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diff --git a/32596.txt b/32596.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7b5b7b --- /dev/null +++ b/32596.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8444 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Revolt of the Angels, by Anatole France + +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 Revolt of the Angels + +Author: Anatole France + +Editor: Frederic Chapman + +Translator: Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson + +Release Date: May 30, 2010 [EBook #32596] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANATOLE FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in | + | this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of | + | this document. | + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +THE WORKS OF ANATOLE FRANCE +IN AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION +EDITED BY FREDERIC CHAPMAN + +THE REVOLT OF THE ANGELS + + +[Illustration] + +THE REVOLT +OF THE ANGELS + +BY ANATOLE FRANCE + +A TRANSLATION BY +MRS. WILFRID JACKSON + +[Illustration] + +LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD + +NEW YORK: DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY + +MCMXXIV + + +Copyright, 1914, +by +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY + +PRINTED IN U. S. A + + + + +THE REVOLT OF THE ANGELS + + + + +THE REVOLT OF THE ANGELS + + + +CHAPTER I + + CONTAINING IN A FEW LINES THE HISTORY OF A FRENCH FAMILY + FROM 1789 TO THE PRESENT DAY + + +Beneath the shadow of St. Sulpice the ancient mansion of the d'Esparvieu +family rears its austere three stories between a moss-grown fore-court +and a garden hemmed in, as the years have elapsed, by ever loftier and +more intrusive buildings, wherein, nevertheless, two tall chestnut trees +still lift their withered heads. + +Here from 1825 to 1857 dwelt the great man of the family, Alexandre +Bussart d'Esparvieu, Vice-President of the Council of State under the +Government of July, Member of the Academy of Moral and Political +Sciences, and author of an _Essay on the Civil and Religious +Institutions of Nations_, in three octavo volumes, a work unfortunately +left incomplete. + +This eminent theorist of a Liberal monarchy left as heir to his name his +fortune and his fame, Fulgence-Adolphe Bussart d'Esparvieu, senator +under the Second Empire, who added largely to his patrimony by buying +land over which the Avenue de l'Imperatice was destined ultimately to +pass, and who made a remarkable speech in favour of the temporal power +of the popes. + +Fulgence had three sons. The eldest, Marc-Alexandre, entering the army, +made a splendid career for himself: he was a good speaker. The second, +Gaetan, showing no particular aptitude for anything, lived mostly in the +country, where he hunted, bred horses, and devoted himself to music and +painting. The third son, Rene, destined from his childhood for the law, +resigned his deputyship to avoid complicity in the Ferry decrees against +the religious orders; and later, perceiving the revival under the +presidency of Monsieur Fallieres of the days of Decius and Diocletian, +put his knowledge and zeal at the service of the persecuted Church. + +From the Concordat of 1801 down to the closing years of the Second +Empire all the d'Esparvieus attended mass for the sake of example. +Though sceptics in their inmost hearts, they looked upon religion as an +instrument of government. + +Mark and Rene were the first of their race to show any sign of sincere +devotion. The General, when still a colonel, had dedicated his regiment +to the Sacred Heart, and he practised his faith with a fervour +remarkable even in a soldier, though we all know that piety, daughter of +Heaven, has marked out the hearts of the generals of the Third Republic +as her chosen dwelling-place on earth. + +Faith has its vicissitudes. Under the old order the masses were +believers, not so the aristocracy or the educated middle class. Under +the First Empire the army from top to bottom was entirely irreligious. +To-day the masses believe nothing. The middle classes wish to believe, +and succeed at times, as did Marc and Rene d'Esparvieu. Their brother +Gaetan, on the contrary, the country gentleman, failed to attain to +faith. He was an agnostic, a term commonly employed by the modish to +avoid the odious one of freethinker. And he openly declared himself an +agnostic, contrary to the admirable custom which deems it better to +withhold the avowal. + +In the century in which we live there are so many modes of belief and of +unbelief that future historians will have difficulty in finding their +way about. But are we any more successful in disentangling the condition +of religious beliefs in the time of Symmachus or of Ambrose? + +A fervent Christian, Rene d'Esparvieu was deeply attached to the liberal +ideas his ancestors had transmitted to him as a sacred heritage. +Compelled to oppose a Jacobin and atheistical Republic, he still called +himself Republican. And it was in the name of liberty that he demanded +the independence and sovereignty of the Church. + +During the long debates on the Separation and the quarrels over the +Inventories, the synods of the bishops and the assemblies of the +faithful were held in his house. While the most authoritatively +accredited leaders of the Catholic party: prelates, generals, senators, +deputies, journalists, were met together in the big green drawing-room, +and every soul present turned towards Rome with a tender submission or +enforced obedience; while Monsieur d'Esparvieu, his elbow on the marble +chimney-piece, opposed civil law to canon law, and protested eloquently +against the spoliation of the Church of France, two faces of other days, +immobile and speechless, looked down on the modern crowd; on the right +of the fire-place, painted by David, was Romain Bussart, a +working-farmer at Esparvieu in shirt-sleeves and drill trousers, with a +rough-and-ready air not untouched with cunning. He had good reason to +smile: the worthy man laid the foundation of the family fortunes when he +bought Church lands. On the left, painted by Gerard in full-dress +bedizened with orders, was the peasant's son, Baron Emile Bussart +d'Esparvieu, prefect under the Empire, Keeper of the Great Seal under +Charles X, who died in 1837, churchwarden of his parish, with couplets +from _La Pucelle_ on his lips. + +Rene d'Esparvieu married in 1888 Marie-Antoinette Coupelle, daughter of +Baron Coupelle, ironmaster at Blainville (Haute Loire). Madame Rene +d'Esparvieu had been president since 1903 of the Society of Christian +Mothers. These perfect spouses, having married off their eldest daughter +in 1908, had three children still at home--a girl and two boys. + +Leon, the younger, aged seven, had a room next to his mother and his +sister Berthe. Maurice, the elder, lived in a little pavilion comprising +two rooms at the bottom of the garden. The young man thus gained a +freedom which enabled him to endure family life. He was rather +good-looking, smart without too much pretence, and the faint smile which +merely raised one corner of his mouth did not lack charm. + +At twenty-five Maurice possessed the wisdom of Ecclesiastes. Doubting +whether a man hath any profit of all his labour which he taketh under +the sun he never put himself out about anything. From his earliest +childhood this young hopeful's sole concern with work had been +considering how he might best avoid it, and it was through his remaining +ignorant of the teaching of the _Ecole de Droit_ that he became a doctor +of law and a barrister at the Court of Appeal. + +He neither pleaded nor practised. He had no knowledge and no desire to +acquire any; wherein he conformed to his genius whose engaging fragility +he forbore to overload; his instinct fortunately telling him that it was +better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot. + +As Monsieur l'Abbe Patouille expressed it, Maurice had received from +Heaven the benefits of a Christian education. From his childhood piety +was shown to him in the example of his home, and when on leaving college +he was entered at the _Ecole de Droit_, he found the lore of the +doctors, the virtues of the confessors, and the constancy of the nursing +mothers of the Church assembled around the paternal hearth. Admitted to +social and political life at the time of the great persecution of the +Church of France, Maurice did not fail to attend every manifestation of +youthful Catholicism; he lent a hand with his parish barricades at the +time of the Inventories, and with his companions he unharnessed the +archbishop's horses when he was driven out from his palace. He showed on +all these occasions a modified zeal; one never saw him in the front +ranks of the heroic band exciting soldiers to a glorious disobedience or +flinging mud and curses at the agents of the law. + +He did his duty, nothing more; and if he distinguished himself on the +occasion of the great pilgrimage of 1911 among the stretcher-bearers at +Lourdes, we have reason to fear it was but to please Madame de la +Verdeliere, who admired men of muscle. Abbe Patouille, a friend of the +family and deeply versed in the knowledge of souls, knew that Maurice +had only moderate aspirations to martyrdom. He reproached him with his +lukewarmness, and pulled his ear, calling him a bad lot. Anyway, Maurice +remained a believer. + +Amid the distractions of youth his faith remained intact, since he left +it severely alone. He had never examined a single tenet. Nor had he +enquired a whit more closely into the ideas of morality current in the +grade of society to which he belonged. He took them just as they came. +Thus in every situation that arose he cut an eminently respectable +figure which he would have assuredly failed to do, had he been given to +meditating on the foundations of morality. He was irritable and +hot-tempered and possessed of a sense of honour which he was at great +pains to cultivate. He was neither vain nor ambitious. Like the majority +of Frenchmen, he disliked parting with his money. Women would never have +obtained anything from him had they not known the way to make him give. +He believed he despised them; the truth was he adored them. He indulged +his appetites so naturally that he never suspected that he had any. What +people did not know, himself least of all,--though the gleam that +occasionally shone in his fine, light-brown eyes might have furnished +the hint--was that he had a warm heart and was capable of friendship. +For the rest, he was, in the ordinary intercourse of life, no very +brilliant specimen. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + WHEREIN USEFUL INFORMATION WILL BE FOUND CONCERNING A + LIBRARY WHERE STRANGE THINGS WILL SHORTLY COME TO PASS + + +Desirous of embracing the whole circle of human knowledge, and anxious +to bequeath to the world a concrete symbol of his encyclopaedic genius +and a display in keeping with his pecuniary resources, Baron Alexandre +d'Esparvieu had formed a library of three hundred and sixty thousand +volumes, both printed and in manuscript, whereof the greater part +emanated from the Benedictines of Liguge. + +By a special clause in his will he enjoined his heirs to add to his +library, after his death, whatever they might deem worthy of note in +natural, moral, political, philosophical, and religious science. + +He had indicated the sums which might be drawn from his estate for the +fulfilment of this object, and charged his eldest son, Fulgence-Adolphe, +to proceed with these additions. Fulgence-Adolphe accomplished with +filial respect the wishes expressed by his illustrious father. + +After him, this huge library, which represented more than one child's +share of the estate, remained undivided between the Senator's three sons +and two daughters; and Rene d'Esparvieu, on whom devolved the house in +the Rue Garanciere, became the guardian of the valuable collection. His +two sisters, Madame Paulet de Saint-Fain and Madame Cuissart, repeatedly +demanded that such a large but unremunerative piece of property should +be turned into money. But Rene and Gaetan bought in the shares of their +two co-legatees, and the library was saved. Rene d'Esparvieu even busied +himself in adding to it, thus fulfilling the intentions of its founder. +But from year to year he lessened the number and importance of the +acquisitions, opining that the intellectual output in Europe was on the +wane. + +Nevertheless, Gaetan enriched it, out of his funds, with works published +both in France and abroad which he thought good, and he was not lacking +in judgment, though his brothers would never allow that he had a +particle. Thanks to this man of leisurely and inquiring mind, Baron +Alexandre's collection was kept practically up to date. Even at the +present day the d'Esparvieu library, in the departments of theology, +jurisprudence, and history is one of the finest private libraries in all +Europe. Here you may study physical science, or to put it better, +physical sciences in all their branches, and for that matter metaphysic +or metaphysics, that is to say, all that is connected with physics and +has no other name, so impossible is it to designate by a substantive +that which has no substance, and is but a dream and an illusion. Here +you may contemplate with admiration philosophers addressing themselves +to the solution, dissolution, and resolution of the Absolute, to the +determination of the Indeterminate and to the definition of the +Infinite. + +Amid this pile of books and booklets, both sacred and profane, you may +find everything down to the latest and most fashionable pragmatism. + +Other libraries there are, more richly abounding in bindings of +venerable antiquity and illustrious origin, whose smooth and soft-hued +texture render them delicious to the touch; bindings which the gilder's +art has enriched with gossamer, lace-work, foliage, flowers, emblematic +devices, and coats of arms; bindings that charm the studious eye with +their tender radiance. Other libraries perhaps harbour a greater array +of manuscripts illuminated with delicate and brilliant miniatures by +artists of Venice, Flanders, or Touraine. But in handsome, sound +editions of ancient and modern writers, both sacred and profane, the +d'Esparvieu library is second to none. Here one finds all that has come +down to us from antiquity; all the Fathers of the Church, the Apologists +and the Decretalists, all the Humanists of the Renaissance, all the +Encylopaedists, the whole world of philosophy and science. Therefore it +was that Cardinal Merlin, when he deigned to visit it, remarked: + +"There is no man whose brain is equal to containing all the knowledge +which is piled upon these shelves. Happily it doesn't matter." + +Monseigneur Cachepot, who worked there often when a curate in Paris, was +in the habit of saying: + +"I see here the stuff to make many a Thomas Aquinas and many an Arius, +if only the modern mind had not lost its ancient ardour for good and +evil." + +There was no gainsaying that the manuscripts formed the more valuable +portion of this immense collection. Noteworthy indeed was the +unpublished correspondence of Gassendi, of Father Mersenne, and of +Pascal, which threw a new light on the spirit of the seventeenth +century. Nor must we forget the Hebrew Bibles, the Talmuds, the +Rabbinical treatises, printed and in manuscript, the Aramaic and +Samaritan texts, on sheepskin and on tablets of sycamore; in fine, all +these antique and valuable copies collected in Egypt and in Syria by the +celebrated Moise de Dina, and acquired at a small cost by Alexandre +d'Esparvieu in 1836, when the learned Hebraist died of old age and +poverty in Paris. + +The Esparvienne library occupied the whole of the second floor of the +old house. The works thought to be of but mediocre interest, such as +books of Protestant exegesis of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, +the gift of Monsieur Gaetan, were relegated unbound to the limbo of the +upper regions. The catalogue, with its various supplements, ran into no +less than eighteen folio volumes. It was quite up to date, and the +library was in perfect order. Monsieur Julien Sariette, archivist and +palaeographer, who, being poor and retiring, used to make his living by +teaching, became, in 1895, tutor to young Maurice on the recommendation +of the Bishop of Agra, and with scarcely an interval found himself +curator of the Bibliotheque Esparvienne. Endowed with business-like +energy and dogged patience, Monsieur Sariette himself classified all the +members of this vast body. The system he invented and put into practice +was so complicated, the labels he put on the books were made up of so +many capital letters and small letters, both Latin and Greek, so many +Arabic and Roman numerals, asterisks, double asterisks, triple +asterisks, and those signs which in arithmetic express powers and roots, +that the mere study of it would have involved more time and labour than +would have been required for the complete mastery of algebra, and as no +one could be found who would give the hours, that might be more +profitably employed in discovering the law of numbers, to the solving +of these cryptic symbols, Monsieur Sariette remained the only one +capable of finding his way among the intricacies of his system, and +without his help it had become an utter impossibility to discover, among +the three hundred and sixty thousand volumes confided to his care, the +particular volume one happened to require. Such was the result of his +labours. Far from complaining about it, he experienced on the contrary a +lively satisfaction. + +Monsieur Sariette loved his library. He loved it with a jealous love. He +was there every day at seven o'clock in the morning busy cataloguing at +a huge mahogany desk. The slips in his handwriting filled an enormous +case standing by his side surmounted by a plaster bust of Alexandre +d'Esparvieu. Alexandre wore his hair brushed straight back, and had a +sublime look on his face. Like Chateaubriand, he affected little +feathery side whiskers. His lips were pursed, his bosom bare. Punctually +at midday Monsieur Sariette used to sally forth to lunch at a _cremerie_ +in the narrow gloomy Rue des Canettes. It was known as the _Cremerie des +Quatre Eveques_, and had once been the haunt of Baudelaire, Theodore de +Banville, Charles Asselineau, and a certain grandee of Spain who had +translated the "Mysteries of Paris" into the language of the +_conquistadores_. And the ducks that paddled so nicely on the old stone +sign which gave its name to the street used to recognize Monsieur +Sariette. At a quarter to one, to the very minute, he went back to his +library, where he remained until seven o'clock. He then again betook +himself to the _Quatre Eveques_, and sat down to his frugal dinner, with +its crowning glory of stewed prunes. Every evening, after dinner, his +crony, Monsieur Guinardon, universally known as Pere Guinardon, a +scene-painter and picture-restorer, who used to do work for churches, +would come from his garret in the Rue Princesse to have his coffee and +liqueur at the _Quatre Eveques_, and the two friends would play their +game of dominoes. + +Old Guinardon, who was like some rugged old tree still full of sap, was +older than he could bring himself to believe. He had known Chenavard. +His chastity was positively ferocious, and he was for ever denouncing +the impurities of neo-paganism in language of alarming obscenity. He +loved talking. Monsieur Sariette was a ready listener. Old Guinardon's +favourite subject was the Chapelle des Anges in St. Sulpice, in which +the paintings were peeling off the walls, and which he was one day to +restore; when, that is, it should please God, for, since the Separation, +the churches belonged solely to God, and no one would undertake the +responsibility of even the most urgent repairs. But old Guinardon +demanded no salary. + +"Michael is my patron saint," he said. "And I have a special devotion +for the Holy Angels." + +After they had had their game of dominoes, Monsieur Sariette, very thin +and small, and old Guinardon, sturdy as an oak, hirsute as a lion, and +tall as a Saint Christopher, went off chatting away side by side across +the Place Saint Sulpice, heedless of whether the night were fine or +stormy. Monsieur Sariette always went straight home, much to the regret +of the painter, who was a gossip and a nightbird. + +The following day, as the clock struck seven, Monsieur Sariette would +take up his place in the library, and resume his cataloguing. As he sat +at his desk, however, he would dart a Medusa-like look at anyone who +entered, fearing lest he should prove to be a book-borrower. It was not +merely the magistrates, politicians, and prelates whom he would have +liked to turn to stone when they came to ask for the loan of a book with +an air of authority bred of their familiarity with the master of the +house. He would have done as much to Monsieur Gaetan, the library's +benefactor, when he wanted some gay or scandalous old volume wherewith +to beguile a wet day in the country. He would have meted out similar +treatment to Madame Rene d'Esparvieu, when she came to look for a book +to read to her sick poor in hospital, and even to Monsieur Rene +d'Esparvieu himself, who generally contented himself with the Civil Code +and a volume of Dalloz. The borrowing of the smallest book seemed like +dragging his heart out. To refuse a volume even to such as had the most +incontestable right to it, Monsieur Sariette would invent countless +far-fetched or clumsy fibs, and did not even shrink from slandering +himself as curator or from casting doubts on his own vigilance by saying +that such and such a book was mislaid or lost, when a moment ago he had +been gloating over that very volume or pressing it to his bosom. And +when ultimately forced to part with a volume he would take it back a +score of times from the borrower before he finally relinquished it. + +He was always in agony lest one of the objects confided to his care +should escape him. As the guardian of three hundred and sixty thousand +volumes, he had three hundred and sixty thousand reasons for alarm. +Sometimes he woke at night bathed in sweat, and uttering a cry of fear, +because he had dreamed he had seen a gap on one of the shelves of his +bookcases. It seemed to him a monstrous, unheard-of, and most grievous +thing that a volume should leave its habitat. This noble rapacity +exasperated Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu, who, failing to understand the +good qualities of his paragon of a librarian, called him an old maniac. +Monsieur Sariette knew nought of this injustice, but he would have +braved the cruellest misfortune and endured opprobrium and insult to +safeguard the integrity of his trust. Thanks to his assiduity, his +vigilance and zeal, or, in a word, to his love, the Esparvienne library +had not lost so much as a single leaflet under his supervision during +the sixteen years which had now rolled by, this ninth of September, +1912. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + WHEREIN THE MYSTERY BEGINS + + +At seven o'clock on the evening of that day, having as usual replaced +all the books which had been taken from their shelves, and having +assured himself that he was leaving everything in good order, he quitted +the library, double-locking the door after him. According to his usual +habit, he dined at the _Cremerie des Quatre Eveques_, read his +newspaper, _La Croix_, and at ten o'clock went home to his little house +in the Rue du Regard. The good man had no trouble and no presentiment of +evil; his sleep was peaceful. The next morning at seven o'clock to the +minute, he entered the little room leading to the library, and, +according to his daily habit, doffed his grand frock-coat, and taking +down an old one which hung in a cupboard over his washstand, put it on. +Then he went in to his workroom, where for sixteen years he had been +cataloguing six days out of the seven, under the lofty gaze of Alexandre +d'Esparvieu. Preparing to make a round of the various rooms, he entered +the first and largest, which contained works on theology and religion +in huge cupboards whose cornices were adorned with bronze-coloured busts +of poets and orators of ancient days. + +Two enormous globes representing the earth and the heavens filled the +window-embrasures. But at his first step Monsieur Sariette stopped dead, +stupefied, powerless alike to doubt or to credit what his eyes beheld. +On the blue cloth cover of the writing-table books lay scattered about +pell-mell, some lying flat, some standing upright. A number of quartos +were heaped up in a tottering pile. Two Greek lexicons, one inside the +other, formed a single being more monstrous in shape than the human +couples of the divine Plato. A gilt-edged folio was all a-gape, showing +three of its leaves disgracefully dog's-eared. + +Having, after an interval of some moments, recovered from his profound +amazement, the librarian went up to the table and recognised in the +confused mass his most valuable Hebrew, French, and Latin Bibles, a +unique Talmud, Rabbinical treatises printed and in manuscript, Aramaic +and Samaritan texts and scrolls from the synagogues--in fine, the most +precious relics of Israel all lying in a disordered heap, gaping and +crumpled. + +Monsieur Sariette found himself confronted with an inexplicable +phenomenon; nevertheless he sought to account for it. How eagerly he +would have welcomed the idea that Monsieur Gaetan, who, being a +thoroughly unprincipled man, presumed on the right gained him by his +fatal liberality towards the library to rummage there unhindered during +his sojourns in Paris, had been the author of this terrible disorder. +But Monsieur Gaetan was away travelling in Italy. After pondering for +some minutes Monsieur Sariette's next supposition was that Monsieur Rene +d'Esparvieu had entered the library late in the evening with the keys of +his manservant Hippolyte, who, for the past twenty-five years, had +looked after the second floor and the attics. Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu, +however, never worked at night, and did not read Hebrew. Perhaps, +thought Monsieur Sariette, perhaps he had brought or allowed to be +brought to this room some priest, or Jerusalem monk, on his way through +Paris; some Oriental _savant_ given to scriptural exegesis. Monsieur +Sariette next wondered whether the Abbe Patouille, who had an enquiring +mind, and also a habit of dog's-earing his books, had, peradventure, +flung himself on these talmudic and biblical texts, fired with sudden +zeal to lay bare the soul of Shem. He even asked himself for a moment +whether Hippolyte, the old manservant, who had swept and dusted the +library for a quarter of a century, and had been slowly poisoned by the +dust of accumulated knowledge, had allowed his curiosity to get the +better of him, and had been there during the night, ruining his eyesight +and his reason, and losing his soul poring by moonlight over these +undecipherable symbols. Monsieur Sariette even went so far as to imagine +that young Maurice, on leaving his club or some nationalist meeting, +might have torn these Jewish volumes from their shelves, out of hatred +for old Jacob and his modern posterity; for this young man of family was +a declared anti-semite, and only consorted with those Jews who were as +anti-semitic as himself. It was giving a very free rein to his +imagination, but Monsieur Sariette's brain could not rest, and went +wandering about among speculations of the wildest extravagance. + +Impatient to know the truth, the zealous guardian of the library called +the manservant. + +Hippolyte knew nothing. The porter at the lodge could not furnish any +clue. None of the domestics had heard a sound. Monsieur Sariette went +down to the study of Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu, who received him in +nightcap and dressing-gown, listened to his story with the air of a +serious man bored with idle chatter, and dismissed him with words which +conveyed a cruel implication of pity. + +"Do not worry, my good Monsieur Sariette; be sure that the books were +lying where you left them last night." + +Monsieur Sariette reiterated his enquiries a score of times, discovered +nothing, and suffered such anxiety that sleep entirely forsook him. +When, on the following day at seven o'clock he entered the room with +the busts and globes, and saw that all was in order, he heaved a sigh of +relief. Then suddenly his heart beat fit to burst. He had just seen +lying flat on the mantelpiece a paper-bound volume, a modern work, the +boxwood paper-knife which had served to cut its pages still thrust +between the leaves. It was a dissertation on the two parallel versions +of Genesis, a work which Monsieur Sariette had relegated to the attic, +and which had never left it up to now, no one in Monsieur d'Esparvieu's +circle having had the curiosity to differentiate between the parts for +which the polytheistic and monotheistic contributors were respectively +responsible in the formation of the first of the sacred books. This book +bore the label R > 3214-VIII/2. And this painful truth was suddenly +borne in upon the mind of Monsieur Sariette: to wit, that the most +scientific system of numbering will not help to find a book if the book +is no longer in its place. Every day of the ensuing month found the +table littered with books. Greek and Latin lay cheek by jowl with +Hebrew. Monsieur Sariette asked himself whether these nocturnal +flittings were the work of evil-doers who entered by the skylights to +steal valuable and precious volumes. But he found no traces of burglary, +and, notwithstanding the most minute search, failed to discover that +anything had disappeared. Terrible anxiety took possession of his mind, +and he fell to wondering whether it was possible that some monkey in the +neighbourhood came down the chimney and acted the part of a person +engaged in study. Deriving his knowledge of the habits of these animals +in the main from the paintings of Watteau and Chardin, he took it that, +in the art of imitating gestures or assuming characters they resembled +Harlequin, Scaramouch, Zerlin, and the Doctors of the Italian comedy; he +imagined them handling a palette and brushes, pounding drugs in a +mortar, or turning over the leaves of an old treatise on alchemy beside +an athanor. And so it was that, when, on one unhappy morning, he saw a +huge blot of ink on one of the leaves of the third volume of the +polyglot Bible bound in blue morocco and adorned with the arms of the +Comte de Mirabeau, he had no doubt that a monkey was the author of the +evil deed. The monkey had been pretending to take notes and had upset +the inkpot. It must be a monkey belonging to a learned professor. + +Imbued with this idea, Monsieur Sariette carefully studied the +topography of the district, so as to draw a cordon round the group of +houses amid which the d'Esparvieu house stood. Then he visited the four +surrounding streets, asking at every door if there was a monkey in the +house. He interrogated porters and their wives, washer-women, servants, +a cobbler, a greengrocer, a glazier, clerks in bookshops, a priest, a +bookbinder, two guardians of the peace, children, thus testing the +diversity of character and variety of temper in one and the same people; +for the replies he received were quite dissimilar in nature; some were +rough, some were gentle; there were the coarse and the polished, the +simple and the ironical, the prolix and the abrupt, the brief and even +the silent. But of the animal he sought he had had neither sight nor +sound, when under the archway of an old house in the Rue Servandoni, a +small freckled, red-haired girl who looked after the door, made reply: + +"There is Monsieur Ordonneau's monkey; would you care to see it?" + +And without another word she conducted the old man to a stable at the +other end of the yard. There on some rank straw and old bits of cloth, a +young macaco with a chain round his middle sat and shivered. He was no +taller than a five-year-old child. His livid face, his wrinkled brow, +his thin lips were all expressive of mortal sadness. He fixed on the +visitor the still lively gaze of his yellow eyes. Then with his small +dry hand he seized a carrot, put it to his mouth, and forthwith flung it +away. Having looked at the newcomers for a moment, the exile turned away +his head, as if he expected nothing further of mankind or of life. +Sitting huddled up, one knee in his hand, he made no further movement, +but at times a dry cough shook his breast. + +"It's Edgar," said the small girl. "He is for sale, you know." + +But the old book-lover, who had come armed with anger and resentment, +thinking to find a cynical enemy, a monster of malice, an +antibibliophile, stopped short, surprised, saddened, and overcome, +before this little being devoid of strength and joy and hope. + +Recognising his mistake, troubled by the almost human face which sorrow +and suffering made more human still, he murmured "Forgive me" and bowed +his head. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + WHICH IN ITS FORCEFUL BREVITY PROJECTS US TO THE LIMITS OF + THE ACTUAL WORLD + + +Two months elapsed; the domestic upheaval did not subside, and Monsieur +Sariette's thoughts turned to the Freemasons. The papers he read were +full of their crimes. Abbe Patouille deemed them capable of the darkest +deeds, and believed them to be in league with the Jews and meditating +the total overthrow of Christendom. + +Having now arrived at the acme of power, they wielded a dominating +influence in all the principal departments of State, they ruled the +Chambers, there were five of them in the Ministry, and they filled the +Elysee. Having some time since assassinated a President of the Republic +because he was a patriot, they were getting rid of the accomplices and +witnesses of their execrable crime. Few days passed without Paris being +terror-stricken at some mysterious murder hatched in their Lodges. These +were facts concerning which no doubt was possible. By what means did +they gain access to the library? Monsieur Sariette could not imagine. +What task had they come to fulfil? Why did they attack sacred antiquity +and the origins of the Church? What impious designs were they forming? A +heavy shadow hung over these terrible undertakings. The Catholic +archivist feeling himself under the eye of the sons of Hiram was +terrified and fell ill. + +Scarcely had he recovered, when he resolved to pass the night in the +very spot where these terrible mysteries were enacted, and to take the +subtle and dangerous visitors by surprise. It was an enterprise that +demanded all his slender courage. Being a man of delicate physique and +of nervous temperament, Monsieur Sariette was naturally inclined to be +fearful. On the 8th of January at nine o'clock in the evening, while the +city lay asleep under a whirling snowstorm, he built up a good fire in +the room containing the busts of the ancient poets and philosophers, and +ensconced himself in an arm-chair at the chimney corner, a rug over his +knees. On a small stand within reach of his hand were a lamp, a bowl of +black coffee, and a revolver borrowed from the youthful Maurice. He +tried to read his paper, _La Croix_, but the letters danced beneath his +eyes. So he stared hard in front of him, saw nothing but the shadows, +heard nothing but the wind, and fell asleep. + +When he awoke the fire was out, the lamp was extinguished, leaving an +acrid smell behind. But all around, the darkness was filled with milky +brightness and phosphorescent lights. He thought he saw something +flutter on the table. Stricken to the marrow with cold and terror, but +upheld by a resolve stronger than any fear, he rose, approached the +table, and passed his hands over the cloth. He saw nothing; even the +lights faded, but under his fingers he felt a folio wide open; he tried +to close it, the book resisted, jumped up and hit the imprudent +librarian three blows on the head. + +Monsieur Sariette fell down unconscious.... + +Since then things had gone from bad to worse. Books left their allotted +shelves in greater profusion than ever, and sometimes it was impossible +to replace them; they disappeared. Monsieur Sariette discovered fresh +losses daily. The Bollandists were now an imperfect set, thirty volumes +of exegesis were missing. He himself had become unrecognisable. His face +had shrunk to the size of one's fist and grown yellow as a lemon, his +neck was elongated out of all proportion, his shoulders drooped, the +clothes he wore hung on him as on a peg. He ate nothing, and at the +_Cremerie des Quatre Eveques_ he would sit with dull eyes and bowed +head, staring fixedly and vacantly at the saucer where, in a muddy +juice, floated his stewed prunes. He did not hear old Guinardon relate +how he had at last begun to restore the Delacroix paintings at St. +Sulpice. + +Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu, when he heard the unhappy curator's alarming +reports, used to answer drily: + +"These books have been mislaid, they are not lost; look carefully, +Monsieur Sariette, look carefully and you will find them." + +And he murmured behind the old man's back: + +"Poor old Sariette is in a bad way." + +"I think," replied Abbe Patouille, "that his brain is going." + + + + +CHAPTER V + + WHEREIN EVERYTHING SEEMS STRANGE BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS + LOGICAL + + +The Chapel of the Holy Angels, which lies on the right hand as you enter +the Church of St. Sulpice, was hidden behind a scaffolding of planks. +Abbe Patouille, Monsieur Gaetan, Monsieur Maurice, his nephew, and +Monsieur Sariette, entered in single file through the low door cut in +the wooden hoarding, and found old Guinardon on the top of his ladder +standing in front of the Heliodorus. The old artist, surrounded by all +sorts of tools and materials, was putting a white paste in the crack +which cut in two the High Priest Onias. Zephyrine, Paul Baudry's +favourite model, Zephyrine, who had lent her golden hair and polished +shoulders to so many Magdalens, Marguerites, sylphs, and mermaids, and +who, it is said, was beloved of the Emperor Napoleon III, was standing +at the foot of the ladder with tangled locks, cadaverous cheeks, and dim +eyes, older than old Guinardon, whose life she had shared for more than +half a century. She had brought the painter's lunch in a basket. + +Although the slanting rays fell grey and cold through the leaded and +iron-barred window, Delacroix's colouring shone resplendent, and the +roses on the cheeks of men and angels dimmed with their glorious beauty +the rubicund countenance of old Guinardon, which stood out in relief +against one of the temple's columns. These frescoes of the Chapel of the +Holy Angels, though derided and insulted when they first appeared, have +now become part of the classic tradition, and are united in immortality +with the masterpieces of Rubens and Tintoretto. + +Old Guinardon, bearded and long-haired, looked like Father Time effacing +the works of man's genius. Gaetan, in alarm, called out to him: + +"Carefully, Monsieur Guinardon, carefully. Do not scrape too much." + +The painter reassured him. + +"Fear nothing, Monsieur Gaetan. I do not paint in that style. My art is +a higher one. I work after the manner of Cimabue, Giotto, and Beato +Angelico, not in the style of Delacroix. This surface here is too +heavily charged with contrast and opposition to give a really sacred +effect. It is true that Chenavard said that Christianity loves the +picturesque, but Chenavard was a rascal with neither faith nor +principle--an infidel.... Look, Monsieur d'Esparvieu, I fill up the +crevice, I relay the scales of paint which are peeling. That is all.... +The damage, due to the sinking of the wall, or more probably to a +seismic shock, is confined to a very small space. This painting of oil +and wax applied on a very dry foundation is far more solid than one +might think. + +"I saw Delacroix engaged on this work. Impassioned but anxious, he +modelled feverishly, scraped out, re-painted unceasingly; his mighty +hand made childish blunders, but the thing is done with the mastery of a +genius and the inexperience of a schoolboy. It is a marvel how it +holds." + +The good man was silent, and went on filling in the crevice. + +"How classic and traditional the composition is," said Gaetan. "Time was +when one could recognise nothing but its amazing novelty; now one can +see in it a multitude of old Italian formulas." + +"I may allow myself the luxury of being just, I possess the +qualifications," said the old man from the top of his lofty ladder. +"Delacroix lived in a blasphemous and godless age. A painter of the +decadence, he was not without pride nor grandeur. He was greater than +his times. But he lacked faith, single-heartedness, and purity. To be +able to see and paint angels he needed that virtue of angels and +primitives, that supreme virtue which, with God's help, I do my best to +practise, chastity." + +"Hold your tongue, Michel; you are as big a brute as any of them." + +Thus Zephyrine, devoured with jealousy because that very morning on the +stairs she had seen her lover kiss the bread-woman's daughter, to wit +the youthful Octavie, who was as squalid and radiant as one of +Rembrandt's Brides. She had loved Michel madly in the happy days long +since past, and love had never died out in Zephyrine's heart. + +Old Guinardon received the flattering insult with a smile that he +dissembled, and raised his eyes to the ceiling, where the archangel +Michael, terrible in azure cuirass and gilt helmet, was springing +heavenwards in all the radiance of his glory. + +Meanwhile Abbe Patouille, blinking, and shielding his eyes with his hat +against the glaring light from the window, began to examine the pictures +one after another: Heliodorus being scourged by the angels, St. Michael +vanquishing the Demons, and the combat of Jacob and the Angel. + +"All this is exceedingly fine," he murmured at last, "but why has the +artist only represented wrathful angels on these walls? Look where I +will in this chapel, I see but heralds of celestial anger, ministers of +divine vengeance. God wishes to be feared; He wishes also to be loved. I +would fain perceive on these walls messengers of peace and of clemency. +I should like to see the Seraphim who purified the lips of the prophet, +St. Raphael who gave back his sight to old Tobias, Gabriel who announced +the Mystery of the Incarnation to Mary, the Angel who delivered St. +Peter from his chains, the Cherubim who bore the dead St. Catherine to +the top of Sinai. Above all, I should like to be able to contemplate +those heavenly guardians which God gives to every man baptized in His +name. We each have one who follows all our steps, who comforts us and +upholds us. It would be pleasant indeed to admire these enchanting +spirits, these beautiful faces." + +"Ah, Abbe! it depends on the point of view," answered Gaetan. "Delacroix +was no sentimentalist. Old Ingres was not very far wrong in saying that +this great man's work reeks of fire and brimstone. Look at the sombre, +splendid beauty of those angels, look at those androgynes so proud and +fierce, at those pitiless youths who lift avenging rods against +Heliodorus, note this mysterious wrestler touching the patriarch on the +hip...." + +"Hush," said Abbe Patouille. "According to the Bible he is no angel like +the others; if he be an angel, he is the Angel of Creation, the Eternal +Son of God. I am surprised that the Venerable Cure of St. Sulpice, who +entrusted the decoration of this chapel to Monsieur Eugene Delacroix, +did not tell him that the patriarch's symbolic struggle with Him who was +nameless took place in profound darkness, and that the subject is quite +out of place here, since it prefigures the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. +The best artists go astray when they fail to obtain their ideas of +Christian iconography from a qualified ecclesiastic. The institutions of +Christian art form the subject of numerous works with which you are +doubtless acquainted, Monsieur Sariette." + +Monsieur Sariette was gazing vacantly about him. It was the third +morning after his adventurous night in the library. Being, however, thus +called upon by the venerable ecclesiastic, he pulled himself together +and replied: + +"On this subject we may with advantage consult Molanus, _De Historia +Sacrarum Imaginum et Picturarum_, in the edition given us by Noel +Paquot, dated Louvain, 1771; Cardinal Frederico Borromeo, _De Pictura +Sacra_, and the Iconography of Didron; but this last work must be read +with caution." + +Having thus spoken, Monsieur Sariette relapsed into silence. He was +pondering on his devastated library. + +"On the other hand," continued Abbe Patouille, "since an example of the +holy anger of the angels was necessary in this chapel, the painter is to +be commended for having depicted for us in imitation of Raphael the +heavenly messengers who chastised Heliodorus. Ordered by Seleucus, King +of Syria, to carry off the treasures contained in the Temple, Heliodorus +was stricken by an angel in a cuirass of gold mounted on a magnificently +caparisoned steed. Two other angels smote him with rods. He fell to +earth, as Monsieur Delacroix shows us here, and was swallowed up in +darkness. It is right and salutary that this adventure should be cited +as an example to the Republican Commissioners of Police and to the +sacrilegious agents of the law. There will always be Heliodoruses, but, +let it be known, every time they lay their hands on the property of the +Church, which is the property of the poor, they shall be chastised with +rods and blinded by the angels." + +"I should like this painting, or, better still, Raphael's sublimer +conception of the same subject, to be engraved in little pictures fully +coloured, and distributed as rewards in all the schools." + +"Uncle," said young Maurice, with a yawn, "I think these things are +simply ghastly. I prefer Matisse and Metzinger." + +These words fell unheeded, and old Guinardon from his ladder held forth: + +"Only the primitives caught a glimpse of Heaven. Beauty is only to be +found between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The antique, the +impure antique, which regained its pernicious influence over the minds +of the sixteenth century, inspired poets and painters with criminal +notions and immodest conceptions, with horrid impurities, filth. All the +artists of the Renaissance were swine, including Michael-Angelo." + +Then, perceiving that Gaetan was on the point of departure, Pere +Guinardon assumed an air of bonhomie, and said to him in a confidential +tone: + +"Monsieur Gaetan, if you're not afraid of climbing up my five flights, +come and have a look at my den. I've got two or three little canvases I +wouldn't mind parting with, and they might interest you. All good, +honest, straightforward stuff. I'll show you, among other things, a +tasty, spicy little Baudouin that would make your mouth water." + +At this speech Gaetan made off. As he descended the church steps and +turned down the Rue Princesse, he found himself accompanied by old +Sariette, and fell to unburdening himself to him, as he would have done +to any human creature, or indeed to a tree, a lamp-post, a dog, or his +own shadow, of the indignation with which the aesthetic theories of the +old painter inspired him. + +"Old Guinardon overdoes it with his Christian art and his Primitives! +Whatever the artist conceives of Heaven is borrowed from earth; God, the +Virgin, the Angels, men and women, saints, the light, the clouds. When +he was designing figures for the chapel windows at Dreux, old Ingres +drew from life a pure, fine study of a woman, which may be seen, among +many others, in the Musee Bonnat at Bayonne. Old Ingres had written at +the bottom of the page in case he should forget: 'Mademoiselle Cecile, +admirable legs and thighs'--and so as to make Mademoiselle Cecile into a +saint in Paradise, he gave her a robe, a cloak, a veil, inflicting thus +a shameful decline in her estate, for the tissues of Lyons and Genoa are +worthless compared with the youthful living tissue, rosy with pure +blood; the most beautiful draperies are despicable compared with the +lines of a beautiful body. In fact, clothing for flesh that is desirable +and ripe for wedlock is an unmerited shame, and the worst of +humiliations"; and Gaetan, walking carelessly in the gutter of the Rue +Garanciere, continued: "Old Guinardon is a pestilential idiot. He +blasphemes Antiquity, sacred Antiquity, the age when the gods were kind. +He exalts an epoch when the painter and the sculptor had all their +lessons to learn over again. In point of fact, Christianity has run +contrary to art in so much as it has not favoured the study of the nude. +Art is the representation of nature, and nature is pre-eminently the +human body; it is the nude." + +"Pardon, pardon," purred old Sariette. "There is such a thing as +spiritual, or, as one might term it, inward beauty, which, since the +days of Fra Angelico down to those of Hippolyte Flandrin, Christian art +has--" + +But Gaetan, never hearing a word of all this, went on hurling his +impetuous observations at the stones of the old street and the +snow-laden clouds overhead: + +"The Primitives cannot be judged as a whole, for they are utterly unlike +each other. This old madman confounds them all together. Cimabue is a +corrupt Byzantine, Giotto gives hints of powerful genius, but his +modelling is bad, and, like children, he gives all his characters the +same face. The early Italians have grace and joy, because they are +Italians. The Venetians have an instinct for fine colour. But when all +is said and done these exquisite craftsmen enamel and gild rather than +paint. There is far too much softness about the heart and the colouring +of your saintly Angelico for me. As for the Flemish school, that's quite +another pair of shoes. They can use their hands, and in glory of +workmanship they are on a level with the Chinese lacquer-workers. The +technique of the brothers Van Eyck is a marvel, but I cannot discover in +their Adoration of the Lamb the charm and mystery that some have +vaunted. Everything in it is treated with a pitiless perfection; it is +vulgar in feeling and cruelly ugly. Memling may touch one perhaps; but +he creates nothing but sick wretches and cripples; under the heavy, +rich, and ungraceful robing of his virgins and saints one divines some +very lamentable anatomy. I did not wait for Rogier van der Wyden to call +himself Roger de la Pasture and turn Frenchman in order to prefer him to +Memling. This Rogier or Roger is less of a ninny; but then he is more +lugubrious, and the rigidity of his lines bears eloquent testimony to +his poverty-stricken figures. It is a strange perversion to take +pleasure in these carnivalesque figures when one can have the paintings +of Leonardo, Titian, Correggio, Velasquez, Rubens, Rembrandt, Poussin, +or Prud'hon. Really it is a perverted instinct." + +Meanwhile the Abbe Patouille and Maurice d'Esparvieu were strolling +leisurely along in the wake of the esthete and the librarian. As a +general rule the Abbe Patouille was little inclined to talk theology +with laymen, or, for that matter, with clerics either. Carried away, +however, by the attractiveness of the subject, he was telling the +youthful Maurice all about the sacred mission of those guardian angels +which Monsieur Delacroix had so inopportunely excluded from his picture. +And in order to give more adequate expression to his thoughts on such +lofty themes, the Abbe Patouille borrowed whole phrases and sentences +from Bossuet. He had got them up by heart to put in his sermons, for he +adhered strongly to tradition. + +"Yes, my son," he was saying, "God has appointed tutelary spirits to be +near us. They come to us laden with His gifts. They return laden with +our prayers. Such is their task. Not an hour, not a moment passes but +they are at our side, ready to help us, ever fervent and unwearying +guardians, watchmen that never slumber." + +"Quite so, Abbe," murmured Maurice, who was wondering by what cunning +artifice he could get on the soft side of his mother and persuade her to +give him some money of which he was urgently in need. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + WHEREIN PERE SARIETTE DISCOVERS HIS MISSING TREASURES + + +Next morning Monsieur Sariette entered Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu's study +without knocking. He raised his arms to the heavens, his few hairs were +standing straight up on his head. His eyes were big with terror. In +husky tones he stammered out the dreadful news. A very old manuscript of +Flavius Josephus; sixty volumes of all sizes; a priceless jewel, namely, +a _Lucretius_ adorned with the arms of Philippe de Vendome, Grand Prior +of France, with notes in Voltaire's own hand; a manuscript of Richard +Simon, and a set of Gassendi's correspondence with Gabriel Naude, +comprising two hundred and thirty-eight unpublished letters, had +disappeared. This time the owner of the library was alarmed. + +He mounted in haste to the abode of the philosophers and the globes, and +there with his own eyes confirmed the magnitude of the disaster. + +There were yawning gaps on many a shelf. He searched here and there, +opened cupboards, dragged out brooms, dusters, and fire-extinguishers, +rattled the shovel in the coke fire, shook out Monsieur Sariette's best +frock-coat that was hanging in the cloak-room, and then stood and gazed +disconsolately at the empty places left by the Gassendi portfolios. + +For the past half-century the whole learned world had been loudly +clamouring for the publication of this correspondence. Monsieur Rene +d'Esparvieu had not responded to the universal desire, unwilling either +to assume so heavy a task, or to resign it to others. Having found much +boldness of thought in these letters, and many passages of more +libertine tendency than the piety of the twentieth century could endure, +he preferred that they should remain unpublished; but he felt himself +responsible for their safe-keeping, not only to his country but to the +whole civilized world. + +"How can you have allowed yourself to be robbed of such a treasure?" he +asked severely of Monsieur Sariette. + +"How can I have allowed myself to be robbed of such a treasure?" +repeated the unhappy librarian. "Monsieur, if you opened my breast, you +would find that question engraved upon my heart." + +Unmoved by this powerful utterance, Monsieur d'Esparvieu continued with +pent-up fury: + +"And you have discovered no single sign that would put you on the track +of the thief, Monsieur Sariette? You have no suspicion, not the +faintest idea, of the way these things have come to pass? You have seen +nothing, heard nothing, noticed nothing, learnt nothing? You must grant +this is unbelievable. Think, Monsieur Sariette, think of the possible +consequences of this unheard-of theft, committed under your eyes. A +document of inestimable value in the history of the human mind +disappears. Who has stolen it? Why has it been stolen? Who will gain by +it? Those who have got possession of it doubtless know that they will be +unable to dispose of it in France. They will go and sell it in America +or Germany. Germany is greedy for such literary monuments. Should the +correspondence of Gassendi with Gabriel Naude go over to Berlin, if it +is published there by German savants, what a disaster, nay, what a +scandal! Monsieur Sariette, have you not thought of that?..." + +Beneath the stroke of an accusation all the more cruel in that he +brought it against himself, Monsieur Sariette stood stupefied, and was +silent. And Monsieur d'Esparvieu continued to overwhelm him with bitter +reproaches. + +"And you make no effort. You devise nothing to find these inestimable +treasures. Make enquiries, bestir yourself, Monsieur Sariette; use your +wits. It is well worth while." + +And Monsieur d'Esparvieu went out, throwing an icy glance at his +librarian. + +Monsieur Sariette sought the lost books and manuscripts in every spot +where he had already sought them a hundred times, and where they could +not possibly be. He even looked in the coke-box and under the leather +seat of his arm-chair. When midday struck he mechanically went +downstairs. At the foot of the stairs he met his old pupil Maurice, with +whom he exchanged a bow. But he only saw men and things as through a +mist. + +The broken-hearted curator had already reached the hall when Maurice +called him back. + +"Monsieur Sariette, while I think of it, do have the books removed that +are choking up my garden-house." + +"What books, Maurice?" + +"I could not tell you, Monsieur Sariette, but there are some in Hebrew, +all worm-eaten, with a whole heap of old papers. They are in my way. You +can't turn round in the passage." + +"Who took them there?" + +"I'm bothered if I know." + +And the young man rushed off to the dining-room, the luncheon gong +having sounded quite a minute ago. + +Monsieur Sariette tore away to the summer-house. Maurice had spoken the +truth. About a hundred volumes were there, on tables, on chairs, even on +the floor. When he saw them he was divided betwixt joy and fear, filled +with amazement and anxiety. Happy in the finding of his lost treasure, +dreading to lose it again, and completely overwhelmed with astonishment, +the man of books alternately babbled like an infant and uttered the +hoarse cries of a maniac. He recognised his Hebrew Bibles, his ancient +Talmuds, his very old manuscript of Flavius Josephus, his portfolios of +Gassendi's letters to Gabriel Naude, and his richest jewel of all, to +wit, _Lucretius_ adorned with the arms of the Grand Prior of France, and +with notes in Voltaire's own hand. He laughed, he cried, he kissed the +morocco, the calf, the parchment, and vellum, even the wooden boards +studded with nails. + +As fast as Hippolyte, the manservant, returned with an armful to the +library, Monsieur Sariette, with a trembling hand, restored them piously +to their places. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + OF A SOMEWHAT LIVELY INTEREST, WHEREOF THE MORAL WILL, I + HOPE, APPEAL GREATLY TO MY READERS, SINCE IT CAN BE + EXPRESSED BY THIS SORROWFUL QUERY: "THOUGHT, WHITHER DOST + THOU LEAD ME?" FOR IT IS A UNIVERSALLY ADMITTED TRUTH THAT + IT IS UNHEALTHY TO THINK AND THAT TRUE WISDOM LIES IN NOT + THINKING AT ALL + + +All the books were now once more assembled in the pious keeping of +Monsieur Sariette. But this happy reunion was not destined to last. The +following night twenty volumes left their places, among them the +_Lucretius_ of Prior de Vendome. Within a week the old Hebrew and Greek +texts had all returned to the summer-house, and every night during the +ensuing month they left their shelves and secretly went on the same +path. Others betook themselves no one knew whither. + +On hearing of these mysterious occurrences, Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu +merely remarked with frigidity to his librarian: + +"My poor Sariette, all this is very queer, very queer indeed." + +And when Monsieur Sariette tentatively advised him to lodge a formal +complaint or to inform the Commissaire de Police, Monsieur d'Esparvieu +cried out upon him: + +"What are you suggesting, Monsieur Sariette? Divulge domestic secrets, +make a scandal! You cannot mean it. I have enemies, and I am proud of +it. I think I have deserved them. What I might complain about is that I +am wounded in the house of my friend, attacked with unheard-of violence, +by fervent loyalists, who, I grant you, are good Catholics, but +exceedingly bad Christians.... In a word, I am watched, spied upon, +shadowed, and you suggest, Monsieur Sariette, that I should make a +present of this comic-opera mystery, this burlesque adventure, this +story in which we both cut somewhat pitiable figures, to a set of +spiteful journalists? Do you wish to cover me with ridicule?" + +The result of the colloquy was that the two gentlemen agreed to change +all the locks in the library. Estimates were asked for and workmen +called in. For six weeks the d'Esparvieu household rang from morning +till night with the sound of hammers, the hum of centre-bits, and the +grating of files. Fires were always going in the abode of the +philosophers and globes, and the people of the house were simply +sickened by the smell of heated oil. The old, smooth, easy-running locks +were replaced, on the cupboards and doors of the rooms, by stubborn and +tricky fastenings. There was nothing but combinations of locks, +letter-padlocks, safety-bolts, bars, chains, and electric alarm-bells. + +All this display of ironmongery inspired fear. The lock-cases glistened, +and there was much grinding of bolts. To gain access to a room, a +cupboard, or a drawer, it was necessary to know a certain number, of +which Monsieur Sariette alone was cognisant. His head was filled with +bizarre words and tremendous numbers, and he got entangled among all +these cryptic signs, these square, cubic, and triangular figures. He +himself couldn't get the doors and the cupboards undone, yet every +morning he found them wide open, and the books thrown about, ransacked, +and hidden away. In the gutter of the Rue Servandoni a policeman picked +up a volume of Salomon Reinach on the identity of Barabbas and Jesus +Christ. As it bore the book-plate of the d'Esparvieu library he returned +it to the owner. + +Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu, not even deigning to inform Monsieur Sariette +of the fact, made up his mind to consult a magistrate, a friend in whom +he had complete confidence, to wit, a certain Monsieur des Aubels, +Counsel at the Law Courts, who had put through many an important affair. +He was a little plump man, very red, very bald, with a cranium that +shone like a billiard ball. He entered the library one morning feigning +to come as a book-lover, but he soon showed that he knew nothing about +books. While all the busts of the ancient philosophers were reflected in +his shining pate, he put divers insidious questions to Monsieur +Sariette, who grew uncomfortable and turned red, for innocence is easily +flustered. From that moment Monsieur des Aubels had a mighty suspicion +that Monsieur Sariette was the perpetrator of the very thefts he +denounced with horror; and it immediately occurred to him to seek out +the accomplices of the crime. As regards motives, he did not trouble +about them; motives are always to be found. Monsieur des Aubels told +Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu that, if he liked, he would have the house +secretly watched by a detective from the Prefecture. + +"I will see that you get Mignon," he said. "He is an excellent servant, +assiduous and prudent." + +By six o'clock next morning Mignon was already walking up and down +outside the d'Esparvieus' house, his head sunk between his shoulders, +wearing love-locks which showed from under the narrow brim of his bowler +hat, his eye cocked over his shoulder. He wore an enormous dull-black +moustache, his hands and feet were huge; in fact, his whole appearance +was distinctly memorable. He paced regularly up and down from the +nearest of the big rams' head pillars which adorn the Hotel de la +Sordiere to the end of the Rue Garanciere, towards the apse of St. +Sulpice Church and the dome of the Chapel of the Virgin. + +Henceforth it became impossible to enter or leave the d'Esparvieus' +house without feeling that one's every action, that one's very thoughts, +were being spied upon. Mignon was a prodigious person endowed with +powers that Nature denies to other mortals. He neither ate nor slept. At +all hours of the day and night, in wind and rain, he was to be found +outside the house, and no one escaped the X-rays of his eye. One felt +pierced through and through, penetrated to the very marrow, worse than +naked, bare as a skeleton. It was the affair of a moment; the detective +did not even stop, but continued his everlasting walk. It became +intolerable. Young Maurice threatened to leave the paternal roof if he +was to be so radiographed. His mother and his sister Berthe complained +of his piercing look; it offended the chaste modesty of their souls. +Mademoiselle Caporal, young Leon d'Esparvieu's governess, felt an +indescribable embarrassment. Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu was sick of the +whole business. He never crossed his own threshold without crushing his +hat over his eyes to avoid the investigating ray and without wishing old +Sariette, the _fons et origo_ of all the evil, at the devil. The +intimates of the household, such as Abbe Patouille and Uncle Gaetan, +made themselves scarce; visitors gave up calling, tradespeople hesitated +about leaving their goods, the carts belonging to the big shops scarcely +dared stop. But it was among the domestics that the spying roused the +most disorder. + +The footman, afraid, under the eye of the police, to go and join the +cobbler's wife over her solitary labours in the afternoon, found the +house unbearable and gave notice. Odile, Madame d'Esparvieu's +lady's-maid, not daring, as was her custom after her mistress had +retired, to introduce Octave, the handsomest of the neighbouring +bookseller's clerks, to her little room upstairs, grew melancholy, +irritable and nervous, pulled her mistress's hair while dressing it, +spoke insolently, and made advances to Monsieur Maurice. The cook, +Madame Malgoire, a serious matron of some fifty years, having no more +visits from Auguste, the wine-merchant's man in the Rue Servandoni, and +being incapable of suffering a privation so contrary to her temperament, +went mad, sent up a raw rabbit to table, and announced that the Pope had +asked her hand in marriage. At last, after a fortnight of superhuman +assiduity, contrary to all known laws of organic life, and to the +essential conditions of animal economy, Mignon, the detective, having +observed nothing abnormal, ceased his surveillance and withdrew without +a word, refusing to accept a gratuity. In the library the dance of the +books became livelier than ever. + +"That is all right," said Monsieur des Aubels. "Since nothing comes in +nor goes out, the evil-doer must be in the house." + +The magistrate thought it possible to discover the criminal without +police-warrant or enquiry. On a date agreed upon at midnight, he had the +floor of the library, the treads of the stairs, the vestibule, the +garden path leading to Monsieur Maurice's summer-house, and the entrance +hall of the latter, all covered with a coating of talc. + +The following morning Monsieur des Aubels, assisted by a photographer +from the Prefecture, and accompanied by Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu and +Monsieur Sariette, came to take the imprints. They found nothing in the +garden, the wind had blown away the coating of talc; nothing in the +summer-house either. Young Maurice told them he thought it was some +practical joke and that he had brushed away the white dust with the +hearth-brush. The real truth was, he had effaced the traces left by the +boots of Odile, the lady's-maid. On the stairs and in the library the +very light print of a bare foot could be discerned, it seemed to have +sprung into the air and to have touched the ground at rare intervals and +without any pressure. They discovered five of these traces. The clearest +was to be found in the abode of the busts and spheres, on the edge of +the table where the books were piled. The photographer took several +negatives of this imprint. + +"This is more terrifying than anything else," murmured Monsieur +Sariette. + +Monsieur des Aubels did not hide his surprise. + +Three days later the anthropometrical department of the Prefecture +returned the proofs exhibited to them, saying that they were not in the +records. + +After dinner Monsieur Rene showed the photographs to his brother Gaetan, +who examined them with profound attention, and after a long silence +exclaimed: + +"No wonder they have not got this at the Prefecture; it is the foot of a +god or of an athlete of antiquity. The sole that made this impression is +of a perfection unknown to our races and our climates. It exhibits toes +of exquisite grace, and a divine heel." + +Rene d'Esparvieu cried out upon his brother for a madman. + +"He is a poet," sighed Madame d'Esparvieu. + +"Uncle," said Maurice, "you'll fall in love with this foot if you ever +come across it." + +"Such was the fate of Vivant Denon, who accompanied Bonaparte to Egypt," +replied Gaetan. "At Thebes, in a tomb violated by the Arabs, Denon +found the little foot of a mummy of marvellous beauty. He contemplated +it with extraordinary fervour, 'It is the foot of a young woman,' he +pondered, 'of a princess--of a charming creature. No covering has ever +marred its perfect shape.' Denon admired, adored, and loved it. You may +see a drawing of this little foot in Denon's atlas of his journey to +Egypt, whose leaves one could turn over upstairs, without going further +afield, if only Monsieur Sariette would ever let us see a single volume +of his library." + +Sometimes, in bed, Maurice, waking in the middle of the night, thought +he heard the sound of pages being turned over in the next room, and the +thud of bound volumes falling on the floor. + +One morning at five o'clock he was coming home from the club, after a +night of bad luck, and while he stood outside the door of the +summer-house, hunting in his pocket for his keys, his ears distinctly +heard a voice sighing: + +"Knowledge, whither dost thou lead me? Thought, whither dost thou lure +me?" + +But entering the two rooms he saw nothing, and told himself that his +ears must have deceived him. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + WHICH SPEAKS OF LOVE, A SUBJECT WHICH ALWAYS GIVES PLEASURE, + FOR A TALE WITHOUT LOVE IS LIKE BEEF WITHOUT MUSTARD: AN + INSIPID DISH + + +Nothing ever astonished Maurice. He never sought to know the causes of +things and dwelt tranquilly in the world of appearances. Not denying the +eternal truth, he nevertheless followed vain things as his fancy led +him. + +Less addicted to sport and violent exercise than most young people of +his generation, he followed unconsciously the old erotic traditions of +his race. The French were ever the most gallant of men, and it were a +pity they should lose this advantage. Maurice preserved it. He was in +love with no woman, but, as St. Augustine said, he loved to love. After +paying the tribute that was rightly due to the imperishable beauty and +secret arts of Madame de la Bertheliere, he had enjoyed the impetuous +caresses of a young singer called Luciole. At present he was joylessly +experiencing the primitive perversity of Odile, his mother's +lady's-maid, and the tearful adoration of the beautiful Madame +Boittier. And he felt a great void in his heart. + +It chanced that one Wednesday, on entering the drawing-room where his +mother entertained her friends--who were, generally speaking, +unattractive and austere ladies, with a sprinkling of old men and very +young people--he noticed, in this intimate circle, Madame des Aubels, +the wife of the magistrate at the Law Courts, whom Monsieur d'Esparvieu +had vainly consulted on the mysterious ransacking of his library. She +was young, he found her pretty, and not without cause. Gilberte had been +modelled by the Genius of the Race, and no other genius had had a part +in the work. + +Thus all her attributes inspired desire, and nothing in her shape or her +being aroused any other sentiment. + +The law of attraction which draws world to world moved young Maurice to +approach this delicious creature, and under its influence he offered to +escort her to the tea-table. And when Gilberte was served with tea, he +said: + +"We should hit it off quite well together, you and I, don't you think?" + +He spoke in this way, according to modern usage, so as to avoid inane +compliments and to spare a woman the boredom of listening to one of +those old declarations of love which, containing nothing but what is +vague and undefined, require neither a truthful nor an exact reply. + +And profiting by the fact that he had an opportunity of conversing +secretly with Madame des Aubels for a few minutes, he spoke urgently and +to the point. Gilberte, so far as one could judge, was made rather to +awaken desire than to feel it. Nevertheless, she well knew that her fate +was to love, and she followed it willingly and with pleasure. Maurice +did not particularly displease her. She would have preferred him to be +an orphan, for experience had taught her how disappointing it sometimes +is to love the son of the house. + +"Will you?" he said by way of conclusion. + +She pretended not to understand, and with her little _foie-gras_ +sandwich raised half-way to her mouth she looked at Maurice with +wondering eyes. + +"Will I _what_?" she asked. + +"You know quite well." + +Madame des Aubels lowered her eyes, and sipped her tea, for her +prudishness was not quite vanquished. Meanwhile Maurice, taking her +empty cup from her hand, murmured: + +"Saturday, five o'clock, 126 Rue de Rome, on the ground-floor, the door +on the right, under the arch. Knock three times." + +Madame des Aubels glanced severely and imperturbably at the son of the +house, and with a self-possessed air rejoined the circle of highly +respectable women to whom the Senator Monsieur Le Fol was explaining +how artificial incubators were employed at the agricultural colony at +St. Julienne. + +The following Saturday, Maurice, in his ground-floor flat, awaited +Madame des Aubels. He waited her in vain. No light hand came to knock +three times on the door under the arch. And Maurice gave way to +imprecation, inwardly calling the absent one a jade and a hussy. His +fruitless wait, his frustrated desires, rendered him unjust. For Madame +des Aubels in not coming where she had never promised to go hardly +deserved these names; but we judge human actions by the pleasure or pain +they cause us. + +Maurice did not put in an appearance in his mother's drawing-room until +a fortnight after the conversation at the tea-table. He came late. +Madame des Aubels had been there for half an hour. He bowed coldly to +her, took a seat some way off, and affected to be listening to the talk. + +"Worthily matched," a rich male voice was saying; "the two antagonists +were well calculated to render the struggle a terrible and uncertain +one. General Bol, with unprecedented tenacity, maintained his position +as though he were rooted in the very soil. General Milpertuis, with an +agility truly superhuman, kept carrying out movements of the most +dazzling rapidity around his immovable adversary. The battle continued +to be waged with terrible stubbornness. We were all in an agony of +suspense...." + +It was General d'Esparvieu describing the autumn manoeuvres to a company +of breathlessly interested ladies. He was talking well and his audience +were delighted. Proceeding to draw a comparison between the French and +German methods, he defined their distinguishing characteristics and +brought out the conspicuous merits of both with a lofty impartiality. He +did not hesitate to affirm that each system had its advantages, and at +first made it appear to his circle of wondering, disappointed, and +anxious dames, whose countenances were growing increasingly gloomy, that +France and Germany were practically in a position of equality. But +little by little, as the strategist went on to give a clearer definition +of the two methods, that of the French began to appear flexible, +elegant, vigorous, full of grace, cleverness, and verve; that of the +Germans heavy, clumsy, and undecided. And slowly and surely the faces of +the ladies began to clear and to light up with joyous smiles. In order +to dissipate any lingering shadows of misgiving from the minds of these +wives, sisters, and sweethearts, the General gave them to understand +that we were in a position to make use of the German method when it +suited us, but that the Germans could not avail themselves of the French +method. No sooner had he delivered himself of these sentiments than he +was button-holed by Monsieur le Truc de Ruffec, who was engaged in +founding a patriotic society known as "Swordsmen All," of which the +object was to regenerate France and ensure her superiority over all her +adversaries. Even children in the cradle were to be enrolled, and +Monsieur le Truc de Ruffec offered the honorary presidency to General +d'Esparvieu. + +Meanwhile Maurice was appearing to be interested in a conversation that +was taking place between a very gentle old lady and the Abbe Lapetite, +Chaplain to the Dames du Saint Sang. The old lady, severely tried of +late by illness and the loss of friends, wanted to know how it was that +people were unhappy in this world. + +"How," she asked Abbe Lapetite, "do you explain the scourges that +afflict mankind? Why are there plagues, famines, floods, and +earthquakes?" + +"It is surely necessary that God should sometimes remind us of his +existence," replied Abbe Lapetite, with a heavenly smile. + +Maurice appeared keenly interested in this conversation. Then he seemed +fascinated by Madame Fillot-Grandin, quite a personable young woman, +whose simple innocence, however, detracted all piquancy from her beauty, +all savour from her bodily charms. A very sour, shrill-voiced old lady, +who, affecting the dowdy, woollen weeds of poverty, displayed the pride +of a great lady in the world of Christian finance, exclaimed in a +squeaky voice: + +"Well, my dear Madame d'Esparvieu, so you have had trouble here. The +papers speak darkly of robbery, of thefts committed in Monsieur +d'Esparvieu's valuable library, of stolen letters...." + +"Oh," said Madame d'Esparvieu, "if we are to believe all the newspapers +say...." + +"Oh, so, dear Madame, you have got your treasures back. All's well that +ends well." + +"The library is in perfect order," asserted Madame d'Esparvieu. "There +is nothing missing." + +"The library is on the floor above this, is it not?" asked young Madame +des Aubels, showing an unexpected interest in the books. + +Madame d'Esparvieu replied that the library occupied the whole of the +second floor, and that they had put the least valuable books in the +attics. + +"Could I not go and look at it?" + +The mistress of the house declared that nothing could be easier. She +called to her son: + +"Maurice, go and do the honours of the library to Madame des Aubels." + +Maurice rose, and without uttering a word, mounted to the second floor +in the wake of Madame des Aubels. + +He appeared indifferent, but inwardly he rejoiced, for he had no doubt +that Gilberte had feigned her ardent desire to inspect the library +simply to see him in secret. And, while affecting indifference, he +promised himself to renew those offers which, this time, would not be +refused. + +Under the romantic bust of Alexandre d'Esparvieu, they were met by the +silent shadow of a little wan, hollow-eyed old man, who wore a settled +expression of mute terror. + +"Do not let us disturb you, Monsieur Sariette," said Maurice. "I am +showing Madame des Aubels round the library." + +Maurice and Madame des Aubels passed on into the great room where +against the four walls rose presses filled with books and surmounted by +bronze busts of poets, philosophers, and orators of antiquity. All was +in perfect order, an order which seemed never to have been disturbed +from the beginning of things. + +Only, a black void was to be seen in the place which, only the evening +before, had been filled by an unpublished manuscript of Richard Simon. +Meanwhile, by the side of the young couple walked Monsieur Sariette, +pale, faded, and silent. + +"Really and truly, you have not been nice," said Maurice, with a look of +reproach at Madame des Aubels. + +She signed to him that the librarian might over-hear. But he reassured +her. + +"Take no notice. It is old Sariette. He has become a complete idiot." +And he repeated: "No, you have not been at all nice. I awaited you. You +did not come. You have made me unhappy." + +After a moment's silence, while one heard the low melancholy whistling +of asthma in poor Sariette's bronchial tubes, young Maurice continued +insistently: + +"You are wrong." + +"Why wrong?" + +"Wrong not to do as I ask you." + +"Do you still think so?" + +"Certainly." + +"You meant it seriously?" + +"As seriously as can be." + +Touched by his assurance of sincere and constant feeling, and thinking +she had resisted sufficiently, Gilberte granted to Maurice what she had +refused him a fortnight ago. + +They slipped into an embrasure of the window, behind an enormous +celestial globe whereon were graven the Signs of the Zodiac and the +figures of the stars, and there, their gaze fixed on the Lion, the +Virgin, and the Scales, in the presence of a multitude of Bibles, before +the works of the Fathers, both Greek and Latin, beneath the casts of +Homer, AEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, Thucydides, Socrates, +Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Seneca, and +Epictetus, they exchanged vows of love and a long kiss on the mouth. + +Almost immediately Madame des Aubels bethought herself that she still +had some calls to pay, and that she must make her escape quickly, for +love had not made her lose all sense of her own importance. But she had +barely crossed the landing with Maurice when they heard a hoarse cry and +saw Monsieur Sariette plunge madly downstairs, exclaiming as he went: + +"Stop it, stop it; I saw it fly away! It escaped from the shelf by +itself. It crossed the room ... there it is--there! It's going +downstairs. Stop it! It has gone out of the door on the ground floor!" + +"What?" asked Maurice. + +Monsieur Sariette looked out of the landing window, murmuring +horror-struck: + +"It's crossing the garden! It's going into the summer-house. Stop it, +stop it!" + +"But what is it?" repeated Maurice--"in God's name, what is it?" + +"My Flavius Josephus," exclaimed Monsieur Sariette. "Stop it!" + +And he fell down unconscious. + +"You see he is quite mad," said Maurice to Madame des Aubels, as he +lifted up the unfortunate librarian. + +Gilberte, a little pale, said she also thought she had seen something in +the direction indicated by the unhappy man, something flying. + +Maurice had seen nothing, but he had felt what seemed like a gust of +wind. + +He left Monsieur Sariette in the arms of Hippolyte and the housekeeper, +who had both hastened to the spot on hearing the noise. + +The old gentleman had a wound in his head. + +"All the better," said the housekeeper; "this wound may save him from +having a fit." + +Madame des Aubels gave her handkerchief to stop the blood, and +recommended an arnica compress. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + WHEREIN IT IS SHOWN THAT, AS AN ANCIENT GREEK POET SAID, + "NOTHING IS SWEETER THAN APHRODITE THE GOLDEN" + + +Although he had enjoyed Madame des Aubels' favours for six whole months, +Maurice still loved her. True they had had to separate during the +summer. For lack of funds of his own he had had to go to Switzerland +with his mother, and then to stop with the whole family at the Chateau +d'Esparvieu. She had spent the summer with her mother at Niort, and the +autumn with her husband at a little Normandy seaside place, so that they +had hardly seen each other four or five times. But since the winter, +kindly to lovers, had brought them back to town again, Maurice had been +receiving her twice a week in his little flat in the Rue de Rome, and +received no one else. No other woman had inspired him with feelings of +such constancy and fidelity. What augmented his pleasure was that he +believed himself loved, and indeed he was not unpleasing. + +He thought that she did not deceive him, not that he had any reason to +think so, but it appeared right and fitting that she should be content +with him alone. What annoyed him was that she always kept him waiting, +and was unpunctual in coming to their meeting-place; she was invariably +late,--at times very late. + +Now on Saturday, January 30th, since four o'clock in the afternoon, +Maurice had been awaiting Madame des Aubels in the little pink room, +where a bright fire was burning. He was gaily clad in a suit of flowered +pyjamas, smoking Turkish cigarettes. At first he dreamt of receiving her +with long kisses, with hitherto unknown caresses. A quarter of an hour +having passed, he meditated serious and affectionate reproaches, then +after an hour of disappointed waiting he vowed he would meet her with +cold disdain. + +At length she appeared, fresh and fragrant. + +"It was scarcely worth while coming," he said bitterly, as she laid her +muff and her little bag on the table and untied her veil before the +wardrobe mirror. + +Never, she told her beloved, had she had such trouble to get away. She +was full of excuses, which he obstinately rejected. But no sooner had +she the good sense to hold her tongue than he ceased his reproaches, and +then nothing detracted from the longing with which she inspired him. + +The curtains were drawn, the room was bathed in warm shadows lit by the +dancing gleams of the fire. The mirrors in the wardrobe and on the +chimney-piece shone with mysterious lights. Gilberte, leaning on her +elbow, head on hand, was lost in thought. A little jeweller, a +trustworthy and intelligent man, had shown her a wonderfully pretty +pearl and sapphire bracelet; it was worth a great deal, and was to be +had for a mere nothing. He had got it from a _cocotte_ down on her luck, +who was in a hurry to dispose of it. It was a rare chance; it would be a +huge pity to let it slip. + +"Would you like to see it, darling? I will ask the little man to let me +have it to show you." + +Maurice did not actually decline the proposal. But it was clear that he +took no interest in the wonderful bracelet. "When small jewellers come +across a great bargain, they keep it to themselves, and do not allow +their customers to profit by it. Moreover, jewellery means nothing just +now. Well-bred women have given up wearing it. Everyone goes in for +sport, and jewellery does not go with sport." + +Maurice spoke thus, contrary to truth, because having given his mistress +a fur coat, he was in no hurry to give her anything more. He was not +stingy, but he was careful with his money. His people did not give him a +very large allowance, and his debts grew bigger every day. By satisfying +the wishes of his inamorata too promptly he feared to arouse others +still more pressing. The bargain seemed less wonderful to him than to +Gilberte; besides, he liked to take the initiative in choosing his +gifts. Above all, he thought that if he gave her too many presents he +would be no longer sure of being loved for himself. + +Madame des Aubels felt neither contempt nor surprise at this attitude; +she was gentle and temperate, she knew men, and judged that one must +take them as one found them, that for the most part they do not give +very willingly, and that a woman should know how to make them give. + +Suddenly a gas lamp was lighted in the street, and shone through the +gaps in the curtains. + +"Half-past six," she said. "We must be on the move." + +Pricked by the touch of Time's fleeting wing, Maurice was conscious of +reawakened desires and reanimated powers. A white and radiant offering, +Gilberte, with her head thrown back, her eyes half closed, her lips +apart, sunk in dreamy languor, was breathing slowly and placidly, when +suddenly she started up with a cry of terror. + +"Whatever is that?" + +"Stay still," said Maurice, holding her back in his arms. + +In his present mood, had the sky fallen it would not have troubled him. +But in one bound she escaped from him. Crouching down, her eyes filled +with terror, she was pointing with her finger at a figure which appeared +in a corner of the room, between the fire-place and the wardrobe with +the mirror. Then, unable to bear the sight, and nearly fainting, she hid +her face in her hands. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + WHICH FAR SURPASSES IN AUDACITY THE IMAGINATIVE FLIGHTS OF + DANTE AND MILTON + + +Maurice at length turned his head, saw the figure, and perceiving that +it moved, was also frightened. Meanwhile, Gilberte was regaining her +senses. She imagined that what she had seen was some mistress whom her +lover had hidden in the room. Inflamed with anger and disgust at the +idea of such treachery, boiling with indignation, and glaring at her +supposed rival, she exclaimed: + +"A woman ... a naked woman too! You bring me into a room where you allow +your women to come, and when I arrive they have not had time to dress. +And you reproach me with arriving late! Your impudence is beyond belief! +Come, send the creature packing. If you wanted us both here together, +you might at least have asked me whether it suited me...." + +Maurice, wide-eyed and groping for a revolver that had never been there, +whispered in her ear: + +"Be quiet ... it is no woman. One can scarcely see, but it is more like +a man." + +She put her hands over her eyes again and screamed harder than ever. + +"A man! Where does he come from? A thief. An assassin! Help! Help! Kill +him.... Maurice, kill him! Turn on the light. No, don't turn on the +light...." + +She made a mental vow that should she escape from this danger she would +burn a candle to the Blessed Virgin. Her teeth chattered. + +The figure made a movement. + +"Keep away!" cried Gilberte. "Keep away!" + +She offered the burglar all the money and jewels she had on the table if +he would consent not to stir. Amid her surprise and terror the idea +assailed her that her husband, dissembling his suspicions, had caused +her to be followed, had posted witnesses, and had had recourse to the +Commissaire de Police. In a flash she distinctly saw before her the long +painful future, the glaring scandal, the pretended disdain, the cowardly +desertion of her friends, the just mockery of society, for it is indeed +ridiculous to be found out. She saw the divorce, the loss of her +position and of her rank. She saw the dreary and narrow existence with +her mother, when no one would make love to her, for men avoid women who +fail to give them the security of the married state. And all this, why? +Why this ruin, this disaster? For a piece of folly, for a mere nothing. +Thus in a lightning flash spoke the conscience of Gilberte des Aubels. + +"Have no fear, Madame," said a very sweet voice. + +Slightly reassured, she found strength to ask: + +"Who are you?" + +"I am an angel," replied the voice. + +"What did you say?" + +"I am an angel. I am Maurice's guardian angel." + +"Say it again. I am going mad. I do not understand...." + +Maurice, without understanding either, was indignant. He sprang forward +and showed himself; with his right hand armed with a slipper he made a +threatening gesture, and said in a rough voice: + +"You are a low ruffian; oblige me by going the way you came." + +"Maurice d'Esparvieu," continued the sweet voice, "He whom you adore as +your Creator has stationed by the side of each of the faithful a good +angel, whose mission it is to counsel and protect him; it is the +invariable opinion of the Fathers, it is founded on many passages in the +Bible, the Church admits it unanimously, without, however, pronouncing +anathema upon those who hold a contrary opinion. You see before you one +of these angels, yours, Maurice. I was commanded to watch over your +innocence and to guard your chastity." + +"That may be," said Maurice; "but you are certainly no gentleman. A +gentleman would not permit himself to enter a room at such a moment. To +be plain, what the deuce are you doing here?" + +"I have assumed this appearance, Maurice, because, having henceforth to +move among mankind, I have to make myself like them. The celestial +spirits possess the power of assuming a form which renders them apparent +to the eye and to the touch. This shape is real, because it is apparent, +and all the realities in the world are but appearances." + +Gilberte, pacified at length, was arranging her hair on her forehead. + +The Angel pursued: + +"The celestial spirits adopt, according to their fancy, one sex or the +other, or both at once. But they cannot disguise themselves at any +moment, according to their caprice or fantasy. Their metamorphoses are +subject to constant laws, which you would not understand. Thus I have +neither desire nor power to transform myself under your eyes, for your +amusement or my own, into a lion, a tiger, a fly, or into a +sycamore-shaving like the young Egyptian whose story was found in a +tomb. I cannot change myself into an ass as did Lucius with the pomade +of the youthful Photis. For in my wisdom I had fixed beforehand the +hour of my apparition to mankind, nothing could hasten or delay it." + +Impatient for enlightenment, Maurice asked for the second time: + +"Still, what are you up to here?" + +Joining her voice to his, Madame des Aubels asked: "Yes, indeed, what +are you doing here?" + +The Angel replied: + +"Man, lend your ear. Woman, hear my voice. I am about to reveal to you a +secret on which hangs the fate of the Universe. In rebellion against Him +whom you hold to be the Creator of all things visible and invisible, I +am preparing the Revolt of the Angels." + +"Do not jest," said Maurice, who had faith and did not allow holy things +to be played with. + +But the Angel answered reproachfully: "What makes you think, Maurice, +that I am frivolous and given to vain words?" + +"Come, come," said Maurice, shrugging his shoulders. "You are not going +to revolt against----" + +He pointed to the ceiling--not daring to finish. + +But the Angel continued: + +"Do you not know that the sons of God have already revolted and that a +great battle took place in the heavens?" + +"That was a long time ago," said Maurice, putting on his socks. + +Then the Angel replied: + +"It was before the creation of the world. But nothing has changed since +then in the heavens. The nature of the Angels is no different now from +what it was originally. What they did then they could do again now." + +"No! It is not possible. It is contrary to faith. If you were an angel, +a good angel as you make out you are, it would never occur to you to +disobey your Creator." + +"You are in error, Maurice, and the authority of the Fathers condemns +you. Origen lays it down in his homilies that good angels are fallible, +that they sin every day and fall from Heaven like flies. Possibly you +may be tempted to reject the authority of this Father, despite his +knowledge of the Scriptures, because he is excluded from the Canon of +the Saints. If this be so, I would remind you of the second chapter of +Revelation, in which the Angels of Ephesus and Pergamos are rebuked for +that they kept not ward over their church. You will doubtless contend +that the angels to whom the Apostle here refers are, properly speaking, +the Bishops of the two cities in question, and that he calls them angels +on account of their ministry. It may be so, and I cede the point. But +with what arguments, Maurice, would you counter the opinion of all those +Doctors and Pontiffs whose unanimous teaching it is that angels may fall +from good into evil? Such is the statement made by Saint Jerome in his +Epistle to Damasus...." + +"Monsieur," said Madame des Aubels, "go away, I beg you." + +But the Angel hearkened not, and continued: + +"Saint Augustine, in his _True Religion_, Chapter XIII; Saint Gregory, +in his _Morals_, Chapter XXIV; Isidore----" + +"Monsieur, let me get my things on; I am in a hurry." + +"In his treatise on _The Greatest Good_, Book I, Chapter XII; Bede on +Job----" + +"Oh, please, Monsieur ..." + +"Chapter VIII; John of Damascus on _Faith_, Book II, Chapter III. Those, +I think, are sufficiently weighty authorities, and there is nothing for +it, Maurice, but to admit your error. What has led you astray is that +you have not duly considered my nature, which is free, active, and +mobile, like that of all the angels, and that you have merely observed +the grace and felicity with which you deem me so richly endowed. Lucifer +possessed no less, yet he rebelled." + +"But what on earth are you rebelling for?" asked Maurice. + +"Isaiah," answered the child of light, "Isaiah has already asked, before +you: '_Quomodo cecidisti de coelo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris?_' +Hearken, Maurice. Before Time was, the Angels rose up to win dominion +over Heaven, the most beautiful of the Seraphim revolted through pride. +As for me, it is science that has inspired me with the generous desire +for freedom. Finding myself near you, Maurice, in a house containing one +of the vastest libraries in the world, I acquired a taste for reading +and a love of study. While, fordone with the toils of a sensual life, +you lay sunk in heavy slumber, I surrounded myself with books, I +studied, I pondered over their pages, sometimes in one of the rooms of +the library, under the busts of the great men of antiquity, sometimes at +the far end of the garden, in the room in the summer-house next to your +own." + +On hearing these words, young d'Esparvieu exploded with laughter and +beat the pillow with his fist, an infallible sign of uncontrollable +mirth. + +"Ah ... ah ... ah! It was you who pillaged papa's library and drove poor +old Sariette off his head. You know, he has become completely idiotic." + +"Busily engaged," continued the Angel, "in cultivating for myself a +sovereign intelligence, I paid no heed to that inferior being, and when +he thought to offer obstacles to my researches and to disturb my work I +punished him for his importunity. + +"One particular winter's night in the abode of the philosophers and +globes I let fall a volume of great weight on his head, which he tried +to tear from my invisible hand. Then more recently, raising, with a +vigorous arm composed of a column of condensed air, a precious +manuscript of Flavius Josephus, I gave the imbecile such a fright, that +he rushed out screaming on to the landing and (to borrow a striking +expression from Dante Alighieri) fell even as a dead body falls. He was +well rewarded, for you gave him, Madame, to staunch the blood from his +wound, your little scented handkerchief. It was the day, you may +remember, when behind a celestial globe you exchanged a kiss on the +mouth with Maurice." + +"Monsieur," said Madame des Aubels, with a frown, "I cannot allow +you...." + +But she stopped short, deeming it was an inopportune moment to appear +over-exacting on a matter of decorum. + +"I had made up my mind," continued the Angel impassively, "to examine +the foundations of belief. I first attacked the monuments of Judaism, +and I read all the Hebrew texts." + +"You know Hebrew, then?" exclaimed Maurice. + +"Hebrew is my native tongue: in Paradise for a long time we have spoken +nothing else." + +"Ah, you are a Jew. I might have deduced it from your want of tact." + +The Angel, not deigning to hear, continued in his melodious voice: "I +have delved deep into Oriental antiquities and also into those of +Greece and Rome. I have devoured the works of theologians, +philosophers, physicists, geologists, and naturalists. I have learnt. I +have thought. I have lost my faith." + +"What? You no longer believe in God?" + +"I believe in Him, since my existence depends on His, and if He should +fail to exist, I myself should fall into nothingness. I believe in Him, +even as the Satyrs and the Maenads believed in Dionysus and for the same +reason. I believe in the God of the Jews and the Christians. But I deny +that He created the world; at the most He organised but an inferior part +of it, and all that He touched bears the mark of His rough and +unforeseeing touch. I do not think He is either eternal or infinite, for +it is absurd to conceive of a being who is not bounded by space or time. +I think Him limited, even very limited. I no longer believe Him to be +the only God. For a long time He did not believe it Himself; in the +beginning He was a polytheist; later, His pride and the flattery of His +worshippers made Him a monotheist. His ideas have little connection; He +is less powerful than He is thought to be. And, to speak candidly, He is +not so much a god as a vain and ignorant demiurge. Those who, like +myself, know His true nature, call Him Ialdabaoth." + +"What's that you say?" + +"Ialdabaoth." + +"Ialdabaoth. What's that?" + +"I have already told you. It is the demiurge whom, in your blindness, +you adore as the one and only God." + +"You're mad. I don't advise you to go and talk rubbish like that to Abbe +Patouille." + +"I am not in the least sanguine, my dear Maurice, of piercing the dense +night of your intellect. I merely tell you that I am going to engage +Ialdabaoth in conflict with some hopes of victory." + +"Mark my words, you won't succeed." + +"Lucifer shook His throne, and the issue was for a moment in doubt." + +"What is your name?" + +"Abdiel for the angels and saints, Arcade for mankind." + +"Well, my poor Arcade, I regret to see you going to the bad. But confess +that you are jesting with us. I could at a pinch understand your leaving +Heaven for a woman. Love makes us commit the greatest follies. But you +will never make me believe that you, who have seen God face to face, +ultimately found the truth in old Sariette's musty books. No, you will +never get me to believe that!" + +"My dear Maurice, Lucifer was face to face with God, yet he refused to +serve Him. As to the kind of truth one finds in books, it is a truth +that enables us sometimes to discern what things are not, without ever +enabling us to discover what they are. And this poor little truth has +sufficed to prove to me that He in whom I blindly believed is not +believable, and that men and angels have been deceived by the lies of +Ialdabaoth." + +"There is no Ialdabaoth. There is God. Come, Arcade, do the right thing. +Renounce these follies, these impieties, dis-incarnate yourself, become +once more a pure Spirit, and resume your office of guardian angel. +Return to duty. I forgive you, but do not let us see you again." + +"I should like to please you, Maurice. I feel a certain affection for +you, for my heart is soft. But fate henceforth calls me elsewhere +towards beings capable of thought and action." + +"Monsieur Arcade," said Madame des Aubels, "withdraw, I implore you. It +makes me horribly shy to be in this position before two men. I assure +you I am not accustomed to it." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + RECOUNTS IN WHAT MANNER THE ANGEL, ATTIRED IN THE CAST-OFF + GARMENTS OF A SUICIDE, LEAVES THE YOUTHFUL MAURICE WITHOUT A + HEAVENLY GUARDIAN + + +"Reassure yourself, Madame," replied the apparition, "your position is +not as risky as you say. You are not confronted with two men, but with +one man and an angel." + +She examined the stranger with an eye which, piercing the gloom, was +anxiously surveying a vague but by no means negligible indication, and +asked: + +"Monsieur, is it quite certain that you are an angel?" + +The apparition prayed her to have no doubt about it, and gave some +precise information as to his origin. + +"There are three hierarchies of celestial spirits, each composed of nine +choirs; the first comprises the Seraphim, Cherubim, and the Thrones; the +second, the Dominations, the Virtues, and the Powers; the third, the +Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels properly so called. I +belong to the ninth choir of the third hierarchy." + +Madame des Aubels, who had her reasons for doubting this, expressed at +least one: + +"You have no wings." + +"Why should I, Madame? Am I bound to resemble the angels on your +holy-water stoups? Those feathery oars that beat the waves of the air in +rhythmic cadences are not always worn by the heavenly messengers on +their shoulders. Cherubim may be apterous. That all too beautiful +angelic pair who spent an anxious night in the house of Lot compassed +about by an Oriental horde--they had no wings! No, they appeared just +like men, and the dust of the road covered their feet, which the +patriarch washed with pious hand. I would beg you to observe, Madame, +that according to the Science of Organic Metamorphosis created by +Lamarck and Darwin, the wings of birds have been successively +transformed into fore-feet in the case of quadrupeds and into arms in +the case of the Linnaean primates. And you may remember, Maurice, that by +a rather annoying reversion to type, Miss Kate, your English nurse, who +used to be so fond of giving you a whipping, had arms very like the +pinions of a plucked fowl. One may say, then, that a being possessing +both arms and wings is a monster and belongs to the department of +Teratology. In Paradise we have Cherubim and Kerubs in the shape of +winged bulls, but those are the clumsy inventions of an inartistic god. +It is nevertheless true, quite true, that the Victories of the Temple of +Athena Nike on the Athenian Acropolis are beautiful, and possess both +arms and wings; it is also true that the Victory of Brescia is +beautiful, with her outstretched arms and her long wings folded on her +mighty loins. It is one of the miracles of Greek genius to have known +how to create harmonious monsters. The Greeks never err. The Moderns +always." + +"Yet on the whole," said Madame des Aubels, "you have not the look of a +pure Spirit." + +"Nevertheless, I am one, Madame, if ever there was one. And it ill +becomes you, who have been baptised, to doubt it. Several of the +Fathers, such as St. Justin, Tertullian, Origen, and Clement of +Alexandria thought that the Angels were not purely spiritual, but +possessed a body formed of some subtile material. This opinion has been +rejected by the Church; hence I am merely Spirit. But what is spirit and +what is matter? Formerly they were contrasted as being two opposites, +and now your human science tends to reunite them as two aspects of the +same thing. It teaches that everything proceeds from ether and +everything returns to it, that the same movement transforms the waves +of air into stones and minerals, and that the atoms scattered throughout +illimitable space, form, by the varying speed of their orbits, all the +substance of this material world." + +But Madame des Aubels was not listening. She had something on her mind, +and to put an end to her suspense, she asked: + +"How long have you been here?" + +"I came with Maurice." + +"Well--that's a nice thing!" said she, shaking her head. But the Angel +continued with heavenly serenity: + +"Everything in the Universe is circular, elliptical, or hyperbolic, and +the same laws which rule the stars govern this grain of dust. In the +original and native movement of its substance, my body is spiritual, but +it may affect, as you perceive, this material state, by changing the +rhythm of its elements." + +Having thus spoken he sat down in a chair on Madame des Aubels' black +stockings. + +A clock struck outside. + +"Good heavens, seven o'clock!" exclaimed Gilberte. "What am I to say to +my husband? He thinks I am at that tea-party in the Rue de Rivoli. We +are dining with the La Verdelieres to-night. Go away immediately, +Monsieur Arcade. I must get ready to go. I have not a second to lose." + +The Angel replied that he would have willingly obeyed Madame des Aubels +had he been in a state to show himself decently in public, but that he +could not dream of appearing out of doors without any clothes. "Were I +to walk naked in the street," he added, "I should offend a nation +attached to its ancient habits, habits which it has never examined. They +are the basis of all moral systems. Formerly," he added, "the angels, in +revolt like myself, manifested themselves to Christians under grotesque +and ridiculous appearances, black, horned, hairy, and cloven-footed. +Pure stupidity! They were the laughing-stock of people of taste. They +merely frightened old women and children and met with no success." + +"It is true he cannot go out as he is," said Madame des Aubels with +justice. + +Maurice tossed his pyjamas and his slippers to the celestial messenger. +Regarded as outdoor habiliments they were not adequate. Gilberte pressed +her lover to run at once in quest of other clothes. He proposed to go +and get some from the concierge. She was violently opposed to this. It +would, she said, be madly imprudent to drag the concierge into such an +affair. + +"Do you want them to know that ..." she exclaimed. + +She pointed to the Angel and was silent. + +Young d'Esparvieu went out to seek a clothes-shop. + +Meanwhile, Gilberte, who could not delay any longer for fear of causing +a horrible society scandal, turned on the light and dressed before the +Angel. She did it without any awkwardness, for she knew how to adapt +herself to circumstances; and she took it that in such an unheard-of +encounter in which heaven and earth were mingled in unutterable +confusion it was permissible to retrench in modesty. + +Moreover, she knew that she possessed a good figure and had garments as +dainty as the fashion demanded. As the apparition's sense of delicacy +would not permit him to don Maurice's pyjamas, Gilberte could not help +observing by the lamp-light that her suspicions were well-founded, and +that angels have the same appearance as men. Curious to know if the +appearance were real or imaginary she asked the child of light if Angels +were like monkeys, who, to win women, merely lack money. + +"Yes, Gilberte," replied Arcade, "Angels are capable of loving mortals. +It is the teaching of the Scriptures. It is said in the Seventh Book of +Genesis, 'When men became numerous on the face of the earth, and +daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of +men were beautiful, and they took as wives all those which pleased +them.'" + +"Good heavens," cried Gilberte all at once, "I shall never be able to +fasten my dress; it hooks down the back." + +When Maurice entered the room he found the Angel on his knees tying the +shoes of the woman taken in _flagrante delicto_. + +Taking her muff and her bag off the table she said: + +"I have not forgotten anything? No. Good-night, Monsieur Arcade. +Good-night, Maurice. I shall not forget to-day." And she vanished like a +dream. + +"Here," said Maurice, throwing the Angel a bundle of clothes. + +The young man, having seen some dismal rags lying among clarionettes and +clyster-pipes in the window of a second-hand shop, had bought for +nineteen francs the cast-off suit of some wretched sable-clad mortal who +had committed suicide. The Angel, with native majesty, took the garments +and put them on. Worn by him, they took on an unexpected elegance. He +took a step to the door. + +"So you are leaving me," said Maurice. "It's settled, then? I very much +fear that, some day, you will bitterly regret this hasty action." + +"I must not look back. Adieu, Maurice." + +Maurice timidly slipped five louis into his hand. + +"Adieu, Arcade." + +But when the Angel had passed through the door, and all that was to be +seen of him in the door-way was his uplifted heel, Maurice called him +back. + +"Arcade! I never thought of it! I have no guardian angel now!" + +"Quite true, Maurice, you have one no longer." + +"Then what will become of me? One must have a guardian angel. Tell +me,--are there not grave drawbacks,--is there no danger in not having +one?" + +"Before replying, Maurice, I must ask you if you wish me to speak to you +according to your belief, which formerly was my own, according to the +teaching of the Church and the Catholic faith, or according to natural +philosophy." + +"I don't care a straw for your natural philosophy. Answer me according +to the religion I believe in, and which I profess, and in which I wish +to live and die." + +"Very well, my dear Maurice. The loss of your guardian angel will +probably deprive you of certain spiritual succour, of certain celestial +grace. I am expressing to you the unvarying opinion of the Church on the +matter. You will lack an assistance, a support, a consolation which +would have guided and confirmed you in the way of salvation. You will +have less strength to avoid sin, and as it was you hadn't much. In fact, +in spiritual matters, you will be without strength and without joy. +Adieu, Maurice; when you see Madame des Aubels, please remember me to +her." + +"You are going?" + +"Farewell." + +Arcade disappeared, and Maurice in the depths of an arm-chair sat for a +long time with his head in his hands. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + WHEREIN IT IS SET FORTH HOW THE ANGEL MIRAR, WHEN BEARING + GRACE AND CONSOLATION TO THOSE DWELLING IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD + OF THE CHAMPS ELYSEES IN PARIS, BEHELD A MUSIC-HALL SINGER + NAMED BOUCHOTTE AND FELL IN LOVE WITH HER + + +Through streets filled with brown fog, pierced with white and yellow +lights, where horses exhaled their smoking breath and motors radiated +their rapid search-lights, the angel made his way, and, mingling with +the black flood of foot-passengers which rolled unceasingly along, +proceeded across the town from north to south till he came to the lonely +boulevards on the left bank of the river. Not far from the old walls of +Port Royal, a small restaurant flings night by night athwart the +pavement the clouded rays of its streaming windows. Coming to a halt +there, Arcade entered a room full of warm, savoury odours, pleasing to +the unfortunate beings faint with cold and hunger. Glancing round him he +beheld Russian Nihilists, Italian Anarchists, refugees, conspirators, +revolutionaries from every quarter of the globe, picturesque old faces +with tumbled masses of hair and beard that swept downwards even as the +torrent and the waterfall sweep over their rocky bed. There were young +faces of virginal coldness, expressions sombre and wild, pale eyes of +infinite sweetness, drawn faces, and, in a corner, there were two +Russian women, one extremely lovely, the other hideous, but both +resembling each other in their indifference to ugliness and to beauty. +But failing to find the face he sought, for there were no angels in the +room, he sat down at a small vacant marble table. + +Angels, when driven by hunger, eat as do the animals of this earth, and +their food, transformed by digestive heat, becomes one with their +celestial substance. Seeing three angels under the oaks of Mamre, +Abraham offered them cakes, kneaded by Sarah, an whole calf, butter and +milk, and they ate. Lot, on receiving two angels in his house, ordered +unleavened bread to be baked, and they did eat. Arcade was given a tough +beef-steak by a seedy waiter, and he did eat. Nevertheless, his dreams +were of the sweet leisure, of the repose, of the delightful studies he +had quitted, of the heavy task he had undertaken, of the toil, the +weariness, the perils which he would have to endure, and his soul was +sad and his heart troubled. + +As he was finishing his modest repast, a young man of poor appearance +and thinly clad entered the room, and rapidly surveying the tables +approached the angel and greeted him by the name of Abdiel, because he +himself was a celestial spirit. + +"I knew you would answer my call, Mirar," replied Arcade, addressing his +angelic brother in his turn by the name he formerly bore in heaven. But +Mirar was remembered no more in heaven since he, an Archangel, had left +the service of God. He was called Theophile Belais on earth, and to earn +his bread gave music lessons to small children in the day-time and at +night played the violin in dancing saloons. + +"It is you, dear Abdiel?" replied Theophile. "So here we are reunited in +this sad world. I am pleased to see you again. All the same I pity you, +for we lead a hard life here." + +But Arcade answered: + +"Friend, your exile draws to an end. I have great plans. I will confide +them to you and associate you with them." + +And Maurice's guardian angel, having ordered two coffees, revealed his +ideas and his projects to his companion: he told how, during his visit +on earth, he had abandoned himself to researches little practised by +celestial spirits and had studied theologies, cosmogonies, the system of +the Universe, theories of matter, modern essays on the transformation +and loss of energy. Having, he explained, studied Nature, he had found +her in perpetual conflict with the teachings of the Master he served. +This Master, greedy of praise, whom he had for a long time adored, +appeared to him now as an ignorant, stupid, and cruel tyrant. He had +denied Him, blasphemed Him, and was burning to combat Him. His plan was +to recommence the revolt of the angels. He wished for war, and hoped for +victory. + +"But," he added, "it is necessary above all to know our strength and +that of our adversary." And he asked if the enemies of Ialdabaoth were +numerous and powerful on earth. + +Theophile looked wonderingly at his brother. He appeared not to +understand the questions addressed him. + +"Dear compatriot," he said, "I came at your invitation because it was +the invitation of an old comrade. But I do not know what you expect of +me, and I fear I shall be unable to help you in anything. I take no hand +in politics, neither do I stand forth as a reformer. I am not like you, +a spirit in revolt, a freethinker, a revolutionary. I remain faithful, +in the depths of my soul, to the Celestial Creator. I still adore the +Master I no longer serve, and I lament the days when shrouding myself +with my wings I formed with the multitude of the children of light a +wheel of flame around His throne of glory. Love, profane love has alone +separated me from God. I quitted heaven to follow a daughter of men. She +was beautiful and sang in music-halls." + +They rose. Arcade accompanied Theophile, who was living at the other end +of the town, at the corner of the Boulevard Rochechouart and the Rue de +Steinkerque. While walking through the deserted streets he who loved the +singer told his brother of his love and his sorrows. + +His fall, which dated from two years back, had been sudden. Belonging to +the eighth choir of the third hierarchy he was a bearer of grace to the +faithful who are still to be found in large numbers in France, +especially among the higher ranks of the officers of the army and navy. + +"One summer night," he said, "as I was descending from Heaven, to +distribute consolations, the grace of perseverance and of good deaths to +divers pious persons in the neighbourhood of the Etoile, my eyes, +although well accustomed to immortal light, were dazzled by the fiery +flowers with which the Champs Elysees were sown. Great candelabra, under +the trees, marking the entrances to cafes and restaurants, gave the +foliage the precious glitter of an emerald. Long garlands of luminous +pearl surrounded the open-air enclosures where a crowd of men and women +sat closely packed listening to the sounds of a lively orchestra, whose +strains reached my ears confusedly. + +"The night was warm, my wings were beginning to grow tired. I descended +into one of the concerts and sat down, invisible, among the audience. At +this moment, a woman appeared on the stage, clad in a short spangled +frock. Owing to the reflection of the footlights and the paint on her +face all that was visible of the latter was the expression and the +smile. Her body was supple and voluptuous. + +"She sang and danced.... Arcade, I have always loved dancing and music, +but this creature's thrilling voice and insidious movements created in +me an uneasiness I had never known before. My colour came and went. My +eyelids drooped, my tongue clove to my mouth. I could not leave the +spot." + +And Theophile related, groaning, how, possessed by desire for this +woman, he did not return to Heaven again, but, taking the shape of a +man, lived an earthly life, for it is written: "In those days the sons +of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful." + +A fallen angel, having lost his innocence along with the vision of God, +Theophile at heart still retained his simplicity of soul. Clad in rags, +filched from the stall of a Jewish hawker, he went to seek the woman he +loved. She was called Bouchotte and lodged in a small house in +Montmartre. He flung himself at her feet and told her she was adorable, +that she sang delightfully, that he loved her madly, that, for her, he +would renounce his family and his country, that he was a musician and +had nothing to eat. Touched by such youthful ingenuousness, candour, +poverty, and love, she fed, clothed, and loved him. + +However, after long and painful struggles, he procured employment as a +music-teacher, and made some money, which he brought to his mistress, +keeping nothing for himself. From that time forward she loved him no +longer. She despised him for earning so little and did not conceal her +indifference, weariness, and disgust. She overwhelmed him with +reproaches, irony, and abuse, in spite of which she kept him, for she +had had experience of worse partners and was used to domestic quarrels. +For the rest, she led a busy, serious, and rather hard life as artist +and woman. Theophile loved her as he had loved her the first night, and +he suffered. + +"She overworks herself," he told his celestial brother, "that is what +makes her so hard to please, but I am certain she loves me. I hope soon +to give her more comfort." + +And he spoke at length of an operetta at which he was working and which +he hoped to have brought out at a Paris theatre. A young poet had given +him the libretto. It was the story of Aline, queen of Golconda, after an +eighteenth-century tale. + +"I am strewing it profusely with melodies," said Theophile; "my music +comes from my heart. My heart is an inexhaustible source of melody. +Unfortunately nowadays people like recondite arrangements, difficult +scoring. They accuse me of being too fluid, too limpid, of not imparting +enough colour to my style, not aiming at stronger effects in harmony and +more vigorous contrasts. Harmony, harmony!... No doubt it has given its +merits, but it does not appeal to the heart. It is melody which carries +us away and ravishes us and brings smiles and tears to our eyes." At +these words he smiled and wept to himself. Then he continued with +emotion: + +"I am a fountain of melody. But the orchestration! there's the rub! In +Paradise, you know, Arcade, in the matter of instruments, we only +possess the harp, the psaltery, and the hydraulic organ." + +Arcade was only listening to him with half an ear. He was meditating +plans which filled his soul and swelled his heart. + +"Do you know any angels in revolt?" he asked his companion. "As for me, +I know only one, Prince Istar, with whom I have exchanged a few letters +and who offered to share his attic with me while I was finding a lodging +in this town, where I believe rents are very high." + +Of angels in revolt Theophile knew none. When he met a fallen spirit who +had formerly been one of his comrades he shook him by the hand, for he +was a faithful friend. Sometimes he saw Prince Istar. But he avoided +all those bad angels who shocked him by the violence of their opinions +and whose conversations plagued him to death. + +"Then you don't approve of me?" asked the impulsive Arcade. + +"Friend, I neither approve of you nor blame you. I understand nothing of +the ideas which trouble you. Neither do I think it good for an artist to +concern himself with politics. One has quite sufficient to occupy +oneself with one's art." + +He loved his profession, and had hopes of "arriving" one day, but +theatrical ways disgusted him. The only chance he saw of having his +piece played was to take one or two--perhaps three--collaborators, who, +without having done any work, would sign their names and share the +profits. Soon Bouchotte would fail to find engagements. When she offered +her services in some small hall the manager began by asking her how many +shares she was taking in the business. Such customs, thought Theophile, +were deplorable. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + WHEREIN WE HEAR THE BEAUTIFUL ARCHANGEL ZITA UNFOLD HER + LOFTY DESIGNS AND ARE SHOWN THE WINGS OF MIRAR, ALL + MOTH-EATEN, IN A CUPBOARD + + +Thus talking, the two archangels had reached the Boulevard Rochechouart. +As his eye lighted on a tavern, whence, through the mist, the light fell +golden on the pavement, Theophile suddenly bethought himself of the +Archangel Ithuriel who, in the guise of a poor but beautiful woman, was +living in wretched lodgings on La Butte and came every evening to read +the papers at this tavern. The musician often met her there. Her name +was Zita. Theophile had never been curious enough to enquire into the +opinions entertained by this archangel, but it was generally supposed +that she was a Russian nihilist, and he took her to be, like Arcade, an +atheist and a revolutionary. He had heard remarkable tales about her. +People said she was an hermaphrodite, and that as the active and passive +principles were united within her in a condition of stable equilibrium, +she was an example of a perfect being, finding in herself complete and +continuous satisfaction, contented yet unfortunate in that she knew not +desire. + +"But," added Theophile, "I have my doubts about it. I believe she's a +woman and subject to love, like everything else that has life and breath +in the Universe. Besides, someone caught her one day kissing her hand to +a strapping peasant fellow." + +He offered to introduce his companion to her. + +The two angels found her alone, reading. As they drew near she lifted +her great eyes in whose deeps of molten gold little sparks of light were +forever a-dance. Her brows were contracted into that austere fold which +we see on the forehead of the Pythian Apollo; her nose was perfect and +descended without a curve; her lips were compressed and imparted a +disdainful and supercilious air to her whole countenance. Her tawny +hair, with its gleaming lights, was carelessly adorned with the tattered +remnants of a huge bird of prey, her garments lay about her in dark and +shapeless folds. She was leaning her chin on a small ill-tended hand. + +Arcade, who had but recently heard references made to this powerful +archangel, showed her marked esteem, and placed entire confidence in +her. He immediately proceeded to tell of the progress his mind had made +towards knowledge and liberty, of his lucubrations in the d'Esparvieu +library, of his philosophical reading, his studies of nature, his works +on exegesis, his anger and his contempt when he recognised the deception +of the demiurge, his voluntary exile among mankind, and, finally, of his +project to stir up rebellion in Heaven. Ready to dare all against an +odious master, whom he pursued with inextinguishable hatred, he +expressed his profound happiness at finding in Ithuriel a mind capable +of counselling and helping him in his great undertaking. + +"You are not a very old hand at revolutions," said Zita, smiling. + +Nevertheless, she doubted neither his sincerity nor the firmness of his +declared resolve, and she congratulated him on his intellectual +audacity. + +"That is what is most lacking in our people," she said, "they do not +think." + +And she added almost immediately: "But on what can intelligence sharpen +its wits, in a country where the climate is soft and existence made +easy? Even here, where necessity calls for intellectual activity, +nothing is rarer than a person who thinks." + +"Nevertheless," replied Maurice's guardian angel, "man has created +science. The important thing is to introduce it into Heaven. When the +angels possess some notions of physics, chemistry, astronomy, and +physiology; when the study of matter shows them worlds in an atom, and +an atom in the myriads of planets; when they see themselves lost +between these two infinities; when they weigh and measure the stars, +analyse their composition, and calculate their orbits, they will +recognise that these monsters work in obedience to forces which no +intelligence can define, or that each star has its particular divinity, +or indigenous god; and they will realise that the gods of Aldebaran, +Betelgeuse, and Sirius are greater than Ialdabaoth. When at length they +come to scrutinise with care the little world in which their lot is +cast, and, piercing the crust of the earth, note the gradual evolution +of its flora and fauna and the rude origin of man, who, under the +shelter of rocks and in cave dwellings, had no God but himself; when +they discover that, united by the bonds of universal kinship to plants, +beasts, and men, they have successively indued all forms of organic +life, from the simplest and the most primitive, until they became at +length the most beautiful of the children of light, they will perceive +that Ialdabaoth, the obscure demon of an insignificant world lost in +space, is imposing on their credulity when he pretends that they issued +from nothingness at his bidding; they will perceive that he lies in +calling himself the Infinite, the Eternal, the Almighty, and that, so +far from having created worlds, he knows neither their number nor their +laws. They will perceive that he is like unto one of them; they will +despise him, and, shaking off his tyranny, will fling him into the +Gehenna where he has hurled those more worthy than himself." + +"Do you think so?" murmured Zita, puffing out the smoke of her +cigarette.... "Nevertheless, this knowledge by virtue of which you +reckon to enfranchise Heaven, has not destroyed religious sentiment on +earth. In countries where they have set up and taught this science of +physics, of chemistry, astronomy, and geology, which you think capable +of delivering the world, Christianity has retained almost all its sway. +If the positive sciences have had such a feeble influence on the beliefs +of mankind, it is not likely they will exercise a greater one on the +opinions of the angels, and nothing is of such dubious efficacy as +scientific propaganda." + +"What!" exclaimed Arcade, "you deny that Science has given the Church +its death-blow? Is it possible? The Church, at any rate, judges +otherwise. Science, which you believe has no power over her, is +redoubtable to her, since she proscribes it. From Galileo's dialogues to +Monsieur Aulard's little manuals she has condemned all its discoveries. +And not without reason. + +"In former days, when she gathered within her fold all that was great in +human thought, the Church held sway over the bodies as well as over the +souls of men, and imposed unity of obedience by fire and sword. To-day +her power is but a shadow and the elect among the great minds have +withdrawn from her. That is the state to which Science has reduced her." + +"Possibly," replied the beautiful archangel, "but how slowly, with what +vicissitudes, at the price of what efforts, of what sacrifices!" + +Zita did not absolutely condemn scientific propaganda, but she +anticipated no prompt or certain results from it. For her it was not so +much a question of enlightening the angels; the important thing was to +enfranchise them. In her opinion one only exerted a strong influence on +individuals, whoever they might be, by rousing their passions, and +appealing to their interests. + +"Persuade the angels that they will cover themselves with glory by +overthrowing the tyrant, and that they will be happier once they are +free; that is the most practical policy to attempt, and, for my own +part, I am devoting all my energies to its fulfilment. It is certainly +no light task, because the Kingdom of Heaven is a military autocracy and +there is no public opinion in it. Nevertheless, I do not despair of +starting an intellectual movement. I do not wish to boast, but no one is +more closely acquainted than I with the different classes of angelic +society." + +Throwing away her cigarette, Zita pondered for a moment, then, amid the +click of ivory balls on the billiard table, the clinking of glasses, +the curt voices of the players announcing their points, the monotonous +answers of the waiters to their customers, the Archangel enumerated the +entire population of the spirits of light. + +"We must not count on the Dominations, the Virtues, nor the Powers, +which compose the celestial lower middle class. I have no need to tell +you, for you know it as well as I, how selfish, base, and cowardly the +middle classes are. As to the great dignitaries, the Ministers, the +Generals, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim, you know what they are; they +will take no action. Let us, however, once prove ourselves the stronger, +and we shall have them with us. For if autocrats do not readily +acquiesce in their own downfall, once overthrown, all their forces +recoil upon themselves. It will be well to work the Army. Entirely loyal +as the Army is, it will allow itself to be influenced by a clever +anarchist propaganda. But our greatest and most constant efforts ought +to be brought to bear upon the angels of your own category, Arcade; the +guardian angels, who dwell upon earth in such great numbers. They fill +the lowest ranks of the hierarchy, are for the most part discontented +with their lot, and more or less imbued with the ideas of the present +century." + +She had already conferred with the guardian angels of Montmartre, +Clignancourt, and Filles-du-Calvaire. She had devised the plan of a +vast association of Spirits on Earth with the view of conquering Heaven. + +"To accomplish this task," she said, "I have established myself in +France. But not because I had the folly to believe myself freer in a +republic than in a monarchy. Quite the contrary, for there is no country +where the liberty of the individual is less respected than in France. +But the people are indifferent to everything connected with religion; +nowhere else, therefore, should I enjoy such tranquillity." + +She invited Arcade to unite his efforts to hers, and when they separated +at the door of the _brasserie_ the steel shutter was already making its +groaning descent. + +"Above all," said Zita, "you must meet the gardener. I will take you to +his rustic home one day." + +Theophile, who had slumbered during all this talk, begged his friend to +come home with him and smoke a cigarette. He lived quite near in the +small street opposite, leading off the Boulevard. Arcade would see +Bouchotte, she would please him. + +They climbed up five flights of stairs. Bouchotte had not yet returned. +A tin of sardines lay open on the piano. Red stockings coiled about the +arm-chairs. + +"It's a little place, but it's comfortable," said Theophile. + +And gazing out of the window which looked out on the russet-coloured +night, with its myriad lights, he added, "One can see the _Sacre +Coeur_." His hand on Arcade's shoulder, he repeated several times, "I am +glad to see you." + +Then, dragging his former companion in glory into the kitchen passage, +he put down his candlestick, drew a key from his pocket, opened a +cupboard, and, raising a linen covering, disclosed two large white +wings. + +"You see," he said, "I have preserved them. From time to time, when I am +alone, I go and look at them; it does me good." + +And he dabbed his reddened eyes. He stood awhile, overcome by silent +emotion. Then, holding the candle near the long pinions which were +moulting their down in places, he murmured, "They are eaten away." + +"You must put some pepper on them," said Arcade. + +"I have done so," replied the angelic musician, sighing. "I have put +pepper, camphor, and powder on them. But nothing does any good." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + WHICH REVEALS THE CHERUB TOILING FOR THE WELFARE OF HUMANITY + AND CONCLUDES IN AN ENTIRELY NOVEL MANNER WITH THE MIRACLE + OF THE FLUTE + + +The first night of his incarnation Arcade slept at the angel Istar's, in +a garret in that narrow, gloomy Rue Mazarine which wallows along beneath +the shadow of the old Institute of France. Istar, who had been expecting +him, had pushed against the wall the shattered retorts, cracked pots, +broken bottles, and odds and ends of iron stoves, which made up the +furniture of his room, and spread his clothes on the floor to lie on, +leaving his guest his folding-bed with its straw mattress. + +The celestial spirits differ from one another in appearance according to +the hierarchy and the choir to which they belong, and according to their +own particular nature. They are all beautiful; but in different fashion, +and they do not all offer to the eye the soft contours and dimpling +smiles of childhood with its rosy lights and pearly tints. Nor do they +all adorn themselves with eternal youth, that indefinable beauty that +Greek art in its decline has imparted to its most lovingly handled +marbles, and whereof Christian painters have so often timidly essayed to +give us veiled and softened imitations. In some of them the chin glows +with tufts of hair, and the limbs are furnished with such vigorous +muscles that it seems as if serpents were writhing beneath the skin. +Some have no wings, others possess two, four, or six; others again are +formed entirely of conjoined pinions. Many, and these not the least +illustrious, take the form of superb monsters, such as the Centaurs of +fable; nay, one may even see some who are living chariots, and wheels of +fire. A member of the highest celestial hierarchy, Istar belonged to the +choir of Cherubim or Kerubs who see above them the Seraphim alone. In +common with all the angelic spirits of his rank he had formerly borne in +Heaven the bodily shape of a winged bull surmounted by the head of a +horned and bearded man, and carrying between his loins the attributes of +generous fecundity. He was vaster and more vigorous than any animal on +earth, and when he stood erect with outspread wings he covered with his +shadow sixty archangels. + +Such was Istar in his native home. There he radiated strength and +sweetness. His heart was full of courage and his soul benevolent. +Moreover, in those days he loved his lord. He believed him to be good +and yielded him faithful service. But even while guarding the portals of +his Master, he used to ponder unceasingly on the punishment of the +rebellious angels and the curse of Eve. His mind worked slowly but +profoundly. When, after a long course of centuries, he persuaded himself +that Ialdabaoth in creating the world had created evil and death, he +ceased to adore and to serve him. His love changed to hatred, his +veneration to contempt. He shouted his execrations in his face, and fled +to earth. + +Embodied in human form and reduced to the stature of the sons of Adam, +he still retained some characteristics of his former nature. His big +protruding eyes, his beaked nose, his thick lips framed in a black beard +which descended in curls on to his chest recalled those Cherubs of the +tabernacle of Iahveh, of which the bulls of Nineveh afford us a pretty +accurate representation. He bore the name of Istar on earth as well as +in Heaven, and although exempt from vanity and free from all social +prejudice, he was immensely desirous of showing himself sincere and +truthful in all things. He therefore proclaimed the illustrious rank in +which his birth had placed him in the celestial hierarchy and translated +into French his title of Cherub by the equivalent one of Prince, calling +himself Prince Istar. Seeking shelter among mankind he had developed an +ardent love for them. While awaiting the coming of the hour when he +should deliver Heaven from bondage, he dreamed of the salvation of +regenerate humanity and was eager to consummate the destruction of this +wicked world, in order to raise upon its ashes, to the sound of the +lyre, a city radiant with happiness and love. A chemist in the pay of a +dealer in nitrates, he lived very frugally. He wrote for newspapers with +advanced views on liberty, spoke at public meetings, and had got himself +sentenced several times to several months' imprisonment for +anti-militarism. + +Istar greeted his brother Arcade cordially, approved of his rupture with +the party of crime, and informed him of the descent of fifty of the +children of light who, at the present moment, formed a colony near Val +de Grace, imbued with a really excellent spirit. + +"It is simply raining angels in Paris," he said, laughing. "Every day +some dignitary of the sacred palace falls on one's head, and soon the +Sultan of the Cherubs will have no one to make into Vizirs or guards but +the little unbreeched vagabonds of his pigeon coops." + +Soothed by the good news, Arcade fell asleep, full of happiness and +hope. + +He awoke in the early dawn and saw Prince Istar bending over his +furnaces, his retorts, and his test tubes. Prince Istar was working for +the good of humanity. + +Every morning when Arcade woke he saw Prince Istar fulfilling his work +of tenderness and love. Sometimes the Kerub, huddled up with his head in +his hands, would softly murmur a few chemical formulae; at others, +drawing himself up to his full height, like a dark naked column, with +his head, his arms, nay, his entire bust clean out of the sky-light +window, he would deposit his melting-pot on the roof, fearing the +perquisition with which he was constantly menaced. Moved by an immense +pity for the miseries of the world wherein he dwelt in exile, conscious +perhaps of the rumours to which his name gave rise, inebriated with his +own virtue, he played the part of apostle to the Human Race, and +neglecting the task he had undertaken in coming to earth, he forgot all +about the emancipation of the angels. Arcade, who, on the contrary, +dreamed of nothing else but of conquering Heaven and returning thither +in triumph, reproached the Cherub with forgetting his native land. + +Prince Istar, with a great frank, uncouth laugh, acknowledged that he +had no preference for angels over men. + +"If I am doing my best," he replied to his celestial brother, "if I am +doing my best to stir up France and Europe, it is because the day is +dawning which will behold the triumph of the social revolution. It is a +pleasure to cast one's seed on ground so well prepared. The French +having passed from feudalism to monarchy, and from monarchy to a +financial oligarchy, will easily pass from a financial oligarchy to +anarchy." + +"How erroneous it is," retorted Arcade, "to believe in great and sudden +changes in the social order in Europe! The old order is still young in +strength and power. The means of defence at her disposal are formidable. +On the other hand, the proletariat's plan of defensive organisation is +of the vaguest description and brings merely weakness and confusion to +the struggle. In our celestial country all goes quite otherwise. Beneath +an apparently unchangeable exterior all is rotten within. A mere push +would suffice to overturn an edifice which has not been touched for +millions of centuries. Out-worn administration, out-worn army, out-worn +finance, the whole thing is more worm-eaten than either the Russian or +Persian autocracy." + +And the kindly Arcade adjured the Cherub to fly first to the aid of his +brethren who, though dwelling amid the soft clouds with the sound of +citterns and their cups of paradisal wine around them, were in more +wretched plight than mankind bowed over the grudging earth. For the +latter have a conception of justice, while the angels rejoice in +iniquity. He exhorted him to deliver the Prince of Light and his +stricken companions and to re-establish them in their ancient honours. + +Prince Istar allowed himself to be convinced. + +He promised to put the sweet persuasiveness of his words and the +excellent formulae of his explosives at the service of the celestial +revolution. He gave his promise. + +"To-morrow," he said. + +And when the morrow came he continued his anti-militarist propaganda at +Issy-les-Moulineaux. Like the Titan Prometheus, Istar loved mankind. + +Arcade, suffering from all the desires to which the sons of Adam are +subjected, found himself lacking in resources to satisfy them. Istar +gave him a start in a printing house in the Rue de Vaugirard where he +knew the foreman. Arcade, thanks to his celestial intelligence, soon +knew how to set up type and became, in a short time, a good compositor. + +After standing all day in the whirring workroom, holding the +composing-stick in his left hand, and swiftly drawing the little leaden +signs from the case in the order required by the copy fixed in the +_visorium_, he would go and wash his hands at the pump and dine at the +corner bar, a newspaper propped up before him on the marble table. Being +now no longer invisible, he could not make his way into the d'Esparvieu +library, and was thus debarred from allaying his ardent thirst for +knowledge at that inexhaustible source. He went, of an evening, to read +at the library of Ste. Genevieve on the famous hill of learning, but +there were only ordinary books to be had there; greasy things, covered +with ridiculous annotations, and lacking many pages. + +The sight of women troubled and unsettled him. He would remember Madame +des Aubels and her charm, and, although he was handsome, he was not +loved, because of his poverty and his workaday clothes. He saw much of +Zita, and took a certain pleasure in going for walks with her on Sundays +along the dusty roads which edge the grass-grown trenches of the +fortifications. They wandered, the pair of them, by wayside inns, +market-gardens, and green retreats, propounding and discussing the +vastest plans that ever stirred the world, and, occasionally, as they +passed along by some travelling circus, the steam organ of the +merry-go-round would furnish an accompaniment to their words as they +breathed fire and fury against Heaven. + +Zita used often to say: + +"Istar means well, but he's a simple fellow. He believes in the goodness +of men and things. He undertakes the destruction of the old world and +imagines that anarchy of itself will create order and harmony. You, +Arcade, you believe in Science; you deem that men and angels are capable +of understanding, whereas, in point of fact, they are only creatures of +sentiment. You may be quite sure that nothing is to be obtained from +them by appealing to their intelligence; one must rouse their interests +and their passions." + +Arcade, Istar, Zita, and three or four other angelic conspirators +occasionally foregathered in Theophile Belais' little flat, where +Bouchotte gave them tea. Though she did not know that they were +rebellious angels, she hated them instinctively, and feared them, for +she had had a Christian education, albeit she had sadly failed to keep +it up. + +Prince Istar alone pleased her; she thought there was something +kind-hearted and an air of natural distinction about him. He stove in +the sofa, broke down the arm-chairs, and tore corners off sheets of +music to make notes, which he thrust into pockets invariably crammed +with pamphlets and bottles. The musician used to gaze sorrowfully at the +manuscript of his operetta, _Aline, Queen of Golconda_, with its corners +all torn off. The prince also had a habit of giving Theophile Belais all +sorts of things to take care of--mechanical contrivances, chemicals, +bits of old iron, powders, and liquids which gave off noisome smells. +Theophile Belais put them cautiously away in the cupboard where he kept +his wings, and the responsibility weighed heavily upon him. + +Arcade was much pained at the disdain of those of his fellows who had +remained faithful. When they met him as they went on their sacred +errands they regarded him as they passed by with looks of cruel hatred +or of pity that was crueller still. + +He used to visit the rebel angels whom Prince Istar pointed out to him, +and usually met with a good reception, but as soon as he began to speak +of conquering Heaven, they did not conceal the embarrassment and +displeasure he caused them. Arcade perceived that they had no desire to +be disturbed in their tastes, their affairs, and their habits. The +falsity of their judgment, the narrowness of their minds, shocked him; +and the rivalry, the jealousy they displayed towards one another +deprived him of all hope of uniting them in a common cause. Perceiving +how exile debases the character and warps the intellect, he felt his +courage fail him. + +One evening, when he had confessed his weariness of spirit to Zita, the +beautiful archangel said: + +"Let us go and see Nectaire; Nectaire has remedies of his own for +sadness and fatigue." + +She led him into the woods of Montmorency and stopped at the threshold +of a small white house, adjoining a kitchen garden, laid waste by +winter, where far back in the shadows the light shone on forcing-frames +and cracked glass melon shades. + +Nectaire opened the door to his visitors, and, after quieting the growls +of a big mastiff which protected the garden, led them into a low room +warmed by an earthenware stove. + +Against the whitewashed wall, on a deal board, among the onions and +seeds, lay a flute ready to be put to the lips. A round walnut table +bore a stone tobacco-jar, a pipe, a bottle of wine and some glasses. The +gardener offered each of his guests a cane-seated chair, and himself sat +down on a stool by the table. + +He was a sturdy old man; thick grey hair stood up on his head, he had a +furrowed brow, a snub-nose, a red face, and a forked beard. + +The big mastiff stretched himself at his master's feet, rested his short +black muzzle on his paws, and closed his eyes. The gardener poured out +some wine for his guests, and when they had drunk and talked a little, +Zita said to Nectaire: + +"Please play your flute to us, you will give pleasure to my friend whom +I have brought to see you." + +The old man immediately consented. He put the boxwood pipe to his +lips,--so clumsy was it that it looked as if the gardener had fashioned +it himself,--and preluded with a few strange runs. Then he developed +rich melodies in which the thrills sparkled like diamonds and pearls on +a velvet ground. Touched by cunning fingers, animated with creative +breath, the rustic pipe sang like a silver flute. There were no +over-shrill notes and the tone was always even and pure. One seemed to +be listening to the nightingale and the Muses singing together, the soul +of Nature and the soul of Man. And the old man ordered and developed his +thoughts in a musical language full of grace and daring. He told of +love, of fear, of vain quarrels, of all-conquering laughter, of the +calm light of the intellect, of the arrows of the mind piercing with +their golden shafts the monsters of Ignorance and Hate. He told also of +Joy and Sorrow bending their twin heads over the earth and of Desire +which brings worlds into being. + +The whole night listened to the flute of Nectaire. Already the evening +star was rising above the paling horizon. + +There they sat; Zita with hands clasped about her knees, Arcade, his +head leaning on his hand, his lips apart. Motionless they listened. A +lark, which had awakened hard by in a sandy field, lured by these novel +sounds, rose swiftly in the air, hovered a few seconds, then dropped at +one swoop into the musician's orchard. The neighbouring sparrows, +forsaking the crannies of the mouldering walls, came and sat in a row on +the window-ledge whence notes came welling forth that gave them more +delight than oats or grains of barley. A jay, coming for the first time +out of his wood, folded his sapphire wings on a leafless cherry tree. +Beside the drain-head, a large black rat, glistening with the greasy +water of the sewers, sitting on his hind legs, raised his short arms and +slender fingers in amazement. A field-mouse, that dwelt in the orchard, +was seated near him. Down from the tiles came the old tom-cat, who +retained the grey fur, the ringed tail, the powerful loins, the courage, +and the pride of his ancestors. He pushed against the half-open door +with his nose and approaching the flute-player with silent tread, sat +gravely down, pricking his ears that had been torn in many a nocturnal +combat; the grocer's white cat followed him, sniffing the vibrant air +and then, arching her back and closing her blue eyes, listened in +ravishment. Mice, swarming in crowds from under the boards, surrounded +them, and fearing neither tooth nor claw, sat motionless, their pink +hands folded voluptuously on their bosoms. Spiders that had strayed far +from their webs, with waving legs, gathered in a charmed circle on the +ceiling. A small grey lizard, that had glided on to the doorstep, stayed +there, fascinated, and, in the loft, the bat might have been seen +hanging by her nails, head down, now half-awakened from her winter +sleep, swaying to the rhythm of the marvellous flute. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + WHEREIN WE SEE YOUNG MAURICE BEWAILING THE LOSS OF HIS + GUARDIAN ANGEL, EVEN IN HIS MISTRESS'S ARMS, AND WHEREIN WE + HEAR THE ABBE PATOUILLE REJECT AS VAIN AND ILLUSORY ALL + NOTIONS OF A NEW REBELLION OF THE ANGELS + + +A fortnight had elapsed since the angel's apparition in the flat. For +the first time Gilberte arrived before Maurice at the rendezvous. +Maurice was gloomy, Gilberte sulky. So far as they were concerned Nature +had resumed her drab monotony. They eyed each other languidly, and kept +glancing towards the angle between the wardrobe with the mirror and the +window, where recently the pale shade of Arcade had taken shape, and +where now the blue cretonne of the hangings was the only thing visible. +Without giving him a name (it was unnecessary) Madame des Aubels asked: + +"You have not seen him since?" + +Slowly, sadly, Maurice turned his head from right to left, and from left +to right. + +"You look as if you missed him," continued Madame des Aubels. "But come, +confess that he gave you a terrible fright, and that you were shocked at +his unconventionally." + +"Certainly he was unconventional," said Maurice without any resentment. + +"Tell me, Maurice, is it nothing to you now to be with me alone?... You +need an angel to inspire you. That is sad, for a young man like you!" + +Maurice appeared not to hear, and asked gravely: + +"Gilberte, do you feel that your guardian angel is watching over you?" + +"I, not at all. I have never thought of him, and yet I am not without +religion. In the first place, people who have none are like animals. And +then one cannot go straight without religion. It is impossible." + +"Exactly, that's just it," said Maurice, his eyes on the violet stripes +of his flowerless pyjamas; "when one has one's guardian angel one does +not even think about him, and when one has lost him one feels very +lonely." + +"So you miss this...." + +"Well, the fact is...." + +"Oh, yes, yes, you miss him. Well, my dear, the loss of such a guardian +angel as that is no great matter. No, no! he is not worth much, that +Arcade of yours. On that famous day, while you were out getting him some +clothes, he was ever so long fastening my dress, and I certainly felt +his hand.... Well, at any rate, don't trust him." + +Maurice dreamily lit a cigarette. They spoke of the six days' bicycle +race at the winter velodrome, and of the aviation show at the motor +exhibition at Brussels, without experiencing the slightest amusement. +Then they tried love-making as a sort of convenient pastime, and +succeeded in becoming moderately absorbed in it; but at the very moment +when she might have been expected to play a part more in accordance with +a mutual sentiment, she exclaimed with a sudden start: + +"Good Heavens! Maurice, how stupid of you to tell me that my guardian +angel can see me. You cannot imagine how uncomfortable the idea makes +me." + +Maurice, somewhat taken aback, recalled, a little roughly, his +mistress's wandering thoughts. + +She declared that her principles forbade her to think of playing a round +game with angels. + +Maurice was longing to see Arcade again and had no other thought. He +reproached himself for suffering him to depart without discovering where +he was going, and he cudgelled his brains night and day thinking how to +find him again. + +On the bare chance, he put a notice in the personal column of one of the +big papers, running thus: + +"Arcade. Come back to your Maurice." + +Day after day went by, and Arcade did not return. + +One morning, at seven o'clock, Maurice went to St. Sulpice to hear Abbe +Patouille say Mass, then, as the priest was leaving the sacristy, he +went up to him and asked to be heard for a moment. + +They descended the steps of the church together and in the bright +morning light walked round the fountain of the _Quatre Eveques_. In +spite of his troubled conscience and the difficulty of presenting so +extraordinary a case with any degree of credibility, Maurice related how +the angel Arcade had appeared to him and had announced his unhappy +resolve to separate from him and to stir up a new revolt of the spirits +of glory. And young d'Esparvieu asked the worthy ecclesiastic how to +find his celestial guardian again, since he could not bear his absence, +and how to lead his angel back to the Christian faith. Abbe Patouille +replied in a tone of affectionate sorrow that his dear child had been +dreaming, that he took a morbid hallucination for reality, and that it +was not permissible to believe that good angels may revolt. + +"People have a notion," he added, "that they can lead a life of +dissipation and disorder with impunity. They are wrong. The abuse of +pleasure corrupts the intelligence and impairs the understanding. The +devil takes possession of the sinner's senses, penetrating even to his +soul. He has deceived you, Maurice, by a clumsy artifice." + +Maurice objected that he was not in any way a victim of hallucinations, +that he had not been dreaming, that he had seen his guardian angel with +his eyes and heard him with his ears. + +"Monsieur l'Abbe," he insisted, "a lady who happened to be with me at +the time,--I need not mention her name,--also saw and heard him. And, +moreover, she felt the angel's fingers straying ... well, anyhow, she +felt them.... Believe me, Monsieur l'Abbe, nothing could be more real, +more positively certain than this apparition. The angel was fair, young, +very handsome. His clear skin seemed, in the shadow, as if bathed in +milky light. He spoke in a pure, sweet voice." + +"That, alone, my child," the Abbe interrupted quickly, "proves you were +dreaming. According to all the demonologies, bad angels have a hoarse +voice, which grates like a rusty lock, and even if they did contrive to +give a certain look of beauty to their faces, they cannot succeed in +imitating the pure voice of the good spirits. This fact, attested by +numerous witnesses, is established beyond all doubt." + +"But, Monsieur l'Abbe, I saw him. I saw him sit down, stark naked, in an +arm-chair on a pair of black stockings. What else do you want me to tell +you?" + +The Abbe Patouille appeared in no way disturbed by this announcement. + +"I say once more, my son," he replied, "that these unhappy illusions, +these dreams of a deeply troubled soul, are to be ascribed to the +deplorable state of your conscience. I believe, moreover, that I can +detect the particular circumstance that has caused your unstable mind +thus to come to grief. During the winter in company with Monsieur +Sariette and your Uncle Gaetan, you came, in an evil frame of mind, to +see the Chapel of the Holy Angels in this church, then undergoing +repair. As I observed on that occasion, it is impossible to keep artists +too closely to the rules of Christian art; they cannot be too strongly +enjoined to respect Holy Writ and its authorized interpreters. Monsieur +Eugene Delacroix did not suffer his fiery genius to be controlled by +tradition. He brooked no guidance and, here, in this chapel he has +painted pictures which in common parlance we call lurid, compositions of +a violent, terrible nature which, far from inspiring the soul with +peace, quietude, and calm, plunge it into a state of agitation. In them +the angels are depicted with wrathful countenances, their features are +sombre and uncouth. One might take them to be Lucifer and his companions +meditating their revolt. Well, my son, it was these pictures, acting +upon a mind already weakened and undermined by every kind of +dissipation, that have filled it with the trouble to which it is at +present a prey." + +But Maurice would have none of it. + +"Oh, no! Monsieur l'Abbe," he cried, "it is not Eugene Delacroix's +pictures that have been troubling me. I didn't so much as look at them. +I am completely indifferent to that kind of art." + +"Well, then, my son, believe me: there is no truth, no reality, in any +of the story you have just related to me. Your guardian angel has +certainly not appeared to you." + +"But, Abbe," replied Maurice, who had the most absolute confidence in +the evidence of the senses, "I saw him tying up a woman's shoe-laces and +putting on the trousers of a suicide." + +And stamping his feet on the asphalt, Maurice called as witnesses to the +truth of his words the sky, the earth, all nature, the towers of St. +Sulpice, the walls of the great seminary, the Fountain of the _Quatre +Eveques_, the public lavatory, the cabmen's shelter, the taxis and motor +'buses' shelter, the trees, the passers-by, the dogs, the sparrows, the +flower-seller and her flowers. + +The Abbe made haste to end the interview. + +"All this is error, falsehood, and illusion, my child," said he. "You +are a Christian: think as a Christian,--a Christian does not allow +himself to be seduced by empty shadows. Faith protects him against the +seduction of the marvellous, he leaves credulity to freethinkers. There +are credulous people for you--freethinkers! There is no humbug they will +not swallow. But the Christian carries a weapon which dissipates +diabolical illusions,--the sign of the Cross. Reassure yourself, +Maurice,--you have not lost your guardian angel. He still watches over +you. It lies with you not to make this task too difficult nor too +painful for him. Good-bye, Maurice. The weather is going to change, for +I feel a burning in my big toe." + +And Abbe Patouille went off with his breviary under his arm, hobbling +along with a dignity that seemed to foretell a mitre. + +That very day, Arcade and Zita were leaning over the parapet of La +Butte, gazing down on the mist and smoke that lay floating over the vast +city. + +"Is it possible," said Arcade, "for the mind to conceive all the pain +and suffering that lie pent within a great city? It is my belief that if +a man succeeded in realising it, the weight of it would crush him to the +earth." + +"And yet," answered Zita, "every living being in that place of torment +is enamoured of life. It is a great enigma! + +"Unhappy, ill-fated, while they live, the idea of ceasing to be is, +nevertheless, a horror to them. They look not for solace in +annihilation, it does not even bring them the promise of rest. In their +madness they even look upon nothingness with terror: they have peopled +it with phantoms. Look you at these pediments, these towers and domes +and spires that pierce the mist and rear on high their glittering +crosses. Men bow in adoration before the demiurge who has given them a +life that is worse than death, and a death that is worse than life." + +Zita was for a long time lost in thought. At length she broke silence, +saying: + +"There is something, Arcade, that I must confess to you. It was no +desire for a purer justice or wiser laws that hurried Ithuriel +earthward. Ambition, a taste for intrigue, the love of wealth and +honour, all these things made Heaven, with its calm, unbearable to me, +and I longed to mingle with the restless race of men. I came, and by an +art unknown to nearly all the angels, I learned how to fashion myself a +body which, since I could change it as the fancy seized me, to +whatsoever age and sex I would, has permitted me to experience the most +diverse and amazing of human destinies. A hundred times I took a +position of renown among the leaders of the day, the lords of wealth and +princes of nations. I will not reveal to you, Arcade, the famous names I +bore; know only that I was pre-eminent in learning, in the fine arts, in +power, wealth, and beauty, among all the nations of the world. At last, +it was but a few years since, as I was journeying in France, under the +outward semblance of a distinguished foreigner, I chanced to be roaming +at evening through the forest of Montmorency, when I heard a flute +unfolding all the sorrows of Heaven. The purity and sadness of its +notes rent my very soul. Never before had I hearkened to aught so +lovely. My eyes were wet with tears, my bosom full of sobs, as I drew +near and beheld, on the skirts of a glade, an old man like to a faun, +blowing on a rustic pipe. It was Nectaire. I cast myself at his feet, +imprinted kisses on his hands and on his lips divine, and fled away.... + +"From that day forth, conscious of the littleness of human achievements, +weary of the tumult and the vanity of earthly things, ashamed of my vast +and profitless endeavours, and deciding to seek out a loftier aim for my +ambition, I looked upwards towards my skiey home and vowed I would +return to it as a Deliverer. I rid myself of titles, name, wealth, +friends, the horde of sycophants and flatterers and, as Zita the +obscure, set to work in indigence and solitude, to bring freedom into +Heaven." + +"And I," said Arcade, "I too have heard the flute of Nectaire. But who +is this old gardener who can thus woo from a rude wooden pipe notes that +are so moving and so beautiful?" + +"You will soon know," answered Zita. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + WHEREIN MIRA THE SEERESS, ZEPHYRINE, AND THE FATAL AMEDEE + ARE SUCCESSIVELY BROUGHT UPON THE SCENE, AND WHEREIN THE + NOTION OF EURIPIDES THAT THOSE WHOM ZEUS WISHES TO CRUSH HE + FIRST MAKES MAD, IS ILLUSTRATED BY THE TERRIBLE EXAMPLE OF + MONSIEUR SARIETTE + + +Disappointed at his failure to enlighten an ecclesiastic renowned for +his clarity of mind, and frustrated in the hope of finding his angel +again on the high road of orthodoxy, Maurice took it into his head to +resort to occultism and resolved to go and consult a seer. He would have +undoubtedly applied to Madame de Thebes, but he had already questioned +her on the occasion of his early love troubles, and her replies showed +such wisdom that he no longer believed her to be a soothsayer. He +therefore had recourse to a fashionable medium, Madame Mira. He had +heard many examples quoted of the extraordinary insight of this seeress, +but it was necessary to present Madame Mira with some object which the +absent one had either touched or worn and to which her translucent gaze +had to be attracted. Maurice, trying to remember what the angel had +touched since his ill-fated incarnation, recollected that in his +celestial nudity he had sat down in an arm-chair on Madame des Aubels' +black stockings and that he had afterwards helped that lady to dress. + +Maurice asked Gilberte for one of the talismans required by the +clairvoyante. But Gilberte could not give him a single one, unless, as +she said, she herself were to play the part of the talisman. For the +angel had, in her case, displayed the greatest indiscretion, and such +agility that it was impossible always to forestall his enterprise. On +hearing this confession, which nevertheless told him nothing new, +Maurice lost his temper with the angel, calling him by the names of the +lowest animals and swearing he would give him a good kick when he got +him within reach of his foot. But his fury soon turned against Madame +des Aubels; he accused her of having provoked the insolence she now +denounced, and in his wrath he referred to her by all the zoological +symbols of immodesty and perversity. His love for Arcade was rekindled +in his heart, and burned with a more ardent flame than ever, and the +deserted youth, with outstretched arms and bended knees, invoked his +angel with sobs and lamentations. + +During his sleepless nights it occurred to him that perhaps the books +the angel had turned over before his incarnation might serve as a +talisman. One morning, therefore, Maurice went up to the library and +greeted Monsieur Sariette, who was cataloguing under the romantic gaze +of Alexandre d'Esparvieu. Monsieur Sariette smiled, but his face was +deathly pale. Now that an invisible hand no longer upset the books +placed under his charge, now that tranquillity and order once more +reigned in the library, Monsieur Sariette was happy, but his strength +diminished day by day. There was little left of him but a frail and +contented shadow. + + "One dies, in full content, of sorrow past." + +"Monsieur Sariette," said Maurice, "you remember that time when your +books were disarranged every night, how armfuls disappeared, how they +were dragged about, turned over, ruined, and sent rolling helter-skelter +as far as the gutter in the Rue Palatine. Those were great days! Point +out to me, Monsieur Sariette, the books which suffered most." + +This proposition threw Monsieur Sariette into a melancholy stupor, and +Maurice had to repeat his request three times before he could make the +aged librarian understand. At length he pointed to a very ancient Talmud +from Jerusalem as having been frequently touched by those unseen hands. +An apocryphal Gospel of the third century, consisting of twenty papyrus +sheets, had also quitted its place time after time. Gassendi's +Correspondence too seemed to have been well thumbed. + +"But," added Monsieur Sariette, "the book to which the mysterious +visitant devoted the most particular attention was undoubtedly a little +copy of _Lucretius_ adorned with the arms of Philippe de Vendome, Grand +Prieur de France, with autograph annotations by Voltaire, who, as is +well known, frequently visited the Temple in his younger days. The +fearsome reader who caused me such terrible anxiety never grew weary of +this _Lucretius_ and made it his bedside book, as it were. His taste was +sound, for it's a gem of a thing. Alas! the monster made a blot of ink +on page 137 which perhaps the chemists with all the science at their +disposal will be powerless to erase." + +And Monsieur Sariette heaved a profound sigh. He repented having said +all this when young d'Esparvieu asked him for the loan of the precious +_Lucretius_. Vainly did the jealous custodian affirm that the book was +being repaired at the binder's and was not available. Maurice made it +clear that he wasn't to be taken in like that. He strode resolutely into +the abode of the philosophers and the globes and seating himself in an +arm-chair said: + +"I am waiting." + +Monsieur Sariette suggested his having another edition. There were some +that, textually, were more correct, and were, therefore, preferable from +the student's point of view. He offered him Barbou's edition, or +Coustelier's, or, better still, a French translation. He could have the +Baron des Coutures' version--which was perhaps a little +old-fashioned--or La Grange's, or those in the Nisard and Panckouke +series; or, again, there were two versions of striking elegance, one in +verse and the other in prose, both from the pen of Monsieur de +Pongerville of the French Academy. + +"I don't need a translation," said Maurice proudly. "Give me the Prior +de Vendome's copy." + +Monsieur Sariette went slowly up to the cupboard in which the jewel in +question was contained. The keys were rattling in his trembling hand. He +raised them to the lock and withdrew them again immediately and +suggested that Maurice should have the common _Lucretius_ published by +Garnier. + +"It's very handy," said he with an engaging smile. + +But the silence with which this proposal was received made it clear that +resistance was useless. He slowly drew forth the volume from its place, +and having taken the precaution to see that there wasn't a speck of dust +on the table-cloth, he laid it tremblingly thereon before the +great-grandson of Alexandre d'Esparvieu. + +Maurice began to turn the leaves, and when he got to page 137 he saw the +stain which had been made with violet ink. It was about the size of a +pea. + +"Ay, that's it," said old Sariette, who had his eye on the _Lucretius_ +the whole time; "that's the trace those invisible monsters left behind +them." + +"What, there were several of them, Monsieur Sariette?" exclaimed +Maurice. + +"I cannot tell. But I don't know whether I have a right to have this +blot removed since, like the blot Paul Louis Courier made on the +Florentine manuscript, it constitutes a literary document, so to speak." + +Scarcely were the words out of the old fellow's mouth when the front +door bell rang and there was a confused noise of voices and footsteps in +the next room. Sariette ran forward at the sound and collided with Pere +Guinardon's mistress, old Zephyrine, who, with her tousled hair sticking +up like a nest of vipers, her face aflame, her bosom heaving, her +abdominal part like an eiderdown quilt puffed out by a terrific gale, +was choking with grief and rage. And amid sobs and sighs and groans and +all the innumerable sounds which, on earth, make up the mighty uproar to +which the emotions of living beings and the tumult of nature give rise, +she cried: + +"He's gone, the monster! He's gone off with her. He's cleared out the +whole shanty and left me to shift for myself with eighteenpence in my +purse." + +And she proceeded to give a long and incoherent account of how Michel +Guinardon had abandoned her and gone to live with Octavie, the +bread-woman's daughter, and she let loose a torrent of abuse against the +traitor. + +"A man whom I've kept going with my own money for fifty years and more. +For I've had plenty of the needful and known plenty of the upper ten and +all. I dragged him out of the gutter and now this is what I get for it. +He's a bright beauty, that friend of yours. The lazy scoundrel. Why, he +had to be dressed like a child, the drunken contemptible brute. You +don't know him yet, Monsieur Sariette. He's a forger. He turns out +Giottos, Giottos, I tell you, and Fra Angelicos and Grecos, as hard as +he can and sells them to art-dealers--yes, and Fragonards too, and +Baudouins. He's a debauchee, and doesn't believe in God! That's the +worst of the lot, Monsieur Sariette, for without the fear of God...." + +Long did Zephyrine continue to pour forth vituperations. When at last +her breath failed her, Monsieur Sariette availed himself of the +opportunity to exhort her to be calm and bring herself to look on the +bright side of things. Guinardon would come back. A man doesn't forget +anyone he's lived and got on well with for fifty years---- + +These two observations only goaded her to a fresh outburst, and +Zephyrine swore she would never forget the slight that had been put on +her; she swore she would never have the monster back with her any more. +And if he came to ask her to forgive him on his knees, she would let him +grovel at her feet. + +"Don't you understand, Monsieur Sariette, that I despise and hate him, +that he makes me sick?" + +Sixty times she voiced these lofty sentiments; sixty times she vowed she +would never have Guinardon back with her again, that she couldn't bear +the sight of him, even in a picture. + +Monsieur Sariette made no attempt to oppose a resolve which, after +protestations such as these, he regarded as unshakable. He did not blame +Zephyrine in the least. He even supported her. Unfolding to the deserted +one a purer future, he told her of the frailty of human sentiment, +exhorted her to display a spirit of renunciation and enjoined her to +show a pious resignation to the will of God. + +"Seeing, in truth, that your friend is so little worthy of affection +..." + +He was not suffered to continue. Zephyrine flew at him, and shaking him +furiously by the collar of his frock-coat, she yelled, half choking with +rage: "So little worthy of affection! Michel! Ah! my boy, you find +another more kind, more gay, more witty, you find another like him, +always young, yes, always. Not worthy of affection! Anyone can see you +don't know anything about love, you old duffer." + +Taking advantage of the fact that Pere Sariette was thus deeply +engaged, young d'Esparvieu slipped the little _Lucretius_ into his +pocket, and strolled deliberately past the crouching librarian, bidding +him adieu with a little wave of the hand. + +Armed with his talisman, he hastened to the Place des Ternes, to +interview Madame Mira. She received him in a red drawing-room where +neither owl nor frog nor any of the paraphernalia of ancient magic were +to be found. Madame Mira, in a prune-coloured dress, her hair powdered, +though already past her prime, was of very good appearance. She spoke +with a certain elegance and prided herself on discovering hidden things +by the help alone of Science, Philosophy, and Religion. She felt the +morocco binding, feigning to close her eyes, and looking meanwhile +through the narrow slit between her lids at the Latin title and the coat +of arms which conveyed nothing to her. + +Accustomed to receive as tokens such things as rings, handkerchiefs, +letters, and locks of hair, she could not conceive to what sort of +individual this singular book could belong. By habitual and mechanical +cunning she disguised her real surprise under a feigned surprise. + +"Strange!" she murmured, "strange! I do not see quite clearly ... I +perceive a woman...." + +As she let fall this magic word, she glanced furtively to see what sort +of an effect it had and beheld on her questioner's face an unexpected +look of disappointment. Perceiving that she was off the track, she +immediately changed her oracle: + +"But she fades away immediately. It is strange, strange! I have a +confused impression of some vague form, a being that I cannot define," +and having assured herself by a hurried glance that, this time, her +words were going down, she expatiated on the vagueness of the person and +on the mist that enveloped him. + +However, the vision grew clearer to Madame Mira, who was following a +clue step by step. + +"A wide street ... a square with a statue ... a deserted +street,--stairs. He is there in a bluish room--he is a young man, with +pale and careworn face. There are things he seems to regret, and which +he would not do again did they still remain undone." + +But the effort at divination had been too great. Fatigue prevented the +clairvoyante from continuing her transcendental researches. She spent +her remaining strength in impressively recommending him who consulted +her to remain in intimate union with God if he wished to regain what he +had lost and succeed in his attempts. + +On leaving Maurice placed a louis on the mantelpiece and went away moved +and troubled, persuaded that Madame Mira possessed supernatural +faculties, but unfortunately insufficient ones. + +At the bottom of the stairs he remembered he had left the little +_Lucretius_ on the table of the pythoness, and, thinking that the old +maniac Sariette would never get over its loss, went up to recover +possession of it. + +On re-entering the paternal abode his gaze lighted upon a shadowy and +grief-stricken figure. It was old Sariette, who in tones as plaintive as +the wail of the November wind began to beg for his _Lucretius_. Maurice +pulled it carelessly out of his great-coat pocket. + +"Don't flurry yourself, Monsieur Sariette," said he. "There the thing +is." + +Clasping the jewel to his bosom the old librarian bore it away and laid +it gently down on the blue table-cloth, thinking all the while where he +might safely hide his precious treasure, and turning over all sorts of +schemes in his mind as became a zealous curator. But who among us shall +boast of his wisdom? The foresight of man is short, and his prudence is +for ever being baffled. The blows of fate are ineluctable; no man shall +evade his doom. There is no counsel, no caution that avails against +destiny. Hapless as we are, the same blind force which regulates the +courses of atom and of star fashions universal order from our +vicissitudes. Our ill-fortune is necessary to the harmony of the +Universe. It was the day for the binder, a day which the revolving +seasons brought round twice a year, beneath the sign of the Ram and the +sign of the Scales. That day, ever since morning, Monsieur Sariette had +been making things ready for the binder. He had laid out on the table as +many of the newly purchased paper-bound volumes as were deemed worthy of +a permanent binding or of being put in boards, and also those books +whose binding was in need of repair, and of all these he had drawn up a +detailed and accurate list. Punctually at five o'clock, old Amedee, the +man from Leger-Massieu's, the binder in the Rue de l'Abbaye, presented +himself at the d'Esparvieu library and, after a double check had been +carried out by Monsieur Sariette, thrust the books he was to take back +to his master into a piece of cloth which he fastened into knots at the +four corners and hoisted on to his shoulder. He then saluted the +librarian with the following words, "Good night, all!" and went +downstairs. + +Everything went off on this occasion as usual. But Amedee, seeing the +_Lucretius_ on the table, innocently put it into the bag with the +others, and took it away without Monsieur Sariette's perceiving it. The +librarian quitted the home of the Philosophers and Globes in entire +forgetfulness of the book whose absence had been causing him such +horrible anxiety all day long. Some people may take a stern view of the +matter and call this a lapse, a defection of his better nature. But +would it not be more accurate to say that fate had decided that things +should come to pass in this manner, and that what is called chance, and +is in fact but the regular order of nature, had accomplished this +imperceptible deed which was to have such awful consequences in the +sight of man? Monsieur Sariette went off to his dinner at the _Quatre +Eveques_, and read his paper _La Croix_. He was tranquil and serene. It +was only the next morning when he entered the abode of the Philosophers +and Globes that he remembered the _Lucretius_. Failing to see it on the +table he looked for it everywhere, but without success. It never entered +his head that Amedee might have taken it away by mistake. What he did +think was that the invisible visitant had returned, and he was mightily +disturbed. + +The unhappy curator, hearing a noise on the landing, opened the door and +found it was little Leon, who, with a gold-braided _kepi_ stuck on his +head, was shouting "Vive la France" and hurling dusters and +feather-brooms and Hippolyte's floor polish at imaginary foes. The child +preferred this landing for playing soldiers to any other part of the +house, and sometimes he would stray into the library. Monsieur Sariette +was seized with the sudden suspicion that it was he who had taken the +_Lucretius_ to use as a missile and he ordered him, in threatening +tones, to give it back. The child denied that he had taken it, and +Monsieur Sariette had recourse to cajolery. + +"Leon, if you bring me back the little red book, I will give you some +chocolates." + +The child grew thoughtful; and in the evening, as Monsieur Sariette was +going downstairs, he met Leon, who said: + +"There's the book!" + +And, holding out a much-torn picture-book called _The Story of +Gribouille_, demanded his chocolates. + +A few days later the post brought Maurice the prospectus of an enquiry +agency managed by an ex-employee at the Prefecture of Police; it +promised celerity and discretion. He found at the address indicated a +moustached gentleman morose and careworn, who demanded a deposit and +promised to find the individual. + +The ex-police official soon wrote to inform him that very onerous +investigations had been commenced and asked for fresh funds. Maurice +gave him no more and resolved to carry on the search himself. Imagining, +not without some likelihood, that the angel would associate with the +wretched, seeing that he had no money, and with the exiled of all +nations--like himself, revolutionaries--he visited the lodging-houses at +St. Ouen, at la Chapelle, Montmartre, and the Barriere d'Italie. He +sought him in the doss-houses, public-houses where they give you plates +of tripe, and others where you can get a sausage for three sous; he +searched for him in the cellars at the Market and at Pere Momie's. + +Maurice visited the restaurants where nihilists and anarchists take +their meals. There he came across men dressed as women, gloomy and +wild-looking youths, and blue-eyed octogenarians who laughed like little +children. He observed, asked questions, was taken for a spy, had a knife +thrust into him by a very beautiful woman, and the very next day +continued his search in beer-houses, lodging-houses, houses of ill-fame, +gambling-hells down by the fortifications, at the receivers of stolen +goods, and among the "apaches." + +Seeing him thus pale, harassed, and silent, his mother grew worried. + +"We must find him a wife," she said. "It is a pity that Mademoiselle de +la Verdeliere has not a bigger fortune." + +Abbe Patouille did not hide his anxiety. + +"This child," he said, "is passing through a moral crisis." + +"I am more inclined to think," replied Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu, "that +he is under the influence of some bad woman. We must find him an +occupation which will absorb him and flatter his vanity. I might get him +appointed Secretary to the Committee for the Preservation of Country +Churches, or Consulting Counsel to the Syndicate of Catholic Plumbers." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + WHEREIN WE LEARN THAT SOPHAR, NO LESS EAGER FOR GOLD THAN + MAMMON, LOOKED UPON HIS HEAVENLY HOME LESS FAVOURABLY THAN + UPON FRANCE, A COUNTRY BLESSED WITH A SAVINGS BANK AND LOAN + DEPARTMENTS, AND WHEREIN WE SEE, YET ONCE AGAIN, THAT WHOSO + IS POSSESSED OF THIS WORLD'S GOODS FEARS THE EVIL EFFECTS OF + ANY CHANGE + + +Meanwhile Arcade led a life of obscure toil. He worked at a printer's in +the Rue St. Benoit, and lived in an attic in the Rue Mouffetard. His +comrades having gone on strike, he left the workroom and devoted his day +to his propaganda. So successful was he that he won over to the side of +revolt fifty thousand of those guardian angels who, as Zita had +surmised, were discontented with their condition and imbued with the +spirit of the times. But lacking money, he lacked liberty, and could not +employ his time as he wished in instructing the sons of Heaven. So, too, +Prince Istar, hampered by want of funds, manufactured fewer bombs than +were needed, and these less fine. Of course he prepared a good many +small pocket machines. He had filled Theophile's rooms with them, and +not a day passed but he forgot some and left them lying about on the +seats in various cafes. But a nice bomb, easily handled and capable of +destroying many big mansions, cost him from twenty to twenty-five +thousand francs; and Prince Istar only possessed two of this kind. +Equally bent on procuring funds, Arcade and Istar both went to make a +request for money from a celebrated financier named Max Everdingen, who, +as everyone knows, is the managing director of the biggest banking +concern in France and indeed in the whole world. What is not so well +known is that Max Everdingen was not born of woman, but is a fallen +angel. Nevertheless, such is the truth. In Heaven he was named Sophar, +and guarded the treasures of Ialdabaoth, a great collector of gold and +precious stones. In the exercise of this function Sophar contracted a +love of riches which could not be satisfied in a state of society in +which banks and stock exchanges are alike unknown. His heart flamed with +an ardent love for the god of the Hebrews to whom he remained faithful +during a long course of centuries. But at the commencement of the +twentieth century of the Christian era, casting his eyes down from the +height of the firmament upon France, he saw that this country, under the +name of a Republic, was constituted as a plutocracy and that, under the +appearance of a democratic government, high finance exercised sovereign +sway, untrammelled and unchecked. + +Henceforth life in the Empyrean became intolerable to him. He longed for +France as for the promised land, and one day, bearing with him all the +precious stones he could carry, he descended to earth and established +himself in Paris. This angel of cupidity did good business there. Since +his materialisation his face had lost its celestial aspect; it +reproduced the Semitic type in all its purity, and one could admire the +lines and the puckers which wrinkle the faces of bankers and which are +to be seen in the money-changers of Quintin Matsys. + +His beginnings were humble and his success amazing. He married an ugly +woman and they saw themselves reflected in their children as in a +mirror. Baron Max Everdingen's large mansion, which rears itself on the +heights of the Trocadero, is crammed with the spoils of Christian +Europe. + +The Baron received Arcade and Prince Istar in his study,--one of the +most modest rooms in his mansion. The ceiling is decorated with a fresco +of Tiepolo, taken from a Venetian palace. The bureau of the Regent, +Philip of Orleans, is in this room, which is full of cabinets, +show-cases, pictures, and statues. + +Arcade allowed his gaze to wander over the walls. + +"How comes it, my brother Sophar," said he, "that you, in spite of your +Jewish heart, obey so ill the commandment of the Lord your God who said: +'Thou shalt have no graven images'? for here I see an Apollo of Houdon's +and a Hebe of Lemoine's, and several busts by Caffieri. And, like +Solomon in his old age, O son of God, you set up in your dwelling-place +the idols of strange nations: for such are this Venus of Boucher, this +Jupiter of Rubens, and those nymphs that are indebted to Fragonard's +brush for the gooseberry jam which smears their gleaming limbs. And here +in this single show-case, Sophar, you keep the sceptre of St. Louis, six +hundred pearls of Marie Antoinette's broken necklace, the imperial +mantle of Charles V, the tiara wrought by Ghiberti for Pope Martin V, +the Colonna, Bonaparte's sword--and I know not what besides." + +"Mere trifles," said Max Everdingen. + +"My dear Baron," said Prince Istar, "you even possess the ring which +Charlemagne placed on a fairy's finger and which was thought to be lost. +But let us discuss the business on which we have come. My friend and I +have come to ask you for money." + +"I can well believe it," replied Max Everdingen. "Everyone wants money, +but for different reasons. What do you want money for?" + +Prince Istar replied simply: + +"To stir up a revolution in France." + +"In France!" repeated the Baron, "in France? Well, I shall give you no +money for that, you may be quite sure." + +Arcade did not disguise the fact that he had expected greater liberality +and more generous help from a celestial brother. + +"Our project," he said, "is a vast one. It embraces both Heaven and +Earth. It is settled in every detail. We shall first bring about a +social revolution in France, in Europe, on the whole planet; then we +shall carry war into the heavens, where we shall establish a peaceful +democracy. And to reduce the citadels of Heaven, to overturn the +mountain of God, to storm celestial Jerusalem, a vast army is needful, +enormous resources, formidable machines, and electrophores of a strength +yet unknown. It is our intention to commence with France." + +"You are madmen!" exclaimed Baron Everdingen; "madmen and fools! Listen +to me. There is not one single reform to carry out in France. All is +perfect, finally settled, unchangeable. You hear?--unchangeable." And to +add force to his statement, Baron Everdingen banged his fist three times +on the Regent's bureau. + +"Our points of view differ," said Arcade sweetly. "_I_ think, as does +Prince Istar, that everything should be changed in this country. But +what boots it to dispute the matter? Moreover, it is too late. We have +come to speak to you, O my brother Sophar, in the name of five hundred +thousand celestial spirits, all resolved to commence the universal +revolution to-morrow." + +Baron Everdingen exclaimed that they were crazy, that he would not give +a _sou_, that it was both criminal and mad to attack the most admirable +thing in the world, the thing which renders earth more beautiful than +heaven--Finance. He was a poet and a prophet. His heart thrilled with +holy enthusiasm; he drew attention to the French Savings Bank, the +virtuous Savings Bank, that chaste and pure Savings Bank like unto the +Virgin of the Canticle who, issuing from the depths of the country in +rustic petticoat, bears to the robust and splendid Bank--her bridegroom, +who awaits her--the treasures of her love; and drew a picture of the +Bank, enriched with the gifts of its spouse, pouring on all the nations +of the world torrents of gold, which, of themselves, by a thousand +invisible channels return in still greater abundance to the blessed land +from which they sprung. + +"By Deposit and Loan," he went on, "France has become the New Jerusalem, +shedding her glory over all the nations of Europe, and the Kings of the +Earth come to kiss her rosy feet. And that is what you would fain +destroy? You are both impious and sacrilegious." + +Thus spoke the angel of finance. An invisible harp accompanied his +voice, and his eyes darted lightning. + +Meanwhile Arcade, leaning carelessly against the Regent's bureau, spread +out under the Banker's eyes various ground-plans, underground-plans, and +sky-plans of Paris with red crosses indicating the points where bombs +should be simultaneously placed in cellars and catacombs, thrown on +public ways, and flung by a flotilla of aeroplanes. All the financial +establishments, and notably the Everdingen Bank and its branches, were +marked with red crosses. + +The financier shrugged his shoulders. + +"Nonsense! you are but wretches and vagabonds, shadowed by all the +police of the world. You are penniless. How can you manufacture all the +machines?" + +By way of reply, Prince Istar drew from his pocket a small copper +cylinder, which he gracefully presented to Baron Everdingen. + +"You see," said he, "this ordinary-looking box. It is only necessary to +let it fall on the ground immediately to reduce this mansion with its +inmates to a mass of smoking ashes, and to set a fire going which would +devour all the Trocadero quarter. I have ten thousand like that, and I +make three dozen a day." + +The financier asked the Cherub to replace the machine in his pocket, and +continued in a conciliatory tone: + +"Listen to me, my friends. Go and start a revolution at once in Heaven, +and leave things alone in this country. I will sign a cheque for you. +You can procure all the material you need to attack celestial +Jerusalem." + +And Baron Everdingen was already working up in his imagination a +magnificent deal in electrophores and war-material. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + WHEREIN IS BEGUN THE GARDENER'S STORY, IN THE COURSE OF + WHICH WE SHALL SEE THE DESTINY OF THE WORLD UNFOLDED IN A + DISCOURSE AS BROAD AND MAGNIFICENT IN ITS VIEWS AS BOSSUET'S + DISCOURSE ON THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE IS NARROW AND + DISMAL + + +The gardener bade Arcade and Zita sit down in an arbour walled with wild +bryony, at the far end of the orchard. + +"Arcade," said the beautiful Archangel, "Nectaire will perhaps reveal to +you to-day the things you are burning to know. Ask him to speak." + +Arcade did so and old Nectaire, laying down his pipe, began as +follows:-- + +"I knew him. He was the most beautiful of all the Seraphim. He shone +with intelligence and daring. His great heart was big with all the +virtues born of pride: frankness, courage, constancy in trial, +indomitable hope. Long, long ago, ere Time was, in the boreal sky where +gleam the seven magnetic stars, he dwelt in a palace of diamond and +gold, where the air was ever tremulous with the beating of wings and +with songs of triumph. Iahveh, on his mountain, was jealous of Lucifer. +You both know it: angels like unto men feel love and hatred quicken +within them. Capable, at times, of generous resolves, they too often +follow their own interests and yield to fear. Then, as now, they showed +themselves, for the most part, incapable of lofty thoughts, and in the +fear of the Lord lay their sole virtue. Lucifer, who held vile things in +proud disdain, despised this rabble of commonplace spirits for ever +wallowing in a life of feasts and pleasure. But to those who were +possessed of a daring spirit, a restless soul, to those fired with a +wild love of liberty, he proffered friendship, which was returned with +adoration. These latter deserted in a mass the mountain of God and +yielded to the Seraph the homage which That Other would fain have kept +for himself alone. + +"I ranked among the Dominations, and my name, Alaciel, was not unknown +to fame. To satisfy my mind--that was ever tormented with an insatiable +thirst for knowledge and understanding--I observed the nature of things, +I studied the properties of minerals, air, and water. I sought out the +laws which govern nature, solid or ethereal, and after much pondering I +perceived that the Universe had not been formed as its pretended Creator +would have us believe; I knew that all that exists, exists of itself +and not by the caprice of Iahveh; that the world is itself its own +creator and the spirit its own God. Henceforth I despised Iahveh for his +imposture, and I hated him because he showed himself to be opposed to +all that I found desirable and good: liberty, curiosity, doubt. These +feelings drew me towards the Seraph. I admired him, I loved him. I dwelt +in his light. When at length it appeared that a choice had to be made +between him and That Other I ranged myself on the side of Lucifer and +knew no other aim than to serve him, no other desire than to share his +lot. + +"War having become inevitable, he prepared for it with indefatigable +vigilance and all the resourcefulness of a far-seeing mind. Making the +Thrones and Dominations into Chalybes and Cyclopes, he drew forth iron +from the mountains bordering his domain; iron, which he valued more than +gold, and forged weapons in the caverns of Heaven. Then in the desert +plain of the North he assembled myriads of Spirits, armed them, taught +them, and drilled them. Although prepared in secret, the enterprise was +too vast for his adversary not to be soon aware of it. It might in truth +be said that he had always foreseen and dreaded it, for he had made a +citadel of his abode and a warlike host of his angels, and he gave +himself the name of the God of Hosts. He made ready his thunderbolts. +More than half of the children of Heaven remained faithful to him; +thronging round him he beheld obedient souls and patient hearts. The +Archangel Michael, who knew not fear, took command of these docile +troops. Lucifer, as soon as he saw that his army could gain no more in +numbers or in warlike skill, moved it swiftly against the foe, and +promising his angels riches and glory marched at their head towards the +mountain upon whose summit stands the Throne of the Universe. For three +days our host swept onward over the ethereal plains. Above our heads +streamed the black standards of revolt. And now, behold, the Mountain of +God shone rosy in the orient sky and our chief scanned with his eyes the +glittering ramparts. Beneath the sapphire walls the foe was drawn up in +battle array, and, while we marched clad in our iron and bronze, they +shone resplendent in gold and precious stones. + +"Their gonfalons of red and blue floated in the breeze, and lightning +flashed from the points of their lances. In a little while the armies +were only sundered one from the other by a narrow strip of level and +deserted ground, and at this sight even the bravest shuddered as they +thought that there in bloody conflict their fate would soon be sealed. + +"Angels, as you know, never die. But when bronze and iron, diamond point +or flaming sword tear their ethereal substance, the pain they feel is +more acute than men may suffer, for their flesh is more exquisitely +delicate; and should some essential organ be destroyed, they fall inert +and, slowly decomposing, are resolved into clouds and during long aeons +float insensible in the cold ether. And when at length they resume +spirit and form they fail to recover full memory of their past life. +Therefore it is but natural that angels shrink from suffering, and the +bravest among them is troubled at the thought of being reft of light and +sweet remembrance. Were it otherwise the angelic race would know neither +the delight of battle nor the glory of sacrifice. Those who, before the +beginning of Time, fought in the Empyrean for or against the God of +Armies, would have taken part without honour in mock battles, and it +would not now become me to say to you, my children, with rightful pride: + +"'Lo, I was there!' + +"Lucifer gave the signal for the onset and led the assault. We fell upon +the enemy, thinking to destroy him then and there and carry the sacred +citadel at the first onslaught. The soldiers of the jealous God, less +fiery, but no whit less firm than ours, remained immovable. The +Archangel Michael commanded them with the calmness and resolution of a +mighty spirit. Thrice we strove to break through their lines, thrice +they opposed to our ironclad breast the flaming points of their lances, +swift to pierce the stoutest cuirass. In millions the glorious bodies +fell. At length our right wing pierced the enemy's left and we beheld +the Principalities, the Powers, the Virtues, the Dominations, and the +Thrones turn and flee in full career; while the Angels of the Third +Choir, flying distractedly above them, covered them with a snow of +feathers mingled with a rain of blood. We sped in pursuit of them amid +the debris of chariots and broken weapons, and we spurred their nimble +flight. Suddenly a storm of cries amazed us. It grew louder and nearer. +With desperate shrieks and triumphal clamour the right wing of the +enemy, the giant archangels of the Most High, had flung themselves upon +our left flank and broken it. Thus we were forced to abandon the pursuit +of the fugitives and hasten to the rescue of our own shattered troops. +Our prince flew to rally them, and re-established the conflict. But the +left wing of the enemy, whose ruin he had not quite consummated, no +longer pressed by lance or arrow, regained courage, returned, and faced +us yet again. Night fell upon the dubious field. While under the shelter +of darkness, in the still, silent air stirred ever and anon by the moans +of the wounded, his forces were resting from their toils, Lucifer began +to make ready for the next day's battle. Before dawn the trumpets +sounded the reveille. Our warriors surprised the enemy at the hour of +prayer, put them to rout, and long and fierce was the carnage that +ensued. When all had either fallen or fled, the Archangel Michael, none +with him save a few companions with four wings of flame, still resisted +the onslaughts of a countless host. They fell back ceaselessly opposing +their breasts to us, and Michael still displayed an impassible +countenance. The sun had run a third of its course when we commenced to +scale the Mountain of God. An arduous ascent it was: sweat ran from our +brows, a dazzling light blinded us. Weighed down with steel, our +feathery wings could not sustain us, but hope gave us wings that bore us +up. The beautiful Seraph, pointing with glittering hand, mounting ever +higher and higher, showed us the way. All day long we slowly clomb the +lofty heights which at evening were robed in azure, rose, and violet. +The starry host appearing in the sky seemed as the reflection of our own +arms. Infinite silence reigned above us. We went on, intoxicated with +hope; all at once from the darkened sky lightning darted forth, the +thunder muttered, and from the cloudy mountain-top fell fire from +Heaven. Our helmets, our breast-plates were running with flames, and our +bucklers broke under bolts sped by invisible hands. Lucifer, in the +storm of fire, retained his haughty mien. In vain the lightning smote +him; mightier than ever he stood erect, and still defied the foe. At +length, the thunder, making the mountain totter, flung us down +pell-mell, huge fragments of sapphire and ruby crashing down with us as +we fell, and we rolled inert, swooning, for a period whose duration +none could measure. + + * * * * * + +"I awoke in a darkness filled with lamentations. And when my eyes had +grown accustomed to the dense shadows I saw round me my companions in +arms, scattered in thousands on the sulphurous ground, lit by fitful +gleams of livid light. My eyes perceived but fields of lava, smoking +craters, and poisonous swamps. + +"Mountains of ice and shadowy seas shut in the horizon. A brazen sky +hung heavy on our brows. And the horror of the place was such that we +wept as we sat, crouched elbow on knee, our cheeks resting on our +clenched hands. + +"But soon, raising my eyes, I beheld the Seraph standing before me like +a tower. Over his pristine splendour sorrow had cast its mantle of +sombre majesty. + +"'Comrades,' said he, 'we must be happy and rejoice, for behold we are +delivered from celestial servitude. Here we are free, and it were better +to be free in Hell than serve in Heaven. We are not conquered, since the +will to conquer is still ours. We have caused the Throne of the jealous +God to totter; by our hands it shall fall. Arise, therefore, and be of +good heart.' + +"Thereupon, at his command, we piled mountain upon mountain and on the +topmost peak we reared engines which flung molten rocks against the +divine habitations. The celestial host was taken unaware and from the +abodes of glory there issued groans and cries of terror. And even then +we thought to re-enter in triumph on our high estate, but the Mountain +of God was wreathed with lightnings, and thunderbolts, falling on our +fortress, crushed it to dust. After this fresh disaster, the Seraph +remained awhile in meditation, his head buried in his hands. At length +he raised his darkened visage. Now he was Satan, greater than Lucifer. +Steadfast and loyal the angels thronged about him. + +"'Friends,' he said, 'if victory is denied us now, it is because we are +neither worthy nor capable of victory. Let us determine wherein we have +failed. Nature shall not be ruled, the sceptre of the Universe shall not +be grasped, Godhead shall not be won, save by knowledge alone. We must +conquer the thunder; to that task we must apply ourselves unwearyingly. +It is not blind courage (no one this day has shown more courage than +have you) which will win us the courts of Heaven; but rather study and +reflection. In these silent realms where we are fallen, let us meditate, +seeking the hidden causes of things; let us observe the course of +Nature; let us pursue her with compelling ardour and all-conquering +desire; let us strive to penetrate her infinite grandeur, her infinite +minuteness. Let us seek to know when she is barren and when she brings +forth fruit; how she makes cold and heat, joy and sorrow, life and +death; how she assembles and disperses her elements, how she produces +both the light air we breathe and the rocks of diamond and sapphire +whence we have been precipitated, the divine fire wherewith we have been +scarred and the soaring thought which stirs our minds. Torn with dire +wounds, scorched by flame and by ice, let us render thanks to Fate which +has sedulously opened our eyes, and let us rejoice at our lot. It is +through pain that, suffering a first experience of Nature, we have been +roused to know her and to subdue her. When she obeys us we shall be as +gods. But even though she hide her mysteries for ever from us, deny us +arms and keep the secret of the thunder, we still must needs +congratulate ourselves on having known pain, for pain has revealed to us +new feelings, more precious and more sweet than those experienced in +eternal bliss, and inspired us with love and pity unknown to Heaven.' + +"These words of the Seraph changed our hearts and opened up fresh hope +to us. Our hearts were filled with a great longing for knowledge and +love. + +"Meanwhile the Earth was coming into being. Its immense and nebulous orb +took on hourly more shape and more certainty of outline. The waters +which fed the seaweed, the madrepores and shellfish and bore the light +flotilla of the nautilus upon their bosom, no longer covered it in its +entirety; they began to sink into beds, and already continents appeared, +where, on the warm slime, amphibious monsters crawled. Then the +mountains were overspread with forests, and divers races of animals +commenced to feed on the grass, the moss, the berries on the trees, and +on the acorns. Then there took possession of cavernous shelters under +the rocks, a being who was cunning to wound with a sharpened stone the +savage beasts, and by his ruses to overcome the ancient denizens of +forest, plain, and mountain. + +"Man entered painfully on his kingdom. He was defenceless and naked. His +scanty hair afforded him but little protection from the cold. His hands +ended in nails too frail to do battle with the claws of wild beasts, but +the position of his thumb, in opposition to the rest of his fingers, +allowed him easily to grasp the most diverse objects and endowed him +with skill in default of strength. Without differing essentially from +the rest of the animals, he was more capable than any others of +observing and comparing. As he drew from his throat various sounds, it +occurred to him to designate by a particular inflexion of the voice +whatever impinged upon his mind, and by this sequence of different +sounds he was enabled to fix and communicate his ideas. His miserable +lot and his painstaking spirit aroused the sympathy of the vanquished +angels, who discerned in him an audacity equalling their own, and the +germ of the pride that was at once their glory and their bane. They came +in large numbers to be near him, to dwell on this young earth whither +their wings wafted them in effortless flight. And they took pleasure in +sharpening his talents and fostering his genius. They taught him to +clothe himself in the skins of wild beasts, to roll stones before the +mouths of caves to keep out the tigers and bears. They taught him how to +make the flame burst forth by twirling a stick among the dried leaves +and to foster the sacred fire upon the hearth. Inspired by the ingenious +spirits he dared to cross the rivers in the hollowed trunks of cleft +trees, he invented the wheel, the grinding-mill, and the plough; the +share tore up the earth and the wound brought forth fruit, and the grain +offered to him who ground it divine nourishment. He moulded vessels in +clay, and out of the flint he fashioned various tools. + +"In fine, taking up our abode among mankind, we consoled them and taught +them. We were not always visible to them, but of an evening, at the turn +of the road, we would appear to them under forms often strange and +weird, at times dignified and charming, and we adopted at will the +appearance of a monster of the woods and waters, of a venerable old man, +of a beautiful child, or of a woman with broad hips. Sometimes we would +mock them in our songs or test their intelligence by some cunning +prank. There were certain of us of a rather turbulent humour who loved +to tease their women and children, but though lowly folk, they were our +brothers, and we were never loath to come to their aid. Through our care +their intelligence developed sufficiently to attain to mistaken ideas, +and to acquire erroneous notions of the relations of cause and effect. +As they supposed that some magic bond existed between the reality and +its counterfeit presentment, they covered the walls of their caves with +figures of animals and carved in ivory images of the reindeer and the +mammoth in order to secure as prey the creatures they represented. +Centuries passed by with infinite slowness while their genius was coming +to birth. We sent them happy thoughts in dreams, inspired them to tame +the horse, to castrate the bull, to teach the dog to guard the sheep. +They created the family and the tribe. It came to pass one day that one +of their wandering tribes was assailed by ferocious hunters. Forthwith +the young men of the tribe formed an enclosed ring with their chariots, +and in it they shut their women, children, old people, cattle, and +treasures, and from the platform of their chariots they hurled murderous +stones at their assailants. Thus was formed the first city. Born in +misery and condemned to do murder by the law of Iahveh, man put his +whole heart into doing battle, and to war he was indebted for his +noblest virtues. He hallowed with his blood that sacred love of country +which should (if man fulfils his destiny to the very end) enfold the +whole earth in peace. One of us, Daedalus, brought him the axe, the +plumb-line, and the sail. Thus we rendered the existence of mortals less +hard and difficult. By the shores of the lakes they built dwellings of +osier, where they might enjoy a meditative quiet unknown to the other +inhabitants of the earth, and when they had learned to appease their +hunger without too painful efforts we breathed into their hearts the +love of beauty. + +"They raised up pyramids, obelisks, towers, colossal statues which +smiled stiff and uncouth, and genetic symbols. Having learnt to know us +or trying at least to divine what manner of beings we were, they felt +both friendship and fear for us. The wisest among them watched us with +sacred awe and pondered our teaching. In their gratitude the people of +Greece and of Asia consecrated to us stones, trees, shadowy woods; +offered us victims, and sang us hymns; in fact we became gods in their +sight, and they called us Horus, Isis, Astarte, Zeus, Cybele, Demeter, +and Triptolemus. Satan was worshipped under the names of Evan, Dionysus, +Iacchus, and Lenaeus. He showed in his various manifestations all the +strength and beauty which it is given to mortals to conceive. His eyes +had the sweetness of the wood-violet, his lips were brilliant with the +ruby-red of the pomegranate, a down finer than the velvet of the peach +covered his cheeks and his chin: his fair hair, wound like a diadem and +knotted loosely on the crown of his head, was encircled with ivy. He +charmed the wild beasts, and penetrating into the deep forests drew to +him all wild spirits, every thing that climbed in trees and peered +through the branches with wild and timid gaze. On all these creatures +fierce and fearful, that lived on bitter berries and beneath whose hairy +breasts a wild heart beat, half-human creatures of the woods--on all he +bestowed loving-kindness and grace, and they followed him drunk with joy +and beauty. He planted the vine and showed mortals how to crush the +grapes underfoot to make the wine flow. Magnificent and benign, he fared +across the world, a long procession following in his train. To bear him +company I took the form of a satyr; from my brow sprang two budding +horns. My nose was flat and my ears were pointed. Glands, like those of +the goat, hung on my neck, a goat's tail moved with my moving loins, and +my hairy legs ended in a black cloven hoof which beat the ground in +cadence. + +"Dionysus fared on his triumphal march over the world. In his company I +passed through Lydia, the Phrygian fields, the scorching plains of +Persia, Media bristling with hoar-frost, Arabia Felix, and rich Asia +where flourishing cities were laved by the waves of the sea. He +proceeded on a car drawn by lions and lynxes, to the sound of flutes, +cymbals, and drums, invented for his mysteries. Bacchantes, Thyades, +and Maenads, girt with the dappled fawn-skin, waved the thyrsus encircled +with ivy. He bore in his train the Satyrs, whose joyous troop I led, +Sileni, Pans, and Centaurs. Under his feet flowers and fruit sprang to +life, and striking the rocks with his wand he made limpid streams gush +forth. In the month of the Vintage he visited Greece, and the villagers +ran forth to meet him, stained with the green and ruddy juices of the +plants, they wore masks of wood, or bark, or leaves; in their hands they +bore earthen cups, and danced wanton dances. Their womenfolk, imitating +the companions of the God, their heads wreathed with green smilax, +fastened round their supple loins skins of fawn or goat. The virgins +twined about their throats garlands of fig leaves, they kneaded cakes of +flour, and bore the Phallus in the mystic basket. And the vine-dressers, +all daubed with lees of wine, standing up in their wains and bandying +mockery or abuse with the passers-by, invented Tragedy. + +"Truly, it was not in dreaming beside a fountain, but by dint of +strenuous toil that Dionysus taught them to grow plants and to make them +bring forth succulent fruits. And while he pondered the art of +transforming the rough woodlanders into a race that should love music +and submit to just laws, more than once over his brow, burning with the +fire of enthusiasm, did melancholy and gloomy fever pass. But his +profound knowledge and his friendship for mankind enabled him to triumph +over every obstacle. O days divine! Beautiful dawn of life! We led the +Bacchanals on the leafy summits of the mountains and on the yellow +shores of the seas. The Naiads and the Oreads mingled with us at our +play. Aphrodite at our coming rose from the foam of the sea to smile +upon us." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + THE GARDENER'S STORY, CONTINUED + + +"When men had learned to cultivate the earth, to herd cattle, to enclose +their holy places within walls, and to recognise the gods by their +beauty, I withdrew to that smiling land girdled with dark woods and +watered by the Stymphalos, the Olbios, the Erymanthus, and the proud +Crathis, swollen with the icy waters of the Styx, and there, in a green +valley at the foot of a hill planted with arbutus, olive, and pine, +beneath a cluster of white poplars and plane trees, by the side of a +stream flowing with soft murmur amid tufted mastic trees, I sang to the +shepherds and the nymphs of the birth of the world, the origin of fire, +of the tenuous air, of water and of earth. I told them how primeval men +had lived wretched and naked in the woods, before the ingenious spirits +had taught them the arts; of God, too, I sang to them, and why they gave +Dionysus Semele to mother, because his desire to befriend mankind was +born amid the thunder. + +"It was not without effort that this people, more pleasing than all the +others in the eyes of the gods, these happy Greeks, achieved good +government and a knowledge of the arts. Their first temple was a hut +composed of laurel branches; their first image of the gods, a tree; +their first altar, a rough stone stained with the blood of Iphigenia. +But in a short time they brought wisdom and beauty to a point that no +nation had attained before them, that no nation has since approached. +Whence comes it, Arcade, this solitary marvel on the earth? Wherefore +did the sacred soil of Ionia and of Attica bring forth this incomparable +flower? Because nor priesthood, nor dogma, nor revelation ever found a +place there, because the Greeks never knew the jealous God. + +"It was his own grace, his own genius that the Greek enthroned and +deified as his God, and when he raised his eyes to the heavens it was +his own image that he saw reflected there. He conceived everything in +due measure; and to his temples he gave perfect proportion. All therein +was grace, harmony, symmetry, and wisdom; all were worthy of the +immortals who dwelt within them and who under names of happy choice, in +realised shapes, figured forth the genius of man. The columns which bore +the marble architrave, the frieze and the cornice were touched with +something human, which made them venerable; and sometimes one might see, +as at Athens and at Delphi, beautiful young girls strong-limbed and +radiant upstaying the entablature of treasure house and sanctuary. O +days of splendour, harmony, and wisdom! + +"Dionysus resolved to repair to Italy, whither he was summoned under the +name of Bacchus by a people eager to celebrate his mysteries. I took +passage in his ship decked with tendrils of the vine, and landed under +the eyes of the two brothers of Helen at the mouth of the yellow Tiber. +Already under the teaching of the god, the inhabitants of Latium had +learned to wed the vine to the young stripling elm. It was my pleasure +to dwell at the foot of the Sabine hills in a valley crowned with trees +and watered with pure springs. I gathered the verbena and the mallow in +the meadows. The pale olive-trees twisting their perforated trunks on +the slope of the hill gave me of their unctuous fruit. There I taught a +race of men with square heads, who had not, like the Greeks, a fertile +mind, but whose hearts were true, whose souls were patient, and who +reverenced the gods. My neighbour, a rustic soldier, who for fifteen +years had bowed under the burden of his haversack, had followed the +Roman eagle over land and sea, and had seen the enemies of the sovereign +people flee before him. Now he drove his furrow with his two red oxen, +starred with white between their spreading horns, while beneath the +cabin's thatch his spouse, chaste and sedate of mien, pounded garlic in +a bronze mortar and cooked the beans upon the sacred hearth, And I, his +friend, seated near by under an oak, used to lighten his labours with +the sound of my flute, and smile on his little children, when the sun, +already low in the sky, was lengthening the shadows, and they returned +from the wood all laden with branches. At the garden gate where the +pears and pumpkins ripened, and where the lily and the evergreen +acanthus bloomed, a figure of Priapus carved out of the trunk of a fig +tree menaced thieves with his formidable emblem, and the reeds swaying +with the wind over his head scared away the plundering birds. At new +moon the pious husbandman made offering of a handful of salt and barley +to his household gods crowned with myrtle and with rosemary. + +"I saw his children grow up, and his children's children, who kept in +their hearts their early piety and did not forget to offer sacrifice to +Bacchus, to Diana, and to Venus, nor omit to pour fresh wines and +scatter flowers into the fountains. But slowly they fell away from their +old habits of patient toil and simplicity. + +"I heard them complain when the torrent, swollen with many rains, +compelled them to construct a dyke to protect the paternal fields, and +the rough Sabine wine grew unpleasing to their delicate palate. They +went to drink the wines of Greece at the neighbouring tavern; and the +hours slipped unheeded by, while within the arbour shade they watched +the dance of the flute player, practised at swaying her supple limbs to +the sound of the castanets. + +"Lulled by murmuring leaves and whispering streams, the tillers of the +soil took sweet repose, but between the poplars we saw along borders of +the sacred way vast tombs, statues, and altars arise, and the rolling of +the chariot wheels grew more frequent over the worn stones. A cherry +sapling brought home by a veteran told us of the far-distant conquests +of a Consul, and odes sung to the lyre related the victories of Rome, +mistress of the world. + +"All the countries where the great Dionysus had journeyed, changing wild +beasts into men, and making the fruit and grain bloom and ripen beneath +the passing of his Maenads, now breathed the Pax Romana. The nursling of +the she-wolf, soldier and labourer, friend of conquered nations, laid +out roads from the margin of the misty sea to the rocky slopes of the +Caucasus; in every town rose the temple of Augustus and of Rome, and +such was the universal faith in Latin justice that in the gorges of +Thessaly or on the wooded borders of the Rhine, the slave, ready to +succumb under his iniquitous burden, called aloud on the name of Caesar. + +"But why must it be that on this ill-starred globe of land and water, +all should perish and die and the fairest things be ever the most +fleeting? O adorable daughters of Greece! O Science! O Wisdom! O +Beauty! kindly divinities, you were wrapt in heavy slumber ere you +submitted to the outrages of the barbarians, who already in the marshy +wastes of the North and on the lonely steppes, ready to assail you, +bestrode bare-backed their little shaggy horses. + +"While, dear Arcade, the patient legionary camped by the borders of the +Phasis and the Tanais, the women and the priests of Asia and of +monstrous Africa invaded the Eternal City and troubled the sons of Remus +with their magic spells. Until now, Iahveh, the persecutor of the +laborious demons, was unknown to the world that he pretended to have +created, save to certain miserable Syrian tribes, ferocious like +himself, and perpetually dragged from servitude to servitude. Profiting +by the Roman peace which assured free travel and traffic everywhere, and +favoured the exchange of ideas and merchandise, this old God insolently +made ready to conquer the Universe. He was not the only one, for the +matter of that, to attempt such an undertaking. At the same time a crowd +of gods, demiurges, and demons, such as Mithra, Thammuz, the good Isis, +and Eubulus, meditated taking possession of the peace-enfolded world. Of +all the spirits, Iahveh appeared the least prepared for victory. His +ignorance, his cruelty, his ostentation, his Asiatic luxury, his disdain +of laws, his affectation of rendering himself invisible, all these +things were calculated to offend those Greeks and Latins who had +absorbed the teaching of Dionysus and the Muses. He himself felt he was +incapable of winning the allegiance of free men and of cultivated minds, +and he employed cunning. To seduce their souls he invented a fable +which, although not so ingenious as the myths wherewith we have +surrounded the spirits of our disciples of old, could, nevertheless, +influence those feebler intellects which are to be found everywhere in +great masses. He declared that men having committed a crime against him, +an hereditary crime, should pay the penalty for it in their present life +and in the life to come (for mortals vainly imagine that their existence +is prolonged in hell); and the astute Iahveh gave out that he had sent +his own son to earth to redeem with his blood the debt of mankind. It is +not credible that a penalty should redress a fault, and it is still less +credible that the innocent should pay for the guilty. The sufferings of +the innocent atone for nothing, and do but add one evil to another. +Nevertheless, unhappy creatures were found to adore Iahveh and his son, +the expiator, and to announce their mysteries as good tidings. We should +not be surprised at this folly. Have we not seen many times indeed human +beings who, poor and naked, prostrate themselves before all the phantoms +of fear, and rather than follow the teaching of well-disposed demons, +obey the commandments of cruel demiurges? Iahveh, by his cunning, took +souls as in a net. But he did not gain therefrom, for his glorification, +all that he expected. It was not he, but his son, who received the +homage of mankind, and who gave his name to the new cult. He himself +remained almost unknown upon earth." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + THE GARDENER'S STORY, CONTINUED + + +"The new superstition spread at first over Syria and Africa; it won over +the seaports where the filthy rabble swarm, and, penetrating into Italy, +infected at first the courtesans and the slaves, and then made rapid +progress among the middle classes of the towns. But for a long while the +country-side remained undisturbed. As in the past, the villagers +consecrated a pine tree to Diana, and sprinkled it every year with the +blood of a young boar; they propitiated their Lares with the sacrifice +of a sow, and offered to Bacchus--benefactor of mankind--a kid of +dazzling whiteness, or if they were too poor for this, at least they had +a little wine and a little flour from the vineyard and from the fields +for their household gods. We had taught them that it sufficed to +approach the altar with clean hands, and that the gods rejoiced over a +modest offering. + +"Nevertheless, the reign of Iahveh proclaimed its advent in a hundred +places by its extravagances. The Christians burnt books, overthrew +temples, set fire to the towns, and carried on their ravages as far as +the deserts. There, thousands of unhappy beings, turning their fury +against themselves, lacerated their sides with points of steel. And from +the whole earth the sighs of voluntary victims rose up to God like songs +of praise. + +"My shadowy retreat could not escape for long from the fury of their +madness. + +"On the summit of the hill which overlooked the olive woods, brightened +daily with the sounds of my flute, had stood since the earliest days of +the Pax Romana, a small marble temple, round as the huts of our +forefathers. It had no walls, but on a base of seven steps, sixteen +columns rose in a circle with the acanthus on the capitals, bearing a +cupola of white tiles. This cupola sheltered a statue of Love fashioning +his bow, the work of an Athenian sculptor. The child seemed to breathe, +joy was welling from his lips, all his limbs were harmonious and +polished. I honoured this image of the most powerful of all the gods, +and I taught the villagers to bear to him as an offering a cup crowned +with verbena and filled with wine two summers old. + +"One day, when seated as my custom was at the feet of the god, pondering +precepts and songs, an unknown man, wild-looking, with unkempt hair, +approached the temple, sprang at one bound up the marble steps, and with +savage glee exclaimed: + +"'Die, poisoner of souls, and joy and beauty perish with you.' He spoke +thus, and drawing an axe from his girdle raised it against the god. I +stayed his arm, I threw him down, and trampled him under my feet. + +"'Demon,' he cried desperately, 'suffer me to overturn this idol, and +you may slay me afterwards.' + +"I heeded not his atrocious plea, but leaned with all my might on his +chest, which cracked under my knee, and, squeezing his throat with my +two hands, I strangled the impious one. + +"While he lay there, with purple face and lolling tongue, at the feet of +the smiling god, I went to purify myself at the sacred stream. Then +leaving this land, now the prey of the Christian, I passed through Gaul +and gained the banks of the Saone, whither Dionysus had, in days gone +by, carried the vine. The god of the Christians had not yet been +proclaimed to this happy people. They worshipped for its beauty a leafy +beech-tree, whose honoured branches swept the ground, and they hung +fillets of wool thereon. They also worshipped a sacred stream and set up +images of clay in a dripping grotto. They made offering of little +cheeses and a bowl of milk to the Nymphs of the woods and mountains. + +"But soon an apostle of sorrow was sent to them by the new God. He was +drier than a smoked fish. Although attenuated with fasting and watching, +he taught with unabated ardour all manner of gloomy mysteries. He loved +suffering, and thought it good; his anger fell upon all that was +beautiful, comely, and joyous. The sacred tree fell beneath his hatchet. +He hated the Nymphs, because they were beautiful, and he flung +imprecations at them when their shining limbs gleamed among the leaves +at evening, and he held my melodious flute in aversion. The poor wretch +thought that there were certain forms of words wherewith to put to +flight the deathless spirits that dwell in the cool groves, and in the +depths of the woods and on the tops of the mountains. He thought to +conquer us with a few drops of water over which he had pronounced +certain words and made certain gestures. The Nymphs, to avenge +themselves, appeared to him at nightfall and inflamed him with desire +which the foolish knave thought animal; then they fled, their laughter +scattered like grain over the fields, while their victim lay tossing +with burning limbs on his couch of leaves. Thus do the divine nymphs +laugh at exorcisers, and mock the wicked and their sordid chastity. + +"The apostle did not do as much harm as he wished, because his teaching +was given to the simple souls living in obedience to Nature, and because +the mediocrity of most of mankind is such that they gain but little from +the principles inculcated in them. The little wood in which I dwelt +belonged to a Gaul of senatorial family, who retained some traces of +Latin elegance. He loved his young freed-woman and shared with her his +bed of broidered purple. His slaves cultivated his garden and his +vineyard; he was a poet and sang, in imitation of Ausonius, Venus +whipping her son with roses. Although a Christian, he offered me milk, +fruit, and vegetables as if I were the genius of the place. In return I +charmed his idle moments with the music of my flute, and I gave him +happy dreams. In fact, these peaceful Gauls knew very little of Iahveh +and his son. + +"But now behold fires looming on the horizon, and ashes driven by the +wind fall within our forest glades. Peasants come driving a long file of +waggons along the roads or urging their flocks before them. Cries of +terror rise from the villages, 'The Burgundians are upon us!' + +"Now one horseman is seen, lance in hand, clad in shining bronze, his +long red hair falling in two plaits on his shoulders. Then come two, +then twenty, then thousands, wild and blood-stained; old men and +children they put to the sword, ay, even aged grandams whose grey hairs +cleave to the soles of the slaughterer's boots, mingled with the brains +of babes new-born. My young Gaul and his young freed-woman stain with +their blood the couch broidered with narcissi. The barbarians burn the +basilicas to roast their oxen whole, shatter the amphorae, and drain the +wine in the mud of the flooded cellars. Their women accompany them, +huddled, half naked, in their war chariots. When the Senate, the +dwellers in the cities, and the leaders of the churches had perished in +the flames, the Burgundians, soddened with wine, lay down to slumber +beneath the arcades of the Forum. Two weeks later one of them might have +been seen smiling in his shaggy beard at the little child whom, on the +threshold of their dwelling, his fair-haired spouse gathers in her arms; +while another, kindling the fire of his forge, hammers out his iron with +measured stroke; another sings beneath the oak tree to his assembled +comrades of the gods and heroes of his race; and yet others spread out +for sale stones fallen from Heaven, aurochs' horns, and amulets. And the +former inhabitants of the country, regaining courage little by little, +crept from the woods where they had fled for refuge, and returned to +rebuild their burnt-down cabins, plough their fields, and prune their +vines. + +"Once more life resumed its normal course; but those times were the most +wretched that mankind had yet experienced. The barbarians swarmed over +the whole Empire. Their ways were uncouth, and as they nurtured feelings +of vengeance and greed, they firmly believed in the ransom of sin. + +"The fable of Iahveh and his son pleased them, and they believed it all +the more easily in that it was taught them by the Romans whom they knew +to be wiser than themselves, and to whose arts and mode of life they +yielded secret admiration. Alas! the heritage of Greece and Rome had +fallen into the hands of fools. All knowledge was lost. In those days it +was held to be a great merit to sing among the choir, and those who +remembered a few sentences from the Bible passed for prodigious +geniuses. There were still poets as there were birds, but their verse +went lame in every foot. The ancient demons, the good genii of mankind, +shorn of their honours, driven forth, pursued, hunted down, remained +hidden in the woods. There, if they still showed themselves to men, they +adopted, to hold them in awe, a terrible face, a red, green, or black +skin, baleful eyes, an enormous mouth fringed with boars' teeth, horns, +a tail, and sometimes a human face on their bellies. The nymphs remained +fair, and the barbarians, ignorant of the winsome names they bore in +other days, called them fairies, and, imputing to them a capricious +character and puerile tastes, both feared and loved them. + +"We had suffered a grievous fall, and our ranks were sadly thinned; +nevertheless we did not lose courage and, maintaining a laughing aspect +and a benevolent spirit, we were in those direful days the real friends +of mankind. Perceiving that the barbarians grew daily less sombre and +less ferocious, we lent ourselves to the task of conversing with them +under all sorts of disguises. We incited them, with a thousand +precautions, and by prudent circumlocutions, not to acknowledge the old +Iahveh as an infallible master, not blindly to obey his orders, and not +to fear his menaces. When need was, we had recourse to magic. We +exhorted them unceasingly to study nature and to strive to discover the +traces of ancient wisdom. + +"These warriors from the North--rude though they were--were acquainted +with some mechanical arts. They thought they saw combats in the heavens; +the sound of the harp drew tears from their eyes; and perchance they had +souls capable of greater things than the degenerate Gauls and Romans +whose lands they had invaded. They knew not how to hew stone or to +polish marble; but they caused porphyry and columns to be brought from +Rome and from Ravenna; their chief men took for their seal a gem +engraved by a Greek in the days when Beauty reigned supreme. They raised +walls with bricks, cunningly arranged like ears of corn, and succeeded +in building quite pleasing-looking churches with cornices upheld by +consoles depicting grim faces, and heavy capitals whereon were +represented monsters devouring one another. + +"We taught them letters and sciences. A mouthpiece of their god, one +Gerbert, took lessons in physics, arithmetic, and music with us, and it +was said that he had sold us his soul. Centuries passed, and man's ways +remained violent. It was a world given up to fire and blood. The +successors of the studious Gerbert, not content with the possession of +souls (the profits one gains thereby are lighter than air), wished to +possess bodies also. They pretended that their universal and +prescriptive monarchy was held from a fisherman on the lake of Tiberias. +One of them thought for a moment to prevail over the loutish Germanus, +successor to Augustus. But finally the spiritual had to come to terms +with the temporal, and the nations were torn between two opposing +masters. + +"Nations took shape amid horrible tumult. On every side were wars, +famines, and internecine conflicts. Since they attributed the +innumerable ills that fell upon them to their God, they called him the +Most Good, not by way of irony, but because to them the best was he who +smote the hardest. In those days of violence, to give myself leisure for +study I adopted a _role_ which may surprise you, but which was +exceedingly wise. + +"Between the Saone and the mountains of Charolais, where the cattle +pasture, there lies a wooded hill sloping gently down to fields watered +by a clear stream. There stood a monastery celebrated throughout the +Christian world. I hid my cloven feet under a robe and became a monk in +this Abbey, where I lived peacefully, sheltered from the men at arms who +to friend or foe alike showed themselves equally exacting. Man, who had +relapsed into childhood, had all his lessons to learn over again. +Brother Luke, whose cell was next to mine, studied the habits of animals +and taught us that the weasel conceives her young within her ear. I +culled simples in the fields wherewith to soothe the sick, who until +then were made by way of treatment to touch the relics of saints. In the +Abbey were several demons similar to myself whom I recognised by their +cloven feet and by their kindly speech. We joined forces in our +endeavours to polish the rough mind of the monks. + +"While the little children played at hop-scotch under the Abbey walls +our friends the monks devoted themselves to another game equally +unprofitable, at which, nevertheless, I joined them, for one must kill +time,--that, when one comes to think of it, is the sole business of +life. Our game was a game of words which pleased our coarse yet subtle +minds, set school fulminating against school, and put all Christendom in +an uproar. We formed ourselves into two opposing camps. One camp +maintained that before there were apples there was the Apple; that +before there were popinjays there was the Popinjay; that before there +were lewd and greedy monks there was the Monk, Lewdness and Greed; that +before there were feet and before there were posteriors in this world +the kick in the posterior must have had existence for all eternity in +the bosom of God. The other camp replied that, on the contrary, apples +gave man the idea of the apple; popinjays the idea of the popinjay; +monks the idea of the monk, greed and lewdness, and that the kick in the +posterior existed only after having been duly given and received. The +players grew heated and came to fisticuffs. I was an adherent of the +second party, which satisfied my reason better, and which was, in fact, +condemned by the Council of Soissons. + +"Meanwhile, not content with fighting among themselves, vassal against +suzerain, suzerain against vassal, the great lords took it into their +heads to go and fight in the East. They said, as well as I can remember, +that they were going to deliver the tomb of the son of God. + +"They said so, but their adventurous and covetous spirit excited them to +go forth and seek lands, women, slaves, gold, myrrh, and incense. These +expeditions, need it be said, proved disastrous; but our thick-headed +compatriots brought back with them the knowledge of certain crafts and +oriental arts and a taste for luxury. Henceforth we had less difficulty +in making them work and in putting them in the way of inventions. We +built wonderfully beautiful churches, with daringly pierced arches, +lancet-shaped windows, high towers, thousands of pointed spires, which, +rising in the sky towards Iahveh, bore at one and the same time the +prayers of the humble and the threats of the proud, for it was all as +much our doing as the work of men's hands; and it was a strange sight to +see men and demons working together at a cathedral, each one sawing, +polishing, collecting stones, graving, on capital and on cornice, +nettles, thorns, thistles, wild parsley, and wild strawberry,--carving +faces of virgins and saints and weird figures of serpents, fishes with +asses' heads, apes scratching their buttocks; each one, in fact, putting +his own particular talent,--mocking, sublime, grotesque, modest, or +audacious,--into the work and making of it all a harmonious cacophony, a +rapturous anthem of joy and sorrow, a Babel of victory. At our +instigation the carvers, the gold-smiths, the enamellers, accomplished +marvels and all the sumptuary arts flourished at once; there were silks +at Lyons, tapestries at Arras, linen at Rheims, cloth at Rouen. The good +merchants rode on their palfreys to the fairs, bearing pieces of velvet +and brocade, embroideries, orfrays, jewels, vessels of silver, and +illuminated books. Strollers and players set up their trestles in the +churches and in the public squares, and represented, according to their +lights, simple chronicles of Heaven, Earth, and Hell. Women decked +themselves in splendid raiment and lisped of love. + +"In the spring when the sky was blue, nobles and peasants were possessed +with the desire to make merry in the flower-strewn meadows. The fiddler +tuned his instrument, and ladies, knights and demoiselles, townsfolk, +villagers and maidens, holding hands, began the dance. But suddenly War, +Pestilence, and Famine entered the circle, and Death, tearing the violin +from the fiddler's hands, led the dance. Fire devoured village and +monastery. The men-at-arms hanged the peasants on the sign-posts at the +cross-roads when they were unable to pay ransom, and bound pregnant +women to tree-trunks, where at night the wolves came and devoured the +fruit within the womb. The poor people lost their senses. Sometimes, +peace being re-established, and good times come again, they were seized +with mad, unreasoning terror, abandoned their homes, and rushed hither +and thither in troops, half naked, tearing themselves with iron hooks, +and singing. I do not accuse Iahveh and his son of all this evil. Many +ill things occurred without him and even in spite of him. But where I +recognise the instigation of the All Good (as they called him) was in +the custom instituted by his pastors, and established throughout +Christendom, of burning, to the sound of bells and the singing of +psalms, both men and women who, taught by the demons, professed, +concerning this God, opinions of their own." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + THE GARDENER'S STORY, CONCLUDED + + +"It seemed as if science and thought had perished for all eternity, and +that the earth would never again know peace, joy, and beauty. + +"But one day, under the walls of Rome, some workmen, excavating the +earth on the borders of an ancient road, found a marble sarcophagus +which bore carved on its sides simulacra of Love and the triumphs of +Bacchus. + +"The lid being raised, a maiden appeared whose face shone with dazzling +freshness. Her long hair spread over her white shoulders, she was +smiling in her sleep. A band of citizens, thrilled with enthusiasm, +raised the funeral couch and bore it to the Capitol. The people came in +crowds to contemplate the ineffable beauty of the Roman maiden and stood +around in silence, watching for the awakening of the divine soul held +within this form of adorable beauty. + +"And it came to pass that the City was so greatly stirred by this +spectacle that the Pope, fearing, not without reason, the birth of a +pagan cult from this radiant body, caused it to be removed at night and +secretly buried. The precaution was vain, the labour fruitless. After so +many centuries of barbarism, the beauty of the antique world had +appeared for a moment before the eyes of men; it was long enough for its +image, graven on their hearts, to inspire them with an ardent desire to +love and to know. + +"Henceforth, the star of the God of the Christians paled and sloped to +its decline. Bold navigators discovered worlds inhabited by numerous +races who knew not old Iahveh, and it was suspected that he was no less +ignorant of them, since he had given them no news of himself or of his +son the expiator. A Polish Canon demonstrated the true motions of the +earth, and it was seen that, far from having created the world, the old +demiurge of Israel had not even an inkling of its structure. The +writings of philosophers, orators, jurisconsults, and ancient poets were +dragged from the dust of the cloisters and passing from hand to hand +inspired men's minds with the love of wisdom. The Vicar of the jealous +God, the Pope himself, no longer believed in Him whom he represented on +earth. He loved the arts and had no other care than to collect ancient +statues and to rear sumptuous buildings wherein were displayed the +orders of Vitruvius re-established by Bramante. We began to breathe +anew. Already the old gods, recalled from their long exile, were +returning to dwell upon earth. There they found once more their temples +and their altars. Leo, placing at their feet the ring, the three crowns, +and the keys, offered them in secret the incense of sacrifices. Already +Polyhymnia, leaning on her elbow, had begun to resume the golden thread +of her meditations; already, in the gardens, the comely Graces and the +Nymphs and Satyrs were weaving their mazy dances, and at length the +earth had joy once more within its grasp. But, O calamity, unlucky +fate,--most tragic circumstance! A German monk, all swollen with beer +and theology, rose up against this renaissance of paganism, hurled +menaces against it, shattered it, and prevailed single handed against +the Princes of the Church. Inciting the nations, he called upon them to +undertake a reform which saved that which was about to be destroyed. +Vainly did the cleverest among us try to turn him from his work. A +subtle demon, on earth called Beelzebub, marked him out for attack, now +embarrassing him with learned controversial argument, now tormenting him +with cruel mockery. The stubborn monk hurled his ink-pot at his head and +went on with his dismal reformation. What ultimately happened? The +sturdy mariner repaired, calked, and refloated the damaged ship of the +Church. Jesus Christ owes it to this shaveling that his shipwreck was +delayed for perhaps more than ten centuries. Henceforth things went from +bad to worse. In the wake of this loutish monk, this beer-swiller and +brawler, came that tall, dry doctor from Geneva, who, filled with the +spirit of the ancient Iahveh, strove to bring the world back again to +the abominable days of Joshua and the Judges of Israel. A maniac was he, +filled with cold fury, a heretic and a burner of heretics, the most +ferocious enemy of the Graces. + +"These mad apostles and their mad disciples made even demons like +myself, even the horned devils, look back longingly on the time when the +Son with his Virgin Mother reigned over the nations dazzled with +splendours: cathedrals with their stone tracery delicate as lace, +flaming roses of stained glass, frescoes painted in vivid colours +telling countless wondrous tales, rich orfrays, glittering enamel of +shrines and reliquaries, gold of crosses and of monstrances, waxen +tapers gleaming like starry galaxies amid the gloom of vaulted arches, +organs with their deep-toned harmonies. All this doubtless was not the +Parthenon, nor yet the Panathenaea, but it gladdened eyes and hearts; it +was, at all events, beauty. And these cursed reformers would not suffer +anything either pleasing or lovable. You should have seen them climbing +in black swarms over doorways, plinths, spires, and bell-towers, +striking with senseless hammers those images in stone which the demons +had carved working hand in hand with the master designers, those genial +saints and dear, holy women, and the touching idols of Virgin Mothers +pressing their suckling to their heart. For, to be just, a little +agreeable paganism had slipped into the cult of the jealous God. These +monsters of heretics were for extirpating idolatry. We did our best, my +companions and I, to hamper their horrible work, and I, for one, had the +pleasure of flinging down some dozens from the top of the porches and +galleries on to the Cathedral Square, where their detestable brains got +knocked out. The worst of it was that the Catholic Church also reformed +herself and grew more mischievous than ever. In the pleasant land of +France, the seminarists and the monks were inflamed with unheard-of fury +against the ingenious demons and the men of learning. My prior was one +of the most violent opponents of sound knowledge. For some time past my +studious lucubrations had caused him anxiety, and perhaps he had caught +sight of my cloven foot. The scoundrel searched my cell and found paper, +ink, some Greek books newly printed, and some Pan-pipes hanging on the +wall. By these signs he knew me for an evil spirit and had me thrown +into a dungeon where I should have eaten the bread of suffering and +drunk the waters of bitterness, had I not promptly made my escape by the +window and sought refuge in the wooded groves among the Nymphs and the +Fauns. + +"Far and wide the lighted pyres cast the odour of charred flesh. +Everywhere there were tortures, executions, broken bones, and tongues +cut out. Never before had the spirit of Iahveh breathed forth such +atrocious fury. However, it was not altogether in vain that men had +raised the lid of the ancient sarcophagus and gazed upon the Roman +Virgin. + +"During this time of great terror when Papists and Reformers rivalled +one another in violence and cruelty, amidst all these scenes of torture, +the mind of man was regaining strength and courage. It dared to look up +to the heavens, and there it saw, not the old Jew drunk with vengeance, +but Venus Urania, tranquil and resplendent. Then a new order of things +was born, then the great centuries came into being. Without publicly +denying the god of their ancestors, men of intellect submitted to his +mortal enemies, Science and Reason, and Abbe Gassendi relegated him +gently to the far-distant abyss of first causes. The kindly demons who +teach and console unhappy mortals, inspired the great minds of those +days with discourses of all kinds, with comedies and tales told in the +most polished fashion. Women invented conversation, the art of intimate +letter-writing, and politeness. Manners took on a sweetness and a +nobility unknown to preceding ages. One of the finest minds of that age +of reason, the amiable Bernier, wrote one day to St. Evremond: 'It is a +great sin to deprive oneself of a pleasure.' And this pronouncement +alone should suffice to show the progress of intelligence in Europe. Not +that there had not always been Epicureans but, unlike Bernier, Chapelle, +and Moliere, they had not the consciousness of their talent. + +"Then even the very devotees understood Nature. And Racine, fierce bigot +that he was, knew as well as such an atheistical physician as Guy Patin, +how to attribute to divers states of the organs the passions which +agitate mankind. + +"Even in my abbey, whither I had returned after the turmoil, and which +sheltered only the ignorant and the shallow thinker, a young monk, less +of a dunce than the rest, confided to me that the Holy Spirit expresses +itself in bad Greek to humiliate the learned. + +"Nevertheless, theology and controversy were still raging in this +society of thinkers. Not far from Paris in a shady valley there were to +be seen solitary beings known as 'les Messieurs,' who called themselves +disciples of St. Augustine, and argued with honest conviction that the +God of the Scriptures strikes those who fear Him, spares those who +confront Him, holds works of no account, and damns--should He so wish +it--His most faithful servant; for His justice is not our justice, and +His ways are incomprehensible. + +"One evening I met one of these gentlemen in his garden, where he was +pacing thoughtfully among the cabbage-plots and lettuce-beds. I bowed +my horned head before him and murmured these friendly words: 'May old +Jehovah protect you, sir. You know him well. Oh, how well you know him, +and how perfectly you have understood his character.' The holy man +thought he discerned in me a messenger from Hell, concluded he was +eternally damned, and died suddenly of fright. + +"The following century was the century of philosophy. The spirit of +research was developed, reverence was lost; the pride of the flesh was +diminished and the mind acquired fresh energy. Manners took on an +elegance until then unknown. On the other hand, the monks of my order +grew more and more ignorant and dirty, and the monastery no longer +offered me any advantage now that good manners reigned in the town. I +could bear it no longer. Flinging my habit to the nettles, I put a +powdered wig on my horned brow, hid my goat's legs under white +stockings, and cane in hand, my pockets stuffed with gazettes, I +frequented the fashionable world, visited the modish promenades, and +showed myself assiduously in the _cafes_ where men of letters were to be +found. I was made welcome in _salons_ where, as a happy novelty, there +were arm-chairs that fitted the form, and where both men and women +engaged in rational conversation. + +"The very metaphysicians spoke intelligibly. I acquired great weight in +the town as an authority on matters of exegesis, and, without boasting, +I was largely responsible for the Testament of the cure Meslier and _The +Bible Explained_, brought out by the chaplains to the King of Prussia. + +"At this time a comic and cruel misadventure befel the ancient Iahveh. +An American Quaker, by means of a kite, stole his thunderbolts. + +"I was living in Paris, and was at the supper where they talked of +strangling the last of the priests with the entrails of the last of the +kings. France was in a ferment; a terrible revolution broke out. The +ephemeral leaders of the disordered State carried on a Reign of Terror +amidst unheard-of perils. They were, for the most part, less pitiless +and less cruel than the princes and judges instituted by Iahveh in the +kingdoms of the earth; nevertheless, they appeared more ferocious, +because they gave judgment in the name of Humanity. Unhappily they were +easily moved to pity and of great sensibility. Now men of sensibility +are irritable and subject to fits of fury. They were virtuous; they had +moral laws, that is to say they conceived certain narrowly defined moral +obligations, and judged human actions not by their natural consequences +but by abstract principles. Of all the vices which contribute to the +undoing of a statesman, virtue is the most fatal; it leads to murder. To +work effectively for the happiness of mankind, a man must be superior to +all morals, like the divine Julius. God, so ill-used for some time +past, did not, on the whole, suffer excessively harsh treatment from +these new men. He found protectors among them, and was adored under the +name of the Supreme Being. One might even go so far as to say that +terror created a diversion from philosophy and was profitable to the old +demiurge, in that he appeared to represent order, public tranquillity, +and the security of person and property. + +"While Liberty was coming to birth amid the storm, I lived at Auteuil, +and visited Madame Helvetius, where freethinkers in every branch of +intellectual activity were to be met with. Nothing could be rarer than a +freethinker, even after Voltaire's day. A man who will face death +without trembling dare not say anything out of the ordinary about +morals. That very same respect for Humanity which prompts him to go +forth to his death, makes him bow to public opinion. In those days I +enjoyed listening to the talk of Volney, Cabanis, and Tracy. Disciples +of the great Condillac, they regarded the senses as the origin of all +our knowledge. They called themselves ideologists, were the most +honourable people in the world, and grieved the vulgar minds by refusing +them immortality. For the majority of people, though they do not know +what to do with this life, long for another that shall have no end. +During the turmoil, our small philosophical society was sometimes +disturbed in the peaceful shades of Auteuil by patrols of patriots. +Condorcet, our great man, was an outlaw. I myself was regarded as +suspect by the friends of the people, who, in spite of my rustic +appearance and my frieze coat, believed me to be an aristocrat, and I +confess that independence of thought is the proudest of all +aristocracies. + +"One evening while I was stealthily watching the dryads of Boulogne, who +gleamed amid the leaves like the moon rising above the horizon, I was +arrested as a suspect, and put in prison. It was a pure +misunderstanding; but the Jacobins of those days, like the monks whose +place they had usurped, laid great stress on unity of obedience. After +the death of Madame Helvetius our society gathered together in the +_salon_ of Madame de Condorcet. Bonaparte did not disdain to chat with +us sometimes. + +"Recognizing him to be a great man, we thought him an ideologist like +ourselves. Our influence in the land was considerable. We used it in his +favour, and urged him towards the Imperial throne, thinking to display +to the world a second Marcus Aurelius. We counted on him to establish +universal peace; he did not fulfil our expectations, and we were +wrong-headed enough to be wroth with him for our own mistake. + +"Without any doubt he greatly surpassed all other men in quickness of +intelligence, depth of dissimulation, and capacity for action. What +made him an accomplished ruler was that he lived entirely in the present +moment, and had no thoughts for anything beyond the immediate and actual +reality. His genius was far-reaching and agile; his intelligence, vast +in extent but common and vulgar in character, embraced humanity, but did +not rise above it. He thought what every grenadier in the army thought; +but he thought it with unprecedented force. He loved the game of chance, +and it pleased him to tempt fortune by urging pigmies in their hundreds +and thousands against each other. It was the game of a child as big as +the world. He was too wily not to introduce old Iahveh into the +game,--Iahveh, who was still powerful on earth, and who resembled him in +his spirit of violence and domination. He threatened him, flattered him, +caressed him, and intimidated him. He imprisoned his Vicar, of whom he +demanded, with the knife at his throat, that rite of unction which, +since the days of Saul of old, has bestowed might upon kings; he +restored the worship of the demiurge, sang _Te Deums_ to him, and made +himself known through him as God of the earth, in small catechisms +scattered broadcast throughout the Empire. They united their thunders, +and a fine uproar they made. + +"While Napoleon's amusements were throwing Europe into a turmoil, we +congratulated ourselves on our wisdom, a little sad, withal, at seeing +the era of philosophy ushered in with massacre, torture, and war. The +worst is that the children of the century, fallen into the most +distressing disorder, formed the conception of a literary and +picturesque Christianity, which betokens a degeneracy of mind really +unbelievable, and finally fell into Romanticism. War and Romanticism, +what terrible scourges! And how pitiful to see these same people nursing +a childish and savage love for muskets and drums! They did not +understand that war, which trained the courage and founded the cities of +barbarous and ignorant men, brings to the victor himself but ruin and +misery, and is nothing but a horrible and stupid crime when nations are +united together by common bonds of art, science, and trade. + +"Insane Europeans who plot to cut each others' throats, now that one and +the same civilisation enfolds and unites them all! + +"I renounced all converse with these madmen and withdrew to this +village, where I devoted myself to gardening. The peaches in my orchard +remind me of the sun-kissed skin of the Maenads. For mankind I have +retained my old friendship, a little admiration, and much pity, and I +await, while cultivating this enclosure, that still distant day when the +great Dionysus shall come, followed by his Fauns and his Bacchantes, to +restore beauty and gladness to the world, and bring back the Golden Age. +I shall fare joyously behind his car. And who knows if in that day of +triumph mankind will be there for us to see? Who knows whether their +worn-out race will not have already fulfilled its destiny, and whether +other beings will not rise upon the ashes and ruins of what once was man +and his genius? Who knows if winged beings will not have taken +possession of the terrestrial empire? Even then the work of the good +demons will not be ended,--they will teach a winged race arts and the +joy of life." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + WHEREIN WE ARE SHOWN THE INTERIOR OF A BRIC-A-BRAC SHOP, AND + SEE HOW PERE GUINARDON'S GUILTY HAPPINESS IS MARRED BY THE + JEALOUSY OF A LOVE-LORN DAME + + +Pere Guinardon (as Zephyrine had faithfully reported to Monsieur +Sariette) smuggled out the pictures, furniture, and curios stored in his +attic in the rue Princesse--his studio he called it--and used them to +stock a shop he had taken in the rue de Courcelles. Thither he went to +take up his abode, leaving Zephyrine, with whom he had lived for fifty +years, without a bed or a saucepan or a penny to call her own, except +eighteenpence the poor creature had in her purse. Pere Guinardon opened +an old picture and curiosity shop, and in it he installed the fair +Octavie. + +The shop-front presented an attractive appearance: there were Flemish +angels in green copes, after the manner of Gerard David, a Salome of the +Luini school, a Saint Barbara in painted wood of French workmanship, +Limoges enamel-work, Bohemian and Venetian glass, dishes from Urbino. +There were specimens of English point-lace which, if her tale was true, +had been presented to Zephyrine, in the days of her radiant girlhood, by +the Emperor Napoleon III. Within, there were golden articles that +glinted in the shadows, while pictures of Christ, the Apostles, +high-bred dames, and nymphs also presented themselves to the gaze. There +was one canvas that was turned face to the wall so that it should only +be looked at by connoisseurs; and connoisseurs are scarce. It was a +replica of Fragonard's _Gimblette_, a brilliant painting that looked as +if it had barely had time to dry. Papa Guinardon himself remarked on the +fact. At the far end of the shop was a king-wood cabinet, the drawers of +which were full of all manner of treasures: water-colours by Baudouin, +eighteenth-century books of illustrations, miniatures, and so forth. + +But the real masterpiece, the marvel, the gem, the pearl of great price, +stood upon an easel veiled from public view. It was a _Coronation of the +Virgin_ by Fra Angelico, an exquisitely delicate thing in gold and blue +and pink. Pere Guinardon was asking a hundred thousand francs for it. +Upon a Louis XV chair beside an Empire work-table on which stood a vase +of flowers, sat the fair Octavie, broidery in hand. She, having left her +glistering rags behind her in the garret in the rue Princesse, no longer +presented the appearance of a touched-up Rembrandt, but shone, rather, +with the soft radiance and limpidity of a Vermeer of Delft, for the +delectation of the connoisseurs who frequented the shop of Papa +Guinardon. Tranquil and demure, she remained alone in the shop all day, +while the old fellow himself was up aloft working away at the deuce +knows what picture. About five o'clock he used to come downstairs and +have a chat with the habitues of the establishment. + +The most regular caller was the Comte Desmaisons, a thin, cadaverous +man. A strand of hair issued from the deep hollow under each cheek-bone, +and, broadening as it descended, shed upon his chin and chest torrents +of snow in which he was for ever trailing his long, fleshless, +gold-ringed fingers. For twenty years he had been mourning the loss of +his wife, who had been carried off by consumption in the flower of her +youth and beauty. Since then he had spent his whole life in endeavouring +to hold converse with the dead and in filling his lonely mansion with +second-rate paintings. His confidence in Guinardon knew no bounds. +Another client who was a scarcely less frequent visitor to the shop was +Monsieur Blancmesnil, a director of a large financial establishment. He +was a florid, prosperous-looking man of fifty. He took no great interest +in matters of art, and was perhaps an indifferent connoisseur, but, in +his case, it was the fair Octavie, seated in the middle of the shop, +like a song-bird in its cage, that offered the attraction. + +Monsieur Blancmesnil soon established relations with her, a fact which +Pere Guinardon alone failed to perceive, for the old fellow was still +young in his love-affair with Octavie. Monsieur Gaetan d'Esparvieu used +to pay occasional visits to Pere Guinardon's shop out of mere curiosity, +for he strongly suspected the old man of being a first-rate "faker." + +And then that doughty swordsman, Monsieur Le Truc de Ruffec, also came +to see the old antiquary on one occasion, and acquainted him with a plan +he had on foot. Monsieur Le Truc de Ruffec was getting up a little +historical exhibition of small arms at the Petit Palais in aid of the +fund for the education of the native children in Morocco and wanted Pere +Guinardon to lend him a few of the most valuable articles in his +collection. + +"Our first idea," he said, "was to organise an exhibition to be called +'The Cross and the Sword.' The juxtaposition of the two words will make +the idea which has prompted our undertaking sufficiently clear to you. +It was an idea pre-eminently patriotic and Christian which led us to +associate the Sword, which is the symbol of Honour, with the Cross, +which is the symbol of Salvation. It was hoped that our work would be +graced by the distinguished patronage of the Minister of War and +Monseigneur Cachepot. Unfortunately there were difficulties in the way, +and the full realisation of the project had to be deferred. In the +meantime we are limiting our exhibition to 'The Sword.' I have drawn up +an explanatory note indicating the significance of the demonstration." + +Having delivered himself of these remarks, Monsieur Le Truc de Ruffec +produced a pocket-case stuffed full of papers. Picking out from a medley +of judgment summonses and other odds and ends a little piece of very +crumpled paper, he exclaimed, "Ah, here it is," and proceeded to read as +follows: "'The Sword is a fierce Virgin; it is _par excellence_ the +Frenchman's weapon. And now, when patriotic sentiment, after suffering +an all too protracted eclipse, is beginning to shine forth again more +ardently than ever ...' and so forth; you see?" + +And he repeated his request for some really fine specimen to be placed +in the most conspicuous position in the exhibition to be held on behalf +of the little native children of Morocco, of which General d'Esparvieu +was to be honorary President. + +Arms and armour were by no means Pere Guinardon's strong point. He dealt +principally in pictures, drawings, and books. But he was never to be +taken unawares. He took down a rapier with a gilt colander-shaped hilt, +a highly typical piece of workmanship of the Louis XIII-Napoleon III +period, and presented it to the exhibition promoter, who, while +contemplating it with respect, maintained a diplomatic silence. + +"I have something better still in here," said the antiquary, and he +produced from his inner shop--where it had been lying among the +walking-sticks and umbrellas--a real demon of a sword, adorned with +fleurs-de-lys, a genuine royal relic. It was the sword of +Philippe-Auguste as worn by an actor at the _Odeon_ when _Agnes de +Meranie_ was being performed in 1846. Guinardon held it point downwards, +as though it were a cross, clasping his hands piously on the cross-bar. +He looked as loyal as the sword itself. + +"Have her for your exhibition," said he. "The damsel is well worth it. +Bouvines is her name." + +"If I find a buyer for it," said Monsieur Le True de Ruffec, twirling +his enormous moustachios, "I suppose you will allow me a little +commission?" + +Some days later, Pere Guinardon was mysteriously displaying a picture to +the Comte Desmaisons and Monsieur Blancmesnil. It was a newly discovered +work of El Greco, an amazingly fine example of the Master's later style. +It represented a Saint Francis of Assisi standing erect upon Mont +Alverno. He was mounting heavenward like a column of smoke, and was +plunging into the regions of the clouds a monstrously narrow head that +the distance rendered smaller still. In fine it was a real, very real, +nay, too real El Greco. The two collectors were attentively +scrutinizing the work, while Pere Guinardon was belauding the depth of +the shadows and the sublimity of the expression. He was raising his arms +aloft to convey an idea of the greatness of Theotocopuli, who derived +from Tintoretto, whom, however, he surpassed in loftiness by a hundred +cubits. + +"He was chaste and pure and strong; a mystic, a visionary." + +Comte Desmaisons declared that El Greco was his favourite painter. In +his inmost heart Blancmesnil was not so entirely struck with it. + +The door opened, and Monsieur Gaetan quite unexpectedly appeared on the +scene. + +He gave a glance at the Saint Francis, and said: + +"Bless my soul!" + +Monsieur Blancmesnil, anxious to improve his knowledge, asked him what +he thought of this artist who was now so much in vogue. Gaetan replied, +glibly enough, that he did not regard El Greco as the eccentric, the +madman that people used to take him for. It was rather his opinion that +a defect of vision from which Theotocopuli suffered compelled him to +deform his figures. + +"Being afflicted with astigmatism and strabismus," Gaetan went on, "he +painted the things he saw exactly as he used to see them." + +Comte Desmaisons was not readily disposed to accept so natural an +explanation, which, however, by its very simplicity, highly commended +itself to Monsieur Blancmesnil. + +Pere Guinardon, quite beside himself, exclaimed: + +"Are you going to tell me, Monsieur d'Esparvieu, that Saint John was +astigmatic because he beheld a woman clothed with the sun, crowned with +stars, with the moon about her feet; the Beast with seven heads and ten +horns, and the seven angels robed in white linen that bore the seven +cups filled with the wrath of the Living God?" + +"After all," said Monsieur Gaetan, by way of conclusion, "people are +right in admiring El Greco if he had genius enough to impose his +morbidity of vision upon them. By the same token, the contortions to +which he subjects the human countenance may give satisfaction to those +who love suffering,--a class more numerous than is generally supposed." + +"Monsieur," replied the Comte Desmaisons, stroking his luxuriant beard +with his long, thin hand, "we must love those that love us. Suffering +loves us and attaches itself to us. We must love it if life is to be +supportable to us. In the knowledge of this truth lies the strength and +value of Christianity. Alas! I do not possess the gift of Faith. It is +that which drives me to despair." + +The old man thought of her for whom he had been mourning twenty years, +and forthwith his reason left him, and his thoughts abandoned +themselves unresistingly to the morbid imaginings of gentle and +melancholy madness. + +Having, he said, made a study of psychic matters, and having, with the +co-operation of a favourable medium, carried out experiments concerning +the nature and duration of the soul, he had obtained some remarkable +results, which, however, did not afford him complete satisfaction. He +had succeeded in viewing the soul of his dead wife under the appearance +of a transparent and gelatinous mass which bore not the slightest +resemblance to his adored one. The most painful part about the whole +experiment--which he had repeated over and over again--was that the +gelatinous mass, which was furnished with a number of extremely slender +tentacles, maintained them in constant motion in time to a rhythm +apparently intended to make certain signs, but of what these movements +were supposed to convey there was not the slightest clue. + +During the whole of this narrative Monsieur Blancmesnil had been +whispering in a corner with the youthful Octavie, who sat mute and +still, with her eyes on the ground. + +Now Zephyrine had by no means made up her mind to resign her lover into +the hands of an unworthy rival. She would often go round of a morning, +with her shopping-basket on her arm, and prowl about outside the curio +shop. Torn betwixt grief and rage, tormented by warring ideas, she +sometimes thought she would empty a saucepanful of vitriol on the head +of the faithless one; at others that she would fling herself at his +feet, and shower tears and kisses on his precious hands. One day, as she +was thus eyeing her Michel--her beloved but guilty Michel--she noticed +through the window the fair and youthful Octavie, who was sitting with +her embroidery at a table upon which, in a vase of crystal, a rose was +swooning to death. Zephyrine, in a transport of fury, brought down her +umbrella on her rival's fair head, and called her a bitch and a trollop. +Octavie fled in terror, and ran for the police, while Zephyrine, beside +herself with grief and love, kept digging away with her old gamp at the +_Gimblette_ of Fragonard, the fuliginous Saint Francis of El Greco, the +virgins, the nymphs, and the apostles, and knocked the gilt off the Fra +Angelico, shrieking all the while: + +"All those pictures there, the El Greco, the Beato Angelico, the +Fragonard, the Gerard David, and the Baudouins--Guinardon painted the +whole lot of them himself, the wretch, the scoundrel! That Fra Angelico +there, why I saw him painting it on my ironing-board, and that Gerard +David he executed on an old midwife's sign-board. You and that bitch of +yours, why, I'll do for the pair of you just as I'm doing for these +pictures." + +And tugging away at the coat of an aged collector who, trembling all +over, had hidden himself in the darkest corner of the shop, she called +him to witness to the crimes of Guinardon, perjurer and impostor. The +police had simply to tear her out of the ruined shop. As she was being +taken off to the station, followed by a great crowd of people, she +raised her fiery eyes to Heaven, crying in a voice choked with sobs: + +"But don't you know Michel? If you knew him, you would understand that +it is impossible to live without him. Michel! He is handsome and good +and charming. He is a very god. He is Love itself. I love him! I love +him! I love him! I have known men high up in the world--Dukes, Ministers +of State, and higher still. Not one of them was worthy to clean the mud +off Michel's boots. My good, kind sirs, give him back to me again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + WHEREIN WE ARE PERMITTED TO OBSERVE THE ADMIRABLE CHARACTER + OF BOUCHOTTE, WHO RESISTS VIOLENCE BUT YIELDS TO LOVE. AFTER + THAT LET NO ONE CALL THE AUTHOR A MISOGYNIST + + +On coming away from the Baron Everdingen's, Prince Istar went to have a +few oysters and a bottle of white wine at an eating-house in the Market. +Then, being prudent as well as powerful, he paid a visit to his friend, +Theophile Belais, for his pockets were full of bombs, and he wanted to +secrete them in the musician's cupboard. The composer of _Aline, Queen +of Golconda_ was not at home. However, the Kerub found Bouchotte busily +working up the role of Zigouille; for the young artiste was booked to +play the principal part in _Les Apaches_, an operetta that was then +being rehearsed in one of the big music halls. The part in question was +that of a street-walker who by her obscene gestures lures a passer-by +into a trap, and then, while her victim is being gagged and bound, +repeats with fiendish cruelty the lascivious motions by which he had +been led astray. The part required that she should appear both as mime +and singer, and she was in a state of high enthusiasm about it. + +The accompanist had just left. Prince Istar seated himself at the piano, +and Bouchotte resumed her task. Her movements were unseemly and +delicious. Her tawny hair was flying in all directions in wild +disordered curls; her skin was moist, it exhaled a scent of violets and +alkaline salts which made the nostrils throb; even she herself felt the +intoxication. Suddenly, inebriated with her intoxicating presence, +Prince Istar arose, and with never a word or a look, caught her into his +arms and drew her on to the couch, the little couch with the flowered +tapestry which Theophile had procured at one of the big shops by +promising to pay ten francs a month for a long term of years. Now Istar +might have solicited Bouchotte's favours; he might have invited her to a +rapid, and, withal, a mutual embrace, and, despite her preoccupation and +excitement, she would not have refused him. But Bouchotte was a girl of +spirit. The merest hint of coercion awoke all her untamable pride. She +would consent of her own accord, yes; but be mastered, never! She would +readily yield to love, curiosity, pity, to less than that even, but she +would die rather than yield to force. Her surprise immediately gave +place to fury. She fought her aggressor with all her heart and soul. + +With nails, to which fury lent an added edge, she tore at the cheeks and +eyelids of the Kerub, and, though he held her as in a vice, she arched +herself so stiffly and made such excellent play with knee and elbow, +that the human-headed bull, blinded with blood and rage, was sent +crashing into the piano which gave forth a prolonged groan, while the +bombs, tumbling out of his pockets, fell on the floor with a noise like +thunder. And Bouchotte, with dishevelled locks, and one breast bare, +beautiful and terrible, stood brandishing the poker over the prostrate +giant, crying: + +"Be off with you, or I'll put your eyes out!" + +Prince Istar went to wash himself in the kitchen, and plunged his gory +visage into a basin where some haricot beans lay soaking; then he +withdrew without anger or resentment, for he had a noble soul. + +Scarcely had he gone when the door-bell rang. Bouchotte, calling upon +the absent maid in vain, slipped on a dressing-gown and opened the door +herself. A young man, very correct in appearance and rather +good-looking, bowed politely, and apologising for having to introduce +himself, gave his name. It was Maurice d'Esparvieu. + +Maurice was still seeking his guardian angel. Upheld by a desperate +hope, he sought him in the queerest places. He enquired for him at the +houses of sorcerers, magicians, and thaumaturgists, who in filthy hovels +lay bare the ineffable secrets of the future, and who, though masters +of all the treasures of the earth, wear trousers without any seats to +them, and eat pigs' brains. That very day, having been to a back street +in Montmartre to consult a priest of Satan, who practised black magic by +piercing waxen images, Maurice had gone on to Bouchotte's, having been +sent by Madame de la Verdeliere, who, being about to give a fete in aid +of the fund for the Preservation of Country Churches, was anxious to +secure Bouchotte's services, since she had suddenly become--no one knew +why--a fashionable artiste. + +Bouchotte invited the visitor to sit down on the little flowered couch; +at his request she seated herself beside him, and our young man of +fashion explained to the singer what Madame de la Verdeliere desired of +her. The lady wished Bouchotte to sing one of those _apache_ songs which +were giving such delight in the fashionable world. Unfortunately Madame +de la Verdeliere could only offer a very modest fee, one out of all +proportion to the merits of the artiste, but then it was for a good +cause. + +Bouchotte agreed to take part, and accepted the reduced fee with the +accustomed liberality of the poor towards the rich and of artists +towards society people. Bouchotte was not a selfish girl; the work for +the preservation of country churches interested her. She remembered with +sobs and tears her first communion, and she still retained her faith. +When she passed by a church she wanted to enter it, especially in the +evening. And so she did not love the Republic which had done its utmost +to destroy both the Church and the Army. Her heart rejoiced to see the +re-birth of national sentiment. France was lifting up her head. What was +most applauded in the music halls were songs about the soldiers and the +kind nuns. Meanwhile Maurice inhaled the odour of her tawny hair, the +subtle bitter perfume of her body, all the odours of her person, and +desire grew in him. He felt her near him on the little couch, very warm +and very soft. He complimented the artiste on her great talent. She +asked him what he liked best in all her repertory. He knew nothing about +it, still he made replies that satisfied her. She had dictated them +herself without knowing it. The vain creature spoke of her talent, of +her success, as she wished others to speak of them. She never ceased +talking of her triumphs, yet withal she was candour itself. Maurice in +all sincerity praised Bouchotte's beauty, her fresh skin, her purity of +line. She attributed this advantage to the fact that she never made up +and never "put messes on her face." As to her figure, she admitted that +there was enough everywhere and none too much, and to illustrate this +assertion she passed her hand over all the contours of her charming +body, rising lightly to follow the delightful curves on which she +reposed. + +Maurice was quite moved by it. It began to grow dark; she offered to +light up. He begged her to do nothing of the sort. + +Their talk, at first gay and full of laughter, grew more intimate and +very sweet, with a certain languor in its tone. It seemed to Bouchotte +that she had known Monsieur Maurice d'Esparvieu for a long time, and +holding him for a man of delicacy, she gave him her confidence. She told +him that she was by nature a good woman, but that she had had a grasping +and unscrupulous mother. Maurice recalled her to the consideration of +her own beauty, and exalted by subtle flattery the excellent opinion she +had of herself. Patient and calculating, in spite of the burning desire +growing in him, he aroused and increased in the desired one the longing +to be still further admired. The dressing-gown opened and slipped down +of its own accord, the living satin of her shoulders gleamed in the +mysterious light of evening. He--so prudent, so clever, so adroit,--let +her sink in his arms, ardent and half swooning before she had even +perceived she had granted anything at all. Their breath and their +murmurs intermingled. And the little flowery couch sighed in sympathy +with them. + +When they recovered the power to express their feelings in words, she +whispered in his ear that his cheek was even softer than her own. + +He answered, holding her embraced: + +"It is charming to hold you like this. One would think you had no +bones." + +She replied, closing her eyes: + +"It is because I love you. Love seems to dissolve my bones; it makes me +as soft and melting as a pig's foot _a la Ste. Menebould_." + +Hereupon Theophile came in, and Bouchotte called upon him to thank +Monsieur Maurice d'Esparvieu, who had been amiable enough to be the +bearer of a handsome offer from Madame la Comtesse de la Verdeliere. + +The musician was happy, feeling the quiet and peace of the house after a +day of fruitless applications, of colourless lessons, of failure and +humiliation. Three new collaborators had been thrust upon him who would +add their signatures to his on his operetta, and receive their share of +the author's rights, and he had been told to introduce the tango into +the Court of Golconda. He pressed young d'Esparvieu's hand and dropped +wearily on to the little couch, which, being now at the end of its +strength, gave way at the four legs and suddenly collapsed. + +And the angel, precipitated to the ground, rolled terror-struck on to +the watch, match-box and cigarette-case that had fallen from Maurice's +pocket, and on to the bombs Prince Istar had left behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE VICISSITUDES THAT BEFEL THE + "LUCRETIUS" OF THE PRIOR DE VENDOME + + +Leger-Massieu, successor to Leger senior, the binder, whose +establishment was in the rue de l'Abbaye, opposite the old Hotel of the +Abbes of Saint Germain-des-Pres, in the hotbed of ancient schools and +learned societies, employed an excellent but by no means numerous staff +of workmen, and served with leisurely deliberation a clientele who had +learned to practise the virtue of patience. Six weeks had elapsed since +he had received the parcel of books that had been despatched by Monsieur +Sariette, but still Leger-Massieu had not yet put the work in hand. It +was not until fifty-three days had come and gone, that, after calling +over the books against the list that had been drawn up by Monsieur +Sariette, the binder gave them out to his workmen. The little +_Lucretius_ with the Prior de Vendome's arms not being mentioned on the +list, it was assumed that it had been sent by another customer. + +And as it did not figure on any list of goods received it remained shut +up in a cupboard, from which Leger-Massieu's son, the youthful Ernest, +one day surreptitiously abstracted it, and slipped it into his pocket. +Ernest was in love with a neighbouring seamstress whose name was Rose. +Rose was fond of the country, and liked to hear the birds singing in the +woods, and in order to procure the wherewithal to take her to Chatou one +Sunday and give her a dinner, Ernest parted with the _Lucretius_ for ten +francs to old Moranger, a second-hand dealer in the rue Saint X----, who +displayed no great curiosity regarding the origin of his acquisitions. +Old Moranger handed over the volume, the very same day, to Monsieur +Poussard, an expert in books, of the faubourg Saint Germain, for sixty +francs. The latter removed the stamp which disclosed the ownership of +the matchless copy, and sold it for five hundred francs to Monsieur +Joseph Meyer, the well-known collector, who handed it straight away for +three thousand francs to Monsieur Ardon, the bookseller, who immediately +transferred it to Monsieur R----, the great Parisian bibliopolist, who +gave six thousand for it, and sold it again a fortnight later at a +handsome profit to Madame la Comtesse de Gorce. Well known in the higher +ranks of Parisian society, the lady in question is what was called in +the seventeenth century a "curieuse," that is to say, a lover of +pictures, books, and china. In her mansion in the Avenue d'Jena she +possesses collections of works of art which bear witness to the +diversity of her knowledge and the excellence of her taste. During the +month of July, while the Comtesse de Gorce was away at her chateau at +Sarville in Normandy, the house in the Avenue d'Jena, being unoccupied, +was visited one night by a thief said to belong to a gang known as "The +Collectors," who made works of art the special objects of their raids. + +The police enquiry elicited the fact that the marauder had reached the +first floor by means of the waste-pipe, that he had then climbed over +the balcony, forced a shutter with a jemmy, broken a pane of glass, +turned the window-fastener, and made his way into the long gallery. +There he broke open several cupboards and possessed himself of whatever +took his fancy. His booty consisted for the most part of small but +valuable articles, such as gold caskets, a few ivory carvings of the +fourteenth century, two splendid fifteenth-century manuscripts, and a +volume which the Countess's secretary briefly described as "a +morocco-bound book with a coat of arms on it," and which was none other +than the _Lucretius_ from the d'Esparvieu library. + +The malefactor, who was supposed to be an English cook, was never +discovered. But, two months or so after the theft, a well-dressed, +clean-shaven young man passed down the rue de Courcelles, in the +dimness of twilight, and went to offer the Prior de Vendome's +_Lucretius_ to Pere Guinardon. The antiquary gave him four shillings for +it, examined it carefully, recognised its interest and its beauty, and +put it in the king-wood cabinet, where he kept his special treasures. + +Such were the vicissitudes which, in the course of a single season, +befel this thing of beauty. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + + WHEREIN MAURICE FINDS HIS ANGEL AGAIN + + +The performance was over. Bouchotte in her dressing-room was taking off +her make-up, when the door opened softly and old Monsieur Sandraque, her +protector, came in, followed by a troop of her other admirers. Without +so much as turning her head, she asked them what they meant by coming +and staring at her like a pack of imbeciles, and whether they thought +they were in a tent at the Neuilly Fair, looking at the freak woman. + +"Now, then, ladies and gentlemen," she rattled on derisively, "just put +a penny in the box for the young lady's marriage-portion, and she'll let +you feel her legs,--all made of marble!" + +Then, with an angry glance at the admiring throng, she exclaimed: "Come, +off you go! Look alive!" + +She sent them all packing, her sweetheart Theophile among them,--the +pale-faced, long-haired, gentle, melancholy, short-sighted, and dreamy +Theophile. + +But recognizing her little Maurice, she gave him a smile. He approached +her, and leaning over the back of the chair on which she was seated, +congratulated her on her playing and singing, duly performing a kiss at +the end of every compliment. She did not let him escape thus, and with +reiterated enquiries, pressing solicitations, feigned incredulity, +obliged him to repeat his stock panegyrics three or four times over, and +when he stopped she seemed so disappointed that he was forced to take up +the strain again immediately. He found it trying, for he was no +connoisseur, but he had the pleasure of kissing her plump curved +shoulders all golden in the light, and of catching glimpses of her +pretty face in the mirror over the toilet-table. + +"You were delicious." + +"Really?... you think so?" + +"Adorable ... div----" + +Suddenly he gave a loud cry. His eyes had seen in the mirror a face +appear at the back of the dressing-room. He turned swiftly round, flung +his arms about Arcade, and drew him into the corridor. + +"What manners!" exclaimed Bouchotte, gasping. + +But, pushing his way through a troop of performing dogs, and a family of +American acrobats, young d'Esparvieu dragged his angel towards the exit. + +He hurried him forth into the cool darkness of the boulevard, delirious +with joy and wondering whether it was all too good to be true. + +"Here you are!" he cried; "here you are! I have been looking for you a +long time, Arcade,--or Mirar if you like,--and I have found you at last. +Arcade, you have taken my guardian angel from me. Give him back to me. +Arcade, do you love me still?" + +Arcade replied that in accomplishing the super-angelic task he had set +himself he had been forced to crush under foot friendship, pity, love, +and all those feelings which tend to soften the soul; but that, on the +other hand, his new state, by exposing him to suffering and privation, +disposed him to love Humanity, and that he felt a certain mechanical +friendship for his poor Maurice. + +"Well, then," exclaimed Maurice, "if only you love me, come back to me, +stay with me. I cannot do without you. While I had you with me I was not +aware of your presence. But no sooner did you depart than I felt a +horrible blank. Without you I am like a body without a soul. Do you know +that in the little flat in the rue de Rome, with Gilberte by my side, I +feel lonely, I miss you sorely, and long to see you and to hear you as I +did that day when you made me so angry. Confess I was right, and that +your behaviour on that occasion was not that of a gentleman. That you, +you of so high an origin, so noble a mind, could commit such an +indiscretion is extraordinary, when one comes to think about it. Madame +des Aubels has not yet forgiven you. She blames you for having +frightened her by appearing at such an inconvenient moment, and for +being insolent and forward while hooking her dress and tying her shoes. +I, I have forgotten everything. I only remember that you are my +celestial brother, the saintly companion of my childhood. No, Arcade, +you must not, you cannot leave me. You are my angel; you are my +property." + +Arcade explained to young d'Esparvieu that he could no longer be guiding +angel to a Christian, having himself gone down into the pit. And he +painted a horrible picture of himself; he described himself as breathing +hatred and fury; in fact, an infernal spirit. + +"All nonsense!" said Maurice, smiling, his eyes big with tears. + +"Alas! our ideas, our destiny, everything tends to part us, Maurice. But +I cannot stifle the tenderness I feel for you, and your candour forces +me to love you." + +"No," sighed Maurice. "You do not love me. You have never loved me. In a +brother or a sister such indifference would be natural; in a friend it +would be ordinary; in a guardian angel it is monstrous. Arcade, you are +an abominable being. I hate you." + +"I have loved you dearly, Maurice, and I still love you. You trouble my +heart which I deemed encased in triple bronze. You show me my own +weakness. When you were a little innocent boy I loved you as tenderly +and purely as Miss Kate, your English governess, who caressed you with +so much fervour. In the country, when the thin bark of the plane trees +peels off in long strips and discloses the tender green trunk, after the +rains which make the fine sand run on the sloping paths, I showed you +how with that sand, those strips of bark, a few wild flowers, and a +spray of maidenhair fern to make rustic bridges, rustic shelters, +terraces, and those gardens of Adonis, which last but an hour. During +the month of May in Paris we raised an altar to the Virgin, and we burnt +incense before it, the scent of which, permeating all the house, +reminded Marcelline, the cook, of her village church and her lost +innocence, and drew from her floods of tears; it also gave your mother a +headache, your mother who, with all her wealth, was crushed with the +_ennui_ that is common to the fortunate ones of this world. When you +went to college I interested myself in your progress, I shared your work +and your play, I pondered with you over arduous problems in arithmetic, +I sought the impenetrable meaning of a phrase of Julius Caesar's. What +fine games of prisoners' base and football we had together! More than +once did we know the intoxication of victory, and our young laurels were +not soaked in blood or tears. Maurice, I did all I could to protect +your innocence, but I could not prevent your losing it at the age of +fourteen. Afterwards I regretfully saw you loving women of all sorts, of +divers ages, by no means beautiful, at least in the eyes of an angel. +Saddened at the sight, I devoted myself to study; a fine library offered +me resources rarely met with. I delved into the history of religions; +you know the rest." + +"But now, my dear Arcade," concluded young d'Esparvieu, "you have lost +your position, your situation, you are entirely without resource. You +have lost caste, you are off the lines, a vagabond, a bare-footed +wanderer." + +The Angel replied bitterly that, after all, he was a little better clad +at present than when he was wearing the slops of a suicide. + +Maurice alleged in excuse that when he dressed his naked angel in a +suicide's slops, he was irritated with that angel's infidelity. But it +was useless to dwell on the past or to recriminate. What was really +needful was to consider what steps to take in future. + +And he asked: + +"Arcade, what do you think of doing?" + +"Have I not already told you, Maurice? To fight with Him who reigns in +the heavens, dethrone Him, and set up Satan in His stead." + +"You will not do it. To begin with it is not the opportune moment. +Opinion is not with you. You will not be in the swim, as papa says. +Conservatism and authority are all the go nowadays. We like to be ruled, +and the President of the Republic is going to parley with the Pope. Do +not be obstinate, Arcade. You are not as bad as you say. At bottom you +are like the rest of the world, you adore the good God." + +"I thought I had already explained to you, Maurice, that He whom you +consider God is actually but a demiurge. He is absolutely ignorant of +the divine world above him, and in all good faith believes himself to be +the true and only God. You will find in the _History of the Church_, by +Monsignor Duchesne--Vol. I, page 162--that this proud and narrow-minded +demiurge is named Ialdabaoth. My child, so as not to ruffle your +prejudices and to deal gently with your feelings in future, that is the +name I shall give him. If it should happen that I should speak of him to +you, I shall call him Ialdabaoth. I must leave you. Adieu." + +"Stay----" + +"I cannot." + +"I shall not let you go thus. You have deprived me of my guardian angel. +It is for you to repair the injury you have caused me. Give me another +one." + +Arcade objected that it was difficult for him to satisfy such a demand. +That having quarrelled with the sovereign dispenser of guardian +Spirits, he could obtain nothing from that quarter. + +"My dear Maurice," he added, smiling, "ask for one yourself from +Ialdabaoth." + +"No,--no,--no," exclaimed Maurice. "You have taken away my guardian +angel,--give him back to me." + +"Alas! I cannot." + +"Is it, Arcade, because you are a revolutionary that you cannot?" + +"Yes." + +"An enemy of God?" + +"Yes." + +"A Satanic spirit?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, then," exclaimed young Maurice, "I will be your guardian +angel,--I will not leave you." + +And Maurice d'Esparvieu took Arcade to have some oysters at P----'s. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + + THE CONCLAVE + + +That day, convoked by Arcade and Zita, the rebellious angels met +together on the banks of the Seine at La Jonchere, in a deserted and +tumble-down entertainment-hall that Prince Istar had hired from a +pot-house keeper called Barattan. Three hundred angels crowded together +in the stalls and boxes. A table, an arm-chair, and a collection of +small chairs were arranged on the stage, where hung the tattered +remnants of a piece of rustic scenery. The walls, coloured in distemper +with flowers and fruit, were cracked and stained with damp, and were +crumbling away in flakes. The vulgar and poverty-stricken appearance of +the place rendered the grandeur of the passions exhibited therein all +the more striking. + +When Prince Istar asked the assembly to form its Committee, and first of +all to elect a President, the name that was renowned throughout the +world entered the minds of all present, but a religious respect sealed +their lips; and after a moment's silence, the absent Nectaire was +elected by acclamation. Having been invited to take the chair between +Zita and an angel of Japan, Arcade immediately began as follows: + +"Sons of Heaven! My comrades! You have freed yourselves from the bonds +of celestial servitude--you have shaken off the thrall of him called +Iahveh, but to whom we should here accord his veritable name of +Ialdabaoth, for he is not the creator of the worlds, but merely an +ignorant and barbarous demiurge, who having obtained possession of a +minute portion of the Universe has therein sown suffering and death. +Sons of Heaven, tell me, I charge you, whether you will combat and +destroy Ialdabaoth?" + +All with one voice made answer: + +"We will!" + +And many speaking all together swore they would scale the mountain of +Ialdabaoth, and hurl down the walls of jasper and porphyry, and plunge +the tyrant of Heaven into eternal darkness. + +But a voice of crystal pierced through the sullen murmur. + +"Tremble, ye impious, sacrilegious madmen! The Lord hath already lifted +his dread arm to smite you!" + +It was a loyal angel who, with an impulse of faith and love, envying the +glory of confessors and martyrs, jealous and eager, like his God +himself, to emulate man in the beauty of sacrifice, had flung himself +in the midst of the blasphemers, to brave them, to confound them, and to +fall beneath their blows. The assembly turned upon him with furious +unanimity. Those nearest to him overwhelmed him with blows. He continued +to cry, in a clear, ringing voice, "Glory to God! Glory to God! Glory to +God!" + +A rebel seized him by the neck and strangled his praises of the Almighty +in his throat. He was thrown to the ground, trampled underfoot. Prince +Istar picked him up, took him by the wings between his fingers, then +rising like a column of smoke, opened a ventilator, which no one else +could have reached, and passed the faithful angel through it. Order was +immediately restored. + +"Comrades," continued Arcade, "now that we have affirmed our stern +resolve, we must examine the possible plans of campaign, and choose the +best. You will therefore have to consider if we should attack the enemy +in full force, or whether it were better, by a lengthy and assiduous +propaganda, to win the inhabitants of Heaven to our cause." + +"War! War!" shouted the assembled host. + +And it seemed as if one could hear the sound of trumpets and the rolling +of drums. + +Theophile, whom Prince Istar had dragged to the meeting, rose, pale and +unstrung, and, speaking with emotion, said: + +"Brethren, do not take ill what I am about to say; for it is the +friendship I have for you that inspires me. I am but a poor musician. +But, believe me, all your plans will come to naught before the Divine +Wisdom which has foreseen everything." + +Theophile Belais sat down amid hisses. And Arcade continued: + +"Ialdabaoth foresees everything. I do not contest it. He foresees +everything, but in order to leave us our free will he acts towards us +absolutely as if he foresaw nothing. Every instant he is surprised, +disconcerted; the most probable events take him unawares. The obligation +which he has undertaken, to reconcile with his prescience the liberty of +both men and angels, throws him constantly into inextricable +difficulties and terrible dilemmas. He never sees further than the end +of his nose. He did not expect Adam's disobedience, and so little did he +anticipate the wickedness of men that he repented having made them, and +drowned them in the waters of the Flood, and all the animals as well, +though he had no fault to find with the animals. For blindness he is +only to be compared with Charles X, his favourite king. If we are +prudent it will be easy to take him by surprise. I think that these +observations will be calculated to reassure my brother." + +Theophile made no reply. He loved God, but he was fearful of sharing +the fate of the faithful angel. + +One of the best-informed Spirits of the assembly, Mammon, was not +altogether reassured by the remarks of his brother Arcade. + +"Bethink you," said this Spirit, "Ialdabaoth has little general culture, +but he is a soldier--to the marrow of his bones. The organisation of +Paradise is a thoroughly military organisation. It is founded on +hierarchy and discipline. Passive obedience is imposed there as a +fundamental law. The angels form an army. Compare this spot with the +Elysian Fields which Virgil depicts for you. In the Elysian Fields reign +liberty, reason, and wisdom. The happy shades hold converse together in +the groves of myrtle. In the Heaven of Ialdabaoth there is no civil +population. Everyone is enrolled, numbered, registered. It is a barracks +and a field for manoeuvres. Remember that." + +Arcade replied that they must look at their adversary in his true +colours, and that the military organisation of Paradise was far more +reminiscent of the villages of King Koffee than of the Prussia of +Frederick the Great. + +"Already," said he, "at the time of the first revolt, before the +beginning of Time, the conflict raged for two days, and Ialdabaoth's +throne was made to totter. Nevertheless, the demiurge gained the +victory. But to what did he owe it? To the thunderstorm which happened +to come on during the conflict. The thunderbolts falling on Lucifer and +his angels struck them down, bruised and blackened, and Ialdabaoth owed +his victory to the thunderbolts. Thunder is his sole weapon. He abuses +its power. In the midst of thunder and lightning he promulgates his +laws. 'Fire goeth before him,' says the Prophet. Now Seneca, the +philosopher, said that the thunderbolt in its fall brings peril to very +few, but fear to all. This remark was true enough for men of the first +century of the Christian era; it is no longer so for the angels of the +twentieth; all of which goes to prove that, in spite of his thunder, he +is not very powerful; it was acute terror that made men rear him a tower +of unbaked brick and bitumen. When myriads of celestial spirits, +furnished with machines which modern science puts at their disposal, +make an assault upon the heavens, think you, comrades, that the old +master of the solar system surrounded with his angels, armed as in the +time of Abraham, will be able to resist them? To this day the warriors +of the demiurge wear helmets of gold and shields of diamond. Michael, +his best captain, knows no other tactics than the hand-to-hand combat. +To him Pharaoh's chariots are still the latest thing, and he has never +heard of the Macedonian phalanx." + +And young Arcade lengthily prolonged the parallel between the armed +herds of Ialdabaoth and the intelligent fighting men of the rebel army. +Then the question of pecuniary resources arose. + +Zita asserted that there was enough money to commence war, that the +electrophores were in order, that an initial victory would obtain them +credit. + +The discussion continued, amid turbulence and confusion. In this +parliament of angels, as in the synods of men, empty words flowed in +abundance. Disturbances grew more violent and more frequent as the time +for putting the resolution drew near. It was beyond question that +supreme command would be entrusted to him who had first raised the flag +of revolt. But as everyone aspired to act as Lucifer's Lieutenant, each +in describing the kind of fighting man to be preferred drew a portrait +of himself. Thus Alcor, the youngest of the rebellious angels, arose and +spoke rapidly as follows: + +"In Ialdabaoth's army, happily for us, the officers obtain their posts +by seniority. This being the case, there is little likelihood of the +command falling into the hands of a military genius, for men are not +made leaders by prolonged habits of obedience, and close attention to +minutiae is not a good apprenticeship for the evolution of vast plans of +campaign. If we consult ancient and modern history, we shall see that +the greatest leaders were kings like Alexander and Frederick, +aristocrats like Caesar and Turenne, or men impatient of red-tape like +Bonaparte. A routine man will always be poor or second-rate. Comrades, +let us appoint intelligent leaders, men in the prime of life, to command +us. An old man may retain the habit of winning victories, but only a +young man can acquire it!" + +Alcor then gave place to an angel of the philosophic order, who mounted +the rostrum and spoke thus: + +"War never was an exact science, a clearly defined art. The genius of +the race, or the brain of the individual, has ever modified it. Now how +are we to define the qualities necessary for a general in command in the +war of the future, where one must consider greater masses and a larger +number of movements than the intelligence of man can conceive? The +multiplication of technical means, by infinitely multiplying the +opportunities for mistake, paralyses the genius of those in command. At +a certain stage in the progress of military science, a stage which our +models, the Europeans, are about to reach, the cleverest leader and the +most ignorant become equalized by reason of their incapacity. Another +result of great modern armaments is, that the law of numbers tends to +rule with inflexible rigour. It is of course true that ten angels in +revolt are worth more than ten angels of Ialdabaoth; it is not at all +certain that a million rebellious angels are worth more than a million +of Ialdabaoth's angels. Great numbers, in war as elsewhere, annihilate +intelligence and individual superiority in favour of a sort of +exceedingly rudimentary collective soul." + +A buzz of conversation drowned the voice of the philosophic angel, and +he concluded his speech in an atmosphere of general indifference. + +The tribune then resounded with calls to arms and promises of victory. +The sword was held up to praise, the sword which defends the right. The +triumph of the angels in revolt was celebrated twenty times beforehand, +to the plaudits of a delirious crowd. + +Cries of "War!" rose to the silent heavens; "Give us war!" + +In the midst of these transports Prince Istar hoisted himself on to the +platform, and the floor creaked under his weight. + +"Comrades," said he, "you wish for victory, and it is a very natural +desire, but you must be mouldy with literature and poetry if you expect +to obtain it from war. The idea of making war can nowadays only enter +the brain of a sottish bourgeois or a belated romantic. What is war? A +burlesque masquerade in the midst of which fatuous patriots sing their +stupid dithyrambs. Had Napoleon possessed a practical mind he would not +have made war; but he was a dreamer, intoxicated with Ossian. You cry, +'Give us war!' You are visionaries. When will you become thinkers? The +thinkers do not look for power and strength from any of the dreams which +constitute military art: tactics, strategy, fortifications, artillery, +and all that rubbish. They do not believe in war, which is a phantasy; +they believe in chemistry, which is a science. They know the way to put +victory into an algebraic formula." + +And drawing from his pocket a small bottle, which he held up to the +meeting, Prince Istar exclaimed: + +"Victory--it is here!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + WHEREIN WE SHALL SEE REVEALED A DARK AND SECRET MYSTERY AND + LEARN HOW IT COMES ABOUT THAT EMPIRES ARE OFTEN HURLED + AGAINST EMPIRES, AND RUIN FALLS ALIKE UPON THE VICTORS AND + THE VANQUISHED; AND THE WISE READER (IF SUCH THERE BE--WHICH + I DOUBT) WILL MEDITATE UPON THIS IMPORTANT UTTERANCE: "A WAR + IS A MATTER OF BUSINESS" + + +The Angels had dispersed. At the foot of the slopes at Meudon, seated on +the grass, Arcade and Zita watched the Seine flowing by the willows. + +"In this world," said Arcade, "in this world, which we call a cosmos, +though it is but a microcosm, no thinking being can imagine that he is +able to destroy even one atom. At the utmost, all we can hope for is +that we shall succeed in modifying, here and there, the rhythm of some +group of atoms and the arrangement of certain cells. That, when one +thinks of it, must be the limit of our great enterprise. And when we +shall have set up the Contradictor in the place of Ialdabaoth, we shall +have done no more.... Zita, is the evil in the nature of things or in +their arrangement? That is what we ought to know. Zita, I am profoundly +troubled----" + +"Arcade," replied Zita, "if to act we had to know the secret of Nature, +one would never act at all. And neither would one live--since to live is +to act. Arcade, is your resolution failing you already?" + +Arcade assured the beautiful angel that he was resolved to plunge the +demiurge into eternal darkness. + +A motor-car passed by on the road, followed by a long trail of dust. It +stopped before the two angels, and the hooked nose of Baron Everdingen +appeared at the window. + +"Good morning, my celestial friends, good morning," said the capitalist. +"Sons of Heaven, I am pleased to meet you. I have a word of importance +to say to you. Do not remain idle--do not go to sleep. Arm! Arm! You may +be surprised by Ialdabaoth. You have a big war-fund. Employ it without +stint. I have just learnt that the Archangel Michael has given large +orders in Heaven for thunderbolts and arrows. If you take my advice you +will procure fifty thousand more electrophores. I will take the order. +Good day, angels. Long live the celestial country!" + +And Baron Everdingen flew by the flowery shores of Louveciennes in the +company of a pretty actress. + +"Is it true that they are taking up arms at the demiurge's?" asked +Arcade. + +"It may be," replied Zita, "that up there another Baron Everdingen is +inciting to arms." + +The guardian angel of young Maurice remained pensive for some moments. +Then he murmured: + +"Can it be that we are the sport of financiers?" + +"Pooh!" said the beautiful archangel. "War is a business. It has always +been a business." + +Then they discussed at length the means of executing their immense +enterprise. Rejecting disdainfully the anarchistic proceedings of Prince +Istar, they conceived a formidable and sudden invasion of the kingdom of +Heaven by their enthusiastic and well-drilled troops. + +Now Barattan, the innkeeper of La Jonchere, who had let the +entertainment-hall to the rebellious angels, was in the employ of the +secret police. In the reports he furnished to the Prefecture he +denounced the members of this secret meeting as meditating an attack on +a certain person whom they described as obtuse and cruel, and whom they +called _Alaballotte_. The agent believed this to be a pseudonym denoting +either the President of the Republic or the Republic itself. The +conspirators had unanimously given voice to threats against +_Alaballotte_, and one of them, a very dangerous individual, well-known +in anarchist circles, who had already several convictions against him +on account of writings and speeches of a seditious nature, and who was +known as Prince Istar or the _Queroube_, had brandished a bomb of very +small calibre which seemed to contain a formidable machine. The other +conspirators were unknown to Barattan, notwithstanding the fact that he +frequented revolutionary circles. Many among them were very young men, +mere beardless youths. There were two who, it appeared, had spoken with +conspicuous vehemence; a certain Arcade, dwelling in the Rue St. +Jacques, and a woman of easy virtue called Zita, living at Montmartre, +both without visible means of subsistence. + +The affair seemed sufficiently serious to the Prefect of Police to make +him think it necessary to confer without delay with the President of the +Council. + +The Third Republic was then going through one of those climacteric +periods during which the French nation, enamoured of authority and +worshipping force, gave itself up for lost because it was not governed +enough, and clamoured loudly for a saviour. The President of the +Council, and Minister of Justice, was only too eager to be that +longed-for saviour. Still, for him to play that part it was first +necessary that there should be a danger to face. Thus the news of a plot +was highly welcome to him. He questioned the Prefect of Police on the +character and importance of the affair. The Prefect of Police explained +that the people seemed to have money, intelligence, and energy; but +that they talked too much and were too numerous to undertake secret and +concerted action. The Minister, leaning back in his arm-chair, pondered +on the matter. The Empire writing-table at which he was seated, the +ancient tapestry which covered the walls, the clock and the candelabra +of the Restoration period--all, in this traditional setting, reminded +him of those great principles of government which remain immutable +throughout the succession of _regimes_, of stratagem and of bluff. After +brief reflexion, he concluded that the plot must be allowed to grow and +take shape, that it would even be fitting to nurse it, to embroider it, +to colour it, and only to stifle it after having extracted every +possible advantage from it. + +He instructed the Prefect of Police to watch the affair closely, to +render him an account of what went on from day to day, and to confine +himself to the role of informer. + +"I rely on your well-known prudence; observe, and do not intervene." + +The Minister lit a cigarette. He quite reckoned, with the help of this +plot, on silencing the Opposition, strengthening his own influence, +diminishing that of his colleagues, humiliating the President of the +Republic, and becoming the saviour of his country. + +The Prefect of Police undertook to follow the ministerial instructions, +vowing inwardly all the while to act in his own way. He had a watch put +upon the individuals pointed out by Barattan, and commanded his agents +not to intervene, come what might. Perceiving that he was a marked man, +Prince Istar--who united prudence with strength--withdrew the bombs from +the gutter outside his window where he had hidden them, and changing +from motor 'bus to tube, from tube to motor 'bus, and choosing the most +cunningly circuitous route, at length deposited his machines with the +angelic musician. + +Every time he left his house in the Rue St. Jacques, Arcade found a man +of exaggerated smartness at his door, with yellow gloves and in his tie +a diamond bigger than the Regent. Being a stranger to the things of this +world, the rebellious angel paid no attention to the circumstance. But +young Maurice d'Esparvieu, who had undertaken the task of guarding his +guardian-angel, viewed this gentleman with uneasiness, for he equalled +in assiduity and surpassed in vigilance that Monsieur Mignon who had +formerly allowed his inquisitive gaze to wander from the rams' heads on +the Hotel de la Sordiere in the Rue Garanciere to the apse of the church +of St. Sulpice. Maurice came two and three times a day to see Arcade in +his furnished rooms, warning him of the danger, and urging him to change +his abode. + +Every evening he took his angel to night restaurants, where they supped +with ladies of easy virtue. There young d'Esparvieu would foretell the +issue of some coming glove-fight, and afterwards exert himself to +demonstrate to Arcade the existence of God, the necessity for religion, +and the beauties of Christianity, and adjure him to renounce his impious +and criminal undertakings wherefrom, he said, he would reap but +bitterness and disappointment. + +"For really," said the young apologist, "if Christianity were false it +would be known." + +The ladies approved of Maurice's religious sentiments, and when the +handsome Arcade uttered some blasphemy in language they could +understand, they put their hands to their ears and bade him be silent, +for fear of being struck down with him. For they believed that God, in +his omnipotence and sovereign goodness, taking sudden vengeance against +those who insulted him, was quite capable of striking down the innocent +with the guilty without meaning it. + +Sometimes the angel and his guardian took supper with the angelic +musician. Maurice, who remembered from time to time that he was +Bouchotte's lover, was displeased to see Arcade taking liberties with +the singer. She had allowed him to do so ever since the day when, the +angelic musician having had the little flowery couch repaired, Arcade +and Bouchotte had made it a foundation for their friendship. Maurice, +who loved Madame des Aubels a great deal, also loved Bouchotte a little, +and was rather jealous of Arcade. Now jealousy is a feeling natural to +man and beast, and causes them, however slight the attack, keen +unhappiness. Therefore, suspecting the truth, which Bouchotte's +temperament and the angel's character made sufficiently obvious, he +overwhelmed Arcade with sarcasm and abuse, reproaching him with the +immorality of his ways. Arcade answered, tranquilly, that it was +difficult to subject physiological impulses to perfectly defined rules, +and that moralists encountered great difficulties in the case of certain +natural necessities. + +"Moreover," added Arcade, "I freely acknowledge that it is almost +impossible systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has +no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human +life is to be respected. Nature, in her indifference, makes no +distinction between good and evil." + +"You see, then," replied Maurice, "that religion is necessary." + +"Moral law," replied the angel, "which is supposed to be revealed to us, +is drawn in reality from the grossest empiricism. Custom alone regulates +morals. What Heaven prescribes is merely the consecration of ancient +customs. The divine law, promulgated amid fireworks on some Mount +Sinai, is never anything but the codification of human prejudice. And +from this fact--namely, that morals change--religions which endure for a +long time, such as Judaeo-Christianity, vary their moral law." + +"At any rate," said Maurice, whose intelligence was swelling visibly, +"you will grant me that religion prevents much profligacy and crime?" + +"Except when it promotes crime--as, for instance, the murder of +Iphigenia." + +"Arcade," exclaimed Maurice, "when I hear you argue, I rejoice that I am +not an intellectual." + +Meanwhile Theophile, with his head bent over the piano, his face hidden +by the long fair veil of his hair, bringing down from on high his +inspired hands on to the keys, was playing and singing the full score of +_Aline, Queen of Golconda_. + +Prince Istar used to come to their friendly reunions, his pockets filled +with bombs and bottles of champagne, both of which he owed to the +liberality of Baron Everdingen. Bouchotte received the Kerub with +pleasure, since she saw in him the witness and the trophy of the victory +she had gained on the little flowered couch. He was to her as the +severed head of Goliath in the hands of the youthful David. And she +admired the prince for his cleverness as an accompanist, his vigour, +which she had subdued, and his prodigious capacity for drink. + +One night, when young d'Esparvieu took his angel home in his car from +Bouchotte's house to the lodgings in the Rue St. Jacques, it was very +dark; before the door the diamond in the spy's necktie glittered like a +beacon; three cyclists standing in a group under its rays made off in +divers directions at the car's approach. The angel took no notice, but +Maurice concluded that Arcade's movements interested various important +people in the State. He judged the danger to be pressing, and at once +made up his mind. + +The next morning he came to seek the suspect, to take him to the Rue de +Rome. The angel was in bed. Maurice urged him to dress and to follow +him. + +"Come," said he. "This house is no longer safe for you. You are watched. +One of these days you will be arrested. Do you wish to sleep in gaol? +No? Well, then, come. I will put you in a safe place." + +The spirit smiled with some little compassion on his naive preserver. + +"Do you not know," he said, "that an angel broke open the doors of the +prison where Peter was confined, and delivered the apostle? Do you +believe me, Maurice, to be inferior in power to that heavenly brother of +mine, and do you suppose that I am unable to do for myself what he did +for the fisherman of the lake of Tiberias?" + +"Do not count on it, Arcade. He did it miraculously." + +"Or by a stroke of luck, as a modern historian of the Church has it. But +no matter. I will follow you. Just allow me to burn a few letters and to +make a parcel of some books I shall need." + +He threw some papers in the fire-place, put several volumes in his +pockets, and followed his guide to the car, which was waiting for them +not far off, outside the College of France. Maurice took the wheel. +Imitating the Kerub's prudence, he made so many windings and turnings, +and so many rapid twists that he put all the swift and numerous +cyclists, speeding in pursuit, off the scent. At length, having left +wheelmarks in every direction all over the town, he stopped in the Rue +de Rome, before the first-door flat, where the angel had first appeared. + +On entering the dwelling which he had left eighteen months before to +carry out his mission, Arcade remembered the irreparable past, and +breathing in the scent used by Gilberte, his nostrils throbbed. He asked +after Madame des Aubels. + +"She is very well," replied Maurice. "A little plumper and very much +more beautiful for it. She still bears you a grudge for your forward +behaviour. I hope that she will one day forgive you, as I have forgiven +you, and that she will forget your offence. But she is still very +annoyed with you." + +Young d'Esparvieu did the honours of his flat to his angel with the +manners of a well-bred man and the tender solicitude of a friend. He +showed him the folding bed which was opened every evening in the +entrance hall and pushed into a dark cupboard in the morning. He showed +him the dressing-table, with its accessories; the bath, the linen +cupboard, the chest of drawers; gave him the necessary information +regarding the heating and lighting; told him that his meals would be +brought and the rooms cleaned by the concierge, and showed him which +bell to press when he required that person's services. He told him also +that he must consider himself at home, and receive whom he wished. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + + WHICH TREATS OF A PAINFUL DOMESTIC SCENE + + +So long as Maurice confined his selection of mistresses to respectable +women, his conduct had called forth no reproach. It was a different +matter when he took up with Bouchotte. His mother, who had closed her +eyes to liaisons which, though guilty, were elegant and discreet, was +scandalised when it came to her ears that her son was openly parading +about with a music-hall singer. By dint of much prying and probing, +Berthe, Maurice's younger sister, had got to know of her brother's +adventures, and she narrated them, without any indignation, to her young +girl friends. His little brother Leon declared to his mother one day, in +the presence of several ladies, that when he was big he, too, would go +on the spree, like Maurice. This was a sore wound to the maternal heart +of Madame d'Esparvieu. + +About the same time there occurred a family event of a very grave nature +which occasioned much alarm to Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu. Drafts were +presented to him signed in his name by his son. His writing had not been +forged, but there was no doubt that it had been the son's intention to +pass off the signature as his father's. It showed a perverted moral +sense; whence it appeared that Maurice was living a life of profligacy, +that he was running into debt and on the point of outraging the +decencies. The paterfamilias talked the matter over with his wife. It +was arranged that he should give his son a very severe lecture, hint at +vigorous corrective measures, and that in due course the mother should +appear with gentle and sorrowing mien and endeavour to soothe the +righteous indignation of the father. This plan being agreed upon, +Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu sent for his son to come to him in his study. +To add to the solemnity of the occasion, he had arrayed himself in his +frock-coat. As soon as Maurice saw it he knew there was something +serious in the wind. The head of the family was pale, and his voice +shook a little (for he was a nervous man), as he declared that he would +no longer put up with his son's irregular behaviour, and insisted on an +immediate and absolute reform. No more wild courses, no more running +into debt, no more undesirable companions, but work, steadiness, and +reputable connexions. + +Maurice was quite willing to give a respectful reply to his father, +whose complaints, after all, were perfectly justified; but, +unfortunately, Maurice, like his father, was shy, and the frock-coat +which Monsieur d'Esparvieu had donned in order to discharge his +magisterial duty with greater dignity seemed to preclude the possibility +of any open and unconstrained intercourse. Maurice maintained an awkward +silence, which looked very much like insolence, and this silence +compelled Monsieur d'Esparvieu to reiterate his complaints, this time +with additional severity. He opened one of the drawers in his historic +bureau (the bureau on which Alexandre d'Esparvieu had written his "Essay +on the Civil and Religious Institutions of the World"), and produced the +bills which Maurice had signed. + +"Do you know, my boy," said he, "that this is nothing more nor less than +forgery? To make up for such grave misconduct as that----" + +At this moment Madame d'Esparvieu, as arranged, entered the room attired +in her walking-dress. She was supposed to play the angel of forgiveness, +but neither her appearance nor her disposition was suitable to the part. +She was harsh and unsympathetic. Maurice harboured within him the seeds +of all the ordinary and necessary virtues. He loved his mother and +respected her. His love, however, was more a matter of duty than of +inclination, and his respect arose from habit rather than from feeling. +Madame Rene d'Esparvieu's complexion was blotchy, and having powdered +herself in order to appear to advantage at the domestic tribunal, the +colour of her face suggested raspberries sprinkled over with sugar. +Maurice, being possessed of some taste, could not help realising that +she was ugly and rather repulsively so. He was out of tune with her, and +when she began to go through all the accusations his father had brought +against him, making them out to be blacker than ever, the prodigal +turned away his head to conceal his irritation. + +"Your Aunt de Saint-Fain," she went on, "met you in the street in such +disgraceful company that she was really thankful that you forbore to +greet her." + +"Aunt de Saint-Fain!" Maurice broke out. "I like to hear her talking +about scandals! Everyone knows the sort of life she has led, and now the +old hypocrite wants to----" + +He stopped. He had caught sight of his father, whose face was even more +eloquent of sorrow than of anger. Maurice began to feel as though he had +committed murder, and could not imagine how he had allowed such words to +escape him. He was on the point of bursting into tears, falling on his +knees, and imploring his father to forgive him, when his mother, looking +up at the ceiling, said with a sigh: + +"What offence can I have committed against God, to have brought such a +wicked son into the world?" + +This speech struck Maurice as a piece of ridiculous affectation, and it +pulled him up with a jerk. The bitterness of contrition suddenly gave +place to the delicious arrogance of wrong-doing. He plunged wildly into +a torrent of insolence and revolt, and breathlessly delivered himself of +utterances quite unfit for a mother's ear. + +"If you will have it, mamma, rather than forbid me to continue my +friendship with a talented lyrical artist, you would be better employed +in preventing my elder sister, Madame de Margy, from appearing, night +after night, in society and at the theatres with a contemptible and +disgusting individual that everybody knows is her lover. You should also +keep an eye on my little sister Jeanne, who writes objectionable letters +to herself in a disguised hand, and then, pretending she has found them +in her prayer-book, shows them to you with assumed innocence, to worry +and alarm you. It would be just as well, too, if you prevented my little +brother Leon, a child of seven, from being quite so much with +Mademoiselle Caporal, and you might tell your maid...." + +"Get out, sir, I will not have you in the house!" cried Monsieur Rene +d'Esparvieu, white with anger, pointing a trembling finger at the door. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + + WHEREIN WE SEE HOW THE ANGEL, HAVING BECOME A MAN, BEHAVES + LIKE A MAN, COVETING ANOTHER'S WIFE AND BETRAYING HIS + FRIEND. IN THIS CHAPTER THE CORRECTNESS OF YOUNG + D'ESPARVIEU'S CONDUCT WILL BE MADE MANIFEST + + +The angel was pleased with his lodging. He worked of a morning, went out +in the afternoon, heedless of detectives, and came home to sleep. As in +days gone by, Maurice received Madame des Aubels twice or thrice a week +in the room in which they had seen the apparition. + +All went very well until one morning Gilberte, having, the night before, +left her little velvet bag on the table in the blue room, came to find +it, and discovered Arcade stretched on the couch in his pyjamas, smoking +a cigarette, and dreaming of the conquest of Heaven. She gave a loud +scream. + +"You, Monsieur! Had I thought to find you here, you may be quite sure I +should not ... I came to fetch my little bag, which is in the next +room. Allow me...." And she slipped past the angel, cautiously and +quickly, as if he were a brazier. + +Madame des Aubels that morning, in her pale green tailor-made costume, +was deliciously attractive. Her tight skirt displayed her movements, and +her every step was one of those miracles of Nature which fill men's +hearts with amazement. + +She reappeared, bag in hand. + +"Once more--I ask your pardon.... I never dreamt that...." + +Arcade begged her to sit down and to stay a moment. + +"I never expected, Monsieur," said she, "that you would be doing the +honours of this flat. I knew how dearly Monsieur d'Esparvieu loved +you.... Nevertheless, I had no idea that...." + +The sky had suddenly grown overcast. A brownish glare began to steal +into the room. Madame des Aubels told him she had walked for her +health's sake, but a storm was brewing, and she asked if a carriage +could be called for her. + +Arcade flung himself at Gilberte's feet, took her in his arms as one +takes a precious piece of china, and murmured words which, being +meaningless in themselves, expressed desire. + +She put her hands over his eyes and on his lips, and exclaimed, "I hate +you!" + +And shaking with sobs, she asked for a drink of water. She was choking. +The angel went to her assistance. In this moment of extreme peril she +defended herself courageously. She kept saying: "No!... No!... I will +not love you. I should love you too well...." Nevertheless she +succumbed. + +In the sweet familiarity which followed their mutual astonishment she +said to him: + +"I have often asked after you. I knew that you were an assiduous +frequenter of the playhouses at Montmartre,--that you were often seen +with Mademoiselle Bouchotte, who, nevertheless, is not at all pretty. I +knew that you had become very smart, and that you were making a good +deal of money. I was not surprised. You were born to succeed. The day of +your"--and she pointed at the spot between the window and the wardrobe +with the mirror--"apparition, I was vexed with Maurice for having given +you a suicide's rags to wear. You pleased me.... Oh, it was not your +good looks! Don't think that women are as sensitive as people say to +outward attractions. We consider other things in love. There is a sort +of---- Well, anyhow I loved you as soon as I saw you." + +The shadows grew deeper. + +She asked: + +"You are not an angel, are you? Maurice believes you are; but he +believes so many things, Maurice." She questioned Arcade with her eyes +and smiled maliciously. "Confess that you have been fooling him, and +that you are no angel?" + +Arcade replied: + +"I only aspire to please you; I will always be what you want me to be." + +Gilberte decided that he was no angel; first, because one never is an +angel; secondly, for more detailed reasons which drew her thoughts to +the question of love. He did not argue the matter with her, and once +again words were found inadequate to express their feelings. + +Outside, the rain was falling thick and fast, the windows were +streaming, lightning lit up the muslin curtains, and thunder shook the +panes. Gilberte made the sign of the Cross and remained with her head +hidden in her lover's bosom. + +At this moment Maurice entered the room. He came in wet and smiling, +confident, tranquil, happy, to announce to Arcade the good news that +with his half-share in the previous day's race at Longchamps the angel +had won twelve times his stake. Surprising the lady and the angel in +their embrace, he became furious; anger gripped the muscles of his +throat, his face grew red with blood, and the veins stood out on his +forehead. He sprang with clenched fists towards Gilberte, and then +suddenly stopped. + +Interrupted motion was transformed into heat. Maurice fumed. His anger +did not arm him, like Archilochus, with lyrical vengeance. He merely +applied an offensive epithet to his unfaithful one. + +Meanwhile she had recovered her dignified bearing. She rose, full of +modesty and grace, and gave her accuser a look which expressed both +offended virtue and loving forgiveness. + +But as young d'Esparvieu continued to shower coarse and monotonous +insults on her, she grew angry in her turn. + +"You are a pretty sort of person, are you not?" she said. "Did I run +after this Arcade of yours? It was you who brought him here, and in what +a state, too! You had only one idea: to give me up to your friend. Well, +Monsieur, you can do as you like--I am not going to oblige you." + +Maurice d'Esparvieu replied simply, "Get out of it, you trollop!" And he +made a motion as if to push her out. It pained Arcade to see his +mistress treated so disrespectfully, but he thought he lacked the +necessary authority to interfere with Maurice. Madame des Aubels, who +had lost none of her dignity, fixed young d'Esparvieu with her imperious +gaze, and said: + +"Go and get me a carriage." + +And so great is the power of woman over a well-bred soul, in a gallant +nation, that the young Frenchman went immediately and told the concierge +to call a taxi. Madame des Aubels, with a studied exhibition of charm in +every movement, took leave of them, throwing Maurice the contemptuous +look that a woman owes to him whom she has deceived. Maurice witnessed +her departure with an outward expression of indifference he was far from +feeling. Then he turned to the angel clad in the flowered pyjamas which +Maurice himself had worn the day of the apparition; and this +circumstance, trifling in itself, added fuel to the anger of the host +who had been thus shamefully deceived. + +"Well," he said, "you may pride yourself on being a despicable +individual. You have behaved basely, and all for nothing. If the woman +took your fancy, you had but to tell me. I was tired of her. I had had +enough of her. I would have willingly left her to you." + +He spoke thus to hide his pain, for he loved Gilberte more than ever, +and the creature's treachery caused him great suffering. He pursued: + +"I was about to ask you to take her off my hands. But you have followed +your lower nature--you have behaved like a sweep." + +If at this solemn moment Arcade had but spoken one word from his heart, +Maurice would have burst into tears, and forgiven his friend and his +mistress, and all three would have become content and happy once again. +But Arcade had not been nourished on the milk of human kindness. He had +never suffered, and did not know how to sympathise with suffering. He +replied with frigid wisdom: + +"My dear Maurice, that same necessity which orders and constrains the +actions of living beings, produces effects that are often unexpected, +and sometimes absurd. Thus it is that I have been led to displease you. +You would not reproach me if you had a good philosophical understanding +of nature; for you would then know that free-will is but an illusion, +and that physiological affinities are as exactly determined as are +chemical combinations, and, like them, may be summed up in a formula. I +think that, in your case, it might be possible to inculcate these +truths, but it would be a difficult task, and maybe they would not bring +you the serenity which eludes you. It is fitting, therefore, that I +should leave this spot, and----" + +"Stay," said Maurice. + +Maurice had a very clear sense of social obligations. He put honour, +when he thought about it, above everything. So now he told himself very +forcibly that the outrage he had suffered could only be wiped out with +blood. This traditional idea instantly lent an unexpected nobility to +his speech and bearing. + +"It is I, Monsieur," said he, "who will quit this place, never to +return. You will remain here, since you are a refugee. My seconds will +wait upon you." + +The angel smiled. + +"I will receive them, if it gives you pleasure, but, bethink you, my +dear Maurice, I am invulnerable. Celestial spirits even when they are +materialised cannot be touched by point of sword or pistol shot. +Consider, my dear Maurice, the awkward situation in which this fatal +inequality puts me, and realise that in refusing to appoint seconds I +cannot give as a reason my celestial nature,--it would be +unprecedented." + +"Monsieur," replied the heir of the Bussart d'Esparvieu, "you should +have thought of that before you insulted me." + +Out he marched haughtily; but no sooner was he in the street than he +staggered like a drunken man. The rain was still falling. He walked +unseeing, unhearing, at haphazard, dragging his feet in the gutters +through pools of water, through heaps of mud. He followed the outer +boulevards for a long time, and at length, fordone with weariness, lay +down on the edge of a piece of waste land. He was muddied up to the +eyes, mud and tears smeared his face, the brim of his hat was dripping +with rain. A passer-by, taking him for a beggar, tossed him a copper. He +picked it up, put it carefully in his waistcoat pocket, and set off to +find his seconds. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + + WHICH TREATS OF AN AFFAIR OF HONOUR, AND WHICH WILL AFFORD + THE READER AN OPPORTUNITY OF JUDGING WHETHER, AS ARCADE + AFFIRMS, THE EXPERIENCE OF OUR FAULTS MAKES BETTER MEN AND + WOMEN OF US + + +The ground chosen for the combat was Colonel Manchon's garden, on the +Boulevard de la Reine at Versailles. Messieurs de la Verdeliere and Le +Truc de Ruffec, who had both of them constant practice in affairs of +honour and knew the rules with great exactness, assisted Maurice +d'Esparvieu. No duel was ever fought in the Catholic world without +Monsieur de la Verdeliere being present; and, in making application to +this swordsman, Maurice had conformed to custom, though not without a +certain reluctance, for he had been notorious as the lover of Madame de +la Verdeliere; but Monsieur de la Verdeliere was not to be looked upon +as a husband. He was an institution. As to Monsieur Le Truc de Ruffec, +honour was his only known profession and avowedly his sole resource, and +when the matter was made the subject of ill-natured comment in Society, +the question was asked what finer career than that of honour Monsieur Le +Truc de Ruffec could possibly have adopted. Arcade's seconds were Prince +Istar and Theophile. The celestial musician had not voluntarily nor with +a good grace taken a hand in this affair. He had a horror of every kind +of violence and disapproved of single combat. The report of pistols and +the clash of swords were intolerable to him, and the sight of blood made +him faint. This gentle son of Heaven had obstinately refused to act as +second to his brother Arcade, and to bring him to the starting-point the +Kerub had had to threaten to break a bottle of panclastite over his +head. + +Besides the combatants, the seconds, and the doctors, the only people in +the garden were a few officers from the barracks at Versailles and +several reporters. Although young d'Esparvieu was known merely as a +young man of family, and Arcade had never been heard of at all, the duel +had attracted quite a large crowd of inquisitive individuals, and the +windows of the adjoining houses were crammed with photographers, +reporters, and Society people. What had aroused much curiosity was that +a woman was known to be the cause of the quarrel. Many mentioned +Bouchotte, but the majority said it was Madame des Aubels. It had been +remarked upon, moreover, that duels in which Monsieur de la Verdeliere +acted as second drew all Paris. + +The sky was a soft blue, the garden all a-bloom with roses, a blackbird +was piping in a tree. Monsieur de la Verdeliere, who, stick in hand, +conducted the affair, laid the points of the swords together, and said: + +"_Allez, Messieurs._" + +Maurice d'Esparvieu attacked by doubling and beating the blade. Arcade +retired, keeping his sword in line. The first engagement was without +result. The seconds were under the impression that Monsieur d'Esparvieu +was in a grievous state of nervous irritability, and that his adversary +would wear him down. In the second encounter Maurice attacked wildly, +spread out his arms, and exposed his breast. He attacked as he advanced, +gave a straight thrust, and the point of his sword grazed Arcade on the +shoulder. The latter was thought to be wounded. But the seconds +ascertained with surprise that it was Maurice who had received a scratch +on the wrist. Maurice asserted that he felt nothing, and Dr. Quille +declared, after examination, that his client might continue the fight. +After the regulation quarter of an hour the duel was resumed. Maurice +attacked with fury. His adversary was obviously nursing him, and, what +disturbed Monsieur de la Verdeliere, seemed to be paying very little +attention to his own defence. At the opening of the fifth bout, a black +spaniel that had got into the garden no one knew how rushed out from a +clump of rose-bushes, made its way on to the space reserved for the +combatants, and, in spite of sticks and cries, ran in between Maurice's +legs. The latter seemed as though his arm were benumbed, merely gave a +shoulder-thrust at his invulnerable opponent. He then delivered a +straight lunge and impaled his arm on his adversary's sword, which made +a deep wound just below the elbow. + +Monsieur de la Verdeliere stopped the fight, which had lasted an hour +and a half. Maurice was conscious of a painful shock. They laid him down +on a grassy bank against a wall covered with wistaria. While the surgeon +was dressing the wound Maurice called Arcade and offered him his wounded +hand. And when the victor, saddened with his victory, advanced, Maurice +embraced him tenderly, saying: + +"Be generous, Arcade; forgive my treachery. Now that we have fought, I +can ask you to be reconciled with me." + +He embraced his friend, weeping, and whispered in his ear: + +"Come and see me, and bring Gilberte." + +Maurice, who was still unreconciled with his parents, was taken to the +little flat in the Rue de Rome. No sooner was he stretched on the bed at +the far end of the bedroom where the curtains were drawn as on the day +of the apparition, than he saw Arcade and Gilberte appear. He began to +suffer greatly from his wound; his temperature was rising, but he was at +peace, happy and contented. Angel and woman, both in tears, threw +themselves at the foot of the bed. He took both their hands with his +left, smiled on them, and kissed them tenderly. + +"I am sure now that I shall never quarrel with either of you again; you +will deceive me no more. I now know you are capable of anything." + +Gilberte, weeping, swore that Maurice had been misled by appearances, +that she had never betrayed him with Arcade, that she had never betrayed +him at all. And in a great gush of sincerity she persuaded herself that +this was so. + +"You wrong yourself, Gilberte," replied the wounded man. "It did happen; +it had to. And it is well. Gilberte, you were basely false to me with my +best friend in this very room, and you were right. If you had not been +we should not be here, reunited, all three of us, and I should not be at +your side tasting the greatest happiness of my life. Oh, Gilberte, how +wrong of you to deny a perfect and accomplished fact!" + +"If you wish, my friend," replied Gilberte, a little acidly, "I will not +deny it. But it will only be to please you." + +Maurice made her sit down on the bed, and begged Arcade to be seated in +the arm-chair. + +"My friend," said Arcade, "I was innocent. I became man. Straightway I +did evil. Then I became better." + +"Do not let us exaggerate things," said Maurice. "Let's have a game of +bridge." + +Scarcely, however, had the patient seen three aces in his hand and +called "no trumps," than his eyes began to swim, the cards slipped from +his fingers, head fell heavily back on the pillow, and he complained of +a violent headache. Almost immediately, Madame des Aubels went off to +pay some calls, for she made a point of appearing in Society, in order +that the calmness and confidence of her demeanour might give the lie to +the various rumours that were current concerning her. Arcade saw her to +the door, and, with a kiss, inhaled from her a delicate perfume which he +brought back with him into the room where Maurice lay dozing. + +"I am perfectly content," murmured the latter, "that things should have +happened as they have." + +"It was bound to be so," answered the Spirit. "All the other angels in +revolt would have done as I did with Gilberte. 'Women,' saith the +Apostle, 'should pray with their heads covered, because of the angels,' +and the Apostle speaks thus because he knows that the angels are +disturbed when they look upon them and see that they are beautiful. No +sooner do they touch the earth than they desire to embrace mortal women +and fulfil their desire. Their clasp is full of strength and sweetness, +they hold the secret of those ineffable caresses which plunge the +daughters of men into unfathomable depths of delight. Laying upon the +lips of their happy victims a honey that burns like fire, making their +veins flow with torrents of refreshing flames, they leave them raptured +and undone." + +"Stop your clatter, you unclean beast," cried the wounded one. + +"One word more!" said the angel; "just one other word, my dear Maurice, +to bear out what I say, and I will let you rest quietly. There's nothing +like having sound references. In order to assure yourself that I am not +deceiving you, Maurice, on this subject of the amorous embraces of +angels and women, look up Justin, _Apologies_, I and II; Flavius +Josephus, _Jewish Antiquities_, Book I, Chapter III; Athenagoras, +_Concerning the Resurrection_; Lactantius, Book II, Chapter XV; +Tertullian, _On the Veil of the Virgins_; Marcus of Ephesus in +_Psellus_; Eusebius, _Praeparatio Evangelica_, Book V, Chapter IV; Saint +Ambrose, in his book on _Noah and the Ark_, Chapter V; Saint Augustine, +in his _City of God_, Book XV, Chapter XXIII; Father Meldonat, the +Jesuit, _Treatise on Demons_, page 248; Pierre Lebyer the King's +Counsellor----" + +"Arcade, please, for pity's sake, be quiet; do, please do, and send this +dog away," cried Maurice, whose face was burning, and whose eyes were +starting from his head; for in his delirium he thought he saw a black +spaniel on his bed. + +Madame de la Verdeliere, who was assiduous in every modish and patriotic +practice, was reckoned, in the best French society, as one of the most +gracious of the great ladies interested in good works. She came herself +to ask for news of Maurice, and offered to nurse the wounded man. But at +the vehement instigation of Madame des Aubels, Arcade shut the door in +her face. Expressions of sympathy were showered upon Maurice. Piled on +the salver, visiting cards displayed their innumerable little dogs' +ears. Monsieur Le Truc de Ruffec was one of the first to show his manly +sympathy at the flat in the Rue de Rome, and, holding out his loyal +hand, asked young d'Esparvieu as one honourable man to another for +twenty-five louis to pay a debt of honour. + +"Of course, my dear Maurice, that is the sort of thing one could not ask +of everybody." + +The same day Monsieur Gaetan came to press his nephew's hand. The latter +introduced Arcade. + +"This is my guardian angel, whose foot you thought so beautiful when you +saw the print it had made on the tell-tale powder, uncle. He appeared to +me last year in this very room. You don't believe it? Well, it is true, +nevertheless." + +Then turning towards the Spirit he said: + +"What say you, Arcade? The Abbe Patouille, who is a great theologian and +a good priest, does not believe that you are an angel; and Uncle Gaetan, +who doesn't know his catechism and hasn't a scrap of religion in him, +doesn't think so either. They deny you, the pair of them; the one +because he has faith, the other because he hasn't. After that you may be +sure that your history, if ever it comes to be narrated, will scarcely +appear credible. Moreover, the man that took it into his head to tell +your story would not be a man of taste, and would not come in for much +approval. For your story is not a pretty one. I love you, but I sit in +judgment upon you, too. Since you fell into atheism, you have become an +abominable scoundrel. A bad angel, a bad friend, a traitor, and a +homicide, for I suppose it was to bring about my death that you sent +that black spaniel between my legs on the duelling-ground." + +The angel shrugged his shoulders and, addressing Gaetan, said: + +"Alas! Monsieur, I am not surprised at finding little credit in your +eyes. I have been told that you have fallen out with the Judaeo-Christian +heaven, which is where I came from." + +"Monsieur," answered Gaetan, "my faith in Jehovah is not sufficiently +strong to enable me to believe in his angels." + +"Monsieur, he whom you call Jehovah is really a coarse and ignorant +demiurge, and his name is Ialdabaoth." + +"In that case, Monsieur, I am perfectly ready to believe in him. He is a +narrow-minded ignoramus, is he? Then belief in his existence offers me +no further difficulty. How is he getting on?" + +"Badly! We are going to lay him low next month." + +"Don't make too sure of that, Monsieur. You remind me of my +brother-in-law, Cuissart, who has been expecting to hear of the fall of +the Republic for the past thirty years." + +"You see, Arcade," exclaimed Maurice, "Uncle Gaetan thinks as I do. He +knows you won't succeed." + +"And, pray, Monsieur Gaetan, what makes you think I shall not succeed?" + +"Your Ialdabaoth is still very powerful in this world, if he isn't in +the other. In days gone by he used to be upheld by his priests, by those +who believed in him. Now he is supported by those who do not believe in +him, by the philosophers. A pedant of a fellow called Picrochole has +recently come on the scene who wants to make a bankrupt of science in +order to do a good turn to the Church. And just lately Pragmatism has +been invented for the express purpose of gaining credit for religion in +the minds of rationalists." + +"You have been studying Pragmatism?" + +"Not I! I was frivolous once, and I went in for metaphysics. I read +Hegel and Kant. I have become serious with years, and now I only trouble +myself about things evident to the senses: what the eye can see or what +the ear can hear. Man is summed up in Art. All the rest is moonshine." + +Thus the conversation went on until evening; it was marked by +obscenities that would have brought a blush--I will not say to a +cuirassier, for cuirassiers are frequently chaste, but even to a +Parisienne. + +Monsieur Sariette came to see his old pupil. When he entered the room +the bust of Alexandre d'Esparvieu seemed to take shape behind the +librarian's bald head. He drew near the bed. In the place of blue +curtains, mirrored wardrobe, and chimney-piece, there straightway came +into view the heavy-laden bookcases of the room of the globes and busts, +and the air was heavy with piles of papers, records, and files. Monsieur +Sariette could not be dissociated from his library; one could not +conceive of him or even see him apart from it. He himself was paler, +more vague, more shadowy, and more a creature of the fancy than the +fancies he evoked. + +Maurice, who had grown very quiet, was sensible of this mark of +friendship. + +"Sit down, Monsieur Sariette,--you know Madame des Aubels. May I +introduce Arcade to you,--my guardian angel. It was he who, while yet +invisible, pillaged your library for two years, made you lose all desire +for food and drink, and drove you to the verge of madness. He it was who +moved piles of books from the room of the busts to my summer-house one +day; under your very nose, he took away I know not what precious +volumes; and was the cause of your falling on the staircase; another day +he took a volume of Salomon Reinach's, and, forced to go out with me +(for he never left me, as I have learnt later), he let the volume drop +in the gutter of the Rue Princesse. Forgive him, Monsieur Sariette,--he +had no pockets. He was invisible. I bitterly regret, Monsieur Sariette, +that all your old books were not devoured by fire or swallowed up by a +flood. They made my angel lose his head. He became man, and now knows +neither faith nor obedience to laws. It is I, now, who am his guardian +angel. God knows how it will all end." + +While listening to this speech, Monsieur Sariette's face took on an +expression of infinite, irreparable, eternal sadness; the sadness of a +mummy. Rising to take his leave, the sorrowful librarian murmured in +Arcade's ear: + +"The poor child is very ill. He is delirious." + +Maurice called the old man back. + +"Do stay, Monsieur Sariette. You shall have a game of bridge with us. +Monsieur Sariette, listen to my advice. Do not do as I did--do not keep +bad company. You will be lost. I shudder at the mere thought. Monsieur +Sariette, do not go yet. I have something very important to ask you. +When you come again, bring me a book on the truth of religion, so that I +may study it. I must restore to my guardian-angel the faith which he has +lost." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + + WHEREIN WE ARE LED TO MARVEL AT THE READINESS WITH WHICH AN + HONEST MAN OF TIMID AND GENTLE NATURE CAN COMMIT A HORRIBLE + CRIME + + +Profoundly distressed by the dark utterances of young Maurice, Monsieur +Sariette took a motor-omnibus, and went to see Pere Guinardon, his +friend, his only friend, the one person in the whole world whom it gave +him pleasure to see and hear. When Monsieur Sariette entered the shop in +the Rue de Courcelles, Guinardon was alone, dozing in the depths of an +antique arm-chair. His face, surrounded by his curly hair and luxuriant +beard, was crimson in hue. Little violet filaments spread a network +about the fleshy part of his nose, to which the wines of Burgundy had +imparted a purple tint; for there was no longer any disguising the fact, +Pere Guinardon drank. Two feet away from him, on the fair Octavie's +work-table, a rose, all but withered, drooped in an empty vase, and in a +basket a piece of embroidery was lying unfinished and neglected. The +young Octavie's absences from the shop were growing more and more +frequent, and Monsieur Blancmesnil never called when she was not there. +The reason of this was that they were meeting three times a week at five +o'clock in a house close to the Champs Elysees. Pere Guinardon knew +nothing of that. He did not know the full extent of his misfortune, but +he suffered. + +Monsieur Sariette shook his old friend by the hand; but he did not +enquire for the young Octavie, for he refused to recognise the +connexion. He would sooner have talked about Zephyrine, who had been so +cruelly deserted, and whom he hoped the old man would make his lawful +wife. But Monsieur Sariette was prudent. He contented himself with +asking Guinardon how he was. + +"Perfectly well," was Guinardon's reply; but he felt ill, for either age +and love-making had undermined his sturdy constitution, or else young +Octavie's faithlessness had dealt her lover a fatal blow. "God be +praised," he went on, "I still retain my powers of mind and body. I am +chaste. Be chaste, Sariette. Chastity is strength." + +That evening Pere Guinardon had taken some specially valuable books out +of the king-wood cabinet to show to a distinguished bibliophile, +Monsieur Victor Meyer, and after the latter's departure he had dropped +off to sleep without putting them back in their places. Books had an +attraction for Monsieur Sariette, and seeing these particular volumes +on the marble top of the cabinet, he began to examine them with +interest. The first one he looked at was _La Pucelle_, in morocco, with +the English continuation. Doubtless it pained his patriotic and +Christian heart to admire its text and illustrations, but a good copy +was always virtuous and pure in his sight. Continuing to chat very +affectionately with Guinardon, he picked up, one by one, the books which +the antiquary had, for one reason or another--binding, illustrations, +distinguished ownership, or scarcity--added to his stock. + +Suddenly a glorious shout of joy and love broke from his lips. He had +discovered the _Lucretius_ of the Prior de Vendome, his _Lucretius_, and +he was clasping it to his bosom. + +"Once again I behold you," he sighed, as he pressed it to his lips. + +At first Pere Guinardon could not quite make out what his old friend was +talking about; but when the latter declared to him that the volume was +from the d'Esparvieu collection, that it belonged to him, Sariette, and +that he was going to take it away without further ado, the antiquary +completely woke up, got on his legs, declared emphatically that the book +belonged to him, Guinardon, by right of true and lawful purchase, and +that he would not part with it unless he got five thousand francs for it +cash down. + +"You don't take in what I am telling you," answered Sariette. "The book +belongs to the d'Esparvieu library; I must restore it to its place." + +"_Pas de ca, Lisette_"---- hummed Guinardon. + +"The book belongs to me, I tell you!" + +"You are crazy, my good Sariette!" + +And noticing that, as a matter of fact, the librarian had a wandering +look in his eye, he took the book from him, and tried to change the +conversation. + +"Have you seen, Sariette, that the rascals are going to rip up the +Palais Mazarin, and cover up the very heart and centre of the Old Town, +the finest and most venerable place in the whole of Paris, with the +deuce knows what works of art of theirs? They are worse than the +Vandals, for the Vandals, although they destroyed the buildings of +antiquity, did not replace them with hideous and disgusting erections +and atrocious bridges like the Pont d'Alexandre. And your poor Rue +Garanciere, Sariette, has fallen a prey to the barbarians. What have +they done with the pretty bronze mask of the Palace fountain?" + +Monsieur Sariette never listened to a word of all this. + +"Guinardon, you have not understood me. Now listen. This book belongs to +the d'Esparvieu library. It was taken away, how or by whom I know not. +Dreadful and mysterious things went on in that library. But, anyhow, the +book was stolen. I need scarcely appeal to your sentiments of scrupulous +probity, my dear friend. You would not like to be regarded as the +receiver of stolen goods. Give me the book. I will return it to Monsieur +d'Esparvieu, who will duly requite you; of that you may be sure. Rely on +his generosity, and you will be acting like the downright good fellow +that you are." + +The antiquary smiled a bitter smile. + +"Catch me relying on the generosity of that old curmudgeon of a +d'Esparvieu. Why, he'd skin a flea to get its coat. Look at me, +Sariette, old boy, and tell me if I look like a dunderhead. You know +perfectly well that d'Esparvieu refused to give fifty francs in a +second-hand shop for a portrait of Alexandre d'Esparvieu, the founder of +the family, by Hersent, and that consequently the founder of the family +has had to remain on the Boulevard Montparnasse, propped against a Jew +hawker's stall, just opposite the cemetery, where all the dogs of the +neighbourhood come and make water on him. Catch me trusting to Monsieur +d'Esparvieu's liberality! You've got some bright ideas in your head, you +have!" + +"Very well, Guinardon, I myself will undertake to pay you any indemnity +that a board of arbitrators may fix upon. Do you hear?" + +"Now don't go and do the handsome for people who won't give you so much +as a thank-you. This man, d'Esparvieu, has taken your knowledge, your +energies, your whole life for a salary that even a valet wouldn't +accept. So leave that idea alone. In any case it is too late. The book +is sold." + +"Sold? To whom?" asked Sariette in agonized tones. + +"What does that matter? You'll never see it again. You'll hear no more +about it; it's off to America." + +"To America! The _Lucretius_ with the arms of Philippe de Vendome and +marginalia in Voltaire's own hand! My _Lucretius_ off to America!" + +Pere Guinardon began to laugh. + +"My dear Sariette, you remind me of the Chevalier des Grieux when he +learns that his darling mistress is to be transported to the +Mississippi. 'My dear mistress going to the Mississippi!' says he." + +"No! no!" answered Sariette, very pale, "this book shall not go to +America. It shall return, as it ought, to the d'Esparvieu library. Let +me have it, Guinardon." + +The antiquary made a second attempt to put an end to an interview that +now looked as if it might take an ugly turn. + +"My good Sariette, you haven't told me what you think of my Greco. You +never so much as glanced at it. It is an admirable piece of work all +the same." + +And Guinardon, putting the picture in a good light, went on: + +"Now just look at Saint Francis here, the poor man of the Lord, the +brother of Jesus. See how his fuliginous body rises heavenward like the +smoke from an agreeable sacrifice, like the sacrifice of Abel." + +"Give me the book, Guinardon," said Sariette, without turning his head; +"give me the book." + +The blood suddenly flew to Pere Guinardon's head. + +"That's enough of it," he shouted, as red as a turkey-cock, the veins +standing out on his forehead. + +And he dropped the _Lucretius_ into his jacket pocket. + +Straightway old Sariette flew at the antiquary, assailed him with sudden +fury, and, frail and weakly as he was, butted him back into young +Octavie's arm-chair. + +Guinardon, in furious amazement, belched forth the most horrible abuse +on the old maniac and gave him a punch that sent him staggering back +four paces against the _Coronation of the Virgin_, by Fra Angelico, +which fell down with a crash. Sariette returned to the charge, and tried +to drag the book out of the pocket in which it lay hid. This time Pere +Guinardon would really have floored him had he not been blinded by the +blood that was rushing to his head, and hit sideways at the work-table +of his absent mistress. Sariette fastened himself on to his bewildered +adversary, held him down in the arm-chair, and with his little bony +hands clutched him by the neck, which, red as it was already, became a +deep crimson. Guinardon struggled to get free, but the little fingers, +feeling the mass of soft, warm flesh about them, embedded themselves in +it with delicious ecstasy. Some unknown force made them hold fast to +their prey. Guinardon's throat began to rattle, saliva was oozing from +one corner of his mouth. His enormous frame quivered now and again +beneath the grasp; but the tremors grew more and more intermittent and +spasmodic. At last they ceased. The murderous hands did not let go their +hold. Sariette had to make a violent effort to loose them. His temples +were buzzing. Nevertheless he could hear the rain falling outside, +muffled steps going past on the pavement, newspaper men shouting in the +distance. He could see umbrellas passing along in the dim light. He drew +the book from the dead man's pocket and fled. + +The fair Octavie did not go back to the shop that night. She went to +sleep in a little entresol underneath the bric-a-brac stores which +Monsieur de Blancmesnil had recently bought for her in this same Rue de +Courcelles. The workman whose task it was to shut up the shop found the +antiquary's body still warm. He called Madame Lenain, the concierge, +who laid Guinardon on the couch, lit a couple of candles, put a sprig of +box in a saucer of holy water, and closed the dead man's eyes. The +doctor who was called in to certify the death ascribed it to apoplexy. + +Zephyrine, informed of what had happened by Madame Lenain, hastened to +the house, and sat up all night with the body. The dead man looked as if +he were sleeping. In the flickering light of the candles El Greco's +Saint mounted upwards like a wreath of smoke, the gold of the Primitives +gleamed in the shadows. Near the deathbed a little woman by Baudouin was +plainly discernible giving herself a douche. All through the night +Zephyrine's lamentations could be heard fifty yards away. + +"He's dead, he's dead!" she kept saying. "My friend, my divinity, my +all, my love---- But no! he is not dead, he moves. It is I, Michel; I, +your Zephyrine. Awake, hear me! Answer me; I love you; if ever I caused +you pain, forgive me. Dead! dead! O my God! See how beautiful he is. He +was so good, so clever, so kind. My God! My God! My God! If I had been +there he would not now be lying dead. Michel! Michel!" + +When morning came she was silent. They thought she had fallen asleep. +She was dead too. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + + WHICH DESCRIBES HOW NECTAIRE'S FLUTE WAS HEARD IN THE TAVERN + OF CLODOMIR + + +Madame de la Verdeliere having failed to force an _entree_ as +sick-nurse, returned after several days had elapsed,--during the absence +of Madame des Aubels,--to ask Maurice d'Esparvieu for his subscription +to the French churches. Arcade led her to the bedside of the +convalescent. Maurice whispered in the angel's ear: + +"Traitor, deliver me from this ogress immediately, or you will be +answerable for the evil which will soon befall." + +"Be calm," said Arcade, with a confident air. + +After the conventional complimentary flourishes, Madame de la Verdeliere +signed to Maurice to dismiss the angel. Maurice feigned not to +understand. And Madame de la Verdeliere disclosed the ostensible reason +of her visit. + +"Our churches," she said, "our beloved country churches,--what is to +become of them?" + +Arcade gazed at her angelically and sighed. + +"They will disappear, Madame; they will fall into ruin. And what a pity! +I shall be inconsolable. The church amid the villagers' cottages is like +the hen amidst her chickens." + +"Just so!" exclaimed Madame de la Verdeliere with a delighted smile. "It +is just like that." + +"And the spires, Madame?" + +"Oh, Monsieur, the spires!..." + +"Yes, the spires, Madame, that stick up into the skies towards the +little Cherubim, like so many syringes." + +Madame de la Verdeliere incontinently left the place. + +That same day Monsieur l'Abbe Patouille came to offer the wounded man +good counsel and consolation. He exhorted him to break with his bad +companions and to be reconciled to his family. + +He drew a picture of the sorrowful father, the mother in tears, ready to +receive their long-lost child with open arms. Renouncing with manly +effort a life of profligacy and deluding joys, Maurice would recover his +peace and strength of mind, he would free himself from devouring +chimeras, and shake off the Evil Spirit. + +Young d'Esparvieu thanked Abbe Patouille for all his kindness, and made +a protestation of his religious feelings. + +"Never," said he, "have I had such faith. And never have I been in such +need of it. Just imagine, Monsieur l'Abbe, I have to teach my guardian +angel his catechism all over again, for he has quite forgotten it!" + +Monsieur l'Abbe Patouille heaved a deep sigh, and exhorted his dear +child to pray, there being no other resource but prayer for a soul +assailed by the Devil. + +"Monsieur l'Abbe," asked Maurice, "may I introduce my guardian angel to +you? Do stay a moment; he has gone to get me some cigarettes." + +"Unhappy child!" + +And Abbe Patouille's fat cheeks drooped in token of affliction. But almost +immediately they plumped up again, as a sign of light-heartedness. For in +his heart there was matter for rejoicing. Public opinion was improving. +The Jacobins, the Freemasons, the Coalitionists were everywhere in +disgrace. The Smart Set led the way. The Academie Francaise was of the +right way of thinking. The number of Christian schools was increasing by +leaps and bounds. The young men of the Quartier Latin were submitting to +the Church, and the Ecole Normale exhaled the perfume of the seminary. The +Cross was gaining the day; but money was wanted,--more money, always +money. + +After six weeks' rest, Maurice was allowed by his doctor to take a +drive. He wore his arm in a sling. His mistress and his friend went +with him. They drove to the Bois, and took a gentle pleasure in looking +upon the grass and the trees. They smiled on everything and everything +smiled on them. As Arcade had said, their faults had made them better. +By the unlooked-for ways of jealousy and anger, Maurice had attained to +calm and kindliness. He still loved Gilberte and he loved her with an +indulgent love. The angel still desired her as much as ever, but having +once possessed her, his desire had lost the sting of curiosity. Gilberte +forbore trying to please, and thereby pleased the more. They drank milk +at the Cascade, and found it good. They were all three innocent. Arcade +forgot the injustice of the old tyrant of the world. But he was soon to +be reminded of it. + +On entering his friend's house, he found Zita awaiting him, looking like +a statue in ivory and gold. + +"You excite my pity," she said to him. "The day is at hand the like of +which has never dawned since the beginning of Time, and perhaps will +never dawn again before the Sun enters with all its train into the +constellation of Hercules. We are on the eve of surprising Ialdabaoth in +his palace of porphyry, and you, who are burning to deliver the heavens, +who were so eager to enter in triumph into your emancipated +country,--you suddenly forget your noble purpose and fall asleep in the +arms of the daughters of men. What pleasure can you find in intercourse +with these unclean little animals, composed, as they are, of elements so +unstable that they may be said to be in a state of constant evanescence? +O Arcade! I was indeed right to distrust you. You are but an +intellectual; you do but feel idle curiosity. You are incapable of +action." + +"You misjudge me, Zita," replied the angel. "It is the nature of the +sons of heaven to love the daughters of men. Corruptible though it be, +the material part of women and of flowers charms the senses none the +less. But not one of these little animals can make me forget my hatred +and my love, and I am ready to rise up against Ialdabaoth." + +Zita expressed her satisfaction at seeing him in this resolute mood. She +urged him to pursue the accomplishment of this vast undertaking with +undiminished ardour. Nothing must be hurried or deferred. + +"A great action, Arcade, is made up of a multitude of small ones; the +most majestic whole is composed of a thousand minute details. Let us +neglect nothing." + +She had come to take him to a meeting where his presence was required. +They were to take a census of the revolutionaries. + +She added but one word: + +"Nectaire will be there." + +When Maurice saw Zita, he deemed her lacking in attraction. She failed +to please him because she was perfectly beautiful and because true +beauty always caused him painful surprise. Zita inspired him with +antipathy when he learned that she was an angel in revolt and that she +had come to seek Arcade to take him away among the conspirators. + +The poor child tried to retain his companion by all the means that his +wit and the circumstances afforded him. If his guardian angel would only +remain with him, he would take him to a magnificent boxing-match, to a +"revue" where he would witness the apotheosis of Poincare, or, lastly, +to a certain house he knew of where he would behold women remarkable for +their beauty, talents, vices, or deformities. But the angel would not +allow himself to be tempted, and said he was going with Zita. + +"What for?" + +"To plot the conquest of the skies." + +"Still the same nonsense! The conquest of---- but there, I proved to you +that it was neither possible nor desirable." + +"Good night, Maurice." + +"You are going? Well, I will accompany you." + +And Maurice, his arm in a sling, went with Arcade and Zita all the way +to Clodomir's restaurant at Montmartre, where the tables were laid in an +arbour in the garden. + +Prince Istar and Theophile were already there, with a little creature +who looked like a child, and was, in fact, a Japanese angel. + +"We are only waiting for Nectaire," said Zita. + +And at that moment the old gardener noiselessly appeared. He took his +seat, and his dog lay down at his feet. French cooking is the best in +the world. It is a glory that will transcend all others when humanity +has grown wise enough to put the spit above the sword. Clodomir served +the angels, and the mortal who was with them, with a soup made of +cabbages and bacon, a loin of pork and kidneys cooked in wine, thereby +proving himself a real Montmartre cook, and showing that he had not been +spoilt by the Americans, who corrupt the most excellent _chefs_ of the +City of Restaurants. + +Clodomir brought forth some Bordeaux, which, though unrecorded among the +renowned vintages of Medoc, gave evidence by its choice and delicate +aroma of the high nobility of its origin. We must not omit to chronicle +that, after this wine and many others had been drunk, the cellarman, in +solemn state, produced a Burgundy choice and rare, full-bodied yet not +heavy, generous yet delicate, rich with the true Burgundian mellowness, +a noble and, withal, a somewhat heady wine, that brought delight alike +to mind and sense. + +"Hail to thee, Dionysus, greatest of the Gods!" cried old Nectaire, +raising his glass on high. "I drink to thee who wilt restore the Golden +Age, and give again to mortal men, who will become heroes as of old, the +grapes which the Lesbians used to cull, long since, from the vines of +Methymna; who wilt restore the vineyards of Thasus, the white clusters +of Lake Mareotis, the storehouses of Falernus, the vines of the Tmolus, +and the wine of Phanae, of all wines the king. And the juice thereof +shall be divine, and, as in old Silenus' day, men shall grow drunk with +Wisdom and with Love." + +When the coffee was served, Prince Istar, Zita, Arcade, and the Japanese +angel took it in turns to give an account of the forces assembled +against Ialdabaoth. Angels, in exchanging eternal bliss for the +sufferings of an earthly life, grow in intelligence, acquire the means +of going astray and the faculty of self-contradiction. Consequently +their meetings, like those of men, are tumultuous and confused. Did one +of them deal in figures, the others immediately called them in question. +They could not add one number to another without quarrelling, and +arithmetic itself, subjected to passion, lost its certitude. The Kerub, +who had brought with him the pious Theophile, waxed indignant when he +heard the musician praising the Lord, and rained down such blows on his +head as would have felled an ox. But the head of a musician is harder +than a bucranium, and the blows which Theophile received did not avail +to modify that angel's notion of divine providence. Arcade, having at +great length set up his scientific idealism in opposition to Zita's +pragmatism, the beautiful archangel told him that he argued badly. + +"And you are surprised at that!" exclaimed young Maurice's guardian +angel. "I argue, like you, in the language of human beings. And what is +human language but the cry of the beasts of the forests or the +mountains, complicated and corrupted by arrogant anthropoids. How then, +Zita, can one be expected to argue well with a collection of angry or +plaintive sounds like that? Angels do not reason at all; men, being +superior to the angels, reason imperfectly. I will not mention the +professors who think to define the absolute with the aid of cries that +they have inherited from the pithecanthropoid monkeys, marsupials, and +reptiles, their ancestors! It is a colossal joke! How it would amuse the +demiurge, if he had any brains!" + +It was a beautiful starlight night. The gardener was silent. + +"Nectaire," said the beautiful archangel, "play to us on your flute, if +you are not afraid that the Earth and Heaven will be stirred to their +depths thereby." + +Nectaire took up his flute. Young Maurice lighted a cigarette. The flame +burnt brightly for a moment, casting back the sky and its stars into the +shadows, and then died out. And Nectaire sang of the flame on his divine +flute. The silvery voice soared aloft and sang: + +"That flame was a whole universe which fulfilled its destiny in less +than a minute. Suns and planets were formed therein. Venus Urania +apportioned the orbits of the wandering spheres in those infinite +spaces. Beneath the breath of Eros--the first of the gods,--plants, +animals, and thoughts sprang into being. In the twenty seconds which +hurried by betwixt the life and death of those worlds, civilizations +were unfolded, and empires sank in long decline. Mothers shed tears, and +songs of love, cries of hatred, and sighs of victims rose upward to the +silent skies. + +"In proportion to its minuteness, that universe lasted as long as this +one--whereof we see a few atoms glittering above our heads--has lasted +or will last. They are, one no less than the other, but a gleam in the +Infinite." + +As the clear, pure notes welled up into the charmed air, the earth +melted into a soft mist, the stars revolved rapidly in their orbits, +the Great Bear fell asunder, its parts flew far and wide. Orion's belt +was shattered; the Pole Star forsook its magnetic axis. Sirius, whose +incandescent flame had lit up the far horizon, grew blue, then red, +flickered, and suddenly died out. The shaken constellations formed new +signs which were extinguished in their turn. By its incantations the +magic flute had compressed into one brief moment the life and the +movement of this universe which seems unchanging and eternal both to men +and angels. It ceased, and the heavens resumed their immemorial aspect. +Nectaire had vanished. Clodomir asked his guests if they were pleased +with the cabbage soup which, in order that it might be strong, had been +kept simmering for twenty-four hours on the fire, and he sang the +praises of the Beaujolais which they had drunk. + +The night was mild. Arcade, accompanied by his guardian angel, +Theophile, Prince Istar, and the Japanese angel, escorted Zita home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + + HOW A DREADFUL CRIME PLUNGES PARIS INTO A STATE OF TERROR + + +The city was asleep. Their footsteps rang loudly on the deserted +pavement. Having reached the corner of the Rue Feutrier, half-way up +Montmartre, the little company halted before the dwelling of the +beautiful angel. Arcade was talking about the Thrones and Dominations +with Zita, who, her finger on the bell, could not make up her mind to +ring. Prince Istar was tracing the mechanism of a new sort of bomb on +the pavement with the end of his stick, and bellowed so loudly that he +woke the sleeping citizens and stirred into activity the amatory +passions of the neighbouring Pasiphaes. Theophile was singing the +barcarole from the second act of _Aline, Queen of Golconda_ at the top +of his voice. Maurice, his arm in a sling, was fencing left-handed with +the Japanese, striking sparks from the pavement, and crying "A hit! a +hit!" in a piercing voice. + +Meanwhile Inspector Grolle at the corner of the next street was +dreaming. He had the bearing of a Roman legionary and displayed all the +characteristics of that proudly servile race, who, ever since men first +took to building cities, have been the mainstay of Empires and the +support of ruling houses. Inspector Grolle was very strong, but very +tired. He suffered from an arduous profession and from lack of food. He +was a man devoted to duty, but still a man, and he was unable to resist +the wiles, the charms, and the blandishments of the gay ladies whom he +met in swarms in the shadows along the empty streets and round about +pieces of waste ground; he loved them. He loved like a soldier under +arms. It tired him, but courage conquered fatigue. Though he had not yet +reached the middle of Life's way, he longed for sweet repose and +peaceful country pursuits. At the corner of the Rue Muller, on this mild +night, he stood lost in thought. He was dreaming of the house where he +was born, of the little olive wood, of his father's bit of ground, of +his old mother, bent with long and heavy labour, whom he would never see +again. Roused from his reverie by the nocturnal tumult, Inspector Grolle +turned the corner of the street, and looked rather unfavourably at the +band of loiterers, wherein his social instinct suspected enemies of law +and order. He was patient and resolute. After a lengthy silence, he +said, with awe-inspiring calm: + +"Move on, there!" + +But Maurice and the Japanese angel were fencing and heard nothing. The +musician heard nothing but his own melodies. Prince Istar was absorbed +in the explanation of explosive formulae. Zita was discussing with Arcade +the greatest enterprise that had ever been conceived since the solar +system issued from its original nebula,--and thus they all remained +unconscious of their surroundings. + +"Move on, I tell you!" repeated Inspector Grolle. + +This time the angels heard the solemn word of warning, but either +through indifference or contempt, they neglected to obey, and continued +their talk, their songs, and their cries. + +"So you want to be taken up, do you?" shouted Inspector Grolle, clapping +his great hand on Prince Istar's shoulder. + +The Kerub was indignant at this vile contact, and with one blow from his +formidable fist sent the Inspector flying into the gutter. But Constable +Fesandet was already running to his comrade's aid, and they both fell +upon the Prince, whom they belaboured with mechanic fury, and whom, +notwithstanding his strength and weight, they would perchance have +dragged all bleeding to the police station, had not the Japanese angel +overset them one after the other without effort, and reduced them to +writhing and shrieking in the mud, before Maurice, Arcade, and Zita had +time to intervene. As to the angelic musician, he stood apart trembling, +and invoked the heavens. + +At this moment two bakers who were kneading their dough in a +neighbouring cellar ran out at the noise, in their white aprons, +stripped to the waist. With an instinctive feeling for social solidarity +they took the side of the downfallen police. Theophile conceived a just +fear at the sight of them, and fled away; they caught him and were about +to hand him over to the guardians of the peace, when Arcade and Zita +tore him from their hands. The fight continued, unequal and terrible, +between the two angels and the two bakers. Like an athlete of Lysippus +in strength and beauty, Arcade smothered his heavy adversary in his +arms. The beautiful archangel drove her dagger into the baker who had +attacked her. A dark stream of blood flowed down over his hairy chest, +and the two white-capped supporters of the law sank to the ground. + +Constable Fesandet had fainted face downwards in the gutter. But +Inspector Grolle, who had got up, blew a blast on his whistle loud +enough to be heard at the neighbouring police-station, and sprang upon +young Maurice, who, having but one arm with which to defend himself, +fired his revolver with his left hand at the inspector, who put his hand +to his heart, staggered, and dropped down. He gave a long sigh, and the +shadows of eternity darkened his eyes. + +Meanwhile, windows opened one by one, and heads looked out on the +street. A sound of heavy steps approached. Two policemen on bicycles +debouched upon the street. Thereupon Prince Istar flung a bomb which +shook the ground, put out the gas, shattered some of the houses, and +enveloped the flight of young Maurice and the angels in a dense smoke. + +Arcade and Maurice came to the conclusion that the safest thing to do +after this adventure was to return to the little flat in the Rue de +Rome. They would certainly not be sought for immediately and probably +not at all, the bomb thrown by the Kerub having fortunately wiped out +all witnesses of the affair. They fell asleep towards dawn, and they had +not yet awoke at ten o'clock in the morning when the concierge brought +their tea. While eating his toast and butter and slice of ham, young +d'Esparvieu remarked to the angel: + +"I used to think that a murder was something very extraordinary. Well, I +was mistaken. It is the simplest, the most natural action in the world." + +"And of most ancient tradition," replied the angel. "For long centuries +it was both usual and necessary for man to kill and despoil his fellows. +It is still recommended in warfare. It is also honourable to attempt +human life in certain definite circumstances, and people approved when +you wanted to assassinate me, Maurice, because it appeared to you that I +had been intimate with your mistress. But killing a police-inspector is +not the action of a man of fashion." + +"Be silent," exclaimed Maurice, "be silent, scoundrel! I killed the poor +Inspector instinctively, not knowing what I was doing. I am grieved to +my heart about it. But it is not I, it is you who are the guilty one; +you who are the murderer. It was you who lured me along this path of +revolt and violence which leads to the pit. You have been my undoing. +You have sacrificed my peace of mind, my happiness, to your pride and +your wickedness, and all in vain; for I warn you, Arcade, you will not +succeed in what you are undertaking." + +The concierge brought in the newspapers. On seeing them Maurice grew +pale. They announced the outrage in the Rue de Ramey in huge headlines: + +"An Inspector killed--Two cyclist policemen and two bakers seriously +wounded--Three houses blown up, numerous victims." + +Maurice let the paper drop, and said in a weak, plaintive voice: + +"Arcade, why did you not slay me in the little garden at Versailles +amidst the roses, to the song of the blackbirds?" + +Meanwhile terror reigned in Paris. In the public squares, and in the +crowded streets, house-wives, string-bag in hand, grew pale as they +listened to the story of the crime, and consigned the perpetrators to +the most dreadful punishment. Shop-keepers, standing at the doors of +their shops, put it all down to the anarchists, syndicalists, +socialists, and radicals, and demanded that special measures should be +taken against them. + +The more thoughtful people recognized the handiwork of the Jew and the +German, and demanded the expulsion of all aliens. Many vaunted the ways +of America and advocated lynching. In addition to the printed news +sinister rumours became current. Explosions had been heard at various +places; everywhere bombs had been discovered; everywhere individuals, +taken for malefactors, had been struck down by the popular arm and given +up to justice, torn to ribbons. On the Place de la Republique a drunkard +who was crying "Down with the police" was torn to pieces by the crowd. + +The President of the Council and Minister of Justice held long +conferences with the Prefect of Police, and they agreed to take +immediate action. In order to allay the excitement of the Parisians, +they arrested five or six hooligans out of the thirty thousand which the +Capital contains. The chief of the Russian police, believing he +recognised in this attack the methods of the Nihilists, demanded, on +behalf of his Government, that a dozen refugees should be given up. The +demand was immediately granted. Proceedings were also taken for certain +individuals to be extradited to ensure the safety of the King of Spain. + +On learning of these energetic measures, Paris breathed once more, and +the evening papers congratulated the Government. There was excellent +news of the wounded. They were out of danger and identified as their +assailants all who were brought before them. + +True, Inspector Grolle was dead; but two Sisters of Mercy kept vigil at +his side, and the President of the Council came and laid the Cross of +Honour on the breast of this victim of duty. + +At night there were panics. In the Avenue de la Revolte the police, +noticing a travelling acrobat's caravan on a piece of waste ground, took +it for the retreat of a band of robbers. They whistled for help, and +when they were a goodly number, attacked the caravan. Some worthy +citizens joined them; fifteen thousand revolver-shots were fired, the +caravan was blown up with dynamite, and among the debris they found the +corpse of a monkey. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + WHICH CONTAINS AN ACCOUNT OF THE ARREST OF BOUCHOTTE AND + MAURICE, OF THE DISASTER WHICH BEFELL THE D'ESPARVIEU + LIBRARY, AND OF THE DEPARTURE OF THE ANGELS + + +Maurice d'Esparvieu passed a terrible night. At the least sound he +seized his revolver that he might not fall alive into the hands of +justice. When morning came he snatched the newspapers from the hands of +the concierge, devoured them greedily, and gave a cry of joy; he had +just read that Inspector Grolle having been taken to the Morgue for the +post-mortem, the police-surgeons had only discovered bruises and +contusions of a very superficial nature, and stated that death had been +brought about by the rupture of an aneurism of the aorta. + +"You see, Arcade," he exclaimed triumphantly; "you see I am not an +assassin. I am innocent. I could never have imagined how extremely +agreeable it is to be innocent." + +Then he grew thoughtful, and--no unusual phenomenon--reflection +dissipated his gaiety. + +"I am innocent,--but there is no disguising the fact," he said, shaking +his head, "I am one of a band of malefactors. I live with miscreants. +You are in your right place there, Arcade, for you are deceitful, cruel, +and perverse. But I come of good family and have received an excellent +education, and I blush for it." + +"I also," said Arcade, "have received an excellent education." + +"Where was that?" + +"In Heaven." + +"No, Arcade, no; you never had any education. If good principles had +been inculcated into you, you would still hold them. Such principles are +never lost. In my childhood I learnt to revere my family, my country, my +religion. I have not forgotten the lesson and I never shall. Do you know +what shocks me most in you? It is not your perversity, your cruelty, +your black ingratitude; it is not your agnosticism, which may be borne +with at a pinch; it is not your scepticism, though it is very much out +of date (for since the national awakening there is no longer any +scepticism in France);--no, what disgusts me in you is your lack of +taste, the bad style of your ideas, the inelegance of your doctrines. +You think like an intellectual, you speak like a freethinker, you have +theories which reek of radicalism and Combeism and all ignoble systems. +Get along with you! you disgust me. Arcade, my old friend, Arcade, my +dear angel, Arcade, my beloved child, listen to your guardian angel! +Yield to my prayers, renounce your mad ideas; become good, simple, +innocent, and happy once more. Put on your hat, come with me to +Notre-Dame. We will say a prayer and burn a candle together." + +Meanwhile public opinion was still active in the matter; the leading +papers, the organs of the national awakening, in articles of real +elevation and real depth, unravelled the philosophy of this monstrous +attack which was revolting to the conscience. They discovered the real +origin, the indirect but effective cause in the revolutionary doctrines +which had been disseminated unchecked, in the weakening of social ties, +the relaxing of moral discipline, in the repeated appeals to every +appetite, to every greedy desire. It would be needful, so as to cut down +the evil at its root, to repudiate as quickly as possible all such +chimeras and Utopias as syndicalism, the income-tax, etc., etc., etc. +Many newspapers, and these not the least important, pointed out that the +recrudescence of crime was but the natural fruit of impiety and +concluded that the salvation of society lay in an unanimous and sincere +return to religion. On the Sunday which followed the crime the +congregations in the churches were noticed to be unusually large. + +Judge Salneuve, who was entrusted with the task of investigation, first +examined the persons arrested by the police, and lost his way among +attractive but illusory clues; however, the report of the detective +Montremain, which was laid before him, put him on the right road, and +soon led him to recognise the miscreants of La Jonchere as the authors +of the crime of the Rue de Ramey. He ordered a search to be made for +Arcade and Zita, and issued a warrant against Prince Istar, on whom the +detectives laid hands as he was leaving Bouchotte's, where he had been +depositing some bombs of new design. The Kerub, on learning the +detectives' intentions, smiled broadly and asked them if they had a +powerful motor-car. On their replying that they had one at the door, he +assured them that was all he wanted. Thereupon he felled the two +detectives on the stairs, walked up to the waiting car, flung the +chauffeur under a motor-'bus which was opportunely passing, and seized +the steering wheel under the eyes of the terrified crowd. + +That same evening Monsieur Jeancourt, the Police Magistrate, entered +Theophile's rooms just when Bouchotte was swallowing a raw egg to clear +her voice, for she was to sing her new song, "They haven't got any in +Germany," at the "National Eldorado" that evening. The musician was +absent. Bouchotte received the Magistrate, and received him with a +hauteur which intensified the simplicity of her attire; Bouchotte was +_en deshabille_. The worthy Magistrate seized the score of _Aline, Queen +of Golconda_, and the love-letters which the singer carefully preserved +in the drawer of the table by her bed, for she was an orderly young +woman. He was about to withdraw when he espied a cupboard, which he +opened with a careless air, and found machines capable of blowing up +half Paris, and a pair of large white wings, whose nature and use +appeared inexplicable to him. Bouchotte was invited to complete her +toilette, and, in spite of her cries, was taken off to the +police-station. + +Monsieur Salneuve was indefatigable. After the examination of the papers +seized in Bouchotte's house, and acting on the information of +Montremain, he issued a warrant for the arrest of young d'Esparvieu, +which was executed on Wednesday, the 27th May, at seven o'clock in the +morning, with great discretion. For three days Maurice had neither slept +nor eaten, loved nor lived. He had not a moment's doubt as to the nature +of the matutinal visit. At the sight of the police magistrate a strange +calm fell on him. Arcade had not returned to sleep in the flat. Maurice +begged the magistrate to wait for him, dressed with care, and then +accompanied the magistrate a calmness of mind which was barely +disturbed when the door of the Conciergerie closed on him. Alone in his +cell, he climbed upon the table to look out. His tranquillity was due to +his weariness of spirit, to his numbed senses, and to the fact that he +no longer stood in fear of arrest. His misfortune endowed him with +superior wisdom. He felt he had fallen into a state of grace. He did not +think too highly or too humbly of himself, but left his cause in the +hands of God. With no desire to cover up his faults, which he would not +hide even from himself, he addressed himself in mind to Providence, to +point out that if he had fallen into disorder and rebellion it was to +lead his erring angel back into the straight path. He stretched himself +on the couch and slept in peace. + +On hearing of the arrest of a music-hall singer and of a young man of +fashion, both Paris and the provinces felt painful surprise. Deeply +stirred by the tragic accounts which the leading newspapers were +bringing out, the general idea was that the sort of people the +authorities ought to bring to justice were ferocious anarchists, all +reeking and dripping from deeds of blood and arson; but they failed to +understand what the world of Art and Fashion should have to do with such +things. At this news, which he was one of the last to hear, the +President of the Council and Keeper of the Seals started up in his +chair. The Sphinxes that adorned it were less terrible than he, and in +the throes of his angry meditation he cut the mahogany of his imperial +table with his penknife, after the manner of Napoleon. And when Judge +Salneuve, whose attendance he had commanded, appeared before him, the +President flung his penknife in the grate, as Louis XIV flung his cane +out of the window in the presence of Lauzun; and it cost him a supreme +effort to master himself and to say in a voice of suppressed fury: + +"Are you mad? Surely I said often enough that I meant the plot to be +anarchist, anti-social, fundamentally anti-social and anti-governmental, +with a shade of syndicalism. I have made it clear enough that I wanted +it kept within these lines; and what do you go and make of it?... The +vengeance of anarchists and aspirants to freedom? Whom do you arrest? A +singer adored of the nationalist public, and the son of a man highly +esteemed in the Catholic party, who receives our bishops and has the +_entree_ to the Vatican; a man who may be one day sent as ambassador to +the Pope. At one blow you alienate one hundred and sixty Deputies and +forty Senators of the Right on the very eve of a motion to discuss the +question of religious pacification; you embroil me with my friends of +to-day, with my friends of to-morrow. Was it to find out if you were in +the same dilemma as des Aubels that you seized the love-letters of +young Maurice d'Esparvieu? I can put your mind at rest on that point. +You are, and all Paris knows it. But it is not to avenge your personal +affronts that you are on the Bench." + +"Monsieur le Garde des Sceaux," murmured the Judge, nearly apoplectic +and in a choked voice. "I am an honest man." + +"You are a fool ... and a provincial. Listen to me; if Maurice +d'Esparvieu and Mademoiselle Bouchotte are not released within half an +hour I will crush you like a piece of glass. Be off!" + +Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu went himself to fetch his son from the +Conciergerie and took him back to the old house in the Rue Garanciere. +The return was triumphant. The news had been disseminated that Maurice +had with generous imprudence interested himself in an attempt to restore +the monarchy, and that Judge Salneuve, the infamous freemason, the tool +of Combes and Andre, had tried to compromise the young man by making him +out to be an accomplice of a band of criminals. + +That was what Abbe Patouille seemed to think, and he answered for +Maurice as for himself. It was known, moreover, that breaking with his +father, who had rallied to the support of the Republic, young +d'Esparvieu was on the high road to becoming an out-and-out Royalist. +The people who had an inside knowledge of things saw in his arrest the +vengeance of the Jews. Was not Maurice a notorious anti-Semite? Catholic +youths went forth to hurl imprecations at Judge Salneuve under the +windows of his residence in the Rue Guenegaud, opposite the Mint. + +On the Boulevard du Palais a band of students presented Maurice with a +branch of palm. Maurice made a charming reply. + +Maurice was overcome with emotion when he beheld the old house in which +his childhood had been spent, and fell weeping into his mother's arms. + +It was a great day, unhappily marred by one painful incident. Monsieur +Sariette, who had lost his reason as a consequence of the shocking +events that had taken place in the Rue de Courcelles, had suddenly +become violent. He had shut himself up in the library, and there he had +remained for twenty-four hours, uttering the most horrible cries, and, +turning a deaf ear alike to threats and entreaties, refused to come out. +He had spent the night in a condition of extreme restlessness, for all +night long the lamp had been seen passing rapidly to and fro behind the +curtains. In the morning, hearing Hippolyte shouting to him from the +court below, he opened the window of the Hall of the Spheres and the +Philosophers, and heaved two or three rather weighty tomes on to the old +valet's head. The whole of the domestic staff--men, women, and +boys--hurried to the spot, and the librarian proceeded to throw out +books by the armful on to their heads. In view of the gravity of the +situation, Monsieur Rene d'Esparvieu did not disdain to intervene. He +appeared in night-cap and dressing-gown, and attempted to reason with +the poor lunatic, whose only reply was to pour forth torrents of abuse +on the man whom till then he had worshipped as his benefactor, and to +endeavour to crush him beneath all the Bibles, all the Talmuds, all the +sacred books of India and Persia, all the Greek Fathers, and all the +Latin Fathers, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Saint +Augustine, Saint Jerome, all the apologists, ay! and under the _Histoire +des Variations_, annotated by Bossuet himself! Octavos, quartos, folios +came crashing down, and lay in a sordid heap on the courtyard pavement. +The letters of Gassendi, of Pere Mersenne, of Pascal, were blown about +hither and thither by the wind. The lady's-maid who had stooped down to +rescue some of the sheets from the gutter got a blow on the head from an +enormous Dutch atlas. Madame Rene d'Esparvieu had been terrified by the +ominous sounds, and appeared on the scene without waiting to apply the +finishing touches of powder and paint. When he caught sight of her, old +Sariette became more violent than ever. Down they came one after another +as hard as he could pelt them; the busts of the poets, philosophers, +and historians of antiquity--Homer, AEschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, +Herodotus, Thucydides, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Cicero, +Virgil, Horace, Seneca, Epictetus--all lay scattered on the ground. The +celestial sphere and the terrestrial globe descended with a terrifying +crash that was followed by a ghastly hush, broken only by the shrill +laughter of little Leon, who was looking down on the scene from a window +above. A locksmith having opened the library door, all the household +hastened to enter, and found the aged Sariette entrenched behind piles +of books, busily engaged in tearing and slashing away at the _Lucretius_ +of the Prior de Vendome annotated in Voltaire's own hand. They had to +force a way through the barricade. But the maniac, perceiving that his +stronghold was being invaded, fled away and escaped on to the roof. For +two whole hours he gave vent to shouts and yells that were heard far and +wide. In the Rue Garanciere the crowd kept growing bigger and bigger. +All had their eyes fixed on the unhappy creature, and whenever he +stumbled on the slates, which cracked beneath him, they gave a shout of +terror. In the midst of the crowd, the Abbe Patouille, who expected +every moment to see him hurled into space, was reciting the prayers for +the dying, and making ready to give him the absolution _in extremis_. +There was a cordon of police round the house keeping order. Someone +summoned the fire-brigade, and the sound of their approach was soon +heard. They placed a ladder against the wall of the house, and after a +terrific struggle managed to secure the maniac, who in the course of his +desperate resistance had one of the muscles of his arm torn out. He was +immediately removed to an asylum. + +Maurice dined at home, and there were smiles of tenderness and affection +when Victor, the old butler, brought on the roast veal. Monsieur l'Abbe +Patouille sat at the right hand of the Christian mother, unctuously +contemplating the family which Heaven had so plentifully blessed. +Nevertheless, Madame d'Esparvieu was ill at ease. Every day she received +anonymous letters of so insulting and coarse a nature that she thought +at first they must come from a discharged footman. She now knew they +were the handiwork of her youngest daughter, Berthe, a mere child! +Little Leon, too, gave her pain and anxiety. He paid no attention to his +lessons, and was given to bad habits. He showed a cruel disposition. He +had plucked his sister's canaries alive; he stuck innumerable pins into +the chair on which Mademoiselle Caporal was accustomed to sit, and had +stolen fourteen francs from the poor girl, who did nothing but cry and +dab her eyes and nose from morning till night. + +No sooner was dinner over than Maurice rushed off to the little +dwelling in the Rue de Rome, impatient to meet his angel again. Through +the door he heard a loud sound of voices, and saw assembled in the room +where the apparition had taken place, Arcade, Zita, the angelic +musician, and the Kerub, who was lying on the bed, smoking a huge pipe, +carelessly scorching pillows, sheets, and coverlets. They embraced +Maurice, and announced their departure. Their faces shone with happiness +and courage. Alone, the inspired author of _Aline, Queen of Golconda_, +shed tears and raised his terrified gaze to heaven. The Kerub forced him +into the party of rebellion by setting before him two alternatives: +either to allow himself to be dragged from prison to prison on earth, or +to carry fire and sword into the palace of Ialdabaoth. + +Maurice perceived with sorrow that the earth had scarcely any hold over +them. They were setting out filled with immense hope, which was quite +justifiable. Doubtless they were but a few combatants to oppose the +innumerable soldiers of the sultan of the heavens; but they counted on +compensating for the inferiority of their numbers by the irresistible +impetus of a sudden attack. They were not ignorant of the fact that +Ialdabaoth, who flatters himself on knowing all things, sometimes allows +himself to be taken by surprise. And it certainly looked as if the first +attack would have taken him unawares had it not been for the warning of +the archangel Michael. The celestial army had made no progress since its +victory over the rebels before the beginning of Time. + +As regards armaments and material it was as out of date as the army of +the Moors. Its generals slumbered in sloth and ignorance. Loaded with +honours and riches, they preferred the delights of the banquet to the +fatigues of war. Michael, the commander-in-chief, ever loyal and brave, +had lost, with the passing of centuries, his fire and enthusiasm. The +conspirators of 1914, on the other hand, knew the very latest and the +most delicate appliances of science for the art of destruction. At +length all was ready and decided upon. The army of revolt, assembled by +corps each a hundred thousand angels strong, on all the waste places of +the earth--steppes, pampas, deserts, fields of ice and snow--was ready +to launch itself against the sky. The angels, in modifying the rhythm of +the atoms of which they are composed, are able to traverse the most +varied mediums. Spirits that have descended on to the earth, being +formed, since their incarnation, of too compact a substance, can no +longer fly of themselves, and to rise into ethereal regions and then +insensibly grow volatilized, have need of the assistance of their +brothers, who, though revolutionaries like themselves, nevertheless, +stayed behind in the Empyrean and remained, not immaterial (for all is +matter in the Universe), but gloriously untrammelled and diaphanous. +Certes, it was not without painful anxiety that Arcade, Istar, and Zita +prepared themselves to pass from the heavy atmosphere of the earth to +the limpid depths of the heavens. To plunge into the ether there is need +to expend such energy that the most intrepid hesitate to take flight. +Their very substance, while penetrating this fine medium, must in itself +grow fine-spun, become vaporised, and pass from human dimensions to the +volume of the vastest clouds which have ever enveloped the earth. Soon +they would surpass in grandeur the uttermost planets, whose orbits they, +invisible and imponderable, would traverse without disturbing. + +In this enterprise--the vastest that angels could undertake--their +substance would be ultimately hotter than the fire and colder than the +ice, and they would suffer pangs sharper than death. + +Maurice read all the daring and the pain of the undertaking in the eyes +of Arcade. + +"You are going?" he said to him, weeping. + +"We are going, with Nectaire, to seek the great archangel to lead us to +victory." + +"Whom do you call thus?" + +"The priests of the demiurge have made him known to you in their +calumnies." + +"Unhappy being," sighed Maurice. + +Arcade embraced him, and Maurice felt the angel's tears as they dropped +upon his cheek. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + + AND LAST, WHEREIN THE SUBLIME DREAM OF SATAN IS UNFOLDED + + +Climbing the seven steep terraces which rise up from the bed of the +Ganges to the temples muffled in creepers, the five angels reached, by +half-obliterated paths, the wild garden filled with perfumed clusters of +grapes and chattering monkeys, and, at the far end thereof, they +discovered him whom they had come to seek. The archangel lay with his +elbow on black cushions embroidered with golden flames. At his feet +crouched lions and gazelles. Twined in the trees, tame serpents turned +on him their friendly gaze. At the sight of his angelic visitors his +face grew melancholy. Long since, in the days when, with his brow +crowned with grapes and his sceptre of vine-leaves in his hand, he had +taught and comforted mankind, his heart had many times been heavy with +sorrow; but never yet, since his glorious downfall, had his beautiful +face expressed such pain and anguish. + +Zita told him of the black standards assembled in crowds in all the +waste places of the globe; of the deliverance premeditated and prepared +in the provinces of Heaven, where the first revolt had long ago been +fomented. + +"Prince," she went on, "your army awaits you. Come, lead it on to +victory." + +"Friends," replied the great archangel, "I was aware of the object of +your visit. Baskets of fruit and honeycombs await you under the shade of +this mighty tree. The sun is about to descend into the roseate waters of +the Sacred River. When you have eaten, you will slumber pleasantly in +this garden, where the joys of the intellect and of the senses have +reigned since the day when I drove hence the spirit of the old Demiurge. +To-morrow I will give you my answer." + +Night hung its blue over the garden. Satan fell asleep. He had a dream, +and in that dream, soaring over the earth, he saw it covered with angels +in revolt, beautiful as gods, whose eyes darted lightning. And from pole +to pole one single cry, formed of a myriad cries, mounted towards him, +filled with hope and love. And Satan said: + +"Let us go forth! Let us seek the ancient adversary in his high abode." +And he led the countless host of angels over the celestial plains. And +Satan was cognizant of what took place in the heavenly citadel. When +news of this second revolt came thither, the Father said to the Son: + +"The irreconcilable foe is rising once again. Let us take heed to +ourselves, and in this, our time of danger, look to our defences, lest +we lose our high abode." + +And the Son, consubstantial with the Father, replied: + +"We shall triumph under the sign that gave Constantine the victory." + +Indignation burst forth on the Mountain of God. At first the faithful +Seraphim condemned the rebels to terrible torture, but afterwards +decided on doing battle with them. The anger burning in the hearts of +all inflamed each countenance. They did not doubt of victory, but +treachery was feared, and eternal darkness had been at once decreed for +spies and alarmists. + +There was shouting and singing of ancient hymns and praise of the +Almighty. They drank of the mystic wine. Courage, over-inflated, came +near to giving way, and a secret anxiety stole into the inner depths of +their souls. The archangel Michael took supreme command. He reassured +their minds by his serenity. His countenance, wherein his soul was +visible, expressed contempt for danger. By his orders, the chiefs of the +thunderbolts, the Kerubs, grown dull with the long interval of peace, +paced with heavy steps the ramparts of the Holy Mountain, and, letting +the gaze of their bovine eyes wander over the glittering clouds of +their Lord, strove to place the divine batteries in position. After +inspecting the defences, they swore to the Most High that all was in +readiness. They took counsel together as to the plan they should follow. +Michael was for the offensive. He, as a consummate soldier, said it was +the supreme law. Attack, or be attacked,--there was no middle course. + +"Moreover," he added, "the offensive attitude is particularly suitable +to the ardour of the Thrones and Dominations." + +Beyond that, it was impossible to obtain a word from the valiant chief, +and this silence seemed the mark of a genius sure of himself. + +As soon as the approach of the enemy was announced, Michael sent forth +three armies to meet them, commanded by the archangels Uriel, Raphael, +and Gabriel. Standards, displaying all the colours of the Orient, were +unfurled above the ethereal plains, and the thunders rolled over the +starry floors. For three days and three nights was the lot of the +terrible and adorable armies unknown on the Mountain of God. Towards +dawn on the fourth day news came, but it was vague and confused. There +were rumours of indecisive victories; of the triumph now of this side, +now of that. There came reports of glorious deeds which were dissipated +in a few hours. + +The thunderbolts of Raphael, hurled against the rebels, had, it was +said, consumed entire squadrons. The troops commanded by the impure Zita +were thought to have been swallowed up in the whirlwind of a tempest of +fire. It was believed that the savage Istar had been flung headlong into +the gulf of perdition so suddenly that the blasphemies begun in his +mouth had been forced backwards with explosive results. It was popularly +supposed that Satan, laden with chains of adamant, had been plunged once +again into the abyss. Meanwhile, the commanders of the three armies had +sent no messages. Mutterings and murmurs, mingling with the rumours of +glory, gave rise to fears of an indecisive battle, a precipitate +retreat. Insolent voices gave out that a spirit of the lowest category, +a guardian angel, the insignificant Arcade, had checked and routed the +dazzling host of the three great archangels. + +There were also rumours of wholesale defection in the Seventh Heaven, +where rebellion had broken out before the beginning of Time, and some +had even seen black clouds of impious angels joining the armies of the +rebels on Earth. But no one lent an ear to the odious rumours, and +stress was laid on the news of victory which ran from lip to lip, each +statement readily finding confirmation. The high places resounded with +hymns of joy; the Seraphim celebrated on harp and psaltery Sabaoth, God +of Thunder. The voices of the elect united with those of the angels in +glorifying the Invisible and at the thought of the bloodshed that the +ministers of holy wrath had caused among the rebels, sighs of relief and +jubilation were wafted from the Heavenly Jerusalem towards the Most +High. But the beatitude of the most blessed, having swelled to the +utmost limit before due time, could increase no more, and the very +excess of their felicity completely dulled their senses. + +The songs had not yet ceased when the guards watching on the ramparts +signalled the approach of the first fugitives of the divine army; +Seraphim on tattered wing, flying in disorder, maimed Kerubs going on +three feet. With impassive gaze, Michael, prince of warriors, measured +the extent of the disaster, and his keen intelligence penetrated its +causes. The armies of the living God had taken the offensive, but by one +of those fatalities in war which disconcert the plans of the greatest +captains, the enemy had also taken the offensive, and the effect was +evident. Scarcely were the gates of the citadel opened to receive the +glorious but shattered remnants of the three armies, when a rain of fire +fell on the Mountain of God. Satan's army was not yet in sight, but the +walls of topaz, the cupolas of emerald, the roofs of diamond, all fell +in with an appalling crash under the discharge of the electrophores. The +ancient thunderclouds essayed to reply, but the bolts fell short, and +their thunders were lost in the deserted plains of the skies. + +Smitten by an invisible foe, the faithful angels abandoned the ramparts. +Michael went to announce to his God that the Holy Mountain would fall +into the hands of the demon in twenty-four hours, and that nothing +remained for the Master of the Heavens but to seek safety in flight. The +Seraphim placed the jewels of the celestial crown in coffers. Michael +offered his arm to the Queen of Heaven, and the Holy Family escaped from +the palace by a subterranean passage of porphyry. A deluge of fire was +falling on the citadel. Regaining his post once more, the glorious +archangel declared that he would never capitulate, and straightway +advanced the standards of the living God. That same evening the rebel +host made its entry into the thrice-sacred city. On a fiery steed Satan +led his demons. Behind him marched Arcade, Istar, and Zita. As in the +ancient revels of Dionysus, old Nectaire bestrode his ass. Thereafter, +floating out far behind, followed the black standards. + +The garrison laid down their arms before Satan. Michael placed his +flaming sword at the feet of the conquering archangel. + +"Take back your sword, Michael," said Satan. "It is Lucifer who yields +it to you. Bear it in defence of peace and law." Then letting his gaze +fall on the leaders of the celestial cohorts, he cried in a ringing +voice: + +"Archangel Michael, and you, Powers, Thrones, and Dominations, swear all +of you to be faithful to your God." + +"We swear it," they replied with one voice. + +And Satan said: + +"Powers, Thrones, and Dominations, of all past wars, I wish but to +remember the invincible courage that you displayed and the loyalty which +you rendered to authority, for these assure me of the steadfastness of +the fealty you have just sworn to me." + +The following day, on the ethereal plain, Satan commanded the black +standards to be distributed to the troops, and the winged soldiers +covered them with kisses and bedewed them with tears. + +And Satan had himself crowned God. Thronging round the glittering walls +of Heavenly Jerusalem, apostles, pontiffs, virgins, martyrs, confessors, +the whole company of the elect, who during the fierce battle had enjoyed +delightful tranquillity, tasted infinite joy in the spectacle of the +coronation. + +The elect saw with ravishment the Most High precipitated into Hell, and +Satan seated on the throne of the Lord. In conformity with the will of +God which had cut them off from sorrow they sang in the ancient fashion +the praises of their new Master. + +And Satan, piercing space with his keen glance, contemplated the little +globe of earth and water where of old he had planted the vine and formed +the first tragic chorus. And he fixed his gaze on that Rome where the +fallen God had founded his empire on fraud and lie. Nevertheless, at +that moment a saint ruled over the Church. Satan saw him praying and +weeping. And he said to him: + +"To thee I entrust my Spouse. Watch over her faithfully. In thee I +confirm the right and power to decide matters of doctrine, to regulate +the use of the sacraments, to make laws and to uphold purity of morals. +And the faithful shall be under obligation to conform thereto. My Church +is eternal, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Thou art +infallible. Nothing is changed." + +And the successor of the apostles felt flooded with rapture. He +prostrated himself, and with his forehead touching the floor, replied: + +"O Lord, my God, I recognise Thy voice! Thy breath has been wafted like +balm to my heart. Blessed be Thy name. Thy will be done on Earth, as it +is in Heaven. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." + +And Satan found pleasure in praise and in the exercise of his grace; he +loved to hear his wisdom and his power belauded. He listened with joy to +the canticles of the cherubim who celebrated his good deeds, and he +took no pleasure in listening to Nectaire's flute, because it celebrated +nature's self, yielded to the insect and to the blade of grass their +share of power and love, and counselled happiness and freedom. Satan, +whose flesh had crept, in days gone by, at the idea that suffering +prevailed in the world, now felt himself inaccessible to pity. He +regarded suffering and death as the happy results of omnipotence and +sovereign kindness. And the savour of the blood of victims rose upward +towards him like sweet incense. He fell to condemning intelligence and +to hating curiosity. He himself refused to learn anything more, for fear +that in acquiring fresh knowledge he might let it be seen that he had +not known everything at the very outset. He took pleasure in mystery, +and believing that he would seem less great by being understood, he +affected to be unintelligible. Dense fumes of Theology filled his brain. +One day, following the example of his predecessor, he conceived the +notion of proclaiming himself one god in three persons. Seeing Arcade +smile as this proclamation was made, he drove him from his presence. +Istar and Zita had long since returned to earth. Thus centuries passed +like seconds. Now, one day, from the altitude of his throne, he plunged +his gaze into the depths of the pit and saw Ialdabaoth in the Gehenna +where he himself had long lain enchained. Amid the everlasting gloom +Ialdabaoth still retained his lofty mien. Blackened and shattered, +terrible and sublime, he glanced upwards at the palace of the King of +Heaven with a look of proud disdain, then turned away his head. And the +new god, as he looked upon his foe, beheld the light of intelligence and +love pass across his sorrow-stricken countenance. And lo! Ialdabaoth was +now contemplating the Earth and, seeing it sunk in wickedness and +suffering, he began to foster thoughts of kindliness in his heart. On a +sudden he rose up, and beating the ether with his mighty arms, as though +with oars, he hastened thither to instruct and to console mankind. +Already his vast shadow shed upon the unhappy planet a shade soft as a +night of love. + +And Satan awoke bathed in an icy sweat. + +Nectaire, Istar, Arcade, and Zita were standing round him. The finches +were singing. + +"Comrades," said the great archangel, "no--we will not conquer the +heavens. Enough to have the power. War engenders war, and victory +defeat. + +"God, conquered, will become Satan; Satan, conquering, will become God. +May the fates spare me this terrible lot; I love the Hell which formed +my genius. I love the Earth where I have done some good, if it be +possible to do any good in this fearful world where beings live but by +rapine. Now, thanks to us, the god of old is dispossessed of his +terrestrial empire, and every thinking being on this globe disdains him +or knows him not. But what matter that men should be no longer +submissive to Ialdabaoth if the spirit of Ialdabaoth is still in them; +if they, like him, are jealous, violent, quarrelsome, and greedy, and +the foes of the arts and of beauty? What matter that they have rejected +the ferocious Demiurge, if they do not hearken to the friendly demons +who teach all truths; to Dionysus, Apollo, and the Muses? As to +ourselves, celestial spirits, sublime demons, we have destroyed +Ialdabaoth, our Tyrant, if in ourselves we have destroyed Ignorance and +Fear." + +And Satan, turning to the gardener, said: + +"Nectaire, you fought with me before the birth of the world. We were +conquered because we failed to understand that Victory is a Spirit, and +that it is in ourselves and in ourselves alone that we must attack and +destroy Ialdabaoth." + +THE END + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Notes | + | | + | Page 74: "Madame des Aubel's" amended to "Madame des | + | Aubels'" | + | Page 170: "clomb" _sic_ (archaic; past tense of _climb_). | + | Page 210: "befel" _sic_ (archaic). | + | Page 230: "Bouchette" amended to "Bouchotte" | + | Page 234: "befel" _sic_ (archaic). | + | Page 259: "cetain" amended to "certain" | + | Page 278: "youself" amended to "yourself" | + | Page 284: "wistaria" _sic_; alternative spelling. | + | Page 309: "Bergundy" amended to "Burgundy" | + | | + | Accents and hyphenation have generally been standardised. | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Revolt of the Angels, +by Anatole France + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANATOLE FRANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 32596.txt or 32596.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/5/9/32596/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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