Borne away by a kind of tempest, their minds,
like the sea raging against the cliffs, seemed ready to shake the laws
which confine the ebb and flow of civilization; unconsciously
fulfilling the will of God, who has suffered evil and good to abide in
nature, and reserved the secret of their continual strife to Himself.
A frantic travesty of debate ensued, a Walpurgis-revel of intellects.
Between the dreary jests of these children of the Revolution over the
inauguration of a newspaper, and the talk of the joyous gossips at
Gargantua's birth, stretched the gulf that divides the nineteenth
century from the sixteenth. Laughingly they had begun the work of
destruction, and our journalists laughed amid the ruins.
"What is the name of that young man over there?" said the notary,
indicating Raphael. "I thought I heard some one call him Valentin."
"What stuff is this?" said Emile, laughing; "plain Valentin, say you?
Raphael DE Valentin, if you please. We bear an eagle or, on a field
sable, with a silver crown, beak and claws gules, and a fine motto:
NON CECIDIT ANIMUS. We are no foundling child, but a descendant of the
Emperor Valens, of the stock of the Valentinois, founders of the
cities of Valence in France, and Valencia in Spain, rightful heirs to
the Empire of the East.
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