on to the post
which his father, old Blondet, hoped to obtain for him when he himself
should retire. But President du Ronceret, in underhand ways, was
thwarting the old man's plans, and working indirectly upon the
Blandureaus. Indeed, if it had not been for this affair of young
d'Esgrignon's, the astute President might have cut them out, father and
son, for their rivals were very much richer.

M. Blondet, the victim of the machiavelian President's intrigues, was
one of the curious figures which lie buried away in the provinces
like old coins in a crypt. He was at that time a man of sixty-seven or
thereabouts, but he carried his years well; he was very tall, and in
build reminded you of the canons of the good old times. The smallpox had
riddled his face with numberless dints, and spoilt the shape of his nose
by imparting to it a gimlet-like twist; it was a countenance by no means
lacking in character, very evenly tinted with a diffused red, lighted up
by a pair of bright little eyes, with a sardonic look in them, while
a certain sarcastic twitch of the purpled lips gave expression to that
feature.

Before the Revolution broke out, Blondet senior had been a barrister;
afterwards he became the public accuser, and one of the mildest of those
formidable functionaries. Goodman Blondet, as they used to call him,
deadened the force of the new doctrines by acquiescing in them all, and
putting none of them in practice. He had been obliged to send one or
two nobles to prison; but his further proceedings were marked with such
deliberation, that he brought them through to the 9th Thermidor with a
dexterity which won respect for him on all sides. As a matter of fact,
Goodman Blondet ought to have been President of the Tribunal, but when
the courts of law were reorganized he had been set aside; Napoleon's
aversion for Republicans was apt to reappear in the smallest
appointments under his government. The qualification of ex-public
accuser, written in the margin of the list against Blondet's name, set
the Emperor inquiring of Cambaceres whether there might not be some
scion of an ancient parliamentary stock to appoint instead. The
consequence was that du Ronceret, whose father had been a councillor
of parliament, was nominated to the presidency; but, the Emperor's
repugnance notwithstanding, Cambaceres allowed Blondet to remain on the
bench, saying that the old barrister was one of the best jurisconsults
in France.

Blondet's talent