LIX. Le testament.
LIX
The Will.
At the moment Barrois went out, Noirtier looked at Valentine with that mischievous interest which announced so many things. The young girl understood that look, and Villefort did too, for his brow darkened and his eyebrow furrowed.
He took a seat, settled himself in the paralytic's room, and waited.
Noirtier watched him do so with perfect indifference; but, out of the corner of his eye, he had ordered Valentine not to worry and to stay as well.
Three quarters of an hour later, the servant came back with the notary.
"Sir," said Villefort after the first greetings, "you are summoned by M. Noirtier de Villefort, here present; a general paralysis has taken from him the use of his limbs and of his voice, and we alone, with great difficulty, manage to catch a few shreds of his thoughts."
Noirtier made with his eye a call to Valentine, a call so serious and so imperative that she answered at once:
"I, sir, understand everything my grandfather means."
"That is true," added Barrois, "everything, absolutely everything, as I was telling the gentleman on the way."
"Permit me, sir, and you also, mademoiselle," said the notary, addressing Villefort and Valentine, "this is one of those cases where a public officer cannot proceed inconsiderately without assuming a dangerous responsibility. The first necessity for an act to be valid is that the notary be well convinced he has faithfully interpreted the will of the one who dictates it. Now, I myself cannot be sure of the approval or disapproval of a client who does not speak; and since the object of his desires and aversions, given his muteness, cannot be clearly proven to me, my office is worse than useless and would be exercised illegally."
The notary took a step to withdraw. An imperceptible smile of triumph appeared on the lips of the king's attorney. For his part, Noirtier looked at Valentine with such an expression of sorrow that she placed herself in the notary's path.
"Sir," she said, "the language I speak with my grandfather is a language that can be easily learned, and just as I understand it, I can, in a few minutes, bring you to understand it. What do you need, come now, sir, to arrive at the perfect edification of your conscience?"
"What is necessary for our acts to be valid, mademoiselle," replied the notary, "that is to say, certainty of approval or disapproval. One may make a will sick in body, but one must make it sound in mind."
"Well, sir, with two signs you will acquire that certainty which my grandfather has never enjoyed more fully than at this hour the plenitude of his intelligence. M. Noirtier, deprived of his voice, deprived of movement, closes his eyes when he means yes, and blinks repeatedly when he means no. You know enough now to converse with M. Noirtier; try."
The look the old man cast at Valentine was so full of tenderness and gratitude that it was understood by the notary himself.
"Have you heard and understood what your granddaughter has just said, sir?" asked the notary.
Noirtier gently closed his eyes, and reopened them after a moment.
"And do you approve what she said? that is to say, that the signs indicated by her are indeed those by means of which you make your thought understood?"
"Yes," the old man again made.
"Was it you who had me sent for?"
"Yes."
"To make your will?"
"Yes."
"And you do not wish me to withdraw without having made this will?"
The paralytic blinked his eyes briskly and repeatedly.
"Well, sir, do you understand now?" asked the young girl, "and will your conscience be at rest?"
But before the notary could answer, Villefort drew him aside:
"Sir," he said, "do you think a man can bear with impunity a physical shock as terrible as that which M. Noirtier de Villefort has undergone, without the moral faculties themselves having received a grave blow?"
"That is not precisely what troubles me, sir," replied the notary, "but I ask myself how we shall arrive at guessing his thoughts, so as to prompt the replies."
"You see then that it is impossible," said Villefort.
Valentine and the old man heard this conversation. Noirtier fixed his gaze, so steady and so firm, upon Valentine, that this gaze evidently called for a response.
"Sir," she said, "let that not trouble you: however difficult it may be, or rather however it may appear to you to discover my grandfather's thought, I shall reveal it to you myself, in a way that removes all doubt in that regard. For six years I have been near M. Noirtier, and, let him say it himself, if, in six years, a single one of his wishes has remained buried in his heart for lack of being able to make me understand it?"
"No," the old man made.
"Let us try then," said the notary; "you accept mademoiselle as your interpreter?"
The paralytic signed yes.
"Good; let us see, sir, what do you wish of me, and what is the act you wish to make?"
Valentine named all the letters of the alphabet up to the letter T. At this letter, Noirtier's eloquent glance of the eye stopped her.
"It is the letter T the gentleman is asking for," said the notary; "the thing is visible."
"Wait," said Valentine; then, turning toward her grandfather: "Ta... te..."
The old man stopped at the second of these syllables.
Then Valentine took the dictionary, and before the attentive notary she turned the pages.
"Testament," said her finger, stopped by Noirtier's glance.
"Testament!" cried the notary, "the thing is visible, the gentleman wishes to make a will."
"Yes," Noirtier made repeatedly.
"This is marvellous, sir, you must admit," said the notary to the stupefied Villefort.
"Indeed," he replied, "and still more marvellous would be this will; for, after all, I do not think the articles will arrange themselves on the paper, word by word, without the intelligent inspiration of my daughter. Now, Valentine may perhaps be a little too interested in this will to be a suitable interpreter of the obscure wishes of M. Noirtier de Villefort."
"No, no!" made the paralytic.
"What!" said M. de Villefort, "Valentine is not interested in your will?"
"No," made Noirtier.
"Sir," said the notary, who, delighted with this trial, promised himself to recount in society the details of this picturesque episode; "sir, nothing now appears easier to me than what but a moment ago I regarded as an impossible thing, and this will shall simply be a mystic will, that is to say foreseen and authorized by law provided it be read before seven witnesses, approved by the testator before them, and sealed by the notary, still before them. As for time, it will last scarcely longer than an ordinary will; there are first the customary formulas which are always the same, and as for details, most will be supplied by the very state of the testator's affairs and by you who, having managed them, know them. But besides, so that this act may remain unassailable, we shall give it the most complete authenticity; one of my colleagues shall serve me as assistant and, against custom, shall attend the dictation. Are you satisfied, sir?" continued the notary, addressing the old man.
"Yes," replied Noirtier, radiant at being understood.
"What is he going to do?" wondered Villefort, whose high position commanded so much reserve, and who besides could not guess toward what end his father was tending.
He turned therefore to send for the second notary designated by the first; but Barrois, who had heard everything and who had guessed his master's wish, was already gone.
Then the king's attorney sent word for his wife to come up.
At the end of a quarter of an hour, everyone was assembled in the paralytic's room, and the second notary had arrived.
In a few words the two ministerial officers were in accord. There was read to Noirtier a vague, banal formula of a will; then to begin, so to speak, the investigation of his intelligence, the first notary turning his way, said to him:
"When one makes one's will, sir, it is in favor of someone."
"Yes," made Noirtier.
"Have you some idea of the sum to which your fortune amounts?"
"Yes."
"I am going to name you several sums which will rise successively; you will stop me when I have reached the one you believe to be yours."
"Yes."
There was in this interrogation a kind of solemnity; besides, never had the struggle of intelligence against matter been perhaps more visible; and if it was not a sublime thing, as we were about to say, it was at least a curious spectacle.
They made a circle around Villefort, the second notary was seated at a table, all ready to write; the first notary stood before him and questioned.
"Your fortune exceeds three hundred thousand francs, does it not?" he asked.
Noirtier signed yes.
"Do you possess four hundred thousand francs?" asked the notary.
Noirtier remained motionless.
"Five hundred thousand?"
Same immobility.
"Six hundred thousand? seven hundred thousand? eight hundred thousand? nine hundred thousand?"
Noirtier signed yes.
"You possess nine hundred thousand francs?"
"Yes."
"In real estate?" asked the notary.
Noirtier signed no.
"In government stock?"
Noirtier signed yes.
"Are these stocks in your hands?"
A glance addressed to Barrois made the old servant go out, who returned a moment later with a small casket.
"Do you permit this casket to be opened?" asked the notary.
Noirtier signed yes.
The casket was opened and there were found nine hundred thousand francs' worth of stock in the Grand Book.
The first notary passed, one after another, each certificate to his colleague; the account was as Noirtier had stated.
"That is right," said he; "it is evident that the intelligence is in all its force and all its extent."
Then, turning toward the paralytic:
"So," he said to him, "you possess nine hundred thousand francs of capital, which, from the way they are invested, must yield you about forty thousand livres in income?"
"Yes," made Noirtier.
"To whom do you wish to leave this fortune?"
"Oh!" said Mme de Villefort, "that is not in doubt; M. Noirtier loves only his granddaughter, Mlle Valentine de Villefort: it is she who has cared for him for six years; she has known how to captivate by her assiduous attentions the affection of her grandfather, and I would almost say his gratitude; it is therefore just that she reap the price of her devotion."
Noirtier's eye flashed as if he were not duped by this false assent given by Mme de Villefort to the intentions she supposed in him.
"Is it then to Mlle Valentine de Villefort that you leave these nine hundred thousand francs?" asked the notary, who thought he had only to record this clause, but who nevertheless wished to assure himself of Noirtier's assent, and wished this assent to be attested by all the witnesses of this strange scene.
Valentine had stepped back and wept, her eyes lowered; the old man looked at her for a moment with an expression of profound tenderness; then turning to the notary, he blinked his eyes in the most significant manner.
"No?" said the notary; "how is it not Mlle Valentine de Villefort whom you institute as your universal legatee?"
Noirtier signed no.
"Are you not mistaken?" cried the astonished notary; "you do say no?"
"No!" repeated Noirtier, "no!"
Valentine raised her head; she was stupefied, not at her disinheritance, but at having provoked the sentiment which ordinarily dictates such acts.
But Noirtier looked at her with so profound an expression of tenderness that she cried:
"Oh, my good father, I see it well, it is only your fortune that you take from me, but you still leave me your heart?"
"Oh! yes, most certainly," said the eyes of the paralytic, closing with an expression Valentine could not mistake.
"Thank you! thank you!" murmured the young girl.
Meanwhile this refusal had given birth in Mme de Villefort's heart to an unexpected hope; she drew near the old man.
"Then it is to your grandson Édouard de Villefort that you leave your fortune, dear M. Noirtier?" asked the mother.
The blinking of the eyes was terrible: it expressed almost hatred.
"No," said the notary; "then it is to monsieur your son here present?"
"No," replied the old man.
The two notaries looked at each other stupefied; Villefort and his wife felt themselves blush, one with shame, the other with anger.
"But, what have we then done to you, father," said Valentine, "you no longer love us?"
The old man's gaze passed rapidly over his son, his daughter-in-law, and rested on Valentine with an expression of profound tenderness.
"Well," said she, "if you love me, come now, good father, try to ally this love with what you are doing at this moment. You know me, you know I have never thought of your fortune: besides, they say I am rich on my mother's side, too rich; explain yourself then."
Noirtier fixed his ardent gaze on Valentine's hand.
"My hand?" said she.
"Yes," made Noirtier.
"Her hand!" repeated all the bystanders.
"Ah! gentlemen, you see well that all is useless, and that my poor father is mad," said Villefort.
"Oh!" suddenly cried Valentine, "I understand! My marriage, is it not, good father?"
"Yes, yes, yes," repeated three times the paralytic, flashing a light each time his eyelid lifted.
"You are angry with us about the marriage, are you not?"
"Yes."
"But that is absurd," said Villefort.
"Pardon, sir," said the notary, "all this on the contrary is very logical and gives me the impression of linking together perfectly."
"You do not wish me to marry M. Franz d'Épinay?"
"No, I do not wish it," expressed the old man's eye.
"And you disinherit your granddaughter," cried the notary, "because she makes a marriage against your will?"
"Yes," answered Noirtier.
"So that without this marriage she would be your heir?"
"Yes."
Then there was a profound silence around the old man.
The two notaries consulted; Valentine, her hands joined, looked at her grandfather with a grateful smile; Villefort bit his thin lips; Mme de Villefort could not repress a joyful feeling which, despite herself, blossomed on her face.
"But," said Villefort at last, breaking this silence first, "it seems to me that I alone am judge of the conveniences which plead in favor of this union. Sole master of my daughter's hand, I wish her to marry M. Franz d'Épinay, and she shall marry him."
Valentine fell weeping on an armchair.
"Sir," said the notary, addressing the old man, "what do you intend to do with your fortune in case Mlle Valentine marries M. Franz?"
The old man remained motionless.
"You intend to dispose of it, however?"
"Yes," made Noirtier.
"In favor of someone in your family?"
"No."
"In favor of the poor, then?"
"Yes."
"But," said the notary, "you know the law opposes your entirely stripping your son?"
"Yes."
"You will therefore dispose only of the part the law authorizes you to divert."
Noirtier remained motionless.
"You continue to wish to dispose of everything?"
"Yes."
"But after your death the will shall be contested!"
"No."
"My father knows me, sir," said M. de Villefort, "he knows his will shall be sacred to me; besides he understands that in my position I cannot litigate against the poor."
Noirtier's eye expressed triumph.
"What do you decide, sir?" asked the notary of Villefort.
"Nothing, sir, it is a resolution taken in my father's mind, and I know my father does not change his resolution. I resign myself therefore. These nine hundred thousand francs shall leave the family to go enrich the hospitals; but I shall not yield to a whim of an old man, and I shall act according to my conscience."
And Villefort withdrew with his wife, leaving his father free to make his will as he saw fit.
The same day the will was made; witnesses were brought, it was approved by the old man, sealed in their presence and deposited with M. Deschamps, the family notary.
“Stories of the world, in your language.”