side with the minority of the committee. It seems to me very
proper to send M. de Sallenauve back to his electors in order to
know whether they intended to send a deputy or a lover to this
Chamber--["Order! order!" Loud disturbance on the Left. The tumult
increases.]

M. de Canalis hurries to the tribune.

_The President_.--M. le ministre of Public Works has asked for the
floor; as minister of the king he has the first right to be heard.

_M. de Rastignac_.--It has not been without remonstrance on my
part, gentlemen, that this scandal has been brought to your
notice. I endeavored, in the name of the long friendship which
unites me to Colonel Franchessini, to persuade him not to speak on
this delicate subject, lest his parliamentary inexperience,
aggravated in a measure by his witty facility of speech, should
lead him to some very regrettable indiscretion. Such, gentleman,
was the subject of the little conversation you may have seen that
he held with me on my bench before he asked for the floor; and I
myself have asked for the same privilege only in order to remove
from your minds all idea of my complicity in the great mistake he
has just, as I think, committed by condescending to the private
details he has thought fit to relate to this assembly. But as,
against my intention, and I may add against my will, I have
entered the tribune, the Chamber will permit me, perhaps,
--although no ministerial interest is here concerned,--to say a
few words. [Cries from the Centre: "Go on!" "Speak!"]

M. le ministre then went on to say that the conduct of the absent
deputy showed contempt for the Chamber; he was treating it lightly
and cavalierly. M. de Sallenauve had asked for leave of absence;
but how or where had he asked for it? From a foreign country! That
is to say, he began by taking it, and then asked for it! Did he
trouble himself, as is usual in such cases, to give a reason for
the request? No; he merely says, in his letter to your president,
that he is forced to absent himself on "urgent business,"--a very
convenient excuse, on which the Chamber might be depopulated of
half its members. But, supposing that M. de Sallenauve's business
was really urgent, and that he thought it of a nature not to be
explained in a letter that would necessarily be made public, why
had he not written confidentially to the president, or even
requested a friend in