the second, vert, three hunting horns argent; the third, gules, a cannon or on a gun-carriage sable, and, in chief, a crescent or; the fourth, or, a crown vert, with the motto (eminently of the middle ages!), "Sound the charge,"--Montcornet knew very well that he was the son of a cabinet-maker in the faubourg Saint-Antoine, though he was quite ready to forget it.He was eaten up with the desire to be a peer of France, and dreamed of his grand cordon of the Legion of honor, his Saint-Louis cross, and his income of one hundred and forty thousand francs.Bitten by the demon of aristocracy, the sight of the blue ribbon put him beside himself.The gallant cuirassier of Essling would have licked up the mud on the Pont-Royal to be invited to the house of a Navarreins, a Lenoncourt, a Grandlieu, a Maufrigneuse, a d'Espard, a Vandenesse, a Verneuil, a Herouville, or a Chaulieu.
From 1818, when the impossibility of a change in favor of the Bonaparte family was made clear to him, Montcornet had himself trumpeted in the faubourg Saint-Germain by the wives of some of his friends, who offered his hand and heart, his mansion and his fortune in return for an alliance with some great family.
After several attempts, the Duchesse de Carigliano found a match for the general in one of the three branches of the Troisville family,--
that of the viscount in the service of Russia ever since 1789, who had returned to France in 1815.The viscount, poor as a younger son, had married a Princess Scherbellof, worth about a million, but the arrival of two sons and three daughters kept him poor.His family, ancient and formerly powerful, now consisted of the Marquis de Troisville, peer of France, head of the house and scutcheon, and two deputies, with numerous offspring, who were busy, for their part, with the budget and the ministries and the court, like fishes round bits of bread.
Therefore, when Montcornet was presented by Madame de Carigliano,--the Napoleonic duchess, who was now a most devoted adherent of the Bourbons, he was favorably received.The general asked, in return for his fortune and tender indulgence to his wife, to be appointed to the Royal Guard, with the rank of marquis and peer of France; but the branches of the Troisville family would do no more than promise him their support.
"You know what that means," said the duchess to her old friend, who complained of the vagueness of the promise."They cannot oblige the king to do as they wish; they can only influence him."
Montcornet made Virginie de Troisville his heir in the marriage settlements.Completely under the control of his wife, as Blondet's letter has already shown, he was still without children, but Louis XVIII.had received him, and given him the cordon of Saint-Louis, allowing him to quarter his ridiculous arms with those of the Troisvilles, and promising him the title of marquis as soon as he had deserved the peerage by his services.
A few days after the audience at which this promise had been given, the Duc de Barry was assassinated; the Marsan clique carried the day;
the Villele ministry came into power, and all the wires laid by the Troisvilles were snapped; it became necessary to find new ways of fastening them upon the ministry.
"We must bide our time," said the Troisvilles to Montcornet, who was always overwhelmed with politeness in the faubourg Saint-Germain.
This will explain how it was that the general did not return to Les Aigues until May, 1820.
The ineffable happiness of the son of a shop-keeper of the faubourg Saint-Antoine in possessing a young, elegant, intelligent, and gentle wife, a Troisville, who had given him an entrance into all the salons of the faubourg Saint-Germain, and the delight of making her enjoy the pleasures of Paris, had kept him from Les Aigues and made him forget about Gaubertin, even to his very name.In 1820 he took the countess to Burgundy to show her the estate, and he accepted Sibilet's accounts and leases without looking closely into them; happiness never cavils.
The countess, well pleased to find the steward's wife a charming young woman, made presents to her and to the children, with whom she occasionally amused herself.She ordered a few changes at Les Aigues, having sent to Paris for an architect; proposing, to the general's great delight, to spend six months of every year on this magnificent estate.Montcornet's savings were soon spent on the architectural work and the exquisite new furniture sent from Paris.Les Aigues thus received the last touch which made it a choice example of all the diverse elegancies of four centuries.
In 1821 the general was almost peremptorily urged by Sibilet to be at Les Aigues before the month of May.Important matters had to be decided.A lease of nine years, to the amount of thirty thousand francs, granted by Gaubertin in 1812 to a wood-merchant, fell in on the 15th of May of the current year.Sibilet, anxious to prove his rectitude, was unwilling to be responsible for the renewal of the lease."You know, Monsieur le comte," he wrote, "that I do not choose to profit by such matters." The wood-merchant claimed an indemnity, extorted from Madame Laguerre, through her hatred of litigation, and shared by him with Gaubertin.This indemnity was based on the injury done to the woods by the peasants, who treated the forest of Les Aigues as if they had a right to cut the timber.Messrs.Gravelot Brothers, wood-merchants in Paris, refused to pay their last quarter dues, offering to prove by an expert that the woods were reduced one-
fifth in value, through, they said, the injurious precedent established by Madame Laguerre.
"I have already," wrote Sibilet, "sued these men in the courts at Ville-aux-Fayes, for they have taken legal residence there, on account of this lease, with my old employer, Maitre Corbinet.I fear we shall lose the suit."
"It is a question of income, my dear," said the general, showing the letter to his wife."Will you go down to Les Aigues a little earlier this year than last?"
"Go yourself, and I will follow you when the weather is warmer," said the countess, not sorry to remain in Paris alone.
The general, who knew very well the canker that was eating into his revenues, departed without his wife, resolved to take vigorous measures.In so doing he reckoned, as we shall see, without his Gaubertin.
