The Parisians — Complete by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton (best novels ever txt) 📕
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“Nevertheless, they had the instinct of property, though erroneously developed, otherwise they would not have deemed any excuse for their act necessary. Now for my instance of the inherent tenacity of that instinct. A worthy citizen in want of fuel sees a door in a garden wall, and naturally carries off the door. He is apprehended by a gendarme who sees the act. ‘Voleur,’ he cries to the gendarme, ‘do you want to rob me of my property?’ ‘That door your property? I saw you take it away.’ ‘You confess,’ cries the citizen, triumphantly—‘you confess that it is my property; for you saw me appropriate it.’ Thus you see how imperishable is the instinct of property. No sooner does it disappear as yours than it reappears as mine.”
“I would laugh if I could,” said Lemercier, “but such a convulsion would be fatal. Dieu des dieux, how empty I am!” He reeled as he spoke, and clung to De Breze for support. De Breze had the reputation of being the most selfish of men. But at that moment, when a generous man might be excused for being selfish enough to desire to keep the little that he had for his own reprieve from starvation, this egotist became superb. “Friends,” he cried, with enthusiasm, “I have something yet in my pocket; we will dine, all three of us.”
“Dine!” faltered Lemercier. “Dine! I have not dined since I left the hospital. I breakfasted yesterday—on two mice upon toast. Dainty, but not nutritious. And I shared them with Fox.”
“Fox! Fox lives still, then?” cried De Breze, startled.
“In a sort of way he does. But one mouse since yesterday morning is not much; and he can’t expect that every day.”
“Why don’t you take him out?” asked Savarin. “Give him a chance of picking up a bone somewhere.”
“I dare not; he would be picked up himself. Dogs are getting very valuable: they sell for 50 francs apiece. Come, De Breze, where are we to dine?”
“I and Savarin can dine at the London Tavern upon rat pate or jugged cat. But it would be impertinence to invite a satrap like yourself who has a whole dog in his larder—a dish of 50 francs—a dish for a king. Adieu, my dear Frederic. Allons, Savarin.”
“I feasted you on better meats than dog when I could afford it,” said Frederic, plaintively; “and the first time you invite me you retract the invitation. Be it so. Bon appetit.”
“Bah!” said De Breze, catching Frederic’s arm as he turned to depart. “Of course I was but jesting. Only another day, when my pockets will be empty, do think what an excellent thing a roasted dog is, and make up your mind while Fox has still some little flesh on his bones.”
“Flesh!” said Savarin, detaining them. “Look! See how right Voltaire was in saying, ‘Amusement is the first necessity of civilised man.’ Paris can do without bread Paris still retains Polichinello.”
He pointed to the puppet-show, round which a crowd, not of children alone, but of men-middle-aged and old-were collected; while sous were dropped into the tin handed round by a squalid boy.
“And, mon ami,” whispered De Breze to Lemercier, with the voice of a tempting fiend, “observe how Punch is without his dog.”
It was true. The dog was gone,—its place supplied by a melancholy emaciated cat.
Frederic crawled towards the squalid boy. “What has become of Punch’s dog?”
“We ate him last Sunday. Next Sunday we shall have the cat in a pie,” said the urchin, with a sensual smack of the lips.
“O Fox! Fox!” murmured Frederic, as the three men went slowly down through the darkening streets—the roar of the Prussian guns heard afar, while distinct and near rang the laugh of the idlers round the Punch without a dog.
CHAPTER III.
While De Breze and his friends were feasting at the cafe Anglais, and faring better than the host had promised—for the bill of fare comprised such luxuries as ass, mule, peas, fried potatoes, and champagne (champagne in some mysterious way was inexhaustible during the time of famine)—a very different group had assembled in the rooms of Isaura Cicogna. She and the Venosta had hitherto escaped the extreme destitution to which many richer persons had been reduced. It is true that Isaura’s fortune placed in the hands of the absent Louvier, and invested in the new street that was to have been, brought no return. It was true that in that street the Venosta, dreaming of cent. per cent., had invested all her savings. But the Venosta, at the first announcement of war, had insisted on retaining in hand a small sum from the amount Isaura had received from her “roman,” that might suffice for current expenses, and with yet more acute foresight had laid in stores of provisions and fuel immediately after the probability of a siege became apparent. But even the provident mind of the Venosta had never foreseen that the siege would endure so long, or that the prices of all articles of necessity would rise so high. And meanwhile all resources—money, fuel, provisions—had been largely drawn upon by the charity and benevolence of Isaura, without much remonstrance on the part of the Venosta, whose nature was very accessible to pity. Unfortunately, too, of late money and provisions had failed to Monsieur and Madame Rameau, their income consisting partly of rents no longer paid, and the profits of a sleeping partnership in the old shop, from which custom had departed; so that they came to share the fireside and meals at the rooms of their son’s fiancee with little scruple, because utterly unaware that the money retained and the provisions stored by the Venosta were now nearly exhausted.
The patriotic ardour which had first induced the elder Rameau to volunteer his services as a National Guard had been ere this cooled if not suppressed, first by the hardships of the duty, and then by the disorderly conduct of his associates, and their ribald talk and obscene songs. He was much beyond the age at which he could be registered. His son was, however, compelled to become his substitute, though from his sickly health and delicate frame attached to that portion of the National Guard which took no part in actual engagements, and was supposed to do work on the ramparts and maintain order in the city.
In that duty, so opposed to his tastes and habits, Gustave signalised himself as one of the loudest declaimers against the imbecility of the Government, and in the demand for immediate and energetic action, no matter at what loss of life, on the part of all—except the heroic force to which he himself was attached. Still, despite his military labours, Gustave found leisure to contribute to Red journals, and his contributions paid him tolerably well. To do him justice, his parents
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