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diff --git a/20724-h/20724-h.htm b/20724-h/20724-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19db55b --- /dev/null +++ b/20724-h/20724-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8092 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> + +<html lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Man With the Broken Ear, by Edmond About. +</title> + +<style type="text/css" media="screen"> +body { margin:5% 15%; } +p +{ +margin-top: .75em; +text-align: justify; +margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { text-align: center; clear: both; } + +hr +{ +width: 65%; +margin-top: 2em; +margin-bottom: 2em; +margin-left: auto; +margin-right: auto; +clear: both; +} + +.pagenum +{ +/*visibility: hidden;*/ +position: absolute; +left: 92%; +text-align: right; +font-style:normal; +font-variant:normal; +font-weight:normal; +font-size:small; +/* style variant weight size*/ +} + +.center {text-align: center;} +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} +.fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + +.poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} +.poem br {display: none;} +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} +.poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} +.poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + +ul.toc +{ +list-style-type:none; +position: relative; +width: 55%; +margin:0 auto; +} + +span.ralign +{ +position: absolute; +right: 0; +top: auto; +} + +.title-page +{ +border:3px solid black; +width:50%; +margin:0 auto; +padding:5% 1% 10%; +text-align:center; +} +.byline,.publisher +{ +font-size:1.25em; +} +.byline +{ +margin:0 0 15%; +padding:0; +} +.publisher +{ +margin:0 0 15%; +padding:0; +} +.copyright +{ +margin:0; +padding:0; +font-size:.95em; +} +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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 + + + + + + +</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 & 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 & 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:—</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 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<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 etagére 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 etagére 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 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.<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—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.</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—some sitting, some standing, one holding a lamp, +another a candle—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—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 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.</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—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—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—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 +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,<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—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.</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—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—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—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—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:—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 +Cæcus 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—"</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—"</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—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—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,—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—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>tête-à-tête</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—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 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.</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:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>"My dear <i>confrère</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—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—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 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.</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>confrère</i>, 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.</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—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—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>fête</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>conjunctivæ</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.—'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<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.—'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 Æson 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 Æson 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—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 reëstablished, +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 reëntered.</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—hi—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 façade 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—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 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!"</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>fiancée</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, 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."</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——"</p> + +<p>"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."</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.—But, Célestin, 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—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—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."—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>entrées</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——"</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—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."</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!—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—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—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.</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—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—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>—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!</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>dénoûement</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—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—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.</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 —— +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—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>fiancée</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——"</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—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!"<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—do you hear, Madame Aunt? And if she +pretends to marry this boy——"</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.—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?—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:—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—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—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."</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 étagère +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—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."</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—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 +Célestin, 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—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-cochère, still bore the +words, <i>Ministère des Finances</i>—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>fête</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, fêted, 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>Café 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 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.</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—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—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—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.—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—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—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—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>fête</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?—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—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—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—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—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.</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—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 Condé! 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 Gérard, 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>hôtel 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>hôtel 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 Honoré</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>à 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>Théâtre Français</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 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 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 régnera!_"<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 +Vendôme</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—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>à 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 Vendôme</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?)—<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—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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg +177]</a></span> money out of Prussia—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.'—'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>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—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!</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.'—'What is +left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg +178]</a></span> 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 <i>Moniteur</i>, +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<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.'—'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.</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>Vendôme</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—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—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—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—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—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. Mérimée, 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—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."</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—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—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—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—— +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?"</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—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—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—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!—-- 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!"</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 reëntering; "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——," 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—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—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 propriâ personâ</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—— 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——" 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<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——" 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 Lebègue—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—to embrace him—to +tell him——"</p> + +<p>"He's dressing, monsieur; and so is madame."</p> + +<p>"And the children—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!—-- 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——"</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—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—— 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?—— 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—— 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!—-- 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!"</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—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>fête</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?—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?—— How +strong women are!—-- 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!—-- 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>à +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—this young girl—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—"</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—"</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—"</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—"</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—"</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—"</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.—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 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!"</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 Célestin!" 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>curé</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>fête</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>fête</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, &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—<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.—<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.—<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.—<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.—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.—<i>Jeu de Paume</i> +(tennis-court), is the name given to the meeting of the third-estate +(<i>tiers-état</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.—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.—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.—<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.—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.—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.—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> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Man With The Broken Ear, by Edmond About + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR *** + +***** This file should be named 20724-h.htm or 20724-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/7/2/20724/ + +Produced by V. 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