and VII. and Louis XVIII., two--kings
who owe their crowns to profound--er--combinations, let us say. I
believe in God, but I have a still greater belief in our Order, and our
Order has no belief save in temporal power. In order to strengthen and
consolidate the temporal power, our Order upholds the Catholic Apostolic
and Roman Church, which is to say, the doctrines which dispose the world
at large to obedience. We are the Templars of modern times; we have a
doctrine of our own. Like the Templars, we have been dispersed, and
for the same reasons; we are almost a match for the world. If you will
enlist as a soldier, I will be your captain. Obey me as a wife obeys
her husband, as a child obeys his mother, and I will guarantee that you
shall be Marquis de Rubempre in less than six months; you shall marry
into one of the proudest houses in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and some
day you shall sit on a bench with peers of France. What would you have
been at this moment if I had not amused you by my conversation?--An
undiscovered corpse in a deep bed of mud. Well and good, now for an
effort of imagination----"

Lucien looked curiously at his protector.

"Here, in this caleche beside the Abbe Carlos Herrera, canon of Toledo,
secret envoy from His Majesty Ferdinand VII. to his Majesty the King
of France, bearer of a despatch thus worded it may be--'When you
have delivered me, hang all those whom I favor at this moment, more
especially the bearer of this despatch, for then he can tell no
tales'--well, beside this envoy sits a young man who has nothing in
common with that poet recently deceased. I have fished you out of
the water, I have brought you to life again, you belong to me as the
creature belongs to the creator, as the efrits of fairytales belong to
the genii, as the janissary to the Sultan, as the soul to the body. I
will sustain you in the way to power with a strong hand; and at the same
time I promise that your life shall be a continual course of pleasure,
honors, and enjoyment. You shall never want for money. You shall shine,
you shall go bravely in the eyes of the world; while I, crouching in
the mud, will lay a firm foundation for the brilliant edifice of your
fortunes. For I love power for its own sake. I shall always rejoice in
your enjoyment, forbidden to me. In short, my self shall become your
self! Well, if a day should come when this pact between man and the
tempter, this agreement between the child and the dipl