Honore de Balzac (31 page)

"Fouche was an admirable judge of men; he relied on Sieyes because of
his thwarted ambition, on Talleyrand because he was a great
seigneur
,
on Carnot for his perfect honesty; but the man he dreaded was the one
whom you have seen here this evening. I will now tell how he entangled
that man in his meshes.

"Malin was only Malin in those days,—a secret agent and correspondent
of Louis XVIII. Fouche now compelled him to reduce to writing all the
proclamations of the proposed revolutionary government, its warrants and
edicts against the factions of the 18th Brumaire. An accomplice against
his own will, Malin was required to have these documents secretly
printed, and the copies held ready in his own house for distribution
if Bonaparte were defeated. The printer was subsequently imprisoned and
detained two months; he died in 1816, and always believed he had been
employed by a Montagnard conspiracy.

"One of the most singular scenes ever played by Fouche's police was
caused by the blunder of an agent, who despatched a courier to a famous
banker of that day with the news of a defeat at Marengo. Victory, you
will remember, did not declare itself for Napoleon until seven o'clock
in the evening of the battle. At midday the banker's agent, considering
the day lost and the French army about to be annihilated, hastened to
despatch the courier. On receipt of that news Fouche was about to put
into motion a whole army of bill-posters and cries, with a truck full
of proclamations, when the second courier arrived with the news of the
triumph which put all France beside itself with joy. There were heavy
losses at the Bourse, of course. But the criers and posters who were
gathered to announce the political death of Bonaparte and to post up
the new proclamations were only kept waiting awhile till the news of the
victory could be struck off!

"Malin, on whom the whole responsibility of the plot of which he had
been the working agent was likely to fall if it ever became known, was
so terrified that he packed the proclamations and other papers in carts
and took them down to Gondreville in the night-time, where no doubt they
were hidden in the cellars of that chateau, which he had bought in
the name of another man—who was it, by the bye? he had him made
chief-justice of an Imperial court—Ah! Marion. Having thus disposed
of these damning proofs he returned to Paris to congratulate the First
Consul on his victory. Napoleon, as you know, rushed from Italy to Paris
after the battle of Marengo with alarming celerity. Those who know the
secret history of that time are well aware that a message from Lucien
brought him back. The minister of the interior had foreseen the attitude
of the Montagnard party, and though he had no idea of the quarter from
which the wind really blew, he feared a storm. Incapable of suspecting
the three ministers and Carnot, he attributed the movement which stirred
all France to the hatred his brother had excited by the 18th Brumaire,
and to the confident belief of the men of 1793 that defeat was certain
in Italy.

"The battle of Marengo detained Napoleon on the plains of Lombardy until
the 25th of June, but he reached Paris on the 2nd of July. Imagine
the faces of the five conspirators as they met the First Consul at the
Tuileries, and congratulated him on the victory. Fouche on that very
occasion at the palace told Malin to have patience, for
all was not
over yet
. The truth was, Talleyrand and Fouche both held that Bonaparte
was not as much bound to the principles of the Revolution as they were,
and as he ought to be; and for this reason, as well as for their own
safety, they subsequently, in 1804, buckled him irrevocably, as they
believed, to its cause by the affair of the Duc d'Enghien. The execution
of that prince is connected by a series of discoverable ramifications
with the plot which was laid on that June evening in the boudoir of the
ministry of foreign affairs, the night before the battle of Marengo.
Those who have the means of judging, and who have known persons who were
well-informed, are fully aware that Bonaparte was handled like a
child by Talleyrand and Fouche, who were determined to alienate him
irrevocably from the House of Bourbon, whose agents were even then, at
the last moment, endeavoring to negotiate with the First Consul."

"Talleyrand was playing whist in the salon of Madame de Luynes," said a
personage who had been listening attentively to de Marsay's narrative.
"It was about three o'clock in the morning, when he pulled out his
watch, looked at it, stopped the game, and asked his three companions
abruptly and without any preface whether the Prince de Conde had any
other children than the Duc d'Enghien. Such an absurd inquiry from the
lips of Talleyrand caused the utmost surprise. 'Why do you ask us what
you know perfectly well yourself?' they said to him. 'Only to let
you know that the House of Conde comes to an end at this moment.'
Now Monsieur de Talleyrand had been at the hotel de Luynes the entire
evening, and he must have known that Bonaparte was absolutely unable to
grant the pardon."

"But," said Eugene de Rastignac, "I don't see in all this any connection
with Madame de Cinq-Cygnes and her troubles."

"Ah, you were so young at that time, my dear fellow; I forgot to explain
the conclusion. You all know the affair of the abduction of the Comte de
Gondreville, then senator of the Empire, for which the Simeuse brothers
and the two d'Hauteserres were condemned to the galleys,—an affair
which did, in fact, lead to their death."

De Marsay, entreated by several persons present to whom the
circumstances were unknown, related the whole trial, stating that the
mysterious abductors were five sharks of the secret service of the
ministry of the police, who were ordered to obtain the proclamations of
the would-be Directory which Malin had surreptitiously taken from his
house in Paris, and which he had himself come to Gondreville for the
express purpose of destroying, being convinced at last that the Empire
was on a sure foundation and could not be overthrown. "I have no doubt,"
added de Marsay, "that Fouche took the opportunity to have the house
searched for the correspondence between Malin and Louis XVIII., which
was always kept up, even during the Terror. But in this cruel affair
there was a private element, a passion of revenge in the mind of the
leader of the party, a man named Corentin, who is still living, and who
is one of those subaltern agents whom nothing can replace and who
makes himself felt by his amazing ability. It appears that Madame, then
Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, had ill-treated him on a former occasion
when he attempted to arrest the Simeuse brothers. What happened
afterwards in connection with the senator's abduction was the result of
his private vengeance.

"These facts were known, of course, to Malin, and through him to Louis
XVIII. You may therefore," added de Marsay, turning to the Princesse de
Cadignan, "explain the whole matter to the Marquise de Cinq-Cygne, and
show her why Louis XVIII. thought fit to keep silence."

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Beauvisage
The Member for Arcis

Berthier, Alexandre
The Chouans

Bonaparte, Lucien
The Vendetta

Bordin
The Seamy Side of History
The Commission in Lunacy
Jealousies of a Country Town

Cinq-Cygne, Laurence, Comtesse (afterwards Marquise de)
The Secrets of a Princess
The Seamy Side of History
The Member for Arcis

Corentin
The Chouans
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Middle Classes

Derville
Gobseck
A Start in Life
Father Goriot
Colonel Chabert
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Duroc, Gerard-Christophe-Michel
A Woman of Thirty

Espard, Jeanne-Clementine-Athenais de Blamont-Chauvry, Marquise d'
The Commission in Lunacy
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Letters of Two Brides
Another Study of Woman
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
Beatrix

Fouche, Joseph
The Chouans
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Giguet, Colonel
The Member for Arcis

Gondreville, Malin, Comte de
A Start in Life
Domestic Peace
The Member for Arcis

Gothard
The Member for Arcis

Goujet, Abbe
The Member for Arcis

Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de
The Thirteen
A Bachelor's Establishment
Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Granville, Vicomte de
A Second Home
Farewell (Adieu)
Cesar Birotteau
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
A Daughter of Eve
Cousin Pons

Grevin
A Start in Life
The Member for Arcis

Hauteserre, D'
The Member for Arcis

Lefebvre, Robert
Cousin Betty

Lenoncourt, Duc de
The Lily of the Valley
Cesar Birotteau
Jealousies of a Country Town
Beatrix

Louis XVIII., Louis-Stanislas-Xavier
The Chouans
The Seamy Side of History
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Ball at Sceaux
The Lily of the Valley
Colonel Chabert
The Government Clerks

Marion (of Arcis)
The Member for Arcis

Marion (brother)
The Member for Arcis

Marsay, Henri de
The Thirteen
The Unconscious Humorists
Another Study of Woman
The Lily of the Valley
Father Goriot
Jealousies of a Country Town
Ursule Mirouet
A Marriage Settlement
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Letters of Two Brides
The Ball at Sceaux
Modeste Mignon
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve

Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de
The Secrets of a Princess
Modeste Mignon
Jealousies of a Country Town
The Muse of the Department
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Letters of Two Brides
Another Study of Woman
The Member for Arcis

Maufrigneuse, Georges de
The Secrets of a Princess
Beatrix
The Member for Arcis

Maufrigneuse, Berthe de
Beatrix
The Member for Arcis

Michu, Francois
Jealousies of a Country Town
The Member for Arcis

Michu, Madame Francois
The Member for Arcis

Murat, Joachim, Prince
The Vendetta
Colonel Chabert
Domestic Peace
The Country Doctor

Navarreins, Duc de
A Bachelor's Establishment
Colonel Chabert
The Muse of the Department
The Thirteen
Jealousies of a Country Town
The Peasantry
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Country Parson
The Magic Skin
The Secrets of a Princess
Cousin Betty

Peyrade
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Rapp
The Vendetta

Rastignac, Eugene de
Father Goriot
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Ball at Sceaux
The Commission in Lunacy
A Study of Woman
Another Study of Woman
The Magic Skin
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Firm of Nucingen
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
The Unconscious Humorists

Regnier, Claude-Antoine
A Second Home

Simeuse, Admiral de
Beatrix
Jealousies of a Country Town

Steingel
The Peasantry

Talleyrand-Perigord, Charles-Maurice de
The Chouans
The Thirteen
Letters of Two Brides
Gaudissart II.

Vandenesse, Comte Felix de
The Lily of the Valley
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Cesar Birotteau
Letters of Two Brides
A Start in Life
The Marriage Settlement
The Secrets of a Princess
Another Study of Woman
A Daughter of Eve

Varlet
The Gondreville Mystery
The Member for Arcis

[1]
Talleyrand was still living when de Marsay related these
circumstances.

[2]
In fact, the battle of Marengo did begin at dawn of the 14th.