Gargantua's birth, stretched the gulf that divides the nineteenth
century from the sixteenth. Laughingly they had begun the work of
destruction, and our journalists laughed amid the ruins.

"What is the name of that young man over there?" said the notary,
indicating Raphael. "I thought I heard some one call him Valentin."

"What stuff is this?" said Emile, laughing; "plain Valentin, say you?
Raphael DE Valentin, if you please. We bear an eagle or, on a field
sable, with a silver crown, beak and claws gules, and a fine motto:
NON CECIDIT ANIMUS. We are no foundling child, but a descendant of the
Emperor Valens, of the stock of the Valentinois, founders of the
cities of Valence in France, and Valencia in Spain, rightful heirs to
the Empire of the East. If we suffer Mahmoud on the throne of
Byzantium, it is out of pure condescension, and for lack of funds and
soldiers."

With a fork flourished above Raphael's head, Emile outlined a crown
upon it. The notary bethought himself a moment, but soon fell to
drinking again, with a gesture peculiar to himself; it was quite
impossible, it seemed to say to secure in his clientele the cities of
Valence and Byzantium, the Emperor Valens, Mahmoud, and the house of
Valentinois.

"Should not the destruction of those ant-hills, Babylon, Tyre,
Carthage, and Venice, each crushed beneath the foot of a passing
giant, serve as a warning to man, vouchsafed by some mocking power?"
said Claude Vignon, who must play the Bossuet, as a sort of purchased
slave, at the rate of fivepence a line.