ARMAND MARRAST.
The journalist who now occupied the editorial chair was seemingly about
thirty-five years of age, and one whom the ladies would call "a
fine-looking man." His stature was about the average, his shoulders
broad and his form thick-set. His face was long and thin, his forehead
full and capacious, though not high, and was furrowed by thought. His
beard, which, like his hair, was black, encircled his chin, and a
moustache was suffered to adorn his lip. His dress was black and a plain
stock, without a collar, surrounded his throat. His eyes were large,
black, and piercing, and the expression of his countenance was
contemplative and sad.
Such is a hasty limning of the personal outlines of the first journalist
in Paris, the chief editor of the chief organ of the democracy in
Europe, Armand Marrast, of "Le National."
An air of depression, exhaustion and regret was upon his face as he sat
beside the table, with a pen in his hand and paper before him, in a
thoughtful mood, as if planning a leader for his journal, of which but a
single line was written. Whatever were his reflections, they were
evidently far from pleasant; but the single line traced at the head of
the paper indicated the source of his uneasiness. It read:
"Again the House of Orleans triumphs!"
Throwing down his pen, he folded his arms, and began hastily pacing the
chamber.
"Again the House of Orleans triumphs!" he bitterly exclaimed. "Aye,
again and again! It is thus forever, and thus forever seems likely to
continue. Every measure, however imperative, of the opposition,
ignominiously fails--every measure of the Government, however infamous,
succeeds. And so it has been for twelve years. Ah! what a barren sceptre
did the Three Days of '30 place in the hands of the French people! The
despotism of a Citizen King has been as deadly as that of the
Restoration, and more insulting. For twelve years his acts have been but
a continuous series of infringements upon the rights, and insults to the
opinions, of the men of July. The Republican party is trampled on.
Freedom of the press, electoral reform, rights of labor, restriction of
the Royal prerogative, reduction of the civil list, all these measures
are effectually crushed. The press is fettered, and its conductors are
incarcerated. Out of a population of thirty-three millions, but two
hundred thousand are electors. Out of four hundred and sixty deputies,
one-third hold places under the Government, the aggregate of whose
salaries would sustain thousands of starving families at their very
doors. Paris, despite every struggle of freedom, is, at this hour, a
Bastille. The line of fortification is complete. Wherever the eye turns
battlements frown, ordnance protrudes, bayonets bristle. Corruption
stalks unblushingly abroad in the highest places, and the frauds of
Gisquet all Paris knows are but those of an individual. The civil list,
instead of being reduced, is every year enlarged. A Citizen King
receives forty times the appropriation received by the First Consul,
while his whole family are quartered on the State. The dotation to the
Duke of Orleans, on his marriage, would have saved from starvation
hundreds of thousands whose claim for charity far exceeded his. Thank
God, his own personal unpopularity defeated the dotation designed for
the Duke of Nemours. But the appanages were granted because the King's
life was attempted by an assassin. A Citizen King, indeed! This man
cares only for his own. He would be allied to every dynasty in Europe.
His policy is unmixed selfishness. His love for the people who made him
their monarch is swallowed up in love for himself. Millions have been
wrung from the sweat of toil to accomplish a worse than useless
conquest, thousands of Frenchmen have been sacrificed on the burning
sands of Africa, and all for what?--that a throne might be won for a
boy--a boy without ability, or experience, and now the Duke of Aumale is
Governor-General of Algeria, while hundreds of brave men are forgotten."
As these last words, which indicated the cause of the present agitation,
were uttered by the excited journalist a door at the further end of the
apartment softly opened, and a young man of very low stature and boyish
in aspect entered. He seemed, at a first glance, hardly to have attained
his majority, though actually he was ten years older. His face was
round, yet pale, his lips full, his brow commanding, his eye large, dark
and thoughtful, and His characteristic expression mild and benevolent.
He wore a dark frock coat, buttoned to the chin, and a plain black
cravat was tied around his neck.
The journalist was so deeply absorbed in his meditations that for some
moments he seemed unaware that he was no longer alone, and he might have
remained yet longer in that ignorance had not the guest approached and
exclaimed:
"Algeria!"
The journalist raised his head and hastily turned.
"Ah! Louis, is it you?" he said, cordially extending his hand; "I'm glad
you've come. But why did I not hear you?"
"For two reasons, my dear Armand," said the visitor, seating himself in
an editorial chair: "one, that I came in by the private entrance, and
the other, that you were too zealously engaged in cursing the recent
appointment of the King to hear anything short of a salvo of artillery."
"Ah! that cursed appointment! What next I wonder? Thank God, the old man
has no more sons to make governors, although he'll never be satisfied
till each one of them has a crown on his head, by his own right or the
right of a wife."
"And what care we whom the boys marry, so long as marriage takes them
out of France? Montpensier can find favor in the eyes of the Spanish
Infanta, Christina's sister, and thus balk England; be it so, yes, be it
so, especially since it can't be helped or prevented."
"But this affair of Algeria, Louis--"
"Is a very different affair you would say. No doubt, no doubt. As to
Algeria, I have always viewed it as a very costly bauble for France, 'an
opera-box' as the Duke of Broglie once said, 'rather too expensive for
France.'"
"But then it has been a splendid arena for French valor. It has given
the rough old Bugeaud a Marshal's baton, and has made the gallant
Lamoriciere, his sworn foe, a general officer, thanks to his own
intrepid conduct and the court influence of his brother-in-law, Thiers."
"In the late dispatch appear the names of some new candidates for
advancement, I perceive."
"You allude to Morrel and Joliette among others, I suppose. Morrel has
received a regiment, and Joliette is Chef d'Escadron of Spahis. Luckily
for aspirants, and thanks to disease and slaughter, there is no lack of
vacancies."
"The name of Morrel I have seen before in the 'Moniteur,' but
Joliette--who is he?"
"A sort of protege of Bugeaud, 'tis said. He is reported to have
enlisted at Marseilles, and in three years has risen to his present
position from the ranks. He is of a good family, rumor says, but,
suddenly reduced by some calamity, he became a soldier."
"He must be a brave fellow, Armand! As I said before, Algeria has been a
fine field for the development of military genius. My chief objections
to French conquests are these--they have drained millions from France
which should have been devoted to the cause of labor, and have tended to
dazzle the masses with the glory of the achievements of French valor
abroad; thus while thousands of the young and enterprising have been
lured away to fill up the ranks, and to seek fame and fortune, the minds
of those remaining have been withdrawn from their own wrongs, oppression
and suffering, and from efficiently concerting to sustain the measures
of their friends for their relief. There is not a race in Christendom
so fond of military glory and achievement as the French. Dazzled by
this, the people, the masses--"
"The people, the masses!" impatiently interrupted the journalist. "You
know me, Louis; for years you have known me well, for years have we
devoted every energy of heart and soul to the cause of the people, and
for years, ever since we came to man's estate, have we been equal
sufferers in the same cause--"
"Sufferers in the cause of the people of France, in the cause of man, we
both, doubtless, have been, but not equal sufferers. What have been my
sacrifices or sufferings, my dear Armand, compared to yours? In that
dark hour when Armand Carrel fell--fell by an ignoble bullet in an
ignoble cause--fell in bitterness and without a hope for liberty in his
beloved France--I felt impelled to come forward and exert myself for the
welfare of my race, and endeavor to aid others in filling the gap
created by his loss. To France, to my country, did I then, though but a
boy, devote myself--France, my country!--for such I feel her to be,
though I was born in Spain and my mother was a Corsican. Since that hour
my pen has been dedicated to the cause of the people, the dethronement
of the Bourgeoisie and the organization of labor. As to sacrifice or
suffering, I have sacrificed only my time and toil at the worst. I have
not been deemed worthy of suffering even a fine for a newspaper libel,
and my paper has never been thought worth suppression!"
"And what have I accomplished, Louis?" asked Marrast, gloomily. "My life
seems almost a blank."
"With Armand Carrel, you have for fifteen years been the champion of
Republicanism in France, and with you, as leaders, has all been
accomplished that now exists. When Carrel died, on you fell his mantle.
As editor of 'La Tribune,' your boldness and charging Casimir Perier and
Marshal Soult with connivance in Gisquet's scandalous frauds brought
upon you fine and imprisonment. Your boldness and patriotism during the
insurrection of the 5th and 6th of June, 1832, once more caused your
paper to be stopped and your presses to be sealed. In April, '34, your
press was again stopped, and you, with Godefroi Cavaignac, were thrown
into Sainte Pelagie, whence you so gallantly escaped, though to become
an exile in England. Again, in '35, you were sentenced to
transportation. So much for sufferings; as to sacrifices--why, you have
been utterly ruined by fines!"
"Well, Louis, well," was the sad answer, "granting all this, my
sacrifices and sufferings are only the more bitter from the fact of
having been utterly in vain, entirely useless. You, Louis, have been
wiser than I. Your journal is well named 'Bon Sens.'"
"Possibly wiser," was the reply, "and possibly less bold. But does not
discretion sometimes win what boldness would sacrifice? In rashly
struggling for all we sometimes lose all. Prudence and perseverance, my
dear Armand, are invaluable."