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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man With The Broken Ear, by Edmond About
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
+
+
+Title: The Man With The Broken Ear
+
+Author: Edmond About
+
+Translator: Henry Holt
+
+Release Date: March 2, 2007 [EBook #20724]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by V. L. Simpson and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MAN
+WITH
+THE BROKEN EAR
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF
+_EDMOND ABOUT_
+
+BY
+HENRY HOLT
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+HOLT & WILLIAMS
+1872
+
+
+
+
+
+Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
+HENRY HOLT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
+United States, for the Southern District of New York.
+
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION OF THE FIRST EDITION.[A]
+
+
+     DEAR LEYPOLDT:
+
+     You have not forgotten that nearly two years ago,
+     before our business connection was thought of, this
+     identical translation was 'respectfully declined' by you
+     with that same courtesy, the exercise of which in frequent
+     similar cases, each one of us now tries so hard to shove on
+     the other's shoulders. I hope that your surprise on reading
+     this note of dedication will not interfere with your
+     forgiving the pertinacity with which, through it, I still
+     strive to make the book _yours_.
+
+     H. H.
+
+
+    451 BROOME STREET, May 16, 1867.
+
+[Footnote A: Published by Leypoldt & Holt.]
+
+
+
+
+The Translator has placed a few explanatory Notes at the end of the
+volume. They are referred to by numbers in the text.
+
+
+THE MAN
+
+WITH THE BROKEN EAR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+WHEREIN THEY KILL THE FATTED CALF TO CELEBRATE THE RETURN OF A FRUGAL
+SON.
+
+
+On the 18th of May, 1859, M. Renault, formerly professor of physics and
+chemistry, now a landed proprietor at Fontainebleau, and member of the
+Municipal Council of that charming little city, himself carried to the
+post-office the following letter:--
+
+
+    "_To Monsieur Leon Renault, Civil Engineer, Berlin, Prussia._
+
+    (To be kept at the Post-Office till called for.)
+
+    "MY DEAR CHILD:
+
+
+    "The good news you sent us from St. Petersburg caused
+    us the greatest joy. Your poor mother had been ailing
+    since winter, but I had not spoken to you about it from
+    fear of making you uneasy while so far from home. As
+    for myself, I had not been very well; and there was yet
+    a third person (guess the name if you can!) who was
+    languishing from not seeing you. But content yourself,
+    my dear Leon: we have been recuperating more and more
+    since the time of your return is almost fixed. We begin
+    to believe that the mines of the Ural will not swallow
+    up that which is dearer to us than all the world. Thank
+    God! that fortune which you have so honorably and so
+    quickly made will not have cost your life, nor even
+    your health, since you tell us you have been growing
+    fat off there in the desert. If you have not finished
+    up all your business out there, so much the worse for
+    you: there are three of us who have sworn that you
+    shall never go back again. You will not find it hard to
+    accede, for you will be happy among us. Such, at least,
+    is the opinion of Clementine.... I forget that I was
+    pledged not to name her. Master Bonnivet, our excellent
+    neighbor, has not rested content with investing your
+    funds in a good mortgage, but has also drawn up, in his
+    leisure moments, a most edifying little indenture,
+    which now lacks nothing but your signature. Our worthy
+    mayor has ordered, on your account, a new official
+    scarf, which is on the way from Paris. You will have
+    the first benefit of it. Your apartment (which will
+    soon belong to a plural 'you') is elegant, in
+    proportion to your present fortune. You are to
+    occupy....; but the house has changed so in three
+    years, that my description would be incomprehensible to
+    you. M. Audret, the architect of the imperial chateau,
+    directed the work. He actually wanted to construct me a
+    laboratory worthy of Thénard or Duprez. I earnestly
+    protested against it, and said that I was not yet
+    worthy of one, as my celebrated work on the
+    Condensation of Gases had only reached the fourth
+    chapter. But as your mother was in collusion with the
+    old scamp of a friend, it has turned out that science
+    has henceforth a temple in our house--a regular
+    sorcerer's den, according to the picturesque expression
+    of your old Gothon: it lacks nothing, not even a
+    four-horse-power steam engine. Alas! what can I do with
+    it? I am confident, nevertheless, that the expenditure
+    will not be altogether lost to the world. You are not
+    going to sleep upon your laurels. Oh, if I had only had
+    your fortune when I had your youth! I would have
+    dedicated my days to pure science, instead of losing
+    the best part of them among those poor young men who
+    got nothing from my lectures but an opportunity to read
+    Paul de Kock. I would have been ambitious!--I would
+    have striven to connect my name with the discovery of
+    some great general law, or at least with the invention
+    of some very useful apparatus. It is too late now; my
+    eyes are worn out, and the brain itself refuses to
+    work. Take your turn, my boy! You are not yet
+    twenty-six, the Ural mines have given you the
+    wherewithal to live at ease, and, for yourself alone,
+    you have no further wants to satisfy; the time has come
+    to work for humanity. That you will do so, is the
+    strongest wish and dearest hope of your doting old
+    father, who loves you and who waits for you with open
+    arms.
+
+    "J. RENAULT.
+
+    "P. S. According to my calculations, this letter ought
+    to reach Berlin two or three days before you. You have
+    been already informed by the papers of the 7th inst. of
+    the death of the illustrious Humboldt. It is a cause of
+    mourning to science and to humanity. I have had the
+    honor of writing to that great man several times in my
+    life, and he once deigned to reply, in a letter which I
+    piously cherish. If you happen to have an opportunity to
+    buy some personal souvenir of him, a bit of his
+    handwriting or some fragment of his collections, you
+    will bring me a real pleasure."
+
+A month after the departure of this letter, the son so eagerly looked
+for returned to the paternal mansion. M. and Mme. Renault, who went to
+meet him at the depot, found him taller, stouter, and better-looking in
+every way. In fact, he was no longer merely a remarkable boy, but a man
+of good and pleasing proportions. Leon Renault was of medium height,
+light hair and complexion, plump and well made. His large blue eyes,
+sweet voice, and silken beard indicated a nature sensitive rather than
+powerful. A very white, round, and almost feminine neck contrasted
+singularly with a face bronzed by exposure. His teeth were beautiful,
+very delicate, a little inclined backward, and very evenly shaped. When
+he pulled off his gloves, he displayed two small and rather pudgey
+hands, quite firm and yet pleasantly soft, neither hot nor cold, nor dry
+nor damp, but agreeable to the touch and cared-for to perfection.
+
+As he was, his father and mother would not have exchanged him for the
+Apollo Belvedere. They embraced him rapturously, overwhelming him with a
+thousand questions, most of which he, of course, failed to answer. Some
+old friends of the family, a doctor, an architect, and a notary, had run
+to the depot with the good old people; each one of them in turn gave him
+a hug, and asked him if he was well, and if he had had a pleasant
+journey. He listened patiently and even joyfully to this common-place
+music whose words did not signify much, but whose melody went to the
+heart because it came from the heart.
+
+They had been there a good quarter of an hour, the train had gone
+puffing on its way, the omnibuses of the various hotels had started one
+after another at a good trot up the street leading to the city, and the
+June sun seemed to enjoy lighting up this happy group of excellent
+people. But Madame Renault cried out all at once that the poor child
+must be dying of hunger, and that it was barbarous to keep him waiting
+for his dinner any longer. There was no use in his protesting that he
+had breakfasted at Paris, and that the voice of hunger appealed to him
+less strongly than that of joy. They all got into two carriages, the son
+beside his mother, the father opposite, as if he could not keep his
+eyes off his boy. A wagon came behind with the trunks, long boxes,
+chests, and the rest of the traveller's baggage. At the entrance of the
+town, the hackmen cracked their whips, the baggage-men followed the
+example, and this cheerful clatter drew the people to their doors and
+woke up for an instant the quietude of the streets. Madame Renault threw
+her glances right and left, searching out the spectators of her triumph,
+and saluting with most cordial affability people she hardly knew at all.
+And more than one mother saluted her, too, without knowing her; for
+there is no mother indifferent to such kinds of happiness, and,
+moreover, Leon's family was liked by everybody. And the neighbors,
+meeting each other, said with a satisfaction free from jealousy:
+
+"That is Renault's son, who has been at work three years in the Russian
+mines, and now has come to share his fortune with his old parents."
+
+Leon also noticed several familiar faces, but not all that he wished to
+see. For he bent over an instant to his mother's ear, saying: "And
+Clementine?" This word was pronounced so low and so close that M.
+Renault himself could not tell whether it was a word or a kiss. The good
+lady smiled tenderly, and answered but a single word: "Patience!" As if
+patience were a virtue very common among lovers!
+
+The door of the house was wide open, and old Gothon was standing on the
+threshold. She raised her arms toward heaven and cried like a booby,
+for she had known Leon since he was not much higher than her wash-tub.
+There was now another formidable hugging on the upper step, between the
+good old servant and her young master. After a reasonable interval, the
+friends of M. Renault prepared to leave, but it was wasted pains; for
+they were assured that their places at table had already been prepared.
+And when all save the invisible Clementine were reassembled in the
+parlor, the great round-backed chairs held out their arms to the scion
+of the house of Renault; the old mirror on the mantle delighted to
+reflect his image; the great chandelier chimed a little song of welcome
+with its crystal pendants, and the mandarins on the etagére shook their
+heads in sign of welcome, as if they were orthodox _penates_ instead of
+strangers and pagans. No one can tell why kisses and tears began to rain
+down again, but it certainly did seem as if he had once more just
+returned.
+
+"Soup!" cried Gothon.
+
+Madame Renault took the arm of her son, contrary to all the laws of
+etiquette, and without even apologizing to the honored guests present.
+She scarcely excused herself, even, for helping the son before the
+company. Leon let her have her own way, and took it all smilingly: there
+was not a guest there who was not ready to upset his soup over his
+waistcoat rather than taste it before Leon.
+
+"Mother!" cried Leon, spoon in hand, "this is the first time for three
+years that I've tasted good soup." Madame Renault felt herself blush
+with satisfaction, and Gothon was so overcome that she dropped a plate.
+Both fancied that possibly he had spoken to please their self-conceit;
+but nevertheless he spoke truly. There are two things in this world
+which a man does not often find away from home: the first is good soup;
+the second is disinterested love.
+
+If I should attempt here an accurate enumeration of all the dishes that
+appeared on the table, there would not be one of my readers whose mouth
+would not water. I believe, indeed, that more than one delicate lady
+would be in danger of an attack of indigestion. Suppose, if you please,
+that such a list would reach nearly to the end of the volume, leaving me
+but a single page on which to write the marvellous history of Fougas.
+Therefore I forthwith return to the parlor, where coffee is already
+served.
+
+Leon took scarcely half of his cup: but do not let that lead you to
+infer that the coffee was too hot, or too cold, or too sweet. Nothing in
+the world would have prevented his drinking it to the last drop, if a
+knock at the street-door had not stopped it just opposite his heart.
+
+The minute which followed appeared to him interminable. Never in his
+travels had he encountered such a long minute. But at length Clementine
+appeared, preceded by the worthy Mlle. Virginie Sambucco, her aunt; and
+the mandarins who smiled on the etagére heard the sound of three
+kisses. Wherefore three? The superficial reader, who pretends to
+foresee things before they are written, has already found a very
+probable explanation. "Of course," says he, "Leon was too respectful to
+embrace the dignified Mlle. Sambucco more than once, but when he came to
+Clementine, who was soon to become his wife, he very properly doubled
+the dose." Now sir, that is what I call a premature judgment! The first
+kiss fell from the mouth of Leon upon the cheek of Mlle. Sambucco; the
+second was applied by the lips of Mlle. Sambucco to the right cheek of
+Leon; the third was, in fact, an accident that plunged two young hearts
+into profound consternation.
+
+Leon, who was very much in love with his betrothed, rushed to her
+blindly, uncertain whether he would kiss her right cheek or her left,
+but determined not to put off too long a pleasure which he had been
+promising himself ever since the spring of 1856. Clementine did not
+dream of defending herself, but was fully prepared to apply her pretty
+rosy lips to Leon's right cheek or his left, indifferently. The
+precipitation of the two young people brought it about that neither
+Clementine's cheeks nor Leon's received the offering intended for them.
+And the mandarins on the etagére, who fully expected to hear two kisses,
+heard but one. And Leon was confounded, and Clementine blushed up to her
+ears, and the two lovers retreated a step, intently regarding the roses
+of the carpet which will remain eternally graven upon their memories.
+
+In the eyes of Leon Renault, Clementine was the most beautiful creature
+in the world. He had loved her for little more than three years, and it
+was somewhat on her account that he had taken the journey to Russia. In
+1856 she was too young to marry, and too rich for an engineer with a
+salary of 2,400 francs to properly make pretentions to her hand. Leon,
+who was a good mathematician, proposed to himself the following problem:
+"Given--one young girl, fifteen and a half years old, with an income of
+8,000 francs, and threatened with the inheritance from Mlle. Sambucco
+of, say 200,000 more:--to obtain a fortune at least equal to hers within
+such a period as will give her time enough to grow up, without leaving
+her time enough to become an old maid." He had found the solution in the
+Ural mines.
+
+During three long years, he had indirectly corresponded with the beloved
+of his heart. All the letters which he wrote to his father or mother,
+passed into the hands of Mlle. Sambucco, who did not keep them from
+Clementine. Sometimes, indeed, they were read aloud in the family, and
+M. Renault was never obliged to omit a phrase, for Leon never wrote
+anything which a young girl should not hear. The aunt and the niece had
+no other distractions; they lived retired in a little house at the end
+of a pretty garden, and received no one but old friends. Clementine,
+therefore, deserved but little credit for keeping her heart for Leon.
+With the exception of a big colonel of cuirassiers, who sometimes
+followed her in her walks, no man had ever made any demonstrations
+toward her.
+
+She was very pretty withal, and not so merely to the eyes of her lover,
+or of the Renault family, or of the little city where she lived.
+Provincial towns are apt to be easily satisfied. They give the
+reputation of being a pretty woman or a great man, cheaply; especially
+when they are not rich enough in such commodities to show themselves
+over particular. In capitals, however, people claim to admire nothing
+but absolute merit. I have heard the mayor of a village say, with a
+certain pride: "Admit now, that my servant Catherine is right pretty,
+for a village of six hundred people!" Clementine was pretty enough to be
+admired in a city of eight hundred thousand. Fancy to yourself a little
+blonde creole, with black eyes, creamy complexion and dazzling teeth.
+Her figure was round and supple as a twig, and was finished off with
+dainty hands and pretty Andalusian feet, arched and beautifully rounded.
+All her glances were smiles, and all her movements caresses. Add to
+this, that she was neither a fool nor a prude, nor even an ignoramus
+like girls brought up in convents. Her education, which was begun by her
+mother, had been completed by two or three respectable old professors
+selected by M. Renault, who was her guardian. She had a sound heart, and
+a quick mind. But I may reasonably ask myself why I have so much to say
+about her, for she is still living; and, thank God! not one of her
+perfections has departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+UNPACKING BY CANDLE-LIGHT.
+
+
+About ten o'clock in the evening, Mlle. Virginie Sambucco said it was
+time to think of going home: the ladies lived with monastic regularity.
+Leon protested; but Clementine obeyed, though not without pouting a
+little. Already the parlor door was open, and the old lady had taken her
+hood in the hall, when the engineer, suddenly struck with an idea,
+exclaimed:
+
+"You surely won't go without helping me to open my trunks! I demand it
+of you as a favor, my good Mademoiselle Sambucco!"
+
+The respectable lady paused: custom urged her to go; kindness inclined
+her to stay; an atom of curiosity swayed the balance.
+
+"I'm so glad!" cried Clementine, replacing her aunt's hood on the rack.
+
+Mme. Renault did not yet know where they had put Leon's baggage. Gothon
+came to say that everything had been thrown pell-mell into the
+sorcerer's den, to remain there until Monsieur should point out what he
+wanted taken to his own room. The whole company, armed with lamps and
+candles, betook themselves to a vast room on the ground floor, where
+furnaces, retorts, philosophical instruments, boxes, trunks, clothes
+bags, hat boxes and the famous steam-engine, formed a confused and
+entertaining spectacle. The light played about this interior, as it
+appears to in certain pictures of the Dutch school. It glanced upon the
+great yellow cylinders of the electric machine, struck upon the long
+glass bottles, rebounded from two silver reflectors, and rested, in
+passing, upon a magnificent Fortin barometer. The Renaults and their
+friends, grouped in the midst of the boxes--some sitting, some standing,
+one holding a lamp, another a candle--detracted nothing from the
+picturesqueness of the scene.
+
+Leon, with a bunch of little keys, opened the boxes one after another.
+Clementine was seated opposite him on a great oblong box, and watched
+him with all her eyes, more from affection than curiosity. They began by
+setting to one side two enormous square boxes which contained nothing
+but mineralogical specimens. After this they passed in review the riches
+of all kinds which the engineer had crowded among his linen and
+clothing.
+
+A pleasant odor of Russia leather, tea from the caravans, Levant
+tobacco, and attar of roses soon permeated the laboratory. Leon brought
+forth a little at a time, as is the custom of all rich travellers who,
+on leaving home, left a family and good stock of friends behind. He
+exhibited, in turn, fabrics of the Asiatic looms, narghiles of embossed
+silver from Persia, boxes of tea, sherbets flavored with rose, precious
+extracts, golden webs from Tarjok, antique armor, a service of frosted
+silver of Toula make, jewelry mounted in the Russian style, Caucasian
+bracelets, necklaces of milky amber, and a leather sack full of
+turquoises such as they sell at the fair of Nijni Novgorod. Each object
+passed from hand to hand amid questions, explanations, and interjections
+of all kinds. All the friends present received the gifts intended for
+them. There was a concert of polite refusals, friendly urgings, and
+'thank-yous' in all sorts of voices. It is unnecessary to say that much
+the greater share fell to the lot of Clementine; but she did not wait to
+be urged to accept them, for, in the existing state of affairs, all
+these pretty things would be but as a part of the wedding gifts--not
+going out of the family.
+
+Leon had brought his father an exceedingly handsome dressing gown of a
+cloth embroidered with gold, some antiquarian books found in Moscow, a
+pretty picture by Greuze, which had been stuck out of the way, by the
+luckiest of accidents, in a mean shop at Gastinitvor; two magnificent
+specimens of rock-crystal, and a cane that had belonged to Humboldt.
+"You see," said he to M. Renault, on handing him this historic staff,
+"that the postscript of your last letter did not fall overboard." The
+old professor received the present with visible emotion.
+
+"I will never use it," said he to his son. "The Napoleon of science has
+held it in his hand: what would one think if an old sergeant like me
+should permit himself to carry it in his walks in the woods? And the
+collections? Were you not able to buy anything from them? Did they sell
+very high?"
+
+"They were not sold," answered Leon. "All were placed in the National
+Museum at Berlin. But in my eagerness to satisfy you, I made a thief of
+myself in a strange way. The very day of my arrival, I told your wish to
+a guide who was showing me the place. He told me that a friend of his, a
+little Jew broker by the name of Ritter, wanted to sell a very fine
+anatomical specimen that had belonged to the estate. I ran to the Jew's,
+examined the mummy, for such it was, and, without any haggling, paid the
+price he asked. But the next day, a friend of Humboldt, Professor Hirtz,
+told me the history of this shred of a man, which had been lying around
+the shop for more than ten years, and never belonged to Humboldt at all.
+Where the deuce has Gothon stowed it? Ah! Mlle. Clementine is sitting on
+it."
+
+Clementine attempted to rise, but Leon made her keep seated.
+
+"We have plenty of time," said he, "to take a look at the old baggage;
+meanwhile you can well imagine that it is not a very cheerful sight.
+This is the history that good old Hirtz told me; he promised to send
+me, in addition, a copy of a very curious memoir on the same subject.
+Don't go yet, my dear Mademoiselle Sambucco; I have a little military
+and scientific romance for you. We will look at the mummy as soon as I
+have acquainted you with his misfortunes."
+
+"Aha!" cried M. Audret, the architect of the chateau, "it's the romance
+of the mummy, is it, that you're going to tell us? Too late my poor
+Leon! Theophile Gautier has gotten ahead of you, in the supplement to
+the _Moniteur_, and all the world knows your Egyptian history."
+
+"My history," said Leon, "is no more Egyptian than Manon Lescault. Our
+excellent doctor Martout, here, ought to know the name of professor John
+Meiser, of Dantzic; he lived at the beginning of this century, and I
+think that his last work appeared in 1824 or 1825."
+
+"In 1823," replied M. Martout. "Meiser is one of the scientific men who
+have done Germany most honor. In the midst of terrible wars which
+drenched his country in blood, he followed up the researches of
+Leeuwenkoeck, Baker, Needham, Fontana, and Spallanzani, on the
+revivification of animals. Our profession honors in him, one of the
+fathers of modern biology."
+
+"Heavens! What ugly big words!" cried Mlle. Sambucco. "Is it decent to
+keep people till this time of night, to make them listen to Dutch."
+
+"Don't listen to the big words, dear little auntey. Save yourself for
+the romance, since there is one."
+
+"A terrible one!" said Leon. "Mlle. Clementine is seated over a human
+victim, sacrificed to science by professor Meiser."
+
+Clementine instantly got up. Her fiancé handed her a chair, and seated
+himself in the place she had just left. The listeners, fearing that
+Leon's romance might be in several volumes, took their places around
+him, some on boxes, some on chairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE CRIME OF THE LEARNED PROFESSOR MEISER.
+
+
+"Ladies," said Leon, "Professor Meiser was no vulgar malefactor, but a
+man devoted to science and humanity. If he killed the French colonel who
+at this moment reposes beneath my coat tails, it was for the sake of
+saving his life, as well as of throwing light on a question of the
+deepest interest, even to each one of you.
+
+"The duration of our existence is very much too brief. That is a fact
+which no man can contradict. We know that in a hundred years, not one of
+the nine or ten persons assembled in this house will be living on the
+face of the earth. Is not this a deplorable fact?"
+
+Mlle. Sambucco heaved a heavy sigh, and Leon continued:
+
+"Alas! Mademoiselle, like you I have sighed many a time at the
+contemplation of this dire necessity. You have a niece, the most
+beautiful and the most adorable of all nieces, and the sight of her
+charming face gladdens your heart. But you yearn for something more; you
+will not be satisfied until you have seen your little grand nephews
+trotting around. You will see them I earnestly believe. But will you
+see their children? It is doubtful. Their grandchildren? Impossible! In
+regard to the tenth, twentieth, thirtieth generation, it is useless even
+to dream.
+
+"One _will_ dream of it, nevertheless, and perhaps there is no man who
+has not said to himself at least once in his life: 'If I could but come
+to life again in a couple of centuries!' One would wish to return to
+earth to seek news of his family; another, of his dynasty. A philosopher
+is anxious to know if the ideas that he has planted will have borne
+fruit; a politician, if his party will have obtained the upper hand; a
+miser, if his heirs will not have dissipated the fortune he has made; a
+mere land-holder, if the trees in his garden will have grown tall. No
+one is indifferent to the future destinies of this world, which we
+gallop through in a few years, never to return to it again. Who has not
+envied the lot of Epimenides, who went to sleep in a cave, and, on
+reopening his eyes, perceived that the world had grown old? Who has not
+dreamed, on his own account, of the marvellous adventure of the sleeping
+Beauty in the wood?
+
+"Well, ladies, Professor Meiser, one of the least visionary men of the
+age, was persuaded that science could put a living being to sleep and
+wake him up again at the end of an infinite number of years--arrest all
+the functions of the system, suspend life itself, protect an individual
+against the action of time for a century or two, and afterwards
+resuscitate him."
+
+"He was a fool then!" cried Madame Renault.
+
+"I wouldn't swear it. But he had his own ideas touching the main-spring
+which moves a living organism. Do you remember, good mother mine, the
+impression you experienced as a little girl, when some one first showed
+you the inside of a watch in motion? You were satisfied that there was a
+restless little animal inside the case, who worked twenty-four hours a
+day at turning the hands. If the hands stopped going, you said: 'It is
+because the little animal is dead.' Yet possibly he was only asleep.
+
+"It has since been explained to you that a watch contains an assemblage
+of parts well fitted to each other and kept well oiled, which, being
+wound, can be considered to move spontaneously in a perfect
+correspondence. If a spring become broken, if a bit of the wheel work be
+injured, or if a grain of sand insinuate itself between two of the
+parts, the watch stops, and the children say rightly: 'The little animal
+is dead.' But suppose a sound watch, well made, right in every
+particular, and stopped because the machinery would not run from lack of
+oil; the little animal is not dead; nothing but a little oil is needed
+to wake him up.
+
+"Here is a first-rate chronometer, made in London. It runs fifteen days
+without being wound. I gave it a turn of the key yesterday: it has,
+then, thirteen days to run. If I throw it on the ground, or if I break
+the main-spring, all is over. I will have killed the little animal. But
+suppose that, without damaging anything, I find means to withdraw or dry
+up the fine oil which now enables the parts to slip upon one another:
+will the little animal be dead? No! It will be asleep. And the proof is
+that I can lay my watch in a drawer, keep it there twenty-five years,
+and if, after a quarter of a century, I put a drop of oil on it, the
+parts will begin to move again. All that time would have passed without
+waking up the little sleeping animal. It will still have thirteen days
+to go, after the time when it starts again.
+
+"All living beings, according to the opinion of Professor Meiser, are
+watches, or organisms which move, breathe, nourish themselves, and
+reproduce themselves as long as their organs are intact and properly
+oiled. The oil of the watch is represented in the animal by an enormous
+quantity of water. In man, for example, water provides about four-fifths
+of the whole weight. Given--a colonel weighing a hundred and fifty
+pounds, there are thirty pounds of colonel and a hundred and twenty
+pounds, or about sixty quarts, of water. This is a fact proven by
+numerous experiments. I say a colonel just as I would say a king; all
+men are equal when submitted to analysis.
+
+"Professor Meiser was satisfied, as are all physiologists, that to
+break a colonel's head, or to make a hole in his heart, or to cut his
+spinal column in two, is to kill the little animal; because the brain,
+the heart, the spinal marrow are the indispensable springs, without
+which the machine cannot go. But he thought too, that in removing sixty
+quarts of water from a living person, one merely puts the little animal
+to sleep without killing him--that a colonel carefully dried up, can
+remain preserved a hundred years, and then return to life whenever any
+one will replace in him the drop of oil, or rather the sixty quarts of
+water, without which the human machine cannot begin moving again.
+
+"This opinion, which may appear inadmissible to you and to me too, but
+which is not absolutely rejected by our friend Doctor Martout, rests
+upon a series of reliable observations which the merest tyro can verify
+to-day. There _are_ animals which can be resuscitated: nothing is more
+certain or better proven. Herr Meiser, like the Abbé Spallanzani and
+many others, collected from the gutter of his roof some little dried
+worms which were brittle as glass, and restored life to them by soaking
+them in water. The capacity of thus returning to life, is not the
+privilege of a single species: its existence has been satisfactorily
+established in numerous and various animals. The genus Volvox--the
+little worms or wormlets in vinegar, mud, spoiled paste, or grain-smut;
+the Rotifera--a kind of little shell-fish protected by a carapace,
+provided with a good digestive apparatus, of separate sexes, having a
+nervous system with a distinct brain, having either one or two eyes,
+according to the genus, a crystalline lens, and an optic nerve; the
+Tardigrades--which are little spiders with six or eight legs, separate
+sexes, regular digestive apparatus, a mouth, two eyes, a very well
+defined nervous system, and a very well developed muscular system;--all
+these die and revive ten or fifteen times consecutively, at the will of
+the naturalist. One dries up a rotifer: good night to him; somebody
+soaks him a little, and he wakes up to bid you good day. All depends
+upon taking great care while he is dry. You understand that if any one
+should merely break his head, no drop of water, nor river, nor ocean
+could restore him.
+
+"The marvellous thing is, that an animal which cannot live more than a
+year, like the minute worm in grain-smut, can lie by twenty-four years
+without dying, if one has taken the precaution of desiccating him.
+
+"Needham collected a lot of them in 1743; he presented them to Martin
+Folkes, who gave them to Baker, and these interesting creatures revived
+in water in 1771. They enjoyed a rare satisfaction in elbowing their own
+twenty-eighth generation. Wouldn't a man who should see his own
+twenty-eighth generation be a happy grandfather?
+
+"Another no less interesting fact is that desiccated animals have vastly
+more tenacity of life than others. If the temperature were suddenly to
+fall thirty degrees in this laboratory, we should all get inflammation
+of the lungs. If it were to rise as much, there would be danger of
+congestion of the brain. Well, a desiccated animal, which is not
+absolutely dead, and which will revive to-morrow if I soak it, faces
+with impunity, variations of ninety-five degrees and six-tenths. M.
+Meiser and plenty of others have proved it.
+
+"It remains to inquire, then, if a superior animal, a man for instance,
+can be desiccated without any more disastrous consequences than a little
+worm or a tardigrade. M. Meiser was convinced that it is practicable; he
+wrote to that effect in all his books, although he did not demonstrate
+it by experiment.
+
+"Now where would be the harm in it, ladies? All men curious in regard to
+the future, or dissatisfied with life, or out of sorts with their
+contemporaries, could hold themselves in reserve for a better age, and
+we should have no more suicides on account of misanthropy.
+Valetudinarians, whom the ignorant science of the nineteenth century
+declares incurable, needn't blow their brains out any more; they can
+have themselves dried up and wait peaceably in a box until Medicine
+shall have found a remedy for their disorders. Rejected lovers need no
+longer throw themselves into the river; they can put themselves under
+the receiver of an air pump, and make their appearance thirty years
+later, young, handsome and triumphant, satirizing the age of their cruel
+charmers, and paying them back scorn for scorn. Governments will give
+up the unnatural and barbarous custom of guillotining dangerous people.
+They will no longer shut them up in cramped cells at Mazas to complete
+their brutishness; they will not send them to the Toulon school to
+finish their criminal education; they will merely dry them up in
+batches--one for ten years, another for forty, according to the gravity
+of their deserts. A simple store-house will replace the prisons, police
+lock-ups and jails. There will be no more escapes to fear, no more
+prisoners to feed. An enormous quantity of dried beans and mouldy
+potatoes will be saved for the consumption of the country.
+
+"You have, ladies, a feeble delineation of the benefits which Doctor
+Meiser hoped to pour upon Europe by introducing the desiccation of man.
+He made his great experiment in 1813 on a French colonel--a prisoner, I
+have been told, and condemned as a spy by court-martial. Unhappily he
+did not succeed; for I bought the colonel and his box for the price of
+an ordinary cavalry horse, in the dirtiest shop in Berlin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE VICTIM.
+
+
+"My dear Leon," said M. Renault, "you remind me of a college
+commencement. We have listened to your dissertation just as they listen
+to the Latin discourse of the professor of rhetoric; there are always in
+the audience a majority which learns nothing from it, and a minority
+which understands nothing of it. But every body listens patiently, on
+account of the sensations which are to come by and by. M. Martout and I
+are acquainted with Meiser's works, and those of his distinguished
+pupil, M. Pouchet; you have, then, said too much that is in them, if you
+intended to speak for our benefit; and you have not said enough that is
+in them for these ladies and gentlemen who know nothing of the existing
+discussions regarding the vital and organic principles.
+
+"Is life a principle of action which animates the organs and puts them
+into play? Is it not, on the contrary, merely the result of
+organization--the play of various functions of organized matter? This is
+a problem of the highest importance, which would interest the ladies
+themselves, if one were to place it plainly before them. It would be
+sufficient to say: 'We inquire whether there is a vital principle--the
+source of all functions of the body, or if life be not merely the result
+of the regular play of the organs? The vital principle, in the eyes of
+Meiser and his disciple, does not exist; if it really existed, they say,
+one could not understand how it can leave a man and a tardigrade when
+they are desiccated, and return to them again when they are soaked.'
+Now, if there be no vital principle, all the metaphysical and moral
+theories which have been hypothecated on its existence, must be
+reconstructed. These ladies have listened to you patiently, it is but
+justice to them to admit; but all that they have been able to gather
+from your slightly Latinish discourse, is that you have given them a
+dissertation instead of the romance you promised. But we all forgive you
+for the sake of the mummy you are going to show us. Open the colonel's
+box."
+
+"We've well earned the sight!" cried Clementine, laughing.
+
+"But suppose you were to get frightened?"
+
+"I'd have you know, sir, that I'm not afraid of anybody, not even of
+live colonels!"
+
+Leon took his bunch of keys and opened the long oak box on which he had
+been seated. The lid being raised, they saw a great leaden casket which
+enclosed a magnificent walnut box carefully polished on the outside, and
+lined on the inside with white silk, and padded. The others brought
+their lamps and candles near, and the colonel of the 23d of the line
+appeared as if he were in a chapel illuminated for his lying in state.
+
+One would have said that the man was asleep. The perfect preservation of
+the body attested the paternal care of the murderer. It was truly a
+remarkable preparation, and would have borne comparison with the finest
+European mummies described by Vicq d'Azyr in 1779, and by the younger
+Puymaurin in 1787.
+
+The part best preserved, as is always the case, was the face. All the
+features had maintained a proud and manly expression. If any old friend
+of the colonel had been present at the opening of the third box, he
+would have recognized him at first sight.
+
+Undoubtedly the point of the nose was a little sharper, the nostrils
+less expanded and thinner, and the bridge a little more marked than in
+the year 1813. The eyelids were thinned, the lips pinched, the corners
+of the mouth drawn down, the cheek bones too prominent, and the neck
+visibly shrunken, which exaggerated the prominence of the chin and
+larynx. But the eyelids were closed without contraction, and the sockets
+much less hollow than one could have expected; the mouth was not at all
+distorted like the mouth of a corpse; the skin was slightly wrinkled but
+had not changed color; it had only become a little more transparent,
+showing, after a fashion, the color of the tendons, the fat and the
+muscles, wherever it rested directly upon them. It also had a rosy tint
+which is not ordinarily seen in embalmed corpses. Doctor Martout
+explained this anomaly by saying that if the colonel had actually been
+dried alive, the globules of the blood were not decomposed, but simply
+collected in the capillary vessels of the skin and subjacent tissues
+where they still preserved their proper color, and could be seen more
+easily than otherwise, on account of the semi-transparency of the skin.
+
+The uniform had become much too large, as may be readily understood;
+though it did not seem, at a casual glance, that the members had become
+deformed. The hands were dry and angular, but the nails, although a
+little bent inward toward the root, had preserved all their freshness.
+The only very noticeable change was the excessive depression of the
+abdominal walls, which seemed crowded downward toward the posterior
+side; at the right, a slight elevation indicated the place of the liver.
+A tap of the finger on the various parts of the body, produced a sound
+like that from dry leather. While Leon was pointing out these details to
+his audience and doing the honors of his mummy he awkwardly broke off
+the lower part of the right ear, and a little piece of the Colonel
+remained in his hand.
+
+This trifling accident might have passed unnoticed, had not Clementine,
+who followed with visible emotion all the movements of her lover,
+dropped her candle and uttered a cry of affright. All gathered around
+her. Leon took her in his arms and carried her to a chair. M. Renault
+ran after salts. She was as pale as death, and seemed on the point of
+fainting.
+
+She soon recovered, however, and reassured them all by a charming smile.
+
+"Pardon me," she said, "for such a ridiculous exhibition of terror; but
+what Monsieur Leon was saying to us ... and then ... that figure which
+seemed sleeping ... it appeared to me that the poor man was going to
+open his mouth and cry out when he was injured."
+
+Leon hastened to close the walnut box, while M. Martout picked up the
+piece of ear and put it in his pocket. But Clementine, while continuing
+to smile and make apologies, was overcome by a fresh accession of
+emotion and melted into tears. The engineer threw himself at her feet,
+poured forth excuses and tender phrases, and did all he could to console
+her inexplicable grief. Clementine dried her eyes, looked prettier than
+ever, and sighed fit to break her heart, without knowing why.
+
+"Beast that I am!" muttered Leon, tearing his hair. "On the day when I
+see her again after three years' absence, I can think of nothing more
+soul-inspiring than showing her mummies!" He launched a kick at the
+triple coffin of the Colonel, saying: "I wish the devil had the
+confounded Colonel!"
+
+"No!" cried Clementine with redoubled energy and emotion. "Do not curse
+him, Monsieur Leon! He has suffered so much! Ah! poor, poor unfortunate
+man!"
+
+Mlle. Sambucco felt a little ashamed. She made excuses for her niece,
+and declared that never, since her tenderest childhood, had she
+manifested such extreme sensitiveness. M. and Mme. Renault, who had seen
+her grow up; Doctor Martout who had held the sinecure of physician to
+her; the architect, the notary, in a word, everybody present was plunged
+into a state of absolute stupefaction. Clementine was no sensitive
+plant. She was not even a romantic school girl. Her youth had not been
+nourished by Anne Radcliffe, she did not trouble herself about ghosts,
+and she would go through the house very tranquilly at ten o'clock at
+night without a candle. When her mother died, some months before Leon's
+departure, she did not wish to have any one share with her the sad
+satisfaction of watching and praying in the death-chamber.
+
+"This will teach us," said the aunt, "how to stay up after ten o'clock.
+What! It is midnight, all to quarter of an hour! Come, my child; you
+will get better fast enough after you get to bed."
+
+Clementine arose submissively, but at the moment of leaving the
+laboratory she retraced her steps, and with a caprice more inexplicable
+than her grief, she absolutely wished to see the mummy of the colonel
+again. Her aunt scolded in vain; in spite of the remarks of Mlle.
+Sambucco and all the persons present, she reopened the walnut box,
+kneeled down beside the mummy and kissed it on the forehead.
+
+"Poor man!" said she, rising, "How cold he is! Monsieur Leon, promise me
+that if he is dead you will have him laid in consecrated ground!"
+
+"As you please, Mademoiselle. I had intended to send him to the
+anthropological museum, with my father's permission; but you know that
+we can refuse you nothing."
+
+They did not separate as gaily, by a good deal, as they had met. M.
+Renault and his son escorted Mlle. Sambucco and her niece to their door,
+and met the big colonel of cuirassiers who had been honoring Clementine
+with his attentions. The young girl tenderly pressed the arm of her
+betrothed and said: "Here is a man who never sees me without sighing.
+And what sighs! Gracious Heavens! It wouldn't take more than two to fill
+the sails of a a ship. The race of colonels has vastly degenerated since
+1813. One doesn't see any more such fine looking ones as our unfortunate
+friend."
+
+Leon agreed with all she said. But he did not exactly see how he had
+become the friend of a mummy for which he had just paid twenty-five
+louis. To divert the conversation, he said to Clementine: "I have not
+yet shown you all the nice things I brought. His majesty, the Emperor of
+all the Russias, made me a present of a little enamelled gold star
+hanging at the end of a ribbon. Do you like button-hole ribbons?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" answered she, "the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor. Did you
+notice? The poor colonel still has a shred of one on his uniform, but
+the cross is there no longer. Those wicked Germans tore it away from him
+when they took him prisoner!"
+
+"It's very possible," said Leon.
+
+When they reached Mlle. Sambucco's house, it was time to separate.
+Clementine offered her hand to Leon, who would have been better pleased
+with her cheek.
+
+Father and son returned home arm in arm, with slow steps, giving
+themselves up to endless conjectures regarding the whimsical emotions of
+Clementine.
+
+Mme. Renault was waiting to put her son to bed; a time-honored and
+touching habit which mothers do not early lose. She showed him the
+handsome apartment above the parlor and M. Renault's laboratory, which
+had been prepared for his future domicile.
+
+"You will be as snug in here as a little cock in a pie," said she,
+showing him a bed-chamber fairly marvellous in its comfort. "All the
+furniture is soft and rounded, without a single angle. A blind man could
+walk here without any fear of hurting himself. See how I understand
+domestic comfort! Why, each arm-chair can be a friend! This will cost
+you a trifle. Penon Brothers came from Paris expressly. But a man ought
+to be comfortable at home, so that he may have no temptation to go
+abroad."
+
+This sweet motherly prattle stretched itself over two good hours, and
+much of it related to Clementine, as you will readily suppose. Leon had
+found her prettier than he had dreamed her in his sweetest visions, but
+less loving. "Devil take me!" said he, blowing out his candle; "One
+might think that that confounded stuffed Colonel had come to thrust
+himself between us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DREAMS OF LOVE, AND OTHER DREAMS.
+
+
+Leon learned to his cost, that a good conscience and a good bed are not
+enough to insure a good sleep. He was bedded like a sybarite, innocent
+as an Arcadian shepherd, and, moreover, tired as a soldier after a
+forced march; nevertheless a dull sleeplessness weighed upon him until
+morning. In vain he tossed into every possible position, as if to shift
+the burden from one shoulder on to the other. He did not close his eyes
+until he had seen the first glimmering of dawn silver the chinks of his
+shutters.
+
+He lulled himself to sleep thinking of Clementine; an obliging dream
+soon showed him the image of her he loved. He saw her in bridal costume,
+in the chapel of the imperial chateau. She was leaning on the arm of the
+elder M. Renault, who had put spurs on in honor of the ceremony. Leon
+followed, having given his arm to Mlle. Sambucco; the ancient maiden was
+decorated with the insignia of the Legion of Honor. On approaching the
+altar, the bridegroom noticed that his father's legs were as thin as
+broomsticks, and, when he was about expressing his astonishment, M.
+Renault turned around and said to him: "They are thin because they are
+desiccated; but they are not deformed." While he was giving this
+explanation, his face altered, his features changed, he shot out a black
+moustache, and grew terribly like the Colonel. The ceremony began. The
+choir was filled with tardigrades and rotifers as large as men and
+dressed like choristers: they intoned, in solemn measure, a hymn of the
+German composer, Meiser, which began thus:
+
+      The vital principle
+    Is a gratuitous hypothesis!
+
+The poetry and the music appeared admirable to Leon; he was trying to
+impress them on his memory when the officiating priest advanced toward
+him with two gold rings on a silver salver. This priest was a colonel of
+cuirassiers in full uniform. Leon asked himself when and where he had
+met him. It was on the previous evening before Clementine's door. The
+cuirassier murmured these words: "The race of colonels has vastly
+degenerated since 1813." He heaved a profound sigh, and the nave of the
+chapel, which was a ship-of-the-line, was driven over the water at a
+speed of forty knots. Leon tranquilly took the little gold ring and
+prepared to place it on Clementine's finger, but he perceived that the
+hand of his betrothed was dried up; the nails alone had retained their
+natural freshness. He was frightened and fled across the church, which
+he found filled with colonels of every age and variety. The crowd was
+so dense that the most unheard-of efforts failed to penetrate it. He
+escapes at last, but hears behind him the hurried steps of a man who
+tries to catch him. He doubles his speed, he throws himself on
+all-fours, he gallops, he neighs, the trees on the way seem to fly
+behind him, he no longer touches the earth. But the enemy comes up
+faster than the wind; Leon hears the sound of his steps, his spurs
+jingle; he catches up with Leon, seizes him by the mane, flings himself
+with a bound upon his back, and goads him with the spur. Leon rears; the
+rider bends over toward his ear and says, stroking him with his whip: "I
+am not heavy to carry:--thirty pounds of colonel." The unhappy lover of
+Mlle. Clementine makes a violent effort and springs sideways; the
+Colonel falls and draws his sword. Leon loses no time; he puts himself
+on guard and fights, but almost instantly feels the Colonel's sword
+enter his heart to the hilt. The chill of the blade spreads further and
+further, and ends by freezing Leon from head to foot. The Colonel draws
+nearer and says, smiling: "The main-spring is broken; the little animal
+is dead." He puts the body in the walnut box, which is too short and too
+narrow. Cramped on every side, Leon struggles, strains and wakes himself
+up, worn out with fatigue and half smothered between the bed and the
+wall.
+
+He quickly jumped into his slippers and eagerly raised the windows and
+pushed open the shutters. "He made light, and saw that it was good," as
+is elsewhere written. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Brrroum! He shook off
+the recollections of his dream as a wet dog shakes off drops of water.
+The famous London chronometer told him that it was nine o'clock. A cup
+of chocolate, served by Gothon, helped not a little to untangle his
+ideas. On proceeding with his toilet, in a very bright, cheerful and
+convenient dressing-room, he reconciled himself to the realities of
+life. "Everything considered," he said to himself, combing out his
+yellow beard, "nothing but happiness has come to me. Here I am in my
+native country, with my family and in a pretty house which is our own.
+My father and mother are both well, and, for myself, I revel in the most
+luxuriant health. Our fortune is moderate, but so are our tastes, and we
+shall never feel the want of anything. Our friends received me yesterday
+with open arms; and as for enemies we have none. The prettiest girl in
+Fontainebleau is willing to become my wife; I can marry her in less than
+three weeks if I see fit to hurry things a little. Clementine did not
+meet me as if I were of no interest to her; far from it. Her lovely eyes
+smiled upon me last night with the most tender regard. It is true that
+she wept at the end, that's too certain. That is my only vexation, my
+only anxiety, the sole cause of that foolish dream I had last night. She
+did weep, but why? Because I was beast enough to regale her with a
+lecture, and that, too, about a mummy. All right! I'll have the mummy
+buried; I'll hold back my dissertations, and nothing else in the world
+will come to disturb our happiness."
+
+He went down stairs, humming an air from the _Nozze_. M. and Mme.
+Renault, who were not accustomed to going to bed after midnight, were
+still asleep. On going into the laboratory, he saw that the triple box
+of the Colonel was closed. Gothon had placed a little wooden cross and a
+sprig of consecrated box on the cover. "We may as well begin masses for
+his soul," he murmured between his teeth, with a smile that might have
+been a little sceptical. At the same time he noticed that Clementine, in
+her agitation, had forgotten the presents he had brought her. He made a
+bundle of them, looked at his watch, and concluded that there would be
+no indiscretion in straining a point to go to Mlle. Sambucco's.
+
+The much-to-be-respected aunt was an early riser, as they generally are
+in the rural districts, and had, in fact, already gone out to church,
+and Clementine was gardening near the house. She ran to her lover
+without thinking of throwing down the little rake she held in her hand,
+and with the sweetest smile in the world, held up her pretty rosy cheeks
+which were a little moist and flushed by the pleasant warmth of pleasure
+and exercise.
+
+"Aren't you put out with me?" said she. "I was very ridiculous last
+night. My aunt has scolded me in the bargain. And I forgot to take the
+pretty things you brought me from among the savages! But it was not
+from lack of appreciation. I am so happy to see that you have always
+thought of me as I have thought of you! I could have sent for them
+to-day, but I am pleasantly anticipated. My heart told me that you would
+come yourself."
+
+"Your heart knew me, dear Clementine."
+
+"It would be very unfortunate if it did not know its owner."
+
+"How good you are, and how much I love you!"
+
+"Oh! I, too, dear Leon, I love you dearly."
+
+She stood the rake against a tree, and hung upon the arm of her intended
+husband with that supple and languishing grace, the secret of which the
+creoles possess.
+
+"Come this way," said she, "so that I can show you all the improvements
+we have made in the garden."
+
+Leon admired everything she wanted him to. The fact is that he had eyes
+for nothing but her. The grotto of Polyphemus and the cave of Cæcus
+would have appeared to him pleasanter than the gardens of Armida, if
+Clementine's little red jacket had been promenading in them.
+
+He asked her if she did not feel some regret in leaving so charming a
+retreat, and one which she had embellished with so much care.
+
+"Why?" asked she, without thinking to blush. "We will not go far off,
+and, besides, won't we come here every day?"
+
+The coming marriage was a thing so well settled, that it had not even
+been spoken of on the previous evening. Nothing remained to be done but
+to publish the bans and fix the date. Clementine, simple and honest
+heart, expressed herself without any false modesty concerning an event
+so entirely expected, so natural and so agreeable. She had expressed her
+tastes to Mme. Renault in the arrangement of the new apartments, and
+chosen the hangings herself; and she no longer made any ceremony in
+talking with her intended of the happy life in common which was about
+beginning for them, of the people they would invite to the marriage
+ceremony, of the wedding calls to be made afterwards, of the day which
+should be appropriated for receptions and of the time they would devote
+to each other's society and to work. She inquired in regard to the
+occupation which Leon intended to make for himself, and the hours which,
+of preference, he would give to study. This excellent little woman would
+have been ashamed to bear the name of a sloth, and unhappy in passing
+her days with an idler. She promised Leon in advance, to respect his
+work as a sacred thing. On her part she thoroughly intended to make her
+time also of use, and not to live with folded arms. At the start she
+would take charge of the housekeeping, under the direction of Madame
+Renault, who was beginning to find it a little burdensome. And then
+would she not soon have children to care for, bring up and educate? This
+was a noble and useful pleasure which she did not intend to share with
+any one. Nevertheless she would send her sons to college, in order to
+fit them for living in the world, and to teach them early those
+principles of justice and equality which are the foundation of every
+good manly character. Leon let her talk on, only interrupting her to
+agree with her: for these two young people who had been educated and
+brought up with the same ideas, saw everything with the same eyes.
+Education had created this pleasant harmony rather than Love.
+
+"Do you know," said Clementine, "that I felt an awful palpitation of the
+heart when I entered the room where you were yesterday?"
+
+"If you think that my heart beat less violently than yours--"
+
+"Oh! but it was a different thing with me: I was afraid."
+
+"What of?"
+
+"I was afraid that I should not find you the same as I had seen you in
+my thoughts. Remember that it had been three years since we bid each
+other good bye. I remembered distinctly what you were when you went
+away, and, with imagination helping memory a little, I had reconstructed
+my Leon entire. But if you had no longer resembled him! What would have
+become of me in the presence of a new Leon, when I had formed the
+pleasant habit of loving the other?"
+
+"You make me tremble. But your first greeting reassured me in advance."
+
+"Tut, sir! Don't speak of that first greeting, or you will make me blush
+a second time. Let us speak rather of that poor colonel who made me shed
+so many tears. How is he getting along this morning?"
+
+"I forgot to inquire after his health, but if you want me to--"
+
+"It's useless. You can announce to him a visit from me to-day. It is
+absolutely necessary that I should see him this noon."
+
+"You would be very sensible to give up this fancy. Why expose yourself
+again to such painful emotions?"
+
+"The fancy is stronger than I am. Seriously, dear Leon, the old fellow
+attracts me."
+
+"Why 'old fellow?' He has the appearance of a man who died when from
+twenty-five to thirty years of age."
+
+"Are you very sure that he is dead? I said 'old fellow' because of a
+dream I had last night."
+
+"Ha! You too?"
+
+"Yes. You remember how agitated I was on leaving you, and, moreover, I
+had been scolded by my aunt. And, too, I had been thinking of terrible
+sights--my poor mother lying on her death-bed. In fact, my spirits were
+quite broken down."
+
+"Poor dear little heart!"
+
+"Nevertheless, as I did not want to think about anything any more, I
+went to bed quickly, and shut my eyes with all my might, so tightly,
+indeed, that I put myself to sleep. It was not long before I saw the
+colonel. He was lying as I saw him in his triple coffin, but he had long
+white hair and a most benign and venerable appearance. He begged us to
+put him in consecrated ground, and we carried him, you and I, to the
+Fontainebleau cemetery. On reaching my mother's tomb we saw that the
+stone was displaced. My mother, in a white robe, was moved so as to make
+a place beside her, and she seemed waiting for the colonel. But every
+time we attempted to lay him down, the coffin left our hands and rested
+suspended in the air, as if it had no weight. I could distinguish the
+poor old man's features, for his triple coffin had become as transparent
+as the alabaster lamp burning near the ceiling of my chamber. He was
+sad, and his broken ear bled freely. All at once he escaped from our
+hands, the coffin vanished, and I saw nothing but him, pale as a statue,
+and tall as the tallest oaks of the _bas-Breau_. His golden epaulettes
+spread out and became wings, and he raised himself to heaven, holding
+over us both hands as if in blessing. I woke up all in tears, but I have
+not told my dream to my aunt, for she would have scolded me again."
+
+"No one ought to be scolded but me, Clementine dear. It is my fault that
+your gentle slumbers are troubled by visions of the other world. But all
+this will be stopped soon: to-day I am going to seek a definite
+receptacle for the Colonel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A YOUNG GIRL'S CAPRICE.
+
+
+Clementine had a fresh young heart. Before knowing Leon, she had loved
+but one person--her mother. No cousins of either sex, nor uncles, nor
+aunts, nor grandfathers, nor grandmothers, had dissipated, by dividing
+it among themselves, that little treasure of affection which
+well-constituted children bring into the world. The grandmother,
+Clementine Pichon, was married at Nancy in January, 1814, and died three
+months later in the suburbs of Toulon, during her first confinement. The
+grandfather, M. Langevin, a sub-commissary of the first class, being
+left a widower, with a daughter in the cradle, devoted himself to
+bringing up his child. He gave her, in 1835, to M. Sambucco, an
+estimable and agreeable man, of Italian extraction, born in France, and
+King's counsel in the court of Marseilles. In 1838 M. Sambucco, who was
+a man of considerable independence, because he had resources of his own,
+in some manner highly honorable to himself, incurred the ill-will of the
+Keeper of the Seals. He was therefore appointed Advocate-General to
+Martinique, and after some days of hesitation, accepted the transfer to
+that remote situation. But old M. Langevin did not easily console
+himself for the departure of his daughter: he died two years later
+without having embraced the little Clementine, to whom it was intended
+that he should be godfather. M. Sambucco, his son-in-law, lost his life
+in 1843, during an earthquake. The papers of the colony and of the
+metropolis related at the time how he had fallen a victim to his
+devotion to others. After this fearful misfortune, the young widow
+hastened to recross the sea with her daughter. She settled in
+Fontainebleau, in order that the child might live in a healthy
+atmosphere. Fontainebleau is one of the healthiest places in France. If
+Mme. Sambucco had been as good a manager as she was mother, she would
+have left Clementine a respectable fortune, but she regulated her
+affairs badly and got herself under heavy embarrassments. A neighboring
+notary relieved her of a round sum; and two farms which she had paid
+dearly for, brought her almost nothing. In short, she no longer knew
+what her situation was, and began to lose all control of it, when a
+sister of her husband, an old maid, pinched and pious, expressed a
+desire to live with her and use their resources in common. The arrival
+of this long-toothed spinster strangely frightened the little
+Clementine, who hid herself under the furniture and nestled among her
+mother's skirts; but it was the salvation of the house. Mlle. Sambucco
+was not one of the most spirituelle nor one of the most romantic of
+women, but she was Order incarnated. She reduced the expenses, handled
+the resources herself, sold the two farms in 1847, bought some
+three-per-cents. in 1848, and restored stable equilibrium in the budget.
+Thanks to the talents and activity of this female steward, the gentle
+and improvident widow had nothing to do but to fondle her child.
+Clementine learned to honor the virtues of her aunt, but she adored her
+mother. When she had the affliction of losing her, she found herself
+alone in the world, leaning on Mlle. Sambucco, like a young plant on a
+prop of dry wood. It was then that her friendship for Leon glimmered
+with a vague ray of love; and young Renault profited by the necessity
+for expansion which filled this youthful soul.
+
+During the three long years that Leon spent away from her, Clementine
+scarcely knew that she was alone. She loved and felt that she was loved
+in return; she had faith in the future, and an inner life of tenderness
+and timid hope; and this noble and gentle heart required nothing more.
+
+But what completely astonished her betrothed, her aunt and herself, and
+strangely subverted all the best accredited theories respecting the
+feminine heart,--what, indeed, reason would have refused to credit had
+it not been established by facts, was that the day when she again met
+the husband of her choice, an hour after she had thrown herself into
+Leon's arms with a grace so full of trust, Clementine was so abruptly
+invaded by a new sentiment which was not love, nor friendship, nor fear,
+but transcended them all and spoke with master tones in her heart.
+
+From the instant when Leon had shown her the figure of the Colonel, she
+had been seized by an actual passion for this nameless mummy. It was
+nothing like what she felt towards young Renault, but it was a
+combination of interest, compassion and respectful sympathy.
+
+If any one had recounted some famous feat of arms, or some romantic
+history of which the Colonel had been the hero, this impression would
+have been natural, or, at least, explicable. But she knew nothing of him
+except that he had been condemned as a spy by a council of war, and yet
+she dreamed of him the very night after Leon's return.
+
+This inexplicable prepossession at first manifested itself in a
+religious form. She caused a mass to be said for the repose of the
+Colonel's soul, and urged Leon to make preparations for the funeral,
+herself selecting the ground in which he was to be interred. These
+various cares never caused her to omit her daily visit to the walnut
+box, or the respectful bending of the knee before the body, or the
+sisterly or filial kiss which she regularly placed upon its forehead.
+The Renault family soon became uneasy about such strange symptoms, and
+hastened the interment of the attractive unknown, in order to relieve
+themselves of him as soon as possible. But the day before the one fixed
+for the ceremony, Clementine changed her mind.
+
+"By what right could they shut in the tomb a man who, possibly, was not
+dead? The theories of the learned Doctor Meiser were not such that one
+could reject them without examination. The matter was at least worthy of
+a few days' reflection. Was it not possible to submit the Colonel's body
+to some experiments? Professor Hirtz, of Berlin, had promised to send
+some valuable documents concerning the life and death of this
+unfortunate officer: nothing ought to be undertaken before they were
+received; some one ought to write to Berlin to hasten the sending of
+these papers."
+
+Leon sighed, but yielded uncomplainingly to this new caprice, and wrote
+to M. Hirtz.
+
+Clementine found an ally in this second campaign in Doctor Martout.
+Though he was but an average practitioner and disdained the acquisition
+of practice far too much, M. Martout was not deficient in knowledge. He
+had long been studying five or six great questions in physiology, such
+as reanimation, spontaneous generation and the topics connected with
+them. A regular correspondence kept him posted in all recent
+discoveries; he was the friend of M. Pouchet, of Rouen; and knew also
+the celebrated Karl Nibor, who has carried the use of the microscope
+into researches so wide and so profound. M. Martout had desiccated and
+resuscitated thousands of little worms, rotifers and tardigrades; he
+held that life is nothing but organization in action, and that the idea
+of reviving a desiccated man has nothing absurd about it. He gave
+himself up to long meditations when Professor Hirtz sent from Berlin the
+following document, the original of which is filed among the manuscripts
+of the Humboldt collection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+PROFESSOR MEISER'S WILL IN FAVOR OF THE DESICCATED COLONEL.
+
+
+On this 20th day of January, 1824, being worn down by a cruel malady and
+feeling the approach of the time when my person shall be absorbed in the
+Great All;
+
+I have written with my own hand this testament which is the expression
+of my last will.
+
+I appoint as executor my nephew Nicholas Meiser, a wealthy brewer in the
+city of Dantzic.
+
+I bequeath my books, papers and scientific collections of all kinds,
+except item 3712, to my very estimable and learned friend, Herr Von
+Humboldt.
+
+I bequeath all the rest of my effects, real and personal, valued at
+100,000 Prussian thalers or 375,000 francs, to Colonel Pierre Victor
+Fougas, at present desiccated, but living, and entered in my catalogue
+opposite No. 3712 (Zoology).
+
+I trust that he will accept this feeble compensation for the ordeals he
+has undergone in my laboratory, and the service he has rendered to
+science.
+
+Finally, in order that my nephew Nicholas Meiser may exactly understand
+the duties I leave him to perform, I have resolved to inscribe here a
+detailed account of the desiccation of Colonel Fougas, my sole heir.
+
+It was on the 11th of November in that unhappy year 1813, that my
+relations with this brave young man began. I had long since quitted
+Dantzic, where the noise of cannon and the danger from bombs had
+rendered all labor impossible, and retired with my instruments and books
+under the protection of the Allied Armies in the fortified town of
+Liebenfeld. The French garrisons of Dantzic, Stettin, Custrin, Glogau,
+Hamburg and several other German towns could not communicate with each
+other or with their native land; meanwhile General Rapp was obstinately
+defending himself against the English fleet and the Russian army.
+Colonel Fougas was taken by a detachment of the Barclay de Tolly corps,
+as he was trying to pass the Vistula on the ice, on the way to Dantzic.
+They brought him prisoner to Liebenfeld on the 11th of November, just at
+my supper time, and Sergeant Garok, who commanded in the village, forced
+me to be present at the examination and act as interpreter.
+
+The open countenance, manly voice, proud firmness and fine carriage of
+the unfortunate young man won my heart. He had made the sacrifice of his
+life. His only regret, he said, was having stranded so near port, after
+passing through four armies; and being unable to carry out the Emperor's
+orders. He appeared animated by that French fanaticism which has done
+so much harm to our beloved Germany. Nevertheless I could not help
+defending him; and I translated his words less as an interpreter than as
+an advocate. Unhappily, they found upon him a letter from Napoleon to
+General Rapp, of which I preserved a copy:
+
+    "Abandon Dantzic, break the blockade, unite with the
+    garrisons of Stettin, Custrin and Glogau, march along
+    the Elbe, arrange with St. Cyr and Davoust to
+    concentrate the forces scattered at Dresden, Forgau,
+    Wittenberg, Magdeburg and Hamburg; roll up an army like
+    a snow ball; cross Westphalia, which is open, and come
+    to defend the line of the Rhine with an army of 170,000
+    Frenchmen which you will have saved!
+
+    "NAPOLEON."
+
+This letter was sent to the headquarters of the Russian army, whilst a
+half-dozen illiterate soldiers, drunk with joy and bad brandy, condemned
+the brave Colonel of the 23d of the line to the death of a spy and a
+traitor. The execution was fixed for the next day, the 12th, and M.
+Pierre Victor Fougas, after having thanked and embraced me with the most
+touching sensibility, (He is a husband and a father.) was shut up in the
+little battlemented tower of Liebenfeld, where the wind whistles
+terribly through all the loopholes.
+
+The night of the 11th and 12th of November was one of the severest of
+that terrible winter. My self-registering thermometer, which hung
+outside my window with a southeast exposure, marked nineteen degrees
+below zero, centigrade. I went early in the morning to bid the Colonel a
+last farewell, and met Sergeant Garok, who said to me in bad German:
+
+"We won't have to kill the Frantzouski, he is frozen to death."
+
+I ran to the prison. The colonel was lying on his back, rigid. But I
+found after a few minutes' examination, that the rigidity of the body
+was not that of death. The joints, though they had not their ordinary
+suppleness, could be bent and extended without any great effort. The
+limbs, the face, and the chest gave my hands a sensation of cold, but
+very different from that which I had often experienced from contact with
+corpses.
+
+Knowing that he had passed several nights without sleep, and endured
+extraordinary fatigues, I did not doubt that he had fallen into that
+profound and lethargic sleep which is superinduced by intense cold, and
+which if too far prolonged slackens respiration and circulation to a
+point where the most delicate physiological tests are necessary to
+discover the continuance of life. The pulse was insensible; at least my
+fingers, benumbed with cold, could not feel it. My hardness of hearing
+(I was then in my sixty-ninth year) prevented my determining by
+auscultation whether the beats of the heart still aroused those feeble
+though prolonged vibrations which the ear continues to hear some time
+after the hand fails to detect them.
+
+The colonel had reached that point of torpor produced by cold, where to
+revive a man without causing him to die, requires numerous and delicate
+attentions. Some hours after, congelation would supervene, and with it,
+impossibility of restoration to life.
+
+I was in the greatest perplexity. On the one hand I knew that he was
+dying on my hands by congelation; on the other, I could not, by myself,
+bestow upon him the attentions that were indispensable. If I were to
+administer stimulants without having him, at the same time, rubbed on
+the trunk and limbs by three or four vigorous assistants, I would revive
+him only to see him die. I had still before my eyes the spectacle of
+that lovely young girl asphyxiated in a fire, whom I succeeded in
+reviving by placing burning coals under the clavicles, but who could
+only call her mother, and died almost immediately, in spite of the
+administration of internal stimulants and electricity for inducing
+contractions of the diaphragm and heart.
+
+And even if I should succeed in bringing him back to health and
+strength, was not he condemned by court-martial? Did not humanity forbid
+my rousing him from this repose akin to death, to deliver him to the
+horrors of execution?
+
+I must confess that in the presence of this organism where life was
+suspended, my ideas on reanimation took, as it were, fresh hold upon me.
+I had so often desiccated and revived beings quite elevated in the
+animal scale, that I did not doubt the success of the operation, even on
+a man. By myself alone I could not revive and save the Colonel; but I
+had in my laboratory, all the instruments necessary to desiccate him
+without assistance.
+
+To sum up, three alternatives offered themselves to me. I. To leave the
+Colonel in the crenellated tower, where he would have died the same day
+of congelation. II. To revive him by stimulants, at the risk of killing
+him. And for what? To give him up, in case of success, to inevitable
+execution. III. To desiccate him in my laboratory with the quasi
+certainty of resuscitating him after the restoration of peace. All
+friends of humanity will doubtless comprehend that I could not hesitate
+long.
+
+I had Sergeant Garok called, and I begged him to sell me the body of the
+Colonel. It was not the first time that I had bought a corpse for
+dissection, so my request excited no suspicion. The bargain concluded, I
+gave him four bottles of kirsch-wasser, and soon two Russian soldiers
+brought me Colonel Fougas on a stretcher.
+
+As soon as I was alone with him, I pricked one of his fingers: pressure
+forced out a drop of blood. To place it under a microscope between two
+plates of glass was the work of a minute. Oh, joy! The fibrin was not
+coagulated. The red globules appeared cleanly circular, flattened,
+biconcave, and without notches, indentations or spheroidal swellings.
+The white globules changed their shape, taking at intervals the
+spherical form, and varying their shapes again by delicate expansions. I
+was not deceived then, it was a torpid man that I had under my eyes, and
+not a dead one!
+
+I placed him on a pair of scales. He weighed one hundred and forty
+pounds, clothing included. I did not care to undress him, for I had
+noticed that animals desiccated directly in contact with the air, died
+oftener than those which remained covered with moss and other soft
+materials, during the ordeal of desiccation.
+
+My great air-pump, with its immense platform, its enormous oval
+wrought-iron receiver, which a rope running on a pulley firmly fixed in
+the ceiling easily raised and lowered by means of a windlass--all these
+thousand and one contrivances which I had so laboriously prepared in
+spite of the railleries of those who envied me, and which I felt
+desolate at seeing unemployed, were going to find their use! Unexpected
+circumstances had arisen at last to procure me such a subject for
+experiment, as I had in vain endeavored to procure, while I was
+attempting to reduce to torpidity dogs, rabbits, sheep and other mammals
+by the aid of freezing mixtures. Long ago, without doubt, would these
+results have been attained if I had been aided by those who surrounded
+me, instead of being made the butt of their railleries; if our
+authorities had sustained me with their influence instead of treating me
+as a subversive spirit.
+
+I shut myself up _tête-à-tête_ with the Colonel, and took care that even
+old Getchen, my housekeeper, now deceased, should not trouble me during
+my work. I had substituted for the wearisome lever of the old fashioned
+air-pumps, a wheel arranged with an eccentric which transformed the
+circular movement of the axis into the rectilinear movement required by
+the pistons: the wheel, the eccentric, the connecting rod, and the
+joints of the apparatus all worked admirably, and enabled me to do
+everything by myself. The cold did not impede the play of the machine,
+and the lubricating oil was not gummed: I had refined it myself by a new
+process founded on the then recent discoveries of the French _savant_ M.
+Chevreul.
+
+Having extended the body on the platform of the air-pump, lowered the
+receiver and luted the rim, I undertook to submit it gradually to the
+influence of a dry vacuum and cold. Capsules filled with chloride of
+calcium were placed around the Colonel to absorb the water which should
+evaporate from the body, and to promote the desiccation.
+
+I certainly found myself in the best possible situation for subjecting
+the human body to a process of gradual desiccation without sudden
+interruption of the functions, or disorganization of the tissues or
+fluids. Seldom had my experiments on rotifers and tardigrades been
+surrounded with equal chances of success, yet they had always succeeded.
+But the particular nature of the subject and the special scruples
+imposed upon my conscience, obliged me to employ a certain number of new
+conditions, which I had long since, in other connections, foreseen the
+expediency of. I had taken the pains to arrange an opening at each end
+of my oval receiver, and fit into it a heavy glass, which enabled me to
+follow with my eye the effects of the vacuum on the Colonel. I was
+entirely prevented from shutting the windows of my laboratory, from fear
+that a too elevated temperature might put an end to the lethargy of the
+subject, or induce some change in the fluids. If a thaw had come on, all
+would have been over with my experiment. But the thermometer kept for
+several days between six and eight degrees below zero, and I was very
+happy in seeing the lethargic sleep continue, without having to fear
+congelation of the tissues.
+
+I commenced to produce the vacuum with extreme slowness, for fear that
+the gases distributed through the blood, becoming free on account of the
+difference of their tension from that of rarified air, might escape in
+the vessels and so bring on immediate death. Moreover, I watched, every
+moment, the effects of the vacuum on the intestinal gases, for by
+expanding inside in proportion as the pressure of the air diminished
+outside of the body, they could have caused serious disorders. The
+tissues might not have been entirely ruptured by them, but an internal
+lesion would have been enough to occasion death in a few hours after
+reanimation. One observes this quite frequently in animals carelessly
+desiccated.
+
+Several times, too rapid a protrusion of the abdomen put me on my guard
+against the danger which I feared, and I was obliged to let in a little
+air under the receiver. At last, the cessation of all phenomena of this
+kind satisfied me that the gases had disappeared by exosmose or had been
+expelled by the spontaneous contraction of the viscera. It was not until
+the end of the first day that I could give up these minute precautions,
+and carry the vacuum a little further.
+
+The next day, the 13th, I pushed the vacuum to a point where the
+barometer fell to five millimetres. As no change had taken place in the
+position of the body or limbs, I was sure that no convulsion had been
+produced. The colonel had been desiccated, had become immobile, had lost
+the power of performing the functions of life, without death having
+supervened, and without the possibility of returning to activity having
+departed. His life was suspended, not extinguished.
+
+Each time that a surplus of watery vapor caused the barometer to ascend,
+I pumped. On the 14th, the door of my laboratory was literally broken in
+by the Russian General, Count Trollohub, who had been sent from
+headquarters. This distinguished officer had run in all haste to
+prevent the execution of the colonel and to conduct him into the
+presence of the Commander in Chief. I loyally confessed to him what I
+had done under the inspiration of my conscience; I showed him the body
+through one of the bull's-eyes of the air-pump; I told him that I was
+happy to have preserved a man who could furnish useful information to
+the liberators of my country; and I offered to resuscitate him at my own
+expense if they would promise me to respect his life and liberty. The
+General, Count Trollohub, unquestionably a distinguished man, but one of
+an exclusively military education, thought that I was not speaking
+seriously. He went out slamming the door in my face, and treating me
+like an old fool.
+
+I set myself to pumping again, and kept the vacuum at a pressure of from
+three to five millimetres for the space of three months. I knew by
+experience that animals can revive after being submitted to a dry vacuum
+and cold for eighty days.
+
+On the 12th of February 1814, having observed that for a month no
+modification had taken place in the shrinking of the flesh, I resolved
+to submit the Colonel to another series of operations, in order to
+insure more perfect preservation by complete desiccation. I let the air
+re-enter by the stop-cock arranged for the purpose, and, after raising
+the receiver, proceeded at once to my experiment.
+
+The body did not weigh more than forty-six pounds; I had then reduced it
+nearly to a third of its original weight. It should be borne in mind
+that the clothing had not lost as much water as the other parts. Now the
+human body contains nearly four-fifths of its own weight of water, as is
+proved by a desiccation thoroughly made in a chemical drying furnace.
+
+I accordingly placed the Colonel on a tray, and, after sliding it into
+my great furnace, gradually raised the temperature to 75 degrees,
+centigrade. I did not dare to go beyond this heat, from fear of altering
+the albumen and rendering it insoluble, and also of taking away from the
+tissues the capacity of reabsorbing the water necessary to a return to
+their functions.
+
+I had taken care to arrange a convenient apparatus so that the furnace
+was constantly traversed by a current of dry air. This air was dried in
+traversing a series of jars filled with sulphuric acid, quick-lime and
+chloride of calcium.
+
+After a week passed in the furnace, the general appearance of the body
+had not changed, but its weight was reduced to forty pounds, clothing
+included. Eight days more brought no new decrease of weight. From this,
+I concluded that the desiccation was sufficient. I knew very well that
+corpses mummified in church vaults for a century or more, end by
+weighing no more than a half-score of pounds, but they do not become so
+light without a material alteration in their tissues.
+
+On the 27th of February, I myself placed the colonel in the boxes which
+I had had made for his occupancy. Since that time, that is to say during
+a space of nine years and eleven months, we have never been separated. I
+carried him with me to Dantzic. He stays in my house. I have never
+placed him, according to his number, in my zoological collection; he
+remains by himself, in the chamber of honor. I do not grant any one the
+pleasure of re-using his chloride of calcium. I will take care of you
+till my dying day, Oh Colonel Fougas, dear and unfortunate friend! But I
+shall not have the joy of witnessing your resurrection. I shall not
+share the delightful emotions of the warrior returning to life. Your
+lachrymal glands, inert to-day, but some day to be reanimated, will not
+pour upon the bosom of your old benefactor, the sweet dew of
+recognition. For you will not recover your life until a day when mine
+will have long since departed! Perhaps you will be astonished that I,
+loving you as I do, should have so long delayed to draw you out of this
+profound slumber. Who knows but that some bitter reproach may come to
+taint the tenderness of the first offices of gratitude that you will
+perform over my tomb! Yes! I have prolonged, without any benefit to you,
+an experiment of general interest to others. I ought to have remained
+faithful to my first intention, and restored your life, immediately
+after the signature of peace. But what! Was it well to send you back to
+France when the sun of your fatherland was obscured by our soldiers and
+allies? I have spared you that spectacle--one so grievous to such a
+soul as yours. Without doubt you would have had, in March, 1815, the
+consolation of again seeing that fatal man to whom you had consecrated
+your devotion; but are you entirely sure that you would not have been
+swallowed up with his fortune, in the shipwreck of Waterloo?
+
+For five or six years past, it has not been your welfare nor even the
+welfare of science, that prevented me from reanimating you, it has
+been.... Forgive me, Colonel, it has been a cowardly attachment to life.
+The disorder from which I am suffering, and which will soon carry me
+off, is an aneurism of the heart; violent emotions are interdicted to
+me. If I were myself to undertake the grand operation whose process I
+have traced in a memorandum annexed to this instrument, I would, without
+any doubt, succumb before finishing it; my death would be an untoward
+accident which might trouble my assistants and cause your resuscitation
+to fail.
+
+Rest content! You will not have long to wait, and, moreover, what do you
+lose by waiting? You do not grow old, you are always twenty-four years
+of age; your children are growing up, you will be almost their
+contemporary when you come to life again. You came to Liebenfeld poor,
+you are now in my house poor, and my will makes you rich. That you may
+be happy also, is my dearest wish.
+
+I direct that, the day after my death, my nephew, Nicholas Meiser,
+shall call together, by letter, the ten physicians most illustrious in
+the kingdom of Prussia, that he shall read to them my will and the
+annexed memorandum, and that he shall cause them to proceed without
+delay, in my own laboratory, to the resuscitation of Colonel Fougas. The
+expenses of travel, maintenance, etc., etc., shall be deducted from the
+assets of my estate. The sum of two thousand thalers shall be devoted to
+the publication of the glorious results of the experiment, in German,
+French and Latin. A copy of this pamphlet shall be sent to each of the
+learned societies then existing in Europe.
+
+In the entirely unexpected event of the efforts of science being unable
+to reanimate the Colonel, all my effects shall revert to Nicholas
+Meiser, my sole surviving relative.
+
+JOHN MEISER, M. D.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HOW NICHOLAS MEISER, NEPHEW OF JOHN MEISER, EXECUTED HIS UNCLE'S WILL.
+
+
+Doctor Hirtz of Berlin, who had copied this will himself, apologized
+very politely for not having sent it sooner. Business had obliged him to
+travel away from the Capital. In passing through Dantzic, he had given
+himself the pleasure of visiting Herr Nicholas Meiser, the former
+brewer, now a very wealthy land-owner and heavy holder of stocks,
+sixty-six years of age. This old man very well remembered the death and
+will of his uncle, the _savant_; but he did not speak of them without a
+certain reluctance. Moreover, he said that immediately after the decease
+of John Meiser, he had called together ten physicians of Dantzic around
+the mummy of the Colonel; he showed also a unanimous statement of these
+gentlemen, affirming that a man desiccated in a furnace cannot in any
+way or by any means return to life. This certificate, drawn up by the
+professional competitors and enemies of the deceased, made no mention of
+the paper annexed to the will. Nicholas Meiser swore by all the Gods
+(but not without visibly coloring) that this document concerning the
+methods to be pursued in resuscitating the Colonel, had never been known
+by himself or his wife. When interrogated regarding the reasons which
+could have brought him to part with a trust as precious as the body of
+M. Fougas, he said that he had kept it in his house fifteen years with
+every imaginable respect and care, but that at the end of that time,
+becoming beset with visions and being awakened almost every night by the
+Colonel's ghost coming and pulling at his feet, he concluded to sell it
+for twenty crowns to a Berlin amateur. Since he had been rid of this
+dismal neighbor, he had slept a great deal better, but not entirely well
+yet; for it had been impossible for him to forget the apparition of the
+Colonel.
+
+To these revelations, Herr Hirtz, physician to His Royal Highness the
+Prince Regent of Prussia, added some remarks of his own. He did not
+think that the resuscitation of a healthy man, desiccated with
+precaution, was impossible in theory; he thought also, that the process
+of desiccation indicated by the illustrious John Meiser was the best to
+follow. But in the present case, it did not appear to him probable that
+Colonel Fougas could be called back to life; the atmospheric influences
+and the variations of temperature which he had undergone during a period
+of forty six years, must have altered the fluids and the tissues.
+
+This was also the opinion of M. Renault and his son. To quiet
+Clementine's excitement a little, they read to her the concluding
+paragraphs of Prof. Hirtz' letter. They kept from her John Meiser's
+will, which could have done nothing but excite her. But the little
+imagination worked on without cessation, do what they would to quiet it.
+Clementine now sought the company of Doctor Martout, she held
+discussions with him and wanted to see experiments in the resuscitation
+of rotifers. When she got home again, she would think a little about
+Leon and a great deal about the Colonel. The project of marriage was
+still entertained, but no one ventured to speak about the publication of
+the bans. To the most touching endearments of her betrothed, the young
+fiancée responded with disquisitions on the vital principle. Her visits
+to the Renaults' house were paid less to the living than to the dead.
+All the arguments they put in use to cure her of a foolish hope served
+only to throw her into a profound melancholy. Her beautiful complexion
+grew pale, the brilliancy of her glance died away. Undermined by a
+hidden disorder, she lost the amiable vivacity which had appeared to be
+the sparkling of youth and joy. The change must have been very
+noticeable, for even Mlle. Sambucco, who had not a mother's eyes, was
+troubled about it.
+
+M. Martout, satisfied that this malady of the spirit would not yield to
+any but a moral treatment, came to see her one morning, and said:
+
+"My dear child, although I cannot well explain to myself the great
+interest that you take in this mummy, I have done something for it and
+for you. I am going to send the little piece of ear that Leon broke off
+to M. Karl Nibor."
+
+Clementine opened all her eyes.
+
+"Don't you understand me?" continued the Doctor. "The thing is, to find
+out whether the humors and tissues of the Colonel have undergone
+material alterations. M. Nibor, with his microscope, will tell us the
+state of things. One can rely upon him: he is an infallible genius. His
+answer will tell us if it be well to proceed to the resuscitation of our
+man, or whether nothing is left but to bury him."
+
+"What!" cried the young girl. "One can tell whether a man is dead or
+living, by sample?"
+
+"Nothing more is required by Doctor Nibor. Forget your anxieties, then,
+for a week. As soon as the answer comes, I will give it to you to read.
+I have stimulated the curiosity of the great physiologist: he knows
+absolutely nothing about the fragment I send him. But if, to suppose an
+impossibility, he tells us that the piece of ear belongs to a sound
+being, I will beg him to come to Fontainebleau and help us restore his
+life."
+
+This vague glimmer of hope dissipated Clementine's melancholy, and
+brought back her buoyant health. She again began to sing and laugh and
+flutter about the garden at her aunt's, and the house at M. Renault's.
+The tender communings began again, the wedding was once more talked
+over, and the first ban was published.
+
+"At last," said Leon, "I have found her again."
+
+But Madame Renault, that wise and cautious mother, shook her head sadly.
+
+"All this goes but half well," said she. "I do not like to have my
+daughter-in-law so absorbed with that handsome dried-up fellow. What are
+we to expect when she knows that it is impossible to bring him to life
+again? Will the black butterflies[1] then fly away? And suppose they
+happen, by a miracle, to reanimate him! are you sure she will not fall
+in love with him? Indeed, Leon must have thought it very necessary to
+buy this mummy, and I call it money well invested!"
+
+One Sunday morning M. Martout rushed in upon the old professor, shouting
+victory.
+
+Here is the answer which had come to him from Paris:--
+
+    "My dear _confrère_:
+
+    "I have received your letter, and the little fragment of
+    tissue whose nature you asked me to determine. It did
+    not cost me much trouble to find out the matter in
+    question, I have done more difficult things twenty
+    times, in the course of experiments relating to medical
+    jurisprudence. You could have saved yourself the use of
+    the established formula: "When you shall have made your
+    microscopic examination, I will tell you what it is."
+    These little tricks amount to nothing: my microscope
+    knows better than you do what you have sent me. You know
+    the form and color of things: _it_ sees their inmost
+    nature, the laws of their being, the conditions of their
+    life and death.
+
+    "Your fragment of desiccated matter, half as broad as my
+    nail and nearly as thick, after remaining for
+    twenty-four hours under a bell-glass in an atmosphere
+    saturated with water at the temperature of the human
+    body, became supple--so much so as to be a little
+    elastic. I could consequently dissect it, study it like
+    a piece of fresh flesh, and put under the microscope
+    each one of its parts that appeared different, in
+    consistency or color, from the rest.
+
+    "I at once found, in the middle, a slight portion harder
+    and more elastic than the rest, which presented the
+    texture and cellular structure of cartilage. This was
+    neither the cartilage of the nose, nor the cartilage of
+    an articulation, but certainly the fibro-cartilage of
+    the ear. You sent me, then, the end of an ear, and it is
+    not the lower end--the lobe which women pierce to put
+    their gold ornaments in, but the upper end, into which
+    the cartilage extends.
+
+    "On the inner-side, I took off a fine skin, in which the
+    microscope showed me an epidermis, delicate, perfectly
+    intact; a derma no less intact, with little papillæ and,
+    moreover, covered with a lot of fine human hairs. Each
+    of these little hairs had its root imbedded in its
+    follicle, and the follicle accompanied by its two little
+    glands. I will tell you even more: these hairs of down
+    were from four to five millimetres long, by from three
+    to five hundredths of a millimetre in diameter; this is
+    twice the size of the pretty down which grows on a
+    feminine ear; from which I conclude that your piece of
+    ear belongs to a man.
+
+    "Against the curved edge of the cartilage, I found
+    delicate striated bunches of the muscle of the helix,
+    and so perfectly intact that one would have said there
+    was nothing to prevent their contracting. Under the skin
+    and near the muscles, I found several little nervous
+    filaments, each one composed of eight or ten tubes in
+    which the medulla was as intact and homogeneous as in
+    nerves removed from a living animal or taken from an
+    amputated limb. Are you satisfied? Do you cry mercy?
+    Well! As for me, I am not yet at the end of my string.
+
+    "In the cellular tissue interposed between the cartilage
+    and the skin, I found little arteries and little veins
+    whose structure was perfectly cognizable. They contained
+    some serum with red blood globules. These globules were
+    all of them circular, biconcave and perfectly regular;
+    they showed neither indentations nor that
+    raspberry-like appearance which characterizes the blood
+    globules of a corpse.
+
+    "To sum up, my dear _confrère_, I have found in this
+    fragment nearly everything that is found in the human
+    body--cartilage, muscle, nerve, skin, hairs, glands,
+    blood, etc., and all this in a perfectly healthy and
+    normal state. It is not, then, a piece of a corpse which
+    you sent me, but a piece of a living man, whose humors
+    and tissues are in no way decomposed.
+
+
+    "With high consideration, yours,
+
+    "KARL NIBOR.
+
+    "PARIS, _July 30th, 1859._"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CONSIDERABLE OF A DISTURBANCE IN FONTAINEBLEAU.
+
+
+It did not take long to get spread about the town that M. Martout and
+the Messieurs Renault, intended, in conjunction with several Paris
+_savans_, to resuscitate a dead man.
+
+M. Martout had sent a detailed account of the case to the celebrated
+Karl Nibor, who had hastened to lay it before the Biological Society. A
+committee was forthwith appointed to accompany M. Nibor to
+Fontainebleau. The six commissioners and the reporter agreed to leave
+Paris the 15th of August,[2] being glad to escape the din of the public
+rejoicings. M. Martout was notified to get things ready for the
+experiment, which would probably last not less than three days.
+
+Some of the Paris papers announced this great event among their
+"Miscellaneous Items," but the public paid little attention to it. The
+grand reception of the army returning from Italy engrossed everybody's
+interest, and moreover, the French do not put more than moderate faith
+in miracles promised in the newspapers.
+
+But at Fontainebleau, it was an entirely different matter. Not only
+Monsieur Martout and the Messieurs Renault, but M. Audret, the
+architect, M. Bonnivet, the notary, and a dozen other of the bigwigs of
+the town, had seen and touched the mummy of the Colonel. They had spoken
+about it to their friends, had described it to the best of their
+ability, and had recounted its history. Two or three copies of Herr
+Meiser's will were circulating from hand to hand. The question of
+reanimations was the order of the day; they discussed it around the
+fish-pond, like the Academy of Sciences at a full meeting. Even in the
+market-place you could have heard them talking about rotifers and
+tardigrades.
+
+It must be admitted that the resuscitationists were not in the majority.
+A few professors of the college, noted for the paradoxical character of
+their minds; a few lovers of the marvellous, who had been duly convicted
+of table-tipping; and, to top off with a half dozen of those old
+white-moustached grumblers who believe that the death of Napoleon I. is
+a calumnious lie set afloat by the English, constituted the whole of the
+army. M. Martout had against him not only the skeptics, but the
+innumerable crowd of believers, in the bargain. One party turned him to
+ridicule, the others proclaimed him revolutionary, dangerous, and an
+enemy of the fundamental ideas on which society rests. The minister of
+one little church preached, in inuendoes, against the Prometheuses who
+aspired to usurp the prerogatives of Heaven. But the rector of the
+parish did not hesitate to say, in five or six houses, that the cure of
+a man as desperately sick as M. Fougas, would be an evidence of the
+power and mercy of God.
+
+The garrison of Fontainebleau was at that time composed of four
+squadrons of cuirassiers and the 23d regiment of the line, which had
+distinguished itself at Magenta. As soon as it was known in Colonel
+Fougas' old regiment that that illustrious officer was possibly going to
+return to the world, there was a general sensation. A regiment knows its
+history, and the history of the 23d had been that of Fougas from
+February, 1811, to November, 1813. All the soldiers had heard read, at
+their messes, the following anecdote:
+
+"On the 27th of August, 1813, at the battle of Dresden, the Emperor
+noticed a French regiment at the foot of a Russian redoubt which was
+pouring grape upon it. He asked what regiment it was, and was told that
+it was the 23d of the line. 'That's impossible!' said he. 'The 23d of
+the line never stood under fire without rushing upon the artillery
+thundering at it.' At that moment the 23d, led by Colonel Fougas, rushed
+up the height at double quick, pinned the artillerists to their guns,
+and took the redoubt."
+
+The officers and soldiers, justly proud of this memorable action,
+venerated, under the name of Fougas, one of the fathers of the regiment.
+The idea of seeing him appear in the midst of them, young and living,
+did not appear likely, but it was already something to be in possession
+of his body. Officers and soldiers decided that he should be interred at
+their expense, after the experiments of Doctor Martout were completed.
+And to give him a tomb worthy of his glory, they voted an assessment of
+two days' pay.
+
+Every one who wore an epaulette visited M. Renault's laboratory; the
+Colonel of cuirassiers went there several times--in hopes of meeting
+Clementine. But Leon's betrothed kept herself out of the way.
+
+She was happier than any woman had ever been, this pretty little
+Clementine. No cloud longer disturbed the serenity of her fair brow.
+Free from all anxieties, with a heart opened to Hope, she adored her
+dear Leon, and passed her days in telling him so. She herself had
+pressed the publication of the bans.
+
+"We will be married," said she, "the day after the resuscitation of the
+Colonel. I intend that he shall give me away, I want him to bless me.
+That is certainly the least he can do for me, after all I have done for
+him. It is certain that, but for my opposition, you would have sent him
+to the museum of the _Jardin des Plantes_. I will tell him all this,
+Sir, as soon as he can understand us, and he will cut _your_ ears off,
+in _his_ turn! I love you!"
+
+"But," answered Leon, "why do you make my happiness dependent on the
+success of an experiment? All the usual formalities are executed, the
+publications made, the notices given: no one in the world can prevent
+our marrying to-morrow, and you are pleased to wait until the 19th! What
+connection is there between us and this desiccated gentleman asleep in
+his box? He doesn't belong to your family or mine. I have examined all
+your family records back to the sixth generation, and I haven't found
+anybody of the name of Fougas in them. So we are not waiting for a
+grandfather to be present at the ceremony. Who is he, then? The wicked
+tongues of Fontainebleau pretend that you have a _penchant_ for this
+fetich of 1813; as for me, who am sure of your heart, I trust that you
+will never love any one as well as me. However they call me the rival of
+the Sleeping Colonel in the Wood."
+
+"Let the fools prate!" responded Clementine, with an angelic smile. "I
+do not trouble myself to explain my affection for poor Fougas, but I
+love him very much, that's certain. I love him as a father, as a
+brother, if you prefer it, for he is almost as young as I. When we have
+resuscitated him, I will love him, perhaps, as a son; but you will lose
+nothing by it, dear Leon. You have in my heart a place by itself, the
+best too, and no one shall take it from you, not even _he_."
+
+This lovers' quarrel, which often began, and always ended with a kiss,
+was one day interrupted by a visit from the commissioner of police.
+
+This honorable functionary politely declined to give his name and
+business, and requested the favor of a private interview with young
+Renault.
+
+"Monsieur," said he, when he saw him alone, "I appreciate all the
+consideration due to a man of your character and position, and I hope
+you will see fit not to interpret unpleasantly a proceeding which is
+prompted in me by a sense of duty."
+
+Leon opened his eyes and waited for the continuation of the discourse.
+
+"You are aware, Monsieur," pursued the Commissioner, "of what is
+required by the law concerning interments. It is express, and admits no
+exception. The authorities can keep their eyes shut, but the great
+tumult that has arisen, and, moreover, the rank of the deceased, without
+taking into account the religious considerations, put us under
+obligation to proceed ... in conjunction with you, let it be well
+understood...."
+
+Leon comprehended little by little. The commissioner finished by
+explaining to him, always in the administrative style, that it was
+incumbent upon him to have M. Fougas taken to the town cemetery.
+
+"But Monsieur," replied the engineer, "if you have heard people speaking
+of Colonel Fougas, they ought to have told you withal that we do not
+consider him dead."
+
+"Nonsense!" answered the Commissioner, with a slight smile. "Opinions
+are free. But the doctor whose office it is to attend to the
+disposition of the dead, and who has had the pleasure of seeing the
+deceased, has made us a conclusive report which points to immediate
+interment."
+
+"Very well, Monsieur, if Fougas is dead, we are in hopes of
+resuscitating him."
+
+"So we have been told already Monsieur, but, for my part, I hesitated to
+believe it."
+
+"You will believe it when you have seen it; and I hope, Monsieur, that
+that will be before long."
+
+"But then, Monsieur, have you fixed everything in due form?"
+
+"With whom?"
+
+"I do not know, Monsieur, but I suppose that before undertaking such a
+thing as this, you have fortified yourself with some legal
+authorization."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+"But at all events, Monsieur, you admit that the reanimation of a man is
+an extraordinary affair. As for myself, this is really the first time
+that I ever heard it spoken of. Now the duty of a well regulated police,
+is to prevent anything extraordinary happening in the country."
+
+"Let us see, Monsieur. If I were to say to you: 'Here is a man who is
+not dead; I have a well-founded hope of setting him on his feet in three
+days; your doctor, who maintains the contrary, deceives himself,' would
+you take the responsibility of having Fougas buried?"
+
+"Certainly not! God forbid that I should take any responsibility of any
+kind on my shoulders! But however, Monsieur, in having M. Fougas buried,
+I would act in accordance with law and order. Now after all, by what
+right do you presume to resuscitate a man? In what country is
+resuscitation customary? Where is the precept of law which authorizes
+you to resuscitate people?"
+
+"Do you know any law that prohibits it? Now everything that is not
+prohibited is permitted."
+
+"In the eyes of the magistrates, very likely. But the police ought to
+prevent and stem disorder. Now a resuscitation, Monsieur, is a thing so
+unheard of as to constitute an actual disorder."
+
+"You will admit, nevertheless, that it is a very happy disorder."
+
+"There's no such thing as a happy disorder. Consider, morever, that the
+deceased is not a common sort of a man. If the question concerned a
+vagabond without house or home, one could use some tolerance in regard
+to it. But this is a soldier, an officer, of high rank and decorated
+too; a man who has occupied an exalted position in the army. The _army_,
+Monsieur! It will not do to touch the army!"
+
+"Eh! Monsieur, I touch the army like a surgeon who tends its wounds. It
+is proposed to restore to the army a colonel. And you, actuated by the
+spirit of routine, wish to rob it of one."
+
+"Don't get so excited, Monsieur, I beg of you, and don't talk so loud:
+people can hear us. Believe me, I will meet you half way in anything you
+want to do for the great and glorious army of my country. But have you
+considered the religious question?"
+
+"What religious question?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, Monsieur (but this entirely between ourselves),
+what we have spoken of so far is purely accessory and we are now
+touching upon the delicate point. People have come to see me and have
+made some very judicious remarks to me. The mere announcement of your
+project has cast a good deal of trouble into certain consciences. They
+fear that the success of an undertaking of this kind may strike a blow
+at the faith, may, in a word, scandalize many tranquil spirits. For, if
+M. Fougas is dead, of course it is because God has so willed it. Aren't
+you afraid of acting contrary to the will of God, in resuscitating him?"
+
+"No, Monsieur: for I am sure not to resuscitate Fougas if God has willed
+it otherwise; God permits a man to catch the fever, but God also permits
+a doctor to cure him. God permitted a brave soldier of the Emperor to be
+captured by four drunken Russians, condemned as a spy, frozen in a
+fortress and desiccated under an air-pump by an old German. But God also
+permitted me to find this unfortunate man in a junk-shop, to carry him
+to Fontainebleau, to examine him with certain men of science and to
+agree with them upon a method almost sure to restore him to life. All
+this proves one thing--which is that God is more just, more merciful and
+more inclined to pity than those who abuse his name in order to excite
+you."
+
+"I assure you, Monsieur, that I am not in the least excited. I yield to
+your reasons because they are good ones and because you are a man of
+consideration in the community. I sincerely hope, moreover, that you
+will not think harshly of an act of zeal which I have been advised to
+perform. I am a functionary, Monsieur. Now, what is a functionary? A man
+who holds a place. Suppose now that functionaries were to expose
+themselves to the loss of their places, what would stand firm in France?
+Nothing, Monsieur, absolutely nothing. I have the honor to bid you good
+day!"
+
+On the morning of the 15th of August, M. Karl Nibor presented himself at
+M. Renault's with Doctor Martont and the committee appointed by the
+Biological Society of Paris. As often happens in the rural districts the
+first appearance of our illustrious savant was a sort of disappointment.
+Mme. Renault expected to see, if not a magician in a velvet robe studded
+with gold, at least an old man of extraordinarily grave and impressive
+appearance. Karl Nibor is a man of middle height, very fair and very
+slight. Possibly he carries a good forty years, but one would not credit
+him with more than thirty-five. He wears a moustache and imperial; is
+lively, a good conversationist, agreeable and enough of a man of the
+world to amuse the ladies. But Clementine did not have the pleasure of
+his conversation. Her aunt had taken her to Moret in order to remove her
+from the pangs of fear as well as from the intoxications of victory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+HALLELUJAH!
+
+
+M. Nibor and his colleagues, after the usual compliments, requested to
+see the subject. They had no time to lose, as the experiment could
+hardly last less than three days. Leon hastened to conduct them to the
+laboratory and to open the three boxes containing the Colonel.
+
+They found that the patient presented quite a favorable appearance. M.
+Nibor took off his clothes, which tore like tinder from having been too
+much dried in Father Meiser's furnace. The body, when naked, was
+pronounced entirely free from blemish and in a perfectly healthy
+condition. No one would yet have guaranteed success, but every one was
+full of hope.
+
+After this preliminary examination, M. Renault put his laboratory at the
+service of his guests. He offered them all that he possessed, with a
+munificence which was not entirely free from vanity. In case the
+employment of electricity should appear necessary, he had a powerful
+battery of Leyden jars and forty of Bunsen's elements, which were
+entirely new. M. Nibor thanked him smilingly.
+
+"Save your riches," said he. "With a bath-tub and caldron of boiling
+water, we will have everything we need. The Colonel needs nothing but
+humidity. The thing is to give him the quantity of water necessary to
+the play of the organs. If you have a small room where one can introduce
+a jet of vapor, we will be more than content."
+
+M. Audret, the architect, had very wisely built a little bath-room near
+the laboratory, which was convenient and well lighted. The celebrated
+steam engine was not far off, and its boiler had not, up to this time,
+answered any other purpose than that of warming the baths of M. and Mme.
+Renault.
+
+The Colonel was carried into this room, with all the care necessitated
+by his fragility. It was not intended to break his second ear in the
+hurry of moving. Leon ran to light the fire under the boiler, and M.
+Nibor created him Fireman, on the field of battle.
+
+Soon a jet of tepid vapor streamed into the bath-room, creating around
+the Colonel a humid atmosphere which was elevated by degrees, and
+without any sudden increase, to the temperature of the human body. These
+conditions of heat and humidity were maintained with the greatest care
+for twenty-four hours. No one in the house went to sleep. The members of
+the Parisian Committee encamped in the laboratory. Leon kept up the
+fire; M. Nibor, M. Renault and M. Martout took turns in watching the
+thermometer. Madame Renault was making tea and coffee, and punch too.
+Gothon, who had taken communion in the morning, kept praying to God, in
+the corner of her kitchen, that this impious miracle might not succeed.
+A certain excitement already prevailed throughout the town, but one did
+not know whether it should be attributed to the _fête_ of the 15th, or
+the famous undertaking of the seven wise men of Paris.
+
+By two o'clock on the 16th, encouraging results were obtained. The skin
+and muscles had recovered nearly all their suppleness, but the joints
+were still hard to bend. The collapsed condition of the walls of the
+abdomen and the interval between the ribs, still indicated that the
+viscera were far from having reabsorbed the quantity of water which they
+had previously lost with Herr Meiser. A bath was prepared and kept at a
+temperature of thirty-seven degrees and a half.[3] They left the Colonel
+in it two hours and a half, taking care to frequently pass over his head
+a fine sponge soaked with water.
+
+M. Nibor removed him from the bath as soon as the skin, which was filled
+out sooner than the other tissues, began to assume a whitish tinge and
+wrinkle slightly. They kept him until the evening of the 16th in this
+humid room, where they arranged an apparatus which, from time to time,
+occasioned a fine rain of a temperature of thirty-seven and a half
+degrees. A new bath was given in the evening. During the night, the
+body was enveloped in flannel, but kept constantly in the same steaming
+atmosphere.
+
+On the morning of the 17th, after a third bath of an hour and a half,
+the general characteristics of the figure and the proportions of the
+body presented their natural aspect: one would have called it a sleeping
+man. Five or six curious persons were admitted to see it, among others
+the colonel of the 23d. In the presence of these witnesses, M. Nibor
+moved successively all the joints, and demonstrated that they had
+recovered their flexibility. He gently kneaded the limbs, trunk and
+abdomen. He partly opened the lips, and separated the jaws, which were
+quite firmly closed, and saw that the tongue had returned to its
+ordinary size and consistency. He also partly opened the eyelids: the
+eye-balls were firm and bright.
+
+"Gentlemen," said the philosopher, "these are indications which do not
+deceive; I prophesy success. In a few hours you shall witness the first
+manifestations of life."
+
+"But," interrupted one of the bystanders, "why not immediately?"
+
+"Because the _conjunctivæ_ are still a little paler than they ought to
+be. But the little veins traversing the whites of the eyes have already
+assumed a very encouraging appearance. The blood is almost entirely
+restored. What is the blood? Red globules floating in serum, or a sort
+of whey. The serum in poor Fougas was dried up in his veins; the water
+which we have gradually introduced by a slow endosmose has saturated the
+albumen and fibrin of the serum, which is returned to the liquid state.
+The red globules which desiccation had agglutinated, had become
+motionless like ships stranded in shoal water. Now behold them afloat
+again: they thicken, swell, round out their edges, detach themselves
+from each other and prepare to circulate in their proper channels at the
+first impulse which shall be given them by the contractions of the
+heart."
+
+"It remains to see," said M. Renault, "whether the heart will put itself
+in motion. In a living man, the heart moves under the impulse of the
+brain, transmitted by the nerves. The brain acts under the impulse of
+the heart, transmitted by the arteries. The whole forms a perfectly
+exact circle, without which there is no well-being. And when neither
+heart nor brain acts, as in the Colonel's case, I don't see which of the
+two can set the other in motion. You remember the scene in the '_Ecole
+des femmes_,' where Arnolphe knocks at his door? The valet and the maid,
+Alain and Georgette, are both in the house. 'Georgette!' cries
+Alain.--'Well?' replies Georgette.--'Open the door down there!'--'Go
+yourself! Go yourself!'--'Gracious me! I shan't go!'--'I shan't go
+either!'--'Open it right away!'--'Open it yourself!' And nobody opens
+it. I am inclined to think, Monsieur, that we are attending a
+performance of this comedy. The house is the body of the Colonel;
+Arnolphe, who wants to get in, is the Vital Principle. The heart and
+brain act the parts of Alain and Georgette. 'Open the door!' says
+one.--'Open it yourself!' says the other. And the Vital Principle waits
+outside."
+
+"Monsieur," replied Doctor Nibor smiling, "you forget the ending of the
+scene. Arnolphe gets angry, and cries out: 'Whichever of you two doesn't
+open the door, shan't have anything to eat for four days!' And forthwith
+Alain hurries himself, Georgette runs and the door is opened. Now bear
+in mind that I speak in this way only in order to conform to your own
+course of reasoning, for the term 'Vital Principle' is at variance with
+the actual assertions of science. Life will manifest itself as soon as
+the brain, or the heart, or any one of the organs which have the
+capacity of working spontaneously, shall have absorbed the quantity of
+water it needs. Organized matter has inherent properties which manifest
+themselves without the assistance of any foreign principle, whenever
+they are surrounded by certain conditions. Why do not M. Fougas' muscles
+contract yet? Why does not the tissue of the brain enter into action?
+Because they have not yet the amount of moisture necessary to them. In
+the fountain of life there is lacking, perhaps, a pint of water. But I
+shall be in no hurry to refill it: I am too much afraid of breaking it.
+Before giving this gallant fellow a final bath, it will be necessary to
+knead all his organs again, to subject his abdomen to regular
+compressions, in order that the serous membranes of the stomach, chest
+and heart may be perfectly disagglutinated and capable of slipping on
+each other. You are aware that the slightest tear in these parts, or the
+least resistance, would be enough to kill our subject at the moment of
+his revival."
+
+While speaking, he united example to precept and kept kneading the trunk
+of the Colonel. As the spectators had too nearly filled the bath-room,
+making it almost impossible to move, M. Nibor begged them to move into
+the laboratory. But the laboratory became so full that it was necessary
+to leave it for the parlor: the Committee of the Biological Society, had
+scarcely a corner of the table on which to draw up their account of the
+proceedings. The parlor even was crowded with people, the dining room
+too, and so out to the court yard of the house. Friends, strangers,
+people not at all known to the family, elbowed each other and waited in
+silence. But the silence of a crowd is not much less noisy than the
+rolling of the sea. Fat Doctor Martout, apparently overwhelmed with
+responsibility, showed himself from time to time, and surged through the
+waves of curious people like a galleon laden with news. Every one of his
+words circulated from mouth to mouth, and spread even through the
+street, where several groups of soldiers and citizens were making a
+stir, in more senses than one. Never had the little "Rue de la
+Faisanderie" seen such a crowd. An astonished passer-by stopped and
+inquired:
+
+"What's the matter here? Is it a funeral?"
+
+"Quite the reverse, Sir."
+
+"A christening, then?"
+
+"With warm water!"
+
+"A birth?"
+
+"A being born again!"
+
+An old judge of the Civil Court was recounting to a deputy the legend of
+Æson of old, who was boiled in Medea's caldron.
+
+"This is almost the same experiment," said he, "and I am inclined to
+think that the poets have calumniated the sorceress of Colchis. There
+could be some fine Latin verses made appropriate to this occasion; but I
+no longer possess my old skill!
+
+    'Fabula Medeam cur crimine carpit iniquo?
+    Ecce novus surgit redivivus Æson ab undis
+    Fortior, arma petens, juvenili pectore miles ...,'
+
+"Redivivus is taken in the active sense; it's a license, or at least a
+bold construction. Ah! Monsieur! there was a time when I was, even among
+those who made the most confident attempts, _the_ man for Latin verses!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Corp'ral!" said a conscript of the levy of 1859.
+
+"What is it, Freminot?"
+
+"Is it true that they are boiling an old soldier in a pot, and that they
+are going to get him up again, Colonel's uniform and all?"
+
+"True or not, subaltern, I'll run the risk of saying it's true."
+
+"I fancy, with all proper deference, that they will not make much at
+it."
+
+"You should know, Freminot, that nothing is impossible to your
+superiors! You are not unaware even now, that dried vegetables, on being
+boiled, recover their original and natural appearance!"
+
+"But, Corp'ral, if one were to cook them, three days' time, they'd
+dissolve into broth."
+
+"But, imbecile, why shouldn't one consider old soldiers hard to cook?"
+
+At noon, the commisioner of police and the lieutenant of _gens-d'armes_
+made way through the crowd and entered the house. These gentlemen
+hastened to declare to M. Renault that their visit had nothing of an
+official character, but that they had come merely from curiosity. In the
+corridor, they met the Sub-prefect, the Mayor and Gothon, who was
+lamenting in loud tones that she should see the government lend its hand
+to such sorceries.
+
+About one o'clock, M. Nibor caused a new and prolonged bath to be given
+the Colonel, on coming out of which, the body was subjected to a
+kneading harder and more complete than before.
+
+"Now," said the Doctor, "we can carry M. Fougas into the laboratory, in
+order to give his resuscitation all the publicity desirable. But it will
+be well to dress him, and his uniform is in tatters."
+
+"I think," answered good M. Renault, "that the Colonel is about my size;
+so I can lend him some of my clothes. Heaven grant that he may use
+them! But, between us, I don't hope for it."
+
+Gothon brought in, grumbling, all that was necessary to dress an
+entirely naked man. But her bad humor did not hold out before the beauty
+of the Colonel:
+
+"Poor gentleman!" she exclaimed, "he is young, fresh and fair as a
+little chicken. If he doesn't revive, it will be a great pity!"
+
+There were about forty people in the laboratory when Fougas was carried
+thither. M. Nibor, assisted by M. Martout, placed him on a sofa, and
+begged a few moments of attentive silence. During these proceedings,
+Mme. Renault sent to inquire if she could come in. She was admitted.
+
+"Madame and gentlemen," said Dr. Nibor, "life will manifest itself in a
+few minutes. It is possible that the muscles will act first, and that
+their action may be convulsive, on account of not yet being regulated by
+the influence of the nervous system. I ought to apprise you of this
+fact, in order that you may not be frightened if such a thing
+transpires. Madame, being a mother, ought to be less astonished at it
+than any one else; she has experienced, at the fourth month of
+pregnancy, the effect of those irregular movements which will, possibly,
+soon be presented to us on a larger scale. I am quite hopeful, however,
+that the first spontaneous contractions will take place in the fibres of
+the heart. Such is the case in the embryo, where the rhythmic movements
+of the heart, precede the nervous functions."
+
+He again began making systematic compressions of the lower part of the
+chest, rubbing the skin with his hands, half opening the eyelids,
+examining the pulse, and auscultating the region of the heart.
+
+The attention of the spectators was diverted an instant by a hubbub
+outside. A battalion of the 23d was passing, with music at the head,
+through the Rue de la Faisanderie. While the Sax-horns were shaking the
+windows, a sudden flash mantled on the cheeks of the Colonel. His eyes,
+which had stood half open, lit up with a brighter sparkle. At the same
+instant, Doctor Nibor, who had his ear applied to the chest, cried:
+
+"I hear the beatings of the heart!"
+
+Scarcely had he spoken, when the chest rose with a violent inspiration,
+the limbs contracted, the body straightened up, and out came a cry:
+"_Vive l'Empereur_."
+
+But as if so great an effort had overtasked his strength, Colonel Fougas
+fell back on the sofa, murmuring in a subdued voice:
+
+"Where am I? Waiter! Bring me a newspaper!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+WHEREIN COLONEL FOUGAS LEARNS SOME NEWS WHICH WILL APPEAR OLD TO MY
+READERS.
+
+
+Among all the persons present at this scene, there was not a single one
+who had ever seen a resuscitation. I leave you to imagine the surprise
+and joy which reigned in the laboratory. A triple round of applause,
+mingled with cheers, hailed the triumph of Doctor Nibor. The crowd,
+packed in the parlor, the passages, the court-yard, and even in the
+street, understood at this signal, that the miracle was accomplished.
+Nothing could hold them back, they forced the doors, cleared all
+obstacles, upset all the philosophers who tried to stop them, and
+finished by pouring into the chamber of Science.
+
+"Gentlemen!" cried M. Nibor, "Do you want to kill him?"
+
+But they let him talk. The wildest of all passions, curiosity, had long
+held dominion over the crowd: every one wanted to see, though at the
+risk of crushing the others. M. Nibor tumbled down, M. Renault and his
+son, in attempting to help him, were thrown on top of him; Madame
+Renault, in her turn, was thrown down at the feet of Fougas, and began
+screaming at the top of her voice.
+
+"Damnation!" said Fougas, straightening himself up as if by a spring,
+"these scoundrels will suffocate us if some one doesn't squelch them!"
+His attitude, the glare of his eyes, and, above all, the prestige of the
+miraculous, cleared a space around him. One would have thought that the
+walls had been stretched or that the spectators had slid into one
+another!
+
+"Out of here, every mother's son of you!" cried Fougas, in his fiercest
+tone of command. A tumult of cries, explanations, and remonstrances was
+raised around him; he fancied he heard menaces, he seized the first
+chair within reach, brandished it like a weapon, drove, hammered, upset
+the citizens, soldiers, officials, _savants_, friends, sight-seers,
+commissary of police--everybody, and urged the human torrent into the
+street with an uproar perfectly indescribable. This done, he shut the
+door and bolted it, returned to the laboratory, saw three men standing
+near Madame Renault, and said to the old lady, softening the tone of his
+voice:
+
+"Well, good mother, shall I serve these three like the others?"
+
+"No! No! No! Be careful!" cried the good old lady. "My husband and my
+son, Monsieur, and Doctor Nibor, who has restored you to life."
+
+"In that case all honor to them, good mother! Fougas has never violated
+the laws of gratitude and hospitality. As for you, my Esculapius, give
+me your hand!"
+
+At the same instant, he noticed ten or a dozen inquisitive people on
+tiptoe on the pavement just by the windows of the laboratory. Forthwith
+he marched and opened them with a precipitation which upset the gazers
+among the crowd.
+
+"People," said he, "I have knocked down a hundred beggarly pandours who
+respect neither sex nor infirmity. For the benefit of those who are not
+satisfied, I will state that I call myself colonel Fougas of the 23d.
+And _Vive l'Empereur!_"
+
+A confused mixture of plaudits, cries, laughs, and jeers, answered this
+unprecedented allocution. Leon Renault hastened out to make apologies to
+all to whom they were due. He invited a few friends to dine the same
+evening with the terrible colonel, and, of course, he did not forget to
+send a special messenger to Clementine. Fougas, after speaking to the
+people, returned to his hosts, swinging himself along with a swaggering
+air, set himself astride a chair, took hold of the ends of his
+moustache, and said:
+
+"Well! Come, let's talk this over. I've been sick then?"
+
+"Very sick."
+
+"That's fabulous! I feel entirely well. I'm hungry, and, moreover, while
+waiting for dinner, I'll even try a glass of your schnick."
+
+Mme. Renault went out, gave an order, and returned in an instant.
+
+"But tell me, then, where I am," resumed the colonel. "By these
+paraphernalia of work, I recognize a disciple of Urania; possibly a
+friend of Monge and Berthollet. But the cordial friendliness impressed
+on your countenances proves to me that you are not natives of this land
+of sour-krout. Yes, I believe it from the beatings of my heart. Friends,
+we have the same fatherland. The kindness of your reception, even were
+there no other indications, would have satisfied me that you are French.
+What accidents have brought you so far from our native soil? Children of
+my country, what tempest has thrown you upon this inhospitable shore?"
+
+"My dear Colonel," replied M. Nibor, "if you want to become very wise,
+you will not ask so many questions at once. Allow us the pleasure of
+instructing you quietly and in order, for you have a great many things
+to learn."
+
+The Colonel flushed with anger, and answered sharply:
+
+"At all events, you are not the man to teach them to me, my little
+gentleman!"
+
+A drop of blood which fell on his hand changed the current of his
+thoughts:
+
+"Hold on!" said he; "am I bleeding?"
+
+"That will amount to nothing; circulation is reëstablished, and your
+broken ear...."
+
+He quickly carried his hand to his ear and said:
+
+"It's certainly so. But Devil take me if I recollect this accident!"
+
+"I'll make you a little dressing, and in a couple of days there will be
+no trace of it left!"
+
+"Don't give yourself the trouble, my dear Hippocrates; a pinch of powder
+is a sovereign cure!"
+
+M. Nibor set to work to dress the ear in a little less military fashion.
+During his operations, Leon reëntered.
+
+"Ah! ah!" said he to the Doctor, "you are repairing the harm I did."
+
+"Thunderation!" cried Fougas, escaping from the hands of M. Nibor so as
+to seize Leon by the collar, "was it you, you rascal, that hurt my ear?"
+
+Leon was very good-natured, but his patience failed him. He pushed his
+man roughly aside.
+
+"Yes, sir, it was I who tore your ear, in pulling it, and if that little
+misfortune had not happened to me, it is certain that you would have
+been, to-day, six feet under ground. It is I who saved your life, after
+buying you with my money when you were not valued at more than
+twenty-five louis. It is I who have passed three days and two nights in
+cramming charcoal under your boiler. It is my father who gave you the
+clothes you now have on. You are in our house. Drink the little glass of
+brandy Gothon just brought you; but for God's sake give up the habit of
+calling me rascal, of calling my mother 'Good Mother.' and of flinging
+our friends into the street and calling them beggarly pandours!"
+
+The colonel, all dumbfounded, held out his hand to Leon, M. Renault and
+the doctor, gallantly kissed the hand of Mme. Renault, swallowed at a
+gulp a claret glass filled to the brim with brandy, and said in a
+subdued voice:
+
+"Most excellent friends, forget the vagaries of an impulsive but
+generous soul. To subdue my passions shall hereafter be my law. After
+conquering all the nations in the universe, it is well to conquer one's
+self."
+
+This said, he submitted his ear to M. Nibor, who finished dressing it.
+
+"But," said he, summoning up his recollections, "they did not shoot me
+then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And I wasn't frozen to death in the tower?"
+
+"Not quite."
+
+"Why has my uniform been taken off? I see! I am a prisoner!"
+
+"You are free."
+
+"Free! _Vive l'Empereur!_ But then, there's not a moment to lose! How
+many leagues is it to Dantzic?"
+
+"It's very far."
+
+"What do you call this chicken coop of a town?"
+
+"Fontainebleau."
+
+"Fontainebleau! In France?"
+
+"Prefecture of Seine-et-Marne. We are going to introduce to you the
+sub-prefect, whom you just pitched into the street."
+
+"What the Devil are your sub-prefects to me? I have a message from the
+Emperor for General Rapp, and I must start, this very day, for Dantzic.
+God knows whether I'll be there in time!"
+
+"My poor Colonel, you will arrive too late. Dantzic is given up."
+
+"That's impossible! Since when?"
+
+"About forty-six years ago."
+
+"Thunder! I did not understand that you were ... mocking me!"
+
+M. Nibor placed in his hand a calendar, and said: "See for yourself! It
+is now the 17th of August, 1859; you went to sleep in the tower of
+Liebenfeld on the 11th of November, 1813; there have been, then,
+forty-six years, all to three months, during which the world has moved
+on without you."
+
+"Twenty-four and forty-six; but then I would be seventy years old,
+according to your statement!"
+
+"Your vitality clearly shows that you are still twenty-four."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, tore up the calendar and said, beating the
+floor with his foot: "Your almanac is a humbug!"
+
+M. Renault ran to his library, took up half a dozen books at haphazard
+and made him read, at the foot of the title pages, the dates 1826, 1833,
+1847, 1858.
+
+"Pardon me!" said Fougas, burying his head in his hands. "What has
+happened to me is so new! I do not think that another human being was
+ever subjected to such a trial. I am seventy years old!"
+
+Good Madame Renault went and got a looking-glass from the bath room, and
+gave it to him, saying:
+
+"Look!"
+
+He took the glass in both hands, and was silently occupied in resuming
+acquaintance with himself, when a hand-organ came into the court and
+began playing "Partant pour la Syrie!"
+
+Fougas threw the mirror to the ground, and cried out:
+
+"What is that you were telling me? I hear the little song of Queen
+Hortense!"[4]
+
+M. Renault patiently explained to him, while picking up the pieces of
+the mirror, that the pretty little song of Queen Hortense had become a
+national air, and even an official one, since the regimental bands had
+substituted that gentle melody for the fierce Marsellaise, and that our
+soldiers, strange to say, had not fought any the worse for it. But the
+Colonel had already opened the window, and was crying out to the
+Savoyard:
+
+"Eh! Friend! A napoleon for you if you will tell me in what year I am
+drawing the breath of life!"
+
+The artist began dancing as lightly as possible playing on his musical
+instrument.
+
+"Advance at the order!" cried the Colonel, "and keep that devilish
+machine still!"
+
+"A little penny, my good monsieur!"
+
+"It is not a penny that I'll give you, but a napoleon, if you'll tell me
+what year it is."
+
+"Oh but that's funny! Hi--hi--hi!"
+
+"And if you don't tell me quicker than this amounts to, I'll cut your
+ears off!"
+
+The Savoyard ran away, but he came back pretty soon, having meditated,
+during his flight, on the maxim: "Nothing risk nothing gain."
+
+"Monsieur," said he, in a wheedling voice, "this is the year Eighteen
+Hundred and Fifty-nine."
+
+"Good!" cried Fougas. He felt in his pockets for money, and found
+nothing there. Leon saw his predicament, and flung twenty francs into
+the court. Before shutting the window, he pointed out, to the right, the
+façade of a pretty little new building where the Colonel could
+distinctly read
+
+    AUDRET ARCHITECTE.
+
+    MDCCCLIX.
+
+A perfectly satisfactory piece of evidence, and one which did not cost
+twenty francs.
+
+Fougas, a little confused, pressed Leon's hand, and said to him:
+
+"My friend, I do not forget that Confidence is the first duty from
+Gratitude toward Beneficence. But tell me of our country! I tread the
+sacred soil where I received my being, and I am ignorant of the career
+of my native land. France is still the queen of the world, is she not?"
+
+"Certainly," said Leon.
+
+"How is the Emperor?"
+
+"Well."
+
+"And the Empress?"
+
+"Very well."
+
+"And the King of Rome?"
+
+"The Prince Imperial? He is a very fine child."
+
+"How? A fine child! And you have the face to say that this is 1859!"
+
+M. Nibor took up the conversation, and explained in a few words that the
+reigning sovereign of France was not Napoleon I., but Napoleon III.
+
+"But then," cried Fougas, "my Emperor is dead!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Impossible! Tell me anything you will but that! My Emperor is
+immortal."
+
+M. Nibor and the Renaults, who were not quite professional historians,
+were obliged to give him a summary of the history of our century. Some
+one went after a big book written by M. de Norvins and illustrated with
+fine engravings by Raffet. He only believed in the presence of Truth
+when he could touch her with his hand, and still cried out almost every
+moment: "That's impossible! This is not history that you are reading to
+me: it is a romance written to make soldiers weep!"
+
+This young man must indeed have had a strong and well-tempered soul, for
+he learned in forty minutes all the woful events which Fortune had
+scattered through eighteen years, from the first abdication up to the
+death of the King of Rome. Less happy than his old companions in arms,
+he had no interval of repose between these terrible and repeated
+shocks, all beating upon his heart at the same time. One could have
+feared that the blow might prove mortal, and poor Fougas die in the
+first hour of his recovered life. But the imp of a fellow yielded and
+recovered himself in quick succession like a spring. He cried out with
+admiration on hearing of the five battles of the campaign in France; he
+reddened with grief at the farewells of Fontainebleau. The return from
+the Isle of Elba transfigured his handsome and noble countenance; at
+Waterloo his heart rushed in with the last army of the Empire, and there
+shattered itself. Then he clenched his fists and said between his teeth:
+"If I had been there at the head of the 23d, Blucher and Wellington
+would have seen another fate!" The invasion, the truce, the martyr of
+St. Helena, the ghastly terror of Europe, the murder of Murat--the idol
+of the cavalry, the death of Ney, Bruno, Mouton Duvernet, and so many
+other whole-souled men whom he had known, admired, and loved, threw him
+into a series of paroxysms of rage, but nothing upset him. In hearing of
+the death of Napoleon, he swore that he would eat the heart of England;
+the slow agony of the pale and interesting heir of the Empire, inspired
+him with a passion to tear the vitals out of Austria. When the drama was
+over and the curtain fell on Schoenbrunn, he dashed away his tears and
+said: "It is well. I have lived in a moment a man's entire life. Now
+show me the map of France!"
+
+Leon began to turn over the leaves of an atlas, while M. Renault
+attempted to continue narrating to the colonel the history of the
+Restoration, and of the monarchy of 1830. But Fougas' interest was in
+other things.
+
+"What do I care," said he, "if a couple of hundred babblers of deputies
+put one king in place of another? Kings! I've seen enough of them in the
+dirt. If the Empire had lasted ten years longer, I could have had a king
+for a boot-black."
+
+When the atlas was placed before him, he at once cried out with profound
+disdain: "That, France!" But soon two tears of pitying affection
+escaping from his eyes, swelled the rivers Ardeche and Gironde. He
+kissed the map and said, with an emotion which communicated itself to
+nearly all present:
+
+"Forgive me, poor old love, for insulting your misfortunes. Those
+scoundrels whom we always whipped have profited by my sleep to pare down
+your frontiers; but little or great, rich or poor, you are my mother,
+and I love you as a faithful son! Here is Corsica, where the giant of
+our age was born; here is Toulouse, where I first saw the light; here is
+Nancy where I felt my heart awakened, where, perhaps, she whom I call my
+Ægle waits for me still! France! Thou hast a temple in my soul; this arm
+is thine; thou shalt find me ever ready to shed my blood to the last
+drop in defending or avenging thee!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE CONVALESCENT'S FIRST MEAL.
+
+
+The messenger whom Leon had sent to Moret, could not reach there before
+seven o'clock. Supposing that he would find the ladies at table with
+their hosts, that the great news would cut the dinner short, and that
+there would be a carriage handy, Clementine and her aunt would probably
+be at Fontainebleau between ten and eleven o'clock. Young Renault
+rejoiced in advance over the happiness of his _fiancée_. What a joy it
+would be for her and for him when he should present to her the
+miraculous man whom she had protected against the horrors of the tomb,
+and whom he had resuscitated in answer to her entreaty!
+
+Meanwhile Gothon, proud and happy to the same degree that she had before
+been scandalized and annoyed, spread the table for a dozen persons. Her
+yoke-fellow, a young rustic of eighteen, half-fledged in the commune of
+Sablons, helped her with all his might, and amused her with his
+conversation.
+
+"Well, now, Ma'm'selle Gothon," said he, setting down a pile of empty
+plates, "this is what one might call a ghost coming out of its box to
+upset the commissary and the sub-prefect!"
+
+"Ghost, if you'll have it so, Célestin; it's certain-sure that he comes
+from a good ways, poor young man! But perhaps 'ghost' isn't a proper
+word to use in speaking of our masters."
+
+"Is it true, then, that he has come to be our master too? Too many of
+_them_ come every day. I'd like it better if more servants and help
+would come!"
+
+"Shut up, you lizard of laziness! When the gentlemen leaves tips for us
+on going away, you don't complain because there's only two to divide
+'em."
+
+"That's all well enough as far as it goes! I've carried more than fifty
+buckets of water for him to simmer in, that Colonel of yours, and I know
+mighty well that he won't give me a cent, for he hasn't a farthing in
+his pockets. We've got to believe that money isn't plenty in the country
+he just came from!"
+
+"They say there's wills in his favor in Strasburg; a gentleman who'd
+hurt his fortune----"
+
+"Tell me now, Ma'm'selle Gothon--you who read a little book every
+Sunday--where he could have been, our Colonel, while he was not in this
+world."
+
+"Eh! In purgatory, of course!"
+
+"Then why don't you ask him about that famous Baptiste, your sweetheart
+in 1837, who let himself tumble off a roof, and on whose account you
+have so many masses said? They ought to have met each other down there!"
+
+"That's very possible."
+
+"Unless Baptiste has left there since the time when you paid so much
+money to get him out."
+
+"Very well. I'll go this very evening to the Colonel's chamber, and,
+since he's not proud, he'll tell me all he knows about it.--But,
+Célestin, are'nt you never going to act different? Here you've rubbed my
+silver pickle knives on the grindstone again!"
+
+The guests came into the parlor, where the Renault family with M. Nibor
+and the Colonel were already assembled. There were successively
+presented to M. Fougas the mayor of the city, Doctor Martout, Master
+Bonnivet the notary, M. Audret, and three members of the Paris
+committee; the other three had been obliged to return before dinner. The
+guests were not entirely at their ease; their sides, bruised by the
+first movements of Fougas, left room for them to suppose that possibly
+they were dining with a maniac. But curiosity was stronger than fear.
+The Colonel soon reassured them by a most cordial reception. He excused
+himself for acting the part of a man just returned from the other world.
+He talked a great deal--a little too much, perhaps; but they were so
+well pleased to listen to him, and his words borrowed such an importance
+from the singularity of recent events, that he gained an unqualified
+success. He was told that Dr. Martout had been one of the principal
+agents of his resuscitation, in conjunction with another person whom
+they promised soon to present to him. He thanked M. Martout warmly, and
+asked how soon he could evince his gratitude to the other person.
+
+"I hope," said Leon, "that you will see her this evening."
+
+No one came later than the colonel of the 23d of the line, M. Rollon. He
+made his way with no little difficulty through the crowds of people who
+filled the Rue de la Faisanderie. He was a man of forty-five, with a
+quick voice, and full figure. His hair was a little grizzled, but his
+brown mustache, full, and twisted at the ends, looked as young as ever.
+He said little, spoke to the point, knew a great deal, and did no
+boasting--all in all, he was a fine specimen of a colonel. He came right
+up to Fougas, and held out his hand like an old acquaintance.
+
+"My dear comrade," said he, "I have taken great interest in your
+resurrection, as much on my own account as on account of the regiment.
+The 23d which I have the honor to command, yesterday venerated you as an
+ancestor. From to-day, it will cherish you as a friend."--Not the
+slightest allusion to the affair of the morning, in which M. Rollon had
+undergone his pummelling with the rest.
+
+Fougas answered becomingly, but with, a tinge of coldness:
+
+"My dear comrade, I thank you for your kindly sentiments. It is singular
+that Destiny places me in the presence of my successor on the very day
+that I reopen my eyes to the light; for, after all, I am neither dead
+nor a general; I have not been transferred, nor have I been retired; yet
+I see another officer, more worthy, doubtless, at the head of my noble
+23d. But if you have for your motto 'Honor and Courage,' as I am well
+satisfied you have, I have no right to complain, and the regiment is in
+good hands."
+
+Dinner was ready. Mme. Renault took Fougas' arm. She had him sit at her
+right, and M. Nibor at her left. The Colonel and the Mayor took their
+places at the sides of M. Renault; the rest of the company distributed
+themselves as it happened, regardless of etiquette.
+
+Fougas gulped down the soup and _entrées_, helping himself to every
+dish, and drinking in proportion. An appetite of the other world!
+"Estimable Amphitryon," said he to M. Renault, "don't get frightened at
+seeing me fall upon the rations. I always ate just so; except during the
+retreat in Russia. Consider, too, that I went to sleep last night, at
+Liebenfeld, without any supper."
+
+He begged M. Nibor to explain to him by what course of circumstances he
+had come from Liebenfeld to Fontainebleau.
+
+"Do you remember," said the doctor, "an old German who acted as
+interpreter for you before the court-martial?"
+
+"Perfectly. An excellent man, with a violet-colored wig. I'll remember
+him all my life, for there are not two wigs of that color in existence."
+
+"Very well; it was the man with the violet wig, otherwise known as the
+celebrated Doctor Meiser, who saved your life."
+
+"Where is he? I want to see him, to fall into his arms, to tell him----"
+
+"He was sixty-eight years old when he did you that little service; he
+would then be, to-day, in his hundred and fifteenth year, if he had
+waited for your acknowledgments."
+
+"And so, then, he is no more! Death has robbed him of my gratitude!"
+
+"You do not yet know all that you owe to him. He bequeathed you, in
+1824, a fortune of seventy-five thousand francs, of which you are the
+rightful owner. Now, since a sum invested at five per cent, doubles
+itself in fourteen years--thanks to compound interest--you were worth,
+in 1838, a trifle of seven hundred and fifty thousand francs; and in
+1852, a million and a half. In fine, if you are satisfied to leave your
+property in the hands of Herr Nicholas Meiser, of Dantzic, that worthy
+man will owe you three millions at the commencement of 1866--that is to
+say, in seven years. We will give you, this evening, a copy of your
+benefactor's will; it is a very instructive document, and you can
+consider it when you go to bed."
+
+"I'll read it willingly," said Colonel Fougas. "But gold has no
+attractions for my eyes. Wealth engenders weakness. Me, to languish in
+the sluggish idleness of Sybaris!--to enervate my senses on a bed of
+roses! Never! The smell of powder is dearer to me than all the perfumes
+of Arabia. Life would have no charm or zest for me, if I had to give up
+the inspiriting clash of arms. On the day when you are told that Fougas
+no longer marches in the columns of the army, you can safely answer, 'It
+is because Fougas is no more!'"
+
+He turned to the new colonel of the 23d, and said:
+
+"Oh! do you, my dear comrade, tell them that the proud pomp of wealth is
+a thousand times less sweet than the austere simplicity of the
+soldier--of a colonel, more than all. Colonels are the kings of the
+army. A colonel is less than a general, but nevertheless he has
+something more. He lives more with the soldier; he penetrates further
+into the intimacy of his command. He is the father, the judge, the
+friend of his regiment. The welfare of each one of his men is in his
+hands; the flag is placed under his tent or in his chamber. The colonel
+and the flag are not two separate existences; one is the soul, the other
+is the body."
+
+He asked M. Rollon's permission to go to see and embrace the flag of the
+23d.
+
+"You shall see it to-morrow morning," said the new colonel, "if you will
+do me the honor to breakfast with me in company with some of my
+officers."
+
+He accepted the invitation with enthusiasm, and flung himself into the
+midst of a thousand questions touching pay, the amount retained for
+clothing, promotion, roster, reserve, uniform, full and fatigue dress,
+armament, and tactics. He understood, without difficulty, the advantages
+of the percussion gun, but the attempt to explain rifled cannon to him
+was in vain. Artillery was not his forte; but he avowed, nevertheless,
+that Napoleon had owed more than one victory to his fine artillery.
+
+While the innumerable roasts of Mme. Renault were succeeding each other
+on the table, Fougas asked--but without ever losing a bite--what were
+the principal wars in progress, how many nations France had on her
+hands, and if it was not intended ultimately to recommence the conquest
+of the world? The answers which he received, without completely
+satisfying him, did not entirely deprive him of hope.
+
+"I did well to come," said he; "there's work to do."
+
+The African wars did not interest him much, although in them the 23d had
+won a good share of glory.
+
+"As a school, it's very well," said he. "The soldier ought to train
+himself in other ways than in the Tivoli gardens, behind nurses'
+petticoats. But why the devil are not five hundred thousand men flung
+upon the back of England? England is the soul of the coalition, I can
+tell you that."
+
+How many explanations were necessary to make him understand the Crimean
+war, where the English had fought by our sides!
+
+"I can understand," said he, "why we took a crack at the Russians--they
+made me eat my best horse. But the English are a thousand times worse.
+If this young man" (the Emperor Napoleon III.) "doesn't know it, I'll
+tell him. There is no quarter possible after what they did at St.
+Helena! If I had been commander-in-chief in the Crimea, I would have
+begun by properly squelching the Russians, after which I would have
+turned upon the English, and hurled them into the sea. It's their
+element, anyhow."
+
+They gave him some details of the Italian campaign, and he was charmed
+to learn that the 23d had taken a redoubt under the eyes of the Marshal
+the Duke of Solferino.
+
+"That's the habit of the regiment," said he, shedding tears in his
+napkin. "That brigand of a 23d will never act in any other way. The
+goddess of Victory has touched it with her wing."
+
+One of the things, for example, which greatly astonished him, was that a
+war of such importance was finished up in so short a time. He had yet to
+learn that within a few years the world had learned the secret of
+transporting a hundred thousand men, in four days, from one end of
+Europe to the other.
+
+"Good!" said he; "I admit the practicability of it. But what astonishes
+me is, that the Emperor did not invent this affair in 1810; for he had a
+genius for transportation, a genius for administration, a genius for
+office details, a genius for everything. But (to resume your story) the
+Austrians are fortified at last, and you cannot possibly get to Vienna
+in less than three months."
+
+"We did not go so far, in fact."
+
+"You did not push on to Vienna?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, then, where did you sign the treaty of peace?"
+
+"At Villafranca."
+
+"At Villafranca? That's the capital of Austria, then?"
+
+"No; it's a village of Italy."
+
+"Monsieur, I don't admit that treaties of peace are signed anywhere but
+in capitals. That was our principle, our A B C, the first paragraph of
+our theory. It seems as if the world must have changed a good deal while
+I was not in it. But patience!"
+
+And now truth obliges me to confess that Fougas got drunk at dessert. He
+had drunk and eaten like a Homeric hero, and talked more fluently than
+Cicero in his best days. The fumes of wine, spices, and eloquence
+mounted into his brain. He became familiar, spoke affectionately to some
+and rudely to others, and poured out a torrent of absurdities big enough
+to turn forty mills. His drunkenness, however, had in it nothing brutal,
+or even ignoble; it was but the overflowing of a spirit young,
+affectionate, vain-glorious, and unbalanced. He proposed five or six
+toasts--to Glory, to the Extension of our Frontiers, to the Destruction
+of the last of the English, to Mlle. Mars--the hope of the French
+stage, to Affection--the tie, fragile but dear, which unites the lover
+to his sweetheart, the father to his son, the colonel to his regiment!
+
+His style, a singular mixture of familiarity and impressiveness,
+provoked more than one smile among the auditory. He noticed it, and a
+spark of defiance flashed up at the bottom of his heart. From time to
+time he loudly asked if "those people there" were not abusing his
+ingenuousness.
+
+"Confusion!" cried he, "Confusion to those who want me to take bladders
+for lanterns! The lantern may blaze out like a bomb, and carry
+consternation in its path!"
+
+After a series of such remarks, there was nothing left for him to do but
+to roll under the table, and this _dénoûement_ was generally expected.
+But the Colonel belonged to a robust generation, accustomed to more than
+one kind of excess, and strong to resist pleasure as well as dangers,
+privations, and fatigues. So when Madame Renault pushed back her chair,
+in indication that the repast was finished, Fougas arose without
+difficulty, gracefully offered his arm, and conducted his partner to the
+parlor. His gait was a little stiff and oppressively regular, but he
+went straight ahead, and did not oscillate the least bit. He took a
+couple of cups of coffee, and spirits in moderation, after which he
+began to talk in the most reasonable manner in the world. About ten
+o'clock, M. Martout, having expressed a wish to hear his history, he
+placed himself on a stool, collected his ideas for a moment, and asked
+for a glass of water and sugar. The company seated themselves in a
+circle around him, and he commenced the following narrative, the
+slightly antiquated style of which craves your indulgence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+HISTORY OF COLONEL FOUGAS, RELATED BY HIMSELF.
+
+
+"Do not expect that I will ornament my story with those flowers, more
+agreeable than substantial, which Imagination often uses to gloss over
+truth. A Frenchman and a soldier, I doubly ignore deception. Friendship
+interrogates me, Frankness shall answer.
+
+"I was born of poor but honest parents at the beginning of the year
+which the _Jeu de Paume_[5] brightened with an aurora of liberty. The
+south was my native clime; the language dear to the troubadours was that
+which I lisped in my cradle. My birth cost my mother's life. The author
+of mine was the humble owner of a little farm, and moistened his bread
+in the sweat of labor. My first sports were not those of wealth. The
+many-colored pebbles which are found by the brooks, and that well-known
+insect which childhood holds fluttering, free and captive at the same
+time, at the end of a thread, stood me in stead of other playthings.
+
+"An old minister at Devotion's altar, enfranchised from the shadowy
+bondage of fanaticism, and reconciled to the new institutions of France,
+was my Chiron and Mentor. He nourished me with the strong lion's marrow
+of Rome and Athens; his lips distilled into my ears the embalmed honey
+of wisdom. Honor to thee, learned and venerable man, who gavest me the
+first precepts of wisdom and the first examples of virtue!
+
+"But already that atmosphere of glory which the genius of one man and
+the valor of a nation had set floating over the country, filled all my
+senses, and made my young heart throb. France, on the edge of the
+volcano of civil war, had collected all her forces into a thunderbolt to
+launch upon Europe, and the world, astounded if not overwhelmed, was
+shrinking from the surge of the unchained torrent. What man, what
+Frenchman, could have heard with indifference that echo of victory
+reverberating through millions of hearts?
+
+"While scarcely leaving childhood, I felt that honor is more precious
+than life. The warlike music of the drums brought to my eyes brave and
+manly tears. 'And I, too,' said I, following the music of the regiments
+through the streets of Toulouse, 'will pluck laurels though I sprinkle
+them with my blood.' The pale olive of peace had from me nothing but
+scorn. The peaceful triumphs of the law, the calm pleasures of commerce
+and finance, were extolled in vain. To the toga of our Ciceros, to the
+robe of our magistrates, to the curule chair of our legislators, to the
+opulence of our Mondors, I preferred the sword. One would have said that
+I had sucked the milk of Bellona. 'Victory or Death!' was already my
+motto, and I was not sixteen years old.
+
+"With what noble scorn I heard recounted the history of our Proteuses of
+politics! With what disdainful glances I regarded the Turcarets of
+finance, lolling on the cushions of some magnificent carriage, and
+conducted by a laced automaton to the boudoir of some Aspasia. But if I
+heard told the mighty deeds of the Knights of the Round Table, or the
+valor of the crusaders celebrated in flowing verse; if chance placed in
+my hand the great actions of our modern Rolands, recounted in an army
+bulletin by the successor of Charlemagne, a flame presaging the fire of
+battles rose in my young eyes.
+
+"Ah, the inaction was too much, and my leading-strings, already worn by
+impatience, would have broken, perhaps, had not a father's wisdom untied
+them.
+
+"'Most surely,' said he to me, trying, but in vain, to restrain his
+tears, 'it was no tyrant who begot you, and I will not poison the life
+which I myself gave you. I had hoped that your hand would remain in our
+cottage to close my eyes; but when Patriotism has spoken, Egotism must
+be still. My prayers will always follow you to the field where Mars
+harvests heroes. May you merit the guerdon of valor, and show yourself a
+good citizen, as you have been a good son!'
+
+"Speaking thus, he opened his arms to me. I threw myself into them; we
+mingled our tears, and I promised to return to our hearthstone as soon
+as I could bring the star of honor suspended from my breast. But alas!
+my unhappy father was destined to see me no more. The fate which was
+already gilding the thread of my days, pitilessly severed that of his. A
+stranger's hand closed his eyes, while I was gaining my first epaulette
+at the battle of Jena.
+
+"Lieutenant at Eylau, captain at Wagram, and there decorated by the
+Emperor's own hand on the field of battle, major before Almieda,
+lieutenant-colonel at Badajoz, colonel at Moscow, I have drunk the cup
+of victory to the full. But I have also tasted the chalice of adversity.
+The frozen plains of Russia saw me alone with a platoon of braves, the
+last remnant of my regiment, forced to devour the mortal remains of that
+faithful friend who had so often carried me into the very heart of the
+enemy's battalions. Trusty and affectionate companion of my dangers,
+when rendered useless by an accident at Smolensk, he devoted his very
+_manes_ to the safety of his master, and made of his skin a protection
+for my frozen and lacerated feet.
+
+"My tongue refuses to repeat the story of our perils in that terrible
+campaign. Perhaps some day I will write it with a pen dipped in
+tears--tears, the tribute of feeble humanity. Surprised by the season of
+frosts in a zone of ice, without fire, without bread, without shoes,
+without means of transportation, denied the succor of Esculapius' art,
+harassed by the Cossacks, robbed by the peasants--positive vampires, we
+saw our mute thunderers, which had fallen into the enemy's hands, belch
+forth death upon ourselves. What more can I tell you? The passage of the
+Beresina, the opposition at Wilna--Oh, ye gods of Thunder!--- But I feel
+that grief overcomes me, and that my language is becoming tinged with
+the bitterness of these recollections.
+
+"Nature and Love were holding in reserve for me brief but precious
+consolations. Released from my fatigues, I passed a few happy days in my
+native land among the peaceful vales of Nancy. While our phalanxes were
+preparing themselves for fresh combats, while I was gathering around my
+flag three thousand young but valorous warriors, all resolved to open to
+posterity the path of honor, a new emotion, to which I had before been a
+stranger, furtively glided into my soul.
+
+"Beautified by all Nature's gifts, enriched by the fruits of an
+excellent education, the young and interesting Clementine had scarcely
+passed from the uncertain shadows of childhood into the sweet illusions
+of youth. Eighteen springs composed her life. Her parents extended to
+some of the army officers a hospitality which, though it was not
+gratuitous, was far from lacking in cordiality. To see their child and
+love her, was for me the affair of a day. Her virgin heart smiled upon
+my love. At the first avowals dictated to me by my passion, I saw her
+forehead color with a lovely modesty. We exchanged our vows one lovely
+evening in June, under an arbor where her happy father sometimes
+dispensed to the thirsty officers the brown liquor of the North. I swore
+that she should be my wife, and she promised to be mine; she yielded
+still more. Our happiness, regardless of all outside, had the calmness
+of a brook whose pure wave is never troubled by the storm, and which
+rolls sweetly between flowery banks, spreading its own freshness through
+the grove that protects its modest course.
+
+"A lightning stroke separated us from each other at the moment when Law
+and Religion were about adding their sanction to our sweet communion. I
+departed before I was able to give my name to her who had given me her
+heart. I promised to return; she promised to wait for me; and, all
+bathed in her tears, I tore myself from her arms, to rush to the laurels
+of Dresden and the cypresses of Leipzic. A few lines from her hand
+reached me during the interval between the two battles. 'You are to be a
+father,' she told me. Am I one? God knows! Has she waited for me? I
+believe she has. The waiting must have appeared to be a long one since
+the birth of this child, who is forty-six years old to-day, and who
+could be, in his turn, my father.
+
+"Pardon me for having troubled you so long with misfortunes. I wished to
+pass rapidly over this sad history, but the unhappiness of virtue has in
+it something sweet to temper the bitterness of grief.
+
+"Some days after the disaster of Leipzic, the giant of our age had me
+called into his tent, and said to me:
+
+"'Colonel, are you a man to make your way through four armies?'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'Alone, and without escort?'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'There must be a letter carried to Dantzic.'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'You will deliver it into General Rapp's own hands?'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'It is probable you will be taken, or killed.'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'For that reason I send two other officers with copies of the same
+despatch. There are three of you; the enemy will kill two, the third
+will get there, and France will be saved.'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'The one who returns shall be a brigadier-general.'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"Every detail of this interview, every word of the Emperor, every
+response which I had the honor to address to him, is still engraved upon
+my memory. All three of us set out separately. Alas! not one of us
+reached the goal aimed at by his valor, and I have learned to-day that
+France was not saved. But when I see these blockheads of historians
+asserting that the Emperor forgot to send orders to General Rapp, I
+feel a terrible itching to cut their ---- story short, at least.
+
+"'When a prisoner in the hands of the Russians in a German village, I
+had the consolation of finding an old philosopher, who gave me the
+rarest proofs of friendship. Who would have told me, when I succumbed to
+the numbness of the cold in the tower of Liebenfeld, that that sleep
+would not be the last? God is my witness, that in then addressing, from
+the bottom of my heart, a last farewell to Clementine, I did not even
+hope to see her again. I will see you again, then, O sweet and confiding
+Clementine--best of spouses, and, probably, of mothers! What do I say? I
+see her now! My eyes do not deceive me! This is surely she! There she
+is, just as I left her! Clementine! In my arms! On my heart! Look here!
+What's this you've been whining to me, the rest of you? Napoleon is not
+dead, and the world has not grown forty-six years older, for Clementine
+is still the same!"
+
+The betrothed of Leon Renault was about entering the room, and stopped
+petrified at finding herself so overwhelmingly received by the Colonel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE GAME OF LOVE AND WAR.
+
+
+As she was evidently backward in falling into his arms, Fougas imitated
+Mahomet, and ran to the mountain.
+
+"Oh, Clementine!" said he, covering her with kisses, "the friendly Fates
+give you back to my devotion. I clasp once more the partner of my life
+and the mother of my child!"
+
+The young lady was so astounded, that she did not even dream of
+defending herself. Happily, Leon Renault extricated her from the hands
+of the Colonel, and placed himself between them, determined to defend
+his own.
+
+"Monsieur," cried he, clenching his fists, "you deceive yourself
+entirely, if you think you know _Mademoiselle_. She is not a person of
+your time, but of ours; she is not your _fiancée_, but mine; she has
+never been the mother of your child, and I trust that she will be the
+mother of mine!"
+
+Fougas was iron. He seized his rival by the arm, sent him off spinning
+like a top, and put himself face to face with the young girl.
+
+"Are you Clementine?" he demanded of her.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur."
+
+"I call you all to witness that she is my Clementine!"
+
+Leon returned to the charge, and seized the Colonel by the collar, at
+the risk of getting himself dashed against the walls.
+
+"We've had joking enough!" said he. "Possibly you don't pretend to
+monopolize all the Clementines in the world? Mademoiselle's name is
+Clementine Sambucco; she was born at Martinique, where you never set
+your foot, if I am to believe what you have said within an hour. She is
+eighteen years old----"
+
+"So was the other!"
+
+"Eh! The other is sixty-four to-day, since she was eighteen in 1813.
+Mlle. Sambucco is of an honorable and well-known family. Her father, M.
+Sambucco, was a magistrate; her grandfather was a functionary of the war
+department. You see, she is in no way connected with you, nearly or
+remotely; and good sense and politeness, to say nothing of gratitude,
+make it your duty to leave her in peace."
+
+He gave the Colonel a shove, in his turn, and made him tumble between
+the arms of a sofa.
+
+Fougas bounded up as if he had been thrown on a million springs. But
+Clementine stopped him, with a gesture and a smile.
+
+"Monsieur," said she in her most caressing voice, "do not get angry with
+him; he loves me."
+
+"So much the more reason why I should! Damnation!"
+
+He cooled down, nevertheless, made the young lady sit down beside him,
+and regarded her from head to foot with the most absorbed attention.
+
+"This is surely she," said he. "My memory, my eyes, my heart, everything
+in me, recognizes her, and tells me that it is she. And nevertheless the
+testimony of mankind, the calculation of times and distances, in a word,
+the very soul of evidence, seems to have made it a special point to
+convict me of error.
+
+"Is it possible, then, that two women should so resemble each other?
+Am I the victim of an illusion of the senses? Have I recovered life
+only to lose reason? No; I know myself, I find myself the same; my
+judgment is firm and accurate, and can make its way in this world
+so new and topsy-turvy. It is on but one point that my reason
+wavers--Clementine!--I seem to see you again, and you are not you! Well,
+what's the difference, after all? If the Destiny which snatched me from
+the tomb has taken care to present to my awaking sense the image of her
+I loved, it must be because it had resolved to give me back, one after
+another, all the blessings which I had lost. In a few days, my
+epaulettes; to-morrow, the flag of the 23d of the line; to-day this
+adorable presence which made my heart beat for the first time! Living
+image of all that is sweetest and clearest in the past, I throw myself
+at your feet! Be my wife!"
+
+The devil of a fellow joined the deed to the word, and the witnesses of
+the unexpected scene opened their eyes to the widest. But Clementine's
+aunt, the austere Mlle. Sambucco, thought that it was time to show her
+authority. She stretched out her big, wrinkled hands, seized Fougas,
+jerked him sharply to his feet, and cried in her shrillest voice:
+
+"Enough, sir; it is time to put an end to this scandalous farce! My
+niece is not for you; I have promised her and given her away. Know that,
+day after to-morrow, the 19th of this month, at ten o'clock in the
+morning, she will marry M. Leon Renault, your benefactor!"
+
+"And I forbid it--do you hear, Madame Aunt? And if she pretends to marry
+this boy----"
+
+"What will you do?"
+
+"I'll curse her!"
+
+Leon could not help laughing. The malediction of this
+twenty-five-year-old Colonel appeared rather more comic than terrible.
+But Clementine grew pale, burst into tears, and fell, in her turn, at
+the feet of Fougas.
+
+"Monsieur," cried she, kissing his hands, "do not overwhelm a poor girl
+who venerates you, who loves you, who will sacrifice her happiness if
+you demand it! By all the marks of tenderness which I have lavished upon
+you for a month, by the tears I have poured upon your coffin, by the
+respectful zeal with which I have urged on your resuscitation, I conjure
+you to pardon our offences. I will not marry Leon if you forbid me; I
+will do anything to please you; I will obey you in everything; but, for
+God's sake, do not pour upon me your maledictions!"
+
+"Embrace me," said Fougas. "You yield; I pardon."
+
+Clementine raised herself, all radiant with joy, and held up her
+beautiful forehead. The stupefaction of the spectators, especially of
+those most interested, can be better imagined than described. An old
+mummy dictating laws, breaking off marriages, and imposing his desires
+on the whole house! Pretty little Clementine, so reasonable, so
+obedient, so happy in the prospect of marrying Leon Renault,
+sacrificing, all at once, her affections, her happiness, and almost her
+duty, to the caprice of an interloper. M. Nibor declared that it was
+madness. As for Leon, he would have butted his head into all the walls,
+if his mother had not held him back.
+
+"Ah, my poor child!" said she, "why did you bring that thing from
+Berlin?"
+
+"It's my fault!" cried old Monsieur Renault.
+
+"No," interrupted Dr. Martout, "it's mine."
+
+The members of the Parisian committee discussed with M. Rollon the new
+aspect of the case. "Had they resuscitated a madman? Had the
+revivification produced some disorder of the nervous system? Had the
+abuse of wine and other drinkables during the first repast caused a
+delirium? What an interesting autopsy it would be, if they could dissect
+M. Fougas at the next regular meeting!"
+
+"You would do very well as far as you would go, gentlemen," said the
+Colonel of the 23d. "The autopsy might explain the delirium of our
+unfortunate friend, but it would not account for the impression produced
+upon the young lady. Is it fascination, magnetism, or what?"
+
+While the friends and relations were weeping, counselling, and buzzing
+around him, Fougas, serene and smiling, gazed at himself in Clementine's
+eyes, while they, too, regarded him tenderly.
+
+"This must be brought to an end!" cried Mlle. Sambucco the severe.
+"Come, Clementine!"
+
+Fougas seemed surprised.
+
+"She doesn't live here, then?"
+
+"No, sir; she lives with me."
+
+"Then I will escort her home. Angel! will you take my arm?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Monsieur, with great pleasure!"
+
+Leon gnashed his teeth.
+
+"This is admirable! He presumes on such familiarity, and she takes it
+all as a matter of course!"
+
+He went to get his hat, for the purpose of, at least, going home with
+the aunt, but his hat was not in its place; Fougas, who had not yet one
+of his own, had helped himself to it without ceremony. The poor lover
+crowded his head into a cap, and followed Fougas and Clementine, with
+the respectable Virginie, whose arm cut like a scythe.
+
+By an accident which happened almost daily, the Colonel of cuirassiers
+met Clementine on the way home. The young lady directed Fougas'
+attention to him.
+
+"That's M. du Marnet," said she. "His restaurant is at the end of our
+street, and his room at the side of the park. I think he is very much
+taken with my little self, but he has never even bowed to me. The only
+man for whom my heart has ever beaten is Leon Renault."
+
+"Ah, indeed! And me?" said Fougas.
+
+"Oh! as for you, that's another matter. I respect you, and stand in awe
+of you. It seems to me as if you were a good and respectable parent."
+
+"Thank you!"
+
+"I'm telling you the truth, as far as I can read it in my heart. All
+this is not very clear, I confess, but I do not understand myself."
+
+"Azure flower of innocence, I adore your sweet perplexity! Let love take
+care of itself; it will speak to you in master tones."
+
+"I don't know anything about that; it's possible! Here we are at home.
+Good evening, Monsieur; embrace me.--Good night, Leon; don't quarrel
+with M. Fougas. I love him with all my heart, but I love you in a
+different way!"
+
+The aunt Virginie made no response to the "Good evening" of Fougas. When
+the two men were alone in the street, Leon marched along without saying
+a word, till they reached the next lamp-post. There, planting himself
+resolutely opposite the Colonel, he said,
+
+"Well, sir, now that we are alone, we had better have an explanation. I
+don't know by what philter or incantation you have obtained such
+prodigious influence over my betrothed; but I know that I love her, that
+I have been loved by her more than four years, and that I will not stop
+at any means of retaining and protecting her."
+
+"Friend," answered Fougas, "you can brave me with impunity; my arm is
+chained by gratitude. It shall never be written in history that Pierre
+Fougas was an ingrate!"
+
+"Would it have been more ungrateful in you to cut my throat, than to rob
+me of my wife?"
+
+"Oh, my benefactor! Learn to understand and pardon! God forbid that I
+should marry Clementine in spite of you, in spite of herself. It is
+through her consent and your own that I hope to win her. Realize that
+she has been dear to me, not for four years, as to you, but for nearly
+half a century. Reflect that I am alone on earth, and that her sweet
+face is my only consolation. Will you, who have given me life, prevent
+my spending it happily? Have you called me back to the world only to
+deliver me over to despair?--Tiger! Take back, then, the life you gave
+me, if you will not permit me to consecrate it to the adorable
+Clementine!"
+
+"Upon my soul, my dear fellow, you are superb! The habit of victory must
+have totally twisted your wits. My hat is on your head:--keep it; so far
+so good. But because my betrothed happens to remind you vaguely of a
+girl in Nancy, must I give her up to you? I can't see it!"
+
+"Friend, I will give you back your hat just as soon as you've bought me
+another one; but do not ask me to give up Clementine. In the first
+place, do you know that she will reject me?"
+
+"I'm sure of it."
+
+"She loves me."
+
+"You're crazy!"
+
+"You've seen her at my feet."
+
+"What of that? It was from fear, from respect, from superstition, from
+anything in the devil's name you choose to call it; but it was not from
+love."
+
+"We'll see about that pretty clearly, after six months of married life."
+
+"But," cried Leon Renault, "have you the right to dispose of yourself?
+There is another Clementine, the true one; she has sacrificed everything
+for you; you are engaged, in honor, to her. Is Colonel Fougas deaf to
+the voice of honor?"
+
+"Are you mocking me? What! I marry a woman sixty-four years old?"
+
+"You ought to; if not for her sake, at least for your child's."
+
+"My child is a pretty big boy. He's forty-six years old; he has no
+further need of my care."
+
+"He does need your name, though."
+
+"I'll adopt him."
+
+"The law is opposed to it. You're not fifty years old, and he's not
+fifteen years younger than you are; quite the reverse!"
+
+"Very well; I'll legitimize him by marrying the young Clementine."
+
+"How can you expect her to acknowledge a child twice as old as she is
+herself?"
+
+"But then I can't acknowledge him any better; so there's no need of my
+marrying the old woman. Moreover, I'd be excessively accommodating to
+break my head for a child who is very likely dead. What do I say? It is
+possible that he never saw the light. I love and am loved--that much is
+substantial and certain; and you shall be my groomsman."
+
+"Not yet awhile. Mlle. Sambucco is a minor, and her guardian is my
+father."
+
+"Your father is an honorable man; and he will not have the baseness to
+refuse her to me."
+
+"At least he will ask you if you have any position, any rank, any
+fortune to offer to his ward."
+
+"My position? colonel; my rank? colonel; my fortune? the pay of a
+colonel. And the millions at Dantzic--I mustn't forget them!--Here we
+are at home; let me have the will of that good old gentleman who wore
+the lilac wig. Give me some books on history, too--a big pile of
+them--all that have anything to say about Napoleon."
+
+Young Renault sadly obeyed the master he had given himself. He conducted
+Fougas to a fine chamber, brought him Herr Meiser's will and a whole
+shelf of books, and bid his mortal enemy "Good night." The Colonel
+embraced him impetuously, and said to him,
+
+"I will never forget that to you I owe life and Clementine. Farewell
+till to-morrow, noble and generous child of my native land! farewell!"
+
+Leon went back to the ground floor, passed the dining-room, where Gothon
+was wiping the glasses and putting the silver in order, and rejoined his
+father and mother, who were waiting for him in the parlor. The guests
+were gone, the candles extinguished. A single lamp lit up the solitude.
+The two mandarins on the étagère were motionless in their obscure
+corner, and seemed to meditate gravely on the caprices of fortune.
+
+"Well?" demanded Mme. Renault.
+
+"I left him in his room, crazier and more obstinate than ever. However,
+I've got an idea."
+
+"So much the better," said the father, "for we have none left. Sadness
+has made us stupid. But, above all things, no quarrelling. These
+soldiers of the empire used to be terrible swordsmen."
+
+"Oh, I'm not afraid of him! It's Clementine that makes me anxious. With
+what sweetness and submission she listened to the confounded babbler!"
+
+"The heart of woman is an unfathomable abyss. Well, what do you think of
+doing?"
+
+Leon developed in detail the project he had conceived in the street,
+during his conversation with Fougas.
+
+"The most urgent thing," said he, "is to relieve Clementine from this
+influence. If we could get him out of the way to-morrow, reason would
+resume its empire, and we would be married the day after to-morrow. That
+being done, I'll answer for the rest."
+
+"But how is such a madman to be gotten rid of?"
+
+"I see but one way, but it is almost infallible--to excite his dominant
+passion. These fellows sometimes imagine that they are in love, but, at
+the bottom, they love nothing but powder. The thing is, to fling Fougas
+back into the current of military ideas. His breakfast to-morrow with
+the colonel of the 23d will be a good preparation. I made him understand
+to-day that he ought, before all, to reclaim his rank and epaulettes,
+and he has become inoculated with the idea. He'll go to Paris, then.
+Possibly he'll find there some leather-breeches of his acquaintance. At
+all events, he'll reënter the service. The occupations incident to his
+position will be a powerful diversion; he'll no longer dream of
+Clementine, whom I will have fixed securely. We will have to furnish him
+the wherewithal to knock about the world; but all sacrifices of money
+are nothing in comparison with the happiness I wish to save."
+
+Madame Renault, who was a woman of thrift, blamed her son's generosity a
+little.
+
+"The Colonel is an ungrateful soul," said she. "We've already done too
+much in giving him back his life. Let him take care of himself now!"
+
+"No," said the father; "we've not the right to send him forth entirely
+empty-handed. Decency forbids."
+
+This deliberation, which had lasted a good hour and a quarter, was
+interrupted by a tremendous racket. One would have declared that the
+house was falling down.
+
+"There he is again!" cried Leon. "Undoubtedly a fresh paroxysm of raving
+madness!"
+
+He ran, followed by his parents, and mounted the steps four at a time. A
+candle was burning at the sill of the chamber door. Leon took it, and
+pushed the door half open.
+
+Must it be confessed? Hope and joy spoke louder to him than fear. He
+fancied himself already relieved of the Colonel. But the spectacle
+presented to his eyes suddenly diverted the course of his ideas, and the
+inconsolable lover began laughing like a fool. A noise of kicks, blows,
+and slaps; an undefined group rolling on the floor in the convulsions of
+a desperate struggle--so much was all he could see and understand at the
+first glance. Soon Fougas, lit up by the ruddy glow of the candle,
+discovered that he was struggling with Gothon, like Jacob with the
+angel, and went back, confused and pitiable, to bed.
+
+The Colonel had gone to sleep over the history of Napoleon, without
+putting out the candle. Gothon, after finishing her work, saw the light
+under the door. Her thoughts recurred to that poor Baptiste, who,
+perhaps, was groaning in purgatory for having let himself tumble from a
+roof. Hoping that Fougas could give her some news of her lover, she
+rapped several times, at first softly, then much louder. The Colonel's
+silence and the lighted candle made it seem to the servant that there
+was something wrong. The fire might catch the curtains, and from thence
+the whole building. She accordingly set down the candle, opened the
+door, and went, with cat-like steps, to put out the light. Possibly the
+eyes of the sleeper vaguely perceived the passage of a shadow; possibly
+Gothon, with her big, awkward figure, made a board in the floor creak.
+Fougas partially awoke, heard the rustling of a dress, dreamed it one of
+those adventures which were wont to spice garrison life under the first
+empire, and held out his arms blindly, calling Clementine. Gothon, on
+finding herself seized by the hair and shoulders, responded by such a
+masculine blow that the enemy supposed himself attacked by a man. The
+blow was returned with interest; further exchanges followed, and they
+finished by clinching and rolling on the floor.
+
+If anybody ever did feel shamefaced, Fougas was certainly the man.
+Gothon went to bed, considerably bruised; the Renault family talked
+sense into the Colonel, and got out of him pretty much what they wanted.
+He promised to set out next day, accepted as a loan the money offered
+him, and swore not to return until he should have recovered his
+epaulettes and secured the Dantzic bequest.
+
+"And then," said he, "I'll marry Clementine."
+
+On that point it was useless to argue with him; the idea was fixed.
+
+Everybody slept soundly in the mansion of the Renaults; the heads of the
+house, because they had had three sleepless nights; Fougas and Gothon,
+because each had been unmercifully pummelled; and the young Célestin,
+because he had drunk the heeltaps from all the glasses.
+
+The next morning M. Rollon came to know if Fougas were in a condition to
+breakfast with him; he feared, just the least bit, that he would find
+him under a shower bath. Far from it! The madman of yesterday was as
+calm as a picture and as fresh as a rosebud. He shaved with Leon's
+razors, while humming an air of Nicolo. With his hosts, he was charming,
+and he promised to settle a pension on Gothon out of Herr Meiser's
+legacy.
+
+As soon as he had set off for the breakfast, Leon ran to the dwelling of
+his sweetheart.
+
+"Everything is going better," said he. "The Colonel is much more
+reasonable. He has promised to leave for Paris this very day; so we can
+get married to-morrow."
+
+Mlle. Virginie Sambucco praised this plan of proceeding highly, not only
+because she had made great preparations for the wedding, but because the
+postponement of the marriage would be the talk of the town. The cards
+were already out, the mayor notified, and the Virgin's chapel, in the
+parish church, engaged. To revoke all this at the caprice of a ghost
+and a fool, would be to sin against custom, common sense, and Heaven
+itself.
+
+Clementine only replied with tears. She could not be happy without
+marrying Leon, but she would rather die, she said, than give her hand
+without the sanction of M. Fougas. She promised to implore him, on her
+knees if necessary, and wring from him his consent.
+
+"But if he refuses? And it's too likely that he will!"
+
+"I will beseech him again and again, until he says yes."
+
+Everybody conspired to convince her that she was unreasonable--her aunt,
+Leon, M. and Mme. Renault, M. Martout, M. Bonnivet, and all the friends
+of the two families. At length she yielded, but, at almost the same
+instant, the door flew open, and M. Audret rushed into the parlor,
+crying out,
+
+"Well, well! here _is_ a piece of news! Colonel Fougas is going to fight
+M. du Marnet to-morrow."
+
+The young girl fell, thunderstruck, into the arms of Leon Renault.
+
+"God punishes me!" cried she; "and the chastisement for my impiety is
+not delayed. Will you still force me to obey you? Shall I be dragged to
+the altar, in spite of myself, at the very hour he's risking his life?"
+
+No one dared to insist longer, on seeing her in so pitiable a state. But
+Leon offered up earnest prayers that victory might side with the colonel
+of cuirassiers. He was wrong, I confess; but what lover would have been
+sinless enough to cast the first stone at him?
+
+And here is an account of how the precious Fougas had spent his day.
+
+At ten o'clock in the morning, the youngest two captains of the 23d came
+to conduct him in proper style to the residence of the Colonel. M.
+Rollon occupied a little palace of the imperial epoch. A marble tablet,
+inserted over the porte-cochère, still bore the words, _Ministère des
+Finances_--a souvenir of the glorious time when Napoleon's court
+followed its master to Fontainebleau.
+
+Colonel Rollon, the lieutenant-colonel, the major-in-chief, the three
+majors of battalions, the surgeon-major, and ten or a dozen officers
+were outside, awaiting the arrival of the illustrious guest from the
+other world. The flag was placed in the middle of the court, under guard
+of the ensign and a squad of non-commissioned officers selected for the
+honor. The band of the regiment, at the entrance of the garden, filled
+up the background of the picture. Eight panoplies of arms, which had
+been improvised the same morning by the armorers of the corps,
+embellished the walls and railings. A company of grenadiers, with their
+arms at rest, were in attendance.
+
+At the entrance of Fougas, the band played the famous "_Partant pour la
+Syrie;_" the grenadiers presented arms; the drums beat a salute; the
+non-commissioned officers and soldiers cried, "_Vive le Colonel
+Fougas!_" the officers, in a body, approached the patriarch of their
+regiment. All this was neither regular nor according to discipline, but
+we can well allow a little latitude to these brave soldiers on finding
+their ancestor. For them it seemed a little debauch in glory.
+
+The hero of the _fête_ grasped the hands of the colonel and officers
+with as much emotion as if he had found his old comrades again. He
+cordially saluted the non-commissioned officers and soldiers, approached
+the flag, bent one knee to the earth, raised himself loftily, grasped
+the staff, turned toward the attentive crowd, and said,
+
+"My friends, under the shadow of the flag, a soldier of France, after
+forty-six years of exile, finds his family again to-day. All honor to
+thee, symbol of our fatherland, old partner in our victories, and heroic
+support in our misfortunes! Thy radiant eagle has hovered over prostrate
+and trembling Europe. Thy bruised eagle has again dashed obstinately
+against misfortune, and terrified the sons of Power. Honor to thee, thou
+who hast led us to glory, and fortified us against the clamor of
+despair! I have seen thee ever foremost in the fiercest dangers, proud
+flag of my native land! Men have fallen around thee like grain before
+the reaper; while thou alone hast shown to the enemy thy front unbending
+and superb. Bullets and cannon-shot have torn thee with wounds, but
+never upon thee has the audacious stranger placed his hand. May the
+future deck thy front with new laurels! Mayst thou conquer new and
+far-extending realms, which no fatality shall rob thee of! The day of
+great deeds is being born again; believe a warrior, who has risen from
+the tomb to tell thee so. 'Forward!' Yes, I swear it by the spirit of
+him who led us at Wagram. There shall be great days for France when thou
+shalt shelter with thy glorious folds the fortunes of the brave 23d!"
+
+Eloquence so martial and patriotic stirred all hearts. Fougas was
+applauded, fêted, embraced, and almost carried in triumph into the
+banquet hall.
+
+Seated at table opposite M. Rollon, as if he were a second master of the
+house, he breakfasted heartily, talked a great deal, and drank more yet.
+You may occasionally meet, in the world, people who get drunk without
+drinking. Fougas was far from being one of them. He never felt his
+equanimity seriously disturbed short of three bottles. Often, in fact,
+he went much further without yielding.
+
+The toasts presented at dessert were distinguished for pith and
+cordiality. I would like to recount them in order, but am forced to
+admit that they would take up too much room, and that the last, which
+were the most touching, were not of a lucidity absolutely Voltairian.
+
+They arose from the table at two o'clock, and betook themselves in a
+body to the _Café Militaire_, where the officers of the 23d placed a
+punch before the two colonels. They had invited, with a feeling of
+eminent propriety, the superior officers of the regiment of cuirassiers.
+
+Fougas, who was drunker, in his own proper person, than a whole
+battalion of _Suisses_, distributed a great many hand-shakings. But
+across the storm which disturbed his spirit, he recognized the person
+and name of M. du Marnet, and made a grimace. Between officers, and,
+above all, between officers of different arms of the service, politeness
+is a little excessive, etiquette rather severe, _amour-propre_ somewhat
+susceptible. M. du Marnet, who was preëminently a man of the world,
+understood at once, from the attitude of M. Fougas, that he was not in
+the presence of a friend.
+
+The punch appeared, blazing, went out with its strength unimpaired, and
+was dispensed, with a big ladle, into threescore glasses. Fougas drank
+with everybody, except M. du Marnet. The conversation, which was erratic
+and noisy, imprudently raised a question of comparative merits. An
+officer of cuirassiers asked Fougas if he had seen Bordesoulle's
+splendid charge, which flung the Austrians into the valley of Plauen.
+Fougas had known General Bordesoulle personally, and had seen with his
+own eyes the beautiful heavy cavalry manoeuvre which decided the victory
+of Dresden. But he chose to be disagreeable to M. du Marnet, by
+affecting an air of ignorance or indifference.
+
+"In our time," said he, "the cavalry was always brought into action
+after the battle; we employed it to bring in the enemy after we had
+routed them."
+
+Here a great outcry arose, and the glorious name of Murat was thrown
+into the balance.
+
+"Oh, doubtless--doubtless!" said he, shaking his head. "Murat was a good
+general in his limited sphere; he answered perfectly for all that was
+wanted of him. But if the cavalry had Murat, the infantry had Napoleon."
+
+M. du Marnet observed, judiciously, that Napoleon, if he must be seized
+upon for the credit of any single arm of the service, would belong to
+the artillery.
+
+"With all my heart, monsieur," replied Fougas; "the artillery and the
+infantry. Artillery at a distance, infantry at close quarters--cavalry
+off at one side."
+
+"Once more I beg your pardon," answered M. du Marnet; "you mean to say,
+at the sides, which is a very different matter."
+
+"At the sides, or at one side, I don't care! As for me, if I were
+commander-in-chief, I would set the cavalry aside."
+
+Several cavalry officers had already flung themselves into the
+discussion. M. du Marnet held them back, and made a sign that he wanted
+to answer Fougas alone.
+
+"And why, then, if you please, would you set the cavalry aside?"
+
+"Because the dragoon is an incomplete soldier."
+
+"Incomplete?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and the proof is, that the Government has to buy four or five
+hundred francs' worth of horse in order to complete him. And when the
+horse receives a ball or a bayonet thrust, the dragoon is no longer good
+for anything. Have you ever seen a cavalryman on foot? It would be a
+pretty sight!"
+
+"I see myself on foot every day, and I don't see anything particularly
+ridiculous about it."
+
+"I'm too polite to contradict you."
+
+"And for me, sir, I am too just to combat one paradox with another. What
+would you think of my logic, if I were to say to you (the idea is not
+mine--I found it in a book), if I were to say to you, 'I entertain a
+high regard for infantry, but, after all, the foot soldier is an
+incomplete soldier, deprived of his birthright, an inefficient body
+deprived of that natural complement of the soldier, called a horse! I
+admire his courage, I perceive that he makes himself useful in battle;
+but, after all, the poor devil has only two feet at his command, while
+we have four!' You see fit to consider a dragoon on foot ridiculous; but
+does the foot-soldier always make a very brilliant appearance when one
+sticks a horse between his legs? I have seen excellent infantry captains
+cruelly embarrassed when the minister of war made them majors. They
+said, scratching their heads, 'It's not over when we've mounted a grade;
+we've got to mount a horse in the bargain!'"
+
+This crude pleasantry amused the audience for a moment. They laughed,
+and the mustard mounted higher and higher in Fougas' nose.
+
+"In my time," said he, "a foot soldier became a dragoon in twenty-four
+hours; and if any one would like to make a match with me on horseback,
+sabre in hand, I'll show him what infantry is!"
+
+"Monsieur," coolly replied M. du Marnet, "I hope that opportunities will
+not be lacking to you in the field of battle. It is there that a true
+soldier displays his talents and bravery. Infantry and cavalry, we alike
+belong to France. I drink to her, Monsieur, and I hope you will not
+refuse to touch glasses with me.--To France!"
+
+This was certainly well spoken and well settled. The clicking of glasses
+applauded M. du Marnet. Fougas himself approached his adversary and
+drank with him without reserve. But he whispered in his ear, speaking
+very thickly:
+
+"I hope, for my part, that you will not refuse the sabre-match which I
+had the honor to propose to you?"
+
+"As you please," said the colonel of cuirassiers.
+
+The gentleman from the other world, drunker than ever, went out of the
+crowd with two officers whom he had picked up haphazard. He declared to
+them that he considered himself insulted by M. du Marnet, that a
+challenge had been given and accepted, and that the affair was going on
+swimmingly.
+
+"Especially," added he in confidence, "since there is a lady in the case!
+These are my conditions--they are all in accordance with the honor of
+the infantry, the army, and France: we will fight on horseback, stripped
+to the waist, mounted bareback on two stallions. The weapon--the cavalry
+sabre. First blood. I want to chastise a puppy. I am far from wishing to
+rob France of a soldier."
+
+These conditions were pronounced absurd by M. du Marnet's seconds. They
+accepted them, nevertheless, for the military code requires one to face
+all dangers, however absurd.
+
+Fougas devoted the rest of the day to worrying the poor Renaults. Proud
+of the control he exercised over Clementine, he declared his wishes;
+swore he would take her for his wife as soon as he had recovered his
+rank, family, and fortune, and prohibited her to dispose of herself
+before that time. He broke openly with Leon and his parents, refused to
+accept their good offices any longer, and quitted their house after a
+serious passage of high words. Leon concluded by saying that he would
+only give up his betrothed with life itself. The Colonel shrugged his
+shoulders and turned his back, carrying off, without stopping to
+consider what he was doing, the father's clothes and the son's hat. He
+asked M. Rollon for five hundred francs, engaged a room at the _Hotel du
+Cadron-bleu_, went to bed without any supper, and slept straight through
+until the arrival of his seconds.
+
+There was no necessity for giving him an account of what had passed the
+previous day. The fogs of punch and sleep dissipated themselves in an
+instant. He plunged his head and hands into a basin of fresh water, and
+said:
+
+"So much for my toilet! Now, _Vive l'Empereur!_ Let's go and get into
+line!"
+
+The field selected by common consent was the parade-ground--a sandy
+plain enclosed in the forest, at a good distance from the town. All the
+officers of the garrison betook themselves there of their own accord;
+there would have been no need of inviting them. More than one soldier
+went secretly and billeted himself in a tree. The _gendarmerie_ itself
+ornamented the little family _fête_, with its presence. People went to
+see an encounter in chivalric tourney, not merely between the infantry
+and the cavalry, but between the old army and the young. The exhibition
+fully satisfied public expectation. No one was tempted to hiss the
+piece, and everybody had his money's worth.
+
+Precisely at nine o'clock, the combatants entered the lists, attended by
+their four seconds and the umpire of the field. Fougas, naked to the
+waist, was as handsome as a young god. His lithe and agile figure, his
+proud and radiant features, the manly grace of his movements, assured
+him a flattering reception. He made his English horse caper, and saluted
+the lookers-on with the point of his sword.
+
+M. du Marnet, a man rather of the German type, hardy, quite hairy,
+moulded like the Indian Bacchus, and not like Achilles, showed in his
+countenance a slight shade of disgust. It was not necessary to be a
+magician to understand that this duel _in naturalibus_, under the eyes
+of his own officers, appeared to him useless and even ridiculous. His
+horse was a half-blood from Perche, a vigorous beast and full of fire.
+
+Fougas' seconds rode badly enough. They divided their attention between
+the combat and their stirrups. M. du Marnet had chosen the best two
+horsemen in his regiment, a major and captain. The umpire of the field
+was Colonel Rollon, an excellent rider.
+
+At a signal given by Colonel Rollon, Fougas rode directly at his
+adversary, presenting the point of his sabre in the position of "prime,"
+like a cavalry soldier charging infantry in a hollow square. But he
+reined up about three lengths from M. du Marnet, and described around
+him seven or eight rapid circles, like an Arab in a play. M. du Marnet,
+being forced to turn in the same spot and defend himself on all sides,
+clapped both spurs to his horse, broke the circle, took to the field,
+and threatened to commence the same manoeuvre about Fougas. But the
+gentleman from the other world did not wait for him. He rushed off at a
+full gallop, and made a round of the hippodrome, always followed by M.
+du Marnet. The cuirassier, being heavier, and mounted on a slower horse,
+was distanced. He revenged himself by calling out to Fougas:
+
+"Oh, Monsieur! I must say that this looks more like a race than a
+battle. I ought to have brought a riding-whip instead of a sword!"
+
+But Fougas, panting and furious, had already turned upon him.
+
+"Hold on there!" cried he; "I have shown you the horseman; now I will
+show you the soldier!"
+
+He lanched a thrust at him, which would have gone through him like a
+hoop if M. du Marnet had not been as prompt as at parade. He retorted by
+a fine cut _en quarte_, powerful enough to cut the invincible Fougas in
+two. But the other was nimbler than a monkey. He wholly shielded his
+body by letting himself slide to the ground, and then remounted his
+horse in the same second.
+
+"My compliments!" said M. du Marnet. "They don't do any better than that
+in the circus."
+
+"No more do they in war," rejoined the other. "Ah, scoundrel! so you
+revile the old army? Here's at you! A miss! Thanks for the retort, but
+it's not good enough yet. I'll not die from any such thrust as that! How
+do you like that?--and that?-and that? Ah, you claim that the
+foot-soldier is an incomplete man! Now we're going to make _your_
+assortment of limbs a little incomplete. Look out for your boot! He's
+parried it! Perhaps he expects to indulge in a little promenade under
+Clementine's windows this evening. Take care! Here's for Clementine! And
+here's for the infantry! Will you parry that? So, traitor! And that? So
+he does! Perhaps you'll parry them all, then, by Heavens! Victory! Ah,
+Monsieur! Your blood is flowing! What have I done? Devil take the sword,
+the horse, and all! Major! major! come quickly! Monsieur, let yourself
+rest in my arms. Beast that I am! As if all soldiers were not brothers!
+Oh, forgive me, my friend! Would that I could redeem each drop of your
+blood with all of mine! Miserable Fougas, incapable of mastering his
+fierce passions! Ah, you Esculapian Mars, I beg you tell me that the
+thread of his days is not to be clipped! I will not survive him, for he
+is a brave!"
+
+M. du Marnet had received a magnificent cut which traversed the left arm
+and breast, and the blood was streaming from it at a rate to make one
+shudder. The surgeon, who had provided himself with hemostatic
+preparations, hastened to arrest the hemorrhage. The wound was long
+rather than deep, and could be cured in a few days. Fougas himself
+carried his adversary to the carriage, but that did not satisfy him. He
+firmly insisted on joining the two officers who took M. du Marnet home;
+he overwhelmed the wounded man with his protestations, and was occupied
+during most of the ride in swearing eternal friendship to him. On
+reaching the house, he put him to bed, embraced him, bathed him with
+tears, and did not leave him for a moment until he heard him snoring.
+
+When six o'clock struck, he went to dine at the hotel, in company with
+his seconds and the referee, all of whom he had invited after the fight.
+He treated them magnificently, and got drunk himself, as usual.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+IN WHICH THE READER WILL SEE THAT IT IS NOT FAR FROM THE CAPITAL TO THE
+TARPEIAN ROCK.
+
+
+The next day, after a visit to M. du Marnet, he wrote thus to
+Clementine:
+
+    "Light of my life, I am about to quit these scenes, the
+    witnesses of my fatal courage and the repositories of
+    my love. To the bosom of the capital, to the foot of
+    the throne, I will first betake my steps. If the
+    successor of the God of Combats is not deaf to the
+    voice of the blood that courses in his veins, he will
+    restore me my sword and epaulettes, so that I may lay
+    them at thy feet. Be faithful to me--wait, hope! May
+    these lines be to thee a talisman against the dangers
+    threatening thy independence. Oh, my Clementine,
+    tenderly guard thyself for thy
+
+    "VICTOR FOUGAS!"
+
+Clementine sent him no answer, but, just as he was getting on the train,
+he was accosted by a messenger, who handed him a pretty red leather
+pocket-book, and ran away with all his might. The pocket-book was
+entirely new, solid, and carefully fastened. It contained twelve hundred
+francs in bank notes--all the young girl's savings. Fougas had no time
+to deliberate on this delicate circumstance. He was pushed into a car,
+the locomotive puffed, and the train started.
+
+The Colonel began to review in his memory the various events which had
+succeeded each other in his life during less than a week. His arrest
+among the frosts of the Vistula, his sentence to death, his imprisonment
+in the fortress of Liebenfeld, his reawakening at Fontainebleau, the
+invasion of 1814, the return from the island of Elba, the hundred days,
+the death of the emperor and the king of Rome, the restoration of the
+Bonapartes in 1852, his meeting with a young girl who was the
+counterpart of Clementine Pichon in all respects, the flag of the 23d,
+the duel with the colonel of cuirassiers--all this, for Fougas, had not
+taken up more than four days. The night reaching from the 11th of
+November, 1813, to the 17th of August, 1859, seemed to him even a little
+shorter than any of the others; for it was the only time that he had had
+a full sleep, without any dreaming.
+
+A less active spirit, and a heart less warm, would, perhaps, have lapsed
+into a sort of melancholy. For, in fact, one who has been asleep for
+forty-six years would naturally become somewhat alien to mankind in
+general, even in his own country. Not a relation, not a friend, not a
+familiar face, on the whole face of the earth! Add to this a multitude
+of new words, ideas, customs, and inventions, which make him feel the
+need of a cicerone, and prove to him that he is a stranger. But Fougas,
+on reopening his eyes, following the precept of Horace, was thrown into
+the very midst of action. He had improvised for him friends, enemies, a
+sweetheart, and a rival. Fontainebleau, his second native place, was,
+provisionally, the central point of his existence. There he felt himself
+loved, hated, feared, admired--in a word, well known. He knew that in
+that sub-prefecture his name could not be spoken without awakening an
+echo. But what attached him more than all to modern times, was his
+well-established relationship with the great family of the army.
+Wherever a French flag floats, the soldier, young or old, is at home.
+Around that church-spire of the fatherland, though dear and sacred in a
+way different from the village spire, language, ideas, and institutions
+change but little. The death of individuals has little effect; they are
+replaced by others who look like them, and think, talk, and act in the
+same way; who do not stop on assuming the uniform of their predecessors,
+but inherit their souvenirs also--the glory they have acquired, their
+traditions, their jests, and even certain intonations of their voices.
+This accounts for Fougas' sudden friendship, after a first feeling of
+jealousy, for the new colonel of the 23d; and the sudden sympathy which
+he evinced for M. du Marnet as soon as he saw the blood running from his
+wound. Quarrels between soldiers are family quarrels, which never blot
+out the relationship.
+
+Calmly satisfied that he was not alone in the world, M. Fougas derived
+pleasure from all the new objects which civilization placed before his
+eyes. The speed of the rail-cars fairly intoxicated him. He was inspired
+with a positive enthusiasm for this force of steam, whose theory was a
+closed book to him, but on whose results he meditated much.
+
+"With a thousand machines like this, two thousand rifled cannon, and two
+hundred thousand such chaps as I am, Napoleon would have conquered the
+world in six weeks. Why doesn't this young fellow on the throne make
+some use of the resources he has under his control? Perhaps he hasn't
+thought of it. Very well, I'll go to see him. If he looks like a man of
+capacity, I'll give him my idea; he'll make me minister of war, and
+then--Forward, march!"
+
+He had explained to him the use of the great iron wires running on poles
+all along the road.
+
+"The very thing!" said he. "Here are aides-de-camp both fleet and
+judicious. Get them all into the hands of a chief-of-staff like
+Berthier, and the universe would be held in a thread by the mere will of
+a man!"
+
+His meditations were interrupted, a couple of miles from Melun, by the
+sounds of a foreign language. He pricked up his ears, and then bounded
+from his corner as if he had sat on a pile of thorns. Horror! it was
+English! One of those monsters who had assassinated Napoleon at St.
+Helena for the sake of insuring to themselves the cotton monopoly, had
+entered the compartment with a very pretty woman and two lovely
+children.
+
+"Conductor, stop!" cried Fougas, thrusting his body halfway out of the
+window.
+
+"Monsieur," said the Englishman in good French, "I advise you to have
+patience until we get to the next station. The conductor doesn't hear
+you, and you're in danger of falling out on the track. If I can be of
+any service to you, I have a flask of brandy with me, and a medicine
+chest."
+
+"No, sir," replied Fougas in a most supercilious tone, "I'm in want of
+nothing, and I'd rather die than accept anything from an Englishman! If
+I'm calling the conductor, it's only because I want to get into a
+different car, and cleanse my eyes from the sight of an enemy of the
+Emperor."
+
+"I assure you, monsieur," responded the Englishman, "that I am not an
+enemy of the Emperor. I had the honor of being received by him while he
+was in London. He even deigned to pass a few days at my little
+country-seat in Lancashire."
+
+"So much the better for you, if this young man is good enough to forget
+what you have done against his family; but Fougas will never forgive
+your crimes against his country."
+
+As soon as they arrived at the station at Melun, he opened the door and
+rushed into another saloon. There he found himself alone in the presence
+of two young gentlemen, whose physiognomies were far from English, and
+who spoke French with the purest accent of Touraine. Both had coats of
+arms on their seal-rings, so that no one might be ignorant of their
+rank as nobles. Fougas was too plebeian to fancy the nobility much; but
+as he had left a compartment full of Britons, he was happy to meet a
+couple of Frenchmen.
+
+"Friends," said he, inclining toward them with a cordial smile, "we are
+children of the same mother. Long life to you! Your appearance revives
+me."
+
+The two young gentlemen opened their eyes very wide, half bowed, and
+resumed their conversation, without making any other response to Fougas'
+advance.
+
+"Well, then, my dear Astophe," said one, "you saw the king at
+Froshdorf?"
+
+"Yes, my good Americ; and he received me with the most affecting
+condescension. 'Vicomte,' said he to me, 'you come of a house well known
+for its fidelity. We will remember you when God replaces us on the
+throne of our ancestors. Tell our brave nobility of Touraine that we
+hope to be remembered in their prayers, and that we never forget them in
+ours.'"
+
+"Pitt and Coburg!" said Fougas between his teeth. "Here are two little
+rascals conspiring with the army of Condé! But, patience!"
+
+He clenched his fists and opened his ears.
+
+"Didn't he say anything about politics?"
+
+"A few vague words. Between us, I don't think he bothers with them much;
+he is waiting upon events."
+
+"He'll not wait much longer."
+
+"Who can tell?"
+
+"What! Who can tell? The empire is not good for six months longer.
+Monseigneur de Montereau said so again last Monday to my aunt the
+canoness."
+
+"For my part, I give them a year, for their campaign in Italy has
+strengthened them with the lower orders. I didn't put myself out to tell
+the king so, though!"
+
+"Damnation! gentlemen, this is going it a little too strongly!"
+interrupted Fougas. "Is it here in France that Frenchmen speak thus of
+French institutions? Go back to your master; tell him that the empire is
+eternal, because it is founded on the granite of popular support, and
+cemented by the blood of heroes. And if the king asks you who told you
+this, tell him it was Colonel Fougas, who was decorated at Wagram by the
+Emperor's own hand!"
+
+The two young gentlemen looked at each other, exchanged a smile, and the
+Viscount said to the Marquis:
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"A madman."
+
+"No, dear; a mad dog."
+
+"Nothing else."[6]
+
+"Very well, gentlemen," cried the Colonel. "Speak English; you're fit
+for it!"
+
+He changed his compartment at the next station, and fell in with a lot
+of young painters. He called them disciples of Zeuxis, and asked them
+about Gérard, Gros, and David. These gentlemen found the sport novel,
+and recommended him to go and see Talma in the new tragedy of Arnault.
+
+The fortifications of Paris dazzled him very much, and scandalized him a
+little.
+
+"I don't like this," said he to his companions. "The true rampart of a
+capital is the courage of a great people. This piling bastions around
+Paris, is saying to the enemy that it is possible to conquer France."
+
+The train at last stopped at the Mazas station. The Colonel, who had no
+baggage, marched out pompously, with his hands in his pockets, to look
+for the _hôtel de Nantes_. As he had spent three months in Paris about
+the year 1810, he considered himself acquainted with the city, and for
+that reason he did not fail to lose himself as soon as he got there. But
+in the various quarters which he traversed at hazard, he admired the
+great changes which had been wrought during his absence. Fougas' taste
+was for having streets very long, very wide, and bordered with very
+large houses all alike; he could not fail to notice that the Parisian
+style was rapidly approaching his ideal. It was not yet absolute
+perfection, but progress was manifest.
+
+By a very natural illusion, he paused twenty times to salute people of
+familiar appearance; but no one recognized him.
+
+After a walk of five hours he reached the _Place du Carrousel_. The
+_hôtel de Nantes_ was no longer there; but the Louvre had been erected
+instead. Fougas employed a quarter of an hour in regarding this
+monument of architecture, and half an hour in contemplating two Zouaves
+of the guard who were playing piquet. He inquired if the Emperor was in
+Paris; whereupon his attention was called to the flag floating over the
+Tuilleries.
+
+"Good!" said he. "But first I must get some new clothes."
+
+He took a room in a hotel on the _Rue Saint Honoré_, and asked a waiter
+which was the most celebrated tailor in Paris. The waiter handed him a
+Business Directory. Fougas hunted out the Emperor's bootmaker,
+shirtmaker, hatter, tailor, barber, and glovemaker. He took down their
+names and addresses in Clementine's pocket-book, after which he took a
+carriage and set out.
+
+As he had a small and shapely foot, he found boots ready-made without
+any difficulty. He was promised, too, that all the linen he required
+should be sent home in the evening. But when he came to explain to the
+hatter what sort of an apparatus he intended to plant on his head, he
+encountered great difficulties. His ideal was an enormous hat, large at
+the crown, small below, broad in the brim, and curved far down behind
+and before; in a word, the historic heirloom to which the founder of
+Bolivia gave his name long ago. The shop had to be turned upside down,
+and all its recesses searched, to find what he wanted.
+
+"At last," cried the hatter, "here's your article. If it's for a stage
+dress, you ought to be satisfied; the comic effect can be depended
+upon."
+
+Fougas answered dryly, that the hat was much less ridiculous than all
+those which were then circulating around the streets of Paris.
+
+At the celebrated tailor's, in the _Rue de la Paix_, there was almost a
+battle.
+
+"No, monsieur," said Alfred, "I'll never make you a frogged surtout and
+a pair of trousers _à la Cosaque_! Go to Babin, or Morean, if you want a
+carnival dress; but it shall never be said that a man of as good figure
+as yours left our establishment caricatured."
+
+"Thunder and guns!" retorted Fougas. "You're a head taller than I am,
+Mister Giant, but I'm a colonel of the Grand Empire, and it won't do for
+drum-majors to give orders to colonels!"
+
+Of course, the devil of a fellow had the last word. His measure was
+taken, a book of costumes consulted, and a promise made that in
+twenty-four hours he should be dressed in the height of the fashion of
+1813. Cloths were presented for his selection, among them some English
+fabrics. These he threw aside with disgust.
+
+"The blue cloth of France," cried he, "and made in France! And cut it in
+such a style that any one seeing me in Pekin would say, 'That's a
+soldier!'"
+
+The officers of our day have precisely the opposite fancy. They make an
+effort to resemble all other "gentlemen"[7] when they assume the
+civilian's dress.
+
+Fougas ordered, in the _Rue Richelieu_, a black satin scarf, which hid
+his shirt, and reached up to his ears. Then he went toward the _Palais
+Royal_, entered a celebrated restaurant, and ordered his dinner. For
+breakfast he had only taken a bite at a pastry-cook's in the
+_Boulevard_, so his appetite, which had been sharpened by the excursion,
+did wonders. He ate and drank as he did at Fontainebleau. But the bill
+seemed to him hard to digest: it was for a hundred and ten francs and a
+few centimes. "The devil!" said he; "living has become dear in Paris!"
+Brandy entered into the sum total for an item of nine francs. They had
+given him a bottle, and a glass about the size of a thimble; this
+gimcrack had amused Fougas, and he diverted himself by filling and
+emptying it a dozen times. But on leaving the table he was not drunk; an
+amiable gayety inspired him, but nothing more. It occurred to him to get
+back some of his money by buying some lottery tickets at Number 113. But
+a bottle-seller located in that building apprised him that France had
+not gambled for thirty years. He pushed on to the _Théâtre Français_, to
+see if the Emperor's actors might not be giving some fine tragedy, but
+the poster disgusted him. Modern comedies played by new actors! Neither
+Talma, nor Fleury, nor Thénard, nor the Baptistes, nor Mlle. Mars, nor
+Mlle. Raucourt! He then went to the opera, where Charles VI. was being
+given. The music astounded him at once. He was not accustomed to hear so
+much noise anywhere but on the battle-field. Nevertheless, his ears
+soon inured themselves to the clangor of the instruments; and the
+fatigue of the day, the pleasure of being comfortably seated, and the
+labor of digestion, plunged him into a doze. He woke up with a start at
+this famous patriotic song:
+
+    "_Guerre aux tyrans! jamais, jamais en France,_
+    _Jamais l'Anglais ne régnera!_"[8]
+
+"No!" cried he, stretching out his arms toward the stage. "Never! Let us
+swear it together on the sacred altar of our native land! Perish,
+perfidious Albion! _Vive l'Empereur!_"
+
+The pit and orchestra arose at once, less to express accord with Fougas'
+sentiments, than to silence him. During the following _entr'acte_, a
+commissioner of police said in his ear, that when one had dined as he
+had, one ought to go quietly to bed, instead of interrupting the
+performance of the opera.
+
+He replied that he had dined as usual, and that this explosion of
+patriotic sentiment had not proceeded from the stomach.
+
+"But," said he, "when, in this palace of misused magnificence, hatred of
+the enemy is stigmatized as a crime, I must go and breathe a freer air,
+and bow before the temple of Glory before I go to bed."
+
+"You'll do well to do so," said the policeman.
+
+He went out, haughtier and more erect than ever, reached the Boulevard,
+and ran with great strides as far as the Corinthian temple at the end.
+While on his way, he greatly admired the lighting of the city. M.
+Martout had explained to him the manufacture of gas; he had not
+understood anything about it, but the glowing and ruddy flame was an
+actual treat to his eyes.
+
+As soon as he had reached the monument commanding the entrance to the
+_Rue Royale_, he stopped on the pavement, collected his thoughts for an
+instant, and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Glory! Inspirer of great deeds, widow of the mighty conqueror of
+Europe! receive the homage of thy devoted Victor Fougas! For thee I have
+endured hunger, sweat, and frost, and eaten the most faithful of horses.
+For thee I am ready to brave further perils, and again to face death on
+every battle-field. I seek thee rather than happiness, riches, or power.
+Reject not the offering of my heart and the sacrifice of my blood! As
+the price of such devotion, I ask nothing but a smile from thy eyes and
+a laurel from thy hand!"
+
+This prayer went all glowing to the ears of _Saint Marie Madeleine_, the
+patroness of the ex-temple of Glory. Thus the purchaser of a chateau
+sometimes receives a letter addressed to the original proprietor.
+
+Fougas returned by the _Rue de la Paix_ and the _Place Vendôme_, and
+saluted, in passing, the only familiar figure he had yet found in Paris.
+The new costume of Napoleon on the column did not displease him in any
+way. He preferred the cocked hat to a crown, and the gray surtout to a
+theatrical cloak.
+
+The night was restless. In the Colonel's brain a thousand diverse
+projects crossed each other in all directions. He prepared the little
+speech which he should make to the Emperor, going to sleep in the middle
+of a phrase, and waking up with a start in the attempt to lay hold on
+the idea which had so suddenly vanished. He put out and relit his candle
+twenty times. The recollection of Clementine was occasionally
+intermingled with dreams of war and political utopias. But I must
+confess that the young girl's figure seldom got any higher than the
+second place.
+
+But if the night appeared too long, the morning seemed short in
+proportion. The idea of meeting the new master of the empire face to
+face, inspired and chilled him in turn. For an instant he hoped that
+something would be lacking in his toilet--that some shopkeeper would
+furnish him an honorable pretext for postponing his visit until the next
+day. But everybody displayed the most desperate punctuality. Precisely
+at noon, the trousers _à la Cosaque_ and the frogged surtout were on the
+foot of the bed opposite the famous Bolivar hat.
+
+"I may as well be dressing," said Fougas. "Possibly this young man may
+not be at home. In that case I'll leave my name, and wait until he sends
+for me."
+
+He got himself up gorgeously in his own way, and, although it may appear
+impossible to my readers, Fougas, in a black satin scarf and frogged
+surtout, was not homely nor even ridiculous. His tall figure, lithe
+build, lofty and impressive carriage, and brusque movements, were all in
+a certain harmony with the costume of the olden time. He appeared
+strange, and that was all. To keep his courage up, he dropped into a
+restaurant, ate four cutlets, a loaf of bread, a slice of cheese, and
+washed it all down with two bottles of wine. The coffee and supplements
+brought him up to two o'clock, and that was the time he had set for
+himself.
+
+He tipped his hat slightly over one ear, buttoned his buckskin gloves,
+coughed energetically two or three times before the sentinel at the _Rue
+de Rivoli_, and marched bravely into the gate.
+
+"Monsieur," cried the porter, "what do you want?"
+
+"The Emperor!"
+
+"Have you an audience letter?"
+
+"Colonel Fougas does not need one. Go and ask references of him who
+towers over the _Place Vendôme_. He'll tell you that the name of Fougas
+has always been a synonym for bravery and fidelity."
+
+"You knew the first Emperor?"
+
+"Yes, my little joker; and I have talked with him just as I am talking
+with you."
+
+"Indeed! But how old are you then?"
+
+"Seventy years on the dial-plate of time; twenty-four years on the
+tablets of History!"
+
+The porter raised his eyes to Heaven, and murmured:
+
+"Still another! This makes the fourth for this week!"
+
+He made a sign to a little gentleman in black, who was smoking his pipe
+in the court of the Tuilleries. Then he said to Fougas, putting his hand
+on his arm:
+
+"So, my good friend, you want to see the Emperor?"
+
+"I've already told you so, familiar individual!"
+
+"Very well; you shall see him to-day. That gentleman going along there
+with the pipe in his mouth, is the one who introduces visitors; he will
+take care of you. But the Emperor is not in the Palace; he is in the
+country. It's all the same to you, isn't it, if you do have to go into
+the country?"
+
+"What the devil do you suppose I care?"
+
+"Only I don't suppose you care to go on foot. A carriage has already
+been ordered for you. Come, my good fellow, get in, and be reasonable!"
+
+Two minutes later, Fougas, accompanied by a detective, was riding to a
+police station.
+
+His business was soon disposed of. The commissary who received him was
+the same one who had spoken to him the previous evening at the opera. A
+doctor was called, and gave the best verdict of monomania that ever sent
+a man to Charenton. All this was done politely and pleasantly, without a
+word which could put the Colonel on his guard or give him a suspicion of
+the fate held in reserve for him. He merely found the ceremonial rather
+long and peculiar, and prepared on the spot several well-sounding
+sentences, which he promised himself the honor of repeating to the
+Emperor.
+
+At last he was permitted to resume his route. The hack had been kept
+waiting; the gentleman-usher relit his pipe, said three words to the
+driver, and seated himself at the left of the Colonel. The carriage set
+off at a trot, reached the _Boulevards_, and took the direction of the
+Bastille. It had gotten opposite the _Porte Saint-Martin_, and Fougas,
+with his head at the window, was continuing the composition of his
+impromptu speech, when an open carriage drawn by a pair of superb
+chestnuts passed, so to speak, under his very nose. A portly man with a
+gray moustache turned his head, and cried, "Fougas!"
+
+Robinson Crusoe, discovering the human footprint on his island, was not
+more astonished and delighted than our hero on hearing that cry of
+"Fougas!" To open the door, jump out into the road, run to the carriage,
+which had been stopped, fling himself into it at a single bound, without
+the help of the step, and fall into the arms of the portly gentleman
+with the gray moustache, was all the work of a second. The barouche had
+long disappeared, when the detective at a gallop, followed by his hack
+at a trot, traversed the line of the _Boulevards_, asking all the
+policemen if they had not seen a crazy man pass that way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE MEMORABLE INTERVIEW BETWEEN COLONEL FOUGAS AND HIS MAJESTY THE
+EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.
+
+
+In falling upon the neck of the big man with the gray moustache, Fougas
+supposed he was embracing Massena. He naturally intimated as much to
+him, whereupon the owner of the barouche burst into a great peal of
+laughter.
+
+"Ah, my poor old boy," said he, "it's a long time since we buried the
+'Child of Victory!' Look me square in the face: I am Leblanc, of the
+Russian campaign."
+
+"Impossible! You little Leblanc?"
+
+"Lieutenant in the 3d Artillery, who shared with you a million of
+dangers and that famous piece of roast horse which you salted with your
+tears."
+
+"Well, upon my soul! It _is_ you! You cut me out a pair of boots from
+the skin of the unfortunate Zephyr! And we needn't speak of the number
+of times you saved my life! Oh, my brave and faithful friend, thank God
+that I embrace you once more! Yes, I recognize you now; but I needn't
+say that you are changed!"
+
+"Gad! _I_ haven't been preserved in a jug of spirits of wine. I've
+_lived_, for my part!"
+
+"You know my history, then?"
+
+"I heard it told last night at the Minister's of Public Instruction. He
+had there the savant who set you on your legs again. I even wrote to
+you, on getting back home, to offer you a bunk and a place at mess; but
+my letter is on the way to Fontainebleau."
+
+"Thanks! You're a sound one! Ah, my poor old boy, what things have
+happened since Beresina! You know all the misfortunes that have come?"
+
+"I've seen them, and that's sadder still. I was a major after Waterloo;
+the Bourbons put me aside on half-pay. My friends got me back into
+service again in 1822, but I had bad luck, and lazed around in garrisons
+at Lille, Grenoble, and Strasburg, without getting ahead any. My second
+epaulette did not reach me till 1830; then I took a little turn in
+Africa. I was made brigadier-general at Isly, got home again, and banged
+about from pillar to post until 1848. During that year we had a June
+campaign in Paris itself. My heart still bleeds every time I think of
+it, and, upon my soul, you're blest in not having seen it. I got three
+balls in my body and a commission as general of division. After all,
+I've no right to complain for the campaign in Italy brought me good
+luck. Here I am, Marshal of France, with a hundred thousand francs
+income, and Duke of Solferino in the bargain. Yes, the Emperor has put a
+handle to my name. The fact is, that short 'Leblanc' was a little too
+short."
+
+"Thunderation!" cried Fougas, "that's splendid! I swear, Leblanc, that
+I'm not jealous of your good fortune! It's seldom enough that one
+soldier rejoices over the promotion of another; but indeed, from the
+bottom of my heart, I assure you that I do now. It's all the better,
+since you deserved your honors, and the blind goddess must have had a
+glimpse of your heart and talents, over the bandage that covers her
+eyes!"
+
+"You're very kind! But let's talk about yourself now: where were you
+going when I met you?"
+
+"To see the Emperor."
+
+"So was I; but where the devil were you looking for him?"
+
+"I don't know; somebody was showing me the way."
+
+"But he is at the Tuilleries!"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes! There's something under all this; tell me about it."
+
+Fougas did not wait to be urged. The Marshal soon understood from what
+sort of danger he had extricated his friend.
+
+"The _concierge_ is mistaken," said he; "the Emperor is at the Palace;
+and, as we've reached there now, come with me; perhaps I can present you
+after my audience."
+
+"The very thing! Leblanc, my heart beats at the idea of seeing this
+young man. Is he a good one? Can he be counted upon? Is he anything like
+the other?"
+
+"You can see for yourself. Wait here."
+
+The friendship of these two men dated from the winter of 1812. During
+the retreat of the French army, chance flung the lieutenant of artillery
+and the colonel of the 23d together. One was eighteen years old, the
+other not quite twenty-four. The distance between their ranks was easily
+bridged over by common danger. All men are equal before hunger, cold,
+and fatigue. One morning, Leblanc, at the head of ten men, rescued
+Fougas from the hands of the Cossacks; then Fougas sabred a half dozen
+stragglers who were trying to steal Leblanc's cloak. Eight days later,
+Leblanc pulled his friend out of a hut which the peasants had set on
+fire; and Fougas, in turn, fished Leblanc out of the Beresina. The list
+of their dangers and their mutual services is too long for me to give
+entire. To finish off, the Colonel, at Koenigsberg, passed three weeks
+at the bedside of the lieutenant, who was attacked with fever and ague.
+There is no doubt that this tender care saved his life. This reciprocal
+devotion had formed between them bonds so strong that a separation of
+forty-six years could not break them.
+
+Fougas, alone in a great saloon, was buried in the recollections of that
+good old time, when an usher asked him to remove his gloves, and go into
+the cabinet of the Emperor.
+
+Respect for the powers that be, which is the very foundation of my
+character, does not permit me to bring august personages upon the scene.
+But Fougas' correspondence belongs to contemporaneous history, and here
+is the letter which he wrote to Clementine on returning to his hotel:
+
+    "PARIS (what am I saying?)--HEAVEN, _Aug._ 21, 1859.
+
+    "MY SWEET ANGEL: I am intoxicated with joy, gratitude,
+    and admiration. I have seen him, I have spoken to him;
+    he gave me his hand, he made me be seated. He is a great
+    prince; he will be the master of the world. He gave me
+    the medal of St. Helena, and the Cross of an Officer.
+    Little Leblanc, an old friend and a true heart,
+    conducted me into his presence; he is Marshal of France,
+    too, and a Duke of the new empire! As for promotion,
+    there's no more need of speculation on that head. A
+    prisoner of war in Prussia and in a triple coffin, I
+    return with my rank; so says the military law. But in
+    less than three months I shall be a
+    brigadier-general--that's certain; he deigned to promise
+    it to me himself. What a man! A god on earth! No more
+    conceited than he of Wagram and Moscow, and, like him,
+    the father of the soldier. He wanted to give me money
+    from his private purse to replace my equipments. I
+    answered, 'No, sire; I have a claim to recover at
+    Dantzic; if it is paid, I shall be rich; if the debt is
+    denied, my pay will suffice for me.' Thereupon (O
+    Beneficence of Princes, thou art not, then, but an empty
+    name!) he smiled slightly, and said, twisting his
+    moustache, 'You remained in Prussia from 1813 to
+    1859?'--'Yes, sire.'--'Prisoner of war under exceptional
+    conditions?'--'Yes, sire.'--'The treaties of 1814 and
+    1815 stipulated for the release of prisoners?'--'Yes,
+    sire.'--'They have been violated, then, in your
+    case?'--'Yes, sire.'--'Well, then, Prussia owes you an
+    indemnity. I will see that it is recovered by diplomatic
+    proceedings.'--'Yes sire. What goodness!' Now, there's
+    an idea which would never have occurred to me! To
+    squeeze money out of Prussia--Prussia, who showed
+    herself so greedy for our treasures in 1814 and 1815!
+    _Vive l'Empereur!_ My well-beloved Clementine! Oh, may
+    our glorious and magnanimous sovereign live forever!
+    _Vivent l'Imperatrice et le Prince Imperial!_ I saw
+    them! The Emperor presented me to his family! The Prince
+    is an admirable little soldier! He condescended to beat
+    the drum on my new hat. I wept with emotion. Her Majesty
+    the Empress said, with an angelic smile, that she had
+    heard my misfortunes spoken of. 'Oh, Madame!' I replied,
+    'such a moment as this compensates them a hundred
+    fold.'--'You must come and dance at the Tuilleries next
+    winter.'--'Alas, Madame, I have never danced but to the
+    music of cannon; but I shall spare no effort to please
+    you! I will study the art of Vestris."--'_I_'ve managed
+    to learn the quadrille very nicely,' joined in Leblanc.
+
+    "The Emperor deigned to express his happiness at getting
+    back an officer like me, who had yesterday, so to speak,
+    taken part in the finest campaigns of the century, and
+    retained all the traditions of the great war. This
+    encouraged me. I no longer feared to remind him of the
+    famous principle of the good old time--to treat for
+    peace only in capitals! 'Take care!' said he; 'it was on
+    the strength of that principle that the allied armies
+    twice came to settle the basis of peace at
+    Paris.'--'They'll not come here again,' cried I,
+    'without passing over my body!' I dwelt upon the
+    troubles apt to come from too much intimacy with
+    England. I expressed a hope of at once proceeding to the
+    conquest of the world. First, to get back our frontiers
+    for ourselves; next, the natural frontiers of Europe:
+    for Europe is but the suburb of France, and cannot he
+    annexed too soon. The Emperor shook his head as if he
+    was not of my opinion. Does he entertain peaceful
+    designs? I do not wish to dwell upon this idea; it would
+    kill me!
+
+    "He asked me what impressions I had formed regarding the
+    appearance of the changes which had been made in Paris.
+    I answered, with the sincerity of a lofty soul, 'Sire,
+    the new Paris is the great work of a great reign; but I
+    entertain the hope that your improvements have not yet
+    had the finishing touch.'--'What is left to be done,
+    now, in your opinion?'--'First of all, to remedy the
+    course of the Seine, whose irregular curve is positively
+    shocking. The straight line is the shortest distance
+    between two points, for rivers as well as boulevards. In
+    the second place, to level the ground and suppress all
+    inequalites of surface which seem to say to the
+    Government, 'Thou art less powerful than Nature!' Having
+    accomplished this preparatory work, I would trace a
+    circle three leagues in diameter, whose circumference,
+    marked by an elegant railing, should be the boundary of
+    Paris. At the centre I would build a palace for your
+    Majesty and the princes of the imperial family--a vast
+    and splendid edifice, including in its arrangements all
+    the public offices--the staff offices, courts, museums,
+    cabinet offices, archives, police, the Institute,
+    embassies, prisons, bank of France, lecture-rooms,
+    theatres, the _Moniteur_, imperial printing office,
+    manufactory of Sèvres porcelain and Gobelin tapestry,
+    and commissary arrangements. At this palace, circular in
+    form and of magnificent architecture, should centre
+    twelve boulevards, a hundred and twenty yards wide,
+    terminated by twelve railroads, and called by the names
+    of twelve marshals of France. Each boulevard is built up
+    with uniform houses, four stories high, having in front
+    an iron railing and a little garden three yards wide,
+    all to be planted with the same kind of flowers. A
+    hundred streets, sixty yards wide, should connect the
+    boulevards; these streets communicate with each other by
+    lanes thirty-five yards wide, the whole built up
+    uniformly according to official plans, with railings,
+    gardens, and specified flowers. Householders should be
+    prohibited from allowing any business to be conducted in
+    their establishments, for the aspect of shops debases
+    the intellect and degrades the heart. Merchants could be
+    permitted to establish themselves in the suburbs under
+    the regulation of the laws. The ground floors of all the
+    houses to be occupied with stables and kitchens; the
+    first floors let to persons worth an income of a hundred
+    thousand francs and over; the second, to those worth
+    from eighty to a hundred thousand francs; the third, to
+    those worth from sixty to eighty thousand; the fourth,
+    from fifty to sixty thousand. No one with an income of
+    less than fifty thousand francs should be permitted to
+    live in Paris. Workmen are to be lodged ten miles
+    outside of the boundary in workmen's barracks. We will
+    exempt them from taxes to make them love us; and we'll
+    plant cannon around them to make them fear us. That's my
+    Paris!' The Emperor listened to me patiently, and
+    twisted his moustache. 'Your plan,' said he, 'would cost
+    a trifle.'--'Not much more than the one already
+    adopted,' answered I. At this remark, an unreserved
+    hilarity, the cause of which I am unable to explain, lit
+    up his serious countenance. 'Don't you think,' said he,
+    'that your project would ruin a great many
+    people?'--'Eh! What difference does it make to me?' I
+    cried, 'since it will ruin none but the rich?' He began
+    laughing again, and bid me farewell, saying, 'Colonel,
+    you will have to remain colonel only until we make you
+    brigadier-general!' He permitted me to press his hand a
+    second time. I waved an adieu to brave Leblanc, who has
+    invited me to dine with him this evening, and I returned
+    to my hotel to pour my joy into your sweet soul. Oh,
+    Clementine! hope on! You shall be happy, and I shall be
+    great! To-morrow morning I leave for Dantzic. Gold is a
+    deception, but I want you to be rich.
+
+    "A sweet kiss upon your pure brow!
+
+    "V. FOUGAS."
+
+The subscribers to _La Patrie_, who keep files of their paper, are
+hereby requested to hunt up the number for the 23d of August, 1859. In
+it they will find two paragraphs of local intelligence, which I have
+taken the liberty of copying here:
+
+"His Excellency, the Marshal, the Duke of Solferino, yesterday had the
+honor of presenting to his Majesty the Emperor a hero of the first
+Empire, Colonel Fougas, whom an almost miraculous event, already
+mentioned in a report to the Academy of Sciences, has restored to his
+country."
+
+Such was the first paragraph; here is the second
+
+"A madman, the fourth this week, but the most dangerous of all,
+presented himself yesterday at one of the entrances of the Tuilleries.
+Decked out in a grotesque costume, his eyes flashing, his hat cocked
+over his ear, and addressing the most respectable people with unheard-of
+rudeness, he attempted to force his way past the sentry, and thrust
+himself, for what purpose God only knows, into the presence of the
+Sovereign. During his incoherent ejaculations, the following words were
+distinguished: 'bravery, _Vendôme_ column, fidelity, the dial-plate of
+time, the tablets of history.' When he was arrested by one of the
+detective watch, and taken before the police commissioner of the
+Tuilleries section, he was recognized as the same individual who, the
+evening before, at the opera, had interrupted the performance of Charles
+VI. with most unseemly cries. After the customary medical and legal
+proceedings, he was ordered to be sent to the Charenton Hospital. But
+opposite the _porte Saint-Martin_, taking advantage of a lock among the
+vehicles, and of the Herculean strength with which he is endowed, he
+wrested his hands from his keeper, threw him down, beat him, leaped at a
+bound into the street, and disappeared in the crowd. The most active
+search was immediately set on foot, and we have it from the best
+authority that the police are already on the track of the fugitive."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+WHEREIN HERR NICHOLAS MEISER, ONE OF THE SOLID MEN OF DANTZIC, RECEIVES
+AN UNWELCOME VISIT.
+
+
+The wisdom of mankind declares that ill-gotten gains never do any good.
+I maintain that they do the robbers more good than the robbed, and the
+good fortune of Herr Nicholas Meiser is an argument in support of my
+proposition.
+
+The nephew of the illustrious physiologist, after brewing a great deal
+of beer from a very little hops, and prematurely appropriating the
+legacy intended for Fougas, had amassed, by various operations, a
+fortune of from eight to ten millions. "In what kind of operations?" No
+one ever told me, but I know that he called all operations that would
+make money, good ones. To lend small sums at a big interest, to
+accumulate great stores of grain in order to relieve a scarcity after
+producing it himself, to foreclose on unfortunate debtors, to fit out a
+vessel or two for trade in black flesh on the African coast--such are
+specimens of the speculations which the good man did not despise. He
+never boasted of them, for he was modest; but he never blushed for them,
+for he had expanded his conscience simultaneously with his capital. As
+for the rest, he was a man of honor, in the commercial sense of the
+word, and capable of strangling the whole human race rather than of
+letting his signature be protested. The banks of Dantzic, Berlin,
+Vienna, and Paris, held him in high esteem; his money passed through all
+of them.
+
+He was fat, unctuous, and florid, and lived well. His wife's nose was
+much too long, and her bones much too prominent, but she loved him with
+all her heart, and made him little sweetmeats. A perfect congeniality of
+sentiment united this charming couple. They talked with each other with
+open hearts, and never thought of keeping back any of their evil
+thoughts. Every year, at Saint Martin's day, when rents became due, they
+turned out of doors the families of five or six workmen who could not
+pay for their terms; but they dined none the worse after it, and their
+good-night kiss was none the less sweet.
+
+The husband was sixty-six years old, the wife sixty-four. Their
+physiognomies were such as inspire benevolence and command respect. To
+complete their outward resemblance to the patriarchs, nothing was needed
+but children and grandchildren. Nature had given them one son--an only
+one, because they had not solicited Nature for more. They would have
+thought it criminal improvidence to divide their fortune among several.
+Unhappily, this only child, the heir-presumptive to so many millions,
+died at the University of Heidelberg from eating too many sausages. He
+set out, when he was twenty, for that Valhalla of German students, where
+they eat infinite sausages, and drink inexhaustible beer; where they
+sing songs of eight hundred million verses, and gash the tips of each
+other's noses with huge swords. Envious Death snatched him from his
+parents when they were no longer of an age to improvise a successor. The
+unfortunate old millionnaires tenderly collected his effects, to sell
+them. During this operation, so trying to their souls (for there was a
+great deal of brand-new linen that could not be found), Nicholas Meiser
+said to his wife, "My heart bleeds at the idea that our buildings and
+dollars, our goods above ground and under, should go to strangers.
+Parents ought always to have an extra son, just as they have a
+vice-umpire in the Chamber of Commerce."
+
+But Time, who is a great teacher in Germany and several other countries,
+led them to see that there is consolation for all things except the loss
+of money. Five years afterwards, Frau Meiser said to her husband, with a
+tender and philosophic, smile: "Who can fathom the decrees of
+Providence? Perhaps your son would have brought us to a crust. Look at
+Theobald Scheffler, his old comrade. He wasted twenty thousand francs at
+Paris on a woman who kicked up her legs in the middle of a quadrille. We
+ourselves spent more than two thousand thalers a year for our wicked
+scapegrace. His death is a great saving, and therefore a good thing!"
+
+As long as the three coffins of Fougas were in the house, the good dame
+scolded at the visions and restlessness of her husband. "What in the
+name of sense are you thinking about? You've been kicking me all night
+again. Let's throw this ragamuffin of a Frenchman into the fire; then
+he'll no longer disturb the repose of a peaceable family. We can sell
+the leaden box; it must weigh at least two hundred pounds. The white
+silk will make me a good lining for a dress; and the wool in the
+stuffing, will easily make us a mattress." But a tinge of superstition
+prevented Meiser from following his wife's advice; he preferred to rid
+himself of the Colonel by selling him.
+
+The house of this worthy couple was the handsomest and most substantial
+on the street of Public Wells, in the aristocratic part of the city.
+Strong railings, in iron open work, decorated all the windows
+magnificently, and the door was sheathed in iron, like a knight of the
+olden time. A system of little mirrors, ingeniously arranged in the
+entrance, enabled a visitor to be seen before he had even knocked. A
+single servant, a regular horse for work and camel for temperance,
+ministered under this roof blessed by the gods.
+
+The old servant slept away from the house, both because he preferred to
+and because while he did so he could not be tempted to wring the
+venerable necks of his employers. A few books on Commerce and Religion
+constituted the library of the two old people. They never cared to have
+a garden at the back of their house, because the shrubbery might
+conceal thieves. They fastened their door with bolts every evening at
+eight o'clock, and never went out without being obliged to, for fear of
+meeting dangerous people.
+
+And nevertheless, on the 29th of April, 1859, at eleven o'clock in the
+morning, Nicholas Meiser was far away from his beloved home. Gracious!
+how very far away for him--this honest burgher of Dantzic! He was
+traversing, with heavy tread, the promenade in Berlin, which bears the
+name of one of Alphonse Karrs' romances: _Sous les tilleuls._ In German:
+_Unter den Linden._
+
+What mighty agency had thrown out of his bon-bon box, this big red
+bon-bon on two legs? The same that led Alexander to Babylon, Scipio to
+Carthage, Godfrey de Bouillon to Jerusalem, and Napoleon to
+Moscow--Ambition! Meiser did not expect to be presented with the keys of
+the city on a cushion of red velvet, but he knew a great lord, a clerk
+in a government office, and a chambermaid who were working to get a
+patent of nobility for him. To call himself Von Meiser instead of plain
+Meiser! What a glorious dream!
+
+This good man had in his character that compound of meanness and vanity
+which places lacqueys so far apart from the rest of mankind. Full of
+respect for power, and admiration for conventional greatness, he never
+pronounced the name of king, prince, or even baron, without emphasis and
+unction. He mouthed every aristocratic syllable, and the single word
+"Monseigneur" seemed to him like a mouthful of well-spiced soup.
+Examples of this disposition are not rare in Germany, and are even
+occasionally found elsewhere. If they could be transported to a country
+where all men are equal, homesickness for boot-licking would kill them.
+
+The claims brought to bear in favor of Nicholas Meiser, were not of the
+kind which at once spring the balance, but of the kind which make it
+turn little by little. Nephew of an illustrious man of science,
+powerfully rich, a man of sound judgment, a subscriber to the _New
+Gazette of the Cross_, full of hatred for the opposition, author of a
+toast against the influence of demagogues, once a member of the City
+Council, once an umpire in the Chamber of Commerce, once a corporal in
+the militia, and an open enemy of Poland and all nations but the strong
+ones. His most brilliant action dated back ten years. He had denounced,
+by an anonymous letter, a member of the French Parliament who had taken
+refuge in Dantzic. While Meiser was walking under the lindens, his cause
+was progressing swimmingly. He had received that sweet assurance from
+the very lips of its promoters. And so he tripped lightly toward the
+depot of the North-Eastern Railroad, without any other baggage than a
+revolver in his pocket. His black leather trunk had gone before; and was
+waiting for him at the station. On the way, he was glancing into the
+shop windows, when he stopped short before a stationer's, and rubbed his
+eyes--a sovereign remedy, people say, for impaired vision. Between the
+portraits of Mme. Sand and M. Mérimée, the two greatest writers of
+France, he had noticed, examined, recognized a well-known countenance.
+
+"Surely," said he, "I've seen that man before, but he was paler. Can our
+old lodger have come to life? Impossible! I burned up my uncle's
+directions, so the world has lost--thanks to me--the secret of
+resuscitating people. Nevertheless, the resemblance is striking. Is it a
+portrait of Colonel Fougas, taken from life in 1813? No; for photography
+was not then invented. But possibly it's a photograph copied from an
+engraving? Here are Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette reproduced in the
+same way: that doesn't prove that Robespierre had them resuscitated.
+Anyhow, I've had an unfortunate encounter."
+
+He took a step toward the door of the shop to reassure himself, but a
+peculiar reluctance held him back. People might wonder at him, ask him
+questions, try to learn the reason of his trouble. He resumed his walk
+at a brisk pace, trying to reassure himself.
+
+"Bah! It's an hallucination--the result of dwelling too much on one
+idea. Moreover, the portrait was dressed in the style of 1813; that
+settles the question."
+
+He reached the station, had his black leather trunk checked, and flung
+himself down at full length in a first-class compartment. First he
+smoked his porcelain pipe, but his two neighbors being asleep, he soon
+followed their example, and began snoring. Now this big man's snores had
+something awe-inspiring about them; you could have fancied yourself
+listening to the trumpets of the judgment day. What shade visited him in
+this hour of sleep, no other soul has ever known; for he kept his dreams
+to himself, as he did everything that was his.
+
+But between two stations, while the train was running at full speed, he
+distinctly felt two powerful hands pulling at his feet--a sensation,
+alas! too well known, and one which called up the ugliest recollections
+of his life. He opened his eyes in terror, and saw the man of the
+photograph, in the costume of the photograph. His hair stood on end, his
+eyes grew as big as saucers, he uttered a loud cry, and flung himself
+headlong between the seats among the legs of his neighbors.
+
+A few vigorous kicks brought him to himself. He got up as well as he
+could, and looked about him. No one was there but the two gentlemen
+opposite, who were mechanically lanching their last kicks into the empty
+space, and rubbing their eyes with their arms. He succeeded in awakening
+them, and asked them about the visitation he had had; but the gentlemen
+declared they had seen nothing.
+
+Meiser sadly returned to his own thoughts; he noticed that the visions
+appeared terribly real. This idea prevented his going to sleep again.
+
+"If this goes on much longer," thought he, "the Colonel's ghost will
+break my nose with a blow of his fist, or give me a pair of black eyes!"
+
+A little later, it occurred to him that he had breakfasted very hastily
+that morning, and he reflected that the nightmare had perhaps been
+brought about by such dieting.
+
+He got off at the next five-minute stopping-place and called for soup.
+Some very hot vermicelli was brought him, and he blew into his bowl like
+a dolphin into the Bosphorus.
+
+A man passed before him, without jostling him, without saying anything
+to him, without even seeing him. And nevertheless, the bowl dropped from
+the hands of the rich Nicholas Meiser, the vermicelli poured over his
+waistcoat and shirt-bosom, where it formed an elegant fretwork
+suggestive of the architecture of the _porte Saint Martin_. Some
+yellowish threads, detached from the mass, hung in stalactites from the
+buttons of his coat. The vermicelli stopped on the outside, but the soup
+penetrated much further. It was rather warm for pleasure; an egg left in
+it ten minutes would have been boiled hard. Fatal soup, which not only
+distributed itself among the pockets, but into the most secret
+sinuosities of the man himself! The starting bell rang, the waiter
+collected his two sous, and Meiser got into the cars, preceded by a
+plaster of vermicelli, and followed by a little thread of soup which was
+running down the calves of his legs.
+
+And all of this, because he had seen, or thought he had seen, the
+terrible figure of Colonel Fougas eating sandwiches.
+
+Oh! how long the trip seemed! What a terrible time it appeared to be
+before he could be at home, between his wife Catharine and his servant
+Berbel, with all the doors safely closed! His two companions laughed
+till the buttons flew; people laughed in the compartment to the right of
+him, and in the compartment to the left of him. As fast as he picked off
+the vermicelli, little spots of soup saucily congealed and seemed
+quietly laughing. How hard it comes to a great millionnaire to amuse
+people who do not possess a cent! He did not get off again until they
+reached Dantzic; he did not even put his nose to the window; he sucked
+solitary consolation from his porcelain pipe, on which Leda caressed her
+swan and smiled not.
+
+Wearisome, wearisome journey! But he did reach home nevertheless. It was
+eight o'clock in the evening; the old domestic was waiting with ropes to
+sling his master's trunk on his back. No more alarming figures, no more
+mocking laughs! The history of the soup was fallen into the great
+forgotten, like one of M. Heller's speeches. In the baggage room, Meiser
+had already seized the handle of a black leather trunk, when, at the
+other end, he saw the spectre of Fougas, which was pulling in the
+opposite direction, and seemed inclined to dispute possession. He
+bristled up, pulled stronger, and even plunged his left hand into the
+pocket where the revolver was lying. But the luminous glance of the
+Colonel fascinated him, his legs trembled, he fell, and fancied that he
+saw Fougas and the black trunk rolling over each other. When he came to,
+his old servant was chafing his hands, the trunk already had the slings
+around it, and the Colonel had disappeared. The domestic swore that he
+had not seen anybody, and that he had himself received the trunk from
+the baggage agent's own hand.
+
+Twenty minutes later, the millionnaire was in his own house, joyfully
+rubbing his face against the sharp angles of his wife. He did not dare
+to tell her about his visions, for Frau Meiser was a skeptic, in her own
+way. It was she who spoke to him about Fougas.
+
+"A whole history has happened to me," said she. "Would you believe that
+the police have written to us from Berlin, to find out whether our uncle
+left us a mummy, and when, and how long we kept him, and what we have
+done with him? I answered, telling the truth, and adding that Colonel
+Fougas was in such a bad condition, and so damaged by mites, that we
+sold him for rags. What object can the police have in troubling
+themselves about our affairs?"
+
+Meiser heaved a heavy sigh.
+
+"Let's talk about money!" said the lady. "The president of the bank has
+been to see me. The million you asked him for, for to-morrow, is ready;
+it will be delivered upon your signature. It seems that they've had a
+deal of trouble to get the amount in specie. If you had but wanted
+drafts on Vienna or Paris, you would have put them at their ease. But
+at last they've done what you wanted. There's no other news, except that
+Schmidt, the merchant, has killed himself. He had to pay a note for ten
+thousand thalers, and didn't have half the amount on hand. He came to
+ask me for the money; I offered him ten thousand thalers, at twenty-five
+per cent., payable in ninety days, with a first mortgage on all his real
+estate. The fool preferred to hang himself in his shop. Everyone to his
+taste!"
+
+"Did he hang himself very high?"
+
+"I don't know anything about that. Why?"
+
+"Because one might get a piece of rope cheap, and we're greatly in want
+of some, my poor Catharine! That Colonel Fougas has given me a shiver."
+
+"Some more of your notions! Come to supper, my love."
+
+"Come on!"
+
+The angular Baucis conducted her Philemon into a large and beautiful
+dining-room, where Berbel served a repast worthy of the gods. Soup with
+little balls of aniseeded bread, fish-balls with black sauce,
+mutton-balls stuffed, game balls, sour-krout cooked in lard and
+garnished with fried potatoes, roast hare with currant jelly, deviled
+crabs, salmon from the Vistula, jellies, and fruit tarts. Six bottles of
+Rhine-wine selected from the best vintages were awaiting, in their
+silver caps, the master's kiss. But the lord of all these good things
+was neither hungry nor thirsty. He ate by nibbles and drank by sips, all
+the time expecting a grand consummation, which he did not have to
+expect along. A formidable rap of the knocker soon resounded through the
+house.
+
+Nicholas Meiser trembled. His wife tried to reassure him. "It's
+nothing," said she. "The president of the bank told me that he was
+coming to see you. He offers to pay us the exchange, if we'll take paper
+instead of specie."
+
+"It _is_ about money, sure as Fate!" cried the good man. "Hell itself is
+coming to see us!"
+
+At the same instant, the servant rushed into the room, crying, "Oh, Sir!
+Oh, Madame! It's the Frenchman of the three coffins! Jesus! Mary, Mother
+of God!"
+
+Fougas saluted them, and said, "Don't disturb yourselves, good people, I
+beg of you. We've a little matter to discuss together, and I'm ready to
+explain it to you in two words. You're in a hurry, so am I; you've not
+had supper, neither have I!"
+
+Frau Meiser, more rigid and more emaciated than a thirteenth-century
+statue, opened wide her toothless mouth. Terror paralyzed her. The man,
+better prepared for the visit of the phantom, cocked his revolver under
+the table and took aim at the Colonel, crying "_Vade retro, Satanas!_"
+The exorcism and the pistol missed fire together.
+
+Meiser was not at all discouraged: he snapped the six barrels one after
+the other at the demon, who stood watching him do it. Not one went off.
+
+"What devilish game is that you're playing?" said the Colonel, seating
+himself astride a chair. "People are not in the habit of receiving an
+honest man's visit with that ceremony!"
+
+Meiser flung down his revolver, and grovelled like a beast at Fougas'
+feet. His wife, who was not one whit more tranquil, followed him. They
+joined hands, and the fat man exclaimed:
+
+"Spirit! I confess my misdeeds, and I am ready to make reparation for
+them. I have sinned against you; I have violated my uncle's commands.
+What do you wish? What do you command? A tomb? A magnificent monument?
+Prayers? Endless prayers?"
+
+"Idiot!" said Fougas, spurning him with his foot; "I am no spirit, and I
+want nothing but the money you've robbed me of!"
+
+Meiser kept rolling on the floor; but his scrawny wife was already on
+her feet, her fists on her hips, and facing Fougas.
+
+"Money!" cried she, "But we don't owe you any! Have you any documents?
+Just show us our signature! Where would one be, Just God! if we had to
+give money to all the adventurers who present themselves? And in the
+first place, by what right did you thrust yourself into our dwelling, if
+you're not a spirit? Ah! you're a man just the same as other people! Ha!
+ha! So you're not a ghost! Very well, sir; there are judges in Berlin;
+there are some in the country, too, and we'll soon see whether you're
+going to finger our money! Get up there, you great booby; it's only a
+man! And do you, Mister Ghost, get out of here! Off with you!"
+
+The Colonel did not budge more than a rock.
+
+"The devil's in women's tongues! Sit down, old lady, and take your hands
+away from my eyes--they bother me. And as for you, swell-head, get on to
+your chair, and listen to me. There will be time enough to go to law if
+we can't come to an understanding. But stamped paper stinks in my
+nostrils; and therefore I'd rather settle peaceably."
+
+Herr and Frau Meiser repressed their first emotion. They distrusted
+magistrates, as do all people without clean consciences. If the Colonel
+was a poor devil who could be put off with a few thalers, it would be
+better to avoid legal proceedings.
+
+Fougas stated the case to them with entire military bluntness. He proved
+the existence of his right, said that he had had his identity
+substantiated at Fontainebleau, Paris, and Berlin; cited from memory two
+or three passages of the will, and finished by declaring that the
+Prussian Government, in conjunction with that of France, would support
+his just claims if necessary.
+
+"You understand clearly," said he, taking Meiser by the button of his
+coat, "that I am no fox, depending on cunning. If you had a wrist
+vigorous enough to swing a good sabre, we'd take the field against each
+other, and I'd play you for the amount, first two cuts out of three, as
+surely as that's soup before you!"
+
+"Fortunately, monsieur," said Meiser, "my age shields me from all
+brutality. You would not wish to trample under foot the corpse of an old
+man!"
+
+"Venerable scoundrel! But you would have killed me like a dog, if your
+pistol had not missed fire!"
+
+"It was not loaded, Monsieur Colonel! It was not----anywhere near
+loaded! But I am an accommodating man, and we can come to terms very
+easily. I don't owe you anything, and, moreover, there's prescription;
+but after all----how much do you want?"
+
+"He has had his say: now it's my turn!"
+
+The old rascal's mate softened the tone of her voice. Imagine to
+yourself a saw licking a tree before biting in.
+
+"Listen, Claus, my dear--listen to what Monsieur Colonel Fougas has to
+say. You'll see that he is reasonable! It's not in him to think of
+ruining poor people like us. Oh, Heavens! he is not capable of it. He
+has such a noble heart! Such a disinterested man! An officer worthy of
+the great Napoleon (God receive his soul!)."
+
+"That's enough, old lady!" said Fougas, with a curt gesture which cut
+the speech off in the middle. "I had an estimate made at Berlin of what
+is due me--principal and interest."
+
+"Interest!" cried Meiser. "But in what country, in what latitude, do
+people pay interest on money? Perhaps it may sometimes happen in
+business, but between friends--never, no never, my good Monsieur
+Colonel! What would my good uncle, who is now gazing upon us from
+heaven, say, if he knew that you were claiming interest on his bequest?"
+
+"Now shut up, Nickle!" interrupted his wife. "Monsieur Colonel is just
+about telling you, himself, that he did not intend to be understood as
+speaking of the interest."
+
+"Why in the name of great guns don't you both shut up, you confounded
+magpies? Here I am dying of hunger, and I didn't bring my nightcap to go
+to bed here, either!---- Now here's the upshot of the matter: You owe me
+a great deal; but it's not an even sum--there are fractions in it, and I
+go in for clean transactions. Moreover, my tastes are modest. I've
+enough for my wife and myself; nothing more is needed than to provide
+for my son!"
+
+"Very well," cried Meiser; "I'll charge myself with the education of the
+little fellow!"
+
+"Now, during the dozen days since I again became a citizen of the world,
+there is one word that I've heard spoken everywhere. At Paris, as well
+as at Berlin, people no longer speak of anything but millions; there is
+no longer any talk of anything else, and everybody's mouth is full of
+millions. From hearing so much said about it, I've acquired a curiosity
+to know what it is. Go, fetch me out a million, and I'll give you
+quittance!"
+
+If you want to reach an approximate idea of the piercing cries which
+answered him, go to the _Jardin des Plantes_ at the breakfast hour of
+the birds of prey, and try to pull the meat out of their beaks. Fougas
+stopped his ears and remained inexorable. Prayers, arguments,
+misrepresentations, flatteries, cringings, glanced off from him like
+rain from a zinc roof. But at ten o'clock at night, when he had
+concluded that all concurrence was impossible, he took his hat:
+
+"Good evening!" said he. "It's no longer a million that I must have, but
+two millions, and all over. We'll go to law. I'm going to supper."
+
+He was on the staircase, when Frau Meiser said to her husband:
+
+"Call him back, and give him his million!"
+
+"Are you a fool?"
+
+"Don't be afraid."
+
+"I can never do it!"
+
+"Father in heaven! what blockheads men are! Monsieur! Monsieur Fougas!
+Monsieur Colonel Fougas! Come up again, I pray you! We consent to all
+that you require!"
+
+"Damnation!" said he, on reëntering; "you ought to have made up your
+minds sooner. But after all, let's see the money!"
+
+Frau Meiser explained to him with her tenderest voice, that poor
+capitalists like themselves, were not in the habit of keeping millions
+under their own lock and key.
+
+"But you shall lose nothing by waiting, my sweet sir! To-morrow you
+shall handle the amount in nice white silver; my husband will sign you a
+check on the Royal Bank of Dantzic."
+
+"But----," said the unfortunate Meiser. He signed, nevertheless, for he
+had boundless confidence in the practical ingenuity of Catharine. The
+old lady begged Fougas to sit down at the end of the table, and dictated
+to him a receipt for two millions, in payment of all demands. You may
+depend that she did not forgot a word of the legal formulas, and that
+she arranged the affair in due form according to the Prussian code. The
+receipt, written throughout in the Colonel's hand, filled three large
+pages.
+
+He signed the instrument with a flourish, and received in exchange the
+signature of Nicholas, which he knew well.
+
+"Well," said he to the old gentleman, "you're certainly not such an Arab
+as they said you were at Berlin. Shake hands, old scamp! I don't usually
+shake hands with any but honest people; but on an occasion like this,
+one can do a little something extra."
+
+"Do it double, Monsieur Fougas," said Frau Meiser, humbly. "Will you not
+join us in this modest supper?"
+
+"Gad! old lady, it's not a thing to be refused. My supper must be cold
+at the inn of the 'Clock'; and your viands, smoking on their chafing
+dishes, have already caused me more than one fit of distraction.
+Besides, here are some yellow glass flutes, on which Fougas will not be
+at all reluctant to play an air."
+
+The respectable Catharine had an extra plate laid, and ordered Berbel to
+go to bed. The Colonel folded up Father Meiser's million, rolled it
+carefully among a pile of bank-bills, and put the whole into the little
+pocket-book which his dear Clementine had sent him.
+
+The clock struck eleven.
+
+At half-past eleven Fougas began to see everything in a rosy cloud. He
+praised the Rhine wine highly, and thanked the Meisers for their
+hospitality. At midnight, he assured them of his highest esteem. At
+quarter past twelve, he embraced them. At half-past twelve, he delivered
+a eulogy on the illustrious John Meiser, his friend and benefactor. When
+he learned that John Meiser had died in that house, he poured forth a
+torrent of tears. At quarter to one, he assumed a confidential tone, and
+spoke of his son, whom he was going to make happy, and of the betrothed
+who was waiting for him. About one o'clock, he tasted a celebrated port
+wine which Frau Meiser had herself gone to bring from the cellar. About
+half-past one, his tongue thickened and his eyes grew dim; he struggled
+some time against drunkenness and sleepiness, announced that he was
+going to describe the Russian campaign, muttered the name of the
+Emperor, and slid under the table.
+
+"You may believe me, if you will," said Frau Meiser to her husband,
+"this is not a man who has come into our house; it's the devil!"
+
+"The devil!"
+
+"If not, would I have advised you to give him a million? I heard a voice
+saying to me, 'If you do not obey the messenger of the Infernal powers,
+you will both die this very night.' It was on account of that, that I
+called him up stairs. Ah! if we had been doing business with a man, I
+would have told you to contest it in law to our last cent."
+
+"As you please! So you're still making sport of my visions?"
+
+"Forgive me, Claus dear; I was a fool!"
+
+"And I've concluded I was, too."
+
+"Poor innocent! Perhaps you too thought this was Colonel Fougas?"
+
+"Certainly!"
+
+"As if it were possible to resuscitate a man! It is a demon, I tell you,
+who assumed the shape of the Colonel, to rob us of our money!"
+
+"What can demons do with money?"
+
+"Build cathedrals, to be sure!"
+
+"But how is the devil to be recognized when he is disguised?"
+
+"First by his cloven-foot--but this one has boots on; next by his
+clipped ear."
+
+"Bah! And why?"
+
+"Because the devil's ears are pointed, and, in order to make them round,
+he has to cut them."
+
+Meiser stuck his head under the table and uttered a cry of horror.
+
+"It's certainly the devil!" said he. "But how did he happen to let
+himself go to sleep?"
+
+"Perhaps you did not know that when I came back from the cellar, I
+dropped into my chamber? I put a drop of holy water into the Port; charm
+against charm, and he is fallen."
+
+"That's splendid! But what shall we do with him, now that we have him in
+our power?"
+
+"What is done with demons in Scripture? The Saviour throws them into the
+sea."
+
+"The sea is a long way from here."
+
+"But, you big baby, the public wells are just by!"
+
+"And what will be said to-morrow, when the body is found?"
+
+"Nothing at all will be found; and even the check that we signed, will
+be turned into tinder."
+
+Ten minutes later, Herr and Frau Meiser were lugging something toward
+the public wells, and soon dame Catharine murmured, _sotto voce_, the
+following incantation:
+
+"Demon, child of hell, be thou accursed!
+
+"Demon, child of hell, be thou dashed headlong down!
+
+"Demon, child of hell, return to hell!"
+
+A dull sound--the sound of a body falling into water, terminated the
+ceremony, and the two spouses returned to their domicil, with the
+satisfaction that always follows the performance of a duty.
+
+Nicholas said to himself:
+
+"I didn't think she was so credulous!"
+
+"I didn't think he was so simple!" thought the worthy Kettle, wedded
+wife of Claus.
+
+They slept the sleep of innocence. Oh, how much less soft their pillows
+would have seemed, if Fougas had gone home with his million!
+
+At ten o'clock the next morning, while they were taking their coffee and
+buttered rolls, the president of the bank called in, and said to them:
+
+"I am greatly obliged to you for having accepted a draft on Paris
+instead of a million in specie, and without premium, too. That young
+Frenchman you sent to us is a little brusque, but very lively, and a
+good fellow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE COLONEL TRIES TO RELIEVE HIMSELF OF A MILLION WHICH INCUMBERS HIM.
+
+
+Fougas had left Paris for Berlin the day after his audience. He took
+three days to make the trip, because he stopped some time at Nancy. The
+Marshal had given him a letter of introduction to the Prefect of
+Meurthe, who received him very politely, and promised to aid him in his
+investigations. Unfortunately, the house where he had loved Clementine
+Pichon was no longer standing. The authorities had demolished it in
+1827, in cutting a street through. It is certain that the commissioners
+had not demolished the family with the house, but a new difficulty all
+at once presented itself: the name of Pichon abounded in the city, the
+suburbs, and the department. Among this multitude of Pichons, Fougas did
+not know which one to hug. Tired of hunting, and eager to hasten forward
+on, the road to fortune, he left this note for the commissioner of
+police:
+
+"Search, on the registers of personal statistics and elsewhere, for a
+young girl named Clementine Pichon. She was eighteen years old in 1813;
+her parents kept an officers' boarding-house. If she is alive, get her
+address; if she is dead, look up her heirs. A father's happiness depends
+upon it!"
+
+On reaching Berlin, the Colonel found that his reputation had preceded
+him. The note from the Minister of War had been sent to the Prussian
+Government through the French legation; Leon Renault, despite his grief,
+had found time to write a word to Doctor Hirtz; the papers had begun to
+talk, and the scientific societies to bestir themselves. The Prince
+Regent, even, had not disdained to ask information on the subject from
+his physician. Germany is a queer country, where science interests the
+very princes.
+
+Fougas, who had read Doctor Hirtz's letter annexed to Herr Meiser's
+will, thought that he owed some acknowledgments to that excellent
+gentleman. He made a call upon him, and embraced him, addressing him as
+the oracle of Epidaurus. The doctor at once took possession of him, had
+his baggage brought from the hotel and gave him the best chamber in his
+house. Up to the 29th day of the month, the Colonel was cared for as a
+friend, and exhibited as a phenomenon. Seven photographers disputed the
+possession of so precious a sitter. The cities of Greece did no more for
+our poor old Homer. His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, wished to see
+him _in propriâ personâ_, and begged Herr Hirtz to bring him to the
+palace. Fougas scratched his ear a little, and intimated that a soldier
+ought not to associate with the enemy, seeming to think himself still in
+1813.
+
+The Prince is a distinguished soldier, having commanded in person at the
+famous siege of Rastadt. He took pleasure in Fougas' conversation; the
+heroic simplicity of the young old-time soldier charmed him. He paid him
+huge compliments and said that the Emperor of France was very fortunate
+in having around him officers of so much merit.
+
+"He has not a great many," replied the Colonel. "If there were but four
+or five hundred of my stamp, your Europe would have been bagged long
+ago!"
+
+This answer seemed more amusing than threatening, and no addition was
+immediately made to the available portion of the Prussian army.
+
+His Royal Highness directly informed Fougas that his indemnity had been
+fixed at two hundred and fifty thousand francs, and that he could
+receive the amount at the treasury whenever he should find it agreeable.
+
+"My Lord," replied he, "it is always agreeable to pocket the money of an
+enemy--a foreigner. But wait! I am not a censor-bearer to Plutus:
+give me back the Rhine and Posen, and I'll leave you your two hundred
+and fifty thousand francs."
+
+"Are you dreaming?" said the Prince, laughing. "The Rhine and Posen!"
+
+"The Rhine belongs to France, and the Posen to Poland, much more
+legitimately than this money to me. But so it is with great lords: they
+make it a duty to pay little debts, and a point of honor to ignore big
+ones!"
+
+The Prince winced a little, and all the faces of the court gave a
+sympathetic twitch. It was discovered that M. Fougas had evinced bad
+taste in letting a crumb of truth fall into a big plateful of follies.
+
+But a pretty little Viennese baroness, who was at the presentation, was
+much more charmed with his appearance than scandalized at his remarks.
+The ladies of Vienna have made for themselves a reputation for
+hospitality which they always attempt to support, even when they are
+away from their native land.
+
+The baroness of Marcomarcus had still another reason for getting hold of
+the Colonel: for two or three years she had, as a matter of course, been
+making a photographic collection of celebrated men. Her album was
+peopled with generals, statesmen, philosophers, and pianists, who had
+given their portraits to her, after writing on the back: "With respects
+of----" There were to be found there several Roman prelates, and even a
+celebrated cardinal; but a more direct envoy from the other world was
+still wanting. She wrote Fougas, then, a note full of impatience and
+curiosity, inviting him to supper. Fougas, who was going to start for
+Dantzic next day, took a sheet of paper embossed with a great eagle, and
+set to work to excuse himself politely. He feared--the delicate and
+chivalrous soul!--that an evening of conversation and enjoyment in the
+society of the loveliest women of Germany might be a sort of moral
+infidelity to the recollection of Clementine. He accordingly hunted up
+an eligible formula of address, and wrote:
+
+"Too indulgent Beauty, I----" The muse dictated nothing more. He was not
+in the mood for writing. He felt rather more in the mood for supper. His
+scruples scattered like clouds driven before a brisk North East wind; he
+put on the frogged surtout, and carried his reply himself. It was the
+first time that he had been out to supper since his resuscitation. He
+gave evidence of a good appetite, and got moderately drunk, but not as
+much so as usual. The Baroness de Marcomarcus, astonished at his high
+spirits and inexhaustible vivacity, kept him as long as she could. And
+moreover she said to her friends, on showing them the Colonel's
+portrait, "Nothing is needed but these French officers to conquer the
+world!"
+
+The next day he packed a black leather trunk which he had bought at
+Paris, drew his money from the treasury, and set out for Dantzic. He
+went to sleep in the cars because he had been out to supper the night
+before. A terrible snoring awoke him. He looked around for the snorer,
+and, not finding him near him, opened the door into the adjoining
+compartment (for the German cars are much larger than the French), and
+shook a fat gentleman, who seemed to have a whole organ playing in his
+person. At one of the stations he drank a bottle of Marsala and ate a
+couple of dozen sandwiches, for last night's supper seemed to have
+hollowed out his stomach. At Dantzic, he rescued his black trunk from
+the hands of an enormous baggage-snatcher who was trying to take
+possession of it.
+
+He went to the best hotel in the place, ordered his supper, and hastened
+to Meiser's house. His friends at Berlin had given him accounts of that
+charming family. He knew that he would have to deal with the richest and
+most avaricious of sharpers: that was why he assumed the cavalier tone
+that may have seemed strange to more than one reader in the preceding
+chapter.
+
+Unhappily, he let himself become a little too human as soon as he had
+his million in his pocket. A curiosity to investigate the long yellow
+bottles all the way to the bottom, came near doing him an ugly turn. His
+reason wandered, about one o'clock in the morning, if I am to believe
+the account he himself gave. He said that, after saying "good night" to
+the excellent people who had treated him so well, he tumbled into a
+large and deep well, whose rim was hardly raised above the level of the
+street, and ought at least to have had a lamp by it. "I came to" (it is
+still he speaking) "in water, very fresh and of a pleasant taste. After
+swimming around a minute or two, looking for a firm place to take hold
+of, I seized a big rope, and climbed without any trouble to the surface
+of the earth, which was not more than forty feet off. It required
+nothing but wrists and a little gymnastic skill, and was not much of a
+feat, anyhow. On getting on to the pavement, I found myself in the
+presence of a sort of night watchman, who was bawling the hours through
+the street, and who asked me insolently what I was doing there. I
+thrashed him for his impudence, and the gentle exercise did me good, as
+it set my blood well in circulation again. Before getting back to the
+inn, I stopped under a street lamp, opened my pocket-book, and saw with
+pleasure that my million was not wet. The leather was thick, and the
+clasp firm; moreover, I had enveloped Herr Meiser's check in a
+half-dozen hundred-franc bills, in a roll as fat as a monk. These
+surroundings had preserved it."
+
+This examination being made, he went home, went to bed, and slept with
+his fists clenched. The next morning he received, on getting up, the
+following memoranda, which came from the Nancy police:
+
+"Clementine Pichon, aged eighteen, minor daughter of Auguste Pichon,
+hotel-keeper, and Leonie Francelot, was married, in this town, January
+11, 1814, to Louis Antoine Langevin; profession not stated.
+
+"The name of Langevin is as rare in this department, as the name of
+Pichon is common. With the exception of the Hon. M. Victor Langevin,
+Counsellor to the Prefecture at Nancy, there is only known Langevin
+(Pierre), usually called Pierrot, miller in the commune of Vergaville,
+canton of Dieuze."
+
+Fougas jumped nearly to the ceiling, crying,
+
+"I have a son!"
+
+He called the hotel-keeper, and said to him:
+
+"Make out my bill, and send my baggage to the depot. Take my ticket for
+Nancy; I shall not stop on the way. Here are two hundred francs, with
+which I want you to drink to the health of my son! He is called Victor,
+after me! He is counsellor of the Prefecture! I'd rather he were a
+soldier; but never mind! Ah! first get somebody to show me the way to
+the bank! I must go and get a million for him!"
+
+As there is no direct connection between Dantzic and Nancy, he was
+obliged to stop at Berlin. M. Hirtz, whom he met accidentally, told him
+that the scientific societies of the city were preparing an immense
+banquet in his honor; but he declined positively.
+
+"It's not," said he, "that I despise an opportunity to drink in good
+company, but Nature has spoken: her voice draws me on! The sweetest
+intoxication to all rightly constituted hearts is that of paternal
+love!"
+
+To prepare, his dear child for the joy of a return so little expected,
+he enclosed his million in an envelope addressed to M. Victor Langevin,
+with a long letter which closed thus:
+
+    "A father's blessing is more precious than all the gold
+    in the world!
+
+    "VICTOR FOUGAS."
+
+The infidelity of Clementine Pichon touched his _amour-propre_ a little,
+but he soon consoled himself for it.
+
+"At least," thought he, "I'll not have to marry an old woman, when
+there's a young one waiting for me at Fontainebleau. And, moreover, my
+son has a name, and a very presentable name. Fougas would be a great
+deal better, but Langevin is not bad."
+
+He arrived, on the 2d of September, at six o'clock in the evening, at
+that large and beautiful but somewhat stupid city which constitutes the
+Versailles of Lorraine. His heart was beating fit to burst. To
+recuperate his energies, he took a good dinner. The landlord, when
+catechized at dessert, gave him the very best accounts of M. Victor
+Langevin: a man still young, married for the past six years, father of a
+boy and a girl, respected in the neighborhood, and prosperous in his
+affairs.
+
+"I was sure of it!" said Fougas.
+
+He poured down a bumper of a certain kirsch-wasser from the Black
+Forest, which he fancied delicious with his maccaroni.
+
+The same evening, M. Langevin related to his wife how, on returning from
+the club at ten o'clock, he had been brutally accosted by a drunken man.
+He at first took him for a robber, and prepared to defend himself; but
+the man contented himself with embracing him, and then ran away with all
+his might. This singular accident threw the two spouses into a series of
+conjectures, each less probable than the preceding. But as they were
+both young, and had been married barely seven years, they soon changed
+the subject.
+
+The next morning, Fougas, laden down like a miller's ass with bon-bons,
+presented himself at M. Langevin's. In order to make himself welcome to
+his two grandchildren, he had skimmed the shop of the celebrated
+Lebègue--the Boissier of Nancy. The servant who opened the door for him
+asked if he were the gentleman her master expected.
+
+"Good!" said he; "my letter has come?"
+
+"Yes, sir; yesterday morning. And your baggage?"
+
+"I left it at the hotel."
+
+"Monsieur will not be satisfied at that. Your room is ready, up stairs."
+
+"Thanks! thanks! thanks! Take this hundred franc note for the good
+news."
+
+"Oh, monsieur! it was not worth so much."
+
+"But where is he? I want to see him--to embrace him--to tell him----"
+
+"He's dressing, monsieur; and so is madame."
+
+"And the children--my dear grandchildren?"
+
+"If you want to see them, they're right here, in the dining room."
+
+"If I want to! Open the door right away!"
+
+He discovered that the little boy resembled him, and was overjoyed to
+see him in the dress of an artillerist playing with a sabre. His pockets
+were soon emptied on the floor; and the two children, at the sight of so
+many good things, hung about his neck.
+
+"O philosophers!" cried the Colonel, "do you dare to deny the existence
+of the voice of Nature?"
+
+A pretty little lady (all the young women are pretty in Nancy) ran in at
+the joyous cries of the little brood.
+
+"My daughter-in-law!" cried Fougas, opening his arms.
+
+The lady of the house modestly recoiled, and said, with a slight smile:
+
+"You are mistaken, sir; I am not your daughter-in-law;[9] I am Madame
+Langevin."
+
+"What a fool I am!" thought the Colonel. "Here I was going to tell our
+family secrets before these children. Mind your manners, Fougas! You are
+in fine society, where the ardor of the sweetest sentiments is hidden
+under the icy mask of indifference."
+
+"Be seated," said Mme. Langevin. "I hope that you have had a pleasant
+journey?"
+
+"Yes, madame. Only steam seemed too slow for me!"
+
+"I did not know that you were in such a hurry to get here."
+
+"You did not, then, appreciate that I was fairly burning to be with
+you?"
+
+"I am glad to hear it; it is a proof that Reason and Family Affection
+have made themselves heard at last."
+
+"Was it my fault that family ties did not speak effectually sooner?"
+
+"Well, after all, the main thing is that you have listened to them. We
+will exert ourselves to prevent your finding Nancy uninteresting."
+
+"How could I, since I am to live with you?"
+
+"Thank you! Our house will be yours. Try to imagine yourself entirely at
+home."
+
+"In imagination, and affection too, madame."
+
+"And you'll not think of Paris again?"
+
+"Paris!---- I don't care any more for it than I do for doomsday!"
+
+"I forewarn you that people are not in the habit of fighting duels
+here."
+
+"What? You know already----"
+
+"We know all about it, even to the history of that famous supper with
+those rather volatile ladies."
+
+"How the devil did you hear of that? But that time, believe me, I was
+very excusable."
+
+M. Langevin here made his appearance, freshly shaven and rubicund--a
+fine specimen of the sub-prefect in embryo.
+
+"It's wonderful," thought Fougas, "how well all our family bear their
+years! One wouldn't call that chap over thirty-five, and he's forty-six
+if he's a day. He doesn't look a bit like me, by the way; he takes after
+his mother!"
+
+"My dear!" said Mme. Langevin, "here's a tough subject, who promises to
+be wiser in future."
+
+"You are welcome, young man!" said the Counsellor, offering his hand to
+Fougas.
+
+This reception appeared cold to our poor hero. He had been dreaming of a
+shower of kisses and tears, and here his children contented themselves
+with offering their hands.
+
+"My chi---- monsieur," said he to Langevin, "there is one person still
+needed to complete our reunion. A few mutual wrongs, and those smoothed
+over by time, ought not to build an insurmountable barrier between us.
+May I venture to request the favor of being presented to your mother?"
+
+M. Langevin and his wife opened their eyes in astonishment.
+
+"How, monsieur?" said the husband. "Paris life must have affected your
+memory. My poor mother is no more. It is now three years since we lost
+her!"
+
+The good Fougas burst into tears.
+
+"Forgive me!" said he; "I didn't know it. Poor woman!"
+
+"I don't understand you! You knew my mother?"
+
+"Ingrate!"
+
+"Why, you're an amusing fellow! But your parents were invited to the
+funeral, were they not?"
+
+"Whose parents?"
+
+"Your father and mother!"
+
+"Eh! What's this you're cackling to me about? My mother was dead before
+yours was born!"
+
+"Your mother dead?"
+
+"Yes, certainly; in '89!"
+
+"What! Wasn't it your mother who sent you here?"
+
+"Monster! It was my fatherly heart that brought me!"
+
+"Fatherly heart?---- Why, then you're not young Jamin, who has been
+cutting up didoes in the capital, and has been sent to Nancy to go
+through the Agricultural School?"
+
+The Colonel answered with the voice of Jupiter tonans:
+
+"I am Fougas!"
+
+"Very well!"
+
+"If Nature says nothing to you in my behalf, ungrateful son, question
+the spirit of your mother!"
+
+"Upon my soul, sir," cried the Counsellor, "we can play at cross
+purposes a good while! Sit down there, if you please, and tell me your
+business--Marie, take away the children."
+
+Fougas did not require any urging. He detailed the romance of his life,
+without omitting anything, but with many delicate touches for the filial
+ears of M. Langevin. The Counsellor heard him patiently, with an
+appearance of perfect disinterestedness.
+
+"Monsieur," said he, at last, "at first I took you for a madman; but now
+I remember that the newspapers have contained some scraps of your
+history, and I see that you are the victim of a mistake. I am not
+forty-six years old, but thirty-four. My mother's name was not
+Clementine Pichon, but Marie Herval. She was not born at Nancy, but at
+Vannes, and she was but seven years old in 1813. Nevertheless, I am
+happy to make your acquaintance."
+
+"Ah! you're not my son!" replied Fougas, angrily. "Very well! So much
+the worse for you! No one seems to want a father of the name of Fougas!
+As for sons by the name of Langevin, one only has to stoop to pick them
+up. I know where to find one who is not a Counsellor of the Prefecture,
+it is true, and who does not put on a laced coat to go to mass, but who
+has an honest and simple heart, and is named Pierre, just like me! But,
+I beg your pardon, when one shows gentlemen the door, one ought at least
+to return what belongs to them."
+
+"I don't prevent your collecting the bon-bons which my children have
+scattered over the floor."
+
+"Yes, I'm talking about bon-bons with a vengeance! My million, sir!"
+
+"What million?"
+
+"Your brother's million!---- No! The million that belongs to him who is
+not your brother--to Clementine's son, my dear and only child, the only
+scion of my race, Pierre Langevin, called Pierrot, a miller at
+Vergaville!"
+
+"But I assure you, monsieur, that I haven't your million, or anybody's
+else."
+
+"You dare to deny it, scoundrel, when I sent it to you by mail, myself!"
+
+"Possibly you sent it, but I certainly have not received it!"
+
+"Aha! Defend yourself!"
+
+He made at his throat, and perhaps France would have lost a Counsellor
+of Prefecture that day, if the servant had not come in with two letters
+in her hand. Fougas recognized his own handwriting and the Berlin
+postmark, tore open the envelope, and displayed the check.
+
+"Here," said he, "is the million I intended for you, if you had seen fit
+to be my son! Now it's too late for you to retract. The voice of Nature
+calls me to Vergaville. Your servant, sir!"
+
+On the 4th of September, Pierre Langevin, miller at Vergaville,
+celebrated the marriage of Cadet Langevin, his second son. The miller's
+family was numerous, respectable, and in comfortable circumstances.
+First, there was the grandfather, a fine, hale old man, who took his
+four meals a day, and doctored his little ailings with the wine of Bar
+or Thiaucourt. The grandmother, Catharine, had been pretty in her day,
+and a little frivolous; but she expiated by absolute deafness the crime
+of having listened too tenderly to gallants. M. Pierre Langevin, alias
+Pierrot, alias Big Peter, after having sought his fortune in America (a
+custom becoming quite general in the rural districts), had returned to
+the village in pretty much the condition of the infant Saint John, and
+God only knows how many jokes were perpetrated over his ill luck. The
+people of Lorraine are terrible wags, and if you are not fond of
+personal jokes, I advise you not to travel in their neighborhood. Big
+Peter, stung to the quick, and half crazed at having run through his
+inheritance, borrowed money at ten per cent., bought the mill at
+Vergaville, worked like a plough-horse in heavy land, and repaid his
+capital and the interest. Fortune, who owed him some compensations,
+gave him _gratis pro Deo_, a half dozen superb workers--six big boys,
+whom his wife presented him with, one annually, as regularly as
+clock-work. Every year, nine months, to a day, after the _fête_ of
+Vergaville, Claudine (otherwise known as Glaudine) presented one for
+baptism. At last she died after the sixth, from eating four huge pieces
+of _quiche_ before her churching. Big Peter did not marry again, having
+concluded that he had workers enough, and he continued to add to his
+fortune nicely. But, as standing jokes last a long time in villages, the
+miller's comrades still spoke to him about those famous millions which
+he did not bring back from America, and Big Peter grew very red under
+his flour, just as he used to in his earlier days.
+
+On the 4th of September, then, he married his second son to a good big
+woman of Altroff, who had fat and blazing cheeks: this being a kind of
+beauty much affected in the country. The wedding took place at the mill,
+because the bride was orphaned of father and mother, and had previously
+lived with the nuns of Molsheim.
+
+A messenger came and told Pierre Langevin that a gentleman wearing
+decorations had something to say to him, and Fougas appeared in all his
+glory. "My good sir," said the miller, "I am far from being in a mood to
+talk business, as we just took a good pull at white wine before mass;
+but we are going to drink some red wine that's by no means bad, at
+dinner, and if your heart prompts you, don't be backward! The table is
+a long one. We can talk afterwards. You don't say no? Then that's yes."
+
+"For once," thought Fougas, "I am not mistaken. This is surely the voice
+of Nature! I would have liked a soldier better, but this genial rustic,
+so comfortably rounded, satisfies my heart. I cannot be indebted to him
+for many gratifications of my pride; but never mind! I am sure of _his_
+good-will."
+
+Dinner was served, and the table more heavily laden with viands than the
+stomach of Gargantua. Big Peter, as proud of his big family as of his
+little fortune, made the Colonel stand by as he enumerated his children.
+And Fougas was joyful at learning that he had six welcome grandchildren.
+
+He was seated at the right of a little stunted old woman who was
+presented to him as the grandmother of the youngsters. Heavens! how
+changed Clementine appeared to him. Save the eyes which were still
+lively and sparkling, there was no longer anything about her that could
+be recognized. "See," thought Fougas, "what I would have been like
+to-day, if the worthy John Meiser had not desiccated me!" He smiled to
+himself on regarding Grandfather Langevin, the reputed progenitor of
+this numerous family. "Poor old fellow," murmured Fougas, "you little
+think what you owe to me!"
+
+They dine boisterously at village weddings. This is an abuse which, I
+sincerely hope, Civilization will never reform. Under cover of the
+noise, Fougas entered into conversation, or thought he did, with his
+left-hand neighbor. "Clementine!" he said to her. She raised her eyes,
+and her nose too, and responded:
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"My heart has not deceived me, then?--you are indeed my Clementine!"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"And you have recognized me, noble and excellent woman!"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"But how did you conceal your emotion so well?---- How strong women
+are!---- I fall from the skies into the midst of your peaceful
+existence, and you see me without moving a muscle!"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Have you forgiven me for a seeming injury for which Destiny alone is
+responsible?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Thanks! A thousand thanks!---- What a charming family you have about
+you! This good Pierre, who almost opened his arms on seeing me approach,
+is my son, is he not?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Rejoice! He shall be rich! He already has happiness; I bring him
+fortune. His portion shall be a million. Oh, Clementine! what a
+commotion there will be in this simple assembly, when I raise my voice
+and say to my son: 'Here! this million is for you!' Is it a good time
+now? Shall I speak? Shall I tell all?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+Fougas immediately arose, and requested silence. The people thought he
+was going to sing a song, and all kept quiet.
+
+"Pierre Langevin," said he with emphasis, "I have come back from the
+other world, and brought you a million."
+
+If Big Peter did not want to get angry, he at least got red, and the
+joke seemed to him in bad taste. But when Fougas announced that he had
+loved the grandmother in her youth, grandfather Langevin no longer
+hesitated to fling a bottle at his head. The Colonel's son, his splendid
+grandchildren, and even the bride all jumped up in high dudgeon and
+there was a very pretty scrimmage indeed.
+
+For the first time in his life, Fougas did not get the upper hand. He
+was afraid that he might injure some of his family. Paternal affection
+robbed him of three quarters of his power.
+
+But having learned during the clamor that Clementine was called
+Catharine, and that Pierre Langevin was born in 1810, he resumed the
+offensive, blacked three eyes, broke an arm, mashed two noses, knocked
+in four dozen teeth, and regained his carriage with all the honors of
+war.
+
+"Devil take the children!" said he, while riding in a post-chaise toward
+the Avricourt station. "If I have a son, I wish he may find me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+HE SEEKS AND BESTOWS THE HAND OF CLEMENTINE.
+
+
+On the fifth of September, at ten o'clock in the morning, Leon Renault,
+emaciated, dejected and scarcely recognizable, was at the feet of
+Clementine Sambucco in her aunt's parlor. There were flowers on the
+mantel and flowers in all the vases. Two great burglar sunbeams broke
+through the open windows. A million of little bluish atoms were playing
+in the light, crossing each other and getting fantastically mixed up,
+like the ideas in a volume of M. Alfred Houssaye. In the garden, the
+apples were falling, the peaches were ripe, the hornets were ploughing
+broad, deep furrows in the _duchesse_ pears; the trumpet-flowers and
+clematis-vines were in blossom, and to crown all, a great mass of
+heliotropes, trained over the left window, was flourishing in all its
+beauty. The sun had given all the grapes in the arbor a tint of golden
+bronze; and the great Yucca on the lawn, shaken by the wind like a
+Chinese hat, noiselessly clashed its silver bells. But the son of M.
+Renault was more pale and haggard than the white lilac sprays, more
+blighted than the leaves on the old cherry-tree; his heart was without
+joy and without hope, like the currant bushes without leaves and without
+fruit!
+
+To be exiled from his native land, to have lived three years in an
+inhospitable climate, to have passed so many days in deep mines, so many
+nights over an earthenware stove in the midst of an infinity of bugs and
+a multiplicity of serfs, and to see himself set aside for a
+twenty-five-louis Colonel whom he himself had brought to life by soaking
+him in water!
+
+All men are subject to disappointments, but surely never had one
+encountered a misfortune so unforeseen and so extraordinary. Leon knew
+that Earth is not a valley flowing with chocolate and soup _à la reine_.
+He knew the list of the renowned unfortunates beginning with Abel slain
+in the garden of Paradise, and ending with Rubens assassinated in the
+gallery of the Louvre at Paris. But history, which seldom instructs us,
+never consoles us. The poor engineer in vain repeated to himself that a
+thousand others had been supplanted on the day before marriage, and a
+hundred thousand on the day after. Melancholy was stronger than Reason,
+and three or four soft locks were beginning to whiten about his temples.
+
+"Clementine!" said he, "I am the most miserable of men. In refusing me
+the hand which you have promised, you condemn me to agony a hundred
+times worse than death. Alas! What would you have me become without you?
+I must live alone, for I love you too well to marry another. For four
+long years, all my affections, all my thoughts have been centred upon
+you; I have become accustomed to regard other women as inferior beings,
+unworthy of attracting the interest of a man! I will not speak to you of
+the efforts I have made to deserve you; they brought their reward in
+themselves, and I was already too happy in working and suffering for
+you. But see the misery in which your desertion has left me! A sailor
+thrown upon a desert island has less to deplore than I: I will be forced
+to live near you, to witness the happiness of another, to see you pass
+my windows upon the arm of my rival! Ah! death would be more endurable
+than this constant agony. But I have not even the right to die! My poor
+old parents have already sorrows enough. What would it be, Great God! if
+I were to condemn them to bear the loss of their son?"
+
+This complaint, punctuated with sighs and tears, lacerated the heart of
+Clementine. The poor child wept too, for she loved Leon with her whole
+soul, but she was interdicted from telling him so. More than once, on
+seeing him half dying before her, she felt tempted to throw her arms
+about his neck, but the recollection of Fougas paralyzed all her tender
+impulses.
+
+"My poor friend," said she, "you judge me very wrongfully if you think
+me insensible to your sufferings. I have known you thoroughly, Leon,
+and that too since my very childhood. I know all that there is in you
+of devotion, delicacy and precious and noble virtues. Since the time
+when you carried me in your arms to the poor, and put a penny in my hand
+to teach me to give alms, I have never heard benevolence spoken of
+without involuntarily thinking of you. When you whipped a boy twice your
+size for taking away my doll, I felt that courage was noble and that a
+woman would be happy in being able to lean on a brave man. All that I
+have ever seen you do since that time, has only redoubled my esteem and
+my sympathy. Believe me that it is neither from wickedness or
+ingratitude that I make you suffer now. Alas! I no longer belong to
+myself, I am under external control; I am like those automatons that
+move without knowing why. Yes, I feel an impulse within me more powerful
+than my self control, and it is the will of another that leads me."
+
+"If I could but be sure that you will be happy! But no! This man, before
+whom you immolate me, will never know the worth of a soul as delicate as
+yours. He is a brute, a swash-buckler, a drunkard."
+
+"I beseech you, Leon, remember that he has a right to my unreserved
+respect!"
+
+"Respect! For him! And why? I ask of you, in Heaven's name, what you
+find respectable in the character of Mister Fougas? His age? He is
+younger than I. His talents? He never shows them anywhere but at the
+table. His education? It's lovely! His virtues? _I_ know what is to be
+thought of his refinement and gratitude!"
+
+"I have respected him, Leon, since I first saw him in his coffin. It is
+a sentiment stronger than all else; I cannot explain it, I can but
+submit to it."
+
+"Very well! Respect him as much as you please! Yield to the superstition
+that enchains you. See in him a miraculous being, consecrated, rescued
+from the grip of Death to accomplish something great on earth! But this
+itself, Oh my dear Clementine, is a barrier between you and him! If
+Fougas is outside of the conditions of humanity, if he is a phenomenon,
+a being apart, a hero, a demigod, a fetich, you cannot seriously think
+of becoming his wife. As for me, I am but a man like others, born to
+work, to suffer and to love. I love you! Love me!"
+
+"Scoundrel!" cried Fougas, opening the door.
+
+Clementine uttered a cry, Leon sprung up quickly, but the Colonel had
+already seized him by the most practicable part of his nankeen suit,
+before he had even time to think of a single word in reply. The engineer
+was lifted up, balanced like an atom in one of the sunbeams, and flung
+into the very midst of the heliotropes. Poor Leon! Poor heliotropes!
+
+In less than a second, the young man was on his feet. He dusted the
+earth from his knees and elbows, approached the window, and said in a
+calm but resolute voice: "Mister Colonel, I sincerely regret having
+brought you back to life, but possibly the folly of which I have been
+guilty is not irreparable. I hope soon to have an opportunity to find
+out if it be! As for you, Mademoiselle, I love you!"
+
+The Colonel shrugged his shoulders and put himself at the young girl's
+feet on the very cushion which still bore the impression left by Leon.
+Mlle. Virginie Sambucco, attracted by the noise, came down stairs like
+an avalanche and heard the following conversation.
+
+"Idol of a great soul! Fougas returns to thee like the eagle to his
+eyrie. I have long traversed the world in pursuit of rank, fortune and
+family which I was burning to lay at thy feet. Fortune has obeyed me as
+a slave: she knows in what school I learned the art of controlling her.
+I have gone through Paris and Germany like a victorious meteor led by
+its star. I have everywhere associated as an equal with the powers of
+Earth, and made the trumpet of truth resound in the halls of kings. I
+have put my foot on the throat of greedy Avarice, and snatched from him
+a part, at least, of the treasures which he had stolen from
+too-confiding Honor. One only blessing is denied me: the son I hoped to
+see has escaped the lynx-eyes of paternal love. Neither have I found the
+ancient object of my first affections. But what matters it? I shall feel
+the want of nothing, if you fill for me the place of all. What do we
+wait for now? Are you deaf to the voice of Happiness which calls you?
+Let us go to the temple of the laws, then you shall follow me to the
+foot of the altar; a priest shall consecrate our bonds, and we will go
+through life leaning on one another, I like the oak sustaining weakness,
+thou like the graceful ivy ornamenting the emblem of strength."[10]
+
+Clementine remained a few moments without answering, as if stunned by
+the Colonel's vehement rhetoric. "Monsieur Fougas," she said to him, "I
+have always obeyed you, I promise to obey you all my life. If you do not
+wish me to marry poor Leon, I will renounce him. I love him devotedly,
+nevertheless, and a single word from him arouses more emotion in my
+heart than all the fine things you have said to me."
+
+"Good! Very good!" cried the Aunt. "As for me, sir, although you have
+never done me the honor to consult me, I will tell you my opinion. My
+niece is not at all the woman to suit you. Were you richer than M. de
+Rothschild and more illustrious than the Duke of Malakoff, I would not
+advise Clementine to marry you."
+
+"And why, chaste Minerva?"
+
+"Because you would love her fifteen days, and then, at the first sound
+of cannon, be off to the wars! You would abandon her, sir, just as you
+did that unhappy Clementine whose misfortunes have been recounted to
+us!"
+
+"Zounds! Lady Aunt! I _do_ advise you to bestow your pity on _her_!
+Three months after Leipzic, she married a fellow named Langevin at
+Nancy."
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"I say that she married a military commissary named Langevin."
+
+"At Nancy?"
+
+"At that identical town."
+
+"This is strange!
+
+"It's outrageous!
+
+"But this woman--this young girl--her name?
+
+"I've told you a hundred times: Clementine!"
+
+"Clementine what?
+
+"Clementine Pichon."
+
+"Gracious Heavens! My keys! Where are my keys? I'm sure I put them in my
+pocket! Clementine Pichon! M. Langevin! It's impossible! My senses are
+forsaking me! Come, my child, bestir yourself! The happiness of your
+whole life is concerned. Where _did_ you poke my keys? Ah! Here they
+are!"
+
+Fougas bent over to Clementine's ear, and said:
+
+"Is she subject to these attacks? One, would suppose that the poor old
+girl had lost her head!"
+
+But Virginie Sambucco had already opened a little rosewood secretary.
+Her unerring glance discovered in a file of papers, a sheet yellow with
+age.
+
+"I've got it!" said she with a cry of joy. "Marie Clementine Pichon,
+legitimate daughter of August Pichon, hotel keeper, _rue des Merlettes_,
+in this town of Nancy; married June 10th, 1814, to Joseph Langevin,
+military sub-commissary. Is it surely she, Monsieur? Dare to say it
+isn't she!"
+
+"Well! But how do you happen to have my family papers?"
+
+"Poor Clementine! And you accuse her of unfaithfulness! You do not
+understand then that you had been taken for dead! That she supposed
+herself a widow without having been a wife; that--"
+
+"It's all right! It's all right! I forgive her. Where is she? I want to
+see her, to embrace her, to tell her--"
+
+"She is dead, Monsieur! She died three months after she was married,"
+
+"Ah! The Devil!"
+
+"In giving birth to a daughter--"
+
+"Where is my daughter? I'd rather have had a son, but never mind! Where
+is she? I want to see her, to embrace her, to tell her--"
+
+"Alas! She is no more! But I can conduct you to her tomb."
+
+"But how the Devil did you know her?"
+
+"Because she married my brother!"
+
+"Without my consent? But never mind! At least she left some children,
+didn't she?"
+
+"Only one."
+
+"A son! He is my grandson!"
+
+"A daughter."
+
+"Never mind! She is my granddaughter! I'd rather have had a grandson,
+but where is she? I want to see her, to embrace her, to tell her--"
+
+"Embrace away, Monsieur! Her name is Clementine: after her grandmother,
+and there she is!"
+
+"She! That accounts for the resemblance! But then I can't marry her!
+Never mind! Clementine! Come to my arms! Embrace your grandfather!"
+
+The poor child had not been able entirely to comprehend this rapid
+conversation, from which events had been falling like tiles, upon the
+head of the Colonel. She had always heard M. Langevin spoken of as her
+maternal grandfather, and now she seemed to hear that her mother was the
+daughter of Fougas. But she knew at the first words, that it was no
+longer possible for her to marry the Colonel, and that she would soon be
+married to Leon Renault. It was, therefore, from an impulse of joy and
+gratitude that she flung herself into the arms of the young-old man.
+
+"Ah, Monsieur!" said she, "I have always loved and respected you like a
+grandfather!"
+
+"And I, my poor child, have always behaved myself like an old beast! All
+men are brutes, and all women are angels. You divined with the delicate
+instinct of your sex, that you owed me respect, and I, fool that I am,
+didn't divine anything at all! Whew! Without the venerable Aunt there,
+I'd have made a pretty piece of work!"
+
+"No," said the aunt. "You would have found out the truth in going over
+our family papers."
+
+"Would that I could have seen them and nothing more! Just to think that
+I went off to seek my heirs in the department of Meurthe, when I had
+left my family in Fontainebleau! Imbecile! Bah! But never mind.
+Clementine! You shall be rich, you shall marry the man you love! Where
+is he, the brave boy? I want to see him, to embrace him, to tell him--"
+
+"Alas, Monsieur; you just threw him out of the window."
+
+"I? Hold on, it _is_ true. I had forgotten all about it. Fortunately
+he's not hurt, and I'll go at once and make amends for my folly. You
+shall get married when you want to; the two weddings shall come off
+together.--But in fact, no! What am I saying? I shall not marry now! It
+will all be well soon, my child, my dear granddaughter. Mademoiselle
+Sambucco you're a model aunt; embrace me!"
+
+He ran to M. Renault's house, and Gothon, who saw him coming, ran down
+to shut him out.
+
+"Ain't you ashamed of yourself," said she, "to act this way with them as
+brought you to life again? Ah! If it had to be done over again! We
+wouldn't turn the house upside down again for the sake of your fine
+eyes! Madame's crying, Monsieur is tearing his hair, M. Leon has just
+been sending two officers to hunt you up. What have you been at again
+since morning?"
+
+Fougas gave her a twirl on her feet and found himself face to face with
+the engineer. Leon had heard the sound of a quarrel, and on seeing the
+Colonel excited, with flashing eyes, he expected some brutal aggression
+and did not wait for the first blow. A struggle took place in the
+passage amid the cries of Gothon, M. Renault and the poor old lady, who
+was screaming: "Murder!" Leon wrestled, kicked, and from time to time
+launched a vigorous blow into the body of his antagonist. He had to
+succumb, nevertheless; the Colonel finished by upsetting him on the
+ground and holding him there. Then he kissed him on both cheeks and said
+to him:
+
+"Ah! You naughty boy! Now I'm pretty sure to make you listen to me! I am
+Clementine's grandfather, and I give her to you in marriage, and you can
+have the wedding to-morrow if you want to! Do you hear? Now get up, and
+don't you punch me in the stomach any more. It would be almost
+parricide!"
+
+Mlle. Sambucco and Clementine arrived in the midst of the general
+stupefaction. They completed the recital of Fougas, who had gotten
+himself pretty badly mixed up in the genealogy. Leon's seconds appeared
+in their turn. They had not found the enemy in the hotel where he had
+taken up his quarters, and came to give an account of their mission. A
+tableau of perfect happiness met their astonished gaze, and Leon invited
+them to the wedding.
+
+"My friends," said Fougas, "you shall see undeceived Nature bless the
+chains of Love."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A THUNDERBOLT FROM A CLEAR SKY.
+
+
+    "Mlle. Virginie Sambucco has the honor to announce to
+    you the marriage of Mlle. Clementine Sambucco, her
+    niece, to M. Leon Renault, civil engineer.
+
+    "M. and Mme. Renault have the honor to announce to you
+    the marriage of M. Leon Renault, their son, to Mlle.
+    Clementine Sambucco;
+
+    "And invite you to be present at the nuptial benediction
+    which will be given them on the 11th of September, 1859,
+    in the church of Saint Maxcence, in their parish, at
+    eleven o'clock precisely."
+
+Fougas absolutely insisted that his name should figure on the cards.
+They had all the trouble in the world to cure him of this whim. Mme.
+Renault lectured him two full hours. She told him that in the eyes of
+society, as well as in the eyes of the law, Clementine was the
+granddaughter of M. Langevin; that, moreover, M. Langevin had acted very
+liberally in legitimizing by marriage, a daughter that was not his own;
+finally, that the publication of such a family secret would be an
+outrage against the sanctity of the grave and would tarnish the memory
+of poor Clementine Pichon. The Colonel answered with the warmth of a
+young man, and the obstinacy of an old one:
+
+"Nature has her rights; they are anterior to the conventions of society,
+and a thousand times more exalted. The honor of her I called my Ægle, is
+dearer to me than all the treasures of the world, and I would cleave the
+soul of any rash being who should attempt to tarnish it. In yielding to
+the ardor of my vows, she but conformed to the custom of a great epoch
+when the uncertainty of life and the constant existence of war
+simplified all formalities. And in conclusion, I do not wish that my
+grandchildren, yet to be born, should be ignorant that the source of
+their blood is in the veins of Fougas. Your Langevin is but an intruder
+who covertly slipped into my family. A commissary! It's almost a sutler!
+I spurn under foot the ashes of Langevin!"
+
+His obstinacy would not yield to the arguments of Mme. Renault, but it
+succumbed to the entreaties of Clementine. The young creole twisted him
+around her finger with irresistible grace.
+
+"My good Grandpa this, my pretty little Grandpa that; my old baby of a
+Grandpa, we'll send you off to college if you're not reasonable!"
+
+She used to seat herself familiarly on Fougas' knee, and give him little
+love pats on the cheeks. The Colonel would assume the gruffest possible
+voice, and then his heart would overflow with tenderness, and he would
+cry like a child.
+
+These familiarities added nothing to the happiness of Leon Renault; I
+even think that they slightly tempered his joy. Yet he certainly did not
+doubt either the love of his betrothed or the honor of Fougas. He was
+forced to admit that between a grandfather and his granddaughter such
+little liberties are natural and proper and could justly offend no one.
+But the situation was so new and so unusual that he needed a little time
+to adapt his feelings to it, and forget his chagrin. This grandfather,
+for whom he had paid five-hundred francs, whose ear he had broken, for
+whom he had bought a burial-place in the Fontainebleau cemetery: this
+ancestor younger than himself, whom he had seen drunk, whom he had found
+agreeable, then dangerous, then insupportable: this venerable head of
+the family who had begun by demanding Clementine's hand and ended by
+pitching his future grandson into the heliotropes, could not all at once
+obtain unmingled respect and unreserved affection.
+
+M. and Mme. Renault exhorted their son to submission and deference. They
+represented M. Fougas to him as a relative who ought to be treated with
+consideration.
+
+"A few days of patience!" said the good mother. "He will not stay with
+us long; he is a soldier and can't live out of the army any better than
+a fish out of water."
+
+But Leon's parents, in the bottom of their hearts, held a bitter
+remembrance of so many pangs and mortifications. Fougas had been the
+scourge of the family; the wounds which he had made could not heal over
+in a day. Even Gothon bore him ill will without confessing it. She
+heaved great sighs while preparing for the wedding festivities at Mlle.
+Sambucco's.
+
+"Ah! my poor Célestin!" said she to her acolyte. "What a little rascal
+of a grandfather we're going to have to be sure!"
+
+The only person who was perfectly at ease was Fougas. He had passed the
+sponge over his pranks; out of all the evil he had done, he retained no
+ill will against any one. Very paternal with Clementine, very gracious
+with M. and Mme. Renault, he evinced for Leon the most frank and cordial
+friendship.
+
+"My dear boy," said he to him, "I have studied you, I know you, and I
+love you thoroughly; you deserve to be happy, and you shall be. You
+shall soon see that in buying me for twenty-five napoleons, you didn't
+make a bad bargain. If gratitude were banished from the universe, it
+would find a last abiding place in the heart of Fougas!"
+
+Three days before the marriage, M. Bonnivet informed the family that the
+colonel had come into his office to ask for a conference about the
+contract. He had scarcely cast his eyes on the sheet of stamped paper,
+when Rrrrip! it was in pieces in the fireplace.
+
+"Mister Note-scratcher," he said, "do me the honor of beginning your
+_chef-d'oeuvre_ over again. The granddaughter of Fougas does not marry
+with an annuity of eight thousand francs. Nature and Friendship give her
+a million. Here it is!"
+
+Thereupon he took from his pocket a bank check for a million, paced the
+study proudly, making his boots creak, and threw a thousand-franc note
+on a clerk's desk, crying in his clearest tones:
+
+"Children of the Law! Here's something to drink the health of the
+Emperor and the Grand Army with!"
+
+The Renault family strongly remonstrated against this liberality.
+Clementine, on being told of it by her intended, had a long discussion,
+in the presence of Mlle. Sambucco, with the young and terrible
+grandpapa; she tried to impress upon him that he was but twenty-four
+years old, that he would be getting married some day, and that his
+property belonged to his future family.
+
+"I do not wish," said she, "that your children should accuse me of
+having robbed them. Keep your millions for my little uncles and aunts!"
+
+But for once, Fougas would not yield an inch.
+
+"Are you mocking me?" he said to Clementine. "Do you think that I will
+be guilty of the folly of marrying now? I do not promise you to live
+like a monk of La Trappe, but at my age, a man put together like I am
+can find enough to talk to around the garrisons without marrying
+anybody. Mars does not borrow the torch of Hymen to light the little
+aberrations of Venus! Why does man ever tie himself in matrimonial
+bonds?... For the sake of being a father. I am one already, in the
+comparative degree, and in a year, if our brave Leon does a man's part,
+I shall assume the superlative. Great-grandfather! That's a lovely
+position for a trooper twenty-five years old! At forty-five or fifty, I
+shall be great-great-grandfather. At seventy ... the French language has
+no more words to express what I shall become! But we can order one from
+those babblers of the Academy! Are you afraid that I'll want for
+anything in my old age? I have my pay, in the first place, and my
+officer's cross. When I reach the years of Anchises or Nestor, I will
+have my halt-pay. Add to all this the two hundred and fifty thousand
+francs from the king of Prussia, and you shall see that I have not only
+bread, but all essential fixings in the bargain, up to the close of my
+career. Moreover, I have a perpetual grant, for which your husband has
+paid in advance, in the Fontainebleau cemetery. With all these
+possessions, and simple tastes, one is sure not to eat up one's
+resources!"
+
+Willing or unwilling, they had to concede all he required and accept his
+million. This act of generosity made a great commotion in the town, and
+the name of Fougas, already celebrated in so many ways, acquired a new
+prestige. The signature of the bride was attested by the Marshal the
+Duke of Solferino and the illustrious Karl Nibor, who but a few days
+before had been elected to the Academy of Sciences. Leon modestly
+retained the old friends whom he had long since chosen, M. Audret the
+architect, and M. Bonnivet the notary.
+
+The Mayor was brilliant in his new scarf. The _curé_ addressed to the
+young couple an affecting allocution on the inexhaustible goodness of
+Providence, which still occasionally performs a miracle for the benefit
+of true Christians. Fougas, who had not discharged his religious duties
+since 1801, soaked two handkerchiefs with tears.
+
+"One must always part from those nearest the heart," said he on going
+out of church. "But God and I are made to understand each other! After
+all, what is God but a little more universal Napoleon!"
+
+A Pantagruelic feast, presided over by Mlle. Virginie Sambucco in a
+dress of puce-colored silk, followed immediately upon the marriage
+ceremony. Twenty-four persons were present at this family _fête_, among
+others the new colonel of the 23d and M. du Marnet, who was almost well
+of his wound.
+
+Fougas took up his napkin with a certain anxiety. He hoped that the
+Marshal had brought his brevet as brigadier general. His expressive
+countenance manifested lively disappointment at the empty plate.
+
+The Duke of Solferino, who had been seated at the place of honor,
+noticed this physiognomical display, and said aloud:
+
+"Don't be impatient, my old comrade! I know what you miss; it was not my
+fault that the _fête_ was not complete. The minister of war was out
+when I dropped in on my way here. I was told however, at the department,
+that your affair was kept in suspense by a technical question, but that
+you would receive a letter from the office within twenty-four hours."
+
+"Devil take the documents!" cried Fougas. "They've got them all, from my
+birth-certificate, down to the copy of my brevet colonel's commission.
+You'll find out that they want a certificate of vaccination or some such
+six-penny shinplaster!"
+
+"Oh! Patience, young man! You've time enough to wait. It's not such a
+case as mine: without the Italian campaign, which gave me a chance to
+snatch the baton, they would have slit my ear like a condemned horse,
+under the empty pretext that I was sixty-five years old. You're not yet
+twenty-five, and you're on the point of becoming a brigadier: the
+Emperor promised it to you before me. In four or five years from now,
+you'll have the gold stars, unless some bad luck interferes. After which
+you'll need nothing but the command of an army and a successful campaign
+to make you Marshal of France and Senator, which may nothing prevent!"
+
+"Yes," responded Fougas; "I'll reach it. Not only because I am the
+youngest of all the officers of my grade, and because I have been in the
+mightiest of wars and followed the lessons of the master of Bellona's
+fields, but above all because Destiny has marked me with her sign. Why
+did the bullets spare me in more than twenty battles? Why have I sped
+over oceans of steel and fire without my skin receiving a scratch? It is
+because I have a star, as _He_ had. His was the grander, it is true, but
+it went out at St. Helena, while mine is burning in Heaven still! If
+Doctor Nibor resuscitated me with a few drops of warm water, it was
+because my destiny was not yet accomplished. If the will of the French
+people has re-established the imperial throne, it was to furnish me a
+series of opportunities for my valor, during the conquest of Europe
+which we are about to recommence! _Vive l'Empereur_, and me too! I shall
+be duke or prince in less than ten years, and ... why not? One might try
+to be at roll-call on the day when crowns are distributed! In that case,
+I will adopt Clementine's oldest son: we will call him Pierre Victor
+II., and he shall succeed me on the throne just as Louis XV. succeeded
+his grandfather Louis XIV.!"
+
+As he was finishing this wonderful speech, a _gendarme_ entered the
+dining room, asked for Colonel Fougas, and handed him a letter from the
+Minister of War.
+
+"Gad!" cried the Marshal, "it would be pleasant to have your promotion
+arrive at the end of such a discourse. For once, we would prostrate
+ourselves before your star! The Magi kings would be nowhere compared
+with us."
+
+"Read it yourself," said he to the Marshal, holding out to him the
+great sheet of paper. "But no! I have always looked Death in the face; I
+will not turn my eyes away from this paper thunder if it is killing me.
+
+    "COLONEL:
+
+    "In preparing the Imperial decree which elevated you to
+    the rank of brigadier general, I found myself in the
+    presence of an insurmountable obstacle: viz., your
+    certificate of birth. It appears from that document that
+    you were born in 1789, and that you have already passed
+    your seventieth year. Now, the limit of age being fixed
+    at sixty years for colonels, sixty-two for brigadier
+    generals and sixty-five for generals of division, I find
+    myself under the absolute necessity of placing you upon
+    the retired list with the rank of colonel. I know,
+    Monsieur, how little this measure is justified by your
+    apparent age, and I sincerely regret that France should
+    be deprived of the services of a man of your capacity
+    and merit. Moreover, it is certain that an exception in
+    your favor would arouse no dissatisfaction in the army
+    and would meet with nothing but sympathetic approval.
+    But the law is express, and the Emperor himself cannot
+    violate or elude it. The impossibility resulting from it
+    is so absolute that if, in your ardor to serve the
+    country, you were willing to lay aside your epaulettes
+    for the sake of beginning upon a new career, your
+    enlistment could not be received in a single regiment of
+    the army. It is fortunate, Monsieur, that the Emperor's
+    government has been able to furnish you the means of
+    subsistence in obtaining from His Royal Highness the
+    Regent of Prussia the indemnity which was due you; for
+    there is not even an office in the civil administration
+    in which, even by special favor, a man seventy years old
+    could be placed. You will very justly object that the
+    laws and regulations now in force date from a period
+    when experiments on the revivification of men had not
+    yet met with favorable results. But the law is made for
+    the mass of mankind, and cannot take any account of
+    exceptions. Undoubtedly attention would be directed to
+    its amendment if cases of resuscitation were to present
+    themselves in sufficient number.
+
+    "Accept, &c."
+
+A gloomy silence succeeded the reading. The _Mene mene tekel upharsin_
+of the oriental legends could not have more completely produced the
+effect of thunderbolts. The _gendarme_ was still there, standing in the
+position of the soldier without arms, awaiting Fougas' receipt. The
+Colonel called for pen and ink, signed the paper, gave the _gendarme_
+drink-money, and said to him with ill-suppressed emotion:
+
+"You are happy, you are! No one prevents you from serving the country.
+Well," added he, turning toward the Marshal, "what do you say to that?"
+
+"What would you have me say, my poor old boy? It breaks me all up.
+There's no use in arguing against the law; it's express. The stupid
+thing on our parts was not to think of it sooner. But who the Devil
+would have thought of the retired list in the presence of such a fellow
+as you are?"
+
+The two colonels avowed that such an objection would never have entered
+their heads; now that it had been suggested, however, they could not see
+what to rebut it with. Neither of them would have been able to enlist
+Fougas as a private soldier, despite his ability, his physical strength
+and his appearance of being twenty-four years old.
+
+"If some one would only kill me!" cried Fougas. "I can't set myself to
+weighing sugar or planting cabbages. It was in the career of arms that I
+took my first steps; I must continue in it or die. What can I do? What
+can I become? Take service in some foreign army? Never! The fate of
+Moreau is still before my eyes.... Oh Fortune! What have I done to thee
+that I should be dashed so low, when thou wast preparing to raise me so
+high?"
+
+Clementine tried to console him with soothing words.
+
+"You shall live near us," said she. "We will find you a pretty little
+wife, and you can rear your children. In your leisure moments you can
+write the history of the great deeds you have done. You will want for
+nothing: youth, health, fortune, family, all that makes up the
+happiness of men, is yours. Why then should you not be happy?"
+
+Leon and his parents talked with him in the same way. Everything
+appertaining to the festive occasion was forgotten in the presence of an
+affliction so real and a dejection so profound.
+
+He roused himself little by little, and even sang, at dessert, a little
+song which he had prepared for the occasion.
+
+    Here's a health to these fortunate lovers
+      Who, on this thrice blessed day,
+    Have singed with the torch of chaste Hymen,
+      The wings with which Cupid doth stray.
+    And now, little volatile boy-god,
+      You must keep yourself quiet at home--
+    Enchained there by this happy marriage
+      Where Genius and Beauty are one.
+
+    He'll make it, henceforth, his endeavor
+      To keep Pleasure in Loyalty's power,
+    Forgetting his naughty old habit
+      Of roaming from flower to flower.
+    And Clementine makes the task easy,
+      For roses spring up at her smile:
+    From thence the young rascal can steal them
+      As well as in Venus's isle.
+
+The verses were loudly applauded, but the poor Colonel smiled sadly,
+talked but little, and did not get fuddled at all. The man with the
+broken ear could not at all console himself for having a slit ear.[11]
+He took part in the various diversions of the day, but was no longer
+the brilliant companion who had inspired everything with his impetuous
+gayety.
+
+The Marshal buttonholed him during the evening and said: "What are you
+thinking about?"
+
+"I'm thinking of the old messmates who were happy enough to fall at
+Waterloo with their faces toward the enemy. That old fool of a Dutchman
+who preserved me for posterity, did me but a sorry service. I tell you,
+Leblanc, a man ought to live in his own day. Later is too late."
+
+"Oh, pshaw, Fougas, don't talk nonsense! There's nothing desperate in
+the case. Devil take it! I'll go to see the Emperor to-morrow. The
+matter shall be looked into. It will all be set straight. Men like you!
+Why France hasn't got them by the dozen that she should fling them among
+the soiled linen."
+
+"Thanks! You're a good old boy, and a true one. There were five hundred
+thousand of us, of the same, same sort, in 1812; there are but two left;
+say, rather, one and a half."
+
+About ten o'clock in the evening, M. Rollon, M. du Marnet and Fougas
+accompanied the Marshal to the cars. Fougas embraced his comrade and
+promised him to be of good cheer. After the train left, the three
+colonels went back to town on foot. In passing M. Rollon's house, Fougas
+said to his successor:
+
+"You're not very hospitable to-night; you don't even offer us a pony of
+that good Andaye brandy!"
+
+"I thought you were not in drinking trim," said M. Rollon. "You didn't
+take anything in your coffee or afterwards. But come up!"
+
+"My thirst has come back with a vengeance."
+
+"That's a good symptom."
+
+He drank in a melancholy fashion, and scarcely wet his lips in his
+glass. He stopped a little while before the flag, took hold of the
+staff, spread out the silk, counted the holes that cannon balls and
+bullets had made in it, and could not repress his tears. "Positively,"
+said he, "the brandy has taken me in the throat; I'm not a man to-night.
+Good evening, gentlemen."
+
+"Hold on! We'll go back with you."
+
+"Oh, my hotel is only a step."
+
+"It's all the same. But what's your idea in staying at a hotel when you
+have two houses in town at your service?"
+
+"On the strength of that, I am going to move to-morrow."
+
+The next morning, about eleven o'clock, the happy Leon was at his toilet
+when a telegram was brought to him. He opened it without noticing that
+it was addressed to M. Fougas, and uttered a cry of joy. Here is the
+laconic message which brought him so much pleasure:
+
+    "To Colonel Fougas, Fontainebleau.
+
+    "Just left the Emperor. You to be brevet brigadier until
+    something better turns up. If necessary, _corps
+    legislatif_ will amend law.
+
+    "LEBLANC."
+
+Leon dressed himself, ran to the hotel of the blue sundial, and found
+Fougas dead in his bed.
+
+It is said in Fontainebleau, that M. Nibor made an autopsy, and found
+that serious disorders had been produced by desiccation. Some people are
+nevertheless satisfied that Fougas committed suicide. It is certain that
+Master Bonnivet received, by the penny post, a sort of a will, expressed
+thus:
+
+    "I leave my heart to my country, my memory to natural
+    affection, my example to the army, my hate to
+    perfidious Albion, fifty thousand francs to Gothon, and
+    two hundred thousand to the 23d of the line. And
+    forever _Vive l'Empereur!_
+
+    "FOUGAS."
+
+Resuscitated on the 17th of August, between three and four in the
+afternoon, he died on the 17th of the following month, at what hour we
+shall never know. His second life had lasted a little less than
+thirty-one days. But it is simple justice to say that he made good use
+of his time. He reposes in the spot which young Renault had bought for
+him. His granddaughter Clementine left off her mourning about a year
+since. She is beloved and happy, and Leon will have nothing to reproach
+himself with if she does not have plenty of children.
+
+_Bourdonnel, August_, 1861.
+
+
+FINIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+TO
+
+THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR.
+
+
+NOTE 1, page 69.--_Black butterflies_, a French expression that we might
+tastefully substitute for _blue devils_.
+
+NOTE 2, page 72.--_The 15th of August_ is the Emperor's birthday.
+
+NOTE 3, page 85.--_Centigrade_, of course.
+
+NOTE 4, page 101.--Fougas' surprise is explained by the well-known fact
+that Napoleon was obliged to forbid the playing of _Partant pour la
+Syrie_ in his armies, on account of the homesickness and consequent
+desertion it occasioned.
+
+NOTE 5, page 118.--_Jeu de Paume_ (tennis-court), is the name given to
+the meeting of the third-estate (_tiers-état_) in 1789, from the
+locality where it took place.
+
+NOTE 6, page 161.--The English used by the two young noblemen is M.
+About's own. It is certainly such English as Frenchmen would be apt to
+speak, and it is as fair to attribute that fact to M. About's fine sense
+of the requirements of the occasion, as to lack of familiarity with our
+language.
+
+NOTE 7, page 164.--It is not without interest to note that M. About used
+the English word _gentlemen_.
+
+NOTE 8, page 166.--_War against tyrants! Never, never, never shall the
+Briton reign in France!_
+
+NOTE 9, page 214.--The original here contains a neat little conceit,
+which cannot be translated, but which is too good to be lost. The French
+for daughter-in-law is _belle fille_, literally "beautiful girl." To
+Fougas' address "_Ma belle fille!_" Mme. Langevin replies: "_I am not
+beautiful, and I am not a girl._" It suggests the similar retort
+received by Faust from Marguerite, when he addressed her as _beautiful
+young lady!_
+
+NOTE 10, page 230.--The Translator has intentionally used both the
+singular and the plural of the second person in Fougas' apostrophe to
+Clementine, as it seemed to him naturally required by the variations of
+the sentiment.
+
+NOTE 11, page 248.--The reader will bear in mind Marshal Leblanc's
+allusion to condemned horses.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Man With The Broken Ear, by Edmond About
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Man With the Broken Ear, by Edmond About.
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man With The Broken Ear, by Edmond About
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Man With The Broken Ear
+
+Author: Edmond About
+
+Translator: Henry Holt
+
+Release Date: March 2, 2007 [EBook #20724]
+
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+
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR ***
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+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="title-page">
+<h1>THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR</h1>
+
+<div class="byline">
+TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF<br>
+<i>EDMOND ABOUT</i><br>
+BY<br>
+HENRY HOLT
+</div>
+
+<div class="publisher">
+NEW YORK<br>
+HOLT &amp; WILLIAMS<br>
+1872
+</div>
+
+<div class="copyright">
+Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1867,<br>
+by HENRY HOLT,<br>
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
+United States, for<br>
+the Southern District of New York.
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;">
+<h2>Table Of Contents</h2>
+
+<ul class="toc">
+<li><a href="#DEDICATION_OF_THE_FIRST_EDITIONA"><b>DEDICATION OF THE
+FIRST EDITION.</b></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.</b><span class="ralign">1</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II.</b><span class="ralign">11</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III.</b><span class="ralign">17</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV.</b><span class="ralign">25</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V.</b><span class="ralign">34</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI.</b><span class="ralign">44</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII.</b><span class="ralign">50</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b><span class="ralign">65</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX.</b><span class="ralign">72</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X.</b><span class="ralign">83</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI.</b><span class="ralign">94</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII.</b><span class="ralign">106</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII.</b><span class="ralign">118</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV.</b><span class="ralign">126</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV.</b><span class="ralign">155</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI.</b><span class="ralign">172</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII.</b><span class="ralign">181</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII.</b><span class="ralign">204</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX.</b><span class="ralign">224</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX.</b><span class="ralign">236</span></a></li>
+<li><a href="#TN"><b>Translators Notes</b><span class="ralign">253</span></a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr>
+<h2><a name="DEDICATION_OF_THE_FIRST_EDITIONA" id="DEDICATION_OF_THE_FIRST_EDITIONA"></a>DEDICATION OF THE FIRST EDITION.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></h2>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Leypoldt:</span></p>
+
+<p>You have not forgotten that nearly two years ago, before our
+business connection was thought of, this identical translation was
+'respectfully declined' by you with that same courtesy, the exercise
+of which in frequent similar cases, each one of us now tries so hard
+to shove on the other's shoulders. I hope that your surprise on
+reading this note of dedication will not interfere with your forgiving
+the pertinacity with which, through it, I still strive to make the
+book <i>yours</i>.</p>
+
+<p>H. H.<br></p>
+
+<p>451 <span class="smcap">Broome Street</span>, May 16, 1867.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1"
+id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a
+href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Published by
+Leypoldt &amp; Holt.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<blockquote>
+<p>The Translator has placed a few explanatory Notes at the end of the
+volume. They are referred to by numbers in the text.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg
+1]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHEREIN THEY KILL THE FATTED CALF TO CELEBRATE THE RETURN OF A
+FRUGAL SON.</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the 18th of May, 1859, M. Renault, formerly professor of physics
+and chemistry, now a landed proprietor at Fontainebleau, and member of
+the Municipal Council of that charming little city, himself carried to
+the post-office the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+"<i>To Monsieur Leon Renault, Civil Engineer, Berlin,
+Prussia.</i><br> <br> (To be kept at the Post-Office till called
+for.)<br> <br> "<span class="smcap">My dear child:</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"The good news you sent us from St. Petersburg caused
+us the greatest joy. Your poor mother had been ailing since winter,
+but I had not spoken to you about it from fear of making you uneasy
+while so far from home. As for myself, I had not been very well; and
+there was yet a third person (guess the name if you can!) who was
+languishing from not seeing you. But content yourself, my dear Leon:
+we have been recuperating more and more since the time of your return
+is almost fixed. We begin to believe that
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg
+2]</a></span> mines of the Ural will not swallow up that which is
+dearer to us than all the world. Thank God! that fortune which you
+have so honorably and so quickly made will not have cost your life,
+nor even your health, since you tell us you have been growing fat off
+there in the desert. If you have not finished up all your business out
+there, so much the worse for you: there are three of us who have sworn
+that you shall never go back again. You will not find it hard to
+accede, for you will be happy among us. Such, at least, is the opinion
+of Clementine.... I forget that I was pledged not to name her. Master
+Bonnivet, our excellent neighbor, has not rested content with
+investing your funds in a good mortgage, but has also drawn up, in his
+leisure moments, a most edifying little indenture, which now lacks
+nothing but your signature. Our worthy mayor has ordered, on your
+account, a new official scarf, which is on the way from Paris. You
+will have the first benefit of it. Your apartment (which will soon
+belong to a plural 'you') is elegant, in proportion to your present
+fortune. You are to occupy....; but the house has changed so in three
+years, that my description would be incomprehensible to you. M.
+Audret, the architect of the imperial chateau, directed the work. He
+actually wanted to construct me a laboratory worthy of Th&eacute;nard
+or Duprez. I earnestly protested against it, and said that I was not
+yet worthy of one, as my celebrated work on the Condensation of Gases
+had only reached the fourth chapter. But as your mother was in
+collusion with the old scamp of a friend, it has turned out that
+science has henceforth a temple in our house&mdash;a regular
+sorcerer's den, according to the picturesque expression of your old
+Gothon: it lacks nothing, not even a four-horse-power steam engine.
+Alas! what can I do with it? I am confident, nevertheless, that the
+expenditure will not be altogether lost to the world. You are not
+going to sleep upon your laurels. Oh, if I had only had your fortune
+when I had your youth! I would have dedicated my days to pure science,
+instead of losing the best part of them among those poor young men who
+got nothing from my lectures but an opportunity to read Paul de Kock.
+I would have been
+ambitious!&mdash;I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3"
+id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> would have striven to connect my name
+with the discovery of some great general law, or at least with the
+invention of some very useful apparatus. It is too late now; my eyes
+are worn out, and the brain itself refuses to work. Take your turn, my
+boy! You are not yet twenty-six, the Ural mines have given you the
+wherewithal to live at ease, and, for yourself alone, you have no
+further wants to satisfy; the time has come to work for humanity. That
+you will do so, is the strongest wish and dearest hope of your doting
+old father, who loves you and who waits for you with open arms.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">J. Renault.</span></p>
+
+<p>"P. S. According to my calculations, this letter ought to reach
+Berlin two or three days before you. You have been already informed by
+the papers of the 7th inst. of the death of the illustrious Humboldt.
+It is a cause of mourning to science and to humanity. I have had the
+honor of writing to that great man several times in my life, and he
+once deigned to reply, in a letter which I piously cherish. If you
+happen to have an opportunity to buy some personal souvenir of him, a
+bit of his handwriting or some fragment of his collections, you will
+bring me a real pleasure." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A month after the departure of this letter, the son so eagerly
+looked for returned to the paternal mansion. M. and Mme. Renault, who
+went to meet him at the depot, found him taller, stouter, and
+better-looking in every way. In fact, he was no longer merely a
+remarkable boy, but a man of good and pleasing proportions. Leon
+Renault was of medium height, light hair and complexion, plump and
+well made. His large blue eyes, sweet voice, and silken beard
+indicated a nature sensitive rather than powerful. A very white,
+round, and almost feminine neck contrasted singularly with a face
+bronzed by exposure. His teeth were beautiful, very delicate,
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+little inclined backward, and very evenly shaped. When he pulled off
+his gloves, he displayed two small and rather pudgey hands, quite firm
+and yet pleasantly soft, neither hot nor cold, nor dry nor damp, but
+agreeable to the touch and cared-for to perfection.</p>
+
+<p>As he was, his father and mother would not have exchanged him for
+the Apollo Belvedere. They embraced him rapturously, overwhelming him
+with a thousand questions, most of which he, of course, failed to
+answer. Some old friends of the family, a doctor, an architect, and a
+notary, had run to the depot with the good old people; each one of
+them in turn gave him a hug, and asked him if he was well, and if he
+had had a pleasant journey. He listened patiently and even joyfully to
+this common-place music whose words did not signify much, but whose
+melody went to the heart because it came from the heart.</p>
+
+<p>They had been there a good quarter of an hour, the train had gone
+puffing on its way, the omnibuses of the various hotels had started
+one after another at a good trot up the street leading to the city,
+and the June sun seemed to enjoy lighting up this happy group of
+excellent people. But Madame Renault cried out all at once that the
+poor child must be dying of hunger, and that it was barbarous to keep
+him waiting for his dinner any longer. There was no use in his
+protesting that he had breakfasted at Paris, and that the voice of
+hunger appealed to him less strongly than that of joy. They all got
+into two carriages, the son beside his mother, the
+father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg
+5]</a></span> opposite, as if he could not keep his eyes off his boy.
+A wagon came behind with the trunks, long boxes, chests, and the rest
+of the traveller's baggage. At the entrance of the town, the hackmen
+cracked their whips, the baggage-men followed the example, and this
+cheerful clatter drew the people to their doors and woke up for an
+instant the quietude of the streets. Madame Renault threw her glances
+right and left, searching out the spectators of her triumph, and
+saluting with most cordial affability people she hardly knew at all.
+And more than one mother saluted her, too, without knowing her; for
+there is no mother indifferent to such kinds of happiness, and,
+moreover, Leon's family was liked by everybody. And the neighbors,
+meeting each other, said with a satisfaction free from jealousy:</p>
+
+<p>"That is Renault's son, who has been at work three years in the
+Russian mines, and now has come to share his fortune with his old
+parents."</p>
+
+<p>Leon also noticed several familiar faces, but not all that he
+wished to see. For he bent over an instant to his mother's ear,
+saying: "And Clementine?" This word was pronounced so low and so close
+that M. Renault himself could not tell whether it was a word or a
+kiss. The good lady smiled tenderly, and answered but a single word:
+"Patience!" As if patience were a virtue very common among lovers!</p>
+
+<p>The door of the house was wide open, and old Gothon was standing on
+the threshold. She raised<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6"
+id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> her arms toward heaven and cried like a
+booby, for she had known Leon since he was not much higher than her
+wash-tub. There was now another formidable hugging on the upper step,
+between the good old servant and her young master. After a reasonable
+interval, the friends of M. Renault prepared to leave, but it was
+wasted pains; for they were assured that their places at table had
+already been prepared. And when all save the invisible Clementine were
+reassembled in the parlor, the great round-backed chairs held out
+their arms to the scion of the house of Renault; the old mirror on the
+mantle delighted to reflect his image; the great chandelier chimed a
+little song of welcome with its crystal pendants, and the mandarins on
+the etag&eacute;re shook their heads in sign of welcome, as if they
+were orthodox <i>penates</i> instead of strangers and pagans. No one
+can tell why kisses and tears began to rain down again, but it
+certainly did seem as if he had once more just returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Soup!" cried Gothon.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Renault took the arm of her son, contrary to all the laws of
+etiquette, and without even apologizing to the honored guests present.
+She scarcely excused herself, even, for helping the son before the
+company. Leon let her have her own way, and took it all smilingly:
+there was not a guest there who was not ready to upset his soup over
+his waistcoat rather than taste it before Leon.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother!" cried Leon, spoon in hand, "this
+is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+the first time for three years that I've tasted good soup." Madame
+Renault felt herself blush with satisfaction, and Gothon was so
+overcome that she dropped a plate. Both fancied that possibly he had
+spoken to please their self-conceit; but nevertheless he spoke truly.
+There are two things in this world which a man does not often find
+away from home: the first is good soup; the second is disinterested
+love.</p>
+
+<p>If I should attempt here an accurate enumeration of all the dishes
+that appeared on the table, there would not be one of my readers whose
+mouth would not water. I believe, indeed, that more than one delicate
+lady would be in danger of an attack of indigestion. Suppose, if you
+please, that such a list would reach nearly to the end of the volume,
+leaving me but a single page on which to write the marvellous history
+of Fougas. Therefore I forthwith return to the parlor, where coffee is
+already served.</p>
+
+<p>Leon took scarcely half of his cup: but do not let that lead you to
+infer that the coffee was too hot, or too cold, or too sweet. Nothing
+in the world would have prevented his drinking it to the last drop, if
+a knock at the street-door had not stopped it just opposite his
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>The minute which followed appeared to him interminable. Never in
+his travels had he encountered such a long minute. But at length
+Clementine appeared, preceded by the worthy Mlle. Virginie Sambucco,
+her aunt; and the mandarins who smiled on the etag&eacute;re heard the
+sound of three kisses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8"
+id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> Wherefore three? The superficial reader,
+who pretends to foresee things before they are written, has already
+found a very probable explanation. "Of course," says he, "Leon was too
+respectful to embrace the dignified Mlle. Sambucco more than once, but
+when he came to Clementine, who was soon to become his wife, he very
+properly doubled the dose." Now sir, that is what I call a premature
+judgment! The first kiss fell from the mouth of Leon upon the cheek of
+Mlle. Sambucco; the second was applied by the lips of Mlle. Sambucco
+to the right cheek of Leon; the third was, in fact, an accident that
+plunged two young hearts into profound consternation.</p>
+
+<p>Leon, who was very much in love with his betrothed, rushed to her
+blindly, uncertain whether he would kiss her right cheek or her left,
+but determined not to put off too long a pleasure which he had been
+promising himself ever since the spring of 1856. Clementine did not
+dream of defending herself, but was fully prepared to apply her pretty
+rosy lips to Leon's right cheek or his left, indifferently. The
+precipitation of the two young people brought it about that neither
+Clementine's cheeks nor Leon's received the offering intended for
+them. And the mandarins on the etag&eacute;re, who fully expected to
+hear two kisses, heard but one. And Leon was confounded, and
+Clementine blushed up to her ears, and the two lovers retreated a
+step, intently regarding the roses of the carpet which will remain
+eternally graven upon their
+memories.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg
+9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the eyes of Leon Renault, Clementine was the most beautiful
+creature in the world. He had loved her for little more than three
+years, and it was somewhat on her account that he had taken the
+journey to Russia. In 1856 she was too young to marry, and too rich
+for an engineer with a salary of 2,400 francs to properly make
+pretentions to her hand. Leon, who was a good mathematician, proposed
+to himself the following problem: "Given&mdash;one young girl, fifteen
+and a half years old, with an income of 8,000 francs, and threatened
+with the inheritance from Mlle. Sambucco of, say 200,000
+more:&mdash;to obtain a fortune at least equal to hers within such a
+period as will give her time enough to grow up, without leaving her
+time enough to become an old maid." He had found the solution in the
+Ural mines.</p>
+
+<p>During three long years, he had indirectly corresponded with the
+beloved of his heart. All the letters which he wrote to his father or
+mother, passed into the hands of Mlle. Sambucco, who did not keep them
+from Clementine. Sometimes, indeed, they were read aloud in the
+family, and M. Renault was never obliged to omit a phrase, for Leon
+never wrote anything which a young girl should not hear. The aunt and
+the niece had no other distractions; they lived retired in a little
+house at the end of a pretty garden, and received no one but old
+friends. Clementine, therefore, deserved but little credit for keeping
+her heart for Leon. With the exception of a big colonel of
+cuirassiers, who sometimes followed her
+in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg
+10]</a></span> her walks, no man had ever made any demonstrations
+toward her.</p>
+
+<p>She was very pretty withal, and not so merely to the eyes of her
+lover, or of the Renault family, or of the little city where she
+lived. Provincial towns are apt to be easily satisfied. They give the
+reputation of being a pretty woman or a great man, cheaply; especially
+when they are not rich enough in such commodities to show themselves
+over particular. In capitals, however, people claim to admire nothing
+but absolute merit. I have heard the mayor of a village say, with a
+certain pride: "Admit now, that my servant Catherine is right pretty,
+for a village of six hundred people!" Clementine was pretty enough to
+be admired in a city of eight hundred thousand. Fancy to yourself a
+little blonde creole, with black eyes, creamy complexion and dazzling
+teeth. Her figure was round and supple as a twig, and was finished off
+with dainty hands and pretty Andalusian feet, arched and beautifully
+rounded. All her glances were smiles, and all her movements caresses.
+Add to this, that she was neither a fool nor a prude, nor even an
+ignoramus like girls brought up in convents. Her education, which was
+begun by her mother, had been completed by two or three respectable
+old professors selected by M. Renault, who was her guardian. She had a
+sound heart, and a quick mind. But I may reasonably ask myself why I
+have so much to say about her, for she is still living; and, thank
+God! not one of her perfections has
+departed</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg
+11]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>UNPACKING BY CANDLE-LIGHT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>About ten o'clock in the evening, Mlle. Virginie Sambucco said it
+was time to think of going home: the ladies lived with monastic
+regularity. Leon protested; but Clementine obeyed, though not without
+pouting a little. Already the parlor door was open, and the old lady
+had taken her hood in the hall, when the engineer, suddenly struck
+with an idea, exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"You surely won't go without helping me to open my trunks! I demand
+it of you as a favor, my good Mademoiselle Sambucco!"</p>
+
+<p>The respectable lady paused: custom urged her to go; kindness
+inclined her to stay; an atom of curiosity swayed the balance.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad!" cried Clementine, replacing her aunt's hood on the
+rack.</p>
+
+<p>Mme. Renault did not yet know where they had put Leon's baggage.
+Gothon came to say that everything had been thrown pell-mell into the
+sorcerer's den, to remain there until Monsieur
+should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg
+12]</a></span> point out what he wanted taken to his own room. The
+whole company, armed with lamps and candles, betook themselves to a
+vast room on the ground floor, where furnaces, retorts, philosophical
+instruments, boxes, trunks, clothes bags, hat boxes and the famous
+steam-engine, formed a confused and entertaining spectacle. The light
+played about this interior, as it appears to in certain pictures of
+the Dutch school. It glanced upon the great yellow cylinders of the
+electric machine, struck upon the long glass bottles, rebounded from
+two silver reflectors, and rested, in passing, upon a magnificent
+Fortin barometer. The Renaults and their friends, grouped in the midst
+of the boxes&mdash;some sitting, some standing, one holding a lamp,
+another a candle&mdash;detracted nothing from the picturesqueness of
+the scene.</p>
+
+<p>Leon, with a bunch of little keys, opened the boxes one after
+another. Clementine was seated opposite him on a great oblong box, and
+watched him with all her eyes, more from affection than curiosity.
+They began by setting to one side two enormous square boxes which
+contained nothing but mineralogical specimens. After this they passed
+in review the riches of all kinds which the engineer had crowded among
+his linen and clothing.</p>
+
+<p>A pleasant odor of Russia leather, tea from the caravans, Levant
+tobacco, and attar of roses soon permeated the laboratory. Leon
+brought forth a little at a time, as is the custom of
+all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg
+13]</a></span> rich travellers who, on leaving home, left a family and
+good stock of friends behind. He exhibited, in turn, fabrics of the
+Asiatic looms, narghiles of embossed silver from Persia, boxes of tea,
+sherbets flavored with rose, precious extracts, golden webs from
+Tarjok, antique armor, a service of frosted silver of Toula make,
+jewelry mounted in the Russian style, Caucasian bracelets, necklaces
+of milky amber, and a leather sack full of turquoises such as they
+sell at the fair of Nijni Novgorod. Each object passed from hand to
+hand amid questions, explanations, and interjections of all kinds. All
+the friends present received the gifts intended for them. There was a
+concert of polite refusals, friendly urgings, and 'thank-yous' in all
+sorts of voices. It is unnecessary to say that much the greater share
+fell to the lot of Clementine; but she did not wait to be urged to
+accept them, for, in the existing state of affairs, all these pretty
+things would be but as a part of the wedding gifts&mdash;not going out
+of the family.</p>
+
+<p>Leon had brought his father an exceedingly handsome dressing gown
+of a cloth embroidered with gold, some antiquarian books found in
+Moscow, a pretty picture by Greuze, which had been stuck out of the
+way, by the luckiest of accidents, in a mean shop at Gastinitvor; two
+magnificent specimens of rock-crystal, and a cane that had belonged to
+Humboldt. "You see," said he to M. Renault, on handing him this
+historic staff, "that the postscript of your last letter did not fall
+overboard."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg
+14]</a></span> The old professor received the present with visible
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"I will never use it," said he to his son. "The Napoleon of science
+has held it in his hand: what would one think if an old sergeant like
+me should permit himself to carry it in his walks in the woods? And
+the collections? Were you not able to buy anything from them? Did they
+sell very high?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were not sold," answered Leon. "All were placed in the
+National Museum at Berlin. But in my eagerness to satisfy you, I made
+a thief of myself in a strange way. The very day of my arrival, I told
+your wish to a guide who was showing me the place. He told me that a
+friend of his, a little Jew broker by the name of Ritter, wanted to
+sell a very fine anatomical specimen that had belonged to the estate.
+I ran to the Jew's, examined the mummy, for such it was, and, without
+any haggling, paid the price he asked. But the next day, a friend of
+Humboldt, Professor Hirtz, told me the history of this shred of a man,
+which had been lying around the shop for more than ten years, and
+never belonged to Humboldt at all. Where the deuce has Gothon stowed
+it? Ah! Mlle. Clementine is sitting on it."</p>
+
+<p>Clementine attempted to rise, but Leon made her keep seated.</p>
+
+<p>"We have plenty of time," said he, "to take a look at the old
+baggage; meanwhile you can well imagine that it is not a very cheerful
+sight. This is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg
+15]</a></span> the history that good old Hirtz told me; he promised to
+send me, in addition, a copy of a very curious memoir on the same
+subject. Don't go yet, my dear Mademoiselle Sambucco; I have a little
+military and scientific romance for you. We will look at the mummy as
+soon as I have acquainted you with his misfortunes."</p>
+
+<p>"Aha!" cried M. Audret, the architect of the chateau, "it's the
+romance of the mummy, is it, that you're going to tell us? Too late my
+poor Leon! Theophile Gautier has gotten ahead of you, in the
+supplement to the <i>Moniteur</i>, and all the world knows your
+Egyptian history."</p>
+
+<p>"My history," said Leon, "is no more Egyptian than Manon Lescault.
+Our excellent doctor Martout, here, ought to know the name of
+professor John Meiser, of Dantzic; he lived at the beginning of this
+century, and I think that his last work appeared in 1824 or 1825."</p>
+
+<p>"In 1823," replied M. Martout. "Meiser is one of the scientific men
+who have done Germany most honor. In the midst of terrible wars which
+drenched his country in blood, he followed up the researches of
+Leeuwenkoeck, Baker, Needham, Fontana, and Spallanzani, on the
+revivification of animals. Our profession honors in him, one of the
+fathers of modern biology."</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens! What ugly big words!" cried Mlle. Sambucco. "Is it decent
+to keep people till this time of night, to make them listen to
+Dutch."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg
+16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't listen to the big words, dear little auntey. Save yourself
+for the romance, since there is one."</p>
+
+<p>"A terrible one!" said Leon. "Mlle. Clementine is seated over a
+human victim, sacrificed to science by professor Meiser."</p>
+
+<p>Clementine instantly got up. Her fianc&eacute; handed her a chair,
+and seated himself in the place she had just left. The listeners,
+fearing that Leon's romance might be in several volumes, took their
+places around him, some on boxes, some on
+chairs.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg
+17]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CRIME OF THE LEARNED PROFESSOR MEISER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Ladies," said Leon, "Professor Meiser was no vulgar malefactor,
+but a man devoted to science and humanity. If he killed the French
+colonel who at this moment reposes beneath my coat tails, it was for
+the sake of saving his life, as well as of throwing light on a
+question of the deepest interest, even to each one of you.</p>
+
+<p>"The duration of our existence is very much too brief. That is a
+fact which no man can contradict. We know that in a hundred years, not
+one of the nine or ten persons assembled in this house will be living
+on the face of the earth. Is not this a deplorable fact?"</p>
+
+<p>Mlle. Sambucco heaved a heavy sigh, and Leon continued:</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! Mademoiselle, like you I have sighed many a time at the
+contemplation of this dire necessity. You have a niece, the most
+beautiful and the most adorable of all nieces, and the sight of her
+charming face gladdens your heart. But you yearn for something more;
+you will not be satisfied until you have seen your little grand
+nephews trotting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18"
+id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> around. You will see them I earnestly
+believe. But will you see their children? It is doubtful. Their
+grandchildren? Impossible! In regard to the tenth, twentieth,
+thirtieth generation, it is useless even to dream.</p>
+
+<p>"One <i>will</i> dream of it, nevertheless, and perhaps there is no
+man who has not said to himself at least once in his life: 'If I could
+but come to life again in a couple of centuries!' One would wish to
+return to earth to seek news of his family; another, of his dynasty. A
+philosopher is anxious to know if the ideas that he has planted will
+have borne fruit; a politician, if his party will have obtained the
+upper hand; a miser, if his heirs will not have dissipated the fortune
+he has made; a mere land-holder, if the trees in his garden will have
+grown tall. No one is indifferent to the future destinies of this
+world, which we gallop through in a few years, never to return to it
+again. Who has not envied the lot of Epimenides, who went to sleep in
+a cave, and, on reopening his eyes, perceived that the world had grown
+old? Who has not dreamed, on his own account, of the marvellous
+adventure of the sleeping Beauty in the wood?</p>
+
+<p>"Well, ladies, Professor Meiser, one of the least visionary men of
+the age, was persuaded that science could put a living being to sleep
+and wake him up again at the end of an infinite number of
+years&mdash;arrest all the functions of the system, suspend life
+itself, protect an individual against the action
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg
+19]</a></span> time for a century or two, and afterwards resuscitate
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"He was a fool then!" cried Madame Renault.</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't swear it. But he had his own ideas touching the
+main-spring which moves a living organism. Do you remember, good
+mother mine, the impression you experienced as a little girl, when
+some one first showed you the inside of a watch in motion? You were
+satisfied that there was a restless little animal inside the case, who
+worked twenty-four hours a day at turning the hands. If the hands
+stopped going, you said: 'It is because the little animal is dead.'
+Yet possibly he was only asleep.</p>
+
+<p>"It has since been explained to you that a watch contains an
+assemblage of parts well fitted to each other and kept well oiled,
+which, being wound, can be considered to move spontaneously in a
+perfect correspondence. If a spring become broken, if a bit of the
+wheel work be injured, or if a grain of sand insinuate itself between
+two of the parts, the watch stops, and the children say rightly: 'The
+little animal is dead.' But suppose a sound watch, well made, right in
+every particular, and stopped because the machinery would not run from
+lack of oil; the little animal is not dead; nothing but a little oil
+is needed to wake him up.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a first-rate chronometer, made in London. It runs fifteen
+days without being wound.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20"
+id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> I gave it a turn of the key yesterday:
+it has, then, thirteen days to run. If I throw it on the ground, or if
+I break the main-spring, all is over. I will have killed the little
+animal. But suppose that, without damaging anything, I find means to
+withdraw or dry up the fine oil which now enables the parts to slip
+upon one another: will the little animal be dead? No! It will be
+asleep. And the proof is that I can lay my watch in a drawer, keep it
+there twenty-five years, and if, after a quarter of a century, I put a
+drop of oil on it, the parts will begin to move again. All that time
+would have passed without waking up the little sleeping animal. It
+will still have thirteen days to go, after the time when it starts
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"All living beings, according to the opinion of Professor Meiser,
+are watches, or organisms which move, breathe, nourish themselves, and
+reproduce themselves as long as their organs are intact and properly
+oiled. The oil of the watch is represented in the animal by an
+enormous quantity of water. In man, for example, water provides about
+four-fifths of the whole weight. Given&mdash;a colonel weighing a
+hundred and fifty pounds, there are thirty pounds of colonel and a
+hundred and twenty pounds, or about sixty quarts, of water. This is a
+fact proven by numerous experiments. I say a colonel just as I would
+say a king; all men are equal when submitted to analysis.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Meiser was satisfied, as are all
+physiologists,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg
+21]</a></span> that to break a colonel's head, or to make a hole in
+his heart, or to cut his spinal column in two, is to kill the little
+animal; because the brain, the heart, the spinal marrow are the
+indispensable springs, without which the machine cannot go. But he
+thought too, that in removing sixty quarts of water from a living
+person, one merely puts the little animal to sleep without killing
+him&mdash;that a colonel carefully dried up, can remain preserved a
+hundred years, and then return to life whenever any one will replace
+in him the drop of oil, or rather the sixty quarts of water, without
+which the human machine cannot begin moving again.</p>
+
+<p>"This opinion, which may appear inadmissible to you and to me too,
+but which is not absolutely rejected by our friend Doctor Martout,
+rests upon a series of reliable observations which the merest tyro can
+verify to-day. There <i>are</i> animals which can be resuscitated:
+nothing is more certain or better proven. Herr Meiser, like the
+Abb&eacute; Spallanzani and many others, collected from the gutter of
+his roof some little dried worms which were brittle as glass, and
+restored life to them by soaking them in water. The capacity of thus
+returning to life, is not the privilege of a single species: its
+existence has been satisfactorily established in numerous and various
+animals. The genus Volvox&mdash;the little worms or wormlets in
+vinegar, mud, spoiled paste, or grain-smut; the Rotifera&mdash;a kind
+of little shell-fish protected by a carapace, provided with a good
+digestive apparatus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22"
+id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> of separate sexes, having a nervous
+system with a distinct brain, having either one or two eyes, according
+to the genus, a crystalline lens, and an optic nerve; the
+Tardigrades&mdash;which are little spiders with six or eight legs,
+separate sexes, regular digestive apparatus, a mouth, two eyes, a very
+well defined nervous system, and a very well developed muscular
+system;&mdash;all these die and revive ten or fifteen times
+consecutively, at the will of the naturalist. One dries up a rotifer:
+good night to him; somebody soaks him a little, and he wakes up to bid
+you good day. All depends upon taking great care while he is dry. You
+understand that if any one should merely break his head, no drop of
+water, nor river, nor ocean could restore him.</p>
+
+<p>"The marvellous thing is, that an animal which cannot live more
+than a year, like the minute worm in grain-smut, can lie by
+twenty-four years without dying, if one has taken the precaution of
+desiccating him.</p>
+
+<p>"Needham collected a lot of them in 1743; he presented them to
+Martin Folkes, who gave them to Baker, and these interesting creatures
+revived in water in 1771. They enjoyed a rare satisfaction in elbowing
+their own twenty-eighth generation. Wouldn't a man who should see his
+own twenty-eighth generation be a happy grandfather?</p>
+
+<p>"Another no less interesting fact is that desiccated animals have
+vastly more tenacity of life than others. If the temperature were
+suddenly to fall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23"
+id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> thirty degrees in this laboratory, we
+should all get inflammation of the lungs. If it were to rise as much,
+there would be danger of congestion of the brain. Well, a desiccated
+animal, which is not absolutely dead, and which will revive to-morrow
+if I soak it, faces with impunity, variations of ninety-five degrees
+and six-tenths. M. Meiser and plenty of others have proved it.</p>
+
+<p>"It remains to inquire, then, if a superior animal, a man for
+instance, can be desiccated without any more disastrous consequences
+than a little worm or a tardigrade. M. Meiser was convinced that it is
+practicable; he wrote to that effect in all his books, although he did
+not demonstrate it by experiment.</p>
+
+<p>"Now where would be the harm in it, ladies? All men curious in
+regard to the future, or dissatisfied with life, or out of sorts with
+their contemporaries, could hold themselves in reserve for a better
+age, and we should have no more suicides on account of misanthropy.
+Valetudinarians, whom the ignorant science of the nineteenth century
+declares incurable, needn't blow their brains out any more; they can
+have themselves dried up and wait peaceably in a box until Medicine
+shall have found a remedy for their disorders. Rejected lovers need no
+longer throw themselves into the river; they can put themselves under
+the receiver of an air pump, and make their appearance thirty years
+later, young, handsome and triumphant, satirizing the age of their
+cruel charmers, and paying them back scorn
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg
+24]</a></span> scorn. Governments will give up the unnatural and
+barbarous custom of guillotining dangerous people. They will no longer
+shut them up in cramped cells at Mazas to complete their brutishness;
+they will not send them to the Toulon school to finish their criminal
+education; they will merely dry them up in batches&mdash;one for ten
+years, another for forty, according to the gravity of their deserts. A
+simple store-house will replace the prisons, police lock-ups and
+jails. There will be no more escapes to fear, no more prisoners to
+feed. An enormous quantity of dried beans and mouldy potatoes will be
+saved for the consumption of the country.</p>
+
+<p>"You have, ladies, a feeble delineation of the benefits which
+Doctor Meiser hoped to pour upon Europe by introducing the desiccation
+of man. He made his great experiment in 1813 on a French
+colonel&mdash;a prisoner, I have been told, and condemned as a spy by
+court-martial. Unhappily he did not succeed; for I bought the colonel
+and his box for the price of an ordinary cavalry horse, in the
+dirtiest shop in Berlin."</p>
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg
+25]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE VICTIM.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"My dear Leon," said M. Renault, "you remind me of a college
+commencement. We have listened to your dissertation just as they
+listen to the Latin discourse of the professor of rhetoric; there are
+always in the audience a majority which learns nothing from it, and a
+minority which understands nothing of it. But every body listens
+patiently, on account of the sensations which are to come by and by.
+M. Martout and I are acquainted with Meiser's works, and those of his
+distinguished pupil, M. Pouchet; you have, then, said too much that is
+in them, if you intended to speak for our benefit; and you have not
+said enough that is in them for these ladies and gentlemen who know
+nothing of the existing discussions regarding the vital and organic
+principles.</p>
+
+<p>"Is life a principle of action which animates the organs and puts
+them into play? Is it not, on the contrary, merely the result of
+organization&mdash;the play of various functions of organized matter?
+This is a problem of the highest importance, which would interest the
+ladies themselves, if one were to place it plainly before them. It
+would be sufficient to say:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26"
+id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> 'We inquire whether there is a vital
+principle&mdash;the source of all functions of the body, or if life be
+not merely the result of the regular play of the organs? The vital
+principle, in the eyes of Meiser and his disciple, does not exist; if
+it really existed, they say, one could not understand how it can leave
+a man and a tardigrade when they are desiccated, and return to them
+again when they are soaked.' Now, if there be no vital principle, all
+the metaphysical and moral theories which have been hypothecated on
+its existence, must be reconstructed. These ladies have listened to
+you patiently, it is but justice to them to admit; but all that they
+have been able to gather from your slightly Latinish discourse, is
+that you have given them a dissertation instead of the romance you
+promised. But we all forgive you for the sake of the mummy you are
+going to show us. Open the colonel's box."</p>
+
+<p>"We've well earned the sight!" cried Clementine, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose you were to get frightened?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd have you know, sir, that I'm not afraid of anybody, not even
+of live colonels!"</p>
+
+<p>Leon took his bunch of keys and opened the long oak box on which he
+had been seated. The lid being raised, they saw a great leaden casket
+which enclosed a magnificent walnut box carefully polished on the
+outside, and lined on the inside with white silk, and padded. The
+others brought their lamps and candles near, and the colonel of the
+23d of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg
+27]</a></span> line appeared as if he were in a chapel illuminated for
+his lying in state.</p>
+
+<p>One would have said that the man was asleep. The perfect
+preservation of the body attested the paternal care of the murderer.
+It was truly a remarkable preparation, and would have borne comparison
+with the finest European mummies described by Vicq d'Azyr in 1779, and
+by the younger Puymaurin in 1787.</p>
+
+<p>The part best preserved, as is always the case, was the face. All
+the features had maintained a proud and manly expression. If any old
+friend of the colonel had been present at the opening of the third
+box, he would have recognized him at first sight.</p>
+
+<p>Undoubtedly the point of the nose was a little sharper, the
+nostrils less expanded and thinner, and the bridge a little more
+marked than in the year 1813. The eyelids were thinned, the lips
+pinched, the corners of the mouth drawn down, the cheek bones too
+prominent, and the neck visibly shrunken, which exaggerated the
+prominence of the chin and larynx. But the eyelids were closed without
+contraction, and the sockets much less hollow than one could have
+expected; the mouth was not at all distorted like the mouth of a
+corpse; the skin was slightly wrinkled but had not changed color; it
+had only become a little more transparent, showing, after a fashion,
+the color of the tendons, the fat and the muscles, wherever it rested
+directly upon them. It also had a rosy tint which is not ordinarily
+seen in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg
+28]</a></span> embalmed corpses. Doctor Martout explained this anomaly
+by saying that if the colonel had actually been dried alive, the
+globules of the blood were not decomposed, but simply collected in the
+capillary vessels of the skin and subjacent tissues where they still
+preserved their proper color, and could be seen more easily than
+otherwise, on account of the semi-transparency of the skin.</p>
+
+<p>The uniform had become much too large, as may be readily
+understood; though it did not seem, at a casual glance, that the
+members had become deformed. The hands were dry and angular, but the
+nails, although a little bent inward toward the root, had preserved
+all their freshness. The only very noticeable change was the excessive
+depression of the abdominal walls, which seemed crowded downward
+toward the posterior side; at the right, a slight elevation indicated
+the place of the liver. A tap of the finger on the various parts of
+the body, produced a sound like that from dry leather. While Leon was
+pointing out these details to his audience and doing the honors of his
+mummy he awkwardly broke off the lower part of the right ear, and a
+little piece of the Colonel remained in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>This trifling accident might have passed unnoticed, had not
+Clementine, who followed with visible emotion all the movements of her
+lover, dropped her candle and uttered a cry of affright. All gathered
+around her. Leon took her in his arms and carried her to a chair. M.
+Renault ran after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29"
+id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> salts. She was as pale as death, and
+seemed on the point of fainting.</p>
+
+<p>She soon recovered, however, and reassured them all by a charming
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," she said, "for such a ridiculous exhibition of terror;
+but what Monsieur Leon was saying to us ... and then ... that figure
+which seemed sleeping ... it appeared to me that the poor man was
+going to open his mouth and cry out when he was injured."</p>
+
+<p>Leon hastened to close the walnut box, while M. Martout picked up
+the piece of ear and put it in his pocket. But Clementine, while
+continuing to smile and make apologies, was overcome by a fresh
+accession of emotion and melted into tears. The engineer threw himself
+at her feet, poured forth excuses and tender phrases, and did all he
+could to console her inexplicable grief. Clementine dried her eyes,
+looked prettier than ever, and sighed fit to break her heart, without
+knowing why.</p>
+
+<p>"Beast that I am!" muttered Leon, tearing his hair. "On the day
+when I see her again after three years' absence, I can think of
+nothing more soul-inspiring than showing her mummies!" He launched a
+kick at the triple coffin of the Colonel, saying: "I wish the devil
+had the confounded Colonel!"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" cried Clementine with redoubled energy and emotion. "Do not
+curse him, Monsieur Leon! He has suffered so much! Ah! poor, poor
+unfortunate man!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30"
+id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mlle. Sambucco felt a little ashamed. She made excuses for her
+niece, and declared that never, since her tenderest childhood, had she
+manifested such extreme sensitiveness. M. and Mme. Renault, who had
+seen her grow up; Doctor Martout who had held the sinecure of
+physician to her; the architect, the notary, in a word, everybody
+present was plunged into a state of absolute stupefaction. Clementine
+was no sensitive plant. She was not even a romantic school girl. Her
+youth had not been nourished by Anne Radcliffe, she did not trouble
+herself about ghosts, and she would go through the house very
+tranquilly at ten o'clock at night without a candle. When her mother
+died, some months before Leon's departure, she did not wish to have
+any one share with her the sad satisfaction of watching and praying in
+the death-chamber.</p>
+
+<p>"This will teach us," said the aunt, "how to stay up after ten
+o'clock. What! It is midnight, all to quarter of an hour! Come, my
+child; you will get better fast enough after you get to bed."</p>
+
+<p>Clementine arose submissively, but at the moment of leaving the
+laboratory she retraced her steps, and with a caprice more
+inexplicable than her grief, she absolutely wished to see the mummy of
+the colonel again. Her aunt scolded in vain; in spite of the remarks
+of Mlle. Sambucco and all the persons present, she reopened the walnut
+box, kneeled down beside the mummy and kissed it on the
+forehead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg
+31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Poor man!" said she, rising, "How cold he is! Monsieur Leon,
+promise me that if he is dead you will have him laid in consecrated
+ground!"</p>
+
+<p>"As you please, Mademoiselle. I had intended to send him to the
+anthropological museum, with my father's permission; but you know that
+we can refuse you nothing."</p>
+
+<p>They did not separate as gaily, by a good deal, as they had met. M.
+Renault and his son escorted Mlle. Sambucco and her niece to their
+door, and met the big colonel of cuirassiers who had been honoring
+Clementine with his attentions. The young girl tenderly pressed the
+arm of her betrothed and said: "Here is a man who never sees me
+without sighing. And what sighs! Gracious Heavens! It wouldn't take
+more than two to fill the sails of a a ship. The race of colonels has
+vastly degenerated since 1813. One doesn't see any more such fine
+looking ones as our unfortunate friend."</p>
+
+<p>Leon agreed with all she said. But he did not exactly see how he
+had become the friend of a mummy for which he had just paid
+twenty-five louis. To divert the conversation, he said to Clementine:
+"I have not yet shown you all the nice things I brought. His majesty,
+the Emperor of all the Russias, made me a present of a little
+enamelled gold star hanging at the end of a ribbon. Do you like
+button-hole ribbons?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes!" answered she, "the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor.
+Did you notice? The poor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32"
+id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> colonel still has a shred of one on
+his uniform, but the cross is there no longer. Those wicked Germans
+tore it away from him when they took him prisoner!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's very possible," said Leon.</p>
+
+<p>When they reached Mlle. Sambucco's house, it was time to separate.
+Clementine offered her hand to Leon, who would have been better
+pleased with her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>Father and son returned home arm in arm, with slow steps, giving
+themselves up to endless conjectures regarding the whimsical emotions
+of Clementine.</p>
+
+<p>Mme. Renault was waiting to put her son to bed; a time-honored and
+touching habit which mothers do not early lose. She showed him the
+handsome apartment above the parlor and M. Renault's laboratory, which
+had been prepared for his future domicile.</p>
+
+<p>"You will be as snug in here as a little cock in a pie," said she,
+showing him a bed-chamber fairly marvellous in its comfort. "All the
+furniture is soft and rounded, without a single angle. A blind man
+could walk here without any fear of hurting himself. See how I
+understand domestic comfort! Why, each arm-chair can be a friend! This
+will cost you a trifle. Penon Brothers came from Paris expressly. But
+a man ought to be comfortable at home, so that he may have no
+temptation to go abroad."</p>
+
+<p>This sweet motherly prattle stretched itself
+over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg
+33]</a></span> two good hours, and much of it related to Clementine,
+as you will readily suppose. Leon had found her prettier than he had
+dreamed her in his sweetest visions, but less loving. "Devil take me!"
+said he, blowing out his candle; "One might think that that confounded
+stuffed Colonel had come to thrust himself between
+us."</p>
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg
+34]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>DREAMS OF LOVE, AND OTHER DREAMS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Leon learned to his cost, that a good conscience and a good bed are
+not enough to insure a good sleep. He was bedded like a sybarite,
+innocent as an Arcadian shepherd, and, moreover, tired as a soldier
+after a forced march; nevertheless a dull sleeplessness weighed upon
+him until morning. In vain he tossed into every possible position, as
+if to shift the burden from one shoulder on to the other. He did not
+close his eyes until he had seen the first glimmering of dawn silver
+the chinks of his shutters.</p>
+
+<p>He lulled himself to sleep thinking of Clementine; an obliging
+dream soon showed him the image of her he loved. He saw her in bridal
+costume, in the chapel of the imperial chateau. She was leaning on the
+arm of the elder M. Renault, who had put spurs on in honor of the
+ceremony. Leon followed, having given his arm to Mlle. Sambucco; the
+ancient maiden was decorated with the insignia of the Legion of Honor.
+On approaching the altar, the bridegroom noticed that his father's
+legs were as thin as broomsticks, and, when he was about expressing
+his astonishment, M. Renault
+turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg
+35]</a></span> around and said to him: "They are thin because they are
+desiccated; but they are not deformed." While he was giving this
+explanation, his face altered, his features changed, he shot out a
+black moustache, and grew terribly like the Colonel. The ceremony
+began. The choir was filled with tardigrades and rotifers as large as
+men and dressed like choristers: they intoned, in solemn measure, a
+hymn of the German composer, Meiser, which began thus:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">The vital principle<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Is a gratuitous hypothesis!<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The poetry and the music appeared admirable to Leon; he was trying
+to impress them on his memory when the officiating priest advanced
+toward him with two gold rings on a silver salver. This priest was a
+colonel of cuirassiers in full uniform. Leon asked himself when and
+where he had met him. It was on the previous evening before
+Clementine's door. The cuirassier murmured these words: "The race of
+colonels has vastly degenerated since 1813." He heaved a profound
+sigh, and the nave of the chapel, which was a ship-of-the-line, was
+driven over the water at a speed of forty knots. Leon tranquilly took
+the little gold ring and prepared to place it on Clementine's finger,
+but he perceived that the hand of his betrothed was dried up; the
+nails alone had retained their natural freshness. He was frightened
+and fled across the church, which he found filled with colonels of
+every age and variety. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36"
+id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> crowd was so dense that the most
+unheard-of efforts failed to penetrate it. He escapes at last, but
+hears behind him the hurried steps of a man who tries to catch him. He
+doubles his speed, he throws himself on all-fours, he gallops, he
+neighs, the trees on the way seem to fly behind him, he no longer
+touches the earth. But the enemy comes up faster than the wind; Leon
+hears the sound of his steps, his spurs jingle; he catches up with
+Leon, seizes him by the mane, flings himself with a bound upon his
+back, and goads him with the spur. Leon rears; the rider bends over
+toward his ear and says, stroking him with his whip: "I am not heavy
+to carry:&mdash;thirty pounds of colonel." The unhappy lover of Mlle.
+Clementine makes a violent effort and springs sideways; the Colonel
+falls and draws his sword. Leon loses no time; he puts himself on
+guard and fights, but almost instantly feels the Colonel's sword enter
+his heart to the hilt. The chill of the blade spreads further and
+further, and ends by freezing Leon from head to foot. The Colonel
+draws nearer and says, smiling: "The main-spring is broken; the little
+animal is dead." He puts the body in the walnut box, which is too
+short and too narrow. Cramped on every side, Leon struggles, strains
+and wakes himself up, worn out with fatigue and half smothered between
+the bed and the wall.</p>
+
+<p>He quickly jumped into his slippers and eagerly raised the windows
+and pushed open the shutters. "He made light, and saw that it was
+good,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg
+37]</a></span> as is elsewhere written. * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
+Brrroum! He shook off the recollections of his dream as a wet dog
+shakes off drops of water. The famous London chronometer told him that
+it was nine o'clock. A cup of chocolate, served by Gothon, helped not
+a little to untangle his ideas. On proceeding with his toilet, in a
+very bright, cheerful and convenient dressing-room, he reconciled
+himself to the realities of life. "Everything considered," he said to
+himself, combing out his yellow beard, "nothing but happiness has come
+to me. Here I am in my native country, with my family and in a pretty
+house which is our own. My father and mother are both well, and, for
+myself, I revel in the most luxuriant health. Our fortune is moderate,
+but so are our tastes, and we shall never feel the want of anything.
+Our friends received me yesterday with open arms; and as for enemies
+we have none. The prettiest girl in Fontainebleau is willing to become
+my wife; I can marry her in less than three weeks if I see fit to
+hurry things a little. Clementine did not meet me as if I were of no
+interest to her; far from it. Her lovely eyes smiled upon me last
+night with the most tender regard. It is true that she wept at the
+end, that's too certain. That is my only vexation, my only anxiety,
+the sole cause of that foolish dream I had last night. She did weep,
+but why? Because I was beast enough to regale her with a lecture, and
+that, too, about a mummy. All right! I'll have the mummy
+buried;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg
+38]</a></span> I'll hold back my dissertations, and nothing else in
+the world will come to disturb our happiness."</p>
+
+<p>He went down stairs, humming an air from the <i>Nozze</i>. M. and
+Mme. Renault, who were not accustomed to going to bed after midnight,
+were still asleep. On going into the laboratory, he saw that the
+triple box of the Colonel was closed. Gothon had placed a little
+wooden cross and a sprig of consecrated box on the cover. "We may as
+well begin masses for his soul," he murmured between his teeth, with a
+smile that might have been a little sceptical. At the same time he
+noticed that Clementine, in her agitation, had forgotten the presents
+he had brought her. He made a bundle of them, looked at his watch, and
+concluded that there would be no indiscretion in straining a point to
+go to Mlle. Sambucco's.</p>
+
+<p>The much-to-be-respected aunt was an early riser, as they generally
+are in the rural districts, and had, in fact, already gone out to
+church, and Clementine was gardening near the house. She ran to her
+lover without thinking of throwing down the little rake she held in
+her hand, and with the sweetest smile in the world, held up her pretty
+rosy cheeks which were a little moist and flushed by the pleasant
+warmth of pleasure and exercise.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't you put out with me?" said she. "I was very ridiculous last
+night. My aunt has scolded me in the bargain. And I forgot to take the
+pretty things you brought me from among the
+savages!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg
+39]</a></span> But it was not from lack of appreciation. I am so happy
+to see that you have always thought of me as I have thought of you! I
+could have sent for them to-day, but I am pleasantly anticipated. My
+heart told me that you would come yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Your heart knew me, dear Clementine."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be very unfortunate if it did not know its owner."</p>
+
+<p>"How good you are, and how much I love you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I, too, dear Leon, I love you dearly."</p>
+
+<p>She stood the rake against a tree, and hung upon the arm of her
+intended husband with that supple and languishing grace, the secret of
+which the creoles possess.</p>
+
+<p>"Come this way" said she, "so that I can show you all the
+improvements we have made in the garden."</p>
+
+<p>Leon admired everything she wanted him to. The fact is that he had
+eyes for nothing but her. The grotto of Polyphemus and the cave of
+C&aelig;cus would have appeared to him pleasanter than the gardens of
+Armida, if Clementine's little red jacket had been promenading in
+them.</p>
+
+<p>He asked her if she did not feel some regret in leaving so charming
+a retreat, and one which she had embellished with so much care.</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" asked she, without thinking to blush. "We will not go far
+off, and, besides, won't we come here every
+day?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg
+40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The coming marriage was a thing so well settled, that it had not
+even been spoken of on the previous evening. Nothing remained to be
+done but to publish the bans and fix the date. Clementine, simple and
+honest heart, expressed herself without any false modesty concerning
+an event so entirely expected, so natural and so agreeable. She had
+expressed her tastes to Mme. Renault in the arrangement of the new
+apartments, and chosen the hangings herself; and she no longer made
+any ceremony in talking with her intended of the happy life in common
+which was about beginning for them, of the people they would invite to
+the marriage ceremony, of the wedding calls to be made afterwards, of
+the day which should be appropriated for receptions and of the time
+they would devote to each other's society and to work. She inquired in
+regard to the occupation which Leon intended to make for himself, and
+the hours which, of preference, he would give to study. This excellent
+little woman would have been ashamed to bear the name of a sloth, and
+unhappy in passing her days with an idler. She promised Leon in
+advance, to respect his work as a sacred thing. On her part she
+thoroughly intended to make her time also of use, and not to live with
+folded arms. At the start she would take charge of the housekeeping,
+under the direction of Madame Renault, who was beginning to find it a
+little burdensome. And then would she not soon have children to care
+for, bring up and educate? This was a noble and useful
+pleas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg
+41]</a></span>ure which she did not intend to share with any one.
+Nevertheless she would send her sons to college, in order to fit them
+for living in the world, and to teach them early those principles of
+justice and equality which are the foundation of every good manly
+character. Leon let her talk on, only interrupting her to agree with
+her: for these two young people who had been educated and brought up
+with the same ideas, saw everything with the same eyes. Education had
+created this pleasant harmony rather than Love.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know" said Clementine, "that I felt an awful palpitation of
+the heart when I entered the room where you were yesterday?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you think that my heart beat less violently than
+yours&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! but it was a different thing with me: I was afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"What of?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was afraid that I should not find you the same as I had seen you
+in my thoughts. Remember that it had been three years since we bid
+each other good bye. I remembered distinctly what you were when you
+went away, and, with imagination helping memory a little, I had
+reconstructed my Leon entire. But if you had no longer resembled him!
+What would have become of me in the presence of a new Leon, when I had
+formed the pleasant habit of loving the other?"</p>
+
+<p>"You make me tremble. But your first greeting reassured me in
+advance."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg
+42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Tut, sir! Don't speak of that first greeting, or you will make me
+blush a second time. Let us speak rather of that poor colonel who made
+me shed so many tears. How is he getting along this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"I forgot to inquire after his health, but if you want me
+to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It's useless. You can announce to him a visit from me to-day. It
+is absolutely necessary that I should see him this noon."</p>
+
+<p>"You would be very sensible to give up this fancy. Why expose
+yourself again to such painful emotions?"</p>
+
+<p>"The fancy is stronger than I am. Seriously, dear Leon, the old
+fellow attracts me."</p>
+
+<p>"Why 'old fellow?' He has the appearance of a man who died when
+from twenty-five to thirty years of age."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you very sure that he is dead? I said 'old fellow' because of
+a dream I had last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! You too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You remember how agitated I was on leaving you, and,
+moreover, I had been scolded by my aunt. And, too, I had been thinking
+of terrible sights&mdash;my poor mother lying on her death-bed. In
+fact, my spirits were quite broken down."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor dear little heart!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, as I did not want to think about anything any more,
+I went to bed quickly, and shut my eyes with all my might, so tightly,
+indeed, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg
+43]</a></span> I put myself to sleep. It was not long before I saw the
+colonel. He was lying as I saw him in his triple coffin, but he had
+long white hair and a most benign and venerable appearance. He begged
+us to put him in consecrated ground, and we carried him, you and I, to
+the Fontainebleau cemetery. On reaching my mother's tomb we saw that
+the stone was displaced. My mother, in a white robe, was moved so as
+to make a place beside her, and she seemed waiting for the colonel.
+But every time we attempted to lay him down, the coffin left our hands
+and rested suspended in the air, as if it had no weight. I could
+distinguish the poor old man's features, for his triple coffin had
+become as transparent as the alabaster lamp burning near the ceiling
+of my chamber. He was sad, and his broken ear bled freely. All at once
+he escaped from our hands, the coffin vanished, and I saw nothing but
+him, pale as a statue, and tall as the tallest oaks of
+the <i>bas-Breau</i>. His golden epaulettes spread out and became
+wings, and he raised himself to heaven, holding over us both hands as
+if in blessing. I woke up all in tears, but I have not told my dream
+to my aunt, for she would have scolded me again."</p>
+
+<p>"No one ought to be scolded but me, Clementine dear. It is my fault
+that your gentle slumbers are troubled by visions of the other world.
+But all this will be stopped soon: to-day I am going to seek a
+definite receptacle for the
+Colonel."</p>
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg
+44]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>A YOUNG GIRL'S CAPRICE.</h3>
+
+<p>Clementine had a fresh young heart. Before knowing Leon, she had
+loved but one person&mdash;her mother. No cousins of either sex, nor
+uncles, nor aunts, nor grandfathers, nor grandmothers, had dissipated,
+by dividing it among themselves, that little treasure of affection
+which well-constituted children bring into the world. The grandmother,
+Clementine Pichon, was married at Nancy in January, 1814, and died
+three months later in the suburbs of Toulon, during her first
+confinement. The grandfather, M. Langevin, a sub-commissary of the
+first class, being left a widower, with a daughter in the cradle,
+devoted himself to bringing up his child. He gave her, in 1835, to M.
+Sambucco, an estimable and agreeable man, of Italian extraction, born
+in France, and King's counsel in the court of Marseilles. In 1838 M.
+Sambucco, who was a man of considerable independence, because he had
+resources of his own, in some manner highly honorable to himself,
+incurred the ill-will of the Keeper of the Seals. He was therefore
+appointed Advocate-General to
+Martinique,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg
+45]</a></span> and after some days of hesitation, accepted the
+transfer to that remote situation. But old M. Langevin did not easily
+console himself for the departure of his daughter: he died two years
+later without having embraced the little Clementine, to whom it was
+intended that he should be godfather. M. Sambucco, his son-in-law,
+lost his life in 1843, during an earthquake. The papers of the colony
+and of the metropolis related at the time how he had fallen a victim
+to his devotion to others. After this fearful misfortune, the young
+widow hastened to recross the sea with her daughter. She settled in
+Fontainebleau, in order that the child might live in a healthy
+atmosphere. Fontainebleau is one of the healthiest places in France.
+If Mme. Sambucco had been as good a manager as she was mother, she
+would have left Clementine a respectable fortune, but she regulated
+her affairs badly and got herself under heavy embarrassments. A
+neighboring notary relieved her of a round sum; and two farms which
+she had paid dearly for, brought her almost nothing. In short, she no
+longer knew what her situation was, and began to lose all control of
+it, when a sister of her husband, an old maid, pinched and pious,
+expressed a desire to live with her and use their resources in common.
+The arrival of this long-toothed spinster strangely frightened the
+little Clementine, who hid herself under the furniture and nestled
+among her mother's skirts; but it was the salvation of the house.
+Mlle. Sambucco was not one of the most spirituelle
+nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg
+46]</a></span> one of the most romantic of women, but she was Order
+incarnated. She reduced the expenses, handled the resources herself,
+sold the two farms in 1847, bought some three-per-cents. in 1848, and
+restored stable equilibrium in the budget. Thanks to the talents and
+activity of this female steward, the gentle and improvident widow had
+nothing to do but to fondle her child. Clementine learned to honor the
+virtues of her aunt, but she adored her mother. When she had the
+affliction of losing her, she found herself alone in the world,
+leaning on Mlle. Sambucco, like a young plant on a prop of dry wood.
+It was then that her friendship for Leon glimmered with a vague ray of
+love; and young Renault profited by the necessity for expansion which
+filled this youthful soul.</p>
+
+<p>During the three long years that Leon spent away from her,
+Clementine scarcely knew that she was alone. She loved and felt that
+she was loved in return; she had faith in the future, and an inner
+life of tenderness and timid hope; and this noble and gentle heart
+required nothing more.</p>
+
+<p>But what completely astonished her betrothed, her aunt and herself,
+and strangely subverted all the best accredited theories respecting
+the feminine heart,&mdash;what, indeed, reason would have refused to
+credit had it not been established by facts, was that the day when she
+again met the husband of her choice, an hour after she had thrown
+herself into Leon's arms with a grace so full of trust,
+Clementine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg
+47]</a></span> was so abruptly invaded by a new sentiment which was
+not love, nor friendship, nor fear, but transcended them all and spoke
+with master tones in her heart.</p>
+
+<p>From the instant when Leon had shown her the figure of the Colonel,
+she had been seized by an actual passion for this nameless mummy. It
+was nothing like what she felt towards young Renault, but it was a
+combination of interest, compassion and respectful sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>If any one had recounted some famous feat of arms, or some romantic
+history of which the Colonel had been the hero, this impression would
+have been natural, or, at least, explicable. But she knew nothing of
+him except that he had been condemned as a spy by a council of war,
+and yet she dreamed of him the very night after Leon's return.</p>
+
+<p>This inexplicable prepossession at first manifested itself in a
+religious form. She caused a mass to be said for the repose of the
+Colonel's soul, and urged Leon to make preparations for the funeral,
+herself selecting the ground in which he was to be interred. These
+various cares never caused her to omit her daily visit to the walnut
+box, or the respectful bending of the knee before the body, or the
+sisterly or filial kiss which she regularly placed upon its forehead.
+The Renault family soon became uneasy about such strange symptoms, and
+hastened the interment of the attractive unknown, in order to relieve
+themselves of him as soon as possible. But the day
+be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg
+48]</a></span>fore the one fixed for the ceremony, Clementine changed
+her mind.</p>
+
+<p>"By what right could they shut in the tomb a man who, possibly, was
+not dead? The theories of the learned Doctor Meiser were not such that
+one could reject them without examination. The matter was at least
+worthy of a few days' reflection. Was it not possible to submit the
+Colonel's body to some experiments? Professor Hirtz, of Berlin, had
+promised to send some valuable documents concerning the life and death
+of this unfortunate officer: nothing ought to be undertaken before
+they were received; some one ought to write to Berlin to hasten the
+sending of these papers."</p>
+
+<p>Leon sighed, but yielded uncomplainingly to this new caprice, and
+wrote to M. Hirtz.</p>
+
+<p>Clementine found an ally in this second campaign in Doctor Martout.
+Though he was but an average practitioner and disdained the
+acquisition of practice far too much, M. Martout was not deficient in
+knowledge. He had long been studying five or six great questions in
+physiology, such as reanimation, spontaneous generation and the topics
+connected with them. A regular correspondence kept him posted in all
+recent discoveries; he was the friend of M. Pouchet, of Rouen; and
+knew also the celebrated Karl Nibor, who has carried the use of the
+microscope into researches so wide and so profound. M. Martout had
+desiccated and resuscitated thousands of little worms, rotifers and
+tardi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg
+49]</a></span>grades; he held that life is nothing but organization in
+action, and that the idea of reviving a desiccated man has nothing
+absurd about it. He gave himself up to long meditations when Professor
+Hirtz sent from Berlin the following document, the original of which
+is filed among the manuscripts of the Humboldt
+collection.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg
+50]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>PROFESSOR MEISER'S WILL IN FAVOR OF THE DESICCATED COLONEL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>On this 20th day of January, 1824, being worn down by a cruel
+malady and feeling the approach of the time when my person shall be
+absorbed in the Great All;</p>
+
+<p>I have written with my own hand this testament which is the
+expression of my last will.</p>
+
+<p>I appoint as executor my nephew Nicholas Meiser, a wealthy brewer
+in the city of Dantzic.</p>
+
+<p>I bequeath my books, papers and scientific collections of all
+kinds, except item 3712, to my very estimable and learned friend, Herr
+Von Humboldt.</p>
+
+<p>I bequeath all the rest of my effects, real and personal, valued at
+100,000 Prussian thalers or 375,000 francs, to Colonel Pierre Victor
+Fougas, at present desiccated, but living, and entered in my catalogue
+opposite No. 3712 (Zoology).</p>
+
+<p>I trust that he will accept this feeble compensation for the
+ordeals he has undergone in my laboratory, and the service he has
+rendered to science.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, in order that my nephew
+Nicholas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg
+51]</a></span> Meiser may exactly understand the duties I leave him to
+perform, I have resolved to inscribe here a detailed account of the
+desiccation of Colonel Fougas, my sole heir.</p>
+
+<p>It was on the 11th of November in that unhappy year 1813, that my
+relations with this brave young man began. I had long since quitted
+Dantzic, where the noise of cannon and the danger from bombs had
+rendered all labor impossible, and retired with my instruments and
+books under the protection of the Allied Armies in the fortified town
+of Liebenfeld. The French garrisons of Dantzic, Stettin, Custrin,
+Glogau, Hamburg and several other German towns could not communicate
+with each other or with their native land; meanwhile General Rapp was
+obstinately defending himself against the English fleet and the
+Russian army. Colonel Fougas was taken by a detachment of the Barclay
+de Tolly corps, as he was trying to pass the Vistula on the ice, on
+the way to Dantzic. They brought him prisoner to Liebenfeld on the
+11th of November, just at my supper time, and Sergeant Garok, who
+commanded in the village, forced me to be present at the examination
+and act as interpreter.</p>
+
+<p>The open countenance, manly voice, proud firmness and fine carriage
+of the unfortunate young man won my heart. He had made the sacrifice
+of his life. His only regret, he said, was having stranded so near
+port, after passing through four armies; and being unable to carry out
+the Emperor's orders. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52"
+id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> appeared animated by that French
+fanaticism which has done so much harm to our beloved Germany.
+Nevertheless I could not help defending him; and I translated his
+words less as an interpreter than as an advocate. Unhappily, they
+found upon him a letter from Napoleon to General Rapp, of which I
+preserved a copy:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Abandon Dantzic, break the blockade, unite with the
+garrisons of Stettin, Custrin and Glogau, march along the Elbe,
+arrange with St. Cyr and Davoust to concentrate the forces scattered
+at Dresden, Forgau, Wittenberg, Magdeburg and Hamburg; roll up an army
+like a snow ball; cross Westphalia, which is open, and come to defend
+the line of the Rhine with an army of 170,000 Frenchmen which you will
+have saved!</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Napoleon.</span>"</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>This letter was sent to the headquarters of the Russian army,
+whilst a half-dozen illiterate soldiers, drunk with joy and bad
+brandy, condemned the brave Colonel of the 23d of the line to the
+death of a spy and a traitor. The execution was fixed for the next
+day, the 12th, and M. Pierre Victor Fougas, after having thanked and
+embraced me with the most touching sensibility, (He is a husband and a
+father.) was shut up in the little battlemented tower of Liebenfeld,
+where the wind whistles terribly through all the
+loopholes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg
+53]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The night of the 11th and 12th of November was one of the severest
+of that terrible winter. My self-registering thermometer, which hung
+outside my window with a southeast exposure, marked nineteen degrees
+below zero, centigrade. I went early in the morning to bid the Colonel
+a last farewell, and met Sergeant Garok, who said to me in bad
+German:</p>
+
+<p>"We won't have to kill the Frantzouski, he is frozen to death."</p>
+
+<p>I ran to the prison. The colonel was lying on his back, rigid. But
+I found after a few minutes' examination, that the rigidity of the
+body was not that of death. The joints, though they had not their
+ordinary suppleness, could be bent and extended without any great
+effort. The limbs, the face, and the chest gave my hands a sensation
+of cold, but very different from that which I had often experienced
+from contact with corpses.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing that he had passed several nights without sleep, and
+endured extraordinary fatigues, I did not doubt that he had fallen
+into that profound and lethargic sleep which is superinduced by
+intense cold, and which if too far prolonged slackens respiration and
+circulation to a point where the most delicate physiological tests are
+necessary to discover the continuance of life. The pulse was
+insensible; at least my fingers, benumbed with cold, could not feel
+it. My hardness of hearing (I was then in my sixty-ninth year)
+prevented my determining by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54"
+id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> auscultation whether the beats of the
+heart still aroused those feeble though prolonged vibrations which the
+ear continues to hear some time after the hand fails to detect
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel had reached that point of torpor produced by cold,
+where to revive a man without causing him to die, requires numerous
+and delicate attentions. Some hours after, congelation would
+supervene, and with it, impossibility of restoration to life.</p>
+
+<p>I was in the greatest perplexity. On the one hand I knew that he
+was dying on my hands by congelation; on the other, I could not, by
+myself, bestow upon him the attentions that were indispensable. If I
+were to administer stimulants without having him, at the same time,
+rubbed on the trunk and limbs by three or four vigorous assistants, I
+would revive him only to see him die. I had still before my eyes the
+spectacle of that lovely young girl asphyxiated in a fire, whom I
+succeeded in reviving by placing burning coals under the clavicles,
+but who could only call her mother, and died almost immediately, in
+spite of the administration of internal stimulants and electricity for
+inducing contractions of the diaphragm and heart.</p>
+
+<p>And even if I should succeed in bringing him back to health and
+strength, was not he condemned by court-martial? Did not humanity
+forbid my rousing him from this repose akin to death, to deliver him
+to the horrors of execution?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55"
+id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I must confess that in the presence of this organism where life was
+suspended, my ideas on reanimation took, as it were, fresh hold upon
+me. I had so often desiccated and revived beings quite elevated in the
+animal scale, that I did not doubt the success of the operation, even
+on a man. By myself alone I could not revive and save the Colonel; but
+I had in my laboratory, all the instruments necessary to desiccate him
+without assistance.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up, three alternatives offered themselves to me. I. To leave
+the Colonel in the crenellated tower, where he would have died the
+same day of congelation. II. To revive him by stimulants, at the risk
+of killing him. And for what? To give him up, in case of success, to
+inevitable execution. III. To desiccate him in my laboratory with the
+quasi certainty of resuscitating him after the restoration of peace.
+All friends of humanity will doubtless comprehend that I could not
+hesitate long.</p>
+
+<p>I had Sergeant Garok called, and I begged him to sell me the body
+of the Colonel. It was not the first time that I had bought a corpse
+for dissection, so my request excited no suspicion. The bargain
+concluded, I gave him four bottles of kirsch-wasser, and soon two
+Russian soldiers brought me Colonel Fougas on a stretcher.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I was alone with him, I pricked one of his fingers:
+pressure forced out a drop of blood. To place it under a microscope
+between two plates of glass was the work of a minute. Oh, joy!
+The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg
+56]</a></span> fibrin was not coagulated. The red globules appeared
+cleanly circular, flattened, biconcave, and without notches,
+indentations or spheroidal swellings. The white globules changed their
+shape, taking at intervals the spherical form, and varying their
+shapes again by delicate expansions. I was not deceived then, it was a
+torpid man that I had under my eyes, and not a dead one!</p>
+
+<p>I placed him on a pair of scales. He weighed one hundred and forty
+pounds, clothing included. I did not care to undress him, for I had
+noticed that animals desiccated directly in contact with the air, died
+oftener than those which remained covered with moss and other soft
+materials, during the ordeal of desiccation.</p>
+
+<p>My great air-pump, with its immense platform, its enormous oval
+wrought-iron receiver, which a rope running on a pulley firmly fixed
+in the ceiling easily raised and lowered by means of a
+windlass&mdash;all these thousand and one contrivances which I had so
+laboriously prepared in spite of the railleries of those who envied
+me, and which I felt desolate at seeing unemployed, were going to find
+their use! Unexpected circumstances had arisen at last to procure me
+such a subject for experiment, as I had in vain endeavored to procure,
+while I was attempting to reduce to torpidity dogs, rabbits, sheep and
+other mammals by the aid of freezing mixtures. Long ago, without
+doubt, would these results have been attained if I had been aided by
+those who surround<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57"
+id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>ed me, instead of being made the butt
+of their railleries; if our authorities had sustained me with their
+influence instead of treating me as a subversive spirit.</p>
+
+<p>I shut myself up <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> with the
+Colonel, and took care that even old Getchen, my housekeeper, now
+deceased, should not trouble me during my work. I had substituted for
+the wearisome lever of the old fashioned air-pumps, a wheel arranged
+with an eccentric which transformed the circular movement of the axis
+into the rectilinear movement required by the pistons: the wheel, the
+eccentric, the connecting rod, and the joints of the apparatus all
+worked admirably, and enabled me to do everything by myself. The cold
+did not impede the play of the machine, and the lubricating oil was
+not gummed: I had refined it myself by a new process founded on the
+then recent discoveries of the French <i>savant</i> M. Chevreul.</p>
+
+<p>Having extended the body on the platform of the air-pump, lowered
+the receiver and luted the rim, I undertook to submit it gradually to
+the influence of a dry vacuum and cold. Capsules filled with chloride
+of calcium were placed around the Colonel to absorb the water which
+should evaporate from the body, and to promote the desiccation.</p>
+
+<p>I certainly found myself in the best possible situation for
+subjecting the human body to a process of gradual desiccation without
+sudden interruption of the functions, or disorganization of the
+tissues or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg
+58]</a></span> fluids. Seldom had my experiments on rotifers and
+tardigrades been surrounded with equal chances of success, yet they
+had always succeeded. But the particular nature of the subject and the
+special scruples imposed upon my conscience, obliged me to employ a
+certain number of new conditions, which I had long since, in other
+connections, foreseen the expediency of. I had taken the pains to
+arrange an opening at each end of my oval receiver, and fit into it a
+heavy glass, which enabled me to follow with my eye the effects of the
+vacuum on the Colonel. I was entirely prevented from shutting the
+windows of my laboratory, from fear that a too elevated temperature
+might put an end to the lethargy of the subject, or induce some change
+in the fluids. If a thaw had come on, all would have been over with my
+experiment. But the thermometer kept for several days between six and
+eight degrees below zero, and I was very happy in seeing the lethargic
+sleep continue, without having to fear congelation of the tissues.</p>
+
+<p>I commenced to produce the vacuum with extreme slowness, for fear
+that the gases distributed through the blood, becoming free on account
+of the difference of their tension from that of rarified air, might
+escape in the vessels and so bring on immediate death. Moreover, I
+watched, every moment, the effects of the vacuum on the intestinal
+gases, for by expanding inside in proportion as the pressure of the
+air diminished outside of the body, they could have
+caused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg
+59]</a></span> serious disorders. The tissues might not have been
+entirely ruptured by them, but an internal lesion would have been
+enough to occasion death in a few hours after reanimation. One
+observes this quite frequently in animals carelessly desiccated.</p>
+
+<p>Several times, too rapid a protrusion of the abdomen put me on my
+guard against the danger which I feared, and I was obliged to let in a
+little air under the receiver. At last, the cessation of all phenomena
+of this kind satisfied me that the gases had disappeared by exosmose
+or had been expelled by the spontaneous contraction of the viscera. It
+was not until the end of the first day that I could give up these
+minute precautions, and carry the vacuum a little further.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, the 13th, I pushed the vacuum to a point where the
+barometer fell to five millimetres. As no change had taken place in
+the position of the body or limbs, I was sure that no convulsion had
+been produced. The colonel had been desiccated, had become immobile,
+had lost the power of performing the functions of life, without death
+having supervened, and without the possibility of returning to
+activity having departed. His life was suspended, not
+extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>Each time that a surplus of watery vapor caused the barometer to
+ascend, I pumped. On the 14th, the door of my laboratory was literally
+broken in by the Russian General, Count Trollohub, who had been sent
+from headquarters. This distinguished
+officer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg
+60]</a></span> had run in all haste to prevent the execution of the
+colonel and to conduct him into the presence of the Commander in
+Chief. I loyally confessed to him what I had done under the
+inspiration of my conscience; I showed him the body through one of the
+bull's-eyes of the air-pump; I told him that I was happy to have
+preserved a man who could furnish useful information to the liberators
+of my country; and I offered to resuscitate him at my own expense if
+they would promise me to respect his life and liberty. The General,
+Count Trollohub, unquestionably a distinguished man, but one of an
+exclusively military education, thought that I was not speaking
+seriously. He went out slamming the door in my face, and treating me
+like an old fool.</p>
+
+<p>I set myself to pumping again, and kept the vacuum at a pressure of
+from three to five millimetres for the space of three months. I knew
+by experience that animals can revive after being submitted to a dry
+vacuum and cold for eighty days.</p>
+
+<p>On the 12th of February 1814, having observed that for a month no
+modification had taken place in the shrinking of the flesh, I resolved
+to submit the Colonel to another series of operations, in order to
+insure more perfect preservation by complete desiccation. I let the
+air re-enter by the stop-cock arranged for the purpose, and, after
+raising the receiver, proceeded at once to my experiment.</p>
+
+<p>The body did not weigh more than forty-six pounds; I had then
+reduced it nearly to a third<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61"
+id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> of its original weight. It should be
+borne in mind that the clothing had not lost as much water as the
+other parts. Now the human body contains nearly four-fifths of its own
+weight of water, as is proved by a desiccation thoroughly made in a
+chemical drying furnace.</p>
+
+<p>I accordingly placed the Colonel on a tray, and, after sliding it
+into my great furnace, gradually raised the temperature to 75 degrees,
+centigrade. I did not dare to go beyond this heat, from fear of
+altering the albumen and rendering it insoluble, and also of taking
+away from the tissues the capacity of reabsorbing the water necessary
+to a return to their functions.</p>
+
+<p>I had taken care to arrange a convenient apparatus so that the
+furnace was constantly traversed by a current of dry air. This air was
+dried in traversing a series of jars filled with sulphuric acid,
+quick-lime and chloride of calcium.</p>
+
+<p>After a week passed in the furnace, the general appearance of the
+body had not changed, but its weight was reduced to forty pounds,
+clothing included. Eight days more brought no new decrease of weight.
+From this, I concluded that the desiccation was sufficient. I knew
+very well that corpses mummified in church vaults for a century or
+more, end by weighing no more than a half-score of pounds, but they do
+not become so light without a material alteration in their
+tissues.</p>
+
+<p>On the 27th of February, I myself placed
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg
+62]</a></span> colonel in the boxes which I had had made for his
+occupancy. Since that time, that is to say during a space of nine
+years and eleven months, we have never been separated. I carried him
+with me to Dantzic. He stays in my house. I have never placed him,
+according to his number, in my zoological collection; he remains by
+himself, in the chamber of honor. I do not grant any one the pleasure
+of re-using his chloride of calcium. I will take care of you till my
+dying day, Oh Colonel Fougas, dear and unfortunate friend! But I shall
+not have the joy of witnessing your resurrection. I shall not share
+the delightful emotions of the warrior returning to life. Your
+lachrymal glands, inert to-day, but some day to be reanimated, will
+not pour upon the bosom of your old benefactor, the sweet dew of
+recognition. For you will not recover your life until a day when mine
+will have long since departed! Perhaps you will be astonished that I,
+loving you as I do, should have so long delayed to draw you out of
+this profound slumber. Who knows but that some bitter reproach may
+come to taint the tenderness of the first offices of gratitude that
+you will perform over my tomb! Yes! I have prolonged, without any
+benefit to you, an experiment of general interest to others. I ought
+to have remained faithful to my first intention, and restored your
+life, immediately after the signature of peace. But what! Was it well
+to send you back to France when the sun of your fatherland was
+obscured by our soldiers and allies? I have spared you
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg
+63]</a></span> spectacle&mdash;one so grievous to such a soul as
+yours. Without doubt you would have had, in March, 1815, the
+consolation of again seeing that fatal man to whom you had consecrated
+your devotion; but are you entirely sure that you would not have been
+swallowed up with his fortune, in the shipwreck of Waterloo?</p>
+
+<p>For five or six years past, it has not been your welfare nor even
+the welfare of science, that prevented me from reanimating you, it has
+been.... Forgive me, Colonel, it has been a cowardly attachment to
+life. The disorder from which I am suffering, and which will soon
+carry me off, is an aneurism of the heart; violent emotions are
+interdicted to me. If I were myself to undertake the grand operation
+whose process I have traced in a memorandum annexed to this
+instrument, I would, without any doubt, succumb before finishing it;
+my death would be an untoward accident which might trouble my
+assistants and cause your resuscitation to fail.</p>
+
+<p>Rest content! You will not have long to wait, and, moreover, what
+do you lose by waiting? You do not grow old, you are always
+twenty-four years of age; your children are growing up, you will be
+almost their contemporary when you come to life again. You came to
+Liebenfeld poor, you are now in my house poor, and my will makes you
+rich. That you may be happy also, is my dearest wish.</p>
+
+<p>I direct that, the day after my death, my
+nephew,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg
+64]</a></span> Nicholas Meiser, shall call together, by letter, the
+ten physicians most illustrious in the kingdom of Prussia, that he
+shall read to them my will and the annexed memorandum, and that he
+shall cause them to proceed without delay, in my own laboratory, to
+the resuscitation of Colonel Fougas. The expenses of travel,
+maintenance, etc., etc., shall be deducted from the assets of my
+estate. The sum of two thousand thalers shall be devoted to the
+publication of the glorious results of the experiment, in German,
+French and Latin. A copy of this pamphlet shall be sent to each of the
+learned societies then existing in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>In the entirely unexpected event of the efforts of science being
+unable to reanimate the Colonel, all my effects shall revert to
+Nicholas Meiser, my sole surviving relative.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">John Meiser</span>, M.
+D.</p>
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg
+65]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>HOW NICHOLAS MEISER, NEPHEW OF JOHN MEISER, EXECUTED HIS UNCLE'S
+WILL.</h3
+
+<p>Doctor Hirtz of Berlin, who had copied this will himself,
+apologized very politely for not having sent it sooner. Business had
+obliged him to travel away from the Capital. In passing through
+Dantzic, he had given himself the pleasure of visiting Herr Nicholas
+Meiser, the former brewer, now a very wealthy land-owner and heavy
+holder of stocks, sixty-six years of age. This old man very well
+remembered the death and will of his uncle, the <i>savant</i>; but he
+did not speak of them without a certain reluctance. Moreover, he said
+that immediately after the decease of John Meiser, he had called
+together ten physicians of Dantzic around the mummy of the Colonel; he
+showed also a unanimous statement of these gentlemen, affirming that a
+man desiccated in a furnace cannot in any way or by any means return
+to life. This certificate, drawn up by the professional competitors
+and enemies of the deceased, made no mention of the paper annexed to
+the will. Nicholas Meiser swore by all the Gods (but not without
+visibly coloring) that this
+document<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg
+66]</a></span> concerning the methods to be pursued in resuscitating
+the Colonel, had never been known by himself or his wife. When
+interrogated regarding the reasons which could have brought him to
+part with a trust as precious as the body of M. Fougas, he said that
+he had kept it in his house fifteen years with every imaginable
+respect and care, but that at the end of that time, becoming beset
+with visions and being awakened almost every night by the Colonel's
+ghost coming and pulling at his feet, he concluded to sell it for
+twenty crowns to a Berlin amateur. Since he had been rid of this
+dismal neighbor, he had slept a great deal better, but not entirely
+well yet; for it had been impossible for him to forget the apparition
+of the Colonel.</p>
+
+<p>To these revelations, Herr Hirtz, physician to His Royal Highness
+the Prince Regent of Prussia, added some remarks of his own. He did
+not think that the resuscitation of a healthy man, desiccated with
+precaution, was impossible in theory; he thought also, that the
+process of desiccation indicated by the illustrious John Meiser was
+the best to follow. But in the present case, it did not appear to him
+probable that Colonel Fougas could be called back to life; the
+atmospheric influences and the variations of temperature which he had
+undergone during a period of forty six years, must have altered the
+fluids and the tissues.</p>
+
+<p>This was also the opinion of M. Renault and his son. To quiet
+Clementine's excitement a little,
+they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg
+67]</a></span> read to her the concluding paragraphs of Prof. Hirtz'
+letter. They kept from her John Meiser's will, which could have done
+nothing but excite her. But the little imagination worked on without
+cessation, do what they would to quiet it. Clementine now sought the
+company of Doctor Martout, she held discussions with him and wanted to
+see experiments in the resuscitation of rotifers. When she got home
+again, she would think a little about Leon and a great deal about the
+Colonel. The project of marriage was still entertained, but no one
+ventured to speak about the publication of the bans. To the most
+touching endearments of her betrothed, the young fianc&eacute;e
+responded with disquisitions on the vital principle. Her visits to the
+Renaults' house were paid less to the living than to the dead. All the
+arguments they put in use to cure her of a foolish hope served only to
+throw her into a profound melancholy. Her beautiful complexion grew
+pale, the brilliancy of her glance died away. Undermined by a hidden
+disorder, she lost the amiable vivacity which had appeared to be the
+sparkling of youth and joy. The change must have been very noticeable,
+for even Mlle. Sambucco, who had not a mother's eyes, was troubled
+about it.</p>
+
+<p>M. Martout, satisfied that this malady of the spirit would not
+yield to any but a moral treatment, came to see her one morning, and
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child, although I cannot well explain to myself the great
+interest that you take in this mummy, I have done something for it and
+for you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg
+68]</a></span> I am going to send the little piece of ear that Leon
+broke off to M. Karl Nibor."</p>
+
+<p>Clementine opened all her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you understand me?" continued the Doctor. "The thing is, to
+find out whether the humors and tissues of the Colonel have undergone
+material alterations. M. Nibor, with his microscope, will tell us the
+state of things. One can rely upon him: he is an infallible genius.
+His answer will tell us if it be well to proceed to the resuscitation
+of our man, or whether nothing is left but to bury him."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried the young girl. "One can tell whether a man is dead
+or living, by sample?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing more is required by Doctor Nibor. Forget your anxieties,
+then, for a week. As soon as the answer comes, I will give it to you
+to read. I have stimulated the curiosity of the great physiologist: he
+knows absolutely nothing about the fragment I send him. But if, to
+suppose an impossibility, he tells us that the piece of ear belongs to
+a sound being, I will beg him to come to Fontainebleau and help us
+restore his life."</p>
+
+<p>This vague glimmer of hope dissipated Clementine's melancholy, and
+brought back her buoyant health. She again began to sing and laugh and
+flutter about the garden at her aunt's, and the house at M. Renault's.
+The tender communings began again, the wedding was once more talked
+over, and the first ban was published.</p>
+
+<p>"At last," said Leon, "I have found her
+again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg
+69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Madame Renault, that wise and cautious mother, shook her head
+sadly.</p>
+
+<p>"All this goes but half well," said she. "I do not like to have my
+daughter-in-law so absorbed with that handsome dried-up fellow. What
+are we to expect when she knows that it is impossible to bring him to
+life again? Will the black butterflies<a name="FNanchor_1_1"
+id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[1]</sup></a>then fly away? And suppose they
+happen, by a miracle, to reanimate him! are you sure she will not fall
+in love with him? Indeed, Leon must have thought it very necessary to
+buy this mummy, and I call it money well invested!"</p>
+
+<p>One Sunday morning M. Martout rushed in upon the old professor,
+shouting victory.</p>
+
+<p>Here is the answer which had come to him from Paris:&mdash;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"My dear <i>confr&egrave;re</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"I have received your letter, and the little fragment of tissue
+whose nature you asked me to determine. It did not cost me much
+trouble to find out the matter in question, I have done more difficult
+things twenty times, in the course of experiments relating to medical
+jurisprudence. You could have saved yourself the use of the
+established formula: "When you shall have made your microscopic
+examination, I will tell you what it is." These little tricks amount
+to nothing: my microscope knows better than you do what you have sent
+me. You know the form and color of things: <i>it</i> sees their inmost
+nature, the laws of their being, the conditions of their life and
+death.</p>
+
+<p>"Your fragment of desiccated matter, half as broad as my nail and
+nearly as thick, after remaining for twenty-four hours under a
+bell-glass in an atmosphere saturated with water at the
+temperature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg
+70]</a></span> of the human body, became supple&mdash;so much so as to
+be a little elastic. I could consequently dissect it, study it like a
+piece of fresh flesh, and put under the microscope each one of its
+parts that appeared different, in consistency or color, from the
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>"I at once found, in the middle, a slight portion harder and more
+elastic than the rest, which presented the texture and cellular
+structure of cartilage. This was neither the cartilage of the nose,
+nor the cartilage of an articulation, but certainly the
+fibro-cartilage of the ear. You sent me, then, the end of an ear, and
+it is not the lower end&mdash;the lobe which women pierce to put their
+gold ornaments in, but the upper end, into which the cartilage
+extends.</p>
+
+<p>"On the inner-side, I took off a fine skin, in which the microscope
+showed me an epidermis, delicate, perfectly intact; a derma no less
+intact, with little papill&aelig; and, moreover, covered with a lot of
+fine human hairs. Each of these little hairs had its root imbedded in
+its follicle, and the follicle accompanied by its two little glands. I
+will tell you even more: these hairs of down were from four to five
+millimetres long, by from three to five hundredths of a millimetre in
+diameter; this is twice the size of the pretty down which grows on a
+feminine ear; from which I conclude that your piece of ear belongs to
+a man.</p>
+
+<p>"Against the curved edge of the cartilage, I found delicate
+striated bunches of the muscle of the helix, and so perfectly intact
+that one would have said there was nothing to prevent their
+contracting. Under the skin and near the muscles, I found several
+little nervous filaments, each one composed of eight or ten tubes in
+which the medulla was as intact and homogeneous as in nerves removed
+from a living animal or taken from an amputated limb. Are you
+satisfied? Do you cry mercy? Well! As for me, I am not yet at the end
+of my string.</p>
+
+<p>"In the cellular tissue interposed between the cartilage and the
+skin, I found little arteries and little veins whose structure was
+perfectly cognizable. They contained some serum with red blood
+globules. These globules were all of them circular, biconcave and
+perfectly regular; they showed neither indentations nor
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg
+71]</a></span> raspberry-like appearance which characterizes the blood
+globules of a corpse.</p>
+
+<p>"To sum up, my dear <i>confr&egrave;re</i>, I have found in this
+fragment nearly everything that is found in the human
+body&mdash;cartilage, muscle, nerve, skin, hairs, glands, blood, etc.,
+and all this in a perfectly healthy and normal state. It is not, then,
+a piece of a corpse which you sent me, but a piece of a living man,
+whose humors and tissues are in no way decomposed.</p>
+
+<p>"With high consideration, yours, </p>
+
+<p>
+"<span class="smcap">Karl Nibor.</span><br> <br>
+"<span class="smcap">Paris</span>, <i>July 30th, 1859.</i>"<br>
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONSIDERABLE OF A DISTURBANCE IN FONTAINEBLEAU.</h3>
+
+<p>It did not take long to get spread about the town that M. Martout
+and the Messieurs Renault, intended, in conjunction with several Paris
+<i>savans</i>, to resuscitate a dead man.</p>
+
+<p>M. Martout had sent a detailed account of the case to the
+celebrated Karl Nibor, who had hastened to lay it before the
+Biological Society. A committee was forthwith appointed to accompany
+M. Nibor to Fontainebleau. The six commissioners and the reporter
+agreed to leave Paris the 15th of August,<a name="FNanchor_2_2"
+id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[2]</sup></a> being glad to escape the din of
+the public rejoicings. M. Martout was notified to get things ready for
+the experiment, which would probably last not less than three
+days.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the Paris papers announced this great event among their
+"Miscellaneous Items," but the public paid little attention to it. The
+grand reception of the army returning from Italy engrossed everybody's
+interest, and moreover, the French do not put more than moderate faith
+in miracles promised in the
+newspapers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg
+73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But at Fontainebleau, it was an entirely different matter. Not only
+Monsieur Martout and the Messieurs Renault, but M. Audret, the
+architect, M. Bonnivet, the notary, and a dozen other of the bigwigs
+of the town, had seen and touched the mummy of the Colonel. They had
+spoken about it to their friends, had described it to the best of
+their ability, and had recounted its history. Two or three copies of
+Herr Meiser's will were circulating from hand to hand. The question of
+reanimations was the order of the day; they discussed it around the
+fish-pond, like the Academy of Sciences at a full meeting. Even in the
+market-place you could have heard them talking about rotifers and
+tardigrades.</p>
+
+<p>It must be admitted that the resuscitationists were not in the
+majority. A few professors of the college, noted for the paradoxical
+character of their minds; a few lovers of the marvellous, who had been
+duly convicted of table-tipping; and, to top off with a half dozen of
+those old white-moustached grumblers who believe that the death of
+Napoleon I. is a calumnious lie set afloat by the English, constituted
+the whole of the army. M. Martout had against him not only the
+skeptics, but the innumerable crowd of believers, in the bargain. One
+party turned him to ridicule, the others proclaimed him revolutionary,
+dangerous, and an enemy of the fundamental ideas on which society
+rests. The minister of one little church preached, in inuendoes,
+against the Prometheuses who aspired to usurp the
+prerog<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg
+74]</a></span>atives of Heaven. But the rector of the parish did not
+hesitate to say, in five or six houses, that the cure of a man as
+desperately sick as M. Fougas, would be an evidence of the power and
+mercy of God.</p>
+
+<p>The garrison of Fontainebleau was at that time composed of four
+squadrons of cuirassiers and the 23d regiment of the line, which had
+distinguished itself at Magenta. As soon as it was known in Colonel
+Fougas' old regiment that that illustrious officer was possibly going
+to return to the world, there was a general sensation. A regiment
+knows its history, and the history of the 23d had been that of Fougas
+from February, 1811, to November, 1813. All the soldiers had heard
+read, at their messes, the following anecdote:</p>
+
+<p>"On the 27th of August, 1813, at the battle of Dresden, the Emperor
+noticed a French regiment at the foot of a Russian redoubt which was
+pouring grape upon it. He asked what regiment it was, and was told
+that it was the 23d of the line. 'That's impossible!' said he. 'The
+23d of the line never stood under fire without rushing upon the
+artillery thundering at it.' At that moment the 23d, led by Colonel
+Fougas, rushed up the height at double quick, pinned the artillerists
+to their guns, and took the redoubt."</p>
+
+<p>The officers and soldiers, justly proud of this memorable action,
+venerated, under the name of Fougas, one of the fathers of the
+regiment. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg
+75]</a></span> idea of seeing him appear in the midst of them, young
+and living, did not appear likely, but it was already something to be
+in possession of his body. Officers and soldiers decided that he
+should be interred at their expense, after the experiments of Doctor
+Martout were completed. And to give him a tomb worthy of his glory,
+they voted an assessment of two days' pay.</p>
+
+<p>Every one who wore an epaulette visited M. Renault's laboratory;
+the Colonel of cuirassiers went there several times&mdash;in hopes of
+meeting Clementine. But Leon's betrothed kept herself out of the
+way.</p>
+
+<p>She was happier than any woman had ever been, this pretty little
+Clementine. No cloud longer disturbed the serenity of her fair brow.
+Free from all anxieties, with a heart opened to Hope, she adored her
+dear Leon, and passed her days in telling him so. She herself had
+pressed the publication of the bans.</p>
+
+<p>"We will be married," said she, "the day after the resuscitation of
+the Colonel. I intend that he shall give me away, I want him to bless
+me. That is certainly the least he can do for me, after all I have
+done for him. It is certain that, but for my opposition, you would
+have sent him to the museum of the <i>Jardin des Plantes</i>. I will
+tell him all this, Sir, as soon as he can understand us, and he will
+cut <i>your</i> ears off, in <i>his</i> turn! I love you!"</p>
+
+<p>"But," answered Leon, "why do you make
+my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg
+76]</a></span> happiness dependent on the success of an experiment?
+All the usual formalities are executed, the publications made, the
+notices given: no one in the world can prevent our marrying to-morrow,
+and you are pleased to wait until the 19th! What connection is there
+between us and this desiccated gentleman asleep in his box? He doesn't
+belong to your family or mine. I have examined all your family records
+back to the sixth generation, and I haven't found anybody of the name
+of Fougas in them. So we are not waiting for a grandfather to be
+present at the ceremony. Who is he, then? The wicked tongues of
+Fontainebleau pretend that you have a <i>penchant</i> for this fetich
+of 1813; as for me, who am sure of your heart, I trust that you will
+never love any one as well as me. However they call me the rival of
+the Sleeping Colonel in the Wood."</p>
+
+<p>"Let the fools prate!" responded Clementine, with an angelic smile.
+"I do not trouble myself to explain my affection for poor Fougas, but
+I love him very much, that's certain. I love him as a father, as a
+brother, if you prefer it, for he is almost as young as I. When we
+have resuscitated him, I will love him, perhaps, as a son; but you
+will lose nothing by it, dear Leon. You have in my heart a place by
+itself, the best too, and no one shall take it from you, not
+even <i>he</i>."</p>
+
+<p>This lovers' quarrel, which often began, and always ended with a
+kiss, was one day interrupted by a visit from the commissioner of
+police.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg
+77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This honorable functionary politely declined to give his name and
+business, and requested the favor of a private interview with young
+Renault.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," said he, when he saw him alone, "I appreciate all the
+consideration due to a man of your character and position, and I hope
+you will see fit not to interpret unpleasantly a proceeding which is
+prompted in me by a sense of duty."</p>
+
+<p>Leon opened his eyes and waited for the continuation of the
+discourse.</p>
+
+<p>"You are aware, Monsieur," pursued the Commissioner, "of what is
+required by the law concerning interments. It is express, and admits
+no exception. The authorities can keep their eyes shut, but the great
+tumult that has arisen, and, moreover, the rank of the deceased,
+without taking into account the religious considerations, put us under
+obligation to proceed ... in conjunction with you, let it be well
+understood...."</p>
+
+<p>Leon comprehended little by little. The commissioner finished by
+explaining to him, always in the administrative style, that it was
+incumbent upon him to have M. Fougas taken to the town cemetery.</p>
+
+<p>"But Monsieur," replied the engineer, "if you have heard people
+speaking of Colonel Fougas, they ought to have told you withal that we
+do not consider him dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" answered the Commissioner, with a slight smile.
+"Opinions are free. But the
+doctor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg
+78]</a></span> whose office it is to attend to the disposition of the
+dead, and who has had the pleasure of seeing the deceased, has made us
+a conclusive report which points to immediate interment."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Monsieur, if Fougas is dead, we are in hopes of
+resuscitating him."</p>
+
+<p>"So we have been told already Monsieur, but, for my part, I
+hesitated to believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"You will believe it when you have seen it; and I hope, Monsieur,
+that that will be before long."</p>
+
+<p>"But then, Monsieur, have you fixed everything in due form?"</p>
+
+<p>"With whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know, Monsieur, but I suppose that before undertaking
+such a thing as this, you have fortified yourself with some legal
+authorization."</p>
+
+<p>"From whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"But at all events, Monsieur, you admit that the reanimation of a
+man is an extraordinary affair. As for myself, this is really the
+first time that I ever heard it spoken of. Now the duty of a well
+regulated police, is to prevent anything extraordinary happening in
+the country."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us see, Monsieur. If I were to say to you: 'Here is a man who
+is not dead; I have a well-founded hope of setting him on his feet in
+three days; your doctor, who maintains the contrary, deceives
+himself,' would you take the responsibility of having Fougas
+buried?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg
+79]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not! God forbid that I should take any responsibility of
+any kind on my shoulders! But however, Monsieur, in having M. Fougas
+buried, I would act in accordance with law and order. Now after all,
+by what right do you presume to resuscitate a man? In what country is
+resuscitation customary? Where is the precept of law which authorizes
+you to resuscitate people?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know any law that prohibits it? Now everything that is not
+prohibited is permitted."</p>
+
+<p>"In the eyes of the magistrates, very likely. But the police ought
+to prevent and stem disorder. Now a resuscitation, Monsieur, is a
+thing so unheard of as to constitute an actual disorder."</p>
+
+<p>"You will admit, nevertheless, that it is a very happy
+disorder."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no such thing as a happy disorder. Consider, moreover,
+that the deceased is not a common sort of a man. If the question
+concerned a vagabond without house or home, one could use some
+tolerance in regard to it. But this is a soldier, an officer, of high
+rank and decorated too; a man who has occupied an exalted position in
+the army. The <i>army</i>, Monsieur! It will not do to touch the
+army!"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh! Monsieur, I touch the army like a surgeon who tends its
+wounds. It is proposed to restore to the army a colonel. And you,
+actuated by the spirit of routine, wish to rob it of one."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't get so excited, Monsieur, I beg
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg
+80]</a></span> you, and don't talk so loud: people can hear us.
+Believe me, I will meet you half way in anything you want to do for
+the great and glorious army of my country. But have you considered the
+religious question?"</p>
+
+<p>"What religious question?"</p>
+
+<p>"To tell you the truth, Monsieur (but this entirely between
+ourselves), what we have spoken of so far is purely accessory and we
+are now touching upon the delicate point. People have come to see me
+and have made some very judicious remarks to me. The mere announcement
+of your project has cast a good deal of trouble into certain
+consciences. They fear that the success of an undertaking of this kind
+may strike a blow at the faith, may, in a word, scandalize many
+tranquil spirits. For, if M. Fougas is dead, of course it is because
+God has so willed it. Aren't you afraid of acting contrary to the will
+of God, in resuscitating him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Monsieur: for I am sure not to resuscitate Fougas if God has
+willed it otherwise; God permits a man to catch the fever, but God
+also permits a doctor to cure him. God permitted a brave soldier of
+the Emperor to be captured by four drunken Russians, condemned as a
+spy, frozen in a fortress and desiccated under an air-pump by an old
+German. But God also permitted me to find this unfortunate man in a
+junk-shop, to carry him to Fontainebleau, to examine him with certain
+men of science and to agree with them upon a method almost sure
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg
+81]</a></span> restore him to life. All this proves one
+thing&mdash;which is that God is more just, more merciful and more
+inclined to pity than those who abuse his name in order to excite
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you, Monsieur, that I am not in the least excited. I
+yield to your reasons because they are good ones and because you are a
+man of consideration in the community. I sincerely hope, moreover,
+that you will not think harshly of an act of zeal which I have been
+advised to perform. I am a functionary, Monsieur. Now, what is a
+functionary? A man who holds a place. Suppose now that functionaries
+were to expose themselves to the loss of their places, what would
+stand firm in France? Nothing, Monsieur, absolutely nothing. I have
+the honor to bid you good day!"</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 15th of August, M. Karl Nibor presented
+himself at M. Renault's with Doctor Martont and the committee
+appointed by the Biological Society of Paris. As often happens in the
+rural districts the first appearance of our illustrious savant was a
+sort of disappointment. Mme. Renault expected to see, if not a
+magician in a velvet robe studded with gold, at least an old man of
+extraordinarily grave and impressive appearance. Karl Nibor is a man
+of middle height, very fair and very slight. Possibly he carries a
+good forty years, but one would not credit him with more than
+thirty-five. He wears a moustache and imperial; is lively, a good
+conversationist, agreeable and enough of a man of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg
+82]</a></span> world to amuse the ladies. But Clementine did not have
+the pleasure of his conversation. Her aunt had taken her to Moret in
+order to remove her from the pangs of fear as well as from the
+intoxications of victory.</p>
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg
+83]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>HALLELUJAH!</h3>
+
+
+<p>M. Nibor and his colleagues, after the usual compliments, requested
+to see the subject. They had no time to lose, as the experiment could
+hardly last less than three days. Leon hastened to conduct them to the
+laboratory and to open the three boxes containing the Colonel.</p>
+
+<p>They found that the patient presented quite a favorable appearance.
+M. Nibor took off his clothes, which tore like tinder from having been
+too much dried in Father Meiser's furnace. The body, when naked, was
+pronounced entirely free from blemish and in a perfectly healthy
+condition. No one would yet have guaranteed success, but every one was
+full of hope.</p>
+
+<p>After this preliminary examination, M. Renault put his laboratory
+at the service of his guests. He offered them all that he possessed,
+with a munificence which was not entirely free from vanity. In case
+the employment of electricity should appear necessary, he had a
+powerful battery of Leyden jars
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg
+84]</a></span> forty of Bunsen's elements, which were entirely new. M.
+Nibor thanked him smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Save your riches," said he. "With a bath-tub and caldron of
+boiling water, we will have everything we need. The Colonel needs
+nothing but humidity. The thing is to give him the quantity of water
+necessary to the play of the organs. If you have a small room where
+one can introduce a jet of vapor, we will be more than content.</p>
+
+<p>M. Audret, the architect, had very wisely built a little bath-room
+near the laboratory, which was convenient and well lighted. The
+celebrated steam engine was not far off, and its boiler had not, up to
+this time, answered any other purpose than that of warming the baths
+of M. and Mme. Renault.</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel was carried into this room, with all the care
+necessitated by his fragility. It was not intended to break his second
+ear in the hurry of moving. Leon ran to light the fire under the
+boiler, and M. Nibor created him Fireman, on the field of battle.</p>
+
+<p>Soon a jet of tepid vapor streamed into the bath-room, creating
+around the Colonel a humid atmosphere which was elevated by degrees,
+and without any sudden increase, to the temperature of the human body.
+These conditions of heat and humidity were maintained with the
+greatest care for twenty-four hours. No one in the house went to
+sleep. The members of the Parisian Committee encamped in the
+laboratory. Leon kept up the fire; M. Nibor,
+M.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg
+85]</a></span> Renault and M. Martout took turns in watching the
+thermometer. Madame Renault was making tea and coffee, and punch too.
+Gothon, who had taken communion in the morning, kept praying to God,
+in the corner of her kitchen, that this impious miracle might not
+succeed. A certain excitement already prevailed throughout the town,
+but one did not know whether it should be attributed to
+the <i>f&ecirc;te</i> of the 15th, or the famous undertaking of the
+seven wise men of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>By two o'clock on the 16th, encouraging results were obtained. The
+skin and muscles had recovered nearly all their suppleness, but the
+joints were still hard to bend. The collapsed condition of the walls
+of the abdomen and the interval between the ribs, still indicated that
+the viscera were far from having reabsorbed the quantity of water
+which they had previously lost with Herr Meiser. A bath was prepared
+and kept at a temperature of thirty-seven degrees and a
+half.<a name="FNanchor_3_3"
+id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[3]</sup></a> They left the Colonel in it two
+hours and a half, taking care to frequently pass over his head a fine
+sponge soaked with water.</p>
+
+<p>M. Nibor removed him from the bath as soon as the skin, which was
+filled out sooner than the other tissues, began to assume a whitish
+tinge and wrinkle slightly. They kept him until the evening of the
+16th in this humid room, where they arranged an apparatus which, from
+time to time, occasioned a fine rain of a temperature of thirty-seven
+and a half degrees. A new bath was given in the
+evening.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg
+86]</a></span> During the night, the body was enveloped in flannel,
+but kept constantly in the same steaming atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the 17th, after a third bath of an hour and a
+half, the general characteristics of the figure and the proportions of
+the body presented their natural aspect: one would have called it a
+sleeping man. Five or six curious persons were admitted to see it,
+among others the colonel of the 23d. In the presence of these
+witnesses, M. Nibor moved successively all the joints, and
+demonstrated that they had recovered their flexibility. He gently
+kneaded the limbs, trunk and abdomen. He partly opened the lips, and
+separated the jaws, which were quite firmly closed, and saw that the
+tongue had returned to its ordinary size and consistency. He also
+partly opened the eyelids: the eye-balls were firm and bright.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen," said the philosopher, "these are indications which do
+not deceive; I prophesy success. In a few hours you shall witness the
+first manifestations of life."</p>
+
+<p>"But," interrupted one of the bystanders, "why not
+immediately?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because the <i>conjunctiv&aelig;</i> are still a little paler than
+they ought to be. But the little veins traversing the whites of the
+eyes have already assumed a very encouraging appearance. The blood is
+almost entirely restored. What is the blood? Red globules floating in
+serum, or a sort of whey. The serum
+in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg
+87]</a></span> poor Fougas was dried up in his veins; the water which
+we have gradually introduced by a slow endosmose has saturated the
+albumen and fibrin of the serum, which is returned to the liquid
+state. The red globules which desiccation had agglutinated, had become
+motionless like ships stranded in shoal water. Now behold them afloat
+again: they thicken, swell, round out their edges, detach themselves
+from each other and prepare to circulate in their proper channels at
+the first impulse which shall be given them by the contractions of the
+heart."</p>
+
+<p>"It remains to see," said M. Renault, "whether the heart will put
+itself in motion. In a living man, the heart moves under the impulse
+of the brain, transmitted by the nerves. The brain acts under the
+impulse of the heart, transmitted by the arteries. The whole forms a
+perfectly exact circle, without which there is no well-being. And when
+neither heart nor brain acts, as in the Colonel's case, I don't see
+which of the two can set the other in motion. You remember the scene
+in the '<i>Ecole des femmes</i>,' where Arnolphe knocks at his door?
+The valet and the maid, Alain and Georgette, are both in the house.
+'Georgette!' cries Alain.&mdash;'Well?' replies Georgette.&mdash;'Open
+the door down there!'&mdash;'Go yourself! Go
+yourself!'&mdash;'Gracious me! I shan't go!'&mdash;'I shan't go
+either!'&mdash;'Open it right away!'&mdash;'Open it yourself!' And
+nobody opens it. I am inclined to think, Monsieur, that we are
+attending a performance of this comedy. The house is the
+body<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg
+88]</a></span> of the Colonel; Arnolphe, who wants to get in, is the
+Vital Principle. The heart and brain act the parts of Alain and
+Georgette. 'Open the door!' says one.&mdash;'Open it yourself!' says
+the other. And the Vital Principle waits outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," replied Doctor Nibor smiling, "you forget the ending of
+the scene. Arnolphe gets angry, and cries out: 'Whichever of you two
+doesn't open the door, shan't have anything to eat for four days!' And
+forthwith Alain hurries himself, Georgette runs and the door is
+opened. Now bear in mind that I speak in this way only in order to
+conform to your own course of reasoning, for the term 'Vital
+Principle' is at variance with the actual assertions of science. Life
+will manifest itself as soon as the brain, or the heart, or any one of
+the organs which have the capacity of working spontaneously, shall
+have absorbed the quantity of water it needs. Organized matter has
+inherent properties which manifest themselves without the assistance
+of any foreign principle, whenever they are surrounded by certain
+conditions. Why do not M. Fougas' muscles contract yet? Why does not
+the tissue of the brain enter into action? Because they have not yet
+the amount of moisture necessary to them. In the fountain of life
+there is lacking, perhaps, a pint of water. But I shall be in no hurry
+to refill it: I am too much afraid of breaking it. Before giving this
+gallant fellow a final bath, it will be necessary to knead all his
+organs again, to subject his abdomen to regular
+compressions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg
+89]</a></span> in order that the serous membranes of the stomach,
+chest and heart may be perfectly disagglutinated and capable of
+slipping on each other. You are aware that the slightest tear in these
+parts, or the least resistance, would be enough to kill our subject at
+the moment of his revival."</p>
+
+<p>While speaking, he united example to precept and kept kneading the
+trunk of the Colonel. As the spectators had too nearly filled the
+bath-room, making it almost impossible to move, M. Nibor begged them
+to move into the laboratory. But the laboratory became so full that it
+was necessary to leave it for the parlor: the Committee of the
+Biological Society, had scarcely a corner of the table on which to
+draw up their account of the proceedings. The parlor even was crowded
+with people, the dining room too, and so out to the court yard of the
+house. Friends, strangers, people not at all known to the family,
+elbowed each other and waited in silence. But the silence of a crowd
+is not much less noisy than the rolling of the sea. Fat Doctor
+Martout, apparently overwhelmed with responsibility, showed himself
+from time to time, and surged through the waves of curious people like
+a galleon laden with news. Every one of his words circulated from
+mouth to mouth, and spread even through the street, where several
+groups of soldiers and citizens were making a stir, in more senses
+than one. Never had the little "Rue de la Faisanderie" seen such a
+crowd. An astonished passer-by stopped and
+inquired:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg
+90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter here? Is it a funeral?"</p>
+
+<p>"Quite the reverse, Sir."</p>
+
+<p>"A christening, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"With warm water!"</p>
+
+<p>"A birth?"</p>
+
+<p>"A being born again!"</p>
+
+<p>An old judge of the Civil Court was recounting to a deputy the
+legend of &AElig;son of old, who was boiled in Medea's caldron.</p>
+
+<p>"This is almost the same experiment," said he, "and I am inclined
+to think that the poets have calumniated the sorceress of Colchis.
+There could be some fine Latin verses made appropriate to this
+occasion; but I no longer possess my old skill!</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Fabula Medeam cur crimine carpit iniquo?<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Ecce novus surgit redivivus &AElig;son ab undis<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Fortior, arma petens, juvenili pectore miles ...,<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Redivivus is taken in the active sense; it's a license, or at
+least a bold construction. Ah! Monsieur! there was a time when I was,
+even among those who made the most confident attempts, <i>the</i> man
+for Latin verses!"</p>
+
+<p>"Corp'ral!" said a conscript of the levy of 1859.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Freminot?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true that they are boiling an old soldier in a pot, and that
+they are going to get him up again, Colonel's uniform and all?"</p>
+
+<p>"True or not, subaltern, I'll run the risk of saying it's
+true."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg
+91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I fancy, with all proper deference, that they will not make much
+at it."</p>
+
+<p>"You should know, Freminot, that nothing is impossible to your
+superiors! You are not unaware even now, that dried vegetables, on
+being boiled, recover their original and natural appearance!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, Corp'ral, if one were to cook them, three days' time, they'd
+dissolve into broth."</p>
+
+<p>"But, imbecile, why shouldn't one consider old soldiers hard to
+cook?"</p>
+
+<p>At noon, the commisioner of police and the lieutenant
+of <i>gens-d'armes</i> made way through the crowd and entered the
+house. These gentlemen hastened to declare to M. Renault that their
+visit had nothing of an official character, but that they had come
+merely from curiosity. In the corridor, they met the Sub-prefect, the
+Mayor and Gothon, who was lamenting in loud tones that she should see
+the government lend its hand to such sorceries.</p>
+
+<p>About one o'clock, M. Nibor caused a new and prolonged bath to be
+given the Colonel, on coming out of which, the body was subjected to a
+kneading harder and more complete than before.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said the Doctor, "we can carry M. Fougas into the
+laboratory, in order to give his resuscitation all the publicity
+desirable. But it will be well to dress him, and his uniform is in
+tatters."</p>
+
+<p>"I think," answered good M. Renault, "that the Colonel is about my
+size; so I can lend him some of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92"
+id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> my clothes. Heaven grant that he may
+use them! But, between us, I don't hope for it."</p>
+
+<p>Gothon brought in, grumbling, all that was necessary to dress an
+entirely naked man. But her bad humor did not hold out before the
+beauty of the Colonel:</p>
+
+<p>"Poor gentleman!" she exclaimed, "he is young, fresh and fair as a
+little chicken. If he doesn't revive, it will be a great pity!"</p>
+
+<p>There were about forty people in the laboratory when Fougas was
+carried thither. M. Nibor, assisted by M. Martout, placed him on a
+sofa, and begged a few moments of attentive silence. During these
+proceedings, Mme. Renault sent to inquire if she could come in. She
+was admitted.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame and gentlemen," said Dr. Nibor, "life will manifest itself
+in a few minutes. It is possible that the muscles will act first, and
+that their action may be convulsive, on account of not yet being
+regulated by the influence of the nervous system. I ought to apprise
+you of this fact, in order that you may not be frightened if such a
+thing transpires. Madame, being a mother, ought to be less astonished
+at it than any one else; she has experienced, at the fourth month of
+pregnancy, the effect of those irregular movements which will,
+possibly, soon be presented to us on a larger scale. I am quite
+hopeful, however, that the first spontaneous contractions will take
+place in the fibres of the heart. Such is the case in the embryo,
+where the rhythmic movements of the heart, precede the nervous
+functions."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg
+93]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He again began making systematic compressions of the lower part of
+the chest, rubbing the skin with his hands, half opening the eyelids,
+examining the pulse, and auscultating the region of the heart.</p>
+
+<p>The attention of the spectators was diverted an instant by a hubbub
+outside. A battalion of the 23d was passing, with music at the head,
+through the Rue de la Faisanderie. While the Sax-horns were shaking
+the windows, a sudden flash mantled on the cheeks of the Colonel. His
+eyes, which had stood half open, lit up with a brighter sparkle. At
+the same instant, Doctor Nibor, who had his ear applied to the chest,
+cried:</p>
+
+<p>"I hear the beatings of the heart!"</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had he spoken, when the chest rose with a violent
+inspiration, the limbs contracted, the body straightened up, and out
+came a cry: "<i>Vive l'Empereur</i>."</p>
+
+<p>But as if so great an effort had overtasked his strength, Colonel
+Fougas fell back on the sofa, murmuring in a subdued voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Where am I? Waiter! Bring me a
+newspaper!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg
+94]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHEREIN COLONEL FOUGAS LEARNS SOME NEWS WHICH WILL APPEAR OLD TO MY
+READERS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Among all the persons present at this scene, there was not a single
+one who had ever seen a resuscitation. I leave you to imagine the
+surprise and joy which reigned in the laboratory. A triple round of
+applause, mingled with cheers, hailed the triumph of Doctor Nibor. The
+crowd, packed in the parlor, the passages, the court-yard, and even in
+the street, understood at this signal, that the miracle was
+accomplished. Nothing could hold them back, they forced the doors,
+cleared all obstacles, upset all the philosophers who tried to stop
+them, and finished by pouring into the chamber of Science.</p>
+
+<p>"Gentlemen!" cried M. Nibor, "Do you want to kill him?"</p>
+
+<p>But they let him talk. The wildest of all passions, curiosity, had
+long held dominion over the crowd: every one wanted to see, though at
+the risk of crushing the others. M. Nibor tumbled down, M. Renault and
+his son, in attempting to help him, were thrown on top of him; Madame
+Renault, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg
+95]</a></span> her turn, was thrown down at the feet of Fougas, and
+began screaming at the top of her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Damnation!" said Fougas, straightening himself up as if by a
+spring, "these scoundrels will suffocate us if some one doesn't
+squelch them!" His attitude, the glare of his eyes, and, above all,
+the prestige of the miraculous, cleared a space around him. One would
+have thought that the walls had been stretched or that the spectators
+had slid into one another!</p>
+
+<p>"Out of here, every mother's son of you!" cried Fougas, in his
+fiercest tone of command. A tumult of cries, explanations, and
+remonstrances was raised around him; he fancied he heard menaces, he
+seized the first chair within reach, brandished it like a weapon,
+drove, hammered, upset the citizens, soldiers,
+officials, <i>savants</i>, friends, sight-seers, commissary of
+police&mdash;everybody, and urged the human torrent into the street
+with an uproar perfectly indescribable. This done, he shut the door
+and bolted it, returned to the laboratory, saw three men standing near
+Madame Renault, and said to the old lady, softening the tone of his
+voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, good mother, shall I serve these three like the others?"</p>
+
+<p>"No! No! No! Be careful!" cried the good old lady. "My husband and
+my son, Monsieur, and Doctor Nibor, who has restored you to life."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case all honor to them, good mother! Fougas has never
+violated the laws of gratitude<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96"
+id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> and hospitality. As for you, my
+Esculapius, give me your hand!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same instant, he noticed ten or a dozen inquisitive people
+on tiptoe on the pavement just by the windows of the laboratory.
+Forthwith he marched and opened them with a precipitation which upset
+the gazers among the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"People," said he, "I have knocked down a hundred beggarly pandours
+who respect neither sex nor infirmity. For the benefit of those who
+are not satisfied, I will state that I call myself colonel Fougas of
+the 23d. And <i>Vive l'Empereur!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>A confused mixture of plaudits, cries, laughs, and jeers, answered
+this unprecedented allocution. Leon Renault hastened out to make
+apologies to all to whom they were due. He invited a few friends to
+dine the same evening with the terrible colonel, and, of course, he
+did not forget to send a special messenger to Clementine. Fougas,
+after speaking to the people, returned to his hosts, swinging himself
+along with a swaggering air, set himself astride a chair, took hold of
+the ends of his moustache, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well! Come, let's talk this over. I've been sick then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very sick."</p>
+
+<p>"That's fabulous! I feel entirely well. I'm hungry, and, moreover,
+while waiting for dinner, I'll even try a glass of your schnick."</p>
+
+<p>Mme. Renault went out, gave an order, and returned in an
+instant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg
+97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But tell me, then, where I am," resumed the colonel. "By these
+paraphernalia of work, I recognize a disciple of Urania; possibly a
+friend of Monge and Berthollet. But the cordial friendliness impressed
+on your countenances proves to me that you are not natives of this
+land of sour-krout. Yes, I believe it from the beatings of my heart.
+Friends, we have the same fatherland. The kindness of your reception,
+even were there no other indications, would have satisfied me that you
+are French. What accidents have brought you so far from our native
+soil? Children of my country, what tempest has thrown you upon this
+inhospitable shore?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Colonel," replied M. Nibor, "if you want to become very
+wise, you will not ask so many questions at once. Allow us the
+pleasure of instructing you quietly and in order, for you have a great
+many things to learn."</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel flushed with anger, and answered sharply:</p>
+
+<p>"At all events, you are not the man to teach them to me, my little
+gentleman!"</p>
+
+<p>A drop of blood which fell on his hand changed the current of his
+thoughts:</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on!" said he; "am I bleeding?"</p>
+
+<p>"That will amount to nothing; circulation is re&euml;stablished,
+and your broken ear...."</p>
+
+<p>He quickly carried his hand to his ear and said:</p>
+
+<p>"It's certainly so. But Devil take me if I recollect this
+accident!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg
+98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I'll make you a little dressing, and in a couple of days there
+will be no trace of it left!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't give yourself the trouble, my dear Hippocrates; a pinch of
+powder is a sovereign cure!"</p>
+
+<p>M. Nibor set to work to dress the ear in a little less military
+fashion. During his operations, Leon re&euml;ntered.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! ah!" said he to the Doctor, "you are repairing the harm I
+did."</p>
+
+<p>"Thunderation!" cried Fougas, escaping from the hands of M. Nibor
+so as to seize Leon by the collar, "was it you, you rascal, that hurt
+my ear?"</p>
+
+<p>Leon was very good-natured, but his patience failed him. He pushed
+his man roughly aside.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, it was I who tore your ear, in pulling it, and if that
+little misfortune had not happened to me, it is certain that you would
+have been, to-day, six feet under ground. It is I who saved your life,
+after buying you with my money when you were not valued at more than
+twenty-five louis. It is I who have passed three days and two nights
+in cramming charcoal under your boiler. It is my father who gave you
+the clothes you now have on. You are in our house. Drink the little
+glass of brandy Gothon just brought you; but for God's sake give up
+the habit of calling me rascal, of calling my mother 'Good Mother.'
+and of flinging our friends into the street and calling them beggarly
+pandours!"</p>
+
+<p>The colonel, all dumbfounded, held out his hand to Leon, M. Renault
+and the doctor, gallantly
+kissed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg
+99]</a></span> the hand of Mme. Renault, swallowed at a gulp a claret
+glass filled to the brim with brandy, and said in a subdued voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Most excellent friends, forget the vagaries of an impulsive but
+generous soul. To subdue my passions shall hereafter be my law. After
+conquering all the nations in the universe, it is well to conquer
+one's self."</p>
+
+<p>This said, he submitted his ear to M. Nibor, who finished dressing
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"But," said he, summoning up his recollections, "they did not shoot
+me then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"And I wasn't frozen to death in the tower?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite."</p>
+
+<p>"Why has my uniform been taken off? I see! I am a prisoner!"</p>
+
+<p>"You are free."</p>
+
+<p>"Free! <i>Vive l'Empereur!</i> But then, there's not a moment to
+lose! How many leagues is it to Dantzic?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's very far."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you call this chicken coop of a town?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fontainebleau."</p>
+
+<p>"Fontainebleau! In France?"</p>
+
+<p>"Prefecture of Seine-et-Marne. We are going to introduce to you the
+sub-prefect, whom you just pitched into the street."</p>
+
+<p>"What the Devil are your sub-prefects to
+me?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg
+100]</a></span> I have a message from the Emperor for General Rapp,
+and I must start, this very day, for Dantzic. God knows whether I'll
+be there in time!"</p>
+
+<p>"My poor Colonel, you will arrive too late. Dantzic is given
+up."</p>
+
+<p>"That's impossible! Since when?"</p>
+
+<p>"About forty-six years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Thunder! I did not understand that you were ... mocking me!"</p>
+
+<p>M. Nibor placed in his hand a calendar, and said: "See for
+yourself! It is now the 17th of August, 1859; you went to sleep in the
+tower of Liebenfeld on the 11th of November, 1813; there have been,
+then, forty-six years, all to three months, during which the world has
+moved on without you."</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-four and forty-six; but then I would be seventy years old,
+according to your statement!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your vitality clearly shows that you are still twenty-four."</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders, tore up the calendar and said, beating
+the floor with his foot: "Your almanac is a humbug!"</p>
+
+<p>M. Renault ran to his library, took up half a dozen books at
+haphazard and made him read, at the foot of the title pages, the dates
+1826, 1833, 1847, 1858.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me!" said Fougas, burying his head in his hands. "What has
+happened to me is so new! I do not think that another human being was
+ever subjected to such a trial. I am seventy years
+old!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg
+101]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Good Madame Renault went and got a looking-glass from the bath
+room, and gave it to him, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Look!"</p>
+
+<p>He took the glass in both hands, and was silently occupied in
+resuming acquaintance with himself, when a hand-organ came into the
+court and began playing "Partant pour la Syrie!"</p>
+
+<p>Fougas threw the mirror to the ground, and cried out:</p>
+
+<p>"What is that you were telling me? I hear the little song of Queen
+Hortense!"<a name="FNanchor_4_4"
+id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>M. Renault patiently explained to him, while picking up the pieces
+of the mirror, that the pretty little song of Queen Hortense had
+become a national air, and even an official one, since the regimental
+bands had substituted that gentle melody for the fierce Marsellaise,
+and that our soldiers, strange to say, had not fought any the worse
+for it. But the Colonel had already opened the window, and was crying
+out to the Savoyard:</p>
+
+<p>"Eh! Friend! A napoleon for you if you will tell me in what year I
+am drawing the breath of life!"</p>
+
+<p>The artist began dancing as lightly as possible playing on his
+musical instrument.</p>
+
+<p>"Advance at the order!" cried the Colonel, "and keep that devilish
+machine still!"</p>
+
+<p>"A little penny, my good monsieur!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not a penny that I'll give you, but a napoleon, if you'll
+tell me what year it is."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102"
+id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh but that's funny! Hi&mdash;hi&mdash;hi!"</p>
+
+<p>"And if you don't tell me quicker than this amounts to, I'll cut
+your ears off!"</p>
+
+<p>The Savoyard ran away, but he came back pretty soon, having
+meditated, during his flight, on the maxim: "Nothing risk nothing
+gain."</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," said he, in a wheedling voice, "this is the year
+Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-nine."</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" cried Fougas. He felt in his pockets for money, and found
+nothing there. Leon saw his predicament, and flung twenty francs into
+the court. Before shutting the window, he pointed out, to the right,
+the fa&ccedil;ade of a pretty little new building where the Colonel
+could distinctly read</p>
+
+<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">AUDRET ARCHITECTE.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">MDCCCLIX.</span> </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A perfectly satisfactory piece of evidence, and one which did not
+cost twenty francs.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas, a little confused, pressed Leon's hand, and said to
+him:</p>
+
+<p>"My friend, I do not forget that Confidence is the first duty from
+Gratitude toward Beneficence. But tell me of our country! I tread the
+sacred soil where I received my being, and I am ignorant of the career
+of my native land. France is still the queen of the world, is she
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Leon.</p>
+
+<p>"How is the Emperor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg
+103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And the Empress?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well."</p>
+
+<p>"And the King of Rome?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Prince Imperial? He is a very fine child."</p>
+
+<p>"How? A fine child! And you have the face to say that this is
+1859!"</p>
+
+<p>M. Nibor took up the conversation, and explained in a few words
+that the reigning sovereign of France was not Napoleon I., but
+Napoleon III.</p>
+
+<p>"But then," cried Fougas, "my Emperor is dead!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! Tell me anything you will but that! My Emperor is
+immortal."</p>
+
+<p>M. Nibor and the Renaults, who were not quite professional
+historians, were obliged to give him a summary of the history of our
+century. Some one went after a big book written by M. de Norvins and
+illustrated with fine engravings by Raffet. He only believed in the
+presence of Truth when he could touch her with his hand, and still
+cried out almost every moment: "That's impossible! This is not history
+that you are reading to me: it is a romance written to make soldiers
+weep!"</p>
+
+<p>This young man must indeed have had a strong and well-tempered
+soul, for he learned in forty minutes all the woful events which
+Fortune had scattered through eighteen years, from the first
+abdication up to the death of the King of Rome. Less happy than his
+old companions in arms, he had no
+interval<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg
+104]</a></span> of repose between these terrible and repeated shocks,
+all beating upon his heart at the same time. One could have feared
+that the blow might prove mortal, and poor Fougas die in the first
+hour of his recovered life. But the imp of a fellow yielded and
+recovered himself in quick succession like a spring. He cried out with
+admiration on hearing of the five battles of the campaign in France;
+he reddened with grief at the farewells of Fontainebleau. The return
+from the Isle of Elba transfigured his handsome and noble countenance;
+at Waterloo his heart rushed in with the last army of the Empire, and
+there shattered itself. Then he clenched his fists and said between
+his teeth: "If I had been there at the head of the 23d, Blucher and
+Wellington would have seen another fate!" The invasion, the truce, the
+martyr of St. Helena, the ghastly terror of Europe, the murder of
+Murat&mdash;the idol of the cavalry, the death of Ney, Bruno, Mouton
+Duvernet, and so many other whole-souled men whom he had known,
+admired, and loved, threw him into a series of paroxysms of rage, but
+nothing upset him. In hearing of the death of Napoleon, he swore that
+he would eat the heart of England; the slow agony of the pale and
+interesting heir of the Empire, inspired him with a passion to tear
+the vitals out of Austria. When the drama was over and the curtain
+fell on Schoenbrunn, he dashed away his tears and said: "It is well. I
+have lived in a moment a man's entire life. Now show me the map of
+France!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg
+105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Leon began to turn over the leaves of an atlas, while M. Renault
+attempted to continue narrating to the colonel the history of the
+Restoration, and of the monarchy of 1830. But Fougas' interest was in
+other things.</p>
+
+<p>"What do I care," said he, "if a couple of hundred babblers of
+deputies put one king in place of another? Kings! I've seen enough of
+them in the dirt. If the Empire had lasted ten years longer, I could
+have had a king for a boot-black."</p>
+
+<p>When the atlas was placed before him, he at once cried out with
+profound disdain: "That, France!" But soon two tears of pitying
+affection escaping from his eyes, swelled the rivers Ardeche and
+Gironde. He kissed the map and said, with an emotion which
+communicated itself to nearly all present:</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, poor old love, for insulting your misfortunes. Those
+scoundrels whom we always whipped have profited by my sleep to pare
+down your frontiers; but little or great, rich or poor, you are my
+mother, and I love you as a faithful son! Here is Corsica, where the
+giant of our age was born; here is Toulouse, where I first saw the
+light; here is Nancy where I felt my heart awakened, where, perhaps,
+she whom I call my &AElig;gle waits for me still! France! Thou hast a
+temple in my soul; this arm is thine; thou shalt find me ever ready to
+shed my blood to the last drop in defending or avenging
+thee!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg
+106]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CONVALESCENT'S FIRST MEAL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The messenger whom Leon had sent to Moret, could not reach there
+before seven o'clock. Supposing that he would find the ladies at table
+with their hosts, that the great news would cut the dinner short, and
+that there would be a carriage handy, Clementine and her aunt would
+probably be at Fontainebleau between ten and eleven o'clock. Young
+Renault rejoiced in advance over the happiness of
+his <i>fianc&eacute;e</i>. What a joy it would be for her and for him
+when he should present to her the miraculous man whom she had
+protected against the horrors of the tomb, and whom he had
+resuscitated in answer to her entreaty!</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Gothon, proud and happy to the same degree that she had
+before been scandalized and annoyed, spread the table for a dozen
+persons. Her yoke-fellow, a young rustic of eighteen, half-fledged in
+the commune of Sablons, helped her with all his might, and amused her
+with his conversation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107"
+id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, Ma'm'selle Gothon," said he, setting down a pile of
+empty plates, "this is what one might call a ghost coming out of its
+box to upset the commissary and the sub-prefect!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ghost, if you'll have it so, C&eacute;lestin; it's certain-sure
+that he comes from a good ways, poor young man! But perhaps 'ghost'
+isn't a proper word to use in speaking of our masters."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true, then, that he has come to be our master too? Too many
+of
+<i>them</i> come every day. I'd like it better if more servants and help
+would come!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shut up, you lizard of laziness! When the gentlemen leaves tips
+for us on going away, you don't complain because there's only two to
+divide 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all well enough as far as it goes! I've carried more than
+fifty buckets of water for him to simmer in, that Colonel of yours,
+and I know mighty well that he won't give me a cent, for he hasn't a
+farthing in his pockets. We've got to believe that money isn't plenty
+in the country he just came from!"</p>
+
+<p>"They say there's wills in his favor in Strasburg; a gentleman
+who'd hurt his fortune&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me now, Ma'm'selle Gothon&mdash;you who read a little book
+every Sunday&mdash;where he could have been, our Colonel, while he was
+not in this world."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh! In purgatory, of course!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then why don't you ask him about that famous Baptiste, your
+sweetheart in 1837, who let
+himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg
+108]</a></span> tumble off a roof, and on whose account you have so
+many masses said? They ought to have met each other down there!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's very possible."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless Baptiste has left there since the time when you paid so
+much money to get him out."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well. I'll go this very evening to the Colonel's chamber,
+and, since he's not proud, he'll tell me all he knows about
+it.&mdash;But, C&eacute;lestin, are'nt you never going to act
+different? Here you've rubbed my silver pickle knives on the
+grindstone again!"</p>
+
+<p>The guests came into the parlor, where the Renault family with M.
+Nibor and the Colonel were already assembled. There were successively
+presented to M. Fougas the mayor of the city, Doctor Martout, Master
+Bonnivet the notary, M. Audret, and three members of the Paris
+committee; the other three had been obliged to return before dinner.
+The guests were not entirely at their ease; their sides, bruised by
+the first movements of Fougas, left room for them to suppose that
+possibly they were dining with a maniac. But curiosity was stronger
+than fear. The Colonel soon reassured them by a most cordial
+reception. He excused himself for acting the part of a man just
+returned from the other world. He talked a great deal&mdash;a little
+too much, perhaps; but they were so well pleased to listen to him, and
+his words borrowed such an importance from the singularity of recent
+events, that he gained an unqualified success. He was told that Dr.
+Martout had been one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109"
+id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> of the principal agents of his
+resuscitation, in conjunction with another person whom they promised
+soon to present to him. He thanked M. Martout warmly, and asked how
+soon he could evince his gratitude to the other person.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope," said Leon, "that you will see her this evening."</p>
+
+<p>No one came later than the colonel of the 23d of the line, M.
+Rollon. He made his way with no little difficulty through the crowds
+of people who filled the Rue de la Faisanderie. He was a man of
+forty-five, with a quick voice, and full figure. His hair was a little
+grizzled, but his brown mustache, full, and twisted at the ends,
+looked as young as ever. He said little, spoke to the point, knew a
+great deal, and did no boasting&mdash;all in all, he was a fine
+specimen of a colonel. He came right up to Fougas, and held out his
+hand like an old acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear comrade," said he, "I have taken great interest in your
+resurrection, as much on my own account as on account of the regiment.
+The 23d which I have the honor to command, yesterday venerated you as
+an ancestor. From to-day, it will cherish you as a friend."&mdash;Not
+the slightest allusion to the affair of the morning, in which M.
+Rollon had undergone his pummelling with the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas answered becomingly, but with, a tinge of coldness:</p>
+
+<p>"My dear comrade, I thank you for your kindly sentiments. It is
+singular that Destiny places me
+in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg
+110]</a></span> the presence of my successor on the very day that I
+reopen my eyes to the light; for, after all, I am neither dead nor a
+general; I have not been transferred, nor have I been retired; yet I
+see another officer, more worthy, doubtless, at the head of my noble
+23d. But if you have for your motto 'Honor and Courage,' as I am well
+satisfied you have, I have no right to complain, and the regiment is
+in good hands."</p>
+
+<p>Dinner was ready. Mme. Renault took Fougas' arm. She had him sit at
+her right, and M. Nibor at her left. The Colonel and the Mayor took
+their places at the sides of M. Renault; the rest of the company
+distributed themselves as it happened, regardless of etiquette.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas gulped down the soup and <i>entr&eacute;es</i>, helping
+himself to every dish, and drinking in proportion. An appetite of the
+other world! "Estimable Amphitryon," said he to M. Renault, "don't get
+frightened at seeing me fall upon the rations. I always ate just so;
+except during the retreat in Russia. Consider, too, that I went to
+sleep last night, at Liebenfeld, without any supper."</p>
+
+<p>He begged M. Nibor to explain to him by what course of
+circumstances he had come from Liebenfeld to Fontainebleau.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember," said the doctor, "an old German who acted as
+interpreter for you before the court-martial?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly. An excellent man, with a
+violet-col<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg
+111]</a></span>ored wig. I'll remember him all my life, for there are
+not two wigs of that color in existence."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; it was the man with the violet wig, otherwise known as
+the celebrated Doctor Meiser, who saved your life."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he? I want to see him, to fall into his arms, to tell
+him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He was sixty-eight years old when he did you that little service;
+he would then be, to-day, in his hundred and fifteenth year, if he had
+waited for your acknowledgments."</p>
+
+<p>"And so, then, he is no more! Death has robbed him of my
+gratitude!"</p>
+
+<p>"You do not yet know all that you owe to him. He bequeathed you, in
+1824, a fortune of seventy-five thousand francs, of which you are the
+rightful owner. Now, since a sum invested at five per cent, doubles
+itself in fourteen years&mdash;thanks to compound interest&mdash;you
+were worth, in 1838, a trifle of seven hundred and fifty thousand
+francs; and in 1852, a million and a half. In fine, if you are
+satisfied to leave your property in the hands of Herr Nicholas Meiser,
+of Dantzic, that worthy man will owe you three millions at the
+commencement of 1866&mdash;that is to say, in seven years. We will
+give you, this evening, a copy of your benefactor's will; it is a very
+instructive document, and you can consider it when you go to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll read it willingly," said Colonel Fougas. "But gold has no
+attractions for my eyes. Wealth engenders weakness. Me, to languish in
+the sluggish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg
+112]</a></span> idleness of Sybaris!&mdash;to enervate my senses on a
+bed of roses! Never! The smell of powder is dearer to me than all the
+perfumes of Arabia. Life would have no charm or zest for me, if I had
+to give up the inspiriting clash of arms. On the day when you are told
+that Fougas no longer marches in the columns of the army, you can
+safely answer, 'It is because Fougas is no more!'"</p>
+
+<p>He turned to the new colonel of the 23d, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! do you, my dear comrade, tell them that the proud pomp of
+wealth is a thousand times less sweet than the austere simplicity of
+the soldier&mdash;of a colonel, more than all. Colonels are the kings
+of the army. A colonel is less than a general, but nevertheless he has
+something more. He lives more with the soldier; he penetrates further
+into the intimacy of his command. He is the father, the judge, the
+friend of his regiment. The welfare of each one of his men is in his
+hands; the flag is placed under his tent or in his chamber. The
+colonel and the flag are not two separate existences; one is the soul,
+the other is the body."</p>
+
+<p>He asked M. Rollon's permission to go to see and embrace the flag
+of the 23d.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall see it to-morrow morning," said the new colonel, "if you
+will do me the honor to breakfast with me in company with some of my
+officers."</p>
+
+<p>He accepted the invitation with enthusiasm, and flung himself into
+the midst of a thousand
+questions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg
+113]</a></span> touching pay, the amount retained for clothing,
+promotion, roster, reserve, uniform, full and fatigue dress, armament,
+and tactics. He understood, without difficulty, the advantages of the
+percussion gun, but the attempt to explain rifled cannon to him was in
+vain. Artillery was not his forte; but he avowed, nevertheless, that
+Napoleon had owed more than one victory to his fine artillery.</p>
+
+<p>While the innumerable roasts of Mme. Renault were succeeding each
+other on the table, Fougas asked&mdash;but without ever losing a
+bite&mdash;what were the principal wars in progress, how many nations
+France had on her hands, and if it was not intended ultimately to
+recommence the conquest of the world? The answers which he received,
+without completely satisfying him, did not entirely deprive him of
+hope.</p>
+
+<p>"I did well to come," said he; "there's work to do."</p>
+
+<p>The African wars did not interest him much, although in them the
+23d had won a good share of glory.</p>
+
+<p>"As a school, it's very well," said he. "The soldier ought to train
+himself in other ways than in the Tivoli gardens, behind nurses'
+petticoats. But why the devil are not five hundred thousand men flung
+upon the back of England? England is the soul of the coalition, I can
+tell you that."</p>
+
+<p>How many explanations were necessary to make him understand the
+Crimean war, where the English had fought by our
+sides!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg
+114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can understand," said he, "why we took a crack at the
+Russians&mdash;they made me eat my best horse. But the English are a
+thousand times worse. If this young man" (the Emperor Napoleon III.)
+"doesn't know it, I'll tell him. There is no quarter possible after
+what they did at St. Helena! If I had been commander-in-chief in the
+Crimea, I would have begun by properly squelching the Russians, after
+which I would have turned upon the English, and hurled them into the
+sea. It's their element, anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>They gave him some details of the Italian campaign, and he was
+charmed to learn that the 23d had taken a redoubt under the eyes of
+the Marshal the Duke of Solferino.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the habit of the regiment," said he, shedding tears in his
+napkin. "That brigand of a 23d will never act in any other way. The
+goddess of Victory has touched it with her wing."</p>
+
+<p>One of the things, for example, which greatly astonished him, was
+that a war of such importance was finished up in so short a time. He
+had yet to learn that within a few years the world had learned the
+secret of transporting a hundred thousand men, in four days, from one
+end of Europe to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" said he; "I admit the practicability of it. But what
+astonishes me is, that the Emperor did not invent this affair in 1810;
+for he had a genius for transportation, a genius for administration, a
+genius for office details, a genius for
+everything.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg
+115]</a></span> But (to resume your story) the Austrians are fortified
+at last, and you cannot possibly get to Vienna in less than three
+months."</p>
+
+<p>"We did not go so far, in fact."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not push on to Vienna?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, where did you sign the treaty of peace?"</p>
+
+<p>"At Villafranca."</p>
+
+<p>"At Villafranca? That's the capital of Austria, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; it's a village of Italy."</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur, I don't admit that treaties of peace are signed anywhere
+but in capitals. That was our principle, our A B C, the first
+paragraph of our theory. It seems as if the world must have changed a
+good deal while I was not in it. But patience!"</p>
+
+<p>And now truth obliges me to confess that Fougas got drunk at
+dessert. He had drunk and eaten like a Homeric hero, and talked more
+fluently than Cicero in his best days. The fumes of wine, spices, and
+eloquence mounted into his brain. He became familiar, spoke
+affectionately to some and rudely to others, and poured out a torrent
+of absurdities big enough to turn forty mills. His drunkenness,
+however, had in it nothing brutal, or even ignoble; it was but the
+overflowing of a spirit young, affectionate, vain-glorious, and
+unbalanced. He proposed five or six toasts&mdash;to Glory, to the
+Extension of our Frontiers, to the Destruction of the last of the
+English, to Mlle. Mars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116"
+id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>&mdash;the hope of the French stage,
+to Affection&mdash;the tie, fragile but dear, which unites the lover
+to his sweetheart, the father to his son, the colonel to his
+regiment!</p>
+
+<p>His style, a singular mixture of familiarity and impressiveness,
+provoked more than one smile among the auditory. He noticed it, and a
+spark of defiance flashed up at the bottom of his heart. From time to
+time he loudly asked if "those people there" were not abusing his
+ingenuousness.</p>
+
+<p>"Confusion!" cried he, "Confusion to those who want me to take
+bladders for lanterns! The lantern may blaze out like a bomb, and
+carry consternation in its path!"</p>
+
+<p>After a series of such remarks, there was nothing left for him to
+do but to roll under the table, and
+this <i>d&eacute;no&ucirc;ement</i> was generally expected. But the
+Colonel belonged to a robust generation, accustomed to more than one
+kind of excess, and strong to resist pleasure as well as dangers,
+privations, and fatigues. So when Madame Renault pushed back her
+chair, in indication that the repast was finished, Fougas arose
+without difficulty, gracefully offered his arm, and conducted his
+partner to the parlor. His gait was a little stiff and oppressively
+regular, but he went straight ahead, and did not oscillate the least
+bit. He took a couple of cups of coffee, and spirits in moderation,
+after which he began to talk in the most reasonable manner in the
+world. About ten o'clock, M. Martout, having expressed a wish to hear
+his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg
+117]</a></span> history, he placed himself on a stool, collected his
+ideas for a moment, and asked for a glass of water and sugar. The
+company seated themselves in a circle around him, and he commenced the
+following narrative, the slightly antiquated style of which craves
+your indulgence.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg
+118]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>HISTORY OF COLONEL FOUGAS, RELATED BY HIMSELF.</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Do not expect that I will ornament my story with those flowers,
+more agreeable than substantial, which Imagination often uses to gloss
+over truth. A Frenchman and a soldier, I doubly ignore deception.
+Friendship interrogates me, Frankness shall answer.</p>
+
+<p>"I was born of poor but honest parents at the beginning of the year
+which the <i>Jeu de Paume</i><a name="FNanchor_5_5"
+id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[5]</sup></a> brightened with an aurora of
+liberty. The south was my native clime; the language dear to the
+troubadours was that which I lisped in my cradle. My birth cost my
+mother's life. The author of mine was the humble owner of a little
+farm, and moistened his bread in the sweat of labor. My first sports
+were not those of wealth. The many-colored pebbles which are found by
+the brooks, and that well-known insect which childhood holds
+fluttering, free and captive at the same time, at the end of a thread,
+stood me in stead of other playthings.</p>
+
+<p>"An old minister at Devotion's altar, enfranchised from the shadowy
+bondage of fanaticism, and reconciled to the new institutions of
+France, was my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119"
+id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> Chiron and Mentor. He nourished me
+with the strong lion's marrow of Rome and Athens; his lips distilled
+into my ears the embalmed honey of wisdom. Honor to thee, learned and
+venerable man, who gavest me the first precepts of wisdom and the
+first examples of virtue!</p>
+
+<p>"But already that atmosphere of glory which the genius of one man
+and the valor of a nation had set floating over the country, filled
+all my senses, and made my young heart throb. France, on the edge of
+the volcano of civil war, had collected all her forces into a
+thunderbolt to launch upon Europe, and the world, astounded if not
+overwhelmed, was shrinking from the surge of the unchained torrent.
+What man, what Frenchman, could have heard with indifference that echo
+of victory reverberating through millions of hearts?</p>
+
+<p>"While scarcely leaving childhood, I felt that honor is more
+precious than life. The warlike music of the drums brought to my eyes
+brave and manly tears. 'And I, too,' said I, following the music of
+the regiments through the streets of Toulouse, 'will pluck laurels
+though I sprinkle them with my blood.' The pale olive of peace had
+from me nothing but scorn. The peaceful triumphs of the law, the calm
+pleasures of commerce and finance, were extolled in vain. To the toga
+of our Ciceros, to the robe of our magistrates, to the curule chair of
+our legislators, to the opulence of our Mondors, I preferred the
+sword. One would have said that I had sucked the milk
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg
+120]</a></span> Bellona. 'Victory or Death!' was already my motto, and
+I was not sixteen years old.</p>
+
+<p>"With what noble scorn I heard recounted the history of our
+Proteuses of politics! With what disdainful glances I regarded the
+Turcarets of finance, lolling on the cushions of some magnificent
+carriage, and conducted by a laced automaton to the boudoir of some
+Aspasia. But if I heard told the mighty deeds of the Knights of the
+Round Table, or the valor of the crusaders celebrated in flowing
+verse; if chance placed in my hand the great actions of our modern
+Rolands, recounted in an army bulletin by the successor of
+Charlemagne, a flame presaging the fire of battles rose in my young
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, the inaction was too much, and my leading-strings, already
+worn by impatience, would have broken, perhaps, had not a father's
+wisdom untied them.</p>
+
+<p>"'Most surely,' said he to me, trying, but in vain, to restrain his
+tears, 'it was no tyrant who begot you, and I will not poison the life
+which I myself gave you. I had hoped that your hand would remain in
+our cottage to close my eyes; but when Patriotism has spoken, Egotism
+must be still. My prayers will always follow you to the field where
+Mars harvests heroes. May you merit the guerdon of valor, and show
+yourself a good citizen, as you have been a good son!'</p>
+
+<p>"Speaking thus, he opened his arms to me. I threw myself into them;
+we mingled our tears, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121"
+id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> I promised to return to our
+hearthstone as soon as I could bring the star of honor suspended from
+my breast. But alas! my unhappy father was destined to see me no more.
+The fate which was already gilding the thread of my days, pitilessly
+severed that of his. A stranger's hand closed his eyes, while I was
+gaining my first epaulette at the battle of Jena.</p>
+
+<p>"Lieutenant at Eylau, captain at Wagram, and there decorated by the
+Emperor's own hand on the field of battle, major before Almieda,
+lieutenant-colonel at Badajoz, colonel at Moscow, I have drunk the cup
+of victory to the full. But I have also tasted the chalice of
+adversity. The frozen plains of Russia saw me alone with a platoon of
+braves, the last remnant of my regiment, forced to devour the mortal
+remains of that faithful friend who had so often carried me into the
+very heart of the enemy's battalions. Trusty and affectionate
+companion of my dangers, when rendered useless by an accident at
+Smolensk, he devoted his very
+<i>manes</i> to the safety of his master, and made of his skin a protection
+for my frozen and lacerated feet.</p>
+
+<p>"My tongue refuses to repeat the story of our perils in that
+terrible campaign. Perhaps some day I will write it with a pen dipped
+in tears&mdash;tears, the tribute of feeble humanity. Surprised by the
+season of frosts in a zone of ice, without fire, without bread,
+without shoes, without means of transportation, denied the succor of
+Esculapius' art, harassed by
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg
+122]</a></span> Cossacks, robbed by the peasants&mdash;positive
+vampires, we saw our mute thunderers, which had fallen into the
+enemy's hands, belch forth death upon ourselves. What more can I tell
+you? The passage of the Beresina, the opposition at Wilna&mdash;Oh, ye
+gods of Thunder!&mdash;- But I feel that grief overcomes me, and that
+my language is becoming tinged with the bitterness of these
+recollections.</p>
+
+<p>"Nature and Love were holding in reserve for me brief but precious
+consolations. Released from my fatigues, I passed a few happy days in
+my native land among the peaceful vales of Nancy. While our phalanxes
+were preparing themselves for fresh combats, while I was gathering
+around my flag three thousand young but valorous warriors, all
+resolved to open to posterity the path of honor, a new emotion, to
+which I had before been a stranger, furtively glided into my soul.</p>
+
+<p>"Beautified by all Nature's gifts, enriched by the fruits of an
+excellent education, the young and interesting Clementine had scarcely
+passed from the uncertain shadows of childhood into the sweet
+illusions of youth. Eighteen springs composed her life. Her parents
+extended to some of the army officers a hospitality which, though it
+was not gratuitous, was far from lacking in cordiality. To see their
+child and love her, was for me the affair of a day. Her virgin heart
+smiled upon my love. At the first avowals dictated to me by my
+passion, I saw her forehead color with a lovely modesty. We exchanged
+our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg
+123]</a></span> vows one lovely evening in June, under an arbor where
+her happy father sometimes dispensed to the thirsty officers the brown
+liquor of the North. I swore that she should be my wife, and she
+promised to be mine; she yielded still more. Our happiness, regardless
+of all outside, had the calmness of a brook whose pure wave is never
+troubled by the storm, and which rolls sweetly between flowery banks,
+spreading its own freshness through the grove that protects its modest
+course.</p>
+
+<p>"A lightning stroke separated us from each other at the moment when
+Law and Religion were about adding their sanction to our sweet
+communion. I departed before I was able to give my name to her who had
+given me her heart. I promised to return; she promised to wait for me;
+and, all bathed in her tears, I tore myself from her arms, to rush to
+the laurels of Dresden and the cypresses of Leipzic. A few lines from
+her hand reached me during the interval between the two battles. 'You
+are to be a father,' she told me. Am I one? God knows! Has she waited
+for me? I believe she has. The waiting must have appeared to be a long
+one since the birth of this child, who is forty-six years old to-day,
+and who could be, in his turn, my father.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me for having troubled you so long with misfortunes. I
+wished to pass rapidly over this sad history, but the unhappiness of
+virtue has in it something sweet to temper the bitterness of
+grief.</p>
+
+<p>"Some days after the disaster of Leipzic,
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg
+124]</a></span> giant of our age had me called into his tent, and said
+to me:</p>
+
+<p>"'Colonel, are you a man to make your way through four armies?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Alone, and without escort?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+<p>"'There must be a letter carried to Dantzic.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You will deliver it into General Rapp's own hands?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+<p>"'It is probable you will be taken, or killed.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+<p>"'For that reason I send two other officers with copies of the same
+despatch. There are three of you; the enemy will kill two, the third
+will get there, and France will be saved.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+<p>"'The one who returns shall be a brigadier-general.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, sire.'</p>
+
+<p>"Every detail of this interview, every word of the Emperor, every
+response which I had the honor to address to him, is still engraved
+upon my memory. All three of us set out separately. Alas! not one of
+us reached the goal aimed at by his valor, and I have learned to-day
+that France was not saved. But when I see these blockheads of
+historians asserting that the Emperor forgot to send orders to General
+Rapp, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg
+125]</a></span> feel a terrible itching to cut their &mdash;&mdash;
+story short, at least.</p>
+
+<p>"'When a prisoner in the hands of the Russians in a German village,
+I had the consolation of finding an old philosopher, who gave me the
+rarest proofs of friendship. Who would have told me, when I succumbed
+to the numbness of the cold in the tower of Liebenfeld, that that
+sleep would not be the last? God is my witness, that in then
+addressing, from the bottom of my heart, a last farewell to
+Clementine, I did not even hope to see her again. I will see you
+again, then, O sweet and confiding Clementine&mdash;best of spouses,
+and, probably, of mothers! What do I say? I see her now! My eyes do
+not deceive me! This is surely she! There she is, just as I left her!
+Clementine! In my arms! On my heart! Look here! What's this you've
+been whining to me, the rest of you? Napoleon is not dead, and the
+world has not grown forty-six years older, for Clementine is still the
+same!"</p>
+
+<p>The betrothed of Leon Renault was about entering the room, and
+stopped petrified at finding herself so overwhelmingly received by the
+Colonel.</p>
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg
+126]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE GAME OF LOVE AND WAR.</h3>
+
+
+<p>As she was evidently backward in falling into his arms, Fougas
+imitated Mahomet, and ran to the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Clementine!" said he, covering her with kisses, "the friendly
+Fates give you back to my devotion. I clasp once more the partner of
+my life and the mother of my child!"</p>
+
+<p>The young lady was so astounded, that she did not even dream of
+defending herself. Happily, Leon Renault extricated her from the hands
+of the Colonel, and placed himself between them, determined to defend
+his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," cried he, clenching his fists, "you deceive yourself
+entirely, if you think you know <i>Mademoiselle</i>. She is not a
+person of your time, but of ours; she is not
+your <i>fianc&eacute;e</i>, but mine; she has never been the mother of
+your child, and I trust that she will be the mother of mine!"</p>
+
+<p>Fougas was iron. He seized his rival by the arm, sent him off
+spinning like a top, and put himself face to face with the young
+girl.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg
+127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are you Clementine?" he demanded of her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"I call you all to witness that she is my Clementine!"</p>
+
+<p>Leon returned to the charge, and seized the Colonel by the collar,
+at the risk of getting himself dashed against the walls.</p>
+
+<p>"We've had joking enough!" said he. "Possibly you don't pretend to
+monopolize all the Clementines in the world? Mademoiselle's name is
+Clementine Sambucco; she was born at Martinique, where you never set
+your foot, if I am to believe what you have said within an hour. She
+is eighteen years old&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"So was the other!"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh! The other is sixty-four to-day, since she was eighteen in
+1813. Mlle. Sambucco is of an honorable and well-known family. Her
+father, M. Sambucco, was a magistrate; her grandfather was a
+functionary of the war department. You see, she is in no way connected
+with you, nearly or remotely; and good sense and politeness, to say
+nothing of gratitude, make it your duty to leave her in peace."</p>
+
+<p>He gave the Colonel a shove, in his turn, and made him tumble
+between the arms of a sofa.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas bounded up as if he had been thrown on a million springs.
+But Clementine stopped him, with a gesture and a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," said she in her most caressing voice, "do not get angry
+with him; he loves me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128"
+id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So much the more reason why I should! Damnation!"</p>
+
+<p>He cooled down, nevertheless, made the young lady sit down beside
+him, and regarded her from head to foot with the most absorbed
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>"This is surely she," said he. "My memory, my eyes, my heart,
+everything in me, recognizes her, and tells me that it is she. And
+nevertheless the testimony of mankind, the calculation of times and
+distances, in a word, the very soul of evidence, seems to have made it
+a special point to convict me of error.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible, then, that two women should so resemble each
+other? Am I the victim of an illusion of the senses? Have I recovered
+life only to lose reason? No; I know myself, I find myself the same;
+my judgment is firm and accurate, and can make its way in this world
+so new and topsy-turvy. It is on but one point that my reason
+wavers&mdash;Clementine!&mdash;I seem to see you again, and you are
+not you! Well, what's the difference, after all? If the Destiny which
+snatched me from the tomb has taken care to present to my awaking
+sense the image of her I loved, it must be because it had resolved to
+give me back, one after another, all the blessings which I had lost.
+In a few days, my epaulettes; to-morrow, the flag of the 23d of the
+line; to-day this adorable presence which made my heart beat for the
+first time! Living image of all that is sweetest and clearest in the
+past, I throw myself at your feet! Be my
+wife!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg
+129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The devil of a fellow joined the deed to the word, and the
+witnesses of the unexpected scene opened their eyes to the widest. But
+Clementine's aunt, the austere Mlle. Sambucco, thought that it was
+time to show her authority. She stretched out her big, wrinkled hands,
+seized Fougas, jerked him sharply to his feet, and cried in her
+shrillest voice:</p>
+
+<p>"Enough, sir; it is time to put an end to this scandalous farce! My
+niece is not for you; I have promised her and given her away. Know
+that, day after to-morrow, the 19th of this month, at ten o'clock in
+the morning, she will marry M. Leon Renault, your benefactor!"</p>
+
+<p>"And I forbid it&mdash;do you hear, Madame Aunt? And if she
+pretends to marry this boy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What will you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll curse her!"</p>
+
+<p>Leon could not help laughing. The malediction of this
+twenty-five-year-old Colonel appeared rather more comic than terrible.
+But Clementine grew pale, burst into tears, and fell, in her turn, at
+the feet of Fougas.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," cried she, kissing his hands, "do not overwhelm a poor
+girl who venerates you, who loves you, who will sacrifice her
+happiness if you demand it! By all the marks of tenderness which I
+have lavished upon you for a month, by the tears I have poured upon
+your coffin, by the respectful zeal with which I have urged on your
+resuscitation, I conjure you to pardon our offences. I will not marry
+Leon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg
+130]</a></span> if you forbid me; I will do anything to please you; I
+will obey you in everything; but, for God's sake, do not pour upon me
+your maledictions!"</p>
+
+<p>"Embrace me," said Fougas. "You yield; I pardon."</p>
+
+<p>Clementine raised herself, all radiant with joy, and held up her
+beautiful forehead. The stupefaction of the spectators, especially of
+those most interested, can be better imagined than described. An old
+mummy dictating laws, breaking off marriages, and imposing his desires
+on the whole house! Pretty little Clementine, so reasonable, so
+obedient, so happy in the prospect of marrying Leon Renault,
+sacrificing, all at once, her affections, her happiness, and almost
+her duty, to the caprice of an interloper. M. Nibor declared that it
+was madness. As for Leon, he would have butted his head into all the
+walls, if his mother had not held him back.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, my poor child!" said she, "why did you bring that thing from
+Berlin?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's my fault!" cried old Monsieur Renault.</p>
+
+<p>"No," interrupted Dr. Martout, "it's mine."</p>
+
+<p>The members of the Parisian committee discussed with M. Rollon the
+new aspect of the case. "Had they resuscitated a madman? Had the
+revivification produced some disorder of the nervous system? Had the
+abuse of wine and other drinkables during the first repast caused a
+delirium? What an interesting autopsy it would be, if they could
+dissect M. Fougas at the next regular
+meeting!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg
+131]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You would do very well as far as you would go, gentlemen," said
+the Colonel of the 23d. "The autopsy might explain the delirium of our
+unfortunate friend, but it would not account for the impression
+produced upon the young lady. Is it fascination, magnetism, or
+what?"</p>
+
+<p>While the friends and relations were weeping, counselling, and
+buzzing around him, Fougas, serene and smiling, gazed at himself in
+Clementine's eyes, while they, too, regarded him tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"This must be brought to an end!" cried Mlle. Sambucco the severe.
+"Come, Clementine!"</p>
+
+<p>Fougas seemed surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"She doesn't live here, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; she lives with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will escort her home. Angel! will you take my arm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, Monsieur, with great pleasure!"</p>
+
+<p>Leon gnashed his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"This is admirable! He presumes on such familiarity, and she takes
+it all as a matter of course!"</p>
+
+<p>He went to get his hat, for the purpose of, at least, going home
+with the aunt, but his hat was not in its place; Fougas, who had not
+yet one of his own, had helped himself to it without ceremony. The
+poor lover crowded his head into a cap, and followed Fougas and
+Clementine, with the respectable Virginie, whose arm cut like a
+scythe.</p>
+
+<p>By an accident which happened almost daily, the Colonel of
+cuirassiers met Clementine on the
+way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg
+132]</a></span> home. The young lady directed Fougas' attention to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"That's M. du Marnet," said she. "His restaurant is at the end of
+our street, and his room at the side of the park. I think he is very
+much taken with my little self, but he has never even bowed to me. The
+only man for whom my heart has ever beaten is Leon Renault."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, indeed! And me?" said Fougas.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! as for you, that's another matter. I respect you, and stand in
+awe of you. It seems to me as if you were a good and respectable
+parent."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm telling you the truth, as far as I can read it in my heart.
+All this is not very clear, I confess, but I do not understand
+myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Azure flower of innocence, I adore your sweet perplexity! Let love
+take care of itself; it will speak to you in master tones."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know anything about that; it's possible! Here we are at
+home. Good evening, Monsieur; embrace me.&mdash;Good night, Leon;
+don't quarrel with M. Fougas. I love him with all my heart, but I love
+you in a different way!"</p>
+
+<p>The aunt Virginie made no response to the "Good evening" of Fougas.
+When the two men were alone in the street, Leon marched along without
+saying a word, till they reached the next lamp-post. There, planting
+himself resolutely opposite the Colonel, he
+said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg
+133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, now that we are alone, we had better have an
+explanation. I don't know by what philter or incantation you have
+obtained such prodigious influence over my betrothed; but I know that
+I love her, that I have been loved by her more than four years, and
+that I will not stop at any means of retaining and protecting
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"Friend," answered Fougas, "you can brave me with impunity; my arm
+is chained by gratitude. It shall never be written in history that
+Pierre Fougas was an ingrate!"</p>
+
+<p>"Would it have been more ungrateful in you to cut my throat, than
+to rob me of my wife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my benefactor! Learn to understand and pardon! God forbid that
+I should marry Clementine in spite of you, in spite of herself. It is
+through her consent and your own that I hope to win her. Realize that
+she has been dear to me, not for four years, as to you, but for nearly
+half a century. Reflect that I am alone on earth, and that her sweet
+face is my only consolation. Will you, who have given me life, prevent
+my spending it happily? Have you called me back to the world only to
+deliver me over to despair?&mdash;Tiger! Take back, then, the life you
+gave me, if you will not permit me to consecrate it to the adorable
+Clementine!"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my soul, my dear fellow, you are superb! The habit of victory
+must have totally twisted your wits. My hat is on your
+head:&mdash;keep it; so far so good. But because my betrothed happens
+to remind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg
+134]</a></span> you vaguely of a girl in Nancy, must I give her up to
+you? I can't see it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Friend, I will give you back your hat just as soon as you've
+bought me another one; but do not ask me to give up Clementine. In the
+first place, do you know that she will reject me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure of it."</p>
+
+<p>"She loves me."</p>
+
+<p>"You're crazy!"</p>
+
+<p>"You've seen her at my feet."</p>
+
+<p>"What of that? It was from fear, from respect, from superstition,
+from anything in the devil's name you choose to call it; but it was
+not from love."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll see about that pretty clearly, after six months of married
+life."</p>
+
+<p>"But," cried Leon Renault, "have you the right to dispose of
+yourself? There is another Clementine, the true one; she has
+sacrificed everything for you; you are engaged, in honor, to her. Is
+Colonel Fougas deaf to the voice of honor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you mocking me? What! I marry a woman sixty-four years
+old?"</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to; if not for her sake, at least for your child's."</p>
+
+<p>"My child is a pretty big boy. He's forty-six years old; he has no
+further need of my care."</p>
+
+<p>"He does need your name, though."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll adopt him."</p>
+
+<p>"The law is opposed to it. You're not fifty
+years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg
+135]</a></span> old, and he's not fifteen years younger than you are;
+quite the reverse!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; I'll legitimize him by marrying the young
+Clementine."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you expect her to acknowledge a child twice as old as she
+is herself?"</p>
+
+<p>"But then I can't acknowledge him any better; so there's no need of
+my marrying the old woman. Moreover, I'd be excessively accommodating
+to break my head for a child who is very likely dead. What do I say?
+It is possible that he never saw the light. I love and am
+loved&mdash;that much is substantial and certain; and you shall be my
+groomsman."</p>
+
+<p>"Not yet awhile. Mlle. Sambucco is a minor, and her guardian is my
+father."</p>
+
+<p>"Your father is an honorable man; and he will not have the baseness
+to refuse her to me."</p>
+
+<p>"At least he will ask you if you have any position, any rank, any
+fortune to offer to his ward."</p>
+
+<p>"My position? colonel; my rank? colonel; my fortune? the pay of a
+colonel. And the millions at Dantzic&mdash;I mustn't forget
+them!&mdash;Here we are at home; let me have the will of that good old
+gentleman who wore the lilac wig. Give me some books on history,
+too&mdash;a big pile of them&mdash;all that have anything to say about
+Napoleon."</p>
+
+<p>Young Renault sadly obeyed the master he had given himself. He
+conducted Fougas to a fine chamber, brought him Herr Meiser's will and
+a whole shelf of books, and bid his mortal enemy
+"Good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg
+136]</a></span> night." The Colonel embraced him impetuously, and said
+to him,</p>
+
+<p>"I will never forget that to you I owe life and Clementine.
+Farewell till to-morrow, noble and generous child of my native land!
+farewell!"</p>
+
+<p>Leon went back to the ground floor, passed the dining-room, where
+Gothon was wiping the glasses and putting the silver in order, and
+rejoined his father and mother, who were waiting for him in the
+parlor. The guests were gone, the candles extinguished. A single lamp
+lit up the solitude. The two mandarins on the &eacute;tag&egrave;re
+were motionless in their obscure corner, and seemed to meditate
+gravely on the caprices of fortune.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" demanded Mme. Renault.</p>
+
+<p>"I left him in his room, crazier and more obstinate than ever.
+However, I've got an idea."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better," said the father, "for we have none left.
+Sadness has made us stupid. But, above all things, no quarrelling.
+These soldiers of the empire used to be terrible swordsmen."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not afraid of him! It's Clementine that makes me anxious.
+With what sweetness and submission she listened to the confounded
+babbler!"</p>
+
+<p>"The heart of woman is an unfathomable abyss. Well, what do you
+think of doing?"</p>
+
+<p>Leon developed in detail the project he had conceived in the
+street, during his conversation with Fougas.</p>
+
+<p>"The most urgent thing," said he, "is to
+relieve<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg
+137]</a></span> Clementine from this influence. If we could get him
+out of the way to-morrow, reason would resume its empire, and we would
+be married the day after to-morrow. That being done, I'll answer for
+the rest."</p>
+
+<p>"But how is such a madman to be gotten rid of?"</p>
+
+<p>"I see but one way, but it is almost infallible&mdash;to excite his
+dominant passion. These fellows sometimes imagine that they are in
+love, but, at the bottom, they love nothing but powder. The thing is,
+to fling Fougas back into the current of military ideas. His breakfast
+to-morrow with the colonel of the 23d will be a good preparation. I
+made him understand to-day that he ought, before all, to reclaim his
+rank and epaulettes, and he has become inoculated with the idea. He'll
+go to Paris, then. Possibly he'll find there some leather-breeches of
+his acquaintance. At all events, he'll re&euml;nter the service. The
+occupations incident to his position will be a powerful diversion;
+he'll no longer dream of Clementine, whom I will have fixed securely.
+We will have to furnish him the wherewithal to knock about the world;
+but all sacrifices of money are nothing in comparison with the
+happiness I wish to save."</p>
+
+<p>Madame Renault, who was a woman of thrift, blamed her son's
+generosity a little.</p>
+
+<p>"The Colonel is an ungrateful soul," said she. "We've already done
+too much in giving him back his life. Let him take care of himself
+now!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the father; "we've not the right
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg
+138]</a></span> send him forth entirely empty-handed. Decency
+forbids."</p>
+
+<p>This deliberation, which had lasted a good hour and a quarter, was
+interrupted by a tremendous racket. One would have declared that the
+house was falling down.</p>
+
+<p>"There he is again!" cried Leon. "Undoubtedly a fresh paroxysm of
+raving madness!"</p>
+
+<p>He ran, followed by his parents, and mounted the steps four at a
+time. A candle was burning at the sill of the chamber door. Leon took
+it, and pushed the door half open.</p>
+
+<p>Must it be confessed? Hope and joy spoke louder to him than fear.
+He fancied himself already relieved of the Colonel. But the spectacle
+presented to his eyes suddenly diverted the course of his ideas, and
+the inconsolable lover began laughing like a fool. A noise of kicks,
+blows, and slaps; an undefined group rolling on the floor in the
+convulsions of a desperate struggle&mdash;so much was all he could see
+and understand at the first glance. Soon Fougas, lit up by the ruddy
+glow of the candle, discovered that he was struggling with Gothon,
+like Jacob with the angel, and went back, confused and pitiable, to
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel had gone to sleep over the history of Napoleon, without
+putting out the candle. Gothon, after finishing her work, saw the
+light under the door. Her thoughts recurred to that poor Baptiste,
+who, perhaps, was groaning in purgatory
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg
+139]</a></span> having let himself tumble from a roof. Hoping that
+Fougas could give her some news of her lover, she rapped several
+times, at first softly, then much louder. The Colonel's silence and
+the lighted candle made it seem to the servant that there was
+something wrong. The fire might catch the curtains, and from thence
+the whole building. She accordingly set down the candle, opened the
+door, and went, with cat-like steps, to put out the light. Possibly
+the eyes of the sleeper vaguely perceived the passage of a shadow;
+possibly Gothon, with her big, awkward figure, made a board in the
+floor creak. Fougas partially awoke, heard the rustling of a dress,
+dreamed it one of those adventures which were wont to spice garrison
+life under the first empire, and held out his arms blindly, calling
+Clementine. Gothon, on finding herself seized by the hair and
+shoulders, responded by such a masculine blow that the enemy supposed
+himself attacked by a man. The blow was returned with interest;
+further exchanges followed, and they finished by clinching and rolling
+on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>If anybody ever did feel shamefaced, Fougas was certainly the man.
+Gothon went to bed, considerably bruised; the Renault family talked
+sense into the Colonel, and got out of him pretty much what they
+wanted. He promised to set out next day, accepted as a loan the money
+offered him, and swore not to return until he should have recovered
+his epaulettes and secured the Dantzic bequest.</p>
+
+<p>"And then," said he, "I'll marry
+Clementine."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg
+140]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On that point it was useless to argue with him; the idea was
+fixed.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody slept soundly in the mansion of the Renaults; the heads
+of the house, because they had had three sleepless nights; Fougas and
+Gothon, because each had been unmercifully pummelled; and the young
+C&eacute;lestin, because he had drunk the heeltaps from all the
+glasses.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning M. Rollon came to know if Fougas were in a
+condition to breakfast with him; he feared, just the least bit, that
+he would find him under a shower bath. Far from it! The madman of
+yesterday was as calm as a picture and as fresh as a rosebud. He
+shaved with Leon's razors, while humming an air of Nicolo. With his
+hosts, he was charming, and he promised to settle a pension on Gothon
+out of Herr Meiser's legacy.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he had set off for the breakfast, Leon ran to the
+dwelling of his sweetheart.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything is going better," said he. "The Colonel is much more
+reasonable. He has promised to leave for Paris this very day; so we
+can get married to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Mlle. Virginie Sambucco praised this plan of proceeding highly, not
+only because she had made great preparations for the wedding, but
+because the postponement of the marriage would be the talk of the
+town. The cards were already out, the mayor notified, and the Virgin's
+chapel, in the parish church, engaged. To revoke all this at the
+caprice of a ghost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141"
+id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> and a fool, would be to sin against
+custom, common sense, and Heaven itself.</p>
+
+<p>Clementine only replied with tears. She could not be happy without
+marrying Leon, but she would rather die, she said, than give her hand
+without the sanction of M. Fougas. She promised to implore him, on her
+knees if necessary, and wring from him his consent.</p>
+
+<p>"But if he refuses? And it's too likely that he will!"</p>
+
+<p>"I will beseech him again and again, until he says yes."</p>
+
+<p>Everybody conspired to convince her that she was
+unreasonable&mdash;her aunt, Leon, M. and Mme. Renault, M. Martout, M.
+Bonnivet, and all the friends of the two families. At length she
+yielded, but, at almost the same instant, the door flew open, and M.
+Audret rushed into the parlor, crying out,</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well! here <i>is</i> a piece of news! Colonel Fougas is
+going to fight M. du Marnet to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>The young girl fell, thunderstruck, into the arms of Leon
+Renault.</p>
+
+<p>"God punishes me!" cried she; "and the chastisement for my impiety
+is not delayed. Will you still force me to obey you? Shall I be
+dragged to the altar, in spite of myself, at the very hour he's
+risking his life?"</p>
+
+<p>No one dared to insist longer, on seeing her in so pitiable a
+state. But Leon offered up earnest prayers that victory might side
+with the colonel of cuiras<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142"
+id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>siers. He was wrong, I confess; but
+what lover would have been sinless enough to cast the first stone at
+him?</p>
+
+<p>And here is an account of how the precious Fougas had spent his
+day.</p>
+
+<p>At ten o'clock in the morning, the youngest two captains of the 23d
+came to conduct him in proper style to the residence of the Colonel.
+M. Rollon occupied a little palace of the imperial epoch. A marble
+tablet, inserted over the porte-coch&egrave;re, still bore the
+words, <i>Minist&egrave;re des Finances</i>&mdash;a souvenir of the
+glorious time when Napoleon's court followed its master to
+Fontainebleau.</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Rollon, the lieutenant-colonel, the major-in-chief, the
+three majors of battalions, the surgeon-major, and ten or a dozen
+officers were outside, awaiting the arrival of the illustrious guest
+from the other world. The flag was placed in the middle of the court,
+under guard of the ensign and a squad of non-commissioned officers
+selected for the honor. The band of the regiment, at the entrance of
+the garden, filled up the background of the picture. Eight panoplies
+of arms, which had been improvised the same morning by the armorers of
+the corps, embellished the walls and railings. A company of
+grenadiers, with their arms at rest, were in attendance.</p>
+
+<p>At the entrance of Fougas, the band played the famous "<i>Partant
+pour la Syrie;</i>" the grenadiers presented arms; the drums beat a
+salute; the non-commissioned officers and soldiers cried, "<i>Vive
+le<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg
+143]</a></span> Colonel Fougas!</i>" the officers, in a body,
+approached the patriarch of their regiment. All this was neither
+regular nor according to discipline, but we can well allow a little
+latitude to these brave soldiers on finding their ancestor. For them
+it seemed a little debauch in glory.</p>
+
+<p>The hero of the <i>f&ecirc;te</i> grasped the hands of the colonel
+and officers with as much emotion as if he had found his old comrades
+again. He cordially saluted the non-commissioned officers and
+soldiers, approached the flag, bent one knee to the earth, raised
+himself loftily, grasped the staff, turned toward the attentive crowd,
+and said,</p>
+
+<p>"My friends, under the shadow of the flag, a soldier of France,
+after forty-six years of exile, finds his family again to-day. All
+honor to thee, symbol of our fatherland, old partner in our victories,
+and heroic support in our misfortunes! Thy radiant eagle has hovered
+over prostrate and trembling Europe. Thy bruised eagle has again
+dashed obstinately against misfortune, and terrified the sons of
+Power. Honor to thee, thou who hast led us to glory, and fortified us
+against the clamor of despair! I have seen thee ever foremost in the
+fiercest dangers, proud flag of my native land! Men have fallen around
+thee like grain before the reaper; while thou alone hast shown to the
+enemy thy front unbending and superb. Bullets and cannon-shot have
+torn thee with wounds, but never upon thee has the audacious stranger
+placed his hand. May the future deck
+thy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg
+144]</a></span> front with new laurels! Mayst thou conquer new and
+far-extending realms, which no fatality shall rob thee of! The day of
+great deeds is being born again; believe a warrior, who has risen from
+the tomb to tell thee so. 'Forward!' Yes, I swear it by the spirit of
+him who led us at Wagram. There shall be great days for France when
+thou shalt shelter with thy glorious folds the fortunes of the brave
+23d!"</p>
+
+<p>Eloquence so martial and patriotic stirred all hearts. Fougas was
+applauded, f&ecirc;ted, embraced, and almost carried in triumph into
+the banquet hall.</p>
+
+<p>Seated at table opposite M. Rollon, as if he were a second master
+of the house, he breakfasted heartily, talked a great deal, and drank
+more yet. You may occasionally meet, in the world, people who get
+drunk without drinking. Fougas was far from being one of them. He
+never felt his equanimity seriously disturbed short of three bottles.
+Often, in fact, he went much further without yielding.</p>
+
+<p>The toasts presented at dessert were distinguished for pith and
+cordiality. I would like to recount them in order, but am forced to
+admit that they would take up too much room, and that the last, which
+were the most touching, were not of a lucidity absolutely
+Voltairian.</p>
+
+<p>They arose from the table at two o'clock, and betook themselves in
+a body to the <i>Caf&eacute; Militaire</i>, where the officers of the
+23d placed a punch before the two colonels. They had invited, with a
+feeling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg
+145]</a></span> of eminent propriety, the superior officers of the
+regiment of cuirassiers.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas, who was drunker, in his own proper person, than a whole
+battalion of <i>Suisses</i>, distributed a great many hand-shakings.
+But across the storm which disturbed his spirit, he recognized the
+person and name of M. du Marnet, and made a grimace. Between officers,
+and, above all, between officers of different arms of the service,
+politeness is a little excessive, etiquette rather
+severe, <i>amour-propre</i> somewhat susceptible. M. du Marnet, who
+was pre&euml;minently a man of the world, understood at once, from the
+attitude of M. Fougas, that he was not in the presence of a
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>The punch appeared, blazing, went out with its strength unimpaired,
+and was dispensed, with a big ladle, into threescore glasses. Fougas
+drank with everybody, except M. du Marnet. The conversation, which was
+erratic and noisy, imprudently raised a question of comparative
+merits. An officer of cuirassiers asked Fougas if he had seen
+Bordesoulle's splendid charge, which flung the Austrians into the
+valley of Plauen. Fougas had known General Bordesoulle personally, and
+had seen with his own eyes the beautiful heavy cavalry manoeuvre which
+decided the victory of Dresden. But he chose to be disagreeable to M.
+du Marnet, by affecting an air of ignorance or indifference.</p>
+
+<p>"In our time," said he, "the cavalry was always brought into action
+after the battle; we employ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146"
+id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>ed it to bring in the enemy after we
+had routed them."</p>
+
+<p>Here a great outcry arose, and the glorious name of Murat was
+thrown into the balance.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, doubtless&mdash;doubtless!" said he, shaking his head. "Murat
+was a good general in his limited sphere; he answered perfectly for
+all that was wanted of him. But if the cavalry had Murat, the infantry
+had Napoleon."</p>
+
+<p>M. du Marnet observed, judiciously, that Napoleon, if he must be
+seized upon for the credit of any single arm of the service, would
+belong to the artillery.</p>
+
+<p>"With all my heart, monsieur," replied Fougas; "the artillery and
+the infantry. Artillery at a distance, infantry at close
+quarters&mdash;cavalry off at one side."</p>
+
+<p>"Once more I beg your pardon," answered M. du Marnet; "you mean to
+say, at the sides, which is a very different matter."</p>
+
+<p>"At the sides, or at one side, I don't care! As for me, if I were
+commander-in-chief, I would set the cavalry aside."</p>
+
+<p>Several cavalry officers had already flung themselves into the
+discussion. M. du Marnet held them back, and made a sign that he
+wanted to answer Fougas alone.</p>
+
+<p>"And why, then, if you please, would you set the cavalry
+aside?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because the dragoon is an incomplete
+soldier."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg
+147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Incomplete?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; and the proof is, that the Government has to buy four or
+five hundred francs' worth of horse in order to complete him. And when
+the horse receives a ball or a bayonet thrust, the dragoon is no
+longer good for anything. Have you ever seen a cavalryman on foot? It
+would be a pretty sight!"</p>
+
+<p>"I see myself on foot every day, and I don't see anything
+particularly ridiculous about it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm too polite to contradict you."</p>
+
+<p>"And for me, sir, I am too just to combat one paradox with another.
+What would you think of my logic, if I were to say to you (the idea is
+not mine&mdash;I found it in a book), if I were to say to you, 'I
+entertain a high regard for infantry, but, after all, the foot soldier
+is an incomplete soldier, deprived of his birthright, an inefficient
+body deprived of that natural complement of the soldier, called a
+horse! I admire his courage, I perceive that he makes himself useful
+in battle; but, after all, the poor devil has only two feet at his
+command, while we have four!' You see fit to consider a dragoon on
+foot ridiculous; but does the foot-soldier always make a very
+brilliant appearance when one sticks a horse between his legs? I have
+seen excellent infantry captains cruelly embarrassed when the minister
+of war made them majors. They said, scratching their heads, 'It's not
+over when we've mounted a grade; we've got to mount a horse in the
+bargain!'"</p>
+
+<p>This crude pleasantry amused the audience for
+a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg
+148]</a></span> moment. They laughed, and the mustard mounted higher
+and higher in Fougas' nose.</p>
+
+<p>"In my time," said he, "a foot soldier became a dragoon in
+twenty-four hours; and if any one would like to make a match with me
+on horseback, sabre in hand, I'll show him what infantry is!"</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," coolly replied M. du Marnet, "I hope that opportunities
+will not be lacking to you in the field of battle. It is there that a
+true soldier displays his talents and bravery. Infantry and cavalry,
+we alike belong to France. I drink to her, Monsieur, and I hope you
+will not refuse to touch glasses with me.&mdash;To France!"</p>
+
+<p>This was certainly well spoken and well settled. The clicking of
+glasses applauded M. du Marnet. Fougas himself approached his
+adversary and drank with him without reserve. But he whispered in his
+ear, speaking very thickly:</p>
+
+<p>"I hope, for my part, that you will not refuse the sabre-match
+which I had the honor to propose to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"As you please," said the colonel of cuirassiers.</p>
+
+<p>The gentleman from the other world, drunker than ever, went out of
+the crowd with two officers whom he had picked up haphazard. He
+declared to them that he considered himself insulted by M. du Marnet,
+that a challenge had been given and accepted, and that the affair was
+going on swimmingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Especially,"added he in confidence, "since there is a lady in the
+case! These are my
+conditions&mdash;they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149"
+id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> are all in accordance with the honor
+of the infantry, the army, and France: we will fight on horseback,
+stripped to the waist, mounted bareback on two stallions. The
+weapon&mdash;the cavalry sabre. First blood. I want to chastise a
+puppy. I am far from wishing to rob France of a soldier."</p>
+
+<p>These conditions were pronounced absurd by M. du Marnet's seconds.
+They accepted them, nevertheless, for the military code requires one
+to face all dangers, however absurd.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas devoted the rest of the day to worrying the poor Renaults.
+Proud of the control he exercised over Clementine, he declared his
+wishes; swore he would take her for his wife as soon as he had
+recovered his rank, family, and fortune, and prohibited her to dispose
+of herself before that time. He broke openly with Leon and his
+parents, refused to accept their good offices any longer, and quitted
+their house after a serious passage of high words. Leon concluded by
+saying that he would only give up his betrothed with life itself. The
+Colonel shrugged his shoulders and turned his back, carrying off,
+without stopping to consider what he was doing, the father's clothes
+and the son's hat. He asked M. Rollon for five hundred francs, engaged
+a room at the <i>Hotel du Cadron-bleu</i>, went to bed without any
+supper, and slept straight through until the arrival of his
+seconds.</p>
+
+<p>There was no necessity for giving him an account of what had passed
+the previous day. The fogs of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150"
+id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> punch and sleep dissipated
+themselves in an instant. He plunged his head and hands into a basin
+of fresh water, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"So much for my toilet! Now, <i>Vive l'Empereur!</i> Let's go and
+get "into line!"</p>
+
+<p>The field selected by common consent was the parade-ground&mdash;a
+sandy plain enclosed in the forest, at a good distance from the town.
+All the officers of the garrison betook themselves there of their own
+accord; there would have been no need of inviting them. More than one
+soldier went secretly and billeted himself in a tree.
+The <i>gendarmerie</i> itself ornamented the little
+family <i>f&ecirc;te</i>, with its presence. People went to see an
+encounter in chivalric tourney, not merely between the infantry and
+the cavalry, but between the old army and the young. The exhibition
+fully satisfied public expectation. No one was tempted to hiss the
+piece, and everybody had his money's worth.</p>
+
+<p>Precisely at nine o'clock, the combatants entered the lists,
+attended by their four seconds and the umpire of the field. Fougas,
+naked to the waist, was as handsome as a young god. His lithe and
+agile figure, his proud and radiant features, the manly grace of his
+movements, assured him a flattering reception. He made his English
+horse caper, and saluted the lookers-on with the point of his
+sword.</p>
+
+<p>M. du Marnet, a man rather of the German type, hardy, quite hairy,
+moulded like the Indian Bacchus, and not like Achilles, showed in his
+countenance a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151"
+id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> slight shade of disgust. It was not
+necessary to be a magician to understand that this duel <i>in
+naturalibus</i>, under the eyes of his own officers, appeared to him
+useless and even ridiculous. His horse was a half-blood from Perche, a
+vigorous beast and full of fire.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas' seconds rode badly enough. They divided their attention
+between the combat and their stirrups. M. du Marnet had chosen the
+best two horsemen in his regiment, a major and captain. The umpire of
+the field was Colonel Rollon, an excellent rider.</p>
+
+<p>At a signal given by Colonel Rollon, Fougas rode directly at his
+adversary, presenting the point of his sabre in the position of
+"prime," like a cavalry soldier charging infantry in a hollow square.
+But he reined up about three lengths from M. du Marnet, and described
+around him seven or eight rapid circles, like an Arab in a play. M. du
+Marnet, being forced to turn in the same spot and defend himself on
+all sides, clapped both spurs to his horse, broke the circle, took to
+the field, and threatened to commence the same manoeuvre about Fougas.
+But the gentleman from the other world did not wait for him. He rushed
+off at a full gallop, and made a round of the hippodrome, always
+followed by M. du Marnet. The cuirassier, being heavier, and mounted
+on a slower horse, was distanced. He revenged himself by calling out
+to Fougas:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Monsieur! I must say that this looks
+more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg
+152]</a></span> like a race than a battle. I ought to have brought a
+riding-whip instead of a sword!"</p>
+
+<p>But Fougas, panting and furious, had already turned upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on there!" cried he; "I have shown you the horseman; now I
+will show you the soldier!"</p>
+
+<p>He lanched a thrust at him, which would have gone through him like
+a hoop if M. du Marnet had not been as prompt as at parade. He
+retorted by a fine cut <i>en quarte</i>, powerful enough to cut the
+invincible Fougas in two. But the other was nimbler than a monkey. He
+wholly shielded his body by letting himself slide to the ground, and
+then remounted his horse in the same second.</p>
+
+<p>"My compliments!" said M. du Marnet. "They don't do any better than
+that in the circus."</p>
+
+<p>"No more do they in war," rejoined the other. "Ah, scoundrel! so
+you revile the old army? Here's at you! A miss! Thanks for the retort,
+but it's not good enough yet. I'll not die from any such thrust as
+that! How do you like that?&mdash;and that?-and that? Ah, you claim
+that the foot-soldier is an incomplete man! Now we're going to
+make <i>your</i> assortment of limbs a little incomplete. Look out for
+your boot! He's parried it! Perhaps he expects to indulge in a little
+promenade under Clementine's windows this evening. Take care! Here's
+for Clementine! And here's for the infantry! Will you parry that? So,
+traitor! And that? So he does!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153"
+id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> Perhaps you'll parry them all, then,
+by Heavens! Victory! Ah, Monsieur! Your blood is flowing! What have I
+done? Devil take the sword, the horse, and all! Major! major! come
+quickly! Monsieur, let yourself rest in my arms. Beast that I am! As
+if all soldiers were not brothers! Oh, forgive me, my friend! Would
+that I could redeem each drop of your blood with all of mine!
+Miserable Fougas, incapable of mastering his fierce passions! Ah, you
+Esculapian Mars, I beg you tell me that the thread of his days is not
+to be clipped! I will not survive him, for he is a brave!"</p>
+
+<p>M. du Marnet had received a magnificent cut which traversed the
+left arm and breast, and the blood was streaming from it at a rate to
+make one shudder. The surgeon, who had provided himself with
+hemostatic preparations, hastened to arrest the hemorrhage. The wound
+was long rather than deep, and could be cured in a few days. Fougas
+himself carried his adversary to the carriage, but that did not
+satisfy him. He firmly insisted on joining the two officers who took
+M. du Marnet home; he overwhelmed the wounded man with his
+protestations, and was occupied during most of the ride in swearing
+eternal friendship to him. On reaching the house, he put him to bed,
+embraced him, bathed him with tears, and did not leave him for a
+moment until he heard him snoring.</p>
+
+<p>When six o'clock struck, he went to dine at
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg
+154]</a></span> hotel, in company with his seconds and the referee,
+all of whom he had invited after the fight. He treated them
+magnificently, and got drunk himself, as
+usual.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg
+155]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>IN WHICH THE READER WILL SEE THAT IT IS NOT FAR FROM THE CAPITAL TO
+THE TARPEIAN ROCK.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The next day, after a visit to M. du Marnet, he wrote thus to
+Clementine:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Light of my life, I am about to quit these scenes, the
+witnesses of my fatal courage and the repositories of my love. To the
+bosom of the capital, to the foot of the throne, I will first betake
+my steps. If the successor of the God of Combats is not deaf to the
+voice of the blood that courses in his veins, he will restore me my
+sword and epaulettes, so that I may lay them at thy feet. Be faithful
+to me&mdash;wait, hope! May these lines be to thee a talisman against
+the dangers threatening thy independence. Oh, my Clementine, tenderly
+guard thyself for thy </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"<span class="smcap">Victor
+Fougas!</span>"</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Clementine sent him no answer, but, just as he was getting on the
+train, he was accosted by a messenger, who handed him a pretty red
+leather pocket-book, and ran away with all his might. The pocket-book
+was entirely new, solid, and carefully fastened. It contained twelve
+hundred francs in bank notes&mdash;all the young girl's savings.
+Fougas had no time to deliberate on this delicate circumstance. He
+was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg
+156]</a></span> pushed into a car, the locomotive puffed, and the
+train started.</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel began to review in his memory the various events which
+had succeeded each other in his life during less than a week. His
+arrest among the frosts of the Vistula, his sentence to death, his
+imprisonment in the fortress of Liebenfeld, his reawakening at
+Fontainebleau, the invasion of 1814, the return from the island of
+Elba, the hundred days, the death of the emperor and the king of Rome,
+the restoration of the Bonapartes in 1852, his meeting with a young
+girl who was the counterpart of Clementine Pichon in all respects, the
+flag of the 23d, the duel with the colonel of cuirassiers&mdash;all
+this, for Fougas, had not taken up more than four days. The night
+reaching from the 11th of November, 1813, to the 17th of August, 1859,
+seemed to him even a little shorter than any of the others; for it was
+the only time that he had had a full sleep, without any dreaming.</p>
+
+<p>A less active spirit, and a heart less warm, would, perhaps, have
+lapsed into a sort of melancholy. For, in fact, one who has been
+asleep for forty-six years would naturally become somewhat alien to
+mankind in general, even in his own country. Not a relation, not a
+friend, not a familiar face, on the whole face of the earth! Add to
+this a multitude of new words, ideas, customs, and inventions, which
+make him feel the need of a cicerone, and prove to him that he is a
+stranger. But Fougas, on reopening
+his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg
+157]</a></span> eyes, following the precept of Horace, was thrown into
+the very midst of action. He had improvised for him friends, enemies,
+a sweetheart, and a rival. Fontainebleau, his second native place,
+was, provisionally, the central point of his existence. There he felt
+himself loved, hated, feared, admired&mdash;in a word, well known. He
+knew that in that sub-prefecture his name could not be spoken without
+awakening an echo. But what attached him more than all to modern
+times, was his well-established relationship with the great family of
+the army. Wherever a French flag floats, the soldier, young or old, is
+at home. Around that church-spire of the fatherland, though dear and
+sacred in a way different from the village spire, language, ideas, and
+institutions change but little. The death of individuals has little
+effect; they are replaced by others who look like them, and think,
+talk, and act in the same way; who do not stop on assuming the uniform
+of their predecessors, but inherit their souvenirs also&mdash;the
+glory they have acquired, their traditions, their jests, and even
+certain intonations of their voices. This accounts for Fougas' sudden
+friendship, after a first feeling of jealousy, for the new colonel of
+the 23d; and the sudden sympathy which he evinced for M. du Marnet as
+soon as he saw the blood running from his wound. Quarrels between
+soldiers are family quarrels, which never blot out the
+relationship.</p>
+
+<p>Calmly satisfied that he was not alone in the world, M. Fougas
+derived pleasure from all the
+new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg
+158]</a></span> objects which civilization placed before his eyes. The
+speed of the rail-cars fairly intoxicated him. He was inspired with a
+positive enthusiasm for this force of steam, whose theory was a closed
+book to him, but on whose results he meditated much.</p>
+
+<p>"With a thousand machines like this, two thousand rifled cannon,
+and two hundred thousand such chaps as I am, Napoleon would have
+conquered the world in six weeks. Why doesn't this young fellow on the
+throne make some use of the resources he has under his control?
+Perhaps he hasn't thought of it. Very well, I'll go to see him. If he
+looks like a man of capacity, I'll give him my idea; he'll make me
+minister of war, and then&mdash;Forward, march!"</p>
+
+<p>He had explained to him the use of the great iron wires running on
+poles all along the road.</p>
+
+<p>"The very thing!" said he. "Here are aides-de-camp both fleet and
+judicious. Get them all into the hands of a chief-of-staff like
+Berthier, and the universe would be held in a thread by the mere will
+of a man!"</p>
+
+<p>His meditations were interrupted, a couple of miles from Melun, by
+the sounds of a foreign language. He pricked up his ears, and then
+bounded from his corner as if he had sat on a pile of thorns. Horror!
+it was English! One of those monsters who had assassinated Napoleon at
+St. Helena for the sake of insuring to themselves the cotton monopoly,
+had entered the compartment with a very pretty woman and two lovely
+children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg
+159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Conductor, stop!" cried Fougas, thrusting his body halfway out of
+the window.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," said the Englishman in good French, "I advise you to
+have patience until we get to the next station. The conductor doesn't
+hear you, and you're in danger of falling out on the track. If I can
+be of any service to you, I have a flask of brandy with me, and a
+medicine chest."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," replied Fougas in a most supercilious tone, "I'm in want
+of nothing, and I'd rather die than accept anything from an
+Englishman! If I'm calling the conductor, it's only because I want to
+get into a different car, and cleanse my eyes from the sight of an
+enemy of the Emperor."</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you, monsieur," responded the Englishman, "that I am not
+an enemy of the Emperor. I had the honor of being received by him
+while he was in London. He even deigned to pass a few days at my
+little country-seat in Lancashire."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better for you, if this young man is good enough to
+forget what you have done against his family; but Fougas will never
+forgive your crimes against his country."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they arrived at the station at Melun, he opened the door
+and rushed into another saloon. There he found himself alone in the
+presence of two young gentlemen, whose physiognomies were far from
+English, and who spoke French with the purest accent of Touraine. Both
+had coats of arms on their seal-rings, so that no one might be
+ignorant of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160"
+id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> rank as nobles. Fougas was too
+plebeian to fancy the nobility much; but as he had left a compartment
+full of Britons, he was happy to meet a couple of Frenchmen.</p>
+
+<p>"Friends," said he, inclining toward them with a cordial smile, "we
+are children of the same mother. Long life to you! Your appearance
+revives me."</p>
+
+<p>The two young gentlemen opened their eyes very wide, half bowed,
+and resumed their conversation, without making any other response to
+Fougas' advance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, my dear Astophe," said one, "you saw the king at
+Froshdorf?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my good Americ; and he received me with the most affecting
+condescension. 'Vicomte,' said he to me, 'you come of a house well
+known for its fidelity. We will remember you when God replaces us on
+the throne of our ancestors. Tell our brave nobility of Touraine that
+we hope to be remembered in their prayers, and that we never forget
+them in ours.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Pitt and Coburg!" said Fougas between his teeth. "Here are two
+little rascals conspiring with the army of Cond&eacute;! But,
+patience!"</p>
+
+<p>He clenched his fists and opened his ears.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't he say anything about politics?"</p>
+
+<p>"A few vague words. Between us, I don't think he bothers with them
+much; he is waiting upon events."</p>
+
+<p>"He'll not wait much
+longer."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg
+161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Who can tell?"</p>
+
+<p>"What! Who can tell? The empire is not good for six months longer.
+Monseigneur de Montereau said so again last Monday to my aunt the
+canoness."</p>
+
+<p>"For my part, I give them a year, for their campaign in Italy has
+strengthened them with the lower orders. I didn't put myself out to
+tell the king so, though!"</p>
+
+<p>"Damnation! gentlemen, this is going it a little too strongly!"
+interrupted Fougas. "Is it here in France that Frenchmen speak thus of
+French institutions? Go back to your master; tell him that the empire
+is eternal, because it is founded on the granite of popular support,
+and cemented by the blood of heroes. And if the king asks you who told
+you this, tell him it was Colonel Fougas, who was decorated at Wagram
+by the Emperor's own hand!"</p>
+
+<p>The two young gentlemen looked at each other, exchanged a smile,
+and the Viscount said to the Marquis:</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"A madman."</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear; a mad dog."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing else."<a name="FNanchor_6_6"
+id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>"Very well, gentlemen," cried the Colonel. "Speak English; you're
+fit for it!"</p>
+
+<p>He changed his compartment at the next station, and fell in with a
+lot of young painters. He called them disciples of Zeuxis, and asked
+them about G&eacute;rard, Gros, and David. These gentlemen
+found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg
+162]</a></span> the sport novel, and recommended him to go and see
+Talma in the new tragedy of Arnault.</p>
+
+<p>The fortifications of Paris dazzled him very much, and scandalized
+him a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like this," said he to his companions. "The true rampart
+of a capital is the courage of a great people. This piling bastions
+around Paris, is saying to the enemy that it is possible to conquer
+France."</p>
+
+<p>The train at last stopped at the Mazas station. The Colonel, who
+had no baggage, marched out pompously, with his hands in his pockets,
+to look for the <i>h&ocirc;tel de Nantes</i>. As he had spent three
+months in Paris about the year 1810, he considered himself acquainted
+with the city, and for that reason he did not fail to lose himself as
+soon as he got there. But in the various quarters which he traversed
+at hazard, he admired the great changes which had been wrought during
+his absence. Fougas' taste was for having streets very long, very
+wide, and bordered with very large houses all alike; he could not fail
+to notice that the Parisian style was rapidly approaching his ideal.
+It was not yet absolute perfection, but progress was manifest.</p>
+
+<p>By a very natural illusion, he paused twenty times to salute people
+of familiar appearance; but no one recognized him.</p>
+
+<p>After a walk of five hours he reached the <i>Place du
+Carrousel</i>. The
+<i>h&ocirc;tel de Nantes</i> was no longer there; but the Louvre had been erected
+instead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> Fougas employed a quarter of an hour in regarding this
+monument of architecture, and half an hour in contemplating two Zouaves
+of the guard who were playing piquet. He inquired if the Emperor was in
+Paris; whereupon his attention was called to the flag floating over the
+Tuilleries.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" said he. "But first I must get some new clothes."</p>
+
+<p>He took a room in a hotel on the <i>Rue Saint Honor&eacute;</i>,
+and asked a waiter which was the most celebrated tailor in Paris. The
+waiter handed him a Business Directory. Fougas hunted out the
+Emperor's bootmaker, shirtmaker, hatter, tailor, barber, and
+glovemaker. He took down their names and addresses in Clementine's
+pocket-book, after which he took a carriage and set out.</p>
+
+<p>As he had a small and shapely foot, he found boots ready-made
+without any difficulty. He was promised, too, that all the linen he
+required should be sent home in the evening. But when he came to
+explain to the hatter what sort of an apparatus he intended to plant
+on his head, he encountered great difficulties. His ideal was an
+enormous hat, large at the crown, small below, broad in the brim, and
+curved far down behind and before; in a word, the historic heirloom to
+which the founder of Bolivia gave his name long ago. The shop had to
+be turned upside down, and all its recesses searched, to find what he
+wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"At last," cried the hatter, "here's your
+article.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg
+164]</a></span> If it's for a stage dress, you ought to be satisfied;
+the comic effect can be depended upon."</p>
+
+<p>Fougas answered dryly, that the hat was much less ridiculous than
+all those which were then circulating around the streets of Paris.</p>
+
+<p>At the celebrated tailor's, in the <i>Rue de la Paix</i>, there was
+almost a battle.</p>
+
+<p>"No, monsieur," said Alfred, "I'll never make you a frogged surtout
+and a pair of trousers <i>&agrave; la Cosaque</i>! Go to Babin, or
+Morean, if you want a carnival dress; but it shall never be said that
+a man of as good figure as yours left our establishment
+caricatured."</p>
+
+<p>"Thunder and guns!" retorted Fougas. "You're a head taller than I
+am, Mister Giant, but I'm a colonel of the Grand Empire, and it won't
+do for drum-majors to give orders to colonels!"</p>
+
+<p>Of course, the devil of a fellow had the last word. His measure was
+taken, a book of costumes consulted, and a promise made that in
+twenty-four hours he should be dressed in the height of the fashion of
+1813. Cloths were presented for his selection, among them some English
+fabrics. These he threw aside with disgust.</p>
+
+<p>"The blue cloth of France," cried he, "and made in France! And cut
+it in such a style that any one seeing me in Pekin would say, 'That's
+a soldier!'"</p>
+
+<p>The officers of our day have precisely the opposite fancy. They
+make an effort to resemble all other "gentlemen"<a name="FNanchor_7_7"
+id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[7]</sup></a> when they assume the civilian's
+dress.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg
+165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Fougas ordered, in the <i>Rue Richelieu</i>, a black satin scarf,
+which hid his shirt, and reached up to his ears. Then he went toward
+the <i>Palais Royal</i>, entered a celebrated restaurant, and ordered
+his dinner. For breakfast he had only taken a bite at a pastry-cook's
+in the
+<i>Boulevard</i>, so his appetite, which had been sharpened by the excursion,
+did wonders. He ate and drank as he did at Fontainebleau. But the bill
+seemed to him hard to digest: it was for a hundred and ten francs and a
+few centimes. "The devil!" said he; "living has become dear in Paris!"
+Brandy entered into the sum total for an item of nine francs. They had
+given him a bottle, and a glass about the size of a thimble; this
+gimcrack had amused Fougas, and he diverted himself by filling and
+emptying it a dozen times. But on leaving the table he was not drunk; an
+amiable gayety inspired him, but nothing more. It occurred to him to get
+back some of his money by buying some lottery tickets at Number 113. But
+a bottle-seller located in that building apprised him that France had
+not gambled for thirty years. He pushed on to the <i>Th&eacute;&acirc;tre Fran&ccedil;ais</i>, to
+see if the Emperor's actors might not be giving some fine tragedy, but
+the poster disgusted him. Modern comedies played by new actors! Neither
+Talma, nor Fleury, nor Th&eacute;nard, nor the Baptistes, nor Mlle. Mars, nor
+Mlle. Raucourt! He then went to the opera, where Charles VI. was being
+given. The music astounded him at once. He was not accustomed to hear so
+much noise anywhere but on the bat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>tle-field. Nevertheless, his ears
+soon inured themselves to the clangor of the instruments; and the
+fatigue of the day, the pleasure of being comfortably seated, and the
+labor of digestion, plunged him into a doze. He woke up with a start at
+this famous patriotic song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"_Guerre aux tyrans! jamais, jamais en France,_<br></span>
+<span class="i0">_Jamais l'Anglais ne r&eacute;gnera!_"<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor"><sup>[8]</sup></a>
+<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"No!" cried he, stretching out his arms toward the stage. "Never!
+Let us swear it together on the sacred altar of our native land!
+Perish, perfidious Albion! <i>Vive l'Empereur!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>The pit and orchestra arose at once, less to express accord with
+Fougas' sentiments, than to silence him. During the
+following <i>entr'acte</i>, a commissioner of police said in his ear,
+that when one had dined as he had, one ought to go quietly to bed,
+instead of interrupting the performance of the opera.</p>
+
+<p>He replied that he had dined as usual, and that this explosion of
+patriotic sentiment had not proceeded from the stomach.</p>
+
+<p>"But," said he, "when, in this palace of misused magnificence,
+hatred of the enemy is stigmatized as a crime, I must go and breathe a
+freer air, and bow before the temple of Glory before I go to bed."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll do well to do so," said the policeman.</p>
+
+<p>He went out, haughtier and more erect than ever, reached the
+Boulevard, and ran with great strides as far as the Corinthian temple
+at the end. While on his way, he greatly admired the lighting of the
+city.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg
+167]</a></span> M. Martout had explained to him the manufacture of
+gas; he had not understood anything about it, but the glowing and
+ruddy flame was an actual treat to his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he had reached the monument commanding the entrance to
+the
+<i>Rue Royale</i>, he stopped on the pavement, collected his thoughts for an
+instant, and exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Glory! Inspirer of great deeds, widow of the mighty conqueror
+of Europe! receive the homage of thy devoted Victor Fougas! For thee I
+have endured hunger, sweat, and frost, and eaten the most faithful of
+horses. For thee I am ready to brave further perils, and again to face
+death on every battle-field. I seek thee rather than happiness,
+riches, or power. Reject not the offering of my heart and the
+sacrifice of my blood! As the price of such devotion, I ask nothing
+but a smile from thy eyes and a laurel from thy hand!"</p>
+
+<p>This prayer went all glowing to the ears of <i>Saint Marie
+Madeleine</i>, the patroness of the ex-temple of Glory. Thus the
+purchaser of a chateau sometimes receives a letter addressed to the
+original proprietor.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas returned by the <i>Rue de la Paix</i> and the <i>Place
+Vend&ocirc;me</i>, and saluted, in passing, the only familiar figure
+he had yet found in Paris. The new costume of Napoleon on the column
+did not displease him in any way. He preferred the cocked hat to a
+crown, and the gray surtout to a theatrical
+cloak.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg
+168]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The night was restless. In the Colonel's brain a thousand diverse
+projects crossed each other in all directions. He prepared the little
+speech which he should make to the Emperor, going to sleep in the
+middle of a phrase, and waking up with a start in the attempt to lay
+hold on the idea which had so suddenly vanished. He put out and relit
+his candle twenty times. The recollection of Clementine was
+occasionally intermingled with dreams of war and political utopias.
+But I must confess that the young girl's figure seldom got any higher
+than the second place.</p>
+
+<p>But if the night appeared too long, the morning seemed short in
+proportion. The idea of meeting the new master of the empire face to
+face, inspired and chilled him in turn. For an instant he hoped that
+something would be lacking in his toilet&mdash;that some shopkeeper
+would furnish him an honorable pretext for postponing his visit until
+the next day. But everybody displayed the most desperate punctuality.
+Precisely at noon, the trousers <i>&agrave; la Cosaque</i> and the
+frogged surtout were on the foot of the bed opposite the famous
+Bolivar hat.</p>
+
+<p>"I may as well be dressing," said Fougas. "Possibly this young man
+may not be at home. In that case I'll leave my name, and wait until he
+sends for me."</p>
+
+<p>He got himself up gorgeously in his own way, and, although it may
+appear impossible to my readers, Fougas, in a black satin scarf and
+frogged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg
+169]</a></span> surtout, was not homely nor even ridiculous. His tall
+figure, lithe build, lofty and impressive carriage, and brusque
+movements, were all in a certain harmony with the costume of the olden
+time. He appeared strange, and that was all. To keep his courage up,
+he dropped into a restaurant, ate four cutlets, a loaf of bread, a
+slice of cheese, and washed it all down with two bottles of wine. The
+coffee and supplements brought him up to two o'clock, and that was the
+time he had set for himself.</p>
+
+<p>He tipped his hat slightly over one ear, buttoned his buckskin
+gloves, coughed energetically two or three times before the sentinel
+at the <i>Rue de Rivoli</i>, and marched bravely into the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," cried the porter, "what do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Emperor!"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you an audience letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel Fougas does not need one. Go and ask references of him who
+towers over the <i>Place Vend&ocirc;me</i>. He'll tell you that the
+name of Fougas has always been a synonym for bravery and
+fidelity."</p>
+
+<p>"You knew the first Emperor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my little joker; and I have talked with him just as I am
+talking with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! But how old are you then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Seventy years on the dial-plate of time; twenty-four years on the
+tablets of History!"</p>
+
+<p>The porter raised his eyes to Heaven, and
+murmured:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg
+170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Still another! This makes the fourth for this week!"</p>
+
+<p>He made a sign to a little gentleman in black, who was smoking his
+pipe in the court of the Tuilleries. Then he said to Fougas, putting
+his hand on his arm:</p>
+
+<p>"So, my good friend, you want to see the Emperor?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've already told you so, familiar individual!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; you shall see him to-day. That gentleman going along
+there with the pipe in his mouth, is the one who introduces visitors;
+he will take care of you. But the Emperor is not in the Palace; he is
+in the country. It's all the same to you, isn't it, if you do have to
+go into the country?"</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil do you suppose I care?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only I don't suppose you care to go on foot. A carriage has
+already been ordered for you. Come, my good fellow, get in, and be
+reasonable!"</p>
+
+<p>Two minutes later, Fougas, accompanied by a detective, was riding
+to a police station.</p>
+
+<p>His business was soon disposed of. The commissary who received him
+was the same one who had spoken to him the previous evening at the
+opera. A doctor was called, and gave the best verdict of monomania
+that ever sent a man to Charenton. All this was done politely and
+pleasantly, without a word which could put the Colonel on his guard or
+give him a suspicion of the fate held in reserve for him. He merely
+found the ceremonial rather long and
+peculiar,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg
+171]</a></span> and prepared on the spot several well-sounding
+sentences, which he promised himself the honor of repeating to the
+Emperor.</p>
+
+<p>At last he was permitted to resume his route. The hack had been
+kept waiting; the gentleman-usher relit his pipe, said three words to
+the driver, and seated himself at the left of the Colonel. The
+carriage set off at a trot, reached the <i>Boulevards</i>, and took
+the direction of the Bastille. It had gotten opposite the <i>Porte
+Saint-Martin</i>, and Fougas, with his head at the window, was
+continuing the composition of his impromptu speech, when an open
+carriage drawn by a pair of superb chestnuts passed, so to speak,
+under his very nose. A portly man with a gray moustache turned his
+head, and cried, "Fougas!"</p>
+
+<p>Robinson Crusoe, discovering the human footprint on his island, was
+not more astonished and delighted than our hero on hearing that cry of
+"Fougas!" To open the door, jump out into the road, run to the
+carriage, which had been stopped, fling himself into it at a single
+bound, without the help of the step, and fall into the arms of the
+portly gentleman with the gray moustache, was all the work of a
+second. The barouche had long disappeared, when the detective at a
+gallop, followed by his hack at a trot, traversed the line of
+the <i>Boulevards</i>, asking all the policemen if they had not seen a
+crazy man pass that way.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg
+172]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE MEMORABLE INTERVIEW BETWEEN COLONEL FOUGAS AND HIS MAJESTY THE
+EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.</h3>
+
+
+<p>In falling upon the neck of the big man with the gray moustache,
+Fougas supposed he was embracing Massena. He naturally intimated as
+much to him, whereupon the owner of the barouche burst into a great
+peal of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, my poor old boy," said he, "it's a long time since we buried
+the 'Child of Victory!' Look me square in the face: I am Leblanc, of
+the Russian campaign."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible! You little Leblanc?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lieutenant in the 3d Artillery, who shared with you a million of
+dangers and that famous piece of roast horse which you salted with
+your tears."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, upon my soul! It <i>is</i> you! You cut me out a pair of
+boots from the skin of the unfortunate Zephyr! And we needn't speak of
+the number of times you saved my life! Oh, my brave and faithful
+friend, thank God that I embrace you once more! Yes, I recognize you
+now; but I needn't say that you are
+changed!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg
+173]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Gad! <i>I</i> haven't been preserved in a jug of spirits of wine.
+I've
+<i>lived</i>, for my part!"</p>
+
+<p>"You know my history, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard it told last night at the Minister's of Public
+Instruction. He had there the savant who set you on your legs again. I
+even wrote to you, on getting back home, to offer you a bunk and a
+place at mess; but my letter is on the way to Fontainebleau."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks! You're a sound one! Ah, my poor old boy, what things have
+happened since Beresina! You know all the misfortunes that have
+come?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've seen them, and that's sadder still. I was a major after
+Waterloo; the Bourbons put me aside on half-pay. My friends got me
+back into service again in 1822, but I had bad luck, and lazed around
+in garrisons at Lille, Grenoble, and Strasburg, without getting ahead
+any. My second epaulette did not reach me till 1830; then I took a
+little turn in Africa. I was made brigadier-general at Isly, got home
+again, and banged about from pillar to post until 1848. During that
+year we had a June campaign in Paris itself. My heart still bleeds
+every time I think of it, and, upon my soul, you're blest in not
+having seen it. I got three balls in my body and a commission as
+general of division. After all, I've no right to complain for the
+campaign in Italy brought me good luck. Here I am, Marshal of France,
+with a hundred thousand francs income, and Duke of Solferino in the
+bargain. Yes, the Emperor has put a handle to
+my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg
+174]</a></span> name. The fact is, that short 'Leblanc' was a little
+too short."</p>
+
+<p>"Thunderation!" cried Fougas, "that's splendid! I swear, Leblanc,
+that I'm not jealous of your good fortune! It's seldom enough that one
+soldier rejoices over the promotion of another; but indeed, from the
+bottom of my heart, I assure you that I do now. It's all the better,
+since you deserved your honors, and the blind goddess must have had a
+glimpse of your heart and talents, over the bandage that covers her
+eyes!"</p>
+
+<p>"You're very kind! But let's talk about yourself now: where were
+you going when I met you?"</p>
+
+<p>"To see the Emperor."</p>
+
+<p>"So was I; but where the devil were you looking for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know; somebody was showing me the way."</p>
+
+<p>"But he is at the Tuilleries!"</p>
+
+<p>"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes! There's something under all this; tell me about it."</p>
+
+<p>Fougas did not wait to be urged. The Marshal soon understood from
+what sort of danger he had extricated his friend.</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>concierge</i> is mistaken," said he; "the Emperor is at the
+Palace; and, as we've reached there now, come with me; perhaps I can
+present you after my audience."</p>
+
+<p>"The very thing! Leblanc, my heart beats
+at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg
+175]</a></span> the idea of seeing this young man. Is he a good one?
+Can he be counted upon? Is he anything like the other?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can see for yourself. Wait here."</p>
+
+<p>The friendship of these two men dated from the winter of 1812.
+During the retreat of the French army, chance flung the lieutenant of
+artillery and the colonel of the 23d together. One was eighteen years
+old, the other not quite twenty-four. The distance between their ranks
+was easily bridged over by common danger. All men are equal before
+hunger, cold, and fatigue. One morning, Leblanc, at the head of ten
+men, rescued Fougas from the hands of the Cossacks; then Fougas sabred
+a half dozen stragglers who were trying to steal Leblanc's cloak.
+Eight days later, Leblanc pulled his friend out of a hut which the
+peasants had set on fire; and Fougas, in turn, fished Leblanc out of
+the Beresina. The list of their dangers and their mutual services is
+too long for me to give entire. To finish off, the Colonel, at
+Koenigsberg, passed three weeks at the bedside of the lieutenant, who
+was attacked with fever and ague. There is no doubt that this tender
+care saved his life. This reciprocal devotion had formed between them
+bonds so strong that a separation of forty-six years could not break
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas, alone in a great saloon, was buried in the recollections of
+that good old time, when an usher asked him to remove his gloves, and
+go into the cabinet of the
+Emperor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg
+176]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Respect for the powers that be, which is the very foundation of my
+character, does not permit me to bring august personages upon the
+scene. But Fougas' correspondence belongs to contemporaneous history,
+and here is the letter which he wrote to Clementine on returning to
+his hotel:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Paris</span> (what am I
+saying?)&mdash;<span class="smcap">Heaven</span>, <i>Aug.</i> 21,
+1859.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My sweet Angel</span>: I am intoxicated with
+joy, gratitude, and admiration. I have seen him, I have spoken to him;
+he gave me his hand, he made me be seated. He is a great prince; he
+will be the master of the world. He gave me the medal of St. Helena,
+and the Cross of an Officer. Little Leblanc, an old friend and a true
+heart, conducted me into his presence; he is Marshal of France, too,
+and a Duke of the new empire! As for promotion, there's no more need
+of speculation on that head. A prisoner of war in Prussia and in a
+triple coffin, I return with my rank; so says the military law. But in
+less than three months I shall be a brigadier-general&mdash;that's
+certain; he deigned to promise it to me himself. What a man! A god on
+earth! No more conceited than he of Wagram and Moscow, and, like him,
+the father of the soldier. He wanted to give me money from his private
+purse to replace my equipments. I answered, 'No, sire; I have a claim
+to recover at Dantzic; if it is paid, I shall be rich; if the debt is
+denied, my pay will suffice for me.' Thereupon (O Beneficence of
+Princes, thou art not, then, but an empty name!) he smiled slightly,
+and said, twisting his moustache, 'You remained in Prussia from 1813
+to 1859?'&mdash;'Yes, sire.'&mdash;'Prisoner of war under exceptional
+conditions?'&mdash;'Yes, sire.'&mdash;'The treaties of 1814 and 1815
+stipulated for the release of prisoners?'&mdash;'Yes,
+sire.'&mdash;'They have been violated, then, in your
+case?'&mdash;'Yes, sire.'&mdash;'Well, then, Prussia owes you an
+indemnity. I will see that it is recovered by diplomatic
+proceedings.'&mdash;'Yes sire. What goodness!' Now, there's an idea
+which would never have occurred to me! To
+squeeze<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg
+177]</a></span> money out of Prussia&mdash;Prussia, who showed herself
+so greedy for our treasures in 1814 and 1815!
+<i>Vive l'Empereur!</i> My well-beloved Clementine! Oh, may
+our glorious and magnanimous sovereign live forever!
+<i>Vivent l'Imperatrice et le Prince Imperial!</i> I saw
+them! The Emperor presented me to his family! The Prince
+is an admirable little soldier! He condescended to beat
+the drum on my new hat. I wept with emotion. Her Majesty
+the Empress said, with an angelic smile, that she had
+heard my misfortunes spoken of. 'Oh, Madame!' I replied,
+'such a moment as this compensates them a hundred
+fold.'&mdash;'You must come and dance at the Tuilleries next
+winter.'&mdash;'Alas, Madame, I have never danced but to the
+music of cannon; but I shall spare no effort to please
+you! I will study the art of Vestris."&mdash;'<i>I</i>'ve managed
+to learn the quadrille very nicely,' joined in Leblanc.</p>
+
+<p>"The Emperor deigned to express his happiness at getting back an
+officer like me, who had yesterday, so to speak, taken part in the
+finest campaigns of the century, and retained all the traditions of
+the great war. This encouraged me. I no longer feared to remind him of
+the famous principle of the good old time&mdash;to treat for peace
+only in capitals! 'Take care!' said he; 'it was on the strength of
+that principle that the allied armies twice came to settle the basis
+of peace at Paris.'&mdash;'They'll not come here again,' cried I,
+'without passing over my body!' I dwelt upon the troubles apt to come
+from too much intimacy with England. I expressed a hope of at once
+proceeding to the conquest of the world. First, to get back our
+frontiers for ourselves; next, the natural frontiers of Europe: for
+Europe is but the suburb of France, and cannot he annexed too soon.
+The Emperor shook his head as if he was not of my opinion. Does he
+entertain peaceful designs? I do not wish to dwell upon this idea; it
+would kill me!</p>
+
+<p>"He asked me what impressions I had formed regarding the appearance
+of the changes which had been made in Paris. I answered, with the
+sincerity of a lofty soul, 'Sire, the new Paris is the great work of a
+great reign; but I entertain the hope that your improvements have not
+yet had the finishing touch.'&mdash;'What is
+left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg
+178]</a></span> to be done, now, in your opinion?'&mdash;'First of
+all, to remedy the course of the Seine, whose irregular curve is
+positively shocking. The straight line is the shortest distance
+between two points, for rivers as well as boulevards. In the second
+place, to level the ground and suppress all inequalites of surface
+which seem to say to the Government, 'Thou art less powerful than
+Nature!' Having accomplished this preparatory work, I would trace a
+circle three leagues in diameter, whose circumference, marked by an
+elegant railing, should be the boundary of Paris. At the centre I
+would build a palace for your Majesty and the princes of the imperial
+family&mdash;a vast and splendid edifice, including in its
+arrangements all the public offices&mdash;the staff offices, courts,
+museums, cabinet offices, archives, police, the Institute, embassies,
+prisons, bank of France, lecture-rooms, theatres, the <i>Moniteur</i>,
+imperial printing office, manufactory of S&egrave;vres porcelain and
+Gobelin tapestry, and commissary arrangements. At this palace,
+circular in form and of magnificent architecture, should centre twelve
+boulevards, a hundred and twenty yards wide, terminated by twelve
+railroads, and called by the names of twelve marshals of France. Each
+boulevard is built up with uniform houses, four stories high, having
+in front an iron railing and a little garden three yards wide, all to
+be planted with the same kind of flowers. A hundred streets, sixty
+yards wide, should connect the boulevards; these streets communicate
+with each other by lanes thirty-five yards wide, the whole built up
+uniformly according to official plans, with railings, gardens, and
+specified flowers. Householders should be prohibited from allowing any
+business to be conducted in their establishments, for the aspect of
+shops debases the intellect and degrades the heart. Merchants could be
+permitted to establish themselves in the suburbs under the regulation
+of the laws. The ground floors of all the houses to be occupied with
+stables and kitchens; the first floors let to persons worth an income
+of a hundred thousand francs and over; the second, to those worth from
+eighty to a hundred thousand francs; the third, to those worth from
+sixty to eighty thousand; the fourth, from fifty to sixty thousand. No
+one with an income of less than fifty thousand francs should
+be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg
+179]</a></span> permitted to live in Paris. Workmen are to be lodged
+ten miles outside of the boundary in workmen's barracks. We will
+exempt them from taxes to make them love us; and we'll plant cannon
+around them to make them fear us. That's my Paris!' The Emperor
+listened to me patiently, and twisted his moustache. 'Your plan,' said
+he, 'would cost a trifle.'&mdash;'Not much more than the one already
+adopted,' answered I. At this remark, an unreserved hilarity, the
+cause of which I am unable to explain, lit up his serious countenance.
+'Don't you think,' said he, 'that your project would ruin a great many
+people?'&mdash;'Eh! What difference does it make to me?' I cried,
+'since it will ruin none but the rich?' He began laughing again, and
+bid me farewell, saying, 'Colonel, you will have to remain colonel
+only until we make you brigadier-general!' He permitted me to press
+his hand a second time. I waved an adieu to brave Leblanc, who has
+invited me to dine with him this evening, and I returned to my hotel
+to pour my joy into your sweet soul. Oh, Clementine! hope on! You
+shall be happy, and I shall be great! To-morrow morning I leave for
+Dantzic. Gold is a deception, but I want you to be rich.</p>
+
+<p>"A sweet kiss upon your pure brow!</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">V. Fougas</span>." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The subscribers to <i>La Patrie</i>, who keep files of their paper,
+are hereby requested to hunt up the number for the 23d of August,
+1859. In it they will find two paragraphs of local intelligence, which
+I have taken the liberty of copying here:</p>
+
+<p>"His Excellency, the Marshal, the Duke of Solferino, yesterday had
+the honor of presenting to his Majesty the Emperor a hero of the first
+Empire, Colonel Fougas, whom an almost miraculous event, already
+mentioned in a report to the Academy of Sciences, has restored to his
+country."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg
+180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Such was the first paragraph; here is the second</p>
+
+<p>"A madman, the fourth this week, but the most dangerous of all,
+presented himself yesterday at one of the entrances of the Tuilleries.
+Decked out in a grotesque costume, his eyes flashing, his hat cocked
+over his ear, and addressing the most respectable people with
+unheard-of rudeness, he attempted to force his way past the sentry,
+and thrust himself, for what purpose God only knows, into the presence
+of the Sovereign. During his incoherent ejaculations, the following
+words were distinguished: 'bravery, <i>Vend&ocirc;me</i> column,
+fidelity, the dial-plate of time, the tablets of history.' When he was
+arrested by one of the detective watch, and taken before the police
+commissioner of the Tuilleries section, he was recognized as the same
+individual who, the evening before, at the opera, had interrupted the
+performance of Charles VI. with most unseemly cries. After the
+customary medical and legal proceedings, he was ordered to be sent to
+the Charenton Hospital. But opposite the <i>porte Saint-Martin</i>,
+taking advantage of a lock among the vehicles, and of the Herculean
+strength with which he is endowed, he wrested his hands from his
+keeper, threw him down, beat him, leaped at a bound into the street,
+and disappeared in the crowd. The most active search was immediately
+set on foot, and we have it from the best authority that the police
+are already on the track of the
+fugitive."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg
+181]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHEREIN HERR NICHOLAS MEISER, ONE OF THE SOLID MEN OF DANTZIC,
+RECEIVES AN UNWELCOME VISIT.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The wisdom of mankind declares that ill-gotten gains never do any
+good. I maintain that they do the robbers more good than the robbed,
+and the good fortune of Herr Nicholas Meiser is an argument in support
+of my proposition.</p>
+
+<p>The nephew of the illustrious physiologist, after brewing a great
+deal of beer from a very little hops, and prematurely appropriating
+the legacy intended for Fougas, had amassed, by various operations, a
+fortune of from eight to ten millions. "In what kind of operations?"
+No one ever told me, but I know that he called all operations that
+would make money, good ones. To lend small sums at a big interest, to
+accumulate great stores of grain in order to relieve a scarcity after
+producing it himself, to foreclose on unfortunate debtors, to fit out
+a vessel or two for trade in black flesh on the African
+coast&mdash;such are specimens of the speculations which the good man
+did not despise. He never boasted of them, for he was modest; but he
+never blushed for them, for he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182"
+id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> had expanded his conscience
+simultaneously with his capital. As for the rest, he was a man of
+honor, in the commercial sense of the word, and capable of strangling
+the whole human race rather than of letting his signature be
+protested. The banks of Dantzic, Berlin, Vienna, and Paris, held him
+in high esteem; his money passed through all of them.</p>
+
+<p>He was fat, unctuous, and florid, and lived well. His wife's nose
+was much too long, and her bones much too prominent, but she loved him
+with all her heart, and made him little sweetmeats. A perfect
+congeniality of sentiment united this charming couple. They talked
+with each other with open hearts, and never thought of keeping back
+any of their evil thoughts. Every year, at Saint Martin's day, when
+rents became due, they turned out of doors the families of five or six
+workmen who could not pay for their terms; but they dined none the
+worse after it, and their good-night kiss was none the less sweet.</p>
+
+<p>The husband was sixty-six years old, the wife sixty-four. Their
+physiognomies were such as inspire benevolence and command respect. To
+complete their outward resemblance to the patriarchs, nothing was
+needed but children and grandchildren. Nature had given them one
+son&mdash;an only one, because they had not solicited Nature for more.
+They would have thought it criminal improvidence to divide their
+fortune among several. Unhappily, this only child, the
+heir-presumptive to so many millions, died at the University of
+Heidelberg from eating too many
+sau<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg
+183]</a></span>sages. He set out, when he was twenty, for that
+Valhalla of German students, where they eat infinite sausages, and
+drink inexhaustible beer; where they sing songs of eight hundred
+million verses, and gash the tips of each other's noses with huge
+swords. Envious Death snatched him from his parents when they were no
+longer of an age to improvise a successor. The unfortunate old
+millionnaires tenderly collected his effects, to sell them. During
+this operation, so trying to their souls (for there was a great deal
+of brand-new linen that could not be found), Nicholas Meiser said to
+his wife, "My heart bleeds at the idea that our buildings and dollars,
+our goods above ground and under, should go to strangers. Parents
+ought always to have an extra son, just as they have a vice-umpire in
+the Chamber of Commerce."</p>
+
+<p>But Time, who is a great teacher in Germany and several other
+countries, led them to see that there is consolation for all things
+except the loss of money. Five years afterwards, Frau Meiser said to
+her husband, with a tender and philosophic, smile: "Who can fathom the
+decrees of Providence? Perhaps your son would have brought us to a
+crust. Look at Theobald Scheffler, his old comrade. He wasted twenty
+thousand francs at Paris on a woman who kicked up her legs in the
+middle of a quadrille. We ourselves spent more than two thousand
+thalers a year for our wicked scapegrace. His death is a great saving,
+and therefore a good thing!"</p>
+
+<p>As long as the three coffins of Fougas were
+in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg
+184]</a></span> the house, the good dame scolded at the visions and
+restlessness of her husband. "What in the name of sense are you
+thinking about? You've been kicking me all night again. Let's throw
+this ragamuffin of a Frenchman into the fire; then he'll no longer
+disturb the repose of a peaceable family. We can sell the leaden box;
+it must weigh at least two hundred pounds. The white silk will make me
+a good lining for a dress; and the wool in the stuffing, will easily
+make us a mattress." But a tinge of superstition prevented Meiser from
+following his wife's advice; he preferred to rid himself of the
+Colonel by selling him.</p>
+
+<p>The house of this worthy couple was the handsomest and most
+substantial on the street of Public Wells, in the aristocratic part of
+the city. Strong railings, in iron open work, decorated all the
+windows magnificently, and the door was sheathed in iron, like a
+knight of the olden time. A system of little mirrors, ingeniously
+arranged in the entrance, enabled a visitor to be seen before he had
+even knocked. A single servant, a regular horse for work and camel for
+temperance, ministered under this roof blessed by the gods.</p>
+
+<p>The old servant slept away from the house, both because he
+preferred to and because while he did so he could not be tempted to
+wring the venerable necks of his employers. A few books on Commerce
+and Religion constituted the library of the two old people. They never
+cared to have a garden at the back
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg
+185]</a></span> their house, because the shrubbery might conceal
+thieves. They fastened their door with bolts every evening at eight
+o'clock, and never went out without being obliged to, for fear of
+meeting dangerous people.</p>
+
+<p>And nevertheless, on the 29th of April, 1859, at eleven o'clock in
+the morning, Nicholas Meiser was far away from his beloved home.
+Gracious! how very far away for him&mdash;this honest burgher of
+Dantzic! He was traversing, with heavy tread, the promenade in Berlin,
+which bears the name of one of Alphonse Karrs' romances: <i>Sous les
+tilleuls.</i> In German:
+<i>Unter den Linden.</i></p>
+
+<p>What mighty agency had thrown out of his bon-bon box, this big red
+bon-bon on two legs? The same that led Alexander to Babylon, Scipio to
+Carthage, Godfrey de Bouillon to Jerusalem, and Napoleon to
+Moscow&mdash;Ambition! Meiser did not expect to be presented with the
+keys of the city on a cushion of red velvet, but he knew a great lord,
+a clerk in a government office, and a chambermaid who were working to
+get a patent of nobility for him. To call himself Von Meiser instead
+of plain Meiser! What a glorious dream!</p>
+
+<p>This good man had in his character that compound of meanness and
+vanity which places lacqueys so far apart from the rest of mankind.
+Full of respect for power, and admiration for conventional greatness,
+he never pronounced the name of king, prince, or even baron, without
+emphasis and unction. He mouthed every aristocratic syllable, and the
+single<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg
+186]</a></span> word "Monseigneur" seemed to him like a mouthful of
+well-spiced soup. Examples of this disposition are not rare in
+Germany, and are even occasionally found elsewhere. If they could be
+transported to a country where all men are equal, homesickness for
+boot-licking would kill them.</p>
+
+<p>The claims brought to bear in favor of Nicholas Meiser, were not of
+the kind which at once spring the balance, but of the kind which make
+it turn little by little. Nephew of an illustrious man of science,
+powerfully rich, a man of sound judgment, a subscriber to the <i>New
+Gazette of the Cross</i>, full of hatred for the opposition, author of
+a toast against the influence of demagogues, once a member of the City
+Council, once an umpire in the Chamber of Commerce, once a corporal in
+the militia, and an open enemy of Poland and all nations but the
+strong ones. His most brilliant action dated back ten years. He had
+denounced, by an anonymous letter, a member of the French Parliament
+who had taken refuge in Dantzic. While Meiser was walking under the
+lindens, his cause was progressing swimmingly. He had received that
+sweet assurance from the very lips of its promoters. And so he tripped
+lightly toward the depot of the North-Eastern Railroad, without any
+other baggage than a revolver in his pocket. His black leather trunk
+had gone before; and was waiting for him at the station. On the way,
+he was glancing into the shop windows, when he stopped short before a
+stationer's, and rubbed his eyes&mdash;a sovereign
+remedy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg
+187]</a></span> people say, for impaired vision. Between the portraits
+of Mme. Sand and M. M&eacute;rim&eacute;e, the two greatest writers of
+France, he had noticed, examined, recognized a well-known
+countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely," said he, "I've seen that man before, but he was paler.
+Can our old lodger have come to life? Impossible! I burned up my
+uncle's directions, so the world has lost&mdash;thanks to me&mdash;the
+secret of resuscitating people. Nevertheless, the resemblance is
+striking. Is it a portrait of Colonel Fougas, taken from life in 1813?
+No; for photography was not then invented. But possibly it's a
+photograph copied from an engraving? Here are Louis XVI. and Marie
+Antoinette reproduced in the same way: that doesn't prove that
+Robespierre had them resuscitated. Anyhow, I've had an unfortunate
+encounter."</p>
+
+<p>He took a step toward the door of the shop to reassure himself, but
+a peculiar reluctance held him back. People might wonder at him, ask
+him questions, try to learn the reason of his trouble. He resumed his
+walk at a brisk pace, trying to reassure himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! It's an hallucination&mdash;the result of dwelling too much
+on one idea. Moreover, the portrait was dressed in the style of 1813;
+that settles the question."</p>
+
+<p>He reached the station, had his black leather trunk checked, and
+flung himself down at full length in a first-class compartment. First
+he smoked his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188"
+id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> porcelain pipe, but his two
+neighbors being asleep, he soon followed their example, and began
+snoring. Now this big man's snores had something awe-inspiring about
+them; you could have fancied yourself listening to the trumpets of the
+judgment day. What shade visited him in this hour of sleep, no other
+soul has ever known; for he kept his dreams to himself, as he did
+everything that was his.</p>
+
+<p>But between two stations, while the train was running at full
+speed, he distinctly felt two powerful hands pulling at his
+feet&mdash;a sensation, alas! too well known, and one which called up
+the ugliest recollections of his life. He opened his eyes in terror,
+and saw the man of the photograph, in the costume of the photograph.
+His hair stood on end, his eyes grew as big as saucers, he uttered a
+loud cry, and flung himself headlong between the seats among the legs
+of his neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>A few vigorous kicks brought him to himself. He got up as well as
+he could, and looked about him. No one was there but the two gentlemen
+opposite, who were mechanically lanching their last kicks into the
+empty space, and rubbing their eyes with their arms. He succeeded in
+awakening them, and asked them about the visitation he had had; but
+the gentlemen declared they had seen nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Meiser sadly returned to his own thoughts; he noticed that the
+visions appeared terribly real. This idea prevented his going to sleep
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"If this goes on much longer," thought he,
+"the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg
+189]</a></span> Colonel's ghost will break my nose with a blow of his
+fist, or give me a pair of black eyes!"</p>
+
+<p>A little later, it occurred to him that he had breakfasted very
+hastily that morning, and he reflected that the nightmare had perhaps
+been brought about by such dieting.</p>
+
+<p>He got off at the next five-minute stopping-place and called for
+soup. Some very hot vermicelli was brought him, and he blew into his
+bowl like a dolphin into the Bosphorus.</p>
+
+<p>A man passed before him, without jostling him, without saying
+anything to him, without even seeing him. And nevertheless, the bowl
+dropped from the hands of the rich Nicholas Meiser, the vermicelli
+poured over his waistcoat and shirt-bosom, where it formed an elegant
+fretwork suggestive of the architecture of the <i>porte Saint
+Martin</i>. Some yellowish threads, detached from the mass, hung in
+stalactites from the buttons of his coat. The vermicelli stopped on
+the outside, but the soup penetrated much further. It was rather warm
+for pleasure; an egg left in it ten minutes would have been boiled
+hard. Fatal soup, which not only distributed itself among the pockets,
+but into the most secret sinuosities of the man himself! The starting
+bell rang, the waiter collected his two sous, and Meiser got into the
+cars, preceded by a plaster of vermicelli, and followed by a little
+thread of soup which was running down the calves of his legs.</p>
+
+<p>And all of this, because he had seen, or
+thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg
+190]</a></span> he had seen, the terrible figure of Colonel Fougas
+eating sandwiches.</p>
+
+<p>Oh! how long the trip seemed! What a terrible time it appeared to
+be before he could be at home, between his wife Catharine and his
+servant Berbel, with all the doors safely closed! His two companions
+laughed till the buttons flew; people laughed in the compartment to
+the right of him, and in the compartment to the left of him. As fast
+as he picked off the vermicelli, little spots of soup saucily
+congealed and seemed quietly laughing. How hard it comes to a great
+millionnaire to amuse people who do not possess a cent! He did not get
+off again until they reached Dantzic; he did not even put his nose to
+the window; he sucked solitary consolation from his porcelain pipe, on
+which Leda caressed her swan and smiled not.</p>
+
+<p>Wearisome, wearisome journey! But he did reach home nevertheless.
+It was eight o'clock in the evening; the old domestic was waiting with
+ropes to sling his master's trunk on his back. No more alarming
+figures, no more mocking laughs! The history of the soup was fallen
+into the great forgotten, like one of M. Heller's speeches. In the
+baggage room, Meiser had already seized the handle of a black leather
+trunk, when, at the other end, he saw the spectre of Fougas, which was
+pulling in the opposite direction, and seemed inclined to dispute
+possession. He bristled up, pulled stronger, and even plunged his left
+hand into the pocket where the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191"
+id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> revolver was lying. But the luminous
+glance of the Colonel fascinated him, his legs trembled, he fell, and
+fancied that he saw Fougas and the black trunk rolling over each
+other. When he came to, his old servant was chafing his hands, the
+trunk already had the slings around it, and the Colonel had
+disappeared. The domestic swore that he had not seen anybody, and that
+he had himself received the trunk from the baggage agent's own
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty minutes later, the millionnaire was in his own house,
+joyfully rubbing his face against the sharp angles of his wife. He did
+not dare to tell her about his visions, for Frau Meiser was a skeptic,
+in her own way. It was she who spoke to him about Fougas.</p>
+
+<p>"A whole history has happened to me," said she. "Would you believe
+that the police have written to us from Berlin, to find out whether
+our uncle left us a mummy, and when, and how long we kept him, and
+what we have done with him? I answered, telling the truth, and adding
+that Colonel Fougas was in such a bad condition, and so damaged by
+mites, that we sold him for rags. What object can the police have in
+troubling themselves about our affairs?"</p>
+
+<p>Meiser heaved a heavy sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Let's talk about money!" said the lady. "The president of the bank
+has been to see me. The million you asked him for, for to-morrow, is
+ready; it will be delivered upon your signature. It seems that they've
+had a deal of trouble to get the amount in specie. If you had but
+wanted drafts on Vienna or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192"
+id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> Paris, you would have put them at
+their ease. But at last they've done what you wanted. There's no other
+news, except that Schmidt, the merchant, has killed himself. He had to
+pay a note for ten thousand thalers, and didn't have half the amount
+on hand. He came to ask me for the money; I offered him ten thousand
+thalers, at twenty-five per cent., payable in ninety days, with a
+first mortgage on all his real estate. The fool preferred to hang
+himself in his shop. Everyone to his taste!"</p>
+
+<p>"Did he hang himself very high?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know anything about that. Why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because one might get a piece of rope cheap, and we're greatly in
+want of some, my poor Catharine! That Colonel Fougas has given me a
+shiver."</p>
+
+<p>"Some more of your notions! Come to supper, my love."</p>
+
+<p>"Come on!"</p>
+
+<p>The angular Baucis conducted her Philemon into a large and
+beautiful dining-room, where Berbel served a repast worthy of the
+gods. Soup with little balls of aniseeded bread, fish-balls with black
+sauce, mutton-balls stuffed, game balls, sour-krout cooked in lard and
+garnished with fried potatoes, roast hare with currant jelly, deviled
+crabs, salmon from the Vistula, jellies, and fruit tarts. Six bottles
+of Rhine-wine selected from the best vintages were awaiting, in their
+silver caps, the master's kiss. But the lord of all these good things
+was neither hungry nor thirsty. He ate by nibbles and drank by sips,
+all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg
+193]</a></span> time expecting a grand consummation, which he did not
+have to expect along. A formidable rap of the knocker soon resounded
+through the house.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas Meiser trembled. His wife tried to reassure him. "It's
+nothing," said she. "The president of the bank told me that he was
+coming to see you. He offers to pay us the exchange, if we'll take
+paper instead of specie."</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> about money, sure as Fate!" cried the good man. "Hell
+itself is coming to see us!"</p>
+
+<p>At the same instant, the servant rushed into the room, crying, "Oh,
+Sir! Oh, Madame! It's the Frenchman of the three coffins! Jesus! Mary,
+Mother of God!"</p>
+
+<p>Fougas saluted them, and said, "Don't disturb yourselves, good
+people, I beg of you. We've a little matter to discuss together, and
+I'm ready to explain it to you in two words. You're in a hurry, so am
+I; you've not had supper, neither have I!"</p>
+
+<p>Frau Meiser, more rigid and more emaciated than a
+thirteenth-century statue, opened wide her toothless mouth. Terror
+paralyzed her. The man, better prepared for the visit of the phantom,
+cocked his revolver under the table and took aim at the Colonel,
+crying "<i>Vade retro, Satanas!</i>" The exorcism and the pistol
+missed fire together.</p>
+
+<p>Meiser was not at all discouraged: he snapped the six barrels one
+after the other at the demon, who stood watching him do it. Not one
+went off.</p>
+
+<p>"What devilish game is that you're
+playing?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg
+194]</a></span> said the Colonel, seating himself astride a chair.
+"People are not in the habit of receiving an honest man's visit with
+that ceremony!"</p>
+
+<p>Meiser flung down his revolver, and grovelled like a beast at
+Fougas' feet. His wife, who was not one whit more tranquil, followed
+him. They joined hands, and the fat man exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>"Spirit! I confess my misdeeds, and I am ready to make reparation
+for them. I have sinned against you; I have violated my uncle's
+commands. What do you wish? What do you command? A tomb? A magnificent
+monument? Prayers? Endless prayers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Idiot!" said Fougas, spurning him with his foot; "I am no spirit,
+and I want nothing but the money you've robbed me of!"</p>
+
+<p>Meiser kept rolling on the floor; but his scrawny wife was already
+on her feet, her fists on her hips, and facing Fougas.</p>
+
+<p>"Money!" cried she, "But we don't owe you any! Have you any
+documents? Just show us our signature! Where would one be, Just God!
+if we had to give money to all the adventurers who present themselves?
+And in the first place, by what right did you thrust yourself into our
+dwelling, if you're not a spirit? Ah! you're a man just the same as
+other people! Ha! ha! So you're not a ghost! Very well, sir; there are
+judges in Berlin; there are some in the country, too, and we'll soon
+see whether you're going to finger our money! Get up there, you
+great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg
+195]</a></span> booby; it's only a man! And do you, Mister Ghost, get
+out of here! Off with you!"</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel did not budge more than a rock.</p>
+
+<p>"The devil's in women's tongues! Sit down, old lady, and take your
+hands away from my eyes&mdash;they bother me. And as for you,
+swell-head, get on to your chair, and listen to me. There will be time
+enough to go to law if we can't come to an understanding. But stamped
+paper stinks in my nostrils; and therefore I'd rather settle
+peaceably."</p>
+
+<p>Herr and Frau Meiser repressed their first emotion. They distrusted
+magistrates, as do all people without clean consciences. If the
+Colonel was a poor devil who could be put off with a few thalers, it
+would be better to avoid legal proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas stated the case to them with entire military bluntness. He
+proved the existence of his right, said that he had had his identity
+substantiated at Fontainebleau, Paris, and Berlin; cited from memory
+two or three passages of the will, and finished by declaring that the
+Prussian Government, in conjunction with that of France, would support
+his just claims if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>"You understand clearly," said he, taking Meiser by the button of
+his coat, "that I am no fox, depending on cunning. If you had a wrist
+vigorous enough to swing a good sabre, we'd take the field against
+each other, and I'd play you for the amount, first two cuts out of
+three, as surely as that's soup before you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fortunately, monsieur," said Meiser, "my
+age<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg
+196]</a></span> shields me from all brutality. You would not wish to
+trample under foot the corpse of an old man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Venerable scoundrel! But you would have killed me like a dog, if
+your pistol had not missed fire!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was not loaded, Monsieur Colonel! It was not&mdash;&mdash;
+anywhere near loaded! But I am an accommodating man, and we can come
+to terms very easily. I don't owe you anything, and, moreover, there's
+prescription; but after all&mdash;&mdash; how much do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has had his say: now it's my turn!"</p>
+
+<p>The old rascal's mate softened the tone of her voice. Imagine to
+yourself a saw licking a tree before biting in.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, Claus, my dear&mdash;listen to what Monsieur Colonel
+Fougas has to say. You'll see that he is reasonable! It's not in him
+to think of ruining poor people like us. Oh, Heavens! he is not
+capable of it. He has such a noble heart! Such a disinterested man! An
+officer worthy of the great Napoleon (God receive his soul!)."</p>
+
+<p>"That's enough, old lady!" said Fougas, with a curt gesture which
+cut the speech off in the middle. "I had an estimate made at Berlin of
+what is due me&mdash;principal and interest."</p>
+
+<p>"Interest!" cried Meiser. "But in what country, in what latitude,
+do people pay interest on money? Perhaps it may sometimes happen in
+business, but between friends&mdash;never, no never, my good Monsieur
+Colonel! What would my good
+uncle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg
+197]</a></span> who is now gazing upon us from heaven, say, if he knew
+that you were claiming interest on his bequest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now shut up, Nickle!" interrupted his wife. "Monsieur Colonel is
+just about telling you, himself, that he did not intend to be
+understood as speaking of the interest."</p>
+
+<p>"Why in the name of great guns don't you both shut up, you
+confounded magpies? Here I am dying of hunger, and I didn't bring my
+nightcap to go to bed here, either!&mdash;-- Now here's the upshot of
+the matter: You owe me a great deal; but it's not an even
+sum&mdash;there are fractions in it, and I go in for clean
+transactions. Moreover, my tastes are modest. I've enough for my wife
+and myself; nothing more is needed than to provide for my son!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," cried Meiser; "I'll charge myself with the education
+of the little fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, during the dozen days since I again became a citizen of the
+world, there is one word that I've heard spoken everywhere. At Paris,
+as well as at Berlin, people no longer speak of anything but millions;
+there is no longer any talk of anything else, and everybody's mouth is
+full of millions. From hearing so much said about it, I've acquired a
+curiosity to know what it is. Go, fetch me out a million, and I'll
+give you quittance!"</p>
+
+<p>If you want to reach an approximate idea of the piercing cries
+which answered him, go to the <i>Jardin des Plantes</i> at the
+breakfast hour of the birds of prey, and try to pull the meat out of
+their beaks. Fougas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198"
+id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> stopped his ears and remained
+inexorable. Prayers, arguments, misrepresentations, flatteries,
+cringings, glanced off from him like rain from a zinc roof. But at ten
+o'clock at night, when he had concluded that all concurrence was
+impossible, he took his hat:</p>
+
+<p>"Good evening!" said he. "It's no longer a million that I must
+have, but two millions, and all over. We'll go to law. I'm going to
+supper."</p>
+
+<p>He was on the staircase, when Frau Meiser said to her husband:</p>
+
+<p>"Call him back, and give him his million!"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a fool?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"I can never do it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Father in heaven! what blockheads men are! Monsieur! Monsieur
+Fougas! Monsieur Colonel Fougas! Come up again, I pray you! We consent
+to all that you require!"</p>
+
+<p>"Damnation!" said he, on re&euml;ntering; "you ought to have made
+up your minds sooner. But after all, let's see the money!"</p>
+
+<p>Frau Meiser explained to him with her tenderest voice, that poor
+capitalists like themselves, were not in the habit of keeping millions
+under their own lock and key.</p>
+
+<p>"But you shall lose nothing by waiting, my sweet sir! To-morrow you
+shall handle the amount in nice white silver; my husband will sign you
+a check on the Royal Bank of Dantzic."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;," said the unfortunate Meiser.
+He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg
+199]</a></span> signed, nevertheless, for he had boundless confidence
+in the practical ingenuity of Catharine. The old lady begged Fougas to
+sit down at the end of the table, and dictated to him a receipt for
+two millions, in payment of all demands. You may depend that she did
+not forgot a word of the legal formulas, and that she arranged the
+affair in due form according to the Prussian code. The receipt,
+written throughout in the Colonel's hand, filled three large
+pages.</p>
+
+<p>He signed the instrument with a flourish, and received in exchange
+the signature of Nicholas, which he knew well.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he to the old gentleman, "you're certainly not such an
+Arab as they said you were at Berlin. Shake hands, old scamp! I don't
+usually shake hands with any but honest people; but on an occasion
+like this, one can do a little something extra."</p>
+
+<p>"Do it double, Monsieur Fougas," said Frau Meiser, humbly. "Will
+you not join us in this modest supper?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gad! old lady, it's not a thing to be refused. My supper must be
+cold at the inn of the 'Clock'; and your viands, smoking on their
+chafing dishes, have already caused me more than one fit of
+distraction. Besides, here are some yellow glass flutes, on which
+Fougas will not be at all reluctant to play an air."</p>
+
+<p>The respectable Catharine had an extra plate laid, and ordered
+Berbel to go to bed. The Colonel folded up Father Meiser's million,
+rolled it carefully among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200"
+id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> a pile of bank-bills, and put the
+whole into the little pocket-book which his dear Clementine had sent
+him.</p>
+
+<p>The clock struck eleven.</p>
+
+<p>At half-past eleven Fougas began to see everything in a rosy cloud.
+He praised the Rhine wine highly, and thanked the Meisers for their
+hospitality. At midnight, he assured them of his highest esteem. At
+quarter past twelve, he embraced them. At half-past twelve, he
+delivered a eulogy on the illustrious John Meiser, his friend and
+benefactor. When he learned that John Meiser had died in that house,
+he poured forth a torrent of tears. At quarter to one, he assumed a
+confidential tone, and spoke of his son, whom he was going to make
+happy, and of the betrothed who was waiting for him. About one
+o'clock, he tasted a celebrated port wine which Frau Meiser had
+herself gone to bring from the cellar. About half-past one, his tongue
+thickened and his eyes grew dim; he struggled some time against
+drunkenness and sleepiness, announced that he was going to describe
+the Russian campaign, muttered the name of the Emperor, and slid under
+the table.</p>
+
+<p>"You may believe me, if you will," said Frau Meiser to her husband,
+"this is not a man who has come into our house; it's the devil!"</p>
+
+<p>"The devil!"</p>
+
+<p>"If not, would I have advised you to give him a million? I heard a
+voice saying to me, 'If you do not obey the messenger of the Infernal
+powers, you will both die this very night.' It was on account
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg
+201]</a></span> that, that I called him up stairs. Ah! if we had been
+doing business with a man, I would have told you to contest it in law
+to our last cent."</p>
+
+<p>"As you please! So you're still making sport of my visions?"</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, Claus dear; I was a fool!"</p>
+
+<p>"And I've concluded I was, too."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor innocent! Perhaps you too thought this was Colonel
+Fougas?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly!"</p>
+
+<p>"As if it were possible to resuscitate a man! It is a demon, I tell
+you, who assumed the shape of the Colonel, to rob us of our
+money!"</p>
+
+<p>"What can demons do with money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Build cathedrals, to be sure!"</p>
+
+<p>"But how is the devil to be recognized when he is disguised?"</p>
+
+<p>"First by his cloven-foot&mdash;but this one has boots on; next by
+his clipped ear."</p>
+
+<p>"Bah! And why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because the devil's ears are pointed, and, in order to make them
+round, he has to cut them."</p>
+
+<p>Meiser stuck his head under the table and uttered a cry of
+horror.</p>
+
+<p>"It's certainly the devil!" said he. "But how did he happen to let
+himself go to sleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you did not know that when I came back from the cellar, I
+dropped into my chamber? I put a drop of holy water into the Port;
+charm against charm, and he is
+fallen."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg
+202]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That's splendid! But what shall we do with him, now that we have
+him in our power?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is done with demons in Scripture? The Saviour throws them
+into the sea."</p>
+
+<p>"The sea is a long way from here."</p>
+
+<p>"But, you big baby, the public wells are just by!"</p>
+
+<p>"And what will be said to-morrow, when the body is found?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all will be found; and even the check that we signed,
+will be turned into tinder."</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later, Herr and Frau Meiser were lugging something
+toward the public wells, and soon dame Catharine murmured, <i>sotto
+voce</i>, the following incantation:</p>
+
+<p>"Demon, child of hell, be thou accursed!</p>
+
+<p>"Demon, child of hell, be thou dashed headlong down!</p>
+
+<p>"Demon, child of hell, return to hell!"</p>
+
+<p>A dull sound&mdash;the sound of a body falling into water,
+terminated the ceremony, and the two spouses returned to their
+domicil, with the satisfaction that always follows the performance of
+a duty.</p>
+
+<p>Nicholas said to himself:</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't think she was so credulous!"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't think he was so simple!" thought the worthy Kettle,
+wedded wife of Claus.</p>
+
+<p>They slept the sleep of innocence. Oh, how much less soft their
+pillows would have seemed, if Fougas had gone home with his
+million!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg
+203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At ten o'clock the next morning, while they were taking their
+coffee and buttered rolls, the president of the bank called in, and
+said to them:</p>
+
+<p>"I am greatly obliged to you for having accepted a draft on Paris
+instead of a million in specie, and without premium, too. That young
+Frenchman you sent to us is a little brusque, but very lively, and a
+good fellow."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg
+204]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE COLONEL TRIES TO RELIEVE HIMSELF OF A MILLION WHICH INCUMBERS
+HIM.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Fougas had left Paris for Berlin the day after his audience. He
+took three days to make the trip, because he stopped some time at
+Nancy. The Marshal had given him a letter of introduction to the
+Prefect of Meurthe, who received him very politely, and promised to
+aid him in his investigations. Unfortunately, the house where he had
+loved Clementine Pichon was no longer standing. The authorities had
+demolished it in 1827, in cutting a street through. It is certain that
+the commissioners had not demolished the family with the house, but a
+new difficulty all at once presented itself: the name of Pichon
+abounded in the city, the suburbs, and the department. Among this
+multitude of Pichons, Fougas did not know which one to hug. Tired of
+hunting, and eager to hasten forward on,the road to fortune, he left
+this note for the commissioner of police:</p>
+
+<p>"Search, on the registers of personal statistics and elsewhere, for
+a young girl named Clementine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205"
+id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> Pichon. She was eighteen years old
+in 1813; her parents kept an officers' boarding-house. If she is
+alive, get her address; if she is dead, look up her heirs. A father's
+happiness depends upon it!"</p>
+
+<p>On reaching Berlin, the Colonel found that his reputation had
+preceded him. The note from the Minister of War had been sent to the
+Prussian Government through the French legation; Leon Renault, despite
+his grief, had found time to write a word to Doctor Hirtz; the papers
+had begun to talk, and the scientific societies to bestir themselves.
+The Prince Regent, even, had not disdained to ask information on the
+subject from his physician. Germany is a queer country, where science
+interests the very princes.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas, who had read Doctor Hirtz's letter annexed to Herr Meiser's
+will, thought that he owed some acknowledgments to that excellent
+gentleman. He made a call upon him, and embraced him, addressing him
+as the oracle of Epidaurus. The doctor at once took possession of him,
+had his baggage brought from the hotel and gave him the best chamber
+in his house. Up to the 29th day of the month, the Colonel was cared
+for as a friend, and exhibited as a phenomenon. Seven photographers
+disputed the possession of so precious a sitter. The cities of Greece
+did no more for our poor old Homer. His Royal Highness, the Prince
+Regent, wished to see him <i>in propri&acirc; person&acirc;</i>, and
+begged Herr Hirtz to bring him to the palace. Fougas scratched his ear
+a little, and inti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206"
+id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>mated that a soldier ought not to
+associate with the enemy, seeming to think himself still in 1813.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince is a distinguished soldier, having commanded in person
+at the famous siege of Rastadt. He took pleasure in Fougas'
+conversation; the heroic simplicity of the young old-time soldier
+charmed him. He paid him huge compliments and said that the Emperor of
+France was very fortunate in having around him officers of so much
+merit.</p>
+
+<p>"He has not a great many," replied the Colonel. "If there were but
+four or five hundred of my stamp, your Europe would have been bagged
+long ago!"</p>
+
+<p>This answer seemed more amusing than threatening, and no addition
+was immediately made to the available portion of the Prussian
+army.</p>
+
+<p>His Royal Highness directly informed Fougas that his indemnity had
+been fixed at two hundred and fifty thousand francs, and that he could
+receive the amount at the treasury whenever he should find it
+agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>"My Lord," replied he, "it is always agreeable to pocket the money
+of an enemy&mdash;&mdash; a foreigner. But wait! I am not a
+censor-bearer to Plutus: give me back the Rhine and Posen, and I'll
+leave you your two hundred and fifty thousand francs."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you dreaming?" said the Prince, laughing. "The Rhine and
+Posen!"</p>
+
+<p>"The Rhine belongs to France, and the Posen to Poland, much more
+legitimately than this money to me. But so it is with great lords:
+they make it a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207"
+id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> duty to pay little debts, and a
+point of honor to ignore big ones!"</p>
+
+<p>The Prince winced a little, and all the faces of the court gave a
+sympathetic twitch. It was discovered that M. Fougas had evinced bad
+taste in letting a crumb of truth fall into a big plateful of
+follies.</p>
+
+<p>But a pretty little Viennese baroness, who was at the presentation,
+was much more charmed with his appearance than scandalized at his
+remarks. The ladies of Vienna have made for themselves a reputation
+for hospitality which they always attempt to support, even when they
+are away from their native land.</p>
+
+<p>The baroness of Marcomarcus had still another reason for getting
+hold of the Colonel: for two or three years she had, as a matter of
+course, been making a photographic collection of celebrated men. Her
+album was peopled with generals, statesmen, philosophers, and
+pianists, who had given their portraits to her, after writing on the
+back: "With respects of&mdash;&mdash;" There were to be found there
+several Roman prelates, and even a celebrated cardinal; but a more
+direct envoy from the other world was still wanting. She wrote Fougas,
+then, a note full of impatience and curiosity, inviting him to supper.
+Fougas, who was going to start for Dantzic next day, took a sheet of
+paper embossed with a great eagle, and set to work to excuse himself
+politely. He feared&mdash;the delicate and chivalrous soul!&mdash;that
+an evening of conversation and enjoyment in the society of the
+loveliest women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208"
+id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> of Germany might be a sort of moral
+infidelity to the recollection of Clementine. He accordingly hunted up
+an eligible formula of address, and wrote:</p>
+
+<p>"Too indulgent Beauty, I&mdash;&mdash;" The muse dictated nothing
+more. He was not in the mood for writing. He felt rather more in the
+mood for supper. His scruples scattered like clouds driven before a
+brisk North East wind; he put on the frogged surtout, and carried his
+reply himself. It was the first time that he had been out to supper
+since his resuscitation. He gave evidence of a good appetite, and got
+moderately drunk, but not as much so as usual. The Baroness de
+Marcomarcus, astonished at his high spirits and inexhaustible
+vivacity, kept him as long as she could. And moreover she said to her
+friends, on showing them the Colonel's portrait, "Nothing is needed
+but these French officers to conquer the world!"</p>
+
+<p>The next day he packed a black leather trunk which he had bought at
+Paris, drew his money from the treasury, and set out for Dantzic. He
+went to sleep in the cars because he had been out to supper the night
+before. A terrible snoring awoke him. He looked around for the snorer,
+and, not finding him near him, opened the door into the adjoining
+compartment (for the German cars are much larger than the French), and
+shook a fat gentleman, who seemed to have a whole organ playing in his
+person. At one of the stations he drank a bottle of Marsala and ate a
+couple of dozen sandwiches, for last
+night's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg
+209]</a></span> supper seemed to have hollowed out his stomach. At
+Dantzic, he rescued his black trunk from the hands of an enormous
+baggage-snatcher who was trying to take possession of it.</p>
+
+<p>He went to the best hotel in the place, ordered his supper, and
+hastened to Meiser's house. His friends at Berlin had given him
+accounts of that charming family. He knew that he would have to deal
+with the richest and most avaricious of sharpers: that was why he
+assumed the cavalier tone that may have seemed strange to more than
+one reader in the preceding chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Unhappily, he let himself become a little too human as soon as he
+had his million in his pocket. A curiosity to investigate the long
+yellow bottles all the way to the bottom, came near doing him an ugly
+turn. His reason wandered, about one o'clock in the morning, if I am
+to believe the account he himself gave. He said that, after saying
+"good night" to the excellent people who had treated him so well, he
+tumbled into a large and deep well, whose rim was hardly raised above
+the level of the street, and ought at least to have had a lamp by it.
+"I came to" (it is still he speaking) "in water, very fresh and of a
+pleasant taste. After swimming around a minute or two, looking for a
+firm place to take hold of, I seized a big rope, and climbed without
+any trouble to the surface of the earth, which was not more than forty
+feet off. It required nothing but wrists and a little gymnastic skill,
+and was not much of a feat, anyhow. On
+gett<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg
+210]</a></span>ing on to the pavement, I found myself in the presence
+of a sort of night watchman, who was bawling the hours through the
+street, and who asked me insolently what I was doing there. I thrashed
+him for his impudence, and the gentle exercise did me good, as it set
+my blood well in circulation again. Before getting back to the inn, I
+stopped under a street lamp, opened my pocket-book, and saw with
+pleasure that my million was not wet. The leather was thick, and the
+clasp firm; moreover, I had enveloped Herr Meiser's check in a
+half-dozen hundred-franc bills, in a roll as fat as a monk. These
+surroundings had preserved it."</p>
+
+<p>This examination being made, he went home, went to bed, and slept
+with his fists clenched. The next morning he received, on getting up,
+the following memoranda, which came from the Nancy police:</p>
+
+<p>"Clementine Pichon, aged eighteen, minor daughter of Auguste
+Pichon, hotel-keeper, and Leonie Francelot, was married, in this town,
+January 11, 1814, to Louis Antoine Langevin; profession not
+stated.</p>
+
+<p>"The name of Langevin is as rare in this department, as the name of
+Pichon is common. With the exception of the Hon. M. Victor Langevin,
+Counsellor to the Prefecture at Nancy, there is only known Langevin
+(Pierre), usually called Pierrot, miller in the commune of Vergaville,
+canton of Dieuze."</p>
+
+<p>Fougas jumped nearly to the ceiling, crying,</p>
+
+<p>"I have a son!"</p>
+
+<p>He called the hotel-keeper, and said to
+him:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg
+211]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Make out my bill, and send my baggage to the depot. Take my ticket
+for Nancy; I shall not stop on the way. Here are two hundred francs,
+with which I want you to drink to the health of my son! He is called
+Victor, after me! He is counsellor of the Prefecture! I'd rather he
+were a soldier; but never mind! Ah! first get somebody to show me the
+way to the bank! I must go and get a million for him!"</p>
+
+<p>As there is no direct connection between Dantzic and Nancy, he was
+obliged to stop at Berlin. M. Hirtz, whom he met accidentally, told
+him that the scientific societies of the city were preparing an
+immense banquet in his honor; but he declined positively.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not," said he, "that I despise an opportunity to drink in
+good company, but Nature has spoken: her voice draws me on! The
+sweetest intoxication to all rightly constituted hearts is that of
+paternal love!"</p>
+
+<p>To prepare, his dear child for the joy of a return so little
+expected, he enclosed his million in an envelope addressed to M.
+Victor Langevin, with a long letter which closed thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"A father's blessing is more precious than all the gold
+in the world!</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Victor Fougas</span>." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The infidelity of Clementine Pichon touched his <i>amour-propre</i>
+a little, but he soon consoled himself for
+it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg
+212]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"At least," thought he, "I'll not have to marry an old woman, when
+there's a young one waiting for me at Fontainebleau. And, moreover, my
+son has a name, and a very presentable name. Fougas would be a great
+deal better, but Langevin is not bad."</p>
+
+<p>He arrived, on the 2d of September, at six o'clock in the evening,
+at that large and beautiful but somewhat stupid city which constitutes
+the Versailles of Lorraine. His heart was beating fit to burst. To
+recuperate his energies, he took a good dinner. The landlord, when
+catechized at dessert, gave him the very best accounts of M. Victor
+Langevin: a man still young, married for the past six years, father of
+a boy and a girl, respected in the neighborhood, and prosperous in his
+affairs.</p>
+
+<p>"I was sure of it!" said Fougas.</p>
+
+<p>He poured down a bumper of a certain kirsch-wasser from the Black
+Forest, which he fancied delicious with his maccaroni.</p>
+
+<p>The same evening, M. Langevin related to his wife how, on returning
+from the club at ten o'clock, he had been brutally accosted by a
+drunken man. He at first took him for a robber, and prepared to defend
+himself; but the man contented himself with embracing him, and then
+ran away with all his might. This singular accident threw the two
+spouses into a series of conjectures, each less probable than the
+preceding. But as they were both young, and had been married barely
+seven years, they soon changed the
+subject.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg
+213]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The next morning, Fougas, laden down like a miller's ass with
+bon-bons, presented himself at M. Langevin's. In order to make himself
+welcome to his two grandchildren, he had skimmed the shop of the
+celebrated Leb&egrave;gue&mdash;the Boissier of Nancy. The servant who
+opened the door for him asked if he were the gentleman her master
+expected.</p>
+
+<p>"Good!" said he; "my letter has come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; yesterday morning. And your baggage?"</p>
+
+<p>"I left it at the hotel."</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur will not be satisfied at that. Your room is ready, up
+stairs."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks! thanks! thanks! Take this hundred franc note for the good
+news."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, monsieur! it was not worth so much."</p>
+
+<p>"But where is he? I want to see him&mdash;to embrace him&mdash;to
+tell him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He's dressing, monsieur; and so is madame."</p>
+
+<p>"And the children&mdash;my dear grandchildren?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you want to see them, they're right here, in the dining
+room."</p>
+
+<p>"If I want to! Open the door right away!"</p>
+
+<p>He discovered that the little boy resembled him, and was overjoyed
+to see him in the dress of an artillerist playing with a sabre. His
+pockets were soon emptied on the floor; and the two children, at the
+sight of so many good things, hung about his neck.</p>
+
+<p>"O philosophers!" cried the Colonel, "do you dare to deny the
+existence of the voice of
+Nature?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg
+214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A pretty little lady (all the young women are pretty in Nancy) ran
+in at the joyous cries of the little brood.</p>
+
+<p>"My daughter-in-law!" cried Fougas, opening his arms.</p>
+
+<p>The lady of the house modestly recoiled, and said, with a slight
+smile:</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken, sir; I am not your
+daughter-in-law;<a name="FNanchor_9_9"
+id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[9]</sup></a> I am Madame Langevin."</p>
+
+<p>"What a fool I am!" thought the Colonel. "Here I was going to tell
+our family secrets before these children. Mind your manners, Fougas!
+You are in fine society, where the ardor of the sweetest sentiments is
+hidden under the icy mask of indifference."</p>
+
+<p>"Be seated," said Mme. Langevin. "I hope that you have had a
+pleasant journey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, madame. Only steam seemed too slow for me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know that you were in such a hurry to get here."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not, then, appreciate that I was fairly burning to be with
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear it; it is a proof that Reason and Family
+Affection have made themselves heard at last."</p>
+
+<p>"Was it my fault that family ties did not speak effectually
+sooner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, after all, the main thing is that you have listened to them.
+We will exert ourselves to prevent your finding Nancy
+uninteresting."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215"
+id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How could I, since I am to live with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you! Our house will be yours. Try to imagine yourself
+entirely at home."</p>
+
+<p>"In imagination, and affection too, madame."</p>
+
+<p>"And you'll not think of Paris again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Paris!&mdash;-- I don't care any more for it than I do for
+doomsday!"</p>
+
+<p>"I forewarn you that people are not in the habit of fighting duels
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"What? You know already&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"We know all about it, even to the history of that famous supper
+with those rather volatile ladies."</p>
+
+<p>"How the devil did you hear of that? But that time, believe me, I
+was very excusable."</p>
+
+<p>M. Langevin here made his appearance, freshly shaven and
+rubicund&mdash;a fine specimen of the sub-prefect in embryo.</p>
+
+<p>"It's wonderful," thought Fougas, "how well all our family bear
+their years! One wouldn't call that chap over thirty-five, and he's
+forty-six if he's a day. He doesn't look a bit like me, by the way; he
+takes after his mother!"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear!" said Mme. Langevin, "here's a tough subject, who
+promises to be wiser in future."</p>
+
+<p>"You are welcome, young man!" said the Counsellor, offering his
+hand to Fougas.</p>
+
+<p>This reception appeared cold to our poor hero. He had been dreaming
+of a shower of kisses and tears, and here his children contented
+themselves with offering their
+hands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg
+216]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"My chi&mdash;&mdash; monsieur," said he to Langevin, "there is one
+person still needed to complete our reunion. A few mutual wrongs, and
+those smoothed over by time, ought not to build an insurmountable
+barrier between us. May I venture to request the favor of being
+presented to your mother?"</p>
+
+<p>M. Langevin and his wife opened their eyes in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"How, monsieur?" said the husband. "Paris life must have affected
+your memory. My poor mother is no more. It is now three years since we
+lost her!"</p>
+
+<p>The good Fougas burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me!" said he; "I didn't know it. Poor woman!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand you! You knew my mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ingrate!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you're an amusing fellow! But your parents were invited to
+the funeral, were they not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whose parents?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your father and mother!"</p>
+
+<p>"Eh! What's this you're cackling to me about? My mother was dead
+before yours was born!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, certainly; in '89!"</p>
+
+<p>"What! Wasn't it your mother who sent you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Monster! It was my fatherly heart that brought
+me!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg
+217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Fatherly heart?&mdash;&mdash; Why, then you're not young Jamin,
+who has been cutting up didoes in the capital, and has been sent to
+Nancy to go through the Agricultural School?"</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel answered with the voice of Jupiter tonans:</p>
+
+<p>"I am Fougas!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well!"</p>
+
+<p>"If Nature says nothing to you in my behalf, ungrateful son,
+question the spirit of your mother!"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my soul, sir," cried the Counsellor, "we can play at cross
+purposes a good while! Sit down there, if you please, and tell me your
+business&mdash;&mdash; Marie, take away the children."</p>
+
+<p>Fougas did not require any urging. He detailed the romance of his
+life, without omitting anything, but with many delicate touches for
+the filial ears of M. Langevin. The Counsellor heard him patiently,
+with an appearance of perfect disinterestedness.</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur," said he, at last, "at first I took you for a madman;
+but now I remember that the newspapers have contained some scraps of
+your history, and I see that you are the victim of a mistake. I am not
+forty-six years old, but thirty-four. My mother's name was not
+Clementine Pichon, but Marie Herval. She was not born at Nancy, but at
+Vannes, and she was but seven years old in 1813. Nevertheless, I am
+happy to make your acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you're not my son!" replied Fougas, angrily. "Very well! So
+much the worse for you!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218"
+id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> No one seems to want a father of the
+name of Fougas! As for sons by the name of Langevin, one only has to
+stoop to pick them up. I know where to find one who is not a
+Counsellor of the Prefecture, it is true, and who does not put on a
+laced coat to go to mass, but who has an honest and simple heart, and
+is named Pierre, just like me! But, I beg your pardon, when one shows
+gentlemen the door, one ought at least to return what belongs to
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't prevent your collecting the bon-bons which my children
+have scattered over the floor."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'm talking about bon-bons with a vengeance! My million,
+sir!"</p>
+
+<p>"What million?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your brother's million!&mdash;-- No! The million that belongs to
+him who is not your brother&mdash;to Clementine's son, my dear and
+only child, the only scion of my race, Pierre Langevin, called
+Pierrot, a miller at Vergaville!"</p>
+
+<p>"But I assure you, monsieur, that I haven't your million, or
+anybody's else."</p>
+
+<p>"You dare to deny it, scoundrel, when I sent it to you by mail,
+myself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly you sent it, but I certainly have not received it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! Defend yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>He made at his throat, and perhaps France would have lost a
+Counsellor of Prefecture that day, if the servant had not come in with
+two letters in her hand. Fougas recognized his own handwriting and
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg
+219]</a></span> Berlin postmark, tore open the envelope, and displayed
+the check.</p>
+
+<p>"Here," said he, "is the million I intended for you, if you had
+seen fit to be my son! Now it's too late for you to retract. The voice
+of Nature calls me to Vergaville. Your servant, sir!"</p>
+
+<p>On the 4th of September, Pierre Langevin, miller at Vergaville,
+celebrated the marriage of Cadet Langevin, his second son. The
+miller's family was numerous, respectable, and in comfortable
+circumstances. First, there was the grandfather, a fine, hale old man,
+who took his four meals a day, and doctored his little ailings with
+the wine of Bar or Thiaucourt. The grandmother, Catharine, had been
+pretty in her day, and a little frivolous; but she expiated by
+absolute deafness the crime of having listened too tenderly to
+gallants. M. Pierre Langevin, alias Pierrot, alias Big Peter, after
+having sought his fortune in America (a custom becoming quite general
+in the rural districts), had returned to the village in pretty much
+the condition of the infant Saint John, and God only knows how many
+jokes were perpetrated over his ill luck. The people of Lorraine are
+terrible wags, and if you are not fond of personal jokes, I advise you
+not to travel in their neighborhood. Big Peter, stung to the quick,
+and half crazed at having run through his inheritance, borrowed money
+at ten per cent., bought the mill at Vergaville, worked like a
+plough-horse in heavy land, and repaid his capital and the interest.
+Fortune, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg
+220]</a></span> owed him some compensations, gave him <i>gratis pro
+Deo</i>, a half dozen superb workers&mdash;six big boys, whom his wife
+presented him with, one annually, as regularly as clock-work. Every
+year, nine months, to a day, after the <i>f&ecirc;te</i> of
+Vergaville, Claudine (otherwise known as Glaudine) presented one for
+baptism. At last she died after the sixth, from eating four huge
+pieces of <i>quiche</i> before her churching. Big Peter did not marry
+again, having concluded that he had workers enough, and he continued
+to add to his fortune nicely. But, as standing jokes last a long time
+in villages, the miller's comrades still spoke to him about those
+famous millions which he did not bring back from America, and Big
+Peter grew very red under his flour, just as he used to in his earlier
+days.</p>
+
+<p>On the 4th of September, then, he married his second son to a good
+big woman of Altroff, who had fat and blazing cheeks: this being a
+kind of beauty much affected in the country. The wedding took place at
+the mill, because the bride was orphaned of father and mother, and had
+previously lived with the nuns of Molsheim.</p>
+
+<p>A messenger came and told Pierre Langevin that a gentleman wearing
+decorations had something to say to him, and Fougas appeared in all
+his glory. "My good sir," said the miller, "I am far from being in a
+mood to talk business, as we just took a good pull at white wine
+before mass; but we are going to drink some red wine that's by no
+means bad, at dinner, and if your heart prompts you, don't be
+back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg
+221]</a></span>ward! The table is a long one. We can talk afterwards.
+You don't say no? Then that's yes."</p>
+
+<p>"For once," thought Fougas, "I am not mistaken. This is surely the
+voice of Nature! I would have liked a soldier better, but this genial
+rustic, so comfortably rounded, satisfies my heart. I cannot be
+indebted to him for many gratifications of my pride; but never mind! I
+am sure of <i>his</i> good-will."</p>
+
+<p>Dinner was served, and the table more heavily laden with viands
+than the stomach of Gargantua. Big Peter, as proud of his big family
+as of his little fortune, made the Colonel stand by as he enumerated
+his children. And Fougas was joyful at learning that he had six
+welcome grandchildren.</p>
+
+<p>He was seated at the right of a little stunted old woman who was
+presented to him as the grandmother of the youngsters. Heavens! how
+changed Clementine appeared to him. Save the eyes which were still
+lively and sparkling, there was no longer anything about her that
+could be recognized. "See," thought Fougas, "what I would have been
+like to-day, if the worthy John Meiser had not desiccated me!" He
+smiled to himself on regarding Grandfather Langevin, the reputed
+progenitor of this numerous family. "Poor old fellow," murmured
+Fougas, "you little think what you owe to me!"</p>
+
+<p>They dine boisterously at village weddings. This is an abuse which,
+I sincerely hope, Civilization will never reform. Under cover of the
+noise, Fougas entered into conversation, or thought he did,
+with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg
+222]</a></span> his left-hand neighbor. "Clementine!" he said to her.
+She raised her eyes, and her nose too, and responded:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"My heart has not deceived me, then?&mdash;you are indeed my
+Clementine!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have recognized me, noble and excellent woman!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"But how did you conceal your emotion so well?&mdash;&mdash; How
+strong women are!&mdash;-- I fall from the skies into the midst of
+your peaceful existence, and you see me without moving a muscle!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you forgiven me for a seeming injury for which Destiny alone
+is responsible?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks! A thousand thanks!&mdash;-- What a charming family you
+have about you! This good Pierre, who almost opened his arms on seeing
+me approach, is my son, is he not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>"Rejoice! He shall be rich! He already has happiness; I bring him
+fortune. His portion shall be a million. Oh, Clementine! what a
+commotion there will be in this simple assembly, when I raise my voice
+and say to my son: 'Here! this million is for you!' Is it a good time
+now? Shall I speak? Shall I tell
+all?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg
+223]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>Fougas immediately arose, and requested silence. The people thought
+he was going to sing a song, and all kept quiet.</p>
+
+<p>"Pierre Langevin," said he with emphasis, "I have come back from
+the other world, and brought you a million."</p>
+
+<p>If Big Peter did not want to get angry, he at least got red, and
+the joke seemed to him in bad taste. But when Fougas announced that he
+had loved the grandmother in her youth, grandfather Langevin no longer
+hesitated to fling a bottle at his head. The Colonel's son, his
+splendid grandchildren, and even the bride all jumped up in high
+dudgeon and there was a very pretty scrimmage indeed.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in his life, Fougas did not get the upper hand.
+He was afraid that he might injure some of his family. Paternal
+affection robbed him of three quarters of his power.</p>
+
+<p>But having learned during the clamor that Clementine was called
+Catharine, and that Pierre Langevin was born in 1810, he resumed the
+offensive, blacked three eyes, broke an arm, mashed two noses, knocked
+in four dozen teeth, and regained his carriage with all the honors of
+war.</p>
+
+<p>"Devil take the children!" said he, while riding in a post-chaise
+toward the Avricourt station. "If I have a son, I wish he may find
+me!"</p>
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg
+224]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>HE SEEKS AND BESTOWS THE HAND OF CLEMENTINE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>On the fifth of September, at ten o'clock in the morning, Leon
+Renault, emaciated, dejected and scarcely recognizable, was at the
+feet of Clementine Sambucco in her aunt's parlor. There were flowers
+on the mantel and flowers in all the vases. Two great burglar sunbeams
+broke through the open windows. A million of little bluish atoms were
+playing in the light, crossing each other and getting fantastically
+mixed up, like the ideas in a volume of M. Alfred Houssaye. In the
+garden, the apples were falling, the peaches were ripe, the hornets
+were ploughing broad, deep furrows in the <i>duchesse</i> pears; the
+trumpet-flowers and clematis-vines were in blossom, and to crown all,
+a great mass of heliotropes, trained over the left window, was
+flourishing in all its beauty. The sun had given all the grapes in the
+arbor a tint of golden bronze; and the great Yucca on the lawn, shaken
+by the wind like a Chinese hat, noiselessly clashed its silver bells.
+But the son of M. Renault was more pale and haggard than
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg
+225]</a></span> white lilac sprays, more blighted than the leaves on
+the old cherry-tree; his heart was without joy and without hope, like
+the currant bushes without leaves and without fruit!</p>
+
+<p>To be exiled from his native land, to have lived three years in an
+inhospitable climate, to have passed so many days in deep mines, so
+many nights over an earthenware stove in the midst of an infinity of
+bugs and a multiplicity of serfs, and to see himself set aside for a
+twenty-five-louis Colonel whom he himself had brought to life by
+soaking him in water!</p>
+
+<p>All men are subject to disappointments, but surely never had one
+encountered a misfortune so unforeseen and so extraordinary. Leon knew
+that Earth is not a valley flowing with chocolate and soup <i>&agrave;
+la reine</i>. He knew the list of the renowned unfortunates beginning
+with Abel slain in the garden of Paradise, and ending with Rubens
+assassinated in the gallery of the Louvre at Paris. But history, which
+seldom instructs us, never consoles us. The poor engineer in vain
+repeated to himself that a thousand others had been supplanted on the
+day before marriage, and a hundred thousand on the day after.
+Melancholy was stronger than Reason, and three or four soft locks were
+beginning to whiten about his temples.</p>
+
+<p>"Clementine!" said he, "I am the most miserable of men. In refusing
+me the hand which you have promised, you condemn me to agony a hundred
+times worse than death. Alas! What would you have me become without
+you? I must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg
+226]</a></span> live alone, for I love you too well to marry another.
+For four long years, all my affections, all my thoughts have been
+centred upon you; I have become accustomed to regard other women as
+inferior beings, unworthy of attracting the interest of a man! I will
+not speak to you of the efforts I have made to deserve you; they
+brought their reward in themselves, and I was already too happy in
+working and suffering for you. But see the misery in which your
+desertion has left me! A sailor thrown upon a desert island has less
+to deplore than I: I will be forced to live near you, to witness the
+happiness of another, to see you pass my windows upon the arm of my
+rival! Ah! death would be more endurable than this constant agony. But
+I have not even the right to die! My poor old parents have already
+sorrows enough. What would it be, Great God! if I were to condemn them
+to bear the loss of their son?"</p>
+
+<p>This complaint, punctuated with sighs and tears, lacerated the
+heart of Clementine. The poor child wept too, for she loved Leon with
+her whole soul, but she was interdicted from telling him so. More than
+once, on seeing him half dying before her, she felt tempted to throw
+her arms about his neck, but the recollection of Fougas paralyzed all
+her tender impulses.</p>
+
+<p>"My poor friend," said she, "you judge me very wrongfully if you
+think me insensible to your sufferings. I have known you thoroughly,
+Leon, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg
+227]</a></span> that too since my very childhood. I know all that
+there is in you of devotion, delicacy and precious and noble virtues.
+Since the time when you carried me in your arms to the poor, and put a
+penny in my hand to teach me to give alms, I have never heard
+benevolence spoken of without involuntarily thinking of you. When you
+whipped a boy twice your size for taking away my doll, I felt that
+courage was noble and that a woman would be happy in being able to
+lean on a brave man. All that I have ever seen you do since that time,
+has only redoubled my esteem and my sympathy. Believe me that it is
+neither from wickedness or ingratitude that I make you suffer now.
+Alas! I no longer belong to myself, I am under external control; I am
+like those automatons that move without knowing why. Yes, I feel an
+impulse within me more powerful than my self control, and it is the
+will of another that leads me."</p>
+
+<p>"If I could but be sure that you will be happy! But no! This man,
+before whom you immolate me, will never know the worth of a soul as
+delicate as yours. He is a brute, a swash-buckler, a drunkard."</p>
+
+<p>"I beseech you, Leon, remember that he has a right to my unreserved
+respect!"</p>
+
+<p>"Respect! For him! And why? I ask of you, in Heaven's name, what
+you find respectable in the character of Mister Fougas? His age? He is
+younger than I. His talents? He never shows them anywhere but at the
+table. His education? It's
+lovely!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg
+228]</a></span> His virtues? <i>I</i> know what is to be thought of
+his refinement and gratitude!"</p>
+
+<p>"I have respected him, Leon, since I first saw him in his coffin.
+It is a sentiment stronger than all else; I cannot explain it, I can
+but submit to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well! Respect him as much as you please! Yield to the
+superstition that enchains you. See in him a miraculous being,
+consecrated, rescued from the grip of Death to accomplish something
+great on earth! But this itself, Oh my dear Clementine, is a barrier
+between you and him! If Fougas is outside of the conditions of
+humanity, if he is a phenomenon, a being apart, a hero, a demigod, a
+fetich, you cannot seriously think of becoming his wife. As for me, I
+am but a man like others, born to work, to suffer and to love. I love
+you! Love me!"</p>
+
+<p>"Scoundrel!" cried Fougas, opening the door.</p>
+
+<p>Clementine uttered a cry, Leon sprung up quickly, but the Colonel
+had already seized him by the most practicable part of his nankeen
+suit, before he had even time to think of a single word in reply. The
+engineer was lifted up, balanced like an atom in one of the sunbeams,
+and flung into the very midst of the heliotropes. Poor Leon! Poor
+heliotropes!</p>
+
+<p>In less than a second, the young man was on his feet. He dusted the
+earth from his knees and elbows, approached the window, and said in a
+calm but resolute voice: "Mister Colonel, I sincerely regret having
+brought you back to life, but possibly
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg
+229]</a></span> folly of which I have been guilty is not irreparable.
+I hope soon to have an opportunity to find out if it be! As for you,
+Mademoiselle, I love you!"</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel shrugged his shoulders and put himself at the young
+girl's feet on the very cushion which still bore the impression left
+by Leon. Mlle. Virginie Sambucco, attracted by the noise, came down
+stairs like an avalanche and heard the following conversation.</p>
+
+<p>"Idol of a great soul! Fougas returns to thee like the eagle to his
+eyrie. I have long traversed the world in pursuit of rank, fortune and
+family which I was burning to lay at thy feet. Fortune has obeyed me
+as a slave: she knows in what school I learned the art of controlling
+her. I have gone through Paris and Germany like a victorious meteor
+led by its star. I have everywhere associated as an equal with the
+powers of Earth, and made the trumpet of truth resound in the halls of
+kings. I have put my foot on the throat of greedy Avarice, and
+snatched from him a part, at least, of the treasures which he had
+stolen from too-confiding Honor. One only blessing is denied me: the
+son I hoped to see has escaped the lynx-eyes of paternal love. Neither
+have I found the ancient object of my first affections. But what
+matters it? I shall feel the want of nothing, if you fill for me the
+place of all. What do we wait for now? Are you deaf to the voice of
+Happiness which calls you? Let us go to the temple of the laws, then
+you shall follow me to the foot of the altar; a
+priest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg
+230]</a></span> shall consecrate our bonds, and we will go through
+life leaning on one another, I like the oak sustaining weakness, thou
+like the graceful ivy ornamenting the emblem of
+strength."<a name="FNanchor_10_10"
+id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[10]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Clementine remained a few moments without answering, as if stunned
+by the Colonel's vehement rhetoric. "Monsieur Fougas," she said to
+him, "I have always obeyed you, I promise to obey you all my life. If
+you do not wish me to marry poor Leon, I will renounce him. I love him
+devotedly, nevertheless, and a single word from him arouses more
+emotion in my heart than all the fine things you have said to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! Very good!" cried the Aunt. "As for me, sir, although you
+have never done me the honor to consult me, I will tell you my
+opinion. My niece is not at all the woman to suit you. Were you richer
+than M. de Rothschild and more illustrious than the Duke of Malakoff,
+I would not advise Clementine to marry you."</p>
+
+<p>"And why, chaste Minerva?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you would love her fifteen days, and then, at the first
+sound of cannon, be off to the wars! You would abandon her, sir, just
+as you did that unhappy Clementine whose misfortunes have been
+recounted to us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Zounds! Lady Aunt! I <i>do</i> advise you to bestow your pity
+on <i>her</i>! Three months after Leipzic, she married a fellow named
+Langevin at Nancy."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231"
+id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I say that she married a military commissary named Langevin."</p>
+
+<p>"At Nancy?"</p>
+
+<p>"At that identical town."</p>
+
+<p>"This is strange!</p>
+
+<p>"It's outrageous!</p>
+
+<p>"But this woman&mdash;this young girl&mdash;her name?</p>
+
+<p>"I've told you a hundred times: Clementine!"</p>
+
+<p>"Clementine what?</p>
+
+<p>"Clementine Pichon."</p>
+
+<p>"Gracious Heavens! My keys! Where are my keys? I'm sure I put them
+in my pocket! Clementine Pichon! M. Langevin! It's impossible! My
+senses are forsaking me! Come, my child, bestir yourself! The
+happiness of your whole life is concerned. Where <i>did</i> you poke
+my keys? Ah! Here they are!"</p>
+
+<p>Fougas bent over to Clementine's ear, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Is she subject to these attacks? One, would suppose that the poor
+old girl had lost her head!"</p>
+
+<p>But Virginie Sambucco had already opened a little rosewood
+secretary. Her unerring glance discovered in a file of papers, a sheet
+yellow with age.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got it!" said she with a cry of joy. "Marie Clementine
+Pichon, legitimate daughter of August Pichon, hotel keeper, <i>rue des
+Merlettes</i>, in this town of Nancy; married June 10th, 1814, to
+Joseph Langevin, military sub-commissary. Is it surely she, Monsieur?
+Dare to say it isn't she!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232"
+id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well! But how do you happen to have my family papers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Clementine! And you accuse her of unfaithfulness! You do not
+understand then that you had been taken for dead! That she supposed
+herself a widow without having been a wife; that&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It's all right! It's all right! I forgive her. Where is she? I
+want to see her, to embrace her, to tell her&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"She is dead, Monsieur! She died three months after she was
+married,"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! The Devil!"</p>
+
+<p>"In giving birth to a daughter&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is my daughter? I'd rather have had a son, but never mind!
+Where is she? I want to see her, to embrace her, to tell
+her&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas! She is no more! But I can conduct you to her tomb."</p>
+
+<p>"But how the Devil did you know her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she married my brother!"</p>
+
+<p>"Without my consent? But never mind! At least she left some
+children, didn't she?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only one."</p>
+
+<p>"A son! He is my grandson!"</p>
+
+<p>"A daughter."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind! She is my granddaughter! I'd rather have had a
+grandson, but where is she? I want to see her, to embrace her, to tell
+her&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Embrace away, Monsieur! Her name is Clementine: after her
+grandmother, and there she
+is!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg
+233]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She! That accounts for the resemblance! But then I can't marry
+her! Never mind! Clementine! Come to my arms! Embrace your
+grandfather!"</p>
+
+<p>The poor child had not been able entirely to comprehend this rapid
+conversation, from which events had been falling like tiles, upon the
+head of the Colonel. She had always heard M. Langevin spoken of as her
+maternal grandfather, and now she seemed to hear that her mother was
+the daughter of Fougas. But she knew at the first words, that it was
+no longer possible for her to marry the Colonel, and that she would
+soon be married to Leon Renault. It was, therefore, from an impulse of
+joy and gratitude that she flung herself into the arms of the
+young-old man.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Monsieur!" said she, "I have always loved and respected you
+like a grandfather!"</p>
+
+<p>"And I, my poor child, have always behaved myself like an old
+beast! All men are brutes, and all women are angels. You divined with
+the delicate instinct of your sex, that you owed me respect, and I,
+fool that I am, didn't divine anything at all! Whew! Without the
+venerable Aunt there, I'd have made a pretty piece of work!"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said the aunt." You would have found out the truth in going
+over our family papers."</p>
+
+<p>"Would that I could have seen them and nothing more! Just to think
+that I went off to seek my heirs in the department of Meurthe, when I
+had left my family in Fontainebleau! Imbecile! Bah! But never mind.
+Clementine! You shall be rich, you
+shall<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg
+234]</a></span> marry the man you love! Where is he, the brave boy? I
+want to see him, to embrace him, to tell him&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, Monsieur; you just threw him out of the window."</p>
+
+<p>"I? Hold on, it <i>is</i> true. I had forgotten all about it.
+Fortunately he's not hurt, and I'll go at once and make amends for my
+folly. You shall get married when you want to; the two weddings shall
+come off together.&mdash;But in fact, no! What am I saying? I shall
+not marry now! It will all be well soon, my child, my dear
+granddaughter. Mademoiselle Sambucco you're a model aunt; embrace
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>He ran to M. Renault's house, and Gothon, who saw him coming, ran
+down to shut him out.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't you ashamed of yourself," said she, "to act this way with
+them as brought you to life again? Ah! If it had to be done over
+again! We wouldn't turn the house upside down again for the sake of
+your fine eyes! Madame's crying, Monsieur is tearing his hair, M. Leon
+has just been sending two officers to hunt you up. What have you been
+at again since morning?"</p>
+
+<p>Fougas gave her a twirl on her feet and found himself face to face
+with the engineer. Leon had heard the sound of a quarrel, and on
+seeing the Colonel excited, with flashing eyes, he expected some
+brutal aggression and did not wait for the first blow. A struggle took
+place in the passage amid the
+cries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg
+235]</a></span> of Gothon, M. Renault and the poor old lady, who was
+screaming: "Murder!" Leon wrestled, kicked, and from time to time
+launched a vigorous blow into the body of his antagonist. He had to
+succumb, nevertheless; the Colonel finished by upsetting him on the
+ground and holding him there. Then he kissed him on both cheeks and
+said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! You naughty boy! Now I'm pretty sure to make you listen to me!
+I am Clementine's grandfather, and I give her to you in marriage, and
+you can have the wedding to-morrow if you want to! Do you hear? Now
+get up, and don't you punch me in the stomach any more. It would be
+almost parricide!"</p>
+
+<p>Mlle. Sambucco and Clementine arrived in the midst of the general
+stupefaction. They completed the recital of Fougas, who had gotten
+himself pretty badly mixed up in the genealogy. Leon's seconds
+appeared in their turn. They had not found the enemy in the hotel
+where he had taken up his quarters, and came to give an account of
+their mission. A tableau of perfect happiness met their astonished
+gaze, and Leon invited them to the wedding.</p>
+
+<p>"My friends," said Fougas, "you shall see undeceived Nature bless
+the chains of Love."</p>
+
+<hr>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg
+236]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>A THUNDERBOLT FROM A CLEAR SKY.</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p>"Mlle. Virginie Sambucco has the honor to announce to
+you the marriage of Mlle. Clementine Sambucco, her niece, to M. Leon
+Renault, civil engineer.</p>
+
+<p>"M. and Mme. Renault have the honor to announce to you the marriage
+of M. Leon Renault, their son, to Mlle. Clementine Sambucco;</p>
+
+<p>"And invite you to be present at the nuptial benediction which will
+be given them on the 11th of September, 1859, in the church of Saint
+Maxcence, in their parish, at eleven o'clock
+precisely." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Fougas absolutely insisted that his name should figure on the
+cards. They had all the trouble in the world to cure him of this whim.
+Mme. Renault lectured him two full hours. She told him that in the
+eyes of society, as well as in the eyes of the law, Clementine was the
+granddaughter of M. Langevin; that, moreover, M. Langevin had acted
+very liberally in legitimizing by marriage, a daughter that was not
+his own; finally, that the publication of such a family secret would
+be an outrage against the sanctity of the grave and would tarnish the
+memory of poor Clementine Pichon. The Colonel answered with
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg
+237]</a></span> warmth of a young man, and the obstinacy of an old
+one:</p>
+
+<p>"Nature has her rights; they are anterior to the conventions of
+society, and a thousand times more exalted. The honor of her I called
+my &AElig;gle, is dearer to me than all the treasures of the world,
+and I would cleave the soul of any rash being who should attempt to
+tarnish it. In yielding to the ardor of my vows, she but conformed to
+the custom of a great epoch when the uncertainty of life and the
+constant existence of war simplified all formalities. And in
+conclusion, I do not wish that my grandchildren, yet to be born,
+should be ignorant that the source of their blood is in the veins of
+Fougas. Your Langevin is but an intruder who covertly slipped into my
+family. A commissary! It's almost a sutler! I spurn under foot the
+ashes of Langevin!"</p>
+
+<p>His obstinacy would not yield to the arguments of Mme. Renault, but
+it succumbed to the entreaties of Clementine. The young creole twisted
+him around her finger with irresistible grace.</p>
+
+<p>"My good Grandpa this, my pretty little Grandpa that; my old baby
+of a Grandpa, we'll send you off to college if you're not
+reasonable!"</p>
+
+<p>She used to seat herself familiarly on Fougas' knee, and give him
+little love pats on the cheeks. The Colonel would assume the gruffest
+possible voice, and then his heart would overflow with tenderness, and
+he would cry like a child.</p>
+
+<p>These familiarities added nothing to the
+hap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg
+238]</a></span>piness of Leon Renault; I even think that they slightly
+tempered his joy. Yet he certainly did not doubt either the love of
+his betrothed or the honor of Fougas. He was forced to admit that
+between a grandfather and his granddaughter such little liberties are
+natural and proper and could justly offend no one. But the situation
+was so new and so unusual that he needed a little time to adapt his
+feelings to it, and forget his chagrin. This grandfather, for whom he
+had paid five-hundred francs, whose ear he had broken, for whom he had
+bought a burial-place in the Fontainebleau cemetery: this ancestor
+younger than himself, whom he had seen drunk, whom he had found
+agreeable, then dangerous, then insupportable: this venerable head of
+the family who had begun by demanding Clementine's hand and ended by
+pitching his future grandson into the heliotropes, could not all at
+once obtain unmingled respect and unreserved affection.</p>
+
+<p>M. and Mme. Renault exhorted their son to submission and deference.
+They represented M. Fougas to him as a relative who ought to be
+treated with consideration.</p>
+
+<p>"A few days of patience!" said the good mother. "He will not stay
+with us long; he is a soldier and can't live out of the army any
+better than a fish out of water."</p>
+
+<p>But Leon's parents, in the bottom of their hearts, held a bitter
+remembrance of so many pangs and mortifications. Fougas had been the
+scourge of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239"
+id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> family; the wounds which he had made
+could not heal over in a day. Even Gothon bore him ill will without
+confessing it. She heaved great sighs while preparing for the wedding
+festivities at Mlle. Sambucco's.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! my poor C&eacute;lestin!" said she to her acolyte. "What a little
+rascal of a grandfather we're going to have to be sure!"</p>
+
+<p>The only person who was perfectly at ease was Fougas. He had passed
+the sponge over his pranks; out of all the evil he had done, he
+retained no ill will against any one. Very paternal with Clementine,
+very gracious with M. and Mme. Renault, he evinced for Leon the most
+frank and cordial friendship.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy," said he to him, "I have studied you, I know you, and
+I love you thoroughly; you deserve to be happy, and you shall be. You
+shall soon see that in buying me for twenty-five napoleons, you didn't
+make a bad bargain. If gratitude were banished from the universe, it
+would find a last abiding place in the heart of Fougas!"</p>
+
+<p>Three days before the marriage, M. Bonnivet informed the family
+that the colonel had come into his office to ask for a conference
+about the contract. He had scarcely cast his eyes on the sheet of
+stamped paper, when Rrrrip! it was in pieces in the fireplace.</p>
+
+<p>"Mister Note-scratcher," he said, "do me the honor of beginning
+your
+<i>chef-d'oeuvre</i> over again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> The granddaughter of Fougas does not marry
+with an annuity of eight thousand francs. Nature and Friendship give her
+a million. Here it is!"</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon he took from his pocket a bank check for a million, paced
+the study proudly, making his boots creak, and threw a thousand-franc
+note on a clerk's desk, crying in his clearest tones:</p>
+
+<p>"Children of the Law! Here's something to drink the health of the
+Emperor and the Grand Army with!"</p>
+
+<p>The Renault family strongly remonstrated against this liberality.
+Clementine, on being told of it by her intended, had a long
+discussion, in the presence of Mlle. Sambucco, with the young and
+terrible grandpapa; she tried to impress upon him that he was but
+twenty-four years old, that he would be getting married some day, and
+that his property belonged to his future family.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not wish," said she, "that your children should accuse me of
+having robbed them. Keep your millions for my little uncles and
+aunts!"</p>
+
+<p>But for once, Fougas would not yield an inch.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you mocking me?" he said to Clementine. "Do you think that I
+will be guilty of the folly of marrying now? I do not promise you to
+live like a monk of La Trappe, but at my age, a man put together like
+I am can find enough to talk to around the garrisons without marrying
+anybody. Mars does not borrow the torch of Hymen to light the little
+aberrations of Venus! Why does man
+ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg
+241]</a></span> tie himself in matrimonial bonds?... For the sake of
+being a father. I am one already, in the comparative degree, and in a
+year, if our brave Leon does a man's part, I shall assume the
+superlative. Great-grandfather! That's a lovely position for a trooper
+twenty-five years old! At forty-five or fifty, I shall be
+great-great-grandfather. At seventy ... the French language has no
+more words to express what I shall become! But we can order one from
+those babblers of the Academy! Are you afraid that I'll want for
+anything in my old age? I have my pay, in the first place, and my
+officer's cross. When I reach the years of Anchises or Nestor, I will
+have my halt-pay. Add to all this the two hundred and fifty thousand
+francs from the king of Prussia, and you shall see that I have not
+only bread, but all essential fixings in the bargain, up to the close
+of my career. Moreover, I have a perpetual grant, for which your
+husband has paid in advance, in the Fontainebleau cemetery. With all
+these possessions, and simple tastes, one is sure not to eat up one's
+resources!"</p>
+
+<p>Willing or unwilling, they had to concede all he required and
+accept his million. This act of generosity made a great commotion in
+the town, and the name of Fougas, already celebrated in so many ways,
+acquired a new prestige. The signature of the bride was attested by
+the Marshal the Duke of Solferino and the illustrious Karl Nibor, who
+but a few days before had been elected to the Academy of
+Sciences.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg
+242]</a></span> Leon modestly retained the old friends whom he had
+long since chosen, M. Audret the architect, and M. Bonnivet the
+notary.</p>
+
+<p>The Mayor was brilliant in his new scarf. The <i>cur&eacute;</i>
+addressed to the young couple an affecting allocution on the
+inexhaustible goodness of Providence, which still occasionally
+performs a miracle for the benefit of true Christians. Fougas, who had
+not discharged his religious duties since 1801, soaked two
+handkerchiefs with tears.</p>
+
+<p>"One must always part from those nearest the heart," said he on
+going out of church. "But God and I are made to understand each other!
+After all, what is God but a little more universal Napoleon!"</p>
+
+<p>A Pantagruelic feast, presided over by Mlle. Virginie Sambucco in a
+dress of puce-colored silk, followed immediately upon the marriage
+ceremony. Twenty-four persons were present at this
+family <i>f&ecirc;te</i>, among others the new colonel of the 23d and
+M. du Marnet, who was almost well of his wound.</p>
+
+<p>Fougas took up his napkin with a certain anxiety. He hoped that the
+Marshal had brought his brevet as brigadier general. His expressive
+countenance manifested lively disappointment at the empty plate.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Solferino, who had been seated at the place of honor,
+noticed this physiognomical display, and said aloud:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be impatient, my old comrade! I know what you miss; it was
+not my fault that
+the <i>f&ecirc;te</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243"
+id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> was not complete. The minister of
+war was out when I dropped in on my way here. I was told however, at
+the department, that your affair was kept in suspense by a technical
+question, but that you would receive a letter from the office within
+twenty-four hours."</p>
+
+<p>"Devil take the documents!" cried Fougas. "They've got them all,
+from my birth-certificate, down to the copy of my brevet colonel's
+commission. You'll find out that they want a certificate of
+vaccination or some such six-penny shinplaster!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Patience, young man! You've time enough to wait. It's not such
+a case as mine: without the Italian campaign, which gave me a chance
+to snatch the baton, they would have slit my ear like a condemned
+horse, under the empty pretext that I was sixty-five years old. You're
+not yet twenty-five, and you're on the point of becoming a brigadier:
+the Emperor promised it to you before me. In four or five years from
+now, you'll have the gold stars, unless some bad luck interferes.
+After which you'll need nothing but the command of an army and a
+successful campaign to make you Marshal of France and Senator, which
+may nothing prevent!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," responded Fougas; "I'll reach it. Not only because I am the
+youngest of all the officers of my grade, and because I have been in
+the mightiest of wars and followed the lessons of the master of
+Bellona's fields, but above all because Destiny
+has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg
+244]</a></span> marked me with her sign. Why did the bullets spare me
+in more than twenty battles? Why have I sped over oceans of steel and
+fire without my skin receiving a scratch? It is because I have a star,
+as <i>He</i> had. His was the grander, it is true, but it went out at
+St. Helena, while mine is burning in Heaven still! If Doctor Nibor
+resuscitated me with a few drops of warm water, it was because my
+destiny was not yet accomplished. If the will of the French people has
+re-established the imperial throne, it was to furnish me a series of
+opportunities for my valor, during the conquest of Europe which we are
+about to recommence! <i>Vive l'Empereur</i>, and me too! I shall be
+duke or prince in less than ten years, and ... why not? One might try
+to be at roll-call on the day when crowns are distributed! In that
+case, I will adopt Clementine's oldest son: we will call him Pierre
+Victor II., and he shall succeed me on the throne just as Louis XV.
+succeeded his grandfather Louis XIV.!"</p>
+
+<p>As he was finishing this wonderful speech, a <i>gendarme</i>
+entered the dining room, asked for Colonel Fougas, and handed him a
+letter from the Minister of War.</p>
+
+<p>"Gad!" cried the Marshal, "it would be pleasant to have your
+promotion arrive at the end of such a discourse. For once, we would
+prostrate ourselves before your star! The Magi kings would be nowhere
+compared with us."</p>
+
+<p>"Read it yourself," said he to the Marshal,
+hold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg
+245]</a></span>ing out to him the great sheet of paper. "But no! I
+have always looked Death in the face; I will not turn my eyes away
+from this paper thunder if it is killing me.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Colonel</span>:</p>
+
+<p>"In preparing the Imperial decree which elevated you to the rank of
+brigadier general, I found myself in the presence of an insurmountable
+obstacle: viz., your certificate of birth. It appears from that
+document that you were born in 1789, and that you have already passed
+your seventieth year. Now, the limit of age being fixed at sixty years
+for colonels, sixty-two for brigadier generals and sixty-five for
+generals of division, I find myself under the absolute necessity of
+placing you upon the retired list with the rank of colonel. I know,
+Monsieur, how little this measure is justified by your apparent age,
+and I sincerely regret that France should be deprived of the services
+of a man of your capacity and merit. Moreover, it is certain that an
+exception in your favor would arouse no dissatisfaction in the army
+and would meet with nothing but sympathetic approval. But the law is
+express, and the Emperor himself cannot violate or elude it. The
+impossibility resulting from it is so absolute that if, in your ardor
+to serve the country, you were willing to lay aside your epaulettes
+for the sake of beginning upon a new career, your enlistment could not
+be received in a single regiment of the army. It is
+fortunate,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg
+246]</a></span> Monsieur, that the Emperor's government has been able
+to furnish you the means of subsistence in obtaining from His Royal
+Highness the Regent of Prussia the indemnity which was due you; for
+there is not even an office in the civil administration in which, even
+by special favor, a man seventy years old could be placed. You will
+very justly object that the laws and regulations now in force date
+from a period when experiments on the revivification of men had not
+yet met with favorable results. But the law is made for the mass of
+mankind, and cannot take any account of exceptions. Undoubtedly
+attention would be directed to its amendment if cases of resuscitation
+were to present themselves in sufficient number.</p>
+
+<p>"Accept, &amp;c." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A gloomy silence succeeded the reading. The <i>Mene mene tekel
+upharsin</i> of the oriental legends could not have more completely
+produced the effect of thunderbolts. The <i>gendarme</i> was still
+there, standing in the position of the soldier without arms, awaiting
+Fougas' receipt. The Colonel called for pen and ink, signed the paper,
+gave the <i>gendarme</i> drink-money, and said to him with
+ill-suppressed emotion:</p>
+
+<p>"You are happy, you are! No one prevents you from serving the
+country. Well," added he, turning toward the Marshal, "what do you say
+to that?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg
+247]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What would you have me say, my poor old boy? It breaks me all up.
+There's no use in arguing against the law; it's express. The stupid
+thing on our parts was not to think of it sooner. But who the Devil
+would have thought of the retired list in the presence of such a
+fellow as you are?"</p>
+
+<p>The two colonels avowed that such an objection would never have
+entered their heads; now that it had been suggested, however, they
+could not see what to rebut it with. Neither of them would have been
+able to enlist Fougas as a private soldier, despite his ability, his
+physical strength and his appearance of being twenty-four years
+old.</p>
+
+<p>"If some one would only kill me!" cried Fougas. "I can't set myself
+to weighing sugar or planting cabbages. It was in the career of arms
+that I took my first steps; I must continue in it or die. What can I
+do? What can I become? Take service in some foreign army? Never! The
+fate of Moreau is still before my eyes.... Oh Fortune! What have I
+done to thee that I should be dashed so low, when thou wast preparing
+to raise me so high?"</p>
+
+<p>Clementine tried to console him with soothing words.</p>
+
+<p>"You shall live near us," said she. "We will find you a pretty
+little wife, and you can rear your children. In your leisure moments
+you can write the history of the great deeds you have done. You will
+want for nothing: youth, health, fortune,
+family,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg
+248]</a></span> all that makes up the happiness of men, is yours. Why
+then should you not be happy?"</p>
+
+<p>Leon and his parents talked with him in the same way. Everything
+appertaining to the festive occasion was forgotten in the presence of
+an affliction so real and a dejection so profound.</p>
+
+<p>He roused himself little by little, and even sang, at dessert, a
+little song which he had prepared for the occasion.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Here's a health to these fortunate lovers<br></span>
+<span class="i2">Who, on this thrice blessed day,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Have singed with the torch of chaste Hymen,<br></span>
+<span class="i2">The wings with which Cupid doth stray.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And now, little volatile boy-god,<br></span>
+<span class="i2">You must keep yourself quiet at home&mdash;<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Enchained there by this happy marriage<br></span>
+<span class="i2">Where Genius and Beauty are one.<br></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He'll make it, henceforth, his endeavor<br></span>
+<span class="i2">To keep Pleasure in Loyalty's power,<br></span>
+<span class="i0">Forgetting his naughty old habit<br></span>
+<span class="i2">Of roaming from flower to flower.<br></span>
+<span class="i0">And Clementine makes the task easy,<br></span>
+<span class="i2">For roses spring up at her smile:<br></span>
+<span class="i0">From thence the young rascal can steal them<br></span>
+<span class="i2">As well as in Venus's isle.<br></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The verses were loudly applauded, but the poor Colonel smiled
+sadly, talked but little, and did not get fuddled at all. The man with
+the broken ear could not at all console himself for having a slit
+ear.<a name="FNanchor_11_11"
+id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11"
+class="fnanchor"><sup>[11]</sup></a> He took part in the various
+diversions of the day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249"
+id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> but was no longer the brilliant
+companion who had inspired everything with his impetuous gayety.</p>
+
+<p>The Marshal buttonholed him during the evening and said: "What are
+you thinking about?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm thinking of the old messmates who were happy enough to fall at
+Waterloo with their faces toward the enemy. That old fool of a
+Dutchman who preserved me for posterity, did me but a sorry service. I
+tell you, Leblanc, a man ought to live in his own day. Later is too
+late."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pshaw, Fougas, don't talk nonsense! There's nothing desperate
+in the case. Devil take it! I'll go to see the Emperor to-morrow. The
+matter shall be looked into. It will all be set straight. Men like
+you! Why France hasn't got them by the dozen that she should fling
+them among the soiled linen."</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks! You're a good old boy, and a true one. There were five
+hundred thousand of us, of the same, same sort, in 1812; there are but
+two left; say, rather, one and a half."</p>
+
+<p>About ten o'clock in the evening, M. Rollon, M. du Marnet and
+Fougas accompanied the Marshal to the cars. Fougas embraced his
+comrade and promised him to be of good cheer. After the train left,
+the three colonels went back to town on foot. In passing M. Rollon's
+house, Fougas said to his successor:</p>
+
+<p>"You're not very hospitable to-night; you don't even offer us a
+pony of that good Andaye
+brandy!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg
+250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were not in drinking trim," said M. Rollon. "You
+didn't take anything in your coffee or afterwards. But come up!"</p>
+
+<p>"My thirst has come back with a vengeance."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a good symptom."</p>
+
+<p>He drank in a melancholy fashion, and scarcely wet his lips in his
+glass. He stopped a little while before the flag, took hold of the
+staff, spread out the silk, counted the holes that cannon balls and
+bullets had made in it, and could not repress his tears. "Positively,"
+said he, "the brandy has taken me in the throat; I'm not a man
+to-night. Good evening, gentlemen."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on! We'll go back with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my hotel is only a step."</p>
+
+<p>"It's all the same. But what's your idea in staying at a hotel when
+you have two houses in town at your service?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the strength of that, I am going to move to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, about eleven o'clock, the happy Leon was at his
+toilet when a telegram was brought to him. He opened it without
+noticing that it was addressed to M. Fougas, and uttered a cry of joy.
+Here is the laconic message which brought him so much pleasure:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"To Colonel Fougas, Fontainebleau.</p>
+
+<p>"Just left the Emperor. You to be brevet brigadier until something
+better turns up. If necessary, <i>corps legislatif</i> will amend
+law.</p>
+
+<p>"<span
+class="smcap">Leblanc</span>." </p></blockquote><p><span
+class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg
+251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Leon dressed himself, ran to the hotel of the blue sundial, and
+found Fougas dead in his bed.</p>
+
+<p>It is said in Fontainebleau, that M. Nibor made an autopsy, and
+found that serious disorders had been produced by desiccation. Some
+people are nevertheless satisfied that Fougas committed suicide. It is
+certain that Master Bonnivet received, by the penny post, a sort of a
+will, expressed thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"I leave my heart to my country, my memory to natural
+affection, my example to the army, my hate to perfidious Albion, fifty
+thousand francs to Gothon, and two hundred thousand to the 23d of the
+line. And forever <i>Vive l'Empereur!</i></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Fougas</span>." </p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Resuscitated on the 17th of August, between three and four in the
+afternoon, he died on the 17th of the following month, at what hour we
+shall never know. His second life had lasted a little less than
+thirty-one days. But it is simple justice to say that he made good use
+of his time. He reposes in the spot which young Renault had bought for
+him. His granddaughter Clementine left off her mourning about a year
+since. She is beloved and happy, and Leon will have nothing to
+reproach himself with if she does not have plenty of children.</p>
+
+<p><i>Bourdonnel, August</i>, 1861.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg
+252]</a></span></p>
+<h2>FINIS.</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg
+253]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a id="TN">NOTES TO THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_1_1">
+<span class="label">[1]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 1, page 69.&mdash;<i>Black
+butterflies</i>, a French expression that we might tastefully
+substitute for <i>blue devils</i>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_2_2">
+<span class="label">[2]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 2, page 72.&mdash;<i>The 15th of
+August</i> is the Emperor's birthday.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_3_3">
+<span class="label">[3]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 3, page 85.&mdash;<i>Centigrade</i>,
+of course.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_4_4">
+<span class="label">[4]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 4, page 101.&mdash;Fougas' surprise is
+explained by the well-known fact that Napoleon was obliged to forbid
+the playing of <i>Partant pour la Syrie</i> in his armies, on account
+of the homesickness and consequent desertion it occasioned.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_5_5">
+<span class="label">[5]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 5, page 118.&mdash;<i>Jeu de Paume</i>
+(tennis-court), is the name given to the meeting of the third-estate
+(<i>tiers-&eacute;tat</i>) in 1789, from the locality where it took
+place.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_6_6">
+<span class="label">[6]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 6, page 161.&mdash;The English used
+by the two young noblemen is M. About's own. It is certainly such
+English as Frenchmen would be apt to speak, and it is as fair to
+attribute that fact to M. About's fine sense of the requirements of
+the occasion, as to lack of familiarity with our language.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_7_7">
+<span class="label">[7]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 7, page 164.&mdash;It is not
+without interest to note that M. About used the English
+word <i>gentlemen</i>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_8_8">
+<span class="label">[8]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 8, page 166.&mdash;<i>War against
+tyrants! Never, never, never shall the Briton reign in France!</i>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_9_9">
+<span class="label">[9]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 9, page 214.&mdash;The original here
+contains a neat little conceit, which cannot be translated, but which
+is too good to be lost. The French for daughter-in-law is <i>belle
+fille</i>, literally "beau<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254"
+id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>tiful girl." To Fougas' address
+"<i>Ma belle fille!</i>" Mme. Langevin replies: "<i>I am not
+beautiful, and I am not a girl.</i>" It suggests the similar retort
+received by Faust from Marguerite, when he addressed her
+as <i>beautiful young lady!</i>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_10_10">
+<span class="label">[10]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 10, page 230.&mdash;The Translator has
+intentionally used both the singular and the plural of the second
+person in Fougas' apostrophe to Clementine, as it seemed to him
+naturally required by the variations of the sentiment.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p>
+<a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_11_11">
+<span class="label">[11]</span></a>
+<span class="smcap">Note</span> 11, page 248.&mdash;The reader will
+bear in mind Marshal Leblanc's allusion to condemned
+horses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg
+255]</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Man With The Broken Ear, by Edmond About
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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
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+
+Title: The Man With The Broken Ear
+
+Author: Edmond About
+
+Translator: Henry Holt
+
+Release Date: March 2, 2007 [EBook #20724]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by V. L. Simpson and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MAN
+WITH
+THE BROKEN EAR
+
+TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF
+_EDMOND ABOUT_
+
+BY
+HENRY HOLT
+
+
+
+
+NEW YORK
+HOLT & WILLIAMS
+1872
+
+
+
+
+
+Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
+HENRY HOLT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
+United States, for the Southern District of New York.
+
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION OF THE FIRST EDITION.[A]
+
+
+     DEAR LEYPOLDT:
+
+     You have not forgotten that nearly two years ago,
+     before our business connection was thought of, this
+     identical translation was 'respectfully declined' by you
+     with that same courtesy, the exercise of which in frequent
+     similar cases, each one of us now tries so hard to shove on
+     the other's shoulders. I hope that your surprise on reading
+     this note of dedication will not interfere with your
+     forgiving the pertinacity with which, through it, I still
+     strive to make the book _yours_.
+
+     H. H.
+
+
+    451 BROOME STREET, May 16, 1867.
+
+[Footnote A: Published by Leypoldt & Holt.]
+
+
+
+
+The Translator has placed a few explanatory Notes at the end of the
+volume. They are referred to by numbers in the text.
+
+
+THE MAN
+
+WITH THE BROKEN EAR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+WHEREIN THEY KILL THE FATTED CALF TO CELEBRATE THE RETURN OF A FRUGAL
+SON.
+
+
+On the 18th of May, 1859, M. Renault, formerly professor of physics and
+chemistry, now a landed proprietor at Fontainebleau, and member of the
+Municipal Council of that charming little city, himself carried to the
+post-office the following letter:--
+
+
+    "_To Monsieur Leon Renault, Civil Engineer, Berlin, Prussia._
+
+    (To be kept at the Post-Office till called for.)
+
+    "MY DEAR CHILD:
+
+
+    "The good news you sent us from St. Petersburg caused
+    us the greatest joy. Your poor mother had been ailing
+    since winter, but I had not spoken to you about it from
+    fear of making you uneasy while so far from home. As
+    for myself, I had not been very well; and there was yet
+    a third person (guess the name if you can!) who was
+    languishing from not seeing you. But content yourself,
+    my dear Leon: we have been recuperating more and more
+    since the time of your return is almost fixed. We begin
+    to believe that the mines of the Ural will not swallow
+    up that which is dearer to us than all the world. Thank
+    God! that fortune which you have so honorably and so
+    quickly made will not have cost your life, nor even
+    your health, since you tell us you have been growing
+    fat off there in the desert. If you have not finished
+    up all your business out there, so much the worse for
+    you: there are three of us who have sworn that you
+    shall never go back again. You will not find it hard to
+    accede, for you will be happy among us. Such, at least,
+    is the opinion of Clementine.... I forget that I was
+    pledged not to name her. Master Bonnivet, our excellent
+    neighbor, has not rested content with investing your
+    funds in a good mortgage, but has also drawn up, in his
+    leisure moments, a most edifying little indenture,
+    which now lacks nothing but your signature. Our worthy
+    mayor has ordered, on your account, a new official
+    scarf, which is on the way from Paris. You will have
+    the first benefit of it. Your apartment (which will
+    soon belong to a plural 'you') is elegant, in
+    proportion to your present fortune. You are to
+    occupy....; but the house has changed so in three
+    years, that my description would be incomprehensible to
+    you. M. Audret, the architect of the imperial chateau,
+    directed the work. He actually wanted to construct me a
+    laboratory worthy of Thenard or Duprez. I earnestly
+    protested against it, and said that I was not yet
+    worthy of one, as my celebrated work on the
+    Condensation of Gases had only reached the fourth
+    chapter. But as your mother was in collusion with the
+    old scamp of a friend, it has turned out that science
+    has henceforth a temple in our house--a regular
+    sorcerer's den, according to the picturesque expression
+    of your old Gothon: it lacks nothing, not even a
+    four-horse-power steam engine. Alas! what can I do with
+    it? I am confident, nevertheless, that the expenditure
+    will not be altogether lost to the world. You are not
+    going to sleep upon your laurels. Oh, if I had only had
+    your fortune when I had your youth! I would have
+    dedicated my days to pure science, instead of losing
+    the best part of them among those poor young men who
+    got nothing from my lectures but an opportunity to read
+    Paul de Kock. I would have been ambitious!--I would
+    have striven to connect my name with the discovery of
+    some great general law, or at least with the invention
+    of some very useful apparatus. It is too late now; my
+    eyes are worn out, and the brain itself refuses to
+    work. Take your turn, my boy! You are not yet
+    twenty-six, the Ural mines have given you the
+    wherewithal to live at ease, and, for yourself alone,
+    you have no further wants to satisfy; the time has come
+    to work for humanity. That you will do so, is the
+    strongest wish and dearest hope of your doting old
+    father, who loves you and who waits for you with open
+    arms.
+
+    "J. RENAULT.
+
+    "P. S. According to my calculations, this letter ought
+    to reach Berlin two or three days before you. You have
+    been already informed by the papers of the 7th inst. of
+    the death of the illustrious Humboldt. It is a cause of
+    mourning to science and to humanity. I have had the
+    honor of writing to that great man several times in my
+    life, and he once deigned to reply, in a letter which I
+    piously cherish. If you happen to have an opportunity to
+    buy some personal souvenir of him, a bit of his
+    handwriting or some fragment of his collections, you
+    will bring me a real pleasure."
+
+A month after the departure of this letter, the son so eagerly looked
+for returned to the paternal mansion. M. and Mme. Renault, who went to
+meet him at the depot, found him taller, stouter, and better-looking in
+every way. In fact, he was no longer merely a remarkable boy, but a man
+of good and pleasing proportions. Leon Renault was of medium height,
+light hair and complexion, plump and well made. His large blue eyes,
+sweet voice, and silken beard indicated a nature sensitive rather than
+powerful. A very white, round, and almost feminine neck contrasted
+singularly with a face bronzed by exposure. His teeth were beautiful,
+very delicate, a little inclined backward, and very evenly shaped. When
+he pulled off his gloves, he displayed two small and rather pudgey
+hands, quite firm and yet pleasantly soft, neither hot nor cold, nor dry
+nor damp, but agreeable to the touch and cared-for to perfection.
+
+As he was, his father and mother would not have exchanged him for the
+Apollo Belvedere. They embraced him rapturously, overwhelming him with a
+thousand questions, most of which he, of course, failed to answer. Some
+old friends of the family, a doctor, an architect, and a notary, had run
+to the depot with the good old people; each one of them in turn gave him
+a hug, and asked him if he was well, and if he had had a pleasant
+journey. He listened patiently and even joyfully to this common-place
+music whose words did not signify much, but whose melody went to the
+heart because it came from the heart.
+
+They had been there a good quarter of an hour, the train had gone
+puffing on its way, the omnibuses of the various hotels had started one
+after another at a good trot up the street leading to the city, and the
+June sun seemed to enjoy lighting up this happy group of excellent
+people. But Madame Renault cried out all at once that the poor child
+must be dying of hunger, and that it was barbarous to keep him waiting
+for his dinner any longer. There was no use in his protesting that he
+had breakfasted at Paris, and that the voice of hunger appealed to him
+less strongly than that of joy. They all got into two carriages, the son
+beside his mother, the father opposite, as if he could not keep his
+eyes off his boy. A wagon came behind with the trunks, long boxes,
+chests, and the rest of the traveller's baggage. At the entrance of the
+town, the hackmen cracked their whips, the baggage-men followed the
+example, and this cheerful clatter drew the people to their doors and
+woke up for an instant the quietude of the streets. Madame Renault threw
+her glances right and left, searching out the spectators of her triumph,
+and saluting with most cordial affability people she hardly knew at all.
+And more than one mother saluted her, too, without knowing her; for
+there is no mother indifferent to such kinds of happiness, and,
+moreover, Leon's family was liked by everybody. And the neighbors,
+meeting each other, said with a satisfaction free from jealousy:
+
+"That is Renault's son, who has been at work three years in the Russian
+mines, and now has come to share his fortune with his old parents."
+
+Leon also noticed several familiar faces, but not all that he wished to
+see. For he bent over an instant to his mother's ear, saying: "And
+Clementine?" This word was pronounced so low and so close that M.
+Renault himself could not tell whether it was a word or a kiss. The good
+lady smiled tenderly, and answered but a single word: "Patience!" As if
+patience were a virtue very common among lovers!
+
+The door of the house was wide open, and old Gothon was standing on the
+threshold. She raised her arms toward heaven and cried like a booby,
+for she had known Leon since he was not much higher than her wash-tub.
+There was now another formidable hugging on the upper step, between the
+good old servant and her young master. After a reasonable interval, the
+friends of M. Renault prepared to leave, but it was wasted pains; for
+they were assured that their places at table had already been prepared.
+And when all save the invisible Clementine were reassembled in the
+parlor, the great round-backed chairs held out their arms to the scion
+of the house of Renault; the old mirror on the mantle delighted to
+reflect his image; the great chandelier chimed a little song of welcome
+with its crystal pendants, and the mandarins on the etagere shook their
+heads in sign of welcome, as if they were orthodox _penates_ instead of
+strangers and pagans. No one can tell why kisses and tears began to rain
+down again, but it certainly did seem as if he had once more just
+returned.
+
+"Soup!" cried Gothon.
+
+Madame Renault took the arm of her son, contrary to all the laws of
+etiquette, and without even apologizing to the honored guests present.
+She scarcely excused herself, even, for helping the son before the
+company. Leon let her have her own way, and took it all smilingly: there
+was not a guest there who was not ready to upset his soup over his
+waistcoat rather than taste it before Leon.
+
+"Mother!" cried Leon, spoon in hand, "this is the first time for three
+years that I've tasted good soup." Madame Renault felt herself blush
+with satisfaction, and Gothon was so overcome that she dropped a plate.
+Both fancied that possibly he had spoken to please their self-conceit;
+but nevertheless he spoke truly. There are two things in this world
+which a man does not often find away from home: the first is good soup;
+the second is disinterested love.
+
+If I should attempt here an accurate enumeration of all the dishes that
+appeared on the table, there would not be one of my readers whose mouth
+would not water. I believe, indeed, that more than one delicate lady
+would be in danger of an attack of indigestion. Suppose, if you please,
+that such a list would reach nearly to the end of the volume, leaving me
+but a single page on which to write the marvellous history of Fougas.
+Therefore I forthwith return to the parlor, where coffee is already
+served.
+
+Leon took scarcely half of his cup: but do not let that lead you to
+infer that the coffee was too hot, or too cold, or too sweet. Nothing in
+the world would have prevented his drinking it to the last drop, if a
+knock at the street-door had not stopped it just opposite his heart.
+
+The minute which followed appeared to him interminable. Never in his
+travels had he encountered such a long minute. But at length Clementine
+appeared, preceded by the worthy Mlle. Virginie Sambucco, her aunt; and
+the mandarins who smiled on the etagere heard the sound of three
+kisses. Wherefore three? The superficial reader, who pretends to
+foresee things before they are written, has already found a very
+probable explanation. "Of course," says he, "Leon was too respectful to
+embrace the dignified Mlle. Sambucco more than once, but when he came to
+Clementine, who was soon to become his wife, he very properly doubled
+the dose." Now sir, that is what I call a premature judgment! The first
+kiss fell from the mouth of Leon upon the cheek of Mlle. Sambucco; the
+second was applied by the lips of Mlle. Sambucco to the right cheek of
+Leon; the third was, in fact, an accident that plunged two young hearts
+into profound consternation.
+
+Leon, who was very much in love with his betrothed, rushed to her
+blindly, uncertain whether he would kiss her right cheek or her left,
+but determined not to put off too long a pleasure which he had been
+promising himself ever since the spring of 1856. Clementine did not
+dream of defending herself, but was fully prepared to apply her pretty
+rosy lips to Leon's right cheek or his left, indifferently. The
+precipitation of the two young people brought it about that neither
+Clementine's cheeks nor Leon's received the offering intended for them.
+And the mandarins on the etagere, who fully expected to hear two kisses,
+heard but one. And Leon was confounded, and Clementine blushed up to her
+ears, and the two lovers retreated a step, intently regarding the roses
+of the carpet which will remain eternally graven upon their memories.
+
+In the eyes of Leon Renault, Clementine was the most beautiful creature
+in the world. He had loved her for little more than three years, and it
+was somewhat on her account that he had taken the journey to Russia. In
+1856 she was too young to marry, and too rich for an engineer with a
+salary of 2,400 francs to properly make pretentions to her hand. Leon,
+who was a good mathematician, proposed to himself the following problem:
+"Given--one young girl, fifteen and a half years old, with an income of
+8,000 francs, and threatened with the inheritance from Mlle. Sambucco
+of, say 200,000 more:--to obtain a fortune at least equal to hers within
+such a period as will give her time enough to grow up, without leaving
+her time enough to become an old maid." He had found the solution in the
+Ural mines.
+
+During three long years, he had indirectly corresponded with the beloved
+of his heart. All the letters which he wrote to his father or mother,
+passed into the hands of Mlle. Sambucco, who did not keep them from
+Clementine. Sometimes, indeed, they were read aloud in the family, and
+M. Renault was never obliged to omit a phrase, for Leon never wrote
+anything which a young girl should not hear. The aunt and the niece had
+no other distractions; they lived retired in a little house at the end
+of a pretty garden, and received no one but old friends. Clementine,
+therefore, deserved but little credit for keeping her heart for Leon.
+With the exception of a big colonel of cuirassiers, who sometimes
+followed her in her walks, no man had ever made any demonstrations
+toward her.
+
+She was very pretty withal, and not so merely to the eyes of her lover,
+or of the Renault family, or of the little city where she lived.
+Provincial towns are apt to be easily satisfied. They give the
+reputation of being a pretty woman or a great man, cheaply; especially
+when they are not rich enough in such commodities to show themselves
+over particular. In capitals, however, people claim to admire nothing
+but absolute merit. I have heard the mayor of a village say, with a
+certain pride: "Admit now, that my servant Catherine is right pretty,
+for a village of six hundred people!" Clementine was pretty enough to be
+admired in a city of eight hundred thousand. Fancy to yourself a little
+blonde creole, with black eyes, creamy complexion and dazzling teeth.
+Her figure was round and supple as a twig, and was finished off with
+dainty hands and pretty Andalusian feet, arched and beautifully rounded.
+All her glances were smiles, and all her movements caresses. Add to
+this, that she was neither a fool nor a prude, nor even an ignoramus
+like girls brought up in convents. Her education, which was begun by her
+mother, had been completed by two or three respectable old professors
+selected by M. Renault, who was her guardian. She had a sound heart, and
+a quick mind. But I may reasonably ask myself why I have so much to say
+about her, for she is still living; and, thank God! not one of her
+perfections has departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+UNPACKING BY CANDLE-LIGHT.
+
+
+About ten o'clock in the evening, Mlle. Virginie Sambucco said it was
+time to think of going home: the ladies lived with monastic regularity.
+Leon protested; but Clementine obeyed, though not without pouting a
+little. Already the parlor door was open, and the old lady had taken her
+hood in the hall, when the engineer, suddenly struck with an idea,
+exclaimed:
+
+"You surely won't go without helping me to open my trunks! I demand it
+of you as a favor, my good Mademoiselle Sambucco!"
+
+The respectable lady paused: custom urged her to go; kindness inclined
+her to stay; an atom of curiosity swayed the balance.
+
+"I'm so glad!" cried Clementine, replacing her aunt's hood on the rack.
+
+Mme. Renault did not yet know where they had put Leon's baggage. Gothon
+came to say that everything had been thrown pell-mell into the
+sorcerer's den, to remain there until Monsieur should point out what he
+wanted taken to his own room. The whole company, armed with lamps and
+candles, betook themselves to a vast room on the ground floor, where
+furnaces, retorts, philosophical instruments, boxes, trunks, clothes
+bags, hat boxes and the famous steam-engine, formed a confused and
+entertaining spectacle. The light played about this interior, as it
+appears to in certain pictures of the Dutch school. It glanced upon the
+great yellow cylinders of the electric machine, struck upon the long
+glass bottles, rebounded from two silver reflectors, and rested, in
+passing, upon a magnificent Fortin barometer. The Renaults and their
+friends, grouped in the midst of the boxes--some sitting, some standing,
+one holding a lamp, another a candle--detracted nothing from the
+picturesqueness of the scene.
+
+Leon, with a bunch of little keys, opened the boxes one after another.
+Clementine was seated opposite him on a great oblong box, and watched
+him with all her eyes, more from affection than curiosity. They began by
+setting to one side two enormous square boxes which contained nothing
+but mineralogical specimens. After this they passed in review the riches
+of all kinds which the engineer had crowded among his linen and
+clothing.
+
+A pleasant odor of Russia leather, tea from the caravans, Levant
+tobacco, and attar of roses soon permeated the laboratory. Leon brought
+forth a little at a time, as is the custom of all rich travellers who,
+on leaving home, left a family and good stock of friends behind. He
+exhibited, in turn, fabrics of the Asiatic looms, narghiles of embossed
+silver from Persia, boxes of tea, sherbets flavored with rose, precious
+extracts, golden webs from Tarjok, antique armor, a service of frosted
+silver of Toula make, jewelry mounted in the Russian style, Caucasian
+bracelets, necklaces of milky amber, and a leather sack full of
+turquoises such as they sell at the fair of Nijni Novgorod. Each object
+passed from hand to hand amid questions, explanations, and interjections
+of all kinds. All the friends present received the gifts intended for
+them. There was a concert of polite refusals, friendly urgings, and
+'thank-yous' in all sorts of voices. It is unnecessary to say that much
+the greater share fell to the lot of Clementine; but she did not wait to
+be urged to accept them, for, in the existing state of affairs, all
+these pretty things would be but as a part of the wedding gifts--not
+going out of the family.
+
+Leon had brought his father an exceedingly handsome dressing gown of a
+cloth embroidered with gold, some antiquarian books found in Moscow, a
+pretty picture by Greuze, which had been stuck out of the way, by the
+luckiest of accidents, in a mean shop at Gastinitvor; two magnificent
+specimens of rock-crystal, and a cane that had belonged to Humboldt.
+"You see," said he to M. Renault, on handing him this historic staff,
+"that the postscript of your last letter did not fall overboard." The
+old professor received the present with visible emotion.
+
+"I will never use it," said he to his son. "The Napoleon of science has
+held it in his hand: what would one think if an old sergeant like me
+should permit himself to carry it in his walks in the woods? And the
+collections? Were you not able to buy anything from them? Did they sell
+very high?"
+
+"They were not sold," answered Leon. "All were placed in the National
+Museum at Berlin. But in my eagerness to satisfy you, I made a thief of
+myself in a strange way. The very day of my arrival, I told your wish to
+a guide who was showing me the place. He told me that a friend of his, a
+little Jew broker by the name of Ritter, wanted to sell a very fine
+anatomical specimen that had belonged to the estate. I ran to the Jew's,
+examined the mummy, for such it was, and, without any haggling, paid the
+price he asked. But the next day, a friend of Humboldt, Professor Hirtz,
+told me the history of this shred of a man, which had been lying around
+the shop for more than ten years, and never belonged to Humboldt at all.
+Where the deuce has Gothon stowed it? Ah! Mlle. Clementine is sitting on
+it."
+
+Clementine attempted to rise, but Leon made her keep seated.
+
+"We have plenty of time," said he, "to take a look at the old baggage;
+meanwhile you can well imagine that it is not a very cheerful sight.
+This is the history that good old Hirtz told me; he promised to send
+me, in addition, a copy of a very curious memoir on the same subject.
+Don't go yet, my dear Mademoiselle Sambucco; I have a little military
+and scientific romance for you. We will look at the mummy as soon as I
+have acquainted you with his misfortunes."
+
+"Aha!" cried M. Audret, the architect of the chateau, "it's the romance
+of the mummy, is it, that you're going to tell us? Too late my poor
+Leon! Theophile Gautier has gotten ahead of you, in the supplement to
+the _Moniteur_, and all the world knows your Egyptian history."
+
+"My history," said Leon, "is no more Egyptian than Manon Lescault. Our
+excellent doctor Martout, here, ought to know the name of professor John
+Meiser, of Dantzic; he lived at the beginning of this century, and I
+think that his last work appeared in 1824 or 1825."
+
+"In 1823," replied M. Martout. "Meiser is one of the scientific men who
+have done Germany most honor. In the midst of terrible wars which
+drenched his country in blood, he followed up the researches of
+Leeuwenkoeck, Baker, Needham, Fontana, and Spallanzani, on the
+revivification of animals. Our profession honors in him, one of the
+fathers of modern biology."
+
+"Heavens! What ugly big words!" cried Mlle. Sambucco. "Is it decent to
+keep people till this time of night, to make them listen to Dutch."
+
+"Don't listen to the big words, dear little auntey. Save yourself for
+the romance, since there is one."
+
+"A terrible one!" said Leon. "Mlle. Clementine is seated over a human
+victim, sacrificed to science by professor Meiser."
+
+Clementine instantly got up. Her fiance handed her a chair, and seated
+himself in the place she had just left. The listeners, fearing that
+Leon's romance might be in several volumes, took their places around
+him, some on boxes, some on chairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE CRIME OF THE LEARNED PROFESSOR MEISER.
+
+
+"Ladies," said Leon, "Professor Meiser was no vulgar malefactor, but a
+man devoted to science and humanity. If he killed the French colonel who
+at this moment reposes beneath my coat tails, it was for the sake of
+saving his life, as well as of throwing light on a question of the
+deepest interest, even to each one of you.
+
+"The duration of our existence is very much too brief. That is a fact
+which no man can contradict. We know that in a hundred years, not one of
+the nine or ten persons assembled in this house will be living on the
+face of the earth. Is not this a deplorable fact?"
+
+Mlle. Sambucco heaved a heavy sigh, and Leon continued:
+
+"Alas! Mademoiselle, like you I have sighed many a time at the
+contemplation of this dire necessity. You have a niece, the most
+beautiful and the most adorable of all nieces, and the sight of her
+charming face gladdens your heart. But you yearn for something more; you
+will not be satisfied until you have seen your little grand nephews
+trotting around. You will see them I earnestly believe. But will you
+see their children? It is doubtful. Their grandchildren? Impossible! In
+regard to the tenth, twentieth, thirtieth generation, it is useless even
+to dream.
+
+"One _will_ dream of it, nevertheless, and perhaps there is no man who
+has not said to himself at least once in his life: 'If I could but come
+to life again in a couple of centuries!' One would wish to return to
+earth to seek news of his family; another, of his dynasty. A philosopher
+is anxious to know if the ideas that he has planted will have borne
+fruit; a politician, if his party will have obtained the upper hand; a
+miser, if his heirs will not have dissipated the fortune he has made; a
+mere land-holder, if the trees in his garden will have grown tall. No
+one is indifferent to the future destinies of this world, which we
+gallop through in a few years, never to return to it again. Who has not
+envied the lot of Epimenides, who went to sleep in a cave, and, on
+reopening his eyes, perceived that the world had grown old? Who has not
+dreamed, on his own account, of the marvellous adventure of the sleeping
+Beauty in the wood?
+
+"Well, ladies, Professor Meiser, one of the least visionary men of the
+age, was persuaded that science could put a living being to sleep and
+wake him up again at the end of an infinite number of years--arrest all
+the functions of the system, suspend life itself, protect an individual
+against the action of time for a century or two, and afterwards
+resuscitate him."
+
+"He was a fool then!" cried Madame Renault.
+
+"I wouldn't swear it. But he had his own ideas touching the main-spring
+which moves a living organism. Do you remember, good mother mine, the
+impression you experienced as a little girl, when some one first showed
+you the inside of a watch in motion? You were satisfied that there was a
+restless little animal inside the case, who worked twenty-four hours a
+day at turning the hands. If the hands stopped going, you said: 'It is
+because the little animal is dead.' Yet possibly he was only asleep.
+
+"It has since been explained to you that a watch contains an assemblage
+of parts well fitted to each other and kept well oiled, which, being
+wound, can be considered to move spontaneously in a perfect
+correspondence. If a spring become broken, if a bit of the wheel work be
+injured, or if a grain of sand insinuate itself between two of the
+parts, the watch stops, and the children say rightly: 'The little animal
+is dead.' But suppose a sound watch, well made, right in every
+particular, and stopped because the machinery would not run from lack of
+oil; the little animal is not dead; nothing but a little oil is needed
+to wake him up.
+
+"Here is a first-rate chronometer, made in London. It runs fifteen days
+without being wound. I gave it a turn of the key yesterday: it has,
+then, thirteen days to run. If I throw it on the ground, or if I break
+the main-spring, all is over. I will have killed the little animal. But
+suppose that, without damaging anything, I find means to withdraw or dry
+up the fine oil which now enables the parts to slip upon one another:
+will the little animal be dead? No! It will be asleep. And the proof is
+that I can lay my watch in a drawer, keep it there twenty-five years,
+and if, after a quarter of a century, I put a drop of oil on it, the
+parts will begin to move again. All that time would have passed without
+waking up the little sleeping animal. It will still have thirteen days
+to go, after the time when it starts again.
+
+"All living beings, according to the opinion of Professor Meiser, are
+watches, or organisms which move, breathe, nourish themselves, and
+reproduce themselves as long as their organs are intact and properly
+oiled. The oil of the watch is represented in the animal by an enormous
+quantity of water. In man, for example, water provides about four-fifths
+of the whole weight. Given--a colonel weighing a hundred and fifty
+pounds, there are thirty pounds of colonel and a hundred and twenty
+pounds, or about sixty quarts, of water. This is a fact proven by
+numerous experiments. I say a colonel just as I would say a king; all
+men are equal when submitted to analysis.
+
+"Professor Meiser was satisfied, as are all physiologists, that to
+break a colonel's head, or to make a hole in his heart, or to cut his
+spinal column in two, is to kill the little animal; because the brain,
+the heart, the spinal marrow are the indispensable springs, without
+which the machine cannot go. But he thought too, that in removing sixty
+quarts of water from a living person, one merely puts the little animal
+to sleep without killing him--that a colonel carefully dried up, can
+remain preserved a hundred years, and then return to life whenever any
+one will replace in him the drop of oil, or rather the sixty quarts of
+water, without which the human machine cannot begin moving again.
+
+"This opinion, which may appear inadmissible to you and to me too, but
+which is not absolutely rejected by our friend Doctor Martout, rests
+upon a series of reliable observations which the merest tyro can verify
+to-day. There _are_ animals which can be resuscitated: nothing is more
+certain or better proven. Herr Meiser, like the Abbe Spallanzani and
+many others, collected from the gutter of his roof some little dried
+worms which were brittle as glass, and restored life to them by soaking
+them in water. The capacity of thus returning to life, is not the
+privilege of a single species: its existence has been satisfactorily
+established in numerous and various animals. The genus Volvox--the
+little worms or wormlets in vinegar, mud, spoiled paste, or grain-smut;
+the Rotifera--a kind of little shell-fish protected by a carapace,
+provided with a good digestive apparatus, of separate sexes, having a
+nervous system with a distinct brain, having either one or two eyes,
+according to the genus, a crystalline lens, and an optic nerve; the
+Tardigrades--which are little spiders with six or eight legs, separate
+sexes, regular digestive apparatus, a mouth, two eyes, a very well
+defined nervous system, and a very well developed muscular system;--all
+these die and revive ten or fifteen times consecutively, at the will of
+the naturalist. One dries up a rotifer: good night to him; somebody
+soaks him a little, and he wakes up to bid you good day. All depends
+upon taking great care while he is dry. You understand that if any one
+should merely break his head, no drop of water, nor river, nor ocean
+could restore him.
+
+"The marvellous thing is, that an animal which cannot live more than a
+year, like the minute worm in grain-smut, can lie by twenty-four years
+without dying, if one has taken the precaution of desiccating him.
+
+"Needham collected a lot of them in 1743; he presented them to Martin
+Folkes, who gave them to Baker, and these interesting creatures revived
+in water in 1771. They enjoyed a rare satisfaction in elbowing their own
+twenty-eighth generation. Wouldn't a man who should see his own
+twenty-eighth generation be a happy grandfather?
+
+"Another no less interesting fact is that desiccated animals have vastly
+more tenacity of life than others. If the temperature were suddenly to
+fall thirty degrees in this laboratory, we should all get inflammation
+of the lungs. If it were to rise as much, there would be danger of
+congestion of the brain. Well, a desiccated animal, which is not
+absolutely dead, and which will revive to-morrow if I soak it, faces
+with impunity, variations of ninety-five degrees and six-tenths. M.
+Meiser and plenty of others have proved it.
+
+"It remains to inquire, then, if a superior animal, a man for instance,
+can be desiccated without any more disastrous consequences than a little
+worm or a tardigrade. M. Meiser was convinced that it is practicable; he
+wrote to that effect in all his books, although he did not demonstrate
+it by experiment.
+
+"Now where would be the harm in it, ladies? All men curious in regard to
+the future, or dissatisfied with life, or out of sorts with their
+contemporaries, could hold themselves in reserve for a better age, and
+we should have no more suicides on account of misanthropy.
+Valetudinarians, whom the ignorant science of the nineteenth century
+declares incurable, needn't blow their brains out any more; they can
+have themselves dried up and wait peaceably in a box until Medicine
+shall have found a remedy for their disorders. Rejected lovers need no
+longer throw themselves into the river; they can put themselves under
+the receiver of an air pump, and make their appearance thirty years
+later, young, handsome and triumphant, satirizing the age of their cruel
+charmers, and paying them back scorn for scorn. Governments will give
+up the unnatural and barbarous custom of guillotining dangerous people.
+They will no longer shut them up in cramped cells at Mazas to complete
+their brutishness; they will not send them to the Toulon school to
+finish their criminal education; they will merely dry them up in
+batches--one for ten years, another for forty, according to the gravity
+of their deserts. A simple store-house will replace the prisons, police
+lock-ups and jails. There will be no more escapes to fear, no more
+prisoners to feed. An enormous quantity of dried beans and mouldy
+potatoes will be saved for the consumption of the country.
+
+"You have, ladies, a feeble delineation of the benefits which Doctor
+Meiser hoped to pour upon Europe by introducing the desiccation of man.
+He made his great experiment in 1813 on a French colonel--a prisoner, I
+have been told, and condemned as a spy by court-martial. Unhappily he
+did not succeed; for I bought the colonel and his box for the price of
+an ordinary cavalry horse, in the dirtiest shop in Berlin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE VICTIM.
+
+
+"My dear Leon," said M. Renault, "you remind me of a college
+commencement. We have listened to your dissertation just as they listen
+to the Latin discourse of the professor of rhetoric; there are always in
+the audience a majority which learns nothing from it, and a minority
+which understands nothing of it. But every body listens patiently, on
+account of the sensations which are to come by and by. M. Martout and I
+are acquainted with Meiser's works, and those of his distinguished
+pupil, M. Pouchet; you have, then, said too much that is in them, if you
+intended to speak for our benefit; and you have not said enough that is
+in them for these ladies and gentlemen who know nothing of the existing
+discussions regarding the vital and organic principles.
+
+"Is life a principle of action which animates the organs and puts them
+into play? Is it not, on the contrary, merely the result of
+organization--the play of various functions of organized matter? This is
+a problem of the highest importance, which would interest the ladies
+themselves, if one were to place it plainly before them. It would be
+sufficient to say: 'We inquire whether there is a vital principle--the
+source of all functions of the body, or if life be not merely the result
+of the regular play of the organs? The vital principle, in the eyes of
+Meiser and his disciple, does not exist; if it really existed, they say,
+one could not understand how it can leave a man and a tardigrade when
+they are desiccated, and return to them again when they are soaked.'
+Now, if there be no vital principle, all the metaphysical and moral
+theories which have been hypothecated on its existence, must be
+reconstructed. These ladies have listened to you patiently, it is but
+justice to them to admit; but all that they have been able to gather
+from your slightly Latinish discourse, is that you have given them a
+dissertation instead of the romance you promised. But we all forgive you
+for the sake of the mummy you are going to show us. Open the colonel's
+box."
+
+"We've well earned the sight!" cried Clementine, laughing.
+
+"But suppose you were to get frightened?"
+
+"I'd have you know, sir, that I'm not afraid of anybody, not even of
+live colonels!"
+
+Leon took his bunch of keys and opened the long oak box on which he had
+been seated. The lid being raised, they saw a great leaden casket which
+enclosed a magnificent walnut box carefully polished on the outside, and
+lined on the inside with white silk, and padded. The others brought
+their lamps and candles near, and the colonel of the 23d of the line
+appeared as if he were in a chapel illuminated for his lying in state.
+
+One would have said that the man was asleep. The perfect preservation of
+the body attested the paternal care of the murderer. It was truly a
+remarkable preparation, and would have borne comparison with the finest
+European mummies described by Vicq d'Azyr in 1779, and by the younger
+Puymaurin in 1787.
+
+The part best preserved, as is always the case, was the face. All the
+features had maintained a proud and manly expression. If any old friend
+of the colonel had been present at the opening of the third box, he
+would have recognized him at first sight.
+
+Undoubtedly the point of the nose was a little sharper, the nostrils
+less expanded and thinner, and the bridge a little more marked than in
+the year 1813. The eyelids were thinned, the lips pinched, the corners
+of the mouth drawn down, the cheek bones too prominent, and the neck
+visibly shrunken, which exaggerated the prominence of the chin and
+larynx. But the eyelids were closed without contraction, and the sockets
+much less hollow than one could have expected; the mouth was not at all
+distorted like the mouth of a corpse; the skin was slightly wrinkled but
+had not changed color; it had only become a little more transparent,
+showing, after a fashion, the color of the tendons, the fat and the
+muscles, wherever it rested directly upon them. It also had a rosy tint
+which is not ordinarily seen in embalmed corpses. Doctor Martout
+explained this anomaly by saying that if the colonel had actually been
+dried alive, the globules of the blood were not decomposed, but simply
+collected in the capillary vessels of the skin and subjacent tissues
+where they still preserved their proper color, and could be seen more
+easily than otherwise, on account of the semi-transparency of the skin.
+
+The uniform had become much too large, as may be readily understood;
+though it did not seem, at a casual glance, that the members had become
+deformed. The hands were dry and angular, but the nails, although a
+little bent inward toward the root, had preserved all their freshness.
+The only very noticeable change was the excessive depression of the
+abdominal walls, which seemed crowded downward toward the posterior
+side; at the right, a slight elevation indicated the place of the liver.
+A tap of the finger on the various parts of the body, produced a sound
+like that from dry leather. While Leon was pointing out these details to
+his audience and doing the honors of his mummy he awkwardly broke off
+the lower part of the right ear, and a little piece of the Colonel
+remained in his hand.
+
+This trifling accident might have passed unnoticed, had not Clementine,
+who followed with visible emotion all the movements of her lover,
+dropped her candle and uttered a cry of affright. All gathered around
+her. Leon took her in his arms and carried her to a chair. M. Renault
+ran after salts. She was as pale as death, and seemed on the point of
+fainting.
+
+She soon recovered, however, and reassured them all by a charming smile.
+
+"Pardon me," she said, "for such a ridiculous exhibition of terror; but
+what Monsieur Leon was saying to us ... and then ... that figure which
+seemed sleeping ... it appeared to me that the poor man was going to
+open his mouth and cry out when he was injured."
+
+Leon hastened to close the walnut box, while M. Martout picked up the
+piece of ear and put it in his pocket. But Clementine, while continuing
+to smile and make apologies, was overcome by a fresh accession of
+emotion and melted into tears. The engineer threw himself at her feet,
+poured forth excuses and tender phrases, and did all he could to console
+her inexplicable grief. Clementine dried her eyes, looked prettier than
+ever, and sighed fit to break her heart, without knowing why.
+
+"Beast that I am!" muttered Leon, tearing his hair. "On the day when I
+see her again after three years' absence, I can think of nothing more
+soul-inspiring than showing her mummies!" He launched a kick at the
+triple coffin of the Colonel, saying: "I wish the devil had the
+confounded Colonel!"
+
+"No!" cried Clementine with redoubled energy and emotion. "Do not curse
+him, Monsieur Leon! He has suffered so much! Ah! poor, poor unfortunate
+man!"
+
+Mlle. Sambucco felt a little ashamed. She made excuses for her niece,
+and declared that never, since her tenderest childhood, had she
+manifested such extreme sensitiveness. M. and Mme. Renault, who had seen
+her grow up; Doctor Martout who had held the sinecure of physician to
+her; the architect, the notary, in a word, everybody present was plunged
+into a state of absolute stupefaction. Clementine was no sensitive
+plant. She was not even a romantic school girl. Her youth had not been
+nourished by Anne Radcliffe, she did not trouble herself about ghosts,
+and she would go through the house very tranquilly at ten o'clock at
+night without a candle. When her mother died, some months before Leon's
+departure, she did not wish to have any one share with her the sad
+satisfaction of watching and praying in the death-chamber.
+
+"This will teach us," said the aunt, "how to stay up after ten o'clock.
+What! It is midnight, all to quarter of an hour! Come, my child; you
+will get better fast enough after you get to bed."
+
+Clementine arose submissively, but at the moment of leaving the
+laboratory she retraced her steps, and with a caprice more inexplicable
+than her grief, she absolutely wished to see the mummy of the colonel
+again. Her aunt scolded in vain; in spite of the remarks of Mlle.
+Sambucco and all the persons present, she reopened the walnut box,
+kneeled down beside the mummy and kissed it on the forehead.
+
+"Poor man!" said she, rising, "How cold he is! Monsieur Leon, promise me
+that if he is dead you will have him laid in consecrated ground!"
+
+"As you please, Mademoiselle. I had intended to send him to the
+anthropological museum, with my father's permission; but you know that
+we can refuse you nothing."
+
+They did not separate as gaily, by a good deal, as they had met. M.
+Renault and his son escorted Mlle. Sambucco and her niece to their door,
+and met the big colonel of cuirassiers who had been honoring Clementine
+with his attentions. The young girl tenderly pressed the arm of her
+betrothed and said: "Here is a man who never sees me without sighing.
+And what sighs! Gracious Heavens! It wouldn't take more than two to fill
+the sails of a a ship. The race of colonels has vastly degenerated since
+1813. One doesn't see any more such fine looking ones as our unfortunate
+friend."
+
+Leon agreed with all she said. But he did not exactly see how he had
+become the friend of a mummy for which he had just paid twenty-five
+louis. To divert the conversation, he said to Clementine: "I have not
+yet shown you all the nice things I brought. His majesty, the Emperor of
+all the Russias, made me a present of a little enamelled gold star
+hanging at the end of a ribbon. Do you like button-hole ribbons?"
+
+"Oh, yes!" answered she, "the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor. Did you
+notice? The poor colonel still has a shred of one on his uniform, but
+the cross is there no longer. Those wicked Germans tore it away from him
+when they took him prisoner!"
+
+"It's very possible," said Leon.
+
+When they reached Mlle. Sambucco's house, it was time to separate.
+Clementine offered her hand to Leon, who would have been better pleased
+with her cheek.
+
+Father and son returned home arm in arm, with slow steps, giving
+themselves up to endless conjectures regarding the whimsical emotions of
+Clementine.
+
+Mme. Renault was waiting to put her son to bed; a time-honored and
+touching habit which mothers do not early lose. She showed him the
+handsome apartment above the parlor and M. Renault's laboratory, which
+had been prepared for his future domicile.
+
+"You will be as snug in here as a little cock in a pie," said she,
+showing him a bed-chamber fairly marvellous in its comfort. "All the
+furniture is soft and rounded, without a single angle. A blind man could
+walk here without any fear of hurting himself. See how I understand
+domestic comfort! Why, each arm-chair can be a friend! This will cost
+you a trifle. Penon Brothers came from Paris expressly. But a man ought
+to be comfortable at home, so that he may have no temptation to go
+abroad."
+
+This sweet motherly prattle stretched itself over two good hours, and
+much of it related to Clementine, as you will readily suppose. Leon had
+found her prettier than he had dreamed her in his sweetest visions, but
+less loving. "Devil take me!" said he, blowing out his candle; "One
+might think that that confounded stuffed Colonel had come to thrust
+himself between us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DREAMS OF LOVE, AND OTHER DREAMS.
+
+
+Leon learned to his cost, that a good conscience and a good bed are not
+enough to insure a good sleep. He was bedded like a sybarite, innocent
+as an Arcadian shepherd, and, moreover, tired as a soldier after a
+forced march; nevertheless a dull sleeplessness weighed upon him until
+morning. In vain he tossed into every possible position, as if to shift
+the burden from one shoulder on to the other. He did not close his eyes
+until he had seen the first glimmering of dawn silver the chinks of his
+shutters.
+
+He lulled himself to sleep thinking of Clementine; an obliging dream
+soon showed him the image of her he loved. He saw her in bridal costume,
+in the chapel of the imperial chateau. She was leaning on the arm of the
+elder M. Renault, who had put spurs on in honor of the ceremony. Leon
+followed, having given his arm to Mlle. Sambucco; the ancient maiden was
+decorated with the insignia of the Legion of Honor. On approaching the
+altar, the bridegroom noticed that his father's legs were as thin as
+broomsticks, and, when he was about expressing his astonishment, M.
+Renault turned around and said to him: "They are thin because they are
+desiccated; but they are not deformed." While he was giving this
+explanation, his face altered, his features changed, he shot out a black
+moustache, and grew terribly like the Colonel. The ceremony began. The
+choir was filled with tardigrades and rotifers as large as men and
+dressed like choristers: they intoned, in solemn measure, a hymn of the
+German composer, Meiser, which began thus:
+
+      The vital principle
+    Is a gratuitous hypothesis!
+
+The poetry and the music appeared admirable to Leon; he was trying to
+impress them on his memory when the officiating priest advanced toward
+him with two gold rings on a silver salver. This priest was a colonel of
+cuirassiers in full uniform. Leon asked himself when and where he had
+met him. It was on the previous evening before Clementine's door. The
+cuirassier murmured these words: "The race of colonels has vastly
+degenerated since 1813." He heaved a profound sigh, and the nave of the
+chapel, which was a ship-of-the-line, was driven over the water at a
+speed of forty knots. Leon tranquilly took the little gold ring and
+prepared to place it on Clementine's finger, but he perceived that the
+hand of his betrothed was dried up; the nails alone had retained their
+natural freshness. He was frightened and fled across the church, which
+he found filled with colonels of every age and variety. The crowd was
+so dense that the most unheard-of efforts failed to penetrate it. He
+escapes at last, but hears behind him the hurried steps of a man who
+tries to catch him. He doubles his speed, he throws himself on
+all-fours, he gallops, he neighs, the trees on the way seem to fly
+behind him, he no longer touches the earth. But the enemy comes up
+faster than the wind; Leon hears the sound of his steps, his spurs
+jingle; he catches up with Leon, seizes him by the mane, flings himself
+with a bound upon his back, and goads him with the spur. Leon rears; the
+rider bends over toward his ear and says, stroking him with his whip: "I
+am not heavy to carry:--thirty pounds of colonel." The unhappy lover of
+Mlle. Clementine makes a violent effort and springs sideways; the
+Colonel falls and draws his sword. Leon loses no time; he puts himself
+on guard and fights, but almost instantly feels the Colonel's sword
+enter his heart to the hilt. The chill of the blade spreads further and
+further, and ends by freezing Leon from head to foot. The Colonel draws
+nearer and says, smiling: "The main-spring is broken; the little animal
+is dead." He puts the body in the walnut box, which is too short and too
+narrow. Cramped on every side, Leon struggles, strains and wakes himself
+up, worn out with fatigue and half smothered between the bed and the
+wall.
+
+He quickly jumped into his slippers and eagerly raised the windows and
+pushed open the shutters. "He made light, and saw that it was good," as
+is elsewhere written. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Brrroum! He shook off
+the recollections of his dream as a wet dog shakes off drops of water.
+The famous London chronometer told him that it was nine o'clock. A cup
+of chocolate, served by Gothon, helped not a little to untangle his
+ideas. On proceeding with his toilet, in a very bright, cheerful and
+convenient dressing-room, he reconciled himself to the realities of
+life. "Everything considered," he said to himself, combing out his
+yellow beard, "nothing but happiness has come to me. Here I am in my
+native country, with my family and in a pretty house which is our own.
+My father and mother are both well, and, for myself, I revel in the most
+luxuriant health. Our fortune is moderate, but so are our tastes, and we
+shall never feel the want of anything. Our friends received me yesterday
+with open arms; and as for enemies we have none. The prettiest girl in
+Fontainebleau is willing to become my wife; I can marry her in less than
+three weeks if I see fit to hurry things a little. Clementine did not
+meet me as if I were of no interest to her; far from it. Her lovely eyes
+smiled upon me last night with the most tender regard. It is true that
+she wept at the end, that's too certain. That is my only vexation, my
+only anxiety, the sole cause of that foolish dream I had last night. She
+did weep, but why? Because I was beast enough to regale her with a
+lecture, and that, too, about a mummy. All right! I'll have the mummy
+buried; I'll hold back my dissertations, and nothing else in the world
+will come to disturb our happiness."
+
+He went down stairs, humming an air from the _Nozze_. M. and Mme.
+Renault, who were not accustomed to going to bed after midnight, were
+still asleep. On going into the laboratory, he saw that the triple box
+of the Colonel was closed. Gothon had placed a little wooden cross and a
+sprig of consecrated box on the cover. "We may as well begin masses for
+his soul," he murmured between his teeth, with a smile that might have
+been a little sceptical. At the same time he noticed that Clementine, in
+her agitation, had forgotten the presents he had brought her. He made a
+bundle of them, looked at his watch, and concluded that there would be
+no indiscretion in straining a point to go to Mlle. Sambucco's.
+
+The much-to-be-respected aunt was an early riser, as they generally are
+in the rural districts, and had, in fact, already gone out to church,
+and Clementine was gardening near the house. She ran to her lover
+without thinking of throwing down the little rake she held in her hand,
+and with the sweetest smile in the world, held up her pretty rosy cheeks
+which were a little moist and flushed by the pleasant warmth of pleasure
+and exercise.
+
+"Aren't you put out with me?" said she. "I was very ridiculous last
+night. My aunt has scolded me in the bargain. And I forgot to take the
+pretty things you brought me from among the savages! But it was not
+from lack of appreciation. I am so happy to see that you have always
+thought of me as I have thought of you! I could have sent for them
+to-day, but I am pleasantly anticipated. My heart told me that you would
+come yourself."
+
+"Your heart knew me, dear Clementine."
+
+"It would be very unfortunate if it did not know its owner."
+
+"How good you are, and how much I love you!"
+
+"Oh! I, too, dear Leon, I love you dearly."
+
+She stood the rake against a tree, and hung upon the arm of her intended
+husband with that supple and languishing grace, the secret of which the
+creoles possess.
+
+"Come this way," said she, "so that I can show you all the improvements
+we have made in the garden."
+
+Leon admired everything she wanted him to. The fact is that he had eyes
+for nothing but her. The grotto of Polyphemus and the cave of Caecus
+would have appeared to him pleasanter than the gardens of Armida, if
+Clementine's little red jacket had been promenading in them.
+
+He asked her if she did not feel some regret in leaving so charming a
+retreat, and one which she had embellished with so much care.
+
+"Why?" asked she, without thinking to blush. "We will not go far off,
+and, besides, won't we come here every day?"
+
+The coming marriage was a thing so well settled, that it had not even
+been spoken of on the previous evening. Nothing remained to be done but
+to publish the bans and fix the date. Clementine, simple and honest
+heart, expressed herself without any false modesty concerning an event
+so entirely expected, so natural and so agreeable. She had expressed her
+tastes to Mme. Renault in the arrangement of the new apartments, and
+chosen the hangings herself; and she no longer made any ceremony in
+talking with her intended of the happy life in common which was about
+beginning for them, of the people they would invite to the marriage
+ceremony, of the wedding calls to be made afterwards, of the day which
+should be appropriated for receptions and of the time they would devote
+to each other's society and to work. She inquired in regard to the
+occupation which Leon intended to make for himself, and the hours which,
+of preference, he would give to study. This excellent little woman would
+have been ashamed to bear the name of a sloth, and unhappy in passing
+her days with an idler. She promised Leon in advance, to respect his
+work as a sacred thing. On her part she thoroughly intended to make her
+time also of use, and not to live with folded arms. At the start she
+would take charge of the housekeeping, under the direction of Madame
+Renault, who was beginning to find it a little burdensome. And then
+would she not soon have children to care for, bring up and educate? This
+was a noble and useful pleasure which she did not intend to share with
+any one. Nevertheless she would send her sons to college, in order to
+fit them for living in the world, and to teach them early those
+principles of justice and equality which are the foundation of every
+good manly character. Leon let her talk on, only interrupting her to
+agree with her: for these two young people who had been educated and
+brought up with the same ideas, saw everything with the same eyes.
+Education had created this pleasant harmony rather than Love.
+
+"Do you know," said Clementine, "that I felt an awful palpitation of the
+heart when I entered the room where you were yesterday?"
+
+"If you think that my heart beat less violently than yours--"
+
+"Oh! but it was a different thing with me: I was afraid."
+
+"What of?"
+
+"I was afraid that I should not find you the same as I had seen you in
+my thoughts. Remember that it had been three years since we bid each
+other good bye. I remembered distinctly what you were when you went
+away, and, with imagination helping memory a little, I had reconstructed
+my Leon entire. But if you had no longer resembled him! What would have
+become of me in the presence of a new Leon, when I had formed the
+pleasant habit of loving the other?"
+
+"You make me tremble. But your first greeting reassured me in advance."
+
+"Tut, sir! Don't speak of that first greeting, or you will make me blush
+a second time. Let us speak rather of that poor colonel who made me shed
+so many tears. How is he getting along this morning?"
+
+"I forgot to inquire after his health, but if you want me to--"
+
+"It's useless. You can announce to him a visit from me to-day. It is
+absolutely necessary that I should see him this noon."
+
+"You would be very sensible to give up this fancy. Why expose yourself
+again to such painful emotions?"
+
+"The fancy is stronger than I am. Seriously, dear Leon, the old fellow
+attracts me."
+
+"Why 'old fellow?' He has the appearance of a man who died when from
+twenty-five to thirty years of age."
+
+"Are you very sure that he is dead? I said 'old fellow' because of a
+dream I had last night."
+
+"Ha! You too?"
+
+"Yes. You remember how agitated I was on leaving you, and, moreover, I
+had been scolded by my aunt. And, too, I had been thinking of terrible
+sights--my poor mother lying on her death-bed. In fact, my spirits were
+quite broken down."
+
+"Poor dear little heart!"
+
+"Nevertheless, as I did not want to think about anything any more, I
+went to bed quickly, and shut my eyes with all my might, so tightly,
+indeed, that I put myself to sleep. It was not long before I saw the
+colonel. He was lying as I saw him in his triple coffin, but he had long
+white hair and a most benign and venerable appearance. He begged us to
+put him in consecrated ground, and we carried him, you and I, to the
+Fontainebleau cemetery. On reaching my mother's tomb we saw that the
+stone was displaced. My mother, in a white robe, was moved so as to make
+a place beside her, and she seemed waiting for the colonel. But every
+time we attempted to lay him down, the coffin left our hands and rested
+suspended in the air, as if it had no weight. I could distinguish the
+poor old man's features, for his triple coffin had become as transparent
+as the alabaster lamp burning near the ceiling of my chamber. He was
+sad, and his broken ear bled freely. All at once he escaped from our
+hands, the coffin vanished, and I saw nothing but him, pale as a statue,
+and tall as the tallest oaks of the _bas-Breau_. His golden epaulettes
+spread out and became wings, and he raised himself to heaven, holding
+over us both hands as if in blessing. I woke up all in tears, but I have
+not told my dream to my aunt, for she would have scolded me again."
+
+"No one ought to be scolded but me, Clementine dear. It is my fault that
+your gentle slumbers are troubled by visions of the other world. But all
+this will be stopped soon: to-day I am going to seek a definite
+receptacle for the Colonel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A YOUNG GIRL'S CAPRICE.
+
+
+Clementine had a fresh young heart. Before knowing Leon, she had loved
+but one person--her mother. No cousins of either sex, nor uncles, nor
+aunts, nor grandfathers, nor grandmothers, had dissipated, by dividing
+it among themselves, that little treasure of affection which
+well-constituted children bring into the world. The grandmother,
+Clementine Pichon, was married at Nancy in January, 1814, and died three
+months later in the suburbs of Toulon, during her first confinement. The
+grandfather, M. Langevin, a sub-commissary of the first class, being
+left a widower, with a daughter in the cradle, devoted himself to
+bringing up his child. He gave her, in 1835, to M. Sambucco, an
+estimable and agreeable man, of Italian extraction, born in France, and
+King's counsel in the court of Marseilles. In 1838 M. Sambucco, who was
+a man of considerable independence, because he had resources of his own,
+in some manner highly honorable to himself, incurred the ill-will of the
+Keeper of the Seals. He was therefore appointed Advocate-General to
+Martinique, and after some days of hesitation, accepted the transfer to
+that remote situation. But old M. Langevin did not easily console
+himself for the departure of his daughter: he died two years later
+without having embraced the little Clementine, to whom it was intended
+that he should be godfather. M. Sambucco, his son-in-law, lost his life
+in 1843, during an earthquake. The papers of the colony and of the
+metropolis related at the time how he had fallen a victim to his
+devotion to others. After this fearful misfortune, the young widow
+hastened to recross the sea with her daughter. She settled in
+Fontainebleau, in order that the child might live in a healthy
+atmosphere. Fontainebleau is one of the healthiest places in France. If
+Mme. Sambucco had been as good a manager as she was mother, she would
+have left Clementine a respectable fortune, but she regulated her
+affairs badly and got herself under heavy embarrassments. A neighboring
+notary relieved her of a round sum; and two farms which she had paid
+dearly for, brought her almost nothing. In short, she no longer knew
+what her situation was, and began to lose all control of it, when a
+sister of her husband, an old maid, pinched and pious, expressed a
+desire to live with her and use their resources in common. The arrival
+of this long-toothed spinster strangely frightened the little
+Clementine, who hid herself under the furniture and nestled among her
+mother's skirts; but it was the salvation of the house. Mlle. Sambucco
+was not one of the most spirituelle nor one of the most romantic of
+women, but she was Order incarnated. She reduced the expenses, handled
+the resources herself, sold the two farms in 1847, bought some
+three-per-cents. in 1848, and restored stable equilibrium in the budget.
+Thanks to the talents and activity of this female steward, the gentle
+and improvident widow had nothing to do but to fondle her child.
+Clementine learned to honor the virtues of her aunt, but she adored her
+mother. When she had the affliction of losing her, she found herself
+alone in the world, leaning on Mlle. Sambucco, like a young plant on a
+prop of dry wood. It was then that her friendship for Leon glimmered
+with a vague ray of love; and young Renault profited by the necessity
+for expansion which filled this youthful soul.
+
+During the three long years that Leon spent away from her, Clementine
+scarcely knew that she was alone. She loved and felt that she was loved
+in return; she had faith in the future, and an inner life of tenderness
+and timid hope; and this noble and gentle heart required nothing more.
+
+But what completely astonished her betrothed, her aunt and herself, and
+strangely subverted all the best accredited theories respecting the
+feminine heart,--what, indeed, reason would have refused to credit had
+it not been established by facts, was that the day when she again met
+the husband of her choice, an hour after she had thrown herself into
+Leon's arms with a grace so full of trust, Clementine was so abruptly
+invaded by a new sentiment which was not love, nor friendship, nor fear,
+but transcended them all and spoke with master tones in her heart.
+
+From the instant when Leon had shown her the figure of the Colonel, she
+had been seized by an actual passion for this nameless mummy. It was
+nothing like what she felt towards young Renault, but it was a
+combination of interest, compassion and respectful sympathy.
+
+If any one had recounted some famous feat of arms, or some romantic
+history of which the Colonel had been the hero, this impression would
+have been natural, or, at least, explicable. But she knew nothing of him
+except that he had been condemned as a spy by a council of war, and yet
+she dreamed of him the very night after Leon's return.
+
+This inexplicable prepossession at first manifested itself in a
+religious form. She caused a mass to be said for the repose of the
+Colonel's soul, and urged Leon to make preparations for the funeral,
+herself selecting the ground in which he was to be interred. These
+various cares never caused her to omit her daily visit to the walnut
+box, or the respectful bending of the knee before the body, or the
+sisterly or filial kiss which she regularly placed upon its forehead.
+The Renault family soon became uneasy about such strange symptoms, and
+hastened the interment of the attractive unknown, in order to relieve
+themselves of him as soon as possible. But the day before the one fixed
+for the ceremony, Clementine changed her mind.
+
+"By what right could they shut in the tomb a man who, possibly, was not
+dead? The theories of the learned Doctor Meiser were not such that one
+could reject them without examination. The matter was at least worthy of
+a few days' reflection. Was it not possible to submit the Colonel's body
+to some experiments? Professor Hirtz, of Berlin, had promised to send
+some valuable documents concerning the life and death of this
+unfortunate officer: nothing ought to be undertaken before they were
+received; some one ought to write to Berlin to hasten the sending of
+these papers."
+
+Leon sighed, but yielded uncomplainingly to this new caprice, and wrote
+to M. Hirtz.
+
+Clementine found an ally in this second campaign in Doctor Martout.
+Though he was but an average practitioner and disdained the acquisition
+of practice far too much, M. Martout was not deficient in knowledge. He
+had long been studying five or six great questions in physiology, such
+as reanimation, spontaneous generation and the topics connected with
+them. A regular correspondence kept him posted in all recent
+discoveries; he was the friend of M. Pouchet, of Rouen; and knew also
+the celebrated Karl Nibor, who has carried the use of the microscope
+into researches so wide and so profound. M. Martout had desiccated and
+resuscitated thousands of little worms, rotifers and tardigrades; he
+held that life is nothing but organization in action, and that the idea
+of reviving a desiccated man has nothing absurd about it. He gave
+himself up to long meditations when Professor Hirtz sent from Berlin the
+following document, the original of which is filed among the manuscripts
+of the Humboldt collection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+PROFESSOR MEISER'S WILL IN FAVOR OF THE DESICCATED COLONEL.
+
+
+On this 20th day of January, 1824, being worn down by a cruel malady and
+feeling the approach of the time when my person shall be absorbed in the
+Great All;
+
+I have written with my own hand this testament which is the expression
+of my last will.
+
+I appoint as executor my nephew Nicholas Meiser, a wealthy brewer in the
+city of Dantzic.
+
+I bequeath my books, papers and scientific collections of all kinds,
+except item 3712, to my very estimable and learned friend, Herr Von
+Humboldt.
+
+I bequeath all the rest of my effects, real and personal, valued at
+100,000 Prussian thalers or 375,000 francs, to Colonel Pierre Victor
+Fougas, at present desiccated, but living, and entered in my catalogue
+opposite No. 3712 (Zoology).
+
+I trust that he will accept this feeble compensation for the ordeals he
+has undergone in my laboratory, and the service he has rendered to
+science.
+
+Finally, in order that my nephew Nicholas Meiser may exactly understand
+the duties I leave him to perform, I have resolved to inscribe here a
+detailed account of the desiccation of Colonel Fougas, my sole heir.
+
+It was on the 11th of November in that unhappy year 1813, that my
+relations with this brave young man began. I had long since quitted
+Dantzic, where the noise of cannon and the danger from bombs had
+rendered all labor impossible, and retired with my instruments and books
+under the protection of the Allied Armies in the fortified town of
+Liebenfeld. The French garrisons of Dantzic, Stettin, Custrin, Glogau,
+Hamburg and several other German towns could not communicate with each
+other or with their native land; meanwhile General Rapp was obstinately
+defending himself against the English fleet and the Russian army.
+Colonel Fougas was taken by a detachment of the Barclay de Tolly corps,
+as he was trying to pass the Vistula on the ice, on the way to Dantzic.
+They brought him prisoner to Liebenfeld on the 11th of November, just at
+my supper time, and Sergeant Garok, who commanded in the village, forced
+me to be present at the examination and act as interpreter.
+
+The open countenance, manly voice, proud firmness and fine carriage of
+the unfortunate young man won my heart. He had made the sacrifice of his
+life. His only regret, he said, was having stranded so near port, after
+passing through four armies; and being unable to carry out the Emperor's
+orders. He appeared animated by that French fanaticism which has done
+so much harm to our beloved Germany. Nevertheless I could not help
+defending him; and I translated his words less as an interpreter than as
+an advocate. Unhappily, they found upon him a letter from Napoleon to
+General Rapp, of which I preserved a copy:
+
+    "Abandon Dantzic, break the blockade, unite with the
+    garrisons of Stettin, Custrin and Glogau, march along
+    the Elbe, arrange with St. Cyr and Davoust to
+    concentrate the forces scattered at Dresden, Forgau,
+    Wittenberg, Magdeburg and Hamburg; roll up an army like
+    a snow ball; cross Westphalia, which is open, and come
+    to defend the line of the Rhine with an army of 170,000
+    Frenchmen which you will have saved!
+
+    "NAPOLEON."
+
+This letter was sent to the headquarters of the Russian army, whilst a
+half-dozen illiterate soldiers, drunk with joy and bad brandy, condemned
+the brave Colonel of the 23d of the line to the death of a spy and a
+traitor. The execution was fixed for the next day, the 12th, and M.
+Pierre Victor Fougas, after having thanked and embraced me with the most
+touching sensibility, (He is a husband and a father.) was shut up in the
+little battlemented tower of Liebenfeld, where the wind whistles
+terribly through all the loopholes.
+
+The night of the 11th and 12th of November was one of the severest of
+that terrible winter. My self-registering thermometer, which hung
+outside my window with a southeast exposure, marked nineteen degrees
+below zero, centigrade. I went early in the morning to bid the Colonel a
+last farewell, and met Sergeant Garok, who said to me in bad German:
+
+"We won't have to kill the Frantzouski, he is frozen to death."
+
+I ran to the prison. The colonel was lying on his back, rigid. But I
+found after a few minutes' examination, that the rigidity of the body
+was not that of death. The joints, though they had not their ordinary
+suppleness, could be bent and extended without any great effort. The
+limbs, the face, and the chest gave my hands a sensation of cold, but
+very different from that which I had often experienced from contact with
+corpses.
+
+Knowing that he had passed several nights without sleep, and endured
+extraordinary fatigues, I did not doubt that he had fallen into that
+profound and lethargic sleep which is superinduced by intense cold, and
+which if too far prolonged slackens respiration and circulation to a
+point where the most delicate physiological tests are necessary to
+discover the continuance of life. The pulse was insensible; at least my
+fingers, benumbed with cold, could not feel it. My hardness of hearing
+(I was then in my sixty-ninth year) prevented my determining by
+auscultation whether the beats of the heart still aroused those feeble
+though prolonged vibrations which the ear continues to hear some time
+after the hand fails to detect them.
+
+The colonel had reached that point of torpor produced by cold, where to
+revive a man without causing him to die, requires numerous and delicate
+attentions. Some hours after, congelation would supervene, and with it,
+impossibility of restoration to life.
+
+I was in the greatest perplexity. On the one hand I knew that he was
+dying on my hands by congelation; on the other, I could not, by myself,
+bestow upon him the attentions that were indispensable. If I were to
+administer stimulants without having him, at the same time, rubbed on
+the trunk and limbs by three or four vigorous assistants, I would revive
+him only to see him die. I had still before my eyes the spectacle of
+that lovely young girl asphyxiated in a fire, whom I succeeded in
+reviving by placing burning coals under the clavicles, but who could
+only call her mother, and died almost immediately, in spite of the
+administration of internal stimulants and electricity for inducing
+contractions of the diaphragm and heart.
+
+And even if I should succeed in bringing him back to health and
+strength, was not he condemned by court-martial? Did not humanity forbid
+my rousing him from this repose akin to death, to deliver him to the
+horrors of execution?
+
+I must confess that in the presence of this organism where life was
+suspended, my ideas on reanimation took, as it were, fresh hold upon me.
+I had so often desiccated and revived beings quite elevated in the
+animal scale, that I did not doubt the success of the operation, even on
+a man. By myself alone I could not revive and save the Colonel; but I
+had in my laboratory, all the instruments necessary to desiccate him
+without assistance.
+
+To sum up, three alternatives offered themselves to me. I. To leave the
+Colonel in the crenellated tower, where he would have died the same day
+of congelation. II. To revive him by stimulants, at the risk of killing
+him. And for what? To give him up, in case of success, to inevitable
+execution. III. To desiccate him in my laboratory with the quasi
+certainty of resuscitating him after the restoration of peace. All
+friends of humanity will doubtless comprehend that I could not hesitate
+long.
+
+I had Sergeant Garok called, and I begged him to sell me the body of the
+Colonel. It was not the first time that I had bought a corpse for
+dissection, so my request excited no suspicion. The bargain concluded, I
+gave him four bottles of kirsch-wasser, and soon two Russian soldiers
+brought me Colonel Fougas on a stretcher.
+
+As soon as I was alone with him, I pricked one of his fingers: pressure
+forced out a drop of blood. To place it under a microscope between two
+plates of glass was the work of a minute. Oh, joy! The fibrin was not
+coagulated. The red globules appeared cleanly circular, flattened,
+biconcave, and without notches, indentations or spheroidal swellings.
+The white globules changed their shape, taking at intervals the
+spherical form, and varying their shapes again by delicate expansions. I
+was not deceived then, it was a torpid man that I had under my eyes, and
+not a dead one!
+
+I placed him on a pair of scales. He weighed one hundred and forty
+pounds, clothing included. I did not care to undress him, for I had
+noticed that animals desiccated directly in contact with the air, died
+oftener than those which remained covered with moss and other soft
+materials, during the ordeal of desiccation.
+
+My great air-pump, with its immense platform, its enormous oval
+wrought-iron receiver, which a rope running on a pulley firmly fixed in
+the ceiling easily raised and lowered by means of a windlass--all these
+thousand and one contrivances which I had so laboriously prepared in
+spite of the railleries of those who envied me, and which I felt
+desolate at seeing unemployed, were going to find their use! Unexpected
+circumstances had arisen at last to procure me such a subject for
+experiment, as I had in vain endeavored to procure, while I was
+attempting to reduce to torpidity dogs, rabbits, sheep and other mammals
+by the aid of freezing mixtures. Long ago, without doubt, would these
+results have been attained if I had been aided by those who surrounded
+me, instead of being made the butt of their railleries; if our
+authorities had sustained me with their influence instead of treating me
+as a subversive spirit.
+
+I shut myself up _tete-a-tete_ with the Colonel, and took care that even
+old Getchen, my housekeeper, now deceased, should not trouble me during
+my work. I had substituted for the wearisome lever of the old fashioned
+air-pumps, a wheel arranged with an eccentric which transformed the
+circular movement of the axis into the rectilinear movement required by
+the pistons: the wheel, the eccentric, the connecting rod, and the
+joints of the apparatus all worked admirably, and enabled me to do
+everything by myself. The cold did not impede the play of the machine,
+and the lubricating oil was not gummed: I had refined it myself by a new
+process founded on the then recent discoveries of the French _savant_ M.
+Chevreul.
+
+Having extended the body on the platform of the air-pump, lowered the
+receiver and luted the rim, I undertook to submit it gradually to the
+influence of a dry vacuum and cold. Capsules filled with chloride of
+calcium were placed around the Colonel to absorb the water which should
+evaporate from the body, and to promote the desiccation.
+
+I certainly found myself in the best possible situation for subjecting
+the human body to a process of gradual desiccation without sudden
+interruption of the functions, or disorganization of the tissues or
+fluids. Seldom had my experiments on rotifers and tardigrades been
+surrounded with equal chances of success, yet they had always succeeded.
+But the particular nature of the subject and the special scruples
+imposed upon my conscience, obliged me to employ a certain number of new
+conditions, which I had long since, in other connections, foreseen the
+expediency of. I had taken the pains to arrange an opening at each end
+of my oval receiver, and fit into it a heavy glass, which enabled me to
+follow with my eye the effects of the vacuum on the Colonel. I was
+entirely prevented from shutting the windows of my laboratory, from fear
+that a too elevated temperature might put an end to the lethargy of the
+subject, or induce some change in the fluids. If a thaw had come on, all
+would have been over with my experiment. But the thermometer kept for
+several days between six and eight degrees below zero, and I was very
+happy in seeing the lethargic sleep continue, without having to fear
+congelation of the tissues.
+
+I commenced to produce the vacuum with extreme slowness, for fear that
+the gases distributed through the blood, becoming free on account of the
+difference of their tension from that of rarified air, might escape in
+the vessels and so bring on immediate death. Moreover, I watched, every
+moment, the effects of the vacuum on the intestinal gases, for by
+expanding inside in proportion as the pressure of the air diminished
+outside of the body, they could have caused serious disorders. The
+tissues might not have been entirely ruptured by them, but an internal
+lesion would have been enough to occasion death in a few hours after
+reanimation. One observes this quite frequently in animals carelessly
+desiccated.
+
+Several times, too rapid a protrusion of the abdomen put me on my guard
+against the danger which I feared, and I was obliged to let in a little
+air under the receiver. At last, the cessation of all phenomena of this
+kind satisfied me that the gases had disappeared by exosmose or had been
+expelled by the spontaneous contraction of the viscera. It was not until
+the end of the first day that I could give up these minute precautions,
+and carry the vacuum a little further.
+
+The next day, the 13th, I pushed the vacuum to a point where the
+barometer fell to five millimetres. As no change had taken place in the
+position of the body or limbs, I was sure that no convulsion had been
+produced. The colonel had been desiccated, had become immobile, had lost
+the power of performing the functions of life, without death having
+supervened, and without the possibility of returning to activity having
+departed. His life was suspended, not extinguished.
+
+Each time that a surplus of watery vapor caused the barometer to ascend,
+I pumped. On the 14th, the door of my laboratory was literally broken in
+by the Russian General, Count Trollohub, who had been sent from
+headquarters. This distinguished officer had run in all haste to
+prevent the execution of the colonel and to conduct him into the
+presence of the Commander in Chief. I loyally confessed to him what I
+had done under the inspiration of my conscience; I showed him the body
+through one of the bull's-eyes of the air-pump; I told him that I was
+happy to have preserved a man who could furnish useful information to
+the liberators of my country; and I offered to resuscitate him at my own
+expense if they would promise me to respect his life and liberty. The
+General, Count Trollohub, unquestionably a distinguished man, but one of
+an exclusively military education, thought that I was not speaking
+seriously. He went out slamming the door in my face, and treating me
+like an old fool.
+
+I set myself to pumping again, and kept the vacuum at a pressure of from
+three to five millimetres for the space of three months. I knew by
+experience that animals can revive after being submitted to a dry vacuum
+and cold for eighty days.
+
+On the 12th of February 1814, having observed that for a month no
+modification had taken place in the shrinking of the flesh, I resolved
+to submit the Colonel to another series of operations, in order to
+insure more perfect preservation by complete desiccation. I let the air
+re-enter by the stop-cock arranged for the purpose, and, after raising
+the receiver, proceeded at once to my experiment.
+
+The body did not weigh more than forty-six pounds; I had then reduced it
+nearly to a third of its original weight. It should be borne in mind
+that the clothing had not lost as much water as the other parts. Now the
+human body contains nearly four-fifths of its own weight of water, as is
+proved by a desiccation thoroughly made in a chemical drying furnace.
+
+I accordingly placed the Colonel on a tray, and, after sliding it into
+my great furnace, gradually raised the temperature to 75 degrees,
+centigrade. I did not dare to go beyond this heat, from fear of altering
+the albumen and rendering it insoluble, and also of taking away from the
+tissues the capacity of reabsorbing the water necessary to a return to
+their functions.
+
+I had taken care to arrange a convenient apparatus so that the furnace
+was constantly traversed by a current of dry air. This air was dried in
+traversing a series of jars filled with sulphuric acid, quick-lime and
+chloride of calcium.
+
+After a week passed in the furnace, the general appearance of the body
+had not changed, but its weight was reduced to forty pounds, clothing
+included. Eight days more brought no new decrease of weight. From this,
+I concluded that the desiccation was sufficient. I knew very well that
+corpses mummified in church vaults for a century or more, end by
+weighing no more than a half-score of pounds, but they do not become so
+light without a material alteration in their tissues.
+
+On the 27th of February, I myself placed the colonel in the boxes which
+I had had made for his occupancy. Since that time, that is to say during
+a space of nine years and eleven months, we have never been separated. I
+carried him with me to Dantzic. He stays in my house. I have never
+placed him, according to his number, in my zoological collection; he
+remains by himself, in the chamber of honor. I do not grant any one the
+pleasure of re-using his chloride of calcium. I will take care of you
+till my dying day, Oh Colonel Fougas, dear and unfortunate friend! But I
+shall not have the joy of witnessing your resurrection. I shall not
+share the delightful emotions of the warrior returning to life. Your
+lachrymal glands, inert to-day, but some day to be reanimated, will not
+pour upon the bosom of your old benefactor, the sweet dew of
+recognition. For you will not recover your life until a day when mine
+will have long since departed! Perhaps you will be astonished that I,
+loving you as I do, should have so long delayed to draw you out of this
+profound slumber. Who knows but that some bitter reproach may come to
+taint the tenderness of the first offices of gratitude that you will
+perform over my tomb! Yes! I have prolonged, without any benefit to you,
+an experiment of general interest to others. I ought to have remained
+faithful to my first intention, and restored your life, immediately
+after the signature of peace. But what! Was it well to send you back to
+France when the sun of your fatherland was obscured by our soldiers and
+allies? I have spared you that spectacle--one so grievous to such a
+soul as yours. Without doubt you would have had, in March, 1815, the
+consolation of again seeing that fatal man to whom you had consecrated
+your devotion; but are you entirely sure that you would not have been
+swallowed up with his fortune, in the shipwreck of Waterloo?
+
+For five or six years past, it has not been your welfare nor even the
+welfare of science, that prevented me from reanimating you, it has
+been.... Forgive me, Colonel, it has been a cowardly attachment to life.
+The disorder from which I am suffering, and which will soon carry me
+off, is an aneurism of the heart; violent emotions are interdicted to
+me. If I were myself to undertake the grand operation whose process I
+have traced in a memorandum annexed to this instrument, I would, without
+any doubt, succumb before finishing it; my death would be an untoward
+accident which might trouble my assistants and cause your resuscitation
+to fail.
+
+Rest content! You will not have long to wait, and, moreover, what do you
+lose by waiting? You do not grow old, you are always twenty-four years
+of age; your children are growing up, you will be almost their
+contemporary when you come to life again. You came to Liebenfeld poor,
+you are now in my house poor, and my will makes you rich. That you may
+be happy also, is my dearest wish.
+
+I direct that, the day after my death, my nephew, Nicholas Meiser,
+shall call together, by letter, the ten physicians most illustrious in
+the kingdom of Prussia, that he shall read to them my will and the
+annexed memorandum, and that he shall cause them to proceed without
+delay, in my own laboratory, to the resuscitation of Colonel Fougas. The
+expenses of travel, maintenance, etc., etc., shall be deducted from the
+assets of my estate. The sum of two thousand thalers shall be devoted to
+the publication of the glorious results of the experiment, in German,
+French and Latin. A copy of this pamphlet shall be sent to each of the
+learned societies then existing in Europe.
+
+In the entirely unexpected event of the efforts of science being unable
+to reanimate the Colonel, all my effects shall revert to Nicholas
+Meiser, my sole surviving relative.
+
+JOHN MEISER, M. D.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HOW NICHOLAS MEISER, NEPHEW OF JOHN MEISER, EXECUTED HIS UNCLE'S WILL.
+
+
+Doctor Hirtz of Berlin, who had copied this will himself, apologized
+very politely for not having sent it sooner. Business had obliged him to
+travel away from the Capital. In passing through Dantzic, he had given
+himself the pleasure of visiting Herr Nicholas Meiser, the former
+brewer, now a very wealthy land-owner and heavy holder of stocks,
+sixty-six years of age. This old man very well remembered the death and
+will of his uncle, the _savant_; but he did not speak of them without a
+certain reluctance. Moreover, he said that immediately after the decease
+of John Meiser, he had called together ten physicians of Dantzic around
+the mummy of the Colonel; he showed also a unanimous statement of these
+gentlemen, affirming that a man desiccated in a furnace cannot in any
+way or by any means return to life. This certificate, drawn up by the
+professional competitors and enemies of the deceased, made no mention of
+the paper annexed to the will. Nicholas Meiser swore by all the Gods
+(but not without visibly coloring) that this document concerning the
+methods to be pursued in resuscitating the Colonel, had never been known
+by himself or his wife. When interrogated regarding the reasons which
+could have brought him to part with a trust as precious as the body of
+M. Fougas, he said that he had kept it in his house fifteen years with
+every imaginable respect and care, but that at the end of that time,
+becoming beset with visions and being awakened almost every night by the
+Colonel's ghost coming and pulling at his feet, he concluded to sell it
+for twenty crowns to a Berlin amateur. Since he had been rid of this
+dismal neighbor, he had slept a great deal better, but not entirely well
+yet; for it had been impossible for him to forget the apparition of the
+Colonel.
+
+To these revelations, Herr Hirtz, physician to His Royal Highness the
+Prince Regent of Prussia, added some remarks of his own. He did not
+think that the resuscitation of a healthy man, desiccated with
+precaution, was impossible in theory; he thought also, that the process
+of desiccation indicated by the illustrious John Meiser was the best to
+follow. But in the present case, it did not appear to him probable that
+Colonel Fougas could be called back to life; the atmospheric influences
+and the variations of temperature which he had undergone during a period
+of forty six years, must have altered the fluids and the tissues.
+
+This was also the opinion of M. Renault and his son. To quiet
+Clementine's excitement a little, they read to her the concluding
+paragraphs of Prof. Hirtz' letter. They kept from her John Meiser's
+will, which could have done nothing but excite her. But the little
+imagination worked on without cessation, do what they would to quiet it.
+Clementine now sought the company of Doctor Martout, she held
+discussions with him and wanted to see experiments in the resuscitation
+of rotifers. When she got home again, she would think a little about
+Leon and a great deal about the Colonel. The project of marriage was
+still entertained, but no one ventured to speak about the publication of
+the bans. To the most touching endearments of her betrothed, the young
+fiancee responded with disquisitions on the vital principle. Her visits
+to the Renaults' house were paid less to the living than to the dead.
+All the arguments they put in use to cure her of a foolish hope served
+only to throw her into a profound melancholy. Her beautiful complexion
+grew pale, the brilliancy of her glance died away. Undermined by a
+hidden disorder, she lost the amiable vivacity which had appeared to be
+the sparkling of youth and joy. The change must have been very
+noticeable, for even Mlle. Sambucco, who had not a mother's eyes, was
+troubled about it.
+
+M. Martout, satisfied that this malady of the spirit would not yield to
+any but a moral treatment, came to see her one morning, and said:
+
+"My dear child, although I cannot well explain to myself the great
+interest that you take in this mummy, I have done something for it and
+for you. I am going to send the little piece of ear that Leon broke off
+to M. Karl Nibor."
+
+Clementine opened all her eyes.
+
+"Don't you understand me?" continued the Doctor. "The thing is, to find
+out whether the humors and tissues of the Colonel have undergone
+material alterations. M. Nibor, with his microscope, will tell us the
+state of things. One can rely upon him: he is an infallible genius. His
+answer will tell us if it be well to proceed to the resuscitation of our
+man, or whether nothing is left but to bury him."
+
+"What!" cried the young girl. "One can tell whether a man is dead or
+living, by sample?"
+
+"Nothing more is required by Doctor Nibor. Forget your anxieties, then,
+for a week. As soon as the answer comes, I will give it to you to read.
+I have stimulated the curiosity of the great physiologist: he knows
+absolutely nothing about the fragment I send him. But if, to suppose an
+impossibility, he tells us that the piece of ear belongs to a sound
+being, I will beg him to come to Fontainebleau and help us restore his
+life."
+
+This vague glimmer of hope dissipated Clementine's melancholy, and
+brought back her buoyant health. She again began to sing and laugh and
+flutter about the garden at her aunt's, and the house at M. Renault's.
+The tender communings began again, the wedding was once more talked
+over, and the first ban was published.
+
+"At last," said Leon, "I have found her again."
+
+But Madame Renault, that wise and cautious mother, shook her head sadly.
+
+"All this goes but half well," said she. "I do not like to have my
+daughter-in-law so absorbed with that handsome dried-up fellow. What are
+we to expect when she knows that it is impossible to bring him to life
+again? Will the black butterflies[1] then fly away? And suppose they
+happen, by a miracle, to reanimate him! are you sure she will not fall
+in love with him? Indeed, Leon must have thought it very necessary to
+buy this mummy, and I call it money well invested!"
+
+One Sunday morning M. Martout rushed in upon the old professor, shouting
+victory.
+
+Here is the answer which had come to him from Paris:--
+
+    "My dear _confrere_:
+
+    "I have received your letter, and the little fragment of
+    tissue whose nature you asked me to determine. It did
+    not cost me much trouble to find out the matter in
+    question, I have done more difficult things twenty
+    times, in the course of experiments relating to medical
+    jurisprudence. You could have saved yourself the use of
+    the established formula: "When you shall have made your
+    microscopic examination, I will tell you what it is."
+    These little tricks amount to nothing: my microscope
+    knows better than you do what you have sent me. You know
+    the form and color of things: _it_ sees their inmost
+    nature, the laws of their being, the conditions of their
+    life and death.
+
+    "Your fragment of desiccated matter, half as broad as my
+    nail and nearly as thick, after remaining for
+    twenty-four hours under a bell-glass in an atmosphere
+    saturated with water at the temperature of the human
+    body, became supple--so much so as to be a little
+    elastic. I could consequently dissect it, study it like
+    a piece of fresh flesh, and put under the microscope
+    each one of its parts that appeared different, in
+    consistency or color, from the rest.
+
+    "I at once found, in the middle, a slight portion harder
+    and more elastic than the rest, which presented the
+    texture and cellular structure of cartilage. This was
+    neither the cartilage of the nose, nor the cartilage of
+    an articulation, but certainly the fibro-cartilage of
+    the ear. You sent me, then, the end of an ear, and it is
+    not the lower end--the lobe which women pierce to put
+    their gold ornaments in, but the upper end, into which
+    the cartilage extends.
+
+    "On the inner-side, I took off a fine skin, in which the
+    microscope showed me an epidermis, delicate, perfectly
+    intact; a derma no less intact, with little papillae and,
+    moreover, covered with a lot of fine human hairs. Each
+    of these little hairs had its root imbedded in its
+    follicle, and the follicle accompanied by its two little
+    glands. I will tell you even more: these hairs of down
+    were from four to five millimetres long, by from three
+    to five hundredths of a millimetre in diameter; this is
+    twice the size of the pretty down which grows on a
+    feminine ear; from which I conclude that your piece of
+    ear belongs to a man.
+
+    "Against the curved edge of the cartilage, I found
+    delicate striated bunches of the muscle of the helix,
+    and so perfectly intact that one would have said there
+    was nothing to prevent their contracting. Under the skin
+    and near the muscles, I found several little nervous
+    filaments, each one composed of eight or ten tubes in
+    which the medulla was as intact and homogeneous as in
+    nerves removed from a living animal or taken from an
+    amputated limb. Are you satisfied? Do you cry mercy?
+    Well! As for me, I am not yet at the end of my string.
+
+    "In the cellular tissue interposed between the cartilage
+    and the skin, I found little arteries and little veins
+    whose structure was perfectly cognizable. They contained
+    some serum with red blood globules. These globules were
+    all of them circular, biconcave and perfectly regular;
+    they showed neither indentations nor that
+    raspberry-like appearance which characterizes the blood
+    globules of a corpse.
+
+    "To sum up, my dear _confrere_, I have found in this
+    fragment nearly everything that is found in the human
+    body--cartilage, muscle, nerve, skin, hairs, glands,
+    blood, etc., and all this in a perfectly healthy and
+    normal state. It is not, then, a piece of a corpse which
+    you sent me, but a piece of a living man, whose humors
+    and tissues are in no way decomposed.
+
+
+    "With high consideration, yours,
+
+    "KARL NIBOR.
+
+    "PARIS, _July 30th, 1859._"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CONSIDERABLE OF A DISTURBANCE IN FONTAINEBLEAU.
+
+
+It did not take long to get spread about the town that M. Martout and
+the Messieurs Renault, intended, in conjunction with several Paris
+_savans_, to resuscitate a dead man.
+
+M. Martout had sent a detailed account of the case to the celebrated
+Karl Nibor, who had hastened to lay it before the Biological Society. A
+committee was forthwith appointed to accompany M. Nibor to
+Fontainebleau. The six commissioners and the reporter agreed to leave
+Paris the 15th of August,[2] being glad to escape the din of the public
+rejoicings. M. Martout was notified to get things ready for the
+experiment, which would probably last not less than three days.
+
+Some of the Paris papers announced this great event among their
+"Miscellaneous Items," but the public paid little attention to it. The
+grand reception of the army returning from Italy engrossed everybody's
+interest, and moreover, the French do not put more than moderate faith
+in miracles promised in the newspapers.
+
+But at Fontainebleau, it was an entirely different matter. Not only
+Monsieur Martout and the Messieurs Renault, but M. Audret, the
+architect, M. Bonnivet, the notary, and a dozen other of the bigwigs of
+the town, had seen and touched the mummy of the Colonel. They had spoken
+about it to their friends, had described it to the best of their
+ability, and had recounted its history. Two or three copies of Herr
+Meiser's will were circulating from hand to hand. The question of
+reanimations was the order of the day; they discussed it around the
+fish-pond, like the Academy of Sciences at a full meeting. Even in the
+market-place you could have heard them talking about rotifers and
+tardigrades.
+
+It must be admitted that the resuscitationists were not in the majority.
+A few professors of the college, noted for the paradoxical character of
+their minds; a few lovers of the marvellous, who had been duly convicted
+of table-tipping; and, to top off with a half dozen of those old
+white-moustached grumblers who believe that the death of Napoleon I. is
+a calumnious lie set afloat by the English, constituted the whole of the
+army. M. Martout had against him not only the skeptics, but the
+innumerable crowd of believers, in the bargain. One party turned him to
+ridicule, the others proclaimed him revolutionary, dangerous, and an
+enemy of the fundamental ideas on which society rests. The minister of
+one little church preached, in inuendoes, against the Prometheuses who
+aspired to usurp the prerogatives of Heaven. But the rector of the
+parish did not hesitate to say, in five or six houses, that the cure of
+a man as desperately sick as M. Fougas, would be an evidence of the
+power and mercy of God.
+
+The garrison of Fontainebleau was at that time composed of four
+squadrons of cuirassiers and the 23d regiment of the line, which had
+distinguished itself at Magenta. As soon as it was known in Colonel
+Fougas' old regiment that that illustrious officer was possibly going to
+return to the world, there was a general sensation. A regiment knows its
+history, and the history of the 23d had been that of Fougas from
+February, 1811, to November, 1813. All the soldiers had heard read, at
+their messes, the following anecdote:
+
+"On the 27th of August, 1813, at the battle of Dresden, the Emperor
+noticed a French regiment at the foot of a Russian redoubt which was
+pouring grape upon it. He asked what regiment it was, and was told that
+it was the 23d of the line. 'That's impossible!' said he. 'The 23d of
+the line never stood under fire without rushing upon the artillery
+thundering at it.' At that moment the 23d, led by Colonel Fougas, rushed
+up the height at double quick, pinned the artillerists to their guns,
+and took the redoubt."
+
+The officers and soldiers, justly proud of this memorable action,
+venerated, under the name of Fougas, one of the fathers of the regiment.
+The idea of seeing him appear in the midst of them, young and living,
+did not appear likely, but it was already something to be in possession
+of his body. Officers and soldiers decided that he should be interred at
+their expense, after the experiments of Doctor Martout were completed.
+And to give him a tomb worthy of his glory, they voted an assessment of
+two days' pay.
+
+Every one who wore an epaulette visited M. Renault's laboratory; the
+Colonel of cuirassiers went there several times--in hopes of meeting
+Clementine. But Leon's betrothed kept herself out of the way.
+
+She was happier than any woman had ever been, this pretty little
+Clementine. No cloud longer disturbed the serenity of her fair brow.
+Free from all anxieties, with a heart opened to Hope, she adored her
+dear Leon, and passed her days in telling him so. She herself had
+pressed the publication of the bans.
+
+"We will be married," said she, "the day after the resuscitation of the
+Colonel. I intend that he shall give me away, I want him to bless me.
+That is certainly the least he can do for me, after all I have done for
+him. It is certain that, but for my opposition, you would have sent him
+to the museum of the _Jardin des Plantes_. I will tell him all this,
+Sir, as soon as he can understand us, and he will cut _your_ ears off,
+in _his_ turn! I love you!"
+
+"But," answered Leon, "why do you make my happiness dependent on the
+success of an experiment? All the usual formalities are executed, the
+publications made, the notices given: no one in the world can prevent
+our marrying to-morrow, and you are pleased to wait until the 19th! What
+connection is there between us and this desiccated gentleman asleep in
+his box? He doesn't belong to your family or mine. I have examined all
+your family records back to the sixth generation, and I haven't found
+anybody of the name of Fougas in them. So we are not waiting for a
+grandfather to be present at the ceremony. Who is he, then? The wicked
+tongues of Fontainebleau pretend that you have a _penchant_ for this
+fetich of 1813; as for me, who am sure of your heart, I trust that you
+will never love any one as well as me. However they call me the rival of
+the Sleeping Colonel in the Wood."
+
+"Let the fools prate!" responded Clementine, with an angelic smile. "I
+do not trouble myself to explain my affection for poor Fougas, but I
+love him very much, that's certain. I love him as a father, as a
+brother, if you prefer it, for he is almost as young as I. When we have
+resuscitated him, I will love him, perhaps, as a son; but you will lose
+nothing by it, dear Leon. You have in my heart a place by itself, the
+best too, and no one shall take it from you, not even _he_."
+
+This lovers' quarrel, which often began, and always ended with a kiss,
+was one day interrupted by a visit from the commissioner of police.
+
+This honorable functionary politely declined to give his name and
+business, and requested the favor of a private interview with young
+Renault.
+
+"Monsieur," said he, when he saw him alone, "I appreciate all the
+consideration due to a man of your character and position, and I hope
+you will see fit not to interpret unpleasantly a proceeding which is
+prompted in me by a sense of duty."
+
+Leon opened his eyes and waited for the continuation of the discourse.
+
+"You are aware, Monsieur," pursued the Commissioner, "of what is
+required by the law concerning interments. It is express, and admits no
+exception. The authorities can keep their eyes shut, but the great
+tumult that has arisen, and, moreover, the rank of the deceased, without
+taking into account the religious considerations, put us under
+obligation to proceed ... in conjunction with you, let it be well
+understood...."
+
+Leon comprehended little by little. The commissioner finished by
+explaining to him, always in the administrative style, that it was
+incumbent upon him to have M. Fougas taken to the town cemetery.
+
+"But Monsieur," replied the engineer, "if you have heard people speaking
+of Colonel Fougas, they ought to have told you withal that we do not
+consider him dead."
+
+"Nonsense!" answered the Commissioner, with a slight smile. "Opinions
+are free. But the doctor whose office it is to attend to the
+disposition of the dead, and who has had the pleasure of seeing the
+deceased, has made us a conclusive report which points to immediate
+interment."
+
+"Very well, Monsieur, if Fougas is dead, we are in hopes of
+resuscitating him."
+
+"So we have been told already Monsieur, but, for my part, I hesitated to
+believe it."
+
+"You will believe it when you have seen it; and I hope, Monsieur, that
+that will be before long."
+
+"But then, Monsieur, have you fixed everything in due form?"
+
+"With whom?"
+
+"I do not know, Monsieur, but I suppose that before undertaking such a
+thing as this, you have fortified yourself with some legal
+authorization."
+
+"From whom?"
+
+"But at all events, Monsieur, you admit that the reanimation of a man is
+an extraordinary affair. As for myself, this is really the first time
+that I ever heard it spoken of. Now the duty of a well regulated police,
+is to prevent anything extraordinary happening in the country."
+
+"Let us see, Monsieur. If I were to say to you: 'Here is a man who is
+not dead; I have a well-founded hope of setting him on his feet in three
+days; your doctor, who maintains the contrary, deceives himself,' would
+you take the responsibility of having Fougas buried?"
+
+"Certainly not! God forbid that I should take any responsibility of any
+kind on my shoulders! But however, Monsieur, in having M. Fougas buried,
+I would act in accordance with law and order. Now after all, by what
+right do you presume to resuscitate a man? In what country is
+resuscitation customary? Where is the precept of law which authorizes
+you to resuscitate people?"
+
+"Do you know any law that prohibits it? Now everything that is not
+prohibited is permitted."
+
+"In the eyes of the magistrates, very likely. But the police ought to
+prevent and stem disorder. Now a resuscitation, Monsieur, is a thing so
+unheard of as to constitute an actual disorder."
+
+"You will admit, nevertheless, that it is a very happy disorder."
+
+"There's no such thing as a happy disorder. Consider, morever, that the
+deceased is not a common sort of a man. If the question concerned a
+vagabond without house or home, one could use some tolerance in regard
+to it. But this is a soldier, an officer, of high rank and decorated
+too; a man who has occupied an exalted position in the army. The _army_,
+Monsieur! It will not do to touch the army!"
+
+"Eh! Monsieur, I touch the army like a surgeon who tends its wounds. It
+is proposed to restore to the army a colonel. And you, actuated by the
+spirit of routine, wish to rob it of one."
+
+"Don't get so excited, Monsieur, I beg of you, and don't talk so loud:
+people can hear us. Believe me, I will meet you half way in anything you
+want to do for the great and glorious army of my country. But have you
+considered the religious question?"
+
+"What religious question?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, Monsieur (but this entirely between ourselves),
+what we have spoken of so far is purely accessory and we are now
+touching upon the delicate point. People have come to see me and have
+made some very judicious remarks to me. The mere announcement of your
+project has cast a good deal of trouble into certain consciences. They
+fear that the success of an undertaking of this kind may strike a blow
+at the faith, may, in a word, scandalize many tranquil spirits. For, if
+M. Fougas is dead, of course it is because God has so willed it. Aren't
+you afraid of acting contrary to the will of God, in resuscitating him?"
+
+"No, Monsieur: for I am sure not to resuscitate Fougas if God has willed
+it otherwise; God permits a man to catch the fever, but God also permits
+a doctor to cure him. God permitted a brave soldier of the Emperor to be
+captured by four drunken Russians, condemned as a spy, frozen in a
+fortress and desiccated under an air-pump by an old German. But God also
+permitted me to find this unfortunate man in a junk-shop, to carry him
+to Fontainebleau, to examine him with certain men of science and to
+agree with them upon a method almost sure to restore him to life. All
+this proves one thing--which is that God is more just, more merciful and
+more inclined to pity than those who abuse his name in order to excite
+you."
+
+"I assure you, Monsieur, that I am not in the least excited. I yield to
+your reasons because they are good ones and because you are a man of
+consideration in the community. I sincerely hope, moreover, that you
+will not think harshly of an act of zeal which I have been advised to
+perform. I am a functionary, Monsieur. Now, what is a functionary? A man
+who holds a place. Suppose now that functionaries were to expose
+themselves to the loss of their places, what would stand firm in France?
+Nothing, Monsieur, absolutely nothing. I have the honor to bid you good
+day!"
+
+On the morning of the 15th of August, M. Karl Nibor presented himself at
+M. Renault's with Doctor Martont and the committee appointed by the
+Biological Society of Paris. As often happens in the rural districts the
+first appearance of our illustrious savant was a sort of disappointment.
+Mme. Renault expected to see, if not a magician in a velvet robe studded
+with gold, at least an old man of extraordinarily grave and impressive
+appearance. Karl Nibor is a man of middle height, very fair and very
+slight. Possibly he carries a good forty years, but one would not credit
+him with more than thirty-five. He wears a moustache and imperial; is
+lively, a good conversationist, agreeable and enough of a man of the
+world to amuse the ladies. But Clementine did not have the pleasure of
+his conversation. Her aunt had taken her to Moret in order to remove her
+from the pangs of fear as well as from the intoxications of victory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+HALLELUJAH!
+
+
+M. Nibor and his colleagues, after the usual compliments, requested to
+see the subject. They had no time to lose, as the experiment could
+hardly last less than three days. Leon hastened to conduct them to the
+laboratory and to open the three boxes containing the Colonel.
+
+They found that the patient presented quite a favorable appearance. M.
+Nibor took off his clothes, which tore like tinder from having been too
+much dried in Father Meiser's furnace. The body, when naked, was
+pronounced entirely free from blemish and in a perfectly healthy
+condition. No one would yet have guaranteed success, but every one was
+full of hope.
+
+After this preliminary examination, M. Renault put his laboratory at the
+service of his guests. He offered them all that he possessed, with a
+munificence which was not entirely free from vanity. In case the
+employment of electricity should appear necessary, he had a powerful
+battery of Leyden jars and forty of Bunsen's elements, which were
+entirely new. M. Nibor thanked him smilingly.
+
+"Save your riches," said he. "With a bath-tub and caldron of boiling
+water, we will have everything we need. The Colonel needs nothing but
+humidity. The thing is to give him the quantity of water necessary to
+the play of the organs. If you have a small room where one can introduce
+a jet of vapor, we will be more than content."
+
+M. Audret, the architect, had very wisely built a little bath-room near
+the laboratory, which was convenient and well lighted. The celebrated
+steam engine was not far off, and its boiler had not, up to this time,
+answered any other purpose than that of warming the baths of M. and Mme.
+Renault.
+
+The Colonel was carried into this room, with all the care necessitated
+by his fragility. It was not intended to break his second ear in the
+hurry of moving. Leon ran to light the fire under the boiler, and M.
+Nibor created him Fireman, on the field of battle.
+
+Soon a jet of tepid vapor streamed into the bath-room, creating around
+the Colonel a humid atmosphere which was elevated by degrees, and
+without any sudden increase, to the temperature of the human body. These
+conditions of heat and humidity were maintained with the greatest care
+for twenty-four hours. No one in the house went to sleep. The members of
+the Parisian Committee encamped in the laboratory. Leon kept up the
+fire; M. Nibor, M. Renault and M. Martout took turns in watching the
+thermometer. Madame Renault was making tea and coffee, and punch too.
+Gothon, who had taken communion in the morning, kept praying to God, in
+the corner of her kitchen, that this impious miracle might not succeed.
+A certain excitement already prevailed throughout the town, but one did
+not know whether it should be attributed to the _fete_ of the 15th, or
+the famous undertaking of the seven wise men of Paris.
+
+By two o'clock on the 16th, encouraging results were obtained. The skin
+and muscles had recovered nearly all their suppleness, but the joints
+were still hard to bend. The collapsed condition of the walls of the
+abdomen and the interval between the ribs, still indicated that the
+viscera were far from having reabsorbed the quantity of water which they
+had previously lost with Herr Meiser. A bath was prepared and kept at a
+temperature of thirty-seven degrees and a half.[3] They left the Colonel
+in it two hours and a half, taking care to frequently pass over his head
+a fine sponge soaked with water.
+
+M. Nibor removed him from the bath as soon as the skin, which was filled
+out sooner than the other tissues, began to assume a whitish tinge and
+wrinkle slightly. They kept him until the evening of the 16th in this
+humid room, where they arranged an apparatus which, from time to time,
+occasioned a fine rain of a temperature of thirty-seven and a half
+degrees. A new bath was given in the evening. During the night, the
+body was enveloped in flannel, but kept constantly in the same steaming
+atmosphere.
+
+On the morning of the 17th, after a third bath of an hour and a half,
+the general characteristics of the figure and the proportions of the
+body presented their natural aspect: one would have called it a sleeping
+man. Five or six curious persons were admitted to see it, among others
+the colonel of the 23d. In the presence of these witnesses, M. Nibor
+moved successively all the joints, and demonstrated that they had
+recovered their flexibility. He gently kneaded the limbs, trunk and
+abdomen. He partly opened the lips, and separated the jaws, which were
+quite firmly closed, and saw that the tongue had returned to its
+ordinary size and consistency. He also partly opened the eyelids: the
+eye-balls were firm and bright.
+
+"Gentlemen," said the philosopher, "these are indications which do not
+deceive; I prophesy success. In a few hours you shall witness the first
+manifestations of life."
+
+"But," interrupted one of the bystanders, "why not immediately?"
+
+"Because the _conjunctivae_ are still a little paler than they ought to
+be. But the little veins traversing the whites of the eyes have already
+assumed a very encouraging appearance. The blood is almost entirely
+restored. What is the blood? Red globules floating in serum, or a sort
+of whey. The serum in poor Fougas was dried up in his veins; the water
+which we have gradually introduced by a slow endosmose has saturated the
+albumen and fibrin of the serum, which is returned to the liquid state.
+The red globules which desiccation had agglutinated, had become
+motionless like ships stranded in shoal water. Now behold them afloat
+again: they thicken, swell, round out their edges, detach themselves
+from each other and prepare to circulate in their proper channels at the
+first impulse which shall be given them by the contractions of the
+heart."
+
+"It remains to see," said M. Renault, "whether the heart will put itself
+in motion. In a living man, the heart moves under the impulse of the
+brain, transmitted by the nerves. The brain acts under the impulse of
+the heart, transmitted by the arteries. The whole forms a perfectly
+exact circle, without which there is no well-being. And when neither
+heart nor brain acts, as in the Colonel's case, I don't see which of the
+two can set the other in motion. You remember the scene in the '_Ecole
+des femmes_,' where Arnolphe knocks at his door? The valet and the maid,
+Alain and Georgette, are both in the house. 'Georgette!' cries
+Alain.--'Well?' replies Georgette.--'Open the door down there!'--'Go
+yourself! Go yourself!'--'Gracious me! I shan't go!'--'I shan't go
+either!'--'Open it right away!'--'Open it yourself!' And nobody opens
+it. I am inclined to think, Monsieur, that we are attending a
+performance of this comedy. The house is the body of the Colonel;
+Arnolphe, who wants to get in, is the Vital Principle. The heart and
+brain act the parts of Alain and Georgette. 'Open the door!' says
+one.--'Open it yourself!' says the other. And the Vital Principle waits
+outside."
+
+"Monsieur," replied Doctor Nibor smiling, "you forget the ending of the
+scene. Arnolphe gets angry, and cries out: 'Whichever of you two doesn't
+open the door, shan't have anything to eat for four days!' And forthwith
+Alain hurries himself, Georgette runs and the door is opened. Now bear
+in mind that I speak in this way only in order to conform to your own
+course of reasoning, for the term 'Vital Principle' is at variance with
+the actual assertions of science. Life will manifest itself as soon as
+the brain, or the heart, or any one of the organs which have the
+capacity of working spontaneously, shall have absorbed the quantity of
+water it needs. Organized matter has inherent properties which manifest
+themselves without the assistance of any foreign principle, whenever
+they are surrounded by certain conditions. Why do not M. Fougas' muscles
+contract yet? Why does not the tissue of the brain enter into action?
+Because they have not yet the amount of moisture necessary to them. In
+the fountain of life there is lacking, perhaps, a pint of water. But I
+shall be in no hurry to refill it: I am too much afraid of breaking it.
+Before giving this gallant fellow a final bath, it will be necessary to
+knead all his organs again, to subject his abdomen to regular
+compressions, in order that the serous membranes of the stomach, chest
+and heart may be perfectly disagglutinated and capable of slipping on
+each other. You are aware that the slightest tear in these parts, or the
+least resistance, would be enough to kill our subject at the moment of
+his revival."
+
+While speaking, he united example to precept and kept kneading the trunk
+of the Colonel. As the spectators had too nearly filled the bath-room,
+making it almost impossible to move, M. Nibor begged them to move into
+the laboratory. But the laboratory became so full that it was necessary
+to leave it for the parlor: the Committee of the Biological Society, had
+scarcely a corner of the table on which to draw up their account of the
+proceedings. The parlor even was crowded with people, the dining room
+too, and so out to the court yard of the house. Friends, strangers,
+people not at all known to the family, elbowed each other and waited in
+silence. But the silence of a crowd is not much less noisy than the
+rolling of the sea. Fat Doctor Martout, apparently overwhelmed with
+responsibility, showed himself from time to time, and surged through the
+waves of curious people like a galleon laden with news. Every one of his
+words circulated from mouth to mouth, and spread even through the
+street, where several groups of soldiers and citizens were making a
+stir, in more senses than one. Never had the little "Rue de la
+Faisanderie" seen such a crowd. An astonished passer-by stopped and
+inquired:
+
+"What's the matter here? Is it a funeral?"
+
+"Quite the reverse, Sir."
+
+"A christening, then?"
+
+"With warm water!"
+
+"A birth?"
+
+"A being born again!"
+
+An old judge of the Civil Court was recounting to a deputy the legend of
+AEson of old, who was boiled in Medea's caldron.
+
+"This is almost the same experiment," said he, "and I am inclined to
+think that the poets have calumniated the sorceress of Colchis. There
+could be some fine Latin verses made appropriate to this occasion; but I
+no longer possess my old skill!
+
+    'Fabula Medeam cur crimine carpit iniquo?
+    Ecce novus surgit redivivus AEson ab undis
+    Fortior, arma petens, juvenili pectore miles ...,'
+
+"Redivivus is taken in the active sense; it's a license, or at least a
+bold construction. Ah! Monsieur! there was a time when I was, even among
+those who made the most confident attempts, _the_ man for Latin verses!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Corp'ral!" said a conscript of the levy of 1859.
+
+"What is it, Freminot?"
+
+"Is it true that they are boiling an old soldier in a pot, and that they
+are going to get him up again, Colonel's uniform and all?"
+
+"True or not, subaltern, I'll run the risk of saying it's true."
+
+"I fancy, with all proper deference, that they will not make much at
+it."
+
+"You should know, Freminot, that nothing is impossible to your
+superiors! You are not unaware even now, that dried vegetables, on being
+boiled, recover their original and natural appearance!"
+
+"But, Corp'ral, if one were to cook them, three days' time, they'd
+dissolve into broth."
+
+"But, imbecile, why shouldn't one consider old soldiers hard to cook?"
+
+At noon, the commisioner of police and the lieutenant of _gens-d'armes_
+made way through the crowd and entered the house. These gentlemen
+hastened to declare to M. Renault that their visit had nothing of an
+official character, but that they had come merely from curiosity. In the
+corridor, they met the Sub-prefect, the Mayor and Gothon, who was
+lamenting in loud tones that she should see the government lend its hand
+to such sorceries.
+
+About one o'clock, M. Nibor caused a new and prolonged bath to be given
+the Colonel, on coming out of which, the body was subjected to a
+kneading harder and more complete than before.
+
+"Now," said the Doctor, "we can carry M. Fougas into the laboratory, in
+order to give his resuscitation all the publicity desirable. But it will
+be well to dress him, and his uniform is in tatters."
+
+"I think," answered good M. Renault, "that the Colonel is about my size;
+so I can lend him some of my clothes. Heaven grant that he may use
+them! But, between us, I don't hope for it."
+
+Gothon brought in, grumbling, all that was necessary to dress an
+entirely naked man. But her bad humor did not hold out before the beauty
+of the Colonel:
+
+"Poor gentleman!" she exclaimed, "he is young, fresh and fair as a
+little chicken. If he doesn't revive, it will be a great pity!"
+
+There were about forty people in the laboratory when Fougas was carried
+thither. M. Nibor, assisted by M. Martout, placed him on a sofa, and
+begged a few moments of attentive silence. During these proceedings,
+Mme. Renault sent to inquire if she could come in. She was admitted.
+
+"Madame and gentlemen," said Dr. Nibor, "life will manifest itself in a
+few minutes. It is possible that the muscles will act first, and that
+their action may be convulsive, on account of not yet being regulated by
+the influence of the nervous system. I ought to apprise you of this
+fact, in order that you may not be frightened if such a thing
+transpires. Madame, being a mother, ought to be less astonished at it
+than any one else; she has experienced, at the fourth month of
+pregnancy, the effect of those irregular movements which will, possibly,
+soon be presented to us on a larger scale. I am quite hopeful, however,
+that the first spontaneous contractions will take place in the fibres of
+the heart. Such is the case in the embryo, where the rhythmic movements
+of the heart, precede the nervous functions."
+
+He again began making systematic compressions of the lower part of the
+chest, rubbing the skin with his hands, half opening the eyelids,
+examining the pulse, and auscultating the region of the heart.
+
+The attention of the spectators was diverted an instant by a hubbub
+outside. A battalion of the 23d was passing, with music at the head,
+through the Rue de la Faisanderie. While the Sax-horns were shaking the
+windows, a sudden flash mantled on the cheeks of the Colonel. His eyes,
+which had stood half open, lit up with a brighter sparkle. At the same
+instant, Doctor Nibor, who had his ear applied to the chest, cried:
+
+"I hear the beatings of the heart!"
+
+Scarcely had he spoken, when the chest rose with a violent inspiration,
+the limbs contracted, the body straightened up, and out came a cry:
+"_Vive l'Empereur_."
+
+But as if so great an effort had overtasked his strength, Colonel Fougas
+fell back on the sofa, murmuring in a subdued voice:
+
+"Where am I? Waiter! Bring me a newspaper!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+WHEREIN COLONEL FOUGAS LEARNS SOME NEWS WHICH WILL APPEAR OLD TO MY
+READERS.
+
+
+Among all the persons present at this scene, there was not a single one
+who had ever seen a resuscitation. I leave you to imagine the surprise
+and joy which reigned in the laboratory. A triple round of applause,
+mingled with cheers, hailed the triumph of Doctor Nibor. The crowd,
+packed in the parlor, the passages, the court-yard, and even in the
+street, understood at this signal, that the miracle was accomplished.
+Nothing could hold them back, they forced the doors, cleared all
+obstacles, upset all the philosophers who tried to stop them, and
+finished by pouring into the chamber of Science.
+
+"Gentlemen!" cried M. Nibor, "Do you want to kill him?"
+
+But they let him talk. The wildest of all passions, curiosity, had long
+held dominion over the crowd: every one wanted to see, though at the
+risk of crushing the others. M. Nibor tumbled down, M. Renault and his
+son, in attempting to help him, were thrown on top of him; Madame
+Renault, in her turn, was thrown down at the feet of Fougas, and began
+screaming at the top of her voice.
+
+"Damnation!" said Fougas, straightening himself up as if by a spring,
+"these scoundrels will suffocate us if some one doesn't squelch them!"
+His attitude, the glare of his eyes, and, above all, the prestige of the
+miraculous, cleared a space around him. One would have thought that the
+walls had been stretched or that the spectators had slid into one
+another!
+
+"Out of here, every mother's son of you!" cried Fougas, in his fiercest
+tone of command. A tumult of cries, explanations, and remonstrances was
+raised around him; he fancied he heard menaces, he seized the first
+chair within reach, brandished it like a weapon, drove, hammered, upset
+the citizens, soldiers, officials, _savants_, friends, sight-seers,
+commissary of police--everybody, and urged the human torrent into the
+street with an uproar perfectly indescribable. This done, he shut the
+door and bolted it, returned to the laboratory, saw three men standing
+near Madame Renault, and said to the old lady, softening the tone of his
+voice:
+
+"Well, good mother, shall I serve these three like the others?"
+
+"No! No! No! Be careful!" cried the good old lady. "My husband and my
+son, Monsieur, and Doctor Nibor, who has restored you to life."
+
+"In that case all honor to them, good mother! Fougas has never violated
+the laws of gratitude and hospitality. As for you, my Esculapius, give
+me your hand!"
+
+At the same instant, he noticed ten or a dozen inquisitive people on
+tiptoe on the pavement just by the windows of the laboratory. Forthwith
+he marched and opened them with a precipitation which upset the gazers
+among the crowd.
+
+"People," said he, "I have knocked down a hundred beggarly pandours who
+respect neither sex nor infirmity. For the benefit of those who are not
+satisfied, I will state that I call myself colonel Fougas of the 23d.
+And _Vive l'Empereur!_"
+
+A confused mixture of plaudits, cries, laughs, and jeers, answered this
+unprecedented allocution. Leon Renault hastened out to make apologies to
+all to whom they were due. He invited a few friends to dine the same
+evening with the terrible colonel, and, of course, he did not forget to
+send a special messenger to Clementine. Fougas, after speaking to the
+people, returned to his hosts, swinging himself along with a swaggering
+air, set himself astride a chair, took hold of the ends of his
+moustache, and said:
+
+"Well! Come, let's talk this over. I've been sick then?"
+
+"Very sick."
+
+"That's fabulous! I feel entirely well. I'm hungry, and, moreover, while
+waiting for dinner, I'll even try a glass of your schnick."
+
+Mme. Renault went out, gave an order, and returned in an instant.
+
+"But tell me, then, where I am," resumed the colonel. "By these
+paraphernalia of work, I recognize a disciple of Urania; possibly a
+friend of Monge and Berthollet. But the cordial friendliness impressed
+on your countenances proves to me that you are not natives of this land
+of sour-krout. Yes, I believe it from the beatings of my heart. Friends,
+we have the same fatherland. The kindness of your reception, even were
+there no other indications, would have satisfied me that you are French.
+What accidents have brought you so far from our native soil? Children of
+my country, what tempest has thrown you upon this inhospitable shore?"
+
+"My dear Colonel," replied M. Nibor, "if you want to become very wise,
+you will not ask so many questions at once. Allow us the pleasure of
+instructing you quietly and in order, for you have a great many things
+to learn."
+
+The Colonel flushed with anger, and answered sharply:
+
+"At all events, you are not the man to teach them to me, my little
+gentleman!"
+
+A drop of blood which fell on his hand changed the current of his
+thoughts:
+
+"Hold on!" said he; "am I bleeding?"
+
+"That will amount to nothing; circulation is reestablished, and your
+broken ear...."
+
+He quickly carried his hand to his ear and said:
+
+"It's certainly so. But Devil take me if I recollect this accident!"
+
+"I'll make you a little dressing, and in a couple of days there will be
+no trace of it left!"
+
+"Don't give yourself the trouble, my dear Hippocrates; a pinch of powder
+is a sovereign cure!"
+
+M. Nibor set to work to dress the ear in a little less military fashion.
+During his operations, Leon reentered.
+
+"Ah! ah!" said he to the Doctor, "you are repairing the harm I did."
+
+"Thunderation!" cried Fougas, escaping from the hands of M. Nibor so as
+to seize Leon by the collar, "was it you, you rascal, that hurt my ear?"
+
+Leon was very good-natured, but his patience failed him. He pushed his
+man roughly aside.
+
+"Yes, sir, it was I who tore your ear, in pulling it, and if that little
+misfortune had not happened to me, it is certain that you would have
+been, to-day, six feet under ground. It is I who saved your life, after
+buying you with my money when you were not valued at more than
+twenty-five louis. It is I who have passed three days and two nights in
+cramming charcoal under your boiler. It is my father who gave you the
+clothes you now have on. You are in our house. Drink the little glass of
+brandy Gothon just brought you; but for God's sake give up the habit of
+calling me rascal, of calling my mother 'Good Mother.' and of flinging
+our friends into the street and calling them beggarly pandours!"
+
+The colonel, all dumbfounded, held out his hand to Leon, M. Renault and
+the doctor, gallantly kissed the hand of Mme. Renault, swallowed at a
+gulp a claret glass filled to the brim with brandy, and said in a
+subdued voice:
+
+"Most excellent friends, forget the vagaries of an impulsive but
+generous soul. To subdue my passions shall hereafter be my law. After
+conquering all the nations in the universe, it is well to conquer one's
+self."
+
+This said, he submitted his ear to M. Nibor, who finished dressing it.
+
+"But," said he, summoning up his recollections, "they did not shoot me
+then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And I wasn't frozen to death in the tower?"
+
+"Not quite."
+
+"Why has my uniform been taken off? I see! I am a prisoner!"
+
+"You are free."
+
+"Free! _Vive l'Empereur!_ But then, there's not a moment to lose! How
+many leagues is it to Dantzic?"
+
+"It's very far."
+
+"What do you call this chicken coop of a town?"
+
+"Fontainebleau."
+
+"Fontainebleau! In France?"
+
+"Prefecture of Seine-et-Marne. We are going to introduce to you the
+sub-prefect, whom you just pitched into the street."
+
+"What the Devil are your sub-prefects to me? I have a message from the
+Emperor for General Rapp, and I must start, this very day, for Dantzic.
+God knows whether I'll be there in time!"
+
+"My poor Colonel, you will arrive too late. Dantzic is given up."
+
+"That's impossible! Since when?"
+
+"About forty-six years ago."
+
+"Thunder! I did not understand that you were ... mocking me!"
+
+M. Nibor placed in his hand a calendar, and said: "See for yourself! It
+is now the 17th of August, 1859; you went to sleep in the tower of
+Liebenfeld on the 11th of November, 1813; there have been, then,
+forty-six years, all to three months, during which the world has moved
+on without you."
+
+"Twenty-four and forty-six; but then I would be seventy years old,
+according to your statement!"
+
+"Your vitality clearly shows that you are still twenty-four."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, tore up the calendar and said, beating the
+floor with his foot: "Your almanac is a humbug!"
+
+M. Renault ran to his library, took up half a dozen books at haphazard
+and made him read, at the foot of the title pages, the dates 1826, 1833,
+1847, 1858.
+
+"Pardon me!" said Fougas, burying his head in his hands. "What has
+happened to me is so new! I do not think that another human being was
+ever subjected to such a trial. I am seventy years old!"
+
+Good Madame Renault went and got a looking-glass from the bath room, and
+gave it to him, saying:
+
+"Look!"
+
+He took the glass in both hands, and was silently occupied in resuming
+acquaintance with himself, when a hand-organ came into the court and
+began playing "Partant pour la Syrie!"
+
+Fougas threw the mirror to the ground, and cried out:
+
+"What is that you were telling me? I hear the little song of Queen
+Hortense!"[4]
+
+M. Renault patiently explained to him, while picking up the pieces of
+the mirror, that the pretty little song of Queen Hortense had become a
+national air, and even an official one, since the regimental bands had
+substituted that gentle melody for the fierce Marsellaise, and that our
+soldiers, strange to say, had not fought any the worse for it. But the
+Colonel had already opened the window, and was crying out to the
+Savoyard:
+
+"Eh! Friend! A napoleon for you if you will tell me in what year I am
+drawing the breath of life!"
+
+The artist began dancing as lightly as possible playing on his musical
+instrument.
+
+"Advance at the order!" cried the Colonel, "and keep that devilish
+machine still!"
+
+"A little penny, my good monsieur!"
+
+"It is not a penny that I'll give you, but a napoleon, if you'll tell me
+what year it is."
+
+"Oh but that's funny! Hi--hi--hi!"
+
+"And if you don't tell me quicker than this amounts to, I'll cut your
+ears off!"
+
+The Savoyard ran away, but he came back pretty soon, having meditated,
+during his flight, on the maxim: "Nothing risk nothing gain."
+
+"Monsieur," said he, in a wheedling voice, "this is the year Eighteen
+Hundred and Fifty-nine."
+
+"Good!" cried Fougas. He felt in his pockets for money, and found
+nothing there. Leon saw his predicament, and flung twenty francs into
+the court. Before shutting the window, he pointed out, to the right, the
+facade of a pretty little new building where the Colonel could
+distinctly read
+
+    AUDRET ARCHITECTE.
+
+    MDCCCLIX.
+
+A perfectly satisfactory piece of evidence, and one which did not cost
+twenty francs.
+
+Fougas, a little confused, pressed Leon's hand, and said to him:
+
+"My friend, I do not forget that Confidence is the first duty from
+Gratitude toward Beneficence. But tell me of our country! I tread the
+sacred soil where I received my being, and I am ignorant of the career
+of my native land. France is still the queen of the world, is she not?"
+
+"Certainly," said Leon.
+
+"How is the Emperor?"
+
+"Well."
+
+"And the Empress?"
+
+"Very well."
+
+"And the King of Rome?"
+
+"The Prince Imperial? He is a very fine child."
+
+"How? A fine child! And you have the face to say that this is 1859!"
+
+M. Nibor took up the conversation, and explained in a few words that the
+reigning sovereign of France was not Napoleon I., but Napoleon III.
+
+"But then," cried Fougas, "my Emperor is dead!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Impossible! Tell me anything you will but that! My Emperor is
+immortal."
+
+M. Nibor and the Renaults, who were not quite professional historians,
+were obliged to give him a summary of the history of our century. Some
+one went after a big book written by M. de Norvins and illustrated with
+fine engravings by Raffet. He only believed in the presence of Truth
+when he could touch her with his hand, and still cried out almost every
+moment: "That's impossible! This is not history that you are reading to
+me: it is a romance written to make soldiers weep!"
+
+This young man must indeed have had a strong and well-tempered soul, for
+he learned in forty minutes all the woful events which Fortune had
+scattered through eighteen years, from the first abdication up to the
+death of the King of Rome. Less happy than his old companions in arms,
+he had no interval of repose between these terrible and repeated
+shocks, all beating upon his heart at the same time. One could have
+feared that the blow might prove mortal, and poor Fougas die in the
+first hour of his recovered life. But the imp of a fellow yielded and
+recovered himself in quick succession like a spring. He cried out with
+admiration on hearing of the five battles of the campaign in France; he
+reddened with grief at the farewells of Fontainebleau. The return from
+the Isle of Elba transfigured his handsome and noble countenance; at
+Waterloo his heart rushed in with the last army of the Empire, and there
+shattered itself. Then he clenched his fists and said between his teeth:
+"If I had been there at the head of the 23d, Blucher and Wellington
+would have seen another fate!" The invasion, the truce, the martyr of
+St. Helena, the ghastly terror of Europe, the murder of Murat--the idol
+of the cavalry, the death of Ney, Bruno, Mouton Duvernet, and so many
+other whole-souled men whom he had known, admired, and loved, threw him
+into a series of paroxysms of rage, but nothing upset him. In hearing of
+the death of Napoleon, he swore that he would eat the heart of England;
+the slow agony of the pale and interesting heir of the Empire, inspired
+him with a passion to tear the vitals out of Austria. When the drama was
+over and the curtain fell on Schoenbrunn, he dashed away his tears and
+said: "It is well. I have lived in a moment a man's entire life. Now
+show me the map of France!"
+
+Leon began to turn over the leaves of an atlas, while M. Renault
+attempted to continue narrating to the colonel the history of the
+Restoration, and of the monarchy of 1830. But Fougas' interest was in
+other things.
+
+"What do I care," said he, "if a couple of hundred babblers of deputies
+put one king in place of another? Kings! I've seen enough of them in the
+dirt. If the Empire had lasted ten years longer, I could have had a king
+for a boot-black."
+
+When the atlas was placed before him, he at once cried out with profound
+disdain: "That, France!" But soon two tears of pitying affection
+escaping from his eyes, swelled the rivers Ardeche and Gironde. He
+kissed the map and said, with an emotion which communicated itself to
+nearly all present:
+
+"Forgive me, poor old love, for insulting your misfortunes. Those
+scoundrels whom we always whipped have profited by my sleep to pare down
+your frontiers; but little or great, rich or poor, you are my mother,
+and I love you as a faithful son! Here is Corsica, where the giant of
+our age was born; here is Toulouse, where I first saw the light; here is
+Nancy where I felt my heart awakened, where, perhaps, she whom I call my
+AEgle waits for me still! France! Thou hast a temple in my soul; this arm
+is thine; thou shalt find me ever ready to shed my blood to the last
+drop in defending or avenging thee!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE CONVALESCENT'S FIRST MEAL.
+
+
+The messenger whom Leon had sent to Moret, could not reach there before
+seven o'clock. Supposing that he would find the ladies at table with
+their hosts, that the great news would cut the dinner short, and that
+there would be a carriage handy, Clementine and her aunt would probably
+be at Fontainebleau between ten and eleven o'clock. Young Renault
+rejoiced in advance over the happiness of his _fiancee_. What a joy it
+would be for her and for him when he should present to her the
+miraculous man whom she had protected against the horrors of the tomb,
+and whom he had resuscitated in answer to her entreaty!
+
+Meanwhile Gothon, proud and happy to the same degree that she had before
+been scandalized and annoyed, spread the table for a dozen persons. Her
+yoke-fellow, a young rustic of eighteen, half-fledged in the commune of
+Sablons, helped her with all his might, and amused her with his
+conversation.
+
+"Well, now, Ma'm'selle Gothon," said he, setting down a pile of empty
+plates, "this is what one might call a ghost coming out of its box to
+upset the commissary and the sub-prefect!"
+
+"Ghost, if you'll have it so, Celestin; it's certain-sure that he comes
+from a good ways, poor young man! But perhaps 'ghost' isn't a proper
+word to use in speaking of our masters."
+
+"Is it true, then, that he has come to be our master too? Too many of
+_them_ come every day. I'd like it better if more servants and help
+would come!"
+
+"Shut up, you lizard of laziness! When the gentlemen leaves tips for us
+on going away, you don't complain because there's only two to divide
+'em."
+
+"That's all well enough as far as it goes! I've carried more than fifty
+buckets of water for him to simmer in, that Colonel of yours, and I know
+mighty well that he won't give me a cent, for he hasn't a farthing in
+his pockets. We've got to believe that money isn't plenty in the country
+he just came from!"
+
+"They say there's wills in his favor in Strasburg; a gentleman who'd
+hurt his fortune----"
+
+"Tell me now, Ma'm'selle Gothon--you who read a little book every
+Sunday--where he could have been, our Colonel, while he was not in this
+world."
+
+"Eh! In purgatory, of course!"
+
+"Then why don't you ask him about that famous Baptiste, your sweetheart
+in 1837, who let himself tumble off a roof, and on whose account you
+have so many masses said? They ought to have met each other down there!"
+
+"That's very possible."
+
+"Unless Baptiste has left there since the time when you paid so much
+money to get him out."
+
+"Very well. I'll go this very evening to the Colonel's chamber, and,
+since he's not proud, he'll tell me all he knows about it.--But,
+Celestin, are'nt you never going to act different? Here you've rubbed my
+silver pickle knives on the grindstone again!"
+
+The guests came into the parlor, where the Renault family with M. Nibor
+and the Colonel were already assembled. There were successively
+presented to M. Fougas the mayor of the city, Doctor Martout, Master
+Bonnivet the notary, M. Audret, and three members of the Paris
+committee; the other three had been obliged to return before dinner. The
+guests were not entirely at their ease; their sides, bruised by the
+first movements of Fougas, left room for them to suppose that possibly
+they were dining with a maniac. But curiosity was stronger than fear.
+The Colonel soon reassured them by a most cordial reception. He excused
+himself for acting the part of a man just returned from the other world.
+He talked a great deal--a little too much, perhaps; but they were so
+well pleased to listen to him, and his words borrowed such an importance
+from the singularity of recent events, that he gained an unqualified
+success. He was told that Dr. Martout had been one of the principal
+agents of his resuscitation, in conjunction with another person whom
+they promised soon to present to him. He thanked M. Martout warmly, and
+asked how soon he could evince his gratitude to the other person.
+
+"I hope," said Leon, "that you will see her this evening."
+
+No one came later than the colonel of the 23d of the line, M. Rollon. He
+made his way with no little difficulty through the crowds of people who
+filled the Rue de la Faisanderie. He was a man of forty-five, with a
+quick voice, and full figure. His hair was a little grizzled, but his
+brown mustache, full, and twisted at the ends, looked as young as ever.
+He said little, spoke to the point, knew a great deal, and did no
+boasting--all in all, he was a fine specimen of a colonel. He came right
+up to Fougas, and held out his hand like an old acquaintance.
+
+"My dear comrade," said he, "I have taken great interest in your
+resurrection, as much on my own account as on account of the regiment.
+The 23d which I have the honor to command, yesterday venerated you as an
+ancestor. From to-day, it will cherish you as a friend."--Not the
+slightest allusion to the affair of the morning, in which M. Rollon had
+undergone his pummelling with the rest.
+
+Fougas answered becomingly, but with, a tinge of coldness:
+
+"My dear comrade, I thank you for your kindly sentiments. It is singular
+that Destiny places me in the presence of my successor on the very day
+that I reopen my eyes to the light; for, after all, I am neither dead
+nor a general; I have not been transferred, nor have I been retired; yet
+I see another officer, more worthy, doubtless, at the head of my noble
+23d. But if you have for your motto 'Honor and Courage,' as I am well
+satisfied you have, I have no right to complain, and the regiment is in
+good hands."
+
+Dinner was ready. Mme. Renault took Fougas' arm. She had him sit at her
+right, and M. Nibor at her left. The Colonel and the Mayor took their
+places at the sides of M. Renault; the rest of the company distributed
+themselves as it happened, regardless of etiquette.
+
+Fougas gulped down the soup and _entrees_, helping himself to every
+dish, and drinking in proportion. An appetite of the other world!
+"Estimable Amphitryon," said he to M. Renault, "don't get frightened at
+seeing me fall upon the rations. I always ate just so; except during the
+retreat in Russia. Consider, too, that I went to sleep last night, at
+Liebenfeld, without any supper."
+
+He begged M. Nibor to explain to him by what course of circumstances he
+had come from Liebenfeld to Fontainebleau.
+
+"Do you remember," said the doctor, "an old German who acted as
+interpreter for you before the court-martial?"
+
+"Perfectly. An excellent man, with a violet-colored wig. I'll remember
+him all my life, for there are not two wigs of that color in existence."
+
+"Very well; it was the man with the violet wig, otherwise known as the
+celebrated Doctor Meiser, who saved your life."
+
+"Where is he? I want to see him, to fall into his arms, to tell him----"
+
+"He was sixty-eight years old when he did you that little service; he
+would then be, to-day, in his hundred and fifteenth year, if he had
+waited for your acknowledgments."
+
+"And so, then, he is no more! Death has robbed him of my gratitude!"
+
+"You do not yet know all that you owe to him. He bequeathed you, in
+1824, a fortune of seventy-five thousand francs, of which you are the
+rightful owner. Now, since a sum invested at five per cent, doubles
+itself in fourteen years--thanks to compound interest--you were worth,
+in 1838, a trifle of seven hundred and fifty thousand francs; and in
+1852, a million and a half. In fine, if you are satisfied to leave your
+property in the hands of Herr Nicholas Meiser, of Dantzic, that worthy
+man will owe you three millions at the commencement of 1866--that is to
+say, in seven years. We will give you, this evening, a copy of your
+benefactor's will; it is a very instructive document, and you can
+consider it when you go to bed."
+
+"I'll read it willingly," said Colonel Fougas. "But gold has no
+attractions for my eyes. Wealth engenders weakness. Me, to languish in
+the sluggish idleness of Sybaris!--to enervate my senses on a bed of
+roses! Never! The smell of powder is dearer to me than all the perfumes
+of Arabia. Life would have no charm or zest for me, if I had to give up
+the inspiriting clash of arms. On the day when you are told that Fougas
+no longer marches in the columns of the army, you can safely answer, 'It
+is because Fougas is no more!'"
+
+He turned to the new colonel of the 23d, and said:
+
+"Oh! do you, my dear comrade, tell them that the proud pomp of wealth is
+a thousand times less sweet than the austere simplicity of the
+soldier--of a colonel, more than all. Colonels are the kings of the
+army. A colonel is less than a general, but nevertheless he has
+something more. He lives more with the soldier; he penetrates further
+into the intimacy of his command. He is the father, the judge, the
+friend of his regiment. The welfare of each one of his men is in his
+hands; the flag is placed under his tent or in his chamber. The colonel
+and the flag are not two separate existences; one is the soul, the other
+is the body."
+
+He asked M. Rollon's permission to go to see and embrace the flag of the
+23d.
+
+"You shall see it to-morrow morning," said the new colonel, "if you will
+do me the honor to breakfast with me in company with some of my
+officers."
+
+He accepted the invitation with enthusiasm, and flung himself into the
+midst of a thousand questions touching pay, the amount retained for
+clothing, promotion, roster, reserve, uniform, full and fatigue dress,
+armament, and tactics. He understood, without difficulty, the advantages
+of the percussion gun, but the attempt to explain rifled cannon to him
+was in vain. Artillery was not his forte; but he avowed, nevertheless,
+that Napoleon had owed more than one victory to his fine artillery.
+
+While the innumerable roasts of Mme. Renault were succeeding each other
+on the table, Fougas asked--but without ever losing a bite--what were
+the principal wars in progress, how many nations France had on her
+hands, and if it was not intended ultimately to recommence the conquest
+of the world? The answers which he received, without completely
+satisfying him, did not entirely deprive him of hope.
+
+"I did well to come," said he; "there's work to do."
+
+The African wars did not interest him much, although in them the 23d had
+won a good share of glory.
+
+"As a school, it's very well," said he. "The soldier ought to train
+himself in other ways than in the Tivoli gardens, behind nurses'
+petticoats. But why the devil are not five hundred thousand men flung
+upon the back of England? England is the soul of the coalition, I can
+tell you that."
+
+How many explanations were necessary to make him understand the Crimean
+war, where the English had fought by our sides!
+
+"I can understand," said he, "why we took a crack at the Russians--they
+made me eat my best horse. But the English are a thousand times worse.
+If this young man" (the Emperor Napoleon III.) "doesn't know it, I'll
+tell him. There is no quarter possible after what they did at St.
+Helena! If I had been commander-in-chief in the Crimea, I would have
+begun by properly squelching the Russians, after which I would have
+turned upon the English, and hurled them into the sea. It's their
+element, anyhow."
+
+They gave him some details of the Italian campaign, and he was charmed
+to learn that the 23d had taken a redoubt under the eyes of the Marshal
+the Duke of Solferino.
+
+"That's the habit of the regiment," said he, shedding tears in his
+napkin. "That brigand of a 23d will never act in any other way. The
+goddess of Victory has touched it with her wing."
+
+One of the things, for example, which greatly astonished him, was that a
+war of such importance was finished up in so short a time. He had yet to
+learn that within a few years the world had learned the secret of
+transporting a hundred thousand men, in four days, from one end of
+Europe to the other.
+
+"Good!" said he; "I admit the practicability of it. But what astonishes
+me is, that the Emperor did not invent this affair in 1810; for he had a
+genius for transportation, a genius for administration, a genius for
+office details, a genius for everything. But (to resume your story) the
+Austrians are fortified at last, and you cannot possibly get to Vienna
+in less than three months."
+
+"We did not go so far, in fact."
+
+"You did not push on to Vienna?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, then, where did you sign the treaty of peace?"
+
+"At Villafranca."
+
+"At Villafranca? That's the capital of Austria, then?"
+
+"No; it's a village of Italy."
+
+"Monsieur, I don't admit that treaties of peace are signed anywhere but
+in capitals. That was our principle, our A B C, the first paragraph of
+our theory. It seems as if the world must have changed a good deal while
+I was not in it. But patience!"
+
+And now truth obliges me to confess that Fougas got drunk at dessert. He
+had drunk and eaten like a Homeric hero, and talked more fluently than
+Cicero in his best days. The fumes of wine, spices, and eloquence
+mounted into his brain. He became familiar, spoke affectionately to some
+and rudely to others, and poured out a torrent of absurdities big enough
+to turn forty mills. His drunkenness, however, had in it nothing brutal,
+or even ignoble; it was but the overflowing of a spirit young,
+affectionate, vain-glorious, and unbalanced. He proposed five or six
+toasts--to Glory, to the Extension of our Frontiers, to the Destruction
+of the last of the English, to Mlle. Mars--the hope of the French
+stage, to Affection--the tie, fragile but dear, which unites the lover
+to his sweetheart, the father to his son, the colonel to his regiment!
+
+His style, a singular mixture of familiarity and impressiveness,
+provoked more than one smile among the auditory. He noticed it, and a
+spark of defiance flashed up at the bottom of his heart. From time to
+time he loudly asked if "those people there" were not abusing his
+ingenuousness.
+
+"Confusion!" cried he, "Confusion to those who want me to take bladders
+for lanterns! The lantern may blaze out like a bomb, and carry
+consternation in its path!"
+
+After a series of such remarks, there was nothing left for him to do but
+to roll under the table, and this _denouement_ was generally expected.
+But the Colonel belonged to a robust generation, accustomed to more than
+one kind of excess, and strong to resist pleasure as well as dangers,
+privations, and fatigues. So when Madame Renault pushed back her chair,
+in indication that the repast was finished, Fougas arose without
+difficulty, gracefully offered his arm, and conducted his partner to the
+parlor. His gait was a little stiff and oppressively regular, but he
+went straight ahead, and did not oscillate the least bit. He took a
+couple of cups of coffee, and spirits in moderation, after which he
+began to talk in the most reasonable manner in the world. About ten
+o'clock, M. Martout, having expressed a wish to hear his history, he
+placed himself on a stool, collected his ideas for a moment, and asked
+for a glass of water and sugar. The company seated themselves in a
+circle around him, and he commenced the following narrative, the
+slightly antiquated style of which craves your indulgence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+HISTORY OF COLONEL FOUGAS, RELATED BY HIMSELF.
+
+
+"Do not expect that I will ornament my story with those flowers, more
+agreeable than substantial, which Imagination often uses to gloss over
+truth. A Frenchman and a soldier, I doubly ignore deception. Friendship
+interrogates me, Frankness shall answer.
+
+"I was born of poor but honest parents at the beginning of the year
+which the _Jeu de Paume_[5] brightened with an aurora of liberty. The
+south was my native clime; the language dear to the troubadours was that
+which I lisped in my cradle. My birth cost my mother's life. The author
+of mine was the humble owner of a little farm, and moistened his bread
+in the sweat of labor. My first sports were not those of wealth. The
+many-colored pebbles which are found by the brooks, and that well-known
+insect which childhood holds fluttering, free and captive at the same
+time, at the end of a thread, stood me in stead of other playthings.
+
+"An old minister at Devotion's altar, enfranchised from the shadowy
+bondage of fanaticism, and reconciled to the new institutions of France,
+was my Chiron and Mentor. He nourished me with the strong lion's marrow
+of Rome and Athens; his lips distilled into my ears the embalmed honey
+of wisdom. Honor to thee, learned and venerable man, who gavest me the
+first precepts of wisdom and the first examples of virtue!
+
+"But already that atmosphere of glory which the genius of one man and
+the valor of a nation had set floating over the country, filled all my
+senses, and made my young heart throb. France, on the edge of the
+volcano of civil war, had collected all her forces into a thunderbolt to
+launch upon Europe, and the world, astounded if not overwhelmed, was
+shrinking from the surge of the unchained torrent. What man, what
+Frenchman, could have heard with indifference that echo of victory
+reverberating through millions of hearts?
+
+"While scarcely leaving childhood, I felt that honor is more precious
+than life. The warlike music of the drums brought to my eyes brave and
+manly tears. 'And I, too,' said I, following the music of the regiments
+through the streets of Toulouse, 'will pluck laurels though I sprinkle
+them with my blood.' The pale olive of peace had from me nothing but
+scorn. The peaceful triumphs of the law, the calm pleasures of commerce
+and finance, were extolled in vain. To the toga of our Ciceros, to the
+robe of our magistrates, to the curule chair of our legislators, to the
+opulence of our Mondors, I preferred the sword. One would have said that
+I had sucked the milk of Bellona. 'Victory or Death!' was already my
+motto, and I was not sixteen years old.
+
+"With what noble scorn I heard recounted the history of our Proteuses of
+politics! With what disdainful glances I regarded the Turcarets of
+finance, lolling on the cushions of some magnificent carriage, and
+conducted by a laced automaton to the boudoir of some Aspasia. But if I
+heard told the mighty deeds of the Knights of the Round Table, or the
+valor of the crusaders celebrated in flowing verse; if chance placed in
+my hand the great actions of our modern Rolands, recounted in an army
+bulletin by the successor of Charlemagne, a flame presaging the fire of
+battles rose in my young eyes.
+
+"Ah, the inaction was too much, and my leading-strings, already worn by
+impatience, would have broken, perhaps, had not a father's wisdom untied
+them.
+
+"'Most surely,' said he to me, trying, but in vain, to restrain his
+tears, 'it was no tyrant who begot you, and I will not poison the life
+which I myself gave you. I had hoped that your hand would remain in our
+cottage to close my eyes; but when Patriotism has spoken, Egotism must
+be still. My prayers will always follow you to the field where Mars
+harvests heroes. May you merit the guerdon of valor, and show yourself a
+good citizen, as you have been a good son!'
+
+"Speaking thus, he opened his arms to me. I threw myself into them; we
+mingled our tears, and I promised to return to our hearthstone as soon
+as I could bring the star of honor suspended from my breast. But alas!
+my unhappy father was destined to see me no more. The fate which was
+already gilding the thread of my days, pitilessly severed that of his. A
+stranger's hand closed his eyes, while I was gaining my first epaulette
+at the battle of Jena.
+
+"Lieutenant at Eylau, captain at Wagram, and there decorated by the
+Emperor's own hand on the field of battle, major before Almieda,
+lieutenant-colonel at Badajoz, colonel at Moscow, I have drunk the cup
+of victory to the full. But I have also tasted the chalice of adversity.
+The frozen plains of Russia saw me alone with a platoon of braves, the
+last remnant of my regiment, forced to devour the mortal remains of that
+faithful friend who had so often carried me into the very heart of the
+enemy's battalions. Trusty and affectionate companion of my dangers,
+when rendered useless by an accident at Smolensk, he devoted his very
+_manes_ to the safety of his master, and made of his skin a protection
+for my frozen and lacerated feet.
+
+"My tongue refuses to repeat the story of our perils in that terrible
+campaign. Perhaps some day I will write it with a pen dipped in
+tears--tears, the tribute of feeble humanity. Surprised by the season of
+frosts in a zone of ice, without fire, without bread, without shoes,
+without means of transportation, denied the succor of Esculapius' art,
+harassed by the Cossacks, robbed by the peasants--positive vampires, we
+saw our mute thunderers, which had fallen into the enemy's hands, belch
+forth death upon ourselves. What more can I tell you? The passage of the
+Beresina, the opposition at Wilna--Oh, ye gods of Thunder!--- But I feel
+that grief overcomes me, and that my language is becoming tinged with
+the bitterness of these recollections.
+
+"Nature and Love were holding in reserve for me brief but precious
+consolations. Released from my fatigues, I passed a few happy days in my
+native land among the peaceful vales of Nancy. While our phalanxes were
+preparing themselves for fresh combats, while I was gathering around my
+flag three thousand young but valorous warriors, all resolved to open to
+posterity the path of honor, a new emotion, to which I had before been a
+stranger, furtively glided into my soul.
+
+"Beautified by all Nature's gifts, enriched by the fruits of an
+excellent education, the young and interesting Clementine had scarcely
+passed from the uncertain shadows of childhood into the sweet illusions
+of youth. Eighteen springs composed her life. Her parents extended to
+some of the army officers a hospitality which, though it was not
+gratuitous, was far from lacking in cordiality. To see their child and
+love her, was for me the affair of a day. Her virgin heart smiled upon
+my love. At the first avowals dictated to me by my passion, I saw her
+forehead color with a lovely modesty. We exchanged our vows one lovely
+evening in June, under an arbor where her happy father sometimes
+dispensed to the thirsty officers the brown liquor of the North. I swore
+that she should be my wife, and she promised to be mine; she yielded
+still more. Our happiness, regardless of all outside, had the calmness
+of a brook whose pure wave is never troubled by the storm, and which
+rolls sweetly between flowery banks, spreading its own freshness through
+the grove that protects its modest course.
+
+"A lightning stroke separated us from each other at the moment when Law
+and Religion were about adding their sanction to our sweet communion. I
+departed before I was able to give my name to her who had given me her
+heart. I promised to return; she promised to wait for me; and, all
+bathed in her tears, I tore myself from her arms, to rush to the laurels
+of Dresden and the cypresses of Leipzic. A few lines from her hand
+reached me during the interval between the two battles. 'You are to be a
+father,' she told me. Am I one? God knows! Has she waited for me? I
+believe she has. The waiting must have appeared to be a long one since
+the birth of this child, who is forty-six years old to-day, and who
+could be, in his turn, my father.
+
+"Pardon me for having troubled you so long with misfortunes. I wished to
+pass rapidly over this sad history, but the unhappiness of virtue has in
+it something sweet to temper the bitterness of grief.
+
+"Some days after the disaster of Leipzic, the giant of our age had me
+called into his tent, and said to me:
+
+"'Colonel, are you a man to make your way through four armies?'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'Alone, and without escort?'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'There must be a letter carried to Dantzic.'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'You will deliver it into General Rapp's own hands?'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'It is probable you will be taken, or killed.'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'For that reason I send two other officers with copies of the same
+despatch. There are three of you; the enemy will kill two, the third
+will get there, and France will be saved.'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"'The one who returns shall be a brigadier-general.'
+
+"'Yes, sire.'
+
+"Every detail of this interview, every word of the Emperor, every
+response which I had the honor to address to him, is still engraved upon
+my memory. All three of us set out separately. Alas! not one of us
+reached the goal aimed at by his valor, and I have learned to-day that
+France was not saved. But when I see these blockheads of historians
+asserting that the Emperor forgot to send orders to General Rapp, I
+feel a terrible itching to cut their ---- story short, at least.
+
+"'When a prisoner in the hands of the Russians in a German village, I
+had the consolation of finding an old philosopher, who gave me the
+rarest proofs of friendship. Who would have told me, when I succumbed to
+the numbness of the cold in the tower of Liebenfeld, that that sleep
+would not be the last? God is my witness, that in then addressing, from
+the bottom of my heart, a last farewell to Clementine, I did not even
+hope to see her again. I will see you again, then, O sweet and confiding
+Clementine--best of spouses, and, probably, of mothers! What do I say? I
+see her now! My eyes do not deceive me! This is surely she! There she
+is, just as I left her! Clementine! In my arms! On my heart! Look here!
+What's this you've been whining to me, the rest of you? Napoleon is not
+dead, and the world has not grown forty-six years older, for Clementine
+is still the same!"
+
+The betrothed of Leon Renault was about entering the room, and stopped
+petrified at finding herself so overwhelmingly received by the Colonel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE GAME OF LOVE AND WAR.
+
+
+As she was evidently backward in falling into his arms, Fougas imitated
+Mahomet, and ran to the mountain.
+
+"Oh, Clementine!" said he, covering her with kisses, "the friendly Fates
+give you back to my devotion. I clasp once more the partner of my life
+and the mother of my child!"
+
+The young lady was so astounded, that she did not even dream of
+defending herself. Happily, Leon Renault extricated her from the hands
+of the Colonel, and placed himself between them, determined to defend
+his own.
+
+"Monsieur," cried he, clenching his fists, "you deceive yourself
+entirely, if you think you know _Mademoiselle_. She is not a person of
+your time, but of ours; she is not your _fiancee_, but mine; she has
+never been the mother of your child, and I trust that she will be the
+mother of mine!"
+
+Fougas was iron. He seized his rival by the arm, sent him off spinning
+like a top, and put himself face to face with the young girl.
+
+"Are you Clementine?" he demanded of her.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur."
+
+"I call you all to witness that she is my Clementine!"
+
+Leon returned to the charge, and seized the Colonel by the collar, at
+the risk of getting himself dashed against the walls.
+
+"We've had joking enough!" said he. "Possibly you don't pretend to
+monopolize all the Clementines in the world? Mademoiselle's name is
+Clementine Sambucco; she was born at Martinique, where you never set
+your foot, if I am to believe what you have said within an hour. She is
+eighteen years old----"
+
+"So was the other!"
+
+"Eh! The other is sixty-four to-day, since she was eighteen in 1813.
+Mlle. Sambucco is of an honorable and well-known family. Her father, M.
+Sambucco, was a magistrate; her grandfather was a functionary of the war
+department. You see, she is in no way connected with you, nearly or
+remotely; and good sense and politeness, to say nothing of gratitude,
+make it your duty to leave her in peace."
+
+He gave the Colonel a shove, in his turn, and made him tumble between
+the arms of a sofa.
+
+Fougas bounded up as if he had been thrown on a million springs. But
+Clementine stopped him, with a gesture and a smile.
+
+"Monsieur," said she in her most caressing voice, "do not get angry with
+him; he loves me."
+
+"So much the more reason why I should! Damnation!"
+
+He cooled down, nevertheless, made the young lady sit down beside him,
+and regarded her from head to foot with the most absorbed attention.
+
+"This is surely she," said he. "My memory, my eyes, my heart, everything
+in me, recognizes her, and tells me that it is she. And nevertheless the
+testimony of mankind, the calculation of times and distances, in a word,
+the very soul of evidence, seems to have made it a special point to
+convict me of error.
+
+"Is it possible, then, that two women should so resemble each other?
+Am I the victim of an illusion of the senses? Have I recovered life
+only to lose reason? No; I know myself, I find myself the same; my
+judgment is firm and accurate, and can make its way in this world
+so new and topsy-turvy. It is on but one point that my reason
+wavers--Clementine!--I seem to see you again, and you are not you! Well,
+what's the difference, after all? If the Destiny which snatched me from
+the tomb has taken care to present to my awaking sense the image of her
+I loved, it must be because it had resolved to give me back, one after
+another, all the blessings which I had lost. In a few days, my
+epaulettes; to-morrow, the flag of the 23d of the line; to-day this
+adorable presence which made my heart beat for the first time! Living
+image of all that is sweetest and clearest in the past, I throw myself
+at your feet! Be my wife!"
+
+The devil of a fellow joined the deed to the word, and the witnesses of
+the unexpected scene opened their eyes to the widest. But Clementine's
+aunt, the austere Mlle. Sambucco, thought that it was time to show her
+authority. She stretched out her big, wrinkled hands, seized Fougas,
+jerked him sharply to his feet, and cried in her shrillest voice:
+
+"Enough, sir; it is time to put an end to this scandalous farce! My
+niece is not for you; I have promised her and given her away. Know that,
+day after to-morrow, the 19th of this month, at ten o'clock in the
+morning, she will marry M. Leon Renault, your benefactor!"
+
+"And I forbid it--do you hear, Madame Aunt? And if she pretends to marry
+this boy----"
+
+"What will you do?"
+
+"I'll curse her!"
+
+Leon could not help laughing. The malediction of this
+twenty-five-year-old Colonel appeared rather more comic than terrible.
+But Clementine grew pale, burst into tears, and fell, in her turn, at
+the feet of Fougas.
+
+"Monsieur," cried she, kissing his hands, "do not overwhelm a poor girl
+who venerates you, who loves you, who will sacrifice her happiness if
+you demand it! By all the marks of tenderness which I have lavished upon
+you for a month, by the tears I have poured upon your coffin, by the
+respectful zeal with which I have urged on your resuscitation, I conjure
+you to pardon our offences. I will not marry Leon if you forbid me; I
+will do anything to please you; I will obey you in everything; but, for
+God's sake, do not pour upon me your maledictions!"
+
+"Embrace me," said Fougas. "You yield; I pardon."
+
+Clementine raised herself, all radiant with joy, and held up her
+beautiful forehead. The stupefaction of the spectators, especially of
+those most interested, can be better imagined than described. An old
+mummy dictating laws, breaking off marriages, and imposing his desires
+on the whole house! Pretty little Clementine, so reasonable, so
+obedient, so happy in the prospect of marrying Leon Renault,
+sacrificing, all at once, her affections, her happiness, and almost her
+duty, to the caprice of an interloper. M. Nibor declared that it was
+madness. As for Leon, he would have butted his head into all the walls,
+if his mother had not held him back.
+
+"Ah, my poor child!" said she, "why did you bring that thing from
+Berlin?"
+
+"It's my fault!" cried old Monsieur Renault.
+
+"No," interrupted Dr. Martout, "it's mine."
+
+The members of the Parisian committee discussed with M. Rollon the new
+aspect of the case. "Had they resuscitated a madman? Had the
+revivification produced some disorder of the nervous system? Had the
+abuse of wine and other drinkables during the first repast caused a
+delirium? What an interesting autopsy it would be, if they could dissect
+M. Fougas at the next regular meeting!"
+
+"You would do very well as far as you would go, gentlemen," said the
+Colonel of the 23d. "The autopsy might explain the delirium of our
+unfortunate friend, but it would not account for the impression produced
+upon the young lady. Is it fascination, magnetism, or what?"
+
+While the friends and relations were weeping, counselling, and buzzing
+around him, Fougas, serene and smiling, gazed at himself in Clementine's
+eyes, while they, too, regarded him tenderly.
+
+"This must be brought to an end!" cried Mlle. Sambucco the severe.
+"Come, Clementine!"
+
+Fougas seemed surprised.
+
+"She doesn't live here, then?"
+
+"No, sir; she lives with me."
+
+"Then I will escort her home. Angel! will you take my arm?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Monsieur, with great pleasure!"
+
+Leon gnashed his teeth.
+
+"This is admirable! He presumes on such familiarity, and she takes it
+all as a matter of course!"
+
+He went to get his hat, for the purpose of, at least, going home with
+the aunt, but his hat was not in its place; Fougas, who had not yet one
+of his own, had helped himself to it without ceremony. The poor lover
+crowded his head into a cap, and followed Fougas and Clementine, with
+the respectable Virginie, whose arm cut like a scythe.
+
+By an accident which happened almost daily, the Colonel of cuirassiers
+met Clementine on the way home. The young lady directed Fougas'
+attention to him.
+
+"That's M. du Marnet," said she. "His restaurant is at the end of our
+street, and his room at the side of the park. I think he is very much
+taken with my little self, but he has never even bowed to me. The only
+man for whom my heart has ever beaten is Leon Renault."
+
+"Ah, indeed! And me?" said Fougas.
+
+"Oh! as for you, that's another matter. I respect you, and stand in awe
+of you. It seems to me as if you were a good and respectable parent."
+
+"Thank you!"
+
+"I'm telling you the truth, as far as I can read it in my heart. All
+this is not very clear, I confess, but I do not understand myself."
+
+"Azure flower of innocence, I adore your sweet perplexity! Let love take
+care of itself; it will speak to you in master tones."
+
+"I don't know anything about that; it's possible! Here we are at home.
+Good evening, Monsieur; embrace me.--Good night, Leon; don't quarrel
+with M. Fougas. I love him with all my heart, but I love you in a
+different way!"
+
+The aunt Virginie made no response to the "Good evening" of Fougas. When
+the two men were alone in the street, Leon marched along without saying
+a word, till they reached the next lamp-post. There, planting himself
+resolutely opposite the Colonel, he said,
+
+"Well, sir, now that we are alone, we had better have an explanation. I
+don't know by what philter or incantation you have obtained such
+prodigious influence over my betrothed; but I know that I love her, that
+I have been loved by her more than four years, and that I will not stop
+at any means of retaining and protecting her."
+
+"Friend," answered Fougas, "you can brave me with impunity; my arm is
+chained by gratitude. It shall never be written in history that Pierre
+Fougas was an ingrate!"
+
+"Would it have been more ungrateful in you to cut my throat, than to rob
+me of my wife?"
+
+"Oh, my benefactor! Learn to understand and pardon! God forbid that I
+should marry Clementine in spite of you, in spite of herself. It is
+through her consent and your own that I hope to win her. Realize that
+she has been dear to me, not for four years, as to you, but for nearly
+half a century. Reflect that I am alone on earth, and that her sweet
+face is my only consolation. Will you, who have given me life, prevent
+my spending it happily? Have you called me back to the world only to
+deliver me over to despair?--Tiger! Take back, then, the life you gave
+me, if you will not permit me to consecrate it to the adorable
+Clementine!"
+
+"Upon my soul, my dear fellow, you are superb! The habit of victory must
+have totally twisted your wits. My hat is on your head:--keep it; so far
+so good. But because my betrothed happens to remind you vaguely of a
+girl in Nancy, must I give her up to you? I can't see it!"
+
+"Friend, I will give you back your hat just as soon as you've bought me
+another one; but do not ask me to give up Clementine. In the first
+place, do you know that she will reject me?"
+
+"I'm sure of it."
+
+"She loves me."
+
+"You're crazy!"
+
+"You've seen her at my feet."
+
+"What of that? It was from fear, from respect, from superstition, from
+anything in the devil's name you choose to call it; but it was not from
+love."
+
+"We'll see about that pretty clearly, after six months of married life."
+
+"But," cried Leon Renault, "have you the right to dispose of yourself?
+There is another Clementine, the true one; she has sacrificed everything
+for you; you are engaged, in honor, to her. Is Colonel Fougas deaf to
+the voice of honor?"
+
+"Are you mocking me? What! I marry a woman sixty-four years old?"
+
+"You ought to; if not for her sake, at least for your child's."
+
+"My child is a pretty big boy. He's forty-six years old; he has no
+further need of my care."
+
+"He does need your name, though."
+
+"I'll adopt him."
+
+"The law is opposed to it. You're not fifty years old, and he's not
+fifteen years younger than you are; quite the reverse!"
+
+"Very well; I'll legitimize him by marrying the young Clementine."
+
+"How can you expect her to acknowledge a child twice as old as she is
+herself?"
+
+"But then I can't acknowledge him any better; so there's no need of my
+marrying the old woman. Moreover, I'd be excessively accommodating to
+break my head for a child who is very likely dead. What do I say? It is
+possible that he never saw the light. I love and am loved--that much is
+substantial and certain; and you shall be my groomsman."
+
+"Not yet awhile. Mlle. Sambucco is a minor, and her guardian is my
+father."
+
+"Your father is an honorable man; and he will not have the baseness to
+refuse her to me."
+
+"At least he will ask you if you have any position, any rank, any
+fortune to offer to his ward."
+
+"My position? colonel; my rank? colonel; my fortune? the pay of a
+colonel. And the millions at Dantzic--I mustn't forget them!--Here we
+are at home; let me have the will of that good old gentleman who wore
+the lilac wig. Give me some books on history, too--a big pile of
+them--all that have anything to say about Napoleon."
+
+Young Renault sadly obeyed the master he had given himself. He conducted
+Fougas to a fine chamber, brought him Herr Meiser's will and a whole
+shelf of books, and bid his mortal enemy "Good night." The Colonel
+embraced him impetuously, and said to him,
+
+"I will never forget that to you I owe life and Clementine. Farewell
+till to-morrow, noble and generous child of my native land! farewell!"
+
+Leon went back to the ground floor, passed the dining-room, where Gothon
+was wiping the glasses and putting the silver in order, and rejoined his
+father and mother, who were waiting for him in the parlor. The guests
+were gone, the candles extinguished. A single lamp lit up the solitude.
+The two mandarins on the etagere were motionless in their obscure
+corner, and seemed to meditate gravely on the caprices of fortune.
+
+"Well?" demanded Mme. Renault.
+
+"I left him in his room, crazier and more obstinate than ever. However,
+I've got an idea."
+
+"So much the better," said the father, "for we have none left. Sadness
+has made us stupid. But, above all things, no quarrelling. These
+soldiers of the empire used to be terrible swordsmen."
+
+"Oh, I'm not afraid of him! It's Clementine that makes me anxious. With
+what sweetness and submission she listened to the confounded babbler!"
+
+"The heart of woman is an unfathomable abyss. Well, what do you think of
+doing?"
+
+Leon developed in detail the project he had conceived in the street,
+during his conversation with Fougas.
+
+"The most urgent thing," said he, "is to relieve Clementine from this
+influence. If we could get him out of the way to-morrow, reason would
+resume its empire, and we would be married the day after to-morrow. That
+being done, I'll answer for the rest."
+
+"But how is such a madman to be gotten rid of?"
+
+"I see but one way, but it is almost infallible--to excite his dominant
+passion. These fellows sometimes imagine that they are in love, but, at
+the bottom, they love nothing but powder. The thing is, to fling Fougas
+back into the current of military ideas. His breakfast to-morrow with
+the colonel of the 23d will be a good preparation. I made him understand
+to-day that he ought, before all, to reclaim his rank and epaulettes,
+and he has become inoculated with the idea. He'll go to Paris, then.
+Possibly he'll find there some leather-breeches of his acquaintance. At
+all events, he'll reenter the service. The occupations incident to his
+position will be a powerful diversion; he'll no longer dream of
+Clementine, whom I will have fixed securely. We will have to furnish him
+the wherewithal to knock about the world; but all sacrifices of money
+are nothing in comparison with the happiness I wish to save."
+
+Madame Renault, who was a woman of thrift, blamed her son's generosity a
+little.
+
+"The Colonel is an ungrateful soul," said she. "We've already done too
+much in giving him back his life. Let him take care of himself now!"
+
+"No," said the father; "we've not the right to send him forth entirely
+empty-handed. Decency forbids."
+
+This deliberation, which had lasted a good hour and a quarter, was
+interrupted by a tremendous racket. One would have declared that the
+house was falling down.
+
+"There he is again!" cried Leon. "Undoubtedly a fresh paroxysm of raving
+madness!"
+
+He ran, followed by his parents, and mounted the steps four at a time. A
+candle was burning at the sill of the chamber door. Leon took it, and
+pushed the door half open.
+
+Must it be confessed? Hope and joy spoke louder to him than fear. He
+fancied himself already relieved of the Colonel. But the spectacle
+presented to his eyes suddenly diverted the course of his ideas, and the
+inconsolable lover began laughing like a fool. A noise of kicks, blows,
+and slaps; an undefined group rolling on the floor in the convulsions of
+a desperate struggle--so much was all he could see and understand at the
+first glance. Soon Fougas, lit up by the ruddy glow of the candle,
+discovered that he was struggling with Gothon, like Jacob with the
+angel, and went back, confused and pitiable, to bed.
+
+The Colonel had gone to sleep over the history of Napoleon, without
+putting out the candle. Gothon, after finishing her work, saw the light
+under the door. Her thoughts recurred to that poor Baptiste, who,
+perhaps, was groaning in purgatory for having let himself tumble from a
+roof. Hoping that Fougas could give her some news of her lover, she
+rapped several times, at first softly, then much louder. The Colonel's
+silence and the lighted candle made it seem to the servant that there
+was something wrong. The fire might catch the curtains, and from thence
+the whole building. She accordingly set down the candle, opened the
+door, and went, with cat-like steps, to put out the light. Possibly the
+eyes of the sleeper vaguely perceived the passage of a shadow; possibly
+Gothon, with her big, awkward figure, made a board in the floor creak.
+Fougas partially awoke, heard the rustling of a dress, dreamed it one of
+those adventures which were wont to spice garrison life under the first
+empire, and held out his arms blindly, calling Clementine. Gothon, on
+finding herself seized by the hair and shoulders, responded by such a
+masculine blow that the enemy supposed himself attacked by a man. The
+blow was returned with interest; further exchanges followed, and they
+finished by clinching and rolling on the floor.
+
+If anybody ever did feel shamefaced, Fougas was certainly the man.
+Gothon went to bed, considerably bruised; the Renault family talked
+sense into the Colonel, and got out of him pretty much what they wanted.
+He promised to set out next day, accepted as a loan the money offered
+him, and swore not to return until he should have recovered his
+epaulettes and secured the Dantzic bequest.
+
+"And then," said he, "I'll marry Clementine."
+
+On that point it was useless to argue with him; the idea was fixed.
+
+Everybody slept soundly in the mansion of the Renaults; the heads of the
+house, because they had had three sleepless nights; Fougas and Gothon,
+because each had been unmercifully pummelled; and the young Celestin,
+because he had drunk the heeltaps from all the glasses.
+
+The next morning M. Rollon came to know if Fougas were in a condition to
+breakfast with him; he feared, just the least bit, that he would find
+him under a shower bath. Far from it! The madman of yesterday was as
+calm as a picture and as fresh as a rosebud. He shaved with Leon's
+razors, while humming an air of Nicolo. With his hosts, he was charming,
+and he promised to settle a pension on Gothon out of Herr Meiser's
+legacy.
+
+As soon as he had set off for the breakfast, Leon ran to the dwelling of
+his sweetheart.
+
+"Everything is going better," said he. "The Colonel is much more
+reasonable. He has promised to leave for Paris this very day; so we can
+get married to-morrow."
+
+Mlle. Virginie Sambucco praised this plan of proceeding highly, not only
+because she had made great preparations for the wedding, but because the
+postponement of the marriage would be the talk of the town. The cards
+were already out, the mayor notified, and the Virgin's chapel, in the
+parish church, engaged. To revoke all this at the caprice of a ghost
+and a fool, would be to sin against custom, common sense, and Heaven
+itself.
+
+Clementine only replied with tears. She could not be happy without
+marrying Leon, but she would rather die, she said, than give her hand
+without the sanction of M. Fougas. She promised to implore him, on her
+knees if necessary, and wring from him his consent.
+
+"But if he refuses? And it's too likely that he will!"
+
+"I will beseech him again and again, until he says yes."
+
+Everybody conspired to convince her that she was unreasonable--her aunt,
+Leon, M. and Mme. Renault, M. Martout, M. Bonnivet, and all the friends
+of the two families. At length she yielded, but, at almost the same
+instant, the door flew open, and M. Audret rushed into the parlor,
+crying out,
+
+"Well, well! here _is_ a piece of news! Colonel Fougas is going to fight
+M. du Marnet to-morrow."
+
+The young girl fell, thunderstruck, into the arms of Leon Renault.
+
+"God punishes me!" cried she; "and the chastisement for my impiety is
+not delayed. Will you still force me to obey you? Shall I be dragged to
+the altar, in spite of myself, at the very hour he's risking his life?"
+
+No one dared to insist longer, on seeing her in so pitiable a state. But
+Leon offered up earnest prayers that victory might side with the colonel
+of cuirassiers. He was wrong, I confess; but what lover would have been
+sinless enough to cast the first stone at him?
+
+And here is an account of how the precious Fougas had spent his day.
+
+At ten o'clock in the morning, the youngest two captains of the 23d came
+to conduct him in proper style to the residence of the Colonel. M.
+Rollon occupied a little palace of the imperial epoch. A marble tablet,
+inserted over the porte-cochere, still bore the words, _Ministere des
+Finances_--a souvenir of the glorious time when Napoleon's court
+followed its master to Fontainebleau.
+
+Colonel Rollon, the lieutenant-colonel, the major-in-chief, the three
+majors of battalions, the surgeon-major, and ten or a dozen officers
+were outside, awaiting the arrival of the illustrious guest from the
+other world. The flag was placed in the middle of the court, under guard
+of the ensign and a squad of non-commissioned officers selected for the
+honor. The band of the regiment, at the entrance of the garden, filled
+up the background of the picture. Eight panoplies of arms, which had
+been improvised the same morning by the armorers of the corps,
+embellished the walls and railings. A company of grenadiers, with their
+arms at rest, were in attendance.
+
+At the entrance of Fougas, the band played the famous "_Partant pour la
+Syrie;_" the grenadiers presented arms; the drums beat a salute; the
+non-commissioned officers and soldiers cried, "_Vive le Colonel
+Fougas!_" the officers, in a body, approached the patriarch of their
+regiment. All this was neither regular nor according to discipline, but
+we can well allow a little latitude to these brave soldiers on finding
+their ancestor. For them it seemed a little debauch in glory.
+
+The hero of the _fete_ grasped the hands of the colonel and officers
+with as much emotion as if he had found his old comrades again. He
+cordially saluted the non-commissioned officers and soldiers, approached
+the flag, bent one knee to the earth, raised himself loftily, grasped
+the staff, turned toward the attentive crowd, and said,
+
+"My friends, under the shadow of the flag, a soldier of France, after
+forty-six years of exile, finds his family again to-day. All honor to
+thee, symbol of our fatherland, old partner in our victories, and heroic
+support in our misfortunes! Thy radiant eagle has hovered over prostrate
+and trembling Europe. Thy bruised eagle has again dashed obstinately
+against misfortune, and terrified the sons of Power. Honor to thee, thou
+who hast led us to glory, and fortified us against the clamor of
+despair! I have seen thee ever foremost in the fiercest dangers, proud
+flag of my native land! Men have fallen around thee like grain before
+the reaper; while thou alone hast shown to the enemy thy front unbending
+and superb. Bullets and cannon-shot have torn thee with wounds, but
+never upon thee has the audacious stranger placed his hand. May the
+future deck thy front with new laurels! Mayst thou conquer new and
+far-extending realms, which no fatality shall rob thee of! The day of
+great deeds is being born again; believe a warrior, who has risen from
+the tomb to tell thee so. 'Forward!' Yes, I swear it by the spirit of
+him who led us at Wagram. There shall be great days for France when thou
+shalt shelter with thy glorious folds the fortunes of the brave 23d!"
+
+Eloquence so martial and patriotic stirred all hearts. Fougas was
+applauded, feted, embraced, and almost carried in triumph into the
+banquet hall.
+
+Seated at table opposite M. Rollon, as if he were a second master of the
+house, he breakfasted heartily, talked a great deal, and drank more yet.
+You may occasionally meet, in the world, people who get drunk without
+drinking. Fougas was far from being one of them. He never felt his
+equanimity seriously disturbed short of three bottles. Often, in fact,
+he went much further without yielding.
+
+The toasts presented at dessert were distinguished for pith and
+cordiality. I would like to recount them in order, but am forced to
+admit that they would take up too much room, and that the last, which
+were the most touching, were not of a lucidity absolutely Voltairian.
+
+They arose from the table at two o'clock, and betook themselves in a
+body to the _Cafe Militaire_, where the officers of the 23d placed a
+punch before the two colonels. They had invited, with a feeling of
+eminent propriety, the superior officers of the regiment of cuirassiers.
+
+Fougas, who was drunker, in his own proper person, than a whole
+battalion of _Suisses_, distributed a great many hand-shakings. But
+across the storm which disturbed his spirit, he recognized the person
+and name of M. du Marnet, and made a grimace. Between officers, and,
+above all, between officers of different arms of the service, politeness
+is a little excessive, etiquette rather severe, _amour-propre_ somewhat
+susceptible. M. du Marnet, who was preeminently a man of the world,
+understood at once, from the attitude of M. Fougas, that he was not in
+the presence of a friend.
+
+The punch appeared, blazing, went out with its strength unimpaired, and
+was dispensed, with a big ladle, into threescore glasses. Fougas drank
+with everybody, except M. du Marnet. The conversation, which was erratic
+and noisy, imprudently raised a question of comparative merits. An
+officer of cuirassiers asked Fougas if he had seen Bordesoulle's
+splendid charge, which flung the Austrians into the valley of Plauen.
+Fougas had known General Bordesoulle personally, and had seen with his
+own eyes the beautiful heavy cavalry manoeuvre which decided the victory
+of Dresden. But he chose to be disagreeable to M. du Marnet, by
+affecting an air of ignorance or indifference.
+
+"In our time," said he, "the cavalry was always brought into action
+after the battle; we employed it to bring in the enemy after we had
+routed them."
+
+Here a great outcry arose, and the glorious name of Murat was thrown
+into the balance.
+
+"Oh, doubtless--doubtless!" said he, shaking his head. "Murat was a good
+general in his limited sphere; he answered perfectly for all that was
+wanted of him. But if the cavalry had Murat, the infantry had Napoleon."
+
+M. du Marnet observed, judiciously, that Napoleon, if he must be seized
+upon for the credit of any single arm of the service, would belong to
+the artillery.
+
+"With all my heart, monsieur," replied Fougas; "the artillery and the
+infantry. Artillery at a distance, infantry at close quarters--cavalry
+off at one side."
+
+"Once more I beg your pardon," answered M. du Marnet; "you mean to say,
+at the sides, which is a very different matter."
+
+"At the sides, or at one side, I don't care! As for me, if I were
+commander-in-chief, I would set the cavalry aside."
+
+Several cavalry officers had already flung themselves into the
+discussion. M. du Marnet held them back, and made a sign that he wanted
+to answer Fougas alone.
+
+"And why, then, if you please, would you set the cavalry aside?"
+
+"Because the dragoon is an incomplete soldier."
+
+"Incomplete?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and the proof is, that the Government has to buy four or five
+hundred francs' worth of horse in order to complete him. And when the
+horse receives a ball or a bayonet thrust, the dragoon is no longer good
+for anything. Have you ever seen a cavalryman on foot? It would be a
+pretty sight!"
+
+"I see myself on foot every day, and I don't see anything particularly
+ridiculous about it."
+
+"I'm too polite to contradict you."
+
+"And for me, sir, I am too just to combat one paradox with another. What
+would you think of my logic, if I were to say to you (the idea is not
+mine--I found it in a book), if I were to say to you, 'I entertain a
+high regard for infantry, but, after all, the foot soldier is an
+incomplete soldier, deprived of his birthright, an inefficient body
+deprived of that natural complement of the soldier, called a horse! I
+admire his courage, I perceive that he makes himself useful in battle;
+but, after all, the poor devil has only two feet at his command, while
+we have four!' You see fit to consider a dragoon on foot ridiculous; but
+does the foot-soldier always make a very brilliant appearance when one
+sticks a horse between his legs? I have seen excellent infantry captains
+cruelly embarrassed when the minister of war made them majors. They
+said, scratching their heads, 'It's not over when we've mounted a grade;
+we've got to mount a horse in the bargain!'"
+
+This crude pleasantry amused the audience for a moment. They laughed,
+and the mustard mounted higher and higher in Fougas' nose.
+
+"In my time," said he, "a foot soldier became a dragoon in twenty-four
+hours; and if any one would like to make a match with me on horseback,
+sabre in hand, I'll show him what infantry is!"
+
+"Monsieur," coolly replied M. du Marnet, "I hope that opportunities will
+not be lacking to you in the field of battle. It is there that a true
+soldier displays his talents and bravery. Infantry and cavalry, we alike
+belong to France. I drink to her, Monsieur, and I hope you will not
+refuse to touch glasses with me.--To France!"
+
+This was certainly well spoken and well settled. The clicking of glasses
+applauded M. du Marnet. Fougas himself approached his adversary and
+drank with him without reserve. But he whispered in his ear, speaking
+very thickly:
+
+"I hope, for my part, that you will not refuse the sabre-match which I
+had the honor to propose to you?"
+
+"As you please," said the colonel of cuirassiers.
+
+The gentleman from the other world, drunker than ever, went out of the
+crowd with two officers whom he had picked up haphazard. He declared to
+them that he considered himself insulted by M. du Marnet, that a
+challenge had been given and accepted, and that the affair was going on
+swimmingly.
+
+"Especially," added he in confidence, "since there is a lady in the case!
+These are my conditions--they are all in accordance with the honor of
+the infantry, the army, and France: we will fight on horseback, stripped
+to the waist, mounted bareback on two stallions. The weapon--the cavalry
+sabre. First blood. I want to chastise a puppy. I am far from wishing to
+rob France of a soldier."
+
+These conditions were pronounced absurd by M. du Marnet's seconds. They
+accepted them, nevertheless, for the military code requires one to face
+all dangers, however absurd.
+
+Fougas devoted the rest of the day to worrying the poor Renaults. Proud
+of the control he exercised over Clementine, he declared his wishes;
+swore he would take her for his wife as soon as he had recovered his
+rank, family, and fortune, and prohibited her to dispose of herself
+before that time. He broke openly with Leon and his parents, refused to
+accept their good offices any longer, and quitted their house after a
+serious passage of high words. Leon concluded by saying that he would
+only give up his betrothed with life itself. The Colonel shrugged his
+shoulders and turned his back, carrying off, without stopping to
+consider what he was doing, the father's clothes and the son's hat. He
+asked M. Rollon for five hundred francs, engaged a room at the _Hotel du
+Cadron-bleu_, went to bed without any supper, and slept straight through
+until the arrival of his seconds.
+
+There was no necessity for giving him an account of what had passed the
+previous day. The fogs of punch and sleep dissipated themselves in an
+instant. He plunged his head and hands into a basin of fresh water, and
+said:
+
+"So much for my toilet! Now, _Vive l'Empereur!_ Let's go and get into
+line!"
+
+The field selected by common consent was the parade-ground--a sandy
+plain enclosed in the forest, at a good distance from the town. All the
+officers of the garrison betook themselves there of their own accord;
+there would have been no need of inviting them. More than one soldier
+went secretly and billeted himself in a tree. The _gendarmerie_ itself
+ornamented the little family _fete_, with its presence. People went to
+see an encounter in chivalric tourney, not merely between the infantry
+and the cavalry, but between the old army and the young. The exhibition
+fully satisfied public expectation. No one was tempted to hiss the
+piece, and everybody had his money's worth.
+
+Precisely at nine o'clock, the combatants entered the lists, attended by
+their four seconds and the umpire of the field. Fougas, naked to the
+waist, was as handsome as a young god. His lithe and agile figure, his
+proud and radiant features, the manly grace of his movements, assured
+him a flattering reception. He made his English horse caper, and saluted
+the lookers-on with the point of his sword.
+
+M. du Marnet, a man rather of the German type, hardy, quite hairy,
+moulded like the Indian Bacchus, and not like Achilles, showed in his
+countenance a slight shade of disgust. It was not necessary to be a
+magician to understand that this duel _in naturalibus_, under the eyes
+of his own officers, appeared to him useless and even ridiculous. His
+horse was a half-blood from Perche, a vigorous beast and full of fire.
+
+Fougas' seconds rode badly enough. They divided their attention between
+the combat and their stirrups. M. du Marnet had chosen the best two
+horsemen in his regiment, a major and captain. The umpire of the field
+was Colonel Rollon, an excellent rider.
+
+At a signal given by Colonel Rollon, Fougas rode directly at his
+adversary, presenting the point of his sabre in the position of "prime,"
+like a cavalry soldier charging infantry in a hollow square. But he
+reined up about three lengths from M. du Marnet, and described around
+him seven or eight rapid circles, like an Arab in a play. M. du Marnet,
+being forced to turn in the same spot and defend himself on all sides,
+clapped both spurs to his horse, broke the circle, took to the field,
+and threatened to commence the same manoeuvre about Fougas. But the
+gentleman from the other world did not wait for him. He rushed off at a
+full gallop, and made a round of the hippodrome, always followed by M.
+du Marnet. The cuirassier, being heavier, and mounted on a slower horse,
+was distanced. He revenged himself by calling out to Fougas:
+
+"Oh, Monsieur! I must say that this looks more like a race than a
+battle. I ought to have brought a riding-whip instead of a sword!"
+
+But Fougas, panting and furious, had already turned upon him.
+
+"Hold on there!" cried he; "I have shown you the horseman; now I will
+show you the soldier!"
+
+He lanched a thrust at him, which would have gone through him like a
+hoop if M. du Marnet had not been as prompt as at parade. He retorted by
+a fine cut _en quarte_, powerful enough to cut the invincible Fougas in
+two. But the other was nimbler than a monkey. He wholly shielded his
+body by letting himself slide to the ground, and then remounted his
+horse in the same second.
+
+"My compliments!" said M. du Marnet. "They don't do any better than that
+in the circus."
+
+"No more do they in war," rejoined the other. "Ah, scoundrel! so you
+revile the old army? Here's at you! A miss! Thanks for the retort, but
+it's not good enough yet. I'll not die from any such thrust as that! How
+do you like that?--and that?-and that? Ah, you claim that the
+foot-soldier is an incomplete man! Now we're going to make _your_
+assortment of limbs a little incomplete. Look out for your boot! He's
+parried it! Perhaps he expects to indulge in a little promenade under
+Clementine's windows this evening. Take care! Here's for Clementine! And
+here's for the infantry! Will you parry that? So, traitor! And that? So
+he does! Perhaps you'll parry them all, then, by Heavens! Victory! Ah,
+Monsieur! Your blood is flowing! What have I done? Devil take the sword,
+the horse, and all! Major! major! come quickly! Monsieur, let yourself
+rest in my arms. Beast that I am! As if all soldiers were not brothers!
+Oh, forgive me, my friend! Would that I could redeem each drop of your
+blood with all of mine! Miserable Fougas, incapable of mastering his
+fierce passions! Ah, you Esculapian Mars, I beg you tell me that the
+thread of his days is not to be clipped! I will not survive him, for he
+is a brave!"
+
+M. du Marnet had received a magnificent cut which traversed the left arm
+and breast, and the blood was streaming from it at a rate to make one
+shudder. The surgeon, who had provided himself with hemostatic
+preparations, hastened to arrest the hemorrhage. The wound was long
+rather than deep, and could be cured in a few days. Fougas himself
+carried his adversary to the carriage, but that did not satisfy him. He
+firmly insisted on joining the two officers who took M. du Marnet home;
+he overwhelmed the wounded man with his protestations, and was occupied
+during most of the ride in swearing eternal friendship to him. On
+reaching the house, he put him to bed, embraced him, bathed him with
+tears, and did not leave him for a moment until he heard him snoring.
+
+When six o'clock struck, he went to dine at the hotel, in company with
+his seconds and the referee, all of whom he had invited after the fight.
+He treated them magnificently, and got drunk himself, as usual.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+IN WHICH THE READER WILL SEE THAT IT IS NOT FAR FROM THE CAPITAL TO THE
+TARPEIAN ROCK.
+
+
+The next day, after a visit to M. du Marnet, he wrote thus to
+Clementine:
+
+    "Light of my life, I am about to quit these scenes, the
+    witnesses of my fatal courage and the repositories of
+    my love. To the bosom of the capital, to the foot of
+    the throne, I will first betake my steps. If the
+    successor of the God of Combats is not deaf to the
+    voice of the blood that courses in his veins, he will
+    restore me my sword and epaulettes, so that I may lay
+    them at thy feet. Be faithful to me--wait, hope! May
+    these lines be to thee a talisman against the dangers
+    threatening thy independence. Oh, my Clementine,
+    tenderly guard thyself for thy
+
+    "VICTOR FOUGAS!"
+
+Clementine sent him no answer, but, just as he was getting on the train,
+he was accosted by a messenger, who handed him a pretty red leather
+pocket-book, and ran away with all his might. The pocket-book was
+entirely new, solid, and carefully fastened. It contained twelve hundred
+francs in bank notes--all the young girl's savings. Fougas had no time
+to deliberate on this delicate circumstance. He was pushed into a car,
+the locomotive puffed, and the train started.
+
+The Colonel began to review in his memory the various events which had
+succeeded each other in his life during less than a week. His arrest
+among the frosts of the Vistula, his sentence to death, his imprisonment
+in the fortress of Liebenfeld, his reawakening at Fontainebleau, the
+invasion of 1814, the return from the island of Elba, the hundred days,
+the death of the emperor and the king of Rome, the restoration of the
+Bonapartes in 1852, his meeting with a young girl who was the
+counterpart of Clementine Pichon in all respects, the flag of the 23d,
+the duel with the colonel of cuirassiers--all this, for Fougas, had not
+taken up more than four days. The night reaching from the 11th of
+November, 1813, to the 17th of August, 1859, seemed to him even a little
+shorter than any of the others; for it was the only time that he had had
+a full sleep, without any dreaming.
+
+A less active spirit, and a heart less warm, would, perhaps, have lapsed
+into a sort of melancholy. For, in fact, one who has been asleep for
+forty-six years would naturally become somewhat alien to mankind in
+general, even in his own country. Not a relation, not a friend, not a
+familiar face, on the whole face of the earth! Add to this a multitude
+of new words, ideas, customs, and inventions, which make him feel the
+need of a cicerone, and prove to him that he is a stranger. But Fougas,
+on reopening his eyes, following the precept of Horace, was thrown into
+the very midst of action. He had improvised for him friends, enemies, a
+sweetheart, and a rival. Fontainebleau, his second native place, was,
+provisionally, the central point of his existence. There he felt himself
+loved, hated, feared, admired--in a word, well known. He knew that in
+that sub-prefecture his name could not be spoken without awakening an
+echo. But what attached him more than all to modern times, was his
+well-established relationship with the great family of the army.
+Wherever a French flag floats, the soldier, young or old, is at home.
+Around that church-spire of the fatherland, though dear and sacred in a
+way different from the village spire, language, ideas, and institutions
+change but little. The death of individuals has little effect; they are
+replaced by others who look like them, and think, talk, and act in the
+same way; who do not stop on assuming the uniform of their predecessors,
+but inherit their souvenirs also--the glory they have acquired, their
+traditions, their jests, and even certain intonations of their voices.
+This accounts for Fougas' sudden friendship, after a first feeling of
+jealousy, for the new colonel of the 23d; and the sudden sympathy which
+he evinced for M. du Marnet as soon as he saw the blood running from his
+wound. Quarrels between soldiers are family quarrels, which never blot
+out the relationship.
+
+Calmly satisfied that he was not alone in the world, M. Fougas derived
+pleasure from all the new objects which civilization placed before his
+eyes. The speed of the rail-cars fairly intoxicated him. He was inspired
+with a positive enthusiasm for this force of steam, whose theory was a
+closed book to him, but on whose results he meditated much.
+
+"With a thousand machines like this, two thousand rifled cannon, and two
+hundred thousand such chaps as I am, Napoleon would have conquered the
+world in six weeks. Why doesn't this young fellow on the throne make
+some use of the resources he has under his control? Perhaps he hasn't
+thought of it. Very well, I'll go to see him. If he looks like a man of
+capacity, I'll give him my idea; he'll make me minister of war, and
+then--Forward, march!"
+
+He had explained to him the use of the great iron wires running on poles
+all along the road.
+
+"The very thing!" said he. "Here are aides-de-camp both fleet and
+judicious. Get them all into the hands of a chief-of-staff like
+Berthier, and the universe would be held in a thread by the mere will of
+a man!"
+
+His meditations were interrupted, a couple of miles from Melun, by the
+sounds of a foreign language. He pricked up his ears, and then bounded
+from his corner as if he had sat on a pile of thorns. Horror! it was
+English! One of those monsters who had assassinated Napoleon at St.
+Helena for the sake of insuring to themselves the cotton monopoly, had
+entered the compartment with a very pretty woman and two lovely
+children.
+
+"Conductor, stop!" cried Fougas, thrusting his body halfway out of the
+window.
+
+"Monsieur," said the Englishman in good French, "I advise you to have
+patience until we get to the next station. The conductor doesn't hear
+you, and you're in danger of falling out on the track. If I can be of
+any service to you, I have a flask of brandy with me, and a medicine
+chest."
+
+"No, sir," replied Fougas in a most supercilious tone, "I'm in want of
+nothing, and I'd rather die than accept anything from an Englishman! If
+I'm calling the conductor, it's only because I want to get into a
+different car, and cleanse my eyes from the sight of an enemy of the
+Emperor."
+
+"I assure you, monsieur," responded the Englishman, "that I am not an
+enemy of the Emperor. I had the honor of being received by him while he
+was in London. He even deigned to pass a few days at my little
+country-seat in Lancashire."
+
+"So much the better for you, if this young man is good enough to forget
+what you have done against his family; but Fougas will never forgive
+your crimes against his country."
+
+As soon as they arrived at the station at Melun, he opened the door and
+rushed into another saloon. There he found himself alone in the presence
+of two young gentlemen, whose physiognomies were far from English, and
+who spoke French with the purest accent of Touraine. Both had coats of
+arms on their seal-rings, so that no one might be ignorant of their
+rank as nobles. Fougas was too plebeian to fancy the nobility much; but
+as he had left a compartment full of Britons, he was happy to meet a
+couple of Frenchmen.
+
+"Friends," said he, inclining toward them with a cordial smile, "we are
+children of the same mother. Long life to you! Your appearance revives
+me."
+
+The two young gentlemen opened their eyes very wide, half bowed, and
+resumed their conversation, without making any other response to Fougas'
+advance.
+
+"Well, then, my dear Astophe," said one, "you saw the king at
+Froshdorf?"
+
+"Yes, my good Americ; and he received me with the most affecting
+condescension. 'Vicomte,' said he to me, 'you come of a house well known
+for its fidelity. We will remember you when God replaces us on the
+throne of our ancestors. Tell our brave nobility of Touraine that we
+hope to be remembered in their prayers, and that we never forget them in
+ours.'"
+
+"Pitt and Coburg!" said Fougas between his teeth. "Here are two little
+rascals conspiring with the army of Conde! But, patience!"
+
+He clenched his fists and opened his ears.
+
+"Didn't he say anything about politics?"
+
+"A few vague words. Between us, I don't think he bothers with them much;
+he is waiting upon events."
+
+"He'll not wait much longer."
+
+"Who can tell?"
+
+"What! Who can tell? The empire is not good for six months longer.
+Monseigneur de Montereau said so again last Monday to my aunt the
+canoness."
+
+"For my part, I give them a year, for their campaign in Italy has
+strengthened them with the lower orders. I didn't put myself out to tell
+the king so, though!"
+
+"Damnation! gentlemen, this is going it a little too strongly!"
+interrupted Fougas. "Is it here in France that Frenchmen speak thus of
+French institutions? Go back to your master; tell him that the empire is
+eternal, because it is founded on the granite of popular support, and
+cemented by the blood of heroes. And if the king asks you who told you
+this, tell him it was Colonel Fougas, who was decorated at Wagram by the
+Emperor's own hand!"
+
+The two young gentlemen looked at each other, exchanged a smile, and the
+Viscount said to the Marquis:
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"A madman."
+
+"No, dear; a mad dog."
+
+"Nothing else."[6]
+
+"Very well, gentlemen," cried the Colonel. "Speak English; you're fit
+for it!"
+
+He changed his compartment at the next station, and fell in with a lot
+of young painters. He called them disciples of Zeuxis, and asked them
+about Gerard, Gros, and David. These gentlemen found the sport novel,
+and recommended him to go and see Talma in the new tragedy of Arnault.
+
+The fortifications of Paris dazzled him very much, and scandalized him a
+little.
+
+"I don't like this," said he to his companions. "The true rampart of a
+capital is the courage of a great people. This piling bastions around
+Paris, is saying to the enemy that it is possible to conquer France."
+
+The train at last stopped at the Mazas station. The Colonel, who had no
+baggage, marched out pompously, with his hands in his pockets, to look
+for the _hotel de Nantes_. As he had spent three months in Paris about
+the year 1810, he considered himself acquainted with the city, and for
+that reason he did not fail to lose himself as soon as he got there. But
+in the various quarters which he traversed at hazard, he admired the
+great changes which had been wrought during his absence. Fougas' taste
+was for having streets very long, very wide, and bordered with very
+large houses all alike; he could not fail to notice that the Parisian
+style was rapidly approaching his ideal. It was not yet absolute
+perfection, but progress was manifest.
+
+By a very natural illusion, he paused twenty times to salute people of
+familiar appearance; but no one recognized him.
+
+After a walk of five hours he reached the _Place du Carrousel_. The
+_hotel de Nantes_ was no longer there; but the Louvre had been erected
+instead. Fougas employed a quarter of an hour in regarding this
+monument of architecture, and half an hour in contemplating two Zouaves
+of the guard who were playing piquet. He inquired if the Emperor was in
+Paris; whereupon his attention was called to the flag floating over the
+Tuilleries.
+
+"Good!" said he. "But first I must get some new clothes."
+
+He took a room in a hotel on the _Rue Saint Honore_, and asked a waiter
+which was the most celebrated tailor in Paris. The waiter handed him a
+Business Directory. Fougas hunted out the Emperor's bootmaker,
+shirtmaker, hatter, tailor, barber, and glovemaker. He took down their
+names and addresses in Clementine's pocket-book, after which he took a
+carriage and set out.
+
+As he had a small and shapely foot, he found boots ready-made without
+any difficulty. He was promised, too, that all the linen he required
+should be sent home in the evening. But when he came to explain to the
+hatter what sort of an apparatus he intended to plant on his head, he
+encountered great difficulties. His ideal was an enormous hat, large at
+the crown, small below, broad in the brim, and curved far down behind
+and before; in a word, the historic heirloom to which the founder of
+Bolivia gave his name long ago. The shop had to be turned upside down,
+and all its recesses searched, to find what he wanted.
+
+"At last," cried the hatter, "here's your article. If it's for a stage
+dress, you ought to be satisfied; the comic effect can be depended
+upon."
+
+Fougas answered dryly, that the hat was much less ridiculous than all
+those which were then circulating around the streets of Paris.
+
+At the celebrated tailor's, in the _Rue de la Paix_, there was almost a
+battle.
+
+"No, monsieur," said Alfred, "I'll never make you a frogged surtout and
+a pair of trousers _a la Cosaque_! Go to Babin, or Morean, if you want a
+carnival dress; but it shall never be said that a man of as good figure
+as yours left our establishment caricatured."
+
+"Thunder and guns!" retorted Fougas. "You're a head taller than I am,
+Mister Giant, but I'm a colonel of the Grand Empire, and it won't do for
+drum-majors to give orders to colonels!"
+
+Of course, the devil of a fellow had the last word. His measure was
+taken, a book of costumes consulted, and a promise made that in
+twenty-four hours he should be dressed in the height of the fashion of
+1813. Cloths were presented for his selection, among them some English
+fabrics. These he threw aside with disgust.
+
+"The blue cloth of France," cried he, "and made in France! And cut it in
+such a style that any one seeing me in Pekin would say, 'That's a
+soldier!'"
+
+The officers of our day have precisely the opposite fancy. They make an
+effort to resemble all other "gentlemen"[7] when they assume the
+civilian's dress.
+
+Fougas ordered, in the _Rue Richelieu_, a black satin scarf, which hid
+his shirt, and reached up to his ears. Then he went toward the _Palais
+Royal_, entered a celebrated restaurant, and ordered his dinner. For
+breakfast he had only taken a bite at a pastry-cook's in the
+_Boulevard_, so his appetite, which had been sharpened by the excursion,
+did wonders. He ate and drank as he did at Fontainebleau. But the bill
+seemed to him hard to digest: it was for a hundred and ten francs and a
+few centimes. "The devil!" said he; "living has become dear in Paris!"
+Brandy entered into the sum total for an item of nine francs. They had
+given him a bottle, and a glass about the size of a thimble; this
+gimcrack had amused Fougas, and he diverted himself by filling and
+emptying it a dozen times. But on leaving the table he was not drunk; an
+amiable gayety inspired him, but nothing more. It occurred to him to get
+back some of his money by buying some lottery tickets at Number 113. But
+a bottle-seller located in that building apprised him that France had
+not gambled for thirty years. He pushed on to the _Theatre Francais_, to
+see if the Emperor's actors might not be giving some fine tragedy, but
+the poster disgusted him. Modern comedies played by new actors! Neither
+Talma, nor Fleury, nor Thenard, nor the Baptistes, nor Mlle. Mars, nor
+Mlle. Raucourt! He then went to the opera, where Charles VI. was being
+given. The music astounded him at once. He was not accustomed to hear so
+much noise anywhere but on the battle-field. Nevertheless, his ears
+soon inured themselves to the clangor of the instruments; and the
+fatigue of the day, the pleasure of being comfortably seated, and the
+labor of digestion, plunged him into a doze. He woke up with a start at
+this famous patriotic song:
+
+    "_Guerre aux tyrans! jamais, jamais en France,_
+    _Jamais l'Anglais ne regnera!_"[8]
+
+"No!" cried he, stretching out his arms toward the stage. "Never! Let us
+swear it together on the sacred altar of our native land! Perish,
+perfidious Albion! _Vive l'Empereur!_"
+
+The pit and orchestra arose at once, less to express accord with Fougas'
+sentiments, than to silence him. During the following _entr'acte_, a
+commissioner of police said in his ear, that when one had dined as he
+had, one ought to go quietly to bed, instead of interrupting the
+performance of the opera.
+
+He replied that he had dined as usual, and that this explosion of
+patriotic sentiment had not proceeded from the stomach.
+
+"But," said he, "when, in this palace of misused magnificence, hatred of
+the enemy is stigmatized as a crime, I must go and breathe a freer air,
+and bow before the temple of Glory before I go to bed."
+
+"You'll do well to do so," said the policeman.
+
+He went out, haughtier and more erect than ever, reached the Boulevard,
+and ran with great strides as far as the Corinthian temple at the end.
+While on his way, he greatly admired the lighting of the city. M.
+Martout had explained to him the manufacture of gas; he had not
+understood anything about it, but the glowing and ruddy flame was an
+actual treat to his eyes.
+
+As soon as he had reached the monument commanding the entrance to the
+_Rue Royale_, he stopped on the pavement, collected his thoughts for an
+instant, and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Glory! Inspirer of great deeds, widow of the mighty conqueror of
+Europe! receive the homage of thy devoted Victor Fougas! For thee I have
+endured hunger, sweat, and frost, and eaten the most faithful of horses.
+For thee I am ready to brave further perils, and again to face death on
+every battle-field. I seek thee rather than happiness, riches, or power.
+Reject not the offering of my heart and the sacrifice of my blood! As
+the price of such devotion, I ask nothing but a smile from thy eyes and
+a laurel from thy hand!"
+
+This prayer went all glowing to the ears of _Saint Marie Madeleine_, the
+patroness of the ex-temple of Glory. Thus the purchaser of a chateau
+sometimes receives a letter addressed to the original proprietor.
+
+Fougas returned by the _Rue de la Paix_ and the _Place Vendome_, and
+saluted, in passing, the only familiar figure he had yet found in Paris.
+The new costume of Napoleon on the column did not displease him in any
+way. He preferred the cocked hat to a crown, and the gray surtout to a
+theatrical cloak.
+
+The night was restless. In the Colonel's brain a thousand diverse
+projects crossed each other in all directions. He prepared the little
+speech which he should make to the Emperor, going to sleep in the middle
+of a phrase, and waking up with a start in the attempt to lay hold on
+the idea which had so suddenly vanished. He put out and relit his candle
+twenty times. The recollection of Clementine was occasionally
+intermingled with dreams of war and political utopias. But I must
+confess that the young girl's figure seldom got any higher than the
+second place.
+
+But if the night appeared too long, the morning seemed short in
+proportion. The idea of meeting the new master of the empire face to
+face, inspired and chilled him in turn. For an instant he hoped that
+something would be lacking in his toilet--that some shopkeeper would
+furnish him an honorable pretext for postponing his visit until the next
+day. But everybody displayed the most desperate punctuality. Precisely
+at noon, the trousers _a la Cosaque_ and the frogged surtout were on the
+foot of the bed opposite the famous Bolivar hat.
+
+"I may as well be dressing," said Fougas. "Possibly this young man may
+not be at home. In that case I'll leave my name, and wait until he sends
+for me."
+
+He got himself up gorgeously in his own way, and, although it may appear
+impossible to my readers, Fougas, in a black satin scarf and frogged
+surtout, was not homely nor even ridiculous. His tall figure, lithe
+build, lofty and impressive carriage, and brusque movements, were all in
+a certain harmony with the costume of the olden time. He appeared
+strange, and that was all. To keep his courage up, he dropped into a
+restaurant, ate four cutlets, a loaf of bread, a slice of cheese, and
+washed it all down with two bottles of wine. The coffee and supplements
+brought him up to two o'clock, and that was the time he had set for
+himself.
+
+He tipped his hat slightly over one ear, buttoned his buckskin gloves,
+coughed energetically two or three times before the sentinel at the _Rue
+de Rivoli_, and marched bravely into the gate.
+
+"Monsieur," cried the porter, "what do you want?"
+
+"The Emperor!"
+
+"Have you an audience letter?"
+
+"Colonel Fougas does not need one. Go and ask references of him who
+towers over the _Place Vendome_. He'll tell you that the name of Fougas
+has always been a synonym for bravery and fidelity."
+
+"You knew the first Emperor?"
+
+"Yes, my little joker; and I have talked with him just as I am talking
+with you."
+
+"Indeed! But how old are you then?"
+
+"Seventy years on the dial-plate of time; twenty-four years on the
+tablets of History!"
+
+The porter raised his eyes to Heaven, and murmured:
+
+"Still another! This makes the fourth for this week!"
+
+He made a sign to a little gentleman in black, who was smoking his pipe
+in the court of the Tuilleries. Then he said to Fougas, putting his hand
+on his arm:
+
+"So, my good friend, you want to see the Emperor?"
+
+"I've already told you so, familiar individual!"
+
+"Very well; you shall see him to-day. That gentleman going along there
+with the pipe in his mouth, is the one who introduces visitors; he will
+take care of you. But the Emperor is not in the Palace; he is in the
+country. It's all the same to you, isn't it, if you do have to go into
+the country?"
+
+"What the devil do you suppose I care?"
+
+"Only I don't suppose you care to go on foot. A carriage has already
+been ordered for you. Come, my good fellow, get in, and be reasonable!"
+
+Two minutes later, Fougas, accompanied by a detective, was riding to a
+police station.
+
+His business was soon disposed of. The commissary who received him was
+the same one who had spoken to him the previous evening at the opera. A
+doctor was called, and gave the best verdict of monomania that ever sent
+a man to Charenton. All this was done politely and pleasantly, without a
+word which could put the Colonel on his guard or give him a suspicion of
+the fate held in reserve for him. He merely found the ceremonial rather
+long and peculiar, and prepared on the spot several well-sounding
+sentences, which he promised himself the honor of repeating to the
+Emperor.
+
+At last he was permitted to resume his route. The hack had been kept
+waiting; the gentleman-usher relit his pipe, said three words to the
+driver, and seated himself at the left of the Colonel. The carriage set
+off at a trot, reached the _Boulevards_, and took the direction of the
+Bastille. It had gotten opposite the _Porte Saint-Martin_, and Fougas,
+with his head at the window, was continuing the composition of his
+impromptu speech, when an open carriage drawn by a pair of superb
+chestnuts passed, so to speak, under his very nose. A portly man with a
+gray moustache turned his head, and cried, "Fougas!"
+
+Robinson Crusoe, discovering the human footprint on his island, was not
+more astonished and delighted than our hero on hearing that cry of
+"Fougas!" To open the door, jump out into the road, run to the carriage,
+which had been stopped, fling himself into it at a single bound, without
+the help of the step, and fall into the arms of the portly gentleman
+with the gray moustache, was all the work of a second. The barouche had
+long disappeared, when the detective at a gallop, followed by his hack
+at a trot, traversed the line of the _Boulevards_, asking all the
+policemen if they had not seen a crazy man pass that way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE MEMORABLE INTERVIEW BETWEEN COLONEL FOUGAS AND HIS MAJESTY THE
+EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH.
+
+
+In falling upon the neck of the big man with the gray moustache, Fougas
+supposed he was embracing Massena. He naturally intimated as much to
+him, whereupon the owner of the barouche burst into a great peal of
+laughter.
+
+"Ah, my poor old boy," said he, "it's a long time since we buried the
+'Child of Victory!' Look me square in the face: I am Leblanc, of the
+Russian campaign."
+
+"Impossible! You little Leblanc?"
+
+"Lieutenant in the 3d Artillery, who shared with you a million of
+dangers and that famous piece of roast horse which you salted with your
+tears."
+
+"Well, upon my soul! It _is_ you! You cut me out a pair of boots from
+the skin of the unfortunate Zephyr! And we needn't speak of the number
+of times you saved my life! Oh, my brave and faithful friend, thank God
+that I embrace you once more! Yes, I recognize you now; but I needn't
+say that you are changed!"
+
+"Gad! _I_ haven't been preserved in a jug of spirits of wine. I've
+_lived_, for my part!"
+
+"You know my history, then?"
+
+"I heard it told last night at the Minister's of Public Instruction. He
+had there the savant who set you on your legs again. I even wrote to
+you, on getting back home, to offer you a bunk and a place at mess; but
+my letter is on the way to Fontainebleau."
+
+"Thanks! You're a sound one! Ah, my poor old boy, what things have
+happened since Beresina! You know all the misfortunes that have come?"
+
+"I've seen them, and that's sadder still. I was a major after Waterloo;
+the Bourbons put me aside on half-pay. My friends got me back into
+service again in 1822, but I had bad luck, and lazed around in garrisons
+at Lille, Grenoble, and Strasburg, without getting ahead any. My second
+epaulette did not reach me till 1830; then I took a little turn in
+Africa. I was made brigadier-general at Isly, got home again, and banged
+about from pillar to post until 1848. During that year we had a June
+campaign in Paris itself. My heart still bleeds every time I think of
+it, and, upon my soul, you're blest in not having seen it. I got three
+balls in my body and a commission as general of division. After all,
+I've no right to complain for the campaign in Italy brought me good
+luck. Here I am, Marshal of France, with a hundred thousand francs
+income, and Duke of Solferino in the bargain. Yes, the Emperor has put a
+handle to my name. The fact is, that short 'Leblanc' was a little too
+short."
+
+"Thunderation!" cried Fougas, "that's splendid! I swear, Leblanc, that
+I'm not jealous of your good fortune! It's seldom enough that one
+soldier rejoices over the promotion of another; but indeed, from the
+bottom of my heart, I assure you that I do now. It's all the better,
+since you deserved your honors, and the blind goddess must have had a
+glimpse of your heart and talents, over the bandage that covers her
+eyes!"
+
+"You're very kind! But let's talk about yourself now: where were you
+going when I met you?"
+
+"To see the Emperor."
+
+"So was I; but where the devil were you looking for him?"
+
+"I don't know; somebody was showing me the way."
+
+"But he is at the Tuilleries!"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes! There's something under all this; tell me about it."
+
+Fougas did not wait to be urged. The Marshal soon understood from what
+sort of danger he had extricated his friend.
+
+"The _concierge_ is mistaken," said he; "the Emperor is at the Palace;
+and, as we've reached there now, come with me; perhaps I can present you
+after my audience."
+
+"The very thing! Leblanc, my heart beats at the idea of seeing this
+young man. Is he a good one? Can he be counted upon? Is he anything like
+the other?"
+
+"You can see for yourself. Wait here."
+
+The friendship of these two men dated from the winter of 1812. During
+the retreat of the French army, chance flung the lieutenant of artillery
+and the colonel of the 23d together. One was eighteen years old, the
+other not quite twenty-four. The distance between their ranks was easily
+bridged over by common danger. All men are equal before hunger, cold,
+and fatigue. One morning, Leblanc, at the head of ten men, rescued
+Fougas from the hands of the Cossacks; then Fougas sabred a half dozen
+stragglers who were trying to steal Leblanc's cloak. Eight days later,
+Leblanc pulled his friend out of a hut which the peasants had set on
+fire; and Fougas, in turn, fished Leblanc out of the Beresina. The list
+of their dangers and their mutual services is too long for me to give
+entire. To finish off, the Colonel, at Koenigsberg, passed three weeks
+at the bedside of the lieutenant, who was attacked with fever and ague.
+There is no doubt that this tender care saved his life. This reciprocal
+devotion had formed between them bonds so strong that a separation of
+forty-six years could not break them.
+
+Fougas, alone in a great saloon, was buried in the recollections of that
+good old time, when an usher asked him to remove his gloves, and go into
+the cabinet of the Emperor.
+
+Respect for the powers that be, which is the very foundation of my
+character, does not permit me to bring august personages upon the scene.
+But Fougas' correspondence belongs to contemporaneous history, and here
+is the letter which he wrote to Clementine on returning to his hotel:
+
+    "PARIS (what am I saying?)--HEAVEN, _Aug._ 21, 1859.
+
+    "MY SWEET ANGEL: I am intoxicated with joy, gratitude,
+    and admiration. I have seen him, I have spoken to him;
+    he gave me his hand, he made me be seated. He is a great
+    prince; he will be the master of the world. He gave me
+    the medal of St. Helena, and the Cross of an Officer.
+    Little Leblanc, an old friend and a true heart,
+    conducted me into his presence; he is Marshal of France,
+    too, and a Duke of the new empire! As for promotion,
+    there's no more need of speculation on that head. A
+    prisoner of war in Prussia and in a triple coffin, I
+    return with my rank; so says the military law. But in
+    less than three months I shall be a
+    brigadier-general--that's certain; he deigned to promise
+    it to me himself. What a man! A god on earth! No more
+    conceited than he of Wagram and Moscow, and, like him,
+    the father of the soldier. He wanted to give me money
+    from his private purse to replace my equipments. I
+    answered, 'No, sire; I have a claim to recover at
+    Dantzic; if it is paid, I shall be rich; if the debt is
+    denied, my pay will suffice for me.' Thereupon (O
+    Beneficence of Princes, thou art not, then, but an empty
+    name!) he smiled slightly, and said, twisting his
+    moustache, 'You remained in Prussia from 1813 to
+    1859?'--'Yes, sire.'--'Prisoner of war under exceptional
+    conditions?'--'Yes, sire.'--'The treaties of 1814 and
+    1815 stipulated for the release of prisoners?'--'Yes,
+    sire.'--'They have been violated, then, in your
+    case?'--'Yes, sire.'--'Well, then, Prussia owes you an
+    indemnity. I will see that it is recovered by diplomatic
+    proceedings.'--'Yes sire. What goodness!' Now, there's
+    an idea which would never have occurred to me! To
+    squeeze money out of Prussia--Prussia, who showed
+    herself so greedy for our treasures in 1814 and 1815!
+    _Vive l'Empereur!_ My well-beloved Clementine! Oh, may
+    our glorious and magnanimous sovereign live forever!
+    _Vivent l'Imperatrice et le Prince Imperial!_ I saw
+    them! The Emperor presented me to his family! The Prince
+    is an admirable little soldier! He condescended to beat
+    the drum on my new hat. I wept with emotion. Her Majesty
+    the Empress said, with an angelic smile, that she had
+    heard my misfortunes spoken of. 'Oh, Madame!' I replied,
+    'such a moment as this compensates them a hundred
+    fold.'--'You must come and dance at the Tuilleries next
+    winter.'--'Alas, Madame, I have never danced but to the
+    music of cannon; but I shall spare no effort to please
+    you! I will study the art of Vestris."--'_I_'ve managed
+    to learn the quadrille very nicely,' joined in Leblanc.
+
+    "The Emperor deigned to express his happiness at getting
+    back an officer like me, who had yesterday, so to speak,
+    taken part in the finest campaigns of the century, and
+    retained all the traditions of the great war. This
+    encouraged me. I no longer feared to remind him of the
+    famous principle of the good old time--to treat for
+    peace only in capitals! 'Take care!' said he; 'it was on
+    the strength of that principle that the allied armies
+    twice came to settle the basis of peace at
+    Paris.'--'They'll not come here again,' cried I,
+    'without passing over my body!' I dwelt upon the
+    troubles apt to come from too much intimacy with
+    England. I expressed a hope of at once proceeding to the
+    conquest of the world. First, to get back our frontiers
+    for ourselves; next, the natural frontiers of Europe:
+    for Europe is but the suburb of France, and cannot he
+    annexed too soon. The Emperor shook his head as if he
+    was not of my opinion. Does he entertain peaceful
+    designs? I do not wish to dwell upon this idea; it would
+    kill me!
+
+    "He asked me what impressions I had formed regarding the
+    appearance of the changes which had been made in Paris.
+    I answered, with the sincerity of a lofty soul, 'Sire,
+    the new Paris is the great work of a great reign; but I
+    entertain the hope that your improvements have not yet
+    had the finishing touch.'--'What is left to be done,
+    now, in your opinion?'--'First of all, to remedy the
+    course of the Seine, whose irregular curve is positively
+    shocking. The straight line is the shortest distance
+    between two points, for rivers as well as boulevards. In
+    the second place, to level the ground and suppress all
+    inequalites of surface which seem to say to the
+    Government, 'Thou art less powerful than Nature!' Having
+    accomplished this preparatory work, I would trace a
+    circle three leagues in diameter, whose circumference,
+    marked by an elegant railing, should be the boundary of
+    Paris. At the centre I would build a palace for your
+    Majesty and the princes of the imperial family--a vast
+    and splendid edifice, including in its arrangements all
+    the public offices--the staff offices, courts, museums,
+    cabinet offices, archives, police, the Institute,
+    embassies, prisons, bank of France, lecture-rooms,
+    theatres, the _Moniteur_, imperial printing office,
+    manufactory of Sevres porcelain and Gobelin tapestry,
+    and commissary arrangements. At this palace, circular in
+    form and of magnificent architecture, should centre
+    twelve boulevards, a hundred and twenty yards wide,
+    terminated by twelve railroads, and called by the names
+    of twelve marshals of France. Each boulevard is built up
+    with uniform houses, four stories high, having in front
+    an iron railing and a little garden three yards wide,
+    all to be planted with the same kind of flowers. A
+    hundred streets, sixty yards wide, should connect the
+    boulevards; these streets communicate with each other by
+    lanes thirty-five yards wide, the whole built up
+    uniformly according to official plans, with railings,
+    gardens, and specified flowers. Householders should be
+    prohibited from allowing any business to be conducted in
+    their establishments, for the aspect of shops debases
+    the intellect and degrades the heart. Merchants could be
+    permitted to establish themselves in the suburbs under
+    the regulation of the laws. The ground floors of all the
+    houses to be occupied with stables and kitchens; the
+    first floors let to persons worth an income of a hundred
+    thousand francs and over; the second, to those worth
+    from eighty to a hundred thousand francs; the third, to
+    those worth from sixty to eighty thousand; the fourth,
+    from fifty to sixty thousand. No one with an income of
+    less than fifty thousand francs should be permitted to
+    live in Paris. Workmen are to be lodged ten miles
+    outside of the boundary in workmen's barracks. We will
+    exempt them from taxes to make them love us; and we'll
+    plant cannon around them to make them fear us. That's my
+    Paris!' The Emperor listened to me patiently, and
+    twisted his moustache. 'Your plan,' said he, 'would cost
+    a trifle.'--'Not much more than the one already
+    adopted,' answered I. At this remark, an unreserved
+    hilarity, the cause of which I am unable to explain, lit
+    up his serious countenance. 'Don't you think,' said he,
+    'that your project would ruin a great many
+    people?'--'Eh! What difference does it make to me?' I
+    cried, 'since it will ruin none but the rich?' He began
+    laughing again, and bid me farewell, saying, 'Colonel,
+    you will have to remain colonel only until we make you
+    brigadier-general!' He permitted me to press his hand a
+    second time. I waved an adieu to brave Leblanc, who has
+    invited me to dine with him this evening, and I returned
+    to my hotel to pour my joy into your sweet soul. Oh,
+    Clementine! hope on! You shall be happy, and I shall be
+    great! To-morrow morning I leave for Dantzic. Gold is a
+    deception, but I want you to be rich.
+
+    "A sweet kiss upon your pure brow!
+
+    "V. FOUGAS."
+
+The subscribers to _La Patrie_, who keep files of their paper, are
+hereby requested to hunt up the number for the 23d of August, 1859. In
+it they will find two paragraphs of local intelligence, which I have
+taken the liberty of copying here:
+
+"His Excellency, the Marshal, the Duke of Solferino, yesterday had the
+honor of presenting to his Majesty the Emperor a hero of the first
+Empire, Colonel Fougas, whom an almost miraculous event, already
+mentioned in a report to the Academy of Sciences, has restored to his
+country."
+
+Such was the first paragraph; here is the second
+
+"A madman, the fourth this week, but the most dangerous of all,
+presented himself yesterday at one of the entrances of the Tuilleries.
+Decked out in a grotesque costume, his eyes flashing, his hat cocked
+over his ear, and addressing the most respectable people with unheard-of
+rudeness, he attempted to force his way past the sentry, and thrust
+himself, for what purpose God only knows, into the presence of the
+Sovereign. During his incoherent ejaculations, the following words were
+distinguished: 'bravery, _Vendome_ column, fidelity, the dial-plate of
+time, the tablets of history.' When he was arrested by one of the
+detective watch, and taken before the police commissioner of the
+Tuilleries section, he was recognized as the same individual who, the
+evening before, at the opera, had interrupted the performance of Charles
+VI. with most unseemly cries. After the customary medical and legal
+proceedings, he was ordered to be sent to the Charenton Hospital. But
+opposite the _porte Saint-Martin_, taking advantage of a lock among the
+vehicles, and of the Herculean strength with which he is endowed, he
+wrested his hands from his keeper, threw him down, beat him, leaped at a
+bound into the street, and disappeared in the crowd. The most active
+search was immediately set on foot, and we have it from the best
+authority that the police are already on the track of the fugitive."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+WHEREIN HERR NICHOLAS MEISER, ONE OF THE SOLID MEN OF DANTZIC, RECEIVES
+AN UNWELCOME VISIT.
+
+
+The wisdom of mankind declares that ill-gotten gains never do any good.
+I maintain that they do the robbers more good than the robbed, and the
+good fortune of Herr Nicholas Meiser is an argument in support of my
+proposition.
+
+The nephew of the illustrious physiologist, after brewing a great deal
+of beer from a very little hops, and prematurely appropriating the
+legacy intended for Fougas, had amassed, by various operations, a
+fortune of from eight to ten millions. "In what kind of operations?" No
+one ever told me, but I know that he called all operations that would
+make money, good ones. To lend small sums at a big interest, to
+accumulate great stores of grain in order to relieve a scarcity after
+producing it himself, to foreclose on unfortunate debtors, to fit out a
+vessel or two for trade in black flesh on the African coast--such are
+specimens of the speculations which the good man did not despise. He
+never boasted of them, for he was modest; but he never blushed for them,
+for he had expanded his conscience simultaneously with his capital. As
+for the rest, he was a man of honor, in the commercial sense of the
+word, and capable of strangling the whole human race rather than of
+letting his signature be protested. The banks of Dantzic, Berlin,
+Vienna, and Paris, held him in high esteem; his money passed through all
+of them.
+
+He was fat, unctuous, and florid, and lived well. His wife's nose was
+much too long, and her bones much too prominent, but she loved him with
+all her heart, and made him little sweetmeats. A perfect congeniality of
+sentiment united this charming couple. They talked with each other with
+open hearts, and never thought of keeping back any of their evil
+thoughts. Every year, at Saint Martin's day, when rents became due, they
+turned out of doors the families of five or six workmen who could not
+pay for their terms; but they dined none the worse after it, and their
+good-night kiss was none the less sweet.
+
+The husband was sixty-six years old, the wife sixty-four. Their
+physiognomies were such as inspire benevolence and command respect. To
+complete their outward resemblance to the patriarchs, nothing was needed
+but children and grandchildren. Nature had given them one son--an only
+one, because they had not solicited Nature for more. They would have
+thought it criminal improvidence to divide their fortune among several.
+Unhappily, this only child, the heir-presumptive to so many millions,
+died at the University of Heidelberg from eating too many sausages. He
+set out, when he was twenty, for that Valhalla of German students, where
+they eat infinite sausages, and drink inexhaustible beer; where they
+sing songs of eight hundred million verses, and gash the tips of each
+other's noses with huge swords. Envious Death snatched him from his
+parents when they were no longer of an age to improvise a successor. The
+unfortunate old millionnaires tenderly collected his effects, to sell
+them. During this operation, so trying to their souls (for there was a
+great deal of brand-new linen that could not be found), Nicholas Meiser
+said to his wife, "My heart bleeds at the idea that our buildings and
+dollars, our goods above ground and under, should go to strangers.
+Parents ought always to have an extra son, just as they have a
+vice-umpire in the Chamber of Commerce."
+
+But Time, who is a great teacher in Germany and several other countries,
+led them to see that there is consolation for all things except the loss
+of money. Five years afterwards, Frau Meiser said to her husband, with a
+tender and philosophic, smile: "Who can fathom the decrees of
+Providence? Perhaps your son would have brought us to a crust. Look at
+Theobald Scheffler, his old comrade. He wasted twenty thousand francs at
+Paris on a woman who kicked up her legs in the middle of a quadrille. We
+ourselves spent more than two thousand thalers a year for our wicked
+scapegrace. His death is a great saving, and therefore a good thing!"
+
+As long as the three coffins of Fougas were in the house, the good dame
+scolded at the visions and restlessness of her husband. "What in the
+name of sense are you thinking about? You've been kicking me all night
+again. Let's throw this ragamuffin of a Frenchman into the fire; then
+he'll no longer disturb the repose of a peaceable family. We can sell
+the leaden box; it must weigh at least two hundred pounds. The white
+silk will make me a good lining for a dress; and the wool in the
+stuffing, will easily make us a mattress." But a tinge of superstition
+prevented Meiser from following his wife's advice; he preferred to rid
+himself of the Colonel by selling him.
+
+The house of this worthy couple was the handsomest and most substantial
+on the street of Public Wells, in the aristocratic part of the city.
+Strong railings, in iron open work, decorated all the windows
+magnificently, and the door was sheathed in iron, like a knight of the
+olden time. A system of little mirrors, ingeniously arranged in the
+entrance, enabled a visitor to be seen before he had even knocked. A
+single servant, a regular horse for work and camel for temperance,
+ministered under this roof blessed by the gods.
+
+The old servant slept away from the house, both because he preferred to
+and because while he did so he could not be tempted to wring the
+venerable necks of his employers. A few books on Commerce and Religion
+constituted the library of the two old people. They never cared to have
+a garden at the back of their house, because the shrubbery might
+conceal thieves. They fastened their door with bolts every evening at
+eight o'clock, and never went out without being obliged to, for fear of
+meeting dangerous people.
+
+And nevertheless, on the 29th of April, 1859, at eleven o'clock in the
+morning, Nicholas Meiser was far away from his beloved home. Gracious!
+how very far away for him--this honest burgher of Dantzic! He was
+traversing, with heavy tread, the promenade in Berlin, which bears the
+name of one of Alphonse Karrs' romances: _Sous les tilleuls._ In German:
+_Unter den Linden._
+
+What mighty agency had thrown out of his bon-bon box, this big red
+bon-bon on two legs? The same that led Alexander to Babylon, Scipio to
+Carthage, Godfrey de Bouillon to Jerusalem, and Napoleon to
+Moscow--Ambition! Meiser did not expect to be presented with the keys of
+the city on a cushion of red velvet, but he knew a great lord, a clerk
+in a government office, and a chambermaid who were working to get a
+patent of nobility for him. To call himself Von Meiser instead of plain
+Meiser! What a glorious dream!
+
+This good man had in his character that compound of meanness and vanity
+which places lacqueys so far apart from the rest of mankind. Full of
+respect for power, and admiration for conventional greatness, he never
+pronounced the name of king, prince, or even baron, without emphasis and
+unction. He mouthed every aristocratic syllable, and the single word
+"Monseigneur" seemed to him like a mouthful of well-spiced soup.
+Examples of this disposition are not rare in Germany, and are even
+occasionally found elsewhere. If they could be transported to a country
+where all men are equal, homesickness for boot-licking would kill them.
+
+The claims brought to bear in favor of Nicholas Meiser, were not of the
+kind which at once spring the balance, but of the kind which make it
+turn little by little. Nephew of an illustrious man of science,
+powerfully rich, a man of sound judgment, a subscriber to the _New
+Gazette of the Cross_, full of hatred for the opposition, author of a
+toast against the influence of demagogues, once a member of the City
+Council, once an umpire in the Chamber of Commerce, once a corporal in
+the militia, and an open enemy of Poland and all nations but the strong
+ones. His most brilliant action dated back ten years. He had denounced,
+by an anonymous letter, a member of the French Parliament who had taken
+refuge in Dantzic. While Meiser was walking under the lindens, his cause
+was progressing swimmingly. He had received that sweet assurance from
+the very lips of its promoters. And so he tripped lightly toward the
+depot of the North-Eastern Railroad, without any other baggage than a
+revolver in his pocket. His black leather trunk had gone before; and was
+waiting for him at the station. On the way, he was glancing into the
+shop windows, when he stopped short before a stationer's, and rubbed his
+eyes--a sovereign remedy, people say, for impaired vision. Between the
+portraits of Mme. Sand and M. Merimee, the two greatest writers of
+France, he had noticed, examined, recognized a well-known countenance.
+
+"Surely," said he, "I've seen that man before, but he was paler. Can our
+old lodger have come to life? Impossible! I burned up my uncle's
+directions, so the world has lost--thanks to me--the secret of
+resuscitating people. Nevertheless, the resemblance is striking. Is it a
+portrait of Colonel Fougas, taken from life in 1813? No; for photography
+was not then invented. But possibly it's a photograph copied from an
+engraving? Here are Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette reproduced in the
+same way: that doesn't prove that Robespierre had them resuscitated.
+Anyhow, I've had an unfortunate encounter."
+
+He took a step toward the door of the shop to reassure himself, but a
+peculiar reluctance held him back. People might wonder at him, ask him
+questions, try to learn the reason of his trouble. He resumed his walk
+at a brisk pace, trying to reassure himself.
+
+"Bah! It's an hallucination--the result of dwelling too much on one
+idea. Moreover, the portrait was dressed in the style of 1813; that
+settles the question."
+
+He reached the station, had his black leather trunk checked, and flung
+himself down at full length in a first-class compartment. First he
+smoked his porcelain pipe, but his two neighbors being asleep, he soon
+followed their example, and began snoring. Now this big man's snores had
+something awe-inspiring about them; you could have fancied yourself
+listening to the trumpets of the judgment day. What shade visited him in
+this hour of sleep, no other soul has ever known; for he kept his dreams
+to himself, as he did everything that was his.
+
+But between two stations, while the train was running at full speed, he
+distinctly felt two powerful hands pulling at his feet--a sensation,
+alas! too well known, and one which called up the ugliest recollections
+of his life. He opened his eyes in terror, and saw the man of the
+photograph, in the costume of the photograph. His hair stood on end, his
+eyes grew as big as saucers, he uttered a loud cry, and flung himself
+headlong between the seats among the legs of his neighbors.
+
+A few vigorous kicks brought him to himself. He got up as well as he
+could, and looked about him. No one was there but the two gentlemen
+opposite, who were mechanically lanching their last kicks into the empty
+space, and rubbing their eyes with their arms. He succeeded in awakening
+them, and asked them about the visitation he had had; but the gentlemen
+declared they had seen nothing.
+
+Meiser sadly returned to his own thoughts; he noticed that the visions
+appeared terribly real. This idea prevented his going to sleep again.
+
+"If this goes on much longer," thought he, "the Colonel's ghost will
+break my nose with a blow of his fist, or give me a pair of black eyes!"
+
+A little later, it occurred to him that he had breakfasted very hastily
+that morning, and he reflected that the nightmare had perhaps been
+brought about by such dieting.
+
+He got off at the next five-minute stopping-place and called for soup.
+Some very hot vermicelli was brought him, and he blew into his bowl like
+a dolphin into the Bosphorus.
+
+A man passed before him, without jostling him, without saying anything
+to him, without even seeing him. And nevertheless, the bowl dropped from
+the hands of the rich Nicholas Meiser, the vermicelli poured over his
+waistcoat and shirt-bosom, where it formed an elegant fretwork
+suggestive of the architecture of the _porte Saint Martin_. Some
+yellowish threads, detached from the mass, hung in stalactites from the
+buttons of his coat. The vermicelli stopped on the outside, but the soup
+penetrated much further. It was rather warm for pleasure; an egg left in
+it ten minutes would have been boiled hard. Fatal soup, which not only
+distributed itself among the pockets, but into the most secret
+sinuosities of the man himself! The starting bell rang, the waiter
+collected his two sous, and Meiser got into the cars, preceded by a
+plaster of vermicelli, and followed by a little thread of soup which was
+running down the calves of his legs.
+
+And all of this, because he had seen, or thought he had seen, the
+terrible figure of Colonel Fougas eating sandwiches.
+
+Oh! how long the trip seemed! What a terrible time it appeared to be
+before he could be at home, between his wife Catharine and his servant
+Berbel, with all the doors safely closed! His two companions laughed
+till the buttons flew; people laughed in the compartment to the right of
+him, and in the compartment to the left of him. As fast as he picked off
+the vermicelli, little spots of soup saucily congealed and seemed
+quietly laughing. How hard it comes to a great millionnaire to amuse
+people who do not possess a cent! He did not get off again until they
+reached Dantzic; he did not even put his nose to the window; he sucked
+solitary consolation from his porcelain pipe, on which Leda caressed her
+swan and smiled not.
+
+Wearisome, wearisome journey! But he did reach home nevertheless. It was
+eight o'clock in the evening; the old domestic was waiting with ropes to
+sling his master's trunk on his back. No more alarming figures, no more
+mocking laughs! The history of the soup was fallen into the great
+forgotten, like one of M. Heller's speeches. In the baggage room, Meiser
+had already seized the handle of a black leather trunk, when, at the
+other end, he saw the spectre of Fougas, which was pulling in the
+opposite direction, and seemed inclined to dispute possession. He
+bristled up, pulled stronger, and even plunged his left hand into the
+pocket where the revolver was lying. But the luminous glance of the
+Colonel fascinated him, his legs trembled, he fell, and fancied that he
+saw Fougas and the black trunk rolling over each other. When he came to,
+his old servant was chafing his hands, the trunk already had the slings
+around it, and the Colonel had disappeared. The domestic swore that he
+had not seen anybody, and that he had himself received the trunk from
+the baggage agent's own hand.
+
+Twenty minutes later, the millionnaire was in his own house, joyfully
+rubbing his face against the sharp angles of his wife. He did not dare
+to tell her about his visions, for Frau Meiser was a skeptic, in her own
+way. It was she who spoke to him about Fougas.
+
+"A whole history has happened to me," said she. "Would you believe that
+the police have written to us from Berlin, to find out whether our uncle
+left us a mummy, and when, and how long we kept him, and what we have
+done with him? I answered, telling the truth, and adding that Colonel
+Fougas was in such a bad condition, and so damaged by mites, that we
+sold him for rags. What object can the police have in troubling
+themselves about our affairs?"
+
+Meiser heaved a heavy sigh.
+
+"Let's talk about money!" said the lady. "The president of the bank has
+been to see me. The million you asked him for, for to-morrow, is ready;
+it will be delivered upon your signature. It seems that they've had a
+deal of trouble to get the amount in specie. If you had but wanted
+drafts on Vienna or Paris, you would have put them at their ease. But
+at last they've done what you wanted. There's no other news, except that
+Schmidt, the merchant, has killed himself. He had to pay a note for ten
+thousand thalers, and didn't have half the amount on hand. He came to
+ask me for the money; I offered him ten thousand thalers, at twenty-five
+per cent., payable in ninety days, with a first mortgage on all his real
+estate. The fool preferred to hang himself in his shop. Everyone to his
+taste!"
+
+"Did he hang himself very high?"
+
+"I don't know anything about that. Why?"
+
+"Because one might get a piece of rope cheap, and we're greatly in want
+of some, my poor Catharine! That Colonel Fougas has given me a shiver."
+
+"Some more of your notions! Come to supper, my love."
+
+"Come on!"
+
+The angular Baucis conducted her Philemon into a large and beautiful
+dining-room, where Berbel served a repast worthy of the gods. Soup with
+little balls of aniseeded bread, fish-balls with black sauce,
+mutton-balls stuffed, game balls, sour-krout cooked in lard and
+garnished with fried potatoes, roast hare with currant jelly, deviled
+crabs, salmon from the Vistula, jellies, and fruit tarts. Six bottles of
+Rhine-wine selected from the best vintages were awaiting, in their
+silver caps, the master's kiss. But the lord of all these good things
+was neither hungry nor thirsty. He ate by nibbles and drank by sips, all
+the time expecting a grand consummation, which he did not have to
+expect along. A formidable rap of the knocker soon resounded through the
+house.
+
+Nicholas Meiser trembled. His wife tried to reassure him. "It's
+nothing," said she. "The president of the bank told me that he was
+coming to see you. He offers to pay us the exchange, if we'll take paper
+instead of specie."
+
+"It _is_ about money, sure as Fate!" cried the good man. "Hell itself is
+coming to see us!"
+
+At the same instant, the servant rushed into the room, crying, "Oh, Sir!
+Oh, Madame! It's the Frenchman of the three coffins! Jesus! Mary, Mother
+of God!"
+
+Fougas saluted them, and said, "Don't disturb yourselves, good people, I
+beg of you. We've a little matter to discuss together, and I'm ready to
+explain it to you in two words. You're in a hurry, so am I; you've not
+had supper, neither have I!"
+
+Frau Meiser, more rigid and more emaciated than a thirteenth-century
+statue, opened wide her toothless mouth. Terror paralyzed her. The man,
+better prepared for the visit of the phantom, cocked his revolver under
+the table and took aim at the Colonel, crying "_Vade retro, Satanas!_"
+The exorcism and the pistol missed fire together.
+
+Meiser was not at all discouraged: he snapped the six barrels one after
+the other at the demon, who stood watching him do it. Not one went off.
+
+"What devilish game is that you're playing?" said the Colonel, seating
+himself astride a chair. "People are not in the habit of receiving an
+honest man's visit with that ceremony!"
+
+Meiser flung down his revolver, and grovelled like a beast at Fougas'
+feet. His wife, who was not one whit more tranquil, followed him. They
+joined hands, and the fat man exclaimed:
+
+"Spirit! I confess my misdeeds, and I am ready to make reparation for
+them. I have sinned against you; I have violated my uncle's commands.
+What do you wish? What do you command? A tomb? A magnificent monument?
+Prayers? Endless prayers?"
+
+"Idiot!" said Fougas, spurning him with his foot; "I am no spirit, and I
+want nothing but the money you've robbed me of!"
+
+Meiser kept rolling on the floor; but his scrawny wife was already on
+her feet, her fists on her hips, and facing Fougas.
+
+"Money!" cried she, "But we don't owe you any! Have you any documents?
+Just show us our signature! Where would one be, Just God! if we had to
+give money to all the adventurers who present themselves? And in the
+first place, by what right did you thrust yourself into our dwelling, if
+you're not a spirit? Ah! you're a man just the same as other people! Ha!
+ha! So you're not a ghost! Very well, sir; there are judges in Berlin;
+there are some in the country, too, and we'll soon see whether you're
+going to finger our money! Get up there, you great booby; it's only a
+man! And do you, Mister Ghost, get out of here! Off with you!"
+
+The Colonel did not budge more than a rock.
+
+"The devil's in women's tongues! Sit down, old lady, and take your hands
+away from my eyes--they bother me. And as for you, swell-head, get on to
+your chair, and listen to me. There will be time enough to go to law if
+we can't come to an understanding. But stamped paper stinks in my
+nostrils; and therefore I'd rather settle peaceably."
+
+Herr and Frau Meiser repressed their first emotion. They distrusted
+magistrates, as do all people without clean consciences. If the Colonel
+was a poor devil who could be put off with a few thalers, it would be
+better to avoid legal proceedings.
+
+Fougas stated the case to them with entire military bluntness. He proved
+the existence of his right, said that he had had his identity
+substantiated at Fontainebleau, Paris, and Berlin; cited from memory two
+or three passages of the will, and finished by declaring that the
+Prussian Government, in conjunction with that of France, would support
+his just claims if necessary.
+
+"You understand clearly," said he, taking Meiser by the button of his
+coat, "that I am no fox, depending on cunning. If you had a wrist
+vigorous enough to swing a good sabre, we'd take the field against each
+other, and I'd play you for the amount, first two cuts out of three, as
+surely as that's soup before you!"
+
+"Fortunately, monsieur," said Meiser, "my age shields me from all
+brutality. You would not wish to trample under foot the corpse of an old
+man!"
+
+"Venerable scoundrel! But you would have killed me like a dog, if your
+pistol had not missed fire!"
+
+"It was not loaded, Monsieur Colonel! It was not----anywhere near
+loaded! But I am an accommodating man, and we can come to terms very
+easily. I don't owe you anything, and, moreover, there's prescription;
+but after all----how much do you want?"
+
+"He has had his say: now it's my turn!"
+
+The old rascal's mate softened the tone of her voice. Imagine to
+yourself a saw licking a tree before biting in.
+
+"Listen, Claus, my dear--listen to what Monsieur Colonel Fougas has to
+say. You'll see that he is reasonable! It's not in him to think of
+ruining poor people like us. Oh, Heavens! he is not capable of it. He
+has such a noble heart! Such a disinterested man! An officer worthy of
+the great Napoleon (God receive his soul!)."
+
+"That's enough, old lady!" said Fougas, with a curt gesture which cut
+the speech off in the middle. "I had an estimate made at Berlin of what
+is due me--principal and interest."
+
+"Interest!" cried Meiser. "But in what country, in what latitude, do
+people pay interest on money? Perhaps it may sometimes happen in
+business, but between friends--never, no never, my good Monsieur
+Colonel! What would my good uncle, who is now gazing upon us from
+heaven, say, if he knew that you were claiming interest on his bequest?"
+
+"Now shut up, Nickle!" interrupted his wife. "Monsieur Colonel is just
+about telling you, himself, that he did not intend to be understood as
+speaking of the interest."
+
+"Why in the name of great guns don't you both shut up, you confounded
+magpies? Here I am dying of hunger, and I didn't bring my nightcap to go
+to bed here, either!---- Now here's the upshot of the matter: You owe me
+a great deal; but it's not an even sum--there are fractions in it, and I
+go in for clean transactions. Moreover, my tastes are modest. I've
+enough for my wife and myself; nothing more is needed than to provide
+for my son!"
+
+"Very well," cried Meiser; "I'll charge myself with the education of the
+little fellow!"
+
+"Now, during the dozen days since I again became a citizen of the world,
+there is one word that I've heard spoken everywhere. At Paris, as well
+as at Berlin, people no longer speak of anything but millions; there is
+no longer any talk of anything else, and everybody's mouth is full of
+millions. From hearing so much said about it, I've acquired a curiosity
+to know what it is. Go, fetch me out a million, and I'll give you
+quittance!"
+
+If you want to reach an approximate idea of the piercing cries which
+answered him, go to the _Jardin des Plantes_ at the breakfast hour of
+the birds of prey, and try to pull the meat out of their beaks. Fougas
+stopped his ears and remained inexorable. Prayers, arguments,
+misrepresentations, flatteries, cringings, glanced off from him like
+rain from a zinc roof. But at ten o'clock at night, when he had
+concluded that all concurrence was impossible, he took his hat:
+
+"Good evening!" said he. "It's no longer a million that I must have, but
+two millions, and all over. We'll go to law. I'm going to supper."
+
+He was on the staircase, when Frau Meiser said to her husband:
+
+"Call him back, and give him his million!"
+
+"Are you a fool?"
+
+"Don't be afraid."
+
+"I can never do it!"
+
+"Father in heaven! what blockheads men are! Monsieur! Monsieur Fougas!
+Monsieur Colonel Fougas! Come up again, I pray you! We consent to all
+that you require!"
+
+"Damnation!" said he, on reentering; "you ought to have made up your
+minds sooner. But after all, let's see the money!"
+
+Frau Meiser explained to him with her tenderest voice, that poor
+capitalists like themselves, were not in the habit of keeping millions
+under their own lock and key.
+
+"But you shall lose nothing by waiting, my sweet sir! To-morrow you
+shall handle the amount in nice white silver; my husband will sign you a
+check on the Royal Bank of Dantzic."
+
+"But----," said the unfortunate Meiser. He signed, nevertheless, for he
+had boundless confidence in the practical ingenuity of Catharine. The
+old lady begged Fougas to sit down at the end of the table, and dictated
+to him a receipt for two millions, in payment of all demands. You may
+depend that she did not forgot a word of the legal formulas, and that
+she arranged the affair in due form according to the Prussian code. The
+receipt, written throughout in the Colonel's hand, filled three large
+pages.
+
+He signed the instrument with a flourish, and received in exchange the
+signature of Nicholas, which he knew well.
+
+"Well," said he to the old gentleman, "you're certainly not such an Arab
+as they said you were at Berlin. Shake hands, old scamp! I don't usually
+shake hands with any but honest people; but on an occasion like this,
+one can do a little something extra."
+
+"Do it double, Monsieur Fougas," said Frau Meiser, humbly. "Will you not
+join us in this modest supper?"
+
+"Gad! old lady, it's not a thing to be refused. My supper must be cold
+at the inn of the 'Clock'; and your viands, smoking on their chafing
+dishes, have already caused me more than one fit of distraction.
+Besides, here are some yellow glass flutes, on which Fougas will not be
+at all reluctant to play an air."
+
+The respectable Catharine had an extra plate laid, and ordered Berbel to
+go to bed. The Colonel folded up Father Meiser's million, rolled it
+carefully among a pile of bank-bills, and put the whole into the little
+pocket-book which his dear Clementine had sent him.
+
+The clock struck eleven.
+
+At half-past eleven Fougas began to see everything in a rosy cloud. He
+praised the Rhine wine highly, and thanked the Meisers for their
+hospitality. At midnight, he assured them of his highest esteem. At
+quarter past twelve, he embraced them. At half-past twelve, he delivered
+a eulogy on the illustrious John Meiser, his friend and benefactor. When
+he learned that John Meiser had died in that house, he poured forth a
+torrent of tears. At quarter to one, he assumed a confidential tone, and
+spoke of his son, whom he was going to make happy, and of the betrothed
+who was waiting for him. About one o'clock, he tasted a celebrated port
+wine which Frau Meiser had herself gone to bring from the cellar. About
+half-past one, his tongue thickened and his eyes grew dim; he struggled
+some time against drunkenness and sleepiness, announced that he was
+going to describe the Russian campaign, muttered the name of the
+Emperor, and slid under the table.
+
+"You may believe me, if you will," said Frau Meiser to her husband,
+"this is not a man who has come into our house; it's the devil!"
+
+"The devil!"
+
+"If not, would I have advised you to give him a million? I heard a voice
+saying to me, 'If you do not obey the messenger of the Infernal powers,
+you will both die this very night.' It was on account of that, that I
+called him up stairs. Ah! if we had been doing business with a man, I
+would have told you to contest it in law to our last cent."
+
+"As you please! So you're still making sport of my visions?"
+
+"Forgive me, Claus dear; I was a fool!"
+
+"And I've concluded I was, too."
+
+"Poor innocent! Perhaps you too thought this was Colonel Fougas?"
+
+"Certainly!"
+
+"As if it were possible to resuscitate a man! It is a demon, I tell you,
+who assumed the shape of the Colonel, to rob us of our money!"
+
+"What can demons do with money?"
+
+"Build cathedrals, to be sure!"
+
+"But how is the devil to be recognized when he is disguised?"
+
+"First by his cloven-foot--but this one has boots on; next by his
+clipped ear."
+
+"Bah! And why?"
+
+"Because the devil's ears are pointed, and, in order to make them round,
+he has to cut them."
+
+Meiser stuck his head under the table and uttered a cry of horror.
+
+"It's certainly the devil!" said he. "But how did he happen to let
+himself go to sleep?"
+
+"Perhaps you did not know that when I came back from the cellar, I
+dropped into my chamber? I put a drop of holy water into the Port; charm
+against charm, and he is fallen."
+
+"That's splendid! But what shall we do with him, now that we have him in
+our power?"
+
+"What is done with demons in Scripture? The Saviour throws them into the
+sea."
+
+"The sea is a long way from here."
+
+"But, you big baby, the public wells are just by!"
+
+"And what will be said to-morrow, when the body is found?"
+
+"Nothing at all will be found; and even the check that we signed, will
+be turned into tinder."
+
+Ten minutes later, Herr and Frau Meiser were lugging something toward
+the public wells, and soon dame Catharine murmured, _sotto voce_, the
+following incantation:
+
+"Demon, child of hell, be thou accursed!
+
+"Demon, child of hell, be thou dashed headlong down!
+
+"Demon, child of hell, return to hell!"
+
+A dull sound--the sound of a body falling into water, terminated the
+ceremony, and the two spouses returned to their domicil, with the
+satisfaction that always follows the performance of a duty.
+
+Nicholas said to himself:
+
+"I didn't think she was so credulous!"
+
+"I didn't think he was so simple!" thought the worthy Kettle, wedded
+wife of Claus.
+
+They slept the sleep of innocence. Oh, how much less soft their pillows
+would have seemed, if Fougas had gone home with his million!
+
+At ten o'clock the next morning, while they were taking their coffee and
+buttered rolls, the president of the bank called in, and said to them:
+
+"I am greatly obliged to you for having accepted a draft on Paris
+instead of a million in specie, and without premium, too. That young
+Frenchman you sent to us is a little brusque, but very lively, and a
+good fellow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE COLONEL TRIES TO RELIEVE HIMSELF OF A MILLION WHICH INCUMBERS HIM.
+
+
+Fougas had left Paris for Berlin the day after his audience. He took
+three days to make the trip, because he stopped some time at Nancy. The
+Marshal had given him a letter of introduction to the Prefect of
+Meurthe, who received him very politely, and promised to aid him in his
+investigations. Unfortunately, the house where he had loved Clementine
+Pichon was no longer standing. The authorities had demolished it in
+1827, in cutting a street through. It is certain that the commissioners
+had not demolished the family with the house, but a new difficulty all
+at once presented itself: the name of Pichon abounded in the city, the
+suburbs, and the department. Among this multitude of Pichons, Fougas did
+not know which one to hug. Tired of hunting, and eager to hasten forward
+on, the road to fortune, he left this note for the commissioner of
+police:
+
+"Search, on the registers of personal statistics and elsewhere, for a
+young girl named Clementine Pichon. She was eighteen years old in 1813;
+her parents kept an officers' boarding-house. If she is alive, get her
+address; if she is dead, look up her heirs. A father's happiness depends
+upon it!"
+
+On reaching Berlin, the Colonel found that his reputation had preceded
+him. The note from the Minister of War had been sent to the Prussian
+Government through the French legation; Leon Renault, despite his grief,
+had found time to write a word to Doctor Hirtz; the papers had begun to
+talk, and the scientific societies to bestir themselves. The Prince
+Regent, even, had not disdained to ask information on the subject from
+his physician. Germany is a queer country, where science interests the
+very princes.
+
+Fougas, who had read Doctor Hirtz's letter annexed to Herr Meiser's
+will, thought that he owed some acknowledgments to that excellent
+gentleman. He made a call upon him, and embraced him, addressing him as
+the oracle of Epidaurus. The doctor at once took possession of him, had
+his baggage brought from the hotel and gave him the best chamber in his
+house. Up to the 29th day of the month, the Colonel was cared for as a
+friend, and exhibited as a phenomenon. Seven photographers disputed the
+possession of so precious a sitter. The cities of Greece did no more for
+our poor old Homer. His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, wished to see
+him _in propria persona_, and begged Herr Hirtz to bring him to the
+palace. Fougas scratched his ear a little, and intimated that a soldier
+ought not to associate with the enemy, seeming to think himself still in
+1813.
+
+The Prince is a distinguished soldier, having commanded in person at the
+famous siege of Rastadt. He took pleasure in Fougas' conversation; the
+heroic simplicity of the young old-time soldier charmed him. He paid him
+huge compliments and said that the Emperor of France was very fortunate
+in having around him officers of so much merit.
+
+"He has not a great many," replied the Colonel. "If there were but four
+or five hundred of my stamp, your Europe would have been bagged long
+ago!"
+
+This answer seemed more amusing than threatening, and no addition was
+immediately made to the available portion of the Prussian army.
+
+His Royal Highness directly informed Fougas that his indemnity had been
+fixed at two hundred and fifty thousand francs, and that he could
+receive the amount at the treasury whenever he should find it agreeable.
+
+"My Lord," replied he, "it is always agreeable to pocket the money of an
+enemy--a foreigner. But wait! I am not a censor-bearer to Plutus:
+give me back the Rhine and Posen, and I'll leave you your two hundred
+and fifty thousand francs."
+
+"Are you dreaming?" said the Prince, laughing. "The Rhine and Posen!"
+
+"The Rhine belongs to France, and the Posen to Poland, much more
+legitimately than this money to me. But so it is with great lords: they
+make it a duty to pay little debts, and a point of honor to ignore big
+ones!"
+
+The Prince winced a little, and all the faces of the court gave a
+sympathetic twitch. It was discovered that M. Fougas had evinced bad
+taste in letting a crumb of truth fall into a big plateful of follies.
+
+But a pretty little Viennese baroness, who was at the presentation, was
+much more charmed with his appearance than scandalized at his remarks.
+The ladies of Vienna have made for themselves a reputation for
+hospitality which they always attempt to support, even when they are
+away from their native land.
+
+The baroness of Marcomarcus had still another reason for getting hold of
+the Colonel: for two or three years she had, as a matter of course, been
+making a photographic collection of celebrated men. Her album was
+peopled with generals, statesmen, philosophers, and pianists, who had
+given their portraits to her, after writing on the back: "With respects
+of----" There were to be found there several Roman prelates, and even a
+celebrated cardinal; but a more direct envoy from the other world was
+still wanting. She wrote Fougas, then, a note full of impatience and
+curiosity, inviting him to supper. Fougas, who was going to start for
+Dantzic next day, took a sheet of paper embossed with a great eagle, and
+set to work to excuse himself politely. He feared--the delicate and
+chivalrous soul!--that an evening of conversation and enjoyment in the
+society of the loveliest women of Germany might be a sort of moral
+infidelity to the recollection of Clementine. He accordingly hunted up
+an eligible formula of address, and wrote:
+
+"Too indulgent Beauty, I----" The muse dictated nothing more. He was not
+in the mood for writing. He felt rather more in the mood for supper. His
+scruples scattered like clouds driven before a brisk North East wind; he
+put on the frogged surtout, and carried his reply himself. It was the
+first time that he had been out to supper since his resuscitation. He
+gave evidence of a good appetite, and got moderately drunk, but not as
+much so as usual. The Baroness de Marcomarcus, astonished at his high
+spirits and inexhaustible vivacity, kept him as long as she could. And
+moreover she said to her friends, on showing them the Colonel's
+portrait, "Nothing is needed but these French officers to conquer the
+world!"
+
+The next day he packed a black leather trunk which he had bought at
+Paris, drew his money from the treasury, and set out for Dantzic. He
+went to sleep in the cars because he had been out to supper the night
+before. A terrible snoring awoke him. He looked around for the snorer,
+and, not finding him near him, opened the door into the adjoining
+compartment (for the German cars are much larger than the French), and
+shook a fat gentleman, who seemed to have a whole organ playing in his
+person. At one of the stations he drank a bottle of Marsala and ate a
+couple of dozen sandwiches, for last night's supper seemed to have
+hollowed out his stomach. At Dantzic, he rescued his black trunk from
+the hands of an enormous baggage-snatcher who was trying to take
+possession of it.
+
+He went to the best hotel in the place, ordered his supper, and hastened
+to Meiser's house. His friends at Berlin had given him accounts of that
+charming family. He knew that he would have to deal with the richest and
+most avaricious of sharpers: that was why he assumed the cavalier tone
+that may have seemed strange to more than one reader in the preceding
+chapter.
+
+Unhappily, he let himself become a little too human as soon as he had
+his million in his pocket. A curiosity to investigate the long yellow
+bottles all the way to the bottom, came near doing him an ugly turn. His
+reason wandered, about one o'clock in the morning, if I am to believe
+the account he himself gave. He said that, after saying "good night" to
+the excellent people who had treated him so well, he tumbled into a
+large and deep well, whose rim was hardly raised above the level of the
+street, and ought at least to have had a lamp by it. "I came to" (it is
+still he speaking) "in water, very fresh and of a pleasant taste. After
+swimming around a minute or two, looking for a firm place to take hold
+of, I seized a big rope, and climbed without any trouble to the surface
+of the earth, which was not more than forty feet off. It required
+nothing but wrists and a little gymnastic skill, and was not much of a
+feat, anyhow. On getting on to the pavement, I found myself in the
+presence of a sort of night watchman, who was bawling the hours through
+the street, and who asked me insolently what I was doing there. I
+thrashed him for his impudence, and the gentle exercise did me good, as
+it set my blood well in circulation again. Before getting back to the
+inn, I stopped under a street lamp, opened my pocket-book, and saw with
+pleasure that my million was not wet. The leather was thick, and the
+clasp firm; moreover, I had enveloped Herr Meiser's check in a
+half-dozen hundred-franc bills, in a roll as fat as a monk. These
+surroundings had preserved it."
+
+This examination being made, he went home, went to bed, and slept with
+his fists clenched. The next morning he received, on getting up, the
+following memoranda, which came from the Nancy police:
+
+"Clementine Pichon, aged eighteen, minor daughter of Auguste Pichon,
+hotel-keeper, and Leonie Francelot, was married, in this town, January
+11, 1814, to Louis Antoine Langevin; profession not stated.
+
+"The name of Langevin is as rare in this department, as the name of
+Pichon is common. With the exception of the Hon. M. Victor Langevin,
+Counsellor to the Prefecture at Nancy, there is only known Langevin
+(Pierre), usually called Pierrot, miller in the commune of Vergaville,
+canton of Dieuze."
+
+Fougas jumped nearly to the ceiling, crying,
+
+"I have a son!"
+
+He called the hotel-keeper, and said to him:
+
+"Make out my bill, and send my baggage to the depot. Take my ticket for
+Nancy; I shall not stop on the way. Here are two hundred francs, with
+which I want you to drink to the health of my son! He is called Victor,
+after me! He is counsellor of the Prefecture! I'd rather he were a
+soldier; but never mind! Ah! first get somebody to show me the way to
+the bank! I must go and get a million for him!"
+
+As there is no direct connection between Dantzic and Nancy, he was
+obliged to stop at Berlin. M. Hirtz, whom he met accidentally, told him
+that the scientific societies of the city were preparing an immense
+banquet in his honor; but he declined positively.
+
+"It's not," said he, "that I despise an opportunity to drink in good
+company, but Nature has spoken: her voice draws me on! The sweetest
+intoxication to all rightly constituted hearts is that of paternal
+love!"
+
+To prepare, his dear child for the joy of a return so little expected,
+he enclosed his million in an envelope addressed to M. Victor Langevin,
+with a long letter which closed thus:
+
+    "A father's blessing is more precious than all the gold
+    in the world!
+
+    "VICTOR FOUGAS."
+
+The infidelity of Clementine Pichon touched his _amour-propre_ a little,
+but he soon consoled himself for it.
+
+"At least," thought he, "I'll not have to marry an old woman, when
+there's a young one waiting for me at Fontainebleau. And, moreover, my
+son has a name, and a very presentable name. Fougas would be a great
+deal better, but Langevin is not bad."
+
+He arrived, on the 2d of September, at six o'clock in the evening, at
+that large and beautiful but somewhat stupid city which constitutes the
+Versailles of Lorraine. His heart was beating fit to burst. To
+recuperate his energies, he took a good dinner. The landlord, when
+catechized at dessert, gave him the very best accounts of M. Victor
+Langevin: a man still young, married for the past six years, father of a
+boy and a girl, respected in the neighborhood, and prosperous in his
+affairs.
+
+"I was sure of it!" said Fougas.
+
+He poured down a bumper of a certain kirsch-wasser from the Black
+Forest, which he fancied delicious with his maccaroni.
+
+The same evening, M. Langevin related to his wife how, on returning from
+the club at ten o'clock, he had been brutally accosted by a drunken man.
+He at first took him for a robber, and prepared to defend himself; but
+the man contented himself with embracing him, and then ran away with all
+his might. This singular accident threw the two spouses into a series of
+conjectures, each less probable than the preceding. But as they were
+both young, and had been married barely seven years, they soon changed
+the subject.
+
+The next morning, Fougas, laden down like a miller's ass with bon-bons,
+presented himself at M. Langevin's. In order to make himself welcome to
+his two grandchildren, he had skimmed the shop of the celebrated
+Lebegue--the Boissier of Nancy. The servant who opened the door for him
+asked if he were the gentleman her master expected.
+
+"Good!" said he; "my letter has come?"
+
+"Yes, sir; yesterday morning. And your baggage?"
+
+"I left it at the hotel."
+
+"Monsieur will not be satisfied at that. Your room is ready, up stairs."
+
+"Thanks! thanks! thanks! Take this hundred franc note for the good
+news."
+
+"Oh, monsieur! it was not worth so much."
+
+"But where is he? I want to see him--to embrace him--to tell him----"
+
+"He's dressing, monsieur; and so is madame."
+
+"And the children--my dear grandchildren?"
+
+"If you want to see them, they're right here, in the dining room."
+
+"If I want to! Open the door right away!"
+
+He discovered that the little boy resembled him, and was overjoyed to
+see him in the dress of an artillerist playing with a sabre. His pockets
+were soon emptied on the floor; and the two children, at the sight of so
+many good things, hung about his neck.
+
+"O philosophers!" cried the Colonel, "do you dare to deny the existence
+of the voice of Nature?"
+
+A pretty little lady (all the young women are pretty in Nancy) ran in at
+the joyous cries of the little brood.
+
+"My daughter-in-law!" cried Fougas, opening his arms.
+
+The lady of the house modestly recoiled, and said, with a slight smile:
+
+"You are mistaken, sir; I am not your daughter-in-law;[9] I am Madame
+Langevin."
+
+"What a fool I am!" thought the Colonel. "Here I was going to tell our
+family secrets before these children. Mind your manners, Fougas! You are
+in fine society, where the ardor of the sweetest sentiments is hidden
+under the icy mask of indifference."
+
+"Be seated," said Mme. Langevin. "I hope that you have had a pleasant
+journey?"
+
+"Yes, madame. Only steam seemed too slow for me!"
+
+"I did not know that you were in such a hurry to get here."
+
+"You did not, then, appreciate that I was fairly burning to be with
+you?"
+
+"I am glad to hear it; it is a proof that Reason and Family Affection
+have made themselves heard at last."
+
+"Was it my fault that family ties did not speak effectually sooner?"
+
+"Well, after all, the main thing is that you have listened to them. We
+will exert ourselves to prevent your finding Nancy uninteresting."
+
+"How could I, since I am to live with you?"
+
+"Thank you! Our house will be yours. Try to imagine yourself entirely at
+home."
+
+"In imagination, and affection too, madame."
+
+"And you'll not think of Paris again?"
+
+"Paris!---- I don't care any more for it than I do for doomsday!"
+
+"I forewarn you that people are not in the habit of fighting duels
+here."
+
+"What? You know already----"
+
+"We know all about it, even to the history of that famous supper with
+those rather volatile ladies."
+
+"How the devil did you hear of that? But that time, believe me, I was
+very excusable."
+
+M. Langevin here made his appearance, freshly shaven and rubicund--a
+fine specimen of the sub-prefect in embryo.
+
+"It's wonderful," thought Fougas, "how well all our family bear their
+years! One wouldn't call that chap over thirty-five, and he's forty-six
+if he's a day. He doesn't look a bit like me, by the way; he takes after
+his mother!"
+
+"My dear!" said Mme. Langevin, "here's a tough subject, who promises to
+be wiser in future."
+
+"You are welcome, young man!" said the Counsellor, offering his hand to
+Fougas.
+
+This reception appeared cold to our poor hero. He had been dreaming of a
+shower of kisses and tears, and here his children contented themselves
+with offering their hands.
+
+"My chi---- monsieur," said he to Langevin, "there is one person still
+needed to complete our reunion. A few mutual wrongs, and those smoothed
+over by time, ought not to build an insurmountable barrier between us.
+May I venture to request the favor of being presented to your mother?"
+
+M. Langevin and his wife opened their eyes in astonishment.
+
+"How, monsieur?" said the husband. "Paris life must have affected your
+memory. My poor mother is no more. It is now three years since we lost
+her!"
+
+The good Fougas burst into tears.
+
+"Forgive me!" said he; "I didn't know it. Poor woman!"
+
+"I don't understand you! You knew my mother?"
+
+"Ingrate!"
+
+"Why, you're an amusing fellow! But your parents were invited to the
+funeral, were they not?"
+
+"Whose parents?"
+
+"Your father and mother!"
+
+"Eh! What's this you're cackling to me about? My mother was dead before
+yours was born!"
+
+"Your mother dead?"
+
+"Yes, certainly; in '89!"
+
+"What! Wasn't it your mother who sent you here?"
+
+"Monster! It was my fatherly heart that brought me!"
+
+"Fatherly heart?---- Why, then you're not young Jamin, who has been
+cutting up didoes in the capital, and has been sent to Nancy to go
+through the Agricultural School?"
+
+The Colonel answered with the voice of Jupiter tonans:
+
+"I am Fougas!"
+
+"Very well!"
+
+"If Nature says nothing to you in my behalf, ungrateful son, question
+the spirit of your mother!"
+
+"Upon my soul, sir," cried the Counsellor, "we can play at cross
+purposes a good while! Sit down there, if you please, and tell me your
+business--Marie, take away the children."
+
+Fougas did not require any urging. He detailed the romance of his life,
+without omitting anything, but with many delicate touches for the filial
+ears of M. Langevin. The Counsellor heard him patiently, with an
+appearance of perfect disinterestedness.
+
+"Monsieur," said he, at last, "at first I took you for a madman; but now
+I remember that the newspapers have contained some scraps of your
+history, and I see that you are the victim of a mistake. I am not
+forty-six years old, but thirty-four. My mother's name was not
+Clementine Pichon, but Marie Herval. She was not born at Nancy, but at
+Vannes, and she was but seven years old in 1813. Nevertheless, I am
+happy to make your acquaintance."
+
+"Ah! you're not my son!" replied Fougas, angrily. "Very well! So much
+the worse for you! No one seems to want a father of the name of Fougas!
+As for sons by the name of Langevin, one only has to stoop to pick them
+up. I know where to find one who is not a Counsellor of the Prefecture,
+it is true, and who does not put on a laced coat to go to mass, but who
+has an honest and simple heart, and is named Pierre, just like me! But,
+I beg your pardon, when one shows gentlemen the door, one ought at least
+to return what belongs to them."
+
+"I don't prevent your collecting the bon-bons which my children have
+scattered over the floor."
+
+"Yes, I'm talking about bon-bons with a vengeance! My million, sir!"
+
+"What million?"
+
+"Your brother's million!---- No! The million that belongs to him who is
+not your brother--to Clementine's son, my dear and only child, the only
+scion of my race, Pierre Langevin, called Pierrot, a miller at
+Vergaville!"
+
+"But I assure you, monsieur, that I haven't your million, or anybody's
+else."
+
+"You dare to deny it, scoundrel, when I sent it to you by mail, myself!"
+
+"Possibly you sent it, but I certainly have not received it!"
+
+"Aha! Defend yourself!"
+
+He made at his throat, and perhaps France would have lost a Counsellor
+of Prefecture that day, if the servant had not come in with two letters
+in her hand. Fougas recognized his own handwriting and the Berlin
+postmark, tore open the envelope, and displayed the check.
+
+"Here," said he, "is the million I intended for you, if you had seen fit
+to be my son! Now it's too late for you to retract. The voice of Nature
+calls me to Vergaville. Your servant, sir!"
+
+On the 4th of September, Pierre Langevin, miller at Vergaville,
+celebrated the marriage of Cadet Langevin, his second son. The miller's
+family was numerous, respectable, and in comfortable circumstances.
+First, there was the grandfather, a fine, hale old man, who took his
+four meals a day, and doctored his little ailings with the wine of Bar
+or Thiaucourt. The grandmother, Catharine, had been pretty in her day,
+and a little frivolous; but she expiated by absolute deafness the crime
+of having listened too tenderly to gallants. M. Pierre Langevin, alias
+Pierrot, alias Big Peter, after having sought his fortune in America (a
+custom becoming quite general in the rural districts), had returned to
+the village in pretty much the condition of the infant Saint John, and
+God only knows how many jokes were perpetrated over his ill luck. The
+people of Lorraine are terrible wags, and if you are not fond of
+personal jokes, I advise you not to travel in their neighborhood. Big
+Peter, stung to the quick, and half crazed at having run through his
+inheritance, borrowed money at ten per cent., bought the mill at
+Vergaville, worked like a plough-horse in heavy land, and repaid his
+capital and the interest. Fortune, who owed him some compensations,
+gave him _gratis pro Deo_, a half dozen superb workers--six big boys,
+whom his wife presented him with, one annually, as regularly as
+clock-work. Every year, nine months, to a day, after the _fete_ of
+Vergaville, Claudine (otherwise known as Glaudine) presented one for
+baptism. At last she died after the sixth, from eating four huge pieces
+of _quiche_ before her churching. Big Peter did not marry again, having
+concluded that he had workers enough, and he continued to add to his
+fortune nicely. But, as standing jokes last a long time in villages, the
+miller's comrades still spoke to him about those famous millions which
+he did not bring back from America, and Big Peter grew very red under
+his flour, just as he used to in his earlier days.
+
+On the 4th of September, then, he married his second son to a good big
+woman of Altroff, who had fat and blazing cheeks: this being a kind of
+beauty much affected in the country. The wedding took place at the mill,
+because the bride was orphaned of father and mother, and had previously
+lived with the nuns of Molsheim.
+
+A messenger came and told Pierre Langevin that a gentleman wearing
+decorations had something to say to him, and Fougas appeared in all his
+glory. "My good sir," said the miller, "I am far from being in a mood to
+talk business, as we just took a good pull at white wine before mass;
+but we are going to drink some red wine that's by no means bad, at
+dinner, and if your heart prompts you, don't be backward! The table is
+a long one. We can talk afterwards. You don't say no? Then that's yes."
+
+"For once," thought Fougas, "I am not mistaken. This is surely the voice
+of Nature! I would have liked a soldier better, but this genial rustic,
+so comfortably rounded, satisfies my heart. I cannot be indebted to him
+for many gratifications of my pride; but never mind! I am sure of _his_
+good-will."
+
+Dinner was served, and the table more heavily laden with viands than the
+stomach of Gargantua. Big Peter, as proud of his big family as of his
+little fortune, made the Colonel stand by as he enumerated his children.
+And Fougas was joyful at learning that he had six welcome grandchildren.
+
+He was seated at the right of a little stunted old woman who was
+presented to him as the grandmother of the youngsters. Heavens! how
+changed Clementine appeared to him. Save the eyes which were still
+lively and sparkling, there was no longer anything about her that could
+be recognized. "See," thought Fougas, "what I would have been like
+to-day, if the worthy John Meiser had not desiccated me!" He smiled to
+himself on regarding Grandfather Langevin, the reputed progenitor of
+this numerous family. "Poor old fellow," murmured Fougas, "you little
+think what you owe to me!"
+
+They dine boisterously at village weddings. This is an abuse which, I
+sincerely hope, Civilization will never reform. Under cover of the
+noise, Fougas entered into conversation, or thought he did, with his
+left-hand neighbor. "Clementine!" he said to her. She raised her eyes,
+and her nose too, and responded:
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"My heart has not deceived me, then?--you are indeed my Clementine!"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"And you have recognized me, noble and excellent woman!"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"But how did you conceal your emotion so well?---- How strong women
+are!---- I fall from the skies into the midst of your peaceful
+existence, and you see me without moving a muscle!"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Have you forgiven me for a seeming injury for which Destiny alone is
+responsible?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Thanks! A thousand thanks!---- What a charming family you have about
+you! This good Pierre, who almost opened his arms on seeing me approach,
+is my son, is he not?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+"Rejoice! He shall be rich! He already has happiness; I bring him
+fortune. His portion shall be a million. Oh, Clementine! what a
+commotion there will be in this simple assembly, when I raise my voice
+and say to my son: 'Here! this million is for you!' Is it a good time
+now? Shall I speak? Shall I tell all?"
+
+"Yes, monsieur."
+
+Fougas immediately arose, and requested silence. The people thought he
+was going to sing a song, and all kept quiet.
+
+"Pierre Langevin," said he with emphasis, "I have come back from the
+other world, and brought you a million."
+
+If Big Peter did not want to get angry, he at least got red, and the
+joke seemed to him in bad taste. But when Fougas announced that he had
+loved the grandmother in her youth, grandfather Langevin no longer
+hesitated to fling a bottle at his head. The Colonel's son, his splendid
+grandchildren, and even the bride all jumped up in high dudgeon and
+there was a very pretty scrimmage indeed.
+
+For the first time in his life, Fougas did not get the upper hand. He
+was afraid that he might injure some of his family. Paternal affection
+robbed him of three quarters of his power.
+
+But having learned during the clamor that Clementine was called
+Catharine, and that Pierre Langevin was born in 1810, he resumed the
+offensive, blacked three eyes, broke an arm, mashed two noses, knocked
+in four dozen teeth, and regained his carriage with all the honors of
+war.
+
+"Devil take the children!" said he, while riding in a post-chaise toward
+the Avricourt station. "If I have a son, I wish he may find me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+HE SEEKS AND BESTOWS THE HAND OF CLEMENTINE.
+
+
+On the fifth of September, at ten o'clock in the morning, Leon Renault,
+emaciated, dejected and scarcely recognizable, was at the feet of
+Clementine Sambucco in her aunt's parlor. There were flowers on the
+mantel and flowers in all the vases. Two great burglar sunbeams broke
+through the open windows. A million of little bluish atoms were playing
+in the light, crossing each other and getting fantastically mixed up,
+like the ideas in a volume of M. Alfred Houssaye. In the garden, the
+apples were falling, the peaches were ripe, the hornets were ploughing
+broad, deep furrows in the _duchesse_ pears; the trumpet-flowers and
+clematis-vines were in blossom, and to crown all, a great mass of
+heliotropes, trained over the left window, was flourishing in all its
+beauty. The sun had given all the grapes in the arbor a tint of golden
+bronze; and the great Yucca on the lawn, shaken by the wind like a
+Chinese hat, noiselessly clashed its silver bells. But the son of M.
+Renault was more pale and haggard than the white lilac sprays, more
+blighted than the leaves on the old cherry-tree; his heart was without
+joy and without hope, like the currant bushes without leaves and without
+fruit!
+
+To be exiled from his native land, to have lived three years in an
+inhospitable climate, to have passed so many days in deep mines, so many
+nights over an earthenware stove in the midst of an infinity of bugs and
+a multiplicity of serfs, and to see himself set aside for a
+twenty-five-louis Colonel whom he himself had brought to life by soaking
+him in water!
+
+All men are subject to disappointments, but surely never had one
+encountered a misfortune so unforeseen and so extraordinary. Leon knew
+that Earth is not a valley flowing with chocolate and soup _a la reine_.
+He knew the list of the renowned unfortunates beginning with Abel slain
+in the garden of Paradise, and ending with Rubens assassinated in the
+gallery of the Louvre at Paris. But history, which seldom instructs us,
+never consoles us. The poor engineer in vain repeated to himself that a
+thousand others had been supplanted on the day before marriage, and a
+hundred thousand on the day after. Melancholy was stronger than Reason,
+and three or four soft locks were beginning to whiten about his temples.
+
+"Clementine!" said he, "I am the most miserable of men. In refusing me
+the hand which you have promised, you condemn me to agony a hundred
+times worse than death. Alas! What would you have me become without you?
+I must live alone, for I love you too well to marry another. For four
+long years, all my affections, all my thoughts have been centred upon
+you; I have become accustomed to regard other women as inferior beings,
+unworthy of attracting the interest of a man! I will not speak to you of
+the efforts I have made to deserve you; they brought their reward in
+themselves, and I was already too happy in working and suffering for
+you. But see the misery in which your desertion has left me! A sailor
+thrown upon a desert island has less to deplore than I: I will be forced
+to live near you, to witness the happiness of another, to see you pass
+my windows upon the arm of my rival! Ah! death would be more endurable
+than this constant agony. But I have not even the right to die! My poor
+old parents have already sorrows enough. What would it be, Great God! if
+I were to condemn them to bear the loss of their son?"
+
+This complaint, punctuated with sighs and tears, lacerated the heart of
+Clementine. The poor child wept too, for she loved Leon with her whole
+soul, but she was interdicted from telling him so. More than once, on
+seeing him half dying before her, she felt tempted to throw her arms
+about his neck, but the recollection of Fougas paralyzed all her tender
+impulses.
+
+"My poor friend," said she, "you judge me very wrongfully if you think
+me insensible to your sufferings. I have known you thoroughly, Leon,
+and that too since my very childhood. I know all that there is in you
+of devotion, delicacy and precious and noble virtues. Since the time
+when you carried me in your arms to the poor, and put a penny in my hand
+to teach me to give alms, I have never heard benevolence spoken of
+without involuntarily thinking of you. When you whipped a boy twice your
+size for taking away my doll, I felt that courage was noble and that a
+woman would be happy in being able to lean on a brave man. All that I
+have ever seen you do since that time, has only redoubled my esteem and
+my sympathy. Believe me that it is neither from wickedness or
+ingratitude that I make you suffer now. Alas! I no longer belong to
+myself, I am under external control; I am like those automatons that
+move without knowing why. Yes, I feel an impulse within me more powerful
+than my self control, and it is the will of another that leads me."
+
+"If I could but be sure that you will be happy! But no! This man, before
+whom you immolate me, will never know the worth of a soul as delicate as
+yours. He is a brute, a swash-buckler, a drunkard."
+
+"I beseech you, Leon, remember that he has a right to my unreserved
+respect!"
+
+"Respect! For him! And why? I ask of you, in Heaven's name, what you
+find respectable in the character of Mister Fougas? His age? He is
+younger than I. His talents? He never shows them anywhere but at the
+table. His education? It's lovely! His virtues? _I_ know what is to be
+thought of his refinement and gratitude!"
+
+"I have respected him, Leon, since I first saw him in his coffin. It is
+a sentiment stronger than all else; I cannot explain it, I can but
+submit to it."
+
+"Very well! Respect him as much as you please! Yield to the superstition
+that enchains you. See in him a miraculous being, consecrated, rescued
+from the grip of Death to accomplish something great on earth! But this
+itself, Oh my dear Clementine, is a barrier between you and him! If
+Fougas is outside of the conditions of humanity, if he is a phenomenon,
+a being apart, a hero, a demigod, a fetich, you cannot seriously think
+of becoming his wife. As for me, I am but a man like others, born to
+work, to suffer and to love. I love you! Love me!"
+
+"Scoundrel!" cried Fougas, opening the door.
+
+Clementine uttered a cry, Leon sprung up quickly, but the Colonel had
+already seized him by the most practicable part of his nankeen suit,
+before he had even time to think of a single word in reply. The engineer
+was lifted up, balanced like an atom in one of the sunbeams, and flung
+into the very midst of the heliotropes. Poor Leon! Poor heliotropes!
+
+In less than a second, the young man was on his feet. He dusted the
+earth from his knees and elbows, approached the window, and said in a
+calm but resolute voice: "Mister Colonel, I sincerely regret having
+brought you back to life, but possibly the folly of which I have been
+guilty is not irreparable. I hope soon to have an opportunity to find
+out if it be! As for you, Mademoiselle, I love you!"
+
+The Colonel shrugged his shoulders and put himself at the young girl's
+feet on the very cushion which still bore the impression left by Leon.
+Mlle. Virginie Sambucco, attracted by the noise, came down stairs like
+an avalanche and heard the following conversation.
+
+"Idol of a great soul! Fougas returns to thee like the eagle to his
+eyrie. I have long traversed the world in pursuit of rank, fortune and
+family which I was burning to lay at thy feet. Fortune has obeyed me as
+a slave: she knows in what school I learned the art of controlling her.
+I have gone through Paris and Germany like a victorious meteor led by
+its star. I have everywhere associated as an equal with the powers of
+Earth, and made the trumpet of truth resound in the halls of kings. I
+have put my foot on the throat of greedy Avarice, and snatched from him
+a part, at least, of the treasures which he had stolen from
+too-confiding Honor. One only blessing is denied me: the son I hoped to
+see has escaped the lynx-eyes of paternal love. Neither have I found the
+ancient object of my first affections. But what matters it? I shall feel
+the want of nothing, if you fill for me the place of all. What do we
+wait for now? Are you deaf to the voice of Happiness which calls you?
+Let us go to the temple of the laws, then you shall follow me to the
+foot of the altar; a priest shall consecrate our bonds, and we will go
+through life leaning on one another, I like the oak sustaining weakness,
+thou like the graceful ivy ornamenting the emblem of strength."[10]
+
+Clementine remained a few moments without answering, as if stunned by
+the Colonel's vehement rhetoric. "Monsieur Fougas," she said to him, "I
+have always obeyed you, I promise to obey you all my life. If you do not
+wish me to marry poor Leon, I will renounce him. I love him devotedly,
+nevertheless, and a single word from him arouses more emotion in my
+heart than all the fine things you have said to me."
+
+"Good! Very good!" cried the Aunt. "As for me, sir, although you have
+never done me the honor to consult me, I will tell you my opinion. My
+niece is not at all the woman to suit you. Were you richer than M. de
+Rothschild and more illustrious than the Duke of Malakoff, I would not
+advise Clementine to marry you."
+
+"And why, chaste Minerva?"
+
+"Because you would love her fifteen days, and then, at the first sound
+of cannon, be off to the wars! You would abandon her, sir, just as you
+did that unhappy Clementine whose misfortunes have been recounted to
+us!"
+
+"Zounds! Lady Aunt! I _do_ advise you to bestow your pity on _her_!
+Three months after Leipzic, she married a fellow named Langevin at
+Nancy."
+
+"What do you say?"
+
+"I say that she married a military commissary named Langevin."
+
+"At Nancy?"
+
+"At that identical town."
+
+"This is strange!
+
+"It's outrageous!
+
+"But this woman--this young girl--her name?
+
+"I've told you a hundred times: Clementine!"
+
+"Clementine what?
+
+"Clementine Pichon."
+
+"Gracious Heavens! My keys! Where are my keys? I'm sure I put them in my
+pocket! Clementine Pichon! M. Langevin! It's impossible! My senses are
+forsaking me! Come, my child, bestir yourself! The happiness of your
+whole life is concerned. Where _did_ you poke my keys? Ah! Here they
+are!"
+
+Fougas bent over to Clementine's ear, and said:
+
+"Is she subject to these attacks? One, would suppose that the poor old
+girl had lost her head!"
+
+But Virginie Sambucco had already opened a little rosewood secretary.
+Her unerring glance discovered in a file of papers, a sheet yellow with
+age.
+
+"I've got it!" said she with a cry of joy. "Marie Clementine Pichon,
+legitimate daughter of August Pichon, hotel keeper, _rue des Merlettes_,
+in this town of Nancy; married June 10th, 1814, to Joseph Langevin,
+military sub-commissary. Is it surely she, Monsieur? Dare to say it
+isn't she!"
+
+"Well! But how do you happen to have my family papers?"
+
+"Poor Clementine! And you accuse her of unfaithfulness! You do not
+understand then that you had been taken for dead! That she supposed
+herself a widow without having been a wife; that--"
+
+"It's all right! It's all right! I forgive her. Where is she? I want to
+see her, to embrace her, to tell her--"
+
+"She is dead, Monsieur! She died three months after she was married,"
+
+"Ah! The Devil!"
+
+"In giving birth to a daughter--"
+
+"Where is my daughter? I'd rather have had a son, but never mind! Where
+is she? I want to see her, to embrace her, to tell her--"
+
+"Alas! She is no more! But I can conduct you to her tomb."
+
+"But how the Devil did you know her?"
+
+"Because she married my brother!"
+
+"Without my consent? But never mind! At least she left some children,
+didn't she?"
+
+"Only one."
+
+"A son! He is my grandson!"
+
+"A daughter."
+
+"Never mind! She is my granddaughter! I'd rather have had a grandson,
+but where is she? I want to see her, to embrace her, to tell her--"
+
+"Embrace away, Monsieur! Her name is Clementine: after her grandmother,
+and there she is!"
+
+"She! That accounts for the resemblance! But then I can't marry her!
+Never mind! Clementine! Come to my arms! Embrace your grandfather!"
+
+The poor child had not been able entirely to comprehend this rapid
+conversation, from which events had been falling like tiles, upon the
+head of the Colonel. She had always heard M. Langevin spoken of as her
+maternal grandfather, and now she seemed to hear that her mother was the
+daughter of Fougas. But she knew at the first words, that it was no
+longer possible for her to marry the Colonel, and that she would soon be
+married to Leon Renault. It was, therefore, from an impulse of joy and
+gratitude that she flung herself into the arms of the young-old man.
+
+"Ah, Monsieur!" said she, "I have always loved and respected you like a
+grandfather!"
+
+"And I, my poor child, have always behaved myself like an old beast! All
+men are brutes, and all women are angels. You divined with the delicate
+instinct of your sex, that you owed me respect, and I, fool that I am,
+didn't divine anything at all! Whew! Without the venerable Aunt there,
+I'd have made a pretty piece of work!"
+
+"No," said the aunt. "You would have found out the truth in going over
+our family papers."
+
+"Would that I could have seen them and nothing more! Just to think that
+I went off to seek my heirs in the department of Meurthe, when I had
+left my family in Fontainebleau! Imbecile! Bah! But never mind.
+Clementine! You shall be rich, you shall marry the man you love! Where
+is he, the brave boy? I want to see him, to embrace him, to tell him--"
+
+"Alas, Monsieur; you just threw him out of the window."
+
+"I? Hold on, it _is_ true. I had forgotten all about it. Fortunately
+he's not hurt, and I'll go at once and make amends for my folly. You
+shall get married when you want to; the two weddings shall come off
+together.--But in fact, no! What am I saying? I shall not marry now! It
+will all be well soon, my child, my dear granddaughter. Mademoiselle
+Sambucco you're a model aunt; embrace me!"
+
+He ran to M. Renault's house, and Gothon, who saw him coming, ran down
+to shut him out.
+
+"Ain't you ashamed of yourself," said she, "to act this way with them as
+brought you to life again? Ah! If it had to be done over again! We
+wouldn't turn the house upside down again for the sake of your fine
+eyes! Madame's crying, Monsieur is tearing his hair, M. Leon has just
+been sending two officers to hunt you up. What have you been at again
+since morning?"
+
+Fougas gave her a twirl on her feet and found himself face to face with
+the engineer. Leon had heard the sound of a quarrel, and on seeing the
+Colonel excited, with flashing eyes, he expected some brutal aggression
+and did not wait for the first blow. A struggle took place in the
+passage amid the cries of Gothon, M. Renault and the poor old lady, who
+was screaming: "Murder!" Leon wrestled, kicked, and from time to time
+launched a vigorous blow into the body of his antagonist. He had to
+succumb, nevertheless; the Colonel finished by upsetting him on the
+ground and holding him there. Then he kissed him on both cheeks and said
+to him:
+
+"Ah! You naughty boy! Now I'm pretty sure to make you listen to me! I am
+Clementine's grandfather, and I give her to you in marriage, and you can
+have the wedding to-morrow if you want to! Do you hear? Now get up, and
+don't you punch me in the stomach any more. It would be almost
+parricide!"
+
+Mlle. Sambucco and Clementine arrived in the midst of the general
+stupefaction. They completed the recital of Fougas, who had gotten
+himself pretty badly mixed up in the genealogy. Leon's seconds appeared
+in their turn. They had not found the enemy in the hotel where he had
+taken up his quarters, and came to give an account of their mission. A
+tableau of perfect happiness met their astonished gaze, and Leon invited
+them to the wedding.
+
+"My friends," said Fougas, "you shall see undeceived Nature bless the
+chains of Love."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+A THUNDERBOLT FROM A CLEAR SKY.
+
+
+    "Mlle. Virginie Sambucco has the honor to announce to
+    you the marriage of Mlle. Clementine Sambucco, her
+    niece, to M. Leon Renault, civil engineer.
+
+    "M. and Mme. Renault have the honor to announce to you
+    the marriage of M. Leon Renault, their son, to Mlle.
+    Clementine Sambucco;
+
+    "And invite you to be present at the nuptial benediction
+    which will be given them on the 11th of September, 1859,
+    in the church of Saint Maxcence, in their parish, at
+    eleven o'clock precisely."
+
+Fougas absolutely insisted that his name should figure on the cards.
+They had all the trouble in the world to cure him of this whim. Mme.
+Renault lectured him two full hours. She told him that in the eyes of
+society, as well as in the eyes of the law, Clementine was the
+granddaughter of M. Langevin; that, moreover, M. Langevin had acted very
+liberally in legitimizing by marriage, a daughter that was not his own;
+finally, that the publication of such a family secret would be an
+outrage against the sanctity of the grave and would tarnish the memory
+of poor Clementine Pichon. The Colonel answered with the warmth of a
+young man, and the obstinacy of an old one:
+
+"Nature has her rights; they are anterior to the conventions of society,
+and a thousand times more exalted. The honor of her I called my AEgle, is
+dearer to me than all the treasures of the world, and I would cleave the
+soul of any rash being who should attempt to tarnish it. In yielding to
+the ardor of my vows, she but conformed to the custom of a great epoch
+when the uncertainty of life and the constant existence of war
+simplified all formalities. And in conclusion, I do not wish that my
+grandchildren, yet to be born, should be ignorant that the source of
+their blood is in the veins of Fougas. Your Langevin is but an intruder
+who covertly slipped into my family. A commissary! It's almost a sutler!
+I spurn under foot the ashes of Langevin!"
+
+His obstinacy would not yield to the arguments of Mme. Renault, but it
+succumbed to the entreaties of Clementine. The young creole twisted him
+around her finger with irresistible grace.
+
+"My good Grandpa this, my pretty little Grandpa that; my old baby of a
+Grandpa, we'll send you off to college if you're not reasonable!"
+
+She used to seat herself familiarly on Fougas' knee, and give him little
+love pats on the cheeks. The Colonel would assume the gruffest possible
+voice, and then his heart would overflow with tenderness, and he would
+cry like a child.
+
+These familiarities added nothing to the happiness of Leon Renault; I
+even think that they slightly tempered his joy. Yet he certainly did not
+doubt either the love of his betrothed or the honor of Fougas. He was
+forced to admit that between a grandfather and his granddaughter such
+little liberties are natural and proper and could justly offend no one.
+But the situation was so new and so unusual that he needed a little time
+to adapt his feelings to it, and forget his chagrin. This grandfather,
+for whom he had paid five-hundred francs, whose ear he had broken, for
+whom he had bought a burial-place in the Fontainebleau cemetery: this
+ancestor younger than himself, whom he had seen drunk, whom he had found
+agreeable, then dangerous, then insupportable: this venerable head of
+the family who had begun by demanding Clementine's hand and ended by
+pitching his future grandson into the heliotropes, could not all at once
+obtain unmingled respect and unreserved affection.
+
+M. and Mme. Renault exhorted their son to submission and deference. They
+represented M. Fougas to him as a relative who ought to be treated with
+consideration.
+
+"A few days of patience!" said the good mother. "He will not stay with
+us long; he is a soldier and can't live out of the army any better than
+a fish out of water."
+
+But Leon's parents, in the bottom of their hearts, held a bitter
+remembrance of so many pangs and mortifications. Fougas had been the
+scourge of the family; the wounds which he had made could not heal over
+in a day. Even Gothon bore him ill will without confessing it. She
+heaved great sighs while preparing for the wedding festivities at Mlle.
+Sambucco's.
+
+"Ah! my poor Celestin!" said she to her acolyte. "What a little rascal
+of a grandfather we're going to have to be sure!"
+
+The only person who was perfectly at ease was Fougas. He had passed the
+sponge over his pranks; out of all the evil he had done, he retained no
+ill will against any one. Very paternal with Clementine, very gracious
+with M. and Mme. Renault, he evinced for Leon the most frank and cordial
+friendship.
+
+"My dear boy," said he to him, "I have studied you, I know you, and I
+love you thoroughly; you deserve to be happy, and you shall be. You
+shall soon see that in buying me for twenty-five napoleons, you didn't
+make a bad bargain. If gratitude were banished from the universe, it
+would find a last abiding place in the heart of Fougas!"
+
+Three days before the marriage, M. Bonnivet informed the family that the
+colonel had come into his office to ask for a conference about the
+contract. He had scarcely cast his eyes on the sheet of stamped paper,
+when Rrrrip! it was in pieces in the fireplace.
+
+"Mister Note-scratcher," he said, "do me the honor of beginning your
+_chef-d'oeuvre_ over again. The granddaughter of Fougas does not marry
+with an annuity of eight thousand francs. Nature and Friendship give her
+a million. Here it is!"
+
+Thereupon he took from his pocket a bank check for a million, paced the
+study proudly, making his boots creak, and threw a thousand-franc note
+on a clerk's desk, crying in his clearest tones:
+
+"Children of the Law! Here's something to drink the health of the
+Emperor and the Grand Army with!"
+
+The Renault family strongly remonstrated against this liberality.
+Clementine, on being told of it by her intended, had a long discussion,
+in the presence of Mlle. Sambucco, with the young and terrible
+grandpapa; she tried to impress upon him that he was but twenty-four
+years old, that he would be getting married some day, and that his
+property belonged to his future family.
+
+"I do not wish," said she, "that your children should accuse me of
+having robbed them. Keep your millions for my little uncles and aunts!"
+
+But for once, Fougas would not yield an inch.
+
+"Are you mocking me?" he said to Clementine. "Do you think that I will
+be guilty of the folly of marrying now? I do not promise you to live
+like a monk of La Trappe, but at my age, a man put together like I am
+can find enough to talk to around the garrisons without marrying
+anybody. Mars does not borrow the torch of Hymen to light the little
+aberrations of Venus! Why does man ever tie himself in matrimonial
+bonds?... For the sake of being a father. I am one already, in the
+comparative degree, and in a year, if our brave Leon does a man's part,
+I shall assume the superlative. Great-grandfather! That's a lovely
+position for a trooper twenty-five years old! At forty-five or fifty, I
+shall be great-great-grandfather. At seventy ... the French language has
+no more words to express what I shall become! But we can order one from
+those babblers of the Academy! Are you afraid that I'll want for
+anything in my old age? I have my pay, in the first place, and my
+officer's cross. When I reach the years of Anchises or Nestor, I will
+have my halt-pay. Add to all this the two hundred and fifty thousand
+francs from the king of Prussia, and you shall see that I have not only
+bread, but all essential fixings in the bargain, up to the close of my
+career. Moreover, I have a perpetual grant, for which your husband has
+paid in advance, in the Fontainebleau cemetery. With all these
+possessions, and simple tastes, one is sure not to eat up one's
+resources!"
+
+Willing or unwilling, they had to concede all he required and accept his
+million. This act of generosity made a great commotion in the town, and
+the name of Fougas, already celebrated in so many ways, acquired a new
+prestige. The signature of the bride was attested by the Marshal the
+Duke of Solferino and the illustrious Karl Nibor, who but a few days
+before had been elected to the Academy of Sciences. Leon modestly
+retained the old friends whom he had long since chosen, M. Audret the
+architect, and M. Bonnivet the notary.
+
+The Mayor was brilliant in his new scarf. The _cure_ addressed to the
+young couple an affecting allocution on the inexhaustible goodness of
+Providence, which still occasionally performs a miracle for the benefit
+of true Christians. Fougas, who had not discharged his religious duties
+since 1801, soaked two handkerchiefs with tears.
+
+"One must always part from those nearest the heart," said he on going
+out of church. "But God and I are made to understand each other! After
+all, what is God but a little more universal Napoleon!"
+
+A Pantagruelic feast, presided over by Mlle. Virginie Sambucco in a
+dress of puce-colored silk, followed immediately upon the marriage
+ceremony. Twenty-four persons were present at this family _fete_, among
+others the new colonel of the 23d and M. du Marnet, who was almost well
+of his wound.
+
+Fougas took up his napkin with a certain anxiety. He hoped that the
+Marshal had brought his brevet as brigadier general. His expressive
+countenance manifested lively disappointment at the empty plate.
+
+The Duke of Solferino, who had been seated at the place of honor,
+noticed this physiognomical display, and said aloud:
+
+"Don't be impatient, my old comrade! I know what you miss; it was not my
+fault that the _fete_ was not complete. The minister of war was out
+when I dropped in on my way here. I was told however, at the department,
+that your affair was kept in suspense by a technical question, but that
+you would receive a letter from the office within twenty-four hours."
+
+"Devil take the documents!" cried Fougas. "They've got them all, from my
+birth-certificate, down to the copy of my brevet colonel's commission.
+You'll find out that they want a certificate of vaccination or some such
+six-penny shinplaster!"
+
+"Oh! Patience, young man! You've time enough to wait. It's not such a
+case as mine: without the Italian campaign, which gave me a chance to
+snatch the baton, they would have slit my ear like a condemned horse,
+under the empty pretext that I was sixty-five years old. You're not yet
+twenty-five, and you're on the point of becoming a brigadier: the
+Emperor promised it to you before me. In four or five years from now,
+you'll have the gold stars, unless some bad luck interferes. After which
+you'll need nothing but the command of an army and a successful campaign
+to make you Marshal of France and Senator, which may nothing prevent!"
+
+"Yes," responded Fougas; "I'll reach it. Not only because I am the
+youngest of all the officers of my grade, and because I have been in the
+mightiest of wars and followed the lessons of the master of Bellona's
+fields, but above all because Destiny has marked me with her sign. Why
+did the bullets spare me in more than twenty battles? Why have I sped
+over oceans of steel and fire without my skin receiving a scratch? It is
+because I have a star, as _He_ had. His was the grander, it is true, but
+it went out at St. Helena, while mine is burning in Heaven still! If
+Doctor Nibor resuscitated me with a few drops of warm water, it was
+because my destiny was not yet accomplished. If the will of the French
+people has re-established the imperial throne, it was to furnish me a
+series of opportunities for my valor, during the conquest of Europe
+which we are about to recommence! _Vive l'Empereur_, and me too! I shall
+be duke or prince in less than ten years, and ... why not? One might try
+to be at roll-call on the day when crowns are distributed! In that case,
+I will adopt Clementine's oldest son: we will call him Pierre Victor
+II., and he shall succeed me on the throne just as Louis XV. succeeded
+his grandfather Louis XIV.!"
+
+As he was finishing this wonderful speech, a _gendarme_ entered the
+dining room, asked for Colonel Fougas, and handed him a letter from the
+Minister of War.
+
+"Gad!" cried the Marshal, "it would be pleasant to have your promotion
+arrive at the end of such a discourse. For once, we would prostrate
+ourselves before your star! The Magi kings would be nowhere compared
+with us."
+
+"Read it yourself," said he to the Marshal, holding out to him the
+great sheet of paper. "But no! I have always looked Death in the face; I
+will not turn my eyes away from this paper thunder if it is killing me.
+
+    "COLONEL:
+
+    "In preparing the Imperial decree which elevated you to
+    the rank of brigadier general, I found myself in the
+    presence of an insurmountable obstacle: viz., your
+    certificate of birth. It appears from that document that
+    you were born in 1789, and that you have already passed
+    your seventieth year. Now, the limit of age being fixed
+    at sixty years for colonels, sixty-two for brigadier
+    generals and sixty-five for generals of division, I find
+    myself under the absolute necessity of placing you upon
+    the retired list with the rank of colonel. I know,
+    Monsieur, how little this measure is justified by your
+    apparent age, and I sincerely regret that France should
+    be deprived of the services of a man of your capacity
+    and merit. Moreover, it is certain that an exception in
+    your favor would arouse no dissatisfaction in the army
+    and would meet with nothing but sympathetic approval.
+    But the law is express, and the Emperor himself cannot
+    violate or elude it. The impossibility resulting from it
+    is so absolute that if, in your ardor to serve the
+    country, you were willing to lay aside your epaulettes
+    for the sake of beginning upon a new career, your
+    enlistment could not be received in a single regiment of
+    the army. It is fortunate, Monsieur, that the Emperor's
+    government has been able to furnish you the means of
+    subsistence in obtaining from His Royal Highness the
+    Regent of Prussia the indemnity which was due you; for
+    there is not even an office in the civil administration
+    in which, even by special favor, a man seventy years old
+    could be placed. You will very justly object that the
+    laws and regulations now in force date from a period
+    when experiments on the revivification of men had not
+    yet met with favorable results. But the law is made for
+    the mass of mankind, and cannot take any account of
+    exceptions. Undoubtedly attention would be directed to
+    its amendment if cases of resuscitation were to present
+    themselves in sufficient number.
+
+    "Accept, &c."
+
+A gloomy silence succeeded the reading. The _Mene mene tekel upharsin_
+of the oriental legends could not have more completely produced the
+effect of thunderbolts. The _gendarme_ was still there, standing in the
+position of the soldier without arms, awaiting Fougas' receipt. The
+Colonel called for pen and ink, signed the paper, gave the _gendarme_
+drink-money, and said to him with ill-suppressed emotion:
+
+"You are happy, you are! No one prevents you from serving the country.
+Well," added he, turning toward the Marshal, "what do you say to that?"
+
+"What would you have me say, my poor old boy? It breaks me all up.
+There's no use in arguing against the law; it's express. The stupid
+thing on our parts was not to think of it sooner. But who the Devil
+would have thought of the retired list in the presence of such a fellow
+as you are?"
+
+The two colonels avowed that such an objection would never have entered
+their heads; now that it had been suggested, however, they could not see
+what to rebut it with. Neither of them would have been able to enlist
+Fougas as a private soldier, despite his ability, his physical strength
+and his appearance of being twenty-four years old.
+
+"If some one would only kill me!" cried Fougas. "I can't set myself to
+weighing sugar or planting cabbages. It was in the career of arms that I
+took my first steps; I must continue in it or die. What can I do? What
+can I become? Take service in some foreign army? Never! The fate of
+Moreau is still before my eyes.... Oh Fortune! What have I done to thee
+that I should be dashed so low, when thou wast preparing to raise me so
+high?"
+
+Clementine tried to console him with soothing words.
+
+"You shall live near us," said she. "We will find you a pretty little
+wife, and you can rear your children. In your leisure moments you can
+write the history of the great deeds you have done. You will want for
+nothing: youth, health, fortune, family, all that makes up the
+happiness of men, is yours. Why then should you not be happy?"
+
+Leon and his parents talked with him in the same way. Everything
+appertaining to the festive occasion was forgotten in the presence of an
+affliction so real and a dejection so profound.
+
+He roused himself little by little, and even sang, at dessert, a little
+song which he had prepared for the occasion.
+
+    Here's a health to these fortunate lovers
+      Who, on this thrice blessed day,
+    Have singed with the torch of chaste Hymen,
+      The wings with which Cupid doth stray.
+    And now, little volatile boy-god,
+      You must keep yourself quiet at home--
+    Enchained there by this happy marriage
+      Where Genius and Beauty are one.
+
+    He'll make it, henceforth, his endeavor
+      To keep Pleasure in Loyalty's power,
+    Forgetting his naughty old habit
+      Of roaming from flower to flower.
+    And Clementine makes the task easy,
+      For roses spring up at her smile:
+    From thence the young rascal can steal them
+      As well as in Venus's isle.
+
+The verses were loudly applauded, but the poor Colonel smiled sadly,
+talked but little, and did not get fuddled at all. The man with the
+broken ear could not at all console himself for having a slit ear.[11]
+He took part in the various diversions of the day, but was no longer
+the brilliant companion who had inspired everything with his impetuous
+gayety.
+
+The Marshal buttonholed him during the evening and said: "What are you
+thinking about?"
+
+"I'm thinking of the old messmates who were happy enough to fall at
+Waterloo with their faces toward the enemy. That old fool of a Dutchman
+who preserved me for posterity, did me but a sorry service. I tell you,
+Leblanc, a man ought to live in his own day. Later is too late."
+
+"Oh, pshaw, Fougas, don't talk nonsense! There's nothing desperate in
+the case. Devil take it! I'll go to see the Emperor to-morrow. The
+matter shall be looked into. It will all be set straight. Men like you!
+Why France hasn't got them by the dozen that she should fling them among
+the soiled linen."
+
+"Thanks! You're a good old boy, and a true one. There were five hundred
+thousand of us, of the same, same sort, in 1812; there are but two left;
+say, rather, one and a half."
+
+About ten o'clock in the evening, M. Rollon, M. du Marnet and Fougas
+accompanied the Marshal to the cars. Fougas embraced his comrade and
+promised him to be of good cheer. After the train left, the three
+colonels went back to town on foot. In passing M. Rollon's house, Fougas
+said to his successor:
+
+"You're not very hospitable to-night; you don't even offer us a pony of
+that good Andaye brandy!"
+
+"I thought you were not in drinking trim," said M. Rollon. "You didn't
+take anything in your coffee or afterwards. But come up!"
+
+"My thirst has come back with a vengeance."
+
+"That's a good symptom."
+
+He drank in a melancholy fashion, and scarcely wet his lips in his
+glass. He stopped a little while before the flag, took hold of the
+staff, spread out the silk, counted the holes that cannon balls and
+bullets had made in it, and could not repress his tears. "Positively,"
+said he, "the brandy has taken me in the throat; I'm not a man to-night.
+Good evening, gentlemen."
+
+"Hold on! We'll go back with you."
+
+"Oh, my hotel is only a step."
+
+"It's all the same. But what's your idea in staying at a hotel when you
+have two houses in town at your service?"
+
+"On the strength of that, I am going to move to-morrow."
+
+The next morning, about eleven o'clock, the happy Leon was at his toilet
+when a telegram was brought to him. He opened it without noticing that
+it was addressed to M. Fougas, and uttered a cry of joy. Here is the
+laconic message which brought him so much pleasure:
+
+    "To Colonel Fougas, Fontainebleau.
+
+    "Just left the Emperor. You to be brevet brigadier until
+    something better turns up. If necessary, _corps
+    legislatif_ will amend law.
+
+    "LEBLANC."
+
+Leon dressed himself, ran to the hotel of the blue sundial, and found
+Fougas dead in his bed.
+
+It is said in Fontainebleau, that M. Nibor made an autopsy, and found
+that serious disorders had been produced by desiccation. Some people are
+nevertheless satisfied that Fougas committed suicide. It is certain that
+Master Bonnivet received, by the penny post, a sort of a will, expressed
+thus:
+
+    "I leave my heart to my country, my memory to natural
+    affection, my example to the army, my hate to
+    perfidious Albion, fifty thousand francs to Gothon, and
+    two hundred thousand to the 23d of the line. And
+    forever _Vive l'Empereur!_
+
+    "FOUGAS."
+
+Resuscitated on the 17th of August, between three and four in the
+afternoon, he died on the 17th of the following month, at what hour we
+shall never know. His second life had lasted a little less than
+thirty-one days. But it is simple justice to say that he made good use
+of his time. He reposes in the spot which young Renault had bought for
+him. His granddaughter Clementine left off her mourning about a year
+since. She is beloved and happy, and Leon will have nothing to reproach
+himself with if she does not have plenty of children.
+
+_Bourdonnel, August_, 1861.
+
+
+FINIS.
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+TO
+
+THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR.
+
+
+NOTE 1, page 69.--_Black butterflies_, a French expression that we might
+tastefully substitute for _blue devils_.
+
+NOTE 2, page 72.--_The 15th of August_ is the Emperor's birthday.
+
+NOTE 3, page 85.--_Centigrade_, of course.
+
+NOTE 4, page 101.--Fougas' surprise is explained by the well-known fact
+that Napoleon was obliged to forbid the playing of _Partant pour la
+Syrie_ in his armies, on account of the homesickness and consequent
+desertion it occasioned.
+
+NOTE 5, page 118.--_Jeu de Paume_ (tennis-court), is the name given to
+the meeting of the third-estate (_tiers-etat_) in 1789, from the
+locality where it took place.
+
+NOTE 6, page 161.--The English used by the two young noblemen is M.
+About's own. It is certainly such English as Frenchmen would be apt to
+speak, and it is as fair to attribute that fact to M. About's fine sense
+of the requirements of the occasion, as to lack of familiarity with our
+language.
+
+NOTE 7, page 164.--It is not without interest to note that M. About used
+the English word _gentlemen_.
+
+NOTE 8, page 166.--_War against tyrants! Never, never, never shall the
+Briton reign in France!_
+
+NOTE 9, page 214.--The original here contains a neat little conceit,
+which cannot be translated, but which is too good to be lost. The French
+for daughter-in-law is _belle fille_, literally "beautiful girl." To
+Fougas' address "_Ma belle fille!_" Mme. Langevin replies: "_I am not
+beautiful, and I am not a girl._" It suggests the similar retort
+received by Faust from Marguerite, when he addressed her as _beautiful
+young lady!_
+
+NOTE 10, page 230.--The Translator has intentionally used both the
+singular and the plural of the second person in Fougas' apostrophe to
+Clementine, as it seemed to him naturally required by the variations of
+the sentiment.
+
+NOTE 11, page 248.--The reader will bear in mind Marshal Leblanc's
+allusion to condemned horses.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Man With The Broken Ear, by Edmond About
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