50 THE FRENCH CONVULSIVES. 



pervades the whole, give to his pictures a kind of fascination which 

 captivates and enthrals the mind of the reader in spite of its resist- 

 ance. Our attention is forcibly arrested by the bold and novel style 

 of delineation and the forcible energy of their expression. We gaze, 

 and turn away dazzled and agitated by an indescribable sensation of 

 pain and oppressiveness : and anon we feel compelled to revert to 

 them, and again to contemplate their gloomy and forcible outlines. 

 While he dwells upon the miseries of human life, the prejudices and 

 weaknesses which render abortive the struggles of mankind after 

 happiness, and those moral incongruities that are fostered and deve- 

 loped by civilization, the bitterness and contempt as impressed upon 

 his language, and the caustic severity of his raillery, raises a profound 

 feeling of melancholy for the despicable condition of the human 

 race. One of his most powerful modes of producing effect is by 

 sudden and abrupt contrast. If our hearts are moved by the most 

 exquisite delineations of tenderness, loveliness, and goodness, our 

 delight, like the festivity of the Egyptians, is presently marred by 

 the sudden exhibition of a skeleton. 



Having said so much of the peculiar style and manner of Mr. 

 Balzac, we shall proceed to analyze the tales in which he has em- 

 bodied his gloomy and mystic philosophy. 



The first tale in the volume before us is entitled " Master Corne- 

 lius," a character evidently suggested by, though not strictly copied 

 from, the Jingling Geordie of Scott's Fortunes of Nigel. Indeed, 

 most of the personages who figure in the story have their prototypes 

 in the Waverley Novels. 



George D'Estonville, nephew of the Captain of the Archer Guard 

 of Louis XI., has conceived a violent passion for the fair daughter of 

 that prince, married to the aged and cruel Count de St. Valier. The 

 old Count treats his young and uncomplaining spouse with all the 

 barbarity which the most suspicious and vindictive jealousy can sug- 

 gest. One of his measures of security is to select, for his dwelling- 

 place, a house contiguous to that of the usurer, Master Cornelius 

 Hoogworst, in the royal city of Tours. 



" Cornelius Hoogworst, one of the richest merchants of Gand, having in- 

 curred the displeasure of Charles, Duke of Burgundy, had found an asylum 

 and protection at the court of Louis XI. The king, aware of the use that 

 might be made of a man connected with the principal houses of Flanders, of 

 Venice, and of the Levant, had ennobled, naturalized, and even flattered 

 Master Cornelius ; a thing very unusual with Louis XI. But it happened 

 that the monarch pleased the Fleming as much as the Fleming pleased the 

 monarch. Both cunning, distrustful, avaricious, equally politic, equally in- 

 telligent : both in advance of the epoch in which they lived, they understood 

 -ach other perfectly laid aside and resumed, with the same facility, the one 

 his conscience, the other his devotion ; they worshipped the same Virgin, the 

 one from conviction, the other from flattery : in fine, if we are to believe 

 the jealous reports of Oliver Le Daim and Tristam, the king was in the habit 

 of repairing, for his amusement, to the house of the Lombard, but then the 

 amusement was that of Louis XL History has taken care to transmit to us 

 the licentious taste of that monarch, who was no foe to debauchery : and, no 

 doubt, the old Fleming found both pleasure and profit in lending himself to 

 the capricious desires jof his royal client." 



