Ferrand

“ My friend, my friend, after the kindness you have evinced towards this wretched girl and her family, any pity would be weakness. Be inexorable,' said the abbé, the dupe, like the rest of the world, of M. Ferrand's hypocrisy."
"And you did not unmask the scoundrel on the spot?" asked Rodolph.
"Ah, no! monsieur, I was terrified, my head was in a whirl, I did not dare, I could not pronounce a word,—yet I was anxious to speak and defend myself. 'But sir—' I cried. 'Not one word more, unworthy creature,' said M. Ferrand, interrupting me. 'You heard M. l'Abbé. Pity would be weakness. ”

“ Polidori, completely dressed in black, was seated beside the desk of Jacques Ferrand. At the sight of the priest they both arose.
"Well! how do you get on, my worthy M. Ferrand?" said the abbé, with solicitude; "are you a little better?"
"I am always in the same state, M. l'Abbé; the fever does not leave me," answered the notary; "the want of sleep is killing me. But the will of heaven be done!"
"See, M. l'Abbé," added Polidori, with emphasis, "what pious resignation! My poor friend is always the same; he only finds a solace for his sufferings in doing good." ”

“ The priest went out, and Jacques Ferrand and Polidori remained alone. Hardly had the abbé gone than Jacques Ferrand uttered a terrible imprecation. His despair and rage, so long restrained, burst forth with fury; breathless, his face convulsed, his eyes rolling in their sockets, he walked up and down in the cabinet like a wild beast confined by a chain. Polidori, presenting the greatest composure, observed the notary attentively.
"Thunder and blood!" cried Jacques, in a voice choked with rage; "my fortune entirely swallowed up in these stupid good works! I, who despise and execrate men ”

“ How can we possibly manage with so few? Things are bad enough as it is.”
Ferrand looked and listened, quite bewildered by the extraordinary behaviour of the people amongst whom he had been thrown by chance since the previous day. He who did not believe, who was only present out of friendship and charity, was amazed at this extraordinary scramble of wretchedness and suffering rushing towards the hope of happiness. ”

“ Justice has been informed of this crime, or rather the presumptive crime, by the statement of an individual most respectable in every particular, Louise Morel's master."
"Jacques Ferrand, the notary?" said Rodolph, with indignation.
"Yes, sir—"
"M. Jacques Ferrand is a wretch, sir!"
"I am pained to see that you do not know the person of whom you speak, sir. M. Jacques Ferrand is one of the most honourable men in the world; his rectitude is universally recognised." ”

“ The more this celebrated goldsmith approached perfection, they say, the more value did he attach to his ornaments, always considering the last as his chef-d'œuvre, and being utterly distressed at giving it up. The more Jacques Ferrand grew perfect in crime, the more he clung to the open and constant marks of confidence which were showered upon him, always considering his last deceit as his chef-d'œuvre. ”

“ Ferrand bit his lip, and, stamping with passion, exclaimed, "What farther insults am I to receive? I have been rejected by a proud menial; my love contemned; insulted by a rival; reproved for my just vengeance, and treated as a prisoner!—and now—on what authority is the finger of suspicion pointed at me? ”

“ He was too cunning, and knew too well the perils of his situation, not to comprehend the bearing of Sarah's threats. Although admirably constructed, the edifice of the notary's reputation was built on sand. The public as easily detach as they attach themselves, and are pleased with the right to trample under foot those whom they once had exalted to the skies. How foresee the consequences of the first attack on the reputation of Jacques Ferrand? However ridiculous this attack might be, its boldness alone might awaken suspicion. ”

“ Ferrand sometimes strove to soothe, but more often to terrify me to compliance. The third evening a violent bustle in the lower rooms raised my hopes that my brother and Harland had gained intelligence of my prison, and were come to my deliverance. With a throbbing heart I listened to catch the welcome sound of their voices; but the tumult gradually ceased; all became quiet; and I was obliged to resign myself to a state rendered more horrid by the short-lived but sanguine hope I had indulged of liberation. ”

“ Usually these adventurous, energetic spirits, which do not recoil before any crime that will procure gold, are beset by turbulent passions—gaming, dissipation, gluttony, or other pleasures. Jacques Ferrand knew none of these violent and stormy desires; cunning and patient as a forger, cruel and resolute as an assassin, he was as sober and regular as Harpagon. One passion alone was active within him, and this we have seen too fatally exhibited in his early conduct to Louise. ”

“ She lives as servant with an old miserly fellow, rich enough to buy and sell half Paris,—a notary, named M. Jacques Ferrand."
"M. Jacques Ferrand!" exclaimed Rodolph, surprised at the fresh coincidence which brought under his notice the very individual from whom, or from whose confidential housekeeper, he expected to glean so many particulars relative to La Goualeuse. "M. Jacques Ferrand, who lives in the Rue du Sentier, do you mean?" inquired he. ”

“ Extended on a bed in his sleeping apartment, feebly lighted by a lamp, Jacques Ferrand was dressed in black trousers and vest; one of the sleeves of his shirt was turned back, and a ligature around his attenuated arm announced that he had just been bled. Polidori was standing near the bed, with one hand on the bolster, and appeared to regard the features of his accomplice with inquietude.
Nothing could be more hideously frightful than the face of Ferrand, who was then plunged into that torpor which ordinarily succeeds violent attacks. ”

“ Your master must be the fiend himself to torture a man as he is doing me!"
"I have no master," replied Polidori, coldly; "only, like yourself, I have a judge whose decrees there is no escaping!"
"But thus blindly and idiotically to follow the most trifling order of this man!" continued Jacques Ferrand, with redoubled rage. "To compel me, constrain me, to the very actions most galling and hateful to me!"
"Nay, you have your chance between obedience and the scaffold!" ”

“ Why were you so weak, so silly, as to surrender so formidable a weapon to—that infernal Cecily?"
"Silence!" exclaimed Jacques Ferrand, with a fearful expression of countenance; "name her not!"
"With all my heart! I don't want to bring on an attack of epilepsy. You see plainly enough that, as regards the common course of ordinary justice, our mutual precautions were quite sufficient to ensure our safety; but he who now holds us in his formidable power goes to work differently; he believes that cutting off the heads of criminals is not a sufficient reparation for the wrongs they have done. ”

“ The Marchioness smiled.—"At present, Harland, we will think of your marriage with Louise. You have sufficiently proved your knight-errantry by her rescue: and as for Ferrand, I think he is punished enough, in the loss of his mistress, for the steps he took to obtain her. Had you, my young friend, been the rejected lover, I do not think your passions would have been more under control than his have been." ”

“ The storm still howled without, and Polidori, throwing himself into an armchair, exclaimed, "What a night! What a night! Nothing could be worse for Jacques's present state. Yes," he continued, "the prince is pitiless, and it would have been a thousand times better for Ferrand to have allowed his head to fall upon a scaffold; better fire, the wheel, molten lead, which burns and eats into the flesh, than the miserable punishment he endures! As I see him suffer I begin to feel affright for my own fate! What will become of me? What is in reserve for me as the accomplice of Jacques? ”

“ Just as Ferrand, alarmed by the noise he had heard, was making instinctively for the electric switch at the other end of the room, the light suddenly flashed out, [68] dazzling his eyes, grown accustomed to the dark. Someone with the same intention as himself, but with greater quickness, had anticipated him. ”

“ Original Etching by Adrian Marcel
"Is not M. Ferrand a terrible man?" said Madame d'Orbigny, affectedly. "Mind now, I tell you, that, if he has charge of your affairs, he will scold you awfully. He is the most unpitying man—But that's my nonsense; on the contrary, why, such an exquisite as you to have M. Ferrand for his solicitor is a proof of reformation, [Pg 135] for we know very well that he never allows his clients to do foolish things; if they do, he gives up their business. Oh, he will not be everybody's lawyer!" ”

“ Not to be surprised by the governor, they sent the office-boy, on whom the carcass and claws of the turkey had been most liberally bestowed, as a sentry into the neighboring room.
The head clerk said to his colleagues, "In the first place, you must know that, for some days past the porter has been alarmed about master's health. As the good man sits up very late, he has seen M. Ferrand go down to the garden in the night in spite of the cold and rain, and walk up and down rapidly. He ventured to leave his nest, and ask his master if he had need of anything. ”

“ And, perceiving that he hoped, by dint of proofs of devotion and self-denial, he should contrive to make her overlook his age and ugliness, she amused herself with telling him that, if she ever could love him, how excessive that love would be. With this Jacques Ferrand's reason wandered, and he would frequently walk in his garden at night absorbed in his own reflections. Sometimes he gazed for hours into the bedroom of the creole ”

“ As men, we all are equal: nor are the circumstances of life so certain, but the monarch may be indebted for his existence to the hand of a slave!' He raised me from the ground; and, as a sentiment of shame arose for the cause of this reproach, I accepted his proffered arm in silence, for my limbs were at first too benumbed to admit of my walking without assistance. The voice of Ferrand, directing his servants as he again approached the recess, informed us not a moment was to be lost; and my companion, dashing out the torch, with hasty steps conducted me into the plantation. ”

“ Jacques Ferrand having left all the doors open behind him, the clerks had a right to be astonished at the strange demeanour of their employer, who had come up one staircase and gone down another without pausing for a moment in any of the apartments he had mechanically traversed.
[Pg 69]
CHAPTER IV. AVOID TEMPTATION!
It is night. Profound silence reigns in the pavilion inhabited by Jacques Ferrand, interrupted only at intervals by gusts of wind and the dashing of rain, which falls in torrents. These melancholy sounds seemed to render still more complete the solitude of this abode. ”

“ I repeat to you, people like you are rare; they will receive their reward."
"It is true that very few persons unite, like Jacques Ferrand, riches to piety, intelligence to charity," said Polidori, with an ironical smile which escaped the notice of the good abbé.
At this new and sarcastic eulogium the hand of the notary was clinched; he cast from under his spectacles a look of deadly hatred on Polidori. ”

“ Inconceivable was the rage of Harland and Ferrand at this restriction: but they were obliged to obey; each secretly tormented with the idea, that his rival would find opportunities of seeing Louise, and gaining her affections. The keen [Pg 216] eye of jealousy had soon told Ferrand Louise preferred Harland to himself; wounded pride and indignation now led to the desire of revenge; and before he reached the abode, appointed by his uncle, he resolved to carry her off; by which means he should effectually punish her disregard for himself, and triumph over his rival. ”

“ Make your arrangements with him; you are fit to meet if you are a forger, as he declares."
M. de Saint-Remy had entered Jacques Ferrand's study with a lip all scorn, and a head all pride. Although he had in his life committed some shameful actions, he still retained a certain elevation of race, and an instinctive courage, which had never forsaken him. At the beginning of this conversation, considering the notary as an adversary beneath him, he had been content to treat him with disdain; but, when Jacques Ferrand began to talk of forgery, he felt annihilated ”

“ FERRAND, ANTOINE FRANÇOIS CLAUDE, Comte (1751–1825) , French statesman and political writer, was born in Paris on the 4th of July 1751, and became a member of the parlement of Paris at eighteen. He left France with the first party of emigrants, and attached himself to the prince of Condé; later he was a member of the council of regency formed by the comte de Provence after the death of Louis XVI. He lived at Regensburg until 1801, when he returned to France, though he still sought to serve the royalist cause. In 1814 Ferrand was made minister of state and postmaster-general. ”

“ I have got to place out a young orphan girl, who is utterly a stranger to Paris; and I wish very much, with your assistance, to obtain for her the situation vacant in M. Ferrand's establishment."
"You don't mean it? La, I never can think you are in earnest! What! Send a poor, friendless girl to live with such a miserly wretch as that hard-hearted old notary? No, no, M. Rodolph, that was not what you wanted me to do, I'm sure!"
"But, indeed, it is; why, a place is a place, and, if the young person I mentioned to you should not like it, she is not obliged to stay there ”