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THE BALL AT SCEAUX
THE BALL AT SCEAUX HONORE DE BALZAC Translated By
Clara Bell
To Henri de Balzac his brother Honore.
The Comte de Fontaine head of one of the oldest families in Poitou
had served the Bourbon cause with intelligence and bravery during the
war in La Vendee against the Republic. After having escaped all the
dangers which threatened the royalist leaders during this stormy
period of modern history he was wont to say in jest "I am one of the
men who gave themselves to be killed on the steps of the throne." And
the pleasantry had some truth in it as spoken by a man left for dead
at the bloody battle of Les Quatre Chemins. Though ruined by
confiscation the staunch Vendeen steadily refused the lucrative posts
offered to him by the Emperor Napoleon. Immovable in his aristocratic
faith he had blindly obeyed its precepts when he thought it fitting
to choose a companion for life. In spite of the blandishments of a
rich but revolutionary parvenu who valued the alliance at a high
figure he married Mademoiselle de Kergarouet without a fortune but
belonging to one of the oldest families in Brittany.
When the second revolution burst on Monsieur de Fontaine he was
encumbered with a large family. Though it was no part of the noble
gentlemen's views to solicit favors he yielded to his wife's wish
left his country estate of which the income barely sufficed to
maintain his children and came to Paris. Saddened by seeing the
greediness of his former comrades in the rush for places and dignities
under the new Constitution he was about to return to his property
when he received a ministerial despatch in which a well-known magnate
announced to him his nomination as marechal de camp or brigadier-
general under a rule which allowed the officers of the Catholic
armies to count the twenty submerged years of Louis XVIII.'s reign as
years of service. Some days later he further received without any
solicitation ex officio the crosses of the Legion of Honor and of
Saint-Louis.
Shaken in his determination by these successive favors due as he
supposed to the monarch's remembrance he was no longer satisfied
with taking his family as he had piously done every Sunday to cry
"Vive le Roi" in the hall of the Tuileries when the royal family
passed through on their way to chapel; he craved the favor of a
private audience. The audience at once granted was in no sense
private. The royal drawing-room was full of old adherents whose
powdered heads seen from above suggested a carpet of snow. There the
Count met some old friends who received him somewhat coldly; but the
princes he thought ADORABLE an enthusiastic expression which escaped
him when the most gracious of his masters to whom the Count had
supposed himself to be known only by name came to shake hands with
him and spoke of him as the most thorough Vendeen of them all.
Notwithstanding this ovation none of these august persons thought of
inquiring as to the sum of his losses or of the money he had poured
so generously into the chests of the Catholic regiments. He
discovered a little late that he had made war at his own cost.
Towards the end of the evening he thought he might venture on a witty
allusion to the state of his affairs similar as it was to that of
many other gentlemen. His Majesty laughed heartily enough; any speech
that bore the hall-mark of wit was certain to please him; but he
nevertheless replied with one of those royal pleasantries whose
sweetness is more formidable than the anger of a rebuke. One of the
King's most intimate advisers took an opportunity of going up to the
fortune-seeking Vendeen and made him understand by a keen and polite
hint that the time had not yet come for settling accounts with the
sovereign; that there were bills of much longer standing than his on
the books and there no doubt they would remain as part of the
history of the Revolution. The Count prudently withdrew from the
venerable group which formed a respectful semi-circle before the
august family; then having extricated his sword not without some
difficulty from among the lean legs which had got mixed up with it
he crossed the courtyard of the Tuileries and got into the hackney cab
he had left on the quay. With the restive spirit which is peculiar to
the nobility of the old school in whom still survives the memory of
the League and the day of the Barricades (in 1588) he bewailed
himself in his cab loudly enough to compromise him over the change
that had come over the Court. "Formerly" he said to himself "every
one could speak freely to the King of his own little affairs; the
nobles could ask him a favor or for money when it suited them and
nowadays one cannot recover the money advanced for his service without
raising a scandal! By Heaven! the cross of Saint-Louis and the rank of
brigadier-general will not make good the three hundred thousand livres
I have spent out and out on the royal cause. I must speak to the
King face to face in his own room."
This scene cooled Monsieur de Fontaine's ardor all the more
effectually because his requests for an interview were never answered.
And indeed he saw the upstarts of the Empire obtaining some of the
offices reserved under the old monarchy for the highest families.
"All is lost!" he exclaimed one morning. "The King has certainly never
been other than a revolutionary. But for Monsieur who never
derogates and is some comfort to his faithful adherents I do not
know what hands the crown of France might not fall into if things are
to go on like this. Their cursed constitutional system is the worst
possible government and can never suit France. Louis XVIII. and
Monsieur Beugnot spoiled everything at Saint Ouen."
The Count in despair was preparing to retire to his estate
abandoning with dignity all claims to repayment. At this moment the
events of the 20th March (1815) gave warning of a fresh storm
threatening to overwhelm the legitimate monarch and his defenders.
Monsieur de Fontaine like one of those generous souls who do not
dismiss a servant in a torrent of rain; borrowed on his lands to
follow the routed monarchy without knowing whether this complicity in
emigration would prove more propitious to him than his past devotion.
But when he perceived that the companions of the King's exile were in
higher favor than the brave men who had protested sword in hand
against the establishment of the republic he may perhaps have hoped
to derive greater profit from this journey into a foreign land than
from active and dangerous service in the heart of his own country. Nor
was his courtier-like calculation one of these rash speculations which
promise splendid results on paper and are ruinous in effect. He was--
to quote the wittiest and most successful of our diplomates--one of
the faithful five hundred who shared the exile of the Court at Ghent
and one of the fifty thousand who returned with it. During the short
banishment of royalty Monsieur de Fontaine was so happy as to be
employed by Louis XVIII. and found more than one opportunity of
giving him proofs of great political honesty and sincere attachment.
One evening when the King had nothing better to do he recalled
Monsieur de Fontaine's witticism at the Tuileries. The old Vendeen did
not let such a happy chance slip; he told his history with so much
vivacity that a king who never forgot anything might remember it at
a convenient season. The royal amateur of literature also observed the
elegant style given to some notes which the discreet gentleman had
been invited to recast. This little success stamped Monsieur de
Fontaine on the King's memory as one of the loyal servants of the
Crown.
At the second restoration the Count was one of those special envoys
who were sent throughout the departments charged with absolute
jurisdiction over the leaders of revolt; but he used his terrible
powers with moderation. As soon as the temporary commission was ended
the High Provost found a seat in the Privy Council became a deputy
spoke little listened much and changed his opinions very
considerably. Certain circumstances unknown to historians brought
him into such intimate relations with the Sovereign that one day as
he came in the shrewd monarch addressed him thus: "My friend
Fontaine I shall take care never to appoint you to be director-
general or minister. Neither you nor I as employes could keep our
place on account of our opinions. Representative government has this
advantage; it saves Us the trouble We used to have of dismissing Our
Secretaries of State. Our Council is a perfect inn-parlor whither
public opinion sometimes sends strange travelers; however We can
always find a place for Our faithful adherents."
This ironical speech was introductory to a rescript giving Monsieur de
Fontaine an appointment as administrator in the office of Crown lands.
As a consequence of the intelligent attention with which he listened
to his royal Friend's sarcasms his name always rose to His Majesty's
lips when a commission was to be appointed of which the members were
to receive a handsome salary. He had the good sense to hold his tongue
about the favor with which he was honored and knew how to entertain
the monarch in those familiar chats in which Louis XVIII. delighted as
much as in a well-written note by his brilliant manner of repeating
political anecdotes and the political or parliamentary tittle-tattle
--if the expression may pass--which at that time was rife. It is well
known that he was immensely amused by every detail of his
Gouvernementabilite--a word adopted by his facetious Majesty.
Thanks to the Comte de Fontaine's good sense wit and tact every
member of his numerous family however young ended as he jestingly
told his Sovereign in attaching himself like a silkworm to the leaves
of the Pay-List. Thus by the King's intervention his eldest son
found a high and fixed position as a lawyer. The second before the
restoration a mere captain was appointed to the command of a legion
on the return from Ghent; then thanks to the confusion of 1815 when
the regulations were evaded he passed into the bodyguard returned to
a line regiment and found himself after the affair of the Trocadero a
lieutenant-general with a commission in the Guards. The youngest
appointed sous-prefet ere long became a legal official and director
of a municipal board of the city of Paris where he was safe from
changes in Legislature. These bounties bestowed without parade and
as secret as the favor enjoyed by the Count fell unperceived. Though
the father and his three sons each had sinecures enough to enjoy an
income in salaries almost equal to that of a chief of department
their political good fortune excited no envy. In those early days of
the constitutional system few persons had very precise ideas of the
peaceful domain of the civil service where astute favorites managed
to find an equivalent for the demolished abbeys. Monsieur le Comte de
Fontaine who till lately boasted that he had not read the Charter
and displayed such indignation at the greed of courtiers had before
long proved to his august master that he understood as well as the
King himself the spirit and resources of the representative system.
At the same time notwithstanding the established careers open to his
three sons and the pecuniary advantages derived from four official
appointments Monsieur de Fontaine was the head of too large a family
to be able to re-establish his fortune easily and rapidly.
His three sons were rich in prospects in favor and in talent; but he
had three daughters and was afraid of wearying the monarch's
benevolence. It occurred to him to mention only one by one these
virgins eager to light their torches. The King had too much good taste
to leave his work incomplete. The marriage of the eldest with a
Receiver-General Planat de Baudry was arranged by one of those royal
speeches which cost nothing and are worth millions. One evening when
the Sovereign was out of spirits he smiled on hearing of the
existence of another Demoiselle de Fontaine for whom he found a
husband in the person of a young magistrate of inferior birth no
doubt but wealthy and whom he created Baron. When the year after
the Vendeen spoke of Mademoiselle Emilie de Fontaine the King replied
in his thin sharp tones "Amicus Plato sed magis amica Natio." Then a
few days later he treated his "friend Fontaine" to a quatrain
harmless enough which he styled an epigram in which he made fun of
these three daughters so skilfully introduced under the form of a
trinity. Nay if report is to be believed the monarch had found the
point of the jest in the Unity of the three Divine Persons.
"If your Majesty would only condescend to turn the epigram into an
epithalamium?" said the Count trying to turn the sally to good
account.
"Though I see the rhyme of it I fail to see the reason" retorted the
King who did not relish any pleasantry however mild on the subject
of his poetry.
From that day his intercourse with Monsieur de Fontaine showed less
amenity. Kings enjoy contradicting more than people think. Like most
youngest children Emilie de Fontaine was a Benjamin spoilt by almost
everybody. The King's coolness therefore caused the Count all the
more regret because no marriage was ever so difficult to arrange as
that of this darling daughter. To understand all the obstacles we must
make our way into the fine residence where the official was housed at
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