Memoirs of a Physician (61 page)
” Why, sir, I have told you that I know the name under which he conceals himself, but
” But you do not know the one which he openly uses is that it ? “
” Yes, otherwise “
” Otherwise you would arrest him r
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” Instantly.”
” Well, my dear Monsieur de Sartines, it is very fortunate, as you said just now, that I arrived at this moment, for I will do you the service you require.”
” You ? “
“Yes ‘
“You will tell me his name ?”
“Yes.”
” His public name ? “
“Yes.”
” Then you know him ?”
“Perfectly well.”
“And what is his name ?” asked M. de Sartines, expecting some falsehood.
“The Count de.Fenix.”
” What, the name by which you were announced ? “
” The same. “
“Your name ?”
” My name.”
“Then, this Acharat, this Somini, this Marquis Danna, this Marquis Pellegrini, this Joseph Balsamo, is you ? ”
” Yes,” said Balsamo, quietly ” is myself.”
It was a minute before M. de Sartines could recover from the vertigo which this frank avowal caused him.
” You see, I had guessed as much,” said he. ” I knew you. I knew that Joseph Balsamo and the Count de Fenrx were the same.”
“Ah!” said Balsamo, “you are a great minister I confess it.”
“And you most imprudent,” said the magistrate, advancing toward the bell.
“Imprudent why ?”
“Because I am going to have you arrested.”
” What say you ? ” replied Balsamo, stepping between the magistrate and the bell. ” You are going to arrest me ? “
” Pardieu ! what can you do to prevent me, may I ask?”
“You ask me?”
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“Yes.”
” My dear lieutenant of police, I will blow your brains out.”
And Balsamo drew from his pocket a charming little pistol, mounted in silver gilt, which, from its appearance, might have been chased by Benvenuto Cellini, and calmly leveled it at the forehead of M. de Sartines, who turned pale and sunk into an armchair.”
” There ‘ said Balsamo, drawing another chair close to that occupied by the lieutenant of police, and sitting down ; “now that we are comfortably seated, we can chat a little.”
CHAPTER LVII.
CONVERSATION”.
M. DE SARTINES took a moment or two to recover from his rather severe alarm. He had seen the threatening muzzle of the pistol presented before his very eye ; lie had even felt the cold metal of the barrel upon his forehead. At last he recovered.
“Sir,” said he, “you have an advantage over me. Knowing what sort of a man I had to deal with, I did not take the precautions usually adopted against common male-factors.”
“Oh, sir,” replied Balsamo, “now yon are getting angry, and use injurious expressions. Do you not see how unjust yon are ? I come to do you service.”
M. de Sartines moved uneasily.
“Yes, sir, to serve you, “resumed Balsamo, ” and therefore you misunderstand my intentions ; you speak to me of conspirators at the very ‘time when I come to denounce a conspiracy to you.”
But Balsamo talked in vain. M. de Sartines did not at that moment pay any great attention to the words of his dangerous visitor, and the word conspiracy, which on other occasions would have been sufficient to make him bound from his seat, scarcely caused him to prick up his ears.
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” Since you know so well who I am, sir, you are aware of my mission in France. Sent by his majesty the Great Frederick, I am more or less secretly the ambassador of his Prussian majesty. Now, by ambassador is understood an inquirer ; in my quality of inquirer I am ignorant of nothing that happens, and a subject upon which I am particularly well-informed is the monopoly of grain.”
However unpretendingly Balsamo uttered these last words, they nevertheless produced more effect upon the lieutenant of police than all the others, for they made him attentive. He slowly raised his head.
” What is this affair about corn ? ” said he, affecting as much assurance as Balsamo himself had displayed at the commencement of the interview. ” Be good enough, in your turn, to instruct me, sir.”
“Willingly, sir,” said Balsamo. “This is the whole matter “
” I am all attention.”
” Oh, you do not need to tell me that. Some very clever speculators have persuaded his majesty the King of France that he ought to construct granaries for his people in case of scarcity. These granaries therefore have been constructed. While they were doing it, they thought it as well to make them large. Nothing was spared, neither stone nor brick, and they were made very large.”
” Well ? “
” Well, they had then to be filled. Empty granaries were useless, therefore they were filled ‘
” Well, sir,” said M. de Sartines, not seeing very clearly as yet what Balsamo was driving at.
” Well, you may readily conceive that to fill these very large granaries, a great quantity of grain was required. Is that not evident ? “
” Yes.”
” To continue, then. A large quantity of grain withdrawn from circulation is one way of starving the people ; for, mark this : any amount taken from the circulation is equivalent to a failure in the production. A thousand sacks of corn more in the granary are a thousand sacks of
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corn less in the market-place. If you only multiply these thousand sacks by ten, the corn will rise considerably.”
M. de Sartines was seized with an irritating cough. Balsamo paused, and waited quietly till the cough was gone.
” You see, then ‘ continued he, as soon as the lieutenant of police would permit him, ” you see that the speculator in these granaries is enriched by the amount of the rise in value. Is that clear to you ? “
” Perfectly clear, sir,” said M. de Sartines; “but, as far as I can understand, it seems that you have the presumption to denounce to me a conspiracy or a crime of which his majesty is the author.”
“Exactly,” said Balsamo, “yon understand me perfectly.”
” That is a bold step, sir ; and I confess that I am rather curious to see how his majesty will take your accusation ; I fear much the result will be precisely the same that I proposed to myself on looking over the papers in this box before your arrival. Take care, sir, your destination in either case will be the Bastile.”
“Ah ! now you do not understand me at all.”
“How so?”
” Good heavens ! how incorrect an opinion you form of me, and how deeply you wrong me, sir, in taking me for a fool ! What ! you imagine I intend to attack the king I, an ambassador, an inquirer ? Why, that would be the work of a simpleton ! Listen to the end, pray.”
M. de Sartines bowed.
” The persons who have discovered this conspiracy against the French people (forgive me for taking up your valuable time, sir, but you will see directly that it is not lost) they who have discovered this conspiracy against the French people are economists laborious and minute men, who, by their careful investigation of this underhand game, have discovered that the king does not play alone. They know well that his majesty keeps an exact register of the rate of corn in the different markets ; they know that his majesty rubs his hands with glee when the 20 DUMAS VOL. VII.
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rise has produced him eight or ten thousand crowns ; but they know also that beside his majesty there stands a man whose position facilitates the sales, a man who naturally, thanks to certain functions (he is a functionary, you must know), superintends the purchases, the arrivals, the pack-ing a man, in short, who manages for the king. Now, these economists these microscopic observers, as I call them will not attack the king, for of course they are not mad, but they will attack, my dear sir, the man, the functionary, the agent who thus haggles for his majesty.”
M. de Sartines endeavored in vain to restore the equilibrium of his wig.
“Now,” continued Balsamo, “I am coming to the point. Just as you, who have a police, knew that I was the Count de Fenix, so I know that you are Monsieur de Sartines.”
“Well, what then ?” said the embarrassed magistrate. ” Yes, I am Monsieur de Sartines. What a discovery ! “
” Ah ! but cannot you understand that this Monsieur de Sartines is precisely the man of the price list, of the underhand dealings, of the stowing away he who, either with or without the king’s cognizance, traffics with the food of twenty-seven millions of French people, whom his office requires him to feed on the best possible terms. Now, just imagine the effect of such a discovery. You are not much beloved by the people ; the king is not a very considerate man. As soon as the cries of the famish-ing millions demand your head, the king to avert all suspicion of connivance with you, if there is connivance or if there no connivance, to do justice will cause you to be hung upon a gibbet, like Enguerrand de Marigny. Do you recollect Enguerrand ? “
” Imperfectly,” said M. de Sartiues, turning very pale ; ” and it is a proof of very bad taste, I think, sir, to talk of gibbets to a man of my rank.”
” Oh ! if I alluded to it,” replied Balsamo, “it was because I think I see poor Enguerrand still before me. I assure you he was a perfect gentleman, from Normandy, of a very ancient family and a noble descent. He was
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chamberlain of France, captain of the Louvre, comptroller of finance and of buildings ; he was Count of Longueville, which county is more considerable than yours of Alby. Well, sir, I saw him hung upon the gallows of Montfaucon, which he had himself constructed. Thank God, it was not a crime to have said to him before the catastrophe, ‘ Enguerrand, my dear Enguerrand, take care you are dipping into the finances to an extent that Charles of Valois will never pardon.’ He would not listen to me, sir, and unfortunately he perished. Alas ! if you knew how many prefects of police I have seen, from Pontius Pilate down to Monsieur Bertin de Belille, Count de Bourdeilhes, Lord of Brantome, your predecessor, who first introduced the lantern and prohibited the scales.”
“M. de Sartines rose, and endeavored in vain to conceal the agitation which preyed upon him.
” Well ‘ said he, ” you can accuse me if you like. Of what importance is the testimony of a man such as you, whohas no influence or connections ? “
” Take care, sir,” said Balsamo ; “frequently those who seem to have no connections are connected far and wide ; and when I shall write the history of these corn speculations to my correspondent, Frederick, who you know is a philosopher when Frederick shall hasten to communicate the affair, with his comments upon it, to Monsieur Arouet de Voltaire when the latter, with his pen, whose reputation at least I hope you know, shall have metamorphosed it into a little comic tale in the style of < L’homme aux quarante Ecus’ when Monsieur d’Alembert, that excellent geometrician, shall have calculated that the corn withdrawn from the public consump-tion by you might have fed a hundred millions of men for two or three years when Helvetius shall have shown that the price of this corn, converted into crowns of six livres and piled up, would touch the moon, or into bank-notes, fastened together, would reach to St. Petersburg when this calculation shall have inspired Monsieur de la Harpe to write a bad drama, Diderot a family conversation, and Monsieur Jean Jacques Kousseau, of Geneva, who has a
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tolerably sharp bite when he chooses, a terrible paraphrase of this conversation, with his own commentaries when Monsieur Baron de Beaumarchais may Heaven preserve you from treading on his toes ! shall have written a memoir, Monsieur Grimm a little letter, Monsieur de Hoi-bach a thundering attack, Monsieur de Marmontelan amiable moral tale in which he will kill you by defending you badly when you shall be spoken of in the Cafe de la Eegence, the Palais Koyal, at Oudinet’s, at the king’s dancers’ (kept up, as you know, by Monsieur Nicolet) ah ! Count d’Alby, you will be in a much worse case than poor Enguerrand de Marigny (whom you would not hear me mention ) when he stood under the gallows for he asserted his innocence, and that with so much earnestness, that, on my word of honor, I believed him when he told me so.”
At these words, M. de Sartines, no longer paying any heed to decorum, took off his wig and wiped his bald pate, which was bathed in perspiration.
“Well,” said he, ” so be it. But all th; t will not prevent me in the least. Ruin me if you can ; you have your proofs, I have mine. Keep your secret, I shall keep the coffer.”
” Oh, sir,” said Balsamo, ” that is another error into which I am surprised that a man of your talents should fall ; this coffer “
” Well, what of it ? “
“You will not keep.”
” Oh !” exclaimed M. de Sartines, with a sarcastic smile, ” true ; I had forgotten that the Count de Fenix is a gentleman of the highway, who rifles travelers with the strong hand. I forgot your pistol, because you have replaced it in your pocket. Excuse me, my lord ambassador ! “
” But, good heavens ! why speak of pistols, Monsieur de Sartines ? You surely do not believe that I mean to carry off the coffer by main force ; that when on the stairs I may hear your bell ring, and your voice cry, ‘ Stop thief ! ‘ Oh, no ! When I say that you will not keep this coffer, I
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mean that you will restore it to me willingly and without constraint.”
” What, I ! ” exclaimed the magistrate, placing his clenched hand upon the disputed object with so much weight that he nearly broke -it.
“Yes, you.”
” Oh ! very well, sir, mock away ; but as to taking this coffer, I tell you you shall only have it with my life. And have I not risked my life a thousand times ? Do I not owe it, to the last drop, to the service of his majesty ? Kill me you can do so ; but the noise will summon my avengers, and I shall have voice enough left to convict you of all your crimes. Ah, give you back this coffer ! ” added he, with a bitter smile, ” all hell should not wrest it from me ! “
