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The Two Brothers-Part45_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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mourn his former master, will no doubt feel indulgently for me.

Napoleon was my benefactor.



I thereforeentreat your Excellency to take into consideration the

request I make for employment in my proper rank; and I beg to



assure you of my entire submission. The King will find in me a

faithful subject.



Deign to accept the assurance of respect with which I have the

honor to be,



Your Excellency's very submissive and

Very humble servant,



Philippe Bridau

Formerly chief of squadron in the dragoons of the Guard; officer



of the Legion of honor; now under police surveillance at Issoudun.

To this letter was joined a request for permission to go to Paris on



urgent family business; and Monsieur Mouilleron annexed letters from

the mayor, the sub-prefect, and the commissary of police at Issoudun,



all bestowing many praises on Philippe's conduct, and dwelling upon

the newspaper article relating to his uncle's marriage.



Two weeks later, Philippe received the desired permission, and a

letter, in which the minister of war informed him that, by order of



the King, he was, as a preliminary favor, reinstated lieutenant-

colonel in the royal army.



CHAPTER XVII

Lieutenant-Colonel Bridau returned to Paris, taking with him his aunt



and the helpless Rouget, whom he escorted, three days after their

arrival, to the Treasury, where Jean-Jacques signed the transfer of



the income, which henceforth became Philippe's. The exhausted old man

and the Rabouilleuse were now plunged by their nephew into the



excessive dissipations of the dangerous and restless society of

actresses, journalists, artists, and the equivocal women among whom



Philippe had already wasted his youth; where old Rouget found

excitements that soon after killed him. Instigated by Giroudeau,



Lolotte, one of the handsomest of the Opera ballet-girls, was the

amiable assassin of the old man. Rouget died after a splendid supper



at Florentine's, and Lolotte threw the blame of his death upon a slice

of pate de foie gras; as the Strasburg masterpiece could make no



defence, it was considered settled that the old man died of

indigestion.



Madame Rouget was in her element in the midst of this excessively

decollete society; but Philippe gave her in charge of Mariette, and



that monitress did not allow the widow--whose mourning was diversified

with a few amusements--to commit any actual follies.



In October, 1823, Philippe returned to Issoudun, furnished with a

power of attorney from his aunt, to liquidate the estate of his uncle;



a business that was soon over, for he returned to Paris in March,

1824, with sixteen hundred thousand francs,--the net proceeds of old



Rouget's property, not counting the precious pictures, which had never

left Monsieur Hochon's hands. Philippe put the whole property into the



hands of Mongenod and Sons, where young Baruch Borniche was employed,

and on whose solvency and business probity old Hochon had given him



satisfactory assurances. This house took his sixteen hundred thousand

francs at six per cent per annum, on condition of three months' notice



in case of the withdrawal of the money.

One fine day, Philippe went to see his mother, and invited her to be



present at his marriage, which was witnessed by Giroudeau, Finot,

Nathan, and Bixiou. By the terms of the marriage contract, the widow



Rouget, whose portion of her late husband's property amounted to a

million of francs, secured to her future husband her whole fortune in



case she died without children. No invitations to the wedding were

sent out, nor any "billets de faire part"; Philippe had his designs.



He lodged his wife in an appartement in the rue Saint-Georges, which

he bought ready-furnished from Lolotte. Madame Bridau the younger



thought it delightful, and her husband rarely set foot in it. Without

her knowledge, Philippe purchased in the rue de Clichy, at a time when



no one suspected the value which property in that quarter would one

day acquire, a magnificent hotel for two hundred and fifty thousand






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