THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ÉMILE ZOLA. Эмиль Золя

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СКАЧАТЬ I should have been forced to stop at the very outset of my speculations, if, my buildings being mortgaged, I had not been able to procure, by some means, the funds necessary for the other operations I was contemplating. I did what seemed to me the simplest and most convenient thing to do. When the mortgages had reached the full value of the properties, I released the latter by false discharges and then offered them as security for fresh loans.”

      “What you are telling me is infamous!” exclaimed Marius.

      “I begged you not to interrupt me,” Douglas retorted abruptly. “I will defend myself later on, at present I am merely stating the facts. I soon had to enlarge my system. My forty personages no longer sufficed, so I then had recourse to extreme measures which from their very audacity, succeeded perfectly. I caused well-known landowners and merchants to contract loans, mortgaged their properties and forged their signatures; afterwards each fresh mortgage was wiped out by the aid of a false discharge, which shielded me from all uneasiness. You understand? it’s very simple.”

      “Yes, yes, I understand,” murmured Marius, who was beginning to think the notary was mad.

      “Besides,” Douglas went on, “I raised money no matter how, when it was necessary. I wished to go straight to my goal, and I have ever marched steadily on without troubling myself about obstacles, and accepting freely the consequences of my theory. For instance, I sometimes created both the borrower and the building in the same transaction; I have taken mortgages on a property which did not exist or which did not belong to the pretended borrower. At other times, when I have been in urgent need of money to meet some unforeseen exigency, I have drawn bills payable to order and signed by the leading merchants of Marseille, and which I have put into circulation at a loss after accepting them in my own name. You see that I am hiding nothing from you and that I am accusing myself. I am laying myself bare before you, because I wish to justify myself, and also because, in future, I must give over applying my system.”

      Marius was utterly terrified. He entered tremblingly the recesses of this man’s mind. He felt that he was in the presence of a moral phenomenon, and he submitted to this strange confession like one submits to a nightmare. It seemed to him that he was in the thick of the roar and smoke of some machine, surrounded by the revolving gear.

      “So,” Douglas resumed, “you quite understand what my system was. In principle, I wished to be a banker to turn to account the funds that passed through my hands. I acquired on my own account properties which I fancied I could resell at a profit. My system of fictitious names answered all requirements: by the aid of these names I was able to deal with all who applied to me; I have been, according to the opportunity, lender, borrower, purchaser, and seller. Whenever the funds raised by my personal credit or the credit I had procured for the fictitious individuals did not suffice for my needs, I obtained others by negotiating supposed loans on behalf of no matter who, relative, friend, or client, being careful later on to release that person’s property, the same as I had mortgaged it, unbeknown to himself. In a word, my office became a banking establishment.”

      “A thieving establishment,” exclaimed Marius, “a forger’s den!”

      Douglas shrugged his shoulders.

      “You ought by now to understand me,” he said, “and to see that I never sought to rob a single one of my clients. I have a hope that you will do me justice by and by. I have now to tell you about my finest invention. To administer the properties acquired and turn the borrowed monies to good account, I conceived the idea of establishing agents acting under power of attorney, who would represent in all matters my forty imaginary personages; and to fill these posts I selected honourable young men, who became my unconscious accomplices. I had faith in my system; and I should most certainly have enriched those who assisted me if unfortunate circumstances had not marred my success. When I proposed to you to represent Authier, I desired solely, as I have already told you, to come to your assistance and give you a share in the profits of a speculation which I considered an excellent one.”

      These last words exasperated Marius. He could bear it no longer, and felt he would go mad if he continued to follow Douglas’ strange talk.

      “I have listened to you patiently,” he said, shaking with indignation. “The rascalities you have been telling me of, with such cool impudence, prove to my mind that you are either a fool or a rogue.”

      “Not at all!” interrupted the notary, striking the table with his fist. “You have certainly not understood me. I have told you four or five times, I’m a banker. Listen to me, for goodness sake.”

      Douglas rose and placed himself before Marius. There was nothing in his attitude to indicate either fear or shame.

      “You have called me a rogue and a thief,” said he softly, “and I let you insult me, for you were accusing me in the name of society, speaking as the crown attorney would speak when judging my conduct from the legal standpoint. You must look at it from another point of view, if you would understand me. Let us reason a bit. A thief is he who steals another’s property and makes off when his pockets are full, is he not? I have never for a moment thought of stealing. I have been applying my system during six years, and I am poorer now than when I first began; my operations have not succeeded, I have even lost some thousands of francs which were my own. You know what my life has been: I have lived on bread and water; I have led the existence of an austere and indefatigable worker. The only luxury I have allowed myself has been to give a little in charity. A strange thief, indeed, who has lived in his office as in a cloister and who has handled enormous sums of money without even being tempted to steal a copper! Admit that if I were really a thief, I should long ago have got together what funds I could and have bolted.”

      Marius felt surprised and embarrassed. He had not looked at the matter in that light. The man was evidently right: he could not be accused of robbery.

      “What shocks and incenses you,” resumed Douglas, “is my system itself. It has failed, and I shall be considered a great criminal; if it had succeeded, I should have realized a large fortune without doing the slightest injury to anyone. I should have been immensely rich and the world would have esteemed me. Yes, crime has been my base of operation, I have speculated on forgery, I have followed a new and bold line. But to my mind success was certain. I had faith in my activity, it never occurred to me that I might drag another down in my fall. That is wherein I was blind. You see my course of proceeding: I took mortgages on property which did not exist or which had already been mortgaged, but I paid the interest on the money invested; I put forged bills into circulation, but I took them up at maturity; my imaginary personages were, so to say, nothing more than borrowed names to cover myself, and I made use of them simply to increase my speculations. Understand me well: I wished above all to procure funds and turn them to account; what matter the fictitious securities I emitted, the forged documents, the different means I employed to extend my credit and the sphere of my business. In speculation, the only reality is the profit one is able to draw, more or less skilfully, from a given capital. Take the Stock Exchange, for instance, there one trades on mere suppositions. Admit for a moment that by buying and selling properties, by means of other people’s money, I had succeeded in doubling the capital I had illegally procured: I should have refunded that capital in full, have robbed nobody, destroyed the forged documents, and have retired with a fortune won by my labour and intelligence. That’s my system in its entirety. Having no fortune of my own, I was obliged to borrow of my clients the principal necessary for carrying on my operations. It was no theft, but a mere loan.”

      On hearing Douglas’ clear and logical reasoning, a kind of terror crept over Marius. The notary grew terribly in his eyes. For a moment, he looked upon him as some misguided genius who had employed his rare faculties of and daring in the cause of evil. Had the man had large means of action he might perhaps have accomplished great things. There are some superior qualities residing in all criminals of Douglas’ calibre. Marius was above all surprised СКАЧАТЬ