Macaire

“ I waited to have a shot at old Soult yesterday, but the rascal would not show face!”
“Never mind him, citizen,” said the butcher, “we all know Père Pomme-de-terre. But thou lookest pale! Art thirsty? Come with me, and I will show thee where old Macaire keeps his cellar. France will not grudge a flask to so brave a patriot as thyself.” ”

“ Dumont, that bottle.
Macaire. Sir, my friend and I, who are students of character, would grasp the opportunity to share and—may one add?—to pay the bottle. Dumont, three!
Bertrand. For God’s sake! (Enter Aline and Maids.)
Macaire. My friend is an author: so, in a humbler way, am I. Your knowledge of the criminal classes naturally tempts one to pursue so interesting an acquaintance.
Brigadier. Justice is impartial. Gentlemen, your health.
Macaire. Will not these brave fellows join us?
Brigadier. They are on duty; but what matters?
Macaire. My dear sir, what is duty? duty is my eye. ”

“ Almost the first figure that these audacious caricaturists dared to depict was a political one: in Macaire’s red breeches and tattered coat appeared no less a personage than the King himself—the old Poire—in a country of humbugs and swindlers the facile princeps; fit to govern, as he is deeper than all the rogues in his dominions. Bertrand was opposite to him, and having listened with delight and reverence to some tale of knavery truly Royal, was exclaiming with a look and voice expressive of the most intense admiration, ‘Ah, vieux blagueur! ”

“ Marquis. Sir, you are silenced.
Macaire. Silenced by honour. I had rather lose my boy than compromise his sainted mother.
Marquis. A thought: twins might explain it: had you not two foundlings?
Dumont. Nay, sir, one only; and judging by the miseries of this evening, I should say, thank God!
Macaire. My friends, leave me alone with the Marquis. It is only a father that can understand a father’s heart. Bertrand, follow the members of my family. (They troop out, L. U. E. and R. U. E., the fiddlers playing. Air: ‘O dear, what can the matter be?’)
SCENE IV Macaire, Marquis
Marquis. Well, sir? ”

“ Let the reality of M. Robert Macaire and his friend M. Bertrand be granted, if but to gratify our own fondness for those exquisite characters: we find the worthy pair in the French capital, mingling with all grades of its society, pars magna in the intrigues, pleasures, perplexities, rogueries, speculations, which are carried on in Paris, as in our own chief city; for it need not be said that roguery is of no country nor clime, but finds [Greek text omitted] , is a citizen of all countries where the quarters are good; among our merry neighbors it finds itself very much at its ease. ”

“ Philipon supplying the words and Daumier executing the pictures, they made Macaire undertake every scheme, practice, and profession which contained the requisite ingredients of the comic and the rascally. The series extended beyond ninety sketches. Macaire founds a joint-stock charity—la morale en action, he explains to gaping Bertrand, each action (share) being placed at two hundred and fifty francs. He becomes a quack-doctor. "Don't trifle with your complaint," he says to a patient, as he gives him two bottles of medicine. "Come to see me often ”

“ Macadam, John Loudon, Scottish engineer, born at Ayr; inventor of the system of road-making which bears his name; he made his fortune as a merchant in New York, but spent it in road-making (1756-1836) .
Macaire, Robert, a noted criminal and assassin that figures in French plays; was convicted of a murder in trial by combat with a witness in the shape of the dog of the murdered man.
Macao, small island at the mouth of the Canton River, 100 m. S. of Canton, forming with Colovane and Taipa since 1557 a Portuguese station (50, mostly Chinese) ; is a very healthy port, though very hot ”

“ We all look out with expectation of our greatest pleasure, when Macer returns home, after his day's labors,—and labors they surely are, and will destroy him, unless he is persuaded to leave them off. For when he is at home the children all come round him, and he teaches them in his way what religion is. Sometimes it is a long story he gives them of his life, when he was a little boy and knew nothing about Christ, and what wicked things he did, and sometimes about his serving as a soldier under the Emperor. ”

“ Now it is probable that God permitted this thing to happen for His own glory and for the triumph of His servant, so that Macarius might not put his confidence in reeds, but upon God, Who by means of a pillar of cloud led the children of Israel in the desert for forty years. And Macarius told us, saying, “Seventy devils came forth against me from that garden, and they flew about before my face like ravens, and they were crying out and groaning, and saying, ‘What seekest thou here, O Macarius? What seekest thou, O monk? Why hast thou come hither? ”

“ But Macer stood firm, nothing daunted by the uproar. One, who signalized himself by the loudness and fierceness of his cries, exclaimed, 'that he was nothing else than an atheist like all the rest of the Christians; they have no gods; they deny the gods of Rome, and they give us nothing in their stead.'
'We deny the gods of Rome, I know,' replied Macer, 'and who would not, who had come to years of discretion? ”

“ I never received such satisfaction and contentment by any discourse in my life: I doubt not but wee shall obtaine our desires, to make England to bee like to Macaria; for which our posterity which are yet unborne, will fare the better: and though our neighbour Countreys are pleased to call the English a dull Nation, yet the major part are sensible of their owne good, and the good of their posterity, and those will sway the rest; so wee and our posterity shall bee all happie. ”

“ Caird, that new truths affecting old clerical dogmas are generally offensive to old church members. Many good men live by serving the altar. They must be considered, and your brother and I, and every minister, knows that our people judge for themselves and only accept what they desire to accept. Is not that so, Macrae?" And Macrae, as he looked at his watch, answered indifferently, "You are right, Doctor. It is now time we took the carriage if we intend to catch our train." ”

“ You know, Mac, your special calling, and not wholly unknown to me,—don’t be alarmed,—is the success which has followed your labours. Being under my protection, by being in my service, you may well look forward to still greater results. I need not say you are well aware that your present position is fraught with danger, and that one word from me would put a stop to your career. If your words be true, our interests clash. Besides, Mac, the stealthy and criminal vagabond, prowling about in search of prey, is in a very different position to Mac, the servant of the lord of Dunraven. ”

“ In her you will see an almost too favorable specimen of Roman women.
Several days have elapsed since I wrote to you, giving an account of the sufferings and death of the Christian Macer—as I learned them from those who were present—for a breach of the late edicts, and for sacrile [Pg 392] giously, as the laws term it, tearing down the parchment containing them from one of the columns of the capitol. During this period other horrors of the same kind have been enacted in different parts of the city. Macer is not the only one who has already paid for his faith with his life. ”

“ The History of Macarius the Alexandrian, the Glorious
AS for the other Macarius, the Alexandrian, I did see him, for he was an elder in the place which is called the “Cells,” wherein I myself lived for nine years, and he lived for three years after I entered therein; some of [his] wonderful acts I myself have seen, and some of them I have learned from others, and [of others] I have also heard rumours. Now his sad, stern life of self-denial was as follows: Whensoever he heard of any beautiful deed being done by any man whatsoever, he must straightway carry it into practice in a fuller form. ”

“ They were to be commanded by Macarthy, who had been severely wounded and taken prisoner at Newton Butler. His wounds had been healed; and he had regained his liberty by violating his parole. This disgraceful breach of faith he had made more disgraceful by paltry tricks and sophistical excuses which would have become a Jesuit better than a gentleman and a soldier. ”

“ CHAPTER XIII MAC JOINS IN THE WAR Mac's first morning at Anzac was one of deep interest. He regarded his surroundings rather more after the fashion of a Cook's tourist than of a soldier; or, maybe, he more closely resembled a schoolboy at his first circus. No time was wasted over a scratch breakfast—bully beef and biscuits were consumed more as a duty than a pleasure. Then, together with many others of equally inquiring frame of mind, he betook himself to the crest of the ridge which shut in the ravine on the north. ”

“ General Mace, it appeared, was an old friend of Miss Carthew’s father and was staying by himself at Folkestone. General Mace had fought in the Indian Mutiny and was exactly what a general should be, very tall with a white moustache fiercely curling and a rigid back that bent inwards like a bow and a magnificent ebony walking-stick and a gruff voice. General Mace seemed to take a fancy to Michael and actually invited him to go for a walk with him next day at ten o’clock. ”

“ We certainly know this to be the case with Macer. An apostle was never more conscientious nor more pure. Yet would he, had he power equal to his will, drive from the church all who bowed not the knee to his idol Novatian.'
'But how,' asked Julia, 'would that agree with the offence he justly took at those who quarreled with Probus and Felix on account of their doctrine?'
'There certainly would be in such conduct no agreement nor consistency. It only shows how easy it is to see a fault in another, to which we are stone-blind in ourselves. ”

“ It is good to breathe a new atmosphere if only for a space. I have more respect than he had for the masculine common-sense of Macaulay—the great apostle, as Arnold called him, of the Philistines—but, after Macaulay's unhesitating utterances of the old Whig creed, which to him was an ultimate and infallible gospel, Arnold's utterances lift us at once to a higher point of view. ”

“ A GHOST at large in Montclair, New Jersey? As soon a matinée of the Folies Bergères in Old Trinity! I never would have believed it for an instant if it hadn't been for Lew Macey.
It did not require a clairvoyant to see that Macey believed it, though. Ordinarily he is a prematurely settled sort of chap, bald at thirty, wearing thick double lenses, getting his lightest recreation out of reading The New Republic, and all that. Just the type of build you'd expect to find in an anchor man in the city bowling league, but refined by education and thought instead of coarsened by beer and exercise. ”

“ If thou wouldest be saved, become thou dead like them. Reck nothing of the wrongs done by men, nor of their praise, any more than the dead do; and thou mayest be saved.’ ”
“Once as the abbot Macarius was passing through Egypt with some brethren, he heard a child say to his mother, ‘Amma, a rich man loves me, and I hate him; and a poor man hates me, and I love him.’ The abbot Macarius wondered when he heard it. The brethren said to him, ‘What was there to wonder at in the saying, father?’ The old man said to them, ‘Truly, our Lord is rich and loves us, and we will not listen to Him ”

“ Macey bowed. “Yes, all the time at night. Not very often in the day. Different noises, different places each time! Shrieks—growls—rattling of chains—blood!”
“Blood?” Masters half rose from his chair in surprise, and my own mouth framed an exclamation.
“Yes, big splotches of it,” assented Macey. Then he shuddered at the remembrance. “Oh, it's horrible! It's unreal!”
“No,” contradicted Masters. “Not unreal if you actually saw blood. Very serious, though.”
“It was right in the middle of the dining-room table,” went on Macey, disregarding the implied doubt in Masters' words. ”

“ Things happen, intelligence arrives from the limits of our vast and desirable empire, even on the Day of Rest. But the electric bell was silent. Mr. Macrae, from patriotic motives, employed a Highland engineer and mechanician, so there was nothing to be got out of him in the way of work on the sabbath day. The millionaire himself did not quite understand how to work the thing. He went to the smoking-room where it dwelt and looked wistfully at it, but was afraid to try to call up his correspondents in London. ”

“ MACERONI, FRANCIS (1788–1846) , aide-de-camp to Murat and mechanical inventor, was born in Manchester in 1788. His father, Peter Augustus Maceroni, with two brothers, had served in a French regiment in America during the war of independence, and after a roving life settled down at Manchester as an Italian agent for British goods. He married an English woman, a Roman catholic, the daughter of Benjamin Wildsmith of Sheffield, and afterwards removed to London. Maceroni states that when the French first overran Italy his father had 30,000l. worth of English goods in that country on his books. ”

“ I knew that Masters would call me the moment he had need of my services, and guessed that in the meantime he would prefer not to be troubled by Macey. So when he quietly stepped out the front door a short time later without asking my company, I made no move to follow.
Less than ten minutes later he was back, his eyes shining with triumph. “Come on!” he cried. “I've got the ghost!”
Macey jumped to his feet and stared about in bewildered fashion. “Got him? Caught him?” he asked. ”