Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.........................................................................................................................1

In 1824, at the last opera ball of the season, several masks were struck by the beauty of a youth who was

wandering about the passages and greenroom with the air of a man in search of a woman kept at home by

unexpected circumstances. The secret of this behavior, now dilatory and again hurried, is known only to old

women and to certain experienced loungers. In this immense assembly the crowd does not trouble itself much

to watch the crowd; each one's interest is impassioned, and even idlers are preoccupied.

The young dandy was so much absorbed in his anxious quest that he did not observe his own success; he did

not hear, he did not see the ironical exclamations of admiration, the genuine appreciation, the biting gibes, the

soft invitations of some of the masks. Though he was so handsome as to rank among those exceptional

persons who come to an opera ball in search of an adventure, and who expect it as confidently as men looked

for a lucky coup at roulette in Frascati's day, he seemed quite philosophically sure of his evening; he must be

the hero of one of those mysteries with three actors which constitute an opera ball, and are known only to

those who play a part in them; for, to young wives who come merely to say, "I have seen it," to country

people, to inexperienced youths, and to foreigners, the opera house must on those nights be the palace of

fatigue and dulness. To these, that black swarm, slow and serriedcoming, going, winding, turning,

returning, mounting, descending, comparable only to ants on a pile of woodis no more intelligible than the

With a few rare exceptions, men wear no masks in Paris; a man in a domino is thought ridiculous. In this the

spirit of the nation betrays itself. Men who want to hide their good fortune can enjoy the opera ball without

going there; and masks who are absolutely compelled to go in come out again at once. One of the most

amusing scenes is the crush at the doors produced as soon as the dancing begins, by the rush of persons

getting away and struggling with those who are pushing in. So the men who wear masks are either jealous

husbands who come to watch their wives, or husbands on the loose who do not wish to be watched by

Now, our young man was followed, though he knew it not, by a man in a mask, dogging his steps, short and

stout, with a rolling gait, like a barrel. To every one familiar with the opera this disguise betrayed a

stockbroker, a banker, a lawyer, some citizen soul suspicious of infidelity. For in fact, in really high society,

no one courts such humiliating proofs. Several masks had laughed as they pointed this preposterous figure

out to each other; some had spoken to him, a few young men had made game of him, but his stolid manner

showed entire contempt for these aimless shafts; he went on whither the young man led him, as a hunted wild

boar goes on and pays no heed to the bullets whistling about his ears, or the dogs barking at his heels.

Though at first sight pleasure and anxiety wear the same liverythe noble black robe of Veniceand

though all is confusion at an opera ball, the various circles composing Parisian society meet there, recognize,

and watch each other. There are certain ideas so clear to the initiated that this scrawled medley of interests is

as legible to them as any amusing novel. So, to these old hands, this man could not be here by appointment;

he would infallibly have worn some token, red, white, or green, such as notifies a happy meeting previously

Seeing the domino following so closely in the wake of a man apparently happy in an assignation, some of the

gazers looked again at the handsome face, on which anticipation had set its divine halo. The youth was

interesting; the longer he wandered, the more curiosity he excited. Everything about him proclaimed the

habits of refined life. In obedience to a fatal law of the time we live in, there is not much difference, physical

or moral, between the most elegant and best bred son of a duke and peer and this attractive youth, whom

poverty had not long since held in its iron grip in the heart of Paris. Beauty and youth might cover him in

deep gulfs, as in many a young man who longs to play a part in Paris without having the capital to support his

pretensions, and who, day after day, risks all to win all, by sacrificing to the god who has most votaries in this

royal city, namely, Chance. At the same time, his dress and manners were above reproach; he trod the classic

floor of the opera house as one accustomed there. Who can have failed to observe that there, as in every zone

in Paris, there is a manner of being which shows who you are, what you are doing, whence you come, and

"What a handsome young fellow; and here we may turn round to look at him," said a mask, in whom

"Do you not remember him?" replied the man on whose arm she was leaning. "Madame du Chatelet

"What, is that the apothecary's son she fancied herself in love with, who became a journalist, Mademoiselle

"I fancied he had fallen too low ever to pull himself up again, and I cannot understand how he can show

"He has the air of a prince," the mask went on, "and it is not the actress he lived with who could give it to

him. My cousin, who understood him, could not lick him into shape. I should like to know the mistress of this

This couple, whispering as they watched the young man, became the object of study to the squareshouldered

"Dear Monsieur Chardon," said the Prefet of the Charente, taking the dandy's hand, "allow me to introduce

"Dear Comte Chatelet," replied the young man, "that lady taught me how ridiculous was the name by which

you address me. A patent from the king has restored to me that of my mother's familythe Rubempres.

Although the fact has been announced in the papers, it relates to so unimportant a person that I need not blush

to recall it to my friends, my enemies, and those who are neither You may class yourself where you

will, but I am sure you will not disapprove of a step to which I was advised by your wife when she was still

This neat retort, which made the Marquise smile, gave the Prefet of la Charente a nervous chill. "You may

tell her," Lucien went on, "that I now bear gules, a bull raging argent on a meadow vert."

"Madame la Marquise will explain to you, if you do not know, why that old coat is a little better than the

chamberlain's key and Imperial gold bees which you bear on yours, to the great despair of Madame Chatelet,

"Since you recognize me, I cannot puzzle you; and I could never tell you how much you puzzle me," said the

Marquise d'Espard, amazed at the coolness and impertinence to which the man had risen whom she had

"Then allow me, madame, to preserve my only chance of occupying your thoughts by remaining in that

mysterious twilight," said he, with the smile of a man who does not wish to risk assured happiness.

"I congratulate you on your changed fortunes," said the Comte du Chatelet to Lucien.

"I take it as you offer it," replied Lucien, bowing with much grace to the Marquise.

"What a coxcomb!" said the Count in an undertone to Madame d'Espard. "He has succeeded in winning an

"With these young men such coxcombry, when it is addressed to us, almost always implies some success in

high places," said the lady; "for with you older men it means illfortune. And I should very much like to

know which of my grand lady friends has taken this fine bird under her patronage; then I might find the

means of amusing myself this evening. My ticket, anonymously sent, is no doubt a bit of mischief planned by

a rival and having something to do with this young man. His impertinence is to order; keep an eye on him. I

Just as Madame d'Espard was about to address her cousin, the mysterious mask came between her and the

"Lucien loves you; he wrote the note. Your Prefet is his greatest foe; how can he speak in his presence?"

The stranger moved off, leaving Madame d'Espard a prey to a double surprise. The Marquise knew no one in

the world who was capable of playing the part assumed by this mask; she suspected a snare, and went to sit

down out of sight. The Comte Sixte du Chateletwhom Lucien had abridged of his ambitious du with an

emphasis that betrayed long meditated revengefollowed the handsome dandy, and presently met a young

"If I were half as good looking as he is, I should be twice as rich," replied the fine gentleman, in a light but

"No!" said the fat mask in his ear, repaying a thousand ironies in one by the accent he lent the monosyllable.

Rastignac, who was not the man to swallow an affront, stood as if struck by lightning, and allowed himself to

"You young cockerel, hatched in Mother Vauquer's coopyou, whose heart failed you to clutch old

Taillefer's millions when the hardest part of the business was donelet me tell you, for your personal safety,

that if you do not treat Lucien like the brother you love, you are in our power, while we are not in yours.

Silence and submission! or I shall join your game and upset the skittles. Lucien de Rubempre is under the

protection of the strongest power of the daythe Church. Choose between life and deathAnswer."

Rastignac felt giddy, like a man who has slept in a forest and wakes to see by his side a famishing lioness. He

was frightened, and there was no one to see him; the boldest men yield to fear under such circumstances.

Rastignac then acted like a millionaire on the highroad with a brigand's pistol at his head; he surrendered.

"My dear Count," said he to du Chatelet, to whom he presently returned, "if you care for your position in life,

treat Lucien de Rubempre as a man whom you will one day see holding a place far above where you stand."

The mask made a imperceptible gesture of approbation, and went off in search of Lucien.

"My dear fellow, you have changed your opinion of him very suddenly," replied the Prefet with justifiable

"As suddenly as men change who belong to the centre and vote with the right," replied Rastignac to the

"Are there such things as opinions nowadays? There are only interests," observed des Lupeaulx, who had

"The case of the Sieur de Rubempre, whom Rastignac is setting up as a person of consequence," said du

"My dear Count," replied des Lupeaulx very seriously, "Monsieur de Rubempre is a young man of the

highest merit, and has such good interest at his back that I should be delighted to renew my acquaintance with

"There he is, rushing into the wasps' nest of the rakes of the day," said Rastignac.

The three speakers looked towards a corner where a group of recognized wits had gathered, men of more or

less celebrity, and several men of fashion. These gentlemen made common stock of their jests, their remarks,

and their scandal, trying to amuse themselves till something should amuse them. Among this strangely

mingled party were some men with whom Lucien had had transactions, combining ostensibly kind offices

"Hallo! Lucien, my boy, why here we are patched up againnew stuffing and a new cover. Where have we

come from? Have we mounted the high horse once more with little offerings from Florine's boudoir? Bravo,

old chap!" and Blondet released Finot to put his arm affectionately around Lucien and press him to his heart.

Andoche Finot was the proprietor of a review on which Lucien had worked for almost nothing, and to which

Blondet gave the benefit of his collaboration, of the wisdom of his suggestions and the depth of his views.

Finot and Blondet embodied Bertrand and Raton, with this differencethat la Fontaine's cat at last showed

that he knew himself to be duped, while Blondet, though he knew that he was being fleeced, still did all he

could for Finot. This brilliant condottiere of the pen was, in fact, long to remain a slave. Finot hid a brutal

strength of will under a heavy exterior, under polish of wit, as a laborer rubs his bread with garlic. He knew

how to garner what he gleaned, ideas and crownpieces alike, in the fields of the dissolute life led by men

Blondet, for his sins, had placed his powers at the service of Finot's vices and idleness. Always at war with

necessity, he was one of the race of povertystricken and superior men who can do everything for the fortune

of others and nothing for their own, Aladdins who let other men borrow their lamp. These excellent advisers

have a clear and penetrating judgment so long as it is not distracted by personal interest. In them it is the head

and not the arm that acts. Hence the looseness of their morality, and hence the reproach heaped upon them by

inferior minds. Blondet would share his purse with a comrade he had affronted the day before; he would dine,

drink, and sleep with one whom he would demolish on the morrow. His amusing paradoxes excused

everything. Accepting the whole world as a jest, he did not want to be taken seriously; young, beloved,

almost famous and contented, he did not devote himself, like Finot, to acquiring the fortune an old man

The most difficult form of courage, perhaps, is that which Lucien needed at this moment to get rid of Blondet

as he had just got rid of Madame d'Espard and Chatelet. In him, unfortunately, the joys of vanity hindered the

exercise of pridethe basis, beyond doubt, of many great things. His vanity had triumphed in the previous

encounter; he had shown himself as a rich man, happy and scornful, to two persons who had scorned him

when he was poor and wretched. But how could a poet, like an old diplomate, run the gauntlet with two

selfstyled friends, who had welcomed him in misery, under whose roof he had slept in the worst of his

troubles? Finot, Blondet, and he had groveled together; they had wallowed in such orgies as consume

something more than money. Like soldiers who find no market for their courage, Lucien had just done what

many men do in Paris: he had still further compromised his character by shaking Finot's hand, and not

Every man who has dabbled, or still dabbles, in journalism is under the painful necessity of bowing to men he

despises, of smiling at his dearest foe, of compounding the foulest meanness, of soiling his fingers to pay his

aggressors in their own coin. He becomes used to seeing evil done, and passing it over; he begins by

condoning it, and ends by committing it. In the long run the soul, constantly strained by shameful and

perpetual compromise, sinks lower, the spring of noble thoughts grows rusty, the hinges of familiarity wear

easy, and turn of their own accord. Alceste becomes Philinte, natures lose their firmness, talents are

perverted, faith in great deeds evaporates. The man who yearned to be proud of his work wastes himself in

rubbishy articles which his conscience regards, sooner or later, as so many evil actions. He started, like

Lousteau or Vernou, to be a great writer; he finds himself a feeble scrivener. Hence it is impossible to honor

too highly men whose character stands as high as their talent men like d'Arthez, who know how to walk

Lucien could make no reply to Blondet's flattery; his wit had an irresistible charm for him, and he maintained

the hold of the corrupter over his pupil; besides, he held a position in the world through his connection with

"Like you, I have marked some fools for cutting down," replied Lucien in the same tone.

"Then Monsieur has a reviewa newspaper of his own?" Andoche Finot retorted, with the impertinent

"I have something better," replied Lucien, whose vanity, nettled by the assumed superiority of his editor,

"Finot, the boy has left you in the lurch; I told you he would. Lucien is a clever fellow, and you never were

Blondet, as sharp as a needle, could detect more than one secret in Lucien's air and manner; while stroking

him down, he contrived to tighten the curb. He meant to know the reasons of Lucien's return to Paris, his

"On your knees to a superiority you can never attain to, albeit you are Finot!" he went on. "Admit this

gentleman forthwith to be one of the great men to whom the future belongs; he is one of us! So witty and so

handsome, can he fail to succeed by your quibuscumque viis? Here he stands, in his good Milan armor, his

strong sword half unsheathed, and his pennon flying!Bless me, Lucien, where did you steal that smart

waistcoat? Love alone can find such stuff as that. Have you an address? At this moment I am anxious to

know where my friends are domiciled; I don't know where to sleep. Finot has turned me out of doors for the

"My boy," said Lucien, "I put into practice a motto by which you may secure a quiet life: Fuge, late, tace. I

"But I am not off till you pay me a sacred debtthat little supper, you know, heh?" said Blondet, who was

rather too much given to good cheer, and got himself treated when he was out of funds.

"You don't remember? In that I recognize my prosperous friend; he has lost his memory."

"He knows what he owes us; I will go bail for his good heart," said Finot, taking up Blondet's joke.

"Rastignac," said Blondet, taking the young dandy by the arm as he came up the room to the column where

the socalled friends were standing. "There is a supper in the wind; you will join usunless," he added

gravely, turning to Lucien, "Monsieur persists in ignoring a debt of honor. He can."

"Monsieur de Rubempre is incapable of such a thing; I will answer for him," said Rastignac, who never

"And there is Bixiou, he will come too," cried Blondet; "there is no fun without him. Without him champagne

"My friends," said Bixiou, "I see you have gathered round the wonder of the day. Our dear Lucien has

revived the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Just as the gods used to turn into strange vegetables and other things to

seduce the ladies, he has turned the Chardon (the Thistle) into a gentleman to bewitchwhom? Charles

X.!My dear boy," he went on, holding Lucien by his coat button, "a journalist who apes the fine gentleman

deserves rough music. In their place," said the merciless jester, as he pointed to Finot and Vernou, "I should

take you up in my society paper; you would bring in a hundred francs for ten columns of fun."

"Bixiou," said Blondet, "an Amphitryon is sacred for twentyfour hours before a feast and twelve hours after.

"What then!" cried Bixiou; "what is more imperative than the duty of saving a great name from oblivion, of

endowing the indigent aristocracy with a man of talent? Lucien, you enjoy the esteem of the press of which

you were a distinguished ornament, and we will give you our support.Finot, a paragraph in the 'latest

items'!Blondet, a little butter on the fourth page of your paper!We must advertise the appearance of one

of the finest books of the age, l'Archer de Charles IX.! We will appeal to Dauriat to bring out as soon as

possible les Marguerites, those divine sonnets by the French Petrarch! We must carry our friend through on

"If you want a supper," said Lucien to Blondet, hoping to rid himself of this mob, which threatened to

increase, "it seems to me that you need not work up hyperbole and parable to attack an old friend as if he

were a booby. Tomorrow night at Lointier's" he cried, seeing a woman come by, whom he rushed to

"Oh! oh! oh!" said Bixiou on three notes, with a mocking glance, and seeming to recognize the mask to

He followed the handsome pair, got past them, examined them keenly, and came back, to the great

satisfaction of all the envious crowd, who were eager to learn the source of Lucien's change of fortune.

"Friends," said Bixiou, "you have long known the goddess of the Sire de Rubempre's fortune: She is des

A form of dissipation, now forgotten, but still customary at the beginning of this century, was the keeping of

"rats." The "rat"a slang word that has become oldfashionedwas a girl of ten or twelve in the chorus of

some theatre, more particularly at the opera, who was trained by young roues to vice and infamy. A "rat" was

a sort of demon page, a tomboy who was forgiven a trick if it were but funny. The "rat" might take what she

pleased; she was to be watched like a dangerous animal, and she brought an element of liveliness into life,

like Scapin, Sganarelle, and Frontin in oldfashioned comedy. But a "rat" was too expensive; it made no

return in honor, profit, or pleasure; the fashion of rats so completely went out, that in these days few people

knew anything of this detail of fashionable life before the Restoration till certain writers took up the "rat" as a

"What! after having seen Coralie killed under him, Lucien means to rob us of La Torpille?" (the torpedo fish)

As he heard the name the brawny mask gave a significant start, which, though repressed, was understood by

"It is out of the question," replied Finot; "La Torpille has not a sou to give away; Nathan tells me she

"Come, gentlemen, gentlemen!" said Rastignac, anxious to defend Lucien against so odious an imputation.

"Oh!" replied Bixiou, "those thousand francs prove to me that our friend Lucien lives with La Torpille"

"What an irreparable loss to literature, science, art, and politics!" exclaimed Blondet. "La Torpille is the only

common prostitute in whom I ever found the stuff for a superior courtesan; she has not been spoiled by

educationshe can neither read nor write, she would have understood us. We might have given to our era

one of those magnificent Aspasias without which there can be no golden age. See how admirably Madame du

Barry was suited to the eighteenth century, Ninon de l'Enclos to the seventeenth, Marion Delorme to the

sixteenth, Imperia to the fifteenth, Flora to Republican Rome, which she made her heir, and which paid off

the public debt with her fortune! What would Horace be without Lydia, Tibullus without Delia, Catullus

without Lesbia, Propertius without Cynthia, Demetrius without Lamia, who is his glory at this day?"

"Blondet talking of Demetrius in the opera house seems to me rather too strong of the Debats," said Bixiou in

"And where would the empire of the Caesars have been but for these queens?" Blondet went on; "Lais and

Rhodope are Greece and Egypt. They all indeed are the poetry of the ages in which they lived. This poetry,

which Napoleon lackedfor the Widow of his Great Army is a barrack jest, was not wanting to the

Revolution; it had Madame Tallien! In these days there is certainly a throne to let in France which is for her

who can fill it. We among us could make a queen. I should have given La Torpille an aunt, for her mother is

too decidedly dead on the field of dishonor; du Tillet would have given her a mansion, Lousteau a carriage,

Rastignac her footmen, des Lupeaulx a cook, Finot her hats"Finot could not suppress a shrug at standing

the pointblank fire of this epigram"Vernou would have composed her advertisements, and Bixiou her

repartees! The aristocracy would have come to enjoy themselves with our Ninon, where we would have got

artists together, under pain of death by newspaper articles. Ninon the second would have been magnificently

impertinent, overwhelming in luxury. She would have set up opinions. Some prohibited dramatic masterpiece

should have been read in her drawingroom; it should have been written on purpose if necessary. She would

not have been liberal; a courtesan is essentially monarchical. Oh, what a loss! She ought to have embraced

her whole century, and she makes love with a little young man! Lucien will make a sort of huntingdog of

"None of the female powers of whom you speak ever trudged the streets," said Finot, "and that pretty little

"Like a lilyseed in the soil," replied Vernou, "and she has improved in it and flowered. Hence her

superiority. Must we not have known everything to be able to create the laughter and joy which are part of

"He is right," said Lousteau, who had hitherto listened without speaking; "La Torpille can laugh and make

others laugh. That gift of all great writers and great actors is proper to those who have investigated every

social deep. At eighteen that girl had already known the greatest wealth, the most squalid miserymen of

every degree. She bears about her a sort of magic wand by which she lets loose the brutal appetites so

vehemently suppressed in men who still have a heart while occupied with politics or science, literature or art.

There is not in Paris another woman who can say to the beast as she does: 'Come out!' And the beast leaves

his lair and wallows in excesses. She feeds you up to the chin, she helps you to drink and smoke. In short, this

woman is the salt of which Rabelais writes, which, thrown on matter, animates it and elevates it to the

marvelous realms of art; her robe displays unimagined splendor, her fingers drop gems as her lips shed

smiles; she gives the spirit of the occasion to every little thing; her chatter twinkles with bright sayings, she

has the secret of the quaintest onomatopoeia, full of color, and giving color; she"

"You are wasting five francs' worth of copy," said Bixiou, interrupting Lousteau. "La Torpille is something

far better than all that; you have all been in love with her more or less, not one of you can say that she ever

was his mistress. She can always command you; you will never command her. You may force your way in

"Oh, she is more generous than a brigand chief who knows his business, and more devoted than the best of

schoolfellows," said Blondet. "You may trust her with your purse or your secrets. But what made me choose

"She, like her mother, is much too dear," said des Lupeaulx. "The handsome Dutch woman would have

swallowed up the income of the Archbishop of Toledo; she ate two notaries out of house and home"

"La Torpille is too dear, as Raphael was, or Careme, or Taglioni, or Lawrence, or Boule, or any artist of

"Esther never looked so thoroughly a lady," said Rastignac, pointing to the masked figure to whom Lucien

"Not a doubt of it," cried du Chatelet, "and Monsieur du Rubempre's fortune is accounted for."

"Ah, the Church knows how to choose its Levites; what a sweet ambassador's secretary he will make!"

"All the more so," Rastignac went on, "because Lucien is a really clever fellow. These gentlemen have had

"Yes, the boy is cut out of the right stuff to get on," said Lousteau, who was dying of jealousy. "And

"Well," replied Bixiou, looking at des Lupeaulx, "I trust to the memory of Monsieur the SecretaryGeneral

and Master of Appealsthat mask is La Torpille, and I will stand a supper on it."

"There is no need for committing the crime of treason against a mask," replied Bixiou. "La Torpille and

Lucien must pass us as they go up the room again, and I pledge myself to prove that it is she."

"So our friend Lucien has come above water once more," said Nathan, joining the group. "I thought he had

gone back to Angoumois for the rest of his days. Has he discovered some secret to ruin the English?"

"He has done what you will not do in a hurry," retorted Rastignac; "he has paid up."

"A man who has sown his wild oats at his age puts himself out of court. He has no pluck; he puts money in

"Oh, that youngster will always be a fine gentleman, and will always have such lofty notions as will place

At this moment journalists, dandies, and idlers were all examining the charming subject of their bet as

horsedealers examine a horse for sale. These connoisseurs, grown old in familiarity with every form of

Parisian depravity, all men of superior talent each his own way, equally corrupt, equally corrupting, all given

over to unbridled ambition, accustomed to assume and to guess everything, had their eyes centered on a

masked woman, a woman whom no one else could identify. They, and certain habitual frequenters of the

opera balls, could alone recognize under the long shroud of the black domino, the hood and falling ruff which

make the wearer unrecognizable, the rounded form, the individuality of figure and gait, the sway of the waist,

the carriage of the headthe most intangible trifles to ordinary eyes, but to them the easiest to discern.

In spite of this shapeless wrapper they could watch the most appealing of dramas, that of a woman inspired

by a genuine passion. Were she La Torpille, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, or Madame de Serizy, on the

lowest or highest rung of the social ladder, this woman was an exquisite creature, a flash from happy dreams.

These old young men, like these young old men, felt so keen an emotion, that they envied Lucien the

splendid privilege of working such a metamorphosis of a woman into a goddess. The mask was there as

though she had been alone with Lucien; for that woman the thousand other persons did not exist, nor the evil

and dustladen atmosphere; no, she moved under the celestial vault of love, as Raphael's Madonnas under

their slender oval glory. She did not feel herself elbowed; the fire of her glance shot from the holes in her

mask and sank into Lucien's eyes; the thrill of her frame seemed to answer to every movement of her

companion. Whence comes this flame that radiates from a woman in love and distinguishes her above all

others? Whence that sylphlike lightness which seems to negative the laws of gravitation? Is the soul become

The ingenuousness of a girl, the graces of a child were discernible under the domino. Though they walked

apart, these two beings suggested the figures of Flora and Zephyr as we see them grouped by the cleverest

sculptors; but they were beyond sculpture, the greatest of the arts; Lucien and his pretty domino were more

like the angels busied with flowers or birds, which Gian Bellini has placed beneath the effigies of the Virgin

Mother. Lucien and this girl belonged to the realm of fancy, which is as far above art as cause is above effect.

When the domino, forgetful of everything, was within a yard of the group, Bixiou exclaimed:

The unhappy girl turned her head quickly at hearing herself called, recognized the mischievous speaker, and

A sharp laugh followed, and the group of men melted among the crowd like a knot of frightened fieldrats

whisking into their holes by the roadside. Rastignac alone went no further than was necessary, just to avoid

making any show of shunning Lucien's flashing eye. He could thus note two phases of distress equally deep

though unconfessed; first, the hapless Torpille, stricken as by a lightning stroke, and then the inscrutable

mask, the only one of the group who had remained. Esther murmured a word in Lucien's ear just as her knees

"How did she get her name of La Torpille?" asked a gloomy voice that struck to his vitals, for it was no

"Be silent or I murder you," replied the mask, changing his voice. "I am satisfied with you, you have kept

your word, and there is more than one arm ready to serve you. Henceforth be as silent as the grave; but,

"Well, the girl is such a witch that she could have magnetized the Emperor Napoleon; she could magnetize a

man more difficult to influenceyou yourself," replied Rastignac, and he turned to go.

"One moment," said the mask; "I will prove to you that you have never seen me anywhere."

The speaker took his mask off; for a moment Rastignac hesitated, recognizing nothing of the hideous being

"The devil has enabled you to change in every particular, excepting your eyes, which it is impossible to

At three in the morning des Lupeaulx and Finot found the elegant Rastignac on the same spot, leaning against

the column where the terrible mask had left him. Rastignac had confessed to himself; he had been at once

priest and pentient, culprit and judge. He allowed himself to be led away to breakfast, and reached home

The Rue de Langlade and the adjacent streets are a blot on the Palais Royal and the Rue de Rivoli. This

portion of one of the handsomest quarters of Paris will long retain the stain of foulness left by the hillocks

formed of the middens of old Paris, on which mills formerly stood. These narrow streets, dark and muddy,

where such industries are carried on as care little for appearances wear at night an aspect of mystery full of

contrasts. On coming from the welllighted regions of the Rue SaintHonore, the Rue

NeuvedesPetitsChamps, and the Rue de Richelieu, where the crowd is constantly pushing, where glitter

the masterpieces of industry, fashion, and art, every man to whom Paris by night is unknown would feel a

sense of dread and melancholy, on finding himself in the labyrinth of little streets which lie round that blaze

of light reflected even from the sky. Dense blackness is here, instead of floods of gaslight; a dim oillamp

here and there sheds its doubtful and smoky gleam, and many blind alleys are not lighted at all. Foot

passengers are few, and walk fast. The shops are shut, the few that are open are of a squalid kind; a dirty,

unlighted wineshop, or a seller of underclothing and eaudeCologne. An unwholesome chill lays a clammy

cloak over your shoulders. Few carriages drive past. There are sinister places here, especially the Rue de

Langlade, the entrance to the Passage SaintGuillaume, and the turnings of some streets.

The municipal council has not yet been to purge this vast lazarplace, for prostitution long since made it its

headquarters. It is, perhaps, a good thing for Paris that these alleys should be allowed to preserve their filthy

aspect. Passing through them by day, it is impossible to imagine what they become by night; they are

pervaded by strange creatures of no known world; white, halfnaked forms cling to the wallsthe darkness

is alive. Between the passenger and the wall a dress steals bya dress that moves and speaks. Halfopen

doors suddenly shout with laughter. Words fall on the ear such as Rabelais speaks of as frozen and melting.

Snatches of songs come up from the pavement. The noise is not vague; it means something. When it is hoarse

it is a voice; but if it suggests a song, there is nothing human about it, it is more like a croak. Often you hear a

sharp whistle, and then the tap of bootheels has a peculiarly aggressive and mocking ring. This medley of

things makes you giddy. Atmospheric conditions are reversed thereit is warm in winter and cool in

Still, whatever the weather, this strange world always wears the same aspect; it is the fantastic world of

Hoffmann of Berlin. The most mathematical of clerks never thinks of it as real, after returning through the

straits that lead into decent streets, where there are passengers, shops, and taverns. Modern administration, or

modern policy, more scornful or more shamefaced than the queens and kings of past ages, no longer dare

look boldly in the face of this plague of our capitals. Measures, of course, must change with the times, and

such as bear on individuals and on their liberty are a ticklish matter; still, we ought, perhaps, to show some

breadth and boldness as to merely material measuresair, light, and construction. The moralist, the artist,

and the sage administrator alike must regret the old wooden galleries of the Palais Royal, where the lambs

were to be seen who will always be found where there are loungers; and is it not best that the loungers should

go where they are to be found? What is the consequence? The gayest parts of the Boulevards, that

delightfulest of promenades, are impossible in the evening for a family party. The police has failed to take

advantage of the outlet afforded by some small streets to purge the main street.

The girl whom we have seen crushed by a word at the opera ball had been for the last month or two living in

the Rue de Langlade, in a very poorlooking house. This structure, stuck on to the wall of an enormously

large one, badly stuccoed, of no depth, and immensely high, has all its windows on the street, and bears some

resemblance to a parrot's perch. On each floor are two rooms, let as separate flats. There is a narrow staircase

clinging to the wall, queerly lighted by windows which mark its ascent on the outer wall, each landing being

indicated by a stink, one of the most odious peculiarities of Paris. The shop and entresol at that time were

tenanted by a tinman; the landlord occupied the first floor; the four upper stories were rented by very decent

working girls, who were treated by the portress and the proprietor with some consideration and an

obligingness called forth by the difficulty of letting a house so oddly constructed and situated. The occupants

of the quarter are accounted for by the existence there of many houses of the same character, for which trade

has no use, and which can only be rented by the poorer kinds of industry, of a precarious or ignominious

At three in the afternoon the portress, who had seen Mademoiselle Esther brought home half dead by a young

man at two in the morning, had just held council with the young woman of the floor above, who, before

setting out in a cab to join some party of pleasure, had expressed her uneasiness about Esther; she had not

heard her move. Esther was, no doubt, still asleep, but this slumber seemed suspicious. The portress, alone in

her cell, was regretting that she could not go to see what was happening on the fourth floor, where

Just as she had made up her mind to leave the tinman's son in charge of her room, a sort of den in a recess on

the entresol floor, a cab stopped at the door. A man stepped out, wrapped from head to foot in a cloak

evidently intended to conceal his dress or his rank in life, and asked for Mademoiselle Esther. The portress at

one felt relieved; this accounted for Esther's silence and quietude. As the stranger mounted the stairs above

the portress' room, she noticed silver buckles in his shoes, and fancied she caught sight of the black fringe of

a priest's sash; she went downstairs and catechised the driver, who answered without speech, and again the

The priest knocked, received no answer, heard a slight gasp, and forced the door open with a thrust of his

shoulder; charity, no doubt lent him strength, but in any one else it would have been ascribed to practice. He

rushed to the inner room, and there found poor Esther in front of an image of the Virgin in painted plaster,

kneeling, or rather doubled up, on the floor, her hands folded. The girl was dying. A brazier of burnt charcoal

told the tale of that dreadful morning. The domino cloak and hood were lying on the ground. The bed was

undisturbed. The unhappy creature, stricken to the heart by a mortal thrust, had, no doubt, made all her

arrangements on her return from the opera. A candlewick, collapsed in the pool of grease that filled the

candlesconce, showed how completely her last meditations had absorbed her. A handkerchief soaked with

tears proved the sincerity of the Magdalen's despair, while her classic attitude was that of the irreligious

Esther, unskilled in dying, had left the door open, not thinking that the air of two rooms would need a larger

amount of charcoal to make it suffocating; she was only stunned by the fumes; the fresh air from the staircase

The priest remained standing, lost in gloomy meditation, without being touched by the girl's divine beauty,

watching her first movements as if she had been some animal. His eyes went from the crouching figure to the

surrounding objects with evident indifference. He looked at the furniture in the room; the paved floor, red,

polished, and cold, was poorly covered with a shabby carpet worn to the string. A little bedstead, of painted

wood and oldfashioned shape, was hung with yellow cotton printed with red stars, one armchair and two

small chairs, also of painted wood, and covered with the same cotton print of which the windowcurtains

were also made; a gray wallpaper sprigged with flowers blackened and greasy with age; a fireplace full of

kitchen utensils of the vilest kind, two bundles of firelogs; a stone shelf, on which lay some jewelry false

and real, a pair of scissors, a dirty pincushion, and some white scented gloves; an exquisite hat perched on the

waterjug, a Ternaux shawl stopping a hole in the window, a handsome gown hanging from a nail; a little

hard sofa, with no cushions; broken clogs and dainty slippers, boots that a queen might have coveted; cheap

china plates, cracked or chipped, with fragments of a past meal, and nickel forksthe plate of the Paris poor;

a basket full of potatoes and dirty linen, with a smart gauze cap on the top; a rickety wardrobe, with a glass

door, open and empty, and on the shelves sundry pawntickets,this was the medley of things, dismal or

These relics of splendor among the potsherds, these household belongingsso appropriate to the bohemian

existence of the girl who knelt stricken in her unbuttoned garments, like a horse dying in harness under the

broken shafts entangled in the reinsdid the whole strange scene suggest any thoughts to the priest? Did he

say to himself that this erring creature must at least be disinterested to live in such poverty when her lover

was young and rich? Did he ascribe the disorder of the room to the disorder of her life? Did he feel pity or

To see him, his arms folded, his brow dark, his lips set, his eye harsh, any one must have supposed him

absorbed in morose feelings of hatred, considerations that jostled each other, sinister schemes. He was

certainly insensible to the soft roundness of a bosom almost crushed under the weight of the bowed

shoulders, and to the beautiful modeling of the crouching Venus that was visible under the black petticoat, so

closely was the dying girl curled up. The drooping head which, seen from behind, showed the white, slender,

flexible neck and the fine shoulders of a welldeveloped figure, did not appeal to him. He did not raise

Esther, he did not seem to hear the agonizing gasps which showed that she was returning to life; a fearful sob

and a terrifying glance from the girl were needed before he condescended to lift her, and he carried her to the

"Love is there, the woman is not far behind," said the priest with some bitterness.

The victim of Parisian depravity then observed the dress worn by her deliverer, and said, with a smile like a

"You may yet expiate your sins," said the priest, moistening her forehead with water, and making her smell at

"I feel that life, instead of departing, is rushing in on me," said she, after accepting the Father's care and

expressing her gratitude by simple gestures. This engaging pantomime, such as the Graces might have used to

"Do you feel better?" said the priest, giving her a glass of sugar and water to drink.

This man seemed accustomed to such queer establishments; he knew all about it. He was quite at home there.

This privilege of being everywhere at home is the prerogative of kings, courtesans, and thieves.

"When you feel quite well," this strange priest went on after a pause, "you must tell me the reasons which

"My story is very simple, Father," replied she. "Three months ago I was living the evil life to which I was

born. I was the lowest and vilest of creatures; now I am only the most unhappy. Excuse me from telling you

"By a Captain, in a house of illfame," said the priest, interrupting the penitent. "I know your origin, and I

know that if a being of your sex can ever be excused for leading a life of shame, it is you, who have always

"All may yet be remedied then," replied the priest, "provided that your faith, your repentance, are sincere and

"You might have said God and Lucien," answered the priest, smiling. "You remind me of the purpose of my

"You have come from him?" she asked, with a tender look that would have touched any other priest! "Oh, he

"No," replied the priest; "it is not your death, but your life that we are interested in. Come, explain your

The poor child quaked at the priest's stern tone, but as a woman quakes who has long ceased to be surprised

"Lucien is Lucien," said she, "the handsomest young man, the kindest soul alive; if you know him, my love

must seem to you quite natural. I met him by chance, three months ago, at the PorteSaintMartin theatre,

where I went one day when I had leave, for we had a day a week at Madame Meynardie's, where I then was.

Next day, you understand, I went out without leave. Love had come into my heart, and had so completely

changed me, that on my return from the theatre I did not know myself: I had a horror of myself. Lucien would

never have known. Instead of telling him what I was, I gave him my address at these rooms, where a friend of

mine was then living, who was so kind as to give them up to me. I swear on my sacred word"

"Is it swearing to give your sacred word?Well, from that day I have worked in this room like a lost

creature at shirtmaking at twenty eight sous apiece, so as to live by honest labor. For a month I have had

nothing to eat but potatoes, that I might keep myself a good girl and worthy of Lucien, who loves me and

respects me as a pattern of virtue. I have made my declaration before the police to recover my rights, and

submitted to two years' surveillance. They are ready enough to enter your name on the lists of disgrace, but

make every difficulty about scratching it out again. All I asked of Heaven was to enable me to keep my

"I shall be nineteen in the month of April; at my age there is still a chance. It seems to me that I was never

born till three months ago.I prayed to God every morning that Lucien might never know what my former

life had been. I bought that Virgin you see there, and I prayed to her in my own way, for I do not know any

prayers; I cannot read nor write, and I have never been into a church; I have never seen anything of God

"With joy," said she eagerly, "poor dear boy! We understand each other so well that we have but one soul! He

is so nice, so fond, so sweet in heart and mind and manners! He says he is a poet; I say he is god. Forgive

me! You priests, you see, don't know what love is. But, in fact, only girls like me know enough of men to

appreciate such as Lucien. A Lucien, you see, is as rare as a woman without sin. When you come across him

you can love no one else; so there! But such a being must have his fellow; so I want to be worthy to be loved

by my Lucien. That is where my trouble began. Last evening, at the opera, I was recognized by some young

men who have no more feeling than a tiger has pityfor that matter, I could come round the tiger! The veil

of innocence I had tried to wear was worn off; their laughter pierced my brain and my heart. Do not think you

"Your veil of innocence?" said the priest. "Then you have treated Lucien with the sternest severity?"

"Oh, Father, how can you, who know him, ask me such a question!" she replied with a smile. "Who can resist

"Do not be blasphemous," said the priest mildly. "No one can be like God. Exaggeration is out of place with

true love; you had not a pure and genuine love for your idol. If you had undergone the conversion you boast

of having felt, you would have acquired the virtues which are a part of womanhood; you would have known

the charm of chastity, the refinements of modesty, the two virtues that are the glory of a maiden.You do

Esther's gesture of horror was seen by the priest, but it had no effect on the impassibility of her confessor.

"Yes; for you love him for yourself and not for himself, for the temporal enjoyments that delight you, and not

for love itself. If he has thus taken possession of you, you cannot have felt that sacred thrill that is inspired by

a being on whom God has set the seal of the most adorable perfections. Has it never occurred to you that you

would degrade him by your past impurity, that you would corrupt a child by the overpowering seductions

which earned you your nickname glorious in infamy? You have been illogical with yourself, and your passion

"By what other name can you call a love that is not eternal, that does not unite us in the future life of the

"Ah, I will be a Catholic!" she cried in a hollow, vehement tone, that would have earned her the mercy of the

"Can a girl who has received neither the baptism of the Church nor that of knowledge; who can neither read,

nor write, nor pray; who cannot take a step without the stones in the street rising up to accuse her; noteworthy

only for the fugitive gift of beauty which sickness may destroy tomorrow; can such a vile, degraded

creature, fully aware too of her degradationfor if you had been ignorant of it and less devoted, you would

have been more excusablecan the intended victim to suicide and hell hope to be the wife of Lucien de

Every word was a poniard thrust piercing the depths of her heart. At every word the louder sobs and abundant

tears of the desperate girl showed the power with which light had flashed upon an intelligence as pure as that

of a savage, upon a soul at length aroused, upon a nature over which depravity had laid a sheet of foul ice

"Why did I not die!" was the only thought that found utterance in the midst of a torrent of ideas that racked

"My daughter," said the terrible judge, "there is a love which is unconfessed before men, but of which the

"Love without hope, when it inspires our life, when it fills us with the spirit of sacrifice, when it ennobles

every act by the thought of reaching some ideal perfection. Yes, the angels approve of such love; it leads to

the knowledge of God. To aim at perfection in order to be worthy of the one you love, to make for him a

thousand secret sacrifices, adoring him from afar, giving your blood drop by drop, abnegating your selflove,

never feeling any pride or anger as regards him, even concealing from him all knowledge of the dreadful

jealousy he fires in your heart, giving him all he wishes were it to your own loss, loving what he loves,

always turning your face to him to follow him without his knowing itsuch love as that religion would have

forgiven; it is no offence to laws human or divine, and would have led you into another road than that of your

As she heard this horrible verdict, uttered in a wordand such a word! and spoken in such a tone!Esther's

spirit rose up in fairly legitimate distrust. This word was like a thunderclap giving warning of a storm about

to break. She looked at the priest, and felt the grip on her vitals which wrings the bravest when face to face

with sudden and imminent danger. No eye could have read what was passing in this man's mind; but the

boldest would have found more to quail at than to hope for in the expression of his eyes, once bright and

yellow like those of a tiger, but now shrouded, from austerities and privations, with a haze like that which

overhangs the horizon in the dogdays, when, though the earth is hot and luminous, the mist makes it

The gravity of a Spaniard, the deep furrows which the myriad scars of virulent smallpox made hideously like

broken ruts, were ploughed into his face, which was sallow and tanned by the sun. The hardness of this

countenance was all the more conspicuous, being framed in the meagre dry wig of a priest who takes no care

of his person, a black wig looking rusty in the light. His athletic frame, his hands like an old soldier's, his

broad, strong shoulders were those of the Caryatides which the architects of the Middle Ages introduced into

some Italian palaces, remotely imitated in those of the front of the PorteSaint Martin theatre. The least

clearsighted observer might have seen that fiery passions or some unwonted accident must have thrown this

man into the bosom of the Church; certainly none but the most tremendous shocks of lightning could have

Women who have lived the life that Esther had so violently repudiated come to feel absolute indifference as

to the critics of our day, who may be compared with them in some respects, and who feel at last perfect

disregard of the formulas of art; they have read so many books, they see so many pass away, they are so

much accustomed to written pages, they have gone through so many plots, they have seen so many dramas,

they have written so many articles without saying what they meant, and have so often been treasonable to the

cause of Art in favor of their personal likings and aversions, that they acquire a feeling of disgust of

everything, and yet continue to pass judgment. It needs a miracle to make such a writer produce sound work,

just as it needs another miracle to give birth to pure and noble love in the heart of a courtesan.

The tone and manner of this priest, who seemed to have escaped from a picture by Zurbaran, struck this poor

girl as so hostile, little as externals affected her, that she perceived herself to be less the object of his solitude

than the instrument he needed for some scheme. Being unable to distinguish between the insinuating tongue

of personal interest and the unction of true charity, for we must be acutely awake to recognize false coin

when it is offered by a friend, she felt herself, as it were, in the talons of some fierce and monstrous bird of

prey who, after hovering over her for long, had pounced down on her; and in her terror she cried in a voice of

At this innocent outcry the priest started and paused; he meditated a moment before replying. During that

instant the two persons so strangely brought together studied each other cautiously. The priest understood the

He, no doubt, put aside some plan which had threatened the unhappy Esther, and came back to his first ideas.

"We are physicians of the soul," said he, in a mild voice, "and we know what remedies suit their maladies."

She fancied she had been wrong; she slipped off the bed, threw herself at the man's feet, kissed his gown with

"Listen, my child. Your terrible reputation has cast Lucien's family into grief. They are afraid, and not

"You are handsome enough to make him wish to triumph in you in the eyes of the world, to show you with

pride, and make you an object for display. And if he wasted money only!but he will waste his time, his

powers; he will lose his inclination for the fine future his friends can secure to him. Instead of being some day

an ambassador, rich, admired and triumphant, he, like so many debauchees who choke their talents in the

"As for you, after rising for a time to the level of a sphere of elegance, you will presently sink back to your

former life, for you have not in you the strength bestowed by a good education to enable you to resist vice

and think of the future. You would no more be able to break with the women of your own class than you have

broken with the men who shamed you at the opera this morning. Lucien's true friends, alarmed by his passion

for you, have dogged his steps and know all. Filled with horror, they have sent me to you to sound your views

and decide your fate; but though they are powerful enough to clear a stumblingstone out of the young man's

way, they are merciful. Understand this, child: a girl whom Lucien loves has claims on their regard, as a true

Christian worships the slough on which, by chance, the divine light falls. I came to be the instrument of a

beneficent purpose;still, if I had found you utterly reprobate, armed with effrontery and astuteness, corrupt

to the marrow, deaf to the voice of repentance, I should have abandoned you to their wrath.

"The release, civil and political, which it is so hard to win, which the police is so right to withhold for a time

in the interests of society, and which I heard you long for with all the ardor of true repentanceis here," said

the priest, taking an officiallooking paper out of his belt. "You were seen yesterday, this letter of release is

dated today. You see how powerful the people are who take an interest in Lucien."

At the sight of this document Esther was so ingenuously overcome by the convulsive agitation produced by

unlookedfor joy, that a fixed smile parted her lips, like that of a crazy creature. The priest paused, looking at

the girl to see whether, when once she had lost the horrible strength which corrupt natures find in corruption

itself, and was thrown back on her frail and delicate primitive nature, she could endure so much excitement.

If she had been a deceitful courtesan, Esther would have acted a part; but now that she was innocent and

herself once more, she might perhaps die, as a blind man cured may lose his sight again if he is exposed to

too bright a light. At this moment this man looked into the very depths of human nature, but his calmness was

terrible in its rigidity; a cold alp, snowbound and near to heaven, impenetrable and frowning, with flanks of

Such women are essentially impressionable beings, passing without reason from the most idiotic distrust to

absolute confidence. In this respect they are lower than animals. Extreme in everythingin their joy and

despair, in their religion and irreligionthey would almost all go mad if they were not decimated by the

mortality peculiar to their class, and if happy chances did not lift one now and then from the slough in which

they dwell. To understand the very depths of the wretchedness of this horrible existence, one must know how

far in madness a creature can go without remaining there, by studying La Torpille's violent ecstasy at the

priest's feet. The poor girl gazed at the paper of release with an expression which Dante has overlooked, and

which surpassed the inventiveness of his Inferno. But a reaction came with tears. Esther rose, threw her arms

round the priest's neck, laid her head on his breast, which she wetted with her weeping, kissing the coarse

stuff that covered that heart of steel as if she fain would touch it. She seized hold of him; she covered his

hands with kisses; she poured out in a sacred effusion of gratitude her most coaxing caresses, lavished fond

names on him, saying again and again in the midst of her honeyed words, "Let me have it!" in a thousand

different tones of voice; she wrapped him in tenderness, covered him with her looks with a swiftness that

The priest perceived how well the girl had deserved her nickname; he understood how difficult it was to resist

this bewitching creature; he suddenly comprehended Lucien's love, and just what must have fascinated the

poet. Such a passion hides among a thousand temptations a dartlike hook which is most apt to catch the

lofty soul of an artist. These passions, inexplicable to the vulgar, are perfectly accounted for by the thirst for

ideal beauty, which is characteristic of a creative mind. For are we not, in some degree, akin to the angels,

whose task it is to bring the guilty to a better mind? are we not creative when we purify such a creature? How

delightful it is to harmonize moral with physical beauty! What joy and pride if we succeed! How noble a task

Such alliances, made famous by the example of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Alcibiades, Cethegus, and Pompey,

and yet so monstrous in the eyes of the vulgar, are based on the same feeling that prompted Louis XIV. to

build Versailles, or that makes men rush into any ruinous enterpriseinto converting the miasma of a marsh

into a mass of fragrance surrounded by living waters; placing a lake at the top of a hill, as the Prince de Conti

did at Nointel; or producing Swiss scenery at Cassan, like Bergeret, the farmergeneral. In short, it is the

The priest, ashamed of having yielded to this weakness, hastily pushed Esther away, and she sat down quite

Esther, like a child who has a single wish in its head, kept her eyes fixed on the spot where the document lay

"My child," the priest went on after a pause, "your mother was a Jewess, and you have not been baptized; but,

on the other hand, you have never been taken to the synagogue. You are in the limbo where little children

"As you are on the books of the police, a cipher outside the pale of social beings," the priest went on,

unmoved. "If love, seen as it swept past, led you to believe three months since that you were then born, you

must feel that since that day you have been really an infant. You must, therefore, be led as if you were a

child; you must be completely changed, and I will undertake to make you unrecognizable. To begin with, you

The words crushed the poor girl's heart; she raised her eyes to the priest and shook her head; she could not

"At any rate, you must give up seeing him," he went on. "I will take you to a religious house where young

girls of the best families are educated; there you will become a Catholic, you will be trained in the practice of

Christian exercises, you will be taught religion. You may come out an accomplished young lady, chaste, pure,

"If," he went on, "you feel brave enough to leave the 'Torpille' behind you here."

"Ah!" cried the poor thing, to whom each word had been like a note of some melody to which the gates of

Paradise were slowly opening. "Ah! if it were possible to shed all my blood here and have it renewed!"

"Your future fate depends on your power of forgetting. Think of the extent to which you pledge yourself. A

word, a gesture, which betrays La Torpille will kill Lucien's wife. A word murmured in a dream, an

involuntary thought, an immodest glance, a gesture of impatience, a reminiscence of dissipation, an omission,

a shake of the head that might reveal what you know, or what is known about you for your woes"

"Yes, yes, Father," said the girl, with the exaltation of a saint. "To walk in shoes of redhot iron and smile, to

live in a pair of stays set with nails and maintain the grace of a dancer, to eat bread salted with ashes, to drink

She fell again on her knees, she kissed the priest's shoes, she melted into tears that wetted them, she clasped

his knees, and clung to them, murmuring foolish words as she wept for joy. Her long and beautiful light hair

waved to the ground, a sort of carpet under the feet of the celestial messenger, whom she saw as gloomy and

"What have I done to offend you?" cried she, quite frightened. "I have heard of a woman, such as I am, who

washed the feet of Jesus with perfumes. Alas! virtue has made me so poor that I have nothing but tears to

"Have you not understood?" he answered, in a cruel voice. "I tell you, you must be able to come out of the

house to which I shall take you so completely changed, physically and morally, that no man or woman you

have ever known will be able to call you 'Esther' and make you look round. Yesterday your love could not

give you strength enough so completely to bury the prostitute that she could never reappear; and again today

"If during the course of your education you should even see Lucien, all would be lost," he went on;

"What was it that you comforted him for?" asked the priest, in a tone in which, for the first time during this

"Alas! and well he might be," said she, with deep humility. "I am the most despicable creature of my sex, and

"That love must give you the courage to obey me blindly. If I were to take you straight from hence to the

house where you are to be educated, everybody here would tell Lucien that you had gone away today,

Sunday, with a priest; he might follow in your tracks. In the course of a week, the portress, not seeing me

again, might suppose me to be what I am not. So, one eveningthis day weekat seven o'clock, go out

quietly and get into a cab that will be waiting for you at the bottom of the Rue des Frondeurs. During this

week avoid Lucien, find excuses, have him sent from the door, and if he should come in, go up to some

friend's room. I shall know if you have seen him, and in that event all will be at an end. I shall not even come

back. These eight days you will need to make up some suitable clothing and to hide your look of a prostitute,"

said he, laying a purse on the chimneyshelf. "There is something in your manner, in your

clothessomething indefinable which is well known to Parisians, and proclaims you what you are. Have you

never met in the streets or on the Boulevards a modest and virtuous girl walking with her mother?"

"Oh yes, to my sorrow! The sight of a mother and daughter is one of our most cruel punishments; it arouses

the remorse that lurks in the innermost folds of our hearts, and that is consuming us.I know too well all I

"Well, then, you know how you should look next Sunday," said the priest, rising.

"Oh!" said she, "teach me one real prayer before you go, that I may pray to God."

It was a touching thing to see the priest making this girl repeat Ave Maria and Paternoster in French.

"That is very fine!" said Esther, when she had repeated these two grand and universal utterances of the

Esther took his hand and kissed it. She was no longer the courtesan; she was an angel rising after a fall.

In a religious institution, famous for the aristocratic and pious teaching imparted there, one Monday morning

in the beginning of March 1824 the pupils found their pretty flock increased by a newcomer, whose beauty

triumphed without dispute not only over that of her companions, but over the special details of beauty which

were found severally in perfection in each one of them. In France it is extremely rare, not to say impossible,

to meet with the thirty points of perfection, described in Persian verse, and engraved, it is said, in the

Seraglio, which are needed to make a woman absolutely beautiful. Though in France the whole is seldom

seen, we find exquisite parts. As to that imposing union which sculpture tries to produce, and has produced in

a few rare examples like the Diana and the Callipyge, it is the privileged possession of Greece and Asia

Esther came from that cradle of the human race; her mother was a Jewess. The Jews, though so often

deteriorated by their contact with other nations, have, among their many races, families in which this sublime

type of Asiatic beauty has been preserved. When they are not repulsively hideous, they present the splendid

characteristics of Armenian beauty. Esther would have carried off the prize at the Seraglio; she had the thirty

points harmoniously combined. Far from having damaged the finish of her modeling and the freshness of her

flesh, her strange life had given her the mysterious charm of womanhood; it is no longer the close, waxy

texture of green fruit and not yet the warm glow of maturity; there is still the scent of the flower. A few days

longer spent in dissolute living, and she would have been too fat. This abundant health, this perfection of the

animal in a being in whom voluptuousness took the place of thought, must be a remarkable fact in the eyes of

physiologists. A circumstance so rare, that it may be called impossible in very young girls, was that her

hands, incomparably fine in shape, were as soft, transparent, and white as those of a woman after the birth of

her second child. She had exactly the hair and the foot for which the Duchesse de Berri was so famous, hair

so thick that no hairdresser could gather it into his hand, and so long that it fell to the ground in rings; for

Esther was of that medium height which makes a woman a sort of toy, to be taken up and set down, taken up

again and carried without fatigue. Her skin, as fine as ricepaper, of a warm amber hue showing the purple

Esther, excessively strong though apparently fragile, arrested attention by one feature that is conspicuous in

the faces in which Raphael has shown his most artistic feeling, for Raphael is the painter who has most

studied and best rendered Jewish beauty. This remarkable effect was produced by the depth of the

eyesocket, under which the eye moved free from its setting; the arch of the brow was so accurate as to

resemble the groining of a vault. When youth lends this beautiful hollow its pure and diaphanous coloring,

and edges it with closelyset eyebrows, when the light stealing into the circular cavity beneath lingers there

with a rosy hue, there are tender treasures in it to delight a lover, beauties to drive a painter to despair. Those

luminous curves, where the shadows have a golden tone, that tissue as firm as a sinew and as mobile as the

most delicate membrane, is a crowning achievement of nature. The eye at rest within is like a miraculous egg

in a nest of silken wings. But as time goes on this marvel acquires a dreadful melancholy, when passions have

laid dark smears on those fine forms, when grief had furrowed that network of delicate veins. Esther's

nationality proclaimed itself in this Oriental modeling of her eyes with their Turkish lids; their color was a

slategray which by night took on the blue sheen of a raven's wing. It was only the extreme tenderness of her

Only those races that are native to deserts have in the eye the power of fascinating everybody, for any woman

can fascinate some one person. Their eyes preserve, no doubt, something of the infinitude they have gazed

on. Has nature, in her foresight, armed their retina with some reflecting background to enable them to endure

the mirage of the sand, the torrents of sunshine, and the burning cobalt of the sky? or, do human beings, like

other creatures, derive something from the surroundings among which they grow up, and preserve for ages

the qualities they have imbibed from them? The great solution of this problem of race lies perhaps in the

question itself. Instincts are living facts, and their cause dwells in past necessity. Variety in animals is the

To convince ourselves of this longsoughtfor truth, it is enough to extend to the herd of mankind the

observation recently made on flocks of Spanish and English sheep which, in low meadows where pasture is

abundant, feed side by side in close array, but on mountains, where grass is scarce, scatter apart. Take these

two kinds of sheep, transfer them to Switzerland or France; the mountain breeds will feed apart even in a

lowland meadow of thick grass, the lowland sheep will keep together even on an alp. Hardly will a

succession of generations eliminate acquired and transmitted instincts. After a century the highland spirit

reappears in a refractory lamb, just as, after eighteen centuries of exile, the spirit of the East shone in Esther's

Her look had no terrible fascination; it shed a mild warmth, it was pathetic without being startling, and the

sternest wills were melted in its flame. Esther had conquered hatred, she had astonished the depraved souls of

Paris; in short, that look and the softness of her skin had earned her the terrible nickname which had just led

her to the verge of the grave. Everything about her was in harmony with these characteristics of the Peri of

the burning sands. Her forehead was firmly and proudly molded. Her nose, like that of the Arab race, was

delicate and narrow, with oval nostrils well set and open at the base. Her mouth, fresh and red, was a rose

unblemished by a flaw, dissipation had left no trace there. Her chin, rounded as though some amorous

sculptor had polished its fulness, was as white as milk. One thing only that she had not been able to remedy

betrayed the courtesan fallen very low: her broken nails, which needed time to recover their shape, so much

The young boarders began by being jealous of these marvels of beauty, but they ended by admiring them.

Before the first week was at an end they were all attached to the artless Jewess, for they were interested in the

unknown misfortunes of a girl of eighteen who could neither read nor write, to whom all knowledge and

instruction were new, and who was to earn for the Archbishop the triumph of having converted a Jewess to

Catholicism and giving the convent a festival in her baptism. They forgave her beauty, finding themselves her

Esther very soon caught the manners, the accent, the carriage and attitudes of these highlybred girls; in

short, her first nature reasserted itself. The change was so complete that on his first visit Herrera was

astonished as it would seemand the Mother Superior congratulated him on his ward. Never in their

existence as teachers had these sisters met with a more charming nature, more Christian meekness, true

modesty, nor a greater eagerness to learn. When a girl has suffered such misery as had overwhelmed this poor

child, and looks forward to such a reward as the Spaniard held out to Esther, it is hard if she does not realize

In recreation hours Esther would question her companions, but discreetly, as to the simplest matters in

fashionable life, which to her were like the first strange ideas of life to a child. When she heard that she was

to be dressed in white on the day of her baptism and first Communion, that she should wear a white satin

fillet, white bows, white shoes, white gloves, and white rosettes in her hair, she melted into tears, to the

amazement of her companions. It was the reverse of the scene of Jephtha on the mountain. The courtesan was

afraid of being understood; she ascribed this dreadful dejection to the joy with which she looked forward to

the function. As there is certainly as wide a gulf between the habits she had given up and the habits she was

acquiring as there is between the savage state and civilization, she had the grace and simplicity and depth

which distinguished the wonderful heroine of the American Puritans. She had too, without knowing it, a love

that was eating out her hearta strange love, a desire more violent in her who knew everything than it can be

in a maiden who knows nothing, though the two forms of desire have the same cause, and the same end in

During the first few months the novelty of a secluded life, the surprises of learning, the handiworks she was

taught, the practices of religion, the fervency of a holy resolve, the gentle affections she called forth, and the

exercise of the faculties of her awakened intelligence, all helped to repress her memory, even the effort she

made to acquire a new one, for she had as much to unlearn as to learn. There is more than one form of

memory: the body and mind have each their own; homesickness, for instance, is a malady of the physical

memory. Thus, during the third month, the vehemence of this virgin soul, soaring to Paradise on outspread

wings, was not indeed quelled, but fettered by a dull rebellion, of which Esther herself did not know the

cause. Like the Scottish sheep, she wanted to pasture in solitude, she could not conquer the instincts begotten

Was it that the foul ways of the Paris she had abjured were calling her back to them? Did the chains of the

hideous habits she had renounced cling to her by forgotten rivets, and was she feeling them, as old soldiers

suffer still, the surgeons tell us, in the limbs they have lost? Had vice and excess so soaked into her marrow

that holy waters had not yet exorcised the devil lurking there? Was the sight of him for whom her angelic

efforts were made, necessary to the poor soul, whom God would surely forgive for mingling human and

sacred love? One had led to the other. Was there some transposition of the vital force in her involving her in

inevitable suffering? Everything is doubtful and obscure in a case which science scorns to study, regarding

the subject as too immoral and too compromising, as if the physician and the writer, the priest and the

political student, were not above all suspicion. However, a doctor who was stopped by death had the courage

Perhaps the dark depression to which Esther fell a victim, and which cast a gloom over her happy life, was

due to all these causes; and perhaps, unable as she was to suspect them herself, she suffered as sick creatures

The fact is strange. Wholesome and abundant food in the place of bad and inflammatory nourishment did not

sustain Esther. A pure and regular life, divided between recreation and studies intentionally abridged, taking

the place of a disorderly existence of which the pleasures and the pains were equally horrible, exhausted the

convent boarder. The coolest rest, the calmest nights, taking the place of crushing fatigue and the most

torturing agitation, gave her low fever, in which the common symptoms were imperceptible to the nursing

Sister's eye or finger. In fact, virtue and happiness following on evil and misfortune, security in the stead of

anxiety, were as fatal to Esther as her past wretchedness would have been to her young companions. Planted

in corruption, she had grown up in it. That infernal home still had a hold on her, in spite of the commands of

a despotic will. What she loathed was life to her, what she loved was killing her.

Her faith was so ardent that her piety was a delight to those about her. She loved to pray. She had opened her

spirit to the lights of true religion, and received it without an effort or a doubt. The priest who was her

director was delighted with her. Still, at every turn her body resisted the spirit.

To please a whim of Madame de Maintenon's, who fed them with scraps from the royal table, some carp were

taken out of a muddy pool and placed in a marble basin of bright, clean water. The carp perished. The

animals might be sacrificed, but man could never infect them with the leprosy of flattery. A courtier remarked

at Versailles on this mute resistance. "They are like me," said the uncrowned queen; "they pine for their

At times the poor girl was driven to run about the splendid convent gardens; she hurried from tree to tree, she

rushed into the darkest nooksseeking? What? She did not know, but she fell a prey to the demon; she

carried on a flirtation with the trees, she appealed to them in unspoken words. Sometimes, in the evening, she

stole along under the walls, like a snake, without any shawl over her bare shoulders. Often in chapel, during

the service, she remained with her eyes fixed on the Crucifix, melted to tears; the others admired her; but she

was crying with rage. Instead of the sacred images she hoped to see, those glaring nights when she had led

some orgy as Habeneck leads a Beethoven symphony at the Conservatoirenights of laughter and

lasciviousness, with vehement gestures, inextinguishable laughter, rose before her, frenzied, furious, and

brutal. She was as mild to look upon as a virgin that clings to earth only by her woman's shape; within raged

She alone knew the secret of this struggle between the devil and the angel. When the Superior reproved her

for having done her hair more fashionably than the rule of the House allowed, she altered it with prompt and

beautiful submission; she would have cut her hair off if the Mother had required it of her. This moral

homesickness was truly pathetic in a girl who would rather have perished than have returned to the depths

of impurity. She grew pale and altered and thin. The Superior gave her shorter lessons, and called the

interesting creature to her room to question her. But Esther was happy; she enjoyed the society of her

companions; she felt no pain in any vital part; still, it was vitality itself that was attacked. She regretted

nothing; she wanted nothing. The Superior, puzzled by her boarder's answers, did not know what to think

The doctor was called in when the girl's condition seemed serious; but this doctor knew nothing of Esther's

previous life, and could not guess it; he found every organ sound, the pain could not be localized. The

invalid's replies were such as to upset every hypothesis. There remained one way of clearing up the learned

man's doubts, which now lighted on a frightful suggestion; but Esther obstinately refused to submit to a

In this difficulty the Superior appealed to the Abbe Herrera. The Spaniard came, saw that Esther's condition

was desperate, and took the physician aside for a moment. After this confidential interview, the man of

science told the man of faith that the only cure lay in a journey to Italy. The Abbe would not hear of such a

In Spain the religious question is supreme, above all political, civil, or vital considerations; so the physician

did not answer the Spaniard. He turned to the Mother Superior, but the terrible Abbe took him by the arm and

The doctor, though a religious man and a Monarchist, looked at Esther with an expression of tender pity. The

On the very day of this consultation, Esther was taken by her protector to the Rocher de Cancale, a famous

restaurant, for his wish to save her had suggested strange expedients to the priest. He tried the effect of two

excessesan excellent dinner, which might remind the poor child of past orgies; and the opera, which would

give her mind some images of worldliness. His despotic authority was needed to tempt the young saint to

such profanation. Herrera disguised himself so effectually as a military man, that Esther hardly recognized

him; he took care to make his companion wear a veil, and put her in a box where she was hidden from all

This palliative, which had no risks for innocence so sincerely regained, soon lost its effect. The

conventboarder viewed her protector's dinners with disgust, had a religious aversion for the theatre, and

"She is dying of love for Lucien," said Herrera to himself; he had wanted to sound the depths of this soul, and

So the moment came when the poor child was no longer upheld by moral force, and the body was about to

break down. The priest calculated the time with the hideous practical sagacity formerly shown by

executioners in the art of torture. He found his protegee in the garden, sitting on a bench under a trellis on

which the April sun fell gently; she seemed to be cold and trying to warm herself; her companions looked

with interest at her pallor as of a folded plant, her eyes like those of a dying gazelle, her drooping attitude.

Esther rose and went to meet the Spaniard with a lassitude that showed how little life there was in her, and, it

may be added, how little care to live. This hapless outcast, this wild and wounded swallow, moved Carlos

Herrera to compassion for the second time. The gloomy minister, whom God should have employed only to

carry out His revenges, received the sick girl with a smile, which expressed, indeed, as much bitterness as

sweetness, as much vengeance as charity. Esther, practised in meditation, and used to revulsions of feeling

since she had led this almost monastic life, felt on her part, for the second time, distrust of her protector; but,

"Well, my dear child," said he, "and why have you never spoken to me of Lucien?"

"I promised you," she said, shuddering convulsively from head to foot; "I swore to you that I would never

"That, monsieur, is the only fault I have committed. I think of him always; and just as you came, I was saying

Esther's only answer was to hang her head as the sick do who already scent the breath of the grave.

"Child of an accursed race! I have done everything to save you; I send you back to your fate.You shall see

"Why insult my happiness? Can I not love Lucien and be virtuous? Am I not ready to die here for virtue, as I

should be ready to die for him? Am I not dying for these two fanaticismsfor virtue, which was to make me

worthy of him, and for him who flung me into the embrace of virtue? Yes, and ready to die without seeing

The color had mounted to her face, her whiteness had recovered its amber warmth. Esther looked beautiful

"The day after that on which you are washed in the waters of baptism you shall see Lucien once more; and if

The priest was obliged to lift up Esther, whose knees failed her; the poor child dropped as if the ground had

slipped from under her feet. The Abbe seated her on a bench; and when she could speak again she asked him:

"Do you want to rob Monseigneur of the triumph of your baptism and conversion? You are too close to

"You will never be of any religion," said the priest, with a touch of the deepest irony.

Conquered by the exquisite artlessness and gestures, Herrera kissed her on the forehead for the first time.

"Your libertine friends named you well; you would bewitch God the Father.A few days more must pass,

This scene, observed from a distance, struck pupils and superiors alike; they fancied they had looked on at a

miracle as they compared Esther with herself. She was completely changed; she was alive. She reappeared

her natural self, all love, sweet, coquettish, playful, and gay; in short, it was a resurrection.

Herrera lived in the Rue Cassette, near SaintSulpice, the church to which he was attached. This building,

hard and stern in style, suited this Spaniard, whose discipline was that of the Dominicans. A lost son of

Ferdinand VII.'s astute policy, he devoted himself to the cause of the constitution, knowing that this devotion

could never be rewarded till the restoration of the Rey netto. Carlos Herrera had thrown himself body and

soul into the Camarilla at the moment when the Cortes seemed likely to stand and hold their own. To the

world this conduct seemed to proclaim a superior soul. The Duc d'Angouleme's expedition had been carried

out, King Ferdinand was on the throne, and Carlos Herrera did not go to claim the reward of his services at

Madrid. Fortified against curiosity by his diplomatic taciturnity, he assigned as his reason for remaining in

Paris his strong affection for Lucien de Rubempre, to which the young man already owed the King's patent

Herrera lived very obscurely, as priests employed on secret missions traditionally live. He fulfilled his

religious duties at Saint Sulpice, never went out but on business, and then after dark, and in a hackney cab.

His day was filled up with a siesta in the Spanish fashion, which arranges for sleep between the two chief

meals, and so occupies the hours when Paris is in a busy turmoil. The Spanish cigar also played its part, and

consumed time as well as tobacco. Laziness is a mask as gravity is, and that again is laziness.

Herrera lived on the second floor in one wing of the house, and Lucien occupied the other wing. The two

apartments were separated and joined by a large reception room of antique magnificence, suitable equally to

the grave priest and to the young poet. The courtyard was gloomy; large, thick trees shaded the garden.

Silence and reserve are always found in the dwellings chosen by priests. Herrera's lodging may be described

in one worda cell. Lucien's, splendid with luxury, and furnished with every refinement of comfort,

combined everything that the elegant life of a dandy demandsa poet, a writer, ambitious and dissipated, at

once vain and vainglorious, utterly heedless, and yet wishing for order, one of those incomplete geniuses who

have some power to wish, to conceivewhich is perhaps the same thingbut no power at all to execute.

These two, Lucien and Herrera, formed a body politic. This, no doubt, was the secret of their union. Old men

in whom the activities of life have been uprooted and transplanted to the sphere of interest, often feel the need

of a pleasing instrument, a young and impassioned actor, to carry out their schemes. Richelieu, too late, found

a handsome pale face with a young moustache to cast in the way of women whom he wanted to amuse.

Misunderstood by giddypated younger men, he was compelled to banish his master's mother and terrify the

Queen, after having tried to make each fall in love with him, though he was not cut out to be loved by queens.

Do what we will, always, in the course of an ambitious life, we find a woman in the way just when we least

expect such an obstacle. However great a political man may be, he always needs a woman to set against a

woman, just as the Dutch use a diamond to cut a diamond. Rome at the height of its power yielded to this

necessity. And observe how immeasurably more imposing was the life of Mazarin, the Italian cardinal, than

that of Richelieu, the French cardinal. Richelieu met with opposition from the great nobles, and he applied

the axe; he died in the flower of his success, worn out by this duel, for which he had only a Capuchin monk

as his second. Mazarin was repulsed by the citizen class and the nobility, armed allies who sometimes

victoriously put royalty to flight; but Anne of Austria's devoted servant took off no heads, he succeeded in

vanquishing the whole of France, and trained Louis XIV., who completed Richelieu's work by strangling the

nobility with gilded cords in the grand Seraglio of Versailles. Madame de Pompadour dead, Choiseul fell!

Had Herrera soaked his mind in these high doctrines? Had he judged himself at an earlier age than Richelieu?

Had he chosen Lucien to be his CinqMars, but a faithful CinqMars? No one could answer these questions

or measure this Spaniard's ambition, as no one could foresee what his end might be. These questions, asked

by those who were able to see anything of this coalition, which was long kept a secret, might have unveiled a

horrible mystery which Lucien himself had known but a few days. Carlos was ambitious for two; that was

what his conduct made plain to those persons who knew him, and who all imagined that Lucien was the

Fifteen months after Lucien's reappearance at the opera ball, which led him too soon into a world where the

priest had not wished to see him till he should have fully armed him against it, he had three fine horses in his

stable, a coupe for evening use, a cab and a tilbury to drive by day. He dined out every day. Herrera's

foresight was justified; his pupil was carried away by dissipation; he thought it necessary to effect some

diversion in the frenzied passion for Esther that the young man still cherished in his heart. After spending

something like forty thousand francs, every folly had brought Lucien back with increased eagerness to La

Torpille; he searched for her persistently; and as he could not find her, she became to him what game is to the

When once this feeling has mounted to the brain of one of these great little men, after firing his heart and

absorbing his senses, the poet becomes as far superior to humanity through love as he already is through the

power of his imagination. A freak of intellectual heredity has given him the faculty of expressing nature by

imagery, to which he gives the stamp both of sentiment and of thought, and he lends his love the wings of his

spirit; he feels, and he paints, he acts and meditates, he multiplies his sensations by thought, present felicity

becomes threefold through aspiration for the future and memory of the past; and with it he mingles the

exquisite delights of the soul, which makes him the prince of artists. Then the poet's passion becomes a fine

poem in which human proportion is often set at nought. Does not the poet then place his mistress far higher

than women crave to sit? Like the sublime Knight of la Mancha, he transfigures a peasant girl to be a

princess. He uses for his own behoof the wand with which he touches everything, turning it into a wonder,

Such a love is the very essence of passion. It is extreme in all things, in its hopes, in its despair, in its rage, in

its melancholy, in its joy; it flies, it leaps, it crawls; it is not like any of the emotions known to ordinary men;

it is to everyday love what the perennial Alpine torrent is to the lowland brook.

These splendid geniuses are so rarely understood that they spend themselves in hopes deceived; they are

exhausted by the search for their ideal mistress, and almost always die like gorgeous insects splendidly

adorned for their lovefestival by the most poetical of nature's inventions, and crushed under the foot of a

passerby. But there is another danger! When they meet with the form that answers to their soul, and which

not unfrequently is that of a baker's wife, they do as Raphael did, as the beautiful insect does, they die in the

Lucien was at this pass. His poetical temperament, excessive in all things, in good as in evil, had discerned

the angel in this girl, who was tainted by corruption rather than corrupt; he always saw her white, winged,

pure, and mysterious, as she had made herself for him, understanding that he would have her so.

Towards the end of the month of May 1825 Lucien had lost all his good spirits; he never went out, dined with

Herrera, sat pensive, worked, read volumes of diplomatic treatises, squatted Turkishfashion on a divan, and

smoked three or four hookahs a day. His groom had more to do in cleaning and perfuming the tubes of this

noble pipe than in currying and brushing down the horses' coats, and dressing them with cockades for driving

in the Bois. As soon as the Spaniard saw Lucien pale, and detected a malady in the frenzy of suppressed

passion, he determined to read to the bottom of this man's heart on which he founded his life.

One fine evening, when Lucien, lounging in an armchair, was mechanically contemplating the hues of the

setting sun through the trees in the garden, blowing up the mist of scented smoke in slow, regular clouds, as

pensive smokers are wont, he was roused from his reverie by hearing a deep sigh. He turned and saw the

"For some time," said the priest, "my thoughts have been following the wide sweep of yours." Lucien

"I have never affected to have an iron nature such as yours is. To me life is by turns paradise and hell; when

"Do not talk nonsense," said the priest. "It would be far more worthy of you and of me that you should open

your heart to me. There is now that between us which ought never to have come between usa secret. This

"My boy, I told you you might have a mistress, but a woman of rank, pretty, young, influential, a Countess at

least. I had chosen Madame d'Espard for you, to make her the instrument of your fortune without scruple; for

she would never have perverted your heart, she would have left you free.To love a prostitute of the lowest

class when you have not, like kings, the power to give her high rank, is a monstrous blunder."

"And am I the first man who had renounced ambition to follow the lead of a boundless passion?"

"Good!" said the priest, stooping to pick up the mouthpiece of the hookah which Lucien had dropped on the

floor. "I understand the retort. Cannot love and ambition be reconciled? Child, you have a mother in old

"You wished for the toys of wealth; you have them. You want to shine; I am guiding you into the paths of

power, I kiss very dirty hands to secure your advancement, and you will get on. A little while yet and you

will lack nothing of what can charm man or woman. Though effeminate in your caprices, your intellect is

manly. I have dreamed all things of you; I forgive you all. You have only to speak to have your ephemeral

passions gratified. I have aggrandized your life by introducing into it that which makes it delightful to most

peoplethe stamp of political influence and dominion. You will be as great as you now are small; but you

must not break the machine by which we coin money. I grant you all you will excepting such blunders as will

destroy your future prospects. When I can open the drawingrooms of the Faubourg SaintGermain to you, I

forbid your wallowing in the gutter. Lucien, I mean to be an iron stanchion in your interest; I will endure

everything from you, for you. Thus I have transformed your lack of tact in the game of life into the shrewd

In a fit of animal rage the poet jumped up, flung the jeweled mouthpiece in the priest's face, and pushed him

His black wig had fallen off. A bald skull, as shining as a death's head, showed the man's real countenance. It

was appalling. Lucien sat on his divan, his hands hanging limp, overpowered, and gazing at the Abbe with

"Yes, the day after I had seen a woman who belonged to you insulted by wretches whom I would not have

"Wretches!" interrupted Lucien, "say rather monsters, compared with whom those who are guillotined are

angels. Do you know what the unhappy Torpille had done for three of them? One of them was her lover for

two months. She was poor, and picked up a living in the gutter; he had not a sou; like me, when you rescued

me, he was very near the river; this fellow would get up at night and go to the cupboard where the girl kept

the remains of her dinner and eat it. At last she discovered the trick; she understood the shameful thing, and

took care to leave a great deal; then she was happy. She never told any one but me, that night, coming home

"The second had stolen some money; but before the theft was found out, she lent him the sum, which he was

"As to the third, she made his fortune by playing out a farce worthy of Figaro's genius. She passed as his wife

and became the mistress of a man in power, who believed her to be the most innocent of good citizens. To

one she gave life, to another honor, to the third fortune what does it all count for today? And this is how

"Would you like to see them dead?" said Herrera, in whose eyes there were tears.

Lucien flew at Herrera to seize him by the throat, with such violence that any other man must have fallen

"Come, listen," said he coldly. "I have made another woman of her, chaste, pure, well bred, religious, a

perfect lady. She is being educated. She can, if she may, under the influence of your love, become a Ninon, a

Marion Delorme, a du Barry, as the journalist at the opera ball remarked. You may proclaim her your

mistress, or you may retire behind a curtain of your own creating, which will be wiser. By either method you

will gain profit and pride, pleasure and advancement; but if you are as great a politician as you are a poet,

Esther will be no more to you than any other woman of the town; for, later, perhaps she may help us out of

"If I had not held the reins of your passion, where would you be now? Rolling with La Torpille in the slough

of misery from which I dragged you. Here, read this," said Herrera, as simply as Talma in Manlius, which he

A sheet of paper was laid on the poet's knees, and startled him from the ecstasy and surprise with which he

had listened to this astounding speech; he took it, and read the first letter written by Mademoiselle Esther:

"MY DEAR PROTECTOR,Will you not suppose that gratitude is stronger in me than love, when you see

that the first use I make of the power of expressing my thoughts is to thank you, instead of devoting it to

pouring forth a passion that Lucien has perhaps forgotten. But to you, divine man, I can say what I should not

"Yesterday's ceremony has filled me with treasures of grace, and I place my fate in your hands. Even if I must

die far away from my beloved, I shall die purified like the Magdalen, and my soul will become to him the

rival of his guardian angel. Can I ever forget yesterday's festival? How could I wish to abdicate the glorious

throne to which I was raised? Yesterday I washed away every stain in the waters of baptism, and received the

Sacred Body of my Redeemer; I am become one of His tabernacles. At that moment I heard the songs of

angels, I was more than a woman, born to a life of light amid the acclamations of the whole earth, admired by

the world in a cloud of incense and prayers that were intoxicating, adorned like a virgin for the Heavenly

"Thus finding myself worthy of Lucien, which I had never hoped to be, I abjured impure love and vowed to

walk only in the paths of virtue. If my flesh is weaker than my spirit, let it perish. Be the arbiter of my

"You know the rooms fat Caroline Bellefeuille had, in the Rue Taitbout," the Spaniard said. "The poor

creature, cast off by her magistrate, was in the greatest poverty; she was about to be sold up. I bought the

place all standing, and she turned out with her clothes. Esther, the angel who aspired to heaven, has alighted

At this moment Lucien heard his horses pawing the ground in the courtyard; he was incapable of expressing

his admiration for a devotion which he alone could appreciate; he threw himself into the arms of the man he

had insulted, made amends for all by a look and the speechless effusion of his feelings. Then he flew

downstairs, confided Esther's address to his tiger's ear, and the horses went off as if their master's passion had

The next day a man, who by his dress might have been mistaken by the passersby for a gendarme in

disguise, was passing the Rue Taitbout, opposite a house, as if he were waiting for some one to come out; he

walked with an agitated air. You will often see in Paris such vehement promenaders, real gendarmes

watching a recalcitrant National Guardsman, bailiffs taking steps to effect an arrest, creditors planning a trick

on the debtor who has shut himself in, lovers, or jealous and suspicious husbands, or friends doing sentry for

a friend; but rarely do you meet a face portending such coarse and fierce thoughts as animated that of the

gloomy and powerful man who paced to and fro under Mademoiselle Esther's windows with the brooding

At noon a window was opened, and a maidservant's hand was put out to push back the padded shutters. A

few minutes later, Esther, in her dressinggown, came to breathe the air, leaning on Lucien; any one who saw

them might have taken them for the originals of some pretty English vignette. Esther was the first to

recognize the basilisk eyes of the Spanish priest; and the poor creature, stricken as if she had been shot, gave

This light thrown on the sham priest's secrets, if revealed to any one less devoted than Esther, might have

As they went along the corridor from their bedroom to the diningroom, where their breakfast was served,

"To bless you," replied the audacious scoundrel, stopping the pair and detaining them in the little

drawingroom of the apartment. "Listen to me, my pretty dears. Amuse yourselves, be happywell and

good! Happiness at any price is my motto.But you," he went on to Esther, "you whom I dragged from the

mud, and have soaped down body and soul, you surely do not dream that you can stand in Lucien's

way?As for you, my boy," he went on after a pause, looking at Lucien, "you are no longer poet enough to

allow yourself another Coralie. This is sober prose. What can be done with Esther's lover? Nothing. Can

"Well, my child," said he, laying his hand on Esther's, and making her shiver as if some serpent had wound

itself round her, "the world must never know of your existence. Above all, the world must never know that a

certain Mademoiselle Esther loves Lucien, and that Lucien is in love with her.These rooms are your

prison, my pigeon. If you wish to go outand your health will require ityou must take exercise at night, at

hours when you cannot be seen; for your youth and beauty, and the style you have acquired at the Convent,

would at once be observed in Paris. The day when any one in the world, whoever it be," he added in an awful

voice, seconded by an awful look, "learns that Lucien is your lover, or that you are his mistress, that day will

be your last but one on earth. I have procured that boy a patent permitting him to bear the name and arms of

his maternal ancestors. Still, this is not all; we have not yet recovered the title of Marquis; and to get it, he

must marry a girl of good family, in whose favor the King will grant this distinction. Such an alliance will get

Lucien on in the world and at Court. This boy, of whom I have made a man, will be first Secretary to an

Embassy; later, he shall be Minister at some German Court, and God, or Ibetter stillhelping him, he will

"Hold your tongue!" cried Carlos, laying his broad hand on Lucien's mouth. "Would you tell such a secret to

"Still inditing sonnets!" said the Spaniard. "Nonsense! Sooner or later all these angels relapse into being

women, and every woman at moments is a mixture of a monkey and a child, two creatures who can kill us for

fun.Esther, my jewel," said he to the terrified girl, "I have secured as your waitingmaid a creature who is

as much mine as if she were my daughter. For your cook, you shall have a mulatto woman, which gives style

to a house. With Europe and Asie you can live here for a thousandfranc note a month like a queena stage

queen. Europe has been a dressmaker, a milliner, and a stage super; Asie has cooked for an epicure Milord.

Seeing Lucien go completely to the wall before this man, who was guilty at least of sacrilege and forgery, this

woman, sanctified by her love, felt an awful fear in the depths of her heart. She made no reply, but dragged

"He is far worse to me!" he vehemently replied. "But if you love me, try to imitate that man's devotion to me,

"Of death," repeated Lucien. "Alas! my darling, no death could be compared with that which would befall me

"Well, well," cried the sacrilegious forger, "have you not yet spelt out your daisypetals?"

Esther and Lucien came out, and the poor girl, not daring to look at the mysterious man, said:

"Good," said he. "You may be very happy for a time, and you will need only nightgowns and wrappersthat

The two lovers went on towards the diningroom, but Lucien's patron signed to the pretty pair to stop. And

"I have just been talking of your servants, my child," said he to Esther. "I must introduce them to you."

The Spaniard rang twice. The women he had called Europe and Asie came in, and it was at once easy to see

Asie, who looked as if she might have been born in the Island of Java, showed a face to scare the eye, as flat

as a board, with the copper complexion peculiar to Malays, with a nose that looked as if it had been driven

inwards by some violent pressure. The strange conformation of the maxillary bones gave the lower part of

this face a resemblance to that of the larger species of apes. The brow, though sloping, was not deficient in

intelligence produced by habits of cunning. Two fierce little eyes had the calm fixity of a tiger's, but they

never looked you straight in the face. Asie seemed afraid lest she might terrify people. Her lips, a dull blue,

were parted over prominent teeth of dazzling whiteness, but grown across. The leading expression of this

animal countenance was one of meanness. Her black hair, straight and greasylooking like her skin, lay in

two shining bands, forming an edge to a very handsome silk handkerchief. Her ears were remarkably pretty,

and graced with two large dark pearls. Small, short, and squat, Asie bore a likeness to the grotesque figures

the Chinese love to paint on screens, or, more exactly, to the Hindoo idols which seem to be imitated from

some nonexistent type, found, nevertheless, now and again by travelers. Esther shuddered as she looked at

"Asie," said the Spaniard, to whom the woman looked up with a gesture that can only be compared to that of

Asie looked at the young fairy with an almost distressful expression; but at the same moment a flash, half

hidden between her thick, short eyelashes, shot like an incendiary spark at Lucien, who, in a magnificent

dressinggown thrown open over a fine Holland linen shirt and red trousers, with a fez on his head, beneath

Italian genius could invent the tale of Othello; English genius could put it on the stage; but Nature alone

reserves the power of throwing into a single glance an expression of jealousy grander and more complete than

England and Italy together could imagine. This look, seen by Esther, made her clutch the Spaniard by the

arm, setting her nails in it as a cat sets its claws to save itself from falling into a gulf of which it cannot see

The Spaniard spoke a few words, in some unfamiliar tongue, to the Asiatic monster, who crept on her knees

"She is not merely a good cook," said Herrera to Esther; "she is a pastmaster, and might make Careme mad

with jealousy. Asie can do everything by way of cooking. She will turn you out a simple dish of beans that

will make you wonder whether the angels have not come down to add some herb from heaven. She will go to

market herself every morning, and fight like the devil she is to get things at the lowest prices; she will tire out

"You are to be supposed to have been in India, and Asie will help you to give effect to this fiction, for she is

one of those Parisians who are born to be of any nationality they please. But I do not advise that you should

Europe was a perfect contrast to Asie, for she was the smartest waitingmaid that Monrose could have hoped

to see as her rival on the stage. Slight, with a scatterbrain manner, a face like a weasel, and a sharp nose,

Europe's features offered to the observer a countenance worn by the corruption of Paris life, the unhealthy

complexion of a girl fed on raw apples, lymphatic but sinewy, soft but tenacious. One little foot was set

forward, her hands were in her apronpockets, and she fidgeted incessantly without moving, from sheer

excess of liveliness. Grisette and stage super, in spite of her youth she must have tried many trades. As full of

evil as a dozen Madelonnettes put together, she might have robbed her parents, and sat on the bench of a

Asie was terrifying, but you knew her thoroughly from the first; she descended in a straight line from

Locusta; while Europe filled you with uneasiness, which could not fail to increase the more you had to do

with her; her corruption seemed boundless. You felt that she could set the devils by the ears.

"Madame might say she had come from Valenciennes," said Europe in a precise little voice. "I was born

therePerhaps monsieur," she added to Lucien in a pedantic tone, "will be good enough to say what name

"Madame van Bogseck," the Spaniard put in, reversing Esther's name. "Madame is a Jewess, a native of

Holland, the widow of a merchant, and suffering from a livercomplaint contracted in Java. No great fortune

"Enough to live onsix thousand francs a year; and we shall complain of her stinginess?" said Europe.

"That is the thing," said the Spaniard, with a bow. "You limbs of Satan!" he went on, catching Asie and

Europe exchanging a glance that displeased him, "remember what I have told you. You are serving a queen;

you owe her as much respect as to a queen; you are to cherish her as you would cherish a revenge, and be as

devoted to her as to me. Neither the doorporter, nor the neighbors, nor the other inhabitants of the

housein short, not a soul on earth is to know what goes on here. It is your business to balk curiosity if any

should be roused. And madame," he went on laying his broad hairy hand on Esther's arm, "madame must

not commit the smallest imprudence; you must prevent it in case of need, but always with perfect respect.

"You, Europe, are to go out for madame in anything that concerns her dress, and you must do her sewing

from motives of economy. Finally, nobody, not even the most insignificant creature, is ever to set foot in this

"And you, my beauty," he went on, speaking to Esther, "when you want to go out in your carriage by night,

you can tell Europe; she will know where to find your men, for you will have a servant in livery, of my

Esther and Lucien had not a word ready. They listened to the Spaniard, and looked at the two precious

specimens to whom he gave his orders. What was the secret hold to which he owed the submission and

servitude that were written on these two facesone mischievously recalcitrant, the other so malignantly

He read the thoughts of Lucien and Esther, who seemed paralyzed, as Paul and Virginia might have been at

"You can trust them as you can me; keep no secrets from them; that will flatter them.Go to your work, my

little Asie," he added to the cook."And you, my girl, lay another place," he said to Europe; "the children

When the two women had shut the door, and the Spaniard could hear Europe moving to and fro, he turned to

"What the devil! I did not look for them at the foot of the throne!" replied the man. "Europe has risen from

the mire, and is afraid of sinking into it again. Threaten them with Monsieur Abbe when they do not please

you, and you will see them quake like mice when the cat is mentioned. I am used to taming wild beasts," he

"My child, I tried to win you to heaven; but a repentant Magdalen is always a practical joke on the Church. If

ever there were one, she would relapse into the courtesan in Paradise. You have gained this much: you are

forgotten, and have acquired the manners of a lady, for you learned in the convent what you never could have

learned in the ranks of infamy in which you were living.You owe me nothing," said he, observing a

beautiful look of gratitude on Esther's face. "I did it all for him," and he pointed to Lucien. "You are, you will

always be, you will die a prostitute; for in spite of the delightful theories of cattlebreeders, you can never,

here below, become anything but what you are. The man who feels bumps is right. You have the bump of

The Spaniard, it will be seen, was a fatalist, like Napoleon, Mahomet, and many other great politicians. It is a

strange thing that most men of action have a tendency to fatalism, just as most great thinkers have a tendency

"What I am, I do not know," said Esther with angelic sweetness; "but I love Lucien, and shall die worshiping

"Come to breakfast," said the Spaniard sharply. "And pray to God that Lucien may not marry too soon, for

She allowed the sham priest to lead the way, that she might stand on tiptoe and whisper to Lucien without

"Is it your wish," said she, "that I should remain in the power of this man who sets two hyenas to guard me?"

The poor child swallowed down her grief and affected gladness, but she felt cruelly oppressed. It needed

more than a year of constant and devoted care before she was accustomed to these two dreadful creatures

Lucien's conduct since his return to Paris had borne the stamp of such profound policy that it excitedand

could not fail to excitethe jealousy of all his former friends, on whom he took no vengeance but by making

them furious at his success, at his exquisite "get up," and his way of keeping every one at a distance. The

poet, once so communicative, so genial, had turned cold and reserved. De Marsay, the model adopted by all

the youth of Paris, did not make a greater display of reticence in speech and deed than did Lucien. As to

brains, the journalist had ere now proved his mettle. De Marsay, against whom many people chose to pit

Lucien, now in high favor with men who secretly pulled the wires of power, was so completely indifferent to

literary fame, that he did not care about the success of his romance, republished under its real title, L'Archer

de Charles IX., or the excitement caused by his volume of sonnets called Les Marguerites, of which Dauriat

"It is posthumous fame," said he, with a laugh, to Mademoiselle des Touches, who congratulated him.

The terrible Spaniard held his creature with an iron hand, keeping him in the road towards the goal where the

trumpets and gifts of victory await patient politicians. Lucien had taken Beaudenord's bachelor quarters on

the Quai Malaquais, to be near the Rue Taitbout, and his adviser was lodging under the same roof on the

fourth floor. Lucien kept only one horse to ride and drive, a manservant, and a groom. When he was not

Carlos Herrera kept such a keen eye on the service in the house on the Quai Malaquais, that Lucien did not

spend ten thousand francs a year, all told. Ten thousand more were enough for Esther, thanks to the unfailing

and inexplicable devotion of Asie and Europe. Lucien took the utmost precautions in going in and out at the

Rue Taitbout. He never came but in a cab, with the blinds down, and always drove into the courtyard. Thus

his passion for Esther and the very existence of the establishment in the Rue Taitbout, being unknown to the

world, did him no harm in his connections or undertakings. No rash word ever escaped him on this delicate

subject. His mistakes of this sort with regard to Coralie, at the time of his first stay in Paris, had given him

In the first place, his life was marked by the correct regularity under which many mysteries can be hidden; he

remained in society every night till one in the morning; he was always at home from ten till one in the

afternoon; then he drove in the Bois de Boulogne and paid calls till five. He was rarely seen to be on foot, and

thus avoided old acquaintances. When some journalist or one of his former associates waved him a greeting,

he responded with a bow, polite enough to avert annoyance, but significant of such deep contempt as killed

all French geniality. He thus had very soon got rid of persons whom he would rather never have known.

An oldestablished aversion kept him from going to see Madame d'Espard, who often wished to get him to

her house; but when he met her at those of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, of Mademoiselle des Touches, of

the Comtesse de Montcornet or elsewhere, he was always exquisitely polite to her. This hatred, fully

reciprocated by Madame d'Espard, compelled Lucien to act with prudence; but it will be seen how he had

added fuel to it by allowing himself a stroke of revenge, which gained him indeed a severe lecture from

"You are not yet strong enough to be revenged on any one, whoever it may be," said the Spaniard. "When we

are walking under a burning sun we do not stop to gather even the finest flowers."

Lucien was so genuinely superior, and had so fine a future before him, that the young men who chose to be

offended or puzzled by his return to Paris and his unaccountable good fortune were enchanted whenever they

could do him an ill turn. He knew that he had many enemies, and was well aware of those hostile feelings

among his friends. The Abbe, indeed, took admirable care of his adopted son, putting him on his guard

against the treachery of the world and the fatal imprudence of youth. Lucien was expected to tell, and did in

fact tell the Abbe each evening, every trivial incident of the day. Thanks to his Mentor's advice, he put the

keenest curiositythe curiosity of the worldoff the scent. Entrenched in the gravity of an Englishman, and

fortified by the redoubts cast up by diplomatic circumspection, he never gave any one the right or the

opportunity of seeing a corner even of his concerns. His handsome young face had, by practice, become as

Towards the middle of 1829 his marriage began to be talked of to the eldest daughter of the Duchesse de

Grandlieu, who at that time had no less than four daughters to provide for. No one doubted that in honor of

such an alliance the King would revive for Lucien the title of Marquis. This distinction would establish

Lucien's fortune as a diplomate, and he would probably be accredited as Minister to some German Court. For

the last three years Lucien's life had been regular and above reproach; indeed, de Marsay had made this

Thus Lucien was almost a person of importance. His passion for Esther had, in fact, helped him greatly to

play his part of a serious man. A habit of this kind guards an ambitious man from many follies; having no

connection with any woman of fashion, he cannot be caught by the reactions of mere physical nature on his

As to happiness, Lucien's was the realization of a poet's dreamsa penniless poet's, hungering in a garret.

Esther, the ideal courtesan in love, while she reminded Lucien of Coralie, the actress with whom he had lived

for a year, completely eclipsed her. Every loving and devoted woman invents seclusion, incognito, the life of

a pearl in the depths of the sea; but to most of them this is no more than one of the delightful whims which

supply a subject for conversation; a proof of love which they dream of giving, but do not give; whereas

Esther, to whom her first enchantment was ever new, who lived perpetually in the glow of Lucien's first

incendiary glance, never, in four yours, had an impulse of curiosity. She gave her whole mind to the task of

adhering to the terms of the programme prescribed by the sinister Spaniard. Nay, more! In the midst of

intoxicating happiness she never took unfair advantage of the unlimited power that the constantly revived

desire of a lover gives to the woman he loves to ask Lucien a single question regarding Herrera, of whom

indeed she lived in constant awe; she dared not even think of him. The elaborate benefactions of that

extraordinary man, to whom Esther undoubtedly owed her feminine accomplishment and her wellbred

"I shall have to pay for all this some day," she would tell herself with dismay.

Every fine night she went out in a hired carriage. She was driven with a rapidity no doubt insisted on by the

Abbe, in one or another of the beautiful woods round Paris, Boulogne, Vincennes, Romainville, or

Villed'Avray, often with Lucien, sometimes alone with Europe. There she could walk about without fear;

for when Lucien was not with her, she was attended by a servant dressed like the smartest of outriders, armed

with a real knife, whose face and brawny build alike proclaimed him a ruthless athlete. This protector was

also provided, in the fashion of English footmen, with a stick, but such as singlestick players use, with

which they can keep off more than one assailant. In obedience to an order of the Abbe's, Esther had never

spoken a word to this escort. When madame wished to go home, Europe gave a call; the man in waiting

When Lucien was walking with Esther, Europe and this man remained about a hundred paces behind, like

two of the infernal minions that figure in the Thousand and One Nights, which enchanters place at the service

The men, and yet more the women of Paris, know nothing of the charm of a walk in the woods on a fine

night. The stillness, the moonlight effects, the solitude, have the soothing effect of a bath. Esther usually went

out at ten, walked about from midnight till one o'clock, and came in at halfpast two. It was never daylight in

her rooms till eleven. She then bathed and went through an elaborate toilet which is unknown to most

women, for it takes up too much time, and is rarely carried out by any but courtesans, women of the town, or

fine ladies who have the day before them. She was only just ready when Lucien came, and appeared before

him as a newly opened flower. Her only care was that her poet should be happy; she was his toy, his chattel;

she gave him entire liberty. She never cast a glance beyond the circle where she shone. On this the Abbe had

insisted, for it was part of his profound policy that Lucien should have gallant adventures.

Happiness has no history, and the storytellers of all lands have understood this so well that the words, "They

are happy," are the end of every love tale. Hence only the ways and means can be recorded of this really

romantic happiness in the heart of Paris. It was happiness in its loveliest form, a poem, a symphony, of four

years' duration. Every woman will exclaim, "That was much!" Neither Esther nor Lucien had ever said, "This

is too much!" And the formula, "They were happy," was more emphatically true, than even in a fairy tale, for

So Lucien could coquet with the world, give way to his poet's caprices, and, it may be plainly admitted, to the

necessities of his position. All this time he was slowly making his way, and was able to render secret service

to certain political personages by helping them in their work. In such matters he was eminently discreet. He

cultivated Madame de Serizy's circle, being, it was rumored, on the very best terms with that lady. Madame

de Serizy had carried him off from the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, who, it was said, had "thrown him over,"

one of the phrases by which women avenge themselves on happiness they envy. Lucien was in the lap, so to

speak, of the High Almoner's set, and intimate with women who were the Archbishop's personal friends. He

was modest and reserved; he waited patiently. So de Marsay's speechde Marsay was now married, and

made his wife live as retired a life as Estherwas significant in more ways that one.

But the submarine perils of such a course as Lucien's will be sufficiently obvious in the course of this

Matters were in this position when, one fine night in August, the Baron de Nucingen was driving back to

Paris from the country residence of a foreign banker, settled in France, with whom he had been dining. The

estate lay at eight leagues from Paris in the district of la Brie. Now, the Baron's coachman having undertaken

to drive his master there and back with his own horses, at nightfall ventured to moderate the pace.

As they entered the forest of Vincennes the position of beast, man, and master was as follows:The

coachman, liberally soaked in the kitchen of the aristocrat of the Bourse, was perfectly tipsy, and slept

soundly, while still holding the reins to deceive other wayfarers. The footman, seated behind, was snoring

like a wooden top from Germanythe land of little carved figures, of large winevats, and of

hummingtops. The Baron had tried to think; but after passing the bridge at Gournay, the soft somnolence of

digestion had sealed his eyes. The horses understood the coachman's plight from the slackness of the reins;

they heard the footman's basso continuo from his perch behind; they saw that they were masters of the

situation, and took advantage of their few minutes' freedom to make their own pace. Like intelligent slaves,

they gave highway robbers the chance of plundering one of the richest capitalists in France, the most deeply

cunning of the race which, in France, have been energetically styled lynxes loupscerviers. Finally, being

independent of control, and tempted by the curiosity which every one must have remarked in domestic

animals, they stopped where four roads met, face to face with some other horses, whom they, no doubt, asked

When the chaise stopped, the Baron awoke from his nap. At first he fancied that he was still in his friend's

park; then he was startled by a celestial vision, which found him unarmed with his usual weapon

selfinterest. The moonlight was brilliant; he could have read by it even an evening paper. In the silence of

the forest, under this pure light, the Baron saw a woman, alone, who, as she got into a hired chaise, looked at

the strange spectacle of this sleepstricken carriage. At the sight of this angel the Baron felt as though a light

had flashed into glory within him. The young lady, seeing herself admired, pulled down her veil with terrified

haste. The manservant gave a signal which the driver perfectly understood, for the vehicle went off like an

The old banker was fearfully agitated; the blood left his feet cold and carried fire to his brain, his head sent

the flame back to his heart; he was chocking. The unhappy man foresaw a fit of indigestion, but in spite of

"Follow qvick, fery qvick.Tam you, you are ashleep!" he cried. "A hundert franc if you catch up dat

At the words "A hundred francs," the coachman woke up. The servant behind heard them, no doubt, in his

dreams. The baron reiterated his orders, the coachman urged the horses to a gallop, and at the Barriere du

Trone had succeeded in overtaking a carriage resembling that in which Nucingen had seen the divine fair one,

but which contained a swaggering headclerk from some firstclass shop and a lady of the Rue Vivienne.

"If only I had prought Chorge inshtead of you, shtupid fool, he should have fount dat voman," said he to the

"Indeed, Monsieur le Baron, the devil was behind the chaise, I believe, disguised as an armed escort, and he

The Baron de Nucingen owned to sixty; he no longer cared for women, and for his wife least of all. He

boasted that he had never known such love as makes a fool of a man. He declared that he was happy to have

done with women; the most angelic of them, he frankly said, was not worth what she cost, even if you got her

for nothing. He was supposed to be so entirely blase, that he no longer paid two thousand francs a month for

the pleasure of being deceived. His eyes looked coldly down from his opera box on the corps de ballet; never

a glance was shot at the capitalist by any one of that formidable swarm of old young girls, and young old

Natural love, artificial and loveofshow love, love based on self esteem and vanity, love as a display of

taste, decent, conjugal love, eccentric lovethe Baron had paid for them all, had known them all excepting

real spontaneous love. This passion had now pounced down on him like an eagle on its prey, as it did on

Gentz, the confidential friend of His Highness the Prince of Metternich. All the world knows what follies the

old diplomate committed for Fanny Elssler, whose rehearsals took up a great deal more of his time than the

The woman who had just overthrown that ironbound moneybox, called Nucingen, had appeared to him as

one of those who are unique in their generation. It is not certain that Titian's mistress, or Leonardo da Vinci's

Monna Lisa, or Raphael's Fornarina were as beautiful as this exquisite Esther, in whom not the most practised

eye of the most experienced Parisian could have detected the faintest trace of the ordinary courtesan. The

Baron was especially startled by the noble and stately air, the air of a wellborn woman, which Esther,

beloved, and lapped in luxury, elegance, and devotedness, had in the highest degree. Happy love is the divine

For eight nights in succession the Baron went to the forest of Vincennes, then to the Bois de Boulogne, to the

woods of Ville d'Avray, to Meudon, in short, everywhere in the neighborhood of Paris, but failed to meet

Esther. That beautiful Jewish face, which he called "a face out of te Biple," was always before his eyes. By

Delphine de Nucingen, and her daughter Augusta, whom the Baroness was now taking out, did not at first

perceive the change that had come over the Baron. The mother and daughter only saw him at breakfast in the

morning and at dinner in the evening, when they all dined at home, and this was only on the evenings when

Delphine received company. But by the end of two months, tortured by a fever of impatience, and in a state

like that produced by acute homesickness, the Baron, amazed to find his millions impotent, grew so thin,

and seemed so seriously ill, that Delphine had secret hopes of finding herself a widow. She pitied her

husband, somewhat hypocritically, and kept her daughter in seclusion. She bored her husband with questions;

Delphine de Nucingen gave a grand dinner every Sunday. She had chosen that day for her receptions, after

observing that no people of fashion went to the play, and that the day was pretty generally an open one. The

emancipation of the shopkeeping and middle classes makes Sunday almost as tiresome in Paris as it is deadly

in London. So the Baroness invited the famous Desplein to dinner, to consult him in spite of the sick man, for

Keller, Rastignac, de Marsay, du Tillet, all their friends had made the Baroness understand that a man like

Nucingen could not be allowed to die without any notice being taken of it; his enormous business

transactions demanded some care; it was absolutely necessary to know where he stood. These gentlemen also

were asked to dinner, and the Comte de Gondreville, Francois Keller's fatherinlaw, the Chevalier d'Espard,

des Lupeaulx, Doctor BianchonDesplein's best beloved pupil Beaudenord and his wife, the Comte and

Comtesse de Montcornet, Blondet, Mademoiselle des Touches and Conti, and finally, Lucien de Rubempre,

for whom Rastignac had for the last five years manifested the warmest regardby order, as the

"We shall not find it easy to get rid of that young fellow," said Blondet to Rastignac, when he saw Lucien

"He?" said de Marsay. "No one is formidable to my knowledge but men whose position is assured, and his is

unattacked rather than attackable! Look here, what does he live on? Where does his money come from? He

"He has found a friend in a very rich Spanish priest who has taken a fancy to him," replied Rastignac.

"He is going to be married to the eldest Mademoiselle de Grandlieu," said Mademoiselle des Touches.

"Yes," said the Chevalier d'Espard, "but they require him to buy an estate worth thirty thousand francs a year

as security for the fortune he is to settle on the young lady, and for that he needs a million francs, which are

Madame de Nucingen affected to call Mademoiselle de Grandlieu by her Christian name, as though she, nee

"No," replied du Tillet, "the daughter of a duchess is never ugly to the like of us, especially when she brings

with her the title of Marquis and a diplomatic appointment. But the great obstacle to the marriage is Madame

de Serizy's insane passion for Lucien. She must give him a great deal of money."

"Then I am not surprised at seeing Lucien so serious; for Madame de Serizy will certainly not give him a

million francs to help him to marry Mademoiselle de Grandlieu. He probably sees no way out of the scrape,"

"But Mademoiselle de Grandlieu worships him," said the Comtesse de Montcornet; "and with the young

"And what will he do with his sister and brotherinlaw at Angouleme?" asked the Chevalier d'Espard.

"Well, his sister is rich," replied Rastignac, "and he now speaks of her as Madame Sechard de Marsac."

"Whatever difficulties there may be, he is a very goodlooking fellow," said Bianchon, rising to greet Lucien.

Before dinner Desplein and Bianchon, who studied the Baron while amusing him, convinced themselves that

this malady was entirely nervous; but neither could guess the cause, so impossible did it seem that the great

politician of the money market could be in love. When Bianchon, seeing nothing but love to account for the

banker's condition, hinted as much to Delphine de Nucingen, she smiled as a woman who has long known all

her husband's weaknesses. After dinner, however, when they all adjourned to the garden, the more intimate of

the party gathered round the banker, eager to clear up this extraordinary case when they heard Bianchon

"Do you know, Baron," said de Marsay, "that you have grown very thin? You are suspected of violating the

"Dat is true," replied Nucingen piteously; "I am in lof for somebody I do not know."

"In lof, at my aje! I know dat is too ridiculous. But vat can I help it! Dat is so."

"Nay," said de Marsay. "The Baron would not grow so thin but for a hopeless love, and he has money enough

"I do not know who she it," said the Baron. "And as Motame de Nucingen is inside de trawingroom, I may

say so, dat till now I have nefer known what it is to lof. Lof! I tink it is to grow tin."

"A vhite gaze hat, a rose gown, a vhite scharf, a vhite feila face just out of de Biple. Eyes like Feuer, an

"Dat is true; I vas shleeping like a piga pig mit his shkin full," he added, "for I vas on my vay home from

"Ja," said the Baron dolefully; "but she had ein heiduque behind dat carriage and a maidshervant"

"Lucien looks as if he knew her," exclaimed Rastignac, seeing Esther's lover smile.

"Who doesn't know the woman who would go out at midnight to meet Nucingen?" said Lucien, turning on his

"Well, she is not a woman who is seen in society, or the Baron would have recognized the man," said the

"I have nefer seen him," replied the Baron. "And for forty days now I have had her seeked for by de Police,

"It is better that she should cost you a few hundred francs than cost you your life," said Desplein; "and, at

"Ja, ja," replied the Baron, addressing Desplein. "And vat I eat does me no goot, de air I breade feels to choke

me. I go to de forest of Fincennes to see de place vat I see herand dat is all my life. I could not tink of de

last loanI trust to my partners vat haf pity on me. I could pay one million franc to see dat vomanand I

"Very true," replied du Tillet; "he hates business; he is quite unlike himself; it is a sign of death."

The simple candor of the old man, no longer the stockjobber, who, for the first time in his life, saw that

something was more sacred and more precious than gold, really moved these worldhardened men; some

exchanged smiles; other looked at Nucingen with an expression that plainly said, "Such a man to have come

For it was indeed an event calculated to produce the greatest sensation. Madame de Nucingen went into fits

of laughter when Lucien betrayed her husband's secret; but the Baron, when he heard his wife's sarcasms,

"Motame," said he in an undertone, "have I ever laughed at all at your passions, that you should laugh at

mine? A goot frau should help her husband out of his difficulty vidout making game of him like vat you do."

From the description given by the old banker, Lucien had recognized his Esther. Much annoyed that his smile

should have been observed, he took advantage of a moment when coffee was served, and the conversation

"Which means, 'Who can detain me?' or 'I am unconquerable,' as you choose," added de Marsay.

"Just as Monsieur le Baron was speaking of his unknown lady, Lucien smiled in a way that makes me fancy

he may know her," said Horace Bianchon, not thinking how dangerous such a natural remark might be.

Like all incurables, the Baron clutched at everything that seemed at all hopeful; he promised himself that he

would have Lucien watched by some one besides Louchard and his menLouchard, the sharpest

"Before going home to Esther, Lucien was due at the Hotel Grandlieu, to spend the two hours which made

Mademoiselle Clotilde Frederique de Grandlieu the happiest girl in the Faubourg SaintGermain. But the

prudence characteristic of this ambitious youth warned him to inform Carlos Herrera forthwith of the effect

resulting from the smile wrung from him by the Baron's description of Esther. The banker's passion for

Esther, and the idea that had occurred to him of setting the police to seek the unknown beauty, were indeed

events of sufficient importance to be at once communicated to the man who had sought, under a priest's robe,

the shelter which criminals of old could find in a church. And Lucien's road from the Rue SaintLazare,

where Nucingen at that time lived, to the Rue SaintDominique, where was the Hotel Grandlieu, led him past

Lucien found his formidable friend smoking his breviarythat is to say, coloring a short pipe before retiring

to bed. The man, strange rather than foreign, had given up Spanish cigarettes, finding them too mild.

"Matters look serious," said the Spaniard, when Lucien had told him all. "The Baron, who employs Louchard

to hunt up the girl, will certainly be sharp enough to set a spy at your heels, and everything will come out.

Tonight and tomorrow morning will not give me more than enough time to pack the cards for the game I

must play against the Baron; first and foremost, I must prove to him that the police cannot help him. When

our lynx has given up all hope of finding his ewelamb, I will undertake to sell her for all she is worth to

"No money left," the Spaniard went on, "and sixty thousand francs of debts to be paid! If you want to marry

Clotilde de Grandlieu, you must invest a million of francs in land as security for that ugly creature's

settlement. Well, then, Esther is the quarry I mean to set before that lynx to help us to ease him of that

"That is the undertaker's concern. Besides, what then?" cried the savage, checking Lucien's lamentations

merely by his attitude. "How many generals died in the prime of life for the Emperor Napoleon?" he asked,

after a short silence. "There are always plenty of women. In 1821 Coralie was unique in your eyes; and yet

you found Esther. After her will comedo you know who?the unknown fair. And she of all women is the

fairest, and you will find her in the capital where the Duc de Grandlieu's soninlaw will be Minister and

representative of the King of France.And do you tell me now, great Baby, that Esther will die of it? Again,

"You have only to leave everything to me; you need not take the trouble to think at all; that is my concern.

Only you must do without Esther for a week or two; but go to the Rue Taitbout, all the same. Come, be off

to bill and coo on your plank of salvation, and play your part well; slip the flaming note you wrote this

morning into Clotilde's hand, and bring me back a warm response. She will recompense herself for many

"You will find Esther a little depressed, but tell her to obey. We must display our livery of virtue, our doublet

of honesty, the screen behind which all great men hide their infamy.I must show off my handsomer

selfyou must never be suspected. Chance has served us better than my brain, which has been beating about

All the while he was jerking out these dreadful sentences, one by one, like pistol shots, Carlos Herrera was

"You are evidently delighted," cried Lucien. "You never liked poor Esther, and you look forward with joy to

"You have never tired of loving her, have you? Well, I have never tired of detesting her. But have I not

always behaved as though I were sincerely attached to the hussyI, who, through Asie, hold her life in my

hands? A few bad mushrooms in a stewand there an end. But Mademoiselle Esther still lives!and is

happy!And do you know why? Because you love her. Do not be a fool. For four years we have been

waiting for a chance to turn up, for us or against us; well, it will take something more than mere cleverness to

wash the cabbage luck has flung at us now. There are good and bad together in this turn of the wheelas

"Of making myself heir here, as I did at Barcelona, to an old bigot, by Asie's help."

"I saw no other way of securing your fortune. The creditors are making a stir. If once the bailiffs were at your

heels, and you were turned out of the Hotel Grandlieu, where would you be? There would be the devil to pay

And Carlos Herrera, by a pantomimic gesture, showed the suicide of a man throwing himself into the water;

then he fixed on Lucien one of those steady, piercing looks by which the will of a strong man is injected, so

to speak, into a weak one. This fascinating glare, which relaxed all Lucien's fibres of resistance, revealed the

existence not merely of secrets of life and death between him and his adviser, but also of feelings as far above

Carlos Herrera, a man at once ignoble and magnanimous, obscure and famous, compelled to live out of the

world from which the law had banned him, exhausted by vice and by frenzied and terrible struggles, though

endowed with powers of mind that ate into his soul, consumed especially by a fever of vitality, now lived

again in the elegant person of Lucien de Rubempre, whose soul had become his own. He was represented in

social life by the poet, to whom he lent his tenacity and iron will. To him Lucien was more than a son, more

than a woman beloved, more than a family, more than his life; he was his revenge; and as souls cling more

closely to a feeling than to existence, he had bound the young man to him by insoluble ties.

After rescuing Lucien's life at the moment when the poet in desperation was on the verge of suicide, he had

proposed to him one of those infernal bargains which are heard of only in romances, but of which the hideous

possibility has often been proved in courts of justice by celebrated criminal dramas. While lavishing on

Lucien all the delights of Paris life, and proving to him that he yet had a great future before him, he had made

But, indeed, no sacrifice was too great for this strange man when it was to gratify his second self. With all his

strength, he was so weak to this creature of his making that he had even told him all his secrets. Perhaps this

Since the day when La Torpille had been snatched away, Lucien had known on what a vile foundation his

good fortune rested. That priest's robe covered Jacques Collin, a man famous on the hulks, who ten years

since had lived under the homely name of Vautrin in the Maison Vauquer, where Rastignac and Bianchon

Jacques Collin, known as TrompelaMort, had escaped from Rochefort almost as soon as he was

recaptured, profiting by the example of the famous Comte de SainteHelene, while modifying all that was ill

planned in Coignard's daring scheme. To take the place of an honest man and carry on the convict's career is

a proposition of which the two terms are too contradictory for a disastrous outcome not to be inevitable,

especially in Paris; for, by establishing himself in a family, a convict multiplies tenfold the perils of such a

substitution. And to be safe from all investigation, must not a man assume a position far above the ordinary

interests of life. A man of the world is subject to risks such as rarely trouble those who have no contact with

the world; hence the priest's gown is the safest disguise when it can be authenticated by an exemplary life in

"So a priest I will be," said the legally dead man, who was quite determined to resuscitate as a figure in the

The civil war caused by the Constitution of 1812 in Spain, whither this energetic man had betaken himself,

enabled him to murder secretly the real Carlos Herrera from an ambush. This ecclesiastic, the bastard son of a

grandee, long since deserted by his father, and not knowing to what woman he owed his birth, was intrusted

by King Ferdinand VII., to whom a bishop had recommended him, with a political mission to France. The

bishop, the only man who took any interest in Carlos Herrera, died while this foundling son of the Church

was on his journey from Cadiz to Madrid, and from Madrid to France. Delighted to have met with this

longedfor opportunity, and under the most desirable conditions, Jacques Collin scored his back to efface the

fatal letters, and altered his complexion by the use of chemicals. Thus metamorphosing himself face to face

with the corpse, he contrived to achieve some likeness to his Sosia. And to complete a change almost as

marvelous as that related in the Arabian tale, where a dervish has acquired the power, old as he is, of entering

into a young body, by a magic spell, the convict, who spoke Spanish, learned as much Latin as an Andalusian

As banker to three hulks, Collin was rich in the cash intrusted to his known, and indeed enforced, honesty.

Among such company a mistake is paid for by a dagger thrust. To this capital he now added the money given

by the bishop to Don Carlos Herrera. Then, before leaving Spain, he was able to possess himself of the

treasure of an old bigot at Barcelona, to whom he gave absolution, promising that he would make restitution

of the money constituting her fortune, which his penitent had stolen by means of murder.

Jacques Collin, now a priest, and charged with a secret mission which would secure him the most brilliant

introductions in Paris, determined to do nothing that might compromise the character he had assumed, and

had given himself up to the chances of his new life, when he met Lucien on the road between Angouleme and

Paris. In this youth the sham priest saw a wonderful instrument for power; he saved him from suicide saying:

"Give yourself over to me as to a man of God, as men give themselves over to the devil, and you will have

every chance of a new career. You will live as in a dream, and the worst awakening that can come to you will

The alliance between these two beings, who were to become one, as it were, was based on this substantial

reasoning, and Carlos Herrera cemented it by an ingeniously plotted complicity. He had the very genius of

corruption, and undermined Lucien's honesty by plunging him into cruel necessity, and extricating him by

obtaining his tacit consent to bad or disgraceful actions, which nevertheless left him pure, loyal, and noble in

the eyes of the world. Lucien was the social magnificence under whose shadow the forger meant to live.

"I am the author, you are the play; if you fail, it is I who shall be hissed," said he on the day when he

Carlos prudently confessed only a little at a time, measuring the horrors of his revelations by Lucien's

progress and needs. Thus TrompelaMort did not let out his last secret till the habit of Parisian pleasures

and success, and gratified vanity, had enslaved the weakminded poet body and soul. Where Rastignac, when

tempted by this demon, had stood firm, Lucien, better managed, and more ingeniously compromised,

succumbed, conquered especially by his satisfaction in having attained an eminent position. Incarnate evil,

whose poetical embodiment is called the Devil, displayed every delightful seduction before this youth, who

was half a woman, and at first gave much and asked for little. The great argument used by Carlos was the

The repeated proofs of absolute devotion, such as that of Said to Mahomet, put the finishing touch to the

At this moment not only had Esther and Lucien devoured all the funds intrusted to the honesty of the banker

of the hulks, who, for their sakes, had rendered himself liable to a dreadful calling to account, but the dandy,

the forger, and the courtesan were also in debt. Thus, as the very moment of Lucien's expected success, the

smallest pebble under the foot of either of these three persons might involve the ruin of the fantastic structure

At the opera ball Rastignac had recognized the man he had known as Vautrin at Madame Vauquer's; but he

knew that if he did not hold his tongue, he was a dead man. So Madame de Nucingen's lover and Lucien had

exchanged glances in which fear lurked, on both sides, under an expression of amity. In the moment of

danger, Rastignac, it is clear, would have been delighted to provide the vehicle that should convey Jacques

Collin to the scaffold. From all this it may be understood that Carlos heard of the Baron's passion with a glow

of sombre satisfaction, while he perceived in a single flash all the advantage a man of his temper might derive

The House of Grandlieu divided into two branches about the middle of the last century: first, the ducal line

destined to lapse, since the present duke has only daughters; and then the Vicomtes de Grandlieu, who will

now inherit the title and armorial bearings of the elder branch. The ducal house bears gules, three broad axes

or in fess, with the famous motto: Caveo non timeo, which epitomizes the history of the family.

The coat of the Vicomtes de Grandlieu is the same quartered with that of Navarreins: gules, a fess crenelated

or, surmounted by a knight's helmet, with the motto: Grands faits, grand lieu. The present Viscountess,

widowed in 1813, has a son and a daughter. Though she returned from the Emigration almost ruined, she

The Duc and Duchesse de Grandlieu, on coming home in 1804, were the object of the Emperor's advances;

indeed, Napoleon, seeing them come to his court, restored to them all of the Grandlieu estates that had been

confiscated to the nation, to the amount of about forty thousand francs a year. Of all the great nobles of the

Faubourg SaintGermain who allowed themselves to be won over by Napoleon, this Duke and

Duchessshe was an Ajuda of the senior branch, and connected with the Braganzaswere the only family

who afterwards never disowned him and his liberality. When the Faubourg SaintGermain remembered this

as a crime against the Grandlieus, Louis XVIII. respected them for it; but perhaps his only object was to

A marriage was considered likely between the young Vicomte de Grandlieu and MarieAthenais, the Duke's

youngest daughter, now nine years old. Sabine, the youngest but one, married the Baron du Guenic after the

revolution of July 1830; Josephine, the third, became Madame d'AjudaPinto after the death of the Marquis'

first wife, Mademoiselle de Rochefide, or Rochegude. The eldest had taken the veil in 1822. The second,

Mademoiselle Clotilde Frederique, at this time sevenand twenty years of age, was deeply in love with

Lucien de Rubempre. It need not be asked whether the Duc de Grandlieu's mansion, one of the finest in the

Rue SaintDominique, did not exert a thousand spells over Lucien's imagination. Every time the heavy gate

turned on its hinges to admit his cab, he experienced the gratified vanity to which Mirabeau confessed.

"Though my father was a mere druggist at l'Houmeau, I may enter here!" This was his thought.

And, indeed, he would have committed far worse crimes than allying himself with a forger to preserve his

right to mount the steps of that entrance, to hear himself announced, "Monsieur de Rubempre" at the door of

the fine Louis XIV. drawingroom, decorated in the time of the grand monarque on the pattern of those at

Versailles, where that choicest circle met, that cream of Paris society, called then le petit chateau.

The noble Portuguese lady, one of those who never care to go out of their own home, was usually the centre

of her neighbors' attentions the Chaulieus, the Navarreins, the Lenoncourts. The pretty Baronne de

Macumernee de Chaulieuthe Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, Madame d'Espard, Madame de Camps, and

Mademoiselle des Touchesa connection of the Grandlieus, who are a Breton familywere frequent

visitors on their way to a ball or on their return from the opera. The Vicomte de Grandlieu, the Duc de

Rhetore, the Marquis de Chaulieuafterwards Duc de LenoncourtChaulieuhis wife, Madeleine de

Mortsauf, the Duc de Lenoncourt's granddaughter, the Marquis d'AjudaPinto, the Prince de

BlamontChauvry, the Marquis de Beauseant, the Vidame de Pamiers, the Vandenesses, the old Prince de

Cadignan, and his son the Duc de Maufrigneuse, were constantly to be seen in this stately drawingroom,

where they breathed the atmosphere of a Court, where manners, tone, and wit were in harmony with the

dignity of the Master and Mistress whose aristocratic mien and magnificence had obliterated the memory of

The old Duchesse d'Uxelles, mother of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, was the oracle of this circle, to which

Lucien was brought thither by Madame de Maufrigneuse, who had won over her mother to speak in his favor,

for she had doted on him for two years; and the engaging young poet had kept his footing there, thanks to the

influence of the high Almoner of France, and the support of the Archbishop of Paris. Still, he had not been

admitted till he had obtained the patent restoring to him the name and arms of the Rubempre family. The Duc

de Rhetore, the Chevalier d'Espard, and some others, jealous of Lucien, periodically stirred up the Duc de

Grandlieu's prejudices against him by retailing anecdotes of the young man's previous career; but the

Duchess, a devout Catholic surrounded by the great prelates of the Church, and her daughter Clotilde would

Lucien accounted for these hostilities by his connection with Madame de Bargeton, Madame d'Espard's

cousin, and now Comtesse du Chatelet. Then, feeling the importance of allying himself to so powerful a

family, and urged by his privy adviser to win Clotilde, Lucien found the courage of the parvenu; he came to

the house five days in the week, he swallowed all the affronts of the envious, he endured impertinent looks,

and answered irony with wit. His persistency, the charm of his manners, and his amiability, at last neutralized

opposition and reduced obstacles. He was still in the highest favor with Madame de Maufrigneuse, whose

ardent letters, written under the influence of her passion, were preserved by Carlos Herrera; he was idolized

by Madame de Serizy, and stood well in Mademoiselle des Touches' good graces; and well content with

being received in these houses, Lucien was instructed by the Abbe to be as reserved as possible in all other

"You cannot devote yourself to several houses at once," said his Mentor. "The man who goes everywhere

finds no one to take a lively interest in him. Great folks only patronize those who emulate their furniture,

whom they see every day, and who have the art of becoming as necessary to them as the seat they sit on."

Thus Lucien, accustomed to regard the Grandlieus' drawingroom as his arena, reserved his wit, his jests, his

news, and his courtier's graces for the hours he spent there every evening. Insinuating, tactful, and warned by

Clotilde of the shoals he should avoid, he flattered Monsieur de Grandlieu's little weaknesses. Clotilde,

having begun by envying Madame de Maufrigneuse her happiness, ended by falling desperately in love with

Perceiving all the advantages of such a connection, Lucien played his lover's part as well as it could have

He wrote to Clotilde, letters which were certainly masterpieces of literary workmanship; and Clotilde replied,

vying with him in genius in the expression of perfervid love on paper, for she had no other outlet. Lucien

went to church at SaintThomasd'Aquin every Sunday, giving himself out as a devout Catholic, and he

poured forth monarchical and pious harangues which were a marvel to all. He also wrote some exceedingly

remarkable articles in papers devoted to the "Congregation," refusing to be paid for them, and signing them

only with an "L." He produced political pamphlets when required by King Charles X. or the High Almoner,

For some days past there had been an idea of attaching Lucien to the prime minister's cabinet as his private

secretary; but Madame d'Espard brought so many persons into the field in opposition to Lucien, that Charles

X.'s Maitre Jacques hesitated to clinch the matter. Nor was Lucien's position by any means clear; not only did

the question, "What does he live on?" on everybody's lips as the young man rose in life, require an answer,

but even benevolent curiosityas much as malevolent curiositywent on from one inquiry to another, and

Clotilde de Grandlieu unconsciously served as a spy for her father and mother. A few days since she had led

"Invest a million francs in land, and my hand is yours: that is my mother's ultimatum," Clotilde had

"And presently they will ask you where you got the money," said Carlos, when Lucien reported this last word

"My brotherinlaw will have made his fortune," remarked Lucien; "we can make him the responsible

To be exact as to Lucien's position in the Hotel Grandlieu, he had never dined there. Neither Clotilde, nor the

Duchesse d'Uxelles, nor Madame de Maufrigneuse, who was always extremely kind to Lucien, could ever

obtain this favor from the Duke, so persistently suspicious was the old nobleman of the man that he

designated as "le Sire de Rubempre." This shade of distinction, understood by every one who visited at the

house, constantly wounded Lucien's selfrespect, for he felt that he was no more than tolerated. But the world

To cut a figure in Paris with no known source of wealth and no recognized employment is a position which

can by no artifice be long maintained. So Lucien, as he crept up in the world, gave more and more weight to

the question, "What does he live on?" He had been obliged indeed to confess to Madame de Serizy, to whom

he owed the patronage of Monsieur Granville, the Public Prosecutor, and of the Comte Octave de Bauvan, a

Minister of State, and President of one of the Supreme Courts: "I am dreadfully in debt."

As he entered the courtyard of the mansion where he found an excuse for all his vanities, he was saying to

He loved Esther, and he wanted to marry Mademoiselle de Grandlieu! A strange dilemma! One must be sold

Only one person could effect this bargain without damage to Lucien's honor, and that was the supposed

Spaniard. Were they not bound to be equally secret, each for the other? Such a compact, in which each is in

Lucien drove away the clouds that darkened his brow, and walked into the Grandlieu drawingroom gay and

beaming. At this moment the windows were open, the fragrance from the garden scented the room, the

flower basket in the centre displayed its pyramid of flowers. The Duchess, seated on a sofa in the corner,

was talking to the Duchesse de Chaulieu. Several women together formed a group remarkable for their

various attitudes, stamped with the different expression which each strove to give to an affected sorrow. In

the fashionable world nobody takes any interest in grief or suffering; everything is talk. The men were

walking up and down the room or in the garden. Clotilde and Josephine were busy at the teatable. The

Vidame de Pamiers, the Duc de Grandlieu, the Marquis d'AjudaPinto, and the Duc de Maufrigneuse were

When Lucien was announced he walked across the room to make his bow to the Duchess, asking the cause of

"Madame de Chaulieu has just had dreadful news; her soninlaw, the Baron de Macumer, exduke of Soria,

is just dead. The young Duc de Soria and his wife, who had gone to Chantepleurs to nurse their brother, have

"A women is not loved twice in her life as Louise was loved by her husband," said Madeleine de Mortsauf.

"She will be a rich widow," observed the old Duchesse d'Uxelles, looking at Lucien, whose face showed no

The Marquise d'Espard put on the pensive look of a woman full of soul and feeling. Sabine de Grandlieu,

who was but ten years old, raised knowing eyes to her mother's face, but the satirical glance was repressed by

"If my daughter lives through the shock," said Madame de Chaulieu, with a very maternal manner, "I shall be

"It is so difficult nowadays," said a venerable Cardinal, "to reconcile feeling with the proprieties."

Lucien, who had not a word to say, went to the teatable to do what was polite to the demoiselles de

Grandlieu. When the poet had gone a few yards away, the Marquise d'Espard leaned over to whisper in the

"And do you really think that that young fellow is so much in love with your Clotilde?"

The perfidy of this question cannot be fully understood but with the help of a sketch of Clotilde. That young

lady was, at this moment, standing up. Her attitude allowed the Marquise d'Espard's mocking eye to take in

Clotilde's lean, narrow figure, exactly like an asparagus stalk; the poor girl's bust was so flat that it did not

allow of the artifice known to dressmakers as fichus menteurs, or padded habitshirts. And Clotilde, who knew

that her name was a sufficient advantage in life, far from trying to conceal this defect, heroically made a

display of it. By wearing plain, tight dresses she achieved the effect of that stiff prim shape which medieval

sculptors succeeded in giving to the statuettes whose profiles are conspicuous against the background of the

Clotilde was more than five feet four in height; if we may be allowed to use a familiar phrase, which has the

merit at any rate of being perfectly intelligibleshe was all legs. These defective proportions gave her figure

an almost deformed appearance. With a dark complexion, harsh black hair, very thick eyebrows, fiery eyes,

set in sockets that were already deeply discolored, a side face shaped like the moon in its first quarter, and a

prominent brow, she was the caricature of her mother, one of the handsomest women in Portugal. Nature

amuses herself with such tricks. Often we see in one family a sister of wonderful beauty, whose features in

her brother are absolutely hideous, though the two are amazingly alike. Clotilde's lips, excessively thin and

sunken, wore a permanent expression of disdain. And yet her mouth, better than any other feature of her face,

revealed every secret impulse of her heart, for affection lent it a sweet expression, which was all the more

remarkable because her cheeks were too sallow for blushes, and her hard, black eyes never told anything.

Notwithstanding these defects, notwithstanding her boardlike carriage, she had by birth and education a

grand air, a proud demeanor, in short, everything that has been well named le je ne sais quoi, due partly,

perhaps, to her uncompromising simplicity of dress, which stamped her as a woman of noble blood. She

dressed her hair to advantage, and it might be accounted to her for a beauty, for it grew vigorously, thick and

She had cultivated her voice, and it could cast a spell; she sang exquisitely. Clotilde was just the woman of

whom one says, "She has fine eyes," or, "She has a delightful temper." If any one addressed her in the

"Why should not my poor Clotilde have a lover?" replied the Duchess to the Marquise. "Do you know what

she said to me yesterday? 'If I am loved for ambition's sake, I undertake to make him love me for my own

sake.'She is clever and ambitious, and there are men who like those two qualities. As for himmy dear,

he is as handsome as a vision; and if he can but repurchase the Rubempre estates, out of regard for us the

King will reinstate him in the title of Marquis.After all, his mother was the last of the Rubempres."

"That is no concern of ours," replied the Duchess. "He is certainly incapable of stealing the

money.Besides, we would never give Clotilde to an intriguing or dishonest man even if he were handsome,

"You are late this evening," said Clotilde, smiling at Lucien with infinite graciousness.

"You have been quite gay these last few days," said she, concealing her jealousy and anxiety behind a smile.

"Quite gay?" replied Lucien. "Noonly by the merest chance I have been dining every day this week with

bankers; today with the Nucingens, yesterday with du Tillet, the day before with the Kellers"

Whence, it may be seen, that Lucien had succeeded in assuming the tone of light impertinence of great

"You have many enemies," said Clotilde, offering himhow graciously! a cup of tea. "Some one told my

father that you have debts to the amount of sixty thousand francs, and that before long SaintePelagie will be

your summer quarters.If you could know what all these calumnies are to me!It all recoils on me.I say

nothing of my own sufferingmy father has a way of looking that crucifies mebut of what you must be

"Do not let such nonsense worry you; love me as I love you, and give me timea few months" said

"Do not let my father see you; he would say something disagreeable; and as you could not submit to that, we

should be done for.That odious Marquise d'Espard told him that your mother had been a monthly nurse

"We were in the most abject poverty," replied Lucien, the tears rising to his eyes. "That is not calumny, but it

is most illnatured gossip. My sister now is a more than millionaire, and my mother has been dead two

years.This information has been kept in stock to use just when I should be on the verge of success

"I was so rash, at Madame de Serizy's, as to tell the story, with some added pleasantries, in the presence of

MM. de Bauvan and de Granville, of her attempt to get a commission of lunacy appointed to sit on her

husband, the Marquis d'Espard. Bianchon had told it to me. Monsieur de Granville's opinion, supported by

those of Bauvan and Serizy, influenced the decision of the Keeper of the Seals. They all were afraid of the

Gazette des Tribunaux, and dreaded the scandal, and the Marquise got her knuckles rapped in the summing

"Though M. de Serizy by his tattle has made the Marquise my mortal foe, I gained his good offices, and those

of the Public Prosecutor, and Comte Octave de Bauvan; for Madame de Serizy told them the danger in which

I stood in consequence of their allowing the source of their information to be guessed at. The Marquis

d'Espard was so clumsy as to call upon me, regarding me as the first cause of his winning the day in that

"My mother will ask the young d'Espards here; they are charming boys, and growing up now. The father and

sons will sing your praises, and then we are sure never to see their mother again."

"Oh, Clotilde, you are an angel! If I did not love you for yourself, I should love you for being so clever."

"It is not cleverness," said she, all her love beaming on her lips. "Goodnight. Do not come again for some few

days. When you see me in church, at SaintThomasd'Aquin, with a pink scarf, my father will be in a better

temper.You will find an answer stuck to the back of the chair you are sitting in; it will comfort you

Lucien took a cab in the Rue de la Planche, got out of it on the Boulevards, took another by the Madeleine,

and desired the driver to have the gates opened and drive in at the house in the Rue Taitbout.

On going in at eleven o'clock, he found Esther in tears, but dressed as she was wont to dress to do him honor.

She awaited her Lucien reclining on a sofa covered with white satin brocaded with yellow flowers, dressed in

a bewitching wrapper of India muslin with cherry colored bows; without her stays, her hair simply twisted

into a knot, her feet in little velvet slippers lined with cherrycolored satin; all the candles were burning, the

hookah was prepared. But she had not smoked her own, which stood beside her unlighted, emblematical of

her loneliness. On hearing the doors open she sprang up like a gazelle, and threw her arms round Lucien,

In these circumstances, most women babble like parrots. Oh! how they love! At the end of five years they

feel as if their first happiness were a thing of yesterday, they cannot give you up, they are magnificent in their

indignation, despair, love, grief, dread, dejection, presentiments. In short, they are as sublime as a scene from

Shakespeare. But make no mistake! These women do not love. When they are really all that they profess,

when they love truly, they do as Esther did, as children do, as true love does; Esther did not say a word, she

"But, my child, we are not to part. What, after four years of happiness, is this the way you take a short

absence.What on earth do I do to all these girls?" he added to himself, remembering that Coralie had loved

The senses have their own ideal. When added to this fascinating beauty we find the sweetness of nature, the

poetry, that characterized Lucien, it is easy to conceive of the mad passion roused in such women, keenly

alive as they are to external gifts, and artless in their admiration. Esther was sobbing quietly, and lay in an

"But, little goose," said Lucien, "did you not understand that my life is at stake?"

At these words, which he chose on purpose, Esther started up like a wild animal, her hair fell, tumbling about

"Your life?" she cried, throwing up her arms, and letting them drop with a gesture known only to a courtesan

She took a shabby scrap of paper out of her sash; then seeing Europe, she said, "Leave us, my girl."

When Europe had shut the door she went on"Here, this is what he writes," and she handed to Lucien a note

"You must leave tomorrow at five in the morning; you will be taken to a keeper's lodge in the heart of the

Forest of Saint Germain, where you will have a room on the first floor. Do not quit that room till I give you

leave; you will want for nothing. The keeper and his wife are to be trusted. Do not write to Lucien. Do not go

to the window during daylight; but you may walk by night with the keeper if you wish for exercise. Keep the

"Listen, my own Lucien," said Esther, after hearing him read this letter as a criminal hears the sentence of

death; "I will not tell you that I love you; it would be idiotic. For nearly five years it has been as natural to me

to love you as to breathe and live. From the first day when my happiness began under the protection of that

inscrutable being, who placed me here as you place some little curious beast in a cage, I have known that you

must marry. Marriage is a necessary factor in your career, and God preserve me from hindering the

"That marriage will be my death. But I will not worry you; I will not do as the common girls do who kill

themselves by means of a brazier of charcoal; I had enough of that once; twice raises your gorge, as Mariette

says. No, I will go a long way off, out of France. Asie knows the secrets of her country; she will help me to

"I ask but one thing, my dearest, and that is that you will not deceive me. I have had my share of living. Since

the day I first saw you, in 1824, till this day, I have known more happiness than can be put into the lives of

ten fortunate wives. So take me for what I ama woman as strong as I am weak. Say 'I am going to be

married.' I will ask no more of you than a fond farewell, and you shall never hear of me again."

There was a moment's silence after this explanation as sincere as her action and tone were guileless.

"Is it that you are going to be married?" she repeated, looking into Lucien's blue eyes with one of her

"We have been toiling at my marriage for eighteen months past, and it is not yet settled," replied Lucien. "I

do not know when it can be settled; but it is not in question now, child!It is the Abbe, I, you.We are in

"No," said Lucien. "But he has fallen so desperately in love with you, that he would sacrifice his coffers.

After dinner, when he was describing how he had met you, I was so foolish as to smile involuntarily, and

most imprudently, for I live in a world like a savage surrounded by the traps of a hostile tribe. Carlos, who

spares me the pains of thinking, regards the position as dangerous, and he has undertaken to pay Nucingen

out if the Baron takes it into his head to spy on us; and he is quite capable of it; he spoke to me of the

incapacity of the police. You have lighted a flame in an old chimney choked with soot."

"I do not know in the least," said Lucien; "he told me I might sleep soundly and leave it to him;"but he

"If that is the case, I will obey him with the doglike submission I profess," said Esther, putting her hand

through Lucien's arm and leading him into her bedroom, saying, "At any rate, I hope you dined well, my

"Asie's cooking prevents my ever thinking a dinner good, however famous the chef may be, where I happen

Lucien involuntarily compared Esther with Clotilde. The mistress was so beautiful, so unfailingly charming,

that she had as yet kept at arm's length the monster who devours the most perennial loves Satiety.

"What a pity," thought he, "to find one's wife in two volumes. In onepoetry, delight, love, devotion,

Esther was fussing about, as women do, before going to bed; she came and went and fluttered round, singing

"In the othera noble name, family, honors, rank, knowledge of the world!And no earthly means of

Next morning, at seven, when the poet awoke in the pretty pinkand white room, he found himself alone.

"Madame went off this morning at a quarter to five. By Monsieur l'Abbe's order, I admitted a new

"No, sir, an English womanone of those people who do their day's work by night, and we are ordered to

treat her as if she were madame. What can you have to say to such hack!Poor Madame, how she cried

when she got into the carriage. 'Well, it has to be done!' cried she. 'I left that poor dear boy asleep,' said she,

wiping away her tears; 'Europe, if he had looked at me or spoken my name, I should have stayedI could

but have died with him.' I tell you, sir, I am so fond of madame, that I did not show her the person who has

"Well, sir, she came in the chaise that took away madame, and I hid her in my room in obedience to my

"So far as such a secondhand article can be. But she will find her part easy enough if you play yours, sir,"

The night before, ere going to bed, the allpowerful banker had given his orders to his valet, who, at seven in

the morning, brought in to him the notorious Louchard, the most famous of the commercial police, whom he

left in a little sittingroom; there the Baron joined him, in a dressing gown and slippers.

"I could not help myself, Monsieur le Baron. I do not want to lose my place, and I had the honor of

explaining to you that I could not meddle in a matter that had nothing to do with my functions. What did I

promise you? To put you into communication with one of our agents, who, as it seemed to me, would be best

able to serve you. But you know, Monsieur le Baron, the sharp lines that divide men of different trades: if you

build a house, you do not set a carpenter to do smith's work. Well, there are two branches of the policethe

political police and the judicial police. The political police never interfere with the other branch, and vice

versa. If you apply to the chief of the political police, he must get permission from the Minister to take up our

business, and you would not dare to explain it to the head of the police throughout the kingdom. A

"Well, the ordinary police are quite as cautious as the political police. So no one, whether in the Home Office

or at the Prefecture of Police, ever moves excepting in the interests of the State or for the ends of Justice.

"If there is a plot or a crime to be followed up, then, indeed, the heads of the corps are at your service; but

you must understand, Monsieur le Baron, that they have other fish to fry than looking after the fifty thousand

love affairs in Paris. As to me and my men, our only business is to arrest debtors; and as soon as anything

else is to be done, we run enormous risks if we interfere with the peace and quiet of any man or woman. I

sent you one of my men, but I told you I could not answer for him; you instructed him to find a particular

woman in Paris; Contenson bled you of a thousandfranc note, and did not even move. You might as well

look for a needle in the river as for a woman in Paris, who is supposed to haunt Vincennes, and of whom the

"And could not Contenson haf tolt me de truf, instead of making me pleed out one tousand franc?"

"Listen to me, Monsieur le Baron," said Louchard. "Will you give me a thousand crowns? I will give

"I am not to be caught, Monsieur le Baron," answered Louchard. "You are in love, you want to discover the

object of your passion; you are getting as yellow as a lettuce without water. Two physicians came to see you

yesterday, your man tells me, who think your life is in danger; now, I alone can put you in the hands of a

clever fellow.But the deuce is in it! If your life is not worth a thousand crowns"

"Take notice," said Louchard, before taking the money, "I am only selling a piece of information, pure and

simple. I can give you the name and address of the only man who is able to be of use to youbut he is a

"Get out mit you," cried Nucingen. "Dere is not no name dat is vort one tousant crown but dat von

Varschildand dat only ven it is sign at the bottom of a bankbill.I shall gif you one tousant franc."

Louchard, a little weasel, who had never been able to purchase an office as lawyer, notary, clerk, or attorney,

"To youa thousand crowns, or let it alone. You will get them back in a few seconds on the Bourse," said

"I shall get dat address for five hundert franc!" cried the Baron, who desired his servant to send his secretary

Turcaret is no more. In these days the smallest banker, like the greatest, exercises his acumen in the smallest

transactions; he bargains over art, beneficence, and love; he would bargain with the Pope for a dispensation.

Thus, as he listened to Louchard, Nucingen had hastily concluded that Contenson, Louchard's righthand

man, must certainly know the address of that master spy. Contenson would tell him for five hundred francs

what Louchard wanted to see a thousand crowns for. The rapid calculation plainly proves that if the man's

heart was in possession of love, his head was still that of the lynx stockjobber.

"Go your own self, mensieur," said the Baron to his secretary, "to Contenson, dat spy of Louchart's de bailiff

manbut go in one capriolette, very qvick, and pring him here qvick to me. I shall vait. Go out trough de

garten.Here is dat key, for no man shall see dat man in here. You shall take him into dat little

Visitors called to see Nucingen on business; but he waited for Contenson, he was dreaming of Esther, telling

himself that before long he would see again the woman who had aroused in him such unhopedfor emotions,

and he sent everybody away with vague replies and double edged promises. Contenson was to him the most

important person in Paris, and he looked out into the garden every minute. Finally, after giving orders that no

one else was to be admitted, he had his breakfast served in the summerhouse at one corner of the garden. In

the banker's office the conduct and hesitancy of the most knowing, the most clearsighted, the shrewdest of

"No one knows; they are anxious about his health, it would seem. Yesterday, Madame la Baronne got

One day, when Sir Isaac Newton was engaged in physicking one of his dogs, named "Beauty" (who, as is

well known, destroyed a vast amount of work, and whom he reproved only in these words, "Ah! Beauty, you

little know the mischief you have done!"), some strangers called to see him; but they at once retired,

respecting the great man's occupation. In every more or less lofty life, there is a little dog "Beauty." When the

Marechal de Richelieu came to pay his respects to Louis XV. after taking Mahon, one of the greatest feats of

arms of the eighteenth century, the King said to him, "Have you heard the great news? Poor Lansmatt is

The bankers of Paris never knew how much they owed to Contenson. That spy was the cause of Nucingen's

allowing an immense loan to be issued in which his share was allotted to him, and which he gave over to

them. The stockjobber could aim at a fortune any day with the artillery of speculation, but the man was a

The great banker drank some tea, and was nibbling at a slice of bread and butter, as a man does whose teeth

have for long been sharpened by appetite, when he heard a carriage stop at the little garden gate. In a few

minutes his secretary brought in Contenson, whom he had run to earth in a cafe not far from SaintePelagie,

where the man was breakfasting on the strength of a bribe given to him by an imprisoned debtor for certain

Contenson, you must know, was a whole poema Paris poem. Merely to see him would have been enough

to tell you that Beaumarchais' Figaro, Moliere's Mascarille, Marivaux's Frontin, and Dancourt's Lafleur

those great representatives of audacious swindling, of cunning driven to bay, of stratagem rising again from

the ends of its broken wires were all quite secondrate by comparison with this giant of cleverness and

meanness. When in Paris you find a real type, he is no longer a man, he is a spectacle; no longer a factor in

Bake a plaster cast four times in a furnace, and you get a sort of bastard imitation of Florentine bronze. Well,

the thunderbolts of numberless disasters, the pressure of terrible necessities, had bronzed Contenson's head,

as though sweating in an oven had three times over stained his skin. Closelyset wrinkles that could no

longer be relaxed made eternal furrows, whiter in their cracks. The yellow face was all wrinkles. The bald

skull, resembling Voltaire's, was as parched as a death'shead, and but for a few hairs at the back it would

have seemed doubtful whether it was that of a living man. Under a rigid brow, a pair of Chinese eyes, like

those of an image under a glass shade in a teashopartificial eyes, which sham life but never varymoved

but expressed nothing. The nose, as flat as that of a skull, sniffed at fate; and the mouth, as thinlipped as a

Contenson, as apathetic as a savage, with sunburned hands, affected that Diogeneslike indifference which

And what a commentary on his life was written on his dress for any one who can decipher a dress! Above all,

what trousers! made, by long wear, as black and shiny as the camlet of which lawyers' gowns are made! A

waistcoat, bought in an old clothes shop in the Temple, with a deep embroidered collar! A rusty black

coat!and everything well brushed, clean after a fashion, and graced by a watch and an imitation gold chain.

Contenson allowed a triangle of shirt to show, with pleats in which glittered a sham diamond pin; his black

velvet stock set stiff like a gorget, over which lay rolls of flesh as red as that of a Caribbee. His silk hat was

as glossy as satin, but the lining would have yielded grease enough for two street lamps if some grocer had

But to enumerate these accessories is nothing; if only I could give an idea of the air of immense importance

that Contenson contrived to impart to them! There was something indescribably knowing in the collar of his

coat, and the fresh blacking on a pair of boots with gaping soles, to which no language can do justice.

However, to give some notion of this medley of effect, it may be added that any man of intelligence would

have felt, only on seeing Contenson, that if instead of being a spy he had been a thief, all these odds and ends,

instead of raising a smile, would have made one shudder with horror. Judging only from his dress, the

observer would have said to himself, "That is a scoundrel; he gambles, he drinks, he is full of vices; but he

does not get drunk, he does not cheat, he is neither a thief nor a murderer." And Contenson remained

This man had followed as many unrecognized trades as there are recognized ones. The sly smile on his lips,

the twinkle of his green eyes, the queer twitch of his snub nose, showed that he was not deficient in humor.

He had a face of sheettin, and his soul must probably be like his face. Every movement of his countenance

was a grimace wrung from him by politeness rather than by any expression of an inmost impulse. He would

Contenson, one of the most curious products of the scum that rises to the top of the seething Paris caldron,

where everything ferments, prided himself on being, above all things, a philosopher. He would say, without

"I have great talents, but of what use are they? I might as well have been an idiot."

And he blamed himself instead of accusing mankind. Find, if you can, many spies who have not had more

"Circumstances are against me," he would say to his chiefs. "We might be fine crystal; we are but grains of

His indifference to dress had some sense. He cared no more about his everyday clothes than an actor does; he

excelled in disguising himself, in "makeup"; he could have given Frederic Lemaitre a lesson, for he could be

a dandy when necessary. Formerly, in his younger days, he must have mingled in the outatelbows society

of people living on a humble scale. He expressed excessive disgust for the criminal police corps; for, under

the Empire, he had belonged to Fouche's police, and looked upon him as a great man. Since the suppression

of this Government department, he had devoted his energies to the tracking of commercial defaulters; but his

wellknown talents and acumen made him a valuable auxiliary, and the unrecognized chiefs of the political

police had kept his name on their lists. Contenson, like his fellows, was only a super in the dramas of which

the leading parts were played by his chief when a political investigation was in the wind.

"Why should this man live in a mansion and I in a lodging?" wondered Contenson to himself. "He has

dodged his creditors three times; he has robbed them; I never stole a farthing; I am a cleverer fellow than he

"Contenson, mein freund," said the Baron, "you haf vat you call pleed me of one tousandfranc note."

"Vat, you haf a girl, a mistress!" cried Nucingen, looking at Contenson with admiration not unmixed with

"I am but sixtysix," replied Contenson, as a man whom vice has kept young as a bad example.

"She helps me," said Contenson. "When a man is a thief, and an honest woman loves him, either she becomes

"Always," said Contenson, with a smile. "It is part of my business to want money, as it is yours to make it;

we shall easily come to an understanding. You find me a little, and I will undertake to spend it. You shall be

"What a question! But what a fool I am!You do not offer it out of a disinterested desire to repair the slights

"Not at all. I gif it besides the one tousandfranc note vat you pleed me off. Dat makes fifteen hundert franc

"Very good, you give me the thousand francs I have had and you will add five hundred francs."

"I haf been told dat dere vas in Paris one man vat could find the voman vat I lof, and dat you know his

"Noting for noting! Le us see de man, and you get de money; you might sell to me many address at dat

"To be sure, you have a right to think that of me," said he, with an air of blaming himself. "The more rascally

our business is, the more honesty is necessary. But look here, Monsieur le Baron, make it six hundred, and I

"I will risk it," Contenson said, "but it is playing high. In such matters, you see, we have to work

underground. You say, 'Quick march!'You are rich; you think that money can do everything. Well, money

is something, no doubt. Still, money can only buy men, as the two or three best heads in our force so often

say. And there are many things you would never think of which money cannot buy.You cannot buy good

luck. So good police work is not done in this style. Will you show yourself in a carriage with me? We should

"Why, of course, sir. A horseshoe picked up in the street led the chief of the police to the discovery of the

infernal machine. Well, if we were to go tonight in a hackney coach to Monsieur de Saint Germain, he

would not like to see you walk in any more than you would like to be seen going there."

"Ah, he is the greatest of the great! such another as the famous Corentin, Fouche's right arm, who was, some

say, his natural son, born while he was still a priest; but that is nonsense. Fouche knew how to be a priest as

he knew how to be a Minister. Well, you will not get this man to do anything for you, you see, for less than

ten thousand franc notesthink of that.But he will do the job, and do it well. Neither seen nor heard, as

they say. I ought to give Monsieur de SaintGermanin notice, and he will fix a time for your meeting in some

place where no one can see or hear, for it is a dangerous game to play policeman for private interests. Still,

what is to be said? He is a good fellow, the king of good fellows, and a man who has undergone much

persecution, and for having saving his country too!like me, like all who helped to save it."

"Vell den, write and name de happy day," said the Baron, smiling at his humble jest.

"And Monsieur le Baron will allow me to drink his health?" said Contenson, with a manner at once cringing

"Shean," cried the Baron to the gardener, "go and tell Chorge to sent me one twenty francs, and pring dem to

"Still, Monsieur le Baron, if you have no more information than you have just given me, I doubt whether the

"I have the honor to bid you goodmorning, Monsieur le Baron," said Contenson, taking the twentyfranc

piece. "I shall have the honor of calling again to tell Georges where you are to go this evening, for we never

"It is funny how sharp dese rascals are!" said the Baron to himself; "it is de same mit de police as it is in

When he left the Baron, Contenson went quietly from the Rue Saint Lazare to the Rue SaintHonore, as far

as the Cafe David. He looked in through the windows, and saw an old man who was known there by the

The Cafe David, at the corner of the Rue de la Monnaie and the Rue SaintHonore, enjoyed a certain

celebrity during the first thirty years of the century, though its fame was limited to the quarter known as that

of the Bourdonnais. Here certain old retired merchants, and large shopkeepers still in trade, were wont to

meetthe Camusots, the Lebas, the Pilleraults, the Popinots, and a few houseowners like little old

Molineux. Now and again old Guillaume might be seen there, coming from the Rue du Colombier. Politics

were discussed in a quiet way, but cautiously, for the opinions of the Cafe David were liberal. The gossip of

the neighborhood was repeated, men so urgently feel the need of laughing at each other!

This cafe, like all cafes for that matter, had its eccentric character in the person of the said Pere Canquoelle,

who had been regular in his attendance there since 1811, and who seemed to be so completely in harmony

with the good folks who assembled there, that they all talked politics in his presence without reserve.

Sometimes this old fellow, whose guilelessness was the subject of much laughter to the customers, would

disappear for a month or two; but his absence never surprised anybody, and was always attributed to his

"What has become of old Canquoelle?" one or another would ask of the manageress at the desk.

"I quite expect that one fine day we shall read in the advertisement sheet that he is dead," she would reply.

Old Canquoelle bore a perpetual certificate of his native province in his accent. He spoke of une estatue (a

statue), le peuble (the people), and said ture for turc. His name was that of a tiny estate called les

Canquoelles, a word meaning cockchafer in some districts, situated in the department of Vaucluse, whence he

had come. At last every one had fallen into the habit of calling him Canquoelle, instead of des Canquoelles,

and the old man took no offence, for in his opinion the nobility had perished in 1793; and besides, the land of

Nowadays old Canquoelle's costume would look strange, but between 1811 and 1820 it astonished no one.

The old man wore shoes with cutsteel buckles, silk stockings with stripes round the leg, alternately blue and

white, corded silk kneebreeches with oval buckles cut to match those on his shoes. A white embroidered

waistcoat, an old coat of olivebrown with metal buttons, and a shirt with a flatpleated frill completed his

costume. In the middle of the shirtfrill twinkled a small gold locket, in which might be seen, under glass, a

little temple worked in hair, one of those pathetic trifles which give men confidence, just as a scarecrow

frightens sparrows. Most men, like other animals, are frightened or reassured by trifles. Old Canquoelle's

breeches were kept in place by a buckle which, in the fashion of the last century, tightened them across the

stomach; from the belt hung on each side a short steel chain, composed of several finer chains, and ending in

a bunch of seals. His white neckcloth was fastened behind by a small gold buckle. Finally, on his snowy and

powdered hair, he still, in 1816, wore the municipal cocked hat which Monsieur Try, the President of the Law

Courts, also used to wear. But Pere Canquoelle had recently substituted for this hat, so dear to old men, the

undignified tophat, which no one dares to rebel against. The good man thought he owed so much as this to

the spirit of the age. A small pigtail tied with a ribbon had traced a semicircle on the back of his coat, the

If you looked no further than the most conspicuous feature of his face, a nose covered with excrescences red

and swollen enough to figure in a dish of truffles, you might have inferred that the worthy man had an easy

temper, foolish and easygoing, that of a perfect gaby; and you would have been deceived, like all at the Cafe

David, where no one had ever remarked the studious brow, the sardonic mouth, and the cold eyes of this old

man, petted by his vices, and as calm as Vitellius, whose imperial and portly stomach reappeared in him

In 1816 a young commercial traveler named Gaudissart, who frequented the Cafe David, sat drinking from

eleven o'clock till midnight with a halfpay officer. He was so rash as to discuss a conspiracy against the

Bourbons, a rather serious plot then on the point of execution. There was no one to be seen in the cafe but

Pere Canquoelle, who seemed to be asleep, two waiters who were dozing, and the accountant at the desk.

Within fourandtwenty hours Gaudissart was arrested, the plot was discovered. Two men perished on the

scaffold. Neither Gaudissart nor any one else ever suspected that worthy old Canquoelle of having peached.

The waiters were dismissed; for a year they were all on their guard and afraid of the policeas Pere

Canquoelle was too; indeed, he talked of retiring from the Cafe David, such horror had he of the police.

Contenson went into the cafe, asked for a glass of brandy, and did not look at Canquoelle, who sat reading the

papers; but when he had gulped down the brandy, he took out the Baron's gold piece, and called the waiter by

rapping three short raps on the table. The lady at the desk and the waiter examined the coin with a minute

care that was not flattering to Contenson; but their suspicions were justified by the astonishment produced on

This was the idea that rose to some clear and shrewd minds as they looked at Contenson over their spectacles,

while affecting to read the news. Contenson, who saw everything and never was surprised at anything,

scornfully wiped his lips with a bandana, in which there were but three darns, took his change, slipped all the

coppers into his side pocket, of which the lining, once white, was now as black as the cloth of the trousers,

"Pshaw!" said Monsieur Camusot to all the company, for he alone had expressed no astonishment, "it is

Contenson, Louchard's righthand man, the police agent we employ in business. The rascals want to nab

It would seem necessary to explain here the terrible and profoundly cunning man who was hidden under the

Born at Canquoelles, the only possession of his family, which was highly respectable, this Southerner's name

was Peyrade. He belonged, in fact, to the younger branch of the Peyrade family, an old but impoverished

house of Franche Comte, still owning the little estate of la Peyrade. The seventh child of his father, he had

come on foot to Paris in 1772 at the age of seventeen, with two crowns of six francs in his pocket, prompted

by the vices of an ardent spirit and the coarse desire to "get on," which brings so many men to Paris from the

south as soon as they understand that their father's property can never supply them with means to gratify their

passions. It is enough to say of Peyrade's youth that in 1782 he was in the confidence of chiefs of the police

and the hero of the department, highly esteemed by MM. Lenoir and d'Albert, the last LieutenantGenerals of

The Revolution had no police; it needed none. Espionage, though common enough, was called public spirit.

The Directorate, a rather more regular government than that of the Committee of Public Safety, was obliged

to reorganize the Police, and the first Consul completed the work by instituting a Prefect of Police and a

Peyrade, a man knowing the traditions, collected the force with the assistance of a man named Corentin, a far

cleverer man than Peyrade, though younger; but he was a genius only in the subterranean ways of police

inquiries. In 1808 the great services Peyrade was able to achieve were rewarded by an appointment to the

eminent position of Chief Commissioner of Police at Antwerp. In Napoleon's mind this sort of Police

Governorship was equivalent to a Minister's post, with the duty of superintending Holland. At the end of the

campaign of 1809, Peyrade was removed from Antwerp by an order in Council from the Emperor, carried in

a chaise to Paris between two gendarmes, and imprisoned in la Force. Two months later he was let out on bail

furnished by his friend Corentin, after having been subjected to three examinations, each lasting six hours, in

Did Peyrade owe his overthrow to the miraculous energy he displayed in aiding Fouche in the defence of the

French coast when threatened by what was known at the time as the Walcheren expedition, when the Duke of

Otranto manifested such abilities as alarmed the Emperor? Fouche thought it probable even then; and now,

when everybody knows what went on in the Cabinet Council called together by Cambaceres, it is absolutely

certain. The Ministers, thunderstruck by the news of England's attempt, a retaliation on Napoleon for the

Boulogne expedition, and taken by surprise when the Master was entrenched in the island of Lobau, where all

Europe believed him to be lost, had not an idea which way to turn. The general opinion was in favor of

sending post haste to the Emperor; Fouche alone was bold enough to sketch a plan of campaign, which, in

"Do as you please," said Cambaceres; "but I, who prefer to keep my head on my shoulders, shall send a report

It is well known that the Emperor on his return found an absurd pretext, at a full meeting of the Council of

State, for discarding his Minister and punishing him for having saved France without the Sovereign's help.

From that time forth, Napoleon had doubled the hostility of Prince de Talleyrand and the Duke of Otranto,

the only two great politicians formed by the Revolution, who might perhaps have been able to save Napoleon

To get rid of Peyrade, he was simply accused of connivance in favoring smuggling and sharing certain profits

with the great merchants. Such an indignity was hard on a man who had earned the Marshal's baton of the

Police Department by the great services he had done. This man, who had grown old in active business, knew

all the secrets of every Government since 1775, when he had entered the service. The Emperor, who believed

himself powerful enough to create men for his own uses, paid no heed to the representations subsequently

laid before him in favor of a man who was reckoned as one of the most trustworthy, most capable, and most

acute of the unknown genii whose task it is to watch over the safety of a State. He thought he could put

Contenson in Peyrade's place; but Contenson was at that time employed by Corentin for his own benefit.

Peyrade felt the blow all the more keenly because, being greedy and a libertine, he had found himself, with

regard to women, in the position of a pastrycook who loves sweetmeats. His habits of vice had become to

him a second nature; he could not live without a good dinner, without gambling, in short, without the life of

an unpretentious fine gentleman, in which men of powerful faculties so generally indulge when they have

allowed excessive dissipation to become a necessity. Hitherto, he had lived in style without ever being

expected to entertain; and living well, for no one ever looked for a return from him, or from his friend

Corentin. He was cynically witty, and he liked his profession; he was a philosopher. And besides, a spy,

whatever grade he may hold in the machinery of the police, can no more return to a profession regarded as

honorable or liberal, than a prisoner from the hulks can. Once branded, once matriculated, spies and convicts,

like deacons, have assumed an indelible character. There are beings on whom social conditions impose an

Peyrade, for his further woe, was very fond of a pretty little girl whom he knew to be his own child by a

celebrated actress to whom he had done a signal service, and who, for three months, had been grateful to him.

Peyrade, who had sent for his child from Antwerp, now found himself without employment in Paris and with

no means beyond a pension of twelve hundred francs a year allowed him by the Police Department as

Lenoir's old disciple. He took lodgings in the Rue des Moineaux on the fourth floor, five little rooms, at a rent

If any man should be aware of the uses and sweets of friendship, is it not the moral leper known to the world

as a spy, to the mob as a mouchard, to the department as an "agent"? Peyrade and Corentin were such friends

as Orestes and Pylades. Peyrade had trained Corentin as Vien trained David; but the pupil soon surpassed his

master. They had carried out more than one undertaking together. Peyrade, happy at having discerned

Corentin's superior abilities, had started him in his career by preparing a success for him. He obliged his

disciple to make use of a mistress who had scorned him as a bait to catch a man (see The Chouans). And

Corentin, who had been retained as one of the generals of whom the Minister of Police is the High Constable,

still held under the Duc de Rovigo the high position he had filled under the Duke of Otranto. Now at that time

the general police and the criminal police were managed on similar principles. When any important business

was on hand, an account was opened, as it were, for the three, four, five, really capable agents. The Minister,

on being warned of some plot, by whatever means, would say to one of his colonels of the police force:

Then, as soon as the order was given to go ahead, all the means and the men were left to the judgment of

Corentin or the agent selected. And the criminal police used to act in the same way to discover crimes with

Both branches of the police chose their men chiefly from among the ranks of wellknown agents, who have

matriculated in the business, and are, as it were, as soldiers of the secret army, so indispensable to a

government, in spite of the public orations of philanthropists or narrowminded moralists. But the absolute

confidence placed in two men of the temper of Peyrade and Corentin conveyed to them the right of

employing perfect strangers, under the risk, moreover, of being responsible to the Minister in all serious

cases. Peyrade's experience and acumen were too valuable to Corentin, who, after the storm of 1820 had

blown over, employed his old friend, constantly consulted him, and contributed largely to his maintenance.

Peyrade, on his part, did Corentin good service. In 1816 Corentin, on the strength of the discovery of the

conspiracy in which the Bonapartist Gaudissart was implicated, tried to get Peyrade reinstated in his place in

the police office; but some unknown influence was working against Peyrade. This was the reason why.

In their anxiety to make themselves necessary, Peyrade, Corentin, and Contenson, at the Duke of Otranto's

instigation, had organized for the benefit of Louis XVIII. a sort of opposition police in which very capable

agents were employed. Louis XVIII. died possessed of secrets which will remain secrets from the best

informed historians. The struggle between the general police of the kingdom, and the King's opposition

police, led to many horrible disasters, of which a certain number of executions sealed the secrets. This is

neither the place nor the occasion for entering into details on this subject, for these "Scenes of Paris Life" are

not "Scenes of Political Life." Enough has been said to show what were the means of living of the man who

at the Cafe David was known as good old Canquoelle, and by what threads he was tied to the terrible and

Between 1817 and 1822, Corentin, Contenson, Peyrade, and their myrmidons, were often required to keep

watch over the Minister of Police himself. This perhaps explains why the Minister declined to employ

Peyrade and Contenson, on whom Corentin contrived to cast the Minister's suspicions, in order to be able to

make use of his friend when his reinstatement was evidently out of the question. The Ministry put their faith

in Corentin; they enjoined him to keep an eye on Peyrade, which amused Louis XVIII. Corentin and Peyrade

were then masters of the position. Contenson, long attached to Peyrade, was still at his service. He had joined

the force of the commercial police (the Gardes du Commerce) by his friend's orders. And, in fact, as a result

of the sort of zeal that is inspired by a profession we love, these two chiefs liked to place their best men in

And, indeed, Contenson's vices and dissipated habits, which had dragged him lower than his two friends,

Contenson, without committing any indiscretion, had told Louchard that he knew the only man who was

capable of doing what the Baron de Nucingen required. Peyrade was, in fact, the only policeagent who

could act on behalf of a private individual with impunity. At the death of Louis XVIII., Peyrade had not only

ceased to be of consequence, but had lost the profits of his position as spyin ordinary to His Majesty.

Believing himself to be indispensable, he had lived fast. Women, high feeding, and the club, the Cercle des

Etrangers, had prevented this man from saving, and, like all men cut out for debauchery, he enjoyed an iron

constitution. But between 1826 and 1829, when he was nearly seventyfour years of age, he had stuck

halfway, to use his own expression. Year by year he saw his comforts dwindling. He followed the police

department to its grave, and saw with regret that Charles X.'s government was departing from its good old

traditions. Every session saw the estimates pared down which were necessary to keep up the police, out of

hatred for that method of government and a firm determination to reform that institution.

"It is as if they thought they could cook in white gloves," said Peyrade to Corentin.

In 1822 this couple foresaw 1830. They knew how bitterly Louis XVIII. hated his successor, which accounts

for his recklessness with regard to the younger branch, and without which his reign would be an

As Peyrade grew older, his love for his natural daughter had increased. For her sake he had adopted his

citizen guise, for he intended that his Lydie should marry respectably. So for the last three years he had been

especially anxious to find a corner, either at the Prefecture of Police, or in the general Police Officesome

ostensible and recognized post. He had ended by inventing a place, of which the necessity, as he told

Corentin, would sooner or later be felt. He was anxious to create an inquiry office at the Prefecture of Police,

to be intermediate between the Paris police in the strictest sense, the criminal police, and the superior general

police, so as to enable the supreme board to profit by the various scattered forces. No one but Peyrade, at his

age, and after fiftyfive years of confidential work, could be the connecting link between the three branches

of the police, or the keeper of the records to whom political and judicial authority alike could apply for the

elucidation of certain cases. By this means Peyrade hoped, with Corentin's assistance, to find a husband and

scrape together a portion for his little Lydie. Corentin had already mentioned the matter to the

DirectorGeneral of the police forces of the realm, without naming Peyrade; and the DirectorGeneral, a

man from the south, thought it necessary that the suggestion should come from the chief of the city police.

At the moment when Contenson struck three raps on the table with the gold piece, a signal conveying, "I

want to speak to you," the senior was reflecting on this problem: "By whom, and under what pressure can the

Prefet of Police be made to move?"And he looked like a noodle studying his Courrier Francais.

"Poor Fouche!" thought he to himself, as he made his way along the Rue SaintHonore, "that great man is

dead! our gobetweens with Louis XVIII. are out of favor. And besides, as Corentin said only yesterday,

nobody believes in the activity or the intelligence of a man of seventy. Oh, why did I get into a habit of

dining at Very's, of drinking choice wines, of singing La Mere Godichon, of gambling when I am in funds?

To get a place and keep it, as Corentin says, it is not enough to be clever, you must have the gift of

management. Poor dear M. Lenoir was right when he wrote to me in the matter of the Queen's necklace, 'You

will never do any good,' when he heard that I did not stay under that slut Oliva's bed."

If the venerable Pere Canquoellehe was called so in the houselived on in the Rue des Moineaux, on a

fourth floor, you may depend on it he had found some peculiarity in the arrangement of the premises which

The house, standing at the corner of the Rue SaintRoch, had no neighbors on one side; and as the staircase

up the middle divided it into two, there were on each floor two perfectly isolated rooms. Those two rooms

looked out on the Rue SaintRoch. There were garret rooms above the fourth floor, one of them a kitchen,

and the other a bedroom for Pere Canquoelle's only servant, a Fleming named Katt, formerly Lydie's

wetnurse. Old Canquoelle had taken one of the outside rooms for his bedroom, and the other for his study.

The study ended at the partywall, a very thick one. The window opening on the Rue des Moineaux looked

on a blank wall at the opposite corner. As this study was divided from the stairs by the whole width of

Peyrade's bedroom, the friends feared no eye, no ear, as they talked business in this study made on purpose

Peyrade, as a further precaution, had furnished Katt's room with a thick straw bed, a felt carpet, and a very

heavy rug, under the pretext of making his child's nurse comfortable. He had also stopped up the chimney,

warming his room by a stove, with a pipe through the wall to the Rue SaintRoch. Finally, he laid several

rugs on his floor to prevent the slightest sound being heard by the neighbors beneath. An expert himself in the

tricks of spies, he sounded the outer wall, the ceiling, and the floor once a week, examining them as if he

were in search of noxious insects. It was the security of this room from all witnesses or listeners that had

made Corentin select it as his councilchamber when he did not hold a meeting in his own room.

Where Corentin lived was known to no one but the Chief of the Superior Police and to Peyrade; he received

there such personages as the Ministry or the King selected to conduct very serious cases; but no agent or

subordinate ever went there, and he plotted everything connected with their business at Peyrade's. In this

unpretentious room schemes were matured, and resolutions passed, which would have furnished strange

records and curious dramas if only walls could talk. Between 1816 and 1826 the highest interests were

discussed there. There first germinated the events which grew to weigh on France. There Peyrade and

Corentin, with all the foresight, and more than all the information of Bellart, the AttorneyGeneral, had said

even in 1819: "If Louis XVIII. does not consent to strike such or such a blow, to make away with such or

such a prince, is it because he hates his brother? He must wish to leave him heir to a revolution."

Peyrade's door was graced with a slate, on which very strange marks might sometimes be seen, figures

scrawled in chalk. This sort of devil's algebra bore the clearest meaning to the initiated.

Lydie's rooms, opposite to Peyrade's shabby lodging, consisted of an anteroom, a little drawingroom, a

bedroom, and a small dressing room. The door, like that of Peyrade's room, was constructed of a plate of

sheetiron three lines thick, sandwiched between two strong oak planks, fitted with locks and elaborate

hinges, making it as impossible to force it as if it were a prison door. Thus, though the house had a public

passage through it, with a shop below and no doorkeeper, Lydie lived there without a fear. The diningroom,

the little drawingroom, and her bedroomevery windowbalcony a hanging gardenwere luxurious in

The Flemish nurse had never left Lydie, whom she called her daughter. The two went to church with a

regularity that gave the royalist grocer, who lived below, in the corner shop, an excellent opinion of the

worthy Canquoelle. The grocer's family, kitchen, and counter jumpers occupied the first floor and the

entresol; the landlord inhabited the second floor; and the third had been let for twenty years past to a lapidary.

Each resident had a key of the street door. The grocer's wife was all the more willing to receive letters and

parcels addressed to these three quiet households, because the grocer's shop had a letterbox.

Without these details, strangers, or even those who know Paris well, could not have understood the privacy

and quietude, the isolation and safety which made this house exceptional in Paris. After midnight, Pere

Canquoelle could hatch plots, receive spies or ministers, wives or hussies, without any one on earth knowing

Peyrade, of whom the Flemish woman would say to the grocer's cook, "He would not hurt a fly!" was

regarded as the best of men. He grudged his daughter nothing. Lydie, who had been taught music by

Schmucke, was herself a musician capable of composing; she could wash in a sepia drawing, and paint in

gouache and watercolor. Every Sunday Peyrade dined at home with her. On that day this worthy was wholly

Lydie, religious but not a bigot, took the Sacrament at Easter, and confessed every month. Still, she allowed

herself from time to time to be treated to the play. She walked in the Tuileries when it was fine. These were

all her pleasures, for she led a sedentary life. Lydie, who worshiped her father, knew absolutely nothing of his

sinister gifts and dark employments. Not a wish had ever disturbed this pure child's pure life. Slight and

handsome like her mother, gifted with an exquisite voice, and a delicate face framed in fine fair hair, she

looked like one of those angels, mystical rather than real, which some of the early painters grouped in the

background of the Holy Family. The glance of her blue eyes seemed to bring a beam from the sky on those

she favored with a look. Her dress, quite simple, with no exaggeration of fashion, had a delightful

middleclass modesty. Picture to yourself an old Satan as the father of an angel, and purified in her divine

presence, and you will have an idea of Peyrade and his daughter. If anybody had soiled this jewel, her father

would have invented, to swallow him alive, one of those dreadful plots in which, under the Restoration, the

unhappy wretches were trapped who were designate to die on the scaffold. A thousand crowns were ample

As Peyrade turned into the Rue des Moineaux, he saw Contenson; he outstripped him, went upstairs before

him, heard the man's steps on the stairs, and admitted him before the woman had put her nose out of the

kitchen door. A bell rung by the opening of a glass door, on the third story where the lapidary lived warned

the residents on that and the fourth floors when a visitor was coming to them. It need hardly be said that, after

Philosopher was the nickname bestowed on Contenson by Peyrade, and well merited by the Epictetus among

police agents. The name of Contenson, alas! hid one of the most ancient names of feudal Normandy.

"No, a piece of idiocy. Baron de Nucingen, you know, the old certified swindler, is neighing after a woman

he saw in the Bois de Vincennes, and she has got to be found, or he will die of love.They had a

consultation of doctors yesterday, by what his man tells me.I have already eased him of a thousand francs

And Contenson related Nucingen's meeting with Esther, adding that the Baron had now some further

"All right," said Peyrade, "we will find his Dulcinea; tell the Baron to come tonight in a carriage to the

Peyrade saw Contenson out, and knocked at his daughter's rooms, as he always knocked to be let in. He was

full of glee; chance had just offered the means, at last, of getting the place he longed for.

He flung himself into a deep armchair, after kissing Lydie on the forehead, and said:

"That is very well played, my pet," said he, taking Lydie on his knees. "Do you know that we are

oneandtwenty years old? We must get married soon, for our old daddy is more than seventy"

"I am dining at home, my darling; go and tell Katt. I am thinking of settling, of getting an appointment, and

finding a husband worthy of you; some good young man, very clever, whom you may some day be proud

"Yes, in the Tuileries," replied Lydie. "He walked past me; he was giving his arm to the Comtesse de Serizy."

"Lucien de Rubempre.I was sitting with Katt under a limetree, thinking of nothing. There were two ladies

sitting by me, and one said to the other, 'There are Madame de Serizy and that handsome Lucien de

Rubempre.'I looked at the couple that the two ladies were watching. 'Oh, my dear!' said the other, 'some

women are very lucky! That woman is allowed to do everything she pleases just because she was a de

Ronquerolles, and her husband is in power.''But, my dear,' said the other lady, 'Lucien costs her very

"Just nonsense, such as people of fashion will talk," replied Peyrade, with an air of perfect candor. "Perhaps

"Well, in short, you asked me a question, so I answer you. If you want me to marry, find me a husband just

"Silly child!" replied her father. "The fact that a man is handsome is not always a sign of goodness. Young

men gifted with an attractive appearance meet with no obstacles at the beginning of life, so they make no use

of any talent; they are corrupted by the advances made to them by society, and they have to pay interest later

for their attractiveness!What I should like for you is what the middle classes, the rich, and the fools leave

"An unrecognized man of talent. But, there, child; I have it in my power to hunt through every garret in Paris,

and carry out your programme by offering for your affection a man as handsome as the young scamp you

speak of; but a man of promise, with a future before him destined to glory and fortune.By the way, I was

forgetting. I must have a whole flock of nephews, and among them there must be one worthy of you!I will

A strange coincidence! At this moment a young man, halfdead of hunger and fatigue, who had come on foot

from the department of Vauclusea nephew of Pere Canquoelle's in search of his uncle, was entering Paris

through the Barriere de l'Italie. In the daydreams of the family, ignorant of this uncle's fate, Peyrade had

supplied the text for many hopes; he was supposed to have returned from India with millions! Stimulated by

these fireside romances, this grandnephew, named Theodore, had started on a voyage round the world in

After enjoying for some hours the joys of paternity, Peyrade, his hair washed and dyedfor his powder was

a disguisedressed in a stout, coarse, blue frockcoat buttoned up to the chin, and a black cloak, shod in

strong, thicksoled boots, furnished himself with a private card and walked slowly along the Avenue Gabriel,

where Contenson, dressed as an old costermonger woman, met him in front of the gardens of the

"Monsieur de SaintGermain," said Contenson, giving his old chief the name he was officially known by,

"you have put me in the way of making five hundred pieces (francs); but what I came here for was to tell you

that that damned Baron, before he gave me the shiners, had been to ask questions at the house (the Prefecture

"I shall want you, no doubt," replied Peyrade. "Look up numbers 7, 10, and 21; we can employ those men

without any one finding it out, either at the Police Ministry or at the Prefecture."

Contenson went back to a post near the carriage in which Monsieur de Nucingen was waiting for Peyrade.

"I am Monsieur de SaintGermain," said Peyrade to the Baron, raising himself to look over the carriage door.

"Ver' goot; get in mit me," replied the Baron, ordering the coachman to go on slowly to the Arc de l'Etoile.

"You have been to the Prefecture of Police, Monsieur le Baron? That was not fair. Might I ask what you said

"Before I should gif fife hundert francs to a filain like Contenson, I vant to know if he had earned dem. I

simply said to the Prefet of Police dat I vant to employ ein agent named Peyrate to go abroat in a delicate

matter, an' should I trust himunlimited!The Prefet telt me you vas a very clefer man an' ver' honest man.

"And now that you have learned my true name, Monsieur le Baron, will you tell me what it is you want?"

When the Baron had given a long and copious explanation, in his hideous PolishJew dialect, of his meeting

with Esther and the cry of the man behind the carriage, and his vain efforts, he ended by relating what had

occurred at his house the night before, Lucien's involuntary smile, and the opinion expressed by Bianchon

and some other young dandies that there must be some acquaintance between him and the unknown fair.

"Listen to me, Monsieur le Baron; you must, in the first instance, place ten thousand francs in my hands, on

account for expenses; for, to you, this is a matter of life or death; and as your life is a businessmanufactory,

"If more money is wanted, Baron, I will let you know; put your trust in me," said Peyrade. "I am not a spy, as

you perhaps imagine. In 1807 I was CommissionerGeneral of Police at Antwerp; and now that Louis XVIII.

is dead, I may tell you in confidence that for seven years I was the chief of his counterpolice. So there is no

beating me down. You must understand, Monsieur le Baron, that it is impossible to make any estimate of the

cost of each man's conscience before going into the details of such an affair. Be quite easy; I shall succeed.

Do not fancy that you can satisfy me with a sum of money; I want something for my reward"

"Francois Keller is the Comte de Gondreville's soninlaw, and the Comte de Gondreville and his

"Who der teufel tolt you dat?" cried the Baron. "Dat vill be Georche; he is always a gossip." Peyrade smiled,

"The Comte de Gondreville is quite in a position to obtain me a place I covet at the Prefecture of Police;

within fortyeight hours the prefet will have notice that such a place is to be created," said Peyrade in

continuation. "Ask for it for me; get the Comte de Gondreville to interest himself in the matter with some

degree of warmthand you will thus repay me for the service I am about to do you. I ask your word only;

for, if you fail me, sooner or later you will curse the day you were bornyou have Peyrade's word for that."

"Franklythat is all I ask," said Peyrade, "and frankness is the only thing at all new that you and I can offer

"To the Pont de la Chambre," said the Baron to the footman at the carriage door.

"Then I am to get dat unknown person," said the Baron to himself as he drove home.

"What a queer business!" thought Peyrade, going back on foot to the PalaisRoyal, where he intended trying

to multiply his ten thousand francs by three, to make a little fortune for Lydie. "Here I am required to look

into the private concerns of a very young man who has bewitched my little girl by a glance. He is, I suppose,

one of those men who have an eye for a woman," said he to himself, using an expression of a language of his

own, in which his observations, or Corentin's, were summed up in words that were anything rather than

The Baron de Nucingen, when he went in, was an altered man; he astonished his household and his wife by

"Our shareholders had better look out for themselves," said du Tillet to Rastignac.

They were all at tea, in Delphine de Nucingen's boudoir, having come in from the opera.

"Do men ever love their wives so?" cried Madame de Nucingen, feeling, or affecting to feel, a little jealous.

"When you have got her, you must ask us to sup with her," said du Tillet to the Baron, "for I am very curious

"Now is your time to make him pay your fresh debts," said Rastignac in the Baroness' ear.

At this very moment Carlos was leaving the Rue Taitbout full of hope; he had been there to give some last

advice to Europe, who was to play the principal part in the farce devised to take in the Baron de Nucingen.

He was accompanied as far as the Boulevard by Lucien, who was not at all easy at finding this demon so

"Where the devil did you find a handsomer woman than Esther?" he asked his evil genius.

"My boy, there is no such thing to be found in Paris. Such a complexion is not made in France."

"I assure you, I am still quite amazed. Venus Callipyge has not such a figure. A man would lose his soul for

"She was the handsomest girl in London. Drunk with gin, she killed her lover in a fit of jealousy. The lover

was a wretch of whom the London police are well quit, and this woman was packed off to Paris for a time to

let the matter blow over. The hussy was well brought upthe daughter of a clergyman. She speaks French as

if it were her mother tongue. She does not know, and never will know, why she is here. She was told that if

you took a fancy to her she might fleece you of millions, but that you were as jealous as a tiger, and she was

"Ah, it is out at last!" cried Carlos. "You dread now lest what dismayed you yesterday should not take place

after all! Be quite easy. That fair and fairhaired girl has blue eyes; she is the antipodes of the beautiful

Jewess, and only such eyes as Esther's could ever stir a man so rotten as Nucingen. What the devil! you could

not hide an ugly woman. When this puppet has played her part, I will send her off in safe custody to Rome or

"Go, my boy, amuse yourself. You will be a day older tomorrow. For my part, I must wait for some one

"His valet's mistress; for, after all, we must keep ourselves informed at every moment of what is going on in

At midnight, Paccard, Esther's tall chasseur, met Carlos on the Pont des Arts, the most favorable spot in all

Paris for saying a few words which no one must overhear. All the time they talked the servant kept an eye on

"The Baron went to the Prefecture of Police this morning between four and five," said the man, "and he

boasted this evening that he should find the woman he saw in the Bois de Vincenneshe had been promised

"That would be child's play," replied Carlos. "We need fear nothing but the guardians of public safety, the

"Our chums of the hulks.I saw Lapouraille yesterday He has choked off a married couple, and has

"What is the order of the day?" said Paccard, with the respectful demeanor a marshal must have assumed

"You must get out every evening at ten o'clock," replied Herrera. "Make your way pretty briskly to the Bois

de Vincennes, the Bois de Meudon, and de Villed'Avray. If any one should follow you, let them do it; be

free of speech, chatty, open to a bribe. Talk about Rubempre's jealousy and his mad passion for madame,

saying that he would not on any account have it known that he had a mistress of that kind."

"Never!" exclaimed Carlos vehemently. "A weapon? Of what use would that be? To get us into a scrape. Do

not under any circumstances use your huntingknife. When you know that you can break the strongest man's

legs by the trick I showed youwhen you can hold your own against three armed warders, feeling quite sure

that you can account for two of them before they have got out flint and steel, what is there to be afraid of?

Paccard, nicknamed The Old Guard, Old WideAwake, or The Right Mana man with legs of iron, arms of

steel, Italian whiskers, hair like an artist's, a beard like a sapper's, and a face as colorless and immovable as

Contenson's, kept his spirit to himself, and rejoiced in a sort of drummajor appearance which disarmed

suspicion. A fugitive from Poissy or Melun has no such serious selfconsciousness and belief in his own

merit. As Giafar to the Haroun el Rasheed of the hulks, he served him with the friendly admiration which

This huge fellow, with a small body in proportion to his legs, flat chested, and lean of limb, stalked

solemnly about on his two long pins. Whenever his right leg moved, his right eye took in everything around

him with the placid swiftness peculiar to thieves and spies. The left eye followed the right eye's example.

Wiry, nimble, ready for anything at any time, but for a weakness of Dutch courage Paccard would have been

perfect, Jacques Collin used to say, so completely was he endowed with the talents indispensable to a man at

war with society; but the master had succeeded in persuading his slave to drink only in the evening. On going

home at night, Paccard tippled the liquid gold poured into small glasses out of a potbellied stone jar from

"We will make them open their eyes," said Paccard, putting on his grand hat and feathers after bowing to

These were the events which had led three men, so clever, each in his way, as Jacques Collin, Peyrade, and

Corentin, to a handtohand fight on the same ground, each exerting his talents in a struggle for his own

passions or interests. It was one of those obscure but terrible conflicts on which are expended in marches and

countermarches, in strategy, skill, hatred, and vexation, the powers that might make a fine fortune. Men and

means were kept absolutely secret by Peyarde, seconded in this business by his friend Corentina business

they thought but a trifle. And so, as to them, history is silent, as it is on the true causes of many revolutions.

Five days after Monsieur de Nucingen's interview with Peyrade in the Champs Elysees, a man of about fifty

called in the morning, stepping out of a handsome cab, and flinging the reins to his servant. He had the

deadwhite complexion which a life in the "world" gives to diplomates, was dressed in blue cloth, and had a

He inquired of the servant who sat on a bench on the steps whether the Baron de Nucingen were at home; and

"Tell the Baron that I have come from the Avenue Gabriel," said Corentin. "If anybody is with him, be sure

A minute later the man came back and led Corentin by the back passages to the Baron's private room.

Corentin and the banker exchanged impenetrable glances, and both bowed politely.

"Monsieur de Rubempre's mistress lives in the Rue Taitbout, in the apartment formerly occupied by

"I can quite understand your being crazy about that splendid creature; it was a pleasure to me to look at her,"

replied Corentin. "Lucien is so jealous of the girl that he never allows her to be seen; and she loves him

devotedly; for in four years, since she succeeded la Bellefeuille in those rooms, inheriting her furniture and

her profession, neither the neighbors, nor the porter, nor the other tenants in the house have ever set eyes on

her. My lady never stirs out but at night. When she sets out, the blinds of the carriage are pulled down, and

"Lucien has other reasons besides jealousy for concealing this woman. He is to be married to Clotilde de

Grandlieu, and he is at this moment Madame de Serizy's favorite fancy. He naturally wishes to keep a hold on

his fashionable mistress and on his promised bride. So, you are master of the position, for Lucien will

sacrifice his pleasure to his interests and his vanity. You are rich; this is probably your last chance of

happiness; be liberal. You can gain your end through her waitingmaid. Give the slut ten thousand francs;

she will hide you in her mistress' bedroom. It must be quite worth that to you."

No figure of speech could describe the short, precise tone of finality in which Corentin spoke; the Baron

could not fail to observe it, and his face expressed his astonishmentan expression he had long expunged

"I have also to ask you for five thousand francs for my friend Peyrade, who has dropped five of your

thousandfranc notesa tiresome accident," Corentin went on, in a lordly tone of command. "Peyrade

knows his Paris too well to spend money in advertising, and he trusts entirely to you. But this is not the most

important point," added Corentin, checking himself in such a way as to make the request for money seem

quite a trifle. "If you do not want to end your days miserably, get the place for Peyrade that he asked you to

procure for himand it is a thing you can easily do. The Chief of the General Police must have had notice of

the matter yesterday. All that is needed is to get Gondreville to speak to the Prefet of Police.Very well, just

say to Malin, Comte de Gondreville, that it is to oblige one of the men who relieved him of MM. de Simeuse,

"Here den, mensieur," said the Baron, taking out five thousandfranc notes and handing them to Corentin.

"The waitingmaid is great friends with a tall chasseur named Paccard, living in the Rue de Provence, over a

carriagebuilder's; he goes out as heyduque to persons who give themselves princely airs. You can get at

Madame van Bogseck's woman through Paccard, a brawny Piemontese, who has a liking for vermouth."

This information, gracefully thrown in as a postscript, was evidently the return for the five thousand francs.

The Baron was trying to guess Corentin's place in life, for he quite understood that the man was rather a

master of spies than a spy himself; but Corentin remained to him as mysterious as an inscription is to an

The Baron, in a transport of joy, left his business for the day, shut up his office, and went up to his rooms in

the happy frame of mind of a young man of twenty looking forward to his first meeting with his first

The Baron took all the thousandfranc notes out of his private cash boxa sum sufficient to make the

whole village happy, fiftyfive thousand francsand stuffed them into the pocket of his coat. But a

millionaire's lavishness can only be compared with his eagerness for gain. As soon as a whim or a passion is

to be gratified, money is dross to a Croesus; in fact, he finds it harder to have whims than gold. A keen

pleasure is the rarest thing in these satiated lives, full of the excitement that comes of great strokes of

For instance, one of the richest capitalists in Paris one day met an extremely pretty little workinggirl. Her

mother was with her, but the girl had taken the arm of a young fellow in very doubtful finery, with a very

smart swagger. The millionaire fell in love with the girl at first sight; he followed her home, he went in; he

heard all her story, a record of alternations of dancing at Mabille and days of starvation, of playgoing and

hard work; he took an interest in it, and left five thousandfranc notes under a fivefranc piecean act of

generosity abused. Next day a famous upholsterer, Braschon, came to take the damsel's orders, furnished

rooms that she had chosen, and laid out twenty thousand francs. She gave herself up to the wildest hopes,

dressed her mother to match, and flattered herself she would find a place for her exlover in an insurance

office. She waiteda day, two daysthen a week, two weeks. She thought herself bound to be faithful; she

got into debt. The capitalist, called away to Holland, had forgotten the girl; he never went once to the

Paradise where he had placed her, and from which she fell as low as it is possible to fall even in Paris.

Nucingen did not gamble, Nucingen did not patronize the Arts, Nucingen had no hobby; thus he flung

himself into his passion for Esther with a headlong blindness, on which Carlos Herrera had confidently

After his breakfast, the Baron sent for Georges, his bodyservant, and desired him to go to the Rue Taitbout

and ask Mademoiselle Eugenie, Madame van Bogseck's maid, to come to his office on a matter of

"You shall look out for her," he added, "an' make her valk up to my room, and tell her I shall make her

"Madame never lets me go out," said she; "I might lose my place," and so forth; and Georges sang her praises

"If madame goes out without her this evening," said Georges to his master, whose eyes glowed like

"Goot. You shall come to dress me at nine o'clockand do my hair. I shall look so goot as possible. I belief I

The Baron spent an hour, from noon till one, in dyeing his hair and whiskers. At nine in the evening, having

taken a bath before dinner, he made a toilet worthy of a bridegroom and scented himselfa perfect Adonis.

Madame de Nucingen, informed of this metamorphosis, gave herself the treat of inspecting her husband.

"Good heavens!" cried she, "what a ridiculous figure! Do, at least, put on a black satin stock instead of that

white neckcloth which makes your whiskers look so black; besides, it is so 'Empire,' quite the old fogy. You

look like some superannuated parliamentary counsel. And take off these diamond buttons; they are worth a

hundred thousand francs apiecethat slut will ask you for them, and you will not be able to refuse her; and if

The unhappy banker, struck by the wisdom of his wife's reflections, obeyed reluctantly.

"Ridikilous, ridikilous! I hafe never telt you dat you shall be ridikilous when you dressed yourself so smart to

"I should hope that you never saw me make myself ridiculous. Am I the woman to make such blunders in the

first syllable of my dress? Come, turn about. Button your coat up to the neck, all but the two top buttons, as

"Adie, motame," said the banker, and he escorted his wife as far as her own rooms, to make sure that she

On his return, he took Europe by the hand and led her into his room with a sort of ironical respect.

"Vell, my chilt, you are a happy creature, for you are de maid of dat most beautiful voman in de vorlt. And

your fortune shall be made if you vill talk to her for me and in mine interests."

"I would not do such a thing for ten thousand francs!" exclaimed Europe. "I would have you to know,

"Oh yes. I expect to pay dear for your honesty. In business dat is vat ve call curiosity."

"And that is not everything," Europe went on. "If you should not take madame's fancyand that is on the

cardsshe would be angry, and I am done for!and my place is worth a thousand francs a year."

"De capital to make ein tousant franc is twenty tousand franc; and if I shall gif you dat, you shall not lose

"Well, to be sure, if that is the tone you take about it, my worthy old fellow," said Europe, "that is quite

He noted the flash struck by each in turn from Europe's eyes, betraying the greed he had counted on.

"That pays for my place, but how about my principles, my conscience?" said Europe, cocking her crafty little

"Your conscience shall not be pait for so much as your place; but I shall say fife tousand franc more," said he

"No, no. Twenty thousand for my conscience, and five thousand for my place if I lose it"

"Yust vat you please," said he, adding the five notes. "But to earn dem you shall hite me in your lady's room

"If you swear never to tell who let you in, I agree. But I warn you of one thing.Madame is as strong as a

Turk, she is madly in love with Monsieur de Rubempre, and if you paid a million francs in banknotes she

would never be unfaithful to him. It is very silly, but that is her way when she is in love; she is worse than an

honest woman, I tell you! When she goes out for a drive in the woods at night, monsieur very seldom stays at

home. She is gone out this evening, so I can hide you in my room. If madame comes in alone, I will fetch

you; you can wait in the drawingroom. I will not lock the door into her room, and thenwell, the rest is

"I shall pay you the twentyfife tousand francs in dat drawingroom. You gifeI gife!"

"Well, then, be in the Rue Taitbout at midnight; but bring thirty thousand francs about you. A

So at one in the morning the Baron de Nucingen, hidden in the garret where Europe slept, was suffering all

the anxieties of a man who hopes to triumph. His blood seemed to him to be tingling in his toenails, and his

"I had more dan one hundert tousand crowns' vort of enjoymentin my mind," he said to du Tillet when

He listened to every little noise in the street, and at two in the morning he heard his mistress' carriage far

away on the boulevard. His heart beat vehemently under his silk waistcoat as the gate turned on its hinges. He

was about to behold the heavenly, the glowing face of his Esther!the clatter of the carriagestep and the

slam of the door struck upon his heart. He was more agitated in expectation of this supreme moment than he

"Ah, ha!" cried he, "dis is vat I call to lifit is too much to lif; I shall be incapable of everything."

"Madame is alone; come down," said Europe, looking in. "Above all, make no noise, great elephant."

"Great Elephant!" he repeated, laughing, and walking as if he trod on redhot iron.

"Herecount dem!" said the Baron when he reached the drawingroom, holding out the notes to Europe.

Europe took the thirty notes very gravely and left the room, locking the banker in.

Nucingen went straight to the bedroom, where he found the handsome Englishwoman.

He stood speechless on seeing a woman the very antipodes to Esther; fair hair where he had seen black,

slenderness where he had admired a powerful frame! A soft English evening where he had looked for the

"Heyday! were have you come from?who are you?what do you want?" cried the Englishwoman, pulling

"The bells dey are in cottonvool, but hafe not any fearI shall go 'vay," said he. "Dat is dirty tousant franc

"Rather, my son," said the lady, who spoke French well, "But vat vas you?" she went on, mimicking

"Permit me to sent you tomorrow some chewels as a soufenir of de Baron von Nucingen."

"Don't know him!" said she, laughing like a crazy creature. "But the chewels will be welcome, my fat burglar

"You shall know him. Goot night, motame. You are a tidbit for ein king; but I am only a poor banker more

dan sixty year olt, and you hafe made me feel vat power the voman I lofe hafe ofer me since your difine

"Oh!" shrieked Europe, "a man in madame's room, and he is not monsieur how shocking!"

And Europe set to screaming "Thief" so determinedly, that the banker made for the door in a fright, and

"Old wretch!" cried she, "you would tell tales to my mistress! Thief! thief! stop thief!"

The enamored Baron, in despair, succeeded in getting unhurt to his carriage, which he had left on the

"And pray, madame, did you think to get my earnings out of me?" said Europe, coming back like a fury to the

"But one word from me tomorrow to monsieur, and you, madame, would find yourself in the streets,"

"Dat dam' maid!" said the Baron to Georges, who naturally asked his master if all had gone well, "hafe do me

"And so monsieur's dress was all wasted. The deuce is in it, I should advise you, Monsieur le Baron, not to

"Georches, I shall be dying of despair. I hafe coldI hafe ice on mein heartno more of Esther, my good

Two days after this scene, which Europe related far more amusingly than it can be written, because she told it

"My dear boy, neither the police nor anybody else must be allowed to poke a nose into our concerns," said

Herrera in a low voice, as he lighted his cigar from Lucien's. "It would not agree with us. I have hit on a plan,

daring but effectual, to keep our Baron and his agents quiet. You must go to see Madame de Serizy, and make

yourself very agreeable to her. Tell her, in the course of conversation, that to oblige Rastignac, who has long

been sick of Madame de Nucingen, you have consented to play fence for him to conceal a mistress. Monsieur

de Nucingen, desperately in love with this woman Rastignac keeps hiddenthat will make her laughhas

taken it into his head to set the police to keep an eye on youon you, who are innocent of all his tricks, and

whose interest with the Grandlieus may be seriously compromised. Then you must beg the Countess to

secure her husband's support, for he is a Minister of State, to carry you to the Prefecture of Police.

"When you have got there, face to face with the Prefet, make your complaint, but as a man of political

consequence, who will sooner or later be one of the motor powers of the huge machine of government. You

will speak of the police as a statesman should, admiring everything, the Prefet included. The very best

machines make oil stains or splutter. Do not be angry till the right moment. You have no sort of grudge

against Monsieur le Prefet, but persuade him to keep a sharp lookout on his people, and pity him for having

to blow them up. The quieter and more gentlemanly you are, the more terrible will the Prefet be to his men.

Then we shall be left in peace, and we may send for Esther back, for she must be belling like the does in the

The Prefet at that time was a retired magistrate. Retired magistrates make far too young Prefets. Partisans of

the right, riding the high horse on points of law, they are not lighthanded in arbitary action such as critical

circumstances often require; cases in which the Prefet should be as prompt as a fireman called to a

conflagration. So, face to face with the VicePresident of the Council of State, the Prefet confessed to more

faults than the police really has, deplored its abuses, and presently was able to recollect the visit paid to him

by the Baron de Nucingen and his inquiries as to Peyrade. The Prefet, while promising to check the rash zeal

of his agents, thanked Lucien for having come straight to him, promised secrecy, and affected to understand

A few fine speeches about personal liberty and the sacredness of home life were bandied between the Prefet

and the Minister; Monsieur de Serizy observing in conclusion that though the high interests of the kingdom

sometimes necessitated illegal action in secret, crime began when these State measures were applied to

Next day, just as Peyrade was going to his beloved Cafe David, where he enjoyed watching the bourgeois eat,

as an artist watches flowers open, a gendarme in private clothes spoke to him in the street.

"I was going to fetch you," said he in his ear. "I have orders to take you to the Prefecture."

Peyrade called a hackney cab, and got in without saying a single word, followed by the gendarme.

The Prefet treated Peyrade as though he were the lowest warder on the hulks, walking to and fro in a side

path of the garden of the Prefecture, which at that time was on the Quai des Orfevres.

"It is not without good reason, monsieur, that since 1830 you have been kept out of office. Do not you know

The lecture ended in a thunderstroke. The Prefet sternly informed poor Peyrade that not only would his yearly

allowance be cut off, but that he himself would be narrowly watched. The old man took the shock with an air

of perfect calm. Nothing can be more rigidly expressionless than a man struck by lightning. Peyrade had lost

all his stake in the game. He had counted on getting an appointment, and he found himself bereft of

"I have been the Prefet of Police myself; I think you perfectly right," said the old man quietly to the

functionary who stood before him in his judicial majesty, and who answered with a significant shrug.

"But allow me, without any attempt to justify myself, to point out that you do not know me at all," Peyrade

went on, with a keen glance at the Prefet. "Your language is either too severe to a man who has been the head

of the police in Holland, or not severe enough for a mere spy. But, Monsieur le Prefet," Peyrade added after a

pause, while the other kept silence, "bear in mind what I now have the honor to telling you: I have no

intention of interfering with your police nor of attempting to justify myself, but you will presently discover

that there is some one in this business who is being deceived; at this moment it is your humble servant; by

Peyrade returned home, his legs and arms feeling broken, and full of cold fury with the Baron. Nobody but

that burly banker could have betrayed a secret contained in the minds of Contenson, Peyrade, and Corentin.

The old man accused the banker of wishing to avoid paying now that he had gained his end. A single

interview had been enough to enable him to read the astuteness of this most astute of bankers.

"He tries to compound with every one, even with us; but I will be revenged," thought the old fellow. "I have

never asked a favor of Corentin; I will ask him now to help me to be revenged on that imbecile moneybox.

Curse the Baron!Well, you will know the stuff I am made of one fine morning when you find your

By the evening of the day when this catastrophe had upset the old man's hopes he had aged by ten years. As

he talked to his friend Corentin, he mingled his lamentations with tears wrung from him by the thought of the

melancholy prospects he must bequeath to his daughter, his idol, his treasure, his peaceoffering to God.

"We will follow the matter up," said Corentin. "First of all, we must be sure that it was the Baron who

peached. Were we wise in enlisting Gondreville's support? That old rascal owes us too much not to be

anxious to swamp us; indeed, I am keeping an eye on his soninlaw Keller, a simpleton in politics, and

quite capable of meddling in some conspiracy to overthrow the elder Branch to the advantage of the

younger.I shall know tomorrow what is going on at Nucingen's, whether he has seen his beloved, and to

whom we owe this sharp pull up.Do not be out of heart. In the first place, the Prefet will not hold his

appointment much longer; the times are big with revolution, and revolutions make good fishing for us."

"That is Contenson," said Peyrade, who put a light in the window, "and he has something to say that concerns

A minute later the faithful Contenson appeared in the presence of the two gnomes of the police, whom he

"A new thing! I was coming out of 113, where I lost everything, when whom do I spy under the gallery?

Georges! The man has been dismissed by the Baron, who suspects him of treachery."

"Bah! when I think of all the mischief I have known caused by smiles!" said Corentin.

"To say nothing of that caused by a whiplash," said Peyrade, referring to the Simeuse case. (In Une

"This is what is going on," said Contenson. "I made Georges blab by getting him to treat me to an endless

series of liqueurs of every colorI left him tipsy; I must be as full as a still myself!Our Baron has been to

the Rue Taitbout, crammed with Pastilles du Serail. There he found the fair one you know of; buta good

joke! The English beauty is not his fair unknown!And he has spent thirty thousand francs to bribe the

"That creature thinks itself a great man because it does mean things with great capital. Reverse the

proposition, and you have the problem of which a man of genius is the solution.The Baron came home in a

pitiable condition. Next day Georges, to get his finger in the pie, said to his master:

" 'Why, Monsieur le Baron, do you employ such blackguards? If you would only trust to me, I would find the

unknown lady, for your description of her is enough. I shall turn Paris upside down.''Go ahead,' says the

Baron; 'I shall reward you handsomely!' Georges told me the whole story with the most absurd details.

"Next day the Baron received an anonymous letter something to this effect: 'Monsieur de Nucingen is dying

of love for an unknown lady; he has already spent a great deal utterly in vain; if he will repair at midnight to

the end of the Neuilly Bridge, and get into the carriage behind which the chasseur he saw at Vincennes will

be standing, allowing himself to be blindfolded, he will see the woman he loves. As his wealth may lead him

to suspect the intentions of persons who proceed in such a fashion, he may bring, as an escort, his faithful

Georges. And there will be nobody in the carriage.'Off the Baron goes, taking Georges with him, but

telling him nothing. They both submit to have their eyes bound up and their heads wrapped in veils; the

"Two hours later, the carriage, going at the pace of Louis XVIII.God rest his soul! He knew what was

meant by the police, he did!pulled up in the middle of a wood. The Baron had the handkerchief off, and

saw, in a carriage standing still, his adored fairwhen, whiff! she vanished. And the carriage, at the same

"Some one had slipped into Georges' hand a note to this effect: 'How many banknotes will the Baron part

with to be put into communication with his unknown fair? Georges handed this to his master; and the Baron,

never doubting that Georges was in collusion with me or with you, Monsieur Peyrade, to drive a hard

bargain, turned him out of the house. What a fool that banker is! He ought not to have sent away Georges

"We are being tricked by some rascals who beat us at the game," said Peyrade. "Those villains mean to sell

"Ja, mein Herr," said Contenson. "And so, when I heard you got slapped in the face at the Prefecture, I made

"I should like very much to know who it is that has stolen a march on me," said Peyrade. "We would measure

"We will study that side of the subject," cried Corentin. "For the present, I am out of work. You, Peyrade, be

"Monsieur de Nucingen wants bleeding," said Contenson; "he has too many banknotes in his veins."

"But it was Lydie's marriageportion I looked for there!" said Peyrade, in a whisper to Corentin.

"Now, come along, Contenson, let us be off, and leave our daddy to bybye, bybye!"

"Monsieur," said Contenson to Corentin on the doorstep, "what a queer piece of brokerage our good friend

was planning! Heh!What, marry a daughter with the price ofAh, ha! It would make a pretty little

"You are highly organized animals, indeed," replied Corentin. "What ears you have! Certainly Social Nature

arms all her species with the qualities needed for the duties she expects of them! Society is second nature."

"That is a highly philosophical view to take," cried Contenson. "A professor would work it up into a system."

"Let us find out all we can," replied Corentin with a smile, as he made his way down the street with the spy,

"as to what goes on at Monsieur de Nucingen's with regard to this girlthe main facts; never mind the

"Such a man as the Baron de Nucingen cannot be happy incognito," replied Corentin. "And besides, we for

"By gad! it would be the condemned jailbird amusing himself by cutting the executioner's throat."

"You always have something droll to say," replied Corentin, with a dim smile, that faintly wrinkled his set

This business was exceedingly important in itself, apart from its consequences. If it were not the Baron who

had betrayed Peyrade, who could have had any interest in seeing the Prefet of Police? From Corentin's point

of view it seemed suspicious. Were there any traitors among his men? And as he went to bed, he wondered

And thus, without knowing each other, Jacques Collin, Peyrade, and Corentin were converging to a common

point; while the unhappy Esther, Nucingen, and Lucien were inevitably entangled in the struggle which had

already begun, and of which the point of pride, peculiar to police agents, was making a war to the death.

Thanks to Europe's cleverness, the more pressing half of the sixty thousand francs of debt owed by Esther

and Lucien was paid off. The creditors did not even lose confidence. Lucien and his evil genius could breathe

for a moment. Like some pool, they could start again along the edge of the precipice where the strong man

"We are staking now," said Carlos to his puppet, "to win or lose all. But, happily, the cards are beveled, and

For some time Lucien, by his terrible Mentor's orders, had been very attentive to Madame de Serizy. It was,

in fact, indispensable that Lucien should not be suspected of having kept a woman for his mistress. And in

the pleasure of being loved, and the excitement of fashionable life, he found a spurious power of forgetting.

He obeyed Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu by never seeing her excepting in the Bois or the

On the day after Esther was shut up in the parkkeeper's house, the being who was to her so enigmatic and

terrible, who weighed upon her soul, came to desire her to sign three pieces of stamped paper, made terrible

by these fateful words: on the first, accepted payable for sixty thousand francs; on the second, accepted

payable for a hundred and twenty thousand francs; on the third, accepted payable for a hundred and twenty

thousand francsthree hundred thousand francs in all. By writing Bon pour, you simply promise to pay. The

word ACCEPTED constitutes a bill of exchange, and makes you liable to imprisonment. The word entails, on

the person who is so imprudent as to sign, the risk of five years' imprisonmenta punishment which the

police magistrate hardly ever inflicts, and which is reserved at the assizes for confirmed rogues. The law of

imprisonment for debt is a relic of the days of barbarism, which combines with its stupidity the rare merit of

"The point," said the Spaniard to Esther, "is to get Lucien out of his difficulties. We have debts to the tune of

sixty thousand francs, and with these three hundred thousand francs we may perhaps pull through."

Having antedated the bills by six months, Carlos had had them drawn on Esther by a man whom the county

court had "misunderstood," and whose adventures, in spite of the excitement they had caused, were soon

This young fellow, a most audacious adventurer, the son of a lawyer's clerk of Boulogne, near Paris, was

named Georges Marie Destourny. His father, obliged by adverse circumstances to sell his connection, died in

1824, leaving his son without the means of living, after giving him a brilliant education, the folly of the lower

middle class. At twenty three the clever young lawstudent had denied his paternity by printing on his cards

This card gave him an odor of aristocracy; and now, as a man of fashion, he was so impudent as to set up a

tilbury and a groom and haunt the clubs. One line will account for this: he gambled on the Bourse with the

money intrusted to him by the kept women of his acquaintance. Finally he fell into the hands of the police,

He had accomplices, youths whom he had corrupted, his compulsory satellites, accessory to his fashion and

his credit. Compelled to fly, he forgot to pay his differences on the Bourse. All Paristhe Paris of the Stock

In the days of his splendor Georges d'Estourny, a handsome youth, and above all, a jolly fellow, as generous

as a brigand chief, had for a few months "protected" La Torpille. The false Abbe based his calculations on

Esther's former intimacy with this famous scoundrel, an incident peculiar to women of her class.

Georges d'Estourny, whose ambition grew bolder with success, had taken under his patronage a man who had

come from the depths of the country to carry on a business in Paris, and whom the Liberal party were anxious

to indemnify for certain sentences endured with much courage in the struggle of the press with Charles X.'s

government, the persecution being relaxed, however, during the Martignac administration. The Sieur Cerizet

Cerizet then, being patronized for form's sake by the bigwigs of the Left, founded a house which combined

the business of a general agency with that of a bank and a commission agency. It was one of those concerns

which, in business, remind one of the servants who advertise in the papers as being able and willing to do

everything. Cerizet was very glad to ally himself with Georges d'Estourny, who gave him hints.

Esther, in virtue of the anecdote about Nonon, might be regarded as the faithful guardian of part of Georges

d'Estourny's fortune. An endorsement in the name of Georges d'Estourny made Carlos Herrera master of the

money he had created. This forgery was perfectly safe so long as Mademoiselle Esther, or some one for her,

After making inquiries as to the house of Cerizet, Carlos perceived that he had to do with one of those

humble men who are bent on making a fortune, butlawfully. Cerizet, with whom d'Estourny had really

deposited his moneys, had in hand a considerable sum with which he was speculating for a rise on the

Bourse, a state of affairs which allowed him to style himself a banker. Such things are done in Paris; a man

Carlos went off to Cerizet intending to work him after his manner; for, as it happened, he was master of all

Cerizet the Brave lived in an entresol in the Rue du GrosChenet, and Carlos, who had himself mysteriously

announced as coming from Georges d'Estourny, found the selfstyled banker quite pale at the name. The

Abbe saw in this humble private room a little man with thin, light hair; and recognized him at once, from

"Can we talk here without risk of being overheard?" said the Spaniard, now metamorphosed into a redhaired

Englishman with blue spectacles, as clean and prim as a Puritan going to meeting.

"Mr. William Barker, a creditor of M. d'Estourny's; and I can prove to you the necessity for keeping your

doors closed if you wish it. We know, monsieur, all about your connections with the PetitClauds, the

On hearing these words, Cerizet rushed to the door and shut it, flew to another leading into a bedroom and

"Speak lower, monsieur," and he studied the sham Englishman as he asked him, "What do you want with

"Dear me," said William Barker, "every one for himself in this world. You had the money of that rascal

d'Estourny.Be quite easy, I have not come to ask for it; but that scoundrel, who deserves hanging, between

you and me, gave me these bills, saying that there might be some chance of recovering the money; and as I do

not choose to prosecute in my own name, he told me you would not refuse to back them."

"I know it," replied Barker, "but he may still have been there at the date of those bills"

"I do not ask such a sacrifice of you," replied Barker; "you may be instructed to receive them. Endorse them,

"I am surprised that d'Estourny should show so little confidence in me," said Cerizet.

"In his position," replied Barker, "you can hardly blame him for having put his eggs in different baskets."

"Can you believe" the little broker began, as he handed back to the Englishman the bills of exchange

"I believe that you will take good care of his money," said Barker. "I am sure of it! It is already on the green

"Look here, my dear Monsieur Cerizet," said Barker, coolly interrupting him, "you will do me a service by

facilitating this payment. Be so good as to write me a letter in which you tell me that you are sending me

these bills receipted on d'Estourny's account, and that the collecting officer is to regard the holder of the letter

"No names," replied the English capitalist. "Put 'The bearer of this letter and these bills.'You will be

"There are five persons at least to my knowledge who would murder him, and he knows it."

"Then no wonder he is asking me for money enough to start him trading to the Indies?" cried Cerizet. "And

unfortunately he has compelled me to risk everything in State speculation. We already owe heavy differences

"Oh! if only I had known this sooner!" exclaimed Cerizet. "I have missed my chance!"

"One last word," said Barker. "Keep your own counsel, you are capable of that; but you must be faithful too,

which is perhaps less certain. We shall meet again, and I will help you to make a fortune."

Having tossed this sordid soul a crumb of hope that would secure silence for some time to come, Carlos, still

disguised as Barker, betook himself to a bailiff whom he could depend on, and instructed him to get the bills

"They will be paid all right," said he to the officer. "It is an affair of honor; only we want to do the thing

Barker got a solicitor to represent Esther in court, so that judgment might be given in presence of both parties.

The collecting officer, who was begged to act with civility, took with him all the warrants for procedure, and

came in person to seize the furniture in the Rue Taitbout, where he was received by Europe. Her personal

liability once proved, Esther was ostensibly liable, beyond dispute, for three hundred and more thousand

In all this Carlos displayed no great powers of invention. The farce of false debts is often played in Paris.

There are many subGobsecks and subGigonnets who, for a percentage, will lend themselves to this

subterfuge, and regard the infamous trick as a jest. In France everythingeven a crimeis done with a

laugh. By this means refractory parents are made to pay, or rich mistresses who might drive a hard bargain,

but who, face to face with flagrant necessity, or some impending dishonor, pay up, if with a bad grace.

Maxime de Trailles had often used such means, borrowed from the comedies of the old stage. Carlos Herrera,

who wanted to save the honor of his gown, as well as Lucien's, had worked the spell by a forgery not

dangerous for him, but now so frequently practised that Justice is beginning to object. There is, it is said, a

Bourse for falsified bills near the Palais Royal, where you may get a forged signature for three francs.

Before entering on the question of the hundred thousand crowns that were to keep the door of the bedroom,

And this was the way: By his orders Asie got herself up for the Baron's benefit as an old woman fully

Hitherto, novelists of manners have placed on the stage a great many usurers; but the female moneylender

has been overlooked, the Madame la Ressource of the present daya very singular figure, euphemistically

spoken of as a "wardrobe purchaser"; a part that the ferocious Asie could play, for she had two oldclothes

shops managed by women she could trustone in the Temple, and the other in the Rue NeuveSaintMarc.

The gobetween arrived in a dress of flowered damask, made of the curtains of some dismantled boudoir,

and one of those shawls of Indian designout of date, worn, and valueless, which end their career on the

backs of these women. She had a collar of magnificent lace, though torn, and a terrible bonnet; but her shoes

were of fine kid, in which the flesh of her fat feet made a roll of blacklace stocking.

"And my waist buckle!" she exclaimed, displaying a piece of suspiciouslooking finery, prominent on her

cook's stomach, "There's style for you! and my front!Oh, Ma'me Nourrisson has turned me out quite

"Be as sweet as honey at first," said Carlos; "be almost timid, as suspicious as a cat; and, above all, make the

Baron ashamed of having employed the police, without betraying that you quake before the constable.

Finally, make your customer understand in more or less plain terms that you defy all the police in the world

"When the Baron gives you a right to tap him on the stomach, and call him a potbellied old rip, you may be

Nucingenthreatened by Asie with never seeing her again if he attempted the smallest espionagemet the

woman on his way to the Bourse, in secret, in a wretched entresol in the Rue NueveSaintMarc. How often,

and with what rapture, have amorous millionaires trodden these squalid paths! the pavements of Paris know.

Madame de Saint Esteve, by tossing the Baron from hope to despair by turns, brought him to the point when

he insisted on being informed of all that related to the unknown beauty at ANY COST. Meanwhile, the law

was put in force, and with such effect that the bailiffs, finding no resistance from Esther, put in an execution

Lucien, guided by his adviser, paid the recluse at SaintGermain five or six visits. The merciless author of all

these machinations thought this necessary to save Esther from pining to death, for her beauty was now their

capital. When the time came for them to quit the park keeper's lodge, he took Lucien and the poor girl to a

place on the road whence they could see Paris, where no one could overhear them. They all three sat down in

the rising sun, on the trunk of a felled poplar, looking over one of the finest prospects in the world, embracing

"My children," said Carlos, "your dream is over.You, little one, will never see Lucien again; or if you

"Well, you have been ill these five years," said Herrera. "Imagine yourself to be consumptive, and die without

boring us with your lamentations. But you will see, you can still live, and very comfortably too.Leave us,

Lucien cast a look of humble entreaty at Esther, one of the looks peculiar to such menweak and greedy,

with tender hearts and cowardly spirits. Esther answered with a bow of her head, which said: "I will hear the

executioner, that I may know how to lay my head under the axe, and I shall have courage enough to die

The gesture was so gracious, but so full of dreadful meaning, that the poet wept; Esther flew to him, clasped

him in her arms, drank away the tears, and said, "Be quite easy!" one of those speeches that are spoken with

Carlos then explained to her quite clearly, without attenuation, often with horrible plainness of speech, the

critical position in which Lucien found himself, his connection with the Hotel Grandlieu, his splendid

prospects if he should succeed; and finally, how necessary it was that Esther should sacrifice herself to secure

"Obey me blindly," said Carlos. "And what have you to complain of? It rests with you to achieve a happy lot.

You may be what Tullia is, what your old friends Florine, Mariette, and la ValNoble arethe mistress of a

rich man whom you need not love. When once our business is settled, your lover is rich enough to make you

"You have lived in Paradise for four years," said he. "Can you not live on such memories?"

"I will obey you," said she, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "For the rest, do not worry yourself. You

"That is not enough," said Carlos; "you must preserve your looks. At a little past twoandtwenty you are in

the prime of your beauty, thanks to your past happiness. And, above all, be the 'Torpille' again. Be roguish,

extravagant, cunning, merciless to the millionaire I put in your power. Listen to me! That man is a robber on

a grand scale; he has been ruthless to many persons; he has grown fat on the fortunes of the widow and the

"Asie is coming to fetch you in a hackney coach, and you will be in Paris this evening. If you allow any one

to suspect your connection with Lucien, you may as well blow his brains out at once. You will be asked

where you have been for so long. You must say that you have been traveling with a desperately jealous

Englishman.You used to have wit enough to humbug people. Find such wit again now."

Have you ever seen a gorgeous kite, the giant butterfly of childhood, twinkling with gilding, and soaring to

the sky? The children forget the string that holds it, some passerby cuts it, the gaudy toy turns head over

heels, as the boys say, and falls with terrific rapidity. Such was Esther as she listened to Carlos.

For a whole week Nucingen went almost every day to the shop in the Rue NueveSaintMarc to bargain for

the woman he was in love with. Here, sometimes under the name of SaintEsteve, sometimes under that of

her tool, Madame Nourrisson, Asie sat enthroned among beautiful clothes in that hideous condition when

The setting was in harmony with the appearance assumed by the woman, for these shops are among the most

hideous characteristics of Paris. You find there the garments tossed aside by the skinny hand of Death; you

hear, as it were, the gasping of consumption under a shawl, or you detect the agonies of beggery under a

gown spangled with gold. The horrible struggle between luxury and starvation is written on filmy laces; you

may picture the countenance of a queen under a plumed turban placed in an attitude that recalls and almost

reproduces the absent features. It is all hideous amid prettiness! Juvenal's lash, in the hands of the appraiser,

There is a dunghill of flowers, among which here and there we find a bright rose plucked but yesterday and

worn for a day; and on this an old hag is always to be seen crouchingfirst cousin to Usury, the skinflint

bargainer, bald and toothless, and ever ready to sell the contents, so well is she used to sell the coveringthe

Here Asie was in her element, like the warder among convicts, like a vulture redbeaked amid corpses; more

terrible than the savage horrors that made the passerby shudder in astonishment sometimes, at seeing one of

their youngest and sweetest reminiscences hung up in a dirty shop window, behind which a SaintEsteve sits

From vexation to vexation, a thousand francs at a time, the banker had gone so far as to offer sixty thousand

francs to Madame de Saint Esteve, who still refused to help him, with a grimace that would have outdone

any monkey. After a disturbed night, after confessing to himself that Esther completely upset his ideas, after

realizing some unexpected turns of fortune on the Bourse, he came to her one day, intending to give the

hundred thousand francs on which Asie insisted, but he was determined to have plenty of information for the

"Well, have you made up your mind, old higgler?" said Asie, clapping him on the shoulder.

The most dishonoring familiarity is the first tax these women levy on the frantic passions or griefs that are

confided to them; they never rise to the level of their clients; they make them seem squat beside them on their

"And you have the best of the bargain," said Asie. "Women have been sold much dearer than this one to

yourelatively speaking. There are women and women! De Marsay paid sixty thousand francs for Coralie,

who is dead now. The woman you want cost a hundred thousand francs when new; but to you, you old goat,

"Ah! you shall see. I am like youa gift for a gift! Oh, my good man, your adored one has been extravagant.

These girls know no moderation. Your princess is at this moment what we call a fly by night"

"Come, come, don't play the simpleton.Louchard is at her heels, and IIhave lent her fifty thousand

"Well, of course, twentyfive for fifty, that is only natural," replied Asie. "To do the woman justice, she is

honesty itself. She had nothing left but herself, and says she to me: 'My good Madame Saint Esteve, the

bailiffs are after me; no one can help me but you. Give me twenty thousand francs. I will pledge my heart to

you.' Oh, she has a sweet heart; no one but me knows where it lies. Any folly on my part, and I should lose

"Formerly she lived in the Rue Taitbout. Before leaving(her furniture was seized for coststhose rascally

bailiffsYou know them, you who are one of the great men on the Bourse)well, before leaving, she is no

fool, she let her rooms for two months to an Englishwoman, a splendid creature who had a little

thingummyRubempre for a lover, and he was so jealous that he only let her go out at night. But as the

furniture is to be seized, the Englishwoman has cut her stick, all the more because she cost too much for a

"Naturally," said Asie. "I lend to the beauties; and it pays, for you get two commissions for one job."

Asie was amusing herself by caricaturing the manners of a class of women who are even greedier but more

wheedling and mealymouthed than the Malay woman, and who put a gloss of the best motives on the trade

they ply. Asie affected to have lost all her illusions, five lovers, and some children, and to have submitted to

be robbed by everybody in spite of her experience. From time to time she exhibited some pawn tickets, to

prove how much bad luck there was in her line of business. She represented herself as pinched and in debt,

and to crown all, she was so undisguisedly hideous that the Baron at last believed her to be all she said she

"Vell den, I shall pay the hundert tousant, and vere shall I see her?" said he, with the air of a man who has

"My fat friend, you shall come this eveningin your carriage, of courseopposite the Gymnase. It is on the

way," said Asie. "Stop at the corner of the Rue SaintBarbe. I will be on the lookout, and we will go and find

my mortgaged beauty, with the black hair.Oh, she has splendid hair, has my mortgage. If she pulls out her

comb, Esther is covered as if it were a pall. But though you are knowing in arithmetic, you strike me as a

muff in other matters; and I advise you to hide the girl safely, for if she is found she will be clapped into

"Shall it not be possible to get holt of de bills?" said the incorrigible billbroker.

"The bailiffs have got thembut it is impossible. The girl has had a passion, and has spent some money left

in her hands, which she is now called upon to pay. By the poker!a queer thing is a heart of two

"Ver' goot, ver' goot, I shall arrange all dat," said Nucingen, assuming a cunning look. "It is qvite settled dat I

"Well, old noodle, it is your business to make her fall in love with you, and you certainly have ample means

to buy sham love as good as the real article. I will place your princess in your keeping; she is bound to stick

to you, and after that I don't care.But she is accustomed to luxury and the greatest consideration. I tell you,

my boy, she is quite the lady.If not, should I have given her twenty thousand francs?"

The Baron repeated the bridal toilet he had already once achieved; but this time, being certain of success, he

At nine o'clock he found the dreadful woman at the appointed spot, and took her into his carriage.

"Where?" echoed Asie. "Rue de la Perle in the Maraisan address for the nonce; for your pearl is in the

Having reached the spot, the false Madame de SaintEsteve said to Nucingen with a hideous smile:

"We must go a short way on foot; I am not such a fool as to have given you the right address."

Asie led Nucingen to the Rue Barbette, where, in furnished lodgings kept by an upholsterer, he was led up to

On finding Esther in a squalid room, dressed as a workwoman, and employed on some embroidery, the

millionaire turned pale. At the end of a quarter of an hour, while Asie affected to talk in whispers to Esther,

"Montemisselle," said he at length to the unhappy girl, "vill you be so goot as to let me be your protector?"

"Why, I cannot help myself, monsieur," replied Esther, letting fall two large tears.

"Do not veep. I shall make you de happiest of vomen. Only permit that I shall lof youyou shall see."

"Well, well, child, the gentleman is reasonable," said Asie. "He knows that he is more than sixty, and he will

be very kind to you. You see, my beauty, I have found you quite a fatherI had to say so," Asie whispered

to the banker, who was not best pleased. "You cannot catch swallows by firing a pistol at them.Come

here," she went on, leading Nucingen into the adjoining room. "You remember our bargain, my angel?"

Nucingen took out his pocketbook and counted out the hundred thousand francs, which Carlos, hidden in a

"Here are the hundred thousand francs our man stakes on Asie. Now we must make him lay on Europe," said

And he vanished after giving his instruction to the Malay who went back into the room. She found Esther

weeping bitterly. The poor girl, like a criminal condemned to death, had woven a romance of hope, and the

"My dear children," said Asie, "where do you mean to go?For the Baron de Nucingen"

Esther looked at the great banker with a start of surprise that was admirably acted.

"The Baron de Nucingen must not, cannot remain in such a room as this," Asie went on. "Listen to me; your

"Just so; the woman placed in possession of the furniture," replied Asie, "and who let the apartment to that

"Madame's former waitingmaid," Asie went on, respectfully alluding to Esther, "will receive you very

comfortably this evening; and the commercial police will never think of looking for her in her old rooms

"Feerst rate, feerst rate!" cried the Baron. "An' besides, I know dese commercial police, an' I know vat sorts

"Hah! I know her!" cried the millionaire, laughing. "She haf fleeced me out of dirty tousant franc."

Esther shuddered with horror in a way that would have led a man of any feeling to trust her with his fortune.

And he related the incident that had arisen out of the letting of Esther's rooms to the Englishwoman.

"There, now, you see, madame, Eugenie never told you all that, the sly thing!" said Asie."Still, madame is

"If you give Eugenie five hundred francs a month, which will fill up her stocking finely, you can know

everything that madame does: make her the lady'smaid. Eugenie will be all the more devoted to you since

she has already done you.Nothing attaches a woman to a man more than the fact that she has once fleeced

him. But keep a tight rein on Eugenie; she will do any earthly thing for money; she is a dreadful creature!"

Nucingen, the astute financier, had a bandage over his eyes; he allowed himself to be led like a child. The

sight of that spotless and adorable Esther wiping her eyes and pricking in the stitches of her embroidery as

demurely as an innocent girl, revived in the amorous old man the sensations he had experienced in the Forest

of Vincennes; he would have given her the key of his safe. He felt so young, his heart was so overflowing

with adoration; he only waited till Asie should be gone to throw himself at the feet of this Raphael's

This sudden blossoming of youth in the heart of a stockbroker, of an old man, is one of the social phenomena

which must be left to physiology to account for. Crushed under the burden of business, stifled under endless

calculations and the incessant anxieties of millionhunting, young emotions revive with their sublime

illusions, sprout and flower like a forgotten cause or a forgotten seed, whose effects, whose gorgeous bloom,

The Baron, a clerk by the time he was twelve years old in the ancient house of Aldrigger at Strasbourg, had

never set foot in the world of sentiment. So there he stood in front of his idol, hearing in his brain a thousand

modes of speech, while none came to his lips, till at length he acted on the brutal promptings of desire that

"Verever I please!" he echoed in rapture. "You are ein anchel from de sky, and I lofe you more as if I was a

"You had better say white, for they are too fine a black to be only gray," said Asie.

"Get out, foul dealer in human flesh! You hafe got your moneys; do not slobber no more on dis flower of

lofe!" cried the banker, indemnifying himself by this violent abuse for all the insolence he had submitted to.

"You old rip! I will pay you out for that speech!" said Asie, threatening the banker with a gesture worthy of

the Halle, at which the Baron merely shrugged his shoulders. "Between the lip of the pot and that of the

guzzler there is often a viper, and you will find me there!" she went on, furious at Nucingen's contempt.

Millionaires, whose money is guarded by the Bank of France, whose mansions are guarded by a squad of

footmen, whose person in the streets is safe behind the rampart of a coach with swift English horses, fear no

ill; so the Baron looked calmly at Asie, as a man who had just given her a hundred thousand francs.

This dignity had its effect. Asie beat a retreat, growling down the stairs in highly revolutionary language; she

"What have you said to her?" asked the Madonna a la broderie, "for she is a good soul."

"When we are beggared," said she, in a tone to rend the heart of a diplomate, "who has ever any money or

The Baron offered her his arm; he led her away just as she was, and put her into his carriage with more

respect perhaps than he would have shown to the handsome Duchesse de Maufrigneuse.

"You shall hafe a fine carriage, de prettiest carriage in Paris," said Nucingen, as they drove along. "Everyting

dat luxury shall sopply shall be for you. Not any qveen shall be more rich dan vat you shall be. You shall be

respected like ein Cherman Braut. I shall hafe you to be free.Do not veep! Listen to meI lofe you really,

"Can one truly love a woman one has bought?" said the poor girl in the sweetest tones.

"Choseph vas solt by his broders for dat he was so comely. Dat is so in de Biple. An' in de Eastern lants men

On arriving at the Rue Taitbout, Esther could not return to the scene of her happiness without some pain. She

remained sitting on a couch, motionless, drying away her tears one by one, and never hearing a word of the

crazy speeches poured out by the banker. He fell at her feet, and she let him kneel without saying a word to

him, allowing him to take her hands as he would, and never thinking of the sex of the creature who was

This scene of scalding tears shed on the Baron's head, and of icecold feet that he tried to warm, lasted from

"Eugenie," cried the Baron at last to Europe, "persvade your mis'ess that she shall go to bet."

"No!" cried Esther, starting to her feet like a scared horse. "Never in this house!"

"Look her, monsieur, I know madame; she is as gentle and kind as a lamb," said Europe to the Baron. "Only

you must not rub her the wrong way, you must get at her sidewaysshe had been so miserable here. You

"Furnish some pretty little house for her, very nicely. Perhaps when she sees everything new about her she

will feel a stranger there, and think you better looking than you are, and be angelically sweet.Oh! madame

has not her match, and you may boast of having done a very good stroke of business: a good heart, genteel

"And witty enough to make a condemned wretch laugh. And madame can feel an attachment.And then

how she can dress!Well, if it is costly, still, as they say, you get your money's worth.Here all the gowns

were seized, everything she has is three months old.But madame is so kind, you see, that I love her, and

she is my mistress!But in all justicesuch a woman as she is, in the midst of furniture that has been

seized!And for whom? For a young scamp who has ruined her. Poor little thing, she is not at all herself."

"Esther, Esther; go to bet, my anchel! If it is me vat frighten you, I shall stay here on dis sofa" cried the

"Well, then," said Esther, taking the "lynx's" hand, and kissing it with an impulse of gratitude which brought

"Dere is someting fery strange in all dat," thought Nucingen, excited by his pillules. "Vat shall dey say at

He got up and looked out of the window. "My carriage still is dere. It shall soon be daylight." He walked up

"Vat Montame de Nucingen should laugh at me ven she should know how I hafe spent dis night!"

He applied his ear to the bedroom door, thinking himself rather too much of a simpleton.

"Mein Gott! and she is still veeping!" said he to himself, as he stretched himself on the sofa.

About ten minutes after sunrise, the Baron de Nucingen, who was sleeping the uneasy slumbers that are

snatched by compulsion in an awkward position on a couch, was aroused with a start by Europe from one of

those dreams that visit us in such moments, and of which the swift complications are a phenomenon

"Oh, God help us, madame!" she shrieked. "Madame!the soldiers gendarmesbailiffs! They have

At the moment when Esther opened her door and appeared, hurriedly, wrapped in her dressinggown, her

bare feet in slippers, her hair in disorder, lovely enough to bring the angel Raphael to perdition, the

drawingroom door vomited into the room a gutter of human mire that came on, on ten feet, towards the

beautiful girl, who stood like an angel in some Flemish church picture. One man came foremost. Contenson,

"You are Mademoiselle van" he began. Europe, by a backhanded slap on Contenson's cheek, sent him

sprawling to measure his length on the carpet, and with all the more effect because at the same time she

caught his leg with the sharp kick known to those who practise the art as a coup de savate.

"She has broken my leg!" yelled Contenson, picking himself up; "I will have damages!"

From the group of bumbailiffs, looking like what they were, all standing with their horrible hats on their yet

more horrible heads, with mahoganycolored faces and bleared eyes, damaged noses, and hideous mouths,

Louchard now stepped forth, more decently dressed than his men, but keeping his hat on, his expression at

"Mademoiselle, I arrest you!" said he to Esther. "As for you, my girl," he added to Europe, "any resistance

The noise of muskets, let down with a thud of their stocks on the floor of the diningroom, showing that the

"But, unfortunately, mademoiselle, I am obliged to make sure that you have no way of getting out of your

"Well, and am I still a foul dealer in human flesh, Baron de Nucingen?" cried the hideous Asie, forcing her

way past the sheriff's officers to the couch, where she pretended to have just discovered the banker.

"Contemptible wretch!" exclaimed Nucingen, drawing himself up in financial majesty.

He placed himself between Esther and Louchard, who took off his hat as Contenson cried out, "Monsieur le

At a signal from Louchard the bailiffs vanished from the room, respectfully taking their hats off. Contenson

"Three hundred and twelve thousand francs and some centimes, costs paid; but the charges for the arrest not

"Three hundred thousand francs," cried the Baron; "dat is a fery 'xpensive vaking for a man vat has passed the

"Is that man really the Baron de Nucingen?" asked Europe to Louchard, giving weight to the doubt by a

gesture which Mademoiselle Dupont, the low comedy servant of the Francais, might have envied.

"I shall be answerable," said the Baron, piqued in his honor by Europe's doubt. "You shall 'llow me to say ein

Esther and her elderly lover retired to the bedroom, Louchard finding it necessary to apply his ear to the

"I lofe you more as my life, Esther; but vy gife to your creditors moneys vich shall be so much better in your

pocket? Go into prison. I shall undertake to buy up dose hundert tousant crowns for ein hundert tousant

"That scheme is perfectly useless," cried Louchard through the door. "The creditor is not in love with

mademoisellenot he! You understand? And he means to have more than all, now he knows that you are in

"You dam' sneak!" cried Nucingen, opening the door, and dragging Louchard into the bedroom; "you know

not dat vat you talk about. I shall gife you, you'self, tventy per cent if you make the job."

"What, monsieur, you could have the heart to let my mistress go to prison?" said Europe, intervening. "But

"Ah, my good girl, I did not really know you!" cried Esther, clasping Europe in her arms.

"I shall pay," said the Baron piteously, as he drew out a pocketbook, from which he took one of the little

printed forms which the Bank of France issues to bankers, on which they have only to write a sum in figures

"It is not worth the trouble, Monsieur le Baron," said Louchard; "I have instructions not to accept payment in

anything but coin of the realmgold or silver. As it is you, I will take banknotes."

Contenson handed him three packets covered with blue paper, which the Baron took, looking at the man, and

"Why, how should I know you were here, Monsieur le Baron?" replied the spy, heedless whether Louchard

heard him. "You lost my services by withdrawing your confidence. You are done," added this philosopher,

"Qvite true," said the baron. "Ah, my chilt," he exclaimed, seeing the bills of exchange, and turning to Esther,

"You are off your head, Monsieur le Baron," said Louchard; "there is a third endorsement."

"Will you write an order on your cashier, Monsieur le Baron?" said Louchard. "I will send Contenson to him

"Go den, Contenson," said Nucingen. "My cashier lives at de corner of Rue des Mathurins and Rue de

l'Arcate. Here is ein vort for dat he shall go to du Tillet or to de Kellers, in case ve shall not hafe a hundert

tousant francfor our cash shall be at de Bank.Get dress', my anchel," he said to Esther. "You are at

liberty.An' old vomans," he went on, looking at Asie, "are more dangerous as young vomans."

"I will go and give the creditor a good laugh," said Asie, "and he will give me something for a treat

today.We bear no malice, Monsieur le Baron," added SaintEsteve with a horrible courtesy.

Louchard took the bills out of the Baron's hands, and remained alone with him in the drawingroom, whither,

half an hour later, the cashier came, followed by Contenson. Esther then reappeared in a bewitching, though

improvised, costume. When the money had been counted by Louchard, the Baron wished to examine the

bills; but Esther snatched them with a catlike grab, and carried them away to her desk.

"Louchard, you shall gife ein hundert francs to Contenson out of the change of the tousandfranc note."

"De lady is a beauty," said the cashier to the Baron, as they left the Rue Taitbout, "but she is costing you ver'

"Keep my segret," said the Baron, who had said the same to Contenson and Louchard.

Louchard went away with Contenson; but on the boulevard Asie, who was looking out for him, stopped

"The bailiff and the creditor are there in a cab," said she. "They are thirsty, and there is money going."

While Louchard counted out the cash, Contenson studied the customers. He recognized Carlos by his eyes,

and traced the form of his forehead under the wig. The wig he shrewdly regarded as suspicious; he took the

number of the cab while seeming quite indifferent to what was going on; Asie and Europe puzzled him

beyond measure. He thought that the Baron was the victim of excessively clever sharpers, all the more so

because Louchard, when securing his services, had been singularly close. And besides, the twist of Europe's

Carlos dismissed the bailiff, paying him liberally, and as he did so, said to the driver of the cab, "To the

"The rascal!" thought Contenson as he heard the order. "There is something up!" Carlos drove to the Palais

Royal at a pace which precluded all fear of pursuit. He made his way in his own fashion through the arcades,

took another cab on the Place du Chateau d'Eau, and bid the man go "to the Passage de l'Opera, the end of the

A quarter of a hour later he was in the Rue Taitbout. On seeing him, Esther said:

"We have done the trick," he said, showing her three hundred and ten thousand francs in a roll, which he took

out of the pocket of his coat. "This, and the hundred thousand francs squeezed out by Asie, set us free to act."

"But, you idiot," said the ferocious swindler, "you have only to be ostensibly Nucingen's mistress, and you

can always see Lucien; he is Nucingen's friend; I do not forbid your being madly in love with him."

"Europe, my girl," said Carlos, leading the creature into a corner of the boudoir where no one could overhear

Europe held up her head, and looked at this man with an expression which so completely changed her faded

features, that Asie, witnessing the interview, as she watched her from the door, wondered whether the interest

by which Carlos held Europe might not perhaps be even stronger than that by which she herself was bound to

"That is not all, my child. Four hundred thousand francs are a mere nothing to me. Paccard will give you an

account for some plate, amounting to thirty thousand francs, on which money has been paid on account; but

our goldsmith, Biddin, has paid money for us. Our furniture, seized by him, will no doubt be advertised

tomorrow. Go and see Biddin; he lives in the Rue d l'Arbre Sec; he will give you MontdePiete tickets for

ten thousand francs. You understand, Esther ordered the plate; she had not paid for it, and she put it up the

spout. She will be in danger of a little summons for swindling. So we must pay the goldsmith the thirty

thousand francs, and pay up ten thousand francs to the MontdePiete to get the plate back. Forty three

thousand francs in all, including the costs. The silver is very much alloyed; the Baron will give her a new

service, and we shall bone a few thousand francs out of that. You owewhat? two years' account with the

"Well, if Madame Auguste wants to be paid and keep our custom, tell her to make out a bill for thirty

thousand francs over four years. Make a similar arrangement with the milliner. The jeweler, Samuel Frisch

the Jew, in the Rue SaintAvoie, will lend you some pawn tickets; we must owe him twentyfive thousand

francs, and we must want six thousand for jewels pledged at the MontdePiete. We will return the trinkets

to the jeweler, half the stones will be imitation, but the Baron will not examine them. In short, you will make

him fork out another hundred and fifty thousand francs to add to our nesteggs within a week."

"Madame might give me a little help," said Europe. "Tell her so, for she sits there mumchance, and obliges

"If Esther turns prudish, just let me know," said Carlos. "Nucingen must give her a carriage and horses; she

will have to choose and buy everything herself. Go to the horsedealer and the coachmaker who are

employed by the jobmaster where Paccard finds work. We shall get handsome horses, very dear, which will

"Oh!" said he, shaking his head, "we must go gently. Nucingen has only got his arm into the press; we must

"You can get them," replied Europe. "Madame will soften towards the fat fool for about six hundred

"Listen to me, my child," said Carlos. "The day when I get the last hundred thousand francs, there shall be

"What good will they do me?" said Europe, letting her arms drop like a woman to whom life seems

"You could go back to Valenciennes, buy a good business, and set up as an honest woman if you chose; there

are many tastes in human nature. Paccard thinks of settling sometimes; he has no encumbrances on his hands,

"Go back to Valenciennes! What are you thinking of, monsieur?" cried Europe in alarm.

Europe, who was born at Valenciennes, the child of very poor parents, had been sent at seven years of age to

a spinning factory, where the demands of modern industry had impaired her physical strength, just as vice

had untimely depraved her. Corrupted at the age of twelve, and a mother at thirteen, she found herself bound

to the most degraded of human creatures. On the occasion of a murder case, she had been as a witness before

the Court. Haunted at sixteen by a remnant of rectitude, and the terror inspired by the law, her evidence led to

The convict, one of those men who have been in the hands of justice more than once, and whose temper is apt

"In ten years, as sure as you live, Prudence" (Europe's name was Prudence Servien), "I will return to be the

The President of the Court tried to reassure the girl by promising her the protection and the care of the law;

but the poor child was so terrorstricken that she fell ill, and was in hospital nearly a year. Justice is an

abstract being, represented by a collection of individuals who are incessantly changing, whose good

intentions and memories are, like themselves, liable to many vicissitudes. Courts and tribunals can do nothing

to hinder crimes; their business is to deal with them when done. From this point of view, a preventive police

would be a boon to a country; but the mere word Police is in these days a bugbear to legislators, who no

longer can distinguish between the three wordsGovernment, Administration, and Lawmaking. The

legislator tends to centralize everything in the State, as if the State could act.

The convict would be sure always to remember his victim, and to avenge himself when Justice had ceased to

Prudence, who instinctively appreciated the dangerin a general sense, so to speakleft Valenciennes and

came to Paris at the age of seventeen to hide there. She tried four trades, of which the most successful was

that of a "super" at a minor theatre. She was picked up by Paccard, and to him she told her woes. Paccard,

Jacques Collin's disciple and righthand man, spoke of this girl to his master, and when the master needed a

But for these details, many critics would have thought Europe's attachment somewhat grotesque. And no one

"TOULONYesterday, Jean Francois Durut was executed here. Early in the morning the garrison," etc.

Prudence dropped the paper; her legs gave way under the weight of her body; she lived again; for, to use her

own words, she never liked the taste of her food since the day when Durut had threatened her.

"You see, I have kept my word. It has taken four years to bring Durut to the scaffold by leading him into a

snare.Well, finish my job here, and you will find yourself at the head of a little country business in your

native town, with twenty thousand francs of your own as Paccard's wife, and I will allow him to be virtuous

Europe picked up the paper and read with greedy eyes all the details, of which for twenty years the papers

have never been tired, as to the death of convicted criminals: the impressive scene, the chaplainwho has

always converted the victimthe hardened criminal preaching to his fellow convicts, the battery of guns, the

convicts on their knees; and then the twaddle and reflections which never lead to any change in the

"In bringing her back here as cook, you must begin by giving the Baron such a dinner as he never ate in his

life," he went on. "Tell him that Asie has lost all her money at play, and has taken service once more. We

shall not need an outdoor servant. Paccard shall be coachman. Coachmen do not leave their box, where they

are safe out of the way; and he will run less risk from spies. Madame must turn him out in a powdered wig

and a braided felt cocked hat; that will alter his appearance. Besides, I will make him us."

"If the Baron takes a house, Paccard has a friend who will suit as the lodge porter," said Carlos. "Then we

shall only need a footman and a kitchenmaid, and you can surely keep an eye on two strangers"

This simple statement was alarming. Carlos went up to Europe's room, and stayed there till Paccard came to

fetch him, having called a hackney cab that came into the courtyard. Carlos pulled down the blinds, and was

Having reached the Faubourg SaintAntoine, he got out at a short distance from a hackney coach stand, to

which he went on foot, and thence returned to the Quai Malaquais, escaping all inquiry.

"Here, child," said he to Lucien, showing him four hundred banknotes for a thousand francs, "here is

something on account for the purchase of the estates of Rubempre. We will risk a hundred thousand.

Omnibuses have just been started; the Parisians will take to the novelty; in three months we shall have trebled

our capital. I know the concern; they will pay splendid dividends taken out of the capital, to put a head on the

sharesan old idea of Nucingen's revived. If we acquire the Rubempre land, we shall not have to pay on the

"You must go and see des Lupeaulx, and beg him to give you a personal recommendation to a lawyer named

Desroches, a cunning dog, whom you must call on at his office. Get him to go to Rubempre and see how the

land lies; promise him a premium of twenty thousand francs if he manages to secure you thirty thousand

francs a year by investing eight hundred thousand francs in land round the ruins of the old house."

"I am always going on. This is no time for joking.You must then invest a hundred thousand crowns in

Treasury bonds, so as to lose no interest; you may safely leave it to Desroches, he is as honest as he is

knowing.That being done, get off to Angouleme, and persuade your sister and your brotherinlaw to

pledge themselves to a little fib in the way of business. Your relations are to have given you six hundred

thousand francs to promote your marriage with Clotilde de Grandlieu; there is no disgrace in that."

"You are, yes!" replied Carlos. "But even you are not safe till you walk out of SaintThomas d'Aquin with

"And what have you to fear?" said Lucien, apparently much concerned for his counselor.

"Some inquisitive souls are on my trackI must assume the manners of a genuine priest; it is most annoying.

At this moment the Baron de Nucingen, who was leaning on his cashier's arm, reached the door of his

"I am ver' much afrait," said he, as he went in, "dat I hafe done a bat day's vork. Vell, we must make it up

"De misfortune is dat you shall hafe been caught, mein Herr Baron," said the worthy German, whose whole

"Ja, my miss'ess en titre should be in a position vody of me," said this Louis XIV. of the countinghouse.

Feeling sure that sooner or later Esther would be his, the Baron was now himself again, a masterly financier.

He resumed the management of his affairs, and with such effect that his cashier, finding him in his office

room at six o'clock next morning, verifying his securities, rubbed his hands with satisfaction.

"Ah, ha! mein Herr Baron, you shall hafe saved money last night!" said he, with a halfcunning, halfloutish

Though men who are as rich as the Baron de Nucingen have more opportunities than others for losing money,

they also have more chances of making it, even when they indulge their follies. Though the financial policy

of the house of Nucingen has been explained elsewhere, it may be as well to point out that such immense

fortunes are not made, are not built up, are not increased, and are not retained in the midst of the commercial,

political, and industrial revolutions of the present day but at the cost of immense losses, or, if you choose to

view it so, of heavy taxes on private fortunes. Very little newlycreated wealth is thrown into the common

treasury of the world. Every fresh accumulation represents some new inequality in the general distribution of

wealth. What the State exacts it makes some return for; but what a house like that of Nucingen takes, it keeps.

Such covert robbery escapes the law for the reason which would have made a Jacques Collin of Frederick the

Great, if, instead of dealing with provinces by means of battles, he had dealt in smuggled goods or

transferable securities. The high politics of moneymaking consist in forcing the States of Europe to issue

loans at twenty or at ten per cent, in making that twenty or ten per cent by the use of public funds, in

squeezing industry on a vast scale by buying up raw material, in throwing a rope to the first founder of a

business just to keep him above water till his drownedout enterprise is safely landedin short, in all the

The banker, no doubt, like the conqueror, runs risks; but there are so few men in a position to wage this

warfare, that the sheep have no business to meddle. Such grand struggles are between the shepherds. Thus, as

the defaulters are guilty of having wanted to win too much, very little sympathy is felt as a rule for the

misfortunes brought about by the coalition of the Nucingens. If a speculator blows his brains out, if a

stockbroker bolts, if a lawyer makes off with the fortune of a hundred familieswhich is far worse than

killing a man if a banker is insolvent, all these catastrophes are forgotten in Paris in few months, and

The colossal fortunes of Jacques Coeur, of the Medici, of the Angos of Dieppe, of the Auffredis of la

Rochelle, of the Fuggers, of the Tiepolos, of the Corners, were honestly made long ago by the advantages

they had over the ignorance of the people as to the sources of precious products; but nowadays geographical

information has reached the masses, and competition has so effectually limited the profits, that every rapidly

made fortune is the result of chance, or of a discovery, or of some legalized robbery. The lower grades of

mercantile enterprise have retorted on the perfidious dealings of higher commerce, especially during the last

ten years, by base adulteration of the raw material. Wherever chemistry is practised, wine is no longer

procurable; the vine industry is consequently waning. Manufactured salt is sold to avoid the excise. The

tribunals are appalled by this universal dishonesty. In short, French trade is regarded with suspicion by the

With us the mischief has its origin in the political situation. The Charter proclaimed the reign of Money, and

success has become the supreme consideration of an atheistic age. And, indeed, the corruption of the higher

ranks is infinitely more hideous, in spite of the dazzling display and specious arguments of wealth, than that

ignoble and more personal corruption of the inferior classes, of which certain details lend a comic

elementterrible, if you willto this drama. The Government, always alarmed by a new idea, has banished

these materials of modern comedy from the stage. The citizen class, less liberal than Louis XIV., dreads the

advent of its Mariage de Figaro, forbids the appearance of a political Tartuffe, and certainly would not allow

Turcaret to be represented, for Turcaret is king. Consequently, comedy has to be narrated, and a book is now

In the course of this morning, amid the coming and going of callers, orders to be given, and brief interviews,

making Nucingen's private office a sort of financial lobby, one of his stockbrokers announced to him the

disappearance of a member of the Company, one of the richest and cleverest tooJacques Falleix, brother of

Martin Falleix, and the successor of Jules Desmarets. Jacques Falleix was stockbroker in ordinary to the

house of Nucingen. In concert with du Tillet and the Kellers, the Baron had plotted the ruin of this man in

Jacques Falleix had done them immense service in stockjobbing. During a crisis a few months since he had

saved the situation by acting boldly. But to look for gratitude from a moneydealer is as vain as to try to

"Poor fellow!" said the stockbroker. "He so little anticipated such a catastrophe, that he had furnished a little

house for his mistress in the Rue SaintGeorges; he has spent one hundred and fifty thousand francs in

decorations and furniture. He was so devoted to Madame du ValNoble! The poor woman must give it all up.

"Goot, goot!" thought Nucingen, "dis is de very chance to make up for vat I hafe lost dis night!He hafe

"Why," said the stockbroker, "where would you find a tradesman so ill informed as to refuse credit to Jacques

Falleix? There is a splendid cellar of wine, it would seem. By the way, the house is for sale; he meant to buy

it. The lease is in his name.What a piece of folly! Plate, furniture, wine, carriagehorses, everything will

"Come again tomorrow," said Nucingen. "I shall hafe seen all dat; and if it is not a declared bankruptcy, if

tings can be arranged and compromised, I shall tell you to offer some reasonaple price for dat furniture, if I

"That can be managed," said his friend. "If you go there this morning, you will find one of Falleix's partners

there with the tradespeople, who want to establish a first claim; but la ValNoble has their accounts made out

The Baron sent off one of his clerks forthwith to his lawyer. Jacques Falleix had spoken to him about this

house, which was worth sixty thousand francs at most, and he wished to be put in possession of it at once, so

The cashier, honest man, came to inquire whether his master had lost anything by Falleix's bankruptcy.

"Vell, I shall hafe de little house vat dat poor Teufel Falleix should furnish for his mis'ess this year. I shall

hafe all dat for fifty tousant franc to de creditors; and my notary, Maitre Cardot, shall hafe my orders to buy

de house, for de lan'lord vant de moneyI knew dat, but I hat lost mein head. Ver' soon my difine Esther

shall life in a little palace. . . . I hafe been dere mit Falleixit is close to here.It shall fit me like a glofe."

Falleix's failure required the Baron's presence at the Bourse; but he could not bear to leave his house in the

Rue SaintLazare without going to the Rue Taitbout; he was already miserable at having been away from

Esther for so many hours. He would have liked to keep her at his elbow. The profits he hoped to make out of

his stockbrokers' plunder made the former loss of four hundred thousand francs quite easy to endure.

Delighted to announce to his "anchel" that she was to move from the Rue Taitbout to the Rue SaintGeorges,

where she was to have "ein little palace" where her memories would no longer rise up in antagonism to their

happiness, the pavement felt elastic under his feet; he walked like a young man in a young man's dream. As

he turned the corner of the Rue des Trois Freres, in the middle of his dream, and of the road, the Baron beheld

"Well, monsieur, I was on my way to you. You were quite right yesterday. I see now that poor madame had

better have gone to prison for a few days. But how should women understand money matters? When

madame's creditors heard that she had come home, they all came down upon us like birds of prey.Last

evening, at seven o'clock, monsieur, men came and stuck terrible posters up to announce a sale of furniture

on Saturdaybut that is nothing.Madame, who is all heart, once upon a time to oblige that wretch of a

"Well, the man she was in love with, d'Estournywell, he was charming! He was only a gambler"

"Welland what do you do at the Bourse?" said Europe. "But let me go on. One day, to hinder Georges, as

he said, from blowing out his brains, she pawned all her plate and her jewels, which had never been paid for.

Now on hearing that she had given something to one of her creditors, they came in a body and made a scene.

They threaten her with the policecourtyour angel at that bar! Is it not enough to make a wig stand on end?

She is bathed in tears; she talks of throwing herself into the river and she will do it."

"If I shall go to see her, dat is gootbye to de Bourse; an' it is impossible but I shall go, for I shall make some

money for heryou shall compose her. I shall pay her debts; I shall go to see her at four o'clock. But tell me,

"A little?A great deal!I tell you what, monsieur, nothing but generosity can win a woman's heart. You

would, no doubt, have saved a hundred thousand francs or so by letting her go to prison. Well, you would

never have won her heart. As she said to me'Eugenie, he has been noble, grandhe has a great soul.' "

"Thank you.But she is crying at this moment; she has been crying ever since yesterday as much as a

weeping Magdalen could have cried in six months. The woman you love is in despair, and for debts that are

"Dey all is de same!She hafe pledge' herself.Vy, no one shall ever pledge herself.Tell her dat she

"Mein Gott! I hafe no power over her.I shall take de management of her little affairsDere, dere, go to

comfort her, and you shall say that in ein mont she shall live in a little palace."

"You have invested heavily, Monsieur le Baron, and for large interest, in a woman's heart. I tell youyou

look to me younger. I am but a waitingmaid, but I have often seen such a change. It is happiness

happiness gives a certain glow. . . . If you have spent a little money, do not let that worry you; you will see

what a good return it will bring. And I said to madame, I told her she would be the lowest of the low, a

perfect hussy, if she did not love you, for you have picked her out of hell.When once she has nothing on

her mind, you will see. Between you and me, I may tell you, that night when she cried so muchWhat is to

be said, we value the esteem of the man who maintains usand she did not dare tell you everything. She

"To fly!" cried the Baron, in dismay at the notion. "But the Bourse, the Bourse!Go 'vay, I shall not come

Esther smiled at Monsieur de Nucingen as he passed the house, and he went ponderously on his way, saying:

This was how Europe had succeeded in achieving the impossible. At about halfpast two Esther had finished

dressing, as she was wont to dress when she expected Lucien; she was looking charming. Seeing this,

The poor creature flew to the window, thinking she would see Lucien; she saw Nucingen.

"There is no other way of getting you to seem to be gracious to a poor old man, who, after all, is going to pay

"What debts?" said the girl, who only cared to preserve her love, which dreadful hands were scattering to the

"And you owe a hundred and fifty thousand more. But the Baron took it all very well.He is going to

remove you from hence, and place you in a little palace.On my honor, you are not so badly off. In your

place, as you have got on the right side of this man, as soon as Carlos is satisfied, I should make him give me

a house and a settled income. You are certainly the handsomest woman I ever saw, madame, and the most

attractive, but we so soon grow ugly! I was fresh and good looking, and look at me! I am twentythree,

about the same age as madame, and I look ten years older. An illness is enough.Well, but when you have a

house in Paris and investments, you need never be afraid of ending in the streets."

Esther had ceased to listen to EuropeEugeniePrudence Servien. The will of a man gifted with the genius of

corruption had thrown Esther back into the mud with as much force as he had used to drag her out of it.

Those who know love in its infinitude know that those who do not accept its virtues do not experience its

pleasures. Since the scene in the den in the Rue de Langlade, Esther had utterly forgotten her former

existence. She had since lived very virtuously, cloistered by her passion. Hence, to avoid any obstacle, the

skilful fiend had been clever enough to lay such a train that the poor girl, prompted by her devotion, had

merely to utter her consent to swindling actions already done, or on the point of accomplishment. This

subtlety, revealing the mastery of the tempter, also characterized the methods by which he had subjugated

Lucien. He created a terrible situation, dug a mine, filled it with powder, and at the critical moment said to his

Esther of old, knowing only the morality peculiar to courtesans, thought all these attentions so natural, that

she measured her rivals only by what they could get men to spend on them. Ruined fortunes are the

conductstripes of these creatures. Carlos, in counting on Esther's memory, had not calculated wrongly.

These tricks of warfare, these stratagems employed a thousand times, not only by these women, but by

spendthrifts too, did not disturb Esther's mind. She felt nothing but her personal degradation; she loved

Lucien, she was to be the Baron de Nucingen's mistress "by appointment"; this was all she thought of. The

supposed Spaniard might absorb the earnestmoney, Lucien might build up his fortune with the stones of her

tomb, a single night of pleasure might cost the old banker so many thousandfranc notes more or less, Europe

might extract a few hundred thousand francs by more or less ingenious trickery, none of these things

troubled the enamored girl; this alone was the canker that ate into her heart. For five years she had looked

upon herself as being as white as an angel. She loved, she was happy, she had never committed the smallest

There was, in her mind, no conscious contrasting of her happy isolated past and her foul future life. It was

neither interest nor sentiment that moved her, only an indefinable and all powerful feeling that she had been

white and was now black, pure and was now impure, noble and was now ignoble. Desiring to be the ermine,

moral taint seemed to her unendurable. And when the Baron's passion had threatened her, she had really

thought of throwing herself out of the window. In short, she loved Lucien wholly, and as women very rarely

love a man. Women who say they love, who often think they love best, dance, waltz, and flirt with other men,

dress for the world, and look for a harvest of concupiscent glances; but Esther, without any sacrifice, had

achieved miracles of true love. She had loved Lucien for six years as actresses love and courtesanswomen

who, having rolled in mire and impurity, thirst for something noble, for the selfdevotion of true love, and

who practice exclusivenessthe only word for an idea so little known in real life.

Vanished nations, Greece, Rome, and the East, have at all times kept women shut up; the woman who loves

should shut herself up. So it may easily be imagined that on quitting the palace of her fancy, where this poem

had been enacted, to go to this old man's "little palace," Esther felt heartsick. Urged by an iron hand, she had

found herself waistdeep in disgrace before she had time to reflect; but for the past two days she had been

This single word brought Esther to her seat again; she remained in her armchair, her eyes fixed on a rosette in

At four o'clock Nucingen found his angel lost in that sea of meditations and resolutions whereon a woman's

spirit floats, and whence she emerges with utterances that are incomprehensible to those who have not sailed

"Clear your brow, meine Schone," said the Baron, sitting down by her. "You shall hafe no more debtsI

shall arrange mit Eugenie, an' in ein mont you shall go 'vay from dese rooms and go to dat little palace.

Vas a pretty hant.Gife it me dat I shall kiss it." Esther gave him her hand as a dog gives a paw. "Ach, ja!

The words were spoken with such sincerity of accent, that poor Esther looked at the old man with a

compassion in her eyes that almost maddened him. Lovers, like martyrs, feel a brotherhood in their

sufferings! Nothing in the world gives such a sense of kindred as community of sorrow.

As he heard the words, misunderstanding their meaning, the Baron turned pale, the blood tingled in his veins,

he breathed the airs of heaven. At his age a millionaire, for such a sensation, will pay as much gold as a

"I lofe you like vat I lofe my daughter," said he. "An' I feel dere" and he laid her hand over his heart"dat

"If you would only be a father to me, I would love you very much; I would never leave you; and you would

see that I am not a bad woman, not grasping or greedy, as I must seem to you now"

"You hafe done some little follies," said the Baron, "like all dose pretty vomendat is all. Say no more about

dat. It is our pusiness to make money for you. Be happy! I shall be your fater for some days yet, for I know I

"Really!" she exclaimed, springing on to Nucingen's knees, and clinging to him with her arm round his neck.

She kissed his forehead; she believed in an impossible combination she might remain untouched and see

She was so coaxing to the banker that she was La Torpille once more. She fairly bewitched the old man, who

promised to be a father to her for forty days. Those forty days were to be employed in acquiring and

When he was in the street again, as he went home, the Baron said to himself, "I am an old flat."

But though in Esther's presence he was a mere child, away from her he resumed his lynx's skin; just as the

gambler (in le Joueur) becomes affectionate to Angelique when he has not a liard.

"A half a million francs I hafe paid, and I hafe not yet seen vat her leg is like.Dat is too silly! but, happily,

And he made great resolutions to come to the point with the woman who had cost him so dear; then, in

Esther's presence once more, he spent all the time he could spare her in making up for the roughness of his

Towards the end of the month of December 1829, just before installing Esther in the house in the Rue

SaintGeorges, the Baron begged du Tillet to take Florine there, that she might see whether everything was

suitable to Nucingen's fortune, and if the description of "a little palace" were duly realized by the artists

Every device known to luxury before the Revolution of 1830 made this residence a masterpiece of taste.

Grindot the architect considered it his greatest achievement as a decorator. The staircase, which had been

reconstructed of marble, the judicious use of stucco ornament, textiles, and gilding, the smallest details as

much as the general effect, outdid everything of the kind left in Paris from the time of Louis XV.

"This is my dream!This and virtue!" said Florine with a smile. "And for whom are you spending all this

"My word, how we must lace and brush and fig ourselves out," Florine went on. "What a dance the women

will lead their dressmakers and hairdressers for that evening's fun!And when is it to be?"

"Even the banker," said du Tillet, "for my old friend seems to me quite young again."

"Well, he must go back to his twentieth year," said Florine; "at any rate, for once."

In the early days of 1830 everybody in Paris was talking of Nucingen's passion and the outrageous splendor

of his house. The poor Baron, pointed at, laughed at, and fuming with rage, as may easily be imagined, took it

into his head that on the occasion of giving the housewarming he would at the same time get rid of his

paternal disguise, and get the price of so much generosity. Always circumvented by "La Torpille," he

determined to treat of their union by correspondence, so as to win from her an autograph promise. Bankers

So one morning early in the year he rose early, locked himself into his room, and composed the following

letter in very good French; for though he spoke the language very badly, he could write it very well:

"DEAR ESTHER, the flower of my thoughts and the only joy of my life, when I told you that I loved you as I

love my daughter, I deceived you, I deceived myself. I only wished to express the holiness of my sentiments,

which are unlike those felt by other men, in the first place, because I am an old man, and also because I have

never loved till now. I love you so much, that if you cost me my fortune I should not love you the less.

"Be just! Most men would not, like me, have seen the angel in you; I have never even glanced at your past. I

love you both as I love my daughter, Augusta, and as I might love my wife, if my wife could have loved me.

Since the only excuse for an old man's love is that he should be happy, ask yourself if I am not playing a too

ridiculous part. I have taken you to be the consolation and joy of my declining days. You know that till I die

you will be as happy as a woman can be; and you know, too, that after my death you will be rich enough to

be the envy of many women. In every stroke of business I have effected since I have had the happiness of

your acquaintance, your share is set apart, and you have a standing account with Nucingen's bank. In a few

days you will move into a house, which sooner or later, will be your own if you like it. Now, plainly, will you

"Forgive me for writing so frankly, but when I am with you I lose all courage; I feel too keenly that you are

indeed my mistress. I have no wish to hurt you; I only want to tell you how much I suffer, and how hard it is

to wait at my age, when every day takes with it some hopes and some pleasures. Besides, the delicacy of my

conduct is a guarantee of the sincerity of my intentions. Have I ever behaved as your creditor? You are like a

citadel, and I am not a young man. In answer to my appeals, you say your life is at stake, and when I hear

you, you make me believe it; but here I sink into dark melancholy and doubts dishonorable to us both. You

seemed to me as sweet and innocent as you are lovely; but you insist on destroying my convictions. Ask

yourself!You tell me you bear a passion in your heart, an indomitable passion, but you refuse to tell me the

"You have turned a fairly strong man into an incredibly weak one. You see what I have come to; I am

induced to ask you at the end of five months what future hope there is for my passion. Again, I must know

what part I am to play at the opening of your house. Money is nothing to me when it is spent for you; I will

not be so absurd as to make a merit to you of this contempt; but though my love knows no limits, my fortune

is limited, and I care for it only for your sake. Well, if by giving you everything I possess I might, as a poor

man, win your affection, I would rather be poor and loved than rich and scorned by you.

"You have altered me so completely, my dear Esther, that no one knows me; I paid ten thousand francs for a

picture by Joseph Bridau because you told me that he was clever and unappreciated. I give every beggar I

meet five francs in your name. Well, and what does the poor man ask, who regards himself as your debtor

when you do him the honor of accepting anything he can give you? He asks only for a hopeand what a

hope, good God! Is it not rather the certainty of never having anything from you but what my passion may

seize? The fire in my heart will abet your cruel deceptions. You find me ready to submit to every condition

you can impose on my happiness, on my few pleasures; but promise me at least that on the day when you

take possession of your house you will accept the heart and service of him who, for the rest of his days, must

"Faugh! how he bores methis money bag!" cried Esther, a courtesan once more. She took a small sheet of

notepaper and wrote all over it, as close as it could go, Scribe's famous phrase, which has become a proverb,

A quarter of an hour later, Esther, overcome by remorse, wrote the following letter:

"Pay no heed to the note you have just received from me; I had relapsed into the folly of my youth. Forgive,

monsieur, a poor girl who ought to be your slave. I never more keenly felt the degradation of my position

than on the day when I was handed over to you. You have paid; I owe myself to you. There is nothing more

sacred than a debt of dishonor. I have no right to compound it by throwing myself into the Seine.

"A debt can always be discharged in that dreadful coin which is good only to the debtor; you will find me

yours to command. I will pay off in one night all the sums for which that fatal hour has been mortgaged; and I

am sure that such an hour with me is worth millionsall the more because it will be the only one, the last. I

shall then have paid the debt, and may get away from life. A good woman has a chance of restoration after a

"My determination is so fixed that I beg you will keep this letter in evidence of the cause of death of her who

Having sent this letter, Esther felt a pang of regret. Ten minutes after she wrote a third note, as follows:

"Forgive me, dear Baronit is I once more. I did not mean either to make game of you or to wound you; I

only want you to reflect on this simple argument: If we were to continue in the position towards each other of

father and daughter, your pleasure would be small, but it would be enduring. If you insist on the terms of the

"I will trouble you no more: the day when you shall choose pleasure rather than happiness will have no

On receiving the first letter, the Baron fell into a cold fury such as a millionaire may die of; he looked at

While he was sitting with his feet in the bath, the second letter came; he read it, and fainted away. He was

When the banker recovered consciousness, Madame de Nucingen was sitting at the foot of the bed.

"The hussy is right!" said she. "Why do you try to buy love? Is it to be bought in the market!Let me see

The Baron gave her sundry rough drafts he had made; Madame de Nucingen read them, and smiled. Then

"Look here, my dear, you have been admirably kind to me," said Delphine; "I will give you some good

"Your state on receiving these letters touches a woman far more than the spending of millions, or than all the

letters you could write, however fine they may be. Try to let her know it, indirectly; perhaps she will be

yours! Andhave no scruples, she will not die of that," added she, looking keenly at her husband.

"Vat a clefer voman is Montame de Nucingen!" said the Baron to himself when his wife had left him.

Still, the more the Baron admired the subtlety of his wife's counsel, the less he could see how he might act

The stupidity of wealthy men, though it is almost proverbial, is only comparative. The faculties of the mind,

like the dexterity of the limbs, need exercise. The dancer's strength is in his feet; the blacksmith's in his arms;

the market porter is trained to carry loads; the singer works his larynx; and the pianist hardens his wrist. A

banker is practised in business matters; he studies and plans them, and pulls the wires of various interests, just

as a playwright trains his intelligence in combining situations, studying his actors, giving life to his dramatic

We should no more look for powers of conversation in the Baron de Nucingen than for the imagery of a poet

in the brain of a mathematician. How many poets occur in an age, who are either good prose writers, or as

witty in the intercourse of daily life as Madame Cornuel? Buffon was dull company; Newton was never in

love; Lord Byron loved nobody but himself; Rousseau was gloomy and half crazy; La Fontaine

absentminded. Human energy, equally distributed, produces dolts, mediocrity in all; unequally bestowed it

gives rise to those incongruities to whom the name of Genius is given, and which, if we only could see them,

would look like deformities. The same law governs the body; perfect beauty is generally allied with coldness

or silliness. Though Pascal was both a great mathematician and a great writer, though Beaumarchais was a

good man of business, and Zamet a profound courtier, these rare exceptions prove the general principle of the

Within the sphere of speculative calculations the banker put forth as much intelligence and skill, finesse and

mental power, as a practised diplomatist expends on national affairs. If he were equally remarkable outside

his office, the banker would be a great man. Nucingen made one with the Prince de Ligne, with Mazarin or

with Diderot, is a human formula that is almost inconceivable, but which has nevertheless been known as

Pericles, Aristotle, Voltaire, and Napoleon. The splendor of the Imperial crown must not blind us to the

Monsieur de Nucingen, a banker and nothing more, having no inventiveness outside his business, like most

bankers, had no faith in anything but sound security. In matters of art he had the good sense to go, cash in

hand, to experts in every branch, and had recourse to the best architect, the best surgeon, the greatest

connoisseur in pictures or statues, the cleverest lawyer, when he wished to build a house, to attend to his

health, to purchase a work of art or an estate. But as there are no recognized experts in intrigue, no

connoisseurs in love affairs, a banker finds himself in difficulties when he is in love, and much puzzled as to

the management of a woman. So Nucingen could think of no better method than that he had hitherto

pursuedto give a sum of money to some Frontin, male or female, to act and think for him.

Madame de SaintEsteve alone could carry out the plan imagined by the Baroness. Nucingen bitterly

regretted having quarreled with the odious old clothesseller. However, feeling confident of the attractions of

his cashbox and the soothing documents signed Garat, he rang for his man and told him in inquire for the

In Paris extremes are made to meet by passion. Vice is constantly binding the rich to the poor, the great to the

mean. The Empress consults Mademoiselle Lenormand; the fine gentleman in every age can always find a

"The good woman is given to gambling, it would seem," the valet went on. "And, moreover, she is under the

thumb of a thirdrate actor in a suburban theatre, whom, for decency's sake, she calls her godson. She is a

"Dose teufel of geniuses of de common people hafe alvays ten vays of making money, and ein dozen vays of

spending it," said the Baron to himself, quite unconscious that Panurge had thought the same thing.

He sent his servant off in quest of Madame de SaintEsteve, who did not come till the next day. Being

questioned by Asie, the servant revealed to this female spy the terrible effects of the notes written to

"Monsieur must be desperately in love with the woman," said he in conclusion, "for he was very near dying.

For my part, I advised him never to go back to her, for he will be wheedled over at once. A woman who has

already cost Monsieur le Baron five hundred thousand francs, they say, without counting what he has spent

on the house in the Rue SaintGeorges! But the woman cares for money, and for money only.As madame

came out of monsieur's room, she said with a laugh: 'If this goes on, that slut will make a widow of me!' "

"The devil!" cried Asie; "it will never do to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs."

"Well," said the false SaintEsteve, going into the sufferer's room with an abject air, "Monsieur le Baron has

met with some difficulties? What can you expect! Everybody is open to attack on his weak side. Dear me, I

have had my troubles too. Within two months the wheel of Fortune has turned upside down for me. Here I am

looking out for a place!We have neither of us been very wise. If Monsieur le Baron would take me as cook

to Madame Esther, I would be the most devoted of slaves. I should be useful to you, monsieur, to keep an eye

"Dere is no hope of dat," said the Baron. "I cannot succeet in being de master, I am let such a tance as"

"As a top," Asie put in. "Well, you have made others dance, daddy, and the little slut has got you, and is

"Pooh, my boy! A little moralizing breaks no bones. It is the salt of life to the like of us, as vice is to your

"That is well; and you have taken her things out of pawn, and that is better. But you must see that it is not

enough. All this gives her no occupation, and these creatures love to cut a dash"

"I shall hafe a surprise for her, Rue SaintGeorchesshe knows dat," said the Baron. "But I shall not be

"And we want our money's worth, my boy," replied Asie. "Listen to me. We have fleeced the public of some

"I shall let one go, but as soon as I shall let one go, I shall hafe to give still another."

"Yes, I understand, replied Asie. "You will not say B for fear of having to go on to Z. Still, Esther is a good

"A ver' honest girl," cried the banker. "An' she is ready to submit; but only as in payment of a debt."

"In short, she does not want to be your mistress; she feels an aversion.Well, and I understand it; the child

has always done just what she pleased. When a girl has never known any but charming young men, she

cannot take to an old one. You are not handsome; you are as big as Louis XVIII., and rather dull company, as

all men are who try to cajole fortune instead of devoting themselves to women.Well, if you don't think six

hundred thousand francs too much," said Asie, "I pledge myself to make her whatever you can wish."

"Six huntert tousant franc!" cried the Baron, with a start. "Esther is to cost me a million to begin with!"

"Happiness is surely worth sixteen hundred thousand francs, you old sinner. You must know, men in these

days have certainly spent more than one or two millions on a mistress. I even know women who have cost

men their lives, for whom heads have rolled into the basket.You know the doctor who poisoned his friend?

"Ja, I know all dat. But if I am in lofe, I am not ein idiot, at least vile I am here; but if I shall see her, I shall

"Well, listen Monsieur le Baron," said Asie, assuming the attitude of a Semiramis. "You have been squeezed

dry enough already. Now, as sure as my name is SaintEstevein the way of business, of courseI will

"I believe you, my boy, for I have shown you that I know how to be revenged. Besides, I tell you this, daddy,

I know how to snuff out your Madame Esther as you would snuff a candle. And I know my lady! When the

little huzzy has once made you happy, she will be even more necessary to you than she is at this moment.

You paid me well; you have allowed yourself to be fooled, but, after all, you have forked out.I have

fulfilled my part of the agreement, haven't I? Well, look here, I will make a bargain with you."

"You shall get me the place as cook to Madame, engage me for ten years, and pay the last five in

advancewhat is that? Just a little earnestmoney. When once I am about madame, I can bring her to these

terms. Of course, you must first order her a lovely dress from Madame Auguste, who knows her style and

taste; and order the new carriage to be at the door at four o'clock. After the Bourse closes, go to her rooms

and take her for a little drive in the Bois de Boulogne. Well, by that act the woman proclaims herself your

mistress; she has advertised herself to the eyes and knowledge of all Paris: A hundred thousand francs.You

must dine with herI know how to cook such a dinner!You must take her to the play, to the Varietes, to a

stage box, and then all Paris will say, 'There is that old rascal Nucingen with his mistress.' It is very

flattering to know that such things are said.Well, all this, for I am not grasping, is included for the first

hundred thousand francs.In a week, by such conduct, you will have made some way"

"In the course of the second week," Asie went on, as though she had not heard this lamentable ejaculation,

"madame, tempted by these preliminaries, will have made up her mind to leave her little apartment and move

to the house you are giving her. Your Esther will have seen the world again, have found her old friends; she

will wish to shine and do the honors of her palaceit is in the nature of things: Another hundred thousand

francs!By Heaven! you are at home there, Esther compromisedshe must be yours. The rest is a mere

trifle, in which you must play the principal part, old elephant. (How wide the monster opens his eyes!) Well, I

will undertake that too: Four hundred thousandand that, my fine fellow, you need not pay till the day after.

What do you think of that for honesty? I have more confidence in you than you have in me. If I persuade

madame to show herself as your mistress, to compromise herself, to take every gift you offer her,perhaps

this very day, you will believe that I am capable of inducing her to throw open the pass of the Great Saint

Bernard. And it is a hard job, I can tell you; it will take as much pulling to get your artillery through as it took

"Her heart is full of love, old shaver, rasibus, as you say who know Latin," replied Asie. "She thinks herself

the Queen of Sheba, because she has washed herself in sacrifices made for her loveran idea that that sort of

woman gets into her head! Well, well, old fellow, we must be just.It is fine! That baggage would die of

grief at being your mistressI really should not wonder. But what I trust to, and I tell you to give you

"You hafe a genius for corruption," said the Baron, who had listened to Asie in admiring silence, "just as I

"Done for fifty tousant franc insteat of ein hundert tousant!An' I shall give you fife hundert tousant de day

"Very good, I will set to work," said Asie. "And you may come, monsieur," she added respectfully. "You will

find madame as soft already as a cat's back, and perhaps inclined to make herself pleasant."

He sprang out of bed, went down to his office, and resumed the conduct of his immense business with a light

Nothing could be more fatal to Esther than the steps taken by Nucingen. The hapless girl, in defending her

fidelity, was defending her life. This very natural instinct was what Carlos called prudery. Now Asie, not

without taking such precautions as usual in such cases, went off to report to Carlos the conference she had

held with the Baron, and all the profit she had made by it. The man's rage, like himself, was terrible; he came

forthwith to Esther, in a carriage with the blinds drawn, driving into the courtyard. Still almost white with

fury, the doubledyed forger went straight into the poor girl's room; she looked at himshe was standing

Esther looked at the woman as a child might look at its mother, from whom some assassin had snatched it to

"Do you know where you will send Lucien?" Carlos went on when he was alone with Esther.

"Where I come from, my beauty." Esther, as she looked at the man, saw red. "To the hulks," he added in an

Esther shut her eyes and stretched herself out, her arms dropped, and she turned white. The man rang, and

He walked up and down the drawingroom while waiting. PrudenceEurope was obliged to come and beg

monsieur to lift Esther on to the bed; he carried her with the ease that betrayed athletic strength.

They had to procure all the chemist's strongest stimulants to restore Esther to a sense of her woes. An hour

later the poor girl was able to listen to this living nightmare, seated at the foot of her bed, his eyes fixed and

"My little sweetheart," said he, "Lucien now stands between a splendid life, honored, happy, and respected,

and the hole full of water, mud, and gravel into which he was going to plunge when I met him. The house of

Grandlieu requires of the dear boy an estate worth a million francs before securing for him the title of

Marquis, and handing over to him that maypole named Clotilde, by whose help he will rise to power.

Thanks to you, and me, Lucien has just purchased his maternal manor, the old Chateau de Rubempre, which,

indeed, did not cost muchthirty thousand francs; but his lawyer, by clever negotiations, has succeeded in

adding to it estates worth a million, on which three hundred thousand francs are paid. The chateau, the

expenses, and percentages to the men who were put forward as a blind to conceal the transaction from the

"We have, to be sure, a hundred thousand francs invested in a business here, which a few months hence will

be worth two to three hundred thousand francs; but there will still be four hundred thousand francs to be paid.

"In three days Lucien will be home from Angouleme, where he has been, because he must not be suspected

"I ask you, then, is this a moment to scare off the Baron?" he went on calmly. "And you very nearly killed

him the day before yesterday; he fainted like a woman on reading your second letter. You have a fine

styleI congratulate you! If the Baron had died, where should we be now?When Lucien walks out of

SaintThomas d'Aquin soninlaw to the Duc de Grandlieu, if you want to try a dip in the Seine Well,

my beauty, I offer you my hand for a dive together. It is one way of ending matters.

"But consider a moment. Would it not be better to live and say to yourself again and again 'This fine fortune,

this happy family'for he will have childrenchildren!Have you ever thought of the joy of running your

"Well, as you gaze on that structure of happiness, you may say to yourself, 'This is my doing!' "

"This is what I have tried to make out of such despair as saw no issue but the river," said Carlos. "Am I

selfish? That is the way to love! Men show such devotion to none but kings! But I have anointed Lucien king.

If I were riveted for the rest of my days to my old chain, I fancy I could stay there resigned so long as I could

say, 'He is gay, he is at Court.' My soul and mind would triumph, while my carcase was given over to the

jailers! You are a mere female; you love like a female! But in a courtesan, as in all degraded creatures, love

should be a means to motherhood, in spite of Nature, which has stricken you with barrenness!

"If ever, under the skin of the Abbe Carlos Herrera, any one were to detect the convict I have been, do you

"Well," he said after a brief pause, "I would die as the Negroes do without a word. And you, with all your

airs will put folks on my traces. What did I require of you?To be La Torpille again for six monthsfor six

"Lucien will never forget you. Men do not forget the being of whom they are reminded day after day by the

joy of awaking rich every morning. Lucien is a better fellow than you are. He began by loving Coralie. She

diedgood; but he had not enough money to bury her; he did not do as you did just now, he did not faint,

though he is a poet; he wrote six rollicking songs, and earned three hundred francs, with which he paid for

Coralie's funeral. I have those songs; I know them by heart. Well, then do you too compose your songs: be

cheerful, be wild, be irresistible andinsatiable! You hear me?Do not let me have to speak again.

When, half an hour after, Europe went into her mistress' room, she found her kneeling in front of a crucifix,

in the attitude which the most religious of painters has given to Moses before the burning bush on Horeb, to

depict his deep and complete adoration of Jehovah. After saying her prayers, Esther had renounced her better

life, the honor she had created for herself, her glory, her virtue, and her love.

"Oh, madame, you will never look like that again!" cried Prudence Servien, struck by her mistress' sublime

She hastily turned the long mirror so that the poor girl should see herself. Her eyes still had a light as of the

soul flying heavenward. The Jewess' complexion was brilliant. Sparkling with tears unshed in the fervor of

prayer, her eyelashes were like leaves after a summer shower, for the last time they shone with the sunshine

of pure love. Her lips seemed to preserve an expression as of her last appeal to the angels, whose palm of

martyrdom she had no doubt borrowed while placing in their hands her past unspotted life. And she had the

majesty which Mary Stuart must have shown at the moment when she bid adieu to her crown, to earth, and to

"I wish Lucien could have seen me thus!" she said with a smothered sigh. "Now," she added, in a strident

Europe stood dumb at hearing the words, as though she had heard an angel blaspheme.

"Well, why need you stare at me to see if I have cloves in my mouth instead of teeth? I am nothing

henceforth but a vile, foul creature, a thiefand I expect milord. So get me a hot bath, and put my dress out.

It is twelve o'clock; the Baron will look in, no doubt, when the Bourse closes; I shall tell him I was waiting

for him, and Asie is to prepare us dinner, firstchop, mind you; I mean to turn the man's brain.Come,

hurry, hurry, my girl; we are going to have some fun that is to say, we must go to work."

"MY FRIEND,If the cook you have sent me had not already been in my service, I might have thought that

your purpose was to let me know how often you had fainted yesterday on receiving my three notes. (What

can I say? I was very nervous that day; I was thinking over the memories of my miserable existence.) But I

know how sincere Asie is. Still, I cannot repent of having caused you so much pain, since it has availed to

prove to me how much you love me. This is how we are made, we luckless and despised creatures; true

affection touches us far more deeply than finding ourselves the objects of lavish liberality. For my part, I

have always rather dreaded being a peg on which you would hang your vanities. It annoyed me to be nothing

else to you. Yes, in spite of all your protestations, I fancied you regarded me merely as a woman paid for.

"Well, you will now find me a good girl, but on condition of your always obeying me a little.

"If this letter can in any way take the place of the doctor's prescription, prove it by coming to see me after the

Bourse closes. You will find me in full fig, dressed in your gifts, for I am for life your pleasuremachine,

At the Bourse the Baron de Nucingen was so gay, so cheerful, seemed so easygoing, and allowed himself so

many jests, that du Tillet and the Kellers, who were on 'change, could not help asking him the reason of his

"And how much does it cost you?" asked Francois Keller rudelyit was said that he had spent twentyfive

"They never do," replied du Tillet. "And it is to avoid asking that they have always aunts or mothers."

Between the Bourse and the Rue Taitbout seven times did the Baron say to his servant:

He ran lightly upstairs, and for the first time he saw his mistress in all the beauty of such women, who have

no other occupation than the care of their person and their dress. Just out of her bath the flower was quite

Esther was in a charming toilette. A dress of black corded silk trimmed with rosecolored gimp opened over

a petticoat of gray satin, the costume subsequently worn by Amigo, the handsome singer, in I Puritani. A

Honiton lace kerchief fell or floated over her shoulders. The sleeves of her gown were strapped round with

cording to divide the puffs, which for some little time fashion has substituted for the large sleeves which had

grown too monstrous. Esther had fastened a Mechlin lace cap on her magnificent hair with a pin, a la folle, as

it is called, ready to fall, but not really falling, giving her an appearance of being tumbled and in disorder,

though the white parting showed plainly on her little head between the waves of her hair.

"Is it not a shame to see madame so lovely in a shabby drawingroom like this?" said Europe to the Baron, as

"Vel, den, come to the Rue SaintGeorches," said the Baron, coming to a full stop like a dog marking a

partridge. "The veather is splendit, ve shall drife to the Champs Elysees, and Montame SaintEstefe and

Eugenie shall carry dere all your clo'es an' your linen, an' ve shall dine in de Rue SaintGeorches."

"I will do whatever you please," said Esther, "if only you will be so kind as to call my cook Asie, and

Eugenie Europe. I have given those names to all the women who have served me ever since the first two. I do

"Asie, Europe! echoed the Baron, laughing. "How ver' droll you are. You hafe infentions.I should hafe

"It is our business to be droll," said Esther. "Come, now, may not a poor girl be fed by Asia and dressed by

Europe when you live on the whole world? It is a myth, I say; some women would devour the earth, I only

"Vat a voman is Montame SaintEstefe!" said the Baron to himself as he admired Esther's changed

"Europe, my girl, I want my bonnet," said Esther. "I must have a black silk bonnet lined with pink and

"Madame Thomas has not sent it home.Come, Monsieur le Baron; quick, off you go! Begin your functions

as a manofallworkthat is to say, of all pleasure! Happiness is burdensome. You have your carriage

here, go to Madame Thomas," said Europe to the Baron. "Make your servant ask for the bonnet for Madame

van Bogseck.And, above all," she added in his ear, "bring her the most beautiful bouquet to be had in

"She is a milliner, you damn' idiot, and not a cakeshop!" cried the Baron, who rushed off to Madame

Prevot's in the PalaisRoyal, where he had a bouquet made up for the price of ten louis, while his man went

A superficial observer, walking about Paris, wonders who the fools can be that buy the fabulous flowers that

grace the illustrious bouquetiere's shop window, and the choice products displayed by Chevet of European

famethe only purveyor who can vie with the Rocher de Cancale in a real and delicious Revue des deux

Well, every day in Paris a hundred or more passions a la Nucingen come into being, and find expression in

offering such rarities as queens dare not purchase, presented, kneeling, to baggages who, to use Asie's word,

like to cut a dash. But for these little details, a decent citizen would be puzzled to conceive how a fortune

melts in the hands of these women, whose social function, in Fourier's scheme, is perhaps to rectify the

disasters caused by avarice and cupidity. Such squandering is, no doubt, to the social body what a prick of the

lancet is to a plethoric subject. In two months Nucingen had shed broadcast on trade more than two hundred

By the time the old lover returned, darkness was falling; the bouquet was no longer of any use. The hour for

driving in the ChampsElysees in winter is between two and four. However, the carriage was of use to

convey Esther from the Rue Taitbout to the Rue SaintGeorges, where she took possession of the "little

palace." Never before had Esther been the object of such worship or such lavishness, and it amazed her; but,

When you go into St. Peter's at Rome, to enable you to appreciate the extent and height of this queen of

cathedrals, you are shown the little finger of a statue which looks of a natural size, and which measures I

know not how much. Descriptions have been so severely criticised, necessary as they are to a history of

manners, that I must here follow the example of the Roman Cicerone. As they entered the diningroom, the

Baron could not resist asking Esther to feel the stuff of which the window curtains were made, draped with

magnificent fulness, lined with white watered silk, and bordered with a gimp fit to trim a Portuguese princess'

bodice. The material was silk brought from Canton, on which Chinese patience had painted Oriental birds

with a perfection only to be seen in mediaeval illuminations, or in the Missal of Charles V., the pride of the

"It is very nice, charming," said Esther. "How I shall enjoy drinking champagne here; the froth will not get

"Dis carpet hafe been made for de Duc de Torlonia, a frient of mine, who fount it too dear, so I took it for you

By chance this carpet, by one of our cleverest designers, matched with the whimsicalities of the Chinese

curtains. The walls, painted by Schinner and Leon de Lora, represented voluptuous scenes, in carved ebony

frames, purchased for their weight in gold from Dusommerard, and forming panels with a narrow line of gold

"You did well to bring me here," said Esther. "It will take me a week to get used to my home and not to look

"Why, of course, and a thousand times of course, stupid animal," said she, smiling.

The poor man took Esther's hand and pressed it to his heart. He was animal enough to feel, but too stupid to

"Oh, madame, I cannot stay here!" cried Eugenie. "It makes me long to go to bed."

"Well," said Esther, "I mean to please the magician who has worked all these wonders.Listen, my fat

elephant, after dinner we will go to the play together. I am starving to see a play."

It was just five years since Esther had been to a theatre. All Paris was rushing at that time to the

PorteSaintMartin, to see one of those pieces to which the power of the actors lends a terrible expression of

reality, Richard Darlington. Like all ingenuous natures, Esther loved to feel the thrills of fear as much as to

"It is a horrible piece," said Nucingen foreseeing the moment when he must show himself in public.

He sent his servant to secure one of the two stageboxes on the grand tier.And this is another strange

feature of Paris. Whenever success, on feet of clay, fills a house, there is always a stagebox to be had ten

minutes before the curtain rises. The managers keep it for themselves, unless it happens to be taken for a

passion a la Nucingen. This box, like Chevet's dainties, is a tax levied on the whims of the Parisian Olympus.

It would be superfluous to describe the plate and china. Nucingen had provided three services of

platecommon, medium, and best; and the bestplates, dishes, and all, was of chased silver gilt. The

banker, to avoid overloading the table with gold and silver, had completed the array of each service with

porcelain of exquisite fragility in the style of Dresden china, which had cost more than the plate. As to the

linenSaxony, England, Flanders, and France vied in the perfection of flowered damask.

"I begin to think he loves me," said Esther to Europe; "he has said something almost like a bon mot."

"Well! he is more like Turcaret than I had heard he was!" cried the girl, laughing at this reply, worthy of the

The dishes were so highly spiced as to give the Baron an indigestion, on purpose that he might go home

early; so this was all he got in the way of pleasure out of his first evening with Esther. At the theatre he was

obliged to drink an immense number of glasses of eau sucree, leaving Esther alone between the acts.

By a coincidence so probable that it can scarcely be called chance, Tullia, Mariette, and Madame du

ValNoble were at the play that evening. Richard Darlington enjoyed a wild successand a deserved

successsuch as is seen only in Paris. The men who saw this play all came to the conclusion that a lawful

wife might be thrown out of window, and the wives loved to see themselves unjustly persecuted.

The women said to each other: "This is too much! we are driven to it but it often happens!"

Now a woman as beautiful as Esther, and dressed as Esther was, could not show off with impunity in a

stagebox at the PorteSaintMartin. And so, during the second act, there was quite a commotion in the box

where the two dancers were sitting, caused by the undoubted identity of the unknown fair one with La

"Heyday! where has she dropped from?" said Mariette to Madame du Val Noble. "I thought she was

"But is it she? She looks to me thirtyseven times younger and handsomer than she was six years ago."

"Perhaps she has preserved herself in ice like Madame d'Espard and Madame Zayonchek," said the Comte de

Brambourg, who had brought the three women to the play, to a pittier box. "Isn't she the 'rat' you meant to

"The very same," said the singer. "Du Bruel, go down to the stalls and see if it is she."

"What brass she has got!" exclaimed Madame du ValNoble, using an expressive but vulgar phrase.

"Oh!" said the Comte de Brambourg, "she very well may. She is with my friend the Baron de NucingenI

"Is that the immaculate Joan of Arc who has taken Nucingen by storm, and who has been talked of till we are

"Goodevening, my dear Baron," said Philippe Bridau, as he went into Nucingen's box. "So here you are,

married to Mademoiselle Esther. Mademoiselle, I am an old officer whom you once on a time were to

"I know nothing of it," said Esther, looking round the house through her operaglasses.

"Dis lady," said the Baron, "is no longer known as 'Esther' so short! She is called Montame de Champyein

"Though you do things in such style," said the Comte, "these ladies are saying that Madame de Champy gives

herself too great airs.If you do not choose to remember me, will you condescend to recognize Mariette,

Tullia, Madame du ValNoble?" the parvenu went ona man for whom the Duc de Maufrigneuse had won

"If these ladies are kind to me, I am willing to make myself pleasant to them," replied Madame de Champy

"Kind! Why, they are excellent; they have named you Joan of Arc," replied Philippe.

"Vell den, if dese ladies vill keep you company," said Nucingen, "I shall go 'vay, for I hafe eaten too much.

"The first time, and you leave me alone!" said Esther. "Come, come, you must have courage enough to die on

deck. I must have my man with me as I go out. If I were insulted, am I to cry out for nothing?"

The old millionaire's selfishness had to give way to his duties as a lover. The Baron suffered but stayed.

Esther had her own reasons for detaining "her man." If she admitted her acquaintance, she would be less

closely questioned in his presence than if she were alone. Philippe Bridau hurried back to the box where the

"Oh! so it is she who has fallen heir to my house in the Rue Saint Georges," observed Madame du

"Most likely," said the Colonel. "Du Tillet told me that the Baron had spent three times as much there as your

"Not if I know it," said Mariette; "she is much too handsome, I will call on her at home."

So the muchdaring leading dancer went round between the acts and renewed acquaintance with Esther, who

"And where have you come back from, my dear child?" asked Tullia, who could not restrain her curiosity.

"Oh, I was for five years in a castle in the Alps with an Englishman, as jealous as a tiger, a nabob; I called

"And then I came across a bankerfrom a savage to salvation, as Florine might say. And now here I am in

Paris again; I long so for amusement that I mean to have a rare time. I shall keep open house. I have five

years of solitary confinement to make good, and I am beginning to do it. Five years of an Englishman is

"No, it is a relic of the nabob.What illluck I have, my dear! He was as yellow as a friend's smile at a

success; I thought he would be dead in ten months. Pooh! he was a strong as a mountain. Always distrust men

who say they have a liver complaint. I will never listen to a man who talks of his liver.I have had too much

of liverswho cannot die. My nabob robbed me; he died without making a will, and the family turned me

out of doors like a leper.So, then, I said to my fat friend here, 'Pay for two!'You may as well call me

The Baron laughed at all this vulgar nonsense, but he did not always follow it readily, so that his laughter

We all live in a sphere of some kind, and the inhabitants of every sphere are endowed with an equal share of

Next evening at the opera, Esther's reappearance was the great news behind the scenes. Between two and four

in the afternoon all Paris in the ChampsElysees had recognized La Torpille, and knew at last who was the

"Do you know," Blondet remarked to de Marsay in the greenroom at the operahouse, "that La Torpille

vanished the very day after the evening when we saw her here and recognized her in little Rubempre's

In Paris, as in the provinces, everything is known. The police of the Rue de Jerusalem are not so efficient as

the world itself, for every one is a spy on every one else, though unconsciously. Carlos had fully understood

the danger of Lucien's position during and after the episode of the Rue Taitbout.

No position can be more dreadful than that in which Madame du Val Noble now found herself; and the

phrase to be on the loose, or, as the French say, left on foot, expresses it perfectly. The recklessness and

extravagance of these women precludes all care for the future. In that strange world, far more witty and

amusing than might be supposed, only such women as are not gifted with that perfect beauty which time can

hardly impair, and which is quite unmistakableonly such women, in short, as can be loved merely as a

fancy, ever think of old age and save a fortune. The handsomer they are, the more improvident they are.

"Are you afraid of growing ugly that you are saving money?" was a speech of Florine's to Mariette, which

Thus, if a speculator kills himself, or a spendthrift comes to the end of his resources, these women fall with

hideous promptitude from audacious wealth to the utmost misery. They throw themselves into the clutches of

the oldclothes buyer, and sell exquisite jewels for a mere song; they run into debt, expressly to keep up a

spurious luxury, in the hope of recovering what they have losta cashbox to draw upon. These ups and

downs of their career account for the costliness of such connections, generally brought about as Asie had

And so those who know their Paris are quite aware of the state of affairs when, in the ChampsElyseesthat

bustling and mongrel bazaar they meet some woman in a hired fly whom six months or a year before they

had seen in a magnificent and dazzling carriage, turned out in the most luxurious style.

"If you fall on SaintePelagie, you must contrive to rebound on the Bois de Boulogne," said Florine, laughing

Some clever women never run the risk of this contrast. They bury themselves in horrible furnished lodgings,

where they expiate their extravagance by such privations as are endured by travelers lost in a Sahara; but they

never take the smallest fancy for economy. They venture forth to masked balls; they take journeys into the

provinces; they turn out well dressed on the boulevards when the weather is fine. And then they find in each

other the devoted kindness which is known only among proscribed races. It costs a woman in luck no effort

to bestow some help, for she says to herself, "I may be in the same plight by Sunday!"

However, the most efficient protector still is the purchaser of dress. When this greedy moneylender finds

herself the creditor, she stirs and works on the hearts of all the old men she knows in favor of the mortgaged

In this way Madame du ValNoble, unable to foresee the downfall of one of the richest and cleverest of

stockbrokers, was left quite unprepared. She had spent Falleix's money on her whims, and trusted to him for

"How could I have expected such a thing in a man who seemed such a good fellow?"

In almost every class of society the good fellow is an openhanded man, who will lend a few crowns now

and again without expecting them back, who always behaves in accordance with a certain code of delicate

feeling above mere vulgar, obligatory, and commonplace morality. Certain men, regarded as virtuous and

honest, have, like Nucingen, ruined their benefactors; and certain others, who have been through a criminal

court, have an ingenious kind of honesty towards women. Perfect virtue, the dream of Moliere, an Alceste, is

exceedingly rare; still, it is to be found everywhere, even in Paris. The "good fellow" is the product of a

certain facility of nature which proves nothing. A man is a good fellow, as a cat is silky, as a slipper is made

to slip on to the foot. And so, in the meaning given to the word by a kept woman, Falleix ought to have

warned his mistress of his approaching bankruptcy and have given her enough to live upon.

D'Estourny, the dashing swindler, was a good fellow; he cheated at cards, but he had set aside thirty thousand

francs for his mistress. And at carnival suppers women would retort on his accusers: "No matter. You may

say what you like, Georges was a good fellow; he had charming manners, he deserved a better fate."

These girls laugh laws to scorn, and adore a certain kind of generosity; they sell themselves, as Esther had

After saving a few jewels from the wreck with great difficulty, Madame du ValNoble was crushed under the

burden of the horrible report: "She ruined Falleix." She was almost thirty; and though she was in the prime of

her beauty, still she might be called an old woman, and all the more so because in such a crisis all a woman's

rivals are against her. Mariette, Florine, Tullia would ask their friend to dinner, and gave her some help; but

as they did not know the extent of her debts, they did not dare to sound the depths of that gulf. An interval of

six years formed rather too long a gap in the ebb and flow of the Paris tide, between La Torpille and Madame

du ValNoble, for the woman "on foot" to speak to the woman in her carriage; but La ValNoble knew that

Esther was too generous not to remember sometimes that she had, as she said, fallen heir to her possessions,

and not to seek her out by some meeting which might seem accidental though arranged. To bring about such

an accident, Madame du ValNoble, dressed in the most lady like way, walked out every day in the

ChampsElysees on the arm of Theodore Gaillard, who afterwards married her, and who, in these straits,

behaved very well to his former mistress, giving her boxes at the play, and inviting her to every spree. She

flattered herself that Esther, driving out one fine day, would meet her face to face.

Esther's coachman was Paccardfor her household had been made up in five days by Asie, Europe, and

Paccard under Carlos' instructions, and in such a way that the house in the Rue SaintGeorges was an

Peyrade, on his part, prompted by deep hatred, by the thirst for vengeance, and, above all, by his wish to see

his darling Lydie married, made the ChampsElysees the end of his walks as soon as he heard from

Contenson that Monsieur de Nucingen's mistress might be seen there. Peyrade could dress so exactly like an

Englishman, and spoke French so perfectly with the mincing accent that the English give the language; he

knew England itself so well, and was so familiar with all the customs of the country, having been sent to

England by the police authorities three times between 1779 and 1786, that he could play his part in London

and at ambassadors' residences without awaking suspicion. Peyrade, who had some resemblance to Musson

the famous juggler, could disguise himself so effectually that once Contenson did not recognize him.

Followed by Contenson dressed as a mulatto, Peyrade examined Esther and her servants with an eye which,

seeming heedless, took everything in. Hence it quite naturally happened that in the side alley where the

carriagecompany walk in fine dry weather, he was on the spot one day when Esther met Madame du

ValNoble. Peyrade, his mulatto in livery at his heels, was airing himself quite naturally, like a nabob who is

thinking of no one but himself, in a line with the two women, so as to catch a few words of their

"Well, my dear child," said Esther to Madame du ValNoble, "come and see me. Nucingen owes it to himself

"All the more so because it is said that he ruined Falleix," remarked Theodore Gaillard, "and that we have

"He dines with me tomorrow," said Esther; "come and meet him." Then she added in an undertone:

"I can do what I like with him, and as yet he has not that!" and she put the nail of a gloved finger under the

prettiest of her teeth with the click that is familiarly known to express with peculiar energy: "Just nothing."

"Oh!" said Esther, "I had debts enough to frighten a minister of finance. Now, I mean to have thirty thousand

a year before the first stroke of midnight. Oh! he is excellent, I have nothing to complain of. He does it

well.In a week we give a housewarming; you must come.That morning he is to make me a present of

the lease of the house in the Rue SaintGeorges. In decency, it is impossible to live in such a house on less

than thirty thousand francs a yearof my own, so as to have them safe in case of accident. I have known

poverty, and I want no more of it. There are certain acquaintances one has had enough of at once."

"And you, who used to say, 'My face is my fortune!'How you have changed!" exclaimed Suzanne.

"It is the air of Switzerland; you grow thrifty there.Look here; go there yourself, my dear! Catch a Swiss,

and you may perhaps catch a husband, for they have not yet learned what such women as we are can be. And,

at any rate, you may come back with a passion for investments in the fundsa most respectable and elegant

Esther got into her carriage again, a handsome carriage drawn by the finest pair of dappled gray horses at that

"The woman who is getting into the carriage is handsome," said Peyrade to Contenson, "but I like the one

"That is what that Englishman has just remarked in English," said Theodore Gaillard, repeating Peyrade's

Before making this speech in English, Peyrade had uttered a word or two in that language, which had made

Theodore look up in a way that convinced him that the journalist understood English.

Madame du ValNoble very slowly made her way home to very decent furnished rooms in the Rue

LouisleGrand, glancing round now and then to see if the mulatto were following her.

This establishment was kept by a certain Madame Gerard, whom Suzanne had obliged in the days of her

splendor, and who showed her gratitude by giving her a suitable home. This good soul, an honest and

virtuous citizen, even pious, looked on the courtesan as a woman of a superior order; she had always seen her

in the midst of luxury, and thought of her as a fallen queen; she trusted her daughters with her; andwhich is

a fact more natural than might be supposedthe courtesan was as scrupulously careful in taking them to the

play as their mother could have been, and the two Gerard girls loved her. The worthy, kind lodginghouse

keeper was like those sublime priests who see in these outlawed women only a creature to be saved and

Madame du ValNoble respected this worth; and often, as she chatted with the good woman, she envied her

"Your are still handsome; you may make a good end yet," Madame Gerard would say.

But, indeed, Madame du ValNoble was only relatively impoverished. This woman's wardrobe, so

extravagant and elegant, was still sufficiently well furnished to allow of her appearing on occasionas on

that evening at the PorteSaintMartin to see Richard Darlington in much splendor. And Madame Gerard

would most goodnaturedly pay for the cabs needed by the lady "on foot" to go out to dine, or to the play,

"Well, dear Madame Gerard," said she to this worthy mother, "my luck is about to change, I believe."

"Well, well, madame, so much the better. But be prudent; do not run into debt any more. I have such

"Oh, never worry yourself about those hounds! They have all made no end of money out of me.Here are

some tickets for the Varietes for your girlsa good box on the second tier. If any one should ask for me this

evening before I come in, show them up all the same. Adele, my old maid, will be here; I will send her

Madame du ValNoble, having neither mother nor aunt, was obliged to have recourse to her maidequally

on footto play the part of a SaintEsteve with the unknown follower whose conquest was to enable her to

rise again in the world. She went to dine with Theodore Gaillard, who, as it happened, had a spree on that

day, that is to say, a dinner given by Nathan in payment of a bet he had lost, one of those orgies when a man

It was not without strong reasons that Peyrade had made up his mind to rush in person on to the field of this

intrigue. At the same time, his curiosity, like Corentin's, was so keenly excited, that, even in the absence of

At this moment Charles X.'s policy had completed its last evolution. After confiding the helm of State to

Ministers of his own choosing, the King was preparing to conquer Algiers, and to utilize the glory that should

accrue as a passport to what has been called his Coup d'Etat. There were no more conspiracies at home;

Charles X. believed he had no domestic enemies. But in politics, as at sea, a calm may be deceptive.

Thus Corentin had lapsed into total idleness. In such a case a true sportsman, to keep his hand in, for lack of

larks kills sparrows. Domitian, we know, for lack of Christians, killed flies. Contenson, having witnessed

Esther's arrest, had, with the keen instinct of a spy, fully understood the upshot of the business. The rascal, as

"Who is benefiting by making the banker pay so dear for his passion?" was the first question the allies asked

each other. Recognizing Asie as a leader in the piece, Contenson hoped to find out the author through her; but

she slipped through his fingers again and again, hiding like an eel in the mud of Paris; and when he found her

again as the cook in Esther's establishment, it seemed to him inexplicable that the halfcaste woman should

have had a finger in the pie. Thus, for the first time, these two artistic spies had come on a text that they could

After three bold attempts on the house in the Rue Taitbout, Contenson still met with absolute dumbness. So

long as Esther dwelt there the lodge porter seemed to live in mortal terror. Asie had, perhaps, promised

On the day after Esther's removal, Contenson found this man rather more amenable; he regretted the lady, he

said, who had fed him with the broken dishes from her table. Contenson, disguised as a broker, tried to

bargain for the rooms, and listened to the porter's lamentations while he fooled him, casting a doubt on all the

"Yes, monsieur, the lady lived here for five years without ever going out, and more by token, her lover,

desperately jealous though she was beyond reproach, took the greatest precautions when he came in or went

Lucien was at this time still staying with his sister, Madame Sechard; but as soon as he returned, Contenson

sent the porter to the Quai Malaquais to ask Monsieur de Rubempre whether he were willing to part with the

furniture left in the rooms lately occupied by Madame van Bogseck. The porter then recognized Lucien as the

young widow's mysterious lover, and this was all that Contenson wanted. The deep but suppressed

astonishment may be imagined with which Lucien and Carlos received the porter, whom they affected to

Within twentyfour hours Carlos had organized a force which detected Contenson redhanded in the act of

espionage. Contenson, disguised as a marketporter, had twice already brought home the provisions

purchased in the morning by Asie, and had twice got into the little mansion in the Rue SaintGeorges.

Corentin, on his part, was making a stir; but he was stopped short by recognizing the certain identity of

Carlos Herrera; for he learned at once that this Abbe, the secret envoy of Ferdinand VII., had come to Paris

towards the end of 1823. Still, Corentin thought it worth while to study the reasons which had led the

Spaniard to take an interest in Lucien de Rubempre. It was soon clear to him, beyond doubt, that Esther had

for five years been Lucien's mistress; so the substitution of the Englishwoman had been effected for the

Now Lucien had no means; he was rejected as a suitor for Mademoiselle de Grandlieu; and he had just

Corentin very skilfully made the head of the General Police take the first steps; and the Prefet de Police a

propos to Peyrade, informed his chief that the appellants in that affair had been in fact the Comte de Serizy

"This hussy," said Corentin, "has had intimacies; she must have some women friends. Among them we shall

certainly find one or another who is down on her luck; one of us must play the part of a rich foreigner and

take her up. We will throw them together. They always want something of each other in the game of lovers,

Peyrade naturally proposed to assume his disguise as an Englishman. The wild life he should lead during the

time that he would take to disentangle the plot of which he had been the victim, smiled on his fancy; while

Corentin, grown old in his functions, and weakly too, did not care for it. Disguised as a mulatto, Contenson at

once evaded Carlos' force. Just three days before Peyrade's meeting with Madame du ValNoble in the

ChampsElysees, this last of the agents employed by MM. de Sartine and Lenoir had arrived, provided with a

passport, at the Hotel Mirabeau, Rue de la Paix, having come from the Colonies via le Havre, in a traveling

chaise, as mudsplashed as though it had really come from le Havre, instead of no further than by the road

Carlos Herrera, on his part, had his passport vise at the Spanish Embassy, and arranged everything at the Quai

Malaquais to start for Madrid. And this is why. Within a few days Esther was to become the owner of the

house in the Rue SaintGeorges and of shares yielding thirty thousand francs a year; Europe and Asie were

quite cunning enough to persuade her to sell these shares and privately transmit the money to Lucien. Thus

Lucien, proclaiming himself rich through his sister's liberality, would pay the remainder of the price of the

Rubempre estates. Of this transaction no one could complain. Esther alone could betray herself; but she

Clotilde had appeared with a little pink kerchief round her crane's neck, so she had won her game at the Hotel

de Grandlieu. The shares in the Omnibus Company were already worth thrice their initial value. Carlos, by

disappearing for a few days, would put malice off the scent. Human prudence had foreseen everything; no

error was possible. The false Spaniard was to start on the morrow of the day when Peyrade met Madame du

ValNoble. But that very night, at two in the morning, Asie came in a cab to the Quai Malaquais, and found

the stoker of the machine smoking in his room, and reconsidering all the points of the situation here stated in

a few words, like an author going over a page in his book to discover any faults to be corrected. Such a man

would not allow himself a second time such an oversight as that of the porter in the Rue Taitbout.

"Paccard," whispered Asie in her master's ear, "recognized Contenson yesterday, at halfpast two, in the

ChampsElysees, disguised as a mulatto servant to an Englishman, who for the last three days has been seen

walking in the ChampsElysees, watching Esther. Paccard knew the hound by his eyes, as I did when he

dressed up as a marketporter. Paccard drove the girl home, taking a round so as not to lose sight of the

wretch. Contenson is at the Hotel Mirabeau; but he exchanged so many signs of intelligence with the

"We have a gadfly behind us," said Carlos. "I will not leave till the day after tomorrow. That Contenson is

certainly the man who sent the porter after us from the Rue Taitbout; we must ascertain whether this sham

At noon Mr. Samuel Johnson's black servant was solemnly waiting on his master, who always breakfasted

too heartily, with a purpose. Peyrade wished to pass for a tippling Englishman; he never went out till he was

halfseas over. He wore black cloth gaiters up to his knees, and padded to make his legs look stouter; his

trousers were lined with the thickest fustian; his waistcoat was buttoned up to his cheeks; a red scratch wig

hid half his forehead, and he had added nearly three inches to his height; in short, the oldest frequenter of the

Cafe David could not have recognized him. From his squarecut coat of black cloth with full skirts he might

Contenson made a show of the cold insolence of a nabob's confidential servant; he was taciturn, abrupt,

scornful, and uncommunicative, and indulged in fierce exclamations and uncouth gestures.

Peyrade was finishing his second bottle when one of the hotel waiters unceremoniously showed in a man in

"Monsieur Peyrade," said the gendarme to the nabob, speaking in his ear, "my instructions are to take you to

"You will find a hackney coach at the door," said the man as they went downstairs. "The Prefet thought of

arresting you, but he decided on sending for you to ask some explanation of your conduct through the

"Shall I ride with you?" asked the gendarme of the peaceofficer when Peyrade had got in.

"No," replied the other; "tell the coachman quietly to drive to the Prefecture."

Peyrade and Carlos were now face to face in the coach. Carlos had a stiletto under his hand. The

coachdriver was a man he could trust, quite capable of allowing Carlos to get out without seeing him, or

being surprised, on arriving at his journey's end, to find a dead body in his cab. No inquiries are ever made

about a spy. The law almost always leaves such murders unpunished, it is so difficult to know the rights of

Peyrade looked with his keenest eye at the magistrate sent to examine him by the Prefet of Police. Carlos

struck him as satisfactory: a bald head, deeply wrinkled at the back, and powdered hair; a pair of very light

gold spectacles, with doublegreen glasses over weak eyes, with red rims, evidently needing care. These eyes

seemed the trace of some squalid malady. A cotton shirt with a flatpleated frill, a shabby black satin

waistcoat, the trousers of a man of law, black spun silk stockings, and shoes tied with ribbon; a long black

overcoat, cheap gloves, black, and worn for ten days, and a gold watchchainin every point the lower

"My dear Monsieur Peyrade, I regret to find such a man as you the object of surveillance, and that you should

act so as to justify it. Your disguise is not to the Prefet's taste. If you fancy that you can thus escape our

vigilance, you are mistaken. You traveled from England by way of BeaumontsurOise, no doubt."

Peyrade lost his presence of mind. The question must be answered. Now any reply might be dangerous. In the

affirmative it was farcical; in the negative, if this man knew the truth, it would be Peyrade's ruin.

He tried to look at the man and smile, and he gave him a smile for an answer; the smile passed muster

"For what purpose have you disguised yourself, taken rooms at the Mirabeau, and dressed Contenson as a

"Monsieur le Prefet may do what he chooses with me, but I owe no account of my actions to any one but my

"If you mean me to infer that you are acting by the orders of the General Police," said the other coldly, "we

will change our route, and drive to the Rue de Grenelle instead of the Rue de Jerusalem. I have clear

instructions with regard to you. But be careful! You are not in any deep disgrace, and you may spoil your

"Well, then, this is the truth, said Peyrade, with a glance at his Cerberus' red eyes.

The sham lawyer's face remained expressionless, impassible; he was doing his business, all truths were the

same to him, he looked as though he suspected the Prefet of some caprice. Prefets have their little tantrums.

"I have fallen desperately in love with a womanthe mistress of that stockbroker who is gone abroad for his

"Yes," replied Peyrade. "To keep her for a month, which will not cost me more than a thousand crowns, I

have got myself up as a nabob and taken Contenson as my servant. This is so absolutely true, monsieur, that

if you like to leave me in the coach, where I will wait for you, on my honor as an old CommissionerGeneral

of Police, you can go to the hotel and question Contenson. Not only will Contenson confirm what I have the

honor of stating, but you may see Madame du ValNoble's waitingmaid, who is to come this morning to

"An old monkey knows what grimaces mean: I have offered her a thousand francs a month and a

carriagethat comes to fifteen hundred; five hundred francs' worth of presents, and as much again in some

outings, dinners and playgoing; you see, I am not deceiving you by a centime when I say a thousand

"Bless me, Papa Peyrade! and you still care enough for women to? But you are deceiving me. I am sixty

myself, and I can do without 'em. However, if the case is as you state it, I quite understand that you should

have found it necessary to get yourself up as a foreigner to indulge your fancy."

"Ay, neither of them would have suited Madame du ValNoble," Carlos put in, delighted to have picked up

Canquoelle's address. "Before the Revolution," he went on, "I had for my mistress a woman who had

previously been kept by the gentlemaninwaiting, as they then called the executioner. One evening at the

play she pricked herself with a pin, and cried outa customary ejaculation in those days'Ah! Bourreau!'

on which her neighbor asked her if this were a reminiscence?Well, my dear Peyrade, she cast off her man

"I suppose you have no wish to expose yourself to such a slap in the face.Madame du ValNoble is a

woman for gentlemen. I saw her once at the opera, and thought her very handsome.

"Tell the driver to go back to the Rue de la Paix, my dear Peyrade. I will go upstairs with you to your rooms

and see for myself. A verbal report will no doubt be enough for Monsieur le Prefet."

Carlos took a snuffbox from his sidepocketa black snuffbox lined with silvergiltand offered it to

"And these are their agents! Good Heavens! what would Monsieur Lenoir say if he could come back to life,

"That is part of the truth, no doubt, but it is not all," said the sham lawyer, sniffing up his pinch of snuff.

"You have had a finger in the Baron de Nucingen's love affairs, and you wish, no doubt, to entangle him in

some slipknot. You missed fire with the pistol, and you are aiming at him with a fieldpiece. Madame du

"Devil take it. I must take care not to founder," said Peyrade to himself. "He is a better man than I thought

him. He is playing me; he talks of letting me go, and he goes on making me blab."

"Monsieur, it is true that I have been so foolish as to seek a woman in Monsieur de Nucingen's behoof,

because he was half mad with love. That is the cause of my being out of favor, for it would seem that quite

"But after fiftytwo years' experience," Peyrade went on, "I know the police well enough to have held my

hand after the blowing up I had from Monsieur le Prefet, who, no doubt, was right"

"Then you would give up this fancy if Monsieur le Prefet required it of you? That, I think, would be the best

"He is going it! he is going it!" thought Peyrade. "Ah! by all that's holy, the police today is a match for that

"Give it up?" said he aloud. "I will wait till I have Monsieur le Prefet's orders.But here we are at the hotel,

This audacious stroke on Carlos' part was the outcome of one of those calculations, so simple that none but a

At a very early hour he had sent Lucien to Madame de Serizy's. Lucien had begged the Count's private

secretaryas from the Countto go and obtain from the Prefet of Police full particulars concerning the

agent employed by the Baron de Nucingen. The secretary came back provided with a note concerning

"In the police force since 1778, having come to Paris from Avignon two years previously.

"Lives in the Rue des Moineaux under the name of Canquoelle, the name of a little estate where his family

"Was lately inquired for by a grandnephew named Theodore de la Peyrade. (See the report of an agent, No.

"He must be the man to whom Contenson is playing the mulatto servant!" cried Carlos, when Lucien returned

Within three hours this man, with the energy of a CommanderinChief, had found, by Paccard's help, an

innocent accomplice capable of playing the part of a gendarme in disguise, and had got himself up as a

peaceofficer. Three times in the coach he had thought of killing Peyrade, but he had made it a rule never to

commit a murder with his own hand; he promised himself that he would get rid of Peyrade all in good time

Peyrade and his Mentor, as they went in, heard Contenson's voice arguing with Madame du ValNoble's

maid. Peyrade signed to Carlos to remain in the outer room, with a look meant to convey: "Thus you can

"Madame agrees to everything," said Adele. "Madame is at this moment calling on a friend, Madame de

Champy, who has some rooms in the Rue Taitbout on her hands for a year, full of furniture, which she will

let her have, no doubt. Madame can receive Mr. Johnson more suitably there, for the furniture is still very

decent, and monsieur might buy it for madame by coming to an agreement with Madame de Champy."

"Very good, my girl. If this is not a job of fleecing, it is a bit of the wool," said the mulatto to the astonished

"That is your darkey all over!" cried Mademoiselle Adele. "If your nabob is a nabob, he can very well afford

to give madame the furniture. The lease ends in April 1830; your nabob may renew it if he likes."

"I am quite willing," said Peyrade, speaking French with a strong English accent, as he came in and tapped

He cast a knowing look back at Carlos, who replied by an assenting nod, understanding that the nabob was to

But the scene suddenly changed its aspect at the entrance of a person over whom neither Carlos nor Peyrade

had the least power. Corentin suddenly came in. He had found the door open, and looked in as he went by to

"The Prefet is still bullying me!" said Peyrade in a whisper to Corentin. "He has found me out as a nabob."

"Stay here till I return," said Carlos; "I will go to the Prefecture. If you do not see me again, you may go your

Having said this in an undertone to Peyrade, so as not to humiliate him in the presence of the waitingmaid,

Carlos went away, not caring to remain under the eye of the newcomer, in whom he detected one of those

"That?" said Corentin. "You have walked into a trap. That man has three packs of cards in his shoes; you can

see that by the place of his foot in the shoe; besides, a peaceofficer need wear no disguise."

Corentin hurried downstairs to verify his suspicions: Carlos was getting into the fly.

Carlos looked around, saw Corentin, and got in quickly. Still, Corentin had time to say:

"That was all I wanted to know.Quai Malaquais," he shouted to the driver with diabolical mockery in his

"I am done!" said Jacques Collin to himself. "They have got me. I must get ahead of them by sheer pace, and,

Corentin had seen the Abbe Carlos Herrera five or six times, and the man's eyes were unforgettable. Corentin

had suspected him at once from the cut of his shoulders, then by his puffy face, and the trick of three inches

"Ah! old fellow, they have drawn you," said Corentin, finding no one in the room but Peyrade and

"Who?" cried Peyrade, with metallic hardness; "I will spend my last days in putting him on a gridiron and

"It is the Abbe Carlos Herrera, the Corentin of Spain, as I suppose. This explains everything. The Spaniard is

a demon of the first water, who has tried to make a fortune for that little young man by coining money out of

a pretty baggage's bolster.It is your lookout if you think you can measure your skill with a man who seems

"Oh!" exclaimed Contenson, "he fingered the three hundred thousand francs the day when Esther was

arrested; he was in the cab. I remember those eyes, that brow, and those marks of the smallpox."

"You may still play the nabob," said Corentin. "To keep an eye on Esther you must keep up her intimacy with

"They have got more than five hundred thousand francs out of Nucingen already," said Contenson.

"And they want as much again," Corentin went on. "The Rubempre estate is to cost a million.Daddy,"

added he, slapping Peyrade on the shoulder, "you may get more than a hundred thousand francs to settle on

"Don't tell me that, Corentin. If your scheme should fail, I cannot tell what I might not do"

"You will have it by tomorrow perhaps! The Abbe, my dear fellow, is most astute; we shall have to kiss his

spurs; he is a very superior devil. But I have him sure enough. He is not a fool, and he will knock under. Try

In the evening of this day, when the opposing forces had met face to face on level ground, Lucien spent the

evening at the Hotel Grandlieu. The party was a large one. In the face of all the assembly, the Duchess kept

"Yes, Madame la Duchesse. My sister, in her anxiety to promote my marriage, has made great sacrifices. and

I have been enabled to repurchase the lands of the Rubempres, to reconstitute the whole estate. But I have

found in my Paris lawyer a very clever man, who has managed to save me from the extortionate terms that

"There is something which might be called a chateau; but the wiser plan would be to use the building

"You must play a rubber with my father this evening," said she. "In a fortnight I hope you will be asked to

"Well, my dear sir," said the Duc de Grandlieu, "I am told that you have bought the estate of Rubempre. I

congratulate you. It is an answer to those who say you are in debt. We bigwigs, like France or England, are

allowed to have a public debt; but men of no fortune, beginners, you see, may not assume that

"Well, well, you must marry a wife who can bring you the money; but you will have some difficulty in

finding a match with such a fortune in our Faubourg, where daughters do not get large dowries."

"We are only three wisk playersMaufrigneuse, d'Espard, and Iwill you make a fourth?" said the Duke,

"She expects me to believe that she means it for me," said the Duke, patting his daughter's hands, and looking

"My dear mother," said Clotilde to the Duchess, "he was so judicious as to lose."

At eleven o'clock, after a few affectionate words with Mademoiselle de Grandlieu, Lucien went home and to

bed, thinking of the complete triumph he was to enjoy a month hence; for he had not a doubt of being

On the morrow, when Lucien was smoking his cigarettes after breakfast, sitting with Carlos, who had become

much depressed, M. de SaintEsteve was announcedwhat a touch of ironywho begged to see either the

"Well, then, you must see the man," said he to Lucien. "But do not say a single compromising word, do not

Carlos hid in the adjoining room, and through the crack of the door he saw Corentin, whom he recognized

only by his voice, such powers of transformation did the great man possess. This time Corentin looked like an

"I have not had the honor of being known to you, monsieur," Corentin began, "but"

"But the matter in point is your marriage to Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieuwhich will never take

"You are in the power of a man who is able and willing and ready to prove to the Duc de Grandlieu that the

lands of Rubempre are to be paid for with the money that a fool has given to your mistress, Mademoiselle

Esther," Corentin went on. "It will be quite easy to find the minutes of the legal opinions in virtue of which

Mademoiselle Esther was summoned; there are ways too of making d'Estourny speak. The very clever

"As yet all can be arranged. Pay down a hundred thousand francs, and you will have peace.All this is no

concern of mine. I am only the agent of those who levy this blackmail; nothing more."

Corentin might have talked for an hour; Lucien smoked his cigarette with an air of perfect indifference.

"Monsieur," replied he, "I do not want to know who you are, for men who undertake such jobs as these have

no nameat any rate, in my vocabulary. I have allowed you to talk at your leisure; I am at home. You

There was a pause, during which Lucien met Corentin's catlike eye fixed on him with a perfectly icy stare.

"Either you are building on facts that are absolutely false, and I need pay no heed to them," said Lucien; "or

you are in the right; and in that case, by giving you a hundred thousand francs, I put you in a position to ask

me for as many hundred thousand francs as your employer can find SaintEsteves to ask for.

"However, to put an end, once and for all, to your kind intervention, I would have you know that I, Lucien de

Rubempre, fear no one. I have no part in the jobbery of which you speak. If the Grandlieus make difficulties,

there are other young ladies of very good family ready to be married. After all, it is no loss to me if I remain

single, especially if, as you imagine, I deal in blank bills to such advantage."

"Monsieur," Lucien put in, "the Abbe Herrera is at this moment on the way to Spain. He has nothing to do

with my marriage, my interests are no concern of his. That remarkable statesman was good enough to assist

me at one time with his advice, but he has reports to present to his Majesty the King of Spain; if you have

"Monsieur," said Corentin plainly, "you will never be Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu's husband."

"So much the worse for her!" replied Lucien, impatiently pushing Corentin towards the door.

"Monsieur, I do not recognize that you have any right either to meddle in my affairs, or to make me waste a

"Goodday, monsieur," said Corentin. "We shall not meet again.But there will certainly be a moment in

your life when you would give half your fortune to have called me back from these stairs."

"Now to business!" cried he, looking at Lucien, who was as white as ashes after this dreadful interview.

If among the small number of my readers who take an interest in the moral and philosophical side of this

book there should be only one capable of believing that the Baron de Nucingen was happy, that one would

prove how difficult it is to explain the heart of a courtesan by any kind of physiological formula. Esther was

resolved to make the poor millionaire pay dearly for what he called his day of triumph. And at the beginning

of February 1830 the housewarming party had not yet been given in the "little palace."

"Well," said Esther in confidence to her friends, who repeated it to the Baron, "I shall open house at the

The Baron gave vent to much lamentation; like married men, he made himself very ridiculous, he began to

Esther, meanwhile, took quite a serious view of her position as the Pompadour of this prince of speculators.

She had given two or three small evening parties, solely to get Lucien into the house. Lousteau, Rastignac, du

Tillet, Bixiou, Nathan, the Comte de Brambourgall the cream of the dissipated crewfrequented her

drawingroom. And, as leading ladies in the piece she was playing, Esther accepted Tullia, Florentine, Fanny

Beaupre, and Florinetwo dancers and two actresses besides Madame du ValNoble. Nothing can be

more dreary than a courtesan's home without the spice of rivalry, the display of dress, and some variety of

In six weeks Esther had become the wittiest, the most amusing, the loveliest, and the most elegant of those

female pariahs who form the class of kept women. Placed on the pedestal that became her, she enjoyed all the

delights of vanity which fascinate women in general, but still as one who is raised above her caste by a secret

thought. She cherished in her heart an image of herself which she gloried in, while it made her blush; the hour

when she must abdicate was ever present to her consciousness; thus she lived a double life, really scorning

herself. Her sarcastic remarks were tinged by the temper which was roused in her by the intense contempt felt

by the Angel of Love, hidden in the courtesan, for the disgraceful and odious part played by the body in the

presence, as it were, of the soul. At once actor and spectator, victim and judge, she was a living realization of

the beautiful Arabian Tales, in which a noble creature lies hidden under a degrading form, and of which the

type is the story of Nebuchadnezzar in the book of booksthe Bible. Having granted herself a lease of life

till the day after her infidelity, the victim might surely play awhile with the executioner.

Moreover, the enlightenment that had come to Esther as to the secretly disgraceful means by which the Baron

had made his colossal fortune relieved her of every scruple. She could play the part of Ate, the goddess of

vengeance, as Carlos said. And so she was by turns enchanting and odious to the banker, who lived only for

her. When the Baron had been worked up to such a pitch of suffering that he wanted only to be quit of Esther,

Herrera, making a great show of starting for Spain, had gone as far as Tours. He had sent the chaise on as far

as Bordeaux, with a servant inside, engaged to play the part of master, and to wait for him at Bordeaux. Then,

returning by diligence, dressed as a commercial traveler, he had secretly taken up his abode under Esther's

roof, and thence, aided by Asie and Europe, carefully directed all his machinations, keeping an eye on every

About a fortnight before the day chosen for her great entertainment, which was to be given in the evening

after the first opera ball, the courtesan, whose witticisms were beginning to make her feared, happened to be

at the Italian opera, at the back of a box which the Baronforced to give a boxhad secured in the lowest

tier, in order to conceal his mistress, and not to flaunt her in public within a few feet of Madame de

Nucingen. Esther had taken her seat, so as to "rake" that of Madame de Serizy, whom Lucien almost

invariably accompanied. The poor girl made her whole happiness centre in watching Lucien on Tuesdays,

At about halfpast nine in the evening Esther could see Lucien enter the Countess' box, with a careladen

brow, pale, and with almost drawn features. These symptoms of mental anguish were legible only to Esther.

The knowledge of a man's countenance is, to the woman who loves him, like that of the sea to a sailor.

"Good God! what can be the matter? What has happened? Does he want to speak with that angel of hell, who

is to him a guardian angel, and who lives in an attic between those of Europe and Asie?"

Tormented by such reflections, Esther scarcely listened to the music. Still less, it may be believed, did she

listen to the Baron, who held one of his "Anchel's" hands in both his, talking to her in his horrible

PolishJewish accent, a jargon which must be as unpleasant to read as it is to hear spoken.

"Esther," said he, releasing her hand, and pushing it away with a slight touch of temper, "you do not listen to

"I am not in my boudoir here, I am at the opera. If you were not a barrel made by Huret or Fichet,

metamorphosed into a man by some trick of nature, you would not make so much noise in a box with a

woman who is fond of music. I don't listen to you? I should think not! There you sit rustling my dress like a

cockchafer in a paperbag, and making me laugh with contempt. You say to me, 'You are so pretty, I should

like to eat you!' Old simpleton! Supposing I were to say to you, 'You are less intolerable this evening than

you were yesterdaywe will go home?'Well, from the way you puff and sighfor I feel you if I don't

listen to youI perceive that you have eaten an enormous dinner, and your digestion is at work. Let me

instruct youfor I cost you enough to give some advice for your money now and thenlet me tell you, my

dear fellow, that a man whose digestion is so troublesome as yours is, is not justified in telling his mistress

that she is pretty at unseemly hours. An old soldier died of that very folly 'in the arms of Religion,' as Blondet

"It is now ten o'clock. You finished dinner at du Tillet's at nine o'clock, with your pigeon the Comte de

Brambourg; you have millions and truffles to digest. Come tomorrow night at ten."

"Vat you are cruel!" cried the Baron, recognizing the profound truth of this medical argument.

"Cruel!" echoed Esther, still looking at Lucien. "Have you not consulted Bianchon, Desplein, old

Haudry?Since you have had a glimpse of future happiness, do you know what you seem like to me?"

"A fat old fellow wrapped in flannel, who walks every hour from his armchair to the window to see if the

thermometer has risen to the degree marked 'SILKWORMS,' the temperature prescribed by his physician."

"You are really an ungrateful slut!" cried the Baron, in despair at hearing a tune, which, however, amorous

"Ungrateful!" retorted Esther. "What have you given me till now? A great deal of annoyance. Come, papa!

Can I be proud of you? You! you are proud of me; I wear your livery and badge with an air. You paid my

debts? So you did. But you have grabbed so many millionscome, you need not sulk; you admitted that to

methat you need not think twice of that. And this is your chief title to fame. A baggage and a thief a

"You have built a splendid cage for a parrot that amuses you. Go and ask a Brazilian cockatoo what gratitude

it owes to the man who placed it in a gilded cage.Don't look at me like that; you are just like a Buddist

"Well, you show your redandwhite cockatoo to all Paris. You say, 'Does anybody else in Paris own such a

parrot? And how well it talks, how cleverly it picks its words!' If du Tillet comes in, it says at once, 'How'do,

little swindler!'Why, you are as happy as a Dutchman who has grown an unique tulip, as an old nabob

pensioned off in Asia by England, when a commercial traveler sells him the first Swiss snuffbox that opens

"Speak, speak, dere is noting I shall not do for you. I lofe to be fooled by you."

"Be young, be handsome, be like Lucien de Rubempre over there by your wife, and you shall have gratis

"I shall go 'vay, for really you are too bat dis evening!" said the banker, with a lengthened face.

"Very well, goodnight then," said Esther. "Tell Georches to make your pillows very high and place your fee

low, for you look apoplectic this evening.You cannot say, my dear, that I take no interest in your health."

"Do you want to see me very sweet, and giving you sugarandwater, and petting you in my house, this very

"Break your heartyou mean bore you," she went on. "Well, bring me Lucien that I may invite him to our

Belshazzar's feast, and you may be sure he will not fail to come. If you succeed in that little transaction, I will

tell you that I love you, my fat Frederic, in such plain terms that you cannot but believe me."

"You are an enchantress," said the Baron, kissing Esther's glove. "I should be villing to listen to abuse for ein

"But if I am not obeyed, I" and she threatened the Baron with her finger as we threaten children.

The Baron raised his head like a bird caught in a springe and imploring the trapper's pity.

"Dear Heaven! What ails Lucien?" said she to herself when she was alone, making no attempt to check her

At nine o'clock he had gone out, as he did every evening, in his brougham to go to the Hotel de Grandlieu.

Using his saddlehorse and cab in the morning only, like all young men, he had hired a brougham for winter

evenings, and had chosen a firstclass carriage and splendid horses from one of the best jobmasters. For the

last month all had gone well with him; he had dined with the Grandlieus three times; the Duke was delightful

to him; his shares in the Omnibus Company, sold for three hundred thousand francs, had paid off a third more

of the price of the land; Clotilde de Grandlieu, who dressed beautifully now, reddened inch thick when he

went into the room, and loudly proclaimed her attachment to him. Some personages of high estate discussed

their marriage as a probable event. The Duc de Chaulieu, formerly Ambassador to Spain, and now for a short

while Minister for Foreign Affairs, had promised the Duchesse de Grandlieu that he would ask for the title of

So that evening, after dining with Madame de Serizy, Lucien had driven to the Faubourg SaintGermain to

He arrives, the coachman calls for the gate to be opened, he drives into the courtyard and stops at the steps.

Lucien, on getting out, remarks four other carriages in waiting. On seeing Monsieur de Rubempre, one of the

footmen placed to open and shut the halldoor comes forward and out on to the steps, in front of the door,

"I do not think that Mademoiselle Clotilde will see you, monsieur, in the absence of Madame la Duchesse."

There is nothing more fatal than etiquette to those who regard it as the most formidable arm of social law.

Lucien easily interpreted the meaning of this scene, so disastrous to him. The Duke and Duchess would not

admit him. He felt the spinal marrow freezing in the core of his vertebral column, and a sickly cold sweat

bedewed his brow. The conversation had taken place in the presence of his own bodyservant, who held the

door of the brougham, doubting whether to shut it. Lucien signed to him that he was going away again; but as

he stepped into the carriage, he heard the noise of people coming downstairs, and the servant called out first,

"Madame la Duchesse de Chaulieu's people," then "Madame la Vicomtesse de Grandlieu's carriage!"

Lucien merely said, "To the Italian opera"; but in spite of his haste, the luckless dandy could not escape the

Duc de Chaulieu and his son, the Duc de Rhetore, to whom he was obliged to bow, for they did not speak a

word to him. A great catastrophe at Court, the fall of a formidable favorite, has ere now been pronounced on

the threshold of a royal study, in one word from an usher with a face like a plaster cast.

"How am I to let my adviser know of this disasterthis instant?" thought Lucien as he drove to the

This was what had taken place. That morning, at eleven o'clock, the Duc de Grandlieu, as he went into the

little room where the family all breakfasted together, said to Clotilde after kissing her, "Until further orders,

Then he had taken the Duchesse by the hand, and led her into a window recess to say a few words in an

undertone, which made poor Clotilde turn pale; for she watched her mother as she listened to the Duke, and

"Jean," said the Duke to one of his servants, "take this note to Monsieur le Duc de Chaulieu, and beg him to

answer by you, Yes or No. I am asking him to dine here today," he added to his wife.

Breakfast had been a most melancholy meal. The Duchess was meditative, the Duke seemed to be vexed with

"My child, your father is right; you must obey him," the mother had said to the daughter with much emotion.

"I do not say as he does, 'Think no more of Lucien.' Nofor I understand your suffering" Clotilde kissed

her mother's hand"but I do say, my darling, Wait, take no step, suffer in silence since you love him, and

put your trust in your parents' care.Great ladies, my child, are great just because they can do their duty on

"Matters too serious to be discussed with you, my dearest," the Duchess replied. "For if they are untrue, your

mind would be unnecessarily sullied; and if they are true, you must never know them."

At six o'clock the Duc de Chaulieu had come to join the Duc de Grandlieu, who awaited him in his study.

"Tell me, Henri"for the Dukes were on the most familiar terms, and addressed each other by their Christian

names. This is one of the shades invented to mark a degree of intimacy, to repel the audacity of French

familiarity, and humiliate conceit"tell me, Henri, I am in such a desperate difficulty that I can only ask

advice of an old friend who understands business, and you have practice and experience. My daughter

Clotilde, as you know, is in love with that little Rubempre, whom I have been almost compelled to accept as

her promised husband. I have always been averse to the marriage; however, Madame de Grandlieu could not

bear to thwart Clotilde's passion. When the young fellow had repurchased the family estate and paid

"But last evening I received an anonymous letteryou know how much that is worthin which I am

informed that the young fellow's fortune is derived from some disreputable source, and that he is telling lies

when he says that his sister is giving him the necessary funds for his purchase. For my daughter's happiness,

and for the sake of our family, I am adjured to make inquiries, and the means of doing so are suggested to me.

"I am entirely of your opinion as to the value of anonymous letters, my dear Ferdinand," said the Duc de

Chaulieu after reading the letter. "Still, though we may contemn them, we must make use of them. We must

treat such letters as we would treat a spy. Keep the young man out of the house, and let us make

"I know how to do it. Your lawyer is Derville, a man in whom we have perfect confidence; he knows the

secrets of many families, and can certainly be trusted with this. He is an honest man, a man of weight, and a

man of honor; he is cunning and wily; but his wiliness is only in the way of business, and you need only

"We have in the Foreign Office an agent of the superior police who is unique in his power of discovering

State secrets; we often send him on such missions. Inform Derville that he will have a lieutenant in the case.

Our spy is a gentleman who will appear wearing the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, and looking like a

diplomate. This rascal will do the hunting; Derville will only look on. Your lawyer will then tell you if the

mountain brings forth a mouse, or if you must throw over this little Rubempre. Within a week you will know

"The young man is not yet so far a Marquis as to take offence at my being 'Not at home' for a week," said the

"Above all, if you end by giving him your daughter," replied the Minister. "If the anonymous letter tells the

truth, what of that? You can send Clotilde to travel with my daughterinlaw Madeleine, who wants to go to

"By the way," exclaimed the Duc de Grandlieu, "what is your man's name? I must mention it to Derville.

Send him to me tomorrow by five o'clock; I will have Derville here and put them in communication."

"His real name," said M. de Chaulieu, "is, I think, Corentina name you must never have heard, for my

gentleman will come ticketed with his official name. He calls himself Monsieur de SaintSomethingSaint

YvesSaintValere?Something of the kind.You may trust him; Louis XVIII. had perfect confidence in

After this confabulation the steward had orders to shut the door on Monsieur de Rubemprewhich was

Lucien paced the waitingroom at the operahouse like a man who was drunk. He fancied himself the talk of

all Paris. He had in the Duc de Rhetore one of those unrelenting enemies on whom a man must smile, as he

can never be revenged, since their attacks are in conformity with the rules of society. The Duc de Rhetore

knew the scene that had just taken place on the outside steps of the Grandlieus' house. Lucien, feeling the

necessity of at once reporting the catastrophe to his high privy councillor, nevertheless was afraid of

compromising himself by going to Esther's house, where he might find company. He actually forgot that

Esther was here, so confused were his thoughts, and in the midst of so much perplexity he was obliged to

make small talk with Rastignac, who, knowing nothing of the news, congratulated him on his approaching

"Vill you do me de pleasure to come to see Montame de Champy, vat vill infite you herself to von

"With pleasure, Baron," replied Lucien, to whom the Baron appeared as a rescuing angel.

"Leave us," said Esther to Monsieur de Nucingen, when she saw him come in with Lucien. "Go and see

Madame du ValNoble, whom I discover in a box on the third tier with her nabob.A great many nabobs

"And them," said Esther, answering Lucien with another look of intelligence, while still speaking to the

Baron, "bring her here with her nabob; he is very anxious to make your acquaintance. They say he is very

rich. The poor woman has already poured out I know not how many elegies; she complains that her nabob is

no good; and if you relieve him of his ballast, perhaps he will sail closer to the wind."

"What ails you, my Lucien?" asked Esther in her friend's ear, just touching it with her lips as soon as the box

"I am lost! I have just been turned from the door of the Hotel de Grandlieu under pretence that no one was

admitted. The Duke and Duchess were at home, and five pairs of horses were champing in the courtyard."

"What! will the marriage not take place?" exclaimed Esther, much agitated, for she saw a glimpse of

"My Lucien," said she in a deliciously coaxing voice, "why be worried about it? You can make a better match

"Give us supper tonight that I may be able to speak in secret to Carlos, and, above all, invite the sham

Englishman and ValNoble. That nabob is my ruin; he is our enemy; we will get hold of him, and we"

"Oh! Madame de Serizy sees me!" cried Lucien, "and to crown our woes, the Duc de Rhetore, who witnessed

In fact, at that very minute, the Duc de Rhetore was amusing himself with Madame de Serizy's discomfiture.

"Do you allow Lucien to be seen in Mademoiselle Esther's box?" said the young Duke, pointing to the box

and to Lucien; "you, who take an interest in him, should really tell him such things are not allowed. He may

sup at her house, he may evenBut, in fact, I am no longer surprised at the Grandlieus' coolness towards the

"Women of that sort are very dangerous," said Madame de Serizy, turning her operaglass on Esther's box.

"They will ruin him!" cried Madame de Serizy, "for I am told they cost as much whether they are paid or no."

"Not to him!" said the young Duke, affecting surprise. "They are far from costing him anything; they give

The Countess' lips showed a little nervous twitching which could not be included in any category of smiles.

"Well, then," said Esther, "come to supper at midnight. Bring Blondet and Rastignac; let us have two

"You must find some excuse for sending the Baron to fetch Eugenie under pretence of warning Asie, and tell

her what has befallen me, so that Carlos may know before he has the nabob under his claws."

And thus Peyrade was probably about to find himself unwittingly under the same roof with his adversary.

When Lucien went back to Madame de Serizy's box, instead of turning to him, smiling and arranging her

skirts for him to sit by her, she affected to pay him not the slightest attention, but looked about the house

through her glass. Lucien could see, however, by the shaking of her hand that the Countess was suffering

from one of those terrible emotions by which illicit joys are paid for. He went to the front of the box all the

same, and sat down by her at the opposite corner, leaving a little vacant space between himself and the

Countess. He leaned on the ledge of the box with his elbow, resting his chin on his gloved hand; then he half

turned away, waiting for a word. By the middle of the act the Countess had still neither spoken to him nor

"I do not know," said she at last, "why you are here; your place is in Mademoiselle Esther's box"

"I will go there," said Lucien, leaving the box without looking at the Countess.

"My dear," said Madame du ValNoble, going into Esther's box with Peyrade, whom the Baron de Nucingen

did not recognize, "I am delighted to introduce Mr. Samuel Johnson. He is a great admirer of M. de

"Why, Baron, here is a way of speaking French which is as much like yours as the low Breton dialect is like

that of Burgundy. It will be most amusing to hear you discuss money matters.Do you know, Monsieur

Nabob, what I shall require of you if you are to make acquaintance with my Baron?" said Esther with a smile.

"Oh!Thank you so much, you will introduce me to Sir Baronet?" said Peyrade with an extravagant English

"Yes," said she, "you must give me the pleasure of your company at supper. There is no pitch stronger than

champagne for sticking men together. It seals every kind of business, above all such as you put your foot

in.Come this evening; you will find some jolly fellows. As for you, my little Frederic," she added in the

Baron's ear, "you have your carriage herejust drive to the Rue SaintGeorges and bring Europe to me here;

I have a few words to say to her about the supper. I have caught Lucien; he will bring two men who will be

"Oh, my dear, if you ever succeed in drawing that great brute, you will be clever indeed," said Suzanne.

"If it proves impossible, you must lend him to me for a week," replied Esther, laughing.

"You would but keep him half a day," replied Madame du ValNoble. "The bread I eat is too hard; it breaks

my teeth. Never again, to my dying day, will I try to make an Englishman happy. They are all cold and

"The wretch always addresses me as Madame, and preserves the most perfect coolness imaginable at

moments when every man is more or less amenable. To him lovemaking!on my word, it is nothing more

nor less than shaving himself. He wipes the razor, puts it back in its case, and looks in the glass as if he were

"Then he treats me with such respect as is enough to send a woman mad. That odious Milord Potboiler

amuses himself by making poor Theodore hide in my dressingroom and stand there half the day. In short, he

tries to annoy me in every way. And as stingy!As miserly as Gobseck and Gigonnet rolled into one. He

takes me out to dinner, but he does not pay the cab that brings me home if I happen not to have ordered my

"Oh, my dear, positively nothing. Five hundred francs a month and not a penny more, and the hire of a

carriage. But what is it? A machine such as they hire out for a thirdrate wedding to carry an epicier to the

"If I try hysterics and feel ill, he is never vexed; he only says: 'I wish my lady to have her own way, for there

is nothing more detestable no gentlemanthan to say to a nice woman, "You are a cotton bale, a bundle

of merchandise."Ha, hah! Are you a member of the Temperance Society and antislavery?' And my horror

sits pale, and cold, and hard while he gives me to understand that he has as much respect for me as he might

have for a Negro, and that it has nothing to do with his feelings, but with his opinions as an abolitionist."

"A man cannot be a worse wretch," said Esther. "But I will smash up that outlandish Chinee."

"Smash him up?" replied Madame du ValNoble. "Not if he does not love me. You, yourself, would you like

to ask him for two sous? He would listen to you solemnly, and tell you, with British precision that would

make a slap in the face seem genial, that he pays dear enough for the trifle that love can be to his poor life;"

"To think that in our line of life we are thrown in the way of such men!" exclaimed Esther.

"Look here, my dear; that man, you may depend, has laid a bet that he will make a woman hate him and pack

"Or else he wants to do business with Nucingen, and took me up knowing that you and I were friends; that is

what Adele thinks," answered Madame du ValNoble. "That is why I introduced him to you this evening.

Oh, if only I could be sure what he is at, what tricks I could play with you and Nucingen!"

"And you don't get angry?" asked Esther; "you don't speak your mind now and then?"

"Try ityou are sharp and smooth.Well, in spite of your sweetness, he would kill you with his icy smiles.

'I am antislavery,' he would say, 'and you are free.'If you said the funniest things, he would only look at

you and say, 'Very good!' and you would see that he regards you merely as a part of the show."

"The same thing; it would still be a show. You might cut him open under the left breast without hurting him

in the least; his internals are of tinnediron, I am sure. I told him so. He replied, 'I am quite satisfied with that

"I shall endure this martyrdom for a few days longer to satisfy my curiosity. But for that, I should have made

Philippe slap my lord's cheekand he has not his match as a swordsman. There is nothing else left for

"I was just going to say so," cried Esther. "But you must ascertain first that Philippe is a boxer; for these old

"This one has no match on earth. No. if you could but see him asking my commands, to know at what hour he

may cometo take me by surprise, of courseand pouring out respectful speeches like a socalled

gentleman, you would say, 'Why, he adores her!' and there is not a woman in the world who would not say

"Ah, well!" sighed Madame du ValNoble; "in the course of our lives we learn more or less how little men

value us. But, my dear, I have never been so cruelly, so deeply, so utterly scorned by brutality as I am by this

"When he is tipsy he goes away'not to be unpleasant,' as he tells Adele, and not to be 'under two powers at

once,' wine and woman. He takes advantage of my carriage; he uses it more than I do.Oh! if only we could

see him under the table tonight! But he can drink ten bottles and only be fuddled; when his eyes are full, he

"Like people whose windows are dirty outside," said Esther, "but who can see from inside what is going on in

the street.I know that property in man. Du Tillet has it in the highest degree."

"Try to get du Tillet, and if he and Nucingen between them could only catch him in some of their plots, I

"Oh! my dear, to have fallen into the hands of a hypocritical Protestant after that poor Falleix, who was so

amusing, so good natured, so full of chaff! How we used to laugh! They say all stockbrokers are stupid.

"When he left you without a sou? That is what made you acquainted with the unpleasant side of pleasure."

Europe, brought in by Monsieur de Nucingen, put her viperine head in at the door, and after listening to a few

At halfpast eleven that evening, five carriages were stationed in the Rue SaintGeorges before the famous

courtesan's door. There was Lucien's, who had brought Rastignac, Bixiou, and Blondet; du Tillet's, the Baron

de Nucingen's, the Nabob's, and Florine'sshe was invited by du Tillet. The closed and doublyshuttered

windows were screened by the splendid Chinese silk curtains. Supper was to be served at one; waxlights

were blazing, the diningroom and little drawingroom displayed all their magnificence. The party looked

forward to such an orgy as only three such women and such men as these could survive. They began by

"He does it well!" said Esther to Lucien. "They all take him for an Englishman."

Du Tillet, Nucingen, Peyrade, and Rastignac sat down to a whisttable; Florine, Madame du ValNoble,

Esther, Blondet, and Bixiou sat round the fire chatting. Lucien spent the time in looking through a book of

Peyrade was placed at Florine's left hand, and on the other side of him Bixiou, whom Esther had enjoined to

make the Englishman drink freely, and challenge him to beat him. Bixiou had the power of drinking an

Never in his life had Peyrade seen such splendor, or tasted of such cookery, or seen such fine women.

"I am getting my money's worth this evening for the thousand crowns la ValNoble has cost me till now,"

"This is an example for men to follow!" said Suzanne, who was sitting by Lucien, with a wave of her hand at

Esther had placed Lucien next herself, and was holding his foot between her own under the table.

"Do you hear?" said Madame du ValNoble, addressing Peyrade, who affected blindness. "This is how you

ought to furnish a house! When a man brings millions home from India, and wants to do business with the

"Then you will drink like a fish!" said Bixiou, "for the Indies are uncommon hot, uncle!"

It was Bixiou's jest during supper to treat Peyrade as an uncle of his, returned from India.

"Montame du FalNoble tolt me you shall have some iteas," said Nucingen, scrutinizing Peyrade.

"Ah, this is what I wanted to hear," said du Tillet to Rastignac; "the two talking gibberish together."

"You will see, they will understand each other at last," said Bixiou, guessing what du Tillet had said to

"Sir Baronet, I have imagined a speculationoh! a very comfortable jobbocou profitable and rich in

"Now you will see," said Blondet to du Tillet, "he will not talk one minute without dragging in the Parliament

"Ja, I know," said Nucingen at once, as a man who is well acquainted with commercial geography. "But de

English Gover'ment hafe taken up de opium trate as a means dat shall open up China, and she shall not allow

"Ah! you have been in the opium trade!" cried Madame du ValNoble. "Now I understand why you are so

"Dere! you see!" cried the Baron to the selfstyled opium merchant, and pointing to Madame du ValNoble.

"As a result of temperance," said Bixiou, who had just seen Peyrade finish his third bottle of claret, and now

Blondet, du Tillet, and Bixiou smiled at each other. Peyrade had the power of travestying everything, even his

wit. There are very few Englishmen who will not maintain that gold and silver are better in England than

elsewhere. The fowls and eggs exported from Normandy to the London market enable the English to

maintain that the poultry and eggs in London are superior (very fine) to those of Paris, which come from the

Esther and Lucien were dumfounded by this perfection of costume, language, and audacity.

They all ate and drank so well and so heartily, while talking and laughing, that it went on till four in the

morning. Bixiou flattered himself that he had achieved one of the victories so pleasantly related by

BrillatSavarin. But at the moment when he was saying to himself, as he offered his "uncle" some more

wine, "I have vanquished England!" Peyrade replied in good French to this malicious scoffer, "Toujours, mon

"Hallo, good men all, he is as English as I am!My uncle is a Gascon! I could have no other!"

Bixiou and Peyrade were alone, so no one heard this announcement. Peyrade rolled off his chair on to the

floor. Paccard forthwith picked him up and carried him to an attic, where he fell sound asleep.

At six o'clock next evening, the Nabob was roused by the application of a wet cloth, with which his face was

being washed, and awoke to find himself on a campbed, face to face with Asie, wearing a mask and a black

"Listen to me," said Asie, "and that will sober you.Though you do not love Madame du ValNoble, you

"What then? She is no longer in the Rue des Moineaux; she has been carried off."

Peyrade breathed a sigh like that of a soldier dying of a mortal wound on the battlefield.

"While you were pretending to be an Englishman, some one else was pretending to be Peyrade. Your little

Lydie thought she was with her father, and she is now in a safe place.Oh! you will never find her! unless

"Yesterday Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre had the door shut in his face at the Duc de Grandlieu's. This is due

to your intrigues, and to the man you let loose on us. Do not speak, listen!" Asie went on, seeing Peyrade

open his mouth. "You will have your daughter again, pure and spotless," she added, emphasizing her

statement by the accent on every word, "only on the day after that on which Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre

walks out of SaintThomas d'Aquin as the husband of Mademoiselle Clotilde. If, within ten days Lucien de

Rubempre is not admitted, as he has been, to the Grandlieus' house, you, to begin with, will die a violent

death, and nothing can save you from the fate that threatens you.Then, when you feel yourself dying, you

will have time before breathing your last to reflect, 'My daughter is a prostitute for the rest of her life!'

"Though you have been such a fool as give us this hold for our clutches, you still have sense enough to

meditate on this ultimatum from our government. Do not bark, say nothing to any one; go to Contenson's, and

change your dress, and then go home. Katt will tell you that at a word from you your little Lydie went

downstairs, and has not been seen since. If you make any fuss, if you take any steps, your daughter will begin

"With old Canquoelle I need not mince matters, I should think, or wear gloves, heh? Go on downstairs,

Asie left Peyrade in a pitiable state; every word had been a blow with a club. The spy had tears in his eyes,

"They are waiting dinner for Mr. Johnson," said Europe, putting her head in a moment after.

Peyrade made no reply; he went down, walked till he reached a cab stand, and hurried off to undress at

Contenson's, not saying a word to him; he resumed the costume of Pere Canquoelle, and got home by eight

o'clock. He mounted the stairs with a beating heart. When the Flemish woman heard her master, she asked

"Well, and where is mademoiselle?" with such simplicity, that the old spy was obliged to lean against the

wall. The blow was more than he could bear. He went into his daughter's rooms, and ended by fainting with

grief when he found them empty, and heard Katt's story, which was that of an abduction as skilfully planned

"Well, well," thought he, "I must knock under. I will be revenged later; now I must go to Corentin.This is

the first time we have met our foes. Corentin will leave that handsome boy free to marry an Empress if he

wishes!Yes, I understand that my little girl should have fallen in love with him at first sight.Oh! that

On reaching Corentin's house, Bruno, the confidential servant, who knew Peyrade, said:

"Good God, I am losing my wits! I ask him whereas if we ever told them" thought he.

A few hours before the moment when Peyrade was to be roused in his garret in the Rue SaintGeorges,

Corentin, coming in from his country place at Passy, had made his way to the Duc de Grandlieu's, in the

costume of a retainer of a superior class. He wore the ribbon of the Legion of Honor at his buttonhole. He

had made up a withered old face with powdered hair, deep wrinkles, and a colorless skin. His eyes were

hidden by tortoiseshell spectacles. He looked like a retired office clerk. On giving his name as Monsieur

de SaintDenis, he was led to the Duke's private room, where he found Derville reading a letter, which he

himself had dictated to one of his agents, the "number" whose business it was to write documents. The Duke

took Corentin aside to tell him all he already knew. Monsieur de SaintDenis listened coldly and respectfully,

amusing himself by studying this grand gentleman, by penetrating the tufa beneath the velvet cover, by

scrutinizing this being, now and always absorbed in whist and in regard for the House of Grandlieu.

"If you will take my advice, monsieur," said Corentin to Derville, after being duly introduced to the lawyer,

"we shall set out this very afternoon for Angouleme by the Bordeaux coach, which goes quite as fast as the

mail; and we shall not need to stay there six hours to obtain the information Monsieur le Duc requires. It will

be enoughif I have understood your Graceto ascertain whether Monsieur de Rubempre's sister and

brotherinlaw are in a position to give him twelve hundred thousand francs?" and he turned to the Duke.

"We can be back again in four days," Corentin went on, addressing Derville, "and neither of us will have

"That was the only difficulty I was about to mention to his Grace," said Derville. "It is now four o'clock. I am

going home to say a word to my headclerk, and pack my travelingbag, and after dinner, at eight o'clock, I

will be But shall we get places?" he said to Monsieur de SaintDenis, interrupting himself.

"I will answer for that," said Corentin. "Be in the yard of the Chief Office of the Messageries at eight o'clock.

If there are no places, they shall make some, for that is the way to serve Monseigneur le Duc de Grandlieu."

At the hour when Peyrade was questioning Corentin's servant, Monsieur de SaintDenis and Derville, seated

in the Bordeaux coach, were studying each other in silence as they drove out of Paris.

Next morning, between Orleans and Tours, Derville, being bored, began to converse, and Corentin

condescended to amuse him, but keeping his distance; he left him to believe that he was in the diplomatic

service, and was hoping to become ConsulGeneral by the good offices of the Duc de Grandlieu. Two days

after leaving Paris, Corentin and Derville got out at Mansle, to the great surprise of the lawyer, who thought

"In this little town," said Corentin, "we can get the most positive information as regards Madame Sechard."

"Do you know her then?" asked Derville, astonished to find Corentin so well informed.

"I made the conductor talk, finding he was a native of Angouleme. He tells me that Madame Sechard lives at

Marsac, and Marsac is but a league away from Mansle. I thought we should be at greater advantage here than

"And besides," thought Derville, "as Monsieur le Duc said, I act merely as the witness to the inquiries made

The inn at Mansle, la Belle Etoile, had for its landlord one of those fat and burly men whom we fear we may

find no more on our return; but who still, ten years after, are seen standing at their door with as much

superfluous flesh as ever, in the same linen cap, the same apron, with the same knife, the same oiled hair, the

same triple chin,all stereotyped by novelwriters from the immortal Cervantes to the immortal Walter

Scott. Are they not all boastful of their cookery? have they not all "whatever you please to order"? and do not

all end by giving you the same hectic chicken, and vegetables cooked with rank butter? They all boast of their

But Corentin, from his earliest youth, had known the art of getting out of an innkeeper things more essential

to himself than doubtful dishes and apocryphal wines. So he gave himself out as a man easy to please, and

willing to leave himself in the hands of the best cook in Mansle, as he told the fat man.

"Serve us in the side room," said Corentin, winking at Derville. "And do not be afraid of setting the chimney

"Is it far to Marsac?" asked Corentin of the innkeeper's wife, who came down from the upper regions on

"I don't know," he said sharply. "Is it far from hence to Marsac?" he repeated, after giving the woman time to

"Do you think that Monsieur and Madame Sechard are likely to be there in winter?"

"Oh yes, till ten. They have company every eveningthe cure, Monsieur Marron the doctor"

"Oh, the best of good souls," replied the woman, "straightforward, honestand not ambitious neither.

Monsieur Sechard, though he is very well offthey say he might have made millions if he had not allowed

himself to be robbed of an invention in the papermaking of which the brothers Cointet are getting the

"Hold your tongue," said the innkeeper. "What can it matter to these gentlemen whether Monsieur Sechard

has a right or no to a patent for his inventions in papermaking?If you mean to spend the night here at

the Belle Etoile" he went on, addressing the travelers, "here is the book, and please to put your names

down. We have an officer in this town who has nothing to do, and spends all his time in nagging at us"

"The devil!" said Corentin, while Derville entered their names and his profession as attorney to the lower

"Some people say they are millionaires," replied the innkeeper. "But as to hindering tongues from wagging,

you might as well try to stop the river from flowing. Old Sechard left two hundred thousand francs' worth of

landed property, it is said; and that is not amiss for a man who began as a workman. Well, and he may have

had as much again in savings, for he made ten or twelve thousand francs out of his land at last. So, supposing

he were fool enough not to invest his money for ten years, that would be all told. But even if he lent it at high

interest, as he is suspected of doing there would be three hundred thousand francs perhaps, and that is all.

Five hundred thousand francs is a long way short of a million. I should be quite content with the difference,

"Really!" said Corentin. "Then Monsieur David Sechard and his wife have not a fortune of two or three

"Why," exclaimed the innkeeper's wife, "that is what the Cointets are supposed to have, who robbed him of

his invention, and he does not get more than twenty thousand francs out of them. Where do you suppose such

honest folks would find millions? They were very much pinched while the father was alive. But for Kolb,

their manager, and Madame Kolb, who is as much attached to them as her husband, they could scarcely have

lived. Why, how much had they with La Verberie!A thousand francs a year perhaps."

"In vino veritas! Truth lives under a cork. For my part, I regard an inn as the real registry office of the

countryside; the notary is not better informed than the innkeeper as to all that goes on in a small

neighborhood.You see! we are supposed to know all about the Cointets and Kolb and the rest.

"Your innkeeper is the living record of every incident; he does the work of the police without suspecting it. A

government should maintain two hundred spies at most, for in a country like France there are ten millions of

simpleminded informers.However, we need not trust to this report; though even in this little town

something would be known about the twelve hundred thousand francs sunk in paying for the Rubempre

"And this is why," added Corentin; "I have hit on the most natural way of extracting the truth from the mouth

of the Sechard couple. I rely upon you to support, by your authority as a lawyer, the little trick I shall employ

to enable you to hear a clear and complete account of their affairs.After dinner we shall set out to call on

Monsieur Sechard," said Corentin to the innkeeper's wife. "Have beds ready for us, we want separate rooms.

"The pun is to be found in every department," said Corentin; "it is no monopoly of yours."

"But where the devil can that young fellow have found the money? Is the anonymous writer accurate? Can it

be the earnings of some handsome baggage?" said Derville, as they sat down to dinner.

"Ah, that will be the subject of another inquiry," said Corentin. "Lucien de Rubempre, as the Duc de Chaulieu

tells me, lives with a converted Jewess, who passes for a Dutch woman, and is called Esther van Bogseck."

"What a strange coincidence!" said the lawyer. "I am hunting for the heiress of a Dutchman named

"Well," said Corentin, "you shall have information as to her parentage on my return to Paris."

An hour later, the two agents for the Grandlieu family set out for La Verberie, where Monsieur and Madame

Never had Lucien felt any emotion so deep as that which overcame him at La Verberie when comparing his

own fate with that of his brother inlaw. The two Parisians were about to witness the same scene that had so

At the hour when the two strangers were arriving, a party of four persons were being entertained in the

drawingroom of La Verberie: the cure of Marsac, a young priest of fiveandtwenty, who, at Madame

Sechard's request, had become tutor to her little boy Lucien; the country doctor, Monsieur Marron; the Maire

of the commune; and an old colonel, who grew roses on a plot of land opposite to La Verberie on the other

side of the road. Every evening during the winter these persons came to play an artless game of boston for

When Monsieur and Madame Sechard had bought La Verberie, a fine house built of stone, and roofed with

slate, the pleasuregrounds consisted of a garden of two acres. In the course of time, by devoting her savings

to the purpose, handsome Madame Sechard had extended her garden as far as a brook, by cutting down the

vines on some ground she purchased, and replacing them with grass plots and clumps of shrubbery. At the

present time the house, surrounded by a park of about twenty acres, and enclosed by walls, was considered

Old Sechard's former residence, with the outhouses attached, was now used as the dwellinghouse for the

manager of about twenty acres of vineyard left by him, of five farmsteads, bringing in about six thousand

francs a year, and ten acres of meadow land lying on the further side of the stream, exactly opposite the little

park; indeed, Madame Sechard hoped to include them in it the next year. La Verberie was already spoken of

in the neighborhood as a chateau, and Eve Sechard was known as the Lady of Marsac. Lucien, while

flattering her vanity, had only followed the example of the peasants and vine dressers. Courtois, the owner

of the mill, very picturesquely situated a few hundred yards from the meadows of La Verberie, was in treaty,

it was said, with Madame Sechard for the sale of his property; and this acquisition would give the finishing

Madame Sechard, who did a great deal of good, with as much judgment as generosity, was equally esteemed

and loved. Her beauty, now really splendid, was at the height of its bloom. She was about sixand twenty,

but had preserved all the freshness of youth from living in the tranquillity and abundance of a country life.

Still much in love with her husband, she respected him as a clever man, who was modest enough to renounce

the display of fame; in short, to complete her portrait, it is enough to say that in her whole existence she had

never felt a throb of her heart that was not inspired by her husband or her children.

The tax paid to grief by this happy household was, as may be supposed, the deep anxiety caused by Lucien's

career, in which Eve Sechard suspected mysteries, which she dreaded all the more because, during his last

visit, Lucien roughly cut short all his sister's questions by saying that an ambitious man owed no account of

In six years Lucien had seen his sister but three times, and had not written her more than six letters. His first

visit to La Verberie had been on the occasion of his mother's death; and his last had been paid with a view to

asking the favor of the lie which was so necessary to his advancement. This gave rise to a very serious scene

between Monsieur and Madame Sechard and their brother, and left their happy and respected life troubled by

The interior of the house, as much altered as the surroundings, was comfortable without luxury, as will be

understood by a glance round the room where the little party were now assembled. A pretty Aubusson carpet,

hangings of gray cotton twill bound with green silk brocade, the woodwork painted to imitate Spa wood,

carved mahogany furniture covered with gray woolen stuff and green gimp, with flowerstands, gay with

flowers in spite of the time of year, presented a very pleasing and homelike aspect. The window curtains, of

green brocade, the chimney ornaments, and the mirror frames were untainted by the bad taste that spoils

everything in the provinces; and the smallest details, all elegant and appropriate, gave the mind and eye a

sense of repose and of poetry which a clever and loving woman can and ought to infuse into her home.

Madame Sechard, still in mourning for her father, sat by the fire working at some large piece of tapestry with

the help of Madame Kolb, the housekeeper, to whom she intrusted all the minor cares of the household.

"A chaise has stopped at the door!" said Courtois, hearing the sound of wheels outside; "and to judge by the

"Montame," said Kolb, the burly Alsatian we have made acquaintance with in a former volume (Illusions

"Thank you!" said the Maire of Marsac, named Cachan, who for twenty years had been an attorney at

"My poor David will never improve; he will always be absentminded!" said Eve, smiling.

"Take care lest he should have anything to say about old Sechard's estate," said Cachan. "HE had his finger in

Corentin and Derville, on entering the room, after bowing to the company, and giving their names, begged to

"Then I beg you will allow monsieurthe Maire, a lawyer formerly at Angoulemeto be present also."

"No, monsieur, this is Monsieur Derville," replied Corentin, introducing the lawyer, who bowed.

"But," said Sechard, "we are, so to speak, a family party; we have no secrets from our neighbors; there is no

need to retire to my study, where there is no fireour life is in the sight of all men"

"But your father's," said Corentin, "was involved in certain mysteries which perhaps you would rather not

"Oh, no! a sin of his youth," said Corentin, coldly setting one of his mousetraps. "Monsieur, your father left

"Oh, the old rascal!" cried Courtois. "He was never very fond of you, Monsieur Sechard, and he kept that

secret from you, the deep old dog! Now I understand what he meant when he used to say to me, 'You shall

"Do not be dismayed, monsieur," said Corentin to Sechard, while he watched Eve out of the corner of his eye.

Derville was affecting to examine the fine engravings, proofs before letters, which hung on the

"Do not be dismayed, madame," Corentin went on, seeing amazement written on Madame Sechard's

handsome features, "it is only a natural son. The rights of a natural son are not the same as those of a

legitimate child. This man is in the depths of poverty, and he has a right to a certain sum calculated on the

At the word millions there was a perfectly unanimous cry from all the persons present. And now Derville

"Old Sechard?Millions?" said Courtois. "Who on earth told you that? Some peasant"

"Monsieur," said Cachan, "you are not attached to the Treasury? You may be told all the facts"

"Be quite easy," said Corentin, "I give you my word of honor I am not employed by the Treasury."

Cachan, who had just signed to everybody to say nothing, gave expression to his satisfaction.

"Monsieur," Corentin went on, "if the whole estate were but a million, a natural child's share would still be

something considerable. But we have not come to threaten a lawsuit; on the contrary, our purpose is to

propose that you should hand over one hundred thousand francs, and we will depart"

"One hundred thousand francs!" cried Cachan, interrupting him. "But, monsieur, old Sechard left twenty

acres of vineyard, five small farms, ten acres of meadowland here, and not a sou besides"

"Nothing on earth," cried David Sechard, "would induce me to tell a lie, and less to a question of money than

on any other. Monsieur," he said, turning to Corentin and Derville, "my father left us, besides the

"Three hundred thousand francs, which raises the whole estate to about five hundred thousand francs."

"Monsieur Cachan," asked Eve Sechard, "what proportion does the law allot to a natural child?"

"Madame," said Corentin, "we are not Turks; we only require you to swear before these gentlemen that you

did not inherit more than five hundred thousand francs from your fatherinlaw, and we can come to an

"First give me your word of honor that you really are a lawyer," said Cachan to Derville.

"Here is my passport," replied Derville, handing him a paper folded in four; "and monsieur is not, as you

might suppose, an inspector from the Treasury, so be easy," he added. "We had an important reason for

Derville took Madame Sechard's hand and led her very courteously to the further end of the room.

"Madame," said he, in a low voice, "if it were not that the honor and future prospects of the house of

Grandlieu are implicated in this affair, I would never have lent myself to the stratagem devised by this

gentleman of the red ribbon. But you must forgive him; it was necessary to detect the falsehood by means of

which your brother has stolen a march on the beliefs of that ancient family. Beware now of allowing it to be

supposed that you have given your brother twelve hundred thousand francs to repurchase the Rubempre

"Twelve hundred thousand francs!" cried Madame Sechard, turning pale. "Where did he get them, wretched

"Ah! that is the question," replied Derville. "I fear that the source of his wealth is far from pure."

"We have, perhaps, done you a great service by saving you from abetting a falsehood of which the results

Derville left Madame Sechard sitting pale and dejected with tears on her cheeks, and bowed to the company.

There was but one vacant place in the diligence from Bordeaux to Paris; Derville begged Corentin to allow

him to take it, urging a press of business; but in his soul he was distrustful of his traveling companion, whose

diplomatic dexterity and coolness struck him as being the result of practice. Corentin remained three days

longer at Mansle, unable to get away; he was obliged to secure a place in the Paris coach by writing to

Peyrade, meanwhile, had called every morning, either at Passy or in Paris, to inquire whether Corentin had

returned. On the eighth day he left at each house a note, written in their peculiar cipher, to explain to his

friend what death hung over him, and to tell him of Lydie's abduction and the horrible end to which his

enemies had devoted them. Peyrade, bereft of Corentin, but seconded by Contenson, still kept up his disguise

as a nabob. Even though his invisible foes had discovered him, he very wisely reflected that he might glean

Contenson had brought all his experience into play in his search for Lydie, and hoped to discover in what

house she was hidden; but as the days went by, the impossibility, absolutely demonstrated, of tracing the

slightest clue, added, hour by hour, to Peyrade's despair. The old spy had a sort of guard about him of twelve

or fifteen of the most experienced detectives. They watched the neighborhood of the Rue des Moineaux and

the Rue Taitboutwhere he lived, as a nabob, with Madame du ValNoble. During the last three days of the

term granted by Asie to reinstate Lucien on his old footing in the Hotel de Grandlieu, Contenson never left

the veteran of the old general police office. And the poetic terror shed throughout the forests of America by

the arts of inimical and warring tribes, of which Cooper made such good use in his novels, was here

associated with the petty details of Paris life. The footpassengers, the shops, the hackney cabs, a figure

standing at a window,everything had to the human ciphers to whom old Peyrade had intrusted his safety

the thrilling interest which attaches in Cooper's romances to a beavervillage, a rock, a bisonrobe, a floating

"If the Spaniard has gone away, you have nothing to fear," said Contenson to Peyrade, remarking on the

"He took one of my men at the back of the chaise; but at Blois, my man having to get down, could not catch

Five days after Derville's return, Lucien one morning had a call from Rastignac.

"I am in despair, my dear boy," said his visitor, "at finding myself compelled to deliver a message which is

intrusted to me because we are known to be intimate. Your marriage is broken off beyond all hope of

reconciliation. Never set foot again in the Hotel de Grandlieu. To marry Clotilde you must wait till her father

dies, and he is too selfish to die yet awhile. Old whistplayers sit at tablethe card tablevery late.

"Clotilde is setting out for Italy with Madeleine de Lenoncourt Chaulieu. The poor girl is so madly in love

with you, my dear fellow, that they have to keep an eye on her; she was bent on coming to see you, and had

"And is it a misfortune, after all?" his friend went on. "You will easily find a girl as well born and better

looking than Clotilde! Madame de Serizy will find you a wife out of spite; she cannot endure the Grandlieus,

who never would have anything to say to her. She has a niece, little Clemence du Rouvre"

"My dear boy," said Lucien at length, "since that supper I am not on terms with Madame de Serizyshe saw

"A woman of forty does not long keep up a quarrel with so handsome a man as you are," said Rastignac. "I

know something of these sunsets. It lasts ten minutes in the sky, and ten years in a woman's heart."

"Are you coming at any rate to the ValNoble's? Her nabob is returning the supper given by Nucingen."

The day after this confirmation of his disaster, which Carlos heard of at once from Asie, Lucien went to the

At midnight nearly all the personages of this drama were assembled in the diningroom that had formerly

been Esther'sa drama of which the interest lay hidden under the very bed of these tumultuous lives, and

was known only to Esther, to Lucien, to Peyrade, to Contenson, the mulatto, and to Paccard, who attended his

mistress. Asie, without its being known to Contenson and Peyrade, had been asked by Madame du Val

As they sat down to table, Peyrade, who had given Madame du ValNoble five hundred francs that the thing

might be well done, found under his napkin a scrap of paper on which these words were written in pencil,

Peyrade handed the paper to Contenson, who was standing behind him, saying in English:

Contenson read by the light of the waxcandles this "Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," and slipped the scrap into his

pocket; but he knew how difficult it is to verify a handwriting in pencil, and, above all, a sentence written in

Roman capitals, that is to say, with mathematical lines, since capital letters are wholly made up of straight

lines and curves, in which it is impossible to detect any trick of the hand, as in what is called runninghand.

The supper was absolutely devoid of spirit. Peyrade was visibly absentminded. Of the men about town who

give life to a supper, only Rastignac and Lucien were present. Lucien was gloomy and absorbed in thought;

Rastignac, who had lost two thousand francs before supper, ate and drank with the hope of recovering them

later. The three women, stricken by this chill, looked at each other. Dulness deprived the dishes of all relish.

At the end of the meal ices were served, of the kind called plombieres. As everybody knows, this kind of

dessert has delicate preserved fruits laid on the top of the ice, which is served in a little glass, not heaped

above the rim. These ices had been ordered by Madame du ValNoble of Tortoni, whose shop is at the corner

Contenson, who thought this demand on the part of the shopboy rather strange, went downstairs and startled

Paccard had meanwhile handed the ices to the company in his absence. The mulatto had hardly reached the

door when one of the police constables who had kept watch in the Rue des Moineaux called up the stairs:

"Tell Papa that his daughter has come home; but, good God! in what a state. Tell him to come at once; she is

At the moment when Contenson reentered the diningroom, old Peyrade, who had drunk a great deal, was

swallowing the cherry off his ice. They were drinking to the health of Madame du ValNoble; the nabob

In spite of his distress at the news he had to give Peyrade, Contenson was struck by the eager attention with

which Paccard was looking at the nabob. His eyes sparkled like two fixed flames. Although it seemed

important, still this could not delay the mulatto, who leaned over his master, just as Peyrade set his glass

Peyrade rattled out the most French of all French oaths with such a strong Southern accent that all the guests

looked up in amazement. Peyrade, discovering his blunder, acknowledged his disguise by saying to

"Bixiou told me you shammed Englishman better than he could, and I would not believe him," said

"Some bankrupt caught in disguise," said du Tillet loudly. "I suspected as much!"

"A strange place is Paris!" said Madame du ValNoble. "After being bankrupt in his own part of town, a

merchant turns up as a nabob or a dandy in the ChampsElysees with impunity!Oh! I am unlucky!

"Every flower has its peculiar blight!" said Esther quietly. "Mine is like Cleopatra'san asp."

"Who am I?" echoed Peyrade from the door. "You will know ere long; for if I die, I will rise from my grave

He looked at Esther and Lucien as he spoke, then he took advantage of the general dismay to vanish with the

utmost rapidity, meaning to run home without waiting for the coach. In the street the spy was gripped by the

arm as he crossed the threshold of the outer gate. It was Asie, wrapped in a black hood such as ladies then

"Send for the Sacraments, Papa Peyrade," said she, in the voice that had already prophesied ill.

A coach was waiting. Asie jumped in, and the carriage vanished as though the wind had swept it away. There

On reaching his house in the Rue des Vignes, one of the quietest and prettiest nooks of the little town of

Passy, Corentin, who was known there as a retired merchant passionately devoted to gardening, found his

friend Peyrade's note in cipher. Instead of resting, he got into the hackney coach that had brought him thither,

and was driven to the Rue des Moineaux, where he found only Katt. From her he heard of Lydie's

disappearance, and remained astounded at Peyrade's and his own want of foresight.

"But they do not know me yet," said he to himself. "This crew is capable of anything; I must find out if they

The viler a man's life is, the more he clings to it; it becomes at every moment a protest and a revenge.

Corentin went back to the cab, and drove to his rooms to assume the disguise of a feeble old man, in a scanty

greenish overcoat and a tow wig. Then he returned on foot, prompted by his friendship for Peyrade. He

As he went along the Rue SaintHonore to reach the Rue SaintRoch from the Place Vendome, he came up

behind a girl in slippers, and dressed as a woman dresses for the night. She had on a white bedjacket and a

nightcap, and from time to time gave vent to a sob and an involuntary groan. Corentin outpaced her, and

"I am a friend of your father's, of Monsieur Canquoelle's," said he in his natural voice.

"Do not seem to have recognized me," Corentin went on, "for we are pursued by relentless foes, and are

"Oh, monsieur," said the poor child, "the facts but not the story can be toldI am ruined, lost, and I do not

"I don't know, monsieur. I fled with such precipitancy, I have come through so many streets, round so many

turnings, fancying I was being followed. And when I met any one that seemed decent, I asked my way to get

back to the Boulevards, so as to find the Rue de la Paix. And at last, after walking What o'clock is it,

"Oh, monsieur, there is no rest for me! I only want to rest in the grave, and I will go and wait for death in a

"Oh yes! Oh! if you could only imagine the abject creatures they placed me with!"

"Ah! that is it" cried poor Lydie. "A little more strength and I should be at home. I feel that I am dropping,

Corentin took Lydie in his arms, and she lost consciousness; he carried her upstairs.

"Don't be in too great a hurry to be glad!" said Corentin gravely; "the girl is very ill."

When Lydie was laid on her bed and recognized her own room by the light of two candles that Katt lighted,

she became delirious. She sang scraps of pretty airs, broken by vociferations of horrible sentences she had

heard. Her pretty face was mottled with purple patches. She mixed up the reminiscences of her pure

childhood with those of these ten days of infamy. Katt sat weeping; Corentin paced the room, stopping now

"She is paying her father's debt," said he. "Is there a Providence above? Oh, I was wise not to have a family.

On my word of honor, a child is indeed a hostage given to misfortune, as some philosopher has said."

"Oh!" cried the poor child, sitting up in bed and throwing back her fine long hair, "instead of lying here, Katt,

"Katt, instead of crying and looking at your child, which will never cure her, you ought to go for a doctor; the

medical officer in the first instance, and then Monsieur Desplein and Monsieur Bianchon We must save

At this moment, up the stairs came some one to whom they were familiar, and the door was opened. Peyrade,

in a violent sweat, his face purple, his eyes almost bloodstained, and gasping like a dolphin, rushed from the

He saw a melancholy sign from Corentin, and his eyes followed his friend's hand. Lydie's condition can only

be compared to that of a flower tenderly cherished by a gardener, now fallen from its stem, and crushed by

the ironclamped shoes of some peasant. Ascribe this simile to a father's heart, and you will understand the

She could still recognize her father; she got out of bed and fell on her knees at the old man's side as he sank

"Forgive me, papa," said she in a tone that pierced Peyrade's heart, and at the same moment he was conscious

"Dead! Poisoned!" said he to himself. "Ah! here is the doctor!" he exclaimed, hearing the sound of wheels.

Contenson, who came with his mulatto disguise removed, stood like a bronze statue as he heard Lydie say:

"We are doing a stupid thing," said Corentin. "Let us carry him into his own room. His daughter is half

demented, and she will go quite mad when she sees that he is dead; she will fancy that she has killed him."

"There lies my only friend!" said Corentin, seeming much moved when Peyrade was laid out on the bed in

his own room. "In all his life he never had but one impulse of cupidity, and that was for his daughter! Let

him be an example to you, Contenson. Every line of life has its code of honor. Peyrade did wrong when he

mixed himself up with private concerns; we have no business to meddle with any but public cases.

"But come what may, I swear," said he with a voice, an emphasis, a look that struck horror into Contenson,

"to avenge my poor Peyrade! I will discover the men who are guilty of his death and of his daughter's ruin.

And as sure as I am myself, as I have yet a few days to live, which I will risk to accomplish that vengeance,

every man of them shall die at four o'clock, in good health, by a clean shave on the Place de Greve."

Nothing, in fact, is more heartstirring than the spectacle of passion in a cold, selfcontained, and methodical

man, in whom, for twenty years, no one has ever detected the smallest impulse of sentiment. It is like a

molten bar of iron which melts everything it touches. And Contenson was moved to his depths.

"Poor old Canquoelle!" said he, looking at Corentin. "He has treated me many a time.And, I tell you, only

your bad sort know how to do such thingsbut often has he given me ten francs to go and gamble with . . ."

After this funeral oration, Peyrade's two avengers went back to Lydie's room, hearing Katt and the medical

"Go and fetch the Chief of Police," said Corentin. "The public prosecutor will not find grounds for a

prosecution in the case; still, we will report it to the Prefecture; it may, perhaps, be of some use.

"Monsieur," he went on to the medical officer, "in this room you will see a dead man. I do not believe that he

died from natural causes; you will be good enough to make a postmortem in the presence of the Chief of the

Police, who will come at my request. Try to discover some traces of poison. You will, in a few minutes, have

the opinion of Monsieur Desplein and Monsieur Bianchon, for whom I have sent to examine the daughter of

"I have no need of those gentlemen's assistance in the exercise of my duty," said the medical officer.

"Well, well," thought Corentin. "Let us have no clashing, monsieur," he said. "In a few words I give you my

By daylight Lydie had yielded to fatigue; when the great surgeon and the young physician arrived she was

The doctor, whose duty it was to sign the death certificate, had now opened Peyrade's body, and was seeking

"While waiting for your patient to awake," said Corentin to the two famous doctors, "would you join one of

your professional brethren in an examination which cannot fail to interest you, and your opinion will be

"Your relations died of apoplexy," said the official. "There are all the symptoms of violent congestion of the

"Examine him, gentlemen, and see if there is no poison capable of producing similar symptoms."

"The stomach is, in fact, full of food substances; but short of chemical analysis, I find no evidence of poison.

"If the characters of cerebral congestion are well ascertained, we have here, considering the patient's age, a

sufficient cause of death," observed Desplein, looking at the enormous mass of material.

"No," said Corentin; "he came here in great haste from the Boulevard, and found his daughter ruined"

"What known poison could produce a similar effect?" asked Corentin, clinging to his idea.

"There is but one," said Desplein, after a careful examination. "It is a poison found in the Malayan

Archipelago, and derived from trees, as yet but little known, of the strychnos family; it is used to poison that

The Police Commissioner presently arrived; Corentin told him his suspicions, and begged him to draw up a

report, telling him where and with whom Peyrade had supped, and the causes of the state in which he found

Corentin then went to Lydie's rooms; Desplein and Bianchon had been examining the poor child. He met

"Place the girl under medical care; unless she recovers her wits when her child is bornif indeed she should

have a childshe will end her days melancholymad. There is no hope of a cure but in the maternal instinct,

Corentin paid each of the physicians forty francs in gold, and then turned to the Police Commissioner, who

"The medical officer insists on it that death was natural," said this functionary, "and I can hardly report the

case, especially as the dead man was old Canquoelle; he had his finger in too many pies, and we should not

"So just make a note of all this," Corentin went on; "it will be very useful by and by; send it up only as

confidential information. The crime cannot be proved, and I know that any inquiry would be checked at the

very outset.But I will catch the criminals some day yet. I will watch them and take them redhanded."

"Monsieur," said Katt. "Mademoiselle does nothing but dance and sing. What can I do?"

"Put her into a hackney coach, and simply take her to Charenton; I will write a note to the

CommissionerGeneral of Police to secure her being suitably provided for.The daughter in Charenton, the

father in a pauper's grave!" said Corentin"Contenson, go and fetch the parish hearse. And now, Don Carlos

"He is in Paris," said Corentin positively. "There is a touch of Spanish genius of the Philip II. type in all this;

Five days after the nabob's disappearance, Madame du ValNoble was sitting by Esther's bedside weeping,

"If I only had at least a hundred louis a year! With that sum, my dear, a woman can retire to some little town

"Oh, in a very simple way. Listen. You must plan to kill yourself; play your part well. Send for Asie and offer

her ten thousand francs for two black beads of very thin glass containing a poison which kills you in a

"You! who live in the midst of pleasure and luxury, in a house of your own? And on the eve of an

entertainment which will be the talk of Paris for ten yearswhich is to cost Nucingen twenty thousand

francs! There are to be strawberries in midFebruary, they say, asparagus, grapes, melons!and a thousand

"What are you talking about? There are a thousand crowns' worth of roses on the stairs alone."

"Yes, it is of Brussels point, and Delphine, his wife, is furious. But I had a fancy to be disguised as a bride."

"It is all the ready money I have," said Esther, smiling. "Open my table drawer; it is under the curlpapers."

"People who talk of dying never kill themselves," said Madame du Val Noble. "If it were to commit"

"A crime? For shame!" said Esther, finishing her friend's thought, as she hesitated. "Be quite easy, I have no

intention of killing anybody. I had a frienda very happy woman; she is dead, I must follow her that is

"Do as I tell you, and go at once. I hear a carriage coming. It is Nucingen, a man who will go mad with joy!

Yes, he loves me!Why do we not love those who love us, for indeed they do all they can to please us?"

"Ah, that is the question!" said Madame du ValNoble. "It is the old story of the herring, which is the most

For three days past, Esther's ways with the Baron de Nucingen had completely changed. The monkey had

become a cat, the cat had become a woman. Esther poured out treasures of affection on the old man; she was

quite charming. Her way of addressing him, with a total absence of mischief or bitterness, and all sorts of

tender insinuation, had carried conviction to the banker's slow wit; she called him Fritz, and he believed that

"My poor Fritz, I have tried you sorely," said she. "I have teased you shamefully. Your patience has been

sublime. You loved me, I see, and I will reward you. I like you now, I do not know how it is, but I should

prefer you to a young man. It is the result of experience perhaps.In the long run we discover at last that

pleasure is the coin of the soul; and it is not more flattering to be loved for the sake of pleasure than it is to be

"Besides, young men are too selfish; they think more of themselves than of us; while you, now, think only of

me. I am all your life to you. And I will take nothing more from you. I want to prove to you how disinterested

"Vy, I hafe gifen you notink," cried the Baron, enchanted. "I propose to gife you tomorrow tirty tousant

"Oh!" cried she, "do not suppose that I am sweet to you only for your thirty thousand francs! It is

"Ach, mein Gott! Vy hafe you kept me vaiting? I might hafe been so happy all dese tree monts."

"In three or in five per cents, my pet?" said Esther, passing her fingers through Nucingen's hair, and arranging

So next morning the Baron brought the certificate of shares; he came to breakfast with his dear little girl, and

to take her orders for the following evening, the famous Saturday, the great day!

"Here, my little vife, my only vife," said the banker gleefully, his face radiant with happiness. "Here is

Esther took the paper without the slightest excitement, folded it up, and put it in her dressingtable drawer.

"So now you are quite happy, you monster of iniquity!" said she, giving Nucingen a little slap on the cheek,

"now that I have at last accepted a present from you. I can no longer tell you hometruths, for I share the fruit

of what you call your labors. This is not a gift, my poor old boy, it is restitution.Come, do not put on your

"My lofely Esther, mein anchel of lofe," said the banker, "do not speak to me like dat. I tell you, I should not

care ven all de vorld took me for a tief, if you should tink me ein honest man.I lofe you every day more

"That is my intention," said Esther. "And I will never again say anything to distress you, my pet elephant, for

you are grown as artless as a baby. Bless me, you old rascal, you have never known any innocence; the

allowance bestowed on you when you came into the world was bound to come to the top some day; but it was

buried so deep that it is only now reappearing at the age of sixtysix. Fished up by love's barbed hook.This

"And this is why I have learned to love you, you are youngso young! No one but I would ever have known

this, FredericI alone. For you were a banker at fifteen; even at college you must have lent your

"Well, you must do as you please! Bless me! plunder the mengo ahead, and I will help. Men are not worth

loving; Napoleon killed them off like flies. Whether they pay taxes to you or to the Government, what

difference does it make to them? You don't make love over the budget, and on my honor!go ahead, I have

thought it over, and you are right. Shear the sheep! you will find it in the gospel according to Beranger.

"Now, kiss your Esther.I say, you will give that poor ValNoble all the furniture in the Rue Taitbout? And

tomorrow I wish you would give her fifty thousand francsit would look handsome, my duck. You see,

you killed Falleix; people are beginning to cry out upon you, and this liberality will look Babylonianall the

women will talk about it! Oh! there will be no one in Paris so grand, so noble as you; and as the world is

constituted, Falleix will be forgotten. So, after all, it will be money deposited at interest."

"You are right, mein anchel; you know the vorld," he replied. "You shall be mein adfiser."

"Well, you see," said Esther, "how I study my man's interest, his position and honor.Go at once and bring

She wanted to get rid of Monsieur de Nucingen so as to get a stockbroker to sell the bond that very afternoon.

"Bless me, my sweetheart, you must give it to her in a little satin box wrapped round a fan. You must say,

'Here, madame, is a fan which I hope may be to your taste.'You are supposed to be a Turcaret, and you will

"Charming, charming!" cried the Baron. "I shall be so clever henceforth.Yes, I shall repeat your vorts."

Just as Esther had sat down, tired with the effort of playing her part, Europe came in.

"Madame," said she, "here is a messenger sent from the Quai Malaquais by Celestin, M. Lucien's

Esther rushed into the anteroom, looked at the messenger, and saw that he looked like the genuine thing.

"Tell HIM to come down," said Esther, in a feeble voice and dropping into a chair after reading the letter.

"Lucien means to kill himself," she added in a whisper to Europe. "No, take the letter up to him."

Carlos Herrera, still in his disguise as a bagman, came downstairs at once, and keenly scrutinized the

And with an excess of prudence, after looking at the messenger, he went straight into the drawingroom.

TrompelaMort did not know that for some time past the famous constable of the detective force who had

arrested him at the Maison Vauquer had a rival, who, it was supposed, would replace him. This rival was the

"They are right," said the sham messenger to Contenson, who was waiting for him in the street. "The man

you describe is in the house; but he is not a Spaniard, and I will burn my hand off if there is not a bird for our

Lucien had been away for two days, and advantage had been taken of his absence to lay this snare, but he

returned this evening, and the courtesan's anxieties were allayed. Next morning, at the hour when Esther,

"Let me see," said Esther, raising herself with her pretty elbow buried in a pillow trimmed with lace.

The Baron had given Esther a pair of greyhounds of famous pedigree, which will be always known by the

name of the great contemporary poet who made them fashionable; and Esther, proud of owning them, had

called them by the names of their parents, Romeo and Juliet. No need here to describe the whiteness and

grace of these beasts, trained for the drawingroom, with manners suggestive of English propriety. Esther

called Romeo; Romeo ran up on legs so supple and thin, so strong and sinewy, that they seemed like steel

springs, and looked up at his mistress. Esther, to attract his attention, pretended to throw one of the pills.

"He is doomed by his nature to die thus," said she, as she threw the pill, which Romeo crushed between his

The dog made no sound, he rolled over, and was stark dead. It was all over while Esther spoke these words of

"You have a cab waiting. Carry away the departed Romeo," said Esther. "His death would make a commotion

here. I have given him to you, and you have lost himadvertise for him. Make haste; you will have your

She spoke so calmly, so entirely with the cold indifference of a courtesan, that Madame du ValNoble

At five o'clock Esther dressed herself as a bride. She put on her lace dress over white satin, she had a white

sash, white satin shoes, and a scarf of English point lace over her beautiful shoulders. In her hair she placed

white camellia flowers, the simple ornament of an innocent girl. On her bosom lay a pearl necklace worth

Though she was dressed by six, she refused to see anybody, even the banker. Europe knew that Lucien was to

be admitted to her room. Lucien came at about seven, and Europe managed to get him up to her mistress

Lucien, as he looked at her, said to himself, "Why not go and live with her at Rubempre, far from the world,

and never see Paris again? I have an earnest of five years of her life, and the dear creature is one of those who

"My dear, you whom I have made my God," said Esther, kneeling down on a cushion in front of Lucien,

Lucien tried to raise her and kiss her, saying, "What is this jest, my dear love?" And he would have put his

arm round her, but she freed herself with a gesture as much of respect as of horror.

"I am no longer worthy of you, Lucien," said she, letting the tears rise to her eyes. "I implore you, give me

your blessing, and swear to me that you will found two beds at the HotelDieufor, as to prayers in church,

"I have loved you too well, my dear. Tell me that I made you happy, and that you will sometimes think of

"You mean to kill yourself," said he at last, in a tone of voice that revealed deep reflection.

"No," said she. "But today, my dear, the woman dies, the pure, chaste, and loving woman who once was

"Poor child," said Lucien, "wait! I have worked hard these two days. I have succeeded in seeing

"Yes," said he, "we have written to each other.On Tuesday morning she is to set out for Italy, but I shall

"Bless me! what is it that you men want for wives? Wooden laths?" cried poor Esther. "If I had seven or eight

"Child! I was going to say that if all is over for me, I will have no wife but you."

"You love me?" said she, looking at Lucien with the deepest melancholy. "Well, that is my sufficient

blessing.Do not compromise yourself. Go away by the side door, and come in to the drawingroom

She threw her arms round Lucien, clasped him to her heart with frenzy, and said again:

When the doomed woman appeared in the drawingroom, there was a cry of admiration. Esther's eyes

expressed infinitude in which the soul sank as it looked into them. Her blueblack and beautiful hair set off

the camellias. In short, this exquisite creature achieved all the effects she had intended. She had no rival. She

looked like the supreme expression of that unbridled luxury which surrounded her in every form. Then she

was brilliantly witty. She ruled the orgy with the cold, calm power that Habeneck displays when conducting

at the Conservatoire, at those concerts where the first musicians in Europe rise to the sublime in interpreting

But she observed with terror that Nucingen ate little, drank nothing, and was quite the master of the house.

By midnight everybody was crazy. The glasses were broken that they might never be used again; two of the

Chinese curtains were torn; Bixiou was drunk, for the second time in his life. No one could keep his feet, the

women were asleep on the sofas, and the guests were incapable of carrying out the practical joke they had

planned of escorting Esther and Nucingen to the bedroom, standing in two lines with candles in their hands,

Nucingen simply gave Esther his hand. Bixiou, who saw them, though tipsy, was still able to say, like

Rivarol, on the occasion of the Duc de Richelieu's last marriage, "The police must be warned; there is

Monsieur de Nucingen did not go home till Monday at about noon. But at one o'clock his broker informed

him that Mademoiselle Esther van Bogseck had sold the bond bearing thirty thousand francs interest on

"But, Monsieur le Baron, Derville's headclerk called on me just as I was settling this transfer; and after

seeing Mademoiselle Esther's real names, he told me she had come into a fortune of seven millions."

"Yes, she is the only heir to the old billdiscounter Gobseck. Derville will verify the facts. If your

mistress' mother was the handsome Dutch woman, la Belle Hollandaise, as they called her, she comes in

"I know dat she is," cried the banker. "She tolt me all her life. I shall write ein vort to Derville."

The Baron at down at his desk, wrote a line to Derville, and sent it by one of his servants. Then, after going to

"Ach der Teufel!" said the Baron. "But, Europe, she shall not be angry to be tolt that she is fery, fery rich. She

shall inherit seven millions. Old Gobseck is deat, and your mis'ess is his sole heir, for her moter vas

Gobseck's own niece; and besides, he shall hafe left a vill. I could never hafe tought that a millionaire like dat

"Ah, ha! Then your reign is over, old pantaloon!" said Europe, looking at the Baron with an effrontery worthy

of one of Moliere's waiting maids. "Shooh! you old Alsatian crow! She loves you as we love the plague!

And Prudence Servien left the Baron simply thunderstricken, to be the first to announce to her mistress this

great stroke of luck. The old man, intoxicated with superhuman enjoyment, and believing himself happy, had

just received a cold showerbath on his passion at the moment when it had risen to the intensest white heat.

"She vas deceiving me!" cried he, with tears in his eyes. "Yes, she vas cheating me. Oh, Esther, my life,! Vas

a fool hafe I been! Can such flowers ever bloom for de old men! I can buy all vat I vill except only

yout!Ach Gott, ach Gott! Vat shall I do! Vat shall become of me!She is right, dat cruel Europe. Esther,

if she is rich, shall not be for me. Shall I go hank myself? Vat is life midout de divine flame of joy dat I have

The old man snatched off the false hair he had combed in with his gray hairs these three months past.

A piercing shriek from Europe made Nucingen quail to his very bowels. The poor banker rose and walked

upstairs on legs that were drunk with the bowl of disenchantment he had just swallowed to the dregs, for

At the door of her room he could see Esther stiff on her bed, blue with poisondead!

Paccard, Asie, every one hurried in. It was a spectacle, a shock, but not despair. Every one had their doubts.

The Baron was a banker again. A suspicion crossed his mind, and he was so imprudent as to ask what had

become of the seven hundred and fifty thousand francs, the price of the bond. Paccard, Asie, and Europe

looked at each other so strangely that Monsieur de Nucingen left the house at once, believing that robbery

and murder had been committed. Europe, detecting a packet of soft consistency, betraying the contents to be

banknotes, under her mistress' pillow, proceeded at once to "lay her out," as she said.

"Go and tell monsieur, Asie!Oh, to die before she knew that she had seven millions! Gobseck was poor

Europe's stratagem was understood by Paccard. As soon as Asie's back was turned, Europe opened the

packet, on which the hapless courtesan had written: "To be delivered to Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre."

Seven hundred and fifty thousandfranc notes shone in the eyes of Prudence Servien, who exclaimed:

Paccard made no objection. His instincts as a thief were stronger than his attachment to TrompelaMort.

"Durut is dead," he said at length; "my shoulder is still a proof before letters. Let us be off together; divide

Prudence and Paccard went off at once, with the promptitude of two honest folks transformed into robbers.

"My child," said Carlos to Asie, as soon as she had said three words, "find some letter of Esther's while I

write a formal will, and then take the copy and the letter to Girard; but he must be quick. The will must be

"Never having loved any one on earth but Monsieur Lucien Chardon de Rubempre, and being resolved to end

my life rather than relapse into vice and the life of infamy from which he rescued me, I give and bequeath to

the said Lucien Chardon de Rubempre all I may possess at the time of my decease, on condition of his

founding a mass in perpetuity in the parish church of SaintRoch for the repose of her who gave him her all,

By seven in the evening this document, written and sealed, was placed by Asie under Esther's bolster.

"Jacques," said she, flying upstairs again, "just as I came out of the room justice marched in"

"No, my son. The justice of the peace was there, but he had gendarmes with him. The public prosecutor and

"Ay, and Paccard and Europe have vanished; I am afraid they may have scared away the seven hundred and

"The low villains!" said Collin. "They have done for us by their swindling game."

Human justice, and Paris justice, that is to say, the most suspicious, keenest, cleverest, and omniscient type of

justicetoo clever, indeed, for it insists on interpreting the law at every turnwas at last on the point of

The Baron of Nucingen, on recognizing the evidence of poison, and failing to find his seven hundred and

fifty thousand francs, imagined that one of two persons whom he greatly dislikedeither Paccard or

Europewas guilty of the crime. In his first impulse of rage he flew to the prefecture of police. This was a

stroke of a bell that called up all Corentin's men. The officials of the prefecture, the legal profession, the chief

of the police, the justice of the peace, the examining judge,all were astir. By nine in the evening three

medical men were called in to perform an autopsy on poor Esther, and inquiries were set on foot.

"No one knows that I am here; I may take an airing." He pulled himself up by the skylight of his garret, and

with marvelous agility was standing in an instant on the roof, whence he surveyed the surroundings with the

"Good!" said he, discerning a garden five houses off in the Rue de Provence, "that will just do for me."

"You are paid out, TrompelaMort," said Contenson, suddenly emerging from behind a stack of chimneys.

"You may explain to Monsieur Camusot what mass you were performing on the roof, Monsieur l'Abbe, and,

The sham Spaniard pretended to yield; but, having set his back and feet across the opening of the skylight, he

gripped Contenson and flung him off with such violence that the spy fell in the gutter of the Rue

Contenson was dead on his field of honor; Jacques Collin quietly dropped into the room again and went to

"Give me something that will make me very sick without killing me," said he to Asie; "for I must be at

death's door, to avoid answering inquisitive persons. I have just got rid of a man in the most natural way, who

At seven o'clock on the previous evening Lucien had set out in his own chaise to post to Fontainebleau with a

passport he had procured in the morning; he slept in the nearest inn on the Nemours side. At six in the

"This," said he to himself, as he sat down on one of the rocks that command the fine landscape of Bouron, "is

the fatal spot where Napoleon dreamed of making a final tremendous effort on the eve of his abdication."

At daybreak he heard the approach of posthorses and saw a britska drive past, in which sat the servants of

"Here they are!" thought Lucien. "Now, to play the farce well, and I shall be saved!the Duc de Grandlieu's

It was an hour later when he heard the peculiar sound made by a superior traveling carriage, as the berline

came near in which two ladies were sitting. They had given orders that the drag should be put on for the hill

"No," said the young Duchess to her friend, "he shall not get into the carriage, and we will not be alone with

him, my dear. Speak to him for the last timeto that I consent; but on the road, where we will walk on, and

where Baptiste can escort us.The morning is fine, we are well wrapped up, and have no fear of the cold.

"Baptiste," said the Duchess, "the postboy can follow slowly; we want to walk a little way. You must keep

Madeleine de Mortsauf took Clotilde by the arm and allowed Lucien to talk. They thus walked on as far as

the village of Grez. It was now eight o'clock, and there Clotilde dismissed Lucien.

"Well, my friend," said she, closing this long interview with much dignity, "I never shall marry any one but

you. I would rather believe in you than in other men, in my father and motherno woman ever gave greater

proof of attachment surely?Now, try to counteract the fatal prejudices which militate against you."

Just then the tramp of galloping horses was heard, and, to the great amazement of the ladies, a force of

"Are you Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre?" asked the public prosecutor of Fontainebleau.

"You will spend tonight in La Force," said he. "I have a warrant for the detention of your person."

"To be sure.Excuse me, ladiesyour passports? For Monsieur Lucien, as I am instructed, had

"Do you take the Duchesse de LenoncourtChaulieu for a prostitute?" said Madeleine, with a magnificent

"You are handsome enough to excuse the error," the magistrate very cleverly retorted.

"And with what crime is Monsieur de Rubempre charged?" asked Clotilde, whom the Duchess wished to see

"Of being accessory to a robbery and murder," replied the sergeant of gendarmes.

By midnight Lucien was entering La Force, a prison situated between the Rue Payenne and the Rue des

At six o'clock next morning two vehicles with postilions, prison vans, called in the vigorous language of the

populace, paniers a salade, came out of La Force to drive to the Conciergerie by the Palais de Justice.

Few loafers in Paris can have failed to meet this prison cell on wheels; still, though most stories are written

for Parisian readers, strangers will no doubt be satisfied to have a description of this formidable machine.

Who knows? A police of Russia, Germany, or Austria, the legal body of countries to whom the

"Saladbasket" is an unknown machine, may profit by it; and in several foreign countries there can be no

This ignominious conveyance, yellowbodied, on high wheels, and lined with sheetiron, is divided into two

compartments. In front is a box seat, with leather cushions and an apron. This is the free seat of the van, and

accommodates a sheriff's officer and a gendarme. A strong iron trellis, reaching to the top, separates this sort

of cabfront from the back division, in which there are two wooden seats placed sideways, as in an omnibus,

on which the prisoners sit. They get in by a step behind and a door, with no window. The nickname of

Saladbasket arose from the fact that the vehicle was originally made entirely of lattice, and the prisoners

For further security, in case of accident, a mounted gendarme follows the machine, especially when it

conveys criminals condemned to death to the place of execution. Thus escape is impossible. The vehicle,

lined with sheetiron, is impervious to any tool. The prisoners, carefully searched when they are arrested or

locked up, can have nothing but watchsprings, perhaps, to file through bars, and useless on a smooth

So the panier a salade, improved by the genius of the Paris police, became the model for the prison omnibus

(known in London as "Black Maria") in which convicts are transported to the hulks, instead of the horrible

tumbril which formerly disgraced civilization, though Manon Lescaut had made it famous.

The accused are, in the first instance, despatched in the prison van from the various prisons in Paris to the

Palais de Justice, to be questioned by the examining judge. This, in prison slang, is called "going up for

examination." Then the accused are again conveyed from prison to the Court to be sentenced when their case

is only a misdemeanor; or if, in legal parlance, the case is one for the Upper Court, they are transferred from

the house of detention to the Conciergerie, the "Newgate" of the Department of the Seine.

Finally, the prison van carries the criminal condemned to death from Bicetre to the Barriere SaintJacques,

where executions are carried out, and have been ever since the Revolution of July. Thanks to philanthropic

interference, the poor wretches no longer have to face the horrors of the drive from the Conciergerie to the

Place de Greve in a cart exactly like that used by wood merchants. This cart is no longer used but to bring the

Without this explanation the words of a famous convict to his accomplice, "It is now the horse's business!" as

he got into the van, would be unintelligible. It is impossible to be carried to execution more comfortably than

At this moment the two vans, setting out at such an early hour, were employed on the unwonted service of

conveying two accused prisoners from the jail of La Force to the Conciergerie, and each man had a

Ninetenths of my readers, ay, and ninetenths of the remaining tenth, are certainly ignorant of the vast

difference of meaning in the words incriminated, suspected, accused, and committed for trialjail, house of

detention, and penitentiary; and they may be surprised to learn here that it involves all our criminal

procedure, of which a clear and brief outline will presently be sketched, as much for their information as for

the elucidation of this history. However, when it is said that the first van contained Jacques Collin and the

second Lucien, who in a few hours had fallen from the summit of social splendor to the depths of a prison

The conduct of the two accomplices was characteristic; Lucien de Rubempre shrank back to avoid the gaze of

the passersby, who looked at the grated window of the gloomy and fateful vehicle on its road along the Rue

SaintAntoine and the Rue du Martroi to reach the quay and the Arch of SaintJean, the way, at that time,

across the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. This archway now forms the entrance gate to the residence of the Prefet

de la Seine in the huge municipal palace. The daring convict, on the contrary, stuck his face against the

barred grating, between the officer and the gendarme, who, sure of their van, were chatting together.

The great days of July 1830, and the tremendous storm that then burst, have so completely wiped out the

memory of all previous events, and politics so entirely absorbed the French during the last six months of that

year, that no one remembersor a few scarcely rememberthe various private, judicial, and financial

catastrophes, strange as they were, which, forming the annual flood of Parisian curiosity, were not lacking

during the first six months of the year. It is, therefore, needful to mention how Paris was, for the moment,

excited by the news of the arrest of a Spanish priest, discovered in a courtesan's house, and that of the elegant

Lucien de Rubempre, who had been engaged to Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu, taken on the highroad

to Italy, close to the little village of Grez. Both were charged as being concerned in a murder, of which the

profits were stated at seven millions of francs; and for some days the scandal of this trial preponderated over

In the first place, the charge had been based on an application by the Baron de Nucingen; then, Lucien's

apprehension, just as he was about to be appointed private secretary to the Prime Minister, made a stir in the

very highest circles of society. In every drawingroom in Paris more than one young man could recollect

having envied Lucien when he was honored by the notice of the beautiful Duchesse de Maufrigneuse; and

every woman knew that he was the favored attache of Madame de Serizy, the wife of one of the Government

bigwigs. And finally, his handsome person gave him a singular notoriety in the various worlds that make up

Paristhe world of fashion, the financial world, the world of courtesans, the young men's world, the literary

world. So for two days past all Paris had been talking of these two arrests. The examining judge in whose

hands the case was put regarded it as a chance for promotion; and, to proceed with the utmost rapidity, he had

given orders that both the accused should be transferred from La Force to the Conciergerie as soon as Lucien

As the Abbe Carlos had spent but twelve hours in La Force, and Lucien only half a night, it is useless to

describe that prison, which has since been entirely remodeled; and as to the details of their consignment, it

But before setting forth the terrible drama of a criminal inquiry, it is indispensable, as I have said, that an

account should be given of the ordinary proceedings in a case of this kind. To begin with, its various phases

will be better understood at home and abroad, and, besides, those who are ignorant of the action of the

criminal law, as conceived of by the lawgivers under Napoleon, will appreciate it better. This is all the more

important as, at this moment, this great and noble institution is in danger of destruction by the system known

A crime is committed; if it is flagrant, the persons incriminated (inculpes) are taken to the nearest lockup

and placed in the cell known to the vulgar as the Violonperhaps because they make a noise there, shrieking

or crying. From thence the suspected persons (inculpes) are taken before the police commissioner or

magistrate, who holds a preliminary inquiry, and can dismiss the case if there is any mistake; finally, they are

conveyed to the Depot of the Prefecture, where the police detains them pending the convenience of the public

prosecutor and the examining judge. They, being served with due notice, more or less quickly, according to

the gravity of the case, come and examine the prisoners who are still provisionally detained. Having due

regard to the presumptive evidence, the examining judge then issues a warrant for their imprisonment, and

sends the suspected persons to be confined in a jail. There are three such jails (Maisons d'Arret) in

Observe the word inculpe, incriminated, or suspected of crime. The French Code has created three essential

degrees of criminality inculpe, first degree of suspicion; prevenu, under examination; accuse, fully

committed for trial. So long as the warrant for committal remains unsigned, the supposed criminal is regarded

as merely under suspicion, inculpe of the crime or felony; when the warrant has been issued, he becomes "the

accused" (prevenu), and is regarded as such so long as the inquiry is proceeding; when the inquiry is closed,

and as soon as the Court has decided that the accused is to be committed for trial, he becomes "the prisoner at

the bar" (accuse) as soon as the superior court, at the instance of the public prosecutor, has pronounced that

Thus, persons suspected of crime go through three different stages, three siftings, before coming up for trial

At the first stage, innocent persons have abundant means of exculpating themselvesthe public, the town

watch, the police. At the second state they appear before a magistrate face to face with the witnesses, and are

judged by a tribunal in Paris, or by the Collective Court of the departments. At the third stage they are

brought before a bench of twelve councillors, and in case of any error or informality the prisoner committed

for trial at the Assizes may appeal for protection to the Supreme court. The jury do not know what a slap in

the face they give to popular authority, to administrative and judicial functionaries, when they acquit a

prisoner. And so, in my opinion, it is hardly possible that an innocent man should ever find himself at the bar

The detenu is the convict. French criminal law recognizes imprisonment of three degrees, corresponding in

legal distinction to these three degrees of suspicion, inquiry, and conviction. Mere imprisonment is a light

penalty for misdemeanor, but detention is imprisonment with hard labor, a severe and sometimes degrading

punishment. Hence, those persons who nowadays are in favor of the penitentiary system would upset an

admirable scheme of criminal law in which the penalties are judiciously graduated, and they will end by

The reader may compare in the Scenes of Political Life (for instance, in Une Tenebreuse affaire) the curious

differences subsisting between the criminal law of Brumaire in the year IV., and that of the Code Napoleon

In most trials, as in this one, the suspected persons are at once examined (and from inculpes become

prevenus); justice immediately issues a warrant for their arrest and imprisonment. In point of fact, in most of

such cases the criminals have either fled, or have been instantly apprehended. Indeed, as we have seen the

police, which is but an instrument, and the officers of justice had descended on Esther's house with the

swiftness of a thunderbolt. Even if there had not been the reasons for revenge suggested to the superior police

by Corentin, there was a robbery to be investigated of seven hundred and fifty thousand francs from the

Just as the first prison van, conveying Jacques Collin, reached the archway of SaintJeana narrow, dark

passage, some block ahead compelled the postilion to stop under the vault. The prisoner's eyes shone like

carbuncles through the grating, in spite of his aspect as of a dying man, which, the day before, had led the

governor of La Force to believe that the doctor must be called in. These flaming eyes, free to rove at this

moment, for neither the officer nor the gendarme looked round at their "customer," spoke so plain a language

that a clever examining judge, M. Popinot, for instance, would have identified the man convicted for

In fact, ever since the "saladbasket" had turned out of the gate of La Force, Jacques Collin had studied

everything on his way. Notwithstanding the pace they had made, he took in the houses with an eager and

comprehensive glance from the ground floor to the attics. He saw and noted every passerby. God Himself is

not more clearseeing as to the means and ends of His creatures than this man in observing the slightest

differences in the medley of things and people. Armed with hope, as the last of the Horatii was armed with

his sword, he expected help. To anybody but this Machiavelli of the hulks, this hope would have seemed so

absolutely impossible to realize that he would have gone on mechanically, as all guilty men do. Not one of

them ever dreams of resistance when he finds himself in the position to which justice and the Paris police

bring suspected persons, especially those who, like Collin and Lucien, are in solitary confinement.

It is impossible to conceive of the sudden isolation in which a suspected criminal is placed. The gendarmes

who apprehend him, the commissioner who questions him, those who take him to prison, the warders who

lead him to his cellwhich is actually called a cachot, a dungeon or hidingplace, those again who take him

by the arms to put him into a prisonvanevery being that comes near him from the moment of his arrest is

either speechless, or takes note of all he says, to be repeated to the police or to the judge. This total severance,

so simply effected between the prisoner and the world, gives rise to a complete overthrow of his faculties and

a terrible prostration of mind, especially when the man has not been familiarized by his antecedents with the

processes of justice. The duel between the judge and the criminal is all the more appalling because justice has

on its side the dumbness of blank walls and the incorruptible coldness of its agents.

But Jacques Collin, or Carlos Herrerait will be necessary to speak of him by one or the other of these

names according to the circumstances of the casehad long been familiar with the methods of the police, of

the jail, and of justice. This colossus of cunning and corruption had employed all his powers of mind, and all

the resources of mimicry, to affect the surprise and anility of an innocent man, while giving the lawyers the

spectacle of his sufferings. As has been told, Asie, that skilled Locusta, had given him a dose of poison so

Thus Monsieur Camusot, the police commissioner, and the public prosecutor had been baffled in their

"He has taken poison!" cried Monsieur Camusot, horrified by the sufferings of the selfstyled priest when he

Four constables had with great difficulty brought the Abbe Carlos downstairs to Esther's room, where the

"That was the best thing he could do if he should be guilty," replied the public prosecutor.

The three lawyers had spoken, as may be imagined, in a whisper; but Jacques Collin had guessed from their

faces the subject under discussion, and had taken advantage of it to make the first brief examination which is

gone through on arrest absolutely impossible and useless; he had stammered out sentences in which Spanish

At La Force this farce had been all the more successful in the first instance because the head of the "safety"

forcean abbreviation of the title "Head of the brigade of the guardians of public safety" BibiLupin,

who had long since taken Jacques Collin into custody at Madame Vauquer's boardinghouse, had been sent

on special business into the country, and his deputy was a man who hoped to succeed him, but to whom the

BibiLupin, himself formerly a convict, and a comrade of Jacques Collin's on the hulks, was his personal

enemy. This hostility had its rise in quarrels in which Jacques Collin had always got the upper hand, and in

the supremacy over his fellowprisoners which Trompela Mort had always assumed. And then, for ten

years now, Jacques Collin had been the ruling providence of released convicts in Paris, their head, their

Thus, though placed in solitary confinement, he trusted to the intelligent and unreserved devotion of Asie, his

right hand, and perhaps, too, to Paccard, his left hand, who, as he flattered himself, might return to his

allegiance when once that thrifty subaltern had safely bestowed the seven hundred and fifty thousand francs

that he had stolen. This was the reason why his attention had been so superhumanly alert all along the road.

The two solid sidewalls of the archway were covered, to a height of six feet, with a permanent dado of mud

formed of the splashes from the gutter; for, in those days, the foot passenger had no protection from the

constant traffic of vehicles and from what was called the kicking of the carts, but curbstones placed upright at

intervals, and much ground away by the naves of the wheels. More than once a heavy truck had crushed a

heedless footpassenger under that archway. Such indeed Paris remained in many districts and till long

after. This circumstance may give some idea of the narrowness of the SaintJean gate and the ease with

which it could be blocked. If a cab should be coming through from the Place de Greve while a

costermongerwoman was pushing her little truck of apples in from the Rue du Martroi, a third vehicle of

any kind produced difficulties. The footpassengers fled in alarm, seeking a cornerstone to protect them

from the oldfashioned axles, which had attained such prominence that a law was passed at last to reduce

When the prison van came in, this passage was blocked by a market woman with a costermonger's vegetable

cartone of a type which is all the more strange because specimens still exist in Paris in spite of the

increasing number of greengrocers' shops. She was so thoroughly a street hawker that a Sergeant de Ville, if

that particular class of police had been then in existence, would have allowed her to ply her trade without

inspecting her permit, in spite of a sinister countenance that reeked of crime. Her head, wrapped in a cheap

and ragged checked cotton kerchief, was horrid with rebellious locks of hair, like the bristles of a wild boar.

Her red and wrinkled neck was disgusting, and her little shawl failed entirely to conceal a chest tanned brown

by the sun, dust, and mud. Her gown was patchwork; her shoes gaped as though they were grinning at a face

as full of holes as the gown. And what an apron! a plaster would have been less filthy. This moving and fetid

rag must have stunk in the nostrils of dainty folks ten yards away. Those hands had gleaned a hundred harvest

fields. Either the woman had returned from a German witches' Sabbath, or she had come out of a mendicity

asylum. But what eyes! what audacious intelligence, what repressed vitality when the magnetic flash of her

"Mind you don't crush me, you hangman's apprentice!" she retorted. "Your cartful is not worth as much as

And by trying to squeeze in between two cornerstones to make way, the hawker managed to block the

"Oh! Asie!" said Jacques Collin to himself, at once recognizing his accomplice. "Then all is well."

The postboy was still exchanging amenities with Asie, and vehicles were collecting in the Rue du Martroi.

"Look out, therePecaire fermati. Souni laVedrem," shrieked old Asie, with the RedIndian intonations

peculiar to these female costermongers, who disfigure their words in such a way that they are transformed

In the confusion in the alley, and among the outcries of all the waiting drivers, no one paid any heed to this

wild yell, which might have been the woman's usual cry. But this gibberish, intelligible to Jacques Collin,

sent to his ear in a mongrel language of their owna mixture of bad Italian and Provencalthis important

"Your poor boy is nabbed. I am here to keep an eye on you. We shall meet again."

In the midst of his joy at having thus triumphed over the police, for he hoped to be able to keep up

communications, Jacques Collin had a blow which might have killed any other man.

He almost fainted. This news was to him more terrible than the rejection of his appeal could have been if he

Now that both the prison vans are rolling along the Quai, the interest of this story requires that I should add a

few words about the Conciergerie, while they are making their way thither. The Conciergerie, a historical

namea terrible name,a still more terrible thing, is inseparable from the Revolutions of France, and

especially those of Paris. It has known most of our great criminals. But if it is the most interesting of the

buildings of Paris, it is also the least knownleast known to persons of the upper classes; still, in spite of the

interest of this historical digression, it should be as short as the journey of the prison vans.

What Parisian, what foreigner, or what provincial can have failed to observe the gloomy and mysterious

features of the Quai des Lunettesa structure of black walls flanked by three round towers with conical

roofs, two of them almost touching each other? This quay, beginning at the Pont du Change, ends at the Pont

Neuf. A square towerthe Clock Tower, or Tour de l'Horloge, whence the signal was given for the massacre

of SaintBartholomewa tower almost as tall as that of SaintJacques de la Boucherie, shows where the

These four towers and these walls are shrouded in the black winding sheet which, in Paris, falls on every

facade to the north. About half way along the quay at a gloomy archway we see the beginning of the private

houses which were built in consequence of the construction of the Pont Neuf in the reign of Henry IV. The

Place Royale was a replica of the Place Dauphine. The style of architecture is the same, of brick with binding

courses of hewn stone. This archway and the Rue de Harlay are the limit line of the Palais de Justice on the

west. Formerly the Prefecture de Police, once the residence of the Presidents of Parlement, was a dependency

of the Palace. The Court of Exchequer and Court of Subsidies completed the Supreme Court of Justice, the

Sovereign's Court. It will be seen that before the Revolution the Palace enjoyed that isolation which now

This block, this island of residences and official buildings, in their midst the SainteChapellethat priceless

jewel of SaintLouis' chapletis the sanctuary of Paris, its holy place, its sacred ark.

For one thing, this island was at first the whole of the city, for the plot now forming the Place Dauphine was a

meadow attached to the Royal demesne, where stood a stamping mill for coining money. Hence the name of

Rue de la Monnaiethe street leading to the Pont Neuf. Hence, too, the name of one of the round

towersthe middle onecalled the Tour d'Argent, which would seem to show that money was originally

coined there. The famous mill, to be seen marked in old maps of Paris, may very likely be more recent than

the time when money was coined in the Palace itself, and was erected, no doubt, for the practice of improved

The first tower, hardly detached from the Tour d'Argent, is the Tour de Montgomery; the third, and smallest,

but the best preserved of the three, for it still has its battlements, is the Tour Bonbec.

The SainteChapelle and its four towerscounting the clock tower as oneclearly define the precincts; or,

as a surveyor would say, the perimeter of the Palace, as it was from the time of the Merovingians till the

accession of the first race of Valois; but to us, as a result of certain alterations, this Palace is more especially

Charles V. was the first to give the Palace up to the Parlement, then a new institution, and went to reside in

the famous Hotel SaintPol, under the protection of the Bastille. The Palais des Tournelles was subsequently

erected backing on to the Hotel SaintPol. Thus, under the later Valois, the kings came back from the Bastille

The original residence of the French kings, the Palace of SaintLouis, which has preserved the designation of

Le Palais, to indicate the Palace of palaces, is entirely buried under the Palais de Justice; it forms the cellars,

for it was built, like the Cathedral, in the Seine, and with such care that the highest floods in the river scarcely

cover the lowest steps. The Quai de l'Horloge covers, twenty feet below the surface, its foundations of a

thousand years old. Carriages run on the level of the capitals of the solid columns under these towers, and

formerly their appearance must have harmonized with the elegance of the Palace, and have had a picturesque

effect over the water, since to this day those towers vie in height with the loftiest buildings in Paris.

As we look down on this vast capital from the lantern of the Pantheon, the Palace with the SainteChapelle is

still the most monumental of many monumental buildings. The home of our kings, over which you tread as

you pace the immense hall known as the Salle des PasPerdus, was a miracle of architecture; and it is so still

to the intelligent eye of the poet who happens to study it when inspecting the Conciergerie. Alas! for the

Conciergerie has invaded the home of kings. One's heart bleeds to see the way in which cells, cupboards,

corridors, warders' rooms, and halls devoid of light or air, have been hewn out of that beautiful structure in

which Byzantine, Gothic, and Romanesquethe three phases of ancient artwere harmonized in one

This palace is a monumental history of France in the earliest times, just as Blois is that of a later period. As at

Blois you may admire in a single courtyard the chateau of the Counts of Blois, that of Louis XII., that of

Francis I., that of Gaston; so at the Conciergerie you will find within the same precincts the stamp of the early

Municipal Council (to you I speak), if you bestow millions, get a poet or two to assist your architects if you

wish to save the cradle of Paris, the cradle of kings, while endeavoring to endow Paris and the Supreme Court

with a palace worthy of France. It is a matter for study for some years before beginning the work. Another

new prison or two like that of La Roquette, and the palace of SaintLouis will be safe.

In these days many grievances afflict this vast mass of buildings, buried under the Palais de Justice and the

quay, like some antediluvian creature in the soil of Montmartre; but the worst affliction is that it is the

Conciergerie. This epigram is intelligible. In the early days of the monarchy, noble criminalsfor the

villeins (a word signifying the peasantry in French and English alike) and the citizens came under the

jurisdiction of the municipality or of their liege lordthe lords of the greater or the lesser fiefs, were brought

before the king and guarded in the Conciergerie. And as these noble criminals were few, the Conciergerie

It is difficult now to be quite certain of the exact site of the original Conciergerie. However, the kitchens built

by SaintLouis still exist, forming what is now called the mousetrap; and it is probable that the original

Conciergerie was situated in the place where, till 1825, the Conciergerie prisons of the Parlement were still in

use, under the archway to the right of the wide outside steps leading to the supreme Court. From thence, until

1825, condemned criminals were taken to execution. From that gate came forth all the great criminals, all the

victims of political feelingthe Marechale d'Ancre and the Queen of France, Semblancay and Malesherbes,

Damien and Danton, Desrues and Castaing. FouquierTinville's private room, like that of the public

prosecutor now, was so placed that he could see the procession of carts containing the persons whom the

Revolutionary tribunal had sentenced to death. Thus this man, who had become a sword, could give a last

After 1825, when Monsieur de Peyronnet was Minister, a great change was made in the Palais. The old

entrance to the Conciergerie, where the ceremonies of registering the criminal and of the last toilet were

performed, was closed and removed to where it now is, between the Tour de l'Horloge and the Tour de

Montgomery, in an inner court entered through an arched passage. To the left is the "mousetrap," to the right

the prison gates. The "saladbaskets" can drive into this irregularly shaped courtyard, can stand there and

turn with ease, and in case of a riot find some protection behind the strong grating of the gate under the arch;

whereas they formerly had no room to move in the narrow space dividing the outside steps from the right

In our day the Conciergerie, hardly large enough for the prisoners committed for trialroom being needed

for about three hundred, men and womenno longer receives either suspected or remanded criminals

excepting in rare cases, as, for instance, in these of Jacques Collin and Lucien. All who are imprisoned there

are committed for trial before the Bench. As an exception criminals of the higher ranks are allowed to sojourn

there, since, being already disgraced by a sentence in open court, their punishment would be too severe if

they served their term of imprisonment at Melun or at Poissy. Ouvrard preferred to be imprisoned at the

Conciergerie rather than at SaintePelagie. At this moment of writing Lehon the notary and the Prince de

Bergues are serving their time there by an exercise of leniency which, though arbitrary, is humane.

As a rule, suspected criminals, whether they are to be subjected to a preliminary examinationto "go up," in

the slang of the Courtsor to appear before the magistrate of the lower Court, are transferred in prison vans

The "mousetraps," opposite the gate, consist of a certain number of old cells constructed in the old kitchens

of SaintLouis' building, whither prisoners not yet fully committed are brought to await the hour when the

Court sits, or the arrival of the examining judge. The "mousetraps" end on the north at the quay, on the east at

the headquarters of the Municipal Guard, on the west at the courtyard of the Conciergerie, and on the south

they adjoin a large vaulted hall, formerly, no doubt, the banquetingroom, but at present disused.

Above the "mousetraps" is an inner guardroom with a window commanding the court of the Conciergerie;

this is used by the gendarmerie of the department, and the stairs lead up to it. When the hour of trial strikes

the sheriffs call the roll of the prisoners, the gendarmes go down, one for each prisoner, and each gendarme

takes a criminal by the arm; and thus, in couples, they mount the stairs, cross the guardroom, and are led

along the passages to a room contiguous to the hall where sits the famous sixth chamber of the law (whose

functions are those of an English county court). The same road is trodden by the prisoners committed for trial

In the Salle des PasPerdus, between the door into the first court of the inferior class and the steps leading to

the sixth, the visitor must observe the first time he goes there a doorway without a door or any architectural

adornment, a square hole of the meanest type. Through this the judges and barristers find their way into the

passages, into the guardhouse, down into the prison cells, and to the entrance to the Conciergerie.

The private chambers of all the examining judges are on different floors in this part of the building. They are

reached by squalid staircases, a maze in which those to whom the place is unfamiliar inevitably lose

themselves. The windows of some look out on the quay, others on the yard of the Conciergerie. In 1830 a few

Thus, when a prison van turns to the left in this yard, it has brought prisoners to be examined to the

"mousetrap"; when it turns to the right, it conveys prisoners committed for trial, to the Conciergerie. Now it

was to the right that the vehicle turned which conveyed Jacques Collin to set him down at the prison gate.

Nothing can be more sinister. Prisoners and visitors see two barred gates of wrought iron, with a space

between them of about six feet. These are never both opened at once, and through them everything is so

cautiously scrutinized that persons who have a visiting ticket pass the permit through the bars before the key

grinds in the lock. The examining judges, or even the supreme judges, are not admitted without being

identified. Imagine, then, the chances of communications or escape! The governor of the Conciergerie

would smile with an expression on his lips that would freeze the mere suggestion in the most daring of

In all the annals of the Conciergerie no escape has been known but that of Lavalette; but the certain fact of

august connivance, now amply proven, if it does not detract from the wife's devotion, certainly diminished

The most ardent lover of the marvelous, judging on the spot of the nature of the difficulties, must admit that

at all times the obstacles must have been, as they still are, insurmountable. No words can do justice to the

Though the pavement of the yard is on a lower level than that of the quay, in crossing this Barbican you go

down several steps to enter an immense vaulted hall, with solid walls graced with magnificent columns. This

hall abuts on the Tour de Montgomerywhich is now part of the governor's residenceand on the Tour

d'Argent, serving as a dormitory for the warders, or porters, or turnkeys, as you may prefer to call them. The

number of the officials is less than might be supposed; there are but twenty; their sleeping quarters, like their

beds, are in no respect different from those of the pistoles or private cells. The name pistole originated, no

doubt, in the fact that the prisoners formerly paid a pistole (about ten francs) a week for this accommodation,

its bareness resembling that of the empty garrets in which great men in poverty begin their career in Paris.

To the left, in the vast entrance hall, sits the Governor of the Conciergerie, in a sort of office constructed of

glass panes, where he and his clerk keep the prisonregisters. Here the prisoners for examination, or

committed for trial, have their names entered with a full description, and are then searched. The question of

Opposite the entrance to this hall there is a glass door. This opens into a parlor where the prisoner's relations

and his counsel may speak with him across a double grating of wood. The parlor window opens on to the

prison yard, the inner court where prisoners committed for trial take air and exercise at certain fixed hours.

This large hall, only lighted by the doubtful daylight that comes in through the gatesfor the single window

to the front court is screened by the glass office built out in front of ithas an atmosphere and a gloom that

strike the eye in perfect harmony with the pictures that force themselves on the imagination. Its aspect is all

the more sinister because, parallel with the Tours d'Argent and de Montgomery, you discover those

mysterious vaulted and overwhelming crypts which lead to the cells occupied by the Queen and Madame

Elizabeth, and to those known as the secret cells. This maze of masonry, after being of old the scene of royal

Between 1825 and 1832 the operation of the last toilet was performed in this enormous hall, between a large

stove which heats it and the inner gate. It is impossible even now to tread without a shudder on the paved

The apparently dying victim on this occasion could not get out of the horrible vehicle without the assistance

of two gendarmes, who took him under the arms to support him, and led him half unconscious into the office.

Thus dragged along, the dying man raised his eyes to heaven in such a way as to suggest a resemblance to the

Saviour taken down from the Cross. And certainly in no picture does Jesus present a more cadaverous or

tortured countenance than this of the sham Spaniard; he looked ready to breathe his last sigh. As soon as he

was seated in the office, he repeated in a weak voice the speech he had made to everybody since he was

"Oh Lord!" said Jacques Collin, with a sigh. "But cannot I have a breviary! Shall I never be allowed to see a

As Carlos Herrera was to be placed in close confinement in the secret cells, it was needless to ask him

whether he claimed the benefits of the pistole (as above described), that is to say, the right of having one of

the rooms where the prisoner enjoys such comfort as the law permits. These rooms are on the other side of

the prisonyard, of which mention will presently be made. The sheriff and the clerk calmly carried out the

"Monsieur," said Jacques Collin to the Governor in broken French, "I am, as you see, a dying man. Pray, if

you can, tell that examining judge as soon as possible that I crave as a favor what a criminal must most dread,

namely, to be brought before him as soon as he arrives; for my sufferings are really unbearable, and as soon

As an universal rule every criminal talks of a mistake. Go to the hulks and question the convicts; they are

almost all victims of a miscarriage of justice. So this speech raises a faint smile in all who come into contact

"And I shall bless you, monsieur!" replied the false Abbe, raising his eyes to heaven.

As soon as his name was entered on the calendar, Carlos Herrera, supported under each arm by a man of the

municipal guard, and followed by a turnkey instructed by the Governor as to the number of the cell in which

the prisoner was to be placed, was led through the subterranean maze of the Conciergerie into a perfectly

wholesome room, whatever certain philanthropists may say to the contrary, but cut off from all possible

As soon as he was removed, the warders, the Governor, and his clerk looked at each other as though asking

each other's opinion, and suspicion was legible on every face; but at the appearance of the second man in

custody the spectators relapsed into their usual doubting frame of mind, concealed under the air of

indifference. Only in very extraordinary cases do the functionaries of the Conciergerie feel any curiosity; the

prisoners are no more to them than a barber's customers are to him. Hence all the formalities which appall the

imagination are carried out with less fuss than a money transaction at a banker's, and often with greater

Lucien's expression was that of a dejected criminal. He submitted to everything, and obeyed like a machine.

All the way from Fontainebleau the poet had been facing his ruin, and telling himself that the hour of

expiation had tolled. Pale and exhausted, knowing nothing of what had happened at Esther's house during his

absence, he only knew that he was the intimate ally of an escaped convict, a situation which enabled him to

guess at disaster worse than death. When his mind could command a thought, it was that of suicide. He must,

at any cost, escape the ignominy that loomed before him like the phantasm of a dreadful dream.

Jacques Collin, as the more dangerous of the two culprits, was placed in a cell of solid masonry, deriving its

light from one of the narrow yards, of which there are several in the interior of the Palace, in the wing where

the public prosecutor's chambers are. This little yard is the airingground for the female prisoners. Lucien

was taken to the same part of the building, to a cell adjoining the rooms let to misdemeanants; for, by orders

Persons who have never had anything to do with the action of the law usually have the darkest notions as to

the meaning of solitary or secret confinement. Ideas as to the treatment of criminals have not yet become

disentangled from the old pictures of torture chambers, of the unhealthiness of a prison, the chill of stone

walls sweating tears, the coarseness of the jailers and of the foodinevitable accessories of the drama; but it

is not unnecessary to explain here that these exaggerations exist only on the stage, and only make lawyers and

judges smile, as well as those who visit prisons out of curiosity, or who come to study them.

For a long time, no doubt, they were terrible. In the days of the old Parlement, of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV.,

the accused were, no doubt, flung pellmell into a low room underneath the old gateway. The prisons were

among the crimes of 1789, and it is enough only to see the cells where the Queen and Madame Elizabeth

In our day, though philanthropy has brought incalculable mischief on society, it has produced some good for

the individual. It is to Napoleon that we owe our Criminal Code; and this, even more than the Civil

Codewhich still urgently needs reform on some pointswill remain one of the greatest monuments of his

short reign. This new view of criminal law put an end to a perfect abyss of misery. Indeed, it may be said

that, apart from the terrible moral torture which men of the better classes must suffer when they find

themselves in the power of the law, the action of that power is simple and mild to a degree that would hardly

be expected. Suspected or accused criminals are certainly not lodged as if they were at home; but every

necessary is supplied to them in the prisons of Paris. Besides, the burden of feelings that weighs on them

deprives the details of daily life of their customary value. It is never the body that suffers. The mind is in such

a phase of violence that every form of discomfort or of brutal treatment, if such there were, would be easily

endured in such a frame of mind. And it must be admitted that an innocent man is quickly released, especially

So Lucien, on entering his cell, saw an exact reproduction of the first room he had occupied in Paris at the

Hotel Cluny. A bed to compare with those in the worst furnished apartments of the Quartier Latin, straw

chairs with the bottoms out, a table and a few utensils, compose the furniture of such a room, in which two

accused prisoners are not unfrequently placed together when they are quiet in their ways, and their misdeeds

This resemblance between his startingpoint, in the days of his innocency, and his goal, the lowest depths of

degradation and sham, was so direct an appeal to his last chord of poetic feeling, that the unhappy fellow

melted into tears. For four hours he wept, as rigid in appearance as a figure of stone, but enduring the

subversion of all his hopes, the crushing of all his social vanity, and the utter overthrow of his pride, smarting

in each separate _I_ that exists in an ambitious mana lover, a success, a dandy, a Parisian, a poet, a

libertine, and a favorite. Everything in him was broken by this fall as of Icarus.

Carlos Herrera, on the other hand, as soon as he was locked into his cell and found himself alone, began

pacing it to and fro like the polar bear in his cage. He carefully examined the door and assured himself that,

with the exception of the peephole, there was not a crack in it. He sounded all the walls, he looked up the

He sat down in a corner where the eye of a prying warder at the grating of the peephole could not see him.

Then he took off his wig, and hastily ungummed a piece of paper that did duty as lining. The side of the paper

next his head was so greasy that it looked like the very texture of the wig. If it had occurred to BibiLupin to

snatch off the wig to establish the identity of the Spaniard with Jacques Collin, he would never have thought

twice about the paper, it looked so exactly like part of the wigmaker's work. The other side was still fairly

white, and clean enough to have a few lines written on it. The delicate and tiresome task of unsticking it had

been begun in La Force; two hours would not have been long enough; it had taken him half of the day before.

The prisoner began by tearing this precious scrap of paper so as to have a strip four or five lines wide, which

he divided into several bits; he then replaced his store of paper in the same strange hidingplace, after

damping the gummed side so as to make it stick again. He felt in a lock of his hair for one of those pencil

leads as thin as a stout pin, then recently invented by Susse, and which he had put in with some gum; he

broke off a scrap long enough to write with and small enough to hide in his ear. Having made these

preparations with the rapidity and certainty of hand peculiar to old convicts, who are as lightfingered as

monkeys, Jacques Collin sat down on the edge of his bed to meditate on his instructions to Asie, in perfect

confidence that he should come across her, so entirely did he rely on the woman's genius.

"During the preliminary examination," he reflected, "I pretended to be a Spaniard and spoke broken French,

appealed to my Ambassador, and alleged diplomatic privilege, not understanding anything I was asked, the

whole performance varied by fainting, pauses, sighsin short, all the vagaries of a dying man. I must stick to

that. My papers are all regular. Asie and I can eat up Monsieur Camusot; he is no great shakes!

"Now I must think of Lucien; he must be made to pull himself together. I must get at the boy at whatever

cost, and show him some plan of conduct, otherwise he will give himself up, give me up, lose all! He must be

taught his lesson before he is examined. And besides, I must find some witnesses to swear to my being a

Such was the position, moral and physical, of these two prisoners, whose fate at the moment depended on

Monsieur Camusot, examining judge to the Inferior Court of the Seine, and sovereign master, during the time

granted to him by the Code, of the smallest details of their existence, since he alone could grant leave for

No human authorityneither the King, nor the Keeper of the Seals, nor the Prime Minister, can encroach on

the power of an examining judge; nothing can stop him, no one can control him. He is a monarch, subject

only to his conscience and the Law. At the present time, when philosophers, philanthropists, and politicians

are constantly endeavoring to reduce every social power, the rights conferred on the examining judges have

become the object of attacks that are all the more serious because they are almost justified by those rights,

which, it must be owned, are enormous. And yet, as every man of sense will own, that power ought to remain

unimpaired; in certain cases, its exercise can be mitigated by a strong infusion of caution; but society is

already threatened by the ineptitude and weakness of the jury which is, in fact, the really supreme bench,

and which ought to be composed only of choice and elected menand it would be in danger of ruin if this

Arrest on suspicion is one of the terrible but necessary powers of which the risk to society is counterbalanced

by its immense importance. And besides, distrust of the magistracy in general is a beginning of social

dissolution. Destroy that institution, and reconstruct it on another basis; insistas was the case before the

Revolutionthat judges should show a large guarantee of fortune; but, at any cost, believe in it! Do not

In these days a judge, paid as a functionary, and generally a poor man, has in the place of his dignity of old a

haughtiness of demeanor that seems odious to the men raised to be his equals; for haughtiness is dignity

without a solid basis. That is the vicious element in the present system. If France were divided into ten

circuits, the magistracy might be reinstated by conferring its dignities on men of fortune; but with

The only real improvement to be insisted on in the exercise of the power intrusted to the examining judge, is

an alteration in the conditions of preliminary imprisonment. The mere fact of suspicion ought to make no

difference in the habits of life of the suspected parties. Houses of detention for them ought to be constructed

in Paris, furnished and arranged in such a way as greatly to modify the feeling of the public with regard to

suspected persons. The law is good, and is necessary; its application is in fault, and public feeling judges the

laws from the way in which they are carried out. And public opinion in France condemns persons under

suspicion, while, by an inexplicable reaction, it justifies those committed for trial. This, perhaps, is a result of

This illogical temper of the Parisian people was one of the factors which contributed to the climax of this

To enter into the secret of the terrible scenes which are acted out in the examining judge's chambers; to

understand the respective positions of the two belligerent powers, the Law and the examinee, the object of

whose contest is a certain secret kept by the prisoner from the inquisition of the magistratewell named in

prison slang, "the curious man"it must always be remembered that persons imprisoned under suspicion

know nothing of what is being said by the seven or eight publics that compose THE PUBLIC, nothing of how

much the police know, or the authorities, or the little that newspapers can publish as to the circumstances of

Thus, to give a man in custody such information as Jacques Collin had just received from Asie as to Lucien's

arrest, is throwing a rope to a drowning man. As will be seen, in consequence of this ignorance, a stratagem

which, without this warning, must certainly have been equally fatal to the convict, was doomed to failure.

Monsieur Camusot, the soninlaw of one of the clerks of the cabinet, too well known for any account of his

position and connection to be necessary here, was at this moment almost as much perplexed as Carlos

Herrera in view of the examination he was to conduct. He had formerly been President of a Court of the Paris

circuit; he had been raised from that position and called to be a judge in Parisone of the most coveted posts

in the magistracyby the influence of the celebrated Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, whose husband, attached to

the Dauphin's person, and Colonel of a cavalry regiment of the Guards, was as much in favor with the King

as she was with MADAME. In return for a very small service which he had done the Duchessan important

matter to heron occasion of a charge of forgery brought against the young Comte d'Esgrignon by a banker

of Alencon (see La Cabinet des Antiques; Scenes de la vie de Province), he was promoted from being a

provincial judge to be president of his Court, and from being president to being an examining judge in Paris.

For eighteen months now he had sat on the most important Bench in the kingdom; and had once, at the desire

of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, had an opportunity of forwarding the ends of a lady not less influential

than the Duchess, namely, the Marquise d'Espard, but he had failed. (See the Commission in Lunacy.)

Lucien, as was told at the beginning of the Scene, to be revenged on Madame d'Espard, who aimed at

depriving her husband of his liberty of action, was able to put the true facts before the Public Prosecutor and

the Comte de Serizy. These two important authorities being thus won over to the Marquis d'Espard's party,

his wife had barely escaped the censure of the Bench by her husband's generous intervention.

On hearing, yesterday, of Lucien's arrest, the Marquise d'Espard had sent her brotherinlaw, the Chevalier

d'Espard, to see Madame Camusot. Madame Camusot had set off forthwith to call on the notorious Marquise.

Just before dinner, on her return home, she had called her husband aside in the bedroom.

"If you can commit that little fop Lucien de Rubempre for trial, and secure his condemnation," said she in his

"Madame d'Espard longs to see that poor young man guillotined. I shivered as I heard what a pretty woman's

"I! meddle!" said she. "If a third person could have heard us, he could not have guessed what we were talking

about. The Marquise and I were as exquisitely hypocritical to each other as you are to me at this moment. She

began by thanking me for your good offices in her suit, saying that she was grateful in spite of its having

failed. She spoke of the terrible functions devolved on you by the law, 'It is fearful to have to send a man to

the scaffoldbut as to that man, it would be no more than justice,' and so forth. Then she lamented that such

a handsome young fellow, brought to Paris by her cousin, Madame du Chatelet, should have turned out so

badly. 'That,' said she, 'is what bad women like Coralie and Esther bring young men to when they are corrupt

enough to share their disgraceful profits!' Next came some fine speeches about charity and religion! Madame

du Chatelet had said that Lucien deserved a thousand deaths for having half killed his mother and his sister

"Then she spoke of a vacancy in the Supreme Courtshe knows the Keeper of the Seals. 'Your husband,

madame, has a fine opportunity of distinguishing himself,' she said in conclusionand that is all."

"You will go far if you are always the lawyer even to your wife," cried Madame Camusot. "Well, I used to

The lawyer's lips wore one of those smiles which are as peculiar to them as dancers' smiles are to dancers.

"Madame, the head lady'smaid came from the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse while you were out, and she will

"Keep dinner back," said the lawyer's wife, remembering that the driver of the hackney coach that had

She put her bonnet on again, got into the coach, and in twenty minutes was at the Hotel de Cadignan.

Madame Camusot was led up the private stairs, and sat alone for ten minutes in a boudoir adjoining the

Duchess' bedroom. The Duchess presently appeared, splendidly dressed, for she was starting for SaintCloud

"Lucien de Rubempre is in custody, your husband is conducting the inquiry; I will answer for the poor boy's

innocence; see that he is released within twentyfour hours.This is not all. Some one will ask tomorrow

to see Lucien in private in his cell; your husband may be present if he chooses, so long as he is not

discovered. The King looks for high courage in his magistrates in the difficult position in which he will

presently find himself; I will bring your husband forward, and recommend him as a man devoted to the King

even at the risk of his head. Our friend Camusot will be made first a councillor, and then the President of

"You will not only oblige the public prosecutor, who cannot give an opinion in this affair; you will save the

"And I had not a chance of telling her that Madame d'Espard wants to see Lucien on the scaffold!" thought

She told her husband of her interview with the Duchess, speaking in his ear for fear the maid should be

"Now, which of them has the most power?" she said in conclusion. "The Marquise was very near getting you

into trouble in the silly business of the commission on her husband, and we owe everything to the Duchess.

"One made vague promises, while the other tells you you shall first be Councillor and then

President.Heaven forbid I should advise you; I will never meddle in matters of business; still, I am bound

"But, Amelie, you do not know what the Prefet of police sent me this morning, and by whom? By one of the

most important agents of the superior police, the BibiLupin of politics, who told me that the Government

had a secret interest in this trial.Now let us dine and go to the Varietes. We will talk all this over tonight

in my private room, for I shall need your intelligence; that of a judge may not perhaps be enough"

Nine magistrates out of ten would deny the influence of the wife over her husband in such cases; but though

this may be a remarkable exception in society, it may be insisted on as true, even if improbable. The

magistrate is like the priest, especially in Paris, where the best of the profession are to be found; he rarely

speaks of his business in the Courts, excepting of settled cases. Not only do magistrates' wives affect to know

nothing; they have enough sense of propriety to understand that it would damage their husbands if, when they

Nevertheless, on some great occasions, when promotion depends on the decision taken, many a wife, like

Amelie, has helped the lawyer in his study of a case. And, after all, these exceptions, which, of course, are

easily denied, since they remain unknown, depend entirely on the way in which the struggle between two

natures has worked out in home life. Now, Madame Camusot controlled her husband completely.

When all in the house were asleep, the lawyer and his wife sat down to the desk, where the magistrate had

"Here are the notes, forwarded to me, at my request, by the Prefet of police," said Camusot.

"This individual is undoubtedly the man named Jacques Collin, known as TrompelaMort, who was last

arrested in 1819, in the dwellinghouse of a certain Madame Vauquer, who kept a common boardinghouse

in the Rue NueveSainteGenevieve, where he lived in concealment under the alias of Vautrin."

"Orders have been sent by telegraph to BibiLupin, chief of the Safety department, to return forthwith, to be

confronted with the prisoner, as he is personally acquainted with Jacques Collin, whom he, in fact, arrested in

"The boarders who then lived in the Maison Vauquer are still living, and may be called to establish his

"The selfstyled Carlos Herrera is Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre's intimate friend and adviser, and for three

years past has furnished him with considerable sums, evidently obtained by dishonest means.

"This partnership, if the identity of the Spaniard with Jacques Collin can be proved, must involve the

"The sudden death of Peyrade, the police agent, is attributable to poison administered at the instigation of

Jacques Collin, Rubempre, or their accomplices. The reason for this murder is the fact that justice had for a

And again, on the margin, the magistrate pointed to this note written by the Prefet himself:

"This is the fact to my personal knowledge; and I also know that the Sieur Lucien de Rubempre has

"The transformation of the convict Jacques Collin into a Spanish priest is the result of some crime more

"Lucien Chardon, son of an apothecary at Angoulemehis mother a Demoiselle de Rubemprebears the

name of Rubempre in virtue of a royal patent. This was granted by the request of Madame la Duchesse de

"This young man came to Paris in 182 . . . without any means of subsistence, following Madame la Comtesse

"He was ungrateful to Madame de Bargeton, and cohabited with a girl named Coralie, an actress at the

Gymnase, now dead, who left Monsieur Camusot, a silk mercer in the Rue des Bourdonnais, to live with

"Ere long, having sunk into poverty through the insufficiency of the money allowed him by this actress, he

seriously compromised his brotherinlaw, a highly respected printer of Angouleme, by giving forged bills,

for which David Sechard was arrested, during a short visit paid to Angouleme by Lucien. In consequence of

this affair Rubempre fled, but suddenly reappeared in Paris with the Abbe Carlos Herrera.

"Though having no visible means of subsistence, the said Lucien de Rubempre spent on an average three

hundred thousand francs during the three years of his second residence in Paris, and can only have obtained

"He has recently laid out above a million francs in repurchasing the Rubempre estates to fulfil the conditions

on which he was to be allowed to marry Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu. This marriage has been broken

off in consequence of inquiries made by the Grandlieu family, the said Lucien having told them that he had

obtained the money from his brotherinlaw and his sister; but the information obtained, more especially by

Monsieur Derville, attorneyatlaw, proves that not only were that worthy couple ignorant of his having

made this purchase, but that they believed the said Lucien to be deeply in debt.

"Moreover, the property inherited by the Sechards consists of houses; and the ready money, by their affidavit,

"Lucien was secretly cohabiting with Esther Gobseck; hence there can be no doubt that all the lavish gifts of

the Baron de Nucingen, the girl's protector, were handed over to the said Lucien.

"Lucien and his companion, the convict, have succeeded in keeping their footing in the face of the world

longer than Coignard did, deriving their income from the prostitution of the said Esther, formerly on the

Though these notes are to a great extent a repetition of the story already told, it was necessary to reproduce

them to show the part played by the police in Paris. As has already been seen from the note on Peyrade, the

police has summaries, almost invariably correct, concerning every family or individual whose life is under

suspicion, or whose actions are of a doubtful character. It knows every circumstance of their delinquencies.

This universal register and account of consciences is as accurately kept as the register of the Bank of France

and its accounts of fortunes. Just as the Bank notes the slightest delay in payment, gauges every credit, takes

stock of every capitalist, and watches their proceedings, so does the police weigh and measure the honesty of

each citizen. With it, as in a Court of Law, innocence has nothing to fear; it has no hold on anything but

And its discretion is equal to the extent of its power. This vast mass of written evidence compiled by the

policereports, notes, and summariesan ocean of information, sleeps undisturbed, as deep and calm as

the sea. Some accident occurs, some crime or misdemeanor becomes aggressive,then the law refers to the

police, and immediately, if any documents bear on the suspected criminal, the judge is informed. These

records, an analysis of his antecedents, are merely sidelights, and unknown beyond the walls of the Palais de

Justice. No legal use can be made of them; Justice is informed by them, and takes advantage of them; but that

is all. These documents form, as it were, the inner lining of the tissue of crimes, their first cause, which is

hardly ever made public. No jury would accept it; and the whole country would rise up in wrath if excerpts

from those documents came out in the trial at the Assizes. In fact, it is the truth which is doomed to remain in

the well, as it is everywhere and at all times. There is not a magistrate who, after twelve years' experience in

Paris, is not fully aware that the Assize Court and the police authorities keep the secret of half these squalid

atrocities, or who does not admit that half the crimes that are committed are never punished by the law.

If the public could know how reserved the employes of the police are who do not forgetthey would

reverence these honest men as much as they do Cheverus. The police is supposed to be astute, Machiavellian;

it is, in fact most benign. But it hears every passion in its paroxysms, it listens to every kind of treachery, and

keeps notes of all. The police is terrible on one side only. What it does for justice it does no less for political

interests; but in these it is as ruthless and as onesided as the fires of the Inquisition.

"Put this aside," said the lawyer, replacing the notes in their cover; "this is a secret between the police and the

law. The judge will estimate its value, but Monsieur and Madame Camusot must know nothing of it."

"A man who is the favorite of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, of the Comtesse de Serizy, and loved by

Clotilde de Grandlieu, is not guilty," said Amelie. "The other MUST be answerable for everything."

"Take my advice," said Amelie. "Restore this priest to the diplomatic career he so greatly adorns, exculpate

"How you run on!" said the magistrate with a smile. "Women go to the point, plunging through the law as

"But," said Amelie, "whether he is a diplomate or a convict, the Abbe Carlos will find some one to get him

And Madame Camusot went to bed, leaving her husband to arrange his papers and his ideas in preparation for

And thus, while the prison vans were conveying Jacques Collin and Lucien to the Conciergerie, the

examining judge, having breakfasted, was making his way across Paris on foot, after the unpretentious

fashion of Parisian magistrates, to go to his chambers, where all the documents in the case were laid ready for

This was the way of it: Every examining judge has a headclerk, a sort of sworn legal secretarya race that

perpetuates itself without any premiums or encouragement, producing a number of excellent souls in whom

secrecy is natural and incorruptible. From the origin of the Parlement to the present day, no case has ever

been known at the Palais de Justice of any gossip or indiscretion on the part of a clerk bound to the Courts of

Inquiry. Gentil sold the release given by Louise de Savoie to Semblancay; a War Office clerk sold the plan of

the Russian campaign to Czernitchef; and these traitors were more or less rich. The prospect of a post in the

Palais and professional conscientiousness are enough to make a judge's clerk a successful rival of the

tombfor the tomb has betrayed many secrets since chemistry has made such progress.

This official is, in fact, the magistrate's pen. It will be understood by many readers that a man may gladly be

the shaft of a machine, while they wonder why he is content to remain a bolt; still a bolt is contentperhaps

Camusot's clerk, a young man of twoandtwenty, named Coquart, had come in the morning to fetch all the

documents and the judge's notes, and laid everything ready in his chambers, while the lawyer himself was

wandering along the quays, looking at the curiosities in the shops, and wondering within himself:

"How on earth am I to set to work with such a clever rascal as this Jacques Collin, supposing it is he? The

head of the Safety will know him. I must look as if I knew what I was about, if only for the sake of the police!

I see so many insuperable difficulties, that the best plan would be to enlighten the Marquise and the Duchess

by showing them the notes of the police, and I should avenge my father, from whom Lucien stole

Coralie.If I can unveil these scoundrels, my skill will be loudly proclaimed, and Lucien will soon be

"Not to be false to my conscience, and yet to oblige two great ladies that will be a triumph of skill,"

thought he. "What, do you collect coins too, monsieur?" said Camusot to the Public Prosecutor, whom he

"It is a taste dear to all dispensers of justice," said the Comte de Granville, laughing. "They look at the

And after looking about the shop for some minutes, as if continuing his search, he accompanied Camusot on

his way down the quay without it ever occurring to Camusot that anything but chance had brought them

"You are examining Monsieur de Rubempre this morning," said the Public Prosecutor. "Poor fellowI liked

"Yes, I saw the police papers; but some of the information came from an agent who is independent of the

Prefet, the notorious Corentin, who had caused the death of more innocent men than you will ever send guilty

men to the scaffold, and But that rascal is out of your reach.Without trying to influence the

conscience of such a magistrate as you are, I may point out to you that if you could be perfectly sure that

Lucien was ignorant of the contents of that woman's will, it would be selfevident that he had no interest in

"We can prove his absence at the time when this Esther was poisoned," said Camusot. "He was at

Fontainebleau, on the watch for Mademoiselle de Grandlieu and the Duchesse de Lenoncourt."

"And he still cherished such hopes of marrying Mademoiselle de Grandlieu," said the Public Prosecutor"I

have it from the Duchesse de Grandlieu herselfthat it is inconceivable that such a clever young fellow

"Derville and Nucingen both say that she died in ignorance of the inheritance she had long since come into,"

"But then what do you suppose is the meaning of it all?" asked Camusot. "For there is something at the

"Unfortunately," remarked Camusot, "it would be quite like Jacques Collinfor the Spanish priest is

certainly none other than that escaped convictto have taken possession of the seven hundred and fifty

thousand francs derived from the sale of the certificate of shares given to Esther by Nucingen."

"Weigh everything with care, my dear Camusot. Be prudent. The Abbe Carlos Herrera has diplomatic

connections; still, an envoy who had committed a crime would not be sheltered by his position. Is he or is he

"So he too wants to save Lucien!" thought Camusot, going on by the Quai des Lunettes, while the Public

On reaching the courtyard of the Conciergerie, Camusot went to the Governor's room and led him into the

"My dear sir, do me the favor of going to La Force, and inquiring of your colleague there whether he happens

at this moment to have there any convicts who were on the hulks at Toulon between 1810 and 1815; or have

you any imprisoned here? We will transfer those of La Force here for a few days, and you will let me know

whether this socalled Spanish priest is known to them as Jacques Collin, otherwise Trompe laMort."

"He was at Melun. He was told that TrompelaMort had to be identified, and he smiled with joy. He awaits

The Governor was then able to lay before Monsieur Camusot Jacques Collin's request, and he described the

"I intended to examine him first," replied the magistrate, "but not on account of his health. I received a note

this morning from the Governor of La Force. Well, this rascal, who described himself to you as having been

dying for twentyfour hours past, slept so soundly that they went into his cell there, with the doctor for whom

the Governor had sent, without his hearing them; the doctor did not even feel his pulse, he left him to

sleepwhich proves that his conscience is as tough as his health. I shall accept this feigned illness only so

"We live to learn every day with these various grades of prisoners," said the Governor of the prison.

The Prefecture of police adjoins the Conciergerie, and the magistrates, like the Governor, knowing all the

subterranean passages, can get to and fro with the greatest rapidity. This explains the miraculous ease with

which information can be conveyed, during the sitting of the Courts, to the officials and the presidents of the

Assize Courts. And by the time Monsieur Camusot had reached the top of the stairs leading to his chambers,

"Ah, well, you see if it is HE," replied the man, "you will see great fun in the prisonyard if by chance there

"TrompelaMort sneaked their chips, and I know that they have vowed to be the death of him."

THEY were the convicts whose money, intrusted to TrompelaMort, had all been made away with by him

"Coquart," said the lawyer, as he took off his gloves, and placed his hat and stick in a corner, "fill up two

He looked at himself in the glass over the chimney shelf, where stood, in the place of a clock, a basin and jug.

On one side was a bottle of water and a glass, on the other a lamp. He rang the bell; his usher came in a few

"Is anybody here for me yet?" he asked the man, whose business it was to receive the witnesses, to verify

The examining judges, to save time, are often obliged to carry on several inquiries at once. Hence the long

waiting inflicted on the witnesses, who have seats in the ushers' hall, where the judges' bells are constantly

"Ah, ha! I was told that he was a priest in Spanish. Pooh! It is a new edition of Collet, Monsieur Camusot,"

And he signed the two formidable documents which alarm everybody, even the most innocent witnesses,

whom the law thus requires to appear, under severe penalties in case of failure.

By this time Jacques Collin had, about half an hour since, finished his deep meditations, and was armed for

the fray. Nothing is more perfectly characteristic of this type of the mob in rebellion against the law than the

The sense of the firstfor it was written in the language, the very slang of slang, agreed upon by Asie and

"Go to the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse or Madame de Serizy: one of them must see Lucien before he is

examined, and give him the enclosed paper to read. Then find Europe and Paccard; those two thieves must be

"Go to Rastignac; tell him, from the man he met at the operaball, to come and swear that the Abbe Carlos

Herrera has no resemblance to Jacques Collin who was apprehended at Vauquer's. Do the same with Dr.

"Lucien, confess nothing about me. I am the Abbe Carlos Herrera. Not only will this be your exculpation;

but, if you do not lose your head, you will have seven millions and your honor cleared."

These two bits of paper, gummed on the side of the writing so as to look like one piece, were then rolled

tightly, with a dexterity peculiar to men who have dreamed of getting free from the hulks. The whole thing

assumed the shape and consistency of a ball of dirty rubbish, about as big as the sealingwax heads which

"If I am examined first, we are saved; if it is the boy, all is lost," said he to himself while he waited.

His plight was so sore that the strong man's face was wet with white sweat. Indeed, this wonderful man saw

as clearly in his sphere of crime as Moliere did in his sphere of dramatic poetry, or Cuvier in that of extinct

organisms. Genius of whatever kind is intuition. Below this highest manifestation other remarkable

achievements may be due to talent. This is what divides men of the first rank from those of the second.

Crime has its men of genius. Jacques Collin, driven to bay, had hit on the same notion as Madame Camusot's

ambition and Madame de Serizy's passion, suddenly revived by the shock of the dreadful disaster which was

overwhelming Lucien. This was the supreme effort of human intellect directed against the steel armor of

On hearing the rasping of the heavy locks and bolts of his door, Jacques Collin resumed his mask of a dying

man; he was helped in this by the intoxicating joy that he felt at the sound of the warder's shoes in the

passage. He had no idea how Asie would get near him; but he relied on meeting her on the way, especially

Till 1830 the name of La Greve (the Strand) had a meaning that is now lost. Every part of the rivershore

from the Pont d'Arcole to the Pont LouisPhilippe was then as nature had made it, excepting the paved way

which was at the top of the bank. When the river was in flood a boat could pass close under the houses and at

the end of the streets running down to the river. On the quay the footpath was for the most part raised with a

few steps; and when the river was up to the houses, vehicles had to pass along the horrible Rue de la

Mortellerie, which has now been completely removed to make room for enlarging the Hotel de Ville.

So the sham costermonger could easily and quickly run her truck down to the bottom of the quay, and hide it

there till the real ownerwho was, in fact, drinking the price of her wares, sold bodily to Asie, in one of the

abominable taverns in the Rue de la Mortellerieshould return to claim it. At that time the Quai Pelletier

was being extended, the entrance to the works was guarded by a crippled soldier, and the barrow would be

Asie then jumped into a hackney cab on the Place de l'Hotel de Ville, and said to the driver, "To the Temple,

A woman dressed like Asie could disappear, without any questions being asked, in the huge marketplace,

where all the rags in Paris are gathered together, where a thousand costermongers wander round, and two

The two prisoners had hardly been locked up when she was dressing herself in a low, damp entresol over one

of those foul shops where remnants are sold, pieces stolen by tailors and dressmakersan establishment kept

by an old maid known as La Romette, from her Christian name Jeromette. La Romette was to the "purchasers

of wardrobes" what these women are to the better class of socalled ladies in difficultiesMadame la

"Now, child," said Asie, "I have got to be figged out. I must be a Baroness of the Faubourg SaintGermain at

the very least. And sharp's the word, for my feet are in hot oil. You know what gowns suit me. Hand up the

rougepot, find me some firstclass bits of lace, and the swaggerest jewelry you can pick out.Send the girl

"Yes, madame," the woman replied very humbly, and with the eagerness of a maid waiting on her mistress.

If there had been any one to witness the scene, he would have understood that the woman known as Asie was

"I have had some diamonds offered me," said la Romette as she dressed Asie's head.

"Well, then, however cheap they may be, we must do without 'em. We must fight shy of the beak for a long

It will now be understood how Asie contrived to be in the Salle des PasPerdus of the Palais de Justice with a

summons in her hand, asking her way along the passages and stairs leading to the examining judge's

chambers, and inquiring for Monsieur Camusot, about a quarter of an hour before that gentleman's arrival.

Asie was not recognizable. After washing off her "makeup" as an old woman, like an actress, she applied

rouge and pearl powder, and covered her head with a wellmade fair wig. Dressed exactly as a lady of the

Faubourg SaintGermain might be if in search of a dog she had lost, she looked about forty, for she shrouded

her features under a splendid black lace veil. A pair of stays, severely laced, disguised her cook's figure. With

very good gloves and a rather large bustle, she exhaled the perfume of powder a la Marechale. Playing with a

bag mounted in gold, she divided her attention between the walls of the building, where she found herself

evidently for the first time, and the string by which she led a dainty little spaniel. Such a dowager could not

fail to attract the notice of the blackrobed natives of the Salle des PasPerdus.

Besides the briefless lawyers who sweep this hall with their gowns, and speak of the leading advocates by

their Christian names, as fine gentlemen address each other, to produce the impression that they are of the

aristocracy of the law, patient youths are often to be seen, hangerson of the attorneys, waiting, waiting, in

hope of a case put down for the end of the day, which they may be so lucky as to be called to plead if the

A very curious study would be that of the differences between these various black gowns, pacing the

immense hall in threes, or sometimes in fours, their persistent talk filling the place with a loud, echoing

huma hall well named indeed, for this slow walk exhausts the lawyers as much as the waste of words. But

such a study has its place in the volumes destined to reveal the life of Paris pleaders.

Asie had counted on the presence of these youths; she laughed in her sleeve at some of the pleasantries she

overheard, and finally succeeded in attracting the attention of Massol, a young lawyer whose time was more

taken up by the Police Gazette than by clients, and who came up with a laugh to place himself at the service

Asie put on a little, thin voice to explain to this obliging gentleman that she appeared in answer to a summons

"Oh, it is not my affair. It is my maid's, a girl named Europe, who was with me twentyfour hours, and who

Then, like any old woman who spends her life gossiping in the chimney corner, prompted by Massol, she

poured out the story of her woes with her first husband, one of the three Directors of the land revenue. She

consulted the young lawyer as to whether she would do well to enter on a lawsuit with her soninlaw, the

Comte de GrossNarp, who made her daughter very miserable, and whether the law allowed her to dispose of

In spite of all his efforts, Massol could not be sure whether the summons were addressed to the mistress or

the maid. At the first moment he had only glanced at this legal document of the most familiar aspect; for, to

save time, it is printed, and the magistrates' clerks have only to fill in the blanks left for the names and

Asie made him tell her all about the Palais, which she knew more intimately than the lawyer did. Finally, she

"It is now a quarter to ten," said she, looking at a pretty little watch, a perfect gem of goldsmith's work, which

At this moment Asie had come to the dark hall looking out on the yard of the Conciergerie, where the ushers

"Oh! so that is the Conciergerie where our poor queen Oh! I should so like to see her cell!"

"Impossible, Madame la Baronne," replied the young lawyer, on whose arm the dowager was now leaning.

"I have been told," she went on, "that Louis XVIII. himself composed the inscription that is to be seen in

"How much I should like to know Latin that I might study the words of that inscription!" said she. "Do you

"To be sure," said she artlessly, "they are under suspicion.But I know Monsieur de Granville, your public

"Ah, you know Monsieur de Granville?" said Massol, who was inclined to ask the client thus sent to him by

"I often see him at my friend Monsieur de Serizy's house. Madame de Serizy is a connection of mine through

So the Baroness and the lawyer were allowed to pass, and they presently found themselves in the little

guardroom at the top of the stairs leading to the "mousetrap," a spot well known to Asie, forming, as has

been said, a post of observation between those cells and the Court of the Sixth Chamber, through which

"Will you ask if Monsieur Camusot is come yet?" said she, seeing some gendarmes playing cards.

"The mousetrap!" said she. "What is that?Oh! how stupid of me not to have gone straight to the Comte de

Granville.But I have not time now. Pray take me to speak to Monsieur Camusot before he is otherwise

"Oh, you have plenty of time for seeing Monsieur Camusot," said Massol. "If you send him in your card, he

will spare you the discomfort of waiting in the anteroom with the witnesses.We can be civil here to ladies

At this instant Asie and her lawyer were exactly in front of the window of the guardroom whence the

gendarmes could observe the gate of the Conciergerie. The gendarmes, brought up to respect the defenders of

the widow and the orphan, were aware too of the prerogative of the gown, and for a few minutes allowed the

Baroness to remain there escorted by a pleader. Asie listened to the terrible tales which a young lawyer is

ready to tell about that prisongate. She would not believe that those who were condemned to death were

prepared for the scaffold behind those bars; but the sergeantatarms assured her it was so.

And there she remained, prattling to the lawyer and the sergeant, till she saw Jacques Collin come out

"Not at all, Madame la Baronne," said the gendarme. "He is a prisoner coming to be examined."

"You cannot stay here," said the sergeant, "for he is under close arrest, and he must pass through here. You

"Oh! thank you!" cried the Baroness, making for the door, to rush down the stairs, where she at once shrieked

This cry reached the ear of Jacques Collin, who was thus prepared to see her. The sergeant flew after

Madame la Baronne, seized her by the middle, and lifted her back like a feather into the midst of a group of

five gendarmes, who started up as one man; for in that guardroom everything is regarded as suspicious. The

proceeding was arbitrary, but the arbitrariness was necessary. The young lawyer himself had cried out twice,

"Madame! madame!" in his horror, so much did he fear finding himself in the wrong.

The words, though spoken low to the young advocate, could be heard by all, for the silence of death reigned

in that terrible guardroom. Certain privileged persons are sometimes allowed to see famous criminals on their

way through this room or through the passages, so that the clerk and the gendarmes who had charge of the

Abbe Carlos made no remark. Also, in consequence of the devoted zeal of the sergeant who had snatched up

the Baroness to hinder any communication between the prisoner and the visitors, there was a considerable

At the same moment the little ball rolled out of his sleeve, and the spot where it fell was noted by the

Baroness, who could look about her freely from under her veil. The little pellet, being damp and sticky, did

not roll; for such trivial details, apparently unimportant, had all been duly considered by Jacques Collin to

When the prisoner had been led up the higher part of the steps, Asie very unaffectedly dropped her bag and

picked it up again; but in stooping she seized the pellet which had escaped notice, its color being exactly like

"Monsieur," said Asie to the lawyer, "take me at once to Monsieur Camusot; I have come about this case; and

The lawyer and the Baroness left the guardroom, with its greasy, fuliginous walls; but as soon as they reached

"Oh, and my dog! My poor little dog!" and she rushed off like a mad creature down the Salle des PasPerdus,

asking every one where her dog was. She got to the corridor beyond (la Galerie Marchande, or Merchant's

These stairs lead to the Cour de Harlay, through which Asie, having played out the farce, passed out and took

a hackney cab on the Quai des Orfevres, where there is a stand; thus she vanished with the summons

requiring "Europe" to appear, her real name being unknown to the police and the lawyers.

Asie could depend on the absolute secrecy of an oldclothes purchaser, known as Madame Nourrisson, who

also called herself Madame de Saint Esteve; and who would lend Asie not merely her personality, but her

shop at need, for it was there that Nucingen had bargained for the surrender of Esther. Asie was quite at home

She paid the driver, and went up to her room, nodding to Madame Nourrisson in a way to make her

As soon as she was safe from observation, Asie unwrapped the papers with the care of a savant unrolling a

palimpsest. After reading the instructions, she thought it wise to copy the lines intended for Lucien on a sheet

of letterpaper; then she went down to Madame Nourrisson, to whom she talked while a little shopgirl went

to fetch a cab from the Boulevard des Italiens. She thus extracted the addresses of the Duchesse de

Maufrigneuse and of Madame de Serizy, which were known to Madame Nourrisson by her dealings with

All this running about and elaborate business took up more than two hours. Madame la Duchesse de

Maufrigneuse, who lived at the top of the Faubourg SaintHonore, kept Madame de SaintEsteve waiting an

hour, although the lady'smaid, after knocking at the boudoir door, had handed in to her mistress a card with

Madame de SaintEsteve's name, on which Asie had written, "Called about pressing business concerning

Her first glance at the Duchess' face showed her how tilltimed her visit must be; she apologized for

disturbing Madame la Duchesse when she was resting, on the plea of the danger in which Lucien stood.

"Who are you?" asked the Duchess, without any pretence at politeness, as she looked at Asie from head to

foot; for Asie, though she might be taken for a Baroness by Maitre Massol in the Salle des PasPerdus, when

she stood on the carpet in the boudoir of the Hotel de Cadignan, looked like a splash of mud on a white satin

"I am a dealer in castoff clothes, Madame la Duchesse; for in such matters every lady applies to women

whose business rests on a basis of perfect secrecy. I have never betrayed anybody, though God knows how

many great ladies have intrusted their diamonds to me by the month while wearing false jewels made to

"You have some other name?" said the Duchess, smiling at a reminiscence recalled to her by this reply.

"Yes, Madame la Duchesse, I am Madame de SaintEsteve on great occasions, but in the trade I am Madame

"I am able to be of great service," Asie went on, "for we hear the husbands' secrets as well as the wives'. I

"If you wish to save him, madame, you must have courage enough to lose no time in dressing. But, indeed,

Madame la Duchesse, you could not look more charming than you do at this moment. You are sweet enough

to charm anybody, take an old woman's word for it! In short, madame, do not wait for your carriage, but get

into my hackney coach. Come to Madame de Serizy's if you hope to avert worse misfortunes than the death

"Go on, I will follow you," said the Duchess after a moment's hesitation. "Between us we may give Leontine

Notwithstanding the really demoniacal activity of this Dorine of the hulks, the clock was striking two when

she and the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse went into the Comtesse de Serizy's house in the Rue de la

Chausseed'Antin. Once there, thanks to the Duchess, not an instant was lost. The two women were at once

shown up to the Countess, whom they found reclining on a couch in a miniature chalet, surrounded by a

"Oh! my dear, I am half dead! Tell me, Diane, what have you done?" cried the Duchess, starting up like a

"Come, come, Leontine; there are occasions when women like us must not cry, but act," said the Duchess,

Asie studied the Countess' face with the scrutiny peculiar to those old hands, which pierces to the soul of a

woman as certainly as a surgeon's instrument probes a wound!the sorrow that engraves ineradicable lines

on the heart and on the features. She was dressed without the least touch of vanity. She was now fortyfive,

and her printed muslin wrapper, tumbled and untidy, showed her bosom without any art or even stays! Her

eyes were set in dark circles, and her mottled cheeks showed the traces of bitter tears. She wore no sash round

her waist; the embroidery on her petticoat and shift was all crumpled. Her hair, knotted up under a lace cap,

had not been combed for fourandtwenty hours, and showed as a thin, short plait and ragged little curls.

"Whom should I bring with me but a woman who is devoted to Lucien and willing to help us?"

Asie had hit the truth. Madame de Serizy, who was regarded as one of the most fickle of fashionable women,

had had an attachment of ten years' standing for the Marquis d'Aiglemont. Since the Marquis' departure for

the colonies, she had gone wild about Lucien, and had won him from the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse,

knowing nothinglike the Paris world generallyof Lucien's passion for Esther. In the world of fashion a

recognized attachment does more to ruin a woman's reputation than ten unconfessed liaisons; how much

more then two such attachments? However, as no one thought of Madame de Serizy as a responsible person,

She was fair, of medium height, and well preserved, as a fair woman can be who is well preserved at all; that

is to say, she did not look more than thirty, being slender, but not lean, with a white skin and flaxen hair; she

had hands, feet, and a shape of aristocratic elegance, and was as witty as all the Ronquerolles, spiteful,

therefore, to women, and goodnatured to men. Her large fortune, her husband's fine position, and that of her

brother, the Marquis de Ronquerolles, had protected her from the mortifications with which any other woman

would have been overwhelmed. She had this great merit that she was honest in her depravity, and

Now, at fortytwo this womanwho had hitherto regarded men as no more than pleasing playthings, to

whom, indeed, she had, strange to say, granted much, regarding love as merely a matter of sacrifice to gain

the upper hand,this woman, on first seeing Lucien, had been seized with such a passion as the Baron de

Nucingen's for Esther. She had loved, as Asie had just told her, for the first time in her life.

This postponement of youth is more common with Parisian women than might be supposed, and causes the

ruin of some virtuous souls just as they are reaching the haven of forty. The Duchesse de Maufrigneuse was

the only person in the secret of the vehement and absorbing passion, of which the joys, from the girlish

suspicion of first love to the preposterous follies of fulfilment, had made Leontine half crazy and insatiable.

True love, as we know, is merciless. The discovery of Esther's existence had been followed by one of those

outbursts of rage which in a woman rise even to the pitch of murder; then came the phase of meanness, to

which a sincere affection humbles itself so gladly. Indeed, for the last month the Countess would have given

ten years of her life to have Lucien again for one week. At last she had even resigned herself to accept Esther

as her rival, just when the news of her lover's arrest had come like the last trump on this paroxysm of

The Countess had nearly died of it. Her husband had himself nursed her in bed, fearing the betrayal of

delirium, and for twentyfour hours she had been living with a knife in her heart. She said to her husband in

"Indeed, as Madame la Duchesse tells you, it is of no use to make your eyes like boiled gooseberries," cried

the dreadful Asie, shaking the Countess by the arm. "If you want to save him, there is not a minute to lose. He

"Yes, yes, of course he is!" cried the Countess, looking quite kindly at the dreadful old woman.

"But," Asie went on, "if Monsieur Camusot questions him the wrong way, he can make a guilty man of him

with two sentences; so, if it is in your power to get the Conciergerie opened to you, and to say a few words to

him, go at once, and give him this paper.He will be released tomorrow; I will answer for it. Now, get him

"Yes, you!You fine ladies never have a son even when you own millions. When I allowed myself the

luxury of keeping boys, they always had their pockets full of gold! Their amusements amused me. It is

delightful to be mother and mistress in one. Now, youyou let the men you love die of hunger without

asking any questions. Esther, now, made no speeches; she gave, at the cost of perdition, soul and body, the

million your Lucien was required to show, and that is what has brought him to this pass"

"She was a real beauty; but now, my angel, you are better looking than she is.And Lucien's marriage is so

effectually broken off, that nothing can mend it," said the Duchess in a whisper to Leontine.

The effect of this revelation and forecast was so great on the Countess that she was well again. She passed her

"Now, my lady, hot foot, and make haste!" said Asie, seeing the change, and guessing what had caused it.

"But," said Madame de Maufrigneuse, "if the first thing is to prevent Lucien's being examined by Monsieur

Camusot, we can do that by writing two words to the judge and sending your man with it to the Palais,

This is what was taking place at the Palais while Lucien's protectresses were obeying the orders issued by

Jacques Collin. The gendarmes placed the moribund prisoner on a chair facing the window in Monsieur

Camusot's room; he was sitting in his place in front of his table. Coquart, pen in hand, had a little table to

The aspect of a magistrate's chambers is not a matter of indifference; and if this room had not been chosen

intentionally, it must be owned that chance had favored justice. An examining judge, like a painter, requires

the clear equable light of a north window, for the criminal's face is a picture which he must constantly study.

Hence most magistrates place their table, as this of Camusot's was arranged, so as to sit with their back to the

window and leave the face of the examinee in broad daylight. Not one of them all but, by the end of six

months, has assumed an absentminded and indifferent expression, if he does not wear spectacles, and

It was a sudden change of expression in the prisoner's face, detected by these means, and caused by a sudden

pointblank question, that led to the discovery of the crime committed by Castaing at the very moment when,

after a long consultation with the public prosecutor, the magistrate was about to let the criminal loose on

society for lack of evidence. This detail will show the least intelligent person how living, interesting, curious,

and dramatically terrible is the conflict of an examinationa conflict without witnesses, but always

recorded. God knows what remains on the paper of the scenes at white heat in which a look, a tone, a quiver

of the features, the faintest touch of color lent by some emotion, has been fraught with danger, as though the

adversaries were savages watching each other to plant a fatal stroke. A report is no more than the ashes of the

"Don Carlos Herrera, canon of the Royal Chapter of Toledo, and secret envoy of His Majesty Ferdinand VII."

It must here be observed that Jacques Collin spoke French like a Spanish trollop, blundering over it in such a

way as to make his answers almost unintelligible, and to require them to be repeated. But Monsieur de

Nucingen's German barbarisms have already weighted this Scene too much to allow of the introduction of

other sentences no less difficult to read, and hindering the rapid progress of the tale.

"Then you have papers to prove your right to the dignities of which you speak?" asked Camusot.

"Yes, monsieurmy passport, a letter from his Catholic Majesty authorizing my mission.In short, if you

will but send at once to the Spanish Embassy two lines, which I will write in your presence, I shall be

identified. Then, if you wish for further evidence, I will write to His Eminence the High Almoner of France,

"And do you still pretend that you are dying?" asked the magistrate. "If you have really gone through all the

sufferings you have complained of since your arrest, you ought to be dead by this time," said Camusot

"You are simply trying the courage of an innocent man and the strength of his constitution," said the prisoner

"Coquart, ring. Send for the prison doctor and an infirmary attendant. We shall be obliged to remove your

The prisoner then inquired whether the magistrate would be kind enough to explain to him what he meant by

"the marks," and why they should be sought on his shoulder. The judge was prepared for this question.

"You are suspected of being Jacques Collin, an escaped convict, whose daring shrinks at nothing, not even at

Jacques Collin gave no sign, and did not color; he remained quite calm, and assumed an air of guileless

"I, monsieur? A convict? May the Order I belong to and God above forgive you for such an error. Tell me

what I can do to prevent your continuing to offer such an insult to the rights of free men, to the Church, and

The judge made no reply to this, but explained to the Abbe that if he had been branded, a penalty at that time

inflicted by law on all convicts sent to the hulks, the letters could be made to show by giving him a slap on

"Oh, monsieur," said Jacques Collin, "it would indeed be unfortunate if my devotion to the Royal cause

"Well, monsieur, I must have a great many scars on my back, for I was shot in the back as a traitor to my

country while I was faithful to my King, by constitutionalists who left me for dead."

"I had made friends with some of the soldiers, to whom certain pious persons had sent money, so they placed

me so far off that only spent balls reached me, and the men aimed at my back. This is a fact that His

"This devil of a man has an answer for everything! However, so much the better," thought Camusot, who

assumed so much severity only to satisfy the demands of justice and of the police. "How is it that a man of

your character," he went on, addressing the convict, "should have been found in the house of the Baron de

Nucingen's mistressand such a mistress, a girl who had been a common prostitute!"

"This is why I was found in a courtesan's house, monsieur," replied Jacques Collin. "But before telling you

the reasons for my being there, I ought to mention that at the moment when I was just going upstairs I was

seized with the first attack of my illness, and I had no time to speak to the girl. I knew of Mademoiselle

Esther's intention of killing herself; and as young Lucien de Rubempre's interests were involved, and I have a

particular affection for him for sacredly secret reasons, I was going to try to persuade the poor creature to

give up the idea, suggested to her by despair. I meant to tell her that Lucien must certainly fail in his last

attempt to win Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu; and I hoped that by telling her she had inherited seven

"I am convinced, Monsieur le Juge, that I am a martyr to the secrets confided to me. By the suddenness of my

illness I believe that I had been poisoned that very morning, but my strong constitution has saved me. I know

that a certain agent of the political police is dogging me, and trying to entangle me in some discreditable

"If, at my request, you had sent for a doctor on my arrival here, you would have had ample proof of what I

am telling you as to the state of my health. Believe me, monsieur, some persons far above our heads have

some strong interest in getting me mistaken for some villain, so as to have a right to get rid of me. It is not all

profit to serve a king; they have their meannesses. The Church alone is faultless."

It is impossible to do justice to the play of Jacques Collin's countenance as he carefully spun out his speech,

sentence by sentence, for ten minutes; and it was all so plausible, especially the mention of Corentin, that the

"Will you confide to me the reasons of your affection for Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre?"

"Can you not guess them? I am sixty years of age, monsieurI implore you do not write it.It is

"It will be to your own advantage, and more particularly to Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre's, if you tell

Coquart held the phial under the convict's nose, while the judge examined him with the keen eye of a

"Take his wig off," said Camusot, after waiting till the man recovered consciousness.

Jacques Collin heard, and quaked with terror, for he knew how vile an expression his face would assume.

"If you have not strength enough to take your wig off yourself Yes, Coquart, remove it," said Camusot

Jacques Collin bent his head to the clerk with admirable resignation; but then his head, bereft of that

The sight of it left Camusot in the greatest uncertainty. While waiting for the doctor and the man from the

infirmary, he set to work to classify and examine the various papers and the objects seized in Lucien's rooms.

After carrying out their functions in the Rue Saint Georges at Mademoiselle Esther's house, the police had

"You have your hand on some letters from the Comtesse de Serizy," said Carlos Herrera. "But I cannot

imagine why you should have almost all Lucien's papers," he added, with a smile of overwhelming irony at

"Lucien de Rubempre is in custody under suspicion of being your accomplice," said he, watching to see the

"You have brought about a great misfortune, for he is as innocent as I am," replied the sham Spaniard,

"We shall see. We have not as yet established your identity," Camusot observed, surprised at the prisoner's

indifference. "If you are really Don Carlos Herrera, the position of Lucien Chardon will at once be

"To be sure, she became Madame ChardonMademoiselle de Rubempre!" murmured Carlos. "Ah! that was

He raised his eyes to heaven, and by the movement of his lips seemed to be uttering a fervent prayer.

"But if you are Jacques Collin, and if he was, and knew that he was, the companion of an escaped convict, a

sacrilegious wretch, all the crimes of which he is suspected by the law are more than probably true."

Carlos Herrera sat like bronze as he heard this speech, very cleverly delivered by the judge, and his only reply

to the words "KNEW THAT HE WAS" and "ESCAPED CONVICT" was to lift his hands to heaven with a

"Monsieur l'Abbe," Camusot went on, with the greatest politeness, "if you are Don Carlos Herrera, you will

forgive us for what we are obliged to do in the interests of justice and truth."

Jacques Collin detected a snare in the lawyer's very voice as he spoke the words "Monsieur l'Abbe." The

man's face never changed; Camusot had looked for a gleam of joy, which might have been the first indication

of his being a convict, betraying the exquisite satisfaction of a criminal deceiving his judge; but this hero of

"I am accustomed to diplomacy, and I belong to an Order of very austere discipline," replied Jacques Collin,

with apostolic mildness. "I understand everything, and am inured to suffering. I should be free by this time if

you had discovered in my room the hidingplace where I keep my papersfor I see you have none but

This was a finishing stroke to Camusot: Jacques Collin by his air of ease and simplicity had counteracted all

"I will tell you exactly if you will get a secretary from the Spanish Embassy to accompany your messenger.

He will take them and be answerable to you for the documents, for it is to me a matter of confidential

dutydiplomatic secrets which would compromise his late Majesty Louis XVIIIIndeed, monsieur, it

would be better However, you are a magistrateand, after all, the Ambassador, to whom I refer the

At this juncture the usher announced the arrival of the doctor and the infirmary attendant, who came in.

"Goodmorning, Monsieur Lebrun," said Camusot to the doctor. "I have sent for you to examine the state of

health of this prisoner under suspicion. He says he had been poisoned and at the point of death since the day

before yesterday; see if there is any risk in undressing him to look for the brand."

Doctor Lebrun took Jacques Collin's hand, felt his pulse, asked to look at his tongue, and scrutinized him

"The prisoner has been suffering severely," said the medical officer, "but at this moment he is amazingly

"That spurious energy, monsieur, is due to nervous excitement caused by my strange position," said Jacques

At a sign from Camusot the prisoner was stripped of everything but his trousers, even of his shirt, and the

spectators might admire the hairy torso of a Cyclops. It was that of the Farnese Hercules at Naples in its

The usher brought in the ebony staff, which from time immemorial has been the insignia of his office, and is

called his rod; he struck it several times over the place where the executioner had branded the fatal letters.

Seventeen spots appeared, irregularly distributed, but the most careful scrutiny could not recognize the shape

of any letters. The usher indeed pointed out that the top bar of the letter T was shown by two spots, with an

interval between of the length of that bar between the two points at each end of it, and there was another spot

"Still that is quite uncertain," said Camusot, seeing doubt in the expression of the prison doctor's

Carlos begged them to make the same experiment on the other shoulder and the middle of his back. About

fifteen more such scars appeared, which, at the Spaniard's request, the doctor made a note of; and he

pronounced that the man's back had been so extensively seamed by wounds that the brand would not show

An officeclerk now came in from the Prefecture, and handed a note to Monsieur Camusot, requesting an

answer. After reading it the lawyer went to speak to Coquart, but in such a low voice that no one could catch

a word. Only, by a glance from Camusot, Jacques Collin could guess that some information concerning him

"That friend of Peyrade's is still at my heels," thought Jacques Collin. "If only I knew him, I would get rid of

After signing a paper written by Coquart, the judge put it into an envelope and handed it to the clerk of the

This is an indispensable auxiliary to justice. It is under the direction of a police commissioner, and consists of

peaceofficers who, with the assistance of the police commissioners of each district, carry into effect orders

for searching the houses or apprehending the persons of those who are suspected of complicity in crimes and

felonies. These functionaries in authority save the examining magistrates a great deal of very precious time.

At a sign from the judge the prisoner was dressed by Monsieur Lebrun and the attendant, who then withdrew

"An aunt?" echoed Don Carlos Herrera with amazement. "Why, monsieur, I have no relations. I am the

But to himself he said, "They are burning"an allusion to the game of hot cockles, which is indeed a

"Pooh!" said Camusot. "You still have an aunt living, Mademoiselle Jacqueline Collin, whom you placed in

Jacques Collin shrugged his shoulders with an indifference that was in perfect harmony with the cool

curiosity he gave throughout to the judge's words, while Camusot studied him with cunning attention.

"You aunt is a wardrobe dealer at the Temple; her business is managed by a demoiselle Paccard, the sister of

a convictherself a very good girl, known as la Romette. Justice is on the traces of your aunt, and in a few

"Pray go on, Monsieur le Juge," said Collin coolly, in answer to a pause; "I am listening to you."

"Your aunt, who is about five years older than you are, was formerly Marat's mistressof odious memory.

"From information I have received she must be a very clever receiver of stolen goods, for no proofs have yet

been found to commit her on. After Marat's death she seems, from the notes I have here, to have lived with a

chemist who was condemned to death in the year XII. for issuing false coin. She was called as witness in the

"In 1812 and in 1816 she spent two years in prison for placing girls under age upon the streets.

"You were already convicted of forgery; you had left the banking house where your aunt had been able to

place you as clerk, thanks to the education you had had, and the favor enjoyed by your aunt with certain

Jacques Collin sat listening to Monsieur Camusot, and thinking of his happy childhood at the College of the

Oratorians, where he had been brought up, a meditation which lent him a truly amazed look. And in spite of

his skill as a practised examiner, Camusot could bring no sort of expression to those placid features.

"If you have accurately recorded the account of myself I gave you at first," said Jacques Collin, "you can read

it through again. I cannot alter the facts. I never went to the woman's house; how should I know who her cook

"Notwithstanding your denial, we shall proceed to confront you with persons who may succeed in

"A man who has been three times shot is used to anything," replied Jacques Collin meekly.

Camusot proceeded to examine the seized papers while awaiting the return of the famous BibiLupin, whose

expedition was amazing; for at halfpast eleven, the inquiry having begun at ten o'clock, the usher came in to

BibiLupin, who had been expected to exclaim, "It is he," as he came in, stood puzzled. He did not recognize

"It is his build, his height," said the agent. "Oh! yes, it is you, Jacques Collin!" he went on, as he examined

his eyes, forehead, and ears. "There are some things which no disguise can alter. . . . Certainly it is he,

Monsieur Camusot. Jacques has the scar of a cut on his left arm. Take off his coat, and you will see . . ."

Jacques Collin was again obliged to take off his coat; BibiLupin turned up his sleeve and showed the scar he

"It is the scar of a bullet," replied Don Carlos Herrera. "Here are several more."

"I know that," said BibiLupin with deference. "But I will bring witnesses. One of the boarders from the

"Show the person in," said Camusot roughly, his dissatisfaction betraying itself in spite of his seeming

This irritation was not lost on Jacques Collin, who had not counted on the judge's sympathy, and sat lost in

apathy, produced by his deep meditations in the effort to guess what the cause could be.

The usher now showed in Madame Poiret. At this unexpected appearance the prisoner had a slight shiver, but

his trepidation was not remarked by Camusot, who seemed to have made up his mind.

"What is your name?" asked he, proceeding to carry out the formalities introductory to all depositions and

Madame Poiret, a little old woman as white and wrinkled as a sweetbread, dressed in a darkblue silk gown,

gave her name as Christine Michelle Michonneau, wife of one Poiret, and her age as fiftyone years, said that

she was born in Paris, lived in the Rue des Poules at the corner of the Rue des Postes, and that her business

"In 1818 and 1819," said the judge, "you lived, madame, in a boarding house kept by a Madame Vauquer?"

"Yes, monsieur; it was there that I met Monsieur Poiret, a retired official, who became my husband, and

whom I have nursed in his bed this twelvemonth past. Poor man! he is very bad; and I cannot be long away

"Oh, monsieur, that is quite a long story; he was a horrible man, from the galleys"

"You are in the presence of the Law; be careful," said Monsieur Camusot severely.

"Try to remember," Camusot went on. "Do you recollect the man? Would you know him again?"

Madame Poiret put on her "eyepreservers," and looked at the Abbe Carlos Herrera.

"It is his build, his height; and yetnoifMonsieur le Juge," she said, "if I could see his chest I should

The magistrate and his clerk could not help laughing, notwithstanding the gravity of their office; Jacques

Collin joined in their hilarity, but discreetly. The prisoner had not put on his coat after BibiLupin had

"Yes, that is his fur trimming, sure enough!But it has worn gray, Monsieur Vautrin," cried Madame Poiret.

"Bless me! If I had a doubtfor his face is alteredthat voice would be enough. He is the man who

"The police agent and this woman," said Camusot, speaking to Jacques Collin, "cannot possibly have

conspired to say the same thing, for neither of them had seen you till now. How do you account for that?"

"Justice has blundered more conspicuously even than it does now in accepting the evidence of a woman who

recognizes a man by the hair on his chest and the suspicions of a police agent," replied Jacques Collin. "I am

said to resemble a great criminal in voice, eyes, and build; that seems a little vague. As to the memory which

would prove certain relations between Madame and my Sosiewhich she does not blush to ownyou

yourself laughed at. Allow me, monsieur, in the interests of truth, which I am far more anxious to establish

for my own sake than you can be for the sake of justice, to ask this lady Madame Foiret"

"Poretexcuse me, I am a Spaniardwhether she remembers the other persons who lived in thiswhat did

"You are right," said Camusot, with a favorable nod to Jacques Collin, whose apparent good faith in

suggesting means to arrive at some conclusion struck him greatly. "Try to remember the boarders who were

"There were Monsieur de Rastignac, Doctor Bianchon, Pere Goriot, Mademoiselle Taillefer"

"That will do," said Camusot, steadily watching Jacques Collin, whose expression did not change. "Well,

"Monsieur," said Jacques Collin, "I have several times met Monsieur de Rastignac, a friend, I believe, of

Madame de Nucingen's; and if it is the same, he certainly never supposed me to be the convict with whom

"Monsieur de Rastignac and Doctor Bianchon," said the magistrate, "both hold such a social position that

their evidence, if it is in your favor, will be enough to procure your release.Coquart, fill up a summons for

The formalities attending Madame Poiret's examination were over in a few minutes; Coquart read aloud to

her the notes he had made of the little scene, and she signed the paper; but the prisoner refused to sign,

"That is enough for today," said Monsieur Camusot. "You must be wanting food. I will have you taken back

Camusot was anxious to time Jacques Collin's return to coincide with the prisoners' hour of exercise in the

prison yard; but he needed a reply from the Governor of the Conciergerie to the order he had given him in the

morning, and he rang for the usher. The usher appeared, and told him that the porter's wife, from the house on

the Quai Malaquais, had an important document to communicate with reference to Monsieur Lucien de

Rubempre. This was so serious a matter that it put Camusot's intentions out of his head.

"Beg your pardon; pray excuse me, gentlemen all," said the woman, courtesying to the judge and the Abbe

Carlos by turns. "We were so worried by the Lawmy husband and methe twice when it has marched

into our house, that we had forgotten a letter that was lying, for Monsieur Lucien, in our chest of drawers,

which we paid ten sous for it, though it was posted in Paris, for it is very heavy, sir. Would you please to pay

"Was this letter handed to you by the postman?" asked Camusot, after carefully examining the envelope.

"Coquart, write full notes of this deposition.Go on, my good woman; tell us your name and your business."

While these formalities were being carried out, he was scrutinizing the postmark, which showed the hours of

posting and delivery, as well at the date of the day. And this letter, left for Lucien the day after Esther's death,

had beyond a doubt been written and posted on the day of the catastrophe. Monsieur Camusot's amazement

may therefore be imagined when he read this letter written and signed by her whom the law believed to have

"MY LUCIEN,I have not an hour to live. At eleven o'clock I shall be dead, and I shall die without a pang.

I have paid fifty thousand francs for a neat little black currant, containing a poison that will kill me with the

swiftness of lightning. And so, my darling, you may tell yourself, 'My little Esther had no suffering.'and

"The monster who has paid so dear for me, knowing that the day when I should know myself to be his would

have no morrowNucingen has just left me, as drunk as a bear with his skin full of wind. For the first and

last time in my life I have had the opportunity of comparing my old trade as a street hussy with the life of true

love, of placing the tenderness which unfolds in the infinite above the horrors of a duty which longs to

destroy itself and leave no room even for a kiss. Only such loathing could make death delightful.

"I have taken a bath; I should have liked to send for the father confessor of the convent where I was baptized,

to have confessed and washed my soul. But I have had enough of prostitution; it would be profaning a

sacrament; and besides, I feel myself cleansed in the waters of sincere repentance. God must do what He will

"But enough of all this maudlin; for you I want to be your Esther to the last moment, not to bore you with my

death, or the future, or God, who is good, and who would not be good if He were to torture me in the next

"I have before me your beautiful portrait, painted by Madame de Mirbel. That sheet of ivory used to comfort

me in your absence, I look at it with rapture as I write you my last thoughts, and tell you of the last throbbing

of my heart. I shall enclose the miniature in this letter, for I cannot bear that it should be stolen or sold. The

mere thought that what has been my great joy may lie behind a shop window, mixed up with the ladies and

officers of the Empire, or a parcel of Chinese absurdities, is a small death to me. Destroy that picture, my

sweetheart, wipe it out, never give it to any oneunless, indeed, the gift might win back the heart of that

walking, welldressed maypole, that Clotilde de Grandlieu, who will make you black and blue in her sleep,

her bones are so sharp.Yes, to that I consent, and then I shall still be of some use to you, as when I was

alive. Oh! to give you pleasure, or only to make you laugh, I would have stood over a brazier with an apple in

my mouth to cook it for you.So my death even will be of service to you.I should have marred your

"Oh! that Clotilde! I cannot understand her.She might have been your wife, have borne your name, have

never left you day or night, have belonged to youand she could make difficulties! Only the Faubourg

"Poor Lucien! Dear ambitious failure! I am thinking of your future life. Well, well! you will more than once

regret your poor faithful dog, the good girl who would fly to serve you, who would have been dragged into a

police court to secure your happiness, whose only occupation was to think of your pleasures and invent new

ones, who was so full of love for youin her hair, her feet, her earsyour ballerina, in short, whose every

look was a benediction; who for six years has thought of nothing but you, who was so entirely your chattel

that I have never been anything but an effluence of your soul, as light is that of the sun. However, for lack of

money and of honor, I can never be your wife. I have at any rate provided for your future by giving you all I

"Come as soon as you get this letter and take what you find under my pillow, for I do not trust the people

about me. Understand that I mean to look beautiful when I am dead. I shall go to bed, and lay myself flat in

an attitudewhy not? Then I shall break the little pill against the roof of my mouth, and shall not be

"Madame de Serizy has quarreled with you, I know, because of me; but when she hears that I am dead, you

see, dear pet, she will forgive. Make it up with her, and she will find you a suitable wife if the Grandlieus

"My dear, I do not want you to grieve too much when you hear of my death. To begin with, I must tell you

that the hour of eleven on Monday morning, the thirteenth of May, is only the end of a long illness, which

began on the day when, on the Terrace of Saint Germain, you threw me back on my former line of life. The

soul may be sick, as the body is. But the soul cannot submit stupidly to suffering like the body; the body does

not uphold the soul as the soul upholds the body, and the soul sees a means of cure in the reflection which

leads to the needlewoman's resourcethe bushel of charcoal. You gave me a whole life the day before

yesterday, when you said that if Clotilde still refused you, you would marry me. It would have been a great

misfortune for us both; I should have been still more dead, so to speakfor there are more and less bitter

"For two months past I have been thinking of many things, I can tell you. A poor girl is in the mire, as I was

before I went into the convent; men think her handsome, they make her serve their pleasure without thinking

any consideration necessary; they pack her off on foot after fetching her in a carriage; if they do not spit in

her face, it is only because her beauty preserves her from such indignity; but, morally speaking they do

worse. Well, and if this despised creature were to inherit five or six millions of francs, she would be courted

by princes, bowed to with respect as she went past in her carriage, and might choose among the oldest names

in France and Navarre. That world which would have cried Raca to us, on seeing two handsome creatures

united and happy, always did honor to Madame de Stael, in spite of her 'romances in real life,' because she

had two hundred thousand francs a year. The world, which grovels before money or glory, will not bow down

before happiness or virtuefor I could have done good. Oh! how many tears I would have driedas many

"These are the thoughts that make death beautiful. So do not lament, my dear. Say often to yourself, 'There

were two good creatures, two beautiful creatures, who both died for me ungrudgingly, and who adored me.'

Keep a memory in your heart of Coralie and Esther, and go your way and prosper. Do you recollect the day

when you pointed out to me a shriveled old woman, in a melongreen bonnet and a puce wrapper, all over

black grease spots, the mistress of a poet before the Revolution, hardly thawed by the sun though she was

sitting against the wall of the Tuileries and fussing over a pugthe vilest of pugs? She had had footmen and

carriages, you know, and a fine house! And I said to you then, 'How much better to be dead at thirty!'Well,

you thought I was melancholy, and you played all sorts of pranks to amuse me, and between two kisses I said,

'Every day some pretty woman leaves the play before it is over!'And I do not want to see the last piece;

"You must think me a great chatterbox; but this is my last effusion. I write as if I were talking to you, and I

like to talk cheerfully. I have always had a horror of a dressmaker pitying herself. You know I knew how to

die decently once before, on my return from that fatal operaball where the men said I had been a prostitute.

"No, no, my dear love, never give this portrait to any one! If you could know with what a gush of love I have

sat losing myself in your eyes, looking at them with rapture during a pause I allowed myself, you would feel

as you gathered up the affection with which I have tried to overlay the ivory, that the soul of your little pet is

"A dead woman craving alms! That is a funny idea.Come, I must learn to lie quiet in my grave.

"You have no idea how heroic my death would seem to some fools if they could know Nucingen last night

offered me two millions of francs if I would love him as I love you. He will be handsomely robbed when he

hears that I have kept my word and died of him. I tried all I could still to breathe the air you breathe. I said to

the fat scoundrel, 'Do you want me to love you as you wish? To promise even that I will never see Lucien

again?''What must I do?' he asked.'Give me the two millions for him.'You should have seen his face!

" 'Spare yourself the trouble of refusing,' said I; 'I see you care more for your two millions than for me. A

woman is always glad to know at what she is valued!' and I turned my back on him.

"Who will part your hair as nicely as I do? Pooh!I will think no more of anything in life; I have but five

minutes, I give them to God. Do not be jealous of Him, dear heart; I shall speak to Him of you, beseeching

Him for your happiness as the price of my death, and my punishment in the next world. I am vexed enough at

having to go to hell. I should have liked to see the angels, to know if they are like you.

"Goodbye, my darling, goodbye! I give you all the blessing of my woes. Even in the grave I am your

"It is striking eleven. I have said my last prayers. I am going to bed to die. Once more, farewell! I wish that

the warmth of my hand could leave my soul there where I press a last kissand once more I must call you

A vague feeling of jealousy tightened on the magistrate's heart as he read this letter, the only letter from a

suicide he had ever found written with such lightness, though it was a feverish lightness, and the last effort of

"What is there in the man that he should be loved so well?" thought he, saying what every man says who has

"If you can prove not merely that you are not Jacques Collin and an escaped convict, but that you are in fact

Don Carlos Herrera, canon of Toledo, and secret envoy of this Majesty Ferdinand VII.," said he, addressing

the prisoner "you will be released; for the impartiality demanded by my office requires me to tell you that I

have this moment received a letter, written by Mademoiselle Esther Gobseck, in which she declares her

intention of killing herself, and expresses suspicions as to her servants, which would seem to point to them as

the thieves who have made off with the seven hundred and fifty thousand francs."

As he spoke Monsieur Camusot was comparing the writing of the letter with that of the will; and it seemed to

"Monsieur, you were in too great a hurry to believe in a murder; do not be too hasty in believing in a theft."

"Do not suppose that I am compromising myself by telling you that the sum may possibly be recovered," said

Jacques Collin, making the judge understand that he saw his suspicions. "That poor girl was much loved by

those about her; and if I were free, I would undertake to search for this money, which no doubt belongs to the

being I love best in the worldto Lucien!Will you allow me to read that letter; it will not take long? It is

evidence of my dear boy's innocenceyou cannot fear that I shall destroy itnor that I shall talk about it; I

"In confinement! You will be so no longer," cried the magistrate. "It is I who must beg you to get well as

And he handed the letter to Jacques Collin. Camusot was glad to be out of a difficulty, to be able to satisfy

the public prosecutor, Mesdames de Maufrigneuse and de Serizy. Nevertheless, he studied his prisoner's face

with cold curiosity while Collin read Esther's letter; in spite of the apparent genuineness of the feelings it

"That is the way to love!" said Jacques Collin, returning the letter. And he showed Camusot a face bathed in

"If only you knew him," he went on, "so youthful, so innocent a soul, so splendidly handsome, a child, a

poet!The impulse to sacrifice oneself to him is irresistible, to satisfy his lightest wish. That dear boy is so

"And so," said the magistrate, making a final effort to discover the truth, "you cannot possibly be Jacques

And Jacques Collin was more entirely Don Carlos Herrera than ever. In his anxiety to complete his work he

went up to the judge, led him to the window, and gave himself the airs of a prince of the Church, assuming a

"I am so fond of that boy, monsieur, that if it were needful, to spare that idol of my heart a mere discomfort

even, that I should be the criminal you take me for, I would surrender," said he in an undertone. "I would

follow the example of the poor girl who has killed herself for his benefit. And I beg you, monsieur, to grant

"My duty forbids it," said Camusot very goodnaturedly; "but if a sinner may make a compromise with

heaven, justice too has its softer side, and if you can give me sufficient reasonsspeak; your words will not

"Well, then," Jacques Collin went on, taken in by Camusot's apparent goodwill, "I know what that poor boy is

suffering at this moment; he is capable of trying to kill himself when he finds himself a prisoner"

"You do not know whom you will oblige by obliging me," added Jacques Collin, trying to harp on another

string. "You will be doing a service to others more powerful than any Comtesse de Serizy or Duchesse de

Maufrigneuse, who will never forgive you for having had their letters in your chambers" and he pointed

"Monsieur," said Camusot, "that is enough. You must find better reasons to give me. I am as much interested

"Believe me, then, I know Lucien; he has a soul of a woman, of a poet, and a southerner, without persistency

or will," said Jacques Collin, who fancied that he saw that he had won the judge over. "You are convinced of

the young man's innocence, do not torture him, do not question him. Give him that letter, tell him that he is

Esther's heir, and restore him to freedom. If you act otherwise, you will bring despair on yourself; whereas, if

you simply release him, I will explain to youkeep me still in solitary confinementtomorrow or this

evening, everything that may strike you as mysterious in the case, and the reasons for the persecution of

which I am the object. But it will be at the risk of my life, a price has been set on my head these six years

past. . . . Lucien free, rich, and married to Clotilde de Grandlieu, and my task on earth will be done; I shall no

"Ah! Is his name Corentin? Thank you, monsieur. Well, will you promise to do as I ask you?"

"A magistrate can make no promises.Coquart, tell the usher and the gendarmes to take the prisoner back to

the Conciergerie.I will give orders that you are to have a private room," he added pleasantly, with a slight

Struck by Jacques Collin's request, and remembering how he had insisted that he wished to be examined first

as a privilege to his state of health, Camusot's suspicions were aroused once more. Allowing his vague doubts

to make themselves heard, he noticed that the self styled dying man was walking off with the strength of a

Hercules, having abandoned all the tricks he had aped so well on appearing before the magistrate.

"Notwithstanding your refusal to sign the document, my clerk will read you the minutes of your

The prisoner was evidently in excellent health; the readiness with which he came back, and sat down by the

"Joy, monsieur, is the only panacea.That letter, the proof of innocence of which I had no doubtthese are

The judge kept a meditative eye on the prisoner when the usher and the gendarmes again took him in charge.

Then, with a start like a waking man, he tossed Esther's letter across to the table where his clerk sat, saying:

If it is natural to man to be suspicious as to some favor required of him when it is antagonistic to his interests

or his duty, and sometimes even when it is a matter of indifference, this feeling is law to an examining

magistrate. The more this prisonerwhose identity was not yet ascertainedpointed to clouds on the

horizon in the event of Lucien's being examined, the more necessary did the interrogatory seem to Camusot.

Even if this formality had not been required by the Code and by common practice, it was indispensable as

bearing on the identification of the Abbe Carlos. There is in every walk of life the business conscience. In

default of curiosity Camusot would have examined Lucien as he had examined Jacques Collin, with all the

cunning which the most honest magistrate allows himself to use in such cases. The services he might render

and his own promotion were secondary in Camusot's mind to his anxiety to know or guess the truth, even if

He stood drumming on the windowpane while following the riverlike current of his conjectures, for in

these moods thought is like a stream flowing through many countries. Magistrates, in love with truth, are like

jealous women; they give way to a thousand hypotheses, and probe them with the daggerpoint of suspicion,

as the sacrificing priest of old eviscerated his victims; thus they arrive, not perhaps at truth, but at probability,

and at last see the truth beyond. A woman crossquestions the man she loves as the judge crossquestions a

criminal. In such a frame of mind, a glance, a word, a tone of voice, the slightest hesitation is enough to

"The style in which he depicted his devotion to his sonif he is his sonis enough to make me think that he

was in the girl's house to keep an eye on the plunder; and never suspecting that the dead woman's pillow

covered a will, he no doubt annexed, for his son, the seven hundred and fifty thousand francs as a precaution.

"M. de Rubempre owes it to himself and to justice to account for his father's position in the world

"And he offers me the protection of his OrderHis Order!if I do not examine Lucien"

As has been seen, a magistrate conducts an examination exactly as he thinks proper. He is at liberty to display

his acumen or be absolutely blunt. An examination may be everything or nothing. Therein lies the favor.

Camusot rang. The usher had returned. He was sent to fetch Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre with an

injunction to prohibit his speaking to anybody on his way up. It was by this time two in the afternoon.

"There is some secret," said the judge to himself, "and that secret must be very important. My amphibious

friendsince he is neither priest, nor secular, nor convict, nor Spaniard, though he wants to hinder his

protege from letting out something dreadfulargues thus: 'The poet is weak and effeminate; he is not like

me, a Hercules in diplomacy, and you will easily wring our secret from him.'Well, we will get everything

And he sat tapping the edge of his table with the ivory paperknife, while Coquart copied Esther's letter.

How whimsical is the action of our faculties! Camusot conceived of every crime as possible, and overlooked

the only one that the prisoner had now committedthe forgery of the will for Lucien's advantage. Let those

whose envy vents itself on magistrates think for a moment of their life spent in perpetual suspicion, of the

torments these men must inflict on their minds, for civil cases are not less tortuous than criminal

examinations, and it will occur to them perhaps that the priest and the lawyer wear an equally heavy coat of

mail, equally furnished with spikes in the lining. However, every profession has its hair shirt and its Chinese

It was about two o'clock when Monsieur Camusot saw Lucien de Rubempre come in, pale, worn, his eyes red

and swollen, in short, in a state of dejection which enabled the magistrate to compare nature with art, the

really dying man with the stage performance. His walk from the Conciergerie to the judge's chambers,

between two gendarmes, and preceded by the usher, had put the crowning touch to Lucien's despair. It is the

As he saw this being, so completely bereft of the moral courage which is the essence of a judge, and which

the last prisoner had so strongly manifested, Monsieur Camusot disdained the easy victory; and this scorn

enabled him to strike a decisive blow, since it left him, on the ground, that horrible clearness of mind which

"Collect yourself, Monsieur de Rubempre; you are in the presence of a magistrate who is eager to repair the

mischief done involuntarily by the law when a man is taken into custody on suspicion that has no foundation.

I believe you to be innocent, and you will soon be at liberty.Here is the evidence of your innocence; it is a

letter kept for you during your absence by your porter's wife; she has just brought it here. In the commotion

caused by the visitation of justice and the news of your arrest at Fontainebleau, the woman forgot the letter

Lucien took the letter, read it, and melted into tears. He sobbed, and could not say a single word. At the end

of a quarter of an hour, during which Lucien with great difficulty recovered his selfcommand, the clerk laid

before him the copy of the letter and begged him to sign a footnote certifying that the copy was faithful to the

original, and might be used in its stead "on all occasions in the course of this preliminary inquiry," giving him

the option of comparing the two; but Lucien, of course, took Coquart's word for its accuracy.

"Monsieur," said the lawyer, with friendly good nature, "it is nevertheless impossible that I should release

you without carrying out the legal formalities, and asking you some questions.It is almost as a witness that

I require you to answer. To such a man as you I think it is almost unnecessary to point out that the oath to tell

the whole truth is not in this case a mere appeal to your conscience, but a necessity for your own sake, your

position having been for a time somewhat ambiguous. The truth can do you no harm, be it what it may;

falsehood will send you to trial, and compel me to send you back to the Conciergerie; whereas if you answer

fully to my questions, you will sleep tonight in your own house, and be rehabilitated by this paragraph in the

papers: 'Monsieur de Rubempre, who was arrested yesterday at Fontainebleau, was set at liberty after a very

This speech made a deep impression on Lucien; and the judge, seeing the temper of his prisoner, added:

"I may repeat to you that you were suspected of being accessory to the murder by poison of this Demoiselle

Esther. Her suicide is clearly proved, and there is an end of that; but a sum of seven hundred and fifty

thousand francs has been stolen, which she had disposed of by will, and you are the legatee. This is a felony.

"Now there is reason to suppose that a person who loves you as much as you loved Mademoiselle Esther

committed the theft for your benefit. Do not interrupt me," Camusot went on, seeing that Lucien was about

to speak, and commanding silence by a gesture; "I am asking you nothing so far. I am anxious to make you

understand how deeply your honor is concerned in this question. Give up the false and contemptible notion of

The reader must already have observed the extreme disproportion of the weapons in this conflict between the

prisoner under suspicion and the examining judge. Absolute denial when skilfully used has in its favor its

positive simplicity, and sufficiently defends the criminal; but it is, in a way, a coat of mail which becomes

crushing as soon as the stiletto of crossexamination finds a joint to it. As soon as mere denial is ineffectual

Now, supposing that a sort of halfcriminal, like Lucien, might, if he were saved from the first shipwreck of

his honesty, amend his ways, and become a useful member of society, he will be lost in the pitfalls of his

The judge has the driest possible record drawn up of the proceedings, a faithful analysis of the questions and

answers; but no trace remains of his insidiously paternal addresses or his captious remonstrances, such as this

speech. The judges of the superior courts see the results, but see nothing of the means. Hence, as some

experienced persons have thought, it would be a good plan that, as in England, a jury should hear the

examination. For a short while France enjoyed the benefit of this system. Under the Code of Brumaire of the

year IV., this body was known as the examining jury, as distinguished from the trying jury. As to the final

trial, if we should restore the examining jury, it would have to be the function of the superior courts without

"And now," said Camusot, after a pause, "what is your name? Attention, Monsieur Coquart!" said he to the

"And yet, during your first residence in Paris, you spent a great deal, as compared with your small income?"

"Yes, monsieur; but at that time I had a most devoted friend in Mademoiselle Coralie, and I was so unhappy

as to lose her. It was my grief at her death that made me return to my country home."

"That is right, monsieur," said Camusot; "I commend your frankness; it will be thoroughly appreciated."

"On your return to Paris you lived even more expensively than before," Camusot went on. "You lived like a

"We met when traveling, just as I was about to be quit of life by committing suicide."

"Can you remember the year and the month when you first became connected with Mademoiselle Esther?"

"Lately, in the hope of marrying Mademoiselle de Grandlieu, you purchased the ruins of the Chateau de

Rubempre, you added land to the value of a million francs, and you told the family of Grandlieu that your

sister and your brotherinlaw had just come into a considerable fortune, and that their liberality had

"Well, the Grandlieus sent one of the most respectable attorneys in Paris to see your brotherinlaw and

inquire into the facts. At Angouleme this lawyer, from the statements of your sister and brother inlaw,

learned that they not only had hardly lent you any money, but also that their inheritance consisted of land, of

some extent no doubt, but that the whole amount of invested capital was not more than about two hundred

thousand francs.Now you cannot wonder that such people as the Grandlieus should reject a fortune of

which the source is more than doubtful. This, monsieur, is what a lie has led to"

Lucien was petrified by this revelation, and the little presence of mind he had preserved deserted him.

"Remember," said Camusot, "that the police and the law know all they want to know.And now," he went

on, recollecting Jacques Collin's assumed paternity, "do you know who this pretended Carlos Herrera is?"

"Yes," replied Lucien, "when he told me the fatal secret, I was already under obligations to him; I had fancied

"Very good. Jacques Collin has just now been identified by another person, and though he denies it, he does

so, I believe, in your interest. But I asked whether you knew who the man is in order to prove another of

Lucien felt as though he had hot iron in his inside as he heard this alarming statement.

"Do you not know," Camusot went on, "that in order to give color to the extraordinary affection he has for

"Have you any suspicion of where the money came from that he used to give you? For, if I am to believe the

evidence of the letter you have in your hand, that poor girl, Mademoiselle Esther, must have done you lately

the same services as Coralie formerly rendered you. Still, for some years, as you have just admitted, you lived

"It is I who should ask you, monsieur, whence convicts get their money! Jacques Collin my father!Oh, my

"Coquart, read out to the prisoner that part of Carlos Herrera's examination in which he said that Lucien de

"A man is not done for who is faithful to the path of honor and truth," said the judge.

But in spite of all his persuasion and remonstrances, Lucien would say no more. Reflection had come too late,

as it does to all men who are the slaves of impulse. There lies the difference between the poet and the man of

action; one gives way to feeling to reproduce it in living images, his judgement comes in after; the other feels

Lucien remained pale and gloomy; he saw himself at the bottom of the precipice, down which the examining

judge had rolled him by the apparent candor which had entrapped his poet's soul. He had betrayed, not his

benefactor, but an accomplice who had defended their position with the courage of a lion, and a skill that

showed no flaw. Where Jacques Collin had saved everything by his daring, Lucien, the man of brains, had

lost all by his lack of intelligence and reflection. This infamous lie against which he revolted had screened a

Utterly confounded by the judge's skill, overpowered by his cruel dexterity, by the swiftness of the blows he

had dealt him while making use of the errors of a life laid bare as probes to search his conscience, Lucien sat

like an animal which the butcher's poleaxe had failed to kill. Free and innocent when he came before the

To crown all, as a final grave irony, Camusot, cold and calm, pointed out to Lucien that his selfbetrayal was

the result of a misapprehension. Camusot was thinking of Jacques Collin's announcing himself as Lucien's

father; while Lucien, wholly absorbed by his fear of seeing his confederacy with an escaped convict made

One of RoyerCollard's most famous achievements was proclaiming the constant triumph of natural feeling

over engrafted sentiments, and defending the cause of anterior oaths by asserting that the law of hospitality,

for instance, ought to be regarded as binding to the point of negativing the obligation of a judicial oath. He

promulgated this theory, in the face of the world, from the French tribune; he boldly upheld conspirators,

showing that it was human to be true to friendship rather than to the tyrannical laws brought out of the social

arsenal to be adjusted to circumstances. And, indeed, natural rights have laws which have never been

codified, but which are more effectual and better known than those laid down by society. Lucien had

misapprehended, to his cost, the law of cohesion, which required him to be silent and leave Jacques Collin to

protect himself; nay, more, he had accused him. In his own interests the man ought always to be, to him,

Monsieur Camusot was rejoicing in his triumph; he had secured two criminals. He had crushed with the hand

of justice one of the favorites of fashion, and he had found the undiscoverable Jacques Collin. He would be

regarded as one of the cleverest of examining judges. So he left his prisoner in peace; but he was studying

this speechless consternation, and he saw drops of sweat collect on the miserable face, swell and fall, mingled

"Why should you weep, Monsieur de Rubempre? You are, as I have told you, Mademoiselle Esther's legatee,

she having no heirs nor near relations, and her property amounts to nearly eight millions of francs if the lost

This was the last blow to the poor wretch. "If you do not lose your head for ten minutes," Jacques Collin had

said in his note, and Lucien by keeping cool would have gained all his desire. He might have paid his debt to

Jacques Collin and have cut him adrift, have been rich, and have married Mademoiselle de Grandlieu.

Nothing could more eloquently demonstrate the power with which the examining judge is armed, as a

consequence of the isolation or separation of persons under suspicion, or the value of such a communication

"Ah, monsieur!" replied Lucien, with the satirical bitterness of a man who makes a pedestal of his utter

overthrow, "how appropriate is the phrase in legal slang 'to UNDERGO examination.' For my part, if I had to

choose between the physical torture of past ages and the moral torture of our day, I would not hesitate to

prefer the sufferings inflicted of old by the executioner.What more do you want of me?" he added

"In this place, monsieur," said the magistrate, answering the poet's pride with mocking arrogance, "I alone

"I had the right to refuse to answer them," muttered the hapless Lucien, whose wits had come back to him

While the clerk was reading, Lucien came to a determination which compelled him to smooth down

Monsieur Camusot. When Coquart's drone ceased, the poet started like a man who has slept through a noise

"Not yet," said Camusot; "but tomorrow, after being confronted with Jacques Collin, you will no doubt be

free. Justice must now ascertain whether or no you are accessory to the crimes this man may have committed

since his escape so long ago as 1820. However, you are no longer in the secret cells. I will write to the

"You can have anything supplied to you that you ask for; I will give orders to that effect by the usher who

Lucien mechanically signed the minutes and initialed the notes in obedience to Coquart's indications with the

meekness of a resigned victim. A single fact will show what a state he was in better than the minutest

description. The announcement that he would be confronted with Jacques Collin had at once dried the drops

of sweat from his brow, and his dry eyes glittered with a terrible light. In short, he became, in an instant as

In men whose nature is like Lucien's, a nature which Jacques Collin had so thoroughly fathomed, these

sudden transitions from a state of absolute demoralization to one that is, so to speak, metallic,so extreme is

the tension of every vital force,are the most startling phenomena of mental vitality. The will surges up like

the lost waters of a spring; it diffuses itself throughout the machinery that lies ready for the action of the

unknown matter that constitutes it; and then the corpse is a man again, and the man rushes on full of energy

Lucien laid Esther's letter next his heart, with the miniature she had returned to him. Then he haughtily

bowed to Monsieur Camusot, and went off with a firm step down the corridors, between two gendarmes.

"That is a deep scoundrel!" said the judge to his clerk, to avenge himself for the crushing scorn the poet had

"You are free for the rest of the day, Coquart," said the lawyer. "We have done enough. Send away any case

that is waiting, to be called tomorrow.Ah! and you must go at once to the public prosecutor's chambers

and ask if he is still there; if so, ask him if he can give me a few minutes. Yes; he will not be gone," he added,

looking at a common clock in a wooden case painted green with gilt lines. "It is but a quarterpast three."

These examinations, which are so quickly read, being written down at full length, questions and answers

alike, take up an enormous amount of time. This is one of the reasons of the slowness of these preliminaries

to a trial and of these imprisonments "on suspicion." To the poor this is ruin, to the rich it is disgrace; to them

only immediate release can in any degree repair, so far as possible, the disaster of an arrest.

This is why the two scenes here related had taken up the whole of the time spent by Asie in deciphering her

master's orders, in getting a Duchess out of her boudoir, and putting some energy into Madame de Serizy.

At this moment Camusot, who was anxious to get the full benefit of his cleverness, took the two documents,

read them through, and promised himself that he would show them to the public prosecutor and take his

opinion on them. During this meditation, his usher came back to tell him that Madame la Comtesse de

Serizy's manservant insisted on speaking with him. At a nod from Camusot, a servant out of livery came in,

looked first at the usher, and then at the magistrate, and said, "I have the honor of speaking to Monsieur

"For the sake of many interests which will be obvious to you, my dear Camusot, do not examine Monsieur de

Rubempre. We have brought ample proofs of his innocence that he may be released forthwith.

Camusot understood at once that he had blundered preposterously in laying snares for Lucien, and he began

by obeying the two fine ladies he lighted a taper, and burned the letter written by the Duchess. The man

At this moment Coquart came in to tell Monsieur Camusot that the public prosecutor expected him.

Oppressed by the blunder he had committed, in view of his ambitions, though to the better ends of justice, the

lawyer, in whom seven years' experience had perfected the sharpness that comes to a man who in his practice

has had to measure his wits against the grisettes of Paris, was anxious to have some shield against the

resentment of two women of fashion. The taper in which he had burned the note was still alight, and he used

it to seal up the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse's notes to Lucienabout thirty in alland Madame de Serizy's

The Palais de Justice is a perplexing maze of buildings piled one above another, some fine and dignified,

others very mean, the whole disfigured by its lack of unity. The Salle des PasPerdus is the largest known

hall, but its nakedness is hideous, and distresses the eye. This vast Cathedral of the Law crushes the Supreme

Court. The Galerie Marchande ends in two drainlike passages. From this corridor there is a double staircase,

a little larger than that of the Criminal Courts, and under it a large double door. The stairs lead down to one of

the Assize Courts, and the doors open into another. In some years the number of crimes committed in the

Close by are the public prosecutor's offices, the attorney's room and library, the chambers of the

attorneygeneral, and those of the public prosecutor's deputies. All these purlieus, to use a generic term,

communicate by narrow spiral stairs and the dark passages, which are a disgrace to the architecture not of

Paris only, but of all France. The interior arrangement of the sovereign court of justice outdoes our prisons in

all that is most hideous. The writer describing our manners and customs would shrink from the necessity of

depicting the squalid corridor of about a metre in width, in which the witnesses wait in the Superior Criminal

Court. As to the stove which warms the court itself, it would disgrace a cafe on the Boulevard

The public prosecutor's private room forms part of an octagon wing flanking the Galerie Marchande, built out

recently in regard to the age of the structure, over the prison yard, outside the women's quarters. All this part

of the Palais is overshadowed by the lofty and noble edifice of the SainteChapelle. And all is solemn and

Monsieur de Granville, a worthy successor of the great magistrates of the ancient Parlement, would not leave

Paris without coming to some conclusion in the matter of Lucien. He expected to hear from Camusot, and the

judge's message had plunged him into the involuntary suspense which waiting produces on even the strongest

minds. He had been sitting in the windowbay of his private room; he rose, and walked up and down, for

having lingered in the morning to intercept Camusot, he had found him dull of apprehension; he was vaguely

The dignity of his high functions forbade his attempting to fetter the perfect independence of the inferior

judge, and yet this trial nearly touched the honor and good name of his best friend and warmest supporter, the

Comte de Serizy, Minister of State, member of the Privy Council, VicePresident of the State Council, and

prospective Chancellor of the Realm, in the event of the death of the noble old man who held that august

office. It was Monsieur de Serizy's misfortune to adore his wife "through fire and water," and he always

shielded her with his protection. Now the public prosecutor fully understood the terrible fuss that would be

made in the world and at court if a crime should be proved against a man whose name had been so often and

"Ah!" he sighed, folding his arms, "formerly the supreme authority could take refuge in an appeal. Nowadays

our mania for equality"he dared not say FOR LEGALITY, as a poetic orator in the Chamber courageously

This noble magistrate knew all the fascination and the miseries of an illicit attachment. Esther and Lucien, as

we have seen, had taken the rooms where the Comte de Granville had lived secretly on connubial terms with

Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille, and whence she had fled one day, lured away by a villain. (See A Double

At the very moment when the public prosecutor was saying to himself, "Camusot is sure to have done

something silly," the examining magistrate knocked twice at the door of his room.

"Well, my dear Camusot, how is that case going on that I spoke of this morning?"

He held out the minutes of the two examinations to Monsieur de Granville, who took up his eyeglass and

"You have done your duty," said the Count in an agitated voice. "It is all over. The law must take its course.

You have shown so much skill, that you need never fear being deprived of your appointment as examining

If Monsieur de Granville had said to Camusot, "You will remain an examining judge to your dying day," he

could not have been more explicit than in making this polite speech. Camusot was cold in the very marrow.

"Oh yes, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse is Madame de Serizy's friend," said Granville, interrupting him. "To

be sure.You have allowed nothing to influence you, I perceive. And you did well, sir; you will be a great

At this instant the Comte Octave de Bauvan opened the door without knocking, and said to the Comte de

"I have brought you a fair lady, my dear fellow, who did not know which way to turn; she was on the point of

And Comte Octave led in by the hand the Comtesse de Serizy, who had been wandering about the place for

"What, you here, madame!" exclaimed the public prosecutor, pushing forward his own armchair, "and at this

moment! This, madame, is Monsieur Camusot," he added, introducing the judge."Bauvan," said he to the

distinguished ministerial orator of the Restoration, "wait for me in the president's chambers; he is still there,

Comte Octave de Bauvan understood that not merely was he in the way, but that Monsieur de Granville

Madame de Serizy had not made the mistake of coming to the Palais de Justice in her handsome carriage with

a blue hammercloth and coats ofarms, her coachman in gold lace, and two footmen in breeches and silk

stockings. Just as they were starting Asie impressed on the two great ladies the need for taking the hackney

coach in which she and the Duchess had arrived, and she had likewise insisted on Lucien's mistress adopting

the costume which is to women what a gray cloak was of yore to men. The Countess wore a plain brown

dress, an old black shawl, and a velvet bonnet from which the flowers had been removed, and the whole

"You received our note?" said she to Camusot, whose dismay she mistook for respectful admiration.

"Alas! but too late, Madame la Comtesse," replied the lawyer, whose tact and wit failed him excepting in his

She looked at Monsieur de Granville, and saw consternation written in his face. "It cannot be, it must not be

Women, pretty women, in the position of Madame de Serizy, are the spoiled children of French civilization.

If the women of other countries knew what a woman of fashion is in Paris, a woman of wealth and rank, they

would all want to come and enjoy that splendid royalty. The women who recognize no bonds but those of

propriety, no law but the petty charter which has been more than once alluded to in this Comedie Humaine as

the ladies' Code, laugh at the statutes framed by men. They say everything, they do not shrink from any

blunder or hesitate at any folly, for they all accept the fact that they are irresponsible beings, answerable for

nothing on earth but their good repute and their children. They say the most preposterous things with a laugh,

and are ready on every occasion to repeat the speech made in the early days of her married life by pretty

Madame de Bauvan to her husband, whom she came to fetch away from the Palais: "Make haste and pass

"Madame," said the public prosecutor, "Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre is not guilty either of robbery or of

"He acknowledged," said Monsieur Camusot in her ear, "that he is the friend and pupil of an escaped convict.

The Abbe Carlos Herrera, the Spaniard with whom he has been living for the last seven years, is the notorious

Madame de Serizy felt as if it were a blow from an iron rod at each word spoken by the judge, but this name

"And the upshot of all this?" she said, in a voice that was no more than a breath.

"Is," Monsieur de Granville went on, finishing the Countess' sentence in an undertone, "that the convict will

be committed for trial, and that if Lucien is not committed with him as having profited as an accessory to the

"Oh! never, never!" she cried aloud, with amazing firmness. "For my part, I should not hesitate between death

and the disaster of seeing a man whom the world has known to be my dearest friend declared by the bench to

"Madame," said the public prosecutor, also aloud, and with a smile, "the King has not the smallest power

over the humblest examining judge in his kingdom, nor over the proceedings in any court of justice. That is

the grand feature of our new code of laws. I myself have just congratulated M. Camusot on his skill"

"On his clumsiness," said the Countess sharply, though Lucien's intimacy with a scoundrel really disturbed

"If you will read the minutes of the examination of the two prisoners by Monsieur Camusot, you will see that

After this speech, the only thing the public prosecutor could venture to say, and a flash of feminineor, if

you will, lawyerlike cunning, he went to the door; then, turning round on the threshold, he added:

"Excuse me, madame; I have two words to say to Bauvan." Which, translated by the worldly wise, conveyed

"What is this examination business?" said Leontine very blandly to Camusot, who stood downcast in the

"Madame," said Camusot, "a clerk writes down all the magistrate's questions and the prisoner's replies. This

document is signed by the clerk, by the judge, and by the prisoner. This evidence is the raw material of the

subsequent proceedings; on it the accused are committed for trial, and remanded to appear before the

"Oh, madame, that is a crime which no magistrate could possibly commit a crime against society."

"It is a far worse crime against me to have ever allowed it to be recorded; still, at this moment it is the only

evidence against Lucien. Come, read me the minutes of his examination that I may see if there is still a way

of salvation for us all, monsieur. I do not speak for myself aloneI should quite calmly kill myselfbut

"Pray, madame, do not suppose that I have forgotten the respect due you," said Camusot. "If Monsieur

Popinot, for instance, had undertaken this case, you would have had worse luck than you have found with me;

for he would not have come to consult Monsieur de Granville; no one would have heard anything about it. I

tell you, madame, everything has been seized in Monsieur Lucien's lodging, even your letters"

The Countess in her agitation rang as if she had been at home, and the officeboy came in.

The boy lighted a taper and placed it on the chimneypiece, while the Countess looked through the letters,

counted them, crushed them in her hand, and flung them on the hearth. In a few minutes she set the whole

Camusot stood, looking rather foolish as he watched the papers burn, holding the legal documents in his

hand. The Countess, who seemed absorbed in the work of destroying the proofs of her passion, studied him

out of the corner of her eye. She took her time, she calculated her distance; with the spring of a cat she seized

the two documents and threw them on the flames. But Camusot saved them; the Countess rushed on him and

snatched back the burning papers. A struggle ensued, Camusot calling out: "Madame, but madame! This is

A man hurried into the room, and the Countess could not repress a scream as she beheld the Comte de Serizy,

followed by Monsieur de Granville and the Comte de Bauvan. Leontine, however, determined to save Lucien

at any cost, would not let go of the terrible stamped documents, which she clutched with the tenacity of a

At last Camusot, whose fingers also were smarting from the fire, seemed to be ashamed of the position; he let

the papers go; there was nothing left of them but the portions so tightly held by the antagonists that the flame

could not touch them. The whole scene had taken less time than is needed to read this account of it.

"What discussion can have arisen between you and Madame de Serizy?" the husband asked of Camusot.

Before the lawyer could reply, the Countess held the fragments in the candle and threw them on the remains

"I shall be compelled," said Camusot, "to lay a complaint against Madame la Comtesse"

"Heh! What has she done?" asked the public prosecutor, looking alternately at the lady and the magistrate.

"I have burned the record of the examinations," said the lady of fashion with a laugh, so pleased at her

highhanded conduct that she did not yet feel the pain of the burns, "If that is a crimewell, monsieur must

"Well, well, 'All's well that ends well,' " said Monsieur de Granville. "But, my dear Countess, you must not

often take such liberties with the Law; it might fail to discern who and what you are."

"Monsieur Camusot valiantly resisted a woman whom none can resist; the Honor of the Robe is safe!" said

"Indeed! Monsieur Camusot was resisting?" said the public prosecutor, laughing too. "He is a brave man

And thus for the moment this serious affair was no more than a pretty woman's jest, at which Camusot

But Monsieur de Granville saw one man who was not amused. Not a little alarmed by the Comte de Serizy's

"My dear fellow," said he in a whisper, "your distress persuades me for the first and only time in my life to

"My good friend," said the Comte de Granville to Camusot, whom he took to the window, "go back to your

chambers, get your clerk to reconstruct the report of the Abbe Carlos Herrera's depositions; as he had not

signed the first copy, there will be no difficulty about that. Tomorrow you must confront your Spanish

diplomate with Rastignac and Bianchon, who will not recognize him as Jacques Collin. Then, being sure of

"As to Lucien de Rubempre, set him free this evening; he is not likely to talk about an examination of which

"Now you will see how little justice suffers by these proceedings. If the Spaniard really is the convict, we

have fifty ways of recapturing him and committing him for trialfor we will have his conduct in Spain

thoroughly investigated. Corentin, the police agent, will take care of him for us, and we ourselves will keep

"Can we be the death of the Comte and Comtesse de Serizy, as well as of Lucien, for the theft of seven

hundred and fifty thousand francs as yet unproven, and to Lucien's personal loss? Will it not be better for him

to lose the money than to lose his character? Above all, if he is to drag with him in his fall a Minister of State,

"All this will take you about half an hour; go and get it done; we will wait for you. It is halfpast three; you

will find some judges about. Let me know if you can get a rule of insufficient evidenceor Lucien must wait

Camusot bowed to the company and went; but Madame de Serizy, who was suffering a good deal from her

Monsieur de Serizy, who had suddenly rushed away while the public prosecutor and the magistrate were

talking together, presently returned, having fetched a small jar of virgin wax. With this he dressed his wife's

"My dear," replied she in a whisper, "forgive me. I seem mad, but indeed your interests were as much

"Love this young fellow if fatality requires it, but do not display your passion to all the world," said the

"Well, my dear Countess," said Monsieur de Granville, who had been engaged in conversation with Comte

Octave, "I hope you may take Monsieur de Rubempre home to dine with you this evening."

"I thought I had no tears left," said she with a smile. "But could you not bring Monsieur de Rubempre to wait

"I will try if I can find the ushers to fetch him, so that he may not be seen under the escort of the gendarmes,"

"You are as good as God!" cried she, with a gush of feeling that made her voice sound like heavenly music.

As he left the room, Monsieur de Granville was stopped by young Chargeboeuf, to whom he spoke to give

him instructions as to what he was to say to Massol, one of the editors of the Gazette des Tribunaux.

While beauties, ministers, and magistrates were conspiring to save Lucien, this was what he was doing at the

Conciergerie. As he passed the gate the poet told the keeper that Monsieur Camusot had granted him leave to

write, and he begged to have pens, ink, and paper. At a whispered word to the Governor from Camusot's

usher a warder was instructed to take them to him at once. During the short time that it took for the warder to

fetch these things and carry them up to Lucien, the hapless young man, to whom the idea of facing Jacques

Collin had become intolerable, sank into one of those fatal moods in which the idea of suicideto which he

had yielded before now, but without succeeding in carrying it outrises to the pitch of mania. According to

certain maddoctors, suicide is in some temperaments the closing phase of mental aberration; and since his

arrest Lucien had been possessed by that single idea. Esther's letter, read and reread many times, increased

the vehemence of his desire to die by reminding him of the catastrophe of Romeo dying to be with Juliet.

"I, the undersigned, give and bequeath to the children of my sister, Madame Eve Chardon, wife of David

Sechard, formerly a printer at Angouleme, and of Monsieur David Sechard, all the property, real and

personal, of which I may be possessed at the time of my decease, due deduction being made for the payments

"And I earnestly beg Monsieur de Serizy to undertake the charge of being the executor of this my will.

"First, to Monsieur l'Abbe Carlos Herrera I direct the payment of the sum of three hundred thousand francs.

Secondly, to Monsieur le Baron de Nucingen the sum of fourteen hundred thousand francs, less seven

hundred and fifty thousand if the sum stolen from Mademoiselle Esther should be recovered.

"As universal legatee to Mademoiselle Esther Gobseck, I give and bequeath the sum of seven hundred and

sixty thousand francs to the Board of Asylums of Paris for the foundation of a refuge especially dedicated to

the use of public prostitutes who may wish to forsake their life of vice and ruin.

"I also bequeath to the Asylums of Paris the sum of money necessary for the purchase of a certificate for

dividends to the amount of thirty thousand francs per annum in five per cents, the annual income to be

devoted every six months to the release of prisoners for debts not exceeding two thousand francs. The Board

"I beg Monsieur de Serizy to devote the sum of forty thousand francs to erecting a monument to

Mademoiselle Esther in the Eastern cemetery, and I desire to be buried by her side. The tomb is to be like an

antique tombsquare, our two effigies lying thereon, in white marble, the heads on pillows, the hands folded

"I beg Monsieur de Serizy to give to Monsieur de Rastignac a gold toiletset that is in my room as a

"And as a remembrance, I beg my executor to accept my library of books as a gift from me.

This Will was enclosed in a letter addressed to Monsieur le Comte de Granville, Public Prosecutor in the

"I place my Will in your hands. When you open this letter I shall be no more. In my desire to be free, I made

such cowardly replies to Monsieur Camusot's insidious questions, that, in spite of my innocence, I may find

myself entangled in a disgraceful trial. Even if I were acquitted, a blameless life would henceforth be

"I beg you to transmit the enclosed letter to the Abbe Carlos Herrera without opening it, and deliver to

"I suppose no one will dare to break the seal of a packet addressed to you. In this belief I bid you adieu,

offering you my best respects for the last time, and begging you to believe that in writing to you I am giving

you a token of my gratitude for all the kindness you have shown to your deceased humble servant,

"MY DEAR ABBE,I have had only benefits from you, and I have betrayed you. This involuntary

ingratitude is killing me, and when you read these lines I shall have ceased to exist. You are not here now to

"You had given me full liberty, if I should find it advantageous, to destroy you by flinging you on the ground

like a cigarend; but I have ruined you by a blunder. To escape from a difficulty, deluded by a clever

question from the examining judge, your son by adoption and grace went over to the side of those who aim at

killing you at any cost, and insist on proving an identity, which I know to be impossible, between you and a

"Between a man of your calibre and meme of whom you tried to make a greater man than I am capable of

beingno foolish sentiment can come at the moment of final parting. You hoped to make me powerful and

famous, and you have thrown me into the gulf of suicide, that is all. I have long heard the broad pinions of

"As you have sometimes said, there is the posterity of Cain and the posterity of Abel. In the great human

drama Cain is in opposition. You are descended from Adam through that line, in which the devil still fans the

fire of which the first spark was flung on Eve. Among the demons of that pedigree, from time to time we see

one of stupendous power, summing up every form of human energy, and resembling the fevered beasts of the

desert, whose vitality demands the vast spaces they find there. Such men are as dangerous as lions would be

in the heart of Normandy; they must have their prey, and they devour common men and crop the money of

fools. Their sport is so dangerous that at last they kill the humble dog whom they have taken for a companion

"When it is God's will, these mysterious beings may be a Moses, an Attila, Charlemagne, Mahomet, or

Napoleon; but when He leaves a generation of these stupendous tools to rust at the bottom of the ocean, they

are no more than a Pugatschef, a Fouche, a Louvel, or the Abbe Carlos Herrera. Gifted with immense power

over tenderer souls, they entrap them and mangle them. It is grand, it is fine in its way. It is the poisonous

plant with gorgeous coloring that fascinates children in the woods. It is the poetry of evil. Men like you ought

to dwell in caves and never come out of them. You have made me live that vast life, and I have had all my

share of existence; so I may very well take my head out of the Gordian knot of your policy and slip it into the

"To repair the mischief I have done, I am forwarding to the public prosecutor a retraction of my deposition.

"In virtue of a will formally drawn up, restitution will be made, Monsieur l'Abbe, of the moneys belonging to

your Order which you so imprudently devoted to my use, as a result of your paternal affection for me.

"And so, farewell. Farewell, colossal image of Evil and Corruption; farewellto you who, if started on the

right road, might have been greater than Ximenes, greater than Richelieu! You have kept your promises. I

find myself once more just as I was on the banks of the Charente, after enjoying, by your help, the

enchantments of a dream. But, unfortunately, it is not now in the waters of my native place that I shall drown

the errors of a boy; but in the Seine, and my hole is a cell in the Conciergerie.

"I, the undersigned, hereby declare that I retract, without reservation, all that I deposed at my examination

"The Abbe Carlos Herrera always called himself my spiritual father, and I was misled by the word father

"I am aware that, for political ends, and to quash certain secrets concerning the Cabinets of Spain and of the

Tuileries, some obscure diplomatic agents tried to show that the Abbe Carlos Herrera was a forger named

Jacques Collin; but the Abbe Carlos Herrera never told me anything about the matter excepting that he was

doing his best to obtain evidence of the death or of the continued existence of Jacques Collin.

The fever for suicide had given Lucien immense clearness of mind, and the swiftness of hand familiar to

authors in the fever of composition. The impetus was so strong within him that these four documents were all

written within half an hour; he folded them in a wrapper, fastened with wafers, on which he impressed with

the strength of delirium the coatofarms engraved on a sealring he wore, and he then laid the packet very

Certainly it would have been impossible to conduct himself with greater dignity, in the false position to

which all this infamy had led him; he was rescuing his memory from opprobrium, and repairing the injury

done to his accomplice, so far as the wit of a man of the world could nullify the result of the poet's

If Lucien had been taken back to one of the lower cells, he would have been wrecked on the impossibility of

carrying out his intentions, for those boxes of masonry have no furniture but a sort of campbed and a pail

for necessary uses. There is not a nail, not a chair, not even a stool. The campbed is so firmly fixed that it is

impossible to move it without an amount of labor that the warder would not fail to detect, for the ironbarred

peephole is always open. Indeed, if a prisoner under suspicion gives reason for uneasiness, he is watched by a

In the private rooms for which prisoners pay, and in that whither Lucien had been conveyed by the judge's

courtesy to a young man belonging to the upper ranks of society, the movable bed, table, and chair might

serve to carry out his purpose of suicide, though they hardly made it easy. Lucien wore a long blue silk

necktie, and on his way back from examination he was already meditating on the means by which Pichegru,

more or less voluntarily, ended his days. Still, to hang himself, a man must find a purchase, and have a

sufficient space between it and the ground for his feet to find no support. Now the window of his room,

looking out on the prisonyard, had no handle to the fastening; and the bars, being fixed outside, were

divided from his reach by the thickness of the wall, and could not be used for a support.

This, then, was the plan hit upon by Lucien to put himself out of the world. The boarding of the lower part of

the opening, which prevented his seeing out into the yard, also hindered the warders outside from seeing what

was done in the room; but while the lower portion of the window was replaced by two thick planks, the upper

part of both halves still was filled with small panes, held in place by the cross pieces in which they were set.

By standing on his table Lucien could reach the glazed part of the window, and take or break out two panes,

so as to have a firm point of attachment in the angle of the lower bar. Round this he would tie his cravat, turn

round once to tighten it round his neck after securing it firmly, and kick the table from under his feet.

He drew the table up under the window without making any noise, took off his coat and waistcoat, and got on

the table unhesitatingly to break a pane above and one below the iron crossbar. Standing on the table, he

could look out across the yard on a magical view, which he then beheld for the first time. The Governor of

the prison, in deference to Monsieur Camusot's request that he should deal as leniently as possible with

Lucien, had led him, as we have seen, through the dark passages of the Conciergerie, entered from the dark

vault opposite the Tour d'Argent, thus avoiding the exhibition of a young man of fashion to the crowd of

prisoners airing themselves in the yard. It will be for the reader to judge whether the aspect of the promenade

The yard of the Conciergerie ends at the quai between the Tour d'Argent and the Tour Bonbec; thus the

distance between them exactly shows from the outside the width of the plot of ground. The corridor called the

Galerie de SaintLouis, which extends from the Galerie Marchande to the Courts of Appeals and the Tour

Bonbecin which, it is said, SaintLouis' room still existsmay enable the curious to estimate the depths

of the yard, as it is of the same length. Thus the dark cells and the private rooms are under the Galerie

Marchande. And Queen Marie Antoinette, whose dungeon was under the present cells, was conducted to the

presence of the Revolutionary Tribunal, which held its sittings in the place where the Court of Appeals now

performs its solemn functions, up a horrible flight of steps, now never used, in the very thickness of the wall

One side of the prisonyardthat on which the Hall of SaintLouis forms the first floordisplays a long

row of Gothic columns, between which the architects of I know not what period have built up two floors of

cells to accommodate as many prisoners as possible, by choking the capitals, the arches, and the vaults of this

magnificent cloister with plaster, barred loopholes, and partitions. Under the room known as the Cabinet de

SaintLouis, in the Tour Bonbec, there is a spiral stair leading to these dens. This degradation of one of the

From the height at which Lucien was standing he saw this cloister, and the details of the building that joins

the two towers, in sharp perspective; before him were the pointed caps of the towers. He stood amazed; his

suicide was postponed to his admiration. The phenomena of hallucination are in these days so fully

recognized by the medical faculty that this mirage of the senses, this strange illusion of the mind is beyond

dispute. A man under the stress of a feeling which by its intensity has become a monomania, often finds

himself in the frame of mind to which opium, hasheesh, or the protoxyde of azote might have brought him.

Spectres appear, phantoms and dreams take shape, things of the past live again as they once were. What was

but an image of the brain becomes a moving or a living object. Science is now beginning to believe that under

the action of a paroxysm of passion the blood rushes to the brain, and that such congestion has the terrible

effects of a dream in a waking state, so averse are we to regard thought as a physical and generative force.

Lucien saw the building in all its pristine beauty; the columns were new, slender and bright; SaintLouis'

Palace rose before him as it had once appeared; he admired its Babylonian proportions and Oriental fancy. He

took this exquisite vision as a poetic farewell from civilized creation. While making his arrangements to die,

he wondered how this marvel of architecture could exist in Paris so utterly unknown. He was two

Luciensone Lucien the poet, wandering through the Middle Ages under the vaults and the turrets of

Just as Monsieur de Granville had ended giving his instructions to the young secretary, the Governor of the

Conciergerie came in, and the expression of his face was such as to give the public prosecutor a presentiment

"No, monsieur," said the Governor; "his clerk Coquart instructed me to give the Abbe Carlos a private room

"Here, monsieur, is a letter for you which will explain the catastrophe. The warder on duty in the prisonyard

heard a noise of breaking glass in the upper room, and Monsieur Lucien's next neighbor shrieking wildly, for

he heard the young man's dying struggles. The warder came to me pale from the sight that met his eyes. He

Though the Governor spoke in a low voice, a fearful scream from Madame de Serizy showed that under

stress of feeling our faculties are incalculably keen. The Countess heard, or guessed. Before Monsieur de

Granville could turn round, or Monsieur de Bauvan or her husband could stop her, she fled like a flash out of

the door, and reached the Galerie Marchande, where she ran on to the stairs leading out to the Rue de la

A pleader was taking off his gown at the door of one of the shops which from time immemorial have choked

"Go down the steps and turn to the left. The entrance is from the Quai de l'Horloge, the first archway."

A physician may explain how it is that these ladies of fashion, whose strength never finds employment, reveal

The Countess rushed so swiftly through the archway to the wicketgate that the gendarme on sentry did not

see her pass. She flew at the barred gate like a feather driven by the wind, and shook the iron bars with such

fury that she broke the one she grasped. The bent ends were thrust into her breast, making the blood flow, and

she dropped on the ground, shrieking, "Open it, open it!" in a tone that struck terror into the warders.

While the Countess was going round by the Rue de la Barillerie and the Quai de l'Horloge, Monsieur de

Granville and Monsieur de Serizy went down to the Conciergerie through the inner passages, suspecting

Leontine's purpose; but notwithstanding their haste, they only arrived in time to see her fall fainting at the

outer gate, where she was picked up by two gendarmes who had come down from the guardroom.

On seeing the Governor of the prison, the gate was opened, and the Countess was carried into the office, but

"Only to see himto see him! Oh! I will do no wrong! But if you do not want to see me die on the spot, let

me look at Lucien dead or living.Ah, my dear, are you here? Choose between my death and"

"No, we will go to Lucien's cell," said Monsieur de Granville, reading a purpose in Monsieur de Serizy's wild

And he lifted up the Countess, and took her under one arm, while Monsieur de Bauvan supported her on the

"Monsieur," said the Comte de Serizy to the Governor, "silence as of the grave about all this."

"Oh! I beg your pardon. Well, she will certainly faint away when she sees the poor man, and while she is

"That is what I thought," replied the Count. "Pray send one of your men to tell my servants in the Cour de

"We can save him yet," said the Countess, walking on with a degree of strength and spirit that surprised her

When the cell door was opened, and the Countess saw Lucien hanging as though his clothes had been hung

on a peg, she made a spring towards him as if to embrace him and cling to him; but she fell on her face on the

Five minutes later she was being taken home stretched on the seat in the Count's carriage, her husband

kneeling by her side. Monsieur de Bauvan went off to fetch a doctor to give her the care she needed.

The Governor of the Conciergerie meanwhile was examining the outer gate, and saying to his clerk:

"No expense was spared; the bars are of wrought iron, they were properly tested, and cost a large sum; and

Monsieur de Granville on returning to his room had other instructions to give to his private secretary. Massol,

Soon after Monsieur de Granville had left, anxious to go to see Monsieur de Serizy, Massol came and found

"My dear fellow," said the young secretary, "if you will do me a great favor, you will put what I dictate to

you in your Gazette tomorrow under the heading of Law Reports; you can compose the heading. Write

"It has been ascertained that the Demoiselle Esther Gobseck killed herself of her own free will.

"Monsieur Lucien de Rubempre satisfactorily proved an alibi, and his innocence leaves his arrest to be

regretted, all the more because just as the examining judge had given the order for his release the young

"I need not point out to you," said the young lawyer to Massol, "how necessary it is to preserve absolute

"Since it is you who do me the honor of so much confidence," replied Massol, "allow me to make one

observation. This paragraph will give rise to odious comments on the course of justice"

"Justice is strong enough to bear them," said the young attache to the Courts, with the pride of a coming

"The forms of the law have nothing to do with this sad event. The postmortem examination, which was at

once made, proved that sudden death was due to the rupture of an aneurism in its last stage. If Monsieur

Lucien de Rubempre had been upset by his arrest, death must have ensued sooner. But we are in a position to

state that, far from being distressed at being taken into custody, the young man, whom all must lament, only

laughed at it, and told those who escorted him from Fontainebleau to Paris that as soon as he was brought

Now to the great majority, as to the more choice reader, it will perhaps seem that this Study is not completed

by the death of Esther and of Lucien; Jacques Collin and Asie, Europe and Paccard, in spite of their villainous

lives, may have been interesting enough to make their fate a matter of curiosity.

The last act of the drama will also complete the picture of life which this Study is intended to present, and

give the issue of various interests which Lucien's career had strangely tangled by bringing some ignoble

Thus, as may be seen, the greatest events of life find their expression in the more or less veracious gossip of

the Paris papers. And this is the case with many things of greater importance than are here recorded.

"What is it, Madeleine?" asked Madame Camusot, seeing her maid come into the room with the particular air

"Madame," said Madeleine, "monsieur has just come in from Court; but he looks so upset, and is in such a

"No, madame; but we never have seen monsieur look like that; he looks as if he were going to be ill, his face

Madame Camusot waited for no more; she rushed out of her room and flew to her husband's study. She found

the lawyer sitting in an armchair, pale and dazed, his legs stretched out, his head against the back of it, his

"Oh! my poor Amelie, the most dreadful thing has happenedI am still trembling. Imagine, the public

"Well, just as Monsieur Popinot, in the council room of the first Court, had put the last signature to the ruling

of 'insufficient cause' for the apprehension of Lucien de Rubempre on the ground of my report, setting him at

libertyin fact, the whole thing was done, the clerk was going off with the minute book, and I was quit of

the whole businessthe President of the Court came in and took up the papers. 'You are releasing a dead

man,' said he, with chilly irony; 'the young man is gone, as Monsieur de Bonald says, to appear before his

" 'As I understand you, Monsieur le President,' said Monsieur Popinot, 'it is a case of apoplexy like

" 'Gentlemen,' said the President then, very gravely, 'you must please to understand that for the outside world

"We all looked at each other. 'Very great people are concerned in this deplorable business,' said the President.

'God grant for your sake, Monsieur Camusot, though you did no less than your duty, that Madame de Serizy

may not go mad from the shock she has had. She was carried away almost dead. I have just met our public

prosecutor in a painful state of despair.''You have made a mess of it, my dear Camusot,' he added in my

ear.I assure you, my dear, as I came away I could hardly stand. My legs shook so that I dared not venture

into the street. I went back to my room to rest. Then Coquart, who was putting away the papers of this

wretched case, told me that a very handsome woman had taken the Conciergerie by storm, wanting to save

Lucien, whom she was quite crazy about, and that she fainted away on seeing him hanging by his necktie to

the windowbar of his room. The idea that the way in which I questioned that unhappy young fellowwho,

between ourselves, was guilty in many wayscan have led to his committing suicide has haunted me ever

"What next? Are you going to think yourself a murderer because a suspected criminal hangs himself in prison

just as you were about to release him?" cried Madame Camusot. "Why, an examining judge in such a case is

"Such a comparison, my dear, is at best but a jest, and jesting is out of place now. In this case the dead man

"Yes, my career is closed. I shall be no more than an examining judge all my life. Before this fatal

termination Monsieur de Granville was annoyed at the turn the preliminaries had taken; his speech to our

President makes me quite certain that so long as Monsieur de Granville is public prosecutor I shall get no

Promotion! The terrible thought, which in these days makes a judge a mere functionary.

Formerly a magistrate was made at once what he was to remain. The three or four presidents' caps satisfied

the ambitions of lawyers in each Parlement. An appointment as councillor was enough for a de Brosses or a

Mole, at Dijon as much as in Paris. This office, in itself a fortune, required a fortune brought to it to keep it

In Paris, outside the Parlement, men of the long robe could hope only for three supreme appointments: those

of ControllerGeneral, Keeper of the Seals, or Chancellor. Below the Parlement, in the lower grades, the

president of a lower Court thought himself quite of sufficient importance to be content to fill his chair to the

Compare the position of a councillor in the High Court of Justice in Paris, in 1829, who has nothing but his

salary, with that of a councillor to the Parlement in 1729. How great is the difference! In these days, when

money is the universal social guarantee, magistrates are not required to haveas they used to havefine

private fortunes: hence we see deputies and peers of France heaping office on office, at once magistrates and

legislators, borrowing dignity from other positions than those which ought to give them all their importance.

In short, a magistrate tries to distinguish himself for promotion as men do in the army, or in a Government

This prevailing thought, even if it does not affect his independence, is so well known and so natural, and its

effects are so evident, that the law inevitably loses some of its majesty in the eyes of the public. And, in fact,

the salaries paid by the State makes priests and magistrates mere employes. Steps to be gained foster

ambition, ambition engenders subservience to power, and modern equality places the judge and the person to

be judged in the same category at the bar of society. And so the two pillars of social order, Religion and

Justice, are lowered in this nineteenth century, which asserts itself as progressive in all things.

She looked halfjestingly at her husband, feeling the necessity of reviving the energies of the man who

"Why despair?" she went on, with a shrug that sufficiently expressed her indifference as to the prisoner's end.

"This suicide will delight Lucien's two enemies, Madame d'Espard and her cousin, the Comtesse du Chatelet.

Madame d'Espard is on the best terms with the Keeper of the Seals; through her you can get an audience of

His Excellency and tell him all the secrets of this business. Then, if the head of the law is on your side, what

"But, Monsieur and Madame de Serizy?" cried the poor man. "Madame de Serizy is gone mad, I tell you, and

"Well, if she is out of her mind, O judge devoid of judgment," said Madame Camusot, laughing, "she can do

"Bless me!" said Camusot, "just as I had crossquestioned the unhappy youth, and he had deposed that the

selfstyled Spanish priest is really Jacques Collin, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and Madame de Serizy sent

"But you must have lost your head!" said Amelie. "What was to prevent you, being so sure as you are of your

clerk's fidelity, from calling Lucien back, reassuring him cleverly, and revising the examination?"

"Why, you are as bad as Madame de Serizy; you laugh justice to scorn," said Camusot, who was incapable of

flouting his profession. "Madame de Serizy seized the minutes and threw them into the fire."

"Madame de Serizy declared she would sooner see the Palais blown up than leave a young man who had

enjoyed the favors of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and her own to stand at the bar of a Criminal court by

"But, Camusot," said Amelie, unable to suppress a superior smile, "your position is splendid"

"But all wrong; and in spite of the jesuitical advice of Monsieur de Granville, who met me on the Quai

"Oh, Camusot!" cried Amelie, clasping and wringing her hands, "and I am always imploring you to be

constantly on the alert.Good heavens! it is not a man, but a barrowload of stones that I have to drag

on! Why, Camusot, your public prosecutor was waiting for you.He must have given you some

"And you failed to understand him! If you are so deaf, you will indeed be an examining judge all your life

without any knowledge whatever of the question.At any rate, have sense enough to listen to me," she went

on, silencing her husband, who was about to speak. "You think the matter is done for?" she asked.

"If the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and Madame de Serizy are compromised, you will find them both ready to

patronize you," said Amelie. "Madame de Serizy will get you admission to the Keeper of the Seals, and you

will tell him the secret history of the affair; then he will amuse the King with the story, for sovereigns always

wish to see the wrong side of the tapestry and to know the real meaning of the events the public stare at

openmouthed. Henceforth there will be no cause to fear either the public prosecutor or Monsieur de Serizy."

"What a treasure such a wife is!" cried the lawyer, plucking up courage. "After all, I have unearthed Jacques

Collin; I shall send him to his account at the Assize Court and unmask his crimes. Such a trial is a triumph in

"Camusot," Amelie began, pleased to see her husband rally from the moral and physical prostration into

which he had been thrown by Lucien's suicide, "the President told you that you had blundered to the wrong

side. Now you are blundering as much to the otheryou are losing your way again, my dear."

"The King and the Keeper of the Seals will be glad, no doubt, to know the truth of this business, and at the

same time much annoyed at seeing the lawyers on the Liberal side dragging important persons to the bar of

opinion and of the Assize Court by their special pleading such people as the Maufrigneuses, the Serizys,

and the Grandlieus, in short, all who are directly or indirectly mixed up with this case."

And Camusot walked up and down the room like Sganarelle on the stage when he is trying to get out of a

"Listen, Amelie," said he, standing in front of his wife. "An incident recurs to my mind, a trifle in itself, but,

"Realize, my dear, that this Jacques Collin is a giant of cunning, of dissimulation, of deceit.He iswhat

shall I say?the Cromwell of the hulks!I never met such a scoundrel; he almost took me in.But in

examining a criminal, a little end of thread leads you to find a ball, is a clue to the investigation of the darkest

consciences and obscurest facts.When Jacques Collin saw me turning over the letters seized in Lucien de

Rubempre's lodgings, the villain glanced at them with the evident intention of seeing whether some particular

packet were among them, and he allowed himself to give a visible expression of satisfaction. This look, as of

a thief valuing his booty, this movement, as of a man in danger saying to himself, 'My weapons are safe,'

"Only you women, besides us and our examinees, can in a single flash epitomize a whole scene, revealing

trickery as complicated as safety locks. Volumes of suspicion may thus be communicated in a second. It is

"Said I to myself, "The rascal has more letters in his hands than these!'Then the other details of the case

filled my mind; I overlooked the incident, for I thought I should have my men face to face, and clear up this

point afterwards. But it may be considered as quite certain that Jacques Collin, after the fashion of such

wretches, has hidden in some safe place the most compromising of the young fellow's letters, adored as he

"And yet you are afraid, Camusot? Why, you will be President of the Supreme Court much sooner than I

expected!" cried Madame Camusot, her face beaming. "Now, then, you must proceed so as to give

satisfaction to everybody, for the matter is looking so serious that it might quite possibly be snatched from

us.Did they not take the proceedings out of Popinot's hands to place them in yours when Madame d'Espard

tried to get a Commission in Lunacy to incapacitate her husband?" she added, in reply to her husband's

gesture of astonishment. "Well, then, might not the public prosecutor, who takes such keen interest in the

honor of Monsieur and Madame de Serizy, carry the case to the Upper Court and get a councillor in his

"Bless me, my dear, where did you study criminal law?" cried Camusot. "You know everything; you can give

"Why, do you believe that, by tomorrow morning, Monsieur de Granville will not have taken fright at the

possible line of defence that might be adopted by some liberal advocate whom Jacques Collin would manage

to secure; for lawyers will be ready to pay him to place the case in their hands!And those ladies know their

danger quite as well as you donot to say better; they will put themselves under the protection of the public

prosecutor, who already sees their families unpleasantly close to the prisoner's bench, as a consequence of the

coalition between this convict and Lucien de Rubempre, betrothed to Mademoiselle de GrandlieuLucien,

Esther's lover, Madame de Maufrigneuse's former lover, Madame de Serizy's darling. So you must conduct

the affair in such a way as to conciliate the favor of your public prosecutor, the gratitude of Monsieur de

Serizy, and that of the Marquise d'Espard and the Comtesse du Chatelet, to reinforce Madame de

Maufrigneuse's influence by that of the Grandlieus, and to gain the complimentary approval of your

"I will undertake to deal with the ladiesd'Espard, de Maufrigneuse, and de Grandlieu.

"You must go tomorrow morning to see the public prosecutor. Monsieur de Granville is a man who does not

live with his wife; for ten years he had for his mistress a Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille, who bore him

illegitimate childrendidn't she? Well, such a magistrate is no saint; he is a man like any other; he can be

won over; he must give a hold somewhere; you must discover the weak spot and flatter him; ask his advice,

point out the dangers of attending the case; in short, try to get him into the same boat, and you will be"

"I ought to kiss your footprints!" exclaimed Camusot, interrupting his wife, putting his arm round her, and

"I brought you in tow from Alencon to Mantes, and from Mantes to the Metropolitan Court," replied Amelie.

"Well, well, be quite easy!I intend to be called Madame la Presidente within five years' time. But, my dear,

pray always think over everything a long time before you come to any determination. A judge's business is

not that of a fireman; your papers are never in a blaze, you have plenty of time to think; so in your place

"The whole strength of my position lies in identifying the sham Spanish priest with Jacques Collin," the judge

said, after a long pause. "When once that identity is established, even if the Bench should take the credit of

the whole affair, that will still be an ascertained fact which no magistrate, judge, or councillor can get rid of. I

shall do like the boys who tie a tin kettle to a cat's tail; the inquiry, whoever carries it on, will make Jacques

"And the public prosecutor would rather come to an understanding with me than with any one else, since I am

the only man who can remove the Damocles' sword that hangs over the heart of the Faubourg Saint

"Only you have no idea how hard it will be to achieve that magnificent result. Just now, when I was with

Monsieur de Granville in his private office, we agreed, he and I, to take Jacques Collin at his own

valuationa canon of the Chapter of Toledo, Carlos Herrera. We consented to recognize his position as a

diplomatic envoy, and allow him to be claimed by the Spanish Embassy. It was in consequence of this plan

that I made out the papers by which Lucien de Rubempre was released, and revised the minutes of the

"Tomorrow, Rastignac, Bianchon, and some others are to be confronted with the selfstyled Canon of

Toledo; they will not recognize him as Jacques Collin who was arrested in their presence ten years ago in a

"Well, then, try to make some exposure at the Palais de Justice without showing your claws too much under

your furred cat's paws. If your man is still in the secret cells, go straight to the Governor of the Conciergerie

and contrive to have the convict publicly identified. Instead of behaving like a child, act like the ministers of

police under despotic governments, who invent conspiracies against the monarch to have the credit of

discovering them and making themselves indispensable. Put three families in danger to have the glory of

"That luckily reminds me!" cried Camusot. "My brain is so bewildered that I had quite forgotten an important

point. The instructions to place Jacques Collin in a private room were taken by Coquart to Monsieur Gault,

the Governor of the prison. Now, BibiLupin, Jacques Collin's great enemy, has taken steps to have three

criminals, who know the man, transferred from La Force to the Conciergerie; if he appears in the prisonyard

"Jacques Collin, my dear, was treasurer of the money owned by the prisoners in the hulks, amounting to

considerable sums; now, he is supposed to have spent it all to maintain the deceased Lucien in luxury, and he

will be called to account. There will be such a battle, BibiLupin tells me, as will require the intervention of

"Now, if I get to the Palais early enough I may record the evidence of identity."

"Oh, if only his creditors should take him off your hands! You would be thought such a clever fellow!Do

not go to Monsieur de Granville's room; wait for him in his Court with that formidable great gun. It is a

loaded cannon turned on the three most important families of the Court and Peerage. Be bold: propose to

Monsieur de Granville that he should relieve you of Jacques Collin by transferring him to La Force, where

"I will go to the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, who will take me to the Grandlieus. Possibly I may see Monsieur

de Serizy. Trust me to sound the alarm everywhere. Above all, send me a word we will agree upon to let me

know if the Spanish priest is officially recognized as Jacques Collin. Get your business at the Palais over by

two o'clock, and I will have arranged for you to have an interview with the Keeper of the Seals; perhaps I

Camusot stood squarely with a look of admiration that made his knowing wife smile.

"Now, come to dinner and be cheerful," said she in conclusion. "Why, you see! We have been only two years

in Paris, and here you are on the highroad to be made Councillor before the end of the year. From that to the

Presidency of a court, my dear, there is no gulf but what some political service may bridge."

This conjugal sitting shows how greatly the deeds and the lightest words of Jacques Collin, the lowest

personage in this drama, involved the honor of the families among whom he had planted his now dead

At the Conciergerie Lucien's death and Madame de Serizy's incursion had produced such a block in the

wheels of the machinery that the Governor had forgotten to remove the sham priest from his dungeon cell.

Though more than one instance is on record of the death of a prisoner during his preliminary examination, it

was a sufficiently rare event to disturb the warders, the clerk, and the Governor, and hinder their working

with their usual serenity. At the same time, to them the important fact was not the handsome young fellow so

suddenly become a corpse, but the breakage of the wroughtiron bar of the outer prison gate by the frail

hands of a fine lady. And indeed, as soon as the public prosecutor and Comte Octave de Bauvan had gone off

with Monsieur de Serizy and his unconscious wife, the Governor, clerk, and turnkeys gathered round the

gate, after letting out Monsieur Lebrun, the prison doctor, who had been called in to certify to Lucien's death,

in concert with the "death doctor" of the district in which the unfortunate youth had been lodging.

In Paris, the "death doctor" is the medical officer whose duty it is in each district to register deaths and certify

With the rapid insight for which he was known, Monsieur de Granville had judged it necessary, for the honor

of the families concerned, to have the certificate of Lucien's death deposited at the Mairie of the district in

which the Quai Malaquais lies, as the deceased had resided there, and to have the body carried from his

lodgings to the Church of SaintGermain des Pres, where the service was to be held. Monsieur de

Chargeboeuf, Monsieur de Granville's private secretary, had orders to this effect. The body was to be

transferred from the prison during the night. The secretary was desired to go at once and settle matters at the

Mairie with the parish authorities and with the official undertakers. Thus, to the world in general, Lucien

would have died at liberty in his own lodgings, the funeral would start from thence, and his friends would be

So, when Camusot, his mind at ease, was sitting down to dinner with his ambitious betterhalf, the Governor

of the Conciergerie and Monsieur Lebrun, the prison doctor, were standing outside the gate bewailing the

"No one knows," said the doctor to Monsieur Gault, "what an amount of nervous force there is in a man

wound up to the highest pitch of passion. Dynamics and mathematics have no formulas or symbols to express

that power. Why, only yesterday, I witnessed an experiment which gave me a shudder, and which accounts

"Tell me about it," said Monsieur Gault, "for I am so foolish as to take an interest in magnetism; I do not

"A physician who magnetizesfor there are men among us who believe in magnetism," Lebrun went on,

"offered to experiment on me in proof of a phenomenon that he described and I doubted. Curious to see with

my own eyes one of the strange states of nervous tension by which the existence of magnetism is

"These are the facts.I should very much like to know what our College of Medicine would say if each of

its members in turn were subjected to this influence, which leaves no loophole for incredulity.

"My old friendthis doctor," said Doctor Lebrun parenthetically, "is an old man persecuted for his opinions

since Mesmer's time by all the faculty; he is seventy or seventytwo years of age, and his name is Bouvard.

At the present day he is the patriarchal representative of the theory of animal magnetism. This good man

regards me as a son; I owe my training to him.Well, this worthy old Bouvard it was who proposed to prove

to me that nerveforce put in motion by the magnetizer was, not indeed infinite, for man is under immutable

laws, but a power acting like other powers of nature whose elemental essence escapes our observation.

" 'For instance,' said he, 'if you place your hand in that of a somnambulist who, when awake, can press it only

up to a certain average of tightness, you will see that in the somnambulistic state as it is stupidly

termedhis fingers can clutch like a vise screwed up by a blacksmith.'Well, monsieur, I placed my hand

in that of a woman, not asleep, for Bouvard rejects the word, but isolated, and when the old man bid her

squeeze my wrist as long and as tightly as she could, I begged him to stop when the blood was almost

bursting from my finger tips. Look, you can see the marks of her clutch, which I shall not lose for these three

"The deuce!" exclaimed Monsieur Gault, as he saw a band of bruised flesh, looking like the scar of a burn.

"My dear Gault," the doctor went on, "if my wrist had been gripped in an iron manacle screwed tight by a

locksmith, I should not have felt the bracelet of metal so hard as that woman's fingers; her hand was of

unyielding steel, and I am convinced that she could have crushed my bones and broken my hand from the

wrist. The pressure, beginning almost insensibly, increased without relaxing, fresh force being constantly

added to the former grip; a tourniquet could not have been more effectual than that hand used as an

instrument of torture.To me, therefore, it seems proven that under the influence of passion, which is the

will concentrated on one point and raised to an incalculable power of animal force, as the different varieties

of electric force are also, man may direct his whole vitality, whether for attack or resistance, to one of his

organs.Now, this little lady, under the stress of her despair, had concentrated her vital force in her hands."

"She must have a good deal too, to break a wroughtiron bar," said the chief warder, with a shake of the

"For my part," said the doctor, "I dare assign no limits to nervous force. And indeed it is by this that mothers,

to save their children, can magnetize lions, climb, in a fire, along a parapet where a cat would not venture,

and endure the torments that sometimes attend childbirth. In this lies the secret of the attempts made by

convicts and prisoners to regain their liberty. The extent of our vital energies is as yet unknown; they are part

"Monsieur," said the warder in an undertone to the Governor, coming close to him as he was escorting Doctor

Lebrun as far as the outer gates of the Conciergerie, "Number 2 in the secret cells says he is ill, and needs the

"It is five o'clock," said the doctor; "I have had no dinner. But, after all, I am at hand. Come, let us see."

"Number 2, as it happens, is the Spanish priest suspected of being Jacques Collin," said Monsieur Gault to the

doctor, "and one of the persons suspected of the crime in which that poor young man was implicated."

"I saw him this morning," replied the doctor. "Monsieur Camusot sent for me to give evidence as to the state

of the rascal's health, and I may assure you that he is perfectly well, and could make a fortune by playing the

"Perhaps he wants to kill himself too," said Monsieur Gault. "Let us both go down to the cells together, for I

ought to go there if only to transfer him to an upper room. Monsieur Camusot has given orders to mitigate

Jacques Collin, known as TrompelaMort in the world of the hulks, who must henceforth be called only by

his real name, had gone through terrible distress of mind since, after hearing Camusot's order, he had been

taken back to the underground cellan anguish such as he had never before known in the course of a life

diversified by many crimes, by three escapes, and two sentences at the Assizes. And is there not something

monstrously fine in the doglike attachment shown to the man he had made his friend by this wretch in

whom were concentrated all the life, the powers, the spirit, and the passions of the hulks, who was, so to

Wicked, infamous, and in so many ways horrible, this absolute worship of his idol makes him so truly

interesting that this Study, long as it is already, would seem incomplete and cut short if the close of this

criminal career did not come as a sequel to Lucien de Rubempre's end. The little spaniel being dead, we want

In real life, in society, every event is so inevitably linked to other events, that one cannot occur without the

rest. The water of the great river forms a sort of fluid floor; not a wave, however rebellious, however high it

may toss itself, but its powerful crest must sink to the level of the mass of waters, stronger by the momentum

And just as you watch the current flow, seeing in it a confused sheet of images, so perhaps you would like to

measure the pressure exerted by social energy on the vortex called Vautrin; to see how far away the

rebellious eddy will be carried ere it is lost, and what the end will be of this really diabolical man, human still

by the power of loving so hardly can that heavenly grace perish, even in the most cankered heart.

This wretched convict, embodying the poem that has smiled on many a poet's fancyon Moore, on Lord

Byron, on Mathurin, on Canalisthe demon who has drawn an angel down to hell to refresh him with dews

stolen from heaven,this Jacques Collin will be seen, by the reader who has understood that iron soul, to

have sacrificed his own life for seven years past. His vast powers, absorbed in Lucien, acted solely for

Lucien; he lived for his progress, his loves, his ambitions. To him, Lucien was his own soul made visible.

It was TrompelaMort who dined with the Grandlieus, stole into ladies' boudoirs, and loved Esther by

proxy. In fact, in Lucien he saw Jacques Collin, young, handsome, noble, and rising to the dignity of an

TrompelaMort had realized the German superstition of a doppelganger by means of a spiritual paternity, a

phenomenon which will be quite intelligible to those women who have ever truly loved, who have felt their

soul merge in that of the man they adore, who have lived his life, whether noble or infamous, happy or

unhappy, obscure or brilliant; who, in defiance of distance, have felt a pain in their leg if he were wounded in

his; who if he fought a duel would have been aware of it; and who, to put the matter in a nutshell, did not

As he went back to his cell Jacques Collin said to himself, "The boy is being examined."

And he shiveredhe who thought no more of killing a man than a laborer does of drinking.

"Has he been able to see his mistresses?" he wondered. "Has my aunt succeeded in catching those damned

females? Have the Duchesses and Countesses bestirred themselves and prevented his being examined? Has

Lucien had my instructions? And if illluck will have it that he is crossquestioned, how will he carry it off?

Poor boy, and I have brought him to this! It is that rascal Paccard and that sneak Europe who have caused all

this rumpus by collaring the seven hundred and fifty thousand francs for the certificate Nucingen gave Esther.

That precious pair tripped us up at the last step; but I will make them pay dear for their pranks.

"One day more and Lucien would have been a rich man; he might have married his Clotilde de

Grandlieu.Then the boy would have been all my own!And to think that our fate depends on a look, on a

blush of Lucien's under Camusot's eye, who sees everything, and has all a judge's wits about him! For when

he showed me the letters we tipped each other a wink in which we took each other's measure, and he guessed

This soliloquy lasted for three hours. His torments were so great that they were too much for that frame of

iron and vitriol; Jacques Collin, whose brain felt on fire with insanity, suffered such fearful thirst that he

unconsciously drank up all the water contained in one of the pails with which the cell was supplied, forming,

"If he loses his head, what will become of him?for the poor child has not Theodore's tenacity," said he to

A word must here be said about this Theodore, remembered by Jacques Collin at such a critical moment.

Theodore Calvi, a young Corsican, imprisoned for life at the age of eighteen for eleven murders, thanks to the

influential interference paid for with vast sums, had been made the fellow convict of Jacques Collin, to whom

he was chained, in 1819 and 1820. Jacques Collin's last escape, one of his finest inventions for he had got

out disguised as a gendarme leading Theodore Calvi as he was, a convict called before the commissary of

policehad been effected in the seaport of Rochefort, where the convicts die by dozens, and where, it was

hoped, these two dangerous rascals would have ended their days. Though they escaped together, the

difficulties of their flight had forced them to separate. Theodore was caught and restored to the hulks.

Indeed, a life with Lucien, a youth innocent of all crime, who had only minor sins on his conscience, dawned

on him as bright and glorious as a summer sun; while with Theodore, Jacques Collin could look forward to

The thought of disaster as a result of Lucien's weaknessfor his experience of an underground cell would

certainly have turned his braintook vast proportions in Jacques Collin's mind; and, contemplating the

probabilities of such a misfortune, the unhappy man felt his eyes fill with tears, a phenomenon that had been

"I must be in a furious fever," said he to himself; "and perhaps if I send for the doctor and offer him a

"It is quite useless my boy; I cannot eat. Tell the governor of this prison to send the doctor to see me. I am

Hearing the guttural rattle that accompanied these words, the warder bowed and went. Jacques Collin clung

wildly to this hope; but when he saw the doctor and the governor come in together, he perceived that the

attempt was abortive, and coolly awaited the upshot of the visit, holding out his wrist for the doctor to feel his

"The Abbe is feverish," said the doctor to Monsieur Gault, "but it is the type of fever we always find in

inculpated prisonersand to me," he added, in the governor's ear, "it is always a sign of some degree of

Just then the governor, to whom the public prosecutor had intrusted Lucien's letter to be given to Jacques

Collin, left the doctor and the prisoner together under the guard of the warder, and went to fetch the letter.

"Monsieur," said Jacques Collin, seeing the warder outside the door, and not understanding why the governor

had left them, "I should think nothing of thirty thousand francs if I might send five lines to Lucien de

"I will not rob you of your money," said Doctor Lebrun; "no one in this world can ever communicate with

No tigress robbed of her whelps ever startled an Indian jungle with a yell so fearful as that of Jacques Collin,

who rose to his feet as a tiger rears to spring, and fired a glance at the doctor as scorching as the flash of a

In fact, the first explosion gave way to such utter collapse, that the words, "Oh, my son," were but a murmur.

"No; it is impossible!" Jacques Collin went on, raising himself and looking at the two witnesses of the scene

with a dead, cold eye. "You are mistaken; it is not Lucien; you did not see. A man cannot hang himself in one

of these cells. Lookhow could I hang myself here? All Paris shall answer to me for that boy's life! God

The warder and the doctor were amazed in their turnthey, whom nothing had astonished for many a long

On seeing the governor, Jacques Collin, crushed by the very violence of this outburst of grief, seemed

"Here is a letter which the public prosecutor placed in my hands for you, with permission to give it to you

"He is dead," said the governor. "Even if the doctor had been on the spot, he would, unfortunately, have been

"May I see him with my own eyes?" asked Jacques Collin timidly. "Will you allow a father to weep over the

"You can, if you like, take his room, for I have orders to remove you from these cells; you are no longer in

The prisoner's eyes, from which all light and warmth had fled, turned slowly from the governor to the doctor;

Jacques Collin was examining them, fearing some trap, and he was afraid to go out of the cell.

"If you wish to see the body," said Lebrun, "you have no time to lose; it is to be carried away tonight."

"If you have children, gentlemen," said Jacques Collin, "you will understand my state of mind; I hardly know

what I am doing. This blow is worse to me than death; but you cannot know what I am saying. Even if you

are fathers, it is only after a fashionI am a mother tooI I am going madI feel it!"

By going through certain passages which open only to the governor, it is possible to get very quickly from the

cells to the private rooms. The two sets of rooms are divided by an underground corridor formed of two

massive walls supporting the vault over which Galerie Marchande, as it is called, is built. So Jacques Collin,

escorted by the warder, who took his arm, preceded by the governor, and followed by the doctor, in a few

On seeing the body, he threw himself upon it, seizing it in a desperate embrace with a passion and impulse

"There," said the doctor to Monsieur Gault, "that is an instance of what I was telling you. You see that man

"Leave me alone!" said Jacques Collin in a smothered voice; "I have not long to look at him. They will take

"You will allow me to have some relic of my dear boy! Will you be so kind as to cut off a lock of his hair for

"Do you think so?" replied the governor in a meaning tone, which made the doctor thoughtful for a few

The governor gave orders that the prisoner should be left in this cell, and that some locks of hair should be

At halfpast five in the month of May it is easy to read a letter in the Conciergerie in spite of the iron bars

and the close wire trellis that guard the windows. So Jacques Collin read the dreadful letter while he still held

The man is not known who can hold a lump of ice for ten minutes tightly clutched in the hollow of his hand.

The cold penetrates to the very lifesprings with mortal rapidity. But the effect of that cruel chill, acting like

a poison, is as nothing to that which strikes to the soul from the cold, rigid hand of the dead thus held. Thus

Death speaks to Life; it tells many dark secrets which kill many feelings; for in matters of feeling is not

As we read through once more, with Jacques Collin, Lucien's last letter, it will strike us as being what it was