第62章

Happily for my patience and my curiosity, which, under the pressure of all this opposition was growing terrible, a certain amount of light was given me.A few days after my last discomfiture, a letter reached me bearing the post-mark Stockholm, Sweden; which address did not surprise me because, while in Rome, I had been honored by the friendship of Thorwaldsen, the great Swedish sculptor, and I had often met in his studio many of his compatriots.Probably, therefore, this letter conveyed an order from one of them, sent through Thorwaldsen.

But, on opening the letter what was my amazement, and my emotion, in presence of its opening words:--Monsieur my Son,--

The letter was long.I had no patience to read it until I knew the name I bore.I turned to the signature; again my disappointment was complete--there was no name!

Monsieur my Son, said my anonymous father,--I do not regret that by your passionate insistence on knowing the secret of your birth, you have forced the person who has watched over you from childhood to come here to confer with me as to the course your vehement and dangerous curiosity requires us to pursue.

For some time past, I have entertained a thought which I bring to maturity to-day; the execution of which could have been more satisfactorily settled by word of mouth than it can now be by correspondence.

Immediately after your birth, which cost your mother's life, being forced to expatriate myself, I made in a foreign country a noble fortune, and I occupy in the ministry of that country an eminent position.I foresee the moment when, free to restore to you my name, I shall also be able to secure to you the inheritance of my titles and the position to which I have attained.

But, to reach that height, the reputation you have, I am told, acquired in art is not a sufficient recommendation.It is my wish that you should enter political life; and in that career, under the present institutions of France, there are not two ways of becoming a man of distinction: you must begin by being made a deputy.I know that you are not yet of the legal age, and also that you do not possess the property qualification.But, in another year you will be thirty years old, and that is just the necessary time required by law to be a land-owner before becoming a candidate for election.

To-morrow, therefore, you can present yourself to Mongenod Bros., bankers, rue de la Victoire.A sum of two hundred and fifty thousand francs will be paid to you; this you must immediately employ in the purchase of real estate, applying part of the surplus to obtain an interest in some newspaper which, when the right time comes, will support your candidacy, and the rest in another expense I shall presently explain to you.

Your political aptitude is guaranteed to me by the person who, with a disinterested zeal for which I shall ever be grateful, has watched over you since you were abandoned.For some time past he has secretly followed you and listened to you, and he is certain that you will make yourself a dignified position in the Chamber.

Your opinions of ardent yet moderate liberalism please me; without being aware of it, you have very cleverly played into my game.Icannot as yet tell you the place of your probable election.The secret power which is preparing for that event is all the more certain to succeed because its plans are pursued quietly and for the present in the shade.But success will be greatly assisted by the execution of a work which I shall now propose to you, requesting you to accept its apparent strangeness without surprise or comment.