Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  Joseph (aside) Since this devil of a fellow has found me out, I have been on tenter-hooks —

  Vautrin (coming back from the door)

  The duke then does not live with his wife?

  Joseph

  They quarreled twenty years ago.

  Vautrin

  What about?

  Joseph

  Not even their own son can say.

  Vautrin

  And why was your predecessor dismissed?

  Joseph I cannot say. I was not acquainted with him. They did not set up an establishment here until after the king’s second return.

  Vautrin (aside) Such are the advantages of the new social order; masters and servants are bound together by no ties; they feel no mutual attachment, exchange no secrets, and so give no ground for betrayal. (To Joseph) Any spicy stories at meal-times?

  Joseph

  Never before the servants.

  Vautrin

  What is thought of them in the servants’ hall?

  Joseph

  The duchess is considered a saint.

  Vautrin

  Poor woman! And the duke?

  Joseph

  He is an egotist.

  Vautrin Yes, a statesman. (Aside) The duke must have secrets, and we must look into that. Every great aristocrat has some paltry passion by which he can be led; and if I once get control of him, his son, necessarily — (To Joseph) What is said about the marriage of the Marquis de Montsorel and Inez de Christoval?

  Joseph I haven’t heard a word. The duchess seems to take very little interest in it.

  Vautrin

  And she has only one son! That seems hardly natural.

  Joseph

  Between ourselves, I believe she doesn’t love her son.

  Vautrin I am obliged to draw this word from your throat, as if it were the cork in a bottle of Bordeaux. There is, I perceive, some mystery in this house. Here is a mother, a Duchesse de Montsorel, who does not love her son, her only son! Who is her confessor?

  Joseph

  She keeps her religious observances a profound secret.

  Vautrin Good — I shall soon know everything. Secrets are like young girls, the more you conceal them, the sooner they are discovered. I will send two of my rascals to the Church of St. Thomas Aquinas. They won’t work out their salvation in that way, but they’ll work out something else. — Good-bye.

  SCENE SIXTH.

  Joseph (alone) He is an old friend — and that is the worst nuisance in the world. He will make me lose my place. Ah, if I were not afraid of being poisoned like a dog by Jacques Collin, who is quite capable of the act, I would tell all to the duke; but in this vile world, every man for himself, and I am not going to pay another man’s debt. Let the duke settle with Jacques; I am going to bed. What noise is that? The duchess is getting up. What does she want? I must listen. (He goes out, leaving the door slightly ajar.)

  SCENE SEVENTH.

  The Duchesse de Montsorel (alone) Where can I hide the certificate of my son’s birth? (She reads) “Valencia. . . . July, 1793.” An unlucky town for me! Fernand was actually born seven months after my marriage, by one of those fatalities that give ground for shameful accusations! I shall ask my aunt to carry the certificate in her pocket, until I can deposit it in some place of safety. The duke would ransack my rooms for it, and the whole police are at his service. Government refuses nothing to a man high in favor. If Joseph saw me going to Mademoiselle de Vaudrey’s apartments at this hour, the whole house would hear of it. Ah — I am alone in the world, alone with all against me, a prisoner in my own house!

  SCENE EIGHTH.

  The Duchesse de Montsorel and Mademoiselle de Vaudrey.

  The Duchess

  I see that you find it is impossible to sleep as I do.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey Louise, my child, I only rose to rid you of a dream, the awakening from which will be deplorable. I consider it my duty to distract you from your insane fancies. The more I think of what you told me the more is my sympathy aroused. But I am compelled to tell you the truth, cruel as it is; beyond doubt the duke has placed Fernand in some compromising situation, so as to make it impossible for him to retrieve his position in the world to which you belong. The young man you saw cannot be your son.

  The Duchess Ah, you never knew Fernand! But I knew him, and in whatever place he is, his life has an influence on mine. I have seen him a thousand times —

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

  In your dreams!

  The Duchess Fernand has the blood of the Montsorels and the Vaudreys in his veins. The place to which he was born he is able to take; everything gives way before him wherever he appears. If he became a soldier, he is to-day a colonel. My son is proud, he is handsome, people like him! I am sure he is beloved. Do not contradict me, dear aunt; Fernand still lives; if not, then the duke has broken faith, and I know he values too highly the virtues of his race to disgrace them.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey But are not honor and a husband’s vengeance dearer to him than his faith as a gentleman?

  The Duchess

  Ah! You make me shudder.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

  You know very well, Louise, that pride of race is hereditary with the

  Montsorels, as it is with the Montemarts.

  The Duchess I know it too well! The doubt cast upon his child’s legitimacy has almost crazed him.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey You are wrong there. The duke has a warm heart, and a cool head; in all matters that concern the sentiments on which they live, men of that temper act promptly in carrying out their ideas.

  The Duchess But, dear aunt, do you know at what price he has granted me the life of Fernand? Haven’t I paid dearly for the assurance that his days were not to be shortened? If I had persisted in maintaining my innocence I should have brought certain death upon him; I have sacrificed my good name to save my son. Any mother would have done as much. You were taking care of my property here; I was alone in a foreign land, and was the prey of ill-health, fever, and with none to counsel me, and I lost my head; for since that time it has constantly occurred to me that the duke would never have carried out his threats. In making the sacrifice I did, I knew that Fernand would be poor and destitute, without a name, and dwelling in an unknown land; but I knew also that his life would be safe, and that some day I should recover him, even if I had to search the whole world over! I felt so cheerful as I came in that I forgot to give you the certificate of Fernand’s birth, which the Spanish ambassador’s wife has at last obtained for me; carry it about with you until you can place it in the hands of your confessor.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey The duke must certainly have learnt the measures you have taken in this matter, and woe be to your son! Since his return he has been very busy, and is still busy about something.

  The Duchess If I shake off the disgrace with which he has tried to cover me, if I give up shedding tears in silence, be assured that nothing can bend me from my purpose. I am no longer in Spain or England, at the mercy of a diplomat crafty as a tiger, who during the whole time of our emigration was reading the thoughts of my heart’s inmost recesses, and with invisible spies surrounding my life as by a network of steel; turning my secrets into jailers, and keeping me prisoner in the most horrible of prisons, an open house! I am in France, I have found you once more, I hold my place at court, I can speak my mind there; I shall learn what has become of the Vicomte de Langeac, I should prove that since the Tenth of August[*] we have never met, I shall inform the king of the crime committed by a father against a son who is the heir of two noble houses. I am a woman, I am Duchesse de Montsorel, I am a mother! We are rich, we have a virtuous priest for an adviser; right is on our side, and if I have demanded the certificate of my son’s birth —

  [*] A noteworthy date in French history, August 10, 1792; the day of the storming of the Tuileries. — J. W. M.

  SCENE NINTH.

  The same persons, and the Duc de Montsorel (who enters as the duchess prono
unces the last sentence).

  The Duke

  It is only for the purpose of handing it to me.

  The Duchess Since when have you ventured to enter my apartment without previously sending me word and asking my leave?

  The Duke Since you broke the agreement we made. You swore to take no steps to find this — your son. This was the sole condition on which I promised to let him live.

  The Duchess And is it not much more honorable to violate such an oath, than to remain faithful to all others?

  The Duke

  We are henceforth both of us released from our engagements.

  The Duchess

  Have you, up to the present day, respected yours?

  The Duke

  I have, madame.

  The Duchess

  Listen to him, aunt, and bear witness to this declaration.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey But has it never occurred to you, my dear sir, that Louise is innocent?

  The Duke Of course you think so, Mademoiselle de Vaudrey. And what would not I give to share your opinion! The duchess has had twenty years in which to prove to me her innocence.

  The Duchess For twenty years you have wrung my heart without pity and without intermission.

  The Duke Madame, unless you hand me this certificate, your Fernand will have serious cause for alarm. As soon as you returned to France you secured the document, and are trying to employ it as a weapon against me. You desire to obtain for your son a fortune and a name which do not belong to him; to secure his admission into a family, whose race has up to my time been kept pure by wives of stainless reputation, a family which has never formed a single mesalliance —

  The Duchess

  And which will be worthily represented by your son Albert.

  The Duke Be careful what you say, for you waken in me terrible memories. And your last word shows me that you will not shrink from causing a scandal that will overwhelm all of us with shame. Shall we air in public courts past occurrences which will show that I am not free from reproach, while you are infamous? (He turns to Mademoiselle de Vaudrey) She cannot have told you everything, dear aunt? She was in love with Viscount Langeac; I knew it, and respected her love; I was so young! The viscount came to me; being without hope of inheriting a fortune, and the last representative of his house, he unselfishly offered to give up Louise de Vaudrey. I trusted in their mutual generosity, and accepted her as a pure woman from his hands. Ah! I would have given my life for her, and I have proved it! The wretched man performed prodigies of valor on the Tenth of August, and called down upon himself the rage of the mob; I put him under the protection of some of my people; he was, however, discovered and taken to the Abbaye. As soon as I learned his predicament, I gave into the hands of a certain Boulard all the money I had collected for our flight! I induced Boulard to join the Septembrists in order to save the viscount from death; I procured his escape! (To the duchess) He paid me back well, did he not? I was young, madly in love, impetuous, yet I never crushed the boy! You have to-day made me the same requital for my pity, as your lover made for my trust in him. Well — things remain just as they were twenty years ago excepting that the time for pity is past. And I will repeat what I said to you then: Forget your son, and he shall live.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

  And shall her sufferings during those twenty years count for nothing?

  The Duke

  A great crime calls for a great atonement.

  The Duchess Ah — if you take my grief for a sign of remorse, I will again protest to you, I am innocent! No! Langeac never betrayed your confidence; it was not for his king alone he went to his death, and from the fatal day on which he bade me farewell and surrendered me to you, I have never seen him again.

  The Duke You purchased the life of your son by making an exactly contrary declaration.

  The Duchess

  Can a compact dictated by terror be looked upon as an avowal of guilt?

  The Duke

  Do you intend to give that certificate of birth?

  The Duchess

  It is no longer in my possession.

  The Duke

  I will no longer answer then for your son’s safety.

  The Duchess

  Have you weighed well the consequences of this threat?

  The Duke

  You ought to know me by this time.

  The Duchess The trouble is that you do not know me. You will no longer answer for my son’s safety? Indeed — but you had better look after your own son. Albert is a guarantee for the life of Fernand. If you keep watch on my proceedings, I shall set a watch on yours; if you rely upon the police of the realm, I have resources of my own, and the assistance of God. If you deal a blow at Fernand, beware of what may happen to Albert. A blow for a blow! — That is final.

  The Duke You are in our own house, madame. I forgot myself. Pray pardon me. I was wrong.

  The Duchess You are more a gentleman than your son; when he flies into a rage he begs no one’s pardon, not he!

  The Duke (aside) Has her resignation up to this time been nothing but a pretence? Has she been waiting for the present opportunity to speak? Women who are guided by the advice of bigots travel underground, like volcanic fires, and only reveal themselves when they break out. She knows my secret, I have lost sight of her son, and my defeat is imminent. (Exit.)

  SCENE TENTH.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey and the Duchess.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

  Louise, you love the child you have never seen, and hate him who is

  before your eyes. Ah! you must tell the reason of your hatred for

  Albert, if you would retain my esteem and my affection.

  The Duchess

  Not a word on that subject.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey The calm way in which your husband remarks your aversion for your son is astonishing.

  The Duchess

  He is accustomed to it.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

  Yet you could never show yourself a bad mother, could you?

  The Duchess A bad mother? No. (She reflects.) I cannot make up my mind to forfeit your affection. (She draws her aunt to her side.) Albert is not my son.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey Can a stranger have usurped the place, the name, the title, the property of the real child?

  The Duchess No, not a stranger, but his son. After the fatal night on which Fernand was carried off from me, an eternal separation between the duke and myself took place. The wife in me was as cruelly outraged as the mother. But still I purchased from him peace of mind.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

  I do not understand your meaning.

  The Duchess I allowed the duke to present this Albert, child of a Spanish courtesan, as if he were mine. The duke desired an heir. Amid the confusion wrought in Spain by the French Revolution the trick escaped notice. Are you surprised that my blood boils at the sight of this strange woman’s child occupying the place of the lawful heir?

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey Now I can deeply sympathize with your hopes; ah! how glad I should be if you were right in your suspicions and this young man were indeed your son. But what is the matter with you?

  The Duchess He is, I fear, ruined; for I have brought him under the notice of his father, who will — But stay, something must be done! I must find out where he lives, and warn him not to come here to-morrow morning.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

  Leave the house at this hour! Louise, you are mad!

  The Duchess

  Come, we must save him at any price.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

  What do you propose doing?

  The Duchess Neither of us can leave the house to-morrow without being noticed. We must forestall the duke by bribing my chambermaid.

  Mademoiselle de Vaudrey

  Louise, would you resort to such means as this?

  The Duchess If Raoul is the son disclaimed by his father, the child over whom I have mourned for the last twenty years, I
must show them what a wife, a mother, who has been wrongly accused, can do!

  Curtain to the First Act.

  ACT II.

  SCENE FIRST.

  (Scene the same as in preceding act.) The Duc de Montsorel and Joseph.

  The Duke Joseph, I am not at home excepting to one person. If he comes, you will show him up. I refer to Monsieur de Saint-Charles. Find out whether your mistress will see me. (Exit Joseph.) The awakening of a maternal instinct, which I thought had been utterly extinguished in her heart, amazes me beyond measure. The secret struggle in which she is engaged must at once be put a stop to. So long as Louise was resigned our life was not intolerable; but disputes like this would render it extremely disagreeable. I was able to control my wife so long as we were abroad, but in this country my only power over her lies in skillful handling, and a display of authority. I shall tell everything to the king. I shall submit myself to his dictation, and Madame de Montsorel must be compelled to submit. I must however bide my time. The detective, whom I am to employ, if he is clever, will soon find out the cause of this revolt; I shall see whether the duchess is merely deceived by a resemblance, or whether she has seen her son. For myself I must confess to having lost sight of him since my agents reported his disappearance twelve years ago. I was very much excited last night. I must be more discreet. If I keep quiet she will be put off her guard and reveal her secrets.

  Joseph (re-entering the room)

  Her grace the duchess has not yet rung for her maid.

  The Duke

  Very well.

  SCENE SECOND.

  The preceding and Felicite. (To explain his presence in his wife’s room, the duke looks over articles lying on the table, and discovers a letter in a book.)

  The Duke (reading) “To Mademoiselle Inez de Christoval.” (aside) Why should my wife have concealed a letter of such slight importance? She no doubt wrote it after our quarrel. Is it concerning Raoul? This letter must not go to the Christoval house.