The Red and the Black (19 page)

turn a blind eye and it would be possible at the same time to make
unnoticeable minor repairs to the houses which project onto the public
highway in such a way that they would last a hundred years. In spite
of the great piety and honesty universally recognized in M. de Moirod,
everyone was sure he would be
accommodating,
for he had a large
number of children. Among the houses which had to be moved back, nine
belonged to the élite of Verrières.

In Julien's eyes this intrigue was far more important than the history of the battle of Fontenoy,
^*
which he first saw mentioned in one of the books Fouqué had sent him.
There were things which had astonished Julien over the past five
years, ever since he had begun to pay evening visits to the priest.
But as discretion and humility of mind are the first qualities
required of a theology student, it had always been impossible for him
to ask any questions.

One day M
^me
de Rênal was giving an order to her husband's valet, Julien's enemy.

'But madam, today's the last Friday in the month,' the man replied with a strange look.

'All right then,' said M
^me
de Rênal.

'Now look,' said Julien, 'he's off to that hay barn which used to be a
church and has recently been taken over again for divine office; but
what's he going to do there? This is one of the mysteries I've never
been able to solve.'

'It's a very salutary but rather peculiar institution,'
^*
replied M
^me
de Rênal. 'Women aren't admitted; the only thing I know about it is that they all address one another as equals.
^*
Our servant, for instance, will meet M. Valenod there, and this
proud and silly man won't take any offence at hearing himself
addressed familiarly by Saint-Jean, and he'll answer him in the same
vein. If you really want to know what goes on there, I'll ask M. de
Maugiron and M. Valenod for details. We pay twenty francs per servant
so as to stop them cutting our throats one day.'

Time flew by. The memory of his mistress's charms kept Julien's mind
off his black ambition. The need to avoid talking to her about dreary,
rational matters, since they belonged to

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opposing parties, added without his realizing it to the happiness he owed to her, and to the hold she was gaining over him.

At times when the presence of children with too much understanding
reduced them to speaking exclusively the language of cold reason, Julien
sat perfectly docile, gazing at her with love shining in his eyes,
listening to her explaining the way of the world. Often, in the midst
of an account of some piece of cunning roguery connected with a road
or the supply of goods, M
^me
de Rênal's mind would suddenly
wander to the point of incoherence; Julien would have to scold her,
and she would indulge in the same affectionate gestures with him as
with her children. For there were days when she had the illusion of
loving him like her own child. Wasn't she always having to answer his
naïve questions about countless simple things that a well-born child
is familar with by the age of fifteen? A moment later, she admired him
as her master. His genius was such as to frighten her; every day she
thought she discerned more clearly in this young abbé a man destined
for greatness. She saw him as pope, she saw him as prime minister
like Richelieu.
^*

'Will I live long enough to see you in your glory?' she asked Julien.
'There's a place waiting for a great man: religion and the monarchy
need one.'

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Are you only fit to be flung aside like the corpse of a people, without a soul, and with no blood left in its veins?

BISHOP'S ORATION
at the Chapel of St Clement

ON the third of September at ten in the evening an officer of the law
woke the whole of Verrières as he galloped up the main street with
the news that his majesty the King of ----- was arriving the following
Sunday; it was then Tuesday. The prefect gave permission, or rather
orders, for a guard of honour to be formed; as much pomp and ceremony
as possible had to be laid on. A messenger was dispatched to Vergy. M.
de Rênal arrived during the night to find the whole town in turmoil.
Everyone claimed a right to this, that or the other. Those with
least to do hired balconies to see the king's arrival.

Who shall command the guard of honour? M. de Rênal saw immediately
how important it was, in the interest of the houses that had to be
moved back, that M. de Moirod should have this charge. It might serve
as a credential for the post of first deputy. There was no impugning
M. de Moirod's zeal--it was beyond compare--but he had never ridden a
horse in his life. He was a man of thirty-six, timorous in all
respects, and he was equally afraid of falling off and of appearing
ridiculous.

The mayor summoned him at five o'clock in the morning.

'You observe, sir, that I seek your advice as if you already held the
post that all good citizens wish to see you occupy. In this
unfortunate town, factories are flourishing, the liberal party is
acquiring millions, it is set on getting into power, and will turn
anything to advantage. Let us think of the interests of the king, of
the monarchy and above all of our sacred religion. Who, sir, in your
opinion, can be entrusted with the command of the guard of honour?'

In spite of his terrible fear of horses, M. de Moirod ended up accepting this honour as he might have done martyrdom. 'I

-103-

shall manage to adopt a suitable manner,' he told the mayor. There
was barely enough time left to adapt the uniforms which had served
seven years before when a prince of the blood had passed through.

At seven o'clock M
^me
de Rênal arrived from Vergy with Julien and the children. She found
her drawing-room filled with liberal ladies who were preaching the
need for unity among the parties, and had come to beg her to exhort
her husband to include some of their number in the guard of honour.
One of them claimed that if her husband were not selected, he would go
bankrupt from grief. M
^me
de Rênal lost no time in getting rid of all these people. She seemed very preoccupied.

Julien was amazed and even more annoyed that she made a mystery to
him of what was agitating her. I saw it coming, he said to himself
bitterly; her love is eclipsed by the delightful prospect of having a
king as guest in her house. She's dazzled by all the fuss. She'll love
me again once the ideas of her caste have stopped bothering her.

The amazing thing was that he loved her all the more for it.

The decorators and upholsterers were beginning to fill the house; he
hovered for a long time in vain waiting for a chance to say something
to her. At last he caught her coming out of his own room carrying one
of his suits. They were alone. He attempted to speak to her. She ran
off refusing to listen to him. What a fool I am to love a woman like
this; ambition is driving her as mad as her husband.

She was even madder: one of her great desires, which she had never
confessed to Julien for fear of shocking him, was to see him dressed,
if only for a day, in something other than his dreary black suit. With
truly admirable skill for a woman so straightforward, she secured the
agreement first of M. de Moirod and then of the sub-prefect M. de
Maugiron that Julien be appointed guard of honour in preference to
five or six young men who were the sons of very well-to-do
manufacturers, and at least two of whom were models of piety. M.
Valenod, who was intending to lend his barouche to the prettiest woman
in town and show off his fine Normandy cobs, agreed to give one of
his horses to Julien, the individual he

-104-

hated most of all. But all the guards of honour owned or had borrowed
one of those beautiful sky-blue outfits with two colonel's epaulettes
in silver, which had been so dazzling seven years before. M
^me
de Rênal wanted a new outfit, and she only had four days left to send
off to Besançon and have despatched from there the dress uniform, the
arms, the hat etc.--everything required by a guard of honour. The
amusing thing about it all is that she thought it unwise to have
Julien's outfit made in Verrières. She wanted it to be a surprise for
him, and the town too.

Once he had
dealt with the guards of honour and the matter of public support, the
mayor had to organize a grand religious ceremony, as the King of -----
did not wish to pass through Verrières without visiting the famous
relic of St Clement which is preserved at Bray-le-Haut,
^*
a short league away from the town. A large number of clergy had to be
present, and this proved the most difficult matter to arrange; Father
Maslon, the new priest, wanted at all costs to ensure that Father
Chélan would not be there. M. de Rênal achieved nothing by
representing to him that this would be a rash step. The Marquis de La
Mole, whose ancestors had been governors of the province for so long,
had been chosen to accompany the King of -----. He had known Father
Chélan for thirty years. He would be certain to ask after him on
arrival in Verrières, and if he found him in disgrace, he was the kind
of man to go and fetch him out from the little house he had retired
to, accompanied by as much of the procession as he could muster. What a
slap in the face!

'I shall be dishonoured here and in Besançon', replied Father Maslon, 'if he appears among my clergy. A Jansenist,
^*
by God!'

'Whatever you may say about it, my dear Father,' retorted M. de
Rênal, 'I shall not expose the administration in Verrières to the risk
of a snub from M. de La Mole. You don't know him: he's an orthodox
figure at Court, but here in the provinces he's a satirical, sardonic
fellow given to jokes in poor taste, and always out to embarrass
people. He's quite capable, simply to amuse himself, of making a
laughing-stock of us in front of the liberals.'

-105-

It was not until well into the Saturday night, after three days of
negotiations, that Father Maslon's pride gave way to the mayor's fear,
which was gradually turning into courage. He was obliged to write an
unctuous letter to Father Chélan, begging him to attend the ceremony
in honour of the Bray-leHaut relic--if, that is, his advanced years and
his infirmities allowed him to do so. Father Chélan requested and
obtained a letter of invitation for Julien, who was to accompany him
as an under-deacon.

From Sunday
morning onwards thousands of peasants came in from the mountains round
about and flooded the streets of Verrières. It was a glorious sunny
day. At last, at about three o'clock, a great stir ran through the
whole crowd: a huge fire could be seen on a peak two leagues away from
Verrières. This signal announced that the king had just set foot
inside the département.
^*
Immediately, the pealing of all the bells, and repeated volleys from
an old Spanish cannon belonging to the town, betokened its joy at this
great event. Half the population climbed onto the roofs. All the
women were at their balconies. The guard of honour set off. The
dazzling uniforms were admired; everyone recognized a relative or a
friend. They laughed at M. de Moirod's fear as he kept a cautious hand
always at the ready to grab the pommel of the saddle. But one
comment put all others into oblivion: the first rider in the ninth
column was an exceedingly handsome fellow, very slender, whom no one
recognized at first. Soon a shout of indignation from some quarters
and an astonished silence from others signalled a universal reaction.
People recognized this young man riding one of M. Valenod's Normandy
cobs as young Sorel the carpenter's son. A unanimous shout went up
against the mayor, particularly from the liberals. What! Just because
this little workman dressed up as an abbé was tutor to his brats, he
had the nerve to appoint him guard of honour, over the heads of M.
----- and M. -----, who were rich manufacturers! 'These gentlemen',
said a banker's good lady, 'should certainly deliver a public snub to
this little upstart born in squalor.''He's sly as they come, and
wearing a sabre,' replied her neighbour. 'He'd be treacherous enough
to slash them in the face.'

-106-

Comments from noble circles were more dangerous. The ladies wondered
whether the mayor alone was responsible for this monstrous
impropriety. The general consensus gave him credit for scorning the
accident of low birth.

While all
these things were being said about him, Julien was the happiest of
men. Bold by nature, he was better on horseback than the majority of
young men in this hill town. He could see in the women's eyes that
their attention was on him.

His
epaulettes shone more brightly because they were new. His horse reared
up every few minutes and he felt on top of the world.

His happiness knew no bounds when, as they passed near the old
ramparts, the noise of the small cannon caused his horse to break
ranks. By sheer good luck he did not fall off, and from then on he
felt like a hero. He was one of Napoleon's aides de camp and was
leading the charge against a battery.

There was one person happier than he. First she had seen him go past
from one of the windows of the town hall; then, getting into her
barouche and quickly making a big detour, she arrived in time to
tremble when his horse broke ranks and carried him off. Finally, by
having her barouche gallop out of the town by another gate, she
managed to join the road which the king was due to pass along, and was
able to follow the guard of honour only twenty paces behind, in a
cloud of noble dust. Ten thousand peasants shouted 'Long live the
king!' when the mayor had the honour of addressing his majesty. An
hour later, when all the speeches were over and the king was about to
enter the town, the small cannon began to fire again in rapid bursts.
There followed an accident, not for the cannoneers who had proved
their mettle at Leipzig
^*
and Montmirail, but for the first-deputy-to-be, M. de Moirod. His
horse deposited him gently in the only dung-heap along the main road,
causing a mighty stir because he had to be dragged out of it so that
the king's carriage could pass.

His
majesty alighted at the fine new church, which was adorned that day
with all its crimson draperies. The king was due to dine and then get
back into his carriage immediately afterwards to go and venerate the
famous relic of St Clement.

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