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.