11 The Doges were the elected leaders of the aristocratic oligarchy of the Venetian Republic.
The Red and the Black
Chapter Three: The First Steps This immense valley, filled with glittering lights and so many thousands of men, dazzles my eyes. Not one of them knows me, but they're all my superiors. My head whirls. —Poems of Reina, The Lawyer1 Next day, very early, Julien was in the library, copying letters, when Mademoiselle Mathilde came in, using a small, secret door, extremely well hidden by books. As Julien was admiring this device, Mademoiselle Mathilde seemed both surprised and distinctly annoyed at meeting him there. She had stiff curling paper in her hair; he found her haughty and almost masculine. Mademoiselle de La Mole was in the habit of taking books from her father's library, without anyone's knowledge. Julien's presence, on this particular morning, made her errand impossible, which was all the more annoying since she had come to seek out the second volume of Voltaire's Princess of Babylon,2 an indelicate book eminently suited to someone who had been educated in a deeply monarchist and religious institution—an educational masterpiece produced by the Sacred Heart of Jesus! At nineteen, this poor girl's imagination already needed spicing, for her to find a novel interesting. Count Norbert appeared in the library toward three o'clock. He had come to scrutinize a newspaper, so he'd be able to talk politics that night, and was quite pleased to find Julien, whose existence he had forgotten. He behaved admirably toward him; he offered to take him riding. "My father will let us out until dinner." Julien appreciated his "us," and found him charming. "My God," said Julien. "Were it a question of cutting down a fifty-foot tree, squaring it off, and sawing it into planks, I dare say I might manage very well. But I've been on horseback half a dozen times in my life." "Fine," said Norbert. "This will be the seventh." In fact, Julien was recalling the King of ——— and his entry into Verrières, and thought himself an accomplished horseman. But in returning from the Bois de Boulogne he fell, right in the middle of Du Bac Street,3 while trying to suddenly avoid a carriage, and got himself covered with mud. It was fortunate that he'd bought two suits. At dinner, trying to make conversation, the marquis asked how his excursion had gone. Norbert hastily replied in very general terms. "The count exhibits great goodwill toward me," said Julien. "I thank him, and deeply appreciate his kindness. He was good enough to give me the gentlest, prettiest horse, but after all he could not tie me on and, failing that precaution, I fell right in the middle of that long street, near the bridge." Mademoiselle Mathilde tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her fit of laughter, and then indiscreetly requested a more detailed account. Julien behaved with great straightforwardness; he was gracious without knowing it. "I expect good things of this little priest," said the marquis to the academician. "A provincial, and straightforward about such an event! This is something never seen before, and which will never be seen again. And to tell about his misfortune even in the presence of ladies!"