which I cannot admit a priori. Around a birth like his two
hideous spiders called slander and intrigue have every facility to
spread their toils; and far from admitting that he has fled before
the accusation that now attacks him, I ask myself whether his
absence does not mean that he is now engaged in collecting the
elements of his defence. [Left: “Very good!” “That’s right.”
Ironical laughter in the Centre.] Under that supposition — in my
opinion most probable — so far from arraigning him in consequence
of this absence, ought we not rather to consider it as an act of
deference to the Chamber whose deliberations he did not feel
worthy to share until he found himself in a position to confound
his calumniators?
A Voice. — He wants leave of absence for ten years, like
Telemachus, to search for his father. [General laughter.]
M. de Canalis. — I did not expect so poetical an interruption;
but since the memory of the Odyssey has been thus evoked, I shall
ask the Chamber to kindly remember that Ulysses, though disguised
as a beggar and loaded with insults, was yet able to string his
bow and easily get the better of his enemies. [Violent murmurs from
the Centre.] I vote for leave of absence for fifteen days, and
that the Chamber be again consulted at the expiration of that
time.
M. le Colonel Franchessini. — I do not know if the last speaker
intended to intimidate the Chamber, but, for my part, such
arguments have very little power upon me, and I am always ready to
send them back whence they came. [Left: “Come! come!”]
The President. — Colonel, no provocations!
M. le Colonel Franchessini. — I am, however, of the opinion of
the speaker who preceded me; I do not think that the delinquent
has fled to escape the accusation against him. Neither that
accusation, nor the effect it will produce upon your minds, nor
even the quashing of his election would be able at this moment to
occupy his mind. Do you wish to know what M. de Sallenauve is
doing in England? Then read the English papers. For the last week
they have rung with the praises of a new prima donna who has just
made her first appearance at the London opera-house. [Violent
murmurs; interruption.]
A Voice. — Such gossip is unworthy of this Chamber!
M. le Colonel Franchessini. — Gentlemen, being more accustomed to
the frankness of camps than to the reticence of these precincts, I
may perhaps have committed the impropriety of thinking aloud. The
preceding speaker said to you that he believed M. de Sallenauve
was employed in collecting his means of defence; well, I do not
say to you “I believe,” I tell you I know that a rich stranger
succeed in substituting his protection for what which Phidias, our
colleague, was bestowing on his handsome model, an Italian woman
— [Fresh interruption. “Order! order!” “This is intolerable!”]
A Voice. — M. le president, silence the speaker!
Colonel Franchessini crosses his arms and waits till the tumult
subsides.
The President. — I request the speaker to keep to the question.
M. le Colonel Franchessini. — The question! I have not left it.
But, inasmuch as the Chamber refuses to hear me, I declare that I
side with the minority of the committee. It seems to me very
proper to send M. de Sallenauve back to his electors in order to
know whether they intended to send a deputy or a lover to this
Chamber — [“Order! order!” Loud disturbance on the Left. The tumult
increases.]
M. de Canalis hurries to the tribune.
The President. — M. le ministre of Public Works has asked for the
floor; as minister of the king he has the first right to be heard.
M. de Rastignac. — It has not been without remonstrance on my
part, gentlemen, that this scandal has been brought to your
notice. I endeavored, in the name of the long friendship which
unites me to Colonel Franchessini, to persuade him not to speak on
this delicate subject, lest his parliamentary inexperience,
aggravated in a measure by his witty facility of speech, should
lead him to some very regrettable indiscretion. Such, gentleman,
was the subject of the little conversation you may have seen that
he held with me on my bench before he asked for the floor; and I
myself have asked for the same privilege only in order to remove
from your minds all idea of my complicity in the great mistake he
has just, as I think, committed by condescending to the private
details he has thought fit to relate to this assembly. But as,
against my intention, and I may add against my will, I have
entered the tribune, the Chamber will permit me, perhaps,
— although no ministerial interest is here concerned, — to say a
few words. [Cries from the Centre: “Go on!” “Speak!”]
M. le ministre then went on to say that the conduct of the absent
deputy showed contempt for the Chamber; he was treating it lightly
and cavalierly. M. de Sallenauve had asked for leave of absence;
but how or where had he asked for it? From a foreign country! That
is to say, he began by taking it, and then asked for it! Did he
trouble himself, as is usual in such cases, to give a reason for
the request? No; he merely says, in his letter to your president,
that he is forced to absent himself on “urgent business,” — a very
convenient excuse, on which the Chamber might be depopulated of
half its members. But, supposing that M. de Sallenauve’s business
was really urgent, and that he thought it of a nature not to be
explained in a letter that would necessarily be made public, why
had he not written confidentially to the president, or even
requested a friend in some responsible position, whose simple word
would have sufficed, to assure the Chamber of the necessity of the
deputy’s absence without requiring any statement of private
reasons?
At this point M. de Rastignac’s remarks were interrupted by a
commotion in the corridor to the right. Several deputies left
their seats; others jumped upon the benches, apparently
endeavoring to see something. The minister, after turning to the
president, from whom he seemed to be asking an explanation, went
back to the ministerial bench, where he was immediately surrounded
by a number of the deputies of the Centre, among whom, noticeable
for the vehemence of his gestures, was M. le procureur-general
Vinet. Groups formed in the audience chamber; the sitting was, in
fact, informally suspended.
After a few moments’ delay M. le president rings his bell.
The Ushers. — Take your seats, gentlemen.
The deputies hasten on all sides to do so.
The President. — M. de Sallenauve has the floor.
M. de Sallenauve, who, during the few moments that the sitting was
interrupted by his entrance, has been talking with M. de Canalis
and M. d’Arthez, goes to the tribune. His manner is modest, but he
shows no sign of embarrassment. Every one is struck by his
r
esemblance to the portraits of one of the most fiery of the
revolutionary orators.
A Voice. — It is Danton — without the small-pox!
M. de Sallenauve. — [Profound silence.] Gentlemen, I do not
misjudge my parliamentary value; I know that the persecution
directed apparently against me personally is, in point of fact,
aimed at the political opinions I have the honor to represent.
But, however that may be, my election seems to have been viewed by
the ministry as a matter of some importance. In order to oppose
it, a special agent and special journalists were sent to Arcis;
and a humble employe under government, with a salary of fifteen
hundred francs, was dismissed, after twenty years of faithful and
honorable service, for having aided in my success. [Loud murmurs
from the Centre.] I thank my honorable interrupters, feeling sure
that their loud disapprobation is given to this strange dismissal,
which is not open to the slightest doubt. [Laughter on the Left.]
As for me, gentlemen, who could not be dismissed, I have been
attacked with another weapon, — sagacious calumny, combined with my
fortunate absence —
The Minister of Public Works. — Of course the government sent you
out of the country.
M. de Sallenauve. — No, Monsieur le ministre. I do not attribute
my absence to either your influence or your suggestions; it was
necessitated by imperious duty, and it had no other instigation or
motive. But, as to the part you have really taken in the
denunciation set on foot against me, I am about to tell the facts,
and the Chamber will consider them. [Close attention.] The law, in
order to protect the independence of the deputy, directs that no
criminal prosecution can be begun against a member of the national
representation without the preliminary consent of the Chamber;
this fact has been turned with great adroitness against me. If the
complaint had been laid before the magistrates, it could not have
been admitted even for an instant; it is simply a bare charge, not
supported by evidence of any kind; and I have never heard that the
public authorities are in the habit of prosecuting citizens on the
mere allegation of the first-comer. We must therefore admire the
subtlety of mind which instantly perceived that, by petitioning
you for leave to prosecute, all the benefits of the accusation,
politically speaking, would be obtained without encountering the
difficulty I have mentioned in the courts. [Excitement.] Now, to
what able parliamentary tactician must we ascribe the honor of
this invention? You know already, gentleman, that it is due
ostensibly to a woman, a peasant-woman, one who labors for her
living; hence the conclusion is that the peasant-women of
Champagne have an intellectual superiority of which, up to this
time, neither you nor I were at all aware. [Laughter.] It must be
said, however, that before coming to Paris to lodge her complaint,
this woman had an interview with the mayor of Arcis, my opponent
on the ministerial side in the late election. From this conference
she obtained certain lights. To which we must add that the mayor,
taking apparently much interest in the charge to be brought
against me, agreed to pay the costs, not only of the
peasant-woman’s trip to Paris, but also those of the village
practitioner by whom she was accompanied. [Left: “Ha! ha!”] This
superior woman having arrived in Paris, with whom did she
immediately communicate? With the special agent sent down to Arcis
by the government to ensure the success of the ministerial
candidate. And who drew up the petition to this honorable Chamber
for the necessary authority to proceed to a criminal prosecution?
Not precisely the special ministerial agent himself, but a
barrister under his dictation, and after a breakfast to which the
peasant-woman and her adviser were invited in order to furnish the
necessary information. [Much excitement. “Hear! hear!”]
The Minister of Public Works from his seat. — Without discussing
the truth of these statements, as to which I have personally no
knowledge, I affirm upon my honor that the government is
completely ignorant of the proceedings now related, which it
blames and disavows in the most conclusive manner.
M. de Sallenauve. — After the formal declaration which I have had
the good fortune to evoke it would ill become me, gentlemen, to
insist on tracing the responsibility for this intrigue back to the
government. But what I have already said will seem to you natural
when you remember that, as I entered this hall, the minister of
Public Works was in the tribune, taking part, in a most unusual
manner, in a discussion on discipline wholly outside of his
department, and endeavoring to persuade you that I had conducted
myself towards this honorable body with a total want of reverence.
The minister of Public Works said a few words which did not reach
us. Great disturbance.
M. Victorin Hulot. — M. le president, have the goodness to
request the minister of Public Works not to interrupt the speaker.
He can answer.
M. de Sallenauve. — According to M. le comte de Rastignac, I
showed essential disrespect to the Chamber by asking, in a foreign
country, for leave of absence, which it was obvious I had already
taken before making my request. But, in his extreme desire to find
me to blame, the minister lost sight of the fact that at the time
I left France the Chamber had not met, no president existed, and
therefore in making my request at that time to the president of
this assembly I should simply have addressed a pure abstraction.
[Left: “True!”] As for the insufficiency of the motives with which
I supported my request, I regret to have to say to the Chamber
that I cannot be more explicit even now; because in revealing the
true cause of my absence I should betray the secret of an
honorable man, and not my own. I did not conceal from myself that
by this reticence I exposed my proceedings to mistaken
interpretations, — though I certainly did not expect it to give
rise to accusations as burlesque as they are odious. [Much
excitement.] In point of fact, I was so anxious not to neglect any
of the duties of my new position that I did precisely what the
minister of Public Works reproaches me for not doing. I selected a
man in a most honorable position, who was, like myself, a
repository of the secret I am unable to divulge, and I requested
him to make all necessary explanations to the president of this
Chamber. But, calumny having no doubt worked upon his mind, that
honorable person must have thought it compromising to his name and
dignity to do me this service. The danger to me being now over, I
shall not betray his prudent incognito. Though I was far indeed
from expecting this calculating selfishness, which has painfully
surprised and wounded me, I shall be careful to keep this betrayal
of friendship between myself and his own conscience, which alone
&
nbsp; shall reproach him for the wrong he has done me.
At this moment a disturbance occurred in the peers’ gallery; a
lady had fainted; and several deputies, among them a physician,
left the hall hastily. The sitting was momentarily suspended.
The President. — Ushers, open the ventilators. It is want of air
that has caused this unfortunate accident. M. de Sallenauve, be
good enough to resume your speech.
M. de Sallenauve. — Two words, gentleman, and I have finished. I
think the petition to authorize a criminal prosecution has already
lost something of its weight in the minds of my least cordial
colleagues. But I have here a letter from the Romilly
peasant-woman, my relation, duly signed and authenticated,
withdrawing her charge and confirming all the explanations I have
just had the honor to give you. I might read this letter aloud to
you, but I think it more becoming to place it in the hands of M. le
president. [“Very good! very good!”] As for my illegal absence, I
returned to Paris early this morning, and I could have been in my
seat at the opening of the Chamber; but, as M. de Canalis has told
you, I had it much at heart not to appear in this hall until I
could disperse the cloud which has so strangely appeared around my
reputation. It has taken me the whole morning to obtain these
papers. And now, gentlemen, you have to decide whether a few
hours’ delay in taking his seat in this Chamber justifies you in
sending a colleague back to his electors. But after all, whatever
is done, whether some persist in thinking me a forger, or a
libertine, or merely a negligent deputy, I feel no anxiety about
the verdict of my electors. I can confidently assert that after a
delay of a few weeks I shall return to you.
Cries on all sides. — The vote! the vote!
On leaving the tribune M. de Sallenauve receives many
Works of Honore De Balzac Page 935