The ecclesiatics chanted a psalm, the Libera nos and the De profundis. The whole service lasted about twenty minutes. There was but one mourning coach, which the priest and chorister agreed to share with Eugene and Christophe.
“There is no one else to follow us,” remarked the priest, “so we may as well go quickly, and so save time; it is half-past five.”
But just as the coffin was put in the hearse, two empty carriages, with the armorial bearings of the Comte de Restaud and the Baron de Nucingen, arrived and followed in the procession to Pere-Lachaise. At six o’clock Goriot’s coffin was lowered into the grave, his daughters’ servants standing round the while. The ecclesiastic recited the short prayer that the students could afford to pay for, and then both priest and lackeys disappeared at once. The two grave diggers flung in several spadefuls of earth, and then stopped and asked Rastignac for their fee. Eugene felt in vain in his pocket, and was obliged to borrow five francs of Christophe. This thing, so trifling in itself, gave Rastignac a terrible pang of distress. It was growing dusk, the damp twilight fretted his nerves; he gazed down into the grave and the tears he shed were drawn from him by the sacred emotion, a single-hearted sorrow. When such tears fall on earth, their radiance reaches heaven. And with that tear that fell on Father Goriot’s grave, Eugene Rastignac’s youth ended. He folded his arms and gazed at the clouded sky; and Christophe, after a glance at him, turned and went—Rastignac was left alone.
He went a few paces further, to the highest point of the cemetery, and looked out over Paris and the windings of the Seine; the lamps were beginning to shine on either side of the river. His eyes turned almost eagerly to the space between the column of the Place Vendome and the cupola of the Invalides; there lay the shining world that he had wished to reach. He glanced over that humming hive, seeming to draw a foretaste of its honey, and said magniloquently:
“Henceforth there is war between us.”
And by way of throwing down the glove to Society, Rastignac went to dine with Mme. de Nucingen.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Ajuda-Pinto, Marquis Miguel d’
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Secrets of a Princess
Beatrix
Beauseant, Marquis
An Episode under the Terror
Beauseant, Vicomte de
The Deserted Woman
Beauseant, Vicomtesse de
The Deserted Woman
Albert Savarus
Bianchon, Horace
The Atheist’s Mass
Cesar Birotteau
The Commission in Lunacy
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
A Bachelor’s Establishment
The Secrets of a Princess
The Government Clerks
Pierrette
A Study of Woman
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Honorine
The Seamy Side of History
The Magic Skin
A Second Home
A Prince of Bohemia
Letters of Two Brides
The Muse of the Department
The Imaginary Mistress
The Middle Classes
Cousin Betty
The Country Parson
In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following:
Another Study of Woman
La Grande Breteche
Bibi-Lupin (chief of secret police, called himself Gondureau)
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Carigliano, Marechal, Duc de
Sarrasine
Collin, Jacques
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Member for Arcis
Derville
Gobseck
A Start in Life
The Gondreville Mystery
Colonel Chabert
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Franchessini, Colonel
The Member for Arcis
Galathionne, Princess
A Daughter of Eve
Gobseck, Jean-Esther Van
Gobseck
Cesar Birotteau
The Government Clerks
The Unconscious Humorists
Jacques (M. de Beauseant’s butler)
The Deserted Woman
Langeais, Duchesse Antoinette de
The Thirteen
Marsay, Henri de
The Thirteen
The Unconscious Humorists
Another Study of Woman
The Lily of the Valley
Jealousies of a Country Town
Ursule Mirouet
A Marriage Settlement
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Letters of Two Brides
The Ball at Sceaux
Modest Mignon
The Secrets of a Princess
The Gondreville Mystery
A Daughter of Eve
Maurice (de Restaud’s valet)
Gobseck
Montriveau, General Marquis Armand de
The Thirteen
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Another Study of Woman
Pierrette
The Member for Arcis
Nucingen, Baron Frederic de
The Firm of Nucingen
Pierrette
Cesar Birotteau
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Another Study of Woman
The Secrets of a Princess
A Man of Business
Cousin Betty
The Muse of the Department
The Unconscious Humorists
Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de
The Thirteen
Eugenie Grandet
Cesar Birotteau
Melmoth Reconciled
Lost Illusions
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
The Commission in Lunacy
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Modeste Mignon
The Firm of Nucingen
Another Study of Woman
A Daughter of Eve
The Member for Arcis
Poiret
The Government Clerks
A Start in Life
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Middle Classes
Poiret, Madame (nee Christine-Michelle Michonneau)
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Middle Classes
Rastignac, Baron and Baronne de (Eugene’s parents)
Lost Illusions
Rastignac, Eugene de
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
The Ball at Sceaux
The Interdiction
A Study of Woman
Another Study of Woman
The Magic Skin
The Secrets of a Princess
A Daughter of Eve
The Gondreville Mystery
The Firm of Nucingen
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
The Unconscious Humorists
Rastignac, Laure-Rose and Agathe de
Lost Illusions
The Member for Arcis
Rastignac, Monseigneur Gabriel de
The Country Parson
A Daughter of Eve
Restaud, Comte de
Gobseck
Restaud, Comtesse Anastasie de
Gobseck
Selerier
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life
Taillefer, Jean-Frederic
The Firm of Nucingen
The Magic Skin
The Red Inn
Taillefer, Victorine
The Red Inn
Therese
A Daughter of Eve
Tissot, Pierre-Francois
A Prince of Bohemia
Trailles, Comte Maxime de
Cesar Birotteau
Gobseck
Ursule Mirouet
A Man of Business
The Member for Arcis
The Secrets of a Princess
Cousin Betty
The Member for Arcis
Beatrix
The Unconscious Humorists