Part 1 (1/2)
Scaramouche
by Rafael Sabatini
BOOK I: THE ROBE
CHAPTER I THE REPUBLICAN
He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad
And that was all his patrie of Gavrillac had long since dispelled the cloud ofabout it Those simple Brittany folk were not so simple as to be deceived by a pretended relationshi+p which did not even possess the virtue of originality When a nobleman, for no apparent reason, announces himself the Godfather of an infant fetched noand education, the most unsophisticated of country folk perfectly understand the situation And so the good people of Gavrillac permitted themselves no illusions on the score of the real relationshi+p between Andre-Louis Moreau--as the lad had been named--and Quintin de Kercadiou, Lord of Gavrillac, elt in the big grey house that do below
Andre-Louis had learnt his letters at the village school, lodged the while with old Rabouillet, the attorney, who in the capacity of fiscal intendant, looked after the affairs of M de Kercadiou Thereafter, at the age of fifteen, he had been packed off to Paris, to the Lycee of Louis Le Grand, to study the lahich he was now returned to practise in conjunction with Rabouillet All this at the charges of his Godfather, M de Kercadiou, who by placing hie of Rabouillet would see provision for his future
Andre-Louis, on his side, had e of four-and-twenty stuffed with learning enough to produce an intellectual indigestion in an ordinary mind Out of his zestful study of Man, from Thucydides to the Encyclopaedists, from Seneca to Rousseau, he had confirmed into an unassailable conviction his earliest conscious ieneral insanity of his own species Nor can I discover that anything in his eventful life ever afterwards caused hiht wisp of a fellow, scarcely above ht, with a lean, astute countenance, prominent of nose and cheek-bones, and with lank, black hair that reached al, thin-lipped, and huliness by the splendour of a pair of ever-questing, luminous eyes, so dark as to be almost black Of the whiraceful expression, his writings--unfortunately but too scanty--and particularly his Confessions, afford us very aift of oratory he was hardly conscious yet, although he had already achieved a certain fame for it in the Literary Chamber of Rennes--one of those clubs by now ubiquitous in the land, in which the intellectual youth of France foregathered to study and discuss the new philosophies that were per social life But the fame he had acquired there was hardly enviable He was too iues--to ridicule their sublieneration of mankind Himself he protested that he merely held them up to the mirror of truth, and that it was not his fault if when reflected there they looked ridiculous
All that he achieved by this was to exasperate; and his expulsion frorown mistrustful of him must already have followed but for his friend, Philippe de Vilmorin, a divinity student of Rennes, who, himself, was one of theto Gavrillac on a Nove, laden with news of the political stor over France, Philippe found in that sleepy Breton village nation A peasant of Gavrillac, na in the woods of Meupont, across the river, by a gamekeeper of the Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr The unfortunate fellow had been caught in the act of taking a pheasant froamekeeper had acted under explicit orders from his master
Infuriated by an act of tyranny so absolute and merciless, M de Vilmorin proposed to lay the matter before M de Kercadiou Mabey was a vassal of Gavrillac, and Vilmorin hoped to move the Lord of Gavrillac to demand at least some measure of reparation for theand the three orphans which that brutal deed had made
But because Andre-Louis was Philippe's dearest friend--indeed, his alht him out in the first instance He found hied, white-panelled dining-room at Rabouillet's--the only ho him, deafened him with his denunciation of M
de La Tour d'Azyr
”I have heard of it already,” said Andre-Louis
”You speak as if the thing had not surprised you,” his friend reproached hi beastly can surprise me when done by a beast And La Tour d'Azyr is a beast, as all the world knows Thehis pheasants He should have stolen somebody else's”
”Is that all you have to say about it?”
”What more is there to say? I've a practical mind, I hope”
”What more there is to say I propose to say to your Godfather, M de Kercadiou I shall appeal to hiainst M de La Tour d'Azyr?” Andre-Louis raised his eyebrows
”Why not?”
”My dear ingenuous Philippe, dog doesn't eat dog”
”You are unjust to your Godfather He is a humane man”