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All these considerations Fouche saw at a glance, rapidly and with great clearness. But between Malin, Talleyrand, and himself there were strong ties which forced him to the utmost circumspection, and made him anxious to know the exact state of things within the walls of Gondreville.
He knew well what pleasure would be felt in Troyes at such proceedings against the old nobles, the enemies of the people, now become the enemies of the Emperor. In such circumstances a magistrate is very apt to take mere presumptive evidence for actual proof. He imagined in his own mind some other motives for the deed than the restitution of Gondreville.
"A lawyer like Malin will escape any deed they may force him to sign under violence. Watch those nobles, and discover the means they take to set the Comte de Gondreville at liberty."
You all know the affair of the abduction of the Comte de Gondreville, then senator of the Empire, for which the Simeuse brothers and the two d'Hauteserres were condemned to the galleys, an affair which did, in fact, lead to their death."
Malin, an inferior man, incapable of comprehending Fouche's hidden genius, or of distrusting his own perceptions, burned himself, like a moth in a candle, by asking him confidentially to send agents to Gondreville, where, he said, he hoped to obtain certain clues to the conspiracy.
He had obtained for one of his political friends the prefecture of Troyes, and for a farmer at Gondreville the exemption of his son from the draft; in fact, he had done services to many. Consequently, the sale met with no opposition in the neighborhood where Malin then reigned, and where he still reigns supreme. The Empire was just dawning.
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. Blamont-Chauvry, Princesse de Madame Firmiani The Lily of the Valley Grandlieu, Duc Ferdinand de The Gondreville Mystery A Bachelor's Establishment Modeste Mignon Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Granville, Comtesse Angelique de A Second Home A Daughter of Eve Keller, Madame Francois Domestic Peace The Member for Arcis
The latter, named Pigoult, formerly head-clerk in the office where Malin and Grevin had first studied law in Paris, was soon after appointed judge of the municipal court at Arcis. In relation to Michu, Lechesneau knew of the threats the man had made about the sale of Gondreville to Marion, and the danger Malin had escaped in his own park from Michu's gun.
"No doubt he has only postponed his shot to prevent an evil he thinks worse than the loss of Gondreville." "He knew what we were the moment he laid eyes on us," said Peyrade. "I thought then that he was amazingly intelligent for a peasant." "That proves that he is always on his guard," replied Corentin. "But, mind you, my old man, don't let us make a mistake.
What will he be at twenty?" The sub-prefect listened mechanically to these remarks. Julien gossiped on, his master listening, absorbed in thought about the stranger. "Wait here," he said to the man as he turned with slow steps to re-enter the salon. "What a mess!" he thought to himself, "a man who dines at Gondreville and spends the night at Cinq-Cygnes! Mysteries indeed!"
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