to accept the forms of religion, a man who could fill the
church of a Sunday and preach a sermon to a slumbering con-
gregation.
The Gourdons' ladies for at Soulanges, as in Dresden and
some other German capitals, those who move in the best so-
ciety greet each other with the inquiry, "How is yoiir lady? : '
and people say, "He was not there with his lady," or "I saw his
lady and the young ladies." A Parisian who should say "his
wife" or "womenkind" would create a sensation, and be set
down for a man of the worst style. At Soulanges, as at Ge-
neva, Dresden, and Brussels, these words are never used ; Brus-
sels shopkeepers may put "wife of such an one" above their
shop doors, but at Soulanges "your good lady," is the only
permissible formula. To resume the Gourdons' ladies can
only be compared to the luckless supernumeraries of second-
rate theatres known to Parisian audiences, who frequently
take the artistes for a laughing-stock ; it will suffice to say that
they belonged to the order of "nice little things," and their
portraits will be complete, for the most unlettered bourgeois
can look about him and find examples of these necessary be-
ings.
It is scarcely worth while to remark that Guerbet under-
stood finance admirably well, and that Soudry would have
made a minister of war, for every worthy townsman was
equipped with the imaginary specialty necessary to the exist-
THE PEASANTRY 261
ence of a provincial; and not only so, each one was free to
cultivate his own private plot in the domain of human vanity
without fear of rivalry or disturbance from his neighbor.
If Cuvier, traveling incognito, had passed through the
town, the best society of Soulanges would have felt convinced
that his knowledge was a mere trifle compared with Dr. Gour-
don's scientific attainments. Nourrit and his "fine thread of
voice," as the notary called it with patronizing indulgence,
would have been thought scarce worthy to accompany the
nightingale of Soulanges ; and as for the versifier whose works
were just passing through Bournier's press, it was incredible
that a poet of equal merit should be found in Paris now that
Delille was dead.
This provincial bourgeoisie, in its sleek self-satisfaction,
could take precedence of all social superiority. Only those
who have spent some portion of their lives in a small country
town of this kind can form any idea of the exceeding com-
placency which overspread the countenances of these folk who
took themselves for the coelic plexus of France. Gifted as
they were with incredible perverse ingenuity, they had decided
in their wisdom that one of the heroes of Essling was- a
coward, Mme. de Montcornet a woman of scandalous life, and
the Abbe Brossette a petty intriguer, and within a fortnight
of the purchase of the Aigues they discovered the General's
origin, and dubbed him the "Upholsterer."
If Eigou, Soudry, and Gaubertin had all of them lived at
Ville-aux-Fayes, there would have been a quarrel ; their pre-
tensions must inevitably have come into collision ; but Fate or-
dained that the Lucullus of Blangy should feel that solitude
was a necessity if he was to combine usury and sensuality in
peace; while Mme. Soudry had sense enough to see that she
could only reign in such a place as Soulanges, and Gaubertin
found Ville-aux-Fayes a central position for his business.
Those who find amusement in the study of social intricacies
will admit that Montcornet had a run of ill luck when he fell
among such foes, all living sufficiently far apart to revolve in
their separate spheres of power and vanity. The malignant
262 THE PEASANTRY
planets were but ten times the more potent for mischief be-
cause they never crossed each other's paths.
Yet, though the worth}' Soulangeois were proud of their
leisured lives, and regarded their society as distinctly more
agreeable than that of Ville-aux-Fayes, repeating with ludi-
crous pomposity that "Soulanges is the place for pleasure and
society" (a saying current in the valley), it would scarcely be
prudent to suppose that Ville-aux-Fayes admitted this su-
premacy. The Gaubertin salon laughed in petto at the
Soudry salon. Gaubertin would say, "Ours is a busy town,
a great business place, and some of us are fools enough to
plague ourselves with money-making," and from his manner
it was easy to discern a slight antagonism between the earth
and the moon. The moon believed that she was useful to the
earth, and the earth controlled the moon.
Both earth and moon lived, however, on terms of the
closest intimacy. At Carnival-tide the best society of Sou-
langes went in a body to the four dances given in turn by
Gaubertin, Gendrin, Leclercq, and Soudry junior, the public
prosecutor. Every Sunday the public prosecutor and his wife,
with M., Mme., and Mile, filise Gaubertin, came over to
Soulanges to dine with the Soudrys. When the sub-prefect
was invited, and the postmaster, Guerbet from Conches, came
to take potluck, Soulanges beheld the spectacle of four official
carriages stopping the way before the Soudry mansion.
II
THE QUEEN'S DRAWING-ROOM
"Riaou timed his arrival for half-past five, knowing that he
should find every one at his post at that hour. The mayor,
like everybody else in the town, dined at three o'clock,
following the eighteenth century usage ; so from five till nine
in the evening the Soulanges notables exchanged news, de-
THE PEASANTRY 263
livered political speeches, commented on all the gossip of the
valley, and discussed the doings of the folk at the Aigues.
This last topic found them in conversation for an hour daily.
Every one made a point of learning something on that head,
and it was well known besides that to bring news of the
Aigues was a way of recommending yourself to your host and
hostess.
After this indispensable review of things in general, the
company betook themselves to boston, the only game which
the queen could play. The stout old Guerbet would mimic
Madame Isaure (Gaubertin's wife), ridiculing her finical
airs, her thin voice, prim mouth, and missish manners; the
Cure Taupin would retail some bit of news from Ville-a,ux-
Fayes; Mme. Soudry was saturated with fulsome compli-
ments; and then came the final, "We have had a delightful
game of boston."
Kigou was too selfish to take the trouble to come a dis-
tance of twelve kilometres to hear the trash talked in Mme.
Soudry's drawing-room, and to see a monkey masquerading
as an elderly woman. He was greatly the superior of the
company by ability and education, and never showed himself
in Soulanges save on the rare occasions when he went thither
to consult his notary, Lupin. Rigou was not expected to be
neighborly ; his habits and business occupations absolved him ;
and his health (he said) did not permit him to return at
night along the road by the river, when "the damp was ris-
ing" from the Thune.
The tall, gaunt usurer, moreover, overawed Mme. Soudry's
drawing-room. Instinctively it was felt that in this man
there was a tiger with claws of steel ; that the malignance of
a savage was combined with the wisdom implanted in the
cloister and matured by the sun of gold, wisdom in which
Gaubertin had never willingly trusted.
Urbain, Soudry's man, sitting on a bench under the dining-
room windows, looked up and saw the little basket-chaise as
it passed the Cafe de la Paix. He shaded his eyes to watch
it, while he chatted with Socquard the saloon-keeper.
264 THE PEASANTRY
"That is old Rigou .' The gate will have to be opened. You
hold his horse, Socquard," he said familiarly. Urbain had
been in a cavalry regiment, and when he failed to obtain a
transfer into the gendarmerie he took service with Soudry
instead. He now went in to open the great gate into the
courtyard.
The great Socquard, as you see, was paying an informal
call; but so it is with many illustrious personages, they con-
descend to walk, and sneeze, and eat, and sleep for all the
world like ordinary mortals.
Socquard was by birth a Hercules. He could carry eleven
hundredweight, he could break a man's back with one blow
of his fist, twist an iron bar, or stop a cart with a horse har-
nessed to it. He was the Milo of Crotona of the valley, his
fame spread all over the department, and absurd fables were
told of him, as of most celebrities. It was said, for instance,
in the Morvan that one day he picked up a poor woman,
donkey, and bundles, and all, and carried her to market, that
he had eaten an ox at a sitting, and drunk a quarter cask of
wine in a day, and the like. Socquard. a short, thickset man
with a placid countenance, was as meek as any maid, he was
broad in the shoulders, and deep-chested; and though his
lungs heaved like the bellows in a smithy, his voice was so
thin and clear that it startled any one who heard it for the
first time.
Like Tonsard, whose reputation for ferocity saved him the
trouble of giving proof of it, like every man who is hedged
about by a reputation of any kind, Socquard never displayed
his triumphant powers, except at the particular request and
prayer of his friends. Just now he held the horse's head while
the public prosecutor's father-in-law dismounted and turned
to apply himself to the flight of steps.
"All well at home, M. Rigou?" inquired the illustrious
Socquard.
"Pretty well, old chap," returned Rigou. "And are M.
Plissoud and Bonnebault, Viollet, and Amaury still the props
of your establishment ?"
THE PEASANTRY 265
This inquiry, apparently prompted by a good-natured in-
terest, was no random question flung down by a superior to
an inferior. When Eigou had nothing else to do, he thought
over every trifle, and Fourchon had already pointed out that
there was something suspicious in an intimacy between
Bonnebault, Plissoud, and Corporal Viollet.
For a few francs lost at play, Bonnebault was quite capable
of selling the peasant's secrets to the corporal ; or two or three
extra bowls of punch might set him babbling when he did not
know the importance of his maudlin utterances. But, on the
other hand, the old otter-hunter's information might have
been counseled by thirst, and Kigou would have paid no at-
tention to it save for the mention of Plissoud. Plissoud was
in a position which might inspire him with a notion of thwart-
ing the Aigues conspiracy, if it were merely to make some-
thing for himself out of either side,
Plissoud, the clerk of the court, eked out his income with
various unremunerative occupations; he was a life insurance
agent (these companies having just been started in France),
agent likewise for a society which insured against the chances
of conscription ; but an unfortunate predilection for billiards
and spiced wine was the principal obstacle in his way to for-
tune. Like Fourchon, he cultivated the art of doing nothing,
and waited for a problematical fortune to turn up. Plissoud
hated the "best society" of Soulanges profoundly, having
measured its power, and Plissoud knew all the ins and outs
of Gaubertin's bourgeois tyranny. He scoffed at the moneyed
men of Soulanges and Ville-aux-Fayes, and represented the
Opposition in a minority of one. As he had neither cash nor
credit, he scarcely seemed to be formidable; and Brunet,,only
too glad to have so contemptible a rival, protected Plissoud
for fear that he should sell his practice to some energetic
young fellow like Bonnac, for instance, who would compel
him to yield up an equal share of the business of the district.
"Business is all right, thanks to them," answered Socquard,
"but my spiced wine is being imitated."
266 THE PEASANTRY
"You ought to follow the matter up," said Eigou sen-
tentiously.
"I might be led on too far," said the saloon-keeper, inno-
cent of any jocular intention.
"And do your customers get on well together ?"
"There is a row now and again; but that is only natural
when they play for money."
All heads by this time were looking out of the drawing-
room window; Soudry, seeing the father of his daughter-in-
law, came out upon the steps to greet him.
"Well, compere," cried the ex-sergeant, using the word in
its old sense, "is Annette ill that you vouchsafe your presence
here of an evening?"
A survival of the gendarme in the mayor prompted him to
go straight to the point.
"No," said Rigou, touching the palm which Soudry held
out with his own right forefinger; "there is a row on, we
will have a talk about it, for our children are con-
cerned "
Soudry, a fine-looking man, wore a blue suit as though he
still belonged to the force, and a black stock and spurs to his
boots. He took Rigou's arm and led him up to his imposing
better-half.
The glass door opened on to the terrace, where the family
party were walking up and down enjoying the summer
evening. The imaginative reader who has read the previous
sketch can picture the glory of the wonderful stretch of coun-
try below.
"It is a very long time since we last saw you, my dear
Rigou," said Mme. Soudry, taking Rigou's arm to walk out
upon the terrace.
"I am so troubled with indigestion," said the old money-
lender. "Just look at me, my color is almost as high as
yours."
Rigou's appearance on the terrace was, as might be ex-
pected, the signal for a salvo of jovial greetings.
"Epicu-rigou ! . . . I've found another name for
THE PEASANTRY 267
you !" cried the receiver of taxes, holding out a hand, in
which Eigou inserted a forefinger.
"Not bad ! not bad !" said Sarcus, the little justice of the
peace ; "he is a bit of a glutton is our lord of Blangy."
"Lord of Blangy!" said Eigou bitterly; "I have not been
the cock of my village this long while."
"That is not what the hens say, you rogue you !" said La
Soudry, giving Eigou a playful little tap with her fan.
"Are we going on well, my dear sir?" asked the notary,
bowing to his principal client.
"Pretty well," said Eigou, and again he held out a fore-
finger for the lawyer to take.
This habit of Eigou's, which reduced a handshake to the
chilliest of demonstrations, was enough in itself to depict the
man's whole character to a stranger.
"Look for a corner where we can have a quiet talk," said
the monk, singling out Lupin and Mme. Soudry by a glance.
"Let us go back to the drawing-room," said the queen of
Soulanges. "These gentlemen," she added, indicating Dr.
Gourdon and Guerbet, "are having a discussion on the Q. T."
Mme. Soudry had asked them what they were talking about,
and old Guerbet, witty as ever, had replied that they were
"having a discussion on the Q. T." Mme. Soudry took this
for some scientific expression, and repeated the word with a
pretentious air.
"What is the latest news of the Upholsterer ?" asked
Soudry, and sitting down beside his wife, he put his arm
about her waist. Like most elderly women, La Soudry would
forgive much for a public demonstration of affection.
"Why, he has gone to the prefecture to demand the enforce-
ment of the penalties, and to ask for support," said Eigou,
lowering his voice to set an example of prudence.
"It will be the ruin of him," said Lupin, rubbing his hands.
"There will be fighting !"
"Fighting!" repeated Soudry, "that is as may be. If the
prefect and the general, who are friends of his, send over a
squadron of horse, there will be no fighting. With the gen-
VOL, 1043
268 THE PEASANTRY
darmes from Soulanges they might, at a pinch, get the best
of it; but as for trying to stand against a charge of cav-
alry! "
"Sibilet heard him say something still more dangerous, and
that brings me here," Eigou continued.
"Oh ! my poor Sophie !" cried Mme. Soudry, taking a sen-
timental tone, "into what hands the Aigues has fallen ! This
is what the Eevolution has done for us; it has given silk
epaulettes to low ruffians ! Any one might have known that
if you turn a bottle upside down the dregs will come to the
top and spoil the wine."
"He means to go to Paris and bring influence to bear on
the Keeper of the Seals, so as to make sweeping changes in
the Court here."
"Ah !" said Lupin, "then he has seen his danger."
"If they give my son-in-law the appointment of avocat
general, there is nothing to be said, and the Upholsterer will
replace him by some Parisian of his own," Rigou continued.
"If he asks for a seat in the Court for M. Gendrin, and has
our examining magistrate Guerbet appointed to be president
at Auxerre, he will knock down our ninepins ! He has the
gendarmerie for him as it is ; if he has the Court to boot, and
has counselors like the Abbe Brossette and Michaud at his
side, we shall be nowhere ; he might make things very unpleas-
ant for us."
"What ! in these five years have you not managed to rid
yourselves of the Abbe Brossette?" asked Lupin.
"You do not know him," returned Eigou; "he is as sus-
picious as a blackbird. That priest is not a man, he never
looks at a woman ; I cannot see that he has any passion, he is
impregnable. Now the General's hot temper lays him open to
attack. A man with a weakness is always the servant of his
enemies when they can use the handle he gives them. The
really strong are those who can keep their vices well in
hand, and do not suffer themselves to be mastered by them.
The peasants are all right, everything is in working order,
but so far we can do nothing against the Abbe. He is like
THE PEASANTRY 269
Michaud. Such men are too good to live, the Almighty
ought to take them to Himself
"We ought to find them servant girls who would put plenty
of soap on their stairs/' said Mme. Soudry. Rigou gave the
almost imperceptible start which a very crafty man makes
when he learns a new stratagem.
"The Upholsterer has another weak side ; he loves his wife.
We might reach him in that way '
"Let us see/' said Mme. Soudry. "We must see first if he
carries out his notions."
"What ?" cried Lupin ; "why, there is the rub !'*
"Lupin/' said Rigou, taking an authoritative tone, "just
go to the prefecture and see the fair Mme. Sarcus this very
evening. Arrange matters with her so that her husband shall
tell her all that the Upholsterer said and did at the pre-
fecture."
"I should have to spend the night there," returned Lupin.
"So much the better for Money-Sarcus, he will be the
gainer," remarked Rigou, "and Mme. Sarcus is not exactly
'out-of-date' yet."
"Oh ! M. Rigou," simpered Mrne. Soudry, "is a woman ever
'out-of-date?'"
"You are right as far as that one is concerned. She does
not paint before the glass," said Rigou. The exhibition
of Mme. Soudry's antiquated charms always filled him with
disgust.
Mme. Soudry, who firmly believed that she only wore a
mere "suspicion" of rouge, did not feel the sting of the epi-
gram, and asked, "Is it really possible that there are women
who paint themselves ?"
"As for you, Lupin/' Rigou continued, without taking any
notice of this artless speech, "go to see friend Gaubertin to-
morrow morning when you come back. Tell him that I and
my crony here" (slapping Soudry on the thigh) "shall come
and eat a crust with him, and ask him for breakfast about
noon. Let him know how things are going, so that each of
us may turn his ideas over in his mind, for it is a question
270 THE PEASANTRY
now of making an end of that accursed Upholsterer. As I
was coming here to find you, I said to myself that we must
get the Upholsterer into some mess or other, so that the
Keeper of the Seals may laugh in his face when he asks for
any changes in the Court at Ville-aux-Fayes "
"Hurrah for the Church!" cried Lupin, slapping Eigou
on the shoulder.
An idea struck Mme. Soudry at that very moment, an
idea which could only have occurred to an opera girl's wait-
ing-maid.
"If we could only attract the Upholsterer over to the Sou-
langes fair," said she, "and let loose some bewitchingly pretty
girl upon him, he might perhaps take up with her, and we
could make trouble between him and his wife; she could be
told that the cabinetmaker's son had gone back to his old
loves "
"Ah! my beauty," exclaimed Soudry, "there is more sense
in your head than in the whole prefecture of police at Paris !"
" 'Tis an idea which proves that Mme. Soudry is as much
our queen by intelligence as by beauty," said Lupin, and was
rewarded by a grimace which was accepted without protest
as a smile by the best society of Soulanges.
"It would be better yet," said Eigou, who had remained
thoughtful for some time, "if the thing might be turned to a
scandal."
"To have him brought before a magistrate on a criminal
charge !" cried Lupin. "Oh, that would be fine !"
"How delightful !" said Soudry artlessly, "to see, for in-
stance, the Comte de Montcornet, Grand Cross of the Legion
of Honor, Commander of the-. Order of St. Louis, and Lieu-
tenant- General, in the Police Court on a charge of inde-
cent "
"He is too fond of his wife," pronounced Lupin judi-
ciously; "he would never be made to go that length."
"That is no hindrance," suid Eigou, "but there is no girl
in the district that I see who is fit to turn a saint into a sin-
ner. I am looking out for one for my Abbe."
THE PEASANTRY 2rJ
"What do you say to the beautiful Gatienne Giboulard of
Auxerre? Sarcus' son has lost his head over her," suggested
Lupin.
"She would be the very one," said Eigou, "only she is of
no use for our purpose ; she imagines that she has only to show
herself to be admired; she is not wily enough. We want a
minx with a head on her shoulders. . . . It is all one,
she shall come."
"Yes," said Lupin, "the more pretty girls he sees, . the
greater the chances."
"It will be a very difficult matter to bring the Upholsterer
over to the fair. And suppose that he comes, would he go to
a dancing saloon like the Tivoli ?" queried the ex-sergeant.
"The reason for not going does not hold good this year,
dearie," said Mme. Soudry.
"What reason, my beauty ?" inquired her spouse.
"The Upholsterer wanted to marry Mile, de Soulanges,"
said Lupin; "he was told that she was too young, and he
took offence. That is the reason of the coolness between M.
de Soulanges and M. de Montcornet, two -old friends who
both served in the Imperial Guard. They never see each
other now. The Upholsterer did not feel inclined to meet
them at the fair after that ; but they are away from home this
year."
As a rule, the Soulanges family spent July, August, Sep-
tember, and October at their country house; but at this par-
ticular time the General was in command of the artillery in
Spain, under the Due d'Angouleme, and the Countess had
accompanied her husband. At the siege of Cadiz the Count
won, as all the world knows, the marshal's baton which was
given him in 1826.
So Montcornet's enemies might well believe that the Aigues
would not always stand aloof at the Feast of Our Lady in Au-
gust, and that it would be easy to induce the Count to come
to the Tivoli.
"That is so !" added Lupin. "Very well, Daddy," he went
272 THE PEASANTRY
on, turning to Eigou ; "it rests with you to manoeuvre matters
so that he comes to the fair, and we will bamboozle him
nicely."
The Soulanges fair on the loth of August is one of the
special attractions of the town. It is the most important
fair for thirty leagues round, eclipsing even those held at the
chief town of the department. Yille-aux-Fayes has no fair,
for the day of its patron, Saint Sylvester, falls at the end of
December.
In August Soulanges is full of hawkers, and from the 12th
to the 15th of August two parallel lines of stalls, wooden
framework booths covered with canvas, enliven the usually
empty market-place. The fair and festival, which lasts a
fortnight, is as good as a harvest for the little place. It has
the authority and prestige of a tradition. Peasants leave
the communes, where they are nailed down by their toil, as
old Fourchon put it, to go to the fair at Soulanges. The
tempting display of wares and gauds heaped up in the
booths on a fair green exercises a periodically renewed fas-
cination over the -minds of women and children and peasants
all over France. It is the one great spectacle of the year.
So about the 12th of August, the mayor issued placards,
countersigned Soudry, which were posted all about the dis-
trict, in order to secure patronage for the salesmen, acrobats,
and prodigies of all kinds, by announcing the duration of the
fair and enumerating its principal attractions. These pla-
cards, the subject of La Tonsard's inquiries, always ended
with the same formula:
"The Tiwli will be illuminated with colored lamps. 1 '
The town of Soulanges had, in fact, adopted the flinty gar-
den of the Tivoli as its public ballroom. Soulanges is built