THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ÉMILE ZOLA. Эмиль Золя

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      CHAPTER IV

      HOW M. DE CAZALIS AVENGED HIS NIECE’S DISHONOUR

      THE lovers had eloped on a Wednesday. On the following Friday all Marseille knew the story; the gossips on their doorsteps embellished the adventure with many dramatic details; the nobility was indignant, whilst the middle-class folk had a hearty laugh. M. de Cazalis, in his rage, had done everything to increase the racket and turn his niece’s flight into a frightful scandal.

      Clear-sighted people easily accounted for his show of anger. M. de Cazalis was a deputy of the opposition and had been returned at Marseille by a majority composed of a few liberals, some priests, and members of the aristocracy. Devoted to the cause of legitimacy, bearing one of the most ancient names of Provence, bowing humbly before all-powerful Mother Church, he had experienced considerable repugnance in flattering the liberals and receiving their votes. In his eyes they were merely varlets, servants, fit only to be whipped in the public streets. His indomitable pride suffered at the thought of lowering itself to their level.

      Yet he had been obliged to bow before them. The liberals noised abroad the services they were rendering, and for a time a pretence was made of disdaining their assistance; but when they talked of intervening in the election by naming one of their own party as a candidate, M. de Cazalis was forced by circumstances to bury his hatred in the depths of his heart, promising himself his revenge on some future occasion. Then the most shameless jobbery was resorted to; the clergy took the field, votes were secured right and left, thanks to innumerable civilities and promises, with the result that M. de Cazalis was elected.

      And here was Philippe Cayol, one of the leaders of the liberal party fallen into his hands. At last he would be able to gratify his hatred on the person of one of the louts who had bargained with him for his return to the Chamber. He should be made to pay for all; his relatives should be ruined and plunged into despair; and as for him, he should be thrown into prison, precipitated from the height of his dream of love on to the straw of a dungeon.

      What! a little nobody had dared to win the love of the niece of a Cazalis! He had led her away with him, and now they were both roving along the roads, attending the hedge-school of love. It was a scandal to be made much of. An ordinary person would perhaps have preferred to hush it up, to conceal the deplorable adventure as far as possible; but a Cazalis, deputy and millionaire, was possessed of sufficient influence and pride to proclaim the shame of a relative abroad without a blush.

      What mattered a young girl’s honour! All the world might know that Blanche de Cazalis had eloped with Philippe Cayol, but no one should be able to say that she was his wife, that she had degraded herself by marrying a poor devil without a handle to his name. Pride required that the child should remain dishonoured, and that her dishonour should be posted on the walls of Marseille.

      M. de Cazalis had bills placarded in all the squares of the city, promising ten thousand francs reward to whosoever would bring him his niece and her seducer bound hand and foot. When one loses a pure-bred dog it is also usual to advertise for it.

      Among the upper classes, the scandal spread still more noisily. M. de Cazalis disseminated his rage everywhere. He availed himself of the influence of his friends, of the clergy, and nobility. As guardian of Blanche who was an orphan, and as trustee of her fortune, he urged on the authorities in their search, and drew up the indictment of the accused. It might be said that he took pains to procure the greatest possible publicity for the gratis show about to begin.

      One of the first measures he resorted to was to secure the arrest of Philippe Cayol’s mother. When the crown-attorney presented himself she replied to all questions that she did not know her son’s whereabouts. Her confusion, her anguish, her mother’s fears, which made her hesitate, were no doubt considered so many proofs of complicity. She was sent to prison, more as a hostage, and possibly in the hope that her son would surrender himself in order to secure her release.

      When Marius heard of his mother’s arrest he almost went mad. He knew she was in delicate health, and pictured her, with terror, shut up in a bare and icy cold cell; she would die there, tortured by all the pangs of suffering and despair.

      Marius was also suspected at the outset. But his firm answers, and the bail that his employer, the shipowner Martelly, offered on his behalf, saved him from imprisonment. He wanted to remain free in order to work for the salvation of his family.

      Little by little his upright mind was able to properly weigh the facts. At first, he had been overwhelmed by Philippe’s guilt, he had seen only the irreparable wrong his brother had done. And he had humbled himself, desiring solely to calm Blanche’s uncle and give him every reparation possible. But, in face of the deputy’s rigour, of the scandal he was raising, the young man had a revulsion of feeling. He had seen the fugitives, and knew that Blanche was voluntarily accompanying Philippe, and he was indignant at hearing the latter accused of abduction. СКАЧАТЬ