He lived so long, and in his worldly matters prospered so much, there was so little sign of devilment in the accomplishment of his wishes, and the increase of his prosperity, that Simon, at the end of six years, began to doubt whether he had made any such bargain at all, as that which we have described at the commencement of this history.He had grown, as we said, very pious and moral.He went regularly to mass, and had a confessor into the bargain.He resolved, therefore, to consult that reverend gentleman, and to lay before him the whole matter.
"I am inclined to think, holy sir," said Gambouge, after he had concluded his history, and shown how, in some miraculous way, all his desires were accomplished, "that, after all, this demon was no other than the creation of my own brain, heated by the effects of that bottle of wine, the cause of my crime and my prosperity."The confessor agreed with him, and they walked out of church comfortably together, and entered afterwards a cafe, where they sat down to refresh themselves after the fatigues of their devotion.
A respectable old gentleman, with a number of orders at his buttonhole, presently entered the room, and sauntered up to the marble table, before which reposed Simon and his clerical friend.
"Excuse me, gentlemen," he said, as he took a place opposite them, and began reading the papers of the day.
"Bah!" said he, at last,--"sont-ils grands ces journaux Anglais?
Look, sir," he said, handing over an immense sheet of The Times to Mr.Gambouge, "was ever anything so monstrous?"Gambouge smiled politely, and examined the proffered page."It is enormous" he said; "but I do not read English.""Nay," said the man with the orders, "look closer at it, Signor Gambouge; it is astonishing how easy the language is."Wondering, Simon took a sheet of paper.He turned pale as he looked at it, and began to curse the ices and the waiter."Come, M.l'Abbe," he said; "the heat and glare of this place are intolerable."The stranger rose with them."Au plaisir de vous revoir, mon cher monsieur," said he; "I do not mind speaking before the Abbe here, who will be my very good friend one of these days: but I thought it necessary to refresh your memory, concerning our little business transaction six years since; and could not exactly talk of it ATCHURCH, as you may fancy."
Simon Gambouge had seen, in the double-sheeted Times, the paper signed by himself, which the little Devil had pulled out of his fob.
There was no doubt on the subject; and Simon, who had but a year to live, grew more pious, and more careful than ever.He had consultations with all the doctors of the Sorbonne and all the lawyers of the Palais.But his magnificence grew as wearisome to him as his poverty had been before; and not one of the doctors whom he consulted could give him a pennyworth of consolation.
Then he grew outrageous in his demands upon the Devil, and put him to all sorts of absurd and ridiculous tasks; but they were all punctually performed, until Simon could invent no new ones, and the Devil sat all day with his hands in his pockets doing nothing.
One day, Simon's confessor came bounding into the room, with the greatest glee."My friend," said he, "I have it! Eureka!--I have found it.Send the Pope a hundred thousand crowns, build a new Jesuit college at Rome, give a hundred gold candlesticks to St.
Peter's; and tell his Holiness you will double all, if he will give you absolution!"Gambouge caught at the notion, and hurried off a courier to Rome ventre a terre.His Holiness agreed to the request of the petition, and sent him an absolution, written out with his own fist, and all in due form.
"Now," said he, "foul fiend, I defy you! arise, Diabolus! your contract is not worth a jot: the Pope has absolved me, and I am safe on the road to salvation." In a fervor of gratitude he clasped the hand of his confessor, and embraced him: tears of joy ran down the cheeks of these good men.
They heard an inordinate roar of laughter, and there was Diabolus sitting opposite to them, holding his sides, and lashing his tail about, as if he would have gone mad with glee.
"Why," said he, "what nonsense is this! do you suppose I care about THAT?" and he tossed the Pope's missive into a corner."M.l'Abbe knows," he said, bowing and grinning, "that though the Pope's paper may pass current HERE, it is not worth twopence in our country.
What do I care about the Pope's absolution? You might just as well be absolved by your under butler.""Egad," said the Abbe, "the rogue is right--I quite forgot the fact, which he points out clearly enough.""No, no, Gambouge," continued Diabolus, with horrid familiarity.
"go thy ways, old fellow, that COCK WON'T FIGHT." And he retired up the chimney, chuckling at his wit and his triumph.Gambouge heard his tail scuttling all the way up, as if he had been a sweeper by profession.
Simon was left in that condition of grief in which, according to the newspapers, cities and nations are found when a murder is committed, or a lord ill of the gout--a situation, we say, more easy to imagine than to describe.
To add to his woes, Mrs.Gambouge, who was now first made acquainted with his compact, and its probable consequences, raised such a storm about his ears, as made him wish almost that his seven years were expired.She screamed, she scolded, she swore, she wept, she went into such fits of hysterics, that poor Gambouge, who had completely knocked under to her, was worn out of his life.He was allowed no rest, night or day: he moped about his fine house, solitary and wretched, and cursed his stars that he ever had married the butcher's daughter.
It wanted six months of the time.
A sudden and desperate resolution seemed all at once to have taken possession of Simon Gambouge.He called his family and his friends together--he gave one of the greatest feasts that ever was known in the city of Paris--he gayly presided at one end of his table, while Mrs.Gam., splendidly arrayed, gave herself airs at the other extremity.