and were leaning over the stone parapet that crowns the wall
above a flight of steps leading down to a landing-stage. From
the neighboring villa, where there is a similar stairway, a boat
presently shot out like a swan, its flag flaming, its crimson
awning spread over a lovely woman comfortably reclining on
red cushions, her hair wreathed with real flowers; the boat-
man was a young man dressed like a sailor, and rowing with
all the more grace because he was under the lady's eye.

"They are happy!" exclaimed Eodolphe, with bitter em-
phasis. "Claire de Bourgogne, the last survivor of the only

house which could ever vie with the royal family of France
)>

"Oh ! of a bastard branch, and that a female line."

"At any rate, she is Vicomtesse de Beauseant; and she did

not "

"Did not hesitate, you would say, to bury herself here with

Monsieur Gaston de Nueil, you would say," replied the



328 ALBERT SAVARUS

daughter of the Colonnas. "She is only a Frenchwoman; I
am an Italian, my dear sir !"

Francesca turned away from the parapet, leaving Ro-
dolphe, and went to the further end of the terrace, whence
there is a wide prospect of the lake. Watching her as she
slowly walked away, Rodolphe suspected that he had wounded
her soul, at once so simple and so wise, so proud and so hum-
ble. It turned him cold; he followed Francesca, who signed
to him to leave her to herself. But he did not heed the warn-
ing, and detected her wiping away her tears. Tears! in so
strong a nature.

"Francesca," said he, taking her hand, "is there a single
regret in your heart ?"

She was silent, disengaged her hand which held her em-
broidered handkerchief, and again dried her eyes.

"Forgive me !" he said. And with a rush, he kissed her eyes
to wipe away the tears.

Francesca did not seem aware of his passionate impulse,
she was so violently agitated. Rodolphe, thinking she con-
sented, grew bolder ; he put his arm round her, clasped her to
his heart, and snatched a kiss. But she freed herself by a
dignified movement of offended modesty, and, standing a yard
off, she looked at him without anger, but with firm determi-
nation.

"Go this evening," she said. "We meet no more till we meet
at Naples."

The order was stern, but it was obeyed, for it was Fran-
cesca's will.

On his return to Paris Rodolphe found in his rooms a por-
trait of Princess Gandolphini painted by Schinner, as Schin-
ner can paint. The artist had passed through Geneva on his
way to Italy. As he had positively refused to paint the
portraits of several women, Rodolphe did not believe that the
Prince, anxious as he was for a portrait of his wife, would be
able to conquer the great painter's objections ; but Francesca,
no doubt, had bewitched him, and obtained from him which



ALBERT SAVARUS 329

was almost a miracle an original portrait for Eodolphe, and
a duplicate for Emilio. She told him this in a charming
and delightful letter, in which the mind indemnified itself
for the reserve required by the worship of the proprieties.
The lover replied. Thus began, never to cease, a regular cor-
respondence between Eodolphe and Francesca, the only in-
dulgence they allowed themselves.

Kodolphe, possessed by an ambition sanctified by his love,
set to work. First he longed to make his fortune, and risked
his all in an undertaking to which he devoted all his faculties
as well as his capital ; but he, an inexperienced youth, had to
contend against duplicity, which won the day. Thus three years
were lost in a vast enterprise, three years of struggling and
courage.

The Villele ministry fell just when Eodolphe was ruined.
The valiant lover thought he would seek in politics what com-
mercial industry had refused him; but before braving the
storms of this career, he went, all wounded and sick at heart,
to have his bruises healed and his courage revived at Naples,
where the Prince and Princess had been reinstated in their
place and rights on the King's accession. This, in the midst
of his warfare, was a respite full of delights; he spent three
months at the Villa Gandolphini, rocked in hope.

Eodolphe then began again to construct his fortune. His
talents were already known ; he was about to attain the desires
of his ambition ; a high position was promised him as the re-
ward of his zeal, his devotion, and his past services, when the
storm of July 1830 broke, and again his bark was swamped.

She, and God ! These are the only witnesses of the brave
efforts, the daring attempts of a young man gifted with fine
qualities, but to whom, so far, the protection of luck the god
of fools has been denied. And this indefatigable wrestler,
upheld by love, comes back to fresh struggles, lighted on his
way by an always friendly eye, an ever faithful heart.

Lovers ! Pray for him !



330 ALBERT SAVARUS

As she finished this narrative, Mademoiselle de Watteville's
cheeks were on fire; there was a fever in her blood. She was
crying but with rage. This little novel, inspired by the lit-
erary style then in fashion, was the first reading of the kind
that Rosalie had ever had the chance of devouring. Love was
depicted in it, if not by a master-hand, at any rate by a man
who seemed to give his own impressions; and truth, even if
unskilled, could not fail to touch a virgin soul. Here lay the
secret of Rosalie's terrible agitation, of her fever and her
tears; she was jealous of Francesca Colonna.

She never for an instant doubted the sincerity of this poetical
flight; Albert had taken pleasure in telling the story of his
passion, while changing the names of persons and perhaps of
places. Rosalie was possessed by infernal curiosity. What
woman but would, like her, have wanted to know her rival's
name for she too loved ! As she read these pages, to her
really contagious, she had said solemnly to herself, "I love
him!" She loved Albert, and felt in her heart a gnawing
desire to fight for him, to snatch him from this unknown rival.
She reflected that she knew nothing of music, and that she
was not beautiful.

"He will never love me !" thought she.

This conclusion aggravated her anxiety to know whether
she might not be mistaken, whether Albert really loved an
Italian Princess, and was loved by her. In the course of this
fateful night, the power of swift decision, which had charac-
terized the famous Watteville, was fully developed in his de-
scendant. She devised those whimsical schemes, round which
hovers the imagination of most young girls when, in the soli-
tude to which some injudicious mothers confine them, they
are aroused by some tremendous event which the system of
repression to which they are subjected could neither foresee
nor prevent. She dreamed of descending by a ladder from the
kiosk into the garden of the house occupied by Albert ; of tak-
ing advantage of the lawyer's being asleep to look through the
window into his private room. She thought of writing to him,
or of bursting the fetters of Besangon society by introducing



ALBERT SAVARUS 331

Albert to the drawing-room of the Hotel de Rupt. This en-
terprise, which to the Abbe de Grancey even would have
seemed the climax of the impossible, was a mere passing
thought.

"Ah !" said she to herself, "my father has a dispute pending
as to his land at les Rouxey. 1 will go there ! If there is no
lawsuit, I will manage to make one, and he shall come into
our drawing-room !" she cried, as she sprang out of bed and
to the window to look at the fascinating gleam which shone
through Albert's nights. The clock struck one; he was still
asleep.

"I shall see him when he gets up; perhaps he will come
to his window."

At this instant Mademoiselle de Watteville was witness to
an incident which promised to place in her power the means
of knowing Albert's secrets. By the light of the moon she
saw a pair of arms stretched out from the kiosk to help
Jerome, Albert's servant, to get across the coping of the wall
and step into the little building. In Jerome's accomplice
Rosalie at once recognized Mariette the lady's-maid.

"Mariette and Jerome !" said she to herself. "Mariette,
such an ugly girl ! Certainly they must be ashamed of them-
selves."

Though Mariette was horribly ugly and six-and-thirty,
she had inherited several plots of land. She had been seven-
teen years with Madame de Watteville, who valued her highly
for her bigotry, her honesty, and long service, and she had no
doubt saved money and invested her wages and perquisites.
Hence, earning about ten louis a year, she probably had by this
time, including compound interest and her little inheritance,
not less than ten thousand francs.

In Jerome's eyes ten thousand francs could alter the laws
of optics ; he saw in Mariette a neat figure ; he did not perceive
the pits and seams which virulent smallpox had left on her
flat, parched face; to him the crooked mouth was straight;
and ever since Savaron, by taking him into his service, had
brought him so near to the Wattevilles' house, he had laid



332 ALBERT SAVARUS

siege systematically to the maid, who was as prim and sancti-
monious as her mistress, and who, like every ugly old maid,
was far more exacting than the handsomest.

If the night-scene in the kiosk is thus fully accounted for
to all perspicacious readers, it was not so to Rosalie, though
she derived from it the most dangerous lesson that can be
given, that of a bad example. A mother brings her daughter
up strictly, keeps her under her wing for seventeen years, and
then, in one hour, a servant girl destroys the long and painful
work, sometimes by a word, often indeed by a gesture ! Ro-
salie got into bed again, not without considering how she
might take advantage of her discovery.

Next morning, as she went to Mass accompanied by Mari-
ette her mother was not well Rosalie took the maid's arm,
which surprised the country wench not a little.

"Mariette," said she, "is Jerome in his master's con-
fidence ?"

"I do not know, mademoiselle."

"Do not play the innocent with me," said Mademoiselle de
Watteville drily. "You let him kiss you last night under the
kiosk ; I no longer wonder that you so warmly approved of my
mother's ideas for the improvements she planned."

Rosalie could feel how Mariette was trembling by the shak-
ing of her arm.

"I wish you no ill," Rosalie went on. "Be quite easy; I
shall not say a word to my mother, and you can meet Jerome
as often as you please."

"But, mademoiselle," said Mariette, "it is perfectly
respectable; Jerome honestly means to marry me "

"But then," said Rosalie, "why meet at night?"

Mariette was dumfounded, and could make no reply.

"Listen, Mariette; I am in love too! In secret and with-
out any return. I am, after all, my father's and mother's
only child. You have more to hope for from me than from
any one else in the world

"Certainly, mademoiselle, and you may count on us for
life or death," exclaimed Mariette, rejoiced at the unexpected
turn of affairs.



ALBERT SAVARUS 333

"In the first place, silence for silence," said Eosalie. "I will
not marry Monsieur de Soulas ; but one thing I will have, and
must have; my help and favor are yours on one condition
only."

"What is that?"

"I must see the letters which Monsieur Savaron sends to the
post by Jerome."

"But what for ?" said Mariette in alarm.

"Oh ! merely to read them, and you yourself shall post them
afterwards. It will cause a little delay ; that is all."

At this moment they went into church, and each of them,
instead of reading the order of Mass, fell into her own train
of thought.

"Dear, dear, how many sins are there in all that ?" thought
Mariette.

Eosalie, whose soul, brain, and heart were completely upset
by reading the story, by this time regarded it as history,
written for her rival. By dint of thinking of nothing else,
like a child, she ended by believing that the Eastern Review
was no doubt forwarded to Albert's lady-love.

"Oh !" said she to herself, her head buried in her hands in
the attitude of a person lost in prayer; "oh! how can I get
my father to look through the list of people to whom the Re-
view is sent?"

After breakfast she took a turn in the garden with her
father, coaxing and cajoling him, and brought him to the
kiosk.

"Do you suppose, my dear little papa, that our Review is
ever read abroad ?"

"It is but just started "

"Well, I will wager that it is."

"It is hardly possible."

"Just go and find out, and note the names of any sub-
scribers out of France."

Two hours later Monsieur de Watteville said to his
daughter :

"I was right; there is not one foreign subscriber as yet.



334 ALBERT SAVARUS

They hope to get some at Neuf chatel, at Berne, and at Geneva,
One copy, is in fact, sent to Italy, but it is not paid for to a
Milanese lady at her country house at Belgirate, on Lago
Maggiore.

"What is her name?"

"The Duchesse d'Argaiolo."

"Do you know her, papa ?"

"I have heard about her. She was by birth a Princess
Soderini, a Florentine, a very great lady, and quite as rich
as her husband, who has one of the largest fortunes in Lom-
bardy. Their villa on the Lago Maggiore is one of the sights
of Italy."

Two days after, Mariette placed the following letter in
Mademoiselle de Watteville's hand:

Albert Savaron to Leopold Hannequin.

"Yes, 'tis so, my dear friend ; I am at Besangon, while you
thought I was traveling. I would not tell you anything till
success should begin, and now it is dawning. Yes, my dear
Leopold, after so many abortive undertakings, over which I
have shed the best of my blood, have wasted so many efforts,
spent so much courage, I have made up my mind to do as
you have done to start on a beaten path, on the highroad,
as the longest but the safest. I can see you jump with sur-
prise in your lawyer's chair !

"But do not suppose that anything is changed in my per-
sonal life, of which you alone in the world know the secret,
and that under the reservations she insists on. I did not
tell you, my friend; but I was horribly weary of Paris. The
outcome of the first enterprise, on which I had founded all
my hopes, and which came to a bad end in consequence of the
utter rascality of my two partners, who combined to cheat
and fleece me me, though everything was done by my energy
made me give up the pursuit of a fortune after the loss of
three years of my life. One of these years was spent in the
law courts, and perhaps I should have come worse out of the



ALBERT SAVARUS 335

scrape if I had not been made to study law when I was twenty.

"I made up my mind to go into politics solely, to the end
that I may some day find my name in a list for promotion to
the Senate under the title of Comte Albert Savaron de Sa-
varus, and so revive in France a good name now extinct in
Belgium though indeed I am neither legitimate nor legiti-
mized."

"Ah! I knew it! He is of noble birth!" exclaimed
Rosalie, dropping the letter.

"You know how conscientiously I studied, how faithful and
useful I was as an obscure journalist, and how excellent a
secretary to the statesman who, on his part, was true to me in
1829. Flung to the depths once more by the revolution of
July just when my name was becoming known, at the very
moment when, as Master of Appeals, I was about to find my
place as a necessary wheel in the political machine, I com-
mitted the blunder of remaining faithful to the fallen, and
fighting for them, without them. Oh ! why was I but three-
and-thirty, and why did I not apply to you to make me
eligible? I concealed from you all my devotedness and my
dangers. What would you have? I was full of faith. We
should not have agreed.

"Ten months ago, when you saw me so gay and contented,
writing my political articles, I was in despair; I foresaw
my fate, at the age of thirty-seven, with two thousand francs
for my whole fortune, without the smallest fame, just having
failed in a noble undertaking, the founding, namely, of a
daily paper answering only to a need of the future instead
of appealing to the passions of the moment. I did not know
which way to turn, and I felt my own value ! I wandered
about, gloomy and hurt, through the lonely places of Paris
Paris which had slipped through my fingers thinking of
my crushed ambitions, but never giving them up. Oh, what
frantic letters I wrote at that time to her, my second con-
science, my other self! Sometimes I would say to myself,
'Why did I sketch so vast a programme of life? Why de-
mand everything? Why not wait for happiness while devot-
ing myself to some mechanical employment.'



336 ALBERT SAVARUS

"I then looked about me for some modest appointment by
which I might live. I was about to get the editorship of a
paper under a manager who did not know much about it, a
man of wealth and ambition, when I took fright. 'Would
she ever accept as her husband a man who had stooped so
low?' I wondered.

"This reflection made me two-and-twenty again. But, oh,
my dear Leopold, how the soul is worn by these perplexities !
What must not caged eagles suffer, and imprisoned lions !
They suffer what Napoleon suffered, not at Saint Helena,
but on the Quay of the Tuileries, on the 10th of August, when
he saw Louis XVI. defending himself so badly while he could
have quelled the insurrection ; as he actually did, on the same
spot, a little later, in Vendemiaire. Well, my life has been a
torment of that kind, extending over four years. How many
a speech to the Chamber have I not delivered in the deserted
alleys of the Bois de Boulogne! These wasted harangues
have at any rate sharpened my tongue and accustomed my
mind to formulate its ideas in words. And while I was un-
dergoing this secret torture, you were getting married, you
had paid for your business, you were made law-clerk to the
Maire of your district, after gaining the cross for a wound
at Saint-Merri.

"Now, listen. When I was a small boy and tortured cock-
chafers, the poor insects had one form of struggle which used
almost to put me in a fever. It was when I saw them making
repeated efforts to fly but without getting away, though they
could spread their wings. We used to say, 'They are mark-
ing time.' Now, was this sympathy ? Was it a vision of my
own future ? Oh ! to spread my wings and yet be unable to
fly ! That has been my predicament since that fine under-
taking by which I was disgusted, but which has now made four
families rich.

"At last, seven months ago, I determined to make myself
a name at the Paris Bar, seeing how many vacancies had been
left by the promotion of several lawyers to eminent positions.
But when I remembered the rivalry I had seen among men



ALBERT SAVARUS 337

of the press, and how difficult it is to achieve anything of
any kind in Paris, the arena where so many champions meet,
I came to a determination painful to myself, but certain in
its results, and perhaps quicker than any other. In the course
of our conversations you had given me a picture of the society
of Besangon, of the impossibility for a stranger to get on there,
to produce the smallest effect, to get into society, or to succeed
in any way whatever. It was there that I determined to set
up my flag, thinking, and rightly, that I should meet with
no opposition, but find myself alone to canvass for the election.
The people of the Comte will not meet the outsider? The
outsider will not meet them ! They refuse to admit him to
their drawing-rooms, he will never go there ! He never
shows himsalf anywhere, not even in the streets ! But there
is one class that elects the deputies the commercial class. I
am going especially to study commercial questions, with which
I am already familiar ; I will gain their lawsuits, I will effect
compromises, I will be the greatest pleader in Besangon. By
and by I will start a Review, in which I will defend the
interests of the country, will create them, or preserve them, or
resuscitate them. When I sliall have won a sufficient number
of votes, my name will come out of the urn. For a long time
the unknown barrister will be treated with contempt, but some
circumstance will arise to bring him to the front some un-
paid defence, or a case which no other pleader will under-
take.

"Well, my dear Leopold, I packed up my books in eleven
cases, I bought such law-books as might prove useful, and I
sent everything off, furniture and all, by carrier to Besangon.
I collected my diplomas, and I went to bid you good-bye. The
mail coach dropped me at Besangon, where, in three days'
time, I chose a little set of rooms looking out over some
gardens. I sumptuously arranged the .mysterious private
room where I spend my nights and days, and where the por-
trait of my divinity reigns of her to whom my life is dedi-
cate, who fills it wholly, who is the mainspring of my efforts,
the secret of my courage, the cause of my talents. Then, as



338 ALBERT SAVARUS

soon as the furniture and books had come, I engaged an in-
telligent man-servant, and there I sat for five months like a
hibernating marmot.

"My name had, however, been entered on the list of lawyers
in the town. At last I was called one day to defend an un-
happy wretch at the Assizes, no doubt in order to hear me
speak for once ! One of the most influential merchants of
Besangon was on the jury ; he had a difficult task to fulfil ; I
did my utmost for the man, and my success was absolute and
complete. My client was innocent; I very dramatically se-
! cured the arrest of the real criminals, who had come forward
as witnesses. In short, the Court and the public were united
in their admiration. I managed to save the examining magis-
trate's pride by pointing .out the impossibility of detecting
a plot so skilfully planned.

"Then I had to fight a case for my merchant, and won his
suit. The Cathedral Chapter next chose me to defend a
tremendous action against the town, which had been going
on for four years; I won that. Thus, after three trials, I
had become the most famous advocate of Franche-Comte.

"But I bury my life in the deepest mystery, and so hide my
aims. I have adopted habits which prevent my accepting
any invitations. I am only to be consulted between six and
eight in the morning ; I go to bed after my dinner, and work at
night. The Vicar-General, a man of parts, and very in-
fluential, who placed the Chapter's case in my hands after they
had lost it in the lower Court, of course professed their
gratitude. 'Monsieur,' said I, 'I will win your suit, but I
want no fee; I want more' (start of alarm on the Abbe's
part). 'You must know that I am a great loser by putting
myself forward in antagonism to the town. I came here
only to leave the place as deputy. I mean to engage only
in commercial cases, .because commercial men return the mem-
bers; they will distrust me if I defend "the priests" for to
them you are simply the priests. If I undertake your de-
fence, it is because I was, in 1828, private secretary to such
a Minister' (again a start of surprise on the part of my



ALBERT SAVARUS 389

Abbe), 'and Master of Appeals, under the name of Albert
de Savarus' (another start). 'I have remained faithful
to monarchical opinions; but, as you have not the majority
of votes in Besangon, I must gain votes among the citizens.
So the fee I ask of you is the votes you may be able secretly
to secure for me at the opportune moment. Let us each keep
our own counsel, and I will defend, for nothing, every case
to which a priest of this diocese may be a party. Not a
word about my previous life, and we will be true to each
other.'

"When he came to thank me afterwards, he gave me a note
for five hundred francs, and said in my ear, 'The votes are
a bargain all the same/ I have in the course of five inter-
views made a friend, I think, of this Vicar-General.

"Now I am overwhelmed with business, and I undertake
no cases but those brought me by merchants, saying that
commercial questions are my specialty. This line of conduct
attaches business men to me, and allows me to make friends
with influential persons. So all goes well. Within a few
months I shall have found a house to purchase in Besangon,
so as to secure a qualification. I count on your lending me
the necessary capital for this investment. If I should die,
if I should fail, the loss would be too small to be any con-
sideration between you and me. You will get the interest
out of the rental, and I shall take good care to look out for
something cheap, so that you may lose nothing by this mort-
gage, which is indispensable.

"Oh! my dear Leopold, no gambler with the last remains
of his fortune in his pocket, bent on staking it at the Cercle
des Strangers for the last time one night, when he must come