The Deputy of Arcis Part 56

_M. de Ca.n.a.lis_.--I did not expect so poetical an interruption; but since the memory of the Odyssey has been thus evoked, I shall ask the Chamber to kindly remember that Ulysses, though disguised as a beggar and loaded with insults, was yet able to string his bow and easily get the better of his enemies. [Violent murmurs from the Centre.] I vote for leave of absence for fifteen days, and that the Chamber be again consulted at the expiration of that time.

_M. le Colonel Franchessini_.--I do not know if the last speaker intended to intimidate the Chamber, but, for my part, such arguments have very little power upon me, and I am always ready to send them back whence they came. [Left: "Come! come!"]

_The President_.--Colonel, no provocations!

_M. le Colonel Franchessini_.--I am, however, of the opinion of the speaker who preceded me; I do not think that the delinquent has fled to escape the accusation against him. Neither that accusation, nor the effect it will produce upon your minds, nor even the quashing of his election would be able at this moment to occupy his mind. Do you wish to know what M. de Sallenauve is doing in England? Then read the English papers. For the last week they have rung with the praises of a new prima donna who has just made her first appearance at the London opera-house. [Violent murmurs; interruption.]

_A Voice_.--Such gossip is unworthy of this Chamber!

_M. le Colonel Franchessini_.--Gentlemen, being more accustomed to the frankness of camps than to the reticence of these precincts, I may perhaps have committed the impropriety of thinking aloud. The preceding speaker said to you that he believed M. de Sallenauve was employed in collecting his means of defence; well, I do not say to you "I believe," I tell you I _know_ that a rich stranger succeed in subst.i.tuting his protection for what which Phidias, our colleague, was bestowing on his handsome model, an Italian woman --[Fresh interruption. "Order! order!" "This is intolerable!"]

_A Voice_.--M. le president, silence the speaker!

Colonel Franchessini crosses his arms and waits till the tumult subsides.

_The President_.--I request the speaker to keep to the question.

_M. le Colonel Franchessini_.--The question! I have not left it.

But, inasmuch as the Chamber refuses to hear me, I declare that I side with the minority of the committee. It seems to me very proper to send M. de Sallenauve back to his electors in order to know whether they intended to send a deputy or a lover to this Chamber--["Order! order!" Loud disturbance on the Left. The tumult increases.]

M. de Ca.n.a.lis hurries to the tribune.

_The President_.--M. le ministre of Public Works has asked for the floor; as minister of the king he has the first right to be heard.

_M. de Rastignac_.--It has not been without remonstrance on my part, gentlemen, that this scandal has been brought to your notice. I endeavored, in the name of the long friendship which unites me to Colonel Franchessini, to persuade him not to speak on this delicate subject, lest his parliamentary inexperience, aggravated in a measure by his witty facility of speech, should lead him to some very regrettable indiscretion. Such, gentleman, was the subject of the little conversation you may have seen that he held with me on my bench before he asked for the floor; and I myself have asked for the same privilege only in order to remove from your minds all idea of my complicity in the great mistake he has just, as I think, committed by condescending to the private details he has thought fit to relate to this a.s.sembly. But as, against my intention, and I may add against my will, I have entered the tribune, the Chamber will permit me, perhaps, --although no ministerial interest is here concerned,--to say a few words. [Cries from the Centre: "Go on!" "Speak!"]

M. le ministre then went on to say that the conduct of the absent deputy showed contempt for the Chamber; he was treating it lightly and cavalierly. M. de Sallenauve had asked for leave of absence; but how or where had he asked for it? From a foreign country! That is to say, he began by taking it, and then asked for it! Did he trouble himself, as is usual in such cases, to give a reason for the request? No; he merely says, in his letter to your president, that he is forced to absent himself on "urgent business,"--a very convenient excuse, on which the Chamber might be depopulated of half its members. But, supposing that M. de Sallenauve's business was really urgent, and that he thought it of a nature not to be explained in a letter that would necessarily be made public, why had he not written confidentially to the president, or even requested a friend in some responsible position, whose simple word would have sufficed, to a.s.sure the Chamber of the necessity of the deputy's absence without requiring any statement of private reasons?

At this point M. de Rastignac's remarks were interrupted by a commotion in the corridor to the right. Several deputies left their seats; others jumped upon the benches, apparently endeavoring to see something. The minister, after turning to the president, from whom he seemed to be asking an explanation, went back to the ministerial bench, where he was immediately surrounded by a number of the deputies of the Centre, among whom, noticeable for the vehemence of his gestures, was M. le procureur-general Vinet. Groups formed in the audience chamber; the sitting was, in fact, informally suspended.

After a few moments' delay M. le president rings his bell.

_The Ushers_.--Take your seats, gentlemen.

The deputies hasten on all sides to do so.

_The President_.--M. de Sallenauve has the floor.

M. de Sallenauve, who, during the few moments that the sitting was interrupted by his entrance, has been talking with M. de Ca.n.a.lis and M. d'Arthez, goes to the tribune. His manner is modest, but he shows no sign of embarra.s.sment. Every one is struck by his resemblance to the portraits of one of the most fiery of the revolutionary orators.

_A Voice_.--It is Danton--without the small-pox!

_M. de Sallenauve_.--[Profound silence.] Gentlemen, I do not misjudge my parliamentary value; I know that the persecution directed apparently against me personally is, in point of fact, aimed at the political opinions I have the honor to represent.

But, however that may be, my election seems to have been viewed by the ministry as a matter of some importance. In order to oppose it, a special agent and special journalists were sent to Arcis; and a humble employe under government, with a salary of fifteen hundred francs, was dismissed, after twenty years of faithful and honorable service, for having aided in my success. [Loud murmurs from the Centre.] I thank my honorable interrupters, feeling sure that their loud disapprobation is given to this strange dismissal, which is not open to the slightest doubt. [Laughter on the Left.]

As for me, gentlemen, who could not be dismissed, I have been attacked with another weapon,--sagacious calumny, combined with my fortunate absence--

_The Minister of Public Works_.--Of course the government sent you out of the country.

_M. de Sallenauve_.--No, Monsieur le ministre. I do not attribute my absence to either your influence or your suggestions; it was necessitated by imperious duty, and it had no other instigation or motive. But, as to the part you have really taken in the denunciation set on foot against me, I am about to tell the facts, and the Chamber will consider them. [Close attention.] The law, in order to protect the independence of the deputy, directs that no criminal prosecution can be begun against a member of the national representation without the preliminary consent of the Chamber; this fact has been turned with great adroitness against me. If the complaint had been laid before the magistrates, it could not have been admitted even for an instant; it is simply a bare charge, not supported by evidence of any kind; and I have never heard that the public authorities are in the habit of prosecuting citizens on the mere allegation of the first-comer. We must therefore admire the subtlety of mind which instantly perceived that, by pet.i.tioning you for leave to prosecute, all the benefits of the accusation, politically speaking, would be obtained without encountering the difficulty I have mentioned in the courts. [Excitement.] Now, to what able parliamentary tactician must we ascribe the honor of this invention? You know already, gentleman, that it is due ostensibly to a woman, a peasant-woman, one who labors for her living; hence the conclusion is that the peasant-women of Champagne have an intellectual superiority of which, up to this time, neither you nor I were at all aware. [Laughter.] It must be said, however, that before coming to Paris to lodge her complaint, this woman had an interview with the mayor of Arcis, my opponent on the ministerial side in the late election. From this conference she obtained certain lights. To which we must add that the mayor, taking apparently much interest in the charge to be brought against me, agreed to pay the costs, not only of the peasant-woman's trip to Paris, but also those of the village pract.i.tioner by whom she was accompanied. [Left: "Ha! ha!"] This superior woman having arrived in Paris, with whom did she immediately communicate? With the special agent sent down to Arcis by the government to ensure the success of the ministerial candidate. And who drew up the pet.i.tion to this honorable Chamber for the necessary authority to proceed to a criminal prosecution?

Not precisely the special ministerial agent himself, but a barrister under his dictation, and after a breakfast to which the peasant-woman and her adviser were invited in order to furnish the necessary information. [Much excitement. "Hear! hear!"]

_The Minister of Public Works from his seat_.--Without discussing the truth of these statements, as to which I have personally no knowledge, I affirm upon my honor that the government is completely ignorant of the proceedings now related, which it blames and disavows in the most conclusive manner.

_M. de Sallenauve_.--After the formal declaration which I have had the good fortune to evoke it would ill become me, gentlemen, to insist on tracing the responsibility for this intrigue back to the government. But what I have already said will seem to you natural when you remember that, as I entered this hall, the minister of Public Works was in the tribune, taking part, in a most unusual manner, in a discussion on discipline wholly outside of his department, and endeavoring to persuade you that I had conducted myself towards this honorable body with a total want of reverence.

The minister of Public Works said a few words which did not reach us. Great disturbance.

_M. Victorin Hulot_.--M. le president, have the goodness to request the minister of Public Works not to interrupt the speaker.

He can answer.

_M. de Sallenauve_.--According to M. le comte de Rastignac, I showed essential disrespect to the Chamber by asking, in a foreign country, for leave of absence, which it was obvious I had already taken before making my request. But, in his extreme desire to find me to blame, the minister lost sight of the fact that at the time I left France the Chamber had not met, no president existed, and therefore in making my request at that time to the president of this a.s.sembly I should simply have addressed a pure abstraction.

[Left: "True!"] As for the insufficiency of the motives with which I supported my request, I regret to have to say to the Chamber that I cannot be more explicit even now; because in revealing the true cause of my absence I should betray the secret of an honorable man, and not my own. I did not conceal from myself that by this reticence I exposed my proceedings to mistaken interpretations,--though I certainly did not expect it to give rise to accusations as burlesque as they are odious. [Much excitement.] In point of fact, I was so anxious not to neglect any of the duties of my new position that I did precisely what the minister of Public Works reproaches me for not doing. I selected a man in a most honorable position, who was, like myself, a repository of the secret I am unable to divulge, and I requested him to make all necessary explanations to the president of this Chamber. But, calumny having no doubt worked upon his mind, that honorable person must have thought it compromising to his name and dignity to do me this service. The danger to me being now over, I shall not betray his prudent incognito. Though I was far indeed from expecting this calculating selfishness, which has painfully surprised and wounded me, I shall be careful to keep this betrayal of friendship between myself and his own conscience, which alone shall reproach him for the wrong he has done me.

At this moment a disturbance occurred in the peers' gallery; a lady had fainted; and several deputies, among them a physician, left the hall hastily. The sitting was momentarily suspended.

_The President_.--Ushers, open the ventilators. It is want of air that has caused this unfortunate accident. M. de Sallenauve, be good enough to resume your speech.

_M. de Sallenauve_.--Two words, gentleman, and I have finished. I think the pet.i.tion to authorize a criminal prosecution has already lost something of its weight in the minds of my least cordial colleagues. But I have here a letter from the Romilly peasant-woman, my relation, duly signed and authenticated, withdrawing her charge and confirming all the explanations I have just had the honor to give you. I might read this letter aloud to you, but I think it more becoming to place it in the hands of M. le president. ["Very good! very good!"] As for my illegal absence, I returned to Paris early this morning, and I could have been in my seat at the opening of the Chamber; but, as M. de Ca.n.a.lis has told you, I had it much at heart not to appear in this hall until I could disperse the cloud which has so strangely appeared around my reputation. It has taken me the whole morning to obtain these papers. And now, gentlemen, you have to decide whether a few hours' delay in taking his seat in this Chamber justifies you in sending a colleague back to his electors. But after all, whatever is done, whether some persist in thinking me a forger, or a libertine, or merely a negligent deputy, I feel no anxiety about the verdict of my electors. I can confidently a.s.sert that after a delay of a few weeks I shall return to you.

_Cries on all sides_.--The vote! the vote!

On leaving the tribune M. de Sallenauve receives many congratulations.

_The President_.--I put to vote the admission of M. de Sallenauve as the deputy elected by the arrondiss.e.m.e.nt of Arcis.

Nearly the whole Chamber rises and votes the admission; a few deputies of the Centre alone abstain from taking part in the demonstration.

M. de Sallenauve is admitted and takes the oath.

_The President_.--The order of the day calls for the reading of the Address to the Throne, but the chairman of the committee appointed to prepare it informs me that the doc.u.ment in question cannot be communicated to the Chamber before to-morrow. Nothing else being named in the order of the day, I declare this sitting adjourned.

The Chamber rose at half-past four o'clock.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

Note.--"The Deputy of Arcis," of which Balzac wrote and published the first part in 1847, was left unfinished at his death. He designated M. Charles Rabou, editor of the "Revue de Paris," as the person to take his notes and prepare the rest of the volume for the press. It is instructive to a student of Balzac to see how disconnected and out of proportion the story becomes in these later parts,--showing plainly that the master's hand was in the habit of pruning away half, if not more, of what it had written, or--to change the metaphor and give the process in his own language--that he put _les grands pots dans les pet.i.ts pots_, the quarts into the pint pots. "If a thing can be done in one line instead of two," he says, "I try to do it."

Some parts of this conclusion are evidently added by M. Rabou, and are not derived from Balzac at all,--especially the unnecessary reincarnation of Vautrin. There is no trace of the master's hand here. The character is made so silly and puerile, and is so out of keeping with Balzac's strong portrait, which never weakens, that the translator has thought best, in justice to Vautrin, to omit all that is not absolutely necessary to connect the story.