The Deputy of Arcis | Page 4

of
which is to give another deputy to the Opposition. For all that, Antonin
Goulard, Simon's comrade and schoolmate, would be very well pleased
to see him a deputy because--"
"Come, sister, leave our own business of politics to us men. Where is
Simon?"
"He is dressing," she answered. "He was wise not to breakfast, for he is
very nervous. It is queer that, though he is in the habit of speaking in
court, he dreads this meeting as if he were certain to meet enemies."
"Faith! I have often had to face masked batteries, and my soul--I won't
say my body--never quailed; but if I had to stand there," said the old
soldier, pointing to the tea-table, "and face forty bourgeois gaping at
me, their eyes fixed on mine, and expecting sonorous and correct
phrases, my shirt would be wringing wet before I could get out a

word."
"And yet, my dear father," said Simon Giguet, entering from the
smaller salon, "you really must make that effort for me; for if there is a
man in the department of the Aube whose voice is all-powerful it is
assuredly you. In 1815--"
"In 1815," said the little old man, who was wonderfully well preserved,
"I did not have to speak; I simply wrote out a little proclamation which
brought us two thousand men in twenty-four hours. But it is a very
different thing putting my name to a paper which is read by a
department, and standing up before a meeting to make a speech.
Napoleon himself failed there; at the 18th Brumaire he talked nothing
but nonsense to the Five Hundred."
"But, my dear father," urged Simon, "it concerns my life, my fortune,
my happiness. Fix your eyes on some one person and think you are
talking to him, and you'll get through all right."
"Heavens!" cried Madame Marion, "I am only an old woman, but under
such circumstances and knowing what depends on it, I--oh! I should be
eloquent!"
"Too eloquent, perhaps," said the colonel. "To go beyond the mark is
not attaining it. But why make so much of all this?" he added, looking
at his son. "It is only within the last two days you have taken up this
candidacy of ideas; well, suppose you are not nominated,--so much the
worse for Arcis, that's all."
These words were in keeping with the whole life of him who said them.
Colonel Giguet was one of the most respected officers in the Grand
Army, the foundation of his character being absolute integrity joined to
extreme delicacy. Never did he put himself forward; favors, such as he
received, sought him. For this reason he remained eleven years a mere
captain of the artillery of the Guard, not receiving the rank of major
until 1814. His almost fanatical attachment to Napoleon forbade his
taking service under the Bourbons after the first abdication. In fact, his
devotion in 1815 was such that he would have been banished with so
many others if the Comte de Gondreville had not contrived to have his
name effaced from the ordinance and put on the retired list with a
pension, and the rank of colonel.
Madame Marion, /nee/ Giguet, had another brother who was colonel of
gendarmerie at Troyes, whom she followed to that town at an earlier

period. It was there that she married Monsieur Marion, receiver-
general of the Aube, who also had had a brother, the chief-justice of an
imperial court. While a mere barrister at Arcis this young man had lent
his name during the Terror to the famous Malin de l'Aube, the
representative of the people, in order to hold possession of the estate of
Gondreville. [See "An Historical Mystery."] Consequently, all the
support and influence of Malin, now become count and senator, was at
the service of the Marion family. The barrister's brother was made
receiver-general of the department, at a period when, far from having
forty applicants for one place, the government was fortunate in getting
any one to accept such a slippery office.
Marion, the receiver-general, inherited the fortune of his brother the
chief-justice, and Madame Marion that of her brother the colonel of
gendarmerie. In 1814, the receiver-general met with reverses. He died
when the Empire died; but his widow managed to gather fifteen
thousand francs a year from the wreck of his accumulated fortunes. The
colonel of gendarmerie had left his property to his sister on learning the
marriage of his brother the artillery officer to the daughter of a rich
banker of Hamburg. It is well known what a fancy all Europe had for
the splendid troopers of Napoleon!
In 1814, Madame Marion, half-ruined, returned to Arcis, her native
place, where she bought, on the Grande-Place, one of the finest houses
in the town. Accustomed to