present condition of European states, I am not a Chinaman, I am a French
gentleman. If you entertain any doubts as to the financial side of this
undertaking, I can prove to you that at this moment we have two
thousand five hundred subscribers to this work, which is literary,
iconographical, statistical, and religious; its importance has been
generally appreciated; our subscribers belong to every nation in Europe,
we have but twelve hundred in France. Our book will cost about three
hundred francs, and the Comte de Nouvion will derive from it from six to
seven thousand francs a year, for his comfort was the real motive of the
undertaking. For my part, I aimed only at the possibility of affording
my children some pleasures. The hundred thousand francs I have made,
quite in spite of myself, will pay for their fencing lessons, horses,
dress, and theatres, pay the masters who teach them accomplishments,
procure them canvases to spoil, the books they may wish to buy, in
short, all the little fancies which a father finds so much pleasure in
gratifying. If I had been compelled to refuse these indulgences to my
poor boys, who are so good and work so hard, the sacrifice I made to the
honor of my name would have been doubly painful.
“In point of fact, the twelve years I have spent in retirement from the
world to educate my children have led to my being completely forgotten
at Court. I have given up the career of politics; I have lost my
historical fortune, and all the distinctions which I might have acquired
and bequeathed to my children; but our house will have lost nothing;
my boys will be men of mark. Though I have missed the senatorship, they
will win it nobly by devoting themselves to the affairs of the country,
and doing such service as is not soon forgotten. While purifying the
past record of my family, I have insured it a glorious future; and is
not that to have achieved a noble task, though in secret and without
glory?--And now, monsieur, have you any other explanations to ask me?”
At this instant the tramp of horses was heard in the courtyard.
“Here they are!” said the Marquis. In a moment the two lads, fashionably
but plainly dressed, came into the room, booted, spurred, and gloved,
and flourishing their riding-whips. Their beaming faces brought in the
freshness of the outer air; they were brilliant with health. They both
grasped their father’s hand, giving him a look, as friends do, a glance
of unspoken affection, and then they bowed coldly to the lawyer. Popinot
felt that it was quite unnecessary to question the Marquis as to his
relations towards his sons.
“Have you enjoyed yourselves?” asked the Marquis.
“Yes, father; I knocked down six dolls in twelve shots at the first
trial!” cried Camille.
“And where did you ride?”
“In the Bois; we saw my mother.”
“Did she stop?”
“We were riding so fast just then that I daresay she did not see us,”
replied the young Count.
“But, then, why did you not go to speak to her?”
“I fancy I have noticed, father, that she does not care that we should
speak to her in public,” said Clement in an undertone. “We are a little
too big.”
The judge’s hearing was keen enough to catch these words, which brought
a cloud to the Marquis’ brow. Popinot took pleasure in contemplating the
picture of the father and his boys. His eyes went back with a sense
of pathos to M. d’Espard’s face; his features, his expression, and his
manner all expressed honesty in its noblest aspect, intellectual and
chivalrous honesty, nobility in all its beauty.
“You--you see, monsieur,” said the Marquis, and his hesitation had
returned, “you see that Justice may look in--in here at any time--yes,
at any time--here. If there is anybody crazy, it can only be the
children--the children--who are a little crazy about their father,
and the father who is very crazy about his children--but that sort of
madness rings true.”
At this juncture Madame Jeanrenaud’s voice was heard in the ante-room,
and the good woman came bustling in, in spite of the man-servant’s
remonstrances.
“I take no roundabout ways, I can tell you!” she exclaimed. “Yes,
Monsieur le Marquis, I want to speak to you, this very minute,” she went
on, with a comprehensive bow to the company. “By George, and I am too
late as it is, since Monsieur the criminal Judge is before me.”
“Criminal!” cried the two boys.
“Good reason why I did not find you at your own house, since you are
here. Well, well! the Law is always to the fore when there is mischief
brewing.--I came, Monsieur le Marquis, to tell you that my son and I are
of one mind to give you everything back, since our honor is threatened.
My son and I, we had rather give you back everything than cause you
the smallest trouble. My word, they must be as stupid as pans without
handles to call you a lunatic----”
“A lunatic! My father?” exclaimed the boys, clinging to the Marquis.
“What is this?”
“Silence, madame,” said Popinot.
“Children, leave us,” said the Marquis.
The two boys went into the garden without a word, but very much alarmed.
“Madame,” said the judge, “the moneys paid to you by Monsieur le Marquis
were legally due, though given to you in virtue of a very far-reaching
theory of honesty. If all the people possessed of confiscated goods, by
whatever cause, even if acquired by treachery, were compelled to make
restitution every hundred and fifty years, there would be few legitimate
owners in France. The possessions of Jacques Coeur enriched twenty noble
families; the confiscations pronounced by the English to the advantage
of their adherents at the time when they held a part of France made the
fortune of several princely houses.
“Our law allows M. d’Espard to dispose of his income without accounting
for it, or suffering him to be accused of its misapplication. A
Commission in Lunacy can only be granted when a man’s actions are devoid
of reason; but in this case, the remittances made to you have a reason
based on the most sacred and most honorable motives. Hence you may keep
it all without remorse, and leave the world to misinterpret a noble
action. In Paris, the highest virtue is the object of the foulest
calumny. It is, unfortunately, the present condition of society that
makes the Marquis’ actions sublime. For the honor of my country, I would
that such deeds were regarded as a matter of course; but, as things are,
I am forced by comparison to look upon M. d’Espard as a man to whom a
crown should be awarded, rather than that he should be threatened with a
Commission in Lunacy.
“In the course of a long professional career, I have seen and heard
nothing that has touched me more deeply than that I have just seen and
heard. But it is not extraordinary that virtue should wear its noblest
aspect when it is practised by men of the highest class.
“Having heard me express myself in this way, I hope, Monsieur le
Marquis, that you feel certain of my silence, and that you will not
for a moment be uneasy as to the decision pronounced in the case--if it
comes before the Court.”
“There, now! Well said,” cried Madame Jeanrenaud. “That is something
like a judge! Look here, my dear sir, I would hug you if I were not so
ugly; you speak like a book.”
The Marquis held out his hand to Popinot, who gently pressed it with
a look full of sympathetic comprehension at this great man in private
life, and the Marquis responded with a pleasant smile. These two
natures, both so large and full--one commonplace but divinely kind, the
other lofty and sublime--had fallen into unison gently, without a jar,
without a flash of passion, as though two pure lights had been merged
into one. The father of a whole district felt himself worthy to grasp
the hand of this man who was doubly noble, and the Marquis felt in the
depths of his soul an instinct that told him that the judge’s hand
was one of those from which the treasures of inexhaustible beneficence
perennially flow.
“Monsieur le Marquis,” added Popinot, with a bow, “I am happy to be able
to tell you that, from the first words of this inquiry, I regarded my
clerk as quite unnecessary.”
He went close to M. d’Espard, led him into the window-bay, and said: “It
is time that you should return home, monsieur. I believe that Madame la
Marquise has acted in this matter under an influence which you ought at
once to counteract.”
Popinot withdrew. He looked back several times as he crossed the
courtyard, touched by the recollection of the scene. It was one of those
which take root in the memory to blossom again in certain hours when the
soul seeks consolation.
“Those rooms would just suit me,” said he to himself as he reached home.
“If M. d’Espard leaves them, I will take up his lease.”
The next day, at about ten in the morning, Popinot, who had written out
his report the previous evening, made his way to the Palais de Justice,
intending to have prompt and righteous justice done. As he went to the
robing-room to put on his gown and bands, the usher told him that the
President of his Court begged him to attend in his private room, where
he was waiting for him. Popinot forthwith obeyed.
“Good-morning, my dear Popinot,” said the President, “I have been
waiting for you.”
“Why, Monsieur le President, is anything wrong?”
“A mere silly trifle,” said the President. “The Keeper of the Seals,
with whom I had the honor of dining yesterday, led me apart into a
corner. He had heard that you had been to tea with Madame d’Espard, in
whose case you were employed to make inquiries. He gave me to understand
that it would be as well that you should not sit on this case----”
“But, Monsieur le President, I can prove that I left Madame d’Espard’s
house at the moment when tea was brought in. And my conscience----”
“Yes, yes; the whole Bench, the two Courts, all the profession know you.
I need not repeat what I said about you to his Eminence; but, you know,
‘Caesar’s wife must not be suspected.’ So we shall not make this
foolish trifle a matter of discipline, but only of proprieties. Between
ourselves, it is not on your account, but on that of the Bench.”
“But, monsieur, if you only knew the kind of woman----” said the judge,
trying to pull his report out of his pocket.
“I am perfectly certain that you have proceeded in this matter with the
strictest independence of judgment. I myself, in the provinces, have
often taken more than a cup of tea with the people I had to try; but the
fact that the Keeper of the Seals should have mentioned it, and that you
might be talked about, is enough to make the Court avoid any discussion
of the matter. Any conflict with public opinion must always be dangerous
for a constitutional body, even when the right is on its side against
the public, because their weapons are not equal. Journalism may say or
suppose anything, and our dignity forbids us even to reply. In fact,
I have spoken of the matter to your President, and M. Camusot has been
appointed in your place on your retirement, which you will signify.
It is a family matter, so to speak. And I now beg you to signify your
retirement from the case as a personal favor. To make up, you will get
the Cross of the Legion of Honor, which has so long been due to you. I
make that my business.”
When he saw M. Camusot, a judge recently called to Paris from a
provincial Court of the same class, as he went forward bowing to the
Judge and the President, Popinot could not repress an ironical smile.
This pale, fair young man, full of covert ambition, looked ready to hang
and unhang, at the pleasure of any earthy king, the innocent and the
guilty alike, and to follow the example of a Laubardemont rather than
that of a Mole.
Popinot withdrew with a bow; he scorned to deny the lying accusation
that had been brought against him.
PARIS, February 1836.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Note: The Commission in Lunacy is also known as The Interdiction and is
referred to by that title in certain of the addendums.
Bianchon, Horace
Father Goriot
The Atheist’s Mass
Cesar Birotteau
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor’s Establishment
The Secrets of a Princess
The Government Clerks
Pierrette
A Study of Woman
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Honorine
The Seamy Side of History
The Magic Skin
A Second Home
A Prince of Bohemia
Letters of Two Brides
The Muse of the Department
The Imaginary Mistress
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty
The Country Parson
In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following:
Another Study of Woman
La Grande Breteche
Bordin
The Gondreville Mystery
The Seamy Side of History
Jealousies of a Country Town
Camusot de Marville
Cousin Pons
Jealousies of a Country Town
Scenes from a Cuortesan’s Life
Desroches (son)
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Colonel Chabert
A Start in Life
A Woman of Thirty
The Government Clerks
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Firm of Nucingen
A Man of Business
The Middle Classes
Espard, Charles-Maurice-Marie-Andoche, Comte de Negrepelisse, Marquis d’
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Espard, Chevalier d’
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Secrets of a Princess
Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d’
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Letters of Two Brides
Another Study of Woman
The Gondreville Mystery
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
Beatrix
Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie
Colonel Chabert
A Bachelor’s Establishment
A Start in Life
The Middle Classes
Cousin Pons
Grozier, Abbe
Lost Illusions
Jeanrenaud
Albert Savarus
Mongenod, Frederic
The Seamy Side of History
Negrepelisse, De
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de
Father Goriot
The Thirteen
Eugenie Grandet
Cesar Birotteau
Melmoth Reconciled
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Modeste Mignon
The Firm of Nucingen
Another Study of Woman
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis
Popinot, Jean-Jules
Cesar Birotteau
Honorine
The Seamy Side of History
The Middle Classes
Rabourdin, Madame
The Government Clerks
End of Project Gutenberg’s The Commission in Lunacy, by Honore de Balzac