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diff --git a/1841.txt b/1841.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc79cfb --- /dev/null +++ b/1841.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1480 @@ +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 + +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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