THE TWO DREAMS. BY BALZAC. (Concluded from No. 197.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 200, 30 June 1847, Page 4

THE TWO DREAMS. BY BALZAC. (Concluded from No. 197. )

" 'But, madame, instead of that horrible butchery, why did you not try to give the Calvinists the wise indulgences which made the reign of the Fourth Henry so peaceable and glorious?' " She smiled again, and the wrinkles in her face and brow gave an expression of the bitterest irony to her pale features. " 'Henry committed two faults,' she said. 'He ought neither to have abjured, nor to have left France Catholic after having become so himself. He alone was in a position to change the destinies of Fr.mce. There should have been either no Crosier or no Conventicle. He should never have left in the government two hostile principles, with nothing to balance them. It is impossible that Sully can have looked without envy on the imniense possessions of the church. But,' she paused, and seemed to consider for a moment — ' is it the niece of a pope you are surprised to see a Catholic ? Afier all,' she said, ' I could have been a Calvinist with all my heart. Does any one believe that religion had anything to do with that movement, that revolution, the greatest the world has ever seen, which has been retarded by trifling causes, but which nothing can hinder from coming to pass, since I failed to crush it? A revolution,' she added, fixing her eye on me, * which is even now in motion, and which you — yes, you — you who now listen to me — can finish.' - " I shuddered. "'What! has no one perceived that the old interests and the new have taken Rome and Luther for their watchwords? What! Louis the Ninth, in order to avoid a struggle of the same kind, carried away with him five times the number of victims I condemned, and left their bones on the shores of Africa, and is now a saint ; while I but the reason is soon given — I failed !' " She bent her head, and was silent a moment. She was no longer a queen, but one of the most awful druidesses who rejoiced in human sacrifices, and unrolled the pages of the Future by studying the records of the Past. At length she raised her noble and I majestic head again. ' You are all inclined,' she said, ' to bestow more sympathy on a few worthless victims than on the tears and sufferings of a whole generation ! And you forget that religious liberty, political freedom, a nation's tranquillity, science itself, are benefits which Destiny never vouchsafes to man without being paid for them in blood!' " ' Cannot nations, some day or other obtsin happiness on easier terms?' 1 asked, with tears in my eyes. " ' Truths never leave their well unless to be bathed in blood. Christianity itself — the essence of all truth, since it came from God — was not established without its martyrs. Blood flowed in torrents.' "Blood ! blood ! the word sounded in my ear like a bell. '"You think, then,' I said, 'that Protestantism would have a right to reason as you do.' " But Catharine had disappeared, and I awoke, trembling and in tears, till reason resumed her sway, and told me that the doctrines of that proud Italian were detestable, and that neither king nor people had a right to act on the principles she had enounced, which I felt were only worthy of a nation of atheists." When the unknown ceased to speak, the ladies made no remark. M. Bodard was asleep. The surgeon, who was half tipsy, Lavoisier, Beaumarchais, and I, were the only ones who had listened. M. de Galon ne was flirting with his neighbour. At that moment there was something solemn in the silence. The candles themselves seemed to me to burn with a magic dimness. A hidden power had riveted our attention, by some mysterious links, to the extraordinary narrator, who made me feel what might be the inexplicable influence of fanaticism. It was only the deep hollow voice of Beaumarchais' neighbour that awakened us from our surprise. " I also had a dream," he said. I looked more attentively at the surgeon, and instinctively shuddered with horror. His earthy colour — his features, at once vulgar and imposing, presented the true expression of the canaille. He had dark pimples spread over his face like patches of dirt, and his eyes beamed with a repulsive light. His countenance was more horrid, perhaps, than it might otherwise have been, from his head being snow-white with powder. "That fellow must have buried a host of patients," I said to my neighbour the attorney. "I would not trust Him with my dog," wts the answer.

' "I hate him — I can't help it,' 1 said. " I despise him." " No — you're wrong there," I replied. " And did you also dream of a queen V enquired Beaumarchais. | '• No ! I dreamt of a people," he answer!ed with an emphasis that made us laugh. "I ! had to cut off a patient's leg on the following j day, and "—" — ; " And you found the people in his leg ?" asked M. de Calonne. " Exactly," replied the surgeon. " He's quite amusing," tittered the Countess de G . •• I was rather astonished, I assure yeu," continued the man, without minding the sneers and interruptions he met with, "to find any thing to speak to in that leg. I had the extraordinary faculty of entering into my patient. When I found myself, for the first time, in his skin, I saw an immense quantify of little beings, which moved about, and thought, and reasoned. Some lived in the man's body, and some in his mind. His ideas were living things, which were born, grew up, and died. They were ill and well, lively, sorrowful ; and in short had each their own characteristics. They quarrelled, or were friendly with each other. Some of these ideas forced their way out, and went to inhabit the intellectual world; for I saw at a glance that there were two worlds — t!>e visible and the invisible, and that earth, like man, had a body and soul. Nature laid itself bare to me ; and I perceived its immensity, by seeing the ocean of beings who were spread everywhere, making the whole one mass of animated matter, from the marbles up to God. It was a noble sight ! In short, there was a universe in my patient. When I inserted the knife in his gangrened leg I annihilated millions of those beings. You laugh, ladies, to think you are possessed by annimals." "Don't be personal," sneered M. de Calonne — " speak for yourself and your patient." " He, poor man, was so frightened by the cries of those animals, and suffered such torture, that he tried to interrupt the operation. But I persevered, and I told him that those noxious animals were actually gnawing his bones. He made a movement, and the knife hurt my own side." " He is an ass," said Lavoisier. " No — he is only drunk," replied Beaumarchais. 41 But, gentlemen, my dream has a meaning in it," cried the surgeon. " Oh ! oh ! " exclaimed Bodard, who awoke at the moment — "my leg's asleep." "Your animals are dead, my dear," said his wife. '• That man has a destiny to fulfil," cTied my neighbour the attorney, who had kept his eyes fixed on the narrator the whole time. "It is to yours, sir," replied the frightful guest, who had overheard the remark, "what action is to thought — what the body is to the soul." But at this point his tongue became very confused from the quantity he had drunk, and his further words were unintelligible. Luckily for us, the conversation soon took another turn, and in half an hour we forgot all about the surgeon, who was sound asleep in his chair. The rain fell in torrents when we rose from table. " The attorney is no fool," said I to Beaumarchais. " He is heavy and cold," he replied ; "but you see there are still steady, good sort of people in the provinces, who are quite in earnest about political theories, and the history of France. It is a leaven that will work yet." "Is your carriage here?" asked Madame de St. James. "No "—I replied coldly. "You wished me, perhaps, to take M. de Galonne home?" She left me, slightly offended at the insinuation, and turned to the attorney. "M. de Robespierre," she said, " will you have the kindness to set M. Marat down at his hotel? He is not able to take care of himself."