Ferragus | Page 4

of late in cold blood, he might reveal the calm
atrocities, the surpassing tragedies concealed under family life. But he
chooses in preference gentler events,--those where scenes of purity
succeed the tempests of passion; where woman is radiant with virtue
and beauty. To the honor of the THIRTEEN be it said that there are
such scenes in their history, which may have the honor of being some
day published as a foil of tales to listeners,--that race apart from others,
so curiously energetic, and so interesting in spite of its crimes.
An author ought to be above converting his tale, when the tale is true,
into a species of surprise-game, and of taking his readers, as certain
novellists do, through many volumes and from cellar to cellar, to show
them the dry bones of a dead body, and tell them, by way of conclusion,
that THAT is what has frightened them behind doors, hidden in the
arras, or in cellars where the dead man was buried and forgotten. In
spite of his aversion for prefaces, the author feels bound to place the
following statement at the head of this narrative. Ferragus is a first
episode which clings by invisible links to the "History of the
THIRTEEN," whose power, naturally acquired, can alone explain
certain acts and agencies which would otherwise seem supernatural.

Although it is permissible in tellers of tales to have a sort of literary
coquetry in becoming historians, they ought to renounce the benefit
that may accrue from an odd or fantastic title-- on which certain slight
successes have been won in the present day. Consequently, the author
will now explain, succinctly, the reasons that obliged him to select a
title to his book which seems at first sight unnatural.
FERRAGUS is, according to ancient custom, a name taken by the chief
or Grand Master of the Devorants. On the day of their election these
chiefs continue whichever of the dynasties of their Order they are most
in sympathy with, precisely as the Popes do, on their accession, in
connection with pontifical dynasties. Thus the Devorants have
"Trempe-la Soupe IX.," "Ferragus XXII.," "Tutanus XIII.,"
"Masche-Fer IV.," just as the Church has Clement XIV., Gregory VII.,
Julius II., Alexander VI., etc.
Now, then, who are the Devorants? "Devorant" is the name of one of
those tribes of "Companions" that issued in ancient times from the great
mystical association formed among the workers of Christianity to
rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. Companionism (to coin a word) still
exists in France among the people. Its traditions, powerful over minds
that are not enlightened, and over men not educated enough to cast
aside an oath, might serve the ends of formidable enterprises if some
rough-hewn genius were to seize hold of these diverse associations. All
the instruments of this Companionism are well-nigh blind. From town
to town there has existed from time immemorial, for the use of
Companions, an "Obade,"--a sort of halting-place, kept by a "Mother,"
an old woman, half-gypsy, with nothing to lose, knowing everything
that happens in her neighborhood, and devoted, either from fear or
habit, to the tribe, whose straggling members she feeds and lodges.
This people, ever moving and changing, though controlled by
immutable customs, has its eyes everywhere, executes, without judging
it, a WILL,--for the oldest Companion still belongs to an era when men
had faith. Moreover, the whole body professes doctrines that are
sufficiently true and sufficiently mysterious to electrify into a sort of
tribal loyalty all adepts whenever they obtain even a slight development.
The attachment of the Companions to their laws is so passionate that
the diverse tribes will fight sanguinary battles with each other in
defence of some question of principle.

Happily for our present public safety, when a Devorant is ambitious, he
builds houses, lays by his money, and leaves the Order. There is many
a curious thing to tell about the "Compagnons du Devoir" [Companions
of the Duty], the rivals of the Devorants, and about the different sects
of working-men, their usages, their fraternity, and the bond existing
between them and the free-masons. But such details would be out of
place here. The author must, however, add that under the old monarchy
it was not an unknown thing to find a "Trempe-la- Soupe" enslaved to
the king sentenced for a hundred and one years to the galleys, but
ruling his tribe from there, religiously consulted by it, and when he
escaped from his galley, certain of help, succor, and respect, wherever
he might be. To see its grand master at the galleys is, to the faithful
tribe, only one of those misfortunes for which providence is responsible,
and which does not release the Devorants from obeying a power
created by them to be above them. It is but the passing exile of