Sons of the Soil

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"If I give you what you ask, will you tell me who offered you those
three thousand francs?" said the general.

"I don't know myself; and the person who is urging me to do the thing
is some one I love too well to tell of. Besides, even if you did know
it was Marie Tonsard, that wouldn't help you; Marie Tonsard would be
as silent as that wall, and I should deny every word I've said."

"Come and see me to-morrow," said the general.

"Enough," replied Bonnebault; "and if they begin to say I'm too
dilatory, I'll let you know in time."

A week after that singular conversation the whole arrondissement,
indeed the whole department, was covered with posters, advertising the
sale of Les Aigues at the office of Maitre Corbineau, the notary of
Soulanges. All the lots were knocked down to Rigou, and the price paid
amounted to two millions five hundred thousand francs. The next day
Rigou had the names changed; Monsieur Gaubertin took the woods, Rigou
and Soudry the vineyards and the farms. The chateau and the park were
sold over again in small lots among the sons of the soil, the
peasantry,--excepting the pavilion, its dependencies, and fifty
surrounding acres, which Monsieur Gaubertin retained as a gift to his
poetic and sentimental spouse.

* * * * *

Many years after these events, during the year 1837, one of the most
remarkable political writers of the day, Emile Blondet, reached the
last stages of a poverty which he had so far hidden beneath an outward
appearance of ease and elegance. He was thinking of taking some
desperate step, realizing, as he did, that his writings, his mind, his
knowledge, his ability for the direction of affairs, had made him
nothing better than a mere functionary, mechanically serving the ends
of others; seeing that every avenue was closed to him and all places
taken; feeling that he had reached middle-life without fame and
without fortune; that fools and middle-class men of no training had
taken the places of the courtiers and incapables of the Restoration,
and that the government was reconstituted such as it was before 1830.
One evening, when he had come very near committing suicide (a folly he
had so often laughed at), while his mind travelled back over his
miserable existence calumniated and worn down with toil far more than
with the dissipations charged against him, the noble and beautiful
face of a woman rose before his eyes, like a statue rising pure and
unbroken amid the saddest ruins. Just then the porter brought him a
letter sealed with black from the Comtesse de Montcornet, telling him
of the death of her husband, who had again taken service in the army
and commanded a division. The count had left her his property, and she
had no children. The letter, though dignified, showed Blondet very
plainly that the woman of forty whom he had loved in his youth offered
him a friendly hand and a large fortune.

A few days ago the marriage of the Comtesse de Montcornet with
Monsieur Blondet, appointed prefect in one of the departments, was
celebrated in Paris. On their way to take possession of the
prefecture, they followed the road which led past what had formerly
been Les Aigues. They stopped the carriage near the spot where the two
pavilions had once stood, wishing to see the places so full of tender
memories for each. The country was no longer recognizable. The
mysterious woods, the park avenues, all were cleared away; the
landscape looked like a tailor's pattern-card. The sons of the soil
had taken possession of the earth as victors and conquerors. It was
cut up into a thousand little lots, and the population had tripled
between Conches and Blangy. The levelling and cultivation of the noble
park, once so carefully tended, so delightful in its beauty, threw
into isolated relief the pavilion of the Rendezvous, now the Villa
Buen-Retiro of Madame Isaure Gaubertin; it was the only building left
standing, and it commanded the whole landscape, or as we might better
call it, the stretch of cornfields which now constituted the
landscape. The building seemed magnified into a chateau, so miserable
were the little houses which the peasants had built around it.

"This is progress!" cried Emile. "It is a page out of Jean-Jacques'
'Social Compact'! and I--I am harnessed to the social machine that
works it! Good God! what will the kings be soon? More than that, what
will the nations themselves be fifty years hence under this state of
things?"

"But you love me; you are beside me. I think the present delightful.
What do I care for such a distant future?" said his wife.

"Oh yes! by your side, hurrah for the present!" cried the lover,
gayly, "and the devil take the future."

Then he signed to the coachman, and as the horses sprang forward along
the road, the wedded pair returned to the enjoyment of their
honeymoon.



1845.




ADDENDUM

The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.

Note: Sons of the Soil is also known as The Peasantry and is referred
to by that title when mentioned in other addendums.

Blondet, Emile
Jealousies of a Country Town
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
Modeste Mignon
Another Study of Woman
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Firm of Nucingen

Blondet, Virginie
Jealousies of a Country Town
The Secrets of a Princess
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Another Study of Woman
The Member for Arcis
A Daughter of Eve

Bourlac, Bernard-Jean-Baptiste-Macloud, Baron de
The Seamy Side of History

Brossette, Abbe
Beatrix

Carigliano, Duchesse de
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Member for Arcis

Casteran, De
The Chouans
The Seamy Side of History
Jealousies of a Country Town
Beatrix

Laguerre, Mademoiselle
A Prince of Bohemia

La Roche-Hugon, Martial de
Domestic Peace
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty

Lupin, Amaury
A Start in Life

Marest, Georges
A Start in Life

Minorets, The
The Government Clerks

Montcornet, Marechal, Comte de
Domestic Peace
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
A Man of Business
Cousin Betty

Navarreins, Duc de
A Bachelor's Establishment
Colonel Chabert
The Muse of the Department
The Thirteen
Jealousies of a Country Town
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
The Country Parson
The Magic Skin
The Gondreville Mystery
The Secrets of a Princess
Cousin Betty

Ronquerolles, Marquis de
The Imaginary Mistress
Ursule Mirouet
A Woman of Thirty
Another Study of Woman
The Thirteen
The Member for Arcis

Scherbelloff, Princesse (or Scherbellof or Sherbelloff)
Jealousies of a Country Town

Soulanges, Comte Leon de
Domestic Peace

Soulanges, Comtesse Hortense de
Domestic Peace
The Thirteen

Steingel
The Gondreville Mystery

Troisville, Guibelin, Vicomte de
The Seamy Side of History
The Chouans
Jealousies of a Country Town