Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  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