The Deputy of Arcis

At this moment a disturbance occurred in the peers’ gallery; a lady had fainted; and several deputies, among them a physician, left the hall hastily. The sitting was momentarily suspended.

The President. – Ushers, open the ventilators. It is want of air that has caused this unfortunate accident. M. de Sallenauve, be good enough to resume your speech.

M. de Sallenauve. – Two words, gentleman, and I have finished. I think the petition to authorize a criminal prosecution has already lost something of its weight in the minds of my least cordial colleagues. But I have here a letter from the Romilly peasant-woman, my relation, duly signed and authenticated, withdrawing her charge and confirming all the explanations I have just had the honor to give you. I might read this letter aloud to you, but I think it more becoming to place it in the hands of M. le president. [“Very good! very good!”] As for my illegal absence, I returned to Paris early this morning, and I could have been in my seat at the opening of the Chamber; but, as M. de Canalis has told you, I had it much at heart not to appear in this hall until I could disperse the cloud which has so strangely appeared around my reputation. It has taken me the whole morning to obtain these papers. And now, gentlemen, you have to decide whether a few hours’ delay in taking his seat in this Chamber justifies you in sending a colleague back to his electors. But after all, whatever is done, whether some persist in thinking me a forger, or a libertine, or merely a negligent deputy, I feel no anxiety about the verdict of my electors. I can confidently assert that after a delay of a few weeks I shall return to you.

Cries on all sides. – The vote! the vote!

On leaving the tribune M. de Sallenauve receives many congratulations.

The President. – I put to vote the admission of M. de Sallenauve as the deputy elected by the arrondissement of Arcis.

Nearly the whole Chamber rises and votes the admission; a few deputies of the Centre alone abstain from taking part in the demonstration.

M. de Sallenauve is admitted and takes the oath.

The President. – The order of the day calls for the reading of the Address to the Throne, but the chairman of the committee appointed to prepare it informs me that the document in question cannot be communicated to the Chamber before to-morrow. Nothing else being named in the order of the day, I declare this sitting adjourned.

The Chamber rose at half-past four o’clock.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

Note. – “The Deputy of Arcis,” of which Balzac wrote and published the first part in 1847, was left unfinished at his death. He designated M. Charles Rabou, editor of the “Revue de Paris,” as the person to take his notes and prepare the rest of the volume for the press. It is instructive to a student of Balzac to see how disconnected and out of proportion the story becomes in these later parts, – showing plainly that the master’s hand was in the habit of pruning away half, if not more, of what it had written, or – to change the metaphor and give the process in his own language – that he put les grands pots dans les petits pots, the quarts into the pint pots. “If a thing can be done in one line instead of two,” he says, “I try to do it.” Some parts of this conclusion are evidently added by M. Rabou, and are not derived from Balzac at all, – especially the unnecessary reincarnation of Vautrin. There is no trace of the master’s hand here. The character is made so silly and puerile, and is so out of keeping with Balzac’s strong portrait, which never weakens, that the translator has thought best, in justice to Vautrin, to omit all that is not absolutely necessary to connect the story.

ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy

Arthez, Daniel d’ A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Letters of Two Brides

The Secrets of a Princess

Beauvisage (tenant)

The Gondreville Mystery

Beauvisage, Phileas

Cousin Betty

Bixiou, Jean-Jacques

The Purse

A Bachelor’s Establishment

The Government Clerks

Modeste Mignon

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Firm of Nucingen

The Muse of the Department

Cousin Betty

Beatrix

A Man of Business

Gaudissart II.

The Unconscious Humorists

Cousin Pons

Blondet, Virginie

Jealousies of a Country Town

The Secrets of a Princess

The Peasantry

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Another Study of Woman

A Daughter of Eve

Brandon, Lady Marie Augusta

The Lily of the Valley

La Grenadiere

Bridau, Joseph

The Purse

A Bachelor’s Establishment

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

A Start in Life

Modeste Mignon

Another Study of Woman

Pierre Grassou

Letters of Two Brides

Cousin Betty

Cadine, Jenny

Cousin Betty

Beatrix

The Unconscious Humorists

Camps, Octave de

Madame Firmiani

Camps, Madame Octave de

Madame Firmiani

The Government Clerks

A Woman of Thirty

A Daughter of Eve

Canalis, Constant-Cyr-Melchior, Baron de

Letters of Two Brides

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Modeste Mignon

The Magic Skin

Another Study of Woman

A Start in Life

Beatrix

The Unconscious Humorists

Carigliano, Duchesse de

At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

The Peasantry

Chargeboeuf, Melchior-Rene, Vicomte de

The Muse of the Department

Chocardelle, Mademoiselle

Beatrix

A Prince of Bohemia

A Man of Business

Cousin Betty

Cinq-Cygne, Laurence, Comtesse (afterwards Marquise de)

The Gondreville Mystery

The Secrets of a Princess

The Seamy Side of History

Cointet, Boniface

Lost Illusions

The Firm of Nucingen

Collin, Jacques

Father Goriot

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Dionis

Ursule Mirouet

Estorade, Louis, Chevalier, then Vicomte and Comte de l’

Letters of Two Brides

Estorade, Madame de l’

Letters of Two Brides

Ursule Mirouet

Estorade, Armand de l’

Letters of Two Brides

Fontanon, Abbe

A Second Home

The Government Clerks

Honorine

Franchessini, Colonel

Father Goriot

Gaston, Marie

La Grenadiere

Letters of Two Brides

Giguet, Colonel

The Gondreville Mystery

Gobseck, Sarah Van

Gobseck

Cesar Birotteau

The Maranas

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Gondreville, Malin, Comte de

The Gondreville Mystery

A Start in Life

Domestic Peace

Gothard

The Gondreville Mystery

Goujet, Abbe

The Gondreville Mystery

Grevin

A Start in Life

The Gondreville Mystery

Hauteserre, D’

The Gondreville Mystery

Hortense

A Man of Business

Hulot, Victorin

Cousin Betty

Keller, Francois

Domestic Peace

Cesar Birotteau

Eugenie Grandet

The Government Clerks

Keller, Madame Francois

Domestic Peace

The Thirteen

La Bastie la Briere, Madame Ernest de

Modeste Mignon

Cousin Betty

Lanty, Comte de

Sarrasine

Lanty, Comtesse de

Sarrasine

Lanty, Marianina de

Sarrasine

Lanty, Filippo de

Sarrasine

La Roche-Hugon, Martial de

Domestic Peace

The Peasantry

A Daughter of Eve

The Middle Classes

Cousin Betty

Lenoncourt-Givry, Duc de

Letters of Two Brides

Cousin Betty

Marest, Frederic

A Start in Life

The Seamy Side of History

Marion (of Arcis)

The Gondreville Mystery

Marion (brother)

The Gondreville Mystery

Mary

Letters of Two Brides

Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de

The Secrets of a Princess

Modeste Mignon

Jealousies of a Country Town

The Muse of the Department

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Letters of Two Brides

Another Study of Woman

The Gondreville Mystery

Maufrigneuse, Georges de

The Secrets of a Princess

The Gondreville Mystery

Beatrix

Maufrigneuse, Berthe de

Beatrix

The Gondreville Mystery

Michu, Francois

The Gondreville Mystery

Jealousies of a Country Town

Michu, Madame Francois

The Gondreville Mystery

Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de

The Thirteen

Father Goriot

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Another Study of Woman

Pierrette

Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de

Father Goriot

The Thirteen

Eugenie Grandet

Cesar Birotteau

Melmoth Reconciled

Lost Illusions

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

The Commission in Lunacy

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Modeste Mignon

The Firm of Nucingen

Another Study of Woman

A Daughter of Eve

Philippe

Letters of Two Brides

Rastignac, Eugene de

Father Goriot

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

The Ball at Sceaux

The Commission in Lunacy

A Study of Woman

Another Study of Woman

The Magic Skin

The Secrets of a Princess

A Daughter of Eve

The Gondreville Mystery

The Firm of Nucingen

Cousin Betty

The Unconscious Humorists

Rastignac, Laure-Rose and Agathe de

Father Goriot

Lost Illusions

Restaud, Ernest de

Gobseck

Restaud, Madame Ernest de

Gobseck

Restaud, Felix-Georges de

Gobseck

Rhetore, Duc Alphonse de

A Bachelor’s Establishment

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life

Letters of Two Brides

Albert Savarus

Ronquerolles, Marquis de

The Imaginary Mistress

The Peasantry

Ursule Mirouet

A Woman of Thirty

Another Study of Woman

The Thirteen

Saint-Hereen, Comtesse Moina de

A Woman of Thirty

A Daughter of Eve

Sallenauve, Comtesse de

Letters of Two Brides

Sarrasine, Ernest-Jean

Sarrasine

Stidmann

Modeste Mignon

Beatrix

Cousin Betty

Cousin Pons

The Unconscious Humorists

Suzon

A Man of Business

Tillet, Ferdinand du

Cesar Birotteau

The Firm of Nucingen

The Middle Classes

A Bachelor’s Establishment

Pierrette

Melmoth Reconciled

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

The Secrets of a Princess

A Daughter of Eve

Cousin Betty

The Unconscious Humorists

Trailles, Comte Maxime de

Cesar Birotteau

Father Goriot

Gobseck

Ursule Mirouet

A Man of Business

The Secrets of a Princess

Cousin Betty

Beatrix

The Unconscious Humorists

Troubert, Abbe Hyacinthe

The Vicar of Tours

Varlet

The Gondreville Mystery

Vien, Joseph-Marie

Sarrasine

Vinet

Pierrette

The Middle Classes-

Cousin Pons

Vinet, Olivier

Cousin Pons

The Middle Classes

Zambinella

Sarrasine