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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1841-0.txt b/1841-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9aa3bd --- /dev/null +++ b/1841-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1481 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Z. Marcas, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Z. Marcas + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell and Others + +Release Date: August, 1999 [Etext #1841] +Posting Date: March 3, 2010 +Last Updated: November 22, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK Z. MARCAS *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +Z. MARCAS + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Clara Bell and Others + + + + + DEDICATION + + To His Highness Count William of Wurtemberg, as a token of the + Author’s respectful gratitude. + + DE BALZAC. + + + + + +Z. MARCAS + + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Marcas! Does it not hint of some precious object that is broken with a +fall, with or without a crash? + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _frotteur’s_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _grisettes’_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +“I have seen such a grand fellow in the street,” said I to Juste on +coming in. + +“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. + +“What dejection and what dignity!” + +“One is the consequence of the other.” + +“What ruined hopes! What schemes and failures!” + +“Seven leagues of ruins! Obelisks--palaces--towers!--The ruins of +Palmyra in the desert!” said Juste, laughing. + +So we called him the Ruins of Palmyra. + +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, _z-z-z-z-zed_; and after pronouncing the first +syllable of the name with great importance, depicted a fall by the dull +brevity of the second. + +“Now, how and where does the man live?” + +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. + +“He is asleep,” said I to Juste, noticing this fact. + +“At seven o’clock!” replied the Doctor. + +This was the name by which I called Juste, and he called me the Keeper +of the Seals. + +“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. + +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. + +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. + +“What is to be seen?” asked the Doctor as I got down. + +“Look for yourself,” said I. + +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. + +On going downstairs we asked the price of that room, and were told +fifteen francs a month. + +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. + +“The Ruins of Palmyra are terribly silent!” said Juste. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Great was our distress. + +“No tobacco!” said the Doctor. + +“No cloak!” said the Keeper of the Seals. + +“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 _Rocher de Cancale_.--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--” + +“Yes, yes; but, Keeper of the Seals, there is no more tobacco!” said +Juste. + +“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.” + +“But we must live till we get the answer.” + +“Well, I will go and bring out a loan among such of our friends as may +still have some capital to invest.” + +“And how much will you find?” + +“Say ten francs!” replied I with pride. + +It was midnight. Marcas had heard everything. He knocked at our door. + +“Messieurs,” said he, “here is some tobacco; you can repay me on the +first opportunity.” + +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. + +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 _Caporal_. + +“You are determined not to be my debtors,” said he. “You are giving me +gold for copper.--You are boys--good boys----” + +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. + +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. + +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: + +“You cultivate literature, monsieur?” + +“Far from it!” replied Marcas. “I should not be so wealthy.” + +“I fancied,” said I, “that poetry alone, in these days, was amply +sufficient to provide a man with lodgings as bad as ours.” + +My remark made Marcas smile, and the smile gave a charm to his yellow +face. + +“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!” + +“You advise us to stay just as we are?” said the Doctor, smiling. + +There is something so infectious and childlike in the pleasantries of +youth, that Marcas smiled again in reply. + +“What incidents can have given you this detestable philosophy?” asked I. + +“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.” + +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. + +“Hah!” said I to myself, “fifteen francs,” and I was right to a sou. + +Juste gravely laid five francs on the chimney-shelf. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Marcas relapsed into utter destitution; his haughty patron well knew the +depths into which he had cast him. + +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. + +“Ambitious men like a fast hold on things,” said he with a smile. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +“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?” + +“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. + +“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. + +“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.” + +“What commotion?” asked Juste. + +“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. + +“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. + +“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. + +“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. + +“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. + +“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.” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +“Gowns cost too much.” + +He saw the look that passed between Juste and me, and went on: + +“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.” + +We discovered that, like Pitt, who made England his 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. + +“This is peace at the cost of the future,” said he. + + + +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. + +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: + +“Come in.” Then--“What, you here, monsieur?” + +“I, myself,” replied the retired minister. + +It was the Diocletian of this unknown martyr. + +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. + +“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. + +“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. + +“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.” + +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. + +Marcas refused. + +“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.” + +To this Marcas made no reply. The boots were again audible in the +passage on the way to the stairs. + +“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.” + +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. + +“I have no clothes,” replied Marcas. + +“Rely on us,” said Juste, with a glance at me. + +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. + +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. + +We left him to himself. + +“Now, then,” said I to the Doctor, “we have given our word; how are we +to keep it?” + +“We will sleep upon it,” said Juste, “and to-morrow morning we will talk +it over.” + +Next morning we went for a walk in the Luxembourg. + +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. + +“Well, what have you hit upon?” asked Juste. + +“I have thought of a way to get him a complete outfit.” + +“Where?” + +“From Humann.” + +“How?” + +“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.” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Here Charles was silent; he seemed crushed by his memories. + +“Well,” cried the audience, “and what happened?” + +“I will tell you in a few words--for this is not romance--it is +history.” + +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. + +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. + +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: + +“It is too late!” + +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. + + + +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. + + +LES JARDIES, May 1840. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personage appears in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Marcas, Zephirin + A Prince of Bohemia + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Z. Marcas, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK Z. MARCAS *** + +***** This file should be named 1841-0.txt or 1841-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/4/1841/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Marcas, by Honore de Balzac + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Z. Marcas, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Z. Marcas + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell and Others + +Release Date: March 3, 2010 [EBook #1841] +Last Updated: November 22, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK Z. MARCAS *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + Z. MARCAS + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Clara Bell and Others + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + DEDICATION<br /><br /> To His Highness Count William of Wurtemberg, as a + token of the<br /> Author’s respectful gratitude.<br /><br /> DE BALZAC.<br /> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>Z. MARCAS</b> </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADDENDUM </a> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + Z. MARCAS + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <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 his 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 “<i>Ouh! ouh!</i>” 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> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + ADDENDUM + </h2> + <h3> + The following personage appears in other stories of the Human Comedy. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Marcas, Zephirin + A Prince of Bohemia +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Z. Marcas, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK Z. 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Marcas + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell and Others + +Release Date: August, 1999 [Etext #1841] +Posting Date: March 3, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK Z. MARCAS *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +Z. MARCAS + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Clara Bell and Others + + + + + DEDICATION + + To His Highness Count William of Wurtemberg, as a token of the + Author's respectful gratitude. + + DE BALZAC. + + + + + +Z. MARCAS + + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Marcas! Does it not hint of some precious object that is broken with a +fall, with or without a crash? + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _frotteur's_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _grisettes'_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"I have seen such a grand fellow in the street," said I to Juste on +coming in. + +"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. + +"What dejection and what dignity!" + +"One is the consequence of the other." + +"What ruined hopes! What schemes and failures!" + +"Seven leagues of ruins! Obelisks--palaces--towers!--The ruins of +Palmyra in the desert!" said Juste, laughing. + +So we called him the Ruins of Palmyra. + +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, _z-z-z-z-zed_; and after pronouncing the first +syllable of the name with great importance, depicted a fall by the dull +brevity of the second. + +"Now, how and where does the man live?" + +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. + +"He is asleep," said I to Juste, noticing this fact. + +"At seven o'clock!" replied the Doctor. + +This was the name by which I called Juste, and he called me the Keeper +of the Seals. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"What is to be seen?" asked the Doctor as I got down. + +"Look for yourself," said I. + +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. + +On going downstairs we asked the price of that room, and were told +fifteen francs a month. + +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. + +"The Ruins of Palmyra are terribly silent!" said Juste. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Great was our distress. + +"No tobacco!" said the Doctor. + +"No cloak!" said the Keeper of the Seals. + +"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 _Rocher de Cancale_.--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--" + +"Yes, yes; but, Keeper of the Seals, there is no more tobacco!" said +Juste. + +"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." + +"But we must live till we get the answer." + +"Well, I will go and bring out a loan among such of our friends as may +still have some capital to invest." + +"And how much will you find?" + +"Say ten francs!" replied I with pride. + +It was midnight. Marcas had heard everything. He knocked at our door. + +"Messieurs," said he, "here is some tobacco; you can repay me on the +first opportunity." + +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. + +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 _Caporal_. + +"You are determined not to be my debtors," said he. "You are giving me +gold for copper.--You are boys--good boys----" + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"You cultivate literature, monsieur?" + +"Far from it!" replied Marcas. "I should not be so wealthy." + +"I fancied," said I, "that poetry alone, in these days, was amply +sufficient to provide a man with lodgings as bad as ours." + +My remark made Marcas smile, and the smile gave a charm to his yellow +face. + +"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!" + +"You advise us to stay just as we are?" said the Doctor, smiling. + +There is something so infectious and childlike in the pleasantries of +youth, that Marcas smiled again in reply. + +"What incidents can have given you this detestable philosophy?" asked I. + +"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." + +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. + +"Hah!" said I to myself, "fifteen francs," and I was right to a sou. + +Juste gravely laid five francs on the chimney-shelf. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Marcas relapsed into utter destitution; his haughty patron well knew the +depths into which he had cast him. + +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. + +"Ambitious men like a fast hold on things," said he with a smile. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"What commotion?" asked Juste. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"Gowns cost too much." + +He saw the look that passed between Juste and me, and went on: + +"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." + +We discovered that, like Pitt, who made England his 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. + +"This is peace at the cost of the future," said he. + + + +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. + +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: + +"Come in." Then--"What, you here, monsieur?" + +"I, myself," replied the retired minister. + +It was the Diocletian of this unknown martyr. + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +Marcas refused. + +"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." + +To this Marcas made no reply. The boots were again audible in the +passage on the way to the stairs. + +"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." + +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. + +"I have no clothes," replied Marcas. + +"Rely on us," said Juste, with a glance at me. + +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. + +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. + +We left him to himself. + +"Now, then," said I to the Doctor, "we have given our word; how are we +to keep it?" + +"We will sleep upon it," said Juste, "and to-morrow morning we will talk +it over." + +Next morning we went for a walk in the Luxembourg. + +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. + +"Well, what have you hit upon?" asked Juste. + +"I have thought of a way to get him a complete outfit." + +"Where?" + +"From Humann." + +"How?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Here Charles was silent; he seemed crushed by his memories. + +"Well," cried the audience, "and what happened?" + +"I will tell you in a few words--for this is not romance--it is +history." + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"It is too late!" + +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. + + + +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. + + +LES JARDIES, May 1840. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personage appears in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Marcas, Zephirin + A Prince of Bohemia + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Z. Marcas, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK Z. MARCAS *** + +***** This file should be named 1841.txt or 1841.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/4/1841/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bc6b7c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1841 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1841) diff --git a/old/20051120-1841-h.zip b/old/20051120-1841-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..526f03a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20051120-1841-h.zip diff --git a/old/20051120-1841.txt b/old/20051120-1841.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a65fc9f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20051120-1841.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1507 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Z. Marcas, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: Z. Marcas + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell and others + +Release Date: November 20, 2005 [EBook #1841] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK Z. MARCAS *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers + + + + + + Z. MARCAS + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated by + Clara Bell and others + + + + + DEDICATION + + To His Highness Count William of Wurtemberg, as a token of the + Author's respectful gratitude. + + DE BALZAC. + + + + + Z. MARCAS + + + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Marcas! Does it not hint of some precious object that is broken with a +fall, with or without a crash? + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _frotteur's_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _grisettes'_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"I have seen such a grand fellow in the street," said I to Juste on +coming in. + +"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. + +"What dejection and what dignity!" + +"One is the consequence of the other." + +"What ruined hopes! What schemes and failures!" + +"Seven leagues of ruins! Obelisks--palaces--towers!--The ruins of +Palmyra in the desert!" said Juste, laughing. + +So we called him the Ruins of Palmyra. + +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, _z-z-z-z-zed_; and after pronouncing the +first syllable of the name with great importance, depicted a fall by +the dull brevity of the second. + +"Now, how and where does the man live?" + +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. + +"He is asleep," said I to Juste, noticing this fact. + +"At seven o'clock!" replied the Doctor. + +This was the name by which I called Juste, and he called me the Keeper +of the Seals. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"What is to be seen?" asked the Doctor as I got down. + +"Look for yourself," said I. + +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. + +On going downstairs we asked the price of that room, and were told +fifteen francs a month. + +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. + +"The Ruins of Palmyra are terribly silent!" said Juste. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Great was our distress. + +"No tobacco!" said the Doctor. + +"No cloak!" said the Keeper of the Seals. + +"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 _Rocher de Cancale_.--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--" + +"Yes, yes; but, Keeper of the Seals, there is no more tobacco!" said +Juste. + +"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." + +"But we must live till we get the answer." + +"Well, I will go and bring out a loan among such of our friends as may +still have some capital to invest." + +"And how much will you find?" + +"Say ten francs!" replied I with pride. + +It was midnight. Marcas had heard everything. He knocked at our door. + +"Messieurs," said he, "here is some tobacco; you can repay me on the +first opportunity." + +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. + +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 _Caporal_. + +"You are determined not to be my debtors," said he. "You are giving me +gold for copper.--You are boys--good boys----" + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"You cultivate literature, monsieur?" + +"Far from it!" replied Marcas. "I should not be so wealthy." + +"I fancied," said I, "that poetry alone, in these days, was amply +sufficient to provide a man with lodgings as bad as ours." + +My remark made Marcas smile, and the smile gave a charm to his yellow +face. + +"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!" + +"You advise us to stay just as we are?" said the Doctor, smiling. + +There is something so infectious and childlike in the pleasantries of +youth, that Marcas smiled again in reply. + +"What incidents can have given you this detestable philosophy?" asked +I. + +"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." + +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. + +"Hah!" said I to myself, "fifteen francs," and I was right to a sou. + +Juste gravely laid five francs on the chimney-shelf. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Marcas relapsed into utter destitution; his haughty patron well knew +the depths into which he had cast him. + +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. + +"Ambitious men like a fast hold on things," said he with a smile. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"What commotion?" asked Juste. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"Gowns cost too much." + +He saw the look that passed between Juste and me, and went on: + +"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." + +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. + +"This is peace at the cost of the future," said he. + + + +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. + +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: + +"Come in." Then--"What, you here, monsieur?" + +"I, myself," replied the retired minister. + +It was the Diocletian of this unknown martyr. + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +Marcas refused. + +"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." + +To this Marcas made no reply. The boots were again audible in the +passage on the way to the stairs. + +"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." + +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. + +"I have no clothes," replied Marcas. + +"Rely on us," said Juste, with a glance at me. + +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. + +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. + +We left him to himself. + +"Now, then," said I to the Doctor, "we have given our word; how are we +to keep it?" + +"We will sleep upon it," said Juste, "and to-morrow morning we will +talk it over." + +Next morning we went for a walk in the Luxembourg. + +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. + +"Well, what have you hit upon?" asked Juste. + +"I have thought of a way to get him a complete outfit." + +"Where?" + +"From Humann." + +"How?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Here Charles was silent; he seemed crushed by his memories. + +"Well," cried the audience, "and what happened?" + +"I will tell you in a few words--for this is not romance--it is +history." + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"It is too late!" + +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. + + + +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. + + + +LES JARDIES, May 1840. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personage appears in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Marcas, Zephirin + A Prince of Bohemia + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Z. Marcas, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK Z. MARCAS *** + +***** This file should be named 1841.txt or 1841.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/4/1841/ + +Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Marcas + +by Honore de Balzac + +Translated by Clara Bell and others + + + + +DEDICATION + + To His Highness Count William of Wurtemberg, as a token of the + Author's respectful gratitude. + +DE BALZAC. + + + + +Z. MARCAS + + + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Marcas! Does it not hint of some precious object that is broken with a +fall, with or without a crash? + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 /frotteur's/ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 /grisettes'/ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"I have seen such a grand fellow in the street," said I to Juste on +coming in. + +"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. + +"What dejection and what dignity!" + +"One is the consequence of the other." + +"What ruined hopes! What schemes and failures!" + +"Seven leagues of ruins! Obelisks--palaces--towers!--The ruins of +Palmyra in the desert!" said Juste, laughing. + +So we called him the Ruins of Palmyra. + +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, /z-z-z-z-zed/; and after pronouncing the +first syllable of the name with great importance, depicted a fall by +the dull brevity of the second. + +"Now, how and where does the man live?" + +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. + +"He is asleep," said I to Juste, noticing this fact. + +"At seven o'clock!" replied the Doctor. + +This was the name by which I called Juste, and he called me the Keeper +of the Seals. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"What is to be seen?" asked the Doctor as I got down. + +"Look for yourself," said I. + +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. + +On going downstairs we asked the price of that room, and were told +fifteen francs a month. + +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. + +"The Ruins of Palmyra are terribly silent!" said Juste. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Great was our distress. + +"No tobacco!" said the Doctor. + +"No cloak!" said the Keeper of the Seals. + +"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 /Rocher de Cancale/.--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--" + +"Yes, yes; but, Keeper of the Seals, there is no more tobacco!" said +Juste. + +"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." + +"But we must live till we get the answer." + +"Well, I will go and bring out a loan among such of our friends as may +still have some capital to invest." + +"And how much will you find?" + +"Say ten francs!" replied I with pride. + +It was midnight. Marcas had heard everything. He knocked at our door. + +"Messieurs," said he, "here is some tobacco; you can repay me on the +first opportunity." + +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. + +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 /Caporal/. + +"You are determined not to be my debtors," said he. "You are giving me +gold for copper.--You are boys--good boys----" + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"You cultivate literature, monsieur?" + +"Far from it!" replied Marcas. "I should not be so wealthy." + +"I fancied," said I, "that poetry alone, in these days, was amply +sufficient to provide a man with lodgings as bad as ours." + +My remark made Marcas smile, and the smile gave a charm to his yellow +face. + +"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!" + +"You advise us to stay just as we are?" said the Doctor, smiling. + +There is something so infectious and childlike in the pleasantries of +youth, that Marcas smiled again in reply. + +"What incidents can have given you this detestable philosophy?" asked +I. + +"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." + +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. + +"Hah!" said I to myself, "fifteen francs," and I was right to a sou. + +Juste gravely laid five francs on the chimney-shelf. + +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. + +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. + + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Marcas relapsed into utter destitution; his haughty patron well knew +the depths into which he had cast him. + +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. + +"Ambitious men like a fast hold on things," said he with a smile. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"What commotion?" asked Juste. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"Gowns cost too much." + +He saw the look that passed between Juste and me, and went on: + +"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." + +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. + +"This is peace at the cost of the future," said he. + + + +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. + +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: + +"Come in." Then--"What, you here, monsieur?" + +"I, myself," replied the retired minister. + +It was the Diocletian of this unknown martyr. + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +Marcas refused. + +"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." + +To this Marcas made no reply. The boots were again audible in the +passage on the way to the stairs. + +"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." + +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. + +"I have no clothes," replied Marcas. + +"Rely on us," said Juste, with a glance at me. + +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. + +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. + +We left him to himself. + +"Now, then," said I to the Doctor, "we have given our word; how are we +to keep it?" + +"We will sleep upon it," said Juste, "and to-morrow morning we will +talk it over." + +Next morning we went for a walk in the Luxembourg. + +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. + +"Well, what have you hit upon?" asked Juste. + +"I have thought of a way to get him a complete outfit." + +"Where?" + +"From Humann." + +"How?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Here Charles was silent; he seemed crushed by his memories. + +"Well," cried the audience, "and what happened?" + +"I will tell you in a few words--for this is not romance--it is +history." + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"It is too late!" + +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. + + + +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. + + + +LES JARDIES, May 1840. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personage appears in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Marcas, Zephirin + A Prince of Bohemia + + + + + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Z. Marcas, by Honore de Balzac + diff --git a/old/zmrcs10.zip b/old/zmrcs10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9357d58 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/zmrcs10.zip 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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