Cocles

Cocles, whose real name has been all but forgotten and replaced by the nickname "Cock-eye" given him by the younger clerks, serves as the cashier of the shipping house Morrel & Son in Marseilles. He is a man of good, patient, devoted character, but inflexible on the subject of arithmetic, the only point on which he would have stood firm against the world, even against M. Morrel himself. Strong in the multiplication-table, which he has at his fingers' ends, no matter what scheme or trap is laid to catch him. In the midst of the disasters that befall the house, Cocles is the only one unmoved, not from a want of affection, but from a firm conviction that the house cannot fail, for during twenty years he has always seen all payments made with such exactitude that it seems as impossible to him that the house should stop payment as it would to a miller that the river that has so long turned his mill should cease to flow.

Role in the Firm's Decline

As the numerous clerks desert the office and the warehouse one by one, like rats forsaking a doomed ship, Cocles remains. A most singular change has taken place in his position: he has at the same time risen to the rank of cashier and sunk to the rank of a servant. Nothing has as yet occurred to shake his belief; the last month's payment has been made with the most scrupulous exactitude. Cocles detects an overbalance of fourteen sous in his cash, and the same evening brings them to M. Morrel, who, with a melancholy smile, throws them into an almost empty drawer, saying, "Thanks, Cocles; you are the pearl of cashiers." Cocles goes away perfectly happy, for this eulogium of M. Morrel, himself the pearl of the honest men of Marseilles, flatters him more than a present of fifty crowns.

The Final Days

When the agent of Thomson & French presents himself at Morrel's office, Cocles is summoned to conduct the stranger to M. Morrel's apartment. On the staircase they meet Julie, Morrel's daughter, who looks with anxiety at the stranger. Cocles announces the visitor. Later, when the sailors of the lost Pharaon return and Morrel orders Cocles to pay each of them two hundred francs, Cocles obeys. When Morrel, facing ruin, sends for Cocles to his private office, the old cashier leaves pale, trembling, and his features betraying the utmost consternation. He hastens down the staircase with unusual precipitation, and only raises his hands to heaven and exclaims, "Oh, mademoiselle, mademoiselle, what a dreadful misfortune! Who could ever have believed it!" A moment afterwards Julie sees him go up-stairs carrying two or three heavy ledgers, a portfolio, and a bag of money. Morrel examines the ledgers, opens the portfolio, and counts the money; all his funds amount to 6,000 or 8,000 francs, his bills receivable up to the 5th to 4,000 or 5,000, giving him 14,000 francs to meet debts amounting to 287,500 francs. Cocles, completely bewildered, spends part of the day in the court-yard, seated on a stone with his head bare and exposed to the blazing sun. On the morning of the 5th of September, when the final crisis is at hand, Cocles is in the ante-chamber awaiting the arrival of the agent of Thomson & French. When the miraculous salvation of the house occurs through the red silk purse and the return of the Pharaon, Cocles exclaims, "Ah, sir, what can it mean? — the Pharaon?"

Narrative Significance

Cocles functions as a living barometer of the house's integrity and a symbol of unwavering, almost mechanical, loyalty. His devotion to arithmetic and his refusal to believe in the possibility of failure highlight the tragic gap between the firm's honorable past and its desperate present. His physical and emotional collapse under the weight of the impending bankruptcy underscores the magnitude of the disaster, making his eventual joy at the house's salvation all the more poignant.