the widest basis the primordial source of the Empire's existence?
Doubtless the government recommends its candidates. But does not
the revolutionary party support its own with shameless audacity? We
are attacked, and we defend ourselves. Nothing could be fairer. Our
opponents would like to gag us, bind us hand and foot, reduce us to the
condition of dead bodies. That is a thing which we can never allow.
Our love for our country requires that we should advise it and tell
it where its true interests lie. It still remains the absolute master
of its destinies. It votes and we bow to its wishes. Those members of
the Opposition who belong to this assembly, where they enjoy entire
liberty of speech, are themselves a proof of our respect for the
decrees of universal suffrage. The revolutionary party must settle the
matter with the nation, for it is the nation that supports the Empire
by overwhelming majorities.... In parliament all obstacles to free
control have now been swept aside. Our Sovereign has been pleased to
accord the great bodies of the state a more direct participation in his
policy, and a conspicuous proof of his confidence in them. Henceforth
you will be able to discuss the measures of the government, you will
be able to exercise the right of amendment in the fullest degree, as
well as to express all your desires. Every year the discussion on the
address will form, as it were, an interview between the Emperor and
the representatives of the nation, at which the latter will be able to
say whatever they please with perfect freedom. It is by free and open
discussion that powerful states are formed. The tribune is restored
to you, the tribune which so many orators, whose names history has
preserved, has made illustrious. A parliament which discusses is a
parliament that works. And, to tell you the real truth, I am glad to
see here a group of opposition deputies. There will always be amongst
us opponents who will try to find us at fault, and who, by doing so,
will make our good faith show conspicuously. We solicit the most
generous treatment for them. We fear neither passion nor scandal, nor
abuse of the freedom of speech, dangerous though these things be.
'As for the press, gentlemen, under no government determined upon
making itself respected has it enjoyed greater freedom than it does
at present. Every great question and every serious interest has its
organs. The government only opposes the propagation of dangerous
doctrines, the dissemination of poisonous ideas. For the honourable
portion of the press, which is the great voice of public opinion, I
assure you that we entertain the most absolute respect. It assists us
in our task; it is the tool of the age. If the government has taken it
into its own hands, this is only to keep it from falling into those of
its enemies.'
Approving laughter arose. Rougon was now drawing near to his
peroration. He gripped the frame-work of the tribune with the stiffened
fingers of his left hand, and throwing his whole body forward he swept
the air with his right arm. His words flowed forth like a sonorous
torrent. And suddenly, amidst his glowing praise of the new liberal
policy, he seemed overcome by wild excitement. He shot his fist forward
like a battering ram, as though aiming at something yonder in empty
space. This invisible enemy was the spectre of the Red Revolution.
In a few dramatic sentences he depicted that red spectre shaking its
blood-stained banner and waving its incendiary torch as it rushed on,
leaving streams of mud and gore behind it. His voice rang out like the
alarm-bell of the days of revolution, while bullets whizzed by, and
the Bank of France was sacked and the money of respectable citizens
was stolen and shared. The deputies turned pale in their seats as they
listened. But then Rougon calmed down, and concluded by speaking of the
Emperor in warm bursts of laudation, which suggested the swaying of a
censer. 'God be thanked!' said he. 'We are under the protection of the
Prince whom Providence in its infinite mercy selected to save us. We
can safely rest beneath the shelter of his wisdom. He has taken us by
the hand, and is leading us step by step through the breakers, to the
safety of the harbour.'[26]
Vociferous applause resounded. For nearly ten minutes the proceedings
were interrupted. A crowd of deputies rushed to meet the minister as
he returned to his seat, with perspiration streaming down his face
and his figure still quivering from such an expenditure of breath. M.
La Rouquette, M. de Combelot, and a hundred others poured forth their
congratulations, and stretched out their arms to try and grasp his
hand as he passed them. The whole Chamber was heaving with excitement.
Even the occupants of the galleries shouted and gesticulated. Beneath
the sun-lit ceiling-window, amidst the gilding and the marble, all the
severe magnificence characteristic both of a temple and an office,
there raged commotion such as one might find in a public square on some
day of demonstration--bursts of doubting laughter, loud exclamations of
astonishment and of wild admiration, all the clamour, in a word, of a
passion-swayed multitude.
And as the eyes of M. de Marsy and Clorinde met, they both nodded
their heads in confession of the great man's triumph. The speech which
Rougon had just delivered was his first step up that splendid ladder of
fortune which was to carry him to so great a height.
However, a deputy had mounted the tribune. He had a clean-shaven face,
a waxy complexion, and long yellow hair, with sparse curls which fell
over his shoulders. Standing stiff and rigid, he consulted some big
sheets of paper, the manuscript of a speech, which he finally commenced
to read in an unctuous voice.
'Silence, gentlemen, silence!' cried the usher.
This deputy had certain explanations to ask from the government. He
showed great irritation at the dilatory attitude of France in presence
of the threats of Italy against the Holy See. The temporal power
of the Pope, said he, was really the ark of God, and the address
ought to contain a formally expressed hope, a command even, that
this power should be maintained in all its integrity. The speaker
launched out into historical references, and showed that the forces of
Christianity had established political order in Europe many centuries
before the treaties of 1815. Then, in periods that breathed fear and
consternation, he said that he beheld with the greatest alarm the olden
society of Europe vanishing in the midst of popular convulsions. Every
now and then, as he indulged in too direct an allusion to the King of
Italy, murmurs sped through a part of the Chamber; but the compact
group of clerical deputies on the right, nearly a hundred strong,
listened most attentively, accentuating his slightest references by an
expression of approval, applauding, too, every time that he named the
Pope with a slight reverent inclination of the head.
A chorus of bravos greeted his last words: 'It distresses me,' he
said, 'that proud Venice, the Queen of the Adriatic, should become the
obscure vassal of Turin.'
Rougon, though his neck was still wet with perspiration, his voice
hoarse and his big frame exhausted by his previous exertions, insisted
upon replying at once. It was a remarkable sight. He made a parade
of his fatigue, exhibited it ostentatiously, dragging himself to
the tribune, where he began by stammering faint words. He bitterly
complained that men of position, hitherto so loyal to the Imperial
institutions, should now be among the adversaries of the government.
There must surely be some misunderstanding. They could not wish to
swell the ranks of the revolutionists, and weaken a power which made
constant efforts to ensure the triumph of religion. And, turning
towards the deputies on the right, he addressed them with pathetic
gestures, spoke to them with a humility full of craft, as though they
were powerful foes, the only foes that he really feared.
Meantime his voice gradually recovered all its previous force, and
once more he filled the Chamber with a bellowing roar, striking his
breast the while with his closed fist.
'We are accused of irreligion,' he cried. 'It is a falsehood! We are
the reverent children of the Church, and it is our happiness to be
faithful believers. Yes, gentlemen, faith is our guide and our support
in this task of governing, which is often so heavy a burden. What,
indeed, would become of us if we did not trustfully place ourselves
in the hands of Providence? Our only pretension is to be the humble
executants of its designs, the docile instruments of the will of God.
It is this which enables us to speak out freely and to accomplish some
little good. And, gentlemen, I am happy that this opportunity presents
itself for me to bend the knee with all the fervour of a true Catholic
heart before the sovereign Pontiff, before that august and venerable
old man whose watchful and devoted daughter France will ever remain.'
Before he had well finished, the Chamber resounded with applause. His
triumph was becoming an apotheosis. The very walls shook.
When they were all leaving, Clorinde watched for Rougon to pass by. He
and she had not exchanged a word for the last three years. When he made
his appearance, looking younger and lighter, having in a single hour
given the lie to all his previous political life, ready to satisfy,
under the fiction of constitutionalism, his rageful craving for power,
she yielded to an impulsive feeling and stepped towards him, with hand
outstretched and moist caressing eyes. 'Ah!' said she, 'in spite of
everything, you are a wonderfully able fellow!'
THE END
NOTES
[Footnote 1: 16,000_l_.]
[Footnote 2: This is a reference to the Peace of Paris after the
Crimean War.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 3: Morny (Marsy), it will be remembered, was the illegitimate
son of Queen Hortense, the Emperor Napoleon's mother.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 4: Charles X., the exiled king, was then living there.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 5: The idea of this clothier's advertisement--_La Redingote
grise_--was derived from the circumstance that Napoleon I. wore a grey
overcoat, like the one depicted, during his last campaigns.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 6: 1,000 frs. = £40.]
[Footnote 7: Napoleon I.]
[Footnote 8: An allusion to M. Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary.'--_Ed._]
[Footnote 9: This was the duel between St. Arnaud and Cornemuse,
in which the latter was killed. Both had been accused of stealing
4,000_l._ in notes off the Emperor's table, but the real culprit was
probably King Jérôme, Napoleon's uncle.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 10: There was a similar instrument--like a cottage piano in
shape but with a handle at the side--in the Empress's private rooms at
the Tuileries; and at her Majesty's Monday receptions, Prince Richard
Metternich, the Austrian Ambassador, would 'grind' it by the hour just
like some professional of the streets. Mérimée fell out for a time with
Chevalier Nigra, Victor Emmanuel's representative, because he suggested
one afternoon that the latter should relieve the Prince, maliciously
adding that organ grinding was essentially an Italian art.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 11: One million sterling per annum for himself;
400,000_l._ for the Empress Eugénie; and 200.000_l._ for the Prince
Imperial!--_Ed._]
[Footnote 12: The narrative which follows above is virtually matter
of history, only for Gilquin's name one should substitute that of a
detective officer who carried his information to M. Claude, afterwards
famous as the chief of the French detective police.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 13: Felice Orsini.]
[Footnote 14: A favourite nickname for Napoleon III.; properly the name
of the workman whose clothes he donned when escaping from the fort of
Ham.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 15: The Opera-house then stood there.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 16: The 'Commission de Colportage,' by which at that period
all books dealing with politics or social economy had to be licensed
before being hawked about. The object of this regulation was to prevent
the circulation of all literature in any way hostile to the Imperial
policy or the organisation of the Empire.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 17: The functions of the Minister of State--an office which
no longer exists, and which might therefore puzzle even the reader
acquainted with French affairs--comprised the following matters:--The
intercourse of the Crown with the Senate, the Corps Législatif, and
the Council of State; the Sovereign's official correspondence with the
various ministries; the duty of countersigning all decrees, appointing
ministers, senators, and state councillors. The supervision of the
Imperial opera-house, the Théâtre Français, the Odéon theatre, the
Institute, the Salon, the public libraries, &c., was also within the
attributions of the Ministry of State until June, 1863, when a decree
instituted the Ministry of Fine Arts as an adjunct to that of the
Imperial Household.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 18: This was the favourite device of the Imperial Government.
Even money voted for the army was diverted to other purposes, and
France paid the penalty in 1870.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 19: That of retailing books and pamphlets by peddlers.]
[Footnote 20: When Napoleon III. was a lad his mother, Queen Hortense,
as her letters show, was wont to call him '_mon doux entêté_,'
virtually 'my gentle but stubborn boy.'--_Ed._]
[Footnote 21: November 24 and 27, 1860. These decrees gave the right of
presenting an address; promised the Legislature full explanations on
questions of home and foreign policy; and made certain provisions to
enable the deputies to present amendments to Government bills.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 22: Jules Favre.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 23: An allusion to the Coup d'État of Dec. 2, 1851.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 24: Jules Favre, Ernest Picard, Henon (of Lyons), Emile
Ollivier, and Alfred Darimon. Unhappily the two last subsequently sold
themselves to the Empire.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 25: A second call to order would have carried with it
expulsion and suspension for five days, according to the rules then in
force.--_Ed._]
[Footnote 26: Sedan.--_Ed._]