第105章
"No;we have come on more serious business than condolence,"said d'Arthez;"we know the whole story,we have just come from the Rue de Vendome.You know my opinions,Lucien.Under any other circumstances Ishould be glad to hear that you had adopted my political convictions;but situated as you are with regard to the Liberal Press,it is impossible for you to go over to the Ultras.Your life will be sullied,your character blighted for ever.We have come to entreat you in the name of our friendship,weakened though it may be,not to soil yourself in this way.You have been prominent in attacking the Romantics,the Right,and the Government;you cannot now declare for the Government;the Right,and the Romantics.""My reasons for the change are based on lofty grounds;the end will justify the means,"said Lucien.
"Perhaps you do not fully comprehend our position on the side of the Government,"said Leon Giraud."The Government,the Court,the Bourbons,the Absolutist Party,or to sum up in the general expression,the whole system opposed to the constitutional system,may be divided upon the question of the best means of extinguishing the Revolution,but is unanimous as to the advisability of extinguishing the newspapers.The Reveil,the Foudre,and the Drapeau Blanc have all been founded for the express purpose of replying to the slander,gibes,and railing of the Liberal press.I cannot approve them,for it is precisely this failure to recognize the grandeur of our priesthood that has led us to bring out a serious and self-respecting paper;which perhaps,"he added parenthetically,"may exercise a worthy influence before very long,and win respect,and carry weight;but this Royalist artillery is destined for a first attempt at reprisals,the Liberals are to be paid back in their own coin--shaft for shaft,wound for wound.
"What can come of it Lucien?The majority of newspaper readers incline for the Left;and in the press,as in warfare,the victory is with the big battalions.You will be blackguards,liars,enemies of the people;the other side will be defenders of their country,martyrs,men to be held in honor,though they may be even more hypocritical and slippery than their opponents.In these ways the pernicious influence of the press will be increased,while the most odious form of journalism will receive sanction.Insult and personalities will become a recognized privilege of the press;newspapers have taken this tone in the subscribers'interests;and when both sides have recourse to the same weapons,the standard is set and the general tone of journalism taken for granted.When the evil is developed to its fullest extent,restrictive laws will be followed by prohibitions;there will be a return of the censorship of the press imposed after the assassination of the Duc de Berri,and repealed since the opening of the Chambers.
And do you know what the nation will conclude from the debate?The people will believe the insinuations of the Liberal press;they will think that the Bourbons mean to attack the rights of property acquired by the Revolution,and some fine day they will rise and shake off the Bourbons.You are not only soiling your life,Lucien,you are going over to the losing side.You are too young,too lately a journalist,too little initiated into the secret springs of motive and the tricks of the craft,you have aroused too much jealousy,not to fall a victim to the general hue and cry that will be raised against you in the Liberal newspapers.You will be drawn into the fray by party spirit now still at fever-heat;though the fever,which spent itself in violence in 1815and 1816,now appears in debates in the Chamber and polemics in the papers.""I am not quite a featherhead,my friends,"said Lucien,"though you may choose to see a poet in me.Whatever may happen,I shall gain one solid advantage which no Liberal victory can give me.By the time your victory is won,I shall have gained my end.""We will cut off--your hair,"said Michel Chrestien,with a laugh.
"I shall have my children by that time,"said Lucien;"and if you cut off my head,it will not matter."The three could make nothing of Lucien.Intercourse with the great world had developed in him the pride of caste,the vanities of the aristocrat.The poet thought,and not without reason,that there was a fortune in his good looks and intellect,accompanied by the name and title of Rubempre.Mme.d'Espard and Mme.de Bargeton held him fast by this clue,as a child holds a cockchafer by a string.Lucien's flight was circumscribed.The words,"He is one of us,he is sound,"accidentally overheard but three days ago in Mlle.de Touches'salon,had turned his head.The Duc de Lenoncourt,the Duc de Navarreins,the Duc de Grandlieu,Rastignac,Blondet,the lovely Duchesse de Maufrigneuse,the Comte d'Escrignon,and des Lupeaulx,all the most influential people at Court in fact,had congratulated him on his conversion,and completed his intoxication.
"Then there is no more to be said,"d'Arthez rejoined."You,of all men,will find it hard to keep clean hands and self-respect.I know you,Lucien;you will feel it acutely when you are despised by the very men to whom you offer yourself."The three took leave,and not one of them gave him a friendly handshake.Lucien was thoughtful and sad for a few minutes.