Chapter 175 Six Consequences of Meeting a Money Priest

Where Marius went, we shall find out later. Marius did not come home for three days, and then he went to Paris, went all the way to the library of the Faculty of Law, and asked for a set of "Bulletin". He read the Bulletin, he read the whole history of the Republic and the Empire, the Memoirs of St. Helena and all the other memoirs, newspapers, reports, manifestos, he devoured everything.After he saw his father's name in the army report for the first time, he had a high fever for a whole week.He interviewed some of the generals who had been George Pontmercy's superiors, one of whom was Count H.He had also seen Mabeuf, the parish financier, who told him all about Vernon's life, the colonel's retirement, his gardens, and his solitude.Only then did Marius get to know that rare, remarkable, benevolent, fierce as a lion and tame as a lamb, that is, his father.

During the time when he devoted all his time and energy to reading literature, he barely met the Gillenormands.He only showed up when it was time to eat, and then, when others went to find him, he was gone again.My aunt murmured endlessly.But old Gillenormand laughed and said: "What's the matter! What's the matter! It's time to find the girls!" Sometimes the old man added: "Damn! I thought it was just a joke, but it seems that it is It was a passionate love." This is indeed a passionate love. Marius was madly in love with his father. At the same time a great change was going on in his mind.That change is gradually formed through many developments.We thought it good to tell it all, step by step, as this was the process by which the minds of many in our time were transformed.

That history, when he first read it, shocked him. The initial effect is dazzling. Until then, the republic and empire were just ghostly words in his mind.The Republic is just a guillotine in the twilight, and the Empire is just a big knife in the night.Looking carefully now, he thought that what he saw was just a mass of messy black shadows, but what surprised him, frightened and delighted him in those places were the dazzling stars, Mirabeau, Vinio, Saint-Just, Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins, Danton and a rising sun: Napoleon.He didn't know what was going on.Dazed by the sun, he backed away.Gradually, the frightened mood passed, and he was used to the brilliance. He was able to watch the movements without feeling dizzy, and he could observe those figures without feeling frightened. Both the revolution and the empire were in front of his piercing eyes. Brilliantly enumerated, he saw that every event and every person in those two stages could be summed up in two incomparably great acts. Giving the highest status to the French ideas imposed on Europe, he saw the greatness of the people emerging from the revolution, and the greatness of France from the empire.He admitted from the bottom of his heart that it was all good.

This preliminary estimate of his is indeed too general, and we do not think it necessary to point out here all the things which he overlooked in his momentary bewilderment.What we want to describe is the development of individual thought.Progress doesn't happen overnight.Whether it's about the past or the future, we can only look at it in this way, and we can go on after explaining this clearly once. He found that before that, he knew neither his country nor his father.He didn't know either his country or his father, and he really seemed willing to let the clouds and mist cover his eyes.Now he can see clearly, on the one hand, he admires, on the other hand, he adores.

His chest was full of remorse and remorse, and he thought with grief that everything in his heart could only be told to a lonely grave now.well!If his father was still alive, if he could still see his father, if God had moved his father in mercy and mercy, he would run, rush on him, and shout to his father, "Father! I'm coming! It's me! My heart is exactly like yours! I'm your son!" He didn't know how he would hold his white head, how many tears he would shed in his hair, how he would look up at his knife Hurt, hold his hand, love his clothes, kiss his feet!well!Why did this father die so early, why did he die before he was old, before he enjoyed fair treatment, and before he received a day of filial support from his son!Marius was constantly weeping and lamenting in his heart.At the same time he became really more serious, really deeper, more sure of his convictions and ideas.The light of truth was filling his intellect at all times.He seemed to be growing inside.He felt himself growing up naturally, brought about by two new factors that he had never had before—his father and his country.

Just like a person who has a key can open doors everywhere, he analyzes from the beginning what he hated before, and studies what he despised before, and from then on he can clearly see the things that others taught him to insult and curse and the providence among people , Divine and human.His previous opinions were only yesterday's thing, but it seemed to him so long ago that when he thought of it, he felt indignant and laughed. Since he had changed his view of his father, his view of Napoleon had naturally changed as well. But the change in this aspect, we have to point out, is not without a difficult process.

When he was a child he had been indoctrinated by the party in 1814 with regard to Bonaparte.All the prejudices, interests, and natures of the Restoration distorted the image of Napoleon.The dynasty hated Napoleon even more than Robespierre.It quite subtly uses the exhaustion of national power and the resentment of mothers as an excuse.Bonaparte thus became almost a legendary monster, and the party of 1814, in order to portray it in the phantasy of the people - as we said before, the phantasy of the people is the phantasy of children Similar——they created a series of terrifying facial makeup for him, ranging from vicious yet majestic to so vicious that it makes people laugh, from Tiberius to sloppy, everything is complete.Therefore, when one speaks of Bonaparte, one can weep or laugh wildly, as long as one bases it on resentment."The man"--as he was called at the time--had never been otherwise thought of in Marius's mind.Those views combined with his strong character.Already in his heart was a stubborn little man who hated Napoleon.

In reading history, especially when studying history from documents and original sources, the blindness that prevented Marius from seeing Napoleon was gradually broken.He vaguely saw a vast and vast figure, and began to suspect that he had been wrong about Napoleon and everything else, and his eyes brightened day by day, and he climbed slowly, step by step, almost reluctantly at first. Yes, at last he was delighted, as if drawn by an irresistible allurement, first up the dark steps, then up the half-dark steps, and finally came to the bright and bright Exhilarating rungs up. One night he was alone in the bedroom under the roof.He lit the candle, opened the window, leaned his elbows on the table in front of the window, and read.All kinds of phantoms flew from the sky and intertwined with his thoughts.What a strange sight the night is!People heard countless faint voices but did not know where they came from. People saw Jupiter, which is 1,200 times larger than the earth, shining like a piece of blazing coal.

He read the reports of the Grand Army, poems written in the Homeric style of the field.There, he occasionally saw the name of his father, and everywhere the name of the emperor. The whole picture of the great empire appeared before his eyes, and he felt as if there were waves surging up in his chest, and he sometimes seemed Feeling his father blowing past him like a breeze, talking to him in his ear.His feelings became more and more strange. He seemed to hear the sound of drums, guns, bugles, and the orderly pace of the marching troops. Looking at the huge constellations shining in the boundless sky, he looked down at his book again, and in the book he saw other huge figures moving in disorder.He felt a knot in his chest.He couldn't hold himself anymore, he was frightened and short of breath, suddenly he didn't know what he was thinking, and he didn't know what force he was driving, he stood up, stretched his arms out of the window, opened his eyes and looked at the window. The dark and lonely, limitless, endless space roared loudly: "Long live the emperor!"

Since then, he has had his mind set.The Corsican man-eating devil, the tyrant, the tyrant, the beast who raped his sister, the fancier who learned from Talma, the murderer who poisoned Jaffa, the tiger, Buwanaba, all that was shattered, in his heart All gave way to a vast expanse of bright light, in which stood a marble statue of Caesar, bleak and ghostly.To Marius' father, the emperor was just a general whom people loved and would die for, but in Marius' mind it was more than that.He was destined to be the engineer of the French, who succeeded the Romans, in the cause of the mastery of the universe.He is a master in rebuilding ruins, heir to Charlemagne, Louis XI, Henry IV, Richelieu, Louis XIV, the Committee of Public Safety, and of course he has blemishes, omissions, and even crimes, that is to say, he A man; yet he is dignified in his faults, sublime in his blemishes, and heroic in his crimes.He was ordered by heaven to force other countries to submit to the great powers.He was more than that, he was France incarnate, he conquered Europe with the sword in his hand, and the world with the light he radiated.Marius felt that Bonaparte was a radiant ghost who would always stand on the frontiers to defend the future.He is a tyrant, but also a dictator, a tyrant born from a republic and summing up a revolution.In his heart Napoleon became the embodiment of the will of the people, just as Jesus was the embodiment of the will of God.

We can see that, like all new converts, his conversion of thought intoxicated himself, he hastened to it, and went too far.His character was originally such that once he went up the downward slope, he could hardly stop.Frenzy for the military overwhelmed him, and disturbed his ardor for knowledge.He didn't realize that he worshiped force at the same time as he worshiped genius, that is to say, he put his two objects of worship, divine power and violence, in two boxes on the left and right of his reverence at the same time.He also made many mistakes on many other issues.He takes anything.There is often opportunity for error in the pursuit of truth.He has a reckless self-assurance that swallows everything in one big gulp.In judging the old order on his new path, he ignored the demeaning factor just as he weighed Napoleon's glory. In short, he has taken a huge step forward.Where he had seen the monarchy fall, he now saw the rise of France.His direction changed.I looked at the setting sun that day, but now I see the rising sun.He turned away. All kinds of changes have been completed one by one in his heart, but his family has not noticed it at all. Through this secret study, he completely shed the old Bourbonist and extremist skin, and also got rid of the views of the aristocrats, Jacobites, and Royalists, and became a completely revolutionary, thoroughly Democratic, and almost republican.At this moment, he went to an engraving shop on the bank of the Goldsmith River and ordered a hundred business cards, which were printed: "Baron Marius Pontmercy". It was just a very natural reaction to that shift his father had induced in him.However, he didn't know anyone, so he couldn't go to the concierge to distribute those business cards at will, so he had to keep them in his pocket. By another natural reaction, the closer he came to his father, his father figure, to those things for which the Colonel had fought for twenty-five years, the more he became estranged from his grandfather.We have already mentioned that for a long time he had felt that M. Gillenormand's character did not suit him at all.There already existed between them all the dissonances of a serious young man and a frivolous old man.Jerond's hippie smile offended Werther's gloomy mood.Between Marius and Gillenormand, when they still have common political opinions and common consciousness, they seem to be able to meet each other frankly on a bridge.Once the bridges crumble, a divide opens.Especially when Marius thought that it was M. Gillenormand who had snatched him from the colonel's arms for some most absurd motives, depriving the father of his child and the child of his father, and he felt a kind of pang in his chest. Indescribable resentment. Out of love for his father, Marius felt almost a loathing for his grandfather. We've talked about it, but nothing about it shows.However, he became more and more distant, talking less at the dinner table and rarely staying at home.His aunt scolded him for this, and he behaved very meekly, always blaming studies, homework, exams, lectures, and so on.But the grandfather can't do without his infallible diagnosis: "He's in heat! You can't be wrong." From time to time Marius would go out and walk about. "Where did he go?" the aunt often asked. His travel time is always very short. Once, he went to Montfermeil, in order to follow his father's last words, to find the retired sergeant at Waterloo, the innkeeper Thenardier.Thenardier lost money, the inn was closed, and no one knew his whereabouts.For this visit, Marius did not return home for four days. "Honestly," said the grandfather, "he's willing to do it." Someone seemed to notice that there was something hanging from a black belt around his neck, up to his chest, under his shirt.