His Excellency the Minister | Page 5

ballet-girls of the Opéra. And that
was Gambetta. Ah! when he came to claim Monsieur Vaucorbeil's
hospitality, it was useless to crouch behind the cherry-colored silk
curtains of the manager's box, many glances were directed toward him,
and many prowling curiosities were awakened in the vicinity of the
manager's box. Little lassies of ten or twelve came and seized your
hand, saying:
"'Please, monsieur, point out Monsieur Gambetta to me--he is here--I
would so much like to see him.'
"And then Gambetta was pointed out to them during the entr'acte--after
which, delighted, they went off caracoling and pirouetting behind the
scenes:

"'You did not see Monsieur Gambetta, but I saw him!'
"This was popularity--and it must be confessed that only one man in
France to-day receives such marks of it. This man is Gambetta.
"Meanwhile Claretie's minister continues his walk through the
corridors of the Opéra house. He reaches the greenroom of the ballet
at last and exclaims:
"'And that is all!'
"Alas, yes, your Excellency, that is all!--"
And everything is only a "that is all," in this world. If one should set
himself carefully to weigh power or fame,--power, that force of which
Girardin said, however: "I would give fifty years of glory for one hour
of power,"--even if one tilted the scale, one would not find the weight
very considerable.
It would be necessary to have the resounding renown of a personality
like that one who, if I am to believe Monsieur Halévy, alone enjoyed
the privilege of revolutionizing the foyer of the ballet, in order to boast
of having been someone, or of having accomplished something.
A rather witty skeptic once said to a friend of his who had just been
appointed minister:
"My dear fellow, permit me as a practical man to ask you not to engage
in too many affairs. Events in this world are accomplished without
much meddling. If you attempt to do something to-day, everyone will
cry out: 'What! he is going to demolish everything!' If you do nothing,
they will cry: 'What! he does not budge! If I were minister, which God
forbid, I would say nothing--and let others act--I would do
nothing--and let others talk.'"
Everybody, very fortunately--and all ministers do not reason like this
jester. But the truth is that it is very difficult for an honest man in the
midst of political entanglements as Vaudrey was, to realize his dream.

When opportunities arise--those opportunities that march only at a
snail's pace--one is not allowed to make use of them, they are snatched
from one. They arrive, only to take wings again. And in those posts of
daily combat, one has not only against one the enemies who attack one
openly, which would be but a slight matter, a touch with a goad or a
prick of the spur, at most--but one has to contend with friends who
compromise, and servants who serve one badly.
Every man who occupies an office, whatever it may be, has for his
adversaries those who covet it, those who regret it, those who have
once filled it, and those who desire to fill it. What assaults too! Against
a successful rival, there is no infamy too base, no mine too deep, no
villainy too cruel, no lie too poisoned to be made use of--and the
minister, his Excellency, is like a hostage to Power.
And yet one more point, it is not in his enemies or his calumniators that
his danger lies. The real, absolute evil is in the system of routine and
ill-will which attack the statesmen of probity. It will be seen from these
pages that there is a warning bell destined, alas! to keep away from
those in power the messengers who would bring them the truth from
outside, the unwelcome and much dreaded truth.
The novel may sometimes be this stroke of the bell,--a stroke honest
and useful,--a disinterested warner, and I have striven to make
Monsieur le Ministre precisely that, in a small degree, for the political
world. I have essayed to paint this hell paved with some of the good
intentions. The success which greeted the appearance of this book,
might justify me in believing that I have succeeded in my task. I trust
that it will enjoy under its new form--so flattering to an author, that an
editor-artist is pleased to give it,--the success achieved under its first
form.
Monsieur le Ministre is connected with more than one recollection of
my life. I was called upon one day to follow to his last
resting-place--and it is on an occasion like this that one discovers more
readily and perceives more clearly life's ironies--one of those men
"who do nothing but create other men," a journalist. It was bitterly cold
and we stood before the open grave, just in front