[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, Ishall 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 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.Ithink 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 Ithink it more becoming to place it in the hands of M.le president.["Very good! very good!"] As for my illegal absence, Ireturned 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 Icould 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 congratulations.
The President.--I put to vote the admission of M.de Sallenauve as the deputy elected by the arrondissement of Arcis.
Nearly the whole Chamber rises and votes the admission; a few deputies of the Centre alone abstain from taking part in the demonstration.
M.de Sallenauve is admitted and takes the oath.
The President.--The order of the day calls for the reading of the Address to the Throne, but the chairman of the committee appointed to prepare it informs me that the document in question cannot be communicated to the Chamber before to-morrow.Nothing else being named in the order of the day, I declare this sitting adjourned.
The Chamber rose at half-past four o'clock.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
Note.--"The Deputy of Arcis," of which Balzac wrote and published the first part in 1847, was left unfinished at his death.He designated M.Charles Rabou, editor of the "Revue de Paris," as the person to take his notes and prepare the rest of the volume for the press.It is instructive to a student of Balzac to see how disconnected and out of proportion the story becomes in these later parts,--showing plainly that the master's hand was in the habit of pruning away half, if not more, of what it had written, or--to change the metaphor and give the process in his own language--that he put les grands pots dans les petits pots, the quarts into the pint pots."If a thing can be done in one line instead of two," he says, "I try to do it."Some parts of this conclusion are evidently added by M.Rabou, and are not derived from Balzac at all,--especially the unnecessary reincarnation of Vautrin.There is no trace of the master's hand here.The character is made so silly and puerile, and is so out of keeping with Balzac's strong portrait, which never weakens, that the translator has thought best, in justice to Vautrin, to omit all that is not absolutely necessary to connect the story.
End