t, when our debtor might have
left us only one hundred thousand, we hereby declare him an
Aristides; we vote him a premium and crown of encouragement, and
propose to leave him to manage his assets, giving him ten or
twelve years in which to pay us the fifty per cent which he has
been so good as to offer us. Here is the certificate of
bankruptcy; have the goodness to walk up to the desk and sign it.

At this speech, all the fortune creditors congratulate each other and
shake hands. After the ratification of the certificate, the bankrupt
becomes once more a merchant, precisely such as he was before; he
receives back his securities, he continues his business, he is not
deprived of the power to fail again, on the promised dividend,--an
additional little failure which often occurs, like the birth of a child
nine months after the mother has married her daughter.

If the certificate of bankruptcy is not granted, the creditors then
select the permanent assignees, take extreme measures, and form an
association to get possession of the whole property and the business
of their debtor, seizing everything that he has or ever will have,--his
inheritance from his father, his mother, his aunt, _et caetera_.
This stern measure can only be carried through by an association of
creditors.

* * * * *

There are therefore two sorts of failures,--the failure of the merchant
who means to repossess himself of his business, and the failure of the
merchant who has fallen into the water and is willing to sink to the
bottom. Pillerault knew the difference. It was, to his thinking and to
that of Ragon, as hard to come out pure from the first as to come out
safe from the second. After advising Cesar to abandon everything to his
creditors, he went to the most honorable solicitor in such matters,
that immediate steps might be taken to liquidate the failure and put
everything at once at the disposition of the creditors. The law requires
that while the drama is being acted, the creditors shall provide for
the support of the bankrupt and his family. Pillerault notified the
commissioner that he would himself supply the wants of his niece and
nephew.

Du Tillet had worked all things together to make the failure a prolonged
agony for his old master; and this is how he did it. Time is so precious
in Paris that it is customary, when two assignees are appointed, for
only one to attend to the affair: the duty of th