登陆注册
5192500000079

第79章

This incident roused a general indignation throughout the town.By a law, up to that time unknown, which guides the affects of the masses, this event brought back all hearts to Monsieur Claes.He became once more a great man; he excited the admiration and received the good-will that a few hours earlier were denied to him.Men praised his patience, his strength of will, his courage, his genius.The authorities wished to arrest all those who had a share in dealing him this blow.Too late,--the evil was done! The Claes family were the first to beg that the matter might be allowed to drop.

Marguerite ordered furniture to be brought into the parlor, and the denuded walls to be hung with silk; and when, a few days after his seizure, the old father recovered his faculties and found himself once more in a luxurious room surrounded by all that makes life easy, he tried to express his belief that his daughter Marguerite had returned.

At that moment she entered the room.When Balthazar caught sight of her he colored, and his eyes grew moist, though the tears did not fall.He was able to press his daughter's hand with his cold fingers, putting into that pressure all the thoughts, all the feelings he no longer had the power to utter.There was something holy and solemn in that farewell of the brain which still lived, of the heart which gratitude revived.Worn out by fruitless efforts, exhausted in the long struggle with the gigantic problem, desperate perhaps at the oblivion which awaited his memory, this giant among men was about to die.His children surrounded him with respectful affection; his dying eyes were cheered with images of plenty and the touching picture of his prosperous and noble family.His every look--by which alone he could manifest his feelings--was unchangeably affectionate; his eyes acquired such variety of expression that they had, as it were, a language of light, easy to comprehend.

Marguerite paid her father's debts, and restored a modern splendor to the House of Claes which removed all outward signs of decay.She never left the old man's bedside, endeavoring to divine his every thought and accomplish his slightest wish.

Some months went by with those alternations of better and worse which attend the struggle of life and death in old people; every morning his children came to him and spent the day in the parlor, dining by his bedside and only leaving him when he went to sleep for the night.The occupation which gave him most pleasure, among the many with which his family sought to enliven him, was the reading of newspapers, to which the political events then occurring gave great interest.Monsieur Claes listened attentively as Monsieur de Solis read them aloud beside his bed.

Towards the close of the year 1832, Balthazar passed an extremely critical night, during which Monsieur Pierquin, the doctor, was summoned by the nurse, who was greatly alarmed at the sudden change which took place in the patient.For the rest of the night the doctor remained to watch him, fearing he might at any moment expire in the throes of inward convulsion, whose effects were like those of a last agony.

The old man made incredible efforts to shake off the bonds of his paralysis; he tried to speak and moved his tongue, unable to make a sound; his flaming eyes emitted thoughts; his drawn features expressed an untold agony; his fingers writhed in desperation; the sweat stood out in drops upon his brow.In the morning when his children came to his bedside and kissed him with an affection which the sense of coming death made day by day more ardent and more eager, he showed none of his usual satisfaction at these signs of their tenderness.Emmanuel, instigated by the doctor, hastened to open the newspaper to try if the usual reading might not relieve the inward crisis in which Balthazar was evidently struggling.As he unfolded the sheet he saw the words, "DISCOVERY OF THE ABSOLUTE,"--which startled him, and he read a paragraph to Marguerite concerning a sale made by a celebrated Polish mathematician of the secret of the Absolute.Though Emmanuel read in a low voice, and Marguerite signed to him to omit the passage, Balthazar heard it.

Suddenly the dying man raised himself by his wrists and cast on his frightened children a look which struck like lightning; the hairs that fringed the bald head stirred, the wrinkles quivered, the features were illumined with spiritual fires, a breath passed across that face and rendered it sublime; he raised a hand, clenched in fury, and uttered with a piercing cry the famous word of Archimedes, "EUREKA!"--I have found.

He fell back upon his bed with the dull sound of an inert body, and died, uttering an awful moan,--his convulsed eyes expressing to the last, when the doctor closed them, the regret of not bequeathing to Science the secret of an Enigma whose veil was rent away,--too late!--by the fleshless fingers of Death.

End

同类推荐
  • 嘉泰普灯录

    嘉泰普灯录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 童子经念诵法

    童子经念诵法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上洞玄灵宝上品戒经

    太上洞玄灵宝上品戒经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 耕樵问答

    耕樵问答

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 因明正理门论本

    因明正理门论本

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 台案汇录乙集

    台案汇录乙集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 愿你归来有星光

    愿你归来有星光

    原书名:《娱乐大亨的秘宠:甜心小呆妻》如果有一天,你遇到这么一个演员:她明明双十年华,气质卓雅,却偏偏打扮的堪比如花,演绎的是老妈。那么请联系封枭,因为——那是他的老婆又偷偷跑出来演戏了。某男邪魅勾唇:“除了我以外,你不能跟任何男人有任何身体上的接触!”“我演的是一个寡妇!”“可你有个儿子。”“……”总而言之,这就是一个外表妖孽内心腹黑的老豺狼,和一只扮猪吃老虎的嫩狐狸,强强联合,在虐渣男渣女,制霸好莱坞的星光大道上越走越远,越走越偏的故事……【男女主身心干净,1V1,宠文】
  • 报告校草大人

    报告校草大人

    传闻圣伊高中的校草大人桀骜不驯,说好的生人勿进,却把她宠上了天。慕汐樱冷眼一横:“你说什么?”某大校草一秒变怂包,化身呆萌小奶狗:“老婆,我错啦~我再也不敢了!”装逼一时爽,追妻火葬场!***【1V1】【双洁】【巨宠贼甜】【女主扮猪吃虎不小白】
  • 太上瑶台益算宝籍延年忏

    太上瑶台益算宝籍延年忏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 诗格

    诗格

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 心扉侍宠:腹黑总裁乖乖爱

    心扉侍宠:腹黑总裁乖乖爱

    被渣男纠缠的林晓筱,不得已强抢路人装男友,却被反客为主。隔天,男人恬不知耻:“林小姐,昨天帮你演的那场戏,怎么报答我?”“是我有眼不识陆总,”她磨牙,恨不得将他大卸八块,“你到底想怎样?”男人眉眼深邃,一抹浅笑从容。“我要你,陪我假戏真做。”小白兔沦为大灰狼的队友,她从他的御用助手,一步步沦为绯闻女友,管家厨娘……
  • 进高僧传表

    进高僧传表

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 一夜燃情:总裁老公超给力

    一夜燃情:总裁老公超给力

    结婚三年,秦经年对乔一都熟视无睹,却因为一场误会,把她变成了自己发泄的对象。“转过身,闭上眼,不准喊我的名字!”亲热时,他冷声吩咐。她默然承受……秦经年以为自己迷恋的不过就是她的身子,但是在她逃离后,却用尽手段把她绑了回来。“好大的胆子,居然带着我的孩子跑路?”他把她压在身下。“先生,我们熟吗?”她巧笑嫣然。“不熟?没关系,多睡睡就熟了……”--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 智慧促销术(现代人智慧全书)

    智慧促销术(现代人智慧全书)

    本书介绍了199种独特经典的促销方法:促销的基本功、促销经营的宗旨、促销的广告艺术、促销一张“嘴”、商品的包装艺术、商品的价格定位、智慧促销术、促销成功的秘诀。
  • 阴灵倾世

    阴灵倾世

    本作品内容是虚构的如有雷同纯属巧合哦~娄灵,代号髅灵,玄龙榜第一的刺客,杀遍天下,却是一个无法修炼的废柴!!!在家族被姐妹陷害,被父母背叛;在江湖被同行排挤,被目标轻视。“没有灵力又如何,我照样可以将你们变成我的刀下之魂!”杀君弑父,睥睨大陆,冷若冰霜的她内心却期待着一份真挚的爱情……