Renard

“ But, continued Renard, "his holiness, even then, must be cautious in his words; he must dwell as lightly as possible on his authority, as lightly as possible on his claims to be obeyed: in offering absolution, he must talk merely of piety and love, of the open arms of the church, of the example of the Saviour, and such other generalities." [377] Finally, Renard still thought the legate had better remain abroad. The reconciliation, if it could be effected at all, could be managed better without his irritating presence.
Pole himself had found the emperor more gracious. ”

“ Gog and Magog stood as warders on London Bridge, and there were the usual pageants in the city. Renard conceived that the impression produced by Philip had been rather favourable than otherwise; for the people had been taught to expect some monster but partially human, and they saw instead a well-dressed cavalier, who had learnt by this time to carry his hand to his bonnet. ”

“ They play before us a little game, which we know is the game of life as women lived it in the days when Renard was still a famous personage. To give but one episode, from Renard le Nouveau, by Jacquemart Gelée, end of the thirteenth century, Renard becomes the confidant of Noble (the lion) , and learns of his amour with Dame Harouge; forthwith the subtle Renard begins to intrigue, until at last Harouge becomes his mistress. Besieged in Maupertuis by Noble, Renard sends a flattering love letter to each of his old flames, the lioness, the wolf, and the leopardess. ”

“ This is how Renard described the drama:
"Good heavens, it is a misfortune of which I am the first and last victim, and with which my will has nothing to do. The facts are their own commentary, Monsieur le President. I am an honest man, a hard-working man, an upholsterer in the same street for the last sixteen years, known, liked, respected, and esteemed by all, as my neighbors have testified, even the porter, who is not folatre every day. I am fond of work, I am fond of saving, I like honest men, and respectable pleasures. ”

“ And sometimes little Renard was good at his lessons, and sometimes he was not. Very often, on catching sight of a pheasant or a partridge, instead of trailing his hind legs out behind him, as his father did, he would forget, and gallop full tilt at his prey, and yelp with excitement, expecting the bird to sit still and be caught! and not till the pheasant was whirring away high in the air would he remember that stealth and cunning alone will win a fox his daily bread. ”

“ Did I not say to you, ‘The time is drawing near when you shall know all?’ Nicolas, you are now going to know all, and indeed it would not please me to pass as a devil—a miracle-monger, or a sorcerer. I am neither Belphegor, nor Moses, nor Merlin—I am just Lerne, tout court! My power does not come from the outside, it is my own, and I am proud of it. It is my science. All that one could say by way of correction, is, that it is the science of humanity, which I have continued in my day, and of which I am the most advanced pioneer and chief master. ”

“ We see with regret the moment when "the sweet time of summer declines." Winter draws near, a north wind blows over the paths leading to the sea. Renard "dedenz sa tour" of Maupertuis lights a great wood fire, and, while his little ones jump for joy, grills slices of eels on the embers.
Renard was popular throughout Europe. In England parts of the romance were translated or imitated; superb manuscripts were illustrated for the libraries of the nobles; the incidents of this epic were represented in tapestry, sculptured on church stalls, painted on the margins of English missals. ”

“ Imagine the shock poor Renard experienced when he felt his beautiful brush grasped by the sturdy hen-wife's fingers! and the terrible longing which came over him to turn and rend his captor. He restrained himself, however, when he saw he was being dragged towards the door; and when the hen-wife, feeling his stiff and lifeless body somewhat heavy, tumbled him into a thicket of nettles, he almost barked with delight. True, he had lost his chicken, but had gained in cunning, and cunning is honour among foxes. ”

“ You have not said anything to Johann?”
“Yes, why?”
“Oh, but he will inform the others, and the others will repeat it before Nell! Nell will know it, uncle, that is certain. They will tell her, and Donovan’s soul will learn that it no longer has a human body. It must not be! It must not be!”
“There is no danger, Nicolas, I assure you.”
“No danger! Those men are scoundrels, I tell you! Let me prevent this catastrophe! Time is passing, let me in, I entreat you! Please, for a second, I entreat you! Damn it all, I will pass!”
[251] The lessons I had learned from the bull stood me in good stead ”

“ In those last years of the Nineteenth—in those first years of the Twentieth—Century, while René Bazin’s angelic voice was welling up in treble ecstasies, the pastoral novel in France had other notes which held, as it were, the bass—deep, strange notes—brief, complicated, syncopated phrasing. In other words, Jules Renard and Charles-Louis Philippe were giving their sense, too, of the life of woods and fields.
I wrote once that Jules Renard was the Hokusaï of French literature. He just glances at an object, sees its essential character, fixes that and neglects the rest ”

“ Here, too, was spread the Story of Renard, as in France, and even now the question is unsettled whether the first poem of Renard is French or German. Religious and satiric poems were abundant in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but what is highly characteristic is the large number of lyrical poets (Dietmar of Ast, Kürenberg, Frederic of Hausen, the Emperor Henry VI, etc.) produced by the Middle Ages in Germany. ”

“ Isengrin, the accuser of Renard before King Noble and his court, is for a moment worsted; the fox is vindicated, when suddenly enters a funeral cortège—Chanticleer and his four wives bear upon a litter the dead body of one of their family, the victim of Renard's wiles. The prayers for the dead are recited, the burial is celebrated with due honour, and Renard is summoned to justice; lie heaped upon lie will not save him ”

“ Yet, strive as he would—and no man could strive more resolutely—he could not succeed in banishing the image of Isaura. It was with him always; and with it a sense of irreparable loss, of a terrible void, of a pining anguish.
And the success of his inquiries at Aix-la-Chapelle, while sufficient to detain him in the place, was so slight, and advanced by such slow degrees, that it furnished no continued occupation to his restless mind. M. Renard was acute and painstaking. But it was no easy matter to obtain any trace of a Parisian visitor to so popular a Spa so many years ago. ”

“ Well, so be it!”
“Oh, save him, save him,” cried Emma, who had only grasped that one word. “Save him! I swear to you, Frédéric, I swear never to see him again.”
“Enough, enough,” said Lerne. “On the contrary you must love him with all your strength. I no longer wish to grieve you. Why struggle against destiny?”
[233] He summoned his assistants, and gave them some brief orders. Karl and Wilhelm seized the Minotaur, who was moaning.
Johann had set off to make preparations, as hard as he could.
“Schnell, schnell!” said the Professor, and he added, “Quick, Nicolas, follow us!” ”

“ Wat naughty tempers have dis dear cheeile!" sighed Renard as he tightened his hold. "Come wid me, mine friend; you shall once again be educate in de college of Monsieur Renard. Widout doubt your jours de fête—wat you call holiday—find demselves too long. Now you weel work."
And old Foxy began to drag his unwilling prisoner along, trying to get him away from the quay and into the town.
Tad did what he could to free himself from the man's hold, but all to no purpose. As well might a fly try to win clear when a spider has hold of him. ”

“ They received us with such suave courtesy, that I was quite certain Renard's skill in transactions had not played its full gamut of capacity.
Civility is the Frenchman's mask; he wears it as he does his skin—as a matter of habit. But courtesy is his costume de bal; he can only afford to don his bravest attire of smiles and graciousness when his pocket is in holiday mood. Madame Fouchet we found in full ball-room toilet; she was wreathed in smiles. Would ces dames give themselves the trouble of entering? ”

“ Then after a silence: “Is it not better to be dead than mad? After all it is the best thing for him. Come, [250] Nicolas, you are not going to put on a face like that! Come!”
And she seized my hand, and dragged me to the château.
Lerne went away in the other direction.
I was prostrated. “Let me alone,” I said, “let me alone. Donovan, the poor wretch. Let me alone. You cannot know! Let me alone, I say.”
A maddening fear came over me. Leaving Emma I ran after my uncle and joined him at the laboratory. He was talking to Johann, and showing him the telegram. ”

“ But now who am you?" went on Renard, addressing himself to Tad, "and how come you to dis country?"
"I came on that schooner," replied the lad, pointing towards the "Stormy Petrel."
"You look not like a sailor," remarked Renard, eyeing the boy suspiciously.
"I ain't one neither," said Tad.
"Den widout doubt you shall return to Angleterre in dis same boat?" suggested the man.
"I don't know that I shall," rejoined Tad, his face clouding over again.
"La France is a lov'ly country, mon cher," remarked Renard. "It shall be better for you to stay here; go not back across de sea." ”

“ With long, swinging steps she passed out, to air her indignation, apparently, beneath the wall of the espaliers.
"Splendid creature, isn't she?" commented Renard, following the long lines of the girl's fluttering muslin gown, as he plucked at his mustache. "She should always wear white and gold—what is that stuff?—and be lit up like that with a kind of goddess-like anger. She is wrong, however," he went on, a moment later; "those of us who live here aren't really barbarians, only we get used to things. It's the peasants themselves that force us ”

“ The heroic little bird is merely defending its nest. One does not realize the love of mothers. What a fool I have been!”
“Hallo! Hallo!” My uncle was hailing me. I retraced my steps, but this incident haunted my mind. In spite of my assurance that there was nothing extraordinary in it, I did not speak about it to Lerne.
The Professor looked cheerful. He wore the smiling expression of a man who had just taken a great resolution, and is much pleased at it. He was standing before the principal door of the château, the letter in his hand, and looking at the boot-scraper with interest. ”

“ He drew back a step and regarded my car with a look of tenderness:
“What a superb creature,” he exclaimed, “and how great is man!”
“Yes,” said I to myself, “there is a deal more beauty in a thing we create, than in all your sinister joining of flesh and wood that are both from of old. But it’s not bad on your part to have admitted it.”
Though it was late, I went on to Grey-l’Abbaye to replenish my stock of petrol, and though he was [93] a creature of routine, Lerne, infatuated with automobilism, passed beyond the traditional limit of his walks and insisted on accompanying me. ”

“ It does buck me up wonderfully. I must learn how to drive the beast. I shall be the mahout of this fierce mammoth. Eh! Eh! Ah! Ha!”
At the moment of this outburst of hilarity, I was just finishing my reasoning, and it was the outburst which caused me to make my attack—and to commit my imprudence.
“How amusing you are, uncle! Your gayety cheers me up. I recognize you again. Why aren’t you always like this, and why do you distrust me—me, who, on the contrary—deserve all your confidence?”
“But,” said Lerne, “you know quite well I will give it to you when the time has come. ”

“ While her fortunes were uncertain, she allowed Renard to promise for her that she would make no changes in religion, but "she had now told the lords distinctly that she would not recognise any of the laws which had been passed in the minority, [70] and she intended to act boldly; timidity would only encourage the people to be insolent;" "the lords were all quarrelling among themselves, and accusing one another; she could not learn the truth on any point of the late conspiracy ”

“ I felt as if I were enveloped in smoke wherein riddling sphinxes kept turning their vague faces towards me.
My braces were just going to be flung off—and were not flung off.
In the garden Lerne was making his way towards the gray buildings accompanied by his three assistants.
“They are going to work in there,” said I to myself. “That’s clear. I am not being watched; they have not had time to take many precautions; uncle is persuaded I am asleep. Nicolas, this is the time for action, now or never. But what to start with? Emma, or the secret? Hum ... ”

“ The boy tried to resist at first, but when the second man, having turned the key in the lock, came to his partner's aid, Fred cried out that he would submit.
"We make too much noise here," said the man whom Fred had called Renard, as he glanced cautiously out of the window, still panting from his efforts to subdue the reporter.
"Take him up stairs," said the other, gruffly.
"I don't want to go up stairs," gasped Fred, for he, too, was out of breath. "I don't see what all the row is about, anyway. I am not here to do you fellows any harm. I came here to talk to Mr. Renard, if this is Mr. Renard ”

“ The next moment the two lads, parting from the circle round the dancing firelight, had vanished into the darkness.
As the poor lads fled once more from the approach of the old enemy, they were at first almost in despair. And no wonder; for they had believed themselves out of reach of pursuit at last. And now to see that wicked old Foxy apparently tracking them like a sleuthhound, was a dreadful thing.
But as their fear gradually subsided, they began to feel that Renard's appearance among the French gipsies was no indication what over of his knowing where they (Tad and Phil) were ”