The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of 1830
This frown, or rather his remorse for his own imprudence, was the
first check to the illusion which was transporting Julien. He said to
himself, "She is good and sweet, she has a great fancy for me, but she
has been brought up in the enemy's camp. They must be particularly
afraid of that class of men of spirit who, after a good education, have
not enough money to take up a career. What would become of those nobles
if we had an opportunity of fighting them with equal arms. Suppose me,
for example, mayor of Verrières, and as well meaning and honest as M.
de Rênal is at bottom. What short shrift I should make of the vicaire,
M. Valenod and all their jobberies! How justice would triumph in
Verrières. It is not their talents which would stop me. They are always
fumbling about."
That day Julien's happiness almost became permanent. Our hero lacked
the power of daring to be sincere. He ought to have had the courage to
have given battle, and on the spot; Madame de Rênal had been astonished
by Julien's phrase, because the men in her circle kept on repeating
that the return of Robespierre was essentially possible by reason of
those over-educated young persons of the lower classes. Madame de
Rênal's coldness lasted a longish time, and struck Julien as marked.
The reason was that the fear that she had said something in some way or
other disagreeable to him, succeeded her annoyance for his own breach
of taste. This unhappiness was vividly reflected in those features
which looked so pure and so naïve when she was happy and away from
intruders.
Julien no longer dared to surrender himself to his dreams. Growing
calmer and less infatuated, he considered that it was imprudent to go
and see Madame de Rênal in her room. It was better for her to come to
him. If a servant noticed her going about the house, a dozen different
excuses could explain it.
But this arrangement had also its inconveniences. Julien had received
from Fouqué some books, which he, as a theology student would never
have dared to ask for in a bookshop. He only dared to open them at
night. He would often have found it much more convenient not to be
interrupted by a visit, the very waiting for which had even on the
evening before the little scene in the orchard completely destroyed his
mood for reading.
He had Madame de Rênal to thank for understanding books in quite a new
way. He had dared to question her on a number of little things, the
ignorance of which cuts quite short the intellectual progress of any
young man born out of society, however much natural genius one may
choose to ascribe to him.
This education given through sheer love by a woman who was extremely
ignorant, was a piece of luck. Julien managed to get a clear insight
into society such as it is to-day. His mind was not bewildered by the
narration of what it had been once, two thousand years ago, or even
sixty years ago, in the time of Voltaire and Louis XV. The scales fell
from his eyes to his inexpressible joy, and he understood at last what
was going on in Verrières.
In the first place there were the very complicated intrigues which
had been woven for the last two years around the prefect of Besançon.
They were backed up by letters from Paris, written by the cream of
the aristocracy. The scheme was to make M. de Moirod (he was the most
devout man in the district) the first and not the second deputy of the
mayor of Verrières.
He had for a competitor a very rich manufacturer whom it was essential
to push back into the place of second deputy.
Julien understood at last the innuendoes which he had surprised,
when the high society of the locality used to come and dine at M. de
Rênal's. This privileged society was deeply concerned with the choice
of a first deputy, while the rest of the town, and above all, the
Liberals, did not even suspect its possibility. The factor which made
the matter important was that, as everybody knows, the east side of the
main street of Verrières has to be put more than nine feet back since
that street has become a royal route.
Now if M. de Moirod, who had three houses liable to have their frontage
put back, succeeded in becoming first deputy and consequently mayor in
the event of M. de Rênal being elected to the chamber, he would shut
his eyes, and it would be possible to make little imperceptible repairs
in the houses projecting on to the public road, as the result of which
they would last a hundred years. In spite of the great piety and proved
integrity of M. de Moirod, everyone was certain that he would prove
amenable, because he had a great many children. Among the houses liable
to have their frontage put back nine belonged to the cream of Verrières
society.
In Julien's eyes this intrigue was much more important than the history
of the battle of Fontenoy, whose name he now came across for the first
time in one of the books which Fouqué had sent him. There had been
many things which had astonished Julien since the time five years ago
when he had started going to the curé's in the evening. But discretion
and humility of spirit being the primary qualities of a theological
student, it had always been impossible for him to put questions.
One day Madame de Rênal was giving an order to her husband's valet who
was Julien's enemy.
"But, Madame, to-day is the last Friday in the month," the man answered
in a rather strange manner.
"Go," said Madame de Rênal.
"Well," said Julien, "I suppose he's going to go to that corn shop
which was once a church, and has recently been restored to religion,
but what is he going to do there? That's one of the mysteries which I
have never been able to fathom."
"It's a very literary institution, but a very curious one," answered
Madame de Rênal. "Women are not admitted to it. All I know is, that
everybody uses the second person singular. This servant, for instance,
will go and meet M. Valenod there, and the haughty prig will not be
a bit offended at hearing himself addressed by Saint-Jean in that
familiar way, and will answer him in the same way. If you are keen on
knowing what takes place, I will ask M. de Maugiron and M. Valenod
for details. We pay twenty francs for each servant, to prevent their
cutting our throats one fine day."
Time flew. The memory of his mistress's charms distracted Julien from
his black ambition. The necessity of refraining from mentioning gloomy
or intellectual topics since they both belonged to opposing parties,
added, without his suspecting it, to the happiness which he owed her,
and to the dominion which she acquired over him.
On the occasions when the presence of the precocious children reduced
them to speaking the language of cold reason, Julien looking at her
with eyes sparkling with love, would listen with complete docility to
her explanations of the world as it is. Frequently, in the middle of an
account of some cunning piece of jobbery, with reference to a road or
a contract, Madame de Rênal's mind would suddenly wander to the very
point of delirium. Julien found it necessary to scold her. She indulged
when with him in the same intimate gestures which she used with her
own children. The fact was that there were days when she deceived
herself that she loved him like her own child. Had she not repeatedly
to answer his naïve questions about a thousand simple things that a
well-born child of fifteen knows quite well? An instant afterwards
she would admire him like her master. His genius would even go so far
as to frighten her. She thought she should see more clearly every day
the future great man in this young abbé. She saw him Pope; she saw him
first minister like Richelieu. "Shall I live long enough to see you in
your glory?" she said to Julien. "There is room for a great man; church
and state have need of one."
CHAPTER XVIII
A KING AT VERRIÈRES
Do you not deserve to be thrown aside like a plebeian
corpse which has no soul and whose blood flows no
longer in its veins.
_Sermon of the Bishop at the Chapel of Saint Clement_.
On the 3rd of September at ten o'clock in the evening, a gendarme woke
up the whole of Verrières by galloping up the main street. He brought
the news that His Majesty the King of ---- would arrive the following
Sunday, and it was already Tuesday. The prefect authorised, that is to
say, demanded the forming of a guard of honour. They were to exhibit
all possible pomp. An express messenger was sent to Vergy. M. de Rênal
arrived during the night and found the town in a commotion. Each
individual had his own pretensions; those who were less busy hired
balconies to see the King.
Who was to command the Guard of Honour? M. de Rênal at once realised
how essential it was in the interests of the houses liable to have
their frontage put back that M. de Moirod should have the command.
That might entitle him to the post of first deputy-mayor. There was
nothing to say against the devoutness of M. de Moirod. It brooked
no comparison, but he had never sat on a horse. He was a man of
thirty-six, timid in every way, and equally frightened of falling and
of looking ridiculous. The mayor had summoned him as early as five
o'clock in the morning.
"You see, monsieur, I ask your advice, as though you already occupy
that post to which all the people on the right side want to carry you.
In this unhappy town, manufacturers are prospering, the Liberal party
is becoming possessed of millions, it aspires to power; it will manage
to exploit everything to its own ends. Let us consult the interests of
the king, the interest of the monarchy, and above all, the interest of
our holy religion. Who do you think, monsieur, could be entrusted with
the command of the guard of honour?"
In spite of the terrible fear with which horses inspired him, M. de
Moirod finished by accepting this honour like a martyr. "I shall know
how to take the right tone," he said to the mayor. There was scarcely
time enough to get ready the uniforms which had served seven years ago
on the occasion of the passage of a prince of the blood.
At seven o'clock, Madame de Rênal arrived at Vergy with Julien and
the children. She found her drawing room filled with Liberal ladies
who preached the union of all parties and had come to beg her to urge
her husband to grant a place to theirs in the guard of honour. One of
them actually asserted that if her husband was not chosen he would go
bankrupt out of chagrin. Madame de Rênal quickly got rid of all these
people. She seemed very engrossed.
Julien was astonished, and what was more, angry that she should make
a mystery of what was disturbing her, "I had anticipated it," he said
bitterly to himself. "Her love is being over-shadowed by the happiness
of receiving a King in her house. All this hubbub overcomes her. She
will love me once more when the ideas of her caste no longer trouble
her brain."
An astonishing fact, he only loved her the more.
The decorators began to fill the house. He watched a long time for the
opportunity to exchange a few words. He eventually found her as she was
coming out of his own room, carrying one of his suits. They were alone.
He tried to speak to her. She ran away, refusing to listen to him. "I
am an absolute fool to love a woman like that, whose ambition renders
her as mad as her husband."
She was madder. One of her great wishes which she had never confessed
to Julien for fear of shocking him, was to see him leave off, if only
for one day, his gloomy black suit. With an adroitness which was truly
admirable in so ingenuous a woman, she secured first from M. de Moirod,
and subsequently, from M. the sub-perfect de Maugiron, an assurance
that Julien should be nominated a guard of honour in preference to five
or six young people, the sons of very well-off manufacturers, of whom