The Project Gutenberg EBook of Farewell, by Honore de Balzac

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Title: Farewell

Author: Honore de Balzac

Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5873]
Posting Date: March 28, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAREWELL ***

Produced by Dagny, and John Bickers

FAREWELL

BY HONORE DE BALZAC

Translated by Ellen Marriage

DEDICATION

To Prince Friedrich von Schwarzenberg

FAREWELL

"Come, Deputy of the Centre, come along! We shall have to mend our pace
if we mean to sit down to dinner when every one else does, and that's
a fact! Hurry up! Jump, Marquis! That's it! Well done! You are bounding
over the furrows just like a stag!"

These words were uttered by a sportsman seated much at his ease on the
outskirts of the Foret de l'Isle-Adam; he had just finished a Havana
cigar, which he had smoked while he waited for his companion, who
had evidently been straying about for some time among the forest
undergrowth. Four panting dogs by the speaker's side likewise watched
the progress of the personage for whose benefit the remarks were made.
To make their sarcastic import fully clear, it should be added that the
second sportsman was both short and stout; his ample girth indicated a
truly magisterial corpulence, and in consequence his progress across
the furrows was by no means easy. He was striding over a vast field
of stubble; the dried corn-stalks underfoot added not a little to the
difficulties of his passage, and to add to his discomforts, the genial
influence of the sun that slanted into his eyes brought great drops of
perspiration into his face. The uppermost thought in his mind being a
strong desire to keep his balance, he lurched to and fro like a coach
jolted over an atrocious road.

It was one of those September days of almost tropical heat that finishes
the work of summer and ripens the grapes. Such heat forebodes a coming
storm; and though as yet there were wide patches of blue between the
dark rain-clouds low down on the horizon, pale golden masses were rising
and scattering with ominous swiftness from west