Joseph Balsamo (35 page)
” It appears not.”
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“Then, since she was not sent by you but are you sure she was not ? “
” Pardieu ! am I sure of it ? “
” By whom was she sent, then ?”
” Yes, by whom ? “
” For she must have been sent by some one.”
” It is a complete riddle to me.”
” And to me also. Let me read the paper again. Yes, my dear Flageot, the pleading is to come on ; it is written so and before the president, Maupeou.”
” The devil ! is that there ? “
” Yes, certainly.”
” That is vexatious.”
“How so ?”
” Because Monsieur Maupeou is a great friend of your opponents.”
” You know that ?”
” He is always with them.”
” Ha ! I am truly unfortunate. Now we are more embarrassed than ever.”
” But for all that,” said the lawyer, ” you must wait on him.”
“He will receive me very badly.”
” That is probable.”
” Oh, Master Flageot, what do you tell me ? “
“The truth, madame.”
” What ! you not only lose courage yourself, but you try to deprive me of mine ? “
” With the Chancellor Maupeou you must not hope for anything favorable. “
” You, so timid you, a Cicero ! “
” Cicero would have lost the cause of Ligarius had lie pleaded before Verres instead of Caesar,” replied Master Flageot, finding nothing more humble to say in return for the high compliment of his client.
” Then you advise me not to wait on him ?”
” Heaven forbid, madame, I should advise anything so irregular ; but I pity you sincerely for having to undergo such an interview-“
262 JOSEPH BALSAMO.
” You really speak like a soldier who meant to desert his post. One would think you feared to undertake the business.”
” Madame ‘ replied the lawyer, ” I have lost causes which seemed much more likely to be gained by me than this of yours does.”
The countess sighed, but summoning all her energy, she said with a kind of dignity which made a complete contrast to all that had been comic in the scene, ” I shall carry the matter through ; it shall not be said that, having right on my side, I gave way before a cabal. I shall lose my cause, buTl shall at least act as a woman of rank and character, such as there are few at court in the present day. You will accompany me, will you not, Monsieur Flageot, in my visit to the vice-chancellor ? “
“Madame,” replied the lawyer, also calling up all his dignity to his aid, ” we opposition members of the parliament of Paris have sworn to have no intercourse beyond necessary audiences with those who betrayed the parliament in the affair of Monsieur d’Aiguillon. ‘Union is strength and as the vice-chancellor tacked about perpetually in that business, we have determined to keep aloof until he shows his true colors.”
” My suit is doomed, I see,” sighed the countess ; ” the lawyers quarrel with the judges, the judges with the clients. No matter ; I shall persevere to the end.”
” May Heaven assist you, madame ! ” said Flageot, flinging his dressing-gown over his left arm as a Koman senator might have done his toga.
” This is but a poor sort of an advocate,” murmured she to herself. ” I am afraid I shall have less chance with him before the parliament than I had at home on my pillow ; ” then, aloud, with a smile under which she strove to hide her uneasiness. ” Adieu. Monsieur Flageot, adieu ; study the case thoroughly, I entreat you we know not how things may turn out.”
” Oh, madame,” said Master Flageot, “do not fear as to the pleading. I shall do you justice, I shall make some terrible allusions.”
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“Allusions to what, sir?”
” To the corruption of Jerusalem, madame, which I shall compare to the accursed cities on which the fire of Heaven descended. You understand no one can mistake by Jerusalem I mean Versailles.”
” Monsieur Flageot,” exclaimed the old lady, ” do not compromise yourself, or, rather, do not compromise my cause ‘
” Oh, madame, with Monsieur de Maupeou for judge* your cause is lost. But then let the world hear of us ; since we cannot obtain justice, let us at least strike terror to the wicked.”
” Sir, sir “
” Let us be philosophic let ns thunder “
“Deuce take you, with your thunder!” muttered the countess. ‘ Fool of a lawyer ! you are thinking only of making a figure with your fag-ends of philosophy. Come, I will go to the vice-chancellor ; he at least is no philosopher. I may do better with him than with you, after all.”
And the old countess left M. Flageot, having, poor old lady, in two days, mounted all the degrees of the scale of hope, and descended all those in that of disappointment.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE YICE.
THE old countess trembled in every limb as she proceeded toward M. de Maupeou’s residence. However, one thought had quieted her a little on the road it was so late that in all probability she would not be admitted, and she should merely have to tell the porter when she should come again.
In fact, it was about seven in the evening, and although it was still light, the habit of dining at four, which the nobility had adopted, had caused all business to be sus-
26 JOSEPH BALSAMO.
pended from dinner until the next day. Although
Mme.
de Beam anxiously longed to see the chancellor, she was, nevertheless, consoled by the thought that she should not see him. This is one of the frequent contradictions of the human mind which we can always understand but never explain.
The countess presented herself, therefore, quite certain that the porter would refuse her admittance ; and had even prepared a crown to offer the Cerberus to induce him to put her name on the list of those who requested an audience. On reaching the house, she found an usher talking to the porter, as if giving him an order. She waited discreetly that she might not interrupt these two personages ; but on perceiving her in her hackney-coach, the usher withdrew. The porter approached and demanded her name.
” Oh, I know,” said she, ” that it is not probable I shall have the honor of seeing his excellency. “
“No matter, madame,” replied the porter, ” have the goodness to tell me your name.”
” The Countess de Beam,” she replied.
” My lord is at home,” answered he.
” What did you say ? ” asked the countess, almost dumb with astonishment.
” I say that my lord is at home,” repeated he.
” But of course he will not receive visitors ? “
” He will” receive you, madame.”
.
Mme.
de Beam got out of the coach, hardly knowing whether she was asleep or awake.
The porter pulled a cord a bell rang twice. The usher appeared at the top of the steps, and the porter made a sign to the countess to enter. - ” You wish to speak to my lord ? ” asked the usher.
” 1 wish for that honor, but I scarcely hoped to attain it.”
“Have the goodness to follow me, madame.”
” And yet people speak so ill of this chancellor,” said the countess to herself, as she went along, following tRe usher, ” yet he has certainly one good quality he admits
JOSEPH BALSAMO. 265
persons on business at all hours. A chancellor it is strange ! “
Yet still she shuddered at the idea that she should find him so much the more stern, so much the more ungracious, because he was assiduous at his duties. M. de Maupeou, buried under a great wig, and dressed in a suit of black velvet, was waiting in his cabinet, with the doors open. The countess, on entering, cast a rapid glance around. She saw with surprise that he was alone that the mirrors reflected no other face than her own and that of the meager, yellow, busy chancellor.
The usher announced, ” Madame the Countess de Beam.” The chancellor rose up stiffly, as if he had no joints, and, by the same movement, leaned his back against the chimney-piece.
The countess made the necessary three courtesies.
Her short, complimentary speech which followed the courtesies was rather embarrassed ; she did not expect the honor, she did not think that a minister who had so much to do would deprive himself of the hours necessary for recreation, etc.,
etc.
The chancellor replied that time was no doubt, as precious to his majesty’s subjects as to his majesty’s ministers that, nevertheless, he admitted there were distinctions to be made as to the importance of the affairs brought be-fore him ; consequently, he always gave the greater part of his time to those whose business was most urgent.
Fresh courtesies on the part of the countess, then an embarrassed silence, for compliments were ended, and her request must now be made.
The chancellor waited, stroking his chin.
”My lord,” said she, “I have presented myself before you to explain to you an affair on which my whole fortune depends.”
The chancellor bowed, as if to intimate that she should go on.
“My lord,” she continued, ” you must know that all my property, or, rather, my son’s, is at stake in a suit now pending between us and the family of the Saluces.”
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266 JOSEPH BALSAMO.
The vice-chancellor continued to stroke his chin.
” But your equity is so well known to me, my lord, that, although I am aware of your interest in indeed I may say your friendship for the adverse party, I have not hesitated an instant in coming to entreat you to hear me.”
The chancellor could not help smiling on hearing himself praised for his equity, a quality for which lie was about as famous as Dubois was for the apostolical virtues on which he had been complimented fifty years before.
“You are right, maclame,” said he, ” saying that I am afraid of your opponents, but you are also right in thinking that, when I accepted the seals, I laid aside all friendship. I shall reply to you, then, without any bias, as becomes the supreme head of justice.”
” Heaven bless you, my lord ! ” cried the old countess.
” I shall examine your affair as a simple jurisconsult,” continued the chancellor.
” I thank your lordship ; your skill in these matters is well known.”
” Your cause comes on soon, I think.”
” Next week, my lord.”
” In the meantime, what are your wishes respecting it?”
” That your lordship would look into the documents.”
” I have already done so.”
” Well,” asked the old countess, trembling, ” and what do you think of it, my lord ? “
” I think that there is not a doubt on the subject.”
“Not a doubt of my gaining.”
” No of your losing.”
“Then, you think, my lord, I shall lose ? “
” Undoubtedly ; I shall, therefore, give you one piece of advice.”
” What is it ?” asked the countess, with the last ray of hope.
* ‘ It is if you have any payments to make, the cause being tried, and sentence pronounced, to have your funds ready.”
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” Oh, my lord, we shall be ruined then ! “
” Surely you know, madame, that justice never takes into account anything respecting the consequences of her decrees.”
” But, my lord, there should be mercy as well as justice.”
” And, for fear of justice being influenced by mercy, she is made blind, madame.”
” But your lordship will not refuse me your advice ? “
” Certainly not ; ask it, madame. I am ready.”
” Is there no means of entering into an arrangement by which the sentence might not be so harsh ? “
” Do you know any of your judges ? “
“Not one of them, my lord.”
” That is unfortunate. Messieurs de Saluces, your opponents, are connected with three fourths of the parliament.”
The countess shuddered.
” But observe,” continued the chancellor, “that that does not alter the main grounds of the question, for a judge does not permit himself to be influenced by private feelings.”
This was about as true as that he possessed the virtue of equity, or Dubois the apostolic virtues, but it made the poor countess nearly faint.
“But, after all ‘ continued the chancellor, “the judge having done all that integrity demands, of course leans more to a friend than to a person about whom he ia indifferent that is only just, when it is just and as it will be just that you should lose your cause, they may, in their sentence, make the consequence of that loss very unpleasant to you.”
” But all that your lordship says is very alarming.”
” As far as I am concerned, I shall refrain from saying anything that might have an influence on the minds of others ; but, as I am not a judge myself, I may speak to you of the state of affairs.”
” Alas ! my lord, I suspected one thing.”
The vice-chancellor fixed on her his little gray eyes.
268 JOSEPH BALSAMO.
” I suspected that the adverse party, living in Paris, they might become connected with the judges, and thus be all-powerful.”
” Because, in the first place, they have justice on their side.”
” How painful it is, my lord, to hear such words from the lips of a man infallible as you are ! “
*’ I merely say all this to you, because it is the truth ; and yet,” continued M. de Maupeou, with an affected frankness, ” I should like, upon my word, to serve you.”
The countess started ; she thought that she saw some hidden meaning, if not in the chancellor’s words, at least in his thoughts, which concealed behind it something favorable to her.
” Besides,” he proceeded, ‘ the name you bear is one of the noblest in France, and that is, in itself, a powerful recommendation to me.”
” Ah, my lord, it will not prevent me from losing my suit.”
“As to that, I have no power either one way or the other.”
” Oh, my lord ! my lord !” cried the countess, shaking her head, ” how things go on in this world now ! “
” You seem to infer, madame, that in the good old times they went better.”
” Alas ! my lord, I cannot but think so. I recall with pleasure the time when you were merely a king’s advocate in the parliament, and when you made those beautiful speeches which I, then a young woman, went to listen to, and which I applauded with such enthusiasm. What fire ! what eloquence ! what virtue ! Ah, my lord, in those times there were no plots, no cabals, no favoritism ! I should have gained my suit then.”
