THE BALL AT SCEAUX

BY

HONORE DE BALZAC



Translated By
Clara Bell



To Henri de Balzac, his brother Honore.



The Comte de Fontaine, head of one of the oldest families in Poitou,
had served the Bourbon cause with intelligence and bravery during the
war in La Vendee against the Republic. After having escaped all the
dangers which threatened the royalist leaders during this stormy
period of modern history, he was wont to say in jest, "I am one of the
men who gave themselves to be killed on the steps of the throne." And
the pleasantry had some truth in it, as spoken by a man left for dead
at the bloody battle of Les Quatre Chemins. Though ruined by
confiscation, the staunch Vendeen steadily refused the lucrative posts
offered to him by the Emperor Napoleon. Immovable in his aristocratic
faith, he had blindly obeyed its precepts when he thought it fitting
to choose a companion for life. In spite of the blandishments of a
rich but revolutionary parvenu, who valued the alliance at a high