Edmond Dantès
complexion and hair were light, his eyes large, blue and protruding, his
mouth prominent, and his full cheeks covered with whiskers, which like
those of Marrast, were closely trimmed and met beneath his chin. His
head and shoulders were thrown back, and his air was bold and
independent. He was a lawyer of talent, who had gained celebrity as
advocate of the accused on many occasions of State prosecutions.
Flocon was an older man than Rollin, and his countenance bore the wary,
vigilant and suspicious look which experience alone gives. He was low in
stature, thick-set and close-knit in figure; his eyes seemed always half
closed; his brow was broad and massive; his face was long; a moustache
was on his lip, and his hair was closely cut. The outline of his head
and the expression of his face seemed those rather of one born on the
banks of the Rhine than on the banks of the Seine, so calm and
passionless did they appear. His dress was plain but neat. Flocon was
the chief editor of "La Reforme," the name of which indicates its
character. It was this man who, in February, 1833, repressed the
violence of his partisans and saved the office of the "Gazette de
France," yet the very next day published his celebrated letter to the
Legitimists, which, for audacity, force and pungency was only equaled by
the paralyzing effect it produced. The fines, imprisonments and civil
incapacities to which this man had been subjected for assaults upon a
government he deemed corrupt, for the ten years preceding, had been
literally numberless.
Albert was a man of fifty or more, with a large head, square German face
and forehead, a large hazel eye, fixed and unexcitable, hair closely
cut, and beard upon his chin and lip. His dress was a long iron-gray
frock coat, buttoned closely to his chin. His face was rather thin, and
his complexion bronzed. His name had for years been identified with
reform; and though a manufacturer himself, of the class of workmen,
being proprietor and chief engineer of a large machine factory at Lyons,
he had established and sustained in that city a paper to advocate his
principles, named "La Glaneuse," the prosecution of which by the
Government for libel and the fining and imprisonment of its editor
formed an originating cause of the revolt in Lyons of April, 1834. For
the part played by this man in the revolt thus arising, he was sentenced
to transportation, a penalty afterwards commuted to fine and
imprisonment. He was a man of few words, remarkably few, but of deep
thought and prompt action, and, in moments of crisis and emergency, a
man of unshaken and inflexible nerve. To the casual observer, he seemed
only a silent man, or a sullen one, astute or stolid; in times of peril
he was a man of iron, but a man of action and passion, too, moving with
resistless might. To rouse his powers, mental or physical, demanded,
indeed, circumstances of unusual import, but once roused they were
irresistible.
Such were the personages now assembled in the office of "Le National;"
and, of those five men, all were connected with the press, directly, as
editor or proprietor, save only Ledru Rollin, and he was a writer for
"La Reforme," as well as an advocate.
The name of Louis Blanc's paper was, as has been said, "Le Bon Sens."
But to return to the narrative.
"And you really wish a sermon from me, old comrades, with patience as
the text?"
"Aye--aye--aye!" exclaimed all.
"Suppose I add to it this line I find on the paper before me on the
table, that our good Marrast had just written as the text for a
paragraph which would probably have cost him another fine and
imprisonment, had the paragraph been completed and published?"
"Read! read!" cried Rollin.
"With your permission, Armand?"
"Certainly," replied the editor, still continuing his promenade.
"'Again the House of Orleans triumphs!'" read Louis Blanc, aloud.
"And is it not true--the accursed tyrants?" vociferated Rollin.
"Aye, true!" was the mild answer; "alas, too true! That perfidious House
does triumph, and for that very reason the fact should never be
acknowledged by its opponents."
Rollin shook his head, and, throwing himself back in his capacious
chair, folded his arms, sunk his chin upon his breast and closed his
eyes.
Marrast continued his walk.
Flocon remained silent and thoughtful.
Albert gave a significant smile.
"Oppose ceaselessly, but quietly, every act of despotism this Bourgeois
Government may attempt; but, be the result what it may, never admit
yourselves discouraged, depressed, dismayed, defeated. From every fall
rise like Antaeus, with renewed vigor. Nor is it wise or prudent in
those engaged in a great and glorious cause to provoke danger, to brave
penalty, when nothing of good to that cause can reasonably be expected.
Prudence, policy, patience and perseverance accomplish more than
rashness, yet are not inconsistent with intrepidity, boldness,
patriotism and philanthropy the most exalted. Comrades, what says the
past, the past ten years, in whose events we have all so intimately
mingled? Shall I tell you?"
"Aye! 'L'Histoire de Dix Ans,'" said Flocon.
"We are all sure of being immortal there, in that same book of yours!
Eh! Louis?" cried Rollin, opening his large blue eyes.
Louis Blanc smiled and continued:
"Shall I convince you, comrades, by the history of the past ten years,
the scenes we have all witnessed, the events we have all deplored, the
defeats we have all sustained, the insulting ovations we have all been
forced to behold and the unceasing triumphs and tyranny of the House of
Orleans that, had patience and prudence been our motto, these defeats
and triumphs would never have been witnessed, because these premature
revolts would never have been made?"
Albert bowed and gave his peculiar smile.
"Our friend Albert smiles, and well he may. He has had a sad experience
in this error of premature outbreaks. In April, 1834, he exerted every
energy to restrain the revolt in Lyons, as chief of the Societe des
Droits de l'Homme, and as the undoubted friend of the operatives. But
his efforts were futile. Exasperated, urged on by less experienced
leaders, they were in full tide of revolution, and could no more be
restrained in their unwise rising than could the mountain cataract in
mad career be dammed. The result was, of course, defeat--most disastrous
defeat. Hundreds of the people perished, and our friend was imprisoned
and fined for taking part in a movement, which he had in vain attempted
to quell, and then, with the certainty of defeat, had joined, rather
than desert the people who trusted and relied on him."
"A noble act!" cried Marrast, as he paced the room.
Albert quietly smiled, but otherwise his countenance remained unmoved.
"And was it not a most noble and a most wise act," continued the author
of "The Ten Years," "when our friend Flocon, by an energetic and
eloquent harangue, restrained the indignant people from razing to the
ground the office of the 'Gazette de France,' the organ of the Duchess
of Berri, and his bitter foe? Terribly would that rash act have recoiled
on us, and yet, at the same time, with this most patriotic and prudent
deed before us, a wilder measure than even that was adopted, and it was
quelled only by force. You all remember the events. In February, '33,
Eugene Brifault, in his 'Corsair,' alluded jestingly to the mysterious
pregnancy of the mother of Henry V., Duke of Bordeaux, as did every one,
she then being imprisoned at Baye because of her prior conspiracy to
place her son on the throne, and her secret marriage in Italy being
unrevealed. The Legitimists of 'Le Revenant' challenged; the allusion
was repeated, and a second trial and a death ensued. 'Le National' and
'La Tribune,' regarding these repeated challenges as a menace to the
Republicans, hurled defiance at the Legitimists, and demanded twelve
distinct rencontres in behalf of as many names of our friends posted at
their offices, among which those of Armand Carrel, Godefroi Cavaignac
and Armand Marrast were conspicuous. The challenge is accepted--the
names of twelve Legitimists are furnished--Armand Carrel selects Roux
Laborie--they fight, and Carrel is dangerously wounded--the police then
interfere--the affair ends with Flocon's terrific and audacious defiance
flung down at the whole Legitimist and Orleans parties in the columns of
'La Reforme.' Now, what to Republicans were the quarrels of Legitimists
and Orleanists? If we were to be ruled by a king, what cared we whether
that king were Henry V. or Louis Philippe? How would the sacrifice of
Carrel, Marrast, Cavaignac, or of any of those twelve brave men have
been repaid, or made up? And afterwards, alas! in July of '36, when
Armand Carrel, causelessly assuming a quarrel not his own, because of a
fancied attempt to degrade the press, by rendering its issues
accessible, by cheapness, to the masses, was slain in the Bois de
Vincennes by the vulgar bullet of Emile de Girardin, of 'La Presse.'
What reparation to our cause was it that our champion had died like a
hero, and Chateaubriand, Arago, Cormenin and Beranger wept around his
grave? Alas! that inestimable life belonged to his country and his race,
and not to himself, to fling away in an obscure quarrel."
"But we are not all of us Armand Carrels," said Rollin.
"And yet, to the great cause of human liberty, and the amelioration of
man's condition, to which each of us stands sworn, are pledged our
lives. To hazard that cause, by the sacrifice of those lives, or by
rashly and unwisely attempting its advancement, makes us violators of
our vows, quite as much in reality as if we had become traitors."
"But the instances you cite are those only of individual rashness,
Louis, and not of the people, or of their leaders acting in concert,"
remarked Marrast.
"True, concert of action has been chiefly needed, but I have only to
recall the dates and places of our repeated attempts and defeats, for
the past ten years, to convince you all that those attempts were
premature, and had they not been so, they might have been
successful--that they have frittered away energies which, properly
concentrated and directed, might have achieved a revolution; and that
while they have betrayed our designs and depressed our friends, have
enabled our foes insultingly to triumph and caused them to be on the
constant qui vive to anticipate our movements. What but premature and
undigested uprisings were the conspiracy of the bell-tower of Notre
Dame, in January of '32, when 'Le National' was seized--or the
disturbances in La Vendee--or those in Grenoble--or those in
Marseilles--or those in the Rue des Prouvaires--or those in April,
during the cholera, when Casimir Perier died--or those of the 5th and
6th of June, on the occasion of General Lamarque's funeral, on pretence
of avenging upon the Government the affront offered during the
obsequies of Casimir Perier, the victim-Premier of the cholera? For the
part taken by 'La Tribune,' then conducted by Marrast, in this revolt,
its press was seized and sealed. The same was the fate of 'La
Quotidienne,' and the same would have been the fate of 'Le National,'
but for its barricades. Well do I remember the meeting of our friends in
this very apartment on the night after General Lamarque's funeral. The
great shade of the venerable warrior seemed among us, repeating for our
counsel and imitation his last impressive words, 'I die but the cause
lives!' But, alas! we observed it not. Doubt, dissension, dismay and
despair were in our midst. All was dark--all was defiance and
denunciation, crimination and recrimination--brother's hand raised
against brother. Armand Carrel that night sat in this chair, but he was
not the man to command his own will or opinions; how could he then bring