Still, during those two years it was not without constant battling that
victory remained to them. At last it was complete. Piece by piece Seguin
had sold the entire estate, of which Mathieu was now king, thanks to his
prudent system of conquest, that of increasing his empire by degrees as
he gradually felt himself stronger. The fortune which the idler had
disdained and dissipated had passed into the hands of the toiler, the
creator. There were 1250 acres, spreading from horizon to horizon; there
were woods intersected by broad meadows, where flocks and herds pastured;
there was fat land overflowing with harvests, in the place of marshes
that had been drained; there was other land, each year of increasing
fertility, in the place of the moors which the captured springs now
irrigated. The Lepailleurs' uncultivated enclosure alone remained, as if
to bear witness to the prodigy, the great human effort which had
quickened that desert of sand and mud, whose crops would henceforth
nourish so many happy people. Mathieu devoured no other man's share; he
had brought his share into being, increasing the common wealth,
subjugating yet another small portion of this vast world, which is still
so scantily peopled and so badly utilized for human happiness.
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