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diff --git a/20724.txt b/20724.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc82f9f --- /dev/null +++ b/20724.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7271 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR *** + + + + +Produced by V. L. Simpson and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +THE MAN +WITH +THE BROKEN EAR + +TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF +_EDMOND ABOUT_ + +BY +HENRY HOLT + + + + +NEW YORK +HOLT & WILLIAMS +1872 + + + + + +Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by +HENRY HOLT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the +United States, for the Southern District of New York. + + + + + +DEDICATION OF THE FIRST EDITION.[A] + + + DEAR LEYPOLDT: + + You have not forgotten that nearly two years ago, + before our business connection was thought of, this + identical translation was 'respectfully declined' by you + with that same courtesy, the exercise of which in frequent + similar cases, each one of us now tries so hard to shove on + the other's shoulders. I hope that your surprise on reading + this note of dedication will not interfere with your + forgiving the pertinacity with which, through it, I still + strive to make the book _yours_. + + H. H. + + + 451 BROOME STREET, May 16, 1867. + +[Footnote A: Published by Leypoldt & Holt.] + + + + +The Translator has placed a few explanatory Notes at the end of the +volume. They are referred to by numbers in the text. + + +THE MAN + +WITH THE BROKEN EAR. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +WHEREIN THEY KILL THE FATTED CALF TO CELEBRATE THE RETURN OF A FRUGAL +SON. + + +On the 18th of May, 1859, M. Renault, formerly professor of physics and +chemistry, now a landed proprietor at Fontainebleau, and member of the +Municipal Council of that charming little city, himself carried to the +post-office the following letter:-- + + + "_To Monsieur Leon Renault, Civil Engineer, Berlin, Prussia._ + + (To be kept at the Post-Office till called for.) + + "MY DEAR CHILD: + + + "The good news you sent us from St. Petersburg caused + us the greatest joy. Your poor mother had been ailing + since winter, but I had not spoken to you about it from + fear of making you uneasy while so far from home. As + for myself, I had not been very well; and there was yet + a third person (guess the name if you can!) who was + languishing from not seeing you. But content yourself, + my dear Leon: we have been recuperating more and more + since the time of your return is almost fixed. We begin + to believe that the mines of the Ural will not swallow + up that which is dearer to us than all the world. Thank + God! that fortune which you have so honorably and so + quickly made will not have cost your life, nor even + your health, since you tell us you have been growing + fat off there in the desert. If you have not finished + up all your business out there, so much the worse for + you: there are three of us who have sworn that you + shall never go back again. You will not find it hard to + accede, for you will be happy among us. Such, at least, + is the opinion of Clementine.... I forget that I was + pledged not to name her. Master Bonnivet, our excellent + neighbor, has not rested content with investing your + funds in a good mortgage, but has also drawn up, in his + leisure moments, a most edifying little indenture, + which now lacks nothing but your signature. Our worthy + mayor has ordered, on your account, a new official + scarf, which is on the way from Paris. You will have + the first benefit of it. Your apartment (which will + soon belong to a plural 'you') is elegant, in + proportion to your present fortune. You are to + occupy....; but the house has changed so in three + years, that my description would be incomprehensible to + you. M. Audret, the architect of the imperial chateau, + directed the work. He actually wanted to construct me a + laboratory worthy of Thenard or Duprez. I earnestly + protested against it, and said that I was not yet + worthy of one, as my celebrated work on the + Condensation of Gases had only reached the fourth + chapter. But as your mother was in collusion with the + old scamp of a friend, it has turned out that science + has henceforth a temple in our house--a regular + sorcerer's den, according to the picturesque expression + of your old Gothon: it lacks nothing, not even a + four-horse-power steam engine. Alas! what can I do with + it? I am confident, nevertheless, that the expenditure + will not be altogether lost to the world. You are not + going to sleep upon your laurels. Oh, if I had only had + your fortune when I had your youth! I would have + dedicated my days to pure science, instead of losing + the best part of them among those poor young men who + got nothing from my lectures but an opportunity to read + Paul de Kock. I would have been ambitious!--I would + have striven to connect my name with the discovery of + some great general law, or at least with the invention + of some very useful apparatus. It is too late now; my + eyes are worn out, and the brain itself refuses to + work. Take your turn, my boy! You are not yet + twenty-six, the Ural mines have given you the + wherewithal to live at ease, and, for yourself alone, + you have no further wants to satisfy; the time has come + to work for humanity. That you will do so, is the + strongest wish and dearest hope of your doting old + father, who loves you and who waits for you with open + arms. + + "J. RENAULT. + + "P. S. According to my calculations, this letter ought + to reach Berlin two or three days before you. You have + been already informed by the papers of the 7th inst. of + the death of the illustrious Humboldt. It is a cause of + mourning to science and to humanity. I have had the + honor of writing to that great man several times in my + life, and he once deigned to reply, in a letter which I + piously cherish. If you happen to have an opportunity to + buy some personal souvenir of him, a bit of his + handwriting or some fragment of his collections, you + will bring me a real pleasure." + +A month after the departure of this letter, the son so eagerly looked +for returned to the paternal mansion. M. and Mme. Renault, who went to +meet him at the depot, found him taller, stouter, and better-looking in +every way. In fact, he was no longer merely a remarkable boy, but a man +of good and pleasing proportions. Leon Renault was of medium height, +light hair and complexion, plump and well made. His large blue eyes, +sweet voice, and silken beard indicated a nature sensitive rather than +powerful. A very white, round, and almost feminine neck contrasted +singularly with a face bronzed by exposure. His teeth were beautiful, +very delicate, a little inclined backward, and very evenly shaped. When +he pulled off his gloves, he displayed two small and rather pudgey +hands, quite firm and yet pleasantly soft, neither hot nor cold, nor dry +nor damp, but agreeable to the touch and cared-for to perfection. + +As he was, his father and mother would not have exchanged him for the +Apollo Belvedere. They embraced him rapturously, overwhelming him with a +thousand questions, most of which he, of course, failed to answer. Some +old friends of the family, a doctor, an architect, and a notary, had run +to the depot with the good old people; each one of them in turn gave him +a hug, and asked him if he was well, and if he had had a pleasant +journey. He listened patiently and even joyfully to this common-place +music whose words did not signify much, but whose melody went to the +heart because it came from the heart. + +They had been there a good quarter of an hour, the train had gone +puffing on its way, the omnibuses of the various hotels had started one +after another at a good trot up the street leading to the city, and the +June sun seemed to enjoy lighting up this happy group of excellent +people. But Madame Renault cried out all at once that the poor child +must be dying of hunger, and that it was barbarous to keep him waiting +for his dinner any longer. There was no use in his protesting that he +had breakfasted at Paris, and that the voice of hunger appealed to him +less strongly than that of joy. They all got into two carriages, the son +beside his mother, the father opposite, as if he could not keep his +eyes off his boy. A wagon came behind with the trunks, long boxes, +chests, and the rest of the traveller's baggage. At the entrance of the +town, the hackmen cracked their whips, the baggage-men followed the +example, and this cheerful clatter drew the people to their doors and +woke up for an instant the quietude of the streets. Madame Renault threw +her glances right and left, searching out the spectators of her triumph, +and saluting with most cordial affability people she hardly knew at all. +And more than one mother saluted her, too, without knowing her; for +there is no mother indifferent to such kinds of happiness, and, +moreover, Leon's family was liked by everybody. And the neighbors, +meeting each other, said with a satisfaction free from jealousy: + +"That is Renault's son, who has been at work three years in the Russian +mines, and now has come to share his fortune with his old parents." + +Leon also noticed several familiar faces, but not all that he wished to +see. For he bent over an instant to his mother's ear, saying: "And +Clementine?" This word was pronounced so low and so close that M. +Renault himself could not tell whether it was a word or a kiss. The good +lady smiled tenderly, and answered but a single word: "Patience!" As if +patience were a virtue very common among lovers! + +The door of the house was wide open, and old Gothon was standing on the +threshold. She raised her arms toward heaven and cried like a booby, +for she had known Leon since he was not much higher than her wash-tub. +There was now another formidable hugging on the upper step, between the +good old servant and her young master. After a reasonable interval, the +friends of M. Renault prepared to leave, but it was wasted pains; for +they were assured that their places at table had already been prepared. +And when all save the invisible Clementine were reassembled in the +parlor, the great round-backed chairs held out their arms to the scion +of the house of Renault; the old mirror on the mantle delighted to +reflect his image; the great chandelier chimed a little song of welcome +with its crystal pendants, and the mandarins on the etagere shook their +heads in sign of welcome, as if they were orthodox _penates_ instead of +strangers and pagans. No one can tell why kisses and tears began to rain +down again, but it certainly did seem as if he had once more just +returned. + +"Soup!" cried Gothon. + +Madame Renault took the arm of her son, contrary to all the laws of +etiquette, and without even apologizing to the honored guests present. +She scarcely excused herself, even, for helping the son before the +company. Leon let her have her own way, and took it all smilingly: there +was not a guest there who was not ready to upset his soup over his +waistcoat rather than taste it before Leon. + +"Mother!" cried Leon, spoon in hand, "this is the first time for three +years that I've tasted good soup." Madame Renault felt herself blush +with satisfaction, and Gothon was so overcome that she dropped a plate. +Both fancied that possibly he had spoken to please their self-conceit; +but nevertheless he spoke truly. There are two things in this world +which a man does not often find away from home: the first is good soup; +the second is disinterested love. + +If I should attempt here an accurate enumeration of all the dishes that +appeared on the table, there would not be one of my readers whose mouth +would not water. I believe, indeed, that more than one delicate lady +would be in danger of an attack of indigestion. Suppose, if you please, +that such a list would reach nearly to the end of the volume, leaving me +but a single page on which to write the marvellous history of Fougas. +Therefore I forthwith return to the parlor, where coffee is already +served. + +Leon took scarcely half of his cup: but do not let that lead you to +infer that the coffee was too hot, or too cold, or too sweet. Nothing in +the world would have prevented his drinking it to the last drop, if a +knock at the street-door had not stopped it just opposite his heart. + +The minute which followed appeared to him interminable. Never in his +travels had he encountered such a long minute. But at length Clementine +appeared, preceded by the worthy Mlle. Virginie Sambucco, her aunt; and +the mandarins who smiled on the etagere heard the sound of three +kisses. Wherefore three? The superficial reader, who pretends to +foresee things before they are written, has already found a very +probable explanation. "Of course," says he, "Leon was too respectful to +embrace the dignified Mlle. Sambucco more than once, but when he came to +Clementine, who was soon to become his wife, he very properly doubled +the dose." Now sir, that is what I call a premature judgment! The first +kiss fell from the mouth of Leon upon the cheek of Mlle. Sambucco; the +second was applied by the lips of Mlle. Sambucco to the right cheek of +Leon; the third was, in fact, an accident that plunged two young hearts +into profound consternation. + +Leon, who was very much in love with his betrothed, rushed to her +blindly, uncertain whether he would kiss her right cheek or her left, +but determined not to put off too long a pleasure which he had been +promising himself ever since the spring of 1856. Clementine did not +dream of defending herself, but was fully prepared to apply her pretty +rosy lips to Leon's right cheek or his left, indifferently. The +precipitation of the two young people brought it about that neither +Clementine's cheeks nor Leon's received the offering intended for them. +And the mandarins on the etagere, who fully expected to hear two kisses, +heard but one. And Leon was confounded, and Clementine blushed up to her +ears, and the two lovers retreated a step, intently regarding the roses +of the carpet which will remain eternally graven upon their memories. + +In the eyes of Leon Renault, Clementine was the most beautiful creature +in the world. He had loved her for little more than three years, and it +was somewhat on her account that he had taken the journey to Russia. In +1856 she was too young to marry, and too rich for an engineer with a +salary of 2,400 francs to properly make pretentions to her hand. Leon, +who was a good mathematician, proposed to himself the following problem: +"Given--one young girl, fifteen and a half years old, with an income of +8,000 francs, and threatened with the inheritance from Mlle. Sambucco +of, say 200,000 more:--to obtain a fortune at least equal to hers within +such a period as will give her time enough to grow up, without leaving +her time enough to become an old maid." He had found the solution in the +Ural mines. + +During three long years, he had indirectly corresponded with the beloved +of his heart. All the letters which he wrote to his father or mother, +passed into the hands of Mlle. Sambucco, who did not keep them from +Clementine. Sometimes, indeed, they were read aloud in the family, and +M. Renault was never obliged to omit a phrase, for Leon never wrote +anything which a young girl should not hear. The aunt and the niece had +no other distractions; they lived retired in a little house at the end +of a pretty garden, and received no one but old friends. Clementine, +therefore, deserved but little credit for keeping her heart for Leon. +With the exception of a big colonel of cuirassiers, who sometimes +followed her in her walks, no man had ever made any demonstrations +toward her. + +She was very pretty withal, and not so merely to the eyes of her lover, +or of the Renault family, or of the little city where she lived. +Provincial towns are apt to be easily satisfied. They give the +reputation of being a pretty woman or a great man, cheaply; especially +when they are not rich enough in such commodities to show themselves +over particular. In capitals, however, people claim to admire nothing +but absolute merit. I have heard the mayor of a village say, with a +certain pride: "Admit now, that my servant Catherine is right pretty, +for a village of six hundred people!" Clementine was pretty enough to be +admired in a city of eight hundred thousand. Fancy to yourself a little +blonde creole, with black eyes, creamy complexion and dazzling teeth. +Her figure was round and supple as a twig, and was finished off with +dainty hands and pretty Andalusian feet, arched and beautifully rounded. +All her glances were smiles, and all her movements caresses. Add to +this, that she was neither a fool nor a prude, nor even an ignoramus +like girls brought up in convents. Her education, which was begun by her +mother, had been completed by two or three respectable old professors +selected by M. Renault, who was her guardian. She had a sound heart, and +a quick mind. But I may reasonably ask myself why I have so much to say +about her, for she is still living; and, thank God! not one of her +perfections has departed. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +UNPACKING BY CANDLE-LIGHT. + + +About ten o'clock in the evening, Mlle. Virginie Sambucco said it was +time to think of going home: the ladies lived with monastic regularity. +Leon protested; but Clementine obeyed, though not without pouting a +little. Already the parlor door was open, and the old lady had taken her +hood in the hall, when the engineer, suddenly struck with an idea, +exclaimed: + +"You surely won't go without helping me to open my trunks! I demand it +of you as a favor, my good Mademoiselle Sambucco!" + +The respectable lady paused: custom urged her to go; kindness inclined +her to stay; an atom of curiosity swayed the balance. + +"I'm so glad!" cried Clementine, replacing her aunt's hood on the rack. + +Mme. Renault did not yet know where they had put Leon's baggage. Gothon +came to say that everything had been thrown pell-mell into the +sorcerer's den, to remain there until Monsieur should point out what he +wanted taken to his own room. The whole company, armed with lamps and +candles, betook themselves to a vast room on the ground floor, where +furnaces, retorts, philosophical instruments, boxes, trunks, clothes +bags, hat boxes and the famous steam-engine, formed a confused and +entertaining spectacle. The light played about this interior, as it +appears to in certain pictures of the Dutch school. It glanced upon the +great yellow cylinders of the electric machine, struck upon the long +glass bottles, rebounded from two silver reflectors, and rested, in +passing, upon a magnificent Fortin barometer. The Renaults and their +friends, grouped in the midst of the boxes--some sitting, some standing, +one holding a lamp, another a candle--detracted nothing from the +picturesqueness of the scene. + +Leon, with a bunch of little keys, opened the boxes one after another. +Clementine was seated opposite him on a great oblong box, and watched +him with all her eyes, more from affection than curiosity. They began by +setting to one side two enormous square boxes which contained nothing +but mineralogical specimens. After this they passed in review the riches +of all kinds which the engineer had crowded among his linen and +clothing. + +A pleasant odor of Russia leather, tea from the caravans, Levant +tobacco, and attar of roses soon permeated the laboratory. Leon brought +forth a little at a time, as is the custom of all rich travellers who, +on leaving home, left a family and good stock of friends behind. He +exhibited, in turn, fabrics of the Asiatic looms, narghiles of embossed +silver from Persia, boxes of tea, sherbets flavored with rose, precious +extracts, golden webs from Tarjok, antique armor, a service of frosted +silver of Toula make, jewelry mounted in the Russian style, Caucasian +bracelets, necklaces of milky amber, and a leather sack full of +turquoises such as they sell at the fair of Nijni Novgorod. Each object +passed from hand to hand amid questions, explanations, and interjections +of all kinds. All the friends present received the gifts intended for +them. There was a concert of polite refusals, friendly urgings, and +'thank-yous' in all sorts of voices. It is unnecessary to say that much +the greater share fell to the lot of Clementine; but she did not wait to +be urged to accept them, for, in the existing state of affairs, all +these pretty things would be but as a part of the wedding gifts--not +going out of the family. + +Leon had brought his father an exceedingly handsome dressing gown of a +cloth embroidered with gold, some antiquarian books found in Moscow, a +pretty picture by Greuze, which had been stuck out of the way, by the +luckiest of accidents, in a mean shop at Gastinitvor; two magnificent +specimens of rock-crystal, and a cane that had belonged to Humboldt. +"You see," said he to M. Renault, on handing him this historic staff, +"that the postscript of your last letter did not fall overboard." The +old professor received the present with visible emotion. + +"I will never use it," said he to his son. "The Napoleon of science has +held it in his hand: what would one think if an old sergeant like me +should permit himself to carry it in his walks in the woods? And the +collections? Were you not able to buy anything from them? Did they sell +very high?" + +"They were not sold," answered Leon. "All were placed in the National +Museum at Berlin. But in my eagerness to satisfy you, I made a thief of +myself in a strange way. The very day of my arrival, I told your wish to +a guide who was showing me the place. He told me that a friend of his, a +little Jew broker by the name of Ritter, wanted to sell a very fine +anatomical specimen that had belonged to the estate. I ran to the Jew's, +examined the mummy, for such it was, and, without any haggling, paid the +price he asked. But the next day, a friend of Humboldt, Professor Hirtz, +told me the history of this shred of a man, which had been lying around +the shop for more than ten years, and never belonged to Humboldt at all. +Where the deuce has Gothon stowed it? Ah! Mlle. Clementine is sitting on +it." + +Clementine attempted to rise, but Leon made her keep seated. + +"We have plenty of time," said he, "to take a look at the old baggage; +meanwhile you can well imagine that it is not a very cheerful sight. +This is the history that good old Hirtz told me; he promised to send +me, in addition, a copy of a very curious memoir on the same subject. +Don't go yet, my dear Mademoiselle Sambucco; I have a little military +and scientific romance for you. We will look at the mummy as soon as I +have acquainted you with his misfortunes." + +"Aha!" cried M. Audret, the architect of the chateau, "it's the romance +of the mummy, is it, that you're going to tell us? Too late my poor +Leon! Theophile Gautier has gotten ahead of you, in the supplement to +the _Moniteur_, and all the world knows your Egyptian history." + +"My history," said Leon, "is no more Egyptian than Manon Lescault. Our +excellent doctor Martout, here, ought to know the name of professor John +Meiser, of Dantzic; he lived at the beginning of this century, and I +think that his last work appeared in 1824 or 1825." + +"In 1823," replied M. Martout. "Meiser is one of the scientific men who +have done Germany most honor. In the midst of terrible wars which +drenched his country in blood, he followed up the researches of +Leeuwenkoeck, Baker, Needham, Fontana, and Spallanzani, on the +revivification of animals. Our profession honors in him, one of the +fathers of modern biology." + +"Heavens! What ugly big words!" cried Mlle. Sambucco. "Is it decent to +keep people till this time of night, to make them listen to Dutch." + +"Don't listen to the big words, dear little auntey. Save yourself for +the romance, since there is one." + +"A terrible one!" said Leon. "Mlle. Clementine is seated over a human +victim, sacrificed to science by professor Meiser." + +Clementine instantly got up. Her fiance handed her a chair, and seated +himself in the place she had just left. The listeners, fearing that +Leon's romance might be in several volumes, took their places around +him, some on boxes, some on chairs. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE CRIME OF THE LEARNED PROFESSOR MEISER. + + +"Ladies," said Leon, "Professor Meiser was no vulgar malefactor, but a +man devoted to science and humanity. If he killed the French colonel who +at this moment reposes beneath my coat tails, it was for the sake of +saving his life, as well as of throwing light on a question of the +deepest interest, even to each one of you. + +"The duration of our existence is very much too brief. That is a fact +which no man can contradict. We know that in a hundred years, not one of +the nine or ten persons assembled in this house will be living on the +face of the earth. Is not this a deplorable fact?" + +Mlle. Sambucco heaved a heavy sigh, and Leon continued: + +"Alas! Mademoiselle, like you I have sighed many a time at the +contemplation of this dire necessity. You have a niece, the most +beautiful and the most adorable of all nieces, and the sight of her +charming face gladdens your heart. But you yearn for something more; you +will not be satisfied until you have seen your little grand nephews +trotting around. You will see them I earnestly believe. But will you +see their children? It is doubtful. Their grandchildren? Impossible! In +regard to the tenth, twentieth, thirtieth generation, it is useless even +to dream. + +"One _will_ dream of it, nevertheless, and perhaps there is no man who +has not said to himself at least once in his life: 'If I could but come +to life again in a couple of centuries!' One would wish to return to +earth to seek news of his family; another, of his dynasty. A philosopher +is anxious to know if the ideas that he has planted will have borne +fruit; a politician, if his party will have obtained the upper hand; a +miser, if his heirs will not have dissipated the fortune he has made; a +mere land-holder, if the trees in his garden will have grown tall. No +one is indifferent to the future destinies of this world, which we +gallop through in a few years, never to return to it again. Who has not +envied the lot of Epimenides, who went to sleep in a cave, and, on +reopening his eyes, perceived that the world had grown old? Who has not +dreamed, on his own account, of the marvellous adventure of the sleeping +Beauty in the wood? + +"Well, ladies, Professor Meiser, one of the least visionary men of the +age, was persuaded that science could put a living being to sleep and +wake him up again at the end of an infinite number of years--arrest all +the functions of the system, suspend life itself, protect an individual +against the action of time for a century or two, and afterwards +resuscitate him." + +"He was a fool then!" cried Madame Renault. + +"I wouldn't swear it. But he had his own ideas touching the main-spring +which moves a living organism. Do you remember, good mother mine, the +impression you experienced as a little girl, when some one first showed +you the inside of a watch in motion? You were satisfied that there was a +restless little animal inside the case, who worked twenty-four hours a +day at turning the hands. If the hands stopped going, you said: 'It is +because the little animal is dead.' Yet possibly he was only asleep. + +"It has since been explained to you that a watch contains an assemblage +of parts well fitted to each other and kept well oiled, which, being +wound, can be considered to move spontaneously in a perfect +correspondence. If a spring become broken, if a bit of the wheel work be +injured, or if a grain of sand insinuate itself between two of the +parts, the watch stops, and the children say rightly: 'The little animal +is dead.' But suppose a sound watch, well made, right in every +particular, and stopped because the machinery would not run from lack of +oil; the little animal is not dead; nothing but a little oil is needed +to wake him up. + +"Here is a first-rate chronometer, made in London. It runs fifteen days +without being wound. I gave it a turn of the key yesterday: it has, +then, thirteen days to run. If I throw it on the ground, or if I break +the main-spring, all is over. I will have killed the little animal. But +suppose that, without damaging anything, I find means to withdraw or dry +up the fine oil which now enables the parts to slip upon one another: +will the little animal be dead? No! It will be asleep. And the proof is +that I can lay my watch in a drawer, keep it there twenty-five years, +and if, after a quarter of a century, I put a drop of oil on it, the +parts will begin to move again. All that time would have passed without +waking up the little sleeping animal. It will still have thirteen days +to go, after the time when it starts again. + +"All living beings, according to the opinion of Professor Meiser, are +watches, or organisms which move, breathe, nourish themselves, and +reproduce themselves as long as their organs are intact and properly +oiled. The oil of the watch is represented in the animal by an enormous +quantity of water. In man, for example, water provides about four-fifths +of the whole weight. Given--a colonel weighing a hundred and fifty +pounds, there are thirty pounds of colonel and a hundred and twenty +pounds, or about sixty quarts, of water. This is a fact proven by +numerous experiments. I say a colonel just as I would say a king; all +men are equal when submitted to analysis. + +"Professor Meiser was satisfied, as are all physiologists, that to +break a colonel's head, or to make a hole in his heart, or to cut his +spinal column in two, is to kill the little animal; because the brain, +the heart, the spinal marrow are the indispensable springs, without +which the machine cannot go. But he thought too, that in removing sixty +quarts of water from a living person, one merely puts the little animal +to sleep without killing him--that a colonel carefully dried up, can +remain preserved a hundred years, and then return to life whenever any +one will replace in him the drop of oil, or rather the sixty quarts of +water, without which the human machine cannot begin moving again. + +"This opinion, which may appear inadmissible to you and to me too, but +which is not absolutely rejected by our friend Doctor Martout, rests +upon a series of reliable observations which the merest tyro can verify +to-day. There _are_ animals which can be resuscitated: nothing is more +certain or better proven. Herr Meiser, like the Abbe Spallanzani and +many others, collected from the gutter of his roof some little dried +worms which were brittle as glass, and restored life to them by soaking +them in water. The capacity of thus returning to life, is not the +privilege of a single species: its existence has been satisfactorily +established in numerous and various animals. The genus Volvox--the +little worms or wormlets in vinegar, mud, spoiled paste, or grain-smut; +the Rotifera--a kind of little shell-fish protected by a carapace, +provided with a good digestive apparatus, of separate sexes, having a +nervous system with a distinct brain, having either one or two eyes, +according to the genus, a crystalline lens, and an optic nerve; the +Tardigrades--which are little spiders with six or eight legs, separate +sexes, regular digestive apparatus, a mouth, two eyes, a very well +defined nervous system, and a very well developed muscular system;--all +these die and revive ten or fifteen times consecutively, at the will of +the naturalist. One dries up a rotifer: good night to him; somebody +soaks him a little, and he wakes up to bid you good day. All depends +upon taking great care while he is dry. You understand that if any one +should merely break his head, no drop of water, nor river, nor ocean +could restore him. + +"The marvellous thing is, that an animal which cannot live more than a +year, like the minute worm in grain-smut, can lie by twenty-four years +without dying, if one has taken the precaution of desiccating him. + +"Needham collected a lot of them in 1743; he presented them to Martin +Folkes, who gave them to Baker, and these interesting creatures revived +in water in 1771. They enjoyed a rare satisfaction in elbowing their own +twenty-eighth generation. Wouldn't a man who should see his own +twenty-eighth generation be a happy grandfather? + +"Another no less interesting fact is that desiccated animals have vastly +more tenacity of life than others. If the temperature were suddenly to +fall thirty degrees in this laboratory, we should all get inflammation +of the lungs. If it were to rise as much, there would be danger of +congestion of the brain. Well, a desiccated animal, which is not +absolutely dead, and which will revive to-morrow if I soak it, faces +with impunity, variations of ninety-five degrees and six-tenths. M. +Meiser and plenty of others have proved it. + +"It remains to inquire, then, if a superior animal, a man for instance, +can be desiccated without any more disastrous consequences than a little +worm or a tardigrade. M. Meiser was convinced that it is practicable; he +wrote to that effect in all his books, although he did not demonstrate +it by experiment. + +"Now where would be the harm in it, ladies? All men curious in regard to +the future, or dissatisfied with life, or out of sorts with their +contemporaries, could hold themselves in reserve for a better age, and +we should have no more suicides on account of misanthropy. +Valetudinarians, whom the ignorant science of the nineteenth century +declares incurable, needn't blow their brains out any more; they can +have themselves dried up and wait peaceably in a box until Medicine +shall have found a remedy for their disorders. Rejected lovers need no +longer throw themselves into the river; they can put themselves under +the receiver of an air pump, and make their appearance thirty years +later, young, handsome and triumphant, satirizing the age of their cruel +charmers, and paying them back scorn for scorn. Governments will give +up the unnatural and barbarous custom of guillotining dangerous people. +They will no longer shut them up in cramped cells at Mazas to complete +their brutishness; they will not send them to the Toulon school to +finish their criminal education; they will merely dry them up in +batches--one for ten years, another for forty, according to the gravity +of their deserts. A simple store-house will replace the prisons, police +lock-ups and jails. There will be no more escapes to fear, no more +prisoners to feed. An enormous quantity of dried beans and mouldy +potatoes will be saved for the consumption of the country. + +"You have, ladies, a feeble delineation of the benefits which Doctor +Meiser hoped to pour upon Europe by introducing the desiccation of man. +He made his great experiment in 1813 on a French colonel--a prisoner, I +have been told, and condemned as a spy by court-martial. Unhappily he +did not succeed; for I bought the colonel and his box for the price of +an ordinary cavalry horse, in the dirtiest shop in Berlin." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE VICTIM. + + +"My dear Leon," said M. Renault, "you remind me of a college +commencement. We have listened to your dissertation just as they listen +to the Latin discourse of the professor of rhetoric; there are always in +the audience a majority which learns nothing from it, and a minority +which understands nothing of it. But every body listens patiently, on +account of the sensations which are to come by and by. M. Martout and I +are acquainted with Meiser's works, and those of his distinguished +pupil, M. Pouchet; you have, then, said too much that is in them, if you +intended to speak for our benefit; and you have not said enough that is +in them for these ladies and gentlemen who know nothing of the existing +discussions regarding the vital and organic principles. + +"Is life a principle of action which animates the organs and puts them +into play? Is it not, on the contrary, merely the result of +organization--the play of various functions of organized matter? This is +a problem of the highest importance, which would interest the ladies +themselves, if one were to place it plainly before them. It would be +sufficient to say: 'We inquire whether there is a vital principle--the +source of all functions of the body, or if life be not merely the result +of the regular play of the organs? The vital principle, in the eyes of +Meiser and his disciple, does not exist; if it really existed, they say, +one could not understand how it can leave a man and a tardigrade when +they are desiccated, and return to them again when they are soaked.' +Now, if there be no vital principle, all the metaphysical and moral +theories which have been hypothecated on its existence, must be +reconstructed. These ladies have listened to you patiently, it is but +justice to them to admit; but all that they have been able to gather +from your slightly Latinish discourse, is that you have given them a +dissertation instead of the romance you promised. But we all forgive you +for the sake of the mummy you are going to show us. Open the colonel's +box." + +"We've well earned the sight!" cried Clementine, laughing. + +"But suppose you were to get frightened?" + +"I'd have you know, sir, that I'm not afraid of anybody, not even of +live colonels!" + +Leon took his bunch of keys and opened the long oak box on which he had +been seated. The lid being raised, they saw a great leaden casket which +enclosed a magnificent walnut box carefully polished on the outside, and +lined on the inside with white silk, and padded. The others brought +their lamps and candles near, and the colonel of the 23d of the line +appeared as if he were in a chapel illuminated for his lying in state. + +One would have said that the man was asleep. The perfect preservation of +the body attested the paternal care of the murderer. It was truly a +remarkable preparation, and would have borne comparison with the finest +European mummies described by Vicq d'Azyr in 1779, and by the younger +Puymaurin in 1787. + +The part best preserved, as is always the case, was the face. All the +features had maintained a proud and manly expression. If any old friend +of the colonel had been present at the opening of the third box, he +would have recognized him at first sight. + +Undoubtedly the point of the nose was a little sharper, the nostrils +less expanded and thinner, and the bridge a little more marked than in +the year 1813. The eyelids were thinned, the lips pinched, the corners +of the mouth drawn down, the cheek bones too prominent, and the neck +visibly shrunken, which exaggerated the prominence of the chin and +larynx. But the eyelids were closed without contraction, and the sockets +much less hollow than one could have expected; the mouth was not at all +distorted like the mouth of a corpse; the skin was slightly wrinkled but +had not changed color; it had only become a little more transparent, +showing, after a fashion, the color of the tendons, the fat and the +muscles, wherever it rested directly upon them. It also had a rosy tint +which is not ordinarily seen in embalmed corpses. Doctor Martout +explained this anomaly by saying that if the colonel had actually been +dried alive, the globules of the blood were not decomposed, but simply +collected in the capillary vessels of the skin and subjacent tissues +where they still preserved their proper color, and could be seen more +easily than otherwise, on account of the semi-transparency of the skin. + +The uniform had become much too large, as may be readily understood; +though it did not seem, at a casual glance, that the members had become +deformed. The hands were dry and angular, but the nails, although a +little bent inward toward the root, had preserved all their freshness. +The only very noticeable change was the excessive depression of the +abdominal walls, which seemed crowded downward toward the posterior +side; at the right, a slight elevation indicated the place of the liver. +A tap of the finger on the various parts of the body, produced a sound +like that from dry leather. While Leon was pointing out these details to +his audience and doing the honors of his mummy he awkwardly broke off +the lower part of the right ear, and a little piece of the Colonel +remained in his hand. + +This trifling accident might have passed unnoticed, had not Clementine, +who followed with visible emotion all the movements of her lover, +dropped her candle and uttered a cry of affright. All gathered around +her. Leon took her in his arms and carried her to a chair. M. Renault +ran after salts. She was as pale as death, and seemed on the point of +fainting. + +She soon recovered, however, and reassured them all by a charming smile. + +"Pardon me," she said, "for such a ridiculous exhibition of terror; but +what Monsieur Leon was saying to us ... and then ... that figure which +seemed sleeping ... it appeared to me that the poor man was going to +open his mouth and cry out when he was injured." + +Leon hastened to close the walnut box, while M. Martout picked up the +piece of ear and put it in his pocket. But Clementine, while continuing +to smile and make apologies, was overcome by a fresh accession of +emotion and melted into tears. The engineer threw himself at her feet, +poured forth excuses and tender phrases, and did all he could to console +her inexplicable grief. Clementine dried her eyes, looked prettier than +ever, and sighed fit to break her heart, without knowing why. + +"Beast that I am!" muttered Leon, tearing his hair. "On the day when I +see her again after three years' absence, I can think of nothing more +soul-inspiring than showing her mummies!" He launched a kick at the +triple coffin of the Colonel, saying: "I wish the devil had the +confounded Colonel!" + +"No!" cried Clementine with redoubled energy and emotion. "Do not curse +him, Monsieur Leon! He has suffered so much! Ah! poor, poor unfortunate +man!" + +Mlle. Sambucco felt a little ashamed. She made excuses for her niece, +and declared that never, since her tenderest childhood, had she +manifested such extreme sensitiveness. M. and Mme. Renault, who had seen +her grow up; Doctor Martout who had held the sinecure of physician to +her; the architect, the notary, in a word, everybody present was plunged +into a state of absolute stupefaction. Clementine was no sensitive +plant. She was not even a romantic school girl. Her youth had not been +nourished by Anne Radcliffe, she did not trouble herself about ghosts, +and she would go through the house very tranquilly at ten o'clock at +night without a candle. When her mother died, some months before Leon's +departure, she did not wish to have any one share with her the sad +satisfaction of watching and praying in the death-chamber. + +"This will teach us," said the aunt, "how to stay up after ten o'clock. +What! It is midnight, all to quarter of an hour! Come, my child; you +will get better fast enough after you get to bed." + +Clementine arose submissively, but at the moment of leaving the +laboratory she retraced her steps, and with a caprice more inexplicable +than her grief, she absolutely wished to see the mummy of the colonel +again. Her aunt scolded in vain; in spite of the remarks of Mlle. +Sambucco and all the persons present, she reopened the walnut box, +kneeled down beside the mummy and kissed it on the forehead. + +"Poor man!" said she, rising, "How cold he is! Monsieur Leon, promise me +that if he is dead you will have him laid in consecrated ground!" + +"As you please, Mademoiselle. I had intended to send him to the +anthropological museum, with my father's permission; but you know that +we can refuse you nothing." + +They did not separate as gaily, by a good deal, as they had met. M. +Renault and his son escorted Mlle. Sambucco and her niece to their door, +and met the big colonel of cuirassiers who had been honoring Clementine +with his attentions. The young girl tenderly pressed the arm of her +betrothed and said: "Here is a man who never sees me without sighing. +And what sighs! Gracious Heavens! It wouldn't take more than two to fill +the sails of a a ship. The race of colonels has vastly degenerated since +1813. One doesn't see any more such fine looking ones as our unfortunate +friend." + +Leon agreed with all she said. But he did not exactly see how he had +become the friend of a mummy for which he had just paid twenty-five +louis. To divert the conversation, he said to Clementine: "I have not +yet shown you all the nice things I brought. His majesty, the Emperor of +all the Russias, made me a present of a little enamelled gold star +hanging at the end of a ribbon. Do you like button-hole ribbons?" + +"Oh, yes!" answered she, "the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor. Did you +notice? The poor colonel still has a shred of one on his uniform, but +the cross is there no longer. Those wicked Germans tore it away from him +when they took him prisoner!" + +"It's very possible," said Leon. + +When they reached Mlle. Sambucco's house, it was time to separate. +Clementine offered her hand to Leon, who would have been better pleased +with her cheek. + +Father and son returned home arm in arm, with slow steps, giving +themselves up to endless conjectures regarding the whimsical emotions of +Clementine. + +Mme. Renault was waiting to put her son to bed; a time-honored and +touching habit which mothers do not early lose. She showed him the +handsome apartment above the parlor and M. Renault's laboratory, which +had been prepared for his future domicile. + +"You will be as snug in here as a little cock in a pie," said she, +showing him a bed-chamber fairly marvellous in its comfort. "All the +furniture is soft and rounded, without a single angle. A blind man could +walk here without any fear of hurting himself. See how I understand +domestic comfort! Why, each arm-chair can be a friend! This will cost +you a trifle. Penon Brothers came from Paris expressly. But a man ought +to be comfortable at home, so that he may have no temptation to go +abroad." + +This sweet motherly prattle stretched itself over two good hours, and +much of it related to Clementine, as you will readily suppose. Leon had +found her prettier than he had dreamed her in his sweetest visions, but +less loving. "Devil take me!" said he, blowing out his candle; "One +might think that that confounded stuffed Colonel had come to thrust +himself between us." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +DREAMS OF LOVE, AND OTHER DREAMS. + + +Leon learned to his cost, that a good conscience and a good bed are not +enough to insure a good sleep. He was bedded like a sybarite, innocent +as an Arcadian shepherd, and, moreover, tired as a soldier after a +forced march; nevertheless a dull sleeplessness weighed upon him until +morning. In vain he tossed into every possible position, as if to shift +the burden from one shoulder on to the other. He did not close his eyes +until he had seen the first glimmering of dawn silver the chinks of his +shutters. + +He lulled himself to sleep thinking of Clementine; an obliging dream +soon showed him the image of her he loved. He saw her in bridal costume, +in the chapel of the imperial chateau. She was leaning on the arm of the +elder M. Renault, who had put spurs on in honor of the ceremony. Leon +followed, having given his arm to Mlle. Sambucco; the ancient maiden was +decorated with the insignia of the Legion of Honor. On approaching the +altar, the bridegroom noticed that his father's legs were as thin as +broomsticks, and, when he was about expressing his astonishment, M. +Renault turned around and said to him: "They are thin because they are +desiccated; but they are not deformed." While he was giving this +explanation, his face altered, his features changed, he shot out a black +moustache, and grew terribly like the Colonel. The ceremony began. The +choir was filled with tardigrades and rotifers as large as men and +dressed like choristers: they intoned, in solemn measure, a hymn of the +German composer, Meiser, which began thus: + + The vital principle + Is a gratuitous hypothesis! + +The poetry and the music appeared admirable to Leon; he was trying to +impress them on his memory when the officiating priest advanced toward +him with two gold rings on a silver salver. This priest was a colonel of +cuirassiers in full uniform. Leon asked himself when and where he had +met him. It was on the previous evening before Clementine's door. The +cuirassier murmured these words: "The race of colonels has vastly +degenerated since 1813." He heaved a profound sigh, and the nave of the +chapel, which was a ship-of-the-line, was driven over the water at a +speed of forty knots. Leon tranquilly took the little gold ring and +prepared to place it on Clementine's finger, but he perceived that the +hand of his betrothed was dried up; the nails alone had retained their +natural freshness. He was frightened and fled across the church, which +he found filled with colonels of every age and variety. The crowd was +so dense that the most unheard-of efforts failed to penetrate it. He +escapes at last, but hears behind him the hurried steps of a man who +tries to catch him. He doubles his speed, he throws himself on +all-fours, he gallops, he neighs, the trees on the way seem to fly +behind him, he no longer touches the earth. But the enemy comes up +faster than the wind; Leon hears the sound of his steps, his spurs +jingle; he catches up with Leon, seizes him by the mane, flings himself +with a bound upon his back, and goads him with the spur. Leon rears; the +rider bends over toward his ear and says, stroking him with his whip: "I +am not heavy to carry:--thirty pounds of colonel." The unhappy lover of +Mlle. Clementine makes a violent effort and springs sideways; the +Colonel falls and draws his sword. Leon loses no time; he puts himself +on guard and fights, but almost instantly feels the Colonel's sword +enter his heart to the hilt. The chill of the blade spreads further and +further, and ends by freezing Leon from head to foot. The Colonel draws +nearer and says, smiling: "The main-spring is broken; the little animal +is dead." He puts the body in the walnut box, which is too short and too +narrow. Cramped on every side, Leon struggles, strains and wakes himself +up, worn out with fatigue and half smothered between the bed and the +wall. + +He quickly jumped into his slippers and eagerly raised the windows and +pushed open the shutters. "He made light, and saw that it was good," as +is elsewhere written. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Brrroum! He shook off +the recollections of his dream as a wet dog shakes off drops of water. +The famous London chronometer told him that it was nine o'clock. A cup +of chocolate, served by Gothon, helped not a little to untangle his +ideas. On proceeding with his toilet, in a very bright, cheerful and +convenient dressing-room, he reconciled himself to the realities of +life. "Everything considered," he said to himself, combing out his +yellow beard, "nothing but happiness has come to me. Here I am in my +native country, with my family and in a pretty house which is our own. +My father and mother are both well, and, for myself, I revel in the most +luxuriant health. Our fortune is moderate, but so are our tastes, and we +shall never feel the want of anything. Our friends received me yesterday +with open arms; and as for enemies we have none. The prettiest girl in +Fontainebleau is willing to become my wife; I can marry her in less than +three weeks if I see fit to hurry things a little. Clementine did not +meet me as if I were of no interest to her; far from it. Her lovely eyes +smiled upon me last night with the most tender regard. It is true that +she wept at the end, that's too certain. That is my only vexation, my +only anxiety, the sole cause of that foolish dream I had last night. She +did weep, but why? Because I was beast enough to regale her with a +lecture, and that, too, about a mummy. All right! I'll have the mummy +buried; I'll hold back my dissertations, and nothing else in the world +will come to disturb our happiness." + +He went down stairs, humming an air from the _Nozze_. M. and Mme. +Renault, who were not accustomed to going to bed after midnight, were +still asleep. On going into the laboratory, he saw that the triple box +of the Colonel was closed. Gothon had placed a little wooden cross and a +sprig of consecrated box on the cover. "We may as well begin masses for +his soul," he murmured between his teeth, with a smile that might have +been a little sceptical. At the same time he noticed that Clementine, in +her agitation, had forgotten the presents he had brought her. He made a +bundle of them, looked at his watch, and concluded that there would be +no indiscretion in straining a point to go to Mlle. Sambucco's. + +The much-to-be-respected aunt was an early riser, as they generally are +in the rural districts, and had, in fact, already gone out to church, +and Clementine was gardening near the house. She ran to her lover +without thinking of throwing down the little rake she held in her hand, +and with the sweetest smile in the world, held up her pretty rosy cheeks +which were a little moist and flushed by the pleasant warmth of pleasure +and exercise. + +"Aren't you put out with me?" said she. "I was very ridiculous last +night. My aunt has scolded me in the bargain. And I forgot to take the +pretty things you brought me from among the savages! But it was not +from lack of appreciation. I am so happy to see that you have always +thought of me as I have thought of you! I could have sent for them +to-day, but I am pleasantly anticipated. My heart told me that you would +come yourself." + +"Your heart knew me, dear Clementine." + +"It would be very unfortunate if it did not know its owner." + +"How good you are, and how much I love you!" + +"Oh! I, too, dear Leon, I love you dearly." + +She stood the rake against a tree, and hung upon the arm of her intended +husband with that supple and languishing grace, the secret of which the +creoles possess. + +"Come this way," said she, "so that I can show you all the improvements +we have made in the garden." + +Leon admired everything she wanted him to. The fact is that he had eyes +for nothing but her. The grotto of Polyphemus and the cave of Caecus +would have appeared to him pleasanter than the gardens of Armida, if +Clementine's little red jacket had been promenading in them. + +He asked her if she did not feel some regret in leaving so charming a +retreat, and one which she had embellished with so much care. + +"Why?" asked she, without thinking to blush. "We will not go far off, +and, besides, won't we come here every day?" + +The coming marriage was a thing so well settled, that it had not even +been spoken of on the previous evening. Nothing remained to be done but +to publish the bans and fix the date. Clementine, simple and honest +heart, expressed herself without any false modesty concerning an event +so entirely expected, so natural and so agreeable. She had expressed her +tastes to Mme. Renault in the arrangement of the new apartments, and +chosen the hangings herself; and she no longer made any ceremony in +talking with her intended of the happy life in common which was about +beginning for them, of the people they would invite to the marriage +ceremony, of the wedding calls to be made afterwards, of the day which +should be appropriated for receptions and of the time they would devote +to each other's society and to work. She inquired in regard to the +occupation which Leon intended to make for himself, and the hours which, +of preference, he would give to study. This excellent little woman would +have been ashamed to bear the name of a sloth, and unhappy in passing +her days with an idler. She promised Leon in advance, to respect his +work as a sacred thing. On her part she thoroughly intended to make her +time also of use, and not to live with folded arms. At the start she +would take charge of the housekeeping, under the direction of Madame +Renault, who was beginning to find it a little burdensome. And then +would she not soon have children to care for, bring up and educate? This +was a noble and useful pleasure which she did not intend to share with +any one. Nevertheless she would send her sons to college, in order to +fit them for living in the world, and to teach them early those +principles of justice and equality which are the foundation of every +good manly character. Leon let her talk on, only interrupting her to +agree with her: for these two young people who had been educated and +brought up with the same ideas, saw everything with the same eyes. +Education had created this pleasant harmony rather than Love. + +"Do you know," said Clementine, "that I felt an awful palpitation of the +heart when I entered the room where you were yesterday?" + +"If you think that my heart beat less violently than yours--" + +"Oh! but it was a different thing with me: I was afraid." + +"What of?" + +"I was afraid that I should not find you the same as I had seen you in +my thoughts. Remember that it had been three years since we bid each +other good bye. I remembered distinctly what you were when you went +away, and, with imagination helping memory a little, I had reconstructed +my Leon entire. But if you had no longer resembled him! What would have +become of me in the presence of a new Leon, when I had formed the +pleasant habit of loving the other?" + +"You make me tremble. But your first greeting reassured me in advance." + +"Tut, sir! Don't speak of that first greeting, or you will make me blush +a second time. Let us speak rather of that poor colonel who made me shed +so many tears. How is he getting along this morning?" + +"I forgot to inquire after his health, but if you want me to--" + +"It's useless. You can announce to him a visit from me to-day. It is +absolutely necessary that I should see him this noon." + +"You would be very sensible to give up this fancy. Why expose yourself +again to such painful emotions?" + +"The fancy is stronger than I am. Seriously, dear Leon, the old fellow +attracts me." + +"Why 'old fellow?' He has the appearance of a man who died when from +twenty-five to thirty years of age." + +"Are you very sure that he is dead? I said 'old fellow' because of a +dream I had last night." + +"Ha! You too?" + +"Yes. You remember how agitated I was on leaving you, and, moreover, I +had been scolded by my aunt. And, too, I had been thinking of terrible +sights--my poor mother lying on her death-bed. In fact, my spirits were +quite broken down." + +"Poor dear little heart!" + +"Nevertheless, as I did not want to think about anything any more, I +went to bed quickly, and shut my eyes with all my might, so tightly, +indeed, that I put myself to sleep. It was not long before I saw the +colonel. He was lying as I saw him in his triple coffin, but he had long +white hair and a most benign and venerable appearance. He begged us to +put him in consecrated ground, and we carried him, you and I, to the +Fontainebleau cemetery. On reaching my mother's tomb we saw that the +stone was displaced. My mother, in a white robe, was moved so as to make +a place beside her, and she seemed waiting for the colonel. But every +time we attempted to lay him down, the coffin left our hands and rested +suspended in the air, as if it had no weight. I could distinguish the +poor old man's features, for his triple coffin had become as transparent +as the alabaster lamp burning near the ceiling of my chamber. He was +sad, and his broken ear bled freely. All at once he escaped from our +hands, the coffin vanished, and I saw nothing but him, pale as a statue, +and tall as the tallest oaks of the _bas-Breau_. His golden epaulettes +spread out and became wings, and he raised himself to heaven, holding +over us both hands as if in blessing. I woke up all in tears, but I have +not told my dream to my aunt, for she would have scolded me again." + +"No one ought to be scolded but me, Clementine dear. It is my fault that +your gentle slumbers are troubled by visions of the other world. But all +this will be stopped soon: to-day I am going to seek a definite +receptacle for the Colonel." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A YOUNG GIRL'S CAPRICE. + + +Clementine had a fresh young heart. Before knowing Leon, she had loved +but one person--her mother. No cousins of either sex, nor uncles, nor +aunts, nor grandfathers, nor grandmothers, had dissipated, by dividing +it among themselves, that little treasure of affection which +well-constituted children bring into the world. The grandmother, +Clementine Pichon, was married at Nancy in January, 1814, and died three +months later in the suburbs of Toulon, during her first confinement. The +grandfather, M. Langevin, a sub-commissary of the first class, being +left a widower, with a daughter in the cradle, devoted himself to +bringing up his child. He gave her, in 1835, to M. Sambucco, an +estimable and agreeable man, of Italian extraction, born in France, and +King's counsel in the court of Marseilles. In 1838 M. Sambucco, who was +a man of considerable independence, because he had resources of his own, +in some manner highly honorable to himself, incurred the ill-will of the +Keeper of the Seals. He was therefore appointed Advocate-General to +Martinique, and after some days of hesitation, accepted the transfer to +that remote situation. But old M. Langevin did not easily console +himself for the departure of his daughter: he died two years later +without having embraced the little Clementine, to whom it was intended +that he should be godfather. M. Sambucco, his son-in-law, lost his life +in 1843, during an earthquake. The papers of the colony and of the +metropolis related at the time how he had fallen a victim to his +devotion to others. After this fearful misfortune, the young widow +hastened to recross the sea with her daughter. She settled in +Fontainebleau, in order that the child might live in a healthy +atmosphere. Fontainebleau is one of the healthiest places in France. If +Mme. Sambucco had been as good a manager as she was mother, she would +have left Clementine a respectable fortune, but she regulated her +affairs badly and got herself under heavy embarrassments. A neighboring +notary relieved her of a round sum; and two farms which she had paid +dearly for, brought her almost nothing. In short, she no longer knew +what her situation was, and began to lose all control of it, when a +sister of her husband, an old maid, pinched and pious, expressed a +desire to live with her and use their resources in common. The arrival +of this long-toothed spinster strangely frightened the little +Clementine, who hid herself under the furniture and nestled among her +mother's skirts; but it was the salvation of the house. Mlle. Sambucco +was not one of the most spirituelle nor one of the most romantic of +women, but she was Order incarnated. She reduced the expenses, handled +the resources herself, sold the two farms in 1847, bought some +three-per-cents. in 1848, and restored stable equilibrium in the budget. +Thanks to the talents and activity of this female steward, the gentle +and improvident widow had nothing to do but to fondle her child. +Clementine learned to honor the virtues of her aunt, but she adored her +mother. When she had the affliction of losing her, she found herself +alone in the world, leaning on Mlle. Sambucco, like a young plant on a +prop of dry wood. It was then that her friendship for Leon glimmered +with a vague ray of love; and young Renault profited by the necessity +for expansion which filled this youthful soul. + +During the three long years that Leon spent away from her, Clementine +scarcely knew that she was alone. She loved and felt that she was loved +in return; she had faith in the future, and an inner life of tenderness +and timid hope; and this noble and gentle heart required nothing more. + +But what completely astonished her betrothed, her aunt and herself, and +strangely subverted all the best accredited theories respecting the +feminine heart,--what, indeed, reason would have refused to credit had +it not been established by facts, was that the day when she again met +the husband of her choice, an hour after she had thrown herself into +Leon's arms with a grace so full of trust, Clementine was so abruptly +invaded by a new sentiment which was not love, nor friendship, nor fear, +but transcended them all and spoke with master tones in her heart. + +From the instant when Leon had shown her the figure of the Colonel, she +had been seized by an actual passion for this nameless mummy. It was +nothing like what she felt towards young Renault, but it was a +combination of interest, compassion and respectful sympathy. + +If any one had recounted some famous feat of arms, or some romantic +history of which the Colonel had been the hero, this impression would +have been natural, or, at least, explicable. But she knew nothing of him +except that he had been condemned as a spy by a council of war, and yet +she dreamed of him the very night after Leon's return. + +This inexplicable prepossession at first manifested itself in a +religious form. She caused a mass to be said for the repose of the +Colonel's soul, and urged Leon to make preparations for the funeral, +herself selecting the ground in which he was to be interred. These +various cares never caused her to omit her daily visit to the walnut +box, or the respectful bending of the knee before the body, or the +sisterly or filial kiss which she regularly placed upon its forehead. +The Renault family soon became uneasy about such strange symptoms, and +hastened the interment of the attractive unknown, in order to relieve +themselves of him as soon as possible. But the day before the one fixed +for the ceremony, Clementine changed her mind. + +"By what right could they shut in the tomb a man who, possibly, was not +dead? The theories of the learned Doctor Meiser were not such that one +could reject them without examination. The matter was at least worthy of +a few days' reflection. Was it not possible to submit the Colonel's body +to some experiments? Professor Hirtz, of Berlin, had promised to send +some valuable documents concerning the life and death of this +unfortunate officer: nothing ought to be undertaken before they were +received; some one ought to write to Berlin to hasten the sending of +these papers." + +Leon sighed, but yielded uncomplainingly to this new caprice, and wrote +to M. Hirtz. + +Clementine found an ally in this second campaign in Doctor Martout. +Though he was but an average practitioner and disdained the acquisition +of practice far too much, M. Martout was not deficient in knowledge. He +had long been studying five or six great questions in physiology, such +as reanimation, spontaneous generation and the topics connected with +them. A regular correspondence kept him posted in all recent +discoveries; he was the friend of M. Pouchet, of Rouen; and knew also +the celebrated Karl Nibor, who has carried the use of the microscope +into researches so wide and so profound. M. Martout had desiccated and +resuscitated thousands of little worms, rotifers and tardigrades; he +held that life is nothing but organization in action, and that the idea +of reviving a desiccated man has nothing absurd about it. He gave +himself up to long meditations when Professor Hirtz sent from Berlin the +following document, the original of which is filed among the manuscripts +of the Humboldt collection. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +PROFESSOR MEISER'S WILL IN FAVOR OF THE DESICCATED COLONEL. + + +On this 20th day of January, 1824, being worn down by a cruel malady and +feeling the approach of the time when my person shall be absorbed in the +Great All; + +I have written with my own hand this testament which is the expression +of my last will. + +I appoint as executor my nephew Nicholas Meiser, a wealthy brewer in the +city of Dantzic. + +I bequeath my books, papers and scientific collections of all kinds, +except item 3712, to my very estimable and learned friend, Herr Von +Humboldt. + +I bequeath all the rest of my effects, real and personal, valued at +100,000 Prussian thalers or 375,000 francs, to Colonel Pierre Victor +Fougas, at present desiccated, but living, and entered in my catalogue +opposite No. 3712 (Zoology). + +I trust that he will accept this feeble compensation for the ordeals he +has undergone in my laboratory, and the service he has rendered to +science. + +Finally, in order that my nephew Nicholas Meiser may exactly understand +the duties I leave him to perform, I have resolved to inscribe here a +detailed account of the desiccation of Colonel Fougas, my sole heir. + +It was on the 11th of November in that unhappy year 1813, that my +relations with this brave young man began. I had long since quitted +Dantzic, where the noise of cannon and the danger from bombs had +rendered all labor impossible, and retired with my instruments and books +under the protection of the Allied Armies in the fortified town of +Liebenfeld. The French garrisons of Dantzic, Stettin, Custrin, Glogau, +Hamburg and several other German towns could not communicate with each +other or with their native land; meanwhile General Rapp was obstinately +defending himself against the English fleet and the Russian army. +Colonel Fougas was taken by a detachment of the Barclay de Tolly corps, +as he was trying to pass the Vistula on the ice, on the way to Dantzic. +They brought him prisoner to Liebenfeld on the 11th of November, just at +my supper time, and Sergeant Garok, who commanded in the village, forced +me to be present at the examination and act as interpreter. + +The open countenance, manly voice, proud firmness and fine carriage of +the unfortunate young man won my heart. He had made the sacrifice of his +life. His only regret, he said, was having stranded so near port, after +passing through four armies; and being unable to carry out the Emperor's +orders. He appeared animated by that French fanaticism which has done +so much harm to our beloved Germany. Nevertheless I could not help +defending him; and I translated his words less as an interpreter than as +an advocate. Unhappily, they found upon him a letter from Napoleon to +General Rapp, of which I preserved a copy: + + "Abandon Dantzic, break the blockade, unite with the + garrisons of Stettin, Custrin and Glogau, march along + the Elbe, arrange with St. Cyr and Davoust to + concentrate the forces scattered at Dresden, Forgau, + Wittenberg, Magdeburg and Hamburg; roll up an army like + a snow ball; cross Westphalia, which is open, and come + to defend the line of the Rhine with an army of 170,000 + Frenchmen which you will have saved! + + "NAPOLEON." + +This letter was sent to the headquarters of the Russian army, whilst a +half-dozen illiterate soldiers, drunk with joy and bad brandy, condemned +the brave Colonel of the 23d of the line to the death of a spy and a +traitor. The execution was fixed for the next day, the 12th, and M. +Pierre Victor Fougas, after having thanked and embraced me with the most +touching sensibility, (He is a husband and a father.) was shut up in the +little battlemented tower of Liebenfeld, where the wind whistles +terribly through all the loopholes. + +The night of the 11th and 12th of November was one of the severest of +that terrible winter. My self-registering thermometer, which hung +outside my window with a southeast exposure, marked nineteen degrees +below zero, centigrade. I went early in the morning to bid the Colonel a +last farewell, and met Sergeant Garok, who said to me in bad German: + +"We won't have to kill the Frantzouski, he is frozen to death." + +I ran to the prison. The colonel was lying on his back, rigid. But I +found after a few minutes' examination, that the rigidity of the body +was not that of death. The joints, though they had not their ordinary +suppleness, could be bent and extended without any great effort. The +limbs, the face, and the chest gave my hands a sensation of cold, but +very different from that which I had often experienced from contact with +corpses. + +Knowing that he had passed several nights without sleep, and endured +extraordinary fatigues, I did not doubt that he had fallen into that +profound and lethargic sleep which is superinduced by intense cold, and +which if too far prolonged slackens respiration and circulation to a +point where the most delicate physiological tests are necessary to +discover the continuance of life. The pulse was insensible; at least my +fingers, benumbed with cold, could not feel it. My hardness of hearing +(I was then in my sixty-ninth year) prevented my determining by +auscultation whether the beats of the heart still aroused those feeble +though prolonged vibrations which the ear continues to hear some time +after the hand fails to detect them. + +The colonel had reached that point of torpor produced by cold, where to +revive a man without causing him to die, requires numerous and delicate +attentions. Some hours after, congelation would supervene, and with it, +impossibility of restoration to life. + +I was in the greatest perplexity. On the one hand I knew that he was +dying on my hands by congelation; on the other, I could not, by myself, +bestow upon him the attentions that were indispensable. If I were to +administer stimulants without having him, at the same time, rubbed on +the trunk and limbs by three or four vigorous assistants, I would revive +him only to see him die. I had still before my eyes the spectacle of +that lovely young girl asphyxiated in a fire, whom I succeeded in +reviving by placing burning coals under the clavicles, but who could +only call her mother, and died almost immediately, in spite of the +administration of internal stimulants and electricity for inducing +contractions of the diaphragm and heart. + +And even if I should succeed in bringing him back to health and +strength, was not he condemned by court-martial? Did not humanity forbid +my rousing him from this repose akin to death, to deliver him to the +horrors of execution? + +I must confess that in the presence of this organism where life was +suspended, my ideas on reanimation took, as it were, fresh hold upon me. +I had so often desiccated and revived beings quite elevated in the +animal scale, that I did not doubt the success of the operation, even on +a man. By myself alone I could not revive and save the Colonel; but I +had in my laboratory, all the instruments necessary to desiccate him +without assistance. + +To sum up, three alternatives offered themselves to me. I. To leave the +Colonel in the crenellated tower, where he would have died the same day +of congelation. II. To revive him by stimulants, at the risk of killing +him. And for what? To give him up, in case of success, to inevitable +execution. III. To desiccate him in my laboratory with the quasi +certainty of resuscitating him after the restoration of peace. All +friends of humanity will doubtless comprehend that I could not hesitate +long. + +I had Sergeant Garok called, and I begged him to sell me the body of the +Colonel. It was not the first time that I had bought a corpse for +dissection, so my request excited no suspicion. The bargain concluded, I +gave him four bottles of kirsch-wasser, and soon two Russian soldiers +brought me Colonel Fougas on a stretcher. + +As soon as I was alone with him, I pricked one of his fingers: pressure +forced out a drop of blood. To place it under a microscope between two +plates of glass was the work of a minute. Oh, joy! The fibrin was not +coagulated. The red globules appeared cleanly circular, flattened, +biconcave, and without notches, indentations or spheroidal swellings. +The white globules changed their shape, taking at intervals the +spherical form, and varying their shapes again by delicate expansions. I +was not deceived then, it was a torpid man that I had under my eyes, and +not a dead one! + +I placed him on a pair of scales. He weighed one hundred and forty +pounds, clothing included. I did not care to undress him, for I had +noticed that animals desiccated directly in contact with the air, died +oftener than those which remained covered with moss and other soft +materials, during the ordeal of desiccation. + +My great air-pump, with its immense platform, its enormous oval +wrought-iron receiver, which a rope running on a pulley firmly fixed in +the ceiling easily raised and lowered by means of a windlass--all these +thousand and one contrivances which I had so laboriously prepared in +spite of the railleries of those who envied me, and which I felt +desolate at seeing unemployed, were going to find their use! Unexpected +circumstances had arisen at last to procure me such a subject for +experiment, as I had in vain endeavored to procure, while I was +attempting to reduce to torpidity dogs, rabbits, sheep and other mammals +by the aid of freezing mixtures. Long ago, without doubt, would these +results have been attained if I had been aided by those who surrounded +me, instead of being made the butt of their railleries; if our +authorities had sustained me with their influence instead of treating me +as a subversive spirit. + +I shut myself up _tete-a-tete_ with the Colonel, and took care that even +old Getchen, my housekeeper, now deceased, should not trouble me during +my work. I had substituted for the wearisome lever of the old fashioned +air-pumps, a wheel arranged with an eccentric which transformed the +circular movement of the axis into the rectilinear movement required by +the pistons: the wheel, the eccentric, the connecting rod, and the +joints of the apparatus all worked admirably, and enabled me to do +everything by myself. The cold did not impede the play of the machine, +and the lubricating oil was not gummed: I had refined it myself by a new +process founded on the then recent discoveries of the French _savant_ M. +Chevreul. + +Having extended the body on the platform of the air-pump, lowered the +receiver and luted the rim, I undertook to submit it gradually to the +influence of a dry vacuum and cold. Capsules filled with chloride of +calcium were placed around the Colonel to absorb the water which should +evaporate from the body, and to promote the desiccation. + +I certainly found myself in the best possible situation for subjecting +the human body to a process of gradual desiccation without sudden +interruption of the functions, or disorganization of the tissues or +fluids. Seldom had my experiments on rotifers and tardigrades been +surrounded with equal chances of success, yet they had always succeeded. +But the particular nature of the subject and the special scruples +imposed upon my conscience, obliged me to employ a certain number of new +conditions, which I had long since, in other connections, foreseen the +expediency of. I had taken the pains to arrange an opening at each end +of my oval receiver, and fit into it a heavy glass, which enabled me to +follow with my eye the effects of the vacuum on the Colonel. I was +entirely prevented from shutting the windows of my laboratory, from fear +that a too elevated temperature might put an end to the lethargy of the +subject, or induce some change in the fluids. If a thaw had come on, all +would have been over with my experiment. But the thermometer kept for +several days between six and eight degrees below zero, and I was very +happy in seeing the lethargic sleep continue, without having to fear +congelation of the tissues. + +I commenced to produce the vacuum with extreme slowness, for fear that +the gases distributed through the blood, becoming free on account of the +difference of their tension from that of rarified air, might escape in +the vessels and so bring on immediate death. Moreover, I watched, every +moment, the effects of the vacuum on the intestinal gases, for by +expanding inside in proportion as the pressure of the air diminished +outside of the body, they could have caused serious disorders. The +tissues might not have been entirely ruptured by them, but an internal +lesion would have been enough to occasion death in a few hours after +reanimation. One observes this quite frequently in animals carelessly +desiccated. + +Several times, too rapid a protrusion of the abdomen put me on my guard +against the danger which I feared, and I was obliged to let in a little +air under the receiver. At last, the cessation of all phenomena of this +kind satisfied me that the gases had disappeared by exosmose or had been +expelled by the spontaneous contraction of the viscera. It was not until +the end of the first day that I could give up these minute precautions, +and carry the vacuum a little further. + +The next day, the 13th, I pushed the vacuum to a point where the +barometer fell to five millimetres. As no change had taken place in the +position of the body or limbs, I was sure that no convulsion had been +produced. The colonel had been desiccated, had become immobile, had lost +the power of performing the functions of life, without death having +supervened, and without the possibility of returning to activity having +departed. His life was suspended, not extinguished. + +Each time that a surplus of watery vapor caused the barometer to ascend, +I pumped. On the 14th, the door of my laboratory was literally broken in +by the Russian General, Count Trollohub, who had been sent from +headquarters. This distinguished officer had run in all haste to +prevent the execution of the colonel and to conduct him into the +presence of the Commander in Chief. I loyally confessed to him what I +had done under the inspiration of my conscience; I showed him the body +through one of the bull's-eyes of the air-pump; I told him that I was +happy to have preserved a man who could furnish useful information to +the liberators of my country; and I offered to resuscitate him at my own +expense if they would promise me to respect his life and liberty. The +General, Count Trollohub, unquestionably a distinguished man, but one of +an exclusively military education, thought that I was not speaking +seriously. He went out slamming the door in my face, and treating me +like an old fool. + +I set myself to pumping again, and kept the vacuum at a pressure of from +three to five millimetres for the space of three months. I knew by +experience that animals can revive after being submitted to a dry vacuum +and cold for eighty days. + +On the 12th of February 1814, having observed that for a month no +modification had taken place in the shrinking of the flesh, I resolved +to submit the Colonel to another series of operations, in order to +insure more perfect preservation by complete desiccation. I let the air +re-enter by the stop-cock arranged for the purpose, and, after raising +the receiver, proceeded at once to my experiment. + +The body did not weigh more than forty-six pounds; I had then reduced it +nearly to a third of its original weight. It should be borne in mind +that the clothing had not lost as much water as the other parts. Now the +human body contains nearly four-fifths of its own weight of water, as is +proved by a desiccation thoroughly made in a chemical drying furnace. + +I accordingly placed the Colonel on a tray, and, after sliding it into +my great furnace, gradually raised the temperature to 75 degrees, +centigrade. I did not dare to go beyond this heat, from fear of altering +the albumen and rendering it insoluble, and also of taking away from the +tissues the capacity of reabsorbing the water necessary to a return to +their functions. + +I had taken care to arrange a convenient apparatus so that the furnace +was constantly traversed by a current of dry air. This air was dried in +traversing a series of jars filled with sulphuric acid, quick-lime and +chloride of calcium. + +After a week passed in the furnace, the general appearance of the body +had not changed, but its weight was reduced to forty pounds, clothing +included. Eight days more brought no new decrease of weight. From this, +I concluded that the desiccation was sufficient. I knew very well that +corpses mummified in church vaults for a century or more, end by +weighing no more than a half-score of pounds, but they do not become so +light without a material alteration in their tissues. + +On the 27th of February, I myself placed the colonel in the boxes which +I had had made for his occupancy. Since that time, that is to say during +a space of nine years and eleven months, we have never been separated. I +carried him with me to Dantzic. He stays in my house. I have never +placed him, according to his number, in my zoological collection; he +remains by himself, in the chamber of honor. I do not grant any one the +pleasure of re-using his chloride of calcium. I will take care of you +till my dying day, Oh Colonel Fougas, dear and unfortunate friend! But I +shall not have the joy of witnessing your resurrection. I shall not +share the delightful emotions of the warrior returning to life. Your +lachrymal glands, inert to-day, but some day to be reanimated, will not +pour upon the bosom of your old benefactor, the sweet dew of +recognition. For you will not recover your life until a day when mine +will have long since departed! Perhaps you will be astonished that I, +loving you as I do, should have so long delayed to draw you out of this +profound slumber. Who knows but that some bitter reproach may come to +taint the tenderness of the first offices of gratitude that you will +perform over my tomb! Yes! I have prolonged, without any benefit to you, +an experiment of general interest to others. I ought to have remained +faithful to my first intention, and restored your life, immediately +after the signature of peace. But what! Was it well to send you back to +France when the sun of your fatherland was obscured by our soldiers and +allies? I have spared you that spectacle--one so grievous to such a +soul as yours. Without doubt you would have had, in March, 1815, the +consolation of again seeing that fatal man to whom you had consecrated +your devotion; but are you entirely sure that you would not have been +swallowed up with his fortune, in the shipwreck of Waterloo? + +For five or six years past, it has not been your welfare nor even the +welfare of science, that prevented me from reanimating you, it has +been.... Forgive me, Colonel, it has been a cowardly attachment to life. +The disorder from which I am suffering, and which will soon carry me +off, is an aneurism of the heart; violent emotions are interdicted to +me. If I were myself to undertake the grand operation whose process I +have traced in a memorandum annexed to this instrument, I would, without +any doubt, succumb before finishing it; my death would be an untoward +accident which might trouble my assistants and cause your resuscitation +to fail. + +Rest content! You will not have long to wait, and, moreover, what do you +lose by waiting? You do not grow old, you are always twenty-four years +of age; your children are growing up, you will be almost their +contemporary when you come to life again. You came to Liebenfeld poor, +you are now in my house poor, and my will makes you rich. That you may +be happy also, is my dearest wish. + +I direct that, the day after my death, my nephew, Nicholas Meiser, +shall call together, by letter, the ten physicians most illustrious in +the kingdom of Prussia, that he shall read to them my will and the +annexed memorandum, and that he shall cause them to proceed without +delay, in my own laboratory, to the resuscitation of Colonel Fougas. The +expenses of travel, maintenance, etc., etc., shall be deducted from the +assets of my estate. The sum of two thousand thalers shall be devoted to +the publication of the glorious results of the experiment, in German, +French and Latin. A copy of this pamphlet shall be sent to each of the +learned societies then existing in Europe. + +In the entirely unexpected event of the efforts of science being unable +to reanimate the Colonel, all my effects shall revert to Nicholas +Meiser, my sole surviving relative. + +JOHN MEISER, M. D. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HOW NICHOLAS MEISER, NEPHEW OF JOHN MEISER, EXECUTED HIS UNCLE'S WILL. + + +Doctor Hirtz of Berlin, who had copied this will himself, apologized +very politely for not having sent it sooner. Business had obliged him to +travel away from the Capital. In passing through Dantzic, he had given +himself the pleasure of visiting Herr Nicholas Meiser, the former +brewer, now a very wealthy land-owner and heavy holder of stocks, +sixty-six years of age. This old man very well remembered the death and +will of his uncle, the _savant_; but he did not speak of them without a +certain reluctance. Moreover, he said that immediately after the decease +of John Meiser, he had called together ten physicians of Dantzic around +the mummy of the Colonel; he showed also a unanimous statement of these +gentlemen, affirming that a man desiccated in a furnace cannot in any +way or by any means return to life. This certificate, drawn up by the +professional competitors and enemies of the deceased, made no mention of +the paper annexed to the will. Nicholas Meiser swore by all the Gods +(but not without visibly coloring) that this document concerning the +methods to be pursued in resuscitating the Colonel, had never been known +by himself or his wife. When interrogated regarding the reasons which +could have brought him to part with a trust as precious as the body of +M. Fougas, he said that he had kept it in his house fifteen years with +every imaginable respect and care, but that at the end of that time, +becoming beset with visions and being awakened almost every night by the +Colonel's ghost coming and pulling at his feet, he concluded to sell it +for twenty crowns to a Berlin amateur. Since he had been rid of this +dismal neighbor, he had slept a great deal better, but not entirely well +yet; for it had been impossible for him to forget the apparition of the +Colonel. + +To these revelations, Herr Hirtz, physician to His Royal Highness the +Prince Regent of Prussia, added some remarks of his own. He did not +think that the resuscitation of a healthy man, desiccated with +precaution, was impossible in theory; he thought also, that the process +of desiccation indicated by the illustrious John Meiser was the best to +follow. But in the present case, it did not appear to him probable that +Colonel Fougas could be called back to life; the atmospheric influences +and the variations of temperature which he had undergone during a period +of forty six years, must have altered the fluids and the tissues. + +This was also the opinion of M. Renault and his son. To quiet +Clementine's excitement a little, they read to her the concluding +paragraphs of Prof. Hirtz' letter. They kept from her John Meiser's +will, which could have done nothing but excite her. But the little +imagination worked on without cessation, do what they would to quiet it. +Clementine now sought the company of Doctor Martout, she held +discussions with him and wanted to see experiments in the resuscitation +of rotifers. When she got home again, she would think a little about +Leon and a great deal about the Colonel. The project of marriage was +still entertained, but no one ventured to speak about the publication of +the bans. To the most touching endearments of her betrothed, the young +fiancee responded with disquisitions on the vital principle. Her visits +to the Renaults' house were paid less to the living than to the dead. +All the arguments they put in use to cure her of a foolish hope served +only to throw her into a profound melancholy. Her beautiful complexion +grew pale, the brilliancy of her glance died away. Undermined by a +hidden disorder, she lost the amiable vivacity which had appeared to be +the sparkling of youth and joy. The change must have been very +noticeable, for even Mlle. Sambucco, who had not a mother's eyes, was +troubled about it. + +M. Martout, satisfied that this malady of the spirit would not yield to +any but a moral treatment, came to see her one morning, and said: + +"My dear child, although I cannot well explain to myself the great +interest that you take in this mummy, I have done something for it and +for you. I am going to send the little piece of ear that Leon broke off +to M. Karl Nibor." + +Clementine opened all her eyes. + +"Don't you understand me?" continued the Doctor. "The thing is, to find +out whether the humors and tissues of the Colonel have undergone +material alterations. M. Nibor, with his microscope, will tell us the +state of things. One can rely upon him: he is an infallible genius. His +answer will tell us if it be well to proceed to the resuscitation of our +man, or whether nothing is left but to bury him." + +"What!" cried the young girl. "One can tell whether a man is dead or +living, by sample?" + +"Nothing more is required by Doctor Nibor. Forget your anxieties, then, +for a week. As soon as the answer comes, I will give it to you to read. +I have stimulated the curiosity of the great physiologist: he knows +absolutely nothing about the fragment I send him. But if, to suppose an +impossibility, he tells us that the piece of ear belongs to a sound +being, I will beg him to come to Fontainebleau and help us restore his +life." + +This vague glimmer of hope dissipated Clementine's melancholy, and +brought back her buoyant health. She again began to sing and laugh and +flutter about the garden at her aunt's, and the house at M. Renault's. +The tender communings began again, the wedding was once more talked +over, and the first ban was published. + +"At last," said Leon, "I have found her again." + +But Madame Renault, that wise and cautious mother, shook her head sadly. + +"All this goes but half well," said she. "I do not like to have my +daughter-in-law so absorbed with that handsome dried-up fellow. What are +we to expect when she knows that it is impossible to bring him to life +again? Will the black butterflies[1] then fly away? And suppose they +happen, by a miracle, to reanimate him! are you sure she will not fall +in love with him? Indeed, Leon must have thought it very necessary to +buy this mummy, and I call it money well invested!" + +One Sunday morning M. Martout rushed in upon the old professor, shouting +victory. + +Here is the answer which had come to him from Paris:-- + + "My dear _confrere_: + + "I have received your letter, and the little fragment of + tissue whose nature you asked me to determine. It did + not cost me much trouble to find out the matter in + question, I have done more difficult things twenty + times, in the course of experiments relating to medical + jurisprudence. You could have saved yourself the use of + the established formula: "When you shall have made your + microscopic examination, I will tell you what it is." + These little tricks amount to nothing: my microscope + knows better than you do what you have sent me. You know + the form and color of things: _it_ sees their inmost + nature, the laws of their being, the conditions of their + life and death. + + "Your fragment of desiccated matter, half as broad as my + nail and nearly as thick, after remaining for + twenty-four hours under a bell-glass in an atmosphere + saturated with water at the temperature of the human + body, became supple--so much so as to be a little + elastic. I could consequently dissect it, study it like + a piece of fresh flesh, and put under the microscope + each one of its parts that appeared different, in + consistency or color, from the rest. + + "I at once found, in the middle, a slight portion harder + and more elastic than the rest, which presented the + texture and cellular structure of cartilage. This was + neither the cartilage of the nose, nor the cartilage of + an articulation, but certainly the fibro-cartilage of + the ear. You sent me, then, the end of an ear, and it is + not the lower end--the lobe which women pierce to put + their gold ornaments in, but the upper end, into which + the cartilage extends. + + "On the inner-side, I took off a fine skin, in which the + microscope showed me an epidermis, delicate, perfectly + intact; a derma no less intact, with little papillae and, + moreover, covered with a lot of fine human hairs. Each + of these little hairs had its root imbedded in its + follicle, and the follicle accompanied by its two little + glands. I will tell you even more: these hairs of down + were from four to five millimetres long, by from three + to five hundredths of a millimetre in diameter; this is + twice the size of the pretty down which grows on a + feminine ear; from which I conclude that your piece of + ear belongs to a man. + + "Against the curved edge of the cartilage, I found + delicate striated bunches of the muscle of the helix, + and so perfectly intact that one would have said there + was nothing to prevent their contracting. Under the skin + and near the muscles, I found several little nervous + filaments, each one composed of eight or ten tubes in + which the medulla was as intact and homogeneous as in + nerves removed from a living animal or taken from an + amputated limb. Are you satisfied? Do you cry mercy? + Well! As for me, I am not yet at the end of my string. + + "In the cellular tissue interposed between the cartilage + and the skin, I found little arteries and little veins + whose structure was perfectly cognizable. They contained + some serum with red blood globules. These globules were + all of them circular, biconcave and perfectly regular; + they showed neither indentations nor that + raspberry-like appearance which characterizes the blood + globules of a corpse. + + "To sum up, my dear _confrere_, I have found in this + fragment nearly everything that is found in the human + body--cartilage, muscle, nerve, skin, hairs, glands, + blood, etc., and all this in a perfectly healthy and + normal state. It is not, then, a piece of a corpse which + you sent me, but a piece of a living man, whose humors + and tissues are in no way decomposed. + + + "With high consideration, yours, + + "KARL NIBOR. + + "PARIS, _July 30th, 1859._" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CONSIDERABLE OF A DISTURBANCE IN FONTAINEBLEAU. + + +It did not take long to get spread about the town that M. Martout and +the Messieurs Renault, intended, in conjunction with several Paris +_savans_, to resuscitate a dead man. + +M. Martout had sent a detailed account of the case to the celebrated +Karl Nibor, who had hastened to lay it before the Biological Society. A +committee was forthwith appointed to accompany M. Nibor to +Fontainebleau. The six commissioners and the reporter agreed to leave +Paris the 15th of August,[2] being glad to escape the din of the public +rejoicings. M. Martout was notified to get things ready for the +experiment, which would probably last not less than three days. + +Some of the Paris papers announced this great event among their +"Miscellaneous Items," but the public paid little attention to it. The +grand reception of the army returning from Italy engrossed everybody's +interest, and moreover, the French do not put more than moderate faith +in miracles promised in the newspapers. + +But at Fontainebleau, it was an entirely different matter. Not only +Monsieur Martout and the Messieurs Renault, but M. Audret, the +architect, M. Bonnivet, the notary, and a dozen other of the bigwigs of +the town, had seen and touched the mummy of the Colonel. They had spoken +about it to their friends, had described it to the best of their +ability, and had recounted its history. Two or three copies of Herr +Meiser's will were circulating from hand to hand. The question of +reanimations was the order of the day; they discussed it around the +fish-pond, like the Academy of Sciences at a full meeting. Even in the +market-place you could have heard them talking about rotifers and +tardigrades. + +It must be admitted that the resuscitationists were not in the majority. +A few professors of the college, noted for the paradoxical character of +their minds; a few lovers of the marvellous, who had been duly convicted +of table-tipping; and, to top off with a half dozen of those old +white-moustached grumblers who believe that the death of Napoleon I. is +a calumnious lie set afloat by the English, constituted the whole of the +army. M. Martout had against him not only the skeptics, but the +innumerable crowd of believers, in the bargain. One party turned him to +ridicule, the others proclaimed him revolutionary, dangerous, and an +enemy of the fundamental ideas on which society rests. The minister of +one little church preached, in inuendoes, against the Prometheuses who +aspired to usurp the prerogatives of Heaven. But the rector of the +parish did not hesitate to say, in five or six houses, that the cure of +a man as desperately sick as M. Fougas, would be an evidence of the +power and mercy of God. + +The garrison of Fontainebleau was at that time composed of four +squadrons of cuirassiers and the 23d regiment of the line, which had +distinguished itself at Magenta. As soon as it was known in Colonel +Fougas' old regiment that that illustrious officer was possibly going to +return to the world, there was a general sensation. A regiment knows its +history, and the history of the 23d had been that of Fougas from +February, 1811, to November, 1813. All the soldiers had heard read, at +their messes, the following anecdote: + +"On the 27th of August, 1813, at the battle of Dresden, the Emperor +noticed a French regiment at the foot of a Russian redoubt which was +pouring grape upon it. He asked what regiment it was, and was told that +it was the 23d of the line. 'That's impossible!' said he. 'The 23d of +the line never stood under fire without rushing upon the artillery +thundering at it.' At that moment the 23d, led by Colonel Fougas, rushed +up the height at double quick, pinned the artillerists to their guns, +and took the redoubt." + +The officers and soldiers, justly proud of this memorable action, +venerated, under the name of Fougas, one of the fathers of the regiment. +The idea of seeing him appear in the midst of them, young and living, +did not appear likely, but it was already something to be in possession +of his body. Officers and soldiers decided that he should be interred at +their expense, after the experiments of Doctor Martout were completed. +And to give him a tomb worthy of his glory, they voted an assessment of +two days' pay. + +Every one who wore an epaulette visited M. Renault's laboratory; the +Colonel of cuirassiers went there several times--in hopes of meeting +Clementine. But Leon's betrothed kept herself out of the way. + +She was happier than any woman had ever been, this pretty little +Clementine. No cloud longer disturbed the serenity of her fair brow. +Free from all anxieties, with a heart opened to Hope, she adored her +dear Leon, and passed her days in telling him so. She herself had +pressed the publication of the bans. + +"We will be married," said she, "the day after the resuscitation of the +Colonel. I intend that he shall give me away, I want him to bless me. +That is certainly the least he can do for me, after all I have done for +him. It is certain that, but for my opposition, you would have sent him +to the museum of the _Jardin des Plantes_. I will tell him all this, +Sir, as soon as he can understand us, and he will cut _your_ ears off, +in _his_ turn! I love you!" + +"But," answered Leon, "why do you make my happiness dependent on the +success of an experiment? All the usual formalities are executed, the +publications made, the notices given: no one in the world can prevent +our marrying to-morrow, and you are pleased to wait until the 19th! What +connection is there between us and this desiccated gentleman asleep in +his box? He doesn't belong to your family or mine. I have examined all +your family records back to the sixth generation, and I haven't found +anybody of the name of Fougas in them. So we are not waiting for a +grandfather to be present at the ceremony. Who is he, then? The wicked +tongues of Fontainebleau pretend that you have a _penchant_ for this +fetich of 1813; as for me, who am sure of your heart, I trust that you +will never love any one as well as me. However they call me the rival of +the Sleeping Colonel in the Wood." + +"Let the fools prate!" responded Clementine, with an angelic smile. "I +do not trouble myself to explain my affection for poor Fougas, but I +love him very much, that's certain. I love him as a father, as a +brother, if you prefer it, for he is almost as young as I. When we have +resuscitated him, I will love him, perhaps, as a son; but you will lose +nothing by it, dear Leon. You have in my heart a place by itself, the +best too, and no one shall take it from you, not even _he_." + +This lovers' quarrel, which often began, and always ended with a kiss, +was one day interrupted by a visit from the commissioner of police. + +This honorable functionary politely declined to give his name and +business, and requested the favor of a private interview with young +Renault. + +"Monsieur," said he, when he saw him alone, "I appreciate all the +consideration due to a man of your character and position, and I hope +you will see fit not to interpret unpleasantly a proceeding which is +prompted in me by a sense of duty." + +Leon opened his eyes and waited for the continuation of the discourse. + +"You are aware, Monsieur," pursued the Commissioner, "of what is +required by the law concerning interments. It is express, and admits no +exception. The authorities can keep their eyes shut, but the great +tumult that has arisen, and, moreover, the rank of the deceased, without +taking into account the religious considerations, put us under +obligation to proceed ... in conjunction with you, let it be well +understood...." + +Leon comprehended little by little. The commissioner finished by +explaining to him, always in the administrative style, that it was +incumbent upon him to have M. Fougas taken to the town cemetery. + +"But Monsieur," replied the engineer, "if you have heard people speaking +of Colonel Fougas, they ought to have told you withal that we do not +consider him dead." + +"Nonsense!" answered the Commissioner, with a slight smile. "Opinions +are free. But the doctor whose office it is to attend to the +disposition of the dead, and who has had the pleasure of seeing the +deceased, has made us a conclusive report which points to immediate +interment." + +"Very well, Monsieur, if Fougas is dead, we are in hopes of +resuscitating him." + +"So we have been told already Monsieur, but, for my part, I hesitated to +believe it." + +"You will believe it when you have seen it; and I hope, Monsieur, that +that will be before long." + +"But then, Monsieur, have you fixed everything in due form?" + +"With whom?" + +"I do not know, Monsieur, but I suppose that before undertaking such a +thing as this, you have fortified yourself with some legal +authorization." + +"From whom?" + +"But at all events, Monsieur, you admit that the reanimation of a man is +an extraordinary affair. As for myself, this is really the first time +that I ever heard it spoken of. Now the duty of a well regulated police, +is to prevent anything extraordinary happening in the country." + +"Let us see, Monsieur. If I were to say to you: 'Here is a man who is +not dead; I have a well-founded hope of setting him on his feet in three +days; your doctor, who maintains the contrary, deceives himself,' would +you take the responsibility of having Fougas buried?" + +"Certainly not! God forbid that I should take any responsibility of any +kind on my shoulders! But however, Monsieur, in having M. Fougas buried, +I would act in accordance with law and order. Now after all, by what +right do you presume to resuscitate a man? In what country is +resuscitation customary? Where is the precept of law which authorizes +you to resuscitate people?" + +"Do you know any law that prohibits it? Now everything that is not +prohibited is permitted." + +"In the eyes of the magistrates, very likely. But the police ought to +prevent and stem disorder. Now a resuscitation, Monsieur, is a thing so +unheard of as to constitute an actual disorder." + +"You will admit, nevertheless, that it is a very happy disorder." + +"There's no such thing as a happy disorder. Consider, morever, that the +deceased is not a common sort of a man. If the question concerned a +vagabond without house or home, one could use some tolerance in regard +to it. But this is a soldier, an officer, of high rank and decorated +too; a man who has occupied an exalted position in the army. The _army_, +Monsieur! It will not do to touch the army!" + +"Eh! Monsieur, I touch the army like a surgeon who tends its wounds. It +is proposed to restore to the army a colonel. And you, actuated by the +spirit of routine, wish to rob it of one." + +"Don't get so excited, Monsieur, I beg of you, and don't talk so loud: +people can hear us. Believe me, I will meet you half way in anything you +want to do for the great and glorious army of my country. But have you +considered the religious question?" + +"What religious question?" + +"To tell you the truth, Monsieur (but this entirely between ourselves), +what we have spoken of so far is purely accessory and we are now +touching upon the delicate point. People have come to see me and have +made some very judicious remarks to me. The mere announcement of your +project has cast a good deal of trouble into certain consciences. They +fear that the success of an undertaking of this kind may strike a blow +at the faith, may, in a word, scandalize many tranquil spirits. For, if +M. Fougas is dead, of course it is because God has so willed it. Aren't +you afraid of acting contrary to the will of God, in resuscitating him?" + +"No, Monsieur: for I am sure not to resuscitate Fougas if God has willed +it otherwise; God permits a man to catch the fever, but God also permits +a doctor to cure him. God permitted a brave soldier of the Emperor to be +captured by four drunken Russians, condemned as a spy, frozen in a +fortress and desiccated under an air-pump by an old German. But God also +permitted me to find this unfortunate man in a junk-shop, to carry him +to Fontainebleau, to examine him with certain men of science and to +agree with them upon a method almost sure to restore him to life. All +this proves one thing--which is that God is more just, more merciful and +more inclined to pity than those who abuse his name in order to excite +you." + +"I assure you, Monsieur, that I am not in the least excited. I yield to +your reasons because they are good ones and because you are a man of +consideration in the community. I sincerely hope, moreover, that you +will not think harshly of an act of zeal which I have been advised to +perform. I am a functionary, Monsieur. Now, what is a functionary? A man +who holds a place. Suppose now that functionaries were to expose +themselves to the loss of their places, what would stand firm in France? +Nothing, Monsieur, absolutely nothing. I have the honor to bid you good +day!" + +On the morning of the 15th of August, M. Karl Nibor presented himself at +M. Renault's with Doctor Martont and the committee appointed by the +Biological Society of Paris. As often happens in the rural districts the +first appearance of our illustrious savant was a sort of disappointment. +Mme. Renault expected to see, if not a magician in a velvet robe studded +with gold, at least an old man of extraordinarily grave and impressive +appearance. Karl Nibor is a man of middle height, very fair and very +slight. Possibly he carries a good forty years, but one would not credit +him with more than thirty-five. He wears a moustache and imperial; is +lively, a good conversationist, agreeable and enough of a man of the +world to amuse the ladies. But Clementine did not have the pleasure of +his conversation. Her aunt had taken her to Moret in order to remove her +from the pangs of fear as well as from the intoxications of victory. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HALLELUJAH! + + +M. Nibor and his colleagues, after the usual compliments, requested to +see the subject. They had no time to lose, as the experiment could +hardly last less than three days. Leon hastened to conduct them to the +laboratory and to open the three boxes containing the Colonel. + +They found that the patient presented quite a favorable appearance. M. +Nibor took off his clothes, which tore like tinder from having been too +much dried in Father Meiser's furnace. The body, when naked, was +pronounced entirely free from blemish and in a perfectly healthy +condition. No one would yet have guaranteed success, but every one was +full of hope. + +After this preliminary examination, M. Renault put his laboratory at the +service of his guests. He offered them all that he possessed, with a +munificence which was not entirely free from vanity. In case the +employment of electricity should appear necessary, he had a powerful +battery of Leyden jars and forty of Bunsen's elements, which were +entirely new. M. Nibor thanked him smilingly. + +"Save your riches," said he. "With a bath-tub and caldron of boiling +water, we will have everything we need. The Colonel needs nothing but +humidity. The thing is to give him the quantity of water necessary to +the play of the organs. If you have a small room where one can introduce +a jet of vapor, we will be more than content." + +M. Audret, the architect, had very wisely built a little bath-room near +the laboratory, which was convenient and well lighted. The celebrated +steam engine was not far off, and its boiler had not, up to this time, +answered any other purpose than that of warming the baths of M. and Mme. +Renault. + +The Colonel was carried into this room, with all the care necessitated +by his fragility. It was not intended to break his second ear in the +hurry of moving. Leon ran to light the fire under the boiler, and M. +Nibor created him Fireman, on the field of battle. + +Soon a jet of tepid vapor streamed into the bath-room, creating around +the Colonel a humid atmosphere which was elevated by degrees, and +without any sudden increase, to the temperature of the human body. These +conditions of heat and humidity were maintained with the greatest care +for twenty-four hours. No one in the house went to sleep. The members of +the Parisian Committee encamped in the laboratory. Leon kept up the +fire; M. Nibor, M. Renault and M. Martout took turns in watching the +thermometer. Madame Renault was making tea and coffee, and punch too. +Gothon, who had taken communion in the morning, kept praying to God, in +the corner of her kitchen, that this impious miracle might not succeed. +A certain excitement already prevailed throughout the town, but one did +not know whether it should be attributed to the _fete_ of the 15th, or +the famous undertaking of the seven wise men of Paris. + +By two o'clock on the 16th, encouraging results were obtained. The skin +and muscles had recovered nearly all their suppleness, but the joints +were still hard to bend. The collapsed condition of the walls of the +abdomen and the interval between the ribs, still indicated that the +viscera were far from having reabsorbed the quantity of water which they +had previously lost with Herr Meiser. A bath was prepared and kept at a +temperature of thirty-seven degrees and a half.[3] They left the Colonel +in it two hours and a half, taking care to frequently pass over his head +a fine sponge soaked with water. + +M. Nibor removed him from the bath as soon as the skin, which was filled +out sooner than the other tissues, began to assume a whitish tinge and +wrinkle slightly. They kept him until the evening of the 16th in this +humid room, where they arranged an apparatus which, from time to time, +occasioned a fine rain of a temperature of thirty-seven and a half +degrees. A new bath was given in the evening. During the night, the +body was enveloped in flannel, but kept constantly in the same steaming +atmosphere. + +On the morning of the 17th, after a third bath of an hour and a half, +the general characteristics of the figure and the proportions of the +body presented their natural aspect: one would have called it a sleeping +man. Five or six curious persons were admitted to see it, among others +the colonel of the 23d. In the presence of these witnesses, M. Nibor +moved successively all the joints, and demonstrated that they had +recovered their flexibility. He gently kneaded the limbs, trunk and +abdomen. He partly opened the lips, and separated the jaws, which were +quite firmly closed, and saw that the tongue had returned to its +ordinary size and consistency. He also partly opened the eyelids: the +eye-balls were firm and bright. + +"Gentlemen," said the philosopher, "these are indications which do not +deceive; I prophesy success. In a few hours you shall witness the first +manifestations of life." + +"But," interrupted one of the bystanders, "why not immediately?" + +"Because the _conjunctivae_ are still a little paler than they ought to +be. But the little veins traversing the whites of the eyes have already +assumed a very encouraging appearance. The blood is almost entirely +restored. What is the blood? Red globules floating in serum, or a sort +of whey. The serum in poor Fougas was dried up in his veins; the water +which we have gradually introduced by a slow endosmose has saturated the +albumen and fibrin of the serum, which is returned to the liquid state. +The red globules which desiccation had agglutinated, had become +motionless like ships stranded in shoal water. Now behold them afloat +again: they thicken, swell, round out their edges, detach themselves +from each other and prepare to circulate in their proper channels at the +first impulse which shall be given them by the contractions of the +heart." + +"It remains to see," said M. Renault, "whether the heart will put itself +in motion. In a living man, the heart moves under the impulse of the +brain, transmitted by the nerves. The brain acts under the impulse of +the heart, transmitted by the arteries. The whole forms a perfectly +exact circle, without which there is no well-being. And when neither +heart nor brain acts, as in the Colonel's case, I don't see which of the +two can set the other in motion. You remember the scene in the '_Ecole +des femmes_,' where Arnolphe knocks at his door? The valet and the maid, +Alain and Georgette, are both in the house. 'Georgette!' cries +Alain.--'Well?' replies Georgette.--'Open the door down there!'--'Go +yourself! Go yourself!'--'Gracious me! I shan't go!'--'I shan't go +either!'--'Open it right away!'--'Open it yourself!' And nobody opens +it. I am inclined to think, Monsieur, that we are attending a +performance of this comedy. The house is the body of the Colonel; +Arnolphe, who wants to get in, is the Vital Principle. The heart and +brain act the parts of Alain and Georgette. 'Open the door!' says +one.--'Open it yourself!' says the other. And the Vital Principle waits +outside." + +"Monsieur," replied Doctor Nibor smiling, "you forget the ending of the +scene. Arnolphe gets angry, and cries out: 'Whichever of you two doesn't +open the door, shan't have anything to eat for four days!' And forthwith +Alain hurries himself, Georgette runs and the door is opened. Now bear +in mind that I speak in this way only in order to conform to your own +course of reasoning, for the term 'Vital Principle' is at variance with +the actual assertions of science. Life will manifest itself as soon as +the brain, or the heart, or any one of the organs which have the +capacity of working spontaneously, shall have absorbed the quantity of +water it needs. Organized matter has inherent properties which manifest +themselves without the assistance of any foreign principle, whenever +they are surrounded by certain conditions. Why do not M. Fougas' muscles +contract yet? Why does not the tissue of the brain enter into action? +Because they have not yet the amount of moisture necessary to them. In +the fountain of life there is lacking, perhaps, a pint of water. But I +shall be in no hurry to refill it: I am too much afraid of breaking it. +Before giving this gallant fellow a final bath, it will be necessary to +knead all his organs again, to subject his abdomen to regular +compressions, in order that the serous membranes of the stomach, chest +and heart may be perfectly disagglutinated and capable of slipping on +each other. You are aware that the slightest tear in these parts, or the +least resistance, would be enough to kill our subject at the moment of +his revival." + +While speaking, he united example to precept and kept kneading the trunk +of the Colonel. As the spectators had too nearly filled the bath-room, +making it almost impossible to move, M. Nibor begged them to move into +the laboratory. But the laboratory became so full that it was necessary +to leave it for the parlor: the Committee of the Biological Society, had +scarcely a corner of the table on which to draw up their account of the +proceedings. The parlor even was crowded with people, the dining room +too, and so out to the court yard of the house. Friends, strangers, +people not at all known to the family, elbowed each other and waited in +silence. But the silence of a crowd is not much less noisy than the +rolling of the sea. Fat Doctor Martout, apparently overwhelmed with +responsibility, showed himself from time to time, and surged through the +waves of curious people like a galleon laden with news. Every one of his +words circulated from mouth to mouth, and spread even through the +street, where several groups of soldiers and citizens were making a +stir, in more senses than one. Never had the little "Rue de la +Faisanderie" seen such a crowd. An astonished passer-by stopped and +inquired: + +"What's the matter here? Is it a funeral?" + +"Quite the reverse, Sir." + +"A christening, then?" + +"With warm water!" + +"A birth?" + +"A being born again!" + +An old judge of the Civil Court was recounting to a deputy the legend of +AEson of old, who was boiled in Medea's caldron. + +"This is almost the same experiment," said he, "and I am inclined to +think that the poets have calumniated the sorceress of Colchis. There +could be some fine Latin verses made appropriate to this occasion; but I +no longer possess my old skill! + + 'Fabula Medeam cur crimine carpit iniquo? + Ecce novus surgit redivivus AEson ab undis + Fortior, arma petens, juvenili pectore miles ...,' + +"Redivivus is taken in the active sense; it's a license, or at least a +bold construction. Ah! Monsieur! there was a time when I was, even among +those who made the most confident attempts, _the_ man for Latin verses!" + + * * * * * + +"Corp'ral!" said a conscript of the levy of 1859. + +"What is it, Freminot?" + +"Is it true that they are boiling an old soldier in a pot, and that they +are going to get him up again, Colonel's uniform and all?" + +"True or not, subaltern, I'll run the risk of saying it's true." + +"I fancy, with all proper deference, that they will not make much at +it." + +"You should know, Freminot, that nothing is impossible to your +superiors! You are not unaware even now, that dried vegetables, on being +boiled, recover their original and natural appearance!" + +"But, Corp'ral, if one were to cook them, three days' time, they'd +dissolve into broth." + +"But, imbecile, why shouldn't one consider old soldiers hard to cook?" + +At noon, the commisioner of police and the lieutenant of _gens-d'armes_ +made way through the crowd and entered the house. These gentlemen +hastened to declare to M. Renault that their visit had nothing of an +official character, but that they had come merely from curiosity. In the +corridor, they met the Sub-prefect, the Mayor and Gothon, who was +lamenting in loud tones that she should see the government lend its hand +to such sorceries. + +About one o'clock, M. Nibor caused a new and prolonged bath to be given +the Colonel, on coming out of which, the body was subjected to a +kneading harder and more complete than before. + +"Now," said the Doctor, "we can carry M. Fougas into the laboratory, in +order to give his resuscitation all the publicity desirable. But it will +be well to dress him, and his uniform is in tatters." + +"I think," answered good M. Renault, "that the Colonel is about my size; +so I can lend him some of my clothes. Heaven grant that he may use +them! But, between us, I don't hope for it." + +Gothon brought in, grumbling, all that was necessary to dress an +entirely naked man. But her bad humor did not hold out before the beauty +of the Colonel: + +"Poor gentleman!" she exclaimed, "he is young, fresh and fair as a +little chicken. If he doesn't revive, it will be a great pity!" + +There were about forty people in the laboratory when Fougas was carried +thither. M. Nibor, assisted by M. Martout, placed him on a sofa, and +begged a few moments of attentive silence. During these proceedings, +Mme. Renault sent to inquire if she could come in. She was admitted. + +"Madame and gentlemen," said Dr. Nibor, "life will manifest itself in a +few minutes. It is possible that the muscles will act first, and that +their action may be convulsive, on account of not yet being regulated by +the influence of the nervous system. I ought to apprise you of this +fact, in order that you may not be frightened if such a thing +transpires. Madame, being a mother, ought to be less astonished at it +than any one else; she has experienced, at the fourth month of +pregnancy, the effect of those irregular movements which will, possibly, +soon be presented to us on a larger scale. I am quite hopeful, however, +that the first spontaneous contractions will take place in the fibres of +the heart. Such is the case in the embryo, where the rhythmic movements +of the heart, precede the nervous functions." + +He again began making systematic compressions of the lower part of the +chest, rubbing the skin with his hands, half opening the eyelids, +examining the pulse, and auscultating the region of the heart. + +The attention of the spectators was diverted an instant by a hubbub +outside. A battalion of the 23d was passing, with music at the head, +through the Rue de la Faisanderie. While the Sax-horns were shaking the +windows, a sudden flash mantled on the cheeks of the Colonel. His eyes, +which had stood half open, lit up with a brighter sparkle. At the same +instant, Doctor Nibor, who had his ear applied to the chest, cried: + +"I hear the beatings of the heart!" + +Scarcely had he spoken, when the chest rose with a violent inspiration, +the limbs contracted, the body straightened up, and out came a cry: +"_Vive l'Empereur_." + +But as if so great an effort had overtasked his strength, Colonel Fougas +fell back on the sofa, murmuring in a subdued voice: + +"Where am I? Waiter! Bring me a newspaper!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +WHEREIN COLONEL FOUGAS LEARNS SOME NEWS WHICH WILL APPEAR OLD TO MY +READERS. + + +Among all the persons present at this scene, there was not a single one +who had ever seen a resuscitation. I leave you to imagine the surprise +and joy which reigned in the laboratory. A triple round of applause, +mingled with cheers, hailed the triumph of Doctor Nibor. The crowd, +packed in the parlor, the passages, the court-yard, and even in the +street, understood at this signal, that the miracle was accomplished. +Nothing could hold them back, they forced the doors, cleared all +obstacles, upset all the philosophers who tried to stop them, and +finished by pouring into the chamber of Science. + +"Gentlemen!" cried M. Nibor, "Do you want to kill him?" + +But they let him talk. The wildest of all passions, curiosity, had long +held dominion over the crowd: every one wanted to see, though at the +risk of crushing the others. M. Nibor tumbled down, M. Renault and his +son, in attempting to help him, were thrown on top of him; Madame +Renault, in her turn, was thrown down at the feet of Fougas, and began +screaming at the top of her voice. + +"Damnation!" said Fougas, straightening himself up as if by a spring, +"these scoundrels will suffocate us if some one doesn't squelch them!" +His attitude, the glare of his eyes, and, above all, the prestige of the +miraculous, cleared a space around him. One would have thought that the +walls had been stretched or that the spectators had slid into one +another! + +"Out of here, every mother's son of you!" cried Fougas, in his fiercest +tone of command. A tumult of cries, explanations, and remonstrances was +raised around him; he fancied he heard menaces, he seized the first +chair within reach, brandished it like a weapon, drove, hammered, upset +the citizens, soldiers, officials, _savants_, friends, sight-seers, +commissary of police--everybody, and urged the human torrent into the +street with an uproar perfectly indescribable. This done, he shut the +door and bolted it, returned to the laboratory, saw three men standing +near Madame Renault, and said to the old lady, softening the tone of his +voice: + +"Well, good mother, shall I serve these three like the others?" + +"No! No! No! Be careful!" cried the good old lady. "My husband and my +son, Monsieur, and Doctor Nibor, who has restored you to life." + +"In that case all honor to them, good mother! Fougas has never violated +the laws of gratitude and hospitality. As for you, my Esculapius, give +me your hand!" + +At the same instant, he noticed ten or a dozen inquisitive people on +tiptoe on the pavement just by the windows of the laboratory. Forthwith +he marched and opened them with a precipitation which upset the gazers +among the crowd. + +"People," said he, "I have knocked down a hundred beggarly pandours who +respect neither sex nor infirmity. For the benefit of those who are not +satisfied, I will state that I call myself colonel Fougas of the 23d. +And _Vive l'Empereur!_" + +A confused mixture of plaudits, cries, laughs, and jeers, answered this +unprecedented allocution. Leon Renault hastened out to make apologies to +all to whom they were due. He invited a few friends to dine the same +evening with the terrible colonel, and, of course, he did not forget to +send a special messenger to Clementine. Fougas, after speaking to the +people, returned to his hosts, swinging himself along with a swaggering +air, set himself astride a chair, took hold of the ends of his +moustache, and said: + +"Well! Come, let's talk this over. I've been sick then?" + +"Very sick." + +"That's fabulous! I feel entirely well. I'm hungry, and, moreover, while +waiting for dinner, I'll even try a glass of your schnick." + +Mme. Renault went out, gave an order, and returned in an instant. + +"But tell me, then, where I am," resumed the colonel. "By these +paraphernalia of work, I recognize a disciple of Urania; possibly a +friend of Monge and Berthollet. But the cordial friendliness impressed +on your countenances proves to me that you are not natives of this land +of sour-krout. Yes, I believe it from the beatings of my heart. Friends, +we have the same fatherland. The kindness of your reception, even were +there no other indications, would have satisfied me that you are French. +What accidents have brought you so far from our native soil? Children of +my country, what tempest has thrown you upon this inhospitable shore?" + +"My dear Colonel," replied M. Nibor, "if you want to become very wise, +you will not ask so many questions at once. Allow us the pleasure of +instructing you quietly and in order, for you have a great many things +to learn." + +The Colonel flushed with anger, and answered sharply: + +"At all events, you are not the man to teach them to me, my little +gentleman!" + +A drop of blood which fell on his hand changed the current of his +thoughts: + +"Hold on!" said he; "am I bleeding?" + +"That will amount to nothing; circulation is reestablished, and your +broken ear...." + +He quickly carried his hand to his ear and said: + +"It's certainly so. But Devil take me if I recollect this accident!" + +"I'll make you a little dressing, and in a couple of days there will be +no trace of it left!" + +"Don't give yourself the trouble, my dear Hippocrates; a pinch of powder +is a sovereign cure!" + +M. Nibor set to work to dress the ear in a little less military fashion. +During his operations, Leon reentered. + +"Ah! ah!" said he to the Doctor, "you are repairing the harm I did." + +"Thunderation!" cried Fougas, escaping from the hands of M. Nibor so as +to seize Leon by the collar, "was it you, you rascal, that hurt my ear?" + +Leon was very good-natured, but his patience failed him. He pushed his +man roughly aside. + +"Yes, sir, it was I who tore your ear, in pulling it, and if that little +misfortune had not happened to me, it is certain that you would have +been, to-day, six feet under ground. It is I who saved your life, after +buying you with my money when you were not valued at more than +twenty-five louis. It is I who have passed three days and two nights in +cramming charcoal under your boiler. It is my father who gave you the +clothes you now have on. You are in our house. Drink the little glass of +brandy Gothon just brought you; but for God's sake give up the habit of +calling me rascal, of calling my mother 'Good Mother.' and of flinging +our friends into the street and calling them beggarly pandours!" + +The colonel, all dumbfounded, held out his hand to Leon, M. Renault and +the doctor, gallantly kissed the hand of Mme. Renault, swallowed at a +gulp a claret glass filled to the brim with brandy, and said in a +subdued voice: + +"Most excellent friends, forget the vagaries of an impulsive but +generous soul. To subdue my passions shall hereafter be my law. After +conquering all the nations in the universe, it is well to conquer one's +self." + +This said, he submitted his ear to M. Nibor, who finished dressing it. + +"But," said he, summoning up his recollections, "they did not shoot me +then?" + +"No." + +"And I wasn't frozen to death in the tower?" + +"Not quite." + +"Why has my uniform been taken off? I see! I am a prisoner!" + +"You are free." + +"Free! _Vive l'Empereur!_ But then, there's not a moment to lose! How +many leagues is it to Dantzic?" + +"It's very far." + +"What do you call this chicken coop of a town?" + +"Fontainebleau." + +"Fontainebleau! In France?" + +"Prefecture of Seine-et-Marne. We are going to introduce to you the +sub-prefect, whom you just pitched into the street." + +"What the Devil are your sub-prefects to me? I have a message from the +Emperor for General Rapp, and I must start, this very day, for Dantzic. +God knows whether I'll be there in time!" + +"My poor Colonel, you will arrive too late. Dantzic is given up." + +"That's impossible! Since when?" + +"About forty-six years ago." + +"Thunder! I did not understand that you were ... mocking me!" + +M. Nibor placed in his hand a calendar, and said: "See for yourself! It +is now the 17th of August, 1859; you went to sleep in the tower of +Liebenfeld on the 11th of November, 1813; there have been, then, +forty-six years, all to three months, during which the world has moved +on without you." + +"Twenty-four and forty-six; but then I would be seventy years old, +according to your statement!" + +"Your vitality clearly shows that you are still twenty-four." + +He shrugged his shoulders, tore up the calendar and said, beating the +floor with his foot: "Your almanac is a humbug!" + +M. Renault ran to his library, took up half a dozen books at haphazard +and made him read, at the foot of the title pages, the dates 1826, 1833, +1847, 1858. + +"Pardon me!" said Fougas, burying his head in his hands. "What has +happened to me is so new! I do not think that another human being was +ever subjected to such a trial. I am seventy years old!" + +Good Madame Renault went and got a looking-glass from the bath room, and +gave it to him, saying: + +"Look!" + +He took the glass in both hands, and was silently occupied in resuming +acquaintance with himself, when a hand-organ came into the court and +began playing "Partant pour la Syrie!" + +Fougas threw the mirror to the ground, and cried out: + +"What is that you were telling me? I hear the little song of Queen +Hortense!"[4] + +M. Renault patiently explained to him, while picking up the pieces of +the mirror, that the pretty little song of Queen Hortense had become a +national air, and even an official one, since the regimental bands had +substituted that gentle melody for the fierce Marsellaise, and that our +soldiers, strange to say, had not fought any the worse for it. But the +Colonel had already opened the window, and was crying out to the +Savoyard: + +"Eh! Friend! A napoleon for you if you will tell me in what year I am +drawing the breath of life!" + +The artist began dancing as lightly as possible playing on his musical +instrument. + +"Advance at the order!" cried the Colonel, "and keep that devilish +machine still!" + +"A little penny, my good monsieur!" + +"It is not a penny that I'll give you, but a napoleon, if you'll tell me +what year it is." + +"Oh but that's funny! Hi--hi--hi!" + +"And if you don't tell me quicker than this amounts to, I'll cut your +ears off!" + +The Savoyard ran away, but he came back pretty soon, having meditated, +during his flight, on the maxim: "Nothing risk nothing gain." + +"Monsieur," said he, in a wheedling voice, "this is the year Eighteen +Hundred and Fifty-nine." + +"Good!" cried Fougas. He felt in his pockets for money, and found +nothing there. Leon saw his predicament, and flung twenty francs into +the court. Before shutting the window, he pointed out, to the right, the +facade of a pretty little new building where the Colonel could +distinctly read + + AUDRET ARCHITECTE. + + MDCCCLIX. + +A perfectly satisfactory piece of evidence, and one which did not cost +twenty francs. + +Fougas, a little confused, pressed Leon's hand, and said to him: + +"My friend, I do not forget that Confidence is the first duty from +Gratitude toward Beneficence. But tell me of our country! I tread the +sacred soil where I received my being, and I am ignorant of the career +of my native land. France is still the queen of the world, is she not?" + +"Certainly," said Leon. + +"How is the Emperor?" + +"Well." + +"And the Empress?" + +"Very well." + +"And the King of Rome?" + +"The Prince Imperial? He is a very fine child." + +"How? A fine child! And you have the face to say that this is 1859!" + +M. Nibor took up the conversation, and explained in a few words that the +reigning sovereign of France was not Napoleon I., but Napoleon III. + +"But then," cried Fougas, "my Emperor is dead!" + +"Yes." + +"Impossible! Tell me anything you will but that! My Emperor is +immortal." + +M. Nibor and the Renaults, who were not quite professional historians, +were obliged to give him a summary of the history of our century. Some +one went after a big book written by M. de Norvins and illustrated with +fine engravings by Raffet. He only believed in the presence of Truth +when he could touch her with his hand, and still cried out almost every +moment: "That's impossible! This is not history that you are reading to +me: it is a romance written to make soldiers weep!" + +This young man must indeed have had a strong and well-tempered soul, for +he learned in forty minutes all the woful events which Fortune had +scattered through eighteen years, from the first abdication up to the +death of the King of Rome. Less happy than his old companions in arms, +he had no interval of repose between these terrible and repeated +shocks, all beating upon his heart at the same time. One could have +feared that the blow might prove mortal, and poor Fougas die in the +first hour of his recovered life. But the imp of a fellow yielded and +recovered himself in quick succession like a spring. He cried out with +admiration on hearing of the five battles of the campaign in France; he +reddened with grief at the farewells of Fontainebleau. The return from +the Isle of Elba transfigured his handsome and noble countenance; at +Waterloo his heart rushed in with the last army of the Empire, and there +shattered itself. Then he clenched his fists and said between his teeth: +"If I had been there at the head of the 23d, Blucher and Wellington +would have seen another fate!" The invasion, the truce, the martyr of +St. Helena, the ghastly terror of Europe, the murder of Murat--the idol +of the cavalry, the death of Ney, Bruno, Mouton Duvernet, and so many +other whole-souled men whom he had known, admired, and loved, threw him +into a series of paroxysms of rage, but nothing upset him. In hearing of +the death of Napoleon, he swore that he would eat the heart of England; +the slow agony of the pale and interesting heir of the Empire, inspired +him with a passion to tear the vitals out of Austria. When the drama was +over and the curtain fell on Schoenbrunn, he dashed away his tears and +said: "It is well. I have lived in a moment a man's entire life. Now +show me the map of France!" + +Leon began to turn over the leaves of an atlas, while M. Renault +attempted to continue narrating to the colonel the history of the +Restoration, and of the monarchy of 1830. But Fougas' interest was in +other things. + +"What do I care," said he, "if a couple of hundred babblers of deputies +put one king in place of another? Kings! I've seen enough of them in the +dirt. If the Empire had lasted ten years longer, I could have had a king +for a boot-black." + +When the atlas was placed before him, he at once cried out with profound +disdain: "That, France!" But soon two tears of pitying affection +escaping from his eyes, swelled the rivers Ardeche and Gironde. He +kissed the map and said, with an emotion which communicated itself to +nearly all present: + +"Forgive me, poor old love, for insulting your misfortunes. Those +scoundrels whom we always whipped have profited by my sleep to pare down +your frontiers; but little or great, rich or poor, you are my mother, +and I love you as a faithful son! Here is Corsica, where the giant of +our age was born; here is Toulouse, where I first saw the light; here is +Nancy where I felt my heart awakened, where, perhaps, she whom I call my +AEgle waits for me still! France! Thou hast a temple in my soul; this arm +is thine; thou shalt find me ever ready to shed my blood to the last +drop in defending or avenging thee!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE CONVALESCENT'S FIRST MEAL. + + +The messenger whom Leon had sent to Moret, could not reach there before +seven o'clock. Supposing that he would find the ladies at table with +their hosts, that the great news would cut the dinner short, and that +there would be a carriage handy, Clementine and her aunt would probably +be at Fontainebleau between ten and eleven o'clock. Young Renault +rejoiced in advance over the happiness of his _fiancee_. What a joy it +would be for her and for him when he should present to her the +miraculous man whom she had protected against the horrors of the tomb, +and whom he had resuscitated in answer to her entreaty! + +Meanwhile Gothon, proud and happy to the same degree that she had before +been scandalized and annoyed, spread the table for a dozen persons. Her +yoke-fellow, a young rustic of eighteen, half-fledged in the commune of +Sablons, helped her with all his might, and amused her with his +conversation. + +"Well, now, Ma'm'selle Gothon," said he, setting down a pile of empty +plates, "this is what one might call a ghost coming out of its box to +upset the commissary and the sub-prefect!" + +"Ghost, if you'll have it so, Celestin; it's certain-sure that he comes +from a good ways, poor young man! But perhaps 'ghost' isn't a proper +word to use in speaking of our masters." + +"Is it true, then, that he has come to be our master too? Too many of +_them_ come every day. I'd like it better if more servants and help +would come!" + +"Shut up, you lizard of laziness! When the gentlemen leaves tips for us +on going away, you don't complain because there's only two to divide +'em." + +"That's all well enough as far as it goes! I've carried more than fifty +buckets of water for him to simmer in, that Colonel of yours, and I know +mighty well that he won't give me a cent, for he hasn't a farthing in +his pockets. We've got to believe that money isn't plenty in the country +he just came from!" + +"They say there's wills in his favor in Strasburg; a gentleman who'd +hurt his fortune----" + +"Tell me now, Ma'm'selle Gothon--you who read a little book every +Sunday--where he could have been, our Colonel, while he was not in this +world." + +"Eh! In purgatory, of course!" + +"Then why don't you ask him about that famous Baptiste, your sweetheart +in 1837, who let himself tumble off a roof, and on whose account you +have so many masses said? They ought to have met each other down there!" + +"That's very possible." + +"Unless Baptiste has left there since the time when you paid so much +money to get him out." + +"Very well. I'll go this very evening to the Colonel's chamber, and, +since he's not proud, he'll tell me all he knows about it.--But, +Celestin, are'nt you never going to act different? Here you've rubbed my +silver pickle knives on the grindstone again!" + +The guests came into the parlor, where the Renault family with M. Nibor +and the Colonel were already assembled. There were successively +presented to M. Fougas the mayor of the city, Doctor Martout, Master +Bonnivet the notary, M. Audret, and three members of the Paris +committee; the other three had been obliged to return before dinner. The +guests were not entirely at their ease; their sides, bruised by the +first movements of Fougas, left room for them to suppose that possibly +they were dining with a maniac. But curiosity was stronger than fear. +The Colonel soon reassured them by a most cordial reception. He excused +himself for acting the part of a man just returned from the other world. +He talked a great deal--a little too much, perhaps; but they were so +well pleased to listen to him, and his words borrowed such an importance +from the singularity of recent events, that he gained an unqualified +success. He was told that Dr. Martout had been one of the principal +agents of his resuscitation, in conjunction with another person whom +they promised soon to present to him. He thanked M. Martout warmly, and +asked how soon he could evince his gratitude to the other person. + +"I hope," said Leon, "that you will see her this evening." + +No one came later than the colonel of the 23d of the line, M. Rollon. He +made his way with no little difficulty through the crowds of people who +filled the Rue de la Faisanderie. He was a man of forty-five, with a +quick voice, and full figure. His hair was a little grizzled, but his +brown mustache, full, and twisted at the ends, looked as young as ever. +He said little, spoke to the point, knew a great deal, and did no +boasting--all in all, he was a fine specimen of a colonel. He came right +up to Fougas, and held out his hand like an old acquaintance. + +"My dear comrade," said he, "I have taken great interest in your +resurrection, as much on my own account as on account of the regiment. +The 23d which I have the honor to command, yesterday venerated you as an +ancestor. From to-day, it will cherish you as a friend."--Not the +slightest allusion to the affair of the morning, in which M. Rollon had +undergone his pummelling with the rest. + +Fougas answered becomingly, but with, a tinge of coldness: + +"My dear comrade, I thank you for your kindly sentiments. It is singular +that Destiny places me in the presence of my successor on the very day +that I reopen my eyes to the light; for, after all, I am neither dead +nor a general; I have not been transferred, nor have I been retired; yet +I see another officer, more worthy, doubtless, at the head of my noble +23d. But if you have for your motto 'Honor and Courage,' as I am well +satisfied you have, I have no right to complain, and the regiment is in +good hands." + +Dinner was ready. Mme. Renault took Fougas' arm. She had him sit at her +right, and M. Nibor at her left. The Colonel and the Mayor took their +places at the sides of M. Renault; the rest of the company distributed +themselves as it happened, regardless of etiquette. + +Fougas gulped down the soup and _entrees_, helping himself to every +dish, and drinking in proportion. An appetite of the other world! +"Estimable Amphitryon," said he to M. Renault, "don't get frightened at +seeing me fall upon the rations. I always ate just so; except during the +retreat in Russia. Consider, too, that I went to sleep last night, at +Liebenfeld, without any supper." + +He begged M. Nibor to explain to him by what course of circumstances he +had come from Liebenfeld to Fontainebleau. + +"Do you remember," said the doctor, "an old German who acted as +interpreter for you before the court-martial?" + +"Perfectly. An excellent man, with a violet-colored wig. I'll remember +him all my life, for there are not two wigs of that color in existence." + +"Very well; it was the man with the violet wig, otherwise known as the +celebrated Doctor Meiser, who saved your life." + +"Where is he? I want to see him, to fall into his arms, to tell him----" + +"He was sixty-eight years old when he did you that little service; he +would then be, to-day, in his hundred and fifteenth year, if he had +waited for your acknowledgments." + +"And so, then, he is no more! Death has robbed him of my gratitude!" + +"You do not yet know all that you owe to him. He bequeathed you, in +1824, a fortune of seventy-five thousand francs, of which you are the +rightful owner. Now, since a sum invested at five per cent, doubles +itself in fourteen years--thanks to compound interest--you were worth, +in 1838, a trifle of seven hundred and fifty thousand francs; and in +1852, a million and a half. In fine, if you are satisfied to leave your +property in the hands of Herr Nicholas Meiser, of Dantzic, that worthy +man will owe you three millions at the commencement of 1866--that is to +say, in seven years. We will give you, this evening, a copy of your +benefactor's will; it is a very instructive document, and you can +consider it when you go to bed." + +"I'll read it willingly," said Colonel Fougas. "But gold has no +attractions for my eyes. Wealth engenders weakness. Me, to languish in +the sluggish idleness of Sybaris!--to enervate my senses on a bed of +roses! Never! The smell of powder is dearer to me than all the perfumes +of Arabia. Life would have no charm or zest for me, if I had to give up +the inspiriting clash of arms. On the day when you are told that Fougas +no longer marches in the columns of the army, you can safely answer, 'It +is because Fougas is no more!'" + +He turned to the new colonel of the 23d, and said: + +"Oh! do you, my dear comrade, tell them that the proud pomp of wealth is +a thousand times less sweet than the austere simplicity of the +soldier--of a colonel, more than all. Colonels are the kings of the +army. A colonel is less than a general, but nevertheless he has +something more. He lives more with the soldier; he penetrates further +into the intimacy of his command. He is the father, the judge, the +friend of his regiment. The welfare of each one of his men is in his +hands; the flag is placed under his tent or in his chamber. The colonel +and the flag are not two separate existences; one is the soul, the other +is the body." + +He asked M. Rollon's permission to go to see and embrace the flag of the +23d. + +"You shall see it to-morrow morning," said the new colonel, "if you will +do me the honor to breakfast with me in company with some of my +officers." + +He accepted the invitation with enthusiasm, and flung himself into the +midst of a thousand questions touching pay, the amount retained for +clothing, promotion, roster, reserve, uniform, full and fatigue dress, +armament, and tactics. He understood, without difficulty, the advantages +of the percussion gun, but the attempt to explain rifled cannon to him +was in vain. Artillery was not his forte; but he avowed, nevertheless, +that Napoleon had owed more than one victory to his fine artillery. + +While the innumerable roasts of Mme. Renault were succeeding each other +on the table, Fougas asked--but without ever losing a bite--what were +the principal wars in progress, how many nations France had on her +hands, and if it was not intended ultimately to recommence the conquest +of the world? The answers which he received, without completely +satisfying him, did not entirely deprive him of hope. + +"I did well to come," said he; "there's work to do." + +The African wars did not interest him much, although in them the 23d had +won a good share of glory. + +"As a school, it's very well," said he. "The soldier ought to train +himself in other ways than in the Tivoli gardens, behind nurses' +petticoats. But why the devil are not five hundred thousand men flung +upon the back of England? England is the soul of the coalition, I can +tell you that." + +How many explanations were necessary to make him understand the Crimean +war, where the English had fought by our sides! + +"I can understand," said he, "why we took a crack at the Russians--they +made me eat my best horse. But the English are a thousand times worse. +If this young man" (the Emperor Napoleon III.) "doesn't know it, I'll +tell him. There is no quarter possible after what they did at St. +Helena! If I had been commander-in-chief in the Crimea, I would have +begun by properly squelching the Russians, after which I would have +turned upon the English, and hurled them into the sea. It's their +element, anyhow." + +They gave him some details of the Italian campaign, and he was charmed +to learn that the 23d had taken a redoubt under the eyes of the Marshal +the Duke of Solferino. + +"That's the habit of the regiment," said he, shedding tears in his +napkin. "That brigand of a 23d will never act in any other way. The +goddess of Victory has touched it with her wing." + +One of the things, for example, which greatly astonished him, was that a +war of such importance was finished up in so short a time. He had yet to +learn that within a few years the world had learned the secret of +transporting a hundred thousand men, in four days, from one end of +Europe to the other. + +"Good!" said he; "I admit the practicability of it. But what astonishes +me is, that the Emperor did not invent this affair in 1810; for he had a +genius for transportation, a genius for administration, a genius for +office details, a genius for everything. But (to resume your story) the +Austrians are fortified at last, and you cannot possibly get to Vienna +in less than three months." + +"We did not go so far, in fact." + +"You did not push on to Vienna?" + +"No." + +"Well, then, where did you sign the treaty of peace?" + +"At Villafranca." + +"At Villafranca? That's the capital of Austria, then?" + +"No; it's a village of Italy." + +"Monsieur, I don't admit that treaties of peace are signed anywhere but +in capitals. That was our principle, our A B C, the first paragraph of +our theory. It seems as if the world must have changed a good deal while +I was not in it. But patience!" + +And now truth obliges me to confess that Fougas got drunk at dessert. He +had drunk and eaten like a Homeric hero, and talked more fluently than +Cicero in his best days. The fumes of wine, spices, and eloquence +mounted into his brain. He became familiar, spoke affectionately to some +and rudely to others, and poured out a torrent of absurdities big enough +to turn forty mills. His drunkenness, however, had in it nothing brutal, +or even ignoble; it was but the overflowing of a spirit young, +affectionate, vain-glorious, and unbalanced. He proposed five or six +toasts--to Glory, to the Extension of our Frontiers, to the Destruction +of the last of the English, to Mlle. Mars--the hope of the French +stage, to Affection--the tie, fragile but dear, which unites the lover +to his sweetheart, the father to his son, the colonel to his regiment! + +His style, a singular mixture of familiarity and impressiveness, +provoked more than one smile among the auditory. He noticed it, and a +spark of defiance flashed up at the bottom of his heart. From time to +time he loudly asked if "those people there" were not abusing his +ingenuousness. + +"Confusion!" cried he, "Confusion to those who want me to take bladders +for lanterns! The lantern may blaze out like a bomb, and carry +consternation in its path!" + +After a series of such remarks, there was nothing left for him to do but +to roll under the table, and this _denouement_ was generally expected. +But the Colonel belonged to a robust generation, accustomed to more than +one kind of excess, and strong to resist pleasure as well as dangers, +privations, and fatigues. So when Madame Renault pushed back her chair, +in indication that the repast was finished, Fougas arose without +difficulty, gracefully offered his arm, and conducted his partner to the +parlor. His gait was a little stiff and oppressively regular, but he +went straight ahead, and did not oscillate the least bit. He took a +couple of cups of coffee, and spirits in moderation, after which he +began to talk in the most reasonable manner in the world. About ten +o'clock, M. Martout, having expressed a wish to hear his history, he +placed himself on a stool, collected his ideas for a moment, and asked +for a glass of water and sugar. The company seated themselves in a +circle around him, and he commenced the following narrative, the +slightly antiquated style of which craves your indulgence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HISTORY OF COLONEL FOUGAS, RELATED BY HIMSELF. + + +"Do not expect that I will ornament my story with those flowers, more +agreeable than substantial, which Imagination often uses to gloss over +truth. A Frenchman and a soldier, I doubly ignore deception. Friendship +interrogates me, Frankness shall answer. + +"I was born of poor but honest parents at the beginning of the year +which the _Jeu de Paume_[5] brightened with an aurora of liberty. The +south was my native clime; the language dear to the troubadours was that +which I lisped in my cradle. My birth cost my mother's life. The author +of mine was the humble owner of a little farm, and moistened his bread +in the sweat of labor. My first sports were not those of wealth. The +many-colored pebbles which are found by the brooks, and that well-known +insect which childhood holds fluttering, free and captive at the same +time, at the end of a thread, stood me in stead of other playthings. + +"An old minister at Devotion's altar, enfranchised from the shadowy +bondage of fanaticism, and reconciled to the new institutions of France, +was my Chiron and Mentor. He nourished me with the strong lion's marrow +of Rome and Athens; his lips distilled into my ears the embalmed honey +of wisdom. Honor to thee, learned and venerable man, who gavest me the +first precepts of wisdom and the first examples of virtue! + +"But already that atmosphere of glory which the genius of one man and +the valor of a nation had set floating over the country, filled all my +senses, and made my young heart throb. France, on the edge of the +volcano of civil war, had collected all her forces into a thunderbolt to +launch upon Europe, and the world, astounded if not overwhelmed, was +shrinking from the surge of the unchained torrent. What man, what +Frenchman, could have heard with indifference that echo of victory +reverberating through millions of hearts? + +"While scarcely leaving childhood, I felt that honor is more precious +than life. The warlike music of the drums brought to my eyes brave and +manly tears. 'And I, too,' said I, following the music of the regiments +through the streets of Toulouse, 'will pluck laurels though I sprinkle +them with my blood.' The pale olive of peace had from me nothing but +scorn. The peaceful triumphs of the law, the calm pleasures of commerce +and finance, were extolled in vain. To the toga of our Ciceros, to the +robe of our magistrates, to the curule chair of our legislators, to the +opulence of our Mondors, I preferred the sword. One would have said that +I had sucked the milk of Bellona. 'Victory or Death!' was already my +motto, and I was not sixteen years old. + +"With what noble scorn I heard recounted the history of our Proteuses of +politics! With what disdainful glances I regarded the Turcarets of +finance, lolling on the cushions of some magnificent carriage, and +conducted by a laced automaton to the boudoir of some Aspasia. But if I +heard told the mighty deeds of the Knights of the Round Table, or the +valor of the crusaders celebrated in flowing verse; if chance placed in +my hand the great actions of our modern Rolands, recounted in an army +bulletin by the successor of Charlemagne, a flame presaging the fire of +battles rose in my young eyes. + +"Ah, the inaction was too much, and my leading-strings, already worn by +impatience, would have broken, perhaps, had not a father's wisdom untied +them. + +"'Most surely,' said he to me, trying, but in vain, to restrain his +tears, 'it was no tyrant who begot you, and I will not poison the life +which I myself gave you. I had hoped that your hand would remain in our +cottage to close my eyes; but when Patriotism has spoken, Egotism must +be still. My prayers will always follow you to the field where Mars +harvests heroes. May you merit the guerdon of valor, and show yourself a +good citizen, as you have been a good son!' + +"Speaking thus, he opened his arms to me. I threw myself into them; we +mingled our tears, and I promised to return to our hearthstone as soon +as I could bring the star of honor suspended from my breast. But alas! +my unhappy father was destined to see me no more. The fate which was +already gilding the thread of my days, pitilessly severed that of his. A +stranger's hand closed his eyes, while I was gaining my first epaulette +at the battle of Jena. + +"Lieutenant at Eylau, captain at Wagram, and there decorated by the +Emperor's own hand on the field of battle, major before Almieda, +lieutenant-colonel at Badajoz, colonel at Moscow, I have drunk the cup +of victory to the full. But I have also tasted the chalice of adversity. +The frozen plains of Russia saw me alone with a platoon of braves, the +last remnant of my regiment, forced to devour the mortal remains of that +faithful friend who had so often carried me into the very heart of the +enemy's battalions. Trusty and affectionate companion of my dangers, +when rendered useless by an accident at Smolensk, he devoted his very +_manes_ to the safety of his master, and made of his skin a protection +for my frozen and lacerated feet. + +"My tongue refuses to repeat the story of our perils in that terrible +campaign. Perhaps some day I will write it with a pen dipped in +tears--tears, the tribute of feeble humanity. Surprised by the season of +frosts in a zone of ice, without fire, without bread, without shoes, +without means of transportation, denied the succor of Esculapius' art, +harassed by the Cossacks, robbed by the peasants--positive vampires, we +saw our mute thunderers, which had fallen into the enemy's hands, belch +forth death upon ourselves. What more can I tell you? The passage of the +Beresina, the opposition at Wilna--Oh, ye gods of Thunder!--- But I feel +that grief overcomes me, and that my language is becoming tinged with +the bitterness of these recollections. + +"Nature and Love were holding in reserve for me brief but precious +consolations. Released from my fatigues, I passed a few happy days in my +native land among the peaceful vales of Nancy. While our phalanxes were +preparing themselves for fresh combats, while I was gathering around my +flag three thousand young but valorous warriors, all resolved to open to +posterity the path of honor, a new emotion, to which I had before been a +stranger, furtively glided into my soul. + +"Beautified by all Nature's gifts, enriched by the fruits of an +excellent education, the young and interesting Clementine had scarcely +passed from the uncertain shadows of childhood into the sweet illusions +of youth. Eighteen springs composed her life. Her parents extended to +some of the army officers a hospitality which, though it was not +gratuitous, was far from lacking in cordiality. To see their child and +love her, was for me the affair of a day. Her virgin heart smiled upon +my love. At the first avowals dictated to me by my passion, I saw her +forehead color with a lovely modesty. We exchanged our vows one lovely +evening in June, under an arbor where her happy father sometimes +dispensed to the thirsty officers the brown liquor of the North. I swore +that she should be my wife, and she promised to be mine; she yielded +still more. Our happiness, regardless of all outside, had the calmness +of a brook whose pure wave is never troubled by the storm, and which +rolls sweetly between flowery banks, spreading its own freshness through +the grove that protects its modest course. + +"A lightning stroke separated us from each other at the moment when Law +and Religion were about adding their sanction to our sweet communion. I +departed before I was able to give my name to her who had given me her +heart. I promised to return; she promised to wait for me; and, all +bathed in her tears, I tore myself from her arms, to rush to the laurels +of Dresden and the cypresses of Leipzic. A few lines from her hand +reached me during the interval between the two battles. 'You are to be a +father,' she told me. Am I one? God knows! Has she waited for me? I +believe she has. The waiting must have appeared to be a long one since +the birth of this child, who is forty-six years old to-day, and who +could be, in his turn, my father. + +"Pardon me for having troubled you so long with misfortunes. I wished to +pass rapidly over this sad history, but the unhappiness of virtue has in +it something sweet to temper the bitterness of grief. + +"Some days after the disaster of Leipzic, the giant of our age had me +called into his tent, and said to me: + +"'Colonel, are you a man to make your way through four armies?' + +"'Yes, sire.' + +"'Alone, and without escort?' + +"'Yes, sire.' + +"'There must be a letter carried to Dantzic.' + +"'Yes, sire.' + +"'You will deliver it into General Rapp's own hands?' + +"'Yes, sire.' + +"'It is probable you will be taken, or killed.' + +"'Yes, sire.' + +"'For that reason I send two other officers with copies of the same +despatch. There are three of you; the enemy will kill two, the third +will get there, and France will be saved.' + +"'Yes, sire.' + +"'The one who returns shall be a brigadier-general.' + +"'Yes, sire.' + +"Every detail of this interview, every word of the Emperor, every +response which I had the honor to address to him, is still engraved upon +my memory. All three of us set out separately. Alas! not one of us +reached the goal aimed at by his valor, and I have learned to-day that +France was not saved. But when I see these blockheads of historians +asserting that the Emperor forgot to send orders to General Rapp, I +feel a terrible itching to cut their ---- story short, at least. + +"'When a prisoner in the hands of the Russians in a German village, I +had the consolation of finding an old philosopher, who gave me the +rarest proofs of friendship. Who would have told me, when I succumbed to +the numbness of the cold in the tower of Liebenfeld, that that sleep +would not be the last? God is my witness, that in then addressing, from +the bottom of my heart, a last farewell to Clementine, I did not even +hope to see her again. I will see you again, then, O sweet and confiding +Clementine--best of spouses, and, probably, of mothers! What do I say? I +see her now! My eyes do not deceive me! This is surely she! There she +is, just as I left her! Clementine! In my arms! On my heart! Look here! +What's this you've been whining to me, the rest of you? Napoleon is not +dead, and the world has not grown forty-six years older, for Clementine +is still the same!" + +The betrothed of Leon Renault was about entering the room, and stopped +petrified at finding herself so overwhelmingly received by the Colonel. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE GAME OF LOVE AND WAR. + + +As she was evidently backward in falling into his arms, Fougas imitated +Mahomet, and ran to the mountain. + +"Oh, Clementine!" said he, covering her with kisses, "the friendly Fates +give you back to my devotion. I clasp once more the partner of my life +and the mother of my child!" + +The young lady was so astounded, that she did not even dream of +defending herself. Happily, Leon Renault extricated her from the hands +of the Colonel, and placed himself between them, determined to defend +his own. + +"Monsieur," cried he, clenching his fists, "you deceive yourself +entirely, if you think you know _Mademoiselle_. She is not a person of +your time, but of ours; she is not your _fiancee_, but mine; she has +never been the mother of your child, and I trust that she will be the +mother of mine!" + +Fougas was iron. He seized his rival by the arm, sent him off spinning +like a top, and put himself face to face with the young girl. + +"Are you Clementine?" he demanded of her. + +"Yes, Monsieur." + +"I call you all to witness that she is my Clementine!" + +Leon returned to the charge, and seized the Colonel by the collar, at +the risk of getting himself dashed against the walls. + +"We've had joking enough!" said he. "Possibly you don't pretend to +monopolize all the Clementines in the world? Mademoiselle's name is +Clementine Sambucco; she was born at Martinique, where you never set +your foot, if I am to believe what you have said within an hour. She is +eighteen years old----" + +"So was the other!" + +"Eh! The other is sixty-four to-day, since she was eighteen in 1813. +Mlle. Sambucco is of an honorable and well-known family. Her father, M. +Sambucco, was a magistrate; her grandfather was a functionary of the war +department. You see, she is in no way connected with you, nearly or +remotely; and good sense and politeness, to say nothing of gratitude, +make it your duty to leave her in peace." + +He gave the Colonel a shove, in his turn, and made him tumble between +the arms of a sofa. + +Fougas bounded up as if he had been thrown on a million springs. But +Clementine stopped him, with a gesture and a smile. + +"Monsieur," said she in her most caressing voice, "do not get angry with +him; he loves me." + +"So much the more reason why I should! Damnation!" + +He cooled down, nevertheless, made the young lady sit down beside him, +and regarded her from head to foot with the most absorbed attention. + +"This is surely she," said he. "My memory, my eyes, my heart, everything +in me, recognizes her, and tells me that it is she. And nevertheless the +testimony of mankind, the calculation of times and distances, in a word, +the very soul of evidence, seems to have made it a special point to +convict me of error. + +"Is it possible, then, that two women should so resemble each other? +Am I the victim of an illusion of the senses? Have I recovered life +only to lose reason? No; I know myself, I find myself the same; my +judgment is firm and accurate, and can make its way in this world +so new and topsy-turvy. It is on but one point that my reason +wavers--Clementine!--I seem to see you again, and you are not you! Well, +what's the difference, after all? If the Destiny which snatched me from +the tomb has taken care to present to my awaking sense the image of her +I loved, it must be because it had resolved to give me back, one after +another, all the blessings which I had lost. In a few days, my +epaulettes; to-morrow, the flag of the 23d of the line; to-day this +adorable presence which made my heart beat for the first time! Living +image of all that is sweetest and clearest in the past, I throw myself +at your feet! Be my wife!" + +The devil of a fellow joined the deed to the word, and the witnesses of +the unexpected scene opened their eyes to the widest. But Clementine's +aunt, the austere Mlle. Sambucco, thought that it was time to show her +authority. She stretched out her big, wrinkled hands, seized Fougas, +jerked him sharply to his feet, and cried in her shrillest voice: + +"Enough, sir; it is time to put an end to this scandalous farce! My +niece is not for you; I have promised her and given her away. Know that, +day after to-morrow, the 19th of this month, at ten o'clock in the +morning, she will marry M. Leon Renault, your benefactor!" + +"And I forbid it--do you hear, Madame Aunt? And if she pretends to marry +this boy----" + +"What will you do?" + +"I'll curse her!" + +Leon could not help laughing. The malediction of this +twenty-five-year-old Colonel appeared rather more comic than terrible. +But Clementine grew pale, burst into tears, and fell, in her turn, at +the feet of Fougas. + +"Monsieur," cried she, kissing his hands, "do not overwhelm a poor girl +who venerates you, who loves you, who will sacrifice her happiness if +you demand it! By all the marks of tenderness which I have lavished upon +you for a month, by the tears I have poured upon your coffin, by the +respectful zeal with which I have urged on your resuscitation, I conjure +you to pardon our offences. I will not marry Leon if you forbid me; I +will do anything to please you; I will obey you in everything; but, for +God's sake, do not pour upon me your maledictions!" + +"Embrace me," said Fougas. "You yield; I pardon." + +Clementine raised herself, all radiant with joy, and held up her +beautiful forehead. The stupefaction of the spectators, especially of +those most interested, can be better imagined than described. An old +mummy dictating laws, breaking off marriages, and imposing his desires +on the whole house! Pretty little Clementine, so reasonable, so +obedient, so happy in the prospect of marrying Leon Renault, +sacrificing, all at once, her affections, her happiness, and almost her +duty, to the caprice of an interloper. M. Nibor declared that it was +madness. As for Leon, he would have butted his head into all the walls, +if his mother had not held him back. + +"Ah, my poor child!" said she, "why did you bring that thing from +Berlin?" + +"It's my fault!" cried old Monsieur Renault. + +"No," interrupted Dr. Martout, "it's mine." + +The members of the Parisian committee discussed with M. Rollon the new +aspect of the case. "Had they resuscitated a madman? Had the +revivification produced some disorder of the nervous system? Had the +abuse of wine and other drinkables during the first repast caused a +delirium? What an interesting autopsy it would be, if they could dissect +M. Fougas at the next regular meeting!" + +"You would do very well as far as you would go, gentlemen," said the +Colonel of the 23d. "The autopsy might explain the delirium of our +unfortunate friend, but it would not account for the impression produced +upon the young lady. Is it fascination, magnetism, or what?" + +While the friends and relations were weeping, counselling, and buzzing +around him, Fougas, serene and smiling, gazed at himself in Clementine's +eyes, while they, too, regarded him tenderly. + +"This must be brought to an end!" cried Mlle. Sambucco the severe. +"Come, Clementine!" + +Fougas seemed surprised. + +"She doesn't live here, then?" + +"No, sir; she lives with me." + +"Then I will escort her home. Angel! will you take my arm?" + +"Oh, yes, Monsieur, with great pleasure!" + +Leon gnashed his teeth. + +"This is admirable! He presumes on such familiarity, and she takes it +all as a matter of course!" + +He went to get his hat, for the purpose of, at least, going home with +the aunt, but his hat was not in its place; Fougas, who had not yet one +of his own, had helped himself to it without ceremony. The poor lover +crowded his head into a cap, and followed Fougas and Clementine, with +the respectable Virginie, whose arm cut like a scythe. + +By an accident which happened almost daily, the Colonel of cuirassiers +met Clementine on the way home. The young lady directed Fougas' +attention to him. + +"That's M. du Marnet," said she. "His restaurant is at the end of our +street, and his room at the side of the park. I think he is very much +taken with my little self, but he has never even bowed to me. The only +man for whom my heart has ever beaten is Leon Renault." + +"Ah, indeed! And me?" said Fougas. + +"Oh! as for you, that's another matter. I respect you, and stand in awe +of you. It seems to me as if you were a good and respectable parent." + +"Thank you!" + +"I'm telling you the truth, as far as I can read it in my heart. All +this is not very clear, I confess, but I do not understand myself." + +"Azure flower of innocence, I adore your sweet perplexity! Let love take +care of itself; it will speak to you in master tones." + +"I don't know anything about that; it's possible! Here we are at home. +Good evening, Monsieur; embrace me.--Good night, Leon; don't quarrel +with M. Fougas. I love him with all my heart, but I love you in a +different way!" + +The aunt Virginie made no response to the "Good evening" of Fougas. When +the two men were alone in the street, Leon marched along without saying +a word, till they reached the next lamp-post. There, planting himself +resolutely opposite the Colonel, he said, + +"Well, sir, now that we are alone, we had better have an explanation. I +don't know by what philter or incantation you have obtained such +prodigious influence over my betrothed; but I know that I love her, that +I have been loved by her more than four years, and that I will not stop +at any means of retaining and protecting her." + +"Friend," answered Fougas, "you can brave me with impunity; my arm is +chained by gratitude. It shall never be written in history that Pierre +Fougas was an ingrate!" + +"Would it have been more ungrateful in you to cut my throat, than to rob +me of my wife?" + +"Oh, my benefactor! Learn to understand and pardon! God forbid that I +should marry Clementine in spite of you, in spite of herself. It is +through her consent and your own that I hope to win her. Realize that +she has been dear to me, not for four years, as to you, but for nearly +half a century. Reflect that I am alone on earth, and that her sweet +face is my only consolation. Will you, who have given me life, prevent +my spending it happily? Have you called me back to the world only to +deliver me over to despair?--Tiger! Take back, then, the life you gave +me, if you will not permit me to consecrate it to the adorable +Clementine!" + +"Upon my soul, my dear fellow, you are superb! The habit of victory must +have totally twisted your wits. My hat is on your head:--keep it; so far +so good. But because my betrothed happens to remind you vaguely of a +girl in Nancy, must I give her up to you? I can't see it!" + +"Friend, I will give you back your hat just as soon as you've bought me +another one; but do not ask me to give up Clementine. In the first +place, do you know that she will reject me?" + +"I'm sure of it." + +"She loves me." + +"You're crazy!" + +"You've seen her at my feet." + +"What of that? It was from fear, from respect, from superstition, from +anything in the devil's name you choose to call it; but it was not from +love." + +"We'll see about that pretty clearly, after six months of married life." + +"But," cried Leon Renault, "have you the right to dispose of yourself? +There is another Clementine, the true one; she has sacrificed everything +for you; you are engaged, in honor, to her. Is Colonel Fougas deaf to +the voice of honor?" + +"Are you mocking me? What! I marry a woman sixty-four years old?" + +"You ought to; if not for her sake, at least for your child's." + +"My child is a pretty big boy. He's forty-six years old; he has no +further need of my care." + +"He does need your name, though." + +"I'll adopt him." + +"The law is opposed to it. You're not fifty years old, and he's not +fifteen years younger than you are; quite the reverse!" + +"Very well; I'll legitimize him by marrying the young Clementine." + +"How can you expect her to acknowledge a child twice as old as she is +herself?" + +"But then I can't acknowledge him any better; so there's no need of my +marrying the old woman. Moreover, I'd be excessively accommodating to +break my head for a child who is very likely dead. What do I say? It is +possible that he never saw the light. I love and am loved--that much is +substantial and certain; and you shall be my groomsman." + +"Not yet awhile. Mlle. Sambucco is a minor, and her guardian is my +father." + +"Your father is an honorable man; and he will not have the baseness to +refuse her to me." + +"At least he will ask you if you have any position, any rank, any +fortune to offer to his ward." + +"My position? colonel; my rank? colonel; my fortune? the pay of a +colonel. And the millions at Dantzic--I mustn't forget them!--Here we +are at home; let me have the will of that good old gentleman who wore +the lilac wig. Give me some books on history, too--a big pile of +them--all that have anything to say about Napoleon." + +Young Renault sadly obeyed the master he had given himself. He conducted +Fougas to a fine chamber, brought him Herr Meiser's will and a whole +shelf of books, and bid his mortal enemy "Good night." The Colonel +embraced him impetuously, and said to him, + +"I will never forget that to you I owe life and Clementine. Farewell +till to-morrow, noble and generous child of my native land! farewell!" + +Leon went back to the ground floor, passed the dining-room, where Gothon +was wiping the glasses and putting the silver in order, and rejoined his +father and mother, who were waiting for him in the parlor. The guests +were gone, the candles extinguished. A single lamp lit up the solitude. +The two mandarins on the etagere were motionless in their obscure +corner, and seemed to meditate gravely on the caprices of fortune. + +"Well?" demanded Mme. Renault. + +"I left him in his room, crazier and more obstinate than ever. However, +I've got an idea." + +"So much the better," said the father, "for we have none left. Sadness +has made us stupid. But, above all things, no quarrelling. These +soldiers of the empire used to be terrible swordsmen." + +"Oh, I'm not afraid of him! It's Clementine that makes me anxious. With +what sweetness and submission she listened to the confounded babbler!" + +"The heart of woman is an unfathomable abyss. Well, what do you think of +doing?" + +Leon developed in detail the project he had conceived in the street, +during his conversation with Fougas. + +"The most urgent thing," said he, "is to relieve Clementine from this +influence. If we could get him out of the way to-morrow, reason would +resume its empire, and we would be married the day after to-morrow. That +being done, I'll answer for the rest." + +"But how is such a madman to be gotten rid of?" + +"I see but one way, but it is almost infallible--to excite his dominant +passion. These fellows sometimes imagine that they are in love, but, at +the bottom, they love nothing but powder. The thing is, to fling Fougas +back into the current of military ideas. His breakfast to-morrow with +the colonel of the 23d will be a good preparation. I made him understand +to-day that he ought, before all, to reclaim his rank and epaulettes, +and he has become inoculated with the idea. He'll go to Paris, then. +Possibly he'll find there some leather-breeches of his acquaintance. At +all events, he'll reenter the service. The occupations incident to his +position will be a powerful diversion; he'll no longer dream of +Clementine, whom I will have fixed securely. We will have to furnish him +the wherewithal to knock about the world; but all sacrifices of money +are nothing in comparison with the happiness I wish to save." + +Madame Renault, who was a woman of thrift, blamed her son's generosity a +little. + +"The Colonel is an ungrateful soul," said she. "We've already done too +much in giving him back his life. Let him take care of himself now!" + +"No," said the father; "we've not the right to send him forth entirely +empty-handed. Decency forbids." + +This deliberation, which had lasted a good hour and a quarter, was +interrupted by a tremendous racket. One would have declared that the +house was falling down. + +"There he is again!" cried Leon. "Undoubtedly a fresh paroxysm of raving +madness!" + +He ran, followed by his parents, and mounted the steps four at a time. A +candle was burning at the sill of the chamber door. Leon took it, and +pushed the door half open. + +Must it be confessed? Hope and joy spoke louder to him than fear. He +fancied himself already relieved of the Colonel. But the spectacle +presented to his eyes suddenly diverted the course of his ideas, and the +inconsolable lover began laughing like a fool. A noise of kicks, blows, +and slaps; an undefined group rolling on the floor in the convulsions of +a desperate struggle--so much was all he could see and understand at the +first glance. Soon Fougas, lit up by the ruddy glow of the candle, +discovered that he was struggling with Gothon, like Jacob with the +angel, and went back, confused and pitiable, to bed. + +The Colonel had gone to sleep over the history of Napoleon, without +putting out the candle. Gothon, after finishing her work, saw the light +under the door. Her thoughts recurred to that poor Baptiste, who, +perhaps, was groaning in purgatory for having let himself tumble from a +roof. Hoping that Fougas could give her some news of her lover, she +rapped several times, at first softly, then much louder. The Colonel's +silence and the lighted candle made it seem to the servant that there +was something wrong. The fire might catch the curtains, and from thence +the whole building. She accordingly set down the candle, opened the +door, and went, with cat-like steps, to put out the light. Possibly the +eyes of the sleeper vaguely perceived the passage of a shadow; possibly +Gothon, with her big, awkward figure, made a board in the floor creak. +Fougas partially awoke, heard the rustling of a dress, dreamed it one of +those adventures which were wont to spice garrison life under the first +empire, and held out his arms blindly, calling Clementine. Gothon, on +finding herself seized by the hair and shoulders, responded by such a +masculine blow that the enemy supposed himself attacked by a man. The +blow was returned with interest; further exchanges followed, and they +finished by clinching and rolling on the floor. + +If anybody ever did feel shamefaced, Fougas was certainly the man. +Gothon went to bed, considerably bruised; the Renault family talked +sense into the Colonel, and got out of him pretty much what they wanted. +He promised to set out next day, accepted as a loan the money offered +him, and swore not to return until he should have recovered his +epaulettes and secured the Dantzic bequest. + +"And then," said he, "I'll marry Clementine." + +On that point it was useless to argue with him; the idea was fixed. + +Everybody slept soundly in the mansion of the Renaults; the heads of the +house, because they had had three sleepless nights; Fougas and Gothon, +because each had been unmercifully pummelled; and the young Celestin, +because he had drunk the heeltaps from all the glasses. + +The next morning M. Rollon came to know if Fougas were in a condition to +breakfast with him; he feared, just the least bit, that he would find +him under a shower bath. Far from it! The madman of yesterday was as +calm as a picture and as fresh as a rosebud. He shaved with Leon's +razors, while humming an air of Nicolo. With his hosts, he was charming, +and he promised to settle a pension on Gothon out of Herr Meiser's +legacy. + +As soon as he had set off for the breakfast, Leon ran to the dwelling of +his sweetheart. + +"Everything is going better," said he. "The Colonel is much more +reasonable. He has promised to leave for Paris this very day; so we can +get married to-morrow." + +Mlle. Virginie Sambucco praised this plan of proceeding highly, not only +because she had made great preparations for the wedding, but because the +postponement of the marriage would be the talk of the town. The cards +were already out, the mayor notified, and the Virgin's chapel, in the +parish church, engaged. To revoke all this at the caprice of a ghost +and a fool, would be to sin against custom, common sense, and Heaven +itself. + +Clementine only replied with tears. She could not be happy without +marrying Leon, but she would rather die, she said, than give her hand +without the sanction of M. Fougas. She promised to implore him, on her +knees if necessary, and wring from him his consent. + +"But if he refuses? And it's too likely that he will!" + +"I will beseech him again and again, until he says yes." + +Everybody conspired to convince her that she was unreasonable--her aunt, +Leon, M. and Mme. Renault, M. Martout, M. Bonnivet, and all the friends +of the two families. At length she yielded, but, at almost the same +instant, the door flew open, and M. Audret rushed into the parlor, +crying out, + +"Well, well! here _is_ a piece of news! Colonel Fougas is going to fight +M. du Marnet to-morrow." + +The young girl fell, thunderstruck, into the arms of Leon Renault. + +"God punishes me!" cried she; "and the chastisement for my impiety is +not delayed. Will you still force me to obey you? Shall I be dragged to +the altar, in spite of myself, at the very hour he's risking his life?" + +No one dared to insist longer, on seeing her in so pitiable a state. But +Leon offered up earnest prayers that victory might side with the colonel +of cuirassiers. He was wrong, I confess; but what lover would have been +sinless enough to cast the first stone at him? + +And here is an account of how the precious Fougas had spent his day. + +At ten o'clock in the morning, the youngest two captains of the 23d came +to conduct him in proper style to the residence of the Colonel. M. +Rollon occupied a little palace of the imperial epoch. A marble tablet, +inserted over the porte-cochere, still bore the words, _Ministere des +Finances_--a souvenir of the glorious time when Napoleon's court +followed its master to Fontainebleau. + +Colonel Rollon, the lieutenant-colonel, the major-in-chief, the three +majors of battalions, the surgeon-major, and ten or a dozen officers +were outside, awaiting the arrival of the illustrious guest from the +other world. The flag was placed in the middle of the court, under guard +of the ensign and a squad of non-commissioned officers selected for the +honor. The band of the regiment, at the entrance of the garden, filled +up the background of the picture. Eight panoplies of arms, which had +been improvised the same morning by the armorers of the corps, +embellished the walls and railings. A company of grenadiers, with their +arms at rest, were in attendance. + +At the entrance of Fougas, the band played the famous "_Partant pour la +Syrie;_" the grenadiers presented arms; the drums beat a salute; the +non-commissioned officers and soldiers cried, "_Vive le Colonel +Fougas!_" the officers, in a body, approached the patriarch of their +regiment. All this was neither regular nor according to discipline, but +we can well allow a little latitude to these brave soldiers on finding +their ancestor. For them it seemed a little debauch in glory. + +The hero of the _fete_ grasped the hands of the colonel and officers +with as much emotion as if he had found his old comrades again. He +cordially saluted the non-commissioned officers and soldiers, approached +the flag, bent one knee to the earth, raised himself loftily, grasped +the staff, turned toward the attentive crowd, and said, + +"My friends, under the shadow of the flag, a soldier of France, after +forty-six years of exile, finds his family again to-day. All honor to +thee, symbol of our fatherland, old partner in our victories, and heroic +support in our misfortunes! Thy radiant eagle has hovered over prostrate +and trembling Europe. Thy bruised eagle has again dashed obstinately +against misfortune, and terrified the sons of Power. Honor to thee, thou +who hast led us to glory, and fortified us against the clamor of +despair! I have seen thee ever foremost in the fiercest dangers, proud +flag of my native land! Men have fallen around thee like grain before +the reaper; while thou alone hast shown to the enemy thy front unbending +and superb. Bullets and cannon-shot have torn thee with wounds, but +never upon thee has the audacious stranger placed his hand. May the +future deck thy front with new laurels! Mayst thou conquer new and +far-extending realms, which no fatality shall rob thee of! The day of +great deeds is being born again; believe a warrior, who has risen from +the tomb to tell thee so. 'Forward!' Yes, I swear it by the spirit of +him who led us at Wagram. There shall be great days for France when thou +shalt shelter with thy glorious folds the fortunes of the brave 23d!" + +Eloquence so martial and patriotic stirred all hearts. Fougas was +applauded, feted, embraced, and almost carried in triumph into the +banquet hall. + +Seated at table opposite M. Rollon, as if he were a second master of the +house, he breakfasted heartily, talked a great deal, and drank more yet. +You may occasionally meet, in the world, people who get drunk without +drinking. Fougas was far from being one of them. He never felt his +equanimity seriously disturbed short of three bottles. Often, in fact, +he went much further without yielding. + +The toasts presented at dessert were distinguished for pith and +cordiality. I would like to recount them in order, but am forced to +admit that they would take up too much room, and that the last, which +were the most touching, were not of a lucidity absolutely Voltairian. + +They arose from the table at two o'clock, and betook themselves in a +body to the _Cafe Militaire_, where the officers of the 23d placed a +punch before the two colonels. They had invited, with a feeling of +eminent propriety, the superior officers of the regiment of cuirassiers. + +Fougas, who was drunker, in his own proper person, than a whole +battalion of _Suisses_, distributed a great many hand-shakings. But +across the storm which disturbed his spirit, he recognized the person +and name of M. du Marnet, and made a grimace. Between officers, and, +above all, between officers of different arms of the service, politeness +is a little excessive, etiquette rather severe, _amour-propre_ somewhat +susceptible. M. du Marnet, who was preeminently a man of the world, +understood at once, from the attitude of M. Fougas, that he was not in +the presence of a friend. + +The punch appeared, blazing, went out with its strength unimpaired, and +was dispensed, with a big ladle, into threescore glasses. Fougas drank +with everybody, except M. du Marnet. The conversation, which was erratic +and noisy, imprudently raised a question of comparative merits. An +officer of cuirassiers asked Fougas if he had seen Bordesoulle's +splendid charge, which flung the Austrians into the valley of Plauen. +Fougas had known General Bordesoulle personally, and had seen with his +own eyes the beautiful heavy cavalry manoeuvre which decided the victory +of Dresden. But he chose to be disagreeable to M. du Marnet, by +affecting an air of ignorance or indifference. + +"In our time," said he, "the cavalry was always brought into action +after the battle; we employed it to bring in the enemy after we had +routed them." + +Here a great outcry arose, and the glorious name of Murat was thrown +into the balance. + +"Oh, doubtless--doubtless!" said he, shaking his head. "Murat was a good +general in his limited sphere; he answered perfectly for all that was +wanted of him. But if the cavalry had Murat, the infantry had Napoleon." + +M. du Marnet observed, judiciously, that Napoleon, if he must be seized +upon for the credit of any single arm of the service, would belong to +the artillery. + +"With all my heart, monsieur," replied Fougas; "the artillery and the +infantry. Artillery at a distance, infantry at close quarters--cavalry +off at one side." + +"Once more I beg your pardon," answered M. du Marnet; "you mean to say, +at the sides, which is a very different matter." + +"At the sides, or at one side, I don't care! As for me, if I were +commander-in-chief, I would set the cavalry aside." + +Several cavalry officers had already flung themselves into the +discussion. M. du Marnet held them back, and made a sign that he wanted +to answer Fougas alone. + +"And why, then, if you please, would you set the cavalry aside?" + +"Because the dragoon is an incomplete soldier." + +"Incomplete?" + +"Yes, sir; and the proof is, that the Government has to buy four or five +hundred francs' worth of horse in order to complete him. And when the +horse receives a ball or a bayonet thrust, the dragoon is no longer good +for anything. Have you ever seen a cavalryman on foot? It would be a +pretty sight!" + +"I see myself on foot every day, and I don't see anything particularly +ridiculous about it." + +"I'm too polite to contradict you." + +"And for me, sir, I am too just to combat one paradox with another. What +would you think of my logic, if I were to say to you (the idea is not +mine--I found it in a book), if I were to say to you, 'I entertain a +high regard for infantry, but, after all, the foot soldier is an +incomplete soldier, deprived of his birthright, an inefficient body +deprived of that natural complement of the soldier, called a horse! I +admire his courage, I perceive that he makes himself useful in battle; +but, after all, the poor devil has only two feet at his command, while +we have four!' You see fit to consider a dragoon on foot ridiculous; but +does the foot-soldier always make a very brilliant appearance when one +sticks a horse between his legs? I have seen excellent infantry captains +cruelly embarrassed when the minister of war made them majors. They +said, scratching their heads, 'It's not over when we've mounted a grade; +we've got to mount a horse in the bargain!'" + +This crude pleasantry amused the audience for a moment. They laughed, +and the mustard mounted higher and higher in Fougas' nose. + +"In my time," said he, "a foot soldier became a dragoon in twenty-four +hours; and if any one would like to make a match with me on horseback, +sabre in hand, I'll show him what infantry is!" + +"Monsieur," coolly replied M. du Marnet, "I hope that opportunities will +not be lacking to you in the field of battle. It is there that a true +soldier displays his talents and bravery. Infantry and cavalry, we alike +belong to France. I drink to her, Monsieur, and I hope you will not +refuse to touch glasses with me.--To France!" + +This was certainly well spoken and well settled. The clicking of glasses +applauded M. du Marnet. Fougas himself approached his adversary and +drank with him without reserve. But he whispered in his ear, speaking +very thickly: + +"I hope, for my part, that you will not refuse the sabre-match which I +had the honor to propose to you?" + +"As you please," said the colonel of cuirassiers. + +The gentleman from the other world, drunker than ever, went out of the +crowd with two officers whom he had picked up haphazard. He declared to +them that he considered himself insulted by M. du Marnet, that a +challenge had been given and accepted, and that the affair was going on +swimmingly. + +"Especially," added he in confidence, "since there is a lady in the case! +These are my conditions--they are all in accordance with the honor of +the infantry, the army, and France: we will fight on horseback, stripped +to the waist, mounted bareback on two stallions. The weapon--the cavalry +sabre. First blood. I want to chastise a puppy. I am far from wishing to +rob France of a soldier." + +These conditions were pronounced absurd by M. du Marnet's seconds. They +accepted them, nevertheless, for the military code requires one to face +all dangers, however absurd. + +Fougas devoted the rest of the day to worrying the poor Renaults. Proud +of the control he exercised over Clementine, he declared his wishes; +swore he would take her for his wife as soon as he had recovered his +rank, family, and fortune, and prohibited her to dispose of herself +before that time. He broke openly with Leon and his parents, refused to +accept their good offices any longer, and quitted their house after a +serious passage of high words. Leon concluded by saying that he would +only give up his betrothed with life itself. The Colonel shrugged his +shoulders and turned his back, carrying off, without stopping to +consider what he was doing, the father's clothes and the son's hat. He +asked M. Rollon for five hundred francs, engaged a room at the _Hotel du +Cadron-bleu_, went to bed without any supper, and slept straight through +until the arrival of his seconds. + +There was no necessity for giving him an account of what had passed the +previous day. The fogs of punch and sleep dissipated themselves in an +instant. He plunged his head and hands into a basin of fresh water, and +said: + +"So much for my toilet! Now, _Vive l'Empereur!_ Let's go and get into +line!" + +The field selected by common consent was the parade-ground--a sandy +plain enclosed in the forest, at a good distance from the town. All the +officers of the garrison betook themselves there of their own accord; +there would have been no need of inviting them. More than one soldier +went secretly and billeted himself in a tree. The _gendarmerie_ itself +ornamented the little family _fete_, with its presence. People went to +see an encounter in chivalric tourney, not merely between the infantry +and the cavalry, but between the old army and the young. The exhibition +fully satisfied public expectation. No one was tempted to hiss the +piece, and everybody had his money's worth. + +Precisely at nine o'clock, the combatants entered the lists, attended by +their four seconds and the umpire of the field. Fougas, naked to the +waist, was as handsome as a young god. His lithe and agile figure, his +proud and radiant features, the manly grace of his movements, assured +him a flattering reception. He made his English horse caper, and saluted +the lookers-on with the point of his sword. + +M. du Marnet, a man rather of the German type, hardy, quite hairy, +moulded like the Indian Bacchus, and not like Achilles, showed in his +countenance a slight shade of disgust. It was not necessary to be a +magician to understand that this duel _in naturalibus_, under the eyes +of his own officers, appeared to him useless and even ridiculous. His +horse was a half-blood from Perche, a vigorous beast and full of fire. + +Fougas' seconds rode badly enough. They divided their attention between +the combat and their stirrups. M. du Marnet had chosen the best two +horsemen in his regiment, a major and captain. The umpire of the field +was Colonel Rollon, an excellent rider. + +At a signal given by Colonel Rollon, Fougas rode directly at his +adversary, presenting the point of his sabre in the position of "prime," +like a cavalry soldier charging infantry in a hollow square. But he +reined up about three lengths from M. du Marnet, and described around +him seven or eight rapid circles, like an Arab in a play. M. du Marnet, +being forced to turn in the same spot and defend himself on all sides, +clapped both spurs to his horse, broke the circle, took to the field, +and threatened to commence the same manoeuvre about Fougas. But the +gentleman from the other world did not wait for him. He rushed off at a +full gallop, and made a round of the hippodrome, always followed by M. +du Marnet. The cuirassier, being heavier, and mounted on a slower horse, +was distanced. He revenged himself by calling out to Fougas: + +"Oh, Monsieur! I must say that this looks more like a race than a +battle. I ought to have brought a riding-whip instead of a sword!" + +But Fougas, panting and furious, had already turned upon him. + +"Hold on there!" cried he; "I have shown you the horseman; now I will +show you the soldier!" + +He lanched a thrust at him, which would have gone through him like a +hoop if M. du Marnet had not been as prompt as at parade. He retorted by +a fine cut _en quarte_, powerful enough to cut the invincible Fougas in +two. But the other was nimbler than a monkey. He wholly shielded his +body by letting himself slide to the ground, and then remounted his +horse in the same second. + +"My compliments!" said M. du Marnet. "They don't do any better than that +in the circus." + +"No more do they in war," rejoined the other. "Ah, scoundrel! so you +revile the old army? Here's at you! A miss! Thanks for the retort, but +it's not good enough yet. I'll not die from any such thrust as that! How +do you like that?--and that?-and that? Ah, you claim that the +foot-soldier is an incomplete man! Now we're going to make _your_ +assortment of limbs a little incomplete. Look out for your boot! He's +parried it! Perhaps he expects to indulge in a little promenade under +Clementine's windows this evening. Take care! Here's for Clementine! And +here's for the infantry! Will you parry that? So, traitor! And that? So +he does! Perhaps you'll parry them all, then, by Heavens! Victory! Ah, +Monsieur! Your blood is flowing! What have I done? Devil take the sword, +the horse, and all! Major! major! come quickly! Monsieur, let yourself +rest in my arms. Beast that I am! As if all soldiers were not brothers! +Oh, forgive me, my friend! Would that I could redeem each drop of your +blood with all of mine! Miserable Fougas, incapable of mastering his +fierce passions! Ah, you Esculapian Mars, I beg you tell me that the +thread of his days is not to be clipped! I will not survive him, for he +is a brave!" + +M. du Marnet had received a magnificent cut which traversed the left arm +and breast, and the blood was streaming from it at a rate to make one +shudder. The surgeon, who had provided himself with hemostatic +preparations, hastened to arrest the hemorrhage. The wound was long +rather than deep, and could be cured in a few days. Fougas himself +carried his adversary to the carriage, but that did not satisfy him. He +firmly insisted on joining the two officers who took M. du Marnet home; +he overwhelmed the wounded man with his protestations, and was occupied +during most of the ride in swearing eternal friendship to him. On +reaching the house, he put him to bed, embraced him, bathed him with +tears, and did not leave him for a moment until he heard him snoring. + +When six o'clock struck, he went to dine at the hotel, in company with +his seconds and the referee, all of whom he had invited after the fight. +He treated them magnificently, and got drunk himself, as usual. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +IN WHICH THE READER WILL SEE THAT IT IS NOT FAR FROM THE CAPITAL TO THE +TARPEIAN ROCK. + + +The next day, after a visit to M. du Marnet, he wrote thus to +Clementine: + + "Light of my life, I am about to quit these scenes, the + witnesses of my fatal courage and the repositories of + my love. To the bosom of the capital, to the foot of + the throne, I will first betake my steps. If the + successor of the God of Combats is not deaf to the + voice of the blood that courses in his veins, he will + restore me my sword and epaulettes, so that I may lay + them at thy feet. Be faithful to me--wait, hope! May + these lines be to thee a talisman against the dangers + threatening thy independence. Oh, my Clementine, + tenderly guard thyself for thy + + "VICTOR FOUGAS!" + +Clementine sent him no answer, but, just as he was getting on the train, +he was accosted by a messenger, who handed him a pretty red leather +pocket-book, and ran away with all his might. The pocket-book was +entirely new, solid, and carefully fastened. It contained twelve hundred +francs in bank notes--all the young girl's savings. Fougas had no time +to deliberate on this delicate circumstance. He was pushed into a car, +the locomotive puffed, and the train started. + +The Colonel began to review in his memory the various events which had +succeeded each other in his life during less than a week. His arrest +among the frosts of the Vistula, his sentence to death, his imprisonment +in the fortress of Liebenfeld, his reawakening at Fontainebleau, the +invasion of 1814, the return from the island of Elba, the hundred days, +the death of the emperor and the king of Rome, the restoration of the +Bonapartes in 1852, his meeting with a young girl who was the +counterpart of Clementine Pichon in all respects, the flag of the 23d, +the duel with the colonel of cuirassiers--all this, for Fougas, had not +taken up more than four days. The night reaching from the 11th of +November, 1813, to the 17th of August, 1859, seemed to him even a little +shorter than any of the others; for it was the only time that he had had +a full sleep, without any dreaming. + +A less active spirit, and a heart less warm, would, perhaps, have lapsed +into a sort of melancholy. For, in fact, one who has been asleep for +forty-six years would naturally become somewhat alien to mankind in +general, even in his own country. Not a relation, not a friend, not a +familiar face, on the whole face of the earth! Add to this a multitude +of new words, ideas, customs, and inventions, which make him feel the +need of a cicerone, and prove to him that he is a stranger. But Fougas, +on reopening his eyes, following the precept of Horace, was thrown into +the very midst of action. He had improvised for him friends, enemies, a +sweetheart, and a rival. Fontainebleau, his second native place, was, +provisionally, the central point of his existence. There he felt himself +loved, hated, feared, admired--in a word, well known. He knew that in +that sub-prefecture his name could not be spoken without awakening an +echo. But what attached him more than all to modern times, was his +well-established relationship with the great family of the army. +Wherever a French flag floats, the soldier, young or old, is at home. +Around that church-spire of the fatherland, though dear and sacred in a +way different from the village spire, language, ideas, and institutions +change but little. The death of individuals has little effect; they are +replaced by others who look like them, and think, talk, and act in the +same way; who do not stop on assuming the uniform of their predecessors, +but inherit their souvenirs also--the glory they have acquired, their +traditions, their jests, and even certain intonations of their voices. +This accounts for Fougas' sudden friendship, after a first feeling of +jealousy, for the new colonel of the 23d; and the sudden sympathy which +he evinced for M. du Marnet as soon as he saw the blood running from his +wound. Quarrels between soldiers are family quarrels, which never blot +out the relationship. + +Calmly satisfied that he was not alone in the world, M. Fougas derived +pleasure from all the new objects which civilization placed before his +eyes. The speed of the rail-cars fairly intoxicated him. He was inspired +with a positive enthusiasm for this force of steam, whose theory was a +closed book to him, but on whose results he meditated much. + +"With a thousand machines like this, two thousand rifled cannon, and two +hundred thousand such chaps as I am, Napoleon would have conquered the +world in six weeks. Why doesn't this young fellow on the throne make +some use of the resources he has under his control? Perhaps he hasn't +thought of it. Very well, I'll go to see him. If he looks like a man of +capacity, I'll give him my idea; he'll make me minister of war, and +then--Forward, march!" + +He had explained to him the use of the great iron wires running on poles +all along the road. + +"The very thing!" said he. "Here are aides-de-camp both fleet and +judicious. Get them all into the hands of a chief-of-staff like +Berthier, and the universe would be held in a thread by the mere will of +a man!" + +His meditations were interrupted, a couple of miles from Melun, by the +sounds of a foreign language. He pricked up his ears, and then bounded +from his corner as if he had sat on a pile of thorns. Horror! it was +English! One of those monsters who had assassinated Napoleon at St. +Helena for the sake of insuring to themselves the cotton monopoly, had +entered the compartment with a very pretty woman and two lovely +children. + +"Conductor, stop!" cried Fougas, thrusting his body halfway out of the +window. + +"Monsieur," said the Englishman in good French, "I advise you to have +patience until we get to the next station. The conductor doesn't hear +you, and you're in danger of falling out on the track. If I can be of +any service to you, I have a flask of brandy with me, and a medicine +chest." + +"No, sir," replied Fougas in a most supercilious tone, "I'm in want of +nothing, and I'd rather die than accept anything from an Englishman! If +I'm calling the conductor, it's only because I want to get into a +different car, and cleanse my eyes from the sight of an enemy of the +Emperor." + +"I assure you, monsieur," responded the Englishman, "that I am not an +enemy of the Emperor. I had the honor of being received by him while he +was in London. He even deigned to pass a few days at my little +country-seat in Lancashire." + +"So much the better for you, if this young man is good enough to forget +what you have done against his family; but Fougas will never forgive +your crimes against his country." + +As soon as they arrived at the station at Melun, he opened the door and +rushed into another saloon. There he found himself alone in the presence +of two young gentlemen, whose physiognomies were far from English, and +who spoke French with the purest accent of Touraine. Both had coats of +arms on their seal-rings, so that no one might be ignorant of their +rank as nobles. Fougas was too plebeian to fancy the nobility much; but +as he had left a compartment full of Britons, he was happy to meet a +couple of Frenchmen. + +"Friends," said he, inclining toward them with a cordial smile, "we are +children of the same mother. Long life to you! Your appearance revives +me." + +The two young gentlemen opened their eyes very wide, half bowed, and +resumed their conversation, without making any other response to Fougas' +advance. + +"Well, then, my dear Astophe," said one, "you saw the king at +Froshdorf?" + +"Yes, my good Americ; and he received me with the most affecting +condescension. 'Vicomte,' said he to me, 'you come of a house well known +for its fidelity. We will remember you when God replaces us on the +throne of our ancestors. Tell our brave nobility of Touraine that we +hope to be remembered in their prayers, and that we never forget them in +ours.'" + +"Pitt and Coburg!" said Fougas between his teeth. "Here are two little +rascals conspiring with the army of Conde! But, patience!" + +He clenched his fists and opened his ears. + +"Didn't he say anything about politics?" + +"A few vague words. Between us, I don't think he bothers with them much; +he is waiting upon events." + +"He'll not wait much longer." + +"Who can tell?" + +"What! Who can tell? The empire is not good for six months longer. +Monseigneur de Montereau said so again last Monday to my aunt the +canoness." + +"For my part, I give them a year, for their campaign in Italy has +strengthened them with the lower orders. I didn't put myself out to tell +the king so, though!" + +"Damnation! gentlemen, this is going it a little too strongly!" +interrupted Fougas. "Is it here in France that Frenchmen speak thus of +French institutions? Go back to your master; tell him that the empire is +eternal, because it is founded on the granite of popular support, and +cemented by the blood of heroes. And if the king asks you who told you +this, tell him it was Colonel Fougas, who was decorated at Wagram by the +Emperor's own hand!" + +The two young gentlemen looked at each other, exchanged a smile, and the +Viscount said to the Marquis: + +"What is that?" + +"A madman." + +"No, dear; a mad dog." + +"Nothing else."[6] + +"Very well, gentlemen," cried the Colonel. "Speak English; you're fit +for it!" + +He changed his compartment at the next station, and fell in with a lot +of young painters. He called them disciples of Zeuxis, and asked them +about Gerard, Gros, and David. These gentlemen found the sport novel, +and recommended him to go and see Talma in the new tragedy of Arnault. + +The fortifications of Paris dazzled him very much, and scandalized him a +little. + +"I don't like this," said he to his companions. "The true rampart of a +capital is the courage of a great people. This piling bastions around +Paris, is saying to the enemy that it is possible to conquer France." + +The train at last stopped at the Mazas station. The Colonel, who had no +baggage, marched out pompously, with his hands in his pockets, to look +for the _hotel de Nantes_. As he had spent three months in Paris about +the year 1810, he considered himself acquainted with the city, and for +that reason he did not fail to lose himself as soon as he got there. But +in the various quarters which he traversed at hazard, he admired the +great changes which had been wrought during his absence. Fougas' taste +was for having streets very long, very wide, and bordered with very +large houses all alike; he could not fail to notice that the Parisian +style was rapidly approaching his ideal. It was not yet absolute +perfection, but progress was manifest. + +By a very natural illusion, he paused twenty times to salute people of +familiar appearance; but no one recognized him. + +After a walk of five hours he reached the _Place du Carrousel_. The +_hotel de Nantes_ was no longer there; but the Louvre had been erected +instead. Fougas employed a quarter of an hour in regarding this +monument of architecture, and half an hour in contemplating two Zouaves +of the guard who were playing piquet. He inquired if the Emperor was in +Paris; whereupon his attention was called to the flag floating over the +Tuilleries. + +"Good!" said he. "But first I must get some new clothes." + +He took a room in a hotel on the _Rue Saint Honore_, and asked a waiter +which was the most celebrated tailor in Paris. The waiter handed him a +Business Directory. Fougas hunted out the Emperor's bootmaker, +shirtmaker, hatter, tailor, barber, and glovemaker. He took down their +names and addresses in Clementine's pocket-book, after which he took a +carriage and set out. + +As he had a small and shapely foot, he found boots ready-made without +any difficulty. He was promised, too, that all the linen he required +should be sent home in the evening. But when he came to explain to the +hatter what sort of an apparatus he intended to plant on his head, he +encountered great difficulties. His ideal was an enormous hat, large at +the crown, small below, broad in the brim, and curved far down behind +and before; in a word, the historic heirloom to which the founder of +Bolivia gave his name long ago. The shop had to be turned upside down, +and all its recesses searched, to find what he wanted. + +"At last," cried the hatter, "here's your article. If it's for a stage +dress, you ought to be satisfied; the comic effect can be depended +upon." + +Fougas answered dryly, that the hat was much less ridiculous than all +those which were then circulating around the streets of Paris. + +At the celebrated tailor's, in the _Rue de la Paix_, there was almost a +battle. + +"No, monsieur," said Alfred, "I'll never make you a frogged surtout and +a pair of trousers _a la Cosaque_! Go to Babin, or Morean, if you want a +carnival dress; but it shall never be said that a man of as good figure +as yours left our establishment caricatured." + +"Thunder and guns!" retorted Fougas. "You're a head taller than I am, +Mister Giant, but I'm a colonel of the Grand Empire, and it won't do for +drum-majors to give orders to colonels!" + +Of course, the devil of a fellow had the last word. His measure was +taken, a book of costumes consulted, and a promise made that in +twenty-four hours he should be dressed in the height of the fashion of +1813. Cloths were presented for his selection, among them some English +fabrics. These he threw aside with disgust. + +"The blue cloth of France," cried he, "and made in France! And cut it in +such a style that any one seeing me in Pekin would say, 'That's a +soldier!'" + +The officers of our day have precisely the opposite fancy. They make an +effort to resemble all other "gentlemen"[7] when they assume the +civilian's dress. + +Fougas ordered, in the _Rue Richelieu_, a black satin scarf, which hid +his shirt, and reached up to his ears. Then he went toward the _Palais +Royal_, entered a celebrated restaurant, and ordered his dinner. For +breakfast he had only taken a bite at a pastry-cook's in the +_Boulevard_, so his appetite, which had been sharpened by the excursion, +did wonders. He ate and drank as he did at Fontainebleau. But the bill +seemed to him hard to digest: it was for a hundred and ten francs and a +few centimes. "The devil!" said he; "living has become dear in Paris!" +Brandy entered into the sum total for an item of nine francs. They had +given him a bottle, and a glass about the size of a thimble; this +gimcrack had amused Fougas, and he diverted himself by filling and +emptying it a dozen times. But on leaving the table he was not drunk; an +amiable gayety inspired him, but nothing more. It occurred to him to get +back some of his money by buying some lottery tickets at Number 113. But +a bottle-seller located in that building apprised him that France had +not gambled for thirty years. He pushed on to the _Theatre Francais_, to +see if the Emperor's actors might not be giving some fine tragedy, but +the poster disgusted him. Modern comedies played by new actors! Neither +Talma, nor Fleury, nor Thenard, nor the Baptistes, nor Mlle. Mars, nor +Mlle. Raucourt! He then went to the opera, where Charles VI. was being +given. The music astounded him at once. He was not accustomed to hear so +much noise anywhere but on the battle-field. Nevertheless, his ears +soon inured themselves to the clangor of the instruments; and the +fatigue of the day, the pleasure of being comfortably seated, and the +labor of digestion, plunged him into a doze. He woke up with a start at +this famous patriotic song: + + "_Guerre aux tyrans! jamais, jamais en France,_ + _Jamais l'Anglais ne regnera!_"[8] + +"No!" cried he, stretching out his arms toward the stage. "Never! Let us +swear it together on the sacred altar of our native land! Perish, +perfidious Albion! _Vive l'Empereur!_" + +The pit and orchestra arose at once, less to express accord with Fougas' +sentiments, than to silence him. During the following _entr'acte_, a +commissioner of police said in his ear, that when one had dined as he +had, one ought to go quietly to bed, instead of interrupting the +performance of the opera. + +He replied that he had dined as usual, and that this explosion of +patriotic sentiment had not proceeded from the stomach. + +"But," said he, "when, in this palace of misused magnificence, hatred of +the enemy is stigmatized as a crime, I must go and breathe a freer air, +and bow before the temple of Glory before I go to bed." + +"You'll do well to do so," said the policeman. + +He went out, haughtier and more erect than ever, reached the Boulevard, +and ran with great strides as far as the Corinthian temple at the end. +While on his way, he greatly admired the lighting of the city. M. +Martout had explained to him the manufacture of gas; he had not +understood anything about it, but the glowing and ruddy flame was an +actual treat to his eyes. + +As soon as he had reached the monument commanding the entrance to the +_Rue Royale_, he stopped on the pavement, collected his thoughts for an +instant, and exclaimed: + +"Oh, Glory! Inspirer of great deeds, widow of the mighty conqueror of +Europe! receive the homage of thy devoted Victor Fougas! For thee I have +endured hunger, sweat, and frost, and eaten the most faithful of horses. +For thee I am ready to brave further perils, and again to face death on +every battle-field. I seek thee rather than happiness, riches, or power. +Reject not the offering of my heart and the sacrifice of my blood! As +the price of such devotion, I ask nothing but a smile from thy eyes and +a laurel from thy hand!" + +This prayer went all glowing to the ears of _Saint Marie Madeleine_, the +patroness of the ex-temple of Glory. Thus the purchaser of a chateau +sometimes receives a letter addressed to the original proprietor. + +Fougas returned by the _Rue de la Paix_ and the _Place Vendome_, and +saluted, in passing, the only familiar figure he had yet found in Paris. +The new costume of Napoleon on the column did not displease him in any +way. He preferred the cocked hat to a crown, and the gray surtout to a +theatrical cloak. + +The night was restless. In the Colonel's brain a thousand diverse +projects crossed each other in all directions. He prepared the little +speech which he should make to the Emperor, going to sleep in the middle +of a phrase, and waking up with a start in the attempt to lay hold on +the idea which had so suddenly vanished. He put out and relit his candle +twenty times. The recollection of Clementine was occasionally +intermingled with dreams of war and political utopias. But I must +confess that the young girl's figure seldom got any higher than the +second place. + +But if the night appeared too long, the morning seemed short in +proportion. The idea of meeting the new master of the empire face to +face, inspired and chilled him in turn. For an instant he hoped that +something would be lacking in his toilet--that some shopkeeper would +furnish him an honorable pretext for postponing his visit until the next +day. But everybody displayed the most desperate punctuality. Precisely +at noon, the trousers _a la Cosaque_ and the frogged surtout were on the +foot of the bed opposite the famous Bolivar hat. + +"I may as well be dressing," said Fougas. "Possibly this young man may +not be at home. In that case I'll leave my name, and wait until he sends +for me." + +He got himself up gorgeously in his own way, and, although it may appear +impossible to my readers, Fougas, in a black satin scarf and frogged +surtout, was not homely nor even ridiculous. His tall figure, lithe +build, lofty and impressive carriage, and brusque movements, were all in +a certain harmony with the costume of the olden time. He appeared +strange, and that was all. To keep his courage up, he dropped into a +restaurant, ate four cutlets, a loaf of bread, a slice of cheese, and +washed it all down with two bottles of wine. The coffee and supplements +brought him up to two o'clock, and that was the time he had set for +himself. + +He tipped his hat slightly over one ear, buttoned his buckskin gloves, +coughed energetically two or three times before the sentinel at the _Rue +de Rivoli_, and marched bravely into the gate. + +"Monsieur," cried the porter, "what do you want?" + +"The Emperor!" + +"Have you an audience letter?" + +"Colonel Fougas does not need one. Go and ask references of him who +towers over the _Place Vendome_. He'll tell you that the name of Fougas +has always been a synonym for bravery and fidelity." + +"You knew the first Emperor?" + +"Yes, my little joker; and I have talked with him just as I am talking +with you." + +"Indeed! But how old are you then?" + +"Seventy years on the dial-plate of time; twenty-four years on the +tablets of History!" + +The porter raised his eyes to Heaven, and murmured: + +"Still another! This makes the fourth for this week!" + +He made a sign to a little gentleman in black, who was smoking his pipe +in the court of the Tuilleries. Then he said to Fougas, putting his hand +on his arm: + +"So, my good friend, you want to see the Emperor?" + +"I've already told you so, familiar individual!" + +"Very well; you shall see him to-day. That gentleman going along there +with the pipe in his mouth, is the one who introduces visitors; he will +take care of you. But the Emperor is not in the Palace; he is in the +country. It's all the same to you, isn't it, if you do have to go into +the country?" + +"What the devil do you suppose I care?" + +"Only I don't suppose you care to go on foot. A carriage has already +been ordered for you. Come, my good fellow, get in, and be reasonable!" + +Two minutes later, Fougas, accompanied by a detective, was riding to a +police station. + +His business was soon disposed of. The commissary who received him was +the same one who had spoken to him the previous evening at the opera. A +doctor was called, and gave the best verdict of monomania that ever sent +a man to Charenton. All this was done politely and pleasantly, without a +word which could put the Colonel on his guard or give him a suspicion of +the fate held in reserve for him. He merely found the ceremonial rather +long and peculiar, and prepared on the spot several well-sounding +sentences, which he promised himself the honor of repeating to the +Emperor. + +At last he was permitted to resume his route. The hack had been kept +waiting; the gentleman-usher relit his pipe, said three words to the +driver, and seated himself at the left of the Colonel. The carriage set +off at a trot, reached the _Boulevards_, and took the direction of the +Bastille. It had gotten opposite the _Porte Saint-Martin_, and Fougas, +with his head at the window, was continuing the composition of his +impromptu speech, when an open carriage drawn by a pair of superb +chestnuts passed, so to speak, under his very nose. A portly man with a +gray moustache turned his head, and cried, "Fougas!" + +Robinson Crusoe, discovering the human footprint on his island, was not +more astonished and delighted than our hero on hearing that cry of +"Fougas!" To open the door, jump out into the road, run to the carriage, +which had been stopped, fling himself into it at a single bound, without +the help of the step, and fall into the arms of the portly gentleman +with the gray moustache, was all the work of a second. The barouche had +long disappeared, when the detective at a gallop, followed by his hack +at a trot, traversed the line of the _Boulevards_, asking all the +policemen if they had not seen a crazy man pass that way. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE MEMORABLE INTERVIEW BETWEEN COLONEL FOUGAS AND HIS MAJESTY THE +EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH. + + +In falling upon the neck of the big man with the gray moustache, Fougas +supposed he was embracing Massena. He naturally intimated as much to +him, whereupon the owner of the barouche burst into a great peal of +laughter. + +"Ah, my poor old boy," said he, "it's a long time since we buried the +'Child of Victory!' Look me square in the face: I am Leblanc, of the +Russian campaign." + +"Impossible! You little Leblanc?" + +"Lieutenant in the 3d Artillery, who shared with you a million of +dangers and that famous piece of roast horse which you salted with your +tears." + +"Well, upon my soul! It _is_ you! You cut me out a pair of boots from +the skin of the unfortunate Zephyr! And we needn't speak of the number +of times you saved my life! Oh, my brave and faithful friend, thank God +that I embrace you once more! Yes, I recognize you now; but I needn't +say that you are changed!" + +"Gad! _I_ haven't been preserved in a jug of spirits of wine. I've +_lived_, for my part!" + +"You know my history, then?" + +"I heard it told last night at the Minister's of Public Instruction. He +had there the savant who set you on your legs again. I even wrote to +you, on getting back home, to offer you a bunk and a place at mess; but +my letter is on the way to Fontainebleau." + +"Thanks! You're a sound one! Ah, my poor old boy, what things have +happened since Beresina! You know all the misfortunes that have come?" + +"I've seen them, and that's sadder still. I was a major after Waterloo; +the Bourbons put me aside on half-pay. My friends got me back into +service again in 1822, but I had bad luck, and lazed around in garrisons +at Lille, Grenoble, and Strasburg, without getting ahead any. My second +epaulette did not reach me till 1830; then I took a little turn in +Africa. I was made brigadier-general at Isly, got home again, and banged +about from pillar to post until 1848. During that year we had a June +campaign in Paris itself. My heart still bleeds every time I think of +it, and, upon my soul, you're blest in not having seen it. I got three +balls in my body and a commission as general of division. After all, +I've no right to complain for the campaign in Italy brought me good +luck. Here I am, Marshal of France, with a hundred thousand francs +income, and Duke of Solferino in the bargain. Yes, the Emperor has put a +handle to my name. The fact is, that short 'Leblanc' was a little too +short." + +"Thunderation!" cried Fougas, "that's splendid! I swear, Leblanc, that +I'm not jealous of your good fortune! It's seldom enough that one +soldier rejoices over the promotion of another; but indeed, from the +bottom of my heart, I assure you that I do now. It's all the better, +since you deserved your honors, and the blind goddess must have had a +glimpse of your heart and talents, over the bandage that covers her +eyes!" + +"You're very kind! But let's talk about yourself now: where were you +going when I met you?" + +"To see the Emperor." + +"So was I; but where the devil were you looking for him?" + +"I don't know; somebody was showing me the way." + +"But he is at the Tuilleries!" + +"No!" + +"Yes! There's something under all this; tell me about it." + +Fougas did not wait to be urged. The Marshal soon understood from what +sort of danger he had extricated his friend. + +"The _concierge_ is mistaken," said he; "the Emperor is at the Palace; +and, as we've reached there now, come with me; perhaps I can present you +after my audience." + +"The very thing! Leblanc, my heart beats at the idea of seeing this +young man. Is he a good one? Can he be counted upon? Is he anything like +the other?" + +"You can see for yourself. Wait here." + +The friendship of these two men dated from the winter of 1812. During +the retreat of the French army, chance flung the lieutenant of artillery +and the colonel of the 23d together. One was eighteen years old, the +other not quite twenty-four. The distance between their ranks was easily +bridged over by common danger. All men are equal before hunger, cold, +and fatigue. One morning, Leblanc, at the head of ten men, rescued +Fougas from the hands of the Cossacks; then Fougas sabred a half dozen +stragglers who were trying to steal Leblanc's cloak. Eight days later, +Leblanc pulled his friend out of a hut which the peasants had set on +fire; and Fougas, in turn, fished Leblanc out of the Beresina. The list +of their dangers and their mutual services is too long for me to give +entire. To finish off, the Colonel, at Koenigsberg, passed three weeks +at the bedside of the lieutenant, who was attacked with fever and ague. +There is no doubt that this tender care saved his life. This reciprocal +devotion had formed between them bonds so strong that a separation of +forty-six years could not break them. + +Fougas, alone in a great saloon, was buried in the recollections of that +good old time, when an usher asked him to remove his gloves, and go into +the cabinet of the Emperor. + +Respect for the powers that be, which is the very foundation of my +character, does not permit me to bring august personages upon the scene. +But Fougas' correspondence belongs to contemporaneous history, and here +is the letter which he wrote to Clementine on returning to his hotel: + + "PARIS (what am I saying?)--HEAVEN, _Aug._ 21, 1859. + + "MY SWEET ANGEL: I am intoxicated with joy, gratitude, + and admiration. I have seen him, I have spoken to him; + he gave me his hand, he made me be seated. He is a great + prince; he will be the master of the world. He gave me + the medal of St. Helena, and the Cross of an Officer. + Little Leblanc, an old friend and a true heart, + conducted me into his presence; he is Marshal of France, + too, and a Duke of the new empire! As for promotion, + there's no more need of speculation on that head. A + prisoner of war in Prussia and in a triple coffin, I + return with my rank; so says the military law. But in + less than three months I shall be a + brigadier-general--that's certain; he deigned to promise + it to me himself. What a man! A god on earth! No more + conceited than he of Wagram and Moscow, and, like him, + the father of the soldier. He wanted to give me money + from his private purse to replace my equipments. I + answered, 'No, sire; I have a claim to recover at + Dantzic; if it is paid, I shall be rich; if the debt is + denied, my pay will suffice for me.' Thereupon (O + Beneficence of Princes, thou art not, then, but an empty + name!) he smiled slightly, and said, twisting his + moustache, 'You remained in Prussia from 1813 to + 1859?'--'Yes, sire.'--'Prisoner of war under exceptional + conditions?'--'Yes, sire.'--'The treaties of 1814 and + 1815 stipulated for the release of prisoners?'--'Yes, + sire.'--'They have been violated, then, in your + case?'--'Yes, sire.'--'Well, then, Prussia owes you an + indemnity. I will see that it is recovered by diplomatic + proceedings.'--'Yes sire. What goodness!' Now, there's + an idea which would never have occurred to me! To + squeeze money out of Prussia--Prussia, who showed + herself so greedy for our treasures in 1814 and 1815! + _Vive l'Empereur!_ My well-beloved Clementine! Oh, may + our glorious and magnanimous sovereign live forever! + _Vivent l'Imperatrice et le Prince Imperial!_ I saw + them! The Emperor presented me to his family! The Prince + is an admirable little soldier! He condescended to beat + the drum on my new hat. I wept with emotion. Her Majesty + the Empress said, with an angelic smile, that she had + heard my misfortunes spoken of. 'Oh, Madame!' I replied, + 'such a moment as this compensates them a hundred + fold.'--'You must come and dance at the Tuilleries next + winter.'--'Alas, Madame, I have never danced but to the + music of cannon; but I shall spare no effort to please + you! I will study the art of Vestris."--'_I_'ve managed + to learn the quadrille very nicely,' joined in Leblanc. + + "The Emperor deigned to express his happiness at getting + back an officer like me, who had yesterday, so to speak, + taken part in the finest campaigns of the century, and + retained all the traditions of the great war. This + encouraged me. I no longer feared to remind him of the + famous principle of the good old time--to treat for + peace only in capitals! 'Take care!' said he; 'it was on + the strength of that principle that the allied armies + twice came to settle the basis of peace at + Paris.'--'They'll not come here again,' cried I, + 'without passing over my body!' I dwelt upon the + troubles apt to come from too much intimacy with + England. I expressed a hope of at once proceeding to the + conquest of the world. First, to get back our frontiers + for ourselves; next, the natural frontiers of Europe: + for Europe is but the suburb of France, and cannot he + annexed too soon. The Emperor shook his head as if he + was not of my opinion. Does he entertain peaceful + designs? I do not wish to dwell upon this idea; it would + kill me! + + "He asked me what impressions I had formed regarding the + appearance of the changes which had been made in Paris. + I answered, with the sincerity of a lofty soul, 'Sire, + the new Paris is the great work of a great reign; but I + entertain the hope that your improvements have not yet + had the finishing touch.'--'What is left to be done, + now, in your opinion?'--'First of all, to remedy the + course of the Seine, whose irregular curve is positively + shocking. The straight line is the shortest distance + between two points, for rivers as well as boulevards. In + the second place, to level the ground and suppress all + inequalites of surface which seem to say to the + Government, 'Thou art less powerful than Nature!' Having + accomplished this preparatory work, I would trace a + circle three leagues in diameter, whose circumference, + marked by an elegant railing, should be the boundary of + Paris. At the centre I would build a palace for your + Majesty and the princes of the imperial family--a vast + and splendid edifice, including in its arrangements all + the public offices--the staff offices, courts, museums, + cabinet offices, archives, police, the Institute, + embassies, prisons, bank of France, lecture-rooms, + theatres, the _Moniteur_, imperial printing office, + manufactory of Sevres porcelain and Gobelin tapestry, + and commissary arrangements. At this palace, circular in + form and of magnificent architecture, should centre + twelve boulevards, a hundred and twenty yards wide, + terminated by twelve railroads, and called by the names + of twelve marshals of France. Each boulevard is built up + with uniform houses, four stories high, having in front + an iron railing and a little garden three yards wide, + all to be planted with the same kind of flowers. A + hundred streets, sixty yards wide, should connect the + boulevards; these streets communicate with each other by + lanes thirty-five yards wide, the whole built up + uniformly according to official plans, with railings, + gardens, and specified flowers. Householders should be + prohibited from allowing any business to be conducted in + their establishments, for the aspect of shops debases + the intellect and degrades the heart. Merchants could be + permitted to establish themselves in the suburbs under + the regulation of the laws. The ground floors of all the + houses to be occupied with stables and kitchens; the + first floors let to persons worth an income of a hundred + thousand francs and over; the second, to those worth + from eighty to a hundred thousand francs; the third, to + those worth from sixty to eighty thousand; the fourth, + from fifty to sixty thousand. No one with an income of + less than fifty thousand francs should be permitted to + live in Paris. Workmen are to be lodged ten miles + outside of the boundary in workmen's barracks. We will + exempt them from taxes to make them love us; and we'll + plant cannon around them to make them fear us. That's my + Paris!' The Emperor listened to me patiently, and + twisted his moustache. 'Your plan,' said he, 'would cost + a trifle.'--'Not much more than the one already + adopted,' answered I. At this remark, an unreserved + hilarity, the cause of which I am unable to explain, lit + up his serious countenance. 'Don't you think,' said he, + 'that your project would ruin a great many + people?'--'Eh! What difference does it make to me?' I + cried, 'since it will ruin none but the rich?' He began + laughing again, and bid me farewell, saying, 'Colonel, + you will have to remain colonel only until we make you + brigadier-general!' He permitted me to press his hand a + second time. I waved an adieu to brave Leblanc, who has + invited me to dine with him this evening, and I returned + to my hotel to pour my joy into your sweet soul. Oh, + Clementine! hope on! You shall be happy, and I shall be + great! To-morrow morning I leave for Dantzic. Gold is a + deception, but I want you to be rich. + + "A sweet kiss upon your pure brow! + + "V. FOUGAS." + +The subscribers to _La Patrie_, who keep files of their paper, are +hereby requested to hunt up the number for the 23d of August, 1859. In +it they will find two paragraphs of local intelligence, which I have +taken the liberty of copying here: + +"His Excellency, the Marshal, the Duke of Solferino, yesterday had the +honor of presenting to his Majesty the Emperor a hero of the first +Empire, Colonel Fougas, whom an almost miraculous event, already +mentioned in a report to the Academy of Sciences, has restored to his +country." + +Such was the first paragraph; here is the second + +"A madman, the fourth this week, but the most dangerous of all, +presented himself yesterday at one of the entrances of the Tuilleries. +Decked out in a grotesque costume, his eyes flashing, his hat cocked +over his ear, and addressing the most respectable people with unheard-of +rudeness, he attempted to force his way past the sentry, and thrust +himself, for what purpose God only knows, into the presence of the +Sovereign. During his incoherent ejaculations, the following words were +distinguished: 'bravery, _Vendome_ column, fidelity, the dial-plate of +time, the tablets of history.' When he was arrested by one of the +detective watch, and taken before the police commissioner of the +Tuilleries section, he was recognized as the same individual who, the +evening before, at the opera, had interrupted the performance of Charles +VI. with most unseemly cries. After the customary medical and legal +proceedings, he was ordered to be sent to the Charenton Hospital. But +opposite the _porte Saint-Martin_, taking advantage of a lock among the +vehicles, and of the Herculean strength with which he is endowed, he +wrested his hands from his keeper, threw him down, beat him, leaped at a +bound into the street, and disappeared in the crowd. The most active +search was immediately set on foot, and we have it from the best +authority that the police are already on the track of the fugitive." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +WHEREIN HERR NICHOLAS MEISER, ONE OF THE SOLID MEN OF DANTZIC, RECEIVES +AN UNWELCOME VISIT. + + +The wisdom of mankind declares that ill-gotten gains never do any good. +I maintain that they do the robbers more good than the robbed, and the +good fortune of Herr Nicholas Meiser is an argument in support of my +proposition. + +The nephew of the illustrious physiologist, after brewing a great deal +of beer from a very little hops, and prematurely appropriating the +legacy intended for Fougas, had amassed, by various operations, a +fortune of from eight to ten millions. "In what kind of operations?" No +one ever told me, but I know that he called all operations that would +make money, good ones. To lend small sums at a big interest, to +accumulate great stores of grain in order to relieve a scarcity after +producing it himself, to foreclose on unfortunate debtors, to fit out a +vessel or two for trade in black flesh on the African coast--such are +specimens of the speculations which the good man did not despise. He +never boasted of them, for he was modest; but he never blushed for them, +for he had expanded his conscience simultaneously with his capital. As +for the rest, he was a man of honor, in the commercial sense of the +word, and capable of strangling the whole human race rather than of +letting his signature be protested. The banks of Dantzic, Berlin, +Vienna, and Paris, held him in high esteem; his money passed through all +of them. + +He was fat, unctuous, and florid, and lived well. His wife's nose was +much too long, and her bones much too prominent, but she loved him with +all her heart, and made him little sweetmeats. A perfect congeniality of +sentiment united this charming couple. They talked with each other with +open hearts, and never thought of keeping back any of their evil +thoughts. Every year, at Saint Martin's day, when rents became due, they +turned out of doors the families of five or six workmen who could not +pay for their terms; but they dined none the worse after it, and their +good-night kiss was none the less sweet. + +The husband was sixty-six years old, the wife sixty-four. Their +physiognomies were such as inspire benevolence and command respect. To +complete their outward resemblance to the patriarchs, nothing was needed +but children and grandchildren. Nature had given them one son--an only +one, because they had not solicited Nature for more. They would have +thought it criminal improvidence to divide their fortune among several. +Unhappily, this only child, the heir-presumptive to so many millions, +died at the University of Heidelberg from eating too many sausages. He +set out, when he was twenty, for that Valhalla of German students, where +they eat infinite sausages, and drink inexhaustible beer; where they +sing songs of eight hundred million verses, and gash the tips of each +other's noses with huge swords. Envious Death snatched him from his +parents when they were no longer of an age to improvise a successor. The +unfortunate old millionnaires tenderly collected his effects, to sell +them. During this operation, so trying to their souls (for there was a +great deal of brand-new linen that could not be found), Nicholas Meiser +said to his wife, "My heart bleeds at the idea that our buildings and +dollars, our goods above ground and under, should go to strangers. +Parents ought always to have an extra son, just as they have a +vice-umpire in the Chamber of Commerce." + +But Time, who is a great teacher in Germany and several other countries, +led them to see that there is consolation for all things except the loss +of money. Five years afterwards, Frau Meiser said to her husband, with a +tender and philosophic, smile: "Who can fathom the decrees of +Providence? Perhaps your son would have brought us to a crust. Look at +Theobald Scheffler, his old comrade. He wasted twenty thousand francs at +Paris on a woman who kicked up her legs in the middle of a quadrille. We +ourselves spent more than two thousand thalers a year for our wicked +scapegrace. His death is a great saving, and therefore a good thing!" + +As long as the three coffins of Fougas were in the house, the good dame +scolded at the visions and restlessness of her husband. "What in the +name of sense are you thinking about? You've been kicking me all night +again. Let's throw this ragamuffin of a Frenchman into the fire; then +he'll no longer disturb the repose of a peaceable family. We can sell +the leaden box; it must weigh at least two hundred pounds. The white +silk will make me a good lining for a dress; and the wool in the +stuffing, will easily make us a mattress." But a tinge of superstition +prevented Meiser from following his wife's advice; he preferred to rid +himself of the Colonel by selling him. + +The house of this worthy couple was the handsomest and most substantial +on the street of Public Wells, in the aristocratic part of the city. +Strong railings, in iron open work, decorated all the windows +magnificently, and the door was sheathed in iron, like a knight of the +olden time. A system of little mirrors, ingeniously arranged in the +entrance, enabled a visitor to be seen before he had even knocked. A +single servant, a regular horse for work and camel for temperance, +ministered under this roof blessed by the gods. + +The old servant slept away from the house, both because he preferred to +and because while he did so he could not be tempted to wring the +venerable necks of his employers. A few books on Commerce and Religion +constituted the library of the two old people. They never cared to have +a garden at the back of their house, because the shrubbery might +conceal thieves. They fastened their door with bolts every evening at +eight o'clock, and never went out without being obliged to, for fear of +meeting dangerous people. + +And nevertheless, on the 29th of April, 1859, at eleven o'clock in the +morning, Nicholas Meiser was far away from his beloved home. Gracious! +how very far away for him--this honest burgher of Dantzic! He was +traversing, with heavy tread, the promenade in Berlin, which bears the +name of one of Alphonse Karrs' romances: _Sous les tilleuls._ In German: +_Unter den Linden._ + +What mighty agency had thrown out of his bon-bon box, this big red +bon-bon on two legs? The same that led Alexander to Babylon, Scipio to +Carthage, Godfrey de Bouillon to Jerusalem, and Napoleon to +Moscow--Ambition! Meiser did not expect to be presented with the keys of +the city on a cushion of red velvet, but he knew a great lord, a clerk +in a government office, and a chambermaid who were working to get a +patent of nobility for him. To call himself Von Meiser instead of plain +Meiser! What a glorious dream! + +This good man had in his character that compound of meanness and vanity +which places lacqueys so far apart from the rest of mankind. Full of +respect for power, and admiration for conventional greatness, he never +pronounced the name of king, prince, or even baron, without emphasis and +unction. He mouthed every aristocratic syllable, and the single word +"Monseigneur" seemed to him like a mouthful of well-spiced soup. +Examples of this disposition are not rare in Germany, and are even +occasionally found elsewhere. If they could be transported to a country +where all men are equal, homesickness for boot-licking would kill them. + +The claims brought to bear in favor of Nicholas Meiser, were not of the +kind which at once spring the balance, but of the kind which make it +turn little by little. Nephew of an illustrious man of science, +powerfully rich, a man of sound judgment, a subscriber to the _New +Gazette of the Cross_, full of hatred for the opposition, author of a +toast against the influence of demagogues, once a member of the City +Council, once an umpire in the Chamber of Commerce, once a corporal in +the militia, and an open enemy of Poland and all nations but the strong +ones. His most brilliant action dated back ten years. He had denounced, +by an anonymous letter, a member of the French Parliament who had taken +refuge in Dantzic. While Meiser was walking under the lindens, his cause +was progressing swimmingly. He had received that sweet assurance from +the very lips of its promoters. And so he tripped lightly toward the +depot of the North-Eastern Railroad, without any other baggage than a +revolver in his pocket. His black leather trunk had gone before; and was +waiting for him at the station. On the way, he was glancing into the +shop windows, when he stopped short before a stationer's, and rubbed his +eyes--a sovereign remedy, people say, for impaired vision. Between the +portraits of Mme. Sand and M. Merimee, the two greatest writers of +France, he had noticed, examined, recognized a well-known countenance. + +"Surely," said he, "I've seen that man before, but he was paler. Can our +old lodger have come to life? Impossible! I burned up my uncle's +directions, so the world has lost--thanks to me--the secret of +resuscitating people. Nevertheless, the resemblance is striking. Is it a +portrait of Colonel Fougas, taken from life in 1813? No; for photography +was not then invented. But possibly it's a photograph copied from an +engraving? Here are Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette reproduced in the +same way: that doesn't prove that Robespierre had them resuscitated. +Anyhow, I've had an unfortunate encounter." + +He took a step toward the door of the shop to reassure himself, but a +peculiar reluctance held him back. People might wonder at him, ask him +questions, try to learn the reason of his trouble. He resumed his walk +at a brisk pace, trying to reassure himself. + +"Bah! It's an hallucination--the result of dwelling too much on one +idea. Moreover, the portrait was dressed in the style of 1813; that +settles the question." + +He reached the station, had his black leather trunk checked, and flung +himself down at full length in a first-class compartment. First he +smoked his porcelain pipe, but his two neighbors being asleep, he soon +followed their example, and began snoring. Now this big man's snores had +something awe-inspiring about them; you could have fancied yourself +listening to the trumpets of the judgment day. What shade visited him in +this hour of sleep, no other soul has ever known; for he kept his dreams +to himself, as he did everything that was his. + +But between two stations, while the train was running at full speed, he +distinctly felt two powerful hands pulling at his feet--a sensation, +alas! too well known, and one which called up the ugliest recollections +of his life. He opened his eyes in terror, and saw the man of the +photograph, in the costume of the photograph. His hair stood on end, his +eyes grew as big as saucers, he uttered a loud cry, and flung himself +headlong between the seats among the legs of his neighbors. + +A few vigorous kicks brought him to himself. He got up as well as he +could, and looked about him. No one was there but the two gentlemen +opposite, who were mechanically lanching their last kicks into the empty +space, and rubbing their eyes with their arms. He succeeded in awakening +them, and asked them about the visitation he had had; but the gentlemen +declared they had seen nothing. + +Meiser sadly returned to his own thoughts; he noticed that the visions +appeared terribly real. This idea prevented his going to sleep again. + +"If this goes on much longer," thought he, "the Colonel's ghost will +break my nose with a blow of his fist, or give me a pair of black eyes!" + +A little later, it occurred to him that he had breakfasted very hastily +that morning, and he reflected that the nightmare had perhaps been +brought about by such dieting. + +He got off at the next five-minute stopping-place and called for soup. +Some very hot vermicelli was brought him, and he blew into his bowl like +a dolphin into the Bosphorus. + +A man passed before him, without jostling him, without saying anything +to him, without even seeing him. And nevertheless, the bowl dropped from +the hands of the rich Nicholas Meiser, the vermicelli poured over his +waistcoat and shirt-bosom, where it formed an elegant fretwork +suggestive of the architecture of the _porte Saint Martin_. Some +yellowish threads, detached from the mass, hung in stalactites from the +buttons of his coat. The vermicelli stopped on the outside, but the soup +penetrated much further. It was rather warm for pleasure; an egg left in +it ten minutes would have been boiled hard. Fatal soup, which not only +distributed itself among the pockets, but into the most secret +sinuosities of the man himself! The starting bell rang, the waiter +collected his two sous, and Meiser got into the cars, preceded by a +plaster of vermicelli, and followed by a little thread of soup which was +running down the calves of his legs. + +And all of this, because he had seen, or thought he had seen, the +terrible figure of Colonel Fougas eating sandwiches. + +Oh! how long the trip seemed! What a terrible time it appeared to be +before he could be at home, between his wife Catharine and his servant +Berbel, with all the doors safely closed! His two companions laughed +till the buttons flew; people laughed in the compartment to the right of +him, and in the compartment to the left of him. As fast as he picked off +the vermicelli, little spots of soup saucily congealed and seemed +quietly laughing. How hard it comes to a great millionnaire to amuse +people who do not possess a cent! He did not get off again until they +reached Dantzic; he did not even put his nose to the window; he sucked +solitary consolation from his porcelain pipe, on which Leda caressed her +swan and smiled not. + +Wearisome, wearisome journey! But he did reach home nevertheless. It was +eight o'clock in the evening; the old domestic was waiting with ropes to +sling his master's trunk on his back. No more alarming figures, no more +mocking laughs! The history of the soup was fallen into the great +forgotten, like one of M. Heller's speeches. In the baggage room, Meiser +had already seized the handle of a black leather trunk, when, at the +other end, he saw the spectre of Fougas, which was pulling in the +opposite direction, and seemed inclined to dispute possession. He +bristled up, pulled stronger, and even plunged his left hand into the +pocket where the revolver was lying. But the luminous glance of the +Colonel fascinated him, his legs trembled, he fell, and fancied that he +saw Fougas and the black trunk rolling over each other. When he came to, +his old servant was chafing his hands, the trunk already had the slings +around it, and the Colonel had disappeared. The domestic swore that he +had not seen anybody, and that he had himself received the trunk from +the baggage agent's own hand. + +Twenty minutes later, the millionnaire was in his own house, joyfully +rubbing his face against the sharp angles of his wife. He did not dare +to tell her about his visions, for Frau Meiser was a skeptic, in her own +way. It was she who spoke to him about Fougas. + +"A whole history has happened to me," said she. "Would you believe that +the police have written to us from Berlin, to find out whether our uncle +left us a mummy, and when, and how long we kept him, and what we have +done with him? I answered, telling the truth, and adding that Colonel +Fougas was in such a bad condition, and so damaged by mites, that we +sold him for rags. What object can the police have in troubling +themselves about our affairs?" + +Meiser heaved a heavy sigh. + +"Let's talk about money!" said the lady. "The president of the bank has +been to see me. The million you asked him for, for to-morrow, is ready; +it will be delivered upon your signature. It seems that they've had a +deal of trouble to get the amount in specie. If you had but wanted +drafts on Vienna or Paris, you would have put them at their ease. But +at last they've done what you wanted. There's no other news, except that +Schmidt, the merchant, has killed himself. He had to pay a note for ten +thousand thalers, and didn't have half the amount on hand. He came to +ask me for the money; I offered him ten thousand thalers, at twenty-five +per cent., payable in ninety days, with a first mortgage on all his real +estate. The fool preferred to hang himself in his shop. Everyone to his +taste!" + +"Did he hang himself very high?" + +"I don't know anything about that. Why?" + +"Because one might get a piece of rope cheap, and we're greatly in want +of some, my poor Catharine! That Colonel Fougas has given me a shiver." + +"Some more of your notions! Come to supper, my love." + +"Come on!" + +The angular Baucis conducted her Philemon into a large and beautiful +dining-room, where Berbel served a repast worthy of the gods. Soup with +little balls of aniseeded bread, fish-balls with black sauce, +mutton-balls stuffed, game balls, sour-krout cooked in lard and +garnished with fried potatoes, roast hare with currant jelly, deviled +crabs, salmon from the Vistula, jellies, and fruit tarts. Six bottles of +Rhine-wine selected from the best vintages were awaiting, in their +silver caps, the master's kiss. But the lord of all these good things +was neither hungry nor thirsty. He ate by nibbles and drank by sips, all +the time expecting a grand consummation, which he did not have to +expect along. A formidable rap of the knocker soon resounded through the +house. + +Nicholas Meiser trembled. His wife tried to reassure him. "It's +nothing," said she. "The president of the bank told me that he was +coming to see you. He offers to pay us the exchange, if we'll take paper +instead of specie." + +"It _is_ about money, sure as Fate!" cried the good man. "Hell itself is +coming to see us!" + +At the same instant, the servant rushed into the room, crying, "Oh, Sir! +Oh, Madame! It's the Frenchman of the three coffins! Jesus! Mary, Mother +of God!" + +Fougas saluted them, and said, "Don't disturb yourselves, good people, I +beg of you. We've a little matter to discuss together, and I'm ready to +explain it to you in two words. You're in a hurry, so am I; you've not +had supper, neither have I!" + +Frau Meiser, more rigid and more emaciated than a thirteenth-century +statue, opened wide her toothless mouth. Terror paralyzed her. The man, +better prepared for the visit of the phantom, cocked his revolver under +the table and took aim at the Colonel, crying "_Vade retro, Satanas!_" +The exorcism and the pistol missed fire together. + +Meiser was not at all discouraged: he snapped the six barrels one after +the other at the demon, who stood watching him do it. Not one went off. + +"What devilish game is that you're playing?" said the Colonel, seating +himself astride a chair. "People are not in the habit of receiving an +honest man's visit with that ceremony!" + +Meiser flung down his revolver, and grovelled like a beast at Fougas' +feet. His wife, who was not one whit more tranquil, followed him. They +joined hands, and the fat man exclaimed: + +"Spirit! I confess my misdeeds, and I am ready to make reparation for +them. I have sinned against you; I have violated my uncle's commands. +What do you wish? What do you command? A tomb? A magnificent monument? +Prayers? Endless prayers?" + +"Idiot!" said Fougas, spurning him with his foot; "I am no spirit, and I +want nothing but the money you've robbed me of!" + +Meiser kept rolling on the floor; but his scrawny wife was already on +her feet, her fists on her hips, and facing Fougas. + +"Money!" cried she, "But we don't owe you any! Have you any documents? +Just show us our signature! Where would one be, Just God! if we had to +give money to all the adventurers who present themselves? And in the +first place, by what right did you thrust yourself into our dwelling, if +you're not a spirit? Ah! you're a man just the same as other people! Ha! +ha! So you're not a ghost! Very well, sir; there are judges in Berlin; +there are some in the country, too, and we'll soon see whether you're +going to finger our money! Get up there, you great booby; it's only a +man! And do you, Mister Ghost, get out of here! Off with you!" + +The Colonel did not budge more than a rock. + +"The devil's in women's tongues! Sit down, old lady, and take your hands +away from my eyes--they bother me. And as for you, swell-head, get on to +your chair, and listen to me. There will be time enough to go to law if +we can't come to an understanding. But stamped paper stinks in my +nostrils; and therefore I'd rather settle peaceably." + +Herr and Frau Meiser repressed their first emotion. They distrusted +magistrates, as do all people without clean consciences. If the Colonel +was a poor devil who could be put off with a few thalers, it would be +better to avoid legal proceedings. + +Fougas stated the case to them with entire military bluntness. He proved +the existence of his right, said that he had had his identity +substantiated at Fontainebleau, Paris, and Berlin; cited from memory two +or three passages of the will, and finished by declaring that the +Prussian Government, in conjunction with that of France, would support +his just claims if necessary. + +"You understand clearly," said he, taking Meiser by the button of his +coat, "that I am no fox, depending on cunning. If you had a wrist +vigorous enough to swing a good sabre, we'd take the field against each +other, and I'd play you for the amount, first two cuts out of three, as +surely as that's soup before you!" + +"Fortunately, monsieur," said Meiser, "my age shields me from all +brutality. You would not wish to trample under foot the corpse of an old +man!" + +"Venerable scoundrel! But you would have killed me like a dog, if your +pistol had not missed fire!" + +"It was not loaded, Monsieur Colonel! It was not----anywhere near +loaded! But I am an accommodating man, and we can come to terms very +easily. I don't owe you anything, and, moreover, there's prescription; +but after all----how much do you want?" + +"He has had his say: now it's my turn!" + +The old rascal's mate softened the tone of her voice. Imagine to +yourself a saw licking a tree before biting in. + +"Listen, Claus, my dear--listen to what Monsieur Colonel Fougas has to +say. You'll see that he is reasonable! It's not in him to think of +ruining poor people like us. Oh, Heavens! he is not capable of it. He +has such a noble heart! Such a disinterested man! An officer worthy of +the great Napoleon (God receive his soul!)." + +"That's enough, old lady!" said Fougas, with a curt gesture which cut +the speech off in the middle. "I had an estimate made at Berlin of what +is due me--principal and interest." + +"Interest!" cried Meiser. "But in what country, in what latitude, do +people pay interest on money? Perhaps it may sometimes happen in +business, but between friends--never, no never, my good Monsieur +Colonel! What would my good uncle, who is now gazing upon us from +heaven, say, if he knew that you were claiming interest on his bequest?" + +"Now shut up, Nickle!" interrupted his wife. "Monsieur Colonel is just +about telling you, himself, that he did not intend to be understood as +speaking of the interest." + +"Why in the name of great guns don't you both shut up, you confounded +magpies? Here I am dying of hunger, and I didn't bring my nightcap to go +to bed here, either!---- Now here's the upshot of the matter: You owe me +a great deal; but it's not an even sum--there are fractions in it, and I +go in for clean transactions. Moreover, my tastes are modest. I've +enough for my wife and myself; nothing more is needed than to provide +for my son!" + +"Very well," cried Meiser; "I'll charge myself with the education of the +little fellow!" + +"Now, during the dozen days since I again became a citizen of the world, +there is one word that I've heard spoken everywhere. At Paris, as well +as at Berlin, people no longer speak of anything but millions; there is +no longer any talk of anything else, and everybody's mouth is full of +millions. From hearing so much said about it, I've acquired a curiosity +to know what it is. Go, fetch me out a million, and I'll give you +quittance!" + +If you want to reach an approximate idea of the piercing cries which +answered him, go to the _Jardin des Plantes_ at the breakfast hour of +the birds of prey, and try to pull the meat out of their beaks. Fougas +stopped his ears and remained inexorable. Prayers, arguments, +misrepresentations, flatteries, cringings, glanced off from him like +rain from a zinc roof. But at ten o'clock at night, when he had +concluded that all concurrence was impossible, he took his hat: + +"Good evening!" said he. "It's no longer a million that I must have, but +two millions, and all over. We'll go to law. I'm going to supper." + +He was on the staircase, when Frau Meiser said to her husband: + +"Call him back, and give him his million!" + +"Are you a fool?" + +"Don't be afraid." + +"I can never do it!" + +"Father in heaven! what blockheads men are! Monsieur! Monsieur Fougas! +Monsieur Colonel Fougas! Come up again, I pray you! We consent to all +that you require!" + +"Damnation!" said he, on reentering; "you ought to have made up your +minds sooner. But after all, let's see the money!" + +Frau Meiser explained to him with her tenderest voice, that poor +capitalists like themselves, were not in the habit of keeping millions +under their own lock and key. + +"But you shall lose nothing by waiting, my sweet sir! To-morrow you +shall handle the amount in nice white silver; my husband will sign you a +check on the Royal Bank of Dantzic." + +"But----," said the unfortunate Meiser. He signed, nevertheless, for he +had boundless confidence in the practical ingenuity of Catharine. The +old lady begged Fougas to sit down at the end of the table, and dictated +to him a receipt for two millions, in payment of all demands. You may +depend that she did not forgot a word of the legal formulas, and that +she arranged the affair in due form according to the Prussian code. The +receipt, written throughout in the Colonel's hand, filled three large +pages. + +He signed the instrument with a flourish, and received in exchange the +signature of Nicholas, which he knew well. + +"Well," said he to the old gentleman, "you're certainly not such an Arab +as they said you were at Berlin. Shake hands, old scamp! I don't usually +shake hands with any but honest people; but on an occasion like this, +one can do a little something extra." + +"Do it double, Monsieur Fougas," said Frau Meiser, humbly. "Will you not +join us in this modest supper?" + +"Gad! old lady, it's not a thing to be refused. My supper must be cold +at the inn of the 'Clock'; and your viands, smoking on their chafing +dishes, have already caused me more than one fit of distraction. +Besides, here are some yellow glass flutes, on which Fougas will not be +at all reluctant to play an air." + +The respectable Catharine had an extra plate laid, and ordered Berbel to +go to bed. The Colonel folded up Father Meiser's million, rolled it +carefully among a pile of bank-bills, and put the whole into the little +pocket-book which his dear Clementine had sent him. + +The clock struck eleven. + +At half-past eleven Fougas began to see everything in a rosy cloud. He +praised the Rhine wine highly, and thanked the Meisers for their +hospitality. At midnight, he assured them of his highest esteem. At +quarter past twelve, he embraced them. At half-past twelve, he delivered +a eulogy on the illustrious John Meiser, his friend and benefactor. When +he learned that John Meiser had died in that house, he poured forth a +torrent of tears. At quarter to one, he assumed a confidential tone, and +spoke of his son, whom he was going to make happy, and of the betrothed +who was waiting for him. About one o'clock, he tasted a celebrated port +wine which Frau Meiser had herself gone to bring from the cellar. About +half-past one, his tongue thickened and his eyes grew dim; he struggled +some time against drunkenness and sleepiness, announced that he was +going to describe the Russian campaign, muttered the name of the +Emperor, and slid under the table. + +"You may believe me, if you will," said Frau Meiser to her husband, +"this is not a man who has come into our house; it's the devil!" + +"The devil!" + +"If not, would I have advised you to give him a million? I heard a voice +saying to me, 'If you do not obey the messenger of the Infernal powers, +you will both die this very night.' It was on account of that, that I +called him up stairs. Ah! if we had been doing business with a man, I +would have told you to contest it in law to our last cent." + +"As you please! So you're still making sport of my visions?" + +"Forgive me, Claus dear; I was a fool!" + +"And I've concluded I was, too." + +"Poor innocent! Perhaps you too thought this was Colonel Fougas?" + +"Certainly!" + +"As if it were possible to resuscitate a man! It is a demon, I tell you, +who assumed the shape of the Colonel, to rob us of our money!" + +"What can demons do with money?" + +"Build cathedrals, to be sure!" + +"But how is the devil to be recognized when he is disguised?" + +"First by his cloven-foot--but this one has boots on; next by his +clipped ear." + +"Bah! And why?" + +"Because the devil's ears are pointed, and, in order to make them round, +he has to cut them." + +Meiser stuck his head under the table and uttered a cry of horror. + +"It's certainly the devil!" said he. "But how did he happen to let +himself go to sleep?" + +"Perhaps you did not know that when I came back from the cellar, I +dropped into my chamber? I put a drop of holy water into the Port; charm +against charm, and he is fallen." + +"That's splendid! But what shall we do with him, now that we have him in +our power?" + +"What is done with demons in Scripture? The Saviour throws them into the +sea." + +"The sea is a long way from here." + +"But, you big baby, the public wells are just by!" + +"And what will be said to-morrow, when the body is found?" + +"Nothing at all will be found; and even the check that we signed, will +be turned into tinder." + +Ten minutes later, Herr and Frau Meiser were lugging something toward +the public wells, and soon dame Catharine murmured, _sotto voce_, the +following incantation: + +"Demon, child of hell, be thou accursed! + +"Demon, child of hell, be thou dashed headlong down! + +"Demon, child of hell, return to hell!" + +A dull sound--the sound of a body falling into water, terminated the +ceremony, and the two spouses returned to their domicil, with the +satisfaction that always follows the performance of a duty. + +Nicholas said to himself: + +"I didn't think she was so credulous!" + +"I didn't think he was so simple!" thought the worthy Kettle, wedded +wife of Claus. + +They slept the sleep of innocence. Oh, how much less soft their pillows +would have seemed, if Fougas had gone home with his million! + +At ten o'clock the next morning, while they were taking their coffee and +buttered rolls, the president of the bank called in, and said to them: + +"I am greatly obliged to you for having accepted a draft on Paris +instead of a million in specie, and without premium, too. That young +Frenchman you sent to us is a little brusque, but very lively, and a +good fellow." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE COLONEL TRIES TO RELIEVE HIMSELF OF A MILLION WHICH INCUMBERS HIM. + + +Fougas had left Paris for Berlin the day after his audience. He took +three days to make the trip, because he stopped some time at Nancy. The +Marshal had given him a letter of introduction to the Prefect of +Meurthe, who received him very politely, and promised to aid him in his +investigations. Unfortunately, the house where he had loved Clementine +Pichon was no longer standing. The authorities had demolished it in +1827, in cutting a street through. It is certain that the commissioners +had not demolished the family with the house, but a new difficulty all +at once presented itself: the name of Pichon abounded in the city, the +suburbs, and the department. Among this multitude of Pichons, Fougas did +not know which one to hug. Tired of hunting, and eager to hasten forward +on, the road to fortune, he left this note for the commissioner of +police: + +"Search, on the registers of personal statistics and elsewhere, for a +young girl named Clementine Pichon. She was eighteen years old in 1813; +her parents kept an officers' boarding-house. If she is alive, get her +address; if she is dead, look up her heirs. A father's happiness depends +upon it!" + +On reaching Berlin, the Colonel found that his reputation had preceded +him. The note from the Minister of War had been sent to the Prussian +Government through the French legation; Leon Renault, despite his grief, +had found time to write a word to Doctor Hirtz; the papers had begun to +talk, and the scientific societies to bestir themselves. The Prince +Regent, even, had not disdained to ask information on the subject from +his physician. Germany is a queer country, where science interests the +very princes. + +Fougas, who had read Doctor Hirtz's letter annexed to Herr Meiser's +will, thought that he owed some acknowledgments to that excellent +gentleman. He made a call upon him, and embraced him, addressing him as +the oracle of Epidaurus. The doctor at once took possession of him, had +his baggage brought from the hotel and gave him the best chamber in his +house. Up to the 29th day of the month, the Colonel was cared for as a +friend, and exhibited as a phenomenon. Seven photographers disputed the +possession of so precious a sitter. The cities of Greece did no more for +our poor old Homer. His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, wished to see +him _in propria persona_, and begged Herr Hirtz to bring him to the +palace. Fougas scratched his ear a little, and intimated that a soldier +ought not to associate with the enemy, seeming to think himself still in +1813. + +The Prince is a distinguished soldier, having commanded in person at the +famous siege of Rastadt. He took pleasure in Fougas' conversation; the +heroic simplicity of the young old-time soldier charmed him. He paid him +huge compliments and said that the Emperor of France was very fortunate +in having around him officers of so much merit. + +"He has not a great many," replied the Colonel. "If there were but four +or five hundred of my stamp, your Europe would have been bagged long +ago!" + +This answer seemed more amusing than threatening, and no addition was +immediately made to the available portion of the Prussian army. + +His Royal Highness directly informed Fougas that his indemnity had been +fixed at two hundred and fifty thousand francs, and that he could +receive the amount at the treasury whenever he should find it agreeable. + +"My Lord," replied he, "it is always agreeable to pocket the money of an +enemy--a foreigner. But wait! I am not a censor-bearer to Plutus: +give me back the Rhine and Posen, and I'll leave you your two hundred +and fifty thousand francs." + +"Are you dreaming?" said the Prince, laughing. "The Rhine and Posen!" + +"The Rhine belongs to France, and the Posen to Poland, much more +legitimately than this money to me. But so it is with great lords: they +make it a duty to pay little debts, and a point of honor to ignore big +ones!" + +The Prince winced a little, and all the faces of the court gave a +sympathetic twitch. It was discovered that M. Fougas had evinced bad +taste in letting a crumb of truth fall into a big plateful of follies. + +But a pretty little Viennese baroness, who was at the presentation, was +much more charmed with his appearance than scandalized at his remarks. +The ladies of Vienna have made for themselves a reputation for +hospitality which they always attempt to support, even when they are +away from their native land. + +The baroness of Marcomarcus had still another reason for getting hold of +the Colonel: for two or three years she had, as a matter of course, been +making a photographic collection of celebrated men. Her album was +peopled with generals, statesmen, philosophers, and pianists, who had +given their portraits to her, after writing on the back: "With respects +of----" There were to be found there several Roman prelates, and even a +celebrated cardinal; but a more direct envoy from the other world was +still wanting. She wrote Fougas, then, a note full of impatience and +curiosity, inviting him to supper. Fougas, who was going to start for +Dantzic next day, took a sheet of paper embossed with a great eagle, and +set to work to excuse himself politely. He feared--the delicate and +chivalrous soul!--that an evening of conversation and enjoyment in the +society of the loveliest women of Germany might be a sort of moral +infidelity to the recollection of Clementine. He accordingly hunted up +an eligible formula of address, and wrote: + +"Too indulgent Beauty, I----" The muse dictated nothing more. He was not +in the mood for writing. He felt rather more in the mood for supper. His +scruples scattered like clouds driven before a brisk North East wind; he +put on the frogged surtout, and carried his reply himself. It was the +first time that he had been out to supper since his resuscitation. He +gave evidence of a good appetite, and got moderately drunk, but not as +much so as usual. The Baroness de Marcomarcus, astonished at his high +spirits and inexhaustible vivacity, kept him as long as she could. And +moreover she said to her friends, on showing them the Colonel's +portrait, "Nothing is needed but these French officers to conquer the +world!" + +The next day he packed a black leather trunk which he had bought at +Paris, drew his money from the treasury, and set out for Dantzic. He +went to sleep in the cars because he had been out to supper the night +before. A terrible snoring awoke him. He looked around for the snorer, +and, not finding him near him, opened the door into the adjoining +compartment (for the German cars are much larger than the French), and +shook a fat gentleman, who seemed to have a whole organ playing in his +person. At one of the stations he drank a bottle of Marsala and ate a +couple of dozen sandwiches, for last night's supper seemed to have +hollowed out his stomach. At Dantzic, he rescued his black trunk from +the hands of an enormous baggage-snatcher who was trying to take +possession of it. + +He went to the best hotel in the place, ordered his supper, and hastened +to Meiser's house. His friends at Berlin had given him accounts of that +charming family. He knew that he would have to deal with the richest and +most avaricious of sharpers: that was why he assumed the cavalier tone +that may have seemed strange to more than one reader in the preceding +chapter. + +Unhappily, he let himself become a little too human as soon as he had +his million in his pocket. A curiosity to investigate the long yellow +bottles all the way to the bottom, came near doing him an ugly turn. His +reason wandered, about one o'clock in the morning, if I am to believe +the account he himself gave. He said that, after saying "good night" to +the excellent people who had treated him so well, he tumbled into a +large and deep well, whose rim was hardly raised above the level of the +street, and ought at least to have had a lamp by it. "I came to" (it is +still he speaking) "in water, very fresh and of a pleasant taste. After +swimming around a minute or two, looking for a firm place to take hold +of, I seized a big rope, and climbed without any trouble to the surface +of the earth, which was not more than forty feet off. It required +nothing but wrists and a little gymnastic skill, and was not much of a +feat, anyhow. On getting on to the pavement, I found myself in the +presence of a sort of night watchman, who was bawling the hours through +the street, and who asked me insolently what I was doing there. I +thrashed him for his impudence, and the gentle exercise did me good, as +it set my blood well in circulation again. Before getting back to the +inn, I stopped under a street lamp, opened my pocket-book, and saw with +pleasure that my million was not wet. The leather was thick, and the +clasp firm; moreover, I had enveloped Herr Meiser's check in a +half-dozen hundred-franc bills, in a roll as fat as a monk. These +surroundings had preserved it." + +This examination being made, he went home, went to bed, and slept with +his fists clenched. The next morning he received, on getting up, the +following memoranda, which came from the Nancy police: + +"Clementine Pichon, aged eighteen, minor daughter of Auguste Pichon, +hotel-keeper, and Leonie Francelot, was married, in this town, January +11, 1814, to Louis Antoine Langevin; profession not stated. + +"The name of Langevin is as rare in this department, as the name of +Pichon is common. With the exception of the Hon. M. Victor Langevin, +Counsellor to the Prefecture at Nancy, there is only known Langevin +(Pierre), usually called Pierrot, miller in the commune of Vergaville, +canton of Dieuze." + +Fougas jumped nearly to the ceiling, crying, + +"I have a son!" + +He called the hotel-keeper, and said to him: + +"Make out my bill, and send my baggage to the depot. Take my ticket for +Nancy; I shall not stop on the way. Here are two hundred francs, with +which I want you to drink to the health of my son! He is called Victor, +after me! He is counsellor of the Prefecture! I'd rather he were a +soldier; but never mind! Ah! first get somebody to show me the way to +the bank! I must go and get a million for him!" + +As there is no direct connection between Dantzic and Nancy, he was +obliged to stop at Berlin. M. Hirtz, whom he met accidentally, told him +that the scientific societies of the city were preparing an immense +banquet in his honor; but he declined positively. + +"It's not," said he, "that I despise an opportunity to drink in good +company, but Nature has spoken: her voice draws me on! The sweetest +intoxication to all rightly constituted hearts is that of paternal +love!" + +To prepare, his dear child for the joy of a return so little expected, +he enclosed his million in an envelope addressed to M. Victor Langevin, +with a long letter which closed thus: + + "A father's blessing is more precious than all the gold + in the world! + + "VICTOR FOUGAS." + +The infidelity of Clementine Pichon touched his _amour-propre_ a little, +but he soon consoled himself for it. + +"At least," thought he, "I'll not have to marry an old woman, when +there's a young one waiting for me at Fontainebleau. And, moreover, my +son has a name, and a very presentable name. Fougas would be a great +deal better, but Langevin is not bad." + +He arrived, on the 2d of September, at six o'clock in the evening, at +that large and beautiful but somewhat stupid city which constitutes the +Versailles of Lorraine. His heart was beating fit to burst. To +recuperate his energies, he took a good dinner. The landlord, when +catechized at dessert, gave him the very best accounts of M. Victor +Langevin: a man still young, married for the past six years, father of a +boy and a girl, respected in the neighborhood, and prosperous in his +affairs. + +"I was sure of it!" said Fougas. + +He poured down a bumper of a certain kirsch-wasser from the Black +Forest, which he fancied delicious with his maccaroni. + +The same evening, M. Langevin related to his wife how, on returning from +the club at ten o'clock, he had been brutally accosted by a drunken man. +He at first took him for a robber, and prepared to defend himself; but +the man contented himself with embracing him, and then ran away with all +his might. This singular accident threw the two spouses into a series of +conjectures, each less probable than the preceding. But as they were +both young, and had been married barely seven years, they soon changed +the subject. + +The next morning, Fougas, laden down like a miller's ass with bon-bons, +presented himself at M. Langevin's. In order to make himself welcome to +his two grandchildren, he had skimmed the shop of the celebrated +Lebegue--the Boissier of Nancy. The servant who opened the door for him +asked if he were the gentleman her master expected. + +"Good!" said he; "my letter has come?" + +"Yes, sir; yesterday morning. And your baggage?" + +"I left it at the hotel." + +"Monsieur will not be satisfied at that. Your room is ready, up stairs." + +"Thanks! thanks! thanks! Take this hundred franc note for the good +news." + +"Oh, monsieur! it was not worth so much." + +"But where is he? I want to see him--to embrace him--to tell him----" + +"He's dressing, monsieur; and so is madame." + +"And the children--my dear grandchildren?" + +"If you want to see them, they're right here, in the dining room." + +"If I want to! Open the door right away!" + +He discovered that the little boy resembled him, and was overjoyed to +see him in the dress of an artillerist playing with a sabre. His pockets +were soon emptied on the floor; and the two children, at the sight of so +many good things, hung about his neck. + +"O philosophers!" cried the Colonel, "do you dare to deny the existence +of the voice of Nature?" + +A pretty little lady (all the young women are pretty in Nancy) ran in at +the joyous cries of the little brood. + +"My daughter-in-law!" cried Fougas, opening his arms. + +The lady of the house modestly recoiled, and said, with a slight smile: + +"You are mistaken, sir; I am not your daughter-in-law;[9] I am Madame +Langevin." + +"What a fool I am!" thought the Colonel. "Here I was going to tell our +family secrets before these children. Mind your manners, Fougas! You are +in fine society, where the ardor of the sweetest sentiments is hidden +under the icy mask of indifference." + +"Be seated," said Mme. Langevin. "I hope that you have had a pleasant +journey?" + +"Yes, madame. Only steam seemed too slow for me!" + +"I did not know that you were in such a hurry to get here." + +"You did not, then, appreciate that I was fairly burning to be with +you?" + +"I am glad to hear it; it is a proof that Reason and Family Affection +have made themselves heard at last." + +"Was it my fault that family ties did not speak effectually sooner?" + +"Well, after all, the main thing is that you have listened to them. We +will exert ourselves to prevent your finding Nancy uninteresting." + +"How could I, since I am to live with you?" + +"Thank you! Our house will be yours. Try to imagine yourself entirely at +home." + +"In imagination, and affection too, madame." + +"And you'll not think of Paris again?" + +"Paris!---- I don't care any more for it than I do for doomsday!" + +"I forewarn you that people are not in the habit of fighting duels +here." + +"What? You know already----" + +"We know all about it, even to the history of that famous supper with +those rather volatile ladies." + +"How the devil did you hear of that? But that time, believe me, I was +very excusable." + +M. Langevin here made his appearance, freshly shaven and rubicund--a +fine specimen of the sub-prefect in embryo. + +"It's wonderful," thought Fougas, "how well all our family bear their +years! One wouldn't call that chap over thirty-five, and he's forty-six +if he's a day. He doesn't look a bit like me, by the way; he takes after +his mother!" + +"My dear!" said Mme. Langevin, "here's a tough subject, who promises to +be wiser in future." + +"You are welcome, young man!" said the Counsellor, offering his hand to +Fougas. + +This reception appeared cold to our poor hero. He had been dreaming of a +shower of kisses and tears, and here his children contented themselves +with offering their hands. + +"My chi---- monsieur," said he to Langevin, "there is one person still +needed to complete our reunion. A few mutual wrongs, and those smoothed +over by time, ought not to build an insurmountable barrier between us. +May I venture to request the favor of being presented to your mother?" + +M. Langevin and his wife opened their eyes in astonishment. + +"How, monsieur?" said the husband. "Paris life must have affected your +memory. My poor mother is no more. It is now three years since we lost +her!" + +The good Fougas burst into tears. + +"Forgive me!" said he; "I didn't know it. Poor woman!" + +"I don't understand you! You knew my mother?" + +"Ingrate!" + +"Why, you're an amusing fellow! But your parents were invited to the +funeral, were they not?" + +"Whose parents?" + +"Your father and mother!" + +"Eh! What's this you're cackling to me about? My mother was dead before +yours was born!" + +"Your mother dead?" + +"Yes, certainly; in '89!" + +"What! Wasn't it your mother who sent you here?" + +"Monster! It was my fatherly heart that brought me!" + +"Fatherly heart?---- Why, then you're not young Jamin, who has been +cutting up didoes in the capital, and has been sent to Nancy to go +through the Agricultural School?" + +The Colonel answered with the voice of Jupiter tonans: + +"I am Fougas!" + +"Very well!" + +"If Nature says nothing to you in my behalf, ungrateful son, question +the spirit of your mother!" + +"Upon my soul, sir," cried the Counsellor, "we can play at cross +purposes a good while! Sit down there, if you please, and tell me your +business--Marie, take away the children." + +Fougas did not require any urging. He detailed the romance of his life, +without omitting anything, but with many delicate touches for the filial +ears of M. Langevin. The Counsellor heard him patiently, with an +appearance of perfect disinterestedness. + +"Monsieur," said he, at last, "at first I took you for a madman; but now +I remember that the newspapers have contained some scraps of your +history, and I see that you are the victim of a mistake. I am not +forty-six years old, but thirty-four. My mother's name was not +Clementine Pichon, but Marie Herval. She was not born at Nancy, but at +Vannes, and she was but seven years old in 1813. Nevertheless, I am +happy to make your acquaintance." + +"Ah! you're not my son!" replied Fougas, angrily. "Very well! So much +the worse for you! No one seems to want a father of the name of Fougas! +As for sons by the name of Langevin, one only has to stoop to pick them +up. I know where to find one who is not a Counsellor of the Prefecture, +it is true, and who does not put on a laced coat to go to mass, but who +has an honest and simple heart, and is named Pierre, just like me! But, +I beg your pardon, when one shows gentlemen the door, one ought at least +to return what belongs to them." + +"I don't prevent your collecting the bon-bons which my children have +scattered over the floor." + +"Yes, I'm talking about bon-bons with a vengeance! My million, sir!" + +"What million?" + +"Your brother's million!---- No! The million that belongs to him who is +not your brother--to Clementine's son, my dear and only child, the only +scion of my race, Pierre Langevin, called Pierrot, a miller at +Vergaville!" + +"But I assure you, monsieur, that I haven't your million, or anybody's +else." + +"You dare to deny it, scoundrel, when I sent it to you by mail, myself!" + +"Possibly you sent it, but I certainly have not received it!" + +"Aha! Defend yourself!" + +He made at his throat, and perhaps France would have lost a Counsellor +of Prefecture that day, if the servant had not come in with two letters +in her hand. Fougas recognized his own handwriting and the Berlin +postmark, tore open the envelope, and displayed the check. + +"Here," said he, "is the million I intended for you, if you had seen fit +to be my son! Now it's too late for you to retract. The voice of Nature +calls me to Vergaville. Your servant, sir!" + +On the 4th of September, Pierre Langevin, miller at Vergaville, +celebrated the marriage of Cadet Langevin, his second son. The miller's +family was numerous, respectable, and in comfortable circumstances. +First, there was the grandfather, a fine, hale old man, who took his +four meals a day, and doctored his little ailings with the wine of Bar +or Thiaucourt. The grandmother, Catharine, had been pretty in her day, +and a little frivolous; but she expiated by absolute deafness the crime +of having listened too tenderly to gallants. M. Pierre Langevin, alias +Pierrot, alias Big Peter, after having sought his fortune in America (a +custom becoming quite general in the rural districts), had returned to +the village in pretty much the condition of the infant Saint John, and +God only knows how many jokes were perpetrated over his ill luck. The +people of Lorraine are terrible wags, and if you are not fond of +personal jokes, I advise you not to travel in their neighborhood. Big +Peter, stung to the quick, and half crazed at having run through his +inheritance, borrowed money at ten per cent., bought the mill at +Vergaville, worked like a plough-horse in heavy land, and repaid his +capital and the interest. Fortune, who owed him some compensations, +gave him _gratis pro Deo_, a half dozen superb workers--six big boys, +whom his wife presented him with, one annually, as regularly as +clock-work. Every year, nine months, to a day, after the _fete_ of +Vergaville, Claudine (otherwise known as Glaudine) presented one for +baptism. At last she died after the sixth, from eating four huge pieces +of _quiche_ before her churching. Big Peter did not marry again, having +concluded that he had workers enough, and he continued to add to his +fortune nicely. But, as standing jokes last a long time in villages, the +miller's comrades still spoke to him about those famous millions which +he did not bring back from America, and Big Peter grew very red under +his flour, just as he used to in his earlier days. + +On the 4th of September, then, he married his second son to a good big +woman of Altroff, who had fat and blazing cheeks: this being a kind of +beauty much affected in the country. The wedding took place at the mill, +because the bride was orphaned of father and mother, and had previously +lived with the nuns of Molsheim. + +A messenger came and told Pierre Langevin that a gentleman wearing +decorations had something to say to him, and Fougas appeared in all his +glory. "My good sir," said the miller, "I am far from being in a mood to +talk business, as we just took a good pull at white wine before mass; +but we are going to drink some red wine that's by no means bad, at +dinner, and if your heart prompts you, don't be backward! The table is +a long one. We can talk afterwards. You don't say no? Then that's yes." + +"For once," thought Fougas, "I am not mistaken. This is surely the voice +of Nature! I would have liked a soldier better, but this genial rustic, +so comfortably rounded, satisfies my heart. I cannot be indebted to him +for many gratifications of my pride; but never mind! I am sure of _his_ +good-will." + +Dinner was served, and the table more heavily laden with viands than the +stomach of Gargantua. Big Peter, as proud of his big family as of his +little fortune, made the Colonel stand by as he enumerated his children. +And Fougas was joyful at learning that he had six welcome grandchildren. + +He was seated at the right of a little stunted old woman who was +presented to him as the grandmother of the youngsters. Heavens! how +changed Clementine appeared to him. Save the eyes which were still +lively and sparkling, there was no longer anything about her that could +be recognized. "See," thought Fougas, "what I would have been like +to-day, if the worthy John Meiser had not desiccated me!" He smiled to +himself on regarding Grandfather Langevin, the reputed progenitor of +this numerous family. "Poor old fellow," murmured Fougas, "you little +think what you owe to me!" + +They dine boisterously at village weddings. This is an abuse which, I +sincerely hope, Civilization will never reform. Under cover of the +noise, Fougas entered into conversation, or thought he did, with his +left-hand neighbor. "Clementine!" he said to her. She raised her eyes, +and her nose too, and responded: + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"My heart has not deceived me, then?--you are indeed my Clementine!" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"And you have recognized me, noble and excellent woman!" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"But how did you conceal your emotion so well?---- How strong women +are!---- I fall from the skies into the midst of your peaceful +existence, and you see me without moving a muscle!" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Have you forgiven me for a seeming injury for which Destiny alone is +responsible?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Thanks! A thousand thanks!---- What a charming family you have about +you! This good Pierre, who almost opened his arms on seeing me approach, +is my son, is he not?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +"Rejoice! He shall be rich! He already has happiness; I bring him +fortune. His portion shall be a million. Oh, Clementine! what a +commotion there will be in this simple assembly, when I raise my voice +and say to my son: 'Here! this million is for you!' Is it a good time +now? Shall I speak? Shall I tell all?" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +Fougas immediately arose, and requested silence. The people thought he +was going to sing a song, and all kept quiet. + +"Pierre Langevin," said he with emphasis, "I have come back from the +other world, and brought you a million." + +If Big Peter did not want to get angry, he at least got red, and the +joke seemed to him in bad taste. But when Fougas announced that he had +loved the grandmother in her youth, grandfather Langevin no longer +hesitated to fling a bottle at his head. The Colonel's son, his splendid +grandchildren, and even the bride all jumped up in high dudgeon and +there was a very pretty scrimmage indeed. + +For the first time in his life, Fougas did not get the upper hand. He +was afraid that he might injure some of his family. Paternal affection +robbed him of three quarters of his power. + +But having learned during the clamor that Clementine was called +Catharine, and that Pierre Langevin was born in 1810, he resumed the +offensive, blacked three eyes, broke an arm, mashed two noses, knocked +in four dozen teeth, and regained his carriage with all the honors of +war. + +"Devil take the children!" said he, while riding in a post-chaise toward +the Avricourt station. "If I have a son, I wish he may find me!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +HE SEEKS AND BESTOWS THE HAND OF CLEMENTINE. + + +On the fifth of September, at ten o'clock in the morning, Leon Renault, +emaciated, dejected and scarcely recognizable, was at the feet of +Clementine Sambucco in her aunt's parlor. There were flowers on the +mantel and flowers in all the vases. Two great burglar sunbeams broke +through the open windows. A million of little bluish atoms were playing +in the light, crossing each other and getting fantastically mixed up, +like the ideas in a volume of M. Alfred Houssaye. In the garden, the +apples were falling, the peaches were ripe, the hornets were ploughing +broad, deep furrows in the _duchesse_ pears; the trumpet-flowers and +clematis-vines were in blossom, and to crown all, a great mass of +heliotropes, trained over the left window, was flourishing in all its +beauty. The sun had given all the grapes in the arbor a tint of golden +bronze; and the great Yucca on the lawn, shaken by the wind like a +Chinese hat, noiselessly clashed its silver bells. But the son of M. +Renault was more pale and haggard than the white lilac sprays, more +blighted than the leaves on the old cherry-tree; his heart was without +joy and without hope, like the currant bushes without leaves and without +fruit! + +To be exiled from his native land, to have lived three years in an +inhospitable climate, to have passed so many days in deep mines, so many +nights over an earthenware stove in the midst of an infinity of bugs and +a multiplicity of serfs, and to see himself set aside for a +twenty-five-louis Colonel whom he himself had brought to life by soaking +him in water! + +All men are subject to disappointments, but surely never had one +encountered a misfortune so unforeseen and so extraordinary. Leon knew +that Earth is not a valley flowing with chocolate and soup _a la reine_. +He knew the list of the renowned unfortunates beginning with Abel slain +in the garden of Paradise, and ending with Rubens assassinated in the +gallery of the Louvre at Paris. But history, which seldom instructs us, +never consoles us. The poor engineer in vain repeated to himself that a +thousand others had been supplanted on the day before marriage, and a +hundred thousand on the day after. Melancholy was stronger than Reason, +and three or four soft locks were beginning to whiten about his temples. + +"Clementine!" said he, "I am the most miserable of men. In refusing me +the hand which you have promised, you condemn me to agony a hundred +times worse than death. Alas! What would you have me become without you? +I must live alone, for I love you too well to marry another. For four +long years, all my affections, all my thoughts have been centred upon +you; I have become accustomed to regard other women as inferior beings, +unworthy of attracting the interest of a man! I will not speak to you of +the efforts I have made to deserve you; they brought their reward in +themselves, and I was already too happy in working and suffering for +you. But see the misery in which your desertion has left me! A sailor +thrown upon a desert island has less to deplore than I: I will be forced +to live near you, to witness the happiness of another, to see you pass +my windows upon the arm of my rival! Ah! death would be more endurable +than this constant agony. But I have not even the right to die! My poor +old parents have already sorrows enough. What would it be, Great God! if +I were to condemn them to bear the loss of their son?" + +This complaint, punctuated with sighs and tears, lacerated the heart of +Clementine. The poor child wept too, for she loved Leon with her whole +soul, but she was interdicted from telling him so. More than once, on +seeing him half dying before her, she felt tempted to throw her arms +about his neck, but the recollection of Fougas paralyzed all her tender +impulses. + +"My poor friend," said she, "you judge me very wrongfully if you think +me insensible to your sufferings. I have known you thoroughly, Leon, +and that too since my very childhood. I know all that there is in you +of devotion, delicacy and precious and noble virtues. Since the time +when you carried me in your arms to the poor, and put a penny in my hand +to teach me to give alms, I have never heard benevolence spoken of +without involuntarily thinking of you. When you whipped a boy twice your +size for taking away my doll, I felt that courage was noble and that a +woman would be happy in being able to lean on a brave man. All that I +have ever seen you do since that time, has only redoubled my esteem and +my sympathy. Believe me that it is neither from wickedness or +ingratitude that I make you suffer now. Alas! I no longer belong to +myself, I am under external control; I am like those automatons that +move without knowing why. Yes, I feel an impulse within me more powerful +than my self control, and it is the will of another that leads me." + +"If I could but be sure that you will be happy! But no! This man, before +whom you immolate me, will never know the worth of a soul as delicate as +yours. He is a brute, a swash-buckler, a drunkard." + +"I beseech you, Leon, remember that he has a right to my unreserved +respect!" + +"Respect! For him! And why? I ask of you, in Heaven's name, what you +find respectable in the character of Mister Fougas? His age? He is +younger than I. His talents? He never shows them anywhere but at the +table. His education? It's lovely! His virtues? _I_ know what is to be +thought of his refinement and gratitude!" + +"I have respected him, Leon, since I first saw him in his coffin. It is +a sentiment stronger than all else; I cannot explain it, I can but +submit to it." + +"Very well! Respect him as much as you please! Yield to the superstition +that enchains you. See in him a miraculous being, consecrated, rescued +from the grip of Death to accomplish something great on earth! But this +itself, Oh my dear Clementine, is a barrier between you and him! If +Fougas is outside of the conditions of humanity, if he is a phenomenon, +a being apart, a hero, a demigod, a fetich, you cannot seriously think +of becoming his wife. As for me, I am but a man like others, born to +work, to suffer and to love. I love you! Love me!" + +"Scoundrel!" cried Fougas, opening the door. + +Clementine uttered a cry, Leon sprung up quickly, but the Colonel had +already seized him by the most practicable part of his nankeen suit, +before he had even time to think of a single word in reply. The engineer +was lifted up, balanced like an atom in one of the sunbeams, and flung +into the very midst of the heliotropes. Poor Leon! Poor heliotropes! + +In less than a second, the young man was on his feet. He dusted the +earth from his knees and elbows, approached the window, and said in a +calm but resolute voice: "Mister Colonel, I sincerely regret having +brought you back to life, but possibly the folly of which I have been +guilty is not irreparable. I hope soon to have an opportunity to find +out if it be! As for you, Mademoiselle, I love you!" + +The Colonel shrugged his shoulders and put himself at the young girl's +feet on the very cushion which still bore the impression left by Leon. +Mlle. Virginie Sambucco, attracted by the noise, came down stairs like +an avalanche and heard the following conversation. + +"Idol of a great soul! Fougas returns to thee like the eagle to his +eyrie. I have long traversed the world in pursuit of rank, fortune and +family which I was burning to lay at thy feet. Fortune has obeyed me as +a slave: she knows in what school I learned the art of controlling her. +I have gone through Paris and Germany like a victorious meteor led by +its star. I have everywhere associated as an equal with the powers of +Earth, and made the trumpet of truth resound in the halls of kings. I +have put my foot on the throat of greedy Avarice, and snatched from him +a part, at least, of the treasures which he had stolen from +too-confiding Honor. One only blessing is denied me: the son I hoped to +see has escaped the lynx-eyes of paternal love. Neither have I found the +ancient object of my first affections. But what matters it? I shall feel +the want of nothing, if you fill for me the place of all. What do we +wait for now? Are you deaf to the voice of Happiness which calls you? +Let us go to the temple of the laws, then you shall follow me to the +foot of the altar; a priest shall consecrate our bonds, and we will go +through life leaning on one another, I like the oak sustaining weakness, +thou like the graceful ivy ornamenting the emblem of strength."[10] + +Clementine remained a few moments without answering, as if stunned by +the Colonel's vehement rhetoric. "Monsieur Fougas," she said to him, "I +have always obeyed you, I promise to obey you all my life. If you do not +wish me to marry poor Leon, I will renounce him. I love him devotedly, +nevertheless, and a single word from him arouses more emotion in my +heart than all the fine things you have said to me." + +"Good! Very good!" cried the Aunt. "As for me, sir, although you have +never done me the honor to consult me, I will tell you my opinion. My +niece is not at all the woman to suit you. Were you richer than M. de +Rothschild and more illustrious than the Duke of Malakoff, I would not +advise Clementine to marry you." + +"And why, chaste Minerva?" + +"Because you would love her fifteen days, and then, at the first sound +of cannon, be off to the wars! You would abandon her, sir, just as you +did that unhappy Clementine whose misfortunes have been recounted to +us!" + +"Zounds! Lady Aunt! I _do_ advise you to bestow your pity on _her_! +Three months after Leipzic, she married a fellow named Langevin at +Nancy." + +"What do you say?" + +"I say that she married a military commissary named Langevin." + +"At Nancy?" + +"At that identical town." + +"This is strange! + +"It's outrageous! + +"But this woman--this young girl--her name? + +"I've told you a hundred times: Clementine!" + +"Clementine what? + +"Clementine Pichon." + +"Gracious Heavens! My keys! Where are my keys? I'm sure I put them in my +pocket! Clementine Pichon! M. Langevin! It's impossible! My senses are +forsaking me! Come, my child, bestir yourself! The happiness of your +whole life is concerned. Where _did_ you poke my keys? Ah! Here they +are!" + +Fougas bent over to Clementine's ear, and said: + +"Is she subject to these attacks? One, would suppose that the poor old +girl had lost her head!" + +But Virginie Sambucco had already opened a little rosewood secretary. +Her unerring glance discovered in a file of papers, a sheet yellow with +age. + +"I've got it!" said she with a cry of joy. "Marie Clementine Pichon, +legitimate daughter of August Pichon, hotel keeper, _rue des Merlettes_, +in this town of Nancy; married June 10th, 1814, to Joseph Langevin, +military sub-commissary. Is it surely she, Monsieur? Dare to say it +isn't she!" + +"Well! But how do you happen to have my family papers?" + +"Poor Clementine! And you accuse her of unfaithfulness! You do not +understand then that you had been taken for dead! That she supposed +herself a widow without having been a wife; that--" + +"It's all right! It's all right! I forgive her. Where is she? I want to +see her, to embrace her, to tell her--" + +"She is dead, Monsieur! She died three months after she was married," + +"Ah! The Devil!" + +"In giving birth to a daughter--" + +"Where is my daughter? I'd rather have had a son, but never mind! Where +is she? I want to see her, to embrace her, to tell her--" + +"Alas! She is no more! But I can conduct you to her tomb." + +"But how the Devil did you know her?" + +"Because she married my brother!" + +"Without my consent? But never mind! At least she left some children, +didn't she?" + +"Only one." + +"A son! He is my grandson!" + +"A daughter." + +"Never mind! She is my granddaughter! I'd rather have had a grandson, +but where is she? I want to see her, to embrace her, to tell her--" + +"Embrace away, Monsieur! Her name is Clementine: after her grandmother, +and there she is!" + +"She! That accounts for the resemblance! But then I can't marry her! +Never mind! Clementine! Come to my arms! Embrace your grandfather!" + +The poor child had not been able entirely to comprehend this rapid +conversation, from which events had been falling like tiles, upon the +head of the Colonel. She had always heard M. Langevin spoken of as her +maternal grandfather, and now she seemed to hear that her mother was the +daughter of Fougas. But she knew at the first words, that it was no +longer possible for her to marry the Colonel, and that she would soon be +married to Leon Renault. It was, therefore, from an impulse of joy and +gratitude that she flung herself into the arms of the young-old man. + +"Ah, Monsieur!" said she, "I have always loved and respected you like a +grandfather!" + +"And I, my poor child, have always behaved myself like an old beast! All +men are brutes, and all women are angels. You divined with the delicate +instinct of your sex, that you owed me respect, and I, fool that I am, +didn't divine anything at all! Whew! Without the venerable Aunt there, +I'd have made a pretty piece of work!" + +"No," said the aunt. "You would have found out the truth in going over +our family papers." + +"Would that I could have seen them and nothing more! Just to think that +I went off to seek my heirs in the department of Meurthe, when I had +left my family in Fontainebleau! Imbecile! Bah! But never mind. +Clementine! You shall be rich, you shall marry the man you love! Where +is he, the brave boy? I want to see him, to embrace him, to tell him--" + +"Alas, Monsieur; you just threw him out of the window." + +"I? Hold on, it _is_ true. I had forgotten all about it. Fortunately +he's not hurt, and I'll go at once and make amends for my folly. You +shall get married when you want to; the two weddings shall come off +together.--But in fact, no! What am I saying? I shall not marry now! It +will all be well soon, my child, my dear granddaughter. Mademoiselle +Sambucco you're a model aunt; embrace me!" + +He ran to M. Renault's house, and Gothon, who saw him coming, ran down +to shut him out. + +"Ain't you ashamed of yourself," said she, "to act this way with them as +brought you to life again? Ah! If it had to be done over again! We +wouldn't turn the house upside down again for the sake of your fine +eyes! Madame's crying, Monsieur is tearing his hair, M. Leon has just +been sending two officers to hunt you up. What have you been at again +since morning?" + +Fougas gave her a twirl on her feet and found himself face to face with +the engineer. Leon had heard the sound of a quarrel, and on seeing the +Colonel excited, with flashing eyes, he expected some brutal aggression +and did not wait for the first blow. A struggle took place in the +passage amid the cries of Gothon, M. Renault and the poor old lady, who +was screaming: "Murder!" Leon wrestled, kicked, and from time to time +launched a vigorous blow into the body of his antagonist. He had to +succumb, nevertheless; the Colonel finished by upsetting him on the +ground and holding him there. Then he kissed him on both cheeks and said +to him: + +"Ah! You naughty boy! Now I'm pretty sure to make you listen to me! I am +Clementine's grandfather, and I give her to you in marriage, and you can +have the wedding to-morrow if you want to! Do you hear? Now get up, and +don't you punch me in the stomach any more. It would be almost +parricide!" + +Mlle. Sambucco and Clementine arrived in the midst of the general +stupefaction. They completed the recital of Fougas, who had gotten +himself pretty badly mixed up in the genealogy. Leon's seconds appeared +in their turn. They had not found the enemy in the hotel where he had +taken up his quarters, and came to give an account of their mission. A +tableau of perfect happiness met their astonished gaze, and Leon invited +them to the wedding. + +"My friends," said Fougas, "you shall see undeceived Nature bless the +chains of Love." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +A THUNDERBOLT FROM A CLEAR SKY. + + + "Mlle. Virginie Sambucco has the honor to announce to + you the marriage of Mlle. Clementine Sambucco, her + niece, to M. Leon Renault, civil engineer. + + "M. and Mme. Renault have the honor to announce to you + the marriage of M. Leon Renault, their son, to Mlle. + Clementine Sambucco; + + "And invite you to be present at the nuptial benediction + which will be given them on the 11th of September, 1859, + in the church of Saint Maxcence, in their parish, at + eleven o'clock precisely." + +Fougas absolutely insisted that his name should figure on the cards. +They had all the trouble in the world to cure him of this whim. Mme. +Renault lectured him two full hours. She told him that in the eyes of +society, as well as in the eyes of the law, Clementine was the +granddaughter of M. Langevin; that, moreover, M. Langevin had acted very +liberally in legitimizing by marriage, a daughter that was not his own; +finally, that the publication of such a family secret would be an +outrage against the sanctity of the grave and would tarnish the memory +of poor Clementine Pichon. The Colonel answered with the warmth of a +young man, and the obstinacy of an old one: + +"Nature has her rights; they are anterior to the conventions of society, +and a thousand times more exalted. The honor of her I called my AEgle, is +dearer to me than all the treasures of the world, and I would cleave the +soul of any rash being who should attempt to tarnish it. In yielding to +the ardor of my vows, she but conformed to the custom of a great epoch +when the uncertainty of life and the constant existence of war +simplified all formalities. And in conclusion, I do not wish that my +grandchildren, yet to be born, should be ignorant that the source of +their blood is in the veins of Fougas. Your Langevin is but an intruder +who covertly slipped into my family. A commissary! It's almost a sutler! +I spurn under foot the ashes of Langevin!" + +His obstinacy would not yield to the arguments of Mme. Renault, but it +succumbed to the entreaties of Clementine. The young creole twisted him +around her finger with irresistible grace. + +"My good Grandpa this, my pretty little Grandpa that; my old baby of a +Grandpa, we'll send you off to college if you're not reasonable!" + +She used to seat herself familiarly on Fougas' knee, and give him little +love pats on the cheeks. The Colonel would assume the gruffest possible +voice, and then his heart would overflow with tenderness, and he would +cry like a child. + +These familiarities added nothing to the happiness of Leon Renault; I +even think that they slightly tempered his joy. Yet he certainly did not +doubt either the love of his betrothed or the honor of Fougas. He was +forced to admit that between a grandfather and his granddaughter such +little liberties are natural and proper and could justly offend no one. +But the situation was so new and so unusual that he needed a little time +to adapt his feelings to it, and forget his chagrin. This grandfather, +for whom he had paid five-hundred francs, whose ear he had broken, for +whom he had bought a burial-place in the Fontainebleau cemetery: this +ancestor younger than himself, whom he had seen drunk, whom he had found +agreeable, then dangerous, then insupportable: this venerable head of +the family who had begun by demanding Clementine's hand and ended by +pitching his future grandson into the heliotropes, could not all at once +obtain unmingled respect and unreserved affection. + +M. and Mme. Renault exhorted their son to submission and deference. They +represented M. Fougas to him as a relative who ought to be treated with +consideration. + +"A few days of patience!" said the good mother. "He will not stay with +us long; he is a soldier and can't live out of the army any better than +a fish out of water." + +But Leon's parents, in the bottom of their hearts, held a bitter +remembrance of so many pangs and mortifications. Fougas had been the +scourge of the family; the wounds which he had made could not heal over +in a day. Even Gothon bore him ill will without confessing it. She +heaved great sighs while preparing for the wedding festivities at Mlle. +Sambucco's. + +"Ah! my poor Celestin!" said she to her acolyte. "What a little rascal +of a grandfather we're going to have to be sure!" + +The only person who was perfectly at ease was Fougas. He had passed the +sponge over his pranks; out of all the evil he had done, he retained no +ill will against any one. Very paternal with Clementine, very gracious +with M. and Mme. Renault, he evinced for Leon the most frank and cordial +friendship. + +"My dear boy," said he to him, "I have studied you, I know you, and I +love you thoroughly; you deserve to be happy, and you shall be. You +shall soon see that in buying me for twenty-five napoleons, you didn't +make a bad bargain. If gratitude were banished from the universe, it +would find a last abiding place in the heart of Fougas!" + +Three days before the marriage, M. Bonnivet informed the family that the +colonel had come into his office to ask for a conference about the +contract. He had scarcely cast his eyes on the sheet of stamped paper, +when Rrrrip! it was in pieces in the fireplace. + +"Mister Note-scratcher," he said, "do me the honor of beginning your +_chef-d'oeuvre_ over again. The granddaughter of Fougas does not marry +with an annuity of eight thousand francs. Nature and Friendship give her +a million. Here it is!" + +Thereupon he took from his pocket a bank check for a million, paced the +study proudly, making his boots creak, and threw a thousand-franc note +on a clerk's desk, crying in his clearest tones: + +"Children of the Law! Here's something to drink the health of the +Emperor and the Grand Army with!" + +The Renault family strongly remonstrated against this liberality. +Clementine, on being told of it by her intended, had a long discussion, +in the presence of Mlle. Sambucco, with the young and terrible +grandpapa; she tried to impress upon him that he was but twenty-four +years old, that he would be getting married some day, and that his +property belonged to his future family. + +"I do not wish," said she, "that your children should accuse me of +having robbed them. Keep your millions for my little uncles and aunts!" + +But for once, Fougas would not yield an inch. + +"Are you mocking me?" he said to Clementine. "Do you think that I will +be guilty of the folly of marrying now? I do not promise you to live +like a monk of La Trappe, but at my age, a man put together like I am +can find enough to talk to around the garrisons without marrying +anybody. Mars does not borrow the torch of Hymen to light the little +aberrations of Venus! Why does man ever tie himself in matrimonial +bonds?... For the sake of being a father. I am one already, in the +comparative degree, and in a year, if our brave Leon does a man's part, +I shall assume the superlative. Great-grandfather! That's a lovely +position for a trooper twenty-five years old! At forty-five or fifty, I +shall be great-great-grandfather. At seventy ... the French language has +no more words to express what I shall become! But we can order one from +those babblers of the Academy! Are you afraid that I'll want for +anything in my old age? I have my pay, in the first place, and my +officer's cross. When I reach the years of Anchises or Nestor, I will +have my halt-pay. Add to all this the two hundred and fifty thousand +francs from the king of Prussia, and you shall see that I have not only +bread, but all essential fixings in the bargain, up to the close of my +career. Moreover, I have a perpetual grant, for which your husband has +paid in advance, in the Fontainebleau cemetery. With all these +possessions, and simple tastes, one is sure not to eat up one's +resources!" + +Willing or unwilling, they had to concede all he required and accept his +million. This act of generosity made a great commotion in the town, and +the name of Fougas, already celebrated in so many ways, acquired a new +prestige. The signature of the bride was attested by the Marshal the +Duke of Solferino and the illustrious Karl Nibor, who but a few days +before had been elected to the Academy of Sciences. Leon modestly +retained the old friends whom he had long since chosen, M. Audret the +architect, and M. Bonnivet the notary. + +The Mayor was brilliant in his new scarf. The _cure_ addressed to the +young couple an affecting allocution on the inexhaustible goodness of +Providence, which still occasionally performs a miracle for the benefit +of true Christians. Fougas, who had not discharged his religious duties +since 1801, soaked two handkerchiefs with tears. + +"One must always part from those nearest the heart," said he on going +out of church. "But God and I are made to understand each other! After +all, what is God but a little more universal Napoleon!" + +A Pantagruelic feast, presided over by Mlle. Virginie Sambucco in a +dress of puce-colored silk, followed immediately upon the marriage +ceremony. Twenty-four persons were present at this family _fete_, among +others the new colonel of the 23d and M. du Marnet, who was almost well +of his wound. + +Fougas took up his napkin with a certain anxiety. He hoped that the +Marshal had brought his brevet as brigadier general. His expressive +countenance manifested lively disappointment at the empty plate. + +The Duke of Solferino, who had been seated at the place of honor, +noticed this physiognomical display, and said aloud: + +"Don't be impatient, my old comrade! I know what you miss; it was not my +fault that the _fete_ was not complete. The minister of war was out +when I dropped in on my way here. I was told however, at the department, +that your affair was kept in suspense by a technical question, but that +you would receive a letter from the office within twenty-four hours." + +"Devil take the documents!" cried Fougas. "They've got them all, from my +birth-certificate, down to the copy of my brevet colonel's commission. +You'll find out that they want a certificate of vaccination or some such +six-penny shinplaster!" + +"Oh! Patience, young man! You've time enough to wait. It's not such a +case as mine: without the Italian campaign, which gave me a chance to +snatch the baton, they would have slit my ear like a condemned horse, +under the empty pretext that I was sixty-five years old. You're not yet +twenty-five, and you're on the point of becoming a brigadier: the +Emperor promised it to you before me. In four or five years from now, +you'll have the gold stars, unless some bad luck interferes. After which +you'll need nothing but the command of an army and a successful campaign +to make you Marshal of France and Senator, which may nothing prevent!" + +"Yes," responded Fougas; "I'll reach it. Not only because I am the +youngest of all the officers of my grade, and because I have been in the +mightiest of wars and followed the lessons of the master of Bellona's +fields, but above all because Destiny has marked me with her sign. Why +did the bullets spare me in more than twenty battles? Why have I sped +over oceans of steel and fire without my skin receiving a scratch? It is +because I have a star, as _He_ had. His was the grander, it is true, but +it went out at St. Helena, while mine is burning in Heaven still! If +Doctor Nibor resuscitated me with a few drops of warm water, it was +because my destiny was not yet accomplished. If the will of the French +people has re-established the imperial throne, it was to furnish me a +series of opportunities for my valor, during the conquest of Europe +which we are about to recommence! _Vive l'Empereur_, and me too! I shall +be duke or prince in less than ten years, and ... why not? One might try +to be at roll-call on the day when crowns are distributed! In that case, +I will adopt Clementine's oldest son: we will call him Pierre Victor +II., and he shall succeed me on the throne just as Louis XV. succeeded +his grandfather Louis XIV.!" + +As he was finishing this wonderful speech, a _gendarme_ entered the +dining room, asked for Colonel Fougas, and handed him a letter from the +Minister of War. + +"Gad!" cried the Marshal, "it would be pleasant to have your promotion +arrive at the end of such a discourse. For once, we would prostrate +ourselves before your star! The Magi kings would be nowhere compared +with us." + +"Read it yourself," said he to the Marshal, holding out to him the +great sheet of paper. "But no! I have always looked Death in the face; I +will not turn my eyes away from this paper thunder if it is killing me. + + "COLONEL: + + "In preparing the Imperial decree which elevated you to + the rank of brigadier general, I found myself in the + presence of an insurmountable obstacle: viz., your + certificate of birth. It appears from that document that + you were born in 1789, and that you have already passed + your seventieth year. Now, the limit of age being fixed + at sixty years for colonels, sixty-two for brigadier + generals and sixty-five for generals of division, I find + myself under the absolute necessity of placing you upon + the retired list with the rank of colonel. I know, + Monsieur, how little this measure is justified by your + apparent age, and I sincerely regret that France should + be deprived of the services of a man of your capacity + and merit. Moreover, it is certain that an exception in + your favor would arouse no dissatisfaction in the army + and would meet with nothing but sympathetic approval. + But the law is express, and the Emperor himself cannot + violate or elude it. The impossibility resulting from it + is so absolute that if, in your ardor to serve the + country, you were willing to lay aside your epaulettes + for the sake of beginning upon a new career, your + enlistment could not be received in a single regiment of + the army. It is fortunate, Monsieur, that the Emperor's + government has been able to furnish you the means of + subsistence in obtaining from His Royal Highness the + Regent of Prussia the indemnity which was due you; for + there is not even an office in the civil administration + in which, even by special favor, a man seventy years old + could be placed. You will very justly object that the + laws and regulations now in force date from a period + when experiments on the revivification of men had not + yet met with favorable results. But the law is made for + the mass of mankind, and cannot take any account of + exceptions. Undoubtedly attention would be directed to + its amendment if cases of resuscitation were to present + themselves in sufficient number. + + "Accept, &c." + +A gloomy silence succeeded the reading. The _Mene mene tekel upharsin_ +of the oriental legends could not have more completely produced the +effect of thunderbolts. The _gendarme_ was still there, standing in the +position of the soldier without arms, awaiting Fougas' receipt. The +Colonel called for pen and ink, signed the paper, gave the _gendarme_ +drink-money, and said to him with ill-suppressed emotion: + +"You are happy, you are! No one prevents you from serving the country. +Well," added he, turning toward the Marshal, "what do you say to that?" + +"What would you have me say, my poor old boy? It breaks me all up. +There's no use in arguing against the law; it's express. The stupid +thing on our parts was not to think of it sooner. But who the Devil +would have thought of the retired list in the presence of such a fellow +as you are?" + +The two colonels avowed that such an objection would never have entered +their heads; now that it had been suggested, however, they could not see +what to rebut it with. Neither of them would have been able to enlist +Fougas as a private soldier, despite his ability, his physical strength +and his appearance of being twenty-four years old. + +"If some one would only kill me!" cried Fougas. "I can't set myself to +weighing sugar or planting cabbages. It was in the career of arms that I +took my first steps; I must continue in it or die. What can I do? What +can I become? Take service in some foreign army? Never! The fate of +Moreau is still before my eyes.... Oh Fortune! What have I done to thee +that I should be dashed so low, when thou wast preparing to raise me so +high?" + +Clementine tried to console him with soothing words. + +"You shall live near us," said she. "We will find you a pretty little +wife, and you can rear your children. In your leisure moments you can +write the history of the great deeds you have done. You will want for +nothing: youth, health, fortune, family, all that makes up the +happiness of men, is yours. Why then should you not be happy?" + +Leon and his parents talked with him in the same way. Everything +appertaining to the festive occasion was forgotten in the presence of an +affliction so real and a dejection so profound. + +He roused himself little by little, and even sang, at dessert, a little +song which he had prepared for the occasion. + + Here's a health to these fortunate lovers + Who, on this thrice blessed day, + Have singed with the torch of chaste Hymen, + The wings with which Cupid doth stray. + And now, little volatile boy-god, + You must keep yourself quiet at home-- + Enchained there by this happy marriage + Where Genius and Beauty are one. + + He'll make it, henceforth, his endeavor + To keep Pleasure in Loyalty's power, + Forgetting his naughty old habit + Of roaming from flower to flower. + And Clementine makes the task easy, + For roses spring up at her smile: + From thence the young rascal can steal them + As well as in Venus's isle. + +The verses were loudly applauded, but the poor Colonel smiled sadly, +talked but little, and did not get fuddled at all. The man with the +broken ear could not at all console himself for having a slit ear.[11] +He took part in the various diversions of the day, but was no longer +the brilliant companion who had inspired everything with his impetuous +gayety. + +The Marshal buttonholed him during the evening and said: "What are you +thinking about?" + +"I'm thinking of the old messmates who were happy enough to fall at +Waterloo with their faces toward the enemy. That old fool of a Dutchman +who preserved me for posterity, did me but a sorry service. I tell you, +Leblanc, a man ought to live in his own day. Later is too late." + +"Oh, pshaw, Fougas, don't talk nonsense! There's nothing desperate in +the case. Devil take it! I'll go to see the Emperor to-morrow. The +matter shall be looked into. It will all be set straight. Men like you! +Why France hasn't got them by the dozen that she should fling them among +the soiled linen." + +"Thanks! You're a good old boy, and a true one. There were five hundred +thousand of us, of the same, same sort, in 1812; there are but two left; +say, rather, one and a half." + +About ten o'clock in the evening, M. Rollon, M. du Marnet and Fougas +accompanied the Marshal to the cars. Fougas embraced his comrade and +promised him to be of good cheer. After the train left, the three +colonels went back to town on foot. In passing M. Rollon's house, Fougas +said to his successor: + +"You're not very hospitable to-night; you don't even offer us a pony of +that good Andaye brandy!" + +"I thought you were not in drinking trim," said M. Rollon. "You didn't +take anything in your coffee or afterwards. But come up!" + +"My thirst has come back with a vengeance." + +"That's a good symptom." + +He drank in a melancholy fashion, and scarcely wet his lips in his +glass. He stopped a little while before the flag, took hold of the +staff, spread out the silk, counted the holes that cannon balls and +bullets had made in it, and could not repress his tears. "Positively," +said he, "the brandy has taken me in the throat; I'm not a man to-night. +Good evening, gentlemen." + +"Hold on! We'll go back with you." + +"Oh, my hotel is only a step." + +"It's all the same. But what's your idea in staying at a hotel when you +have two houses in town at your service?" + +"On the strength of that, I am going to move to-morrow." + +The next morning, about eleven o'clock, the happy Leon was at his toilet +when a telegram was brought to him. He opened it without noticing that +it was addressed to M. Fougas, and uttered a cry of joy. Here is the +laconic message which brought him so much pleasure: + + "To Colonel Fougas, Fontainebleau. + + "Just left the Emperor. You to be brevet brigadier until + something better turns up. If necessary, _corps + legislatif_ will amend law. + + "LEBLANC." + +Leon dressed himself, ran to the hotel of the blue sundial, and found +Fougas dead in his bed. + +It is said in Fontainebleau, that M. Nibor made an autopsy, and found +that serious disorders had been produced by desiccation. Some people are +nevertheless satisfied that Fougas committed suicide. It is certain that +Master Bonnivet received, by the penny post, a sort of a will, expressed +thus: + + "I leave my heart to my country, my memory to natural + affection, my example to the army, my hate to + perfidious Albion, fifty thousand francs to Gothon, and + two hundred thousand to the 23d of the line. And + forever _Vive l'Empereur!_ + + "FOUGAS." + +Resuscitated on the 17th of August, between three and four in the +afternoon, he died on the 17th of the following month, at what hour we +shall never know. His second life had lasted a little less than +thirty-one days. But it is simple justice to say that he made good use +of his time. He reposes in the spot which young Renault had bought for +him. His granddaughter Clementine left off her mourning about a year +since. She is beloved and happy, and Leon will have nothing to reproach +himself with if she does not have plenty of children. + +_Bourdonnel, August_, 1861. + + +FINIS. + + + + + +NOTES + +TO + +THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR. + + +NOTE 1, page 69.--_Black butterflies_, a French expression that we might +tastefully substitute for _blue devils_. + +NOTE 2, page 72.--_The 15th of August_ is the Emperor's birthday. + +NOTE 3, page 85.--_Centigrade_, of course. + +NOTE 4, page 101.--Fougas' surprise is explained by the well-known fact +that Napoleon was obliged to forbid the playing of _Partant pour la +Syrie_ in his armies, on account of the homesickness and consequent +desertion it occasioned. + +NOTE 5, page 118.--_Jeu de Paume_ (tennis-court), is the name given to +the meeting of the third-estate (_tiers-etat_) in 1789, from the +locality where it took place. + +NOTE 6, page 161.--The English used by the two young noblemen is M. +About's own. It is certainly such English as Frenchmen would be apt to +speak, and it is as fair to attribute that fact to M. About's fine sense +of the requirements of the occasion, as to lack of familiarity with our +language. + +NOTE 7, page 164.--It is not without interest to note that M. About used +the English word _gentlemen_. + +NOTE 8, page 166.--_War against tyrants! Never, never, never shall the +Briton reign in France!_ + +NOTE 9, page 214.--The original here contains a neat little conceit, +which cannot be translated, but which is too good to be lost. The French +for daughter-in-law is _belle fille_, literally "beautiful girl." To +Fougas' address "_Ma belle fille!_" Mme. Langevin replies: "_I am not +beautiful, and I am not a girl._" It suggests the similar retort +received by Faust from Marguerite, when he addressed her as _beautiful +young lady!_ + +NOTE 10, page 230.--The Translator has intentionally used both the +singular and the plural of the second person in Fougas' apostrophe to +Clementine, as it seemed to him naturally required by the variations of +the sentiment. + +NOTE 11, page 248.--The reader will bear in mind Marshal Leblanc's +allusion to condemned horses. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Man With The Broken Ear, by Edmond About + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN EAR *** + +***** This file should be named 20724.txt or 20724.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. L. 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