Miss Eugenie Grandet

Not long after the postcoach left Paris, the carriages were full of people who had boarded along the way, all of them were provincials who were hurrying back to the countryside just like Eugenie and her party.In the end, it has developed to the point where the people in the back have to sit crowded on the floor and on the pile of luggage, making everyone complain, but the driver doesn't care, and keeps pushing people up until Mr. Crochet takes When he revealed his prestige in the local court, explained his identity, and sternly reprimanded the coachman for his shameless behavior, the coachman was afraid of the majesty of the judge, so he had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​continuing to solicit customers, and went back to the Taking the seat in front of me, the seriously overloaded car started again staggeringly.

Perhaps in the short few decades since the Great Revolution, the French have experienced too many political changes and turmoil. Unlike the new and old aristocratic classes who face a change of fate every time because of a political turmoil, ordinary people seem to have already understood this. Get used to it.The atmosphere on the road was not very depressing or fearful. After accepting the seriously overcrowded journey, everyone kept discussing the current news. In the end, the people in the car were divided into three factions: Royalists, Royalists, and centrists.In the end, royalists and royalists quarreled over whether Louis XVIII would keep the Tuileries or Napoleon would become emperor again.The wild and unruly nature of the French is revealed at this time.If Judge Crosch, a neutral faction, hadn't stopped him, there would have been a big fight in this narrow carriage.In the end, the Napoleonic party, which had a numerical advantage, won.Amidst the excited cheers of "Long Live the Emperor", it was noon, and the carriage finally stopped at the next supply station. The coachman said in a rough voice that he wanted to change horses, and told the passengers to come down to eat and pee. Like the prisoner who came out, he started to let out the wind.

Eugenie and her party also got out of the car, and sat in the dilapidated little restaurant in the post station to eat an expensive and unpalatable lunch.When Nanon heard that she would charge herself 15 sous for the plate of baked potatoes, she smacked her tongue in distress, and seeing Eugenie put it down after eating two mouthfuls, she hastened to bring the plate to herself. In front of him, after eating, he used a spoon to scrape the mashed potatoes stuck to the bottom of the plate.

"A sip is a sou! Holy Mother! If the master knows..."

She kept mumbling, and put the spoon with a layer of mashed potatoes into her mouth.

"Monsieur Crochet, do you want the king to drive out the Corsicans, or do you want the Corsicans to drive out the king again and ascend to the throne again?"

While waiting for the presiding judge to finish his plate, Eugenie drank her water and asked casually.

The president felt very honored that the heiress took the initiative to question herself.Although she was a little disappointed that she kept referring to herself by her original surname, she still put down her spoon and said cautiously: "Strictly speaking, I don't have a clear position. Because no matter who among them is in power, it will not affect my current situation." damage."

Ou also couldn't help but laugh.

I understand that I am asking too much.

President Crosch is like the famous politician Talleyrand who has occupied important positions in the government for six consecutive terms and has been Napoleon's right-hand man twice.Although he is dismissed by Louis XVIII and is at home now, if there is no accident of Napoleon's second landing, he will come out again in the near future.From Louis XVI to the later July Dynasty, when the former regime was about to collapse, he chose to fall to the latter regime-they had no so-called position.In other words, the only position is interest.Just like Crochet in front of him, today he is still chanting "God bless the king". Once Napoleon takes Paris tomorrow, he can immediately put on the three-color cap badge representing the revolution.

The future impact of this turmoil on President Crosch is indeed not yet visible, but the immediate impact is immediately apparent.The small restaurant was very noisy, Eugenie couldn't eat anymore, and when she was about to go out to wait outside, she heard a cry of exclamation: "It's not good, the carriage has run away!"

——To be precise, it was the coachman who took advantage of the time when everyone got out of the car to rest, and ran away driving the post car with everyone's luggage!

People in the restaurant ran out one after another.Cursing angrily, the men ran forward trying to catch the wagon and wrench the driver's head from his neck.It's a pity that the two-legged man can't run with four legs after all. After chasing tens of meters, he can only watch the coachman drive away in the carriage while panting heavily.

There was chaos in the station.

Those who lost property beat their chests and stamped their feet, cursing the unscrupulous coachman who took advantage of the chaos, and those who had nothing to do with themselves watched the farce with gloating expressions.Nanon also stopped scraping the bottoms of the dishes, when she found out that Mademoiselle had bought herself a petticoat in Paris, a pair of shoes (she was very expensive to wear shoes, and usually would wear out a pair in a few months), together with all the original items they had brought out. When all the luggage was taken away by the coachman, his eyes turned red with sadness.

"Fortunately this is still there."

Eugenie shook the purse she carried with her to comfort her—fortunately, considering the storage conditions, the famous paintings obtained at the auction were not brought back to Saumur, but were rented in a bank safe deposit box before leaving. .Eugenie was very grateful for this.

After a period of hopeless jumping and cursing, under the arrangement of President Crosch, someone went to the local police station to report the case, and when he came back, he brought bad news with his head downcast.The local police chief hadn't shown up for two days, and the whole institution was in a semi-paralyzed state. If it wasn't for a gatekeeper watching, even the tables and chairs inside would have been emptied by unscrupulous mobs.

The victim had no choice but to admit that he was unlucky and wait for the next car in place.After waiting all afternoon, they missed several full-stacked postcoaches. Finally, before dark, thanks to the extra money, Eugenie and her party squeezed into a postcoach in the same direction. Two days later, After the twists and turns of the return journey, I returned to the familiar Saumur.

The news had also reached Saumur.

Although for Saumur, apart from a disturbance during the horror period of the Great Revolution, in order to raise funds for the revolution, the government property was confiscated and auctioned by the revolutionaries, most of the rest, the Tuileries Palace in Paris, was actually made Whoever occupies it? For the residents here, the biggest change is the change of the mayor's face and the change of direction in front of the city hall. But like other places, everyone's peaceful life was still disrupted by this news. Rippled.Compared with the incumbent mayor who is always in panic and no one cares about him, the mansion of the richest man in the city is full of guests every night.In the dim candlelight, everyone expressed their views on the turmoil and predicted who would have the last laugh.Just at this time, Miss Grandet and the president returned from Paris, and everyone was naturally busy asking the president what they had seen and heard in Paris.

Although the president has just returned from Paris, the center of the storm, he will definitely not know more about this coup than the Saumur people.The information he can provide is nothing more than Miss Grandet's spending a lot of money at the Paris auction and complaining about the misfortune he encountered on the way back. For this, he lost a shirt and a pair of trousers that he only wore twice. About thirty francs in property.

When the president of the court couldn't tell what Miss Grandet did in Paris, except for repeatedly mentioning the auction and his misfortune, the residents of Saumur couldn't learn more secrets from him— ——Everyone's curiosity was aroused even more.Then a dramatic scene happened. In connection with the arrival of the Jew two weeks ago, speculation about the purpose of Miss Grandet's visit to Paris actually overwhelmed the shock brought by Napoleon's re-landing to this small place.Wherever you go, you can hear citizens discussing with relish.

"My fellow! Send Mademoiselle Grandet to Paris to buy a painting for 10 francs! What is Father Grandet trying to do?"

"Is it possible to draw the secret map of Solomon's treasure?"

"I can assure you that my father sent Miss Grandet to Paris for some other purpose. Just wait, before long, bags of gold will be transported into my father's secret treasure house in the dead of night! "

Naturally, there is no secret map of Solomon's treasure on the drawing, and Grandet's father has not made any advance instructions on this expenditure.So one can imagine his reaction when he heard the news from others - a thunderbolt from the blue sky, his heart and liver were almost taken away.

Grandet was furious and rushed home, angrily questioning Eugenie.Even though Eugenie explained to him that famous paintings have huge potential for appreciation and asked him to treat this move as an investment, the old man still stubbornly refused to accept it.What he believes in is the kind of business in which francs can be seen and touched and returned in gold. It makes him believe that someone will be willing to pay more than 10 francs to buy this painting back in the future, which is simply a fantasy.

"Aw—aw—what idiot is willing to spend a hundred thousand francs for a painting! It's in his hand! It's ruined! It's gone! It's disgusting to use it to paste the wall!" The old man groaned in pain, as if was about to die.

"Eugenie, father will never forgive you! Absolutely!"

No matter how Eugenie explained it, Grandet could not believe that someone would pay more than one hundred thousand francs for a painting in the future.Thinking of his daughter's previous disobedience to him, his anger and sadness doubled.

The cold war between father and daughter broke out again.He refused to speak to Eugenie again, and every day with a gloomy face, he left early and returned late under the terrified eyes of his wife.When citizens concerned about current affairs asked him to boldly predict the prospect of Napoleon landing again, he would angrily shout: "What does this have to do with my vineyard? Let Napoleon go to hell!"

Seeing that her father had another cold war with her for this reason, Eugenie couldn't help feeling a little bit regretful—it wasn't that she regretted buying the painting, but that she regretted not letting Mr. Crochet know about it.However, to be honest, compared to this, she is more concerned about Napoleon's march into Paris now. After all, this is really a major event that can determine the future direction of this country, and thus affect everyone.Even Grandet, although he pretended to be indifferent to others, Eugenie knew that he had secretly inquired about the situation from M. de Grassin, the most well-informed banker in the city. When he learned that the army supporting him had arrived in Orleans, and that the former Marshal of the Empire and the current commander of the Paris National Guard, Oudinot, who was ordered to lead the army to stop him, also defected, that night, the old man walked up and down on the floor of the secret room. The sound of walking footsteps continued until the middle of the night.

And so it was early August.That is, half a month after Eugenie returned from Paris, the last news finally came.

Napoleon takes Paris.Prior to this, the king had fled to England again with his cronies.The Earl of Artois, who was supposed to succeed to the throne as Charles X, the last king of Bourbon, accidentally revealed his whereabouts on the way to escape.In view of the various bad deeds of this person before, it caused the anger of the people to besiege him.The panicked earl unfortunately fell from the carriage, broke his neck and died unexpectedly.

This news finally overwhelmed the attention of the residents of Saumur on the heiress' trip to Paris, and became the focus of the whole city recently.The former mayor had already sneaked away with his family at night.Cornoille and those royalists like him came to the city hall amidst the cry of the emperor's long live, pulled out the white flag representing the Bourbon dynasty, and planted the emperor's eagle flag.President Krosh immediately came forward to maintain order to ensure the security of the whole city during this special period.

Compared with the hustle and bustle outside, the Grandet Mansion looked extremely deserted.The gate was closed all day long, and old Grandet hadn't shown himself for several days.Everyone knows his red hat history, and the emperor hates this group of people the most.So for the low-key of the old man, everyone secretly expressed their understanding.Of course, this understanding is inevitably mixed with some schadenfreude.

The thing that really caused a sensation in the whole city finally happened.

In mid-August, that is, about half a month after the news of the emperor's occupation of Paris, one day, a luxurious carriage with a palace eagle badge entered Saumur.The coachman was dressed in the bright uniform of a court servant, and no one knew who was sitting in the carriage.Under the eyes of the citizens following along, the palace carriage finally stopped in front of Grandet's old house at the root of the city wall.Finally, a person who appeared to be a court attendant got out of the carriage and knocked on the closed door of Grandet's mansion.