The Deputy of Arcis Part 40

"There's your note; it is awfully compromising."

"Keep it, monsieur," replied the Scot. "I shall ask for it to-morrow in the Tuileries, under the horse-chestnuts; meantime, you will please understand that all intercourse is at an end between us."

Ernest was less knightly; he contented himself with putting the thumb of his right hand to his nose and spreading the fingers,--an ironical gesture he had acquired from his mother's coachman; after which he ran to find his partner for the next quadrille.

But what details are these on which we are wasting time, when we know that interests of the highest order are moving, subterraneously, beneath the surface of the children's ball.

Arriving from Ville d'Avray late in the afternoon, Sallenauve had brought Madame de l'Estorade ill news of Marie-Gaston. Under an appearance of resignation, he was gloomy, and, singular to say, he had not visited the grave of his wife,--as if he feared an emotion he might not have the power to master. It seemed to Sallenauve that his friend had come to the end of his strength, and that a mental prostration of the worst character was succeeding the over-excitement he had shown at his election. One thing rea.s.sured the new deputy, and enabled him to come to Paris for, at any rate, a few hours. A friend of Marie-Gaston, an English n.o.bleman with whom he had been intimate in Florence, came out to see him, and the sad man greeted the new-comer with apparent joy.

In order to distract Sallenauve's thoughts from this anxiety, Madame de l'Estorade introduced him to Monsieur Octave de Camps, the latter having expressed a great desire to know him. The deputy had not talked ten minutes with the iron-master before he reached his heart by the magnitude of the metallurgical knowledge his conversation indicated.

During the year in which he had been preparing for a parliamentary life, Sallenauve had busied himself by acquiring the practical knowledge which enables an orator of the Chamber to take part in all discussions and have reasons to give for his general views. He had turned his attention more especially to matters connected with the great question of the revenue and taxation; such, for instance, as the custom-house, laws of exchange, stamp duties, and taxation, direct and indirect. Approaching in this manner that problematical science--which is, nevertheless, so sure of itself!--called political economy, Sallenauve had also studied the sources which contribute to form the great current of national prosperity; and in this connection the subject of mines, the topic at this moment most interesting to Monsieur de Camps, had not been neglected by him. We can imagine the admiration of the iron-master, who had studied too exclusively the subject of iron ore to know much about the other branches of metallurgy, when the young deputy told him, apropos of the wealth of our soil, a sort of Arabian Nights tale, which, if science would only take hold of it, might become a reality.

"But, monsieur, do you really believe," cried Monsieur de Camps, "that, besides our coal and iron mines, we possess mines of copper, lead, and, possibly, silver?"

"If you will take the trouble to consult certain specialists," replied Sallenauve, "you will find that neither the boasted strata of Bohemia and Saxony nor even those of Russia and Hungary can be compared to those hidden in the Pyrenees, in the Alps from Briancon to the Isere, in the Cevennes on the Lozere side, in the Puy-de-Dome, Bretagne, and the Vosges. In the Vosges, more especially about the town of Saint-Die, I can point out to you a single vein of the mineral of silver which lies to the depth of fifty to eighty metres with a length of thirteen kilometres."

"But, monsieur, why has such untold metallurgical wealth never been worked?"

"It has been, in former days," replied Sallenauve, "especially during the Roman occupation of Gaul. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the work was abandoned; but the lords of the soil and the clergy renewed it in the middle ages; after that, during the struggle of feudality against the royal power and the long civil wars which devastated France, the work was again suspended, and has never since been taken up."

"Are you sure of what you say?"

"Ancient authors, Strabo and others, all mention these mines, and the tradition of their existence still lingers in the regions where they are situated; decrees of emperors and the ordinances of certain of our kings bear testimony to the value of their products; in certain places more material proof may be found in excavations of considerable depth and length, in galleries and halls cut in the solid rock,--in short, in the many traces still existing of those vast works which have immortalized Roman industry. To this must be added that the modern study of geological science has confirmed and developed these irrefutable indications."

The imagination of Monsieur Octave de Camps, hitherto limited to the development of a single iron-mine, took fire, and he was about to ask his instructor to give him his ideas on the manner of awakening a practical interest in the matter, when Lucas, throwing wide open the double doors of the salon, announced in his loudest and most pompous voice,--

"Monsieur the minister of Public Works."

The effect produced on the elders of the a.s.sembly was electric.

"I want to see what sort of figure that little Rastignac cuts as a statesman," said Monsieur de Camps, rising from his seat; but in his heart he was thinking of the government subsidy he wanted for his iron-mine. The new deputy, on his side, foresaw an inevitable meeting with the minister, and wondered what his friends in the Opposition would say when they read in the "National" that a representative of the Left was seen to have an interview with a minister celebrated for his art in converting political opponents. Anxious also to return to Marie-Gaston, he resolved to profit by the general stir created by the minister's arrival to slip away; and by a masterly manoeuvre he made his way slyly to the door of the salon, expecting to escape without being seen. But he reckoned without Nais, to whom he was engaged for a quadrille. That small girl sounded the alarm at the moment when he laid his hand on the handle of the door; and Monsieur de l'Estorade, mindful of his promise to Rastignac, hastened to put a stop to the desertion. Finding his quiet retreat impossible, Sallenauve was afraid that an open departure after the arrival of the minister might be construed as an act of puritanical opposition in the worst taste; he therefore accepted the situation promptly, and decided to remain.

Monsieur de l'Estorade knew that Sallenauve was far too wise to be the dupe of any artifices he might have used to bring about his introduction to the minister. He therefore went straight to the point, and soon after Rastignac's arrival he slipped his arm through that of the statesman, and, approaching the deputy, said to him,--

"Monsieur the minister of Public Works, who, on the eve of the battle, wishes me to introduce him to a general of the enemy's army."

"Monsieur le ministre does me too much honor," replied Sallenauve, ceremoniously. "Far from being a general, I am a private soldier, and a very unknown one."

"Hum!" said the minister; "it seems to me that the battle at Arcis-sur-Aube was not an insignificant victory; you routed our ranks, monsieur, in a singular manner."

"There was nothing wonderful in that; you must have heard that a saint fought for us."

"Well, at any rate," said Rastignac, "I prefer this result to the one arranged for us by a man I thought cleverer than he proved to be, whom I sent down there. It seems that Beauvisage is a perfect nonent.i.ty; he'd have rubbed off upon us; and after all, he was really as much Left centre as the other man, Giguet. Now the Left centre is our real enemy, because it is aiming to get our portfolios."

"Oh!" said Monsieur de l'Estorade, "after what we heard of the man, I think he would have done exactly what was wanted of him."

"My dear friend, don't believe that," said the minister. "Fools are often more tenacious of the flag under which they enlisted than we think for. Besides, to go over to the enemy is to make a choice, and that supposes an operation of the mind; it is much easier to be obstinate."

"I agree with the minister," said Sallenauve; "extreme innocence and extreme rascality are equally able to defend themselves against seduction."

Here Monsieur de l'Estorade, seeing, or pretending to see, a signal made to him, looked over his shoulder and said,--

"I'm coming."

And the two adversaries being thus buckled together, he hastened away as if summoned to some duty as master of the house.

Sallenauve was anxious not to seem disturbed at finding himself alone with the minister. The meeting having come about, he decided to endure it with a good grace, and, taking the first word, he asked if the ministry had prepared, in view of the coming sessions, a large number of bills.

"No, very few," replied Rastignac. "To tell the truth, we do not expect to be in power very long; we brought about an election because in the general confusion into which the press has thrown public opinion, our const.i.tutional duty was to force that opinion to reconst.i.tute itself; but the fact is, we did not expect the result to be favorable to us, and we are therefore taken somewhat unawares."

"You are like the peasant," said Sallenauve, laughing, "who, expecting the end of the world, did not sow his wheat."

"Well, we don't look upon our retirement as the end of the world," said Rastignac, modestly; "there are men to come after us, and many of them well able to govern; only, as we expected to give but few more representations in that transitory abode called 'power,' we have not unpacked either our costumes or our scenery. Besides, the coming session, in any case, can only be a business session. The question now is, of course, between the palace, that is, personal influence, and the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy. This question will naturally come up when the vote is taken on the secret-service fund. Whenever, in one way or the other, that is settled, and the budget is voted, together with a few bills of secondary interest, Parliament has really completed its task; it will have put an end to a distressing struggle, and the country will know to which of the two parties it can look for the development of its prosperity."

"And you think," said Sallenauve, "that in a well-balanced system of government that question is a useful one to raise?"

"Well," replied Rastignac, "we have not raised it. It is born perhaps of circ.u.mstances; a great deal, as I think, from the restlessness of certain ambitions, and also from the tactics of parties."

"So that, in your opinion, one of the combatants is not guilty and has absolutely nothing to reproach himself with?"

"You are a republican," said Rastignac, "and therefore, _a priori_, an enemy to the dynasty. I think I should lose my time in trying to change your ideas on the policy you complain of."

"You are mistaken," said the theoretical republican deputy; "I have no preconceived hatred to the reigning dynasty. I even think that in its past, _striped_, if I may say so, with royal affinities and revolutionary memories, it has all that is needed to respond to the liberal and monarchical instincts of the nation. But you will find it difficult to persuade me that in the present head of the dynasty we shall not find extreme ideas of personal influence, which in the long run will undermine and subvert the finest as well as the strongest inst.i.tutions."

"Yes," said Rastignac, ironically, "and they are saved by the famous axiom of the deputy of Sancerre: 'The king reigns, but does not govern.'"

Whether he was tired of standing to converse, or whether he wished to prove his ease in releasing himself from the trap which had evidently been laid for him, Sallenauve, before replying, drew up a chair for his interlocutor, and, taking one himself, said,--

"Will you permit me to cite the example of another royal behavior?--that of a prince who was not considered indifferent to his royal prerogative, and who was not ignorant of const.i.tutional mechanism--"

"Louis XVIII.," said Rastignac, "or, as the newspapers used to call him, 'the ill.u.s.trious author of the Charter'?"

"Precisely; and will you kindly tell me where he died?"

"_Parbleu_! at the Tuileries."

"And his successor?"

"In exile--Oh! I see what you are coming to."

"My conclusion is certainly not difficult to guess. But have you fully remarked the deduction to be drawn from that royal career?--for which I myself feel the greatest respect. Louis XVIII. was not a citizen king.

He granted this Charter, but he never consented to it. Born nearer to the throne than the prince whose regrettable tendencies I mentioned just now, he might naturally share more deeply still the ideas, the prejudices, and the infatuations of the court; in person he was ridiculous (a serious princely defect in France); he bore the brunt of a new and untried regime; he succeeded a government which had intoxicated the people with that splendid gilded smoke called glory; and if he was not actually brought back to France by foreigners, at any rate he came as the result of the armed invasion of Europe. Now, shall I tell you why, in spite of all these defects and disadvantages, in spite, too, of the ceaseless conspiracy kept up against his government, it was given to him to die tranquilly in his bed at the Tuileries?"

"Because he had made himself a const.i.tutional king," said Rastignac, with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "But do you mean to say that we are not that?"

"In the letter, yes; in the spirit, no. When Louis XVIII. gave his confidence to a minister, he gave it sincerely and wholly. He did not cheat him; he played honestly into his hand,--witness the famous ordinance of September 5, and the dissolution of the Chamber, which was more Royalist than himself,--a thing he had the wisdom not to desire.

Later, a movement of public opinion shook the minister who had led him along that path; that minister was his favorite, his son, as he called him. No matter; yielding to the const.i.tutional necessity, he bravely sent him to foreign parts, after loading him with crosses and t.i.tles,--in short, with everything that could soften the pain of his fall; and he did not watch and manoeuvre surrept.i.tiously to bring him back to power, which that minister never regained."