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The Two Brothers-Part16_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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Agathe on the staircase. "I have sold my two pictures, let us start



for Berry; you have two weeks' leave of absence."

After writing to her godmother to announce their arrival, Agathe and



Joseph started the next evening for their trip to Issoudun, leaving

Philippe to his fate. The diligence rolled through the rue d'Enfer



toward the Orleans highroad. When Agathe saw the Luxembourg, to which

Philippe had been transferred, she could not refrain from saying,--



"If it were not for the Allies he would never be there!"

Many sons would have made an impatientgesture and smiled with pity;



but the artist, who was alone with his mother in the coupe, caught her

in his arms and pressed her to his heart, exclaiming:--



"Oh, mother! you are a mother just as Raphael was a painter. And you

will always be a fool of a mother!"



Madame Bridau's mind, diverted before long from her griefs by the

distractions of the journey, began to dwell on the purpose of it. She



re-read the letter of Madame Hochon, which had so stirred up the

lawyer Desroches. Struck with the words "concubine" and "slut," which



the pen of a septuagenarian as pious as she was respectable had used

to designate the woman now in process of getting hold of Jean-Jacques



Rouget's property, struck also with the word "imbecile" applied to

Rouget himself, she began to ask herself how, by her presence at



Issoudun, she was to save the inheritance. Joseph, poor disinterested

artist that he was, knew little enough about the Code, and his



mother's last remark absorbed his mind.

"Before our friend Desroches sent us off to protect our rights, he



ought to have explained to us the means of doing so," he exclaimed.

"So far as my poor head, which whirls at the thought of Philippe in



prison,--without tobacco, perhaps, and about to appear before the

Court of Peers!--leaves me any distinct memory," returned Agathe, "I



think young Desroches said we were to get evidence of undue influence,

in case my brother has made a will in favor of that--that--woman."



"He is good at that, Desroches is," cried the painter. "Bah! if we can

make nothing of it I'll get him to come himself."



"Well, don't let us trouble our heads uselessly," said Agathe. "When

we get to Issoudun my godmother will tell us what to do."



This conversation, which took place just after Madame Bridau and

Joseph changed coaches at Orleans and entered the Sologne, is



sufficient proof of the incapacity of the painter and his mother to

play the part the inexorable Desroches had assigned to them.



In returning to Issoudun after thirty years' absence, Agathe was about

to find such changes in its manners and customs that it is necessary



to sketch, in a few words, a picture of that town. Without it, the

reader would scarcely understand the heroism displayed by Madame



Hochon in assisting her goddaughter, or the strange situation of Jean-

Jacques Rouget. Though Doctor Rouget had taught his son to regard



Agathe in the light of a stranger, it was certainly a somewhat

extraordinary thing that for thirty years a brother should have given



no signs of life to a sister. Such a silence was evidently caused by

peculiar circumstances, and any other sister and nephew than Agathe



and Joseph would long ago have inquired into them. There is, moreover,

a certain connection between the condition of the city of Issoudun and



the interests of the Bridau family, which can only be seen as the

story goes on.



CHAPTER VII

Issoudun, be it said without offence to Paris, is one of the oldest



cities in France. In spite of the historicalassumption which makes

the emperor Probus the Noah of the Gauls, Caesar speaks of the



excellent wine of Champ-Fort ("de Campo Forti") still one of the best

vintages of Issoudun. Rigord writes of this city in language which



leaves no doubt as to its great population and its immense commerce.

But these testimonies both assign a much lesser age to the city than



its ancient antiquity demands. In fact, the excavations lately

undertaken by a learnedarchaeologist of the place, Monsieur Armand



Peremet, have brought to light, under the celebrated tower of

Issoudun, a basilica of the fifth century, probably the only one in



France. This church preserves, in its very materials, the sign-manual

of an anterior civilization; for its stones came from a Roman temple



which stood on the same site.

Issoudun, therefore, according to the researches of this antiquary,



like other cities of France whose ancient or modern autonym ends in

"Dun" ("dunum") bears in its very name the certificate of an



autochthonous existence. The word "Dun," the appanage of all dignity




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