His excellency Eugène Rougon : a realistic novel

Front matter

HIS EXCELLENCY

EUGENE ROUGON.

A REALISTIC NOVEL.

Chapter I

The president still remained standing in the midst of the slight commotion which his entrance had just caused. Then he took his seat, as he said carelessly and in an undertone :

“ The sitting has commenced.”

He then began to arrange the bills which were laid upon the desk in front of him. On his left, a short-sighted clerk, with his nose close to the paper, was reading the minutes of the last sitting in a rapid confused manner, none of the deputies paying any attention to him. In the buzzing noise that filled the chamber the minutes were heard merely by the ushers, who maintained a very dignified and decorous bearing in the midst of the lounging, leisurely attitudes of the deputies.

There were not a hundred members present. Some of them were lying back in their red velvet-covered seats, with listless blank eyes, already half-asleep. Others were leaning over the edge of their desks, as though wearied by the compulsory labour of this public sitting and were beating a gentle tattoo on the mahogany with the tips of their fingers. Through the ceiling window, which revealed a crescent of grey sky, the light of a rainy May afternoon streamed perpendicularly down and evenly illuminated the pompous severity of the chamber. It spread itself over the desks in a flood of gloomy ruddiness, lighted up here and there into a rosy glow where some seat remained unoccupied; while, behind the president, the statues and sculpture-work stood out coldly white and conspicuous.

One of the deputies on the third row to the right still remained standing in the narrow passage. He was rubbing his rough growth of grizzly beard with one hand with a pre-occupied to

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expression. Just then an usher came by and the deputy stopped him and asked him a question in an undertone.

“ No, Monsieur Kahn,” replied the usher ; “ Monsieur le President of the Council of State has not yet arrived.”

Monsieur Kahn then sat down, and abruptly turning round towards his neighbour on the left, he said :

“ Tell me, Bejuin, have you seen Rougon this morning ? ”

Monsieur Bejuin, a small thin man of dark complexion and silent demeanour, raised his head. He blinked his eyes and his thoughts seemed altogether elsewhere. He had drawn out the slide of his desk and was busily engaged in writing letters on blue paper with a business heading containing these words : “Bejuin and Co. The Saint Florent Cut-Glass Works.”

“Rougon?” he repeated. “No, I haven’t seen him. I have not had time to go over to the State Council.”

Then he quietly devoted himself to his work again. He consulted a memorandum-book and began a second letter, amidst the confused buzzing of the clerk who was finishing reading the minutes.

Monsieur Kahn leant back in his seat and crossed his arms. He had a face with strongly marked features, and his big nose testified to his Jewish descent. He seemed vexed and impatient. He gazed upwards at the gilt rose work on the ceiling and listened to the plashing of a heavy fall of rain which just at this moment burst down upon the glass of the sky-light, and then with vaguely wondering eyes he seemed to be examining the complicated ornamentation of the great wall in front of him. His glance rested for a second or two at each end of it upon the two panels hung with green velvet and decked with gilt symbolic figures. Then, after he had scanned the pairs of columns between which the allegorical statues of Liberty and Public Order showed their marble faces and pupil-less eyes, his attention was absorbed by the curtain of green silk which concealed the fresco representing Louis Philippe taking the oath to the Constitution.

By this time the clerk had sat down, but the chamber was still full of buzzing confusion. The president was still leisurely arranging his papers. He kept mechanically ringing his bell without its loud sound in the slightest degree checking any of the private conversations that were going on. Then he stood up in the midst of all the noise and remained waiting for a moment in silence.

HIS EXCELLENCY EUGENE ROUGON.

“Gentlemen,” then he began, “ I have received a letter — ”

He stopped short to ring his bell again and kept silent for a second or two, his grave and weary face looking down from the monumental desk which spread out beneath him its panels of red marble bordered with white. His buttoned frock-coat stood out against the bas-relief behind his desk rising up like a black bar between the peplums of Agriculture and Industry with their antique profiles.

“ Gentlemen,” he continued, when he had succeeded in obtaining something like silence, “ I have received a letter from Monsieur de Lamberthon in which he apologizes for not being able to attend to-day’s sitting.”

A slight laugh was heard from the sixth row of seats in front of the desk. It came from a quite young deputy, who could not be more than twenty-eight years old at the most. He was fair and effeminately pretty, and was trying to stifle with his white hands an outburst of girlish rippling laughter. One of his colleagues, a man of huge size, came up to him and whispered in his ear :

“ Is it really true that Lamberthon has found his wife 1 Tell me all about it, La Rouquette.”

The president had taken up a handful of papers. He was speaking in monotonous tones, and stray fragments of sentences reached the end of the chamber.

“ There are requests for leave of absence — Monsieur Blachet, Monsieur Buquin-Lecomte, Monsieur de la Villardiere — ”

While the chamber was being consulted upon the subject and was granting the different requests for leave of absence, Monsieur Kahn, who had probably grown weary of examining the green silk curtain that was stretched across the seditious portrait of Louis Philippe, had turned half-round to glance at the galleries. Above the wall of yellow marble streaked with black, there was a single-tiered gallery, with hand-rests of amaranthine velvet, spanning the spaces from one column to another ; while still higher up a mantle of embossed leather failed to conceal the gaps which had been caused by the suppression of a second tier, which had been devoted to journalists and the public previous to the Empire. The narrow gloomy boxes between the massive yellowish marble pillars which displayed their somewhat heavy splendour round the semi-circle were for the most part empty, although here and there brightened by the light-tinted toilettes of three or four ladies.

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“ Ah ! so Colonel Jobelin has come ! ” murmured Monsieur Kahn.

He smiled at the colonel, whose glance had fallen on him. Colonel Jobelin was wearing the dark-blue frock-coat which he had adopted as a kind of civilian uniform since his retirement. He was quite alone in the questors’ gallery, and his officer’s rosette was so large as to look almost like the bow of a cravat. #

Monsieur Kahn’s eyes now rested farther away to the left upon a young man and woman who were affectionately squeezing themselves close together in a corner of the gallery of the Council of State. The young man kept bending his head aside every moment and whispering something into the young woman’s neck, at which she smiled with a gentle air, but without turning to look at him, her eyes being fixed upon the allegorical figure of Public Order.

“I say, B^juin,” the deputy now remarked, nudging his colleague’s knee.

Monsieur Bejuin was now busy with his fifth letter. He raised his head with an expression of preoccupation.

“Look up there,” continued Monsieur Kahn; “don’t you see that little Escorailles and pretty Madame Bouchard ] I’ll be bound he’s pinching her hips. What die-away eyes she’s got ! All Rougon’s friends seem to have made a point of coming to-day. There’s Madame Correur and the two Charbonnels up there in the public gallery.”

The bell sounded again with a prolonged note, and an usher called out in a fine bass voice : “ Silence, gentlemen ! ” The deputies began to listen. Then the president said the following words, not a syllable of which was lost :

“Monsieur Kahn asks permission to be allowed to publish the speech which he delivered in reference to the bill for the establishment of a municipal tax upon vehicles and horses in Paris.”

A murmur ran along the benches, and the different conversations were resumed again. Monsieur La Rouquette came and sat down near Monsieur Kahn.

“ You are busy working for the people, eh ] ” he said, playfully, and then, without waiting for any reply, he added :

“You haven’t seen anything of Rougon, I suppose, or heard anything] Everyone is talking about the matter, but it seems that there is nothing definitely settled yet.”

HIS EXCELLENCY EUGENE ROUGON.

He turned round and glanced at the clock.

“ Twenty minutes past two already ! ” he exclaimed. “ Well, I should certainly be off now, if it were not for the reading of that confounded report. Is it really to come off to-day ? ”

“ We have all been notified to that effect,” Monsieur Kahn replied; “ and I have heard nothing of any change of plans. You had better remain. The four hundred thousand francs for the baptism will be voted directly.”

“ No doubt,” said Monsieur La Rouquette. “ That old general Legrain, who has now lost the use of both his legs, has had himself carried here by his servant, and he is now in the Conference Hall waiting till the vote comes on. The Emperor is quite right in reckoning upon the devotion of the whole of the Corps L^gislatif. All our votes ought to be given him upon this solemn occasion. ”

The young deputy did his utmost to assume the serious expression of a politician. His doll-like face, which was ornamented by a few pale hairs, wagged gravely over his collar, and he seemed to be relishing the flavour of the two last sentences he had uttered, which he had remembered from some speech that he had heard. Then he suddenly broke out into a laugh.

“ Good gracious ! ” he exclaimed, “ what a sight those Charbonnels are ! ”

Then Monsieur Kahn and himself began to be merry at the Charbonnels’ expense. The wife was wearing an outrageous yellow shawl, and her husband wore a country-cut frock-coat, which seemed as though it had been hewn into shape with an axe. They were both very stout and red, and they were pressing eagerly forward, with their chins almost resting upon the balustrade of the gallery, to get a better view of the proceedings, which their blank and staring eyes seemed to tell were utterly unintelligible to them.

“ If Rougon takes himself off,” Monsieur La Rouquette said, “ I wouldn’t give a couple of sous for the Charbonnels’ case. It will be just the same with Madame Correur.”

Here he bent his head towards Monsieur Kahn’s ear, and continued in a very low tone :

“ You, now, who know Rougon, just tell me who and what this Madame Correur is. She has kept a boarding-house, hasn’t she ? Rougon used to lodge with her, and it is even said that she lent him money. What does she do now ? ”

HIS EXCELLENCY EUGENE ROUGON.

Monsieur Kahn had assumed a very grave expression, and he began to rub his rough beard slowly.

“ Madame Correur is a highly respectable lady,” ho replied shortly.

This answer checked Monsieur La Rouquette’s cariosity. He bit his lips with the expression of a school-boy who has just been punished with an imposition. They both looked in silence for a moment at Madame Correur, who was sitting near the Charbonnels. She was wearing a very showy dress of mauve silk, and a large amount of lace and ornaments. Her face showed too much colour, her forehead was covered with pale little dollish curls, and her plump neck, still very beautiful in spite of her forty-eight years, was exposed to view.

Just at this moment the sudden sound of a door opening and the rustle of skirts at the far end of the chamber caused all heads to be turned in that direction. A tall girl, exquisitely beautiful, but strangely dressed in an ill-made sea-green satin dress, had just entered the box assigned to the diplomatic body, followed by an elderly lady in black.

“ Ah ! it is the fair Clorinde ! ” said Monsieur La Rouquette, who had risen to bow at random.

Monsieur Kahn had also risen. He stooped towards Monsieur Bejuin, who was busily engaged enclosing his letters in envelopes.

“ The Countess Balbi and her daughter are there,” he said. “ I am going up to ask them if they have seen Rougon.”

The president had taken up a fresh handful of papers from his desk. Without ceasing his perusal of them, he cast a glance at the beautiful Clorinde Balbi, whose arrival gave rise to a buzz of observations in the chamber. Then, while he passed the papers one by one to a clerk, he said in monotonous tones and without pausing to punctuate his words :

“ Draft of a bill to continue certain extra duties in the town of Lille. Draft of a bill to unite into one single commune the communes of Doulevant-le-Petit and Ville-en-Blaisais (Haute- Marne) — ”

When Monsieur Kahn came back again he seemed quite disconsolate.

“ Really, no one seems to have seen anything of him,” he said to his colleagues, Bejuin and La Rouquette, whom he met at the foot of the semi-circle. “ I hear that the Emperor sent for him yesterday evening, but I have not been able to learn

HIS EXCELLENCY EUGENE ROUGON.

what was the result of their interview. There is nothing so provoking as not being able to get a satisfactory account of w-hat has happened.”

Monsieur La Rouquette turned round and whispered into Monsieur Bejuin’s ear :

“ Poor Kahn is terribly afraid lest Rougon should get into disfavour at the Tuileries. He might fish for his railway if that happened.”

Monsieur Bejuin, who was of a very taciturn disposition, said very gravely :

“ The day that Rougon retires from the Council of State, we shall all be losers.,,

Then he beckoned to one of the ushers and gave him the letters which he had just written, to post for him.

The three deputies remained standing to the left of the president’s desk, discreetly discussing the disfavour with which Rougon was threatened. It was a complicated story. A distant relation of the Empress, one Monsieur Rodriguez, had been making a claim for a sum of two million francs from the French government since the year 1808. During the war with Spain, a vessel belonging to this Rodriguez, who was a shipowner, loaded with sugar and coffee, had been taken in the Bay of Biscay by a French frigate, the Vigilante , and brought to Brest. Acting upon the information which he had received from the local commission, the administrative official had declared the capture to be a valid one, without referring the matter to the Prize-Committee. Rodriguez, however, had promptly appealed to the Council of State, and, after his death, his son had, under all the successive governments, vainly tried to bring the matter to an issue until the day when a word from his distant cousin, now become all-powerful, had secured the insertion of his action in the official cause-list.

The three deputies could hear the president’s monotonous voice still murmuring on above their heads.

“ Draft of a bill to authorise the department of Calvados to borrow three hundred thousand francs. Draft of a bill authorising the town of Amiens to borrow two hundred thousand francs for the purpose of making new promenades. Draft of a bill authorising the department of C6tes-du-Nord to borrow three hundred and forty-five thousand francs to cover the deficiencies in the revenues of the last five years.”

“The truth is,” said Monsieur Kahn, again lowering his voice

HIS EXCELLENCY EUGENE ROUGON.

“ that this Rodriguez had a very artful method of managing his business. He and a son-in-law of his, stationed at New York, were the owners of vessels which sailed at one time under the American flag and at another under the Spanish, according as one or the other might seem to subject the ships to the least risk during their passage. Rougon has told me that the captured vessel was exclusively the property of Rodriguez, and that there is no valid ground whatever for the claims that are made.”

“And then,” interposed Monsieur B6juin, “the steps that were taken by the officials cannot be impugned. The administrative officer at Brest was perfectly right in declaring the capture a valid one in accordance with the customs of the port, without referring the matter to the Prize-Committee.”

Then they lapsed into silence for a moment or two, while Monsieur La Rouquette leant his back against the marble wall, raised his head, and tried to engage the attention of the fair Clorinde.

“ But,” he asked, naively, “ why does Rougon object to their paying the two millions to Rodriguez ? What difference would it make to him ? ”

“ It is a matter of conscience,” said Monsieur Kahn, solemnly.

Monsieur La Rouquette glanced at his colleagues one after the other, but, seeing them both looking so grave, he did not even smile.

“ Then,” continued Monsieur Kahn, as though he were dwelling upon some thought which he had not uttered aloud, “ Rougon has had a good deal of bother since Marsy has been Minister of the Interior. They have never been able to get on with one another. Rougon himself told me that, if it had not been for his attachment to the Emperor, for whom he has already done so much, he would have long ago retired into private life. He is now no longer at his ease at the Tuileries, and he feels that a change has become necessary for him.”

“ He is acting like an honourable man,” remarked Monsieur B^juin.

“Yes, indeed,” said Monsieur La Rouquette, with a wise look, “ if he wants to retire, the opportunity is a good one. All the same, however, his friends will be greatly grieved. Just look at tho colonel up there, with his anxious face? He has been hoping to fasten the red ribbon round his neck on

HIS EXCELLENCY EUGENE ROUGON.

the fifteenth of next August. And pretty Madame Bouchard, too, swore that the worthy Monsieur Bouchard should be a chief clerk at the office of the Interior before six months are over. Little Escorailles, Rougon’s pet, was to put the nomination under Monsieur Bouchard’s napkin on Madame’s birthday. But where have they got to, pretty Madame Bouchard and little Escorailles ] ”

The three deputies looked about for them, and they at last discovered them at the back of the gallery, in the front of which they had been seated at the opening of the sitting. They had taken refuge in the shadow there behind a bald old gentleman, and they were both sitting there very quiet, though „very red.

The president was now coming to the conclusion of his reading.

“ Draft of a bill to authorise an increase in the rate of interest upon the loan authorised by an act of the ninth of June, 1853, and an extraordinary rate in the department of La Manche.”

Monsieur Kahn had just run forward to meet a deputy who was entering the chamber. As he brought him along with him, he said :

“ Here is Monsieur de Combelot. He will give us some news. ”

Monsieur de Combelot, a chamberlain whom the department of the Landes had chosen as deputy upon the formally expressed desire of the Emperor, bowed with a discreet air, and waited to be questioned. He was a rail, handsome man, with a very white skin, and an inky black beard, which had been the means of winning him great successes among the ladies.

“ Well,” said Monsieur Kahn, interrogatively, “ what do they say at the chateau] What has the Emperor decided upon ] ”

“Well, indeed, ’’replied Monsieur de Combelot in a guttural tone, “ they say a good many things. The Emperor has the warmest friendship for the President of the Council of State. There is no doubt at all that their interview was of the most cordial nature. Yes, indeed, it was most cordial.”

Then he stopped, after having, as it were, carefully weighed the expression so as to satisfy himself that he had not said too much.

“ Then the resignation is withdrawn] ” asked Monsieur Kahn, with glistening eyes.

B

HIS EXCELLENCY EUGENE ROUGON.

“ I did not say that/' replied the chamberlain, very uneasily. “ I know nothing about it. You understand that my position is a peculiar one — ”

He did not finish what he was going to say, but contented himself with merely smiling, and then hurried off to take his seat. Monsieur Kahn shrugged his shoulders, and then, addressing himself to Monsieur La Rouquette, he said :

“ But you, surely, ought to be posted up in what is going on 1 Doesn’t your sister, Madame de Lorentz, give you any information ] ”

“ Oh, my sister is even more reserved than Monsieur de Combelot,” replied the young deputy, with a laugh. “ Since she has become one of the ladies-in-waiting, she has acquired quite ministerial gravity. Though yesterday, indeed, she assured me that the resignation would be accepted. By the way, I can tell you a funny story in connection with this matter. It appears that some lady was sent to Rougon to try to influence him. Now, you would never guess what Rougon did ! He just turned her out of doors, although she was a delicious creature ! ”

“ Rougon is a very chaste steady fellow,” Monsieur Bejuin declared solemnly.

Monsieur La Rouquette shook with laughter. He protested against Monsieur B6juin’s judgment of Rougon, and he could have cited facts against it if he liked.

“ And so, Madame Correur, for instance,” said he.

“ Pooh ! you don’t know the truth of that story,” replied Monsieur Kahn.

“ And the fair Clorinde ! ”

“ Nonsense, nonsense ! Rougon is much too clever a fellow to forget himself with such a wild creature as that ! ”

Then the two men drew closer towards each other, and commenced a broad conversation, without any mincing of words. They repeated to each other the stories which wrere told about these two Italian women — mother and daughter — who were half adventuresses and half great ladies, and who were to be met everywhere, in the thick of all the parties and gatherings, at the houses of ministers, in the stage-boxes of minor theatres, on the sands at fashionable watering-places, and in out-of-the-way inns. The mother, it was said, had been the mistress of a royal personage; and the daughter, with an ignorance of French customs and etiquette which earned her the reputation of being a wild and

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badly brought-up scapegrace, went galloping madly about on horseback, exhibited her dirty stockings and boots worn down at the heels on the pavement on rainy days, and looked about her for a husband with the bold smiles of a ripe woman. Monsieur La Rouquette told how she had come one night to a ball at the Chevalier Rusconi’s, the Italian Minister’s, in the character of the huntress Diana, and in such a state of nudity that she had all but been asked in marriage the next morning by old Monsieur de Nougarede, a very warm old senator. During the narration of this story, the three deputies kept casting glances at the fair Olorinde, who, in spite of the regulations, was examining the members of the Chamber one after another through a large pair of opera-glasses.

“ No, no ! ” Monsieur Kahn repeated, “Rougon would never be such a fool ! He says, though, that she is very intelligent, and he nicknames her i Mademoiselle Machiavelli.’ She amuses him, but that’s all.”

“ All the same Rougon is wrong in not marrying*” said Monsieur Bejuin. “ It settles a man.”

Then they all three set to work to discuss the sort of woman that it was desirable Rougon should marry. She ought to be a wqman of some age, thirty-five at the least, they said, rich, and one who would maintain her house on a footing of high decorum and reputation.

The buzzing noise and confusion in the Chamber still went on, and the three deputies were so absorbed in the indelicate stories they were telling each other, that they ceased to notice what was taking place around them. Away in the distance, they could faintly hear the voices of the ushers calling out, “To the sitting, gentlemen, to the sitting.”

The deputies were entering from all sides through the folding doors of massive mahogany, with panels gleaming with golden stars. The Chamber, which had hitherto been half empty, was now filling gradually. The scattered little groups of members talking to each other from one row of seats to another, with an expression of weariness on their faces, and the deputies, who were dozing, and trying to conceal their yawns, were now being lost to view in the increasing crowd and general shaking of hands. As the members took their seats, they glanced smilingly round them; there was a general almost family likeness about them, and they all seemed equally intent upon performing the duties which had brought them together. A stout man, on the last row to the

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left, had fallen asleep, and was awakened by his neighbour ; and, when the latter whispered a few words in his ear, he hastily rubbed his eyes, and assumed a more decorous attitude. The sitting, after having dragged its way wearily through a series of petty technical details, was at last going to become supremely interesting.

Monsieur Kahn and his two colleagues were being gradually driven by the increasing crowd towards their seats, almost without being aware of it. They went on with their conversation, breaking out occasionally into bursts of suppressed laughter. Monsieur La Rouquette began a fresh story about the fair Clorinde. She had taken a strange whim into her head one day, he said, to have her room hung with black, spangled with silver tears, and to hold a reception of her friends there ; she herself lying in bed, covered up with black drapery which allowed scarcely anything more than her nose to appear.

As Monsieur Kahn at last took his seat, his recollection suddenly returned to him.

“ La Rouquette is a foolish chatterbox,” he muttered ; “ he has made me miss Rougon.”

Then he turned towards his neighbour and exclaimed angrily :

“ You really might have reminded me, Bejuin ! ”

Rougon, who had just been introduced with the customary ceremonial, had already taken his seat between two members of the Council of State on the government bench, a sort of huge mahogany box, situated beneath the president’s desk and in the place of the suppressed tribune. His large shoulders tightly distended his uniform of green cloth, ornamented with gold braid at the neck and on the sleeves. His face, with his thick grizzly hair clustering over his square brow, was turned towards the body of the chamber, and his eyes were hidden beneath his halfdropped heavy eyelids. The common-place plainness of his big nose his fleshy lips and his long cheeks, in which his forty-six years had not yet planted a single wrinkle, was lit up every now and then into something like beauty by his appearance of strength and energy. He sat perfectly quiet, leaning back with his chin resting on the top of his coat, apparently noticing no one and seeming quite indifferent and a little weary.

“ He looks just as he does every day,” Monsieur Bejuin remarked.

The deputies were loaning over their desks to observe him.

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Whispered observations as to his appearance were buzzed from ear to ear. In the galleries especially Rougon’s entrance had caused a feeling of lively excitement. The Charbonnels, in their desire to let their presence be known, craned out their enraptured faces at the risk of falling over. Madame Correur coughed slightly and drew out a handkerchief which she waved gently, while pretending to carry it to her lips. Colonel Jobelin straightened himself, and pretty Madame Bouchard hurried down again to the front row, panting a little and tying her bonnet-strings afresh, while Monsieur d’Escorailles remained quite still and seemed much annoyed. As for the fair Clorinde she did not beat about the bush. Seeing that Rougon did not raise his eyes, she began to tap her opera-glass very audibly upon the marble column against which she was leaning, and then, as these tactics did not succeed in attracting his attention, she said to her mother in such a clear sounding voice that every one in the chamber could hear her :

“ He’s in the sulks, the fat sly fellow ! ”

Several of the deputies looked round and smiled, and Rougon himself at last glanced up at the fair Clorinde. As he nodded his head almost imperceptibly towards her, she triumphantly clapped her hands, and leant back, laughing and talking quite loudly to her mother, without taking the least notice of the men down below who were staring at her.