A great outcry was made against the tyranny of the nobles; in these days the cry is against that of capitalists, against abuses of power, which may be merely the inevitable galling of the social yoke, called Compact by Rousseau, Constitution by some, Charter by others; Czar here, King there, Parliament in Great Britain; while in France the general levelling begun in 1789 and continued in 1830 has paved the way for the juggling dominion of the middle classes, and delivered the nation into their hands without escape.The portrayal of one fact alone, unfortunately only too common in these days, namely, the subjection of a canton, a little town, a sub-prefecture, to the will of a family clique,--in short, the power acquired by Gaubertin,--will show this social danger better than all dogmatic statements put together.Many oppressed communities will recognize the truth of this picture; many persons secretly and silently crushed by this tyranny will find in these words an obituary, as it were, which may half console them for their hidden woes.
At the very moment when the general imagined himself to be renewing a warfare in which there had really been no truce, his former steward had just completed the last meshes of the net-work in which he now held the whole arrondissement of Ville-aux-Fayes.To avoid too many explanations it is necessary to state, once for all, succinctly, the genealogical ramifications by means of which Gaubertin wound himself about the country, as a boa-constrictor winds around a tree,--with such art that a passing traveller thinks he beholds some natural effect of the tropical vegetation.
In 1793 there were three brothers of the name of Mouchon in the valley of the Avonne.After 1793 they changed the name of the valley to that of the Valley des Aigues, out of hatred to the old nobility.
The eldest brother, steward of the property of the Ronquerolles family, was elected deputy of the department to the Convention.Like his friend, Gaubertin's father, the prosecutor of those days, who saved the Soulanges family, he saved the property and the lives of the Ronquerolles.He had two daughters; one married to Gendrin, the lawyer, the other to Gaubertin.He died in 1804.
The second, through the influence of his elder brother, was made postmaster at Conches.His only child was a daughter, married to a rich farmer named Guerbet.He died in 1817.
The last of the Mouchons, who was a priest, and the curate of Ville-
aux-Fayes before the Revolution, was again a priest after the re-
establishment of Catholic worship, and again the curate of the same little town.He was not willing to take the oath, and was hidden for a long time in the hermitage of Les Aigues, under the protection of the Gaubertins, father and son.Now about sixty-seven years of age, he was treated with universal respect and affection, owing to the harmony of his nature with that of the inhabitants.Parsimonious to the verge of avarice, he was thought to be rich, and the credit of being so increased the respect that was shown to him.Monseigneur the bishop paid the greatest attention to the Abbe Mouchon, who was always spoken of as the venerable curate of Ville-aux-Fayes; and the fact that he had several times refused to go and live in a splendid parsonage attached to the Prefecture, where Monseigneur wished to settle him, made him dearer still to his people.
Gaubertin, now mayor of Ville-aux-Fayes, received steady support from his brother-in-law Gendrin, who was judge of the municipal court.
Gaubertin the younger, the solicitor who had the most practice before this court and much repute in the arrondissement, was already thinking of selling his practice after five years' exercise of it.He wanted to succeed his Uncle Gendrin as counsellor whenever the latter should retire from the profession.Gendrin's only son was commissioner of mortgages.
Soudry's son, who for the last two years had been prosecuting-attorney at the prefecture, was Gaubertin's henchman.The clever Madame Soudry had secured the future of her husband's son by marrying him to Rigou's only daughter.The united fortunes of the Soudrys and the ex-monk, which would come eventually to the attorney, made that young man one of the most important personages of the department.
The sub-prefect of Ville-aux-Fayes, Monsieur des Lupeaulx, nephew of the general-secretary of one of the most important ministries in Paris, was the prospective husband of Mademoiselle Elise Gaubertin, the mayor's youngest daughter, whose dowry, like that of her elder sister, was two hundred thousand francs, not to speak of "expectations." This functionary showed much sense, though not aware of it, in falling in love with Mademoiselle Elise when he first arrived at Ville-aux-Fayes, in 1819.If it had not been for his social position, which made him "eligible," he would long ago have been forced to ask for his exchange.But Gaubertin in marrying him to his daughter thought much more of the uncle, the general-secretary, than of the nephew; and in return, the uncle, for the sake of his nephew, gave all his influence to Gaubertin.
Thus the Church, the magistracy both removable and irremovable, the municipality, and the prefecture, the four feet of power, walked as the mayor pleased.Let us now see how that functionary strengthened himself in the spheres above and below that in which he worked.