The Wandering Jew — Complete
quickly. "How little soever we may reflect, with what contempt do we not
think upon the past! I, like you, often compare it with the present;
and then what satisfaction I feel at having followed your counsels! For,
indeed, without you, I should have played the miserable and ridiculous
part which a woman always plays in her decline from having been
beautiful and surrounded by admirers. What could I have done at this
hour? I should have vainly striven to retain around me a selfish and
ungrateful world of gross and shameful men, who court women only
that they may turn them to the service of their passions, or to the
gratification of their vanity. It is true that there would have remained
to me the resource of what is called keeping an agreeable house for all
others,--yes, in order to entertain them, be visited by a crowd of
the indifferent, to afford opportunities of meeting to amorous young
couples, who, following each other from parlor to parlor, come not
to your house but for the purpose of being together; a very pretty
pleasure, truly, that of harboring those blooming, laughing, amorous
youths, who look upon the luxury and brilliancy with which one surrounds
them, as if they were their due upon bonds to minister to their
pleasure, and to their impudent amours!"
Her words were so stinging, and such hateful envy sat upon her face,
that she betrayed the intense bitterness of her regrets in spite of
herself.
"NO, no; thanks to you, Frederick," she continued, "After a last and
brilliant triumph, I broke forever with the world, which would soon have
abandoned me, though I was so long its idol and its queen. And I have
only changed my queendom. Instead of the dissipated men whom I ruled
with a frivolity superior to their own, I now find myself surrounded by
men of high consideration, of redoubtable character, and all-powerful,
many of whom have governed the state; to them I have devoted myself, as
they have devoted themselves to me! It is now only that I really enjoy
that happiness, of which I ever dreamt. I have taken an active part and
have exercised a powerful influence over the greatest interests of the
world; I have been initiated into the most important secrets; I have
been able to strike, surely, whosoever scoffed at or hated me; and I
have been able to elevate beyond their hopes those who have served or
respected and obeyed me."
"There are some madmen, and some so blind, that they imagine that we
are struck down, because we ourselves have had to struggle against some
misfortunes," said M. d'Aigrigny, disdainfully, "as if we were not,
above all others, securely founded, organized for every struggle, and
drew not from our very struggles a new and more vigorous activity.
Doubtless the times are bad. But they will become better; and, as you
know, it is nearly certain that in a few days (the 13th of February), we
shall have at our disposal a means of action sufficiently powerful for
re establishing our influence which has been temporarily shaken."
"Yes, doubtless this affair of the medals is most important," said the
princess.
"I should not have made so much haste to return hither," resumed the
abbe, "were it not to act in what will be, perhaps, for us, a very great
event."
"But you are aware of the fatality which has once again overthrown
projects the most laboriously conceived and matured?"
"Yes; immediately on arriving I saw Rodin."
"And he told you--?"
"The inconceivable arrival of the Indian, and of General Simon's
daughters at Cardoville Castle, after a double shipwreck, which threw
them upon the coast of Picardy; though it was deemed certain that the
young girls were at Leipsic, and the Indian in Java. Precautions were
so well taken, indeed," added the marquis in vexation, "that one would
think an invisible power protects this family."
"Happily, Rodin is a man of resources and activity," resumed the
princess. "He came here last night, and we had a long conversation."
"And the result of your consultation is excellent," added the marquis:
"the old soldier is to be kept out of the way for two days; and his
wife's confessor has been posted; the rest will proceed of itself. To
morrow, the girls need no longer be feared; and the Indian remains at
Cardoville, wounded dangerously. We have plenty of time for action."
"But that is not all," continued the princess: "there are still, without
reckoning my niece, two persons, who, for our interests, ought not to be
found in Paris on the 13th of February."
"Yes, M. Hardy: but his most dear and intimate friend has betrayed him;
for, by means of that friend, we have drawn M. Hardy into the South,
whence it is impossible for him to return before a month. As for that
miserable vagabond workman, surnamed 'Sleepinbuff!'"
"Fie!" exclaimed the princess, with an expression of outraged modesty.
"That man," resumed the marquis, "is no longer an object of inquietude.
Lastly, Gabriel, upon whom our vast and certain hope reposes, will not
be left by himself for a single minute until the great day. Everything
seems, you see, to promise success; indeed, more so than ever; and it is
necessary to obtain this success at any price. It is for us a question
of life or death; for, in returning, I stopped at Forli, and there
saw the Duke d'Orbano. His influence over the mind of the king is all
powerful--indeed, absolute; and he has completely prepossessed the royal
mind. It is with the duke alone, then, that it is possible to treat."
"Well?"
"D'Orbano has gained strength; and he can, I know it, assure to us a
legal existence, highly protected, in the dominions of his master, with
full charge of popular education. Thanks to such advantages, after two
or three years in that country we shall become so deeply rooted, that
this very Duke d'Orbano, in his turn, will have to solicit support and
protection from us. But at present he has everything in his power; and
he puts an absolute condition upon his services."
"What is the condition?"
"Five millions down; and an annual pension of a hundred thousand
francs."
"It is very much."
"Nay, but little if it be considered that our foot once planted in that
country, we shall promptly repossess ourselves of that sum, which, after
all, is scarcely an eighth part of what the affair of the medals, if
happily brought to an issue, ought to assure to the Order."
"Yes, nearly forty millions," said the princess, thoughtfully.
"And again: these five millions that Orbano demands will be but an
advance. They will be returned to us in voluntary gifts, by reason even
of the increase of influence that we shall acquire from the education
of children; through whom we have their families. And yet, the fools
hesitate! those who govern see not, that in doing our own business, we
do theirs also;--that in abandoning education to us (which is what we
wish for above all things) we mold the people into that mute and quiet
obedience, that servile and brutal submission, which assures the repose
of states by the immobility of the mind. They don't reflect that most
of the upper and middle classes fear and hate us; don't understand that
(when we have persuaded the mass that their wretchedness is an eternal
law, that sufferers must give up hope of relief, that it is a crime to
sigh for welfare in this world, since the crown of glory on high is the
only reward for misery here), then the stupefied people will resignedly
wallow in the mire, all their impatient aspirations for better days
smothered, and the volcano-blasts blown aside, which made the future of
rulers so horrid and so dark? They see not, in truth, that this blind
and passive faith which we demand from the mass, furnishes their rulers
with a bridle with which both to conduct and curb them; whilst we ask
from the happy of the world only some appearances which ought, if they
had only the knowledge of their own corruption, to give an increased
stimulant to their pleasures.
"It signifies not," resumed the princess; "since, as you say, a great
day is at hand, bringing nearly forty millions, of which the Order can
become possessed by the happy success of the affair of the medals. We
certainly can attempt very great things. Like a lever in your hands,
such a means of action would be of incalculable power, in times during
which all men buy and sell one another."
"And then," resumed M. d'Aigrigny, with a thoughtful air, "here the
reaction continues: the example of France is everything. In Austria and
Holland we can rarely maintain ourselves; while the resources of the
Order diminish from day to day. We have arrived at a crisis; but it can
be made to prolong itself. Thus, thanks to the immense resource of the
affair of the medals, we can not only brave all eventualities, but we
can again powerfully establish ourselves, thanks to the offer of the
Duke d'Orbano, which we accept; and then, from that inassailable centre,
our radiations will be incalculable. Ah! the 13th of February!" added M.
d'Aigrigny, after a moment of silence, and shaking his head: "the 13th
of February, a date perhaps fortunate and famous for our power as that
of the council which gave to us (so to say) a new life!"
"And nothing must be spared." resumed the princess, "in order to succeed
at any price. Of the six persons whom we have to fear, five are or will
be out of any condition to hurt us. There remains then only my niece;
and you know that I have waited but for your arrival in order to take
my last resolution. All my preparations are completed; and this very
morning we will begin to act."
"Have your suspicions increased since your last letter?"
"Yes, I am certain that she is more instructed than she wishes to
appear; and if so, we shall not have a more dangerous enemy."
"Such has always been my opinion. Thus it is six month: since I advised
you to take in all cases the measures which you have adopted, in order
to provoke, on her part, that demand of emancipation, the consequences
of which now render quite easy that which would have been impossible
without it."
"At last," said the princess, with an expression of joy, hateful and
bitter, "this indomitable spirit will be broken. I am at length about to
be avenged of the many insolent sarcasms which I have been compelled to
swallow, lest I should awaken her suspicions. I! I to have borne so much
till now! for this Adrienne has made it her business (imprudent as she
is!) to irritate me against herself!"
"Whosoever offends you, offends me; you know it," said D'Aigrigny, "my
hatreds are yours."
"And you yourself!" said the princess, "how many times have you been the
butt of her poignant irony!"
"My instincts seldom deceive me. I am certain that this young girl
may become a dangerous enemy for us," said the marquis, with a voice
painfully broken into short monosyllables.
"And, therefore, it is necessary that she may be rendered incapable
of exciting further fear," responded Madame de Saint-Dizier, fixedly
regarding the marquis.
"Have you seen Dr. Baleinier, and the sub-guardian, M. Tripeaud?" asked
he.
"They will be here this morning. I have informed them of everything."
"Did you find them well disposed to act against her?"
"Perfectly so--and the best is, Adrienne does not at all suspect the
doctor, who has known how, up to a certain point, to preserve her
confidence. Moreover, a circumstance which appears to me inexplicable
has come to our aid."
"What do you allude to?"
"This morning, Mrs. Grivois went, according to my orders, to remind
Adrienne that I expected her at noon, upon important business. As she
approached the pavilion, Mrs. Grivois saw, or thought she saw, Adrienne
come in by the little garden-gate."
"What do you tell me? Is it possible? Is there any positive proof of
it?" cried the marquis.