526 The French Poets and Novelists. 



country-house the window of that chamber looks upon a lake ; she is 

 resolved how to act, should the nobleman dare attempt to force the 

 door of her apartment, and she expects the succour of her lover 

 Urban, who is actually in the vicinity of the chateau. Presently the 

 marquis approaches the door of her room ; but it is to embrace her 

 whom he has only a few moments ago discovered to be his child. 

 Blanche trembles, but she has decided in her own mind what step to 

 take. She fancies the intended ravisher of innocence is near, and 

 she leaps from the window ; the lake receives her beneath. Her 

 lover, who is in the park, sees the fall and throws himself into the 

 water. He succeeds in dragging her to the land ; and at that moment 

 the marquis, who had followed his daughter, swam also on shore. 

 They endeavoured to recover her ; the one implored her to open her 

 eyes in the name of a parent, the other in that of a lover. But 

 Blanche answered not the vital spark had fled, and she remained a 

 corpse between the two individuals who deplored her. 



There is one very excellent character in the " Barber of Paris ;" 

 it is the Chevalier Chaudoreille,, who never opens his lips but to tell 

 a lie. He is employed by the barber in a variety of ways, and uni- 

 versally endeavours to pass himself off as a great man. " Those 

 women," said he, "those women, cade'dis!" (his favourite oath) "are 

 ruinous ! Sacredie! were it not for them I should be rich ; but I ruin 

 myself for their smiles. Eh! bien never mind : I have only to look 

 kindly with my killing eyes upon some duchess or dowager, and I 

 can be bravely clad in a minute." This worthy gentleman is a native 

 of Gascony, and of course as great a rogue as he is a liar. Paul de 

 Kock is fond of lashing the failings of men through the medium of 

 characters of this kind. He shows us the folly of assuming that which 

 we are not entitled to ; he represents the inconsistency of affecting 

 the rich and the valiant, the gallant and the gay, when both pocket 

 and stomach are empty. Chaudoreille, who proclaims himself a very 

 raffing d'honneur, is the greatest coward in the world. Hence may we 

 learn to mistrust the empty vaunts and superficial boastings of those 

 individuals who " have killed their man," or who " are ready to go 

 out whenever they have an opportunity." 



" So3ur Anne" is a most affecting tale. A poor dumb girl becomes 

 the victim of the seducer's desires. The son and heir of a rich noble- 

 man succeeds in possessing himself of her person, and although he 

 faithfully remains near her during the first few months of illicit 

 pleasure, circumstances oblige him eventually to return home to the 

 paternal dwelling. Time wears away ; he marries ; and " Sister 

 Anne" leaves her cottage, to go to Paris and seek her lover. A 

 thousand perils is she obliged to encounter; a hundred difficulties is 

 she condemned to experience. Her lover's wife is in the country ; 

 she finds her way accidentally to the mansion of Celine, for that is 

 the name of her successful rival, and by that rival she is received in 

 friendship, in ignorance of who she is. Her lover is away from home ; 

 he returns then comes the sad denouement of the tale. " Sister 

 Anne" has a child, the fruit of her illicit amour, and she and her 

 infant sleep in a wing detached from the main body of the house. 

 Her apartment catches fire she is with her lover in the garden the 



