第四十一章 第二章 马德兰先生
他大约五十岁，神色若有所思，心地善良。关于他，能说的仅此而已。
由于他重建的产业得益于他精明的领导而迅速发展，滨海蒙特勒伊成了一个相当重要的贸易中心。西班牙盛产黑玉，每年在此大量采购。在这一商业领域，滨海蒙特勒伊几乎与伦敦和柏林匹敌。马德兰老爹获利甚丰，到第二年底，他便有能力建造一座大厂房，内有宽敞的车间两间，一间男工，一间女工。任何挨饿的人都可以前往，准能找到工作和面包。马德兰老爹要求男工有诚意，女工品行端正，所有人诚实正直。他将车间分开，以使男女有别，确保妇女和姑娘们举止端庄。在这点上他毫不通融。这是他唯一不容忍的地方。他之所以如此严厉，更因滨海蒙特勒伊是座驻军城市，腐化堕落的机会很多。不过，他的到来是一大幸事，他的存在是上天的恩赐。在马德兰老爹到来之前，乡间万物凋敝；如今，一切都在健康的劳作中充满生机。活跃的经济活动温暖了一切，渗透到各处。失业和贫困已不复存在。无论多么偏僻的口袋里都有点钱；无论多么简陋的住所里都有些许欢乐。
马德兰老爹为每个人提供工作。他只要求一点：做个诚实的人。做个诚实的女人。
如前所述，在他发起并为之核心的这种活力之中，马德兰老爹发了财；但令人称奇的是，对于一个单纯的企业家而言，这似乎并非他的主要关切。他似乎更多地为他人着想，很少为自己考虑。1820年，人们得知他以自己的名义在拉菲特银行存有六十三万法郎；但在预留这六十三万法郎之前，他已为这座城市及其穷人花费了一百多万法郎。
医院经费不足；他添设了六张病床。滨海蒙特勒伊分为上城和下城。他居住的下城只有一所学校，是一所破败不堪、摇摇欲坠的陋屋；他建造了两所，一所女校，一所男校。他从自己的资金中拨出薪金给两位教师，薪金是他们微薄官俸的两倍。一天，他对一个表示惊讶的人说：“国家的两位首要公务员是保姆和教师。”他自费创办了一所托儿所，这在当时的法国几乎闻所未闻，还设立了一项基金，用于救助年老体弱的工人。因为他的工厂是一个中心，在他周围迅速形成了一个新区，那里住着许多贫困家庭；他在那里设立了一所免费诊所。
起初，当人们观察他的起家时，善良的人们说：“他是个想发财的快活家伙。”当人们看到他在发财之前先富了乡里时，善良的人们又说：“他是个野心家。”这种说法似乎更有可能，因为他信教，甚至在某种程度上遵守宗教仪式，这在那个时代是颇受好评的。他每星期日都按时去做早弥撒。当地的议员到处嗅探竞争对手，很快就对他的宗教信仰感到不安。这位议员曾是帝国立法团的成员，信奉一位奥拉托利会神父的宗教思想，那位神父以富歇、奥特兰公爵之名著称，他曾是该神父的亲信和朋友。他关起门来对上帝进行温和的嘲笑。但当他发现富有的制造商马德兰七点钟去做早弥撒时，便看出他可能是个候选人，决意要超过他；他请了一位耶稣会士做忏悔神父，去做大弥撒和晚祷。那时，野心，就其直接含义而言，是一场奔向教堂尖塔的竞赛。穷人和上帝一样，也从这种恐慌中获益，因为这位可敬的议员也在医院里添设了两张病床，使总数达到了十二张。
然而，在1819年，一天早晨，城里流传着一个谣言，说由于省长的举荐，并鉴于他对国家做出的贡献，国王将任命马德兰老爹为滨海蒙特勒伊的市长。那些曾断言这位新来者是“野心家”的人，抓住这个人们都渴望的机会，欣喜地喊道：“瞧！我们说什么来着！”整个滨海蒙特勒伊一片哗然。谣言是有根据的。几天后，《公报》刊登了任命。次日，马德兰老爹拒绝了。
同年，即1819年，马德兰发明的新工艺产品在工业博览会上展出；当评审团提交报告后，国王任命这位发明者为荣誉军团骑士。小镇上又是一阵轰动。好啊，原来他想要的是十字勋章！马德兰老爹拒绝了十字勋章。
这个人的确是个谜。善良的人们解围说：“毕竟，他不过是个冒险家罢了。”
我们已经看到，这个地区受他的恩惠很多；穷人们受他的恩惠更多；他如此有用，又如此温和，人们不得不尊敬和敬重他。他的工人尤其爱戴他，而他对这种爱戴怀着一种忧郁的庄重默默承受。当人们知道他富有之后，“上流社会”的人向他鞠躬致意，城里也有人邀请他；在城里，人们称他为马德兰先生；他的工人和孩子们仍叫他马德兰老爹，这最令他微笑。随着他地位的上升，财富的增长，邀请函如雨点般向他飞来。“上流社会”声称他是他们中的一员。滨海蒙特勒伊那些拘谨的小客厅，起初自然是对这个工匠紧闭的，如今却对这位百万富翁敞开了双扇门。他们对他百般殷勤。他拒绝了。
这一次，那些长舌妇们毫不费力地说道：“他是个没教养的粗人。没人知道他来自何方。他肯定不懂如何在社交场合举止得体。甚至还没有确凿证据证明他识字呢。”
当他们看到他赚钱时，他们说：“他是个生意人。”当他们看到他散财时，他们说：“他是个野心家。”当他拒绝荣誉时，他们说：“他是个冒险家。”当他排斥社交时，他们说：“他是个粗人。”
1820年，也就是他来到滨海蒙特勒伊五年后，他对该地区做出的贡献如此显著，周边乡村舆论如此一致，国王再次任命他为该市市长。他再次拒绝；但省长不接受他的拒绝，当地所有头面人物都来恳求他，街上的百姓也恳求他；敦促如此强烈，他最终接受了。人们注意到，促使他下决心的主要因素，似乎是一位平民老妇对他近乎愤怒的责难，她站在自家门口，气冲冲地对他喊道：“一个好市长是件有用的事。难道他要逃避行善吗？”
这是他上升的第三个阶段。马德兰老爹变成了马德兰先生。马德兰先生又变成了马德兰市长。
He was a man about fifty years of age, who had a preoccupied air, and
who was good. That was all that could be said about him.
Thanks to the rapid progress of the industry which he had so admirably
reconstructed, M. sur M. had become a rather important centre of trade.
Spain, which consumes a good deal of black jet, made enormous purchases
there each year. M. sur M. almost rivalled London and Berlin in this
branch of commerce. Father Madeleine’s profits were such, that at the
end of the second year he was able to erect a large factory, in which
there were two vast workrooms, one for the men, and the other for
women. Any one who was hungry could present himself there, and was sure
of finding employment and bread. Father Madeleine required of the men
good will, of the women pure morals, and of all, probity. He had
separated the work-rooms in order to separate the sexes, and so that
the women and girls might remain discreet. On this point he was
inflexible. It was the only thing in which he was in a manner
intolerant. He was all the more firmly set on this severity, since M.
sur M., being a garrison town, opportunities for corruption abounded.
However, his coming had been a boon, and his presence was a godsend.
Before Father Madeleine’s arrival, everything had languished in the
country; now everything lived with a healthy life of toil. A strong
circulation warmed everything and penetrated everywhere. Slack seasons
and wretchedness were unknown. There was no pocket so obscure that it
had not a little money in it; no dwelling so lowly that there was not
some little joy within it.
Father Madeleine gave employment to every one. He exacted but one
thing: Be an honest man. Be an honest woman.
As we have said, in the midst of this activity of which he was the
cause and the pivot, Father Madeleine made his fortune; but a singular
thing in a simple man of business, it did not seem as though that were
his chief care. He appeared to be thinking much of others, and little
of himself. In 1820 he was known to have a sum of six hundred and
thirty thousand francs lodged in his name with Laffitte; but before
reserving these six hundred and thirty thousand francs, he had spent
more than a million for the town and its poor.
The hospital was badly endowed; he founded six beds there. M. sur M. is
divided into the upper and the lower town. The lower town, in which he
lived, had but one school, a miserable hovel, which was falling to
ruin: he constructed two, one for girls, the other for boys. He
allotted a salary from his own funds to the two instructors, a salary
twice as large as their meagre official salary, and one day he said to
some one who expressed surprise, “The two prime functionaries of the
state are the nurse and the schoolmaster.” He created at his own
expense an infant school, a thing then almost unknown in France, and a
fund for aiding old and infirm workmen. As his factory was a centre, a
new quarter, in which there were a good many indigent families, rose
rapidly around him; he established there a free dispensary.
At first, when they watched his beginnings, the good souls said, “He’s
a jolly fellow who means to get rich.” When they saw him enriching the
country before he enriched himself, the good souls said, “He is an
ambitious man.” This seemed all the more probable since the man was
religious, and even practised his religion to a certain degree, a thing
which was very favorably viewed at that epoch. He went regularly to low
mass every Sunday. The local deputy, who nosed out all rivalry
everywhere, soon began to grow uneasy over this religion. This deputy
had been a member of the legislative body of the Empire, and shared the
religious ideas of a father of the Oratoire, known under the name of
Fouché, Duc d’Otrante, whose creature and friend he had been. He
indulged in gentle raillery at God with closed doors. But when he
beheld the wealthy manufacturer Madeleine going to low mass at seven
o’clock, he perceived in him a possible candidate, and resolved to
outdo him; he took a Jesuit confessor, and went to high mass and to
vespers. Ambition was at that time, in the direct acceptation of the
word, a race to the steeple. The poor profited by this terror as well
as the good God, for the honorable deputy also founded two beds in the
hospital, which made twelve.
Nevertheless, in 1819 a rumor one morning circulated through the town
to the effect that, on the representations of the prefect and in
consideration of the services rendered by him to the country, Father
Madeleine was to be appointed by the King, mayor of M. sur M. Those who
had pronounced this newcomer to be “an ambitious fellow,” seized with
delight on this opportunity which all men desire, to exclaim, “There!
what did we say!” All M. sur M. was in an uproar. The rumor was well
founded. Several days later the appointment appeared in the _Moniteur_.
On the following day Father Madeleine refused.
In this same year of 1819 the products of the new process invented by
Madeleine figured in the industrial exhibition; when the jury made
their report, the King appointed the inventor a chevalier of the Legion
of Honor. A fresh excitement in the little town. Well, so it was the
cross that he wanted! Father Madeleine refused the cross.
Decidedly this man was an enigma. The good souls got out of their
predicament by saying, “After all, he is some sort of an adventurer.”
We have seen that the country owed much to him; the poor owed him
everything; he was so useful and he was so gentle that people had been
obliged to honor and respect him. His workmen, in particular, adored
him, and he endured this adoration with a sort of melancholy gravity.
When he was known to be rich, “people in society” bowed to him, and he
received invitations in the town; he was called, in town, Monsieur
Madeleine; his workmen and the children continued to call him Father
Madeleine, and that was what was most adapted to make him smile. In
proportion as he mounted, throve, invitations rained down upon him.
“Society” claimed him for its own. The prim little drawing-rooms on M.
sur M., which, of course, had at first been closed to the artisan,
opened both leaves of their folding-doors to the millionnaire. They
made a thousand advances to him. He refused.
This time the good gossips had no trouble. “He is an ignorant man, of
no education. No one knows where he came from. He would not know how to
behave in society. It has not been absolutely proved that he knows how
to read.”
When they saw him making money, they said, “He is a man of business.”
When they saw him scattering his money about, they said, “He is an
ambitious man.” When he was seen to decline honors, they said, “He is
an adventurer.” When they saw him repulse society, they said, “He is a
brute.”
In 1820, five years after his arrival in M. sur M., the services which
he had rendered to the district were so dazzling, the opinion of the
whole country round about was so unanimous, that the King again
appointed him mayor of the town. He again declined; but the prefect
resisted his refusal, all the notabilities of the place came to implore
him, the people in the street besought him; the urging was so vigorous
that he ended by accepting. It was noticed that the thing which seemed
chiefly to bring him to a decision was the almost irritated apostrophe
addressed to him by an old woman of the people, who called to him from
her threshold, in an angry way: _“A good mayor is a useful thing. Is he
drawing back before the good which he can do?”_
This was the third phase of his ascent. Father Madeleine had become
Monsieur Madeleine. Monsieur Madeleine became Monsieur le Maire.
