Madame Caroline then felt her heart melting. Poor, wretched man! He now filled her only with a divine pity. But where had she heard such screaming before? Only once had the howl of human pain pierced her with such a shudder. And she remembered: it was at Mazaud’s house, the screams of the mother and the little ones, facing the father’s dead body. As if unable to withdraw from this suffering, she stayed a moment more and gave what help she could. Then, as she was leaving, finding herself alone with La Méchain in the little business office, she remembered that she had come to ask about Victor. And she questioned her. Ah well, Victor was far away, if he was still running! La Méchain had tramped all over Paris for three months without discovering any trace of him. She had given up, there would be time enough to find that scoundrel one day, on the scaffold. Madame Caroline listened to her, silent and chilled. Yes, it was all over, the monster had been abandoned by everybody, left to the future, the unknown, like a beast, jaws foaming with the hereditary virus, which would spread evil with every bite.
Outside, on the pavement of the Rue Vivienne, Madame Caroline was surprised at the softness of the air. It was five o’clock, the sun was setting in a sky of tender purity, turning to gold the signs far off, hanging high above the Boulevard. This April, so delightful in its new youthfulness, was like a caress for her whole physical being, right down to her heart. She breathed in deeply, comforted, and happier already, with the feeling of invincible hope returning to her and growing. It was no doubt the beautiful death of that dreamer, giving his last breath to his chimera of justice and love that moved her in this way, a dream she also had dreamed, of a humanity purged of the execrable evil of money; and it was also the screams of that other one, the tormented and bleeding love of that terrible jackal,* whom she had thought heartless and incapable of tears. But no! She had not come away with the consoling impression of so much human goodness in the midst of so much grief; on the contrary, she had come away finally despairing of that little monster, let loose, and galloping away, sowing along his path that ferment of rottenness of which the world would never be cured. So why this renewal of cheerfulness, filling her whole being?
When she reached the Boulevard, Madame Caroline turned left, and slowed down in the midst of the busy crowd. She stopped for a moment by a little cart full of bunches of lilies and wallflowers, and their strong scent wrapped her in a waft of springtime. And now, as she continued her walk, the wave of joy mounted within her as if from a bubbling spring, impossible to stop or smother, however hard you tried. She had understood, but unwillingly. No, no, the awful catastrophes were too recent, she could not be gay, could not abandon herself to this uplifting surge of endless life. She strove to maintain her grieving, she called herself back to despair, with so many cruel memories. What! Could she still laugh, after the collapse of everything, after such a frightening mass of miseries! Was she forgetting that she had been complicit? And she recited the facts to herself, this fact, that one, and that other, that she should have spent the rest of her life weeping over. But in between her fingers clenched over her heart, that bubbling up of sap gathered strength, and the spring of life overflowed, pushing away all obstacles, tossing all debris aside, to flow freely, clear and triumphant in the sunlight.
From that moment Madame Caroline gave in and simply abandoned herself to the irresistible force of continual rejuvenation. As she often said with a laugh, she was unable to be sad. This proved it; she had touched the very depths of despair, yet hope was springing to life again, broken and bloody, but still alive, and growing by the minute. Certainly she had no illusions left, life was decidedly unjust and squalid, like Nature itself. So why this madness of loving it, wanting it, and still—like a child who has been promised a constantly deferred pleasure—counting on the distant and unknown goal towards which it is leading us? Then, when she turned into the Rue de la Chausséed’Antin, she stopped trying to reason it out; the philosopher in her, the scholar and the woman of letters, had abdicated, weary of the useless search for causes; she was simply a creature happy at the blue sky and the gentle air, enjoying the sole pleasure of being in good health and hearing her little feet firmly tapping the pavement. Ah, the joy of being alive, is there really any other joy than this? Life, just as it is, however abominable it may be, with all its power and its eternal hope!
Back in the Rue Saint-Lazare, in the apartment she was to leave the next day, Madame Caroline finished her packing, and as she made a tour of the now empty workroom, she saw on the walls the maps and watercolours she’d promised herself she would tie up in a roll at the last minute. But at every sheet of paper, before taking out the four tacks at each corner, she fell into a dream. She was reliving those faroff days in the Orient, that beloved land, whose brilliant light she seemed to have kept inside her; she relived the five years she had just spent in Paris, with a crisis every day, and that crazy activity, that monstrous hurricane of millions that had run its devastating path through her life; and from those ruins, still warm, she could already sense the growth of a great blossoming opening out in the sun. Even if the Turkish National Bank had collapsed after the collapse of the Universal, the United Steamship Company was still standing, and prospering. She saw once more the enchanted coast of Beirut where, among huge warehouses, administrative buildings were rising, the plans for which she was just dusting down: Marseilles a gateway to Asia Minor, the Mediterranean conquered, nations brought together, to live in peace perhaps. And the Carmel Gorge, this watercolour she was taking down, didn’t she know from a recent letter that a whole population had grown up there? The village, at first of five hundred inhabitants, clustering round the workings of the mine, was at present a city of several thousand souls, a whole civilization, with roads, factories, and schools, creating life in this dead and savage place. Then there were the planned routes, the land-surveys, and the outlines for the railway line from Brussa to Beirut via Angora and Aleppo, a series of large sheets that she rolled up one by one; no doubt years would go by before the Taurus passes were crossed at full steam;* but already life was flowing in from everywhere, the soil of the ancient cradle of humanity had just been sown with a new crop of men, the progress of tomorrow would grow there, a vegetation of extraordinary vigour, in that wonderful climate under that perpetual sun. And wasn’t this the awakening of a world, with an expanded and happier humanity?
Madame Caroline now tied up the bundle of plans with some stout string. Her brother, who was waiting for her in Rome, where the two were going to start their lives all over again, had urged her to pack them carefully; and as she tied the knots, her thoughts went to Saccard now in Holland, once again launched on a colossal enterprise, the draining of vast marshes, a little kingdom to be won from the sea, thanks to a complicated system of canals. He was right: money was always the manure in which the humanity of tomorrow was growing; money, poisonous and destructive, became the ferment of all social growth, the compost necessary for the great works that made life easier. This time, was she at last seeing clearly? Did her invincible hope spring from her belief in the usefulness of effort? Heavens! Over and above the stirring of so much mud, and the crushing of so many victims, out of all that abominable suffering that humanity has to pay for every step forward, is there not an obscure and distant goal, something superior, something good, just and definitive, toward which we move without knowing it, but which fills our hearts with the obstinate need to live, and hope?
And Madame Caroline, with her face ever young beneath its crown of white hair, was joyful in spite of everything, as if she were rejuvenated every April, in the old age of the earth. And at the shameful memory she had of her relationship with Saccard, she thought of the terrible filth with which love too has been soiled. Why then blame money for the dirt and crimes it causes? Is love any less sullied, love, the creator of life?
EXPLANATORY NOTES
Bourse: Napoleon Bonaparte laid the first stone of the Bourse (now the Palais Brongniart) in 1808. Home of the Paris Stock Exchange, the building was design
ed in the Corinthian style by the architect Alexandre Théodore Brongniart, and after his death in 1813 completed by Éloi Labarre in 1825. Officially opened on 4 November 1826, under the Restoration, it became the hub of financial activity in France throughout the nineteenth century. The introduction of an electronic trading system in 1987 led to the re-siting of the Bourse (now Euronext, Paris) and the designation of the Palais Brongniart as a historical monument.
Champeaux: restaurant on the Place de la Bourse, founded by Champeaux in 1800. Much frequented by financial traders, it carried on until 1905.
May: May 1864.
stockbroker: Mazaud is one of about sixty official stockbrokers (agents de change), each of whom had to be a French citizen, approved by the Minister of Finance. The agents de change were strictly brokers, not allowed to trade for themselves nor to stand in for others dealing in securities. They received a legally regulated commission for acting as intermediary.
fifteen francs: 1 franc = 20 sous or 100 centimes. As a general guide to the value of the franc at that time, an average worker in Paris in 1860 would have earned 3 to 4 francs a day, a litre of wine would cost about 80 centimes, a pound of beef 1 to 2 francs, a dozen eggs 1 franc 50 centimes. In the course of the novel the Jordans plan to eat in a modest restaurant for 35 sous each for two courses with wine and bread, and Marcelle buys an almond cake for 20 sous; rent for the Cité de Naples is 2 francs a week.
bull trader: an investor who thinks the market or a particular stock will rise and buys securities hoping to sell them later at a higher price. His opposite is a ‘bear’ or short-seller, who believes the market or a particular stock will go down and hopes to profit from a decline in prices.
kerb market: known in French as ‘la coulisse’, getting its name from a wooden partition once introduced to keep visitors away from the main trading-floor, rather like the ‘coulisse’ or ‘wings’ of a theatre. This secondary market, though not officially authorized until 1885, was accepted by tradition and accounted for about three-fifths of all transactions; being unrecognized it did not incur the Bourse tax. It continued to operate until the mid-twentieth century.
mansion in the Parc Monceau: Saccard’s highly ornate mansion is in what was then one of the most fashionable areas of Paris.
land-deal: from 1853 to 1870 Baron Haussmann, Napoleon III’s Prefect of the Seine, was transforming Paris, clearing away buildings and creating the wide boulevards for which the modern city is so admired. During this ‘Haussmannization’, speculation on land was rife. Saccard’s illegal activities and subsequent ruin are related in the second novel of the Rougon-Macquart series, The Kill (La Curée).
minister: the sixth Rougon-Macquart novel, His Excellency Eugène Rougon, is devoted to the career of Saccard’s brother Eugene, modelled on Eugène Rouher (1818–84), a powerful politician in the Second Empire who at various times acted as minister, vice-president of the Council of State, and president of the Senate.
Parliament: the Chamber of Deputies (‘Chambre des Députés’) denotes the various bodies constituting France’s Legislative Assembly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1852 Napoleon III made the Corps Législatif (Legislative Assembly) the lower chamber of the French Parliament, its members being elected by universal (male) suffrage. Its powers were shared with the more powerful executive arm, the Conseil d’État (Council of State), and the Sénat (Senate). Ministers were appointed by the Emperor and were responsible only to him. The Third Republic (after 1871) re-established the name Chambre des Députés. The French Parliament later became known as the National Assembly (‘Assemblée Nationale’).
jobber: (remisier in French) one who acts as intermediary between brokers, touting for custom and getting a commission on each transaction, rather like a bookmaker’s ‘runner’.
by-elections … Opposition: elections had been held in May 1863, but on 20 March 1864 by-elections were held for two districts of Paris. Government candidates were very soundly defeated by Carnot and Garnier-Pagès; the latter had been a member of the 1848 (Republican) government.
Duchies question: the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein, by a treaty of 1852 agreed by Russia, Sweden, England, and France, were to be returned to Denmark. However, in February 1864 Bismarck occupied Holstein and invaded Schleswig. Russia, Sweden, and England supported Denmark, but France suggested a vote by the relevant populations. This in effect nullified the treaty of 1852, and Denmark lost out to Prussia.
all end: it would in fact all end badly for France, but well for a strong German Empire.
Mexico: when Mexico, under President Juarez, refused to pay interest on foreign debt in 1861, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom signed the Convention of London to combine their efforts to restore interest payments. However, Napoleon III, seeking a base from which to expand French trade, as well as hoping to acquire Mexican silver mines, decided to invade Mexico, whereupon the United Kingdom and Spain withdrew. A French expeditionary force was sent to Mexico in 1861 to defeat Juarez’s republic and establish an empire under the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who accepted the crown in October 1863. This intervention proved to be extremely costly as well as unsuccessful: it ended with the execution of Maximilian in June 1867 and the restoration of the Juarez republic.
glorious … reign: Eugène Rouher used this expression in response to Thiers’s criticism. See note to p. 8.
loan … January: the loan was voted in December 1863. A public subscription, opened in January 1864, was enthusiastically supported and raised over 249 million francs.
coup d’état: the coup d’état of 2 December 1851, by which the nephew of Napoleon I, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, then President of the Second Republic, seized power and a year later became the Emperor Napoleon III.
Thiers: Adolphe Thiers (1797–1877), Minister of the Interior in 1834 and President of the State Council from 1836 to 1840. A member of the Legislative Assembly from 1863 to 1870, and one of the main opponents of the Empire. He had commented savagely on the huge cost of the Mexican adventure.
champion of liberty: when the Emperor dissolved the National Assembly in 1852 he restored universal male suffrage and could thus be seen as a supporter of liberty. The constitution, however, gave him more or less absolute power. To win back diminishing support he made further liberal reforms in November 1860.
International Workingmen’s Association: also known as ‘The First International’, formed in an attempt to unite various left-wing political groups and trades unions to fight for better conditions for workers. It was not in fact formed until September 1864, so after the presumed date of this conversation; but the slight anachronism served Zola’s purpose of introducing in the first chapter a number of subjects and themes that would recur in the novel.
Suez project: the building of the Suez Canal began in 1859; the work was interrupted in 1863–4 due to problems with Turkey, but resumed in 1865 and was finished in 1869. The Canal, owned by the French and Egyptian Suez Canal Company, was opened in November of that year. The British government opposed the project throughout its construction, objecting to the use of slave labour, but became a minority shareholder in the Suez Company in 1875.
the notice … make demand: Mazaud refers to a process by which a financial intermediary with a troublesome client can demand payment. If payment is not made, the agent can sell the shares the client has bought, and if the client cannot cover any loss then he is ‘posted’, that is, his failure to meet his engagements is announced to the Bourse at large.
victorias: low, four-wheeled carriages for two, with folding hood.
‘Wet Feet’: Fr. ‘pieds humides’.
Plassans: birthplace of the Rougon-Macquart family. Zola’s fictional name for Aix-en-Provence, where he lived from 1843 until 1858, when he went to Paris.
Crédit Mobilier: influential bank, founded by the Péreire brothers in 1852. It provided Zola with much useful material for this novel. The Crédit Mobilier crashed in 1870.
coupé: small, enclosed four-wheeled c
arriage with internal seating for two and an outside seat for the driver.
Bacchante: the Bacchantes were female devotees of Bacchus (Dionysus in the Greek version), god of wine and intoxication. The Bacchantes are more often represented as dishevelled madwomen than dressed in designer clothes—the contrast suggests (deceptively) the possibility of raging passions beneath the Baroness’s cultivated exterior.
English cheques: in the 1860s cheques, much used in England, were still a relative novelty in France, hence their description as ‘English’. They gradually became popular in France in the course of the Second Empire.
collector of revenues: the receveur de rentes in the nineteenth century was a public servant responsible for coordinating the collection of taxes and fines for his area. He received a salary plus commission. The actual collecting was done by a subordinate.