The Deputy of Arcis
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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 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.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human ComedyArthez, Daniel d’ A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Letters of Two Brides
The Secrets of a Princess
Beauvisage (tenant)
The Gondreville Mystery
Beauvisage, Phileas
Cousin Betty
Bixiou, Jean-Jacques
The Purse
A Bachelor’s Establishment
The Government Clerks
Modeste Mignon
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Firm of Nucingen
The Muse of the Department
Cousin Betty
Beatrix
A Man of Business
Gaudissart II.
The Unconscious Humorists
Cousin Pons
Blondet, Virginie
Jealousies of a Country Town
The Secrets of a Princess
The Peasantry
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Another Study of Woman
A Daughter of Eve
Brandon, Lady Marie Augusta
The Lily of the Valley
La Grenadiere
Bridau, Joseph
The Purse
A Bachelor’s Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Start in Life
Modeste Mignon
Another Study of Woman
Pierre Grassou
Letters of Two Brides
Cousin Betty
Cadine, Jenny
Cousin Betty
Beatrix
The Unconscious Humorists
Camps, Octave de
Madame Firmiani
Camps, Madame Octave de
Madame Firmiani
The Government Clerks
A Woman of Thirty
A Daughter of Eve
Canalis, Constant-Cyr-Melchior, Baron de
Letters of Two Brides
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Modeste Mignon
The Magic Skin
Another Study of Woman
A Start in Life
Beatrix
The Unconscious Humorists
Carigliano, Duchesse de
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Peasantry
Chargeboeuf, Melchior-Rene, Vicomte de
The Muse of the Department
Chocardelle, Mademoiselle
Beatrix
A Prince of Bohemia
A Man of Business
Cousin Betty
Cinq-Cygne, Laurence, Comtesse (afterwards Marquise de)
The Gondreville Mystery
The Secrets of a Princess
The Seamy Side of History
Cointet, Boniface
Lost Illusions
The Firm of Nucingen
Collin, Jacques
Father Goriot
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Dionis
Ursule Mirouet
Estorade, Louis, Chevalier, then Vicomte and Comte de l’
Letters of Two Brides
Estorade, Madame de l’
Letters of Two Brides
Ursule Mirouet
Estorade, Armand de l’
Letters of Two Brides
Fontanon, Abbe
A Second Home
The Government Clerks
Honorine
Franchessini, Colonel
Father Goriot
Gaston, Marie
La Grenadiere
Letters of Two Brides
Giguet, Colonel
The Gondreville Mystery
Gobseck, Sarah Van
Gobseck
Cesar Birotteau
The Maranas
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Gondreville, Malin, Comte de
The Gondreville Mystery
A Start in Life
Domestic Peace
Gothard
The Gondreville Mystery
Goujet, Abbe
The Gondreville Mystery
Grevin
A Start in Life
The Gondreville Mystery
Hauteserre, D’
The Gondreville Mystery
Hortense
A Man of Business
Hulot, Victorin
Cousin Betty
Keller, Francois
Domestic Peace
Cesar Birotteau
Eugenie Grandet
The Government Clerks
Keller, Madame Francois
Domestic Peace
The Thirteen
La Bastie la Briere, Madame Ernest de
Modeste Mignon
Cousin Betty
Lanty, Comte de
Sarrasine
Lanty, Comtesse de
Sarrasine
Lanty, Marianina de
Sarrasine
Lanty, Filippo de
Sarrasine
La Roche-Hugon, Martial de
Domestic Peace
The Peasantry
A Daughter of Eve
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty
Lenoncourt-Givry, Duc de
Letters of Two Brides
Cousin Betty
Marest, Frederic
A Start in Life
The Seamy Side of History
Marion (of Arcis)
The Gondreville Mystery
Marion (brother)
The Gondreville Mystery
Mary
Letters of Two Brides
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 Gondreville Mystery
Maufrigneuse, Georges de
The Secrets of a Princess
The Gondreville Mystery
Beatrix
Maufrigneuse, Berthe de
Beatrix
The Gondreville Mystery
Michu, Francois
The Gondreville Mystery
Jealousies of a Country Town
Michu, Madame Francois
The Gondreville Mystery
Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de
The Thirteen
Father Goriot
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Another Study of Woman
Pierrette
Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de
Father Goriot
The Thirteen
Eugenie Grandet
Cesar Birotteau
Melmoth Reconciled
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Commission in Lunacy
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Modeste Mignon
The Firm of Nucingen
Another Study of Woman
A Daughter of Eve
Philippe
Letters of Two Brides
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 Gondreville Mystery
The Firm of Nucingen
Cousin Betty
The Unconscious Humorists
Rastignac, Laure-Rose and Agathe de
Father Goriot
Lost Illusions
Restaud, Ernest de
Gobseck
Restaud, Madame Ernest de
Gobseck
Restaud, Felix-Georges de
Gobseck
Rhetore, Duc Alphonse de
A Bachelor’s Establishment
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Letters of Two Brides
Albert Savarus
Ronquerolles, Marquis de
The Imaginary Mistress
The Peasantry
Ursule Mirouet
A Woman of Thirty
Another Study of Woman
The Thirteen
Saint-Hereen, Comtesse Moina de
A Woman of Thirty
A Daughter of Eve
Sallenauve, Comtesse de
Letters of Two Brides
Sarrasine, Ernest-Jean
Sarrasine
Stidmann
Modeste Mignon
Beatrix
Cousin Betty
Cousin Pons
The Unconscious Humorists
Suzon
A Man of Business
Tillet, Ferdinand du
Cesar Birotteau
The Firm of Nucingen
The Middle Classes
A Bachelor’s Establishment
Pierrette
Melmoth Reconciled
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
Cousin Betty
The Unconscious Humorists
Trailles, Comte Maxime de
Cesar Birotteau
Father Goriot
Gobseck
Ursule Mirouet
A Man of Business
The Secrets of a Princess
Cousin Betty
Beatrix
The Unconscious Humorists
Troubert, Abbe Hyacinthe
The Vicar of Tours
Varlet
The Gondreville Mystery
Vien, Joseph-Marie
Sarrasine
Vinet
Pierrette
The Middle Classes-
Cousin Pons
Vinet, Olivier
Cousin Pons
The Middle Classes
Zambinella
Sarrasine