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diff --git a/old/zmrcs10h.htm b/old/zmrcs10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3340e4a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/zmrcs10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1563 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>New File</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +body {margin:10%; text-align:justify} +blockquote {font-size:14pt} +P {font-size:14pt} +--> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Z. Marcas,<br> +by Honore de Balzac</h1> + +<pre> +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Z. Marcas + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: August, 1999 [EBook #1841] +[Most recently updated: February 17, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, Z. MARCAS *** + + + + +</pre> + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com and John Bickers, +jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz + +<p>Z. Marcas</p> + +<p>by Honore de Balzac</p> + +<p>Translated by Clara Bell and others</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>DEDICATION</p> + +<p>To His Highness Count William of Wurtemberg, as a token of the +Author's respectful gratitude.</p> + +<p>DE BALZAC.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p> </p> + +<h1 align="center">Z. MARCAS</h1> + +<p>I never saw anybody, not even among the most remarkable men of +the day, whose appearance was so striking as this man's; the +study of his countenance at first gave me a feeling of great +melancholy, and at last produced an almost painful +impression.</p> + +<p>There was a certain harmony between the man and his name. The +Z. preceding Marcas, which was seen on the addresses of his +letters, and which he never omitted from his signature, as the +last letter of the alphabet, suggested some mysterious +fatality.</p> + +<p>MARCAS! say this two-syllabled name again and again; do you +not feel as if it had some sinister meaning? Does it not seem to +you that its owner must be doomed to martyrdom? Though foreign, +savage, the name has a right to be handed down to posterity; it +is well constructed, easily pronounced, and has the brevity that +beseems a famous name. Is it not pleasant as well as odd? But +does it not sound unfinished?</p> + +<p>I will not take it upon myself to assert that names have no +influence on the destiny of men. There is a certain secret and +inexplicable concord or a visible discord between the events of a +man's life and his name which is truly surprising; often some +remote but very real correlation is revealed. Our globe is round; +everything is linked to everything else. Some day perhaps we +shall revert to the occult sciences.</p> + +<p>Do you not discern in that letter Z an adverse influence? Does +it not prefigure the wayward and fantastic progress of a +storm-tossed life? What wind blew on that letter, which, whatever +language we find it in, begins scarcely fifty words? Marcas' name +was Zephirin; Saint Zephirin is highly venerated in Brittany, and +Marcas was a Breton.</p> + +<p>Study the name once more: Z Marcas! The man's whole life lies +in this fantastic juxtaposition of seven letters; seven! the most +significant of all the cabalistic numbers. And he died at +five-and-thirty, so his life extended over seven lustres.</p> + +<p>Marcas! Does it not hint of some precious object that is +broken with a fall, with or without a crash?</p> + +<p>I had finished studying the law in Paris in 1836. I lived at +that time in the Rue Corneille in a house where none but students +came to lodge, one of those large houses where there is a winding +staircase quite at the back lighted below from the street, higher +up by borrowed lights, and at the top by a skylight. There were +forty furnished rooms-- furnished as students' rooms are! What +does youth demand more than was here supplied? A bed, a few +chairs, a chest of drawers, a looking- glass, and a table. As +soon as the sky is blue the student opens his window.</p> + +<p>But in this street there are no fair neighbors to flirt with. +In front is the Odeon, long since closed, presenting a wall that +is beginning to go black, its tiny gallery windows and its vast +expanse of slate roof. I was not rich enough to have a good room; +I was not even rich enough to have a room to myself. Juste and I +shared a double-bedded room on the fifth floor.</p> + +<p>On our side of the landing there were but two rooms--ours and +a smaller one, occupied by Z. Marcas, our neighbor. For six +months Juste and I remained in perfect ignorance of the fact. The +old woman who managed the house had indeed told us that the room +was inhabited, but she had added that we should not be disturbed, +that the occupant was exceedingly quiet. In fact, for those six +months, we never met our fellow-lodger, and we never heard a +sound in his room, in spite of the thinness of the partition that +divided us--one of those walls of lath and plaster which are +common in Paris houses.</p> + +<p>Our room, a little over seven feet high, was hung with a vile +cheap paper sprigged with blue. The floor was painted, and knew +nothing of the polish given by the <i>frotteur's</i> brush. By +our beds there was only a scrap of thin carpet. The chimney +opened immediately to the roof, and smoked so abominably that we +were obliged to provide a stove at our own expense. Our beds were +mere painted wooden cribs like those in schools; on the chimney +shelf there were but two brass candlesticks, with or without +tallow candles in them, and our two pipes with some tobacco in a +pouch or strewn abroad, also the little piles of cigar- ash left +there by our visitors or ourselves.</p> + +<p>A pair of calico curtains hung from the brass window rods, and +on each side of the window was a small bookcase in cherry-wood, +such as every one knows who has stared into the shop windows of +the Quartier Latin, and in which we kept the few books necessary +for our studies.</p> + +<p>The ink in the inkstand was always in the state of lava +congealed in the crater of a volcano. May not any inkstand +nowadays become a Vesuvius? The pens, all twisted, served to +clean the stems of our pipes; and, in opposition to all the laws +of credit, paper was even scarcer than coin.</p> + +<p>How can young men be expected to stay at home in such +furnished lodgings? The students studied in the cafes, the +theatre, the Luxembourg gardens, in <i>grisettes'</i> rooms, even +in the law schools-- anywhere rather than in their horrible +rooms--horrible for purposes of study, delightful as soon as they +were used for gossiping and smoking in. Put a cloth on the table, +and the impromptu dinner sent in from the best eating-house in +the neighborhood--places for four--two of them in +petticoats--show a lithograph of this "Interior" to the veriest +bigot, and she will be bound to smile.</p> + +<p>We thought only of amusing ourselves. The reason for our +dissipation lay in the most serious facts of the politics of the +time. Juste and I could not see any room for us in the two +professions our parents wished us to take up. There are a hundred +doctors, a hundred lawyers, for one that is wanted. The crowd is +choking these two paths which are supposed to lead to fortune, +but which are merely two arenas; men kill each other there, +fighting, not indeed with swords or fire-arms, but with intrigue +and calumny, with tremendous toil, campaigns in the sphere of the +intellect as murderous as those in Italy were to the soldiers of +the Republic. In these days, when everything is an intellectual +competition, a man must be able to sit forty-eight hours on end +in his chair before a table, as a General could remain for two +days on horseback and in his saddle.</p> + +<p>The throng of aspirants has necessitated a division of the +Faculty of Medicine into categories. There is the physician who +writes and the physician who practises, the political physician, +and the physician militant--four different ways of being a +physician, four classes already filled up. As to the fifth class, +that of physicians who sell remedies, there is such a competition +that they fight each other with disgusting advertisements on the +walls of Paris.</p> + +<p>In all the law courts there are almost as many lawyers as +there are cases. The pleader is thrown back on journalism, on +politics, on literature. In fact, the State, besieged for the +smallest appointments under the law, has ended by requiring that +the applicants should have some little fortune. The pear-shaped +head of the grocer's son is selected in preference to the square +skull of a man of talent who has not a sou. Work as he will, with +all his energy, a young man, starting from zero, may at the end +of ten years find himself below the point he set out from. In +these days, talent must have the good luck which secures success +to the most incapable; nay, more, if it scorns the base +compromises which insure advancement to crawling mediocrity, it +will never get on.</p> + +<p>If we thoroughly knew our time, we also knew ourselves, and we +preferred the indolence of dreamers to aimless stir, easy-going +pleasure to the useless toil which would have exhausted our +courage and worn out the edge of our intelligence. We had +analyzed social life while smoking, laughing, and loafing. But, +though elaborated by such means as these, our reflections were +none the less judicious and profound.</p> + +<p>While we were fully conscious of the slavery to which youth is +condemned, we were amazed at the brutal indifference of the +authorities to everything connected with intellect, thought, and +poetry. How often have Juste and I exchanged glances when reading +the papers as we studied political events, or the debates in the +Chamber, and discussed the proceedings of a Court whose wilful +ignorance could find no parallel but in the platitude of the +courtiers, the mediocrity of the men forming the hedge round the +newly-restored throne, all alike devoid of talent or breadth of +view, of distinction or learning, of influence or dignity!</p> + +<p>Could there be a higher tribute to the Court of Charles X. +than the present Court, if Court it may be called? What a hatred +of the country may be seen in the naturalization of vulgar +foreigners, devoid of talent, who are enthroned in the Chamber of +Peers! What a perversion of justice! What an insult to the +distinguished youth, the ambitions native to the soil of France! +We looked upon these things as upon a spectacle, and groaned over +them, without taking upon ourselves to act.</p> + +<p>Juste, whom no one ever sought, and who never sought any one, +was, at five-and-twenty, a great politician, a man with a +wonderful aptitude for apprehending the correlation between +remote history and the facts of the present and of the future. In +1831, he told me exactly what would and did happen--the murders, +the conspiracies, the ascendency of the Jews, the difficulty of +doing anything in France, the scarcity of talent in the higher +circles, and the abundance of intellect in the lowest ranks, +where the finest courage is smothered under cigar ashes.</p> + +<p>What was to become of him? His parents wished him to be a +doctor. But if he were a doctor, must he not wait twenty years +for a practice? You know what he did? No? Well, he is a doctor; +but he left France, he is in Asia. At this moment he is perhaps +sinking under fatigue in a desert, or dying of the lashes of a +barbarous horde--or perhaps he is some Indian prince's prime +minister.</p> + +<p>Action is my vocation. Leaving a civil college at the age of +twenty, the only way for me to enter the army was by enlisting as +a common soldier; so, weary of the dismal outlook that lay before +a lawyer, I acquired the knowledge needed for a sailor. I imitate +Juste, and keep out of France, where men waste, in the struggle +to make way, the energy needed for the noblest works. Follow my +example, friends; I am going where a man steers his destiny as he +pleases.</p> + +<p>These great resolutions were formed in the little room in the +lodging- house in the Rue Corneille, in spite of our haunting the +Bal Musard, flirting with girls of the town, and leading a +careless and apparently reckless life. Our plans and arguments +long floated in the air.</p> + +<p>Marcas, our neighbor, was in some degree the guide who led us +to the margin of the precipice or the torrent, who made us sound +it, and showed us beforehand what our fate would be if we let +ourselves fall into it. It was he who put us on our guard against +the time-bargains a man makes with poverty under the sanction of +hope, by accepting precarious situations whence he fights the +battle, carried along by the devious tide of Paris--that great +harlot who takes you up or leaves you stranded, smiles or turns +her back on you with equal readiness, wears out the strongest +will in vexatious waiting, and makes misfortune wait on +chance.</p> + +<p>At our first meeting, Marcas, as it were, dazzled us. On our +return from the schools, a little before the dinner-hour, we were +accustomed to go up to our room and remain there a while, either +waiting for the other, to learn whether there were any change in +our plans for the evening. One day, at four o'clock, Juste met +Marcas on the stairs, and I saw him in the street. It was in the +month of November, and Marcas had no cloak; he wore shoes with +heavy soles, corduroy trousers, and a blue double-breasted coat +buttoned to the throat, which gave a military air to his broad +chest, all the more so because he wore a black stock. The costume +was not in itself extraordinary, but it agreed well with the +man's mien and countenance.</p> + +<p>My first impression on seeing him was neither surprise, nor +distress, nor interest, nor pity, but curiosity mingled with all +these feelings. He walked slowly, with a step that betrayed deep +melancholy, his head forward with a stoop, but not bent like that +of a conscience-stricken man. That head, large and powerful, +which might contain the treasures necessary for a man of the +highest ambition, looked as if it were loaded with thought; it +was weighted with grief of mind, but there was no touch of +remorse in his expression. As to his face, it may be summed up in +a word. A common superstition has it that every human countenance +resembles some animal. The animal for Marcas was the lion. His +hair was like a mane, his nose was sort and flat; broad and +dented at the tip like a lion's; his brow, like a lion's, was +strongly marked with a deep median furrow, dividing two powerful +bosses. His high, hairy cheek-bones, all the more prominent +because his cheeks were so thin, his enormous mouth and hollow +jaws, were accentuated by lines of tawny shadows. This almost +terrible countenance seemed illuminated by two lamps--two eyes, +black indeed, but infinitely sweet, calm and deep, full of +thought. If I may say so, those eyes had a humiliated +expression.</p> + +<p>Marcas was afraid of looking directly at others, not for +himself, but for those on whom his fascinating gaze might rest; +he had a power, and he shunned using it; he would spare those he +met, and he feared notice. This was not from modesty, but from +resignation founded on reason, which had demonstrated the +immediate inutility of his gifts, the impossibility of entering +and living in the sphere for which he was fitted. Those eyes +could at times flash lightnings. From those lips a voice of +thunder must surely proceed; it was a mouth like Mirabeau's.</p> + +<p>"I have seen such a grand fellow in the street," said I to +Juste on coming in.</p> + +<p>"It must be our neighbor," replied Juste, who described, in +fact, the man I had just met. "A man who lives like a wood-louse +would be sure to look like that," he added.</p> + +<p>"What dejection and what dignity!"</p> + +<p>"One is the consequence of the other."</p> + +<p>"What ruined hopes! What schemes and failures!"</p> + +<p>"Seven leagues of ruins! Obelisks--palaces--towers!--The ruins +of Palmyra in the desert!" said Juste, laughing.</p> + +<p>So we called him the Ruins of Palmyra.</p> + +<p>As we went out to dine at the wretched eating-house in the Rue +de la Harpe to which we subscribed, we asked the name of Number +37, and then heard the weird name Z. Marcas. Like boys, as we +were, we repeated it more than a hundred times with all sorts of +comments, absurd or melancholy, and the name lent itself to a +jest. Juste would fire off the Z like a rocket rising, +<i>z-z-z-z-zed</i>; and after pronouncing the first syllable of +the name with great importance, depicted a fall by the dull +brevity of the second.</p> + +<p>"Now, how and where does the man live?"</p> + +<p>From this query, to the innocent espionage of curiosity there +was no pause but that required for carrying out our plan. Instead +of loitering about the streets, we both came in, each armed with +a novel. We read with our ears open. And in the perfect silence +of our attic rooms, we heard the even, dull sound of a sleeping +man breathing.</p> + +<p>"He is asleep," said I to Juste, noticing this fact.</p> + +<p>"At seven o'clock!" replied the Doctor.</p> + +<p>This was the name by which I called Juste, and he called me +the Keeper of the Seals.</p> + +<p>"A man must be wretched indeed to sleep as much as our +neighbor!" cried I, jumping on to the chest of drawers with a +knife in my hand, to which a corkscrew was attached.</p> + +<p>I made a round hole at the top of the partition, about as big +as a five-sou piece. I had forgotten that there would be no light +in the room, and on putting my eye to the hole, I saw only +darkness. At about one in the morning, when we had finished our +books and were about to undress, we heard a noise in our +neighbor's room. He got up, struck a match, and lighted his dip. +I got on to the drawers again, and I then saw Marcas seated at +his table and copying law-papers.</p> + +<p>His room was about half the size of ours; the bed stood in a +recess by the door, for the passage ended there, and its breadth +was added to his garret; but the ground on which the house was +built was evidently irregular, for the party-wall formed an +obtuse angle, and the room was not square. There was no +fireplace, only a small earthenware stove, white blotched with +green, of which the pipe went up through the roof. The window, in +the skew side of the room, had shabby red curtains. The furniture +consisted of an armchair, a table, a chair, and a wretched +bed-table. A cupboard in the wall held his clothes. The +wall-paper was horrible; evidently only a servant had ever been +lodged there before Marcas.</p> + +<p>"What is to be seen?" asked the Doctor as I got down.</p> + +<p>"Look for yourself," said I.</p> + +<p>At nine next morning, Marcas was in bed. He had breakfasted +off a saveloy; we saw on a plate, with some crumbs of bread, the +remains of that too familiar delicacy. He was asleep; he did not +wake till eleven. He then set to work again on the copy he had +begun the night before, which was lying on the table.</p> + +<p>On going downstairs we asked the price of that room, and were +told fifteen francs a month.</p> + +<p>In the course of a few days, we were fully informed as to the +mode of life of Z. Marcas. He did copying, at so much a sheet no +doubt, for a law-writer who lived in the courtyard of the +Sainte-Chapelle. He worked half the night; after sleeping from +six till ten, he began again and wrote till three. Then he went +out to take the copy home before dinner, which he ate at +Mizerai's in the Rue Michel-le-Comte, at a cost of nine sous, and +came in to bed at six o'clock. It became known to us that Marcas +did not utter fifteen sentences in a month; he never talked to +anybody, nor said a word to himself in his dreadful garret.</p> + +<p>"The Ruins of Palmyra are terribly silent!" said Juste.</p> + +<p>This taciturnity in a man whose appearance was so imposing was +strangely significant. Sometimes when we met him, we exchanged +glances full of meaning on both sides, but they never led to any +advances. Insensibly this man became the object of our secret +admiration, though we knew no reason for it. Did it lie in his +secretly simple habits, his monastic regularity, his hermit-like +frugality, his idiotically mechanical labor, allowing his mind to +remain neuter or to work on his own lines, seeming to us to hint +at an expectation of some stroke of good luck, or at some +foregone conclusion as to his life?</p> + +<p>After wandering for a long time among the Ruins of Palmyra, we +forgot them--we were young! Then came the Carnival, the Paris +Carnival, which, henceforth, will eclipse the old Carnival of +Venice, unless some ill-advised Prefect of Police is +antagonistic.</p> + +<p>Gambling ought to be allowed during the Carnival; but the +stupid moralists who have had gambling suppressed are inert +financiers, and this indispensable evil will be re-established +among us when it is proved that France leaves millions at the +German tables.</p> + +<p>This splendid Carnival brought us to utter penury, as it does +every student. We got rid of every object of luxury; we sold our +second coats, our second boots, our second waistcoats--everything +of which we had a duplicate, except our friend. We ate bread and +cold sausages; we looked where we walked; we had set to work in +earnest. We owed two months' rent, and were sure of having a bill +from the porter for sixty or eighty items each, and amounting to +forty or fifty francs. We made no noise, and did not laugh as we +crossed the little hall at the bottom of the stairs; we commonly +took it at a flying leap from the lowest step into the street. On +the day when we first found ourselves bereft of tobacco for our +pipes, it struck us that for some days we had been eating bread +without any kind of butter.</p> + +<p>Great was our distress.</p> + +<p>"No tobacco!" said the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"No cloak!" said the Keeper of the Seals.</p> + +<p>"Ah, you rascals, you would dress as the postillion de +Longjumeau, you would appear as Debardeurs, sup in the morning, +and breakfast at night at Very's--sometimes even at the <i>Rocher +de Cancale</i>.--Dry bread for you, my boys! Why," said I, in a +big bass voice, "you deserve to sleep under the bed, you are not +worthy to lie in it--"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; but, Keeper of the Seals, there is no more +tobacco!" said Juste.</p> + +<p>"It is high time to write home, to our aunts, our mothers, and +our sisters, to tell them we have no underlinen left, that the +wear and tear of Paris would ruin garments of wire. Then we will +solve an elegant chemical problem by transmuting linen into +silver."</p> + +<p>"But we must live till we get the answer."</p> + +<p>"Well, I will go and bring out a loan among such of our +friends as may still have some capital to invest."</p> + +<p>"And how much will you find?"</p> + +<p>"Say ten francs!" replied I with pride.</p> + +<p>It was midnight. Marcas had heard everything. He knocked at +our door.</p> + +<p>"Messieurs," said he, "here is some tobacco; you can repay me +on the first opportunity."</p> + +<p>We were struck, not by the offer, which we accepted, but by +the rich, deep, full voice in which it was made; a tone only +comparable to the lowest string of Paganini's violin. Marcas +vanished without waiting for our thanks.</p> + +<p>Juste and I looked at each other without a word. To be rescued +by a man evidently poorer than ourselves! Juste sat down to write +to every member of his family, and I went off to effect a loan. I +brought in twenty francs lent me by a fellow-provincial. In that +evil but happy day gambling was still tolerated, and in its +lodes, as hard as the rocky ore of Brazil, young men, by risking +a small sum, had a chance of winning a few gold pieces. My +friend, too, had some Turkish tobacco brought home from +Constantinople by a sailor, and he gave me quite as much as we +had taken from Z. Marcas. I conveyed the splendid cargo into +port, and we went in triumph to repay our neighbor with a tawny +wig of Turkish tobacco for his dark <i>Caporal</i>.</p> + +<p>"You are determined not to be my debtors," said he. "You are +giving me gold for copper.--You are boys--good boys----"</p> + +<p>The sentences, spoken in varying tones, were variously +emphasized. The words were nothing, but the expression!--That +made us friends of ten years' standing at once.</p> + +<p>Marcas, on hearing us coming, had covered up his papers; we +understood that it would be taking a liberty to allude to his +means of subsistence, and felt ashamed of having watched him. His +cupboard stood open; in it there were two shirts, a white necktie +and a razor. The razor made me shudder. A looking-glass, worth +five francs perhaps, hung near the window.</p> + +<p>The man's few and simple movements had a sort of savage +grandeur. The Doctor and I looked at each other, wondering what +we could say in reply. Juste, seeing that I was speechless, asked +Marcas jestingly:</p> + +<p>"You cultivate literature, monsieur?"</p> + +<p>"Far from it!" replied Marcas. "I should not be so +wealthy."</p> + +<p>"I fancied," said I, "that poetry alone, in these days, was +amply sufficient to provide a man with lodgings as bad as +ours."</p> + +<p>My remark made Marcas smile, and the smile gave a charm to his +yellow face.</p> + +<p>"Ambition is not a less severe taskmaster to those who fail," +said he. "You, who are beginning life, walk in the beaten paths. +Never dream of rising superior, you will be ruined!"</p> + +<p>"You advise us to stay just as we are?" said the Doctor, +smiling.</p> + +<p>There is something so infectious and childlike in the +pleasantries of youth, that Marcas smiled again in reply.</p> + +<p>"What incidents can have given you this detestable +philosophy?" asked I.</p> + +<p>"I forgot once more that chance is the result of an immense +equation of which we know not all the factors. When we start from +zero to work up to the unit, the chances are incalculable. To +ambitious men Paris is an immense roulette table, and every young +man fancies he can hit on a successful progression of +numbers."</p> + +<p>He offered us the tobacco I had brought that we might smoke +with him; the Doctor went to fetch our pipes; Marcas filled his, +and then he came to sit in our room, bringing the tobacco with +him, since there were but two chairs in his. Juste, as brisk as a +squirrel, ran out, and returned with a boy carrying three bottles +of Bordeaux, some Brie cheese, and a loaf.</p> + +<p>"Hah!" said I to myself, "fifteen francs," and I was right to +a sou.</p> + +<p>Juste gravely laid five francs on the chimney-shelf.</p> + +<p>There are immeasurable differences between the gregarious man +and the man who lives closest to nature. Toussaint Louverture, +after he was caught, died without speaking a word. Napoleon, +transplanted to a rock, talked like a magpie--he wanted to +account for himself. Z. Marcas erred in the same way, but for our +benefit only. Silence in all its majesty is to be found only in +the savage. There is never a criminal who, though he might let +his secrets fall with his head into the basket of sawdust does +not feel the purely social impulse to tell them to somebody.</p> + +<p>Nay, I am wrong. We have seen one Iroquois of the Faubourg +Saint- Marceau who raised the Parisian to the level of the +natural savage--a republican, a conspirator, a Frenchman, an old +man, who outdid all we have heard of Negro determination, and all +that Cooper tells us of the tenacity and coolness of the Redskins +under defeat. Morey, the Guatimozin of the "Mountain," preserved +an attitude unparalleled in the annals of European justice.</p> + +<p>This is what Marcas told us during the small hours, +sandwiching his discourse with slices of bread spread with cheese +and washed down with wine. All the tobacco was burned out. Now +and then the hackney coaches clattering across the Place de +l'Odeon, or the omnibuses toiling past, sent up their dull +rumbling, as if to remind us that Paris was still close to +us.</p> + +<p>His family lived at Vitre; his father and mother had fifteen +hundred francs a year in the funds. He had received an education +gratis in a Seminary, but had refused to enter the priesthood. He +felt in himself the fires of immense ambition, and had come to +Paris on foot at the age of twenty, the possessor of two hundred +francs. He had studied the law, working in an attorney's office, +where he had risen to be superior clerk. He had taken his +doctor's degree in law, had mastered the old and modern codes, +and could hold his own with the most famous pleaders. He had +studied the law of nations, and was familiar with European +treaties and international practice. He had studied men and +things in five capitals--London, Berlin, Vienna, Petersburg, and +Constantinople.</p> + +<p>No man was better informed than he as to the rules of the +Chamber. For five years he had been reporter of the debates for a +daily paper. He spoke extempore and admirably, and could go on +for a long time in that deep, appealing voice which had struck us +to the soul. Indeed, he proved by the narrative of his life that +he was a great orator, a concise orator, serious and yet full of +piercing eloquence; he resembled Berryer in his fervor and in the +impetus which commands the sympathy of the masses, and was like +Thiers in refinement and skill; but he would have been less +diffuse, less in difficulties for a conclusion. He had intended +to rise rapidly to power without burdening himself first with the +doctrines necessary to begin with, for a man in opposition, but +an incubus later to the statesman.</p> + +<p>Marcas had learned everything that a real statesman should +know; indeed, his amazement was considerable when he had occasion +to discern the utter ignorance of men who have risen to the +administration of public affairs in France. Though in him it was +vocation that had led to study, nature had been generous and +bestowed all that cannot be acquired--keen perceptions, +self-command, a nimble wit, rapid judgment, decisiveness, and, +what is the genius of these men, fertility in resource.</p> + +<p>By the time when Marcas thought himself duly equipped, France +was torn by intestine divisions arising from the triumph of the +House of Orleans over the elder branch of the Bourbons.</p> + +<p>The field of political warfare is evidently changed. Civil war +henceforth cannot last for long, and will not be fought out in +the provinces. In France such struggles will be of brief duration +and at the seat of government; and the battle will be the close +of the moral contest which will have been brought to an issue by +superior minds. This state of things will continue so long as +France has her present singular form of government, which has no +analogy with that of any other country; for there is no more +resemblance between the English and the French constitutions than +between the two lands.</p> + +<p>Thus Marcas' place was in the political press. Being poor and +unable to secure his election, he hoped to make a sudden +appearance. He resolved on making the greatest possible sacrifice +for a man of superior intellect, to work as a subordinate to some +rich and ambitious deputy. Like a second Bonaparte, he sought his +Barras; the new Colbert hoped to find a Mazarin. He did immense +services, and he did them then and there; he assumed no +importance, he made no boast, he did not complain of ingratitude. +He did them in the hope that his patron would put him in a +position to be elected deputy; Marcas wished for nothing but a +loan that might enable him to purchase a house in Paris, the +qualification required by law. Richard III. asked for nothing but +his horse.</p> + +<p>In three years Marcas had made his man--one of the fifty +supposed great statesmen who are the battledores with which two +cunning players toss the ministerial portfolios exactly as the +man behind the puppet- show hits Punch against the constable in +his street theatre, and counts on always getting paid. This man +existed only by Marcas, but he had just brains enough to +appreciate the value of his "ghost" and to know that Marcas, if +he ever came to the front, would remain there, would be +indispensable, while he himself would be translated to the polar +zone of Luxembourg. So he determined to put insurmountable +obstacles in the way of his Mentor's advancement, and hid his +purpose under the semblance of the utmost sincerity. Like all +mean men, he could dissimulate to perfection, and he soon made +progress in the ways of ingratitude, for he felt that he must +kill Marcas, not to be killed by him. These two men, apparently +so united, hated each other as soon as one had deceived the +other.</p> + +<p>The politician was made one of a ministry; Marcas remained in +the opposition to hinder his man from being attacked; nay, by +skilful tactics he won him the applause of the opposition. To +excuse himself for not rewarding his subaltern, the chief pointed +out the impossibility of finding a place suddenly for a man on +the other side, without a great deal of manoeuvring. Marcas had +hoped confidently for a place to enable him to marry, and thus +acquire the qualification he so ardently desired. He was +two-and-thirty, and the Chamber ere long must be dissolved. +Having detected his man in this flagrant act of bad faith, he +overthrew him, or at any rate contributed largely to his +overthrow, and covered him with mud.</p> + +<p>A fallen minister, if he is to rise again to power, must show +that he is to be feared; this man, intoxicated by Royal glibness, +had fancied that his position would be permanent; he acknowledged +his delinquencies; besides confessing them, he did Marcas a small +money service, for Marcas had got into debt. He subsidized the +newspaper on which Marcas worked, and made him the manager of +it.</p> + +<p>Though he despised the man, Marcas, who, practically, was +being subsidized too, consented to take the part of the fallen +minister. Without unmasking at once all the batteries of his +superior intellect, Marcas came a little further than before; he +showed half his shrewdness. The Ministry lasted only a hundred +and eighty days; it was swallowed up. Marcas had put himself into +communication with certain deputies, had moulded them like dough, +leaving each impressed with a high opinion of his talent; his +puppet again became a member of the Ministry, and then the paper +was ministerial. The Ministry united the paper with another, +solely to squeeze out Marcas, who in this fusion had to make way +for a rich and insolent rival, whose name was well known, and who +already had his foot in the stirrup.</p> + +<p>Marcas relapsed into utter destitution; his haughty patron +well knew the depths into which he had cast him.</p> + +<p>Where was he to go? The ministerial papers, privily warned, +would have nothing to say to him. The opposition papers did not +care to admit him to their offices. Marcas could side neither +with the Republicans nor with the Legitimists, two parties whose +triumph would mean the overthrow of everything that now is.</p> + +<p>"Ambitious men like a fast hold on things," said he with a +smile.</p> + +<p>He lived by writing a few articles on commercial affairs, and +contributed to one of those encyclopedias brought out by +speculation and not by learning. Finally a paper was founded, +which was destined to live but two years, but which secured his +services. From that moment he renewed his connection with the +minister's enemies; he joined the party who were working for the +fall of the Government; and as soon as his pickaxe had free play, +it fell.</p> + +<p>This paper had now for six months ceased to exist; he had +failed to find employment of any kind; he was spoken of as a +dangerous man, calumny attacked him; he had unmasked a huge +financial and mercantile job by a few articles and a pamphlet. He +was known to be a mouthpiece of a banker who was said to have +paid him largely, and from whom he was supposed to expect some +patronage in return for his championship. Marcas, disgusted by +men and things, worn out by five years of fighting, regarded as a +free lance rather than as a great leader, crushed by the +necessity of earning his daily bread, which hindered him from +gaining ground, in despair at the influence exerted by money over +mind, and given over to dire poverty, buried himself in a garret, +to make thirty sous a day, the sum strictly answering to his +needs. Meditation had leveled a desert all round him. He read the +papers to be informed of what was going on. Pozzo di Borgo had +once lived like this for some time.</p> + +<p>Marcas, no doubt, was planning a serious attack, accustoming +himself to dissimulation, and punishing himself for his blunders +by Pythagorean muteness. But he did not tell us the reasons for +his conduct.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to give you an idea of the scenes of the +highest comedy that lay behind this algebraic statement of his +career; his useless patience dogging the footsteps of fortune, +which presently took wings, his long tramps over the thorny +brakes of Paris, his breathless chases as a petitioner, his +attempts to win over fools; the schemes laid only to fail through +the influence of some frivolous woman; the meetings with men of +business who expected their capital to bring them places and a +peerage, as well as large interest. Then the hopes rising in a +towering wave only to break in foam on the shoal; the wonders +wrought in reconciling adverse interests which, after working +together for a week, fell asunder; the annoyance, a thousand +times repeated, of seeing a dunce decorated with the Legion of +Honor, and preferred, though as ignorant as a shop-boy, to a man +of talent. Then, what Marcas called the stratagems of +stupidity--you strike a man, and he seems convinced, he nods his +head--everything is settled; next day, this india-rubber ball, +flattened for a moment, has recovered itself in the course of the +night; it is as full of wind as ever; you must begin all over +again; and you go on till you understand that you are not dealing +with a man, but with a lump of gum that loses shape in the +sunshine.</p> + +<p>These thousand annoyances, this vast waste of human energy on +barren spots, the difficulty of achieving any good, the +incredible facility of doing mischief; two strong games played +out, twice won, and then twice lost; the hatred of a statesman--a +blockhead with a painted face and a wig, but in whom the world +believed--all these things, great and small, had not crushed, but +for the moment had dashed Marcas. In the days when money had come +into his hands, his fingers had not clutched it; he had allowed +himself the exquisite pleasure of sending it all to his +family--to his sisters, his brothers, his old father. Like +Napoleon in his fall, he asked for no more than thirty sous a +day, and any man of energy can earn thirty sous for a day's work +in Paris.</p> + +<p>When Marcas had finished the story of his life, intermingled +with reflections, maxims, and observations, revealing him as a +great politician, a few questions and answers on both sides as to +the progress of affairs in France and in Europe were enough to +prove to us that he was a real statesman; for a man may be +quickly and easily judged when he can be brought on to the ground +of immediate difficulties: there is a certain Shibboleth for men +of superior talents, and we were of the tribe of modern Levites +without belonging as yet to the Temple. As I have said, our +frivolity covered certain purposes which Juste has carried out, +and which I am about to execute.</p> + +<p>When we had done talking, we all three went out, cold as it +was, to walk in the Luxembourg gardens till the dinner hour. In +the course of that walk our conversation, grave throughout, +turned on the painful aspects of the political situation. Each of +us contributed his remarks, his comment, or his jest, a +pleasantry or a proverb. This was no longer exclusively a +discussion of life on the colossal scale just described by +Marcas, the soldier of political warfare. Nor was it the +distressful monologue of the wrecked navigator, stranded in a +garret in the Hotel Corneille; it was a dialogue in which two +well-informed young men, having gauged the times they lived in, +were endeavoring, under the guidance of a man of talent, to gain +some light on their own future prospects.</p> + +<p>"Why," asked Juste, "did you not wait patiently for an +opportunity, and imitate the only man who has been able to keep +the lead since the Revolution of July by holding his head above +water?"</p> + +<p>"Have I not said that we never know where the roots of chance +lie? Carrell was in identically the same position as the orator +you speak of. That gloomy young man, of a bitter spirit, had a +whole government in his head; the man of whom you speak had no +idea beyond mounting on the crupper of every event. Of the two, +Carrel was the better man. Well, one becomes a minister, Carrel +remained a journalist; the incomplete but craftier man is living; +Carrel is dead.</p> + +<p>"I may point out that your man has for fifteen years been +making his way, and is but making it still. He may yet be caught +and crushed between two cars full of intrigues on the highroad to +power. He has no house; he has not the favor of the palace like +Metternich; nor, like Villele, the protection of a compact +majority.</p> + +<p>"I do not believe that the present state of things will last +ten years longer. Hence, supposing I should have such poor good +luck, I am already too late to avoid being swept away by the +commotion I foresee. I should need to be established in a +superior position."</p> + +<p>"What commotion?" asked Juste.</p> + +<p>"AUGUST, 1830," said Marcas in solemn tones, holding out his +hand towards Paris; "AUGUST, the offspring of Youth which bound +the sheaves, and of Intellect which had ripened the harvest, +forgot to provide for Youth and Intellect.</p> + +<p>"Youth will explode like the boiler of a steam-engine. Youth +has no outlet in France; it is gathering an avalanche of +underrated capabilities, of legitimate and restless ambitions; +young men are not marrying now; families cannot tell what to do +with their children. What will the thunderclap be that will shake +down these masses? I know not, but they will crash down into the +midst of things, and overthrow everything. These are laws of +hydrostatics which act on the human race; the Roman Empire had +failed to understand them, and the Barbaric hordes came down.</p> + +<p>"The Barbaric hordes now are the intelligent class. The laws +of overpressure are at this moment acting slowly and silently in +our midst. The Government is the great criminal; it does not +appreciate the two powers to which it owes everything; it has +allowed its hands to be tied by the absurdities of the Contract; +it is bound, ready to be the victim.</p> + +<p>"Louis XIV., Napoleon, England, all were or are eager for +intelligent youth. In France the young are condemned by the new +legislation, by the blundering principles of elective rights, by +the unsoundness of the ministerial constitution.</p> + +<p>"Look at the elective Chamber; you will find no deputies of +thirty; the youth of Richelieu and of Mazarin, of Turenne and of +Colbert, of Pitt and of Saint-Just, of Napoleon and of Prince +Metternich, would find no admission there; Burke, Sheridan, or +Fox could not win seats. Even if political majority had been +fixed at one-and-twenty, and eligibility had been relieved of +every disabling qualification, the Departments would have +returned the very same members, men devoid of political talent, +unable to speak without murdering French grammar, and among whom, +in ten years, scarcely one statesman has been found.</p> + +<p>"The causes of an impending event may be seen, but the event +itself cannot be foretold. At this moment the youth of France is +being driven into Republicanism, because it believes that the +Republic would bring it emancipation. It will always remember the +young representatives of the people and the young army leaders! +The imprudence of the Government is only comparable to its +avarice."</p> + +<p>That day left its echoes in our lives. Marcas confirmed us in +our resolution to leave France, where young men of talent and +energy are crushed under the weight of successful commonplace, +envious, and insatiable middle age.</p> + +<p>We dined together in the Rue de la Harpe. We thenceforth felt +for Marcas the most respectful affection; he gave us the most +practical aid in the sphere of the mind. That man knew +everything; he had studied everything. For us he cast his eye +over the whole civilized world, seeking the country where +openings would be at once the most abundant and the most +favorable to the success of our plans. He indicated what should +be the goal of our studies; he bid us make haste, explaining to +us that time was precious, that emigration would presently begin, +and that its effect would be to deprive France of the cream of +its powers and of its youthful talent; that their intelligence, +necessarily sharpened, would select the best places, and that the +great thing was to be first in the field.</p> + +<p>Thenceforward, we often sat late at work under the lamp. Our +generous instructor wrote some notes for our guidance--two pages +for Juste and three for me--full of invaluable advice--the sort +of information which experience alone can supply, such landmarks +as only genius can place. In those papers, smelling of tobacco, +and covered with writing so vile as to be almost hieroglyphic, +there are suggestions for a fortune, and forecasts of unerring +acumen. There are hints as to certain parts of America and Asia +which have been fully justified, both before and since Juste and +I could set out.</p> + +<p>Marcas, like us, was in the most abject poverty. He earned, +indeed, his daily bread, but he had neither linen, clothes, nor +shoes. He did not make himself out any better than he was; his +dreams had been of luxury as well as of power. He did not admit +that this was the real Marcas; he abandoned this person, indeed, +to the caprices of life. What he lived by was the breath of +ambition; he dreamed of revenge while blaming himself for +yielding to so shallow a feeling. The true statesman ought, above +all things, to be superior to vulgar passions; like the man of +science. It was in these days of dire necessity that Marcas +seemed to us so great--nay, so terrible; there was something +awful in the gaze which saw another world than that which strikes +the eye of ordinary men. To us he was a subject of contemplation +and astonishment; for the young--which of us has not known +it?--the young have a keen craving to admire; they love to attach +themselves, and are naturally inclined to submit to the men they +feel to be superior, as they are to devote themselves to a great +cause.</p> + +<p>Our surprise was chiefly roused by his indifference in matters +of sentiment; women had no place in his life. When we spoke of +this matter, a perennial theme of conversation among Frenchmen, +he simply remarked:</p> + +<p>"Gowns cost too much."</p> + +<p>He saw the look that passed between Juste and me, and went +on:</p> + +<p>"Yes, far too much. The woman you buy--and she is the least +expensive --takes a great deal of money. The woman who gives +herself takes all your time! Woman extinguishes every energy, +every ambition. Napoleon reduced her to what she should be. From +that point of view, he really was great. He did not indulge such +ruinous fancies of Louis XIV. and Louis XV.; at the same time he +could love in secret."</p> + +<p>We discovered that, like Pitt, who made England is wife, +Marcas bore France in his heart; he idolized his country; he had +not a thought that was not for his native land. His fury at +feeling that he had in his hands the remedy for the evils which +so deeply saddened him, and could not apply it, ate into his +soul, and this rage was increased by the inferiority of France at +that time, as compared with Russia and England. France a +third-rate power! This cry came up again and again in his +conversation. The intestinal disorders of his country had entered +into his soul. All the contests between the Court and the +Chamber, showing, as they did, incessant change and constant +vacillation, which must injure the prosperity of the country, he +scoffed at as backstairs squabbles.</p> + +<p>"This is peace at the cost of the future," said he.</p> + +<p>One evening Juste and I were at work, sitting in perfect +silence. Marcas had just risen to toil at his copying, for he had +refused our assistance in spite of our most earnest entreaties. +We had offered to take it in turns to copy a batch of manuscript, +so that he should do but a third of his distasteful task; he had +been quite angry, and we had ceased to insist.</p> + +<p>We heard the sound of gentlemanly boots in the passage, and +raised our heads, looking at each other. There was a tap at +Marcas' door--he never took the key out of the lock--and we heard +the hero answer:</p> + +<p>"Come in." Then--"What, you here, monsieur?"</p> + +<p>"I, myself," replied the retired minister.</p> + +<p>It was the Diocletian of this unknown martyr.</p> + +<p>For some time he and our neighbor conversed in an undertone. +Suddenly Marcas, whose voice had been heard but rarely, as is +natural in a dialogue in which the applicant begins by setting +forth the situation, broke out loudly in reply to some offer we +had not overheard.</p> + +<p>"You would laugh at me for a fool," cried he, "if I took you +at your word. Jesuits are a thing of the past, but Jesuitism is +eternal. Your Machiavelism and your generosity are equally hollow +and untrustworthy. You can make your own calculations, but who +can calculate on you? Your Court is made up of owls who fear the +light, of old men who quake in the presence of the young, or who +simply disregard them. The Government is formed on the same +pattern as the Court. You have hunted up the remains of the +Empire, as the Restoration enlisted the Voltigeurs of Louis +XIV.</p> + +<p>"Hitherto the evasions of cowardice have been taken for the +manoeuvring of ability; but dangers will come, and the younger +generation will rise as they did in 1790. They did grand things +then. --Just now you change ministries as a sick man turns in his +bed; these oscillations betray the weakness of the Government. +You work on an underhand system of policy which will be turned +against you, for France will be tired of your shuffling. France +will not tell you that she is tired of you; a man never knows +whence his ruin comes; it is the historian's task to find out; +but you will undoubtedly perish as the reward of not having the +youth of France to lend you its strength and energy; for having +hated really capable men; for not having lovingly chosen them +from this noble generation; for having in all cases preferred +mediocrity.</p> + +<p>"You have come to ask my support, but you are an atom in that +decrepit heap which is made hideous by self-interest, which +trembles and squirms, and, because it is so mean, tries to make +France mean too. My strong nature, my ideas, would work like +poison in you; twice you have tricked me, twice have I overthrown +you. If we unite a third time, it must be a very serious matter. +I should kill myself if I allowed myself to be duped; for I +should be to blame, not you."</p> + +<p>Then we heard the humblest entreaties, the most fervent +adjuration, not to deprive the country of such superior talents. +The man spoke of patriotism, and Marcas uttered a significant +"/Ouh! ouh!/" He laughed at his would-be patron. Then the +statesman was more explicit; he bowed to the superiority of his +erewhile counselor; he pledged himself to enable Marcas to remain +in office, to be elected deputy; then he offered him a high +appointment, promising him that he, the speaker, would +thenceforth be the subordinate of a man whose subaltern he was +only worthy to be. He was in the newly-formed ministry, and he +would not return to power unless Marcas had a post in proportion +to his merit; he had already made it a condition, Marcas had been +regarded as indispensable.</p> + +<p>Marcas refused.</p> + +<p>"I have never before been in a position to keep my promises; +here is an opportunity of proving myself faithful to my word, and +you fail me."</p> + +<p>To this Marcas made no reply. The boots were again audible in +the passage on the way to the stairs.</p> + +<p>"Marcas! Marcas!" we both cried, rushing into his room. "Why +refuse? He really meant it. His offers are very handsome; at any +rate, go to see the ministers."</p> + +<p>In a twinkling, we had given Marcas a hundred reasons. The +minister's voice was sincere; without seeing him, we had felt +sure that he was honest.</p> + +<p>"I have no clothes," replied Marcas.</p> + +<p>"Rely on us," said Juste, with a glance at me.</p> + +<p>Marcas had the courage to trust us; a light flashed in his +eye, he pushed his fingers through his hair, lifting it from his +forehead with a gesture that showed some confidence in his luck +and when he had thus unveiled his face, so to speak, we saw in +him a man absolutely unknown to us--Marcas sublime, Marcas in his +power! His mind was in its element--the bird restored to the free +air, the fish to the water, the horse galloping across the +plain.</p> + +<p>It was transient. His brow clouded again, he had, it would +seem, a vision of his fate. Halting doubt had followed close on +the heels of white-winged hope.</p> + +<p>We left him to himself.</p> + +<p>"Now, then," said I to the Doctor, "we have given our word; +how are we to keep it?"</p> + +<p>"We will sleep upon it," said Juste, "and to-morrow morning we +will talk it over."</p> + +<p>Next morning we went for a walk in the Luxembourg.</p> + +<p>We had had time to think over the incident of the past night, +and were both equally surprised at the lack of address shown by +Marcas in the minor difficulties of life--he, a man who never saw +any difficulties in the solution of the hardest problems of +abstract or practical politics. But these elevated characters can +all be tripped up on a grain of sand, and will, like the grandest +enterprise, miss fire for want of a thousand francs. It is the +old story of Napoleon, who, for lack of a pair of boots, did not +set out for India.</p> + +<p>"Well, what have you hit upon?" asked Juste.</p> + +<p>"I have thought of a way to get him a complete outfit."</p> + +<p>"Where?"</p> + +<p>"From Humann."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Humann, my boy, never goes to his customers--his customers go +to him; so that he does not know whether I am rich or poor. He +only knows that I dress well and look decent in the clothes he +makes for me. I shall tell him that an uncle of mine has dropped +in from the country, and that his indifference in matters of +dress is quite a discredit to me in the upper circles where I am +trying to find a wife.--It will not be Humann if he sends in his +bill before three months."</p> + +<p>The Doctor thought this a capital idea for a vaudeville, but +poor enough in real life, and doubted my success. But I give you +my word of honor, Humann dressed Marcas, and, being an artist, +turned him out as a political personage ought to be dressed.</p> + +<p>Juste lent Marcas two hundred francs in gold, the product of +two watches bought on credit, and pawned at the Mont-de-Piete. +For my part, I had said nothing of the six shirts and all +necessary linen, which cost me no more than the pleasure of +asking for them from a forewoman in a shop whom I had treated to +Musard's during the carnival.</p> + +<p>Marcas accepted everything, thanking us no more than he ought. +He only inquired as to the means by which we had got possession +of such riches, and we made him laugh for the last time. We +looked on our Marcas as shipowners, when they have exhausted +their credit and every resource at their command it fit out a +vessel, must look on it as it puts out to sea.</p> + +<p>Here Charles was silent; he seemed crushed by his +memories.</p> + +<p>"Well," cried the audience, "and what happened?"</p> + +<p>"I will tell you in a few words--for this is not romance--it +is history."</p> + +<p>We saw no more of Marcas. The administration lasted for three +months; it fell at the end of the session. Then Marcas came back +to us, worked to death. He had sounded the crater of power; he +came away from it with the beginnings of brain fever. The disease +made rapid progress; we nursed him. Juste at once called in the +chief physician of the hospital where he was working as +house-surgeon. I was then living alone in our room, and I was the +most attentive attendant; but care and science alike were in +vain. By the month of January, 1838, Marcas himself felt that he +had but a few days to live.</p> + +<p>The man whose soul and brain he had been for six months never +even sent to inquire after him. Marcas expressed the greatest +contempt for the Government; he seemed to doubt what the fate of +France might be, and it was this doubt that had made him ill. He +had, he thought, detected treason in the heart of power, not +tangible, seizable treason, the result of facts, but the treason +of a system, the subordination of national interests to selfish +ends. His belief in the degradation of the country was enough to +aggravate his complaint.</p> + +<p>I myself was witness to the proposals made to him by one of +the leaders of the antagonistic party which he had fought +against. His hatred of the men he had tried to serve was so +virulent, that he would gladly have joined the coalition that was +about to be formed among certain ambitious spirits who, at least, +had one idea in common--that of shaking off the yoke of the +Court. But Marcas could only reply to the envoy in the words of +the Hotel de Ville:</p> + +<p>"It is too late!"</p> + +<p>Marcas did not leave money enough to pay for his funeral. +Juste and I had great difficulty in saving him from the ignominy +of a pauper's bier, and we alone followed the coffin of Z. +Marcas, which was dropped into the common grave of the cemetery +of Mont-Parnasse.</p> + +<p>We looked sadly at each other as we listened to this tale, the +last we heard from the lips of Charles Rabourdin the day before +he embarked at le Havre on a brig that was to convey him to the +islands of Malay. We all knew more than one Marcas, more than one +victim of his devotion to a party, repaid by betrayal or +neglect.</p> + +<p>LES JARDIES, May 1840.</p> + +<p>ADDENDUM</p> + +<p>The following personage appears in other stories of the Human +Comedy.</p> + +<p>Marcas, Zephirin A Prince of Bohemia</p> + +<p> </p> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<pre> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, Z. MARCAS *** + +This file should be named zmrcs10h.htm or zmrcs10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, zmrcs11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, zmrcs10ah.htm + + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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