登陆注册
15461000000002

第2章 I(1)

Early in the autumn of 1826 the Abbe Birotteau, the principal personage of this history, was overtaken by a shower of rain as he returned home from a friend's house, where he had been passing the evening. He therefore crossed, as quickly as his corpulence would allow, the deserted little square called "The Cloister," which lies directly behind the chancel of the cathedral of Saint-Gatien at Tours.

The Abbe Birotteau, a short little man, apoplectic in constitution and about sixty years old, had already gone through several attacks of gout. Now, among the petty miseries of human life the one for which the worthy priest felt the deepest aversion was the sudden sprinkling of his shoes, adorned with silver buckles, and the wetting of their soles. Notwithstanding the woollen socks in which at all seasons he enveloped his feet with the extreme care that ecclesiastics take of themselves, he was apt at such times to get them a little damp, and the next day gout was sure to give him certain infallible proofs of constancy. Nevertheless, as the pavement of the Cloister was likely to be dry, and as the abbe had won three francs ten sous in his rubber with Madame de Listomere, he bore the rain resignedly from the middle of the place de l'Archeveche, where it began to come down in earnest.

Besides, he was fondling his chimera,--a desire already twelve years old, the desire of a priest, a desire formed anew every evening and now, apparently, very near accomplishment; in short, he had wrapped himself so completely in the fur cape of a canon that he did not feel the inclemency of the weather. During the evening several of the company who habitually gathered at Madame de Listomere's had almost guaranteed to him his nomination to the office of canon (then vacant in the metropolitan Chapter of Saint-Gatien), assuring him that no one deserved such promotion as he, whose rights, long overlooked, were indisputable.

If he had lost the rubber, if he had heard that his rival, the Abbe Poirel, was named canon, the worthy man would have thought the rain extremely chilling; he might even have thought ill of life. But it so chanced that he was in one of those rare moments when happy inward sensations make a man oblivious of discomfort. In hastening his steps he obeyed a more mechanical impulse, and truth (so essential in a history of manners and morals) compels us to say that he was thinking of neither rain nor gout.

In former days there was in the Cloister, on the side towards the Grand'Rue, a cluster of houses forming a Close and belonging to the cathedral, where several of the dignitaries of the Chapter lived.

After the confiscation of ecclesiastical property the town had turned the passage through this close into a narrow street, called the Rue de la Psalette, by which pedestrians passed from the Cloister to the Grand'Rue. The name of this street, proves clearly enough that the precentor and his pupils and those connected with the choir formerly lived there. The other side, the left side, of the street is occupied by a single house, the walls of which are overshadowed by the buttresses of Saint-Gatien, which have their base in the narrow little garden of the house, leaving it doubtful whether the cathedral was built before or after this venerable dwelling. An archaeologist examining the arabesques, the shape of the windows, the arch of the door, the whole exterior of the house, now mellow with age, would see at once that it had always been a part of the magnificent edifice with which it is blended.

An antiquary (had there been one at Tours,--one of the least literary towns in all France) would even discover, where the narrow street enters the Cloister, several vestiges of an old arcade, which formerly made a portico to these ecclesiastical dwellings, and was, no doubt, harmonious in style with the general character of the architecture.

The house of which we speak, standing on the north side of the cathedral, was always in the shadow thrown by that vast edifice, on which time had cast its dingy mantle, marked its furrows, and shed its chill humidity, its lichen, mosses, and rank herbs. The darkened dwelling was wrapped in silence, broken only by the bells, by the chanting of the offices heard through the windows of the church, by the call of the jackdaws nesting in the belfries. The region is a desert of stones, a solitude with a character of its own, an arid spot, which could only be inhabited by beings who had either attained to absolute nullity, or were gifted with some abnormal strength of soul. The house in question had always been occupied by abbes, and it belonged to an old maid named Mademoiselle Gamard. Though the property had been bought from the national domain under the Reign of Terror by the father of Mademoiselle Gamard, no one objected under the Restoration to the old maid's retaining it, because she took priests to board and was very devout; it may be that religious persons gave her credit for the intention of leaving the property to the Chapter.

The Abbe Birotteau was making his way to this house, where he had lived for the last two years. His apartment had been (as was now the canonry) an object of envy and his "hoc erat in votis" for a dozen years. To be Mademoiselle Gamard's boarder and to become a canon were the two great desires of his life; in fact they do present accurately the ambition of a priest, who, considering himself on the highroad to eternity, can wish for nothing in this world but good lodging, good food, clean garments, shoes with silver buckles, a sufficiency of things for the needs of the animal, and a canonry to satisfy self-

同类推荐
  • 镜湖自撰年谱

    镜湖自撰年谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 鲸背吟集

    鲸背吟集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 张惠言论词

    张惠言论词

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • THE COMPLEAT ANGLER

    THE COMPLEAT ANGLER

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • The Analyst

    The Analyst

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 战神联盟之奇幻穿越

    战神联盟之奇幻穿越

    本文是我第一次写的文章,本人语文成绩很low,如有不好的地方,请各位多多包涵。啊,对了,还请大家多多指点!那个,本人还没想好简介,所以,还请各位看文吧!(明明是你不会写。。。)
  • 青萍传

    青萍传

    夫风生于地,起于青萍末。侵淫溪峡谷,盛怒土壤口。缘上昆山阿,舞于松柏下。长空九万里,遮天三十三。
  • 金匮要略浅注

    金匮要略浅注

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 异世之无限强化系统

    异世之无限强化系统

    “帮你?我只是个武士,有心无力。”千寒不假思索,委婉地拒绝!没有半点对美女的怜惜!“真不帮?”对方不死心的问!“不帮”千寒硬气地拒绝!“果然不帮?”一丝丝危险的笑容开始缓缓绽放!“果然不帮!”千寒依旧狠心!“那我把某人来自某某世界的事,告诉某某某人。某人也不帮吗?”灿烂的笑容出现在美女的脸上,本应该显得赏心悦目的美景,却让千寒整个人都蔫了!
  • 瘟神总裁的落跑女人

    瘟神总裁的落跑女人

    她不过是好心在大雨天里让他共载了一程的士,从此他便像瘟神一样的紧紧纠缠着她,一副有钱天下女人就都得投怀送抱的欠扁模样,我惹不起还躲不起吗?想他俊魅的的脸曾迷倒众生,她竟在两个小时后问他:我们见过吗?多少女人擦破脑袋梦寐的职位,她竟拒绝他。
  • 搜鬼传

    搜鬼传

    这是一本两次推倒重来的书,这是一本让很多人摇头的书,经历六十个日夜埋头苦干,四十万字一朝被扔进黄河东流而去。网文界南帝、北丐、东邪、西毒、中神通,要我选,我会做那第一无二的西狂。世人笑我太疯癫,我笑他人看不穿。一切从零开始,不为别人只为依旧收藏我书的读者们。写书,就是死磕自己娱乐大家。这一次,我就一句话——“写书,我绝不将就!”每天十二点固定一更。一年365天,我依旧在路上,我还未放弃。
  • 角落里的郁金香

    角落里的郁金香

    柳宇、叶文感情恰似亲兄弟般。一个转校的女生从此改变了柳宇和叶文的命运,从亲如兄弟到友谊破碎,从无话不说到反目成仇。从此三个人演绎着爱恨情仇。友谊、感情,他们到底该如何抉择?也许,什么都没有!或许,从没有发生过!
  • 妖猴归来

    妖猴归来

    一身金甲仰天笑,天生就是一身傲,只要是我想得到,天和地我都敢要。这天宫我一人闹,这天下我一人笑,身后万里佛光照,谁人敢说是魔道。天若高我与天齐,哪怕天下为我敌,舍去此生这身皮,一手遮天众星移。骂天骂地骂轮回,天上仙,都是谁,我若死这天下陪,全都葬在我周围。如来,我还没服,你说天下魔尽除,但是如今的世俗,谁不把这天下图。今生好似烟花落,这一生,何为错,此生若是再来过,还要蔑视这诸天神佛。。。。。。三界自当任我傲,你们,可曾等我归来否。。。。。。
  • 九天印帝

    九天印帝

    灵羽大陆,广袤无垠。无边兽域山脉拥有妖灵无数。人类强者皆炼御灵之法,结契印之力,御强大妖灵。战天斗地,踏碎河山,无所不能。传说每修一天境,可契印一头强大妖灵,战力无匹。修至九天境者,可御神兽,君临天下!楚元国少年秦沧澜遭人陷害,为报师仇,洗白冤屈,奋起而斗,誓言做那最强者!(妖灵世界,契印为尊!)
  • 有效投资学:提升成功指数的致富秘籍

    有效投资学:提升成功指数的致富秘籍

    投资是一门艺术。投资者要想制胜投资市场,首先要树立有效的投资理念,其次是学习必要的投资知识,再次就是了解各种常见投资工具的投资技巧和策略,最后学习巴菲特、彼得?林奇、乔治?索罗斯等投资大师的投资经验和教训,“复制”其投资智慧。《有效投资学:提升成功指数的致富秘籍》汇集了经过千锤百炼而总结出来的投资方法以及丰富的投资经验。《有效投资学:提升成功指数的致富秘籍》以生动易懂的语言,不仅将生活中必知的投资理财知识进行了简洁、通俗、易懂的讲解,而且与读者分享了很多名人的投资案例。