the affair as soon as possible, and your son will get the
appointment. It will come in time enough to baffle du
Ronceret's underhand dealings with the Blandureaus.
Your son will be something better than assistant judge ;
he will have M. Camusot's post within the year. The
public prosecutor will be here to-day. M. Sauvager
will be obliged to resign, I expect, after his conduct in
this affair. At the court my husband will show you
documents which completely exonerate the Count and
prove that the forgery was a trap of du Croisier's own
setting.'
Old Blondet went into the Olympic circus where his
six thousand pelargoniums stood, and made his bow to
the Duchesse.
i Monsieur,' said he, £ if your wishes do not exceed the
law, this thing may be done.'
'Monsieur,' returned the Duchess, 'send in your
resignation to M. Chesnel to-morrow, and I will
3 1 6 The Jealousies of a Country Town
promise you that your son shall be appointed within
the week ; but you must not resign until you have had
confirmation of my promise from the public prosecutor.
You men of law will come to a better understanding
among yourselves. Only let him know that the
Duchesse de Maufrigneuse has pledged her word to you.
And not a word as to my journey hither,' she added.
The old judge kissed her hand and began recklessly to
gather his best flowers for her.
'Can you think of it ? Give them to madame,' said
the Duchess. c A young man would not have flowers
about him when he had a pretty woman on his
arm.'
' Before you go down to the court,' added Mme.
Camusot, 'ask Chesnel's successor about those proposals
that he made in the name of M. and Mme. du Ronceret.'
Old Blondet, quite overcome by this revelation of the
President's duplicity, stood planted on his feet by the
wicket gate, looking after the two women as they
hurried away through by-streets home again. The
edifice raised so painfully during ten years for his
beloved son was crumbling visibly before his eyes.
Was it possible ? He suspected some trick, and hurried
away to Chesnel's successor.
At half-past nine, before the court was sitting, Vice-
President Blondet, Camusot, and Michu met with
remarkable punctuality in the council chamber. Blondet
locked the door with some precautions when Camusot
and Michu came in together.
'Well, Mr. Vice-President,' began Michu, ' M.
Sauvager, without consulting the public prosecutor, has
issued a warrant for the apprehension of one Comte
d'Esgrignon, in order to serve a grudge borne against
him by one du Croisier, an enemy of the King's govern-
ment. It is a regular topsy-turvey affair. The
President, for his part, goes away, and thereby puts a
stop to the preliminary examination ! And we know
The Jealousies of a Country Town 3 1 7
nothing of the matter. Do they, by any chance, mean
to force our hand ? '
' This is the first word I have heard of it,' said the
Vice-President. He was furious with the President for
stealing a march on him with the Blandureaus.
Chesnel's successor, the du Roncerets' man, had just
fallen into a snare set by the old judge ; the truth was
out, he knew the secret.
' It is lucky that we spoke to you about that matter,
my dear master,' said Camusot, ' or you might have
given up all hope of seating your son on the bench
or of marrying him to Mile. Blandureau.'
' But it is no question of my son, nor of his marriage,'
said the Vice-President ; ' we are talking of young Comte
d'Esgrignon. Is he or is he not guilty ? '
' It seems that Chesnel deposited the amount to meet
the bill with Mme. du Croisier,' said Michu, 'and a
crime has been made of a mere irregularity. According
to the charge, the Count made use of the lower half of
a letter bearing du Croisier's signature as a draft which
he cashed at the Kellers'.
'An imprudent thing to do,' was Camusot's comment.
' But why is du Croisier proceeding against him if the
amount was paid in beforehand ? ' asked Vice-President
Blondet.
' He does not know that the money was deposited
with his wife ; or he pretends that he does not know,'
said Camusot.
' It is a piece of provincial spite,' said Michu.
'Still it looks like a forgery to me,' said old Blondet.
No passion could obscure j udicial clear-sightedness in him.
. 'Do you think so ? ' returned Camusot. ' But, at the
outset, supposing that the Count had no business to
draw upon du Croisier, there would still be no forgery
of the signature ; and the Count believed that he had a
right to draw on Croisier when Chesnel advised him
that the money had been placed to his credit.'
318 The Jealousies of a Country Town
' Well, then, where is the forgery ? ' asked Blondet.
'It is the intent to defraud which constitutes forgery in
a civil action.''
' Oh, it is clear, if you take du Croisier's version for
truth, that the signature was diverted from its purpose to
obtain a sum of money in spite of du Croisier's contrary
injunction to his bankers,' Camusot answered.
' Gentlemen,' said Blondet, 'this seems to me to be a
mere trifle, a quibble. — Suppose you had the money, I
ought perhaps to have waited until I had your authori-
tion; but I, Comte d'Esgrignon, was pressed for money,
so I Come, come, your prosecution is a piece of
revengeful spite. Forgery is defined by the law as an
attempt to obtain any advantage which rightfully be-
longs to another. There is no forgery here, according to
the letter of the Roman law, nor according to the spirit of
modern jurisprudence (always from the point of view of
a civil action, for we are not here concerned with the
falsification of public or authentic documents). Between
private individuals the essence of a forgery is the intent
to defraud ; where is it in this case ? In what times are
we living, gentlemen ? Here is the President going
away to balk a preliminary examination which ought to
be over by this time ! Until to-day I did know M.
le President, but he shall have the benefit of arrears;
from this time forth he shall draft his decisions himself.
You must set about this affair with all possible speed,
M. Camusot.'
* Yes,' said Michu. ' In my opinion, instead of letting
the young man out on bail, we ought to pull him out
of this mess at once. Everything turns on the examina-
tion of du Croisier and his wife. You might summons
them to appear while the court is sitting, M. Camusot;
take down their depositions before four o'clock, send in
your report to-night, and we will give our decision in
the morning before the court sits.'
'We will settle what course to pursue while the
The Jealousies of a Country Town 319
barristers are pleading,' said Vice-President Blondet,
addressing Camusot.
And with that the three judges put on their robes and
went into court.
At noon Mile. Armande and the Bishop reached the
Hotel d'Esgrignon ; Chesnel and M. Couturier were
there to meet them. There was a sufficiently short
conference between the prelate and Mme. du Croisier's
director, and the latter set out at once to visit his
charge.
At eleven o'clock that morning du Croisier received a
summons to appear in the examining magistrate's office
between one and two in the afternoon. Thither he
betook himself, consumed by well-founded suspicions.
It was impossible that the President should have fore-
seen the arrival of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse upon
the scene, the return of the public prosecutor, and the
hasty confabulation of his learned brethren ; so he had
omitted to trace out a plan for du Croisier's guidance in
the event of the preliminary examination taking place.
Neither of the pair imagined that the proceedings would
be hurried on in this way. Du Croisier obeyed the
summons at once ; he wanted to know how M. Camusot
was disposed to act. So he was compelled to answer
the questions put to him. Camusot addressed him in
summary fashion with the six following inquiries : —
4 Was the signature on the bill alleged to be a forgery
in your handwriting ? — Had you previously done business
with M. le Comte d'Esgrignon ? — Was not M. le
Comte d'Esgrignon in the habit of drawing upon you,
with or without advice ? — Did you not write a letter
authorising M. d'Esgrignon to rely upon you at any
time ? — Had not Chesnel squared the account not once,
but many times already ? — Were you not away from
home when this took place ? '
All these questions the banker answered in the affir-
mative. In spite of wordy explanations, the magistrate
? 2o The Jealousies of a Country Town
always brought him back to a 'Yes' or 'No.' When
the questions and answers had been alike resumed in the
proces-verbal, the examining magistrate brought out a
final thunderbolt.
' Was du Croisier aware that the money destined to
meet the bill had been deposited with him, du Croisier,
according to Chesnel's declaration, and a letter of advice
sent by the said Chesnel to the Comte d'Esgrignon, five
days before the date of the bill ? '
That last question frightened du Croisier. He asked
what was meant by it, and whether he was supposed to
be the defendant and M. le Comte d'Esgrignon the
plaintiff? He called the magistrate's attention to the
fact that if the money had been deposited with him,
there was no ground for the action.
'Justice is seeking information,' said the magistrate,
as he dismissed the witness, but not before he had taken
down du Croisier's last observation.
' But the money, sir '
' The money is at your house.'
Chesnel, likewise summoned, came forward to explain
the matter. The truth of his assertions was borne out
by Mme. du Croisier's deposition. The Count had
already been examined. Prompted by Chesnel, he pro-
duced du Croisier's first letter, in which he begged the
Count to draw upon him without the insulting formality
of depositing the amount beforehand. The Comte
d'Esgrignon next brought out a letter in Chesnel's
handwriting, by which the notary advised him of the
deposit of a hundred thousand crowns with M. du
Croisier. With such primary facts as these to bring
forward as evidence, the young Count's innocence was
bound to emerge triumphantly from a court of law.
Du Croisier went home from the court, his face
white with rage, and the foam of repressed fury on his
lips. His wife was sitting by the fireside in the drawing-
room at work upon a pair of slippers for him. She
The Jealousies of a Country Town 321
trembled when she looked into his face, but her mind
was made up.
4 Madame,' he stammered out, c what deposition is
this that you made before the magistrate ? You have
dishonoured, ruined, and betrayed me ! '
' I have saved you, monsieur,' answered she. c If
some day you will have the honour of connecting
yourself with the d'Esgrignons by marrying your niece
to the Count, it will be entirely owing to my conduct
to-day.'
*A miracle!' cried he. l Balaam's ass has spoken.
Nothing will astonish me after this. And where are
the hundred thousand crowns which (so M. Camusot
tells me) are here in my house ? '
4 Here they are,' said she, pulling out a bundle of
bank-notes from beneath the cushions of her settee. 'I
have not committed mortal sin by declaring that M.
Chesnel gave them into my keeping.'
* While I was away ? '
1 You were not here.'
' Will you swear that to me on your salvation ? '
4 1 swear it,' she said composedly.
4 Then why did you say nothing to me about it ?
demanded he.
4 1 was wrong there,' said his wife, 4 but my mistake
was all for your good. Your niece will be Marquise
d'Esgrignon some of these days, and you will perhaps be
a deputy, if you behave well in this deplorable business.
You have gone too far ; you must find out how to get
back again.'
Du Croisier, under stress of painful agitation, strode
Up and down his drawing-room ; while his wife, in no
less agitation, awaited the result of this exercise. Du
Croisier at length rang the bell.
'I am not at home to any one to-night,' he said, when
the man appeared ; * shut the gates ; and if any one calls,
tell them that your mistress and I have gone into the
x
322 The Jealousies of a Country Town
country. We shall start directly after dinner, and
dinner must be half an hour earlier than usual.'
The great news was discussed that evening in every
drawing-room ; little shopkeepers, working folk, beggars,
the noblesse, the merchant class — the whole town, in
short, was talking of the Comte d'Esgrignon's arrest on
a charge of forgery. The Comte d'Esgrignon would
be tried in the Assize Court ; he would be condemned
and branded. Most of those who cared for the honour
of the family denied the fact. At nightfall Chesnel
went to Mme. Camusot and escorted the stranger to
the Hotel d'Esgrignon. Poor Mile. Armande was
expecting him ; she led the fair Duchess to her own
room, which she had given up to her, for his lordship
the Bishop occupied Victurnien's chamber ; and, left
alone with her guest, the noble woman glanced at the
Duchess with most piteous eyes.
' You owed help, indeed, madame, to the poor boy
who ruined himself for your sake,' she said, ' the boy to
whom we are all of us sacrificing ourselves.'
The Duchess had already made a woman's survey of
Mile. d'Esgrignon's room ; the cold, bare, comfortless
chamber, that might have been a nun's cell, was like a
picture of the life of the heroic woman before her.
The Duchess saw it all — past, present, and future — with
rising emotion, felt the incongruity of her presence, and
could not keep back the falling tears that made answer
for her.
But in Mile. Armande the Christian overcame Vic-
turnien's aunt. c Ah, I was wrong ; forgive me, Mme.
la Duchesse ; you did not know how poor we were, and
my nephew was incapable of the admission. And
besides, now that I see you, I can understand all — even
the crime ! '
And Mile. Armande, withered and thin and white,
but beautiful as those tall austere slender figures
The Jealousies of a Country Town 323
which German art alone can paint, had tears too in her
eyes.
* Do not fear, dear angel,' the Duchess said at last ;
1 he is safe.'
* Yes, but honour ? — and his career ? Chesnel told
me ; the King knows the truth.'
We will think of a way of repairing the evil,' said
the Duchess.
Mile. Armande went downstairs to the salon, and
found the Collection of Antiquities complete to a man.
Every one of them had come, partly to do honour to the
Bishop, partly to rally round the Marquis ; but Chesnel,
posted in the antechamber, warned each new arrival to
say no word of the affair, that the aged Marquis might
never know that such a thing had been. The loyal
Frank was quite capable of killing his son or du Croisier ;
for either the one or the other must have been guilty of
death in his eyes. It chanced, strangely enough, that
he talked more of Victurnien than usual ; he was glad
that his son had gone back to Paris. The King would
give Victurnien a place before very long ; the King was
interesting himself at last in the d'Esgrignons. And
his friends, their hearts dead within them, praised Vic-
turnien's conduct to the skies. Mile. Armande prepared
the way for her nephew's sudden appearance among
them by remarking to her brother that Victurnien
would be sure to come to see them, and that he must
be even then on his way.
' Bah ! ' said the Marquis, standing with his back to
the hearth, ' if he is doing well where he is, he ought
to stay there, and not to be thinking of the joy it would
give his old father to see him again. The King's
service has the first claim.'
Scarcely one of those present heard the words without
a shudder. Justice might give over a d'Esgrignon to
the executioner's branding iron. There was a dreadful
pause. The old Marquise de Casteran could not keep
324 The Jealousies of a Country Town
back a tear that stole down over her rouge, and turned
her head away to hide it.
Next day at noon, in the sunny weather, a whole
excited population was dispersed in groups along the
high street, which ran through the heart of the town,
and nothing was talked of but the great affair. Was
the Count in prison or was he not ? — All at once the
Comte d'Esgrignon's well-known tilbury was seen driv-
ing down the Rue Saint-Blaise ; it had evidently come
from the Prefecture, the Count himself was on the box
seat, and by his side sat a charming young man, whom
nobody recognised. The pair were laughing and talking
and in great spirits. They wore Bengal roses in their
button-holes. Altogether, it was a theatrical surprise
which words fail to describe.
At ten o'clock the court had decided to dismiss the
charge, stating their very sufficient reasons for setting
the Count at liberty, in a document which contained a
thunderbolt for du Croisier, in the shape of an inasmuch
that gave the Count the right to institute proceedings
for libel. Old Chesnel was walking up the Grande Rue,
as if by accident, telling all who cared to hear him that
du Croisier had set the most shameful snares for the
d'Esgrignons' honour, and that it was entirely owing to
the forbearance and magnanimity of the family that he
was not prosecuted for slander.
On the evening of that famous day, after the Marquis
d'Esgrignon had gone to bed, the Count, Mile.
Armande, and the Chevalier were left with the hand-
some young page, now about to return to Paris. The
charming cavalier's sex could not be hidden from the
Chevalier, and he alone, besides the three officials and
Mme. Camusot, knew that the Duchess had been
among them.
* The House is saved,' began Chesnel, ' but after this
shock it will take a hundred years to rise again. The
debts must be paid now ; you must marry an heiress,
The Jealousies of a Country Town 325
M. le Comte, there is nothing else left for you to
do.'
'And take her where you may find her,' said the
Duchess.
4 A second mesalliance ! ' exclaimed Mile. Armande.
The Duchess began to laugh.
4 It is better to marry than to die,' said she. As she
spoke she drew from her waistcoat pocket a tiny crystal
phial that came from the court apothecary.
Mile. Armande shrank away in horror. Old Chesnel
took the fair Maufrigneuse's hand, and kissed it without
permission.
4 Are you all out of your minds here ? ' continued the
Duchess. ' Do you really expect to live in the fifteenth
century when the rest of the world has reached the
nineteenth ? My dear children, there is no noblesse
nowadays ; there is no aristocracy left ! Napoleon's
Code Civil made an end of the parchments, exactly as
cannon made an end of feudal castles. When you have
some money, you will be very much more of nobles than
you are now. Marry anybody you please, Victurnien,
you will raise your wife to your rank ; that is the most
substantial privilege left to the French noblesse. Did
not M. de Talleyrand marry Mme. Grandt without
compromising his position ? Remember that Louis
xiv. took the Widow Scarron for his wife.'
4 He did not marry her for her money,' interposed
Mile. Armande.
4 If the Comtesse d'Esgrignon were one du Croisier's
niece, for instance, would you receive her ? ' asked
Chesnel.
4 Perhaps,' replied the Duchess ; 4 but the King, beyond
all doubt, would be very glad to see her. — So you do not
know what is going on in the world ? ' continued
she, seeing the amazement in their faces. 4 Victurnien
has been in Paris ; he knows how things go there. We
had more influence under Napoleon. Marry Mile.
326 The Jealousies of a Country Town
Duval, Victurnien ; she will be just as much Marquise
d'Esgrignon as I am Duchesse de Maufrigneuse.'
c All is lost — even honour ! ' said the Chevalier, with
a wave of the hand.
c Good-bye, Victurnien,' said the Duchess, kissing her
lover on the forehead ; * we shall not see each other
again. Live on your lands ; that is the best thing for
you to do ; the air of Paris is not at all good for you.'
'Diane ! ' the young Count cried despairingly.
* Monsieur, you forget yourself strangely,' the
Duchess retorted coolly, as she laid aside her role of
man and mistress, and became not merely an angel
again, but a duchess, and not only a duchess, but
Moliere's Celimene.
The Duchesse de Maufrigneuse made a stately bow
to these four personages, and drew from the Chevalier
his last tear of admiration at the service of le beau sexe.
1 How like she is to the Princess Goritza ! ' he
exclaimed in a low voice.
Diane had disappeared. The crack of the postillion's
whip told Victurnien that the fair romance of his first
love was over. While the peril lasted, Diane could still
see her lover in the young Count ; but out of danger,
she despised him for the weakling that he was.
Six months afterwards, Camusot received the appoint-
ment of assistant judge at Paris, and later he became an
examining magistrate. Goodman Blondet was made a
councillor to the Court-Royal ; he held the post just
long enough to secure a retiring pension, and then went
back to live in his pretty little house. Joseph Blondet
sat in his father's seat at the court till the end of his
days ; there was not the faintest chance of promotion for
him, but he became Mile. Blandureau's husband ; and
she, no doubt, is leading to-day, in the little flower-
covered brick house, as dull a life as any carp in a
marble basin. Michu and Camusot also received the
The Jealousies of a Country Town 327
Cross of the Legion of Honour, while Blondet became
an Officer. As for M. Sauvager, deputy public pro-
secutor, he was sent to Corsica, to du Croisier's great
relief; he had decidedly no mind to bestow his niece
upon that functionary.
Du Croisier himself, urged by President du Ronceret,
appealed from the finding of the Tribunal to the Court-
Royal, and lost his cause. The Liberals throughout the
department held that little d'Esgrignon was guilty ;
while the Royalists, on the other hand, told frightful
stories of plots woven by ' that abominable du Croisier '
to compass his revenge. A duel was fought indeed ; the
hazard of arms favoured du Croisier, the young Count
was dangerously wounded, and his antagonist maintained
his words. This affair embittered the strife between
the two parties ; the Liberals brought it forward on all
occasions. Meanwhile du Croisier never could carry
his election, and saw no hope of marrying his niece to
the Count, especially after the duel.
A month after the decision of the Tribunal was con-
firmed in the Court-Royal, Chesnel died, exhausted by
the dreadful strain, which had weakened and shaken
him mentally and physically. He died in the hour of
victory, like some old faithful hound that has brought
the boar to bay, and gets his death on the tusks. He
died as happily as might be, seeing that he left the great
House all but ruined, and the heir in penury, bored to
death by an idle life, and without a hope of establishing
himself. That bitter thought and his own exhaustion,
no doubt, hastened the old man's end. One great
comfort came to him as he lay amid the wreck of so
many hopes, sinking under the burden of so many
cares — the old Marquis, at his sister's entreaty, gave
him back all the old friendship. The great lord came
to the little house in the Rue du Bercail, and sat by his
old servant's bedside, all unaware how much that servant
had done and sacrificed for him. Chesnel sat upright,
328 The Jealousies of a Country Town
and repeated Simeon's cry. — The Marquis allowed
them to bury Chesnel in the castle chapel ; they laid
him cross-wise at the foot of the tomb which was wait-
ing for the Marquis himself, the last, in a sense, of the
d'Esgrignons.
And so died one of the last representatives of that
great and beautiful thing, Service ; giving to that often
discredited word its original meaning, the relation
between feudal lord and servitor. That relation, only
to be found in some out-of-the-way province, or among
a few old servants of the King, did honour alike to a
noblesse that could call forth such affection, and to a
bourgeoisie that could conceive it. Such noble and
magnificent devotion is no longer possible among us.
Noble houses have no servitors left ; even as France has
no longer a King, nor an hereditary peerage, nor lands
that are bound irrevocably to an historic house, that the
glorious names of a nation may be perpetuated. Chesnel
was not merely one of the obscure great men of private
life ; he was something more — he was a great fact. In
his sustained self-devotion is there not something inde-
finably solemn and sublime, something that rises above
the one beneficent deed, or the heroic height which
is reached by a moment's supreme effort ? Chesnel's
virtues belong essentially to the classes which stand