The Deputy of Arcis by Honoré de Balzac (free ebook reader for pc .txt) 📕

salutations that were addressed to her from all parts of the Chamber. Madame de Camps, who was present for the first time in the parliamentary precincts, made two observations: first, she objected strongly to the slovenly costume of a great many of the "honorable gentlemen"; and she was also amazed at the number of bald heads she looked down upon from the gallery. Monsieur de l'Estorade took pains to point out to her all the notabilities present: first, the great men whom we need not mention, because their names are in everybody's memory; next, the poet Canalis, whose air she thought Olympian; d'Arthez, who pleased her by his modesty and absence of assumption; Vinet, of whom she remarked that he was like a viper in spectacles; Victorin Hulot, a noted orator of the Left Centre. It was some time before she could accustom herself to the hum of the various conversations, which seemed to her like the buzzing of bees around their hive; but the thing that most amazed her was the general aspect of this assemblage of legislators, where a singular _laisser-aller_ and a total absence of dignity would never have led her to suppose she was in the hall of the representatives of a great people.

It was written that on this day no pain or unpleasantness should be spared to Madame de l'Estorade. Just before the sitting began, the Marquise d'Espard, accompanied by Monsieur de Ronquerolles, entered the peers' gallery and took her seat beside the countess. Though meeting constantly in society, the two women could not endure each other. Madame de l'Estorade despised the spirit of intrigue, the total lack of principle, and the sour, malevolent nature which the marquise covered with an elegant exterior; and the marquise despised, to a still greater degree, what she called the _pot-au-feu_ virtues of Madame de l'Estorade. It must also be mentioned that Madame de l'Estorade was thirty-two years old and her beauty was still undimmed, whereas Madame d'Espard was forty-four, and, in spite of the careful dissimulations of the toilet, her beauty was fairly at an end.

"You do not often come here, I think," said Madame d'Espard, after the usual conventional phrases about the _pleasure_ of their meeting had passed.

"I never come," replied Madame de l'Estorade.

"And I am most assiduous," said Madame d'Espard.

Then, pretending to a sudden recollection, she added,--

"Ah! I forgot; you have a special interest, I think, on this occasion. A friend of yours is to be _judged_, is he not?"

"Yes; Monsieur de Sallenauve has been to our house several times."

"How sad it is," said the marquise, "to see a man who, Monsieur de Ronquerolles tells me, had the making of a hero in many ways, come down to the level of the correctional police."

"His crime so far," said Madame de l'Estorade, dryly, "consists solely in his absence."

"At any rate," continued the marquise, "he seems to be a man eaten up by ambition. Before his parliamentary attempt, he made, as you doubtless know, a matrimonial attempt upon the Lantys, which ended in the beautiful heiress of that family, into whose good graces he had insinuated himself, being sent to a convent."

Madame de l'Estorade was not much surprised at finding that this history, which Sallenauve had told her as very secret, had reached the knowledge of Madame d'Espard. The marquise was one of the best informed women in Paris; her salon, as an old academician had said mythologically, was the Temple of Fame.

"I think the sitting is about to begin," said Madame de l'Estorade; fearing some blow from the claws of the marquise, she was eager to put an end to the conversation.

The president had rung his bell, the deputies were taking their seats, the curtain was about to rise. As a faithful narrator of the session we desire our readers to attend, we think it safer and better in every way to copy _verbatim_ the report of the debate as given in one of the morning papers of the following day.

Chamber of Deputies.

In the chair, M. Cointet (vice-president).

(Sitting of May 28.)

At two o'clock the president takes his seat.

M. the Keeper of the Seals, M. the minister of the Interior, M.
the minister of Public Works, are on the ministerial bench.

The minutes of the last session are read, approved, and accepted.

The order of the day is the verification of the powers and the
admission of the deputy elected by the arrondissement of
Arcis-sur-Aube.

_The President_.--M. the reporter, from the Committee on the
elections of the department of the Aube, has the floor.

_The Reporter_.--Gentlemen, the singular and regrettable situation
in which Monsieur de Sallenauve has placed himself has not
terminated in the manner that was hoped and expected last week.
The period of delay expired yesterday; Monsieur de Sallenauve
continues to absent himself from your sittings, and no letter has
reached M. le president asking for further leave of absence. This
indifference to the functions which Monsieur de Sallenauve
appeared to have solicited with so much eagerness [slight
agitation on the Left] would be, in any case, a grave mistake; but
when connected with an accusation that seriously compromises the
deputy elect, it must be regarded as altogether unfortunate for
his reputation. [Murmurs on the Left. Approbation from the
Centre.] Compelled to search for the solution of a difficulty
which may be said to be without precedent in parliamentary annals,
your committee, in the adoption of suitable measures, finds itself
divided into two very distinct opinions. The minority whom I
represent--the committee consisting of but three members--thinks
that it ought to submit to you a resolution which I shall call
radical, and which has for its object the cutting short of the
difficulty by returning the question to its natural judges. Annul
_hic et nunc_ the election of Monsieur de Sallenauve, and send him
back to the voters by whom he was elected and of whom he is so
unfaithful a representative. Such is one of the solutions I have
the honor to present to you. [Agitation on the Left.] The
majority, on the contrary, are of opinion that the will of the
electors cannot be too highly respected, and that the faults of a
man honored by their confidence ought not to be discussed until
the utmost limits of forbearance and indulgence have been passed.
Consequently your committee instruct me to suggest that you grant
to Monsieur de Sallenauve a further delay of fifteen days [murmurs
from the Centre; "Very good! very good!" from the Left]; being
satisfied that if after that delay Monsieur de Sallenauve does not
present himself or give any other sign of existence, it will be
sufficient proof that he has thrown up his election, and the
Chamber need not be dragged on his account into irritating and
useless debates. [Murmurs of various kinds.]

M. le Colonel Franchessini, who during the foregoing speech was
sitting on the ministers' bench in earnest conversation with the
minister of Public Works, here demanded the floor.

_The President_.--M. de Canalis has already asked for it.

_M. de Canalis_.--Gentlemen, M. de Sallenauve is one of those bold
men who, like myself, are convinced that politics are not
forbidden fruit to any form of intellect, and that in the poet, in
the artist, as well as in the magistrate, the administrator, the
lawyer, the physician, and the property-holder, may be found the
stuff that makes a statesman. In virtue of this community of
opinion, M. de Sallenauve has my entire sympathy, and no one can
be surprised to see me mount this tribune to support the proposal
of the majority of your committee. I cannot, however, agree to
their final conclusion; and the idea of our colleague being
declared, without discussion, dismissed from this Chamber through
the single fact of his absence, prolonged without leave, is
repugnant to my reason and also to my conscience. You are told:
"The absence of M. de Sallenauve is all the more reprehensible
because he is under the odium of a serious accusation." But
suppose this accusation is the very cause of his absence--["Ha!
ha!" from the Centre, and laughter.] Allow me to say, gentlemen,
that I am not, perhaps, quite so artless as Messieurs the laughers
imagine. I have one blessing, at any rate: ignoble interpretations
do not come into my mind; and that M. de Sallenauve, with the
eminent position he has filled in the world of art, should seek to
enter the world of politics by means of a crime, is a supposition
which I cannot admit _a priori_. Around a birth like his two
hideous spiders called slander and intrigue have every facility to
spread their toils; and far from admitting that he has fled before
the accusation that now attacks him, I ask myself whether his
absence does not mean that he is now engaged in collecting the
elements of his defence. [Left: "Very good!" "That's right."
Ironical laughter in the Centre.] Under that supposition--in my
opinion most probable--so far from arraigning him in consequence
of this absence, ought we not rather to consider it as an act of
deference to the Chamber whose deliberations he did not feel
worthy to share until he found himself in a position to confound
his calumniators?

_A Voice_.--He wants leave of absence for ten years, like
Telemachus, to search for his father. [General laughter.]

_M. de Canalis_.--I did not expect so poetical an interruption;
but since the memory of the Odyssey has been thus evoked, I shall
ask the Chamber to kindly remember that Ulysses, though disguised
as a beggar and loaded with insults, was yet able to string his
bow and easily get the better of his enemies. [Violent murmurs from
the Centre.] I vote for leave of absence for fifteen days, and
that the Chamber be again consulted at the expiration of that
time.

_M. le Colonel Franchessini_.--I do not know if the last speaker
intended to intimidate the Chamber, but, for my part, such
arguments have very little power upon me, and I am always ready to
send them back whence they came. [Left: "Come! come!"]

_The President_.--Colonel, no provocations!

_M. le Colonel Franchessini_.--I am, however, of the opinion of
the speaker who preceded me; I do not think that the delinquent
has fled to escape the accusation against him. Neither that
accusation, nor the effect it will produce upon your minds, nor
even the quashing of his election would be able at this moment to