第11章

They talk to you of independence! Simon, whom I thus maltreat as candidate, is my personal friend, as he is that of all who hear me, and I should myself be charmed to see him the orator of the Left, seated between Garnier-Pages and Lafitte; but how would that benefit the arrondissement? The arrondissement would lose the support of the Comte de Gondreville and the Kellers.We all, in the course of five years, have had and shall have need of the one and of the others.Some have gone to the Marechale de Carigliano to obtain the release of a young fellow who had drawn a bad number.Others have had recourse to the influence of the Kellers in many matters which are decided according to their recommendation.We have always found the old Comte de Gondreville ready to do us service.It is enough to belong to Arcis to obtain admission to him without being forced to kick our heels in his antechamber.Those two families know every one in Arcis.Where is the financial influence of the Giguets, and what power have they with the ministry? Have they any standing at the Bourse? When we want to replace our wretched wooden bridge with one of stone can they obtain from the department and the State the necessary funds? By electing Charles Keller we shall cement a bond of friendship which has never, to this day, failed to do us service.By electing my good, my excellent schoolmate, my worthy friend Simon Giguet, we shall realize nothing but losses until the far-distant time when he becomes a minister.I know his modesty well enough to be certain he will not contradict me when I say that I doubt his election to the post of deputy." [Laughter.] "I have come to this meeting to oppose a course which I regard as fatal to our arrondissement.Charles Keller belongs to the court, they say to me.Well, so much the better! we shall not have to pay the costs of his political apprenticeship; he knows the affairs of the country; he knows parliamentary necessities; he is much nearer being a statesman than my friend Simon, who will not pretend to have made himself a Pitt or a Talleyrand in a little town like Arcis--""Danton went from it!" cried Colonel Giguet, furious at Achille's speech and the justice of it.

"Bravo!"

This was an acclamation, and sixty persons clapped their hands.

"My father has a ready wit," whispered Simon Giguet to Beauvisage.

"I do not understand why, apropos of an election," continued the old colonel, rising suddenly, with the blood boiling in his face, "we should be hauled up for the ties which connect us with the Comte de Gondreville.My son's fortune comes from his mother; he has asked nothing of the Comte de Gondreville.The comte might never have existed and Simon would have been what he now is,--the son of a colonel of artillery who owes his rank to his services; a man whose opinions have never varied.I should say openly to the Comte de Gondreville if he were present: 'We have elected your son-in-law for twenty years; to-day we wish to prove that in so doing we acted of our own free-will, and we now elect a man of Arcis, in order to show that the old spirit of 1789, to which you owe your fortune, still lives in the land of Danton, Malin, Grevin, Pigoult, Marion--That is all!"And the old man sat down.Whereupon a great hubbub arose.Achille opened his mouth to reply.Beauvisage, who would not have thought himself chairman unless he had rung his bell, increased the racket, and called for silence.It was then two o'clock.

"I shall take the liberty to observe to the honorable Colonel Giguet, whose feelings are easily understood, that he took upon himself to speak, which is against parliamentary usage," said Achille Pigoult.