“Then has some one brought David into a court of law?” cried the vinedresser, amazed to find that the gossip was really true. “See what comes of knowing how to write your name! And how about my rent! Oh! little girl, I must go to Angouleme at once and ask Cachan’s advice, and see that I am straight. You did right well to come over. Forewarned is forearmed.”
After two hours of argument Eve was fain to go, defeated by the unanswerable dictum, “Women never understand business.” She had come with a faint hope, she went back again almost heartbroken, and reached home just in time to receive notice of judgment; Sechard must pay Metivier in full. The appearance of a bailiff at a house door is an event in a country town, and Doublon had come far too often of late. The whole neighborhood was talking about the Sechards. Eve dared not leave her house; she dreaded to hear the whispers as she passed.
“Oh! my brother, my brother!” cried poor Eve, as she hurried into the passage and up the stairs, “I can never forgive you, unless it was — — ”
“Alas! it was that, or suicide,” said David, who had followed her.
“Let us say no more about it,” she said quietly. “The woman who dragged him down into the depths of Paris has much to answer for; and your father, my David, is quite inexorable! Let us bear it in silence.”
A discreet rapping at the door cut short some word of love on David’s lips. Marion appeared, towing the big, burly Kolb after her across the outer room.
“Madame,” said Marion, “we have known, Kolb and I, that you and the master were very much put about; and as we have eleven hundred francs of savings between us, we thought we could not do better than put them in the mistress’ hands — — ”
“Die misdress,” echoed Kolb fervently.
“Kolb,” cried David, “you and I will never part. Pay a thousand francs on account to Maitre Cachan, and take a receipt for it; we will keep the rest. And, Kolb, no power on earth must extract a word from you as to my work, or my absences from home, or the things you may see me bring back; and if I send you to look for plants for me, you know, no human being must set eyes on you. They will try to corrupt you, my good Kolb; they will offer you thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of francs, to tell — — ”
“Dey may offer me millions,” cried Kolb, “but not ein vort from me shall dey traw. Haf I not peen in der army, and know my orders?”
“Well, you are warned. March, and ask M. Petit-Claud to go with you as witness.”
“Yes,” said the Alsacien. “Some tay I hope to be rich enough to dust der chacket of dat man of law. I don’t like his gountenance.”
“Kolb is a good man, madame,” said Big Marion; “he is as strong as a Turk, and as meek as a lamb. Just the one that would make a woman happy. It was his notion, too, to invest our savings this way — ’safings,’ as he calls them. Poor man, if he doesn’t speak right, he thinks right, and I understand him all the same. He has a notion of working for somebody else, so as to save us his keep — — ”
“Surely we shall be rich, if it is only to repay these good folk,” said David, looking at his wife.
Eve thought it quite simple; it was no surprise to her to find other natures on a level with her own. The dullest — nay, the most indifferent — observer could have seen all the beauty of her nature in her way of receiving this service.
“You will be rich some day, dear master,” said Marion; “your bread is ready baked. Your father has just bought another farm, he is putting by money for you; that he is.”
And under the circumstances, did not Marion show an exquisite delicacy of feeling by belittling, as it were, her kindness in this way?
French procedure, like all things human, has its defects; nevertheless, the sword of justice, being a two-edged weapon, is excellently adapted alike for attack or defence. Procedure, moreover, has its amusing side; for when opposed, lawyers arrive at an understanding, as they well may do, without exchanging a word; through their manner of conducting their case, a suit becomes a kind of war waged on the lines laid down by the first Marshal Biron, who, at the siege of Rouen, it may be remembered, received his son’s project for taking the city in two days with the remark, “You must be in a great hurry to go and plant cabbages!” Let two commanders-in-chief spare their troops as much as possible, let them imitate the Austrian generals who give the men time to eat their soup though they fail to effect a juncture, and escape reprimand from the Aulic Council; let them avoid all decisive measures, and they shall carry on a war for ever. Maitre Cachan, Petit-Claud, and Doublon, did better than the Austrian generals; they took for their example Quintus Fabius Cunctator — the Austrian of antiquity.
Petit-Claud, malignant as a mule, was not long in finding out all the advantages of his position. No sooner had Boniface Cointet guaranteed his costs than he vowed to lead Cachan a dance, and to dazzle the paper manufacturer with a brilliant display of genius in the creation of items to be charged to Metivier. Unluckily for the fame of the young forensic Figaro, the writer of this history is obliged to pass over the scene of his exploits in as great a hurry as if he trod on burning coals; but a single bill of costs, in the shape of the specimen sent from Paris, will no doubt suffice for the student of contemporary manners. Let us follow the example set us by the Bulletins of the Grande Armee, and give a summary of Petit-Claud’s valiant feats and exploits in the province of pure law; they will be the better appreciated for concise treatment.
David Sechard was summoned before the Tribunal of Commerce at Angouleme for the 3rd of July, made default, and notice of judgment was served on the 8th. On the 10th, Doublon obtained an execution warrant, and attempted to put in an execution on the 12th. On this Petit-Claud applied for an interpleader summons, and served notice on Metivier for that day fortnight. Metivier made application for a hearing without delay, and on the 19th, Sechard’s application was dismissed. Hard upon this followed notice of judgment, authorizing the issue of an execution warrant on the 22nd, a warrant of arrest on the 23rd, and bailiff’s inventory previous to the execution on the 24th. Metivier, Doublon, Cachan & Company were proceeding at this furious pace, when Petit-Claud suddenly pulled them up, and stayed execution by lodging notice of appeal on the Court-Royal. Notice of appeal, duly reiterated on the 25th of July, drew Metivier off to Poitiers.
“Come!” said Petit-Claud to himself, “there we are likely to stop for some time to come.”
No sooner was the storm passed over to Poitiers, and an attorney practising in the Court-Royal instructed to defend the case, than Petit-Claud, a champion facing both ways, made application in Mme. Sechard’s name for the immediate separation of her estate from her husband’s; using “all diligence” (in legal language) to such purpose, that he obtained an order from the court on the 28th, and inserted notice at once in the Charente Courier. Now David the lover had settled ten thousand francs upon his wife in the marriage contract, making over to her as security the fixtures of the printing office and the household furniture; and Petit-Claud therefore constituted Mme. Sechard her husband’s creditor for that small amount, drawing up a statement of her claims on the estate in the presence of a notary on the 1st of August.
While Petit-Claud was busy securing the household property of his clients, he gained the day at Poitiers on the point of law on which the demurrer and appeals were based. He held that, as the court of the Seine had ordered the plaintiff to pay costs of proceedings in the Paris commercial court, David was so much the less liable for expenses of litigation incurred upon Lucien’s account. The Court-Royal took this view of the case, and judgment was entered accordingly. David Sechard was ordered to pay the amount in dispute in the Angouleme Court, less the law expenses incurred in Paris; these Metivier must pay, and each side must bear its own costs in the appeal to the Court-Royal.
David Sechard was duly notified of the result on the 17th of August. On the 18th the judgment took the practical shape of an order to pay capital, interest, and costs, followed up by notice of an execution for the morrow. Upon this Petit-
Claud intervened and put in a claim for the furniture as the wife’s property duly separated from her husband’s; and what was more, Petit-Claud produced Sechard senior upon the scene of action. The old vinegrower had become his client on this wise. He came to Angouleme on the day after Eve’s visit, and went to Maitre Cachan for advice. His son owed him arrears of rent; how could he come by this rent in the scrimmage in which his son was engaged?
“I am engaged by the other side,” pronounced Cachan, “and I cannot appear for the father when I am suing the son; but go to Petit-Claud, he is very clever, he may perhaps do even better for you than I should do.”
Cachan and Petit-Claud met at the Court.
“I have sent you Sechard senior,” said Cachan; “take the case for me in exchange.” Lawyers do each other services of this kind in country towns as well as in Paris.
The day after Sechard senior gave Petit-Claud his confidence, the tall Cointet paid a visit to his confederate.
“Try to give old Sechard a lesson,” he said. “He is the kind of man that will never forgive his son for costing him a thousand francs or so; the outlay will dry up any generous thoughts in his mind, if he ever has any.”
“Go back to your vines,” said Petit-Claud to his new client. “Your son is not very well off; do not eat him out of house and home. I will send for you when the time comes.”
On behalf of Sechard senior, therefore, Petit-Claud claimed that the presses, being fixtures, were so much the more to be regarded as tools and implements of trade, and the less liable to seizure, in that the house had been a printing office since the reign of Louis XIV. Cachan, on Metivier’s account, waxed indignant at this. In Paris Lucien’s furniture had belonged to Coralie, and here again in Angouleme David’s goods and chattels all belonged to his wife or his father; pretty things were said in court. Father and son were summoned; such claims could not be allowed to stand.
“We mean to unmask the frauds intrenched behind bad faith of the most formidable kind; here is the defence of dishonesty bristling with the plainest and most innocent articles of the Code, and why? — to avoid repayment of three thousand francs; obtained how? — from poor Metivier’s cash box! And yet there are those who dare to say a word against bill-discounters! What times we live in! . . . Now, I put it to you — what is this but taking your neighbor’s money? . . . You will surely not sanction a claim which would bring immorality to the very core of justice!”
Cachan’s eloquence produced an effect on the court. A divided judgment was given in favor of Mme. Sechard, the house furniture being held to be her property; and against Sechard senior, who was ordered to pay costs — four hundred and thirty-four francs, sixty-five centimes.
“It is kind of old Sechard,” laughed the lawyers; “he would have a finger in the pie, so let him pay!”
Notice of judgment was given on the 26th of August; the presses and plant could be seized on the 28th. Placards were posted. Application was made for an order empowering them to sell on the spot. Announcements of the sale appeared in the papers, and Doublon flattered himself that the inventory should be verified and the auction take place on the 2nd of September.
By this time David Sechard owed Metivier five thousand two hundred and seventy-five francs, twenty-five centimes (to say nothing of interest), by formal judgment confirmed by appeal, the bill of costs having been duly taxed. Likewise to Petit-Claud he owed twelve hundred francs, exclusive of the fees, which were left to David’s generosity with the generous confidence displayed by the hackney coachman who has driven you so quickly over the road on which you desire to go.
Mme. Sechard owed Petit-Claud something like three hundred and fifty francs and fees besides; and of old Sechard, besides four hundred and thirty-four francs, sixty-five centimes, the little attorney demanded a hundred crowns by way of fee. Altogether, the Sechard family owed about ten thousand francs. This is what is called “putting fire into the bed straw.”
Apart from the utility of these documents to other nations who thus may behold the battery of French law in action, the French legislator ought to know the lengths to which the abuse of procedure may be carried, always supposing that the said legislator can find time for reading. Surely some sort of regulation might be devised, some way of forbidding lawyers to carry on a case until the sum in dispute is more than eaten up in costs? Is there not something ludicrous in the idea of submitting a square yard of soil and an estate of thousands of acres to the same legal formalities? These bare outlines of the history of the various stages of procedure should open the eyes of Frenchmen to the meaning of the words “legal formalities, justice, and costs,” little as the immense majority of the nations know about them.
Five thousand pounds’ weight of type in the printing office were worth two thousand francs as old metal; the three presses were valued at six hundred francs; the rest of the plant would fetch the price of old iron and firewood. The household furniture would have brought in a thousand francs at most. The whole personal property of Sechard junior therefore represented the sum of four thousand francs; and Cachan and Petit-Claud made claims for seven thousand francs in costs already incurred, to say nothing of expenses to come, for the blossom gave promise of fine fruits enough, as the reader will shortly see. Surely the lawyers of France and Navarre, nay, even of Normandy herself, will not refuse Petit-Claud his meed of admiration and respect? Surely, too, kind hearts will give Marion and Kolb a tear of sympathy?
All through the war Kolb sat on a chair in the doorway, acting as watch-dog, when David had nothing else for him to do. It was Kolb who received all the notifications, and a clerk of Petit-Claud’s kept watch over Kolb. No sooner were the placards announcing the auction put up on the premises than Kolb tore them down; he hurried round the town after the bill-poster, tearing the placards from the walls.
“Ah, scountrels!” he cried, “to dorment so goot a man; and they calls it chustice!”
Marion made half a franc a day by working half time in a paper mill as a machine tender, and her wages contributed to the support of the household. Mme. Chardon went back uncomplainingly to her old occupation, sitting up night after night, and bringing home her wages at the end of the week. Poor Mme. Chardon! Twice already she had made a nine days’ prayer for those she loved, wondering that God should be deaf to her petitions, and blind to the light of the candles on His altar.
On the 2nd of September, a letter came from Lucien, the first since the letter of the winter, which David had kept from his wife’s knowledge — the announcement of the three bills which bore David’s signature. This time Lucien wrote to Eve.
“The third since he left us!” she said. Poor sister, she was afraid to open the envelope that covered the fatal sheet.
She was feeding the little one when the post came in; they could not afford a wet-nurse now, and the child was being brought up by hand. Her state of mind may be imagined, and David’s also, when he had been roused to read the letter, for David had been at work all night, and only lay down at daybreak.
Lucien to Eve.
“PARIS, August 29th.
“MY DEAR SISTER, — Two days ago, at five o’clock in the morning,
one of God’s noblest creatures breathed her last in my arms; she
was the one woman on earth capable of loving me as you and mother
and David love me, giving me besides that unselfish affection,
something that neither mother nor sister can give — the utmost
bliss of love. Poor Coralie, after giving up everything for my
sake, may perhaps have died for me — for me, who at this moment
have not the wherewithal to bury her. She could have solaced my
life; you, and you alone, my dear good angels, can console me for
her death. God has forgiven her, I think, the innocent girl, for
she died like a Christian. Oh, this Paris! Eve, Paris is the glory
and the shame of France. Many illusions I have lost here already,
and
I have others yet to lose, when I begin to beg for the little
money needed before I can lay the body of my angel in consecrated
earth.
“Your unhappy brother,
“Lucien.”
“P. S. I must have given you much trouble by my heedlessness; some
day you will know all, and you will forgive me. You must be quite
easy now; a worthy merchant, a M. Camusot, to whom I once caused
cruel pangs, promised to arrange everything, seeing that Coralie
and I were so much distressed.”
“The sheet is still moist with his tears,” said Eve, looking at the letter with a heart so full of sympathy that something of the old love for Lucien shone in her eyes.
“Poor fellow, he must have suffered cruelly if he has been loved as he says!” exclaimed Eve’s husband, happy in his love; and these two forgot all their own troubles at this cry of a supreme sorrow. Just at that moment Marion rushed in.
“Madame,” she panted, “here they are! Here they are!”
“Who is here?”
“Doublon and his men, bad luck to them! Kolb will not let them come in; they have come to sell us up.”
“No, no, they are not going to sell you up, never fear,” cried a voice in the next room, and Petit-Claud appeared upon the scene. “I have just lodged notice of appeal. We ought not to sit down under a judgment that attaches a stigma of bad faith to us. I did not think it worth while to fight the case here. I let Cachan talk to gain time for you; I am sure of gaining the day at Poitiers — — ”
“But how much will it cost to win the day?” asked Mme. Sechard.
“Fees if you win, one thousand francs if we lose our case.”
“Oh, dear!” cried poor Eve; “why, the remedy is worse than the disease!”
Petit-Claud was not a little confused at this cry of innocence enlightened by the progress of the flames of litigation. It struck him too that Eve was a very beautiful woman. In the middle of the discussion old Sechard arrived, summoned by Petit-Claud. The old man’s presence in the chamber where his little grandson in the cradle lay smiling at misfortune completed the scene. The young attorney at once addressed the newcomer with:
Works of Honore De Balzac Page 510