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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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