酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

An Old Maid-Part22_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页


her intelligence on her own thoughts and resign herself to lead a life

that was purely animal. She then adopted the submission of a slave,



and regarded it as a meritorious deed to accept the degradation in

which her husband placed her. The fulfilment of his will never once



caused her to murmur. The timid sheep went henceforth in the way the

shepherd led her; she gave herself up to the severest religious



practices, and thought no more of Satan and his works and vanities.

Thus she presented to the eyes of the world a union of all Christian



virtues; and du Bousquier was certainly one of the luckiest men in the

kingdom of France and of Navarre.



"She will be a simpleton to her last breath," said the former

collector, who, however, dined with her twice a week.



This history would be strangelyincomplete if no mention were made of

the coincidence of the Chevalier de Valois's death occurring at the



same time as that of Suzanne's mother. The chevalier died with the

monarchy, in August, 1830. He had joined the cortege of Charles X. at



Nonancourt, and piously escorted it to Cherbourg with the Troisvilles,

Casterans, d'Esgrignons, Verneuils, etc. The old gentleman had taken



with him fifty thousand francs,--the sum to which his savings then

amounted. He offered them to one of the faithful friends of the king



for transmission to his master, speaking of his approaching death, and

declaring that the money came originally from the goodness of the



king, and, moreover, that the property of the last of the Valois

belonged of right to the crown. It is not known whether the fervor of



his zeal conquered the reluctance of the Bourbon, who abandoned his

fine kingdom of France without carrying away with him a farthing, and



who ought to have been touched by the devotion of the chevalier. It is

certain, however, that Cesarine, the residuary legate of the old man,



received from his estate only six hundred francs a year. The chevalier

returned to Alencon, cruelly weakened by grief and by fatigue; he died



on the very day when Charles X. arrived on a foreign shore.

Madame du Val-Noble and her protector, who was just then afraid of the



vengeance of the liberal party, were glad of a pretext to remain

incognito in the village where Suzanne's mother died. At the sale of



the chevalier's effects, which took place at that time, Suzanne,

anxious to obtain a souvenir of her first and last friend, pushed up



the price of the famous snuff-box, which was finally knocked down to

her for a thousand francs. The portrait of the Princess Goritza was



alone worth that sum. Two years later, a young dandy, who was making a

collection of the fine snuff-boxes of the last century, obtained from



Madame du Val-Noble the chevalier's treasure. The charming confidant

of many a love and the pleasure of an old age is now on exhibition in



a species of private museum. If the dead could know what happens after

them, the chevalier's head would surely blush upon its left cheek.



If this history has no other effect than to inspire the possessors of

precious relics with holy fear, and induce them to make codicils to



secure these touching souvenirs of joys that are no more by

bequeathing them to loving hands, it will have done an immense service



to the chivalrous and romanticportion of the community; but it does,

in truth, contain a far higher moral. Does it not show the necessity



for a new species of education? Does it not invoke, from the

enlightened solicitude of the ministers of Public Instruction, the



creation of chairs of anthropology,--a science in which Germany

outstrips us? Modern myths are even less understood than ancient ones,



harried as we are with myths. Myths are pressing us from every point;

they serve all theories, they explain all questions. They are,



according to human ideas, the torches of history; they would save

empires from revolution if only the professors of history would force



the explanations they give into the mind of the provincial masses. If

Mademoiselle Cormon had been a reader or a student, and if there had



existed in the department of the Orne a professor of anthropology, or

even had she read Ariosto, the frightful disasters of her conjugal



life would never have occurred. She would probably have known why the




文章总共2页
文章标签:翻译  译文  翻译文  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号