Henri

“ No spectator of the little drama enacted within the Revolution can forget how dominant, distinct, unrepeated, this artful image of Henri burns itself in upon the memory. To wish him age and a competency were superstition. Mark how, even in her hasty finishing touches, Nature did not bungle with him. She rounds out her white ideal. She leaves us convinced that living a span, and dying in the hurly-burly, he best fulfilled himself. ”

“ In the midst of all this bewildering, maddening confusion, Henri found himself thinking dreamily of his mother's stories of the terrible passage of the Loire by the defeated Vendéans. "It was like the day of judgment," she used to say. "And what," asked Henri, "would she have thought of this?"
He was startled by a voice near him. "Monsieur Henri, is it you? Is it really you?" cried some one in the crowd, seizing his hand and grasping it. "This is indeed a miracle."
"Féron! dear Féron!" exclaimed Henri, springing from his seat in the carriage and throwing himself into the arms of his comrade. ”

“ Henri started, as though the thought were new to him. "Those would be strange jewels for the diadem on a monarch's brow," he said. "Yet, after all, the world—here in Paris as well as where I have been in Poland—can bear witness to 'long-suffering, gentleness, goodness.' Of 'love, joy, peace,' of course I cannot speak, for they are gems whose light is turned God-wards."
"Then let our prayer be for those. The face we have seen to-day does not look joyful, Henri." ”

“ Henri was tall, strongly built, and carried himself royally; but there was a strange mixture of courage and weakness in his countenance. He was brave—no man could be found to deny that; but there was never a sparkle of intelligence in his dull eyes, though at times they shone with cunning, and his mouth was weak and sensual. That night he had supped in the apartments of Diane de Poitiers, and had evidently primed himself for this visit to the Queen, for his face was flushed and his voice thick. ”

“ Henri had accompanied the Duke in his flight to England after the conspiracy of Cinq Mars, and he had returned with him; he possessed his entire confidence, and he relates nothing in which he himself had not taken a considerable part. Henri’s character was very different to that of his brother Alexandre. He was a well-educated man, full of honour and courage, not in the least given to boasting, averse to all intrigue, and born to make his way through life by the straightest paths in the career of arms. ”

“ Never again would René sit and whittle on the doorstep and sing his tuneless Tipperaree. Never again would he gaze with boyish adoring eyes at Sara Lee as she moved back and forth in the little house.
Henri stared up at the sky. The moon looked down, cold, and cruelly bright, on the vanishing squadron of death, on the destroyed town and on the boy's white face. Somewhere, Henri felt, vanishing like the German taubes, but to peace instead of war, was moving René's brave and smiling spirit—a boyish angel, eager and dauntless, and still looking up. ”

“ Marc Henri, who explained it, but only after the death of the prince, and even then very gently and apologetically—quite on the side of the prince, you understand.
For the doctor, a short, stocky, ugly little man with a clever, narrow face which sloped wedge-shaped to a pointed, inquisitive chin, was a Frenchman, with the sane, sweet logic and the sane, sweet sympathy of the Frenchman; a man who endeavored to understand everything and everybody, and to condone according to his understanding. ”

“ Both Heinrich and Henri had fallen equally low. If Heinrich had crushed his sense of right and yielded to ambition, Henri had gone so far in his pursuit of pleasure that he had sought to destroy a young, trusting heart, and angrily driven away the old man who had opposed his design. Egotism had completed his victory over both natures. ”

“ Each Christmas-eve, from wild realms of the North?
Henri (laughing) .
A doleful penance for so slight a sin!—
Come; they who nothing venture, nothing win.
Lucienne.
But, mind, we'll only peep from either door;
We might indeed repent if we did more.
Henri.
True, Sister; for a little while we part.
Until the Clock strikes Twelve be stout of Heart.
Henri (kissing her) .
True, sister; for a little while we part.
Until the clock strikes twelve be stout of heart.
Lucienne (as they separate) .
On kind old Santa Claus to play the spies?
Henri (taking candle from R.) . ”

“ And so, doubtless, was Henri!
She was indeed only nineteen, but already Paris was at her feet. Amaury Delande had written plays for her; Coty had called his newest and most exotic perfume after her; the Abbé Lapraze, over at the church of Paul de Saint-Victor, had anathematized her; and Arthur Meyer had said in the Gaulois that she looked like a Watteau painted by Forain—and the Count was sixty-five, gouty, addicted to flannel underwear, and arrived at that epoch in life where one breakfasts on a bromo-seltzer, a cigarette, and no food. ”

“ Pray to God, seek to have him for your friend; then, whatever happens"— But here her voice failed utterly.
Henri threw his arms around her, and his voice was hoarse and changed, very unlike his own. "Clémence," he said, "promise me one thing."
"Yes."
"That, whatever happens, you will not hate or curse me, or call me traitor, but forgive and love me still; that you will plead with my mother to forgive me"—
"Forgive you! love you still! What can you mean, Henri? It is not possible we should ever change to each other. ”

“ The Marquis and Aminta were at the ball—and Henri left his wife for several hours in charge of his father, who was proud of her, and exhibited her with pride in all the rooms. The Prince heaped attention on her, as all well-bred persons love to on those who are dear to them. He carefully waited on her during every waltz and contra-dance; and with paternal care replaced the spotless ermine on her whiter shoulders. Then resuming his task of cicerone, he explained to her the peculiarities of French society, which seemed so brilliant and singular to a young Italian. ”

“ Augustine,” said Henri with a good-humoured laugh. “But there is a time for all things; and I cannot think ill of books that make me love God, and his beautiful world, and the creatures he has made.”
“True, brother,” said Clémence earnestly and with a rising colour; “only take care that the God you love is the God of the Bible and the Church, not the God of the philosophers and the savants. But”—after a pause, and with a change of tone—“but, Henri, will you not run down to the village before our mother leaves her room, and see whether there is any placard on the Mairie?” ”

“ The more clearly Henri divined the thoughts of his sister, the more he affected to remain insensible to the natural seductions of his neighbor, to whom Lenaieff, on the contrary, addressed continually, in his soft and caressing voice, compliments upon compliments and madrigals upon madrigals!
“Take care, my dear Constantin!” said Henri to him, bluntly. “You will make Mademoiselle de Vermont quite impossible. If you go on thus, she will take herself seriously as a divinity!” ”

“ Henri nodded toward a pink alcove, kept for mixed doubles, which discreetly commanded the main dining-room’s glitter and blaze.
‘Good man!’ said Portson. ‘Now, this is serious, Henri. We put ourselves unreservedly in your hands. We’re weather-beaten mariners—though we don’t look it, and we haven’t eaten a Christian meal in months. ”

“ In the year upon which we are now about to enter the subject of our biography occupies, unfortunately, but a small space, destined as it was to give birth to the most violent and the most dangerous passion of the whole life of Henri IV, and that which left the most indelible stain upon his memory, both as a man and as a monarch. ”

“ To me he is quite the most wonderful man among American artists; so very big yet simple as a child; so very human yet utterly unconscious of his humanity. He is much like Whitman only more tender, more subtle. To Henri life is his art. That’s what makes him truly great. That’s what made him go to the Ferrer School and awaken talent and even genius where no one else would have seen anything to awaken. As a teacher Henri is perhaps even greater than as a painter. ”

“ It is small wonder that a species of folk-lore, in his own neighborhood, has, in three generations, grown up around him, which makes it a difficult thing to disentangle what is true of him from what might as well be true: for the French are not given, even in their gossip, to incongruities. Every rustic, who, having served under Henri, lived to startle a more prosaic world with his reminiscences, had anecdotes to tell of him really vital and precious ”

“ The chieftains were always foremost in danger; above all the eager young Henri, with his eye on the white standard, and on the blue sky, and his hand making the sign of the cross without which he never charged the enemy, dashed on first, fearless of peril, regardless of his life, thinking only of his duty to his king and the protection of his followers. ”

“ There was about Henri to-night a certain radiance, a sort of electrical elasticity, so nimble, so tireless, so exuberant was he. In the eyes of Miss Gussie Fink he looked heartbreakingly handsome in his waiter's uniform—handsome, distinguished, remote, and infinitely desirable. And just behind him, revenge in his eye, came Tony.
The flat surface of the desk received Henri's tray. Miss Fink regarded it with a cold and business-like stare. Henri whipped his napkin from under his left arm and began to remove covers, dexterously. Off came the first silver, dome-shaped top. ”

“ Their Monsieur Henri had a formula borrowed unconsciously from the old war-cry of Gaston de Foix: “He who loves me follows me!” When he flashed down the front on his wonderful white horse, which the cheering peasants had christened the Fallowdeer, thinking nothing else could be so wild, so delicate, so amazingly41 swift, parish after parish rallied to him in a little cloud. The fashion of gathering in clans and bands, primitive as it was, had its advantages. Every one stood, in action, next another of his own estate or blood; and La Vendée was notoriously careful of its wounded and slain. ”

“ Pierre.”
“Colonel La Coste, my heart bleeds to tell the story. Henri, your adopted son, and our beloved companion, is, indeed, no more! The felon leader, who has escaped us for the present, singled your nephew out and stabbed him!”
“Great God!—Henri!—my son, my hope, my pride, fallen—and thus to fall! Die in the court-yard of an obscure posada, and perish ingloriously like a peasant in a drunken brawl—Henri! Henri!” ”

“ But I tell you, they will shudder. And you yourself will say, "Henri has never played so well."
Host. What are you going to play? What? Do you know what, Léocadie?
Léocadie. I never know anything.
Henri. But has anyone any idea of what an artist lies hidden within me?
Host. They certainly have an idea, and that's why I tell you that a man with a talent such as yours doesn't go and bury himself in the country. What an injustice to yourself! and to Art!
Henri. I don't care a straw about Art. I wish for quiet. You don't understand that, Prosper ”

“ Then, indeed, as the vast crowds succeeded each other like the ceaseless waves of an [pg 028] incoming sea, the bitter wail of universal lamentation rang through the halls and galleries of the palace. Henri IV had been essentially the King of the People; and, with few and rare exceptions, it was by the people that he was truly mourned; for his sudden decease had opened so many arenas to ambition, hatred, jealousy, and hope, that the great nobles had no time to waste in tears, but were already busily engaged in the furtherance of their own fortunes. ”

“ I’m going to marry her, Henri."
"You mustn’t, Fabian," said Henri, eagerly clutching Fabian’s sleeve.
"But I must, my Henri. She’s the best-looking, wittiest girl I ever saw—splendid. Never lonely with her."
"Looks and brains isn’t everything, Fabian."
"Isn’t it, though? Isn’t it? Tiens, you try it!"
"Not without goodness." Henri’s voice weakened.
"That’s bosh. Of course it is, Henri, my dear. If you love a woman, if she gets hold of you, gets into your blood, loves you so that the touch of her fingers sets your pulses going pom-pom, you don’t care a sou whether she is good or not." ”

“ But they left the ranks when they chose; after a success, rather than after a defeat, they would scatter to their homes like so much thistle-down in the air, and it was hopeless to try to follow up an advantage gained. It was when difficulties were suspended that, in the wisdom of their villageous heads, they hurried off, one to his wife, and one to his farm, and one to his merchandise. No general was baffled and angered oftener by this freak than Henri. The valor of the Vendeans was incomparable, though one might borrow a musical metaphor and add that it swerved too easily from pitch. ”

“ Henri took out half a franc. “That is it, I think,” he said, without noticing the signs one of his comrades was making to attract his attention. The corporal flung the coin upon the table, and caught it again, as if to try whether it was genuine, muttered a curse, and went his way.
“Fool!” said Henri’s neighbour. “Did you not see he wanted something to drink? What else should he take your letter for? Look out for yourself on parade to-morrow; he will do you a mischief if he can.”
115 “And who cares?” cried the chanter of the Marseillaise. “We want no aristocrats among us. ‘Çà ira! ”

“ Murger père was a hard, severe, unsympathetic man, totally unable to understand his son’s early-developed literary propensities, and with no higher ambition in life than that of making a decent income by the exercise of his craft. His intention from the beginning was to bring young Henri up as an adept at shears and thimble, so that he might by-and-by turn out a hard-working, thrifty ninth part of a man, like himself. ”