There, in the cool shade and the peace of the foliage8, they enjoyed an excellent dinner, and exchanged views upon familiar topics, discoursing9 in turn upon learning and the divers10 fashions of loving. Then, without preconcerted design, they yielded to an inevitable11 impulse and spoke12 of the Affair.
Monsieur Mazure was greatly perturbed13 by the Affair. Being both by persuasion14 and temperament15 a Jacobin and a patriot16, after the manner of Barère and Saint-Just, he had joined the Nationalist hosts of his own department, and in company with Royalists and clerics, his bêtes noires, he had, in the superior interest of his country, uplifted his voice for the unity17 and indivisibility of the Republic. He had even become a member of the league of which Monsieur Panneton de La Barge18 was the president, and as this league had voted an address to the King it was slowly dawning upon him that it was anti-republican, and he no longer felt easy in respect of its principles. As a matter of fact, being accustomed to dealing19 with documents, and quite capable of bringing his intelligence to bear upon a critical inquiry20 of a fairly simple character, he experienced some difficulty in upholding a system that displayed an audacity21 hitherto unexampled in the fabrication and falsification of documents intended to ruin an innocent man. He felt that he was surrounded by imposture22, and yet he would not admit the fact that he had made a mistake, such an admission being possible only to minds of unusual quality.
He protested, on the contrary, that he was right, and it is only fair to admit that he was kept in ignorance, constrained23, crushed and compressed by the compact mass of his fellow-citizens. The knowledge of the inquiry and the discussion of the documents had not yet reached his little town, comfortably situated24 on the green banks of a sluggish25 river. There, obstructing26 the light, filling public offices and sitting on the bench, was that host of politicians and churchmen, whom Monsieur Méline had formerly27 sheltered beneath the skirts of his provincial28 frock-coat, waxing prosperous in acquiescent30 ignorance of the truth. This elect society, which enlisted31 crime in the interests of patriotism32 and religion, made it respectable for all, even for the Radical-Socialist chemist Mandar.
The department was all the more safely protected against any revelation of the most notorious facts in that it was administered by an Israelitish prefect.
Monsieur Worms-Clavelin held himself bound, by the very fact that he was a Jew, to serve the interests of the anti-Semites of his administration with greater zeal33 than a Catholic prefect would have displayed in his place. With a prompt and sure hand he stifled34 in his department the growing faction35 in favour of revision. He favoured the leagues of the clerical agitators36, causing them to prosper29 so wonderfully that citizens Francis de Pressensé, Jean Psichari, Octave Mirbeau and Pierre Quillard, who came to the departmental capital to speak their minds as free men, felt as though they had stepped straight into a city of the sixteenth century. They encountered none but idolatrous papists, howling for their death, who wanted to massacre38 them. And as Monsieur Worms-Clavelin, who since the judgment39 of 1894 was fully37 convinced that Dreyfus was innocent, made no mystery of that conviction after dinner, as he smoked his cigar, the Nationalists whose cause he favoured had good reason to count on a loyal support which was not dependent upon personal feeling.
This firm hold over the department whose archives he kept profoundly impressed Monsieur Mazure, who was an ardent40 Jacobin and capable of heroism41, but who, like the company of heroes, marched only to the sound of the drum. Monsieur Mazure was not a brute42. He felt that he owed it to others and to himself to explain his attitude.
“My dear Bergeret, I am a patriot and a republican; I do not know whether Dreyfus is guilty or innocent. I do not want to know; it’s not my business. He may be innocent, but there is no doubt that the Dreyfusites are guilty. They have been guilty of a great impertinence in substituting their own personal opinion for a decision given by republican justice. Besides, they have stirred up the whole country. Trade is suffering.”
“There’s a pretty woman,” said Monsieur Bergeret, “tall, straight and slender as a young tree.”
“You speak very frivolously,” returned Monsieur Bergeret. “A doll, when alive, is a great force of Nature.”
“I don’t trouble my head about that woman or any other,” said Monsieur Mazure. “Perhaps because my own wife is a very well-made woman.”
So he said and did his best to believe. The truth was he had married the old servant and mistress of his two predecessors45. Bourgeois46 society had kept aloof47 from her for ten years, but as soon as Monsieur Mazure joined the Nationalist leagues of the department she found herself received in the best society of the town. General Cartier de Chalmot’s wife went about with her, and the wife of Colonel Despautères could hardly tear herself away from her.
“The reason why I attach special blame to the Dreyfusites,” added Monsieur Mazure, “is that they have weakened our national defence and lowered our prestige in the eyes of other nations.”
The sun was shedding his last crimson48 rays between the black tree-trunks. Monsieur Bergeret felt that he must in honesty reply:
“Just consider, my dear Mazure,” he said, “that if the affairs of an obscure captain have become a matter of national importance the fault is not ours, but that of the ministers who erected49 the support of an erroneous and illogical sentence into a system of government. If the Keeper of the Seals had done his duty and proceeded to the revision of the trial as soon as it was clearly proved to be necessary, no one would have said anything. It was during this lamentable50 evasion51 of justice that protests began to make themselves heard. What upset the whole country, what is calculated to injure us abroad and at home, was that those in authority obstinately52 persisted in a monstrous53 piece of wickedness which increased day by day under the covering of lies with which they strove to hide it.”
“What else would you expect?” said Monsieur Mazure. “I am a good patriot and a republican.”
“Then since you are a republican,” said Monsieur Bergeret, “you must feel an alien, a solitary54, among your fellow-citizens. There are few republicans left in France to-day. The Republic herself has created none. It’s absolute government that makes republicans. The love of liberty is sharpened on the grinding-stone of royalty55 or imperialism56, but it grows blunt in a country where people believe they are free. People seldom care much for what they possess. Reality as a rule is not a very pleasant thing. One needs wisdom to be content with it. We can safely say that to-day Frenchmen under fifty are not republicans.”
“They are not monarchists.”
“No, they are not monarchists either, for while as a rule men care little for what they have, because what they have is not usually pleasant, they fear change because it contains the Unknown. It is the Unknown that frightens them most; that is the source and fountain-head of all fear. You see that in universal suffrage57, which would produce an incalculable effect but for this terror of the Unknown, which annihilates58 it. It contains a force which ought to perform prodigies59 of good or evil, but the fear of the change contained in the Unknown gives it power, and the monster bows his head to the yoke60.”
“Would the gentlemen care for a pêche au marasquin?” inquired the head waiter.
His voice was gentle and persuasive61, and none of the occupied tables escaped his vigilant62 gaze. But Monsieur Bergeret did not reply; he was watching a lady who was advancing along the sandy path, wearing a Louis XIV “church-lamp” hat of rice-straw, covered with roses, and a white muslin gown, the body of which was loose and floating, drawn63 in at the waist by a pink sash. The ruche round her neck looked like the collar of wings enclosing the face of an angel. Monsieur Bergeret recognized Madame de Gromance, whom he had more than once met, to his secret agitation64, in the dull monotony of provincial streets. He saw that she was accompanied by a very smart young man, whose attitude was altogether too correct for him to appear anything but bored.
He stopped at the table next to that occupied by Monsieur Bergeret and his friend, when Madame de Gromance happened to glance round and see Monsieur Bergeret. An expression of displeasure came over her face, and she led her companion to the remotest corner of the lawn, where they sat down under the shade of a large tree. The sight of Madame de Gromance filled Monsieur Bergeret with that bitter-sweet feeling of which a pleasure-loving soul is conscious at the sight of the beauty of living forms.
He asked the head waiter whether he knew the lady and gentleman.
“I know them in a kind of way,” replied the waiter. “They often come here, but I don’t know their names. We see so many people! On Saturday the place was crowded. There were covers all over the grass and under the trees, as far as the hedge that encloses the lawn.”
“Really?” said Monsieur Bergeret. “There were covers under all those trees?”
“Yes, and on the terrace as well, and in the kiosk.”
Busily cracking almonds, Monsieur Mazure had not noticed the muslin dress. He inquired which lady they were speaking of. Monsieur Bergeret, however, decided65 to keep Madame de Gromance’s secret, and made no reply.
Night had fallen. Here and there a lamp whose radiance was softened66 by a shade of white or pink paper marked the position of a table and revealed shapes surrounded by faint haloes of light. Beneath one of these discreet67 lights the little white plume68 surmounting69 a straw hat was drawing closer and closer to the gleaming cranium of an elderly man. At the next table were two youthful faces, more unsubstantial than the moths70 that fluttered around them. Not in vain was the white round shape of the moon ascending71 the paling sky.
“I trust you are satisfied, gentlemen,” said the head waiter.
And without waiting for a reply he directed his vigilant steps elsewhere.
“Look at those people dining in the kindly72 darkness,” said Monsieur Bergeret with a smile. “Those little white plumes73, and right at the back, under that great tree, those roses on a Louis Quatorze straw hat. They are eating, drinking and making love, and to this man they are nothing but covers! They have instincts and desires, even thoughts perhaps, and they are covers! What strength of mind and of language! This knight74 of the appetite is a great man.”
“We have had a very pleasant dinner,” said Monsieur Mazure, rising. “This restaurant is frequented by the very smartest people.”
“Their smartness,” replied Monsieur Bergeret, “was possibly not of the highest category. But some of them, certainly, were graceful75 and charming enough. I must confess, however, that it gives me less pleasure to contemplate76 these fashionable folk since a vile77 conspiracy78 has aroused the sickly fanaticism79 and thoughtless cruelty of their poor little brains. The Affair has revealed the moral sickness with which our fashionable society is afflicted80, just as the vaccine81 of Koch discovers the lesions of tuberculosis82 in an infected organism. Fortunately the depths of the human ocean lie beneath this gilded83 scum. But when will my country be delivered from ignorance and hatred84?”
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1
canvass
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| v.招徕顾客，兜售；游说；详细检查，讨论 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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benevolently
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| adv.仁慈地，行善地 | |
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scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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acrid
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| adj.辛辣的，尖刻的，刻薄的 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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discoursing
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| 演说（discourse的现在分词形式） | |
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divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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imposture
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| n.冒名顶替，欺骗 | |
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constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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obstructing
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| 阻塞( obstruct的现在分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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acquiescent
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| adj.默许的，默认的 | |
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enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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faction
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| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
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agitators
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| n.（尤指政治变革的）鼓动者( agitator的名词复数 )；煽动者；搅拌器；搅拌机 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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48
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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49
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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50
lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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51
evasion
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| n.逃避，偷漏(税) | |
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52
obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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53
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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54
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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55
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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imperialism
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| n.帝国主义，帝国主义政策 | |
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suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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58
annihilates
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| n.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的名词复数 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的第三人称单数 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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prodigies
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| n.奇才，天才（尤指神童）( prodigy的名词复数 ) | |
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yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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66
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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plume
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| n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰 | |
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69
surmounting
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| 战胜( surmount的现在分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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70
moths
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| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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plumes
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| 羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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81
vaccine
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| n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的 | |
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tuberculosis
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| n.结核病，肺结核 | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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