The Deputy of Arcis [173]
they came. [Left: "Come! come!"]
/The President/.--Colonel, no provocations!
/M. le Colonel Franchessini/.--I am, however, of the opinion of the speaker who preceded me; I do not think that the delinquent has fled to escape the accusation against him. Neither that accusation, nor the effect it will produce upon your minds, nor even the quashing of his election would be able at this moment to occupy his mind. Do you wish to know what M. de Sallenauve is doing in England? Then read the English papers. For the last week they have rung with the praises of a new prima donna who has just made her first appearance at the London opera-house. [Violet murmurs; interruption.]
/A Voice/.--Such gossip is unworthy of this Chamber!
/M. le Colonel Franchessini/.--Gentlemen, being more accustomed to the frankness of camps than to the reticence of these precincts, I may perhaps have committed the impropriety of thinking aloud. The preceding speaker said to you that he believed M. de Sallenauve was employed in collecting his means of defence; well, I do not say to you "I believe," I tell you I /know/ that a rich stranger succeed in substituting his protection for what which Phidias, our colleague, was bestowing on his handsome model, an Italian woman-- [Fresh interruption. "Order! order!" "This is intolerable!"]
/A Voice/.--M. le president, silence the speaker!
Colonel Franchessini crosses his arms and waits till the tumult subsides.
/The President/.--I request the speaker to keep to the question.
/M. le Colonel Franchessini/.--The question! I have not left it. But, inasmuch as the Chamber refuses to hear me, I declare that I side with the minority of the committee. It seems to me very proper to send M. de Sallenauve back to his electors in order to know whether they intended to send a deputy or a lover to this Chamber--["Order! order!" Loud disturbance on the Left. The tumult increases.]
M. de Canalis hurries to the tribune.
/The President/.--M. le ministre of Public Works has asked for the floor; as minister of the king he has the first right to be heard.
/M. de Rastignac/.--It has not been without remonstrance on my part, gentlemen, that this scandal has been brought to your notice. I endeavored, in the name of the long friendship which unites me to Colonel Franchessini, to persuade him not to speak on this delicate subject, lest his parliamentary inexperience, aggravated in a measure by his witty facility of speech, should lead him to some very regrettable indiscretion. Such, gentleman, was the subject of the little conversation you may have seen that he held with me on my bench before he asked for the floor; and I myself have asked for the same privilege only in order to remove from your minds all idea of my complicity in the great mistake he has just, as I think, committed by condescending to the private details he has thought fit to relate to this assembly. But as, against my intention, and I may add against my will, I have entered the tribune, the Chamber will permit me, perhaps,-- although no ministerial interest is here concerned,--to say a few words. [Cries from the Centre: "Go on!" "Speak!"]
M. le ministre then went on to say that the conduct of the absent deputy showed contempt for the Chamber; he was treating it lightly and cavalierly. M. de Sallenauve had asked for leave of absence; but how or where had he asked for it? From a foreign country! That is to say, he began by taking it, and then asked for it! Did he trouble himself, as is usual in such cases, to give a reason for the request? No; he merely says, in his letter to your president, that he is forced to absent himself on "urgent business,"--a very convenient excuse, on which the Chamber might be depopulated of half its members. But, supposing that M. de Sallenauve's business was really urgent, and that he thought it of a nature not to be explained in a letter that would necessarily be made public, why had
/The President/.--Colonel, no provocations!
/M. le Colonel Franchessini/.--I am, however, of the opinion of the speaker who preceded me; I do not think that the delinquent has fled to escape the accusation against him. Neither that accusation, nor the effect it will produce upon your minds, nor even the quashing of his election would be able at this moment to occupy his mind. Do you wish to know what M. de Sallenauve is doing in England? Then read the English papers. For the last week they have rung with the praises of a new prima donna who has just made her first appearance at the London opera-house. [Violet murmurs; interruption.]
/A Voice/.--Such gossip is unworthy of this Chamber!
/M. le Colonel Franchessini/.--Gentlemen, being more accustomed to the frankness of camps than to the reticence of these precincts, I may perhaps have committed the impropriety of thinking aloud. The preceding speaker said to you that he believed M. de Sallenauve was employed in collecting his means of defence; well, I do not say to you "I believe," I tell you I /know/ that a rich stranger succeed in substituting his protection for what which Phidias, our colleague, was bestowing on his handsome model, an Italian woman-- [Fresh interruption. "Order! order!" "This is intolerable!"]
/A Voice/.--M. le president, silence the speaker!
Colonel Franchessini crosses his arms and waits till the tumult subsides.
/The President/.--I request the speaker to keep to the question.
/M. le Colonel Franchessini/.--The question! I have not left it. But, inasmuch as the Chamber refuses to hear me, I declare that I side with the minority of the committee. It seems to me very proper to send M. de Sallenauve back to his electors in order to know whether they intended to send a deputy or a lover to this Chamber--["Order! order!" Loud disturbance on the Left. The tumult increases.]
M. de Canalis hurries to the tribune.
/The President/.--M. le ministre of Public Works has asked for the floor; as minister of the king he has the first right to be heard.
/M. de Rastignac/.--It has not been without remonstrance on my part, gentlemen, that this scandal has been brought to your notice. I endeavored, in the name of the long friendship which unites me to Colonel Franchessini, to persuade him not to speak on this delicate subject, lest his parliamentary inexperience, aggravated in a measure by his witty facility of speech, should lead him to some very regrettable indiscretion. Such, gentleman, was the subject of the little conversation you may have seen that he held with me on my bench before he asked for the floor; and I myself have asked for the same privilege only in order to remove from your minds all idea of my complicity in the great mistake he has just, as I think, committed by condescending to the private details he has thought fit to relate to this assembly. But as, against my intention, and I may add against my will, I have entered the tribune, the Chamber will permit me, perhaps,-- although no ministerial interest is here concerned,--to say a few words. [Cries from the Centre: "Go on!" "Speak!"]
M. le ministre then went on to say that the conduct of the absent deputy showed contempt for the Chamber; he was treating it lightly and cavalierly. M. de Sallenauve had asked for leave of absence; but how or where had he asked for it? From a foreign country! That is to say, he began by taking it, and then asked for it! Did he trouble himself, as is usual in such cases, to give a reason for the request? No; he merely says, in his letter to your president, that he is forced to absent himself on "urgent business,"--a very convenient excuse, on which the Chamber might be depopulated of half its members. But, supposing that M. de Sallenauve's business was really urgent, and that he thought it of a nature not to be explained in a letter that would necessarily be made public, why had