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diff --git a/old/1277.txt b/old/1277.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93fe1e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1277.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2379 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Melmoth Reconciled, by Honore de Balzac + +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: Melmoth Reconciled + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Ellen Marriage + +Release Date: April, 1998 [Etext #1277] +Posting Date: February 22, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MELMOTH RECONCILED *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny, Bonnie Sala + + + + + +MELMOTH RECONCILED + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Ellen Marriage + + + + To Monsieur le General Baron de Pommereul, a token of the friendship + between our fathers, which survives in their sons. + + DE BALZAC. + + + + + +MELMOTH RECONCILED + + +There is a special variety of human nature obtained in the Social +Kingdom by a process analogous to that of the gardener's craft in the +Vegetable Kingdom, to wit, by the forcing-house--a species of hybrid +which can be raised neither from seed nor from slips. This product is +known as the Cashier, an anthropomorphous growth, watered by religious +doctrine, trained up in fear of the guillotine, pruned by vice, to +flourish on a third floor with an estimable wife by his side and an +uninteresting family. The number of cashiers in Paris must always be +a problem for the physiologist. Has any one as yet been able to state +correctly the terms of the proportion sum wherein the cashier figures as +the unknown _x_? Where will you find the man who shall live with wealth, +like a cat with a caged mouse? This man, for further qualification, +shall be capable of sitting boxed in behind an iron grating for seven +or eight hours a day during seven-eighths of the year, perched upon a +cane-seated chair in a space as narrow as a lieutenant's cabin on board +a man-of-war. Such a man must be able to defy anchylosis of the knee +and thigh joints; he must have a soul above meanness, in order to live +meanly; must lose all relish for money by dint of handling it. Demand +this peculiar specimen of any creed, educational system, school, or +institution you please, and select Paris, that city of fiery ordeals +and branch establishment of hell, as the soil in which to plant the said +cashier. So be it. Creeds, schools, institutions and moral systems, all +human rules and regulations, great and small, will, one after another, +present much the same face that an intimate friend turns upon you when +you ask him to lend you a thousand francs. With a dolorous dropping of +the jaw, they indicate the guillotine, much as your friend aforesaid +will furnish you with the address of the money-lender, pointing you to +one of the hundred gates by which a man comes to the last refuge of the +destitute. + +Yet nature has her freaks in the making of a man's mind; she indulges +herself and makes a few honest folk now and again, and now and then a +cashier. + +Wherefore, that race of corsairs whom we dignify with the title of +bankers, the gentry who take out a license for which they pay a thousand +crowns, as the privateer takes out his letters of marque, hold these +rare products of the incubations of virtue in such esteem that they +confine them in cages in their counting-houses, much as governments +procure and maintain specimens of strange beasts at their own charges. + +If the cashier is possessed of an imagination or of a fervid +temperament; if, as will sometimes happen to the most complete cashier, +he loves his wife, and that wife grows tired of her lot, has ambitions, +or merely some vanity in her composition, the cashier is undone. +Search the chronicles of the counting-house. You will not find a single +instance of a cashier attaining _a position_, as it is called. They are +sent to the hulks; they go to foreign parts; they vegetate on a second +floor in the Rue Saint-Louis among the market gardens of the Marais. +Some day, when the cashiers of Paris come to a sense of their real +value, a cashier will be hardly obtainable for money. Still, certain +it is that there are people who are fit for nothing but to be cashiers, +just as the bent of a certain order of mind inevitably makes for +rascality. But, oh marvel of our civilization! Society rewards virtue +with an income of a hundred louis in old age, a dwelling on a second +floor, bread sufficient, occasional new bandana handkerchiefs, an +elderly wife and her offspring. + +So much for virtue. But for the opposite course, a little boldness, +a faculty for keeping on the windward side of the law, as Turenne +outflanked Montecuculi, and Society will sanction the theft of millions, +shower ribbons upon the thief, cram him with honors, and smother him +with consideration. + +Government, moreover, works harmoniously with this profoundly illogical +reasoner--Society. Government levies a conscription on the young +intelligence of the kingdom at the age of seventeen or eighteen, +a conscription of precocious brain-work before it is sent up to be +submitted to a process of selection. Nurserymen sort and select seeds +in much the same way. To this process the Government brings professional +appraisers of talent, men who can assay brains as experts assay gold +at the Mint. Five hundred such heads, set afire with hope, are sent up +annually by the most progressive portion of the population; and of these +the Government takes one-third, puts them in sacks called the Ecoles, +and shakes them up together for three years. Though every one of these +young plants represents vast productive power, they are made, as one +may say, into cashiers. They receive appointments; the rank and file +of engineers is made up of them; they are employed as captains of +artillery; there is no (subaltern) grade to which they may not aspire. +Finally, when these men, the pick of the youth of the nation, fattened +on mathematics and stuffed with knowledge, have attained the age of +fifty years, they have their reward, and receive as the price of their +services the third-floor lodging, the wife and family, and all the +comforts that sweeten life for mediocrity. If from among this race of +dupes there should escape some five or six men of genius who climb the +highest heights, is it not miraculous? + +This is an exact statement of the relations between Talent and Probity +on the one hand and Government and Society on the other, in an age that +considers itself to be progressive. Without this prefatory explanation +a recent occurrence in Paris would seem improbable; but preceded by this +summing up of the situation, it will perhaps receive some thoughtful +attention from minds capable of recognizing the real plague-spots of +our civilization, a civilization which since 1815 as been moved by the +spirit of gain rather than by principles of honor. + + + +About five o'clock, on a dull autumn afternoon, the cashier of one of +the largest banks in Paris was still at his desk, working by the light +of a lamp that had been lit for some time. In accordance with the use +and wont of commerce, the counting-house was in the darkest corner of +the low-ceiled and far from spacious mezzanine floor, and at the very +end of a passage lighted only by borrowed lights. The office doors +along this corridor, each with its label, gave the place the look of a +bath-house. At four o'clock the stolid porter had proclaimed, according +to his orders, "The bank is closed." And by this time the departments +were deserted, wives of the partners in the firm were expecting their +lovers; the two bankers dining with their mistresses. Everything was in +order. + +The place where the strong boxes had been bedded in sheet-iron was just +behind the little sanctum, where the cashier was busy. Doubtless he was +balancing his books. The open front gave a glimpse of a safe of hammered +iron, so enormously heavy (thanks to the science of the modern inventor) +that burglars could not carry it away. The door only opened at the +pleasure of those who knew its password. The letter-lock was a warden +who kept its own secret and could not be bribed; the mysterious word was +an ingenious realization of the "Open sesame!" in the _Arabian Nights_. +But even this was as nothing. A man might discover the password; but +unless he knew the lock's final secret, the _ultima ratio_ of this +gold-guarding dragon of mechanical science, it discharged a blunderbuss +at his head. + +The door of the room, the walls of the room, the shutters of the windows +in the room, the whole place, in fact, was lined with sheet-iron a third +of an inch in thickness, concealed behind the thin wooden paneling. The +shutters had been closed, the door had been shut. If ever man could feel +confident that he was absolutely alone, and that there was no remote +possibility of being watched by prying eyes, that man was the cashier of +the house of Nucingen and Company, in the Rue Saint-Lazare. + +Accordingly the deepest silence prevailed in that iron cave. The fire +had died out in the stove, but the room was full of that tepid warmth +which produces the dull heavy-headedness and nauseous queasiness of a +morning after an orgy. The stove is a mesmerist that plays no small part +in the reduction of bank clerks and porters to a state of idiocy. + +A room with a stove in it is a retort in which the power of strong +men is evaporated, where their vitality is exhausted, and their wills +enfeebled. Government offices are part of a great scheme for the +manufacture of the mediocrity necessary for the maintenance of a Feudal +System on a pecuniary basis--and money is the foundation of the Social +Contract. (See _Les Employes_.) The mephitic vapors in the atmosphere +of a crowded room contribute in no small degree to bring about a gradual +deterioration of intelligences, the brain that gives off the largest +quantity of nitrogen asphyxiates the others, in the long run. + +The cashier was a man of five-and-forty or thereabouts. As he sat at the +table, the light from a moderator lamp shining full on his bald head and +glistening fringe of iron-gray hair that surrounded it--this baldness +and the round outlines of his face made his head look very like a ball. +His complexion was brick-red, a few wrinkles had gathered about his +eyes, but he had the smooth, plump hands of a stout man. His blue cloth +coat, a little rubbed and worn, and the creases and shininess of his +trousers, traces of hard wear that the clothes-brush fails to remove, +would impress a superficial observer with the idea that here was a +thrifty and upright human being, sufficient of the philosopher or of the +aristocrat to wear shabby clothes. But, unluckily, it is easy to find +penny-wise people who will prove weak, wasteful, or incompetent in the +capital things of life. + +The cashier wore the ribbon of the Legion of Honor at his button-hole, +for he had been a major of dragoons in the time of the Emperor. M. de +Nucingen, who had been a contractor before he became a banker, had had +reason in those days to know the honorable disposition of his cashier, +who then occupied a high position. Reverses of fortune had befallen the +major, and the banker out of regard for him paid him five hundred francs +a month. The soldier had become a cashier in the year 1813, after his +recovery from a wound received at Studzianka during the Retreat from +Moscow, followed by six months of enforced idleness at Strasbourg, +whither several officers had been transported by order of the Emperor, +that they might receive skilled attention. This particular officer, +Castanier by name, retired with the honorary grade of colonel, and a +pension of two thousand four hundred francs. + +In ten years' time the cashier had completely effaced the soldier, +and Castanier inspired the banker with such trust in him, that he was +associated in the transactions that went on in the private office behind +his little counting-house. The baron himself had access to it by means +of a secret staircase. There, matters of business were decided. It was +the bolting-room where proposals were sifted; the privy council chamber +where the reports of the money market were analyzed; circular notes +issued thence; and finally, the private ledger and the journal which +summarized the work of all the departments were kept there. + +Castanier had gone himself to shut the door which opened on to a +staircase that led to the parlor occupied by the two bankers on the +first floor of their hotel. This done, he had sat down at his desk +again, and for a moment he gazed at a little collection of letters of +credit drawn on the firm of Watschildine of London. Then he had taken +up the pen and imitated the banker's signature on each. _Nucingen_ he +wrote, and eyed the forged signatures critically to see which seemed the +most perfect copy. + +Suddenly he looked up as if a needle had pricked him. "You are not +alone!" a boding voice seemed to cry in his heart; and indeed the forger +saw a man standing at the little grated window of the counting-house, a +man whose breathing was so noiseless that he did not seem to breathe at +all. Castanier looked, and saw that the door at the end of the passage +was wide open; the stranger must have entered by that way. + +For the first time in his life the old soldier felt a sensation of dread +that made him stare open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the man before him; +and for that matter, the appearance of the apparition was sufficiently +alarming even if unaccompanied by the mysterious circumstances of so +sudden an entry. The rounded forehead, the harsh coloring of the long +oval face, indicated quite as plainly as the cut of his clothes that the +man was an Englishman, reeking of his native isles. You had only to look +at the collar of his overcoat, at the voluminous cravat which smothered +the crushed frills of a shirt front so white that it brought out the +changeless leaden hue of an impassive face, and the thin red line of the +lips that seemed made to suck the blood of corpses; and you can guess +at once at the black gaiters buttoned up to the knee, and the +half-puritanical costume of a wealthy Englishman dressed for a walking +excursion. The intolerable glitter of the stranger's eyes produced a +vivid and unpleasant impression, which was only deepened by the rigid +outlines of his features. The dried-up, emaciated creature seemed to +carry within him some gnawing thought that consumed him and could not be +appeased. + +He must have digested his food so rapidly that he could doubtless +eat continually without bringing any trace of color into his face or +features. A tun of Tokay _vin de succession_ would not have caused any +faltering in that piercing glance that read men's inmost thoughts, nor +dethroned the merciless reasoning faculty that always seemed to go +to the bottom of things. There was something of the fell and tranquil +majesty of a tiger about him. + +"I have come to cash this bill of exchange, sir," he said. Castanier +felt the tones of his voice thrill through every nerve with a violent +shock similar to that given by a discharge of electricity. + +"The safe is closed," said Castanier. + +"It is open," said the Englishman, looking round the counting-house. +"To-morrow is Sunday, and I cannot wait. The amount is for five hundred +thousand francs. You have the money there, and I must have it." + +"But how did you come in, sir?" + +The Englishman smiled. That smile frightened Castanier. No words could +have replied more fully nor more peremptorily than that scornful and +imperial curl of the stranger's lips. Castanier turned away, took up +fifty packets each containing ten thousand francs in bank-notes, and +held them out to the stranger, receiving in exchange for them a bill +accepted by the Baron de Nucingen. A sort of convulsive tremor ran +through him as he saw a red gleam in the stranger's eyes when they fell +on the forged signature on the letter of credit. + +"It... it wants your signature..." stammered Castanier, handing back the +bill. + +"Hand me your pen," answered the Englishman. + +Castanier handed him the pen with which he had just committed forgery. +The stranger wrote _John Melmoth_, then he returned the slip of paper +and the pen to the cashier. Castanier looked at the handwriting, +noticing that it sloped from right to left in the Eastern fashion, and +Melmoth disappeared so noiselessly that when Castanier looked up again +an exclamation broke from him, partly because the man was no longer +there, partly because he felt a strange painful sensation such as our +imagination might take for an effect of poison. + +The pen that Melmoth had handled sent the same sickening heat through +him that an emetic produces. But it seemed impossible to Castanier +that the Englishman should have guessed his crime. His inward qualms he +attributed to the palpitation of the heart that, according to received +ideas, was sure to follow at once on such a "turn" as the stranger had +given him. + +"The devil take it; I am very stupid. Providence is watching over me; +for if that brute had come round to see my gentleman to-morrow, my goose +would have been cooked!" said Castanier, and he burned the unsuccessful +attempts at forgery in the stove. + +He put the bill that he meant to take with him in an envelope, and +helped himself to five hundred thousand francs in French and English +bank-notes from the safe, which he locked. Then he put everything in +order, lit a candle, blew out the lamp, took up his hat and umbrella, +and went out sedately, as usual, to leave one of the two keys of the +strong room with Madame de Nucingen, in the absence of her husband the +Baron. + +"You are in luck, M. Castanier," said the banker's wife as he entered +the room; "we have a holiday on Monday; you can go into the country, or +to Soizy." + +"Madame, will you be so good as to tell your husband that the bill +of exchange on Watschildine, which was behind time, has just been +presented? The five hundred thousand francs have been paid; so I shall +not come back till noon on Tuesday." + +"Good-bye, monsieur; I hope you will have a pleasant time." + +"The same to you, madame," replied the old dragoon as he went out. He +glanced as he spoke at a young man well known in fashionable society at +that time, a M. de Rastignac, who was regarded as Madame de Nucingen's +lover. + +"Madame," remarked this latter, "the old boy looks to me as if he meant +to play you some ill turn." + +"Pshaw! impossible; he is too stupid." + + + +"Piquoizeau," said the cashier, walking into the porter's room, "what +made you let anybody come up after four o'clock?" + +"I have been smoking a pipe here in the doorway ever since four +o'clock," said the man, "and nobody has gone into the bank. Nobody has +come out either except the gentlemen----" + +"Are you quite sure?" + +"Yes, upon my word and honor. Stay, though, at four o'clock M. +Werbrust's friend came, a young fellow from Messrs. du Tillet & Co., in +the Rue Joubert." + +"All right," said Castanier, and he hurried away. + +The sickening sensation of heat that he had felt when he took back the +pen returned in greater intensity. "_Mille diables_!" thought he, as he +threaded his way along the Boulevard de Gand, "haven't I taken proper +precautions? Let me think! Two clear days, Sunday and Monday, then a day +of uncertainty before they begin to look for me; altogether, three days +and four nights' respite. I have a couple of passports and two different +disguises; is not that enough to throw the cleverest detective off the +scent? On Tuesday morning I shall draw a million francs in London before +the slightest suspicion has been aroused. My debts I am leaving behind +for the benefit of my creditors, who will put a 'P'* on the bills, and +I shall live comfortably in Italy for the rest of my days as the Conte +Ferraro. [*Protested.] I was alone with him when he died, poor fellow, +in the marsh of Zembin, and I shall slip into his skin.... _Mille +diables_! the woman who is to follow after me might give them a clue! +Think of an old campaigner like me infatuated enough to tie myself to a +petticoat tail!... Why take her? I must leave her behind. Yes, I could +make up my mind to it; but--I know myself--I should be ass enough to +go back to her. Still, nobody knows Aquilina. Shall I take her or leave +her?" + +"You will not take her!" cried a voice that filled Castanier with +sickening dread. He turned sharply, and saw the Englishman. + +"The devil is in it!" cried the cashier aloud. + +Melmoth had passed his victim by this time; and if Castanier's first +impulse had been to fasten a quarrel on a man who read his own thoughts, +he was so much torn up by opposing feelings that the immediate result +was a temporary paralysis. When he resumed his walk he fell once more +into that fever of irresolution which besets those who are so carried +away by passion that they are ready to commit a crime, but have not +sufficient strength of character to keep it to themselves without +suffering terribly in the process. So, although Castanier had made up +his mind to reap the fruits of a crime which was already half executed, +he hesitated to carry out his designs. For him, as for many men of mixed +character in whom weakness and strength are equally blended, the least +trifling consideration determines whether they shall continue to lead +blameless lives or become actively criminal. In the vast masses of +men enrolled in Napoleon's armies there are many who, like Castanier, +possessed the purely physical courage demanded on the battlefield, yet +lacked the moral courage which makes a man as great in crime as he could +have been in virtue. + +The letter of credit was drafted in such terms that immediately on +his arrival he might draw twenty-five thousand pounds on the firm of +Watschildine, the London correspondents of the house of Nucingen. The +London house had already been advised of the draft about to be made upon +them, he had written to them himself. He had instructed an agent (chosen +at random) to take his passage in a vessel which was to leave Portsmouth +with a wealthy English family on board, who were going to Italy, and +the passage-money had been paid in the name of the Conte Ferraro. The +smallest details of the scheme had been thought out. He had arranged +matters so as to divert the search that would be made for him into +Belgium and Switzerland, while he himself was at sea in the English +vessel. Then, by the time that Nucingen might flatter himself that he +was on the track of his late cashier, the said cashier, as the Conte +Ferraro, hoped to be safe in Naples. He had determined to disfigure his +face in order to disguise himself the more completely, and by means of +an acid to imitate the scars of smallpox. Yet, in spite of all these +precautions, which surely seemed as if they must secure him complete +immunity, his conscience tormented him; he was afraid. The even and +peaceful life that he had led for so long had modified the morality of +the camp. His life was stainless as yet; he could not sully it without a +pang. So for the last time he abandoned himself to all the influences of +the better self that strenuously resisted. + +"Pshaw!" he said at last, at the corner of the Boulevard and the Rue +Montmartre, "I will take a cab after the play this evening and go out to +Versailles. A post-chaise will be ready for me at my old quartermaster's +place. He would keep my secret even if a dozen men were standing ready +to shoot him down. The chances are all in my favor, so far as I see; so +I shall take my little Naqui with me, and I will go." + +"You will not go!" exclaimed the Englishman, and the strange tones of +his voice drove all the cashier's blood back to his heart. + +Melmoth stepped into a tilbury which was waiting for him, and was +whirled away so quickly, that when Castanier looked up he saw his foe +some hundred paces away from him, and before it even crossed his mind +to cut off the man's retreat the tilbury was far on its way up the +Boulevard Montmartre. + +"Well, upon my word, there is something supernatural about this!" said +he to himself. "If I were fool enough to believe in God, I should think +that He had set Saint Michael on my tracks. Suppose that the devil and +the police should let me go on as I please, so as to nab me in the nick +of time? Did any one ever see the like! But there, this is folly..." + +Castanier went along the Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, slackening his pace +as he neared the Rue Richer. There on the second floor of a block of +buildings which looked out upon some gardens lived the unconscious cause +of Castanier's crime--a young woman known in the quarter as Mme. de la +Garde. A concise history of certain events in the cashier's past life +must be given in order to explain these facts, and to give a complete +presentment of the crisis when he yielded to temptation. + +Mme. de la Garde said that she was a Piedmontese. No one, not even +Castanier, knew her real name. She was one of those young girls, who +are driven by dire misery, by inability to earn a living, or by fear of +starvation, to have recourse to a trade which most of them loathe, many +regard with indifference, and some few follow in obedience to the laws +of their constitution. But on the brink of the gulf of prostitution in +Paris, the young girl of sixteen, beautiful and pure as the Madonna, had +met with Castanier. The old dragoon was too rough and homely to make his +way in society, and he was tired of tramping the boulevard at night and +of the kind of conquests made there by gold. For some time past he had +desired to bring a certain regularity into an irregular life. He was +struck by the beauty of the poor child who had drifted by chance into +his arms, and his determination to rescue her from the life of the +streets was half benevolent, half selfish, as some of the thoughts of +the best of men are apt to be. Social conditions mingle elements of evil +with the promptings of natural goodness of heart, and the mixture +of motives underlying a man's intentions should be leniently judged. +Castanier had just cleverness enough to be very shrewd where his own +interests were concerned. So he concluded to be a philanthropist on +either count, and at first made her his mistress. + +"Hey! hey!" he said to himself, in his soldierly fashion. "I am an +old wolf, and a sheep shall not make a fool of me. Castanier, old man, +before you set up housekeeping, reconnoitre the girl's character for a +bit, and see if she is a steady sort." + +This irregular union gave the Piedmontese a status the most nearly +approaching respectability among those which the world declines to +recognize. During the first year she took the _nom de guerre_ of +Aquilina, one of the characters in _Venice Preserved_ which she had +chanced to read. She fancied that she resembled the courtesan in face +and general appearance, and in a certain precocity of heart and brain of +which she was conscious. When Castanier found that her life was as +well regulated and virtuous as was possible for a social outlaw, he +manifested a desire that they should live as husband and wife. So she +took the name of Mme. de la Garde, in order to approach, as closely as +Parisian usages permit, the conditions of a real marriage. As a matter +of fact, many of these unfortunate girls have one fixed idea, to be +looked upon as respectable middle-class women, who lead humdrum lives of +faithfulness to their husbands; women who would make excellent mothers, +keepers of household accounts, and menders of household linen. This +longing springs from a sentiment so laudable, that society should take +it into consideration. But society, incorrigible as ever, will assuredly +persist in regarding the married woman as a corvette duly authorized by +her flag and papers to go on her own course, while the woman who is a +wife in all but name is a pirate and an outlaw for lack of a document. +A day came when Mme. de la Garde would fain have signed herself "Mme. +Castanier." The cashier was put out by this. + +"So you do not love me well enough to marry me?" she said. + +Castanier did not answer; he was absorbed by his thoughts. The poor girl +resigned herself to her fate. The ex-dragoon was in despair. Naqui's +heart softened towards him at the sight of his trouble; she tried to +soothe him, but what could she do when she did not know what ailed him? +When Naqui made up her mind to know the secret, although she never asked +him a question, the cashier dolefully confessed to the existence of a +Mme. Castanier. This lawful wife, a thousand times accursed, was living +in a humble way in Strasbourg on a small property there; he wrote to her +twice a year, and kept the secret of her existence so well, that no one +suspected that he was married. The reason of this reticence? If it +is familiar to many military men who may chance to be in a like +predicament, it is perhaps worth while to give the story. + +Your genuine trooper (if it is allowable here to employ the word which +in the army signifies a man who is destined to die as a captain) is a +sort of serf, a part and parcel of his regiment, an essentially simple +creature, and Castanier was marked out by nature as a victim to the +wiles of mothers with grown-up daughters left too long on their hands. +It was at Nancy, during one of those brief intervals of repose when the +Imperial armies were not on active service abroad, that Castanier was so +unlucky as to pay some attention to a young lady with whom he danced at +a _ridotto_, the provincial name for the entertainments often given +by the military to the townsfolk, or vice versa, in garrison towns. A +scheme for inveigling the gallant captain into matrimony was immediately +set on foot, one of those schemes by which mothers secure accomplices in +a human heart by touching all its motive springs, while they convert all +their friends into fellow-conspirators. Like all people possessed by +one idea, these ladies press everything into the service of their great +project, slowly elaborating their toils, much as the ant-lion excavates +its funnel in the sand and lies in wait at the bottom for its victim. +Suppose that no one strays, after all, into that carefully constructed +labyrinth? Suppose that the ant-lion dies of hunger and thirst in her +pit? Such things may be, but if any heedless creature once enters in, it +never comes out. All the wires which could be pulled to induce action +on the captain's part were tried; appeals were made to the secret +interested motives that always come into play in such cases; they worked +on Castanier's hopes and on the weaknesses and vanity of human nature. +Unluckily, he had praised the daughter to her mother when he brought her +back after a waltz, a little chat followed, and then an invitation in +the most natural way in the world. Once introduced into the house, +the dragoon was dazzled by the hospitality of a family who appeared +to conceal their real wealth beneath a show of careful economy. He was +skilfully flattered on all sides, and every one extolled for his benefit +the various treasures there displayed. A neatly timed dinner, served on +plate lent by an uncle, the attention shown to him by the only daughter +of the house, the gossip of the town, a well-to-do sub-lieutenant who +seemed likely to cut the ground from under his feet--all the innumerable +snares, in short, of the provincial ant-lion were set for him, and to +such good purpose, that Castanier said five years later, "To this day I +do not know how it came about!" + +The dragoon received fifteen thousand francs with the lady, who after +two years of marriage, became the ugliest and consequently the +most peevish woman on earth. Luckily they had no children. The fair +complexion (maintained by a Spartan regimen), the fresh, bright color +in her face, which spoke of an engaging modesty, became overspread with +blotches and pimples; her figure, which had seemed so straight, grew +crooked, the angel became a suspicious and shrewish creature who drove +Castanier frantic. Then the fortune took to itself wings. At length the +dragoon, no longer recognizing the woman whom he had wedded, left her to +live on a little property at Strasbourg, until the time when it should +please God to remove her to adorn Paradise. She was one of those +virtuous women who, for want of other occupation, would weary the life +out of an angel with complainings, who pray till (if their prayers are +heard in heaven) they must exhaust the patience of the Almighty, and say +everything that is bad of their husbands in dovelike murmurs over a game +of boston with their neighbors. When Aquilina learned all these troubles +she clung still more affectionately to Castanier, and made him so happy, +varying with woman's ingenuity the pleasures with which she filled his +life, that all unwittingly she was the cause of the cashier's downfall. + +Like many women who seem by nature destined to sound all the depths of +love, Mme. de la Garde was disinterested. She asked neither for gold +nor for jewelry, gave no thought to the future, lived entirely for the +present and for the pleasures of the present. She accepted expensive +ornaments and dresses, the carriage so eagerly coveted by women of +her class, as one harmony the more in the picture of life. There was +absolutely no vanity in her desire not to appear at a better advantage +but to look the fairer, and moreover, no woman could live without +luxuries more cheerfully. When a man of generous nature (and military +men are mostly of this stamp) meets with such a woman, he feels a sort +of exasperation at finding himself her debtor in generosity. He feels +that he could stop a mail coach to obtain money for her if he has not +sufficient for her whims. He will commit a crime if so he may be great +and noble in the eyes of some woman or of his special public; such +is the nature of the man. Such a lover is like a gambler who would be +dishonored in his own eyes if he did not repay the sum he borrowed from +a waiter in a gaming-house; but will shrink from no crime, will leave +his wife and children without a penny, and rob and murder, if so he +may come to the gaming-table with a full purse, and his honor remain +untarnished among the frequenters of that fatal abode. So it was with +Castanier. + +He had begun by installing Aquiline is a modest fourth-floor dwelling, +the furniture being of the simplest kind. But when he saw the girl's +beauty and great qualities, when he had known inexpressible and +unlooked-for happiness with her, he began to dote upon her; and longed +to adorn his idol. Then Aquilina's toilette was so comically out of +keeping with her poor abode, that for both their sakes it was clearly +incumbent on him to move. The change swallowed up almost all Castanier's +savings, for he furnished his domestic paradise with all the prodigality +that is lavished on a kept mistress. A pretty woman must have everything +pretty about her; the unity of charm in the woman and her surroundings +singles her out from among her sex. This sentiment of homogeneity +indeed, though it has frequently escaped the attention of observers, +is instinctive in human nature; and the same prompting leads elderly +spinsters to surround themselves with dreary relics of the past. But +the lovely Piedmontese must have the newest and latest fashions, and +all that was daintiest and prettiest in stuffs for hangings, in silks +or jewelry, in fine china and other brittle and fragile wares. She +asked for nothing; but when she was called upon to make a choice, when +Castanier asked her, "Which do you like?" she would answer, "Why, this +is the nicest!" Love never counts the cost, and Castanier therefore +always took the "nicest." + +When once the standard had been set up, there was nothing for it but +everything in the household must be in conformity, from the linen, +plate, and crystal through a thousand and one items of expenditure down +to the pots and pans in the kitchen. Castanier had meant to "do things +simply," as the saying goes, but he gradually found himself more and +more in debt. One expense entailed another. The clock called for +candle sconces. Fires must be lighted in the ornamental grates, but the +curtains and hangings were too fresh and delicate to be soiled by smuts, +so they must be replaced by patent and elaborate fireplaces, warranted +to give out no smoke, recent inventions of the people who are so clever +at drawing up a prospectus. Then Aquilina found it so nice to run about +barefooted on the carpet in her room, that Castanier must have soft +carpets laid everywhere for the pleasure of playing with Naqui. A +bathroom, too, was built for her, everything to the end that she might +be more comfortable. + +Shopkeepers, workmen, and manufacturers in Paris have a mysterious knack +of enlarging a hole in a man's purse. They cannot give the price of +anything upon inquiry; and as the paroxysm of longing cannot abide +delay, orders are given by the feeble light of an approximate estimate +of cost. The same people never send in the bills at once, but ply the +purchaser with furniture till his head spins. Everything is so pretty, +so charming; and every one is satisfied. + +A few months later the obliging furniture dealers are metamorphosed, and +reappear in the shape of alarming totals on invoices that fill the soul +with their horrid clamor; they are in urgent want of the money; they +are, as you may say on the brink of bankruptcy, their tears flow, it +is heartrending to hear them! And then----the gulf yawns, and gives up +serried columns of figures marching four deep, when as a matter of fact +they should have issued innocently three by three. + +Before Castanier had any idea of how much he had spent, he had arranged +for Aquilina to have a carriage from a livery stable when she went out, +instead of a cab. Castanier was a gourmand; he engaged an excellent +cook; and Aquilina, to please him, had herself made the purchases of +early fruit and vegetables, rare delicacies, and exquisite wines. But, +as Aquilina had nothing of her own, these gifts of hers, so precious by +reason of the thought and tact and graciousness that prompted them, were +no less a drain upon Castanier's purse; he did not like his Naqui to +be without money, and Naqui could not keep money in her pocket. So the +table was a heavy item of expenditure for a man with Castanier's income. +The ex-dragoon was compelled to resort to various shifts for obtaining +money, for he could not bring himself to renounce this delightful life. +He loved the woman too well to cross the freaks of the mistress. He +was one of those men who, through self-love or through weakness of +character, can refuse nothing to a woman; false shame overpowers them, +and they rather face ruin than make the admissions: "I cannot----" "My +means will not permit----" "I cannot afford----" + +When, therefore, Castanier saw that if he meant to emerge from the abyss +of debt into which he had plunged, he must part with Aquilina and live +upon bread and water, he was so unable to do without her or to change +his habits of life, that daily he put off his plans of reform until the +morrow. The debts were pressing, and he began by borrowing money. His +position and previous character inspired confidence, and of this he took +advantage to devise a system of borrowing money as he required it. Then, +as the total amount of debt rapidly increased, he had recourse to those +commercial inventions known as accommodation bills. This form of bill +does not represent goods or other value received, and the first endorser +pays the amount named for the obliging person who accepts it. This +species of fraud is tolerated because it is impossible to detect it, +and, moreover, it is an imaginary fraud which only becomes real if +payment is ultimately refused. + +When at length it was evidently impossible to borrow any longer, whether +because the amount of the debt was now so greatly increased, or +because Castanier was unable to pay the large amount of interest on +the aforesaid sums of money, the cashier saw bankruptcy before him. On +making this discovery, he decided for a fraudulent bankruptcy rather +than an ordinary failure, and preferred a crime to a misdemeanor. He +determined, after the fashion of the celebrated cashier of the Royal +Treasury, to abuse the trust deservedly won, and to increase the number +of his creditors by making a final loan of the sum sufficient to keep +him in comfort in a foreign country for the rest of his days. All this, +as has been seen, he had prepared to do. + +Aquilina knew nothing of the irksome cares of this life; she enjoyed her +existence, as many a woman does, making no inquiry as to where the +money came from, even as sundry other folk will eat their buttered rolls +untroubled by any restless spirit of curiosity as to the culture and +growth of wheat; but as the labor and miscalculations of agriculture +lie on the other side of the baker's oven, so beneath the unappreciated +luxury of many a Parisian household lie intolerable anxieties and +exorbitant toil. + +While Castanier was enduring the torture of the strain, and his thoughts +were full of the deed that should change his whole life, Aquilina was +lying luxuriously back in a great armchair by the fireside, beguiling +the time by chatting with her waiting-maid. As frequently happens in +such cases the maid had become the mistress' confidant, Jenny having +first assured herself that her mistress' ascendency over Castanier was +complete. + +"What are we to do this evening? Leon seems determined to come," Mme. +de la Garde was saying, as she read a passionate epistle indited upon a +faint gray notepaper. + +"Here is the master!" said Jenny. + +Castanier came in. Aquilina, nowise disconcerted, crumpled up the +letter, took it with the tongs, and held it in the flames. + +"So that is what you do with your love-letters, is it?" asked Castanier. + +"Oh goodness, yes," said Aquilina; "is it not the best way of keeping +them safe? Besides, fire should go to fire, as water makes for the +river." + +"You are talking as if it were a real love-letter, Naqui----" + +"Well, am I not handsome enough to receive them?" she said, holding up +her forehead for a kiss. There was a carelessness in her manner that +would have told any man less blind than Castanier that it was only a +piece of conjugal duty, as it were, to give this joy to the cashier, but +use and wont had brought Castanier to the point where clear-sightedness +is no longer possible for love. + +"I have taken a box at the Gymnase this evening," he said; "let us have +dinner early, and then we need not dine in a hurry." + +"Go and take Jenny. I am tired of plays. I do not know what is the +matter with me this evening; I would rather stay here by the fire." + +"Come, all the same though, Naqui; I shall not be here to bore you much +longer. Yes, Quiqui, I am going to start to-night, and it will be some +time before I come back again. I am leaving everything in your charge. +Will you keep your heart for me too?" + +"Neither my heart nor anything else," she said; "but when you come back +again, Naqui will still be Naqui for you." + +"Well, this is frankness. So you would not follow me?" + +"No." + +"Why not?" + +"Eh! why, how can I leave the lover who writes me such sweet little +notes?" she asked, pointing to the blackened scrap of paper with a +mocking smile. + +"Is there any truth in it?" asked Castanier. "Have you really a lover?" + +"Really!" cried Aquilina; "and have you never given it a serious +thought, dear? To begin with, you are fifty years old. Then you have +just the sort of face to put on a fruit stall; if the woman tried to see +you for a pumpkin, no one would contradict her. You puff and blow like a +seal when you come upstairs; your paunch rises and falls like a diamond +on a woman's forehead! It is pretty plain that you served in the +dragoons; you are a very ugly-looking old man. Fiddle-de-dee. If you +have any mind to keep my respect, I recommend you not to add imbecility +to these qualities by imagining that such a girl as I am will be content +with your asthmatic love, and not look for youth and good looks and +pleasure by way of a variety----" + +"Aquilina! you are laughing, of course?" + +"Oh, very well; and are you not laughing too? Do you take me for a fool, +telling me that you are going away? 'I am going to start to-night!'" she +said, mimicking his tones. "Stuff and nonsense! Would you talk like that +if you were really going from your Naqui? You would cry, like the booby +that you are!" + +"After all, if I go, will you follow?" he asked. + +"Tell me first whether this journey of yours is a bad joke or not." + +"Yes, seriously, I am going." + +"Well, then, seriously, I shall stay. A pleasant journey to you, my boy! +I will wait till you come back. I would sooner take leave of life than +take leave of my dear, cozy Paris----" + +"Will you not come to Italy, to Naples, and lead a pleasant life +there--a delicious, luxurious life, with this stout old fogy of yours, +who puffs and blows like a seal?" + +"No." + +"Ungrateful girl!" + +"Ungrateful?" she cried, rising to her feet. "I might leave this house +this moment and take nothing out of it but myself. I shall have given +you all the treasures a young girl can give, and something that not +every drop in your veins and mine can ever give me back. If, by any +means whatever, by selling my hopes of eternity, for instance, I could +recover my past self, body and soul (for I have, perhaps, redeemed +my soul), and be pure as a lily for my lover, I would not hesitate a +moment! What sort of devotion has rewarded mine? You have housed and fed +me, just as you give a dog food and a kennel because he is a protection +to the house, and he may take kicks when we are out of humor, and lick +our hands as soon as we are pleased to call him. And which of us two +will have been the more generous?" + +"Oh! dear child, do you not see that I am joking?" returned Castanier. +"I am going on a short journey; I shall not be away for very long. But +come with me to the Gymnase; I shall start just before midnight, after I +have had time to say good-bye to you." + +"Poor pet! so you are really going, are you?" she said. She put her arms +round his neck, and drew down his head against her bodice. + +"You are smothering me!" cried Castanier, with his face buried in +Aquilina's breast. That damsel turned to say in Jenny's ear, "Go to +Leon, and tell him not to come till one o'clock. If you do not find +him, and he comes here during the leave-taking, keep him in your +room.--Well," she went on, setting free Castanier, and giving a tweak +to the tip of his nose, "never mind, handsomest of seals that you are. I +will go to the theatre with you this evening? But all in good time; let +us have dinner! There is a nice little dinner for you--just what you +like." + +"It is very hard to part from such a woman as you!" exclaimed Castanier. + +"Very well then, why do you go?" asked she. + +"Ah! why? why? If I were to begin to begin to explain the reasons why, +I must tell you things that would prove to you that I love you almost to +madness. Ah! if you have sacrificed your honor for me, I have sold mine +for you; we are quits. Is that love?" + +"What is all this about?" said she. "Come, now, promise me that if I had +a lover you would still love me as a father; that would be love! Come, +now, promise it at once, and give us your fist upon it." + +"I should kill you," and Castanier smiled as he spoke. + +They sat down to the dinner table, and went thence to the Gymnase. When +the first part of the performance was over, it occurred to Castanier to +show himself to some of his acquaintances in the house, so as to turn +away any suspicion of his departure. He left Mme. de la Garde in the +corner box where she was seated, according to her modest wont, and went +to walk up and down in the lobby. He had not gone many paces before he +saw the Englishman, and with a sudden return of the sickening sensation +of heat that once before had vibrated through him, and of the terror +that he had felt already, he stood face to face with Melmoth. + +"Forger!" + +At the word, Castanier glanced round at the people who were moving about +them. He fancied that he could see astonishment and curiosity in their +eyes, and wishing to be rid of this Englishman at once, he raised his +hand to strike him--and felt his arm paralyzed by some invisible power +that sapped his strength and nailed him to the spot. He allowed the +stranger to take him by the arm, and they walked together to the +green-room like two friends. + +"Who is strong enough to resist me?" said the Englishman, addressing +him. "Do you not know that everything here on earth must obey me, that +it is in my power to do everything? I read men's thoughts, I see the +future, and I know the past. I am here, and I can be elsewhere also. +Time and space and distance are nothing to me. The whole world is at +my beck and call. I have the power of continual enjoyment and of giving +joy. I can see through walls, discover hidden treasures, and fill my +hands with them. Palaces arise at my nod, and my architect makes no +mistakes. I can make all lands break forth into blossom, heap up their +gold and precious stones, and surround myself with fair women and ever +new faces; everything is yielded up to my will. I could gamble on the +Stock Exchange, and my speculations would be infallible; but a man +who can find the hoards that misers have hidden in the earth need not +trouble himself about stocks. Feel the strength of the hand that grasps +you; poor wretch, doomed to shame! Try to bend the arm of iron! try to +soften the adamantine heart! Fly from me if you dare! You would hear +my voice in the depths of the caves that lie under the Seine; you might +hide in the Catacombs, but would you not see me there? My voice could +be heard through the sound of thunder, my eyes shine as brightly as the +sun, for I am the peer of Lucifer!" + +Castanier heard the terrible words, and felt no protest nor +contradiction within himself. He walked side by side with the +Englishman, and had no power to leave him. + +"You are mine; you have just committed a crime. I have found at last the +mate whom I have sought. Have you a mind to learn your destiny? Aha! +you came here to see a play, and you shall see a play--nay, two. Come. +Present me to Mme. de la Garde as one of your best friends. Am I not +your last hope of escape?" + +Castanier, followed by the stranger, returned to his box; and in +accordance with the order he had just received, he hastened to introduce +Melmoth to Mme. de la Garde. Aquilina seemed to be not in the least +surprised. The Englishman declined to take a seat in front, and +Castanier was once more beside his mistress; the man's slightest wish +must be obeyed. The last piece was about to begin, for, at that time, +small theatres gave only three pieces. One of the actors had made the +Gymnase the fashion, and that evening Perlet (the actor in question) +was to play in a vaudeville called _Le Comedien d'Etampes_, in which he +filled four different parts. + +When the curtain rose, the stranger stretched out his hand over the +crowded house. Castanier's cry of terror died away, for the walls of his +throat seemed glued together as Melmoth pointed to the stage, and the +cashier knew that the play had been changed at the Englishman's desire. + +He saw the strong-room at the bank; he saw the Baron de Nucingen in +conference with a police-officer from the Prefecture, who was informing +him of Castanier's conduct, explaining that the cashier had absconded +with money taken from the safe, giving the history of the forged +signature. The information was put in writing; the document signed and +duly despatched to the Public Prosecutor. + +"Are we in time, do you think?" asked Nucingen. + +"Yes," said the agent of police; "he is at the Gymnase, and has no +suspicion of anything." + +Castanier fidgeted on his chair, and made as if he would leave the +theatre, but Melmoth's hand lay on his shoulder, and he was obliged to +sit and watch; the hideous power of the man produced an effect like that +of nightmare, and he could not move a limb. Nay, the man himself was the +nightmare; his presence weighed heavily on his victim like a poisoned +atmosphere. When the wretched cashier turned to implore the Englishman's +mercy, he met those blazing eyes that discharged electric currents, +which pierced through him and transfixed him like darts of steel. + +"What have I done to you?" he said, in his prostrate helplessness, and +he breathed hard like a stag at the water's edge. "What do you want of +me?" + +"Look!" cried Melmoth. + +Castanier looked at the stage. The scene had been changed. The play +seemed to be over, and Castanier beheld himself stepping from the +carriage with Aquilina; but as he entered the courtyard of the house on +the Rue Richer, the scene again was suddenly changed, and he saw his +own house. Jenny was chatting by the fire in her mistress' room with a +subaltern officer of a line regiment then stationed at Paris. + +"He is going, is he?" said the sergeant, who seemed to belong to +a family in easy circumstances; "I can be happy at my ease! I love +Aquilina too well to allow her to belong to that old toad! I, myself, am +going to marry Mme. de la Garde!" cried the sergeant. + +"Old toad!" Castanier murmured piteously. + +"Here come the master and mistress; hide yourself! Stay, get in here +Monsieur Leon," said Jenny. "The master won't stay here for very long." + +Castanier watched the sergeant hide himself among Aquilina's gowns +in her dressing-room. Almost immediately he himself appeared upon the +scene, and took leave of his mistress, who made fun of him in "asides" +to Jenny, while she uttered the sweetest and tenderest words in his +ears. She wept with one side of her face, and laughed with the other. +The audience called for an encore. + +"Accursed creature!" cried Castanier from his box. + +Aquilina was laughing till the tears came into her eyes. + +"Goodness!" she cried, "how funny Perlet is as the Englishwoman!... Why +don't you laugh? Every one else in the house is laughing. Laugh, dear!" +she said to Castanier. + +Melmoth burst out laughing, and the unhappy cashier shuddered. The +Englishman's laughter wrung his heart and tortured his brain; it was as +if a surgeon had bored his skull with a red-hot iron. + +"Laughing! are they laughing!" stammered Castanier. + +He did not see the prim English lady whom Perlet was acting with such +ludicrous effect, nor hear the English-French that had filled the house +with roars of laughter; instead of all this, he beheld himself hurrying +from the Rue Richer, hailing a cab on the Boulevard, bargaining with +the man to take him to Versailles. Then once more the scene changed. He +recognized the sorry inn at the corner of the Rue de l'Orangerie and the +Rue des Recollets, which was kept by his old quartermaster. It was two +o'clock in the morning, the most perfect stillness prevailed, no one was +there to watch his movements. The post-horses were put into the carriage +(it came from a house in the Avenue de Paris in which an Englishman +lived, and had been ordered in the foreigner's name to avoid raising +suspicion). Castanier saw that he had his bills and his passports, +stepped into the carriage, and set out. But at the barrier he saw two +gendarmes lying in wait for the carriage. A cry of horror burst from him +but Melmoth gave him a glance, and again the sound died in his throat. + +"Keep your eyes on the stage, and be quiet!" said the Englishman. + +In another moment Castanier saw himself flung into prison at the +Conciergerie; and in the fifth act of the drama, entitled _The Cashier_, +he saw himself, in three months' time, condemned to twenty years of +penal servitude. Again a cry broke from him. He was exposed upon the +Place du Palais-de-Justice, and the executioner branded him with a +red-hot iron. Then came the last scene of all; among some sixty convicts +in the prison yard of the Bicetre, he was awaiting his turn to have the +irons riveted on his limbs. + +"Dear me! I cannot laugh any more!..." said Aquilina. "You are very +solemn, dear boy; what can be the matter? The gentleman has gone." + +"A word with you, Castanier," said Melmoth when the piece was at an end, +and the attendant was fastening Mme. de la Garde's cloak. + +The corridor was crowded, and escape impossible. + +"Very well, what is it?" + +"No human power can hinder you from taking Aquilina home, and going next +to Versailles, there to be arrested." + +"How so?" + +"Because you are in a hand that will never relax its grasp," returned +the Englishman. + +Castanier longed for the power to utter some word that should blot him +out from among living men and hide him in the lowest depths of hell. + +"Suppose that the Devil were to make a bid for your soul, would you not +give it to him now in exchange for the power of God? One single word, +and those five hundred thousand francs shall be back in the Baron de +Nucingen's safe; then you can tear up the letter of credit, and all +traces of your crime will be obliterated. Moreover, you would have gold +in torrents. You hardly believe in anything perhaps? Well, if all this +comes to pass, you will believe at least in the Devil." + +"If it were only possible!" said Castanier joyfully. + +"The man who can do it all gives you his word that it is possible," +answered the Englishman. + +Melmoth, Castanier, and Mme. de la Garde were standing out in the +Boulevard when Melmoth raised his arm. A drizzling rain was falling, +the streets were muddy, the air was close, there was thick darkness +overhead; but in a moment, as the arm was outstretched, Paris was filled +with sunlight; it was high noon on a bright July day. The trees were +covered with leaves; a double stream of joyous holiday makers strolled +beneath them. Sellers of liquorice water shouted their cool drinks. +Splendid carriages rolled past along the streets. A cry of terror broke +from the cashier, and at that cry rain and darkness once more settled +down upon the Boulevard. + +Mme. de la Garde had stepped into the carriage. "Do be quick, dear!" +she cried; "either come in or stay out. Really you are as dull as +ditch-water this evening----" + +"What must I do?" Castanier asked of Melmoth. + +"Would you like to take my place?" inquired the Englishman. + +"Yes." + +"Very well, then; I will be at your house in a few moments." + +"By the by, Castanier, you are rather off your balance," Aquilina +remarked. "There is some mischief brewing: you were quite melancholy and +thoughtful all through the play. Do you want anything that I can give +you, dear? Tell me." + +"I am waiting till we are at home to know whether you love me." + +"You need not wait till then," she said, throwing her arms round his +neck. "There!" she said, as she embraced him, passionately to all +appearance, and plied him with the coaxing caresses that are part of the +business of such a life as hers, like stage action for an actress. + +"Where is the music?" asked Castanier. + +"What next? Only think of your hearing music now!" + +"Heavenly music!" he went on. "The sounds seem to come from above." + +"What? You have always refused to give me a box at the Italiens because +you could not abide music, and are you turning music-mad at this time +of day? Mad--that you are! The music is inside your own noddle, old +addle-pate!" she went on, as she took his head in her hands and rocked +it to and fro on her shoulder. "Tell me now, old man; isn't it the +creaking of the wheels that sings in your ears?" + +"Just listen, Naqui! If the angels make music for God Almighty, it must +be such music as this that I am drinking in at every pore, rather +than hearing. I do no know how to tell you about it; it is as sweet as +honey-water!" + +"Why, of course, they have music in heaven, for the angels in all the +pictures have harps in their hands. He is mad, upon my word!" she +said to herself, as she saw Castanier's attitude; he looked like an +opium-eater in a blissful trance. + +They reached the house. Castanier, absorbed by the thought of all that +he had just heard and seen, knew not whether to believe it or not; he +was like a drunken man, and utterly unable to think connectedly. He +came to himself in Aquilina's room, whither he had been supported by +the united efforts of his mistress, the porter, and Jenny; for he had +fainted as he stepped from the carriage. + +"_He_ will be here directly! Oh, my friends, my friends," he cried, and +he flung himself despairingly into the depths of a low chair beside the +fire. + +Jenny heard the bell as he spoke, and admitted the Englishman. She +announced that "a gentleman had come who had made an appointment with +the master," when Melmoth suddenly appeared, and deep silence followed. +He looked at the porter--the porter went; he looked at Jenny--and Jenny +went likewise. + +"Madame," said Melmoth, turning to Aquilina, "with your permission, we +will conclude a piece of urgent business." + +He took Castanier's hand, and Castanier rose, and the two men went into +the drawing-room. There was no light in the room, but Melmoth's eyes +lit up the thickest darkness. The gaze of those strange eyes had left +Aquilina like one spellbound; she was helpless, unable to take any +thought for her lover; moreover, she believed him to be safe in +Jenny's room, whereas their early return had taken the waiting-woman by +surprise, and she had hidden the officer in the dressing-room. It had +all happened exactly as in the drama that Melmoth had displayed for his +victim. Presently the house-door was slammed violently, and Castanier +reappeared. + +"What ails you?" cried the horror-struck Aquilina. + +There was a change in the cashier's appearance. A strange pallor +overspread his once rubicund countenance; it wore the peculiarly +sinister and stony look of the mysterious visitor. The sullen glare of +his eyes was intolerable, the fierce light in them seemed to scorch. The +man who had looked so good-humored and good-natured had suddenly grown +tyrannical and proud. The courtesan thought that Castanier had grown +thinner; there was a terrible majesty in his brow; it was as if a dragon +breathed forth a malignant influence that weighed upon the others like a +close, heavy atmosphere. For a moment Aquilina knew not what to do. + +"What has passed between you and that diabolical-looking man in those +few minutes?" she asked at length. + +"I have sold my soul to him. I feel it; I am no longer the same. He has +taken my _self_, and given me his soul in exchange." + +"What?" + +"You would not understand it at all.... Ah! he was right," Castanier +went on, "the fiend was right! I see everything and know all +things.--You have been deceiving me!" + +Aquilina turned cold with terror. Castanier lighted a candle and +went into the dressing-room. The unhappy girl followed him with dazed +bewilderment, and great was her astonishment when Castanier drew the +dresses that hung there aside and disclosed the sergeant. + +"Come out, my boy," said the cashier; and, taking Leon by a button of +his overcoat, he drew the officer into his room. + +The Piedmontese, haggard and desperate, had flung herself into her +easy-chair. Castanier seated himself on a sofa by the fire, and left +Aquilina's lover in a standing position. + +"You have been in the army," said Leon; "I am ready to give you +satisfaction." + +"You are a fool," said Castanier drily. "I have no occasion to fight. +I could kill you by a look if I had any mind to do it. I will tell you +what it is, youngster; why should I kill you? I can see a red line round +your neck--the guillotine is waiting for you. Yes, you will end in the +Place de Greve. You are the headsman's property! there is no escape for +you. You belong to a vendita, of the Carbonari. You are plotting against +the Government." + +"You did not tell me that," cried the Piedmontese, turning to Leon. + +"So you do not know that the Minister decided this morning to put down +your Society?" the cashier continued. "The Procureur-General has a list +of your names. You have been betrayed. They are busy drawing up the +indictment at this moment." + +"Then was it you who betrayed him?" cried Aquilina, and with a hoarse +sound in her throat like the growl of a tigress she rose to her feet; +she seemed as if she would tear Castanier in pieces. + +"You know me too well to believe it," Castanier retorted. Aquilina was +benumbed by his coolness. + +"Then how do you know it?" she murmured. + +"I did not know it until I went into the drawing-room; now I know +it--now I see and know all things, and can do all things." + +The sergeant was overcome with amazement. + +"Very well then, save him, save him, dear!" cried the girl, flinging +herself at Castanier's feet. "If nothing is impossible to you, save him! +I will love you, I will adore you, I will be your slave and not your +mistress. I will obey your wildest whims; you shall do as you will +with me. Yes, yes, I will give you more than love; you shall have a +daughter's devotion as well as... Rodolphe! why will you not understand! +After all, however violent my passions may be, I shall be yours for +ever! What should I say to persuade you? I will invent pleasures... I... +Great heavens! one moment! whatever you shall ask of me--to fling myself +from the window for instance--you will need to say but one word, 'Leon!' +and I will plunge down into hell. I would bear any torture, any pain of +body or soul, anything you might inflict upon me!" + +Castanier heard her with indifference. For an answer, he indicated Leon +to her with a fiendish laugh. + +"The guillotine is waiting for him," he repeated. + +"No, no, no! He shall not leave this house. I will save him!" she cried. +"Yes; I will kill any one who lays a finger upon him! Why will you not +save him?" she shrieked aloud; her eyes were blazing, her hair unbound. +"Can you save him?" + +"I can do everything." + +"Why do you not save him?" + +"Why?" shouted Castanier, and his voice made the ceiling ring.--"Eh! it +is my revenge! Doing evil is my trade!" + +"Die?" said Aquilina; "must he die, my lover? Is it possible?" + +She sprang up and snatched a stiletto from a basket that stood on the +chest of drawers and went to Castanier, who now began to laugh. + +"You know very well that steel cannot hurt me now----" + +Aquilina's arm suddenly dropped like a snapped harp string. + +"Out with you, my good friend," said the cashier, turning to the +sergeant, "and go about your business." + +He held out his hand; the other felt Castanier's superior power, and +could not choose but to obey. + +"This house is mine; I could send for the commissary of police if I +chose, and give you up as a man who has hidden himself on my premises, +but I would rather let you go; I am a fiend, I am not a spy." + +"I shall follow him!" said Aquilina. + +"Then follow him," returned Castanier.--"Here, Jenny----" + +Jenny appeared. + +"Tell the porter to hail a cab for them.--Here Naqui," said Castanier, +drawing a bundle of bank-notes from his pocket; "you shall not go away +like a pauper from a man who loves you still." + +He held out three hundred thousand francs. Aquilina took the notes, +flung them on the floor, spat on them, and trampled upon them in a +frenzy of despair. + +"We will leave this house on foot," she cried, "without a farthing of +your money.--Jenny, stay where you are." + +"Good-evening!" answered the cashier, as he gathered up the notes again. +"I have come back from my journey.--Jenny," he added, looking at the +bewildered waiting-maid, "you seem to me to be a good sort of girl. You +have no mistress now. Come here. This evening you shall have a master." + +Aquilina, who felt safe nowhere, went at once with the sergeant to the +house of one of her friends. But all Leon's movements were suspiciously +watched by the police, and after a time he and three of his friends were +arrested. The whole story may be found in the newspapers of that day. + + + +Castanier felt that he had undergone a mental as well as a physical +transformation. The Castanier of old no longer existed--the boy, the +young Lothario, the soldier who had proved his courage, who had been +tricked into a marriage and disillusioned, the cashier, the passionate +lover who had committed a crime for Aquilina's sake. His inmost nature +had suddenly asserted itself. His brain had expanded, his senses had +developed. His thoughts comprehended the whole world; he saw all the +things of earth as if he had been raised to some high pinnacle above the +world. + +Until that evening at the play he had loved Aquilina to distraction. +Rather than give her up he would have shut his eyes to her infidelities; +and now all that blind passion had passed away as a cloud vanishes in +the sunlight. + +Jenny was delighted to succeed to her mistress' position and fortune, +and did the cashier's will in all things; but Castanier, who could read +the inmost thoughts of the soul, discovered the real motive underlying +this purely physical devotion. He amused himself with her, however, +like a mischievous child who greedily sucks the juice of the cherry and +flings away the stone. The next morning at breakfast time, when she +was fully convinced that she was a lady and the mistress of the house, +Castanier uttered one by one the thoughts that filled her mind as she +drank her coffee. + +"Do you know what you are thinking, child?" he said, smiling. "I will +tell you: 'So all that lovely rosewood furniture that I coveted so much, +and the pretty dresses that I used to try on, are mine now! All on easy +terms that Madame refused, I do no know why. My word! if I might +drive about in a carriage, have jewels and pretty things, a box at the +theatre, and put something by! with me he should lead a life of pleasure +fit to kill him if he were not as strong as a Turk! I never saw such +a man!'--Was not that just what you were thinking," he went on, and +something in his voice made Jenny turn pale. "Well, yes, child; you +could not stand it, and I am sending you away for your own good; you +would perish in the attempt. Come, let us part good friends," and he +coolly dismissed her with a very small sum of money. + +The first use that Castanier had promised himself that he would make of +the terrible power brought at the price of his eternal happiness, was +the full and complete indulgence of all his tastes. + +He first put his affairs in order, readily settled his accounts with +M. de Nucingen, who found a worthy German to succeed him, and then +determined on a carouse worthy of the palmiest days of the Roman Empire. +He plunged into dissipation as recklessly as Belshazzar of old went to +that last feast in Babylon. Like Belshazzar, he saw clearly through his +revels a gleaming hand that traced his doom in letters of flame, not on +the narrow walls of the banqueting-chamber, but over the vast spaces +of heaven that the rainbow spans. His feast was not, indeed, an orgy +confined within the limits of a banquet, for he squandered all the +powers of soul and body in exhausting all the pleasures of earth. The +table was in some sort earth itself, the earth that trembled beneath +his feet. His was the last festival of the reckless spendthrift who has +thrown all prudence to the winds. The devil had given him the key of the +storehouse of human pleasures; he had filled and refilled his hands, and +he was fast nearing the bottom. In a moment he had felt all that that +enormous power could accomplish; in a moment he had exercised it, proved +it, wearied of it. What had hitherto been the sum of human desires +became as nothing. So often it happens that with possession the vast +poetry of desire must end, and the thing possessed is seldom the thing +that we dreamed of. + +Beneath Melmoth's omnipotence lurked this tragical anticlimax of so +many a passion, and now the inanity of human nature was revealed to his +successor, to whom infinite power brought Nothingness as a dowry. + +To come to a clear understanding of Castanier's strange position, it +must be borne in mind how suddenly these revolutions of thought and +feeling had been wrought; how quickly they had succeeded each other; +and of these things it is hard to give any idea to those who have never +broken the prison bonds of time, and space, and distance. His relation +to the world without had been entirely changed with the expansion of his +faculties. + +Like Melmoth himself, Castanier could travel in a few moments over the +fertile plains of India, could soar on the wings of demons above African +desert spaces, or skim the surface of the seas. The same insight that +could read the inmost thoughts of others, could apprehend at a glance +the nature of any material object, just as he caught as it were all +flavors at once upon his tongue. He took his pleasure like a despot; +a blow of the axe felled the tree that he might eat its fruits. The +transitions, the alternations that measure joy and pain, and diversify +human happiness, no longer existed for him. He had so completely glutted +his appetites that pleasure must overpass the limits of pleasure to +tickle a palate cloyed with satiety, and suddenly grown fastidious +beyond all measure, so that ordinary pleasures became distasteful. +Conscious that at will he was the master of all the women that he could +desire, knowing that his power was irresistible, he did not care to +exercise it; they were pliant to his unexpressed wishes, to his most +extravagant caprices, until he felt a horrible thirst for love, and +would have love beyond their power to give. + +The world refused him nothing save faith and prayer, the soothing +and consoling love that is not of this world. He was obeyed--it was a +horrible position. + +The torrents of pain, and pleasure, and thought that shook his soul and +his bodily frame would have overwhelmed the strongest human being; but +in him there was a power of vitality proportioned to the power of the +sensations that assailed him. He felt within him a vague immensity of +longing that earth could not satisfy. He spent his days on outspread +wings, longing to traverse the luminous fields of space to other +spheres that he knew afar by intuitive perception, a clear and hopeless +knowledge. His soul dried up within him, for he hungered and thirsted +after things that can neither be drunk nor eaten, but for which he could +not choose but crave. His lips, like Melmoth's, burned with desire; he +panted for the unknown, for he knew all things. + +The mechanism and the scheme of the world was apparent to him, and its +working interested him no longer; he did not long disguise the profound +scorn that makes of a man of extraordinary powers a sphinx who knows +everything and says nothing, and sees all things with an unmoved +countenance. He felt not the slightest wish to communicate his knowledge +to other men. He was rich with all the wealth of the world, with one +effort he could make the circle of the globe, and riches and power were +meaningless for him. He felt the awful melancholy of omnipotence, a +melancholy which Satan and God relieve by the exercise of infinite power +in mysterious ways known to them alone. Castanier had not, like his +Master, the inextinguishable energy of hate and malice; he felt that he +was a devil, but a devil whose time was not yet come, while Satan is a +devil through all eternity, and being damned beyond redemption, delights +to stir up the world, like a dung heap, with his triple fork and to +thwart therein the designs of God. But Castanier, for his misfortune, +had one hope left. + +If in a moment he could move from one pole to the other as a bird +springs restlessly from side to side in its cage, when, like the bird, +he has crossed his prison, he saw the vast immensity of space beyond it. +That vision of the Infinite left him for ever unable to see humanity and +its affairs as other men saw them. The insensate fools who long for the +power of the Devil gauge its desirability from a human standpoint; they +do not see that with the Devil's power they will likewise assume his +thoughts, and that they will be doomed to remain as men among creatures +who will no longer understand them. The Nero unknown to history who +dreams of setting Paris on fire for his private entertainment, like +an exhibition of a burning house on the boards of a theatre, does not +suspect that if he had the power, Paris would become for him as little +interesting as an ant-heap by the roadside to a hurrying passer-by. The +circle of the sciences was for Castanier something like a logogriph +for a man who does not know the key to it. Kings and Governments were +despicable in his eyes. His great debauch had been in some sort a +deplorable farewell to his life as a man. The earth had grown too +narrow for him, for the infernal gifts laid bare for him the secrets of +creation--he saw the cause and foresaw its end. He was shut out from +all that men call "heaven" in all languages under the sun; he could no +longer think of heaven. + +Then he came to understand the look on his predecessor's face and the +drying up of the life within; then he knew all that was meant by the +baffled hope that gleamed in Melmoth's eyes; he, too, knew the thirst +that burned those red lips, and the agony of a continual struggle +between two natures grown to giant size. Even yet he might be an angel, +and he knew himself to be a fiend. His was the fate of a sweet and +gentle creature that a wizard's malice has imprisoned in a mis-shapen +form, entrapping it by a pact, so that another's will must set it free +from its detested envelope. + +As a deception only increases the ardor with which a man of really +great nature explores the infinite of sentiment in a woman's heart, so +Castanier awoke to find that one idea lay like a weight upon his soul, +an idea which was perhaps the key to loftier spheres. The very fact that +he had bartered away his eternal happiness led him to dwell in thought +upon the future of those who pray and believe. On the morrow of his +debauch, when he entered into the sober possession of his power, this +idea made him feel himself a prisoner; he knew the burden of the woe +that poets, and prophets, and great oracles of faith have set forth for +us in such mighty words; he felt the point of the Flaming Sword plunged +into his side, and hurried in search of Melmoth. What had become of his +predecessor? + +The Englishman was living in a mansion in the Rue Ferou, near +Saint-Sulpice--a gloomy, dark, damp, and cold abode. The Rue Ferou +itself is one of the most dismal streets in Paris; it has a north aspect +like all the streets that lie at right angles to the left bank of the +Seine, and the houses are in keeping with the site. As Castanier stood +on the threshold he found that the door itself, like the vaulted roof, +was hung with black; rows of lighted tapers shone brilliantly as though +some king were lying in state; and a priest stood on either side of a +catafalque that had been raised there. + +"There is no need to ask why you have come, sir," the old hall porter +said to Castanier; "you are so like our poor dear master that is gone. +But if you are his brother, you have come too late to bid him good-bye. +The good gentleman died the night before last." + +"How did he die?" Castanier asked of one of the priests. + +"Set your mind at rest," said the old priest; he partly raised as he +spoke the black pall that covered the catafalque. + +Castanier, looking at him, saw one of those faces that faith has made +sublime; the soul seemed to shine forth from every line of it, bringing +light and warmth for other men, kindled by the unfailing charity within. +This was Sir John Melmoth's confessor. + +"Your brother made an end that men may envy, and that must rejoice +the angels. Do you know what joy there is in heaven over a sinner +that repents? His tears of penitence, excited by grace, flowed without +ceasing; death alone checked them. The Holy Spirit dwelt in him. His +burning words, full of lively faith, were worthy of the Prophet-King. +If, in the course of my life, I have never heard a more dreadful +confession than from the lips of this Irish gentleman, I have likewise +never heard such fervent and passionate prayers. However great the +measures of his sins may have been, his repentance has filled the abyss +to overflowing. The hand of God was visibly stretched out above him, for +he was completely changed, there was such heavenly beauty in his face. +The hard eyes were softened by tears; the resonant voice that struck +terror into those who heard it took the tender and compassionate tones +of those who themselves have passed through deep humiliation. He so +edified those who heard his words, that some who had felt drawn to see +the spectacle of a Christian's death fell on their knees as he spoke of +heavenly things, and of the infinite glory of God, and gave thanks and +praise to Him. If he is leaving no worldly wealth to his family, no +family can possess a greater blessing than this that he surely gained +for them, a soul among the blessed, who will watch over you all and +direct you in the path to heaven." + +These words made such a vivid impression upon Castanier that he +instantly hurried from the house to the Church of Saint-Sulpice, +obeying what might be called a decree of fate. Melmoth's repentance had +stupefied him. + + +At that time, on certain mornings in the week, a preacher, famed for +his eloquence, was wont to hold conferences, in the course of which +he demonstrated the truths of the Catholic faith for the youth of a +generation proclaimed to be indifferent in matters of belief by another +voice no less eloquent than his own. The conference had been put off to +a later hour on account of Melmoth's funeral, so Castanier arrived just +as the great preacher was epitomizing the proofs of a future existence +of happiness with all the charm of eloquence and force of expression +which have made him famous. The seeds of divine doctrine fell into +a soil prepared for them in the old dragoon, into whom the Devil had +glided. Indeed, if there is a phenomenon well attested by experience, +is it not the spiritual phenomenon commonly called "the faith of the +peasant"? The strength of belief varies inversely with the amount of +use that a man has made of his reasoning faculties. Simple people and +soldiers belong to the unreasoning class. Those who have marched through +life beneath the banner of instinct are far more ready to receive the +light than minds and hearts overwearied with the world's sophistries. + +Castanier had the southern temperament; he had joined the army as a lad +of sixteen, and had followed the French flag till he was nearly forty +years old. As a common trooper, he had fought day and night, and day +after day, and, as in duty bound, had thought of his horse first, and +of himself afterwards. While he served his military apprenticeship, +therefore, he had but little leisure in which to reflect on the destiny +of man, and when he became an officer he had his men to think of. He had +been swept from battlefield to battlefield, but he had never thought of +what comes after death. A soldier's life does not demand much thinking. +Those who cannot understand the lofty political ends involved and the +interests of nation and nation; who cannot grasp political schemes as +well as plans of campaign, and combine the science of the tactician with +that of the administrator, are bound to live in a state of ignorance; +the most boorish peasant in the most backward district in France is +scarcely in a worse case. Such men as these bear the brunt of war, yield +passive obedience to the brain that directs them, and strike down +the men opposed to them as the woodcutter fells timber in the forest. +Violent physical exertion is succeeded by times of inertia, when they +repair the waste. They fight and drink, fight and eat, fight and sleep, +that they may the better deal hard blows; the powers of the mind are +not greatly exercised in this turbulent round of existence, and the +character is as simple as heretofore. + +When the men who have shown such energy on the battlefield return to +ordinary civilization, most of those who have not risen to high rank +seem to have acquired no ideas, and to have no aptitude, no capacity, +for grasping new ideas. To the utter amazement of a younger generation, +those who made our armies so glorious and so terrible are as simple as +children, and as slow-witted as a clerk at his worst, and the captain of +a thundering squadron is scarcely fit to keep a merchant's day-book. Old +soldiers of this stamp, therefore being innocent of any attempt to +use their reasoning faculties, act upon their strongest impulses. +Castanier's crime was one of those matters that raise so many questions, +that, in order to debate about it, a moralist might call for its +"discussion by clauses," to make use of a parliamentary expression. + +Passion had counseled the crime; the cruelly irresistible power of +feminine witchery had driven him to commit it; no man can say of +himself, "I will never do that," when a siren joins in the combat and +throws her spells over him. + +So the word of life fell upon a conscience newly awakened to the truths +of religion which the French Revolution and a soldier's career had +forced Castanier to neglect. The solemn words, "You will be happy or +miserable for all eternity!" made but the more terrible impression upon +him, because he had exhausted earth and shaken it like a barren tree; +because his desires could effect all things, so that it was enough that +any spot in earth or heaven should be forbidden him, and he forthwith +thought of nothing else. If it were allowable to compare such great +things with social follies, Castanier's position was not unlike that of +a banker who, finding that his all-powerful millions cannot obtain for +him an entrance into the society of the noblesse, must set his heart +upon entering that circle, and all the social privileges that he has +already acquired are as nothing in his eyes from the moment when he +discovers that a single one is lacking. + +Here is a man more powerful than all the kings on earth put together; a +man who, like Satan, could wrestle with God Himself; leaning against +one of the pillars in the Church of Saint-Sulpice, weighed down by the +feelings and thoughts that oppressed him, and absorbed in the thought of +a Future, the same thought that had engulfed Melmoth. + +"He was very happy, was Melmoth!" cried Castanier. "He died in the +certain knowledge that he would go to heaven." + +In a moment the greatest possible change had been wrought in the +cashier's ideas. For several days he had been a devil, now he was +nothing but a man; an image of the fallen Adam, of the sacred tradition +embodied in all cosmogonies. But while he had thus shrunk he retained +a germ of greatness, he had been steeped in the Infinite. The power of +hell had revealed the divine power. He thirsted for heaven as he had +never thirsted after the pleasures of earth, that are so soon exhausted. +The enjoyments which the fiend promises are but the enjoyments of earth +on a larger scale, but to the joys of heaven there is no limit. He +believed in God, and the spell that gave him the treasures of the world +was as nothing to him now; the treasures themselves seemed to him as +contemptible as pebbles to an admirer of diamonds; they were but gewgaws +compared with the eternal glories of the other life. A curse lay, he +thought, on all things that came to him from this source. He sounded +dark depths of painful thought as he listened to the service performed +for Melmoth. The _Dies irae_ filled him with awe; he felt all the +grandeur of that cry of a repentant soul trembling before the Throne of +God. The Holy Spirit, like a devouring flame, passed through him as fire +consumes straw. + +The tears were falling from his eyes when--"Are you a relation of the +dead?" the beadle asked him. + +"I am his heir," Castanier answered. + +"Give something for the expenses of the services!" cried the man. + +"No," said the cashier. (The Devil's money should not go to the Church.) + +"For the poor!" + +"No." + +"For repairing the Church!" + +"No." + +"The Lady Chapel!" + +"No." + +"For the schools!" + +"No." + +Castanier went, not caring to expose himself to the sour looks that the +irritated functionaries gave him. + +Outside, in the street, he looked up at the Church of Saint-Sulpice. +"What made people build the giant cathedrals I have seen in every +country?" he asked himself. "The feeling shared so widely throughout all +time must surely be based upon something." + +"Something! Do you call God _something_?" cried his conscience. "God! +God! God!..." + +The word was echoed and re-echoed by an inner voice, til it overwhelmed +him; but his feeling of terror subsided as he heard sweet distant sounds +of music that he had caught faintly before. They were singing in the +church, he thought, and his eyes scanned the great doorway. But as he +listened more closely, the sounds poured upon him from all sides; he +looked round the square, but there was no sign of any musicians. The +melody brought visions of a distant heaven and far-off gleams of hope; +but it also quickened the remorse that had set the lost soul in a +ferment. He went on his way through Paris, walking as men walk who +are crushed beneath the burden of their sorrow, seeing everything +with unseeing eyes, loitering like an idler, stopping without cause, +muttering to himself, careless of the traffic, making no effort to avoid +a blow from a plank of timber. + +Imperceptibly repentance brought him under the influence of the divine +grace that soothes while it bruises the heart so terribly. His face came +to wear a look of Melmoth, something great, with a trace of madness in +the greatness--a look of dull and hopeless distress, mingled with the +excited eagerness of hope, and, beneath it all, a gnawing sense of +loathing for all that the world can give. The humblest of prayers lurked +in the eyes that saw with such dreadful clearness. His power was the +measure of his anguish. His body was bowed down by the fearful storm +that shook his soul, as the tall pines bend before the blast. Like his +predecessor, he could not refuse to bear the burden of life; he +was afraid to die while he bore the yoke of hell. The torment grew +intolerable. + +At last, one morning, he bethought himself how that Melmoth (now among +the blessed) had made the proposal of an exchange, and how that he had +accepted it; others, doubtless, would follow his example; for in an age +proclaimed, by the inheritors of the eloquence of the Fathers of the +Church, to be fatally indifferent to religion, it should be easy to find +a man who would accept the conditions of the contract in order to prove +its advantages. + +"There is one place where you can learn what kings will fetch in the +market; where nations are weighed in the balance and systems appraised; +where the value of a government is stated in terms of the five-franc +piece; where ideas and beliefs have their price, and everything is +discounted; where God Himself, in a manner, borrows on the security of +His revenue of souls, for the Pope has a running account there. Is it +not there that I should go to traffic in souls?" + +Castanier went quite joyously on 'Change, thinking that it would be as +easy to buy a soul as to invest money in the Funds. Any ordinary person +would have feared ridicule, but Castanier knew by experience that +a desperate man takes everything seriously. A prisoner lying under +sentence of death would listen to the madman who should tell him that +by pronouncing some gibberish he could escape through the keyhole; for +suffering is credulous, and clings to an idea until it fails, as the +swimmer borne along by the current clings to the branch that snaps in +his hand. + +Towards four o'clock that afternoon Castanier appeared among the little +knots of men who were transacting private business after 'Change. He was +personally known to some of the brokers; and while affecting to be in +search of an acquaintance, he managed to pick up the current gossip and +rumors of failure. + +"Catch me negotiating bills for Claparon & Co., my boy. The bank +collector went round to return their acceptances to them this morning," +said a fat banker in his outspoken way. "If you have any of their paper, +look out." + +Claparon was in the building, in deep consultation with a man well known +for the ruinous rate at which he lent money. Castanier went forthwith in +search of the said Claparon, a merchant who had a reputation for taking +heavy risks that meant wealth or utter ruin. The money-lender walked +away as Castanier came up. A gesture betrayed the speculator's despair. + +"Well, Claparon, the Bank wants a hundred thousand francs of you, and it +is four o'clock; the thing is known, and it is too late to arrange your +little failure comfortably," said Castanier. + +"Sir!" + +"Speak lower," the cashier went on. "How if I were to propose a piece of +business that would bring you in as much money as you require?" + +"It would not discharge my liabilities; every business that I ever heard +of wants a little time to simmer in." + +"I know of something that will set you straight in a moment," answered +Castanier; "but first you would have to----" + +"Do what?" + +"Sell your share of paradise. It is a matter of business like anything +else, isn't it? We all hold shares in the great Speculation of +Eternity." + +"I tell you this," said Claparon angrily, "that I am just the man to +lend you a slap in the face. When a man is in trouble, it is no time to +pay silly jokes on him." + +"I am talking seriously," said Castanier, and he drew a bundle of notes +from his pocket. + +"In the first place," said Claparon, "I am not going to sell my soul +to the Devil for a trifle. I want five hundred thousand francs before I +strike----" + +"Who talks of stinting you?" asked Castanier, cutting him short. "You +shall have more gold than you could stow in the cellars of the Bank of +France." + +He held out a handful of notes. That decided Claparon. + +"Done," he cried; "but how is the bargain to be make?" + +"Let us go over yonder, no one is standing there," said Castanier, +pointing to a corner of the court. + +Claparon and his tempter exchanged a few words, with their faces turned +to the wall. None of the onlookers guessed the nature of this by-play, +though their curiosity was keenly excited by the strange gestures of +the two contracting parties. When Castanier returned, there was a sudden +outburst of amazed exclamation. As in the Assembly where the least event +immediately attracts attention, all faces were turned to the two men who +had caused the sensation, and a shiver passed through all beholders at +the change that had taken place in them. + +The men who form the moving crowd that fills the Stock Exchange are soon +known to each other by sight. They watch each other like players round +a card-table. Some shrewd observers can tell how a man will play and +the condition of his exchequer from a survey of his face; and the Stock +Exchange is simply a vast card-table. Every one, therefore, had noticed +Claparon and Castanier. The latter (like the Irishman before him) had +been muscular and powerful, his eyes were full of light, his color high. +The dignity and power in his face had struck awe into them all; they +wondered how old Castanier had come by it; and now they beheld Castanier +divested of his power, shrunken, wrinkled, aged, and feeble. He had +drawn Claparon out of the crowd with the energy of a sick man in a +fever fit; he had looked like an opium-eater during the brief period of +excitement that the drug can give; now, on his return, he seemed to be +in the condition of utter exhaustion in which the patient dies after +the fever departs, or to be suffering from the horrible prostration +that follows on excessive indulgence in the delights of narcotics. The +infernal power that had upheld him through his debauches had left him, +and the body was left unaided and alone to endure the agony of remorse +and the heavy burden of sincere repentance. Claparon's troubles every +one could guess; but Claparon reappeared, on the other hand, with +sparkling eyes, holding his head high with the pride of Lucifer. The +crisis had passed from the one man to the other. + +"Now you can drop off with an easy mind, old man," said Claparon to +Castanier. + +"For pity's sake, send for a cab and for a priest; send for the curate +of Saint-Sulpice!" answered the old dragoon, sinking down upon the +curbstone. + +The words "a priest" reached the ears of several people, and produced +uproarious jeering among the stockbrokers, for faith with these +gentlemen means a belief that a scrap of paper called a mortgage +represents an estate, and the List of Fundholders is their Bible. + +"Shall I have time to repent?" said Castanier to himself, in a piteous +voice, that impressed Claparon. + +A cab carried away the dying man; the speculator went to the bank at +once to meet his bills; and the momentary sensation produced upon the +throng of business men by the sudden change on the two faces, vanished +like the furrow cut by a ship's keel in the sea. News of the greatest +importance kept the attention of the world of commerce on the alert; and +when commercial interests are at stake, Moses might appear with his two +luminous horns, and his coming would scarcely receive the honors of +a pun, the gentlemen whose business it is to write the Market Reports +would ignore his existence. + +When Claparon had made his payments, fear seized upon him. There was +no mistake about his power. He went on 'Change again, and offered his +bargain to other men in embarrassed circumstances. The Devil's bond, +"together with the rights, easements, and privileges appertaining +thereunto,"--to use the expression of the notary who succeeded Claparon, +changed hands for the sum of seven hundred thousand francs. The notary +in his turn parted with the agreement with the Devil for five hundred +thousand francs to a building contractor in difficulties, who likewise +was rid of it to an iron merchant in consideration of a hundred thousand +crowns. In fact, by five o'clock people had ceased to believe in the +strange contract, and purchasers were lacking for want of confidence. + +At half-past five the holder of the bond was a house-painter, who was +lounging by the door of the building in the Rue Feydeau, where at that +time stockbrokers temporarily congregated. The house-painter, simple +fellow, could not think what was the matter with him. He "felt all +anyhow"; so he told his wife when he went home. + +The Rue Feydeau, as idlers about town are aware, is a place of +pilgrimage for youths who for lack of a mistress bestow their ardent +affection upon the whole sex. On the first floor of the most rigidly +respectable domicile therein dwelt one of those exquisite creatures +whom it has pleased heaven to endow with the rarest and most surpassing +beauty. As it is impossible that they should all be duchesses or queens +(since there are many more pretty women in the world than titles and +thrones for them to adorn), they are content to make a stockbroker or a +banker happy at a fixed price. To this good-natured beauty, Euphrasia +by name, an unbounded ambition had led a notary's clerk to aspire. In +short, the second clerk in the office of Maitre Crottat, notary, had +fallen in love with her, as youth at two-and-twenty can fall in love. +The scrivener would have murdered the Pope and run amuck through the +whole sacred college to procure the miserable sum of a hundred louis to +pay for a shawl which had turned Euphrasia's head, at which price her +waiting-woman had promised that Euphrasia should be his. The infatuated +youth walked to and fro under Madame Euphrasia's windows, like the +polar bears in their cage at the Jardin des Plantes, with his right hand +thrust beneath his waistcoat in the region of the heart, which he was +fit to tear from his bosom, but as yet he had only wrenched at the +elastic of his braces. + +"What can one do to raise ten thousand francs?" he asked himself. "Shall +I make off with the money that I must pay on the registration of that +conveyance? Good heavens! my loan would not ruin the purchaser, a man +with seven millions! And then next day I would fling myself at his feet +and say, 'I have taken ten thousand francs belonging to you, sir; I am +twenty-two years of age, and I am in love with Euphrasia--that is my +story. My father is rich, he will pay you back; do not ruin me! Have +not you yourself been twenty-two years old and madly in love?' But these +beggarly landowners have no souls! He would be quite likely to give me +up to the public prosecutor, instead of taking pity upon me. Good God! +if it were only possible to sell your soul to the Devil! But there is +neither a God nor a Devil; it is all nonsense out of nursery tales and +old wives' talk. What shall I do?" + +"If you have a mind to sell your soul to the Devil, sir," said the +house-painter, who had overheard something that the clerk let fall, "you +can have the ten thousand francs." + +"And Euphrasia!" cried the clerk, as he struck a bargain with the devil +that inhabited the house-painter. + +The pact concluded, the frantic clerk went to find the shawl, and +mounted Madame Euphrasia's staircase; and as (literally) the devil was +in him, he did not come down for twelve days, drowning the thought +of hell and of his privileges in twelve days of love and riot and +forgetfulness, for which he had bartered away all his hopes of a +paradise to come. + +And in this way the secret of the vast power discovered and acquired by +the Irishman, the offspring of Maturin's brain, was lost to mankind; +and the various Orientalists, Mystics, and Archaeologists who take an +interest in these matters were unable to hand down to posterity the +proper method of invoking the Devil, for the following sufficient +reasons: + +On the thirteenth day after these frenzied nuptials the wretched +clerk lay on a pallet bed in a garret in his master's house in the Rue +Saint-Honore. Shame, the stupid goddess who dares not behold herself, +had taken possession of the young man. He had fallen ill; he would nurse +himself; misjudged the quantity of a remedy devised by the skill of +a practitioner well known on the walls of Paris, and succumbed to the +effects of an overdose of mercury. His corpse was as black as a mole's +back. A devil had left unmistakable traces of its passage there; could +it have been Ashtaroth? + + + +"The estimable youth to whom you refer has been carried away to the +planet Mercury," said the head clerk to a German demonologist who came +to investigate the matter at first hand. + +"I am quite prepared to believe it," answered the Teuton. + +"Oh!" + +"Yes, sir," returned the other. "The opinion you advance coincides with +the very words of Jacob Boehme. In the forty-eighth proposition of _The +Threefold Life of Man_ he says that 'if God hath brought all things +to pass with a LET THERE BE, the FIAT is the secret matrix which +comprehends and apprehends the nature which is formed by the spirit born +of Mercury and of God.'" + +"What do you say, sir?" + +The German delivered his quotation afresh. + +"We do not know it," said the clerks. + +"_Fiat_?..." said a clerk. "_Fiat lux_!" + +"You can verify the citation for yourselves," said the German. "You will +find the passage in the _Treatise of the Threefold Life of Man_, page +75; the edition was published by M. Migneret in 1809. It was translated +into French by a philosopher who had a great admiration for the famous +shoemaker." + +"Oh! he was a shoemaker, was he?" said the head clerk. + +"In Prussia," said the German. + +"Did he work for the King of Prussia?" inquired a Boeotian of a second +clerk. + +"He must have vamped up his prose," said a third. + +"That man is colossal!" cried the fourth, pointing to the Teuton. + +That gentleman, though a demonologist of the first rank, did not know +the amount of devilry to be found in a notary's clerk. He went away +without the least idea that they were making game of him, and fully +under the impression that the young fellows regarded Boehme as a +colossal genius. + +"Education is making strides in France," said he to himself. + +PARIS, May 6, 1835. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Aquilina + The Magic Skin + + Claparon, Charles + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + + Euphrasia + The Magic Skin + + Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de + Father Goriot + The Thirteen + Eugenie Grandet + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Commission in Lunacy + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Modeste Mignon + The Firm of Nucingen + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + + Tillet, Ferdinand du + Cesar Birotteau + The Firm of Nucingen + The Middle Classes + A Bachelor's Establishment + Pierrette + A Distinguished Provencial at Paris + The Secrets of a Princess + A Daughter of Eve + The Member for Arcis + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Melmoth Reconciled, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MELMOTH RECONCILED *** + +***** This file should be named 1277.txt or 1277.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/7/1277/ + +Produced by Dagny, Bonnie Sala + +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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