the old man, “it is only by the special aid of
+Heaven that a monk can keep his chastity in act and in intention.”
+
+Applying himself immediately to restore innocence and peace to the
+monastery, he corrected the calendar according to the calculations of
+chronology and astronomy and he compelled all the monks to accept his
+decision; he sent the women who had declined from St. Bridget’s rule
+back to their convent; but far from driving them away brutally, he
+caused them to be led to their boat with singing of psalms and
+litanies.
+
+“Let us respect in them,” he said, “the daughters of Bridget and the
+betrothed of the Lord. Let us beware lest we imitate the Pharisees who
+affect to despise sinners. The sin of these women and not their persons
+should be abased, and they should be made ashamed of what they have
+done and not of what they are, for they are all creatures of God.”
+
+And the holy man exhorted his monks to obey faithfully the rule of
+their order.
+
+“When it does not yield to the rudder,” said he to them, “the ship
+yields to the rock.”
+
+
+
+
+III. THE TEMPTATION OF SAINT MAËL
+
+
+The blessed Maël had scarcely restored order in the Abbey of Yvern
+before he learned that the inhabitants of the island of Hœdic, his
+first catechumens and the dearest of all to his heart, had returned to
+paganism, and that they were hanging crowns of flowers and fillets of
+wool to the branches of the sacred fig-tree.
+
+The boatman who brought this sad news expressed a fear that soon those
+misguided men might violently destroy the chapel that had been built on
+the shore of their island.
+
+The holy man resolved forthwith to visit his faithless children, so
+that he might lead them back to the faith and prevent them from
+yielding to such sacrilege. As he went down to the bay where his stone
+trough was moored, he turned his eyes to the sheds, then filled with
+the noise of saws and of hammers, which, thirty years before, he had
+erected on the fringe of that bay for the purpose of building ships.
+
+At that moment, the Devil, who never tires, went out from the sheds
+and, under the appearance of a monk called Samson, he approached the
+holy man and tempted him thus:
+
+“Father, the inhabitants of the island of Hœdic commit sins
+unceasingly. Every moment that passes removes them farther from God.
+They are soon going to use violence towards the chapel that you have
+raised with your own venerable hands on the shore of their island. Time
+is pressing. Do you not think that your stone trough would carry you
+more quickly towards them if it were rigged like a boat and furnished
+with a rudder, a mast, and a sail, for then you would be driven by the
+wind? Your arms are still strong and able to steer a small craft. It
+would be a good thing, too, to put a sharp stem in front of your
+apostolic trough. You are much too clear-sighted not to have thought of
+it already.”
+
+“Truly time is pressing,” answered the holy man. “But to do as you say,
+Samson, my son, would it not be to make myself like those men of little
+faith who do not trust the Lord? Would it not be to despise the gifts
+of Him who has sent me this stone vessel without rigging or sail?”
+
+This question, the Devil, who is a great theologian, answered by
+another.
+
+“Father, is it praiseworthy to wait, with our arms folded, until help
+comes from on high, and to ask everything from Him who can do all
+things, instead of acting by human prudence and helping ourselves?
+
+“It certainly is not,” answered the holy Maël, “and to neglect to act
+by human prudence is tempting God.”
+
+“Well,” urged the Devil, “is it not prudence in this case to rig the
+vessel?”
+
+“It would be prudence if we could not attain our end in any other way.”
+
+“Is your vessel then so very speedy?”
+
+“It is as speedy as God pleases.”
+
+“What do you know about it? It goes like Abbot Budoc’s mule. It is a
+regular old tub. Are you forbidden to make it speedier?”
+
+“My son, clearness adorns your words, but they are unduly
+over-confident. Remember that this vessel is miraculous.”
+
+“It is, father. A granite trough that floats on the water like a cork
+is a miraculous trough. There is not the slightest doubt about it. What
+conclusion do you draw from that?”
+
+“I am greatly perplexed. Is it right to perfect so miraculous a machine
+by human and natural means?”
+
+“Father, if you lost your right foot and God restored it to you, would
+not that foot be miraculous?”
+
+“Without doubt, my son.”
+
+“Would you put a shoe on it?”
+
+“Assuredly.”
+
+“Well, then, if you believe that one may cover a miraculous foot with a
+natural shoe, you should also believe that we can put natural rigging
+on a miraculous boat. That is clear. Alas! Why must the holiest persons
+have their moments of weakness and despondency? The most illustrious of
+the apostles of Brittany could accomplish works worthy of eternal glory
+. . . But his spirit is tardy and his hand is slothful. Farewell then,
+father! Travel by short and slow stages and when at last you approach
+the coast of Hœdic you will see the smoking ruins of the chapel that
+was built and consecrated by your own hands. The pagans will have
+burned it and with it the deacon you left there. He will be as
+thoroughly roasted as a black pudding.”
+
+“My trouble is extreme,” said the servant of God, drying with his
+sleeve the sweat that gathered upon his brow. “But tell me, Samson, my
+son, would not rigging this stone trough be a difficult piece of work?
+And if we undertook it might we not lose time instead of gaining it?”
+
+“Ah! father,” exclaimed the Devil, “in one turning of the hour-glass
+the thing would be done. We shall find the necessary rigging in this
+shed that you have formerly built here on the coast and in those
+store-houses abundantly stocked through your care. I will myself
+regulate all the ship’s fittings. Before being a monk I was a sailor
+and a carpenter and I have worked at many other trades as well. Let us
+to work.”
+
+Immediately he drew the holy man into an outhouse filled with all
+things needful for fitting out a boat.
+
+“That for you, father!”
+
+And he placed on his shoulders the sail, the mast, the gaff, and the
+boom.
+
+Then, himself bearing a stem and a rudder with its screw and tiller,
+and seizing a carpenter’s bag full of tools, he ran to the shore,
+dragging the holy man after him by his habit. The latter was bent,
+sweating, and breathless, under the burden of canvas and wood.
+
+
+
+
+IV. ST. MAËL’S NAVIGATION ON THE OCEAN OF ICE
+
+
+The Devil, having tucked his clothes up to his arm-pits, dragged the
+trough on the sand, and fitted the rigging in less than an hour.
+
+As soon as the holy Maël had embarked, the vessel, with all its sails
+set, cleft through the waters with such speed that the coast was almost
+immediately out of sight. The old man steered to the south so as to
+double the Land’s End, but an irresistible current carried him to the
+south-west. He went along the southern coast of Ireland and turned
+sharply towards the north. In the evening the wind freshened. In vain
+did Maël attempt to furl the sail. The vessel flew distractedly towards
+the fabulous seas.
+
+By the light of the moon the immodest sirens of the North came around
+him with their hempen-coloured hair, raising their white throats and
+their rose-tinted limbs out of the sea; and beating the water into foam
+with their emerald tails, they sang in cadence:
+
+Whither go’st thou, gentle Maël,
+In thy trough distracted?
+All distended is thy sail
+Like the breast of Juno
+When from it gushed the Milky Way.
+
+
+For a moment their harmonious laughter followed him beneath the stars,
+but the vessel fled on, a hundred times more swiftly than the red ship
+of a Viking. And the petrels, surprised in their flight, clung with
+their feet to the hair of the holy man.
+
+Soon a tempest arose full of darkness and groanings, and the trough,
+driven by a furious wind, flew like a sea-mew through the mist and the
+surge.
+
+After a night of three times twenty-four hours the darkness was
+suddenly rent and the holy man discovered on the horizon a shore more
+dazzling than diamond. The coast rapidly grew larger, and soon by the
+glacial light of a torpid and sunken sun, Maël saw, rising above the
+waves, the silent streets of a white city, which, vaster than Thebes
+with its hundred gates, extended as far as the eye could see the ruins
+of its forum built of snow, its palaces of frost, its crystal arches,
+and its iridescent obelisks.
+
+The ocean was covered with floating ice-bergs around which swam men of
+the sea of a wild yet gentle appearance. And Leviathan passed by
+hurling a column of water up to the clouds.
+
+Moreover, on a block of ice which floated at the same rate as the stone
+trough there was seated a white bear holding her little one in her
+arms, and Maël heard her murmuring in a low voice this verse of Virgil,
+_Incipe parve puer_.
+
+And full of sadness and trouble, the old man wept.
+
+The fresh water had frozen and burst the barrel that contained it. And
+Maël was sucking pieces of ice to quench his thirst, and his food was
+bread dipped in dirty water. His beard and his hair were broken like
+glass. His habit was covered with a layer of ice and cut into him at
+every movement of his limbs. Huge waves rose up and opened their
+foaming jaws at the old man. Twenty times the boat was filled by masses
+of sea. And the ocean swallowed up the book of the Holy Gospels which
+the apostle guarded with extreme care in a purple cover marked with a
+golden cross.
+
+Now on the thirtieth day the sea calmed. And lo! with a frightful
+clamour of sky and waters a mountain of dazzling whiteness advanced
+towards the stone vessel. Maël steered to avoid it, but the tiller
+broke in his hands. To lessen the speed of his progress towards the
+rock he attempted to reef the sails, but when he tried to knot the
+reef-points the wind pulled them away from him and the rope seared his
+hands. He saw three demons with wings of black skin having hooks at
+their ends, who, hanging from the rigging, were puffing with their
+breath against the sails.
+
+Understanding from this sight that the Enemy had governed him in all
+these things, he guarded himself by making the sign of the Cross.
+Immediately a furious gust of wind filled with the noise of sobs and
+howls struck the stone trough, carried off the mast with all the sails,
+and tore away the rudder and the stem.
+
+The trough was drifting on the sea, which had now grown calm. The holy
+man knelt and gave thanks to the Lord who had delivered him from the
+snares of the demon. Then he recognised, sitting on a block of ice, the
+mother bear who had spoken during the storm. She pressed her beloved
+child to her bosom, and in her hand she held a purple book marked with
+a golden cross. Hailing the granite trough, she saluted the holy man
+with these words:
+
+_“Pax tibi Maël.”_
+
+
+And she held out the book to him.
+
+The holy man recognised his evangelistary, and, full of astonishment,
+he sang in the tepid air a hymn to the Creator and His creation.
+
+
+
+
+V. THE BAPTISM OF THE PENGUINS
+
+
+After having drifted for an hour the holy man approached a narrow
+strand, shut in by steep mountains. He went along the coast for a whole
+day and a night, passing around the reef which formed an insuperable
+barrier. He discovered in this way that it was a round island in the
+middle of which rose a mountain crowned with clouds. He joyfully
+breathed the fresh breath of the moist air. Rain fell, and this rain
+was so pleasant that the holy man said to the Lord:
+
+“Lord, this is the island of tears, the island of contrition.”
+
+The strand was deserted. Worn out with fatigue and hunger, he sat down
+on a rock in the hollow of which there lay some yellow eggs, marked
+with black spots, and about as large as those of a swan. But he did not
+touch them, saying:
+
+“Birds are the living praises of God. I should not like a single one of
+these praises to be lacking through me.”
+
+And he munched the lichens which he tore from the crannies of the
+rocks.
+
+The holy man had gone almost entirely round the island without meeting
+any inhabitants, when he came to a vast amphitheatre formed of black
+and red rocks whose summits became tinged with blue as they rose
+towards the clouds, and they were filled with sonorous cascades.
+
+The reflection from the polar ice had hurt the old man’s eyes, but a
+feeble gleam of light still shone through his swollen eyelids. He
+distinguished animated forms which filled the rocks, in stages, like a
+crowd of men on the tiers of an amphitheatre. And at the same time, his
+ears, deafened by the continual noises of the sea, heard a feeble sound
+of voices. Thinking that what he saw were men living under the natural
+law, and that the Lord had sent him to teach them the Divine law, he
+preached the gospel to them.
+
+Mounted on a lofty stone in the midst of the wild circus:
+
+“Inhabitants of this island,” said he, “although you be of small
+stature, you look less like a band of fishermen and mariners than like
+the senate of a judicious republic. By your gravity, your silence, your
+tranquil deportment, you form on this wild rock an assembly comparable
+to the Conscript Fathers at Rome deliberating in the temple of Victory,
+or rather, to the philosophers of Athens disputing on the benches of
+the Areopagus. Doubtless you possess neither their science nor their
+genius, but perhaps in the sight of God you are their superiors. I
+believe that you are simple and good. As I went round your island I saw
+no image of murder, no sign of carnage, no enemies’ heads or scalps
+hung from a lofty pole or nailed to the doors of your villages. You
+appear to me to have no arts and not to work in metals. But your hearts
+are pure and your hands are innocent, and the truth will easily enter
+into your souls.”
+
+Now what he had taken for men of small stature but of grave bearing
+were penguins whom the spring had gathered together, and who were
+ranged in couples on the natural steps of the rock, erect in the
+majesty of their large white bellies. From moment to moment they moved
+their winglets like arms, and uttered peaceful cries. They did not fear
+men, for they did not know them, and had never received any harm from
+them; and there was in the monk a certain gentleness that reassured the
+most timid animals and that pleased these penguins extremely. With a
+friendly curiosity they turned towards him their little round eyes
+lengthened in front by a white oval spot that gave something odd and
+human to their appearance.
+
+Touched by their attention, the holy man taught them the Gospel.
+
+“Inhabitants of this island, the earthly day that has just risen over
+your rocks is the image of the heavenly day that rises in your souls.
+For I bring you the inner light; I bring you the light and heat of the
+soul. Just as the sun melts the ice of your mountains so Jesus Christ
+will melt the ice of your hearts.”
+
+Thus the old man spoke. As everywhere throughout nature voice calls to
+voice, as all which breathes in the light of day loves alternate
+strains, these penguins answered the old man by the sounds of their
+throats. And their voices were soft, for it was the season of their
+loves.
+
+The holy man, persuaded that they belonged to some idolatrous people
+and that in their own language they gave adherence to the Christian
+faith, invited them to receive baptism.
+
+“I think,” said he to them, “that you bathe often, for all the hollows
+of the rocks are full of pure water, and as I came to your assembly I
+saw several of you plunging into these natural baths. Now purity of
+body is the image of spiritual purity.”
+
+And he taught them the origin, the nature, and the effects of baptism.
+
+“Baptism,” said he to them, “is Adoption, New Birth, Regeneration,
+Illumination.”
+
+And he explained each of these points to them in succession.
+
+Then, having previously blessed the water that fell from the cascades
+and recited the exorcisms, he baptized those whom he had just taught,
+pouring on each of their heads a drop of pure water and pronouncing the
+sacred words.
+
+And thus for three days and three nights he baptized the birds.
+
+
+
+
+VI. AN ASSEMBLY IN PARADISE
+
+
+When the baptism of the penguins was known in Paradise, it caused
+neither joy nor sorrow, but an extreme surprise. The Lord himself was
+embarrassed. He gathered an assembly of clerics and doctors, and asked
+them whether they regarded the baptism as valid.
+
+“It is void,” said St. Patrick.
+
+“Why is it void?” asked St. Gal, who had evangelized the people of
+Cornwall and had trained the holy Maël for his apostolical labours.
+
+“The sacrament of baptism,” answered St. Patrick, “is void when it is
+given to birds, just as the sacrament of marriage is void when it is
+given to a eunuch.”
+
+But St. Gal replied:
+
+“What relation do you claim to establish between the baptism of a bird
+and the marriage of a eunuch? There is none at all. Marriage is, if I
+may say so, a conditional, a contingent sacrament. The priest blesses
+an event beforehand; it is evident that if the act is not consummated
+the benediction remains without effect. That is obvious. I have known
+on earth, in the town of Antrim, a rich man named Sadoc, who, living in
+concubinage with a woman, caused her to be the mother of nine children.
+In his old age, yielding to my reproofs, he consented to marry her, and
+I blessed their union. Unfortunately Sadoc’s great age prevented him
+from consummating the marriage. A short time afterwards he lost all his
+property, and Germaine (that was the name of the woman), not feeling
+herself able to endure poverty, asked for the annulment of a marriage
+which was no reality. The Pope granted her request, for it was just. So
+much for marriage. But baptism is conferred without restrictions or
+reserves of any kind. There is no doubt about it, what the penguins
+have received is a sacrament.”
+
+Called to give his opinion, Pope St. Damascus expressed himself in
+these terms:
+
+“In order to know if a baptism is valid and will produce its result,
+that is to say, sanctification, it is necessary to consider who gives
+it and not who receives it. In truth, the sanctifying virtue of this
+sacrament results from the exterior act by which it is conferred,
+without the baptized person cooperating in his own sanctification by
+any personal act; if it were otherwise it would not be administered to
+the newly born. And there is no need, in order to baptize, to fulfil
+any special condition; it is not necessary to be in a state of grace;
+it is sufficient to have the intention of doing what the Church does,
+to pronounce the consecrated words and to observe the prescribed forms.
+Now we cannot doubt that the venerable Maël has observed these
+conditions. Therefore the penguins are baptized.”
+
+“Do you think so?” asked St. Guénolé. “And what then do you believe
+that baptism really is? Baptism is the process of regeneration by which
+man is born of water and of the spirit, for having entered the water
+covered with crimes, he goes out of it a neophyte, a new creature,
+abounding in the fruits of righteousness; baptism is the seed of
+immortality; baptism is the pledge of the resurrection; baptism is the
+burying with Christ in His death and participation in His departure
+from the sepulchre. That is not a gift to bestow upon birds. Reverend
+Fathers, let us consider. Baptism washes away original sin; now the
+penguins were not conceived in sin. It removes the penalty of sin; now
+the penguins have not sinned. It produces grace and the gift of
+virtues, uniting Christians to Jesus Christ, as the members to the
+body, and it is obvious to the senses that penguins cannot acquire the
+virtues of confessors, of virgins, and of widows, or receive grace and
+be united to—”
+
+St. Damascus did not allow him to finish.
+
+“That proves,” said he warmly, “that the baptism was useless; it does
+not prove that it was not effective.”
+
+“But by this reasoning,” said St. Guénolé, “one might baptize in the
+name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by aspersion or
+immersion, not only a bird or a quadruped, but also an inanimate
+object, a statue, a table, a chair, etc. That animal would be
+Christian, that idol, that table would be Christian! It is absurd!”
+
+St. Augustine began to speak. There was a great silence.
+
+“I am going,” said the ardent bishop of Hippo, “to show you, by an
+example, the power of formulas. It deals, it is true, with a diabolical
+operation. But if it be established that formulas taught by the Devil
+have effect upon unintelligent animals or even on inanimate objects,
+how can we longer doubt that the effect of the sacramental formulas
+extends to the minds of beasts and even to inert matter?
+
+“This is the example. There was during my lifetime in the town of
+Madaura, the birthplace of the philosopher Apuleius, a witch who was
+able to attract men to her chamber by burning a few of their hairs
+along with certain herbs upon her tripod, pronouncing at the same time
+certain words. Now one day when she wished by this means to gain the
+love of a young man, she was deceived by her maid, and instead of the
+young man’s hairs, she burned some hairs pulled from a leather bottle,
+made out of a goatskin that hung in a tavern. During the night the
+leather bottle, full of wine, capered through the town up to the
+witch’s door. This fact is undoubted. And in sacraments as in
+enchantments it is the form which operates. The effect of a divine
+formula cannot be less in power and extent than the effect of an
+infernal formula.”
+
+Having spoken in this fashion the great St. Augustine sat down amidst
+applause.
+
+One of the blessed, of an advanced age and having a melancholy
+appearance, asked permission to speak. No one knew him. His name was
+Probus, and he was not enrolled in the canon of the saints.
+
+“I beg the company’s pardon,” said he, “I have no halo, and I gained
+eternal blessedness without any eminent distinction. But after what the
+great St. Augustine has just told you I believe it right to impart a
+cruel experience, which I had, relative to the conditions necessary for
+the validity of a sacrament. The bishop of Hippo is indeed right in
+what he said. A sacrament depends on the form; its virtue is in its
+form; its vice is in its form. Listen, confessors and pontiffs, to my
+woeful story. I was a priest in Rome under the rule of the Emperor
+Gordianus. Without desiring to recommend myself to you for any special
+merit, I may say that I exercised my priesthood with piety and zeal.
+For forty years I served the church of St. Modestus-beyond-the-Walls.
+My habits were regular. Every Saturday I went to a tavern-keeper called
+Barjas, who dwelt with his wine-jars under the Porta Capena, and from
+him I bought the wine that I consecrated daily throughout the week.
+During that long space of time I never failed for a single morning to
+consecrate the holy sacrifice of the mass. However, I had no joy, and
+it was with a heart oppressed by sorrow that, on the steps of the altar
+I used to ask, ‘Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou so
+disquieted within me?’ The faithful whom I invited to the holy table
+gave me cause for affliction, for having, so to speak, the Host that I
+administered still upon their tongues, they fell again into sin just as
+if the sacrament had been without power or efficacy. At last I reached
+the end of my earthly trials, and failing asleep in the Lord, I awoke
+in this abode of the elect. I learned then from the mouth of the angel
+who brought me here, that Barjas, the tavern-keeper of the Porta
+Capena, had sold for wine a decoction of roots and barks in which there
+was not a single drop of the juice of the grape. I had been unable to
+transmute this vile brew into blood, for it was not wine, and wine
+alone is changed into the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore all my
+consecrations were invalid, and unknown to us, my faithful and myself
+had for forty years been deprived of the sacrament and were in fact in
+a state of excommunication. This revelation threw me into a stupor
+which overwhelms me even to-day in this abode of bliss. I go all
+through Paradise without ever meeting a single one of those Christians
+whom formerly I admitted to the holy table in the basilica of the
+blessed Modestus. Deprived of the bread of angels, they easily gave way
+to the most abominable vices, and they have all gone to hell. It gives
+me some satisfaction to think that Barjas, the tavern-keeper, is
+damned. There is in these things a logic worthy of the author of all
+logic. Nevertheless my unhappy example proves that it is sometimes
+inconvenient that form should prevail over essence in the sacraments,
+and I humbly ask, Could not, eternal wisdom remedy this?”
+
+“No,” answered the Lord. “The remedy would be worse than the disease.
+It would be the ruin of the priesthood if essence prevailed over form
+in the laws of salvation.”
+
+“Alas! Lord,” sighed the humble Probus. “Be persuaded by my humble
+experience; as long as you reduce your sacraments to formulas your
+justice will meet with terrible obstacles.”
+
+“I know that better than you do,” replied the Lord. “I see in a single
+glance both the actual problems which are difficult, and the future
+problems which will not be less difficult. Thus I can foretell that
+when the sun will have turned round the earth two hundred and forty
+times more.
+
+“Sublime language,” exclaimed the angels.
+
+“And worthy of the creator of the world,” answered the pontiffs.
+
+“It is,” resumed the Lord, “a manner of speaking in accordance with my
+old cosmogony and one which I cannot give up without losing my
+immutability. . . .
+
+“After the sun, then, will have turned another two hundred and forty
+times round the earth, there will not be a single cleric left in Rome
+who knows Latin. When they sing their litanies in the churches people
+will invoke Orichel, Roguel, and Totichel, and, as you know, these are
+devils and not angels. Many robbers desiring to make their communions,
+but fearing that before obtaining pardon they would be forced to give
+up the things they had robbed to the Church, will make their
+confessions to travelling priests, who, ignorant of both Italian and
+Latin, and only speaking the _patois_ of their village, will go through
+cities and towns selling the remission of sins for a base price, often
+for a bottle of wine. Probably we shall not be inconvenienced by those
+absolutions as they will want contrition to make them valid, but it may
+be that their baptisms will cause us some embarrassment. The priests
+will become so ignorant that they will baptize children _in nomine
+patria et filia et spirita sancta_, as Louis de Potter will take a
+pleasure in relating in the third volume of his ‘Philosophical,
+Political, and Critical History of Christianity.’ It will be an arduous
+question to decide on the validity of such baptisms; for even if in my
+sacred writings I tolerate a Greek less elegant than Plato’s and a
+scarcely Ciceronian Latin, I cannot possibly admit a piece of pure
+_patois_ as a liturgical formula. And one shudders when one thinks that
+millions of new-born babes will be baptized by this method. But let us
+return to our penguins.”
+
+“Your divine words, Lord, have already led us back to them,” said St.
+Gal. “In the signs of religion and the laws of salvation form
+necessarily prevails over essence, and the validity of a sacrament
+solely depends upon its form. The whole question is whether the
+penguins have been baptized with the proper forms. Now there is no
+doubt about the answer.”
+
+The fathers and the doctors agreed, and their perplexity became only
+the more cruel.
+
+“The Christian state,” said St. Cornelius, “is not without serious
+inconveniences for a penguin. In it the birds are obliged to work out
+their own salvation. How can they succeed? The habits of birds are, in
+many points, contrary to the commandments of the Church, and the
+penguins have no reason for changing theirs. I mean that they are not
+intelligent enough to give up their present habits and assume better.”
+
+“They cannot,” said the Lord; “my decrees prevent them.”
+
+“Nevertheless,” resumed St. Cornelius, “in virtue of their baptism
+their actions no longer remain indifferent. Henceforth they will be
+good or bad, susceptible of merit or of demerit.”
+
+“That is precisely the question we have to deal with,” said the Lord.
+
+“I see only one solution,” said St. Augustine. “The penguins will go to
+hell.”
+
+“But they have no soul,” observed St. Irenaeus.
+
+“It is a pity,” sighed Tertullian.
+
+“It is indeed,” resumed St. Gal. “And I admit that my disciple, the
+holy Maël, has, in his blind zeal, created great theological
+difficulties for the Holy Spirit and introduced disorder into the
+economy of mysteries.”
+
+“He is an old blunderer,” cried St. Adjutor of Alsace, shrugging his
+shoulders.
+
+But the Lord cast a reproachful look on Adjutor.
+
+“Allow me to speak,” said he; “the holy Maël has not intuitive
+knowledge like you, my blessed ones. He does not see me. He is an old
+man burdened by infirmities; he is half deaf and three parts blind. You
+are too severe on him. However, I recognise that the situation is an
+embarrassing one.”
+
+“Luckily it is but a passing disorder,” said St. Irenaeus. “The
+penguins are baptized, but their eggs are not, and the evil will stop
+with the present generation.”
+
+“Do not speak thus, Irenaeus my son,” said the Lord. “There are
+exceptions to the laws that men of science lay down on the earth
+because they are imperfect and have not an exact application to nature.
+But the laws that I establish are perfect and suffer no exception. We
+must decide the fate of the baptized penguins without violating any
+divine law, and in a manner conformable to the decalogue as well as to
+the commandments of my Church.”
+
+“Lord,” said St. Gregory Nazianzen, “give them an immortal soul.”
+
+“Alas! Lord, what would they do with it,” sighed Lactantius. “They have
+not tuneful voices to sing your praises. They would not be able to
+celebrate your mysteries.”
+
+“Without doubt,” said St. Augustine, “they would not observe the divine
+law.”
+
+“They could not,” said the Lord.
+
+“They could not,” continued St. Augustine. “And if, Lord, in your
+wisdom, you pour an immortal soul into them, they will burn eternally
+in hell in virtue of your adorable decrees. Thus will the transcendent
+order, that this old Welshman has disturbed, be re-established.”
+
+“You propose a correct solution to me, son of Monica,” said the Lord,
+“and one that accords with my wisdom. But it does not satisfy my mercy.
+And, although in my essence I am immutable, the longer I endure, the
+more I incline to mildness. This change of character is evident to
+anyone who reads my two Testaments.”
+
+As the discussion continued without much light being thrown upon the
+matter and as the blessed showed a disposition to keep repeating the
+same thing, it was decided to consult St. Catherine of Alexandria. This
+is what was usually done in such cases. St. Catherine while on earth
+had confounded fifty very learned doctors. She knew Plato’s philosophy
+in addition to the Holy Scriptures, and she also possessed a knowledge
+of rhetoric.
+
+
+
+
+VII. AN ASSEMBLY IN PARADISE
+(_Continuation and End_)
+
+
+St. Catherine entered the assembly, her head encircled by a crown of
+emeralds, sapphires, and pearls, and she was clad in a robe of cloth of
+gold. She carried at her side a blazing wheel, the image of the one
+whose fragments had struck her persecutors.
+
+The Lord having invited her to speak, she expressed herself in these
+terms:
+
+“Lord, in order to solve the problem you deign to submit to me I shall
+not study the habits of animals in general nor those of birds in
+particular. I shall only remark to the doctors, confessors, and
+pontiffs gathered in this assembly that the separation between man and
+animal is not complete since there are monsters who proceed from both.
+Such are chimeras—half nymphs and half serpents; such are the three
+Gorgons and the Capripeds; such are the Scyllas and the Sirens who sing
+in the sea. These have a woman’s breast and a fish’s tail. Such also
+are the Centaurs, men down to the waist and the remainder horses. They
+are a noble race of monsters. One of them, as you know, was able,
+guided by the light of reason alone, to direct his steps towards
+eternal blessedness, and you sometimes see his heroic bosom prancing on
+the clouds. Chiron, the Centaur, deserved for his works on the earth to
+share the abode of the blessed; he it was who gave Achilles his
+education; and that young hero, when he left the Centaur’s hands, lived
+for two years, dressed as a young girl, among the daughters of King
+Lycomedes. He shared their games and their bed without allowing any
+suspicion to arise that he was not a young virgin like them. Chiron,
+who taught him such good morals, is, with the Emperor Trajan, the only
+righteous man who obtained celestial glory by following the law of
+nature. And yet he was but half human.
+
+“I think I have proved by this example that, to reach eternal
+blessedness, it is enough to possess some parts of humanity, always on
+the condition that they are noble. And what Chiron, the Centaur, could
+obtain without having been regenerated by baptism, would not the
+penguins deserve too, if they became half penguins and half men? That
+is why, Lord, I entreat you to give old Maël’s penguins a human head
+and breast so that they can praise you worthily. And grant them also an
+immortal soul—but one of small size.”
+
+Thus Catherine spoke, and the fathers, doctors, confessors, and
+pontiffs heard her with a murmur of approbation.
+
+But St. Anthony, the Hermit, arose and stretching two red and knotty
+arms towards the Most High:
+
+“Do not so, O Lord God,” he cried, “in the name of your holy Paraclete,
+do not so!”
+
+He spoke with such vehemence that his long white beard shook on his
+chin like the empty nose-bag of a hungry horse.
+
+“Lord, do not so. Birds with human heads exist already. St. Catherine
+has told us nothing new.”
+
+“The imagination groups and compares; it never creates,” replied St.
+Catherine drily.
+
+“They exist already,” continued St. Antony, who would listen to
+nothing. “They are called harpies, and they are the most obscene
+animals in creation. One day as I was having supper in the desert with
+the Abbot St. Paul, I placed the table outside my cabin under an old
+sycamore tree. The harpies came and sat in its branches; they deafened
+us with their shrill cries and cast their excrement over all our food.
+The clamour of the monsters prevented me from listening to the teaching
+of the Abbot St. Paul, and we ate birds’ dung with our bread and
+lettuces. Lord, it is impossible to believe that harpies could give
+thee worthy praise.
+
+“Truly in my temptations I have seen many hybrid beings, not only
+women-serpents and women-fishes, but beings still more confusedly
+formed such as men whose bodies were made out of a pot, a bell, a
+clock, a cupboard full of food and crockery, or even out of a house
+with doors and windows through which people engaged in their domestic
+tasks could be seen. Eternity would not suffice were I to describe all
+the monsters that assailed me in my solitude, from whales rigged like
+ships to a shower of red insects which changed the water of my fountain
+into blood. But none were as disgusting as the harpies whose offal
+polluted the leaves of my sycamore.”
+
+“Harpies,” observed Lactantius, “are female Monsters with birds’
+bodies. They have a woman’s head and breast. Their forwardness, their
+shamelessness, and their obscenity proceed from their female nature as
+the poet Virgil demonstrated in his ‘Æneid.’ They share the curse of
+Eve.”
+
+“Let us not speak of the curse of Eve,” said the Lord. “The second Eve
+has redeemed the first.”
+
+Paul Orosius, the author of a universal history that Bossuet was to
+imitate in later years, arose and prayed to the Lord:
+
+“Lord, hear my prayer and Anthony’s. Do not make any more monsters like
+the Centaurs, Sirens, and Fauns, whom the Greeks, those collectors of
+fables, loved. You will derive no satisfaction from them. Those species
+of monsters have pagan inclinations and their double nature does not
+dispose them to purity of morals.”
+
+The bland Lactantius replied in these terms:
+
+“He who has just spoken is assuredly the best historian in Paradise,
+for Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Livy, Velleius Paterculus,
+Cornelius Nepos, Suetonius, Manetho, Diodorus Siculus, Dion Cassius,
+and Lampridius are deprived of the sight of God, and Tacitus suffers in
+hell the torments that are reserved for blasphemers. But Paul Orosius
+does not know heaven as well as he knows the earth, for he does not
+seem to bear in mind that the angels, who proceed from man and bird,
+are purity itself.”
+
+“We are wandering,” said the Eternal. “What have we to do with all
+those centaurs, harpies, and angels? We have to deal with penguins.”
+
+“You have spoken to the point, Lord,” said the chief of the fifty
+doctors, who, during their mortal life had been confounded by the
+Virgin of Alexandria, “and I dare express the opinion that, in order to
+put an end to the scandal by which heaven is now stirred, old Maël’s
+penguins should, as St. Catherine who confounded us has proposed, be
+given half of a human body with an eternal soul proportioned to that
+half.”
+
+At this speech there arose in the assembly a great noise of private
+conversations and disputes of the doctors. The Greek fathers argued
+with the Latins concerning the substance, nature, and dimensions of the
+soul that should be given to the penguins.
+
+“Confessors and pontiffs,” exclaimed the Lord, “do not imitate the
+conclaves and synods of the earth. And do not bring into the Church
+Triumphant those violences that trouble the Church Militant. For it is
+but too true that in all the councils held under the inspiration of my
+spirit, in Europe, in Asia, and in Africa, fathers have torn the beards
+and scratched the eyes of other fathers. Nevertheless they were
+infallible, for I was with them.”
+
+Order being restored, old Hermas arose and slowly uttered these words:
+
+“I will praise you, Lord, for that you caused my mother, Saphira, to be
+born amidst your people, in the days when the dew of heaven refreshed
+the earth which was in travail with its Saviour. And will praise you,
+Lord, for having granted to me to see with my mortal eyes the Apostles
+of your divine Son. And I will speak in this illustrious assembly
+because you have willed that truth should proceed out of the mouths of
+the humble, and I will say: ‘Change these penguins to men. It is the
+only determination conformable to your justice and your mercy.’”
+
+Several doctors asked permission to speak, others began to do so. No
+one listened, and all the confessors were tumultuously shaking their
+palms and their crowns.
+
+The Lord, by a gesture of his right hand, appeased the quarrels of his
+elect.
+
+“Let us not deliberate any longer,” said he. “The opinion broached by
+gentle old Hermas is the only one conformable to my eternal designs.
+These birds will be changed into men. I foresee in this several
+disadvantages. Many of those men will commit sins they would not have
+committed as penguins. Truly their fate through this change will be far
+less enviable than if they had been without this baptism and this
+incorporation into the family of Abraham. But my foreknowledge must not
+encroach upon their free will.
+
+“In order not to impair human liberty, I will be ignorant of what I
+know, I will thicken upon my eyes the veils I have pierced, and in my
+blind clearsightedness I will let myself be surprised by what I have
+foreseen.”
+
+And immediately calling the archangel Raphael:
+
+“Go and find the holy Maël,” said he to him; “inform him of his mistake
+and tell him, armed with my Name, to change these penguins into men.”
+
+
+
+
+VIII. METAMORPHOSIS OF THE PENGUINS
+
+
+The archangel, having gone down into the Island of the Penguins, found
+the holy man asleep in the hollow of a rock surrounded by his new
+disciples. He laid his hand on his shoulder and, having waked him, said
+in a gentle voice:
+
+“Maël, fear not!”
+
+The holy man, dazzled by a vivid light, inebriated by a delicious
+odour, recognised the angel of the Lord, and prostrated himself with
+his forehead on the ground.
+
+The angel continued:
+
+“Maël, know thy error, believing that thou wert baptizing children of
+Adam thou hast baptized birds; and it is, through thee that penguins
+have entered into the Church of God.”
+
+At these words the old man remained stupefied.
+
+And the angel resumed:
+
+“Arise, Maël, arm thyself with the mighty Name of the Lord, and say to
+these birds, ‘Be ye men!’”
+
+And the holy Maël, having wept and prayed, armed himself with the
+mighty Name of the Lord and said to the birds:
+
+“Be ye men!”
+
+Immediately the penguins were transformed. Their foreheads enlarged and
+their heads grew round like the dome of St. Maria Rotunda in Rome.
+Their oval eyes opened more widely on the universe; a fleshy nose
+clothed the two clefts of their nostrils; their beaks were changed into
+mouths, and from their mouths went forth speech; their necks grew short
+and thick; their wings became arms and their claws legs; a restless
+soul dwelt within the breast of each of them.
+
+However, there remained with them some traces of their first nature.
+They were inclined to look sideways; they balanced themselves on their
+short thighs; their bodies were covered with fine down.
+
+And Maël gave thanks to the Lord, because he had incorporated these
+penguins into the family of Abraham.
+
+But he grieved at the thought that he would soon leave the island to
+come back no more, and that perhaps when he was far away the faith of
+the penguins would perish for want of care like a young and tender
+plant.
+
+And he formed the idea of transporting their island to the coasts of
+Armorica.
+
+“I know not the designs of eternal Wisdom,” said he to himself. “But if
+God wills that this island be transported, who could prevent it?”
+
+And the holy man made a very fine cord about forty feet long out of the
+flax of his stole. He fastened one end of the cord round a point of
+rock that jutted up through the sand of the shore and, holding the
+other end of the cord in his hand, he entered the stone trough.
+
+The trough glided over the sea and towed Penguin Island behind it;
+after nine days’ sailing it approached the Breton coast, bringing the
+island with it.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II. THE ANCIENT TIMES
+
+
+
+
+I. THE FIRST CLOTHES
+
+
+One day St. Maël was sitting by the seashore on a warm stone that he
+found. He thought it had been warmed by the sun and he gave thanks to
+God for it, not knowing that the Devil had been resting on it. The
+apostle was waiting for the monks of Yvern who had been commissioned to
+bring a freight of skins and fabrics to clothe the inhabitants of the
+island of Alca.
+
+Soon he saw a monk called Magis coming ashore and carrying a chest upon
+his back. This monk enjoyed a great reputation for holiness.
+
+When he had drawn near to the old man he laid the chest on the ground
+and wiping his forehead with the back of his sleeve, he said:
+
+“Well, father, you wish then to clothe these penguins?”
+
+“Nothing is more needful, my son,” said the old man. “Since they have
+been incorporated into the family of Abraham these penguins share the
+curse of Eve, and they know that they are naked, a thing of which they
+were ignorant before. And it is high time to clothe them, for they are
+losing the down that remained on them after their metamorphosis.”
+
+“It is true,” said Magis as he cast his eyes over the coast where the
+penguins were to be seen looking for shrimps, gathering mussels,
+singing, or sleeping, “they are naked. But do you not think, father,
+that it would be better to leave them naked? Why clothe them? When they
+wear clothes and are under the moral law they will assume an immense
+pride, a vile hypocrisy, and an excessive cruelty.”
+
+“Is it possible, my son,” sighed the old man, “that you understand so
+badly the effects of the moral law to which even the heathen submit?”
+
+“The moral law,” answered Magis, “forces men who are beasts to live
+otherwise than beasts, a thing that doubtless puts a constraint upon
+them, but that also flatters and reassures them; and as they are proud,
+cowardly, and covetous of pleasure, they willingly submit to restraints
+that tickle their vanity and on which they found both their present
+security and the hope of their future happiness. That is the principle
+of all morality. . . . But let us not mislead ourselves. My companions
+are unloading their cargo of stuffs and skins on the island. Think,
+father, while there is still time! To clothe the penguins is a very
+serious business. At present when a penguin desires a penguin he knows
+precisely what he desires and his lust is limited by an exact knowledge
+of its object. At this moment two or three couples of penguins are
+making love on the beach. See with what simplicity! No one pays any
+attention and the actors themselves do not seem to be greatly
+preoccupied. But when the female penguins are clothed, the male penguin
+will not form so exact a notion of what it is that attracts him to
+them. His indeterminate desires will fly out into all sorts of dreams
+and illusions; in short, father, he will know love and its mad
+torments. And all the time the female penguins will cast down their
+eyes and bite their lips, and take on airs as if they kept a treasure
+under their clothes! . . . what a pity!
+
+“The evil will be endurable as long as these people remain rude and
+poor; but only wait for a thousand years and you will see, father, with
+what powerful weapons you have endowed the daughters of Alca. If you
+will allow me, I can give you some idea of it beforehand. I have some
+old clothes in this chest. Let us take at hazard one of these female
+penguins to whom the male penguins give such little thought, and let us
+dress her as well as we can.
+
+“Here is one coming towards us. She is neither more beautiful nor
+uglier than the others; she is young. No one looks at her. She strolls
+indolently along the shore, scratching her back and with her finger at
+her nose as she walks. You cannot help seeing, father, that she has
+narrow shoulders, clumsy breasts, a stout figure, and short legs. Her
+reddish knees pucker at every step she takes, and there is, at each of
+her joints, what looks like a little monkey’s head. Her broad and
+sinewy feet cling to the rock with their four crooked toes, while the
+great toes stick up like the heads of two cunning serpents. She begins
+to walk, all her muscles are engaged in the task, and, when we see them
+working, we think of her as a machine intended for walking rather than
+as a machine intended for making love, although visibly she is both,
+and contains within herself several other pieces of machinery, besides.
+Well, venerable apostle, you will see what I am going to make of her.”
+
+With these words the monk, Magis, reached the female penguin in three
+bounds, lifted her up, carried her in his arms with her hair trailing
+behind her, and threw her, overcome with fright, at the feet of the
+holy Maël.
+
+And whilst she wept and begged him to do her no harm, he took a pair of
+sandals out of his chest and commanded her to put them on.
+
+“Her feet,” observed the old man, “will appear smaller when squeezed in
+by the woollen cords. The soles, being two fingers high, will give an
+elegant length to her legs and the weight they bear will seem
+magnified.”
+
+As the penguin tied on her sandals she threw a curious look towards the
+open coffer, and seeing that it was full of jewels and finery, she
+smiled through her tears.
+
+The monk twisted her hair on the back of her head and covered it with a
+chaplet of flowers. He encircled her wrist with golden bracelets and
+making her stand upright, he passed a large linen band beneath her
+breasts, alleging that her bosom would thereby derive a new dignity and
+that her sides would be compressed to the greater glory of her hips.
+
+He fixed this band with pins, taking them one by one out of his mouth.
+
+“You can tighten it still more,” said the penguin.
+
+When he had, with much care and study, enclosed the soft parts of her
+bust in this way, he covered her whole body with a rose-coloured tunic
+which gently followed the lines of her figure.
+
+“Does it hang well?” asked the penguin.
+
+And bending forward with her head on one side and her chin on her
+shoulder, she kept looking attentively at the appearance of her toilet.
+
+Magis asked her if she did not think the dress a little long, but she
+answered with assurance that it was not—she would hold it up.
+
+Immediately, taking the back of her skirt in her left hand, she drew it
+obliquely across her hips, taking care to disclose a glimpse of her
+heels. Then she went away, walking with short steps and swinging her
+hips.
+
+She did not turn her head, but as she passed near a stream she glanced
+out of the corner of her eye at her own reflection.
+
+A male penguin, who met her by chance, stopped in surprise, and
+retracing his steps began to follow her. As she went along the shore,
+others coming back from fishing, went up to her, and after looking at
+her, walked behind her. Those who were lying on the sand got up and
+joined the rest.
+
+Unceasingly, as she advanced, fresh penguins, descending from the paths
+of the mountain, coming out of clefts of the rocks, and emerging from
+the water, added to the size of her retinue.
+
+And all of them, men of ripe age with vigorous shoulders and hairy
+breasts, agile youths, old men shaking the multitudinous wrinkles of
+their rosy, and white-haired skins, or dragging their legs thinner and
+drier than the juniper staff that served them as a third leg, hurried
+on, panting and emitting an acrid odour and hoarse gasps. Yet she went
+on peacefully and seemed to see nothing.
+
+“Father,” cried Magis, “notice how each one advances with his nose
+pointed towards the centre of gravity of that young damsel now that the
+centre is covered by a garment. The sphere inspires the meditations of
+geometers by the number of its properties. When it proceeds from a
+physical and living nature it acquires new qualities, and in order that
+the interest of that figure might be fully revealed to the penguins it
+was necessary that, ceasing to see it distinctly with their eyes, they
+should be led to represent it to themselves in their minds. I myself
+feel at this moment irresistibly attracted towards that penguin.
+Whether it be because her skirt gives more importance to her hips, and
+that in its simple magnificence it invests them with a synthetic and
+general character and allows only the pure idea, the divine principle,
+of them to be seen, whether this be the cause I cannot say, but I feel
+that if I embraced her I would hold in my hands the heaven of human
+pleasure. It is certain that modesty communicates an invincible
+attraction to women. My uneasiness is so great that it would be vain
+for me to try to conceal it.”
+
+He spoke, and, gathering up his habit, he rushed among the crowd of
+penguins, pushing, jostling, trampling, and crushing, until he reached
+the daughter of Alca, whom he seized and suddenly carried in his arms
+into a cave that had been hollowed out by the sea.
+
+Then the penguins felt as if the sun had gone out. And the holy Maël
+knew that the Devil had taken the features of the monk, Magis, in order
+that he might give clothes to the daughter of Alca. He was troubled in
+spirit, and his soul was sad. As with slow steps he went towards his
+hermitage he saw the little penguins of six and seven years of age
+tightening their waists with belts made of sea-weed and walking along
+the shore to see if anybody would follow them.
+
+
+
+
+II. THE FIRST CLOTHES
+(_Continuation and End_)
+
+
+The holy Maël felt a profound sadness that the first clothes put upon a
+daughter of Alca should have betrayed the penguin modesty instead of
+helping it. He persisted, none the less, in his design of giving
+clothes to the inhabitants of the miraculous island. Assembling them on
+the shore, he distributed to them the garments that the monks of Yvern
+had brought. The male penguins received short tunics and breeches, the
+female penguins long robes. But these robes were far from creating the
+effect that the former one had produced. They were not so beautiful,
+their shape was uncouth and without art, and no attention was paid to
+them since every woman bad one. As they prepared the meals and worked
+in the fields they soon had nothing but slovenly bodices and soiled
+petticoats.
+
+The male penguins loaded their unfortunate consorts with work until
+they looked like beasts of burden. They knew nothing of the troubles of
+the heart and the disorders of passion. Their habits were innocent.
+Incest, though frequent, was a sign of rustic simplicity and if
+drunkenness led a youth to commit some such crime he thought nothing
+more about it the day afterwards.
+
+
+
+
+III. SETTING BOUNDS TO THE FIELDS AND THE ORIGIN OF PROPERTY
+
+
+The island did not preserve the rugged appearance that it had formerly,
+when, in the midst of floating icebergs it sheltered a population of
+birds within its rocky amphitheatre. Its snow-clad peak had sunk down
+into a hill from the summit of which one could see the coasts of
+Armorica eternally covered with mist, and the ocean strewn with sullen
+reefs like monsters half raised out of its depths.
+
+Its coasts were now very extensive and clearly defined and its shape
+reminded one of a mulberry leaf. It was suddenly covered with coarse
+grass, pleasing to the flocks, and with willows, ancient figtrees, and
+mighty oaks. This fact is attested by the Venerable Bede and several
+other authors worthy of credence.
+
+To the north the shore formed a deep bay that in after years became one
+of the most famous ports in the universe. To the east, along a rocky
+coast beaten by a foaming sea, there stretched a deserted and fragrant
+heath. It was the Beach of Shadows, and the inhabitants of the island
+never ventured on it for fear of the serpents that lodged in the
+hollows of the rocks and lest they might encounter the souls of the
+dead who resembled livid flames. To the south, orchards and woods
+bounded the languid Bay of Divers. On this fortunate shore old Maël
+built a wooden church and a monastery. To the west, two streams, the
+Clange and the Surelle, watered the fertile valleys of Dalles and
+Dombes.
+
+Now one autumn morning, as the blessed Maël was walking in the valley
+of Clange in company with a monk of Yvern called Bulloch, he saw bands
+of fierce-looking men loaded with stones passing along the roads. At
+the same time he heard in all directions cries and complaints mounting
+up from the valley towards the tranquil sky.
+
+And he said to Bulloch:
+
+“I notice with sadness, my son, that since they became men the
+inhabitants of this island act with less wisdom than formerly. When
+they were birds they only quarrelled during the season of their love
+affairs. But now they dispute all the time; they pick quarrels with
+each other in summer as well as in winter. How greatly have they fallen
+from that peaceful majesty which made the assembly of the penguins look
+like the Senate of a wise republic!
+
+“Look towards Surelle, Bulloch, my son. In yonder pleasant valley a
+dozen men penguins are busy knocking each other down with the spades
+and picks that they might employ better in tilling the ground. The
+women, still more cruel than the men, are tearing their opponents’
+faces with their nails. Alas! Bulloch, my son, why are they murdering
+each other in this way?”
+
+“From a spirit of fellowship, father, and through forethought for the
+future,” answered Bulloch. “For man is essentially provident and
+sociable. Such is his character and it is impossible to imagine it
+apart from a certain appropriation of things. Those penguins whom you
+see are dividing the ground among themselves.”
+
+“Could they not divide it with less violence?” asked the aged man. “As
+they fight they exchange invectives and threats. I do not distinguish
+their words, but they are angry ones, judging from the tone.”
+
+“They are accusing one another of theft and encroachment,” answered
+Bulloch. “That is the general sense of their speech.”
+
+At that moment the holy Maël clasped his hands and sighed deeply.
+
+“Do you see, my son,” he exclaimed, “that madman who with his teeth is
+biting the nose of the adversary he has overthrown and that other one
+who is pounding a woman’s head with a huge stone?”
+
+“I see them,” said Bulloch. “They are creating law; they are founding
+property; they are establishing the principles of civilization, the
+basis of society, and the foundations of the State.”
+
+“How is that?” asked old Maël.
+
+“By setting bounds to their fields. That is the origin of all
+government. Your penguins, O Master, are performing the most august of
+functions. Throughout the ages their work will be consecrated by
+lawyers, and magistrates will confirm it.”
+
+Whilst the monk, Bulloch, was pronouncing these words a big penguin
+with a fair skin and red hair went down into the valley carrying a
+trunk of a tree upon his shoulder. He went up to a little penguin who
+was watering his vegetables in the heat of the sun, and shouted to him:
+
+“Your field is mine!”
+
+And having delivered himself of this stout utterance he brought down
+his club on the head of the little penguin, who fell dead upon the
+field that his own hands had tilled.
+
+At this sight the holy Maël shuddered through his whole body and poured
+forth a flood of tears.
+
+And in a voice stifled by horror and fear he addressed this prayer to
+heaven:
+
+“O Lord, my God, O thou who didst receive young Abel’s sacrifices, thou
+who didst curse Cain, avenge, O Lord, this innocent penguin sacrificed
+upon his own field and make the murderer feel the weight of thy arm. Is
+there a more odious crime, is there a graver offence against thy
+justice, O Lord, than this murder and this robbery?”
+
+“Take care, father,” said Bulloch gently, “that what you call murder
+and robbery may not really be war and conquest, those sacred
+foundations of empires, those sources of all human virtues and all
+human greatness. Reflect, above all, that in blaming the big penguin
+you are attacking property in its origin and in its source. I shall
+have no trouble in showing you how. To till the land is one thing, to
+possess it is another, and these two things must not be confused; as
+regards ownership the right of the first occupier is uncertain and
+badly founded. The right of conquest, on the other hand, rests on more
+solid foundations. It is the only right that receives respect since it
+is the only one that makes itself respected. The sole and proud origin
+of property is force. It is born and preserved by force. In that it is
+august and yields only to a greater force. This is why it is correct to
+say that he who possesses is noble. And that big red man, when he
+knocked down a labourer to get possession of his field, founded at that
+moment a very noble house upon this earth. I congratulate him upon it.”
+
+Having thus spoken, Bulloch approached the big penguin, who was leaning
+upon his club as he stood in the blood-stained furrow:
+
+“Lord Greatauk, dreaded Prince,” said he, bowing to the ground, “I come
+to pay you the homage due to the founder of legitimate power and
+hereditary wealth. The skull of the vile Penguin you have overthrown
+will, buried in your field, attest for ever the sacred rights of your
+posterity over this soil that you have ennobled. Blessed be your sons
+and your sons’ sons! They shall be Greatauks, Dukes of Skull, and they
+shall rule over this island of Alca.”
+
+Then raising his voice and turning towards the holy Maël:
+
+“Bless Greatauk, father, for all power comes from God.”
+
+Maël remained silent and motionless, with his eyes raised towards
+heaven; he felt a painful uncertainty in judging the monk Bulloch’s
+doctrine. It was, however, the doctrine destined to prevail in epochs
+of advanced civilization. Bulloch can be considered as the creator of
+civil law in Penguinia.
+
+
+
+
+IV. THE FIRST ASSEMBLY OF THE ESTATES OF PENGUINIA
+
+
+“Bulloch, my son,” said old Maël, “we ought to make a census of the
+Penguins and inscribe each of their names in a book.”
+
+“It is a most urgent matter,” answered Bulloch, “there can be no good
+government without it.”
+
+Forthwith, the apostle, with the help of twelve monks, proceeded to
+make a census of the people.
+
+And old Maël then said:
+
+“Now that we keep a register of all the inhabitants, we ought, Bulloch,
+my son, to levy a just tax so as to provide for public expenses and the
+maintenance of the Abbey. Each ought to contribute according to his
+means. For this reason, my son, call together the Elders of Alca, and
+in agreement with them we shall establish the tax.”
+
+The Elders, being called together, assembled to the number of thirty
+under the great sycamore in the courtyard of the wooden monastery. They
+were the first Estates of Penguinia. Three-fourths of them were
+substantial peasants of Surelle and Clange. Greatauk, as the noblest of
+the Penguins, sat upon the highest stone.
+
+The venerable Maël took his place in the midst of his monks and uttered
+these words:
+
+“Children, the Lord when he pleases grants riches to men and he takes
+them away from them. Now I have called you together to levy
+contributions from the people so as to provide for public expenses and
+the maintenance of the monks. I consider that these contributions ought
+to be in proportion to the wealth of each. Therefore he who has a
+hundred oxen will give ten; he who has ten will give one.”
+
+When the holy man had spoken, Morio, a labourer at Anis-on-the-Clange,
+one of the richest of the Penguins, rose up and said:
+
+“O Father Maël, I think it right that each should contribute to the
+public expenses and to the support of the Church. For my part I am
+ready to give up all that I possess in the interest of my brother
+Penguins, and if it were necessary I would even cheerfully part with my
+shirt. All the elders of the people are ready, like me, to sacrifice
+their goods, and no one can doubt their absolute devotion to their
+country and their creed. We have, then, only to consider the public
+interest and to do what it requires. Now, Father, what it requires,
+what it demands, is not to ask much from those who possess much, for
+then the rich would be less rich and the poor still poorer. The poor
+live on the wealth of the rich and that is the reason why that wealth
+is sacred. Do not touch it, to do so would be an uncalled for evil. You
+will get no great profit by taking from the rich, for they are very few
+in number; on the contrary you will strip yourself of all your
+resources and plunge the country into misery. Whereas if you ask a
+little from each inhabitant without regard to his wealth, you will
+collect enough for the public necessities and you will have no need to
+enquire into each citizen’s resources, a thing that would be regarded
+by all as a most vexatious measure. By taxing all equally and easily
+you will spare the poor, for you will leave them the wealth of the
+rich. And how could you possibly proportion taxes to wealth? Yesterday
+I had two hundred oxen, to-day I have sixty, to-morrow I shall have a
+hundred. Clunic has three cows, but they are thin; Nicclu has only two,
+but they are fat. Which is the richer, Clunic or Nicclu? The signs of
+opulence are deceitful. What is certain is that everyone eats and
+drinks. Tax people according to what they consume. That would be wisdom
+and it would be justice.”
+
+Thus spoke Morio amid the applause of the Elders.
+
+“I ask that this speech be graven on bronze,” cried the monk, Bulloch.
+“It is spoken for the future; in fifteen hundred years the best of the
+Penguins will not speak otherwise.”
+
+The Elders were still applauding when Greatauk, his hand on the pommel
+of his sword, made this brief declaration:
+
+“Being noble, I shall not contribute; for to contribute is ignoble. It
+is for the rabble to pay.”
+
+After this warning the Elders separated in silence.
+
+As in Rome, a new census was taken every five years; and by this means
+it was observed that the population increased rapidly. Although
+children died in marvellous abundance and plagues and famines came with
+perfect regularity to devastate entire villages, new Penguins, in
+continually greater numbers, contributed by their private misery to the
+public prosperity.
+
+
+
+
+V. THE MARRIAGE OF KRAKEN AND ORBEROSIA
+
+
+During these times there lived in the island of Alca a Penguin whose
+arm was strong and whose mind was subtle. He was called Kraken, and had
+his dwelling on the Beach of Shadows whither the inhabitants never
+ventured for fear of serpents that lodged in the hollows of the rocks
+and lest they might encounter the souls of Penguins that had died
+without baptism. These, in appearance like livid flames, and uttering
+doleful groans, wandered night and day along the deserted beach. For it
+was generally believed, though without proof, that among the Penguins
+that had been changed into men at the blessed Maël’s prayer, several
+had not received baptism and returned after their death to lament amid
+the tempests. Kraken dwelt on this savage coast in an inaccessible
+cavern. The only way to it was through a natural tunnel a hundred feet
+long, the entrance of which was concealed by a thick wood. One evening
+as Kraken was walking through this deserted plain he happened to meet a
+young and charming woman Penguin. She was the one that the monk Magis
+had clothed with his own hands and thus was the first to have worn the
+garments of chastity. In remembrance of the day when the astonished
+crowd of Penguins had seen her moving gloriously in her robe tinted
+like the dawn, this maiden had received the name of Orberosia.[1]
+
+ [1] “Orb, poetically, a globe when speaking of the heavenly bodies. By
+ extension any species of globular body.”—_Littré_
+
+
+At the sight of Kraken she uttered a cry of alarm and darted forward to
+escape from him. But the hero seized her by the garments that floated
+behind her, and addressed her in these words:
+
+“Damsel, tell me thy name, thy family and thy country.”
+
+But Orberosia kept looking at Kraken with alarm.
+
+“Is it you, I see, sir,” she asked him, trembling, “or is it not rather
+your troubled spirit?”
+
+She spoke in this way because the inhabitants of Alca, having no news
+of Kraken since he went to live on the Beach of Shadows, believed that
+he had died and descended among the demons of night.
+
+“Cease to fear, daughter of Alca,” answered Kraken. “He who speaks to
+thee is not a wandering spirit, but a man full of strength and might. I
+shall soon possess great riches.”
+
+And young Orberosia asked:
+
+“How dost thou think of acquiring great riches, O Kraken, since thou
+art a child of Penguins?”
+
+“By my intelligence,” answered Kraken.
+
+“I know,” said Orberosia, “that in the time that thou dwelt among us
+thou wert renowned for thy skill in hunting and fishing. No one
+equalled thee in taking fishes in a net or in piercing with thy arrows
+the swift-flying birds.”
+
+“It was but a vulgar and laborious industry, O maiden. I have found a
+means of gaining much wealth for myself without fatigue. But tell me
+who thou art?”
+
+“I am called Orberosia,” answered the young girl.
+
+“Why art thou so far away from thy dwelling and in the night?”
+
+“Kraken, it was not without the will of Heaven.”
+
+“What meanest thou, Orberosia?”
+
+“That Heaven, O Kraken, placed me in thy path, for what reason I know
+not.”
+
+Kraken beheld her for a long time in silence.
+
+Then he said with gentleness:
+
+“Orberosia, come into my house; it is that of the bravest and most
+ingenious of the sons of the Penguins. If thou art willing to follow
+me, I will make thee my companion.”
+
+Then casting down her eyes, she murmured:
+
+“I will follow thee, master.”
+
+It is thus that the fair Orberosia became the consort of the hero
+Kraken. This marriage was not celebrated with songs and torches because
+Kraken did not consent to show himself to the people of the Penguins;
+but hidden in his cave he planned great designs.
+
+
+
+
+VI. THE DRAGON OF ALCA
+
+
+“We afterwards went to visit the cabinet of natural history. . . . The
+care-taker showed us a sort of packet bound in straw that he told us
+contained the skeleton of a dragon; a proof, added he, that the dragon
+is not a fabulous animal.”—_Memoirs of Jacques Casanova_, Paris, 1843.
+Vol. IV., pp. 404, 405
+
+
+In the meantime the inhabitants of Alca practised the labours of peace.
+Those of the northern coast went in boats to fish or to search for
+shell-fish. The labourers of Dombes cultivated oats, rye, and wheat.
+The rich Penguins of the valley of Dalles reared domestic animals,
+while those of the Bay of Divers cultivated their orchards. Merchants
+of Port-Alca carried on a trade in salt fish with Armorica and the gold
+of the two Britains, which began to be introduced into the island,
+facilitated exchange. The Penguin people were enjoying the fruit of
+their labours in perfect tranquillity when suddenly a sinister rumour
+ran from village to village. It was said everywhere that a frightful
+dragon had ravaged two farms in the Bay of Divers.
+
+A few days before, the maiden Orberosia had disappeared. Her absence
+had at first caused no uneasiness because on several occasions she had
+been carried off by violent men who were consumed with love. And
+thoughtful people were not astonished at this, reflecting that the
+maiden was the most beautiful of the Penguins. It was even remarked
+that she sometimes went to meet her ravishers, for none of us can
+escape his destiny. But this time, as she did not return, it was feared
+that the dragon had devoured her. The more so as the inhabitants of the
+valley of Dalles soon knew that the dragon was not a fable told by the
+women around the fountains. For one night the monster devoured out of
+the village of Anis six hens, a sheep, and a young orphan child called
+little Elo. The next morning nothing was to be found either of the
+animals or of the child.
+
+Immediately the Elders of the village assembled in the public place and
+seated themselves on the stone bench to take counsel concerning what it
+was expedient to do in these terrible circumstances.
+
+Having called all those Penguins who had seen the dragon during the
+disastrous night, they asked them:
+
+“Have you not noticed his form and his behaviour?”
+
+And each answered in his turn:
+
+“He has the claws of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the tail of a
+serpent.”
+
+“His back bristles with thorny crests.”
+
+“His whole body is covered with yellow scales.”
+
+“His look fascinates and confounds. He vomits flames.”
+
+“He poisons the air with his breath.”
+
+“He has the head of a dragon, the claws of a lion, and the tail of a
+fish.”
+
+And a woman of Anis, who was regarded as intelligent and of sound
+judgment and from whom the dragon had taken three hens, deposed as
+follows:
+
+“He is formed like a man. The proof is that I thought he was my
+husband, and I said to him, ‘Come to bed, you old fool.’”
+
+Others said:
+
+“He is formed like a cloud.”
+
+“He looks like a mountain.”
+
+And a little child came and said:
+
+“I saw the dragon taking off his head in the barn so that he might give
+a kiss to my sister Minnie.”
+
+And the Elders also asked the inhabitants:
+
+“How big is the dragon?”
+
+And it was answered:
+
+“As big as an ox.”
+
+“Like the big merchant ships of the Bretons.”
+
+“He is the height of a man.”
+
+“He is higher than the fig-tree under which you are sitting.”
+
+“He is as large as a dog.”
+
+Questioned finally on his colour, the inhabitants said:
+
+“Red.”
+
+“Green.”
+
+“Blue.”
+
+“Yellow.”
+
+“His head is bright green, his wings are brilliant orange tinged with
+pink, his limbs are silver grey, his hind-quarters and his tail are
+striped with brown and pink bands, his belly bright yellow spotted with
+black.”
+
+“His colour? He has no colour.”
+
+“He is the colour of a dragon.”
+
+After hearing this evidence the Elders remained uncertain as to what
+should be done. Some advised to watch for him, to surprise him and
+overthrow him by a multitude of arrows. Others, thinking it vain to
+oppose so powerful a monster by force, counselled that he should be
+appeased by offerings.
+
+“Pay him tribute,” said one of them who passed for a wise man. “We can
+render him propitious to us by giving him agreeable presents, fruits,
+wine, lambs, a young virgin.”
+
+Others held for poisoning the fountains where he was accustomed to
+drink or for smoking him out of his cavern.
+
+But none of these counsels prevailed. The dispute was lengthy and the
+Elders dispersed without coming to any resolution.
+
+
+
+
+VII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA
+(_Continuation_)
+
+
+During all the month dedicated by the Romans to their false god Mars or
+Mavors, the dragon ravaged the farms of Dalles and Dombes. He carried
+off fifty sheep, twelve pigs, and three young boys. Every family was in
+mourning and the island was full of lamentations. In order to remove
+the scourge, the Elders of the unfortunate villages watered by the
+Clange and the Surelle resolved to assemble and together go and ask the
+help of the blessed Maël.
+
+On the fifth day of the month whose name among the Latins signifies
+opening, because it opens the year, they went in procession to the
+wooden monastery that had been built on the southern coast of the
+island. When they were introduced into the cloister they filled it with
+their sobs and groans. Moved by their lamentations, old Maël left the
+room in which he devoted himself to the study of astronomy and the
+meditation of the Scriptures, and went down to them, leaning on his
+pastoral staff. At his approach, the Elders, prostrating themselves,
+held out to him green branches of trees and some of them burnt aromatic
+herbs.
+
+And the holy man, seating himself beside the cloistral fountain under
+an ancient fig-tree, uttered these words:
+
+“O my sons, offspring of the Penguins, why do you weep and groan? Why
+do you hold out those suppliant boughs towards me? Why do you raise
+towards heaven the smoke of those herbs? What calamity do you expect
+that I can avert from your heads? Why do you beseech me? I am ready to
+give my life for you. Only tell your father what it is you hope from
+him.”
+
+To these questions the chief of the Elders answered:
+
+“O Maël, father of the sons of Alca, I will speak for all. A horrible
+dragon is laying waste our lands, depopulating our cattle-sheds, and
+carrying off the flower of our youth. He has devoured the child Elo and
+seven young boys; he has mangled the maiden Orberosia, the fairest of
+the Penguins, with his teeth. There is not a village in which he does
+not emit his poisoned breath and which he has not filled with
+desolation. A prey to this terrible scourge, we come, O Maël, to pray
+thee, as the wisest, to advise us concerning the safety of the
+inhabitants of this island lest the ancient race of Penguins be
+extinguished.”
+
+“O chief of the Elders of Alca,” replied Maël, “thy words fill me with
+profound grief, and I groan at the thought that this island is the prey
+of a terrible dragon. But such an occurrence is not unique, for we find
+in books several tales of very fierce dragons. The monsters are
+oftenest found in caverns, by the brinks of waters, and, in preference,
+among pagan peoples. Perhaps there are some among you who, although
+they have received holy baptism and been incorporated into the family
+of Abraham, have yet worshipped idols, like the ancient Romans, or hung
+up images, votive tablets, fillets of wool, and garlands of flowers on
+the branches of some sacred tree. Or perhaps some of the women Penguins
+have danced round a magic stone and drunk water from the fountains
+where the nymphs dwell. If it be so, believe, O Penguins, that the Lord
+has sent this dragon to punish all for the crimes of some, and to lead
+you, O children of the Penguins, to exterminate blasphemy,
+superstition, and impiety from amongst you. For this reason I advise,
+as a remedy against the great evil from which you suffer, that you
+carefully search your dwellings for idolatry, and extirpate it from
+them. I think it would be also efficacious to pray and do penance.”
+
+Thus spoke the holy Maël. And the Elders of the Penguin people kissed
+his feet and returned to their villages with renewed hope.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA
+(_Continuation_)
+
+
+Following the counsel of the holy Maël the inhabitants of Alca
+endeavoured to uproot the superstitions that had sprung up amongst
+them. They took care to prevent the girls from dancing with
+incantations round the fairy tree. Young mothers were sternly forbidden
+to rub their children against the stones that stood upright in the
+fields so as to make them strong. An old man of Dombes who foretold the
+future by shaking grains of barley on a sieve, was thrown into a well.
+
+However, each night the monster still raided the poultry-yards and the
+cattle-sheds. The frightened peasants barricaded themselves in their
+houses. A woman with child who saw the shadow of a dragon on the road
+through a window in the moonlight, was so terrified that she was
+brought to bed before her time.
+
+In those days of trial, the holy Maël meditated unceasingly on the
+nature of dragons and the means of combating them. After six months of
+study and prayer he thought he had found what he sought. One evening as
+he was walking by the sea with a young monk called Samuel, he expressed
+his thought to him in these terms:
+
+“I have studied at length the history and habits of dragons, not to
+satisfy a vain curiosity, but to discover examples to follow in the
+present circumstances. For such, Samuel, my son, is the use of history.
+
+“It is an invariable fact that dragons are extremely vigilant. They
+never sleep, and for this reason we often find them employed in
+guarding treasures. A dragon guarded at Colchis the golden fleece that
+Jason conquered from him. A dragon watched over the golden apples in
+the garden of the Hesperides. He was killed by Hercules and transformed
+into a star by Juno. This fact is related in some books, and if it be
+true, it was done by magic, for the gods of the pagans are in reality
+demons. A dragon prevented barbarous and ignorant men from drinking at
+the fountain of Castalia. We must also remember the dragon of
+Andromeda, which was slain by Perseus. But let us turn from these pagan
+fables, in which error is always mixed with truth. We meet dragons in
+the histories of the glorious archangel Michael, of St. George, St.
+Philip, St. James the Great, St. Patrick, St. Martha, and St. Margaret.
+And it is in such writings, since they are worthy of full credence,
+that we ought to look for comfort and counsel.
+
+“The story of the dragon of Silena affords us particularly precious
+examples. You must know, my son, that on the banks of a vast pool close
+to that town there dwelt a dragon who sometimes approached the walls
+and poisoned with his breath all who dwelt in the suburbs. And that
+they might not be devoured by the monster, the inhabitants of Silena
+delivered up to him one of their number every morning. The victim was
+chosen by lot, and after a hundred others, the lot fell upon the king’s
+daughter.
+
+“Now St. George, who was a military tribune, as he passed through the
+town of Silena, learned that the king’s daughter had just been given to
+the fierce beast. He immediately mounted his horse, and, armed with his
+lance, rushed to encounter the dragon, whom he reached just as the
+monster was about to devour the royal virgin. And when St. George had
+overthrown the dragon, the king’s daughter fastened her girdle round
+the beast’s neck and he followed her like a dog led on a leash.
+
+“That is an example for us of the power of virgins over dragons. The
+history of St. Martha furnishes us with a still more certain proof. Do
+you know the story, Samuel, my son?”
+
+“Yes, father,” answered Samuel.
+
+And the blessed Maël went on:
+
+“There was in a forest on the banks of the Rhone, between Arles and
+Avignon, a dragon half quadruped and half fish, larger than an ox, with
+sharp teeth like horns and huge wings at his shoulders. He sank the
+boats and devoured their passengers. Now St. Martha, at the entreaty of
+the people, approached this dragon, whom she found devouring a man. She
+put her girdle round his neck and led him easily into the town.
+
+“These two examples lead me to think that we should have recourse to
+the power of some virgin so as to conquer the dragon who scatters
+terror and death through the island of Alca.
+
+“For this reason, Samuel my son, gird up thy loins and go, I pray thee,
+with two of thy companions, into all the villages of this island, and
+proclaim everywhere that a virgin alone shall be able to deliver the
+island from the monster that devastates it.
+
+“Thou shalt sing psalms and canticles and thou shalt say:
+
+“‘O sons of the Penguins, if there be among you a pure virgin, let her
+arise and go, armed with the sign of the cross, to combat the dragon!’”
+
+Thus the old man spake, and Samuel promised to obey him. The next day
+he girded up his loins and set out with two of his companions to
+proclaim to the inhabitants of Alca that a virgin alone would be able
+to deliver the Penguins from the rage of the dragon.
+
+
+
+
+IX. THE DRAGON OF ALCA
+(_Continuation_)
+
+
+Orberosia loved her husband, but she did not love him alone. At the
+hour when Venus lightens in the pale sky, whilst Kraken scattered
+terror through the villages, she used to visit in his moving hut, a
+young shepherd of Dalles called Marcel, whose pleasing form was
+invested with inexhaustible vigour. The fair Orberosia shared the
+shepherd’s aromatic couch with delight, but far from making herself
+known to him, she took the name of Bridget, and said that she was the
+daughter of a gardener in the Bay of Divers. When regretfully she left
+his arms she walked across the smoking fields towards the Coast of
+Shadows, and if she happened to meet some belated peasant she
+immediately spread out her garments like great wings and cried:
+
+“Passer by, lower your eyes, that you may not have to say, ‘Alas! alas!
+woe is me, for I have seen the angel of the Lord.’”
+
+The villagers tremblingly knelt with their faces to the round. And
+several of them used to say that angels, whom it would be death to see,
+passed along the roads of the island in the night time.
+
+Kraken did not know of the loves of Orberosia and Marcel, for he was a
+hero, and heroes never discover the secrets of their wives. But though
+he did not know of these loves, he reaped the benefit of them. Every
+night he found his companion more good-humoured and more beautiful,
+exhaling pleasure and perfuming the nuptial bed with a delicious odour
+of fennel and vervain. She loved Kraken with a love that never became
+importunate or anxious, because she did not rest its whole weight on
+him alone.
+
+This lucky infidelity of Orberosia was destined soon to save the hero
+from a great peril and to assure his fortune and his glory for ever.
+For it happened that she saw passing in the twilight a neatherd from
+Belmont, who was goading on his oxen, and she fell more deeply in love
+with him than she had ever been with the shepherd Marcel. He was
+hunch-backed; his shoulders were higher than his ears; his body was
+supported by legs of different lengths; his rolling eyes flashed, from
+beneath his matted hair. From his throat issued a hoarse voice and
+strident laughter; he smelt of the cow-shed. However, to her he was
+beautiful. “A plant,” as Gnatho says, “has been loved by one, a stream
+by another, a beast by a third.”
+
+Now, one day, as she was sighing within the neatherd’s arms in a
+village barn, suddenly the blasts of a trumpet, with sounds and
+footsteps, fell upon her ears; she looked through the window and saw
+the inhabitants collected in the marketplace round a young monk, who,
+standing upon a rock, uttered these words in a distinct voice:
+
+“Inhabitants of Belmont, Abbot Maël, our venerable father, informs you
+through my mouth that neither by strength nor skill in arms shall you
+prevail against the dragon; but the beast shall be overcome by a
+virgin. If, then, there be among you a perfectly pure virgin, let her
+arise and go towards the monster; and when she meets him let her tie
+her girdle round his neck and she shall lead him as easily as if he
+were a little dog.”
+
+And the young monk, replacing his hood upon his head, departed to carry
+the proclamation of the blessed Maël to other villages.
+
+Orberosia sat in the amorous straw, resting her head in her hand and
+supporting her elbow upon her knee, meditating on what she had just
+heard.
+
+Although, so far as Kraken was concerned, she feared the power of a
+virgin much less than the strength of armed men, she did not feel
+reassured by the proclamation of the blessed Maël. A vague but sure
+instinct ruled her mind and warned her that Kraken could not henceforth
+be a dragon with safety.
+
+She said to the neatherd:
+
+“My own heart, what do you think about the dragon?”
+
+The rustic shook his head.
+
+“It is certain that dragons laid waste the earth in ancient times and
+some have been seen as large as mountains. But they come no longer, and
+I believe that what has been taken for a dragon is not one at all, but
+pirates or merchants who have carried off the fair Orberosia and the
+best of the children of Alca in their ships. But if one of those
+brigands attempts to rob me of my oxen, I will either by force or craft
+find a way to prevent him from doing me any harm.”
+
+This remark of the neatherd increased Orberosia’s apprehensions and
+added to her solicitude for the husband whom she loved.
+
+
+
+
+X. THE DRAGON OF ALCA
+(_Continuation_)
+
+
+The days passed by and no maiden arose in the island to combat the
+monster. And in the wooden monastery old Maël, seated on a bench in the
+shade of an old fig-tree, accompanied by a pious monk called
+Regimental, kept asking himself anxiously and sadly how it was that
+there was not in Alca a single virgin fit to overthrow the monster.
+
+He sighed and brother Regimental sighed too. At that moment old Maël
+called young Samuel, who happened to pass through the garden, and said
+to him:
+
+“I have meditated anew, my son, on the means of destroying the dragon
+who devours the flower of our youth, our flocks, and our harvests. In
+this respect the story of the dragons of St. Riok and of St. Pol de
+Leon seems to me particularly instructive. The dragon of St. Riok was
+six fathoms long; his head was derived from the cock and the basilisk,
+his body from the ox and the serpent; he ravaged the banks of the Elorn
+in the time of King Bristocus. St. Riok, then aged two years, led him
+by a leash to the sea, in which the monster drowned himself of his own
+accord. St. Pol’s dragon was sixty feet long and not less terrible. The
+blessed apostle of Leon bound him with his stole and allowed a young
+noble of great purity of life to lead him. These examples prove that in
+the eyes of God a chaste young man is as agreeable as a chaste girl.
+Heaven makes no distinction between them. For this reason, my son, if
+you believe what I say, we will both go to the Coast of Shadows; when
+we reach the dragon’s cavern we will call the monster in a loud voice,
+and when he comes forth I will tie my stole round his neck and you will
+lead him to the sea, where he will not fail to drown himself.”
+
+At the old man’s words Samuel cast down his head and did not answer.
+
+“You seem to hesitate, my son,” said Maël.
+
+Brother Regimental, contrary to his custom, spoke without being
+addressed.
+
+“There is at least cause for some hesitation,” said he. “St. Riok was
+only two years old when he overcame the dragon. Who says that nine or
+ten years later he could have done as much? Remember, father, that the
+dragon who is devastating our island has devoured little Elo and four
+or five other young boys. Brother Samuel is not go presumptuous as to
+believe that at nineteen years of age he is more innocent than they
+were at twelve and fourteen.
+
+“Alas!” added the monk, with a groan, “who can boast of being chaste in
+this world, where everything gives the example and model of love, where
+all things in nature, animals, and plants, show us the caresses of love
+and advise us to share them? Animals are eager to unite in their own
+fashion, but the various marriages of quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and
+reptiles are far from equalling in lust the nuptials of the trees. The
+greatest extremes of lewdness that the pagans have imagined in their
+fables are outstripped by the simple flowers of the field, and, if you
+knew the irregularities of lilies and roses you would take those
+chalices of impurity, those vases of scandal, away from your altars.”
+
+“Do not speak in this way, Brother Regimental,” answered old Maël.
+“Since they are subject to the law of nature, animals and plants are
+always innocent. They have no souls to save, whilst man—”
+
+“You are right,” replied Brother Regimental, “it is quite a different
+thing. But do not send young Samuel to the dragon—the dragon might
+devour him. For the last five years Samuel is not in a state to show
+his innocence to monsters. In the year of the comet, the Devil in order
+to seduce him, put in his path a milkmaid, who was lifting up her
+petticoat to cross a ford. Samuel was tempted, but he overcame the
+temptation. The Devil, who never tires, sent him the image of that
+young girl in a dream. The shade did what the reality was unable to
+accomplish, and Samuel yielded. When he awoke be moistened his couch
+with his tears, but alas! repentance did not give him back his
+innocence.”
+
+As he listened to this story Samuel asked himself how his secret could
+be known, for he was ignorant that the Devil had borrowed the
+appearance of Brother Regimental, so as to trouble the hearts of the
+monks of Alca.
+
+And old Maël remained deep in thought and kept asking himself in grief:
+
+“Who will deliver us from the dragon’s tooth? Who will preserve us from
+his breath? Who will save us from his look?”
+
+However, the inhabitants of Alca began to take courage. The labourers
+of Dombes and the neatherds of Belmont swore that they themselves would
+be of more avail than a girl against the ferocious beast, and they
+exclaimed as they stroked the muscles on their arms, “Let the dragon
+come!” Many men and women had seen him. They did not agree about his
+form and his figure, but all now united in saying that he was not as
+big as they had thought, and that his height was not much greater than
+a man’s. The defence was organised; towards nightfall watches were
+stationed at the entrances of the villages ready to give the alarm; and
+during the night companies armed with pitchforks and scythes protected
+the paddocks in which the animals were shut up. Indeed, once in the
+village of Anis some plucky labourers surprised him as he was scaling
+Morio’s wall, and, as they had flails, scythes, and pitchforks, they
+fell upon him and pressed him hard. One of them, a very quick and
+courageous man, thought to have run him through with his pitchfork; but
+he slipped in a pool and so let him escape. The others would certainly
+have caught him had they not waited to pick up the rabbits and fowls
+that he dropped in his flight.
+
+Those labourers declared to the Elders of the village that the
+monster’s form and proportions appeared to them human enough except for
+his head and his tail, which were, in truth, terrifying.
+
+
+
+
+XI. THE DRAGON OF ALCA
+(_Continuation_)
+
+
+On that day Kraken came back to his cavern sooner than usual. He took
+from his head his sealskin helmet with its two bull’s horns and its
+visor trimmed with terrible hooks. He threw on the table his gloves
+that ended in horrible claws—they were the beaks of sea-birds. He
+unhooked his belt from which hung a long green tail twisted into many
+folds. Then he ordered his page, Elo, to help him off with his boots
+and, as the child did not succeed in doing this very quickly, he gave
+him a kick that sent him to the other end of the grotto.
+
+Without looking at the fair Orberosia, who was spinning, he seated
+himself in front of the fireplace, on which a sheep was roasting, and
+he muttered:
+
+“Ignoble Penguins. . . . There is no worse trade than a dragon’s.”
+
+“What does my master say?” asked the fair Orberosia.
+
+“They fear me no longer,” continued Kraken. “Formerly everyone fled at
+my approach. I carried away hens and rabbits in my bag; I drove sheep
+and pigs, cows, and oxen before me. To-day these clod-hoppers keep a
+good guard; they sit up at night. Just now I was pursued in the village
+of Anis by doughty labourers armed with flails and scythes and
+pitchforks. I had to drop the hens and rabbits, put my tail under my
+arm, and run as fast as I could. Now I ask you, is it seemly for a
+dragon of Cappadocia to run away like a robber with his tail under his
+arm? Further, incommoded as I was by crests, horns, hooks, claws, and
+scales, I barely escaped a brute who ran half an inch of his pitchfork
+into my left thigh.”
+
+As he said this he carefully ran his hand over the insulted part, and,
+after giving himself up for a few moments to bitter meditation:
+
+“What idiots those Penguins are! I am tired of blowing flames in the
+faces of such imbeciles. Orberosia, do you hear me?”
+
+Having thus spoken the hero raised his terrible helmet in his hands and
+gazed at it for a long time in gloomy silence. Then he pronounced these
+rapid words:
+
+“I have made this helmet with my own hands in the shape of a fish’s
+head, covering it with the skin of a seal. To make it more terrible I
+have put on it the horns of a bull and I have given it a boar’s jaws; I
+have hung from it a horse’s tail dyed vermilion. When in the gloomy
+twilight I threw it over my shoulders no inhabitant of this island had
+courage to withstand its sight. Women and children, young men and old
+men fled distracted at its approach, and I carried terror among the
+whole race of Penguins. By what advice does that insolent people lose
+its earlier fears and dare to-day to behold these horrible jaws and to
+attack this terrible crest?”
+
+And throwing his helmet on the rocky soil:
+
+“Perish, deceitful helmet!” cried Kraken. “I swear by all the demons of
+Armor that I will never bear you upon my head again.”
+
+And having uttered this oath he stamped upon his helmet, his gloves,
+his boots, and upon his tail with its twisted folds.
+
+“Kraken,” said the fair Orberosia, “will you allow your servant to
+employ artifice to save your reputation and your goods? Do not despise
+a woman’s help. You need it, for all men are imbeciles.”
+
+“Woman,” asked Kraken, “what are your plans?”
+
+And the fair Orberosia informed her husband that the monks were going
+through the villages teaching the inhabitants the best way of combating
+the dragon; that, according to their instructions, the beast would be
+overcome by a virgin, and that if a maid placed her girdle around the
+dragon’s neck she could lead him as easily as if he were a little dog.
+
+“How do you know that the monks teach this?” asked Kraken.
+
+“My friend,” answered Orberosia, “do not interrupt a serious subject by
+frivolous questions. . . . ‘If, then,’ added the monks, ‘there be in
+Alca a pure virgin, let her arise!’ Now, Kraken, I have determined to
+answer their call. I will go and find the holy Maël and I will say to
+him: ‘I am the virgin destined by Heaven to overthrow the dragon.’”
+
+At these words Kraken exclaimed: “How can you be that pure virgin? And
+why do you want to overthrow me, Orberosia? Have you lost your reason?
+Be sure that I will not allow myself to be conquered by you!”
+
+“Can you not try and understand me before you get angry?” sighed the
+fair Orberosia with deep though gentle contempt.
+
+And she explained the cunning designs that she had formed.
+
+As he listened, the hero remained pensive. And when she ceased
+speaking:
+
+“Orberosia, your cunning, is deep,” said he, “And if your plans are
+carried out according to your intentions I shall derive great
+advantages from them. But how can you be the virgin destined by
+heaven?”
+
+“Don’t bother about that,” she replied, “and come to bed.”
+
+The next day in the grease-laden atmosphere of the cavern, Kraken
+plaited a deformed skeleton out of osier rods and covered it with
+bristling, scaly, and filthy skins. To one extremity of the skeleton
+Orberosia sewed the fierce crest and the hideous mask that Kraken used
+to wear in his plundering expeditions, and to the other end she
+fastened the tail with twisted folds which the hero was wont to trail
+behind him. And when the work was finished they showed little Elo and
+the other five children who waited on them how to get inside this
+machine, how to make it walk, how to blow horns and burn tow in it so
+as to send forth smoke and flames through the dragon’s mouth.
+
+
+
+
+XII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA
+(_Continuation_)
+
+
+Orberosia, having clothed herself in a robe made of coarse stuff and
+girt herself with a thick cord, went to the monastery and asked to
+speak to the blessed Maël. And because women were forbidden to enter
+the enclosure of the monastery the old man advanced outside the gates,
+holding his pastoral cross in his right hand and resting his left on
+the shoulder of Brother Samuel, the youngest of his disciples.
+
+He asked:
+
+“Woman, who art thou?”
+
+“I am the maiden Orberosia.”
+
+At this reply Maël raised his trembling arms to heaven.
+
+“Do you speak truth, woman? It is a certain fact that Orberosia was
+devoured by the dragon. And yet I see Orberosia and hear her. Did you
+not, O my daughter, while within the dragon’s bowels arm yourself with
+the sign of the cross and come uninjured out of his throat? That is
+what seems to me the most credible explanation.”
+
+“You are not deceived, father,” answered Orberosia. “That is precisely
+what happened to me. Immediately I came out of the creature’s bowels I
+took refuge in a hermitage on the Coast of Shadows. I lived there in
+solitude, giving myself up to prayer and meditation, and performing
+unheard of austerities, until I learnt by a revelation from heaven that
+a maid alone could overcome the dragon, and that I was that maid.”
+
+“Show me a sign of your mission,” said the old man.
+
+“I myself am the sign,” answered Orberosia.
+
+“I am not ignorant of the power of those who have placed a seal upon
+their flesh,” replied the apostle of the Penguins. “But are you indeed
+such as you say?”
+
+“You will see by the result,” answered Orberosia.
+
+The monk Regimental drew near:
+
+“That will,” said he, “be the best proof. King Solomon has said: ‘Three
+things are hard to understand and a fourth is impossible: they are the
+way of a serpent on the earth, the way of a bird in the air, the way of
+a ship in the sea, and the way of a man with a maid!’ I regard such
+matrons as nothing less than presumptuous who claim to compare
+themselves in these matters with the wisest of kings. Father, if you
+are led by me you will not consult them in regard to the pious
+Orberosia. When they have given their opinion you will not be a bit
+farther on than before. Virginity is not less difficult to prove than
+to keep. Pliny tells us in his history that its signs are either
+imaginary or very uncertain.[2] One who bears upon her the fourteen
+signs of corruption may yet be pure in the eyes of the angels, and, on
+the contrary, another who has been pronounced pure by the matrons who
+inspected her may know that her good appearance is due to the artifices
+of a cunning perversity. As for the purity of this holy girl here, I
+would put my hand in the fire in witness of it.”
+
+ [2] We have vainly sought for this phrase in Pliny’s “Natural
+ History.”—_Editor_.
+
+
+He spoke thus because he was the Devil. But old Maël did not know it.
+He asked the pious Orberosia:
+
+“My daughter, how, would you proceed to conquer so fierce an animal as
+he who devoured you?”
+
+The virgin answered:
+
+“To-morrow at sunrise, O Maël, you will summon the people together on
+the hill in front of the desolate moor that extends to the Coast of
+Shadows, and you will take care that no man of the Penguins remains
+less than five hundred paces from those rocks so that he may not be
+poisoned by the monster’s breath. And the dragon will come out of the
+rocks and I will put my girdle round his neck and lead him like an
+obedient dog.”
+
+“Ought you not to be accompanied by a courageous and pious man who will
+kill the dragon?” asked Maël.
+
+“It will be as thou sayest, venerable father. I shall deliver the
+monster to Kraken, who will stay him with his flashing sword. For I
+tell thee that the noble Kraken, who was believed to be dead, will
+return among the Penguins and he shall slay the dragon. And from the
+creature’s belly will come forth the little children whom he has
+devoured.”
+
+“What you declare to me, O virgin,” cried the apostle, “seems wonderful
+and beyond human power.”
+
+“It is,” answered the virgin Orberosia. “But learn, O Maël, that I have
+had a revelation that as a reward for their deliverance, the Penguin
+people will pay to the knight Kraken an annual tribute of three hundred
+fowls, twelve sheep, two oxen, three pigs, one thousand eight hundred
+bushels of corn, and vegetables according to their season; and that,
+moreover, the children who will come out of the dragon’s belly will be
+given and committed to the said Kraken to serve him and obey him in all
+things. If the Penguin people fail to keep their engagements a new
+dragon will come upon the island more terrible than the first. I have
+spoken.”
+
+
+
+
+XIII. THE DRAGON OF ALCA
+(_Continuation and End_)
+
+
+The people of the Penguins were assembled by Maël and they spent the
+night on the Coast of Shadows within the bounds which the holy man had
+prescribed in order that none among the Penguins should be poisoned by
+the monster’s breath.
+
+The veil of night still covered the earth when, preceded by a hoarse
+bellowing, the dragon showed his indistinct and monstrous form upon the
+rocky coast. He crawled like a serpent and his writhing body seemed
+about fifteen feet long. At his appearance the crowd drew back in
+terror. But soon all eyes were turned towards the Virgin Orberosia,
+who, in the first light of the dawn, clothed in white, advanced over
+the purple heather. With an intrepid though modest gait she walked
+towards the beast, who, uttering awful bellowings, opened his flaming
+throat. An immense cry of terror and pity arose from the midst of the
+Penguins. But the virgin, unloosing her linen girdle, put it round the
+dragon’s neck and led him on the leash like a faithful dog amid the
+acclamations of the spectators.
+
+She had walked over a long stretch of the heath when Kraken appeared
+armed with a flashing sword. The people, who believed him dead, uttered
+cries of joy and surprise. The hero rushed towards the beast, turned
+him over on his back, and with his sword cut open his belly, from
+whence came forth in their shirts, with curling hair and folded hands,
+little Elo and the five other children whom the monster had devoured.
+
+Immediately they threw themselves on their knees before the virgin
+Orberosia, who took them in her arms and whispered into their ears:
+
+“You will go through the villages saying: ‘We are the poor little
+children who were devoured by the dragon, and we came out of his belly
+in our shirts.’ The inhabitants will give you abundance of all that you
+can desire. But if you say anything else you will get nothing but cuffs
+and whippings. Go!”
+
+Several Penguins, seeing the dragon disembowelled, rushed forward to
+cut him to pieces, some from a feeling of rage and vengeance, others to
+get the magic stone called dragonite, that is engendered in his head.
+The mothers of the children who had come back to life ran to embrace
+their little ones. But the holy Maël kept them back, saying that none
+of them were holy enough to approach a dragon without dying.
+
+And soon little Elo, and the five other children came towards the
+people and said:
+
+“We are the poor little children who were devoured by the dragon and we
+came out of his belly in our shirts.”
+
+And all who heard them kissed them and said:
+
+“Blessed children, we will give you abundance of all that you can
+desire.”
+
+And the crowd of people dispersed, full of joy, singing hymns and
+canticles.
+
+To commemorate this day on which Providence delivered the people from a
+cruel scourge, processions were established in which the effigy of a
+chained dragon was led about.
+
+Kraken levied the tribute and became the richest and most powerful of
+the Penguins. As a sign of his victory and so as to inspire a salutary
+terror, he wore a dragon’s crest upon his head and he had a habit of
+saying to the people:
+
+“Now that the monster is dead I am the dragon.”
+
+For many years Orberosia bestowed her favours upon neatherds and
+shepherds, whom she thought equal to the gods. But when she was no
+longer beautiful she consecrated herself to the Lord.
+
+At her death she became the object of public veneration, and was
+admitted into the calendar of the saints and adopted as the patron
+saint of Penguinia.
+
+Kraken left a son, who, like his father, wore a dragon’s crest, and he
+was for this reason surnamed Draco. He was the founder of the first
+royal dynasty of the Penguins.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE
+
+
+
+
+I. BRIAN THE GOOD AND QUEEN GLAMORGAN
+
+
+The kings of Alca were descended from Draco, the son of Kraken, and
+they wore on their heads a terrible dragon’s crest, as a sacred badge
+whose appearance alone inspired the people with veneration, terror, and
+love. They were perpetually in conflict either with their own vassals
+and subjects or with the princes of the adjoining islands and
+continents.
+
+The most ancient of these kings has left but a name. We do not even
+know how to pronounce or write it. The first of the Draconides whose
+history is known was Brian the Good, renowned for his skill and courage
+in war and in the chase.
+
+He was a Christian and loved learning. He also favoured men who had
+vowed themselves to the monastic life. In the hall of his palace where,
+under the sooty rafters, there hung the heads, pelts, and horns of wild
+beasts, he held feasts to which all the harpers of Alca and of the
+neighbouring islands were invited, and he himself used to join in
+singing the praises of the heroes. He was just and magnanimous, but
+inflamed by so ardent a love of glory that he could not restrain
+himself from putting to death those who had sung better than himself.
+
+The monks of Yvern having been driven out by the pagans who ravaged
+Brittany, King Brian summoned them into his kingdom and built a wooden
+monastery for them near his palace. Every day he went with Queen
+Glamorgan, his wife, into the monastery chapel and was present at the
+religious ceremonies and joined in the hymns.
+
+Now among these monks there was a brother called Oddoul, who, while
+still in the flower of his youth, had adorned himself with knowledge
+and virtue. The devil entertained a great grudge against him, and
+attempted several times to lead him into temptation. He took several
+shapes and appeared to him in turn as a war-horse, a young maiden, and
+a cup of mead. Then he rattled two dice in a dicebox and said to him:
+
+“Will you play with me for the kingdoms of, the world against one of
+the hairs of your head?”
+
+But the man of the Lord, armed with the sign of the Cross, repulsed the
+enemy. Perceiving that he could not seduce him, the devil thought of an
+artful plan to ruin him. One summer night he approached the queen, who
+slept upon her couch, showed her an image of the young monk whom she
+saw every day in the wooden monastery, and upon this image he placed a
+spell. Forthwith, like a subtle poison, love flowed into Glamorgan’s
+veins, and she burned with an ardent desire to do as she listed with
+Oddoul. She found unceasing pretexts to have him near her. Several
+times she asked him to teach reading and singing to her children.
+
+“I entrust them to you,” said she to him. “And will follow the lessons
+you will give them so that I myself may learn also. You will teach both
+mother and sons at the same time.”
+
+But the young monk kept making excuses. At times he would say that he
+was not a learned enough teacher, and on other occasions that his state
+forbade him all intercourse with women. This refusal inflamed
+Glamorgan’s passion. One day as she lay pining upon her couch, her
+malady having become intolerable, she summoned Oddoul to her chamber.
+He came in obedience to her orders, but remained with his eyes cast
+down towards the threshold of the door. With impatience and grief she
+resented his not looking at her.
+
+“See,” said she to him, “I have no more strength, a shadow is on my
+eyes. My body is both burning and freezing.”
+
+And as he kept silence and made no movement, she called him in a voice
+of entreaty:
+
+“Come to me, come!”
+
+With outstretched arms to which passion gave more length, she
+endeavoured to seize him and draw him towards her.
+
+But he fled away, reproaching her for her wantonness.
+
+Then, incensed with rage and fearing that Oddoul might divulge the
+shame into which she had fallen, she determined to ruin him so that he
+might not ruin her.
+
+In a voice of lamentation that resounded throughout all the palace she
+called for help, as if, in truth, she were in some great danger. Her
+servants rushed up and saw the young monk fleeing and the queen pulling
+back the sheets upon her couch. They all cried out together. And when
+King Brian, attracted by the noise, entered the chamber, Glamorgan,
+showing him her dishevelled hair, her eyes flooded with tears, and her
+bosom that in the fury of her love she had torn with her nails, said:
+
+“My lord and husband, behold the traces of the insults I have
+undergone. Driven by an infamous desire Oddoul has approached me and
+attempted to do me violence.”
+
+When he heard these complaints and saw the blood, the king, transported
+with fury, ordered his guards to seize the young monk and burn him
+alive before the palace under the queen’s eyes.
+
+Being told of the affair, the Abbot of Yvern went to the king and said
+to him:
+
+“King Brian, know by this example the difference between a Christian
+woman and a pagan. Roman Lucretia was the most virtuous of idolatrous
+princesses, yet she had not the strength to defend herself against the
+attacks of an effeminate youth, and, ashamed of her weakness, she gave
+way to despair, whilst Glamorgan has successfully withstood the
+assaults of a criminal filled with rage, and possessed by the most
+terrible of demons.” Meanwhile Oddoul, in the prison of the palace, was
+waiting for the moment when he should be burned alive. But God did not
+suffer an innocent to perish. He sent to him an angel, who, taking the
+form of one of the queen’s servants called Gudrune, took him out of his
+prison and led him into the very room where the woman whose appearance
+he had taken dwelt.
+
+And the angel said to young Oddoul:
+
+“I love thee because thou art daring.”
+
+And young Oddoul, believing that it was Gudrune herself, answered with
+downcast looks:
+
+“It is by the grace of the Lord that I have resisted the violence of
+the queen and braved the anger of that powerful woman.”
+
+And the angel asked:
+
+“What? Hast thou not done what the queen accuses thee of?”
+
+“In truth no, I have not done it,” answered Oddoul, his hand on his
+heart.
+
+“Thou hast not done it?”
+
+“No, I have not done it. The very thought of such an action fills me
+with horror.”
+
+“Then,” cried the angel, “what art thou doing here, thou impotent
+creature?”[3]
+
+ [3] The Penguin chronicler who relates the fact employs the
+ expression, _Species inductilis_. I have endeavoured to translate it
+ literally.
+
+
+And she opened the door to facilitate the young man’s escape. Oddoul
+felt himself pushed violently out. Scarcely had he gone down into the
+street than a chamber-pot was poured over his head; and he thought:
+
+“Mysterious are thy designs, O Lord, and thy ways past finding out.”
+
+
+
+
+II. DRACO THE GREAT
+(_Translation of the Relics of St. Orberosia_)
+
+
+The direct posterity of Brian the Good was extinguished about the year
+900 in the person of Collic of the Short Nose. A cousin of that prince,
+Bosco the Magnanimous, succeeded him, and took care, in order to assure
+himself of the throne, to put to death all his relations. There issued
+from him a long line of powerful kings.
+
+One of them, Draco the Great, attained great renown as a man of war. He
+was defeated more frequently than the others. It is by this constancy
+in defeat that great captains are recognized. In twenty years he burned
+down more than a hundred thousand hamlets, market towns, unwalled
+towns, villages, walled towns, cities, and universities. He set fire
+impartially to his enemies’ territory and to his own domains. And he
+used to explain his conduct by saying:
+
+“War without fire is like tripe without mustard: it is an insipid
+thing.”
+
+His justice was rigorous. When the peasants whom he made prisoners were
+unable to raise the money for their ransoms he had them hanged from a
+tree, and if any unhappy woman came to plead for her destitute husband
+he dragged her by the hair at his horse’s tail. He lived like a soldier
+without effeminacy. It is satisfactory to relate that his manner of
+life was pure. Not only did he not allow his kingdom to decline from
+its hereditary glory, but, even in his reverses he valiantly supported
+the honour of the Penguin people.
+
+Draco the Great caused the relics of St. Orberosia to be transferred to
+Alca.
+
+The body of the blessed saint had been buried in a grotto on the Coast
+of Shadows at the end of a scented heath. The first pilgrims who went
+to visit it were the boys and girls from the neighbouring villages.
+They used to go there in the evening, by preference in couples, as if
+their pious desires naturally sought satisfaction in darkness and
+solitude. They worshipped the saint with a fervent and discreet worship
+whose mystery they seemed jealously to guard, for they did not like to
+publish too openly the experiences they felt. But they were heard to
+murmur one to another words of love, delight, and rapture with which
+they mingled the name of Orberosia. Some would sigh that there they
+forgot the world; others would say that they came out of the grotto in
+peace and calm; the young girls among them used to recall to each other
+the joy with which they had been filled in it.
+
+Such were the marvels that the virgin of Alca performed in the morning
+of her glorious eternity; they had the sweetness and indefiniteness of
+the dawn. Soon the mystery of the grotto spread like a perfume
+throughout the land; it was a ground of joy and edification for pious
+souls, and corrupt men endeavoured, though in vain, by falsehood and
+calumny, to divert the faithful from the springs of grace that flowed
+from the saint’s tomb. The Church took measures so that these graces
+should not remain reserved for a few children, but should be diffused
+throughout all Penguin Christianity. Monks took up their quarters in
+the grotto, they built a monastery, a chapel, and a hostelry on the
+coast, and pilgrims began to flock thither.
+
+As if strengthened by a longer sojourn in heaven, the blessed Orberosia
+now performed still greater miracles for those who came to lay their
+offerings on her tomb. She gave hopes to women who had been hitherto
+barren, she sent dreams to reassure jealous old men concerning the
+fidelity of the young wives whom they had suspected without cause, and
+she protected the country from plagues, murrains, famines, tempests,
+and dragons of Cappadocia.
+
+But during the troubles that desolated the kingdom in the time of King
+Collic and his successors, the tomb of St. Orberosia was plundered of
+its wealth, the monastery burned down, and the monks dispersed. The
+road that had been so long trodden by devout pilgrims was overgrown
+with furze and heather, and the blue thistles of the sands. For a
+hundred years the miraculous tomb had been visited by none save vipers,
+weasels, and bats, when, one day the saint appeared to a peasant of the
+neighbourhood, Momordic by name.
+
+“I am the virgin Orberosia,” said she to him; “I have chosen thee to
+restore my sanctuary. Warn the inhabitants of the country that if they
+allow my memory to be blotted out, and leave my tomb without honour and
+wealth, a new dragon will come and devastate Penguinia.”
+
+Learned churchmen held an inquiry concerning this apparition, and
+pronounced it genuine, and not diabolical but truly heavenly, and in
+later years it was remarked that in France, in like circumstances, St.
+Foy and St. Catherine had acted in the same way and made use of similar
+language.
+
+The monastery was restored and pilgrims flocked to it anew. The virgin
+Orberosia worked greater and greater miracles. She cured divers hurtful
+maladies, particularly club-foot, dropsy, paralysis, and St. Guy’s
+disease. The monks who kept the tomb were enjoying an enviable
+opulence, when the saint, appearing to King Draco the Great, ordered
+him to recognise her as the heavenly patron of the kingdom and to
+transfer her precious remains to the cathedral of Alca.
+
+In consequence, the odoriferous relics of that virgin were carried with
+great pomp to the metropolitan church and placed in the middle of the
+choir in a shrine made of gold and enamel and ornamented with precious
+stones.
+
+The chapter kept a record of the miracles wrought by the blessed
+Orberosia.
+
+Draco the Great, who had never ceased to defend and exalt the Christian
+faith, died fulfilled with the most pious sentiments and bequeathed his
+great possessions to the Church.
+
+
+
+
+III. QUEEN CRUCHA
+
+
+Terrible disorders followed the death of Draco the Great. That prince’s
+successors have often been accused of weakness, and it is true that
+none of them followed, even from afar, the example of their valiant
+ancestor.
+
+His son, Chum, who was lame, failed to increase the territory of the
+Penguins. Bolo, the son of Chum, was assassinated by the palace guards
+at the age of nine, just as he was ascending the throne. His brother
+Gun succeeded him. He was only seven years old and allowed himself to
+be governed by his mother, Queen Crucha.
+
+Crucha was beautiful, learned, and intelligent; but she was unable to
+curb her own passions.
+
+These are the terms in which the venerable Talpa expresses himself in
+his chronicle regarding that illustrious queen:
+
+“In beauty of face and symmetry of figure Queen Crucha yields neither
+to Semiramis of Babylon nor to Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons; nor
+to Salome, the daughter of Herodias. But she offers in her person
+certain singularities that will appear beautiful or uncomely according
+to the contradictory opinions of men and the varying judgments of the
+world. She has on her forehead two small horns which she conceals in
+the abundant folds of her golden hair; one of her eyes is blue and one
+is black; her neck is bent towards the left side; and, like Alexander
+of Macedon, she has six fingers on her right hand, and a stain like a
+little monkey’s head upon her skin.
+
+“Her gait is majestic and her manner affable. She is magnificent in her
+expenses, but she is not always able to rule desire by reason.
+
+“One day, having noticed in the palace stables, a young groom of great
+beauty, she immediately fell violently in love with him, and entrusted
+to him the command of her armies. What one must praise unreservedly in
+this great queen is the abundance of gifts that she makes to the
+churches, monasteries, and chapels in her kingdom, and especially to
+the holy house of Beargarden, where, by the grace of the Lord, I made
+my profession in my fourteenth year. She has founded masses for the
+repose of her soul in such great numbers that every priest in the
+Penguin Church is, so to speak, transformed into a taper lighted in the
+sight of heaven to draw down the divine mercy upon the august Crucha.”
+
+From these lines and from some others with which have enriched my text
+the reader can judge of the historical and literary value of the “Gesta
+Penguinorum.” Unhappily, that chronicle suddenly comes suddenly to an
+end at the third year of Draco the Simple, the successor of Gun the
+Weak. Having reached that point of my history, I deplore the loss of an
+agreeable and trustworthy guide.
+
+During the two centuries that followed, the Penguins remained plunged
+in blood-stained disorder. All the arts perished. In the midst of the
+general ignorance, the monks in the shadow of their cloister devoted
+themselves to study, and copied the Holy Scriptures with indefatigable
+zeal. As parchment was scarce, they scraped the writing off old
+manuscripts in order to transcribe upon them the divine word. Thus
+throughout the breadth of Penguinia Bibles blossomed forth like roses
+on a bush.
+
+A monk of the order of St. Benedict, Ermold the Penguin, had himself
+alone defaced four thousand Greek and Latin manuscripts so as to copy
+out the Gospel of St. John four thousand times. Thus the masterpieces
+of ancient poetry and eloquence were destroyed in great numbers.
+Historians are unanimous in recognising that the Penguin convents were
+the refuge of learning during the Middle Ages.
+
+Unending wars between the Penguins and the Porpoises filled the close
+of this period. It is extremely difficult to know the truth concerning
+these wars, not because accounts are wanting, but because there are so
+many of them. The Porpoise Chronicles contradict the Penguin Chronicles
+at every point. And, moreover, the Penguins contradict each other as
+well as the Porpoises. I have discovered two chronicles that are in
+agreement, but one has copied from the other. A single fact is certain,
+namely, that massacres, rapes, conflagrations, and plunder succeeded
+one another without interruption.
+
+Under the unhappy prince Bosco IX. the kingdom was at the verge of
+ruin. On the news that the Porpoise fleet, composed of six hundred
+great ships, was in sight of Alca, the bishop ordered a solemn
+procession. The cathedral chapter, the elected magistrates, the members
+of Parliament, and the clerics of the University entered the Cathedral
+and, taking up St. Orberosia’s shrine, led it in procession through the
+town, followed by the entire people singing hymns. The holy patron of
+Penguinia was not invoked in vain. Nevertheless, the Porpoises besieged
+the town both by land and sea, took it by assault, and for three days
+and three nights killed, plundered, violated, and burned, with all the
+indifference that habit produces.
+
+Our astonishment cannot be too great at the fact that, during those
+iron ages, the faith was preserved intact among the Penguins. The
+splendour of the truth in those times illumined all souls that had not
+been corrupted by sophisms. This is the explanation of the unity of
+belief. A constant practice of the Church doubtless contributed also to
+maintain this happy communion of the faithful—every Penguin who thought
+differently from the others was immediately burned at the stake.
+
+
+
+
+IV. LETTERS: JOHANNES TALPA
+
+
+During the minority of King Gun, Johannes Talpa, in the monastery of
+Beargarden, where at the age of fourteen he had made his profession and
+from which he never departed for a single day throughout his life,
+composed his celebrated Latin chronicle in twelve books called “De
+Gestis Penguinorum.”
+
+The monastery of Beargarden lifts its high walls on the summit of an
+inaccessible peak. One sees around it only the blue tops of mountains,
+divided by the clouds.
+
+When he began to write his “Gesta Penguinorum,” Johannes Talpa was
+already old. The good monk has taken care to tell us this in his book:
+“My head has long since lost,” he says, “its adornment of fair hair,
+and my scalp resembles those convex mirrors of metal which the Penguin
+ladies consult with so much care and zeal. My stature, naturally small,
+has with years become diminished and bent. My white beard gives warmth
+to my breast.”
+
+With a charming simplicity, Talpa informs us of certain circumstances
+in his life and some features in his character. “Descended,” he tells
+us, “from a noble family, and destined from childhood for the
+ecclesiastical state, I was taught grammar and music. I learnt to read
+under the guidance of a master who was called Amicus, and who would
+have been better named Inimicus. As I did not easily attain to a
+knowledge of my letters, he beat me violently with rods so that I can
+say that he printed the alphabet in strokes upon my back.”
+
+In another passage Talpa confesses his natural inclination towards
+pleasure. These are his expressive words: “In my youth the ardour of my
+senses was such that in the shadow of the woods I experienced a
+sensation of boiling in a pot rather than of breathing the fresh air. I
+fled from women, but in vain, for every object recalled them to me.”
+
+While he was writing his chronicle, a terrible war, at once foreign and
+domestic, laid waste the Penguin land. The soldiers of Crucha came to
+defend the monastery of Beargarden against the Penguin barbarians and
+established themselves strongly within its walls. In order to render it
+impregnable they pierced loop-holes through the walls and they took the
+lead off the church roof to make balls for their slings. At night they
+lighted huge fires in the courts and cloisters and on them they roasted
+whole oxen which they spitted upon the ancient pine-trees of the
+mountain. Sitting around the flames, amid smoke filled with a mingled
+odour of resin and fat, they broached huge casks of wine and beer.
+Their songs, their blasphemies, and the noise of their quarrels drowned
+the sound of the morning bells.
+
+At last the Porpoises, having crossed the defiles, laid siege to the
+monastery. They were warriors from the North, clad in copper armour.
+They fastened ladders a hundred and fifty fathoms long to the sides of
+the cliffs and sometimes in the darkness and storm these broke beneath
+the weight of men and arms, and bunches of the besiegers were hurled
+into the ravines and precipices. A prolonged wail would be heard going
+down into the darkness, and the assault would begin again. The Penguins
+poured streams of burning wax upon their assailants, which made them
+blaze like torches. Sixty times the enraged Porpoises attempted to
+scale the monastery and sixty times they were repulsed.
+
+For six months they had closely invested the monastery, when, on the
+day of the Epiphany, a shepherd of the valley showed them a hidden path
+by which they climbed the mountain, penetrated into the vaults of the
+abbey, ran through the cloisters, the kitchens, the church, the chapter
+halls, the library, the laundry, the cells, the refectories, and the
+dormitories, and burned the buildings, killing and violating without
+distinction of age or sex. The Penguins, awakened unexpectedly, ran to
+arms, but in the darkness and alarm they struck at one another, whilst
+the Porpoises with blows of their axes disputed the sacred vessels, the
+censers, the candlesticks, dalmatics, reliquaries, golden crosses, and
+precious stones.
+
+The air was filled with an acrid odour of burnt flesh. Groans and
+death-cries arose in the midst of the flames, and on the edges of the
+crumbling roofs monks ran in thousands like ants, and fell into the
+valley. Yet Johannes Talpa kept on writing his Chronicle. The soldiers
+of Crucha retreated speedily and filled up all the issues from the
+monastery with pieces of rock so as to shut up the Porpoises in the
+burning buildings. And to crush the enemy beneath the ruin they
+employed the trunks of old oaks as battering-rams. The burning timbers
+fell in with a noise like thunder and the lofty arches of the naves
+crumbled beneath the shock of these giant trees when moved by six
+hundred men together. Soon there was left nothing of the rich and
+extensive abbey but the cell of Johannes Talpa, which, by a marvellous
+chance, hung from the ruin of a smoking gable. The old chronicler still
+kept writing.
+
+This admirable intensity of thought may seem excessive in the case of
+an annalist who applies himself to relate the events of his own time.
+However abstracted and detached we may be from surrounding things, we
+nevertheless resent their influence. I have consulted the original
+manuscript of Johannes Talpa in the National Library, where it is
+preserved (_Monumenta Peng_., _K_. _L_6., 12390 _four_). It is a
+parchment manuscript of 628 leaves. The writing is extremely confused,
+the letters instead of being in a straight line, stray in all
+directions and are mingled together in great disorder, or, more
+correctly speaking, in absolute confusion. They are so badly formed
+that for the most part it is impossible not merely to say what they
+are, but even to distinguish them from the splashes of ink with which
+they are plentifully interspersed. Those inestimable pages bear witness
+in this way to the troubles amid which they were written. To read them
+is difficult. On the other hand, the monk of Beargarden’s style shows
+no trace of emotion. The tone of the “Gesta Penguinorum” never departs
+from simplicity. The narration is rapid and of a conciseness that
+sometimes approaches dryness. The reflections are rare and, as a rule,
+judicious.
+
+
+
+
+V. THE ARTS: THE PRIMITIVES OF PENGUIN PAINTING
+
+
+The Penguin critics vie with one another in affirming that Penguin art
+has from its origin been distinguished by a powerful and pleasing
+originality, and that we may look elsewhere in vain for the qualities
+of grace and reason that characterise its earliest works. But the
+Porpoises claim that their artists were undoubtedly the instructors and
+masters of the Penguins. It is difficult to form an opinion on the
+matter, because the Penguins, before they began to admire their
+primitive painters, destroyed all their works.
+
+We cannot be too sorry for this loss. For my own part I feel it
+cruelly, for I venerate the Penguin antiquities and I adore the
+primitives. They are delightful. I do not say the are all alike, for
+that would be untrue, but they have common characters that are found in
+all schools—I mean formulas from which they never depart—and there is
+besides something finished in their work, for what they know they know
+well. Luckily we can form a notion of the Penguin primitives from the
+Italian, Flemish, and Dutch primitives, and from the French primitives,
+who are superior to all the rest; as M. Gruyer tells us they are more
+logical, logic being a peculiarly French quality. Even if this is
+denied it must at least be admitted that to France belongs the credit
+of having kept primitives when the other nations knew them no longer.
+The Exhibition of French Primitives at the Pavilion Marsan in 1904
+contained several little panels contemporary with the later Valois
+kings and with Henry IV.
+
+I have made many journeys to see the pictures of the brothers Van Eyck,
+of Memling, of Roger van der Weyden, of the painter of the death of
+Mary, of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and of the old Umbrian masters. It was,
+however, neither Bruges, nor Cologne, nor Sienna, nor Perugia, that
+completed my initiation; it was in the little town of Arezzo that I
+became a conscious adept in primitive painting. That was ten years ago
+or even longer. At that period of indigence and simplicity, the
+municipal museums, though usually kept shut, were always opened to
+foreigners. One evening an old woman with a candle showed me, for half
+a lira, the sordid museum of Arezzo, and in it I discovered a painting
+by Margaritone, a “St. Francis,” the pious sadness of which moved me to
+tears. I was deeply touched, and Margaritone, of Arezzo became from
+that day my dearest primitive.
+
+I picture to myself the Penguin primitives in conformity with the works
+of that master. It will not therefore be thought superfluous if in this
+place I consider his works with some attention, if not in detail, at
+least under their more general and, if I dare say so, most
+representative aspect.
+
+We possess five or six pictures signed with his hand. His masterpiece,
+preserved in the National Gallery of London, represents the Virgin
+seated on a throne and holding the infant Jesus in her arms. What
+strikes one first when one looks at this figure is the proportion. The
+body from the neck to the feet is only twice as long as the head, so
+that it appears extremely short and podgy. This work is not less
+remarkable for its painting than for its drawing. The great Margaritone
+had but a limited number of colours in his possession, and he used them
+in all their purity without ever modifying the tones. From this it
+follows that his colouring has more vivacity than harmony. The cheeks
+of the Virgin and those of the Child are of a bright vermilion which
+the old master, from a naïve preference for clear definitions, has
+placed on each face in two circumferences as exact as if they had been
+traced out by a pair of compasses.
+
+A learned critic of the eighteenth century, the Abbé Lanzi, has treated
+Margaritone’s works with profound disdain. “They are,” he says, “merely
+crude daubs. In those unfortunate times people could neither draw nor
+paint.” Such was the common opinion of the connoisseurs of the days of
+powdered wigs. But the great Margaritone and his contemporaries were
+soon to be avenged for this cruel contempt. There was born in the
+nineteenth century, in the biblical villages and reformed cottages of
+pious England, a multitude of little Samuels and little St. Johns, with
+hair curling like lambs, who, about 1840, and 1850, became spectacled
+professors and founded the cult of the primitives.
+
+That eminent theorist of Pre-Raphaelitism, Sir James Tuckett, does not
+shrink from placing the Madonna of the National Gallery on a level with
+the masterpieces of Christian art. “By giving to the Virgin’s head,”
+says Sir James Tuckett, “a third of the total height of the figure, the
+old master attracts the spectator’s attention and keeps it directed
+towards the more sublime parts of the human figure, and in particular
+the eyes, which we ordinarily describe as the spiritual organs. In this
+picture, colouring and design conspire to produce an ideal and mystical
+impression. The vermilion of the cheeks does not recall the natural
+appearance of the skin; it rather seems as if the old master has
+applied the roses of Paradise to the faces of the Mother and the
+Child.”
+
+We see, in such a criticism as this, a shining reflection, so to speak,
+of the work which it exalts; yet MacSilly, the seraphic aesthete of
+Edinburgh, has expressed in a still more moving and penetrating fashion
+the impression produced upon his mind by the sight of this primitive
+painting. “The Madonna of Margaritone,” says the revered MacSilly,
+“attains the transcendent end of art. It inspires its beholders with
+feelings of innocence and purity; it makes them like little children.
+And so true is this, that at the age of sixty-six, after having had the
+joy of contemplating it closely for three hours, I felt myself suddenly
+transformed into a little child. While my cab was taking me through
+Trafalgar Square I kept laughing and prattling and shaking my
+spectacle-case as if it were a rattle. And when the maid in my
+boarding-house had served my meal I kept pouring spoonfuls of soup into
+my ear with all the artlessness of childhood.”
+
+“It is by such results,” adds MacSilly, “that the excellence of a work
+of art is proved.”
+
+Margaritone, according to Vasari, died at the age of seventy-seven,
+“regretting that he had lived to see a new form of art arising and the
+new artists crowned with fame.”
+
+These lines, which I translate literally, have inspired Sir James
+Tuckett with what are perhaps the finest pages in his work. They form
+part of his “Breviary for Æsthetes”; all the Pre-Raphaelites know them
+by heart. I place them here as the most precious ornament of this book.
+You will agree that nothing more sublime has been written since the
+days of the Hebrew prophets.
+
+MARGARITONE’S VISION
+
+
+Margaritone, full of years and labours, went one day to visit the
+studio of a young painter who had lately settled in the town. He
+noticed in the studio a freshly painted Madonna, which, although severe
+and rigid, nevertheless, by a certain exactness in the proportions and
+a devilish mingling of light and shade, assumed an appearance of relief
+and life. At this sight the artless and sublime worker of Arezzo
+perceived with horror what the future of painting would be. With his
+brow clasped in his hands he exclaimed:
+
+“What things of shame does not this figure show forth! I discern in it
+the end of that Christian art which paints the soul and inspires the
+beholder with an ardent desire for heaven. Future painters will not
+restrain themselves as does this one to portraying on the side of a
+wall or on a wooden panel the cursed matter of which our bodies are
+formed; they will celebrate and glorify it. They will clothe their
+figures with dangerous appearances of flesh, and these figures will
+seem like real persons. Their bodies will be seen; their forms will
+appear through their clothing. St. Magdalen will have a bosom. St.
+Martha a belly, St. Barbara hips, St. Agnes buttocks; St. Sebastian
+will unveil his youthful beauty, and St. George will display beneath
+his armour the muscular wealth of a robust virility; apostles,
+confessors, doctors, and God the Father himself will appear as ordinary
+beings like you and me; the angels will affect an equivocal, ambiguous,
+mysterious beauty which will trouble hearts. What desire for heaven
+will these representations impart? None; but from them you will learn
+to take pleasure in the forms of terrestrial life. Where will painters
+stop in their indiscreet inquiries? They will stop nowhere. They will
+go so far as to show men and women naked like the idols of the Romans.
+There will be a sacred art and a profane art, and the sacred art will
+not be less profane than the other.”
+
+“Get ye behind me, demons,” exclaimed the old master. For in prophetic
+vision he saw the righteous and the saints assuming the appearance of
+melancholy athletes. He saw Apollos playing the lute on a flowery hill,
+in the midst of the Muses wearing light tunics. He saw Venuses lying
+under shady myrtles and the Danae exposing their charming sides to the
+golden rain. He saw pictures of Jesus under the pillars of the temple
+amidst patricians, fair ladies, musicians, pages, negroes, dogs, and
+parrots. He saw in an inextricable confusion of human limbs, outspread
+wings, and flying draperies, crowds of tumultuous Nativities, opulent
+Holy Families, emphatic Crucifixions. He saw St. Catherines, St.
+Barbaras, St. Agneses humiliating patricians by the sumptuousness of
+their velvets, their brocades, and their pearls, and by the splendour
+of their breasts. He saw Auroras scattering roses, and a multitude of
+naked Dianas and Nymphs surprised on the banks of retired streams. And
+the great Margaritone died, strangled by so horrible a presentiment of
+the Renaissance and the Bolognese School.
+
+
+
+
+VI. MARBODIUS
+
+
+We possess a precious monument of the Penguin literature of the
+fifteenth century. It is a narrative of a journey to hell undertaken by
+the monk Marbodius, of the order of St. Benedict, who professed a
+fervent admiration for the poet Virgil. This narrative, written in
+fairly good Latin, has been published by M. du Clos des Limes. It is
+here translated for the first time. I believe that I am doing a service
+to my fellow-countrymen in making them acquainted with these pages,
+though doubtless they are far from forming a unique example of this
+class of mediaeval Latin literature. Among the fictions that may be
+compared with them we may mention “The Voyage of St. Brendan,” “The
+Vision of Albericus,” and “St. Patrick’s Purgatory,” imaginary
+descriptions, like Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy,” of the supposed
+abode of the dead. The narrative of Marbodius is one of the latest
+works dealing with this theme, but it is not the least singular.
+
+THE DESCENT OF MARBODIUS INTO HELL
+
+
+In the fourteen hundred and fifty-third year of the incarnation of the
+Son of God, a few days before the enemies of the Cross entered the city
+of Helena and the great Constantine, it was given to me, Brother
+Marbodius, an unworthy monk, to see and to hear what none had hitherto
+seen or heard. I have composed a faithful narrative of those things so
+that their memory may not perish with me, for man’s time is short.
+
+On the first day of May in the aforesaid year, at the hour of vespers,
+I was seated in the Abbey of Corrigan on a stone in the cloisters and,
+as my custom was, I read the verses of the poet whom I love best of
+all, Virgil, who has sung of the labours: of the field, of shepherds,
+and of heroes. Evening was hanging its purple folds from the arches of
+the cloisters and in a voice of emotion I was murmuring the verses
+which describe how Dido, the Phœnician queen, wanders with her
+ever-bleeding wound beneath the myrtles of hell. At that moment Brother
+Hilary happened to pass by, followed by Brother Jacinth, the porter.
+
+Brought up in the barbarous ages before the resurrection of the Muses,
+Brother Hilary has not been initiated into the wisdom of the ancients;
+nevertheless, the poetry of the Mantuan has, like a subtle torch, shed
+some gleams of light into his understanding.
+
+“Brother Marbodius,” he asked me, “do those verses that you utter with
+swelling breast and sparkling eyes—do they belong to that great ‘Æneid’
+from which morning or evening your glances are never withheld?”
+
+I answered that I was reading in Virgil how the son of Anchises
+perceived Dido like a moon behind the foliage.[4]
+
+ [4] The text runs
+
+. . . qualem primo qui syrgere mense
+Aut videt aut vidisse putat per nubila lunam.
+Brother Marbodius, by a strange misunderstanding, substitutes an
+entirely different image for the one created by the poet.
+
+
+“Brother Marbodius,” he replied, “I am certain that on all occasions
+Virgil gives expression to wise maxims and profound thoughts. But the
+songs that he modulates on his Syracusan flute hold such a lofty
+meaning and such exalted doctrine that I am continually puzzled by
+them.”
+
+“Take care, father,” cried Brother Jacinth, in an agitated voice.
+“Virgil was a magician who wrought marvels by the help of demons. It is
+thus he pierced through a mountain near Naples and fashioned a bronze
+horse that had power to heal all the diseases of horses. He was a
+necromancer, and there is still shown, in a certain town in Italy, the
+mirror in which he made the dead appear. And yet a woman deceived this
+great sorcerer. A Neapolitan courtesan invited him to hoist himself up
+to her window in the basket that was used to bring the provisions, and
+she left him all night suspended between two storeys.”
+
+Brother Hilary did not appear to hear these observations.
+
+“Virgil is a prophet,” he replied, “and a prophet who leaves far behind
+him the sibyls with their sacred verses as well as the daughter of King
+Priam, and that great diviner of future things, Plato of Athens. You
+will find in the fourth of his Syracusan cantos the birth of our Lord
+foretold in a lancune that seems of heaven rather than of earth.[5] In
+the time of my early studies, when I read for the first time JAM REDIT
+ET VIRGO, I felt myself bathed in an infinite delight, but I
+immediately experienced intense grief at the thought that, for ever
+deprived of the presence of God, the author of this prophetic verse,
+the noblest that has come from human lips, was pining among the heathen
+in eternal darkness. This cruel thought did not leave me. It pursued me
+even in my studies, my prayers, my meditations, and my ascetic labours.
+Thinkin that Virgil was deprived of the sight of God and that possibly
+he might even be suffering the fate of the reprobate in hell, I could
+neither enjoy peace nor rest, and I went so far as to exclaim several
+times a day with my arms outstretched to heaven:
+
+
+ [5] Three centuries before the epoch in which our Marbodius lived the
+ words—
+
+Maro, vates gentilium
+Da Christo testimonium.
+
+Were sung in the churches on Christmas Day.
+
+
+“‘Reveal to me, O Lord, the lot thou hast assigned to him who sang on
+earth as the angels sing in heaven!’
+
+“After some years my anguish ceased when I read in an old book that the
+great apostle St. Paul, who called the Gentiles into the Church of
+Christ, went to Naples and sanctified with his tears the tomb of the
+prince of poets.[6] This was some ground for believing that Virgil,
+like the Emperor Trajan, was admitted to Paradise because even in error
+he had a presentiment of the truth. We are not compelled to believe it,
+but I can easily persuade myself that it is true.”
+
+ [6] Ad maronis mausoleum
+Ductus, fudit super eum
+Piae rorem lacrymæ.
+
+Quem te, intuit, reddidissem,
+Si te vivum invenissem
+Poetarum maxime!
+
+
+Having thus spoken, old Hilary wished me the peace of a holy night and
+went away with Brother Jacinth.
+
+I resumed the delightful study of my poet. Book in hand, I meditated
+upon the way in which those whom Love destroys with its cruel malady
+wander through the secret paths in the depth of the myrtle forest, and,
+as I meditated, the quivering reflections of the stars came and mingled
+with those of the leafless eglantines in the waters of the cloister
+fountain. Suddenly the lights and the perfumes and the stillness of the
+sky were overwhelmed, a fierce Northwind charged with storm and
+darkness burst roaring upon me. It lifted me up and carried me like a
+wisp of straw over fields, cities, rivers, and mountains, and through
+the midst of thunder-clouds, during a long night composed of a whole
+series of nights and days. And when, after this prolonged and cruel
+rage, the hurricane was at last stilled, I found myself far from my
+native land at the bottom of a valley bordered by cypress trees. Then a
+woman of wild beauty, trailing long garments behind her, approached me.
+She placed her left hand on my shoulder, and, pointing her right arm to
+an oak with thick foliage:
+
+“Look!” said she to me.
+
+Immediately I recognised the Sibyl who guards the sacred wood of
+Avernus, and I discerned the fair Proserpine’s beautiful golden twig
+amongst the tufted boughs of the tree to which her finger pointed.
+
+“O prophetic Virgin,” I exclaimed, “thou hast comprehended my desire
+and thou hast satisfied it in this way. Thou hast revealed to me the
+tree that bears the shining twig without which none can enter alive
+into the dwelling-place of the dead. And in truth, eagerly did I long
+to converse with the shade of Virgil.”
+
+Having said this, I snatched the golden branch from its ancient trunk
+and I advanced without fear into the smoking gulf that leads to the
+miry banks of the Styx, upon which the shades are tossed about like
+dead leaves. At sight of the branch dedicated to Proserpine, Charon
+took me in his bark, which groaned beneath my weight, and I alighted on
+the shores of the dead, and was greeted by the mute baying of the
+threefold Cerberus. I pretended to throw the shade of a stone at him,
+and the vain monster fled into his cave. There, amidst the rushes,
+wandered the souls of those children whose eyes had but opened and shut
+to the kindly light of day, and there in a gloomy cavern Minos judges
+men. I penetrated into the myrtle wood in which the victims of love
+wander languishing, Phaedra, Procris, the sad Eriphyle, Evadne,
+Pasiphaë Laodamia, and Cenis, and the Phœnician Dido. Then I went
+through the dusty plains reserved for famous warriors. Beyond them open
+two ways. That to the left leads to Tartarus, the abode of the wicked.
+I took that to the right, which leads to Elysium and to the dwellings
+of Dis. Having hung the sacred branch at the goddess’s door, I reached
+pleasant fields flooded with purple light. The shades of philosophers
+and poets hold grave converse there. The Graces and the Muses formed
+sprightly choirs upon the grass. Old Homer sang, accompanying himself
+upon his rustic lyre. His eyes were closed, but divine images shone
+upon his lips. I saw Solon, Democritus, and Pythagoras watching the
+games of the young men in the meadow, and, through the foliage of an
+ancient laurel, I perceived also Hesiod, Orpheus, the melancholy
+Euripides, and the masculine Sappho. I passed and recognised, as they
+sat on the bank of a fresh rivulet, the poet Horace, Varius, Gallus,
+and Lycoris. A little apart, leaning against the trunk of a dark
+holm-oak, Virgil was gazing pensively at the grove. Of lofty stature,
+though spare, he still preserved that swarthy complexion, that rustic
+air, that negligent bearing, and unpolished appearance which during his
+lifetime concealed his genius. I saluted him piously and remained for a
+long time without speech.
+
+At last when my halting voice could proceed out of my throat:
+
+“O thou, so dear to the Ausonian Muses, thou honour of the Latin name,
+Virgil,” cried I, “it is through thee I have known what beauty is, it
+is through thee I have known what the tables of the gods and the beds
+of the goddesses are like. Suffer the praises of the humblest of thy
+adorers.”
+
+“Arise, stranger,” answered the divine poet. “I perceive that thou art
+a living being among the shades, and that thy body treads down the
+grass in this eternal evening. Thou art not the first man who has
+descended before his death into these dwellings, although all
+intercourse between us and the living is difficult. But cease from
+praise; I do not like eulogies and the confused sounds of glory have
+always offended my ears. That is why I fled from Rome, where I was
+known to the idle and curious, and laboured in the solitude of my
+beloved Parthenope. And then I am not so convinced that the men of thy
+generation understand my verses that should be gratified by thy
+praises. Who art thou?”
+
+“I am called Marbodius of the Kingdom of Alca. I made my profession in
+the Abbey of Corrigan. I read thy poems by day and I read them by
+night. It is thee whom I have come to see in Hell; I was impatient to
+know what thy fate was. On earth the learned often dispute about it.
+Some hold it probable that, having lived under the power of demons,
+thou art now burning in inextinguishable flames; others, more cautious,
+pronounce no opinion, believing that all which is said concerning the
+dead is uncertain and full of lies; several, though not in truth the
+ablest, maintain that, because thou didst elevate the tone of the
+Sicilian Muses and foretell that a new progeny would descend from
+heaven, thou wert admitted, like the Emperor Trajan, to enjoy eternal
+blessedness in the Christian heaven.”
+
+“Thou seest that such is not the case,” answered the shade, smiling.
+
+“I meet thee in truth, O Virgil, among the heroes and sages in those
+Elysian Fields which thou thyself hast described. Thus, contrary to
+what several on earth believe, no one has come to seek thee on the part
+of Him who reigns on high?”
+
+After a rather long silence:
+
+“I will conceal nought from thee. He sent for me; one of his
+messengers, a simple man, came to say that I was expected, and that,
+although I had not been initiated into their mysteries, in
+consideration of my prophetic verses, a place had been reserved for me
+among those of the new sect. But I refused to accept that invitation; I
+had no desire to change my place. I did so not because I share the
+admiration of the Greeks for the Elysian fields, or because I taste
+here those joys which caused Proserpine to lose the remembrance of her
+mother. I never believed much myself in what I say about these things
+in the ‘Æneid.’ I was instructed by philosophers and men of science and
+I had a correct foreboding of the truth. Life in hell is extremely
+attenuated; we feel neither pleasure nor pain; we are as if we were
+not. The dead have no existence here except such as the living lend
+them. Nevertheless I prefer to remain here.”
+
+“But what reason didst thou give, O Virgil, for so strange a refusal?”
+
+“I gave excellent ones. I said to the messenger of the god that I did
+not deserve the honour he brought me, and that a meaning had been given
+to my verses which they did not bear. In truth I have not in my fourth
+Eclogue betrayed the faith of my ancestors. Some ignorant Jews alone
+have interpreted in favour of a barbarian god a verse which celebrates
+the return of the golden age predicted by the Sibylline oracles. I
+excused myself then on the ground that I could not occupy a place which
+was destined for me in error and to which I recognised that I had no
+right. Then I alleged my disposition and my tastes, which do not accord
+with the customs of the new heavens.
+
+“‘I am not unsociable,’ said I to this man. ‘I have shown in life a
+complaisant and easy disposition, although the extreme simplicity of my
+habits caused me to be suspected of avarice. I kept nothing for myself
+alone. My library was open to all and I have conformed my conduct to
+that fine saying of Euripides, “all ought to be common among friends.”
+Those praises that seemed obtrusive when I myself received them became
+agreeable to me when addressed to Varius or to Macer. But at bottom I
+am rustic and uncultivated. I take pleasure in the society of animals;
+I was so zealous in observing them and took so much care of them that I
+was regarded, not altogether wrongly, as a good veterinary surgeon. I
+am told that the people of thy sect claim an immortal soul for
+themselves, but refuse one to the animals. That is a piece of nonsense
+that makes me doubt their judgment. Perhaps I love the flocks and the
+shepherds a little too much. That would not seem right amongst you.
+There is a maxim to which I endeavour to conform my actions, “Nothing
+too much.” More even than my feeble health my philosophy teaches me to
+use things with measure. I am sober; a lettuce and some olives with a
+drop of Falernian wine form all my meals. I have, indeed, to some
+extent gone with strange women, but I have not delayed over long in
+taverns to watch the young Syrians dance to the sound of the
+_crotalum_.[7] But if I have restrained my desires it was for my own
+satisfaction and for the sake of good discipline. To fear pleasure and
+to fly from joy appears to me the worst insult that one can offer to
+nature. I am assured that during their lives certain of the elect of
+thy god abstained from food and avoided women through love of
+asceticism, and voluntarily exposed themselves to useless sufferings. I
+should be afraid of meeting those, criminals whose frenzy horrifies me.
+A poet must not be asked to attach himself too strictly to any
+scientific or moral doctrine. Moreover, I am a Roman, and the Romans,
+unlike the Greeks, are unable to pursue profound speculations in a
+subtle manner. If they adopt a philosophy it is above all in order to
+derive some practical advantages from it. Siro, who enjoyed great
+renown among us, taught me the system of Epicurus and thus freed me
+from vain terrors and turned me aside from the cruelties to which
+religion persuades ignorant men. I have embraced the views of
+Pythagoras concerning the souls of men and animals, both of which are
+of divine essence; this invites us to look upon ourselves without pride
+and without shame. I have learnt from the Alexandrines how the earth,
+at first soft and without form, hardened in proportion as Nereus
+withdrew himself from it to dig his humid dwellings; I have learned how
+things were formed insensibly; in what manner the rains, falling from
+the burdened clouds, nourished the silent forests, and by what progress
+a few animals at last began to wander over the nameless mountains. I
+could not accustom myself to your cosmogony either, for it seems to me
+fitter for a camel-driver on the Syrian sands than for a disciple of
+Aristarchus of Samos. And what would become of me in the abode of your
+beatitude if I did not find there my friends, my ancestors, my masters,
+and my gods, and if it is not given to me to see Rhea’s noble son, or
+Venus, mother of Æneas, with her winning smile, or Pan, or the young
+Dryads, or the Sylvans, or old Silenus, with his face stained by Ægle’s
+purple mulberries.’ These are the reasons which I begged that simple
+man to plead before the successor of Jupiter.”
+
+ [7] This phrase seems to indicate that, if one is to believe
+ Macrobius, the “Copa” is by Virgil.
+
+
+“And since then, O great shade, thou hast received no other messages?”
+
+“I have received none.”
+
+“To console themselves for thy absence, O Virgil, they have three
+poets, Commodianus, Prudentius, and Fortunatus, who were all three born
+in those dark plays when neither prosody nor grammar were known. But
+tell me, O Mantuan, hast thou never received other intelligence of the
+God whose company thou didst so deliberately refuse?”
+
+“Never that I remember.”
+
+“Hast thou not told me that I am not the first who descended alive into
+these abodes and presented himself before thee?”
+
+“Thou dost remind me of it. A century and a half ago, or so it seems to
+me (it is difficult to reckon days and years amid the shades), my
+profound peace was intruded upon by a strange visitor. As I was
+wandering beneath the gloomy foliage that borders the Styx, I saw
+rising before me a human form more opaque and darker than that of the
+inhabitants of these shores. I recognised a living person. He was of
+high stature, thin, with an aquiline nose, sharp chin, and hollow
+cheeks. His dark eyes shot forth fire; a red hood girt with a crown of
+laurels bound his lean brows. His bones pierced through the tight brown
+cloak that descended to his heels. He saluted me with deference,
+tempered by a sort of fierce pride, and addressed me in a speech more
+obscure and incorrect than that of those Gauls with whom the divine
+Julius filled both his legions and the Curia. At last I understood that
+he had been born near Fiesole, in an ancient Etruscan colony that Sulla
+had founded on the banks of the Arno, and which had prospered; that he
+had obtained municipal honours, but that he had thrown himself
+vehemently into the sanguinary quarrels which arose between the senate,
+the knights, and the people, that he had been defeated and banished,
+and now he wandered in exile throughout the world. He described Italy
+to me as distracted by more wars and discords than in the time of my
+youth, and as sighing anew for a second Augustus. I pitied his
+misfortune, remembering what I myself had formerly endured.
+
+“An audacious spirit unceasingly disquieted him, and his mind harboured
+great thoughts, but alas! his rudeness and ignorance displayed the
+triumph of barbarism. He knew neither poetry, nor science, nor even the
+tongue of the Greeks, and he was ignorant, too, of the ancient
+traditions concerning the origin of the world and the nature of the
+gods. He bravely repeated fables which in my time would have brought
+smiles to the little children who were not yet old enough to pay for
+admission at the baths. The vulgar easily believe in monsters. The
+Etruscans especially peopled hell with demons, hideous as a sick man’s
+dreams. That they have not abandoned their childish imaginings after so
+many centuries is explained by the continuation and progress of
+ignorance and misery, but that one of their magistrates whose mind is
+raised above the common level should share these popular illusions and
+should be frightened by the hideous demons that the inhabitants of that
+country painted on the walls of their tombs in the time of Porsena—that
+is something which might sadden even a sage. My Etruscan visitor
+repeated verses to me which he had composed in a new dialect, called by
+him the vulgar tongue, the sense of which I could not understand. My
+ears were more surprised than charmed as I heard him repeat the same
+sound three or four times at regular intervals in his efforts to mark
+the rhythm. That artifice did not seem ingenious to me; but it is not
+for the dead to judge of novelties.
+
+“But I do not reproach this colonist of Sulla, born in an unhappy time,
+for making inharmonious verses or for being, if it be possible, as bad
+a poet as Bavius or Maevius. I have grievances against him which touch
+me more closely. The thing is monstrous and scarcely credible, but when
+this man returned to earth he disseminated the most odious lies about
+me. He affirmed in several passages of his barbarous poems that I had
+served him as a guide in the modern Tartarus, a place I know nothing
+of. He insolently proclaimed that I had spoken of the gods of Rome as
+false and lying gods, and that I held as the true God the present
+successor of Jupiter. Friend, when thou art restored to the kindly
+light of day and beholdest again thy native land, contradict those
+abominable falsehoods. Say to thy people that the singer of the pious
+Æneas has never worshipped the god of the Jews. I am assured that his
+power is declining and that his approaching fall is manifested by
+undoubted indications. This news would give me some pleasure if one
+could rejoice in these abodes where we feel neither fears nor desires.”
+
+He spoke, and with a gesture of farewell he went away. I beheld his.
+shade gliding over the asphodels without bending their stalks. I saw
+that it became fainter and vaguer as it receded farther from me, and it
+vanished before it reached the wood of evergreen laurels. Then I
+understood the meaning of the words, “The dead have no life, but that
+which the living lend them,” and I walked slowly through the pale
+meadow to the gate of horn.
+
+I affirm that all in this writing is true.[8]
+
+ [8] There is in Marbodius’s narrative a passage very worthy of notice,
+ viz., that in which the monk of Corrigan describes Dante Alighieri
+ such as we picture him to ourselves to-day. The miniatures in a very
+ old manuscript of the “Divine Comedy,” the “Codex Venetianus,”
+ represent the poet as a little fat man clad in a short tunic, the
+ skirts of which fall above his knees. As for Virgil, he still wears
+ the philosophical beard, in the wood-engravings of the sixteenth
+ century.
+    One would not have thought either that Marbodius, or even Virgil,
+    could have known the Etruscan tombs of Chiusi and Corneto, where,
+    in fact, there are horrible and burlesque devils closely resembling
+    those of Orcagna. Nevertheless, the authenticity of the “Descent of
+    Marbodius into Hell” is indisputable. M. du Clos des Lunes has
+    firmly established it. To doubt it would be to doubt palaeography
+    itself.
+
+
+
+
+VII. SIGNS IN THE MOON
+
+
+At that time, whilst Penguinia was still plunged in ignorance and
+barbarism, Giles Bird-catcher, a Franciscan monk, known by his writings
+under the name Ægidius Aucupis, devoted himself with indefatigable zeal
+to the study of letters and the sciences. He gave his nights to
+mathematics and music, which he called the two adorable sisters, the
+harmonious daughters of Number and Imagination. He was versed in
+medicine and astrology. He was suspected of practising magic, and it
+seemed true that he wrought metamorphoses and discovered hidden things.
+
+The monks of his convent, finding in his cell Greek books which they
+could not read, imagined them to be conjuring-books, and denounced
+their too learned brother as a wizard. Ægidius Aucupis fled, and
+reached the island of Ireland, where he lived for thirty studious
+years. He went from monastery to monastery, searching for and copying
+the Greek and Latin manuscripts which they contained. He also studied
+physics and alchemy. He acquired a universal knowledge and discovered
+notable secrets concerning animals, plants, and stones. He was found
+one day in the company of a very beautiful woman who sang to her own
+accompaniment on the lute, and who was afterwards discovered to be a
+machine which he had himself constructed.
+
+He often crossed the Irish Sea to go into the land of Wales and to
+visit the libraries of the monasteries there. During one of these
+crossings, as he remained during the night on the bridge of the ship,
+he saw beneath the waters two sturgeons swimming side by side. He had
+very good hearing and he knew the language of fishes. Now he heard one
+of the sturgeons say to the other:
+
+“The man in the moon, whom we have often seen carrying fagots on his
+shoulders, has fallen into the sea.”
+
+And the other sturgeon said in its turn:
+
+“And in the silver disc there will be seen the image of two lovers
+kissing each other on the mouth.”
+
+Some years later, having returned to his native country, Ægidius
+Aucupis found that ancient learning had been restored. Manners had
+softened. Men no longer pursued the nymphs of the fountains, of the
+woods, and of the mountains with their insults. They placed images of
+the Muses and of the modest Graces in their gardens, and they rendered
+her former honours to the Goddess with ambrosial lips, the joy of men
+and gods. They were becoming reconciled to nature. They trampled vain
+terrors beneath their feet and raised their eyes to heaven without
+fearing, as they formerly did, to read signs of anger and threats of
+damnation in the skies.
+
+At this spectacle Ægidius Aucupis remembered what the two sturgeons of
+the sea of Erin had foretold.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV. MODERN TIMES: TRINCO
+
+
+
+
+I. MOTHER ROUQUIN
+
+
+Ægidius Aucupis, the Erasmus of the Penguins, was not mistaken; his age
+was an age of free inquiry. But that great man mistook the elegances of
+the humanists for softness of manners, and he did not foresee the
+effects that the awaking of intelligence would have amongst the
+Penguins. It brought about the religious Reformation; Catholics
+massacred Protestants and Protestants massacred Catholics. Such were
+the first results of liberty of thought. The Catholics prevailed in
+Penguinia. But the spirit of inquiry had penetrated among them without
+their knowing it. They joined reason to faith, and claimed that
+religion had been divested of the superstitious practices that
+dishonoured it, just as in later days the booths that the cobblers,
+hucksters, and dealers in old clothes had built against the walls of
+the cathedrals were cleared away. The word, legend, which at first
+indicated what the faithful ought to read, soon suggested the idea of
+pious fables and childish tales.
+
+The saints had to suffer from this state of mind. An obscure canon
+called Princeteau, a very austere and crabbed man, designated so great
+a number of them as not worthy of having their days observed, that he
+was surnamed the exposer of the saints. He did not think, for instance,
+that if St. Margaret’s prayer were applied as a poultice to a woman in
+travail that the pains of childbirth would be softened.
+
+Even the venerable patron saint of Penguinia did not escape his rigid
+criticism. This is what he says of her in his “Antiquities of Alca”:
+
+“Nothing is more uncertain than the history, or even the existence, of
+St. Orberosia. An ancient anonymous annalist, a monk of Dombes, relates
+that a woman called Orberosia was possessed by the devil in a cavern
+where, even down to his own days, the little boys and girls of the
+village used to play at a sort of game representing the devil and the
+fair Orberosia. He adds that this woman became the concubine of a
+horrible dragon, who ravaged the country. Such a statement is hardly
+credible, but the history of Orberosia, as it has since been related,
+seems hardly more worthy of belief. The life of that saint by the Abbot
+Simplicissimus is three hundred years later than the pretended events
+which it relates and that author shows himself excessively credulous
+and devoid of all critical faculty.”
+
+Suspicion attacked even the supernatural origin of the Penguins. The
+historian Ovidius Capito went so far as to deny the miracle of their
+transformation. He thus begins his “Annals of Penguinia”:
+
+“A dense obscurity envelopes this history, and it would be no
+exaggeration to say that it is a tissue of puerile fables and popular
+tales. The Penguins claim that they are descended from birds who were
+baptized by St. Maël and whom God changed into men at the intercession
+of that glorious apostle. They hold that, situated at first in the
+frozen ocean, their island, floating like Delos, was brought to anchor
+in these heaven-favoured seas, of which it is to-day the queen. I
+conclude that this myth is a reminiscence of the ancient migrations of
+the Penguins.”
+
+In the following century, which was that of the philosophers,
+scepticism became still more acute. No further evidence of it is needed
+than the following celebrated passage from the “Moral Essay”:
+
+“Arriving we know not from whence (for indeed their origins are not
+very clear), and successively invaded and conquered by four or five
+peoples from the north, south, east, and west, miscegenated, interbred,
+amalgamated, and commingled, the Penguins boast of the purity of their
+race, and with justice, for they have become a pure race. This mixture
+of all mankind, red, black, yellow, and white, round-headed and
+long-headed, as formed in the course of ages a fairly homogeneous human
+family, and one which is recognisable by certain features due to a
+community of life and customs.
+
+“This idea that they belong to the best race in the world, and that
+they are its finest family, inspires them with noble pride, indomitable
+courage, and a hatred for the human race.
+
+“The life of a people is but a succession of miseries, crimes, and
+follies. This is true of the Penguin nation, as of all other nations.
+Save for this exception its history is admirable from beginning to
+end.”
+
+The two classic ages of the Penguins are too well-known for me to lay
+stress upon them. But what has not been sufficiently noticed is the way
+in which the rationalist theologians such as Canon Princeteau called
+into existence the unbelievers of the succeeding age. The former
+employed their reason to destroy what did not seem to them, essential
+to their religion; they only left untouched the most rigid article of
+faith. Their intellectual successors, being taught by them how to make
+use of science and reason, employed them against whatever beliefs
+remained. Thus rational theology engendered natural philosophy.
+
+That is why (if I may turn from the Penguins of former days to the
+Sovereign Pontiff, who, to-day governs the universal Church) we cannot
+admire too greatly the wisdom of Pope Pius X. in condemning the study
+of exegesis as contrary to revealed truth, fatal to sound theological
+doctrine, and deadly to the faith. Those clerics who maintain the
+rights of science in opposition to him are pernicious doctors and
+pestilent teachers, and the faithful who approve of them are lacking in
+either mental or moral ballast.
+
+At the end of the age of philosophers, the ancient kingdom of Penguinia
+was utterly destroyed, the king put to death, the privileges of the
+nobles abolished, and a Republic proclaimed in the midst of public
+misfortunes and while a terrible war was raging. The assembly which
+then governed Penguinia ordered all the metal articles contained in the
+churches to be melted down. The patriots even desecrated the tombs of
+the kings. It is said that when the tomb of Draco the Great was opened,
+that king presented an appearance as black as ebony and so majestic
+that those who profaned his corpse fled in terror. According to other
+accounts, these churlish men insulted him by putting a pipe in his
+mouth and derisively offering him a glass of wine.
+
+On the seventeenth day of the month of Mayflowers, the shrine of St.
+Orberosia, which had for five hundred years been exposed to the
+veneration of the faithful in the Church of St. Maël, was transported
+into the town-hall and submitted to the examination of a jury of
+experts appointed by the municipality. It was made of gilded copper in
+shape like the nave of a church, entirely covered with enamels and
+decorated with precious stones, which latter were perceived to be
+false. The chapter in its foresight had removed the rubies, sapphires,
+emeralds, and great balls of rock-crystal, and had substituted pieces
+of glass in their place. It contained only a little dust and a piece of
+old linen, which were thrown into a great fire that had been lighted on
+the Place de Grève to burn the relics of the saints. The people danced
+around it singing patriotic songs.
+
+From the threshold of their booth, which leant against the town-hall, a
+man called Rouquin and his wife were watching this group of madmen.
+Rouquin clipped dogs and gelded cats; he also frequented the inns. His
+wife was a ragpicker and a bawd, but she had plenty of shrewdness.
+
+“You see, Rouquin,” said she to her man, “they are committing a
+sacrilege. They will repent of it.”
+
+“You know nothing about it, wife,” answered Rouquin; “they, have become
+philosophers, and when one is once a philosopher he is a philosopher
+for ever.”
+
+“I tell you, Rouquin, that sooner or later they will regret what they
+are doing to-day. They ill-treat the saints because they have not
+helped them enough, but for all that the quails won’t fall ready cooked
+into their mouths. They will soon find themselves as badly off as
+before, and when they have put out their tongues for enough they will
+become pious again. Sooner than people think the day will come when
+Penguinia will again begin to honour her blessed patron. Rouquin, it
+would be a good thing, in readiness for that day, if we kept a handful
+of ashes and some rags and bones in an old pot in our lodgings. We will
+say that they are the relics of St. Orberosia and that we have saved
+them from the flames at the peril of our lives. I am greatly mistaken
+if we don’t get honour and profit out of them. That good action might
+be worth a place from the Curé to sell tapers and hire chairs in the
+chapel of St. Orberosia.”
+
+On that same day Mother Rouquin took home with her a little ashes and
+some bones, and put them in an old jam-pot in her cupboard.
+
+
+
+
+II. TRINCO
+
+
+The sovereign Nation had taken possession of the lands of the nobility
+and clergy to sell them at a low price to the middle classes and the
+peasants. The middle classes and the peasants thought that the
+revolution was a good thing for acquiring lands and a bad one for
+retaining them.
+
+The legislators of the Republic made terrible laws for the defence of
+property, and decreed death to anyone who should propose a division of
+wealth. But that did not avail the Republic. The peasants who had
+become proprietors bethought themselves that though it had made them
+rich, the Republic had nevertheless caused a disturbance to wealth, and
+they desired a system more respectful of private property and more
+capable of assuring the permanence of the new institutions.
+
+They had not long to wait. The Republic, like Agrippina, bore her
+destroyer in her bosom.
+
+Having great wars to carry on, it created military forces, and these
+were destined both to save it and to destroy it. Its legislators
+thought they could restrain their generals by the fear of punishment,
+but if they sometimes cut off the heads of unlucky soldiers they could
+not do the same to the fortunate soldiers who obtained over it the
+advantages of having saved its existence.
+
+In the enthusiasm of victory the renovated Penguins delivered
+themselves up to a dragon, more terrible than that of their fables,
+who, like a stork amongst frogs, devoured them for fourteen years with
+his insatiable beak.
+
+Half a century after the reign of the new dragon a young Maharajah of
+Malay, called Djambi, desirous, like the Scythian Anacharsis, of
+instructing himself by travel, visited Penguinia and wrote an
+interesting account of his travels. I transcribe the first page of his
+account:
+
+ACCOUNT OF THE TRAVELS OF YOUNG DJAMBI IN PENGUINIA
+
+After a voyage of ninety days I landed at the vast and deserted port of
+the Penguins and travelled over untilled fields to their ruined
+capital. Surrounded by ramparts and full of barracks and arsenals it
+had a martial though desolate appearance. Feeble and crippled men
+wandered proudly through the streets, wearing old uniforms and carrying
+rusty weapons.
+
+“What do you want?” I was rudely asked at the gate of the city by a
+soldier whose moustaches pointed to the skies.
+
+“Sir,” I answered, “I come as an inquirer to visit this island.”
+
+“It is not an island,” replied the soldier.
+
+“What!” I exclaimed, “Penguin Island is not an island?”
+
+“No, sir, it is an insula. It was formerly called an island, but for a
+century it has been decreed that it shall bear the name of insula. It
+is the only insula in the whole universe. Have you a passport?”
+
+“Here it is.”
+
+“Go and get it signed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
+
+A lame guide who conducted me came to a pause in a vast square.
+
+“The insula,” said he, “has given birth, as you know, to Trinco, the
+greatest genius of the universe, whose statue you see before you. That
+obelisk standing to your right commemorates Trinco’s birth; the column
+that rises to your left has Trinco crowned with a diadem upon its
+summit. You see here the triumphal arch dedicated to the glory of
+Trinco and his family.”
+
+“What extraordinary feat has Trinco performed?” I asked.
+
+“War.”
+
+“That is nothing extraordinary. We Malayans make war constantly.”
+
+“That may be, but Trinco is the greatest warrior of all countries and
+all times. There never existed a greater conqueror than he. As you
+anchored in our port you saw to the east a volcanic island called
+Ampelophoria, shaped like a cone, and of small size, but renowned for
+its wines. And to the west a larger island which raises to the sky a
+long range of sharp teeth; for this reason it is called the Dog’s Jaws.
+It is rich in copper mines. We possessed both before Trinco’s reign and
+they were the boundaries of our empire. Trinco extended the Penguin
+dominion over the Archipelago of the Turquoises and the Green
+Continent, subdued the gloomy Porpoises, and planted his flag amid the
+icebergs of the Pole and on the burning sands of the African deserts.
+He raised troops in all the countries he conquered, and when his armies
+marched past in the wake of our own light infantry, our island
+grenadiers, our hussars, our dragoons, our artillery, and our engineers
+there were to be seen yellow soldiers looking in their blue armour like
+crayfish standing on their tails; red men with parrots’ plumes,
+tattooed with solar and Phallic emblems, and with quivers of poisoned
+arrows resounding on their backs; naked blacks armed only with their
+teeth and nails; pygmies riding on cranes; gorillas carrying trunks of
+trees and led by an old ape who wore upon his hairy breast the cross of
+the Legion of Honour. And all those troops, led to Trinco’s banner by
+the most ardent patriotism, flew on from victory to victory, and in
+thirty years of war Trinco conquered half the known world.”
+
+“What!” cried I, “you possess half of the world.”
+
+“Trinco conquered it for us, and Trinco lost it to us. As great in his
+defeats as in his victories he surrendered all that he had conquered.
+He even allowed those two islands we possessed before his time,
+Ampelophoria and the Dog’s Jaws, to be taken from us. He left Penguinia
+impoverished and depopulated. The flower of the insula perished in his
+wars. At the time of his fall there were left in our country none but
+the hunchbacks and cripples from whom we are descended. But he gave us
+glory.”
+
+“He made you pay dearly for it!”
+
+“Glory never costs too much,” replied my guide.
+
+
+
+
+III. THE JOURNEY OF DOCTOR OBNUBILE
+
+
+After a succession of amazing vicissitudes, the memory of which is in
+great part lost by the wrongs of time and the bad style of historians,
+the Penguins established the government of the Penguins by themselves.
+They elected a diet or assembly, and invested it with the privilege of
+naming the Head of the State. The latter, chosen from among the simple
+Penguins, wore no formidable monster’s crest upon his head and
+exercised no absolute authority over the people. He was himself subject
+to the laws of the nation. He was not given the title of king, and no
+ordinal number followed his name. He bore such names as Paturle,
+Janvion, Traffaldin, Coquenhot, and Bredouille. These magistrates did
+not make war. They were not suited for that.
+
+The new state received the name of Public Thing or Republic. Its
+partisans were called republicanists or republicans. They were also
+named Thingmongers and sometimes Scamps, but this latter name was taken
+in ill part.
+
+The Penguin democracy did not itself govern. It obeyed a financial
+oligarchy which formed opinion by means of the newspapers, and held in
+its hands the representatives, the ministers, and the president. It
+controlled the finances of the republic, and directed the foreign
+affairs of the country as if it were possessed of sovereign power.
+
+Empires and kingdoms in those days kept up enormous fleets. Penguinia,
+compelled to do as they did, sank under the pressure of her armaments.
+Everybody deplored or pretended to deplore so grievous a necessity.
+However, the rich, and those engaged in business or affairs, submitted
+to it with a good heart through a spirit of patriotism, and because
+they counted on the soldiers and sailors to defend their goods at home
+and to acquire markets and territories abroad. The great manufacturers
+encouraged the making of cannons and ships through a zeal for the
+national defence and in order to obtain orders. Among the citizens of
+middle rank and of the liberal professions some resigned themselves to
+this state of affairs without complaining, believing that it would last
+for ever; others waited impatiently for its end and thought they might
+be able to lead the powers to a simultaneous disarmament.
+
+The illustrious Professor Obnubile belonged to this latter class.
+
+“War,” said he, “is a barbarity to which the progress of civilization
+will put an end. The great democracies are pacific and will soon impose
+their will upon the aristocrats.”
+
+Professor Obnubile, who had for sixty years led a solitary and retired
+life in his laboratory, whither external noises did not penetrate,
+resolved to observe the spirit of the peoples for himself. He began his
+studies with the greatest of all democracies and set sail for New
+Atlantis.
+
+After a voyage of fifteen days his steamer entered, during the night,
+the harbour of Titanport, where thousands of ships were anchored. An
+iron bridge thrown across the water and shining with lights, stretched
+between two piers so far apart that Professor Obnubile imagined he was
+sailing on the seas of Saturn and that he saw the marvellous ring which
+girds the planet of the Old Man. And this immense conduit bore upon it
+more than a quarter of the wealth of the world. The learned Penguin,
+having disembarked, was waited on by automatons in a hotel forty-eight
+stories high. Then he took the great railway that led to Gigantopolis,
+the capital of New Atlantis. In the train there were restaurants,
+gaming-rooms, athletic arenas, telegraphic, commercial, and financial
+offices, a Protestant Church, and the printing-office of a great
+newspaper, which latter the doctor was unable to read, as he did not
+know the language of the New Atlantans. The train passed along the
+banks of great rivers, through manufacturing cities which concealed the
+sky with the smoke from their chimneys, towns black in the day, towns
+red at night, full of noise by day and full of noise also by night.
+
+“Here,” thought the doctor, “is a people far too much engaged in
+industry and trade to make war. I am already certain that the New
+Atlantans pursue a policy of peace. For it is an axiom admitted by all
+economists that peace without and peace within are necessary for the
+progress of commerce and industry.”
+
+As he surveyed Gigantopolis, he was confirmed in this opinion. People
+went through the streets so swiftly propelled by hurry that they
+knocked down all who were in their way. Obnubile was thrown down
+several times, but soon succeeded in learning how to demean himself
+better; after an hour’s walking he himself knocked down an Atlantan.
+
+Having reached a great square he saw the portico of a palace in the
+Classic style, whose Corinthian columns reared their capitals of
+arborescent acanthus seventy metres above the stylobate.
+
+As he stood with his head thrown back admiring the building, a man of
+modest appearance approached him and said in Penguin:
+
+“I see by your dress that you are from Penguinia. I know your language;
+I am a sworn interpreter. This is the Parliament palace. At the present
+moment the representatives of the States are in deliberation. Would you
+like to be present at the sitting?”
+
+The doctor was brought into the hall and cast his looks upon the crowd
+of legislators who were sitting on cane chairs with their feet upon
+their desks.
+
+The president arose and, in the midst of general inattention, muttered
+rather than spoke the following formulas which the interpreter
+immediately translated to the doctor.
+
+“The war for the opening of the Mongol markets being ended to the
+satisfaction of the States, I propose that the accounts be laid before
+the finance committee . . . .”
+
+“Is there any opposition? . . .”
+
+“The proposal is carried.”
+
+“The war for the opening of the markets of Third-Zealand being ended to
+the satisfaction of the States, I propose that the accounts be laid
+before the finance committee. . . .”
+
+“Is there any opposition? . . .”
+
+“The proposal is carried.”
+
+“Have I heard aright?” asked Professor Obnubile. “What? you an
+industrial people and engaged in all these wars!”
+
+“Certainly,” answered the interpreter, “these are industrial wars.
+Peoples who have neither commerce nor industry are not obliged to make
+war, but a business people is forced to adopt a policy of conquest. The
+number of wars necessarily increases with our productive activity. As
+soon as one of our industries fails to find a market for its products a
+war is necessary to open new outlets. It is in this way we have had a
+coal war, a copper war, and a cotton war. In Third-Zealand we have
+killed two-thirds of the inhabitants in order to compel the remainder
+to buy our umbrellas and braces.”
+
+At that moment a fat man who was sitting in the middle of the assembly
+ascended the tribune.
+
+“I claim,” said he, “a war against the Emerald Republic, which
+insolently contends with our pigs for the hegemony of hams and sauces
+in all the markets of the universe.”
+
+“Who is that legislator?” asked Doctor Obnubile.
+
+“He is a pig merchant.”
+
+“Is there any opposition?” said the President. “I put the proposition
+to the vote.”
+
+The war against the Emerald Republic was voted with uplifted hands by a
+very large majority.
+
+“What?” said Obnubile to the interpreter; “you have voted a war with
+that rapidity and that indifference!”
+
+“Oh! it is an unimportant war which will hardly cost eight million
+dollars.”
+
+“And men . . .”
+
+“The men are included in the eight million dollars.”
+
+Then Doctor Obnubile bent his head in bitter reflection.
+
+“Since wealth and civilization admit of as many causes of wars as
+poverty and barbarism, since the folly and wickedness of men are
+incurable, there remains but one good action to be done. The wise man
+will collect enough dynamite to blow up this planet. When its fragments
+fly through space an imperceptible amelioration will be accomplished in
+the universe and a satisfaction will be given to the universal
+conscience. Moreover, this universal conscience does not exist.”
+
+
+
+
+BOOK V. MODERN TIMES: CHATILLON
+
+
+
+
+I. THE REVEREND FATHERS AGARIC AND CORNEMUSE
+
+
+Every system of government produces people who are dissatisfied. The
+Republic or Public Thing produced them at first from among the nobles
+who had been despoiled of their ancient privileges. These looked with
+regret and hope to Prince Crucho, the last of the Draconides, a prince
+adorned both with the grace of youth and the melancholy of exile. It
+also produced them from among the smaller traders, who, owing to
+profound economic causes, no longer gained a livelihood. They believed
+that this was the fault of the republic which they had at first adored
+and from which each day they were now becoming more detached. The
+financiers, both Christians and Jews, became by their insolence and
+their cupidity the scourge of the country, which they plundered and
+degraded, as well as the scandal of a government which they never
+troubled either to destroy or preserve, so confident were they that
+they could operate without hindrance under all governments.
+Nevertheless, their sympathies inclined to absolute power as the best
+protection against the socialists, their puny but ardent adversaries.
+And just as they imitated the habits of the aristocrats, so they
+imitated their political and religious sentiments. Their women, in
+particular, loved the Prince and had dreams of appearing one day at his
+Court.
+
+However, the Republic retained some partisans and defenders. If it was
+not in a position to believe in the fidelity of its own officials it
+could at least still count on the devotion of the manual labourers,
+although it had never relieved their misery. These came forth in crowds
+from their quarries and their factories to defend it, and marched in
+long processions, gloomy, emaciated, and sinister. They would have died
+for it because it had given them hope.
+
+Now, under the Presidency of Theodore Formose, there lived in a
+peaceable suburb of Alca a monk called Agaric, who kept a school and
+assisted in arranging marriages. In his school he taught fencing and
+riding to the sons of old families, illustrious by their birth, but now
+as destitute of wealth as of privilege. And as soon as they were old
+enough he married them to the daughters of the opulent and despised
+caste of financiers.
+
+Tall, thin, and dark, Agaric used to walk in deep thought, with his
+breviary in his hand and his brow loaded with care, through the
+corridors of the school and the alleys of the garden. His care was not
+limited to inculcating in his pupils abstruse doctrines and mechanical
+precepts and to endowing them afterwards with legitimate and rich
+wives. He entertained political designs and pursued the realisation of
+a gigantic plan. His thought of thoughts and labour of labours was to
+overthrow the Republic. He was not moved to this by any personal
+interest. He believed that a democratic state was opposed to the holy
+society to which body and soul he belonged. And all the other monks,
+his brethren, thought the same. The Republic was perpetually at strife
+with the congregation of monks and the assembly of the faithful. True,
+to plot the death of the new government was a difficult and perilous
+enterprise. Still, Agaric was in a position to carry on a formidable
+conspiracy. At that epoch, when the clergy guided the superior classes
+of the Penguins, this monk exercised a tremendous influence over the
+aristocracy of Alca.
+
+All the young men whom he had brought up waited only for a favourable
+moment to march against the popular power. The sons of the ancient
+families did not practise the arts or engage in business. They were
+almost all soldiers and served the Republic. They served it, but they
+did not love it; they regretted the dragon’s crest. And the fair
+Jewesses shared in these regrets in order that they might be taken for
+Christians.
+
+One July as he was walking in a suburban street which ended in some
+dusty fields, Agaric heard groans coming from a moss-grown well that
+had been abandoned by the gardeners. And almost immediately he was told
+by a cobbler of the neighbourhood that a ragged man who had shouted out
+“Hurrah for the Republic!” had been thrown into the well by some
+cavalry officers who were passing, and had sunk up to his ears in the
+mud. Agaric was quite ready to see a general significance in this
+particular fact. He inferred a great fermentation in the whole
+aristocratic and military caste, and concluded that it was the moment
+to act.
+
+The next day he went to the end of the Wood of Conils to visit the good
+Father Cornemuse. He found the monk in his laboratory pouring a
+golden-coloured liquor into a still. He was a short, fat, little man,
+with vermilion-tinted cheeks and an elaborately polished bald head. His
+eyes had ruby-coloured pupils like a guinea-pig’s. He graciously
+saluted his visitor and offered him a glass of the St. Orberosian
+_liqueur_, which he manufactured, and from the sale of which he gained
+immense wealth.
+
+Agaric made a gesture of refusal. Then, standing on his long feet and
+pressing his melancholy hat against his stomach, he remained silent.
+
+“Take a seat,” said Cornemuse to him.
+
+Agaric sat down on a rickety stool, but continued mute.
+
+Then the monk of Conils inquired:
+
+“Tell me some news of your young pupils. Have the dear children sound
+views?”
+
+“I am very satisfied with them,” answered the teacher. “It is
+everything to be nurtured in sound principles. It is necessary to have
+sound views before having any views at all, for afterwards it is too
+late. . . . Yes, I have great grounds for comfort. But we live in a sad
+age.”
+
+“Alas!” sighed Cornemuse.
+
+“We are passing through evil days. . . .”
+
+“Times of trial.”
+
+“Yet, Cornemuse, the mind of the public is not so entirely corrupted as
+it seems.”
+
+“Perhaps you are right.”
+
+“The people are tired of a government that ruins them and does nothing
+for them. Every day fresh scandals spring up. The Republic is sunk in
+shame. It is ruined.”
+
+“May God grant it!”
+
+“Cornemuse, what do you think of Prince Crucho?”
+
+“He is an amiable young man and, I dare say, a worthy scion of an
+august stock. I pity him for having to endure the pains of exile at so
+early an age. Spring has no flowers for the exile, and autumn no
+fruits. Prince Crucho has sound views; he respects the clergy; he
+practises our religion; besides, he consumes a good deal of my little
+products.”
+
+“Cornemuse, in many homes, both rich and poor, his return is hoped for.
+Believe me, he will come back.”
+
+“May I live to throw my mantle beneath his feet!” sighed Cornemuse.
+
+Seeing that he held these sentiments, Agaric depicted to him the state
+of people’s minds such as he himself imagined them. He showed him the
+nobles and the rich exasperated against the popular government; the
+army refusing to endure fresh insults; the officials willing to betray
+their chiefs; the people discontented, riot ready to burst forth, and
+the enemies of the monks, the agents of the constituted authority,
+thrown into the wells of Alca. He concluded that it was the moment to
+strike a great blow.
+
+“We can,” he cried, “save the Penguin people, we can deliver it from
+its tyrants, deliver it from itself, restore the Dragon’s crest,
+re-establish the ancient State, the good State, for the honour of the
+faith and the exaltation of the Church. We can do this if we will. We
+possess great wealth and we exert secret influences; by our
+evangelistic and outspoken journals we communicate with all the
+ecclesiastics in towns and county alike, and we inspire them with our
+own eager enthusiasm and our own burning faith. They will kindle their
+penitents and their congregations. I can dispose of the chiefs of the
+army; I have an understanding with the men of the people. Unknown to
+them I sway the minds of umbrella sellers, publicans, shopmen, gutter
+merchants, newspaper boys, women of the streets, and police agents. We
+have more people on our side than we need. What are we waiting for? Let
+us act!”
+
+“What do you think of doing?” asked Cornemuse.
+
+“Of forming a vast conspiracy and overthrowing the Republic, of
+re-establishing Crucho on the throne of the Draconides.”
+
+Cornemuse moistened his lips with his tongue several times. Then he
+said with unction:
+
+“Certainly the restoration of the Draconides is desirable; it is
+eminently desirable; and for my part, desire it with all my heart. As
+for the Republic, you know what I think of it. . . . But would it not
+be better to abandon it to its fate and let it die of the vices of its
+own constitution? Doubtless, Agaric, what you propose is noble and
+generous. It would be a fine thing to save this great and unhappy
+country, to re-establish it in its ancient splendour. But reflect on
+it, we are Christians before we are Penguins. And we must take heed not
+to compromise religion in political enterprises.”
+
+Agaric replied eagerly:
+
+“Fear nothing. We shall hold all the threads of the plot, but we
+ourselves shall remain in the background. We shall not be seen.”
+
+“Like flies in milk,” murmured the monk of Conils.
+
+And turning his keen ruby-coloured eyes towards his brother monk:
+
+“Take care. Perhaps the Republic is stronger than it seems. Possibly,
+too, by dragging it out of the nerveless inertia in which it now rests
+we may only consolidate its forces. Its malice is great; if we attack
+it, it will defend itself. It makes bad laws which hardly affect us; if
+it is frightened it will make terrible ones against us. Let us not
+lightly engage in an adventure in which we may get fleeced. You think
+the opportunity a good one. I don’t, and I am going to tell you why.
+The present government is not yet known by everybody, that is to say,
+it is known by nobody. It proclaims that it is the Public Thing, the
+common thing. The populace believes it and remains democratic and
+Republican. But patience! This same people will one day demand that the
+public thing be the people’s thing. I need not tell you how insolent,
+unregulated, and contrary to Scriptural polity such claims seem to me.
+But the people will make them, and enforce them, and then there will be
+an end of the present government. The moment cannot now be far distant;
+and it is then that we ought to act in the interests of our august
+body. Let us wait. What hurries us? Our existence is not in peril. It
+has not been rendered absolutely intolerable to us. The Republic fails
+in respect and submission to us; it does not give the priests the
+honours it owes them. But it lets us live. And such is the excellence
+of our position that with us to live is to prosper. The Republic is
+hostile to us, but women revere us. President Formose does not assist
+at the celebration of our mysteries, but I have seen his wife and
+daughters at my feet. They buy my phials by the gross. I have no better
+clients even among the aristocracy. Let us say what there is to be said
+for it. There is no country in the world as good for priests and monks
+as Penguinia. In what other country would you find our virgin wax, our
+virile incense, our rosaries, our scapulars, our holy water, and our
+St. Orberosian liqueur sold in such great quantities? What other people
+would, like the Penguins, give a hundred golden crowns for a wave of
+our hands, a sound from our mouths, a movement of our lips? For my
+part, I gain a thousand times more, in this pleasant, faithful, and
+docile Penguinia, by extracting the essence from a bundle of thyme,
+than I could make by tiring my lungs with preaching the remission of
+sins in the most populous states of Europe and America. Honestly, would
+Penguinia be better off if a police officer came to take me away from
+here and put me on a steamboat bound for the Islands of Night?”
+
+Having thus spoken, the monk of Conils got up and led his guest into a
+huge shed where hundreds of orphans clothed in blue were packing
+bottles, nailing up cases, and gumming tickets. The ear was deafened by
+the noise of hammers mingled with the dull rumbling of bales being
+placed upon the rails.
+
+“It is from here that consignments are forwarded,” said Cornemuse. “I
+have obtained from the government a railway through the Wood and a
+station at my door. Every three days I fill a truck with my own
+products. You see that the Republic has not killed all beliefs.”
+
+Agaric made a last effort to engage the wise distiller in his
+enterprise. He pointed him to a prompt, certain, dazzling success.
+
+“Don’t you wish to share in it?” he added. “Don’t you wish to bring
+back your king from exile?”
+
+“Exile is pleasant to men of good will,” answered the monk of Conils.
+“If you are guided by me, my dear Brother Agaric, you will give up your
+project for the present. For my own part I have no illusions. Whether
+or not I belong to your party, if you lose, I shall have to pay like
+you.”
+
+Father Agaric took leave of his friend and went back satisfied to his
+school. “Cornemuse,” thought he, “not being able to prevent the plot,
+would like to make it succeed and he will give money.” Agaric was not
+deceived. Such, indeed, was the solidarity among priests and monks that
+the acts of a single one bound them all. That was at once both their
+strength and their weakness.
+
+
+
+
+II. PRINCE CRUCHO
+
+
+Agaric resolved to proceed without delay to Prince Crucho, who honoured
+him with his familiarity. In the dusk of the evening he went out of his
+school by the side door, disguised as a cattle merchant and took
+passage on board the St. Maël.
+
+The next day he landed in Porpoisea, for it was at Chitterlings Castle
+on this hospitable soil that Crucho ate the bitter bread of exile.
+
+Agaric met the Prince on the road driving in a motor-car with two young
+ladies at the rate of a hundred miles an hour. When the monk saw him he
+shook his red umbrella and the prince stopped his car.
+
+“Is it you, Agaric? Get in! There are already three of us, but we can
+make room for you. You can take one of these young ladies on your
+knee.”
+
+The pious Agaric got in.
+
+“What news, worthy father?” asked the young prince.
+
+“Great news,” answered Agaric. “Can I speak?”
+
+“You can. I have nothing secret from these two ladies.”
+
+“Sire, Penguinia claims you. You will not be deaf to her call.”
+
+Agaric described the state of feeling and outlined a vast plot.
+
+“On my first signal,” said he, “all your partisans will rise at once.
+With cross in hand and habits girded up, your venerable clergy will
+lead the armed crowd into Formose’s palace. We shall carry terror and
+death among your enemies. For a reward of our efforts we only ask of
+you, Sire, that you will not render them useless. We entreat you to
+come and seat yourself on the throne that we shall prepare.”
+
+The prince returned a simple answer:
+
+“I shall enter Alca on a green horse.”
+
+Agaric declared that he accepted this manly response. Although,
+contrary to his custom, he had a lady on his knee, he adjured the young
+prince, with a sublime loftiness of soul, to be faithful to his royal
+duties.
+
+“Sire,” he cried, with tears in his eyes, “you will live to remember
+the day on which you have been restored from exile, given back to your
+people, reestablished on the throne of your ancestors by the hands of
+your monks, and crowned by them with the august crest of the Dragon.
+King Crucho, may you equal the glory of your ancestor Draco the Great!”
+
+The young prince threw himself with emotion on his restorer and
+attempted to embrace him, but he was prevented from reaching him by the
+girth of the two ladies, so tightly packed were they all in that
+historic carriage.
+
+“Worthy father,” said he, “I would like all Penguinia to witness this
+embrace.”
+
+“It would be a cheering spectacle,” said Agaric.
+
+In the mean time the motor-car rushed like a tornado through hamlets
+and villages, crushing hens, geese, turkeys, ducks, guinea-fowls, cats,
+dogs, pigs, children, labourers, and women beneath its insatiable
+tyres. And the pious Agaric turned over his great designs in his mind.
+His voice, coming from behind one of the ladies, expressed this
+thought:
+
+“We must have money, a great deal of money.”
+
+“That is your business,” answered the prince.
+
+But already the park gates were opening to the formidable motor-car.
+
+The dinner was sumptuous. They toasted the Dragon’s crest. Everybody
+knows that a closed goblet is a sign of sovereignty; so Prince Crucho
+and Princess Gudrune, his wife, drank out of goblets that were
+covered-over like ciboriums. The prince had his filled several times
+with the wines of Penguinia, both white and red.
+
+Crucho had received a truly princely education, and he excelled in
+motoring, but was not ignorant of history either. He was said to be
+well versed in the antiquities and famous deeds of his family; and,
+indeed, he gave a notable proof of his knowledge in this respect. As
+they were speaking of the various remarkable peculiarities that had
+been noticed in famous women.
+
+“It is perfectly true,” said he, “that Queen Crucha, whose name I bear,
+had the mark of a little monkey’s head upon her body.”
+
+During the evening Agaric had a decisive interview with three of the
+prince’s oldest councillors. It was decided to ask for funds from
+Crucho’s father-in-law, as he was anxious to have a king for
+son-in-law, from several Jewish ladies, who were impatient to become
+ennobled, and, finally, from the Prince Regent of the Porpoises, who
+had promised his aid to the Draconides, thinking that by Crucho’s
+restoration he would weaken the Penguins, the hereditary enemies of his
+people. The three old councillors divided among themselves the three
+chief offices of the Court, those of Chamberlain, Seneschal, and High
+Steward, and authorised the monk to distribute the other places to the
+prince’s best advantage.
+
+“Devotion has to be rewarded,” said the three old councillors.
+
+“And treachery also,” said Agaric.
+
+“It is but too true,” replied one of them, the Marquis of Sevenwounds,
+who had experience of revolutions.
+
+There was dancing, and after the ball Princess Gudrune tore up her
+green robe to make cockades. With her own hands she sewed a piece of it
+on the monk’s breast, upon which he shed tears of sensibility and
+gratitude.
+
+M. de Plume, the prince’s equerry, set out the same evening to look for
+a green horse.
+
+
+
+
+III. THE CABAL
+
+
+After his return to the capital of Penguinia, the Reverend Father
+Agaric disclosed his projects to Prince Adélestan des Boscénos, of
+whose Draconian sentiments he was well aware.
+
+The prince belonged to the highest nobility. The Torticol des Boscénos
+went back to Brian the Good, and under the Draconides had held the
+highest offices in the kingdom. In 1179, Philip Torticol, High Admiral
+of Penguinia, a brave, faithful, and generous, but vindictive man,
+delivered over the port of La Crique and the Penguin fleet to the
+enemies of the kingdom, because he suspected that Queen Crucha, whose
+lover he was, had been unfaithful to him and loved a stable-boy. It was
+that great queen who gave to the Boscénos the silver warming-pan which
+they bear in their arms. As for their motto, it only goes back to the
+sixteenth century. The story of its origin is as follows: One gala
+night, as he mingled with the crowd of courtiers who were watching the
+fire-works in the king’s garden, Duke John des Boscénos approached the
+Duchess of Skull and put his hand under the petticoat of that lady, who
+made no complaint at the gesture. The king, happening to pass,
+surprised them and contented himself with saying, “And thus I find
+you.” These four words became the motto of the Boscénos.
+
+Prince Adélestan had not degenerated from his ancestors. He preserved
+an unalterable fidelity for the race of the Draconides and desired
+nothing so much as the restoration of Prince Crucho, an event which was
+in his eyes to be the fore-runner of the restoration of his own
+fortune. He therefore readily entered into the Reverend Father Agaric’s
+plans. He joined himself at once to the monk’s projects, and hastened
+to put him into communication with the most loyal Royalists of his
+acquaintance, Count Cléna, M. de La Trumelle, Viscount Olive, and M.
+Bigourd. They met together one night in the Duke of Ampoule’s country
+house, six miles eastward of Alca, to consider ways and means.
+
+M. de La Trumelle was in favour of legal action.
+
+“We ought to keep within the law,” said he in substance. “We are for
+order. It is by an untiring propaganda that we shall best pursue the
+realisation of our hopes. We must change the feeling of the country.
+Our cause will conquer because it is just.”
+
+The Prince des Boscénos expressed a contrary opinion. He thought that,
+in order to triumph, just causes need force quite as much and even more
+than unjust causes require it.
+
+“In the present situation,” said he tranquilly, “three methods of
+action present themselves: to hire the butcher boys, to corrupt the
+ministers, and to kidnap President Formose.”
+
+“It would be a mistake to kidnap Formose,” objected M. de La Trumelle.
+“The President is on our side.”
+
+The attitude and sentiments of the President of the Republic are
+explained by the fact that one Dracophil proposed to seize Formose
+while another Dracophil regarded him as a friend. Formose showed
+himself favourable to the Royalists, whose habits he admired and
+imitated. If he smiled at the mention of the Dragon’s crest it was at
+the thought of putting it on his own head. He was envious of sovereign
+power, not because he felt himself capable of exercising it, but
+because he loved to appear so. According to the expression of a Penguin
+chronicler, “he was a goose.”
+
+Prince des Boscénos maintained his proposal to march against Formose’s
+palace and the House of Parliament.
+
+Count Cléna was even still more energetic.
+
+“Let us begin,” said he, “by slaughtering, disembowelling, and braining
+the Republicans and all partisans of the government. Afterwards we
+shall see what more need be done.”
+
+M. de La Trumelle was a moderate, and moderates are always moderately
+opposed to violence. He recognised that Count Cléna’s policy was
+inspired by a noble feeling and that it was high-minded, but he timidly
+objected that perhaps it was not conformable to principle, and that it
+presented certain dangers. At last he consented to discuss it.
+
+“I propose,” added he, “to draw up an appeal to the people. Let us show
+who we are. For my own part I can assure you that I shall not hide my
+flag in my pocket.”
+
+M. Bigourd began to speak.
+
+“Gentlemen, the Penguins are dissatisfied with the new order because it
+exists, and it is natural for men to complain of their condition. But
+at the same time the Penguins are afraid to change their government
+because new things alarm them. They have not known the Dragon’s crest
+and, although they sometimes say that they regret it, we must not
+believe them. It is easy to see that they speak in this way either
+without thought or because they are in an ill-temper. Let us not have
+any illusions about their feelings towards ourselves. They do not like
+us. They hate the aristocracy both from a base envy and from a generous
+love of equality. And these two united feelings are very strong in a
+people. Public opinion is not against us, because it knows nothing
+about us. But when it knows what we want it will not follow us. If we
+let it be seen that we wish to destroy democratic government and
+restore the Dragon’s crest, who will be our partisans? Only the
+butcher-boys and the little shopkeepers of Alca. And could we even
+count on them to the end? They are dissatisfied, but at the bottom of
+their hearts they are Republicans. They are more anxious to sell their
+cursed wares than to see Crucho again. If we act openly we shall only
+cause alarm.
+
+“To make people sympathise with us and follow us we must make them
+believe that we want, not to overthrow the Republic, but, on the
+contrary, to restore it, to cleanse, to purify, to embellish, to adorn,
+to beautify, and to ornament it, to render it, in a word, glorious and
+attractive. Therefore, we ought not to act openly ourselves. It is
+known that we are not favourable to the present order. We must have
+recourse to a friend of the Republic, and, if we are to do what is
+best, to a defender of this government. We have plenty to choose from.
+It would be well to prefer the most popular and, if I dare say so, the
+most republican of them. We shall win him over to us by flattery, by
+presents, and above all by promises. Promises cost less than presents,
+and are worth more. No one gives as much as he who gives hopes. It is
+not necessary for the man we choose to be of brilliant intellect. I
+would even prefer him to be of no great ability. Stupid people show an
+inimitable grace in roguery. Be guided by me, gentlemen, and overthrow
+the Republic by the agency of a Republican. Let us be prudent. But
+prudence does not exclude energy. If you need me you will find me at
+your disposal.”
+
+This speech made a great impression upon those who heard it. The mind
+of the pious Agaric was particularly impressed. But each of them was
+anxious to appoint himself to a position of honour and profit. A secret
+government was organised of which all those present were elected active
+members. The Duke of Ampoule, who was the great financier of the party,
+was chosen treasurer and charged with organising funds for the
+propaganda.
+
+The meeting was on the point of coming to an end when a rough voice was
+heard singing an old air:
+
+Boscénos est un gros cochon;
+On en va faire des andouilles
+Des saucisses et du jambon
+Pour le réveillon des pauv’ bougres.
+
+
+It had, for two hundred years, been a well-known song in the slums of
+Alca. Prince Boscénos did not like to hear it. He went down into the
+street, and, perceiving that the singer was a workman who was placing
+some slates on the roof of a church, he politely asked him to sing
+something else.
+
+“I will sing what I like,” answered the man.
+
+“My friend, to please me. . . .”
+
+“I don’t want to please you.”
+
+Prince Boscénos was as a rule good-tempered, but he was easily angered
+and a man of great strength.
+
+“Fellow, come down or I will go up to you,” cried he, in a terrible
+voice.
+
+As the workman, astride on his coping, showed no sign of budging, the
+prince climbed quickly up the staircase of the tower and attacked the
+singer. He gave him a blow that broke his jaw-bone and sent him rolling
+into a water-spout. At that moment seven or eight carpenters, who were
+working on the rafters, heard their companion’s cry and looked through
+the window. Seeing the prince on the coping they climbed along a ladder
+that was leaning on the slates and reached him just as he was slipping
+into the tower. They sent him, head foremost, down the one hundred and
+thirty-seven steps of the spiral staircase.
+
+
+
+
+IV. VISCOUNTESS OLIVE
+
+
+The Penguins had the finest army in the world. So had the Porpoises.
+And it was the same with the other nations of Europe. The smallest
+amount of thought will prevent any surprise at this. For all armies are
+the finest in the world. The second finest army, if one could exist,
+would be in a notoriously inferior position; it would be certain to be
+beaten. It ought to be disbanded at once. Therefore, all armies are the
+finest in the world. In France the illustrious Colonel Marchand
+understood this when, before the passage of the Yalou, being questioned
+by some journalists about the Russo-Japanese war, he did not hesitate
+to describe the Russian army as the finest in the world, and also the
+Japanese. And it should be noticed that even after suffering the most
+terrible reverses an army does not fall from its position of being the
+finest in the world. For if nations ascribe their victories to the
+ability of their generals and the courage of their soldiers, they
+always attribute their defeats to an inexplicable fatality. On the
+other hand, navies are classed according to the number of their ships.
+There is a first, a second, a third, and so on. So that there exists no
+doubt as to the result of naval wars.
+
+The Penguins had the finest army and the second navy in the world. This
+navy was commanded by the famous Chatillon, who bore the title of
+Emiralbahr, and by abbreviation Emiral. It is the same word which,
+unfortunately in a corrupt form, is used to-day among several European
+nations to designate the highest grade in the naval service. But as
+there was but one Emiral among the Penguins, a singular prestige, if I
+dare say so, was attached to that rank.
+
+The Emiral did not belong to the nobility. A child of the people, he
+was loved by the people. They were flattered to see a man who sprang
+from their own ranks holding a position of honour. Chatillon was
+good-looking and fortune favoured him. He was not over-addicted to
+thought. No event ever disturbed his serene outlook.
+
+The Reverend Father Agaric, surrendering to M. Bigourd’s reasons and
+recognising that the existing government could only be destroyed by one
+of its defenders, cast his eyes upon Emiral Chatillon. He asked a large
+sum of money from his friend, the Reverend Father Cornemuse, which the
+latter handed him with a sigh. And with this sum he hired six hundred
+butcher boys of Alca to run behind Chatillon’s horse and shout, “Hurrah
+for the Emiral!” Henceforth Chatillon could not take a single step
+without being cheered.
+
+Viscountess Olive asked him for a private interview. He received her at
+the Admiralty[9] in a room decorated with anchors, shells, and
+grenades.
+
+ [9] Or better, _Emiralty_.
+
+
+She was discreetly dressed in greyish blue. A hat trimmed with roses
+covered her pretty, fair hair. Behind her veil her eyes shone like
+sapphires. Although she came of Jewish origin there was no more
+fashionable woman in the whole nobility. She was tall and well shaped;
+her form was that of the year, her figure that of the season.
+
+“Emiral,” said she, in a delightful voice, “I cannot conceal my emotion
+from you. . . . It is very natural . . . before a hero.”
+
+“You are too kind. But tell me, Viscountess, what brings me the honour
+of your visit.”
+
+“For a long time I have been anxious to see you, to speak to you. . . .
+So I very willingly undertook to convey a message to you.”
+
+“Please take a seat.”
+
+“How still it is here.”
+
+“Yes, it is quiet enough.”
+
+“You can hear the birds singing.”
+
+“Sit down, then, dear lady.”
+
+And he drew up an arm-chair for her.
+
+She took a seat with her back to the light.
+
+“Emiral, I came to bring you a very important message, a message. . .”
+
+“Explain.”
+
+“Emiral, have you ever seen Prince Crucho?”
+
+“Never.”
+
+She sighed.
+
+“It is a great pity. He would be so delighted to see you! He esteems
+and appreciates you. He has your portrait on his desk beside his
+mother’s. What a pity it is he is not better known! He is a charming
+prince and so grateful for what is done for him! He will be a great
+king. For he will be king without doubt. He will come back and sooner
+than people think. . . . What I have to tell you, the message with
+which I am entrusted, refers precisely to. . .”
+
+The Emiral stood up.
+
+“Not a word more, dear lady. I have the esteem, the confidence of the
+Republic. I will not betray it. And why should I betray it? I am loaded
+honours and dignities.”
+
+“Allow me to tell you, my dear Emiral, that your honours and dignities
+are far from equalling what you deserve. If your services were properly
+rewarded, you would be Emiralissimo and Generalissimo,
+Commander-in-chief of the troops both on land and sea. The Republic is
+very ungrateful to you.”
+
+“All governments are more or less ungrateful.”
+
+“Yes, but the Republicans are jealous of you. That class of person is
+always afraid of his superiors. They cannot endure the Services.
+Everything that has to do with the navy and the army is odious to them.
+They are afraid of you.”
+
+“That is possible.”
+
+“They are wretches; they are ruining the country. Don’t you wish to
+save Penguinia?
+
+“In what way?”
+
+“By sweeping away all the rascals of the Republic, all the
+Republicans.”
+
+“What a proposal to make to me, dear lady!”
+
+“It is what will certainly be done, if not by you, then by some one
+else. The Generalissimo, to mention him alone, is ready to throw all
+the ministers, deputies, and senators into the sea, and to recall
+Prince Crucho.”
+
+“Oh, the rascal, the scoundrel,” exclaimed the Emiral.
+
+“Do to him what he would do to you. The prince will know how to
+recognise your services, He will give you the Constable’s sword and a
+magnificent grant. I am commissioned, in the mean time, to hand you a
+pledge of his royal friendship.”
+
+As she said these words she drew a green cockade from her bosom.
+
+“What is that?” asked the Emiral.
+
+“It is his colours which Crucho sends you.”
+
+“Be good enough to take them back.”
+
+“So that they may be offered to the Generalissimo who will accept them!
+. . . No, Emiral, let me place them on your glorious breast.”
+
+Chatillon gently repelled the lady. But for some minutes he thought her
+extremely pretty, and he felt this impression still more when two bare
+arms and the rosy palms of two delicate hands touched him lightly. He
+yielded almost immediately. Olive was slow in fastening the ribbon.
+Then when it was done she made a low courtesy and saluted Chatillon
+with the title of Constable.
+
+“I have been ambitious like my comrades,” answered the sailor, “I don’t
+hide it, and perhaps I am so still; but upon my word of honour, when I
+look at you, the only, desire I feel is for a cottage and a heart.”
+
+She turned upon him the charming sapphire glances that flashed from
+under her eyelids.
+
+“That is to be had also . . . what are you doing, Emiral?”
+
+“I am looking for the heart.”
+
+When she left the Admiralty, the Viscountess went immediately to the
+Reverend Father Agaric to give an account of her visit.
+
+“You must go to him again, dear lady,” said that austere monk.
+
+
+
+
+V. THE PRINCE DES BOSCÉNOS
+
+
+Morning and evening the newspapers that had been bought by the
+Dracophils proclaimed Chatillon’s praises and hurled shame and
+opprobrium upon the Ministers of the Republic. Chatillon’s portrait was
+sold through the streets of Alca. Those young descendants of Remus who
+carry plaster figures on their heads, offered busts of Chatillon for
+sale upon the bridges.
+
+Every evening Chatillon rode upon his white horse round the Queen’s
+Meadow, a place frequented by the people of fashion. The Dracophils
+posted along the Emiral’s route a crowd of needy Penguins who kept
+shouting: “It is Chatillon we want.” The middle classes of Alca
+conceived a profound admiration for the Emiral. Shopwomen murmured: “He
+is good-looking.” Women of fashion slackened the speed of their
+motor-cars and kissed hands to him as they passed, amidst the hurrahs
+of an enthusiastic populace.
+
+One day, as he went into a tobacco shop, two Penguins who were putting
+letters in the box recognized Chatillon and cried at the top of their
+voices: “Hurrah for the Emiral! Down with the Republicans.” All those
+who were passing stopped in front of the shop. Chatillon lighted his
+cigar before the eyes of a dense crowd of frenzied citizens who waved
+their hats and cheered. The crowd kept increasing, and the whole town,
+singing and marching behind its hero, went back with him to the
+Admiralty.
+
+The Emiral had an old comrade in arms, Under-Emiral Vulcanmould, who
+had served with great distinction, a man as true as gold and as loyal
+as his sword. Vulcanmould plumed himself on his thoroughgoing
+independence and he went among the partisans of Crucho and the Minister
+of the Republic telling both parties what he thought of them. M.
+Bigourd maliciously declared that he told each party what the other
+party thought of it. In truth he had on several occasions been guilty
+of regrettable indiscretions, which were overlooked as being the
+freedoms of a soldier who knew nothing of intrigue. Every morning he
+went to see Chatillon, whom he treated with the cordial roughness of a
+brother in arms.
+
+“Well, old buffer, so you are popular,” said he to him. “Your phiz is
+sold on the heads of pipes and on liqueur bottles and every drunkard in
+Alca spits out your name as he rolls in the gutter. . . . Chatillon,
+the hero of the Penguins! Chatillon, defender of the Penguin glory! . .
+. Who would have said it? Who would have thought it?”
+
+And he laughed with his harsh laugh. Then changing his tone: “But,
+joking aside, are you not a bit surprised at what is happening to you?”
+
+“No, indeed,” answered Chatillon.
+
+And out went the honest Vulcanmould, banging the door behind him.
+
+In the mean time Chatillon had taken a little flat at number 18
+Johannes-Talpa Street, so that he might receive Viscountess Olive. They
+met there every day. He was desperately in love with her. During his
+martial and neptunian life he had loved crowds of women, red, black,
+yellow, and white, and some of them had been very beautiful. But before
+he met the Viscountess he did not know what a woman really was. When
+the Viscountess Olive called him her darling, her dear darling, he felt
+in heaven and it seemed to him that the stars shone in her hair.
+
+She would come a little late, and, as she put her bag on the table, she
+would ask pensively:
+
+“Let me sit on your knee.”
+
+And then she would talk of subjects suggested by the pious Agaric,
+interrupting the conversation with sighs and kisses. She would ask him
+to dismiss such and such an officer, to give a command to another, to
+send the squadron here or there. And at the right moment she would
+exclaim:
+
+“How young you are, my dear!”
+
+And he did whatever she wished, for he was simple, he was anxious to
+wear the Constable’s sword, and to receive a large grant; he did not
+dislike playing a double part, he had a vague idea of saving Penguinia,
+and he was in love.
+
+This delightful woman induced him to remove the troops that were at La
+Cirque, the port where Crucho was to land. By this means it was made
+certain that there would be no obstacle to prevent the prince from
+entering Penguinia.
+
+The pious Agaric organised public meetings so as to keep up the
+agitation. The Dracophils held one or two every day in some of the
+thirty-six districts of Alca, and preferably in the poorer quarters.
+They desired to win over the poor, for they are the most numerous. On
+the fourth of May a particularly fine meeting was held in an old
+cattle-market, situated in the centre of a populous suburb filled with
+housewives sitting on the doorsteps and children playing in the
+gutters. There were present about two thousand people, in the opinion
+of the Republicans, and six thousand according to the reckoning of the
+Dracophils. In the audience was to be seen the flower of Penguin
+society, including Prince and Princess des Boscénos, Count Cléna, M. de
+La Trumelle, M. Bigourd, and several rich Jewish ladies.
+
+The Generalissimo of the national army had come in uniform. He was
+cheered.
+
+The committee had been carefully formed. A man of the people, a
+workman, but a man of sound principles, M. Rauchin, the secretary of
+the yellow syndicate, was asked to preside, supported by Count Cléna
+and M. Michaud, a butcher.
+
+The government which Penguinia had freely given itself was called by
+such names as cesspool and drain in several eloquent speeches. But
+President Formose was spared and no mention was made of Crucho or the
+priests.
+
+The meeting was not unanimous. A defender of the modern State and of
+the Republic, a manual labourer, stood up.
+
+“Gentlemen,” said M. Rauchin, the chairman, “we have told you that this
+meeting would not be unanimous. We are not like our opponents, we are
+honest men. I allow our opponent to speak. Heaven knows what you are
+going to hear. Gentlemen, I beg of you to restrain as long as you can
+the expression of your contempt, your disgust, and your indignation.”
+
+“Gentlemen,” said the opponent. . . .
+
+Immediately he was knocked down, trampled beneath the feet of the
+indignant crowd, and his unrecognisable remains thrown out of the hall.
+
+The tumult was still resounding when Count Cléna ascended the tribune.
+Cheers took the place of groans and when silence was restored the
+orator uttered these words:
+
+“Comrades, we are going to see whether you have blood in your veins.
+What we have got to do is to slaughter, disembowel, and brain all the
+Republicans.”
+
+This speech let loose such a thunder of applause that the old shed
+rocked with it, and a cloud of acrid and thick dust fell from its
+filthy walls and worm-eaten beams and enveloped the audience.
+
+A resolution was carried vilifying the government and acclaiming
+Chatillon. And the audience departed singing the hymn of the liberator:
+“It is Chatillon we want.”
+
+The only way out of the old market was through a muddy alley shut in by
+omnibus stables and coal sheds. There was no moon and a cold drizzle
+was coming down. The police, who were assembled in great numbers,
+blocked the alley and compelled the Dracophils to disperse in little
+groups. These were the instructions they had received from their chief,
+who was anxious to check the enthusiasm of the excited crowd.
+
+The Dracophils who were detained in the alley kept marking time and
+singing, “It is Chatillon we want.” Soon, becoming impatient of the
+delay, the cause of which they did not know, they began to push those
+in front of them. This movement, propagated along the alley, threw
+those in front against the broad chests of the police. The latter had
+no hatred for the Dracophils. In the bottom of their hearts they liked
+Chatillon. But it is natural to resist aggression and strong men are
+inclined to make use of their strength. For these reasons the police
+kicked the Dracophils with their hob-nailed boots. As a result there
+were sudden rushes backwards and forwards. Threats and cries mingled
+with the songs.
+
+“Murder! Murder! . . . It is Chatillon we want! Murder! Murder!”
+
+And in the gloomy alley the more prudent kept saying, “Don’t push.”
+Among these latter, in the darkness, his lofty figure rising above the
+moving crowd, his broad shoulders and robust body noticeable among the
+trampled limbs and crushed sides of the rest, stood the Prince des
+Boscénos, calm, immovable, and placid. Serenely and indulgently he
+waited. In the mean time, as the exit was opened at regular intervals
+between the ranks of the police, the pressure of elbows against the
+chests of those around the prince diminished and people began to
+breathe again.
+
+“You see we shall soon be able to go out,” said that kindly giant, with
+a pleasant smile. “Time and patience . . .”
+
+He took a cigar from his case, raised it to his lips and struck a
+match. Suddenly, in the light of the match, he saw Princess Anne, his
+wife, clasped in Count Cléna’s arms. At this sight he rushed towards
+them, striking both them and those around with his cane. He was
+disarmed, though not without difficulty, but he could not be separated
+from his opponent. And whilst the fainting princess was lifted from arm
+to arm to her carriage over the excited and curious crowd, the two men
+still fought furiously. Prince des Boscénos lost his hat, his
+eye-glass, his cigar, his necktie, and his portfolio full of private
+letters and political correspondence; he even lost the miraculous
+medals that he had received from the good Father Cornemuse. But he gave
+his opponent so terrible a kick in the stomach that the unfortunate
+Count was knocked through an iron grating and went, head foremost,
+through a glass door and into a coal-shed.
+
+Attracted by the struggle and the cries of those around, the police
+rushed towards the prince, who furiously resisted them. He stretched
+three of them gasping at his feet and put seven others to flight, with,
+respectively, a broken jaw, a split lip, a nose pouring blood, a
+fractured skull, a torn ear, a dislocated collar-bone, and broken ribs.
+He fell, however, and was dragged bleeding and disfigured, with his
+clothes in rags, to the nearest police-station, where, jumping about
+and bellowing, he spent the night.
+
+At daybreak groups of demonstrators went about the town singing, “It is
+Chatillon we want,” and breaking the windows of the houses in which the
+Ministers of the Republic lived.
+
+
+
+
+VI. THE EMIRAL’S FALL
+
+
+That night marked the culmination of the Dracophil movement. The
+Royalists had no longer any doubt of its triumph. Their chiefs sent
+congratulations to Prince Crucho by wireless telegraphy. Their ladies
+embroidered scarves and slippers for him. M. de Plume had found the
+green horse.
+
+The pious Agaric shared the common hope. But he still worked to win
+partisans for the Pretender. They ought, he said, to lay their
+foundations upon the bed-rock.
+
+With this design he had an interview with three Trade Union workmen.
+
+In these times the artisans no longer lived, as in the days of the
+Draconides, under the government of corporations. They were free, but
+they had no assured pay. After having remained isolated from each other
+for a long time, without help and without support, they had formed
+themselves into unions. The coffers of the unions were empty, as it was
+not the habit of the unionists to pay their subscriptions. There were
+unions numbering thirty thousand members, others with a thousand, five
+hundred, two hundred, and so forth. Several numbered two or three
+members only, or even a few less. But as the lists of adherents were
+not published, it was not easy to distinguish the great unions from the
+small ones.
+
+After some dark and indirect steps the pious Agaric was put into
+communication in a room in the Moulin de la Galette, with comrades
+Dagobert, Tronc, and Balafille, the secretaries of three unions of
+which the first numbered fourteen members, the second twenty-four, and
+the third only one. Agaric showed extreme cleverness at this interview.
+
+“Gentlemen,” said he, “you and I have not, in most respects, the same
+political and social views, but there are points in which we may come
+to an understanding. We have a common enemy. The government exploits
+you and despises us. Help us to overthrow it; we will supply you with
+the means so far as we are able, and you can in addition count on our
+gratitude.”
+
+“Fork out the tin,” said Dagobert.
+
+The Reverend Father placed on the table a bag which the distiller of
+Conils had given him with tears in his eyes.
+
+“Done!” said the three companions.
+
+Thus was the solemn compact sealed.
+
+As soon as the monk had departed, carrying with him the joy of having
+won over the masses to his cause, Dagobert, Tronc, and Balafille
+whistled to their wives, Amelia, Queenie, and Matilda, who were waiting
+in the street for the signal, and all six holding each other’s hands,
+danced around the bag, singing:
+
+J’ai du bon pognon,
+Tu n’l’auras pas Chatillon!
+Hou! Hou! la calotte!
+
+
+And they ordered a salad-bowl full of warm wine.
+
+In the evening all six went through the street from stall to stall
+singing their new song. The song became popular, for the detectives
+reported that every day showed an increase of the number of workpeople
+who sang through the slums:
+
+J’ai du bon pognon;
+Tu n’l’auras pas Chatillon!
+Hou! Hou! la calotte!
+
+
+The Dracophil agitation made no progress in the provinces. The pious
+Agaric sought to find the cause of this, but was unable to discover it
+until old Cornemuse revealed it to him.
+
+“I have proofs,” sighed the monk of Conils, “that the Duke of Ampoule,
+the treasurer of the Dracophils, has brought property in Porpoisia with
+the funds that he received for the propaganda.”
+
+The party wanted money. Prince des Boscénos had lost his portfolio in a
+brawl and he was reduced to painful expedients which were repugnant to
+his impetuous character. The Viscountess Olive was expensive. Cornemuse
+advised that the monthly allowance of that lady should be diminished.
+
+“She is very useful to us,” objected the pious Agaric.
+
+“Undoubtedly,” answered Cornemuse, “but she does us an injury by
+ruining us.”
+
+A schism divided the Dracophils. Misunderstandings reigned in their
+councils. Some wished that in accordance with the policy of M. Bigourd
+and the pious Agaric, they should carry on the design of reforming the
+Republic. Others, wearied by their long constraint, had resolved to
+proclaim the Dragon’s crest and swore to conquer beneath that sign.
+
+The latter urged the advantage of a clear situation and the
+impossibility of making a pretence much longer, and in truth, the
+public began to see whither the agitation was tending and that the
+Emiral’s partisans wanted to destroy the very foundations of the
+Republic.
+
+A report was spread that the prince was to land at La Cirque and make
+his entry into Alca on a green horse.
+
+These rumours excited the fanatical monks, delighted the poor nobles,
+satisfied the rich Jewish ladies, and put hope in the hearts of the
+small traders. But very few of them were inclined to purchase these
+benefits at the price of a social catastrophe and the overthrow of the
+public credit; and there were fewer still who would have risked their
+money, their peace, their liberty, or a single hour from their
+pleasures in the business. On the other hand, the workmen held
+themselves ready, as ever, to give a day’s work to the Republic, and a
+strong resistance was being formed in the suburbs.
+
+“The people are with us,” the pious Agaric used to say.
+
+However, men, women, and children, when leaving their factories, used
+to shout with one voice:
+
+A bas Chatillon!
+Hou! Hou! la calotte!
+
+
+As for the government, it showed the weakness, indecision, flabbiness,
+and heedlessness common to all governments, and from which none has
+ever departed without falling into arbitrariness and violence. In three
+words it knew nothing, wanted nothing, and would do nothing. Formose,
+shut in his presidential palace, remained blind, dumb, deaf, huge,
+invisible, wrapped up in his pride as in an eider-down.
+
+Count Olive advised the Dracophils to make a last appeal for funds and
+to attempt a great stroke while Alca was still in a ferment.
+
+An executive committee, which he himself had chosen, decided to kidnap
+the members of the Chamber of Deputies, and considered ways and means.
+
+The affair was fixed for the twenty-eighth of July. On that day the sun
+rose radiantly over the city. In front of the legislative palace women
+passed to market with their baskets; hawkers cried their peaches,
+pears, and grapes; cab horses with their noses in their bags munched
+their hay. Nobody expected anything, not because the secret had been
+kept but because it met with nothing but unbelievers. Nobody believed
+in a revolution, and from this fact we may conclude that nobody desired
+one. About two o’clock the deputies began to pass, few and unnoticed,
+through the side-door of the palace. At three o’clock a few groups of
+badly dressed men had formed. At half past three black masses coming
+from the adjacent streets spread over Revolution Square. This vast
+expanse was soon covered by an ocean of soft hats, and the crowd of
+demonstrators, continually increased by sight-seers, having crossed the
+bridge, struck its dark wave against the walls of the legislative
+enclosure. Cries, murmurs, and songs went up to the impassive sky. “It
+is Chatillon we want!” “Down with the Deputies!” “Down with the
+Republicans!” “Death to the Republicans!” The devoted band of
+Dracophils, led by Prince des Boscénos, struck up the august canticle:
+
+Vive Crucho,
+Vaillant et sage,
+Plein de courage
+Des le berceau!
+
+
+Behind the wall silence alone replied.
+
+This silence and the absence of guards encouraged and at the same time
+frightened the crowd. Suddenly a formidable voice cried out:
+
+“Attack!”
+
+And Prince des Boscénos was seen raising his gigantic form to the top
+of the wall, which was covered with barbs and iron spikes. Behind him
+rushed his companions, and the people followed. Some hammered against
+the wall to make holes in it; others endeavoured to tear down the
+spikes and to pull out the barbs. These defences had given way in
+places and some of the invaders had stripped the wall and were sitting
+astride on the top. Prince des Boscénos was waving an immense green
+flag. Suddenly the crowd wavered and from it came a long cry of terror.
+The police and the Republican carabineers issuing out of all the
+entrances of the palace formed themselves into a column beneath the
+wall and in a moment it was cleared of its besiegers. After a long
+moment of suspense the noise of arms was heard, and the police charged
+the crowd with fixed bayonets. An instant afterwards and on the
+deserted square strewn with hats and walking-sticks there reigned a
+sinister silence. Twice again the Dracophils attempted to form, twice
+they were repulsed. The rising was conquered. But Prince des Boscénos,
+standing on the wall of the hostile palace, his flag in his hand, still
+repelled the attack of a whole brigade. He knocked down all who
+approached him. At last he, too, was thrown down, and fell on an iron
+spike, to which he remained hooked, still clasping the standard of the
+Draconides.
+
+On the following day the Ministers of the Republic and the Members of
+Parliament determined to take energetic measures. In vain, this time,
+did President Formose attempt to evade his responsibilities. The
+government discussed the question of depriving Chatillon of his rank
+and dignities and of indicting him before the High Court as a
+conspirator, an enemy of the public good, a traitor, etc.
+
+At this news the Emiral’s old companions in arms, who the very evening
+before had beset him with their adulations, made no effort to conceal
+their joy. But Chatillon remained popular with the middle classes of
+Alca and one still heard the hymn of the liberator sounding in the
+streets, “It is Chatillon we want.”
+
+The Ministers were embarrassed. They intended to indict Chatillon
+before the High Court. But they knew nothing; they remained in that
+total ignorance reserved for those who govern men. They were incapable
+of advancing any grave charges against Chatillon. They could supply the
+prosecution with nothing but the ridiculous lies of their spies.
+Chatillon’s share in the plot and his relations with Prince Crucho
+remained the secret of the thirty thousand Dracophils. The Ministers
+and the Deputies had suspicions and even certainties, but they had no
+proofs. The Public Prosecutor said to the Minister of justice: “Very
+little is needed for a political prosecution! but I have nothing at all
+and that is not enough.” The affair made no progress. The enemies of
+the Republic were triumphant.
+
+On the eighteenth of September the news ran in Alca that Chatillon had
+taken flight. Everywhere there was surprise and astonishment. People
+doubted, for they could not understand.
+
+This is what had happened: One day as the brave Under-Emiral
+Vulcanmould happened, as if by chance, to go into the office of M.
+Barbotan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he remarked with his usual
+frankness:
+
+“M. Barbotan, your colleagues do not seem to me to be up to much; it is
+evident that they have never commanded a ship. That fool Chatillon
+gives them a deuced bad fit of the shivers.”
+
+The Minister, in sign of denial, waved his paper-knife in the air above
+his desk.
+
+“Don’t deny it,” answered Vulcanmould. “You don’t know how to get rid
+of Chatillon. You do not dare to indict him before the High Court
+because you are not sure of being able to bring forward a strong enough
+charge. Bigourd will defend him, and Bigourd is a clever advocate. . .
+. You are right, M. Barbotan, you are right. It would be a dangerous
+trial.”
+
+“Ah! my friend,” said the Minister, in a careless tone, “if you knew
+how satisfied we are. . . . I receive the most reassuring news from my
+prefects. The good sense of the Penguins will do justice to the
+intrigues of this mutinous soldier. Can you suppose for a moment that a
+great people, an intelligent, laborious people, devoted to liberal
+institutions which. . .”
+
+Vulcanmould interrupted with a great sigh:
+
+“Ah! If I had time to do it I would relieve you of your difficulty. I
+would juggle away my Chatillon like a nutmeg out of a thimble. I would
+fillip him off to Porpoisia.”
+
+The Minister paid close attention.
+
+“It would not take long,” continued the sailor. “I would rid you in a
+trice of the creature. . . . But just now I have other fish to fry. . .
+. I am in a bad hole. I must find a pretty big sum. But, deuce take it,
+honour before everything.”
+
+The Minister and the Under-Emiral looked at each other for a moment in
+silence. Then Barbotan said with authority:
+
+“Under-Emiral Vulcanmould, get rid of this seditious soldier. You will
+render a great service to Penguinia, and the Minister of Home Affairs
+will see that your gambling debts are paid.”
+
+The same evening Vulcanmould called on Chatillon and looked at him for
+some time with an expression of grief and mystery.
+
+“My do you look like that?” asked the Emiral in an uneasy tone.
+
+Vulcanmould said to him sadly:
+
+“Old brother in arms, all is discovered. For the past half-hour the
+government knows everything.”
+
+At these words Chatillon sank down overwhelmed.
+
+Vulcanmould continued:
+
+“You may be arrested any moment. I advise you to make off.”
+
+And drawing out his watch:
+
+“Not a minute to lose.”
+
+“Have I time to call on the Viscountess Olive?”
+
+“It would be mad,” said Vulcanmould, handing him a passport and a pair
+of blue spectacles, and telling him to have courage.
+
+“I will,” said Chatillon.
+
+“Good-bye! old chum.”
+
+“Good-bye and thanks! You have saved my life.”
+
+“That is the least I could do.”
+
+A quarter of an hour later the brave Emiral had left the city of Alca.
+
+He embarked at night on an old cutter at La Cirque and set sail for
+Porpoisia. But eight miles from the coast he was captured by a
+despatch-boat which was sailing without lights and which was under, the
+flag of the Queen of the Black Islands. That Queen had for a long time
+nourished a fatal passion for Chatillon.
+
+
+
+
+VII. CONCLUSION
+
+
+_Nunc est bibendum_. Delivered from its fears and pleased at having
+escaped from so great a danger, the government resolved to celebrate
+the anniversary of the Penguin regeneration and the establishment of
+the Republic by holding a general holiday.
+
+President Formose, the Ministers, and the members of the Chamber and of
+the Senate were present at the ceremony.
+
+The Generalissimo of the Penguin army was present in uniform. He was
+cheered.
+
+Preceded by the black flag of misery and the red flag of revolt,
+deputations of workmen walked in the procession, their aspect one of
+grim protection.
+
+President, Ministers, Deputies, officials, heads of the magistracy and
+of the army, each, in their own names and in the name of the sovereign
+people, renewed the ancient oath to live in freedom or to die. It was
+an alternative upon which they were resolutely determined. But they
+preferred to live in freedom. There were games, speeches, and songs.
+
+After the departure of the representatives of the State the crowd of
+citizens separated slowly and peaceably, shouting out, “Hurrah for the
+Republic!” “Hurrah for liberty!” “Down with the shaven pates!”
+
+The newspapers mentioned only one regrettable incident that happened on
+that wonderful day. Prince des Boscénos was quietly smoking a cigar in
+the Queen’s Meadow when the State procession passed by. The prince
+approached the Minister’s carriage and said in a loud voice: “Death to
+the Republicans!” He was immediately apprehended by the police, to whom
+he offered a most desperate resistance. He knocked them down in crowds,
+but he was conquered by numbers, and, bruised, scratched, swollen, and
+unrecognisable even to the eyes of his wife, he was dragged through the
+joyous streets into an obscure prison.
+
+The magistrates carried on the case against Chatillon in a peculiar
+style. Letters were found at the Admiralty which revealed the
+complicity of the Reverend Father Agaric in the plot. Immediately
+public opinion was inflamed against the monks, and Parliament voted,
+one after the other, a dozen laws which restrained, diminished,
+limited, prescribed, suppressed, determined, and curtailed, their
+rights, immunities, exemptions, privileges, and benefits, and created
+many invalidating disqualifications against them.
+
+The Reverend Father Agaric steadfastly endured the rigour of the laws
+which struck himself personally, as well as the terrible fall of the
+Emiral of which he was the chief cause. Far from yielding to evil
+fortune, he regarded it as but a bird of passage. He was planning new
+political designs more audacious than the first.
+
+When his projects were sufficiently ripe he went one day to the Wood of
+Conils. A thrush sang in a tree and a little hedgehog crossed the stony
+path in front of him with awkward steps. Agaric walked with great
+strides, muttering fragments of sentences to himself.
+
+When he reached the door of the laboratory in which, for so many years,
+the pious manufacturer had distilled the golden liqueur of St.
+Orberosia, he found the place deserted and the door shut. Having walked
+around the building he saw in the backyard the venerable Cornemuse,
+who, with his habit pinned up, was climbing a ladder that leant against
+the wall.
+
+“Is that you, my dear friend?” said he to him. “What are you doing
+there?”
+
+“You can see for yourself,” answered the monk of Conils in a feeble
+voice, turning a sorrowful look upon Agaric. “I am going into my
+house.”
+
+The red pupils of his eyes no longer imitated the triumph and
+brilliance of the ruby, they flashed mournful and troubled glances. His
+countenance had lost its happy fulness. His shining head was no longer
+pleasant to the sight; perspiration and inflamed blotches bad altered
+its inestimable perfection.
+
+“I don’t understand,” said Agaric.
+
+“It is easy enough to understand. You see the consequences of your
+plot. Although a multitude of laws are directed against me I have
+managed to elude the greater number of them. Some, however, have struck
+me. These vindictive men have closed my laboratories and my shops, and
+confiscated my bottles, my stills, and my retorts. They have put seals
+on my doors and now I am compelled to go in through the window. I am
+barely able to extract in secret and from time to time the juice of a
+few plants and that with an apparatus which the humblest labourer would
+despise.”
+
+“You suffer from the persecution,” said Agaric. “It strikes us all.”
+
+The monk of Conils passed his hand over his afflicted brow:
+
+“I told you so, Brother Agaric; I told you that your enterprise would
+turn against ourselves.”
+
+“Our defeat is only momentary,” replied Agaric eagerly. “It is due to
+purely accidental causes; it results from mere contingencies. Chatillon
+was a fool; he has drowned himself in his own ineptitude. Listen to me,
+Brother Cornemuse. We have not a moment to lose. We must free the
+Penguin people, we must deliver them from their tyrants, save them from
+themselves, restore the Dragon’s crest, reestablish the ancient State,
+the good State, for the honour of religion and the exaltation of the
+Catholic faith. Chatillon was a bad instrument; he broke in our hands.
+Let us take a better instrument to replace him. I have the man who will
+destroy this impious democracy. He is a civil official; his name is
+Gomoru. The Penguins worship him, He has already betrayed his party for
+a plate of rice. There’s the man we want!”
+
+At the beginning of this speech the monk of Conils had climbed into his
+window and pulled up the ladder.
+
+“I foresee,” answered he, with his nose through the sash, “that you
+will not stop until you have us all expelled from this pleasant,
+agreeable, and sweet land of Penguinia. Good night; God keep you!”
+
+Agaric, standing before the wall, entreated his dearest brother to
+listen to him for a moment:
+
+“Understand your own interest better, Cornemuse! Penguinia is ours.
+What do we need to conquer it? just one effort more . . . one more
+little sacrifice of money and . . .”
+
+But without listening further, the monk of Conils drew in his head and
+closed his window.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK VI. MODERN TIMES: THE AFFAIR OF THE EIGHTY THOUSAND TRUSSES OF HAY
+
+
+Ζεῦ πάτερ ἀλλὰ σὺ ρῦσαι ὑπ᾽ ἠέρος υἷας Αχαιῶν,
+ποίησον δ᾽αἴθρην, δὸς δ᾽ὀφθαλμοῖ σιν ἰδέσθαι·
+ἐν δὲ φάιει καὶ ὄλεσσον ἐπεί νύ τοι εὔαδεν οὕτως.[10]
+(Iliad, xvii. 645 _et seq_.)
+
+
+ [10] O Father Zeus, only save thou the sons of the Acheans from the
+ darkness, and make clear sky and vouchsafe sight to our eyes, and
+ then, so it be but light, slay us, since such is thy good pleasure.
+
+
+
+
+I. GENERAL GREATAUK, DUKE OF SKULL
+
+
+A short time after the flight of the Emiral, a middle-class Jew called
+Pyrot, desirous of associating with the aristocracy and wishing to
+serve his country, entered the Penguin army. The Minister of War, who
+at the time was Greatauk, Duke of Skull, could not endure him. He
+blamed him for his zeal, his hooked nose, his vanity, his fondness for
+study, his thick lips, and his exemplary conduct. Every time the author
+of any misdeed was looked for, Greatauk used to say:
+
+“It must be Pyrot!”
+
+One morning General Panther, the Chief of the Staff, informed Greatauk
+of a serious matter. Eighty thousand trusses of hay intended for the
+cavalry had disappeared and not a trace of them was to be found.
+
+Greatauk exclaimed at once:
+
+“It must be Pyrot who has stolen them!”
+
+He remained in thought for some time and said: “The more I think of it
+the more I am convinced that Pyrot has stolen those eighty thousand
+trusses of hay. And I know it by this: he stole them in order that he
+might sell them to our bitter enemies the Porpoises. What an infamous
+piece of treachery!
+
+“There is no doubt about it,” answered Panther; “it only remains to
+prove it.”
+
+The same day, as he passed by a cavalry barracks, Prince des Boscénos
+heard the troopers as they were sweeping out the yard, singing:
+
+Boscénos est un gros cochon;
+On en va faire des andouilles,
+Des saucisses et du jambon
+Pour le réveillon des pauv’ bougres.
+
+
+It seemed to him contrary to all discipline that soldiers should sing
+this domestic and revolutionary refrain which on days of riot had been
+uttered by the lips of jeering workmen. On this occasion he deplored
+the moral degeneration of the army, and thought with a bitter smile
+that his old comrade Greatauk, the head of this degenerate army, basely
+exposed him to the malice of an unpatriotic government. And he promised
+himself that he would make an improvement before long.
+
+“That scoundrel Greatauk,” said he to himself, “will, not remain long a
+Minister.”
+
+Prince des Boscénos was the most irreconcilable of the opponents of
+modern democracy, free thought, and the government which the Penguins
+had voluntarily given themselves. He had a vigorous and undisguised
+hatred for the Jews, and he worked in public and in private, night and
+day, for the restoration of the line of the Draconides. His ardent
+royalism was still further excited by the thought of his private
+affairs, which were in a bad way and were hourly growing worse. He had
+no hope of seeing an end to his pecuniary embarrassments until the heir
+of Draco the Great entered the city of Alca.
+
+When he returned to his house, the prince took out of his safe a bundle
+of old letters consisting of a private correspondence of the most
+secret nature, which he had obtained from a treacherous secretary. They
+proved that his old comrade Greatauk, the Duke of Skull, had been
+guilty of jobbery regarding the military stores and had received a
+present of no great value from a manufacturer called Maloury. The very
+smallness of this present deprived the Minister who had accepted it of
+all excuse.
+
+The prince re-read the letters with a bitter satisfaction, put them
+carefully back into his safe, and dashed to the Minister of War. He was
+a man of resolute character. On being told that the Minister could see
+no one he knocked down the ushers, swept aside the orderlies, trampled
+under foot the civil and military clerks, burst through the doors, and
+entered the room of the astonished Greatauk.
+
+“I will not say much,” said he to him, “but I will speak to the point.
+You are a confounded cad. I have asked you to put a flea in the ear of
+General Mouchin, the tool of those Republicans, and you would not do
+it. I have asked you to give a command to General des Clapiers, who
+works for the Dracophils, and who has obliged me personally, and you
+would not do it. I have asked you to dismiss General Tandem, the
+commander of Port Alca, who robbed me of fifty louis at cards, and who
+had me handcuffed when I was brought before the High Court as Emiral
+Chatillon’s accomplice. You would not do it. I asked you for the hay
+and bran stores. You would not give them. I asked you to send me on a
+secret mission to Porpoisia. You refused. And not satisfied with these
+repeated refusals you have designated me to your Government colleagues
+as a dangerous person, who ought to be watched, and it is owing to you
+that I have been shadowed by the police. You old traitor! I ask nothing
+more from you and I have but one word to say to you: Clear out; you
+have bothered us too long. Besides, we will force the vile Republic to
+replace you by one of our own party. You know that I am a man of my
+word. If in twenty-four hours you have not handed in your resignation I
+will publish the Maloury _dossier_ in the newspapers.”
+
+But Greatauk calmly and serenely replied:
+
+“Be quiet, you fool. I am just having a Jew transported. I am handing
+over Pyrot to justice as guilty of having stolen eighty thousand
+trusses of hay.”
+
+Prince Boscénos, whose anger vanished like a dream, smiled.
+
+“Is that true?”
+
+“You will see.”
+
+“My congratulations, Greatauk. But as one always needs to take
+precautions with you I shall immediately publish the good news. People
+will read this evening about Pyrot’s arrest in every newspaper in Alca
+. . . .”
+
+And he went away muttering:
+
+“That Pyrot! I suspected he would come to a bad end.”
+
+A moment later General Panther appeared before Greatauk.
+
+“Sir,” said he, “I have just examined the business of the eighty
+thousand trusses of hay. There is no evidence against Pyrot.”
+
+“Let it be found,” answered Greatauk. “Justice requires it. Have Pyrot
+arrested at once.”
+
+
+
+
+II. PYROT
+
+
+All Penguinia heard with horror of Pyrot’s crime; at the same time
+there was a sort of satisfaction that this embezzlement combined with
+treachery and even bordering on sacrilege, had been committed by a Jew.
+In order to understand this feeling it is necessary to be acquainted
+with the state of public opinion regarding the Jews both great and
+small. As we have had occasion to say in this history, the universally
+detested and all powerful financial caste was composed of Christians
+and of Jews. The Jews who formed part of it and on whom the people
+poured all their hatred were the upper-class Jews. They possessed
+immense riches and, it was said, held more than a fifth part of the
+total property of Penguinia. Outside this formidable caste there was a
+multitude of Jews of a mediocre condition, who were not more loved than
+the others and who were feared much less. In every ordered State,
+wealth is a sacred thing: in democracies it is the only sacred thing.
+Now the Penguin State was democratic. Three or four financial companies
+exercised a more extensive, and above all, more effective and
+continuous power, than that of the Ministers of the Republic. The
+latter were puppets whom the companies ruled in secret, whom they
+compelled by intimidation or corruption to favour themselves at the
+expense of the State, and whom they ruined by calumnies in the press if
+they remained honest. In spite of the secrecy of the Exchequer, enough
+appeared to make the country indignant, but the middle-class Penguins
+had, from the greatest to the least of them, been brought up to hold
+money in great reverence, and as they all had property, either much or
+little, they were strongly impressed with the solidarity of capital and
+understood that a small fortune is not safe unless a big one is
+protected. For these reasons they conceived a religious respect for the
+Jews’ millions, and self-interest being stronger with them than
+aversion, they were as much afraid as they were of death to touch a
+single hair of one of the rich Jews whom they detested. Towards the
+poorer Jews they felt less ceremonious and when they saw any of them
+down they trampled on them. That is why the entire nation learnt with
+thorough satisfaction that the traitor was a Jew. They could take
+vengeance on all Israel in his person without any fear of compromising
+the public credit.
+
+That Pyrot had stolen the eighty thousand trusses of hay nobody
+hesitated for a moment to believe. No one doubted because the general
+ignorance in which everybody was concerning the affair did not allow of
+doubt, for doubt is a thing that demands motives. People do not doubt
+without reasons in the same way that people believe without reasons.
+The thing was not doubted because it was repeated everywhere and, with
+the public, to repeat is to prove. It was not doubted because people
+wished to believe Pyrot guilty and one believes what one wishes to
+believe. Finally, it was not doubted because the faculty of doubt is
+rare amongst men; very few minds carry in them its germs and these are
+not developed without cultivation. Doubt is singular, exquisite,
+philosophic, immoral, transcendent, monstrous, full of malignity,
+injurious to persons and to property, contrary to the good order of
+governments, and to the prosperity of empires, fatal to humanity,
+destructive of the gods, held in horror by heaven and earth. The mass
+of the Penguins were ignorant of doubt: it believed in Pyrot’s guilt
+and this conviction immediately became one of its chief national
+beliefs and an essential truth in its patriotic creed.
+
+Pyrot was tried secretly and condemned.
+
+General Panther immediately went to the Minister of War to tell him the
+result.
+
+“Luckily,” said he, “the judges were certain, for they had no proofs.”
+
+“Proofs,” muttered Greatauk, “Proofs, what do they prove? There is only
+one certain, irrefragable proof—the confession of the guilty person.
+Has Pyrot confessed?”
+
+“No, General.”
+
+“He will confess, he ought to. Panther, we must induce him; tell him it
+is to his interest. Promise him that, if he confesses, he will obtain
+favours, a reduction of his sentence, full pardon; promise him that if
+he confesses his innocence will be admitted, that he will be decorated.
+Appeal to his good feelings. Let him confess from patriotism, for the
+flag, for the sake of order, from respect for the hierarchy, at the
+special command of the Minister of War militarily. . . . But tell me,
+Panther, has he not confessed already? There are tacit confessions;
+silence is a confession.”
+
+“But, General, he is not silent; he keeps on squealing like a pig that
+he is innocent.”
+
+“Panther, the confessions of a guilty man sometimes result from the
+vehemence of his denials. To deny desperately is to confess. Pyrot has
+confessed; we must have witnesses of his confessions, justice requires
+them.”
+
+There was in Western Penguinia a seaport called La Cirque, formed of
+three small bays and formerly greatly frequented by ships, but now
+solitary and deserted. Gloomy lagoons stretched along its low coasts
+exhaling a pestilent odour, while fever hovered over its sleepy waters.
+Here, on the borders of the sea, there was built a high square tower,
+like the old Campanile at Venice, from the side of which, close to the
+summit hung an open cage which was fastened by a chain to a transverse
+beam. In the times of the Draconides the Inquisitors of Alca used to
+put heretical clergy into this cage. It had been empty for three
+hundred years, but now Pyrot was imprisoned in it under the guard of
+sixty warders, who lived in the tower and did not lose sight of him
+night or day, spying on him for confessions that they might afterwards
+report to the Minister of War. For Greatauk, careful and prudent,
+desired confessions and still further confessions. Greatauk, who was
+looked upon as a fool, was in reality a man of great ability and full
+of rare foresight.
+
+In the mean time Pyrot, burnt by the sun, eaten by mosquitoes, soaked
+in the rain, hail and snow, frozen by the cold, tossed about terribly
+by the wind, beset by the sinister croaking of the ravens that perched
+upon his cage, kept writing down his innocence on pieces torn off his
+shirt with a tooth-pick dipped in blood. These rags were lost in the
+sea or fell into the hands of the gaolers. But Pyrot’s protests moved
+nobody because his confessions had been published.
+
+
+
+
+III. COUNT DE MAUBEC DE LA DENTDULYNX
+
+
+The morals of the Jews were not always pure; in most cases they were
+averse from none of the vices of Christian civilization, but they
+retained from the Patriarchal age a recognition of family, ties and an
+attachment to the interests of the tribe. Pyrot’s brothers,
+half-brothers, uncles, great-uncles, first, second, and third cousins,
+nephews and great-nephews, relations by blood and relations by
+marriage, and all who were related to him to the number of about seven
+hundred, were at first overwhelmed by the blow that had struck their
+relative, and they shut themselves up in their houses, covering
+themselves with ashes and blessing the hand that had chastised them.
+For forty days they kept a strict fast. Then they bathed themselves and
+resolved to search, without rest, at the cost of any toil and at the
+risk of every danger, for the demonstration of an innocence which they
+did not doubt. And how could they have doubted? Pyrot’s innocence had
+been revealed to them in the same way that his guilt had been revealed
+to Christian Penguinia’s; for these things, being hidden, assume a
+mystic character and take on the authority of religious truths. The
+seven hundred Pyrotists set to work with as much zeal as prudence, and
+made the most thorough inquiries in secret. They were everywhere; they
+were seen nowhere. One would have said that, like the pilot of Ulysses,
+they wandered freely over the earth. They penetrated into the War
+Office and approached, under different disguises, the judges, the
+registrars, and the witnesses of the affair. Then Greatauk’s cleverness
+was seen. The witnesses knew nothing; the judges and registrars knew
+nothing. Emissaries reached even Pyrot and anxiously questioned him in
+his cage amid the prolonged moanings of the sea and the hoarse croaks
+of the ravens. It was in vain; the prisoner knew nothing. The seven
+hundred Pyrotists could not subvert the proofs of the accusation
+because they could not know what they were, and they could not know
+what they were because there were none. Pyrot’s guilt was indefeasible
+through its very nullity. And it was with a legitimate pride that
+Greatauk, expressing himself as a true artist, said one day to General
+Panther: “This case is a master-piece: it is made out of nothing.” The
+seven hundred Pyrotists despaired of ever clearing up this dark
+business, when suddenly they discovered, from a stolen letter, that the
+eighty thousand trusses of hay had never existed, that a most
+distinguished nobleman, Count de Maubec, had sold them to the State,
+that he had received the price but had never delivered them. Indeed
+seeing that he was descended from the richest landed proprietors of
+ancient Penguinia, the heir of the Maubecs of Dentdulynx, once the
+possessors of four duchies, sixty counties, and six hundred and twelve
+marquisates, baronies, and viscounties, he did not possess as much land
+as he could cover with his hand, and would not have been able to cut a
+single day’s mowing of forage off his own domains. As to his getting a
+single rush from a land-owner or a merchant, that would have been quite
+impossible, for everybody except the Ministers of State and the
+Government officials knew that it would be easier to get blood from a
+stone than a farthing from a Maubec.
+
+The seven hundred Pyrotists made a minute inquiry concerning the Count
+Maubec de la Dentdulynx’s financial resources, and they proved that
+that nobleman was chiefly supported by a house in which some generous
+ladies were ready to furnish all comers with the most lavish
+hospitality. They publicly proclaimed that he was guilty of the theft
+of the eighty thousand trusses of straw for which an innocent man had
+been condemned and was now imprisoned in the cage.
+
+Maubec belonged to an illustrious family which was allied to the
+Draconides. There is nothing that a democracy esteems more highly than
+noble birth. Maubec had also served in the Penguin army, and since the
+Penguins were all soldiers, they loved their army to idolatry. Maubec,
+on the field of battle, had received the Cross, which is a sign of
+honour among the Penguins and which they valued even more highly than
+the embraces of their wives. All Penguinia declared for Maubec, and the
+voice of the people which began to assume a threatening tone, demanded
+severe punishments for the seven hundred calumniating Pyrotists.
+
+Maubec was a nobleman; he challenged the seven hundred Pyrotists to
+combat with either sword, sabre, pistols, carabines, or sticks.
+
+“Vile dogs,” he wrote to them in a famous letter, “you have crucified
+my God and you want my life too; I warn you that I will not be such a
+duffer as He was and that I will cut off your fourteen hundred ears.
+Accept my boot on your seven hundred behinds.”
+
+The Chief of the Government at the time was a peasant called Robin
+Mielleux, a man pleasant to the rich and powerful, but hard towards the
+poor, a man of small courage and ignorant of his own interests. In a
+public declaration he guaranteed Maubec’s innocence and honour, and
+presented the seven hundred Pyrotists to the criminal courts where they
+were condemned, as libellers, to imprisonment, to enormous fines, and
+to all the damages that were claimed by their innocent victim.
+
+It seemed as if Pyrot was destined to remain for ever shut in the cage
+on which the ravens perched. But all the Penguins being anxious to know
+and prove that this Jew was guilty, all the proofs brought forward were
+found not to be good, while some of them were also contradictory. The
+officers of the Staff showed zeal but lacked prudence. Whilst Greatauk
+kept an admirable silence, General Panther made inexhaustible speeches
+and every morning demonstrated in the newspapers that the condemned man
+was guilty. He would have done better, perhaps, if he had said nothing.
+The guilt was evident and what is evident cannot be demonstrated. So
+much reasoning disturbed people’s minds; their faith, though still
+alive, became less serene. The more proofs one gives a crowd the more
+they ask for.
+
+Nevertheless the danger of proving too much would not have been great
+if there had not been in Penguinia, as there are, indeed, everywhere,
+minds framed for free inquiry, capable of studying a difficult
+question, and inclined to philosophic doubt. They were few; they were
+not all inclined to speak, and the public was by no means inclined to
+listen to them. Still, they did not always meet with deaf ears. The
+great Jews, all the Israelite millionaires of Alca, when spoken to of
+Pyrot, said: “We do not know the man”; but they thought of saving him.
+They preserved the prudence to which their wealth inclined them and
+wished that others would be less timid. Their wish was to be gratified.
+
+
+
+
+IV. COLOMBAN
+
+
+Some weeks after the conviction of the seven hundred Pyrotists, a
+little, gruff, hairy, short-sighted man left his house one morning with
+a paste-pot, a ladder, and a bundle of posters and went about the
+streets pasting placards to the walls on which might be read in large
+letters: _Pyrot is innocent, Maubec is guilty_. He was not a
+bill-poster; his name was Colomban, and as the author of sixty volumes
+on Penguin sociology he was numbered among the most laborious and
+respected writers in Alca. Having given sufficient thought to the
+matter and no longer doubting Pyrot’s innocence, he proclaimed it in
+the manner which he thought would be most sensational. He met with no
+hindrance while posting his bills in the quiet streets, but when he
+came to the populous quarters, every time he mounted his ladder,
+inquisitive people crowded round him and, dumbfounded with surprise and
+indignation, threw at him threatening looks which he received with the
+calm that comes from courage and short-sightedness. Whilst caretakers
+and tradespeople tore down the bills he had posted, he kept on
+zealously placarding, carrying his tools and followed by little boys
+who, with their baskets under their arms or their satchels on their
+backs, were in no hurry to reach school. To the mute indignation
+against him, protests and murmurs were now added. But Colomban did not
+condescend to see or hear anything. As, at the entrance to the Rue St.
+Orberosia, he was posting one of his squares of paper bearing the
+words: _Pyrot is innocent, Maubec is guilty_, the riotous crowd showed
+signs of the most violent anger. They called after him, “Traitor,
+thief, rascal, scoundrel.” A woman opened a window and emptied a vase
+full of filth over his head, a cabby sent his hat flying from one end
+of the street to the other by a blow of his whip amid the cheers of the
+crowd who now felt themselves avenged. A butcher’s boy knocked Colomban
+with his paste-pot, his brush, and his posters, from the top of his
+ladder into the gutter, and the proud Penguins then felt the greatness
+of their country. Colomban stood up, covered with filth, lame, and with
+his elbow injured, but tranquil and resolute.
+
+“Low brutes,” he muttered, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+Then he went down on all-fours in the gutter to look for his glasses
+which he had lost in his fall. It was then seen that his coat was split
+from the collar to the tails and that his trousers were in rags. The
+rancour of the crowd grew stronger.
+
+On the other side of the street stretched the big St. Orberosian
+Stores. The patriots seized whatever they could lay their hands on from
+the shop front, and hurled at Colomban oranges, lemons, pots of jam,
+pieces of chocolate, bottles of liqueurs, boxes of sardines, pots of
+_foie gras_, hams, fowls, flasks of oil, and bags of haricots. Covered
+with the débris of the food, bruised, tattered, lame, and blind, he
+took to flight, followed by the shop-boys, bakers, loafers, citizens,
+and hooligans whose number increased each moment and who kept shouting:
+“Duck him! Death to the traitor! Duck him!” This torrent of vulgar
+humanity swept along the streets and rushed into the Rue St. Maël. The
+police did their duty. From all the adjacent streets constables
+proceeded and, holding their scabbards with their left hands, they went
+at full speed in front of the pursuers. They were on the point of
+grabbing Colomban in their huge hands when he suddenly escaped them by
+falling through an open man-hole to the bottom of a sewer.
+
+He spent the night there in the darkness, sitting close by the dirty
+water amidst the fat and slimy rats. He thought of his task, and his
+swelling heart filled with courage and pity. And when the dawn threw a
+pale ray of light into the air-hole he got up and said, speaking to
+himself:
+
+“I see that the fight will be a stiff one.”
+
+Forthwith he composed a memorandum in which he clearly showed that
+Pyrot could not have stolen from the Ministry of War the eighty
+thousand trusses of hay which it had never received, for the reason
+that Maubec had never delivered them, though he had received the money.
+Colomban caused this statement to be distributed in the streets of
+Alca. The people refused to read it and tore it up in anger. The
+shop-keepers shook their fists at the distributers, who made off,
+chased by angry women armed with brooms. Feelings grew warm and the
+ferment lasted the whole day. In the evening bands of wild and ragged
+men went about the streets yelling: “Death to Colomban!” The patriots
+snatched whole bundles of the memorandum from the newsboys and burned
+them in the public squares, dancing wildly round these bon-fires with
+girls whose petticoats were tied up to their waists.
+
+Some of the more enthusiastic among them went and broke the windows of
+the house in which Colomban had lived in perfect tranquillity during
+his forty years of work.
+
+Parliament was roused and asked the Chief of the Government what
+measures he proposed to take in order to repel the odious attacks made
+by Colomban upon the honour of the National Arm and the safety of
+Penguinia. Robin Mielleux denounced Colomban’s impious audacity and
+proclaimed amid the cheers of the legislators that the man would be
+summoned before the Courts to answer for his infamous libel.
+
+The Minister of War was called to the tribune and appeared in it
+transfigured. He had no longer the air, as in former days, of one of
+the sacred geese of the Penguin citadels. Now, bristling, with
+outstretched neck and hooked beak, he seemed the symbolical vulture
+fastened to the livers of his country’s enemies.
+
+In the august silence of the assembly he pronounced these words only:
+
+“I swear that Pyrot is a rascal.”
+
+This speech of Greatauk was reported all over Penguinia and satisfied
+the public conscience.
+
+
+
+
+V. THE REVEREND FATHERS AGARIC AND CORNEMUSE
+
+
+Colomban bore with meekness and surprise the weight of the general
+reprobation. He could not go out without being stoned, so he did not go
+out. He remained in his study with a superb obstinacy, writing new
+memoranda in favour of the encaged innocent. In the mean time among the
+few readers that he found, some, about a dozen, were struck by his
+reasons and began to doubt Pyrot’s guilt. They broached the subject to
+their friends and endeavoured to spread the light that had arisen in
+their minds. One of them was a friend of Robin Mielleux and confided to
+him his perplexities, with the result that he was no longer received by
+that Minister. Another demanded explanations in an open letter to the
+Minister of War. A third published a terrible pamphlet. The latter,
+whose name was Kerdanic, was a formidable controversialist. The public
+was unmoved. It was said that these defenders of the traitor had been
+bribed by the rich Jews; they were stigmatized by the name of Pyrotists
+and the patriots swore to exterminate them. There were only a thousand
+or twelve hundred Pyrotists in the whole vast Republic, but it was
+believed that they were everywhere. People were afraid of finding them
+in the promenades, at meetings, at receptions, in fashionable
+drawing-rooms, at the dinner-table, even in the conjugal couch. One
+half of the population was suspected by the other half. The discord set
+all Alca on fire.
+
+In the mean time Father Agaric, who managed his big school for young
+nobles, followed events with anxious attention. The misfortunes of the
+Penguin Church had not disheartened him. He remained faithful to Prince
+Crucho and preserved the hope of restoring the heir of the Draconides
+to the Penguin throne. It appeared to him that the events that were
+happening or about to happen in the country, the state of mind of which
+they were at once the effect and the cause, and the troubles that
+necessarily resulted from them might—if they were directed, guided, and
+led by the profound wisdom of a monk—overthrow the Republic and incline
+the Penguins to restore Prince Crucho, from whose piety the faithful
+hoped for so much solace. Wearing his huge black hat, the brims of
+which looked like the wings of Night, he walked through the Wood of
+Conils towards the factory where his venerable friend, Father
+Cornemuse, distilled the hygienic St. Orberosian liqueur. The good
+monk’s industry, so cruelly affected in the time of Emiral Chatillon,
+was being restored from its ruins. One heard goods trains rumbling
+through the Wood and one saw in the sheds hundreds of orphans clothed
+in blue, packing bottles and nailing up cases.
+
+Agaric found the venerable Cornemuse standing before his stoves and
+surrounded by his retorts. The shining pupils of the old man’s eyes had
+again become as rubies, his skull shone with its former elaborate and
+careful polish.
+
+Agaric first congratulated the pious distiller on the restored activity
+of his laboratories and workshops.
+
+“Business is recovering. I thank God for it,” answered the old man of
+Conils. “Alas! it had fallen into a bad state, Brother Agaric. You saw
+the desolation of this establishment. I need say no more.”
+
+Agaric turned away his head.
+
+“The St. Orberosian liqueur,” continued Cornemuse, “is making fresh
+conquests. But none the less my industry remains uncertain and
+precarious. The laws of ruin and desolation that struck it have not
+been abrogated, they have only been suspended.”
+
+And the monk of Conils lifted his ruby eyes to heaven.
+
+Agaric put his hand on his shoulder.
+
+“What a sight, Cornemuse, does unhappy Penguinia present to us!
+Everywhere disobedience, independence, liberty! We see the proud, the
+haughty, the men of revolt rising up. After having braved the Divine
+laws they now rear themselves against human laws, so true is it that in
+order to be a good citizen a man must be a good Christian. Colomban is
+trying to imitate Satan. Numerous criminals are following his fatal
+example. They want, in their rage, to put aside all checks, to throw
+off all yokes, to free themselves from the most sacred bonds, to escape
+from the most salutary restraints. They strike their country to make it
+obey them. But they will be overcome by the weight of public
+animadversion, vituperation, indignation, fury, execration, and
+abomination. That is the abyss to which they have been led by atheism,
+free thought, and the monstrous claim to judge for themselves and to
+form their own opinions.”
+
+“Doubtless, doubtless,” replied Father Cornemuse, shaking his head,
+“but I confess that the care of distilling these simples has prevented
+me from following public affairs. I only know that people are talking a
+great deal about a man called Pyrot. Some maintain that he is guilty,
+others affirm that he is innocent, but I do not clearly understand the
+motives that drive both parties to mix themselves up in a business that
+concerns neither of them.”
+
+The pious Agaric asked eagerly:
+
+“You do not doubt Pyrot’s guilt?”
+
+“I cannot doubt it, dear Agaric,” answered the monk of Conils. “That
+would be contrary to the laws of my country which we ought to respect
+as long as they are not opposed to the Divine laws. Pyrot is guilty,
+for he has been convicted. As to saying more for or against his guilt,
+that would be to erect my own authority against that of the judges, a
+thing which I will take good care not to do. Besides, it is useless,
+for Pyrot has been convicted. If he has not been convicted because he
+is guilty, he is guilty because he has been convicted; it comes to the
+same thing. I believe in his guilt as every good citizen ought to
+believe in it; and I will believe in it as long as the established
+jurisdiction will order me to believe in it, for it is not for a
+private person but for a judge to proclaim the innocence of a convicted
+person. Human justice is venerable even in the errors inherent in its
+fallible and limited nature. These errors are never irreparable; if the
+judges do not repair them on earth, God will repair them in Heaven.
+Besides I have great confidence in general Greatauk, who, though he
+certainly does not look it, seems to me to be an abler man than all
+those who are attacking him.”
+
+“Dearest Cornemuse,” cried the pious Agaric, “the Pyrot affair, if
+pushed to the point whither we can lead it by the help of God and the
+necessary funds, will produce the greatest benefits. It will lay bare
+the vices of this Anti-Christian Republic and will incline the Penguins
+to restore the throne of the Draconides and the prerogatives of the
+Church. But to do that it is necessary for the people to see the clergy
+in the front rank of its defenders. Let us march against the enemies of
+the army, against those who insult our heroes, and everybody will
+follow us.”
+
+“Everybody will be too many,” murmured the monk of Conils, shaking his
+head. “I see that the Penguins want to quarrel. If we mix ourselves up
+in their quarrel they will become reconciled at our expense and we
+shall have to pay the cost of the war. That is why, if you are guided
+by me, dear Agaric, you will not engage the Church in this adventure.”
+
+“You know my energy; you know my prudence. I will compromise nothing. .
+. . Dear Cornemuse, I only want from you the funds necessary for us to
+begin the campaign.”
+
+For a long time Cornemuse refused to bear the expenses of what he
+thought was a fatal enterprise. Agaric was in turn pathetic and
+terrible. At last, yielding to his prayers and threats, Cornemuse, with
+banging head and swinging arms, went to the austere cell that concealed
+his evangelical poverty. In the whitewashed wall under a branch of
+blessed box, there was fixed a safe. He opened it, and with a sigh took
+out a bundle of bills which, with hesitating hands, he gave to the
+pious Agaric.
+
+“Do not doubt it, dear Cornemuse,” said the latter, thrusting the
+papers into the pocket of his overcoat, “this Pyrot affair has been
+sent us by God for the glory and exaltation of the Church of
+Penguinia.”
+
+“I pray that you may be right!” sighed the monk of Conils.
+
+And, left alone in his laboratory, he gazed, through his exquisite
+eyes, with an ineffable sadness at his stoves and his retorts.
+
+
+
+
+VI. THE SEVEN HUNDRED PYROTISTS
+
+
+The seven hundred Pyrotists inspired the public with an increasing
+aversion. Every day two or three of them were beaten to death in the
+streets. One of them was publicly whipped, another thrown into the
+river, a third tarred and feathered and led through a laughing crowd, a
+fourth had his nose cut off by a captain of dragoons. They did not dare
+to show themselves at their clubs, at tennis, or at the races; they put
+on a disguise when they went to the Stock Exchange. In these
+circumstances the Prince des Boscénos thought it urgent to curb their
+audacity and repress their insolence. For this purpose he joined with
+Count Cléna, M. de La Trumelle, Viscount Olive, and M. Bigourd in
+founding a great anti-Pyrotist association to which citizens in
+hundreds of thousands, soldiers in companies, regiments, brigades,
+divisions, and army corps, towns, districts, and provinces, all gave
+their adhesion.
+
+About this time the Minister of War happening to visit one day his
+Chief of Staff, saw with surprise that the large room where General
+Panther worked, which was formerly quite bare, had now along each wall
+from floor to ceiling in sets of deep pigeon-holes, triple and
+quadruple rows of paper bundles of every as form and colour. These
+sudden and monstrous records had in a few days reached the dimensions
+of a pile of archives such as it takes centuries to accumulate.
+
+“What is this?” asked the astonished minister.
+
+“Proofs against Pyrot,” answered General Panther with patriotic
+satisfaction. “We had not got them when we convicted him, but we have
+plenty of them now.”
+
+The door was open, and Greatauk saw coming up the stair-case a long
+file of porters who were unloading heavy bales of papers in the hall,
+and he saw the lift slowly rising heavily loaded with paper packets.
+
+“What are those others?” said he.
+
+“They are fresh proofs against Pyrot that are now reaching us,” said
+Panther. “I have asked for them in every county of Penguinia, in every
+Staff Office and in every Court in Europe. I have ordered them in every
+town in America and in Australia, and in every factory in Africa, and I
+am expecting bales of them from Bremen and a ship-load from Melbourne.”
+And Panther turned towards the Minister of War the tranquil and radiant
+look of a hero. However, Greatauk, his eye-glass in his eye, was
+looking at the formidable pile of papers with less satisfaction than
+uneasiness.
+
+“Very good,” said he, “very good! but I am afraid that this Pyrot
+business may lose its beautiful simplicity. It was limpid; like a
+rock-crystal its value lay in its transparency. You could have searched
+it in vain with a magnifying-glass for a straw, a bend, a blot, for the
+least fault. When it left my hands it was as pure as the light. Indeed
+it was the light. I give you a pearl and you make a mountain out of it.
+To tell you the truth I am afraid that by wishing to do too well you
+have done less well. Proofs! of course it is good to have proofs, but
+perhaps it is better to have none at all. I have already told you,
+Panther, there is only one irrefutable proof, the confession of the
+guilty person (or if the innocent what matter!). The Pyrot affair, as I
+arranged it, left no room for criticism; there was no spot where it
+could be touched. It defied assault. It was invulnerable because it was
+invisible. Now it gives an enormous handle for discussion. I advise
+you, Panther, to use your paper packets with great reserve. I should be
+particularly grateful if you would be more sparing of your
+communications to journalists. You speak well, but you say too much.
+Tell me, Panther, are there any forged documents among these?”
+
+“There are some adapted ones.”
+
+“That is what I meant. There are some adapted ones. So much the better.
+As proofs, forged documents, in general, are better than genuine ones,
+first of all because they have been expressly made to suit the needs of
+the case, to order and measure, and therefore they are fitting and
+exact. They are also preferable because they carry the mind into an
+ideal world and turn it aside from the reality which, alas! in this
+world is never without some alloy. . . . Nevertheless, I think I should
+have preferred, Panther, that we had no proofs at all.”
+
+The first act of the Anti-Pyrotist Association was to ask the
+Government immediately to summon the seven hundred Pyrotists and their
+accomplices before the High Court of Justice as guilty of high treason.
+Prince des Boscénos was charged to speak on behalf of the Association
+and presented himself before the Council which had assembled to hear
+him. He expressed a hope that the vigilance and firmness of the
+Government would rise to the height of the occasion. He shook hands
+with each of the ministers and as he passed General Greatauk he
+whispered in his ear:
+
+“Behave properly, you ruffian, or I will publish the Maloury
+_dossier!_”
+
+Some days later by a unanimous vote of both Houses, on a motion
+proposed by the Government, the Anti-Pyrotist Association was granted a
+charter recognising it as beneficial to the public interest.
+
+The Association immediately sent a deputation to Chitterlings Castle in
+Porpoisia, where Crucho was eating the bitter bread of exile, to assure
+the prince of the love and devotion of the Anti-Pyrotist members.
+
+However, the Pyrotists grew in numbers, and now counted ten thousand.
+They had their regular cafés on the boulevards. The patriots had theirs
+also, richer and bigger, and every evening glasses of beer, saucers,
+match-stands, jugs, chairs, and tables were hurled from one to the
+other. Mirrors were smashed to bits, and the police ended the struggles
+by impartially trampling the combatants of both parties under their
+hob-nailed shoes.
+
+On one of these glorious nights, as Prince des Boscénos was leaving a
+fashionable café in the company of some patriots, M. de La Trumelle
+pointed out to him a little, bearded man with glasses, hatless, and
+having only one sleeve to his coat, who was painfully dragging himself
+along the rubbish-strewn pavement.
+
+“Look!” said he, “there is Colomban!”
+
+The prince had gentleness as well as strength; he was exceedingly mild;
+but at the name of Colomban his blood boiled. He rushed at the little
+spectacled man, and knocked him down with one blow of his fist on the
+nose.
+
+M. de La Trumelle then perceived that, misled by an undeserved
+resemblance, he had mistaken for Colomban, M. Bazile, a retired lawyer,
+the secretary of the Anti-pyrotist Association, and an ardent and
+generous patriot. Prince des Boscénos was one of those antique souls
+who never bend. However, he knew how to recognise his faults.
+
+“M. Bazile,” said he, raising his hat, “if I have touched your face
+with my hand you will excuse me and you will understand me, you will
+approve of me, nay, you will compliment me, you will congratulate me
+and felicitate me, when you know the cause of that act. I took you for
+Colomban.”
+
+M. Bazile, wiping his bleeding nostrils with his handkerchief and
+displaying an elbow laid bare by the absence of his sleeve:
+
+“No, sir,” answered he drily, “I shall not felicitate you, I shall not
+congratulate you, I shall not compliment you, for your action was, at
+the very least, superfluous; it was, I will even say, supererogatory.
+Already this evening I have been three times mistaken for Colomban and
+received a sufficient amount of the treatment he deserves. The patriots
+have knocked in my ribs and broken my back, and, sir, I was of opinion
+that that was enough.”
+
+Scarcely had he finished this speech than a band of Pyrotists appeared,
+and misled in their turn by that insidious resemblance, they believed
+that the patriots were killing Colomban. They fell on Prince des
+Boscénos and his companions with loaded canes and leather thongs, and
+left them for dead. Then seizing Bazile they carried him in triumph,
+and in spite of his protests, along the boulevards, amid cries of:
+“Hurrah for Colomban! Hurrah for Pyrot!” At last the police, who had
+been sent after them, attacked and defeated them and dragged them
+ignominiously to the station, where Bazile, under the name of Colomban,
+was trampled on by an innumerable quantity of thick, hob-nailed shoes.
+
+
+
+
+VII. BIDAULT-COQUILLE AND MANIFLORE, THE SOCIALISTS
+
+
+Whilst the wind of anger and hatred blew in Alca, Eugine
+Bidault-Coquille, poorest and happiest of astronomers, installed in an
+old steam-engine of the time of the Draconides, was observing the
+heavens through a bad telescope, and photographing the paths of the
+meteors upon some damaged photographic plates. His genius corrected the
+errors of his instruments and his love of science triumphed over the
+worthlessness of his apparatus. With an inextinguishable ardour he
+observed aerolites, meteors, and fire-balls, and all the glowing ruins
+and blazing sparks which pass through the terrestrial atmosphere with
+prodigious speed, and as a reward for is studious vigils he received
+the indifference of the public, the ingratitude of the State and the
+blame of the learned societies. Engulfed in the celestial spaces he
+knew not what occurred upon the surface of the earth. He never read the
+newspapers, and when he walked through the town his mind was occupied
+with the November asteroids, and more than once he found himself at the
+bottom of a pond in one of the public parks or beneath the wheels of a
+motor omnibus.
+
+Elevated in stature as in thought he respected himself and others. This
+was shown by his cold politeness as well as by a very thin black frock
+coat and a tall hat which gave to his person an appearance at once
+emaciated and sublime. He took his meals in a little restaurant from
+which all customers less intellectual than himself had fled, and
+thenceforth his napkin bound by its wooden ring rested alone in the
+abandoned rack.
+
+In this cook-shop his eyes fell one evening upon Colomban’s memorandum
+in favour of Pyrot. He read it as he was cracking some bad nuts and
+suddenly, exalted with astonishment, admiration, horror, and pity, he
+forgot all about falling meteors and shooting stars and saw nothing but
+the innocent man hanging in his cage exposed to the winds of heaven and
+the ravens perching upon it.
+
+That image did not leave him. For a week he had been obsessed by the
+innocent convict, when, as he was leaving his cook-shop, he saw a crowd
+of citizens entering a public-house in which a public meeting was going
+on. He went in. The meeting was disorderly; they were yelling, abusing
+one another and knocking one another down in the smoke-laden hall. The
+Pyrotists and the Anti-Pyrotists spoke in turn and were alternately
+cheered and hissed at. An obscure and confused enthusiasm moved the
+audience. With the audacity of a timid and retired man Bidault-Coquille
+leaped upon the platform and spoke for three-quarters of an hour. He
+spoke very quickly, without order, but with vehemence, and with all the
+conviction of a mathematical mystic. He was cheered. When he got down
+from the platform a big woman of uncertain age, dressed in red, and
+wearing an immense hat trimmed with heroic feathers, throwing herself
+into his arms, embraced him, and said to him:
+
+“You are splendid!”
+
+He thought in his simplicity that there was some truth in the
+statement.
+
+She declared to him that henceforth she would live but for Pyrot’s
+defence and Colomban’s glory. He thought her sublime and beautiful. She
+was Maniflore, a poor old courtesan, now forgotten and discarded, who
+had suddenly become a vehement politician.
+
+She never left him. They spent glorious hours together in doss-houses
+and in lodgings beautified by their love, in newspaper offices, in
+meeting-halls and in lecture-halls. As he was an idealist, he persisted
+in thinking her beautiful, although she gave him abundant opportunity
+of seeing that she had preserved no charm of any kind. From her past
+beauty she only retained a confidence in her capacity for pleasing and
+a lofty assurance in demanding homage. Still, it must be admitted that
+this Pyrot affair, so fruitful in prodigies, invested Maniflore with a
+sort of civic majesty, and transformed her, at public meetings, into an
+august symbol of justice and truth.
+
+Bidault-Coquille and Maniflore did not kindle the least spark of irony
+or amusement in a single Anti-Pyrotist, a single defender of Greatauk,
+or a single supporter of the army. The gods, in their anger, had
+refused to those men the precious gift of humour. They gravely accused
+the courtesan and the astronomer of being spies, of treachery, and of
+plotting against their country. Bidault-Coquille and Maniflore grew
+visibly greater beneath insult, abuse, and calumny.
+
+For long months Penguinia had been divided into two camps and, though
+at first sight it may appear strange, hitherto the socialists had taken
+no part in the contest. Their groups comprised almost all the manual
+workers in the country, necessarily scattered, confused, broken up, and
+divided, but formidable. The Pyrot affair threw the group leaders into
+a singular embarrassment. They did not wish to place themselves either
+on the side of the financiers or on the side of the army. They regarded
+the Jews, both great and small, as their uncompromising opponents.
+Their principles were not at stake, nor were their interests concerned
+in the affair. Still the greater number felt how difficult it was
+growing for them to remain aloof from struggles in which all Penguinia
+was engaged.
+
+Their leaders called a sitting of their federation at the Rue de la
+Queue-du-diable-St. Maël, to take into consideration the conduct they
+ought to adopt in the present circumstances and in future
+eventualities.
+
+Comrade Phœnix was the first to speak.
+
+“A crime,” said he, “the most odious and cowardly of crimes, a judicial
+crime, has been committed. Military judges, coerced or misled by their
+superior officers, have condemned an innocent man to an infamous and
+cruel punishment. Let us not say that the victim is not one of our own
+party, that he belongs to a caste which was, and always will be, our
+enemy. Our party is the party of social justice; it can look upon no
+iniquity with indifference.
+
+“It would be a shame for us if we left it to Kerdanic, a radical, to
+Colomban, a member of the middle classes, and to a few moderate
+Republicans, alone to proceed against the crimes of the army. If the
+victim is not one of us, his executioners are our brothers’
+executioners, and before Greatauk struck down this soldier he shot our
+comrades who were on strike.
+
+“Comrades, by an intellectual, moral and material effort you must
+rescue Pyrot from his torment, and in performing this generous act you
+are not turning aside from the liberating and revolutionary task you
+have undertaken, for Pyrot his become the symbol of the oppressed and
+of all the social iniquities that now exist; by destroying one you make
+all the others tremble.”
+
+When Phœnix ended, comrade Sapor spoke in these terms:
+
+“You are advised to abandon your task in order to do something with
+which you have no concern. Why throw yourselves into a conflict where,
+on whatever side you turn, you will find none but your natural,
+uncompromising, even necessary opponents? Are the financiers to be less
+hated by us than the army? What inept and criminal generosity is it
+that hurries you to save those seven hundred Pyrotists whom you will
+always find confronting you in the social war?
+
+“It is proposed that you act the part of the police for your enemies,
+and that you are to re-establish for them the order which their own
+crimes have disturbed. Magnanimity pushed to this degree changes its
+name.
+
+“Comrades, there is a point at which infamy becomes fatal to a society.
+Penguin society is being strangled by its infamy, and you are requested
+to save it, to give it air that it can breathe. This is simply turning
+you into ridicule.
+
+“Leave it to smother itself and let us gaze at its last convulsions
+with joyful contempt, only regretting that it has so entirely corrupted
+the soil on which it has been built that we shall find nothing but
+poisoned mud on which to lay the foundations of a new society.”
+
+When Sapor had ended his speech comrade Lapersonne pronounced these few
+words:
+
+“Phœnix calls us to Pyrot’s help for the reason that Pyrot is innocent.
+It seems to me that that is a very bad reason. If Pyrot is innocent he
+has behaved like a good soldier and has always conscientiously worked
+at his trade, which principally consists in shooting the people. That
+is not a motive to make the people brave all dangers in his defence.
+When it is demonstrated to me that Pyrot is guilty and that he stole
+the army hay, I shall be on his side.”
+
+Comrade Larrivée afterwards spoke.
+
+“I am not of my friend, Phœnix’s opinion but I am not with my friend
+Sapor either. I do not believe that the party is bound to embrace a
+cause as soon as we are told that that cause is just. That, I am
+afraid, is a grievous abuse of words and a dangerous equivocation. For
+social justice is not revolutionary justice. They are both in perpetual
+antagonism: to serve the one is to oppose the other. As for me, my
+choice is made. I am for revolutionary justice as against social
+justice. Still, in the present case I am against abstention. I say that
+when a lucky chance brings us an affair like this we should be fools
+not to profit by it.
+
+“How? We are given an opportunity of striking terrible, perhaps fatal,
+blows against militarism. And am I to fold my arms? I tell you,
+comrades, I am not a fakir, I have never been a fakir, and if there are
+fakirs here let them not count on me. To sit in meditation is a policy
+without results and one which I shall never adopt.
+
+“A party like ours ought to be continually asserting itself. It ought
+to prove its existence by continual action. We will intervene in the
+Pyrot affair but we will intervene in it in a revolutionary manner; we
+will adopt violent action. . . . Perhaps you think that violence is
+old-fashioned and superannuated, to be scrapped along with diligences,
+hand-presses and aerial telegraphy. You are mistaken. To-day as
+yesterday nothing is obtained except by violence; it is the one
+efficient instrument. The only thing necessary is to know how to use
+it. You ask what will our action be? I will tell you: it will be to
+stir up the governing classes against one another, to put the army in
+conflict with the capitalists, the government with the magistracy, the
+nobility and clergy with the Jews, and if possible to drive them all to
+destroy one another. To do this would be to carry on an agitation which
+would weaken government in the same way that fever wears out the sick.
+
+“The Pyrot affair, little as we know how to turn it to advantage, will
+put forward by ten years the growth of the Social party and the
+emancipation of the proletariat, by disarmament, the general strike,
+and revolution.”
+
+The leaders of the party having each expressed a different opinion, the
+discussion was continued, not without vivacity. The orators, as always
+happens in such a case, reproduced the arguments they had already
+brought forward, though with less order and moderation than before. The
+dispute was prolonged and none changed his opinion. These opinions, in
+the final analysis, were reduced to two: that of Sapor and Lapersonne
+who advised abstention, and that of Phœnix and Larrivée, who wanted
+intervention. Even these two contrary opinions were united in a common
+hatred of the heads of the army and of their justice, and in a common
+belief in Pyrot’s innocence. So that public opinion was hardly mistaken
+in regarding all the Socialist leaders as pernicious Anti-Pyrotists.
+
+As for the vast masses in whose name they spoke and whom they
+represented as far as speech can express the impossible—as for the
+proletarians whose thought is difficult to know and who do not know it
+themselves, it seemed that the Pyrot affair did not interest them. It
+was too literary for them, it was in too classical a style, and had an
+upper-middle-class and high-finance tone about it that did not please
+them much.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. THE COLOMBAN TRIAL
+
+
+When the Colomban trial began, the Pyrotists were not many more than
+thirty thousand, but they were every where and might be found even
+among the priests and millionaires. What injured them most was the
+sympathy of the rich Jews. On the other hand they derived valuable
+advantages from their feeble number. In the first place there were
+among them fewer fools than among their opponents, who were
+over-burdened with them. Comprising but a feeble minority, they
+co-operated easily, acted with harmony, and had no temptation to divide
+and thus counteract one another’s efforts. Each of them felt the
+necessity of doing the best possible and was the more careful of his
+conduct as he found himself more in the public eye. Finally, they had
+every reason to hope that they would gain fresh adherents, while their
+opponents, having had everybody with them at the beginning, could only
+decrease.
+
+Summoned before the judges at a public sitting, Colomban immediately
+perceived that his judges were not anxious to discover the truth. As
+soon as he opened his mouth the President ordered him to be silent in
+the superior interests of the State. For the same reason, which is the
+supreme reason, the witnesses for the defence were not heard. General
+Panther, the Chief of the Staff, appeared in the witness-box, in full
+uniform and decorated with all his orders. He deposed as follows:
+
+“The infamous Colomban states that we have no proofs against Pyrot. He
+lies; we have them. I have in my archives seven hundred and thirty-two
+square yards of them which at five hundred pounds each make three
+hundred and sixty-six thousand pounds.”
+
+That superior officer afterwards gave, with elegance and ease, a
+summary of those proofs.
+
+“They are of all colours and all shades,” said he in substance, “they
+are of every form—pot, crown, sovereign, grape, dove-cot, grand eagle,
+etc. The smallest is less than the hundredth part of a square inch, the
+largest measures seventy yards long by ninety yards broad.”
+
+At this revelation the audience shuddered with horror.
+
+Greatauk came to give evidence in his turn. Simpler, and perhaps
+greater, he wore a grey tunic and held his hands joined behind his
+back.
+
+“I leave,” said he calmly and in a slightly raised voice, “I leave to
+M. Colomban the responsibility for an act that has brought our country
+to the brink of ruin. The Pyrot affair is secret; it ought to remain
+secret. If it were divulged the cruelest ills, wars, pillages,
+depredations, fires, massacres, and epidemics would immediately burst
+upon Penguinia. I should consider myself guilty of high treason if I
+uttered another word.”
+
+Some persons known for their political experience, among others M.
+Bigourd, considered the evidence of the Minister of War as abler and of
+greater weight than that of his Chief of Staff.
+
+The evidence of Colonel de Boisjoli made a great impression.
+
+“One evening at the Ministry of War,” said that officer, “the attaché
+of a neighbouring Power told me that while visiting his sovereign’s
+stables he had once admired some soft and fragrant hay, of a pretty
+green colour, the finest hay he had ever seen! ‘Where did it come
+from?’ I asked him. He did not answer, but there seemed to me no doubt
+about its origin. It was the hay Pyrot had stolen. Those qualities of
+verdure, softness, and aroma, are those of our national hay. The forage
+of the neighbouring Power is grey and brittle; it sounds under the fork
+and smells of dust. One can draw one own conclusions.”
+
+Lieutenant-Colonel Hastaing said in the witness-box, amid hisses, that
+he did not believe Pyrot guilty. He was immediately seized by the
+police and thrown into the bottom of a dungeon where, amid vipers,
+toads, and broken glass, he remained insensible both to promises and
+threats.
+
+The usher called:
+
+“Count Pierre Maubec de la Dentdulynx.”
+
+There was deep silence, and a stately but ill-dressed nobleman, whose
+moustaches pointed to the skies and whose dark eyes shot forth flashing
+glances, was seen advancing toward the witness-box.
+
+He approached Colomban and casting upon him a look of ineffable
+disdain:
+
+“My evidence,” said he, “here it is: you excrement!”
+
+At these words the entire hall burst into enthusiastic applause and
+jumped up, moved by one of those transports that stir men’s hearts and
+rouse them to extraordinary actions. Without another word Count Maubec
+de la Dentdulynx withdrew.
+
+All those present left the Court and formed a procession behind him.
+Prostrate at his feet, Princess des Boscénos held his legs in a close
+embrace, but he went on, stern and impassive, beneath a shower of
+handkerchiefs and flowers. Viscountess Olive, clinging to his neck,
+could not be removed, and the calm hero bore her along with him,
+floating on his breast like a light scarf.
+
+When the court resumed its sitting, which it had been compelled to
+suspend, the President called the experts.
+
+Vermillard, the famous expert in handwriting, gave the results of his
+researches.
+
+“Having carefully studied,” said he, “the papers found in Pyrot’s
+house, in particular his account book and his laundry books, I noticed
+that, though apparently not out of the common, they formed an
+impenetrable cryptogram, the key to which, however, I discovered. The
+traitor’s infamy is to be seen in every line. In this system of writing
+the words ‘Three glasses of beer and twenty francs for Adèle’ mean ‘I
+have delivered thirty thousand trusses of hay to a neighbouring Power.’
+From these documents I have even been able to establish the composition
+of the hay delivered by this officer. The words waistcoat, drawers,
+pocket handkerchief, collars, drink, tobacco, cigars, mean clover,
+meadowgrass, lucern, burnet, oats, rye-grass, vernal-grass, and common
+cat’s tail grass. And these are precisely the constituents of the hay
+furnished by Count Maubec to the Penguin cavalry. In this way Pyrot
+mentioned his crimes in a language that he believed would always remain
+indecipherable. One is confounded by so much astuteness and so great a
+want of conscience.”
+
+Colomban, pronounced guilty without any extenuating circumstances, was
+condemned to the severest penalty. The judges immediately signed a
+warrant consuming him to solitary confinement.
+
+In the Place du Palais on the sides of a river whose banks had during
+the course of twelve centuries seen so great a history, fifty thousand
+persons were tumultuously awaiting the result of the trial. Here were
+the heads of the Anti-Pyrotist Association, among whom might be seen
+Prince des Boscénos, Count Cléna, Viscount Olive, and M. de La
+Trumelle; here crowded the Reverend Father Agaric and the teachers of
+St. Maël College with their pupils; here the monk Douillard and General
+Caraguel, embracing each other, formed a sublime group. The market
+women and laundry women with spits, shovels, tongs, beetles, and
+kettles full of water might be seen running across the Pont-Vieux. On
+the steps in front of the bronze gates were assembled all the defenders
+of Pyrot in Alca, professors, publicists, workmen, some conservatives,
+others Radicals or Revolutionaries, and by their negligent dress and
+fierce aspect could be recognised comrades Phœnix, Larrivée,
+Lapersonne, Dagobert, and Varambille. Squeezed in his funereal
+frock-coat and wearing his hat of ceremony, Bidault-Coquille invoked
+the sentimental mathematics on behalf of Colomban and Colonel Hastaing.
+Maniflore shone smiling and resplendent on the topmost step, anxious,
+like Leaena, to deserve a glorious monument, or to be given, like
+Epicharis, the praises of history.
+
+The seven hundred Pyrotists disguised as lemonade sellers,
+gutter-merchants, collectors of odds and ends, or anti-Pyrotists,
+wandered round the vast building.
+
+When Colomban appeared, so great an uproar burst forth that, struck by
+the commotion of air and water, birds fell from the trees and fishes
+floated on the surface of the stream.
+
+On all sides there were yells:
+
+“Duck Colomban, duck him, duck him!”
+
+There were some cries of “Justice and truth!” and a voice was even
+heard shouting:
+
+“Down with the Army!”
+
+This was the signal for a terrible struggle. The combatants fell in
+thousands, and their bodies formed howling and moving mounds on top of
+which fresh champions gripped each other by the throats. Women, eager,
+pale, and dishevelled, with clenched teeth and frantic nails, rushed on
+the man, in transports that, in the brilliant light of the public
+square, gave to their faces expressions unsurpassed even in the shade
+of curtains and in the hollows of pillows. They were going to seize
+Colomban, to bite him, to strangle, dismember and rend him, when
+Maniflore, tall and dignified in her red tunic, stood forth, serene and
+terrible, confronting these furies who recoiled from before her in
+terror. Colomban seemed to be saved; his partisans succeeded in
+clearing a passage for him through the Place du Palais and in putting
+him into a cab stationed at the corner of the Pont-Vieux. The horse was
+already in full trot when Prince des Boscénos, Count Cléna, and M. de
+La Trumelle knocked the driver off his seat. Then, making the animal
+back and pushing the spokes of the wheels, they ran the vehicle on to
+the parapet of the bridge, whence they overturned it into the river
+amid the cheers of the delirious crowd. With a resounding splash a jet
+of water rose upwards, and then nothing but a slight eddy was to be
+seen on the surface of the stream.
+
+Almost immediately comrades Dagobert and Varambille, with the help of
+the seven hundred disguised Pyrotists, sent Prince des Boscénos head
+foremost into a river-laundry in which he was lamentably swallowed up.
+
+Serene night descended over the Place du Palais and shed silence and
+peace upon the frightful ruins with which it was strewed. In the mean
+time, Colomban, three thousand yards down the stream, cowering beside a
+lame old horse on a bridge, was meditating on the ignorance and
+injustice of crowds.
+
+“The business,” said he to himself, “is even more troublesome than I
+believed. I foresee fresh difficulties.”
+
+He got up and approached the unhappy animal.
+
+“What have you, poor friend, done to them?” said he. “It is on my
+account they have used you so cruelly.”
+
+He embraced the unfortunate beast and kissed the white star on his
+forehead. Then he took him by the bridle and led him, both of them
+limping, trough the sleeping city to his house, where sleep soon
+allowed them to forget mankind.
+
+
+
+
+IX. FATHER DOUILLARD
+
+
+In their infinite gentleness and at the suggestion of the common father
+of the faithful, the bishops, canons, vicars, curates, abbots, and
+friars of Penguinia resolved to hold a solemn service in the cathedral
+of Alca, and to pray that Divine mercy would deign to put an end to the
+troubles that distracted one of the noblest countries in Christendom,
+and grant to repentant Penguinia pardon for its crimes against God and
+the ministers of religion.
+
+The ceremony took place on the fifteenth of June. General Caraguel,
+surrounded by his staff, occupied the churchwarden’s pew. The
+congregation was numerous and brilliant. According to M. Bigourd’s
+expression it was both crowded and select. In the front rank was to be
+seen M. de la Bertheoseille, Chamberlain to his Highness Prince Crucho.
+Near the pulpit, which was to be ascended by the Reverend Father
+Douillard, of the Order of St. Francis, were gathered, in an attitude
+of attention with their hands crossed upon their wands of office, the
+great dignitaries of the Anti-Pyrotist association, Viscount Olive, M.
+de La Trumelle, Count Cléna, the Duke d’Ampoule, and Prince des
+Boscénos. Father Agaric was in the apse with the teachers and pupils of
+St. Maël College. The right-hand transept and aisle were reserved for
+officers and soldiers in uniform, this side being thought the more
+honourable, since the Lord leaned his head to the right when he died on
+the Cross. The ladies of the aristocracy, and among them Countess
+Cléna, Viscountess Olive, and Princess des Boscénos, occupied reserved
+seats. In the immense building and in the square outside were gathered
+twenty thousand clergy of all sorts, as well as thirty thousand of the
+laity.
+
+After the expiatory and propitiatory ceremony the Reverend Father
+Douillard ascended the pulpit. The sermon had at first been entrusted
+to the Reverend Father Agaric, but, in spite of his merits, he was
+thought unequal to the occasion in zeal and doctrine, and the eloquent
+Capuchin friar, who for six months had gone through the barracks
+preaching against the enemies of God and authority, had been chosen in
+his place.
+
+The Reverend Father Douillard, taking as his text, “He hath put down
+the mighty from their seat,” established that all temporal power has
+God as its principle and its end, and that it is ruined and destroyed
+when it turns aside from the path that Providence has traced out for it
+and from the end to which He has directed it.
+
+Applying these sacred rules to the government of Penguinia, he drew a
+terrible picture of the evils that the country’s rulers had been unable
+either to prevent or to foresee.
+
+“The first author of all these miseries and degradations, my brethren,”
+said he, “is only too well known to you. He is a monster whose destiny
+is providentially proclaimed by his name, for it is derived from the
+Greek word, _pyros_, which means fire. Eternal wisdom warns us by this
+etymology that a Jew was to set ablaze the country that had welcomed
+him.”
+
+He depicted the country, persecuted by the persecutors of the Church,
+and crying in its agony:
+
+“O woe! O glory! Those who have crucified my God are crucifying me!”
+
+At these words a prolonged shudder passed through the assembly.
+
+The powerful orator excited still greater indignation when he described
+the proud and crime-stained Colomban, plunged into the stream, all the
+waters of which could not cleanse him. He gathered up all the
+humiliations and all the perils of the Penguins in order to reproach
+the President of the Republic and his Prime Minister with them.
+
+“That Minister,” said he, “having been guilty of degrading cowardice in
+not exterminating the seven hundred Pyrotists with their allies and
+defenders, as Saul exterminated the Philistines at Gibeah, has rendered
+himself unworthy of exercising the power that God delegated to him, and
+every good citizen ought henceforth to insult his contemptible
+government. Heaven will look favourably on those who despise him. ‘He
+hath put down the mighty from their seat.’ God will depose these
+pusillanimous chiefs and will put in their place strong men who will
+call upon Him. I tell you, gentlemen, I tell you officers,
+non-commissioned officers, and soldiers who listen to me, I tell you
+General of the Penguin armies, the hour has come! If you do not obey
+God’s orders, if in His name you do not depose those now in authority,
+if you do not establish a religious and strong government in Penguinia,
+God will none the less destroy what He has condemned, He will none the
+less save His people. He will save them, but, if you are wanting, He
+will do so by means of a humble artisan or a simple corporal. Hasten!
+The hour will soon be past.”
+
+Excited by this ardent exhortation, the sixty thousand people present
+rose up trembling and shouting: “To arms! To arms! Death to the
+Pyrotists! Hurrah for Crucho!” and all of them, monks, women, soldiers,
+noblemen, citizens, and loafers, who were gathered beneath the
+superhuman arm uplifted in the pulpit, struck up the hymn, “Let us save
+Penguinia!” They rushed impetuously from the basilica and marched along
+the quays to the Chamber of Deputies.
+
+Left alone in the deserted nave, the wise Cornemuse, lifting his arms
+to heaven, murmured in broken accents:
+
+“Agnosco fortunam ecclesiæ penguicanæ! I see but too well whither this
+will lead us.”
+
+The attack which the crowd made upon the legislative palace was
+repulsed. Vigorously charged by the police and Alcan guards, the
+assailants were already fleeing in disorder, when the Socialists,
+running from the slums and led by comrades Phœnix, Dagobert,
+Lapersonne, and Varambille, threw themselves upon them and completed
+their discomfiture. MM. de La Trumelle and d’Ampoule were taken to the
+police station. Prince des Boscénos, after a valiant struggle, fell
+upon the bloody pavement with a fractured skull.
+
+In the enthusiasm of victory, the comrades, mingled with an innumerable
+crowd of paper-sellers and gutter-merchants, ran through the boulevards
+all night, carrying, Maniflore in triumph, and breaking the mirrors of
+the cafés and the glasses of the street lamps amid cries of “Down with
+Crucho! Hurrah for the Social Revolution!” The Anti-Pyrotists in their
+turn upset the newspaper kiosks and tore down the hoardings.
+
+These were spectacles of which cool reason cannot approve and they were
+fit causes for grief to the municipal authorities, who desired to
+preserve the good order of the roads and streets. But, what was sadder
+for a man of heart was the sight or the canting humbugs, who, from fear
+of blows, kept at an equal distance from the two camps, and who,
+although they allowed their selfishness and cowardice to be visible,
+claimed admiration for the generosity of their sentiments and the
+nobility of their souls. They rubbed their eyes with onions, gaped like
+whitings, blew violently into their handkerchiefs, and, bringing their
+voices out of the depths of their stomachs, groaned forth: “O Penguins,
+cease these fratricidal struggles; cease to rend your mother’s bosom!”
+As if men could live in society without disputes and without quarrels,
+and as if civil discords were not the necessary conditions of national
+life and progress. They showed themselves hypocritical cowards by
+proposing a compromise between the just and the unjust, offending the
+just in his rectitude and the unjust in his courage. One of these
+creatures, the rich and powerful Machimel, a champion coward, rose upon
+the town like a colossus of grief; his tears formed poisonous lakes at
+his feet and his sighs capsized the boats of the fishermen.
+
+During these stormy nights Bidault-Coquille at the top of his old
+steam-engine, under the serene sky, boasted in his heart, while the
+shooting stars registered themselves upon his photographic plates. He
+was fighting for justice. He loved and was loved with a sublime
+passion. Insult and calumny raised him to the clouds. A caricature of
+him in company with those of Colomban, Kerdanic, and Colonel Hastaing
+was to be seen in the newspaper kiosks. The Anti-Pyrotists proclaimed
+that he had received fifty thousand francs from the big Jewish
+financiers. The reporters of the militarist sheets held interviews
+regarding his scientific knowledge with official scholars, who declared
+he had no knowledge of the stars, disputed his most solid observations,
+denied his most certain discoveries, and condemned his most ingenious
+and most fruitful hypotheses. He exulted under these flattering blows
+of hatred and envy.
+
+He contemplated the black immensity pierced by a multitude of lights,
+without giving a thought to all the heavy slumbers, cruel insomnias,
+vain dreams, spoilt pleasures, and infinitely diverse miseries that a
+great city contains.
+
+“It is in this enormous city,” said he to himself, “that the just and
+the unjust are joining battle.”
+
+And substituting a simple and magnificent poetry for the multiple and
+vulgar reality, he represented to himself the Pyrot affair as a
+struggle between good and bad angels. He awaited the eternal triumph of
+the Sons of Light and congratulated himself on being a Child of the Day
+confounding the Children of Night.
+
+
+
+
+X. MR. JUSTICE CHAUSSEPIED
+
+
+Hitherto blinded by fear, incautious and stupid before the bands of
+Friar Douillard and the partisans of Prince Crucho, the Republicans at
+last opened their eyes and grasped the real meaning of the Pyrot
+affair. The deputies who had for two years turned pale at the shouts of
+the patriotic crowds became, not indeed more courageous, but altered
+their cowardice and blamed Robin Mielleux for disorders which their own
+compliance had encouraged, and the instigators of which they had
+several times slavishly congratulated. They reproached him for having
+imperilled the Republic by a weakness which was really theirs and a
+timidity which they themselves had imposed upon him. Some of them began
+to doubt whether it was not to their interest to believe in Pyrot’s
+innocence rather than in his guilt, and thenceforward they felt a
+bitter anguish at the thought that the unhappy man might have been
+wrongly convicted and that in his aerial cage he might be expiating
+another man’s crimes. “I cannot sleep on account of it!” was what
+several members of Minister Guillaumette’s majority used to say. But
+these were ambitious to replace their chief.
+
+These generous legislators overthrew the cabinet, and the President of
+the Republic put in Robin Mielleux’s place, a patriarchal Republican
+with a flowing beard, La Trinité by name, who, like most of the
+Penguins, understood nothing about the affair, but thought that too
+many monks were mixed up in it.
+
+General Greatauk before leaving the Ministry of War, gave his final
+advice to Pariler, the Chief of the Staff.
+
+“I go and you remain,” said he, as he shook hands with him. “The Pyrot
+affair is my daughter; I confide her to you, she is worthy of your love
+and your care; she is beautiful. Do not forget that her beauty loves
+the shade, is leased with mystery, and likes to remain veiled. Great
+her modesty with gentleness. Too many indiscreet looks have already
+profaned her charms. . . . Panther, you desired proofs and you obtained
+them. You have many, perhaps too many, in your possession. I see that
+there will be many tiresome interventions and much dangerous curiosity.
+If I were in your place I would tear up all those documents. Believe
+me, the best of proofs is none at all. That is the only one which
+nobody discusses.”
+
+Alas! General Panther did not realise the wisdom of this advice. The
+future was only too thoroughly to justify Greatauk’s perspicacity. La
+Trinité demanded the documents belonging, to the Pyrot affair. Péniche,
+his Minister of War, refused them in the superior interests of the
+national defence, telling him that the documents under General
+Panther’s care formed the hugest mass of archives in the world. La
+Trinité studied the case as well as he could, and, without penetrating
+to the bottom of the matter, suspected it of irregularity. Conformably
+to his rights and prerogatives he then ordered a fresh trial to be
+held. Immediately, Péniche, his Minister of War, accused him of
+insulting the army and betraying the country and flung his portfolio at
+his head. He was replaced by a second, who did the same. To him
+succeeded a third, who imitated these examples, and those after him to
+the number of seventy acted like their predecessors, until the
+venerable La Trinité groaned beneath the weight of bellicose
+portfolios. The seventy-first Minister of War, van Julep, retained
+office. Not that he was in disagreement with so many and such noble
+colleagues, but he had been commissioned by them generously to betray
+his Prime Minister, to cover him with shame and opprobrium, and to
+convert the new trial to the glory of Greatauk, the satisfaction of the
+Anti-Pyrotists, the profit of the monks, and the restoration of Prince
+Crucho.
+
+General van Julep, though endowed with high military virtues, was not
+intelligent enough to employ the subtle conduct and exquisite methods
+of Greatauk. He thought, like General Panther, that tangible proofs
+against Pyrot were necessary, that they could never ave too many of
+them, that they could never have even enough. He expressed these’
+sentiments to his Chief of Staff, who was only too inclined to agree
+with them.
+
+“Panther,” said he, “we are at the moment when we need abundant and
+superabundant proofs.”
+
+“You have said enough, General,” answered Panther, “I will complete my
+piles of documents.”
+
+Six months later the proofs against Pyrot filled two storeys of the
+Ministry of War. The ceiling fell in beneath the weight of the bundles,
+and the avalanche of falling documents crushed two head clerks,
+fourteen second clerks, and sixty copying clerks, who were at work upon
+the ground floor arranging a change in the fashion of the cavalry
+gaiters. The walls of the huge edifice had to be propped. Passers-by
+saw with amazement enormous beams and monstrous stanchions which reared
+themselves obliquely against the noble front of the building, now
+tottering and disjointed, and blocked up the streets, stopped the
+carriages, and presented to the motor-omnibuses an obstacle against
+which they dashed with their loads of passengers.
+
+The judges who had condemned Pyrot were not, properly speaking, judges
+but soldiers. The judges who had condemned Colomban were real judges,
+but of inferior rank, wearing seedy black clothes like church vergers,
+unlucky wretches of judges, miserable judgelings. Above them were the
+superior judges who wore ermine robes over their black gowns. These,
+renowned for their knowledge and doctrine, formed a court whose
+terrible name expressed power. It was called the Court of Appeal
+(Cassation) so as to make it clear that it was the hammer suspended
+over the judgments and decrees of all other jurisdictions.
+
+One of these superior red Judges of the Supreme Court, called
+Chaussepied, led a modest and tranquil life in a suburb of Alca. His
+soul was pure, his heart honest, his spirit just. When he had finished
+studying his documents he used to play the violin and cultivate
+hyacinths. Every Sunday he dined with his neighbours the Mesdemoiselles
+Helbivore. His old age was cheerful and robust and his friends often
+praised the amenity of his character.
+
+For some months, however, he had been irritable and touchy, and when he
+opened a newspaper his broad and ruddy face would become covered with
+dolorous wrinkles and darkened with an angry purple. Pyrot was the
+cause of it. Justice Chaussepied could not understand how an officer
+could have committed so black a crime as to hand over eighty thousand
+trusses of military hay to a neighbouring and hostile Power. And he
+could still less conceive how a scoundrel should have found official
+defenders in Penguinia. The thought that there existed in his country a
+Pyrot, a Colonel Hastaing, a Colomban, a Kerdanic, a Phœnix, spoilt his
+hyacinths, his violin, his heaven, and his earth, all nature, and even
+his dinner with the Mesdemoiselles Helbivore!
+
+In the mean time the Pyrot case, having been presented to the Supreme
+Court by the Keeper of Seals, it fell to Chaussepied to examine it and
+cover its defects, in case any existed. Although as upright and honest
+as a man can be, and trained by long habit to exercise his magistracy
+without fear or favour, he expected to find in the documents he
+submitted to him proofs of certain guilt and obvious criminality. After
+lengthened difficulties and repeated refusals on the part of General
+Julep, Justice Chaussepied was allowed to examine the documents.
+Numbered and initialed they ran to the number of fourteen millions six
+hundred and twenty-six thousand three hundred and twelve. As he studied
+them the judge was at first surprised, then astonished, then stupefied,
+amazed, and, if I dare say so, flabbergasted. He found among the
+documents prospectuses of new fancy shops, newspapers, fashion-plates,
+paper bags, old business letters, exercise books, brown paper, green
+paper for rubbing parquet floors, playing cards, diagrams, six thousand
+copies of the “Key to Dreams,” but not a single document in which any
+mention was made of Pyrot.
+
+
+
+
+XI. CONCLUSION
+
+
+The appeal was allowed, and Pyrot was brought down from his cage. But
+the Anti-Pyrotists did not regard themselves as beaten. The military
+judges re-tried Pyrot. Greatauk, in this second affair, surpassed
+himself. He obtained a second conviction; he obtained it by declaring
+that the proofs communicated to the Supreme Court were worth nothing,
+and that great care had been taken to keep back the good ones, since
+they ought to remain secret. In the opinion of connoisseurs he had
+never shown so much address. On leaving the court, as he passed through
+the vestibule with a tranquil step, and his hands behind his back,
+amidst a crowd of sight-seers, a woman dressed in red and with her face
+covered by a black veil rushed at him, brandishing a kitchen knife.
+
+“Die, scoundrel!” she cried. It was Maniflore. Before those present
+could understand what was happening, the general seized her by the
+wrist, and with apparent gentleness, squeezed it so forcibly that the
+knife fell from her aching hand.
+
+Then he picked it up and handed it to Maniflore.
+
+“Madam,” said he with a bow, “you have dropped a household utensil.”
+
+He could not prevent the heroine from being taken to the
+police-station; but he had her immediately released and afterwards he
+employed all his influence to stop the prosecution.
+
+The second conviction of Pyrot was Greatauk’s last victory.
+
+Justice Chaussepied, who had formerly liked soldiers so much, and
+esteemed their justice so highly, being now enraged with the military
+judges, quashed their judgments as a monkey cracks nuts. He
+rehabilitated Pyrot a second time; he would, if necessary, have
+rehabilitated him five hundred times.
+
+Furious at having been cowards and at having allowed themselves to be
+deceived and made game of, the Republicans turned against the monks and
+clergy. The deputies passed laws of expulsion, separation, and
+spoliation against them. What Father Cornemuse had foreseen took place.
+That good monk was driven from the Wood of Conils. Treasury officers
+confiscated his retorts and his stills, and the liquidators divided
+amongst them his bottles of St. Oberosian liqueur. The pious distiller
+lost the annual income of three million five hundred thousand francs
+that his products procured for him. Father Agaric went into exile,
+abandoning his school into the hands of laymen, who soon allowed it to
+fall into decay. Separated from its foster-mother, the State, the
+Church of Penguinia withered like a plucked flower.
+
+The victorious defenders of the innocent man now abused each other and
+overwhelmed each other reciprocally with insults and calumnies. The
+vehement Kerdanic hurled himself upon Phœnix as if ready to devour him.
+The wealthy Jews and the seven hundred Pyrotists turned away with
+disdain from the socialist comrades whose aid they had humbly implored
+in the past.
+
+“We know you no longer,” said they. “To the devil with you and your
+social justice. Social justice is the defence of property.”
+
+Having been elected a Deputy and chosen to be the leader of the new
+majority, comrade Larrivée was appointed by the Chamber and public
+opinion to the Premiership. He showed himself an energetic defender of
+the military tribunals that had condemned Pyrot. When his former
+socialist comrades claimed a little more justice and liberty for the
+employés of the State as well as for manual workers, he opposed their
+proposals in an eloquent speech.
+
+“Liberty,” said he, “is not licence. Between order and disorder my
+choice is made: revolution is impotence. Progress has no more
+formidable enemy than violence. Gentlemen, those who, as I am, are
+anxious for reform, ought to apply themselves before everything else to
+cure this agitation which enfeebles government just as fever exhausts
+those who are ill. It is time to reassure honest people.”
+
+This speech was received with applause. The government of the Republic
+remained in subjection to the great financial companies, the army was
+exclusively devoted to the defence of capital, while the fleet was
+designed solely to procure fresh orders for the mine-owners. Since the
+rich refused to pay their just share of the taxes, the poor, as in the
+past, paid for them.
+
+In the mean time from the height of his old steamline, beneath the
+crowded stars of night, Bidault-Coquille gazed sadly at the sleeping
+city. Maniflore had left him. Consumed with a desire for fresh
+devotions and fresh sacrifices, she had gone in company with a young
+Bulgarian to bear justice and vengeance to Sofia. He did not regret
+her, having perceived after the Affair, that she was less beautiful in
+form and in thought than he had at first imagined. His impressions had
+been modified in the same direction concerning many other forms and
+many other thoughts. And what was cruelest of all to him, he regarded
+himself as not so great, not so splendid, as he had believed.
+
+And he reflected:
+
+“You considered yourself sublime when you had but candour and
+good-will. Of what were you proud, Bidault-Coquille? Of having been one
+of the first to know that Pyrot was innocent and Greatauk a scoundrel.
+But three-fourths of those who defended Greatauk against the attacks of
+the seven hundred Pyrotists knew that better than you. Of what then did
+you show yourself so proud? Of having dared to say what you thought?
+That is civic courage, and, like military courage, it is a mere result
+of imprudence. You have been imprudent. So far so good, but that is no
+reason for praising yourself beyond measure. Your imprudence was
+trifling; it exposed you to trifling perils; you did not risk your head
+by it. The Penguins have lost that cruel and sanguinary pride which
+formerly gave a tragic grandeur to their revolutions; it is the fatal
+result of the weakening of beliefs and character. Ought one to look
+upon oneself as a superior spirit for having shown a little more
+clear-sightedness than the vulgar? I am very much afraid, on the
+contrary, Bidault-Coquille, that you have given proof of a gross
+misunderstanding of the conditions of the moral and intellectual
+development of a people. You imagined that social injustices were
+threaded together like pearls and that it would be enough to pull off
+one in order to unfasten the whole necklace. That is a very ingenuous
+conception. You flattered yourself that at one stroke you were
+establishing justice in your own country and in the universe. You were
+a brave man, an honest idealist, though without much experimental
+philosophy. But go home to your own heart and you will recognise that
+you had in you a spice of malice and that our ingenuousness was not
+without cunning. You believed you were performing a fine moral action.
+You said to yourself: ‘Here am I, just and courageous once for all. I
+can henceforth repose in the public esteem and the praise of
+historians.’ And now that you have lost your illusions, now that you
+know how hard it is to redress wrongs, and that the task must ever be
+begun afresh, you are going back to your asteroids. You are right; but
+go back to them with modesty, Bidault-Coquille!”
+
+
+
+
+BOOK VII. MODERN TIMES
+
+
+MADAME CÉRÈS
+
+
+“Only extreme things are tolerable.”
+Count Robert de Montesquiou.
+
+
+
+
+I. MADAME CLARENCE’S DRAWING-ROOM
+
+
+Madame Clarence, the widow of an exalted functionary of the Republic,
+loved to entertain. Every Thursday she collected together some friends
+of modest condition who took pleasure in conversation. The ladies who
+went to see her, very different in age and rank, were all without
+money, and had all suffered much. There was a duchess who looked like a
+fortune-teller and a fortune-teller who looked like a duchess. Madame
+Clarence was pretty enough to maintain some old _liaisons_, but not to
+form new ones, and she generally inspired a quiet esteem. She had a
+very pretty daughter, who, since she had no dower, caused some alarm
+among the male guests; for the Penguins were as much afraid of
+portionless girls as they were of the devil himself. Eveline Clarence,
+noticing their reserve and perceiving its cause, used to hand them
+their tea with an air of disdain. Moreover, she seldom appeared at the
+parties and talked only to the ladies or the very young people. Her
+discreet and retiring presence put no restraint upon the conversation,
+since those who took part in it thought either that as she was a young
+girl she would not understand it, or that, being twenty-five years old,
+she might listen to everything.
+
+One Thursday therefore, in Madame Clarence’s drawing-room, the
+conversation turned upon love. The ladies spoke of it with pride,
+delicacy, and mystery, the men with discretion and fatuity; everyone
+took an interest in the conversation, for each one was interested in
+what he or she said. A great deal of wit flowed; brilliant apostrophes
+were launched forth and keen repartees were returned. But when
+Professor Haddock began to speak he overwhelmed everybody.
+
+“It is the same with our ideas on love as with our ideas on everything
+else,” said he, “they rest upon anterior habits whose very memory has
+been effaced. In morals, the limitations that have lost their grounds
+for existing, the most useless obligations, the cruelest and most
+injurious restraints, are because of their profound antiquity and the
+mystery of their origin, the least disputed and the least disputable as
+well as the most respected, and they are those that cannot be violated
+without incurring the most severe blame. All morality relative to the
+relations of the sexes is founded on this principle: that a woman once
+obtained belongs to the man, that she is his property like his horse or
+his weapons. And this having ceased to be true, absurdities result from
+it, such as the marriage or contract of sale of a woman to a man, with
+clauses restricting the right of ownership introduced as a consequence
+of the gradual diminution of the claims of the possessor.
+
+“The obligation imposed on a girl that she should bring her virginity
+to her husband comes from the times when girls were married immediately
+they were of a marriageable age. It is ridiculous that a girl who
+marries at twenty-five or thirty should be subject to that obligation.
+You will, perhaps, say that it is a present with which her husband, if
+she gets one at last, will be gratified; but every moment we see men
+wooing married women and showing themselves perfectly satisfied to take
+them as they find them.
+
+“Still, even in our own day, the duty of girls is determined in
+religious morality by the old belief that God, the most powerful of
+warriors, is polygamous, that he has reserved all maidens for himself,
+and that men can only take those whom he has left. This belief,
+although traces of it exist in several metaphors of mysticism, is
+abandoned to-day, by most civilised peoples. However, it still
+dominates the education of girls not only among our believers, but even
+among our free-thinkers, who, as a rule, think freely for the reason
+that they do not think at all.
+
+“Discretion means ability to separate and discern. We say that a girl
+is discreet when she knows nothing at all. We cultivate her ignorance.
+In spite of all our care the most discreet know something, for we
+cannot conceal from them their own nature and their own sensations. But
+they know badly, they know in a wrong way. That is all we obtain by our
+careful education. . . .”
+
+“Sir,” suddenly said Joseph Boutourlé, the High Treasurer of Alca,
+“believe me, there are innocent girls, perfectly innocent girls, and it
+is a great pity. I have known three. They married, and the result was
+tragical.”
+
+“I have noticed,” Professor Haddock went on, “that Europeans in general
+and Penguins in particular occupy themselves, after sport and motoring,
+with nothing so much as with love. It is giving a great deal of
+importance to a matter that has very little weight.”
+
+“Then, Professor,” exclaimed Madame Crémeur in a choking voice, “when a
+woman has completely surrendered herself to you, you think it is a
+matter of no importance?”
+
+“No, Madame; it can have its importance,” answered Professor Haddock,
+“but it is necessary to examine if when she surrenders herself to us
+she offers us a delicious fruit-garden or a plot of thistles and
+dandelions. And then, do we not misuse words? In love, a woman lends
+herself rather than gives herself. Look at the pretty Madame Pensée. .
+. .”
+
+“She is my mother,” said a tall, fair young man.
+
+“Sir, I have the greatest respect for her,” replied Professor Haddock;
+“do not be afraid that I intend to say anything in the least offensive
+about her. But allow me to tell you that, as a rule, the opinions of
+sons about their mothers are not to be relied on. They do not bear
+enough in mind that a mother is a mother only because she loved, and
+that she can still love. That, however, is the case, and it would be
+deplorable were it otherwise. I have noticed, on the contrary, that
+daughters do not deceive themselves about their mothers’ faculty for
+loving or about the use they make of it; they are rivals; they have
+their eyes upon them.”
+
+The insupportable Professor spoke a great deal longer, adding indecorum
+to awkwardness, and impertinence to incivility, accumulating
+incongruities, despising what is respectable, respecting what is
+despicable; but no one listened to him further.
+
+During this time in a room that was simple without grace, a room sad
+for the want of love, a room which, like all young girls’ rooms, had
+something of the cold atmosphere of a place of waiting about it,
+Eveline Clarence turned over the pages of club annuals and prospectuses
+of charities in order to obtain from them some acquaintance with
+society. Being convinced that her mother, shut up in her own
+intellectual but poor world, could neither bring her out or push her
+into prominence, she decided that she herself would seek the best means
+of winning a husband. At once calm and obstinate, without dreams or
+illusions, and regarding marriage as but a ticket of admission or a
+passport, she kept before her mind a clear notion of the hazards,
+difficulties, and chances of her enterprise. She had the art of
+pleasing and a coldness of temperament that enabled her to turn it to
+its fullest advantage. Her weakness lay in the fact that she was
+dazzled by anything that had an aristocratic air.
+
+When she was alone with her mother she said:
+
+“Mamma, we will go to-morrow to Father Douillard’s retreat.”
+
+
+
+
+II. THE CHARITY OF ST. ORBEROSIA
+
+
+Every Friday evening at nine o’clock the choicest of Alcan society
+assembled in the aristocratic church of St. Maël for the Reverend
+Father Douillard’s retreat. Prince and Princess des Boscénos, Viscount
+and Viscountess Olive, M. and Madame Bigourd, Monsieur and Madame de La
+Trumelle were never absent. The flower of the aristocracy might be seen
+there, and fair Jewish baronesses also adorned it by their presence,
+for the Jewish baronesses of Alca were Christians.
+
+This retreat, like all religious retreats, had for its object to
+procure for those living in the world opportunities for recollection so
+that they might think of their eternal salvation. It was also intended
+to draw down upon so man noble and illustrious families the benediction
+of L. Orberosia, who loves the Penguins. The Reverend Father Douillard
+strove for the completion of his task with a truly apostolical zeal. He
+hoped to restore the prerogatives of St. Orberosia as the patron saint
+of Penguinia and to dedicate to her a monumental church on one of the
+hills that dominate the city. His efforts had been crowned with great
+success, and for the accomplishing of this national enterprise he had
+already united more than a hundred thousand adherents and collected
+more than twenty millions of francs.
+
+It was in the choir of St. Maël’s that St. Orberosia’s new shrine,
+shining with gold, sparkling with precious stones, and surrounded by
+tapers and flowers, had been erected.
+
+The following account may be read in the “History of the Miracles of
+the Patron Saint of Alca” by the Abbé Plantain:
+
+“The ancient shrine had been melted down during the Terror and the
+precious relics of the saint thrown into a fire that had been lit on
+the Place de Grève; but a poor woman of great piety, named Rouquin,
+went by night at the peril of her life to gather up the calcined bones
+and the ashes of the blessed saint. She preserved them in a jam-pot,
+and when religion was again restored, brought them to the venerable
+Curé of St. Maëls. The woman ended her days piously as a vendor of
+tapers and custodian of seats in the saint’s chapel.”
+
+It is certain that in the time of Father Douillard, although faith was
+declining, the cult of St. Orberosia, which for three hundred years had
+fallen under the criticism of Canon Princeteau and the silence of the
+Doctors of the Church, recovered, and was surrounded with more pomp,
+more splendour, and more fervour than ever. The theologians did not now
+subtract a single iota from the legend. They held as certainly
+established all the facts related by Abbot Simplicissimus, and in
+particular declared, on the testimony of that monk, that the devil,
+assuming a monk’s form had carried off the saint to a cave and had
+there striven with her until she overcame him. Neither places nor dates
+caused them any embarrassment. They paid no heed to exegesis and took
+good care not to grant as much to science as Canon Princeteau had
+formerly conceded. They knew too well whither that would lead.
+
+The church shone with lights and flowers. An operatic tenor sang the
+famous canticle of St. Orberosia:
+
+Virgin of Paradise
+Come, come in the dusky night
+And on us shed
+Thy beams of light.
+
+
+Mademoiselle Clarence sat beside her mother and in front of Viscount
+Cléna. She remained kneeling during a considerable time, for the
+attitude of prayer is natural to discreet virgins and it shows off
+their figures.
+
+The Reverend Father Douillard ascended the pulpit. He was a powerful
+orator and could, at once melt, surprise, and rouse his hearers. Women
+complained only that he fulminated against vice with excessive
+harshness and in crude terms that made them blush. But they liked him
+none the less for it.
+
+He treated in his sermon of the seventh trial of St. Orberosia, who was
+tempted by the dragon which she went forth to combat. But she did not
+yield, and she disarmed the monster. The orator demonstrated without
+difficulty that we, also, by the aid of St. Orberosia, and strong in
+the virtue which she inspires, can in our turn overthrow the dragons
+that dart upon us and are waiting to devour us, the dragon of doubt,
+the dragon of impiety, the dragon of forgetfulness of religious duties.
+He proved that the charity of St. Orberosia was a work of social
+regeneration, and he concluded by an ardent appeal to the faithful “to
+become instruments of the Divine mercy, eager upholders and supporters
+of the charity of St. Orberosia, and to furnish it with all the means
+which it required to take its flight and bear its salutary fruits.”[11]
+
+ [11] Cf. J. Ernest Charles in the “Censeur,” May-August, 1907, p. 562,
+ col. 2.
+
+
+After the ceremony, the Reverend Father Douillard remained in the
+sacristy at the disposal of those of the faithful who desired
+information concerning the charity, or who wished to bring their
+contributions. Mademoiselle Clarence wished to speak to Father
+Douillard, so did Viscount Cléna. The crowd was large, and a queue was
+formed. By chance Viscount Cléna and Mademoiselle Clarence were side by
+side and possibly they were squeezed a little closely to each other by
+the crowd. Eveline had noticed this fashionable young man, who was
+almost as well known as his father in the world of sport. Cléna had
+noticed her, and, as he thought her pretty, he bowed to her, then
+apologised and pretended to believe that he had been introduced to the
+ladies, but could not remember where. They pretended to believe it
+also.
+
+He presented himself the following week at Madame Clarence’s, thinking
+that her house was a bit fast—a thing not likely to displease him—and
+when he saw Eveline again he felt he had not been mistaken and that she
+was an extremely pretty girl.
+
+Viscount Cléna had the finest motor-car in Europe. For three months he
+drove the Clarences every day over hills and plains, through woods and
+valleys; they visited famous sites and went over celebrated castles. He
+said to Eveline all that could be said and did all that could be done
+to overcome her resistance. She did not conceal from him that she loved
+him, that she would always love him, and love no one but him. She
+remained grave and trembling by his side. To his devouring passion she
+opposed the invincible defence of a virtue conscious of its danger. At
+the end of three months, after having gone uphill and down hill, turned
+sharp corners, and negotiated level crossings, and experienced
+innumerable break-downs, he knew her as well as he knew the fly-wheel
+of his car, but not much better. He employed surprises, adventures,
+sudden stoppages in the depths of forests and before hotels, but he had
+advanced no farther. He said to himself that it was absurd; then,
+taking her again in his car he set off at fifty miles an hour quite
+prepared to upset her in a ditch or to smash himself and her against a
+tree.
+
+One day, having come to take her on some excursion, he found her more
+charming than ever, and more provoking. He darted upon her as a storm
+falls upon the reeds that border a lake. She bent with adorable
+weakness beneath the breath of the storm, and twenty times was almost
+carried away by its strength, but twenty times she arose, supple and,
+bowing to the wind. After all these shocks one would have said that a
+light breeze had barely touched her charming stem; she smiled as if
+ready to be plucked by a bold hand. Then her unhappy aggressor,
+desperate, enraged, and three parts mad, fled so as not to kill her,
+mistook the door, went into the bedroom of Madame Clarence, whom he
+found putting on her hat in front of a wardrobe, seized her, flung her
+on the bed, and possessed her before she knew what had happened.
+
+The same day Eveline, who had been making inquiries, learned that
+Viscount Cléna had nothing but debts, lived on money given him by an
+elderly lady, and promoted the sale of the latest models of a motor-car
+manufacturer. They separated with common accord and Eveline began again
+disdainfully to serve tea to her mother’s guests.
+
+
+
+
+III. HIPPOLYTE CÉRÈS
+
+
+In Madame Clarence’s drawing-room the conversation turned upon love,
+and many charming things were said about it.
+
+“Love is a sacrifice,” sighed Madame Crémeur.
+
+“I agree with you,” replied M. Boutourlé with animation.
+
+But Professor Haddock soon displayed his fastidious insolence.
+
+“It seems to me,” said he, “that the Penguin ladies have made a great
+fuss since, through St. Maël’s agency, they became viviparous. But
+there is nothing to be particularly proud of in that, for it is a state
+they share in common with cows and pigs, and even with orange and lemon
+trees, for the seeds of these plants germinate in the pericarp.”
+
+“The self-importance which the Penguin ladies give themselves does not
+go so far back as that,” answered M. Boutourlé. “It dates from the day
+when the holy apostle gave them clothes. But this self-importance was
+long kept in restraint, and displayed itself fully only with increased
+luxury of dress and in a small section of society. For go only two
+leagues from Alca into the country at harvest time, and you will see
+whether women are over-precise or self-important.”
+
+On that day M. Hippolyte Cérès paid his first call. He was a Deputy of
+Alca, and one of the youngest members of the House. His father was said
+to have kept a dram shop, but he himself was a lawyer of robust
+physique, a good though prolix speaker, with a self-important air and a
+reputation for ability.
+
+“M. Cérès,” said the mistress of the house, “your constituency is one
+of the finest in Alca.”
+
+“And there are fresh improvements made in it every day, Madame.”
+
+“Unfortunately, it is impossible to take a stroll through it any
+longer,” said M. Boutourlé.
+
+“Why?” asked M. Cérès.
+
+“On account of the motors, of course.”
+
+“Do not give them a bad name,” answered the Deputy. “They are our great
+national industry.”
+
+“I know. The Penguins of to-day make me think of the ancient Egyptians.
+According to Clement of Alexandria, Taine tells us—though he misquotes
+the text—the Egyptians worshipped the crocodiles that devoured them.
+The Penguins to-day worship the motors that crush them. Without a doubt
+the future belongs to the metal beast. We are no more likely to go back
+to cabs than we are to go back to the diligence. And the long martyrdom
+of the horse will come to an end. The motor, which the frenzied
+cupidity of manufacturers hurls like a juggernaut’s car upon the
+bewildered people and of which the idle and fashionable make a foolish
+though fatal elegance, will soon begin to perform its true function,
+and putting its strength at the service of the entire people, will
+behave like a docile, toiling monster. But in order that the motor may
+cease to be injurious and become beneficent we must build roads suited
+to its speed, roads which it cannot tear up with its ferocious tyres,
+and from which it will send no clouds of poisonous dust into human
+lungs. We ought not to allow slower vehicles or mere animals to go upon
+those roads, and we should establish garages upon them and foot-bridges
+over them, and so create order and harmony among the means of
+communication of the future. That is the wish of every good citizen.”
+
+Madame Clarence led the conversation back to the improvements in M.
+Cérès’ constituency. M. Cérès showed his enthusiasm for demolitions,
+tunnelings, constructions, reconstructions, and all other fruitful
+operations.
+
+“We build to-day in an admirable style,” said he; “everywhere majestic
+avenues are being reared. Was ever anything as fine as our arcaded
+bridges and our domed hotels!”
+
+“You are forgetting that big palace surmounted an immense melon-shaped
+dome,” grumbled by M. Daniset, an old art amateur, in a voice of
+restrained rage. “I am amazed at the degree of ugliness which a modern
+city can attain. Alca is becoming Americanised. Everywhere we are
+destroying all that is free, unexpected, measured, restrained, human,
+or traditional among the things that are left us. Everywhere we are
+destroying that charming object, a piece of an old wall that bears up
+the branches of a tree. Everywhere we are suppressing some fragment of
+light and air, some fragment of nature, some fragment of the
+associations that still remain with us, some fragment of our fathers,
+some fragment of ourselves. And we are putting up frightful, enormous,
+infamous houses, surmounted in Viennese style by ridiculous domes, or
+fashioned after the models of the ‘new art’ without mouldings, or
+having profiles with sinister corbels and burlesque pinnacles, and such
+monsters as these shamelessly peer over the surrounding buildings. We
+see bulbous protuberances stuck on the fronts of buildings and we are
+told they are ‘new art’ motives. I have seen the ‘new art’ in other
+countries, but it is not so ugly as with us; it has fancy and it has
+simplicity. It is only in our own country that by a sad privilege we
+may behold the newest and most diverse styles of architectural
+ugliness. Not an enviable privilege!”
+
+“Are you not afraid,” asked M. Cérès severely, “are you not afraid that
+these bitter criticisms tend to keep out of our capital the foreigners
+who flow into it from all arts of the world and who leave millions
+behind them?”
+
+“You may set your mind at rest about that,” answered M. Daniset.
+“Foreigners do not come to admire our buildings; they come to see our
+courtesans, our dressmakers, and our dancing saloons.”
+
+“We have one bad habit,” sighed M. Cérès, “it is that we calumniate
+ourselves.”
+
+Madame Clarence as an accomplished hostess thought it was time to
+return to the subject of love and asked M. Jumel his opinion of M. Leon
+Blum’s recent book in which the author complained. . . .
+
+“. . . That an irrational custom,” went on Professor Haddock, “prevents
+respectable young ladies from making love, a thing they would enjoy
+doing, whilst mercenary girls do it too much and without getting any
+enjoyment out of it. It is indeed deplorable. But M. Leon Blum need not
+fret too much. If the evil exists, as he says it does, in our
+middle-class society, I can assure him that everywhere else he would
+see a consoling spectacle. Among the people, the mass of the people
+through town and country, girls do not deny themselves that pleasure.”
+
+“It is depravity!” said Madame Crémeur.
+
+And she praised the innocence of young girls in terms full of modesty
+and grace. It was charming to hear her.
+
+Professor Haddock’s views on the same subject were, on the contrary,
+painful to listen to.
+
+“Respectable young girls,” said he, “are guarded and watched over.
+Besides, men do not, as a rule, pursue them much, either through
+probity, or from a fear of grave responsibilities, or because the
+seduction of a young girl would not be to their credit. Even then we do
+not know what really takes place, for the reason that what is hidden is
+not seen. This is a condition necessary to the existence of all
+society. The scruples of respectable young girls could be more easily
+overcome than those of married women if the same pressure were brought
+to bear on them, and for this there are two reasons: they have more
+illusions, and their curiosity has not been satisfied. Women, for the
+most part, have been so disappointed by their husbands that they have
+not courage enough to begin again with somebody else. I myself have
+been met by this obstacle several times in my attempts at seduction.”
+
+At the moment when Professor Haddock ended his unpleasant remarks,
+Mademoiselle Eveline Clarence entered the drawing-room and listlessly
+handed about tea with that expression of boredom which gave an oriental
+charm to her beauty.
+
+“For my part,” said Hippolyte Cérès, looking at her, “I declare myself
+the young ladies’ champion.”
+
+“He must be a fool,” thought the girl.
+
+Hippolyte Cérès, who had never set foot outside of his political world
+of electors and elected, thought Madame Clarence’s drawing-room most
+select, its mistress exquisite, and her daughter amazingly beautiful.
+His visits became frequent and he paid court to both of them. Madame
+Clarence, who now liked attention, thought him agreeable. Eveline
+showed no friendliness towards him, and treated him with a hauteur and
+disdain that he took for aristocratic behaviour and fashionable
+manners, and he thought all the more of her on that account. This busy
+man taxed his ingenuity to please them, and he sometimes succeeded. He
+got them cards for fashionable functions and boxes at the Opera. He
+furnished Mademoiselle Clarence with several opportunities of appearing
+to great advantage and in particular at a garden party which, although
+given by a Minister, was regarded as really fashionable, and gained its
+first success in society circles for the Republic.
+
+At that party Eveline had been much noticed and had attracted the
+special attention of a young diplomat called Roger Lambilly who,
+imagining that she belonged to a rather fast set, invited her to his
+bachelor’s flat. She thought him handsome and believed him rich, and
+she accepted. A little moved, almost disquieted, she very nearly became
+the victim of her daring, and only avoided defeat by an offensive
+measure audaciously carried out. This was the most foolish escapade in
+her unmarried life.
+
+Being now on friendly terms with Ministers and with the President,
+Eveline continued to wear her aristocratic and pious affectations, and
+these won for her the sympathy of the chief personages in the
+anti-clerical and democratic Republic. M. Hippolyte Cérès, seeing that
+she was succeeding and doing him credit, liked her still more. He even
+went so far as to fall madly in love with her.
+
+Henceforth, in spite of everything, she began to observe him with
+interest, being curious to see if his passion would increase. He
+appeared to her without elegance or grace, and not well bred, but
+active, clear-sighted, full of resource, and not too great a bore. She
+still made fun of him, but he had now won her interest.
+
+One day she wished to test him. It was during the elections, when
+members of Parliament were, as the phrase runs, requesting a renewal of
+their mandates. He had an opponent, who, though not dangerous at first
+and not much of an orator, was rich and was reported to be gaining
+votes every day. Hippolyte Cérès, banishing both dull security and
+foolish alarm from his mind, redoubled his care. His chief method of
+action was by public meetings at which he spoke vehemently against the
+rival candidate. His committee held huge meetings on Saturday evenings
+and at three o’clock on Sunday afternoons. One Sunday, as he called on
+the Clarences, he found Eveline alone in the drawing-room. He had been
+chatting for about twenty or twenty-five minutes, when, taking out his
+watch, he saw that it was a quarter to three. The young girl showed
+herself amiable, engaging, attractive, and full of promises. Cérès was
+fascinated, but he stood up to go.
+
+“Stay a little longer,” said she in a pressing and agreeable voice
+which made him promptly sit down again.
+
+She was full of interest, of abandon, curiosity, and weakness. He
+blushed, turned pale, and again got up.
+
+Then, in order to keep him still longer, she looked at him out of two
+grey and melting eyes, and though her bosom was heaving, she did not
+say another word. He fell at her feet in distraction, but once more
+looking at his watch, he jumped up with a terrible oath.
+
+“D—! a quarter to four! I must be off.”
+
+And immediately he rushed down the stairs.
+
+From that time onwards she had a certain amount of esteem for him.
+
+
+
+
+IV. A POLITICIAN’S MARRIAGE
+
+
+She was not quite in love with him, but she wished him to be in love
+with her. She was, moreover, very reserved with him, and that not
+solely from any want of inclination to be otherwise, since in affairs
+of love some things are due to indifference, to inattention, to woman’s
+instinct, to traditional custom and feeling, to a desire to try one’s
+power, and to satisfaction at seeing its results. The reason of her
+prudence was that she knew him to be very much infatuated and capable
+of taking advantage of any familiarities she allowed as well as of
+reproaching her coarsely afterwards if she discontinued them.
+
+As he was a professed anti-clerical and free-thinker, she thought it a
+good plan to affect an appearance of piety in his presence and to be
+seen with prayer-books bound in red morocco, such as Queen Marie
+Leczinska’s or the Dauphiness Marie Josephine’s “The Last Two Weeks of
+Lent.” She lost no opportunity, either, of showing him the
+subscriptions that she collected for the endowment of the national cult
+of St. Orberosia. Eveline did not act in this way because she wished to
+tease him. Nor did it spring from a young girl’s archness, or a spirit
+of constraint, or even from snobbishness, though there was more than a
+suspicion of this latter in her behaviour. It was but her way of
+asserting herself, of stamping herself with a definite character, of
+increasing her value. To rouse the Deputy’s courage she wrapped herself
+up in religion, just as Brunhild surrounded herself with flames so as
+to attract Sigurd. Her audacity was successful. He thought her still
+more beautiful thus. Clericalism was in his eyes a sign of good form.
+
+Cérès was re-elected by an enormous majority and returned to a House
+which showed itself more inclined to the Left, more advanced, and, as
+it seemed, more eager for reform than its predecessor. Perceiving at
+once that so much zeal was but intended to hide a fear of change, and a
+sincere desire to do nothing, he determined to adopt a policy that
+would satisfy these aspirations. At the beginning of the session he
+made a great speech, cleverly thought out and well arranged, dealing
+with the idea that all reform ought to be put off for a long time. He
+showed himself heated, even fervid; holding the principle that an
+orator should recommend moderation with extreme vehemence. He was
+applauded by the entire assembly. The Clarences listened to him from
+the President’s box and Eveline trembled in spite of herself at the
+solemn sound of the applause. On the same bench the fair Madame Pensée
+shivered at the intonations of his virile voice.
+
+As soon as he descended from the tribune, Cérès, even while the
+audience were still clapping, went without a moment’s delay to salute
+the Clarences in their box. Eveline saw in him the beauty of success,
+and as he leaned towards the ladies, wiping his neck with his
+handkerchief and receiving their congratulations with an air of modesty
+though not without a tinge of self-conceit, the young girl glanced
+towards Madame Pensée and saw her, palpitating and breathless, drinking
+in the hero’s applause with her head thrown backwards. It seemed as if
+she were on the point of fainting. Eveline immediately smiled tenderly
+on M. Cérès.
+
+The Alcan deputy’s speech had a great vogue. In political “spheres” it
+was regarded as extremely able. “We have at last heard an honest
+pronouncement,” said the chief Moderate journal. “It is a regular
+programme!” they said in the House. It was agreed that he was a man of
+immense talent.
+
+Hippolyte Cérès had now established himself as leader of the radicals,
+socialists, and anti-clericals, and they appointed him President of
+their group, which was then the most considerable in the House. He thus
+found himself marked out for office in the next ministerial
+combination.
+
+After a long hesitation Eveline Clarence accepted the idea of marrying
+M. Hippolyte Cérès. The great man was a little common for her taste.
+Nothing had yet proved that he would one day reach the point where
+politics bring in large sums of money. But she was entering her
+twenty-seventh year and knew enough of life to see that she must not be
+too fastidious or show herself too difficult to please.
+
+Hippolyte Cérès was celebrated; Hippolyte Cérès was happy. He was no
+longer recognisable; the elegance of his clothes and deportment had
+increased tremendously. He wore an undue number of white gloves. Now
+that he was too much of a society man, Eveline began to doubt if it was
+not worse than being too little of one. Madame Clarence regarded the
+engagement with favour. She was reassured concerning her daughter’s
+future and pleased to have flowers given her every Thursday for her
+drawing-room.
+
+The celebration of the marriage raised some difficulties. Eveline was
+pious and wished to receive the benediction of the Church. Hippolyte
+Cérès, tolerant but a free-thinker, wanted only a civil marriage. There
+were many discussions and even some violent scenes upon the subject.
+The last took place in the young girl’s room at the moment when the
+invitations were being written. Eveline declared that if she did not go
+to church she would not believe herself married. She spoke of breaking
+off the engagement, and of going abroad with her mother, or of retiring
+into a convent. Then she became tender, weak, suppliant. She sighed,
+and everything in her virginal chamber sighed in chorus, the holy-water
+font, the palm-branch above her white bed, the books of devotion on
+their little shelves, and the blue and white statuette of St. Orberosia
+chaining the dragon of Cappadocia, that stood upon the marble
+mantelpiece. Hippolyte Cérès was moved, softened, melted.
+
+Beautiful in her grief, her eyes shining with tears, her wrists girt by
+a rosary of lapis lazuli and, so to speak, chained by her faith, she
+suddenly flung herself at Hippolyte’s feet, and dishevelled, almost
+dying, she embraced his knees.
+
+He nearly yielded.
+
+“A religious marriage,” he muttered, “a marriage in church, I could
+make my constituents stand that, but my committee would not swallow the
+matter so easily. . . . Still I’ll explain it to them . . . toleration,
+social necessities . . . . They all send their daughters to Sunday
+school . . . . But as for office, my dear I am afraid we are going to
+drown all hope of that in your holy water.”
+
+At these words she stood up grave, generous, resigned, conquered also
+in her turn.
+
+“My dear, I insist no longer.”
+
+“Then we won’t have a religious marriage. It will be better, much
+better not.”
+
+“Very well, but be guided by me. I am going to try and arrange
+everything both to your satisfaction and mine.”
+
+She sought the Reverend Father Douillard and explained the situation.
+He showed himself even more accommodating and yielding than she had
+hoped.
+
+“Your husband is an intelligent man, a man of order and reason; he will
+come over to us. You will sanctify him. It is not in vain that God has
+granted him the blessing of a Christian wife. The Church needs no pomp
+and ceremonial display for her benedictions. Now that she is
+persecuted, the shadow of the crypts and the recesses of the catacombs
+are in better accord with her festivals. Mademoiselle, when you have
+performed the civil formalities come here to my private chapel in
+costume with M. Cérès. I will marry you, a observe the most absolute
+discretion. I will obtain the necessary dispensations from the
+Archbishop as well as all facilities regarding the banns,
+confession-tickets, etc.”
+
+Hippolyte, although he thought the combination a little dangerous,
+agreed to it, a good deal flattered, at bottom.
+
+“I will go in a short coat,” he said.
+
+He went in a frock coat with white gloves and varnished shoes, and he
+genuflected.
+
+“Politeness demands. . . .”
+
+
+
+
+V. THE VISIRE CABINET
+
+
+The Cérès household was established with modest decency in a pretty
+flat situated in a new building. Cérès loved his wife in a calm and
+tranquil fashion. He was often kept late from home by the Commission on
+the Budget and he worked more than three nights a week at a report on
+the postal finances of which he hoped to make a masterpiece. Eveline
+thought she could twist him round her finger, and this did not
+displease him. The bad side of their situation was that they had not
+much money; in truth they had very little. The servants of the Republic
+do not grow rich in her service as easily as people think. Since the
+sovereign is no longer there to distribute favours, each of them takes
+what he can, and his depredations, limited by the depredations of all
+the others, are reduced to modest proportions. Hence that austerity of
+morals that is noticed in democratic leaders. They can only grow rich
+during periods of great business activity and then they find themselves
+exposed to the envy of their less favoured colleagues. Hippolyte Cérès
+had for a long time foreseen such a period. He was one of those who had
+made preparations for its arrival. Whilst waiting for it he endured his
+poverty with dignity, and Eveline shared that poverty without suffering
+as much as one might have thought. She was in close intimacy with the
+Reverend Father Douillard and frequented the chapel of St. Orberosia,
+where she met with serious society and people in a position to render
+her useful services. She knew how to choose among them and gave her
+confidence to none but those who deserved it. She had gained experience
+since her motor excursions with Viscount Cléna, and above all she had
+now acquired the value of a married woman.
+
+The deputy was at first uneasy about these pious practices, which were
+ridiculed by the demagogic newspapers, but he was soon reassured, for
+he saw all around him democratic leaders joyfully becoming reconciled
+to the aristocracy and the Church.
+
+They found that they had reached one of those periods (which often
+recur) when advance had been carried a little too far. Hippolyte Cérès
+gave a moderate support to this view. His policy was not a policy of
+persecution but a policy of tolerance. He had laid its foundations in
+his splendid speech on the preparations for reform. The Prime Minister
+was looked upon as too advanced. He proposed schemes which were
+admitted to be dangerous to capital, and the great financial companies
+were opposed to him. Of course it followed that the papers of all views
+supported the companies. Seeing the danger increasing, the Cabinet
+abandoned its schemes, its programme, and its opinions, but it was too
+late. A new administration was already ready. An insidious question by
+Paul Visire which was immediately made the subject of a resolution, and
+a fine speech by Hippolyte Cérès, overthrew the Cabinet.
+
+The President of the Republic entrusted the formation of a new Cabinet
+to this same Paul Visire, who, though still very young, had been a
+Minister twice. He was a charming man, spending much of his time in the
+green-rooms of theatres, very artistic, a great society man, of amazing
+ability and industry. Paul Visire formed a temporary ministry intended
+to reassure public feeling which had taken alarm, and Hippolyte Cérès
+was invited to hold office in it.
+
+The new ministry, belonging to all the groups in the majority,
+represented the most diverse and contrary opinions, but they were all
+moderate and convinced conservatives.[12] The Minister of Foreign
+Affairs was retained from the former cabinet. He was a little dark man
+called Crombile, who worked fourteen hours a day with the conviction
+that he dealt with tremendous questions. He refused to see even his own
+diplomatic agents, and was terribly uneasy, though he did not disturb
+anybody else, for the want of foresight of peoples is infinite and that
+of governments is just as great.
+
+ [12] As this ministry exercised considerable influence upon the
+ destinies of the country and of the world, we think it well to give
+ its composition: Minister of the Interior and Prime Minister, Paul
+ Visire; Minister of Justice, Pierre Bouc; Foreign Affairs, Victor
+ Crombile; Finance, Terrasson; Education, Labillette; Commerce, Posts
+ and Telegraphs, Hippolyte Cérès; Agriculture, Aulac; Public Works,
+ Lapersonne; War, General Débonnaire; Admiralty, Admiral Vivier des
+ Murènes.
+
+
+The office of Public Works was given to a Socialist, Fortuné
+Lapersonne. It was then a political custom and one of the most solemn,
+most severe, most rigorous, and if I may dare say so, the most terrible
+and cruel of all political customs, to include a member of the
+Socialist party in each ministry intended to oppose Socialism, so that
+the enemies of wealth and property should suffer the shame of being
+attacked by one of their own party, and so that they could not unite
+against these forces without turning to some one who might possibly
+attack themselves in the future. Nothing but a profound ignorance of
+the human heart would permit the belief that it was difficult to find a
+Socialist to occupy these functions. Citizen Fortuné Lapersonne entered
+the Visire cabinet of his own free will and without any constraint; and
+he found those who approved of his action even among his former
+friends, so great was the fascination that power exercised over the
+Penguins!
+
+General Débonnaire went to the War Office. He was looked upon as one of
+the ablest generals in the army, but he was ruled by a woman, the
+Baroness Bildermann, who, though she had reached the age of intrigue,
+was still beautiful. She was in the pay of a neighbouring and hostile
+Power.
+
+The new Minister of Marine, the worthy Admiral Vivier des Murènes, was
+generally regarded as an excellent seaman. He displayed a piety that
+would have seemed excessive in an anti-clerical minister, if the
+Republic had not recognised that religion was of great maritime
+utility. Acting on the instruction of his spiritual director, the
+Reverend Father Douillard, the worthy Admiral had dedicated his fleet
+to St. Orberosia and directed canticles in honour of the Alcan Virgin
+to be composed by Christian bards. These replaced the national hymn in
+the music played by the navy.
+
+Prime Minister Visire declared himself to be distinctly anticlerical
+but ready to respect all creeds; he asserted that he was a sober-minded
+reformer. Paul Visire and his colleagues desired reforms, and it was in
+order not to compromise reform that they proposed none; for they were
+true politicians and knew that reforms are compromised the moment they
+are proposed. The government was well received, respectable people were
+reassured, and the funds rose.
+
+The administration announced that four new ironclads would be put into
+commission, that prosecutions would be undertaken against the
+Socialists, and it formally declared its intention to have nothing to
+do with any inquisitorial income-tax. The choice of Terrasson as
+Minister of Finance was warmly approved by the press. Terrasson, an old
+minister famous for his financial operations, gave warrant to all the
+hopes of the financiers and shadowed forth a period of great business
+activity. Soon those three udders of modern nations, monopolies, bill
+discounting, and fraudulent speculation, were swollen with the milk of
+wealth. Already whispers were heard of distant enterprises, and of
+planting colonies, and the boldest put forward in the newspapers the
+project of a military and financial protectorate over Nigritia.
+
+Without having yet shown what he was capable of, Hippolyte Cérès was
+considered a man of weight. Business people thought highly of him. He
+was congratulated on all sides for having broken with the extreme
+sections, the dangerous men, and for having realised the
+responsibilities of government.
+
+Madame Cérès shone alone amid the Ministers’ wives. Crombile withered
+away in bachelordom. Paul Visire had married money in the person of
+Mademoiselle Blampignon, an accomplished, estimable, and simple lady
+who was always ill, and whose feeble health compelled her to stay with
+her mother in the depths of a remote province. The other Ministers’
+wives were not born to charm the sight, and people smiled when they
+read that Madame Labillette had appeared at the Presidency Ball wearing
+a headdress of birds of paradise. Madame Vivier des Murènes, a woman of
+good family, was stout rather than tall, had a face like a beef-steak
+and the voice of a newspaper-seller. Madame Débonnaire, tall, dry, and
+florid, was devoted to young officers. She ruined herself by her
+escapades and crimes and only regained consideration by dint of
+ugliness and insolence.
+
+Madame Cérès was the charm of the Ministry and its tide to
+consideration. Young, beautiful, and irreproachable, she charmed alike
+society and the masses by her combination of elegant costumes and
+pleasant smiles.
+
+Her receptions were thronged by the great Jewish financiers. She gave
+the most fashionable garden parties in the Republic. The newspapers
+described her dresses and the milliners did not ask her to pay for
+them. She went to Mass; she protected the chapel of St. Orberosia from
+the ill-will of the people; and she aroused in aristocratic hearts the
+hope of a fresh Concordat.
+
+With her golden hair, grey eyes, and supple and slight though rounded
+figure, she was indeed pretty. She enjoyed an excellent reputation and
+she was so adroit, and calm, so much mistress of herself, that she
+would have preserved it intact even if she had been discovered in the
+very act of ruining it.
+
+The session ended with a victory for the cabinet which, amid the almost
+unanimous applause of the House, defeated a proposal for an
+inquisitorial tax, and with a triumph for Madame Cérès who gave parties
+in honour of three kings who were at the moment passing through Alca.
+
+
+
+
+VI. THE SOFA OF THE FAVOURITE
+
+
+The Prime Minister invited Monsieur and Madame Cérès to spend a couple
+of weeks of the holidays in a little villa that he had taken in the
+mountains, and in which he lived alone. The deplorable health of Madame
+Paul Visire did not allow her to accompany her husband, and she
+remained with her relatives in one of the southern provinces.
+
+The villa had belonged to the mistress of one of the last Kings of
+Alca: the drawing-room retained its old furniture, and in it was still
+to be found the Sofa of the Favourite. The country was charming; a
+pretty blue stream, the Aiselle, flowed at the foot of the hill that
+dominated the villa. Hippolyte Cérès loved fishing; when engaged at
+this monotonous occupation he often formed his best Parliamentary
+combinations, and his happiest oratorical inspirations. Trout swarmed
+in the Aiselle; he fished it from morning till evening in a boat that
+the Prime Minister readily placed at is disposal.
+
+In the mean time, Eveline and Paul Visire sometimes took a turn
+together in the garden, or had a little chat in the drawing-room.
+Eveline, although she recognised the attraction that Visire had for
+women, had hitherto displayed towards him only an intermittent and
+superficial coquetry, without any deep intentions or settled design. He
+was a connoisseur and saw that she was pretty. The House and the Opera
+had deprived him of all leisure, but, in a little villa, the grey eyes
+and rounded figure of Eveline took on a value in his eyes. One day as
+Hippolyte Cérès was fishing in the Aiselle, he made her sit beside him
+on the Sofa of the Favourite. Long rays of gold struck Eveline like
+arrows from a hidden Cupid through the chinks of the curtains which
+protected her from the heat and glare of a brilliant day. Beneath her
+white muslin dress her rounded yet slender form was outlined in its
+grace and youth. Her skin was cool and fresh, and had the fragrance of
+freshly mown hay. Paul Visire behaved as the occasion warranted, and
+for her part, she was opposed neither to the games of chance or of
+society. She believed it would be nothing or a trifle; she was
+mistaken.
+
+“There was,” says the famous German ballad, “on the sunny side of the
+town square, beside a wall whereon the creeper grew, a pretty little
+letter-box, as blue as the corn-flowers, smiling and tranquil.
+
+“All day long there came to it, in their heavy shoes, small
+shop-keepers, rich farmers, citizens, the tax-collector and the
+policeman, and they put into it their business letters, their invoices,
+their summonses their notices to pay taxes, the judges’ returns, and
+orders for the recruits to assemble. It remained smiling and tranquil.
+
+“With joy, or in anxiety, there advanced towards it workmen and farm
+servants, maids and nursemaids, accountants, clerks, and women carrying
+their little children in their arms; they put into it notifications of
+births, marriages, and deaths, letters between engaged couples, between
+husbands and wives, from mothers to their sons, and from sons to their
+mothers. It remained smiling and tranquil.
+
+“At twilight, young lads and young girls slipped furtively to it, and
+put in love-letters, some moistened with tears that blotted the ink,
+others with a little circle to show the place to kiss, all of them very
+long. It remained smiling and tranquil.
+
+“Rich merchants came themselves through excess of carefulness at the
+hour of daybreak, and put into it registered letters, and letters with
+five red seals, full of bank notes or cheques on the great financial
+establishments of the Empire. It remained smiling and tranquil.
+
+“But one day, Gaspar, whom it had never seen, and whom it did not know
+from Adam, came to put in a letter, of which nothing is known but that
+it was folded like a little hat. Immediately the pretty letter-box fell
+into a swoon. Henceforth it remains no longer in its place; it runs
+through streets, fields, and woods, girdled with ivy, and crowned with
+roses. It keeps running up hill and down dale; the country policeman
+surprises it sometimes, amidst the corn, in Gaspar’s arms kissing him
+upon the mouth.”
+
+Paul Visire had recovered all his customary nonchalance. Eveline
+remained stretched on the Divan of the Favourite in an attitude of
+delicious astonishment.
+
+The Reverend Father Douillard, an excellent moral theologian, and a man
+who in the decadence of the Church has preserved his principles, was
+very right to teach, in conformity with the doctrine of the Fathers,
+that while a woman commits a great sin by giving herself for money, she
+commits a much greater one by giving herself for nothing. For, in the
+first case she acts to support her life, and that is sometimes not
+merely excusable but pardonable, and even worthy of the Divine Grace,
+for God forbids suicide, and is unwilling that his creatures should
+destroy themselves. Besides, in giving herself in order to live, she
+remains humble, and derives no pleasure from it a thing which
+diminishes the sin. But a woman who gives herself for nothing sins with
+pleasure and exults in her fault. The pride and delight with which she
+burdens her crime increase its load of moral guilt.
+
+Madame Hippolyte Cérès’ example shows the profundity of these moral
+truths. She perceived that she had senses. A second was enough to bring
+about this discovery, to change her soul, to alter her whole life. To
+have learned to know herself was at first a delight. The γυῶθί σεαυτὸν
+of the ancient philosophy is not a precept the moral fulfilment of
+which procures any pleasure, since one enjoys little satisfaction from
+knowing one’s soul. It is not the same with the flesh, for in it
+sources of pleasure may be revealed to us. Eveline immediately felt an
+obligation to her revealer equal to the benefit she had received, and
+she imagined that he who had discovered these heavenly depths was the
+sole possessor of the key to them. Was this an error, and might she not
+be able to find others who also had the golden key? It is difficult to
+decide; and Professor Haddock, when the facts were divulged (which
+happened without much delay as we shall see), treated the matter from
+an experimental point of view, in a scientific review, and concluded
+that the chances Madame C— would have of finding the exact equivalent
+of M. V— were in the proportion of 305 to 975008. This is as much as to
+say that she would never find it. Doubtless her instinct told her the
+same, for she attached herself distractedly to him.
+
+I have related these facts with all the circumstances which seemed to
+me worthy of attracting the attention of meditative and philosophic
+minds. The Sofa of the Favourite is worthy of the majesty of history;
+on it were decided the destinies of a great people; nay, on it was
+accomplished an act whose renown was to extend over the neighbouring
+nations both friendly and hostile, and even over all humanity. Too
+often events of this nature escape the superficial minds and shallow
+spirits who inconsiderately assume the task of writing history. Thus
+the secret springs of events remain hidden from us. The fall of Empires
+and the transmission of dominions astonish us and remain
+incomprehensible to us, because we have not discovered the
+imperceptible point, or touched the secret spring which when put in
+movement has destroyed and overthrown everything. The author of this
+great history knows better than anyone else his faults and his
+weaknesses, but he can do himself this justice—that he has always kept
+the moderation, the seriousness, the austerity, which an account of
+affairs of State demands, and that he has never departed from the
+gravity which is suitable to a recital of human actions.
+
+
+
+
+VII. THE FIRST CONSEQUENCES
+
+
+When Eveline confided to Paul Visire that she had never experienced
+anything similar, he did not believe her. He had had a good deal to do
+with women and knew that they readily say these things to men in order
+to make them more in love with them. Thus his experience, as sometimes
+happens, made him disregard the truth. Incredulous, but gratified all
+the same, he soon felt love and something more for her. This state at
+first seemed favourable to his intellectual faculties. Visire delivered
+in the chief town of his constituency a speech full of grace, brilliant
+and happy, which was considered to be a masterpiece.
+
+The re-opening of Parliament was serene. A few isolated jealousies, a
+few timid ambitions raised their heads in the House, and that was all.
+A smile from the Prime Minister was enough to dissipate these shadows.
+She and he saw each other twice a day, and wrote to each other in the
+interval. He was accustomed to intimate relationships, was adroit, and
+knew how to dissimulate; but Eveline displayed a foolish imprudence:
+she made herself conspicuous with him in drawing-rooms, at the theatre,
+in the House, and at the Embassies; she wore her love upon her face,
+upon her whole person, in her moist glances, in the languishing smile
+of her lips, in the heaving of her breast, in all her heightened,
+agitated, and distracted beauty. Soon the entire country knew of their
+intimacy. Foreign Courts were informed of it. The President of the
+Republic and Eveline’s husband alone remained in ignorance. The
+President became acquainted with it in the country, through a misplaced
+police report which found its way, it is not known how, into his
+portmanteau.
+
+Hippolyte Cérès, without being either very subtle, or very
+perspicacious, noticed that there was something different in his home.
+Eveline, who quite lately had interested herself in his affairs, and
+shown, if not tenderness, at least affection, towards him, displayed
+henceforth nothing but indifference and repulsion. She had always had
+periods of absence, and made prolonged visits to the Charity of St.
+Orberosia; now, she went out in the morning, remained out all day, and
+sat down to dinner at nine o’clock in the evening with the face of a
+somnambulist. Her husband thought it absurd; however, he might perhaps
+have never known the reason for this; a profound ignorance of women, a
+crass confidence in his own merit, and in his own fortune, might
+perhaps have always hidden the truth from him, if the two lovers had
+not, so to speak, compelled him to discover it.
+
+When Paul Visire went to Eveline’s house and found her alone, they used
+to say, as they embraced each other; “Not here! not here!” and
+immediately they affected an extreme reserve. That was their invariable
+rule. Now, one day, Paul Visire went to the house of his colleague
+Cérès, with whom he had an engagement. It was Eveline who received him,
+the Minister of Commerce being delayed by a commission.
+
+“Not here!” said the lovers, smiling.
+
+They said it, mouth to mouth, embracing, and clasping each other. They
+were still saying it, when Hippolyte Cérès entered the drawing-room.
+
+Paul Visire did not lose his presence of mind. He declared to Madame
+Cérès that he would give up his attempt to take the dust out of her
+eye. By this attitude he did not deceive the husband, but he was able
+to leave the room with some dignity.
+
+Hippolyte Cérès was thunderstruck. Eveline’s conduct appeared
+incomprehensible to him; he asked her what reasons she had for it.
+
+“Why? why?” he kept repeating continually, “why?”
+
+She denied everything, not to convince him, for he had seen them, but
+from expediency and good taste, and to avoid painful explanations.
+Hippolyte Cérès suffered all the tortures of jealousy. He admitted it
+to himself, he kept saying inwardly, “I am a strong man; I am clad in
+armour; but the wound is underneath, it is in my heart,” and turning
+towards his wife, who looked beautiful in her guilt, he would say:
+
+“It ought not to have been with him.”
+
+He was right—Eveline ought not to have loved in government circles.
+
+He suffered so much that he took up his revolver, exclaiming: “I will
+go and kill him!” But he remembered that a Minister of Commerce cannot
+kill his own Prime Minister, and he put his revolver back into his
+drawer.
+
+The weeks passed without calming his sufferings. Each morning he
+buckled his strong man’s armour over his wound and sought in work and
+fame the peace that fled from him. Every Sunday he inaugurated busts,
+statues, fountains, artesian wells, hospitals, dispensaries, railways,
+canals, public markets, drainage systems, triumphal arches, and
+slaughter houses, and delivered moving speeches on each of these
+occasions. His fervid activity devoured whole piles of documents; he
+changed the colours of the postage stamps fourteen times in one week.
+Nevertheless, he gave vent to outbursts of grief and rage that drove
+him insane; for whole days his reason abandoned him. If he had been in
+the employment of a private administration this would have been noticed
+immediately, but it is much more difficult to discover insanity or
+frenzy in the conduct of affairs of State. At that moment the
+government employees were forming themselves into associations and
+federations amid a ferment that was giving alarm both to the Parliament
+and to public feeling. The postmen were especially prominent in their
+enthusiasm for trade unions.
+
+Hippolyte Cérès informed them in a circular that their action was
+strictly legal. The following day he sent out a second circular
+forbidding all associations of government employees as illegal. He
+dismissed one hundred and eighty postmen, reinstated them, reprimanded
+them—and awarded them gratuities. At Cabinet councils he was always on
+the point of bursting forth. The presence of the Head of the State
+scarcely restrained him within the limits of the decencies, and as he
+did not dare to attack his rival he consoled himself by heaping
+invectives upon General Débonnaire, the respected Minister of War. The
+General did not hear them, for he was deaf and occupied himself in
+composing verses for the Baroness Bildermann. Hippolyte Cérès offered
+an indistinct opposition to everything the Prime Minister proposed. In
+a word, he was a madman. One faculty alone escaped the ruin of his
+intellect: he retained his Parliamentary sense, his consciousness of
+the temper of majorities, his thorough knowledge of groups, and his
+certainty of the direction in which affairs were moving.
+
+
+
+
+VIII. FURTHER CONSEQUENCES
+
+
+The session ended calmly, and the Ministry saw no dangerous signs upon
+the benches where the majority sat. It was visible, however, from
+certain articles in the Moderate journals, that the demands of the
+Jewish and Christian financiers were increasing daily, that the
+patriotism of the banks required a civilizing expedition to Nigritia,
+and that the steel trusts, eager in the defence of our coasts and
+colonies, were crying out for armoured cruisers and still more armoured
+cruisers. Rumours of war began to be heard. Such rumours sprang up
+every year as regularly as the trade winds; serious people paid no heed
+to them and the government usually let them die away from their own
+weakness unless they grew stronger and spread. For in that case the
+country would be alarmed. The financiers only wanted colonial wars and
+the people did not want any wars at all. It loved to see its government
+proud and even insolent, but at the least suspicion that a European war
+was brewing, its violent emotion would quickly have reached the House.
+Paul Visire was not uneasy. The European situation was in his view
+completely reassuring. He was only irritated by the maniacal silence of
+his Minister of Foreign Affairs. That gnome went to the Cabinet
+meetings with a portfolio bigger than himself stuffed full of papers,
+said nothing, refused to answer all questions, even those asked him by
+the respected President of the Republic, and, exhausted by his
+obstinate labours, took a few moments’ sleep in his arm-chair in which
+nothing but the top of his little black head was to be seen above the
+green tablecloth.
+
+In the mean time Hippolyte Cérès became a strong man again. In company
+with his colleague Lapersonne he formed numerous intimacies with ladies
+of the theatre. They were both to be seen at night entering fashionable
+restaurants in the company of ladies whom they over-topped by their
+lofty stature and their new hats, and they were soon reckoned amongst
+the most sympathetic frequenters of the boulevards. Fortuné Lapersonne
+had his own wound beneath his armour. His wife, a young milliner whom
+he carried off from a marquis, had gone to live with a chauffeur. He
+loved her still, and could not console himself for her loss, so that
+very often in the private room of a restaurant, in the midst of a group
+of girls who laughed and ate crayfish, the two ministers exchanged a
+look full of their common sorrow and wiped away an unbidden tear.
+
+Hippolyte Cérès, although wounded to the heart, did not allow himself
+to be beaten. He swore that he would be avenged.
+
+Madame Paul Visire, whose deplorable health forced her to live with her
+relatives in a distant province, received an anonymous letter
+specifying that M. Paul Visire, who had not a half-penny when he
+married her, was spending her dowry on a married woman, E— C—, that he
+gave this woman thirty-thousand-franc motor-cars, and pearl necklaces
+costing twenty-five thousand francs, and that he was going straight to
+dishonour and ruin. Madame Paul Visire read the letter, fell into
+hysterics, and handed it to her father.
+
+“I am going to box your husband’s ears,” said M. Blampignon; “he is a
+blackguard who will land you both in the workhouse unless we look out.
+He may be Prime Minister, but he won’t frighten me.”
+
+When he stepped off the train M. Blampignon presented himself at the
+Ministry of the Interior, and was immediately received. He entered the
+Prime Minister’s room in a fury.
+
+“I have something to say to you, sir!” And he waved the anonymous
+letter.
+
+Paul Visire welcomed him smiling.
+
+“You are welcome, my dear father. I was going to write to you. . . .
+Yes, to tell you of your nomination to the rank of officer of the
+Legion of Honour. I signed the patent this morning.”
+
+M. Blampignon thanked his son-in-law warmly and threw the anonymous
+letter into the fire.
+
+He returned to his provincial house and found his daughter fretting and
+agitated.
+
+“Well! I saw your husband. He is a delightful fellow. But then, you
+don’t understand how to deal with him.”
+
+About this time Hippolyte Cérès learned through a little scandalous
+newspaper (it is always through the newspapers that ministers are
+informed of the affairs of State) that the Prime Minister dined every
+evening with Mademoiselle Lysiane of the Folies Dramatiques, whose
+charm seemed to have made a great impression on him. Thenceforth Cérès
+took a gloomy joy in watching his wife. She came in every evening to
+dine or dress with an air of agreeable fatigue and the serenity that
+comes from enjoyment.
+
+Thinking that she knew nothing, he sent her anonymous communications.
+She read them at the table before him and remained still listless and
+smiling.
+
+He then persuaded himself that she gave no heed to these vague reports,
+and that in order to disturb her it would be necessary to enable her to
+verify her lover’s infidelity and treason for herself. There were at
+the Ministry a number of trustworthy agents charged with secret
+inquiries regarding the national defence. They were then employed in
+watching the spies of a neighbouring and hostile Power who had
+succeeded in entering the Postal and Telegraphic service. M. Cérès
+ordered them to suspend their work for the present and to inquire
+where, when, and how, the Minister of the Interior saw Mademoiselle
+Lysiane. The agents performed their missions faithfully and told the
+minister that they had several times seen the Prime Minister with a
+woman, but that she was not Mademoiselle Lysiane. Hippolyte Cérès asked
+them nothing further. He was right; the loves of Paul Visire and
+Lysiane were but an alibi invented by Paul Visire himself, with
+Eveline’s approval, for his fame was rather inconvenient to her, and
+she sighed for secrecy and mystery.
+
+They were not shadowed by the agents of the Ministry of Commerce alone.
+They were also followed by those of the Prefect of Police, and even by
+those of the Minister of the Interior, who disputed with each other the
+honour of protecting their chief. Then there were the emissaries of
+several royalist, imperialist, and clerical organisations, those of
+eight or ten blackmailers, several amateur detectives, a multitude of
+reporters, and a crowd of photographers, who all made their appearance
+wherever these two took refuge in their perambulating love affairs, at
+big hotels, small hotels, town houses, country houses, private
+apartments, villas, museums, palaces, hovels. They kept watch in the
+streets, from neighbouring houses, trees, walls, stair-cases, landings,
+roofs, adjoining rooms, and even chimneys. The Minister and his friend
+saw with alarm all round their bed room, gimlets boring through doors
+and shutters, and drills making holes in the walls. A photograph of
+Madame Cérès in night attire buttoning her boots was the utmost that
+had been obtained.
+
+Paul Visire grew impatient and irritable, and often lost his good
+humour and agreeableness. He came to the cabinet meetings in a rage and
+he, too, poured invectives upon General Débonnaire—a brave man under
+fire but a lax disciplinarian—and launched his sarcasms at against the
+venerable admiral Vivier des Murènes whose ships went to the bottom
+without any apparent reason.
+
+Fortuné Lapersonne listened open-eyed, and grumbled scoffingly between
+his teeth:
+
+“He is not satisfied with robbing Hippolyte Cérès of his wife, but he
+must go and rob him of his catchwords too.”
+
+These storms were made known by the indiscretion of some ministers and
+by the complaints of the two old warriors, who declared their intention
+of flinging their portfolios at the beggar’s head, but who did nothing
+of the sort. These outbursts, far from injuring the lucky Prime
+Minister, had an excellent effect on Parliament and public opinion, who
+looked on them as signs of a keen solicitude for the welfare of the
+national army and navy. The Prime Minister was the recipient of general
+approbation.
+
+To the congratulations of the various groups and of notable personages,
+he replied with simple firmness: “Those are my principles!” and he had
+seven or eight Socialists put in prison.
+
+The session ended, and Paul Visire, very exhausted, went to take the
+waters. Hippolyte Cérès refused to leave his Ministry, where the trade
+union of telephone girls was in tumultuous agitation. He opposed it
+with an unheard of violence, for he had now become a woman-hater. On
+Sundays he went into the suburbs to fish along with his colleague
+Lapersonne, wearing the tall hat that never left him since he had
+become a Minister. And both of them, forgetting the fish, complained of
+the inconstancy of women and mingled their griefs.
+
+Hippolyte still loved Eveline and he still suffered. However, hope had
+slipped into his heart. She was now separated from her lover, and,
+thinking to win her back, he directed all his efforts to that end. He
+put forth all his skill, showed himself sincere, adaptable,
+affectionate, devoted, even discreet; his heart taught him the
+delicacies of feeling. He said charming and touching things to the
+faithless one, and, to soften her, he told her all that he had
+suffered.
+
+Crossing the band of his trousers upon his stomach.
+
+“See,” said he, “how thin I have got.”
+
+He promised her everything he thought could gratify a woman, country
+parties, hats, jewels.
+
+Sometimes he thought she would take pity on him.
+
+She no longer displayed an insolently happy countenance. Being
+separated from Paul, her sadness had an air of gentleness. But the
+moment he made a gesture to recover her she turned away fiercely and
+gloomily, girt with her fault as if with a golden girdle.
+
+He did not give up, making himself humble, suppliant, lamentable.
+
+One day he went to Lapersonne and said to him with tears in his eyes:
+
+“Will you speak to her?”
+
+Lapersonne excused himself, thinking that his intervention would be
+useless, but he gave some advice to his friend.
+
+“Make her think that you don’t care about her, that you love another,
+and she will come back to you.”
+
+Hippolyte, adopting this method, inserted in the newspapers that he was
+always to be found in the company of Mademoiselle Guinaud of the Opera.
+He came home late or did not come home at all, assumed in Eveline’s
+presence an appearance of inward joy impossible to restrain, took out
+of his pocket, at dinner, a letter on scented paper which he pretended
+to read with delight, and his lips seemed as in a dream to kiss
+invisible lips. Nothing happened. Eveline did not even notice the
+change. Insensible to all around her, she only came out of her lethargy
+to ask for some louis from her husband, and if he did not give them she
+threw him a look of contempt, ready to upbraid him with the shame which
+she poured upon him in the sight of the whole world. Since she had
+loved she spent a great deal on dress. She needed money, and she had
+only her husband to secure it for her; she was so far faithful to him.
+
+He lost patience, became furious, and threatened her with his revolver.
+He said one day before her to Madame Clarence:
+
+“I congratulate you, Madame; you have brought up your daughter to be a
+wanton hussy.”
+
+“Take me away, Mamma,” exclaimed Eveline. “I will get a divorce!”
+
+He loved her more ardently than ever. In his jealous rage, suspecting
+her, not without probability, of sending and receiving letters, he
+swore that he would intercept them, re-established a censorship over
+the post, threw private correspondence into confusion, delayed
+stock-exchange quotations, prevented assignations, brought about
+bankruptcies, thwarted passions, and caused suicides. The independent
+press gave utterance to the complaints of the public and indignantly
+supported them. To justify these arbitrary measures, the ministerial
+journals spoke darkly of plots and public dangers, and promoted a
+belief in a monarchical conspiracy. The less well-informed sheets gave
+more precise information, told of the seizure of fifty thousand guns,
+and the landing of Prince Crucho. Feeling grew throughout the country,
+and the republican organs called for the immediate meeting of
+Parliament. Paul Visire returned to Paris, summoned his colleagues,
+held an important Cabinet Council, and proclaimed through his agencies
+that a plot had been actually formed against the national
+representation, but that the Prime Minister held the threads of it in
+his hand, and that a judicial inquiry was about to be opened.
+
+He immediately ordered the arrest of thirty Socialists, and whilst the
+entire country was acclaiming him as its saviour, baffling the
+watchfulness of his six hundred detectives, he secretly took Eveline to
+a little house near the Northern railway station, where they remained
+until night. After their departure, the maid of their hotel, as she was
+putting their room in order, saw seven little crosses traced by a
+hairpin on the wall at the head of the bed.
+
+That is all that Hippolyte Cérès obtained as a reward of his efforts.
+
+
+
+
+IX. THE FINAL CONSEQUENCES
+
+
+Jealousy is a virtue of democracies which preserves them from tyrants.
+Deputies began to envy the Prime Minister his golden key. For a year
+his domination over the beauteous Madame Cérès had been known to the
+whole universe. The provinces, whither news and fashions only arrive
+after a complete revolution of the earth round the sun, were at last
+informed of the illegitimate loves of the Cabinet. The provinces
+preserve an austere morality; women are more virtuous there than they
+are in the capital.
+
+Various reasons have been alleged for this: Education, example,
+simplicity of life. Professor Haddock asserts that this virtue of
+provincial ladies is solely due to the fact that the heels of their
+shoes are low. “A woman,” said he, in a learned article in the
+“Anthropological Review”, “a woman attracts a civilized man in
+proportion as her feet make an angle with the ground. If this angle is
+as much as thirty-five degrees, the attraction becomes acute. For the
+position of the feet upon the ground determines the whole carriage of
+the body, and it results that provincial women, since they wear low
+heels, are not very attractive, and preserve their virtue with ease.”
+These conclusions were not generally accepted. It was objected that
+under the influence of English and American fashions, low heels had
+been introduced generally without producing the results attributed to
+them by the learned Professor; moreover, it was said that the
+difference he pretended to establish between the morals of the
+metropolis and those of the provinces is perhaps illusory, and that if
+it exists, it is apparently due to the fact that great cities offer
+more advantages and facilities for love than small towns provide.
+However that may be, the provinces began to murmur against the Prime
+Minister, and to raise a scandal. This was not yet a danger, but there
+was a possibility that it might become one.
+
+For the moment the peril was nowhere and yet everywhere. The majority
+remained solid; but the leaders became stiff and exacting. Perhaps
+Hippolyte Cérès would never have intentionally sacrificed his interests
+to his vengeance. But thinking that he could henceforth, without
+compromising his own fortune, secretly damage that of Paul Visire, he
+devoted himself to the skilful and careful preparation of difficulties
+and perils for the Head of the Government. Though far from equalling
+his rival in talent, knowledge, and authority, he greatly surpassed him
+in his skill as a lobbyist. The most acute parliamentarians attributed
+the recent misfortunes of the majority to his refusal to vote. At
+committees, by a calculated imprudence, he favoured motions which he
+knew the Prime Minister could not accept. One day his intentional
+awkwardness provoked a sudden and violent conflict between the Minister
+of the Interior, and his departmental Treasurer. Then Cérès became
+frightened and went no further. It would have been dangerous for him to
+overthrow the ministry too soon. His ingenious hatred found an issue by
+circuitous paths. Paul Visire had a poor cousin of easy morals who bore
+his name. Cérès, remembering this lady, Celine Visire, brought her into
+prominence, arranged that she should become intimate with several
+foreigners, and procured her engagements in the music-halls. One summer
+night, on a stage in the Champs Elysées before a tumultuous crowd, she
+performed risky dances to the sounds of wild music which was audible in
+the gardens where the President of the Republic was entertaining
+Royalty. The name of Visire, associated with these scandals, covered
+the walls of the town, filled the newspapers, was repeated in the cafés
+and at balls, and blazed forth in letters of fire upon the boulevards.
+
+Nobody regarded the Prime Minister as responsible for the scandal of
+his relatives, but a bad idea of his family came into existence, and
+the influence of the statesman was diminished.
+
+Almost immediately he was made to feel this in a pretty sharp fashion.
+One day in the House, on a simple question, Labillette, the Minister of
+Religion and Public Worship, who was suffering from an attack of liver,
+and beginning to be exasperated by the intentions and intrigues of the
+clergy, threatened to close the Chapel of St. Orberosia, and spoke
+without respect of the National Virgin. The entire Right rose up in
+indignation; the Left appeared to give but a half-hearted support to
+the rash Minister. The leaders of the majority did not care to attack a
+popular cult which brought thirty millions a year into the country. The
+most moderate of the supporters of the Right, M. Bigourd, made the
+question the subject of a resolution and endangered the Cabinet.
+Luckily, Fortuné Lapersonne, the Minister of Public Works, always
+conscious of the obligations of power, was able in the Prime Minister’s
+absence to repair the awkwardness and indecorum of his colleague, the
+Minister of Public Worship. He ascended the tribune and bore witness to
+the respect in which the Government held the heavenly Patron of the
+country, the consoler of so many ills which science admitted its
+powerlessness to relieve.
+
+When Paul Visire, snatched at last from Eveline’s arms, appeared in the
+House, the administration was saved; but the Prime Minister saw himself
+compelled to grant important concessions to the upper classes. He
+proposed in Parliament that six armoured cruisers should be laid down,
+and thus won the sympathies of the Steel Trust; he gave new assurances
+that the income tax would not be imposed, and he had eighteen
+Socialists arrested.
+
+He was soon to find himself opposed by more formidable obstacles. The
+Chancellor of the neighbouring Empire in an ingenious and profound
+speech upon the foreign relations of his sovereign, made a sly allusion
+to the intrigues that inspired the policy of a great country. This
+reference, which was received with smiles by the Imperial Parliament,
+was certain to irritate a punctilious republic. It aroused the national
+susceptibility, which directed its wrath against its amorous Minister.
+The Deputies seized upon a frivolous pretext to show their
+dissatisfaction. A ridiculous incident, the fact that the wife of a
+subprefect had danced at the Moulin Rouge, forced the minister to face
+a vote of censure, and he was within a few votes of being defeated.
+According to general opinion, Paul Visire had never been so weak, so
+vacillating, or so spiritless, as on that occasion.
+
+He understood that he could only keep himself in office by a great
+political stroke, and he decided on the expedition to Nigritia. This
+measure was demanded by the great financial and industrial corporations
+and was one which would bring concessions of immense forests to the
+capitalists, a loan of eight millions to the banking companies, as well
+as promotions and decorations to the naval and military officers. A
+pretext presented itself; some insult needed to be avenged, or some
+debt to be collected. Six battleships, fourteen cruisers, and eighteen
+transports sailed up the mouth of the river Hippopotamus. Six hundred
+canoes vainly opposed the landing of the troops. Admiral Vivier des
+Murènes’ cannons produced an appalling effect upon the blacks, who
+replied to them with flights of arrows, but in spite of their fanatical
+courage they were entirely defeated. Popular enthusiasm was kindled by
+the newspapers which the financiers subsidised, and burst into a blaze.
+Some Socialists alone protested against this barbarous, doubtful, and
+dangerous enterprise. They were at once arrested.
+
+At that moment when the Minister, supported by wealth, and now beloved
+by the poor, seemed unconquerable, the light of hate showed Hippolyte
+Cérès alone the danger, and looking with a gloomy joy at his rival, he
+muttered between his teeth, “He is wrecked, the brigand!”
+
+Whilst the country intoxicated itself with glory, the neighbouring
+Empire protested against the occupation of Nigritia by a European
+power, and these protests following one another at shorter and shorter
+intervals became more and more vehement. The newspapers of the
+interested Republic concealed all causes for uneasiness; but Hippolyte
+Cérès heard the growing menace, and determined at last to risk
+everything, even the fate of the ministry, in order to ruin his enemy.
+He got men whom he could trust to write and insert articles in several
+of the official journals, which, seeming to express Paul Visire’s
+precise views, attributed warlike intentions to the Head of the
+Government.
+
+These articles roused a terrible echo abroad, and they alarmed the
+public opinion of a nation which, while fond of soldiers, was not fond
+of war. Questioned in the House on the foreign policy of his
+government, Paul Visire made a re-assuring statement, and promised to
+maintain a face compatible with the dignity of a great nation. His
+Minister of Foreign Affairs, Crombile, read a declaration which was
+absolutely unintelligible, for the reason that it was couched in
+diplomatic language. The Minister obtained a large majority.
+
+But the rumours of war did not cease, and in order to avoid a new and
+dangerous motion, the Prime Minister distributed eighty thousand acres
+of forests in Nigritia among the Deputies, and had fourteen Socialists
+arrested. Hippolyte Cérès went gloomily about the lobbies, confiding to
+the Deputies of his group that he was endeavouring to induce the
+Cabinet to adopt a pacific policy, and that he still hoped to succeed.
+Day by day the sinister rumours grew in volume, and penetrating amongst
+the public, spread uneasiness and disquiet. Paul Visire himself began
+to take alarm. What disturbed him most were the silence and absence of
+the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Crombile no longer came to the
+meetings of the Cabinet. Rising at five o’clock in the morning, he
+worked eighteen hours at his desk, and at last fell exhausted into his
+waste-paper basket, from whence the registrars removed him, together
+with the papers which they were going to sell to the military attachés
+of the neighbouring Empire.
+
+General Débonnaire believed that a campaign was imminent, and prepared
+for it. Far from fearing war, he prayed for it, and confided his
+generous hopes to Baroness Bildermann, who informed the neighbouring
+nation, which, acting on her information, proceeded to a rapid
+mobilization.
+
+The Minister of Finance unintentionally precipitated events. At the
+moment, he was speculating for a fall, and in order to bring about a
+panic on the Stock Exchange, he spread the rumour that war was now
+inevitable. The neighbouring Empire, deceived by this action, and
+expecting to see its territory invaded, mobilized its troops in all
+haste. The terrified Chamber overthrew the Visire ministry by an
+enormous majority (814 votes to 7, with 28 abstentions). It was too
+late. The very day of this fall the neighbouring and hostile nation
+recalled its ambassador and flung eight millions of men into Madame
+Cérès’ country. War became universal, and the whole world was drowned
+in a torrent of blood.
+
+
+
+
+THE ZENITH OF PENGUIN CIVILIZATION
+
+Half a century after the events we have just related, Madame Cérès died
+surrounded with respect and veneration, in the eighty-ninth year of her
+age. She had long been the widow of a statesman whose name she bore
+with dignity. Her modest and quiet funeral was followed by the orphans
+of the parish and the sisters of the Sacred Compassion.
+
+The deceased left all her property to the Charity of St. Orberosia.
+
+“Alas!” sighed M. Monnoyer, a canon of St. Maël, as he received the
+pious legacy, “it was high time for a generous benefactor to come to
+the relief of our necessities. Rich and poor, learned and ignorant are
+turning away from us. And when we try to lead back these misguided
+souls, neither threats nor promises, neither gentleness nor violence,
+nor anything else is now successful. The Penguin clergy pine in
+desolation; our country priests, reduced to following the humblest of
+trades, are shoeless, and compelled to live upon such scraps as they
+can pick up. In our ruined churches the rain of heaven falls upon the
+faithful, and during the holy offices they can hear the noise of stones
+falling from the arches. The tower of the cathedral is tottering and
+will soon fall. St. Orberosia is forgotten by the Penguins, her
+devotion abandoned, and her sanctuary deserted. On her shrine, bereft
+of its gold and precious stones, the spider silently weaves her web.”
+
+Hearing these lamentations, Pierre Mille, who at the age of
+ninety-eight years had lost nothing of his intellectual and moral
+power, asked, the canon if he did not think that St. Orberosia would
+one day rise out of this wrongful oblivion.
+
+“I hardly dare to hope so,” sighed M. Monnoyer.
+
+“It is a pity!” answered Pierre Mille. “Orberosia is a charming figure
+and her legend is a beautiful one. I discovered the other day by the
+merest chance, one of her most delightful miracles, the miracle of Jean
+Violle. Would you like to hear it, M. Monnoyer?”
+
+“I should be very pleased, M. Mille.”
+
+“Here it is, then, just as I found it in a fifteenth-century manuscript
+
+“Cécile, the wife of Nicolas Gaubert, a jeweller on the Pont-au-Change,
+after having led an honest and chaste life for many years, and being
+now past her prime, became infatuated with Jean Violle, the Countess de
+Maubec’s page, who lived at the Hôtel du Paon on the Place de Grève. He
+was not yet eighteen years old, and his face and figure were
+attractive. Not being able to conquer her passion, Cécile resolved to
+satisfy it. She attracted the page to her house, loaded him with
+caresses, supplied him with sweetmeats and finally did as she wished
+with him.
+
+“Now one day, as they were together in the jeweller’s bed, Master
+Nicholas came home sooner than he was expected. He found the bolt
+drawn, and heard his wife on the other side of the door exclaiming, ‘My
+heart! my angel! my love!’ Then suspecting that she was shut up with a
+gallant, he struck great blows upon the door and began to shout ‘Slut!
+hussy! wanton! open so that I may cut off your nose and ears!’ In this
+peril, the jeweller’s wife besought St. Orberosia, and vowed her a
+large candle if she helped her and the little page, who was dying of
+fear beside the bed, out of their difficulty.
+
+“The saint heard the prayer. She immediately changed Jean Violle into a
+girl. Seeing this, Cécile was completely reassured, and began to call
+out to her husband: ‘Oh! you brutal villain, you jealous wretch! Speak
+gently if you want the door to be opened.’ And scolding in this way,
+she ran to the wardrobe and took out of it an old hood, a pair of
+stays, and a long grey petticoat, in which she hastily wrapped the
+transformed page. Then when this was done, ‘Catherine, dear Catherine,’
+said she, loudly, ‘open the door for your uncle; he is more fool than
+knave, and won’t do you any harm.’ The boy who had become a girl,
+obeyed. Master Nicholas entered the room and found in it a young maid
+whom he did not know, and his wife in bed. ‘Big booby,’ said the latter
+to him, ‘don’t stand gaping at what you see, just as I had come to bed
+because had a stomach ache, I received a visit from Catherine, the
+daughter of my sister Jeanne de Palaiseau, with whom we quarrelled
+fifteen years ago. Kiss your niece. She is well worth the trouble.’ The
+jeweller gave Violle a hug, and from that moment wanted nothing so much
+as to be alone with her a moment, so that he might embrace her as much
+as he liked. For this reason he led her without any delay down to the
+kitchen, under the pretext of giving her some walnuts and wine, and he
+was no sooner there with her than he began to caress her very
+affectionately. He would not have stopped at that if St. Orberosia had
+not inspired his good wife with the idea of seeing what he was about.
+She found him with the pretended niece sitting on his knee. She called
+him a debauched creature, boxed his ears, and forced him to beg her
+pardon. The next day Violle resumed his previous form.”
+
+Having heard this story the venerable Canon Monnoyer thanked Pierre
+Mille for having told it, and, taking up his pen, began to write out a
+list of horses that would win at the next race meeting. For he was a
+book-maker’s clerk.
+
+In the mean time Penguinia gloried in its wealth. Those who produced
+the things necessary for life, wanted them; those who did not produce
+them had more than enough. “But these,” as a member of the Institute
+said, “are necessary economic fatalities.” The great Penguin people had
+no longer either traditions, intellectual culture, or arts. The
+progress of civilisation manifested itself among them by murderous
+industry, infamous speculation, and hideous luxury. Its capital
+assumed, as did all the great cities of the time, a cosmopolitan and
+financial character. An immense and regular ugliness reigned within it.
+The country enjoyed perfect tranquillity. It had reached its zenith.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK VIII. FUTURE TIMES
+
+
+THE ENDLESS HISTORY
+
+Alca is becoming Americanised.—_M. Daniset_.
+
+And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the
+inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the
+ground.—_Genesis xix_. 25
+
+Γῇ Ἑλλάδι πενίη μὲν αἐι κοτε σύντροφος ἐστι, ἀρετὴ δὲ ἔπακτός ἐστι, ἀπό
+τε σοφίης κατεργασμένη καὶ νόμου ἰσχυροῦ.[13] (Herodotus, Histories,
+VII cii.)
+
+ [13] Poverty hast ever been familiar to Greece, but virtue has been
+ acquired, having been accomplished by wisdom and firm laws.
+—Henry Cary’s Translation.
+
+
+You have not seen angels then.—_Liber Terribilis_.
+
+Bqsfttfusftpvtusbjufbmbvupsjufeftspjtf
+ueftfnqfsfvstbqsftbxpjsqspdmbnfuspjtgpjt
+tbmjcfsufmbgsbodftftutpvnjtfbeftdpnqbh
+ojftgjobodjfsftrvjejtqptfoueftsjdifttftevqb
+ztfuqbsmfnpzfoevofqsfttfbdifuffejsjhfoum
+pqjojpo
+
+
+_Voufnpjoxfsjejrvf_
+
+
+We are now beginning to study a chemistry which will deal with effects
+produced by bodies containing a quantity of concentrated energy the
+like of which we have not yet had at our disposal.—_Sir William
+Ramsay_.
+
+
+§. I
+
+
+The houses were never high enough to satisfy them; they kept on making
+them still higher and built them of thirty or forty storeys: with
+offices, shops, banks, societies one above another; they dug cellars
+and tunnels ever deeper downwards.
+
+Fifteen millions of men laboured in a giant town by the light of
+beacons which shed forth their glare both day and night. No light of
+heaven pierced through the smoke of the factories with which the town
+was girt, but sometimes the red disk of a rayless sun might be seen
+riding in the black firmament through which iron bridges ploughed their
+way, and from which there descended a continual shower of soot and
+cinders. It was the most industrial of all the cities in the world and
+the richest. Its organisation seemed perfect. None of the ancient
+aristocratic or democratic forms remained; everything was subordinated
+to the interests of the trusts. This environment gave rise to what
+anthropologists called the multi-millionaire type. The men of this type
+were at once energetic and frail, capable of great activity in forming
+mental combinations and of prolonged labour in offices, but men whose
+nervous irritability suffered from hereditary troubles which increased
+as time went on.
+
+Like all true aristocrats, like the patricians of republican Rome or
+the squires of old England, these powerful men affected a great
+severity in their habits and customs. They were the ascetics of wealth.
+At the meetings of the trusts an observer would have noticed their
+smooth and puffy faces, their lantern cheeks, their sunken eyes and
+wrinkled brows. With bodies more withered, complexions yellower, lips
+drier, and eyes filled with a more burning fanaticism than those of the
+old Spanish monks, these multimillionaires gave themselves up with
+inextinguishable ardour to the austerities of banking and industry.
+Several, denying themselves all happiness, all pleasure, and all rest,
+spent their miserable lives in rooms without light or air, furnished
+only with electrical apparatus, living on eggs and milk, and sleeping
+on camp beds. By doing nothing except pressing nickel buttons with
+their fingers, these mystics heaped up riches of which they never even
+saw the signs, and acquired the vain possibility of gratifying desires
+that they never experienced.
+
+The worship of wealth had its martyrs. One of these multi-millionaires,
+the famous Samuel Box, preferred to die rather than surrender the
+smallest atom of his property. One of his workmen, the victim of an
+accident while at work, being refused any indemnity by his employer,
+obtained a verdict in the courts, but repelled by innumerable obstacles
+of procedure, he fell into the direst poverty. Being thus reduced to
+despair, he succeeded by dint of cunning and audacity in confronting
+his employer with a loaded revolver in his hand, and threatened to blow
+out his brains if he did not give him some assistance. Samuel Box gave
+nothing, and let himself be killed for the sake of principle.
+
+Examples that come from high quarters are followed. Those who possessed
+some small capital (and they were necessarily the greater number),
+affected the ideas and habits of the multi-millionaires, in order that
+they might be classed among them. All passions which injured the
+increase or the preservation of wealth, were regarded as dishonourable;
+neither indolence, nor idleness, nor the taste for disinterested study,
+nor love of the arts, nor, above all, extravagance, was ever forgiven;
+pity was condemned as a dangerous weakness. Whilst every inclination to
+licentiousness excited public reprobation, the violent and brutal
+satisfaction of an appetite was, on the contrary, excused; violence, in
+truth, was regarded as less injurious to morality, since it manifested
+a form of social energy. The State was firmly based on two great public
+virtues: respect for the rich and contempt for the poor. Feeble spirits
+who were still moved by human suffering had no other resource than to
+take refuge in a hypocrisy which it was impossible to blame, since it
+contributed to the maintenance of order and the solidity of
+institutions.
+
+Thus, among the rich, all were devoted to their social order, or seemed
+to be so; all gave good examples, if all did not follow them. Some felt
+the gravity of their position cruelly; but they endured it either from
+pride or from duty. Some attempted, in secret and by subterfuge, to
+escape from it for a moment. One of these, Edward Martin, the
+President, of the Steel Trust, sometimes dressed himself as a poor man,
+went forth to beg his bread, and allowed himself to be jostled by the
+passers-by. One day, as he asked alms on a bridge, he engaged in a
+quarrel with a real beggar, and filled with a fury of envy, he
+strangled him.
+
+As they devoted their whole intelligence to business, they sought no
+intellectual pleasures. The theatre, which had formerly been very
+flourishing among them, was now reduced to pantomimes and comic dances.
+Even the pieces in which women acted were given up; the taste for
+pretty forms and brilliant toilettes had been lost; the somersaults of
+clowns and the music of negroes were preferred above them, and what
+roused enthusiasm was the sight of women upon the stage whose necks
+were bedizened with diamonds, or processions carrying golden bars in
+triumph. Ladies of wealth were as much compelled as the men to lead a
+respectable life. According to a tendency common to all civilizations,
+public feeling set them up as symbols; they were, by their austere
+magnificence, to represent both the splendour of wealth and its
+intangibility. The old habits of gallantry had been reformed, Tut
+fashionable lovers were now secretly replaced by muscular labourers or
+stray grooms. Nevertheless, scandals were rare, a foreign journey
+concealed nearly all of them, and the Princesses of the Trusts remained
+objects of universal esteem.
+
+The rich formed only a small minority, but their collaborators, who
+composed the entire people, had been completely won over or completely
+subjugated by them. They formed two classes, the agents of commerce or
+banking, and workers in the factories. The former contributed an
+immense amount of work and received large salaries. Some of them
+succeeded in founding establishments of their own; for in the constant
+increase of the public wealth the more intelligent and audacious could
+hope for anything. Doubtless it would have been possible to find a
+certain number of discontented and rebellious persons among the immense
+crowd of engineers and accountants, but this powerful society had
+imprinted its firm discipline even on the minds of its opponents. The
+very anarchists were laborious and regular.
+
+As for the workmen who toiled in the factories that surrounded the
+town, their decadence, both physical and moral, was terrible; they were
+examples of the type of poverty as it is set forth by anthropology.
+Although the development among them of certain muscles, due to the
+particular nature of their work, might give a false idea of their
+strength, they presented sure signs of morbid debility. Of low stature,
+with small heads and narrow chests, they were further distinguished
+from the comfortable classes by a multitude of physiological anomalies,
+and, in particular, by a common want of symmetry between the head and
+the limbs. And they were destined to a gradual and continuous
+degeneration, for the State made soldiers of the more robust among
+them, and the health of these did not long withstand the brothels and
+the drink-shops that sprang up around their barracks. The proletarians
+became more and more feeble in mind. The continued weakening of their
+intellectual faculties was not entirely due to their manner of life; it
+resulted also from a methodical selection carried out by the employers.
+The latter, fearing that workmen of too great ability might be inclined
+to put forward legitimate demands, took care to eliminate them by every
+possible means, and preferred to engage ignorant and stupid labourers,
+who were incapable of defending their rights, but were yet intelligent
+enough to perform their toil, which highly perfected machines rendered
+extremely simple. Thus the proletarians were unable to do anything to
+improve their lot. With difficulty did they succeed by means of strikes
+in maintaining the rate of their wages. Even this means began to fail
+them. The alternations of production inherent in the capitalist system
+caused such cessations of work that, in several branches of industry,
+as soon as a strike was declared, the accumulation of products allowed
+the employers to dispense with the strikers. In a word, these miserable
+employees were plunged in a gloomy apathy that nothing enlightened and
+nothing exasperated. They were necessary instruments for the social
+order and well adapted to their purpose.
+
+Upon the whole, this social order seemed the most firmly established
+that had yet been seen, at least among kind, for that of bees and ants
+is incomparably more stable. Nothing could foreshadow the ruin of a
+system founded on what is strongest in human nature, pride and
+cupidity. However, keen observers discovered several grounds for
+uneasiness. The most certain, although the least apparent, were of an
+economic order, and consisted in the continually increasing amount of
+over-production, which entailed long and cruel interruptions of labour,
+though these were, it is true, utilized by the manufacturers as a means
+of breaking the power of the workmen, by facing them with the prospect
+of a lock-out. A more obvious peril resulted from the physiological
+state of almost the entire population. “The health of the poor is what
+it must be,” said the experts in hygiene, “but that of the rich leaves
+much to be desired.” It was not difficult to find the causes of this.
+The supply of oxygen necessary for life was insufficient in the city,
+and men breathed in an artificial air. The food trusts, by means of the
+most daring chemical syntheses, produced artificial wines, meat, milk,
+fruit, and vegetables, and the diet thus imposed gave rise to stomach
+and brain troubles. The multi-millionaires were bald at the age of
+eighteen; some showed from time to time a dangerous weakness of mind.
+Over-strung and enfeebled, they gave enormous sums to ignorant
+charlatans; and it was a common thing for some bath-attendant or other
+trumpery who turned healer or prophet, to make a rapid fortune by the
+practice of medicine or theology. The number of lunatics increased
+continually; suicides multiplied in the world of wealth, and many of
+them were accompanied by atrocious and extraordinary circumstances,
+which bore witness to an unheard of perversion of intelligence and
+sensibility.
+
+Another fatal symptom created a strong impression upon average minds.
+Terrible accidents, henceforth periodical and regular, entered into
+people’s calculations, and kept mounting higher and higher in
+statistical tables. Every day, machines burst into fragments, houses
+fell down, trains laden with merchandise fell on to the streets,
+demolishing entire buildings and crushing hundreds of passers-by.
+Through the ground, honey-combed with tunnels, two or three storeys of
+work-shops would often crash, engulfing all those who worked in them.
+
+§. 2
+
+
+In the southwestern district of the city, on an eminence which had
+preserved its ancient name of Fort Saint-Michel, there stretched a
+square where some old trees still spread their exhausted arms above the
+greensward. Landscape gardeners had constructed a cascade, grottos, a
+torrent, a lake, and an island, on its northern slope. From this side
+one could see the whole town with its streets, its boulevards, its
+squares, the multitude of its roofs and domes, its air-passages, and
+its crowds of men, covered with a veil of silence, and seemingly
+enchanted by the distance. This square was the healthiest place in the
+capital; here no smoke obscured the sky, and children were brought here
+to play. In summer some employees from the neighbouring offices and
+laboratories used to resort to it for a moment after their luncheons,
+but they did not disturb its solitude and peace.
+
+It was owing to this custom that, one day in June, about mid-day, a
+telegraph clerk, Caroline Meslier, came and sat down on a bench at the
+end of a terrace. In order to refresh her eyes by the sight of a little
+green, she turned her back to the town. Dark, with brown eyes, robust
+and placid, Caroline appeared to be from twenty-five to twenty-eight
+years of age. Almost immediately, a clerk in the Electricity Trust,
+George Clair, took his place beside her. Fair, thin, and supple, he had
+features of a feminine delicacy; he was scarcely older than she, and
+looked still younger. As they met almost every day in this place, a
+comradeship had sprung up between them, and they enjoyed chatting
+together. But their conversation had never been tender, affectionate,
+or even intimate. Caroline, although it had happened to her in the past
+to repent of her confidence, might perhaps have been less reserved had
+not George Clair always shown himself extremely restrained in his
+expressions and behaviour. He always gave a purely intellectual
+character to the conversation, keeping it within the realm of general
+ideas, and, moreover, expressing himself on all subjects with the
+greatest freedom. He spoke frequently of the organization of society,
+and the conditions of labour.
+
+“Wealth,” said he, “is one of the means of living happily; but people
+have made it the sole end of existence.”
+
+And this state of things seemed monstrous to both of them.
+
+They returned continually to various scientific subjects with which
+they were both familiar.
+
+On that day they discussed the evolution of chemistry.
+
+“From the moment,” said Clair, “that radium was seen to be transformed
+into helium, people ceased to affirm the immutability of simple bodies;
+in this way all those old laws about simple relations and about the
+indestructibility of matter were abolished.”
+
+“However,” said she, “chemical laws exist.”
+
+For, being a woman, she had need of belief.
+
+He resumed carelessly:
+
+“Now that we can procure radium in sufficient quantities, science
+possesses incomparable means of analysis; even at present we get
+glimpses, within what are called simple bodies, of extremely
+diversified complex ones, and we discover energies in matter which seem
+to increase even by reason of its tenuity.”
+
+As they talked, they threw bits of bread to the birds, and some
+children played around them.
+
+Passing from one subject to another:
+
+“This hill, in the quaternary epoch,” said Clair, “was inhabited by
+wild horses. Last year, as they were tunnelling for the water mains,
+they found a layer of the bones of primeval horses.”
+
+She was anxious to know whether, at that distant epoch, man had yet
+appeared.
+
+He told her that man used to hunt the primeval horse long before he
+tried to domesticate him.
+
+“Man,” he added, “was at first a hunter, then he became a shepherd, a
+cultivator, a manufacturer . . . and these diverse civilizations
+succeeded each other at intervals of time that the mind cannot
+conceive.”
+
+He took out his watch.
+
+Caroline asked if it was already time to go back to the office.
+
+He said it was not, that it was scarcely half-past twelve.
+
+A little girl was making mud pies at the foot of their bench; a little
+boy of seven or eight years was playing in front of them. Whilst his
+mother was sewing on an adjoining bench, he played all alone at being a
+run-away horse, and with that power of illusion, of which children are
+capable, he imagined that he was at the same time the horse, and those
+who ran after him, and those who fled in terror before him. He kept
+struggling with himself and shouting: “Stop him, Hi! Hi! This is an
+awful horse, he has got the bit between his teeth.”
+
+Caroline asked the question:
+
+“Do you think that men were happy formerly?”
+
+Her companion answered:
+
+“They suffered less when they were younger. They acted like that little
+boy: they played; they played at arts, at virtues, at vices, at
+heroism, at beliefs, at pleasures; they had illusions which entertained
+them; they made a noise; they amused themselves. But now. . . .”
+
+He interrupted himself, and looked again at his watch.
+
+The child, who was running, struck his foot against the little girl’s
+pail, and fell his full length on the gravel. He remained a moment
+stretched out motionless, then raised himself up on the palms of his
+hands. His forehead puckered, his mouth opened, and he burst into
+tears. His mother ran up, but Caroline had lifted him from the ground
+and was wiping his eyes and mouth with her handkerchief.
+
+The child kept on sobbing and Clair took him in his arms.
+
+“Come, don’t cry, my little man! I am going to tell you a story.
+
+“A fisherman once threw his net into the sea and drew out a little,
+sealed, copper pot, which he opened with his knife. Smoke came out of
+it, and as it mounted up to the clouds the smoke grew thicker and
+thicker and became a giant who gave such a terrible yawn that the whole
+world was blown to dust....”
+
+Clair stopped himself, gave a dry laugh, and handed the child back to
+his mother. Then he took out his watch again, and kneeling on the bench
+with his elbows resting on its back he gazed at the town. As far as the
+eye could reach, the multitude of houses stood out in their tiny
+immensity.
+
+Caroline turned her eyes in the same direction.
+
+“What splendid weather it is!” said she. “The sun’s rays change the
+smoke on the horizon into gold. The worst thing about civilization is
+that it deprives one of the light of day.”
+
+He did not answer; his looks remained fixed on a place in the town.
+
+After some seconds of silence they saw about half a mile away, in the
+richer district on the other side of the river, a sort of tragic fog
+rearing itself upwards. A moment afterwards an explosion was heard even
+where they were sitting, and an immense tree of smoke mounted towards
+the pure sky. Little by little the air was filled with an imperceptible
+murmur caused by the shouts of thousands of men. Cries burst forth
+quite close to the square.
+
+“What has been blown up?”
+
+The bewilderment was great, for although accidents were common, such a
+violent explosion as this one had never been seen, and everybody
+perceived that something terribly strange had happened.
+
+Attempts were made to locate the place of the accident; districts,
+streets, different buildings, clubs, theatres, and shops were
+mentioned. Information gradually became more precise and at last the
+truth was known.
+
+“The Steel Trust has just been blown up.”
+
+Clair put his watch back into his pocket.
+
+Caroline looked at him closely and her eyes filled with astonishment.
+
+At last she whispered in his ear:
+
+“Did you know it? Were you expecting it? Was it you . . .”
+
+He answered very calmly:
+
+“That town ought to be destroyed.”
+
+She replied in a gentle and thoughtful tone:
+
+“I think so too.”
+
+And both of them returned quietly to their work.
+
+§. 3
+
+
+From that day onward, anarchist attempts followed one another every
+week without interruption. The victims were numerous, and almost all of
+them belonged to the poorer classes. These crimes roused public
+resentment. It was among domestic servants, hotel-keepers, and the
+employees of such small shops as the Trusts still allowed to exist,
+that indignation burst forth most vehemently. In popular districts
+women might be heard demanding unusual punishments for the dynamitards.
+(They were called by this old name, although it was hardly appropriate
+to them, since, to these unknown chemists, dynamite was an innocent
+material only fit to destroy ant-hills, and they considered it mere
+child’s play to explode nitro-glycerine with a cartridge made of
+fulminate of mercury.) Business ceased suddenly, and those who were
+least rich were the first to feel the effects. They spoke of doing
+justice themselves to the anarchists. In the mean time the factory
+workers remained hostile or indifferent to violent action. They were
+threatened, as a result of the decline of business, with a likelihood
+of losing their work, or even a lock-out in all the factories. The
+Federation of Trade Unions proposed a general strike as the most
+powerful means of influencing the employers, and the best aid that
+could be given to the revolutionists, but all the trades with the
+exception of the gilders refused to cease work.
+
+The police made numerous arrests. Troops summoned from all parts of the
+National Federation protected the offices of the Trusts, the houses of
+the multi-millionaires, the public halls, the banks, and the big shops.
+A fortnight passed without a single explosion, and it was concluded
+that the dynamitards, in all probability but a handful of persons,
+perhaps even still fewer, had all been killed or captured, or that they
+were in hiding, or had taken flight. Confidence returned; it returned
+at first among the poorer classes. Two or three hundred thousand
+soldiers, who bad been lodged in the most closely populated districts,
+stimulated trade, and people began to cry out: “Hurrah for the army!”
+
+The rich, who had not been so quick to take alarm, were reassured more
+slowly. But at the Stock Exchange a group of “bulls” spread optimistic
+rumours and by a powerful effort put a brake upon the fall in prices.
+Business improved. Newspapers with big circulations supported the
+movement. With patriotic eloquence they depicted capital as laughing in
+its impregnable position at the assaults of a few dastardly criminals,
+and public wealth maintaining its serene ascendency in spite of the
+vain threats made against it. They were sincere in their attitude,
+though at the same time they found it benefited them. Outrages were
+forgotten or their occurrence denied. On Sundays, at the race-meetings,
+the stands were adorned by women covered with pearls and diamonds. It
+was observed with joy that the capitalists had not suffered. Cheers
+were given for the multi-millionaires in the saddling rooms.
+
+On the following day the Southern Railway Station, the Petroleum Trust,
+and the huge church built at the expense of Thomas Morcellet were all
+blown up. Thirty houses were in flames, and the beginning of a fire was
+discovered at the docks. The firemen showed amazing intrepidity and
+zeal. They managed their tall fire-escapes with automatic precision,
+and climbed as high as thirty storeys to rescue the luckless
+inhabitants from the flames. The soldiers performed their duties with
+spirit, and were given a double ration of coffee. But these fresh
+casualties started a panic. Millions of people, who wanted to take
+their money with them and leave the town at once, crowded the great
+banking houses. These establishments, after paying out money for three
+days, closed their doors amid mutterings of a riot. A crowd of
+fugitives, laden with their baggage, besieged the railway stations and
+took the town by storm. Many who were anxious to lay in a stock of
+provisions and take refuge in the cellars, attacked the grocery stores,
+although they were guarded by soldiers with fixed bayonets. The public
+authorities displayed energy. Numerous arrests were made and thousands
+of warrants issued against suspected persons.
+
+During the three weeks that followed no outrage was committed. There
+was a rumour that bombs had been found in the Opera House, in the
+cellars of the Town Hall, and beside one of the Pillars of the Stock
+Exchange. But it was soon known that these were boxes of sweets that
+had been put in those places by practical jokers or lunatics. One of
+the accused, when questioned by a magistrate, declared that he was the
+chief author of the explosions, and said that all his accomplices had
+lost their lives. These confessions were published by the newspapers
+and helped to reassure public opinion. It was only towards the close of
+the examination that the magistrates saw they had to deal with a
+pretender who was in no way connected with any of the crimes.
+
+The experts chosen by the courts discovered nothing that enabled them
+to determine the engine employed in the work of destruction. According
+to their conjectures the new explosive emanated from a gas which radium
+evolves, and it was supposed that electric waves, produced by a special
+type of oscillator, were propagated through space and thus caused the
+explosion. But even the ablest chemist could say nothing precise or
+certain. At last two policemen, who were passing in front of the Hôtel
+Meyer, found on the pavement, close to a ventilator, an egg made of
+white metal and provided with a capsule at each end. They picked it up
+carefully, and, on the orders of their chief, carried it to the
+municipal laboratory. Scarcely had the experts assembled to examine it,
+than the egg burst and blew up the amphitheatre and the dome. All the
+experts perished, and with them Collin, the General of Artillery, and
+the famous Professor Tigre.
+
+The capitalist society did not allow itself to be daunted by this fresh
+disaster. The great banks re-opened their doors, declaring that they
+would meet demands partly in bullion and partly in paper money
+guaranteed by the State. The Stock Exchange and the Trade Exchange, in
+spite of the complete cessation of business, decided not to suspend
+their sittings.
+
+In the mean time the magisterial investigation into the case of those
+who had been first accused had come to an end. Perhaps the evidence
+brought against them might have appeared insufficient under other
+circumstances, but the zeal both of the magistrates and the public made
+up for this insufficiency. On the eve of the day fixed for the trial
+the Courts of justice were blown up and eight hundred people were
+killed, the greater number of them being judges and lawyers. A furious
+crowd broke into the prison and lynched the prisoners. The troops sent
+to restore order were received with showers of stones and revolver
+shots; several soldiers being dragged from their horses and trampled
+underfoot. The soldiers fired on the mob and many persons were killed.
+At last the public authorities succeeded in establishing tranquillity.
+Next day the Bank was blown up.
+
+From that time onwards unheard-of things took place. The factory
+workers, who had refused to strike, rushed in crowds into the town and
+set fire to the houses. Entire regiments, led by their officers, joined
+the workmen, went with them through the town singing revolutionary
+hymns, and took barrels of petroleum from the docks with which to feed
+the fires. Explosions were continual. One morning a monstrous tree of
+smoke, like the ghost of a huge palm tree half a mile in height, rose
+above the giant Telegraph Hall which suddenly fell into a complete
+ruin.
+
+Whilst half the town was in flames, the other half pursued its
+accustomed life. In the mornings, milk pails could be heard jingling in
+the dairy carts. In a deserted avenue some old navvy might be seen
+seated against a wall slowly eating hunks of bread with perhaps a
+little meat. Almost all the presidents of the trusts remained at their
+posts. Some of them performed their duty with heroic simplicity.
+Raphael Box, the son of a martyred multi-millionaire, was blown up as
+he was presiding at the general meeting of the Sugar Trust. He was
+given a magnificent funeral and the procession on its way to the
+cemetery had to climb six times over piles of ruins or cross upon
+planks over the uprooted roads.
+
+The ordinary helpers of the rich, the clerks, employees, brokers, and
+agents, preserved an unshaken fidelity. The surviving clerks of the
+Bank that had been blown up, made their way along the ruined streets
+through the midst of smoking houses to hand in their bills of exchange,
+and several were swallowed up in the flames while endeavouring to
+present their receipts.
+
+Nevertheless, any illusion concerning the state of affairs was
+impossible. The enemy was master of the town. Instead of silence the
+noise of explosions was now continuous and produced an insurmountable
+feeling of horror. The lighting apparatus having been destroyed, the
+city was plunged in darkness all through the night, and appalling
+crimes were committed. The populous districts alone, having suffered
+the least, still preserved measures of protection. The were paraded by
+patrols of volunteers who shot the robbers, and at every street corner
+one stumbled over a body lying in a pool of blood, the hands bound
+behind the back, a handkerchief over the face, and a placard pinned
+upon the breast.
+
+It became impossible to clear away the ruins or to bury the dead. Soon
+the stench from the corpses became intolerable. Epidemics raged and
+caused innumerable deaths, while they also rendered the survivors
+feeble and listless. Famine carried off almost all who were left. A
+hundred and one days after the first outrage, whilst six army corps
+with field artillery and siege artillery were marching, at night, into
+the poorest quarter of the city, Caroline and Clair, holding each
+other’s hands, were watching from the roof a lofty house, the only one
+still left standing, but now surrounded by smoke and flame, joyous
+songs ascended from the street, where the crowd was dancing in
+delirium.
+
+“To-morrow it will be ended,” said the man, “and it will be better.”
+
+The young woman, her hair loosened and her face shining with the
+reflection of the flames, gazed with a pious joy at the circle of fire
+that was growing closer around them.
+
+“It will be better,” said she also.
+
+And throwing herself into the destroyer’s arms she pressed a passionate
+kiss upon his lips.
+
+§. 4
+
+
+The other towns of the federation also suffered from disturbances and
+outbreaks, and then order was restored. Reforms were introduced into
+institutions and great changes took place in habits and customs, but
+the country never recovered the loss of its capital, and never regained
+its former prosperity. Commerce and industry dwindled away, and
+civilization abandoned those countries which for so long it had
+preferred to all others. They became insalubrious and sterile; the
+territory that had supported so many millions of men became nothing
+more than a desert. On the hill of Fort St. Michel wild horses cropped
+the coarse grass.
+
+Days flowed by like water from the fountains, and the centuries passed
+like drops falling from the ends of stalactites. Hunters came to chase
+the bears upon the hills that covered the forgotten city; shepherds led
+their flocks upon them; labourers turned up the soil with their
+ploughs; gardeners cultivated their lettuces and grafted their pear
+trees. They were not rich, and they had no arts. The walls of their
+cabins were covered with old vines and roses. A goat-skin clothed their
+tanned limbs, while their wives dressed themselves with the wool that
+they themselves had spun. The goat-herds moulded little figures of men
+and animals out of clay, or sang songs about the young girl who follows
+her lover through woods or among the browsing goats while the pine
+trees whisper together and the water utters its murmuring sound. The
+master of the house grew angry with the beetles who devoured his figs;
+he planned snares to protect his fowls from the velvet-tailed fox, and
+he poured out wine for his neighbours saying:
+
+“Drink! The flies have not spoilt my vintage; the vines were dry before
+they came.”
+
+Then in the course of ages the wealth of the villages and the corn that
+filled the fields were pillaged by barbarian invaders. The country
+changed its masters several times. The conquerors built castles upon
+the hills; cultivation increased; mills, forges, tanneries, and looms
+were established; roads were opened through the woods and over the
+marshes; the river was covered with boats. The hamlets became large
+villages and joining together formed a town which protected itself by
+deep trenches and lofty walls. Later, becoming the capital of a great
+State, it found itself straitened within its now useless ramparts and
+it converted them into grass-covered walks.
+
+It grew very rich and large beyond measure. The houses were never high
+enough to satisfy the people; they kept on making them still higher and
+built them of thirty or forty storeys, with offices, shops, banks,
+societies one above another; they dug cellars and tunnels ever deeper
+downwards. Fifteen millions of men laboured in the giant town.
+
+
+
+
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