“Worms, don’t try to understand what I am saying to your wife! You are utterly9 incapable10 of conceiving the Beautiful in any form whatever. Harmonious11 lines and noble thoughts will always be written in an unknown tongue as far as you are concerned.”
“Shut up, you old communard!” said he.
Georges Frémont actually was an old communard. A Parisian, the son of a furniture maker13 in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and a pupil at the Beaux-Arts, he was twenty at the time of the German invasion, and had enlisted14 in a regiment15 of francs-tireurs who never saw service. For this slight Frémont had never forgiven Trochu. At the time of the capitulation he was one of the most excited,138 and shouted with the rest that Paris had been betrayed. But he was no fool, and really meant that Paris had been badly defended, which was true enough, of course. He was for war to the knife. When the Commune was proclaimed, he declared for it. On the proposition of one of his father’s old workmen, a certain citizen Charlier, delegate for the Beaux-Arts, he was appointed assistant sub-director of the Museum of the Louvre. It was an honorary appointment and he performed his duties booted, with cartridges17 in his belt, and on his head a Tyrolese hat adorned18 with cock feathers. At the beginning of the siege the canvases had been rolled up, put into packing-cases and carried away to warehouses19 from which he never succeeded in unearthing20 them. The only duty that remained to him was to smoke his pipe in galleries that had been transformed into guard-rooms and to gossip with the National Guard, to whom he denounced Badinguet for having destroyed the Rubens pictures by a cleaning process which had removed the glaze21. He based his grounds for this accusation22 on the authority of a newspaper article, backed up by M. Vitet’s opinion. The federalists sat on the benches and listened to him, with their guns between their legs, whilst they drank their pints23 of wine in the palace precincts, for it was warm weather. When, however,139 the people of Versailles forced their way into Paris by the broken-down Porte du Point-du-Jour and the cannonade approached the Tuileries, Georges Frémont was much distressed24 to see the National Guard of the federalists rolling casks of petroleum25 into the Apollo gallery. It was with great difficulty that he at length succeeded in dissuading26 them from saturating27 the wainscoting to make it blaze. Then, giving them money for drink, he got rid of them. After they had gone, he managed, with the assistance of the Bonapartist guards, to roll these dangerous casks to the foot of the staircase and to push them as far as the bank of the Seine. When the colonel of the federalists was informed of this, he suspected Frémont of betraying the popular cause and ordered him to be shot. But as soon as the Versailles mob was approaching and the smoke of the blazing Tuileries rising into the air, Frémont fled, cheek by jowl with the squad28 that had been ordered out to execute him. Two days later, being denounced to the Versailles party, he was a fugitive29 from the military tribunal for having taken part in a rebellion against the established Government. And it was perfectly30 certain that the Versailles party was in direct succession, since having followed the Empire on September 4th, 1870, it had adopted and retained the recognised procedure of the preceding Government,140 whilst the Commune, which had never succeeded in establishing those telegraphic communications that are absolutely essential to a recognised government, found itself undone31 and destroyed—and, in fact, very much in the wrong. Besides, the Commune was the outcome of a revolution carried out in face of the enemy, and this the Versailles administration could never forgive, for its origin recalled their own. It was for this reason that a captain of the winning side, being employed in shooting rebels in the neighbourhood of the Louvre, ordered his men to search for Frémont and shoot him. At last, after remaining in hiding for a fortnight with citizen Charlier, a member of the Commune, under a roof in the Place de la Bastille, Frémont left Paris in a smock-frock, with a whip in his hand, behind a market-gardener’s cart. And whilst a court-martial at Versailles was condemning32 him to death, he was earning his livelihood33 in London by drawing up a complete catalogue of Rowlandson’s works for a rich City amateur. Being an intelligent, industrious34 and honourable35 man, he soon became well known and respected among the English artists. He loved art passionately36, but politics scarcely interested him at all. He remained friendly towards the Commune through loyalty37 alone and in order to avoid the shame of141 deserting vanquished38 friends. But he dressed well and moved in good society. He worked strenuously39 and, at the same time, knew how to profit by his work. His Dictionnaire des monogrammes not only established his reputation, but brought him in some money. After the amnesty had been passed and the last fluttering rags of civil strife40 had blown away, there landed at Boulogne, after Gambetta’s motion, a certain gentleman, haughty41 and smiling, yet not unsociable. He was youngish, but a little worn by work, and with a few grey hairs; he was correctly dressed in a travelling costume and carried a portmanteau packed with sketches42 and manuscripts. Establishing himself in modest style at Montmartre, Georges Frémont quickly became intimate with the artist colony there. But the labours upon the emoluments43 from which he had mainly supported himself in England only brought him the satisfaction of gratified vanity in France. Then Gambetta obtained for him an appointment as inspector of museums, and Frémont fulfilled his duties in this department both conscientiously44 and skilfully45. He had a true and delicate taste in art. The nervous sensitiveness which had moved him deeply in his youth before the spectacle of his country’s wounds, still affected46 him, now that he was growing old, when confronted by unhappy142 social conditions, but enabled him, too, to derive47 delight from the graceful48 expression of human thought, from exquisite49 shapes, from the classic line, and the heroic cast of a face. With all this he was patriotic50 even in art, never jesting about the Burgundian school, faithful to political sentiment, and relying on France to bring justice and liberty to the universe.
“You old communard!” repeated M. Worms-Clavelin.
“Hold your tongue, Worms! Your soul is ignoble51 and your mind obtuse52. You have no meaning in yourself, but, in the phrase of to-day, you are a representative type. Just Heavens! how many victims were butchered during a whole century of civil war just that M. Worms-Clavelin might become a republican préfet! Worms, you are lower in the scale than the préfets of the Empire.”
“The Empire!” exclaimed M. Worms-Clavelin. “Blast the Empire! First of all it swept us all into the abyss, and then it made me an official. But, all the same, wine is made, corn is grown, just as in the time of the Empire; they bet on the Bourse, as under the Empire; one eats, drinks, and makes love, as under the Empire. At bottom, life is just the same. How could government and administration be different? There are certain143 shades of difference, I grant you. We have more liberty; we even have too much of it. We have more security. We enjoy a government which suits the ideals of the people. As far as such a thing is possible, we are the masters of our fate. All the social forces are now held in just balance, or nearly so. Now just you show me what there is that could be changed. The colour of our postage stamps perhaps ... and after that!... As old Montessuy used to say, ‘No, no, friend, short of changing the French, there is nothing in France to change.’ Of course, I am all for progress. One must talk about moving, were it only in order to dispense53 with movement. ‘Forward! forward!’ The Marseillaise must have been useful in not carrying one to the frontier!...”
The look which Georges Frémont turned on the préfet was full of deep, affectionate, kindly, thoughtful scorn:
“Everything is as perfect as it can be, then, Worms?”
“Don’t make out that I speak like an utter dolt54. Nothing is perfect, but all things cling together, prop16 one another up, dovetail with one another. It is just like père Mulot’s wall which you can see from here behind the orangery. It is all warped55 and cracked and leans forward. For the last thirty years that fool of a Quatrebarbe, the144 diocesan architect, has been stopping dead in front of Mulot’s house. Then, with his nose in air, his hands behind his back and his legs apart, he says: ‘I really don’t see how that holds together!’ The little imps56 coming out from school stand behind him and shout in mockery of his gruff tones: ‘I really don’t see how that holds together!’ He turns round and, seeing nobody, looks at the pavement as though the echo of his voice had risen from the earth. Then he goes away repeating, ‘I really don’t see how that holds together!’ It holds together because nobody touches it; because père Mulot summons neither masons nor architects; above all, because he takes good care not to ask M. Quatrebarbe for his advice. It holds together because up till now it has held together. It holds together, you old dreamer, because they neither revise the taxes nor reform the Constitution.”
“That is to say, it holds together through fraud and iniquity,” said Georges Frémont. “We have fallen into a cauldron of shame. Our finance ministers are under the thumb of the cosmopolitan57 banking-houses. And, sadder still, it is France—France, of old the deliverer of the nations—that has no care in European politics save to avenge58 the rights of titled sovereigns. Without even daring to shudder59, we permitted the massacre60 of145 three hundred thousand Christians61 in the East, although, by our traditions, we had been constituted their revered62 and august protectors. We have betrayed not only the interests of humanity, but our own; and now you may see the Republic floating in Cretan waters among the Powers of Europe, like a guinea-fowl amid a flock of gulls63. It was to this point, then, that our friendship with our ally was to lead us.”
The préfet protested:
“The Russian alliance,” replied Frémont, waving his fork, “I hailed the birth of it with joyful65 expectation. But, alas66, did it not, at the very first test, fling us into the arms of that assassin the Sultan and lead us to Crete, there to hurl67 melinite shell at Christians whose only fault was the long oppression they had suffered? But it was not Russia that we took such pains to humour, it was the great bankers interested in Ottoman bonds. And you saw how the glorious victory of Canea was hailed by the Jewish financiers with a burst of generous enthusiasm.”
“There you go,” cried the préfet, “that’s just sentimental68 politics! You ought to know, at any rate, where that sort of thing leads. And why the146 deuce you should be excited about the Greeks, I don’t see. They’re not at all interesting.”
“You are right, Worms,” said the inspector of fine arts. “You are perfectly right. The Greeks are not interesting, for they are poor. They have nothing but their blue sea, their violet hills and the fragments of their statues. The honey of Hymettus is never quoted on the Bourse. The Turks, on the contrary, are well worthy69 of the attention of European financiers. They have internal dissensions; above all they have resources. They pay badly and they pay much. One can do business with them. Stocks rise. All is well then. Such are the ideals of our foreign policy!”
M. Worms-Clavelin interrupted him hurriedly, and casting on him a reproachful look, said:
“Ah, now! Georges, don’t be disingenuous70. You know well enough that we neither have, nor can have, any foreign policy.”
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1
inspector
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| n.检查员，监察员，视察员 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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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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zestfully
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| adv.有辛辣味的； 有风趣的； 有风味的； 有滋味的 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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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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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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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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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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prop
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| vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山 | |
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cartridges
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| 子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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warehouses
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| 仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 ) | |
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unearthing
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| 发掘或挖出某物( unearth的现在分词 )； 搜寻到某事物，发现并披露 | |
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glaze
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| v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情 | |
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accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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pints
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| n.品脱( pint的名词复数 )；一品脱啤酒 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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petroleum
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| n.原油，石油 | |
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dissuading
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| 劝（某人）勿做某事，劝阻( dissuade的现在分词 ) | |
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saturating
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| 浸湿，浸透( saturate的现在分词 )； 使…大量吸收或充满某物 | |
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squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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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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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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condemning
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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strenuously
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| adv.奋发地，费力地 | |
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strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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emoluments
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| n.报酬，薪水( emolument的名词复数 ) | |
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conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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skilfully
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| adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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51
ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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obtuse
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| adj.钝的；愚钝的 | |
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53
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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dolt
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| n.傻瓜 | |
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warped
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| adj.反常的；乖戾的；（变）弯曲的；变形的v.弄弯，变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
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56
imps
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| n.（故事中的）小恶魔( imp的名词复数 )；小魔鬼；小淘气；顽童 | |
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cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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58
avenge
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| v.为...复仇，为...报仇 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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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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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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revered
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| v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gulls
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| n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 ) | |
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64
entente
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| n.协定；有协定关系的各国 | |
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65
joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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disingenuous
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| adj.不诚恳的，虚伪的 | |
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