"Yes, of course; but he despises his co-religionists, declaring they are only good for carrying a point, and for violence and bullying.
Provisionally, he is satisfied with a monarchy hedged in by republican institutions; but he insists that our civic royalty will infallibly be lost through the abuse of influence, which he roughly calls corruption.This will lead him towards the little Church of the Left-centre; but there again--for there's always a but--he finds only a collection of ambitious minds and eunuchs unconsciously smoothing the way to a revolution, which he, for his part, sees looming on the horizon with great regret, because, he says, the masses are too little prepared, and too little intelligent, not to let it slip through their fingers.Legitimacy he simply laughs at; he doesn't admit it to be a principle in any way.To him it is simply the most fixed and consistent form of monarchical heredity; he sees no other superiority in it than that of old wine over new.But while he is neither legitimist, nor conservative, nor Left-centre, and is republican without wanting a republic, he proclaims himself a Catholic, and sits astride the hobby of that party, namely,--liberty of education.But this man, who wants free education for every one, is afraid of the Jesuits; and he is still, as in 1829, uneasy about the encroachments of the clergy and the Congregation.Can any of you guess the great party which he proposes to create in the Chamber, and of which he intends to be the leader? That of the righteous man, the impartial man, the honest man! as if any such thing could live and breathe in the parliamentary cook-shops; and as if, moreover, all opinions, to hide their ugly nothingness, had not, from time immemorial, wrapped themselves in that banner.""Does he mean to renounce sculpture absolutely?" asked Joseph Bridau.
"Not yet; he is just finishing the statue of some saint, I don't know which; but he lets no one see it, and says he does not intend to send it to the Exhibition this year--he has ideas about it.""What ideas?" asked Emile Blondet.
"Oh! that religious works ought not to be delivered over to the judgment of critics, or to the gaze of a public rotten with scepticism; they ought, he thinks, to go, without passing through the uproar of the world, piously and modestly to the niches for which they are intended.""Ah ca!" exclaimed Emile Blondet, "and it is this fervent Catholic who fights a duel!""Better or worse than that.This Catholic lives with a woman whom he brought back from Italy,--a species of Goddess of Liberty, who serves him as model and housekeeper.""What a tongue that Bixiou has; he keeps a regular intelligence office," said some of the little group as it broke up at the offer of tea from Madame de Montcornet.
You see from this, my dear Monsieur Gaston, that the political aspirations of Monsieur Dorlange are not regarded seriously by his friends.I do not doubt that you will write to him soon to thank him for the warmth with which he defended you from calumny.That courageous devotion has given me a true sympathy for him, and I shall hope that you will use the influence of early friendship to turn his mind from the deplorable path he seems about to enter.I make no judgment on the other peculiarities attributed to him by Monsieur Bixiou, who has a cutting and a flippant tongue; I am more inclined to think, with Joseph Bridau, that such mistakes are venial.But a fault to be forever regretted, according to my ideas, will be that of abandoning his present career to fling himself into the maelstrom of politics.You are yourself interested in turning him from this idea, if you strongly desire to entrust that work to his hands.Preach to him as strongly as you can the wisdom of abiding by his art.
On the subject of the explanation I advised you to have with him, Imust tell you that your task is greatly simplified.You need not enter into any of the details which would be to you so painful.Madame de l'Estorade, to whom I spoke of the role of mediator which I wanted her to play, accepted the part very willingly.She feels confident of being able, after half an hour's conversation, to remove the painful feeling from your friend's mind, and drive away the clouds between you.
While writing this long letter, I have sent for news of his condition.
He is going on favorably, and the physicians say that, barring all unforeseen accidents, his friends need have no anxiety as to his state.It seems he is an object of general interest, for, to use the expression of my valet, people are "making cue" to leave their names at his door.It must be added that the Duke de Rhetore is not liked, which may partly account for this sympathy.The duke is stiff and haughty, but there is little in him.What a contrast the brother is to her who lives in our tenderest memory.She was simple and kind, yet she never derogated from her dignity; nothing equalled the lovable qualities of her heart but the charms of her mind.
