THE ground chosen for the combat was Colonel Manchon's garden, on the Boulevard de la Reine at Versailles. Messieurs de la Verdelière and Le Truc de Ruffec, who had both of them constant practice in affairs of honour and knew the rules with great exactness, assisted Maurice d'Esparvieu. No duel2 was ever fought in the Catholic world without Monsieur de la Verdelière being present; and, in making application to this swordsman, Maurice had conformed to custom, though not without a certain reluctance3, for he had been notorious as the lover of Madame de la Verdelière; but Monsieur de la Verdelière was not to be looked upon as a husband. He was an institution. As to Monsieur Le Truc de Ruffec, honour was his only known profession and avowedly4 his sole resource, and when the matter was made the[282] subject of ill-natured comment in Society, the question was asked what finer career than that of honour Monsieur Le Truc de Ruffec could possibly have adopted. Arcade's seconds were Prince Istar and Théophile. The celestial5 musician had not voluntarily nor with a good grace taken a hand in this affair. He had a horror of every kind of violence and disapproved6 of single combat. The report of pistols and the clash of swords were intolerable to him, and the sight of blood made him faint. This gentle son of Heaven had obstinately7 refused to act as second to his brother Arcade, and to bring him to the starting-point the Ker?b had had to threaten to break a bottle of panclastite over his head.
Besides the combatants, the seconds, and the doctors, the only people in the garden were a few officers from the barracks at Versailles and several reporters. Although young d'Esparvieu was known merely as a young man of family, and Arcade had never been heard of at all, the duel had attracted quite a large crowd of inquisitive9 individuals, and the windows of the adjoining houses were crammed10 with photographers, reporters, and Society people. What had aroused much curiosity was that a woman was known to be the cause of the quarrel. Many mentioned Bouchotte, but the majority said it was Madame des Aubels. It had been remarked upon, moreover, that duels[283] in which Monsieur de la Verdelière acted as second drew all Paris.
The sky was a soft blue, the garden all a-bloom with roses, a blackbird was piping in a tree. Monsieur de la Verdelière, who, stick in hand, conducted the affair, laid the points of the swords together, and said:
"Allez, Messieurs."
Maurice d'Esparvieu attacked by doubling and beating the blade. Arcade retired11, keeping his sword in line. The first engagement was without result. The seconds were under the impression that Monsieur d'Esparvieu was in a grievous state of nervous irritability12, and that his adversary13 would wear him down. In the second encounter Maurice attacked wildly, spread out his arms, and exposed his breast. He attacked as he advanced, gave a straight thrust, and the point of his sword grazed Arcade on the shoulder. The latter was thought to be wounded. But the seconds ascertained14 with surprise that it was Maurice who had received a scratch on the wrist. Maurice asserted that he felt nothing, and Dr. Quille declared, after examination, that his client might continue the fight. After the regulation quarter of an hour the duel was resumed. Maurice attacked with fury. His adversary was obviously nursing him, and, what disturbed Monsieur de la Verdelière, seemed to be paying very little attention to his own defence. At the opening[284] of the fifth bout15, a black spaniel that had got into the garden no one knew how rushed out from a clump16 of rose-bushes, made its way on to the space reserved for the combatants, and, in spite of sticks and cries, ran in between Maurice's legs. The latter seemed as though his arm were benumbed, merely gave a shoulder-thrust at his invulnerable opponent. He then delivered a straight lunge and impaled17 his arm on his adversary's sword, which made a deep wound just below the elbow.
Monsieur de la Verdelière stopped the fight, which had lasted an hour and a half. Maurice was conscious of a painful shock. They laid him down on a grassy18 bank against a wall covered with wistaria. While the surgeon was dressing19 the wound Maurice called Arcade and offered him his wounded hand. And when the victor, saddened with his victory, advanced, Maurice embraced him tenderly, saying:
"Be generous, Arcade; forgive my treachery. Now that we have fought, I can ask you to be reconciled with me."
He embraced his friend, weeping, and whispered in his ear:
"Come and see me, and bring Gilberte."
Maurice, who was still unreconciled with his parents, was taken to the little flat in the Rue20 de Rome. No sooner was he stretched on the bed at the far end of the bedroom where the curtains were drawn21 as on the day of the apparition22, than[285] he saw Arcade and Gilberte appear. He began to suffer greatly from his wound; his temperature was rising, but he was at peace, happy and contented23. Angel and woman, both in tears, threw themselves at the foot of the bed. He took both their hands with his left, smiled on them, and kissed them tenderly.
"I am sure now that I shall never quarrel with either of you again; you will deceive me no more. I now know you are capable of anything."
Gilberte, weeping, swore that Maurice had been misled by appearances, that she had never betrayed him with Arcade, that she had never betrayed him at all. And in a great gush24 of sincerity25 she persuaded herself that this was so.
"You wrong yourself, Gilberte," replied the wounded man. "It did happen; it had to. And it is well. Gilberte, you were basely false to me with my best friend in this very room, and you were right. If you had not been we should not be here, reunited, all three of us, and I should not be at your side tasting the greatest happiness of my life. Oh, Gilberte, how wrong of you to deny a perfect and accomplished26 fact!"
"If you wish, my friend," replied Gilberte, a little acidly, "I will not deny it. But it will only be to please you."
Maurice made her sit down on the bed, and begged Arcade to be seated in the arm-chair.[286]
"My friend," said Arcade, "I was innocent. I became man. Straightway I did evil. Then I became better."
"Do not let us exaggerate things," said Maurice. "Let's have a game of bridge."
Scarcely, however, had the patient seen three aces27 in his hand and called "no trumps," than his eyes began to swim, the cards slipped from his fingers, head fell heavily back on the pillow, and he complained of a violent headache. Almost immediately, Madame des Aubels went off to pay some calls, for she made a point of appearing in Society, in order that the calmness and confidence of her demeanour might give the lie to the various rumours28 that were current concerning her. Arcade saw her to the door, and, with a kiss, inhaled29 from her a delicate perfume which he brought back with him into the room where Maurice lay dozing30.
"It was bound to be so," answered the Spirit. "All the other angels in revolt would have done as I did with Gilberte. 'Women,' saith the Apostle, 'should pray with their heads covered, because of the angels,' and the Apostle speaks thus because he knows that the angels are disturbed when they look upon them and see that they are beautiful. No sooner do they touch the earth than they desire to embrace mortal women and fulfil their desire.[287] Their clasp is full of strength and sweetness, they hold the secret of those ineffable32 caresses33 which plunge34 the daughters of men into unfathomable depths of delight. Laying upon the lips of their happy victims a honey that burns like fire, making their veins35 flow with torrents36 of refreshing37 flames, they leave them raptured38 and undone39."
"One word more!" said the angel; "just one other word, my dear Maurice, to bear out what I say, and I will let you rest quietly. There's nothing like having sound references. In order to assure yourself that I am not deceiving you, Maurice, on this subject of the amorous41 embraces of angels and women, look up Justin, Apologies, I and II; Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities42, Book I, Chapter III; Athenagoras, Concerning the Resurrection; Lactantius, Book II, Chapter XV; Tertullian, On the Veil of the Virgins43; Marcus of Ephesus in Psellus; Eusebius, Pr?paratio Evangelica, Book V, Chapter IV; Saint Ambrose, in his book on Noah and the Ark, Chapter V; Saint Augustine, in his City of God, Book XV, Chapter XXIII; Father Meldonat, the Jesuit, Treatise44 on Demons45, page 248; Pierre Lebyer the King's Counsellor——"
"Arcade, please, for pity's sake, be quiet; do, please do, and send this dog away," cried Maurice,[288] whose face was burning, and whose eyes were starting from his head; for in his delirium46 he thought he saw a black spaniel on his bed.
Madame de la Verdelière, who was assiduous in every modish47 and patriotic48 practice, was reckoned, in the best French society, as one of the most gracious of the great ladies interested in good works. She came herself to ask for news of Maurice, and offered to nurse the wounded man. But at the vehement49 instigation of Madame des Aubels, Arcade shut the door in her face. Expressions of sympathy were showered upon Maurice. Piled on the salver, visiting cards displayed their innumerable little dogs' ears. Monsieur Le Truc de Ruffec was one of the first to show his manly50 sympathy at the flat in the Rue de Rome, and, holding out his loyal hand, asked young d'Esparvieu as one honourable51 man to another for twenty-five louis to pay a debt of honour.
"Of course, my dear Maurice, that is the sort of thing one could not ask of everybody."
The same day Monsieur Gaétan came to press his nephew's hand. The latter introduced Arcade.
"This is my guardian52 angel, whose foot you thought so beautiful when you saw the print it had made on the tell-tale powder, uncle. He appeared to me last year in this very room. You don't believe it? Well, it is true, nevertheless."[289]
Then turning towards the Spirit he said:
"What say you, Arcade? The Abbé Patouille, who is a great theologian and a good priest, does not believe that you are an angel; and Uncle Gaétan, who doesn't know his catechism and hasn't a scrap53 of religion in him, doesn't think so either. They deny you, the pair of them; the one because he has faith, the other because he hasn't. After that you may be sure that your history, if ever it comes to be narrated54, will scarcely appear credible55. Moreover, the man that took it into his head to tell your story would not be a man of taste, and would not come in for much approval. For your story is not a pretty one. I love you, but I sit in judgment56 upon you, too. Since you fell into atheism57, you have become an abominable58 scoundrel. A bad angel, a bad friend, a traitor59, and a homicide, for I suppose it was to bring about my death that you sent that black spaniel between my legs on the duelling-ground."
"Alas61! Monsieur, I am not surprised at finding little credit in your eyes. I have been told that you have fallen out with the Jud?o-Christian heaven, which is where I came from."
"Monsieur," answered Gaétan, "my faith in Jehovah is not sufficiently62 strong to enable me to believe in his angels."[290]
"Monsieur, he whom you call Jehovah is really a coarse and ignorant demiurge, and his name is Ialdabaoth."
"In that case, Monsieur, I am perfectly ready to believe in him. He is a narrow-minded ignoramus, is he? Then belief in his existence offers me no further difficulty. How is he getting on?"
"Badly! We are going to lay him low next month."
"Don't make too sure of that, Monsieur. You remind me of my brother-in-law, Cuissart, who has been expecting to hear of the fall of the Republic for the past thirty years."
"You see, Arcade," exclaimed Maurice, "Uncle Gaétan thinks as I do. He knows you won't succeed."
"And, pray, Monsieur Gaétan, what makes you think I shall not succeed?"
"Your Ialdabaoth is still very powerful in this world, if he isn't in the other. In days gone by he used to be upheld by his priests, by those who believed in him. Now he is supported by those who do not believe in him, by the philosophers. A pedant63 of a fellow called Picrochole has recently come on the scene who wants to make a bankrupt of science in order to do a good turn to the Church. And just lately Pragmatism has been invented for the express purpose of gaining credit for religion in the minds of rationalists."[291]
"You have been studying Pragmatism?"
"Not I! I was frivolous64 once, and I went in for metaphysics. I read Hegel and Kant. I have become serious with years, and now I only trouble myself about things evident to the senses: what the eye can see or what the ear can hear. Man is summed up in Art. All the rest is moonshine."
Thus the conversation went on until evening; it was marked by obscenities that would have brought a blush—I will not say to a cuirassier, for cuirassiers are frequently chaste65, but even to a Parisienne.
Monsieur Sariette came to see his old pupil. When he entered the room the bust66 of Alexandre d'Esparvieu seemed to take shape behind the librarian's bald head. He drew near the bed. In the place of blue curtains, mirrored wardrobe, and chimney-piece, there straightway came into view the heavy-laden bookcases of the room of the globes and busts67, and the air was heavy with piles of papers, records, and files. Monsieur Sariette could not be dissociated from his library; one could not conceive of him or even see him apart from it. He himself was paler, more vague, more shadowy, and more a creature of the fancy than the fancies he evoked68.
Maurice, who had grown very quiet, was sensible of this mark of friendship.
"Sit down, Monsieur Sariette,—you know[292] Madame des Aubels. May I introduce Arcade to you,—my guardian angel. It was he who, while yet invisible, pillaged69 your library for two years, made you lose all desire for food and drink, and drove you to the verge70 of madness. He it was who moved piles of books from the room of the busts to my summer-house one day; under your very nose, he took away I know not what precious volumes; and was the cause of your falling on the staircase; another day he took a volume of Salomon Reinach's, and, forced to go out with me (for he never left me, as I have learnt later), he let the volume drop in the gutter71 of the Rue Princesse. Forgive him, Monsieur Sariette,—he had no pockets. He was invisible. I bitterly regret, Monsieur Sariette, that all your old books were not devoured72 by fire or swallowed up by a flood. They made my angel lose his head. He became man, and now knows neither faith nor obedience73 to laws. It is I, now, who am his guardian angel. God knows how it will all end."
While listening to this speech, Monsieur Sariette's face took on an expression of infinite, irreparable, eternal sadness; the sadness of a mummy. Rising to take his leave, the sorrowful librarian murmured in Arcade's ear:
Maurice called the old man back.
"Do stay, Monsieur Sariette. You shall have a[293] game of bridge with us. Monsieur Sariette, listen to my advice. Do not do as I did—do not keep bad company. You will be lost. I shudder75 at the mere8 thought. Monsieur Sariette, do not go yet. I have something very important to ask you. When you come again, bring me a book on the truth of religion, so that I may study it. I must restore to my guardian-angel the faith which he has lost."
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1
arcade
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| n.拱廊；(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道 | |
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duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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avowedly
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| adv.公然地 | |
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celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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disapproved
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| v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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crammed
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| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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irritability
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| n.易怒 | |
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adversary
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| adj.敌手，对手 | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bout
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| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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impaled
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| 钉在尖桩上( impale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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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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apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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26
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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27
aces
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| abbr.adjustable convertible-rate equity security (units) 可调节的股本证券兑换率；aircraft ejection seat 飞机弹射座椅；automatic control evaluation simulator 自动控制评估模拟器n.擅长…的人( ace的名词复数 )；精于…的人；（ 网球 ）（对手接不到发球的）发球得分；爱司球 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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inhaled
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| v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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ineffable
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| adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的 | |
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caresses
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| 爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 ) | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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raptured
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| 欢天喜地的，狂喜的，销魂的 | |
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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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amorous
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| adj.多情的；有关爱情的 | |
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antiquities
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| n.古老( antiquity的名词复数 )；古迹；古人们；古代的风俗习惯 | |
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virgins
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| 处女，童男( virgin的名词复数 )； 童贞玛利亚（耶稣之母） | |
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treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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45
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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modish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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52
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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53
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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54
narrated
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| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
credible
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| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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56
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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57
atheism
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| n.无神论，不信神 | |
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58
abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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60
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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pedant
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| n.迂儒；卖弄学问的人 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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chaste
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| adj.贞洁的；有道德的；善良的；简朴的 | |
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66
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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busts
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| 半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕 | |
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68
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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69
pillaged
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| v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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71
gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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72
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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73
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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74
delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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75
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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