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diff --git a/old/fcane10.txt b/old/fcane10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..13cedb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fcane10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,875 @@ + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac +#1737 in our series by Honore de Balzac + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +Facino Cane + +by Honore de Balzac (transl. 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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 + |