第2章

Colonel Giguet was one of the most respected officers in the Grand Army, the foundation of his character being absolute integrity joined to extreme delicacy.Never did he put himself forward; favors, such as he received, sought him.For this reason he remained eleven years a mere captain of the artillery of the Guard, not receiving the rank of major until 1814.His almost fanatical attachment to Napoleon forbade his taking service under the Bourbons after the first abdication.In fact, his devotion in 1815 was such that he would have been banished with so many others if the Comte de Gondreville had not contrived to have his name effaced from the ordinance and put on the retired list with a pension, and the rank of colonel.

Madame Marion, nee Giguet, had another brother who was colonel of gendarmerie at Troyes, whom she followed to that town at an earlier period.It was there that she married Monsieur Marion, receiver-general of the Aube, who also had had a brother, the chief-justice of an imperial court.While a mere barrister at Arcis this young man had lent his name during the Terror to the famous Malin de l'Aube, the representative of the people, in order to hold possession of the estate of Gondreville.[See "An Historical Mystery."] Consequently, all the support and influence of Malin, now become count and senator, was at the service of the Marion family.The barrister's brother was made receiver-general of the department, at a period when, far from having forty applicants for one place, the government was fortunate in getting any one to accept such a slippery office.

Marion, the receiver-general, inherited the fortune of his brother the chief-justice, and Madame Marion that of her brother the colonel of gendarmerie.In 1814, the receiver-general met with reverses.He died when the Empire died; but his widow managed to gather fifteen thousand francs a year from the wreck of his accumulated fortunes.The colonel of gendarmerie had left his property to his sister on learning the marriage of his brother the artillery officer to the daughter of a rich banker of Hamburg.It is well known what a fancy all Europe had for the splendid troopers of Napoleon!

In 1814, Madame Marion, half-ruined, returned to Arcis, her native place, where she bought, on the Grande-Place, one of the finest houses in the town.Accustomed to receive much company at Troyes, where the receiver-general reigned supreme, she now opened her salon to the notabilities of the liberal party in Arcis.A woman accustomed to the advantages of salon royalty does not easily renounce them.Vanity is the most tenacious of all habits.

Bonapartist, and afterwards a liberal--for, by the strangest of metamorphoses, the soldiers of Napoleon became almost to a man enamoured of the constitutional system--Colonel Giguet was, during the Restoration, the natural president of the governing committee of Arcis, which consisted of the notary Grevin, his son-in-law Beauvisage, and Varlet junior, the chief physician of Arcis, brother-in-law of Grevin, and a few other liberals.

"If our dear boy is not nominated," said Madame Marion, having first looked into the antechamber and garden to make sure that no one overheard her, "he cannot have Mademoiselle Beauvisage; his success in this election means a marriage with Cecile.""Cecile!" exclaimed the old man, opening his eyes very wide and looking at his sister in stupefaction.

"There is no one but you in the whole department who would forget the dot and the expectations of Mademoiselle Beauvisage," said his sister.

"She is the richest heiress in the department of the Aube," said Simon Giguet.