Memoirs of a Physician (39 page)
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than a thousand years of precepts, more than three centuries of examples. It will enlighten the kings, if it does not overthrow them. That is much that is enough ! “
A murmur of admiration rose from several lips.
” Where are our enemies ? ” pursued Marat. ” Above us. The}’ guard the doors of the palaces, they surround the steps of the throne. Upon this throne is their palladium, which they guard with more care and with more fear than the Trojans did theirs. This palladium, which makes them all-powerful, rich, and insolent, is royalty. This royalty cannot be reached save by passing over the bodies of those who guard it, as one can only reach the general by overthrowing the battalion by which he is surrounded. Well ! History tells us of many battalions which have been captured many generals who have been overthrown from Darius down to King John, from Reg-ulus down to Duguesclin.
” If we overthrow the guard, we reach the idol. Let ua begin by striking down the sentinels we can afterward strike down the chief. Let the first attack be on the courtiers, ihe nobility, the aristocracy ; the last will be upon the kings. Count the privileged heads; there are scarcely two hundred thousand. Walk through this beautiful garden, called France, with a sharp switch in your hand, and cut down these two hundred thousand heads as Tarquin did the poppies of Latium, and all will be done. There will then be only two powers opposed to each other, the people and the kingship. Then let this kingship, the emblem, try to struggle with the people, this giant and you will see ! When dwarfs wish to overthrow a colossus, they commence with the pedestal. When the woodmen wish to cut down the oak, they attack it at the foot. Woodmen ! woodmen ! seize the hatchet attack the oak at its roots, and the ancient tree with its proud branches will soon bite the dust!”
“And will crush you like pygmies in its fall, unfortunate wretches that you are ! ” exclaimed Balsamo, in a voice of thunder. ” Ah ! you rail against the poets, and you speak in metaphors even more poetical and more imagina?- tive than theirs ! Brother, brother ! ” continued he, ad-
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dressing Marat, ” I tell you, you have quoted these sentences from some romance which you are composing in your garret ! “
Marat reddened.
” Do you know what a revolution is ? ” continued Balsamo ; ” I have seen two hundred, and can tell you. I have seen that of ancient Egypt, that of Assyria, those of Borne and Greece, and that of the Netherlands. I have seen those of the Middle Ages, when the nations rushed one against the other East against the West, West against the East and murdered without knowing why. From the Shepherd Kings to our own time there have been, perhaps, a hundred revolutions, and yet now you complain of being slaves. Eevolutions, then, have done no good. And why ? Because those who caused the revolution were all struck with the same vertigo they were too hasty. Does God, who presides over the revolutions of the world, as genius presides over the revolutions of men does He hasten ?
” ‘ Cut down the oak ! ‘ you cry. And you do not calculate that the oak, which needs but a second to fall, covers as much ground when it falls as a horse at a gallop would cross in thirty seconds? Now, those who throw down the oak, not having time to avoid the unforeseen fall, would be lost, crushed, killed beneath its immense trunk. That is what you want, is it not ? You will never get that from me. I shall be patient. I carry my fate yours th’e world’s in the hollow of this hand. No one can make me open this hand, full of overwhelming truth, unless I wish to open it. There is thunder in it, I know. Well, the thunderbolt shall remain in it, as if hidden in the murky cloud. Brethren, brethren ! descend from these sublime heights, and let us once more walk upon the earth.
” Sirs, I tell you plainly, and from my inmost soul, that the time has not yet come. The king who is on the throne is the last reflection of the great monarch whom the people still venerate; and in this fading monarchy there is yet something dazzling enough to outweigh the lightning shafts of your petty anger. This man was born a king, and will die a king. His race is insolent but pure. You
13 DUMAS VOL. VII.
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can read his origin on his brow, in his gestures, in his words he will always be king. Overthrow him, and the same will happen to him as happened to Charles the First his executioners will kneel before him, and the courtiers who accompanied him in his misfortune, like Lord Capel will kiss the ax which struck off the head of their master.
” Now, sirs, you all know that England was too hasty. King Charles the First died upon the scaffold, indeed ; but King Charles the Second, his son, died upon the throne.
” Wait ! wait, brethren, for the time will soon be pro-pitious. ‘You wish to destroy the lilies. That is our motto Lilia pedibus destrue. But not a single root must leave the flower of St. Louis the hope of blooming again. You wish to destroy royalty, to destroy royalty forever! You must first weaken her prestige, as well as her essence. You wish to destroy royalty ! Wait till royalty is no longer a sacred office, but merely a trade till it is practised in a shop, not in a temple. Now, what is most sacred in royalty viz., the legitimate transmission of the throne, authorized for centuries by God and the people is about to be lost forever. Listen, listen ! This invincible, this impervious barrier between us nothings and these quasi-divine creatures this limit which the people have never dared to cross, and which is called legitimacy this word, brilliant as a lighted watch-tower, and which until now has saved the royal family from shipwreck this word will be extinguished by the breath of a mysterious fatality !
” The dauphiness called to France to perpetuate the race of kings by the admixture of imperial blood the dauphiness, married now for a year to the heir of the French crown approach, brethren, for I fear to let the sound of my words pass beyond your circle “
” Well ? ” asked the six chiefs, with anxiety.
” Well, brethren, the dauphiness will never have an heir, or if one be born to her, he will die early.”
A sinister murmur, which would have frozen the monarchs of the world with terror had they heard it such deep hatred, such revengeful joy did it breathe escaped like a deadly vapor from, the little circle of six heads, which
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almost touched one another, Balsamo’s being bent over them from his rostrum.
” Now, gentlemen, you know this year’s work ; you see the progress of our mines. Be assured that we shall only succeed by the genius and the courage of some, who will serve as the eyes and the brain by the perseverance and labor of others, who will represent the arms by the faith and the devotion of others again, who will be the heart.
” Above all, remember the necessity of a blind submis-sion, which ordains that even your chief must sacrifice himself to the will of the statutes of the order, whenever those statutes require it.
” After this, gentlemen, and beloved brothers, I would dissolve the meeting, if there were not still a good act to perform, an evil to point out.
” The great writer who came among us this evening, and who would have been one of us but for the stormy zeal of one of our brothers who alarmed his timid soul this great author proved himself in the right before our assembly, and I deplore it as a misfortune that a stranger should be victorious before a majority of brothers who are imperfectly acquainted with our rules, and utterly ignorant of our aim.
” Rousseau, triumphing over the truths of our association with the sophisms of his books, represents a funda-mental vice which I would extirpate by steel and fire, if I had not the hope of curing it by persuasion. The self-love of one of our brothers has developed itself most unfortunately. He has given us the worst in the discussion. No similar fact, I trust, will again present itself, or else I shall have recourse to the laws of discipline.
” In the meantime, gentlemen, propagate the faith by gentleness and persuasion. Insinuate it; do not impose it do not force it into rebellious minds with wedges and blows, as the inquisitors tortured their victims. Remember that we cannot be great until after we have been acknowledged good; and that we cannot be acknowledged good but by appearing better than those who surround us. Remember, too, that among us the great, the good, the best, are nothing without science, art, and faith nothing,
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in short, compared with those whom God has marked with a peculiar stamp, as if giving them an authority to govern over men and rule empires.
” Gentlemen, the meeting is dissolved.”
After pronouncing these words, Balsamo put on his hat and folded himself in his cloak.
Each of the initiated left in his turn, alone and silently, in order not to awaken suspicion.
CHAPTEK XXXVIII.
THE BODY AND THE SOUL.
THE last who remained beside the master was Marat, the surgeon. He was very pale, and humbly approached the terrible orator, whose power was unlimited.
” Master,” said he, ” have I indeed committed a fault ? “
” A great one, sir,” said Balsamo ; ” and, what is worse, you do not believe that you have committed one.”
” Well, yes ; I confess that not only do I not believe that I committed a fault, but I think that I spoke as I ought to have done.”
” Pride, pride ! ” muttered Balsamo ; ” pride destructive demon ! Men combat the fever in the blood of the patient ; they dispel the plague from the water and the air but they let pride strike such deep roots in their hearts that they cannot exterminate it.”
” Oh, master ! ” said Marat, ” you have a very despicable opinion of me. Am I indeed so worthless that I cannot count for anything among my fellows? Have I gathered the fruits of my labor so ill that I cannot utter a word without being taxed with ignorance? Am I such a lukewarm adept that my earnestness is suspected?” If I had no other good quality, at least I exist through my devotion to the holy cause of the people.”
” Sir,” replied Balsamo, ” it is because the principle of good yet struggles in you against the principle of evil, which appears to me likely to carry you away one day, that
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I will try to correct these defects in you. If I can succeed if pride has not yet subdued every other sentiment in your breast I shall succeed in one hour.”
” In one hour ? ” said Marat.
” Yes ; will you grant me that time ? “
” Certainly.”
“Where shall I see you?”
” Master, it is my place to seek you in any place you may choose to point out to your servant.”
” Well,” said Balsamo, ” I will come to your house.”
” Mark the promise you are making, master. I live in an attic in the Rue des Cordeliers. An attic, remember ! ” said Marat, with an affectation of proud simplicity, with a boasting display of poverty, which did not escape Balsamo ” while you “
” Well, while I ? “
” While you, it is said, inhabit a palace.”
Balsamo shrugged his shoulders, as a giant who looks down with contempt on the anger of a dwarf.
” Well, even so, sir,” he replied ; ” I will come to see you in your garret.”
“And when, sir?”
” To-morrow.”
” At what time ? “
” In the morning.”
” At daybreak I go to my lecture-room, and from thence to the hospital.”
” That is precisely what I want. -I would have asked you to take me with you, had you not proposed it.”
“But early, remember,” said Marat; “I sleep little ‘
” And I do not sleep at all ‘ replied Balsamo. ” At daybreak, then.”
” I shall expect you.”
Thereupon they separated, for they had reached the door opening on the street, now as dark and solitary as it had been noisy and populous when they entered. Balsamo turned to the left, and rapidly disappeared. Marat followed his example, striding toward the right with his long, meager limbs.
Balsamo was punctual ; the next morning, at six o’clock,
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he knocked at Marat’s door, which was the center one of six opening on a long corridor which formed the topmost story of an old house in the Hue des Cordeliers.
It was evident that Marat had made great preparations to receive his illustrious guest. The small bed of walnut-tree, and the wooden chest of drawers beside it, shone bright beneath the sturdy arm of the charwoman who was busily engaged scrubbing the decayed furniture.
Marat himself lent a helping hand to the old woman, and was refreshing the withered flowers which were arranged in a blue delf pot, and which formed the principal ornament of the attic. He still held a duster underneath his arm, which showed that he had not touched the flowers until after having given a rub to the furniture.
As the key was in the door, and as Balsamo had entered without knocking, he interrupted Marat in his occupation. Marat, at the sight of the master, blushed much more deeply than was becoming in a true stoic.
” You see, master,” said he, stealthily throwing the tell-tale cloth behind a curtain, ” I am a domestic man, and assist this good woman. It is from preference that I choose this task, which is, perhaps, not quite plebeian, but it is still less aristocratic.”
” It is that of a poor young man who loves cleanliness,” said Balsamo, coldly, ” nothing more. Are you ready sir ? You know my moments are precious.”
” I have only to slip on my coat, sir. Dame Grivette, my coat! She is my portress, sir my footman, my cook, my housekeeper, and she costs me one crown a month.”
” Economy is praisworthy,” said Balsamo ; ” it is the wealth of the poor, and the wisdom of the rich.”
” My hat and cane ! ” said Marat.
” Stretch out your hand,” said Balsamo ; ” there is your hat, and no doubt this cane which hangs beside your hat is yours.”
” Oh, I beg your pardon, sir ; I am quite confused.”
” Are you ready ? “
” Yes, sir. ‘ My watch, Dame Grivette.”
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