Vicomte

“ Vicomte, pay no attention to him!
VICOMTE (overwhelmed) .
Such arrogance! An insignificant little squire .... who .... who .... doesn't even wear gloves!....and who sallies forth without ribbons, bows or trimmings! ”

“ That grim, wicked old man; not a thousand times a thousand livres would give him the key to Heaven. Brother Jacques left the tavern and walked along the wharves, breathing deeply of the vigorous sea-air.
Victor encountered the vicomte as the latter was about to go aboard.
"Ah," said the vicomte; "so you ran about with a drawn sword last night? Monsieur, you are only a boy." The vicomte never lost his banter; it was a habit.
"I was hot-headed and in wine." Victor had an idea in regard to the vicomte.
"The devil is always lurking in the pot; so let us not stir him again." ”

“ How I love a switchback, Mamma! If I were the Queen I would have a private one for myself, and my particular friends, round Windsor Castle; I could go on all day. The Marquis and the Vicomte kept so close to me that Jean could not take the seat beside me, as I saw he intended to, and then the other two made quite a shuffle, but the Vicomte won. The person who sits next you is obliged to hold your arm to prevent your tumbling out. I looked round to see, and every one was having her arm held, but I don't believe the Vicomte need have gripped mine quite so tight as he did. ”

“ Darling Elizabeth:
The Vicomte Mrs. Isaacs (who, by the way, is not one of the children of Israel, if her husband was) went yesterday to Berne. The Vicomte says she carried the Almanac de Gotha instead of Baedeker, and that the porter at the hotel who bought her ticket declared that her ultimate destination is Vienna. So that I suppose they are looking up Count Albert.
The Vicomte has been like a bear with a sore head ever since Count Fosca automobiled from Paris. He behaves so childishly, as if no one in the world should have an automobile but himself. ”

“ All those present acted by routine. The etiquette of duelling prescribed certain formalities, and these were strictly but rapidly adhered to.
The young Vicomte was quickly surrounded by a close circle of friends. His great name, his wealth, his father's influence, had opened for him every door in Versailles and Paris. At this moment he might have had an army of seconds to support him in the coming conflict.
Déroulède for a while was left alone near the card table, where the unsnuffed candles began smouldering in their sockets. ”

“ Where is the vicomte?"
"In the gardens, Madame," said 6677-X-7.
The marquise gave a little cough. "H'm," said she. "Do you know, Vicomte, this looks to me very like a rendezvous. The vicomte is a suitor for the hand of Mlle. Alyette, but the comte will not give his approval, as he is anxious that his daughter should marry a rich old senator. Personally I sympathize with the young people. This is very indiscreet of the vicomte. My chauffeur is not to be trusted, and I noticed that he glanced at your name-plate. I do hope that he will keep his mouth shut." ”

“ Thus, the vicomte still shuffled the ebon dominoes of a night and sang out jovially, "Doubles!" Whenever the man he had so basely wronged passed him, he spat contemptuously and cried: "See, Messieurs, what it is to be without a sword!" And as for Brother Jacques, it was: "And how is Monsieur Jacques's health this fine morning?" or "What a handsome rogue of a priest you are!" or "Can you tell me where I may find a sword?" He laughed at D'Hérouville, and bantered the poet on his silence,—the poet whose finer sense and intuition had distrusted the vicomte from the first. ”

“ Painting by Elisabeth Shippen Green
"Into England I came desiring vengeance—Apples of Sodom! O bitter fruit!" the Vicomte thought; "O fitting harvest of a fool's assiduous husbandry!"
They took her from him: and that afternoon, after long meditation, the Vicomte de Montbrison entreated a fresh and private audience of King Henry, and readily obtained it. "Unhardy is unseely," the Vicomte said at its conclusion. Then the tale tells that the Vicomte returned to France and within this realm assembled all such lords as the abuses of the Queen-Regent Isabeau had more notoriously dissatified. ”

“ Shall I fight a duel with him? It is the Vicomte de Talizac."
"The Vicomte de Talizac?" replied one of the men addressed, who wore the cross of the Legion of Honor. "With a Talizac one does not fight duels."
The vicomte uttered a hoarse cry of rage, and turned under the iron fist which was still pressed on his shoulder and held him tight; the young man gave him a look which made his cowardly heart quake, and earnestly said:
"Vicomte, we only fight with people we honor. If you do not understand my words, ask your father the meaning of them; he can give you the necessary explanations. ”

“ On the other hand, I was glad to find the Vicomte a member of the kindred society in Paris, and he assured me that he was constantly holding his green card of membership over offenders in terrorem.
We hardly expect a rich aristocrat to make utility the first object in his agricultural pursuits. ”

“ They walked around the pond,—fringed now with yellow water-lilies on their floating green pads,—through the woods, and when the shadows were lengthening came out at the little summer-house over the valley of Silver Brook—the scene of that first memorable encounter with the Vicomte. At the sight of it the episode, and much else of recent happening, rushed back into Honora's mind, and she realized with suddenness that she had, in his companionship, unconsciously been led far afield and in pleasant places. ”

“ THE MARQUISE DE MERTEUIL TO THE VICOMTE DE VALMONT The moment that you are afraid of success, my dear Vicomte, the moment that your plan is to furnish arms against yourself and that you are less desirous to conquer than to fight, I have no more to say to you. ”

“ It is in vain that M. le Vicomte places himself amidst rocks and cataracts—he is still M. le Vicomte; and his silk stockings and dancing pumps will remain visible, spite of all the froth and foam he labours to raise around him."
"It was not D'Arlincourt, however," said M. de C* * *, "who has either the honour or dishonour of having invented this style romantique—but a much greater man: it was Châteaubriand who first broke through all that was left of classic restraint, and permitted his imagination to run wild among everything in heaven and earth." ”

“ I tried to interest D'Hérouville, but he declined. He goes about like a moping owl, watching ever for a returning ship which he may hail."
"We shall probably come together," said Victor.
"And I was just telling him, Vicomte," put in the Chevalier, "to decline to measure foils with so hardy a swordsman as yourself. You are taller, your weight is greater, and your reach is longer. How monotonous to lie here, weak and useless!"
"Monsieur de Saumaise may withdraw with all honor," said the vicomte.
"You are very discouraging, Paul," and Victor stuffed his poem into his doublet. ”

“ Vicomte de Laval was an elder in Portarlington French Church; his signature, “Laval, ancien” may be seen in the Register. As a prominent member of the aristocratic colony, he lived in some grandeur. He was in the habit of wearing a cloak of scarlet cloth lined with ermine, a sword-buckle, knee-buckles, shoe-buckles, and a stock-buckle, all of silver, set with diamonds; and he always carried his hat under his arm.
The refugee Vicomte’s son, David, went back to France, where he retained the title of nobility, and resided in the chateau of his ancient family. ”

“ Monsieur le Vicomte, you will deal with him as and how you please, but if you have any pity for the blood of the man who sent you to this place you will have no mercy for a coward, a libertine, and an assassin. Adieu!”
She had swiftly unlocked one of the side doors, glided through it, and relocked it from the other side, leaving Onslow and André face to face. ”

“ The vicomte came within a yard of the hut, and stopped. He smiled evilly and twisted his mustache. By the attitude of the men, the Chevalier could see that the vicomte had outplanned D'Hérouville.
"Chevalier," the vicomte began softly, "for me this is the hour of hours. You will never learn who your mother was. Gabrielle, sweet one with the shadowful eyes, you once asked me why this fellow left France. I will tell you. His father is Monsieur le Marquis de Périgny, but his mother ... ”

“ As the Vicomte had promised, there was no resistance. In the small keep a score of men did indeed run to arms, but only to lay them down without striking a blow when they became aware of the force opposed to them. Their leader, sullenly acquiescing, gave up his sword and the keys of the town to the victorious Captain, who, as he sat his horse in the middle of the market-place, giving his orders and sending off riders with the news, already saw himself in fancy Governor of a province and Knight of the Holy Ghost. ”

“ He was, nevertheless, a pretty creature of his inches (and they might have run to seventy or so) —exhilarating, forcible, convincing as a man. Only, as to that, his mouth was the hyperbolic expression, justifying his sex rather by force of appetite than of combativeness.
“M. le Vicomte Murk?” said he, raising his eyebrows.
“Prospective, monsieur,” said Ned; “but as yet——”
“Ah, ha!” broke in the other, showing his teeth liberally, “you wait to step into old shoes. It was my case once—five years ago. I had not the pleasure to know your uncle, M. le Vicomte.” ”

“ To-morrow the ministers, the Comtesse des Forges, and the Comte de Mont Rouge will know how the Vicomte de Nérac, who gave out he was going to visit Madame his aged mother, has spent the evening in the company of Mr. George Onslow and disreputable women. I feel sure the Marquise de Beau Séjour will hear it, too, with additions.”
“Well,” said André, stonily.
[240] “Monsieur le Vicomte also is known to frequent the society of one Yvonne. Innocent peasant girls, when put on the rack, are sometimes obliged to tell lies, poor things, but lies useful to those who rack them. ”

“ There was little of the invalid about him save for the pallor on his cheeks, which provided proof that his blood was not yet of its accustomed thickness. At the sight of the vicomte he neither frowned nor smiled; the expression on his face remained unchanged, but he ceased his pacing. The two men contemplated each other, and the tableau lasted for a minute.
"Well, Monsieur?" said D'Hérouville, calmly.
The vicomte was genuinely surprised at the strides toward completeness which D'Hérouville had made. An ordinary man would still have been either in bed or in a chair. ”

“ But every man has a certain trick of his own which he has worked out all by himself, regardless of rules, in defiance of the teachings of the fencing-master. Perhaps I have one which the vicomte is not familiar with."
"I hope so," said the Chevalier.
"Doubtless he has," added the vicomte.
At four the fencing bouts began between the gentlemen. There were some exciting contests, but ere half an hour was gone the number had resolved itself into two, Victor and the vicomte. ”

“ There is no time for dalliance and play; labor is the monitor best suited to hold back, to trim and regulate a man's morals and habits. There is no idleness here, Vicomte."
"I do not know but you are right."
"Shall you remain here long?" asked the Chevalier.
"Who can say? I would return to France on the next boat were my neck less delicately attached to my shoulders. Let us say six months; it will have quieted down by then. Devil take me, but I should like to feel that paper crackling between my fingers. And you meet D'Hérouville in two days?" ”

“ Add, furthermore, that he had white and shapely hands, of which he was as careful as a pretty woman should be; add that he seemed to be very well informed, and was decidedly clever, and it should not be difficult for you to imagine that my traveling companion was more than worthy of a countess. Indeed, many a girl might have wished for such a husband, for he was a Vicomte with an income of twelve or fifteen thousand livres, "to say nothing of expectations."
About a league out of Pouilly the coach was overturned. ”

“ Armida is seen at{150} first reclining on the dais, from which she descends to give expression to her mood of ennui. The appearance of the Vicomte puts her boredom to instant flight—at prospect of another victim she is quickly alert to exercise her age-old fascinations. The old seigneur, her pretended father, who is in reality none other than the wicked Marquis, joins the company, and the hapless Vicomte is led to a place upon the dais beside his enchantress. There enters a master of the ceremonies, with attendant heralds, and a fanfare of trumpets announces the beginning of the revels. ”

“ The action of the story is rapid and powerful. The Vicomte's struggle with his own prejudices, his unhappy position in regard to his friends, the perils he encounters, and the great bravery he shows in his devotion to Denise are strikingly set forth, while the historical background is made vivid and convincing—the frenzy caused by the fall of the Bastile, the attacks of the mob, the defence and strategy of the nobility, all being described with dramatic skill and verisimilitude. ”

“ But the gratification of soothing him by her presence and endearments was soon denied, for she was seized, and taken as a prisoner to the convent of the Carmelites. A few weeks passed, and the unfortunate Vicomte was brought to trial, and condemned to death by the revolutionary tribunal. Though natural tears fell at thoughts of parting from his wife and children, and leaving them unprotected [Pg 506] in the world, his courage never forsook him to the last.
When the account of his execution reached Josephine she fainted away, and was for a long time alarmingly ill. ”