character with great talent, had already obtained, not all the
popularity his works deserve, but a respectful esteem to which souls
of his own calibre could add nothing. His reputation will certainly
increase; but in the eyes of connoisseurs it had already attained its
full development. He is one of those authors who, sooner or later, are
put in their right place, and never lose it. A poor nobleman, he had
understood his epoch well enough to seek personal distinction only. He
had struggled long in the Parisian arena, against the wishes of a rich
uncle who, by a contradiction which vanity must explain, after leaving
his nephew a prey to the utmost penury, bequeathed to the man who had
reached celebrity the fortune so pitilessly refused to the unknown
writer. This sudden change in his position made no change in Daniel
d'Arthez's habits; he continued to work with a simplicity worthy of
the antique past, and even assumed new toils by accepting a seat in
the Chamber of Deputies, where he took his seat on the Right.

Since his accession to fame he had sometimes gone into society. One of
his old friends, the now-famous physician, Horace Bianchon, persuaded
him to make the acquaintance of the Baron de Rastignac, under-secretary
of State, and a friend of de Marsay, the prime minister. These two
political officials acquiesced, rather nobly, in the strong wish of
d'Arthez, Bianchon, and other friends of Michel Chrestien for the
removal of the body of that republican to the church of Saint-Merri
for the purpose of giving it funeral honors. Gratitude for a service
which contrasted with the administrative rigor displayed at a time
when political passions were so violent, had bound, so to speak,
d'Arthez to Rastignac. The latter and de Marsay were much too clever
not to profit by that circumstance; and thus they won over other
friends of Michel Chrestien, who did not share his political opinions,
and who now attached themselves to the new government. One of them,