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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1737-h.zip b/1737-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bda26b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/1737-h.zip diff --git a/1737-h/1737-h.htm b/1737-h/1737-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..779a43a --- /dev/null +++ b/1737-h/1737-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1101 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Facino Cane, by Honore de Balzac + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Facino Cane, 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: Facino Cane + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell and Others + +Release Date: March 1, 2010 [EBook #1737] +Last Updated: April 3, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACINO CANE *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + FACINO CANE + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Clara Bell and others + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>FACINO CANE</b> </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADDENDUM </a> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + FACINO CANE + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p> + I once used to live in a little street which probably is not known to you—the + Rue de Lesdiguieres. It is a turning out of the Rue Saint-Antoine, + beginning just opposite a fountain near the Place de la Bastille, and + ending in the Rue de la Cerisaie. Love of knowledge stranded me in a + garret; my nights I spent in work, my days in reading at the Bibliotheque + d'Orleans, close by. I lived frugally; I had accepted the conditions of + the monastic life, necessary conditions for every worker, scarcely + permitting myself a walk along the Boulevard Bourdon when the weather was + fine. One passion only had power to draw me from my studies; and yet, what + was that passion but a study of another kind? I used to watch the manners + and customs of the Faubourg, its inhabitants, and their characteristics. + As I dressed no better than a working man, and cared nothing for + appearances, I did not put them on their guard; I could join a group and + look on while they drove bargains or wrangled among themselves on their + way home from work. Even then observation had come to be an instinct with + me; a faculty of penetrating to the soul without neglecting the body; or + rather, a power of grasping external details so thoroughly that they never + detained me for a moment, and at once I passed beyond and through them. I + could enter into the life of the human creatures whom I watched, just as + the dervish in the <i>Arabian Nights</i> could pass into any soul or body + after pronouncing a certain formula. + </p> + <p> + If I met a working man and his wife in the streets between eleven o'clock + and midnight on their way home from the Ambigu Comique, I used to amuse + myself by following them from the Boulevard du Pont aux Choux to the + Boulevard Beaumarchais. The good folk would begin by talking about the + play; then from one thing to another they would come to their own affairs, + and the mother would walk on and on, heedless of complaints or question + from the little one that dragged at her hand, while she and her husband + reckoned up the wages to be paid on the morrow, and spent the money in a + score of different ways. Then came domestic details, lamentations over the + excessive dearness of potatoes, or the length of the winter and the high + price of block fuel, together with forcible representations of amounts + owing to the baker, ending in an acrimonious dispute, in the course of + which such couples reveal their characters in picturesque language. As I + listened, I could make their lives mine, I felt their rags on my back, I + walked with their gaping shoes on my feet; their cravings, their needs, + had all passed into my soul, or my soul had passed into theirs. It was the + dream of a waking man. I waxed hot with them over the foreman's tyranny, + or the bad customers that made them call again and again for payment. + </p> + <p> + To come out of my own ways of life, to be another than myself through a + kind of intoxication of the intellectual faculties, and to play this game + at will, such was my recreation. Whence comes the gift? Is it a kind of + second sight? Is it one of those powers which when abused end in madness? + I have never tried to discover its source; I possess it, I use it, that is + all. But this it behooves you to know, that in those days I began to + resolve the heterogeneous mass known as the People into its elements, and + to evaluate its good and bad qualities. Even then I realized the + possibilities of my suburb, that hotbed of revolution in which heroes, + inventors, and practical men of science, rogues and scoundrels, virtues + and vices, were all packed together by poverty, stifled by necessity, + drowned in drink, and consumed by ardent spirits. + </p> + <p> + You would not imagine how many adventures, how many tragedies, lie buried + away out of sight in that Dolorous City; how much horror and beauty lurks + there. No imagination can reach the Truth, no one can go down into that + city to make discoveries; for one must needs descend too low into its + depths to see the wonderful scenes of tragedy or comedy enacted there, the + masterpieces brought forth by chance. + </p> + <p> + I do not know how it is that I have kept the following story so long + untold. It is one of the curious things that stop in the bag from which + Memory draws out stories at haphazard, like numbers in a lottery. There + are plenty of tales just as strange and just as well hidden still left; + but some day, you may be sure, their turn will come. + </p> + <p> + One day my charwoman, a working man's wife, came to beg me to honor her + sister's wedding with my presence. If you are to realize what this wedding + was like you must know that I paid my charwoman, poor creature, four + francs a month; for which sum she came every morning to make my bed, clean + my shoes, brush my clothes, sweep the room, and make ready my breakfast, + before going to her day's work of turning the handle of a machine, at + which hard drudgery she earned five-pence. Her husband, a cabinetmaker, + made four francs a day at his trade; but as they had three children, it + was all that they could do to gain an honest living. Yet I have never met + with more sterling honesty than in this man and wife. For five years after + I left the quarter, Mere Vaillant used to come on my birthday with a bunch + of flowers and some oranges for me—she that had never a sixpence to + put by! Want had drawn us together. I never could give her more than a + ten-franc piece, and often I had to borrow the money for the occasion. + This will perhaps explain my promise to go to the wedding; I hoped to + efface myself in these poor people's merry-making. + </p> + <p> + The banquet and the ball were given on a first floor above a wineshop in + the Rue de Charenton. It was a large room, lighted by oil lamps with tin + reflectors. A row of wooden benches ran round the walls, which were black + with grime to the height of the tables. Here some eighty persons, all in + their Sunday best, tricked out with ribbons and bunches of flowers, all of + them on pleasure bent, were dancing away with heated visages as if the + world were about to come to an end. Bride and bridegroom exchanged salutes + to the general satisfaction, amid a chorus of facetious "Oh, ohs!" and + "Ah, ahs!" less really indecent than the furtive glances of young girls + that have been well brought up. There was something indescribably + infectious about the rough, homely enjoyment in all countenances. + </p> + <p> + But neither the faces, nor the wedding, nor the wedding-guests have + anything to do with my story. Simply bear them in mind as the odd setting + to it. Try to realize the scene, the shabby red-painted wineshop, the + smell of wine, the yells of merriment; try to feel that you are really in + the faubourg, among old people, working men and poor women giving + themselves up to a night's enjoyment. + </p> + <p> + The band consisted of a fiddle, a clarionet, and a flageolet from the + Blind Asylum. The three were paid seven francs in a lump sum for the + night. For the money, they gave us, not Beethoven certainly, nor yet + Rossini; they played as they had the will and the skill; and every one in + the room (with charming delicacy of feeling) refrained from finding fault. + The music made such a brutal assault on the drum of my ear, that after a + first glance round the room my eyes fell at once upon the blind trio, and + the sight of their uniform inclined me from the first to indulgence. As + the artists stood in a window recess, it was difficult to distinguish + their faces except at close quarters, and I kept away at first; but when I + came nearer (I hardly know why) I thought of nothing else; the wedding + party and the music ceased to exist, my curiosity was roused to the + highest pitch, for my soul passed into the body of the clarionet player. + </p> + <p> + The fiddle and the flageolet were neither of them interesting; their faces + were of the ordinary type among the blind—earnest, attentive, and + grave. Not so the clarionet player; any artist or philosopher must have + come to a stop at the sight of him. + </p> + <p> + Picture to yourself a plaster mask of Dante in the red lamplight, with a + forest of silver-white hair above the brows. Blindness intensified the + expression of bitterness and sorrow in that grand face of his; the dead + eyes were lighted up, as it were, by a thought within that broke forth + like a burning flame, lit by one sole insatiable desire, written large in + vigorous characters upon an arching brow scored across with as many lines + as an old stone wall. + </p> + <p> + The old man was playing at random, without the slightest regard for time + or tune. His fingers traveled mechanically over the worn keys of his + instrument; he did not trouble himself over a false note now and again (a + <i>canard</i>, in the language of the orchestra), neither did the dancers, + nor, for that matter, did my old Italian's acolytes; for I had made up my + mind that he must be Italian, and an Italian he was. There was something + great, something too of the despot about this old Homer bearing within him + an <i>Odyssey</i> doomed to oblivion. The greatness was so real that it + triumphed over his abject position; the despotism so much a part of him, + that it rose above his poverty. + </p> + <p> + There are violent passions which drive a man to good or evil, making of + him a hero or a convict; of these there was not one that had failed to + leave its traces on the grandly-hewn, lividly Italian face. You trembled + lest a flash of thought should suddenly light up the deep sightless + hollows under the grizzled brows, as you might fear to see brigands with + torches and poniards in the mouth of a cavern. You felt that there was a + lion in that cage of flesh, a lion spent with useless raging against iron + bars. The fires of despair had burned themselves out into ashes, the lava + had cooled; but the tracks of the flames, the wreckage, and a little smoke + remained to bear witness to the violence of the eruption, the ravages of + the fire. These images crowded up at the sight of the clarionet player, + till the thoughts now grown cold in his face burned hot within my soul. + </p> + <p> + The fiddle and the flageolet took a deep interest in bottles and glasses; + at the end of a country-dance, they hung their instruments from a button + on their reddish-colored coats, and stretched out their hands to a little + table set in the window recess to hold their liquor supply. Each time they + did so they held out a full glass to the Italian, who could not reach it + for himself because he sat in front of the table, and each time the + Italian thanked them with a friendly nod. All their movements were made + with the precision which always amazes you so much at the Blind Asylum. + You could almost think that they can see. I came nearer to listen; but + when I stood beside them, they evidently guessed I was not a working man, + and kept themselves to themselves. + </p> + <p> + "What part of the world do you come from, you that are playing the + clarionet?" + </p> + <p> + "From Venice," he said, with a trace of Italian accent. + </p> + <p> + "Have you always been blind, or did it come on afterwards—" + </p> + <p> + "Afterwards," he answered quickly. "A cursed gutta serena." + </p> + <p> + "Venice is a fine city; I have always had a fancy to go there." + </p> + <p> + The old man's face lighted up, the wrinkles began to work, he was + violently excited. + </p> + <p> + "If I went with you, you would not lose your time," he said. + </p> + <p> + "Don't talk about Venice to our Doge," put in the fiddle, "or you will + start him off, and he has stowed away a couple of bottles as it is—has + the prince!" + </p> + <p> + "Come, strike up, Daddy Canard!" added the flageolet, and the three began + to play. But while they executed the four figures of a square dance, the + Venetian was scenting my thoughts; he guessed the great interest I felt in + him. The dreary, dispirited look died out of his face, some mysterious + hope brightened his features and slid like a blue flame over his wrinkles. + He smiled and wiped his brow, that fearless, terrible brow of his, and at + length grew gay like a man mounted on his hobby. + </p> + <p> + "How old are you?" I asked. + </p> + <p> + "Eighty-two." + </p> + <p> + "How long have you been blind?" + </p> + <p> + "For very nearly fifty years," he said, and there was that in his tone + which told me that his regret was for something more than his lost sight, + for great power of which he had been robbed. + </p> + <p> + "Then why do they call you 'the Doge'?" I asked. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, it is a joke. I am a Venetian noble, and I might have been a doge + like any one else." + </p> + <p> + "What is your name?" + </p> + <p> + "Here, in Paris, I am Pere Canet," he said. "It was the only way of + spelling my name on the register. But in Italy I am Marco Facino Cane, + Prince of Varese." + </p> + <p> + "What, are you descended from the great <i>condottiere</i> Facino Cane, + whose lands won by the sword were taken by the Dukes of Milan?" + </p> + <p> + "<i>E vero</i>," returned he. "His son's life was not safe under the + Visconti; he fled to Venice, and his name was inscribed on the Golden + Book. And now neither Cane or Golden Book are in existence." His gesture + startled me; it told of patriotism extinguished and weariness of life. + </p> + <p> + "But if you were once a Venetian senator, you must have been a wealthy + man. How did you lose your fortune?" + </p> + <p> + "In evil days." + </p> + <p> + He waved away the glass of wine handed to him by the flageolet, and bowed + his head. He had no heart to drink. These details were not calculated to + extinguish my curiosity. + </p> + <p> + As the three ground out the music of the square dance, I gazed at the old + Venetian noble, thinking thoughts that set a young man's mind afire at the + age of twenty. I saw Venice and the Adriatic; I saw her ruin in the ruin + of the face before me. I walked to and fro in that city, so beloved of her + citizens; I went from the Rialto Bridge, along the Grand Canal, and from + the Riva degli Schiavoni to the Lido, returning to St. Mark's, that + cathedral so unlike all others in its sublimity. I looked up at the + windows of the Casa Doro, each with its different sculptured ornaments; I + saw old palaces rich in marbles, saw all the wonders which a student + beholds with the more sympathetic eyes because visible things take their + color of his fancy, and the sight of realities cannot rob him of the glory + of his dreams. Then I traced back a course of life for this latest scion + of a race of condottieri, tracking down his misfortunes, looking for the + reasons of the deep moral and physical degradation out of which the lately + revived sparks of greatness and nobility shone so much the more brightly. + My ideas, no doubt, were passing through his mind, for all processes of + thought-communications are far more swift, I think, in blind people, + because their blindness compels them to concentrate their attention. I had + not long to wait for proof that we were in sympathy in this way. Facino + Cane left off playing, and came up to me. "Let us go out!" he said; his + tones thrilled through me like an electric shock. I gave him my arm, and + we went. + </p> + <p> + Outside in the street he said, "Will you take me back to Venice? Will you + be my guide? Will you put faith in me? You shall be richer than ten of the + richest houses in Amsterdam or London, richer than Rothschild; in short, + you shall have the fabulous wealth of the <i>Arabian Nights</i>." + </p> + <p> + The man was mad, I thought; but in his voice there was a potent something + which I obeyed. I allowed him to lead, and he went in the direction of the + Fosses de la Bastille, as if he could see; walking till he reached a + lonely spot down by the river, just where the bridge has since been built + at the junction of the Canal Saint-Martin and the Seine. Here he sat down + on a stone, and I, sitting opposite to him, saw the old man's hair + gleaming like threads of silver in the moonlight. The stillness was + scarcely troubled by the sound of the far-off thunder of traffic along the + boulevards; the clear night air and everything about us combined to make a + strangely unreal scene. + </p> + <p> + "You talk of millions to a young man," I began, "and do you think that he + will shrink from enduring any number of hardships to gain them? Are you + not laughing at me?" + </p> + <p> + "May I die unshriven," he cried vehemently, "if all that I am about to + tell you is not true. I was one-and-twenty years old, like you at this + moment. I was rich, I was handsome, and a noble by birth. I began with the + first madness of all—with Love. I loved as no one can love nowadays. + I have hidden myself in a chest, at the risk of a dagger thrust, for + nothing more than the promise of a kiss. To die for Her—it seemed to + me to be a whole life in itself. In 1760 I fell in love with a lady of the + Vendramin family; she was eighteen years old, and married to a Sagredo, + one of the richest senators, a man of thirty, madly in love with his wife. + My mistress and I were guiltless as cherubs when the <i>sposo</i> caught + us together talking of love. He was armed, I was not, but he missed me; I + sprang upon him and killed him with my two hands, wringing his neck as if + he had been a chicken. I wanted Bianca to fly with me; but she would not. + That is the way with women! So I went alone. I was condemned to death, and + my property was confiscated and made over to my next-of-kin; but I had + carried off my diamonds, five of Titian's pictures taken down from their + frames and rolled up, and all my gold. + </p> + <p> + "I went to Milan, no one molested me, my affair in nowise interested the + State.—One small observation before I go further," he continued, + after a pause, "whether it is true or no that the mother's fancies at the + time of conception or in the months before birth can influence her child, + this much is certain, my mother during her pregnancy had a passion for + gold, and I am the victim of a monomania, of a craving for gold which must + be gratified. Gold is so much of a necessity of life for me, that I have + never been without it; I must have gold to toy with and finger. As a young + man I always wore jewelry, and I carried two or three hundred ducats about + me wherever I went." + </p> + <p> + He drew a couple of gold coins from his pocket and showed them to me as he + spoke. + </p> + <p> + "I can tell by instinct when gold is near. Blind as I am, I stop before a + jeweler's shop windows. That passion was the ruin of me; I took to + gambling to play with gold. I was not a cheat, I was cheated, I ruined + myself. I lost all my fortune. Then the longing to see Bianca once more + possessed me like a frenzy. I stole back to Venice and found her again. + For six months I was happy; she hid me in her house and fed me. I thought + thus deliciously to finish my days. But the Provveditore courted her, and + guessed that he had a rival; we in Italy can feel that. He played the spy + upon us, and surprised us together in bed, base wretch. You may judge what + a fight for life it was; I did not kill him outright, but I wounded him + dangerously. + </p> + <p> + "That adventure broke my luck. I have never found another Bianca; I have + known great pleasures; but among the most celebrated women at the court of + Louis XV. I never found my beloved Venetian's charm, her love, her great + qualities. + </p> + <p> + "The Provveditore called his servants, the palace was surrounded and + entered; I fought for my life that I might die beneath Bianca's eyes; + Bianca helped me to kill the Provveditore. Once before she had refused + flight with me; but after six months of happiness she wished only to die + with me, and received several thrusts. I was entangled in a great cloak + that they flung over me, carried down to a gondola, and hurried to the + Pozzi dungeons. I was twenty-two years old. I gripped the hilt of my + broken sword so hard, that they could only have taken it from me by + cutting off my hand at the wrist. A curious chance, or rather the instinct + of self-preservation, led me to hide the fragment of the blade in a corner + of my cell, as if it might still be of use. They tended me; none of my + wounds were serious. At two-and-twenty one can recover from anything. I + was to lose my head on the scaffold. I shammed illness to gain time. It + seemed to me that the canal lay just outside my cell. I thought to make my + escape by boring a hole through the wall and swimming for my life. I based + my hopes on the following reasons. + </p> + <p> + "Every time that the jailer came with my food, there was light enough to + read directions written on the walls—'Side of the Palace,' 'Side of + the Canal,' 'Side of the Vaults.' At last I saw a design in this, but I + did not trouble myself much about the meaning of it; the actual incomplete + condition of the Ducal Palace accounted for it. The longing to regain my + freedom gave me something like genius. Groping about with my fingers, I + spelled out an Arabic inscription on the wall. The author of the work + informed those to come after him that he had loosed two stones in the + lowest course of masonry and hollowed out eleven feet beyond underground. + As he went on with his excavations, it became necessary to spread the + fragments of stone and mortar over the floor of his cell. But even if + jailers and inquisitors had not felt sure that the structure of the + building was such that no watch was needed below, the level of the Pozzi + dungeons being several steps below the threshold, it was possible + gradually to raise the earthen floor without exciting the warder's + suspicions. + </p> + <p> + "The tremendous labor had profited nothing—nothing at least to him + that began it. The very fact that it was left unfinished told of the + unknown worker's death. Unless his devoted toil was to be wasted for ever, + his successor must have some knowledge of Arabic, but I had studied + Oriental languages at the Armenian Convent. A few words written on the + back of the stone recorded the unhappy man's fate; he had fallen a victim + to his great possessions; Venice had coveted his wealth and seized upon + it. A whole month went by before I obtained any result; but whenever I + felt my strength failing as I worked, I heard the chink of gold, I saw + gold spread before me, I was dazzled by diamonds.—Ah! wait. + </p> + <p> + "One night my blunted steel struck on wood. I whetted the fragment of my + blade and cut a hole; I crept on my belly like a serpent; I worked naked + and mole-fashion, my hands in front of me, using the stone itself to gain + a purchase. I was to appear before my judges in two days' time, I made a + final effort, and that night I bored through the wood and felt that there + was space beyond. + </p> + <p> + "Judge of my surprise when I applied my eye to the hole. I was in the + ceiling of a vault, heaps of gold were dimly visible in the faint light. + The Doge himself and one of the Ten stood below; I could hear their voices + and sufficient of their talk to know that this was the Secret Treasury of + the Republic, full of the gifts of Doges and reserves of booty called the + Tithe of Venice from the spoils of military expeditions. I was saved! + </p> + <p> + "When the jailer came I proposed that he should help me to escape and fly + with me, and that we should take with us as much as we could carry. There + was no reason for hesitation; he agreed. Vessels were about to sail for + the Levant. All possible precautions were taken. Bianca furthered the + schemes which I suggested to my accomplice. It was arranged that Bianca + should only rejoin us in Smyrna for fear of exciting suspicion. In a + single night the hole was enlarged, and we dropped down into the Secret + Treasury of Venice. + </p> + <p> + "What a night that was! Four great casks full of gold stood there. In the + outer room silver pieces were piled in heaps, leaving a gangway between by + which to cross the chamber. Banks of silver coins surrounded the walls to + the height of five feet. + </p> + <p> + "I thought the jailer would go mad. He sang and laughed and danced and + capered among the gold, till I threatened to strangle him if he made a + sound or wasted time. In his joy he did not notice at first the table + where the diamonds lay. I flung myself upon these, and deftly filled the + pockets of my sailor jacket and trousers with the stones. Ah! Heaven, I + did not take the third of them. Gold ingots lay underneath the table. I + persuaded my companion to fill as many bags as we could carry with the + gold, and made him understand that this was our only chance of escaping + detection abroad. + </p> + <p> + "'Pearls, rubies, and diamonds might be recognized,' I told him. + </p> + <p> + "Covetous though we were, we could not possibly take more than two + thousand livres weight of gold, which meant six journeys across the prison + to the gondola. The sentinel at the water gate was bribed with a bag + containing ten livres weight of gold; and as far as the two gondoliers, + they believed they were serving the Republic. At daybreak we set out. + </p> + <p> + "Once upon the open sea, when I thought of that night, when I recollected + all that I had felt, when the vision of that great hoard rose before my + eyes, and I computed that I had left behind thirty millions in silver, + twenty in gold, and many more in diamonds, pearls, and rubies—then a + sort of madness began to work in me. I had the gold fever. + </p> + <p> + "We landed at Smyrna and took ship at once for France. As we went on board + the French vessel, Heaven favored me by ridding me of my accomplice. I did + not think at the time of all the possible consequences of this mishap, and + rejoiced not a little. We were so completely unnerved by all that had + happened, that we were stupid, we said not a word to each other, we waited + till it should be safe to enjoy ourselves at our ease. It was not + wonderful that the rogue's head was dizzy. You shall see how heavily God + has punished me. + </p> + <p> + "I never knew a quiet moment until I had sold two-thirds of my diamonds in + London or Amsterdam, and held the value of my gold dust in a negotiable + shape. For five years I hid myself in Madrid, then in 1770 I came to Paris + with a Spanish name, and led as brilliant a life as may be. Then in the + midst of my pleasures, as I enjoyed a fortune of six millions, I was + smitten with blindness. I do not doubt but that my infirmity was brought + on by my sojourn in the cell and my work in the stone, if, indeed, my + peculiar faculty for 'seeing' gold was not an abuse of the power of sight + which predestined me to lose it. Bianca was dead. + </p> + <p> + "At this time I had fallen in love with a woman to whom I thought to link + my fate. I had told her the secret of my name; she belonged to a powerful + family; she was a friend of Mme. du Barry; I hoped everything from the + favor shown me by Louis XV.; I trusted in her. Acting on her advice, I + went to London to consult a famous oculist, and after a stay of several + months in London she deserted me in Hyde Park. She had stripped me of all + that I had, and left me without resource. Nor could I make complaint, for + to disclose my name was to lay myself open to the vengeance of my native + city; I could appeal to no one for aid, I feared Venice. The woman put + spies about me to exploit my infirmity. I spare you a tale of adventures + worthy of Gil Blas.—Your Revolution followed. For two whole years + that creature kept me at the Bicetre as a lunatic, then she gained + admittance for me at the Blind Asylum; there was no help for it, I went. I + could not kill her; I could not see; and I was so poor that I could not + pay another arm. + </p> + <p> + "If only I had taken counsel with my jailer, Benedetto Carpi, before I + lost him, I might have known the exact position of my cell, I might have + found my way back to the Treasury and returned to Venice when Napoleon + crushed the Republic— + </p> + <p> + "Still, blind as I am, let us go back to Venice! I shall find the door of + my prison, I shall see the gold through the prison walls, I shall hear it + where it lies under the water; for the events which brought about the fall + of Venice befell in such a way that the secret of the hoard must have + perished with Bianca's brother, Vendramin, a doge to whom I looked to make + my peace with the Ten. I sent memorials to the First Consul; I proposed an + agreement with the Emperor of Austria; every one sent me about my business + for a lunatic. Come! we will go to Venice; let us set out as beggars, we + shall come back millionaires. We will buy back some of my estates, and you + shall be my heir! You shall be Prince of Varese!" + </p> + <p> + My head was swimming. For me his confidences reached the proportions of + tragedy; at the sight of that white head of his and beyond it the black + water in the trenches of the Bastille lying still as a canal in Venice, I + had no words to answer him. Facino Cane thought, no doubt, that I judged + him, as the rest had done, with a disdainful pity; his gesture expressed + the whole philosophy of despair. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps his story had taken him back to happy days and to Venice. He + caught up his clarionet and made plaintive music, playing a Venetian + boat-song with something of his lost skill, the skill of the young + patrician lover. It was a sort of <i>Super flumina Babylonis</i>. Tears + filled my eyes. Any belated persons walking along the Boulevard Bourdon + must have stood still to listen to an exile's last prayer, a last cry of + regret for a lost name, mingled with memories of Bianca. But gold soon + gained the upper hand, the fatal passion quenched the light of youth. + </p> + <p> + "I see it always," he said; "dreaming or waking, I see it; and as I pace + to and fro, I pace in the Treasury, and the diamonds sparkle. I am not as + blind as you think; gold and diamonds light up my night, the night of the + last Facino Cane, for my title passes to the Memmi. My God! the murderer's + punishment was not long delayed! <i>Ave Maria</i>," and he repeated + several prayers that I did not heed. + </p> + <p> + "We will go to Venice!" I said, when he rose. + </p> + <p> + "Then I have found a man!" he cried, with his face on fire. + </p> + <p> + I gave him my arm and went home with him. We reached the gates of the + Blind Asylum just as some of the wedding guests were returning along the + street, shouting at the top of their voices. He squeezed my hand. + </p> + <p> + "Shall we start to-morrow?" he asked. + </p> + <p> + "As soon as we can get some money." + </p> + <p> + "But we can go on foot. I will beg. I am strong, and you feel young when + you see gold before you." + </p> + <p> + Facino Cane died before the winter was out after a two months' illness. + The poor man had taken a chill. + </p> + <p> + PARIS, March 1836. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + ADDENDUM + </h2> + <h3> + The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Cane, Marco-Facino + Massimilla Doni + + Vendramini, Marco + Massimilla Doni +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facino Cane, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACINO CANE *** + +***** This file should be named 1737-h.htm or 1737-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/1737/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + +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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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: Facino Cane + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell and Others + +Release Date: May, 1999 [Etext #1737] +Posting Date: March 1, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACINO CANE *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +FACINO CANE + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Clara Bell and others + + + + + + +FACINO CANE + + +I once used to live in a little street which probably is not known +to you--the Rue de Lesdiguieres. It is a turning out of the Rue +Saint-Antoine, beginning just opposite a fountain near the Place de +la Bastille, and ending in the Rue de la Cerisaie. Love of knowledge +stranded me in a garret; my nights I spent in work, my days in reading +at the Bibliotheque d'Orleans, close by. I lived frugally; I had +accepted the conditions of the monastic life, necessary conditions for +every worker, scarcely permitting myself a walk along the Boulevard +Bourdon when the weather was fine. One passion only had power to draw me +from my studies; and yet, what was that passion but a study of another +kind? I used to watch the manners and customs of the Faubourg, its +inhabitants, and their characteristics. As I dressed no better than a +working man, and cared nothing for appearances, I did not put them on +their guard; I could join a group and look on while they drove bargains +or wrangled among themselves on their way home from work. Even then +observation had come to be an instinct with me; a faculty of penetrating +to the soul without neglecting the body; or rather, a power of grasping +external details so thoroughly that they never detained me for a moment, +and at once I passed beyond and through them. I could enter into the +life of the human creatures whom I watched, just as the dervish in the +_Arabian Nights_ could pass into any soul or body after pronouncing a +certain formula. + +If I met a working man and his wife in the streets between eleven +o'clock and midnight on their way home from the Ambigu Comique, I used +to amuse myself by following them from the Boulevard du Pont aux Choux +to the Boulevard Beaumarchais. The good folk would begin by talking +about the play; then from one thing to another they would come to their +own affairs, and the mother would walk on and on, heedless of complaints +or question from the little one that dragged at her hand, while she and +her husband reckoned up the wages to be paid on the morrow, and spent +the money in a score of different ways. Then came domestic details, +lamentations over the excessive dearness of potatoes, or the length +of the winter and the high price of block fuel, together with forcible +representations of amounts owing to the baker, ending in an acrimonious +dispute, in the course of which such couples reveal their characters in +picturesque language. As I listened, I could make their lives mine, I +felt their rags on my back, I walked with their gaping shoes on my feet; +their cravings, their needs, had all passed into my soul, or my soul had +passed into theirs. It was the dream of a waking man. I waxed hot with +them over the foreman's tyranny, or the bad customers that made them +call again and again for payment. + +To come out of my own ways of life, to be another than myself through +a kind of intoxication of the intellectual faculties, and to play this +game at will, such was my recreation. Whence comes the gift? Is it a +kind of second sight? Is it one of those powers which when abused end in +madness? I have never tried to discover its source; I possess it, I use +it, that is all. But this it behooves you to know, that in those days +I began to resolve the heterogeneous mass known as the People into +its elements, and to evaluate its good and bad qualities. Even then I +realized the possibilities of my suburb, that hotbed of revolution +in which heroes, inventors, and practical men of science, rogues and +scoundrels, virtues and vices, were all packed together by poverty, +stifled by necessity, drowned in drink, and consumed by ardent spirits. + +You would not imagine how many adventures, how many tragedies, lie +buried away out of sight in that Dolorous City; how much horror and +beauty lurks there. No imagination can reach the Truth, no one can go +down into that city to make discoveries; for one must needs descend too +low into its depths to see the wonderful scenes of tragedy or comedy +enacted there, the masterpieces brought forth by chance. + +I do not know how it is that I have kept the following story so long +untold. It is one of the curious things that stop in the bag from which +Memory draws out stories at haphazard, like numbers in a lottery. There +are plenty of tales just as strange and just as well hidden still left; +but some day, you may be sure, their turn will come. + + + +One day my charwoman, a working man's wife, came to beg me to honor +her sister's wedding with my presence. If you are to realize what this +wedding was like you must know that I paid my charwoman, poor creature, +four francs a month; for which sum she came every morning to make my +bed, clean my shoes, brush my clothes, sweep the room, and make ready +my breakfast, before going to her day's work of turning the handle of +a machine, at which hard drudgery she earned five-pence. Her husband, a +cabinetmaker, made four francs a day at his trade; but as they had three +children, it was all that they could do to gain an honest living. Yet I +have never met with more sterling honesty than in this man and wife. For +five years after I left the quarter, Mere Vaillant used to come on my +birthday with a bunch of flowers and some oranges for me--she that had +never a sixpence to put by! Want had drawn us together. I never could +give her more than a ten-franc piece, and often I had to borrow the +money for the occasion. This will perhaps explain my promise to go +to the wedding; I hoped to efface myself in these poor people's +merry-making. + +The banquet and the ball were given on a first floor above a wineshop in +the Rue de Charenton. It was a large room, lighted by oil lamps with +tin reflectors. A row of wooden benches ran round the walls, which were +black with grime to the height of the tables. Here some eighty persons, +all in their Sunday best, tricked out with ribbons and bunches of +flowers, all of them on pleasure bent, were dancing away with heated +visages as if the world were about to come to an end. Bride and +bridegroom exchanged salutes to the general satisfaction, amid a chorus +of facetious "Oh, ohs!" and "Ah, ahs!" less really indecent than the +furtive glances of young girls that have been well brought up. There was +something indescribably infectious about the rough, homely enjoyment in +all countenances. + +But neither the faces, nor the wedding, nor the wedding-guests have +anything to do with my story. Simply bear them in mind as the odd +setting to it. Try to realize the scene, the shabby red-painted +wineshop, the smell of wine, the yells of merriment; try to feel that +you are really in the faubourg, among old people, working men and poor +women giving themselves up to a night's enjoyment. + +The band consisted of a fiddle, a clarionet, and a flageolet from the +Blind Asylum. The three were paid seven francs in a lump sum for the +night. For the money, they gave us, not Beethoven certainly, nor yet +Rossini; they played as they had the will and the skill; and every one +in the room (with charming delicacy of feeling) refrained from finding +fault. The music made such a brutal assault on the drum of my ear, that +after a first glance round the room my eyes fell at once upon the blind +trio, and the sight of their uniform inclined me from the first to +indulgence. As the artists stood in a window recess, it was difficult +to distinguish their faces except at close quarters, and I kept away at +first; but when I came nearer (I hardly know why) I thought of nothing +else; the wedding party and the music ceased to exist, my curiosity was +roused to the highest pitch, for my soul passed into the body of the +clarionet player. + +The fiddle and the flageolet were neither of them interesting; their +faces were of the ordinary type among the blind--earnest, attentive, and +grave. Not so the clarionet player; any artist or philosopher must have +come to a stop at the sight of him. + +Picture to yourself a plaster mask of Dante in the red lamplight, with +a forest of silver-white hair above the brows. Blindness intensified the +expression of bitterness and sorrow in that grand face of his; the dead +eyes were lighted up, as it were, by a thought within that broke forth +like a burning flame, lit by one sole insatiable desire, written large +in vigorous characters upon an arching brow scored across with as many +lines as an old stone wall. + +The old man was playing at random, without the slightest regard for time +or tune. His fingers traveled mechanically over the worn keys of his +instrument; he did not trouble himself over a false note now and again +(a _canard_, in the language of the orchestra), neither did the dancers, +nor, for that matter, did my old Italian's acolytes; for I had made +up my mind that he must be Italian, and an Italian he was. There was +something great, something too of the despot about this old Homer +bearing within him an _Odyssey_ doomed to oblivion. The greatness was so +real that it triumphed over his abject position; the despotism so much a +part of him, that it rose above his poverty. + +There are violent passions which drive a man to good or evil, making of +him a hero or a convict; of these there was not one that had failed to +leave its traces on the grandly-hewn, lividly Italian face. You trembled +lest a flash of thought should suddenly light up the deep sightless +hollows under the grizzled brows, as you might fear to see brigands with +torches and poniards in the mouth of a cavern. You felt that there was +a lion in that cage of flesh, a lion spent with useless raging against +iron bars. The fires of despair had burned themselves out into ashes, +the lava had cooled; but the tracks of the flames, the wreckage, and a +little smoke remained to bear witness to the violence of the eruption, +the ravages of the fire. These images crowded up at the sight of the +clarionet player, till the thoughts now grown cold in his face burned +hot within my soul. + +The fiddle and the flageolet took a deep interest in bottles and +glasses; at the end of a country-dance, they hung their instruments from +a button on their reddish-colored coats, and stretched out their hands +to a little table set in the window recess to hold their liquor supply. +Each time they did so they held out a full glass to the Italian, who +could not reach it for himself because he sat in front of the table, +and each time the Italian thanked them with a friendly nod. All their +movements were made with the precision which always amazes you so much +at the Blind Asylum. You could almost think that they can see. I came +nearer to listen; but when I stood beside them, they evidently guessed I +was not a working man, and kept themselves to themselves. + +"What part of the world do you come from, you that are playing the +clarionet?" + +"From Venice," he said, with a trace of Italian accent. + +"Have you always been blind, or did it come on afterwards--" + +"Afterwards," he answered quickly. "A cursed gutta serena." + +"Venice is a fine city; I have always had a fancy to go there." + +The old man's face lighted up, the wrinkles began to work, he was +violently excited. + +"If I went with you, you would not lose your time," he said. + +"Don't talk about Venice to our Doge," put in the fiddle, "or you will +start him off, and he has stowed away a couple of bottles as it is--has +the prince!" + +"Come, strike up, Daddy Canard!" added the flageolet, and the three +began to play. But while they executed the four figures of a square +dance, the Venetian was scenting my thoughts; he guessed the great +interest I felt in him. The dreary, dispirited look died out of his +face, some mysterious hope brightened his features and slid like a blue +flame over his wrinkles. He smiled and wiped his brow, that fearless, +terrible brow of his, and at length grew gay like a man mounted on his +hobby. + +"How old are you?" I asked. + +"Eighty-two." + +"How long have you been blind?" + +"For very nearly fifty years," he said, and there was that in his tone +which told me that his regret was for something more than his lost +sight, for great power of which he had been robbed. + +"Then why do they call you 'the Doge'?" I asked. + +"Oh, it is a joke. I am a Venetian noble, and I might have been a doge +like any one else." + +"What is your name?" + +"Here, in Paris, I am Pere Canet," he said. "It was the only way of +spelling my name on the register. But in Italy I am Marco Facino Cane, +Prince of Varese." + +"What, are you descended from the great _condottiere_ Facino Cane, whose +lands won by the sword were taken by the Dukes of Milan?" + +"_E vero_," returned he. "His son's life was not safe under the +Visconti; he fled to Venice, and his name was inscribed on the Golden +Book. And now neither Cane or Golden Book are in existence." His gesture +startled me; it told of patriotism extinguished and weariness of life. + +"But if you were once a Venetian senator, you must have been a wealthy +man. How did you lose your fortune?" + +"In evil days." + +He waved away the glass of wine handed to him by the flageolet, and +bowed his head. He had no heart to drink. These details were not +calculated to extinguish my curiosity. + +As the three ground out the music of the square dance, I gazed at the +old Venetian noble, thinking thoughts that set a young man's mind afire +at the age of twenty. I saw Venice and the Adriatic; I saw her ruin in +the ruin of the face before me. I walked to and fro in that city, so +beloved of her citizens; I went from the Rialto Bridge, along the Grand +Canal, and from the Riva degli Schiavoni to the Lido, returning to St. +Mark's, that cathedral so unlike all others in its sublimity. I looked +up at the windows of the Casa Doro, each with its different sculptured +ornaments; I saw old palaces rich in marbles, saw all the wonders which +a student beholds with the more sympathetic eyes because visible things +take their color of his fancy, and the sight of realities cannot rob him +of the glory of his dreams. Then I traced back a course of life for this +latest scion of a race of condottieri, tracking down his misfortunes, +looking for the reasons of the deep moral and physical degradation out +of which the lately revived sparks of greatness and nobility shone so +much the more brightly. My ideas, no doubt, were passing through his +mind, for all processes of thought-communications are far more swift, +I think, in blind people, because their blindness compels them to +concentrate their attention. I had not long to wait for proof that we +were in sympathy in this way. Facino Cane left off playing, and came up +to me. "Let us go out!" he said; his tones thrilled through me like an +electric shock. I gave him my arm, and we went. + +Outside in the street he said, "Will you take me back to Venice? Will +you be my guide? Will you put faith in me? You shall be richer than ten +of the richest houses in Amsterdam or London, richer than Rothschild; in +short, you shall have the fabulous wealth of the _Arabian Nights_." + +The man was mad, I thought; but in his voice there was a potent +something which I obeyed. I allowed him to lead, and he went in the +direction of the Fosses de la Bastille, as if he could see; walking till +he reached a lonely spot down by the river, just where the bridge has +since been built at the junction of the Canal Saint-Martin and the +Seine. Here he sat down on a stone, and I, sitting opposite to him, saw +the old man's hair gleaming like threads of silver in the moonlight. The +stillness was scarcely troubled by the sound of the far-off thunder of +traffic along the boulevards; the clear night air and everything about +us combined to make a strangely unreal scene. + +"You talk of millions to a young man," I began, "and do you think that +he will shrink from enduring any number of hardships to gain them? Are +you not laughing at me?" + +"May I die unshriven," he cried vehemently, "if all that I am about to +tell you is not true. I was one-and-twenty years old, like you at this +moment. I was rich, I was handsome, and a noble by birth. I began +with the first madness of all--with Love. I loved as no one can love +nowadays. I have hidden myself in a chest, at the risk of a dagger +thrust, for nothing more than the promise of a kiss. To die for Her--it +seemed to me to be a whole life in itself. In 1760 I fell in love with a +lady of the Vendramin family; she was eighteen years old, and married to +a Sagredo, one of the richest senators, a man of thirty, madly in love +with his wife. My mistress and I were guiltless as cherubs when the +_sposo_ caught us together talking of love. He was armed, I was not, +but he missed me; I sprang upon him and killed him with my two hands, +wringing his neck as if he had been a chicken. I wanted Bianca to fly +with me; but she would not. That is the way with women! So I went alone. +I was condemned to death, and my property was confiscated and made over +to my next-of-kin; but I had carried off my diamonds, five of Titian's +pictures taken down from their frames and rolled up, and all my gold. + +"I went to Milan, no one molested me, my affair in nowise interested the +State.--One small observation before I go further," he continued, after +a pause, "whether it is true or no that the mother's fancies at the time +of conception or in the months before birth can influence her child, +this much is certain, my mother during her pregnancy had a passion for +gold, and I am the victim of a monomania, of a craving for gold which +must be gratified. Gold is so much of a necessity of life for me, that I +have never been without it; I must have gold to toy with and finger. As +a young man I always wore jewelry, and I carried two or three hundred +ducats about me wherever I went." + +He drew a couple of gold coins from his pocket and showed them to me as +he spoke. + +"I can tell by instinct when gold is near. Blind as I am, I stop before +a jeweler's shop windows. That passion was the ruin of me; I took to +gambling to play with gold. I was not a cheat, I was cheated, I ruined +myself. I lost all my fortune. Then the longing to see Bianca once more +possessed me like a frenzy. I stole back to Venice and found her again. +For six months I was happy; she hid me in her house and fed me. I +thought thus deliciously to finish my days. But the Provveditore courted +her, and guessed that he had a rival; we in Italy can feel that. He +played the spy upon us, and surprised us together in bed, base wretch. +You may judge what a fight for life it was; I did not kill him outright, +but I wounded him dangerously. + +"That adventure broke my luck. I have never found another Bianca; I have +known great pleasures; but among the most celebrated women at the court +of Louis XV. I never found my beloved Venetian's charm, her love, her +great qualities. + +"The Provveditore called his servants, the palace was surrounded and +entered; I fought for my life that I might die beneath Bianca's eyes; +Bianca helped me to kill the Provveditore. Once before she had refused +flight with me; but after six months of happiness she wished only to die +with me, and received several thrusts. I was entangled in a great cloak +that they flung over me, carried down to a gondola, and hurried to the +Pozzi dungeons. I was twenty-two years old. I gripped the hilt of my +broken sword so hard, that they could only have taken it from me by +cutting off my hand at the wrist. A curious chance, or rather the +instinct of self-preservation, led me to hide the fragment of the blade +in a corner of my cell, as if it might still be of use. They tended me; +none of my wounds were serious. At two-and-twenty one can recover from +anything. I was to lose my head on the scaffold. I shammed illness to +gain time. It seemed to me that the canal lay just outside my cell. I +thought to make my escape by boring a hole through the wall and swimming +for my life. I based my hopes on the following reasons. + +"Every time that the jailer came with my food, there was light enough to +read directions written on the walls--'Side of the Palace,' 'Side of the +Canal,' 'Side of the Vaults.' At last I saw a design in this, but I did +not trouble myself much about the meaning of it; the actual incomplete +condition of the Ducal Palace accounted for it. The longing to regain my +freedom gave me something like genius. Groping about with my fingers, +I spelled out an Arabic inscription on the wall. The author of the work +informed those to come after him that he had loosed two stones in +the lowest course of masonry and hollowed out eleven feet beyond +underground. As he went on with his excavations, it became necessary to +spread the fragments of stone and mortar over the floor of his cell. But +even if jailers and inquisitors had not felt sure that the structure of +the building was such that no watch was needed below, the level of the +Pozzi dungeons being several steps below the threshold, it was possible +gradually to raise the earthen floor without exciting the warder's +suspicions. + +"The tremendous labor had profited nothing--nothing at least to him that +began it. The very fact that it was left unfinished told of the unknown +worker's death. Unless his devoted toil was to be wasted for ever, his +successor must have some knowledge of Arabic, but I had studied Oriental +languages at the Armenian Convent. A few words written on the back of +the stone recorded the unhappy man's fate; he had fallen a victim to his +great possessions; Venice had coveted his wealth and seized upon it. A +whole month went by before I obtained any result; but whenever I felt +my strength failing as I worked, I heard the chink of gold, I saw gold +spread before me, I was dazzled by diamonds.--Ah! wait. + +"One night my blunted steel struck on wood. I whetted the fragment of my +blade and cut a hole; I crept on my belly like a serpent; I worked naked +and mole-fashion, my hands in front of me, using the stone itself to +gain a purchase. I was to appear before my judges in two days' time, I +made a final effort, and that night I bored through the wood and felt +that there was space beyond. + +"Judge of my surprise when I applied my eye to the hole. I was in the +ceiling of a vault, heaps of gold were dimly visible in the faint light. +The Doge himself and one of the Ten stood below; I could hear their +voices and sufficient of their talk to know that this was the Secret +Treasury of the Republic, full of the gifts of Doges and reserves +of booty called the Tithe of Venice from the spoils of military +expeditions. I was saved! + +"When the jailer came I proposed that he should help me to escape and +fly with me, and that we should take with us as much as we could carry. +There was no reason for hesitation; he agreed. Vessels were about +to sail for the Levant. All possible precautions were taken. Bianca +furthered the schemes which I suggested to my accomplice. It was +arranged that Bianca should only rejoin us in Smyrna for fear of +exciting suspicion. In a single night the hole was enlarged, and we +dropped down into the Secret Treasury of Venice. + +"What a night that was! Four great casks full of gold stood there. In +the outer room silver pieces were piled in heaps, leaving a gangway +between by which to cross the chamber. Banks of silver coins surrounded +the walls to the height of five feet. + +"I thought the jailer would go mad. He sang and laughed and danced and +capered among the gold, till I threatened to strangle him if he made a +sound or wasted time. In his joy he did not notice at first the table +where the diamonds lay. I flung myself upon these, and deftly filled the +pockets of my sailor jacket and trousers with the stones. Ah! Heaven, I +did not take the third of them. Gold ingots lay underneath the table. I +persuaded my companion to fill as many bags as we could carry with the +gold, and made him understand that this was our only chance of escaping +detection abroad. + +"'Pearls, rubies, and diamonds might be recognized,' I told him. + +"Covetous though we were, we could not possibly take more than two +thousand livres weight of gold, which meant six journeys across the +prison to the gondola. The sentinel at the water gate was bribed with +a bag containing ten livres weight of gold; and as far as the two +gondoliers, they believed they were serving the Republic. At daybreak we +set out. + +"Once upon the open sea, when I thought of that night, when I +recollected all that I had felt, when the vision of that great hoard +rose before my eyes, and I computed that I had left behind thirty +millions in silver, twenty in gold, and many more in diamonds, pearls, +and rubies--then a sort of madness began to work in me. I had the gold +fever. + +"We landed at Smyrna and took ship at once for France. As we went +on board the French vessel, Heaven favored me by ridding me of my +accomplice. I did not think at the time of all the possible consequences +of this mishap, and rejoiced not a little. We were so completely +unnerved by all that had happened, that we were stupid, we said not a +word to each other, we waited till it should be safe to enjoy ourselves +at our ease. It was not wonderful that the rogue's head was dizzy. You +shall see how heavily God has punished me. + +"I never knew a quiet moment until I had sold two-thirds of my diamonds +in London or Amsterdam, and held the value of my gold dust in a +negotiable shape. For five years I hid myself in Madrid, then in 1770 +I came to Paris with a Spanish name, and led as brilliant a life as may +be. Then in the midst of my pleasures, as I enjoyed a fortune of six +millions, I was smitten with blindness. I do not doubt but that my +infirmity was brought on by my sojourn in the cell and my work in the +stone, if, indeed, my peculiar faculty for 'seeing' gold was not an +abuse of the power of sight which predestined me to lose it. Bianca was +dead. + +"At this time I had fallen in love with a woman to whom I thought to +link my fate. I had told her the secret of my name; she belonged to a +powerful family; she was a friend of Mme. du Barry; I hoped everything +from the favor shown me by Louis XV.; I trusted in her. Acting on her +advice, I went to London to consult a famous oculist, and after a +stay of several months in London she deserted me in Hyde Park. She had +stripped me of all that I had, and left me without resource. Nor could +I make complaint, for to disclose my name was to lay myself open to the +vengeance of my native city; I could appeal to no one for aid, I feared +Venice. The woman put spies about me to exploit my infirmity. I spare +you a tale of adventures worthy of Gil Blas.--Your Revolution followed. +For two whole years that creature kept me at the Bicetre as a lunatic, +then she gained admittance for me at the Blind Asylum; there was no help +for it, I went. I could not kill her; I could not see; and I was so poor +that I could not pay another arm. + +"If only I had taken counsel with my jailer, Benedetto Carpi, before I +lost him, I might have known the exact position of my cell, I might have +found my way back to the Treasury and returned to Venice when Napoleon +crushed the Republic-- + +"Still, blind as I am, let us go back to Venice! I shall find the door +of my prison, I shall see the gold through the prison walls, I shall +hear it where it lies under the water; for the events which brought +about the fall of Venice befell in such a way that the secret of the +hoard must have perished with Bianca's brother, Vendramin, a doge to +whom I looked to make my peace with the Ten. I sent memorials to the +First Consul; I proposed an agreement with the Emperor of Austria; every +one sent me about my business for a lunatic. Come! we will go to Venice; +let us set out as beggars, we shall come back millionaires. We will buy +back some of my estates, and you shall be my heir! You shall be Prince +of Varese!" + +My head was swimming. For me his confidences reached the proportions of +tragedy; at the sight of that white head of his and beyond it the black +water in the trenches of the Bastille lying still as a canal in Venice, +I had no words to answer him. Facino Cane thought, no doubt, that I +judged him, as the rest had done, with a disdainful pity; his gesture +expressed the whole philosophy of despair. + +Perhaps his story had taken him back to happy days and to Venice. He +caught up his clarionet and made plaintive music, playing a Venetian +boat-song with something of his lost skill, the skill of the young +patrician lover. It was a sort of _Super flumina Babylonis_. Tears +filled my eyes. Any belated persons walking along the Boulevard Bourdon +must have stood still to listen to an exile's last prayer, a last cry of +regret for a lost name, mingled with memories of Bianca. But gold soon +gained the upper hand, the fatal passion quenched the light of youth. + +"I see it always," he said; "dreaming or waking, I see it; and as I pace +to and fro, I pace in the Treasury, and the diamonds sparkle. I am not +as blind as you think; gold and diamonds light up my night, the night +of the last Facino Cane, for my title passes to the Memmi. My God! +the murderer's punishment was not long delayed! _Ave Maria_," and he +repeated several prayers that I did not heed. + +"We will go to Venice!" I said, when he rose. + +"Then I have found a man!" he cried, with his face on fire. + +I gave him my arm and went home with him. We reached the gates of the +Blind Asylum just as some of the wedding guests were returning along the +street, shouting at the top of their voices. He squeezed my hand. + +"Shall we start to-morrow?" he asked. + +"As soon as we can get some money." + +"But we can go on foot. I will beg. I am strong, and you feel young when +you see gold before you." + +Facino Cane died before the winter was out after a two months' illness. +The poor man had taken a chill. + + +PARIS, March 1836. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Cane, Marco-Facino + Massimilla Doni + + Vendramini, Marco + Massimilla Doni + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facino Cane, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACINO CANE *** + +***** This file should be named 1737.txt or 1737.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/3/1737/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +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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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9e2e83 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1737 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1737) diff --git a/old/20040922-1737.txt b/old/20040922-1737.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1822b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20040922-1737.txt @@ -0,0 +1,966 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Facino Cane, 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.net + + +Title: Facino Cane + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: September 22, 2004 [EBook #1737] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACINO CANE *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny, and John Bickers, + + + + + FACINO CANE + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated By + Clara Bell and others + + + + + + FACINO CANE + + + +I once used to live in a little street which probably is not known to +you--the Rue de Lesdiguieres. It is a turning out of the Rue +Saint-Antoine, beginning just opposite a fountain near the Place de la +Bastille, and ending in the Rue de la Cerisaie. Love of knowledge +stranded me in a garret; my nights I spent in work, my days in reading +at the Bibliotheque d'Orleans, close by. I lived frugally; I had +accepted the conditions of the monastic life, necessary conditions for +every worker, scarcely permitting myself a walk along the Boulevard +Bourdon when the weather was fine. One passion only had power to draw +me from my studies; and yet, what was that passion but a study of +another kind? I used to watch the manners and customs of the Faubourg, +its inhabitants, and their characteristics. As I dressed no better +than a working man, and cared nothing for appearances, I did not put +them on their guard; I could join a group and look on while they drove +bargains or wrangled among themselves on their way home from work. +Even then observation had come to be an instinct with me; a faculty of +penetrating to the soul without neglecting the body; or rather, a +power of grasping external details so thoroughly that they never +detained me for a moment, and at once I passed beyond and through +them. I could enter into the life of the human creatures whom I +watched, just as the dervish in the _Arabian Nights_ could pass into +any soul or body after pronouncing a certain formula. + +If I met a working man and his wife in the streets between eleven +o'clock and midnight on their way home from the Ambigu Comique, I used +to amuse myself by following them from the Boulevard du Pont aux Choux +to the Boulevard Beaumarchais. The good folk would begin by talking +about the play; then from one thing to another they would come to +their own affairs, and the mother would walk on and on, heedless of +complaints or question from the little one that dragged at her hand, +while she and her husband reckoned up the wages to be paid on the +morrow, and spent the money in a score of different ways. Then came +domestic details, lamentations over the excessive dearness of +potatoes, or the length of the winter and the high price of block +fuel, together with forcible representations of amounts owing to the +baker, ending in an acrimonious dispute, in the course of which such +couples reveal their characters in picturesque language. As I +listened, I could make their lives mine, I felt their rags on my back, +I walked with their gaping shoes on my feet; their cravings, their +needs, had all passed into my soul, or my soul had passed into theirs. +It was the dream of a waking man. I waxed hot with them over the +foreman's tyranny, or the bad customers that made them call again and +again for payment. + +To come out of my own ways of life, to be another than myself through +a kind of intoxication of the intellectual faculties, and to play this +game at will, such was my recreation. Whence comes the gift? Is it a +kind of second sight? Is it one of those powers which when abused end +in madness? I have never tried to discover its source; I possess it, I +use it, that is all. But this it behooves you to know, that in those +days I began to resolve the heterogeneous mass known as the People +into its elements, and to evaluate its good and bad qualities. Even +then I realized the possibilities of my suburb, that hotbed of +revolution in which heroes, inventors, and practical men of science, +rogues and scoundrels, virtues and vices, were all packed together by +poverty, stifled by necessity, drowned in drink, and consumed by +ardent spirits. + +You would not imagine how many adventures, how many tragedies, lie +buried away out of sight in that Dolorous City; how much horror and +beauty lurks there. No imagination can reach the Truth, no one can go +down into that city to make discoveries; for one must needs descend +too low into its depths to see the wonderful scenes of tragedy or +comedy enacted there, the masterpieces brought forth by chance. + +I do not know how it is that I have kept the following story so long +untold. It is one of the curious things that stop in the bag from +which Memory draws out stories at haphazard, like numbers in a +lottery. There are plenty of tales just as strange and just as well +hidden still left; but some day, you may be sure, their turn will +come. + + + +One day my charwoman, a working man's wife, came to beg me to honor +her sister's wedding with my presence. If you are to realize what this +wedding was like you must know that I paid my charwoman, poor +creature, four francs a month; for which sum she came every morning to +make my bed, clean my shoes, brush my clothes, sweep the room, and +make ready my breakfast, before going to her day's work of turning the +handle of a machine, at which hard drudgery she earned five-pence. Her +husband, a cabinetmaker, made four francs a day at his trade; but as +they had three children, it was all that they could do to gain an +honest living. Yet I have never met with more sterling honesty than in +this man and wife. For five years after I left the quarter, Mere +Vaillant used to come on my birthday with a bunch of flowers and some +oranges for me--she that had never a sixpence to put by! Want had +drawn us together. I never could give her more than a ten-franc piece, +and often I had to borrow the money for the occasion. This will +perhaps explain my promise to go to the wedding; I hoped to efface +myself in these poor people's merry-making. + +The banquet and the ball were given on a first floor above a wineshop +in the Rue de Charenton. It was a large room, lighted by oil lamps +with tin reflectors. A row of wooden benches ran round the walls, +which were black with grime to the height of the tables. Here some +eighty persons, all in their Sunday best, tricked out with ribbons and +bunches of flowers, all of them on pleasure bent, were dancing away +with heated visages as if the world were about to come to an end. +Bride and bridegroom exchanged salutes to the general satisfaction, +amid a chorus of facetious "Oh, ohs!" and "Ah, ahs!" less really +indecent than the furtive glances of young girls that have been well +brought up. There was something indescribably infectious about the +rough, homely enjoyment in all countenances. + +But neither the faces, nor the wedding, nor the wedding-guests have +anything to do with my story. Simply bear them in mind as the odd +setting to it. Try to realize the scene, the shabby red-painted +wineshop, the smell of wine, the yells of merriment; try to feel that +you are really in the faubourg, among old people, working men and poor +women giving themselves up to a night's enjoyment. + +The band consisted of a fiddle, a clarionet, and a flageolet from the +Blind Asylum. The three were paid seven francs in a lump sum for the +night. For the money, they gave us, not Beethoven certainly, nor yet +Rossini; they played as they had the will and the skill; and every one +in the room (with charming delicacy of feeling) refrained from finding +fault. The music made such a brutal assault on the drum of my ear, +that after a first glance round the room my eyes fell at once upon the +blind trio, and the sight of their uniform inclined me from the first +to indulgence. As the artists stood in a window recess, it was +difficult to distinguish their faces except at close quarters, and I +kept away at first; but when I came nearer (I hardly know why) I +thought of nothing else; the wedding party and the music ceased to +exist, my curiosity was roused to the highest pitch, for my soul +passed into the body of the clarionet player. + +The fiddle and the flageolet were neither of them interesting; their +faces were of the ordinary type among the blind--earnest, attentive, +and grave. Not so the clarionet player; any artist or philosopher must +have come to a stop at the sight of him. + +Picture to yourself a plaster mask of Dante in the red lamplight, with +a forest of silver-white hair above the brows. Blindness intensified +the expression of bitterness and sorrow in that grand face of his; the +dead eyes were lighted up, as it were, by a thought within that broke +forth like a burning flame, lit by one sole insatiable desire, written +large in vigorous characters upon an arching brow scored across with +as many lines as an old stone wall. + +The old man was playing at random, without the slightest regard for +time or tune. His fingers traveled mechanically over the worn keys of +his instrument; he did not trouble himself over a false note now and +again (a _canard_, in the language of the orchestra), neither did the +dancers, nor, for that matter, did my old Italian's acolytes; for I +had made up my mind that he must be Italian, and an Italian he was. +There was something great, something too of the despot about this old +Homer bearing within him an _Odyssey_ doomed to oblivion. The +greatness was so real that it triumphed over his abject position; the +despotism so much a part of him, that it rose above his poverty. + +There are violent passions which drive a man to good or evil, making +of him a hero or a convict; of these there was not one that had failed +to leave its traces on the grandly-hewn, lividly Italian face. You +trembled lest a flash of thought should suddenly light up the deep +sightless hollows under the grizzled brows, as you might fear to see +brigands with torches and poniards in the mouth of a cavern. You felt +that there was a lion in that cage of flesh, a lion spent with useless +raging against iron bars. The fires of despair had burned themselves +out into ashes, the lava had cooled; but the tracks of the flames, the +wreckage, and a little smoke remained to bear witness to the violence +of the eruption, the ravages of the fire. These images crowded up at +the sight of the clarionet player, till the thoughts now grown cold in +his face burned hot within my soul. + +The fiddle and the flageolet took a deep interest in bottles and +glasses; at the end of a country-dance, they hung their instruments +from a button on their reddish-colored coats, and stretched out their +hands to a little table set in the window recess to hold their liquor +supply. Each time they did so they held out a full glass to the +Italian, who could not reach it for himself because he sat in front of +the table, and each time the Italian thanked them with a friendly nod. +All their movements were made with the precision which always amazes +you so much at the Blind Asylum. You could almost think that they can +see. I came nearer to listen; but when I stood beside them, they +evidently guessed I was not a working man, and kept themselves to +themselves. + +"What part of the world do you come from, you that are playing the +clarionet?" + +"From Venice," he said, with a trace of Italian accent. + +"Have you always been blind, or did it come on afterwards--" + +"Afterwards," he answered quickly. "A cursed gutta serena." + +"Venice is a fine city; I have always had a fancy to go there." + +The old man's face lighted up, the wrinkles began to work, he was +violently excited. + +"If I went with you, you would not lose your time," he said. + +"Don't talk about Venice to our Doge," put in the fiddle, "or you will +start him off, and he has stowed away a couple of bottles as it is +--has the prince!" + +"Come, strike up, Daddy Canard!" added the flageolet, and the three +began to play. But while they executed the four figures of a square +dance, the Venetian was scenting my thoughts; he guessed the great +interest I felt in him. The dreary, dispirited look died out of his +face, some mysterious hope brightened his features and slid like a +blue flame over his wrinkles. He smiled and wiped his brow, that +fearless, terrible brow of his, and at length grew gay like a man +mounted on his hobby. + +"How old are you?" I asked. + +"Eighty-two." + +"How long have you been blind?" + +"For very nearly fifty years," he said, and there was that in his tone +which told me that his regret was for something more than his lost +sight, for great power of which he had been robbed. + +"Then why do they call you 'the Doge'?" I asked. + +"Oh, it is a joke. I am a Venetian noble, and I might have been a doge +like any one else." + +"What is your name?" + +"Here, in Paris, I am Pere Canet," he said. "It was the only way of +spelling my name on the register. But in Italy I am Marco Facino Cane, +Prince of Varese." + +"What, are you descended from the great _condottiere_ Facino Cane, +whose lands won by the sword were taken by the Dukes of Milan?" + +"_E vero_," returned he. "His son's life was not safe under the +Visconti; he fled to Venice, and his name was inscribed on the Golden +Book. And now neither Cane or Golden Book are in existence." His +gesture startled me; it told of patriotism extinguished and weariness +of life. + +"But if you were once a Venetian senator, you must have been a wealthy +man. How did you lose your fortune?" + +"In evil days." + +He waved away the glass of wine handed to him by the flageolet, and +bowed his head. He had no heart to drink. These details were not +calculated to extinguish my curiosity. + +As the three ground out the music of the square dance, I gazed at the +old Venetian noble, thinking thoughts that set a young man's mind +afire at the age of twenty. I saw Venice and the Adriatic; I saw her +ruin in the ruin of the face before me. I walked to and fro in that +city, so beloved of her citizens; I went from the Rialto Bridge, along +the Grand Canal, and from the Riva degli Schiavoni to the Lido, +returning to St. Mark's, that cathedral so unlike all others in its +sublimity. I looked up at the windows of the Casa Doro, each with its +different sculptured ornaments; I saw old palaces rich in marbles, saw +all the wonders which a student beholds with the more sympathetic eyes +because visible things take their color of his fancy, and the sight of +realities cannot rob him of the glory of his dreams. Then I traced +back a course of life for this latest scion of a race of condottieri, +tracking down his misfortunes, looking for the reasons of the deep +moral and physical degradation out of which the lately revived sparks +of greatness and nobility shone so much the more brightly. My ideas, +no doubt, were passing through his mind, for all processes of +thought-communications are far more swift, I think, in blind people, +because their blindness compels them to concentrate their attention. I +had not long to wait for proof that we were in sympathy in this way. +Facino Cane left off playing, and came up to me. "Let us go out!" he +said; his tones thrilled through me like an electric shock. I gave him +my arm, and we went. + +Outside in the street he said, "Will you take me back to Venice? Will +you be my guide? Will you put faith in me? You shall be richer than +ten of the richest houses in Amsterdam or London, richer than +Rothschild; in short, you shall have the fabulous wealth of the +_Arabian Nights_." + +The man was mad, I thought; but in his voice there was a potent +something which I obeyed. I allowed him to lead, and he went in the +direction of the Fosses de la Bastille, as if he could see; walking +till he reached a lonely spot down by the river, just where the bridge +has since been built at the junction of the Canal Saint-Martin and the +Seine. Here he sat down on a stone, and I, sitting opposite to him, +saw the old man's hair gleaming like threads of silver in the +moonlight. The stillness was scarcely troubled by the sound of the +far-off thunder of traffic along the boulevards; the clear night air +and everything about us combined to make a strangely unreal scene. + +"You talk of millions to a young man," I began, "and do you think that +he will shrink from enduring any number of hardships to gain them? Are +you not laughing at me?" + +"May I die unshriven," he cried vehemently, "if all that I am about to +tell you is not true. I was one-and-twenty years old, like you at this +moment. I was rich, I was handsome, and a noble by birth. I began with +the first madness of all--with Love. I loved as no one can love +nowadays. I have hidden myself in a chest, at the risk of a dagger +thrust, for nothing more than the promise of a kiss. To die for Her +--it seemed to me to be a whole life in itself. In 1760 I fell in love +with a lady of the Vendramin family; she was eighteen years old, and +married to a Sagredo, one of the richest senators, a man of thirty, +madly in love with his wife. My mistress and I were guiltless as +cherubs when the _sposo_ caught us together talking of love. He was +armed, I was not, but he missed me; I sprang upon him and killed him +with my two hands, wringing his neck as if he had been a chicken. I +wanted Bianca to fly with me; but she would not. That is the way with +women! So I went alone. I was condemned to death, and my property was +confiscated and made over to my next-of-kin; but I had carried off my +diamonds, five of Titian's pictures taken down from their frames and +rolled up, and all my gold. + +"I went to Milan, no one molested me, my affair in nowise interested +the State.--One small observation before I go further," he continued, +after a pause, "whether it is true or no that the mother's fancies at +the time of conception or in the months before birth can influence her +child, this much is certain, my mother during her pregnancy had a +passion for gold, and I am the victim of a monomania, of a craving for +gold which must be gratified. Gold is so much of a necessity of life +for me, that I have never been without it; I must have gold to toy +with and finger. As a young man I always wore jewelry, and I carried +two or three hundred ducats about me wherever I went." + +He drew a couple of gold coins from his pocket and showed them to me +as he spoke. + +"I can tell by instinct when gold is near. Blind as I am, I stop +before a jeweler's shop windows. That passion was the ruin of me; I +took to gambling to play with gold. I was not a cheat, I was cheated, +I ruined myself. I lost all my fortune. Then the longing to see Bianca +once more possessed me like a frenzy. I stole back to Venice and found +her again. For six months I was happy; she hid me in her house and fed +me. I thought thus deliciously to finish my days. But the Provveditore +courted her, and guessed that he had a rival; we in Italy can feel +that. He played the spy upon us, and surprised us together in bed, +base wretch. You may judge what a fight for life it was; I did not +kill him outright, but I wounded him dangerously. + +"That adventure broke my luck. I have never found another Bianca; I +have known great pleasures; but among the most celebrated women at the +court of Louis XV. I never found my beloved Venetian's charm, her +love, her great qualities. + +"The Provveditore called his servants, the palace was surrounded and +entered; I fought for my life that I might die beneath Bianca's eyes; +Bianca helped me to kill the Provveditore. Once before she had refused +flight with me; but after six months of happiness she wished only to +die with me, and received several thrusts. I was entangled in a great +cloak that they flung over me, carried down to a gondola, and hurried +to the Pozzi dungeons. I was twenty-two years old. I gripped the hilt +of my broken sword so hard, that they could only have taken it from me +by cutting off my hand at the wrist. A curious chance, or rather the +instinct of self-preservation, led me to hide the fragment of the +blade in a corner of my cell, as if it might still be of use. They +tended me; none of my wounds were serious. At two-and-twenty one can +recover from anything. I was to lose my head on the scaffold. I +shammed illness to gain time. It seemed to me that the canal lay just +outside my cell. I thought to make my escape by boring a hole through +the wall and swimming for my life. I based my hopes on the following +reasons. + +"Every time that the jailer came with my food, there was light enough +to read directions written on the walls--'Side of the Palace,' 'Side +of the Canal,' 'Side of the Vaults.' At last I saw a design in this, +but I did not trouble myself much about the meaning of it; the actual +incomplete condition of the Ducal Palace accounted for it. The longing +to regain my freedom gave me something like genius. Groping about with +my fingers, I spelled out an Arabic inscription on the wall. The +author of the work informed those to come after him that he had loosed +two stones in the lowest course of masonry and hollowed out eleven +feet beyond underground. As he went on with his excavations, it became +necessary to spread the fragments of stone and mortar over the floor +of his cell. But even if jailers and inquisitors had not felt sure +that the structure of the building was such that no watch was needed +below, the level of the Pozzi dungeons being several steps below the +threshold, it was possible gradually to raise the earthen floor +without exciting the warder's suspicions. + +"The tremendous labor had profited nothing--nothing at least to him +that began it. The very fact that it was left unfinished told of the +unknown worker's death. Unless his devoted toil was to be wasted for +ever, his successor must have some knowledge of Arabic, but I had +studied Oriental languages at the Armenian Convent. A few words +written on the back of the stone recorded the unhappy man's fate; he +had fallen a victim to his great possessions; Venice had coveted his +wealth and seized upon it. A whole month went by before I obtained any +result; but whenever I felt my strength failing as I worked, I heard +the chink of gold, I saw gold spread before me, I was dazzled by +diamonds.--Ah! wait. + +"One night my blunted steel struck on wood. I whetted the fragment of +my blade and cut a hole; I crept on my belly like a serpent; I worked +naked and mole-fashion, my hands in front of me, using the stone +itself to gain a purchase. I was to appear before my judges in two +days' time, I made a final effort, and that night I bored through the +wood and felt that there was space beyond. + +"Judge of my surprise when I applied my eye to the hole. I was in the +ceiling of a vault, heaps of gold were dimly visible in the faint +light. The Doge himself and one of the Ten stood below; I could hear +their voices and sufficient of their talk to know that this was the +Secret Treasury of the Republic, full of the gifts of Doges and +reserves of booty called the Tithe of Venice from the spoils of +military expeditions. I was saved! + +"When the jailer came I proposed that he should help me to escape and +fly with me, and that we should take with us as much as we could +carry. There was no reason for hesitation; he agreed. Vessels were +about to sail for the Levant. All possible precautions were taken. +Bianca furthered the schemes which I suggested to my accomplice. It +was arranged that Bianca should only rejoin us in Smyrna for fear of +exciting suspicion. In a single night the hole was enlarged, and we +dropped down into the Secret Treasury of Venice. + +"What a night that was! Four great casks full of gold stood there. In +the outer room silver pieces were piled in heaps, leaving a gangway +between by which to cross the chamber. Banks of silver coins +surrounded the walls to the height of five feet. + +"I thought the jailer would go mad. He sang and laughed and danced and +capered among the gold, till I threatened to strangle him if he made a +sound or wasted time. In his joy he did not notice at first the table +where the diamonds lay. I flung myself upon these, and deftly filled +the pockets of my sailor jacket and trousers with the stones. Ah! +Heaven, I did not take the third of them. Gold ingots lay underneath +the table. I persuaded my companion to fill as many bags as we could +carry with the gold, and made him understand that this was our only +chance of escaping detection abroad. + +"'Pearls, rubies, and diamonds might be recognized,' I told him. + +"Covetous though we were, we could not possibly take more than two +thousand livres weight of gold, which meant six journeys across the +prison to the gondola. The sentinel at the water gate was bribed with +a bag containing ten livres weight of gold; and as far as the two +gondoliers, they believed they were serving the Republic. At daybreak +we set out. + +"Once upon the open sea, when I thought of that night, when I +recollected all that I had felt, when the vision of that great hoard +rose before my eyes, and I computed that I had left behind thirty +millions in silver, twenty in gold, and many more in diamonds, pearls, +and rubies--then a sort of madness began to work in me. I had the gold +fever. + +"We landed at Smyrna and took ship at once for France. As we went on +board the French vessel, Heaven favored me by ridding me of my +accomplice. I did not think at the time of all the possible +consequences of this mishap, and rejoiced not a little. We were so +completely unnerved by all that had happened, that we were stupid, we +said not a word to each other, we waited till it should be safe to +enjoy ourselves at our ease. It was not wonderful that the rogue's +head was dizzy. You shall see how heavily God has punished me. + +"I never knew a quiet moment until I had sold two-thirds of my +diamonds in London or Amsterdam, and held the value of my gold dust in +a negotiable shape. For five years I hid myself in Madrid, then in +1770 I came to Paris with a Spanish name, and led as brilliant a life +as may be. Then in the midst of my pleasures, as I enjoyed a fortune +of six millions, I was smitten with blindness. I do not doubt but that +my infirmity was brought on by my sojourn in the cell and my work in +the stone, if, indeed, my peculiar faculty for 'seeing' gold was not +an abuse of the power of sight which predestined me to lose it. Bianca +was dead. + +"At this time I had fallen in love with a woman to whom I thought to +link my fate. I had told her the secret of my name; she belonged to a +powerful family; she was a friend of Mme. du Barry; I hoped everything +from the favor shown me by Louis XV.; I trusted in her. Acting on her +advice, I went to London to consult a famous oculist, and after a stay +of several months in London she deserted me in Hyde Park. She had +stripped me of all that I had, and left me without resource. Nor could +I make complaint, for to disclose my name was to lay myself open to +the vengeance of my native city; I could appeal to no one for aid, I +feared Venice. The woman put spies about me to exploit my infirmity. I +spare you a tale of adventures worthy of Gil Blas.--Your Revolution +followed. For two whole years that creature kept me at the Bicetre as +a lunatic, then she gained admittance for me at the Blind Asylum; +there was no help for it, I went. I could not kill her; I could not +see; and I was so poor that I could not pay another arm. + +"If only I had taken counsel with my jailer, Benedetto Carpi, before I +lost him, I might have known the exact position of my cell, I might +have found my way back to the Treasury and returned to Venice when +Napoleon crushed the Republic-- + +"Still, blind as I am, let us go back to Venice! I shall find the door +of my prison, I shall see the gold through the prison walls, I shall +hear it where it lies under the water; for the events which brought +about the fall of Venice befell in such a way that the secret of the +hoard must have perished with Bianca's brother, Vendramin, a doge to +whom I looked to make my peace with the Ten. I sent memorials to the +First Consul; I proposed an agreement with the Emperor of Austria; +every one sent me about my business for a lunatic. Come! we will go to +Venice; let us set out as beggars, we shall come back millionaires. We +will buy back some of my estates, and you shall be my heir! You shall +be Prince of Varese!" + +My head was swimming. For me his confidences reached the proportions +of tragedy; at the sight of that white head of his and beyond it the +black water in the trenches of the Bastille lying still as a canal in +Venice, I had no words to answer him. Facino Cane thought, no doubt, +that I judged him, as the rest had done, with a disdainful pity; his +gesture expressed the whole philosophy of despair. + +Perhaps his story had taken him back to happy days and to Venice. He +caught up his clarionet and made plaintive music, playing a Venetian +boat-song with something of his lost skill, the skill of the young +patrician lover. It was a sort of _Super flumina Babylonis_. Tears +filled my eyes. Any belated persons walking along the Boulevard +Bourdon must have stood still to listen to an exile's last prayer, a +last cry of regret for a lost name, mingled with memories of Bianca. +But gold soon gained the upper hand, the fatal passion quenched the +light of youth. + +"I see it always," he said; "dreaming or waking, I see it; and as I +pace to and fro, I pace in the Treasury, and the diamonds sparkle. I +am not as blind as you think; gold and diamonds light up my night, the +night of the last Facino Cane, for my title passes to the Memmi. My +God! the murderer's punishment was not long delayed! _Ave Maria_," and +he repeated several prayers that I did not heed. + +"We will go to Venice!" I said, when he rose. + +"Then I have found a man!" he cried, with his face on fire. + +I gave him my arm and went home with him. We reached the gates of the +Blind Asylum just as some of the wedding guests were returning along +the street, shouting at the top of their voices. He squeezed my hand. + +"Shall we start to-morrow?" he asked. + +"As soon as we can get some money." + +"But we can go on foot. I will beg. I am strong, and you feel young +when you see gold before you." + +Facino Cane died before the winter was out after a two months' +illness. The poor man had taken a chill. + + + +PARIS, March 1836. + + + + ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Cane, Marco-Facino + Massimilla Doni + +Vendramini, Marco + Massimilla Doni + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Facino Cane, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FACINO CANE *** + +***** This file should be named 1737.txt or 1737.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/1/7/3/1737/ + +Produced by Dagny, and John Bickers, + +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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Clara Bell and others) + + + + + FACINO CANE + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated By + Clara Bell and others + + + + + + FACINO CANE + + + +I once used to live in a little street which probably is not known to +you--the Rue de Lesdiguieres. It is a turning out of the Rue Saint- +Antoine, beginning just opposite a fountain near the Place de la +Bastille, and ending in the Rue de la Cerisaie. Love of knowledge +stranded me in a garret; my nights I spent in work, my days in reading +at the Bibliotheque d'Orleans, close by. I lived frugally; I had +accepted the conditions of the monastic life, necessary conditions for +every worker, scarcely permitting myself a walk along the Boulevard +Bourdon when the weather was fine. One passion only had power to draw +me from my studies; and yet, what was that passion but a study of +another kind? I used to watch the manners and customs of the Faubourg, +its inhabitants, and their characteristics. As I dressed no better +than a working man, and cared nothing for appearances, I did not put +them on their guard; I could join a group and look on while they drove +bargains or wrangled among themselves on their way home from work. +Even then observation had come to be an instinct with me; a faculty of +penetrating to the soul without neglecting the body; or rather, a +power of grasping external details so thoroughly that they never +detained me for a moment, and at once I passed beyond and through +them. I could enter into the life of the human creatures whom I +watched, just as the dervish in the /Arabian Nights/ could pass into +any soul or body after pronouncing a certain formula. + +If I met a working man and his wife in the streets between eleven +o'clock and midnight on their way home from the Ambigu Comique, I used +to amuse myself by following them from the Boulevard du Pont aux Choux +to the Boulevard Beaumarchais. The good folk would begin by talking +about the play; then from one thing to another they would come to +their own affairs, and the mother would walk on and on, heedless of +complaints or question from the little one that dragged at her hand, +while she and her husband reckoned up the wages to be paid on the +morrow, and spent the money in a score of different ways. Then came +domestic details, lamentations over the excessive dearness of +potatoes, or the length of the winter and the high price of block +fuel, together with forcible representations of amounts owing to the +baker, ending in an acrimonious dispute, in the course of which such +couples reveal their characters in picturesque language. As I +listened, I could make their lives mine, I felt their rags on my back, +I walked with their gaping shoes on my feet; their cravings, their +needs, had all passed into my soul, or my soul had passed into theirs. +It was the dream of a waking man. I waxed hot with them over the +foreman's tyranny, or the bad customers that made them call again and +again for payment. + +To come out of my own ways of life, to be another than myself through +a kind of intoxication of the intellectual faculties, and to play this +game at will, such was my recreation. Whence comes the gift? Is it a +kind of second sight? Is it one of those powers which when abused end +in madness? I have never tried to discover its source; I possess it, I +use it, that is all. But this it behooves you to know, that in those +days I began to resolve the heterogeneous mass known as the People +into its elements, and to evaluate its good and bad qualities. Even +then I realized the possibilities of my suburb, that hotbed of +revolution in which heroes, inventors, and practical men of science, +rogues and scoundrels, virtues and vices, were all packed together by +poverty, stifled by necessity, drowned in drink, and consumed by +ardent spirits. + +You would not imagine how many adventures, how many tragedies, lie +buried away out of sight in that Dolorous City; how much horror and +beauty lurks there. No imagination can reach the Truth, no one can go +down into that city to make discoveries; for one must needs descend +too low into its depths to see the wonderful scenes of tragedy or +comedy enacted there, the masterpieces brought forth by chance. + +I do not know how it is that I have kept the following story so long +untold. It is one of the curious things that stop in the bag from +which Memory draws out stories at haphazard, like numbers in a +lottery. There are plenty of tales just as strange and just as well +hidden still left; but some day, you may be sure, their turn will +come. + + + +One day my charwoman, a working man's wife, came to beg me to honor +her sister's wedding with my presence. If you are to realize what this +wedding was like you must know that I paid my charwoman, poor +creature, four francs a month; for which sum she came every morning to +make my bed, clean my shoes, brush my clothes, sweep the room, and +make ready my breakfast, before going to her day's work of turning the +handle of a machine, at which hard drudgery she earned five-pence. Her +husband, a cabinetmaker, made four francs a day at his trade; but as +they had three children, it was all that they could do to gain an +honest living. Yet I have never met with more sterling honesty than in +this man and wife. For five years after I left the quarter, Mere +Vaillant used to come on my birthday with a bunch of flowers and some +oranges for me--she that had never a sixpence to put by! Want had +drawn us together. I never could give her more than a ten-franc piece, +and often I had to borrow the money for the occasion. This will +perhaps explain my promise to go to the wedding; I hoped to efface +myself in these poor people's merry-making. + +The banquet and the ball were given on a first floor above a wineshop +in the Rue de Charenton. It was a large room, lighted by oil lamps +with tin reflectors. A row of wooden benches ran round the walls, +which were black with grime to the height of the tables. Here some +eighty persons, all in their Sunday best, tricked out with ribbons and +bunches of flowers, all of them on pleasure bent, were dancing away +with heated visages as if the world were about to come to an end. +Bride and bridegroom exchanged salutes to the general satisfaction, +amid a chorus of facetious "Oh, ohs!" and "Ah, ahs!" less really +indecent than the furtive glances of young girls that have been well +brought up. There was something indescribably infectious about the +rough, homely enjoyment in all countenances. + +But neither the faces, nor the wedding, nor the wedding-guests have +anything to do with my story. Simply bear them in mind as the odd +setting to it. Try to realize the scene, the shabby red-painted +wineshop, the smell of wine, the yells of merriment; try to feel that +you are really in the faubourg, among old people, working men and poor +women giving themselves up to a night's enjoyment. + +The band consisted of a fiddle, a clarionet, and a flageolet from the +Blind Asylum. The three were paid seven francs in a lump sum for the +night. For the money, they gave us, not Beethoven certainly, nor yet +Rossini; they played as they had the will and the skill; and every one +in the room (with charming delicacy of feeling) refrained from finding +fault. The music made such a brutal assault on the drum of my ear, +that after a first glance round the room my eyes fell at once upon the +blind trio, and the sight of their uniform inclined me from the first +to indulgence. As the artists stood in a window recess, it was +difficult to distinguish their faces except at close quarters, and I +kept away at first; but when I came nearer (I hardly know why) I +thought of nothing else; the wedding party and the music ceased to +exist, my curiosity was roused to the highest pitch, for my soul +passed into the body of the clarionet player. + +The fiddle and the flageolet were neither of them interesting; their +faces were of the ordinary type among the blind--earnest, attentive, +and grave. Not so the clarionet player; any artist or philosopher must +have come to a stop at the sight of him. + +Picture to yourself a plaster mask of Dante in the red lamplight, with +a forest of silver-white hair above the brows. Blindness intensified +the expression of bitterness and sorrow in that grand face of his; the +dead eyes were lighted up, as it were, by a thought within that broke +forth like a burning flame, lit by one sole insatiable desire, written +large in vigorous characters upon an arching brow scored across with +as many lines as an old stone wall. + +The old man was playing at random, without the slightest regard for +time or tune. His fingers traveled mechanically over the worn keys of +his instrument; he did not trouble himself over a false note now and +again (a /canard/, in the language of the orchestra), neither did the +dancers, nor, for that matter, did my old Italian's acolytes; for I +had made up my mind that he must be Italian, and an Italian he was. +There was something great, something too of the despot about this old +Homer bearing within him an /Odyssey/ doomed to oblivion. The +greatness was so real that it triumphed over his abject position; the +despotism so much a part of him, that it rose above his poverty. + +There are violent passions which drive a man to good or evil, making +of him a hero or a convict; of these there was not one that had failed +to leave its traces on the grandly-hewn, lividly Italian face. You +trembled lest a flash of thought should suddenly light up the deep +sightless hollows under the grizzled brows, as you might fear to see +brigands with torches and poniards in the mouth of a cavern. You felt +that there was a lion in that cage of flesh, a lion spent with useless +raging against iron bars. The fires of despair had burned themselves +out into ashes, the lava had cooled; but the tracks of the flames, the +wreckage, and a little smoke remained to bear witness to the violence +of the eruption, the ravages of the fire. These images crowded up at +the sight of the clarionet player, till the thoughts now grown cold in +his face burned hot within my soul. + +The fiddle and the flageolet took a deep interest in bottles and +glasses; at the end of a country-dance, they hung their instruments +from a button on their reddish-colored coats, and stretched out their +hands to a little table set in the window recess to hold their liquor +supply. Each time they did so they held out a full glass to the +Italian, who could not reach it for himself because he sat in front of +the table, and each time the Italian thanked them with a friendly nod. +All their movements were made with the precision which always amazes +you so much at the Blind Asylum. You could almost think that they can +see. I came nearer to listen; but when I stood beside them, they +evidently guessed I was not a working man, and kept themselves to +themselves. + +"What part of the world do you come from, you that are playing the +clarionet?" + +"From Venice," he said, with a trace of Italian accent. + +"Have you always been blind, or did it come on afterwards--" + +"Afterwards," he answered quickly. "A cursed gutta serena." + +"Venice is a fine city; I have always had a fancy to go there." + +The old man's face lighted up, the wrinkles began to work, he was +violently excited. + +"If I went with you, you would not lose your time," he said. + +"Don't talk about Venice to our Doge," put in the fiddle, "or you will +start him off, and he has stowed away a couple of bottles as it is-- +has the prince!" + +"Come, strike up, Daddy Canard!" added the flageolet, and the three +began to play. But while they executed the four figures of a square +dance, the Venetian was scenting my thoughts; he guessed the great +interest I felt in him. The dreary, dispirited look died out of his +face, some mysterious hope brightened his features and slid like a +blue flame over his wrinkles. He smiled and wiped his brow, that +fearless, terrible brow of his, and at length grew gay like a man +mounted on his hobby. + +"How old are you?" I asked. + +"Eighty-two." + +"How long have you been blind?" + +"For very nearly fifty years," he said, and there was that in his tone +which told me that his regret was for something more than his lost +sight, for great power of which he had been robbed. + +"Then why do they call you 'the Doge'?" I asked. + +"Oh, it is a joke. I am a Venetian noble, and I might have been a doge +like any one else." + +"What is your name?" + +"Here, in Paris, I am Pere Canet," he said. "It was the only way of +spelling my name on the register. But in Italy I am Marco Facino Cane, +Prince of Varese." + +"What, are you descended from the great /condottiere/ Facino Cane, +whose lands won by the sword were taken by the Dukes of Milan?" + +"/E vero/," returned he. "His son's life was not safe under the +Visconti; he fled to Venice, and his name was inscribed on the Golden +Book. And now neither Cane or Golden Book are in existence." His +gesture startled me; it told of patriotism extinguished and weariness +of life. + +"But if you were once a Venetian senator, you must have been a wealthy +man. How did you lose your fortune?" + +"In evil days." + +He waved away the glass of wine handed to him by the flageolet, and +bowed his head. He had no heart to drink. These details were not +calculated to extinguish my curiosity. + +As the three ground out the music of the square dance, I gazed at the +old Venetian noble, thinking thoughts that set a young man's mind +afire at the age of twenty. I saw Venice and the Adriatic; I saw her +ruin in the ruin of the face before me. I walked to and fro in that +city, so beloved of her citizens; I went from the Rialto Bridge, along +the Grand Canal, and from the Riva degli Schiavoni to the Lido, +returning to St. Mark's, that cathedral so unlike all others in its +sublimity. I looked up at the windows of the Casa Doro, each with its +different sculptured ornaments; I saw old palaces rich in marbles, saw +all the wonders which a student beholds with the more sympathetic eyes +because visible things take their color of his fancy, and the sight of +realities cannot rob him of the glory of his dreams. Then I traced +back a course of life for this latest scion of a race of condottieri, +tracking down his misfortunes, looking for the reasons of the deep +moral and physical degradation out of which the lately revived sparks +of greatness and nobility shone so much the more brightly. My ideas, +no doubt, were passing through his mind, for all processes of thought- +communications are far more swift, I think, in blind people, because +their blindness compels them to concentrate their attention. I had not +long to wait for proof that we were in sympathy in this way. Facino +Cane left off playing, and came up to me. "Let us go out!" he said; +his tones thrilled through me like an electric shock. I gave him my +arm, and we went. + +Outside in the street he said, "Will you take me back to Venice? Will +you be my guide? Will you put faith in me? You shall be richer than +ten of the richest houses in Amsterdam or London, richer than +Rothschild; in short, you shall have the fabulous wealth of the +/Arabian Nights/." + +The man was mad, I thought; but in his voice there was a potent +something which I obeyed. I allowed him to lead, and he went in the +direction of the Fosses de la Bastille, as if he could see; walking +till he reached a lonely spot down by the river, just where the bridge +has since been built at the junction of the Canal Saint-Martin and the +Seine. Here he sat down on a stone, and I, sitting opposite to him, +saw the old man's hair gleaming like threads of silver in the +moonlight. The stillness was scarcely troubled by the sound of the +far-off thunder of traffic along the boulevards; the clear night air +and everything about us combined to make a strangely unreal scene. + +"You talk of millions to a young man," I began, "and do you think that +he will shrink from enduring any number of hardships to gain them? Are +you not laughing at me?" + +"May I die unshriven," he cried vehemently, "if all that I am about to +tell you is not true. I was one-and-twenty years old, like you at this +moment. I was rich, I was handsome, and a noble by birth. I began with +the first madness of all--with Love. I loved as no one can love +nowadays. I have hidden myself in a chest, at the risk of a dagger +thrust, for nothing more than the promise of a kiss. To die for Her-- +it seemed to me to be a whole life in itself. In 1760 I fell in love +with a lady of the Vendramin family; she was eighteen years old, and +married to a Sagredo, one of the richest senators, a man of thirty, +madly in love with his wife. My mistress and I were guiltless as +cherubs when the /sposo/ caught us together talking of love. He was +armed, I was not, but he missed me; I sprang upon him and killed him +with my two hands, wringing his neck as if he had been a chicken. I +wanted Bianca to fly with me; but she would not. That is the way with +women! So I went alone. I was condemned to death, and my property was +confiscated and made over to my next-of-kin; but I had carried off my +diamonds, five of Titian's pictures taken down from their frames and +rolled up, and all my gold. + +"I went to Milan, no one molested me, my affair in nowise interested +the State.--One small observation before I go further," he continued, +after a pause, "whether it is true or no that the mother's fancies at +the time of conception or in the months before birth can influence her +child, this much is certain, my mother during her pregnancy had a +passion for gold, and I am the victim of a monomania, of a craving for +gold which must be gratified. Gold is so much of a necessity of life +for me, that I have never been without it; I must have gold to toy +with and finger. As a young man I always wore jewelry, and I carried +two or three hundred ducats about me wherever I went." + +He drew a couple of gold coins from his pocket and showed them to me +as he spoke. + +"I can tell by instinct when gold is near. Blind as I am, I stop +before a jeweler's shop windows. That passion was the ruin of me; I +took to gambling to play with gold. I was not a cheat, I was cheated, +I ruined myself. I lost all my fortune. Then the longing to see Bianca +once more possessed me like a frenzy. I stole back to Venice and found +her again. For six months I was happy; she hid me in her house and fed +me. I thought thus deliciously to finish my days. But the Provveditore +courted her, and guessed that he had a rival; we in Italy can feel +that. He played the spy upon us, and surprised us together in bed, +base wretch. You may judge what a fight for life it was; I did not +kill him outright, but I wounded him dangerously. + +"That adventure broke my luck. I have never found another Bianca; I +have known great pleasures; but among the most celebrated women at the +court of Louis XV. I never found my beloved Venetian's charm, her +love, her great qualities. + +"The Provveditore called his servants, the palace was surrounded and +entered; I fought for my life that I might die beneath Bianca's eyes; +Bianca helped me to kill the Provveditore. Once before she had refused +flight with me; but after six months of happiness she wished only to +die with me, and received several thrusts. I was entangled in a great +cloak that they flung over me, carried down to a gondola, and hurried +to the Pozzi dungeons. I was twenty-two years old. I gripped the hilt +of my broken sword so hard, that they could only have taken it from me +by cutting off my hand at the wrist. A curious chance, or rather the +instinct of self-preservation, led me to hide the fragment of the +blade in a corner of my cell, as if it might still be of use. They +tended me; none of my wounds were serious. At two-and-twenty one can +recover from anything. I was to lose my head on the scaffold. I +shammed illness to gain time. It seemed to me that the canal lay just +outside my cell. I thought to make my escape by boring a hole through +the wall and swimming for my life. I based my hopes on the following +reasons. + +"Every time that the jailer came with my food, there was light enough +to read directions written on the walls--'Side of the Palace,' 'Side +of the Canal,' 'Side of the Vaults.' At last I saw a design in this, +but I did not trouble myself much about the meaning of it; the actual +incomplete condition of the Ducal Palace accounted for it. The longing +to regain my freedom gave me something like genius. Groping about with +my fingers, I spelled out an Arabic inscription on the wall. The +author of the work informed those to come after him that he had loosed +two stones in the lowest course of masonry and hollowed out eleven +feet beyond underground. As he went on with his excavations, it became +necessary to spread the fragments of stone and mortar over the floor +of his cell. But even if jailers and inquisitors had not felt sure +that the structure of the building was such that no watch was needed +below, the level of the Pozzi dungeons being several steps below the +threshold, it was possible gradually to raise the earthen floor +without exciting the warder's suspicions. + +"The tremendous labor had profited nothing--nothing at least to him +that began it. The very fact that it was left unfinished told of the +unknown worker's death. Unless his devoted toil was to be wasted for +ever, his successor must have some knowledge of Arabic, but I had +studied Oriental languages at the Armenian Convent. A few words +written on the back of the stone recorded the unhappy man's fate; he +had fallen a victim to his great possessions; Venice had coveted his +wealth and seized upon it. A whole month went by before I obtained any +result; but whenever I felt my strength failing as I worked, I heard +the chink of gold, I saw gold spread before me, I was dazzled by +diamonds.--Ah! wait. + +"One night my blunted steel struck on wood. I whetted the fragment of +my blade and cut a hole; I crept on my belly like a serpent; I worked +naked and mole-fashion, my hands in front of me, using the stone +itself to gain a purchase. I was to appear before my judges in two +days' time, I made a final effort, and that night I bored through the +wood and felt that there was space beyond. + +"Judge of my surprise when I applied my eye to the hole. I was in the +ceiling of a vault, heaps of gold were dimly visible in the faint +light. The Doge himself and one of the Ten stood below; I could hear +their voices and sufficient of their talk to know that this was the +Secret Treasury of the Republic, full of the gifts of Doges and +reserves of booty called the Tithe of Venice from the spoils of +military expeditions. I was saved! + +"When the jailer came I proposed that he should help me to escape and +fly with me, and that we should take with us as much as we could +carry. There was no reason for hesitation; he agreed. Vessels were +about to sail for the Levant. All possible precautions were taken. +Bianca furthered the schemes which I suggested to my accomplice. It +was arranged that Bianca should only rejoin us in Smyrna for fear of +exciting suspicion. In a single night the hole was enlarged, and we +dropped down into the Secret Treasury of Venice. + +"What a night that was! Four great casks full of gold stood there. In +the outer room silver pieces were piled in heaps, leaving a gangway +between by which to cross the chamber. Banks of silver coins +surrounded the walls to the height of five feet. + +"I thought the jailer would go mad. He sang and laughed and danced and +capered among the gold, till I threatened to strangle him if he made a +sound or wasted time. In his joy he did not notice at first the table +where the diamonds lay. I flung myself upon these, and deftly filled +the pockets of my sailor jacket and trousers with the stones. Ah! +Heaven, I did not take the third of them. Gold ingots lay underneath +the table. I persuaded my companion to fill as many bags as we could +carry with the gold, and made him understand that this was our only +chance of escaping detection abroad. + +" 'Pearls, rubies, and diamonds might be recognized,' I told him. + +"Covetous though we were, we could not possibly take more than two +thousand livres weight of gold, which meant six journeys across the +prison to the gondola. The sentinel at the water gate was bribed with +a bag containing ten livres weight of gold; and as far as the two +gondoliers, they believed they were serving the Republic. At daybreak +we set out. + +"Once upon the open sea, when I thought of that night, when I +recollected all that I had felt, when the vision of that great hoard +rose before my eyes, and I computed that I had left behind thirty +millions in silver, twenty in gold, and many more in diamonds, pearls, +and rubies--then a sort of madness began to work in me. I had the gold +fever. + +"We landed at Smyrna and took ship at once for France. As we went on +board the French vessel, Heaven favored me by ridding me of my +accomplice. I did not think at the time of all the possible +consequences of this mishap, and rejoiced not a little. We were so +completely unnerved by all that had happened, that we were stupid, we +said not a word to each other, we waited till it should be safe to +enjoy ourselves at our ease. It was not wonderful that the rogue's +head was dizzy. You shall see how heavily God has punished me. + +"I never knew a quiet moment until I had sold two-thirds of my +diamonds in London or Amsterdam, and held the value of my gold dust in +a negotiable shape. For five years I hid myself in Madrid, then in +1770 I came to Paris with a Spanish name, and led as brilliant a life +as may be. Then in the midst of my pleasures, as I enjoyed a fortune +of six millions, I was smitten with blindness. I do not doubt but that +my infirmity was brought on by my sojourn in the cell and my work in +the stone, if, indeed, my peculiar faculty for 'seeing' gold was not +an abuse of the power of sight which predestined me to lose it. Bianca +was dead. + +"At this time I had fallen in love with a woman to whom I thought to +link my fate. I had told her the secret of my name; she belonged to a +powerful family; she was a friend of Mme. du Barry; I hoped everything +from the favor shown me by Louis XV.; I trusted in her. Acting on her +advice, I went to London to consult a famous oculist, and after a stay +of several months in London she deserted me in Hyde Park. She had +stripped me of all that I had, and left me without resource. Nor could +I make complaint, for to disclose my name was to lay myself open to +the vengeance of my native city; I could appeal to no one for aid, I +feared Venice. The woman put spies about me to exploit my infirmity. I +spare you a tale of adventures worthy of Gil Blas.--Your Revolution +followed. For two whole years that creature kept me at the Bicetre as +a lunatic, then she gained admittance for me at the Blind Asylum; +there was no help for it, I went. I could not kill her; I could not +see; and I was so poor that I could not pay another arm. + +"If only I had taken counsel with my jailer, Benedetto Carpi, before I +lost him, I might have known the exact position of my cell, I might +have found my way back to the Treasury and returned to Venice when +Napoleon crushed the Republic-- + +"Still, blind as I am, let us go back to Venice! I shall find the door +of my prison, I shall see the gold through the prison walls, I shall +hear it where it lies under the water; for the events which brought +about the fall of Venice befell in such a way that the secret of the +hoard must have perished with Bianca's brother, Vendramin, a doge to +whom I looked to make my peace with the Ten. I sent memorials to the +First Consul; I proposed an agreement with the Emperor of Austria; +every one sent me about my business for a lunatic. Come! we will go to +Venice; let us set out as beggars, we shall come back millionaires. We +will buy back some of my estates, and you shall be my heir! You shall +be Prince of Varese!" + +My head was swimming. For me his confidences reached the proportions +of tragedy; at the sight of that white head of his and beyond it the +black water in the trenches of the Bastille lying still as a canal in +Venice, I had no words to answer him. Facino Cane thought, no doubt, +that I judged him, as the rest had done, with a disdainful pity; his +gesture expressed the whole philosophy of despair. + +Perhaps his story had taken him back to happy days and to Venice. He +caught up his clarionet and made plaintive music, playing a Venetian +boat-song with something of his lost skill, the skill of the young +patrician lover. It was a sort of /Super flumina Babylonis/. Tears +filled my eyes. Any belated persons walking along the Boulevard +Bourdon must have stood still to listen to an exile's last prayer, a +last cry of regret for a lost name, mingled with memories of Bianca. +But gold soon gained the upper hand, the fatal passion quenched the +light of youth. + +"I see it always," he said; "dreaming or waking, I see it; and as I +pace to and fro, I pace in the Treasury, and the diamonds sparkle. I +am not as blind as you think; gold and diamonds light up my night, the +night of the last Facino Cane, for my title passes to the Memmi. My +God! the murderer's punishment was not long delayed! /Ave Maria/," and +he repeated several prayers that I did not heed. + +"We will go to Venice!" I said, when he rose. + +"Then I have found a man!" he cried, with his face on fire. + +I gave him my arm and went home with him. We reached the gates of the +Blind Asylum just as some of the wedding guests were returning along +the street, shouting at the top of their voices. He squeezed my hand. + +"Shall we start to-morrow?" he asked. + +"As soon as we can get some money." + +"But we can go on foot. I will beg. I am strong, and you feel young +when you see gold before you." + +Facino Cane died before the winter was out after a two months' +illness. The poor man had taken a chill. + + + +PARIS, March 1836. + + + + ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Cane, Marco-Facino + Massimilla Doni + +Vendramini, Marco + Massimilla Doni + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Facino Cane by Balzac + diff --git a/old/fcane10.zip b/old/fcane10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d5909ad --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fcane10.zip |