文档介绍：THE BALL AT SCEAUX
THE BALL AT SCEAUX
HONORE DE BALZAC
Translated By Clara Bell
1
THE BALL AT SCEAUX
To Henri de Balzac, his brother Honore.
te de Fontaine, head of one of the oldest families in Poitou,
had served the Bourbon cause with intelligence and bravery during the
war in La Vendee against the Republic. After having escaped all the
dangers which threatened the royalist leaders during this stormy period of
modern history, he was wont to say in jest, "I am one of the men who gave
themselves to be killed on the steps of the throne." And the pleasantry had
some truth in it, as spoken by a man left for dead at the bloody battle of
Les Quatre Chemins. Though ruined by confiscation, the staunch Vendeen
steadily refused the lucrative posts offered to him by the Emperor
Napoleon. Immovable in his aristocratic faith, he had blindly obeyed its
precepts when he thought it fitting to choose panion for life. In spite
of the blandishments of a rich but revolutionary parvenu, who valued the
alliance at a high figure, he married Mademoiselle de Kergarouet, without
a fortune, but belonging to one of the oldest families in Brittany.
When the second revolution burst on Monsieur de Fontaine he was
encumbered with a large family. Though it was no part of the noble
gentlemen's views to solicit favors, he yielded to his wife's wish, left his
country estate, of which the e barely sufficed to maintain his
children, and came to Paris. Saddened by seeing the greediness of his
rades in the rush for places and dignities under the new
Constitution, he was about to return to his property when he received a
ministerial despatch, in which a well-known magnate announced to him
his nomination as marechal de camp, or brigadier- general, under a rule
which allowed the officers of the Catholic armies to count the twenty
submerged years of Louis XVIII.'s reign as years of service. Some days
later he further received, without any solicitation, ex officio, the cr