"I or another. I will hasten back as soon as I can; but you understand, I must put my department in order for a six months" absence."
"A good journey to you, then, Monsieur le procureur-general," replied Maxime, sarcastically.
Left to himself, Monsieur de Trailles had a period of discouragement, resulting from the discovery that these two political Bertrands meant that his paw should pull the chestnuts from the fire. Rastignac"s behavior particularly galled him. His mind went back to their first interview at Madame Restaud"s, twenty years earlier, when he himself held the sceptre of fashion, and Rastignac, a poor student, neither knew how to come into a room nor how to leave it. [See "Pere Goriot."] And now Rastignac was peer of France and minister, while he, Maxime, become his agent, was obliged with folded arms to hear himself told that his plot was weak and he must carry it out alone, if at all.
But this discouragement did not last.
"Yes!" he cried to himself, "I _will_ carry it out; my instinct tells me there is something in it. What nonsense!--a Dorlange, a n.o.body, to attempt to checkmate Maxime de Trailles and make a stepping-stone of my defeat! To my solicitor"s," he said to the coachman, opening the door of the carriage himself.
Desroches was at home; and Monsieur de Trailles was immediately admitted into his study.
Desroches was a lawyer who had had, like Raffaelle, several manners.
First, possessor of a practice without clients, he had made fish of every case that came into his net; and he felt himself, in consequence, little respected by the court. But he was a hard worker, well versed in all the ins and outs of chicanery, a keen observer, and an intelligent reader of the movements of the human heart. Consequently he had made for himself, in course of time, a very good practice; he had married a rich woman, and the moment that he thought himself able to do without crooked ways he had seriously renounced them. In 1839 Desroches had become an honest and skilful solicitor: that is to say, he a.s.sumed the interests of his clients with warmth and ability; he never counselled an openly dishonorable proceeding, still less would he have lent a hand to it.
As to that fine flower of delicacy to be met with in Derville and some others like him, besides the sad fact that it is difficult to keep its fragrance from evaporating in this business world of which Monsieur de Talleyrand says, "Business means getting the property of others," it is certain that it can never be added to any second state of existence.
The loss of that bloom of the soul, like that of other virginities, is irreparable. Desroches had not aspired to restore it to himself. He no longer risked anything ign.o.ble or dishonest, but the good tricks admitted the code of procedure, the good traps, the good treacheries which could be legitimately played off upon an adversary, he was very ready to undertake.
Desroches was moreover a man of parts and witty; loving the pleasures of the table, and like all men perpetually the slaves of imperious toil, he felt the need of vigorous amus.e.m.e.nt, taken on the wing and highly spiced. While purifying after a fashion his judicial life, he still continued the legal adviser of artists, men of letters, actresses, courtesans, and elegant bohemians like Maxime de Trailles, because he liked to live their life; they were sympathetic to him as he to them.
Their witty _argot_, their easy morals, their rather loose adventures, their expedients, their brave and honorable toil, in a word, their greatness and their weakness,--he understood it all marvellously well; and, like an ever-indulgent providence, he lent them his aid whenever they asked for it. But in order to conceal from his dignified and more valuable clients whatever might be compromising in the _clientele_ he really preferred, Desroches had his days of domesticity when he was husband and father, especially on Sundays. He appeared in the Bois de Boulogne in a modest caleche beside his wife (whose ugliness revealed the size of her _dot_), with three children on the front seat, who were luckless enough to resemble their mother. This family picture, these virtuous Dominical habits, recalled so little the week-day Desroches, dining in cafes with all the male and female _viveurs_ of renown, that one of them, Malaga, a circus-rider, famous for her wit and vim, remarked that lawyers ought not to be allowed to masquerade in that way and deceive the public with fict.i.tious family joys.
It was to this relative integrity that de Trailles now went for counsel, as he never failed to do in all the many difficulties he encountered in life. Following a good habit, Desroches listened, without interrupting, to the long explanation of the case submitted to him. As Maxime hid nothing from this species of confessor, he gave his reasons for wishing to injure Sallenauve, representing him, in all good faith, as having usurped the name under which he was elected to the Chamber,--his hatred making him take the possibility for positive evidence.
In his heart, Desroches did not want to take charge of an affair in which he saw not the slightest chance of success; but he showed his lax integrity by talking over the affair with his client as if it were an ordinary case of legal practice, instead of telling him frankly his opinion that this pretended "case" was a mere intrigue. The number of things done in the domain of evil by connivance in speech, without proceeding to the actual collusion of action, are incalculable.
"In the first place," said Desroches, when the matter was all explained, "a civil suit is not to be thought of. Your Romilly peasant-woman might have her hands full of proofs, but she has no ground herself to stand upon; she has no legal interest in contesting the rights of this recognized natural son."
"Yes, that is what Vinet said just now."
"As for the criminal case, you could, no doubt, compel it by giving information to the police authorities of this alleged imposture--"
"Vinet," interrupted Maxime, "inclined to the criminal proceeding."
"Yes, but there are a great many objections to it. In the first place, in order that the complaint be received at all, you must produce a certain amount of proof; then, supposing it is received, and the authorities are determined to pursue the case, you must have more evidence of criminality than you have now; and, moreover, supposing that you can show that the so-called Marquis de Sallenauve committed a fraud, how will you prove that the so-called son was privy to it? He might have been the dupe of some political schemer."
"But what interest could such a schemer have in giving Dorlange the many advantages he has derived from the recognition?"
"Ah! my dear fellow, in political manners all queer proceedings are possible; there is no such fertile source for compilers of _causes celebres_ and novelists. In the eyes of the law, you must remember, the counterfeiting of a person is not always a crime."
"How so?" asked Maxime.
"Here," said Desroches, taking up the Five Codes; "do me the favor to read Article 5 of the Penal Code, the only one which gives an opening to the case you have in mind."
Maxime read aloud the article, which was as follows:--
""Any functionary or public officer who, in the exercise of his function, shall commit forgery--either by false signatures, by alterations of deeds, writings, or signatures, or by counterfeiting persons--" There, you see," said Maxime, interrupting himself,--""by counterfeiting persons--""
"Go on," insisted Desroches.
""--by counterfeiting persons,"" resumed de Trailles, ""either by writings made or intercalated in the public records or other doc.u.ments, shall be punished by imprisonment at hard labor for life.""
Maxime lingered lovingly over the last words, which gave his revenge a foretaste of the fate that awaited Sallenauve.
"My dear count," said Desroches, "you do as the barristers do; they read to the jury only so much of a legal doc.u.ment as suits their point of view. You pay no attention to the fact that the only persons affected by this article are _functionaries_ or _public officers_."
Maxime re-read the article, and convinced himself of the truth of that remark.
"But," he objected, "there must be something elsewhere about such a crime when committed by private individuals."
"No, there is not; you can trust my knowledge of jurisprudence,--the Code is absolutely silent in that direction."
"Then the crime we wish to denounce can be committed with impunity?"
"Its repression is always doubtful," replied Desroches. "Judges do sometimes make up for the deficiency of the Code in this respect. Here,"
he added, turning over the leaves of a book of reference,--"here are two decisions of the court of a.s.sizes, reported in Carnot"s Commentary on the Penal Code: one of July 7, 1814, the other April 24, 1818,--both confirmed by the court of appeals, which condemn for forgery, by "counterfeiting persons," individuals who were neither functionaries nor public officers: but these decisions, unique in law, rest on the authority of an article in which the crime they punish is not even mentioned; and it is only by elaborate reasoning that they contrived to make this irregular application of it. You can understand, therefore, how very doubtful the issue of such a case would be, because in the absence of a positive rule you can never tell how the magistrates might decide."
"Consequently, your opinion, like Rastignac"s, is that we had better send our peasant-woman back to Romilly and drop the whole matter?"
"There is always something to be done if one knows how to set about it,"
replied Desroches. "There is a point that neither you nor Rastignac nor Vinet seems to have thought of; and that is, to proceed in a criminal case against a member of the national representation, except for flagrant crime, requires the consent and authority of the Chamber."
"True," said Maxime, "but I don"t see how a new difficulty is going to help us."
"You wouldn"t be sorry to send your adversary with the galleys," said Desroches, laughing.
"A villain," added Maxime, "who may make me lose a rich marriage; a fellow who poses for stern virtue, and then proceeds to trickery of this kind!"
"Well, you must resign yourself to a less glorious result; but you can make a pretty scandal, and destroy the reputation of your man; and that ought, it seems to me, to serve your ends."
"Of course,--better that than nothing."
"Well, then, here"s what I advise. Don"t let your peasant-woman lodge her complaint before the criminal court, but make her place in the hands of the president of the Chamber of deputies a simple request for permission to proceed. Probably the permission will not be granted, and the affair will have to stop at that stage; but the matter being once made known will circulate through the Chambers, the newspapers will get hold of it and make a stir, and the ministry, _sub rosa_, can envenom the vague accusation through its friends."
"_Parbleu_! my dear fellow," cried Maxime, delighted to find a way open to his hatred, "you"ve a strong head,--stronger than that of these so-called statesmen. But this request for permission addressed to the president of the Chamber, who is to draw it up?"
"Oh! not I," said Desroches, who did not wish to mix himself up any farther in this low intrigue. "It isn"t legal a.s.sistance that you want; this is simply firing your first gun, and I don"t undertake that business. But you can find plenty of briefless barristers always ready to put their finger in the political pie. Ma.s.sol, for instance, can draw it up admirably. But you must not tell him that the idea came from me."
"Oh! as for that," said Maxime, "I"ll take it all on my own shoulders.
Perhaps in this form Rastignac may come round to the project."
"Yes, but take care you don"t make an enemy of Vinet, who will think you very impertinent to have an idea which ought, naturally, to have come into the head of so great a parliamentary tactician as himself."
"Well, before long," said Maxime, rising, "I hope to bring the Vinets and Rastignacs, and others like them, to heel. Where do you dine this evening?" he added.
"In a cave," replied Desroches, "with a band."
"Where"s that?"
"I suppose, in the course of your erotic existence, you have had recourse to the good offices of a certain Madame de Saint-Esteve?"