no longer calculated my
fortune must be expended in a few years; that I did not heed. Could I
renounce this favourite, dazzling life, in which pleasures succeeded
pleasures, every kind of intoxication to every kind of enchantment? Ah,
if you knew, father, what it is to be hailed as the hero of the day, to
hear the murmur which greets your entrance into the salon, to hear the
women say, 'That is he! There he is!'--oh, if you knew--"

"I know," said the old man, without moving from his attitude,--"I know.
Yes, the other day, in a public place, there was a crowd; suddenly a
murmur was heard, like that which greets you when you enter some place;
then the women's eyes were all turned eagerly on a very handsome young
man, just as they are turned towards you, and they pointed him out to
one another, saying, 'That's he! There he is!' just as if they were
directing attention to you."

"And this man, my father?"

"Was a forger they were conveying to gaol."

"Ah!" exclaimed Florestan, with concentrated rage. Then affecting the
deepest affliction, he added, "My father, you are pitiless,--what shall
I then say to you? I do not seek to deny my errors, I only desire to
explain to you the fatal infatuation which has caused them. Well, then,
even if you should overwhelm me still with your bitterest sarcasms, I
will endeavour to go through with this confession,--I will endeavour to
make you comprehend this feverish excitement which has destroyed me,
because then, perchance, you may pity me,--yes, for there is pity for a
madman, and I was mad! Shutting my eyes, I abandoned myself to the
dazzling whirl into which I was drawn, and drew with me the most
charming women, the most delightful men. How could I check myself? As
easily say to the poet who exhausts himself, and whose genius preys upon
his health, 'Pause in the midst of the inspiration which urges you!' No!
He could not--I could not, abdicate the royalty which I exercised, and
return shamed, ruined, and mocked at, into the unknown mob, giving this
triumph to those who envied me, and whom, until then, I had defied,
controlled, overpowered! No! No! I could not, voluntarily, at least.

"Then came the fatal day, when, for the first time, money failed me. I
was surprised as much as if such a moment never could have arrived. Yet
I had still my horses, my carriages, the furniture of this house. When
my debts were paid there would, perhaps, still remain to me about sixty
thousand francs