The Deputy of Arcis | Page 6

Frederic Marest, have received, so they say,
equivocal answers which mean anything--/except yes/."
"Heavens!" cried the old man throwing up his arms. "What days we
live in, to be sure! Why, Lucie was the daughter of a hosier, and the
grand-daughter of a farmer. Does Madame Beauvisage want the Comte
de Cinq-Cygne for a son-in-law?"
"Don't laugh at Madame Beauvisage, brother. Cecile is rich enough to
choose a husband anywhere, even in the class to which the
Cinq-Cygnes belong. But there's the bell announcing the electors, and I
disappear --regretting much I can't hear what you are all going to say."

II
REVOLT OF A LIBERAL ROTTEN-BOROUGH
Though 1839 is, politically speaking, very distant from 1847, we can
still remember the elections produced by the Coalition, an ephemeral
effort of the Chamber of Deputies to realize the threat of parliamentary
government,--a threat /a la/ Cromwell, which without a Cromwell
could only end, under a prince "the enemy of fraud," in the triumph of
the present system, by which the Chambers and the ministers are like
the wooden puppets which the proprietor of the Guignolet shows
exhibits to the great satisfaction of wonder-stricken idlers in the streets.
The arrondissement of Arcis-sur-Aube then found itself in a singular
position. It supposed itself free to choose its deputy. From 1816 to 1836
it had always elected one of the heaviest orators of the Left, belonging
to the famous seventeen who were called "Great Citizens" by the liberal
party,--namely, Francois Keller, of the house of Keller Bros., the
son-in-law of the Comte de Gondreville. Gondreville, one of the most
magnificent estates in France, is situated about a mile from Arcis.
This banker, recently made count and peer of France, expected, no
doubt, to transfer to his son, then thirty years of age, his electoral
succession, in order to make him some day eligible for the peerage.
Already a major on the staff and a great favorite of the prince-royal,
Charles Keller, now a viscount, belonged to the court party of the
citizen-king. The most brilliant future seemed pledged to a young man
enormously rich, full of energy, already remarkable for his devotion to
the new dynasty, the grandson of the Comte de Gondreville, and
nephew of the Marechal de Carigliano; but this election, so necessary
to his future prospects, presented suddenly certain difficulties to
overcome.
Since the accession to power of the bourgeois class, Arcis had felt a
vague desire to show itself independent. Consequently, the last election
of Francois Keller had been disturbed by certain republicans, whose red
caps and long beards had not, however, seriously alarmed the bourgeois
of Arcis. By canvassing the country carefully the radical candidate
would be able to secure some thirty or forty votes. A few of the
townspeople, humiliated at seeing their town always treated as a rotten
borough, joined the democrats, though enemies to democracy. In
France, under the system of balloting, politico-chemical products are

formed in which the laws of affinity are reversed.
Now, to elect young Keller in 1839, after having elected his father for
twenty years, would show a monstrous electoral servitude, against
which the pride of the newly enriched bourgeoisie revolved, for they
felt themselves to be fully worth either Monsieur Malin, otherwise
called Comte de Gondreville, the Keller Bros., the Cinq-Cygnes, or
even, the King of the French.
The numerous partisans of old Gondreville, the king of the department
of the Aube, were therefore awaiting some fresh proof of his ability,
already so thoroughly tested, to circumvent this rising revolt. In order
not to compromise the influence of his family in the arrondissement of
Arcis, that old statesman would doubtless propose for candidate some
young man who could be induced to accept an official function and
then yield his place to Charles Keller,--a parliamentary arrangement
which renders the elect of the people subject to re-election.
When Simon Giguet sounded the old notary Grevin, the faithful friend
of the Comte de Gondreville, on the subject of the elections, the old
man replied that, while he did not know the intentions of the Comte de
Gondreville, he should himself vote for Charles Keller and employ his
influence for that election.
As soon as this answer of old Grevin had circulated through Arcis, a
reaction against him set in. Although for thirty years this provincial
Aristides possessed the confidence of the whole town,--having been
mayor of Arcis from 1804 to 1814 and again during the Hundred
Days,-- and although the Opposition had accepted him as their leader
until the triumph of 1830, at which period he refused the honors of the
mayoralty on the ground of his great age, and finally, although the town,
in order to manifest its affection for him, elected his son-in- law,
Monsieur Beauvisage, mayor in his stead, it now revolted against