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The Commission in Lunacy-Part9_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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see the Marquis d'Espard. This day lost was, to this affair, what on

the Day of Dupes the cup of soup had been, taken by Marie de Medici,



which, by delaying her meeting with Louis XIII., enabled Richelieu to

arrive at Saint-Germain before her, and recapture his royal slave.



Before accompanying the lawyer and his registering clerk to the

Marquis d'Espard's house, it may be as well to glance at the home and



the private affairs of this father of sons whom his wife's petition

represented to be a madman.



Here and there in the old parts of Paris a few buildings may still be

seen in which the archaeologist can discern an intention of decorating



the city, and that love of property, which leads the owner to give a

durable character to the structure. The house in which M. d'Espard was



then living, in the Rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, was one of

these old mansions, built in stone, and not devoid of a certain



richness of style; but time had blackened the stone, and revolutions

in the town had damaged it both outside and inside. The dignitaries



who formerly dwelt in the neighborhood of the University having

disappeared with the great ecclesiastical foundations, this house had



become the home of industries and of inhabitants whom it was never

destined to shelter. During the last century a printing establishment



had worn down the polished floors, soiled the carved wood, blackened

the walls, and altered the principalinternal arrangements. Formerly



the residence of a Cardinal, this fine house was now divided among

plebeian tenants. The character of the architecture showed that it had



been built under the reigns of Henry III., Henry IV., and Louis XIII.,

at the time when the hotels Mignon and Serpente were erected in the



same neighborhood, with the palace of the Princess Palatine, and the

Sorbonne. An old man could remember having heard it called, in the



last century, the hotel Duperron, so it seemed probable that the

illustrious Cardinal of that name had built, or perhaps merely lived



in it.

There still exists, indeed, in the corner of the courtyard, a perron



or flight of several outer steps by which the house is entered; and

the way into the garden on the garden front is down a similar flight



of steps. In spite of dilapidations, the luxury lavished by the

architect on the balustrade and entrance porch crowning these two



perrons suggests the simple-minded purpose of commemorating the

owner's name, a sort of sculptured pun which our ancestors often



allowed themselves. Finally, in support of this evidence,

archaeologists can still discern in the medallions which show on the



principal front some traces of the cords of the Roman hat.

M. le Marquis d'Espard lived on the ground floor, in order, no doubt,



to enjoy the garden, which might be called spacious for that

neighborhood, and which lay open for his children's health. The



situation of the house, in a street on a steep hill, as its name

indicates, secured these ground-floor rooms against ever being damp.



M. d'Espard had taken them, no doubt, for a very moderate price, rents

being low at the time when he settled in that quarter, in order to be



among the schools and to superintend his boys' education. Moreover,

the state in which he found the place, with everything to repair, had



no doubt induced the owner to be accommodating. Thus M. d'Espard had

been able to go to some expense to settle himself suitably without



being accused of extravagance. The loftiness of the rooms, the

paneling, of which nothing survived but the frames, the decoration of



the ceilings, all displayed the dignity which the prelacy stamped on

whatever it attempted or created, and which artists discern to this



day in the smallest relic that remains, though it be but a book, a

dress, the panel of a bookcase, or an armchair.



The Marquis had the rooms painted in the rich brown tones loved of the

Dutch and of the citizens of Old Paris, hues which lend such good



effects to the painter of genre. The panels were hung with plain paper

in harmony with the paint. The window curtains were of inexpensive



materials, but chosen so as to produce a generally happy result; the

furniture was not too crowded and judiciously placed. Any one on going



into this home could not resist a sense of sweet peacefulness,

produced by the perfect calm, the stillness which prevailed, by the



unpretentious unity of color, the keeping of the picture, in the words

a painter might use. A certain nobleness in the details, the exquisite



cleanliness of the furniture, and a perfect concord of men and things,

all brought the word "suavity" to the lips.



Few persons were admitted to the rooms used by the Marquis and his two

sons, whose life might perhaps seem mysterious to their neighbors. In






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