Part 19

“Not Chabert! not Chabert! My name is Hyacinthe,” replied the veteran. “I am no longer a man, I am No. 164, Room 7,” he added, looking at Derville with timid anxiety, the fear of an old man and a child.--“Are you going to visit the man condemned to death?” he asked after a moment’s silence. “He is not married! He is very lucky!”

“Poor fellow!” said Godeschal. “Would you like something to buy snuff?”

With all the simplicity of a street Arab, the Colonel eagerly held out his hand to the two strangers, who each gave him a twenty-franc piece; he thanked them with a puzzled look, saying:

“Brave troopers!”

He ported arms, pretended to take aim at them, and shouted with a smile:

“Fire! both arms! Vive Napoleon!” And he drew a flourish in the air with his stick.

“The nature of his wound has no doubt made him childish,” said Derville.

“Childish! he?” said another old pauper, who was looking on. “Why, there are days when you had better not tread on his corns. He is an old rogue, full of philosophy and imagination. But to-day, what can you expect! He has had his Monday treat.--He was here, monsieur, so long ago as 1820. At that time a Prussian officer, whose chaise was crawling up the hill of Villejuif, came by on foot. We two were together, Hyacinthe and I, by the roadside. The officer, as he walked, was talking to another, a Russian, or some animal of the same species, and when the Prussian saw the old boy, just to make fun, he said to him, ‘Here is an old cavalry man who must have been at Rossbach.’--‘I was too young to be there,’ said Hyacinthe. ‘But I was at Jena.’ And the Prussian made off pretty quick, without asking any more questions.”

“What a destiny!” exclaimed Derville. “Taken out of the Foundling Hospital to die in the Infirmary for the Aged, after helping Napoleon between whiles to conquer Egypt and Europe.--Do you know, my dear fellow,” Derville went on after a pause, “there are in modern society three men who can never think well of the world--the priest, the doctor, and the man of law? And they wear black robes, perhaps because they are in mourning for every virtue and every illusion. The most hapless of the three is the lawyer. When a man comes in search of the priest, he is prompted by repentance, by remorse, by beliefs which make him interesting, which elevate him and comfort the soul of the intercessor whose task will bring him a sort of gladness; he purifies, repairs and reconciles. But we lawyers, we see the same evil feelings repeated again and again, nothing can correct them; our offices are sewers which can never be cleansed.

“How many things have I learned in the exercise of my profession! I have seen a father die in a garret, deserted by two daughters, to whom he had given forty thousand francs a year! I have known wills burned; I have seen mothers robbing their children, wives killing their husbands, and working on the love they could inspire to make the men idiotic or mad, that they might live in peace with a lover. I have seen women teaching the child of their marriage such tastes as must bring it to the grave in order to benefit the child of an illicit affection. I could not tell you all I have seen, for I have seen crimes against which justice is impotent. In short, all the horrors that romancers suppose they have invented are still below the truth. You will know something of these pretty things; as for me, I am going to live in the country with my wife. I have a horror of Paris.”

“I have seen plenty of them already in Desroches’ office,” replied Godeschal.

PARIS, February-March 1832.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Bonaparte, Napoleon The Vendetta The Gondreville Mystery Domestic Peace The Seamy Side of History A Woman of Thirty

Crottat, Alexandre Cesar Birotteau A Start in Life A Woman of Thirty Cousin Pons

Derville Gobseck A Start in Life The Gondreville Mystery Father Goriot Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Desroches (son) A Bachelor’s Establishment A Start in Life A Woman of Thirty The Commission in Lunacy The Government Clerks A Distinguished Provincial at Paris Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life The Firm of Nucingen A Man of Business The Middle Classes

Ferraud, Comtesse The Government Clerks

Godeschal, Francois-Claude-Marie A Bachelor’s Establishment A Start in Life The Commission in Lunacy The Middle Classes Cousin Pons

Grandlieu, Vicomtesse de Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life Gobseck

Louis XVIII., Louis-Stanislas-Xavier The Chouans The Seamy Side of History The Gondreville Mystery Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life The Ball at Sceaux The Lily of the Valley The Government Clerks

Murat, Joachim, Prince The Vendetta The Gondreville Mystery Domestic Peace The Country Doctor

Navarreins, Duc de A Bachelor’s Establishment The Muse of the Department The Thirteen Jealousies of a Country Town The Peasantry Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life The Country Parson The Magic Skin The Gondreville Mystery The Secrets of a Princess Cousin Betty

Vergniaud, Louis The Vendetta