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diff --git a/32343.txt b/32343.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92bcb52 --- /dev/null +++ b/32343.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20346 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Englishman in Paris, by Albert D. (Albert +Dresden) Vandam + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: An Englishman in Paris + Notes and Recollections + + +Author: Albert D. (Albert Dresden) Vandam + + + +Release Date: May 12, 2010 [eBook #32343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 32343-h.htm or 32343-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32343/32343-h/32343-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32343/32343-h.zip) + + + + + +AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS + +(Notes and Recollections) + +Two Volumes in One + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +New York +D. Appleton and Company +1892 + +Authorized Edition. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + + PAGE The Quartier-Latin in the late thirties -- The difference + between then and now -- A caricature on the walls of Paris -- I + am anxious to be introduced to the quarter whence it emanated -- + I am taken to "La Childebert," and make the acquaintance of the + original of the caricature -- The story of Bouginier and his nose + -- Dantan as a caricaturist -- He abandons that branch of art + after he has made Madame Malibran burst into tears at the sight + of her statuette -- How Bouginier came to be immortalized on the + facade of the Passage du Caire -- One of the first co-operative + societies in France -- An artists' hive -- The origin of "La + Childebert" -- Its tenants in my time -- The proprietress -- + Madame Chanfort, the providence of poor painters -- Her portraits + sold after her death -- High jinks at "La Childebert" -- The + Childebertians and their peacefully inclined neighbours -- + Gratuitous baths and compulsory douches at "La Childebert" -- The + proprietress is called upon to repair the roof -- The + Childebertians bivouac on the Place St. Germain-des-Pres -- They + start a "Society for the Conversion of the Mahometans" -- The + public subscribe liberally -- What becomes of the subscriptions? + -- My visits to "La Childebert" breed a taste for the other + amusements of the Quartier-Latin -- Bobino and its entertainments + -- The audience -- The manager -- His stereotyped speech -- The + reply in chorus -- Woe to the bourgeois-intruder -- Stove-pipe + hats a rarity in the Quartier-Latin -- The dress of the + collegians -- Their mode of living -- Suppers when money was + flush, rolls and milk when it was not -- A fortune-teller in the + Rue de Tournon -- Her prediction as to the future of Josephine de + Beauharnais -- The allowance to students in those days -- The + Odeon deserted -- Students' habits -- The Chaumiere -- Rural + excursions -- Pere Bonvin's 1 + + +CHAPTER II. + + My introduction to the celebrities of the day -- The Cafe de + Paris -- The old Prince Demidoff -- The old man's mania -- His + sons -- The furniture and attendance at the Cafe de Paris -- Its + high prices -- A mot of Alfred de Musset -- The cuisine -- A + rebuke of the proprietor to Balzac -- A version by one of his + predecessors of the cause of Vatel's suicide -- Some of the + _habitues_ -- Their intercourse with the attendants -- Their + courteous behaviour towards one another -- Le veau a la casserole + -- What Alfred de Musset, Balzac, and Alexandre Dumas thought of + it -- A silhouette of Alfred de Musset -- His brother Paul on his + election as a member of the Academie -- A silhouette of Balzac, + between sunset and sunrise -- A curious action against the + publishers of an almanack -- A full-length portrait of Balzac -- + His pecuniary embarrassments -- His visions of wealth and + speculations -- His constant neglect of his duties as a National + Guard -- His troubles in consequence thereof -- L'Hotel des + Haricots -- Some of his fellow-prisoners -- Adam, the composer of + "Le Postillon de Lonjumeau" -- Eugene Sue; his portrait -- His + dandyism -- The origin of the Paris Jockey Club -- Eugene Sue + becomes a member -- The success of "Les Mysteres de Paris" -- The + origin of "Le Juif-Errant" -- Sue makes himself objectionable to + the members of the Jockey Club -- His name struck off the list -- + His decline and disappearance 24 + + +CHAPTER III. + + Alexandre Dumas pere -- Why he made himself particularly + agreeable to Englishmen -- His way of silencing people -- The + pursuit he loved best next to literature -- He has the privilege + of going down to the kitchens of the Cafe de Paris -- No one + questions his literary genius, some question his culinary + capacities -- Dr. Veron and his cordon-bleu -- Dr. Veron's + reasons for dining out instead of at home -- Dr. Veron's friend, + the philanthropist, who does not go to the theatre because he + objects to be hurried with his emotions -- Dr. Veron, instigated + by his cook, accuses Dumas of having collaborateurs in preparing + his dishes as he was known to have collaborateurs in his literary + work -- Dumas' wrath -- He invites us to a dinner which shall be + wholly cooked by him in the presence of a delegate to be chosen + by the guests -- The lot falls upon me -- Dr. Veron and Sophie + make the _amende honorable_ -- A dinner-party at Veron's -- A + curious lawsuit in connection with Weber's "Freyschutz" -- Nestor + Roqueplan, who became the successor of the defendant in the case, + suggests a way out of it -- Leon Pillet virtually adopts it and + wins the day -- A similar plan adopted years before by a fireman + on duty at the opera, on being tried by court-martial for having + fallen asleep during the performance of "Guido et Genevra" -- + Firemen not bad judges of plays and operas -- They were often + consulted both by Meyerbeer and Dumas -- Dumas at work -- How he + idled his time away -- Dumas causes the traffic receipts of the + Chemin de Fer de l'Ouest to swell during his three years' + residence at Saint-Germain -- M. de Montalivet advises + Louis-Philippe to invite Dumas to Versailles, to see what his + presence will do for the royal city -- Louis-Philippe does not + act upon the advice -- The relations between Dumas and the + d'Orleans family -- After the Revolution of '48, Dumas becomes a + candidate for parliament -- The story of his canvass and his + address to the electors at Joigny -- Dumas' utter indifference to + money matters -- He casts his burdens upon others -- Dumas and + his creditors -- Writs and distraints -- How they are dealt with + -- Dumas' indiscriminate generosity -- A dozen houses full of new + furniture in half as many years -- Dumas' frugality at table -- + Literary remuneration -- Dumas and his son -- "Leave me a hundred + francs" 43 + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Dr. Louis Veron -- The real man as distinguished from that of his + own "Memoirs" -- He takes the management of the Paris Opera -- + How it was governed before his advent -- Meyerbeer's "Robert le + Diable" _underlined_ -- Meyerbeer and his doubts upon the merits + of his work -- Meyerbeer's generosity -- Meyerbeer and the + beggars of the Rue Le Peletier -- Dr. Veron, the inventor of the + modern newspaper puff -- Some specimens of advertisements in + their infancy -- Dr. Veron takes a leaf from the book of Moliere + -- Dr. Veron's love of money -- His superstitions -- His + objections to travelling in railways -- He quotes the Queen of + England as an example -- When Queen Victoria overcomes her + objection, Veron holds out -- "Queen Victoria has got a + successor: the Veron dynasty begins and ends with me" -- Thirteen + at table -- I make the acquaintance of Taglioni -- The woman and + the ballerian -- Her adventure at Perth -- An improvised + performance of "Nathalie, la Laitiere Suisse" -- Another + adventure in Russia -- A modern Claude Du-Val -- My last meeting + with Taglioni -- A dinner-party at De Morny's -- A comedy scene + between husband and wife -- Flotow, the composer of "Martha" -- + His family -- His father's objection to the composer's profession + -- The latter's interview with M. de Saint-Georges, the author of + the libretto of Balfe's "Bohemian Girl" -- M. de Saint-Georges + prevails upon the father to let his son study in Paris for five + years, and to provide for him during that time -- The supplies + are stopped on the last day of the fifth year -- Flotow, at the + advice of M. de Saint-Georges, stays on and lives by giving + piano-lessons -- His earthly possessions at his first success -- + "Rob Roy" at the Hotel Castellane -- Lord Granville's opinion of + the music -- The Hotel Castellane and some Paris salons during + Louis-Philippe's reign -- The Princesse de Lieven's, M. Thiers', + etc. -- What Madame de Girardin's was like -- Victor Hugo's -- + Perpetual adoration; very artistic, but nothing to eat or to + drink -- The salon of the ambassador of the Two Sicilies -- Lord + and Lady Granville at the English Embassy -- The salon of Count + Apponyi -- A story connected with it -- Furniture and + entertainments -- Cakes, ices, and tea; no champagne as during + the Second Empire -- The Hotel Castellane and its amateur + theatricals -- Rival companies -- No under-studies -- Lord + Brougham at the Hotel Castellane -- His bad French and his + would-be Don Juanism -- A French rendering of Shakespeare's + "There is but one step between the sublime and the ridiculous," + as applied to Lord Brougham -- He nearly accepts a part in a + farce where his bad French is likely to produce a comic effect -- + His successor as a murderer of the language -- M. de + Saint-Georges -- Like Moliere, he reads his plays to his + housekeeper -- When the latter is not satisfied, the dinner is + spoilt, however great the success of the play in public + estimation -- Great men and their housekeepers -- Turner, Jean + Jacques Rousseau, Eugene Delacroix 62 + + +CHAPTER V. + + The Boulevards in the forties -- The Chinese Baths -- A favourite + tobacconist of Alfred de Musset -- The price of cigars -- The + diligence still the usual mode of travelling -- Provincials in + Paris -- Parliamentary see-saw between M. Thiers and M. Guizot -- + Amenities of editors -- An advocate of universal suffrage -- + Distribution of gratuitous sausages to the working man on the + king's birthday -- The rendezvous of actors in search of an + engagement -- Frederick Lemaitre on the eve of appearing in a new + part -- The Legitimists begin to leave their seclusion and to + mingle with the bourgeoisie -- Alexandre Dumas and Scribe -- The + latter's fertility as a playwright -- The National Guards go + shooting, in uniform and in companies, on the Plaine Saint-Denis + -- Vidocq's private inquiry office in the Rue Vivienne -- No + river-side resorts -- The plaster elephant on the Place de la + Bastille -- The sentimental romances of Loisa Puget -- The songs + of the working classes -- Cheap bread and wine -- How they + enjoyed themselves on Sundays and holidays -- Theophile Gautier's + pony-carriage -- The hatred of the bourgeoisie -- Nestor + Roqueplan's expression of it -- Gavarni's -- M. Thiers' sister + keeps a restaurant at the corner of the Rue Drouot -- When he is + in power, the members of the Opposition go and dine there, and + publish facetious accounts of the entertainment -- All + appearances to the contrary, people like Guizot better than + Thiers -- But few entries for the race for wealth in those days + -- The Rothschilds still live in the Rue Lafitte -- Favourite + lounges -- The Boulevards, the Rue Le Peletier, and the Passage + de l'Opera -- The Opera -- The Rue Le Peletier and its + attractions -- The Restaurant of Paolo Broggi -- The Estaminet du + Divan -- Literary waiters and Boniface -- Major Fraser -- The + mystery surrounding his origin -- Another mysterious personage -- + The Passage de l'Opera is invaded by the stockjobbers, and loses + its prestige as a promenade -- Bernard Latte's, the publisher of + Donizetti's operas, becomes deserted -- Tortoni's -- Louis-Blanc + -- His scruples as an editor -- A few words about duelling -- Two + tragic meetings -- Lola Montes -- Her adventurous career -- A + celebrated trial -- My first meeting with Gustave Flaubert, the + author of "Madame Bovary" and "Salambo" -- Emile de Girardin -- + His opinion of duelling -- My decision with regard to it -- The + original of "La Dame aux Camelias" -- Her parentage -- Alexandre + Dumas gives the diagnosis of her character in connection with his + son's play -- L'Homme au Camellia -- M. Lautour-Mezerai, the + inventor of children's periodical literature in France -- Auguste + Lireux -- He takes the management of the Odeon -- Balzac again -- + His schemes, his greed -- Lireux more fortunate with other + authors -- Anglophobia on the French stage -- Gallophobia on the + English stage 86 + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Rachel and some of her fellow-actors -- Rachel's true character + -- Her greediness and spitefulness -- Her vanity and her wit -- + Her powers of fascination -- The cost of being fascinated by her + -- Her manner of levying toll -- Some of her victims, Comte + Duchatel and Dr. Veron -- The story of her guitar -- A little + transaction between her and M. Fould -- Her supposed charity and + generosity -- Ten tickets for a charity concert -- How she made + them into twenty -- How she could have made them into a hundred + -- Baron Taylor puzzled -- Her manner of giving presents -- + Beauvallet's precaution with regard to one of her gifts -- + Alexandre Dumas the younger, wiser or perhaps not so wise in his + generation -- Rachel as a raconteuse -- The story of her _debut_ + at the Gymnase -- What Rachel would have been as an actor instead + of an actress -- Her comic genius -- Rachel's mother -- What + became of Rachel's money -- Mama Felix as a pawnbroker -- + Rachel's trinkets -- Two curious bracelets -- Her first + appearance before Nicholas I. -- A dramatic recital in the open + air -- Rachel's opinion of the handsomest man in Europe -- Rachel + and Samson -- Her obligations to him -- How she repays them -- + How she goes to Berryer to be coached in the fable of "The Two + Pigeons" -- An anecdote of Berryer -- Rachel's fear of a "warm + reception" on the first night of "Adrienne Lecouvreur" -- How she + averts the danger -- Samson as a man and as an actor -- + Petticoat-revolts at the Comedie-Francaise -- Samson and Regnier + as buffers -- Their different ways of pouring oil upon the + troubled waters -- Mdlle. Sylvanie Plessy -- A parallel between + her and Sarah Bernhardt -- Samson and Regnier's pride in their + profession -- The different character of that pride -- "Apollo + with a bad tailor, and who dresses without a looking-glass" -- + Samson gives a lesson in declamation to a procureur-imperial -- + The secret of Regnier's greatness as an actor -- A lesson at the + Conservatoire -- Regnier on "make-up" -- Regnier's opinion of + genius on the stage -- A mot of Augustine Brohan -- Giovanni, the + wigmaker of the Comedie-Francaise -- His pride in his profession + -- M. Ancessy, the musical director, and his three wigs 128 + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Two composers, Auber and Felicien David -- Auber, the legend of + his youthful appearance -- How it arose -- His daily rides, his + love of women's society -- His mot on Mozart's "Don Juan" -- The + only drawback to Auber's enjoyment of women's society -- His + reluctance to take his hat off -- How he managed to keep it on + most of the time -- His opinion upon Meyerbeer's and Halevy's + genius -- His opinion upon Gerard de Nerval, who hanged himself + with his hat on -- His love of solitude -- His fondness of Paris + -- His grievance against his mother for not having given him + birth there -- He refuses to leave Paris at the commencement of + the siege -- His small appetite -- He proposes to write a new + opera when the Prussians are gone -- Auber suffers no privations, + but has difficulty in finding fodder for his horse -- The + Parisians claim it for food -- Another legend about Auber's + independence of sleep -- How and where he generally slept -- Why + Auber snored in Veron's company, and why he did not in that of + other people -- His capacity for work -- Auber a brilliant talker + -- Auber's gratitude to the artists who interpreted his work, but + different from Meyerbeer's -- The reason why, according to Auber + -- Jealousy or humility -- Auber and the younger Coquelin -- "The + verdict on all things in this world may be summed up in the one + phrase, 'It's an injustice'" -- Felicien David -- The man -- The + beginnings of his career -- His terrible poverty -- He joins the + Saint-Simoniens, and goes with some of them to the East -- Their + reception at Constantinople -- M. Scribe and the libretto of + "L'Africaine" -- David in Egypt at the court of Mehemet-Ali -- + David's description of him -- Mehemet's way of testing the + educational progress of his sons -- Woe to the fat kine -- + Mehemet-Ali suggests a new mode of teaching music to the inmates + of the harem -- Felicien David's further wanderings in Egypt -- + Their effect upon his musical genius -- His return to France -- + He tells the story of the first performance of "Le Desert" -- An + ambulant box-office -- His success -- Fame, but no money -- He + sells the score of "Le Desert" -- He loses his savings -- "La + Perle du Bresil" and the Coup-d'Etat -- "No luck" -- Napoleon + III. remains his debtor for eleven years -- A mot of Auber, and + one of Alexandre Dumas pere -- The story of "Aida" -- Why + Felicien David did not compose the music -- The real author of + the libretto 152 + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Three painters, and a school for pifferari -- Gabriel Decamps, + Eugene Delacroix, and Horace Vernet -- The prices of pictures in + the forties -- Delacroix' find no purchasers at all -- Decamps' + drawings fetch a thousand francs each -- Decamps not a happy man + -- The cause of his unhappiness -- The man and the painter -- He + finds no pleasure in being popular -- Eugene Delacroix -- His + contempt for the bourgeoisie -- A parallel between Delacroix and + Shakespeare -- Was Delacroix tall or short? -- His love of + flowers -- His delicate health -- His personal appearance -- His + indifference to the love-passion -- George Sand and Delacroix -- + A miscarried love-scene -- Delacroix' housekeeper, Jenny + Leguillou -- Delacroix does not want to pose as a model for one + of George Sand's heroes -- Delacroix as a writer -- His approval + of Carlyle's dictum, "Show me how a man sings," etc. -- His + humour tempered by his reverence -- His failure as a caricaturist + -- His practical jokes on would-be art-critics -- Delacroix at + home -- His dress while at work -- Horace Vernet's, Paul + Delaroche's, Ingres' -- Early at work -- He does not waste time + over lunch -- How he spent his evenings -- His dislike of being + reproduced in marble or on canvas after his death -- Horace + Vernet -- The contrast between the two men and the two artists + -- Vernet's appearance -- His own account of how he became a + painter -- Moral and mental resemblance to Alexandre Dumas pere + -- His political opinions -- Vernet and Nicholas I. -- A bold + answer -- His opinion on the mental state of the Romanoffs -- The + comic side of Vernet's character -- He thinks himself a Vauban -- + His interviews with M. Thiers -- His admiration for everything + military -- His worship of Alfred de Vigny -- His ineffectual + attempts to paint a scene in connection with the storming of + Constantine -- Laurent-Jan proposes to write an epic on it -- He + gives a synopsis of the cantos -- Laurent-Jan lives "on the fat + of the land" for six months -- A son of Napoleon's companion in + exile, General Bertrand -- The chaplain of "la Belle-Poule" -- + The first French priest who wore the English dress -- Horace + Vernet and the veterans of "la grande armee" -- His studio during + their occupancy of it as models -- His budget -- His hatred of + pifferari -- A professor -- The Quartier-Latin revisited 164 + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Louis-Philippe and his family -- An unpublished theatrical skit + on his mania for shaking hands with every one -- His art of + governing, according to the same skit -- Louis-Philippe not the + ardent admirer of the bourgeoisie he professed to be -- The + Faubourg Saint-Germain deserts the Tuileries -- The English in + too great a majority -- Lord ----'s opinion of the dinners at the + Tuileries -- The attitude of the bourgeoisie towards + Louis-Philippe, according to the King himself -- Louis-Philippe's + wit -- His final words on the death of Talleyrand -- His love of + money -- He could be generous at times -- A story of the + Palais-Royal -- Louis-Philippe and the Marseillaise -- Two + curious stories connected with the Marseillaise -- Who was the + composer of it? -- Louis-Philippe's opinion of the throne, the + crown, and the sceptre of France as additions to one's comfort -- + His children, and especially his sons, take things more easily -- + Even the Bonapartists admired some of the latter -- A mot of an + imperialist -- How the boys were brought up -- Their nocturnal + rambles later on -- The King himself does not seem to mind those + escapades, but is frightened at M. Guizot hearing of them -- + Louis-Philippe did not understand Guizot -- The recollection of + his former misery frequently haunts the King -- He worries Queen + Victoria with his fear of becoming poor -- Louis-Philippe an + excellent husband and father -- He wants to write the libretto of + an opera on an English subject -- His religion -- The court + receptions ridiculous -- Even the proletariat sneer at them -- + The _entree_ of the Duchesse d'Orleans into Paris -- The scene in + the Tuileries gardens -- A mot of Princesse Clementine on her + father's too paternal solicitude -- A practical joke of the + Prince de Joinville -- His caricatures and drawings -- The + children inherited their talent for drawing and modelling from + their mother -- The Duc de Nemours as a miniature and + water-colour painter -- Suspected of being a Legitimist -- All + Louis-Philippe's children great patrons of art -- How the + bourgeoisie looked upon their intercourse with artists -- The Duc + de Nemours' marvellous memory -- The studio of Eugene Lami -- His + neighbours, Paul Delaroche and Honore de Balzac -- The Duc de + Nemours' bravery called in question -- The Duc d'Aumale's + exploits in Algeria considered mere skirmishes -- A curious story + of spiritism -- The Duc d'Aumale a greater favourite with the + world than any of the other sons of Louis-Philippe -- His wit -- + The Duc d'Orleans also a great favourite -- His visits to + Decamps' studio -- An indifferent classical scholar -- A curious + kind of black-mail -- His indifference to money -- There is no + money in a Republic -- His death -- A witty reply to the + Legitimists 185 + + +CHAPTER X. + + The Revolution of '48 -- The beginning of it -- The National + Guards in all their glory -- The Cafe Gregoire on the Place du + Caire -- The price of a good breakfast in '48 -- The palmy days + of the Cuisine Bourgeoise -- The excitement on the Boulevards on + Sunday, February 20th, '48 -- The theatres -- A ball at + Poirson's, the erstwhile director of the Gymnase -- A lull in the + storm -- Tuesday, February 22nd -- Another visit to the Cafe + Gregoire -- On my way thither -- The Comedie-Francaise closes its + doors -- What it means, according to my old tutor -- We are + waited upon by a sergeant and corporal -- We are no longer + "messieurs," but "citoyens" -- An eye to the main chance -- The + patriots do a bit of business in tricolour cockades -- The + company marches away -- Casualties -- "Le patriotisme" means the + difference between the louis d'or and the ecu of three francs -- + The company bivouacs on the Boulevard Saint-Martin -- A tyrant's + victim "_malgre lui_" -- Wednesday, February 23rd -- The Cafe + Gregoire once more -- The National Guards _en neglige_ -- A novel + mode of settling accounts -- The National Guards fortify the + inner man -- A bivouac on the Boulevard du Temple -- A camp scene + from an opera -- I leave -- My companion's account -- The + National Guards protect the regulars -- The author of these notes + goes to the theatre -- The Gymnase and the Varietes on the eve of + the Revolution -- Bouffe and Dejazet -- Thursday, February 24th, + '48 -- The Boulevards at 9.30 a.m. -- No milk -- The + Revolutionaries do without it -- The Place du Carrousel -- The + sovereign people fire from the roofs on the troops -- The troops + do not dislodge them -- The King reviews the troops -- The + apparent inactivity of Louis-Philippe's sons -- A theory about + the difference in bloodshed. -- One of the three ugliest men in + France comes to see the King -- Seditious cries -- The King + abdicates -- Chaos -- The sacking of the Tuileries -- Receptions + and feasting in the Galerie de Diane -- "Du cafe pour nous, des + cigarettes pour les dames" -- The dresses of the princesses -- + The bourgeois feast the gamins who guard the barricades -- The + Republic proclaimed -- The riff-raff insist upon illuminations -- + An actor promoted to the Governorship of the Hotel de Ville -- + Some members of the "provisional Government" at work -- Mery on + Lamartine -- Why the latter proclaimed the Republic 208 + + +CHAPTER XI. + + The Second Republic -- Lamartine's reason for proclaiming it -- + Suspects Louis-Napoleon of similar motives for wishing to + overthrow it -- Tells him to go back to England -- De Persigny's + account of Louis-Napoleon's landing in France after February + 24th, '48 -- Providential interference on behalf of + Louis-Napoleon -- Justification of Louis-Napoleon's belief in his + "star" -- My first meeting with him -- The origin of a celebrated + nickname -- Badinguet a creation of Gavarni -- Louis-Napoleon and + his surroundings at the Hotel du Rhin -- His appearance and dress + -- Lord Normanby's opinion of his appearance -- Louis-Napoleon's + French -- A mot of Bismarck -- Cavaignac, Thiers, and Victor + Hugo's wrong estimate of his character -- Cavaignac and his + brother Godefroi -- The difference between Thiers and General + Cavaignac -- An elector's mot -- Some of the candidates for the + presidency of the Second Republic -- Electioneering expenses -- + Impecuniosity of Louis-Napoleon -- A story in connection with it + -- The woman with the wooden legs -- The salons during the Second + Republic -- The theatres and their skits on the situation -- "La + Propriete c'est le Vol" -- France governed by the _National_ -- A + curious list of ministers and officials of the Second Republic -- + Armand Marrast -- His plans for reviving business -- His + receptions at the Palais-Bourbon as President of the Chamber of + Deputies -- Some of the guests -- The Corps Diplomatique -- The + new deputies, their wives and daughters 232 + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Guizot, Lamartine, and Beranger -- Public opinion at sea with + regard to the real Guizot -- People fail to see the real man + behind the politician -- Guizot regrets this false conception -- + "I have not the courage to be unpopular" -- A tilt at Thiers -- + My first meeting with him -- A picture and the story connected + with it -- M. Guizot "at home" -- His apartment -- The company -- + M. Guizot on "the Spanish marriages" -- His indictment against + Lord Palmerston -- An incident in connection with Napoleon's tomb + at the Invalides -- Nicolas I. and Napoleon -- My subsequent + intimacy with M. Guizot -- Guizot as a father -- His + correspondence with his daughters -- A story of Henry Muerger and + Marguerite Thuillier -- M. Guizot makes up his mind not to live + in Paris any longer -- M. Guizot on "natural scenery" -- Never + saw the sea until he was over fifty -- Why M. Guizot did not like + the country; why M. Thiers did not like it -- Thiers the only man + at whom Guizot tilted -- M. Guizot died poor -- M. de Lamartine's + poverty did not inspire the same respect -- Lamartine's + impecuniosity -- My only visit to Lamartine's house -- Du Jellaby + dore -- With a difference -- All the stories and anecdotes about + M. de Lamartine relate to his improvidence and impecuniosity -- + Ten times worse in that respect than Balzac -- M. Guizot's + literary productions and M. de Lamartine's -- The national + subscription raised for the latter -- How he anticipates some of + the money -- Beranger -- My first acquaintance with him -- + Beranger's verdict on the Second Republic -- Beranger's constant + flittings -- Dislikes popularity -- The true story of Beranger + and Mdlle. Judith Frere 249 + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Some men of the Empire -- Fialin de Persigny -- The public + prosecutor's opinion of him expressed at the trial for high + treason in 1836 -- Superior in many respects to Louis-Napoleon -- + The revival of the Empire his only and constant dream -- In order + to realize it, he appeals first to Jerome, ex-King of Westphalia + -- De Persigny's estimate of him -- Jerome's greed and + Louis-Napoleon's generosity -- De Persigny's financial + embarrassments -- His charity -- What the Empire really meant to + him -- De Persigny virtually the moving spirit in the Coup d'Etat + -- Louis-Napoleon might have been satisfied with the presidency + of the republic for life -- Persigny seeks for aid in England -- + Palmerston's share in the Coup d'Etat -- The submarine cable -- + Preparations for the Coup d'Etat -- A warning of it sent to + England -- Count Walewski issues invitations for a dinner-party + on the 2nd of December -- Opinion in London that Louis-Napoleon + will get the worst in the struggle with the Chamber -- The last + funds from London -- General de Saint-Arnaud and Baron Lacrosse + -- The Elysee-Bourbon on the evening of the 1st of December -- I + pass the Elysee at midnight -- Nothing unusual -- London on the + 2nd of December -- The dinner at Count Walewski's put off at the + last moment -- Illuminations at the French Embassy a few hours + later -- Palmerston at the Embassy -- Some traits of De + Persigny's character -- His personal affection for Louis-Napoleon + -- Madame de Persigny -- Her parsimony -- Her cooking of the + household accounts -- Chevet and Madame de Persigny -- What the + Empire might have been with a Von Moltke by the side of the + Emperor instead of Vaillant, Niel, and Leboeuf -- Colonel + (afterwards General) Fleury the only modest man among the + Emperor's entourage -- De Persigny's pretensions as a Heaven-born + statesman -- Mgr. de Merode -- De Morny -- His first meeting with + his half-brother -- De Morny as a grand seigneur -- The origin of + the Mexican campaign -- Walewski -- His fads -- Rouher -- My + first sight of him in the Quartier-Latin -- The Emperor's opinion + of him at the beginning of his career -- Rouher in his native + home, Auvergne -- His marriage -- Madame Rouher -- His + father-in-law 261 + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Society during the Second Empire -- The Court at Compiegne -- The + English element -- Their opinion of Louis-Napoleon -- The + difference between the court of Louis-Philippe and that of + Napoleon III. -- The luggage of M. Villemain -- The hunts in + Louis-Philippe's time -- Louis-Napoleon's advent -- Would have + made a better poet than an Emperor -- Looks for a La Valliere or + Montespan, and finds Mdlle. Eugenie de Montijo -- The latter + determined not to be a La Valliere or even a Pompadour -- Has her + great destiny foretold in her youth -- Makes up her mind that it + shall be realized by a right-handed and not a left-handed + marriage -- Queen Victoria stands her sponsor among the + sovereigns of Europe -- Mdlle. de Montijo's mother -- The + Comtesse de Montijo and Halevy's "Madame Cardinal" -- The first + invitations to Compiegne -- Mdlle. de Montijo's backers for the + Imperial stakes -- No other entries -- Louis-Napoleon utters the + word "marriage" -- What led up to it -- The Emperor officially + announces his betrothal -- The effect it produced -- The Faubourg + St.-Germain -- Dupin the elder gives his views -- The engaged + couple feel very uncomfortable -- Negotiations to organize the + Empress's future household -- Rebuffs -- Louis Napoleon's retorts + -- Mdlle. de Montijo's attempt at wit and sprightliness -- Her + iron will -- Her beauty -- Her marriage -- She takes + Marie-Antoinette for her model -- She fondly imagines that she + was born to rule -- She presumes to teach Princess Clotilde the + etiquette of courts -- The story of two detectives -- The hunts + at Compiegne -- Some of the mise en scene and _dramatis personae_ + -- The shooting-parties -- Mrs. Grundy not banished, but + specially invited and drugged -- The programme of the gatherings + -- Compiegne in the season -- A story of an Englishman accommodated + for the night in one of the Imperial luggage-vans 288 + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Society during the Empire -- The series of guests at Compiegne -- + The amusements -- the absence of musical taste in the Bonapartes + -- The programme on the first, second, third, and fourth days -- + An anecdote of Lafontaine, the actor -- Theatrical performances + and balls -- The expenses of the same -- The theatre at Compiegne + -- The guests, male and female -- "Neck or nothing" for the + latter, uniform for the former -- The rest have to take "back + seats" -- The selection of guests among the notabilities of + Compiegne -- A mayor's troubles -- The Empress's and the + Emperor's conflicting opinions with regard to female charms -- + Bassano in "hot water" -- Tactics of the demi-mondaines -- + Improvement from the heraldic point of view in the Empress's + entourage -- The cocodettes -- Their dress -- Worth -- When every + pretext for a change of toilette is exhausted, the court ladies + turn themselves into ballerinas -- "Le Diable a Quatre" at + Compiegne -- The ladies appear at the ball afterwards in their + gauze skirts -- The Emperor's dictum with regard to + ballet-dancers and men's infatuation for them -- The Emperor did + not like stupid women -- The Emperor's "eye" for a handsome + woman -- The Empress does not admire the instinct -- William I. + of Prussia acts as comforter -- The hunt -- Actors, "supers," and + spectators -- "La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas" -- The Imperial + procession -- The Empress's and Emperor's unpunctuality -- + Louis-Napoleon not a "well-dressed man" -- The Empress wished to + get back before dark -- The reason of this wish -- Though + unpunctual, punctual on hunt-days -- The police measures at those + gatherings -- M. Hyrvoix and M. Boitelle -- The Empress did not + like the truth, the Emperor did -- Her anxiety to go to St. + Lazare 304 + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + The story of a celebrated sculptor and his model -- David + d'Angers at the funeral of Cortot, the sculptor -- How I became + acquainted with him -- The sculptor leaves the funeral procession + to speak to a woman -- He tells me the story -- David d'Angers' + sympathy with Greece in her struggle for independence -- When + Botzaris falls at Missolonghi, he makes up his mind to carve his + monument -- Wishes to do something original -- He finds his idea + in the cemetery of Pere-la-Chaise -- In search of a model -- + Comes unexpectedly upon her in the Rue du Montparnasse, while in + company of Victor Hugo -- The model and her mother -- The bronze + Christ on the studio wall -- David gives it to his model -- The + latter dismissed -- A plot against the sculptor's life -- His + model saves him -- He tries to find her and fails -- Only meets + with her when walking behind the hearse of Cortot -- She appears + utterly destitute -- Loses sight of her again -- Meets her on the + outer boulevards with a nondescript of the worst character -- He + endeavours to rescue her, but fails -- Canler, of the Paris + police, reveals the tactics pursued with regard to "unfortunates" + -- David's exile and death -- The Botzaris Monument is brought + back to Paris to be restored -- The model at the door of the + exhibition -- Her death 323 + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Queen Victoria in Paris -- The beginning of the era of + middle-class excursions -- English visitors before that -- The + British tourist of 1855 -- The real revenge of Waterloo -- The + Englishman's French and the Frenchman's English -- The opening of + the Exhibition -- The lord mayor and aldermen in Paris -- The + King of Portugal -- All these considered so much "small fry" -- + Napoleon III. goes to Boulogne to welcome the Queen -- The royal + yacht is delayed -- The French hotel proprietor the greatest + artist in fleecing -- The Italian, the Swiss, the German, mere + bunglers in comparison -- Napoleon III. before the arrival of the + Queen -- Pondering the past -- Arrival of the Queen -- The Queen + lands, followed by Prince Albert and the royal children -- The + Emperor rides by the side of her carriage -- Comments on the + population -- An old salt on the situation -- An old soldier's + retort -- The general feeling -- Arrival in Paris -- The + Parisians' reception of the Queen -- A description of the route + -- The apartments of the Queen at St. Cloud -- How the Queen + spent Sunday -- Visits the art section of the Exhibition on + Monday -- Ingres and Horace Vernet presented to her -- + Frenchmen's ignorance of English art in those days -- English and + French art critics -- The Queen takes a carriage drive through + Paris -- Not a single cry of "Vive l'Angleterre!" a great many of + "Vive la Reine" -- England making a cats-paw of France -- + Reception at the Elysee-Bourbon -- "Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr" + at St. Cloud -- Alexandre Dumas would have liked to see the + Queen -- Visit to Versailles -- State-performances at the Opera + -- Ball at the Hotel de Ville -- The Queen's dancing -- Canrobert + on "the Queen's dancing and her soldiers' fighting" -- Another + visit to the Exhibition -- Beranger misses seeing the Queen -- "I + am not going to see the Queen, but the woman" -- A review in the + Champ-de-Mars -- A visit to Napoleon's tomb -- Jerome's absence + on the plea of illness -- Marshal Vaillant's reply to the Emperor + when the latter invites him to take Jerome's place -- His + comments on the receptions given by the Emperor to foreign + sovereigns -- Fetes at Versailles -- Homeward 336 + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Marshal Vaillant -- The beginning of our acquaintance -- His + stories of the swashbucklers of the First Empire, and the beaux + of the Restauration -- Rabelaisian, but clever -- Marshal + Vaillant neither a swashbuckler nor a beau; hated both -- Never + cherished the slightest illusions about the efficiency of the + French army -- Acknowledged himself unable to effect the desired + and necessary reforms -- To do that, a minister of war must + become a fixture -- Why he stayed -- Careful of the public + moneys, and of the Emperor's also -- Napoleon III.'s lavishness + -- An instance of it -- Vaillant never dazzled by the grandeur of + court entertainments -- Not dazzled by anything -- His hatred of + wind-bags -- Prince de Canino -- Matutinal interviews -- Prince + de Canino sends his seconds -- Vaillant declines the meeting, and + gives his reason -- Vaillant abrupt at the best of times -- A + freezing reception -- A comic interview -- Attempts to shirk + military duty -- Tricks -- Mistakes -- A story in point -- More + tricks -- Sham ailments: how the marshal dealt with them -- When + the marshal was not in an amiable mood -- Another interview -- + Vaillant's tactics -- "D----d annoying to be wrong" -- The + marshal fond of science -- A very interesting scientific + phenomenon himself -- Science under the later Bourbons -- + Suspicion of the soldiers of the Empire -- The priesthood and the + police -- The most godless republic preferable to a continuance + of their regime -- The marshal's dog, Brusca -- Her dislike to + civilians -- Brusca's chastity -- Vaillant's objection to + insufficiently prepaid letters -- His habit of missing the train, + notwithstanding his precautions -- His objection to fuss and + public honours 351 + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + The Franco-German War -- Friday, July 15, 1870, 6 p.m. -- My + friends "confident of France being able to chastise the insolence + of the King of Prussia" -- I do not share their confidence; but + do not expect a crushing defeat -- Napoleon III.'s presence + aggravated the disasters; his absence would not have averted them + -- He himself had no illusions about the efficiency of the army, + did not suspect the rottenness of it -- His previous endeavours + at reorganization -- The real drift of his proposed inquiries -- + His plan meant also compulsory service for every one -- Why the + legislature opposed it -- The makeshift proposed by it -- + Napoleon weary, body and soul -- His physical condition -- A + great consultation and the upshot of it -- Dr. Ricord and what he + told me -- I am determined to see and hear, though not to speak + -- I sally forth -- The streets on the evening of Friday, the + 15th of July -- The illuminations -- Patriotism or Chauvinism -- + The announcement of a bookseller -- What Moltke thought of it -- + The opinion of a dramatist on the war -- The people; no + horse-play -- No work done on Saturday and Sunday -- Cabmen -- "A + man does not pay for his own funeral, monsieur" -- The northern + station on Sunday -- The departing Germans -- The Emperor's + particular instructions with regard to them -- Alfred de + Musset's "Rhin Allemand" -- Prevost-Paradol and the news of his + suicide -- The probable cause of it -- A chat with a superior + officer -- The Emperor's Sunday receptions at the Tuileries -- + Promotions in the army, upon what basis -- Good and bad officers + -- The officers' mess does not exist -- Another general officer + gives his opinion -- Marshal Niel and Leboeuf -- The plan of + campaign suddenly altered -- The reason -- The Emperor leaves St. + Cloud -- His confidence shaken before then -- Some telegrams from + the commanders of divisions -- Thiers is appealed to, to stem the + tide of retrenchment; afterwards to take the portfolio of war -- + The Emperor's opinion persistently disregarded at the Tuileries + -- Trochu -- The dancing colonels at the Tuileries 367 + + +CHAPTER XX. + + The war -- Reaction before the Emperor's departure -- The moral + effects of the publication of the draft treaty -- "Bismarck has + done the Emperor" -- The Parisians did not like the Empress -- + The latter always anxious to assume the regency -- A retrospect + -- Crimean war -- The Empress and Queen Victoria -- Solferino -- + The regency of '65 -- Bismarck's millinery bills -- Lord Lyons -- + Bismarck and the Duc de Gramont -- Lord Lyons does not foresee + war -- The republicans and the war -- The Empress -- Two + ministerial councils and their consequences -- Mr. + Prescott-Hewett sent for -- Joseph Ferrari, the Italian + philosopher -- The Empress -- The ferment in Paris -- "Too much + prologue to 'The Taming of the German Shrew'" -- The first + engagement -- The "Marseillaise" -- An infant performer -- The + "Marseillaise" at the Comedie-Francaise -- The "Marseillaise" by + command of the Emperor -- A patriotic ballet -- The courtesy of + the French at Fontenoy -- The Cafe de la Paix -- General Beaufort + d'Hautpoul and Moltke -- Newspaper correspondents -- Edmond About + tells a story about one of his colleagues -- News supplied by the + Government -- What it amounted to -- The information it gave to + the enemy -- Bazaine, "the glorious" one -- Palikao -- The fall + of the Empire does not date from Sedan, but from Woerth and + Speicheren -- Those who dealt it the heaviest blow -- The + Empress, the Empress, and no one but the Empress 385 + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + The 4th of September -- A comic, not a tragic revolution -- A + burlesque Harold and a burlesque Boadicea -- The news of Sedan + only known publicly on the 3rd of September -- Grief and + consternation, but no rage -- The latter feeling imported by the + bands of Delescluze, Blanqui, and Felix Pyat -- Blanqui, Pyat, & + Co. _versus_ Favre, Gambetta, & Co. -- The former want their + share of the spoil, and only get it some years afterwards -- + Ramail goes to the Palais-Bourbon -- His report -- Paris spends + the night outdoors -- Thiers a second-rate Talleyrand -- His + journey to the different courts of Europe -- His interview with + Lord Granville -- The 4th of September -- The Imperial eagles + disappear -- The joyousness of the crowd -- The Place de la + Concorde -- The gardens of the Tuileries -- The crowds in the Rue + de Rivoli scarcely pay attention to the Tuileries -- The soldiers + fraternizing with the people, and proclaiming the republic from + the barracks' windows -- A serious procession -- Sampierro Gavini + gives his opinion -- The "heroic struggles" of an Empress, and + the crownless coronation of "le Roi Petaud" -- Ramail at the + Tuileries -- How M. Sardou saved the palace from being burned and + sacked -- The republic proclaimed -- Illuminations as after a + victory 404 + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + The siege -- The Parisians convinced that the Germans will not + invest Paris -- Paris becomes a vast drill-ground, nevertheless + -- The Parisians leave off singing, but listen to itinerant + performers, though the latter no longer sing the "Marseillaise" + -- The theatres closed -- The Comedie-Francaise and the Opera -- + Influx of the Gardes Mobiles -- The Parisian no longer chaffs the + provincial, but does the honours of the city to him -- The + stolid, gaunt Breton and the astute and cynical Normand -- The + gardens of the Tuileries an artillery park -- The mitrailleuse + still commands confidence -- The papers try to be comic -- Food + may fail, drink will not -- My visit to the wine depot at Bercy + -- An official's information -- Cattle in the public squares and + on the outer Boulevards -- Fear with regard to them -- Every man + carries a rifle -- The woods in the suburbs are set on fire -- + The statue of Strasburg on the Place de la Concorde -- M. + Prudhomme to his sons -- The men who do not spout -- The French + shopkeeper and bourgeois -- A story of his greed -- He reveals + the whereabouts of the cable laid on the bed of the Seine -- + Obscure heroes -- Would-be Ravaillacs and Balthazar Gerards -- + Inventors of schemes for the instant annihilation of all the + Germans -- A musical mitrailleuse -- An exhibition and lecture at + the Alcazar -- The last train -- Trains converted into dwellings + for the suburban poor -- Interior of a railway station -- The spy + mania -- Where the Parisians ought to have looked for spies -- I + am arrested as a spy -- A chat with the officer in charge -- A + terrible-looking knife 414 + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + The siege -- The food-supply of Paris -- How and what the + Parisians eat and drink -- Bread, meat, and wine -- Alcoholism -- + The waste among the London poor -- The French take a lesson from + the alien -- The Irish at La Villette -- A whisper of the horses + being doomed -- M. Gagne -- The various attempts to introduce + horseflesh -- The journals deliver their opinions -- The supply + of horseflesh as it stood in '70 -- The Academie des Sciences -- + Gelatine -- Kitchen gardens on the balcony -- M. Lockroy's + experiment -- M. Pierre Joigneux and the Englishman -- If + cabbages, why not mushrooms? -- There is still a kitchen garden + left -- Cream cheese from the moon, to be fetched by Gambetta -- + His departure in a balloon -- Nadar and Napoleon III. -- + Carrier-pigeons -- An aerial telegraph -- Offers to cross the + Prussian lines -- The theatres -- A performance at the Cirque + National -- "Le Roi s'amuse," at the Theatre de Montmartre -- A + dejeuner at Durand's -- Weber and Beethoven -- Long winter nights + without fuel or gas -- The price of provisions -- The Parisian's + good-humour -- His wit -- The greed of the shopkeeper -- Culinary + literature -- More's "Utopia" -- An ex-lieutenant of the Foreign + Legion -- He gives us a breakfast -- He delivers a lecture on + food -- Joseph, his servant -- Milk -- The slender resources of + the poor -- I interview an employe of the State Pawnshop -- + Statistics -- Hidden provisions -- Bread -- Prices of provisions + -- New Year's Day, and New Year's dinners -- The bombardment -- + No more bread -- The end of the siege 429 + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Some men of the Commune -- Cluseret -- His opinion of Rossel -- + His opinion of Bergeret -- What Cluseret was fighting for -- + Thiers and Abraham Lincoln -- Raoul Rigault on horseback -- + Theophile Ferre -- Ferre and Gil-Peres, the actor -- The comic + men of the Commune -- Gambon -- Jourde, one of the most valuable + of the lot -- His financial abilities -- His endeavours to save + -- Jourde at Godillot's -- Colonel Maxime Lisbonne -- The + Editor's recollections of him -- General Dombrowski and General + la Cecilia -- A soiree at the Tuileries -- A gala-performance at + the Opera Comique -- The death-knell of the Commune 462 + + + + +AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + The Quartier-Latin in the late thirties -- The difference between + then and now -- A caricature on the walls of Paris -- I am + anxious to be introduced to the quarter whence it emanated -- I + am taken to "La Childebert," and make the acquaintance of the + original of the caricature -- The story of Bouginier and his nose + -- Dantan as a caricaturist -- He abandons that branch of art + after he has made Madame Malibran burst into tears at the sight + of her statuette -- How Bouginier came to be immortalized on the + facade of the Passage du Caire -- One of the first co-operative + societies in France -- An artists' hive -- The origin of "La + Childebert" -- Its tenants in my time -- The proprietress -- + Madame Chanfort, the providence of poor painters -- Her portraits + sold after her death -- High jinks at "La Childebert" -- The + Childebertians and their peacefully inclined neighbours -- + Gratuitous baths and compulsory douches at "La Childebert" -- The + proprietress is called upon to repair the roof -- The + Childebertians bivouac on the Place St. Germain-des-Pres -- They + start a "Society for the Conversion of the Mahometans" -- The + public subscribe liberally -- What becomes of the subscriptions? + -- My visits to "La Childebert" breed a taste for the other + amusements of the Quartier-Latin -- Bobino and its entertainments + -- The audience -- The manager -- His stereotyped speech -- The + reply in chorus -- Woe to the bourgeois-intruder -- Stove-pipe + hats a rarity in the Quartier-Latin -- The dress of the + collegians -- Their mode of living -- Suppers when money was + flush, rolls and milk when it was not -- A fortune-teller in the + Rue de Tournon -- Her prediction as to the future of Josephine de + Beauharnais -- The allowance to students in those days -- The + Odeon deserted -- Students' habits -- The Chaumiere -- Rural + excursions -- Pere Bonvin's. + + +Long before Baron Haussmann began his architectural transformation, many +parts of Paris had undergone changes, perceptible only to those who had +been brought up among the inhabitants, though distinct from them in +nationality, education, habits, and tastes. Paris became to a certain +extent, and not altogether voluntarily, cosmopolitan before the palatial +mansions, the broad avenues, the handsome public squares which +subsequently excited the admiration of the civilized world had been +dreamt of, and while its outer aspect was as yet scarcely modified. This +was mainly due to the establishment of railways, which caused in the end +large influxes of foreigners and provincials, who as it were drove the +real Parisian from his haunts. Those visitors rarely penetrated in large +numbers to the very heart of the Quartier-Latin. When they crossed the +bridges that span the Seine, it was to see the Sorbonne, the Pantheon, +the Observatory, the Odeon, and the Luxembourg; they rarely stayed after +nightfall. The Prado, the Theatre Bobino, the students' taverns, escaped +their observation when there was really something to see; and now, when +the Closerie des Lilas has become the Bal Bullier, when the small +theatre has been demolished, and when the taverns are in no way +distinguished from other Parisian taverns--when, in short, commonplace +pervades the whole--people flock thither very often. But during the +whole of the forties, and even later, the _rive gauche_, with its +Quartier-Latin and adjacent Faubourg St. Germain, were almost entirely +sacred from the desecrating stare of the deliberate sightseer; and, +consequently, the former especially, preserved its individuality, not +only materially, but mentally and morally--immorally would perhaps have +been the word that would have risen to the lips of the observer who +lacked the time and inclination to study the life led there deeper than +it appeared merely on the surface. For though there was a good deal of +roystering and practical joking, and short-lasted _liaison_, there was +little of deliberate vice, of strategic libertinism--if I may be allowed +to coin the expression. True, every Jack had his Jill, but, as a rule, +it was Jill who had set the ball rolling. + +The Quartier-Latin not only sheltered sucking lawyers and doctors, +budding professors and savans and litterateurs, but artists whose names +have since then become world-renowned. It was with some of these that I +was most thrown in contact in that quarter, partly from inclination, +because from my earliest youth I have been fonder of pictures than of +books, partly because at that time I had already seen so many authors of +fame, most of whom were the intimate acquaintances of a connection of +mine, that I cared little to seek the society of those who had not +arrived at that stage. I was very young, and, though not devoid of faith +in possibilities, too mentally indolent when judgment in that respect +involved the sitting down to manuscripts. It was so much easier and +charming to be able to discover a budding genius by a mere glance at a +good sketch, even when the latter was drawn in charcoal on a not +particularly clean "whitewashed" wall. + +I was scarcely more than a stripling when one morning such a sketch +appeared on the walls of Paris, and considerably mystified, while it at +the same time amused the inhabitants of the capital. It was not the work +of what we in England would call a "seascape and mackerel artist," for +no such individual stood by to ask toll of the admirers; it was not an +advertisement, for in those days that mode of mural publicity was +scarcely born, let alone in its infancy, in Paris. What, then, was this +colossal, monumental nose, the like of which I have only seen on the +faces of four human beings, one of whom was Hyacinth, the famous actor +of the Palais-Royal, the other three being M. d'Argout, the Governor of +the Bank of France; M. de Jussieu, the Director of the Jardin des +Plantes; and Lasailly, Balzac's secretary? What was this colossal nose, +with a ridiculously small head and body attached to it? The nasal organ +was certainly phenomenal, even allowing for the permissible exaggeration +of the caricaturist, but it could surely not be the only title of its +owner to this sudden leap into fame! Was it a performing nose, or one +endowed with extraordinary powers of smell? I puzzled over the question +for several days, until one morning I happened to run against my old +tutor, looking at the picture and laughing till the tears ran down his +wrinkled cheeks. It was a positive pleasure to see him. "C'est bien lui, +c'est bien lui," he exclaimed; "c'est absolument son portrait crache!" +"Do you know the original?" I asked. "Mais, sans doute, je le connais, +c'est un ami de mon fils, du reste, toute le monde connait Bouginier." +"But I do not know him," I protested, feeling very much ashamed of my +ignorance. "Ah, you! that's quite a different thing; you do not live in +the Quartier-Latin, but everybody there knows him." From that moment I +knew no rest until I had made the acquaintance of Bouginier, which was +not very difficult; and through him I became a frequent visitor to "La +Childebert," which deserves a detailed description, because, though it +was a familiar haunt to many Parisians of my time with a taste for +Bohemian society, I doubt whether many Englishmen, save (the late) Mr. +Blanchard Jerrold and one of the Mayhews, ever set foot there, and even +they could not have seen it in its prime. + +But before I deal with "La Childebert," I must say a few words about +Bouginier, who, contrary to my expectations, owed his fame solely to his +_proboscis_. He utterly disappeared from the artistic horizon in a few +years, but his features still live in the memory of those who knew him +through a statuette in _terra cotta_ modelled by Dantan the younger. +During the reign of Louis-Philippe, Dantan took to that branch of art as +a relaxation from his more serious work; he finally abandoned it after +he had made Madame Malibran burst into tears, instead of making her +laugh, as he intended, at her own caricature. Those curious in such +matters may see Bouginier's presentment in a medallion on the +frontispiece of the Passage du Caire, amidst the Egyptian divinities and +sphinxes. As a matter of course, the spectator asks himself why this +modern countenance should find itself in such incongruous company, and +he comes almost naturally to the conclusion that Bouginier was the +owner, or perhaps the architect, of this arcade, almost exclusively +tenanted--until very recently--by lithographers, printers, etc. The +conclusion, however, would be an erroneous one. Bouginier, as far as is +known, never had any property in Paris or elsewhere; least of all was he +vain enough to perpetuate his own features in that manner, even if he +had had an opportunity, but he had not; seeing that he was not an +architect, but simply a painter, of no great talents certainly, but, +withal, modest and sensible, and as such opposed to, or at any rate not +sharing, the crazes of mediaevalism, romanticism, and other _isms_ in +which the young painters of that day indulged, and which they thought +fit to emphasize in public and among one another by eccentricities of +costume and language, supposed to be in harmony with the periods they +had adopted for illustration. This absence of enthusiasm one way or the +other aroused the ire of his fellow-lodgers at the "Childebert," and one +of them, whose pencil was more deft at that kind of work than those of +the others, executed their vengeance, and drew Bouginier's picture on +the "fag end" of a dead wall in the vicinity of the Church of St. +Germain-des-Pres. The success was instantaneous and positively +overwhelming, though truth compels one to state that this was the only +flash of genius that illumined that young fellow's career. His name was +Fourreau, and one looks in vain for his name in the biographical +dictionaries or encyclopedias of artists. Fate has even been more cruel +to him than to his model. + +For the moment, however, the success, as I have already said, was +overwhelming. In less than a fortnight there was not a single wall in +Paris and its outskirts without a Bouginier on its surface. Though Paris +was considerably less in area than it is now, it wanted a Herculean +effort to accomplish this. No man, had he been endowed with as many arms +as Briareus, would have sufficed for it. Nor would it have done to trust +to more or less skilful copyists--they might have failed to catch the +likeness, which was really an admirable one; so the following device was +hit upon. Fourreau himself cut a number of stencil plates in brown +paper, and, provided with them, an army of Childebertians started every +night in various directions, Fourreau and a few undoubtedly clever +youths heading the detachments, and filling in the blanks by hand. + +Meanwhile summer had come, and with it the longing among the young +Tintos to breathe the purer air of the country, to sniff the salt +breezes of the ocean. As a matter of course, they were not all ready to +start at the same time, but being determined to follow the same route, +to assemble at a common goal, the contingent that was to leave a +fortnight later than the first arranged to join the others wherever they +might be. + +"But how?" was the question of those who were left behind. "Very simply +indeed," was the answer; "we'll go by the Barriere d'Italie. You'll have +but to look at the walls along the road, and you'll find your waybill." + +So said, so done. A fortnight after, the second division left +head-quarters and made straight for the Barriere d'Italie. But when +outside the gates they stood undecided. For one moment only. The next +they caught sight of a magnificent Bouginier on a wall next to the +excise office--of a Bouginier whose outstretched index pointed to the +Fontainebleau road. After that, all went well. As far as Marseilles +their Bouginier no more failed them than the clouds of smoke and fire +failed the Israelites in the wilderness. At the seaport town they lost +the track for a little while, rather through their want of faith in the +ingenuity of their predecessors than through the latter's lack of such +ingenuity. They had the Mediterranean in front of them, and even if they +found a Bouginier depicted somewhere on the shore, his outstretched +index could only point to the restless waves; he could do nothing more +definite. Considerably depressed, they were going down the Cannebiere, +when they caught sight of the features of their guiding star on a panel +between the windows of a shipping office. His outstretched index did +not point this time; it was placed over a word, and that word spelt +"Malta." They took ship as quickly as possible for the ancient +habitation of the Knights-Templars. On the walls of the Customs in the +island was Bouginier, with a scroll issuing from his nostrils, on which +was inscribed the word "Alexandria." A similar indication met their gaze +at the Pyramids, and at last the second contingent managed to come up +with the first amidst the ruins of Thebes at the very moment when the +word "Suez" was being traced as issuing from Bouginier's mouth. + +Among the company was a young fellow of the name of Berthier, who became +subsequently an architect of some note. The Passage du Caire, as I have +already observed, was in those days the head-quarters of the +lithographic-printing business in general, but there was one branch +which flourished more than the rest, namely, that of _lettres de faire +part_,[1] menus of restaurants and visiting-cards. The two first-named +documents were, in common with most printed matter intended for +circulation, subject to a stamp duty, but in the early days of the +Second Empire Louis-Napoleon had it taken off. To mark their sense of +the benefit conferred, the lithographic firms[2] determined to have the +arcade, which stood in sad need of repair, restored, and Berthier was +selected for the task. The passage was originally built to commemorate +Bonaparte's victories in Egypt, and when Berthier received the +commission, he could think of no more fitting facade than the +reproduction of a house at Karnac. He fondly remembered his youthful +excursion to the land of Pharaohs, and at the same time the image of +Bouginier uprose before him. That is why the presentment of the latter +may be seen up to this day on the frieze of a building in the frowsiest +part of Paris. + + [Footnote 1: The "lettre de faire part" is an intimation of a + birth, marriage, or death sent to the friends, and even mere + acquaintances, of a family.--EDITOR.] + + [Footnote 2: The lithographers were almost the first in France + to form a co-operative society, but not in the sense of the + Rochdale pioneers, which dates from about the same period. The + Lacrampe Association was for supplying lithographic work. It + began in the Passage du Caire with ten members, and in a short + time numbered two hundred workmen.--EDITOR.] + +If I have dwelt somewhat longer on Bouginier than the importance of the +subject warranted, it was mainly to convey an idea of the spirit of +mischief, of the love of practical joking, that animated most of the +inmates of "La Childebert." As a rule their devilries were innocent +enough. The pictorial persecution of Bouginier is about the gravest +thing that could be laid to their charge, and the victim, like the +sensible fellow he was, rather enjoyed it than otherwise. Woe, however, +to the starched bourgeois who had been decoyed into their lair, or even +to the remonstrating comrade with a serious turn of mind, who wished to +pursue his studies in peace! His life was made a burden to him, for the +very building lent itself to all sorts of nocturnal surprises and of +guerilla sorties. Elsewhere, when a man's door was shut, he might +reasonably count upon a certain amount of privacy; the utmost his +neighbours could do was to make a noise overhead or by his side. At the +"Childebert" such privacy was out of the question. There was not a door +that held on its hinges, not a window that could be opened or shut at +will, not a ceiling that did not threaten constantly to crush you +beneath its weight, not a floor that was not in danger of giving way +beneath you and landing you in the room below, not a staircase that did +not shake under your very steps, however light they might be; in short, +the place was a wonderful illustration of "how the rotten may hold +together," even if it be not gently handled. + +The origin of the structure, as it stood then, was wrapt in mystery. It +was five or six stories high, and must have attained that altitude +before the first Revolution, because the owner, a Madame Legendre, who +bought it for assignats amounting in real value to about one pound +sterling, when the clergy's property was sold by the nation, was known +never to have spent a penny upon it either at the time of the purchase +or subsequently, until she was forced by a tenant more ingenious or more +desperate than the rest. That it could not have been part of the abbey +and adjacent monastery built by Childebert I., who was buried there in +558, was very certain. It is equally improbable that the Cardinal de +Bissy, who opened a street upon the site of the erstwhile abbey in the +year of Louis XIV.'s death, would have erected so high a pile for the +mere accommodation of the pensioners of the former monastery, at a time +when high piles were the exception. Besides, the Nos. 1 and 3, known to +have been occupied by those pensioners, all of whose rooms communicated +with one another, were not more than two stories high. In short, the +original intention of the builder of the house No. 9, yclept "La +Childebert," has never been explained. The only tenant in the Rue +Childebert who might have thrown a light on the subject had died before +the caravansary attained its fame. He was more than a hundred years old, +and had married five times. His fifth wife was only eighteen when she +became Madame Chanfort, and survived him for many, many years. She was a +very worthy soul, a downright providence to the generally impecunious +painters, whom she used to feed at prices which even then were +ridiculously low. Three eggs, albeit fried in grease instead of butter, +for the sum of three-half-pence, and a dinner, including wine, for +sixpence, could not have left much profit; but Madame Chanfort always +declared that she had enough to live upon, and that she supplied the +art-students with food at cost price because she would not be without +their company. At her death, in '57, two years before the "Childebert" +and the street of the same name disappeared, there was a sale of her +chattels, and over a hundred portraits and sketches of her, "in her +habit as she lived," came under the hammer. To show that the various +occupants of "La Childebert" could do more than make a noise and play +practical jokes, I may state that not a single one of these productions +fetched less than fifty francs--mere crayon studies; while there were +several that sold for two hundred and three hundred francs, and two +studies in oil brought respectively eight hundred francs and twelve +hundred francs. Nearly every one of the young men who had signed these +portraits had made a name for himself. The latter two were signed +respectively Paul Delaroche and Tony Johannot. + +Nevertheless, to those whose love of peace and quietude was stronger +than their artistic instincts and watchful admiration of budding genius, +the neighbourhood of "La Childebert" was a sore and grievous trial. At +times the street itself, not a very long or wide one, was like +Pandemonium let loose; it was when there was an "At Home" at "La +Childebert," and such functions were frequent, especially at the +beginning of the months. These gatherings, as a rule, partook of the +nature of fancy dress _conversaziones_; for dancing, owing to the +shakiness of the building, had become out of the question, even with +such dare-devils as the tenants. What the latter prided themselves upon +most was their strict adherence to the local colour of the periods they +preferred to resuscitate. Unfortunately for the tranquillity of the +neighbourhood, they pretended to carry out this revival in its smallest +details, not only in their artistic productions, but in their daily +lives. The actor who blacked himself all over to play Othello was as +nothing to them in his attempted realism, because we may suppose that he +got rid of his paint before returning to the everyday world. Not so the +inmates of "La Childebert." They were minstrels, or corsairs, or proud +and valiant knights from the moment they got up till the moment they +went to bed, and many of them even scorned to stretch their weary limbs +on so effeminate a contrivance as a modern mattress, but endeavoured to +keep up the illusion by lying on a rush-bestrewn floor. + +I am not sufficiently learned to trace these various and succeeding +disguises to their literary and theatrical causes, for it was generally +a new book or a new play that set the ball rolling in a certain +direction; nor can I vouch for the chronological accuracy and +completeness of my record in that respect, but I remember some phases of +that ever-shifting masquerade. When I was a very little boy, I was +struck more than once with the sight of young men parading the streets +in doublets, trunk hose, their flowing locks adorned with velvet caps +and birds' wings, their loins girded with short swords. And yet it was +not carnival time. No one seemed to take particular notice of them; the +Parisians by that time had probably got used to their vagaries. Those +competent in such matters have since told me that the "get-up" was +inspired by "La Gaule Poetique" of M. de Marchangy, the novels of M. +d'Arlincourt, and the kindred stilted literature that characterized the +beginning of the Restoration. Both these gentlemen, from their very +hatred of the Greeks and Romans of the first Empire, created heroes of +fiction still more ridiculous than the latter, just as Metternich, +through his weariness of the word "fraternity," said that if he had a +brother he would call him "cousin." A few years later, the first +translation of Byron's works produced its effect; and then came +Defauconpret, with his very creditable French versions of Walter Scott. +The influence of Paul Delaroche and his co-champions of the cause of +romanticism, the revolution of July, the dramas of Alexandre Dumas and +Victor Hugo, all added their quota to the prevailing confusion in the +matter of style and period, and early in the forties there were at the +"Childebert" several camps, fraternizing in everything save in their +dress and speech, which were the visible and audible manifestation of +their individual predilection for certain periods of history. For +instance, it was no uncommon thing to hear the son of a concierge, whose +real or fancied vocation had made him embrace the artistic profession, +swear by "the faith of his ancestors," while the impoverished scion of a +noble house replied by calling him "a bloated reminiscence of a feudal +and superstitious age." + +At the _conversaziones_ which I mentioned just now, the guests of the +inmates of "La Childebert" not only managed to out-Herod Herod in +diction and attire, but, to heighten illusion still further, adopted as +far as possible the mode of conveyance supposed to have been employed by +their prototypes. The classicists, and those still addicted to the +illustration of Greek and Roman mythology, though nominally in the +minority at the "Childebert" itself, were, as a rule, most successful in +those attempts. The ass that had borne Silenus, the steeds that had +drawn the chariot of the triumphant Roman warrior, the she-goat that was +supposed to have suckled Jupiter, were as familiar to the inhabitants of +the Rue Childebert as the cats and mongrels of their own households. The +obstructions caused by the former no longer aroused their ire; but when, +one evening, Romulus and Remus made their appearance, accompanied by the +legendary she-wolf, they went mad with terror. The panic was at its +height when, with an utter disregard of mythological tradition, Hercules +walked up the street, leading the Nemaean lion. Then the aid of the +police was invoked; but neither the police nor the national guards, who +came after them, dared to tackle the animals, though they might have +done so safely, because the supposed wolf was a great dane, and the lion +a mastiff, but so marvellously padded and painted as to deceive any but +the most practised eye. The culprits, however, did not reveal the secret +until they were at the commissary of police's office, enjoying the +magnificent treat of setting the whole of the neighbourhood in an uproar +on their journey thither, and of frightening that official on their +arrival. + +In fact, long before I knew them, the inmates of the "Childebert" had +become a positive scourge to the neighbourhood, while the structure +itself threatened ruin to everything around it. Madame Legendre +absolutely refused to do any repairs. She did not deny that she had +bought the place cheap, but she pointed out at the same time that the +rents she charged were more than modest, and that eight times out of +ten she did not get them. In the beginning of her ownership she had +employed a male concierge, to prevent, as it were, the wholesale +flitting which was sure to follow a more strenuous application for +arrears upon which she ventured now and then in those days. That was +towards the end of the Empire, when the disciples of David had been +reduced to a minority in the place by those of Lethiere, who sounded the +first note of revolt against the unconditional classicism of the +illustrious member of the Convention. If all the disciples of the Creole +painter had not his genius, most of them had his courage and readiness +to draw the sword on the smallest provocation,[3] and the various +Cerberi employed by Madame Legendre to enforce her claims had to fly one +after another. The rumour of the danger of the situation had spread, and +at last Madame Legendre could find no man to fill it, except on monetary +conditions with which she would not--perhaps could not--comply. From +that day forth she employed a woman, who was safe, because she had been +told to let "lawless impecuniosity" take its course, and it was recorded +that pecuniarily the proprietress was the better off for this change of +tactics. + + [Footnote 3: Guillaume Lethiere, whose real name was Guillon, + was a native of Guadeloupe. He fought and seriously wounded + several officers because the latter had objected to "a mere + dauber wearing moustaches." He was obliged to leave Paris, but, + thanks to the protection of Lucien Bonaparte, was appointed + Director of the French Academie at Rome.--EDITOR.] + +I am willing to repeat that record, which, if true, did credit to the +head of the landlady and the hearts of her tenants, but am compelled to +supplement it by a different version. When I saw the "Childebert" in '37 +or '38, no man in his senses would have paid rent for any one room in it +on the two top stories; he might as well have lived in the streets. It +was an absolute case of the bottomless sedan chair in which two of his +fellow-porters put Pat; "but for the honour of the thing, he might have +walked." Consequently the tenants there were rarely harassed for their +rent; if they paid it at all, it was so much unexpected gain. It +happened, however, that now and then by mistake a youngster was put +there who had scruples about discharging his liabilities in that +respect; and one of these was Emile Lapierre, who subsequently became a +landscape-painter of note. One night, after he had taken up his quarters +there, the floodgates of heaven opened over Paris. Lapierre woke up +amidst a deluge. I need not say that there were no bells at the +"Childebert;" nevertheless there was no fear of dying unattended, +provided one could shout, for there was always a party turning night +into day, or hailing the smiling morn before turning in. Lapierre's +shouts found a ready echo, and in a few moments the old concierge was on +the spot. + +"Go and fetch a boat--go and fetch a boat!" yelled Lapierre. "I am +drowning!" yelled Lapierre. + +"There are none in the quarter," replied the old woman innocently, +thinking he was in earnest. + +"Then go and fetch Madame Legendre, to show her the pond she is letting +me instead of the room for which I pay her." + +"Madame would not come, not even for you, monsieur, who are the only one +punctual with your rent; besides, if she did come, she would have no +repairs done." + +"Oh, she'll have no repairs done! We'll soon find out. I think I'll make +her," screamed Lapierre; and he kept his word. + +It was the only instance of Madame Legendre having had to capitulate, +and I have alluded to it before; it remains for me to tell how it was +done. + +Lapierre, contrary to the precept, allowed the sun to go down upon his +wrath, in the hope perhaps of inducing Madame Legendre to change her +oft-announced decision of doing no repairs; but he rose betimes next +morning, and when there was no sign of workmen, he proceeded to carry +out his plan. The floors of the "Childebert" were made of brick, and he +simply removed three or four squares from his, after which he went +downstairs and recruited half a dozen water-carriers, and bade them +empty their full pails into the opening he had made. I shall probably +have some remarks to make elsewhere about the water-supply of Paris; at +present it is sufficient to say that in those days there was not a +single house in the capital which was not dependent upon those +Auvergnats who carried the commodity round in barrels on carts drawn by +hand or horse. These gentlemen, though astonished at the strange task +required of them, consented. In less than ten minutes there was a string +of water-carts stationed in the Rue Childebert, and in a few minutes +more the lower stories were simply flooded. Aime Millet, the sculptor, +whose room was situated immediately beneath that of Lapierre, was the +first victim. It was he who gave the alarm, but, as a matter of course, +in the twinkling of an eye there were one or two heads at every window, +and though very early, there was a stampede of very primitively clad +models (?) into the street, shouting and yelling out at the top of their +voices. Outside no one seemed to know exactly what had occurred; the +prevailing impression was that the place was on fire. Then Madame +Legendre was sent for in hot haste. By that time the truth had become +known in the house. The alarm had subsided, but not the noise. When the +report of Madame Legendre's coming got wind, a deputation went to the +entrance of the street to welcome her. It was provided with all sorts of +instruments except musical ones, and the old dame was conducted in state +to Millet's room. The cause of the mischief was soon ascertained, for +the water-carriers were still at work. The police had refused to +interfere; in reality, they would not have been sorry to see the +building come down with a crash, for it was as great a source of +annoyance to them as to the peaceful burghers they were supposed to +protect. A move was made to the room above, where Lapierre--without a +stitch of clothing--stood directing the operations. + +"What are you doing, Monsieur Lapierre?" screeched Madame Legendre. + +"I am taking a bath, madame; it is very warm. You gave me one against my +will the night before last; and lest I should be accused of selfishness, +I am letting my neighbours partake of the pleasure." + +That is how Madame Legendre was compelled to repair the roof of "La +Childebert." + +Such was the company amidst which I was introduced by the son of my old +tutor. Many years have passed since then, during which I have been +thrown into the society of the great and powerful ones of this world, +rather through the force of circumstances than owing to my own merits, +but I have looked in vain for the honest friendships, the disinterested +actions, the genuine enthusiasm for their art, underlying their devilry, +of which these young men were capable. The bourgeois vices, in the guise +of civic and domestic virtues, entered the souls of Frenchmen early in +the reign of Louis-Philippe, and have been gnawing since, with +ever-increasing force, like a cancer, at everything that was noble and +worthy of admiration in a nation. But those vices never found their way +to the hearts of the inmates of "La Childebert" while they were there, +and rarely in after-life. Many attained world-wide reputations; few +gathered riches, even when they were as frugal as the best among +them--Eugene Delacroix. + +To have known these young men was absolutely a liberal education. To the +Podsnap and Philistine of no matter what nationality, it seems a sad +thing to have no thought for to-morrow. And these youngsters had not +even a thought for the day. Their thoughts were for the future, when the +world mayhap would ring with their names; but their physical or mental +hearing never strained for the ring of money. They were improvident +creatures, to be sure; but how much more lovable than the young painters +of the present period, whose ideal is a big balance at their bankers; +who would rather have their names inscribed on the registers of the +public debt than in the golden book of art; whose dreamt-of Eden is a +bijou villa in the Parc Monceaux or in the Avenue Villiers; whose +providence is the _richard_, the parvenu, the wealthy upstart, whose +features they perpetuate, regardless of the perpetuation of their own +budding fame! + +When I began to jot down these notes, I made up my mind to eschew +comparisons and moralizing; I find I have unconsciously done both, but +will endeavour not to offend again. Still, I cannot help observing how +the mere "moneyed nobody" rushes nowadays to the eminent painter to have +his lineaments reproduced, when a guinea photograph would serve his +purpose just as well for "family use;" for I take it that no one, +besides his relations and friends, cares or will care to gaze upon his +features. And yet our annual picture exhibitions are crowded with the +portraits of these nonentities. They advertise themselves through the +painters that transfer them to canvas, and the latter are content to +pocket heavy fees, like the advertising agents they are. I am certain +that neither Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck, Hals, nor Rembrandt would have +lent themselves to such transactions. When they, or a Reynolds, a +Lawrence, a Gainsborough, conferred the honour of their brush upon some +one, it was because he or she was already distinguished from his or her +fellow-creatures by beauty, social position, talents, genius, or birth; +not because he or she wanted to be, or, in default of such distinction, +wanted to attract the public notice at all costs. That, I fancy, was the +way in which painters of other days looked upon the thing. I know it was +the way in which the young fellows at the "Childebert" did; and woe to +their comrade who ventured to apply in art the principle of +international maritime law, that "le pavillon couvre la marchandise" +(the flag covers the cargo)! He was scouted and jeered at, and, +moreover, rarely allowed to reap the pecuniary benefit of his artistic +abasement. Hence the "patron for a portrait" seldom found his way to "La +Childebert." When he did, the whole of the place conspired to make his +life and that of his would-be _protege_ a misery. + +To enumerate all the devices resorted to to make the sittings abortive, +to "distort the features that had donned the bland smile of placid +contentment" with the paralyzing fear of some impending catastrophe, +would be impossible; the mention of a few must suffice. That most +frequently employed, and comparatively easy of execution, was the +setting alight of damp straw; the dense smoke penetrated every nook and +cranny of the crazy building, and the sitter, mad with fright, rushed +away. The chances were a hundred to one against his ever returning. +Another was the intrusion of a male model offering his services as a +Saint-Jerome, or a female one offering hers as Godiva; for, curious to +relate, the devotion of the wife of Leofric of Murcia was a favourite +subject with the Childebertians. As a matter of course, the applicants +were in the costume, or rather lack of costume, appropriate to the +character. The strait-laced bourgeois or bourgeoise was shocked, and did +not repeat the visit. The cry that there was a mad dog in the house was +a common one on those occasions; and at last the would-be +portrait-painters had to give in, and a big placard appeared on the +frontispiece: "Le commerce des portraits a ete cede aux directeur et +membres de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts." + +The most curious thing in connection with the "Childebert" was that, +though the place was inexpressibly ill kept, it escaped the most +terrible visitations of the cholera. I prefer not to enter into details +of the absolute disregard of all sanitary conditions, but in warm +weather the building became positively uninhabitable. Long before the +unsavoury spectacle of "learned fleas" became a feature of the suburban +fairs, Emile Signol, who is best known as a painter of religious +subjects, had trained a company of performers of a different kind of +nocturnal pests. He averred in his opening lecture that their ingenuity +was too great to remain unknown, and cited anecdotes fully proving his +words. Certain is it that they were the only enemies before which the +combined forces of the Childebertians proved powerless. But even under +such trying circumstances the latter never lost their buoyant spirits, +and their retreats _en masse_ were effected in a manner the reports of +which set the whole of Paris in a roar. One Sunday morning, the faithful +worshippers, going to matins at the Church of St. Germain-des-Pres, +found the square occupied by a troop of Bedouins, wrapt in their +burnouses, and sleeping the sleep of the just. Some had squatted in +corners, calmly smoking their _chibouks_. This was in the days of the +Algerian campaign, and the rumour spread like wildfire that a party of +Arab prisoners of war were bivouacked round the church, where a special +service would be given in the afternoon as the first step to their +conversion to Christianity. It being Sunday, the whole of Paris rushed +to the spot. The Bedouins had, however, disappeared, but a collection +was made in their behalf by several demure-looking young men. The +Parisians gave liberally. That night, and two or three nights after, the +nocturnal pests' occupation was gone, for the "Childebert" was lighted +_a giorno_ from basement to roof, and the Childebertians held high +festival. The inhabitants of the streets adjacent to the Rue Childebert +spent as many sleepless nights, though their houses were perfectly +wholesome and clean. + +I had the honour to be a frequent guest at those gatherings, but I feel +that a detailed description of them is beyond my powers. I have already +said that the craziness of the structure would have rendered extremely +dangerous any combined display of choregraphic art, as practised by the +Childebertians and their friends, male and female, at the neighbouring +Grande-Chaumiere; it did, however, not prevent a lady or gentleman of +the company from performing a _pas seul_ now and then. This, it must be +remembered, was the pre-Rigolbochian period, before Chicard with his +_chahut_ had been ousted from his exalted position by the more elegant +and graceful evolutions of the originator of the modern cancan, the +famous Brididi; when the Faubourg du Temple, the Bal du Grand +Saint-Martin, and "the descent of the Courtille" were patronized by the +Paris _jeunesse doree_, and in their halcyon days, when the _habitues_ +of the establishment of Le Pere Lahire considered it their greatest +glory to imitate as closely as possible the bacchanalian gyrations of +the choregraphic autocrat on the other side of the Seine. No mere +description could do justice to these gyrations; only a draughtsman of +the highest skill could convey an adequate idea of them. But, as a +rule, the soirees at the "Childebert" were not conspicuous for such +displays; their programme was a more ambitious one from an intellectual +point of view, albeit that the programme was rarely, if ever, carried +out. This failure of the prearranged proceedings mainly arose from the +disinclination or inability of the fairer portion of the company to play +the passive part of listeners and spectators during the recital of an +unpublished poem of perhaps a thousand lines or so, though the reciter +was no less a personage than the author. In vain did the less frivolous +and male part of the audience claim "silence for the minstrel;" the +interrupters could conceive no minstrel without a guitar or some kindred +instrument, least of all a minstrel who merely spoke his words, and the +feast of reason and flow of soul came generally to an abrupt end by the +rising of a damsel more outspoken still than her companions, who +proposed an adjournment to one of the adjacent taverns, or to the not +far distant "Grande-Chaumiere," "si on continue a nous assommer avec des +vers." The threat invariably produced its effect. The "minstrel" was +politely requested to "shut up," and Beranger, Desaugiers, or even M. +Scribe, took the place of the Victor Hugo in embryo until the small +hours of the morning; the departure of the guests being witnessed by the +night-capped inhabitants of the Rue Childebert from their windows, +amidst the comforting reflections that for another three weeks or so +there would be peace in the festive halls of that "accursed building." + +My frequent visits to "La Childebert" had developed a taste for the +Bohemian attractions of the Quartier-Latin. I was not twenty, and though +I caught frequent glimpses at home of some of the eminent men with whom +a few years later I lived on terms of friendship, I could not aspire to +their society then. It is doubtful whether I would have done so if I +could. I preferred the Theatre Bobino to the Opera and the +Comedie-Francaise; the Grande-Chaumiere--or the Chaumiere, as it was +simply called--to the most brilliantly lighted and decorated ball-room; +a stroll with a couple of young students in the gardens of the +Luxembourg to a carriage-drive in the Bois de Boulogne; a dinner for +three francs at Magny's, in the Rue Contrescarpe-Dauphine, or even one +for twenty-two sous at Viot's or Blery's, to the most sumptuous repast +at the Cafe Riche or the Cafe de Paris. I preferred the buttered rolls +and the bowl of milk at the Boulangerie Cretaine, in the Rue Dauphine, +to the best suppers at the Cafe Anglais, whither I had been taken once +or twice during the Carnival--in short, I was very young and very +foolish; since then I have often wished that, at the risk of remaining +very foolish for evermore, I could have prolonged my youth for another +score of years. + +For once in a way I have no need to be ashamed of my want of memory. I +could not give an account of a single piece I saw during those two or +three years at Bobino, but I am certain that not one of the companions +of my youth could. It is not because the lapse of time has dimmed the +recollection of the plots, but because there were no plots, or at any +rate none that we could understand, and I doubt very much whether the +actors and actresses were more enlightened in that respect than the +audience. The pieces were vaudevilles, most of them, and it was +sufficient for us to join in the choruses of the songs, with which they +were plentifully interlarded. As for the dialogue, it might have been +sparkling with wit and epigram; it was nearly always drowned by +interpolations from one side of the house or the other. When the tumult +became too great, the curtain was simply lowered, to be almost +immediately raised, "discovering" the manager--in his dressing-gown. He +seemed prouder of that piece of attire than the more modern one would be +of the most faultless evening dress. He never appealed to us by invoking +the laws of politeness; he never threatened to have the house cleared. +He simply pointed out to us that the police would inevitably close the +place at the request of the inhabitants of the Rue de Madame if the +noise rose above a certain pitch, and disturbed their peaceful evening +hours, spent in the bosom of their families; which remark was always +followed by the audience intoning as one man Gretry's "Ou peut-on etre +mieux qu'au sein de sa famille?" the orchestra--such an +orchestra!--playing the accompaniment, and the manager himself beating +time. Then he went on. "Yes, messieurs et mesdames, we are here en +famille also, as much en famille as at the Grande-Chaumiere; and has not +M. Lahire obtained from the Government the permission de faire sa police +tout seul! After all, he is providing exercise for your muscles; I am +providing food for your brain." + +The speech was a stereotyped one--we all knew it by heart; it invariably +produced its effect in keeping us comparatively quiet for the rest of +the evening, unless a bourgeois happened to come in. Then the uproar +became uncontrollable; no managerial speech could quell it until the +intruder had left the theatre. + +By a bourgeois was meant a man who wore broadcloth and a top hat, but +especially the latter. In fact, that headgear was rarely seen within the +inner precincts of the Quartier-Latin, even during the daytime, except +on the head of a professor, or on Thursdays when the collegians--the +term "lyceen" was not invented--were taken for their weekly outing. The +semi-military dress of the present time had not been thought of then. +The collegian wore a top hat, like our Eton boys, a white necktie, a +kind of black quaker coat with a stand-up collar, a very dark blue +waistcoat and trousers, low shoes, and blue woollen stockings. In the +summer, some of them, especially those of the College Rollin, had a +waistcoat and trousers of a lighter texture, and drab instead of blue. +They were virtually prisoners within the walls of the college all the +week, for in their Thursday promenades they were little more than +prisoners taking exercise under the supervision of their gaolers. They +were allowed to leave on alternate Sundays, provided they had parents, +relations, or friends in Paris, who could come themselves or send their +servants to fetch them in the morning and take them back at night. The +rule applied to all, whether they were nine or double that number of +years; it prevails even now. I only set foot in a French college of +those days twice to see a young friend of mine, and I thanked my stars +that four or five years of that existence had been spared to me. The +food and the table appointments, the bedrooms--they were more like cells +with their barred windows--would have been declined by the meanest +English servant, certainly by the meanest French one. I have never met +with a Frenchman who looks back with fond remembrance on his +school-days. + +The evening was generally wound up with a supper at Dagneaux's, +Pinson's, or at the rotisseuse--that is, if the evening happened to fall +within the first ten days of the month; afterwards the entertainment +nearly always consisted of a meat-pie, bought at one of the +charcutiers', and washed down with the bottles of wine purchased at the +Hotel de l'Empereur Joseph II., at the south-eastern angle of the Rue de +Tournon, where it stands still. The legend ran that the brother of Marie +Antoinette had stayed there while on a visit to Paris, but it is +scarcely likely that he would have done so while his sister was within +a step of the throne of France; nevertheless the Count von +Falkenstein--which was the name he adopted when travelling +incognito--was somewhat of a philosopher. Did not he once pay a visit to +Jean-Jacques Rousseau without having apprised him of his call? +Jean-Jacques was copying music as the door opened to let in the visitor, +and felt flattered enough, we may be sure; not so Buffon, whom Joseph +surprised under similar circumstances, and who could never forgive +himself for having been caught in his dressing-gown--he who never sat +down to work except in lace ruffles and frill. + +If I have been unwittingly betrayed into a semi-historical disquisition, +it is because almost every step in that quarter gave rise to one, even +amongst those light-hearted companions of mine, to the great +astonishment of the fairer portion of the company. They only took an +interest in the biography of one of the inhabitants of the street, +whether past or present, and that was in the biography of Mdlle. +Lenormand, a well-known fortune-teller, who lived at No. 5. They had +heard that the old woman, who had been the mistress of Hebert of "Pere +Duchesne" fame, had, during the First Revolution, predicted to Josephine +de Beauharnais that she should be empress, as some gipsy at Grenada +predicted a similar elevation to Eugenie de Montijo many years +afterwards. Mdlle. Lenormand had been imprisoned after Hebert's death, +but the moment Napoleon became first consul she was liberated, and +frequently sent for to the Luxembourg, which is but a stone's throw from +the Rue de Tournon. As a matter of course her fame spread, and she made +a great deal of money during the first empire. Ignorant as they were of +history, the sprightly grisettes of our days had heard of that; their +great ambition was to get the five francs that would open the door of +Mdlle. Lenormand's to them. Mdlle. Lenormand died about the year '43. +Jules Janin, who lived in the same street, in the house formerly +inhabited by Theroigne de Mericourt, went to the fortune-teller's +funeral. The five francs so often claimed by the _etudiante_, so rarely +forthcoming from the pockets of her admirer, was an important sum in +those days among the youth of the Quartier-Latin. There were few whose +allowance exceeded two hundred francs per month. A great many had to do +with less. Those who were in receipt of five hundred francs--perhaps not +two score among the whole number--were scarcely considered as belonging +to the fraternity. They were called "ultrapontins," to distinguish them +from those who from one year's end to another never crossed the river, +except perhaps to go to one of the theatres, because there was not much +to be seen at the Odeon during the thirties. With Harel's migration to +the Porte St. Martin, the glory of the second Theatre-Francais had +departed, and it was not until '41 that Lireux managed to revive some of +its ancient fame. By that time I had ceased to go to the Quartier-Latin, +but Lireux was a familiar figure at the Cafe Riche and at the divan of +the Rue Le Peletier; he dined now and then at the Cafe de Paris. So we +made it a point to attend every one of his first nights, notwithstanding +the warnings in verse and in prose of every wit of Paris, Theophile +Gautier included, who had written: + + "On a fait la dessus mille plaisanteries, + Je le sais; il poussait de l'herbe aux galeries; + Trente-six varietes de champignons malsains + Dans les loges tigraient la mousse des coussins." + +It was impossible to say anything very spiteful of a theatre which had +remained almost empty during a gratuitous performance on the king's +birthday; consequently while I frequented the Quartier-Latin the +students gave it a wide berth. When they were not disporting themselves +at Bobino, they were at the Chaumiere, and not in the evening only. +Notwithstanding the enthusiastic and glowing descriptions of it that +have appeared in later days, the place was simple enough. There was a +primitive shooting-gallery, a skittle-alley, and so forth, and it was +open all day. The students, after having attended the lectures and taken +a stroll in the gardens of the Luxembourg, repaired to the Chaumiere, +where, in fine weather, they were sure to find their "lady-loves" +sitting at work demurely under the trees. The refreshments were cheap, +and one spent one's time until the dinner hour, chatting, singing, or +strolling about. The students were very clannish, and invariably +remained in their own sets at the Chaumiere. There were tables +exclusively occupied by Bourguignons, Angevins, etc. In fact, life was +altogether much simpler and more individual than it became later on. + +One of our great treats was an excursion to the establishment of Le Pere +Bonvin, where the student of to-day would not condescend to sit down, +albeit that the food he gets in more showy places is not half as good +and three times as dear. Le Pere Bonvin was popularly supposed to be in +the country, though it was not more than a mile from the Barriere +Montparnasse. The "country" was represented by one or two large but +straggling plots of erstwhile grazing-lands, but at that time dotted +with chalk-pits, tumble-down wooden shanties, etc. Such trees as the +tract of "country" could boast were on the demesne of Pere Bonvin, but +they evidently felt out of their element, and looked the reverse of +flourishing. The house of Pere Bonvin was scarcely distinguished in +colour and ricketiness from the neighbouring constructions, but it was +built of stone, and had two stories. The fare was homely and genuine, +the latter quality being no small recommendation to an establishment +where the prolific "bunny" was the usual _plat de resistance_. For +sophistication, where the rabbit was concerned, was part of the suburban +traiteur's creed from time immemorial, and the fact of the former's head +being visible in the dish was no guarantee as to that and the body by +its side having formed one whole in the flesh. The ubiquitous collector +of rags and bottles and rabbits' skins was always anxiously inquiring +for the heads also, and the natural conclusion was that, thanks to the +latter, stewed grimalkin passed muster as gibelotte. At Pere Bonvin's no +such suspicion could be entertained for one moment; the visitor was +admitted to inspect his dinner while alive. Pere Bonvin was essentially +an honest man, and a character in his way. During the daytime he +exercised the functions of garde-champetre; at night he became the +restaurateur. + +In those days both his sons, Francois and Leon, were still at home, but +the former had apparently already made up his mind not to follow in his +sire's footsteps. He was a compositor by trade, but the walls of the +various rooms showed plainly enough that he did not aim at the fame of +an Aldine or an Elzevir, but at that of a Jan Steen or a Gerard Dow. He +has fully maintained the promise given then. His pictures rank high in +the modern French school; there are few of his contemporaries who have +so thoroughly caught the spirit of the Dutch masters. Leon was a mere +lad, but a good many among the _habitues_ of Pere Bonvin predicted a +more glorious career for him than for his brother. The word "heaven-born +musician" has been often misapplied; in Leon's instance it was fully +justified. The predictions, however, were not realized. Whether from +lack of confidence in his own powers, or deterred by the never-ceasing +remonstrances of his father, Leon, unlike Francois, did not strike out +for himself, but continued to assist in the business, only turning to +his harmonium in his spare time, or towards the end of the evening, when +all distinction between guests and hosts ceased to exist, and the whole +made a very happy family. He married early. I lost sight of him +altogether, until about '64 I heard of his tragic end. He had committed +suicide. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + My introduction to the celebrities of the day -- The Cafe de + Paris -- The old Prince Demidoff -- The old man's mania -- His + sons -- The furniture and attendance at the Cafe de Paris -- Its + high prices -- A mot of Alfred de Musset -- The cuisine -- A + rebuke of the proprietor to Balzac -- A version by one of his + predecessors of the cause of Vatel's suicide -- Some of the + _habitues_ -- Their intercourse with the attendants -- Their + courteous behaviour towards one another -- Le veau a la casserole + -- What Alfred de Musset, Balzac, and Alexandre Dumas thought of + it -- A silhouette of Alfred de Musset -- His brother Paul on his + election as a member of the Academie -- A silhouette of Balzac, + between sunset and sunrise -- A curious action against the + publishers of an almanack -- A full-length portrait of Balzac -- + His pecuniary embarrassments -- His visions of wealth and + speculations -- His constant neglect of his duties as a National + Guard -- His troubles in consequence thereof -- L'Hotel des + Haricots -- Some of his fellow-prisoners -- Adam, the composer of + "Le Postillon de Lonjumeau" -- Eugene Sue; his portrait -- His + dandyism -- The origin of the Paris Jockey Club -- Eugene Sue + becomes a member -- The success of "Les Mysteres de Paris" -- The + origin of "Le Juif-Errant" -- Sue makes himself objectionable to + the members of the Jockey Club -- His name struck off the list -- + His decline and disappearance. + + +If these notes are ever published, the reader will gather from the +foregoing that, unlike many Englishmen brought up in Paris, I was +allowed from a very early age to mix with all sorts and conditions of +men. As I intend to say as little as possible about myself, there is no +necessity to reveal the reason of this early emancipation from all +restraint, which resulted in my being on familiar terms with a great +many celebrities before I had reached my twenty-first year. I had no +claim on their goodwill beyond my admiration of their talents and the +fact of being decently connected. The constant companion of my youth was +hand and glove with some of the highest in the land, and, if the truth +must be told, with a good many of the lowest; but the man who was seated +at the table of Lord Palmerston at the Cafe de Paris at 8 p.m., could +afford _de s'encanailler_ at 2 a.m. next morning without jeopardizing +his social status. + +The Cafe de Paris in those days was probably not only the best +restaurant in Paris, but the best in Europe. Compared to the "Freres +Provencaux" Vefour and Very, the Cafe de Paris was young; it was only +opened on July 15, 1822, in the vast suite of apartments at the corner +of the Rue Taitbout and Boulevard de Italiens, formerly occupied by +Prince Demidoff, whose grandson was a prominent figure in the society of +the Second Empire, and whom I knew personally. The grandfather died +before I was born, or, at any rate, when I was very young; but his +descendant often told me about him and his two sons, Paul and Anatole, +both of whom, in addition to his vast wealth, inherited a good many of +his eccentricities. The old man, like many Russian grand seigneurs, was +never so happy as when he could turn his back upon his own country. He +inhabited Paris and Florence in turns. In the latter place he kept in +his pay a company of French actors, who were lodged in a magnificent +mansion near to his own, and who enacted comedies, vaudevilles, and +comic operas. The London playgoer may remember a piece in which the +celebrated Ravel made a great sensation; it was entitled "Les Folies +Dramatiques," and was founded upon the mania of the old man. For he was +old before his time and racked with gout, scarcely able to set his feet +to the ground. He had to be wheeled in a chair to his entertainments and +theatre, and often fell into a dead faint in the middle of the +performance or during the dinner. "It made no difference to his guests," +said his grandson; "they wheeled him out as they had wheeled him in, and +the play or repast went on as if nothing had happened." In fact, it +would seem that the prince would have been very angry if they had acted +otherwise, for his motto was that, next to enjoying himself, there was +nothing so comfortable as to see others do so. Faithful to this +principle, he always kept some one near, whose mission it was to enjoy +himself at his expense. He was under no obligation whatsoever, except to +give an account of his amusements, most frequently in the dead of the +night, when he got home, because the old prince suffered from insomnia; +he would have given the whole of his vast possessions for six hours' +unbroken slumber. + +I have an idea that the three generations of these Demidoffs were as mad +as March hares, though I am bound to say, at the same time, that the +form this madness took hurt no one. Personally, I only knew Prince +Anatole, the second son of the old man, and Paul, the latter's nephew. +Paul's father, of the same name, died almost immediately after his son's +birth. He had a mania for travelling, and rarely stayed in the same +spot for forty-eight hours. He was always accompanied by a numerous +suite and preceded by a couple of couriers, who, nine times out of ten, +had orders to engage every room in the hotel for him. Being very rich +and as lavish as he was wealthy, few hotel proprietors scrupled to turn +out the whole of their guests at his steward's bidding and at a moment's +notice. Of course, people refused to put up with such cavalier +treatment; but as remonstrance was of no avail, they often brought +actions for damages, which they invariably gained, and were promptly +settled by Boniface, who merely added them to Prince Paul's bill. The +most comical part of the business, however, was that the prince as often +as not changed his mind on arriving at the hotel, and without as much as +alighting, continued his journey. The bill was never disputed. Another +of his manias was that his wife should wash her hands each time she +touched a metal object. For a while Princess Demidoff humoured her +husband, but she found this so terribly irksome that she at last decided +to wear gloves, and continued to do so long after her widowhood. + +It must be obvious to the reader that this digression has little or no +_raison d'etre_, even in notes that do not profess to tell a succinct +story; but my purpose was to a certain extent to vindicate the character +of one of the most charming women of her time, who had the misfortune to +marry what was undoubtedly the most eccentric member of the family. I am +referring to Princess Anatole Demidoff, _nee_ Bonaparte, the daughter of +Jerome, and the sister of Plon-Plon. + +To return to the Cafe de Paris and its _habitues_. First of all, the +place itself was unlike any other restaurant of that day, even unlike +its neighbour and rival, the Cafe Hardi, at the corner of the Rue +Laffitte, on the site of the present Maison d'Or. There was no undue +display of white and gold; and "the epicure was not constantly reminded +that, when in the act of eating, he was not much superior to the rest of +humanity," as Lord Palmerston put it when commenting upon the welcome +absence of mirrors. The rooms might have been transformed at a moment's +notice into private apartments for a very fastidious, refined family; +for, in addition to the tasteful and costly furniture, it was the only +establishment of its kind in Paris that was carpeted throughout, instead +of having merely sanded or even polished floors, as was the case even in +some of the best Paris restaurants as late as five and six years ago (I +mean in the seventies)--Bignon, the Cafe Foy, and the Lion d'Or, in the +Rue du Helder, excepted. The attendance was in every respect in thorough +keeping with the grand air of the place, and, albeit that neither of the +three or four succeeding proprietors made a fortune, or anything +approaching it, was never relaxed. + +On looking over these notes, I am afraid that the last paragraph will be +intelligible only to a small section of my readers, consequently I +venture to explain. Improved communication has brought to Paris during +the third quarter of the century a great many Englishmen who, not being +very familiar either with French or with French customs in their better +aspect, have come to look upon the stir and bustle of the ordinary Paris +restaurant, upon the somewhat free-and-easy behaviour of the waiters, +upon their eccentricities of diction, upon their often successful +attempts at "swelling" the total of the dinner-bill as so much matter of +course. The abbreviated nomenclature the waiter employs in +recapitulating the bill of fare to the patron is regarded by him as +merely a skilful handling of the tongue by the native; the chances are +ten to one in favour of the patron trying to imitate the same in his +orders to the attendant, and deriving a certain pride from being +successful. The stir and bustle is attributed to the more lively +temperament of our neighbours, the free-and-easy behaviour as a wish on +the waiter's part to smooth the linguistically thorny path of the +benighted foreigner, the attempt to multiply items as an irrepressible +manifestation of French greed. + +Wherever these things occur, nowadays, the patron may be certain that he +is "in the wrong shop;" but in the days of which I treat, the wrong shop +was legion, especially as far as the foreigner was concerned; the Cafe +de Paris and the Cafe Hardi were the notable exceptions. Truly, as +Alfred de Musset said of the former, "you could not open its door for +less than fifteen francs;" in other words, the prices charged were very +high; but they were the same for the representatives of the nations that +conquered as for those who were vanquished at Waterloo. It would be more +correct to say that the _personnel_ of the Cafe, from the proprietor and +manager downward, were utterly oblivious of such distinctions of +nationality. Every one who honoured the establishment was considered by +them a grand seigneur, for whom nothing could be too good. I remember +one day in '45 or '46--for M. Martin Guepet was at the head of affairs +then--Balzac announcing the advent of a Russian friend, and asking +Guepet to put his best foot forward. "Assuredly, monsieur, we will do +so," was the answer, "because it is simply what we are in the habit of +doing every day." The retort was sharp, but absolutely justified by +facts. One was never told at the Cafe de Paris that this or that dish +"could not be recommended," that "the fish could not be guaranteed." +When the quality of the latter was doubtful, it did not make its +appearance on the bill of fare. _A propos_ of fish, there was a story +current in the Cafe de Paris which may or may not have been the +invention of one of the many clever literary men who foregathered there. +It was to the effect that one of Guepet's predecessors--Angilbert the +younger, I believe--had cast a doubt upon the historical accuracy of the +facts connected with the tragic death of Vatel, the renowned chef of the +Prince de Conde. According to Angilbert, Vatel did not throw himself +upon his sword because the fish for Louis XIV.'s dinner had not arrived, +but because it had arrived, been cooked, and was found "not to be so +fresh as it might be." The elimination of those dishes would have +disturbed the whole of the economy of the _menu_, and rather than suffer +such disgrace Vatel made an end of himself. "For you see, monsieur," +Angilbert is supposed to have said, "one can very well arrange a perfect +dinner without fish, as long as one knows beforehand; but one cannot +modify a _service_ that has been thought out with it, when it fails at a +moment's notice. As every one of my chefs is a treasure, who would not +scruple to imitate the sacrifice of his famous prototype; and as I do +not wish to expose him to such a heroic but inconvenient death, we take +the certain for the uncertain, consequently doubtful fish means no +fish." + +Truth or fiction, the story accurately conveys the pride of the +proprietors in the unsullied gastronomic traditions of the +establishment, and there is no doubt that they were ably seconded in +that respect by every one around them, even to the _clientele_ itself. +Not a single one of the latter would have called the waiters by their +names, nor would these have ventured to rehearse the names of the dishes +in a kind of slang or mutilated French, which is becoming more frequent +day by day, and which is at best but fit as a means of communication +between waiters and scullions. Least of all, would they have numbered +the clients, as is done at present. A gentleman sitting at table No. 5 +was "the gentleman at table No. 5," not merely "number five." There was +little need for the bellowing and shouting from one end of the room to +the other, because the head waiter himself had an eye everywhere. The +word "addition," which people think it good taste in the seventies and +eighties to employ when asking for their bills, was never heard. People +did not profess to know the nature of the arithmetical operation by +which the total of their liabilities was arrived at; they left that to +the cashier and the rest of the underlings. + +No coal or gas was used in the Cafe de Paris: lamps and wood fires +upstairs; charcoal, and only that of a peculiar kind, in the kitchens, +which might have been a hundred miles distant, for all we knew, for +neither the rattling of dishes nor the smell of preparation betrayed +their vicinity. A charming, subdued hum of voices attested the presence +of two or three score of human beings attending to the inner man; the +idiotic giggle, the affected little shrieks of the shopgirl or housemaid +promoted to be the companion of the quasi-man of the world was never +heard there. The _cabinet particulier_ was not made a feature of the +Cafe de Paris, and suppers were out of the question. Now and then the +frank laughter of the younger members of a family party, and that was +all. As a rule, however, there were few strangers at the Cafe de Paris, +or what are called chance customers, as distinct from periodical ones. +But there were half a score of tables absolutely sacred from the +invasion of no matter whom, such as those of the Marquis du Hallays, +Lord Seymour, the Marquis de St. Cricq, M. Romieu, Prince Rostopchine, +Prince Soltikoff, Dr. Veron, etc., etc. Lord Palmerston, when in Paris, +scarcely ever dined anywhere else than at the Cafe de Paris--of course I +mean when dining at a public establishment. + +Almost every evening there was an interchange of dishes or of wines +between those tables; for instance, Dr. Veron, of whom I will have a +good deal to say in these notes, and who was very fond of Musigny +vintage, rarely missed offering some to the Marquis du Hallays, who, in +his turn, sent him of the finest dishes from his table. For all these +men not only professed to eat well, but never to suffer from +indigestion. Their gastronomy was really an art, but an art aided by +science which was applied to the simplest dish. One of these was _veau a +la casserole_, which figured at least three times a week on the bill of +fare, and the like of which I have never tasted elsewhere. Its +recuperative qualities were vouched for by such men as Alfred de Musset, +Balzac, and Alexandre Dumas. The former partook of it whenever it was on +the bill; the others often came, after a spell of hard work, to recruit +their mental and bodily strength with it, and maintained that nothing +set them up so effectually. + +These three men were particularly interesting to me, and their names +will frequently recur in these notes. I was very young, and, though +perhaps not so enthusiastic about literature as I was about painting and +sculpture, it would indeed have been surprising if I had remained +indifferent to the fascination experienced by almost every one in their +society: for let me state at once that the great poet, the great +playwright, and the great novelist were even something more than men of +genius; they were men of the world, and gentlemen who thought it worth +their while to be agreeable companions. Unlike Victor Hugo, Lamartine, +Chateaubriand, and Eugene Sue, all of whom I knew about the same time, +they did not deem it necessary to stand mentally aloof from ordinary +mortals. Alfred de Musset and Alexandre Dumas were both very handsome, +but each in a different way. With his tall, slim figure, auburn wavy +hair and beard, blue eyes, and finely-shaped mouth and nose, De Musset +gave one the impression of a dandy cavalry officer in mufti, rather than +of a poet: the "Miss Byron" which Preault the sculptor applied to him +was, perhaps, not altogether undeserved, if judged intellectually and +physically at first sight. There was a feminine grace about all his +movements. The "Confessions d'un Enfant du Siecle," his play, "Frederic +and Bernerette," were apt to stir the heart of women rather than that of +men; but was it not perhaps because the majority of the strong sex +cannot be stirred except with a pole? And the poet who was so sensitive +to everything rough as to leave invariably the coppers given to him in +exchange, was unlikely to take voluntarily to such an unwieldy and +clumsy instrument to produce his effects.[4] + + [Footnote 4: This reluctance to handle coppers proved a sore + grief to his more economical and less fastidious brother Paul, + who watched like a guardian angel over his junior, whom he + worshipped. It is on record that he only said a harsh word to + him once in his life, namely, when they wanted to make him, + Paul, a member of the Academie Francaise. "C'est bien assez + d'un immortel dans la famille," he replied to those who + counselled him to stand. Then, turning to his brother, "Je ne + comprends pas pourquoi tu t'es fourre dans cette galere, si + elle est assez grande pour moi, tu dois y etre joliment a + l'etroit." It is difficult to imagine a greater instance of + brotherly pride and admiration, because Paul de Musset was by + no means a nonentity, only from a very early age he had always + merged his individuality in that of Alfred. To some one who + once remarked upon this in my hearing, he answered, "Que + voulez-vous? c'est comme cela: Alfred a eu toujours la moitie + du lit, seulement la moitie etait toujours prise du milieu."] + +Throughout these notes, I intend to abstain carefully from literary +judgments. I am not competent to enter into them; but, if I were, I +should still be reluctant to do so in the case of Alfred de Musset, who, +to my knowledge, never questioned the talent of any one. De Musset +improved upon better acquaintance. He was apt to strike one at first as +distant and supercilious. He was neither the one nor the other, simply +very reserved, and at the best of times very sad, not to say melancholy. +It was not affectation, as has been said so often; it was his nature. +The charge of superciliousness arose from his distressing +short-sightedness, which compelled him to stare very hard at people +without the least intention of being offensive. + +I have said that Balzac often came, after a spell of hard work, to +recruit his forces with the _veau a la casserole_ of the Cafe de Paris; +I should have added that this was generally in the autumn and winter, +for, at the end of the spring and during the summer, the dinner hour, +seven, found Balzac still a prisoner at home. Few of his acquaintances +and friends ever caught sight of him, they were often in total ignorance +of his whereabouts, and such news as reached them generally came through +Joseph Mery, the poet and novelist, the only one who came across him +during those periods of eclipse. Mery was an inveterate gambler, and +spent night after night at the card-table. He rarely left it before +daybreak. His way lay past the Cafe de Paris, and for four consecutive +mornings he had met Balzac strolling leisurely up and down, dressed in a +pantalon a pieds (trousers not terminating below the ankle, but with +feet in them like stockings), and frock coat with velvet facings. The +second morning, Mery felt surprised at the coincidence; the third, he +was puzzled; the fourth, he could hold out no longer, and asked Balzac +the reason of these nocturnal perambulations round about the same spot. +Balzac put his hand in his pocket and produced an almanack, showing that +the sun did not rise before 3.40. "I am being tracked by the officers +of the Tribunal de Commerce, and obliged to hide myself during the day; +but at this hour I am free, and can take a walk, for as long as the sun +is not up they cannot arrest me." + +I remember having read that Ouvrard, the great army contractor, had done +the same for many years; nevertheless, he was arrested one day,--the +authorities proved that the almanack was wrong, that the sun rose ten +minutes earlier than was stated therein. He brought an action against +the compiler and publishers. They had to pay him damages. + +Though literary remuneration was not in those days what it became later +on, it was sufficiently large to make it difficult to explain the +chronic impecuniosity of Balzac, though not that of Dumas. They were not +gamblers, and had not the terrible fits of idleness or drinking which +left De Musset stranded every now and again. Lamartine suffered from the +same complaint, I mean impecuniosity. There is proof of Balzac's +industry and frugality in two extracts from his letters to his mother, +dated Angouleme, July, 1832, when he himself was thirty-two years old, +and had already written half a dozen masterpieces. "Several bills are +due, and, if I cannot find the money for them, I will have them +protested and let the law take its course. It will give me breathing +time, and I can settle costs and all afterwards." + +Meanwhile he works eight hours a day at "Louis Lambert," one of the best +things among his numberless best things. His mother sends him a hundred +francs, and, perhaps with the same pen with which he wrote those two +marvellous chapters that stand out like a couple of priceless rubies +from among the mass of other jewels, he thanks her and accounts for +them. "For the copying of the maps, 20 frs.; for my passport, 10 frs. I +owed 15 frs. for discount on one of my bills, and 15 frs. on my fare. 15 +frs. for flowers as a birthday present. Lost at cards, 10 frs. Postage +and servant's tips, 15 frs. Total, 100 frs." + +But these ten francs have not been lost at one fell swoop; they +represent his bad luck at the _gaming table_ during the whole month of +his stay at Angouleme, at the house of his friend and sister's +schoolfellow, Madame Zulma Carraud,--hence, something like seven sous +(3-1/2_d._) per day: for which extravagance he makes up, on his return +to Paris, by plunging into work harder than ever. He goes to roost at 7 +p.m., "like the fowls;" and he is called at 1 a.m., when he writes +until 8 a.m. He takes another hour and a half of sleep, and, after +partaking of a light meal, "gets into his collar" until four in the +afternoon. After that, he receives a few friends, takes a bath, or goes +out, and immediately he has swallowed his dinner he "turns in," as +stated above. "I shall be compelled to lead this nigger's life for a few +months without stopping, in order not to be swamped by those terrible +bills that are due." + +These extracts are not personal recollections. I have inserted them to +make good my statement that Balzac was neither a gambler, a drunkard, +nor an idler. + +"How does he spend his money?" I asked Mery, when he had told us of his +fourth meeting with Balzac on that very morning. + +"In sops to his imagination, in balloons to the land of dreams, which +balloons he constructs with his hard-won earnings and inflates with the +essence of his visions, but which nevertheless will not rise three feet +from the earth," he answered. Then he went on explaining: "Balzac is +firmly convinced that every one of his characters has had, or has still, +its counterpart in real life, notably the characters that have risen +from humble beginnings to great wealth; and he thinks that, having +worked out the secret of their success on paper, he can put it in +practice. He embarks on the most harum-scarum speculations without the +slightest practical knowledge; as, for instance, when he drew the plans +for his country-house at the Jardies (Ville d'Avray), and insisted upon +the builder carrying them out in every respect while he was away. When +the place was finished there was not a single staircase. Of course, they +had to put them outside, and he maintained that it was part of his +original plan; but he had never given a thought to the means of ascent. +But here is Monsieur Louis Lurine. If you would like an idea of Balzac's +impracticability, let him tell you what occurred between Balzac and +Kugelmann a few months ago." + +Kugelmann was at that time publishing a very beautifully illustrated +work, entitled "Les Rues de Paris," which Louis Lurine was editing. We +were standing outside the Cafe Riche, and I knew Lurine by sight. Mery +introduced me to him. After a few preliminary remarks, Lurine told us +the following story. Of course, many years have elapsed since, but I +think I can trust to my memory in this instance. + +"I had suggested," said Lurine, "that Balzac should do the Rue de +Richelieu, and we sent for him. I did not want more than half a sheet, +so imagine my surprise when Balzac named his conditions, viz., five +thousand francs, something over six hundred francs a page of about six +hundred words. Kugelmann began to yell; I simply smiled; seeing which, +Balzac said, as soberly as possible, 'You'll admit that, in order to +depict a landscape faithfully, one should study its every detail. Well, +how would you have me describe the Rue de Richelieu, convey an idea of +its commercial aspect, unless I visit, one after the other, the various +establishments it contains? Suppose I begin by the Boulevard des +Italiens: I'd be bound to take my dejeuner at the Cafe Cardinal, I would +have to buy a couple of scores at Brandus', a gun at the gunsmith's next +door, a breastpin at the next shop. Could I do less than order a coat at +the tailor's, a pair of boots at the bootmaker's?' + +"I cut him short. 'Don't go any further,' I said, 'or else we'll have +you in at "Compagnie des Indes," and, as both lace and Indian shawls +have gone up in price, we'll be bankrupt before we know where we are.' + +"Consequently," concluded Lurine, "the thing fell through, and we gave +the commission to Guenot-Lacointe, who has done the thing very well and +has written twice the pages Balzac was asked for, without buying as much +as a pair of gloves." + +When Balzac was not being harassed by the officials of the Tribunal de +Commerce, he had to dodge the authorities of the National Guards, who +generally had a warrant against him for neglect of duty. Unlike his +great contemporary Dumas, Balzac had an invincible repugnance to play +the amateur warrior--a repugnance, by-the-way, to which we owe one of +the most masterly portraits of his wonderful gallery, that of the +self-satisfied, bumptious, detestable bourgeoise, who struts about in +his uniform; I am alluding to Crevel of "La Cousine Bette." But civil +discipline could take no cognizance of the novelist's likes and +dislikes, and, after repeated "notices" and "warnings," left at his +registered domicile, his incarceration was generally decided upon. As a +rule, this happened about half a dozen times in a twelvemonth. + +The next thing was to catch the refractory national guard, which was not +easy, seeing that, in order to avoid an enforced sojourn at the Hotel +des Haricots,[5] Balzac not only disappeared from his usual haunts, but +left his regular domicile, and took an apartment elsewhere under an +assumed name. On one occasion, at a small lodgings which he had taken +near his publisher, Hippolyte Souverain, under the name of Madame +Dupont, Leon Gozlan, having found him out, sent him a letter addressed +to "Madame Dupont, _nee_ Balzac." + + [Footnote 5: The name of the military prison which was + originally built on the site of the former College Montaigu, + where the scholars were almost exclusively fed on haricot + beans. Throughout its removals the prison preserved its + nickname.--EDITOR.] + +The sergeant-major of Balzac's company had undoubtedly a grudge against +him. He happened to be a perfumer, and ever since the publication and +success of "Cesar Birotteau" the Paris perfumers bore Balzac no +goodwill. That particular one had sworn by all his essences and bottles +that he would lay hands on the recalcitrant private of his company in +the streets, for only under such conditions could he arrest him. To +watch at Balzac's ordinary domicile was of no use, and, when he had +discovered his temporary residence, he had to lure him out of it, +because the other was on his guard. + +One morning, while the novelist was hard at work, his old housekeeper, +whom he always took with him, came to tell him that there was a large +van downstairs with a case addressed to him. "How did they find me out +here?" exclaimed Balzac, and despatched the dame to gather further +particulars. In a few moments she returned. The case contained an +Etruscan vase sent from Italy, but, seeing that it had been knocking +about for the last three days in every quarter of Paris in the carman's +efforts to find out the consignee, the former was anxious that M. Balzac +should verify the intact condition of the package before it was +unloaded. Balzac fell straight into the trap. Giving himself no time +even to exchange his dressing-gown, or rather his monk's frock he was in +the habit of wearing, for a coat, or his slippers for a pair of boots, +he rushed downstairs, watching with a benign smile the carrier handling +most delicately the treasure that had come to him. + +"Caught at last," said a stentorian voice behind him, and dispelling the +dream as its owner laid his hand on the novelist's shoulder, while a +gigantic companion planted himself in front of the street door and cut +off all retreat that way. + +"With a refinement of cruelty, which in the eyes of posterity will +considerably diminish the glory of his victory"--I am quoting Balzac's +own words as he related the scene to us at the Hotel des Haricots--the +sergeant-major perfumer would not allow his prisoner to change his +clothes, and while the van with the precious Etruscan vase disappeared +in the distance, Balzac was hustled into a cab to spend a week in +durance vile, where on that occasion he had the company of Adolphe Adam, +the composer of "Le Postillon de Lonjumeau." + +However, "les jours de fete etaient passes," and had been for the last +five years, ever since the Hotel des Haricots had been transferred +from the town mansion of the De Bazancourts in the Rue des +Fosses-Saint-Germain to its then locale near the Orleans railway +station. There were no more banquets in the refectory as there had +been of yore. Each prisoner had his meals in his cell. Joseph Mery, +Nestor Roqueplan, and I were admitted as the clock struck two, and had +to leave exactly an hour afterwards. It was during this visit that +Balzac enacted the scene for us which I have endeavoured to describe +above, and reminded Mery of the last dinner he had given to Dumas, +Jules Sandeau, and several others in the former prison, which dinner +cost five hundred francs. Eugene Sue, who was as unwilling as Balzac +to perform his civic duties, had had three of his own servants to wait +upon him there, and some of his plate and silver brought to his cell. + +Seeing that the name of the celebrated author of "Les Mysteres de Paris" +has presented itself in the course of these notes, I may just as well +have done with him, for he forms part of the least agreeable of my +recollections. He was also an _habitue_ of the Cafe de Paris. A great +deal has been written about him; what has never been sufficiently +insisted upon was the _inveterate snobbishness of the man_. When I first +knew him, about '42-'43, he was already in the zenith of his glory, but +I had often heard others mention his name before then, and never very +favourably. His dandyism was offensive, mainly because it did not sit +naturally upon him. It did not spring from an innate refinement, but +from a love of show, although his father, who had been known to some of +the son's familiars, was a worthy man, a doctor, and, it appears, a very +good doctor, but somewhat brusque, like our own Abernethy; still much +more of a gentleman at heart than the son. He did not like Eugene's +extravagance, and when the latter, about '24, launched out into a +cabriolet, he shipped him off on one of the king's vessels, as a +surgeon; to which fact French literature owed the first novels of the +future author of "Les Mysteres de Paris" and "Le Juif-Errant." + +But the father was gathered to his fathers, and Eugene, who had never +taken kindly to a seafaring life, returned to Paris, to spend his +inheritance and to resume his old habits, which made one of his +acquaintances say that "le pere and le fils had _both_ entered upon a +better life." It appears that, though somewhat of a _poseur_ from the +very beginning, he was witty and amusing, and readily found access to +the circle that frequented the gardens of the Tivoli and the Cafe de +Paris.[6] They, in their turn, made him a member of the Jockey Club when +it was founded, which kindness they unanimously regretted, as will be +seen directly. + + [Footnote 6: There were two Tivoli gardens, both in the same + neighbourhood, the site of the present Quartier de l'Europe. + The author is alluding to the second, so often mentioned in the + novels of Paul de Kock.--EDITOR.] + +The Tivoli gardens, though utterly forgotten at present, was in reality +the birthplace of the French Jockey Club. About the year 1833 a man +named Bryon, one of whose descendants keeps, at the hour I write, a +large livery stables near the Grand Cafe, opened a pigeon-shooting +gallery in the Tivoli; the pigeons, from what I have heard, mainly +consisting of quails, larks, and other birds. The pigeons shot at were +wooden ones, poised up high in the air, but motionless, as we still see +them at the suburban fairs around Paris. Seven years before, Bryon had +started a "society of amateurs of races," to whom, for a certain +consideration, he let a movable stand at private meetings, for there +were no others until the Society for the Encouragement of breeding +French Horses started operations in 1834. But the deliberations at first +took place at Bryon's place in the Tivoli gardens, and continued there +until, one day, Bryon asked the fourteen or fifteen members why they +should not have a locale of their own; the result was that they took +modest quarters in the Rue du Helder, or rather amalgamated with a small +club located there under the name of Le Bouge (The Den); for Lord +Seymour, the Duke de Nemours, Prince Demidoff, and the rest were +sufficiently clear-sighted to perceive that a Jockey Club governed on +the English principle was entirely out of the question. That was the +origin of the French Jockey Club, which, after various migrations, is, +at the time of writing, magnificently housed in one of the palatial +mansions of the Rue Scribe. As a matter of course, some of the +fashionable _habitues_ of the Cafe de Paris, though not knowing a +fetlock from a pastern, were but too pleased to join an institution +which, with the mania for everything English in full swing, then +conferred as it were upon its members a kind of patent of "good form," +and, above all, of exclusiveness, for which some, even amidst the +fleshpots of the celebrated restaurant, longed. Because, it must be +remembered, though the majority of the company at the Cafe de Paris were +very well from the point of view of birth and social position, there was +no possibility of excluding those who could lay no claim to such +distinctions, provided they had the money to pay their reckoning, and +most of them had more than enough for that. It appears that Eugene Sue +was not so objectionable as he became afterwards, when the wonderful +success of his "Mysteres de Paris" and the "Juif-Errant" had turned his +head; he was made an original member of the club. Election on the +nomination by three sponsors was not necessary then. That article was +not inserted in the rules until two years after the foundation of the +Paris Jockey Club. + +Of the success attending Sue's two best-known works, I can speak from +personal experience; for I was old enough to be impressed by it, and +foolish enough to rank him, on account of it, with Balzac and Dumas, +perhaps a little higher than the former. After the lapse of many years, +I can only console myself for my infatuation with the thought that +thousands, of far greater intellectual attainments than mine, were in +the same boat, for it must not be supposed that the _furore_ created by +"Les Mysteres de Paris" was confined to one class, and that class the +worst educated one. While it appeared in serial form in the _Debats_, +one had to bespeak the paper several hours beforehand, because, unless +one subscribed to it, it was impossible to get it from the news-vendors. +As for the reading-rooms where it was supposed to be kept, the +proprietors frankly laughed in your face if you happened to ask for it, +after you had paid your two sous admission. "Monsieur is joking. We have +got five copies, and we let them out at ten sous each for half an hour: +that's the time it takes to read M. Sue's story. We have one copy here, +and if monsieur likes to take his turn he may do so, though he will +probably have to wait for three or four hours." + +At last the guileless demoiselle behind the counter found even a more +effective way of fleecing her clients. The cabinets de lecture altered +their fees, and the two sous, which until then had conferred the right +of staying as long as one liked, were transformed into the price of +admission for one hour. Each reader received a ticket on entering, +stating the time, and the shrewd caissiere made the round every ten +minutes. I may say without exaggeration that the days on which the +instalment of fiction was "crowded out," there was a general air of +listlessness about Paris. And, after the first few weeks, this happened +frequently; for by that time the Bertins had become quite as clever as +their formidable rival, the proprietor and editor of the +_Constitutionnel_, the famous Dr. Veron, whom I have already mentioned, +but of whom I shall have occasion to speak again and again, for he was +one of the most notable characters in the Paris of my early manhood. But +to return for a moment to "Les Mysteres de Paris" and its author. + +The serial, then, was frequently interrupted for one or two days, +without notice, however, to the readers; on its resumption there was a +nice little paragraph to assure the "grandes dames de par le monde," as +well as their maids, with regard to the health of M. Sue, who was +supposed to have been too ill to work. The public took all this _au +grand serieux_. They either chose to forget, or were ignorant of the +fact, that a novel of that kind, especially in the early days of serial +feuilleton, was not delivered to the editor bit by bit. Sue, great man +as he was, would not have dared to inaugurate the system only adopted +somewhat later by Alexandre Dumas the Elder, namely, that of writing +"from hand to mouth." These paragraphs served a dual purpose--they +whetted the lady and other readers' interest in the author, and informed +the indifferent ones how great that interest was. For these paragraphs +were, or professed to be,--I really believe they were,--the courteous +replies to hundreds of kind inquiries which the author "could not +acknowledge separately for lack of time." + +But this was not all. There was really a good excuse for Eugene Sue "se +prenant au serieux," seeing that some of the most eminent magistrates +looked upon him in that light and opened a correspondence with him, +submitting their ideas about reforming such criminals as "le maitre +d'ecole," and praising Prince Rodolph, or rather Eugene Sue under that +name, for "his laudable efforts in the cause of humanity." In reality, +Sue was in the position of Moliere's "bourgeois gentilhomme" who spoke +prose without being aware of it; for there was not the smallest evidence +from his former work that he intended to inaugurate any crusade, either +socialistic or philanthropic, when he began his "Mysteres de Paris." He +simply wanted to write a stirring novel. But, unlike M. Jourdain, he did +not plead ignorance of his own good motives when congratulated upon +them. On the contrary, he gravely and officially replied in the _Debats_ +without winking. Some of the papers, not to be outdone, gravely +recounted how whole families had been converted from their evil ways by +the perusal of the novel; how others, after supper, had dropped on their +knees to pray for their author; how one working man had exclaimed, "You +may say what you like, it would be a good thing if Providence sent many +men like M. Sue in this world to take up the cudgels of the honest and +struggling artisan." Thereupon Beranger, who did not like to be +forgotten in this chorus of praise, paid a ceremonious visit to Sue, and +between the two they assumed the protectorship of the horny-handed son +of toil. + +It must not be supposed that I am joking or exaggerating, and that the +_engoument_ was confined to the lower classes, and to provincial and +metropolitan faddists. Such men as M. de Lourdoueix, the editor of the +_Gazette de France_, fell into the trap. I have pointed out elsewhere +that the republicans and socialists of those days were not necessarily +godless folk, and M. de Lourdoueix fitly concluded that a socialistic +writer like Sue might become a powerful weapon in his hands against the +Jesuits. So he went to the novelist, and gave him a commission to that +effect. The latter accepted, and conceived the plot of "The Wandering +Jew." When it was sketched out, he communicated it to the editor; but +whether that gentleman had reconsidered the matter in the interval, or +whether he felt frightened at the horribly tragic conception with +scarcely any relief, he refused the novel, unless it was modified to a +great extent and its blood-curdling episodes softened. The author, +taking himself _au serieux_ this time as a religious reformer, declined +to alter a line. Dr. Veron got wind of the affair, bought the novel as +it stood, and, by dint of a system of puffing and advertising which +would even make a modern American stare, obtained a success with it in +the _Constitutionnel_ which equalled if it did not surpass that of the +_Debats_ with the "Mysteres." + +"It is very amusing indeed," said George Sand one night, "but there are +too many animals. I hope we shall soon get out of this menagerie." +Nevertheless, she frankly admitted that she would not like to miss an +instalment for ever so much. + +Meanwhile Sue posed and posed, not as a writer--for, like Horace +Walpole, he was almost ashamed of the title--but as "a man of the world" +who knew nothing about literature, but whose wish to benefit humanity +had been greater than his reluctance to enter the lists with such men as +Balzac and Dumas. After his dinner at the Cafe de Paris, he would +gravely stand on the steps smoking his cigar and listen to the +conversation with an air of superiority without attempting to take part +in it. His mind was supposed to be far away, devising schemes for the +social and moral improvement of his fellow-creatures. These +philanthropic musings did not prevent him from paying a great deal of +attention--too much perhaps--to his personal appearance, for even in +those days of beaux, bucks, and dandies, of Counts d'Orsay and others, +men could not help thinking Eugene Sue overdressed. He rarely appeared +without spurs to his boots, and he would no more have done without a new +pair of white kid gloves every evening than without his dinner. Other +men, like Nestor de Roqueplan, Alfred de Musset, Major Fraser, all of +whose names will frequently recur in these notes, did not mind having +their gloves cleaned, though the process was not so perfect as it is +now; Eugene Sue averred that the smell of cleaned gloves made him ill. +Alfred de Musset, who could be very impertinent when he liked, but who +was withal a very good fellow, said one day: "Mais enfin, mon ami, ca ne +sent pas pire que les bouges que vous nous depeignez. N'y seriez vous +jamais alle?" + +In short, several years before the period of which I now treat, Eugene +Sue had begun to be looked upon coldly at the Jockey Club on account of +the "airs he gave himself;" and three years before the startling success +of his work, he had altogether ceased to go there, though he was still a +member, and remained so nominally until '47, when his name was removed +from the list in accordance with Rule 5. Owing to momentary pecuniary +embarrassments, he had failed to pay his subscription. It may safely be +asserted that this was merely a pretext to get rid of him, because such +stringent measures are rarely resorted to at any decent club, whether in +London or Paris, and least of all at the Jockey Clubs there. The fact +was, that the members did not care for a fellow-member whose taste +differed so materially from their own, whose daily avocations and +pursuits had nothing in common with theirs; for though Eugene Sue as +early as 1835 had possessed a race-horse, named Mameluke, which managed +to come in a capital last at Maisons-sur-Seine (afterwards +Maisons-Lafitte); though he had ridden his _haque_ every day in the +Bois, and driven his cabriolet every afternoon in the Champs-Elysees, +the merest observer could easily perceive that all this was done for +mere show, to use the French expression, "pose." As one of the members +observed, "M. Sue est toujours trop habille, trop carosse, et surtout +trop eperonne." + +M. Sue was all that, and though the Jockey Club at that time was by no +means the unobtrusive body of men it is to-day, its excesses and +eccentricities were rarely indulged in public, except perhaps in +carnival time. A M. de Chateau-Villard might take it into his head to +play a game of billiards on horseback, or M. de Machado might live +surrounded by a couple of hundred parrots if he liked; none of these +fancies attracted the public's notice: M. Sue, by his very profession, +attracted too much of it, and brought a great deal of it into the club +itself; hence, when he raised a violent protest against his expulsion +and endeavoured to neutralize it by sending in his resignation, the +committee maintained its original decision. A few years after this, +Eugene Sue disappeared from the Paris horizon. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Alexandre Dumas pere -- Why he made himself particularly + agreeable to Englishmen -- His way of silencing people -- The + pursuit he loved best next to literature -- He has the privilege + of going down to the kitchens of the Cafe de Paris -- No one + questions his literary genius, some question his culinary + capacities -- Dr. Veron and his cordon-bleu -- Dr. Veron's + reasons for dining out instead of at home -- Dr. Veron's friend, + the philanthropist, who does not go to the theatre because he + objects to be hurried with his emotions -- Dr. Veron, instigated + by his cook, accuses Dumas of having collaborateurs in preparing + his dishes as he was known to have collaborateurs in his literary + work -- Dumas' wrath -- He invites us to a dinner which shall be + wholly cooked by him in the presence of a delegate to be chosen + by the guests -- The lot falls upon me -- Dr. Veron and Sophie + make the _amende honorable_ -- A dinner-party at Veron's -- A + curious lawsuit in connection with Weber's "Freyschutz" -- Nestor + Roqueplan, who became the successor of the defendant in the case, + suggests a way out of it -- Leon Pillet virtually adopts it and + wins the day -- A similar plan adopted years before by a fireman + on duty at the opera, on being tried by court-martial for having + fallen asleep during the performance of "Guido et Genevra" -- + Firemen not bad judges of plays and operas -- They were often + consulted both by Meyerbeer and Dumas -- Dumas at work -- How he + idled his time away -- Dumas causes the traffic receipts of the + Chemin de Fer de l'Ouest to swell during his three years' + residence at Saint-Germain -- M. de Montalivet advises + Louis-Philippe to invite Dumas to Versailles, to see what his + presence will do for the royal city -- Louis-Philippe does not + act upon the advice -- The relations between Dumas and the + d'Orleans family -- After the Revolution of '48, Dumas becomes a + candidate for parliament -- The story of his canvass and his + address to the electors at Joigny -- Dumas' utter indifference to + money matters -- He casts his burdens upon others -- Dumas and + his creditors -- Writs and distraints -- How they are dealt with + -- Dumas' indiscriminate generosity -- A dozen houses full of new + furniture in half as many years -- Dumas' frugality at table -- + Literary remuneration -- Dumas and his son -- "Leave me a hundred + francs." + + +Among my most pleasant recollections of those days are those of +Alexandre Dumas. To quote his own words, "whenever he met an Englishman +he considered it his particular duty to make himself agreeable to him, +as part of the debt he owed to Shakespeare and Walter Scott." I doubt +whether Dumas ever made himself deliberately disagreeable to any one; +even when provoked, he managed to disarm his adversary with an epigram, +rather than wound him. One evening, a professor at one of the provincial +universities had been dining at the Cafe de Paris, as the guest of Roger +de Beauvoir. He had a magnificent cameo breastpin. It elicited the +admiration of every one, and notably that of Dumas. He said at once that +it was a portrait of Julius Caesar. + +"Are you an archaeologist?" asked the professor. + +"I," replied Dumas, "I am absolutely nothing." + +"Still," insisted the visitor, "you perceived at once that it was a +portrait of Julius Caesar." + +"That is not very wonderful. Caesar is essentially a Roman type; and, +besides, I know Caesar as well as most people, and perhaps better." + +To tell a professor of history--especially a provincial one--that one +knows Caesar as well as most people and perhaps better, is naturally to +provoke the question, "In what capacity?" As a matter of course the +question followed immediately. + +"In the capacity of Caesar's historian," said Dumas imperturbably. + +We were getting interested, because we foresaw that the professor would, +in a few minutes, get the worst of it. Dumas' eyes were twinkling with +mischief. + +"You have written a history of Caesar?" asked the learned man. + +"Yes; why not?" + +"Well, you won't mind my being frank with you: it is because it has +never been mentioned in the world of savans." + +"The world of savans never mentions me." + +"Still, a history of Caesar ought to make somewhat of a sensation." + +"Mine has not made any. People read it, and that was all. It is the +books which it is impossible to read that make a sensation: they are +like the dinners one cannot digest; the dinners one digests are not as +much as thought of next morning." That was Dumas' way of putting a +would-be impertinent opponent _hors de combat_, and his repartees were +frequently drawn from the pursuit he loved as well, if not better than +literature, namely, cooking. It may sound exaggerated, but I verily +believe that Dumas took a greater pride in concocting a stew than in +constructing a novel or a play. Very often, in the middle of the dinner, +he would put down his knife and fork. "Ca, c'est rudement bon: il faut +que je m'en procure la recette." And Guepet was sent for to authorize +Dumas to descend to the lower regions and have a consultation with his +chefs. He was the only one of the _habitues_ who had ever been in the +kitchens of the Cafe de Paris. As a rule these excursions were followed +by an invitation to dine at Dumas' two or three days hence, when the +knowledge freshly acquired would be put into practice. + +There were few of us who questioned Dumas' literary genius; there were +many who suspected his culinary abilities, and notably among them, Dr. +Veron. The germs of this unbelief had been sown in the doctor's mind by +his own cordon-bleu, Sophie. The erstwhile director of the opera lived, +at that time, in a beautiful apartment on the first floor of a nice +house in the Rue Taitbout, at the corner of which the Cafe de Paris was +situated. Sophie had virtually a sinecure of it, because, with the +exception of a dinner-party now and then, her master, who was a +bachelor, took his dinners at the restaurant. And with regard to the +dejeuner, there was not much chance of her displaying her talents, +because the man, who was reputed to be a very Apicius, was frugality +itself. His reasons for dining out instead of at home were perfectly +logical, though they sounded paradoxical. One day, when I was remarking +upon the seemingly strange habit of dining out, when he was paying "a +perfect treasure" at home, he gave me these reasons. "My dear friend, +depend upon it that it is man's stomach which found the aphorism, 'Qui +va _piano_ va _sano_, qui va _sano_ va _lontano_.' In your own home the +soup is on the table at a certain hour, the roast is taken off the jack, +the dessert is spread out on the sideboard. Your servants, in order to +get more time over their meals, hurry you up; they do not serve you, +they gorge you. At the restaurant, on the contrary, they are never in a +hurry, they let you wait. And, besides, I always tell the waiters not to +mind me; that I like being kept a long while--that is one of the reasons +why I come here. + +"Another thing, at the restaurant the door is opened at every moment and +something happens. A friend, a chum, or a mere acquaintance comes in; +one chats and laughs: all this aids digestion. A man ought not to be +like a boa-constrictor, he ought not to make digestion a business apart. +He ought to dine and to digest at the same time, and nothing aids this +dual function like good conversation. Perhaps the servant of Madame de +Maintenon, when the latter was still Madame Scarron, was a greater +philosopher than we suspect when he whispered to his mistress, 'Madame, +the roast has run short; give them another story.' + +"I knew a philanthropist," wound up Dr. Veron, "who objected as much to +be hurried over his emotions as I object to be hurried over my meals. +For that reason he never went to the theatre. When he wanted an +emotional fillip, he wandered about the streets until he met some poor +wretch evidently hungry and out of elbows. He took him to the nearest +wine-shop, gave him something to eat and to drink, sat himself opposite +to his guest, and told him to recount his misfortunes. 'But take your +time over it. I am not in a hurry,' he recommended. The poor outcast +began his tale; my friend listened attentively until he was thoroughly +moved. If the man's story was very sad, he gave him a franc or two; if +it was positively heart-rending and made him cry, he gave him a +five-franc piece; after which, he came to see me, saying, 'I have +thoroughly enjoyed myself, and made the intervals between each +sensational episode last as long as I liked, and, what is more, it has +just cost me seven francs, the price of a stall at the theatre.'" + +To return to Dr. Veron's scepticism with regard to Dumas' culinary +accomplishments, and how he was converted. Dumas, it appears, had got +the recipe for stewing carp from a German lady, and, being at that +moment on very friendly terms with Dr. Veron, which was not always the +case, had invited him and several others to come and taste the results +of his experiments. The dish was simply splendid, and for days and days +Veron, who was really a frugal eater, could talk of nothing else to his +cook. + +"Where did you taste it?" said Sophie, getting somewhat jealous of this +praise of others; "at the Cafe de Paris?" + +"No, at Monsieur Dumas'," was the answer. + +"Well, then, I'll go to Monsieur Dumas' cook, and get the recipe." + +"That's of no use," objected her master. "Monsieur Dumas prepared the +dish himself." + +"Well, then, I'll go to Monsieur Dumas himself and ask him to give me +the recipe." + +Sophie was as good as her word, and walked herself off to the Chaussee +d'Antin. The great novelist felt flattered, and gave her every possible +information, but somehow the dish was not like that her master had so +much enjoyed at his friend's. Then Sophie grew morose, and began to +throw out hints about the great man's borrowing other people's feathers +in his culinary pursuits, just as he did in his literary ones. For +Sophie was not altogether illiterate, and the papers at that time were +frequently charging Dumas with keeping his collaborateurs too much in +the background and himself too much in front. Dumas had never much +difficulty in meeting such accusations, but Sophie had unconsciously hit +upon the tactics of the clever solicitor who recommended the barrister +to abuse the plaintiff, the defendant's case being bad, and she put it +into practice. "C'est avec sa carpe comme avec ses romans, les autres +les font et il y met son nom," she said one day. "Je l'ai bien vu, c'est +un grand diable de vaniteux." + +Now, there was no doubt about it, to those who did not know him very +well, Dumas was "un grand diable de vaniteux;" and the worthy doctor sat +pondering his cook's remarks until he himself felt inclined to think +that Dumas had a clever chef in the background, upon whose victories he +plumed himself. Meanwhile Dumas had been out of town for more than a +month, but a day or so after his return he made his appearance at the +Cafe de Paris, and, as a matter of course, inquired after the result of +Sophie's efforts. The doctor was reticent at first, not caring to +acknowledge Sophie's failure. He had, however, made the matter public, +alleging, at the same time, Sophie's suspicions as to Dumas' hidden +collaborateur, and one of the company was ill advised enough to let the +cat out of the bag. During the many years of my acquaintance with Dumas, +I have never seen him in such a rage as then. But he toned down in a +very few minutes. "Il n'y a qu'une reponse a une accusation pareille," +he said in a grandiloquent tone, which, however, had the most comical +effect, seeing how trifling the matter was in reality--"il n'y qu'une +reponse; vous viendrez diner avec moi demain, vous choissirez un delegue +qui viendra a partir de trois heures me voir preparer mon diner." I was +the youngest, the choice fell upon me. That is how my lifelong +friendship with Dumas began. At three o'clock next day I was at the +Chaussee d'Antin, and was taken by the servant into the kitchen, where +the great novelist stood surrounded by his utensils, some of silver, and +all of them glistening like silver. With the exception of a soupe aux +choux, at which, by his own confession, he had been at work since the +morning, all the ingredients for the dinner were in their natural +state--of course, washed and peeled, but nothing more. He was assisted +by his own cook and a kitchen-maid, but he himself, with his sleeves +rolled up to the elbows, a large apron round his waist, and bare chest, +conducted the operations. I do not think I have ever seen anything more +entertaining, though in the course of these notes I shall have to +mention frequent vagaries on the part of great men. I came to the +conclusion that when writers insisted upon the culinary challenges of +Careme, Duglere, and Casimir they were not indulging in mere metaphor. + +At half-past six the guests began to arrive; at a quarter to seven Dumas +retired to his dressing-room; at seven punctually the servant announced +that "monsieur etait servi." The dinner consisted of the aforenamed +soupe aux choux, the carp that had led to the invitation, a ragout de +mouton a la Hongroise, roti de faisans, and a salade Japonaise. The +sweets and ices had been sent by the patissier. I never dined like that +before or after, not even a week later, when Dr. Veron and Sophie made +the _amende honorable_ in the Rue Taitbout. + +I have spent many delightful evenings with all these men; I do not +remember having spent a more delightful one than on the latter occasion. +Every one was in the best of humours; the dinner was very fine; albeit +that, course for course, it did not come up to Dumas'; and, moreover, +during the week that had elapsed between the two entertainments, one of +Dr. Veron's successors at the opera, Leon Pillet, had been served with +the most ludicrous citation that was ever entered on the rolls of any +tribunal. For nearly nineteen years before that period there had been +several attempts to mount Weber's "Freyschutz," all of which had come to +nought. There had been an adaptation by Castil-Blaze, under the title of +"Robin des Bois," and several others; but until '41, Weber's work, even +in a mutilated state, was not known to the French opera-goer. At that +time, however, M. Emilien Paccini made a very good translation; Hector +Berlioz was commissioned to write the recitatives, for it must be +remembered that Weber's opera contains dialogue, and that dialogue is +not admissible in grand opera. Berlioz acquitted himself with a taste +and reverence for the composer's original scheme that did great credit +to both; he sought his themes in Weber's work itself, notably in the +"Invitation a la Valse;" but notwithstanding all this, the "Freyschutz" +was miserably amputated in the performance lest it should "play" longer +than midnight, though a ballet was added rather than deprive the public +of its so-called due. Neither Paccini nor Berlioz had set foot in the +opera-house since their objections to such a course had been overruled, +and they made it known to the world at large that no blame attached to +them; nevertheless, this quasi "Freyschutz" met with a certain amount of +success. M. Pillet was rubbing his hands with glee at his own +cleverness, until a Nemesis came in the shape of a visitor from the +Fatherland, who took the conceit out of the director with one fell blow, +and, what was worse still, with a perfectly legal one. + +The visitor was no less a personage than Count Tyszkiewicz, one of the +best musical critics of the time and the editor of the foremost musical +publication in the world; namely, _Die Musikalische Zeitung_, of +Leipzig. The count, having been attracted by the announcement of the +opera on the bills, was naturally anxious to hear how French artists +would acquit themselves of a work particularly German, and, having +secured a stall, anticipated an enjoyable evening. But alack and alas! +in a very little while his indignation at the liberties taken with the +text and the score by the singers, musicians, and conductor got the +upper hand, and he rushed off to the commissary of police on duty at the +theatre to claim the execution of Weber's opera in its integrity, as +promised on the bills, or the restitution of his money. Failing to get +satisfaction either way, he required the commissary to draw up a +verbatim report of his objections and his claim, determined to bring an +action. Next morning, he sent a lithographed account of the transaction +to all the papers, requesting its insertion, with which request not a +single one complied. Finding himself baffled at every turn, he engaged +lawyer and counsel and began proceedings. + +It was at that stage of the affair that the dinner at Dr. Veron's took +place. As a matter of course, the coming lawsuit gave rise to a great +deal of chaff on the part of the guests, although the victim of this +badinage and defendant in the suit was not there. It was his successor +who took up the cudgels and predicted the plaintiff's discomfiture. "The +counsel," said Roqueplan, "ought to be instructed to invite the +president and assessors to come and hear the work before they deliver +judgment: if they like it personally, they will not decide against +Pillet; if they don't, they'll fall asleep and be ashamed to own it +afterwards. But should they give a verdict for the plaintiff, Pillet +ought to appeal on a question of incompetence; a person with the name +of Tyszkiewicz has no right to plead in the interest of harmony."[7] + + [Footnote 7: The latter plea was, in fact, advanced by Pillet's + counsel in the first instance, on Roqueplan's advice, and + perhaps influenced the court; for though it gave a verdict for + the plaintiff, it was only for _seven francs_ (the price of the + stall), and costs. The verdict was based upon the + "consideration" that the defendant had not carried out + altogether the promise set forth on the programme.] + +Among such a company as that gathered round Dr. Veron's table, a single +sentence frequently led to a host of recollections. Scarcely had +Roqueplan's suggestion to invite the president and assessors of the +court to the performance of the "Freyschutz" been broached than our host +chimed in: "I can tell you a story where the expedient you recommend was +really resorted to, though it did not emanate from half as clever a man +as you, Roqueplan. In fact, it was only a pompier that hit upon it to +get out of a terrible scrape. He was going to be brought before a +court-martial for neglect of duty. It happened under the management of +my immediate successor, Duponchel, at the fourth or fifth performance of +Halevy's 'Guido et Genevra.' Some of the scenery caught fire, and, but +for Duponchel's presence of mind, there would have been a panic and a +horrible catastrophe. Nevertheless, the cause of the accident had to be +ascertained, and it was found that the brigadier fireman posted at the +spot where the mischief began had been asleep. He frankly admitted his +fault, at the same time pleading extenuating circumstances. 'What do you +mean?' asked the captain, charged with the report. 'Such a thing has +never happened to me before, mon capitaine, but it is impossible for any +one to keep his eyes open during that act. You need not take my word, +but perhaps you will try the effect yourself.' The captain did try; the +captain sat for two or three minutes after the rise of the curtain, then +he was seen to leave his place hurriedly. The brigadier and his men were +severely reprimanded, but they were not tried. Out of respect for Halevy +the matter was kept a secret. + +"I may add," said our host, "that the pompier is by no means a bad judge +of things theatrical, seeing that he is rarely away from the stage for +more than three or four nights at a time. I remember perfectly well +that, during the rehearsals of 'Robert le Diable,' Meyerbeer often had a +chat with them. Curiously enough he now and then made little alterations +after these conversations. I am not insinuating that the great composer +acted upon their suggestions, but I should not at all wonder if he had +done so." + +Alexandre Dumas, in whose honour, it will be remembered, the dinner was +given, had an excellent memory, and some years afterwards profited by +the experiment. I tell the story as it was given to us subsequently by +his son. Only a few friends and Alexandre the younger were present at +the first of the final rehearsals of "The Three Musketeers," at the +Ambigu Comique. They were not dress rehearsals proper, because there +were no costumes, and the scenery merely consisted of a cloth and some +wings. Behind one of the latter they had noticed, during the first six +tableaux, the shining helmet of a fireman who was listening very +attentively. The author had noticed him too. About the middle of the +seventh tableau the helmet suddenly vanished, and the father remarked +upon it to his son. When the act was finished, Dumas went in search of +the pompier, who did not know him. "What made you go away?" he asked +him. "Because it did not amuse me half as much as the others," was the +answer. "That was enough for my father," said the younger Dumas. "There +and then he went to Beraud's room, took off his coat, waistcoat, and +braces, unfastened the collar of his shirt--it was the only way he could +work--and sent for the prompt copy of the seventh tableau, which he tore +up and flung into the fire, to the consternation of Beraud. 'What are +you doing?' he exclaimed. 'You see what I am doing; I am destroying the +seventh tableau. It does not amuse the pompier. I know what it wants.' +And an hour and a half later, at the termination of the rehearsal, the +actors were given a fresh seventh tableau to study." + +I have come back by a roundabout way to the author of "Monte-Christo," +because, tout chemin avec moi mene a Dumas; I repeat, he constitutes one +of the happiest of my recollections. After the lapse of many years, I +willingly admit that I would have cheerfully foregone the acquaintance +of all the other celebrities, perhaps David d'Angers excepted, for that +of Dumas pere. + +After the lapse of many years, the elder Dumas still represents to me +all the good qualities of the French nation and few of their bad ones. +It was absolutely impossible to be dull in his society, but it must not +be thought that these contagious animal spirits only showed themselves +periodically or when in company. It was what the French have so aptly +termed "la joie de vivre," albeit that they rarely associate the phrase +with any one not in the spring of life. With Dumas it was chronic until +a very few months before his death. I remember calling upon him shortly +after the dinner of which I spoke just now. He had taken up his quarters +at Saint-Germain, and come to Paris only for a few days. "Is monsieur at +home?" I said to the servant. + +"He is in his study, monsieur," was the answer. "Monsieur can go in." + +At that moment I heard a loud burst of laughter from the inner +apartment, so I said, "I would sooner wait until monsieur's visitors are +gone." + +"Monsieur has no visitors; he is working," remarked the servant with a +smile. "Monsieur Dumas often laughs like this at his work." + +It was true enough, the novelist was alone, or rather in company with +one of his characters, at whose sallies he was simply roaring. + +Work, in fact, was a pleasure to him, like everything else he undertook. +One day he had been out shooting, between Villers-Cotterets and +Compiegne, since six in the morning, and had killed twenty-nine birds. +"I am going to make up the score and a half, and then I'll have a sleep, +for I feel tired," he said. When he had killed his thirtieth partridge +he slowly walked back to the farm, where his son and friends found him +about four hours later, toasting himself before the fire, his feet on +the andirons, and twirling his thumbs. + +"What are you sitting there for like that?" asked his son. + +"Can't you see? I am resting." + +"Did you get your sleep?" + +"No, I didn't; it's impossible to sleep here. There is an infernal +noise; what with the sheep, the cows, the pigs, and the rest, there is +no chance of getting a wink." + +"So you have been sitting here for the last four hours, twirling your +thumbs?" + +"No, I have been writing a piece in one act." The piece in question was +"Romulus," which he gave to Regnier to have it read at the +Comedie-Francaise, under a pseudonym, and as the work of a young unknown +author. It was accepted without a dissentient vote. + +It is a well-known fact, vouched for by the accounts of the Compagnie +du Chemin de Fer de l'Ouest, that during the three years Dumas lived at +Saint-Germain, the receipts increased by twenty thousand francs per +annum. Of course, it has been objected that railways being then in their +infancy the increment would have been just the same without Dumas' +presence in the royal residence, but, curiously enough, from the day he +left, the passenger traffic fell to its previous state. Dumas had simply +galvanized the sleepy old town into life, he had bought the theatre +where the artists of the Comedie-Francaise, previous to supping with +him, came to play "Mademoiselle de Belle-Isle" or the "Demoiselles de +Saint-Cyr," for the benefit of the poor. On such occasions, there was +not a room to be had at the hotels. After supper, there were twice a +week fireworks on the Terrace, which could be seen from Paris and from +Versailles, to the great astonishment of Louis-Philippe, who really +attributed the change to the beneficence of his reign, although he +failed to account for the continued dulness of the latter royal borough, +where he himself resided, and whose picture-galleries he had restored +and thrown open to the public, besides having the great fountains to +play every first Sunday of the month. + +One day the king sent for M. de Montalivet, and told him that, though +gratified at the revived prosperity of Saint-Germain, he would like to +see a little more gaiety at Versailles. + +"You really mean it, sire?" asked the minister. + +"Not only do I mean it, but I confess to you that it would give me great +pleasure." + +"Well, sire, Alexandre Dumas has lately been sentenced to a fortnight's +imprisonment for neglecting his duty in the National Guards: make an +order for him to spend that fortnight in Versailles, and I guarantee +your Majesty that Versailles will be lively enough." + +Louis-Philippe did not act upon the suggestion. The only member of the +d'Orleans' family who was truly sympathetic to Dumas was the king's +eldest son, whose untimely death shortly afterwards affected the great +novelist very much, albeit that he frankly acknowledged to regretting +the man and not the future ruler; for while loudly professing his +republican creed, he never pretended to overlook his indebtedness to +Louis-Philippe, when Duc d'Orleans, for having befriended him; nay, I am +inclined to think that Dumas' gratitude was far greater than the case +warranted. When, in 1847, the fancy took him to go into parliament, he +naturally turned to the borough he had benefited so much by his stay +there--Saint-Germain, and Saint-Germain denied him. They thought him too +immoral. Dumas waited patiently for another opportunity, which did not +come until the following year, when Louis-Philippe had abdicated. +Addressing a meeting of electors at Joigny, he was challenged by a M. de +Bonneliere to reconcile his title of republican with his title of +Marquis de la Pailleterie, and the fact of his having been a secretary +to the Duc d'Orleans, although he had never occupied so important a +position in the Duc d'Orleans' household. His reply was simply scathing, +and I give it in full as the papers of the day reproduced it. "No +doubt," he said, in an off-hand, bantering way, "I was formerly called +the Marquis de la Pailleterie, which was my father's name, and of which +I was very proud, being unable then to claim a glorious one of my own +make. But at present, when I am somebody, I call myself Alexandre Dumas +and nothing more; and everybody knows me, you among the rest--you, you +absolute nobody, who have merely come to be able to boast to-morrow, +after insulting me to-night, that you have known the great Dumas. If +such was your ambition, you might have satisfied it without failing in +the common courtesies of a gentleman." + +When the applause which the reply provoked had subsided, Dumas went on: +"There is also no doubt about my having been a secretary to the Duc +d'Orleans, and that I have received all kinds of favours from his +family. If you, citizen, are ignorant of the meaning of the term, 'the +memory of the heart,' allow me at least to proclaim here in my loudest +voice, that I am not, and that I entertain towards this royal family all +the devotion an honourable man can feel." + +It is, however, not my intention to sketch Alexandre Dumas as a +politician, for which career I considered him singularly unfit; but the +speech from which I extracted the foregoing contains a few lines which, +more than thirty-five years after they were spoken, cannot fail to +strike the reader with his marvellous foresight. "Geographically," he +said, commenting upon the political state of Europe, "Prussia has the +form of a serpent, and, like it, she seems to be asleep, and to gather +her strength in order to swallow everything around her--Denmark, +Holland, Belgium, and, when she shall have swallowed all that, you will +find that Austria will be swallowed in its turn, and perhaps, alas, +France also." + +The last words, as may be imagined, provoked a storm of hisses; +nevertheless, he kept his audience spellbound until midnight. + +A parliamentary candidate, however eloquent, who flings his constituents +into the river when they happen to annoy him, must have been a novelty +even in those days, and that is what Dumas did to two brawlers after +said meeting, just to show them that his "aristocratic grip" was worth +their "plebeian one." + +A few years later, at a dinner at Dumas', in the Rue d'Amsterdam, I met +a Monsieur du Chaffault who had been an eye-witness of this, as well as +of other scenes during that memorable day. Until the morning of that +day, M. du Chaffault had never set eyes on the great novelist; in the +evening, he was his friend for life. It only proves once more the +irresistible fascination Dumas exercised over every one with whom he +came in contact, because the beginning of that friendship cost M. du +Chaffault six hundred francs, the expenses of that part of the electoral +campaign. The story, as told by M. du Chaffault the following afternoon +in the Cafe Riche to Dr. Veron, myself, and Joseph Mery, is too good to +be missed. I give it as near as I can remember. + +"I was about twenty-four then, with nothing particular to do, and a +moderate private income. They were painting and whitewashing my place, a +few miles away from Sens, and I had taken up my quarters in the +principal hotel in the town. The first elections under the second +republic were being held. There was a good deal of excitement +everywhere, and I liked it, though not taking the slightest interest in +politics. This was in May, 1848; and about six, one morning while I was +still in bed, the door of my room was suddenly opened without knocking, +and what seemed to me a big black monster stood before me. There was a +pistol lying by the side of me, and I was reaching towards it, when he +spoke. 'Don't alarm yourself,' he said; 'I am Alexandre Dumas. They told +me you were a good fellow, and I have come to ask you a service.' + +"I had never seen Dumas in the flesh, only a portrait of him, but I +recognized him immediately. 'You have often afforded me a great deal of +amusement, but I confess you frightened me,' I said. 'What, in Heaven's +name, do you want at this unholy hour?' + +"'I have slept here,' was the answer. 'I landed here at midnight, and am +starting for Joigny by-and-by, to attend a political meeting. I am +putting up as a member for your department.' + +"I jumped out of bed at once, Dumas handed me my trousers, and, when I +got as far as my boots, he says, 'Oh, while I think of it, I have come +to ask you for a pair of boots; in stepping into the carriage, one of +mine has come to utter grief, and there is no shop open.' + +"As you may see for yourselves, I am by no means a giant, and Dumas is +one. I pointed this out to him, but he did not even answer me. He had +caught sight of three or four pair of boots under the dressing-table, +and, in the twinkling of an eye, chose the best pair and pulled them on, +leaving me his old ones, absolutely worn out, but which I have preserved +in my library at home. I always show them to my visitors as the thousand +and first volume of Alexandre Dumas.[8] + + [Footnote 8: Alexandre Dumas had a marvellously small + foot.--EDITOR.] + +"By the time he got the boots on we were friends, as if we had known one +another for years; as for Dumas, he was 'theeing' and 'thouing' me as if +we had been at school together. + +"'You are going to Joigny?' I said; 'I know a good many people there.' + +"'All the better, for I am going to take you along with me.' + +"Having to go no further than Joigny, and being taken thither in the +conveyance of my newly-made friend, I did not think it necessary to +provide myself with an extra supply of funds, the more that I had +between five and six hundred francs in my pocket. In a short time we +were on our road, and the first stage of three hours seemed to me as +many minutes. Whenever we passed a country seat, out came a lot of +anecdotes and legends connected with its owners, interlarded with quaint +fancies and epigrams. At that first change of horses Dumas' secretary +paid. At the second, Villevailles, Dumas says, 'Have you got twenty +francs change?' Without a moment's hesitation, I took out my purse, paid +the money, and put down in my pocket-book, 'Alexandre Dumas, twenty +francs.' I might have saved myself the trouble, as I found out in a very +short time, for the moment he got out at Joigny, he rushed off in a +hurry without troubling about anything. The postilion turned to me for +his money, and I paid, and put down once more, 'Alexandre Dumas, thirty +francs.' + +"The first meeting was fixed for four, at the theatre. They applied to +me for the hire of the building, for the gas. I went on paying, but I no +longer put down the items, saying to myself, 'When my six hundred francs +are gone, my little excursion will be at an end, and I'll go back to +Sens.' The little excursion did not extend to more than one day, seeing +that I had to settle the dinner bill at the Duc de Bourgogne, Dumas +having invited every one he met on his way. I am only sorry for one +thing, that I did not have ten thousand francs in my pocket that morning +in order to prolong my excursion for a week or so. But next morning my +purse was empty, and 'our defeat was certain.' I had already identified +myself with Dumas' aspirations, so I returned to Sens by myself, but +overjoyed at having seen and spoken to this man of genius, who is richer +than all the millionnaires in the world put together, seeing that he +never troubles himself about paying, and has therefore no need to worry +about money. Three months afterwards, the printer at Joigny drew upon me +for a hundred francs for electioneering bills, which, of course, I could +not have ordered, but which draft I settled as joyfully as I had settled +the rest. I have preserved the draft with the boots; they are mementoes +of my first two days' friendship with my dear friend." + +At the first blush, all this sounds very much as if we were dealing with +a mere Harold Skimpole, but no man was more unlike Dickens' creation +than Alexandre Dumas. M. du Chaffault described him rightly when he said +that he did not worry about money, not even his own. "My biographer," +Dumas often said, "will not fail to point out that I was 'a panier +perce,'[9] neglecting, as a matter of course, to mention that, as a +rule, it was not I who made the holes." + + [Footnote 9: Literally, a basket with holes in it; + figuratively, the term applied to irreclaimable + spendthrifts.--EDITOR.] + +The biographers have not been quite so unjust as that. Unfortunately, +few of them knew Dumas intimately, and they were so intent upon +sketching the playwright and the novelist that they neglected the man. +They could have had the stories of Alexandra Dumas' improvidence with +regard to himself and his generosity to others for the asking from his +familiars. On the other hand, the latter have only told these stories in +a fragmentary way; a complete collection of them would be impossible, +for no one, not even Dumas himself, knew half the people whom he +befriended. In that very apartment of the Rue d'Amsterdam which I +mentioned just now, the board was free to any and every one who chose to +come in. Not once, but a score of times, have I heard Dumas ask, after +this or that man had left the table, "Who is he? what's his name?" +Whosoever came with, or at the tail, not of a friend, but of a simple +acquaintance, especially if the acquaintance happened to wear skirts, +was immediately invited to breakfast or dinner as the case might be. +Count de Cherville once told me that Dumas, having taken a house at +Varenne-Saint-Hilaire, his second month's bill for meat alone amounted +to eleven hundred francs. Let it be remembered that his household +consisted of himself, two secretaries, and three servants, and that +money went a great deal further than it does at present, especially in +provincial France, in some parts of which living is still very cheap. In +consequence of one of those financial crises, which were absolutely +periodical with Alexandre Dumas, M. de Cherville had prevailed upon him +to leave Paris for a while, and to take up his quarters with him. All +went comparatively well as long as he was M. de Cherville's guest; but, +having taken a liking to the neighbourhood, he rented a house of his +own, and furnished it from garret to cellar in the most expensive way, +as if he were going to spend the remainder of his life in it. Exclusive +of the furniture, he spent between fifteen thousand and eighteen +thousand francs on hangings, painting, and repairs. The parasites and +harpies which M. de Cherville had kept at bay came down upon him like a +swarm of locusts. "And how long, think you, did Dumas stay in his new +domicile? Three months, not a day more nor less. As a matter of course, +the furniture did not fetch a quarter of its cost; the repairs, the +decorating, etc., were so much sheer waste: for the incoming tenant +refused to refund a cent for it, and Dumas, having made up his mind to +go to Italy, would not wait for a more liberal or conscientious one, +lest he should have the rent of the empty house on his shoulders also. +Luckily, I took care that he should pocket the proceeds of the sale of +the furniture." + +This last sentence wants explaining. As a rule, when a man sells his +sticks, he pockets the money. But the instance just mentioned was the +only one in which Dumas had the disposal of his household goods. The +presiding divinity invariably carried them away with her when she had to +make room for a successor, and these successions generally occurred +once, sometimes twice, a year. "La reine est morte, vive la reine." The +new sovereign, for the first few days of her reign, had to be content +with bare walls and very few material comforts; then the nest was +upholstered afresh, and "il n'y avait rien de change en la demeure, sauf +le nom de la maitresse." + +Consequently, though for forty years Alexandre Dumas could not have +earned less than eight thousand pounds per annum; though he neither +smoked, drank, nor gambled; though, in spite of his mania for cooking, +he himself was the most frugal eater--the beef from the soup of the +previous day, grilled, was his favourite dish,--it rained writs and +summonses around him, while he himself was frequently without a penny. + +M. du Chaffault one day told me of a scene _a propos_ of this which is +worth reproducing. He was chatting to Dumas in his study, when a visitor +was shown in. He turned out to be an Italian man of letters and refugee, +on the verge of starvation. M. du Chaffault could not well make out what +was said, because they were talking Italian, but all at once Dumas got +up and took from the wall behind him a magnificent pistol, one of a +pair. The visitor walked off with it, to M. du Chaffault's surprise. +When he was gone, Dumas turned to his friend and explained: "He was +utterly penniless, and so am I; so I gave him the pistol." + +"Great Heavens, you surely did not recommend him to go and make an end +of himself!" interrupted du Chaffault. + +Dumas burst out laughing. "Of course not. I merely told him to go and +sell or pawn it, and leave me the fellow one, in case some other poor +wretch should want assistance while I am so terribly hard up." + +And yet, in this very Rue d'Amsterdam, whether Dumas was terribly +impecunious or not, the dejeuner, which generally began at about +half-past eleven, was rarely finished before half-past four, because +during the whole of that time fresh contingents arrived to be fed, and +communication was kept up between the apartment and the butcher for +corresponding fresh supplies of beefsteaks and cutlets. + +Is it a wonder, then, that it rained summonses, and writs, and other law +documents? But no one took much notice of these, not even one of the +four secretaries, who was specially appointed to look after these +things. If I remember aright, his name was Hirschler. The names of the +other three secretaries were Rusconi, Viellot, and Fontaine. +Unfortunately, Hirschler was as dilatory as his master, and, until the +process-server claimed a personal interview, as indifferent. These +"limbs of the law" were marvellously polite. I was present one day at an +interview between one of these and Hirschler, for Dumas' dwelling was +absolutely and literally the glass house of the ancient +philosopher--with this difference, that no one threw any stones _from_ +it. There was no secret, no skeleton in the cupboard; the impecuniosity +and the recurrent periods of plenty were both as open as the day. + +The "man of law" and Hirschler began by shaking hands, for they were old +acquaintances; it would have been difficult to find a process-server in +Paris who was not an old acquaintance of Dumas. After which the visitor +informed Hirschler that he had come to distrain. + +"To distrain? I did not know we had got as far as that," said Hirschler. +"Wait a moment. I must go and see." It meant that Hirschler repaired to +the kitchen, where stood a large oaken sideboard, in a capacious drawer +of which all the law documents, no matter by whom received, were +indiscriminately thrown, to be fished out when the "mauvais quart +d'heure" came, and not until then. + +"You are right," said Hirschler, but not in the least worried or +excited, "I really did not know we had got as far as that. I must ask +you to wait another minute. I suppose a third or a fourth of the total +amount will do for the present?" + +"Well, I do not know," said the process-server with most exquisite +politeness. "Try what you can do. I fancy that with a third I may manage +to stop proceedings for a while." + +The third or fourth part of the debt was rarely in the house; messengers +had to be despatched for it to Cadot, the publisher, or to the cashier +of the _Moniteur_, _Constitutionnel_, or _Siecle_. Meanwhile the +process-server was feasted in a sumptuous way, and when the messenger +returned with the sum in question, Hirschler and the process-server +shook hands once more, with the most cordial _au revoir_ possible. + +As a matter of course, the same process-server reappeared upon the scene +in a few months. The comedy had often as many as a dozen +representations, so that it may safely be said that a great number of +Dumas' debts were paid six or seven times over. Even sixpence a line of +sixty letters did not suffice to keep pace with such terrible +improvidence, though the remuneration was much more frequently fourpence +or fivepence. It rarely rose to sevenpence halfpenny, but in all cases a +third went to Dumas' collaborateurs, another third to his creditors, and +the rest to himself. + +I have allowed my pen to run away with me. One more story, and then I +leave Alexandre Dumas for the present. It is simply to show that he +would have squandered the fortune of all the Rothschilds combined: I +repeat, not on himself; he would have given it away, or allowed it to be +taken. He had no notion of the value of money. About a year after I had +made his acquaintance, he was ill at Saint-Germain, and I went to see +him. His dog had bitten him severely in the right hand; he was in bed, +and obliged to dictate. His son had just left him, and he told me, +adding, "C'est un coeur d'or, cet Alexandre." Seeing that I did not ask +what had elicited the praise, he began telling me. + +"This morning I received six hundred and fifty francs. Just now +Alexandre was going up to Paris, and he says, 'I'll take fifty francs.' + +"I did not pay attention, or must have misunderstood; at any rate I +replied, 'Don't take as much as that; leave me a hundred francs.' + +"'What do you mean, father?' he asked. 'I am telling you that I am going +to take fifty francs.' + +"'I beg your pardon,' I said. 'I understood you were going to take six +hundred.'" + +He would have considered it the most natural thing in the world for his +son to take six hundred and leave him fifty; just as he considered it +the most natural thing to bare his arm and to have a dozen leeches put +on it, because his son, when a boy of eight, having met with an +accident, would not consent to blood-letting of that kind. In vain did +the father tell him that the leeches did not hurt. "Well, put some on +yourself, and then I will." And the giant turned up his sleeves, and did +as he was told. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + Dr. Louis Veron -- The real man as distinguished from that of his + own "Memoirs" -- He takes the management of the Paris Opera -- + How it was governed before his advent -- Meyerbeer's "Robert le + Diable" _underlined_ -- Meyerbeer and his doubts upon the merits + of his work -- Meyerbeer's generosity -- Meyerbeer and the + beggars of the Rue Le Peletier -- Dr. Veron, the inventor of the + modern newspaper puff -- Some specimens of advertisements in + their infancy -- Dr. Veron takes a leaf from the book of Moliere + -- Dr. Veron's love of money -- His superstitions -- His + objections to travelling in railways -- He quotes the Queen of + England as an example -- When Queen Victoria overcomes her + objection, Veron holds out -- "Queen Victoria has got a + successor: the Veron dynasty begins and ends with me" -- Thirteen + at table -- I make the acquaintance of Taglioni -- The woman and + the ballerina -- Her adventure at Perth -- An improvised + performance of "Nathalie, la Laitiere Suisse" -- Another + adventure in Russia -- A modern Claude Du-Val -- My last meeting + with Taglioni -- A dinner-party at De Morny's -- A comedy scene + between husband and wife -- Flotow, the composer of "Martha" -- + His family -- His father's objection to the composer's profession + -- The latter's interview with M. de Saint-Georges, the author of + the libretto of Balfe's "Bohemian Girl" -- M. de Saint-Georges + prevails upon the father to let his son study in Paris for five + years, and to provide for him during that time -- The supplies + are stopped on the last day of the fifth year -- Flotow, at the + advice of M. de Saint-Georges, stays on and lives by giving + piano-lessons -- His earthly possessions at his first success -- + "Rob Roy" at the Hotel Castellane -- Lord Granville's opinion of + the music -- The Hotel Castellane and some Paris salons during + Louis-Philippe's reign -- The Princesse de Lieven's, M. Thiers', + etc. -- What Madame de Girardin's was like -- Victor Hugo's -- + Perpetual adoration; very artistic, but nothing to eat or to + drink -- The salon of the ambassador of the Two Sicilies -- Lord + and Lady Granville at the English Embassy -- The salon of Count + Apponyi -- A story connected with it -- Furniture and + entertainments -- Cakes, ices, and tea; no champagne as during + the Second Empire -- The Hotel Castellane and its amateur + theatricals -- Rival companies -- No under-studies -- Lord + Brougham at the Hotel Castellane -- His bad French and his + would-be Don Juanism -- A French rendering of Shakespeare's + "There is but one step between the sublime and the ridiculous," + as applied to Lord Brougham -- He nearly accepts a part in a + farce where his bad French is likely to produce a comic effect -- + His successor as a murderer of the language -- M. de + Saint-Georges -- Like Moliere, he reads his plays to his + housekeeper -- When the latter is not satisfied, the dinner is + spoilt, however great the success of the play in public + estimation -- Great men and their housekeepers -- Turner, Jean + Jacques Rousseau, Eugene Delacroix. + + +Next to Dumas, the man who is uppermost in my recollections of that +period is Dr. Louis Veron, the founder of the _Revue de Paris_, which +was the precursor of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_; Dr Veron, under whose +management the Paris Opera rose to a degree of perfection it has never +attained since; Dr. Veron, who, as some one said, was as much part and +parcel of the history of Paris during the first half of the nineteenth +century as was Napoleon I. of the history of France; Dr. Veron, than +whom there has been no more original figure in any civilized community +before or since, with the exception, perhaps, of Phineas Barnum, to +whom, however, he was infinitely superior in education, tact, and +manners. + +Dr. Veron has written his own "Memoirs" in six bulky volumes, to which +he added a seventh a few years later. They are full of interesting facts +from beginning to end, especially to those who did not know intimately +the author or the times of which he treats. Those who did are tempted to +repeat the mot of Diderot when they gave him the portrait of his father. +"This is my Sunday father; I want my everyday father." The painter, in +fact, had represented the worthy cutler of Langres in his best coat and +wig, etc.; not as his son had been in the habit of seeing him. The Dr. +Veron of the "Memoirs" is not the Dr. Veron of the Cafe de Paris, nor +the Dr. Veron of the _avant-scene_ in his own theatre, snoring a duet +with Auber, and "keeping better time than the great composer himself;" +he is not the Dr. Veron full of fads and superstitions and uniformly +kind, "because kindness is as a rule a capital investment;" he is not +the cheerful pessimist we knew; he is a grumbling optimist, as the +journalists of his time have painted him; in short, in his book he is a +quasi-philanthropic illusion, while in reality he was a hard-hearted, +shrewd business man who did good by stealth now and then, but never +blushed to find it fame. + +The event which proved the starting-point of Dr. Veron's celebrity was +neither of his own making nor of his own seeking. Though it happened +when I was a mere lad, I have heard it discussed in after-years +sufficiently often and by very good authorities to be confident of my +facts. In June, 1831, Dr. Veron took the management of the Paris Opera, +which up till then had been governed on the style of the old regime, +namely, by three gentlemen of the king's household with a working +director under them. The royal privy purse was virtually responsible for +its liabilities. Louis-Philippe shifted the burden of that +responsibility on the State, and limited its extent. The three gentlemen +of the king's household were replaced by a royal commissioner, and the +yearly subsidy fixed at L32,500; still a pretty round sum, which has +been reduced since by L500 only. + +At Dr. Veron's advent, Meyerbeer's "Robert le Diable" was, what they +call in theatrical parlance, "underlined," or, if not underlined, at +least definitely accepted. Only one work of his had at that time been +heard in Paris, "Il Crociato in Egitto." + +It is difficult to determine, after so many years, whether Dr. Veron, +notwithstanding his artistic instincts, was greatly smitten with the +German composer's masterpiece. It has often been argued that he was not, +because he insisted upon an indemnity of forty thousand francs from the +Government towards the cost of its production. In the case of a man like +Veron, this proves nothing at all. He may have been thoroughly convinced +of the merits of "Robert le Diable," and as thoroughly confident of its +success with the public, though no manager, not even the most +experienced, can be; it would not have prevented him from squeezing the +forty thousand francs from the minister on the plea that the performance +of the work was imposed upon him by a treaty of his predecessor. To Dr. +Veron's credit be it said that he might have saved himself the hard +tussle he had with the minister by simply applying for the money to +Meyerbeer himself, who would have given it without a moment's +hesitation, rather than see the success of "Robert le Diable" +jeopardized by inefficient mounting, although up to the last Meyerbeer +could never make up his mind whether magnificent scenery and gorgeous +dresses were an implied compliment or the reverse to the musical value +of his compositions. _A propos_ of this there is a very characteristic +story. At one of the final dress-rehearsals of "Robert le Diable," +Meyerbeer felt much upset. At the sight of that beautiful set of the +cloister of Sainte-Rosalie, where the nuns rise from their tombs, at the +effect produced by the weird procession, Meyerbeer came up to Veron. + +"My dear director," he said, "I perceive well enough that you do not +depend upon the opera itself; you are, in fact, running after a +spectacular success." + +"Wait till the fourth act," replied Veron, who was above all logical. + +The curtain rose upon the fourth act, and what did Meyerbeer behold? +Instead of the vast, grandiose apartment he had conceived for Isabella, +Princess of Sicily, he found a mean, shabby set, which would have been +deemed scarcely good enough for a minor theatre. + +"Decidedly, my dear director," said Meyerbeer, with a bitter twinge in +his features and voice, "I perceive well enough that you have no faith +in my score; you did not even dare go to the expense of a new set. I +would willingly have paid for it myself." + +And he would willingly have paid for it, because Meyerbeer was not only +very rich, but very generous. + +"It is a very funny thing," said Lord ----, as he came into the Cafe de +Paris one morning, many years afterwards; "there are certain days in the +week when the Rue Le Peletier seems to be swarming with beggars, and, +what is funnier still, they don't take any notice of me. I pass +absolutely scot-free." + +"I'll bet," remarked Roger de Beauvoir, "that they are playing 'Robert +le Diable' or 'Les Huguenots' to-night, and I can assure you that I have +not seen the bills." + +"Now that you speak of it, they are playing 'Les Huguenots' to-night," +replied Lord ----; "but what has that to do with it? I am not aware that +the Paris beggars manifest a particular predilection for Meyerbeer's +operas, and that they are booking their places on the days they are +performed." + +"It's simply this," explained De Beauvoir: "both Rossini and Meyerbeer +never fail to come of a morning to look at the bills, and when the +latter finds his name on them, he is so overjoyed that he absolutely +empties his pockets of all the cash they contain. Notwithstanding his +many years of success, he is still afraid that the public's liking for +his music is merely a passing fancy, and as every additional performance +decreases this apprehension, he thinks he cannot be sufficiently +thankful to Providence. His gratitude shows itself in almsgiving." + +I made it my business subsequently to verify what I considered De +Beauvoir's fantastical statement, and I found it substantially correct. + +To return to Dr. Veron, who, there is no doubt, did the best he could +for "Robert le Diable," to which and to the talent of Taglioni he owed +his fortune. At the same time, it would be robbing him of part of his +glory did we not state that the success of that great work might have +been less signal but for him; both his predecessors and successors had +and have still equally good chances without having availed themselves +of them, either in the interest of lyrical art or in that of the public. + +I compared Dr. Veron just now to Phineas Barnum, and the comparison was +not made at random. Dr. Veron was really the inventor of the newspaper +puff direct and indirect--of that personal journalism which records the +slightest deed or gesture of the popular theatrical manager, and which +at the present day is carried to excess. And all his subordinates and +co-workers were made to share the advantages of the system, because +their slightest doings also reflected glory upon him. An artist filling +at a moment's notice the part of a fellow-artist who had become suddenly +ill, a carpenter saving by his presence of mind the situation at a +critical juncture, had not only his paragraph in next morning's papers, +but a whole column, containing the salient facts of his life and career. +It was the system of Frederick the Great and of the first Napoleon, +acknowledging the daring deeds of their smallest as well as of their +foremost aids--with this difference, that the French captain found it +convenient to suppress them now and then, and that Dr. Veron never +attempted to do so. When the idea of putting down these notes first +entered my mind, I looked over some files of newspapers of that +particular period, and there was scarcely one between 1831 and 1835 that +did not contain a lengthy reference to the Grand Opera and its director. +I was irresistibly reminded of the bulletins the great Napoleon dictated +on the battle-field. I have also seen a collection of posters relating +to the same brilliant reign at the Opera. Of course, compared to the +eloquent effusions and ingenious attempts of the contemporary theatrical +manager to bait the public, Veron's are mere child's play; still we must +remember that the art of puffing was in its infancy, and, as such, some +of them are worth copying. The public was not so _blase_ and it +swallowed the bait eagerly. Here they are. + +"To-morrow tenth performance of ..., which henceforth will only be +played at rare intervals. + +"To-morrow twentieth performance of ...; positively the last before the +departure of M.... + +"To-morrow seventeenth performance of ...; reappearance of Madame ... + +"To-morrow fifteenth performance of ... by all the principal artists who +'created' the parts. + +"To-morrow thirtieth performance of ... The third scene of the second +act will be played as on the first night. + +"To-morrow twentieth performance of ..., which can only be played for a +limited number of nights. + +"To-morrow sixteenth performance of .... In the Ball-Room Scene a new +pas de Chales will be introduced. + +"To-morrow thirtieth performance of .... This successful work must be +momentarily suspended owing to previous arrangements." + +Childish as these lines may look to the present generation, they +produced a fortune of L2000 a year to Dr. Veron in four years, and, but +for the outbreak of the cholera in '32, when "Robert le Diable" was in +the flush of its success, would have produced another L1000 per annum. +At that time Dr. Veron had already been able to put aside L24,000, and +he might have easily closed his theatre during those terrible months; +but, like Moliere, he asked himself what would become of all those who +were dependent upon him, and had not put aside anything; so he made his +savings into ten parcels, intending to hold out as many months without +asking help of any one. Five of the parcels went. At the beginning of +the sixth month the cholera abated; by the end it had almost +disappeared. + +Those who would infer from this that Dr. Veron was indifferent to money, +would make a great mistake. But he would not allow his love of it to get +the upper hand, to come between him and his conscience, to make him +commit either a dishonest or a foolish act. By a foolish act he meant +headlong speculation. When the shares of the Northern Railway were +allotted, Dr. Veron owned the _Constitutionnel_; 150 shares were +allotted to him, which at that moment represented a clear profit of +60,000 francs, they being 400 francs above par. Dr. Veron made up his +mind to realize there and then. But it was already late; the Bourse was +closed, the stockbrokers had finished business for the day. He, however, +met one on the Boulevards, who gave him a cheque for 55,000 francs on +the Bank of France, which could only be cashed next day. The shares were +left meanwhile in Dr. Veron's possession. Three minutes after the +bargain was concluded Dr. Veron went back to his office. "I must have +ready money for this, or decline the transaction," he said. The +stockbroker, by applying to two of his colleagues, managed to scrape +together 50,000 francs. Dr. Veron gave him a receipt in full, returned +home, singing as he went the French version of "A bird in the hand," +etc. + +Veron was exceedingly superstitious, and had fads. He could never be +induced to take a railway journey. It was generally known in France at +that time that, in the early days of locomotion by steam, Queen Victoria +had held a similar objection. Veron, when twitted with his objection, +invariably replied, "I have yet to learn that the Queen of England is +less enlightened than any of you, and she will not enter a railway +carriage." But one day the report spread that the queen had made a +journey from Windsor to London by the "iron horse," and then Veron was +sorely pressed. He had his answer ready. "The Queen of England has got a +successor: the Veron dynasty begins and ends with me. I must take care +to make it last as long as possible." He stuck to his text till the end +of his life. + +On no consideration would Veron have sat down "thirteen at table." Once +or twice when the guests and host made up that number, his coachman's +son was sent for, dressed, and made presentable, and joined the party; +at others he politely requested two or three of us to go and dine at the +Cafe de Paris, and to have the bill sent to him. We drew lots as to who +was to go. + +It was through Dr. Veron that I became acquainted with most of the +operatic celebrities--Meyerbeer, Halevy, Auber, Duprez, etc.; for though +he had abdicated his directorship seven or eight years before we met, he +was perhaps a greater power then in the lyrical world than at the date +of his reign. + +It was at Dr. Veron's that I saw Mdlle. Taglioni for the first time--off +the stage. It must have been in 1844, for she had not been in Paris +since 1840, when I had seen her dance at the Opera. I had only seen her +dance once before that, in '36 or '37, but I was altogether too young to +judge then. I own that in 1840 I was somewhat disappointed, and my +disappointment was shared by many, because some of my friends, to whom I +communicated my impressions, told me that her three years' absence had +made a vast difference in her art. In '44 it was still worse; her +performances gave rise to many a spiteful epigram, for she herself +invited comparison between her former glory and her decline, by dancing +in one of her most successful creations, "L'Ombre." Those most leniently +disposed towards her thought what Alfred de Musset so gracefully +expressed when requested to write some verses in her album. + + "Si vous ne voulez plus danser, + Si vous ne faites que passer + Sur ce grand theatre si sombre, + Ne courez pas apres votre ombre + Et tachez de nous la laisser." + +My disappointment with the ballerina was as nothing, however, to my +disappointment with the woman. I had been able to determine for myself +before then that Marie Taglioni was by no means a good-looking woman, +but I did not expect her to be so plain as she was. That, after all, was +not her fault; but she might have tried to make amends for her lack of +personal charms by her amiability. She rarely attempted to do so, and +never with Frenchmen. Her reception of them was freezing to a degree, +and on the occasions--few and far between--when she thawed, it was with +Russians, Englishmen, or Viennese. Any male of the Latin races she held +metaphorically as well as literally at arm's length. Of the +gracefulness, so apparent on the stage, even in her decline, there was +not a trace to be found in private life. One of her shoulders was higher +than the other; she limped slightly, and, moreover, waddled like a duck. +The pinched mouth was firmly set; there was no smile on the colourless +lips, and she replied to one's remarks in monosyllables. + +Truly she had suffered a cruel wrong at the hands of men--of one man, +bien entendu; nevertheless, the wonder to most people who knew her was +not that Comte Gilbert de Voisins should have left her so soon after +their marriage, but that he should have married her at all. "The fact +was," said some one with whom I discussed the marriage one day, "that De +Voisins considered himself in honour bound to make that reparation, but +I cannot conceive what possessed him to commit the error that made the +reparation necessary." And I am bound to say that it was not the utter +lack of personal attractions that made every one, men and women alike, +indifferent to Taglioni. She was what the French call "une +_pimbeche_."[10] "Am I not a good-natured woman?" said Mdlle. Mars one +day to Hoffman, the blood-curdling novelist. "Mademoiselle, you are the +most amiable creature I know between the footlights and the cloth," he +replied. No one could have paid Taglioni even such a left-handed +compliment, for, if all I heard was true, she was not good-tempered +either on or off the stage. Dr. Veron, who was really a very loyal +friend, was very reticent about her character, and would never be drawn +into revelations. "You know the French proverb," he said once, when I +pressed him very closely. "'On ne herite pas de ceux que l'on tue;' and, +after all, she helped me to make my fortune." + + [Footnote 10: The word "shrew" is the nearest + equivalent.--EDITOR.] + +That evening I was seated next to Mdlle. Taglioni at dinner, and when +she discovered my nationality she unbent a little, so that towards the +dessert we were on comparatively friendly terms. She had evidently very +grateful recollections of her engagements in London, for it was the only +topic on which I could get her to talk on that occasion. Here is a +little story I had from her own lips, and which shows the Scotch of the +early thirties in quite a new light. It may have been known once, but +has been probably forgotten by now, except by the "oldest inhabitant" of +Perth. In 1832 or 1833--I will not vouch for the exact year, seeing that +it is two score of years since the story was told to me--the season in +London had been a fatiguing one for Taglioni. A ballet her father had +composed for her, "Nathalie, ou la Laitiere Suisse," a very inane thing +by all accounts, had met with great success in London. The scene, +however, had, as far as I could make out, been changed from Switzerland +to Scotland, but of this I will not be certain. At the termination of +her engagement Taglioni wanted rest, and she bethought herself to +recruit in the Highlands. After travelling hither and thither for a +little while, she arrived at Perth, and, as a matter of course, put down +her name in the visitors' book of the hotel, then went out to explore +the sights of the town. Meanwhile the report of her arrival had spread +like wildfire, and on her return to the hotel she found awaiting her a +deputation from the principal inhabitants, with the request to honour +them with a performance. "The request was so graciously conveyed," said +Taglioni, "that I could not but accept, though I took care to point out +the difficulties of performing a ballet all by myself, seeing that there +was neither a corps de ballet, a male dancer, nor any one else to +support me. All these objections were overruled by their promise to +provide all these in the best way they could, and before I had time to +consider the matter fully, I was taken off in a cab to inspect the +theatre, etc. Great heavens, what a stage and scenery! Still, I had +given my promise, and, seeing their anxiety, would not go back from it. +I cannot tell where they got their _personnel_ from. There was a +director and a stage-manager, but as he did not understand French, and +as my English at that time was even worse than it is now, we were +obliged to communicate through an interpreter. His English must have +been bewildering, to judge from the manager's blank looks when he spoke +to him, and his French was even more wonderful than my English. He was a +German waiter from the hotel. + +"Nevertheless, thanks to him, I managed to convey the main incidents of +the plot of 'Nathalie' to the manager, and during the first act, the +most complicated one, all went well. But at the beginning of the second +everything threatened to come to a standstill. I must tell you that my +father hit upon the novel idea of introducing a kind of dummy, or lay +figure, on which this idiotic Nathalie lavishes all her caresses. The +young fellow, who is in love with Nathalie, contrives to take the +dummy's place; consequently, in order to preserve some semblance of +truth, and not to make Nathalie appear more idiotic than she is already, +there ought to be a kind of likeness between the dummy and the lover. I +know not whether the interpreter had been at fault, or whether in the +hurry-scurry I had forgotten all about the dummy, but a few minutes +before the rise of the curtain I discovered that there was no dummy. +'You must do the dummy,' I said to Pierre, my servant, 'and I'll pretend +to carry you on.' Pierre nodded a silent assent, and immediately began +to don the costume, seeing which I had the curtain rung up, and went on +to the stage. I was not very comfortable, though, for I heard a violent +altercation going on behind the scenes, the cause of which I failed to +guess. I kept dancing and dancing, getting near to the wings every now +and then, to ask whether Pierre was ready. He seemed to me inordinately +long in changing his dress, but the delay was owing to something far +more serious than his careful preparation for the part. Pierre had a +pair of magnificent whiskers, and the young fellow who enacted the lover +had not a hair on his face. Pierre was ready to go on, when the manager +noticed the difference. 'Stop!' he shouted; 'that won't do. You must +have your whiskers taken off.' Pierre indignantly refused. The manager +endeavoured to persuade him to make the sacrifice, but in vain, until at +last he had him held down on a chair by two stalwart Scotchmen while +the barber did his work. + +"All this had taken time, but the public did not grow impatient. They +would have been very difficult to please indeed had they behaved +otherwise, for I never danced to any audience as I did to them. One of +the few pleasant recollections in my life is that evening at Perth; and, +curiously enough, Pierre, who is still with me, refers to it with great +enthusiasm, notwithstanding the cavalier treatment inflicted upon him. +It was his first and last appearance on any stage." + +Here is another story Taglioni told me on a subsequent occasion. I have +often wondered since whether Macaulay would not have been pleased with +it even more than I was. + +"The St. Petersburg theatrical season of '24-'25 had been particularly +brilliant, and nowhere more so than at the Italian Opera. I came away +laden with presents, among others one from the Czar--a magnificent +necklet of very fine pearls. When the theatre closed at Lent, I was very +anxious to get away, in spite of the inclement season, and +notwithstanding the frequent warnings that the roads were not safe. +Whenever the conversation turned on that topic, the name of Trischka was +sure to crop up; he, in fact, was the leader of a formidable band of +highwaymen, compared with whose exploits those of all the others seemed +to sink into insignificance. Trischka had been steward to Prince +Paskiwiecz, and was spoken of as a very intelligent fellow. Nearly every +one with whom I came in contact had seen him while he was still at St. +Petersburg, and had a good word to say for him. His manners were +reported to be perfect; he spoke French and German very fairly; and, +most curious of all, he was an excellent dancer. Some went even as far +as to say that if he had adopted that profession, instead of scouring +the highways, he would have made a fortune. By all accounts he never +molested poor people, and the rich, whom he laid under contribution, had +never to complain of violent treatment either in words or deeds--nay, +more, he never took all they possessed from his victims, he was content +to share and share alike. But papa n'ecoutait pas de cet' oreille la; +papa etait tres peu partageur; and, truth to tell, I was taking away a +great deal of money from St. Petersburg--which was perhaps another +reason why papa did not see the necessity of paying tithes to Trischka. +If we had followed papa's advice, we should have either applied to the +Czar for an armed escort, or else delayed our departure till the middle +of the summer, though he failed to see that the loss of my engagements +elsewhere would have amounted to a serious item also. But papa had got +it into his head not to part with any of the splendid presents I had +received; they were mostly jewels, and people who do not know papa can +form no idea what they meant to him. However, as we were plainly told +that Trischka conducted his operations all the year round, that we were +as likely to be attacked by him in summer as in winter, papa reluctantly +made up his mind to go in the beginning of April. Papa provided himself +with a pair of large pistols that would not have hurt a cat, and were +the laughing-stock of all those who accompanied us for the first dozen +miles on our journey; for I had made many friends, and they insisted on +doing this. We had two very roomy carriages. My father, my maid, two +German violinists, and myself were in the first; the second contained +our luggage. + +"At the first change of horses after Pskoff, the postmaster told us that +Trischka and his band had been seen a few days previously on the road to +Dunabourg, at the same time, he seemed to think very lightly of the +matter, and, addressing himself particularly to me, opined that, with a +little diplomacy on my part and a good deal of _sang-froid_, I might be +let off very cheaply. All went well until the middle of the next night, +when all of a sudden, in the thick of a dense forest, our road was +barred by a couple of horsemen, while a third opened the door of our +carriage. It was Trischka himself. 'Mademoiselle Taglioni?' he said in +very good German, lifting his hat. 'I am Mademoiselle Taglioni,' I +replied in French. 'I know,' he answered, with a deeper bow than before. +'I was told you were coming this way. I am sorry, mademoiselle, that I +could not come to St. Petersburg to see you dance, but as chance has +befriended me, I hope you will do me the honour to dance before me +here.' 'How can I dance here, in this road, monsieur?' I said +beseechingly. 'Alas, mademoiselle, I have no drawing-room to offer you,' +he replied, still as polite as ever. 'Nevertheless,' he continued, 'if +you think it cannot be done, I shall be under the painful necessity of +confiscating your carriages and luggage, and of sending you back on foot +to the nearest post-town.' 'But, monsieur,' I protested, 'the road is +ankle-deep in mud.' 'Truly,' he laughed, showing a beautiful set of +teeth, 'but your weight won't make any difference; besides, I dare say +you have some rugs and cloths with you in the other carriage, and my men +will only be too pleased to spread them on the ground.' + +"Seeing that all my remonstrance would be in vain, I jumped out of the +carriage. While the rugs were being laid down, my two companions, the +violinists, tuned their instruments, and even papa was prevailed upon to +come out, though he was sulky and never spoke a word. + +"I danced for about a quarter of an hour, and I honestly believe that I +never had such an appreciative audience either before or afterwards. +Then Trischka led me back to the carriage, and, simply lifting his hat, +bade me adieu. 'I keep the rugs, mademoiselle. I will never part with +them,' he said. The last I saw of him, when our carriages were turning a +bend in the road, was a truly picturesque figure on horseback, waving +his hand." + +More than eight years elapsed before I met Taglioni again, and then she +looked absolutely like an old woman, though she was under fifty. It was +at the Comte (afterwards Duc) de Morny's, in '52, and, if I remember +rightly, almost immediately after his resignation as Minister of the +Interior. Taglioni and Mdlle. Rachel were the only women present. Just +as we were sitting down to dinner, Count Gilbert de Voisins came in, and +took the next seat but one on my left which had been reserved for him. +We were on friendly, though not on very intimate terms. He was evidently +not aware of the presence of his wife, for after a few minutes he asked +his neighbour, pointing to her, "Who is this governess-looking old +maid?" He told him. He showed neither surprise nor emotion; but, if an +artist could have been found to sketch his face there, its perfect blank +would have been more amusing than either. He seemed, as it were, to +consult his recollections; then he said, "Is it? It may be, after all;" +and went on eating his dinner. His wife acted less diplomatically. She +recognized him at once, and made a remark to her host in a sufficiently +loud voice to be overheard, which was not in good taste, the more that +De Morny, notwithstanding his many faults, was not the man to have +invited both for the mere pleasure of playing a practical joke. In fact, +I have always credited De Morny with the good intention of bringing +about a reconciliation between the two; but the affair was hopeless from +the very beginning, after Taglioni's exhibition of temper. I am far +from saying that Count Gilbert would have been more tractable if it had +not occurred, but his spouse shut the door at once upon every further +attempt in that direction. Nevertheless, whether out of sheer devilry or +from a wish to be polite, he went up to her after dinner, accompanied by +a friend, who introduced him as formally as if he and she had never seen +one another. It was at a moment when the Comte de Morny was out of the +room, because I feel certain that he was already sorry then for what he +had endeavoured to do, and had washed his hands of the whole affair. +Taglioni made a stately bow. "I am under the impression," she said, +"that I have had the honour of meeting you before, about the year 1832." +With this she turned away. Let any playwright reproduce that scene in a +farcical or comedy form, and I am sure that three-fourths of his +audience would scout it as too exaggerated, and yet every incident of it +is absolutely true. + +Among my most pleasant recollections of those days is that connected +with Von Flotow, the future composer of "Martha." In appearance he was +altogether unlike the traditional musician; he looked more like a +stalwart officer of dragoons. Though of noble origin, and with a very +wealthy father, there was a time when he had a hard struggle for +existence. Count von Flotow, his father, and an old officer of Blucher, +was nearly as much opposed to his son becoming a musician as Frederick +the Great's. Nevertheless, at the instance of Flotow's mother, he was +sent to Paris at the age of sixteen, and entered the Conservatoire, then +under the direction of Reicha. His term of apprenticeship was not to +extend beyond two years, "for," said the count, "it does not take longer +for the rawest recruit to become a good soldier." "That will give you a +fair idea," remarked Von Flotow to me afterwards, "how much he +understood about it. He had an ill-disguised contempt for any music +which did not come up to his ideal. His ideal was that performed by the +drum, the fife, and the bugle. And the very fact of Germany ringing a +few years later with the names of Meyerbeer and Halevy made matters +worse instead of mending them. His feudal pride would not allow of his +son's entering a profession the foremost ranks of which were occupied by +Jews. 'Music,' he said, 'was good enough for bankers' sons and the +like,' and he considered that Weber had cast a slur upon his family by +adopting it." + +The two years grudgingly allowed by Count von Flotow for his son's +musical education were interrupted by the revolution of 1830, and the +young fellow had to return home before he was eighteen, because, in his +father's opinion, "he had not given a sign of becoming a great +musician;" in other words, he had not written an opera or anything else +which had attracted public notice. However, towards the beginning of +1831, the count took his son to Paris once more; "and though Meyerbeer +nor Halevy were not so famous then as they were destined to become +within the next three years, their names were already sufficiently well +known to have made an introduction valuable. It would not have been +difficult to obtain such." My father would not hear of it. 'I will not +have my son indebted for anything to a Jew,' he said; and I am only +quoting this instance of prejudice to you because it was not an +individual but a typical one among my father's social equals. The remark +about 'his son's entering a profession in which two Jews had carried off +the highest prizes' is of a much later date. Consequently we landed in +Paris, provided with letters of introduction to M. de Saint-Georges.[11] +Clever, accomplished, refined as was M. de Saint-Georges, he was +scarcely the authority a father with serious intentions about his son's +musical career would have consulted; he was a charming, skilful +librettist and dramatist, a thorough man of the world in the best sense +of the word, but absolutely incapable of judging the higher qualities of +the composer. Nevertheless, I owe him much; but for him I should have +been dragged back to Germany there and then; but for him I should have +been compelled to go back to Germany five years later, or starved in the +streets of Paris. + + [Footnote 11: Jules-Henri de Saint-Georges, one of the most + fertile librettists of the time, the principal collaborateur of + Scribe, and best known in England as the author of the book of + Balfe's "Bohemian Girl."--EDITOR.] + +"My father's interview with M. de Saint-Georges, and my first +introduction to him," said Flotow on another occasion, "were perhaps the +most comical scenes ever enacted off the stage. You know my old friend, +and have been to his rooms, so I need not describe him nor his +surroundings to you. You have never seen my father; but, to give you an +idea of what he was like, I may tell you that he was an enlarged edition +of myself. A bold rider, a soldier and a sportsman, fairly well +educated, but upon the whole a very rough diamond, and, I am afraid, +with a corresponding contempt for the elegant and artistic side of Paris +life. You may, therefore, picture to yourself the difference between the +two men--M. de Saint-Georges in a beautiful silk dressing-gown and red +morocco slippers, sipping chocolate from a dainty porcelain cup; my +father, who, contrary to German custom, had always refused to don that +comfortable garment, and who, to my knowledge, had never in his life +tasted chocolate. For the moment I thought that everything was lost. I +was mistaken. + +"'Monsieur,' said my father in French, which absolutely creaked with the +rust of age, 'I have come to ask your advice and a favour besides. My +son desires to become a musician. Is it possible?' + +"'There is no reason why he should not be,' replied M. de Saint-Georges, +'provided he has a vocation.' + +"'Vocation may mean obstinacy,' remarked my father. 'But let us suppose +the reverse--that obstinacy means vocation: how long would it take him +to prove that he has talent?' + +"'It is difficult to say--five years at least.' + +"'And two he has already spent at the Conservatoire will make seven. I +hope he will not be like Jacob, who, after that period of waiting, found +that they had given him the wrong goddess!' growled my father, who could +be grimly humorous when he liked. 'Five years more be it, then, but not +a single day longer. If by that time he has not made his mark, I +withdraw his allowance. I thank you for your advice; and now I will ask +a favour. Will you kindly supply my place--that is, keep an eye upon +him, and do the best you can for him? Remember, he is but twenty. It is +hard enough that I cannot make a soldier of him; from what I have heard +and from what I can see, you will prevent him from becoming less than a +gentleman.' + +"M. de Saint-Georges was visibly moved. 'Let me hear what he can do,' he +said, 'and then I will tell you.' + +"I sat down to the piano for more than an hour. + +"'I will see that your son becomes a good musician, M. le Comte,' said +M. de Saint-Georges. + +"Next morning my father went back to Germany. Nothing would induce him +to stay a single day. He said the atmosphere of Paris was vitiated. + +"I need not tell you that M. de Saint-Georges kept his word as far as he +was able; he kept it even more rigorously than my father had bargained +for, because when, exactly on the last day of the stipulated five years, +I received a letter demanding my immediate return, and informing me that +my father's banker had instructions to stop all further supplies, M. de +Saint-Georges bade me stay. + +"'I promised to make a musician of you, and I have kept my word. But +between a musician and an acknowledged musician there is a difference. I +say stay!' he exclaimed. + +"'How am I to stay without money?' + +"'You'll earn some.' + +"'How?' + +"'By giving piano-lessons, like many a poor artist has done before you.' + +"I followed his advice, and am none the worse for the few years of +hardships. The contrast between my own poverty and my wealthy +surroundings was sufficiently curious during that time, and never more +so than on the night when my name really became known to the general +public. I am alluding to the first performance of 'Le Duc de Guise,' +which, as you may remember, was given in aid of the distressed Poles, +and sung throughout by amateurs. The receipts amounted to thirty +thousand francs, and the ladies of the chorus had something between ten +and twelve millions of francs of diamonds in their hair and round their +throats. All my earthly possessions in money consisted of six francs +thirty-five centimes." + +I was not at the Theatre de la Renaissance that night, but two or three +years previously I had heard the first opera Flotow ever wrote, at the +Hotel Castellane. I never heard "Rob Roy" since; and, curiously enough, +many years afterwards I inquired of Lord Granville, who sat next to me +on that evening in 1838, whether he had. He shook his head negatively. +"It is a great pity," he said, "for the music is very beautiful." And I +believe that Lord Granville is a very good judge. + +The Hotel Castellane, or "La Maison du Mouleur," as it was called by the +general public on account of the great number of scantily attired +mythological deities with which its facade was decorated, was one of the +few houses where, during the reign of Louis-Philippe, the discussion of +political and dynastic differences was absolutely left in abeyance. The +scent of party strife--I had almost said miasma--hung over all the other +salons, notably those of the Princesse de Lieven, Madame Thiers, and +Madame de Girardin, and even those of Madame Le Hon and Victor Hugo were +not free from it. Men like myself, and especially young men, who +instinctively guessed the hollowness of all this--who, moreover, had not +the genius to become political leaders and not sufficient enthusiasm to +become followers--avoided them; consequently their description will find +little or no place in these notes. The little I saw of Princesse de +Lieven at the Tuileries and elsewhere produced no wish to see more. +Thiers was more interesting from a social and artistic point of view, +but it was only on very rare occasions that he consented to doff his +political armour, albeit that he did not wear the latter with unchanging +dignity. Madame Thiers was an uninteresting woman, and only the "feeder" +to her husband, to use a theatrical phrase. Madame Le Hon was +exceedingly beautiful, exceedingly selfish, and, if anything, too +amiable. The absence of all serious mental qualities was cleverly +disguised by the mask of a grande dame; but I doubt whether it was +anything else but a mask. Madame Delphine de Girardin, on the other +hand, was endowed with uncommon literary, poetical, and intellectual +gifts; but I have always considered it doubtful whether even the Nine +Muses, rolled into one, would be bearable for any length of time. As for +Victor Hugo, no man not blessed with an extraordinary bump of veneration +would have gone more than once to his soirees. The permanent +entertainment there consisted of a modern version of the "perpetual +adoration," and of nothing else, because, to judge by my few +experiences, his guests were never offered anything to eat or to drink. +As a set-off, the furniture and appointments of his apartments were more +artistic than those of most of his contemporaries; but Becky Sharp has +left it on record that "mouton aux navets," dished up in priceless china +and crested silver, is after all but "mouton aux navets," and at Hugo's +even that homely fare was wanting. + +Among the few really good salons were those of the ambassadors of the +Two Sicilies, of England, and of Austria. The former two were in the +Faubourg Saint-Honore, the latter in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. The +soirees of the Duc de Serra-Cabriola were very animated; there was a +great deal of dancing. I cannot say the same of those of Lord and Lady +Granville, albeit that both the host and hostess did the honours with +charming and truly patrician grace and hospitality. But the English +guests would not throw off their habitual reserve, and the French in the +end imitated the manner of the latter, in deference, probably, to Lord +and Lady Granville, who were not at all pleased at this sincerest form +of French flattery of their countrymen. + +There was no such restraint at Count Apponyi's, in the Faubourg +Saint-Germain, the only house where the old French noblesse mustered in +force. The latter virtually felt themselves on their own ground, for the +host was known to have not much sympathy with parvenus, even titled +ones, though the titles had been gained on the battle-field. Had he not +during the preceding reign ruthlessly stripped Soult and Marmont, and +half a dozen other dukes of the first empire, by giving instructions to +his servants to announce them by their family names? Consequently, +flirtation a la Marivaux, courtly _galanterie_ a la Louis XV., sprightly +and witty conversation, "minuetting" a la Watteau, was the order of the +day as well as of the night there, for the dejeuner dansant was a +frequent feature of the entertainment. No one was afraid of being +mistaken for a financier anobli; the only one admitted on a footing of +intimacy bore the simple name of Hope. + +Nevertheless, it must not be thought that the entertainments, even at +the three embassies, partook of anything like the splendour so +noticeable during the second empire. The refreshments elsewhere partook +of a simple character; ices and cake, and lukewarm but by no means +strong tea, formed the staple of them. Of course there were exceptions, +such as, for instance, at the above-named houses, and at Mrs. Tudor's, +Mrs. Locke's, and at Countess Lamoyloff's; but the era of flowing rivers +of champagne, snacks that were like banquets, and banquets that were not +unlike orgies, had not as yet dawned. And, worse than all, in a great +many salons the era of mahogany and Utrecht velvet was in full swing, +while the era of white-and-gold walls, which were frequently neither +white nor gold, was dying a very lingering death. + +The Hotel Castellane was a welcome exception to this, and politics were +rigorously tabooed, the reading of long-winded poems was interdicted. +Politicians were simply reminded that the adjacent Elysee-Bourbon, or +even the Hotel Pontalba, might still contain sufficiently lively ghosts +to discuss such all-important matters with them;[12] poets who fancied +they had something to say worth hearing, were invited to have it said +for them from behind the footlights by rival companies of amateurs, each +of which in many respects need not have feared comparison with the +professional one of the Comedie-Francaise. Amateur theatricals were, +therefore, the principal feature of the entertainments at the Hotel +Castellane; but there were "off nights" to the full as brilliant as the +others. There was neither acting nor dancing on such occasions, the +latter amusement being rarely indulged in, except at the grand balls +which often followed one another in rapid succession. + + [Footnote 12: The Elysee-Bourbon, which was the official + residence of Louis-Napoleon during his presidency of the second + republic, was almost untenanted during the reign of + Louis-Philippe. + + The Hotel Pontalba was partly built on the site of the former + mansion of M. de Morfontaine, a staunch royalist, who, + curiously enough, had married the daughter of Le Peletier de + Saint-Fargeau, the member of the Convention who had voted the + death of Louis XVI., and who himself fell by the hand of an + assassin. Mdlle. le Peletier Saint-Fargeau was called "La Fille + de la Nation."--EDITOR.] + +I have said rival companies, but only the two permanent ones came under +that denomination; the others were what we should term "scratch +companies," got together for one or two performances of a special work, +generally a musical one, as in the case of Flotow's "Rob Roy" and +"Alice." They vied in talent with the regular troupes presided over +respectively by Madame Sophie Gay, the mother of Madame Emile de +Girardin, and the Duchesse d'Abrantes. Each confined itself to the +interpretation of the works of its manageress, who on such evening did +the honours, or of those whom the manageress favoured with her +protection. The heavens might fall rather than that an actor or actress +of Madame Gay's company should act with Madame d'Abrantes, and _vice +versa_. Seeing that neither manageress had introduced the system of +"under-studies," disappointments were frequent, for unless a member of +the Comedie-Francaise could be found to take up the part at a moment's +notice, the performance had necessarily to be postponed, the amateurs +refusing to act with any but the best. Such pretensions may at the first +blush seem exaggerated; they were justified in this instance, the +amateurs being acknowledged to be the equals of the professionals by +every unbiassed critic. In fact, several ladies among the amateurs +"took eventually to the stage," notably Mdlles. Davenay and Mdlle. de +Lagrange. The latter became a very bright star in the operatic +firmament, though she was hidden in the musical world at large by her +permanent stay in Russia. St. Petersburg has ever been a formidable +competitor of Paris for securing the best histrionic and lyrical talent. +Madame Arnould-Plessy, Bressant, Dupuis, and later on M. Worms, deserted +their native scenes for the more remunerative, though perhaps really +less artistic, triumphs of the theatre Saint-Michel; and when they +returned, the delicate bloom that had made their art so delightful was +virtually gone. "C'etait de l'art Francais a la sauce Tartare," said +some one who was no mean judge. + +The Comte Jules de Castellane, though fully equal, and in many respects +superior, in birth to those who professed to sneer at the younger branch +of the Bourbons, declined to be guided by these opponents of the new +dynasty in their social crusade against the adherents to the latter; +consequently the company was perhaps not always so select as it might +have been, and many amusing incidents and _piquantes_ adventures were +the result. He put a stop to these, however, when he discovered that his +hospitality was being abused, and that invitations given to strangers, +at the request of some of his familiars, had been paid for in kind, if +not in coin. + +As a rule, though, the company was far less addicted to +scandal-mongering and causing scandal than similarly composed "sets" +during the subsequent reign. They were not averse to playing practical +jokes, especially upon those who made themselves somewhat too +conspicuous by their eccentricities. Lord Brougham, who was an assiduous +guest at the Hotel Castellane during his frequent visits to Paris, was +often selected as their victim. He, as it were, provoked the tricks +played upon him by his would-be Don-Juanesque behaviour, and by the many +opportunities he lost of holding his tongue--in French. He absolutely +murdered the language of Moliere. His worthy successor in that respect +was Lady Normanby, who, as some one said, "not only murdered the tongue, +but tortured it besides." The latter, however, never lost her dignity +amidst the most mirth-compelling blunders on her part, while the English +statesman was often very near enacting the buffoon, and was once almost +induced to accept a role in a vaudeville, in which his execrable French +would no doubt have been highly diverting to the audience, but would +scarcely have been in keeping with the position he occupied on the other +side of the Channel. "Quant a Lord Brougham," said a very witty +Frenchman, quoting Shakespeare in French, "il n'y a pour lui qu'un pas +entre le sublime et le ridicule. C'est le pas de Calais, et il le +traverse trop souvent." + +In 1842, when the Comte Jules de Castellane married Mdlle. de +Villontroys, whose mother had married General Rapp and been divorced +from him, a certain change came over the spirit of the house; the +entertainments were as brilliant as ever, but the two rival manageresses +had to abdicate their sway, and the social status of the guests was +subjected to a severer test. The new dispensation did not ostracize the +purely artistic element, but, as the comtesse tersely put it, +"dorenavant, je ne recevrai que ceux qui ont de l'art ou des armoiries." +She strictly kept her word, even during the first years of the Second +Empire, when pedigrees were a ticklish thing to inquire into. + +I have unwittingly drifted away from M. de Saint-Georges, who, to say +the least, was a curious figure in artistic and literary Paris during +the reigns of Louis-Philippe and his successor. He was quite as fertile +as Scribe, and many of his plots are as ingeniously conceived and worked +out as the latter's, but he suffered both in reputation and purse from +the restless activity and pushing character of the librettist of "Robert +le Diable." Like those of Rivarol,[13] M. Saint-Georges' claims to be of +noble descent were somewhat contested, albeit that, unlike the +eighteenth-century pamphleteer, he never obtruded them; but there could +be no doubt about his being a gentleman. He was utterly different in +every respect from his rival. Scribe was not only eaten up with vanity, +but grasping to a degree; he had dramatic instinct, but not the least +vestige of literary refinement. M. de Saint-Georges, on the contrary, +was exceedingly modest, very indifferent to money matters, charitable +and obliging in a quiet way, and though perhaps not inferior in +stagecraft, very elegant in his diction. When he liked, he could write +verses and dialogue which often reminded one of Moliere. It was not the +only trait he had in common with the great playwright. Moliere is said +to have consulted his housekeeper, Laforet, with regard to his +productions; M. de Saint-Georges was known to do the same--with this +difference, however, that he did not always attend to Marguerite's +suggestions, in which case Marguerite grew wroth, especially if the +piece turned out to be a success, in spite of her predictions of +failure. On such occasions the popular approval scarcely compensated M. +de Saint-Georges for his discomforts at home; for though Marguerite was +an admirable manager at all times--when she liked, though there was no +bachelor more carefully looked after than the author of "La Fille du +Regiment," he had now and then to bear the brunt of Marguerite's temper +when the public's verdict did not agree with hers. + + [Footnote 13: One of the great wits of the + Revolution.--EDITOR.] + +If under such circumstances M. de Saint-Georges ventured to give a +dinner, the viands were sure to be cold, the Bordeaux iced, and the +champagne lukewarm. M. de Saint-Georges, who, notwithstanding his +courtly manners, was candour itself, never failed to state the reasons +of his discomfiture as a host to his guests. "Que voulez vous, mes amis, +la piece n'a pas plu a Marguerite et le diner s'en ressent. Si je lui +faisais une observation, elle me repondrait comme elle m'a repondu deja +maintes fois. Le diner etait mauvais, vous dites? C'est possible, il +etait assez bien pour ceux qui ont eu le bon gout d'applaudir votre +piece hier-au-soir." Because Mdlle. Marguerite had a seat in the upper +boxes reserved for her at all the first representations of her master's +pieces. She did not always avail herself of the privilege at the Opera, +but she never missed a first night at the Opera-Comique. I have quoted +textually the words of M. de Saint-Georges on the morrow of the +_premiere_ of "Giselle," a ballet in two acts, written in collaboration +with Theophile Gautier. "'Giselle' had been a great success; Marguerite +had predicted a failure; hence we had a remarkably bad dinner." + +I had had many opportunities of seeing Marguerite, and often wondered at +the secret of the tyranny she exercised. She was not handsome--scarcely +comely; she was not even as smart in her appearance as dozens of +servants I have seen, and her mental attainments, as far as I could +judge, were not above those of her own class. One can understand a +Turner, a Jean Jacques Rousseau, submitting to the influence of such a +low-born companion, because, after all, they, though men of genius, +sprang from the people, and may have felt awkward, ill at ease, in the +society of well-bred men and women, especially of women. Beranger +sometimes gave me that idea. But, as I have already said, no one could +mistake M. de Saint-Georges for anything but a well-bred man. +Notwithstanding his little affectations, his inordinate love of scents, +his somewhat effeminate surroundings, good breeding was patent at every +sentence, at every movement. He was not a genius, certainly not, but the +above remarks hold good of a man who _was_ a genius, and who sprang, +moreover, from the higher bourgeoisie of the eighteenth century--I am +alluding to Eugene Delacroix. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + The Boulevards in the forties -- The Chinese Baths -- A favourite + tobacconist of Alfred de Musset -- The price of cigars -- The + diligence still the usual mode of travelling -- Provincials in + Paris -- Parliamentary see-saw between M. Thiers and M. Guizot -- + Amenities of editors -- An advocate of universal suffrage -- + Distribution of gratuitous sausages to the working man on the + king's birthday -- The rendezvous of actors in search of an + engagement -- Frederick Lemaitre on the eve of appearing in a new + part -- The Legitimists begin to leave their seclusion and to + mingle with the bourgeoisie -- Alexandre Dumas and Scribe -- The + latter's fertility as a playwright -- The National Guards go + shooting, in uniform and in companies, on the Plaine Saint-Denis + -- Vidocq's private inquiry office in the Rue Vivienne -- No + river-side resorts -- The plaster elephant on the Place de la + Bastille -- The sentimental romances of Loisa Puget -- The songs + of the working classes -- Cheap bread and wine -- How they + enjoyed themselves on Sundays and holidays -- Theophile Gautier's + pony-carriage -- The hatred of the bourgeoisie -- Nestor + Roqueplan's expression of it -- Gavarni's -- M. Thiers' sister + keeps a restaurant at the corner of the Rue Drouot -- When he is + in power, the members of the Opposition go and dine there, and + publish facetious accounts of the entertainment -- All + appearances to the contrary, people like Guizot better than + Thiers -- But few entries for the race for wealth in those days + -- The Rothschilds still live in the Rue Lafitte -- Favourite + lounges -- The Boulevards, the Rue Le Peletier, and the Passage + de l'Opera -- The Opera -- The Rue Le Peletier and its + attractions -- The Restaurant of Paolo Broggi -- The Estaminet du + Divan -- Literary waiters and Boniface -- Major Fraser -- The + mystery surrounding his origin -- Another mysterious personage -- + The Passage de l'Opera is invaded by the stockjobbers, and loses + its prestige as a promenade -- Bernard Latte's, the publisher of + Donizetti's operas, becomes deserted -- Tortoni's -- Louis-Blanc + -- His scruples as an editor -- A few words about duelling -- Two + tragic meetings -- Lola Montes -- Her adventurous career -- A + celebrated trial -- My first meeting with Gustave Flaubert, the + author of "Madame Bovary" and "Salambo" -- Emile de Girardin -- + His opinion of duelling -- My decision with regard to it -- The + original of "La Dame aux Camelias" -- Her parentage -- Alexandre + Dumas gives the diagnosis of her character in connection with his + son's play -- L'Homme au Camellia -- M. Lautour-Mezerai, the + inventor of children's periodical literature in France -- Auguste + Lireux -- He takes the management of the Odeon -- Balzac again -- + His schemes, his greed -- Lireux more fortunate with other + authors -- Anglophobia on the French stage -- Gallophobia on the + English stage. + + +Even in those days "the Boulevards" meant to most of us nothing more +than the space between the present opera and the Rue Drouot. But the +Credit Lyonnais and other palatial buildings which have been erected +since were not as much as dreamt of; if I remember rightly, the site of +that bank was occupied by two or three "Chinese Baths." I suppose the +process of steaming and cleansing the human body was something analogous +to that practised in our Turkish baths, but I am unable to say from +experience, having never been inside, and, curious to relate, most of my +familiars were in a similar state of ignorance. We rarely crossed to +that side of the boulevard except to go and dine at the Cafe Anglais. At +the corner of the Rue Lafitte, opposite the Maison d'Or, was our +favourite tobacconist's, and the cigars we used to get there were vastly +superior to those we get at present in Paris at five times the cost. The +assistant who served us was a splendid creature. Alfred de Musset became +so enamoured of her that at one time his familiars apprehended an +"imprudence on his part." Of course, they were afraid he would marry +her. + +In those days most of our journeys in the interior of France had still +to be made by the mails of Lafitte-Caillard, and the people these +conveyances brought up from the provinces were almost as great objects +of curiosity to us as we must have been to them. It was the third lustre +of Louis-Philippe's reign. "God," according to the coinage, "protected +France," and when the Almighty seemed somewhat tired of the task, Thiers +and Guizot alternately stepped in to do the safeguarding. Parliament +resounded with the eloquence of orators who are almost forgotten by now, +except by students of history; M. de Genoude was clamouring for +universal suffrage; M. de Cormenin, under the _nom de plume_ of "Timon," +was the fashionable pamphleteer; the papers indulged in vituperation +against one another, compared to which the amenities of the rival +Eatanswill editors were compliments. Grocers and drapers objected to the +participation of M. de Lamartine in the affairs of State. The _Figaro_ +of those days went by the title of _Corsaire-Satan_, and, though +extensively read, had the greatest difficulty in making both ends meet. +In order to improve the lot of the working man, there was a gratuitous +distribution of sausages once a year on the king's fete-day. The +ordinary rendezvous of provincial and metropolitan actors out of an +engagement was not at the Cafe de Suede on the Boulevard Montmartre, but +under the trees at the Palais-Royal. Frederick Lemaitre went to +confession and to mass every time he "created" a new role. The +Legitimists consented to leave their aristocratic seclusion, and to +breathe the same air with the bourgeoisie and proletarians of the +Boulevard du Crime, to see him play. The Government altered the title of +Sue and Goubeaux's drama "Les Pontons Anglais" into "Les Pontons," +short, and made the authors change the scene from England to Spain. +Alexandre Dumas chaffed Scribe, and flung his money right and left; +while the other saved it, bought country estates, and produced as many +as twenty plays a year (eight more than he had contracted for). The +National Guards went in uniform and in companies to shoot hares and +rabbits on the Plaine Saint-Denis, and swaggered about on the +Boulevards, ogling the women. Vidocq kept a private inquiry office in +the Passage Vivienne, and made more money by blackmailing or catching +unfaithful husbands than by catching thieves. Bougival, Asnieres and +Joinville-le-Pont had not become riparian resorts. The plaster elephant +on the Place de la Bastille was crumbling to pieces. The sentimental +romances of Madame Loisa Puget proved the delight of every bourgeoise +family, while the chorus to every popular song was "Larifla, larifla, +fla, fla, fla." + +Best of all, from the working man's point of view, was the low price of +bread and wine; the latter could be had at four sous the litre in the +wine-shops. He, the working man, still made excursions with his wife and +children to the Artesian well at Grenelle; and if stranded perchance in +the Champs-Elysees, stood lost in admiration at the tiny carriage with +ponies to match, driven by Theophile Gautier, who had left off wearing +the crimson waistcoats wherewith in former days he hoped to annoy the +bourgeois, though he ceased not to rail at him by word of mouth and with +his pen. He was not singular in that respect. Among his set, the hatred +of the bourgeois was ingrained; it found constant vent in small things. +Nestor Roqueplan wore jackboots at home instead of slippers, because the +latter chaussure was preferred by the shopkeeper. Gavarni published the +most biting pictorial satires against him. Here is one. A +dissipated-looking loafer is leaning against a lamp-post, contemptuously +staring at the spruce, trim bourgeois out for his Sunday walk with his +wife. The loafer is smoking a short clay pipe, and some of the fumes of +the tobacco come between the wind and the bourgeois' respectability. +"Voyou!" says the latter contemptuously. "Voyou tant que vous voulez, +pas epicier," is the answer. + +In those days, when M. Thiers happened to be in power, many members of +the Opposition and their journalistic champions made it a point of +organizing little gatherings to the table-d'hote kept by Mdlle. Thiers, +the sister of the Prime Minister of France. Her establishment was at the +entrance of the present Rue Drouot, and a signboard informed the +passer-by to that effect. There was invariably an account of these +little gatherings in next day's papers--of course, with comments. Thiers +was known to be the most wretched shot that ever worried a gamekeeper, +and yet he was very fond of blazing away. "We asked Mdlle. Thiers," +wrote the commentators, "whether those delicious pheasants she gave us +were of her illustrious brother's bagging. The lady shook her head. +'Non, monsieur; le President du Conseil n'a pas l'honneur de fournir mon +etablissement; a quoi bon, je peux les acheter a meilleur marche que lui +et au meme endroit. S'il m'en envoyait, il me ferait payer un benefice, +parcequ'il ne fait jamais rien pour rien. C'est un peu le defaut de +notre famille.'" I have got a notion that, mercurial as was M. Thiers up +to the last hour of his life, and even more so at that period, and +sedate as was M. Guizot, the French liked the latter better than the +former. + +M. Guizot had said, "Enrichissez vous," and was known to be poor; M. +Thiers had scoffed at the advice, and was known to be hoarding while +compelling his sister to earn her own living. It must be remembered that +at the time the gangrene of greed had not entered the souls of all +classes of Frenchmen so deeply as it has now, that the race for wealth +had as yet comparatively few votaries, and that not every stockjobber +and speculator aspired to emulate the vast financial transactions of the +Rothschilds. The latter lived, in those days, in the Rue Lafitte, where +they had three separate mansions, all of which since then have been +thrown into one, and are at present exclusively devoted to business +purposes. The Rue Lafitte was, however, a comparatively quiet street. +The favourite lounges, in addition to the strip of Boulevards I have +already mentioned, were the Rue Le Peletier and the galleries of the +Passage de l'Opera. Both owed the preference over the other +thoroughfares to the immediate vicinity of the Opera, which had its +frontage in the last-named street, but was by no means striking or +monumental. Its architect, Debret, had to run the gauntlet of every kind +of satire for many a year after its erection; the bitterest and most +scathing of all was that, perhaps, of a journalist, who wrote one day +that, a provincial having asked him the way to the grand opera, he had +been obliged to answer, "Turn down the street, and it is the first large +gateway on your right." + +But if the building itself was unimposing, the company gathered around +its entrance consisted generally of half a dozen men whose names were +then already household words in the musical world--Auber, Halevy, +Rossini and Meyerbeer, St. Georges, Adam. Now and then, though rarely +together, all of these names will frequently reappear in these notes. +The chief attractions, though, of the Rue Le Peletier were the famous +Italian restaurant of Paolo Broggi, patronized by a great many singers, +the favourite haunt of Mario, in the beginning of his career, and +l'Estaminet du Divan, which from being a very simple cafe indeed, +developed into a kind of politico-literary club under the auspices of a +number of budding men of letters, journalists, and the like, whose +modest purses were not equal to the charges of the Cafe Riche and +Tortoni, and who had gradually driven all more prosaic customers away. I +believe I was one of the few habitues who had no literary aspirations, +who did not cast longing looks to the inner portals of the offices of +the _National_, the bigwigs of which--Armand Marrast, Baron Dornes, +Gerard de Nerval, and others--sometimes made their appearance there, +though their restaurant in ordinary was the Cafe Hardi. The Estaminet du +Divan, however, pretended to a much more literary atmosphere than the +magnificent establishment on the boulevard itself. It is a positive fact +that the waiters in the former would ask, in the most respectful way +imaginable, "Does monsieur want Sue's or Dumas' feuilleton with his +cafe?" Not once but a dozen times I have heard the proprietor draw +attention to a remarkable article. Major Fraser, though he never dined +there, spent an hour or two daily in the Estaminet du Divan to read the +papers. He was a great favourite with every one, though none of us knew +anything about his antecedents. In spite of his English name, he was +decidedly not English, though he spoke the language. He was one of the +best-dressed men of the period, and by a well-dressed man I do not mean +one like Sue. He generally wore a tight-fitting, short-skirted, blue +frock coat, grey trousers, of a shape which since then we have defined +as "pegtops," but the fashion of which was borrowed from the Cossacks. +They are still worn by some French officers in cavalry regiments, +notably crack cavalry regiments. + +Major Fraser might have fitly borrowed Piron's epitaph for himself: "Je +ne suis rien, pas meme Academicien." He was a bachelor. He never alluded +to his parentage. He lived by himself, in an entresol at the corner of +the Rue Lafitte and the Boulevard des Italiens. He was always flush of +money, though the sources of his income were a mystery to every one. He +certainly did not live by gambling, as has been suggested since; for +those who knew him best did not remember having seen him touch a card. + +I have always had an idea, though I can give no reason for it, that +Major Fraser was the illegitimate son of some exalted personage, and +that the solution of the mystery surrounding him might be found in the +records of the scandals and intrigues at the courts of Charles IV. and +Ferdinand VII. of Spain. The foreign "soldiers of fortune" who rose to +high posts, though not to the highest like Richards and O'Reilly, were +not all of Irish origin. But the man himself was so pleasant in his +intercourse, so uniformly gentle and ready to oblige, that no one cared +to lift a veil which he was so evidently anxious not to have disturbed. +I only remember his getting out of temper once, namely, when Leon +Gozlan, in a comedy of his, introduced a major who had three crosses. +The first had been given to him because he had not one, the second +because he had already one, and the third because all good things +consist of three. Then Major Fraser sent his seconds to the playwright; +the former effected a reconciliation, the more that Gozlan pledged his +word that an allusion to the major was farthest from his thoughts. It +afterwards leaked out that our irrepressible Alexandre Dumas had been +the involuntary cause of all the mischief. One day, while he was talking +to Gozlan, one of his secretaries came in and told him that a particular +bugbear of his, and a great nonentity to boot, had got the Cross of the +Legion of Honour. + +"Grand Dieu," exclaimed Gozlan, "pourquoi lui a-t-on donne cette croix?" + +"Vous ne savez pas?" said Alexandre, looking very wise, as if he had +some important state secret to reveal. + +"Assurement, je ne le sais pas," quoth Gozlan, "ni vous non plus." + +"Ah, par exemple, moi, je le sais." + +"He bien, dites alors." + +"On lui a donne la croix parceque il n'en avait pas." + +It was the most childish of all tricks, but Gozlan laughed at it, and, +when he wrote his piece, remembered it. He amplified the very small +joke, and, on the first night of his play, the house went into +convulsions over it. + +Major Fraser's kindness and gentleness extended to all men--except to +professional politicians, and those, from the highest to the lowest, he +detested and despised. He rarely spoke on the subject of politics, but +when he did every one sat listening with the raptest attention; for he +was a perfect mine of facts, which he marshalled with consummate ability +in order to show that government by party was of all idiotic +institutions the most idiotic. But his knowledge of political history +was as nothing to his familiarity with the social institutions of every +civilized country and of every period. Curiously enough, the whole of +his library in his own apartment did not exceed two or three scores of +volumes. His memory was something prodigious, and even men like Dumas +and Balzac confessed themselves his inferiors in that respect. The mere +mention of the most trifling subject sufficed to set it in motion, and +the listeners were treated to a "magazine article worth fifty centimes +la ligne au moins," as Dumas put it. But the major could never be +induced to write one. Strange to say, he often used to hint that his was +no mere book-knowledge. "Of course, it is perfectly ridiculous," he +remarked with a strange smile, "but every now and again I feel as if all +this did not come to me through reading, but from personal experience. +At times I become almost convinced that I lived with Nero, that I knew +Dante personally, and so forth." + +When Major Fraser died, not a single letter was found in his apartment +giving a clue to his antecedents. Merely a file of receipts, and a scrap +of paper attached to one--the receipt of the funeral company for his +grave, and expenses of his burial. The memorandum gave instructions to +advertise his demise for a week in the _Journal des Debats_, the money +for which would be found in the drawer of his dressing-table. His +clothes and furniture were to be sold, and the proceeds to be given to +the Paris poor. "I do not charge any one with this particular duty," the +document went on; "I have so many friends, every one of whom will be +ready to carry out my last wishes." + +Another "mystery," though far less interesting than Major Fraser, was +the Persian gentleman whom one met everywhere, at the Opera, at the +Bois de Boulogne, at the concerts of the Conservatoire, etc. Though +invariably polite and smiling, he never spoke to any one. For ten years, +the occupant of the stall next to his at the Opera had never heard him +utter a syllable. He always wore a long white silk petticoat, a +splendidly embroidered coat over that, and a conical Astrakan cap. He +was always alone; and though every one knew where he lived, in the +Passage de l'Opera, no one had ever set foot in his apartment. As a +matter of course, all sorts of legends were current about him. According +to some, he had occupied a high position in his own country, from which +he had voluntarily exiled himself, owing to his detestation of Eastern +habits; according to others, he was simply a dealer in Indian shawls, +who had made a fortune. A third group, the spiteful ones, maintained +that he sold dates and pastilles, and that the reason why he did not +speak was because he was dumb, though not deaf. He died during the +Second Empire, very much respected in the neighbourhood, for he had been +very charitable. + +Towards the middle of the forties the Passage de l'Opera began to lose +some of its prestige as a lounge. The outside stockjobbers, whom the +police had driven from the Boulevards and the steps of Tortoni, migrated +thither, and the galleries that had resounded with the sweet +warblings--in a very low key--of the clients of Bernard Latte, the +publisher of Donizetti's operas, were made hideous and unbearable with +the jostling and bellowing of the money-spinners. Bernard Latte himself +was at last compelled to migrate. + +In the house the ground-floor of which was occupied by Tortoni, and +which was far different in aspect from what it is now, lived Louis +Blanc. Toward nine in the morning he came down for his cup of cafe au +lait. It was the first cup of coffee of the day served in the +establishment. I was never on terms of intimacy with Blanc, and least of +all then, for I shared with Major Fraser a dislike to politic-mongers, +and, rightly or wrongly, I have always considered the author of +"L'Histoire de Dix Ans" as such. Though Louis Blanc was three or four +and thirty then, he looked like a boy of seventeen--a fact not +altogether owing to his diminutive stature, though he was one of the +smallest men, if not the smallest man, I ever saw. Of course I mean a +man not absolutely a dwarf. I have been assured, however, that he was a +giant compared to Don Martinoz Garay, Duke of Altamira, and Marquis of +Astorga, a Spanish statesman, who died about the early part of the +twenties. These notes do not extend beyond the fall of the Commune, and +it was only after that event that I met M. Blanc once or twice in his +old haunts. Hence my few recollections of him had better be jotted down +here. They are not important. The man, though but sixty, and apparently +not in bad health, looked _desillusionne_. They were, no doubt, the most +trying years to the Third Republic, but M. Blanc must have perceived +well enough that, granting all the existing difficulties, the men at the +head of affairs were not the Republicans of his dreams. He had, +moreover, suffered severe losses; all his important documents, such as +the correspondence between him and George Sand and Louis-Napoleon while +the latter was at Ham, and other equally valuable matter, had been +destroyed at the fire of the Northern Goods Station at La Villette, a +fire kindled by the Communists. He was dressed almost in the fashion of +the forties, a wide-skirted, long, brown frock coat, a shirt innocent of +starch, and a broad-brimmed hat. A few years later, he founded a paper, +_L'Homme-Libre_, the offices of which were in the Rue Grange-Bateliere. +The concern was financed by a Polish gentleman. Blanc gave his readers +to understand that he would speak out plainly about persons and things, +whether past or present; that he would advance nothing except on +documentary proofs; but that, whether he did or not, he would not be +badgered into giving or accepting challenges in defence of his writings. +"I am, first of all, too old," he said; "but if I were young again, I +should not repeat my folly of '47, when I wanted to fight with Eugene +Pelletan on account of a woman whose virtue, provided she had any, could +make no difference to either of us. It does not matter to me that we +were not the only preux chevaliers of that period, ready to do battle +for or against the charms of a woman whose remains had crumbled to dust +by then."[14] + + [Footnote 14: M. Eugene Pelletan, the father of M. Camille + Pelletan, the editor of _La Justice_, and first lieutenant to + M. Clemenceau, having severely criticized some passages in M. + Blanc's "Histoire de la Revolution," relating to + Marie-Antoinette, the author quoted a passage of Madame + Campan's "Memoires" in support of his writings. The critic + refused to admit the conclusiveness of the proof, whereupon M. + Blanc appealed to the Societe des Gens de Lettres, which, on + the summing up of M. Taxile Delord, gave a verdict in his + favour. M. Pelletan declined to submit to the verdict, as he + had refused to admit the jurisdiction, of the tribunal. M. + Blanc, who had at first scouted all idea of a duel, considered + himself obliged to resort to this means of obtaining + satisfaction, seeing that M. Pelletan stoutly maintained his + opinion. A meeting had been arranged when the Revolution of '48 + broke out. The opponents having both gone to the + Hotel-de-Ville, met by accident at the entrance, and fell into + one another's arms. "Thank Heaven!" exclaimed Thiers, when he + heard of it. "If Pelletan had killed Blanc, I should have been + the smallest man in France." + + M. Blanc's allusion to other "preux chevaliers" aimed + particularly at M. Cousin, who, having become a minister + against his will, resumed with a sigh of relief his studies + under the Second Empire. He was especially fond of the + seventeenth century, and all at once he, who had scarcely ever + noticed a pretty woman, became violently smitten with the + Duchesse de Longueville, who had been in her grave for nearly + two centuries. He positively invested her with every + perfection, moral and mental; unfortunately, he could not + invest her with a shapely bust, the evidence being too + overwhelmingly against her having been adorned that way. One + day some one showed him a portrait of the sister of the "grand + Conde," in which she was amply provided with the charms the + absence of which M. Cousin regretted. He wrote a special + chapter on the subject, and was well-nigh challenging all his + contradictors.--EDITOR.] + +M. Blanc's boast that he would advance nothing except on proof positive +was not an idle one, as his contributors found out to their cost. Every +afternoon, at three, he arrived at the office to read the paper in proof +from the first line to the last. Not the slightest inaccuracy was +allowed to pass. Kind as he was, his reporters' lives became a burden. +One of the latter told me a story which, though it illustrates the +ridiculousness of M. Blanc's scruples when carried too far, is none the +less valuable. A dog had been run over on the Boulevards, and the +reporter, with a hankering after the realistic method, had endeavored to +reproduce onomatopoeically the sounds uttered by the animal in pain. + +"Are you quite sure, monsieur, about your sounds?" asked Blanc. + +"Of course, I am as sure as a non-scientific man can be," was the +answer. + +"Then strike them out; one ought to be scientifically sure. By-the-by, I +see you have made use of the word 'howl' (_hurler_). Unless I am +mistaken, a dog when in pain yelps (_glapit_). Please alter it." + +On another occasion, on going through the advertisements, he found a new +one relating to a cough mixture, setting forth its virtues in the most +glowing terms. Immediately the advertisement canvasser was sent for, M. +Blanc having refused to farm out that department to an agency, as is +frequently done in Paris, in order to retain the absolute control over +it. + +"Monsieur, I see that you have a new advertisement, and it seems to me a +profitable one; still, before inserting it, I should like to be certain +that the medicine does all it professes to do. Can you personally vouch +for its efficiency?" + +"Mon Dieu, monsieur, I believe it does all it professes to do, but you +can scarcely expect me to run the risk of bronchitis in order to test it +upon myself!" + +"Heaven forbid that I should be so exacting and indifferent to other +people's health, but until you can bring me some one who has been cured, +we will not insert it." + +Let me come back for a moment to that sentence of Louis Blanc, about the +practice of duelling, in connection with one of the most tragic affairs +of that kind within my recollection. I am alluding to the +Dujarrier-Beauvallon duel. I have been in the habit for years, whenever +an important meeting took place in France, to read every shade of +English opinion on the subject; and while recognizing the elevated +sentiments of the writers, I have no hesitation in saying that not a +single one knew what he was writing about. They could not grasp the fact +that for a man of social standing to refuse a challenge or to refrain +from sending one, save under very exceptional circumstances, was +tantamount to courting social death. They knew not that every door would +henceforth be closed against him; that his wife's best friends would +cease to call upon her, by direction of their husbands; that his +children at school would be shunned by their comrades; that no young man +of equal position to his, were he ever so much in love with his +daughter, would ask her to become his wife, that no parents would allow +their daughter to marry his son. That is what backing out of a duel +meant years ago; that is what it still means to-day--of course, I +repeat, with certain classes. Is it surprising, then, that with such a +prospect facing him, a man should risk death rather than become a +pariah? Would the English leader-writer, if he be a man of worth, like +to enter his club-room without a hand held out to welcome him from those +with whom he was but a few weeks ago on the most friendly footing, +without a voice to give him the time of day? I think not; and that is +what would happen if he were a Frenchman who neglected to ask +satisfaction for even an imaginary insult. + +I knew M. Dujarrier, the general manager of _La Presse_, and feel +convinced that he was not a bit more quarrelsome or eager "to go out" +than Louis Blanc. It is, moreover, certain that he felt his inferiority, +both as a swordsman and as a marksman, to such a practised shot and +fencer as M. de Beauvallon; and well he might, seeing that subsequent +evidence proved that he, Dujarrier, had never handled either weapon. Yet +he not only strenuously opposed all attempts on the part of his friends +to effect a reconciliation, but would not afford a hint to his adversary +of his want of skill, lest the latter should make him a present of his +life. The present would not have been worth accepting. It would have +been a Nessus-shirt, and caused the moral death of the recipient. +Consequently, Dujarrier literally went like a lamb to the slaughter +rather than be branded as a coward, and he made no secret of his +contemplated sacrifice. "I have no alternative but to fight," he said, +two days before the meeting, to Alexandre Dumas, who taxed all his own +ingenuity, and that of his son, to prevent, at any rate, a fatal issue. +The only way to effect this, according to the very logical reasoning of +the two Dumases, was to induce Dujarrier, who, as the offended party, +had the choice of weapons, to choose the sword. They counted upon the +generosity of Beauvallon, who, as a gentleman, on discovering his +adversary's utter lack of skill, would disarm, or inflict a slight wound +on him. Unfortunately, young Dumas, with the best intentions, +unburthened himself to that effect among those most interested in the +affair, namely, the staffs of _La Presse_ and _Le Globe_. These two +journals were literally at daggers drawn, and some writers connected +with the latter went hinting, if not saying openly, that Dujarrier was +already showing the white feather. Whether Dujarrier heard of the +comments in that shape, or whether he instinctively guessed what they +would be, has never been clearly made out, but it is certain that from +that moment he insisted upon the use of pistols. "I do not intend my +adversary to show me the slightest favour, either by disarming me or by +wounding me in the arm or leg. I mean to have a serious encounter," he +said. Young Dumas, frightened perhaps at his want of reticence in the +matter, begged his father to go and see Grisier,[15] and claim his +intervention. Alexandre Dumas, than whom no stauncher friend ever +existed who would have willingly risked his own life to save that of +Dujarrier, had to decline the mission suggested by his son. "I cannot do +it," he said; "the first and foremost thing is to safeguard Dujarrier's +reputation, which is the more precious because it is his first duel." + + [Footnote 15: The great fencing-master, whom Dumas immortalized + in his "Maitre d'Armes."--EDITOR.] + +"His first duel,"--here is the key-note to the whole of the proceedings +as far as Dujarrier and his personal friends were concerned. Had +Dujarrier been in the position of the editor of his paper, Emile de +Girardin,--had he been out before and killed or severely wounded his +man, as the latter killed Armand Carrel nine years before,--he might +have openly announced his determination "never to go out again" under no +matter what provocation. Unfortunately, Dujarrier was not in that +position; in fact, it is no exaggeration to say that Dujarrier paid the +penalty of M. de Girardin's decision. A great deal of mawkish sentiment +has been wasted upon the tragic fate of Armand Carrel; in reality, he +had what he deserved, albeit that no one more than M. de Girardin +himself regretted his untimely end. Most writers will tell one that +Carrel fell a victim to his political opinions; nothing is farther from +the truth. Armand Carrel fell a victim to a "question of shop" of which +he allowed himself, though perhaps not deliberately, to become the +champion. After many attempts, more or less successful, in the way of +popular journalism, M. de Girardin, in 1836, started _La Presse_, a +serious journal of the same size as the then existing ones, but at half +the subscription of the latter, all of which absolutely banded at once +against him. Armand Carrel, who was a soldier, and a valiant soldier, a +writer of talent, and a gentleman to boot, ought to have stood aloof +from that kind of polemics. Emile de Girardin was not the likely man to +submit to open or implied insult. His best, albeit his least-known book, +"Emile," which is as it were an autobiography, had given the measure of +his thoughts on the subject of duelling. "Emile" goes into society as a +soldier would go into an enemy's country. Not that he is by nature cruel +or bloodthirsty, but he knows that, to hold his own, he must be always +ready, not only for defence, but for attack. + +"The secret one is bound to preserve with regard to the preparations for +a meeting, and those preparations themselves are simply horrible. The +care, the precautions to be taken, the secret which is not to leak out, +all these are very like the preparations for a crime," he says. +"Nevertheless," he goes on, "the horror of all this disappears, when the +man, impelled by hatred or resentment, is thirsting for revenge; but +when the heart is absolutely without gall, and when the imagination is +still subject to all the softer emotions, then, in order not to recoil +with fear at the ever horrible idea of a duel, a man must be imbued with +all the force of a prejudice which resists the very laws that condemn +it." + +It was under the latter circumstances that M. de Girardin confronted his +adversary. The two men had probably never exchanged a word with one +another, they felt no personal animosity; nay, more, the duel was not an +_inevitable_ one; and yet it cost one man his life, and burthened the +other with lifelong regrets. + +Had the issue been different, _La Presse_ would probably have +disappeared, and all recrimination ceased. As it was, unable to goad M. +de Girardin into a reversal of his decision "never to go out again," and +that in spite of nine years of direct insult from a so-called political +party, of every kind of quasi-legal vexation, M. de Beauvallon +constituted himself a second Armand Carrel, selecting Dujarrier as his +victim, the chief not being available. But here all resemblance to +Armand Carrel ceased, and the law itself was anxious to mark the +difference. In the one case it had been set at nought by two men of +undoubted courage and undoubted honour, meeting upon equal terms; in the +other, it was proved that, not content with Dujarrier's well-known +inferiority, De Beauvallon's pistols had been tried before the +encounter. The court could take no cognizance of this, but it marked its +disapproval by sentencing Beauvallon to eight years', and one of his +seconds, M. d'Ecquevilley, to ten years' imprisonment for perjury. Both +had declared on oath that the pistols had not been tried. The Dujarrier +duel caused a deep and painful sensation. I have dwelt upon it at +greater length than was absolutely necessary, because it inspired me +with a resolution from which I have never departed since. I was +twenty-seven at the time, and, owing to circumstances which I need not +relate here, foresaw that the greater part of my life would be spent in +France. I am neither more courageous nor more cowardly than most +persons, but I objected to be shot down like a mad dog on the most +futile pretext because some one happened to have a grudge against me. To +have declined "to go out" on the score of my nationality would not have +met the case in the conditions in which I was living, so from that +moment I became an assiduous client at Gosset's shooting-gallery, and +took fencing lessons of Grisier. I do not know that I became very +formidable with either weapon, only sufficiently skilled not to be +altogether defenceless. I took care at the same time to let it go forth +that a duel to me not only meant one or both parties so severely wounded +as not to be able to continue the struggle, but the resumption of the +combat, when he or they had recovered, until one was killed. Of course, +it implied that I would only go out for a sufficiently weighty reason, +but that, if compelled to do so for a trifling one, I would still adhere +to my original resolution. Only once, more than twelve years afterwards, +I had a quarrel fastened upon me, arising out of the excitement +consequent upon the attempt of Orsini. I was the offended party, and, as +such, could dictate the conditions of the meeting. I declined to modify +in the least the rules I had laid down for my own guidance, and stated +as much to those who were to act for me--General Fleury and Alexandre +Dumas. My adversary's friends refused to accept the terms. I was never +molested afterwards, though an Englishman had not always a pleasant life +of it, even under the Second Empire. + +In connection with Dujarrier's duel, I may say a few words here of that +quasi-wonderful woman, Lola Montes. I say "quasi," because really there +was nothing wonderful about her, except perhaps her beauty and her +consummate impudence. She had not a scrap of talent of any kind; +education she had none, for, whether she spoke in English, French, or +Spanish, grammatical errors abounded, and her expressions were always +those of a pretentious housemaid, unless they were those of an excited +fishwife. She told me that she had been at a boarding-school in Bath, +and that she was a native of Limerick, but that when quite a child she +was taken to Seville by her parents. Her father, according to her +account, was a Spaniard, her mother a Creole. "But I scandalized every +one at school, and would not learn." I could quite believe that; what I +could not believe was that a girl of her quick powers--for she +undoubtedly possessed those--could have spent, however short a time in +the society of decent girls of her own age, let alone of presumedly +refined school-mistresses, without having acquired some elementary +notions of manner and address. Her gait and carriage were those of a +duchess, for she was naturally graceful, but the moment she opened her +lips, the illusion vanished--at least to me; for I am bound to admit +that men of far higher intellectual attainments than mine, and familiar +with very good society, raved and kept raving about her, though all +those defects could not have failed to strike them as they had struck +me. I take it that it must have been her beauty, for, though not devoid +of wit, her wit was that of the pot-house, which would not have been +tolerated in the smoking-room of a club in the small hours. + +When Dujarrier was carried home dying to the Rue Lafitte, a woman flung +herself on the body and covered his face with kisses. That woman was +Lola Montes. In his will he left her eighteen shares in the Palais-Royal +Theatre, amounting in value to about 20,000 francs. She insisted +afterwards in appearing as a witness at the trial in Rouen, although her +evidence threw not the slightest light upon the matter. She wanted to +create a sensation; and she accomplished her aim. I was there, and +though the court was crowded with men occupying the foremost ranks in +literature, art, and Paris society, no one attracted the attention she +did. Even the sober president and assessors sat staring at her +open-mouthed when she took her stand behind the little rail which does +duty for a witness-box in France. She was dressed in mourning--not the +deepest, but soft masses of silk and lace--and when she lifted her veil +and took off her glove to take the prescribed oath, a murmur of +admiration ran through the court. That is why she had undertaken the +journey to Rouen, and verily she had her reward. + +It was on that occasion that I became acquainted, though quite by +accident, with the young man who, ten or eleven years later, was to leap +into fame all of a sudden with one novel. I have already said that the +court was very crowded, and next to me was standing a tall, strapping +fellow, somewhat younger than myself, whom, at the first glance, one +would have taken to be an English country gentleman or well-to-do +farmer's son. Such mistakes are easily made in Normandy. When Lola +Montes came forward to give her evidence, some one on the other side of +him remarked that she looked like the heroine of a novel. + +"Yes," he replied; "but the heroines of the real novels enacted in +everyday life do not always look like that." + +Then he turned to me, having seen me speak to several people from Paris +and in company of Alexandre Dumas and Berryer, whom everybody knew. He +asked me some particulars about Lola Montes, which I gave him. I found +him exceedingly well-informed. We chatted for a while. When he left he +handed me his card, and hoped that we should see one another again. The +card bore the simple superscription of "Gustave Flaubert." I was told +during the evening that he was the son of a local physician of note. +Twelve years later the whole of France rang with his name. He had +written "Madame Bovary," and laid the foundation of what subsequently +became the ultra-realistic school of French fiction. + +To return for a moment to Lola Montes. The trial was really the +starting-point of her notoriety, for, in spite of her beauty, she had +been at one time reduced to sing in the streets in Brussels. That was +after she had fled from Calcutta, whither her first husband, a captain +or lieutenant James, in the service of the East India Company, had taken +her. She landed at Southampton, and, during her journey to London, +managed to ingratiate herself with an English nobleman, by pretending +that she was the wife a Spanish soldier who had been shot by the +Carlists. She told me all this herself, because she was not in the least +reticent about her scheming, especially after her scheming had failed. +She would, however, not divulge the name of her travelling companion, +who tried to befriend her by introducing her to some of his +acquaintances, with the view of obtaining singing lessons for her. "But +I did not make my expenses, because you English are so very moral and my +patron was suspected of not giving himself all that trouble for nothing. +Besides, they managed to ferret out that I was not the widow of a +Spanish officer, but the wife of an English one; and then, as you may +imagine, it was all up. I got, however, an engagement at the Opera House +in the ballet, but not for long; of course, I could not dance much, but +I could dance as well as half your wooden ugly women that were there. +But they told tales about me, and the manager dismissed me."[16] + + [Footnote 16: The English nobleman must have been Lord + Malmesbury, who alludes to her as follows: "This was a most + remarkable woman, and may be said by her conduct at Munich to + have set fire to the magazine of revolution, which was ready to + burst forth all over Europe, and which made the year 1848 + memorable. I made her acquaintance by accident, as I was going + up to London from Heron Court, in the railway. The Consul at + Southampton asked me to take charge of a Spanish lady who had + been recommended to his care, and who had just landed. I + consented to do this, and was introduced by him to a remarkably + handsome person, who was in deep mourning, and who appeared to + be in great distress. As we were alone in the carriage, she, of + her own accord, informed me, in bad English, that she was the + widow of Don Diego Leon, who had lately been shot by the + Carlists after he was taken prisoner, and that she was going to + London to sell some Spanish property that she possessed, and + give lessons in singing, as she was very poor. On arriving in + London she took some lodgings, and came to my house to a little + concert which I gave, and sang some Spanish ballads. Her accent + was foreign, and she had all the appearance of being what she + pretended to be. She sold different things, such as veils, + etc., to the party present, and received a good deal of + patronage. Eventually she took an engagement for the ballet at + the Opera House, but her dancing was very inferior. At last she + was recognized as an impostor, her real name being Mrs. James, + and Irish by extraction, and had married an officer in India. + Her engagement at the Opera was cancelled, she left the + country, and retired to Munich. She was a very violent woman, + and actually struck one of the Bavarian generals as he was + reviewing the troops. The king became perfectly infatuated with + her beauty and cleverness, and gave her large sums of money, + with a title, which she afterwards bore when she returned to + England." ("Memoirs of an Ex-minister," by the Earl of + Malmesbury.) + + Lord Malmesbury is wrong in nearly every particular which he + has got from hearsay. Lola Montes did not retire to Munich + after her engagement at the Opera House had been cancelled, but + to Brussels, and from there to Warsaw. Nor did she play the + all-important part in the Bavarian riots or revolution he + ascribes to her. The author of these notes has most of the + particulars of Lola Montes' career previous to her appearance + in Munich from her own lips, and, as he has already said, she + was not in the least reticent about her scheming, especially + when her scheming had failed. For the story of the events at + Munich, I gather inferentially from his notes that he is + indebted to Karl von Abel, King Ludwig's ultramontane minister, + who came afterwards to Paris, and who, if I mistake not, was + the father or the uncle of Herr von Abel, the Berlin + correspondent of the _Times_, some fourteen or fifteen years + ago.--EDITOR.] + +She fostered no illusions with regard to her choregraphic talents; in +fact, she fostered no illusions about anything, and her candour was the +best trait in her character. She had failed as a dancer in Warsaw, +whither she had gone from London, by way of Brussels. In the Belgian +capital, according to her own story, she had been obliged to sing in the +streets to keep from starvation. I asked her why she had not come from +London to Paris, "where for a woman of her attractions, and not hampered +by many scruples," as I pointed out to her, "there were many more +resources than elsewhere." The answer was so characteristic of the +daring adventuress, who, notwithstanding her impecuniosity, flew at the +highest game to be had, that I transcribe it in full. I am often +reluctant to trust to my memory: in this instance I may; I remember +every word of it. This almost illiterate schemer, who probably had not +the remotest notion of geography, of history, had pretty well "the +Almanach de Gotha" by heart, and seemed to guess instinctively at things +which said Almanach carefully abstained from mentioning, namely, the +good understanding or the reverse between the married royal couples of +Europe, etc. + +"Why did I not come to Paris!" she replied. "What was the good of coming +to Paris where there was a king, bourgeois to his finger-nails, +tight-fisted besides, and notoriously the most moral and best father all +the world over; with princes who were nearly as much married as their +dad, and with those who were single far away? What was the good of +coming to a town where you could not bear the title of 'la maitresse du +prince' without the risk of being taken to the frontier between two +gendarmes, where you could not have squeezed a thousand louis out of any +of the royal sons for the life of you? What was the good of trying to +get a count, where the wife of a grocer or a shoemaker might have +objected to your presence at a ball, on the ground of your being an +immoral person? No, I really meant to make my way to the Hague. I had +heard that William II. whacked his wife like any drunken labourer, so +that his sons had to interfere every now and then. I had heard this in +Calcutta, and from folk who were likely to know. But as I thought that I +might have the succession of the whacks, as well as of the lord, I +wanted to try my chance at Brussels first; besides, I hadn't much +money." + +"But King Leopold is married, and lives very happily with his wife," I +interrupted. + +"Of course he does--they all do," was the answer; "mais ca n'empeche pas +les sentiments, does it?" I am very ignorant, and haven't a bit of +memory, but I once heard a story about a Danish or Swedish king--I do +not know the difference--who married an adventuress like myself, though +the queen and the mother of his heir was alive. He committed bigamy, but +kings and queens may do things we mayn't. One day, he and his lawful +wife were at one of their country seats, and, leaning out of the window, +when a carriage passed with a good-looking woman in it, 'Who is this +lady?' asked the queen. 'That's my wife,' replied the king. 'Your wife! +what am I, then?' said the queen. 'You? well, you are my queen.'[17] + + [Footnote 17: Lola Montes was perfectly correct. It was + Frederick IV. of Denmark, only the woman was not an adventuress + like herself, but the Countess Reventlow, whom he had + abducted.--EDITOR.] + +"Never mind, whatever my intentions on Leopold's money or affections may +have been, they came to nothing; for before I could get as much as a +peep at him, my money had all been spent, and I was obliged to part +with my clothes first, and then to sing in the streets to get food. I +was taken from Brussels to Warsaw by a man whom I believe to be a +German. He spoke many languages, but he was not very well off himself. +However, he was very kind, and, when we got to Warsaw, managed to get me +an engagement at the Opera. After two or three days, the director told +me that I couldn't dance a bit. I stared him full in the face, and asked +him whether he thought that, if I could dance, I would have come to such +a hole as his theatre. Thereupon he laughed, and said I was a clever +girl for all that, and that he would keep me on for ornament. I didn't +give him the chance for long. I left after about two months, with a +Polish gentleman, who brought me to Paris. The moment I get a nice round +lump sum of money, I am going to carry out my original plan; that is, +trying to hook a prince. I am sick of being told that I can't dance. +They told me so in London, they told me in Warsaw, they told me at the +Porte Saint-Martin where they hissed me. I don't think the men, if left +to themselves, would hiss me; their wives and their daughters put them +up to it: a woman like myself spoils their trade of honest women. I am +only waiting my chance here; for though you are all very nice and +generous and all that kind of thing, it is not what I want." + +Shortly after this conversation, the death of Dujarrier and his legacy +to her gave her the chance she had been looking for. She left for +London, I heard, with an Englishman; but I never saw him, so I cannot +say for certain. But, it appears, she did not stay long, because, a +little while after, several Parisians, on their return from Germany, +reported that they had met her at Wiesbaden, at Homburg, and elsewhere, +punting in a small way, not settling down anywhere, and almost +deliberately avoiding both Frenchmen and Englishmen. The rumour went +that her husband was on her track, and that her anxiety to avoid him had +caused her to leave London hurriedly. In spite of her chequered career, +in spite of the shortcomings at Brussels, Lola Montes was by no means +anxious for the "sweet yoke of domesticity." In another six months, her +name was almost forgotten by all of us, except by Alexandre Dumas, who +now and then alluded to her. Though far from superstitious, Dumas, who +had been as much smitten with her as most of her admirers, avowed that +he was glad she had disappeared. "She has 'the evil eye,'" he said; +"and sure to bring bad luck to any one who closely links his destiny +with hers, for however short a time. You see what has occurred to +Dujarrier. If ever she is heard of again, it will be in connection with +some terrible calamity that has befallen a lover of hers." We all +laughed at him, except Dr. Veron, who could have given odds to Solomon +Eagle himself at prophesying. Fortunately he was generally afraid to +open his lips, for he was thoroughly sincere in his belief that he could +prevent the event by not predicting it--at any rate aloud. For once in a +way, however, Alexandre Dumas proved correct. When we did hear again of +Lola Montes, it was in connection with the disturbances that had broken +out at Munich, and the abdication of her royal lover, Louis I. of +Bavaria, in favour of his eldest son, Maximilian. + +The substance of the following notes relating to said disturbances was +communicated to me by a political personage who played a not +inconsiderable part in the events themselves. As a rule it is not very +safe to take interested evidence of that kind, "but in this instance," +as my informant put it, "there was really no political reputation to +preserve, as far as he was concerned." Lola Montes had simply tried to +overthrow him as Madame Dubarry overthrew the Duc de Choiseul, because +he would not become her creature; and she had kept on repeating the +tactics with every succeeding ministry, even that of her own making. But +it should be remembered that revolution was in the air in the year '48, +and that if Lola Montes had been the most retiring of favourites, or +Louis I. the most moral of kings, the uprising would have happened just +the same, though the upshot might have been different with regard to +Louis himself. + +Here is a portrait of him, which, in my literary ignorance, I think +sufficiently interesting to reproduce. + +"Louis was a chip of the old Wittelsbach block; that is, a Lovelace, +with a touch of the _minnesinger_ about him. Age had not damped his +ardour; for, though he was sixty-one when Lola Montes took up her +quarters at Munich, any and every 'beauty' that came to him was sure of +an enthusiastic welcome. And Heaven alone knows how many had come to him +during his reign; they seemed really directed to him from every quarter +of the globe. The new arrival had her portrait painted almost +immediately; it was added to the collection for which a special gallery +had been set apart, and whither Louis went to meditate by himself at +least once a day. He averred that he went thither for poetic +inspiration, for he took himself au serieux as a poet, and, above all, +as a classical poet modelling his verse upon those of ancient times. He +had published a volume of poems, entitled 'Walhalla's Genossen';[18] but +his principal study of antiquity was mainly confined to the rites +connected with the worship of Venus. He was very good-natured and +pleasant in his dealings with every one; he had not an ounce of gall in +the whole of his body. He was, moreover, very religious in his own way, +and consequently the tool of the Jesuits, who really governed the +kingdom, but who endeavoured to make his own life sweet and pleasant to +him. They liked him to take part in the religious processions, as any +burgher of devout tendencies might, but being aware of his tendency to +be attracted by the first pretty face he caught sight of, they took care +to relegate all the handsome maidens and matrons to the first and second +floors. In that way Louis's eyes were always lifted heavenwards, and +religious appearances were preserved. + + [Footnote 18: "Companions in Walhalla."--EDITOR.] + +"Under such conditions, it was not difficult for a woman of Lola Montes' +attractions and daring to gain her ends. She was not altogether without +means when she came to Munich, though the sum in her possession was far +from a hundred thousand francs, as she afterwards alleged it was. At any +rate, she was not the penniless adventuress she had formerly been, and +when, in her beautiful dresses, she applied to the director of the +Hof-Theatre for an engagement, the latter was fairly dazzled, and +granted her request without a murmur. She did, however, not want to +dance, and, before her first appearance, she managed to set tongues +wagging about her beauty, and, as a matter of course, the rumours +reached the king's ears. I am afraid I shall have to prefer a grave +charge, but I am not doing so without foundation. It is almost certain +by now that the Jesuits, seeing in her a tool for the further +subjugation of the superannuated royal troubadour, countenanced, if they +did not assist her in her schemes; they, the Jesuits, did many things of +which a Catholic, like myself, however firm in his allegiance to Rome, +could not but disapprove. At any rate, three or four days after the +king's first meeting with her, Lola Montes was presented at court, and +introduced to the royal family and corps diplomatique by the sovereign +himself, as 'his best friend.' Events proceeded apace. In August, '47, +the king granted her patents of 'special naturalization,' created her +Baroness von Rosenthal, and, almost immediately afterwards, Countess von +Landsfeld. She received an annuity of twenty thousand florins, and had a +magnificent mansion built for her. At the instance of the king, the +queen was compelled to confer the order of St. Therese upon her. I, and +many others, had strenuously opposed all this, though not unaware that, +up till then, the Jesuits were on her side, rather than on ours. We paid +the penalty of our opposition with our dismissal from office, and then +Lola Montes confronted the Jesuits by herself. She was absolutely mad to +invade Wurtemberg, not for any political reason; she could no more have +accounted for any such than the merest hind, but simply because, a few +months before her appearance at Munich, she had been, in her opinion, +slighted by the old king. The fact was, old William, sincerely attached +to Amalia Stubenrauch, the actress, had not fallen a victim to Lola +Montes' charms, and had taken little or no notice of her. The +contemplated invasion of Wurtemberg was an act of private revenge. But +mad as she was, there was some one more mad still--King Louis I. of +Bavaria. + +"The most ill-advised thing she did, perhaps, was to change her +supporters. Like the ignorant, overbearing woman she was, she would not +consent to share her power over the king with the Jesuits; she tried to +form an opposition against them among the students at the University, +and she succeeded to a certain extent. These adherents constituted the +nucleus of a corps which soon became known under the title of +'Allemanen.' But the more noble-minded and patriotic youths at the +Munich University virtually ostracized the latter, and several minor +disturbances had already broken out in consequence of this, when, in the +beginning of February, '48, a more than usually serious manifestation +against 'Lola's creatures,' as they were called, took place. The woman +did not lack pluck, and she insisted upon defying the rioters by +herself. But they proved too much for her; and, after all, she was a +woman. She endeavoured to escape from their violence, but every house +was shut against her; the Swiss on guard at the Austrian Embassy refused +her shelter. A most painful scene happened; the king himself, the moment +the news reached him, rushed to her rescue, and, having elbowed his way +through the threatening, yelling crowd, offered her his arm, and +conducted her to the church of the Theatines, hard by. As a matter of +course, several officers had joined him, and all might have been well, +if she had taken the lesson to heart. But her violent, domineering, +vindictive temper got the better of her. No sooner did she find herself +in comparative safety, than, emboldened by the presence of the officers, +she snatched a pistol from one of them, and, armed with it, leapt out of +the building, confronting the crowd, and threatening to fire. Heaven +alone knows what would have been the result of this mad act, but for the +timely arrival of a squadron of cuirassiers, who covered her retreat. + +"The excitement might have died out in a week or a fortnight, though the +year '48 was scarcely a propitious one for a display of such +quasi-feudal defiance, if she had merely been content to forego the +revenge for the insults she herself had provoked; but on the 10th of +February she prevailed upon the king to issue a decree, closing the +University for a twelvemonth. The smouldering fire of resentment against +her constant interference in the affairs of the country blazed forth +once more, and this time with greater violence than ever. The working +men, nay, the commercial middle classes, hitherto indifferent to the +king's vagaries, which, after all, brought grist to their mill, espoused +the students' cause. Barricades were erected; the cry was not 'Long live +the Constitution,' or 'Long live the Republic,' but 'Down with the +concubine.' It was impossible to mistake the drift of that insurrection, +but, in order to leave no doubt about it in the sovereign's mind, a +deputation of the municipal council and one of the Upper House waited +upon Louis, and insisted upon the dismissal of Lola Montes, who, in less +than an hour, left Munich, escorted by a troop of gendarmes, who, +however, had all their work to do to prevent her from being torn to +pieces by the mob. Her departure was the signal for the pillaging of her +mansion, at which the king looked on--as he thought--incognito. It is +difficult to determine what prompted him to commit so rash an act. Was +it a feeling of relief at having got rid of her--for there was a good +deal of cynicism about that semi-philosophical, semi-mystical +troubadour--or a desire to chew the cud of his vanished happiness? +Whatever may have been the reason, he paid dearly for it, for some one +smashed a looking-glass over his head, and he was carried back to the +palace, unconscious, and bleeding profusely. It was never ascertained +who inflicted the wounds, though there is no doubt that the assailant +knew his victim. Meanwhile Lola Montes had succeeded in slipping away +from her escort, and three hours later she re-entered Munich disguised, +and endeavoured to make her way to the palace. But the latter was +carefully guarded, and for the next month all her attempts in that +direction proved fruitless, though, audacious as she was, she did not +dare stop for a single night in the capital itself. Besides, I do not +believe that a single inhabitant would have given her shelter. Unlike a +good many royal favourites of the past, she had no personal adherents, +no faithful servants who would have stood by her through thick and thin, +because she never treated any one kindly in the days of her prosperity: +she could only bribe; she was incapable of inspiring disinterested +affection among those who were insensible to the spell of her marvellous +beauty." + +So far the narrative of my informant. The rest is pretty well known by +everybody. A few years later, she committed bigamy with another English +officer, named Heald, who was drowned at Lisbon about the same time that +her real husband died. Alexandre Dumas was right--she brought ill-luck +to those who attached themselves to her for any length of time, whether +in the guise of lovers or husbands. + +These notes about Lola Montes remind me of another woman whom public +opinion would place in the same category, though she vastly differed in +character. I am alluding to Alphonsine Plessis, better known to the +world at large as "La Dame aux Camelias." I frequently met her in the +society of some of my friends between '43 and '47, the year of her +death. Her name was as I have written it, and not Marie or Marguerite +Duplessis, as has been written since. + +The world at large, and especially the English, have always made very +serious mistakes, both with regard to the heroine of the younger Dumas' +novel and play, and the author himself. They have taxed him with having +chosen an unworthy subject, and, by idealizing it, taught a lesson of +vice instead of virtue; they have taken it for granted that Alphonsine +Plessis was no better than her kind. She was much better than that, +though probably not sufficiently good to take a housemaid's place and be +obedient to her pastors and masters, to slave from morn till night for +a mere pittance, in addition to her virtue, which was ultimately to +prove its own reward--the latter to consist of a home of her own, with a +lot of squalling brats about her, where she would have had to slave as +she had slaved before, without the monthly pittances hitherto doled out +to her. She was not sufficiently good to see her marvellously beautiful +face, her matchless graceful figure set off by a cambric cap and a +calico gown, instead of having the first enhanced by the gleam of +priceless jewels in her hair and the second wrapped in soft laces and +velvets and satins; but, for all that, she was not the common courtesan +the goody-goody people have thought fit to proclaim her--the common +courtesan, who, according to these goody-goody people, would have +descended to her grave forgotten, but for the misplaced enthusiasm of a +poetical young man, who was himself corrupted by the atmosphere in which +he was born and lived afterwards. + +The sober fact is that Dumas _fils_ did not idealize anything at all, +and, least of all, Alphonsine Plessis' character. Though very young at +the time of her death, he was then already much more of a philosopher +than a poet. He had not seen half as much of Alphonsine Duplessis during +her life as is commonly supposed, and the first idea of the novel was +probably suggested to him, not by his acquaintance with her, but by the +sensation her death caused among the Paris public, the female part of +which--almost without distinction--went to look at her apartment, to +appraise her jewels and dresses, etc. "They would probably like to have +had them on the same terms," said a terrible cynic. The remark must have +struck young Dumas, in whose hearing it was said, or who, at any rate, +had it reported to him; for if we carefully look at _all_ his earlier +plays, we find the spirit of that remark largely pervading them. + +Alphonsine Plessis had probably learned even less in her girlhood than +Lola Montes, but she had a natural tact, and an instinctive refinement +which no education could have enhanced. She never made grammatical +mistakes, no coarse expression ever passed her lips. Lola Montes could +not make friends; Alphonsine Plessis could not make enemies. She never +became riotous like the other, not even boisterous; for amidst the most +animated scenes she was haunted by the sure knowledge that she would die +young, and life, but for that knowledge, would have been very sweet to +her. Amidst these scenes, she would often sit and chat to me: she liked +me, because I never paid her many compliments, although I was but six +years older than the most courted woman of her time. The story of her +being provided for by a foreign nobleman because she was so like his +deceased daughter, was not a piece of fiction on Dumas' part; it was a +positive fact. Alphonsine Plessis, after this provision was made for +her, might have led the most retired existence; she might, like so many +demi-mondaines have done since, bought herself a country-house, +re-entered "the paths of respectability," have had a pew in the parish +church, been in constant communication with the vicar, prolonged her +life by several years, and died in the odour of sanctity: but, +notwithstanding her desperate desire to live, her very nature revolted +at such self-exile. When Alexandre Dumas read the "Dame aux Camelias" to +his father, the latter wept like a baby, but his tears did not drown the +critical faculty. "At the beginning of the third act," he said +afterwards, "I was wondering how Alexandre would get his Marguerite back +to town without lowering her in the estimation of the spectator. +Because, if such a woman as he depicted was to remain true to nature--to +her nature--and consequently able to stand the test of psychological +analysis, she could not have borne more than two or three months of such +retirement. This does not mean that she would have severed her +connection with Armand Duval, but he would have become 'un plat dans le +menu' after a little while, nothing more. The way Alexandre got out of +the difficulty proves that he is my son every inch of him, and that, at +the very outset of his career, he is a better dramatist than I am ever +likely to be. But depend upon it, that if, in real life and with such a +woman, le pere Duval had not interfered, la belle Marguerite would have +taken the 'key of the street' on some pretext--and that, notwithstanding +the sale of her carriages, the pledging of her diamonds and her furs--in +order not to worry the man she loved, for the time being, with money +matters. Honestly speaking, it wanted my son's cleverness to make a +piece out of Alphonsine Plessis' life. True, he was fortunate in that +she died, which left him free to ascribe that death to any cause but the +right one, namely, consumption. I know that he made use of it, but he +took care to show the malady aggravated by Armand Duval's desertion of +her, and this is the only liberty he took with the psychological, +consequently scientific and logical, development of the play. People +have compared his Marguerite Gautier to Manon Lescaut, to Marion +Delorme, and so forth: it just shows what they know about it. They might +just as well compare Thiers to Cromwell. Manon Lescaut, Marion Delorme, +Cromwell, knew what they wanted: Marguerite Gautier and Thiers do not; +both are always in search of _l'inconnu_, the one in experimental +politics, the other in experimental love-making. Still, my son has been +true to Nature; but he has taken an episode showing her at her best. He +was not bound to let the public know that the frequent recurrence of +these love episodes, but always with a different partner, constitutes a +disease which is as well known to specialists as the disease of +drunkenness, and for which it is impossible to find a cure. Messalina, +Catherine II., and thousands of women have suffered from it. When they +happen to be born in such exalted stations as these two, they buy men; +when they happen to be born in a lowly station and are attractive, they +sell themselves; when they are ugly and repulsive they sink to the +lowest depths of degradation, or end in the padded cells of a madhouse, +where no man dares come near them. Nine times out of ten the malady is +hereditary, and I am certain that if we could trace the genealogy of +Alphonsine Plessis, we should find the taint either on the father's side +or on the mother's, probably on the former's, but more probably still on +both."[19] + + [Footnote 19: The following is virtually a summary of an + article by Count G. de Contades, in a French bibliographical + periodical, _Le Livre_ (Dec. 10, 1885), and shows how near + Alexandre Dumas was to the truth. I have given it at great + length. My excuse for so doing is the extraordinary popularity + of Dumas' play with all classes of playgoers. As a consequence, + there is not a single modern play, with the exception of those + of Shakespeare, the genesis of which has been so much commented + upon. It is no exaggeration to say that most educated + playgoers, not to mention professional students of the drama, + have at some time or other expressed a wish to know something + more of the real Marguerite Gautier's parentage and antecedents + than is shown by Dumas, either in his play or in his novel, or + than what they could gather from the partly apocryphal details + given by her contemporaries. Dumas himself, in his preface to + the play, says that she was a farm servant. He probably knew no + more than that, nor did Alphonsine Plessis herself. In + after-years, the eminent dramatist had neither the time nor the + inclination to search musty parish registers; Count de Contades + has done so for him. Here are the results, as briefly as + possible, of his researches. Alphonsine Plessis' paternal + grandmother, "moitie mendiante et moitie prostituee," + inhabited, a little less than a century ago, the small parish + of Longe-sur-Maire, which has since become simply Longe in the + canton of Briouze, arrondissement of Argentan (about thirty + miles from Alencon). She had been nicknamed "La Guenuchetonne," + a rustic version of the archaic French word _guenippe_ + (slattern). Louis Descours, a kind of country clod who had + entered the priesthood without the least vocation, and just + because his people wished him to do so, becomes enamoured of + "La Guenuchetonne," and early in January, 1790, the cure + Philippe christens a male child, which is registered as Marin + Plessis, mother Louis-Renee Plessis, father unknown. That the + father was known well enough is proved by the Christian name + bestowed upon the babe, Marin, which was that of Louis + Descours' father. This gallant adventure of the country priest + was an open secret for miles around. + + Marin Plessis grew into a handsome fellow, and when about + twenty took to travelling in the adjacent provinces of lower + and upper Normandy with a pack of small wares. Handsome and + amiable besides, he was a welcome guest everywhere, and soon + became a great favourite with the female part of the Normandy + peasantry. For a little while he flitted from one rustic beauty + to another, until he was fairly caught by one more handsome + than the rest, Marie Deshayes. She was not, perhaps, + immaculately virtuous, but, apart from her extraordinary + personal attractions, she was something more than an ordinary + peasant girl. + + Some sixty years before Marin Plessis' union with Marie + Deshayes, there lived in the neighbourhood of Evreux a spinster + lady of good descent, though not very well provided with + worldly goods. She was comely and sweet-tempered enough, but + then, as now, comeliness and a sweet temper do not count for + much in the French matrimonial market, and least of all in the + provincial one. Owing to the modesty of her marriage portion, + she had no suitors for her hand, and, being of an exceedingly + amorous disposition, she bestowed her affection where she + could, "without regret, and without false shame," as the old + French chronicler has it. + + The annals of the village--for, curiously enough, these annals + do exist, though only in manuscripts--are commendably reticent + about the exact number and names of her lovers. It would seem + that the author, a contemporary of Mdlle. Anne du Mesnil + d'Argentelles and the great-grandfather of the present + possessor of the notes, a gentleman near Bernay, was divided + between the wish of not being too hard upon his neighbour, who + was, after all, a gentle-woman, and the desire to leave a + record of a peculiar phase of the country manners of those days + to posterity. Be this as it may, Mdlle. d'Argentelles' swains, + previous to the very last one, have been doomed to anonymous + obscurity. But with the advent of Etienne Deshayes, the + annalist becomes less reticent, he is considered worthy of + being mentioned in full, perhaps as a reward for having finally + "made an honest woman" of his inamorata. For that is the final + upshot of the love-story between him and Mdlle. d'Argentelles, + which, in its earlier stages, bears a certain resemblance to + that between Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Madame de Warens, with + this difference--that the Normand Jean-Jacques is considerably + older than his mistress. + + The children born of this marriage were very numerous. One of + them, Louis-Deshayes, married a handsome peasant girl, + Marie-Madeleine Marra, who appears to have been somewhat too + intimate with a neighbouring squire, but who gave birth a few + years after to a daughter, of whose paternity there could not + be the smallest doubt, seeing that she grew up into a speaking + likeness of her maternal grandmother, the erstwhile Mdlle. Anne + du Mesnil d'Argentelles. Fate ought to have had a better lot in + store for beautiful Marie Deshayes than a marriage with a poor + pedlar like Marin Plessis; but the latter was very handsome, + and, notwithstanding the opposition of the family, she became + his wife. On the 15th of January, 1824, the child which was to + be immortalized as "La Dame aux Camelias" saw the light, in a + small village in Lower Normandy.--EDITOR.] + +There were few of us who, during Alphonsine Plessis' lifetime, were so +interested in her as to have gone to the length of such a psychological +analysis of her pedigree. Nevertheless, most men were agreed that she +was no ordinary girl. Her candour about her early want of education +increased the interest. "Twenty or twenty-five years ago," said Dr. +Veron, one day, after Alphonsine Plessis had left the dinner table, "a +woman of her refinement would not have been phenomenal in her position, +because at that period the grisette, promoted to the rank of femme +entretenue, had not made her appearance. The expression 'femme +entretenue' was not even known. Men chose their companions, outside +marriage, from a different class; they were generally women of education +and often of good family who had made a faux pas, and, as such, +forfeited the society and countenance of their equals who had not +stumbled in that way, at any rate not in the sight of the world. I +confess, Alphonsine Plessis interests me very much. She is, first of +all, the best-dressed woman in Paris; secondly, she neither flaunts nor +hides her vices; thirdly, she is not always talking or hinting about +money; in short, she is a wonderful courtesan." + +The result of all this admiration was very favourable to Alexandre Dumas +_fils_ when he brought out his book about eighteen months after her +death. It was in every one's hands, and the press kept whetting the +curiosity of those who had not read it as yet with personal anecdotes +about the heroine. In addition to this, the title was a very taking one, +and, moreover, absolutely new; for, though it was obvious enough from +Alphonsine Plessis' habit of wearing white camellias the greater part of +the year, no one had ever thought of applying it to her while she was +alive; hence, the credit of its invention belongs decidedly to Dumas +_fils_. + +I may return to the subject of "La Dame aux Camelias" in connection with +the play; meanwhile, I will say a few words of the only man among our +set who objected to the title, "because it injures my own," as he put +it; namely, M. Lautour-Mezerai, who had been surnamed "L'Homme au +Camellia;" in the singular, from his habit of never appearing in public +without that flower in his button-hole. And be it remembered that in +those days, the flower was much more rare than it is at present, and +consequently very expensive. The plagiarist, if there was one, must have +been Alphonsine Plessis, for Dr. Veron, who was one of his oldest +friends, did not remember having ever seen him _minus_ the camellia, and +their friendship dated from the year 1831. It is computed that during +the nineteen years Mezerai was in Paris, previous to his departure for +the South of France and afterwards for Algeria, in both of which +provinces he fulfilled the functions of prefect, he must have spent no +less than fifty thousand francs on his favourite floral ornament, for he +frequently changed it twice a day, and its price, especially in the +thirties and earlier part of the forties, was not less than five francs. +It is, therefore, not surprising that he resented the usurpation of his +title. M. Lautour-Mezerai was one of the most elegant men I knew. He not +only belonged to a very good provincial stock, but his family on both +sides counted some eminent names in literature.[20] He was a most +charming companion, exceedingly generous; but he would not have parted +with the flower in his button-hole for any consideration, not even to +oblige his greatest friend, male or female. It was more than an ornament +to him, he looked upon it as a talisman. He always occupied the same +place at the Opera, in the balcony, or what we call the "dress-circle," +and many a covetous glance from the brightest eyes was cast at the +dazzling white camellia, standing out in bold relief against the dark +blue coat, but neither glances nor direct requests had any effect upon +him. He became absolutely savage in his refusal when too hardly pressed, +because, by his own admission, he was superstitious enough to believe +that, if he went home without it, something terrible would happen to him +during the night. + + [Footnote 20: Curiously enough, he belonged to the same + department, and died almost on the very spot where Marin + Plessis was born.--EDITOR.] + +M. Lautour-Mezerai was, however, something more than a mere man of +fashion. To him belongs the credit of having founded--at any rate in +France--the children's periodical. For the comparatively small +subscription of six francs per annum, thousands of little ones received +every month a number of the _Journal des Enfants_, stitched in blue +paper, and with their own name on the wrapper. It flattered their pride +to be treated like their elders by having their literature despatched to +them in that way, and there is no doubt that this ingenious device +contributed, to a certain extent, to the primary and enormous success of +the undertaking. But M. Lautour-Mezerai was too refined a litterateur to +depend upon such a mere trick, and a look at even the earlier numbers of +the _Journal des Enfants_, would prove conclusively that, in the way of +amusing children while instructing them a little, nothing better has +been done since, whether in France, England, or Germany. The editor and +manager succeeded in grouping around him such men as Paul Lacroix (_le +bibliophile Jacob_) and Charles Nodier, both of whom have never been +surpassed in making history attractive to young minds. Emile Souvestre, +Leon Gozlan, Eugene Sue, and even Alexandre Dumas told them the most +wonderful stories. The men who positively kept the adult population of +France spellbound by their stirring romances seemed to take a delight in +competing with women like Virginie Ancelot, the Duchesse d'Abrantes, and +others on the latter's ground. As a consequence, it became the fashion +to present the young ones on New Year's Day with a receipt for a +twelvemonth's subscription, made out in their names, instead of the +everlasting bag of sweets. At one time the circulation of _Le Journal +des Enfants_ was computed at 60,000, and M. Lautour-Mezerai was said to +make 100,000 francs per annum out of it. + +In a former note, I incidentally mentioned Auguste Lireux. He is +scarcely remembered by the present generation of Frenchmen; I doubt +whether there are a hundred students of French literature in England who +know his name, let alone his writings: yet he is worthy of being +remembered by both. He had--what a great many French writers of talent, +far greater than his own, essentially lack--humour. True, the latter was +not subtle; but it was rarely, if ever, coarse. The nearest approach to +him among the journalists of the present day is M. Francisque Sarcey; +but the eminent dramatic critic has had a better education. +Nevertheless, if Lireux had finished as he began, he would not be so +entirely forgotten. Unfortunately for his fame, if not for his material +welfare, he took it into his head to become a millionnaire, and he +almost succeeded; at any rate, he died very well off, in a beautiful +villa at Bougival. + +I remember meeting with Lireux almost immediately after he landed in +Paris, at the end of '40 or the beginning of '41. He came, I believe, +from Rouen; though, but for his accent, he might have come from +Marseilles. Tall, well-built, with brown hair and beard and ruddy +complexion, a pair of bright eyes behind a pair of golden spectacles, +very badly dressed, though his clothes were almost new, very loud and +very restless, his broad-brimmed hat cocked on one side, he gave one the +impression of what in Paris we used to call a "departemental oracle." +He was that to a certain extent, still he was not really pompous, and +the feeling of discomfort one experienced at first soon wore off. He was +not altogether unknown among the better class of journalists in the +capital, for it appears that he frequently contributed to the Paris +papers from the provinces. He had a fair knowledge of the French drama +theoretically, for he had never written a piece, and openly stated his +intention never to do so. But in virtue of his dramatic criticisms in +several periodicals--which, in spite of the difference in education +between the two men, read uncommonly like the articles of M. Sarcey in +the _Temps_--and his unwavering faith in his lucky star, he considered +himself destined not only to lift the Odeon from the slough in which it +had sunk, but to make it a formidable rival to the house in the Rue de +Richelieu. He had no ambition beyond that. The Odeon was really at its +lowest depth. Harel had enjoyed a subsidy of 130,000 francs, M. d'Epagny +eleven years later had to content himself with less than half, and yet +the authorities were fully cognizant of the necessity of a second +Theatre-Francais. Whether from incapacity or ill-luck, M. d'Epagny did +not succeed in bringing back the public to the old house. The direction +was offered then to M. Hippolyte Lucas, the dramatic critic of _Le +Siecle_, and one of the best English scholars I have ever met with among +the French, and, on his declining the responsibility, given to Lireux, +who for the sake of making a point, exclaimed, "Directeur!... au refus +d'Hippolyte Lucas!"[21] + + [Footnote 21: An imitation of the line of Don Carlos in Hugo's + "Hernani": "Empereur!... au refus de Frederic-le-Sage!"--EDITOR.] + +It was a piece of bad taste on Lireux's part, because M. Lucas was his +superior in every respect, though he would probably have failed where +the other succeeded--at least for a while. Save for this mania of saying +smart things in and out of season, Lireux was really a good-natured +fellow, and we were all glad that he had realized his ambition. The +venture looked promising enough at the start. He got an excellent +company together, comprising Bocage, Monrose, Gil-Peres, Maubant, +Mdlles. Georges and Araldi, Madame Dorval, etc.; and if, like young +Bonaparte's troops, they were badly paid and wanted for everything, they +worked with a will, because, like Bonaparte, Lireux inspired them with +confidence. He, on the other hand, knew their value, and on no pretext +would allow them to be ousted from the positions they had honourably +won by their talents and hard work. Presumptuous mediocrity, backed +either by influence or intrigue, found him a stern adversary; the +intriguer got his answer in such a way as to prevent him from returning +to the charge. One day an actor of reputed incapacity, Machanette, +claimed the title-role in Moliere's "Misanthrope." + +"You have no one else to play Alceste," he said. + +"Yes, I have. I have got one of the checktakers," replied Lireux. + +Auguste Lireux was one of those managers the race of which began with +Harel at the Porte Saint-Martin and Dr. Veron at the Opera. Duponchel, +at the latter house, Montigny at the Gymnase, Buloz and Arsene Houssaye +at the Comedie-Francaise, endeavoured as far as possible to follow their +traditions of liberality towards the public and their artists, and +encouragement given to untried dramatists. It was not Lireux's fault +that he did not succeed for any length of time. Of course, there is a +ridiculous side to everything. During the terrible cholera visitation of +1832, Harel published a kind of statistics, showing that not a single +one of the spectators had been attacked by the plague; but all this +cannot blind us to the support given to the struggling playwright, +Dumas, in the early part of his career. During the winter of 1841-'42, +which was a severe one, Lireux sent foot-warmers to the rare audience +that patronized him on a bitterly cold night, "when tragedy still +further chills the house"; the little bit of charlatanism cannot disturb +the fact of his having given one of the foremost dramatists of the day a +chance with "La Cigue." I am alluding to the first piece of Emile +Augier. + +This kind of thing tells with a general public, more so still with a +public composed of generous-minded, albeit somewhat riotous youths like +those of the Quartier-Latin in the early forties. Gradually the latter +found their way to the Odeon, "sinon pour voir la piece, alors pour +entendre Lireux, qui est toujours amusant"; which, in plain language, +meant that come what may they would endeavour to provoke Lireux into +giving them a speech. + +Flattering as was this resolve on their part to Lireux's eloquence, the +means they employed to encompass their end would have made the existence +of an ordinary manager a burden to him. But Lireux was not an ordinary +manager; he possessed "the gift of the gab" to a marvellous degree: +consequently he made it known that he would be happy at any time to +address MM. les etudiants without putting them to the expense of apples +and eggs on the evening of the performance, and voice-lozenges the next +day, if they, MM. les etudiants, would in return respect his furniture +and the dresses of his actors. The arrangement worked exceedingly well, +and for four years the management and the student part of the audience +lived in the most perfect harmony. + +Lireux did more than that, he forestalled their possible objections to a +doubtful episode in a play. I remember the first night of "Jeanne de +Naples." The piece had dragged fearfully. Lireux had made three +different speeches during the evening, but he foresaw a riot at the end +of the piece which no eloquence on his part would be able to quell. It +appears--for we only found this out the next day--that the condemned +woman, previous to being led to execution, had to deliver a monologue of +at least a hundred and fifty or two hundred lines. The unhappy queen had +scarcely begun, when a herculean soldier rushed on the stage, took her +into his arms and carried her off by main force, notwithstanding her +struggles. It was a truly sensational ending, and the curtain fell +amidst deafening applause. It redeemed the piece! + +Next day Lireux made his appearance at Tortoni's in the afternoon, and, +as a matter of course, the production of the previous evening was +discussed. + +"I cannot understand," said Roger de Beauvoir, "how a man with such +evident knowledge of stagecraft as the author displayed in that +denoument, could have perpetrated such an enormity as the whole of the +previous acts." + +Lireux was fairly convulsed with laughter. "Do you really think that was +his own invention?" he asked. + +"Of course I do," was the reply. + +"Well, it is not. His denoument was a speech which would have taken +about twenty minutes, at the end of which the queen is tamely led off +between the soldiers. I know what would have been the result: the +students would have simply torn up the benches and Heaven knows what +else. You know that if the gas is left burning, if only a moment, after +twelve, there is an extra charge irrespective of the quantity consumed. +I looked at my watch when she began to speak her lines. It was exactly +thirteen minutes to twelve; she might have managed to get to the end by +twelve, but it was doubtful. What was not doubtful was the row that +would have ensued, and the time it would have taken me to cope with it. +My mind was made up there and then. I selected the biggest of the +supers, told him to go and fetch her, and you know the rest." + +There were few theatrical managers in those days who escaped the +vigilance of Balzac. Among the many schemes he was for ever hatching for +benefiting mankind and making his own fortune, there was one which can +not be more fitly described than in the American term of "making a +corner"; only that particular "corner" was to be one in plays. + +About two years before the advent of Lireux, and when the house at Ville +d'Avray, of which I have spoken elsewhere, was completed, a party of +literary men received an invitation to spend the Sunday there. It was +not an ordinary invitation, but a kind of circular-letter, the +postscriptum to which contained the following words: "M. de Balzac will +make an important communication." Leon Gozlan, Jules Sandeau, Louis +Desnoyers, Henri Monnier, and those familiar with Balzac's schemes, knew +pretty well what to expect; and when Lassailly, one of the four men +whose nose vied with the legendary one of Bouginier, confirmed their +apprehensions that it was a question of making their fortunes, they +resigned themselves to their fate. Jules Sandeau, who was gentleness +itself, merely observed with a sigh that it was the fifteenth time +Balzac had proposed to make him a millionnaire; Henri Monnier offered to +sell his share of the prospective profits for 7 francs, 50 centimes; +Leon Gozlan suggested that their host might have discovered a diamond +mine, whereupon Balzac, who had just entered the room, declared that a +diamond mine was nothing to it. He was simply going to monopolize the +whole of the Paris theatres. He exposed the plan in a magnificent speech +of two hours' duration, and would have continued for two hours more had +not one of the guests reminded him that it was time for dinner. + +"Dinner," exclaimed Balzac; "why, I never thought of it." + +Luckily there was a restaurant near, and the future millionnaires and +their would-be benefactor were enabled to sit down to "a banquet quite +in keeping, not only with the magnificent prospects just disclosed to +them, but with the splendour actually surrounding them," as Mery +expressed it. + +For it should be added that the sumptuous dwelling which was to be, was +at that moment absolutely bare of furniture, save a few deal chairs and +tables. The garden was a wilderness, intersected by devious paths, +sloping so suddenly as to make it impossible to keep one's balance +without the aid of an Alpenstock or the large stones imbedded in the +soil, but only temporarily, by the considerate owner. One day, Dutacq, +the publisher, having missed his footing, rolled as far as the wall +inclosing the domain, without his friends being able to stop him. + +The garden, like everything else connected with the schemes of Balzac, +was eventually to become a gold-mine. Part of it was to be built upon, +and converted into a dairy; another part was to be devoted to the +culture of the pineapple and the Malaga grape, all of which would yield +an income of 30,000 francs annually "at least"--to borrow Balzac's own +words. + +The apartments had been furnished in the same grandiose +way--theoretically. The walls were, as I have already remarked, +absolutely bare, but on their plaster, scarcely dry, were magnificent +inscriptions of what was to be. They were mapped out regardless of +expense. On that facing the north there was a splendid piece of +thirteenth-century Flemish tapestry--in writing, of course, flanked by +two equally priceless pictures by Raphael and Titian. Facing these, +one by Rembrandt, and, underneath, a couch, a couple of arm-chairs, +and six ordinary ones, Louis XV., and upholstered in Aubusson +tapestry--subjects, Lafontaine's Fables. Opposite again, a monumental +mantelpiece in malachite (a present of Czar Nicholas, who had +expressed his admiration of Balzac's novels), with bronzes and clock +by De Gouttieres. The place on the ceiling was marked for a chandelier +of Venetian glass, and in the dining-room a square was drawn on the +carpetless floor for the capacious sideboard, whereon would be +displayed "the magnificent family plate." + +Pending the arrival of the furniture, the building of the dairy, +hothouses, and vineries, the guests had to sit on hard wooden chairs, to +eat a vile dinner, supplemented, however, by an excellent dessert. +Balzac was very fond of fruit, and especially of pears, of which he +always ate an enormous quantity. The wine was, as a rule, very inferior, +but on that particular occasion Balzac's guests discovered that their +host's imagination could even play him more cruel tricks in the +selection of his vintages than it played him in his pursuit of financial +schemes and the furnishing of his house. + +When the fruit was placed upon the table, Balzac assumed a most solemn +air. "Gentlemen," he said, "I am going to give you some Chateau-Lafitte, +such as you have never tasted--such as it has been given to few mortals +to taste. I wish you to sip it carefully--I might almost say reverently, +because the opportunity may not repeat itself in our lives." + +Wherewith the guests' glasses were filled; all of them made horrible +faces, for it was abominable stuff, but one more outspoken than the rest +gave his opinion there and then-- + +"This may be 'Chateau de la Rue Lafitte,' but it is enough to give one +the colic." + +Any one else but Balzac would have been horribly disconcerted; he, on +the contrary, did not budge. "Yes," he said proudly, "you are right in +one respect; this ambrosial nectar comes in a straight line from the Rue +Lafitte, for it is Baron James de Rothschild who made me a present of +two barrels, for which I am profoundly grateful. Drink, gentlemen, +drink, and be thankful also." + +Those who would consider this a clever piece of acting on Balzac's part, +would be greatly mistaken. His imagination at times affected his palate +as well as his other organs, and at that moment he was under the +distinct impression that he was offering his guests one of the rarest +vintages on record. + +I have endeavoured hitherto to digress as little as possible in my +recollections, though their very nature made it difficult. In this +instance, digression was absolutely necessary to convey an idea of the +shock which would naturally result from the contact of two such brains +as those of Balzac and Lireux; for it was not long after the young +manager's advent to the Odeon that Balzac found his way to his sanctum. +The play he offered him was "Les Ressources de Quinola." Strange as it +may seem to us, even as late as '42, Balzac's name as a novelist did not +rank first in the list with the general public, still it is very +doubtful whether any young manager would have refused a stage play by +him; consequently, Lireux accepted "Les Ressources de Quinola" almost +without fear. It is not to the purpose to say that it was a bad play, +and that he ought to have known better; it has been amply proved by now +that the most experienced manager is not infallible; but it is a moot +point whether the greatest masterpiece would have succeeded with the +tactics adopted by Balzac to insure its success. The following may +appear like a scene from a farcical comedy; I can vouch for the truth of +every word of it, because I had it from the lips of Lireux himself, who, +after all, was the heaviest sufferer by Balzac's incurable greed, or, to +put it as leniently as one can, by his constant chase after a capital +stroke of business. His resolve to pack the house on the first night was +not due to a desire to secure a favourable reception from a friendly +audience, but to the determination to secure "a lump sum," let come what +might. In Balzac are found the two contradictory traits of the +money-grubber and the spendthrift. + +The scene alluded to just now, took place when the rehearsals were far +advanced; the author and the manager were discussing the invitations to +be sent out, etc. All at once Balzac declared that he would have none +but Knights of the Order of Saint-Louis in the pit. "I am agreeable," +replied Lireux, "provided you ferret them out."[22] + + [Footnote 22: It shows that Lireux was not very familiar with + the royal edicts affecting that order, and that Balzac himself + exaggerated the social and monetary importance of its wearers. + For, though Louis-Philippe at his accession suppressed the + order, not less than twelve thousand new knights had been + created by his two immediate predecessors. They, the recently + created knights, were allowed to retain their honours and + pensions; but, even before the fall of the Bourbons, the + distinction had lost much of its prestige. After the Battle of + Navarino, Admiral de Rigny, soliciting rewards for his officers + who had distinguished themselves, tacitly ignored the order of + Saint-Louis in favour of that of the Legion of Honour. The + order, as founded by Louis XIV. in 1693, was only available to + officers and Catholics. Several modifications were introduced + afterwards in its statutes. The Order of Saint-Louis and that + of "Military Merit" were the only two recognized by the + Constituent Assembly of 1789; but the Convention suppressed the + former, only leaving the latter.--EDITOR.] + +"I'll see to that," said Balzac. "Pray go on. What is the next part of +the house?" + +"Orchestra stalls." + +"Nothing but peers of France there." + +"But the orchestra stalls will not hold them all, Monsieur de Balzac." + +"Those who cannot find room in the house will have to stand in the +lobbies," said Balzac, imperturbably. + +"Stage boxes?" continued Lireux. + +"They will be reserved for the Court." + +"Stage boxes on the first tier?" + +"For the ambassadors and plenipotentiaries." + +"The open boxes on the ground floor?" + +"For the wives and families of the ambassadors." + +"Upper circle?" enumerated Lireux, not a muscle of his face moving. + +"For the deputies and grand officers of State." + +"Third circle?" enumerated Lireux. + +"The heads of the great banking and financial establishments." + +"The galleries and amphitheatre?" + +"A carefully selected, but varied, bourgeoisie," wound up Balzac. + +Lireux, who was a capital mimic, re-enacted the scene for us +four-and-twenty hours after it had been enacted in his own room, and +while he was still under the impression that it was merely a huge joke +on Balzac's part. He soon discovered, however, that the latter was +terribly in earnest, when, a few days later, Balzac claimed the whole of +the seats for the first three nights, on the penalty of withdrawing his +piece there and then. Lireux foolishly submitted, the box office was +closed; every one applying for tickets was referred to Balzac himself, +or rather to the shady individual who had egged him on to this +speculation. The latter, at the first application, had run up the +prices; the public felt disgusted, and when the curtain rose upon "Les +Ressources de Quinola," the house was almost empty. Thereupon a batch of +nondescripts was sent into the streets to dispose of the tickets at any +price; the bait was indignantly rejected, and the curtain fell amidst +violent hisses. I repeat, a masterpiece would have failed under such +circumstances; but the short run of the revival, almost a quarter of a +century later at the Vaudeville, proved that the piece was not even an +ordinary money-drawing one. It only kept the bills for about nine or ten +days. + +Lireux was more fortunate with several other pieces, notably with that +of Leon Gozlan, known to students of the French drama as "La Main Droite +et la Main Gauche," but which originally bore the title of "Il etait une +Fois un Roi et une Reine." There could be no doubt about its tendency in +its original form; it was nothing less than an indictment for bigamy +both against Queen Victoria and her Consort; and the authorities had to +insist not only upon the change of title and the names of the _dramatis +personae_, but upon the action being shifted from London to Stockholm. +The author and manager had to comply; but the public, who had got wind +of the affair, crowded the house every night in order to read between +the lines. + +One of my great sources of amusement for many years has been the perusal +of political after-dinner speeches, and political leaders in the English +papers, especially when the speakers and writers have endeavoured to lay +stress upon the cordial relations between the French and the English, +upon the friendly feelings guiding their actions on both sides. I am +putting together these notes nearly fourteen years after the conclusion +of the Franco-German War, nearly three quarters of a century after +Waterloo. There is not a single Frenchman, however Chauvinistic, who +ever thinks, let alone talks, of avenging Napoleon's defeat by +Wellington; while, on the other hand, there is not a single Frenchman, +however unpatriotic, who does not dream now and then of wiping out the +humiliation suffered at Sedan. Well, in spite of the almost entire +oblivion of the one disaster, and the poignant recollection of the +other, the French of to-day hate the English more than the Germans; +or--let me put it more correctly--they hate the Germans, they despise +us. Nothing that we can do will ever remove this dislike of us. + +It has been thus as long as I can remember; no royal visits, no exchange +of so-called international courtesies will alter the feeling. It is +ready to burst forth, the smallest provocation or fancied one will set +it ablaze. During the forties there were a good many real or imaginary +provocations on the part of England, and, as a consequence, the hostile +feeling against her broke forth where it is almost always sure to break +forth first in France--on the stage and in song. After "La Main Droite +et la Main Gauche," came Halevy's opera of "Charles VI." It is but fair +to say that the Government did all it could to stem the tide, but, +notwithstanding its positive orders to modify the chorus of the famous +war song in the first act, the song was henceforth regarded as a +patriotic hymn. Nor did the visit of the Queen to Louis-Philippe at Eu, +in 1843, effect much improvement in this state of things; and, as a +matter of course, we on the English side of the Channel retaliated the +skits, etc., though I do not think we took them au grand serieux. When, +in January, '44, I went to London for a few days, I found the Christmas +pantomime of "King Pippin" in full swing at Drury Lane. I well remember +a scene of it, laid in the shop of a dealer in plaster figures. Two of +these represented respectively the King of France and the Queen of +Great Britain and Ireland. At a given moment, the two statues became +animated, drew close to one another, and exchanged the most profuse +salutations. But meanwhile, at the back of the stage, the Gallic cock +and the British lion (or leopard) assumed a threatening attitude, and at +each mark of affection between the two royal personages, shook their +heads violently and seemed to want desperately to come to close +quarters. The audience applauded vociferously, and it was very evident +to me that neither in Paris nor in London the two nations shared the +entente cordiale of their rulers. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Rachel and some of her fellow-actors -- Rachel's true character + -- Her greediness and spitefulness -- Her vanity and her wit -- + Her powers of fascination -- The cost of being fascinated by her + -- Her manner of levying toll -- Some of her victims, Comte + Duchatel and Dr. Veron -- The story of her guitar -- A little + transaction between her and M. Fould -- Her supposed charity and + generosity -- Ten tickets for a charity concert -- How she made + them into twenty -- How she could have made them into a hundred + -- Baron Taylor puzzled -- Her manner of giving presents -- + Beauvallet's precaution with regard to one of her gifts -- + Alexandre Dumas the younger, wiser or perhaps not so wise in his + generation -- Rachel as a raconteuse -- The story of her _debut_ + at the Gymnase -- What Rachel would have been as an actor instead + of an actress -- Her comic genius -- Rachel's mother -- What + became of Rachel's money -- Mama Felix as a pawnbroker -- + Rachel's trinkets -- Two curious bracelets -- Her first + appearance before Nicholas I. -- A dramatic recital in the open + air -- Rachel's opinion of the handsomest man in Europe -- Rachel + and Samson -- Her obligations to him -- How she repays them -- + How she goes to Berryer to be coached in the fable of "The Two + Pigeons" -- An anecdote of Berryer -- Rachel's fear of a "warm + reception" on the first night of "Adrienne Lecouvreur" -- How she + averts the danger -- Samson as a man and as an actor -- + Petticoat-revolts at the Comedie-Francaise -- Samson and Regnier + as buffers -- Their different ways of pouring oil upon the + troubled waters -- Mdlle. Sylvanie Plessy -- A parallel between + her and Sarah Bernhardt -- Samson and Regnier's pride in their + profession -- The different character of that pride -- "Apollo + with a bad tailor, and who dresses without a looking-glass" -- + Samson gives a lesson in declamation to a procureur-imperial -- + The secret of Regnier's greatness as an actor -- A lesson at the + Conservatoire -- Regnier on "make-up" -- Regnier's opinion of + genius on the stage -- A mot of Augustine Brohan -- Giovanni, the + wigmaker of the Comedie-Francaise -- His pride in his profession + -- M. Ancessy, the musical director, and his three wigs. + + +There were few authors of my time who came in contact with Rachel +without writing about her; there were absolutely none who have +represented her in her true character. Either her genius blinded them to +her faults, or else they were content to perpetuate the popular belief +in her amiability, good nature, generosity, etc. The fact is, that +Rachel off the stage was made of very ordinary clay. She had few of the +good qualities of her race, and a good many of the bad ones; she was +greedy to a degree, and could be very spiteful. All these drawbacks, in +the eyes of most of her biographers, were redeemed by her marvellous +tragic abilities on the stage, by a wonderful "gift of the gab," by a +"happy-go-lucky," "hail-fellow, well-met" manner off the stage to those +whom she liked to propitiate. Nevertheless, there were times when she +had not a single friend at the Comedie-Francaise, and though her +champions attributed this hostility to jealousy of her great gifts, a +moment's consideration would show us that such a feeling could scarcely +have influenced the men who to a great extent shared her histrionic +triumphs, viz., Beauvallet, Regnier, Provost, Samson, and least of all +the latter. Still, all these would have willingly kept her out of the +Comedie-Francaise after she had left it in a huff. She was difficult to +get on with; her modesty, assumed in everyday life, was a sham, for woe +to the host who, deceived by it, did not at once make her the queen of +the entertainment! And, in reality, nothing in her warranted such a +temporary elevation. She was witty in her way and after her kind--that +is, she had the quick-wittedness of the French woman who is not an +absolute fool, and who has for many years rubbed elbows with everything +distinguished in art and literature. Notwithstanding this intimacy, I am +doubtful whether she had ever read, let alone appreciated, any of the +masterpieces by the writers of her own days that did not directly bear +upon her profession. I exclude fiction--I mean narrative fiction, and +especially that of a sensational kind, of which she was probably as fond +as the meanest concierge and most romantic milliner-girl. + +Nevertheless, provided one did not attempt to analyze it, the power of +fascinating the coldest interlocutor was there. To their honor be it +said, her contemporaries, especially the men, rarely made such an +attempt at analysis. They applauded all she said (off and on the stage), +they tolerated all she did, albeit that they paid the cost of many of +her so-called "amiable tricks," which were mainly so many instances of +greed and nothing else. One evening she was dining at Comte Duchatel's, +the minister of Louis-Philippe. The table was positively laden with +flowers, but Rachel did not care much about them; what she wanted was +the splendid silver centre-piece. But she was too clever to unmask her +batteries at once, so she began by admiring the contents, then at last +she came to the principal point. The host was either in one of his +generous or foolish moods, and made her a present of it there and then. +Rachel knew, though, that even with a grand seigneur like Comte +Duchatel, there are "les lendemains de l'enthousiasme," especially when +he is a married man, whose wife does not willingly submit to have her +home stripped of its art-treasures. The tragedienne came in a hackney +cab; the comte offered to send her back in his carriage. She struck the +iron while it was hot. "Yes, that will do admirably; there will be no +fear of my being robbed of your present, which I had better take with +me." "Perfectly, mademoiselle," replied the comte; "but you will send me +back my carriage, won't you?" + +Dr. Veron was despoiled with even less ceremony. Having taken a fancy to +some silver saucers or cups in which the proprietor of the +_Constitutionnel_ offered ices to his visitors, she began by pocketing +one, and never rested until she had the whole of the set. In short, +everything was fish to her net. She made her friends give her bibelots +and knickknacks of no particular value, to which she attached some +particular legend--absolute inventions for the greatest part--in order +to sell them for a thousand times their original cost. One day she +noticed a guitar at the studio of one of her familiars. "Give me that +guitar; people will think it is the one with which I earned my living on +the Place Royale and on the Place de la Bastille." And as such it was +sold by her to M. Achille Fould for a thousand louis. The great +financier nearly fell into a fit when the truth was told to him at +Rachel's death; he, in his turn, having wanted to "do a bit of +business." In this instance no Christian suffered, because buyer and +vendor belonged to the same race. Of course the panegyrists of Rachel, +when the story came to their ears, maintained that the thousand louis +were employed for some charitable purpose, without, however, revealing +the particular quarter whither they went; but those who judged Rachel +dispassionately could not even aver that her charity began at home, +because, though she never ceased complaining of her brother's and her +sisters' extravagance, both brother and sisters could have told very +curious tales about the difficulty of making her loosen her +purse-strings for even the smallest sums. As for Rachel's doing good by +stealth and blushing to find it fame, it was all so much fudge. Contrary +to the majority of her fellow-professionals, in the past as well as the +present, she even grudged her services for a concert or a performance in +aid of a deserving object, although she was not above swelling her own +hoard by such entertainments. + +The following instance, for the absolute truth of which I can vouch, is +a proof of what I say. One day the celebrated Baron Taylor, who had been +the director of the Comedie-Francaise, came to solicit her aid for a +charity concert; I am not certain of the object, but believe it was in +aid of the Christians in Persia or China. The tickets were to be a +hundred francs each. Sontag, Alboni, Rosine Stoltz, Mario, Lablache, +Vieuxtemps, and I do not know how many more celebrated artists had +promised their services. + +It was in 1850 when M. Arsene Houssaye was her director, and I am +particular about giving the year, because Rachel refused on the pretext +that her director would never give her leave to appear on any other +stage. Now, it so happened that no woman ever had a more devoted friend +and chivalrous champion than Rachel had in Arsene Houssaye. His +friendship for her was simply idolatry, and I verily believe that if she +had asked him to stand on his head to please her, he would have done so, +at the risk of making himself supremely ridiculous--he who feared +ridicule above everything, who was one of the most sensible men of his +time, who was and is the incarnation of good-nature, to whom no one in +distress or difficulties ever appealed in vain. + +Baron Taylor argued all this, but Rachel remained inflexible. "I am very +sorry," he said at last, rising to go, "because I am positive that your +name on the bill would have made a difference of several thousand francs +in the receipts." + +"Oh, if you only want my name," was the answer, "you may have it; you +can make an apology at the eleventh hour for my absence on the score of +sudden indisposition--the public at charity concerts are used to that +sort of thing; besides, you will have so many celebrities that it will +make very little difference. By-the-by"--as he was at the door--"I think +my name is worth ten or twenty tickets." Taylor knew Rachel too well to +be in the least surprised at the demand, and left ten tickets on the +mantelpiece. + +That same afternoon he met Count Walewski, and as a matter of course +asked him to take some tickets. + +"Very sorry, cher baron, but I have got ten already. You see, poor +Rachel did not know very well how to get rid of the two hundred you +burdened her with as a lady patroness; so she wanted me to have twenty, +but I settled the matter with ten. As it is, it cost me a thousand +francs." + +Taylor did not say another word--he probably could not; he was struck +dumb with astonishment at the quickness with which Rachel had converted +the tickets into money. But what puzzled him still more was the fact of +her having offered Walewski double the quantity of tickets he had given +her. Where had she got the others from? He was coming to the conclusion +that she had offered twenty in order to place ten, when he ran against +Comte Le Hon, the husband of the celebrated Mdlle. Musselmans, the +erstwhile Belgian ambassador to the court of Louis-Philippe, who averred +frankly that he was the father of a family, though he had no children of +his own. + +Taylor thought he would try another chance, and was met with the reply, +"Cher baron, I am very sorry, but I have just taken five tickets from +Mdlle. Rachel. It appears that she is a lady patroness, and that they +burdened her with two hundred; fortunately, she told me, people were +exceedingly anxious to get them, and these were the last five." + +"Then she had two hundred tickets after all," said Baron Taylor to +himself, making up his mind to find out who had been before him with +Rachel. But no one had been before him. The five tickets sold to Comte +Le Hon were five of the ten she had sold to Comte Walewski. When the +latter had paid her, she made him give her five tickets for herself and +family, or rather for her four sisters and herself. Of Comte Le Hon she +only took toll of one, which, wonderful to relate, she did not sell. +This was Rachel's way of bestirring herself in the cause of charity. + +"Look at the presents she made to every one," say the panegyrists. They +forget to mention that an hour afterwards she regretted her generosity, +and from that moment she never left off scheming how to get the thing +back. Every one knew this. Beauvallet, to whom she gave a magnificent +sword one day, instead of thanking her, said, "I'll have a chain put to +it, mademoiselle, so as to fasten it to the wall of my dressing-room. In +that way I shall be sure that it will not disappear during my absence." +Alexandre Dumas the younger, to whom she made a present of a ring, bowed +low and placed it back on her finger at once. "Allow me to present it to +you in my turn, mademoiselle, so as to prevent you asking for it." She +did not say nay, but carried the matter with one of her fascinating +smiles. "It is most natural to take back what one has given, because +what one has given was dear to us," she replied. + +Between '46 and '53 I saw a great deal of Rachel, generally in the +green-room of the Comedie-Francaise, which was by no means the +comfortable or beautiful apartment people imagine, albeit that even in +those days the Comedie had a collection of interesting pictures, busts, +and statues worthy of being housed in a small museum. The chief ornament +of the room was a large glass between the two windows, but if the +apartment had been as bare as a barn, the conversation of Rachel would +have been sufficient to make one forget all about its want of +decoration; for, with the exception of the elder Dumas, I have never met +any one, either man or woman, who exercised the personal charm she did. +I have been told since that Bismarck has the same gift. I was never +sufficiently intimate with the great statesman to be able to judge, +having only met him three or four times, and under conditions that did +not admit of fairly testing his powers in that respect, but I have an +idea that the charm of both lay in their utter indifference to the +effect produced, or else in their absolute confidence of the result of +their simplicity of diction. Rachel's art of telling a story, if art it +was, reminded one of that of the chroniclers of the _Niebelungen_; for +notwithstanding her familiarity with Racine and Corneille, her +vocabulary was exceedingly limited, and her syntax, if not her grammar, +off the stage, not always free from reproach. + +I do not pretend, after the lapse of so many years, to give these +stories in her own language, or all of them; there are a few, however, +worth the telling, apart from the fascination with which she invested +them. + +One evening she said to me, "Do you know Poirson?" + +I had known Poirson when he was director of the Gymnase. He afterwards +always invited me to his soirees, one of which, curiously enough, was +given on the Sunday before the Revolution of '48. So I said, "Yes, I +know Poirson." + +"Has he ever told you why he did not re-engage me?" + +"Never." + +"I'll tell you. People said it was because I did not succeed in 'La +Vendeenne' of Paul Duport; but that was not the cause. It was something +much more ridiculous; and now that I come to think of it, I am not sure +that I ought to tell you, for you are an Englishman, and you will be +shocked." + +I was not shocked, I was simply convulsed with laughter, for Rachel, not +content with telling the story, got up, and, gradually drawing to the +middle of the room, enacted it. It was one of those ludicrous incidents +that happen sometimes on the stage, which no amount of foresight on the +part of the most skilful and conscientious manager or actor can prevent, +but which almost invariably ruins the greatest masterpiece. There were +about eight or nine actors and actresses in the room--Regnier, Samson, +Beauvallet, etc. It was probably the most critical audience in Europe, +but every one shook, and Mdlle. Anais Aubert went into a dead faint. +Regnier often averred that if Rachel had been a man, she would have been +the greatest comic actor that ever lived; and it is not generally known +that she once played Dorine in "Tartuffe," and set the whole of the +house into a perfect roar; but on that evening I became convinced that +Rachel, in addition to her tragic gifts, was the spirit of +Aristophanesque comedy personified. I am afraid, however, that I cannot +tell the story, or even hint at it, beyond mentioning that Poirson is +reported to have said that Rachel did not want a stage-manager, but a +nurse to take care of her. The criticism was a cruel one, though +justified by appearances. It was Mama Felix, and not her daughter, who +was to blame. The child--she was scarcely more than that--had hurt +herself severely, and instead of keeping her at home, she sent her to +the theatre, "poulticed all over," as Rachel expressed it afterwards. + +Mama Felix was the only one who was a match for her famous daughter in +money matters. What the latter did with the enormous sums of money she +earned has always been a mystery. As I have already said, they were not +spent in charity. Nowadays, whatever other theatres may do, the +Comedie-Francaise dresses its pensionnaires as well as its societaires +from head to foot; it pays the bootmaker's as well as the wigmaker's +bill, and the laundress's also. Speaking of the beginning of her career, +which coincided with the end of Rachel's, Madeleine Brohan, whose +language was often more forcible than elegant, remarked, "Dans ma +jeunesse, on nous mettait toutes nues sur la scene; nous etions assez +jolies pour cela." But Rachel's costumes varied so little throughout her +career as to have required but a small outlay on her part. Nor could her +ordinary dresses and furniture, which I happened to see in April, 1858, +when they were sold by public auction at her apartments in the Place +Royale, have made a considerable inroad on her earnings. The furniture +was commonplace to a degree; such pictures and knickknacks as were of +value had been given to her, or acquired in the manner I have already +described; the laces and trinkets were, undoubtedly, not purchased with +her own money. It is said that her brother Raphael was a spendthrift. He +may have been, but he did not spend his celebrated sister's money; of +that I feel certain. Then what became of it? I am inclined to think that +Mdlle. Rachel dabbled considerably in stocks, and that, notwithstanding +her shrewdness and sources of information, she was the victim of people +cleverer than she was. At any rate, one thing is certain--she was nearly +always hard up; and, after having exhausted the good will of all her +male acquaintances and friends, compelled to appeal to her mother, who +had made a considerable hoard for her other four sisters, and perhaps +also for her scapegrace son; for, curiously enough, with Mama Felix +every one of her children was a goddess or god, except _the goddess_. +This want of appreciation on the mother's part reminds me of a story +told to me by Meissonier. His granddaughter, on her fifteenth or +sixteenth birthday, had a very nice fan given to her. The sticks were +exquisitely carved in ivory, and must have cost a pretty tidy sum, but +the fan itself, of black gauze, was absolutely plain. The donor probably +intended the grandfather's art to enhance the value of the present, and +the latter was about to do so, when the young lady stopped him with the +cry, "Voila qu'il va me gater mon eventail avec ses mannequins!" The +irony of non-appreciation by one's nearest and dearest could no further +go. + +Mama Felix, then, was very close-fisted, and would never lend her +daughter any money, except on very good security, namely, on her jewels. +In addition to this, she made her sign an undertaking that if not +redeemed at a certain date they would be forfeited; and forfeited they +were, if the loan and interest were not forthcoming at the stipulated +time, notwithstanding the ravings of Rachel. This would probably account +for the comparatively small quantity of valuable jewelery found after +her death. + +Some of the ornaments I have seen her wear had an artistic value utterly +apart from their cost, others were so commonplace and such evident +imitations as to have been declined by the merest grisette. One day I +noticed round her wrist a peculiar bracelet. It was composed of a great +number of rings, some almost priceless, others less valuable but still +very artistic, others again possessing no value whatsoever, either +artistically or otherwise. I asked her to take it off and found it to be +very heavy, so heavy that I remarked upon it. "Yes," she replied, "I +cannot wear two of the same weight, so I am obliged to wear the other in +my pocket." And out came the second, composed of nearly double the +number of rings of the first. I was wondering where all those rings came +from, but I refrained from asking questions. I was enabled to form my +own conclusions a little while afterwards, in the following way: + +While we were still admiring the bracelet, Rachel took from her finger a +plain gold hoop, in the centre of which was an imperial eagle of the +same metal. "This was given to me by Prince Louis Napoleon," she said, +"on the occasion of my last journey to London. He told me that it was a +souvenir from his mother, and that he would not have parted with it to +any one else but me." + +I cannot remember the exact date of this conversation, but it must have +been shortly after the Revolution, when the future emperor had just +landed in France. About three or four weeks afterwards we were talking +to Augustine Brohan, who had just returned from London, where she had +fulfilled an engagement of one or two months. Rachel was not there that +night, but some one asked her if she had seen Prince Louis in London. +"Yes," she replied; "he was going away, and he gave me a present before +he went." Thereupon she took from her finger a ring exactly like that of +Rachel's. "He told me it was a souvenir from his mother, and that he +would not have parted with it to any one but me." + +We looked at one another and smiled. The prince had evidently a jeweller +who manufactured "souvenirs from his mother" by the dozen, and which he, +the prince, distributed at that time, "in remembrance of certain happy +hours." The multiplicity of the rings on Rachel's wrist was no longer a +puzzle to me. I was thinking of the story in the "Arabian Nights," where +the lady with the ninety-eight rings bewitches the Sultans Shariar and +Shahzenan, in spite of the jealousy and watchfulness of the monster to +whom she belongs, and so makes the hundred complete. + +Among the many stories Rachel told me there is one not generally +known--that of her first appearance before Nicholas I. Though she was +very enthusiastically received in London, and though she always spoke +gratefully of the many acts of kindness shown her there, I am inclined +to think that she felt hurt at the want of cordiality on the part of the +English aristocracy when they invited her to recite at their +entertainments. This may be a mere surmise of mine; I have no better +grounds for it than an expression of hers one day when we were +discussing London society. "Oui, les Anglais, ils sont tres aimables, +mais ils paraissent avoir peur des artistes, comme des betes sauvages, +car ils vous parquent comme elles au Jardin des Plantes." I found out +afterwards that it was a kind of grudge she bore the English for having +invariably improvised a platform or enclosure by means of silken ropes. +Certain is it that, beyond a few casual remarks at long intervals upon +London, she seemed reluctant to discuss the subject with me. Not so with +regard to Potsdam after her return whence in August, '51. In the +beginning of July of that year she told me that she had a special +engagement to appear before the court on the 13th of that month. I did +not see her until a few weeks after she came back, and then she gave me +a full account of the affair. I repeat, after the lapse of so many +years, I cannot reproduce her own words, and I could not, even half an +hour after her narrative, have reproduced the manner of her telling it; +but I can vouch for the correctness of the facts. + +"About six o'clock, Raphael [her brother], who was to give me my cues, +and I arrived at Potsdam, where we were met by Schneider, who had made +the engagement with me. You know, perhaps, that Schneider had been an +actor himself, that afterwards he had been promoted to the directorship +of the Royal Opera House, and that now he is the private reader to the +king, with the title of privy or aulic councillor. + +"Schneider is a very nice man, and I have never heard a German speak our +language so perfectly. Perhaps it was as well, because I dread to +contemplate what would have been the effect upon my nerves and ears of +lamentations in Teutonized French." + +"Why lamentations?"? I asked. + +"Ah, nous voila!" she replied. "You remember I was in mourning. The +moment I stepped out of the carriage, he exclaimed, 'But you are all in +black, mademoiselle.' 'Of course I am,' I said, 'seeing that I am in +mourning.' 'Great Heaven! what am I to do? Black is not admitted at +court on such occasions.' I believe it was the birthday of the Czarina, +but of course I was not bound to know that. + +"There was no time to return to Berlin, and least of all to get a dress +from there, so Raphael and he put their heads together; the result of +which conference was my being bundled rather than handed into a +carriage, which drove off at full speed to the Chateau de Glinicke. I +could scarcely catch a glimpse of the country around Potsdam, which +seemed to me very lovely. + +"When we got to Glinicke, which belongs to Prince Charles, I was handed +over to some of the ladies-in-waiting of the princess. Handed over is +the only word, because I felt more like a prisoner than anything else, +and they tried to make 'little Rachel' presentable according to their +lights. One of them, after eyeing me critically, suggested my wearing a +dress of hers. In length it would have done very well, only I happen to +be one of the lean kine, and she decidedly was not, so that idea had to +be abandoned. They may be very worthy women, these German ladies, but +their inventiveness with regard to dress is absolutely _nil_. When the +idea suggested by the first lady turned out to be impracticable, they +were a bout de ressources. You may gather from this, mon ami, that the +beginning and the end of their strategie de la toilette are not far +apart. There was one thing that consoled me for this sudden exhaustion +of their limited ingenuity. Between the half-dozen--for they were half a +dozen--they could not find a single word when the first and only device +proved impossible of realization. Had there been the same number of +French women assembled, it would have been a kind of little madhouse; in +this instance there was a deep silence for at least ten minutes, +eventually broken by the knocking at the door of one of the maids, with +Herr Schneider's compliments, and wishing to know what had been decided +upon. The doleful answer brought him to the room, and what six women +could not accomplish, he, like the true artist, accomplished at once. +'Get Mdlle. Rachel a black lace mantilla, put a rose in her hair, and +give her a pair of white gloves.' In less than ten minutes I was ready, +and in another ten, Raphael, Schneider, and I embarked on a pretty +little steam-yacht lying ready at the end of the magnificent garden for +'l'Ile des Paons' (Pfauen-Insel, Peacock Island), where we landed +exactly at eight. But my troubles and surprises were not at an end. I +made sure that there would be at least a tent, an awning, or a platform +for me to stand under or upon. Ah, oui! not the smallest sign of either. +'Voila votre estrade,' said Schneider, pointing to a small lawn, +separated from the rest of the gardens by a gravelled walk three or four +feet wide. I declined at once to act under such conditions, and insisted +upon being taken back immediately to the station, and from thence to +Berlin. Poor Schneider was simply in despair. In vain did he point out +that to any one else the total absence of scenery and adjuncts might +prove a drawback, but that to me it would only be an additional +advantage, as it would bring into greater relief my own talent; I would +not be persuaded. Finding that it was fruitless to play upon my vanity +as an artist, he appealed to me as a femme du monde. 'The very absence +of all preparations,' he said, 'proves that their majesties have not +engaged Mdlle. Rachel of the Comedie-Francaise to give a recitation, but +invited Mdlle. Rachel Felix to one of their soirees. That Mdlle. Rachel +Felix should be kind enough, after having partaken of a cup of tea, to +recite something, would only be another proof of her well-known +readiness to oblige;' and so forth. Let me tell you, mon cher, that I +have rarely met with a cleverer diplomatist, and Heaven knows I have +seen a lot who imagined themselves clever. They could not hold a candle +to this erstwhile actor; nevertheless I remained as firm as a rock, +though I was sincerely distressed on Schneider's account." + +"What made you give in at last?" I inquired. "Was it the idea of losing +the magnificent fee?" + +"For once you are mistaken," she laughed, "though Schneider himself +brought that argument to bear as a big piece of artillery. 'Remember +this, mademoiselle,' he said, when he could think of nothing else; +'remember this--that this soiree may be the means of putting three +hundred thousand or four hundred thousand francs into your pocket. You +yourself told me just now on board the yacht that you were very anxious +for an engagement at St. Petersburg. I need scarcely tell you that, if +you refuse to appear before their majesties to-night, I shall be +compelled to state the reason, and Russia will be for ever closed to +you. Apart from pecuniary considerations, it will be said by your +enemies--and your very eminence in your profession causes you to have +many--that you have failed to please the Empress. After all, the fact +that all the ordinary surroundings of the actress have been neglected +proves that you are not looked upon as an actress by them, but as une +femme du monde.'" + +"That persuaded you?" I remarked. + +"Not at all." + +"Then it was the money." + +"Of course you would think so, even if I swore the contrary a hundred +times over; but if you were to guess from now till to-morrow, you would +never hit upon the real reason that made me stay." + +"Well, then, I had better not try, and you had better tell me at once." + +"Strange as it may seem to you, it was neither the gratification of +being treated en femme du monde nor the money that made me stay; it was +the desire to see what I had been told was the handsomest man in Europe. +I did see him, and for once in a way rumour had not exaggerated the +reality. I had scarcely given my final consent to Schneider, when the +yacht carrying the imperial and royal families came alongside the +island, and the illustrious passengers landed, amidst an avalanche of +flowers thrown from the other vessels. Schneider presented me to the +King, who was also good-looking, and the latter presented me to the +Czar. + +"Immediately afterwards the recital began. At the risk of taxing your +credulity still further, I may tell you that I, Rachel, who never knew +what 'stage-fright' meant, felt nervous. That man to me looked like a +very god. Fortunately for my reputation, the shadows of night were +gathering fast; in another twenty minutes it would be quite dark, and I +felt almost rejoiced that my audience could scarcely distinguish my +features. On the other hand, Raphael, who only knew the part of +Hippolyte by heart, and who was obliged to read the others, declared +that he could not see a line, and candles had to be brought in. It was a +glorious evening, but there was a breeze nevertheless, and as fast as +the candles were lighted, they were extinguished by the wind. To put +ordinary lamps on the lawn at our feet was not to be thought of for a +moment; luckily one of the functionaries remembered that there were some +candelabra with globes inside, and by means of these a kind of 'float' +was improvised. Still the scene was a curious one. Raphael close to me +on the edge of the lawn, with one of these candelabra in his left hand. +Behind, to the left and right of us, a serried crowd of generals, court +dignitaries in magnificent uniforms. In front, and separated by the +whole width of a gravel walk, the whole group of sovereigns and their +relations, and behind them the walls of the mansion, against which the +tea-table had been set, and around which stood the ladies-in-waiting of +the Queen of Prussia and the Empress of Russia. A deep silence around, +only broken by the soft soughing of the wind in the trees, and the +splashing of a couple of fountains near, playing a dirge-like +accompaniment to Raphael's and my voice. + +"The recital lasted for nearly an hour; if I had liked I could have kept +them there the whole night, for never in my career have I had such an +attentive, such a religiously attentive, audience. The King was the +first to notice my fatigue, and he gave the signal for my leaving off by +coming up and thanking me for my efforts. The Emperor followed his +example, and stood chatting to me for a long while. In a few minutes I +was the centre of a circle which I am not likely to forget as long as I +live. Then came the question how Raphael and I were to get back to +Berlin. The last train was gone. But Schneider simply suggested a +special, and a mounted messenger was despatched then and there to order +it. After everything had been arranged for my comfortable return, the +sovereigns departed as they had come, only this time the yacht, as well +as the others on the lake, were splendidly illuminated. This was my +first appearance before Nicholas I." + +There was no man to whom Rachel owed more than to Samson, or even as +much; but for him, and in spite of her incontestable genius, the +Comedie-Francais might have remained closed to her for many years, if +not forever. Frederick Lemaitre and Marie Dorval were undoubtedly, in +their own way, as great as she, yet the blue riband of their profession +never fell to their lot. And yet, when she had reached the topmost rung +of the ladder of fame, Rachel was very often not only ungrateful to him, +but her ingratitude showed itself in mean, spiteful tricks. When +Legouve's "Adrienne Lecouvreur" was being cast, Samson, who had forgiven +Rachel over and over again, was on such cool terms with her that the +authors feared he would not accept the part of the Prince de Bouillon. +Nevertheless, Samson, than whom there was not a more honourable and +conscientious man, on or off the stage, accepted; he would not let his +resentment interfere with what he considered his duty to the institution +of which he was so eminent a member. This alone ought to have been +sufficient to heal the breach between the tutor and the pupil; any woman +with the least spark of generosity, in the position of Rachel towards +Samson, would have taken the first step towards a reconciliation. +Rachel, as will be seen directly, was perfectly conscious of what she +ought to do under the circumstances; she was too great an actress not to +have studied the finer feelings of the human heart, and yet she did not +do it. On the contrary, she aggravated matters. Every one knows the +fable of "The Two Pigeons" which Adrienne recites at the soiree of the +Princesse de Bouillon. Now, it so happened that the great barrister and +orator, Berryer, was considered a most charming reciter of that kind of +verse. Berryer, a most simple-minded man, took special delight in +sharing the most innocent games of young children. He was especially +fond of the game of "forfeits"; and so great was his fame as a diseur, +that the penalty generally imposed upon him was the reciting of a fable. +But great diseur as he was, he himself acknowledged that Samson could +have given him a lesson. + +At every new part she undertook, Rachel was in the habit of consulting +with her former tutor; this time she went to consult Berryer instead, +and, what was worse, took pains that every one should hear of it. "Then +my heart smote me," she said afterwards, when by one of those +irresistible tricks of hers she had obtained her tutor's pardon once +more. It was as deliberate a falsehood as she ever uttered in her life, +which in Rachel's case means a good deal. The fact was, the affair, as I +have already said, had been bruited about, mainly by herself at first; +the public showed a disposition to take Samson's part, and she felt +afraid of a "warm reception" on the first night. + +Under these circumstances she had recourse to one of her wiles, which, +for being theatrical, was not less effective. At the first rehearsal, +when Adrienne has to turn to Michonnet, saying, "This is my true friend, +to whom I owe everything," she turned, not to Regnier, who played +Michonnet, and to whom the words are addressed, but to Samson, at the +same time holding out her hand to him. Samson, who, notwithstanding all +their disagreements, very felt proud of his great pupil, who was, +moreover, of a very affectionate disposition, notwithstanding his +habitual reserve, fell into the trap. He took her proffered hand; then +she flung herself into his arms, and the estrangement was at an end, +for the time being. Rachel took great care to make the reconciliation as +public as possible. + +I was never very intimate with Samson, but the little I knew of him I +liked. I repeat, he was essentially an honourable and honest man, and +very tolerant with regard to the foibles of the fair sex. There was need +for such tolerance in those days. Augustine Brohan, Sylvanie Plessy, +Rachel, and half a dozen other women, all very talented, but all very +wayward, made Buloz' life (he was the director of the Comedie-Francaise, +as well as the editor of the _Revue des Deux Mondes_) a burden to him. +He who could, and often did, dictate his will to men who already then +were famous throughout Europe, frequently found himself powerless +against women, who, however celebrated, were, with the exception of +Rachel, nothing in comparison with the former. He was, it is true, +overbearing to a degree, and disagreeable besides, but his temper proved +of no avail with them; it only made matters worse. "Apres tout," he said +one day to Madame Allan, who was the most amenable of all, "je suis le +maitre ici." "Ca se peut, monsieur," was the answer, "mais nous sommes +les contres maitre."[23] + + [Footnote 23: The play upon the word is scarcely translatable. + "Contre-maitre" in the singular means foreman; as it is used + here it means against the master.--EDITOR.] + +In nearly all such troubles Regnier and Samson had to act as buffers +between the two contending parties; but, as Augustine Brohan explained +once, the two were utterly different in their mode of casting oil upon +the troubled waters. "Regnier," she said, "c'est le bon Dieu des +Chretiens, qui se fait tres souvent mener par le nez par des mots. Du +reste son nez s'y prete.[24] Samson c'est le Dieu juste, mais vengeur +des Juifs, qui veut bien pardonner, mais seulement apres soumission +complete et entiere. Samson ne vous promet pas le ciel, il vous offre +des compensations solides ici bas." + + [Footnote 24: Regnier's nose was always a subject of jokes + among his fellow-actors. "It is not because it is large," said + Beauvallet, "but because it is his principal organ of + speech."--EDITOR.] + +It would be difficult to paint the contrast between two characters in +fewer words. In 1845, when Mdlle. Sylvanie Plessy seceded from the +Comedie-Francaise, Regnier wrote a kind epistle, recommending her to +come and explain matters either personally or by letter. "Let your +letter be kind and affectionate, and be sure that things will right +themselves better than you expect." + +Samson also wrote, but simply to say that if she did not come back _at +once_ all the terrors of the law would be invoked against her. Which was +done. The Comedie-Francaise instituted proceedings, claiming two hundred +thousand francs damages, and twenty thousand francs "a titre de +provision."[25] The court cast Mdlle. Plessy in six thousand francs +_provision_, deferring judgment on the principal claim. Two years later +Mdlle. Plessy returned and re-entered the fold. Thanks to Samson, she +did not pay a single farthing of damages, and the Comedie bore the costs +of the whole of the lawsuit.[26] + + [Footnote 25: Damages claimed by one of the parties, pending + the final verdict.--EDITOR.] + + [Footnote 26: Curiously enough, it was Emile Augier's + "Aventuriere" that caused Mdlle. Plessy's secession, just as it + did thirty-five years later, in the case of Mdlle. Sarah + Bernhardt.--EDITOR.] + +Both Samson and Regnier were very proud of their profession, but their +pride showed itself in different ways. Regnier would have willingly made +any one an actor--that is, a good actor; he was always teaching a great +many amateurs, staging and superintending their performances. Samson, on +the other hand, had no sympathy whatsoever with that kind of thing, and +could rarely be induced to give it aid, but he was very anxious that +every public speaker should study elocution. "Eloquence and elocution +are two different things," he said; "and the eloquent man who does not +study elocution, is like an Apollo with a bad tailor, and who dresses +without a looking-glass. I go further still, and say that every one +ought to learn how to speak, not necessarily with the view of amusing +his friends and acquaintances, but with the view of not annoying them. I +am a busy man, but should be glad to devote three hours a week to teach +the rising generation, and especially the humbler ones, how to speak." + +In connection with that wish of Samson, that every man whose duties +compelled him, or who voluntarily undertook to speak in public, should +be a trained elocutionist, I remember a curious story of which I was +made the recipient quite by accident. It was in the year '60, one +morning in the summer, that I happened to meet Samson in the Rue +Vivienne. We exchanged a few words, shook hands, and each went his own +way. In the afternoon I was sitting at Tortoni's, when a gentleman of +about thirty-five came up to me. "Monsieur," he said, "will you allow +me to ask you a question?" "Certainly, monsieur, if it be one I can +answer," I replied. "I believe," he said, "that I saw you in the Rue +Vivienne this morning talking to some one whose name I do not know, but +to whom I am under great obligations. I was in a great hurry and in a +cab, and before I could stop the cabman both of you had disappeared. +Will you mind telling me his name?" "I recollect being in the Rue +Vivienne and meeting with M. Samson of the Comedie-Francaise," I +answered. "I thought so," remarked my interlocutor. "Allow me to thank +you, monsieur." With this he lifted his hat and went out. + +The incident had slipped my memory altogether, when I was reminded of it +by Samson himself, about three weeks afterwards, in the green-room of +the Comedie-Francaise. I had been there but a few moments when he came +in. "You are the man who betrayed me," he said with a chuckle. "I have +been cudgelling my brain for the last three weeks as to who it could +have been, for I spoke to no less than half a dozen friends and +acquaintances in the Rue Vivienne on the morning I met you, and they all +wear imperials and moustaches. A nice thing you have done for me; you +have burdened me with a grateful friend for the rest of my life!" + +And then he told me the story, how two years before he had been at +Granville during the end of the summer; how he had strolled into the +Palais de Justice and heard the procureur-imperial make a speech for the +prosecution, the delivery of which would have disgraced his most +backward pupil at the Conservatoire. "I was very angry with the fellow, +and felt inclined to write him a letter, telling him that there was no +need to torture the innocent audience, as well as the prisoner in the +dock. I should have signed it. I do not know why I did not, but judge of +my surprise when, the same evening at dinner, I found myself seated +opposite him. I must have scowled at him, and he repaid scowl for scowl. +It appears that he was living at the hotel temporarily, while his wife +and child were away. I need not tell you the high opinion our judges +have of themselves, and I dare say he thought it the height of +impertinence that I, a simple mortal, should stare at him. I soon came +to the conclusion, however, that if I wanted to spare my +fellow-creatures such an infliction as I had endured that day, I ought +not to arouse the man's anger. So I looked more mild, then entered into +conversation with him. You should have seen his face when I began to +criticize his tone and gestures. But he evidently felt that I was +somewhat of an authority on the subject, and at last I took him out on +the beach and gave him a lesson in delivering a speech, and left him +there without revealing my name. Next morning I went away, and never set +eyes on him again until three weeks ago, when he left his card, asking +for an interview. He is a very intelligent man, and has profited by the +first lesson. During the three days he remained in Paris I gave him +three more. He says that if ever I get into a scrape, he'll do better +than defend me--prosecute me, and I'm sure to get off." + +I have never seen Samson give a lesson at the Conservatoire, but I was +present at several of Regnier's, thanks to Auber, whom I knew very well, +and who was the director, and to Regnier himself, who did not mind a +stranger being present, provided he felt certain that the stranger was +not a scoffer. I believe that Samson would have objected without +reference to the stranger's disposition; at any rate, Auber hinted as +much, so I did not prefer my request in a direct form. + +I doubt, moreover, whether a lesson of Samson to his pupils would have +been as interesting to the outsider as one of Regnier's. Of all the +gifts that go to the making of a great actor, Regnier had naturally only +two--taste and intelligence; the others were replaced by what, for want +of a better term, one might call the tricks of the actor; their +acquisition demanded constant study. For instance, Regnier's appearance +off the stage was absolutely insignificant; his voice was naturally +husky and indistinct, and, moreover, what the French call nasillarde, +that is, produced through the nose. His features were far from mobile; +the eyes were not without expression, but these never twinkled with +merriment nor shone with passion. Consequently, the smallest as well as +largest effect necessary to the interpretation of a character had to be +thought out carefully beforehand, and then to be tried over and over +again materially. Each of his inflections had to be timed to a second; +but when all this was accomplished, the picture presented by him was so +perfect as to deceive the most experienced critic, let alone an +audience, however intelligent. In fact, but for his own frank admission +of all this, his contemporaries and posterity would have been never the +wiser, for, to their honour be it said, his fellow-actors were so +interested in watching him "manipulate himself," as they termed it, as +to never breathe a word of it to the outside world. They all +acknowledged that they had learned something from him during rehearsal. +For instance, in one of his best-known characters, that of the old +servant in Madame de Girardin's "La Joie fait peur,"[27] there is a +scene which, as played by Regnier and Delaunay, looked to the spectator +absolutely spontaneous. The smallest detail had been minutely regulated. +It is where the old retainer, while dusting the room, is talking to +himself about his young master, Lieutenant Adrien Desaubiers, who is +reported dead. + + [Footnote 27: There are several English versions of the play, + and I am under the impression that the late Tom Robertson was + inspired by it when he adapted "Caste." I allude to that scene + in the third act, where George d'Alroy returns unexpectedly and + where Polly Eccles breaks the news to her sister.--EDITOR.] + +"I can see him now," says Noel, who cannot resign himself to the idea; +"I can see him now, as he used to come in from his long walks, tired, +starving, and shouting before he was fairly into the house. 'Here I am, +my good Noel; I am dying with hunger. Quick! an omelette.'" At that +moment the young lieutenant enters the room, and having heard Noel's +last sentence, repeats it word for word. + +Short as was the sentence, it had been arranged that Delaunay should +virtually cut it into four parts. + +At the words, "_It is I_," Regnier shivered from head to foot; at "_Here +I am, my good Noel_," he lifted his eyes heavenwards, to make sure that +the voice did not come from there, and that he was not labouring under a +kind of hallucination; at the words, "_I am dying with hunger_," he came +to the conclusion that it was a real human voice after all; and at the +final, "_Quick! an omelette_," he turned round quickly, and fell like a +log into the young fellow's arms. + +I repeat, the whole of the scene had been timed to the fraction of a +second; nevertheless, on the first night, Regnier, nervous as all great +actors are on such occasions, forgot all about his own arrangements, +and, at the first sound of Delaunay's voice, was so overcome with +emotion that he literally tumbled against the latter, who of course was +not prepared to bear him up, and had all his work to do to keep himself +from falling also. Meanwhile Regnier lay stretched at full length on the +stage, and the house broke into tumultuous applause. + +"That was magnificent," said Delaunay after the performance. "Suppose we +repeat the thing to-morrow?" + +But Regnier would not hear of it; he stuck to his original conception in +four tempi. He preferred trusting to his art rather than to the frank +promptings of nature. + +That is why a lesson of Regnier to his pupils was so interesting to the +outsider. The latter was, as it were, initiated into all the resources +the great actor has at his command wherewith to produce his illusion +upon the public. Among Regnier's pupils those were his favourites who +never allowed themselves to be carried away by their feelings, and who +trusted to these resources as indicated to them by their tutor. He was +to a certain extent doubtful of the others. "Feelings vary; effects +intelligently conceived, studied, and carried out ought never to vary," +he said. Consequently it became one of his theories that those most +plentifully endowed with natural gifts were not likely to become more +perfect than those who had been treated niggardly in that respect, +provided the vocation and the perseverance were there. The reverse of +Samson, who was proudest of Rachel, Regnier was never half as proud of +M. Coquelin as of others who had given him far more trouble. Augustine +Brohan explained the feeling in her own inimitable way: "Regnier est +comme le grand seigneur qui s'enamourache d'une paysanne a qui il faut +tout enseigner; si moi j'etais homme, j'aimerais mieux une demoiselle de +bonne famille, qui n'aurait pas besoin de tant d'enseignement." + +Mdlle. Brohan exaggerated a little bit. Regnier's pupils were not +peasant children, to whom he had to teach everything; a great many, like +Coquelin, required very little teaching, and all the others had the +receptive qualities which make teaching a pleasure. The latter, boys and +girls, had to a certain extent become like Regnier himself, "bundles of +tricks," and, what is perhaps not so surprising to students of +psychology and physiology, their features had contracted a certain +likeness to his. At the first blush one might have mistaken them for his +children. And they might have been, for the patience he had with them. +It was rarely exhausted, but he now and then seemed to be waiting for a +new supply. At such times there was a frantic clutch at the shock, +grey-haired head, or else a violent blowing of the perky nose in a large +crimson chequered handkerchief, its owner standing all the while on one +leg; the attitude was irresistibly comic, but the pupils were used to +it, and not a muscle of their faces moved. + +Those who imagine that Regnier's courses were merely so many lessons of +elocution and gesticulation would be altogether mistaken. Regnier, +unlike many of his great fellow-actors of that period, had received a +good education: he had been articled to an architect, he had even +dabbled in painting, and there were few historical personages into whose +characters he had not a thorough insight. He was a fair authority upon +costume and manners of the Middle Ages, and his acquaintance with Roman +and Greek antiquities would have done credit to many a professor. He was +called "le comedien savant" and "le savant comedien." As such, whenever +a pupil failed to grasp the social or political importance of one of the +_dramatis personae_ of Racine's or Corneille's play, there was sure to be +a disquisition, telling the youngster all about him, but in a way such +as to secure the attention of the listener--a way that might have +aroused the envy of a university lecturer. The dry bones of history were +clothed by a man with an eye for the picturesque. + +"Who do you think Augustus was?" he said one day when I was present, to +the pupil, who was declaiming some lines of "Cinna." "Do you think he +was the concierge or le commissionnaire du coin?" And forthwith there +was a sketch of Augustus. Absolutely quivering with life, he led his +listener through the streets of Rome, entered the palace with him, and +once there, became Augustus himself. After such a scene he would +frequently descend the few steps of the platform and drop into his +armchair, exhausted. + +Every now and then, in connection with some character of Moliere or +Regnard, there would be an anecdote of the great interpreter of the +character, but an anecdote enacted, after which the eyes would fill with +tears, and the ample chequered handkerchief come into requisition once +more. + +Regnier was a great favourite with most of his fellow-actors and the +employes of the Comedie-Francaise, but he was positively worshipped by +Giovanni, the wigmaker of the establishment. They were in frequent +consultation even in the green-room, the privilege of admission to which +had been granted to the Italian Figaro. The consultations became most +frequent when one of the members undertook a part new to him. It was +often related of Balzac that he firmly believed in the existence of the +characters his brain had created. The same might be said of Regnier with +regard to the characters created by the great playwrights of his own +time and those of the past. Of course, I am not speaking of those who +had an historical foundation. But Alceste, Harpagon, Georges Dandin, +Sganarelle, and Scapin were as real to him as Orestes and Oedipus, as +Augustus and Mohammed. He would give not only their biographies, but +describe their appearance, their manners, their gait, and even their +complexion. The first time I heard him do so, I made sure that he was +trying to mystify Giovanni; but Rachel, who was present, soon undeceived +me. And the Italian would sit listening reverently, then start up, and +exclaim, "Ze sais ce qu'il vous faut, Monsu Regnier, ze vais faire oune +parruque a etonner Moliere lui-meme." And he kept his word, because he +considered that the wig contributed as much to, or detracted from, the +success of an actor as his diction, and more than his clothes. When +Delaunay became a societaire his first part was that of the lover in M. +Viennet's "Migraine." "Voila Monsu Delaunay, oune veritable parruque di +societaire. Zouez a present, vous etes sour de votre affaire." + +One day Beauvallet found him standing before the window of Brandus, the +music-publisher in the Rue de Richelieu. He was contemplating the +portrait of Rossini, and he looked sad. + +"What are you standing there for, Giovanni?" asked Beauvallet. + +"Ah, Monsu Bouvallet, I am looking at the portrait of Maestro Giovanni +Rossini, and when I think that his name is Giovanni like mine, when I +see that abominable wig which looks like a grass-plot after a month of +drought, I feel ashamed and sad. But I will go and see him, and make him +a wig for love or money that will take twenty years off his age." He +went, but Rossini would not hear of it, or rather Madame Rossini put a +spoke in his wheel. Giovanni never mentioned his name again. It was +Ligier who brought Giovanni to Paris, and for a quarter of a century he +worked unremittingly for the glory of the Comedie-Francaise, and when +one of the great critics happened to speak favourably of the "make-up" +of an actor, as Paul de St. Victor did when Regnier "created Noel," +Giovanni used to leave his card at his house. It was Giovanni who made +the wigs for M. Ancessy, the musical director at the Odeon, who, under +the management of M. Edouard Thierry, occupied the same position at the +Comedie-Francaise. M. Ancessy was not only a good chef d'orchestre, but +a composer of talent; but he had one great weakness--he was as bald as +a billiard-ball and wished to pass for an Absalom. Giovanni helped him +to carry out the deception by making three artistic wigs. The first was +of very short hair, and was worn from the 1st to the 10th of the month; +from the 11th to the 20th M. Ancessy donned one with hair that was so +visibly growing as to cover his ears. From the 20th to the last day of +the month his locks were positively flowing, and he never failed to say +on that last evening in the hearing of every one, "What a terrible +nuisance my hair is to me! I must have it cut to-morrow." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Two composers, Auber and Felicien David -- Auber, the legend of + his youthful appearance -- How it arose -- His daily rides, his + love of women's society -- His mot on Mozart's "Don Juan" -- The + only drawback to Auber's enjoyment of women's society -- His + reluctance to take his hat off -- How he managed to keep it on + most of the time -- His opinion upon Meyerbeer's and Halevy's + genius -- His opinion upon Gerard de Nerval, who hanged himself + with his hat on -- His love of solitude -- His fondness of Paris + -- His grievance against his mother for not having given him + birth there -- He refuses to leave Paris at the commencement of + the siege -- His small appetite -- He proposes to write a new + opera when the Prussians are gone -- Auber suffers no privations, + but has difficulty in finding fodder for his horse -- The + Parisians claim it for food -- Another legend about Auber's + independence of sleep -- How and where he generally slept -- Why + Auber snored in Veron's company, and why he did not in that of + other people -- His capacity for work -- Auber a brilliant talker + -- Auber's gratitude to the artists who interpreted his work, but + different from Meyerbeer's -- The reason why, according to Auber + -- Jealousy or humility -- Auber and the younger Coquelin -- "The + verdict on all things in this world may be summed up in the one + phrase, 'It's an injustice'" -- Felicien David -- The man -- The + beginnings of his career -- His terrible poverty -- He joins the + Saint-Simoniens, and goes with some of them to the East -- Their + reception at Constantinople -- M. Scribe and the libretto of + "L'Africaine" -- David in Egypt at the court of Mehemet-Ali -- + David's description of him -- Mehemet's way of testing the + educational progress of his sons -- Woe to the fat kine -- + Mehemet-Ali suggests a new mode of teaching music to the inmates + of the harem -- Felicien David's further wanderings in Egypt -- + Their effect upon his musical genius -- His return to France -- + He tells the story of the first performance of "Le Desert" -- An + ambulant box-office -- His success -- Fame, but no money -- He + sells the score of "Le Desert" -- He loses his savings -- "La + Perle du Bresil" and the Coup-d'Etat -- "No luck" -- Napoleon + III. remains his debtor for eleven years -- A mot of Auber, and + one of Alexandre Dumas pere -- The story of "Aida" -- Why + Felicien David did not compose the music -- The real author of + the libretto. + + +I knew Auber from the year '42 or '43 until the day of his death. He and +I were in Paris during the siege and the Commune; we saw one another +frequently, and I am positive that the terrible misfortunes of his +country shortened his life by at least ten years. For though at the +beginning of the campaign he was close upon ninety, he scarcely looked a +twelvemonth older than when I first knew him, nearly three decades +before; that is, a very healthy and active old man, but still an old +man. So much nonsense has been written about his perpetual youth, that +it is well to correct the error. But the ordinary French public, and +many journalists besides, could not understand an octogenarian being on +horseback almost every day of his life, any more than they understood +later on M. de Lesseps doing the same. They did not and do not know M. +Mackenzie-Grieves, and half a dozen English residents in Paris of a +similar age, who scarcely ever miss their daily ride. If they had known +them, they might perhaps have been less loud in their admiration of the +fact. + +What added, probably, to Auber's reputation of possessing the secret of +perpetual youth was his great fondness for women's society, his very +handsome appearance, though he was small comparatively, and his +faultless way of dressing. He was most charming with the fairer sex, and +many of the female pupils of the Conservatoire positively doted on him. +Though polite to a degree with men--and I doubt whether Auber could have +been other than polite with no matter whom--his smiles, I mean his +benevolent ones, for he could smile very sceptically, were exclusively +reserved for women. When he heard Mozart's "Don Juan" for the first +time, he said, "This is the music of a lover of twenty, and if a man be +not an imbecile, he may always have in a little corner of his heart the +sentiment or fancy that he is only twenty." + +There was but one drawback to Auber's enjoyment of the society of +women--he was obliged to take off his hat in their presence, and he +hated being without that article of dress. He might have worn a +skull-cap at home, though there was no necessity for it, as far as his +hair was concerned, for up to the last he was far from bald; but he +wanted his hat. He composed with his hat on, he had his meals with his +hat on, and though he would have frequently preferred to take his seat +in the stalls or balcony of a theatre, he invariably had a box, and +generally one on the stage, in order to keep his hat on. He would often +stand for hours on the balcony of his house in the Rue Saint-Georges +with his hat on. "I never feel as much at home anywhere, not even in my +own apartment, as in the synagogue," he said one day. He frequently went +there for no earthly reason than because he could sit among a lot of +people with his hat on. In fact, those frequent visits, coupled with his +dislike to be bareheaded, made people wonder now and then whether Auber +was a Jew. The supposition always made Auber smile. "That would have +meant the genius of a Meyerbeer, a Mendelssohn, or a Halevy," he said. +"No, I have been lucky enough in my life, but such good fortune as that +never fell to my lot." For there was no man so willing--nay, anxious--to +acknowledge the merit of others as Auber. But Auber was not a Jew, and +his mania for keeping on his hat had nothing to do with his religion. It +was simply a mania, and nothing more. When, in January, '55, Gerard de +Nerval was found suspended from a lamp-post in the Rue de la +Vieille-Lanterne, he had his hat on his head; his friends, and even the +police, pretended to argue from this that he had not committed suicide, +but had been murdered. "A man who is going to hang himself does not keep +his hat on," they said. "Pourquoi pas, mon Dieu?" asked Auber, simply. +"If I were going to kill myself, I should certainly keep my hat on." In +short, it was the only thing about Auber which could not be explained. + +Auber was exceedingly fond of society, and yet he was fond of solitude +also. Many a time his friends reported that, returning home late from a +party, they found Auber standing opposite his house in the Rue +Saint-Georges, with apparently no other object than to contemplate it +from below. After his return to Paris from London, whither he had been +sent by his father, in order to become conversant with English business +habits, he never left the capital again, though at the end of his life +he regretted not having been to Italy. It was because Rossini, who was +one of his idols, had said "that a musician should loiter away some of +his time under that sky." But almost immediately he comforted himself +with the thought that Paris, after all, was the only city worth living +in. "I was very fond of my mother, but I have one grievance against her +memory. What did she want to go to Caen for just at the moment when I +was about to be born? But for that I should have been a real Parisian." +I do not think it made much difference, for I never knew such an +inveterate Parisian as Auber. When the investment of Paris had become an +absolute certainty, some of his friends pressed him to leave; he would +not hear of it. They predicted discomfort, famine, and what-not. "The +latter contingency will not affect me much, seeing that I eat but once a +day, and very little then. As for the sound of the firing disturbing me, +I do not think it will. It has often been said that the first part of my +overture to 'Fra Diavolo' was inspired by the retreating tramp of the +regiment; there may be some truth in it. If it be vouchsafed to me to +hear the retreating tramp of the Germans, I will write an overture and +an opera, which will be something different, I promise you." + +I do not suppose that, personally, Auber suffered any privations during +the siege. A man in his position, who required but one meal a day, and +that a very light one, was sure to find it somewhere; but he had great +trouble to find sufficient fodder for his old faithful hack, that had +carried him for years, and when, after several months of scheming and +contriving to that effect, he was forced to give it up as food for +others, his cup of bitterness was full. "Ils m'ont pris mon vieux cheval +pour le manger," he repeated, when I saw him after the event; "je +l'avais depuis vingt ans." It was really a great blow to him. + +There is another legend about Auber which is not founded upon facts, +namely, that he was pretty well independent of sleep. It was perfectly +true that he went to bed very late and rose very early, but most people +have overlooked the fact that during the evening he had had a +comfortable doze, of at least an hour and a half or two hours, at the +theatre. He rarely missed a performance at the Opera or Opera-Comique, +except when his own work was performed. And during that time he +slumbered peacefully, "en homme du monde," said Nestor Roqueplan, +"without snoring." + +"I never knew what it meant to snore," said Auber, apologetically, +"until I took to sleeping in Veron's box; and as it is, I do not snore +now except under provocation. But there would be no possibility of +sleeping by the side of Veron without snoring. You have to drown his, or +else it would awaken you." + +Auber was a brilliant talker, but he scarcely ever liked to exert +himself except on the subject of music. It was all in all to him, and +the amount of work he did must have been something tremendous. There are +few students of the history of operatic music, no matter how excellent +their memories, who could give the complete list of Auber's works by +heart. We tried it once in 1850, when that list was much shorter than it +is now; there was not a single one who gave it correctly. The only one +who came within a measureable distance was Roger, the tenor. + +In spite of his world-wide reputation, even at that time, Auber was as +modest about his work as Meyerbeer, but he had more confidence in +himself than the latter. Auber was by no means ungrateful to the artists +who contributed to his success; "but I don't 'coddle' them, and put +them in cotton-wool, like Meyerbeer," he said. "It is perfectly logical +that he should do so. The Nourrits, the Levasseurs, the Viardot-Garcias, +and the Rogers, are not picked up at street-corners; but bring me the +first urchin you meet, who has a decent voice, and a fair amount of +intelligence, and in six months he'll sing the most difficult part I +ever wrote, with the exception of that of Masaniello. My operas are a +kind of warming-pan for great singers. There is something in being a +good warming-pan." + +At the first blush, this sounds something like jealousy in the guise of +humility, but I am certain that there was no jealousy in Auber's +character. Few men have been so uniformly successful, but he also had +his early struggles, "when perhaps I did better work than I have done +since." The last sentence was invariably trolled out when a pupil of the +Conservatoire complained to him of having been unjustly dealt with. I +remember Coquelin the younger competing for the "prize of Comedy" in '65 +or '66. He did not get it, and when we came out of Auber's box at the +Conservatoire, the young fellow came up to him with tears in his eyes. I +fancy they were tears of anger rather than of sorrow. + +"Ah, Monsieur Auber," he exclaimed, "that's an injustice!" + +"Perhaps so, my dear lad," replied Auber; "but remember that the verdict +on all things in this world may be summed up in the words you have just +uttered, 'It's an injustice.' Let me give you a bit of advice. If you +mean to become a good Figaro, you must be the first to laugh at an +injustice instead of weeping over it." Wherewith he turned his back upon +the now celebrated comedian. In the course of these notes I shall have +occasion to speak of Auber again. + +Auber need not have generalized to young Coquelin; he might have cited +one instance of injustice in his own profession, to which, fortunately, +there was no parallel for at least thirty years. In the forties the +critics refused to recognize the genius of Felicien David, just as they +had refused to recognize the genius of Hector Berlioz. In the seventies +they were morally guilty of the death of Georges Bizet, the composer of +"Carmen." + +I knew little or nothing of Hector Berlioz, but I frequently met +Felicien David at Auber's. It was a pity to behold the man even after +his success--a success which, however, did not put money in his purse. +His moral sufferings, his material privations, had left their traces but +too plainly on the face as well as on the mind. David had positively +starved in order to buy the few books and the paper necessary to his +studies, and yet he had the courage to say, "If I had to begin over +again, I would do the same." The respectability that drives a gig when +incarnated in parents who refuse to believe in the power of soaring of +their offspring because they, the parents, cannot see the wings, has +assuredly much to answer for. Flotow's father stops the supplies after +seven years, because his son has not come up to time like a race-horse. +Berlioz' father does not give him so long a shrift; he allows him three +months to conquer fame. Felicien David had no father to help or to +thwart him in his ambition. He was an orphan at the age of five, and +left to the care of a sister, who was too poor to help him; but he had +an uncle who was well-to-do, and who allowed him the magnificent sum of +fifty francs per month--for a whole quarter--and then withdrew it, +notwithstanding the assurance of Cherubini that the young fellow had the +making of a great composer in him. And the worst is that these young +fellows suffer in silence, while there are hundreds of benevolent rich +men who would willingly open their purses to them. When they do reveal +their distressed condition, it is generally to some one as poor as +themselves. These rich men buy the autographs of the deceased genius for +small or large sums which would have provided the struggling ones with +comforts for days and days. I have before me such a letter which I +bought for ten francs. I would willingly have given ten times the amount +not to have bought it. It is written to a friend of his youth. "As for +money," it says, "seeing that I am bound to speak of it, things are +going from bad to worse. And it is very certain that in a little while I +shall have to give it up altogether. I have been ill for three weeks +with pains in the back, and fever and ague everywhere. I dare say that +my illness was brought on by my worries, and by the bad food of the +Paris restaurants, also by the constant dampness. Why am I not a little +better off? I fancy that the slight comforts an artist may reasonably +expect would do me a great deal of good. I am not speaking of the body, +though it is a part of ourselves which considerably affects our +intellect, but my imagination would be the better for it, for how can my +brain, constantly occupied as it is with the worry of material wants, +act unhampered? Really, I do not hesitate to say that poverty and +privation kill the imagination." + +They did not kill the imagination in David's case, but they undermined +his constitution. It was at that period that he fell in with the +Saint-Simoniens, to the high priest of which, M. Enfantin, who +eventually became the chairman of the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean +Railway Company, he took me many years later. After their dispersion, +the group to which he belonged went to the East, and it is to this +apparently fortuitous circumstance that the world owes not only "Le +Desert," "La Perle du Bresil," and "L'Eden," but probably also +Meyerbeer's "Africaine." Meyerbeer virtually acknowledged that but for +David's scores, so replete with the poetry of the Orient, he would have +never thought of such a subject for one of his operas. M. Scribe, on the +other hand, always maintained that the idea emanated from him, and that +it dated from 1847, when the composer was given the choice between "La +Prophete" and "L'Africaine," and chose the former. One might almost +paraphrase the accusation of the wolf against the lamb in La Fontaine's +fable. "M. Scribe, if you did not owe your idea to Felicien David, you +owed it to Montigny, the director of the Gymnase, who in the thirties +produced a play with a curious name, and a more curious plot, at the +Ambigu-Comique."[28] One thing is certain, that "L'Africaine" was +discarded, if ever it was offered, and would never have been thought of +again but for Meyerbeer's intense and frankly acknowledged admiration of +Felicien David's genius. + + [Footnote 28: I have taken some pains to unearth this play. It + was called "Amazampo; or, The Discovery of Quinine." The scene + was laid in Peru in 1636. Amazampo, the chief of a Peruvian + tribe, is in love with Maida, who on her part is in love with + Ferdinand, the son of the viceroy. Amazampo is heart-broken, + and is stricken down with fever. In his despair and partial + delirium he tries to poison himself, and drinks the water of a + pool in which several trunks of a tree called _kina_, reported + poisonous, have been lying for years. He feels the effect + almost immediately, but not the effect he expected. He + recovers, and takes advantage of his recovered health to forget + his love passion, and to be avenged upon the oppressors of his + country, many of whom are dying with fever. Lima becomes a huge + cemetery. Then the wife of the viceroy is stricken down. Maida + wishes to save her, but is forestalled by Amazampo, who compels + Dona Theodora to drink the liquor, and so forth. But Amazampo + and Maida die.--EDITOR.] + +To return for a moment to Felicien David, whose melancholy vanished as +if by magic when he related his wanderings in the East. I do not mean +the poetical side of them, which inspired him with his great +compositions, but the ludicrous one. I do not remember the dress of the +Saint-Simoniens, I was too young at the time to have noticed it, but am +told it consisted of a blue tunic and trousers to match, a scarlet +jersey, which buttoned at the back, and could not be undone except with +the aid of some one else. It was meant to symbolize mutual dependence +upon one another. "As far as Marseilles everything went comparatively +well," said David; "we lived by giving concerts, and though the receipts +were by no means magnificent, they kept the wolf from the door. Our +troubles began at Constantinople. Whether they did not like our music, +or ourselves, or our dresses, I have never been able to make out, but we +were soon denounced to the authorities, and marched off to prison, +though our incarceration did not last more than a couple of hours, +thanks to our ambassador, Admiral Roussin. Our liberation, however, was +conditional; we had to leave at once. We made our way to Smyrna, where +my music seemed to meet with a little more favour. I performed every +night, but in the open air, and some one took the hat round, just as if +we had been a company of ambulant musicians to the manner born. We were, +however, not altogether unhappy, for we had enough to eat and to drink, +which with me, at any rate, was a paramount consideration. Up till then +sufficient food had not been a daily item in my programme of life. My +companions, nevertheless, became restless; they said they had not come +to eat and drink and play music, but to convert the most benighted part +of Europe to their doctrines; so we moved to Jaffa and Jerusalem, then +to Alexandria, and finally to Cairo. By the time we got there, only +three of us were left; the rest had gone homeward. Koenig-Bey had just +at that moment undertaken the tuition of Mehemet-Ali's children--there +were between sixty and seventy at that time; it was he who presented me +to their father, with a view of my becoming the professor of music to +the inmates of the harem. 'It is of no use to try to get you the +appointment of professor of music to the young princes, because Mehemet, +though intelligent enough, would certainly not hear of it. He would not +think it necessary that a man-child should devote himself to so +effeminate an accomplishment. I am translating his own thoughts on the +subject, not mine. When I tell you that my monthly report about their +intellectual progress is invariably waved off with the words, "Tell me +how much they have gained or lost in weight," you will understand that I +am not speaking at random. The viceroy thinks that hard study should +produce a corresponding decrease in weight, which is not always the +case, for those more or less inclined to obesity make flesh in virtue of +their sitting too much. Consequently the fat kine have a very bad time +of it, and among the latter is one of the most intelligent boys, +Mohammed-Said.'" + +"Those who would infer from this," said David one day, referring to the +same subject, "that Mehemet-Ali was lacking in intelligence, would +commit a grave error. I am convinced, from the little I saw of him, that +he was a man of very great natural parts. His features, though not +absolutely handsome, were very striking and expressive. He was over +sixty then, but looked as if he could bear any amount of fatigue. His +constitution must originally have been an iron one. Instead of the +Oriental repose which I expected, there was a kind of semi-European, +semi-military stiffness about him, which, however, soon wore off in +conversation. I say advisedly conversation, albeit that he did not +understand a word of French, which was the only language I spoke, and +that I could not catch a word of his. But in spite of Koenig-Bey's +acting the interpreter, it was a conversation between us both. He seemed +to catch the meaning of my words the moment they left my lips, and every +now and then smiled at my remarks. He as it were read the thoughts that +provoked them, and I do not wonder at his having been amused, for I +myself was never so amused in my life. Perhaps you will be, when I tell +you that I was not to see the ladies I had to teach; my instruction was +to be given to the eunuchs, who, in their turn, had to transmit them to +the viceroy's wives and daughters. Of course, I tried to point out the +impossibility of such a system, but Mehemet-Ali shook his head with a +knowing smile. That was the only way he would have his womenkind +initiated into the beauties of Mozart and Mendelssohn. I need not tell +you that the arrangement came to nought." + +Nearly all these conversations which I have noted down here, without +much attempt at transition, took place at different times. One day, when +he was relating some experiences of his wanderings through the less busy +haunts of Egypt, I happened to say, "After all, Monsieur David, they did +you good; they inspired you with the themes of your most beautiful +works." + +It was a very bitter smile that played on his lips, but only for a +moment; the next his face resumed its usual melancholy expression. "Yes, +they did me good. Do you know what occurred on the eve of the first +performance of 'Le Desert,' on the morrow of which I may say without +undue pride that I found myself famous? Well, I will tell you. But for +Azevedo, I should have gone supperless that night.[29] I met him on the +Boulevards, and I almost forced him to take some tickets, for I was +hungry and desperate. I had been running about that morning to dispose +of some tickets for love or money, for what I feared most was an empty +house. I had sold half a dozen, perhaps, but no one had paid me. Azevedo +said, 'Yes, send me some this afternoon.' 'I can give them to you now,' +I replied, 'for I carry my box office upon me.' Then he understood, and +gave me the money. May God bless him for it, for ever and ever! + + [Footnote 29: Alexis Azevedo, one of the best musical critics + of the time, as enthusiastic in his likes as unreasoning in his + dislikes. He became a fervent admirer of Felicien + David.--EDITOR.] + +"Now would you like to hear what happened after the performance?" he +continued. "The place was full and the applause tremendous. Next morning +the papers were full of my name; I was, according to most of them, 'a +revelation in music.' But for all that I was living in an attic on a +fifth floor, and had not sufficient money to pay my orchestra, let alone +to arrange for another concert. As for the score of 'Le Desert,' it went +the round of every publisher but one, and was declined by all these. At +last the firm of Escudier offered me twelve hundred francs for it, +which, of course, I was glad to take. They behaved handsomely after all, +because they arranged for a series of performances of it, which I was to +direct at a fee of a thousand francs per performance. Those good +Saint-Simoniens, the Pereiras, Enfantin, Michel Chevalier, had not +lifted a finger to help me in my need; nevertheless, I was not going to +condemn good principles on account of the men who represented them not +very worthily. Do you know what was the result of this determination not +to be unjust if others were? I embarked my little savings in a concern +presided over by one of them. I lost every penny of it; since then I +have never been able to save a penny." + +Felicien David was right--he never made money; first of all, "because," +as Auber said, "he was too great an artist to be popular;" secondly, +because the era of cantatas and oratorios had not set in in France; +thirdly, because he composed very slowly; and fourthly, "because he had +no luck." The performances of his principal theatrical work were +interrupted by the Coup-d'Etat. I am alluding to "La Perle du Bresil," +which, though represented at the Opera-Comique in 1850, only ran for a +few nights there, divergencies of opinion having arisen between the +composer and M. Emile Perrin, who was afterwards director of the Grand +Opera, and finally of the Comedie-Francaise. When it was revived, on +November 22, 1851, the great event which was to transform the second +republic into the second empire was looming on the horizon. In 1862, +Napoleon III. made Felicien David an officer of the Legion d'Honneur; +Louis-Philippe had bestowed the knighthood upon him in '46 or '47, after +a performance of his "Christophe Colomb" at the Tuileries. When Auber +was told of the honour conferred, he said, "Napoleon is worse than the +fish with the ring of Polycrates; it did not take him eleven years to +bring it back." Alexandre Dumas opined that "it was a pearl hid in a +dunghill for a decade or more." When, towards the end of the Empire, a +street near the projected opera building was named after Auber, and when +he could see his bust on the facade of the building, the scaffolding of +which had been removed, Auber remarked that the Emperor had been good +enough to give him credit. "Now we are quits," he added, "for he was +David's debtor for eleven years. At any rate, I'll do my best to square +the account, so you need not order any hat-bands until '79." When '79 +came, he had been in his tomb for nearly eight years. + +I wrote just now that Felicien David composed very slowly. But for this +defect, if it was one, Verdi would have never put his name to the score +of "Aida." The musical encyclopedias will tell you that Signor +Ghislanzoni is the author of the libretto, and that the khedive applied +to Signor Verdi for an opera on an Egyptian subject. The first part of +that statement is utterly untrue, the other part is but partially true. +Signor Ghislanzoni is at best but the adapter in verse and translator of +the libretto. The original in prose is by M. Camille du Locle, founded +on the scenario supplied by Mariette-Bey, whom Ismail-Pasha had given +_carte blanche_ with regard to the music and words. Mariette-Bey +intended from the very first to apply to a French playwright, when one +night, being belated at Memphis in the Serapeum, and unable to return on +foot, he all at once remembered an old Egyptian legend. Next day he +committed the scenario of it to paper, showed it to the khedive, and ten +copies of it were printed in Alexandria. One of these was sent to M. du +Locle, who developed the whole in prose. + +M. du Locle had also been authorized to find a French composer, but it +is very certain that Mariette-Bey had in his mind's eye the composer of +"Le Desert," though he may not have expressly said so. At any rate, M. +du Locle applied to David, who refused, although the "retaining fee" was +fifty thousand francs. It was because he could not comply with the first +and foremost condition, to have the score ready in six months at the +latest. Then Wagner was thought of. It is most probable that he would +have refused. To Mariette-Bey belongs the credit furthermore of having +entirely stage-managed the opera. + +Thus Felicien David, who had revealed "the East in music" to the +Europeans, no more reaped the fruits of his originality than Decamps, +who had revealed it in painting. Was not Auber right when he said to +young Coquelin that the verdict on all things in this world might be +summed up in the one phrase, "It's an injustice"? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Three painters, and a school for pifferari -- Gabriel Decamps, + Eugene Delacroix, and Horace Vernet -- The prices of pictures in + the forties -- Delacroix' find no purchasers at all -- Decamps' + drawings fetch a thousand francs each -- Decamps not a happy man + -- The cause of his unhappiness -- The man and the painter -- He + finds no pleasure in being popular -- Eugene Delacroix -- His + contempt for the bourgeoisie -- A parallel between Delacroix and + Shakespeare -- Was Delacroix tall or short? -- His love of + flowers -- His delicate health -- His personal appearance -- His + indifference to the love-passion -- George Sand and Delacroix -- + A miscarried love-scene -- Delacroix' housekeeper, Jenny + Leguillou -- Delacroix does not want to pose as a model for one + of George Sand's heroes -- Delacroix as a writer -- His approval + of Carlyle's dictum, "Show me how a man sings," etc. -- His + humour tempered by his reverence -- His failure as a caricaturist + -- His practical jokes on would-be art-critics -- Delacroix at + home -- His dress while at work -- Horace Vernet's, Paul + Delaroche's, Ingres' -- Early at work -- He does not waste time + over lunch -- How he spent his evenings -- His dislike of being + reproduced in marble or on canvas after his death -- Horace + Vernet -- The contrast between the two men and the two artists -- + Vernet's appearance -- His own account of how he became a painter + -- Moral and mental resemblance to Alexandre Dumas pere -- His + political opinions -- Vernet and Nicholas I. -- A bold answer -- + His opinion on the mental state of the Romanoffs -- The comic + side of Vernet's character -- He thinks himself a Vauban -- His + interviews with M. Thiers -- His admiration for everything + military -- His worship of Alfred de Vigny -- His ineffectual + attempts to paint a scene in connection with the storming of + Constantine -- Laurent-Jan proposes to write an epic on it -- He + gives a synopsis of the cantos -- Laurent-Jan lives "on the fat + of the land" for six months -- A son of Napoleon's companion in + exile, General Bertrand -- The chaplain of "la Belle-Poule" -- + The first French priest who wore the English dress -- Horace + Vernet and the veterans of "la grande armee" -- His studio during + their occupancy of it as models -- His budget -- His hatred of + pifferari -- A professor -- The Quartier-Latin revisited. + + +A few weeks ago,[30] when rummaging among old papers, documents, +memoranda, etc., I came upon some stray leaves of a catalogue of a +picture sale at the Hotel Bullion[31] in 1845. I had marked the prices +realized by a score or so of paintings signed by men who, though living +at that time, were already more or less famous, and many of whom have +since then acquired a world-wide reputation. There was only one +exception to this--that of Herrera the Elder, who had been dead nearly +two centuries, and whose name was, and is still, a household word among +connoisseurs by reason of his having been the master of Velasquez. The +handiwork of the irascible old man was knocked down for three francs +seventy-five centimes, though no question was raised as to the +genuineness of it in my hearing. It was a saint--the catalogue said no +more,--and I have been in vain trying to recollect why I did not buy it. +There must have been some cogent reason for my not having done so, for +"the frame was no doubt worth double the money," to use an auctioneer's +phrase. Was it suspicion, or what? At any rate, two years later, I heard +that it had been sold to an American for fourteen thousand francs, +though, after all, that was no guarantee of its value. + + [Footnote 30: Written in 1882.] + + [Footnote 31: The Hotel Bullion was formerly the town mansion + of the financier of that name, and situated in the Rue + Coquilliere.--EDITOR.] + +In those days it was certainly better to be a live artist than a dead +one, for, a little further on among these pages, I came upon a marginal +note of the prices fetched by three works of Meissonier, "Le Corps de +Garde," "Une partie de piquet," and "Un jeune homme regardant des +dessins," all of which had been in the salon of that year,[32] and each +of which fetched 3000 francs. I should not like to say what their +purchasing price would be to-day, allowing for the difference in the +value of money. Further on still, there is a note of a picture by Alfred +de Dreux, which realized a similar amount. Allowing for that same +difference in the value of money, that work would probably not find a +buyer now among real connoisseurs at 200 francs.[33] At the same time, +the original sketch of David's "Serment du Jeu de Paume" did not find a +purchaser at 2500 francs, the reserve price. A landscape by Jules Andre, +a far greater artist than Alfred de Dreux, went for 300 francs, and +Baron's "Oies du Frere Philippe" only realized 200 francs more. There +was not a single "bid" for Eugene Delacroix' "Marc-Aurele," and when he +did sell a picture it was for 500 or 600 francs; nowadays it would fetch +100,000 francs. On the other hand, the drawings of Decamps' admirable +"Histoire de Samson" realized 1000 francs each. + + [Footnote 32: The annual salon was held in the Louvre then; in + 1849 it was transferred to the Tuileries. In 1850, '51, and '52 + it was removed to the galleries of the Palais-Royal; in 1853 + and '54 the salon was held in the Hotel des Menus-Plaisirs, in + the Faubourg Poissonniere, which became afterwards the + storehouse for the scenery of the Grand Opera. In 1855 the + exhibition took place in a special annex of the Palais de + l'Industrie; after that, it was lodged in the Palais + itself.--EDITOR.] + + [Footnote 33: Alfred de Dreux was not an unknown figure in + London society. He came in 1848. He was a kind of Comte + d'Orsay, and painted chiefly equestrian figures. After the Coup + d'Etat he returned to Paris, and was patronized by society, and + subsequently by Napoleon III. himself, whose portrait he + painted. He was killed in a duel, the cause of which has never + been revealed.--EDITOR.] + +Yet Gabriel Decamps was a far unhappier man than Eugene Delacroix. The +pictures rejected by the public became the "apples" of Delacroix' eyes, +with which he would not part, subsequently, at any price, as in the case +of his "Marino Faliero." Decamps, one day, while he lived in the +Faubourg Saint-Denis, deliberately destroyed one hundred and forty +drawings, the like of which were eagerly bought up for a thousand francs +apiece, though at present they would be worth four times that amount. +Delacroix was content with his God-given genius; "he saw everything he +had made, and behold it was very good," Decamps fumed and fretted at the +supposed systematic neglect of the Government, which did not give him a +commission. "You paint with a big brush, but you are not a great +painter," said Sir Joshua to a would-be Michael-Angelo. To Gabriel +Decamps the idea of being allowed or invited by the State to cover a +number of yards of canvas or wall or ceiling was so attractive that he +positively lost his sleep and his appetite over it. It was, perhaps, the +only bitter drop in his otherwise tolerably full cup of happiness, but +that one drop very frequently embittered the whole. He had many good +traits in his character, though he was not uniformly good-tempered. +There was an absolute indifference as to the monetary results of his +calling, and an inherent generosity to those who "had fallen by the +way." But he was something of a bear and a recluse, not because he +disliked society, but because he deliberately suppressed his sociable +qualities, lest he should arouse the suspicion of making them the +stepping-stone to his ambition. No man ever misread the lesson, "Do well +and fear not," so utterly as did Decamps. He was never tired of +well-doing; and he was never tired of speculating what the world would +think of it. There is not a single picture from his brush that does not +contain an original thought; he founded an absolutely new school--no +small thing to do. The world at large acknowledged as much, and yet he +would not enjoy the fruits of that recognition, because it lacked the +"official stamp." When Decamps consented to forget his real or fancied +grievances he became a capital companion, provided one had a taste for +bitter and scathing satire. I fancy Jonathan Swift must have been +something like Gabriel Decamps in his daily intercourse with his +familiars. But he rarely said an ill-natured thing of his +fellow-artists. His strictures were reserved for the political men of +his time, and of the preceding reign. The Bourbons he despised from the +bottom of his heart, and during the Restauration his contempt found vent +in caricatures which, at the moment, must have seared like a red-hot +iron. He had kept a good many of these ephemeral productions, and, I am +bound to say, they struck one afterwards as unnecessarily severe. "If +they" (meaning the Bourbons) "had continued to reign in France," he said +one day, "I would have applied for letters of naturalization to the +Sultan." + +Decamps was killed, like Gericault, by a fall off his horse, but long +before that he had ceased to work. "I cannot add much to my reputation, +and do not care to add to my store," he said. In 1855, the world +positively rang with his name, but I doubt whether this universal +admiration gave him much satisfaction. He exhibited more than fifty +works at the Exposition Universelle of that year, a good many of which +had been rejected by the "hanging committees" of previous salons. True +to his system, he rarely, perhaps never directly, called the past +judgment in question, but he lived and died a dissatisfied man. Unlike +Mirabeau, who had not the courage to be unpopular, Decamps derived no +gratification from popularity. + +I knew Eugene Delacroix better than any of the others in the marvellous +constellation of painters of that period, and our friendship lasted till +the day of his death, in December, 1863. I was also on very good terms +with Horace Vernet; but though the latter was perhaps a more lively +companion, the stronger attraction was towards the former. I was one of +the few friends whom he tolerated whilst at work. Our friendship lasted +for nearly a quarter of a century, and during that time there was never +a single unpleasantness between us, though I am bound to admit that +Delacroix' temper was very uncertain. Among all those men who had a +profound, ineradicable contempt for the bourgeois, I have only known one +who despised him even to a greater extent than he; it was Gustave +Flaubert. Though Delacroix' manners were perfect, he could scarcely be +polite to the middle classes. With the exception of Dante and +Shakespeare, Delacroix was probably the greatest poet that ever lived; a +greater poet undoubtedly than Victor Hugo, in that he was absolutely +indifferent to the material results of his genius. If Shakespeare and +the author of the "Inferno" had painted, they would have painted like +Delacroix; his "Sardanapale" is the Byronic poem, condensed and +transferred to canvas. + +Long as I knew Delacroix, I had never been able to make out whether he +was tall or short, and most of his friends and acquaintances were +equally puzzled. As we stood around his coffin many were surprised at +its length. His was decidedly a curious face, at times stony in its +immobility, at others quivering from the tip of chin to the juncture of +the eyebrows, and with a peculiar movement of the nostrils that was +almost pendulum-like in its regularity. It gave one the impression of +their being assailed by some unpleasant smell, and, one day, when +Delacroix was in a light mood, I remarked upon it. "You are perfectly +right," he replied; "I always fancy there is corruption in the air, but +it is not necessarily of a material kind." + +Be this as it may, he liked to surround himself with flowers, and his +studio was often like a hothouse, apart from the floral decorations. The +temperature was invariably very high, and even then he would shiver now +and again. I have always had an idea that Delacroix had Indian blood in +his veins, which idea was justified to a certain extent by his +appearance, albeit that there was no tradition to that effect in his +family. But it was neither the black hair, the olive skin, nor the +peculiar formation of the features which forced that conclusion upon me; +it was the character of Delacroix, which for years and years I +endeavoured to read thoroughly, without succeeding to any appreciable +degree. There was one trait that stood out so distinctly that the merest +child might have perceived it--his honesty; but the rest was apparently +a mass of contradiction. It is difficult to imagine a poet, and +especially a painter-poet, without an absorbing passion for some +woman--not necessarily for the same woman; to my knowledge Delacroix had +no such passion, for one can scarcely admit that Jenny Leguillou, his +housekeeper, could have inspired such a feeling. True, when I first knew +Delacroix he was over forty, but those who had known him at twenty and +twenty-five never hinted at any romantic attachment or even at a sober, +homely affection. And assuredly a man of forty is not invulnerable in +that respect. And yet, the woman who positively bewitched, one after +another, so many of Delacroix' eminent contemporaries, Jules Sandeau, +Alfred de Musset, Michel de Bourges, Chopin, Pierre Leroux, Cabet, +Lammenais, etc., had no power over him. + +Paul de Musset, perhaps as a kind of revenge for the wrongs suffered by +his brother, once gave an amusing description of the miscarried attempt +of George Sand "to net" Eugene Delacroix. + +It would appear that the painter had shown signs of yielding to the +charms which few men were able to withstand, or, at any rate, that +George Sand fancied she could detect such signs. Whether it was from a +wish on George Sand's part to precipitate matters or to nip the thing in +the bud, it would be difficult to determine, but it is certain that she +pursued her usual tactics--that is, she endeavoured to provoke an +admission of her admirer's feeling. Though I subsequently ascertained +that Paul de Musset's story was substantially true, I am not altogether +prepared, knowing his animosity against her, to accept his hinted theory +of the lady's desire "de brusquer les fiancailles." + +One morning, then, while Delacroix was at work, George Sand entered his +studio. She looked out of spirits, and almost immediately stated the +purpose of her visit. + +"My poor Eugene!" she began; "I am afraid I have got sad news for you." + +"Oh, indeed," said Delacroix, without interrupting his work, and just +giving her one of his cordial smiles in guise of welcome. + +"Yes, my dear friend, I have carefully consulted my own heart, and the +upshot is, I am grieved to tell you, that I feel I cannot and could +never love you." + +Delacroix kept on painting. "Is that a fact?" he said. + +"Yes, and I ask you once more to pardon me, and to give me credit for my +candour--my poor Delacroix." + +Delacroix did not budge from his easel. + +"You are angry with me, are you not? You will never forgive me?" + +"Certainly I will. Only I want you to keep quiet for ten minutes; I have +got a bit of sky there which has caused me a good deal of trouble, it is +just coming right. Go and sit down or else take a little walk, and come +back in ten minutes." + +Of course, George Sand did not return; and equally, of course, did not +tell the story to any one, but somehow it leaked out. Perhaps Jenny +Leguillou had overheard the scene--she was quite capable of listening +behind a screen or door--and reporting it. Delacroix himself, when +"chaffed" about it, never denied it. There was no need for him to do so, +because theoretically it redounded to the lady's honour; had she not +rejected his advances? + +I have noted it here to prove that the poetry of Delacroix n'allait pas +se faufiler dans les jupons, because, though we would not take it for +granted that where George Sand failed others would have succeeded, it is +nevertheless an authenticated fact that only one other man among the +many on whom she tried her wiles remained proof against them. That man +was Prosper Merimee, the author of "Colomba" and "Carmen," the friend of +Panizzi. "Quand je fais un roman, je choisis mon sujet; je ne veux pas +que l'on me decoupe pour en faire un. Madame Sand ne met pas ses amants +dans son coeur, elle les mets dans ses livres; et elle le fait si +diablement vite qu'on n'a pas le temps de la devancer." Merimee was +right, each of George Sand's earlier books had been written with the +heart's blood of one of the victims of her insatiable passions--for I +should not like to prostitute the word "love" to her liaisons; and I am +glad to think that Eugene Delacroix was spared that ordeal. It would +have killed him; and the painter of "Sardanapale" was more precious to +his own art than to hers, which, with all due deference to eminent +critics, left an unpleasant sensation to those who were fortunate enough +to be free from incipient hysteria. + +A liaison with George Sand would have killed Eugene Delacroix, I am +perfectly certain; for he would have staked gold, she would have only +played with counters. It would have been the vitiated atmosphere in +which the cradle of his life and of his genius--which were one, in this +instance--would have been extinguished. + +As it was, that candle burned very low at times, because, during the +years I knew Delacroix, he had nearly always one foot in the grave; the +healthy breezes of art's unpolluted air made that candle burn brightly +now and again; hence the difference in quality, as striking, of some of +his pictures. + +Perhaps on account of his delicate health, Delacroix was not very fond +of society, in which, however, he was ever welcome, and particularly +fitted to shine, though he rarely attempted to do so. I have said that +Dante and Shakespeare, if they had painted, would have painted as +Delacroix did; I am almost tempted to add that if Delacroix' vocation +had impelled him that way, he would have sung as they sang--of course, I +do not mean that he would have soared as high, but his name would have +lived in literature as it does in painting, though perhaps not with so +brilliant a halo around it. For, unlike many great painters of his time, +Delacroix was essentially lettre. One has but to read some of his +critical essays in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ of that period, to be +convinced of that at once. Theophile Gautier said, one evening, that it +was "the style of a poet in a hurry." The sentences give one the +impression of newly-minted golden coins. Nearly every one contains a +thought, which, if reduced to small change, would still make an +admirable paragraph. He gives to his readers what he expects from his +authors--a sensation, a shock in two or three lines. The sentences are +modelled upon his favourite prose author, who, curious to relate, was +none other than Napoleon I. I often tried to interest him in English +literature. Unfortunately, he knew no English to speak of, and was +obliged to have recourse to translations. Walter Scott he thought +long-winded, and, after a few attempts at Shakespeare in French, he gave +it up. "Ca ne peut pas etre cela," he said. But he had several French +versions of "Gulliver's Travels," all of which he read in turn. One day, +I quoted to him a sentence from Carlyle's "Lectures on Heroes:" "Show me +how a man sings, and I will tell you how he will fight." "C'est cela," +he said; "if Shakespeare had been a general, he would have won his +battles like Napoleon, by thunderclaps" (par des coups de foudre). + +Delacroix had what a great many Frenchmen lack--a keen sense of humour, +but it was considerably tempered by what, for the want of a better term, +I may call the bump of reverence. He could not be humorous at the +expense of those he admired or respected, consequently his attempts at +caricature at the early period of his career in _Le Nain Jaune_ were a +failure; because Delacroix' admiration and respect were not necessarily +reserved for those with whom he agreed in art or politics, but for +everyone who attempted something great or useful, though he failed. The +man who, at the age of sixty, would enthusiastically dilate upon his +meeting forty years before with Gros, whose hat he had knocked off by +accident, was not the likely one to hold up to ridicule the celebrity of +the hour or day _without_ malice prepense. And this malice prepense +never uprose within him, except in the presence of some bumptious, +ignorant nobody. Then it positively boiled over, and he did not mind +what trick he played his interlocutor. The latter might be a wealthy +would-be patron, an influential Government official, or a well-known +picture-dealer; it was all the same to Delacroix, who had an utter +contempt for patronage, nepotism, and money. It was as good as a clever +scene in a comedy to see him rise and draw himself up to his full +height, in order to impress his victim with a sense of the importance of +what he was going to say. To get an idea of him under such +circumstances, one must go and see his portrait in the Louvre, painted +by himself, with the semi-supercilious, semi-benevolent smile playing +upon the parted lips, and showing the magnificent regular set of teeth, +of which he was very proud, beneath the black bushy moustache, which +reminds one curiously of that of Rembrandt. Of course, the victim was +mesmerized, and stood listening with all attention, promising himself to +remember every word of the spoken essay on art, with the view of +producing it as his own at the first favourable opportunity. And he +generally did, to his own discomfiture and the amusement of his hearers, +who, if they happened to know Delacroix, which was the case frequently, +invariably detected the source of the speaker's information. I once +heard a spoken essay on Holbein reproduced in that way, which would have +simply made the fortune of any comic writer. The human parrot had not +even been parrot-like, for he had muddled the whole in transmission. I +took some pains to reproduce his exact words, and I never saw Delacroix +laugh as when I repeated it to him. For, as a rule, and even when he was +mystifying that kind of numskull in the presence of half a dozen +well-informed friends, Delacroix remained perfectly serious, though the +others had to bite their lips lest they should explode. In fact, it +would have been difficult at any time to guess or discover, beneath the +well-bred man of the world, with his charming, courtly, though somewhat +distant manner, the painter who gave us "La Barque de Dante," and "Les +Massacres de Scio;" still, Delacroix was that man of the world, +exceedingly careful of his appearance, particular to a degree about his +nails, which he wore very long, dressed to perfection, and, in spite of +the episode with George Sand, recorded above, most ingratiating with +women. + +Different altogether was he in his studio. Though he was "at home" from +three till five, to visitors of both sexes, it was distinctly understood +that he would not interrupt his work for them, or play the host as the +popular painter of to-day is supposed to do. The atelier, encumbered +with bric-a-brac and sumptuous hangings and afternoon tea, had not been +invented: if the host wore a velvet coat, a Byronic collar, and gorgeous +papooshes, it was because he liked these things himself, not because he +intended to impress his visitors. As a rule, the host, though in his +youth perhaps he had been fond of extravagant costumes, did not like +them: Horace Vernet often worked in his shirt-sleeves, Paul Delaroche +nearly always wore a blouse, and Ingres, until he became "a society +man," which was very late in life, donned a dressing-gown. Delacroix +was, if anything, more slovenly than the rest when at work. An old +jacket buttoned up to the chin, a large muffler round his neck, a cloth +cap pulled over his ears, and a pair of thick felt slippers made up his +usual garb. For he was nearly always shivering with cold, and had an +affection of the throat, besides, which compelled him to be careful. +"But for my wrapping up, I should have been dead at thirty," he said. + +Nevertheless, at the stroke of eight, winter and summer, he was in his +studio, which he did not leave until dark, during six months of the +year, and a little before, during the other six. Contrary to the French +habit, he never took luncheon, and generally dined at home a little +after six--the fatigue of dining out being too much for him. + +I may safely say that I was one of Delacroix' friends, with whom he +talked without restraint. I often went to him of an evening when the +weather prevented his going abroad, which, in his state of health, was +very often. He always chafed at such confinement; for though not fond of +society in a general way, he liked coming to the Boulevards, after his +work was over, and mixing with his familiars. Delacroix smoked, but, +unlike many addicted to tobacco, could not sit idle. His hands, as well +as his brain, wanted to be busy; consequently, when imprisoned by rain +or snow, he sat sketching figures or groups, talking all the while. By +then his name had become familiar to every art student throughout the +world, and he often received flattering letters from distant parts. One +evening, shortly after the death of David d'Angers, to an episode in +whose life I have devoted a considerable space in these notes, Delacroix +received an American newspaper, the title of which I have forgotten, but +which contained an exceedingly able article on the great sculptor, as an +artist, and as a man. It wound up with the question, "And what kind of +monument will be raised to him by the man who virtually shortened his +life by sending him into exile, because David remained true to the +republican principles which Napoleon only shammed--or, if not shammed, +deliberately trod underfoot to ascend a tyrant's throne?" + +I translated the whole of the article, and, when I came to the last +lines, Delacroix shook his head sadly. "You remember," he said, "the +answer of our friend Dumas, when they asked him for a subscription +towards a monument to a man whom every one had reviled in the beginning +of his career. 'They had better be content with the stones they threw at +him during his existence. No monument they can raise will be so eloquent +of their imbecility and his genius.' I may take it," he went on, "that +such a question will be raised one day after my death, perhaps many +years after I am gone. If you are alive you will, by my will, raise your +voice against the project. I have painted my own portrait; while I am +here, I will take care that it be not reproduced; I will forbid them to +do so after I am at rest. There shall not be a bust on my tomb." + +About a fortnight before his death he made a will to that effect, and up +to the present hour (1883) its injunctions have been respected. +Delacroix lies in a somewhat solitary spot in Pere-Lachaise. Neither +emblem, bust, nor statue adorns his tomb, which was executed according +to his own instructions. "They libelled me so much during my life," he +said one day, "that I do not want them to libel me after my death, on +canvas or in marble. They flattered me so much afterwards, that I knew +their flattery to be fulsome, and, if anything, I am more afraid of it +than of their libels." + +It would be difficult to find a greater contrast than there existed +between Eugene Delacroix, both as a man and an artist, and Horace +Vernet. The one loved his art with the passionate devotion of an +intensely poetical lover for his wayward mistress, whom to cease wooing +for a moment might mean an irreparable breach or, at least, a long +estrangement; the other loved his with the calm affection of the +cherished husband for the faithful wife who had blessed him with a +numerous offspring, whom he had known from his very infancy, a marriage +with whom had been decided upon when he was a mere lad, whom he might +even neglect for a little while without the bond being in any way +relaxed. According to their respective certificates of birth, Vernet was +the senior by ten years of Delacroix. When I first knew them, about +1840, Vernet looked ten years younger than Delacroix. If they had chosen +to disguise themselves as musketeers of the Louis XIII. period, Vernet +would have reminded one of both Aramis and d'Artagnan; Delacroix, of +Athos. + +Montaigne spoke Latin before he could speak French; Vernet drew men and +horses before he had mastered either French or Latin. His playthings +were stumpy, worn-out brushes, discarded palettes, and sticks of +charcoal; his alphabet, the pictures of the Louvre, where his father +occupied a set of apartments, and where he was born, a month before the +outbreak of the first Revolution. He once said to me, "Je suis peintre +comme il y des hommes qui sont rois--parceque ils ne peuvent pas etre +autre chose. Il fallait un homme de genie pour sortir d'un pareil +bourbier et malheureusement je n'ai que du talent." By the "bourbier" he +meant his great-grandfather, his two grandfathers, and his father, all +of whom were painters and draughtsmen. + +Posterity will probably decide whether Horace Vernet was a genius or +merely a painter of great talent, but it will scarcely convey an +approximate idea of the charm of the man himself. There was only one +other of his contemporaries who exercised the same spell on his +companions--Alexandre Dumas _pere_. Though Vernet was a comparative +dwarf by the side of Dumas, the men had the same qualities, physical, +moral, and mental. Neither of them knew what bodily fatigue meant; both +could work for fourteen or fifteen hours a day for a fortnight or a +month; both would often have "a long bout of idleness," as they called +it, which, to others not endowed with their strength and mental +activity, would have meant hard labour. Both were fond of earning money, +fonder still of spending it; both created almost without an effort. +Dumas roared with laughter while writing; Vernet sang at the top of his +voice while painting, or bandied jokes with his visitors, who might come +and go as they liked at all hours. Dumas, especially in the earlier days +of his career, had to read a great deal before he could catch the local +colour of his novels and plays--he himself has told us that he was +altogether ignorant of the history of France. But when he had finished +reading up the period in question, he wrote as if he had been born in +it. Vernet was a walking cyclopaedia on military costume; he knew, +perhaps, not much more than that, but that he knew thoroughly, and never +had to think twice about the uniforms of his models, and, as he himself +said, "I never studied the thing, nor did I learn to paint or to draw. +According to many people, I do not know how to paint or to draw now: it +may be so; at any rate I have the comfort of having wasted nobody's time +in trying to learn." + +Like Dumas, he was very proud of his calling and of the name he had made +for himself in it, which he would not have changed for the title of +emperor--least of all for that of king; for, like his great +contemporary, he was a republican at heart. It did not diminish either +his or Dumas' admiration for Napoleon I. "I can understand an absolute +monarchy, nay, a downright autocracy, and I can understand a republic," +said Vernet, "but I fail to understand the use of a constitutional king, +just because it implies and entails the principle of succession by +inheritance. An autocracy means one ruler over so many millions of +subjects; a constitutional monarchy means between five and six hundred +direct rulers, so many millions of indirect ones, and one subject who is +called king. Who would leave his child the inheritance of such slavery? +A la bonne heure, give me a republic such as we understand it in France, +all rulers, all natural-born kings, gods in mortals' disguise who dance +to the piping of the devil. There have been two such since I was born; +there may be another half-dozen like these within the next two +centuries, because, before you can have an ideal republic, you must have +ideal republicans, and Nature cannot afford to fritter away her most +precious gifts on a lot of down-at-heels lawyers and hobnail-booted +scum. She condescends now and then to make an ideal tyrant--she will +never make a nation of ideal republicans. You may just as well ask her +to make a nation of Raffaelles or Michael Angelos, or Shakespeares or +Molieres." + +Both men, in spite of their republican opinions, were personally +attached to some members of the Orleans family; both had an almost +invincible objection to the Bourbons. Vernet had less occasion to be +outspoken in his dislike than Dumas, but he refused to receive the Duc +de Berri when the latter offered to come and see the battle-pieces +Vernet was painting for the then Duke of Orleans (Louis-Philippe). +Vernet had stipulated that his paintings should illustrate exclusively +the campaigns of the first Republic and the Empire, though subsequently +he depicted some episodes of the Algerian wars, in which the son of the +king had distinguished himself. "Tricolour cockades or no pictures," he +remarked, and Louis-Philippe good-humouredly acquiesced. Though +courteous to a degree, he never minced matters to either king or beggar. +While in Russia Nicholas took a great fancy to him. It appears that the +painter, who must have looked even smaller by the side of the Czar than +he did by that of Dumas, had accompanied the former, if not on a +perilous, at least on a very uncomfortable journey in the middle of the +winter. He and the Emperor were the only two men who had borne the +hardships and privations without grumbling, nay, with Mark Tapleyean +cheerfulness. That kind of fortitude was at all times a passport to +Nicholas' heart, doubly so in this instance, by reason of Vernet's by no +means robust appearance. From that moment Nicholas became very attached +to, and would often send for, him. They would often converse on subjects +even more serious, and, one day, after the partition of Poland, Nicholas +proposed that Vernet should paint a picture on the subject. + +"I am afraid I cannot do it, sire," was the answer. "I have never +painted a Christ on the cross." + +"The moment I had said it," continued Vernet, when he told me the story, +which is scarcely known, "I thought my last hour had struck. I am +positively certain that a Russian would have paid these words with his +life, or at least with lifelong exile to Siberia. I shall never forget +the look he gave me; there was a murderous gleam in the eyes; but it was +over in an instant. Nevertheless, I feel convinced that Nicholas was +mad, and, what is more, I feel equally convinced that there is incipient +madness throughout the whole of the Romanoff family. I saw a good many +of its members during my stay in Russia. They all did and said things +which would have landed ordinary men and women in a lunatic asylum. At +the same time there was an unmistakable touch of genius about some of +them. I often endeavoured to discuss the matter with the resident +foreign physicians, but, as you may imagine, they were very reticent. +But mark my words, one day there will be a terrible flare-up. Of course, +the foreigner, who sees the superstitious reverence, the slavish respect +with which they are surrounded, scarcely wonders that these men and +women should, in the end, consider themselves above, and irresponsible +to, the millions of grovelling mortals whom they rule; in spite of all +this, the question can only be one of time, and when the Russian empire +falls, the cataclysm will be unlike any other that has preceded it." + +There was a comic side to Horace Vernet's character. By dint of painting +battle-pieces he had come to consider himself an authority on strategy +and tactics, and his criticisms on M. Thiers' system of fortifications +used to set us roaring. I am under the impression--though I will not +strictly vouch for it--that at the recommendation of one or two of the +inveterate jokers of our set, Laurent-Jan[34] and Mery, he had a couple +of interviews with M. Theirs, but we never ascertained the result of +them. It was almost certain that the minister of Louis-Philippe, who at +one period of his life considered himself a Napoleon and a Vauban rolled +into one, did not entertain Vernet's suggestions with the degree of +enthusiasm to which he thought them entitled; at any rate, from that +time, the mention of M. Thiers' name generally provoked a contemptuous +shrug of the shoulders on Vernet's part. "C'est tout a fait comme +Napoleon et Jomini, mon cher Vernet," said Laurent-Jan; "mais, apres +tout, qu'est que cela vous fait? La posterite jugera entre vous deux, +elle saura bien debrouiller la part que vous avez contribuee a ces +travaux immortels." + + [Footnote 34: Laurent-Jan was a witty, though incorrigibly idle + journalist. He is entirely forgotten now save by such men as + MM. Arsene Houssaye and Roger de Beauvoir, who were his + contemporaries. He was the author of a clever parody on + Kotzebue's "Menschenhasz und Reue," known on the English stage + as "The Stranger."--EDITOR.] + +Much as Horace Vernet admired his great contemporaries in art and +literature, his greatest worship was reserved for Alfred de Vigny, the +soldier-poet, though the latter was by no means a sympathetic companion. +Next to his society, which was rarely to be had, he preferred that of +Arthur Bertrand, the son of Napoleon's companion in exile. Arthur +Bertrand had an elder brother, Napoleon Bertrand, who, at the storming +of Constantine, put on a new pair of white kid gloves, brought from +Paris for the purpose. Horace Vernet made at least fifty sketches of +that particular incident, but he never painted the picture. "I could +not do it justice," he said, when remonstrated with for his +procrastination. "I should fail to realize the grandeur of the thing." +Thereupon Laurent-Jan, who had no bump of reverence, proposed a poem in +so many cantos, to be illustrated by Vernet. I give the plan as +developed by the would-be author. + +1. The kid in its ancestral home among the mountains. A mysterious voice +from heaven tells it that its skin will be required for a pair of +gloves. The kid objects, and inquires why the skin of some other kid +will not do as well. The voice reveals the glorious purpose of the +gloves. The kid consents, and at the same moment a hunter appears in +sight. The kid, instead of taking to its heels, assumes a favourable +position to be shot. It makes a dying speech. + +2. A glove-shop on the Boulevard. Enter Napoleon Bertrand, asking for a +pair of gloves. The girl tells him that she has only one pair left, and +communicates the legend connected with it. The price is twenty francs. +Napoleon Bertrand demurs at it, and tells her, in his turn, what the +gloves are wanted for. The girl refuses to take the money, and her +employer, overhearing the conversation, dismisses her there and then. He +keeps the wages due to her as the price of the gloves. Napoleon Bertrand +puts the latter in his pocket, offers the girl his arm, and invites her +to breakfast in a _cabinet particulier_, "en tout bien, en tout +honneur." To prove his perfectly honourable intentions, he tells her the +story of Jeanne d'Arc. The girl's imagination is fired by the recital, +and after luncheon she goes in search of a book on the subject. An +unscrupulous, dishonest second-hand bookseller palms off an edition of +Voltaire's "La Pucelle." The girl writes to Napoleon Bertrand to tell +him that he has made a fool of her, that Jeanne d'Arc was no better than +she should be, and that she is going to join the harem of the Bey of +Constantine. + +3. Napoleon Bertrand stricken with remorse before Constantine. Orders +given for the assault. Napoleon Bertrand looks for his gloves, and finds +that they are too small. He can just get them on, but cannot grasp the +handle of his sword. His servant announces a mysterious stranger, a +veiled female stranger. She is admitted; she has made her escape from +the harem; a mysterious voice from heaven--the same that spoke to the +kid--having warned her the night before that the gloves would be too +small, and that she was to let a piece in. Reconciliation. Tableau. The +bugles are sounding "boot and saddle." Storming of Constantine. + +I have reproduced the words of Laurent-Jan; I will not attempt to +reproduce his manner, which was simply inimitable. Horace Vernet and +Arthur Bertrand shook with laughter, and the latter offered Laurent-Jan +to keep him for a twelvemonth if he would write the poem. Jan consented, +and lived upon the fat of the land during that time, but the poem never +saw the light. + +Arthur Bertrand was one of the most jovial fellows of his time. He, +Eugene Sue, and Latour-Mezerai were the best customers of the florist on +the Boulevards. It was he who accompanied the Prince de Joinville to St. +Helena to bring back the remains of Napoleon. After their return a new +figure joined our set now and then. It was the Abbe Coquereau, the +chaplain of "La Belle-Poule." The Abbe Coquereau was the first French +Catholic priest who discarded the gown and the shovel hat, and adopted +that of the English clergy. He was a charming man, and by no means +straight-laced, but he drew the line at accompanying Arthur in his +nightly perambulations. One evening he, Arthur Bertrand, and Alexandre +Dumas were strolling along the Boulevards when the latter tried to make +the abbe enter the Varietes. The abbe held firm, or rather took to his +heels. + +In those days there were still a great many veterans of the _grande +armee_ about, and a great deal of Horace Vernet's money went in +entertaining them at the various cafes and restaurants--especially when +he was preparing sketches for a new picture. The ordinary model, clever +and eminently useful as he was at that period, was willingly discarded +for the old and bronzed warrior of the Empire, some of whom were even +then returning from Africa. "They may just as well earn the money I pay +the others," he said; consequently it was not an unusual thing to see a +general, a couple of colonels, half a dozen captains, and as many +sergeants and privates, all of whom had served under Napoleon, in +Vernet's studio at the same time. Of course, the officers were only too +pleased to give their services gratuitously, but Vernet had a curious +way of making up his daily budget. Twenty models at four francs--for +models earned no more then--eighty francs. Fifteen of them refused their +pay. The eighty francs to be divided between five. And the five veterans +enjoyed a magnificent income for weeks and weeks at a time. + +Truth compels me to state, however, that during those weeks "the careful +mother could not have taken her daughter" to Vernet's studio. A couple +of live horses, not unfrequently three, an equal number of stuffed ones, +camp kettles, broken limbers, pieces of artillery, an overturned +ammunition waggon, a collection of uniforms, that would have made the +fortune of a costumier, scattered all over the place; drums, swords, +guns and saddles: and, amidst this confusion, a score of veterans, some +of whom had been comrades-in-arms and who seemed oblivious, for the time +being, of their hard-earned promotion in the company of those who had +been less lucky than they, every man smoking his hardest and telling his +best garrison story: all these made up a scene worthy of Vernet himself, +but somewhat appalling to the civilian who happened to come upon it +unawares. + +Vernet was never happier than when at work under such circumstances. +Perched on a movable scaffolding or on a high ladder, he reminded one +much more of an acrobat than of a painter. Like Dumas, he could work +amidst a very Babel of conversation, but the sound of music, however +good, disturbed him. In those days, itinerant Italian musicians and +pifferari, who have disappeared from the streets of Paris altogether +since the decree of expulsion of '81, were numerous, and grew more +numerous year by year. I, for one, feel sorry for their disappearance, +for I remember having spent half a dozen most delightful evenings +listening to them. + +The thing happened in this way. Though my regular visits to the +Quartier-Latin had ceased long ago, I returned now and then to my old +haunts during the years '63 and '64, in company of a young Englishman +who was finishing his medical studies in Paris, who had taken up his +quarters on the left bank of the Seine, and who has since become a +physician in very good practice in the French capital. He had been +specially recommended to me, and I was not too old to enjoy an evening +once a week or a fortnight among my juniors. At a cafe, which has been +demolished since to make room for a much more gorgeous establishment at +the corners of the Boulevards Saint-Michel and Saint-Germain, we used to +notice an elderly gentleman, scrupulously neat and exquisitely clean, +though his clothes were very threadbare. He always sat at the same table +to the right of the counter. His cup of coffee was eked out by frequent +supplements of water, and meanwhile he was always busy copying music--at +least, so it seemed to us at first. We soon came to a different +conclusion, though, because every now and then he would put down his +pen, lean back against the cushioned seat, look up at the ceiling and +smile to himself--such a sweet smile; the smile of a poet or an artist, +seeking inspiration from the spirits supposed to be hovering now and +then about such. + +That man was no copyist, but an obscure, unappreciated genius, perhaps, +biding his chance, hoping against hope, meanwhile living a life of +jealously concealed dreams and hardship. For he looked sad enough at the +best of times, with a kind of settled melancholy which apparently only +one thing could dispel--the advent of a couple or trio of pifferari. +Then his face would light up all of a sudden, he would gently push his +music away, speak to them in Italian, asking them to play certain +pieces, beating time with an air of contentment which was absolutely +touching to behold. On the other hand, the young pifferari appeared to +treat him with greater deference than they did the other customers; the +little girl who accompanied them was particularly eager for his +approval. + +In a little while we became very friendly with the old gentleman, and, +one evening, he said, "If you will be here next Wednesday, the pifferari +will give us something new." + +On the evening in question he looked quite smart; he had evidently "fait +des frais de toilette," as our neighbours have it; he wore a different +coat, and his big white neckcloth was somewhat more starched than usual. +He seemed quite excited. The pifferari, on the other hand, seemed +anxious and subdued. The cafe was very full, for all the habitues liked +the old gentleman, and had made it a point of responding to his +quasi-invitation. They were well rewarded, for I have rarely heard +sweeter music. It was unlike anything we were accustomed to hear from +such musicians; there was an old-world sound about it that went straight +to the heart, and when we looked at the old gentleman amidst the genuine +applause after the termination of the first piece, there were two big +tears coursing down his wrinkled cheeks. + +The pifferari came again and again, and though they never appealed to +him directly, we instinctively guessed that there existed some +connection between them. All our efforts to get at the truth of the +matter were, however, in vain, for the old gentleman was very reticent. + +Meanwhile my young friend had passed his examinations, and shifted his +quarters to my side of the river. He did not abandon the Quartier-Latin +altogether, but my inquiries about the old musician met with no +satisfactory response. He had disappeared. Nearly two years went by, +when, one afternoon, he called. "Come with me," he said; "I am going to +show you a curious nook of Paris which you do not know, and take you to +an old acquaintance whom you will be pleased to see again." + +The "curious nook" of Paris still exists to a certain extent, only the +pifferari have disappeared from it. It is situated behind the Pantheon, +and is more original than its London counterpart--Saffron Hill. It is +like a corner of old Rome, Florence, or Naples, without the glorious +Italian sun shining above it to lend picturesqueness to the rags and +tatters of its population; swarthy desperadoes with golden rings in +their ears and on their grimy fingers, their greasy, soft felt hats +cocked jauntily on their heads, or drawn over the flashing dark eyes, +before which their womankind cower and shake; old men who but for the +stubble on their chins would look like ancient cameos; girls with +shapely limbs and handsome faces; middle-aged women who remind one of +the witches in Macbeth; women younger still, who have neither shape nor +make; urchins and little lassies who remind one of the pictures of +Murillo; in short, a population of wood-carvers and modellers, vendors +of plaster casts, artist-models, sugar-bakers and mosaic-workers, living +in the streets the greater part of the day, retiring to their wretched +attics at night, sober and peaceful generally, but desperate and +unmanageable when in their cups. + +The cab stopped before a six-storied house which had seen better days, +in a dark, narrow street, into which the light of day scarcely +penetrated. The moment we alighted we heard a charivari of string +instruments and voices, and as we ascended the steep, slimy, rickety +staircase the sound grew more distinct. When we reached the topmost +landing, my friend knocked at one of the three or four doors, and, +without waiting for an answer, we entered. It was a scantily furnished +room with a bare brick floor, an old bedstead in one corner, a few +rush-bottomed chairs, and a deal table; but everything was scrupulously +clean. Behind the table, a cotton nightcap on his head, his tall thin +frame wrapt in an old overcoat, stood our old friend, the composer; in +front, half a dozen urchins, in costumes vaguely resembling those of the +Calabrian peasantry, grimy like coalheavers, their black hair standing +on end with attention, were rehearsing a new piece of music. Then I +understood it all. He was the professor of pifferari, an artist for all +that, an unappreciated genius, perhaps, who, rather than not be heard at +all, introduced a composition of his own into their hackneyed programme, +and tasted the sweets of popularity, without the accompanying rewards +which, nowadays, popularity invariably brings. This one had known +Paisiello and Rossini, had been in the thick of the excitement on the +first night of the "Barbiere," and had dreamt of similar triumphs. +Perhaps his genius was as much entitled to them as that of the others, +but he had loved not wisely, but too well, and when he awoke from the +love-dream, he was too ruined in body and mind to be able to work for +the realization of the artistic one. He would accept no aid. Three years +later, we carried him to his grave. A simple stone marks the place in +the cemetery of Montparnasse. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Louis-Philippe and his family -- An unpublished theatrical skit + on his mania for shaking hands with every one -- His art of + governing, according to the same skit -- Louis-Philippe not the + ardent admirer of the bourgeoisie he professed to be -- The + Faubourg Saint-Germain deserts the Tuileries -- The English in + too great a majority -- Lord ----'s opinion of the dinners at the + Tuileries -- The attitude of the bourgeoisie towards + Louis-Philippe, according to the King himself -- Louis-Philippe's + wit -- His final words on the death of Talleyrand -- His love of + money -- He could be generous at times -- A story of the + Palais-Royal -- Louis-Philippe and the Marseillaise -- Two + curious stories connected with the Marseillaise -- Who was the + composer of it? -- Louis-Philippe's opinion of the throne, the + crown, and the sceptre of France as additions to one's comfort -- + His children, and especially his sons, take things more easily -- + Even the Bonapartists admired some of the latter -- A mot of an + Imperialist -- How the boys were brought up -- Their nocturnal + rambles later on -- The King himself does not seem to mind those + escapades, but is frightened at M. Guizot hearing of them -- + Louis-Philippe did not understand Guizot -- The recollection of + his former misery frequently haunts the King -- He worries Queen + Victoria with his fear of becoming poor -- Louis-Philippe an + excellent husband and father -- He wants to write the libretto of + an opera on an English subject -- His religion -- The court + receptions ridiculous -- Even the proletariat sneer at them -- + The _entree_ of the Duchesse d'Orleans into Paris -- The scene in + the Tuileries gardens -- A mot of Princesse Clementine on her + father's too paternal solicitude -- A practical joke of the + Prince de Joinville -- His caricatures and drawings -- The + children inherited their talent for drawing and modelling from + their mother -- The Duc de Nemours as a miniature and + water-colour painter -- Suspected of being a Legitimist -- All + Louis-Philippe's children great patrons of art -- How the + bourgeoisie looked upon their intercourse with artists -- The Duc + de Nemours' marvellous memory -- The studio of Eugene Lami -- His + neighbours, Paul Delaroche and Honore de Balzac -- The Duc de + Nemours' bravery called in question -- The Duc d'Aumale's + exploits in Algeria considered mere skirmishes -- A curious story + of spiritism -- The Duc d'Aumale a greater favourite with the + world than any of the other sons of Louis-Philippe -- His wit -- + The Duc d'Orleans also a great favourite -- His visits to + Decamps' studio -- An indifferent classical scholar -- A curious + kind of black-mail -- His indifference to money -- There is no + money in a Republic -- His death -- A witty reply to the + Legitimists. + + +As will appear by-and-by, I was an eye-witness of a good many incidents +of the Revolution of '48, and a great many more have been related to me +by friends, whose veracity was and still is beyond suspicion. Neither +they nor I have ever been able to establish a sufficiently valid +political cause for that upheaval. Perhaps it was because we were free +from the prejudices engendered by what, for want of a better term, I +must call "dynastic sentiment." We were not blind to the faults of +Louis-Philippe, but we refused to look at them through the spectacles +supplied in turns by the Legitimists, the Imperialists, and Republicans. +How far these spectacles were calculated to improve people's vision, the +following specimen will show. + +I have lying before me a few sheets of quarto paper, sewn together in a +primitive way. It is a manuscript skit, in the form of a theatrical +duologue, professing to deal with the king's well-known habit of shaking +hands with every one with whom he came in contact. The _dramatis +personae_ are King Fip I., Roi des Epiciers--read, King of the +Philistines or Shopkeepers, and his son and heir, Grand Poulot (Big +Spooney). The monarch is giving the heir-apparent a lesson in the art of +governing. "Do not be misled," he says, "by a parcel of theorists, who +will tell you that the citizen-monarchy is based upon the sovereign will +of the people, or upon the strict observance of the Charter; this is +merely so much drivel from the political Rights or Lefts. In reality, it +does not signify a jot whether France be free at home and feared and +respected abroad, whether the throne be hedged round with republican +institutions or supported by an hereditary peerage, whether the language +of her statesmen be weighty and the deeds of her soldiers heroic. The +citizen-monarchy and the art of governing consist of but one thing--the +capacity of the principal ruler for shaking hands with any and every +ragamuffin and out-of-elbows brute he meets." Thereupon King Fip shows +his son how to shake hands in every conceivable position--on foot, on +horseback, at a gallop, at a trot, leaning out of a carriage, and so +forth. Grand Poulot is not only eager to learn, but ambitious to improve +upon his sire's method. "How would it do, dad," he asks, "if, in +addition to shaking hands with them, one inquired after their health, in +the second person singular--'Comment vas tu, mon vieux cochon?' or, +better still, 'Comment vas tu, mon vieux citoyen?'" "It would do +admirably," says papa; "but it does not matter whether you say cochon or +citoyen, the terms are synonymous." + +I am inclined to think that beneath this rather clever banter there was +a certain measure of truth. Louis-Philippe was by no means the ardent +admirer of the bourgeoisie he professed to be. He did not foster any +illusions with regard to their intellectual worth, and in his inmost +heart he resented their so-called admiration of him, which he knew to be +would-be patronage under another name. They had formed a hedge round him +which prevented any attempt on his part at conciliating his own caste, +the old noblesse. It is doubtful whether he would have been successful, +especially in the earlier years of his reign; but their ostracism of him +and his family rankled in his mind, and found vent now and again in an +epigram that stung the author as much as the party against which it was +directed. "There is more difficulty in getting people to my court +entertainments from across the Seine than from across the Channel," he +said. + +The fact is, that the whole of the Faubourg St.-Germain was conspicuous +by its absence from the Tuileries in those days, and that the English +were in rather too great a majority. They were not always a +distinguished company. I was little more than a lad at this time, but I +remember Lord ----'s invariable answer when his friends asked him what +the dinner had been like, and whether he had enjoyed himself: "The +dinner was like that at a good table-d'hote, and I enjoyed myself as I +would enjoy myself at a good hotel in Switzerland or at Wiesbaden, where +the proprietor knew me personally, and had given orders to the head +waiter to look after my comforts. But," he added, "it is, after all, +more pleasant dining there, when the English are present. At any rate, +there is no want of respect. When the French sit round the table, it is +not like a king dining with his subjects, but like half a hundred kings +dining with one subject." Allowing for a certain amount of exaggeration, +there was a good deal of truth in the remarks, as I found out +afterwards. "The bourgeoisie in their attitude towards me," said +Louis-Philippe, one day, to the English nobleman I have just quoted, +"are always reminding me of Adalberon of Rheims with Hugues Capet: 'Qui +t'as fait roi?' asked the bishop. 'Qui t'as fait duc?' retorted the +king. I have made them dukes to a greater extent, though, than they have +made me king." + +For Louis-Philippe was a witty king--wittier, perhaps, than any that had +sat on the throne of France since Henri IV. Some of his mots have become +historical, and even his most persistent detractors have been unable to +convict him of plagiarism with regard to them. What he specially +excelled in was the "mot de la fin" anglice--the clenching of an +argument, such as, for instance, his final remark on the death of +Talleyrand. He had paid him a visit the day before. When the news of the +prince's death was brought to him, he said, "Are you sure he is dead?" + +"Very sure, sire," was the answer. "Why, did not your majesty himself +notice yesterday that he was dying?" + +"I did, but there is no judging from appearances with Talleyrand, and I +have been asking myself for the last four and twenty hours what interest +he could possibly have in departing at this particular moment." + +To those who knew Louis-Philippe personally, it was very patent that he +disliked those who had been instrumental in setting him on the throne, +and who, under the cloak of "liberty, fraternity, and equality," were +seeking their own interest only, namely, the bourgeoisie. He knew their +quasi-goodwill to him to be so much sheer hypocrisy, and perhaps he and +they were too much alike in some respects, in their love of money for +the sake of hoarding it. It was, perhaps, the only serious failing that +could be laid to the charge of the family, because none of its members, +with the exception of the Duc d'Orleans, were entirely free from it. It +must not be inferred, though, that Louis-Philippe kept his purse closed +to really deserving cases of distress. Far from it. I have the following +story from my old tutor, to whom I am, moreover, indebted for a great +many notes, dealing with events of which I could not possibly have had +any knowledge but for him. + +In 1829 the greater part of the Galerie d'Orleans in the Palais-Royal +was completed. The unsightly wooden booths had been taken down, and the +timber must have been decidedly worth a small fortune. Several +contractors made very handsome offers for it, but Louis-Philippe (then +Duc d'Orleans) refused to sell it. It was to be distributed among the +poor of the neighbourhood for fuel for the ensuing winter, which +threatened to be a severe one. One day, when the duke was inspecting the +works in company of his steward, an individual, who was standing a +couple of yards away, began to shout at the top of his voice, "Vive +Louis-Philippe!" "Go and see what the fellow wants, for assuredly he +wants something," said the duke, who was a Voltairean in his way, and +had interpreted the man's enthusiasm aright. Papa Sournois was one of +those nondescripts for whom even now there appear to be more resources +in the French capital than elsewhere. At the period in question he +mainly got his living by selling contre-marques (checks) at the doors of +the theatre. He had heard of the duke's intention with regard to the +wood, hence his enthusiastic cry of "Vive Louis-Philippe!" A cartload of +wood was sent to his place; papa Sournois converted it into money, and +got drunk with the proceeds for a fortnight. When the steward, horribly +scandalized, told the duke of the results of his benevolence, the latter +merely laughed, and sent for the wife, who made her appearance +accompanied by a young brood of five. The duke gave her a five-franc +piece, and told her to apply to the concierge of the Palais-Royal for a +similar sum every day during the winter months. Of course, five francs a +day was not as much as a drop of water out of the sea when we consider +Louis-Philippe's stupendous income, and yet when the Tuileries were +sacked in 1848, documents upon documents were found, compiled with the +sole view of saving a few francs per diem out of the young princes' +"keep." + +"I am so sick of the word 'fraternity,'" said Prince Metternich, after +his return from France, "that, if I had a brother, I should call him +cousin." Though it was to the strains of the Marseillaise that +Louis-Philippe had been conducted to the Hotel-de-Ville on the day when +Lafayette pointed to him as "the best of all republics," a time came +when Louis-Philippe got utterly sick of the Marseillaise. + +But what was he to do, seeing that his attempt at introducing a new +national hymn had utterly failed? The mob refused to sing "La +Parisienne," composed by Casimir de la Vigne, after Alexandre Dumas had +refused to write a national hymn; and they, moreover, insisted on the +King joining in the chorus of the old hymn, as he had hitherto done on +all public occasions.[35] They had grumblingly resigned themselves to +his beating time no longer, but any further refusal of his co-operation +might have been resented in a less peaceful fashion. On the other hand, +there was the bourgeoisie who were of opinion that, now that the +monarchy had entered upon a more conservative period, the intoning of +the hymn, at any rate on the sovereign's part, was out of place, and +savoured too much of a republican manifestation. "It was Guizot who told +him so," said Lord ----, who had been standing on the balcony of the +Tuileries on the occasion of the king's "saint's day,"[36] and had heard +the minister make the remark. + + [Footnote 35: When there was no public occasion, his political + antagonists or merely practical jokers who knew of his dislike + invented one, like Edouard d'Ourliac, a well-known journalist + and the author of several novels, who, whenever he had nothing + better to do, recruited a band of street arabs to go and sing + the Marseillaise under the king's windows. They kept on singing + until Louis-Philippe, in sheer self-defence, was obliged to + come out and join in the song.--EDITOR.] + + [Footnote 36: In France it is the Patron Saint's day, not the + birthday, that is kept.] + +"And what did the king reply?" was the question. + +"Do not worry yourself, monsieur le ministre; I am only moving my lips; +I have ceased to pronounce the words for many a day." + +These were the expedients to which Louis-Philippe was reduced before he +had been on the throne half a dozen years. "I am like the fool between +two stools," observed the king in English, afterwards, when speaking to +Lord ----, "only I happen to be between the comfortably stuffed +easy-chair of the bourgeois drawing-room and the piece of furniture +seated on which Louis XIV. is said to have received the Dutch +ambassadors." + +While speaking of the Marseillaise, here are two stories in connection +with it which are not known to the general reader. The first was told to +me by the old tutor already mentioned; the second aroused a great deal +of literary curiosity in the year 1860, and bears the stamp of truth on +the face of it. It was, however, never fully investigated, or, at any +rate, the results of the investigation were never published.[37] + + [Footnote 37: I have inserted them here in order not to fall + into repetitions on the same subject.--EDITOR.] + +"We were all more or less aware," said my informant, "that Rouget de +l'Isle was not the author of the whole of the words of the Marseillaise. +But none of us in Lyons, where I was born, knew who had written the last +strophe, commonly called the 'strophe of the children,' and I doubt +whether they were any wiser in Paris. Some of my fellow-students--for I +was nearly eighteen at that time--credited Andre Chenier with the +authorship of the last strophe, others ascribed it to Louis-Francois +Dubois, the poet.[38] All this was, however, so much guess-work, when, +one day during the Reign of Terror, the report spread that a ci-devant +priest, or rather a priest who had refused to take the oath to the +Republic, had been caught solemnizing a religious marriage, and that he +was to be brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal that same afternoon. +Though you may not think so, merely going by what you have read, the +appearance of a priest before the Tribunal always aroused more than +common interest, nor have you any idea what more than common interest +meant in those days. A priest to the Revolutionaries and to the +Terrorists, they might hector and bully as they liked, was not an +ordinary being. They looked upon him either as something better than a +man or worse than a devil. They had thrown the religious compass they +had brought from home with them overboard, and they had not the +philosophical one to take its place. You may work out the thing for +yourself; at any rate, the place was crammed to suffocation when we +arrived at the Hotel de Ville. It was a large room, at the upper end of +which stood an oblong table, covered with a black cloth. Seated around +it were seven self-constituted judges. Besides their tricolour scarfs +round their waists, they wore, suspended by a ribbon from their necks, a +small silver axe. + + [Footnote 38: Louis-Francois Dubois, the author of several + heroic poems, "Ankarstroem," "Genevieve et Siegfried," etc., + which are utterly forgotten. His main title to the recollection + of posterity consists in his having saved, during the + Revolution, a great many literary works of value, which he + returned to the State afterwards.--EDITOR.] + +"As a rule there was very little speechifying. 'La mort sans phrase,' +which had become the fashion since Louis XVI.'s execution, was strictly +adhered to. Half a dozen prisoners were brought in and taken away +without arousing the slightest excitement, either in the way of +commiseration or hatred. After having listened, the judges either +extended their hands on the table or put them to their foreheads. The +first movement meant acquittal and liberation, the second death; not +always by the guillotine though, for the instrument was not perfect as +yet, and did not work sufficiently quickly to please them. All at once +the priest was brought in, and a dead silence prevailed. He was not a +very old man, though his hair was snow-white. + +"'Who art thou?' asked the president. + +"The prisoner drew himself up to his full height. 'I am the Abbe +Pessoneaux, a former tutor at the college at Vienne, and the author of +the last strophe of the Marseillaise,' he said quietly. + +"I cannot convey to you the impression produced by those simple words. +The silence became positively oppressive; you could hear the people +breathe. The president did not say another word; the priest's reply had +apparently stunned him also: he merely turned round to his +fellow-judges. Soldiers and gaolers stood as if turned into stone; every +eye was directed towards the table, watching for the movement of the +judges' hands. Slowly and deliberately they stretched them forth, and +then a deafening cheer rang through the room. The Abbe Pessoneaux owed +his life to his strophe, for, though his story was not questioned then, +it was proved true in every particular. On their way to Paris to be +present at the taking of the Tuileries on the 10th of August, the +Marseillais had stopped at Vienne to celebrate the Fete of the +Federation. On the eve of their arrival the Abbe Pessoneaux had composed +the strophe, and but for his seizure the authorship would have always +remained a matter of conjecture, for Rouget de l'Isle would have never +had the honesty to acknowledge it." + +My tutor was right, and I owe him this tardy apology; it appears that, +after all, Rouget de l'Isle had not the honesty to acknowledge _openly_ +his indebtedness to those who made his name immortal, and that his share +in the Marseillaise amounts to the first six strophes. He did not write +a single note of the music. The latter was composed by Alexandre +Boucher, the celebrated violinist, in 1790, in the drawing-room of +Madame de Mortaigne, at the request of a colonel whom the musician had +never met before, whom he never saw again. The soldier was starting next +morning with his regiment for Marseilles, and pressed Boucher to write +him a march there and then. Rouget de l'Isle, an officer of engineers, +having been imprisoned in 1791, for having refused to take a second oath +to the Constitution, heard the march from his cell, and, at the instance +of his gaoler, adapted the words of a patriotic hymn he was then writing +to it. + +One may fancy the surprise of Alexandre Boucher, when he heard it sung +everywhere and recognized it as his own composition, though it had been +somewhat altered to suit the words. But the pith of the story is to +come. I give it in the very words of Boucher himself, as he told it to a +Paris journalist whom I knew well. + +"A good many years afterwards, I was seated next to Rouget de l'Isle at +a dinner-party in Paris. We had never met before, and, as you may +easily imagine, I was rather interested in the gentleman, whom, with +many others at the same board, I complimented on his production; only I +confined myself to complimenting him on his _poem_. + +"'You don't say a word about the music,' he replied; 'and yet, being a +celebrated musician, that ought to interest you. Do not you like it?' + +"'Very much indeed,' I said, in a somewhat significant tone. + +"'Well, let me be frank with you. The music is not mine. It was that of +a march which came, Heaven knows whence, and which they kept on playing +at Marseilles during the Terror, when I was a prisoner at the fortress +of St. Jean. I made a few alterations necessitated by the words, and +there it is.' + +"Thereupon, to his great surprise, I hummed the march as I had +originally written it. + +"'Wonderful!' he exclaimed; 'how did you come by it?' he asked. + +"When I told him, he threw himself round my neck. But the next moment he +said-- + +"'I am very sorry, my dear Boucher, but I am afraid that you will be +despoiled for ever, do what you will; for your music and my words go so +well together, that they seem to have sprung simultaneously from the +same brain, and the world, even if I proclaimed my indebtedness to you, +would never believe it.' + +"'Keep the loan,' I said, moved, in spite of myself, by his candour. +'Without your genius, my march would be forgotten by now. You have given +it a patent of nobility. It is yours for ever.'" + +I return to Louis-Philippe, who, at the time of my tutor's story, and +for some years afterwards, I only knew from the reports that were +brought home to us. Of course, I saw him several times at a distance, at +reviews, and on popular holidays, and I was surprised that a king of +whom every one spoke so well in private, who seemed to have so much +cause for joy and happiness in his own family, should look so careworn +and depressed in public. For, young as I was, I did not fail to see +that, beneath the calm and smiling exterior, there was a great deal of +hidden grief. But I was too young to understand the deep irony of his +reply to one of my relatives, a few months before his accession to the +throne: "The crown of France is too cold in winter, too warm in summer; +the sceptre is too blunt as a weapon of defence or attack, it is too +short as a stick to lean upon: a good felt hat and a strong umbrella are +at all times more useful." Above all, I was too young to understand the +temper of the French where their rulers were concerned, and though, at +the time of my writing these notes, I have lived for fifty years amongst +them, I doubt whether I could give a succinct psychological account of +their mental attitude towards their succeeding regimes, except by +borrowing the words of one of their cleverest countrywomen, Madame Emile +de Girardin: "When Marshal Soult is in the Opposition, he is +acknowledged to have won the battle of Toulouse; when he belongs to the +Government, he is accused of having lost it." Since then the Americans +have coined a word for that state of mind--"cussedness." + +Louis-Philippe's children, and especially his sons, some of whom I knew +personally before I had my first invitation to the Tuileries, seemed to +take matters more cheerfully. Save the partisans of the elder branch, no +one had a word to say against them. On the contrary, even the +Bonapartists admired their manly and straightforward bearing. I remember +being at Tortoni's one afternoon when the Duc d'Orleans and his brother, +the Duc de Nemours, rode by. Two of my neighbours, unmistakable +Imperialists, and old soldiers by their looks, stared very hard at them; +then one said, "Si le petit au lieu de filer le parfait amour partout, +avait mis tous ses oeufs dans le meme panier, il aurait eu des grands +comme cela et nous ne serions pas dans l'impasse ou nous sommes." + +"Mon cher," replied the other, "des grands comme cela ne se font qu'a +loisir, pas entre deux campagnes."[39] + + [Footnote 39: It reminds one of the answer of the younger Dumas + to a gentleman whose wife had been notorious for her conjugal + faithlessness, and whose sons were all weaklings. "Ah, Monsieur + Dumas, c'est un fils comme vous qu'il me fallait," he + exclaimed. "Mon cher monsieur," came the reply, "quand on veut + avoir un fils comme moi, il faut le faire soi-meme."--EDITOR.] + +The admiration of these two veterans was perfectly justified: they were +very handsome young men, the sons of Louis-Philippe, and notably the two +elder ones, though the Duc d'Orleans was somewhat more delicate-looking +than his brother, De Nemours. The boys had all been brought up very +sensibly, perhaps somewhat too strict for their position. They all went +to a public school, to the College Henri IV., and I remember well, +about the year '38, when I had occasion of a morning to cross the +Pont-Neuf, where there were still stalls and all sorts of booths, seeing +the blue-and-yellow carriage with the royal livery. It contained the +Ducs d'Aumale and de Montpensier, who had not finished their studies at +that time. + +But though strictly brought up, they were by no means milksops, and +what, for want of a better term, I may call "mother's babies:" quite the +reverse. It was never known how they managed it, but at night, when they +were supposed to be at home, if not in bed, they were to be met with at +all kinds of public places, notably at the smaller theatres, such as the +Vaudeville, the Varietes, and the Palais-Royal, one of which, at any +rate, was a goodly distance from the Tuileries. It was always understood +that the King knew nothing about these little escapades, but I am +inclined to doubt this: I fancy he connived at them; because, when Lord +---- told him casually one day that he had met his sons the night +before, Louis-Philippe seemed not in the least surprised, he only +anxiously asked, "Where?" + +"At the Cafe de Paris, your majesty." + +The king seemed relieved. "That's all right," he said, laughing. "As +long as they do not go into places where they are likely to meet with +Guizot, I don't mind; for if he saw them out in the evening, it might +cost me my throne. Guizot is so terribly respectable. I am afraid there +is a mistake either about his nationality or about his respectability; +they are badly matched." + +The fact is, that though Louis-Philippe admired and respected Guizot, he +failed to understand him. To the most respectable of modern kings--not +even Charles I. and William III. excepted--if by respectability we mean +an unblemished private life--Guizot's respectability was an enigma. The +man who, in spite of his advice to others, "Enrichissez vous, +enrichissez vous," was as poor at the end of his ministerial career as +at the beginning, must have necessarily been a puzzle to a sovereign +who, with a civil list of L750,000, was haunted by the fear of poverty, +and haunted to such a degree as to harass his friends and counsellors +with his apprehensions. "My dear minister," he said one day to Guizot, +after he had recited a long list of his domestic charges--"My dear +minister, I am telling you that my children will be wanting for bread." +The recollection of his former misery uprose too frequently before him +like a horrible nightmare, and made him the first bourgeois instead of +the first gentilhomme of the kingdom, as his predecessors had been. When +a tradesman drops a shilling and does not stoop to pick it up, his +neglect becomes almost culpable improvidence; when a prince drops a +sovereign and looks for it, the deed may be justly qualified as mean. +The _leitmotif_ of Louis-Philippe's conversation, witty and charming as +it was, partook of the avaricious spirit of a Thomas Guy and a John +Overs rather than of that of the great adventurer John Law. The chinking +of the money-bags is audible through both, but in the one case the +orchestration is strident, disagreeable, depressing; in the other, it is +generous, overflowing with noble impulses, and cheering. I recollect +that during my stay at Treport and Eu, in 1843, when Queen Victoria paid +her visit to Louis-Philippe, the following story was told to me. Lord +---- and I were quartered in a little hostelry on the Place du Chateau. +One morning Lord ---- came home laughing till he could laugh no longer. +"What do you think the King has done now?" he asked. I professed my +inability to guess. "About an hour ago, he and Queen Victoria were +walking in the garden, when, with true French politeness, he offered her +a peach. The Queen seemed rather embarrassed how to skin it, when +Louis-Philippe took a large clasp-knife from his pocket. 'When a man has +been a poor devil like myself, obliged to live upon forty sous a day, he +always carries a knife. I might have dispensed with it for the last few +years; still, I do not wish to lose the habit--one does not know what +may happen,' he said. Of course, the tears stood in the Queen's eyes. He +really ought to know better than to obtrude his money worries upon every +one." + +I must confess that I was not as much surprised as my interlocutor, who, +however, had known Louis-Philippe much longer than I. Not his worst +enemies could have accused the son of Philippe Egalite of being a +coward: the bulletins of Valmy, Jemmappes, and Neerwinden would have +proved the contrary. But the contempt of physical danger on the +battle-field does not necessarily constitute heroism in the most +elevated sense of the term, although the world in general frequently +accepts it as such. A man can die but once, and the semi-positivism, +semi-Voltaireanism of Louis-Philippe had undoubtedly steeled him against +the fear of death. His religion, throughout life, was not even +skin-deep; and when he accepted the last rites of the Church on his +death-bed, he only did so in deference to his wife. "Ma femme, es-tu +contente de moi?" were his words the moment the priests were gone. + +Nevertheless, he was too good a husband to grieve his wife, who was +deeply religious, by any needless display of unbelief. He always +endeavoured, as far as possible, to find an excuse for staying away from +church. He, as well as the female members of his family, were very fond +of music; and Adam, the composer, was frequently invited to come and +play for them in the private apartments. In fact, after his abdication, +he seriously intended to write, in conjunction with Scribe, the libretto +of an opera on an English historical subject, the music of which should +be composed by Halevy. The composer of "La Juive" and the author of "Les +Hugenots" came over once to consult with the King, whose death, a few +months later, put an end to the scheme. + +On the occasion of Adam's visits the princesses worked at their +embroidery, while the King often stood by the side of the performer. +Just about that period the chamber organ was introduced, and, on the +recommendation of Adam, one was ordered for the Tuileries. The first +time Louis-Philippe heard it played he was delighted: "This will be a +distinct gain to our rural congregations," he said. "There must be a +great many people who, like myself, stay away from church on account of +their objection to that horrible instrument, the serpent. Is it not so, +my wife?" + +The ideal purpose of life, if ever he possessed it, had been crushed out +of him--first, by his governess, Madame de Genlis; secondly, by the dire +poverty he suffered during his exile: and, notwithstanding all that has +been said to the contrary, France wanted at that moment an ideal ruler, +not the rational father of a large family who looked upon his monarchy +as a suitable means of providing for them. He was an usurper without the +daring, the grandeur, the lawlessness of the usurper. The lesson of +Napoleon I.'s method had been thrown away upon him, as the lesson of +Napoleon III.'s has been thrown away upon his grandson. When I said +France, I made a mistake,--I should have said Paris; for since 1789 +there was no longer a King of France, there was only a King of Paris. +Such a thing as a Manchester movement, as a Manchester school of +politics, would have been and is still an impossibility in France. + +And, unfortunately, Paris, which had applauded the glorious +_mise-en-scene_ of the First Empire, which had even looked on +approvingly at some of the pomp and state of Louis XVIII. and Charles +X., jeered at Louis-Philippe and his court with its ridiculous +gatherings of tailors, drapers, and bootmakers, "ces gardes nationaux +d'un pays ou il n'y a plus rien de national a garder," and their +pretentious spouses "qui," according to the Duchesse de la Tremoille, +"ont plus de chemises que nos aieules avaient des robes."[40] She and +the Princesse Bagration were the only female representatives of the +Faubourg St. Germain who attended these gatherings; for the Countess Le +Hon, of whom I may have occasion to speak again, and who was the only +other woman at these receptions that could lay claim to any distinction, +was by no means an aristocrat. And be it remembered that in those days +ridicule had still the power to kill. + + [Footnote 40: She had unconsciously borrowed the words from the + Duchesse de Coislin, who, under similar circumstances a few + years before, said to Madame de Chateaubriand, "Cela sent la + parvenue; nous autres, femmes de la cour, nous n'avions que + deux chemises; on les renouvelait quand elles etaient usees; + nous etions vetues de robes de soie et nous n'avions pas l'air + de grisettes comme ces demoiselles de maintenant."--EDITOR.] + +Nor was the weapon wielded exclusively by the aristocracy; the lower +classes could be just as satirical against the new court element. I was +in the Tuileries gardens on that first Sunday in June, 1837, when the +Duchesse d'Orleans made her entree into Paris. The weather was +magnificent, and the set scene--as distinguished from some of the +properties, to use a theatrical expression--in keeping with the weather. +The crowd itself was a pleasure to look at, as it stood in serried +masses behind the National Guards and the regular infantry lining the +route of the procession from the Arc de Triomphe to the entrance of the +Chateau. All at once an outrider passes, covered with dust, and the +crowd presses forward to get a better view. A woman of the people, in +her nice white cap, comes into somewhat violent contact with an +elegantly dressed elderly lady, accompanied by her daughter. The woman, +instead of apologizing, says aloud that she wishes to see the princess: +"You will have the opportunity of seeing her at court, mesdames," she +adds. The elegant lady vouchsafes no reply, but turns to her daughter: +"The good woman," says the latter, shrugging her shoulders, "is +evidently not aware that she has got a much greater chance of going to +that court than we have. She has only got to marry some grocer or other +tradesman, and she will be considered a grande dame at once." Then the +procession passes--first the National Guards on horseback, then the King +and M. de Montalivet, followed by Princesse Helene, with her young +husband riding by the side of the carriage. So far so good: the first +three or four carriages were more or less handsome, but Heaven save us +from the rest, as well as from their occupants! They positively looked +like some of those wardrobe-dealers so admirably described by Balzac. + +When all is over, the woman of the people turns to the elegant lady: "I +ask your pardon, madame; it was really not worth while hurting you. If +these are _grandes dames_, I prefer _les petites_ whom I see in my +neighbourhood, the Rue Notre-Dame de Lorette. Comme elles etaient +attifees!"--_Anglice_, "What a lot of frumps they looked!" + +In fact, Louis-Philippe and his queen sinned most grievously by +overlooking the craving of the Parisians for pomp and display. No one +was better aware of this than his children, notably the Duc d'Orleans, +Princess Clementine,[41] and the Duc de Nemours. They called him +familiarly "le pere." "Il est trop pere," said the princess in private; +"il fait concurrence au Pere Eternel." She was a very clever +girl--perhaps a great deal cleverer than any of her brothers, the Solon +of the family, the Duc de Nemours, included--but very fond of mischief +and practical joking. She found her match, though, in her brother, the +Prince de Joinville, the son of Louis-Philippe of whom France heard most +and saw least, for he was a sailor. One day, his sister asked him to +bring her a complete dress of a Red-Skin chieftain's wife. His absence +was shorter than usual, and, a few days before his return, he told her +in a letter that he had the costume she wanted. "Here, Clementine, this +is for you," he said, at his arrival, putting a string of glass beads on +the table. + + [Footnote 41: The mother of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, + the present ruler of Bulgaria. She was a particular favourite + of Queen Victoria, and Louis-Philippe himself not only + considered her the cleverest of his three daughters, but the + most likely successor to his sister Adelaide, as his private + adviser. That the estimate of her abilities was by no means + exaggerated, subsequent events have proved. The last time I saw + the princess was at the garden party at Sheen-House, on the + occasion of the silver wedding of the Count and Countess de + Paris. I did not remember her for the moment, for a score of + years had made a difference. I asked an Austrian attache who + she was. The answer came pat, "Alexander III.'s nightmare, + Francis-Joseph's bogy, and Bismarck's sleeping draught; one of + the three clever women in Europe; Bulgaria's mother."--EDITOR.] + +"Very pretty," said Clementine, "but you promised me a complete dress." + +"This is the complete dress. I never saw them wear any other." + +I did not see the Prince de Joinville very often, perhaps two or three +times in all; once on the occasion of his marriage with Princess +Francoise de Bourbon, the daughter of Dom Pedro I. of Brazil, and sister +of the present emperor, when the prince brought his young bride to +Paris. He was a clever draughtsman and capital caricaturist; but if the +first of these talents proved an unfailing source of delight to his +parents, the second frequently inspired them with terror, especially his +father, who never knew which of his ministers might become the next butt +for his third son's pencil. I have seen innumerable sketches, ostensibly +done to delight his young wife and brothers, which, had they been +published, would have been much more telling against his father's +pictorial satirists than anything they produced against the sovereign. +For in those days, whatever wisdom or caution they may have learnt +afterwards, the sons of Louis-Philippe were by no means disposed to sit +down tamely under the insults levelled at the head of their house. In +fact, nearly the whole of Louis-Philippe's children had graphic talents +of no mean order. The trait came to them from their mother, who was a +very successful pupil of Angelica Kauffman. Princesse Marie, who died so +young, executed a statue of Jeanne d'Arc, which was considered by +competent judges, not at all likely to be influenced by the fact of the +artist's birth, a very creditable piece of work indeed. I never saw it, +so I cannot say, but I have seen some miniatures by the Duc de Nemours, +which might fairly rank with performances by the best masters of that +art, short of genius. + +It is a curious, but nevertheless admitted fact that the world has never +done justice to the second son of Louis-Philippe. He was not half as +great a favourite with the Parisians as his elder brother, although in +virtue of his remarkable likeness to Henri IV., whom the Parisians still +worship--probably because he is dead,--he ought to have commanded their +sympathies. This lukewarmness towards the Duc de Nemours has generally +been ascribed by the partisans of the Orleanist dynasty to his somewhat +reticent disposition, which by many people was mistaken for _hauteur_. +I rather fancy it was because he was suspected of being his father's +adviser, and, what was worse, his father's adviser in a reactionary +sense. He was accused of being an anti-parliamentarian, and he never +took the trouble to refute the charge, probably because he was too +honest to tell a lie.[42] I met the Duc de Nemours for the first time in +the studio of a painter, Eugene Lami, just as I met his elder brother in +that of Decamps. In fact, all these young princes were sincere admirers +and patrons of art, and, if they had had their will, the soirees at the +Tuileries would have been graced by the presence of artists more +frequently than they were; but, preposterous and scarcely credible as it +may seem, the bourgeoisie looked upon this familiar intercourse of the +king's sons with artists, literary men, and the like, as so much +condescension, if not worse, of which they, the bourgeoisie, would not +be guilty if they could help it. It behoves me, however, to be careful +in this instance, for the English aristocracy at home was not much more +liberal in those days. + + [Footnote 42: There was a similar divergence of dynastic + opinion during the Second Empire between the sovereign and + those placed very near him on the throne. When Alphonse Daudet + came to Paris to make a name in literature, the Duc de Morny + offered him a position as secretary. "Before I accept it, + monsieur le duc, I had better tell you that I am a Legitimist," + replied the future novelist. "Don't let that trouble you," + laughed De Morny; "so am I to a certain extent, and the Empress + is even more of a Legitimist than I am."--EDITOR.] + +The first thing that struck one in the Duc de Nemours was the vast +extent of his general information and the marvellous power of memory. +Eugene Lami had just returned from London, and, in the exercise of his +profession, had come in contact with some members of the oldest +families. The mere mention of the name sufficed as the introduction to +the general and anecdotal history of such a family, and I doubt whether +the best official at Herald's College could have dissected a pedigree as +did the Duc de Nemours. Eugene Lami was at that time engaged upon +designing some new uniforms for the army, many of which disappeared only +after the war of 1870. He lived in the Rue des Marais, the greater part +of which was subsequently demolished to make room for the Boulevard de +Magenta, and in the same house with two men whose names have become +immortal, Honore de Balzac and Paul Delaroche. I have already spoken of +both, but I did not mention the incident that led to the painter's +acquaintance with the novelist, an incident so utterly fanciful that the +boldest farce-writer would think twice before utilizing it in a play. It +was told to me by Lami himself. One morning, as he and Paul Delaroche +were working, there was a knock at the door, and a stout individual, +dressed in a kind of monastic garb, appeared on the threshold. Delaroche +remembered that he had met him on the staircase, but neither knew who he +was, albeit that Balzac's fame was not altogether unknown to them. +"Gentlemen," said the visitor, "I am Honore Balzac, a neighbour and a +confrere to boot. My chattels are about to be seized, and I would ask +you to save a remnant of my library." + +Of course, the request was granted. The books were stowed away behind +the pictures; and, after that, Balzac often dropped in to have a chat +with them, but neither Delaroche nor Lami, the latter least of all, ever +conceived a sincere liking for the great novelist. Their characters were +altogether dissimilar. I have seen a good many men whose names have +become household words among the refined, the educated, and the +art-loving all the world over; I have seen them at the commencement, in +the middle, and at the zenith of their career: I have seen none more +indifferent to the material benefits of their art than Eugene Lami and +Paul Delaroche, not even Eugene Delacroix and Decamps. Balzac was the +very reverse. To make a fortune was the sole ambition of his life. + +To return for a moment to Louis-Philippe's sons. I have said that the +Duc de Nemours was essentially the grand seigneur of the family; truth +compels me to add, however, that there was a certain want of pliability +about him which his social inferiors could not have relished. It was +Henri IV. minus the bonhomie, also perhaps minus that indiscriminate +galanterie which endeared Ravaillac's victim to all classes, even when +he was no longer young. In the days of which I am treating just now, the +Duc de Nemours was very young. As for his courage, it was simply above +suspicion; albeit that it was called in question after the revolution of +'48, to his father's intense sorrow. No after-dinner encomium was ever +as absolutely true as that of Sir Robert Peel on the sons and daughters +of the last King of France, when he described them as respectively brave +and chaste. Nevertheless, had the Duc de Nemours and his brothers been a +thousand times as brave as they were, party spirit, than which there is +nothing more contemptible in France, would have found the opportunity of +denying that bravery. + +If these notes are ever published, Englishmen will smile at what I am +about to write now, unless their disgust takes another form of +expression. The exploits of the Duc d'Aumale in Algeria are quoted by +independent military authorities as so many separate deeds of signal +heroism. They belong to history, and not a single historian has +endeavoured to impair their value. Will it be believed that the +Opposition journals of those days spoke of them with ill-disguised +contempt as mere skirmishes with a lot of semi-savages? And, during the +Second Republic, many of these papers returned to the charge because the +Duc d'Aumale, being the constitutionally-minded son of a +constitutionally-minded king, resigned the command of his army instead +of bringing it to France to coerce a nation into retaining a ruler whom, +ostensibly at least, she had voluntarily accepted, and whom, therefore, +she was as free to reject. + +In connection with these Algerian campaigns of the Duc d'Aumale, I had a +story told to me by his brother, De Montpensier, which becomes +particularly interesting nowadays, when spiritualism or spiritism is so +much discussed. He had it from two unimpeachable sources, namely, from +his brother D'Aumale and from General Cousin-Montauban, afterwards Comte +de Palikao, the same who was so terribly afraid, after the expedition in +China, that the emperor would create him Comte de Pekin, and who sent an +aide-de-camp in advance to beg the sovereign not to do so.[43] + + [Footnote 43: In order to understand this dread on Montauban's + part, the English reader should be told that the term _pekin_ + is the contemptuous nickname for the civilian, with the French + soldier.--EDITOR.] + +It was to General Montauban that Abdel-Kader surrendered after the +battles of Isly and Djemma-Gazhouat. It was in the latter engagement +that a Captain de Gereaux fell, and when the news of his death reached +his family they seemed almost prepared for it. It transpired that, on +the very day of the engagement, and at the very hour in which Captain de +Gereaux was struck down, his sister, a young and handsome but very +impressionable girl, started all of a sudden from her chair, exclaiming +that she had seen her brother, surrounded by Arabs, who were felling him +to the ground. Then she dropped to the floor in a dead swoon. + +A few years elapsed, when General Montauban, who had become the +military Governor of the province of Oran, received a letter from the De +Gereaux family, requesting him to make some further inquiries respecting +the particulars of the captain's death. The letter was written at the +urgent prayer of Mdlle. de Gereaux, who had never ceased to think and +speak of her brother, and who, on one occasion, a month or so before the +despatch of the petition, had risen again from her chair, though in a +more composed manner than before, insisting that she had once more seen +her brother. This time he was dressed in the native garb, he seemed very +poor, and was delving the soil. These visions recurred at frequent +intervals, to the intense distress of the family, who could not but +ascribe them to the overstrung imagination of Mdlle. de Gereaux. A +little while after, she maintained having seen her brother in a white +robe and turban, and intoning hymns that sounded to her like Arabic. She +implored her parents to institute inquiries, and General Montauban was +communicated with to that effect. He did all he could; the country was +at peace, and, after a few months, tidings came that there was a +Frenchman held prisoner in one of the villages on the Morocco frontier, +who for the last two or three years had entirely lost his reason, but +that, previous to that calamity, he had been converted to Islamism. His +mental derangement being altogether harmless, he was an attendant at the +Mosque. As a matter of course, the information had been greatly +embellished in having passed through so many channels, nor was it of so +definite a character as I have noted it down, but that was the gist of +it. + +Meanwhile, Montauban had been transferred to another command, and for a +twelvemonth after his successor's arrival the inquiry was allowed to +fall in abeyance. When it was finally resumed, the French prisoner had +died, but, from a document written in his native language found upon him +and brought to Oran, there remained little doubt that he was Captain de +Gereaux. + +To return for a moment to the Duc d'Aumale, who, curiously enough, +exercised a greater influence on the outside world in general than any +of his other brethren--an influence due probably to his enormous wealth +rather than to his personal qualities, though the latter may, to some +people, have seemed remarkable. I met him but seldom during his father's +lifetime. He was the beau-ideal of the preux chevalier, according to the +French notion of the modern Bayard--that is, handsome, brave to a +fault, irresistibly fascinating with women, good-natured in his way, +and, above all, very witty. It was he who, after the confiscation of the +d'Orleans' property by Napoleon III., replied to the French Ambassador +at Turin, who inquired after his health, "I am all right; health is one +of the things that cannot be confiscated." Nevertheless, upon closer +acquaintance, I failed to see the justifying cause for the preference +manifested by public opinion, and, upon more minute inquiry, I found +that a great many people shared my views. I am at this moment convinced +that, but for his having been the heir of that ill-fated Prince de +Conde, and consequently the real defender in the various suits resulting +from the assassination of that prince by Madame de Feucheres, he would +have been in no way distinguished socially from the rest of the +D'Orleans. + +The popularity of his eldest brother, the Duc d'Orleans, was, on the +contrary, due directly to the man himself. As far as one can judge of +him, he was the reverse of Charles II., in that he never said a wise +thing and never did a foolish one. He was probably not half so clever as +his father, nor, brave as he may have been, would he have ever made so +dashing a soldier as his brother D'Aumale, or so rollicking a sailor as +his brother De Joinville. He did not pretend to the wisdom of his +brother De Nemours, nor to the mystic tendencies of his youngest sister, +nor to the sprightly wit of Princesse Clementine, and yet withal he +understood the French nation better than any of them. Even his +prenuptial escapades, secrets to no one, were those of the grand +seigneur, though by no means affichees; they endeared him to the +majority of the people. "Chacun colon-ise a sa facon," was the lenient +verdict on his admiration for Jenny Colon, at a moment when colonization +in Algeria was the topic of the day. On the whole he liked artists +better, perhaps, than art itself, yet it did not prevent him from buying +masterpieces as far as his means would allow him. Though still young, in +the latter end of the thirties, I was already a frequent visitor to the +studios of the great French painters, and it was in that of Decamps' +that I became alive to his character for the first time. I was talking +to the great painter when the duke came in. We had met before, and shook +hands, as he had been taught to do by his father when he met with an +Englishman. But I could not make out why he was carrying a pair of +trousers over his arm. After we had been chatting for about ten +minutes, I wondering all the while what he was going to do with the +nether garment, he caught one of my side glances, and burst out +laughing. "I forgot," he said; "here, Decamps, here are your breeches." +Then he turned to me to explain. "I always bring them up with me when I +come in the morning. The concierge is very old, and it saves her +trudging up four flights of stairs." The fact was, that the concierge, +before she knew who he was, had once asked him to take up the painter's +clothes and boots. From that day forth he never failed to ask for them +when passing her lodge. + +I can but repeat, the Duc d'Orleans was one of the most charming men I +have known. I always couple him in my mind with Benjamin Disraeli, and +Alexandre Dumas the elder. I knew the English statesman almost as well +during part of my life as the French novelist. Though intellectually +wide apart from them, the duke had one, if not two traits in common with +both; his utter contempt for money affairs and the personal charm he +wielded. I doubt whether this personal charm in the other two men was +due to their intellectual attainments; with the Duc d'Orleans it was +certainly not the case. He rarely, if ever, said anything worth +remembering; in fact, he frankly acknowledged his very modest +scholarship, and his inability either to remember the epigrams of others +or to condense his thoughts into one of his own. "I should not like to +admit as much to my father, who, it appears, is a very fine Greek and +Latin scholar," he said--"that is, if I am to believe my brothers, De +Nemours and D'Aumale, who ought to know; for, notwithstanding the prizes +they took at college, I believe they are very clever. Ah, you may well +look surprised at my saying, 'notwithstanding the prizes they took,' +because I took ever so many, although, for the life of me, I could not +construe a Greek sentence, and scarcely a Latin one. I have paid very +handsomely, however, for my ignorance." And then he told us an amusing +story of his having had to invent a secretaryship to the duchess for an +old schoolfellow. "You see, he came upon me unawares with a slip of +paper I had written him while at college, asking him to explain to me a +Greek passage. There was no denying it, I had signed it. What is worse +still, he is supposed to translate and to reply to the duchess's German +correspondence, and, when I gave him the appointment, he did not know a +single word of Schiller's language, so I had to pay a German tutor and +him too." + +I have said that the Duc d'Orleans was absolutely indifferent with +regard to money, but he would not be fleeced with impunity. What he +disliked more than anything else, was the greed of the shopkeeping +bourgeois. One day, while travelling in Lorraine, he stopped at the +posting-house to have his breakfast, consisting of a couple of eggs, a +few slices of bread and butter, and a cup of coffee. Just before +proceeding on his journey, his valet came to tell him that mine host +wanted to charge him two hundred francs for the repast. The duke merely +sent for the mayor, handed him a thousand-franc note, gave him the +particulars of his bill of fare, told him to pay the landlord according +to the tariff, and to distribute the remainder of the money among the +poor. It is more than probable that mine host was among the first, in +'48, to hail the republic: princes and kings, according to him, were +made to be fleeced; if they objected, what was the good of having a +monarchy? + +The popular idol in France must distribute largesse, and distribute it +individually, or be profitable in some other way. Greed, personal +interest, underlies most of the political strife in France. During one +of the riots, so common in the reign of Louis-Philippe, Mimi-Lepreuil, a +well-known clever pick-pocket, was shouting with all his might, "Vive +Louis-Philippe! a bas la Republique!" As a rule, gentlemen of his +profession are found on the plebeian side, and one of the +superintendents of police on duty, who had closely watched him, inquired +into the reason of his apostasy. "I am sick of your Republicans," was +the answer. "I come here morning after morning"--it happened on the +Place de la Bourse,--"and dip my hands into a score of pockets without +finding a red cent. During the Revolution of July, at the funeral of +General Lamarque, I did not make my expenses. Give me a royal procession +to make money." These were his politics. + +It would be difficult to say what the Duc d'Orleans would have done, had +he lived to ascend the throne. One thing is certain, however, that on +the day of his death, genuine tears stood in the eyes of all classes, +except the Legitimists. As I have already said, they ascribed the fatal +accident to God's vengeance for the usurpation of his father. "If this +be the case," said an irreverent but witty journalist, "it argues but +very little providence on the part of _your Providence_, for now He will +have to keep the peace between the Duc de Berri, the Duc de Reichstadt, +and the Duc d'Orleans." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + The Revolution of '48 -- The beginning of it -- The National + Guards in all their glory -- The Cafe Gregoire on the Place du + Caire -- The price of a good breakfast in '48 -- The palmy days + of the Cuisine Bourgeoise -- The excitement on the Boulevards on + Sunday, February 20th, '48 -- The theatres -- A ball at + Poirson's, the erstwhile director of the Gymnase -- A lull in the + storm -- Tuesday, February 22nd -- Another visit to the Cafe + Gregoire -- On my way thither -- The Comedie-Francaise closes its + doors -- What it means, according to my old tutor -- We are + waited upon by a sergeant and corporal -- We are no longer + "messieurs," but "citoyens" -- An eye to the main chance -- The + patriots do a bit of business in tricolour cockades -- The + company marches away -- Casualties -- "Le patriotisme" means the + difference between the louis d'or and the ecu of three francs -- + The company bivouacs on the Boulevard Saint-Martin -- A tyrant's + victim "_malgre lui_" -- Wednesday, February 23rd -- The Cafe + Gregoire once more -- The National Guards _en neglige_ -- A novel + mode of settling accounts -- The National Guards fortify the + inner man -- A bivouac on the Boulevard du Temple -- A camp scene + from an opera -- I leave -- My companion's account -- The + National Guards protect the regulars -- The author of these notes + goes to the theatre -- The Gymnase and the Varietes on the eve of + the Revolution -- Bouffe and Dejazet -- Thursday, February 24th, + '48 -- The Boulevards at 9.30 a.m. -- No milk -- The + Revolutionaries do without it -- The Place du Carrousel -- The + sovereign people fire from the roofs on the troops -- The troops + do not dislodge them -- The King reviews the troops -- The + apparent inactivity of Louis-Philippe's sons -- A theory about + the difference in bloodshed -- One of the three ugliest men in + France comes to see the King -- Seditious cries -- The King + abdicates -- Chaos -- The sacking of the Tuileries -- Receptions + and feasting in the Galerie de Diane -- "Du cafe pour nous, des + cigarettes pour les dames" -- The dresses of the princesses -- + The bourgeois feast the gamins who guard the barricades -- The + Republic proclaimed -- The riff-raff insist upon illuminations -- + An actor promoted to the Governorship of the Hotel de Ville -- + Some members of the "provisional Government" at work -- Mery on + Lamartine -- Why the latter proclaimed the Republic. + + +I was returning home earlier than usual on Saturday night, the 19th of +February, '48, when, at the corner of the Rue Lafitte, I happened to run +against a young Englishman who had been established for some years in +Paris as the representative of his father, a wealthy cotton-spinner in +the north. We had frequently met before, and a cordial feeling had +sprung up between us, based at first--I am bound to say--on our common +contempt for the vanity of the French. + +"Come and breakfast with me to-morrow morning," he said; "I fancy you +will enjoy yourself. We will breakfast in my quarter, and you will see +the National Guards in all their glory. They will muster very strong +to-morrow, if it be fine." + +"But why to-morrow?" I replied. "I was under the impression that the +idea of the Reformist banquet in the Champs-Elysees had been abandoned, +so there will be no occasion for them to parade? Besides, that would be +on Tuesday only." + +"It has been abandoned, but if you think that it will prevent them from +turning out, you are very much mistaken; at any rate, come and listen to +the preliminaries." + +I promised him to come, but I had not the slightest idea that I was +going to witness a kind of mild prologue to a revolution. + +Next morning turned out very fine--balmy spring weather--and as I +sauntered along the Boulevards Montmartre and Poissonniere to the place +of appointment the streets were already crowded with people in their +Sunday clothes. The place where I was to meet my English friend was +situated in the midst of a busy quarter, scarcely anything but +warehouses where they sold laces, and flowers, and silks; something like +the neighbourhood at the back of Cheapside. The wealthy tradesmen of +those days did not live in the outskirts of Paris, as they did later on; +and when my friend and I reached the principal cafe and restaurant on +the Place du Caire--I think it was called the Cafe Gregoire--there was +scarcely a table vacant. The habitues were, almost to a man, National +Guards, prosperous business men, considerably more anxious, as I found +out in a short time, to play a political part than to maintain public +tranquillity. If I remember rightly, one of them, a chemist and +druggist, who was pointed out to me then, became a deputy after the fall +of the Second Empire; and I may notice en passant that this same spot +was the political hothouse which produced, afterwards, Monsieur Tirard, +who started life as a small manufacturer of imitation jewellery, and who +rose to be Minister of Finances under the Third Republic. + +The breakfast was simply excellent, the wine genuine throughout, the +coffee and cognac all that could be wished; and, when I asked my friend +to let me look at the bill, out of simple curiosity, or, rather, for the +sake of comparing prices with those of the Cafes de Paris and Riche, I +found that he had spent something less than eleven francs. At the Cafe +Riche it would have been twenty-five francs, and, at the present time, +one would be charged double that sum. These were the palmy days of the +Cuisine Francaise, or, to call it by another name, the Cuisine +Bourgeoise, for which, a few years later, a stranger in Paris would have +almost sought in vain. Luckily, however, for my enjoyment and digestive +organs, I was no stranger to Paris and to the French; if I had been, +both the former would have been spoilt, the excitement of those around +me being such as to lead the alien to believe that there would be an +instantaneous departure for the Tuileries, and a revival of the bloody +scenes of the first revolution. It has been my lot, in after-years, to +hear a great deal of political drivel in French and English, but it was +sound philosophy compared to what I heard that morning. I have spoken +before of the Hotel des Haricots, where men like Hugo, Balzac, Beranger, +and Alfred de Musset chose to be imprisoned rather than perform their +_duties_ as National Guards. After that, I could fully appreciate their +reluctance to be confounded with such a set of pompous wind-bags. + +It came to nothing that day, but I had become interested, and made an +appointment with my friend for the Tuesday, unless something should +happen in the interval. Still, I did not think that the monarchy of July +was doomed, though, on returning to the Boulevards, I could not help +noticing that the excitement had considerably increased during the time +I had been at breakfast. By twelve o'clock that night I was convinced +that I had been mistaken, and that the dynasty of the D'Orleans had not +a week to live. All the theatres were still open, but I had an +invitation to a ball, given by Poirson, the then late director of the +Gymnase Theatre, at his house in the Faubourg Poissonniere. "Nous ne +danserons plus jamais sous Louis-Philippe!" was the general cry, which +did not prevent the guests from thoroughly enjoying themselves. + +Next morning, Monday, there seemed to be a lull in the storm, but on the +Tuesday the signs of the coming hurricane were plainly visible on the +horizon. The Ministry of Marine was guarded by a company of linesmen. I +had some business in the Rue de Rivoli, which at that time ended almost +abruptly at the Louvre; and, on my way to the Cafe Gregoire, I met +patrol upon patrol of National Guards beating the "assembly." I had +occasion to pass before the Comedie-Francaise. The ominous +black-lettered slip of yellow paper, with the word _Relache_, was pasted +across the evening's bill. That was enough for me. I remembered the +words of my old tutor: "When the Comedie-Francaise shuts its doors in +perilous times, it is like the battening down of the hatches in dirty +weather. There is mischief brewing." When I got to the Place du Caire, I +was virtually in the thick of it. With the exception of my friend and I, +there was not a man in mufti. Even the proprietor had donned his +uniform. Our fillet of beef was brought to us by a corporal, and our +coffee poured out by a sergeant. Whether these warrior-waiters meant to +strike one blow for freedom and to leave the place to take care of +itself, we were unable to make out; but their patrons were no longer +"messieurs," but had already become "citoyens." I was tempted to say, in +the words of Dupin--the one who was President of the Chamber on the day +of the Coup d'Etat, and who was Louis-Philippe's personal friend, +"Soyons citoyens, mais restons messieurs," but I thought it better not. +My friend had given up all idea of attending to business. "It will not +be of the least use," he said. "If I had ribbons to sell instead of +cottons, I might make a lot of money, though; for I am open to wager +that some of our patriotic neighbours, while they are going to bell the +cat outside, have given orders to their workpeople to manufacture +tricolour cockades and rosettes with the magic R. F. (Republique +Francaise) in the centre." + +"You do not mean that they would think of such a thing at such a +critical moment, even if the republic were a greater probability than it +appears to be?" I remonstrated. + +"I do mean to say so," he replied, beckoning at the same time to a +sleek, corpulent lieutenant, standing a few paces away. "Can you do with +a nice lot of narrow silk ribbon?" he asked, as the individual walked up +to our table. + +"What colour?" inquired the lieutenant. + +My friend gave me a significant look, and named all the hues of the +rainbow except white, red, and blue. + +"Won't do," said the lieutenant, shaking his head. "If it had been red, +white, and blue I would have bought as much as you like, because I am +manufacturing rosettes for the good cause." After this he walked away. + +On the Thursday afternoon the Boulevards and principal thoroughfares +swarmed with peripatetic vendors of the republican insignia, and some +of my friends expressed their surprise as to where they had come from in +so short a time. Seeing that they were Frenchmen, I held my tongue, even +when one professed to explain, "They have come from England; they are +always speculating upon our misfortunes, though they do it cleverly +enough. They got scent of what was coming, and sent them over as quickly +as they could. Truly they are a great nation--of shopkeepers!" I was +reminded of Beranger's scapegrace, when he was accused of being drunk. + + "Qu'est que cela me fait, a moi? + Que l'on m'appelle ivrogne?" + +he sings. + +As the afternoon wore on, the excitement increased; the news from the +Boulevards became alarming, and at about three o'clock the company +marched away. As a matter of course we followed, and equally, as a +matter of course, did not leave them until 2.30 next morning. Casualties +to report. A large scratch in one of the drummer's cheeks, made by an +oyster-shell, flung at the company as it turned round the corner of the +Rue de Clery. No battles, no skirmishes, a great deal of fraternizing +with "le peuple souverain," whom, in their own employ, the well-to-do +tradesmen would have ordered about like so many mangy curs. + +From that day forth I have never dipped into any history of modern +France, professing to deal with the political causes and effects of the +various upheavals during the nineteenth century in France. They may be +worth reading; I do not say that they are not. I have preferred to look +at the men who instigated those disorders, and have come to the +conclusion that, had each of them been born with five or ten thousand a +year, their names would have been absolutely wanting in connection with +them. This does not mean that the disorders would not have taken place, +but they would have always been led by men in want of five or ten +thousand a year. On the other hand, if the D'Orleans family had been +less wealthy than they are there would have been no firmly settled third +republic; if Louis-Napoleon had been less poor, there would, in all +probability, have been no second empire; if the latter had lasted +another year, we should have found Gambetta among the ministers of +Napoleon III., just like Emile Ollivier, of the "light heart." "Les +convictions politiques en France sont basees sur le fait que le louis +d'or vaut sept fois plus que l'ecu de trois francs." This is the dictum +of a man who never wished to be anything, who steadfastly refused all +offers to enter the arena of public life. + +My friend and I had been baulked of the drama we expected--for we +frankly confessed to one another that the utter annihilation of that +company of National Guards would have left us perfectly unmoved,--and +got instead, a kind of first act of a military spectacular play, such as +we were in the habit of seeing at Franconi's. The civic warriors were +ostensibly bivouacking on the Boulevard St. Martin; they stacked their +muskets and fraternized with the crowd; it would not have surprised us +in the least to see a troupe of ballet dancers advance into our midst +and give us the entertainment de rigueur--the intermede. It was the only +thing wanting to complete the picture, from which even the low comedy +incident was not wanting. An old woebegone creature, evidently the worse +for liquor, had fallen down while a patrol of regulars was passing. He +was not a bit hurt; but there and then the rabble proposed to carry him +to the Hotel de Ville, and to give him an apotheosis as a martyr to the +cause. They had already fetched a stretcher, and were, notwithstanding +his violent struggles, hoisting him on it, when prevented by the captain +of the National Guards. + +Still, we returned next day to the Cafe Gregoire. In the middle of the +place there lay an old man--that one, stark dead, who had been fired +upon without rhyme or reason by a picket of the National Guards. It was +only about eleven o'clock, and those valiant defenders of public order +were still resting from their fatigue--at any rate, there were few of +them about. There was a discussion going on whether they should go out +or not--a discussion confined to the captain, two lieutenants, and as +many sub-lieutenants. They appeared not to have the least idea of the +necessity to refer for orders to the colonel or the head-quarters of the +regiment or the legion, as it was called. They meant to settle the +matter among themselves. The great argument in favour of calling out the +men was that one of them, while standing at his window that very +morning, was fired at by a passing ragamuffin, who, instead of hitting +him, shattered his windowpanes. + +"Well," said one of the lieutenants, who had been opposed to the calling +out of the men, "then we are quits after all; for look at the old fellow +lying out there." + +"No, we are not," retorts the captain; "for he was shot by a mistake, so +he doesn't count." + +"L'esprit ne perd jamais ses droits en France;" so, in another moment or +two, the bugle sounded lustily throughout the quarter. We followed the +buglers for a little while, it being still too early for our breakfast, +and consequently enjoyed the felicity of seeing a good many of the +warriors "in their habit as they lived" indoors--namely, in +dressing-gown and slippers and smoking-caps. For most of them opened +their windows on the first, second, and third floors, to inquire whether +the call was urgent. The buglers entered into explanations. No, the call +was not urgent, but the captain had decided on a military promenade, +just to reassure the neighbourhood, and to stimulate the martial spirit +of the lagging members of the company. The explanation invariably +provoked the same answer, and in a voice not that of the +citizen-warrior: "Que le capitaine attende jusqu'apres le dejeuner." + +Davoust has said that the first condition of the fitness of an army is +its commissariat. In that respect every one of these National Guards was +fit to be a Davoust, for their fortifying of the inner man was not +accomplished until close upon two o'clock. By that time they marched +out, saluted by the cries of "Vive la Reforme!" of all the ragtag and +bobtail from the Faubourgs du Temple and St. Antoine, who had invaded +the principal thoroughfares. The "Marseillaise," the "Chant des +Girondins," "La Republique nous appelle" resounded through the air; and +I was wondering whether they were packing their trunks at the Tuileries, +also what these National Guards had come out for. They only seemed to +impede the efficient patrolling of the streets by the regulars, and, +instead of dispersing the rabble, they attracted them. They were +evidently under the impression that they made a very goodly show, and at +every word of command I expected to see the captain burst asunder. When +we got to the Boulevard St. Martin, the latter was told that the sixth +legion was stationed on the Boulevard du Temple. A move was made in that +direction. + +Now "Richard is himself again;" he is among the crowd he likes best--the +crowd of the Boulevard du Crime, with its theatres, large and small, its +raree and puppet shows, its open-air entertainments, its cafes and +mountebanks; and, what is more, he is there in his uniform, +distinguished from the rest, and consequently the cynosure of all the +little actresses and pretty _figurantes_ who have just left the +rehearsal--for by this time it is after three--and who are but too +willing to be entertained. Appointments are made to dine or to sup +together, without the slightest reference as to what may happen in the +interval. All at once there is an outcry and a rush towards the Porte +Saint-Martin; our warriors are obliged to leave their inamoratas, and +when they come to look for their muskets, which they have placed in a +corner for convenience' sake, they find that a good many have +disappeared. The customers belonging to the sovereign people have slunk +off with them. Nevertheless they join the ranks, for the bugle has +sounded. At the corner of the Faubourg Saint-Martin, whence the noise +proceeded, they are met by three or four score of the sovereign people, +ragged, unkempt, who are pushing in front of them two of the students of +the Ecole Polytechnique. The two young fellows are very pale, and can +scarcely speak. Still they manage to explain that the Municipal Guard at +the Saint-Martin barracks have fired upon the people; then they go their +way. Whither? Heaven only knows. But our captain, in the most stentorian +of voices, gives the word of command, "To the right, wheel!" and we are +striding up the faubourg, which is absolutely deserted as far as the Rue +des Marais. A collision seems pretty inevitable now, the more that the +Municipal Guards are already taking aim, when all at once our captain +and one of the lieutenants rush forward, and fling themselves into the +arms of the officers of the Municipal Guards. Tableau; and I am baulked +once more of a good fight. I leave my friend to see the rest of this +ridiculous comedy, and take my departure there and then. + +The following is my companion's account of what happened after I left. I +am as certain that every word of it is true as if I had been there +myself, though it seems almost incredible that French officers, whose +worst enemies have never accused them of being deficient in courage, +should have acted so inconsiderately. + +"The officers of the National Guards appear to have assumed at once the +office of protectors of the regulars against the violence of the crowd. +Why the regulars should have submitted to this, seeing that they were +far better armed than their would-be guardians, I am unable to say. Be +this as it may, the regulars consented, the flag floating above the +principal door of the barracks was taken down, and I really believe +that the Municipal Guards stacked their arms and virtually handed them +over to the others. But I will not vouch for it. At any rate, a few +hours afterwards, while the company had gone to dinner, the barracks +were assailed, the men and officers knocked down by the people, and the +building set on fire. When the fifth legion returned about eleven +o'clock to the Faubourg Saint-Martin, the flames were leaping up to the +sky, so they turned their heels contentedly in the direction of the +Boulevard du Temple, where they bivouacked between the Theatre de la +Gaite and the Ambigu-Comique, while those who had made appointments with +the little actresses went round by the stage doors to keep them. That, +as far as I could judge, was the part of the fifth legion in the day's +proceedings. I left them in all their glory, thinking themselves, no +doubt, very fine fellows. + +"On the Thursday morning"--my companion told me all this on Saturday +evening, the 26th of February--"I was up betimes, simply because the +drumming and bugling prevented my sleeping. At eight, the Cafe Gregoire +was already very full, the heroes of the previous night had returned to +perform their ablutions, and also, I suppose, to reassure their anxious +spouses; but they had no longer that conquering air I noticed when I +left them the night before. Whether they had come to the conclusion that +both in love and war they had reaped but barren victories, I cannot say, +but their republican ardour, it seemed to me, had considerably cooled +down. I am convinced that, notwithstanding the events of Wednesday night +in the Faubourg Saint-Martin, they were under the impression that +neither the people nor the military would resort to further extremities. +I cannot help thinking that, after I left, not a single man could have +remained at his post, because not one amongst them seemed to have an +idea of the horrible slaughter on the Boulevard des Capucines.[44] They +were not left very long in ignorance of the real state of affairs, and +then they saw at once that they had roused a spectre they would be +unable to lay. From that moment, it is my opinion, they would have +willingly drawn back, but it was too late. While they were still +debating, an individual rushed in, telling them that one or two +regiments, commanded by a general (who turned out to be General Bedeau), +had drawn up in front of the barricade which had been thrown up during +the night in the Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, and was being defended by a +detachment of the fifth legion. They all ran out, and I ran with them. +When we got to the boulevard, matters had already been arranged, and +they were just in time to join the escort General Bedeau had accepted, +after having consented not to execute the orders with which he had been +entrusted. By that time I began to perceive which way the wind was +blowing: the canaille had unceremoniously linked their arms in those of +the National Guards, and insisted, courteously but firmly, on carrying +their firearms. When we got to the Rue Montmartre, they took the horses +out of the gun-carriages, and the soldiers looked tamely on, +notwithstanding the commands of their officers. When the latter +endeavoured to enforce their orders by hitting them with the flat of +their swords, they simply left the ranks and joined the rabble. I had +had enough of it, and made my way home by the back streets. I had had +enough of it, and kept indoors until this afternoon." + + [Footnote 44: The author, as will be seen directly, saw nothing + of that massacre, though he must have passed within a few + hundred yards of the spot immediately before it began. It would + have been the same if he had; he could not have explained the + cause, seeing that the most painstaking historians who have + consulted the most trustworthy eye-witnesses have failed to do + so. It will always remain a mystery whence the first shot came, + whether from the military who were drawn up across the + Boulevard des Capucines, on the spot where now stands the Grand + Cafe, or from the crowd that wanted to pass, in order to + proceed to Odilon-Barrot's to serenade him, because, + notwithstanding the opposition of the king, he was to be + included in the new ministry, which Mole had been instructed to + form. It may safely be said, however, that, but for that shot + and the slaughter consequent upon it, the revolution might have + been averted then--after all, perhaps, only + temporarily.--EDITOR.] + +Thus far my informant. As for myself, I saw little on the Wednesday +night of what was going on. It was my own fault: I was too optimistic. I +had scarcely gone a few steps, after my dinner, when, just in front of +the Gymnase, they began shouting, "_La Patrie, Journal du soir_; achetez +_La Patrie_. Voyez le nouveau ministere de Monsieur Mole." I remember +giving the fellow half a franc, at which he grumbled, though it was +three times the ordinary price. On opening the paper, I rashly concluded +from what I read that the revolution was virtually at an end, and I was +the more confirmed in my opinion by the almost instantaneous lighting up +of the Boulevards. It was like a fairy scene: people were +illuminating--a little bit too soon, as it turned out. Being tired of +wandering, and feeling no inclination for bed, I turned into the +Gymnase. There were Bressant and Rose Cheri and Arnal; I would surely be +able to spend a few pleasant hours. But alack and alas! the house +presented a very doleful appearance--dead-heads, to a man; and very few +of these, people who, if they could not fiddle themselves, like Nero +while Rome was burning, would go to hear fiddling under no matter what +circumstances, provided they were not asked to pay. I did not stay long, +but when I came out into the streets the noise was too deafening for me. +The "Marseillaise" has always had a particularly jarring effect upon my +nerves. There are days when I could be cruel enough to prefer "the yells +of those ferocious soldiers, as they murder in cold blood the sons and +the companions" of one section of defenceless patriots, to the stirring +strains of the other section as they figuratively rush to the rescue; +and on that particular evening I felt in that mood. So, when I got to +the Boulevard Montmartre, I turned into the Theatre des Varietes. I +remember the programme up to this day. They were playing "Le Suisse de +Marly," "Le Marquis de Lauzun," "Les Extremes se touchent," and "Les +Vieux Peches." I had seen the second and the last piece at least a dozen +times, but I was always ready to see them again for the sake of Virginie +Dejazet in the one, of Bouffe in the other. The lessee at that time was +an Englishman. Bouffe and I had always kept up our friendship; so I made +up my mind to go and have a chat with him, hoping that Dejazet, whose +conversation affected one like a bottle of champagne, would join us. The +house, like the Gymnase, was almost empty, but I made my way behind the +scenes, and in about half an hour forgot all about the events outside. +Bouffe was telling me anecdotes about his London performances, and +Dejazet was imitating the French of some of the bigwigs of King +Leopold's court; so the time passed pleasantly enough. At the end of the +performance we proposed taking supper, and turned down the Rue +Montmartre. It was late when I returned home, consequently I saw nothing +of the slaughter on the Boulevard des Capucines. + +Though I had gone to bed late, I was up betimes on the Thursday morning. +A glance at the Boulevards, as I turned the corner of my street about +half-past nine, convinced me that the illuminations of the previous +night had been premature, and that before the day was out there would be +an end of the monarchy of July. A slight mist was still hanging over +the city as I strolled in the direction of the Madeleine, and the +weather was damp and raw, but in about half an hour the sun broke +through. A shot was heard now and then, but I myself saw no collision +then between the troops and the people. On the contrary, it looked to me +as if the former would have been glad to be left alone. As I had been +obliged to leave home without my usual cup of tea for want of milk--the +servant had told me there was none--I went back a little way to +Tortoni's, where I was greeted with the same answer. I could have tea or +coffee or chocolate made with water, but milk there was none on that +side of Paris, and, unless things took a turn, there would be no butter. +The sovereign people had thrown up barricades during the night round all +the northern and north-western issues, and would not let the milk-carts +pass. They, no doubt, had some more potent fluids to fall back upon, for +a good many, even at that early hour, were by no means steady in their +gait. The Boulevards were swarming with them. Since then, I have seen +these sovereign people getting the upper hand twice, viz. on the 4th of +September, '70, and on the 18th of March, '71. I have seen them during +the siege of Paris, and I have no hesitation in saying that, for +cold-blooded, apish, monkeyish, tigerish cruelty, there is nothing on +the face of God's earth to match them, and that no concessions wrung +from society on their behalf will ever make them anything else but the +fiends in human shape they are. + +After my fruitless attempt to get my accustomed breakfast, I resumed my +perambulations, this time taking the Rue Vivienne as far as the +Palais-Royal. It must have been between half-past ten and eleven when I +reached the Place du Carrousel, which, at a rough guess, was occupied by +about five thousand regular infantry and horse and National Guards. The +Place du Carrousel was not then, what it became later on, a large open +space. Part of it was encumbered with narrow streets of very tall +houses, and from their windows and roofs the sovereign people--according +to an officer who had been on duty from early morn--had been amusing +themselves by firing on the troops,--not in downright volleys, but with +isolated shots, picking out a man here and there. "But," I remonstrated, +"half a dozen pompiers and a score of linesmen could dislodge them in +less than ten minutes, instead of returning their shots one by one." "So +they could," was the reply, "but orders came from the Chateau not to do +so, and here we are. Besides," added my informant, "I doubt very much, +if I gave my men the word of command to storm the place, whether they +would do so; they are thoroughly demoralized. On our way hither I had +the greatest difficulty in keeping them together. Without a roll-call I +could not exactly tell you how many are missing, but as we came along I +noticed several falling out and going into the wine-shops with the +rabble. They did not come back again. I had to shut my eyes to it. If I +had attempted to prevent it, there would have been a more horrible +slaughter than there was last night on the Boulevards, and, what is +worse, the men who remained staunch would have been in a minority, and +not able to stand their ground. The mob have got hold of the muskets of +the National Guards. I dare say, as you came along, you noticed on many +doors, written up in chalk, 'Arms given up,' and on some the words 'with +pleasure' added to the statement." It was perfectly true; I had noticed +it. + +I was still talking to the captain when the drums began to beat and the +buglers sounded the salute. At the same moment I saw the King, in the +uniform of a general of the National Guards, cross the courtyard on +horseback. I noticed a great many ladies at the ground-floor windows of +the palace, but could not distinguish their faces. I was told afterwards +that they were the Queen and the princesses, endeavouring to encourage +the septuagenarian monarch. Louis-Philippe was seventy-five then. + +I have often heard and seen it stated by historians of the revolution of +'48, that the Duke d'Aumale and the Prince de Joinville, had they been +in Paris, would have saved their father's crown. This is an assumption +which it is difficult to disprove, seeing how popular these young +princes were then. But if the assumption is meant to convey that the mob +at the sight of these brave young fellows would have laid down their +arms without fighting, I can unhesitatingly contradict it. What the +National Guard might have done it is impossible to say. The regulars, no +doubt, would have followed the princes into battle, as they would have +followed their brother, De Nemours, notwithstanding the latter's +unpopularity. There would have been a great deal of bloodshed, but the +last word would have remained with the Government. Louis-Philippe's +greatest title to glory is that of having prevented such bloodshed. But +to show how little such abnegation of self is understood by even the +most educated Frenchmen, I must relate a story which was told to me many +years afterwards by a French officer who, at that time, had just +returned from the Pontifical States, where he had helped to defeat the +small army of Garibaldi. He was describing the battle-field of Mentana +to Napoleon III., and mentioned a prisoner he had made who turned out to +be an old acquaintance from the Boulevards. "He was furious against +Garibaldi, sire," said the officer, "because the latter had placed him +in the necessity, as it were, of firing upon his own countrymen in a +strange land. Said the prisoner, 'I am not an emigre; I would not have +gone to Coblenz; I am a Frenchman from the crown of my head to the sole +of my foot. If it came to fighting my countrymen in the streets of +Paris, that would be a different thing. I should not have the slightest +scruple of firing upon the Imperial Guards or upon the rabble, as the +case might be, for that would be civil war.' That's what he said, sire." + +Napoleon nodded his head, and with his wonderful, sphinxlike smile, +replied, "Your prisoner was right; it makes all the difference." The +Orleans princes, save perhaps one, never knew these distinctions; if +they had known them, the Comte de Paris might be King of France to-day. + +To return for a moment to Louis-Philippe as I saw him at the last +moments of his reign. He felt evidently disappointed at the lukewarm +reception he received, for though there was a faint cry among the +regulars of "Vive le Roi!" it was immediately drowned by the stentorian +one of the rabble of "Vive la Reforme!" in which a good many of the +National Guards joined. He was evidently in a hurry to get back to the +Tuileries, and, when he disappeared in the doorway, I had looked upon +him for the last time in my life. An hour and a half later, he had left +Paris for ever. + + * * * * * + +Personally I saw nothing of the flight of the King, nor of the inside of +the Tuileries, until the royal family were gone. The story of that +flight was told to me several years later by the Duc de Montpensier. +What is worse, in those days it never entered my mind that a time would +come when I should feel desirous of committing my reminiscences to +paper, consequently I kept no count of the hours that went by, and +cannot, therefore, give the exact sequence of events. I do not know how +long I stood among the soldiers and the crowd, scarcely divided from +one another even by an imaginary line. It was not a pleasant crowd, +though to my great surprise there were a great many more decently +dressed persons in it than I could have expected, so I stayed on. About +half an hour after the King re-entered the Tuileries, I noticed two +gentlemen elbow their way through the serried masses. I had no +difficulty in recognizing the one in civilian's clothes. Though he was +by no means so famous as he became afterwards, there was hardly a +Parisian who would not have recognized him on the spot. His portrait had +been drawn over and over again, at least as many times as that of the +King, and it is a positive fact that nurses frightened their babies with +it. He was the ugliest man of the century. It was M. Adolphe +Cremieux.[45] His companion was in uniform. I learnt afterwards that it +was General Gourgaud, but I did not know him then except by name, and in +connection with his polemics with the Duke of Wellington, in which the +latter did not altogether behave with the generosity one expects from an +English gentleman towards a fallen foe. As they passed, the old soldier +must have been recognized, because not one, but at least a hundred cries +resounded, "Vive la grande armee! Vive l'Empereur!" In after years I +thought that these cries sounded almost prophetic, though I am pretty +sure that those who uttered them had not the slightest hope of, and +perhaps not even a desire for, a Napoleonic restoration; at any rate, +not the majority. There is one thing, however, which could not have +failed to strike the impartial observer during the next twenty years. I +have seen a good many riots, small and large, during the Second Republic +and the Second Empire. "Seditious cries," as a matter of course, were +freely shouted. I have never heard a single one of "Vivent les +D'Orleans!" or "Vivent les Bourbons!" I have already spoken more than +once about the powerful influence of the Napoleonic legend in those +days; I shall have occasion to refer to it again and again when speaking +about the nephew of the first Napoleon. + + [Footnote 45: The author is slightly mistaken. The two ugliest + men in France in the nineteenth century were Andrieux, who + wrote "Les Etourdis," and Littre; but Cremieux ran them very + hard.--EDITOR.] + +Cremieux and Gourgaud could not have been inside the Tuileries more than +a quarter of an hour when they rushed out again. They evidently made a +communication to the troops, because I beheld the latter waving their +arms, but, of course, I did not catch a word of what they said; I was +too far away. It was, I learnt afterwards, the announcement of the +advent of a new ministry, and the appointment of a new commander of the +National Guards. When I saw hats and caps flung into the air, and heard +the people shouting, I made certain that the revolution was at an end. I +was mistaken. It was not Cremieux's communication at all that had +provoked the enthusiasm; it was a second communication, made by some one +from the doorway of the Tuileries immediately after the eminent +barrister had disappeared among the crowd, to the effect that the King +had abdicated in favour of the Comte de Paris, with the Duchesse +d'Orleans as regent. Between the first and second announcements there +could not have elapsed more than five or six minutes, ten at the utmost, +because, before I had time to recover from my surprise, I saw Cremieux +and Gourgaud battle through the tightly wedged masses once more, and +re-enter the Tuileries to verify the news. I am writing this note +especially by the light of subsequent information, for, I repeat, it was +impossible to understand events succinctly by the quickly succeeding +effects they produced at the time. Another ten minutes elapsed--ten +minutes which I shall never forget, because every one of the thousands +present on the Place du Carrousel was in momentary danger of having the +life crushed out of him. It was no one's fault; there was, if I +recollect rightly, but one narrow issue on the river-side, and there was +a dense seething mass standing on the banks, notwithstanding the danger +of that position, for the insurgents were firing freely and recklessly +across the stream. Egress on the opposite side of the Place du +Carrousel, that of the Place du Palais-Royal, had become absolutely +impossible, for at that moment a fierce battle was raging there between +the people and the National Guards for the possession of the military +post of the Chateau d'Eau;[46] and those of the non-combatants who did +not think it necessary to pay for the fall or the maintenance of the +monarchy of July with life or limb, tried to get out of the bullets' +reach. There was but one way of doing so, by a stampede in a southerly +direction; the Rue de Rivoli, at any rate that part which existed, was +entirely blocked to the west, the congeries of streets that have been +pulled down since to make room for its prolongation to the east were +bristling with barricades: hence the terrible, suffocating crush, in +which several persons lost their lives. The most curious incident +connected with these awful ten minutes was that of a woman and her baby. +When Cremieux issued for the second time from the Tuileries, it was to +confirm the news of the King's abdication. Almost immediately +afterwards, the masses on the quay were making for the Place de la +Concorde and the Palais-Bourbon, whither, it was rumoured, the Duchesse +D'Orleans and her two sons were going; and gradually the wedged-in mass +on the Place du Carrousel found breathing space. Then the woman was seen +to fall down like a ninepin that has been toppled over; she was dead, +but her baby, which she had held above the crowd, and which they had, as +it were, to wrench from her grasp, was alive and well. + + [Footnote 46: So called after a large ornamental fountain; the + same, I believe, which subsequently was transferred to what is + now called the Place de la Republique, and which finally found + its way to the Avenue Daumesnil, where it stands at + present.--EDITOR.] + +I stood for a little while longer on the Place du Carrousel, trying to +make up my mind whether to proceed to the Place de la Concorde or to the +Place de l'Hotel de Ville. I knew that the newly-elected powers, +whosoever they might be, would make their appearance at the latter spot, +but how long it would be before they came, I had not the least idea. I +was determined, however, to see at any rate one act of the drama or the +farce; for even then there was no knowing in what guise events would +present themselves. I could hear the reports of firearms on both sides +of me, though why there should be firing when the King had thrown up the +sponge, I could not make out for the life of me. I did not know France +so well then as I know her now. I did not know then that there is no man +or, for that matter, no woman on the civilized earth so heedlessly and +obdurately bloodthirsty when he or she works himself into a fury as the +professedly debonnaire Parisian proletarian. Nevertheless, I decided to +go to the Hotel de Ville, and had carefully worked my way as far as the +site of the present Place du Chatelet, when I was compelled to retrace +my steps. The elite of the Paris scum was going to dictate its will to +the new Government; it was marching to the Chamber of Deputies with +banners flying. One of the latter was a red-and-white striped flannel +petticoat, fastened to a tremendously long pole. I had no choice, and if +at that moment my friends had seen me they might have easily imagined +that I had become one of the leaders of the revolutionary mob. We took +by the Quai de la Megisserie, and just before the Pont des Arts there +was a momentary halt. The vanguard, which I was apparently leading, had +decided to turn to the right; in other words, to visit the abode of the +hated tyrant. Had I belonged to the main division, I should have +witnessed a really more important scene, from the historical point of +view; as it was, I witnessed-- + + +THE SACKING OF THE TUILERIES. + +The idea that "there is a divinity that hedgeth round a king" seemed, I +admit, preposterous enough at that moment; but I could not help being +struck with its partial truth on seeing the rabble invade the palace. +When I say the rabble, I mean the rabble, though there were a great many +persons whom it would be an insult to class as such, and who from sheer +curiosity, or because they could not help themselves, had gone in with +them. The doors proved too narrow, and those who could not enter by that +way, entered by the windows. The whole contingent of the riff-raff, male +and female, weltering in the adjacent streets--and such streets!--was +there. Well, for the first ten minutes they stood positively motionless, +not daring to touch anything. It was not the fear of being caught +pilfering and punished summarily that prevented them. The minority which +might have protested was so utterly insignificant in numbers, as to make +action on their part impossible. No, it was neither fear nor shame that +stayed the rabble's hands; it was a sentiment for which I can find no +name. It was the consciousness that these objects had belonged to a +king, to a royal family, which made them gaze upon them in a kind of +superstitious wonder. It did not last long. We were on the ground floor, +which mainly consisted of the private apartments of the household of +Louis-Philippe. We were wandering, or rather squeezing, through the +study and bedroom of the King himself, through the sitting-rooms of the +princes and princesses. I do not think that a single thing was taken +from there at that particular time. But as if the atmosphere their +rulers had breathed but so very recently became too oppressive, the +crowd swayed towards the vestibule, and ascended the grand staircase. +Then the spell was broken. The second batch that entered through the +windows, when we had made room for them, were apparently not affected +by wonder and respect, for, half an hour later, when I came down again, +every cupboard, every wardrobe, had been forced, though it is but fair +to say that very little seems to have been taken; the contents, books, +clothing, linen, etc., were scattered on the floors; but the cellars, +containing over four thousand bottles of wine, were positively empty. +Two hours later, however, the clothing, especially that of the +princesses, had totally disappeared. It had disappeared on the backs of +the inmates of St. Lazare, the doors of which had been thrown open, and +who had rushed to the Tuileries to deck themselves with these fine +feathers which, in this instance, did not make fine birds. I saw some of +them that same evening on the Boulevards, and a more heart-rending +spectacle I have rarely beheld. + +The three hours I spent at the Tuileries were so crowded with events as +to make a succinct account of them altogether impossible. I can only +give fragments, because, though at first the wearers of broadcloth were +not molested, this tolerance did not last long on the part of the new +possessors of the Tuileries; and consequently the former gradually +dropped off, and those of them who remained had to be very circumspect, +and, above all, not to linger long in the same spot. This growing +hostility might have been nipped in the bud by our following the example +of the National Guards, and taking off our coats and fraternizing with +the rabble; but I frankly confess that I had neither the courage nor the +stomach to do so. I have read descriptions of mutinous sailors stowing +in casks of rum and gorging themselves with victuals; revolting as such +scenes must be to those who take no active part in them, I doubt whether +they could be as revolting as the one I witnessed in the Gallerie de +Diane. + +The Galerie de Diane was one of the large reception rooms on the first +floor, but it generally served as the dining and breakfast room of the +royal family. The table had been laid for about three dozen persons, +because, as a rule, Louis-Philippe invited the principal members of his +military and civil households to take their repasts with him. The +breakfast had been interrupted, and not been cleared away. When I +entered the apartment some sixty or seventy ruffians of both sexes were +seated at the board, while a score or so were engaged in waiting upon +them. They were endeavouring to accomplish what the Highest Authority +has declared impossible of accomplishment, namely, the making of silken +purses out of sows' ears. They were "putting on" what they considered +"company manners," and, under any other circumstances but these, the +attempt would have proved irresistibly comic to the educated spectator; +as it was, it brought tears to one's eyes. I have already hinted +elsewhere that the cuisine at the Tuileries during Louis-Philippe's +reign was execrable, though the wine was generally good. Bad as was the +fare on that abandoned breakfast-table, it must, nevertheless, have been +superior to that usually partaken of by the convives who had taken the +place of the fugitive king and princes. They, the convives, however, did +not think so; they criticized the food, and ordered the improvised +attendants "to give them something different;" then they turned to their +female companions, filling their glasses and paying them compliments. +But for the fact of another batch eagerly claiming their turn, the +repast would have been indefinitely prolonged; as it was, the provisions +in the palace were running short, and the deficiency had to be made up +by supplies from outside. The inner man being refreshed, the ladies were +invited to take a stroll through the apartments, pending the serving of +the cafe and liqueurs. The preparation of the mocha was somewhat +difficult, seeing the utensils necessary for the supply of so large a +company were probably not at hand, and the ingredients themselves in the +store-rooms of the palace. Nothing daunted, one of the self-invited +guests rose and said, in a loud voice, "Permettez moi d'offrir le cafe a +la compagnie," which offer was received with tumultuous applause. +Suiting the action to the word, he pulled out a small canvas bag, and +took from it two five-franc pieces. "Qu'on aille chercher du cafe et du +meilleur," he said to one of the guests who had stepped forward to +execute his orders, for they sounded almost like it; and I was wondering +why those professed champions of equality did not tell him to fetch the +coffee himself. Then he added, "Et pendant que tu y es, citoyen, apporte +des cigares pour nous et des cigarettes pour les dames." The "citoyen" +was already starting on his errand, when the other "citoyen" called him +back. "Ecoute," he said; "tu n'acheteras rien a moins d'y etre force. Je +crois que tu n'auras qu'a demander a la premiere epicerie venue ce qu'il +te faut, et ainsi au premier bureau de tabac. Ils ont si peur, ces sales +bourgeois qu'ils n'oseront pas te refuser. En tout cas prends un fusil; +on ne sait pas ce qui peut arriver; mais ne t'en sers pas qu'en cas de +necessite:"--which meant plainly enough, "If they refuse to give you the +coffee and the tobacco, shoot them down." + +Of course, I am unable to say how these two commodities were eventually +procured; but I have every reason to believe that this messenger had +only "to ask and have," without as much as showing his musket. There is +no greater cur at troublous times than the Paris shopkeeper. The merest +urchin will terrify him. Even on the previous day I had seen bands of +gamins who had constituted themselves the guardians of the +barricades--and there was one in nearly every street--levy toll without +the slightest resistance, when a few well-administered cuffs would have +sent them flying, so I have not the slightest doubt that our friend had +all the credit of his generosity without disbursing a penny--unless his +delegate fleeced him also, on the theory that a man who could "fork out" +ten francs at a moment's notice was nothing more or less than a +bourgeois. However, when I returned after about forty minutes' absence, +it was very evident that both the coffee and the tobacco had arrived, +because the Galerie de Diane, large as it was, was full of smoke, and +three saucepans, filled with water, were standing on the fire, while two +or three smaller ones were arranged on the almost priceless marble +mantelpiece. Another batch of ravenous republicans had taken their seats +at the board, their predecessors whiling the time away in sweet converse +with the "ladies." Some of the latter were more usefully engaged; they +were rifling the cabinets of the most rare and valuable Sevres, and +arranging the cups, saucers, platters on their tops to be ready for the +beverage that was being brewed. I was wondering how they had got at +these art treasures, having noticed an hour before that their +receptacles were locked and the keys taken away. The doors had simply +been battered in with the hammer of the great clock of the Tuileries. + +It was of a piece with the wanton destruction I had witnessed elsewhere, +during my absence from the Galerie de Diane. Before I returned thither, +I had seen the portrait of General Bugeaud in the Salle des Marechaux, +literally stabbed with bayonets; the throne treated to a similar fate, +and carried off to the Place de la Bastille to be burned publicly; the +papers of the royal family mercilessly flung to the winds; the dresses +of the princesses torn to ribbons or else put on the backs of the vilest +of the vile. + +There was only one comic incident to relieve the horror of the whole. In +one of the private apartments the rabble had come upon an aged parrot +screeching at the top of its voice, "A bas Guizot!" The bird became a +hero there and then, and was absolutely crammed with sweets and sugar. +That one comic note was not enough to dispel my disgust, and after the +scene in the Galerie de Diane which I have just described, I made my way +into the street. + +I had scarcely proceeded a few steps, when I heard the not very +startling news that the republic had been formally proclaimed in the +Chamber by M. de Lamartine, who had afterwards repaired to the Hotel de +Ville. At the same time, people were shouting that the King had died +suddenly. I endeavoured to get as far, but, though the distance was +certainly not more than half a mile, it took me more than an hour. At +every few yards my progress was interrupted by barricades, the +self-elected custodians of which were particularly anxious to show their +authority to a man like myself, dressed in a coat. At last I managed to +get to the corner of the Rues des Lombards and Saint-Martin, and just in +time to enjoy a sight than which I have witnessed nothing more comic +during the succeeding popular uprisings in subsequent years. I was just +crossing, when a procession hove in sight, composed mainly of ragged +urchins, dishevelled women, and riff-raff of both sexes. In their midst +was an individual on horseback, dressed in the uniform of a general of +the First Republic, whom they were cheering loudly. The stationary crowd +made way for them, and mingled with the escort. The moment I had thrown +in my lot with the latter, retreat was no longer possible, and in a very +short time I found myself in the courtyard of the Hotel de Ville, and, +in another minute or so, in the principal gallery on the first floor, +where, it appears, _some members_ of the Provisional Government were +already at work. I had not the remotest notion who they were, nor did I +care to inquire, having merely come to look on. The work of the members +of the Provisional Government seemed mainly to consist in consuming +enormous quantities of charcuterie and washing them down with copious +libations of cheap wine. The place was positively reeking with the smell +of both, not to mention the fumes of tobacco. Every one was smoking his +hardest. The entrance of the individual in uniform caused somewhat of a +sensation; a _member_--whom I had never seen before and whom I have +never beheld since--stepped forward to ask his business. The new-comer +did not appear to know himself; at any rate, he stammered and stuttered, +but his escort left him no time to betray his confusion more plainly. +"C'est le citoyen gouverneur de l'Hotel de Ville," they shouted as with +one voice; and there and then the new governor was installed, though I +am perfectly sure that not a soul of all those present knew as much as +his name. + +Subsequent inquiries elicited the fact that the man was a fourth or +fifth-rate singer, named Chateaurenaud, and engaged at the Opera +National (formerly the Cirque Olympique) on the Boulevard du Temple. On +that day they were having a dress rehearsal of a new piece in which +Chateaurenaud was playing a military part. He had just donned his +costume when, hearing a noise on the Boulevards, he put his head out of +the window. The mob caught sight of him. "A general, a general!" cried +several urchins; and in less time than it takes to tell, the theatre was +invaded, and notwithstanding his struggles, Chateaurenaud was carried +off, placed on horseback, and conducted to the Hotel de Ville, where, +for the next fortnight, he throned as governor. For, curious to relate, +M. de Lamartine ratified his appointment(?) on the morning of the 25th +of February. Chateaurenaud became an official of the secret police +during the Second Empire. I often saw him on horseback in the Bois de +Boulogne, when the Emperor drove in that direction. + +I did not stay long in the Hotel de Ville, but made my way back to the +Boulevards as best I could; for by that time darkness had set in, and +the mob was shouting for illuminations, and obstructing the +thoroughfares everywhere. Every now and then one came upon a body which +had been lying there since the morning, but they took no notice of it. +Their principal concern seemed the suitable acknowledgment of the advent +of the Second Republic by the bourgeoisie by means of coloured devices, +or, in default of such, by coloured lamps or even candles. Woe to the +houses, the inhabitants of which remained deaf to their summons to that +effect. In a very few minutes every window was smashed to atoms, until +at last a timid hand was seen to arrange a few bottles with candles +stuck into them on the sill, and light them. Then they departed, to +impose their will elsewhere. + +That night, after dinner, the first person of my acquaintance I met was +Mery. He had been in the Chamber of Deputies from the very beginning of +the proceedings; it was he who solemnly assured me that the first cry of +"Vive la Republique!" had been uttered by M. de Lamartine. I was +surprised at this, because I had been told that early in the morning the +poet had paid a visit to the Duchesse d'Orleans to assure her of his +devotion to her cause. "That may be so," said Mery, to whom I repeated +what I had heard; "but you must remember that Lamartine is always hard +up, and closely pursued by duns. A revolution with the prospect of +becoming president of the republic was the only means of staving off his +creditors. He clutched at it as a last resource." + +Alexandre Dumas was there also, but I have an idea that he would have +willingly passed the sponge over that incident of his life, for I never +could get him to talk frankly on the subject. This does not mean that he +would have recanted his republican principles, but that he was ashamed +at having lent his countenance to such a republic as that. I fancy there +were a great many like him. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + The Second Republic -- Lamartine's reason for proclaiming it -- + Suspects Louis-Napoleon of similar motives for wishing to + overthrow it -- Tells him to go back to England -- De Persigny's + account of Louis-Napoleon's landing in France after February + 24th, '48 -- Providential interference on behalf of + Louis-Napoleon -- Justification of Louis-Napoleon's belief in his + "star" -- My first meeting with him -- The origin of a celebrated + nickname -- Badinguet a creation of Gavarni -- Louis-Napoleon and + his surroundings at the Hotel du Rhin -- His appearance and dress + -- Lord Normanby's opinion of his appearance -- Louis-Napoleon's + French -- A mot of Bismarck -- Cavaignac, Thiers, and Victor + Hugo's wrong estimate of his character -- Cavaignac and his + brother Godefroi -- The difference between Thiers and General + Cavaignac -- An elector's mot -- Some of the candidates for the + presidency of the Second Republic -- Electioneering expenses -- + Impecuniosity of Louis-Napoleon -- A story in connection with it + -- The woman with the wooden legs -- The salons during the Second + Republic -- The theatres and their skits on the situation -- "La + Propriete c'est le Vol" -- France governed by the _National_ -- A + curious list of ministers and officials of the Second Republic -- + Armand Marrast -- His plans for reviving business -- His + receptions at the Palais-Bourbon as President of the Chamber of + Deputies -- Some of the guests -- The Corps Diplomatique -- The + new deputies, their wives and daughters. + + +I knew Louis-Napoleon, if not intimately, at least very well, for nearly +a quarter of a century, and I felt myself as little competent to give an +opinion on him on the last as on the first day of our acquaintance. I +feel almost certain of one thing, though; that, if he had had very ample +means of his own, the Second Empire would have never been. Since its +fall I have heard and read a great deal about Louis-Napoleon's +unfaltering belief in his star; I fancy it would have shone less +brightly to him but for the dark, impenetrable sky of impecuniosity in +which it was set. Mery said that Lamartine proclaimed the Second +Republic as a means of staving off his creditors; and the accusation was +justified by Lamartine's own words in the Assemblee Nationale itself on +the 11th of September, 1848: "Je declare hautement que le 24 Fevrier a +midi, je ne pensais pas a la Republique." To use a popular locution, the +author of "L'Histoire des Girondins" suspected, perhaps, that +Louis-Napoleon might take a leaf from his, the author's, book; for the +needy man, though perhaps not a better psychologist than most men, has a +very comprehensive key to the motives of a great number of his +fellow-creatures, especially if they be Frenchmen and professional +politicians. I am speaking by the light of many years' observation. +Furthermore, the pecuniary embarrassments of Louis-Napoleon were no +secret to any one. "I have established a republic for money's sake," +Lamartine said to himself; "some one will endeavour to overthrow it for +money's sake." I am aware that this is not a very elevated standard +whereby to judge political events; but I do not profess to be an +historian--mine is only the little huckster shop of history. + +It is more than probable that this was the reason why Lamartine told +Louis-Napoleon to go back to England, in their interview--a secret +one--on the 2d of March, 1848. + +It was M. de Persigny who told me this many years afterwards. "The +Prince could afford to humour De Lamartine in that way," he added, "for +if ever a man was justified in believing in his star it was he. I'll +tell you a story which is scarcely known to half a dozen men, including +the Emperor and myself; I am not aware of its having been told by any +biographer. The moment we ascertained the truth of the news that reached +us from Paris, we made for the coast, and, on Saturday morning, we +crossed in the mail-packet. It was very rough, and we had a good +shaking, so that when we got to Boulogne we were absolutely 'done up.' +But we heard that a train was to start for Paris, and, as a matter of +course, the Prince would not lose a minute. We had to walk to +Neufchatel, about three miles distant, because there was something the +matter with the rails, I do not know what. We flung ourselves into the +first compartment, which already contained two travellers. Almost +immediately we had got under way, one of these, who had looked very +struck when we entered, addressed the Prince by name. He turned out to +be Monsieur Biesta, who had paid a visit to Napoleon during his +imprisonment at Ham, and who immediately recognized him. Monsieur Biesta +had just left the Duc de Nemours. I do not know whether he was at that +time a Republican, a Monarchist, or an Imperialist, but he was a man of +honour, and it was thanks to him that the son of Louis-Philippe made his +escape. The other one was the Marquis d'Arragon, who died about a +twelvemonth afterwards. All went well until we got to Amiens, where we +had to wait a very long while, the train which was to have taken us on +to Paris having just left. For once in a way the Prince got impatient. +He who on the eve of the Coup d'Etat remained, at any rate outwardly, +perfectly stolid, was fuming and fretting at the delay. One would have +thought that the whole of Paris was waiting at the Northern station to +receive him with open arms, and to proclaim him Emperor there and then. +But impatient or not, we had to wait, and, what was worse or better, the +train that finally took us came to a dead stop at Persan, where the news +reached us that the rails had been broken up by the insurgents at +Pontoise, that a frightful accident had happened in consequence to the +train we had missed by a few minutes at Amiens, in which at least thirty +lives were lost, besides a great number of wounded. But for the merest +chance we should have been among the passengers. Was I right in saying +that the Prince was justified in believing in his star?" + +I did not meet with Louis-Napoleon until he was a candidate for the +presidency of the Second Republic, and while he was staying at the Hotel +du Rhin in the Place Vendome. Of course, I had heard a great deal about +him, but my informants, to a man, were English. While the latter were +almost unanimous in predicting Louis-Napoleon's eventual advent to the +throne, the French, though in no way denying the influence of the +Napoleonic legend, were apt to shrug their shoulders more or less +contemptuously at the pretensions of Hortense's son; for few ever +designated him by any other name, until later on, when the nickname of +"Badinguet" began to be on every one's lips. Consequently, I was anxious +to catch a glimpse of him; but before noting the impressions produced by +that first meeting, I will devote a few lines to the origin of that +celebrated sobriquet. + +Personally, I never heard it in connection with Louis-Napoleon until his +betrothal to Mdlle. Eugenie de Montijo became common "talk;" but I had +heard and seen it in print a good many years before, and even as late as +'48. There was, however, not the slightest attempt at that time to +couple it with the person of the future Emperor. Three solutions have +made the round of the papers at various times: (1) that it was the name +of the stonemason or bricklayer who lent Louis-Napoleon his clothes to +facilitate his escape from Ham in June, 1845; (2) that it was the name +of the soldier who was wounded by the Prince on the 5th of August, +1840, at Boulogne, when the latter fired on Captain Col-Puygellier; (3) +that about the latter end of the forties a pipe-manufacturer introduced +a pipe, the head of which resembled that of Louis-Napoleon, and that the +pipemaker's name was Badinguet. + +The latter solution may be dismissed at once as utterly without +foundation. With regard to that having reference to the stonemason, no +stonemason lent Louis-Napoleon his clothes. The disguise was provided by +Dr. Conneau from a source which has never been revealed. There was, +moreover, no stonemason of the name of Badinguet at Ham, and, when +Louis-Napoleon crossed the drawbridge of the castle, his face partially +hidden by a board he was carrying on his shoulder, a workman, who +mistook him for one of his mates, exclaimed, "Hullo, there goes +Bertoux." Bertoux, not Badinguet. + +The name of the soldier wounded by Louis-Napoleon was Geoffroy; he was a +grenadier, decorated on the battle-field; and shortly after Napoleon's +accession to the throne, he granted him a pension. There can be no +possible mistake about the name, seeing that it was attested at the +trial subsequent to the fiasco before the Court of Peers. + +The real fact is this: Gavarni, like Balzac, invented many names, +suggested in many instances by those of their friends and acquaintances, +or sometimes merely altered from those they had seen on signboards. The +great caricaturist had a friend in the Departement des Landes named +Badingo; about '38 he began his sketches of students and their +companions ("Etudiants et Etudiantes"), and in one of them a medical +student shows his lady-love an articulated skeleton. + +"Look at this," says the former; "this is Eugenie, the former sweetheart +of Badinguet--that tall, fair girl who was so fond of _meringues_. He +has had her mounted for thirty-six francs." + +The connection is very obvious; it only wanted one single wag to +remember the skit when Napoleon became engaged to Eugenie de Montijo. He +set the ball rolling, and the rest followed as a matter of course. + +At the same time, Gavarni had not been half as original, as he imagined, +in the invention of the name. Badinguet was a character in a one-act +farce entitled "Le Mobilier de Rosine," played for the first time in +1828, at the Theatre Montansier; and there is a piece of an earlier date +even, in which Grassot played a character by the name of Badinguet. In +1848, there was a kind of Jules Vernesque piece at the Porte +Saint-Martin, in which Badinguet, a Parisian shopkeeper, starts with his +wife Euphemie for some distant island. + +To return to Louis-Napoleon at the Hotel du Rhin, and my first glimpse +of him. I must own that I was disappointed with it. Though I had not the +slightest ground for expecting to see a fine man, I did not expect to +see so utterly an insignificant one, and badly dressed in the bargain. +On the evening in question, he wore a brown coat of a peculiar colour, a +green plush waistcoat, and a pair of yellowish trousers, the like of +which I have never seen on the legs of any one off the stage. And yet +Lord Normanby, and a good many more who have said that he looked every +inch a king, were not altogether wrong. There was a certain gracefulness +about him which owed absolutely nothing either to his tailor, his +barber, or his bootmaker. "The gracefulness of awkwardness" sounds +remarkably like an Irish bull, yet I can find no other term to describe +his gait and carriage. Louis-Napoleon's legs seemed to have been an +afterthought of his Creator--they were too short for his body, and his +head appeared constantly bent down, to supervise their motion; +consequently, their owner was always at a disadvantage when compelled to +make use of them. But when standing still, or on horseback, there was an +indescribable something about the man which at once commanded attention. +I am not overlooking the fact that, on the occasion of our first +meeting, my curiosity had been aroused; but I doubt whether any one, +endowed with the smallest power of observation, though utterly ignorant +with regard to his previous history, and equally sceptical with regard +to his future destiny, could have been in his company for any length of +time without being struck with his appearance. + +When I entered the apartment on the evening in question, Louis-Napoleon +was leaning in his favourite attitude against the mantelpiece, smoking +the scarcely ever absent cigarette, and pulling at the heavy brown +moustache, the ends of which in those days were not waxed into points as +they were later on. There was not the remotest likeness to any portrait +of the Bonaparte family I had ever seen. He wore his thin, lank hair +much longer than he did afterwards. The most startling features were +decidedly the aquiline nose and the eyes; the latter, of a +greyish-blue, were comparatively small and somewhat almond-shaped, but, +except at rare intervals, there was an impenetrable look, which made it +exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to read their owner's thoughts +by them. If they were "the windows of his soul," their blinds were +constantly down. The "I am pleased to see you, sir," with which he +welcomed me, holding out his hand at the same time, was the English of +an educated German who had taken great pains to get the right accent and +pronunciation, without, however, completely succeeding; and when I heard +him speak French, I detected at once his constant struggle with the same +difficulties. The struggle lasted till the very end of his life, though, +by dint of speaking very slowly, he overcame them to a marvellous +extent. But the moment he became in any way excited, the _f_'s and the +_t_'s and the _p_'s were always trying to oust the _v_'s, the _d_'s and +the _b_'s from their newly-acquired positions, and often gained a +momentary victory. There is an amusing story to that effect, in +connection with Napoleon's first interview with Bismarck. I will not +vouch for its truth, but, on the face of it, it sounds blunt enough to +be genuine. The Emperor was complimenting the German statesman on his +French. + +"M. de Bismarck, I have never heard a German speak French as you do," +said Napoleon. + +"Will you allow me to return the compliment, sire?" + +"Certainly." + +"I have never heard a Frenchman speak French as you do."[47] + + [Footnote 47: In the documents relating to the affair at + Strasburg, there is the report to Louis-Philippe by an officer + in the 46th regiment of the line, named Pleigne, in which the + latter, borrowing the process of Balzac as applied to the + French of the Baron de Nucingen, credits Louis-Napoleon with + the following phrase: "_Fous etes tecore de Chuillet; fous + tefez etre un prafe, che vous tecore._"--EDITOR.] + +When Prince Louis-Napoleon held out his hand and I looked into his face, +I felt almost tempted to put him down as an opium-eater. Ten minutes +afterwards, I felt convinced that, to use a metaphor, he himself was the +drug, and that every one with whom he came in contact was bound to yield +to its influence. When I came away that evening, I could have given +Cavaignac, Thiers, Lamartine, Hugo, and the rest, who wanted to make a +cat's-paw of him, a timely warning, if they would have condescended to +listen to, and profit by it, which I am certain they would not have +done. Strange as it may seem, every one of these men, and, with the +exception of one, all undoubtedly clever, thought Louis-Napoleon either +an imbecile or a secret drunkard. And, what is more, they endeavoured to +propagate their opinion throughout the length and breadth, not only of +France, but of Europe. + +As usual, the one who was really the greatest nonentity among the latter +was most lavish in his contempt. I am alluding to General Cavaignac. The +nobodies who have governed or misgoverned France since the Fall of Sedan +were, from an intellectual point of view, eagles compared to that surly +and bumptious drill-sergeant, who had nothing, absolutely nothing, to +recommend him for the elevated position he coveted. He was the least +among all those brilliant African soldiers whose names and prowess were +on every one's lips; he had really been made a hero of, at so much per +line, by the staff of the _National_, where his brother Godefroy wielded +unlimited power. He was all buckram; and, in the very heart of Paris, +and in the midst of that republic whose fiercest watchword, whose +loudest cry, was "equality," he treated partisans and opponents alike, +as he would have treated a batch of refractory Arabs in a distant +province of that newly-conquered African soil. He disliked every one who +did not wear a uniform, and assumed a critical attitude towards every +one who did. His republicanism was probably as sincere as that of +Thiers--it meant "La Republique c'est moi:" with this difference, that +Thiers was amiable, witty, and charming, though treacherous, and that +Cavaignac was the very reverse. His honesty was beyond suspicion; that +is, he felt convinced that he was the only possible saviour of France: +but it was impaired by his equally sincere conviction that bribery and +coercion--of cajoling he would have none--were admissible, nay, +incumbent to attain that end. "Thiers, c'est la republique en ecureuil, +Cavaignac c'est la republique en ours mal leche," said a witty +journalist. He and Louis-Napoleon were virtually the two men who were +contending for the presidential chair, and the chances of Cavaignac may +be judged by the conclusion of the verbal report of one of Lamoriciere's +emissaries, who canvassed one of the departments. + +"'The thing might be feasible,' said an elector, 'if your general's name +was Genevieve de Brabant, or that of one of the four sons of Aymon.[48] +But his name is simply Cavaignac--Cavaignac, and that's all. I prefer +Napoleon; at any rate, there is a ring about that name.' And I am afraid +that eleven-twelfths of the electors are of the same opinion." + + [Footnote 48: The four knights of a Carlovingian legend, who + were mounted on one horse named Bayard.--EDITOR.] + +As for Ledru Rollin, Raspail, Changarnier, and even Lamartine and the +Prince de Joinville, some of whom were candidates against their will, +they were out of the running from the very start, though, curiously +enough, the son of the monarch whom the republic had driven from the +throne obtained more votes than the man who had proclaimed that +republic. These votes were altogether discarded as unconstitutional, +though one really fails to see why one member of a preceding dynasty +should have been held to be more eligible than another. Be this as it +may, the votes polled by the sailor prince amounted to over twenty-three +thousand, showing that he enjoyed a certain measure of popularity. It is +doubtful whether the Duc d'Aumale or the Duc de Nemours would have +obtained a fifth of that number. As I have already said, the latter was +disliked by his father's opponents for his suspected legitimist +tendencies, and tacitly blamed by some of the partisans of the Orleanist +regime for his lack of resistance on the 24th of February; the former's +submission "to the will of the nation," as embodied in a manifesto "to +the inhabitants of Algeria," provoked no enthusiasm either among friends +or foes.[49] Perhaps public rumour was not altogether wrong, when it +averred that the D'Orleans were too tight-fisted to spend their money in +electioneering literature. The expense involved in that item was a +terrible obstacle to Louis-Napoleon and his few faithful henchmen; for, +though the Napoleonic idea was pervading all classes of society, there +was, correctly speaking, no Bonapartist party to shape it for the +practical purposes of the moment. The Napoleonic idea was a fond +remembrance of France's glorious past, rather than a hope of its renewal +in the future. Even the greatest number of the most ardent worshippers +of that marvellous soldier of fortune, doubted whether his nephew was +sufficiently popular to obtain an appreciable following, and those who +did not doubt were mostly poor. While Dufaure and Lamoriciere were +scattering money broadcast, and using pressure of the most arbitrary +kind, in order to insure Cavaignac's success, Louis-Napoleon and his +knot of partisans were absolutely reduced to their own personal +resources. Miss Howard--afterwards Comtesse de Beauregard--and Princesse +Mathilde had given all they could; a small loan was obtained from M. +Fould; and some comparatively scanty supplies had been forthcoming from +England--it was said at the time, with how much truth I know not, that +Lords Palmerston and Malmesbury had contributed: but the exchequer was +virtually empty. A stray remittance of a few thousand francs, from an +altogether unexpected quarter, and most frequently from an anonymous +sender, arrived now and then; but it was what the Germans call "a drop +of water in a very hot frying-pan;" it barely sufficed to stop a hole. +Money was imperatively wanted for the printing of millions upon millions +of handbills, thousands and thousands of posters, and their +distribution; for the expenses of canvassers, electioneering agents, and +so forth. The money went to the latter, the rest was obtained on credit. +Prince Louis, confident of success, emptied his pockets of the last +five-franc pieces; when he had no more, he promised to pay. He was as +badly off as his famous uncle before the turn of fortune came. + + [Footnote 49: During the sacking of the Tuileries, the mob + ruthlessly destroyed the busts and pictures of every living son + of Louis-Philippe, with the exception of those of the Prince de + Joinville.--EDITOR.] + +In connection with this dire impecuniosity, I remember a story for the +truth of which I can vouch as if I had had it from Louis-Napoleon's own +lips. In front of Siraudin's confectioner's shop at the angle of the +Boulevard des Capucines and the Rue de la Paix, there sits an old woman +with two wooden legs. About '48, when she was very pretty and dressed +with a certain coquettishness, she was already there, though sitting a +little higher up, in front of the wall of the Ministry for Foreign +Affairs, which has since made room for the handsome establishment of +Giroux. Behind her, on the wall, were suspended for sale some cheap and +not very artistically executed reproductions of Fragonard, "Le Coucher +de la Mariee," etc., all of which would fetch high prices now; also +songs, the tunes of which she played with great taste on her violin. It +was reported that she had been killed during the attack on the ministry, +but to people's great surprise she reappeared a few days afterwards. +Prince Louis, who was staying at the Place Vendome, then used to take a +short cut by the Rue Neuve des Capucines to the Boulevards, and it seems +that he never passed her without giving her something. In a few weeks +she came to look upon his contributions as a certain part of her income. +She knew who he was, and, curiously enough, seemed to be aware not only +of his political preoccupations, but of his pecuniary embarrassments. I +am unable to say whether she was in sympathy with the former, but she +was evidently concerned about the latter; for, one evening, after +thanking Louis-Napoleon, she added, "Monseigneur, je voudrais vous dire +un mot." + +"Parlez, madame." + +"On me dit que vous etes fort gene dans ce moment. J'ai trois billets de +mille francs chez moi, qui ne font rien. Voulez-vous me permettre de +vous les offrir; vous me les rendrez quand vous serez empereur." + +Prince Louis did not accept them, but he never forgot a kindness, and +when he did become Emperor, he offered her a small annuity. The answer +was characteristic of her independence. "Dites a l'empereur qu'il est +bien bon de se rappeler de moi, mais je ne puis pas accepter son offre. +S'il avait accepte mon argent, je ne dis pas, maintenant, non." And +while I am writing these notes, she still sits in her usual place, +though I have heard it said more than once that she is the owner of one +or two houses in the Avenue de l'Opera, and that she gave a considerable +marriage portion to her daughter, who has remained ignorant of the +sources of her mother's income, who was educated in the country, and has +never been to Paris. One of the conditions of her marriage was that she +should emigrate to Australia. For the latter part of the story, I will, +however, not vouch. + +During the months of October and November, '48, I saw Prince Louis at +least a dozen times, though only once away from his own apartments. +There was really "nowhere to go," for most of the salons had closed +their doors, and those which remained open were invaded by political +partisans of all shades. Conversation, except on one topic, there was +little or none. Social entertainments were scarcely to be thought of +after the bloody disorders in June: Paris trade suffered in consequence, +and the whole of the shopkeeping element, which virtually constituted +the greater part of the Garde Nationale, regretted the fall of the +Orleans dynasty to which it had so materially contributed. After these +disorders in June, the troops bivouacked for a whole month on the +Boulevards; on the Boulevard du Temple with its seven theatres; on the +Boulevard Poissonniere, almost in front of the Gymnase; on the +Boulevard Montmartre, in front of the Varietes; on the Place de la +Bourse, in front of the Vaudeville. The new masters did not care to be +held up to ridicule; they insinuated, rather than asserted, that the +insults levelled from the stage had contributed to the insurrection; and +seeing that the bourgeoisie, very contrite already, did not care to hear +"the praise of the saviours of the country" by command, they deserted +the play-houses and kept their money in their pockets. The Constituent +Assembly was compelled to grant the managers an indemnity; but, as it +could not keep the soldiers there for ever, and as it cared still less +to vote funds to its enemies while its supporters were clamouring for +every cent of it, the strict supervision gradually relaxed. The first to +take advantage of this altered state of things was Clairville, with his +"La Propriete c'est le Vol" (November 28, '48), a skit on the celebrated +phrase of Proudhon. It is very doubtful whether the latter had uttered +it in the sense with which the playwright invested it; but fear is +proverbially illogical, and every one in Paris ran to see the piece, +trusting probably that it might produce a salutary effect on those who +intended to take the philosopher's axiom literally. + +"La Propriete c'est le Vol" was described on the bills as "a socialistic +extravaganza in three acts and seven tableaux." The scene of the first +tableau represents the garden of Eden. The Serpent, who is the Evil +Spirit, declares war at once upon Adam, who embodies the principle of +Property. The Serpent was a deliberate caricature of Proudhon with his +large spectacles. + +In the subsequent tableaux, Adam, by a kind of metempsychosis, had been +changed into Bonichon, an owner of house property in the Paris of the +nineteenth century. The Serpent, though still wearing his spectacles, +had been equally transformed into a modern opponent of all property. We +are in February, '48. Bonichon and some of his fellow-bourgeois are +feasting in honor of the proposed measures of reform, when they are +scared out of their wits by the appearance of the Serpent, who informs +them that the Republic has sidled up to Reform, managed to hide itself +beneath its cloak, and been proclaimed. The next scene brings us to the +year 1852 (four years in advance of the period), when the right of every +one to live by the toil of his hands has become law. Bonichon is being +harassed and persecuted by a crowd of handicraftsmen and others, who +insist on working for him whether he likes it or not. The glazier +smashes his windows, in order to compel him to have new panes put in. +The paper-hanger tears the paper off his walls on the same principle. +The hackney coachman flings Bonichon into his cab, takes him for a four +hours' drive, and charges accordingly. A dentist imitates the tactics of +Peter the Great with his courtiers, forces him into a chair and operates +upon his grinders, though, unlike Peter, he claims the full fee. A dozen +or so of modistes and dressmakers invade his apartments with double the +number of gowns for Madame Eve Bonichon, who, the reverse of her +husband, does not object to this violent appeal for her custom. Perhaps +Madame Octave, a charming woman who played the part, did well to submit, +because during the first tableau, the audience, though by no means +squeamish, had come to the conclusion that Madame Eve would be all the +better for a little more clothing. + +And so the piece goes on. The first performance took place twelve days +before the presidential election, when Cavaignac was still at the head +of affairs. Notwithstanding his energetic suppression of the disorders +in June, every one, with the exception of the journalistic swashbucklers +of _Le National_, hoped to get rid of him; and a song aimed at him +cruelly dissected his utter insignificance from a mental, moral, and +political point of view. When Louis-Napoleon gained the day, the song +was changed for a more kindly one. + +It is no exaggeration to say that during those days France was +absolutely governed by the _National_. I made a list, by no means +complete, at the time, of the various appointments and high places that +had fallen to the members of the staff and those connected with it +financially and otherwise. I have kept it, and transcribe it here with +scarcely any comment. + +Armand Marrast, the editor, became a member of the Provisional +Government, Mayor of Paris, and subsequently President of the National +Assembly. + +Marrast (No. 2) became Procureur-General at Pau. + +Marrast (No. 3), who had been a captain of light horse during the reign +of Louis-Philippe, was given a colonelcy unattached. + +Marrast (No. 4) became Vice-Principal of the Lycee Corneille. + +Bastide, one of the staff, became Minister for Foreign Affairs. + +Vaulabelle, one of the staff, became Minister of Public Education. + +Goudchaux, the banker of the _National_, became Minister of Finances. + +Recurt, the chief physician to the staff, became Minister of the +Interior and subsequently Minister of Public Works (President of the +Board of Works). + +Trelat, another physician, became Minister of Public Works. + +Marie, the solicitor to the _National_, became a member of the +Provisional Government, a member of the Executive Committee, and +subsequently Minister of Justice. + +Genin, one of the staff, became chief of the literary department at the +Ministry of Public Education. + +Charras, one of the staff, became Under-Secretary of State, at the +Ministry for War. + +Degouve-Denuncques, one of the staff, became Prefect of the Departement +of the Somme. + +Buchez, third physician and an occasional contributor, became Deputy +Mayor of Paris and subsequently President of the Assembly up to the 15th +of May (when he had to make room for M. Armand Marrast himself). As will +be seen, within a month of the republicans' advent to power, M. Buchez +had been raised to one of the highest functions in the State, though +absolutely devoid of any political or parliamentary talent, as was shown +later on by his "Histoire Parlementaire de la Revolution Francaise," an +utterly commonplace production. + +Dussart, one of the staff, became Prefect of the Seine-Inferieure. + +Adam, one of the staff, became Chief Secretary of the Prefecture of the +Seine. + +Sain de Bois-le Comte, one of the staff, became minister plenipotentiary +at Turin. + +Felicien Mallefille, one of the staff, became minister plenipotentiary +at Lisbon. + +Anselme Petetin, one of the staff, became minister plenipotentiary at +Hanover. + +Auguste Petetin (his brother), one of the staff, became Prefect of the +Department of the Cote-d'Or. + +Frederic Lacroix, one of the staff, became chief secretary for civil +affairs in Algeria. + +Hetzel, one of the staff, became chief secretary to the Minister for +Foreign Affairs. + +Rousset, one of the staff, became Prefect of the Department of the +Loire. + +Duclerc, shorthand reporter, became for a little while Minister of +Finances. + +Pagnerre, publisher of the _National_, and bookseller, became a mayor, a +member of the Provisional Government, a member of the Executive +Committee, and finally Director of the Comptoir d'Escompte. + +Achille Gregoire, the printer of the _National_, became Prefect of the +Department of the Upper-Saone. + +Clement Thomas, called the Constable of the _National_, became the +Commander-in-chief of the National Guard of the Seine. + +There are a few score more, friends and allies, such as Lalanne, who was +made director of the national workshops; Levrault, who was sent to +Naples as minister plenipotentiary; Carette, who became Civil-Chief at +Constantine; Carteron, who was appointed keeper of the national +archives, etc. + +As a matter of course, all these adventurers had revolving around them a +number of satellites, as eager as the former to reap the fruits of the +situation. Most of them, like the cat of Heine's epigram, had to devour +their steak raw; they did not know how to cook it. Ministers, prefects, +and high dignitaries of State as they were, they felt awkward in the +society of those to whom no illusion was possible with regard to their +origin and that of their political fortunes. + +They haunted, therefore, by preference, the less well frequented +restaurants and cafes, the wings of the minor theatres, on the pretext +that they were the elect of the people, and that the people were their +fittest companions. Their erstwhile leader and chief scorned to stoop to +such tricks. He was an educated man, with a thick veneer of the +gentleman about him, which, however, did not prevent him from being one +of the two most arrant snobs I have met anywhere. I advisedly say +anywhere, for France herself does not produce that objectionable genus +to any appreciable extent. You may find a good many cads, you will find +comparatively few snobs. Compared to Armand Marrast, Eugene Sue was +nowhere as a snob. He was a thickset man with a rubicund face, with a +mass of grey woolly hair and a kind of stubbly, small moustache. His +manners were supposed to be modelled on those of the nobles of the old +regime; said manners mainly consisting of swaggering impudence to those +whom he considered his equals, and freezing insolence to those he deemed +his inferiors. The latter, I need not say, were by far the most +numerous. He who bellowed most loudly that birth should carry no +privilege, never forgot to remind his hearers, by deeds, if not by +words, that he was of noble descent. "Si sa famille etait noble, sa mere +s'est surement endormie dans l'antichambre un jour qu'un +valet-de-chambre entreprenant etait trop pres," said the Marquis +d'Arragon one evening.[50] He felt greatly flattered at the +caricaturists of the day representing him in the court dress of Louis +XVI.'s reign, though to most people he looked like a "marquis de quatre +sous."[51] + + [Footnote 50: The remark was not original. The Marquise + d'Espremenil said it of herself when she saw her son join the + Revolution of '89.--EDITOR.] + + [Footnote 51: The peripatetic vendors of songs, dressed as + nobles, who up till '60 were frequently singing their + compositions in the street.--EDITOR.] + +He professed to be very fond of antique furniture and decorations, and +this fondness was the main cause of his ousting his former subaltern, +Buchez, from the presidential chair of the Assembly, for, shortly before +the revolution of '48, the official residence of that functionary had +been put in thorough repair, its magnificent furniture had been +restored, etc. + +The depression of business inspired M. Armand Marrast with the happy +thought of giving some entertainments in the hope of reviving it. During +the Third Republic, though I had ceased to live in France permanently, I +have seen a good many motley gatherings at the Elysee-Bourbon, and at +the Hotel-de-Ville, especially in M. Grevy's time, though Mac-Mahon's +presidency offered some diverting specimens also; but I have never seen +anything like the social functions at the Palais-Bourbon during the +months of September, October, and November, 1848. They were absolutely +the festive scenes of Paul de Kock on a large scale, amidst Louis XIV. +and Louis XV. furniture, instead of the bourgeois mahogany, and with an +exquisitely artistic background, instead of the commonplace +paperhangings of the lower middle-class dwellings. The corps +diplomatique was virtually on the horns of a dilemma. After the +February revolution, the shock of which was felt throughout the whole of +Europe, and caused most of the sovereigns to shake on their thrones, it +had stood by M. de Lamartine, and even by his successor at the French +Foreign Office, M. Bastide, if not with enthusiasm, at least with a kind +of complacency. The republic proclaimed by the former, might, after all, +contain elements of vitality. The terrible disorders in June tended to +shake this reluctant confidence; still, there was but little change in +the ambassadors' outward attitude, until it became too evident that, +unless a strong dictator should intervene, mob rule was dangerously +nigh. Then the corps diplomatique began to hold aloof. Of course there +were exceptions, such as, for instance, Mr. Richard Rush, the minister +of the United States, who had been the first to congratulate the +Provisional Government, and the various representatives of the +South-American republics; but even the latter could scarcely refrain +from expressing their astonishment at the strange company in which they +found themselves. The women were perhaps the most remarkable, as women +generally are when out of their element. The greater part had probably +never been in a drawing-room before, and, notwithstanding M. Taine's +subsequently expressed dictum about the facility with which a Parisien +grisette, shopwoman, or lady's-maid may be transformed at a few moments +into a semblance of a _grande dame_, these very petites bourgeoises and +their demoiselles made a very indifferent show. Perhaps the grisette, +shopwoman, or lady's-maid would have acquitted herself better. Her +natural taste, sharpened by constant contact with her social superiors, +might have made up for the slender resources of her wardrobe; and, as +the French say, "one forgives much in the way of solecism to the +prettily dressed woman." As it was, the female section of M. Marrast's +guests could advance no valid plea for mercy on that score. The +daughters looked limp with their choregraphic exertions: the emblem of +innocence, "la sainte mousseline," as Ambroise Thomas called it +afterwards, hung in vague, undefined folds on angular figures, perhaps +because the starch necessary to it had been appropriated by the matrons. +The latter were rigid to a degree, and looked daggers at their spouses +and their friends at the slightest attempt to stir them to animation. +"Fais donc danser ma vieille," was the consecrated formula with which a +not very eager cavalier was dragged to the seat where said "vieille" +was reposing in all the majesty of her unaccustomed finery, considerably +impaired in the wearer's transit on foot from her domicile at Montrouge +or Menilmontant to the banks of the Seine; for the weather that year was +almost tropical, even in the autumn, and consequently the cab had been +dispensed with. It would appear, from a remark I overheard, that Jehu, +in the way of business, preferred as fares the partisans of and +adherents to the fallen regimes, even of the latest one. Said a portly +dame to her neighbour, alluding to the cabman, "Il a absolument refuse +de nous prendre. Il a dit qu'il etait dans l'opposition, et qu'il ne +voulait pas trahir ses principes a moins de dix francs. Dix francs, ma +chere, nous aurions pu souper chez nous, et sans compter les frais de +toilette et de blanchissage. Quant a l'honneur d'etre ici, ca ne compte +pas pour grand'chose, vu que tout le quartier y est; nous demeurons a +Batignolles, et il a fallu descendre en ville ce matin pour avoir une +paire de gants blancs. Chez nous, partout la meme reponse: 'Des gants +blancs, madame, nous n'en avons plus. Presque toutes les dames du +quartier vont au Palais-Bourbon ce soir, et depuis hier il nous reste +que des petites pointures (sizes), des sept et des sept et demies.'" + +As for the "elu du peuple souverain," when he had failed to draw his +"vieille" into the mazy dance, and been snubbed for his pains in the +bargain, he returned to his fellow-deputies, many of whom might be +easily recognized by the golden-fringed tricolour rosette in their +buttonholes, though some had merely kept it in their pockets. The "elu +du peuple" did not dance himself. Perhaps the most curious group was +that of the young attaches and clerks of the Foreign Office who had come +to enjoy themselves, who, even at that time, were nearly all of good +birth, and who, to use a colloquial expression, looked not unlike brass +knockers on a pigsty. This was the society Louis-Napoleon was to sweep +away with the aid of men, some of whom I have endeavoured to sketch in +subsequent notes. I would fain say a few words of a "shipwrecked one," +of the preceding dynasty, whose acquaintance I did not make until the +vessel he had steered so long had foundered, and of the self-constituted +pilot of the interim regime. I am alluding to MM. Guizot and de +Lamartine. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + Guizot, Lamartine, and Beranger -- Public opinion at sea with + regard to the real Guizot -- People fail to see the real man + behind the politician -- Guizot regrets this false conception -- + "I have not the courage to be unpopular" -- A tilt at Thiers -- + My first meeting with him -- A picture and the story connected + with it -- M. Guizot "at home" -- His apartment -- The company -- + M. Guizot on "the Spanish marriages" -- His indictment against + Lord Palmerston -- An incident in connection with Napoleon's tomb + at the Invalides -- Nicolas I. and Napoleon -- My subsequent + intimacy with M. Guizot -- Guizot as a father -- His + correspondence with his daughters -- A story of Henry Muerger and + Marguerite Thuillier -- M. Guizot makes up his mind not to live + in Paris any longer -- M. Guizot on "natural scenery" -- Never + saw the sea until he was over fifty -- Why M. Guizot did not like + the country; why M. Thiers did not like it -- Thiers the only man + at whom Guizot tilted -- M. Guizot died poor -- M. de Lamartine's + poverty did not inspire the same respect -- Lamartine's + impecuniosity -- My only visit to Lamartine's house -- Du Jellaby + dore -- With a difference -- All the stories and anecdotes about + M. de Lamartine relate to his improvidence and impecuniosity -- + Ten times worse in that respect than Balzac -- M. Guizot's + literary productions and M. de Lamartine's -- The national + subscription raised for the latter -- How he anticipates some of + the money -- Beranger -- My first acquaintance with him -- + Beranger's verdict on the Second Republic -- Beranger's constant + flittings -- Dislikes popularity -- The true story of Beranger + and Mdlle. Judith Frere. + + +That sentence of Louis-Philippe to Lord ----, quoted elsewhere: "Guizot +is so terribly respectable; I am afraid there is a mistake either about +his nationality or his respectability, for they are badly matched," +reflected the opinion of the majority of Frenchmen with regard to the +eminent statesman. The historian who was supposed to know Cromwell and +Washington as well as if he had lived with them, was credited at last +with being a stern rigid Puritan in private life like the first, +impatient of contradiction like the second--in short, a kind of walking +copy-book moral, who never unbent, whose slightest actions were intended +by him to convey a lesson to the rest of mankind. Unable to devote much +time to her during the week, Guizot was in the habit of taking his +mother for a stroll in the Park of St. Cloud on Sundays. The French, who +are never tired of shouting, "Oh, ma mere! oh, ma mere!" resented such +small attentions on the part of the son, because, they maintained, they +were meant as exhibitions. Even such a philosopher as Ernest Renan +failed to see that there were two dissimilar men in Guizot, the Guizot +of public life and the Guizot of home life; that, behind the imperious, +haughty, battlesome orator of the Chamber, with his almost marble mask, +there was a tender and loving heart, capable of the most deep-seated +devotion; that the cares of State once thrown off, the supercilious +stare melted like ice beneath the sun of spring into a prepossessing +smile, captivating every one with whom he came in contact. + +Guizot regretted this erroneous conception the world had formed of his +character. "But what can I do?" he asked. "In reality, I haven't the +courage to be unpopular any more than other people; but neither have I +the courage to prance about in my own drawing-room as if I were on +wires"--this was a slight slap at M. Thiers,--"nor can I write on +subjects with which I have no sympathy"--that was a second,--"and I +should cut but a sorry figure on horseback"--that was a +third;--"consequently people who, I am sure, wish me well, but who will +not come and see me at home, hold me up as a misanthrope, while I know +that I am nothing of the kind." + +With this he took from his table an article by M. Renan on the first +volume of his "Memoires," an article couched in the most flattering +terms, but giving the most conventional portrait of the author himself. +"Why doesn't he come and see me? He would soon find that I am not the +solitary, tragic, buckram figure that has already become legendary, and +which, like most legendary figures, is absolutely false." + +This conversation--or rather monologue, for I was careful not to +interrupt him--took place in the early part of the Second Empire, in the +house in the Rue de la Ville-Leveque he occupied for five and twenty +years, and until 1860. The Coup d'Etat had irretrievably shattered +Guizot's political career. It had destroyed whatever hopes may have +remained after the flight of Louis-Philippe. Consequently Guizot's +proper place is among the men of that reign; the reason why I insert him +here is because my acquaintance with him only began after his +disappearance from public life. + +It occurred in this way. One evening, after dinner at M. de Morny's, we +were talking about pictures, and especially about those of the Spanish +school, when our host turned to me. "Have you ever seen 'the Virgin' +belonging to M. Guizot?" he asked. I told him I had not. "Then go and +see it," he said. "It is one of the finest specimens of its kind I ever +saw, I might say the finest." Next day I asked permission of M. Guizot +to come and see it, and, almost by return of post, I received an +invitation for the following Thursday night to one of his "at homes." + +Until then I had never met M. Guizot, except at one of his ministerial +soirees under the preceding dynasty. The apartment offered nothing very +striking: the furniture was of the ordinary kind to be found in almost +every bourgeois drawing-room, with this difference--that it was +considerably shabbier; for Guizot was poor all his life. The man who had +said to the nation, "Enrichissez vous, enrichissez vous," had never +acted upon the advice himself. I know for a fact that, while he was in +power, he was asked to appoint to the post of receiver-general of the +Gironde one of the richest financiers in France, who had expressed the +intention to share the magnificent benefits of the appointment with him. +M. Guizot simply and steadfastly refused to do anything of the kind. + +On the evening in question, a lamp with a reflector was placed in front +of the picture I had come to see, probably in my honour. M. de Morny had +not exaggerated the beauty of it, but it bore no signature, and M. +Guizot himself had no idea with regard to the painter. "There is a +curious story connected with it," he said, "but I cannot tell it you +now; come and see me one morning and I will. As an Englishman it will +interest you; especially if you will take the trouble to read between +the lines. I will tell you a few more, perhaps, but the one connected +with the picture is 'la bonne bouche.'" + +The company at M. Guizot's, on that and other occasions, mainly +consisted of those who had been vanquished in the recent struggle with +Louis-Napoleon, or thought they had been; for a great many were mere +word-spinners, who had been quite as vehement in their denunciations of +the man they were now surrounding when he was in power, as they were in +their diatribes against the man who, after all, saved France for +eighteen years from anarchy, and did not indulge more freely in +nepotism, peculation, and kindred amenities than those who came after +him. But, at the outset of these notes, I took the resolution to eschew +politics, and I will endeavour to keep it as far as possible. + +As a matter of course, I soon availed myself of M. Guizot's permission +to call upon him in the morning, and it was then that he told me the +following story connected with the picture. + +"After the Spanish marriages, Queen Isabella wished to convey to me a +signal mark of her gratitude--for what, Heaven alone knows, because it +is the only political transaction I would willingly efface from my +career. So she conferred upon me the dukedom of San Antonio, and sent me +the patent with a most affectionate letter. Honestly speaking, I was +more than upset by this proof of royal kindness, seeing that I had not +the least wish to accept the title. I felt equally reluctant to offend +her by declining the high distinction offered, I felt sure, from a most +generous feeling. I went to see the King, and explained my awkward +position, adding that the name of Guizot was all sufficient for me. 'You +are right,' said the King. 'Leave the matter to me; I'll arrange it.' +And he did, much to the disgust of M. de Salvandy, who had received a +title at the same time, but who could not accept his while the Prime +Minister declined. + +"Then she sent me this picture. Some witty journalist said, at the time, +that it was symbolical of her own married state; for let me tell you +that the unfitness of Don Francis d'Assis was 'le secret de +polichinelle,' however much your countrymen may have insisted that it +only leaked out after the union. Personally I was entirely opposed to +it, and, in fact, it was not a ministerial question at all, but one of +court intrigue. Lord Palmerston chose to make it the former, and he, and +your countrymen through him, are not only morally but virtually +responsible for the subsequent errors of Isabella. Do you know what his +ultimatum was when the marriage had been contracted, when there was no +possibility of going back? You do not. Well, then, I will tell you. 'If +Isabella has not a child within a twelvemonth, then there will be war +between England and France.' I leave you to ponder the consequences for +yourself, though I assure you that I washed my hands of the affair from +that moment. But the French as well as the English would never believe +me, and history will record that 'the austere M. Guizot,' for that is +what they choose to call me, 'lent his aid to proceedings which would +make the most debased pander blush with shame.' + +"It is not the only time that my intentions have been purposely +misconceived and misconstrued; nay, I have been taxed with things of +which I was as innocent as a child. In 1846, almost at the same period +that the Spanish imbroglio took place, Count de Montalembert got up in +the Upper House one day and declared it a disgrace that France should +have begged the tomb of Napoleon I. from Russia. Now, the fact was that +France had not begged anything at all. The principal part of the +monument at the Invalides is the sarcophagus. The architect Visconti was +anxious that it should consist of red porphyry; M. Duchatel and myself +were of the same opinion. Unfortunately, we had not the remotest notion +where such red porphyry was to be found. The Egyptian quarries, whence +the Romans took it, were exhausted. Inquiries were made in the Vosges, +in the Pyrenees, but without result, and we were going to abandon the +porphyry, when news arrived at the Ministry of the Interior that the +kind of stone we wanted existed in Russia. + +"Just then my colleague, M. de Salvandy, was sending M. Leouzon le Duc +to the north on a special mission, and I instructed him to go as far as +St. Petersburg and consult Count de Rayneval, our ambassador, as to the +best means of getting the porphyry. A few months later, M. le Duc sent +me specimens of a stone from a quarry on the banks of the Onega Lake, +which, if not absolutely porphyry, was the nearest to it to be had. M. +Visconti having approved of it, I forwarded further instructions for the +quantity required, and so forth. + +"The quarry, it appears, belonged to the Crown, and had never been +worked, could not be worked, without due permission and the payment of a +certain tax. After a great many formalities, mainly raised by +speculators who had got wind of the affair, and had bribed various +officials to oppose, or, at any rate, intercept the petition sent by M. +le Duc for the necessary authorization, Prince Wolkonsky, the Minister +of State, acquainted the Czar himself with the affair, and Nicholas, +without a moment's hesitation, granted the request, remitting the tax +which M. le Duc had estimated at about six thousand francs. This took +place at a cabinet council, and, unfortunately for me, the Czar thought +fit to make a little speech. 'What a strange destiny!' he said, rising +from his seat and assuming a solemn tone--'what a strange destiny this +man's'--alluding to Napoleon--'even in death! It is we who struck him +the first fatal blow, by the burning of our holy and venerable capital, +and it is from us that France asks his tomb. Let the French envoy have +everything he requires, and, above all, let no tax be taken.' + +"That was enough; the German and French papers got hold of the last +words with the rest; they confounded the tax with the cost of working, +which amounted to more than two hundred thousand francs; and up to this +day, notwithstanding the explanations I and my colleagues offered in +reply to the interpellation of M. de Montalembert, the story remains +that Russia made France a present of the tomb of Napoleon." + +From that day forth I often called upon M. Guizot, especially in the +daytime, when I knew that he had finished working; for when he found +that his political career was irrevocably at an end, he turned very +cheerfully--I might say gladly--to his original avocation, literature. +Without the slightest fatigue, without the slightest worry, he produced +a volume of philosophical essays or history every year; and if, unlike +Alexandre Dumas, he did not roar with laughter while composing, he was +often heard to hum a tune. "En effet," said one of his daughters, the +Countess Henriette de Witt (both his daughters bore the same name and +titles when married), "notre pere ne chante presque jamais qu'en +travaillant." This did not mean that work, and work only, had the effect +of putting M. Guizot in good humour. He was, according to the same +authority, uniformly sweet-tempered at home, whether sitting in his +armchair, surrounded by his family, or gently strolling up and down his +library. "C'est la politique qui le rendait mechant," said Madame de +Witt, "heureusement il la laissait a la porte. Et tres souvent il +l'oubliait de parti-pris au milieu du conseil et alors il nous ecrivait +des lettres, mais des lettres, comme on n'en ecrit plus. En voila deux +qu'il m'a ecrites lorsque j'etais tres jeune fille." Whereupon she +showed me what were really two charming gossiping little essays on the +art of punctuation. It appears that the little lady was either very +indifferent to, or ignorant of the art; and the father wrote, "My dear +Henriette, I am afraid I shall still have to take you to task with +regard to your punctuation: there is little or none of it in your +letters. All punctuation, commas or other signs, mark a period of repose +for the mind--a stage more or less long--an idea which is done with or +momentarily suspended, and which is being divided by such a sign from +the next. You suppress those periods, those intervals; you write as the +stream flows, as the arrow flies. That will not do at all, because the +ideas one expresses, the things of which we speak, are not all +intimately connected with one another like drops of water." + +The second letter showed that Mdlle. Guizot must have taken her revenge, +either very cleverly, or that she was past all redemption in the matter +of punctuation; and as the latter theory is scarcely admissible, knowing +what we do of her after-life, we must admit the former. The letter ran +as follows: + + "MY DEAR HENRIETTE, + + "I dare say you will find me very provoking, but let me beg of + you not to fling so many commas at my head. You are absolutely + pelting me with them, as the Romans pelted that poor Tarpeia with + their bucklers." + +It reminds one of Marguerite Thuillier, who "created Mimi" in Muerger and +Barriere's "Vie de Boheme," when Muerger fell in love with her. "I can't +do with him," she said to his collaborateur, who pleaded for him,--"I +can't do with him; he is too badly dressed, he looks like a scarecrow." +Barriere advised his friend to go to a good tailor and have himself +rigged out in the latest fashion. The advice was acted upon; Barriere +waited anxiously for the effect of the transformation upon the lady's +heart. A fortnight elapsed, and poor Muerger was snubbed as usual. +Barriere interceded once more. "I can do less with him than before," was +the answer; "he is too well dressed, he looks like a tailor's dummy." + +To return to M. Guizot, whom, in the course of the whole of our +acquaintance, I have only seen once "put out." It was when the fiat went +forth that his house was to come down to make room for the new Boulevard +Malesherbes. The authorities had been as considerate as possible; they +had made no attempt to treat the eminent historian as a simple owner of +house-property fighting to get the utmost value; they offered him three +hundred thousand francs, and M. Guizot himself acknowledged that the sum +was a handsome one. "But I have got thirty thousand volumes to remove, +besides my notes and manuscripts," he wailed. Then his good temper got +the better of him, and he had a "sly dig" at his former adversary, +Adolphe Thiers. "Serves me right for having so many books; happy the +historian who prefers to trust to his imagination." + +M. Guizot made up his mind to have his library removed to Val-Richer and +never to live in Paris again; but his children and friends prevailed +upon him not to forsake society altogether, and to take a modest +apartment near his old domicile, in the Faubourg St. Honore, opposite +the English embassy, which, however, in those days had not the +monumental aspect it has at present. + +"It is doubtful," said M. Guizot afterwards to me, "whether the idea of +living in the country would have ever entered my mind ten or fifteen +years ago. At that time, I would not have gone a couple of miles to see +the most magnificent bit of natural scenery: I should have gone a +thousand to see a man of talent." + +And, in fact, up till 1830, when he was nearly forty-four, he had never +seen the sea, "And if it had not been for an electoral journey to +Normandy, I might not have seen it then." I pointed out to him that M. +Thiers had never had a country house; that he did not seem to care for +nature, for birds, or for flowers. + +"Ah, that's different," he smiled. "I did not care much about the +country, because I had never seen any of it. Thiers does not like it, +because the birds, the flowers, the trees, live and grow without his +interference, and he does not care that anything on earth should happen +without his having a hand in it." + +Thiers was the only man at whom M. Guizot tilted in that way. Though +brought up in strict Protestant, one might almost say Calvinistic +principles, he was an ardent admirer of Roman Catholicism, which he +called "the most admirable school of respect in the world." No man had +suffered more from the excesses of the first Revolution, seeing that his +father perished on the scaffold, yet I should not like to say that he +was not somewhat of a republican at heart, but not of a republic "which +begins with Plato and necessarily ends with a gendarme." "The republic +of '48," he used to say, "it had not even a Monk, let alone a Washington +or a Cromwell; and Louis-Napoleon had to help himself to the throne. And +depend upon it, if there had been a Cromwell, he would have crushed it +as the English one crushed the monarchy. As for Washington, he would not +have meddled with it at all." + +"Yes," he said on another occasion, "I am proud of one thing--of the +authorship of the law on elementary education; but, proud as I am of +it, if I could have foreseen the uses to which it has been put, to which +it is likely to be put when I am gone, I would sooner have seen half of +the nation unable to distinguish an '_A_ from a bull's foot,' as your +countrymen say." + +With Guizot died almost the last French statesman, "who not only thought +that he had the privilege to be poor, but who carried the privilege too +far;" as some one remarked when he heard the news of his demise. Towards +the latter years of his life, he occupied a modest apartment, on the +fourth floor, in the Rue Billaut (now the Rue Washington). Well might M. +de Falloux exclaim, as he toiled up that staircase, "My respect for him +increases with every step I take." + +Since M. de Falloux uttered these words, and very long before, I have +only known one French statesman whose staircase and whose poverty might +perhaps inspire the same reflections and elicit similar praise. I am +alluding to M. Rouher. + +M. de Lamartine's poverty did not breed the same respect. There was no +dignity about it. It was the poverty of Oliver Goldsmith sending to Dr. +Johnson and feasting with the guinea the latter had forwarded by the +messenger pending his own arrival. Mery had summed up the situation with +regard to Lamartine's difficulties on the evening of the 24th of +February, '48, and there is no reason to suspect that his statement had +been exaggerated. The dynasty of the younger branch of the Bourbons had +been overthrown because Lamartine saw no other means of liquidating the +350,000 francs he still owed for his princely journey to the East. I had +been to Lamartine's house once before that revolution, and, though his +wife was an Englishwoman, I felt no inclination to return thither. The +household gave me the impression of "Du Jellaby dore." The sight of it +would have furnished Dickens with as good a picture as the one he +sketched. The principal personage, however, was not quite so +disinterested as the future mother-in-law of Prince Turveydrop. Of +course, at that time, there was no question of a republic, but the +politics advocated and discussed during the lunch were too superfine for +humble mortals like myself, who instinctively felt that-- + + "Quelques billets de mille francs feraient bien mieux l'affaire" + +of the host. And the instinct was not a deceptive one. Four months after +February, 1848, M. de Lamartine had virtually ceased to exist, as far +as French politics were concerned. From that time until the day of his +death, the world only heard of him in connection with a new book or new +poem, the avowed purpose of which was, not to make the world better or +wiser, but to raise money. He kept singing like the benighted musician +on the Russian steppes keeps playing his instrument, to keep away the +wolves. + +I knew not one but a dozen men, all of whom visited M. de Lamartine. I +have never been able to get a single story or anecdote about him, not +bearing upon the money question. He is ten times worse in that respect +than Balzac, with this additional point in the latter's favour--that he +never whines to the outside world about his impecuniosity. M. Guizot +produces a volume every twelvemonth, and asks nothing of any one; he +leaves the advertising of it to his publisher: M. de Lamartine spends +enormous sums in publicity, and subsidizes, besides, a crowd of +journalists, who devour his creditors' substance while he keeps +repeating to them that his books do not sell. "If, henceforth, I were to +offer pearls dissolved in the cup of Cleopatra, people would use the +decoction to wash their horses' feet." And, all the while, people bought +his works, though no one cared to read the later ones. The golden lyre +of yore was worse than dumb; it emitted false and weak sounds, the +strings had become relaxed, the golden tongue alone remained. + +When a national subscription is raised to pay his debts, the committee +are so afraid of his wasting the money that they decide to have the +proceeds deposited at the Comptoir d'Escompte, and that de Lamartine +shall not be able to draw a farthing until all his affairs are settled. +One morning he deputes a friend to ask for forty thousand francs, in +order to pay some bills that are due. They refuse to advance the money. +De Lamartine invites them to his own house, but they stand firm at +first. Gradually they give way. "How much do you really want?" is the +question asked at last. "Fifty thousand francs," is the answer; "but I +fancy I shall be able to manage with thirty thousand francs." + +"If we gave you fifty thousand francs," says M. Emile Pereire, "would +you give us some breathing-time?" + +"Yes." + +And Lamartine pockets the fifty thousand francs, thanks to his +eloquence. + +A better man, though not so great a poet, was Beranger, whom I knew for +many years, though my intimacy with him did not commence until a few +months after the February revolution, when I met him coming out of the +Palais-Bourbon. "I shall feel obliged," he said, "if you will see me +home, for I am not at all well; these violent scenes are not at all to +my taste." Then, with a very wistful smile, he went on: "I have been +accused of having held 'the plank across the brook over which +Louis-Philippe went to the Tuileries.' I wish I could be the bridge +across the channel on which he would return now. Certainly I would have +liked a republic, but not such a one as we are having in there," +pointing to the home of the Constituent Assembly. A short while after, +Beranger tendered his resignation as deputy. + +He lived at Passy then, in the Rue Basse; the number, if I mistake not, +was twenty-three. He had lived in the same quarter fifteen years before, +for I used to see him take his walks when I was a lad, but it was +difficult for Beranger to live in the same spot for any length of time. +He was, first of all, of a very nomadic disposition; secondly, his +quondam friends would leave him no peace. There was a constant inroad of +shady individuals who, on the pretext that he was "the people's poet," +drained his purse and his cellar. Previous to his return to Passy, he +had been boarding with a respectable widow in the neighbourhood of +Vincennes. He had adopted the name of Bonnin, and his landlady took him +to be a modest, retired tradesman, living upon a small annuity. When his +birthday came round, she and her daughters found out that they had +entertained an angel unawares, for carriage after carriage drove up, and +in a few hours the small dwelling was filled with magnificent flowers, +the visitors meanwhile surrounding Beranger, and offering him their +congratulations. As a matter of course, the rumour spread, and Beranger +fled to Passy, where he invited Mdlle. Judith Frere to join him once +more. The retreat had been discovered, and he resigned himself to be +badgered more than usual for the sake of the neighbourhood--the Bois de +Boulogne was hard by; but the municipal council of Passy, in +consideration of the honour conferred upon the arrondissement and +Beranger's charity, took it into their heads to pass a resolution +offering Beranger the most conspicuous place in the cemetery for a tomb. +The poet fled once more, this time to the Quartier-Latin; but the +students insisting on pointing him out to their female companions, who, +in their enthusiasm, made it a point of embracing him on every possible +occasion, especially in the "Closerie des Lilas"--for to the end +Beranger remained fond of the society of young folk,--Beranger was +compelled to flit once more. After a short stay in the Rue Vendome, in +the neighbourhood of the Temple, he came to the Quartier-Beaujon, where +I visited him. + +There have been so many tales with regard to Beranger's companion, +Mdlle. Judith Frere, and all equally erroneous, that I am glad to be +able to rectify them. Mdlle. Frere was by no means the kind of upper +servant she was generally supposed to be. A glance at her face and a few +moments spent in her company could not fail to convince any one that she +was of good birth. She had befriended Beranger when he was very young, +they had parted for some time, and they ended their days together, for +the poet only survived his friend three months. Beranger was a model of +honesty and disinterestedness. Ambition he had little or none; he was +somewhat fond of teasing children, not because he had no affection for +them, but because he loved them too much. His portrait by Ary Scheffer +is the most striking likeness I have ever seen; but a better one still, +perhaps, is by an artist who had probably never set eyes on him. I am +alluding to Hablot Browne, who unconsciously reproduced him to the life +in the picture of Tom Pinch. As a companion, Beranger was charming to a +degree. I have never heard him say a bitter word. The day I saw him +home, I happened to say to him, "You ought to be pleased, Victor Hugo is +in the same regiment with you." "Yes," he answered, "he is in the band." +He would never accept a pension from Louis-Napoleon, but he had no +bitterness against him. Lamartine was very bitter, and yet consented to +the Emperor's heading of the subscription-list in his behalf. That alone +would show the difference between the two men. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Some men of the Empire -- Fialin de Persigny -- The public + prosecutor's opinion of him expressed at the trial for high + treason in 1836 -- Superior in many respects to Louis-Napoleon -- + The revival of the Empire his only and constant dream -- In order + to realize it, he appeals first to Jerome, ex-King of Westphalia + -- De Persigny's estimate of him -- Jerome's greed and + Louis-Napoleon's generosity -- De Persigny's financial + embarrassments -- His charity -- What the Empire really meant to + him -- De Persigny virtually the moving spirit in the Coup d'Etat + -- Louis-Napoleon might have been satisfied with the presidency + of the republic for life -- Persigny seeks for aid in England -- + Palmerston's share in the Coup d'Etat -- The submarine cable -- + Preparations for the Coup d'Etat -- A warning of it sent to + England -- Count Walewski issues invitations for a dinner-party + on the 2nd of December -- Opinion in London that Louis-Napoleon + will get the worst in the struggle with the Chamber -- The last + funds from London -- General de Saint-Arnaud and Baron Lacrosse + -- The Elysee-Bourbon on the evening of the 1st of December -- I + pass the Elysee at midnight -- Nothing unusual -- London on the + 2nd of December -- The dinner at Count Walewski's put off at the + last moment -- Illuminations at the French Embassy a few hours + later -- Palmerston at the Embassy -- Some traits of De + Persigny's character -- His personal affection for Louis-Napoleon + -- Madame de Persigny -- Her parsimony -- Her cooking of the + household accounts -- Chevet and Madame de Persigny -- What the + Empire might have been with a Von Moltke by the side of the + Emperor instead of Vaillant, Niel, and Leboeuf -- Colonel + (afterwards General) Fleury the only modest man among the + Emperor's entourage -- De Persigny's pretensions as a Heaven-born + statesman -- Mgr. de Merode -- De Morny -- His first meeting with + his half-brother -- De Morny as a grand seigneur -- The origin of + the Mexican campaign -- Walewski -- His fads -- Rouher -- My + first sight of him in the Quartier-Latin -- The Emperor's opinion + of him at the beginning of his career -- Rouher in his native + home, Auvergne -- His marriage -- Madame Rouher -- His + father-in-law. + + +"A man endowed with a strong will and energy, active and intelligent to +a degree, with the faculty of turning up at every spot where his +presence was necessary either to revive the lagging plot or to gain +fresh adherents; a man better acquainted than all the rest with the +secret springs upon which the conspiracy hung." + +This description of M. de Persigny is borrowed from the indictment at +the trial for high treason in 1836. Every particular of it is correct, +yet it is a very one-sided diagnosis of the character of Napoleon's +staunchest henchman. If I had had to paint him morally and mentally in +one line, I should, without intending to be irreverent, have called him +the John the Baptist of the revived Napoleonic legend. There could be no +doubt about his energy, his activity, and his intelligence; in respect +to the former two he was absolutely superior to Louis-Napoleon, but +they, the activity and energy and intelligence, would only respond to +the bidding of one voice, that of the first Napoleon from the grave, +which, he felt sure, had appointed him the chief instrument for the +restoration of the Empire. It was the dream that haunted his sleep, that +pursued him when awake. Let it not be thought, though, that +Louis-Napoleon appeared to him as the one selected by Providence to +realize that dream. Loyal and faithful as he was to him from the day +they met until his (Persigny's) death, he would have been equally loyal +and faithful, though perhaps not so deeply attached, to Jerome, the +ex-King of Westphalia, to whom he appealed first. But the youngest of +the great Napoleon's brothers did not relish adventures, and he turned a +deaf ear to Persigny's proposals, as he did later on to those of M. +Thiers, who wished him to become a candidate for the presidency of the +Second Republic. + +I was talking one day on the subject of the latter's refusal to De +Persigny, several years after the advent of the Empire, and commending +Jerome for his abnegation of self and his fealty to his nephew. There +was a sneer on Persigny's face such as I had never seen there before; +for though he was by no means good-tempered, and frequently very +violent, he generally left the members of the Imperial family alone. He +noticed my surprise, and explained at once. "It is very evident that you +do not know Jerome, nor did I until a few years ago. There is not a +single one of the great Napoleon's brothers who really had his glory at +heart; it meant money and position to them, that is all. Do you know why +Jerome did not fall in with my views and those of M. Thiers? Well, I +will tell you. He was afraid that his nephew Louis and the rest of the +family would be a burden on him; he preferred that others should take +the chestnuts out of the fire and that he should have the eating of +them. That is what his self-abnegation meant, nothing more." + +I am afraid that De Persigny was not altogether wrong in his estimate of +the ex-King of Westphalia. He was insatiable in his demands for money to +his nephew. In fact, with the exception of Princesse Mathilde, the whole +of the Emperor's family was a thorn in his side. + +The Emperor himself was absolutely incapable of refusing a service. I +have the following story on very good authority. De Persigny, who was as +lavish as his Imperial master, was rarely ever out of difficulties, and +in such emergencies naturally appealed to the latter. He had wasted on, +or sunk enormous sums in, his country estate of Chamarande, where he +entertained with boundless hospitality. As a matter of course, he was +always being pursued by his creditors. One early morn--Persigny always +went betimes when he wanted money--he made his appearance in the +Emperor's private room, looking sad and dejected. Napoleon refrained for +a while from questioning him as to the cause of his low spirits, but +finally ventured to say that he looked ill. + +"Ah, sire," was the answer, "I am simply bent down with sorrow. This +Chamarande, which I have created out of nothing as it were"--it had cost +nearly two millions of francs--"is ruining me. I shall be forced to give +it up." + +De Persigny felt sure that he would be told there and then not to worry +himself; but the Emperor was in a jocular mood, and took delight in +prolonging his anxiety. "Believe me, my dear duc," said Napoleon with an +assumed air of indifference, "it is the best thing you can do. Get rid +of Chamarande; it is too great a burden, and you'll breathe more freely +when it's gone." + +De Persigny turned as white as a ghost; whereupon Napoleon, who was +soft-hearted to a degree, took a bundle of notes from his drawer and +handed them to him. De Persigny went away beaming. + +It must not be inferred from this that De Persigny was grasping like +Prince Jerome and others, who constantly drained Napoleon's purse. De +Persigny's charity was proverbial, but he gave blindly, and as a +consequence, was frequently imposed upon. When young he had joined the +Saint-Simoniens; his great aim was to make everybody happy. To him the +restoration of the Empire meant not only the revival of Napoleon's +glory, but the era of universal happiness, of universal material +prosperity. As a rule, he was thoroughly unpractical; the whole of his +life's work may be summed up in one line--he conceived and organized the +Coup d'Etat. As such he was virtually the founder of the Second Empire. +In that task practice went hand in hand with theory; when the task was +accomplished, his inspiration was utterly at fault. + +Historians have been generally content to attribute the principal role +in the Coup d'Etat, next to that of Louis-Napoleon, to M. de Morny. Of +course, I am speaking of those who conceived it, not of those who +executed it. The parts of Generals Magnan and De Saint-Arnaud, of +Colonel de Beville and M. de Maupas, scarcely admit of discussion. But +the fact is that De Morny did comparatively nothing as far as the +conception was concerned. The prime mover was undoubtedly De Persigny, +and it is a very moot question whether, but for him, it would have been +conceived at all. I know I am treading on dangerous ground, but I have +very good authority for the whole of the following notes relating to it. +In De Persigny's mind the whole of the scheme was worked out prior to +Louis-Napoleon's election to the presidency, though of course the +success of it depended on that election. He did not want a republic, +even with Louis-Napoleon as a president for life; he wanted an empire. I +should not like to affirm that Prince Louis would _not_ have been +content with such a position; it was Persigny who put down his foot, +exclaiming, "_Aut Caesar, aut nullus!_" That the sentence fell upon +willing ears, there is equally no doubt, and when the Prince-President +had his foot upon the first rung of the ladder, he would probably have +rushed, or endeavoured to rush, to the top at once, regardless of the +risk involved in this perilous ascent, for there would have been no one, +absolutely no one, to steady the ladder at the bottom. De Persigny held +him back while he busied himself in finding not only the _personnel_ +that was to hold the latter, but the troops that would prevent the crowd +from interfering with the ladder-holders. It was he who was the first to +broach the recall of De Saint-Arnaud from Africa; it was he who drew +attention to M. de Maupas, then little more than an obscure prefect; it +was he who was wise enough to see that "the ladder-holders" would have +to be sought for in England, and not in France. "The English," he said +to Napoleon, "owe you a good turn for the harm they have done to your +uncle. They are sufficiently generous or sufficiently sensible to do +that good turn, if it is in their interest to do so; look for your +support among the English." + +I fancy it was Lord Palmerston's dislike of Louis-Philippe on account of +"the Spanish marriages," rather than a sentiment of generosity towards +Louis-Napoleon, that made him espouse his cause, but I feel certain that +he did espouse it. I have good ground for saying that his interviews +with Comte Walewski were much more frequent than his ministerial +colleagues suspected, or the relations between England and France, +however friendly they may have been, warranted. But everything was not +ready. Palmerston and Walewski on the English side of the Channel, +Louis-Napoleon and De Persigny on the French side, were waiting for +something. What was it? Nothing more nor less than the laying of the +submarine cable between Dover and Calais, the concession for which was +given on the 8th of January, 1851, and on which occasion the last words +to Mr. Walker Breit were to hurry it on as much as possible, "_seeing +that it is of the utmost importance for the French Government to be in +direct and rapid communication with the Cabinet of St. James_." The +Cabinet meant Lord Palmerston. Nevertheless, it is not until ten months +later that the cable is laid, and from that moment events march apace. +Let us glance at them for a moment. Telegraphic communication between +Dover and Calais is established on the 13th of November. On the 15th, +General Saint-Arnaud gives orders that the degree of 1849, conferring on +the president of the National Assembly the right of summoning and +disposing of the military forces which had hitherto been hung up in +every barracks throughout the land, shall be taken down. On the 16th, +Changarnier, Leflo, and Baze, with many others, decide that a bill shall +be introduced immediately, conferring once more that right on the +president of the Assembly. The opponents of the Prince-President are +already rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of their success, +for it means that Prince Louis and his adherents will be in their power, +and in their power means removal to Vincennes or elsewhere, as prisoners +of State. On the 18th, the bill is thrown out by a majority of 108, and +the Assembly is virtually powerless henceforth against any and every +attack from the military. It was on that very evening that the date of +the Coup d'Etat was fixed for the 2nd of December, notwithstanding the +hesitation and wavering of Louis-Napoleon. On the 26th a young attache +is despatched from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the French Embassy +in London, instead of the ordinary cabinet (or queen's) messenger, which +proves that the despatches are more important than usual. They contain +letters from the Prince-President himself to Comte Walewski, the +contents of which are probably known to the Marquis de Turgot, but which +are despatched in that way, instead of being sent directly from the +Elysee by a trustworthy person, because the presidential residence is +watched day and night by the "counter-police" of the Assembly. The +reason why the Marquis de Turgot selects a young aristocrat is because +he feels certain that he cannot be tampered with. On the 29th of +November a connection of mine receives a letter from a friend in London, +who is supposed to be behind the scenes, but who this time is utterly in +the dark. It is to the following effect: "There is something in the +wind, but I know not what. Both yesterday morning (27th) and to-day +Walewski has been closeted for more than two hours each time with +Palmerston. There is to be a grand dinner at Walewski's on the second of +next month, to which I received an invitation. Can you tell me what +mischief is brewing?" + +The recipient of the letter was neither better nor worse informed than +the rest of us, and in spite of all the assertions to the contrary which +have been made since, no one foresaw the crisis in the shape it came +upon us. On the contrary, the general opinion was that in the end +Louis-Napoleon would get the worse, in spite of the magic influence of +his name with the army. It was expected that if the troops were called +upon to act against the National Assembly, they would refuse and turn +against their leaders. I am by no means certain that the +Prince-President did not entertain a similar opinion up to the last +moment, for I have it on excellent authority that as late as the 26th of +November he endeavoured to postpone the affair for a month. It was then +that De Persigny showed his teeth, and insisted upon the night of the +1st or 2nd of December as the latest. The interview was a very stormy +one. On that very morning De Persigny had received a letter from London, +not addressed to his residence. It contained a draft for L2000, but with +the intimation that these would be the last funds forthcoming. He showed +the Prince-President the letter, and Napoleon gave in there and then. +The letters spoken of just now were despatched on the same day. It was +with that money that the Coup d'Etat was made, and all the stories about +a million and a half of francs being handed respectively to De Morny, De +Maupas, Saint-Arnaud, and the rest are so much invention. + +Up to six o'clock in the afternoon of the 1st of December, General de +Saint-Arnaud was virtually undecided, not with regard to the necessity +of the Coup d'Etat, but with regard to the opportuneness of it within +the next twelve hours. I have the following story from the lips of +Baron Lacrosse, who was one of the actors in it. On the eve of the Coup +d'Etat he was Minister of Public Works, and as such was present at the +sitting of the Assembly on the 1st of December. A member ascended the +tribune to interpellate the Minister for War, and, the latter being +absent, the question was deferred until next day. That same evening, 1st +of December, there was an official dinner at M. Daviel's, the Minister +of Justice, and at the termination of the sitting, M. Lacrosse called in +his carriage at the Ministry for War to take his colleague. "You may +make up your mind for a warm half-hour to-morrow," he said with a smile, +as he entered General Saint-Arnaud's room. "Why?" asked the general. +"You are going to be interpellated." "I expected as much, and was just +considering my answer. I am glad you warned me in time. I think I know +what to say now." + +I do not believe that Baron Lacrosse had the faintest inkling of the +real drift of the remark, nor have I ever asked him directly whether he +had. As far as I could gather afterwards from one or two people who were +there, the Elysee presented no unusual feature that night. The reception +was well attended, as the ordinary receptions on Mondays generally were, +for the times had gone by when the courtyard was a howling wilderness +dotted with two, or perhaps three, hackney cabs. It would appear that a +great many well-known men and a corresponding number of pretty women +moved as usual through the salons, only one of which was shut up, that +at the very end of the suite, and which did duty as a council-chamber, +and contained the portrait of the then young Emperor of Austria, +Francis-Joseph. But this was scarcely noticed, nor did the early +withdrawal of the Prince-President provoke any comment, for it happened +pretty often. Very certain is it that at twelve o'clock that night the +Elysee was wrapt in darkness, for I happened to pass there at that hour. +Standing at the door, or rather inside it, was the captain of the guard, +smoking a cigar. I believe it was Captain Desondes of the "Guides," but +I will not be sure, for I was not near enough to distinguish plainly. +The Faubourg St. Honore was pretty well deserted, save for a few +individuals prowling about; they were probably detectives in the pay of +the Prince-President's adversaries. + +Let me return for a moment to London, and give an account of what +happened there on the 2nd of December, as supplied by the writer of the +above-mentioned letter, in an epistle which reached Paris only on the +7th. + +It appears that on the day of the Coup d'Etat London woke up amidst a +dense fog. Virtually the news of what happened in Paris early that +morning did not spread until between two and three o'clock. Our +informant had been invited to a dinner-party at the French Embassy that +night, and though in no way actively connected with politics, he was +asking himself whether he should go or stay away, when, at five o'clock, +he received a note from the Embassy, saying that the dinner would not +take place. The fact was that at the eleventh hour the whole of the +corps diplomatique had sent excuses. Our friend went to his club, had +his dinner, and spent part of the evening there. At about eleven a crony +of his came in, and seeing him seated in the smoking-room, exclaimed, +"Why, I thought you were going to Walewski's dinner and reception." "So +I was," remarked our friend, "but it was countermanded at five." +"Countermanded? Why, I passed the Embassy just now, and it was blazing +with light. Come and look." + +They took a cab, and sure enough the building was positively +illuminated. Our friend went in, and the salons were crammed to +suffocation. Lord Palmerston was talking animatedly to Count Walewski; +the whole corps diplomatique accredited to the court of St. James was +there. The fact was that about nine or half-past the most favourable +news from Paris had reached London. The report soon spread that Lord +Palmerston had officially adhered to the Coup d'Etat, and that he had +telegraphed in that sense to the various English embassies abroad +without even consulting his fellow-ministers. + +I believe our friend was correctly informed, for it is well known that +Palmerston did not resign, but was virtually dismissed from office. He +never went to Windsor to give up the seals; Lord John Russell had to do +it for him. Persigny, therefore, considered that he had fallen in the +cause of Louis-Napoleon, and as such he became little short of an idol. +The Prince-President himself was not far from sharing in that worship. +Not once, but a hundred times, his familiars have heard him say, "Avec +Palmerston on peut faire des grandes choses." Nevertheless, Palmerston +appealed more to De Persigny's imagination than to Louis-Napoleon's. +After all, he was perhaps much more of a Richelieu than a constitutional +minister in a constitutional country has a right to be nowadays, and +that was what Persigny admired above all things. His long stay in +England had by no means removed his inherent dislike to parliamentary +government, and, rightly or wrongly, he credited Palmerston with a +similar sentiment. + +De Persigny was amiable and obliging enough, provided one knew how to +manage him, and with those whom he liked, but exceedingly thin-skinned +and often violent with those whom he disliked. He was, moreover, very +jealous with regard to Louis-Napoleon's affection for him. I doubt +whether he really minded the influence wielded by the Empress, De Morny, +and Walewski over the Emperor, but he grudged them their place in the +Emperor's heart. This was essentially the case with regard to the +former. He would have been glad to see his old friend and Imperial +master contract a loveless marriage with some insignificant German or +Russian princess, who would have borne her husband few or many children, +in order to secure the safety of the dynasty, but the passion that +prompted the union with Eugenie de Montijo he considered virtually as an +injury to himself. I give his opinion on that subject in English, +because, though expressed in French, it had certainly been inspired by +his sojourn in England. "When love invades a man's heart, there is +scarcely any room left for friendship. You cannot drive love for a woman +and friendship for a man in double harness, you are obliged to drive +them tandem; and what is worse in a case like that of the Emperor, +friendship becomes the leader and love the wheeler. Of course, to the +outsider, friendship has the place of honour; in reality, love, the +wheeler, is in closest contact with the driver and the vehicle, and can, +moreover, have a sly kick at friendship, the leader. Personally, I am an +exception--I may say a phenomenal exception--because my affection for +the Emperor is as strong as my love for my wife." + +Those who knew both the Emperor and Madame de Persigny might have fitly +argued that this equal division of affection was a virtual injustice to +the sovereign, who was decidedly more amiable than the spouse. The +former rarely did a spiteful thing from personal motives of revenge; I +only know of two. He never invited Lady Jersey to the Tuileries during +the Empire, because she had shown her dislike of him when he was in +London; he exiled David d'Angers because the sculptor had refused to +finish the monument of Queen Hortense after the Coup-d'Etat. David +d'Angers was one of the noblest creatures that ever lived, and I mean to +speak of him at greater length. On the other hand, Madame de Persigny +made her husband's life, notwithstanding his love for her, a burden by +her whimsical disposition, her vindictive temperament, and her +cheeseparing in everything except her own lavish expenditure on dress. +She was what the French call "une femme qui fait des scenes;" she almost +prided herself upon being superior in birth to her husband, though in +that respect there was really not a pin to choose between her +grandfather, Michel Ney, the stable-boy, who had risen to be a duke of +the First Empire, and her husband, the sergeant-quartermaster Fialin, +who became Duc de Persigny under the second. She was always advocating +retrenchment in the household. "True," said Persigny, "she cuts down her +dresses too, but the more she cuts, the more they cost." For in his +angry moments he would now and then tell a story against his wife. Here +is one. Persigny, as I have already said, was hospitable to a fault, but +he had always to do battle when projecting a grand entertainment. "There +was so much trouble with the servants, and as for the chef, his +extravagance knew no bounds." So said madame; and sick at last of always +hearing the same complaints, he decided to let Chevet provide. All went +well at first, because he himself went to the Palais-Royal to give his +orders, merely stating the number of guests, and leaving the rest to the +famous caterers, than whom there are no more obliging or conscientious +purveyors anywhere. After a little while he began to leave the +arrangements to madame; she herself sent out the invitations, so there +could be no mistake with regard to the number. He soon perceived, +however, that the dinners, if not inferior in quality to the former +ones, were decidedly inferior in quantity. At last, one evening, when +there were twenty-six people round the board, there was not enough for +twenty, and next day De Persigny took the road to the Palais-Royal once +more to lodge his complaint personally. "Comment, monsieur le comte," +was the reply of one of the principals, "vous dites qu'il y avait +vingt-six convives et qu'il n'y avait pas de quoi nourrir vingt; je vous +crois parfaitement; voila la commande de madame la comtesse, copiee dans +notre registre: 'Diner chez M. de Persigny pour seize personnes.'" + +Madame had simply pocketed, or intended to pocket, fifteen hundred +francs--for Chevet rarely charged less than a hundred and fifty francs +per head, wines included--and had endeavoured to make the food for +sixteen do for twenty-six. Of course there was a scene. Madame promised +amendment, and the husband was only too willing to believe. The +amendment was worse than the original offence, for one night the whole +of the supper-table, set out a la Francaise, _i. e._, with everything on +it, gave way, because, her own dining-table having proved too small, she +had declined Chevet's offer of providing one at a cost of seven or eight +francs, and sent for a jobbing carpenter to put together some boards and +trestles at the cost of two francs. Chevet managed to provide another +banquet within three quarters of an hour, which, with the one that had +been spoiled, was put in the bill. Within a comparatively short time of +her husband's death, early in the seventies, Madame de Persigny +contracted a second marriage, in direct opposition to the will of her +family. + +Most of the men in the immediate entourage of the Emperor were +intoxicated with their sudden leap into power, but of course the +intoxication manifested itself in different ways. A good many considered +themselves the composers of the Napoleonic Opera--for it was really such +in the way it held the stage of France for eighteen years, the usual +tragic finale not even being wanting. With the exception of De Persigny, +they were in reality but the orchestral performers, and he, to give him +his utmost due, was only the orchestrator of the score and part author +of the libretto. The original themes had been composed by the exile of +St. Helena, and were so powerfully attractive to, and so constantly +haunting, the ears of the majority of Frenchmen as to have required no +outward aid to remembrance for thirty-five years, though I do not forget +either Thiers' works, Victor Hugo's poetry, Louis-Philippe's generous +transfer of the great captain's remains to France, nor Louis-Napoleon's +own attempts at Strasburg and Boulogne, all of which contributed to that +effect. Nevertheless, all the artisans of the Coup d'Etat considered +themselves nearly as great geniuses as the intellectual and military +giant who conceived and executed the 19th Brumaire, and pretended to +impose their policy upon Europe by imposing their will upon the Emperor, +though not one could hold a candle to him in statecraft. Napoleon with a +Moltke by his side would have been a match for Bismarck, and the left +bank of the Rhine _might_ have been French; Alsace-Lorraine would +certainly not have been German. It is not my purpose, however, to enter +upon politics. I repeat, De Persigny, De Morny, and to a certain extent +Walewski, endeavoured to exalt themselves into political Napoleons at +all times and seasons; De Saint-Arnaud felt convinced that the +strategical mantle of the great warrior had fallen upon him; De Maupas +fancied himself another Fouche. The only one who was really free from +pretensions of either kind was Colonel (afterwards General) Fleury. He +was the only modest man among the lot. + +The greatest offender in that way was, no doubt, De Persigny. During his +journey to Rome in 1866 he did not hesitate to tender his political +advice to such past masters in diplomacy as Pius IX. and Cardinal +Antonelli. Both pretended to profit by the lesson, but Mgr. de +Merode,[52] who was not quite so patient, had many an animated +discussion with him, in which De Persigny frequently got the worst. One +evening the latter thought fit to twit him with his pugnaciousness. "I +suppose, monsignor," he said, "it's the ancient leaven of the trooper +getting the upper hand now and then." "True," replied the prelate; "I +was a captain in the foreign legion, and fought in Africa, where I got +my cross of the Legion of Honour. But you, monsieur le duc, I fancy I +have heard that you were more or less of a sergeant-quartermaster in a +cavalry regiment." + + [Footnote 52: Frederic Xavier de Merode was the descendant of + an ancient Flemish family, and became an influential member of + the Prelatura. He took an active share in the organization of + the Papal troops which fought at Mentana. There is a romantic + but absolutely true story connected with his military career. + He was from his very youth intended for the priesthood, but one + day, when he was but nineteen, he had a quarrel with a + fellow-student, who gave him a box on the ears. M. de Merode + was too conscientious a Catholic to fight a duel, and still his + pride forbade him to remain under the imputation of being a + coward. So he enlisted first in a Belgian, subsequently in a + foreign regiment, and proved his courage. He was very + hot-tempered, and had frequent disagreements with Generals + Lamoriciere and De Guyon, and even with Pius IX. himself, who, + on the occasion of the promulgation of the decree of + infallibility, positively forbade him to enter the Vatican + again. But he soon afterwards made his peace with the Pontiff. + His worst enemies--and he had many--never questioned his + sincerity and loyalty.--EDITOR.] + +Mgr. de Merode could have done De Persigny no greater injury than to +remind him of his humble origin. He always winced under such allusions; +his constant preoccupation was to make people forget it, and he often +exposed himself to ridicule in the attempt. He knew nothing about art, +and yet he would speak about it, not as if he had studied the subject, +but as if he had been brought up in a refined society, where the +atmosphere had been impregnated with it. As a matter of course, he +became an easy victim to the picture-dealers and bric-a-brac merchants. +I remember his silver being taken to the mint during the Siege. He had +paid an enormous price for it on the dealer's representation that it was +antique: "C'est du Louis XV. tout pur." "Tellement pur que c'est du +Victoria," said a connoisseur; and he was not mistaken, for it had been +manufactured by a firm of London silversmiths. But it was a compliment +for all that to the Queen. + +With all his faults, De Persigny was at heart a better man than De +Morny, who affected to look down upon him. True, the latter had none of +his glaring defects, neither had he any of his sterling virtues. One +evening, in January, 1849, when the Prince-President had been less than +a month at the Elysee, a closed carriage drove into the courtyard and +stopped before the flight of steps leading to the hall, which, like the +rest of the building, was already wrapt in semi-darkness. A gentleman +alighted who was evidently expected, for the officer on duty conducted +him almost without a word to the private apartments of the President, +where the latter was walking up and down, the usual cigarette between +his lips, evidently greatly preoccupied and visibly impatient. The door +had scarcely opened when the Prince's face, generally so difficult to +read, lighted up as if by magic. Before the officer had time to announce +the visitor, the prince stepped forward, held out his hand, and with the +other clasped the new-comer to his breast. The officer knew the visitor. +It was the Comte Auguste de Morny. As a matter of course he retired, and +saw and heard no more. I had the above account from his own lips, and he +felt certain that this was the first time the brothers had ever met. + +The Comte de Morny was close upon forty then, and for at least half of +that time had been emancipated from all restraint; he was a well-known +figure in the society of Louis-Philippe's reign; he had been a deputy +for one of the constituencies in Auvergne; at the period of his first +meeting with Louis-Napoleon he was at the head of an important +industrial establishment down that way, and one fain asks one's self why +he had waited until then to shake his brother's hand. The answer is not +difficult. There is an oft-repeated story about De Morny having been at +the Opera-Comique during the evening of the 1st of December, 1851. +Rumours of the Coup d'Etat were rife, and a lady said, "Il parait qu'on +va donner un fameux coup de balai. De quel cote serez vous, M. de +Morny?" "Soyez sure, madame, que je serai du cote du manche." Morny +always averred that he had said nothing of the kind. "They invented it +afterwards, perhaps because they credited me with the instinctive +faculty of being on the winning side, the side of the handle, in any and +every emergency." + +I think one may safely accept that version, and that is why he refrained +from claiming his brother's friendship and acquaintance until he felt +almost certain that the latter was fingering the handle of the broom +that was to make a clean sweep of the Second Republic. It is difficult +to determine how much or how little he contributed to the success of +that sweep, but I have an idea that it was very little. One thing is +very certain, for I have it on very good--I may say, the +best--authority. He did not contribute any money to the undertaking; he +endeavoured to raise funds from others, but he himself did not loosen +his purse-strings; when, curiously enough, he was the only one among the +immediate entourage of Louis-Napoleon whose purse-strings were worth +loosening. + +Allowing for the difference of sex, better breeding and better +education, De Morny often reminded one of Rachel. They possessed the +same powers of fascination, and were, I am afraid, equally selfish at +heart. To read the biographies of both--I do not mean those that pretend +to be historical--one would think that there had never been a grande +dame on the stage of the Comedie-Francaise before Rachel or contemporary +with her, though Augustine Brohan was decidedly more grande dame than +Rachel in every respect. It is the same with regard to De Morny. To the +chroniqueur during the Second Empire he was the only grand seigneur--the +rest were only seigneurs; but I am inclined to think that the +chroniqueur of those days had seen very few real grand seigneurs. To use +a popular locution, "they did not go thirteen to the dozen" at the court +of Napoleon III.; and among the people with whom De Morny came +habitually in contact, in the course of his financial and industrial +schemes, a grand seigneur was even a greater rarity than at the +Tuileries. If a kind of quiet impertinence to some of one's +fellow-creatures, and a tacitly expressed contempt for nearly the whole +of the rest, constitute the grand seigneur, then certainly De Morny +could have claimed the title. I have elsewhere noted the meeting of +Taglioni with her husband at De Morny's dinner-party. If it had been +arranged by the host with the view of effecting a reconciliation between +the couple, then nothing could have been more praiseworthy; but I am not +at all sure of it. If it were not, then it became an unpardonable joke +at the woman's expense, and in the worst taste; but the chroniqueur of +those days would have applauded it all the same. + +Here are two stories which, at different times, were told by De Morny's +familiars and sycophants in order to stamp him the grand seigneur. Late +in the fifties he was an assiduous frequenter of the salons of a banker, +whose sisters-in-law happened to be very handsome. One evening, while +talking to one of them, they came to ask him to take a hand at +lansquenet. He had evidently no intention of leaving the society of the +lady for that of the gaming-table, and said so. Of course, his host was +in the wrong in pressing the thing, nevertheless one has yet to learn +that "two wrongs make one right." + +"What will you play?" they asked, when they had as good as badgered him +away from his companion. + +"The simple rouge and the noir. That's the quickest." + +"How much for?" + +"Ten thousand francs." + +The stake seemed somewhat high, and no one cared to take it up. But the +host himself felt bound to set the example, and the sum was made up. De +Morny lost, and was about to rise from the table, when they said-- + +"Have your revenge." + +"Very well; ten thousand on the black." + +He lost again. Most grand seigneurs would have got up without saying +anything. Twenty thousand francs was, after all, not an important sum to +him, and I feel, moreover, certain that it was not the loss of the money +that vexed him. But he felt bound to emphasize his indifference. + +"There, that will do. I trust I shall be left in peace now." + +My informant considered this exceedingly _talon rouge_; I did not. + +A story of a similar kind, when he was a simple deputy. A bigwig, with +an inordinate ambition to become a minister, invited him to dinner. He +had been told that his host was in the habit of drinking a rare Bordeaux +which was only offered to one or two guests, quietly pointed out by the +former to the servant. At the question of the latter whether he (M. de +Morny) would take Brane-Mouton or Ermitage, he pointed to the famous +bottle that had been hidden away. The servant, as badly trained as the +master, looked embarrassed, but at last filled De Morny's glass with the +precious nectar. De Morny simply poured it into a tumbler and diluted it +with water. + +Ridiculous as it may seem, De Morny often spoke and acted as if he had +royal blood in his veins, and in that respect scarcely considered +himself inferior to Colonna Walewski, of whose origin there could be no +doubt. A glance at the man's face was sufficient. Both frequently spoke +and acted as if Louis-Napoleon occupied the Imperial throne by their +good will, and that, therefore, he was, in a measure, bound to dance to +their fiddling. Outwardly these two were fast friends, up to a certain +period; I fancy that their common hatred of De Persigny was the +strongest link of that bond. In reality they were as jealous of one +another and of their influence over the Emperor as they were of De +Persigny and his. The latter, who was well aware of all this, frankly +averred that he preferred Walewski's undisguised and outspoken hostility +to De Morny's very questionable cordiality. "The one would take my head +like Judith took Holofernes', the other would shave it like Delilah +shaved Samson's, provided I trusted myself to either, which I am not +likely to do." + +It was De Persigny who told me the substance of the following story, and +I believe every word of it, because, first, I never caught De Persigny +telling a deliberate falsehood; secondly, because I heard it confirmed +many years afterwards in substance by two persons who were more or less +directly concerned in it. + +In the latter end of 1863 one of the sons of Baron James de Rothschild +died; I believe it was the youngest of the four, but I am not certain. +The old baron, who was generosity itself when it came to endowing +charitable institutions, was absolutely opposed to any waste of money. +Amidst the terrible grief at his loss, he was still the careful +administrator, and sent to M. Emile Perrin, the then director of the +Grand Opera, and subsequently the director of the Comedie-Francaise, +asking him to dispose of his box on the grand tier, under the express +condition that it should revert to him after a twelvemonth. It was the +very thing M. Perrin was not empowered to do. Though nominally the +director, he was virtually the manager under Comte Bacciochi, the +superintendent of the Imperial theatres; that is, the theatres which +received a subsidy from the Emperor's civil list. The subscriber who +wished to relinquish his box or seat, for however short a time--of +course without continuing to pay for it--forfeited all subsequent claim +to it. In this instance, though, apart from the position of Baron James, +the cause which prompted the application warranted an exception being +made; still M. Perrin did not wish to act upon his own responsibility, +and referred the matter to Comte Bacciochi, telling him at the same time +that Comte Walewski would be glad to take the box during the interim. +The latter had but recently resigned the Ministry of State by reason of +an unexpected difficulty in the "Roman Question;"[53] the ministerial +box went, as a matter of course, with the appointment, and Comte +Walewski regretted the loss of the former, which was one of the best in +the house, more than the loss of the latter, and had asked his +protege--M. Perrin owed his position at the Opera to him--to get him as +good a one as soon as possible. + + [Footnote 53: If Comte Walewski ruled Napoleon III., the second + Comtesse Walewska, who was an Italian by birth and very + handsome, absolutely ruled her husband. The first Comtesse + Walewska was Lord Sandwich's daughter.--EDITOR.] + +It so happened that Comte Bacciochi had a grudge against Walewski for +having questioned certain of his prerogatives connected with the +superintendence of the Opera. The moment he heard of Walewski's wish, he +replied, "M. de Morny applied to me several months since for a better +box, and I see no reason why Comte Walewski should have it over his +head." + +Vindictive like a Corsican, he laid the matter directly before the +Emperor, and furthermore did his best to exasperate the two postulants +against one another. De Morny had the box; Bacciochi had, however, +succeeded so well that the two men were for a considerable time not on +speaking terms. + +Meanwhile the Mexican question had assumed a very serious aspect. In +spite of his undoubted interest in the Jecker scheme, or probably +because it had yielded all it was likely to yield, De Morny had of late +been on the side of Walewski, who strongly counselled the withdrawal of +the French troops. But the moment the incident of the opera-box cropped +up, there was a change of front on his part. He became an ardent +partisan for continuing the campaign, systematically siding against +Walewski in everything, and tacitly avoiding any attempt of the latter +to draw him into conversation. Walewski felt hurt, and gave up the +attempt in despair. A little before this, Don Gutierrez de Estada had +landed in Europe with a deputation of notable Mexicans to offer the +crown to Maximilian. The latter made his acceptance conditional on the +despatch of twenty thousand French troops and the promise of a grant of +three hundred millions of francs. + +In a council held at the Tuileries these conditions were unhesitatingly +declined. "That was, if I am not mistaken, on a Saturday," said De +Persigny; "and it was taken for granted that everything was settled. On +Monday morning the council was hurriedly summoned to the Tuileries, and +having to come from a good distance, Walewski arrived when it had been +sitting for more than an hour. What had happened meanwhile? Simply this. +Don Gutierrez had been informed of the decision of the Emperor's +advisers, and Maximilian had been communicated with by telegraph to the +same effect. On the Sunday morning the Archduke telegraphed to the +Mexican envoy that unless his conditions were subscribed to _in toto_ he +should decline the honour. Don Gutierrez, determined not to return +without a king, rushed there and then to De Morny's and offered him the +crown. The latter immediately accepted, in the event of Maximilian +persisting in his refusal. The Emperor was simply frantic with rage, but +nothing would move De Morny. The only one who really had any influence +over him was 'the other prince of the blood,' meaning Walewski, for, +according to him, the real and legitimate Bonapartes counted for +nothing. Walewski was telegraphed for, as I told you, early in the +morning. When he came he found the council engaged in discussing the +means of raising a loan. The Empress begged him to dissuade De Morny +from his purpose, telling him all I have told you. Walewski refused to +be the first to speak to De Morny. I think that both Walewski and De +Morny have heaped injury and insult upon me more than upon any man; I +would have obeyed the Empress for the Emperor's sake, but 'the two +princes of the blood' only consulted their own dignity. I need not tell +you what effect the elevation of De Morny to the throne of Mexico would +have produced in Europe, let alone in France. Rather than risk such a +thing, the money was found; Bazaine was sent, and that poor fellow, +Maximilian, went to his death, because M. Bacciochi had sown dissension +between the brother and the cousin of the Emperor about an opera-box. +Such is history, my friend." + +I repeat, De Persigny was a better man at heart than De Morny, or +perhaps than Walewski, though the latter had only fads, and never +stooped to the questionable practices of his fellow "prince of the +blood" in the race for wealth. The erstwhile sergeant-quartermaster +refrained from doing so out of sheer contempt for money-hunters, and +from an inborn feeling of honesty. The son of Napoleon I., though +illegitimate, felt what was due to the author of his being, and +absolutely refused to be mixed up with any commercial transactions. He +was never quietly insolent to any one, like the natural son of Hortense; +he rarely said either a foolish or a wise thing, but frequently did +ill-considered ones, as, for instance, when he wrote a play. "What +induced you to do this, monsieur le comte?" said Thiers, on the first +night. "It is so difficult to write a play in five acts, and it is so +easy not to write a play in five acts." Among his fads was the objection +to ladies in the stalls of a theatre. In 1861 he issued an order +forbidding their admission to that part of the house, and could only be +persuaded with difficulty, and at the eleventh hour, to rescind it. In +many respects he was like Philip II. of Spain; he worried about trifles. +One day he prevailed upon M. de Boitelle, the Prefect of police, a +thoroughly sensible man, to put a stop to the flying of kites, because +their tails might get entangled in the telegraph wires, and cause damage +to the latter. I happened to meet him on the Boulevards on the very day +the edict was promulgated. He felt evidently very proud of the +conception, and asked me what I thought of it. I told him the story of +"the cow on the rails," according to Stephenson. Napoleon, when he heard +of Walewski's reform, sent for Boitelle. "Here is an 'order in council' +I want you to publish," he said, as seriously as possible. It was to the +effect that "all birds found perching on the wires would be fined, and, +in default of payment, imprisoned." Curiously enough, though a man of +parts, and naturally intelligent, satire of that kind was lost upon him, +for not very long after he prevailed upon M. de Boitelle to revive an +obsolete order with regard to the length of the hackney-drivers' whips +and the cracking thereof. It was M. Carlier, the predecessor of M. de +Maupas, who had originally attempted a similar thing. He was rewarded +with a pictorial skit representing him on the point of drowning, while +cabby was trying to save him by holding out his whip, which proved too +short for the purpose. + +Walewski had none of the vivacity of most of the Bonapartes. I knew him +a good many years before, and after the establishment of the Second +Empire, and have rarely seen him out of temper. I fancy he must have +made an admirable ambassador with a good chief at his back; he, himself, +I think, had little spirit of initiative, though, like a good many of +us, he was fully convinced of the contrary. He was, to use the correct +word, frequently dull; nevertheless, it was currently asserted and +believed that he was the only man Rachel ever sincerely cared for. "Je +comprends cela," said George Sand one day, when the matter was discussed +in her presence; "son commerce doit lui reposer l'esprit." + +It is worthy of remark that during the reign which succeeded that of +Louis-Philippe, the man who wielded the greatest power next to the +Emperor was, in almost every respect but one, the mental and moral +counterpart of "the citizen king." I am alluding to M. Eugene Rouher, +sometimes called the vice-emperor.[54] I knew Eugene Rouher some years +before he was thought of as a deputy, let alone as a minister--when, in +fact, he was terminating his law courses in the Quartier-Latin; but not +even the most inveterate Pumblechook would have dared to advance +afterwards that he perceived the germs of his future eminence in him +then. He was a good-looking young fellow, in no way distinguished from +the rest. He was a not unworthy ornament of "La Chaumiere," and did +probably as much or as little poring over books as his companions. +Still, there could be no doubt as to his natural intelligence, but the +dunces in my immediate circle were very few. He was not very well off; +but, as I have said elsewhere, the Croesuses were also rare. At any +rate, Eugene Rouher had entirely passed out of my recollection, and +when, eleven or twelve years later, I saw his name in the list of Odilon +Barrot's administration as Minister of Justice, I had not the remotest +idea that it was the Eugene Rouher of my Quartier-Latin days. I am +certain that a great many of our former acquaintances were equally +ignorant, because, though I met several of them from time to time on the +"fashionable side" of the Seine, I do not remember a single one having +drawn my attention to him. It was only at one of the presidential +receptions at the Elysee, in 1850, that I became aware of the fact. He +came up to me and held out his hand. "Il me semble, monsieur, que nous +nous sommes deja rencontres au Quartier-Latin," he said. Even then I was +in the dark with regard to the position he was fast assuming; but the +Prince-President himself enlightened me to a great extent in the course +of the evening. "It appears that you and Rouher are old acquaintances," +he said in English; and on my nodding in the affirmative, he added, "If +you were a Frenchman, and inclined to go in for politics, or even an +Englishman in need of patronage or influence, I would advise you to +stick to him, for he is a very remarkable man, and I fancy we shall hear +a good deal of him within the next few years." I may, therefore, say +without exaggeration that I was one of the first who had a trustworthy +tip with regard to a comparatively "dark political horse," and from a +tipster in whom by that time I was inclined to believe. + + [Footnote 54: It is equally curious to note, perhaps, that M. + Grevy, who occupied the presidential chair of the Third + Republic for a longer period than his two predecessors, was in + many respects like Louis-Philippe, notably in his love of + money.--EDITOR.] + +Though I was neither "a Frenchman inclined to go in for politics," nor +"even an Englishman in need of patronage or influence," my curiosity had +been aroused; for, I repeat, at the time of our first acquaintance I had +considered Eugene Rouher a fairly intelligent young fellow; but his +intelligence had not struck me as likely to make a mark, at any rate so +soon, seeing that he was considerably below forty when I met him at the +Elysee. It is idle to assert, as the republicans have done since, that +he gained his position by abandoning the political professions to which +he owed his start in public life. Among the nine hundred deputies of the +Second Republic, there were at least a hundred intelligent so-called +republicans ready and willing to do the same with the prospect of a far +less signal reward than fell eventually to Rouher's lot. + +My curiosity was doomed to remain unsatisfied until two or three years +later, when Rouher had already become a fixture in the political +organization of the Empire. It was De Morny himself who gave me the +particulars of Rouher's beginnings, and I have no reason to suppose that +he painted them and the man in deliberately glowing colours, albeit that +in one important crisis they acted in concert. Clermont-Ferrand was only +about twelve miles from Riom, Rouher's native town. I have already +remarked that De Morny, at the time he met with his brother for the +first time, was at the head of an important industrial establishment. It +was at the former place; De Morny, therefore, was in a position to know. + +Eugene Rouher, it appears, like a good many men who have risen to +political eminence, belonged to what, for want of a better term, I may +call the rural bourgeoisie--that is, the frugal, thrifty, hard-headed, +small landowner, tilling his own land, honest in the main, ever on the +alert to increase his own property by a timely bargain, with an intense +love of the soil, with a kind of semi-Voltairean contempt for the +clergy, an ingrained respect largely admixed with fear for "the man of +the law," to which profession he often brings up his son in order to +have what he likes most--litigation--for nothing. Rouher's grandfather +was a man of that stamp; he made an attorney of his son, and the latter +established himself in the Rue Desaix, in a small, one-storied, +uninviting-looking tenement, where, in the year 1814, Eugene Rouher was +born.[55] Rouher's father was not very prosperous, yet he managed to +send both his sons to Paris to study law. The elder son, much older than +the future minister, had succeeded in getting a very good practice at +the Riom bar, but he died a short time before Eugene returned from +Paris, leaving a widow and a son, who, of course, was too young to take +his father's place. The young barrister, therefore, stepped into a +capital ready-made practice, and being exceedingly amiable, bright, +hard-working, and essentially honest, soon made a host of friends. + + [Footnote 55: Before that it bore the name of the Rue des + Trois-Hautbois, and in the heyday of the Second Empire it was + changed into the Rue Eugene-Rouher. But at the fall of Sedan + the indignation against the Emperor's powerful minister was so + great that his carriages had to be removed from Riom lest they + should be burned by the mob, and the street resumed its old + appellation. In November, 1887, three years after Rouher's + death, I happened to be at Clermont-Ferrand waiting for General + Boulanger to go to Paris. I went over to Riom and had a look at + the house. It was occupied by a carpenter or joiner, to whose + father it had been sold years previously by the express wish of + one of Eugene Rouher's daughters. I got into conversation with + an intelligent inhabitant of the town, who told me that on the + 4th of September, 1870, the feeling against Rouher was much + stronger than against Louis-Napoleon himself, yet that feeling + was an implied compliment to Rouher. "He was the cleverer of + the two," the people shouted; "he ought not to have allowed the + Emperor to engage in this war. He could have prevented it with + one word." Nevertheless, in a little while it abated, and + Rouher was elected a member of the National Assembly.--EDITOR.] + +"I have frequently found myself opposed to Rouher," said De Morny; "but +his unswerving loyalty to the Empire and the Emperor is beyond question. +I should not wonder but what he died poor.[56] + + [Footnote 56: De Morny's prophecy turned out correct. M. Eugene + Rouher died a poor man. There is a comic story connected with + this poverty. At the beginning of the Republic, and during the + presidency of Thiers, Rouher's house was constantly watched by + detectives. The weather was abominably bad; it rained + constantly. Madame Rouher sent them some cotton umbrellas, + excusing herself for not sending silk ones, because she could + not afford it.--EDITOR.] + +"As you know, Eugene Rouher was really very handsome. Mdlle. +Conchon--that is Madame Rouher's maiden name--thought him the handsomest +man in the world. True, her world did not extend beyond a few miles from +Clermont-Ferrand; but I fancy she might have gone further and fared +worse. You know old Conchon, and the pride he takes in his son-in-law. +Well, he would not hear of the marriage at first. Conchon was a +character in those days. Though he had but a poor practice at the +Clermont bar, he was clever; and if he had gone to Paris as a +journalist, instead of vegetating down there, I am sure he would have +made his way. He was very fond of his classics--of Horace and Tibullus +above all--and turned out some pretty Anacreontic verses for the local +'caveau;' for Clermont, like every other provincial centre, prided +itself on its 'caveau.'[57] + + [Footnote 57: The diminutive of "cave" (cellar). Really a + gathering of poets and songwriters, which reached its highest + reputation in Paris during the early part of the present + century. The Saturday nights at the Savage Club are perhaps the + nearest approach to it in London.--EDITOR.] + +"A time came, however, when Conchon's fortunes took a turn for the +better. You can form no idea of the political ignorance that prevailed +in the provinces even as late as the reign of Louis-Philippe. Any +measure advocated or promulgated by the Government was sure to be +received with suspicion by the populations as affecting their liberties, +and, what was of still greater consequence to them, their property. The +First Republic had given them license to despoil others; any subsequent +measure of the monarchies was looked upon by them as an attempt at +reprisal. In 1842 a general census was ordered. You may remember the +hostility it provoked in Paris; it was nothing to its effect in the +agricultural and wine-growing centres. The Republican wire-pullers +spread the report that the census meant nothing but the thin end of the +wedge of a bill for the duties upon wine to be paid by the grower. There +was a terrible row in Clermont-Ferrand and the neighbourhood; the +'Marseillaise' had to make way for the still more revolutionary +'Ca-ira.' Conchon was maire of Clermont-Ferrand, and he who was as +innocent of all this as a new-born babe, had his house burned over his +head. The Government argued that if the mob had burned the maire's +dwelling in preference to that of the prefect, it was because the former +was a more influential personage than the latter; for there could be no +other reason for their giving him the 'Legion of Honour,' and appointing +him to a puisne judgeship on the bench of Riom, seeing that he had +neither made an heroic defence of his property, nor endeavoured to carry +out the provisions of the census bill by armed force. In fact, the +latter step would have been an impossibility on Conchon's part. You and +I know well enough how difficult it is to make Frenchmen hold their +tongues by means of troops; to endeavour to make them speak--in +distinction to yelling--by similar means is altogether out of the +question. You cannot take every head of a family, even in a +comparatively small town like Clermont-Ferrand, and put him between two +gendarmes to make him tell you his name, his age, and those of his +family. I fancy, moreover, that Conchon was not at Clermont at all when +the mob made a bonfire of his dwelling; it was on a Sunday, and he had +probably gone into the country. At any rate, as I told you, they gave +him the cross and a judgeship. It never rains but it pours. Contrary to +the ordinary principles of French mobs of hating a man in proportion to +his standing well with the Government, they started a subscription to +indemnify Conchon for the loss of his house, which subscription amounted +to a hundred thousand francs. + +"Conchon had become a somebody, and refused to give his daughter to a +mere provincial barrister now that he belonged to 'la magistrature +assise.'[58] The young people were, however, very fond of one another, +and had their way. They were a very handsome couple, and became the life +and soul of the best society of Clermont-Ferrand, which, exclusive as it +was, admitted them as they had admitted the widow of the elder brother. +The younger Madame Rouher was by no means as sprightly or as clever as +she has become since. She was somewhat of a spoilt child, but her +husband was a very brilliant talker indeed, though, unlike many +brilliant talkers, there was not an ounce of spite in his cleverest +remarks. The electors might have done worse than send him to Paris the +first time he invited their suffrages in '46, under the auspices of +Guizot. Nevertheless, he was beaten by a goodly majority, and he had to +wait until after the Revolution of February, when he was returned on the +Republican list." + + [Footnote 58: The term for the French bench, consisting of + judges; the _parquet_, _i. e._ those to whom the public + prosecution is confided, are called "la magistrature debout." + As a rule, the latter have a great deal more talent than the + former. "What are you going to do with your son?" asked a + gentleman of his friend. "I am going to make a magistrate of + him--'debout,' if he is strong enough to keep on his legs; + 'assis,' if he be not."--EDITOR.] + +So far De Morny. Consulting my personal recollections of Eugene Rouher, +whom I still see now and then, I find nothing but good to say of him. I +am not prepared to judge him as a politician, that kind of judgment +being utterly at variance with the spirit of these notes, but I know of +no French statesman whose memory will be entitled to greater respect +than Rouher's, with the exception, perhaps, of Guizot's. Both men +committed grave faults, but no feeling of self-interest actuated them. +The world is apt to blame great ministers for clinging to power after +they have apparently given the greatest measure of their genius. They do +not blame Harvey and Jenner for having continued to study and to +practise after they had satisfactorily demonstrated, the one the theory +of the circulation of the blood, the other the possibility of +inoculation against small-pox; they do not blame Milton for having +continued to write after he had given "Paradise Lost," Rubens for having +continued to paint after he had given "The Descent from the Cross," +Michael-Angelo for not having abandoned the sculptor's chisel after he +had finished the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. The bold stroke of +policy that made England a principal shareholder in the Suez Canal, the +Menai Bridge, the building of the Great Western Railway, were +achievements of great men who had apparently given all there was in +them to give; why should Rouher have retired when he was barely fifty, +and not have endeavoured to retrieve the mistake he evidently made when +he allowed Bismarck to humiliate Austria at Sadowa, and to lay the +foundations of a unified Germany? Richelieu made mistakes also, but he +retrieved them before his death. + +Be this as it may, Rouher was both in public and private life an +essentially honourable and honest man--as honest as Louis-Philippe in +many respects, far more honest in others, and absolutely free from the +everlasting preoccupation about money which marred that monarch's +character. He was as disinterested as Guizot, and would have scorned the +tergiversations and hypocrisy of Thiers. He never betrayed his master's +cause; he never consciously sacrificed his country to his pride. The +only blame that can be laid to his charge is that he allowed his better +sense to be overruled by a woman; but that woman was the wife of his +sovereign. + +He was, above all, a staunch friend to those who had known him in his +early days. "There will be no Auvergnats left in Clermont-Ferrand and +Riom if this goes on," said a witty journalist, seeing Rouher constantly +surrounded by the natives of that particular province, to the exclusion +of every one else. "We'll send an equal quantity of Parisians to +Auvergne; it will do them good, and teach them to work," replied Rouher, +when he heard of the remark. "And in another generation or two Paris +will see what it has never seen before, namely, frugal Parisians, doing +a day's labour for a day's wage, for we'll have their offspring back by +then." For Rouher could be very witty when he liked, and never feared to +hit out straight. He was a delightful talker, and, next to Alexandre +Dumas, the best raconteur I have ever met. It was because he had a +marvellous memory and a distinct talent for mimicry. Owing to this +latter gift, he was unlike any other parliamentary orator I have ever +heard. He would sit perfectly still under the most terrible onslaught of +his opponents, whoever they were. No sign of impatience or weariness, +not an attempt to take a note; his eyes remained steadily fixed on his +interlocutor, his arms folded across his chest. Then he would rise +slowly from his seat and walk to the tribune, when there was one, take +up the argument of his adversary, not only word for word, but with the +latter's intonation and gestures, almost with the latter's voice--which +used to drive Thiers wild--and answer it point by point. + +He used to call that "fair debating;" in reality, it was the masterly +trick of a great actor, who mercilessly wielded his power of ridicule; +but we must remember that he had originally been a lawyer, and that the +scent of the French law-courts hung over him till the very end. "I am +not always convinced of the honesty of my cause, but I hold a brief for +the Government, and I feel convinced that it would not be honest to let +the other party get the victory," he said. + +He was, and remained, very simple in his habits. He would not have +minded entertaining his familiars every night of the week, but he did +not care for the grand receptions he was compelled to give. He was very +fond of the game of piquet. His father-in-law, who had been promoted to +a judgeship in one of the Paris courts, had been a foeman worthy of his +steel; "but I am afraid," laughed Rouher, "that his exaggerated +admiration for me affects his play." + +Rouher was right; M. Conchon was inordinately proud of his son-in-law. +He lived, as it were, in the Minister of State's reflected glory. His +great delight was to go shopping, in order to have the satisfaction of +saying to the tradesmen, "You'll have this sent to my son-in-law, M. +Rouher." The stir and bustle of the Paris streets confused him to the +last, but he did not mind it, seeing that it afforded him an opportunity +of inquiring his way. "I want to get back to the Ministry of State--to +my son-in-law, M. Rouher." It was not snobbishness; it was sheer +unadulterated admiration of the man to whom he had somewhat reluctantly +given his daughter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Society during the Second Empire -- The Court at Compiegne -- The + English element -- Their opinion of Louis-Napoleon -- The + difference between the court of Louis-Philippe and that of + Napoleon III. -- The luggage of M. Villemain -- The hunts in + Louis-Philippe's time -- Louis-Napoleon's advent -- Would have + made a better poet than an Emperor -- Looks for a La Valliere or + Montespan, and finds Mdlle. Eugenie de Montijo -- The latter + determined not to be a La Valliere or even a Pompadour -- Has her + great destiny foretold in her youth -- Makes up her mind that it + shall be realized by a right-handed and not a left-handed + marriage -- Queen Victoria stands her sponsor among the + sovereigns of Europe -- Mdlle. de Montijo's mother -- The + Comtesse de Montijo and Halevy's "Madame Cardinal" -- The first + invitations to Compiegne -- Mdlle. de Montijo's backers for the + Imperial stakes -- No other entries -- Louis-Napoleon utters the + word "marriage" -- What led up to it -- The Emperor officially + announces his betrothal -- The effect it produced -- The Faubourg + St.-Germain -- Dupin the elder gives his views -- The engaged + couple feel very uncomfortable -- Negotiations to organize the + Empress's future household -- Rebuffs -- Louis Napoleon's retorts + -- Mdlle. de Montijo's attempt at wit and sprightliness -- Her + iron will -- Her beauty -- Her marriage -- She takes + Marie-Antoinette for her model -- She fondly imagines that she + was born to rule -- She presumes to teach Princess Clotilde the + etiquette of courts -- The story of two detectives -- The hunts + at Compiegne -- Some of the mise en scene and _dramatis personae_ + -- The shooting-parties -- Mrs. Grundy not banished, but + specially invited and drugged -- The programme of the gatherings + -- Compiegne in the season -- A story of an Englishman + accommodated for the night in one of the Imperial luggage-vans. + + +I was a frequent visitor to Compiegne throughout the Second Empire. I +doubt whether, besides Lord H---- and myself, there was a single English +guest there who went for the mere pleasure of going. Lords Palmerston, +Cowley, and Clarendon, and a good many others whom I could name, had +either political or private ends to serve. They all looked upon Napoleon +III. as an adventurer, but an adventurer whom they might use for their +own purpose. I am afraid that the same charge might be preferred against +persons in even a more exalted station. Prince Albert averred that +Napoleon III. had sold his soul to the devil; Lord Cowley, on being +asked by a lady whether the Emperor talked much, replied, "No, but he +always lies." Another diplomatist opined "that Napoleon lied so well, +that one could not even believe the contrary of what he said." + +Enough. I went to the Compiegne of Napoleon III., just as I had gone to +the Compiegne of the latter years of Louis-Philippe--simply to enjoy +myself; with this difference, however,--that I enjoyed myself much +better at the former than at the latter. Louis-Philippe's hospitality +was very genuine, homely, and unpretending, but it lacked +excitement--especially for a young man of my age. The entertainments +were more in harmony with the tastes of the Guizots, Cousins, and +Villemains, who went down en redingote, and took little else; especially +the eminent professor and minister of public education, whose luggage +consisted of a brown paper parcel, containing a razor, a clean collar, +and the cordon of the Legion of Honour. There were some excellent hunts, +organized by the Grand Veneur, the Comte de Girardin, and the Chief +Ranger, the Baron de Larminat; but the evenings, notwithstanding the new +theatre built by Louis-Philippe, were frightfully dull, and barely +compensated for by the reviews at the camp of Compiegne, to which the +King conducted his Queen and the princesses in a tapissiere and four, he +himself driving, the Duc and Duchesse de Montpensier occupying the box +seat, the rest of the family ensconced in the carriage, "absolument en +bons bourgeois." With the advent of Louis-Napoleon, even before he +assumed the imperial purple, a spirit of change came over the place. +Hortense's second son would probably have made a better poet than an +emperor. His whole life has been a miscarried poem, miscarried by the +inexorable demands of European politics. He dreamt of being +L'Empereur-Soleil, as Louis XIV. had been Le Roi-Soleil. Visions of a +nineteenth-century La Valliere or Montespan, hanging fondly on his arm, +and dispelling the harassing cares of State by sweet smiles while +treading the cool umbrageous glades of the magnificent park, haunted his +brain. He would have gone as far as Louis le Bien-Aime, and built +another nest for another Pompadour. He did not mean to make a Maintenon +out of a Veuve Scarron, and, least of all, an empress out of a +Mademoiselle Eugenie de Montijo. Mdlle. de Montijo, on the other hand, +was determined not to be a Mdme. de Maintenon, let alone a La Valliere +or a Pompadour. At any rate, so she said, and the man most interested in +putting her assertion to the test was too infatuated to do so. "Quand on +ne s'attend a rien, la moindre des choses surprend." The proverb holds +good, more especially where a woman's resistance is concerned. Mdlle. de +Montijo was a Spaniard, or at least half a one, and that half contained +as much superstition as would have fitted out a score of her +countrywomen of unmixed blood. One day in Granada, while she was sitting +at her window, a gipsy, whose hand "she had crossed with silver," is +said to have foretold her that she should be queen. The young girl +probably attached but little importance to the words at that time; +"but," said my informant, "from the moment Louis-Napoleon breathed the +first protestations of love to her, the prophecy recurred to her in all +its vividness, and she made up her mind that the right hand and not the +left of Louis-Napoleon should set the seal upon its fulfilment." My +informant was an Englishman, very highly placed, and distinctly _au +courant_ of the private history of the Marquise de Montijo y Teba, as +well as that of her mother. Without the least fear of being +contradicted, I may say that the subsequent visit of Queen Victoria and +Prince Albert was due to his direct influence. I will not go as far as +to assert that Louis-Napoleon's participation in the Crimean war could +not have been had at that moment at any other price, or that England +could not have dispensed with that co-operation, but he, my informant, +considered then that the alliance would be more closely cemented by that +visit. Nor am I called upon to anticipate the final verdict of the +social historian with regard to "that act of courtesy" on the part of +the Queen of England, not the least justified boast of whose reign it is +that she purified the morals of her court by her own example. Still, one +may safely assume, in this instance, that the virtue of Mdlle. de +Montijo would have been proof against the "blandishments of the future +Emperor," even if she had not had the advice and countenance of her +mother, whose Scotch blood would not have stood trifling with her +daughter's affections and reputation. But to make the fortress of that +heart doubly impregnable, the Comtesse de Montijo scarcely ever left her +second daughter's side. It was a great sacrifice on her part, because +Mdlle. Eugenie de Montijo was not her favourite child; that position was +occupied by her elder, the Duchesse d'Albe. "Mais, on est mere, ou on ne +l'est pas?" says Madame Cardinal.[59] + + [Footnote 59: The author alludes to the Madame Cardinal of + Ludovic Halevy, who sequestrates her daughter because the + baron, her would-be protector, is hanging back with the + settlements.--EDITOR.] + +Mdlle. de Montijo, then, became the guiding spirit of the fetes at the +Elysee. She and her mother had travelled a great deal, so had +Louis-Napoleon; the latter not enough, apparently, to have learnt the +wisdom of the French proverb, "Gare a la femme dont le berceau a ete une +malle, et le pensionnat une table d'hote." + +I have spoken elsewhere of the Coup d'Etat and of the company at the +Elysee, immediately previous to it and afterwards; early in 1852-- + + "The little done _did_ vanish to the mind, + Which forward _saw_ how much remained to do." + +The Prince-President undertook a journey to the southern parts of +France, which he was pleased to call "an interrogation to the country." +It was that to a certain extent, only the country had been crammed with +one reply to it, "Vive l'empereur." Calmly reviewing things from a +distance of a quarter of a century, it was the best reply the nation +could have made. "Society has been too long like a pyramid turned upside +down. I replaced it on its base," said Louis-Napoleon, on the 29th of +March, 1852, when he opened the first session of the Chambers, and +inaugurated the new constitution which was his own work. "He is right," +remarked one of his female critics, "and now we are going to dance on +the top of it. A quand les invitations?" + +The invitations were issued almost immediately after the journey just +mentioned, and before the plebiscite had given the Prince-President the +Imperial crown. One of the first was for a series of fetes at Compiegne. +The chateau was got ready in hot haste; but, of course, the "hunts" were +not half so splendid as they became afterwards. + +The most observed of all the guests was Mdlle. de Montijo, accompanied +by her mother, but no one suspected for a single moment that the +handsome Spanish girl who was galloping by Louis-Napoleon's side would +be in a few months Empress of the French. Only a few knowing ones +offered to back her for the Imperial Stakes at any odds; I took them, +and, of course, lost heavily. This is not a figure of speech, but a +literal fact. There were, however, no quotations "for a place," backers +and bookies alike being agreed that she would be first or nowhere in the +race. + +How it would have fared with the favourite had there been any other +entries, it would be difficult to say, but there were none; the various +European sovereigns declined the honour of an alliance with the house +of Bonaparte, so Mdlle. Eugenie de Montijo simply walked over the +course. One evening the rumour spread that Louis-Napoleon had uttered +the magic word "marriage," in consequence of a violent fit of coughing +which had choked the word "mistress" down his throat. Not to mince +matters, the affair happened in this way, and I speak on excellent +authority. The day before, there had been a hunt, and between the return +from the forest and the dinner-hour, Napoleon had presented himself +unannounced in Mdlle. de Montijo's apartment. Neither I nor the others +who were at the chateau at the time could satisfactorily account for the +prologue to this visit, but that there was such a prologue, and that it +was conceived and enacted by at least two out of the three actors in the +best spirit of the "comedie d'intrigue," so dear to the heart of Scribe, +admits of no doubt; because, though the first dinner-bell had already +rung, Mdlle. de Montijo was still in her riding-habit, consequently on +the alert. Nay, even her dainty hunting-crop was within her reach, as +the intruder found to his cost; and reports were rife to the effect +that, if the one had failed, the mother, who was in the next room, would +have come to the rescue of her injured daughter. + +The Comtesse de Montijo was spared this act of heroism; Lucrece herself +sufficed for the task of defending her own honour: nevertheless, the +mother's part was not at an end, even when the decisive word had been +pronounced. According to her daughter, she objected to the union, from a +sincere regard for her would-be-son-in-law, from an all-absorbing love +for her own darling. The social gulf between the two was too wide ever +to be bridged, etc. "And though it will break my heart to have to obey +her, I have no alternative," added Mdlle. de Montijo, if not in these +selfsame words, at least in words to that effect. "There remains but one +hope. Write to her." + +And Louis-Napoleon did write. The letter has been religiously preserved +by the Montijo family. In less than three mouths afterwards France was +officially or semi-officially apprised of the Emperor's intended union; +but, of course, the news had spread long before then, and a very varied +effect it produced. Candidly speaking, it satisfied no one, and every +one delivered judgment in two separate, if not different, capacities--as +private citizens and as patriotic Frenchmen. The lower classes, +containing the ultra-democratic element, would have perhaps applauded +the bold departure from the old traditions that had hitherto presided at +sovereign unions, if the bride had been French, instead of being a +foreigner. They were sensible enough not to expect their new Emperor to +choose from the bourgeoisie; but, in spite of their prejudices against +the old noblesse, they would, in default of a princess of royal blood, +have liked to see one of that noblesse's daughters share the Imperial +throne. They were not deceived by Napoleon's specious argument that +France had better assume openly the position of a parvenu rather than +make the new principle of the unrestricted suffrage of a great nation +pass for an old one by trying to introduce herself at any cost into a +family of kings. + +The bourgeoisie itself was more disgusted still. Incredible as it may +seem, they did resent Napoleon's slight of their daughters. "A defaut +d'une princesse de sang royal, une de nos filles eut fait aussi bien +qu'une etrangere, dont le grand pere, apres tout, etait negociant comme +nous. Le premier empire a ete fait avec le sang de garcons d'ecurie, de +tonnelliers; le second empire aurait pu prendre un pen de ce sang sans +se mesallier." The bourgeois Voltairien was more biting in his sarcasm. +In his speech to the grand officers of State and corporations, Napoleon +had alluded to Empress Josephine: "France has not forgotten that for the +last seventy years foreign princesses have only ascended the steps of +the throne to see their race scattered and proscribed, either by war or +revolution. One woman alone appears to have brought the people better +luck, and to have left a more lasting impression on their memory, and +that woman, the modest and kindly wife of General Bonaparte, was not +descended from royal blood." Then, speaking of the empress that was to +be, he concluded, "A good and pious Catholic, she will, like myself, +offer up the same prayers for the welfare and happiness of France; I +cherish the firm hope that, gracious and kind as she is, she will, while +occupying a similar position, revive once more the virtues of +Josephine." All of which references to the undoubtedly skittish widow of +General de Beauharnais made the satirically inclined bourgeois, who knew +the chronique scandaleuse of the Directoire quite as well as +Louis-Napoleon, sneer. Said one, "It is a strange present to put into a +girl's trousseau, the virtues of Josephine; the Nessus-shirt given to +Hercules was nothing to it." + +The Faubourg St.-Germain made common cause for once with the Orleanists +salons, which were avenging the confiscation of the princes' property; +and both, if less brutal than the speaker just quoted, were not less +cruel. The daughter had to bear the brunt of the mother's reputation. +Public securities went down two francs at the announcement of the +marriage. There was but one man who stood steadfast by the Emperor and +his bride, Dupin the elder; but his ironical defence of the choice was +nearly as bad as his opposition to it could have been. "People care very +little as to what I say and think, and perhaps they are right," he +remarked; "but still, the Emperor acts more sensibly by marrying the +woman he likes than by eating humble-pie and bargaining for some +strait-laced, stuck-up German princess, with feet as large as mine. At +any rate, when he kisses his wife, it will be because he feels inclined, +and not because he feels compelled."[60] + + [Footnote 60: Dupin's feet were enormous, and, furthermore, + invariably shod in thick, hobnailed bluchers. He himself was + always jestingly alluding to them; and one day, on the occasion + of a funeral of a friend, which he could not possibly attend, + he suggested sending his boots instead. "People send their + empty conveyance: I'll send mine," he said.--EDITOR.] + +Nevertheless, amidst all this flouting and jeering, the Emperor and his +future consort felt very uncomfortable, but they showed a brave front. +He inferred, rather than said to one and all who advanced objections, +that his love for Mdlle. de Montijo was not the sole motive for his +contemplated union. He wished to induce them into the belief that +political motives were not foreign to it--that he was, as it were, +flinging the gauntlet to monarchical Europe, which, not content with +refusing him a wife, was determined to throw a spoke in his matrimonial +wheel. + +Unfortunately, he and his bride felt that they could not altogether +dispense with the pomp and circumstance of courts. Like his uncle, +Napoleon III. was exceedingly fond of grand ceremonial display, and he +set his heart upon his Empress having a brilliant escort of fair and +illustrious women on the day of her nuptials. To seek for such an escort +among the grandes dames of the old noblesse would, he knew, be so much +waste of time; but he was justified in the hope that the descendants of +those who owed some of their titles and most of their fortunes to his +uncle would prove more amenable. In this he was mistaken: both the +Duchesse de Vicence and the Duchesse des Lesparres, besides several +others to whom the highest positions in the Empress's household were +offered, declined the honour. The Duc de Bassano did worse. Much as the +De Caulaincourts and the De Lesparres owed to the son of the Corsican +lawyer, the Marets owed him infinitely more. Yet their descendant, but a +few days before the marriage, went about repeating everywhere that he +absolutely objected to see his wife figure in the suite of the daughter +of the Comtesse de Montijo, "who" (the daughter) "was a little too much +of a posthumous child." He not only relented with regard to the duchesse +at the eleventh hour, but accepted the office of Grand Chambellan, which +office he filled to the end of his life. + +In fact, honours and titles went absolutely a-begging in those days. Let +me not be misunderstood. There were plenty of men and women ready to +accept both, and to deck out their besmirched, though very authentic, +scutcheons with them; but of these the Empress, at any rate, would have +none. She would have willingly thrown overboard the whole of her family +with its doubtful antecedents, which naturally identified it with that +brilliant and cosmopolitan society, "dans laquelle en fait d'hommes, il +n'y a que des declasses, et en fait de femmes que des trop-bien +classees." The Bonapartes themselves had, after all, a by no means +cleaner bill of health, but, as usual, the woman was made the scapegoat; +for though a good many men of ancient lineage, such as the Prince +Charles de Beauveau, the Duc de Crillon, the Duc de Beauveau-Craon, the +Duc de Montmorency, the Marquis de Larochejaquelein, the Marquis de +Gallifet, the Duc de Mouchy, etc., rallied to the new regime, most of +them refused at first to bring their wives and daughters to the +Tuileries, albeit that they went themselves. When a man neglects to +introduce his womenkind to the mistress of the house at which he visits, +one generally knows the opinion he and the world entertain--rightly or +wrongly--of the status of the lady; and the rule is supposed to hold +good everywhere throughout civilized society. Yet the Emperor tolerated +this. + +Knowing what I do of Napoleon's private character, I am inclined to +think that, but for dynastic and political reasons, he would have +willingly dispensed with the rigidly virtuous woman at the Tuileries, +then and afterwards. But at that moment he was perforce obliged to make +advances to her, and the rebuffs received in consequence were taken with +a sang-froid which made those who administered them wince more than +once. At each renewed refusal he was ready with an epigram: "Encore une +dame qui n'est pas assez sure de son passe pour braver l'opinion +publique;" "Celle-la, c'est la femme de Cesar, hors de tout soupcon, +comme il y a des criminels qui sont hors la loi;" "Madame de ----; il +n'y a pas de faux pas dans sa vie, il n'y a qu'un faux papa, le pere de +ses enfants." + +For Louis-Napoleon could be exceedingly witty when he liked, and his wit +lost nothing by the manner in which he delivered his witticisms. Not a +muscle of his face moved--he merely blinked his eyes. + +"Si on avait voulu me donner une princesse allemande," he said to his +most intimate friends, "je l'aurais epousee: si je ne l'avais pas autant +aimee que j'aime Mademoiselle de Montijo, j'aurais au moins ete plus sur +de sa betise; avec une Espagnole on n'est jamais sur." + +Whether he meant the remark for his future consort or not, I am unable +to say, but Mademoiselle de Montijo was not witty. There was a kittenish +attempt at wit now and then, as when she said, "Ici, il n'y a que moi de +legitimiste;" but intellectually she was in no way distinguished from +the majority of her countrywomen.[61] On the other hand, she had an iron +will, and was very handsome. A woman's beauty is rarely capable of being +analyzed; he who undertakes such a task is surely doomed to the +disappointment of the boy who cut the drum to find out where the noise +came from. + + [Footnote 61: Merimee, the author of "Carmen," who knew + something of Spanish women, and of the female members of the + Montijo family in particular, said that God had given them the + choice between love and wit, and that they had chosen the + former.--EDITOR.] + +I cannot say wherein Mdlle. de Montijo's beauty lay, but she was +beautiful indeed. + +Her iron will ably seconded the Emperor's attempts at gaining +aristocratic recruits round his standard, and when the Duc de Guiche +joined their ranks--the Duc de Guiche whom the Duchesse d'Angouleme had +left close upon forty thousand pounds a year--Mdlle. de Montijo might +well be elated with her success. Still, at the celebration of her +nuptials, the gathering was not le dessus du panier. The old noblesse +had the right to stay away; they had not the right to do what they did. +I am perfectly certain of my facts, else I should not have committed +them to paper. + +As usual, on the day of the ceremony, portraits of the new Empress and +her biography were hawked about. There was nothing offensive in either, +because the risk of printing anything objectionable would have been too +great. In reality, the account of her life was rather too laudatory. But +there was one picture, better executed than the rest, which bore the +words, "_The portrait and the virtues of the Empress_; _the whole for +two sous_;" and that was decidedly the work of the Legitimists and +Orleanists combined. I have ample proof of what I say. I heard +afterwards that the lithograph had been executed in England. + +For several months after the marriage nothing was spoken or thought of +at the Tuileries but rules of precedence, court dresses, the revival of +certain ceremonies, functions and entertainments that used to be the +fashion under the ancien regime. The Empress was especially anxious to +model her surroundings, her code of life, upon those of +Marie-Antoinette,--"mon type," as she familiarly called the daughter of +Marie-Therese. If, in fact, after a little while, some one had been +ill-advised enough to tell her that she had not been born in the +Imperial purple, she would have scarcely believed it. When a daughter of +the House of Savoy had the misfortune to marry Napoleon's cousin, the +Empress thought fit to give the young princess some hints as to her +toilette and sundry other things. "You appear to forget, madame," was +the answer, "that I was born at a court." Empress Eugenie was furious, +and never forgave Princess Clotilde. Her anger reminds me of that of a +French detective who, having been charged with a very important case, +took up his quarters with a colleague in one of the best Paris hotels, +exclusively frequented by foreigners of distinction. He assumed the role +of a retired ambassador, his comrade enacted the part of his valet, and +both enacted them to perfection. For a fortnight or more they did not +make a single mistake in their parts. The ambassador was kind but +distant to his servant, the latter never omitted to address him as "Your +Excellency." When their mission was at an end, they returned to their +ordinary duties; but the "ambassador" had become so identified with his +part that, on his colleague addressing him in the usual way, he turned +round indignantly, and exclaimed, "You seem to forget yourself. What do +you mean by such familiarity?" + +Of all the entertainments of the ancien regime lending themselves to +sumptuary and scenic display, "la chasse" was undoubtedly the one most +likely to appeal to the Imperial couple. Louis-Napoleon had, at any +rate, the good sense not to attempt to rival Le Roi-Soleil in +spectacular ballet, or to revive the Eglinton tournament on the Place du +Carrousel. But-- + + "Il ne fallait au fier Romain + Que des spectacles et du pain; + Mais aux Francais, plus que Romain, + Le spectacle suffit sans pain." + +No one was better aware of this tendency of the Parisian to be dazzled +by court pageants than the new Emperor, but he was also aware that, +except at the risk of making himself and his new court ridiculous, some +sort of raison d'etre would have to be found for such open-air displays +in the capital; pending the invention of a plausible pretext, "les +grandes chasses" at Compiegne were decided upon. They were to be +different from what they had been on the occasion referred to above: +special costumes were to be worn, splendid horses purchased; the most +experienced kennel and huntsmen, imbued with all the grand traditions of +"la Venerie," recruited from the former establishments of the Condes and +Rohans;--in short, such eclat was to be given to them as to make them +not only the talk of the whole of France, but of Europe besides. The +experiment was worth trying. Compiegne was less than a hundred miles +from Paris; thousands would flock, not only from the neighbouring towns, +but from the capital also, and the glowing accounts they would be sure +to bring back would produce their effect. There would be, moreover, less +risk of incurring the remarks of an irreverent Paris mob, a mob which +instinctively finds out the ridiculous side of every ceremonial +instituted by the court, except those calculated to gratify its love of +military pomp and splendour. As yet, it was too early to belie the +words, "L'empire, c'est la paix;" we had not got beyond the "tame eagle" +period, albeit that those behind the scenes, among others a near +connection of mine, who was more than half a Frenchman himself, +predicted that the predatory instincts would soon reveal themselves, +against the Russian bear, probably, and in conjunction with the British +lion,--if not in conjunction with the latter, perhaps against him. + +At any rate, les grandes chasses et fetes de Compiegne formed the first +item of that programme of "La France qui s'amuse,"--a programme and +play which, for nearly eighteen years, drew from all parts of the +civilized world would-be critics and spectators, few of whom perceived +that the theatre was undermined, the piece running to a fatal denoument, +and the bill itself the most fraudulent concoction that had ever issued +from the sanctum of a bogus impressario. But had not Lamartine, only a +few years previously, suggested, as it were, the tendency of the piece, +when, in the Chamber of Deputies, he said, "Messieurs, j'ai l'honneur et +le regret de vous avertir que la France s'ennuie"? Louis-Napoleon was +determined that no such reproach should be made during his reign. He +probably did not mean his fireworks to end in the conflagration of +Bazeilles, and to read the criticism on his own drama at Wilhelmshoehe, +but he should have held a tighter hand over his stage-managers. Some of +these were now getting their reward for having contributed to the +efficient representation of the prologue, which one might entitle "the +Coup d'Etat." General Magnan was appointed grand veneur--let us say, +master of the buckhounds,--with a stipend of a hundred thousand francs; +Comte Edgar Ney, his chief coadjutor, with forty thousand francs. +History sees the last of the latter gentleman on a cold, dull, drizzly +September morning, of the year 1870. He is seated in an open +char-a-bancs, by the side of some Prussian officers, and the vehicle, in +the rear of that of his Imperial master, is on its way to the Belgian +frontier, en route for Cassel. He is pointing to some artillery which, +notwithstanding its French model, is being driven by German gunners. "A +qui ces canons-la?" "Ils ne sont pas des notres, monsieur," is the +courteous and guarded reply. Verily, his father's exit, after all is +said and done, was a more dignified one. Michel Ney, at any rate, fell +pierced by bullets; the pity was that they were not the enemy's. In +addition to the grand veneur and premier veneur, there were three +lieutenants de venerie, a capitaine des chasses a tir,--whom we will +call a sublimated head-gamekeeper;--and all these dignitaries had other +emoluments and charges besides, because Louis-Napoleon, to his credit be +it said, never forgot a friend. + +The whole of the "working personnel" was, as I have already said, +recruited from the former establishments of the Condes at Chantilly, of +the late Duc d'Orleans, the Ducs de Nemours and d'Aumale; and such men +as La Feuille, whose real name was Fergus, and La Trace could not have +failed to make comparisons between their old masters and the new, not +always to the advantage of the latter. For though the spectacle was +magnificent enough, there was little or no hunting, as far as the +majority of the guests were concerned. After a great deal of +deliberation, dark green cloth, with crimson velvet collars, cuffs, and +facings, and gold lace, had been adopted. In Louis XV.'s time, and in +that of the latter Bourbons, the colour had been blue with silver lace; +but for this difference the costume was virtually the same, even to the +buckskins, jackboots, and the "lampion," also edged with gold instead of +silver.[62] The Emperor's and Empress's had a trimming of white +ostrich-feathers. The dress could not be worn, however, by any but the +members of the Imperial household, without special permission. The +latter, of course, wore it by right; but even men like the Duc de +Vicence, the Baron d'Offremont, the Marquis de Gallifet, the Marquis de +Cadore, women like the Comtesse de Pourtales, the Comtesse de Brigode, +the Marquise de Contades, who held no special charge at court, had to +receive "le bouton" before they could don it.[63] + + [Footnote 62: The lampion was the three-cornered hat, cocked on + all sides alike in the shape of a spout, and stiffened with + wire.--EDITOR.] + + [Footnote 63: "Wearing the king's button" is a very old French + sporting term, signifying permission to wear the dress or the + buttons or both, similar to those of the monarch when following + the hounds.--EDITOR.] + +The locale of these gatherings differed according to the seasons. +Fontainebleau was chosen for the spring ones, but throughout the reign +Compiegne always offered the most brilliant spectacle, especially after +the Crimean war, when Napoleon III. was tacitly admitted to the family +circle of the crowned heads of Europe. The shooting-parties were a +tribute offered to the taste of the English visitors, who, after that +period, became more numerous every succeeding autumn, and who, +accustomed as they were to their own magnificent meets and lavish +hospitality at the most renowned country seats, could not help +expressing their surprise at the utterly reckless expenditure; and, if +the truth must be told, enjoyed the freedom from all restraint, though +it was cunningly hidden beneath an apparently very formidable code of +courtly etiquette. As one of these distinguished Englishmen said, "They +have done better than banish Mrs. Grundy; they have given her a special +invitation, and drugged her the moment she came in." + +The Court invariably arrived on the first of November, and generally +stayed for three weeks or a month, according to the date fixed for the +opening of the Chambers. From that moment the town, a very sleepy though +exceedingly pretty one, became like a fair. Unless you had engaged your +room beforehand at one of the hotels, the chances were a thousand to one +in favour of your having to roam the streets; for there were hundreds +and hundreds of sight-seers, French as well as foreign, desirous of +following the hounds, which every one was free to do. In addition to +these, many functionaries, not sufficiently important to be favoured +with an invitation to the Chateau, but eager for an opportunity of +attracting the notice of the sovereign--for Napoleon was a very +impulsive monarch, who often took sudden fancies--had to be +accommodated, not to mention flying columns of the demi-monde, "pas trop +bien assurees sur la fidelite de leurs protecteurs en-titre et voulant +les sauvegarder contre les attaques de leurs rivales dans l'entourage +imperial." What with these and others, a room, on the top story, was +often quoted at sixty or seventy francs per day. I know a worthy +lieutenant of the cavalry of the Garde who made a pretty sum, for two +years running, by engaging three apartments at each of the five good +hotels, for the whole of the Emperor's stay. His regiment was quartered +at Compiegne, and, as a matter of course, his friends from Paris applied +to him. + +An amusing incident happened in connection with this scarcity of +accommodation. The French railways in those days got a great many of +their rails from England. The representative of one of these English +makers found out, however, that the profits on his contracts were pretty +well being swallowed up by the baksheesh he had to distribute among the +various government officials and others. In his perplexity, he sought +advice of an English nobleman, who had his grandes et petites entrees to +the Tuileries, and the latter promised to get him an audience of the +Emperor. It so happened that the Court was on the eve of its departure, +but Napoleon wrote that he would see the agent at Compiegne. On the day +appointed, the Englishman came. Having made up his mind to combine +pleasure with business, he had brought his portmanteau in order to stay +for a day or so. Previous to the interview he had applied at every +hotel, at every private house where there was a chance of getting a +room, but without success. His luggage was in a cab on the Place du +Chateau. Napoleon was, as usual, very kind, promised him his aid, but +asked him to let the matter rest until the next day, when he would have +an opportunity of consulting a high authority on the subject who was +coming down that very afternoon. "Give me your address, and I will let +you know, the first thing in the morning, when I can see you," said the +Emperor in English. + +The Englishman looked very embarrassed. "I have no address, sire. I have +been unable to get a room anywhere," he replied. + +"Oh, I dare say we can put you up somewhere here," laughed the Emperor, +and called to one of his aides-de-camp, to whom he gave instructions. + +The Englishman and the officer departed together, but the Chateau was +quite as full as the rest of the town. + +"I'll ask Baptiste," said the officer at last, having tried every +possible means. + +Baptiste was one of the Emperor's principal grooms, and very willing to +help; but, alas! he had only a very small room himself, and that was +shared by his wife. + +"If monsieur don't mind," said Baptiste, "I will make him up a good bed +in one of the fourgons"--one of the luggage-vans. + +So said, so done. The Englishman slept like a top, being very +tired,--too much like a top, for he never stirred until he found himself +rudely awakened by a heavy bundle of rugs and other paraphernalia being +flung on his chest. He was at the station. Baptiste had simply forgotten +to mention the fact of his having transformed the fourgon into a +bedroom; the doors that stood ajar during the night had been closed +without the servant looking inside; and when the occupant was discovered +he was, as Racine says-- + + "Dans le simple appareil + D'une beaute qu'on vient d'arracher au sommeil." + +When he told the Emperor, the latter laughed, "as he had never seen him +laugh before," said the aide-de-camp, who had been the innocent cause of +the mischief by appealing to Baptiste. + +The victim of the misadventure did not mind it much. For many years +afterwards, he averred that the sight of Compiegne in those days would +have compensated for the inconvenience of sleeping on a garden seat. +What was more, he and his firm were never troubled any more with +inexorable demands for baksheesh. + +He was right; the sight of Compiegne in those days was very beautiful. +There was a good deal of the histrionic mixed up with it, but it was +very beautiful. In addition to the bands of the garrison, a regimental +band of the infantry of the Garde played in the courtyard of the +Chateau; the streets were alive with crowds dressed in their best; +almost every house was gay with bunting, the only exceptions being those +of the Legitimists, who, unlike Achilles, did not even skulk in their +tents, but shut up their establishments and flitted on the eve of the +arrival of the Court, after having despatched an address of unswerving +loyalty to the Comte de Chambord. After a little while, Napoleon did not +trouble about these expressions of hostility to his dynasty, though he +could not forbear to ask bitterly, now and then, whether the Comte de +Chambord or the Comte de Paris under a regency could have made the +country more prosperous than he had attempted to do, than he succeeded +in doing. And truth compels one to admit that France's material +prosperity was not a sham in those days, whatever else may have been; +for in those days, as I have already remarked, the end was still +distant, and there were probably not a thousand men in the whole of +Europe who foresaw the nature of it, albeit that a thirtieth or a +fortieth part of them may have been in Compiegne at the very time when +the Emperor, in his elegantly appointed break, drove from the Place du +Chateau amidst the acclamations of the serried crowds lining the roads. + +On the day of the arrival of the Emperor--the train reached Compiegne +about four--there was neither dinner-party nor reception at the Chateau. +The civil and military authorities of Compiegne went to the station to +welcome the Imperial couple, the rangers of Compiegne and Laigue forests +waited upon his Majesty to arrange the programme, and generally joined +the Imperial party at dinner; but the fetes did not commence until the +second day after the arrival, _i. e._ with the advent of the first batch +of guests, who reached the Chateau exactly twenty-four hours after their +hosts. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Society during the Empire -- The series of guests at Compiegne -- + The amusements -- the absence of musical taste in the Bonapartes + -- The programme on the first, second, third, and fourth days -- + An anecdote of Lafontaine, the actor -- Theatrical performances + and balls -- The expenses of the same -- The theatre at Compiegne + -- The guests, male and female -- "Neck or nothing" for the + latter, uniform for the former -- The rest have to take "back + seats" -- The selection of guests among the notabilities of + Compiegne -- A mayor's troubles -- The Empress's and the + Emperor's conflicting opinions with regard to female charms -- + Bassano in "hot water" -- Tactics of the demi-mondaines -- + Improvement from the heraldic point of view in the Empress's + entourage -- The cocodettes -- Their dress -- Worth -- When every + pretext for a change of toilette is exhausted, the court ladies + turn themselves into ballerinas -- "Le Diable a Quatre" at + Compiegne -- The ladies appear at the ball afterwards in their + gauze skirts -- The Emperor's dictum with regard to + ballet-dancers and men's infatuation for them -- The Emperor did + not like stupid women -- The Emperor's "eye" for a handsome woman + -- The Empress does not admire the instinct -- William I. of + Prussia acts as comforter -- The hunt -- Actors, "supers," and + spectators -- "La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas" -- The Imperial + procession -- The Empress's and Emperor's unpunctuality -- + Louis-Napoleon not a "well-dressed man" -- The Empress wished to + get back before dark -- The reason of this wish -- Though + unpunctual, punctual on hunt-days -- The police measures at those + gatherings -- M. Hyrvoix and M. Boitelle -- The Empress did not + like the truth, the Emperor did -- Her anxiety to go to St. + Lazare. + + +The guests were divided into five series, each of which stayed four days +exclusive of the day of their arrival and that of their departure. Each +series consisted of between eighty and ninety guests. + +The amusements provided were invariably the same for each series of +guests. On the day of their arrival there was the dinner, followed by +charades, and a carpet dance to the accompaniment of the piano--or, to +speak by the card, of the piano-organ. It was an instrument similar to +that which nowadays causes so much delight to the children in the +streets of London, and, as far as I can remember, the first of its kind +I had ever seen. The male guests, and not always the youngest, relieved +one another in turning the handle. Mechanical as was the task, it +required a certain ear for time, and they were often found sadly wanting +in that respect. It was rather comical to see a grave minister of State +solemnly grinding out tunes, and being called to task every now and +again for his incapacity. The worst offender, the most hopeless +performer, was undoubtedly the Emperor himself. The Bonapartes are one +and all devoid of the slightest taste for music. I think it is De +Bourrienne--but I will not be certain--who speaks of the founder of the +dynasty humming as he went along from one apartment to another. "Et Dieu +sait comme il chantait faux," adds the chronicler in despair. That part +of the great man's mantle had decidedly fallen upon his nephew. I +remember the latter trying to distinguish himself on that piano-organ +one evening. M. de Maupas, who was the prefect of police at the time of +the Coup d'Etat, and minister of police afterwards, was among the +guests. The ambulant musician in Paris has to get a kind of licence from +the prefecture of police, the outward sign of which is a brass badge, +which he is bound to wear suspended from his button-hole. While the +Emperor was trying to make the company waltz, one of the ladies suddenly +turned round to M. de Maupas: "Si jamais l'empereur vous demande la +permission de jouer dans la rue, refusez lui, monsieur; refusez lui, +pour l'amour du ciel et de la musique," she said aloud: and the Emperor +himself could not help smiling at the well-deserved rebuke. "Madame," he +replied, "if ever I am reduced to such a strait, I will take you into +partnership: I will make you sing, and I will collect the pence." In +spite of his musical deficiencies the Emperor was right; the lady was +Madame Conneau, who had and has still one of the most beautiful voices +ever heard on the professional or amateur stage. + +On the first day following that of the arrival of the guests, there was +a shooting-party, or, rather, there were two--one in the home park for +the Emperor himself, who was not a bad shot, and a dozen of the more +important personages; another in the forest. Those who did not care for +sport were at liberty to remain with the ladies, who, under the +direction of the Empress, proceeded to the lawn. Croquet, as far as I +know, had not been invented then, but archery lent itself to posing and +flirtation quite as well, and the costumes worn on such occasions were +truly a sight for the gods. + +On the evening of that day, there was a performance in the theatre, +built for the express purpose by Louis-Philippe, but which had been +considerably embellished since. The companies of the Comedie-Francaise, +the Odeon, the Gymnase, the Vaudeville, and the Palais-Royal took it in +turns. Only the members of the Comedie-Francaise had the privilege of +paying their respects in the Imperial box. It was during one of the +performances of the Gymnase company that the following amusing incident +occurred. They were playing "Le Fils de Famille" of Bayard and De +Bieville,[64] and the Emperor was strolling in the lobbies before the +performance, when he noticed an old colonel of lancers, whom he did not +remember to have seen among the guests during the daytime, but who +seemed perfectly at home. He had not even donned his full regimentals. + + [Footnote 64: Known on the English stage as the "Queen's + Shilling," by Mr. Godfrey.--EDITOR.] + +"Voila un vrai, beau militaire," said the sovereign to one of his +aides-de-camp; "allez demander son nom." + +The aide-de-camp returned in a moment. "Il s'appelle Lafontaine, sire; +et il appartient au regiment du Gymnase." + +"Comment, au regiment du Gymnase?" + +"Mais oui, sire; c'est Lafontaine, le comedien." + +In fact, the assumption was so thoroughly realistic, that even a better +judge than Louis-Napoleon might have been deceived by it. + +Those performances were really most brilliant affairs, and an invitation +to them was only less highly prized than that to the ball which always +followed the play on November 15th, the Empress's fete-day.[65] The cost +of each performance was estimated at between twenty and thirty thousand +francs, according to the company performing. I am repeating the official +statement, though inclined to think it somewhat exaggerated. Except the +Opera or Opera-Comique, there was not then, nor is there now, a theatre +in Paris whose nightly receipts, with "the greatest success," exceed +seven or eight thousand francs. Allowing for an additional three +thousand francs for railway travelling and sundry expenses, I fail to +see how the remainder of the sum was disbursed, unless it was in +douceurs to the performers. There is less doubt, however, about the +expenses of the Chateau during this annual series of fetes. It could not +have been less than forty-five thousand francs per diem, and must have +often risen to fifty thousand francs, exclusive of the cost of the +theatrical performances, because the luxe displayed on these occasions +was truly astonishing--I had almost said appalling. + + [Footnote 65: The Sainte-Eugenie, according to the Church + Calendar. In France, it is not the birthday, but the day of the + patron-saint whose name one bears, which is + celebrated.--EDITOR.] + +The theatre was built on the old-fashioned principle, and what we call +stalls were not known in those days. There was something analogous to +them at the Opera and the Theatre-Francais, but they were exclusively +reserved to the male sex. Both these theatres still keep up the same +traditions in that respect. At Compiegne the whole of the ground floor, +parterre, or pit, as we have misnamed it--"groundlings" is a much more +appropriate word, perhaps, than "pittites"--was occupied by the officers +of all grades of the regiments quartered at Compiegne and in the +department. The chefs de corps and the chief dignitaries of State filled +the amphitheatre, which rose in a gentle slope from the back of the +parterre to just below the first tier of boxes, or rather to the balcony +tier, seeing that the only box on it was the Imperial one. The latter, +however, took up much more than the centre, for it had been constructed +to seat about two hundred persons. Only a slight partition, elbow high, +divided it from the rest of the tier, whence the sterner sex was +absolutely banished. The display of bare arms and shoulders was +something marvellous, for they were by no means equally worthy of +admiration, and the stranger, ignorant of the court regulations, must +have often asked himself why certain ladies should have been so reckless +as to invite comparison with their more favoured sisters. It was because +there was no choice. The slightest gauze was rigorously prohibited, and +woe to the lady who ventured to disobey these regulations. One of the +chambellans was sure to request her to retire. "L'epaule ou l'epaulette" +was the title of a comic song of those days, in allusion to the +Empress's determination to suffer none but resplendent uniforms and ball +dresses within sight of her. If I remember aright, the chorus went like +this-- + + "Je ne porte pas l'epaulette, + Je ne puis me decoll'ter, + Je ne suis qu'un vieux bonhomme, + Donc, je ne suis pas invite." + +For even the guests in plain evening dress were mercilessly relegated to +the tier above that of the Imperial box, and, even when there, were not +permitted to occupy the first rows. These also were reserved for the +fairer portion of humanity. + +This fairer portion of humanity, thus ostensibly privileged, embittered +the lives of the poor mayor and sub-prefect of Compiegne. The wives of +the local notabilities and of the government officials, in addition to +those of some of the landed gentry of the Empire, were not only anxious +to be present at these gatherings, but generally insisted on having the +front seats, at any rate in the second circle. Their applications, +transmitted by these dignitaries to the Duc de Bassano, were always in +excess of the room at his disposal, and, being an utter stranger to all +these ladies, he had virtually to choose at random, or, if not at +random, to be guided by the mayor and sub-prefect, who were consulted, +not with regard to the greater or lesser degree of opulent charms and +comeliness of features of these fair applicants, but with regard to +their social status and fair fame. Now, it so happens that in France +"L'amour fait des siennes" in the provinces as well as in the capital; +he only disdains what Mirabeau used to call "les fees concombres." The +Empress, provided the shoulders and arms were bare, did not trouble much +about either their colour or "moulded outline;" the Emperor, on the +contrary, objected, both from personal as well as artistic reasons, to +have the curved symmetry of the two circles marred by the introduction +of so many living problems of Euclid; and it really seemed as if the +devil wanted to have all the good shapes to himself, for the reputedly +virtuous spinsters, widows, and matrons were angular enough to have +satisfied a tutor of mathematics. There was a dilemma: if they were put +in the front rows, the Emperor scolded Bassano, who in his turn scolded +the mayor and the sub-prefect. If the less virtuous but more attractive +were put in the front rows, there was frequently a small scandal; for +the Empress, at the first sight of them, had them expelled, after which +she scolded Bassano, who avenged himself for his having been reprimanded +on the mayor and sub-prefect. Furthermore, the contingent from Paris, +some of whom were often provided with letters of introduction from +influential personages to the latter gentleman, were not always without +reproach though ever without fear; but how were two provincial +magistrates to know this? Those sirens could almost impose upon them +with impunity, and did; so, upon the whole, the magistrates did not have +a pleasant time of it, for in the case of the former damsels or veuves +de Malabar both the Emperor and the Empress were equally strict--though, +perhaps, from utterly different motives. + +Nevertheless, the esclandres were comparatively rare, and the house +itself presented a sight unparalleled perhaps throughout the length and +breadth of Europe. At nine o'clock, Comte Bacciochi, the first +chambellan, in his court dress descended the few steps leading from the +foyer to the Imperial box, and, advancing to the front, announced, "The +Emperor." Every one rose and remained standing until the Emperor and +Empress, who entered immediately afterwards, had seated themselves in +the crimson velvet and gilt arm-chairs which the gentlemen-in-waiting +(les chambellans de service) rolled forward. + +I have spoken elsewhere of the immediate entourage of the Imperial +hosts, and may therefore pass them over in silence here. As the +Napoleonic dynasty became apparently more consolidated both at home and +abroad, this entourage gradually changed--though no truthful observer +could have honestly averred that the change was for the better. The +decaves and the declassees of the first period disappeared altogether, +or underwent a truly marvellous financial and social metamorphosis: the +men, by means of speculations, chiefly connected with the +"Haussmannizing" of Paris, the successful carrying out of which was +greatly facilitated by their position at court; the women by marriages, +the conditions of which I prefer not to discuss. An undoubtedly genuine +leaven of names to be found in "D'Hozier,"[66] came to swell the ranks +of the hitherto somewhat shady courtiers of both sexes. Unfortunately, +their blood was not only thicker than water, and consequently more +easily heated, but they presumed upon the blueness of it to set public +opinion at defiance. + + [Footnote 66: "D'Hozier," the French "Burke," so named after + its founder, Pierre D'Hozier, the creator of the science of + French genealogy.--EDITOR.] + + "Ce qui, chez les mortels, est une effronterie + Entre nous autres demi-dieux + N'est qu'honnete galanterie." + +Thus wrote the Duchesse du Maine[67] to her brother, of whom she was +perhaps a little more fond than even their blood-relationship +warranted. This privilege of stealing the horse, while the meaner-born +might not even look over the hedge, was claimed by the sons and the +daughters of the old noblesse, who condescended to grace the court of +Napoleon III., with a cynicism worthy of the most libertine traditions +of the ancien regime; and neither the Empress nor the Emperor did +anything to discountenance the claim. The former, provided that "tout se +passait en famille," closed her eyes to many things she ought not to +have tolerated. At the Tuileries, a certain measure of decorum was +preferred; at Compiegne and Fontainebleau, where the house was "packed" +as it were, the most flagrant eccentricities, to call them by no harsher +name, were not only permitted, but tacitly encouraged by the Empress. +This was especially the case when the first series of guests was gone. +It generally included the most serious portion of the visitors, "les +ennuyeurs, les empecheurs de danser en rond,"[68] as they were called. +The ladies belonging to, or classed in that category, presented, no +doubt, a striking contrast to those of the succeeding series, in which +the English element was not always conspicuous by its absence. The +costumes of the latter were something wonderful to behold. The cloth +skirt, which had then been recently introduced from England, and the +cloth dress, draped elegantly over it, enabled their wearers to defy all +kinds of weather. And as they went tramping down the muddy roads, their +coquettish little hats daintily poised on enormous chignons, their +walking boots displaying more than the regulation part of ankle, the +less sophisticated Compiegnois stared with all their might at the +strange company from the Chateau, and no wonder. Still, the surprise of +the inhabitants was small compared to that of the troopers of the +garrison at the invasion of their riding-school by such a contingent, +which indulged in ring-tilting, not unfrequently in tent-pegging, and, +more frequently still, "in taking a header into space," to the great +amusement of their companions. + + [Footnote 67: Anne, Louise, Benedicte de Bourbon, Princesse de + Conde, who married the Duc du Maine, the illegitimate son of + Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan. She disliked her husband, + whom she considered socially beneath her, and who was very ugly + besides. The lines quoted above are probably not hers, but + Malezieu's, "her poet in ordinary," who also organized her + amateur theatricals.--EDITOR.] + + [Footnote 68: Idiomatically, "the bores, the spoil-sports, or + wet-blankets."--EDITOR.] + +In those days, Worth was not quite king; the cocodettes of the Imperial +circle were still prophesying on their own account. The "arsenal des +modes," as Madame Emile de Girardin had boastingly called Paris but ten +years previously, had as yet not been boldly taken by storm by a native +of bucolic Lincolnshire. But in a very short time he became the absolute +autocrat in matters of feminine apparel. It was not even an enlightened +despotism. His will was law. Every different entertainment required its +appropriate costume, and the costume was frequently the sole pretext for +the entertainment. And when the ingenuity in devising both was in danger +of becoming exhausted, the supreme resource of these ladies was to turn +themselves into ballerinas; not into ballerinas as King Bomba, or the +Comte Sosthene de la Rochefoucauld, or M. Rouher would have had them, +but into ballerinas with the shortest of gauze skirts and pink silk +fleshings. + +One year, I am not certain of the exact one,--I know that the future +Emperor of Germany was there,--the ladies hit upon the idea of giving a +surprise to the Emperor and Empress on the occasion of the latter's +fete-day. A ballet-master was sent for in hot haste from Paris, and "Le +Diable a Quatre" put in rehearsal. Unlike Peter the Great, who had a +soldier hanged--he said shooting was too good for him--for having +represented a disreputable character on the stage, the Emperor professed +himself exceedingly pleased; and the ladies, among whom was Princess von +Metternich, were sent for from the Imperial box to be complimented by +the sovereign. At the ball which followed the entertainment, they +appeared in their theatrical dresses. Every one was delighted. "Apres +tout," said Napoleon, blinking his eyes, "avec cette manie des hommes de +courir apres des danseuses, il vaut mieux leur en fournir de bonne +maison." + +The philosophy was unassailable, and, to a certain extent, acted upon by +its professor. Napoleon only admired dancers on the stage. He thought, +with Balzac, that the extraordinary physical strain upon the lower +extremities necessarily interfered with the intellectual development "at +the other end." "L'esprit de la danseuse est dans ses jambes, et je +n'aime pas les femmes betes," he remarked; for the Emperor, like most of +the members of his family, did not scruple to apply the right word, when +talking to his familiars. + +Nevertheless, until he was assured of the stupidity of a woman by more +intimate acquaintance, he was too much inclined to be attracted by the +first handsome face he saw, or, to speak by the card, by the first +handsome face he picked out for himself. The moment he was seated by +the side of the Empress in the Imperial box, during one of those +performances I mentioned just now, he swept the house with his +opera-glass, and unerringly the glass stopped at what was really the +handsomest woman in the house, whether she was seated on the tier with +him or in the upper one--of course, I mean "the handsomest woman" among +the strangers, because on such occasions the Emperor paid but little +attention to those who were generally around him. The Empress was fain +to put up with these peccadilloes: she could not be always running away +to Schwalbach or to Scotland; besides, she knew that she would have to +come back again. Some months previous to the performance of "Le Diable a +Quatre," she went to the former place to hide her mortification. William +of Prussia was at Baden-Baden at the time, and he immediately left the +delightful society and the magnificent roulades of Pauline Lucca to +offer his sympathies to the Griselda who had fled from her home +troubles, forgetting that there was another one at home, who would have +even been more glad of his company. + +On the day after the shooting-party and the theatrical performance, +there was generally an excursion to Pierrefonds, and afterwards to the +magnificent Roman remains at Champlieu. In the evening there were +charades and carpet dances as usual. + +The third day was always reserved for the most important part of the +programme--the stag-hunt. Candidly speaking, I doubt whether Napoleon, +though a very excellent horseman, cared much for this sport, as +conducted on the grand traditional lines of the French "code of +venerie." His main object personally was a good stiff run with the +hounds, such as he had been used to in England, troubling himself little +whether the pack kept the scent or not. In fact, there were generally +two packs out, one of purely English breed, which was followed by the +Emperor and his guests; the other French, followed by the serious lovers +of sport, who, as a rule, caught at every pretext to get away from the +magnificently apparelled crowd, driving or riding in the wake of the +sovereign. Among the former there was a considerable sprinkling of the +landed gentry of the neighbourhood, monarchists and legitimists to a +man, some of whom did not even condescend to honour the Emperor with a +salute. Compiegne, Senart, etc., were, after all, public property, and +they could do as they liked, though I have got an idea that this wilful +slight was an instance of singular bad taste on the part of these +gentlemen. + +The spot fixed for the meet was invariably the large clearing known as +the Carrefour du Puits-du-Roi, whence radiated eight immense avenues, +stretching as far as the uttermost confines of the forest of Compiegne. +The spot, apart from its associations with royalty, from the days of +Clovis up to our own, was admirably chosen, the mise-en-scene worthy of +the greatest stage-manager on record. The huge centre itself was kept +clear by the gendarmes de chasse--a cross between a mounted constable +and a ranger--from any but the officers of the garrison on horseback and +other persons privileged to join the Emperor's suite. Six of the avenues +were free to the pedestrians, who could watch every movement from their +vantage point; the seventh was set apart for carriages of all sorts, +from the humble shandrydan of the local notary and doctor to the +magnificent break of the neighbouring landed proprietor, or the less +correctly but more showily appointed barouches of the leaders of +provincial society, who rarely missed an opportunity of attending these +gatherings, where there were so many chances of coming in contact with +the court. Relegated for at least ten months of the year--allowing for +an annual visit to the capital--to the dull, humdrum, though often +pretentious round of entertainments of her own circle, the Comtesse +d'Esbargnas,[69] whether young or old, handsome or the reverse, matron +or widow, of patrician or plebeian origin, sedulously watched the yearly +recurring time and tide that might lead to a permanent footing at the +Tuileries. What has happened once may happen again. Agnes Sorel, Diane +de Poitiers, Gabrielle d'Estrees, Louise de la Valliere, let alone +Jeanne Becu and Jeanne Poisson,[70] had by no means exhausted the +possibilities of sudden elevations to within a step of the throne. These +new aspirants would be content with a less giddy position. And who could +say what might happen? Had not Alfred de Musset, the daring poet of "les +grandes passions," written a play entitled "Il ne faut jurer de rien"? +Assuredly what had happened once might happen again. Meanwhile the +pleasure of watching all this splendour was worth coming for. + + [Footnote 69: A character of one of Moliere's plays, who lends + her name to the play itself, and who, with her provincial + clique, apes the manners of the court.] + + [Footnote 70: Mesdames Du Barry and Pompadour.] + +The latter proposition hardly admitted of discussion. The sight was +truly worth coming for. Though the Imperial suite never made its +appearance before one, the main arteries of the forest became crowded as +early as eleven. Half an hour later came La Trace and La Feuille with +their equipage.[71] The kennelmen and huntsmen in full dress gathered +round a roaring fire, their hounds lying at their feet. The stablemen +and grooms, in undress livery of green and brown, walking the hunters of +the Emperor and his suite to and fro, presented a picture full of colour +and animation. + + [Footnote 71: "Equipage" is the right word. Applied to any but + military or hunting uses, it is out of place, though frequently + thus used.--EDITOR.] + +As a rule the Imperial cortege was punctual on those occasions, though +it was often remiss in that respect at gatherings of a different nature. +Among the familiars at the Tuileries the blame for this general +unpunctuality was attributed in an equal measure to both the Emperor and +the Empress. The latter dressed very slowly, and the former wanted to +dress too quickly. The result of this difference of habit was always +manifest to the most casual observer. The Empress, after the most +fatiguing day or soiree, always looked as if she had just left her +dressing-room, the Emperor at the beginning of the same as if he had +scarcely been in it. But on "grand hunt-days" the Empress was never a +minute late; and the reason, apart from the natural wish to exercise "la +politesse des rois," exactitude, was a curious one, but for the truth of +which I can vouch. It gets dark early in November, and the Empress +dreaded to be overtaken by darkness in the forest, even amidst a crowd. +It reminded her of a disagreeable episode during her first stay at +Compiegne, when she was still Mdlle. Eugenie de Montijo. She and her +future husband had got separated from the rest of the party. It was +never accurately known what happened, but she was found sitting quietly +but sorely distressed on her horse by M. de Saint-Paul, the sub-ranger, +who escorted her back to the Chateau. She explained her lonely and +uncomfortable position by the fact that her companion's horse had +suddenly taken the bit between its teeth. The explanation was a lame +one, seeing that the Prince-President, on his return, hours before, had +looked perfectly composed and not as much as mentioned her name. The +truth leaked out afterwards. Enraged at Mdlle. de Montijo's refusal to +grant him a clandestine interview for that night, her princely suitor +had left her to find her way back as best she could. + +Invariably, then, at the stroke of one, the Imperial procession was +signalled, for it was nothing less than a procession. At its head rode +the chief ranger of Compiegne, Baron de Wimpffen, in a magnificent +hunting-coat of green and gold, the laced tricornered hat, surmounted by +a bunch of black plumes, jackboots, and white doeskins. Then came the +Imperial break, drawn by six horses, mounted by postilions in powdered +wigs, the Imperial host and hostess on the front seat, the members of +the family, or some illustrious guests, behind; the rest of the breaks +were only four-horsed, and the procession was closed by the carriage of +M. Hyrvoix, the chief of the secret police. In Paris this arrangement +was reversed, and M. Hyrvoix, who had the rank of a prefect, and took +his place as such at all public functions, preceded instead of following +the Imperial carriage. + +I am inclined to think, notwithstanding the frequent outcries against +the secret police during the second empire, that M. Hyrvoix was a +thoroughly upright and conscientious servant. Unfortunately for himself +and his Imperial masters, his position was a difficult one; for though +professedly employed to gauge public opinion with regard to the dynasty, +his reports to that effect were not always received with the +consideration due to honest truth, at any rate by the Empress. +Throughout these pages, I have endeavoured as far as possible to jot +down my recollections in a kind of chronological order, rather than in +the order they occurred to me; but in this, as in many other instances, +I have been obliged to anticipate the course of events lest they should +slip my memory, for I had no documents to go by, and also to avoid +unnecessary repetitions. This particular part of my somewhat disjointed +narrative was meant to deal with the festivities at Compiegne and the +company there; on reading it over, I find that it has developed into a +fragment of biography of the Emperor and his Consort. As such, the +following stories will throw a valuable side light on their different +dispositions. + +When the news of Emperor Maximilian's death reached Paris, there was the +rumbling of a storm which foreboded no good. For days before, there had +been vague rumours of the catastrophe. It had been whispered at the +annual distribution of prizes at the College de France, where one of +the young Cavaignacs had refused to receive his reward at the hands of +the Prince Imperial. In short, indignation was rife among all classes. +The Empress, on hearing of the insult, had burst into hysterical tears, +and been obliged to leave the reception-rooms. In short, a dark cloud +hung over the Tuileries. I have spoken elsewhere of the Mexican +expedition, so need not enlarge upon it here. We will take it that both +Napoleon and his wife were altogether blameless in the affair--which was +by no means the case,--but a moment's reflection ought to have shown +them that appearances were against them, and that the discontent +expressed was so far justified. I am under the impression that Napoleon +himself looked at it in that way; he bowed to the storm; he regretted, +but did not resent people speaking ill of him. Not so the Empress; the +truth was only welcome to her when it flattered her; she really fancied +herself an autocrat by the Grace of God, as the previous Bourbons +interpreted the term. In spite of all that has been said about her +amiability, about her charity, Eugenie was in reality cruel at heart. No +woman, not cruel, could have taken the principal part in a scene which I +will describe presently. But she was vindictive also, and, what was +worse, blindly vindictive. Though firmly convinced that she reigned by +right divine, she had felt more than once that private revenge on "the +people" who abused her was beyond her power. She not only fretted +accordingly, but often vented her wrath on the first victim that came to +hand, albeit that the latter was generally the mere innocent conveyance +through which the voice of "the people" reached her. M. Hyrvoix, in +virtue of his functions, often found himself the echo of that voice. He +was generally the first of all the officials to present his daily +report. The Emperor gave him his cue by asking, "What do the people +say?" + +On that particular morning, after the death of Maximilian had become +known, the answer came not as readily as usual; for the chief of the +secret police was not in the habit of mincing matters. This time, +however, M. Hyrvoix kept silent for a while, then replied, "The people +do not say anything, sire." + +Napoleon must have noticed the hesitating manner; for he said at once, +"You are not telling me the truth. What do the people say?" + +"Well, sire, if you wish to know, not only the people, but every one is +deeply indignant and disgusted with the consequences of this unfortunate +war. It is commented upon everywhere in the selfsame spirit. They say it +is the fault of ----" + +"The fault of whom?" repeated Napoleon. + +Whereupon M. Hyrvoix kept silent once more. + +"The fault of whom?" insisted Napoleon. + +"Sire," stammered M. Hyrvoix, "in the time of Louis XVI. people said, +'It is the fault of the Austrian woman.'" + +"Yes, go on." + +"Under Napoleon III. people say, 'It is the fault of the Spanish +woman.'" + +The words had scarcely left M. Hyrvoix' lips, when a door leading to the +inner apartments opened, and the Empress appeared on the threshold. "She +looked like a beautiful fury," said M. Hyrvoix to his friend, from whom +I have got the story. "She wore a white dressing-gown, her hair was +waving on her shoulders, and her eyes shot flames. She hissed, rather +than spoke, as she bounded towards me; and, ridiculous as it may seem, I +felt afraid for the moment. 'You will please repeat what you said just +now, M. Hyrvoix,' she gasped in a voice hoarse with anger. + +"'Certainly, madame,' I replied, 'seeing that I am here to speak the +truth, and, as such, your Majesty will pardon me. I told the Emperor +that the Parisians spoke of "the Spanish woman," as they spoke +seventy-five and eighty years ago of the Austrian woman.'" + +"'The Spanish woman! the Spanish woman!' she jerked out three or four +times--and I could see that her hands were clenched;--'I have become +French, but I will show my enemies that I can be Spanish when occasion +demands it.' + +"With this she left as suddenly as she had come, taking no notice of the +Emperor's uplifted hand to detain her. When the door closed upon her, I +said to the Emperor, 'I am more than grieved, sire, that I spoke.' + +"'You did your duty,' he said, grasping my hand." + +As a matter of course, the threat to show her enemies that she could be +Spanish when occasion required was, in this instance, an empty one, +because "the enemies" happened to be legion. A scapegoat was found, +however, in the honest functionary who had, in the exercise of his duty, +frankly warned the Emperor of the ugly things that were said about her. +Next morning, M. Hyrvoix was appointed Receiver-General for one of the +departments--that is, exiled to the provinces. + +This system of ostracism was indiscriminately applied to all who +happened to offend her. Unfortunately, the slightest divergence of +opinion on the most trifling matter was construed into an offence; hence +in a few years the so-called counsellors around the Emperor were simply +so many automata, moving at her will, and at her will only. Men who +ventured to think for themselves were removed, or else voluntarily +retired from the precincts of the court sooner than submit to a tyranny, +not based like that of Catherine II. or Elizabeth upon great +intellectual gifts, but upon the wayward impulses of a woman in no way +distinguished mentally from the meanest of her sex, except by an +overweening ambition and an equally overweening conceit. + +And as nothing is so apt to breed injustice as injustice, men, who might +have proved the salvation of the Second Empire in its hour of direst +need, were absolutely driven into opposition, and so blinded by +resentment as to be unable to distinguish any longer between France and +those who impelled her to her ruin. + +Lest I should be taxed with exaggeration, a few instances among the many +will suffice. One evening, in the course of those charades of which I +have already spoken, some of the performers, both men and women, had +thrown all decorum to the winds in their improvised dialogue. A young +colonel, by no means strait-laced or a hypocrite, who was a great +favourite with the Emperor and Empress, professed himself shocked, in +the hearing of the latter, at so much licence in the presence of the +sovereigns. In reality, it was an honest but indirect comment upon the +Empress's blamable latitude in that respect. The Empress took up the +cudgels for the offenders. "Vous n'etes pas content, colonel; he bien! +je m'en _fiche_, _refiche_ et _contrefiche_." ("You don't like it, +colonel; well, I don't care a snap, nor two snaps, nor a thousand +snaps."[72]) The Emperor laughed, and applauded his Consort; the colonel +took the hint, and was seen at court no more. Shortly afterward he went +to Mexico, where all who saw him at work concurred in saying that he was +not only a most valuable soldier, but probably the only one in the +French army, of those days, capable of handling large masses. +Nevertheless, when the war of '70 broke out, he was still a colonel, and +no attempt at offering him a command was made. The republicans, for once +in a way, were wiser in their generation: at this hour he holds a high +position in the army, and is destined to occupy a still higher. It was +he who counselled Bazaine, in the beginning of the investment of Metz, +to leave twenty or thirty thousand men behind to defend the fortress, +and to break through with the rest. According to the best authorities of +the German general staff, the advice, had it been followed, would have +materially altered the state of affairs. It is not my intention to +enlarge upon that soldier's career or capabilities; I have merely +mentioned them to show that, when her resentment was roused, Eugenie +threw all considerations for the welfare of France to the winds, and +systematically ostracized men, whatever their merits; for I may add that +the young colonel, at the time of the scene described above, was known +to be one of the ablest of strategists. + + [Footnote 72: My translation by no means renders the vulgarity + of the sentence. The French have three words to express their + contempt for a speaker's opinion, _se moquer_, _se ficher_, and + _se_ ... I omit the latter, but even the second is rarely used + in decent society.--EDITOR.] + +We have heard a great deal of the Empress's charity. Truth to tell, that +charity was often as indiscriminate as her anger; it was sporadic, +largely admixed with the histrionic element, not unfrequently prompted +by sentimentalism rather than by sentiment; and woe to him or to her who +ventured to hint that it, the charity, was misplaced. In those days +there was a prefect of police, M. Boitelle. He was a worthy man, endowed +with a great deal of common sense, and, above all, honest to a degree. +Belonging to the middle classes, he was free from the vulgar greed that +so often distinguishes them in France; and, after leaving the army as a +non-commissioned officer, had settled on a small farm left to him by his +parents. Now, it so happened that M. de Persigny, whose real name was +Fialin, had been a sergeant in the same regiment, and one day, after the +advent of the Empire, being in the north, went to pay his former comrade +a visit. I am perfectly certain that M. Boitelle, whom I knew, and with +whose son I have continued the amicable relations subsisting between his +father and myself, did not solicit any honours or appointment from the +then powerful friend of the Emperor; nevertheless, Persigny appointed +his fellow-messmate to the sub-prefectorship of St. Quentin. The +emoluments, even in those days, were not large, but M. Boitelle was only +a small farmer, and the promise of quick preferment may have induced +him to leave his peaceful homestead; in short, M. Boitelle accepted, +and, after several promotions, found himself at last at the Paris +Prefecture of Police. In this instance the choice was really a good one. +I have known a good many prefects of police, among others M. de Maupas, +who officiated on the night of the Coup d'Etat, and who was also a +personal friend; but I never knew one so thoroughly fitted for the +arduous post as M. Boitelle. Though not a man of vast reading or +brilliant education, he was essentially a man of the world in the best +sense of the word. He was not a martinet, but a capable disciplinarian, +and, what was better still, endowed with a feeling of great tolerance +for the foibles of modern society. The soldier and the philosopher were +so inextricably mixed up in him, that it would have been difficult to +say where the one ended and the other began. M. de Maupas was at times +too conscious of his own importance; there was too much of the French +official in him. His successful co-operation in the Coup d'Etat had +imbued him with an exaggerated notion of his own capabilities of "taking +people by the scruff of the neck and running them in" (a empoigner les +gens). An English friend of mine, to whom I introduced him, summed him +up, perhaps, more fitly. "He is like the policeman who ran in a woman of +sixty all by himself, and boasted that he could have done it if she had +been eighty." + +But M. Boitelle, though kind-hearted, had no sympathy whatsoever with +mawkish philanthropy. The Empress, on the other hand, had absolute +paroxysms of it. She was like the Spanish high-born dame who insisted +upon a tombstone for the grave of a bull, the killing and torturing of +which in the ring she had frantically applauded. One day she expressed +her wish to M. Boitelle to pay a visit to Saint-Lazare. There is nothing +analogous to that institution in England. The "unfortunate woman" who +prowls about the streets before or after nightfall is--except in a few +garrison towns--tacitly ignored by our legislators, and when she offends +against the common law, treated by our magistrates like any other member +of society. We have no establishments where the moral cancer eats deeper +into the flesh and the mind by the very attempt to isolate those who +suffer most from it; we have no system which virtually bars the way to a +reformed life by having given official authority to sin, and by +recording for evermore the names of those whom want alone compelled to +have themselves inscribed as outcasts on those hellish registers. We +have no Saint-Lazare, and Heaven be praised for it! + +M. Boitelle knew the moral and mental state of most of the inmates of +Saint-Lazare sufficiently well to foster no illusions with regard to the +benefit to be derived by them from the solitary visit of so exalted a +personage, while, on the other hand, he felt perfectly aware that it was +morbid curiosity, however well disguised, that prompted the step. At the +same time, the respect due to his sovereign made him reluctant to expose +her, needlessly, to a possible, if not to a probable insult; in short, +he considered the projected "tour of inspection" an ill-concerted one. +He also knew that it would be idle to bring his fund of shrewd +philosophy to bear upon the Empress, to make her relinquish her design, +so he adopted instead the outspoken method of the soldier. "Whatever +your charitable feelings may be for those who suffer, madame," he said, +"your place is not among them." The words sound a shade more abrupt in +French, but a moment's reflection would have shown the most fastidious +lady that no offence on the speaker's part was intended. The Empress, +however, drew herself up to her full height. "Charity can go any and +everywhere, monsieur," she replied. "You will please take me to +Saint-Lazare to-morrow." + +I would fain say as little as possible about the occupants of that +gloomy building at the top of the Faubourg St. Denis, but am compelled +to state in common fairness that, when once they are incarcerated and +behave themselves--of course, according to _their_ lights--they are not +treated with unnecessary harshness. I will go further, and say that they +are treated more leniently than female prisoners in other penal +establishments. The milder method is due to the presence in greater +numbers than elsewhere of that admirable angel of patience, the Sister +of Charity, who has no private grievances to avenge upon her own sex, +who does not look upon the fallen woman as an erstwhile and unsuccessful +rival for the favours of men, who consequently does not apply the _vae +victis_, either by sign, deed, or word. During my long stay in Paris, I +have been allowed to visit Saint-Lazare twice, and I can honestly say +that, though the laws that relegate these women there are a disgrace to +nineteenth-century civilization, their application inside Saint-Lazare +is not at all brutal. This does not imply that they lie upon down beds, +and that their food is of the most delicate description; but they are +well cared for bodily. The Empress, however, in a gush of misplaced +charity, thought fit to take objection to their daily meals not being +concluded with dessert. Thereupon, M. Boitelle, whose sound common sense +had already been severely tried during that morning, could not help +smiling. "Really, madame," he said; "you allow your kindness to run away +with your good sense. If they are to have a dessert, what are we to give +to honest women?" + +Next day, M. Boitelle was appointed a senator; that is, removed from his +post as prefect of police, which he had so worthily filled, and where he +had done a great deal of unostentatious good. The next time M. Boitelle +came in contact with the Empress was at the last hour of the Empire, +when he tried, but in vain, to overcome her resentment, caused by his +unhappy speech of many years before. + +Yet the woman who could indulge in sentiment about the absence of +dessert in the Saint-Lazare refectory, would, at the end of the hunt, +deliberately jump off her horse, plunge the gleaming knife in the throat +of the panting stag, and revel in the sight of blood. Many who saw her +do this argued that in the hour of danger she would as boldly face the +enemies of herself and her dynasty. I need not say that they were +utterly mistaken. She slunk away at the supreme hour; while the +princess, whom she had presumed to teach the manners of a court, left +like a princess in an open landau, preceded by an outrider. I am +alluding to Princess Clotilde. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + The story of a celebrated sculptor and his model -- David + d'Angers at the funeral of Cortot, the sculptor -- How I became + acquainted with him -- The sculptor leaves the funeral procession + to speak to a woman -- He tells me the story -- David d'Angers' + sympathy with Greece in her struggle for independence -- When + Botzaris falls at Missolonghi, he makes up his mind to carve his + monument -- Wishes to do something original -- He finds his idea + in the cemetery of Pere-la-Chaise -- In search of a model -- + Comes unexpectedly upon her in the Rue du Montparnasse, while in + company of Victor Hugo -- The model and her mother -- The bronze + Christ on the studio wall -- David gives it to his model -- The + latter dismissed -- A plot against the sculptor's life -- His + model saves him -- He tries to find her and fails -- Only meets + with her when walking behind the hearse of Cortot -- She appears + utterly destitute -- Loses sight of her again -- Meets her on the + outer boulevards with a nondescript of the worst character -- He + endeavours to rescue her, but fails -- Canler, of the Paris + police, reveals the tactics pursued with regard to "unfortunates" + -- David's exile and death -- The Botzaris Monument is brought + back to Paris to be restored -- The model at the door of the + exhibition -- Her death. + + +In connection with the treatment of "fallen women" in Paris, I may give +the following story, which becomes interesting in virtue of the +personality of one of the actors. In 1843 the sculptor Cortot died, and +I followed his funeral on foot, as was the custom in those days. I +walked by the side of one of the greatest artists France, or, for that +matter, the world, has ever produced--David d'Angers. The name of his +native town was adopted to distinguish him from his celebrated namesake, +the painter. I had become acquainted with the great sculptor a +twelvemonth previously, in Delacroix's studio. All at once, as the +procession went along the Quai Malaquais, I saw him start violently, and +break through what, for want of a more appropriate term, I must call the +ranks of mourners. For a moment only; the next, he was back by my side: +but I noticed that he was frightfully agitated. He probably saw my +concern for him in my face, for, though I asked him no questions, he +said of his own accord, "It is all right. I just caught sight of a woman +who saved my life, and, by the looks of her, she is in great straits, +but, by the time I got out of the crowd, she had disappeared. I have an +idea of the errand she was bent upon, and will inquire to-morrow, but I +am afraid it will be of very little use." + +I kept silent for a moment or two, but my curiosity was aroused, for, I +repeat, at that time, the artistic world was ringing with the name of +David d'Angers. + +"I did not know you had been in such great danger," I said at last. + +"Very few people do know it," he replied sadly; "besides, it happened a +good many years ago, when you were very young. The next time we meet I +will tell you all about it." + +A week or so afterwards, as I was leaving the Cafe de Paris one evening, +and going to the tobacconist at the corner of the Rue Laffite, I ran +against the celebrated sculptor. The weather was mild, and we sat +outside Tortoni's, where he told me the story, part of which I give in +his own words, as far as I can remember them after the lapse of more +than forty years. + +"If there were any need," he began, "to apologize to an Englishman for +my sympathy with the Philhellenism which shortened the life of Byron, I +might say that I sucked the principle of the independence of nations +with the mother's milk, for I was born in 1789. Be that as it may, when +Marcos Botzaris fell at Missolonghi I felt determined that he should +have a monument worthy of his heroism and patriotism, as far as my +talents could contribute to it. I was sufficiently young to be +enthusiastic, and, at the same time, sufficiently presumptuous to +imagine that I could do something which had never been done before. You +have seen the engraving of the monument; you may judge for yourself how +far I succeeded. But the idea of the composition, however out of the +common, was, I am bound to admit, not the offspring of my own +imagination. I was, perhaps, clever enough to see the poesy of it when +presented to me, and to appropriate it; but the young, fragile girl +lying on the tombstone and tracing the name of Marcos Botzaris was +suggested to me by a scene I witnessed one day at Pere-la-Chaise. I saw +a child stooping over a gravestone, and trying to spell out the words +carved on it. It was all I wanted. I own, from that moment, my +composition took shape in my mind. I was, however, still at a loss where +to find the ideal child. The little girl of whom I had caught a glimpse +would not have done at all for my purpose, even if her parents would +have consented to let her sit, which was not at all likely--she was the +prosperous-looking demoiselle of a probably prosperous bourgeoise +family, well-fed, plump, and not above seven or eight. I, on the +contrary, wanted a girl double that age just budding into womanhood, but +with the travail of the transition expressed in every feature, in every +limb. She was to represent to the most casual observer the sufferings +engendered by the struggle against tutelage for freedom. She was to bend +over the tomb of Botzaris to drag the secret of that freedom from him. +Dawning life was to drag the secret from the dead. + +"That was my idea, and for several days I cudgelled my brain to find +among my models one that would, physically and morally, represent all +this. In vain; the grisettes of the Rue Fleurus and the Quartier-Latin, +in spite of all that has been said of them by the poets and novelists of +that time, were not at all the visible incarnations of lofty sentiment; +whatever pain and grief an unrequited romantic passion might entail, +they left no appreciable traces on their complexions or in their +outline; they were saucy madams, and looked it. I had communicated my +wants to some of my friends, and one of them sent me what he thought +would suit. The face was certainly a very beautiful one, as an +absolutely perfect ensemble of classical features I have never seen the +like; but there was about as much expression in it as in my hand, and, +as for the body, it was simply bursting out of its dress. I told her she +would not do, and the reason why. 'Monsieur can't expect me to go into a +consumption for two francs fifty an hour,' she remarked, bouncing out of +the room. + +"I was fast becoming a nuisance to all my cronies, when, one day, going +to dine with Victor Hugo at La Mere Saget's, which was at the Barriere +du Maine, I came unexpectedly, in the Rue du Montparnasse, upon the very +girl for which I had been looking out for months. Notwithstanding her +rags, she was simply charming. She was not above fourteen or fifteen, +and, although very tall for her age, she had scarcely any flesh on her +bones. I only knew her Christian name--Clementine: I doubt whether she +had any other. Next morning she came with her mother, an old hag, +dissipation and drunkenness written in every line of her face. But the +child herself was perfectly innocent--at any rate, as innocent as she +could be with such a parent, and tractable to a degree. After a little +while the old woman, tired of twirling her thumbs, disgusted, perhaps, +at my want of hospitality in not offering her refreshments, left off +accompanying her, Clementine came henceforth alone. + +"My studio was in the Rue de Fleurus in those days, and on the wall hung +a very handsome bronze Christ on a velvet panel and in a dark satin +frame. Curiously enough, I often caught the mother watching it; it +seemed to have an irresistible fascination for her: and, one day, while +the child was dressing, after two or three hours of hard work, she +suddenly exclaimed, 'That's why my mother will not come here; she says +she'd commit a robbery. She never leaves off talking about it. I wonder +whether you'd like to part with it, M. David? A Christ like that would +be beautiful in our attic. It would comfort and cheer me. If you like, +I'll buy it of you. Of course, I have no money, but you can deduct it +from my sittings. You can have as many as you like, not only for this +statue, but for any other you may want later on.' + +"We democrats, professed republicans, and more than suspected +revolutionaries, are not credited by the majority with a great reverence +for religious dogma; we are generally branded as absolute freethinkers, +not to say atheists. This is frequently a mistake.[73] I have no +occasion to recite my _credo_ to you, but a great many of the +republicans of '89 and of to-day were and are believers. At any rate, I +fondly imagined that the Christ for which the mother and child were +longing might exercise some salutary influence on their lives, so I +simply took down the frame and its contents and handed them to her. She +staggered under the weight. 'You want that Christ,' I said; 'here it is: +and when you are tempted to do evil look at it, and think of me, who +gave it you as a present.' + + [Footnote 73: It is a mistake. Not to mention Camille + Desmoulins, who, when asked his age by his judge, replied, "The + age of another _sans-culotte_, Jesus." Esquiros frequently + spoke of "that good patriot, Christ;" Lammenais began the draft + of his constitution with "In the name of the Father, the Son, + and the Holy Ghost, and by the will of the French + people."--EDITOR.] + +"'As a present?' she shrieked for joy; and hurried away as fast as her +legs would carry her. + +"In about six months from that day the statue was finished. I had no +further need of Clementine's services, and gradually all thought of her +slipped from my mind. You may have heard that some time after my work +was despatched to Greece, I was assaulted one night in the Rue +Childebert, on my way to Gerard de Nerval's. My skull was split open in +two places, I was left for dead in the street, and but for a workman who +stumbled over me, took me home, and sat up with me until morning, I +might not have lived to tell the tale. From the very first I suspected +the identity of my assailant, though I have never breathed his name to +any one. I am glad to say I never had many enemies, nor have I now, as +far as I am aware; but I had offended the man by withholding my vote in +a prize competition. He was, however, not responsible for his actions; +for even at that time he must have been mad. A few years afterwards, the +suspicion both of his madness and his attempt upon my life became a +certainty, for he repeated the latter. You are very young, and youth is +either very credulous or very sceptical. We should be neither. If what I +am going to tell you now were to be represented to you at the Ambigu or +Porte Saint-Martin, you, as an educated man, would shrug your shoulders, +and look with a kind of good-natured contempt upon the grisette or +workman or bourgeois who would sit spellbound and take it all in as so +much gospel. Providence, fate, call it what you will, concocts more +striking dramatic situations and a greater number of them than M. Scribe +and all his compeers have constructed in the course of their +professional careers. Listen, and you shall judge for yourself. + +"About seven years after the attack in the Rue Childebert, I received a +letter one morning, inviting me to attend a meeting that same night +between twelve and one, at a house in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, near +the hospital of the Val-de-Grace. The letter told me how to proceed. +There being no concierge in the house, I was to provide myself with a +'dark lantern,' and to go up four flights of stairs, where I should find +a door with a cross chalked upon it. It would be opened by my giving a +particular knock. My previous danger notwithstanding, I had not the +least suspicion of this being a trap. I did not for one moment connect +the letter with the other event, the recollection of which, strange as +it may seem to you, did not obtrude itself at all then. But there was +another reason for the absence of caution on my part. In one of its +corners the letter bore a sign, not exactly that of a secret society, +but agreed upon among certain patriots. + +"In short, a little before twelve o'clock that night, I went to the +place appointed. I had no difficulty in finding the house, and reached +the fourth story without meeting a soul. There was the door, with the +cross chalked on it. I knocked once, twice, without receiving an answer. +Still, the thought of evil never entered my head. I began to think that +I had been the victim of a hoax of some youngsters of the Ecole des +Beaux-Arts, most of whom were aware of my political opinions. I was just +turning round to go down again, when a door by the side of that +indicated was slowly opened, and a young girl with a lighted candle +appeared on the threshold. Though both the candle and my lantern did not +shed much light, I perceived that, at the sight of me, she turned very +pale, but, until she spoke, I failed to recognize her. Then I saw it was +Clementine, my model. She scarcely gave me time to speak. 'It is you, M. +David,' she said, in a voice trembling with fear and emotion. 'You,' she +repeated. 'For Heaven's sake, go!--go as quickly as you can! If you stay +another moment, you will be a corpse; for God's sake, go! And let me beg +of you not to breathe a word of this to any one; if you do, my mother +and I will pay for this with our lives. For God's sake, go. I did not +know that you were the person expected. Go--go!' + +"I do not think I answered a single word. I felt instinctively that this +was no hoax, as I had imagined, but terrible reality. I went downstairs +as fast as I could, but it was not until I got into the street that a +connection between the two events presented itself to me. Then I decided +to wait and watch. I hid myself in the doorway of a house a few steps +away. Scarcely ten minutes had elapsed when half a dozen individuals +arrived, one by one, and disappeared into the house that sheltered +Clementine and her mother. One of them, I feel sure, was the man whom I +suspected of having attempted my life before. A few years more went by, +during which I often thought of my former model; and then, one day, I +felt I would like to see her again. In plain daylight this time, I +repaired to the house of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, clambered up the +stairs, and knocked at the door I had such good cause to remember. The +door was opened by a workman, and a rapid glance at the inside of the +room showed me that he was a lastmaker. 'Mademoiselle Clementine?' I +asked. The man stared at me, and said, 'No such person lives here.' I +made inquiries on all the lower floors--nobody had ever heard of her. +Clementine had disappeared. I never saw her again until a few days ago, +when I walked by your side behind the body of Cortot. I should not have +recognized her but for the bronze Christ she carried under her arm, and +which attracted my notice. If what I surmise be correct, she must have +reached the last stage of misery; for I feel convinced that nothing but +absolute want would make her part with it. I have, however, failed to +trace it in any of the bric-a-brac shops on the quays, and I believe +that I have pretty well inquired at every one; so I must fain be content +until fate throws her again across my path." + +So far the story as told by the great sculptor himself. During the next +eight years, in fact up to the Coup d'Etat, I met him frequently, and, +curiously enough, rarely failed to inquire whether in his many +wanderings through Paris he had caught a glimpse of his former model. I +felt unaccountably interested in the fate of that woman whom I had never +seen, and, if we had been able to find her, would have endeavoured to +find a decent home for her. But for about three years my inquiries +always met with the same answer. Then, one evening in the latter end of +'46 or beginning of '47, David told me that he had met her on the outer +boulevards, arm in arm with one of those terrible nondescripts of which +one is often compelled to speak again and again, and which, as far as I +am aware, are nowhere to be found as a class except in the French +metropolis and great provincial centres. Clementine evidently wished to +avoid David. A little while after, he met her again, and this time +followed her, but, though by no means a coward, lacked the courage to +enter the hovel into which she had disappeared with her companion. The +last time he saw her was in the middle of '47, in the Rue des +Boucheries. She seemed to have returned to her old quarters, and she was +by herself. Until she spoke, David did not recognize her. Her face was +positively seamed with horrible scars, "wounds inflicted by her +lovers"--Heaven save the mark! She asked him to help her, and he did; +but she had scarcely gone a few steps when she was arrested and taken to +the prison of l'Abbaye de St. Germain, hard by, whither David followed +to intercede for her. He was told to come back next morning, and that +same evening communicated the affair to me. I decided there and then to +accompany him, in order to carry out my plan of redeeming that human +soul if possible. I failed, though through no fault of my own, but my +attempt brought me in contact with a personage scarcely less interesting +in his own way than David, namely, M. Canler, the future head of the +Paris detective force. It was through him that I got an insight into +some of the most revolting features of criminal life in Paris. But, +before dealing with that subject, I wish to devote a few more lines to +David, whom I had the honour of numbering among my friends till the day +of his death, albeit that the last few years of his life were spent away +from France, whither he returned, however, to die in '56. After the Coup +d'Etat he was exiled by Louis-Napoleon--ostensibly, for his political +opinions; in reality, because he had refused to finish the monument for +Queen Hortense's tomb after her son's fiasco at Boulogne. + +Writing about France and Frenchmen, I feel somewhat reluctant to make +too lavish a use of the words "patriot" and "patriotism," especially +with the patriots and the patriotism of the Third Republic around me. +But I have no hesitation in saying that, to David d'Angers, these words +meant something almost sacred. Sprung from exceedingly poor parents, he +had amassed, by honest work, a fortune which, to men born in a higher +sphere and with far more expensive tastes, might seem sufficient. Seeing +that he was frugality and simplicity personified, that his income was +mainly spent in alleviating distress, and that his daughter was even +more simple-minded than her father, he had nothing to gain by the advent +of a republic, nothing to lose by the establishment of a monarchy or +empire, and his ardent championship of republican institutions--such as +he conceived them--was prompted solely by his noble nature. That +Louis-Napoleon should have exiled such a man was an error his warmest +friends could scarcely forgive him. But David never complained, any more +than he ever uttered a harsh word against the memory of Flaxman, who, in +his youth, had shut his doors against him under the impression that he +was a relation of Louis David who had voted for the death of Louis XVI. +On the contrary, the memory of the great English sculptor was held in +deep reverence. + +And so David departed, a wanderer on the face of the earth with his +daughter. He first endeavoured to settle in Brussels, but the +irresistible desire to behold once more what he himself considered his +greatest work, the monument to Marcos Botzaris, attracted him to Greece. +A friend, to whom he communicated his intention, wrote to him, "Do not +go." He gave him no further reason; he even withheld from him the fact +that he had been at Missolonghi a twelvemonth previously. The +explanation of this reticence may be gathered from David's letter to him +a few days after his, David's, return. I have been allowed to copy it, +and give it verbatim. + +"Long before our vessel anchored near the spot where Byron died, I +caught a glimpse of the tumulus erected at the foot of the bastion, in +honour of Botzaris and his fellow-heroes. It made a small dark spot on +the horizon, and above it was a speck, much smaller and perfectly white. +I knew instinctively that this was my statue of the 'young Greek girl,' +and I watched and watched with bated breath, fancying as the ship sped +along that the speck moved. Of course, it was only my imagination, the +presumptuous thought that the marble effigy would start into life at the +approach of its creator. + +"Alas, would I had proceeded no further--that I had been satisfied with +the mirage instead of pushing on in hot haste towards the reality! For +the reality was heart-rending, so heart-rending that I wept like a +child, and clenched my fists like a giant in despair. The right hand of +the statue, the index finger of which pointed to the name, had been +broken; the ears had disappeared, one of the feet was broken to atoms, +and the face slashed with knives. It was like the face of the girl that +had sat for me, when I last saw it, under the circumstances which, you +may remember, I told you. The whole was riddled with bullets, and some +tourists, British ones probably, had cut their names on the back of the +child. And so ends the most glorious chapter of my artist's career--the +model itself fallen beyond redemption, the work mutilated beyond repair, +the author of it in exile. + +"I felt powerless to repair the mischief. I did not stay long. Perhaps I +ought not to complain. I knew that Byron had been buried near the +fortifications at Missolonghi, but all my efforts to find the spot have +proved useless.[74] The house where he breathed his last had been pulled +down. Why should the Greeks have more reverence for Botzaris or +Mavrocordato than they had for the poet? and if these three are so +little to them, what must I be, whose name they probably never heard? +Still, as I stood at the stern of the departing vessel, I felt +heart-broken. I have no illusions left." + + [Footnote 74: Of course, David meant the spot where the remains + had been interred at first.--EDITOR.] + +I firmly believe that the injury done to the statue hastened David's +death. His work has since been restored by M. Armand Toussaint, his +favourite pupil, who gave his promise to that effect a few days before +the great sculptor breathed his last. The monument was, however, not +brought to Paris until 1861, and when M. Toussaint had finished his +task, he invited the press and the friends of his famous master to +judge of the results. It was at the door of his studio that I saw the +woman, whose adventures I have told in the preceding notes, for the +first time. A fortnight later, she died at the hospital of La Charite, +at peace, I trust, with her Maker. "Fate, Providence, call it what you +will," as David himself would have said, had brought me to the spot +just in time to alleviate the last sufferings of one who, though not +altogether irresponsible for her own errors, was to a still greater +extent the victim of a system so iniquitous as to make the least +serious-minded--provided he be endowed with the faintest spark of +humanity--shudder. I allude to the system pursued by the Paris +detective force in their hunt after criminals--a system not altogether +abandoned yet, and the successful carrying out of which is paid for by +the excruciating tortures inflicted upon defenceless though fallen +women--but women still--by the _souteneur_. I refrain from Anglicizing +the word; it will suggest itself after the perusal of the following +facts, albeit that, fortunately with us, the creature itself does not +exist as a class, and, what is worse, as a class recognized by those +whose first and foremost duty it should be to destroy him root and +branch. + + * * * * * + +The morning after Clementine's arrest, David and I repaired to the +prison of l'Abbaye Saint-German. When the sculptor sent in his name, the +governor himself came out to receive us. But the woman was gone; she had +been transferred, the previous night, to the depot of the prefecture de +police, "where," he said, "if you make haste, you will still find her." +He gave us a letter of introduction for the official charged to deal +with refractory "filles soumises," or offending insoumises, because, +then as now, these unfortunates were not tried by an ordinary police +magistrate in open court, but summarily punished by said official, the +sentences being subject, however, to revision or confirmation by his +superior, the chief of the municipal police. Nay, the decisions were not +even communicated to these women until they were safely lodged in +Saint-Lazare, lest there should be a disturbance; for they were not +examined one by one; and, as may be imagined, the contagion of revolt +spread easily among those hysterical and benighted creatures. + +When we reached the prefecture de police the judging was over, but, on +our sending in our letter, we were admitted at once to the official's +room. After David's description, he remembered the woman, and told us at +once that she had not been sent to Saint-Lazare, but liberated. Some one +had interceded for her--no less a personage than Canler, who, though at +the time but a superintendent, was already fast springing into notice as +a detective of no mean skill. "What had he done with her?" was David's +question. "I could not tell you," was the courteous reply; "but I will +give you his address, and he will no doubt give you all the information +in his power and consistent with his duty." With this we were bowed out +of the room. + +We did not succeed in seeing Canler until two days afterwards, or, +rather, on the evening of the second day; for, at that period, he was +entrusted with the surveillance of the theatres on the Boulevard du +Temple. I may have occasion to speak of him again, so I need not give +his portrait here. He was about fifty, and, unlike one of his +successors, M. Claude, the type of the old soldier. Of his honesty there +never was, there could have never been, a doubt, nor was his +intelligence ever questioned. And yet, this very honest, intelligent +man, in his all-absorbing pursuit, the detection and chasing of +criminals, was sufficiently dishonest and unintelligent to foster, if +not to inaugurate, a system subversive of all morality. + +David's name was a passport everywhere, and, no sooner had it been sent +in, than Canler came out to him. The sculptor stated his business, and +the police officer made a wry face. "I am afraid, M. David, I cannot +help you in this instance. To speak plainly, I have restored her to her +souteneur." We both opened our eyes very wide. "Yes," came the remark, +"I know what you are going to say. I can sum up all your objections +before you utter them. But I could not help myself; the fellow rendered +me a service, and this was the price of it. Without his aid, one of the +most desperate burglars in Paris would still be at large. As it is, I +have got him safe under lock and key. Very shocking, no doubt; mais, a +la guerre comme a la guerre." Then, seeing that we did not answer, he +continued: "As a rule, I do not explain my tactics to everybody; but +you, M. David, are not everybody, and, if you like to meet me when the +theatre is over, I shall be pleased to have a chat with you." + +At half-past twelve that night we were seated at a restaurant near the +Porte Saint-Martin, and, after a few preliminary remarks, Canler +explained. + +However great an artist you may be, M. David, you could not produce a +statue without the outlay for the marble, or for the casting of it in +bronze. You, moreover, want to pay your _praticien_, who does the rough +work for you. Our _praticiens_ are the informers, and they want to be +paid like the most honest workmen. The detection of crime means, no +doubt, intelligence, but it means also money. Now, money is the very +thing I have not got, and yet, when I accepted the functions I am at +present fulfilling, I gave my promise to M. Delessert not to neglect the +detective part of the business. I wish to keep my word, first of all, +because I pledged it; secondly, because detection of crime is food and +drink to me; thirdly, because I hope to be the head of the Paris +detective force one day. The Government allows a ridiculously small sum +every year for distribution among informers, and rewards among their own +agents; it is something over thirty thousand francs, but not a sou of +which ever reached my hands when I accepted my present appointment, and +scarcely a sou of which reaches me now. I was, therefore, obliged to +look out for auxiliaries, sufficiently disinterested to assist me +gratuitously, but, knowing that absolute disinterestedness is very rare +indeed, I looked for my collaborateurs among the very ones I was charged +to watch, but who, in exchange for my protection in the event of their +offending, were ready to peach upon their companions in crime and in +vice. I need not trouble you by enumerating the various categories of my +allies, but the souteneur, the most abject of them all, is, perhaps, the +most valuable. + +"He is too lazy to work, and, as a rule, has not got the pluck of a +mouse, consequently he rarely resorts to crime, requiring the smallest +amount of energy or daring. He furthermore loves his Paris, where, +according to his own lights, he enjoys himself and lives upon the fat of +the land; all these reasons make him careful not to commit himself, +albeit that at every minute of the day he comes in contact with +everything that is vile. But he gets hold of their secrets, though the +word is almost a misnomer, seeing that few of these desperadoes can hold +their tongue about their own business, knowing all the while, as they +must do, that their want of reticence virtually puts their heads into +the halter. But if they have done 'a good stroke of business,' even if +they do not brag about it in so many words, they must show their success +by their sudden show of finery, by their treating of everybody all +round, etc. The souteneur is, as it were, jealous of all this; for +though he lives in comparative comfort from what his mistress gives him, +he rarely makes a big haul. His mistress gone, the pot ceases to boil; +in fact, he calls her his _marmite_. In a few days he is on his beams' +ends, unless he has one in every different quarter, which is not often +the case, though it happens now and then. But, at any rate, the +incarceration of one of them makes a difference, and, under the +circumstance, he repairs, as far as he dares, to the prefecture, and +obtains her liberation in exchange for the address of a burglar or even +a murderer who is wanted. I have known one who had perfected his system +of obtaining information to such a degree as to be able to sell his +secrets to his fellow-souteneurs when they had none of their own +wherewith to propitiate the detectives. He has had as much as three or +four hundred francs for one revelation of that kind, which means twenty +or thirty times the sum the police would have awarded him. Of course, +three or four hundred francs is a big sum for the souteneur to shell +out; but, when the marmite is a good one, he sooner does that than be +deprived of his revenues for six months or so. I have diverted some of +those secrets into my own channel, and Clementine's souteneur is one of +my clients; that is why I gave her up. Very shocking, gentlemen, but a +la guerre comme a la guerre." + +M. Canler furthermore counselled us to leave Clementine alone. He +positively refused to give us any information as to her whereabouts; +that is why I did not meet with her until five years after David's +death, too late to be of any use to her in this world. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Queen Victoria in Paris -- The beginning of the era of + middle-class excursions -- English visitors before that -- The + British tourist of 1855 -- The real revenge of Waterloo -- The + Englishman's French and the Frenchman's English -- The opening of + the Exhibition -- The lord mayor and aldermen in Paris -- The + King of Portugal -- All these considered so much "small fry" -- + Napoleon III. goes to Boulogne to welcome the Queen -- The royal + yacht is delayed -- The French hotel proprietor the greatest + artist in fleecing -- The Italian, the Swiss, the German, mere + bunglers in comparison -- Napoleon III. before the arrival of the + Queen -- Pondering the past -- Arrival of the Queen -- The Queen + lands, followed by Prince Albert and the royal children -- The + Emperor rides by the side of her carriage -- Comments of the + population -- An old salt on the situation -- An old soldier's + retort -- The general feeling -- Arrival in Paris -- The + Parisians' reception of the Queen -- A description of the route + -- The apartments of the Queen at St. Cloud -- How the Queen + spent Sunday -- Visits the art section of the Exhibition on + Monday -- Ingres and Horace Vernet presented to her -- + Frenchmen's ignorance of English art in those days -- English and + French art critics -- The Queen takes a carriage drive through + Paris -- Not a single cry of "Vive l'Angleterre!" a great many of + "Vive la Reine" -- England making a cats-paw of France -- + Deception at the Elysee-Bourbon -- "Les Demoiselles de Saint-Cyr" + at St. Cloud -- Alexandre Dumas would have liked to see the Queen + -- Visit to Versailles -- State-performances at the Opera -- Ball + at the Hotel de Ville -- The Queen's dancing -- Canrobert on "the + Queen's dancing and her soldiers' fighting" -- Another visit to + the Exhibition -- Beranger misses seeing the Queen -- "I am not + going to see the Queen, but the woman" -- A review in the + Champ-de-Mars -- A visit to Napoleon's tomb -- Jerome's absence + on the plea of illness -- Marshal Vaillant's reply to the Emperor + when the latter invites him to take Jerome's place -- His + comments on the receptions given by the Emperor to foreign + sovereigns -- Fetes at Versailles -- Homeward. + + +Magnificent as were the quasi-private entertainments at Compiegne, and +the more public ones at the Tuileries, they were as nothing to the +series of fetes on the occasion of Queen Victoria's visit to Paris, in +1855. For nearly three months before, the capital had assumed the aspect +of a fair. The Exposition Universelle of '55 virtually inaugurated the +era of "middle-class excursions," which since then have assumed such +colossal proportions, especially with regard to the English. Previous to +this the development of railways had naturally brought many of our +countrymen to Paris, but they were of a different class from those who +now invaded the French metropolis. They were either men of business +bent on business, though not averse to enjoying themselves in the +intervals, or else belonging or pretending to belong to "the upper ten," +and travelling more or less _en grand seigneurs_. They came singly, and +left their cards at the Embassy, etc. The new visitors came in groups, +though not necessarily acquainted or travelling with one another; they +knew nothing of the Hotel Meurice and the Hotel Bristol or their +traditions; they crowded the Palais-Royal and its cheap restaurants, and +had, so to speak, no French at their command. Notwithstanding the +exclamation of the Frenchman when he saw the statue of Wellington +opposite Apsley House, it was then, and then only, that the _revanche_ +of Waterloo began. It has lasted ever since. It was '55 that marked the +appearance in the shop-windows of small cards bearing the words, +"English spoken here." Hitherto the English visitor to Paris was +commonly supposed to have had a French tutor or governess, and though +the French he or she did speak was somewhat trying to the ear, it was +heavenly music compared to the English the Parisian shopkeeper now held +it incumbent upon himself to "trot out" for the benefit of his +customers, or that of the guide or valet de place, legions of whom +infested the streets. + +The Exhibition was opened on the 15th of May, but Queen Victoria was not +expected until the middle of August. Meanwhile, the Parisians were +treated to a sight of the Lord Mayor--Sir F. Moon, I believe--and the +aldermen, who came in the beginning of June, and who were magnificently +entertained by the Paris municipality, a deputation of which went as far +as Boulogne to welcome them. Still, it was very evident that neither +their visit nor that of the King of Portugal and his brother was to tax +the ingenuity of upholsterers, carpenters, and caterers, or of the +Parisians themselves in the matter of decoration; the watchword had +apparently been given from the highest quarters to reserve their +greatest efforts for what Napoleon up till then considered "the most +glorious event of his reign." The Emperor, though he had gone to join +the Empress, who was by this time known to be enceinte, at Eaux-Bonnes +and Biarritz, returned to Paris at the end of July, and for more than a +fortnight occupied himself personally and incessantly with the smallest +details of the Queen's visit, the whole of the programme of which was +settled by him. + +I was one of the few privileged persons who travelled down to Boulogne +with Louis-Napoleon, on Friday, the 17th of August, 1855. When we got to +our destination, the yacht was not in sight, but we were already +informed that, owing to its heavy tonnage, it would not be able to enter +the harbour except at high tide, which would not be until 1 p.m., on +Saturday. Shortly after that hour the vessel, accompanied by its +flotilla, appeared in the offing; but the Queen remained on board, and +we had to enjoy ourselves as best we could, which was not difficult, +seeing that the whole of the town was absolutely in the streets, and +that the latter were decidedly preferable to the stuffy attics at the +hotels, for which we were charged the moderate sum of forty francs each. +Uneventful as my life has been, it is only worth recording by reason of +the celebrity of the persons with whom I have come in contact; +nevertheless, I have travelled a good deal, and been present at a great +many festive gatherings both in England and on the Continent. Commend me +to the French hotel-proprietor for fleecing you in cold blood. The Swiss +and the Italians, no mean masters of the art, are not in it with him; +and as for the Germans, they are mere 'prentices compared with him. The +Italian despoils you, like his countryman of operatic fame, Fra-Diavolo; +the Swiss, like an English highwayman of the good old sort; the German, +like a beggar who picks your pocket while you are looking in your purse +for a coin to give him; the Frenchman, like the money-lender who is "not +working for himself, but for a hard-hearted, relentless principal." + +On the Saturday, the Emperor was astir betimes, and went to the camp +occupied by the troops under the command of Marshal Baraguey-d'Hilliers. +Louis-Napoleon's countenance was at all times difficult to read; I +repeat, his eyes, like those of others, may have been "the windows of +his soul," but their blinds were down most of the time. It was only at +rare intervals that the impenetrable features were lighted up by a gleam +from within, that the head, which generally inclined to the right, +became erect. On that morning, the face was even a greater blank than +usual. And yet that day, even to the fatalist he was, must have seemed a +wonderful one; for the blind goddess of fortune, the "lucky star" in +which he trusted, had never rewarded a mortal as she had rewarded him. A +few years previously, during one of his presidential journeys, he had +been hailed with enthusiasm at Strasburg, the city in which the scene +of one of his bitterest fiascos had been laid. The contrast between +those two days was startling indeed: on the one, he was hurried into a +post-chaise as a prisoner to be taken to Paris, with an almost certain +terrible fate overhanging him; on the other, he was greeted as the +saviour of France, the Imperial Crown was within his grasp. But, +startling as was this contrast, it could but have been mild compared to +that which must have presented itself to his mind that autumn morning at +Boulogne, when, a few hours later, the legions--his legions--took up +their positions from Wimereux on the right to Porsel on the left, to do +homage to the sovereign of a country which had been the most +irreconcilable foe of the founder of his house; on the very heights at +the foot of which he himself had failed to rouse the French to +enthusiasm; on the very spot where he had become the laughing-stock of +the world by his performance with that unfortunate tame eagle. + +And yet, I repeat, not a gleam of pride or joy lighted up the +Sphinx-like mask. To see this man standing there unmoved amidst the +highest honours the world had to bestow, one could not help thinking of +Voltaire's condemnation of fatalism as the guiding principal of life: +"If perchance fatalism be the true doctrine, I would sooner be without +such a cruel truth." + +A regiment of lancers and one of dragoons lined the route from the +landing-stage to the railway station, for in those days the trains did +not stop alongside the boats; while on the bridge crossing the Liane, +three hundred sappers, bearded like the Pard, shouldering their axes, +wearing their white leathern aprons, stood in serried ranks, three deep. + +The Queen's yacht had been timed to enter the harbour at one, but it was +within a minute or so of two before it was moored amidst the salutes +from the forts. The Emperor, who had been on horseback the whole of the +morning--who, in fact, preferred that means of locomotion on all +important occasions, as it showed him off to greater advantage,--had +been standing by the side of his charger. He crossed the gangway, +beautifully upholstered in purple velvet and carpet to match, at once, +and, after having kissed her hand, offered her his arm to assist her in +landing, Prince Albert and the royal children coming immediately behind +the Imperial host and his principal guest. A magnificent roomy barouche, +capable of holding six persons and lined with white satin, but only +drawn by two horses--such horses! for in that respect Napoleon had +spent his time to advantage in England,--stood waiting to convey the +Royal family. The Emperor himself, though, mounted his horse once more, +and took his place by the right of the carriage, the left being taken by +Marshal Baraguey-d'Hilliers. The head of the procession started amidst +tremendous cheers from the crowd, but we who came on behind heard some +curious comments upon this popular manifestation. Knowing that there +would be a considerable delay in getting the train off, I walked instead +of driving. I was accompanied by Lord ----, who was never averse to +having his little joke. "He bien, mon ami," he said to an old +weather-beaten sailor, who was short of his left leg--"he bien, mon ami, +nous voila reconcilies." + +"Oui, oui, je t'en fiche," was the answer; "mais puisqu'ils en sont a se +faire des m'amours, ils devaient bien me rendre ma jambe que j'ai perdue +dans leurs querelles." + +"Imbecile," remarked an old soldier-looking man, who, though old, was +evidently younger than the first speaker, and who was short of an arm, +"ta jambe ne t'irait pas plus que mon bras; c'etait ta jambe de garcon." + +"C'est vrai," nodded the other philosophically; "tout de meme, c'est +drole que nous nous soyons battus comme des chiens," pointing across the +Channel in the direction of England, "pour en arriver a cela. Si le +vieux (Napoleon I.) revenait, il serait rudement colere." And I may say +at once that, notwithstanding the friendly attitude throughout of the +rural as well as of the Parisian populations, that was the underlying +sentiment. "Waterloo est arrange, non pas venge," said a Parisian; "il +parait qu'il y a des accommodements avec les rois, aussi bien qu'avec le +ciel." + +As a matter of course, we did not leave Boulogne much before three--the +original arrangement had been for half-past one,--and when we reached +Paris it was dark, too early for the illuminations which had been +projected along the line of boulevards from the recently open Boulevard +de Strasbourg to the Madeleine, not so much as a feature in the +programme of reception, as in honour of the Queen generally. On the +other hand, there was not sufficient daylight for the crowds to +distinguish the sovereign's features, and a corresponding disappointment +was the result. The lighted carriage lamps did not improve matters much. +But the Parisians--to their credit be it said--knowing that Queen +Victoria had expressed her wish to be conveyed to St. Cloud in an open +carriage, instead of the closed State one used on such occasions, took +note of the intention, and acknowledged it with ringing cheers. Victor +Hugo has said that the Parisian loves to show his teeth--he must either +be laughing or growling; and at the best of times it is an ungrateful +task to analyse too thoroughly such manifestations of enthusiasm. There +are always as many reasons why nations should hate as love each other. +The sentiment, as expressed by the sailor and soldier alluded to just +now, did exist--of that I feel sure; but amidst the truly fairy +spectacle then presented to the masses that crowded the streets, it may +have been forgotten for the moment. + +For, in spite of the gathering darkness, the scene was almost unique. I +have only seen another one like it, namely, when the troops returned +from the Franco-Austrian War; and people much older than I declared that +the next best one was that on the occasion of the return of the Bourbons +in 1814. + +Though the new northern station, erected on the site of the old, had +been virtually finished for more than a twelvemonth, the approaches to +it were, if not altogether magnificent projects, little more than +magnificent mazes, stone and mortar Phoenixes, in the act of rising, not +risen, from Brobdignagian dust-heaps, and altogether unfit for any kind +of spectacular procession. Consequently, it had been decided to connect +the northern with the eastern line immediately after entering the +fortifications. The Strasbourg Station did not labour under the same +disadvantages; the boulevard of that name stretched uninterruptedly as +far as the Boulevard St. Denis, although, as yet, there were few houses +on it. I have seen a good many displays of bunting in my time; I have +seen Turin and Florence and Rome beflagged and decorated on the +occasions of popular rejoicings; I have seen historical processions in +the university towns of Utrecht and Leyden; I have seen triumphal +entries in Brussels; I was in London on Thanksgiving day, but I have +never beheld anything to compare with the wedged masses of people along +the whole of the route, as far as the Bois de Boulogne, on that Saturday +afternoon. The whole of the suburban population had, as it were, flocked +into Paris. The regulars lined one side of the whole length of the +Boulevards, the National Guards the other. And there was not a single +house from the station to the southernmost corner of the Rue Royale +that had not its emblems, its trophies, its inscriptions of "welcome." +With that inborn taste which distinguishes the Parisians, the decorator +had ceased trying to gild the gold and to paint the lily at that point, +and had left the magnificent perspective to produce its own effect--a +few Venetian masts along the Avenue de Champs-Elysees and nothing more. +Among the notable features of the decorations in the main artery of +Paris was the magnificent triumphal arch, erected by the management of +the Opera between the Rue de Richelieu and what is now the Rue Drouot. +It rose to the fourth stories of the adjacent houses, and looked, not a +temporary structure, but a monument intended to stand the wear and tear +of ages. No description could convey an idea of its grandeur. The inside +was draped throughout with bee-bespangled purple, the top was decorated +with immense eagles, seemingly in full flight, and holding between their +talons proportionately large scutcheons, bearing the interlaced +monograms of the Imperial hosts and the Royal guests. In front of the +Passage de l'Opera stood an allegorical statue, on a very beautiful +pedestal draped with flags; and further on, at the back of the +Opera-Comique, which really should have been its front,[75] an obelisk, +the base of which was a correct representation, in miniature, of the +Palais de l'Industrie (the then Exhibition Building). By the Madeleine a +battalion of the National Guards had erected, at their own cost, two +more allegorical statues, France and England. A deputation from the +National Guards had also presented her Majesty with a magnificent +bouquet on alighting from the train. + + [Footnote 75: In 1782, when Heurtier, the architect, submitted + his plan of the building which was intended for the Italian + singing-actors, the latter offered a determined opposition to + the idea of the theatre facing the Boulevards, lest they should + be confounded with the small theatres on the Boulevard du + Temple and in the direction of the present Boulevard des + Filles-du-Calvaire. This extraordinary vanity was lampooned on + all sides, and especially in a _quatrain_, which I forbear to + quote even in French.--EDITOR.] + +By a very delicate attention, the private apartments of the Queen had, +in many ways, been made to look as much as possible like those at +Windsor Castle; and where this transformation was found impossible by +reason of their style of decoration--such as, for instance, in the +former boudoir of Marie-Antoinette,--the mural paintings and those of +the ceiling had been restored by two renowned artists. In addition to +this, the most valuable pictures had been borrowed from the Louvre to +enhance the splendour of the reception and dining rooms, while none but +crack regiments in full dress were told off for duty. + +The day after the Queen's arrival being Sunday, the entertainment after +dinner consisted solely of a private concert; on the Monday the Queen +visited the Fine Arts' Section of the Exhibition, which was located in a +separate building at the top of the Avenue Montaigne, and connected with +the main structure by beautifully laid-out gardens. The Queen spent +several hours among the modern masterpieces of all nations, and two +French artists had the honour of being presented. I will not be certain +of the names, because I was not there, but, as far as I can remember, +they were Ingres and Horace Vernet. + +While on the subject of art, I cannot help digressing for a moment. I +may take it that in 1855 a good many Englishmen of the better middle +classes, though not exactly amateurs or connoisseurs of pictures, were +acquainted with the names, if not with the works, of the French masters +of the modern school. Well, in that same year, the English school burst +upon the corresponding classes in France like a revelation--nay, I may +go further still, and unhesitatingly affirm that not a few critics, and +those of the best, shared the astonishment of the non-professional +multitude. They had heard of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Gainsborough, +perhaps of Turner, but Constable and Moreland, Wilkie and Webster, +Mulready, and the rest of the younger school, were simply so many names. +But when the critics did become aware of their existence, their +criticisms were simply a delightful series of essays, guiding the most +ignorant to a due appreciation of those Englishmen's talents, not +stinting praise, but by no means withholding blame, instinctively +focussing merits and defects in a few brilliant paragraphs, which +detected the painter's intention and conception as well as his execution +both from a technical, as well as dramatic, graphic, and pictorial point +of view; which showed, not only the influence of general surroundings, +but dissected the result of individual tendencies. Many a time since, +when wading through the adipose as well as verbose columns dealing with +similar subjects in English newspapers, have I longed for the literary +fleshpots of France, which contained and contain real nourishing +substance, not the fatty degeneration of an ignoramus's brain, and, what +is worse, of an ignoramus who speaks in numbers from a less valid +reason than Pope's; for the most repellant peculiarity of these +effusions are the numbers. It would seem that these would-be critics, +having no more than the ordinary auctioneer's intellect, endeavour as +much as possible to assimilate their effusions to a catalogue. They are +an abomination to the man who can write, though he may know nothing +about painting, and to the man who knows about painting and cannot +write. The pictorial art of England must indeed be a hardy plant to have +survived the approval and the disapproval of these barbarians. + +To come back to the Queen, who, after leaving the Palais de l'Industrie, +drove to several points of interest in Paris, notably to la +Sainte-Chapelle. The route taken was by the Rue de Rivoli and the +Pont-Neuf; the return journey was effected by the Pont-aux-Changes and +the eastern end of the same street, which had only been opened recently, +as far as the Place de la Bastille. Then, and then only, her Majesty +caught sight of the Boulevards in the whole of their extent. The +decorations of the previous day but one had not been touched, and the +crowds were simply one tightly wedged-in mass of humanity. A +journalistic friend had procured me a _permis de circuler_--in other +words, "a police pass,"--and I made the way from the Boulevard +Beaumarchais to Tortoni on foot. It may be interesting to those who are +always prating about the friendship between England and France to know +that I heard not a single cry of "Vive l'Angleterre!" On the other hand, +I heard a great many of "Vive la Reine!" Even the unthinking crowd, +though yielding to the excitement of the moment, seemed to distinguish +between the country and her ruler. I am not commenting upon this: I am +merely stating a fact. Probably it is not England's fault that she has +not been able to inspire the French nation as a whole with anything like +a friendly feeling, but it is as well to point it out. During the whole +of the Crimean War, nine out of every ten educated Frenchmen openly +asserted that France had been made a cat's-paw by England, that the +alliance was one forced upon the nation by Napoleon from dynastic and +personal, rather than from patriotic and national, motives; there were +some who, at the moment of the Queen's visit, had the candour to say +that this, and this only, would be France's reward for the blood and +money spent in the struggle. At the same time, it is but fair to state +that these very men spoke both with admiration and respect of England's +sovereign. + +At three o'clock there was a brilliant reception at the Elysee, when the +members of the corps diplomatique accredited to the Tuileries were +presented to the Queen. Shortly after five her Majesty returned to +Saint-Cloud, where, in the evening, the actors of the Comedie-Francaise +gave, at the Queen's special request, a performance of "Les Demoiselles +de Saint-Cyr." She had seen the piece in London, and been so pleased +with it that she wished to see it again. Though I was on very intimate +terms with Dumas, we had not met for several weeks, which was not +wonderful, seeing that I was frequently appealed to by the son himself +for news of his father. "What has become of him? He might be at the +antipodes for all I see of him," said Alexandre II. about a dozen times +a year. However, two or three days after the performance at Saint-Cloud, +I ran against him in the Chaussee d'Antin. "Well, you ought to be +pleased," I said; "it appears that not only has the Queen asked to see +your piece, which she had already seen in London, but that she enjoyed +it even much better the second than the first time." + +"C'est comme son auteur," he replied: "plus on le connait, plus on +l'aime. Je sais pourtant bien ce qui l'aurait amusee meme d'avantage que +de voir ma piece, c'eut ete de me voir moi-meme, et franchement, ca +m'aurait amuse aussi." + +"Then why did not you ask for an audience? I am certain it would have +been granted," I remarked, because I felt convinced that her Majesty +would have been only too pleased to confer an honour upon such a man. + +"En effet, j'y ai pense," came the reply; "une femme aussi remarquable +et qui deviendra probablement la plus grande femme du siecle aurait du +se rencontrer avec le plus grand homme en France, mais j'ai eu peur +qu'on ne me traite comme Madame de Stael traitat Saint-Simon. C'est +dommage, parcequ'elle s'en ira sans avoir vu ce qu'il y de mieux dans +notre pays, Alexandre, Roi du Monde romanesque, Dumas l'ignorant." Then +he roared with laughter and went away.[76] + + [Footnote 76: Alexandre Dumas referred to a story in connection + with the Comte de Saint-Simon and Madame de Stael which is not + very generally known. One day the head of the new sect went to + see the authoress of "Corinne." "Madame," he said, "vous etes + la femme la plus remarquable en France; moi, je suis l'homme le + plus remarquable. Si nous nous arrangions a vivre quelques mois + ensemble, nous aurions peut-etre l'enfant le plus remarquable + sur la terre." Madame de Stael politely declined the honour. As + for the epithet of "l'ignorant" which Dumas was fond of + applying to himself, it arose from the fact of Dumas, the + celebrated professor of chemistry, being spoken of as "Dumas le + savant." "Done," laughed the novelist, "je suis Dumas + l'ignorant."--EDITOR.] + +On Tuesday, the 21st, the Queen went to Versailles to inspect the +picture-galleries established there by Louis-Philippe, and, in the +evening, she was present at a gala-performance at the Opera. Next day, +she paid a second visit to the Palais de l'Industrie, but to the +industrial section only. In the evening, there was a performance of "Le +Fils de Famille" ("The Queen's Shilling"). On the 23rd, she spent +several hours at the Louvre; after which, at night, she attended the +ball given in her honour by the Municipality of Paris. I shall not +attempt to describe that entertainment, the decorations and flowers of +which alone cost three hundred and fifty thousand francs. The whole had +been arranged under the superintendence of Ballard, the architect of the +Halles Centrales. But I remember one little incident which caused a +flutter of surprise among the court ladies, who, even at that time, had +already left off dancing in the pretty old-fashioned way, and merely +walked through their quadrilles. The royal matron of thirty-five, with a +goodly family growing up around her, executed every step as her dancing +master had taught her, and with none of the listlessness that was +supposed to be the "correct thing." I was standing close to Canrobert, +who had been recalled to resume his functions near the Emperor. After +watching the Queen for a minute or so, he turned round to the lady on +his arm. "Pardi, elle danse comme ses soldats se battent, 'en veux-tu, +en voila;' et corrects jusqu'a la fin." There never was a greater +admirer of the English soldier than Canrobert. The splendour of that +fete at the Hotel-de-Ville has only been surpassed once, in 1867, when +the civic fathers entertained a whole batch of sovereigns. + +On the 24th, there was a third visit to the Exhibition, and I remember +eight magnificent carriages passing down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees. +They were, however, only drawn by two horses each. I was making my way +to the Champ de Mars, where a review was to be held in honour of her +Majesty, and had told the cab to wait in the Rue Beaujon, while I +stepped into the main road to have a look at the beautiful scene. The +moment the carriages were past I returned to the Rue Beaujon, and ran up +against Beranger, who was living there. The old man seemed in a great +hurry, which was rather surprising, because he was essentially +phlegmatic, and rarely put himself out for anything. So I asked him the +reason of his haste. "I want to see your queen," he replied. A year or +two before he had refused to go to the Tuileries to see the Empress, who +had sent for him; and the latter, who could be most charming when she +liked, had paid him a visit instead. + +"I thought you did not trouble yourself much about royalty," I remarked. +"You refused to go and see the Empress, and you rush along to see the +Queen?" + +"Non; je vais voir la femme: s'il y avait beaucoup de femmes comme elle, +je leur pardonnerais d'etre reines." + +Her Majesty has never heard of this. It was the most magnificent and, at +the same time, most witty tribute to her private virtues. All this +happened many, many years ago. Since then I have often wondered why +Prince Albert, who, I feel certain, knew the worth of all these men as +well as he knew the merit of the litterateurs of his own country, did +not suggest to his august consort a reception such as she gave to the +corps diplomatique. It would have been a most original thing to do; the +recollection of it would have been more delightful even than the most +vivid recollections of that very wonderful week. + +In those days, France was still looked upon as the first military power +in Europe. Her soldiers were probably not superior to those who fell in +the Franco-German war, but their prestige had not been questioned. They +were also more sightly than the ill-clad legions of the Third Republic, +so the review was a very splendid affair. At its termination, her +Majesty repaired to the Invalides, to the tomb of Napoleon, which, +though it had been begun, as I have incidentally stated, under the +premiership of M. Guizot in 1846-47, was not finished then, and only +officially inaugurated nearly six years afterwards. + +My ticket for the review had been given to me by Marshal Vaillant, the +minister for war, and the only Marshal of the Second Empire with whom I +was, at that time, intimately acquainted; though I became on very +friendly terms with Marshals MacMahon and Lebrun subsequently. + +I will devote, by-and-by, a few notes to this most original +soldier-figure--he was only a type in some respects; meanwhile, I may +mention here an anecdote, in connection with this visit of the Queen, +characteristic of the man. The governor of the Invalides was the late +King of Westphalia, Jerome Bonaparte. It was but natural that he should +have been chosen as the custodian of his brother's last resting-place. +It was equally natural that he should feel reluctant to meet at that +tomb the sovereign of a country which, he considered, had tortured that +brother to death. Consequently the last survivor of the elder +Bonapartes, the one who had also fought at Waterloo, foreseeing, as it +were, this pilgrimage on the part of her Majesty, had, a fortnight or so +before the date of her intended visit, gone to Havre, whither he had +been ordered by his doctor on account of his health, and whence he only +returned when the Queen of England had left France. + +The deputy-governor of the Invalides was, perhaps, not considered +sufficiently important to do the honours to so illustrious a visitor, +and Marshal Vaillant was sounded whether he would undertake the +functions. He declined. "Je n'ai pas l'honneur, sire," he said, +"d'appartenir a votre illustre famille et personne sauf la famille d'un +grand homme a le droit d'oublier les souffrances que ses ennemis lui ont +infligees." He was an honest, upright soldier, abrupt and self-willed, +but kindly withal, and plainly perceived the faults of Louis-Napoleon's +policy and of his frequently misplaced generosity--above all, of his +system of conciliating the sovereigns of Europe by fetes and +entertainments. "Quand l'autre leur donnait des fetes et des +representations de theatre, c'etait chez eux, et pas chez nous, ils en +payaient les frais." More of him in a little while. + +At the Queen's first visit to Versailles--the second took place on the +Saturday before she left--she had been deeply moved at the sight of the +picture representing her welcome at Eu by Louis-Philippe, to which +ceremony I alluded in one of my former notes. But even before this she +had expressed a wish to see the ruins of the Chateau de Neuilly, and the +commemorative chapel erected on the spot where the Duc d'Orleans met +with his fatal accident. "La femme qui est si fidele a ses vieilles +amities au milieu des nouvelles, surtout quand il s'agit de dynasties +rivales, comme en ce moment, et quand cette femme est une reine, cette +femme est une amie bien precieuse," said Jerome's son. Both the Emperor +and the Empress found that their cousin had spoken truly. + +Saturday, the 25th, had been fixed for the fete at Versailles. In the +morning, the Queen went to the palace of Saint-Germain, which no English +sovereign had visited since James II. lived there. She returned to +Saint-Cloud, and thence to the magnificent abode of Louis XIV., which +she reached after dark--the Place d'Armes and the whole of the erstwhile +royal residence being brilliantly illuminated. + +The Imperial and Royal party entered by the Marble Court, in the centre +of which the pedestal to the statue of Louis XIV. had been decorated +with the rarest flowers. The magnificent marble staircase had, however, +been laid with thick purple carpets, and the balustrades almost +disappeared beneath masses of exotics; it was the first time, if I +remember rightly, that I had seen mosses and ferns and foliage in such +profusion. The Cent Gardes and the Guides de l'Imperatrice were on duty, +the former on the staircase itself, the latter below, in the vestibule. +At the top, to the right and left, the private apartments of the Empress +had been arranged, the Queen occupied those formerly belonging to +Marie-Antoinette. I was enabled to see these a few days later; they were +the most perfect specimens of the decorative art that flourished under +Louis XVI. I have ever beheld. The boudoir was upholstered in light +blue, festoons of roses running along the walls, and priceless Dresden +groups distributed everywhere; the dressing-rooms were hung with pale +green, with garlands upon garlands of violets. The toilet service was of +Sevres, with medallions after Lancret and Watteau. The historical Salle +de l'Oeil-de-Boeuf, which preceded her Majesty's apartments, had been +transformed into a splendid reception-room for the use of the Imperial +hosts and all their Royal guests, for there were one or two foreign +princes besides, notably Prince Adalbert of Bavaria. + +The ball was to take place in the famous Galerie des Glaces; the Empress +herself had presided at its transformation, which had been inspired by a +well-known print of "Une Fete sous Louis Quinze." More garlands of +roses, but this time drooping from the ceiling and connecting the forty +splendid lustres, which, together with the candelabra on the walls, +could not have contained less than three thousand wax candles. At each +of the four angles of the vast apartment a small orchestra had been +erected, but very high up, and surrounded by a network of gilt wire. + +At the stroke of ten those wonderful gardens became all of a sudden +ablaze with rockets and Chinese candles; it was the beginning of the +fireworks, the principal piece of which represented Windsor Castle. +After this, the ball was opened by the Queen and the Emperor, the +Empress and Prince Albert; but though the example had been given, there +was very little dancing. I was a comparatively young man then, but I was +too busy feasting my eyes with the marvellous toilettes to pay much heed +to the seductive strains, which at other times would have set me +tripping. I fancy this was the case with most of the guests. + +On the Monday the Queen left for home. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + Marshal Vaillant -- The beginning of our acquaintance -- His + stories of the swashbucklers of the First Empire, and the beaux + of the Restauration -- Rabelaisian, but clever -- Marshal + Vaillant neither a swashbuckler nor a beau; hated both -- Never + cherished the slightest illusions about the efficiency of the + French army -- Acknowledged himself unable to effect the desired + and necessary reforms -- To do that, a minister of war must + become a fixture -- Why he stayed -- Careful of the public + moneys, and of the Emperor's also -- Napoleon III.'s lavishness + -- An instance of it -- Vaillant never dazzled by the grandeur of + court entertainments -- Not dazzled by anything -- His hatred of + wind-bags -- Prince de Canino -- Matutinal interviews -- Prince + de Canino sends his seconds -- Vaillant declines the meeting, and + gives his reason -- Vaillant abrupt at the best of times -- A + freezing reception -- A comic interview -- Attempts to shirk + military duty -- Tricks -- Mistakes -- A story in point -- More + tricks -- Sham ailments: how the marshal dealt with them -- When + the marshal was not in an amiable mood -- Another interview -- + Vaillant's tactics -- "D----d annoying to be wrong" -- The + marshal fond of science -- A very interesting scientific + phenomenon himself -- Science under the later Bourbons -- + Suspicion of the soldiers of the Empire -- The priesthood and the + police -- The most godless republic preferable to a continuance + of their regime -- The marshal's dog, Brusca -- Her dislike to + civilians -- Brusca's chastity -- Vaillant's objection to + insufficiently prepaid letters -- His habit of missing the train, + notwithstanding his precautions -- His objection to fuss and + public honours. + + +About two or three days after the ball at Versailles, I went to see +Marshal Vaillant at the War Office, to thank him for his kindness in +sending me the ticket for the review. Our acquaintance was already then +of a couple of years' standing. It had begun at Dr. Veron's, who lived, +at the time, at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli and the Rue de +Castiglione. The old soldier--he was over sixty then--had a very good +memory, and used to tell me garrison stories, love-adventures of the +handsome swashbucklers of the First Empire and of the beaux of the +Restauration. The language was frequently that of Rabelais or Moliere, +vigorous, to the point, calling a spade a spade, and, as such, not +particularly adapted to these notes, but the narrator himself was +neither a swashbuckler nor a beau; he hated the carpet-knight only one +degree more than the sabreur, and when both were combined in the same +man--not an unusual thing during the Second Empire, especially after +the Crimean and Franco-Austrian wars--he simply loathed him. He fostered +not the slightest illusions about the efficiency of the French army, +albeit that, to an alien like myself and notwithstanding his friendship +for me, he would veil his strictures. At the same time, he frankly +acknowledged himself unable to effect the desired reforms. "It wants, +first of all, a younger and abler man than I am; secondly, he must +become a fixture. No change of ministry, no political vicissitudes ought +to affect him. I do not play a political role, and never mean to play +one; and if I could find a man who would carry out the reforms at the +War Office, or, rather, reorganize the whole as it should be +reorganized, I would make room for him to-morrow. I know what you are +going to say. I derive a very comfortable income from my various +offices, and I am a pluralist. If I did not take the money, some one +else would who has not got a scrap more talent than I have. There is not +a single man who dare tell the nation that its army is rotten to the +core, that there is not a general who knows as much as a mere captain in +the Austrian and Prussian armies; and if he had the courage to tell the +nation, he would be hounded out of the country, his life would be made a +burden to him. That is one of the reasons why I am staying, because I +can do no good by going; on the contrary, I might do a good deal of +harm. Because, as you see it, the three hundred and fifty thousand +francs of my different appointments, I save them by looking after the +money of the State. Not that I can do much, but I do what I can." + +That was very true: he was very careful of the public moneys, and of the +resources of the Emperor also, entrusted to him by virtue of his +position as Grand-Marechal du Palais; it was equally true that he could +not do much. Napoleon was, by nature, lavish and soft-hearted; as a +consequence, he became the butt of every impostor who could get a letter +conveyed to him. His civil list of over a million and a half sterling +was never sufficient. He himself was simple enough in his tastes, but he +knew that pomp and state were dear to the heart of Frenchmen, and he +indulged them accordingly. But his charity was a personal matter. He +could have no more done without it than without his eternal cigarette. +He called the latter "safety-valve of the brain; the former the +safety-valve of pride." I remember an anecdote which was told to me by +some one who was in his immediate entourage when he was only President. +It was on the eve of a journey to some provincial town, and at the +termination of a cabinet council. While talking to some of his +ministers, he took a couple of five-franc pieces from his waistcoat, and +spun them English fashion. "C'est tout ce qui me reste pour mon voyage +de demain, messieurs," he said, smiling. One of them, M. Ferdinand +Barrot, saw that he was in earnest, and borrowed ten thousand francs, +which the President found on his dressing-table when retiring for the +night. Four and twenty hours after, Napoleon had not even his two +five-franc pieces: they and M. Barrot's loan had disappeared in +subscriptions to local charities. Among the papers found at the +Tuileries after the Emperor's flight, there were over two thousand +begging letters, all dated within a twelvemonth, and all marked with +their answer in the corner--that is, with the amount sent in reply. That +sum amounted to not less than sixty thousand francs. And be it +remembered that these were the petitions the Emperor had not entrusted +to his secretaries or ministers as coming within their domain. The words +of Marshal Vaillant, spoken many years before, "I cannot do much, but I +do what I can," are sufficiently explained. + +On the day alluded to above, the marshal was seriously complaining of +the Emperor's extravagance. He did not hold with entertaining so many +sovereigns. "I do not say this," he added, "with regard to yours, for +her hospitality deserved such return as the Emperor gave her; but with +regard to the others who will come, you may be sure, if we last long +enough. Well, we'll see; perhaps you'll remember my words." + +In fact, the old soldier was never much dazzled by the grandeur of those +entertainments, nor did he foster many illusions with regard to their +true value in cementing international friendships. The marshal was not +dazzled by anything; and though deferential enough to the members of the +emperor's family, he never scrupled to tell them his mind. The Emperor's +cousin (Plon-Plon) could tell some curious stories to that effect. The +marshal had a hatred of long-winded people, and especially of what +Carlyle calls wind-bags. Another of Louis-Napoleon's cousins came +decidedly under the latter description: I allude to the Prince de +Canino. In order to get rid as much as possible of wordy visitors, +Vaillant had hit upon the method of granting them their interviews at a +_very_, _very_ early hour in the morning; in the summer at 6.30 in the +morning, in the winter at 7.15. "People do not like getting out of bed +at that time, unless they have something serious to communicate," he +said; and would not relax his rule, even for the softer sex. The old +warrior, who had probably been an early riser all his life, found the +arrangement work so well, that he determined at last not to make any +exceptions. "I get the day to myself," he laughed. Now, it so happened +that the Prince de Canino asked him for an interview; and, as a matter +of course, Vaillant appointed the usual hour. Next morning, to +Vaillant's great surprise, instead of the Prince, came two of his +friends. The latter came to ask satisfaction of Vaillant for having +dared to disturb a personage of the Prince's importance at so early an +hour. "Mais je ne l'ai pas derange du tout: il n'avait qu'a ne pas +venir, ce que du reste, il a fait," said Vaillant; then he added, "Mais, +meme, si je consentais a donner raison au prince de mon offense +imaginaire, je ne me battrai pas a quatre heures de l'apres-midi; donc, +il aurait a se deranger; il vaut mieux qu'il reste dans son lit. Je vous +salue, messieurs." With which he bowed them out. When the Emperor heard +of it, he laughed till the tears ran down his cheeks, and Napoleon did +not laugh outright very often or easily. + +There are a great many stories about this objection of Marshal Vaillant +to be troubled for nothing; and, as usual, they overshoot the mark. He +is supposed to have acted very cavalierly with highly placed personages, +and even with ladies in very high society. Of course, I was never +present at interviews of that kind, but during my long acquaintance with +him, I was often seated at his side when less exalted visitors were +admitted. At the best of times his manner was abrupt, though rarely +rude, unless there was a reason for it, albeit that the outsider might +fail to fathom it at the first blush. I remember being with him in his +private room, somewhere about the sixties, when his attendant brought +him a card. + +"Show the gentleman in," said Vaillant, after having looked at it. + +_Enter_, a tall, well-dressed individual, the rosette of the Legion of +Honour in his button-hole, evidently a retired officer. + +"What is it you want with me?" asked the marshal, who had remained +seated with his back towards the visitor. + +"Being in Paris for the Christmas and New Year's holidays, your +excellency, I thought it my duty to pay my respects to you." + +"Is that all you want with me?" asked the marshal. + +"That is all, your excellency," stammered the visitor. + +"Very well: then I'll wish you good morning." + +I suppose I must have looked somewhat shocked at this very unceremonious +proceeding, for, when the door was closed, the marshal explained. + +"You need not think that I have done him an injustice. When fellows like +this present their respects it always means that they want me to present +them with something else; that is why I cut them short." + +Sometimes these interviews took a comical turn, for the marshal could be +very witty when he liked. In the land of "equality," everybody is always +on the look-out for greater privileges than his fellows, and in no case +were and are favours more indiscriminately requested than with the view +of avoiding military service. A thousand various pretexts, most of them +utterly ridiculous, were brought forward by the parents to preserve +their precious sons from the hated barrack life. In many instances, a +few years of soldiering would have done those young hopefuls a great +deal of good, because those who clamoured loudest for exemption were +only spending their time in idleness and mischief. In the provinces +there was a chance of influencing the _conseil de revision_ by means of +the prefet, if the parents were known to be favourable to the +government; by means of the bishops, if they still had a hankering after +the former dynasties; and, not to mince matters, if they were simply +rich, by means of bribery. In Paris the matter was somewhat more +difficult; the members of the council were frequently changed at the +last moment, and at all times the recruits to be examined were too +numerous for a parent to trust to the memory of those members. The +military authorities had introduced a new rule, to the effect that the +names of the recruits to be examined should not be called out until +their examination was finished; and, with the best will in the world, it +is often difficult to distinguish between un fils de famille and a +downright plebeian if both happen to come before you "as God made them." +Consequently, notwithstanding the considerable ingenuity of the parties +interested to let the examining surgeon-major known "who was who," +mistakes frequently occurred; the young artisan, who had no more the +matter with him than the young wealthy bourgeois, was dismissed as +unfit for the service, while the latter was pronounced apt in every +respect. + +Apropos of this, I know a good story, for the truth of which I can +vouch, because it happened to a member of the family with which I became +connected by marriage afterwards. He had a son who was of the same age +as his coachman's. Both the lads went to draw at the same time, both +drew low numbers. The substitute system was still in force, but, just at +that moment, there was a war-scare--not without foundation--and +substitutes reached high prices. It would not have mattered much to the +rich man. Unfortunately, he was tight-fisted, and the mother pleaded in +vain. The wife was just as extravagant as the husband was mean; she had +no savings, and she cudgelled her brain to find the means of preserving +her darling from the vile contact of his social inferiors without +putting her hand in her pocket--which, moreover, was empty. She went a +great deal into society, was very handsome, clever, and fascinating. By +dint of ferreting, she got to know the probable composition of the +conseil de revision--barring accidents. History does not say how, but +she wheedled the surgeon-major into giving her a distinct promise to do +his best for her dear son. Of course, in order to do some good, the +surgeon had to see the young fellow first; and there was the difficulty, +because madame had made the acquaintance of the officer under peculiar +circumstances, and could not very well introduce him to her home: +besides, just on account of the war-scare, the authorities had become +very strict, the practices of many officers were suspected, and it would +never have done for the gentleman to give his superiors as much as a +loophole for their suspicion by visiting the lady. Time was getting +short; the acquaintance had ripened into friendship very quickly, +because, three days before the time appointed for the sitting of the +council, madame had never seen the surgeon, and on the eve of that +sitting the final arrangement had been concluded. It was to this effect: +that madame's son would pretend to have hurt his hand, and appear with a +black silk bandage round his wrist. The thing is scarcely credible, but +the coachman's son, an engine-fitter, had hurt his wrist, and put a +strip of black ribbon round it. The coachman's family name began with a +_B_, the lady's name with a _C_. The coachman's son was taken for the +other, and declared unfit for military service by reason of his chest, +to his great surprise and joy, as may be imagined. But the surprise, +though not the joy, of the examining officer was greater still when, in +the next batch, another young fellow appeared with a strip of black +ribbon round his wrist. To ask his name was an impossibility. The +surgeon was afraid that he had been betrayed, or that his secret had +leaked out, and, without a moment's hesitation, declared the real Simon +Pure sound in lungs and limb. + +I am afraid I have drifted a little bit from Marshal Vaillant's comical +interviews, but am coming back to them in a roundabout way. The common, +or garden trick to get those young fellows exempted, where bribery was +impossible or private influence out of the question, was to make them +sham short-sightedness, or deafness, or impediment in the speech. We +have heard before now of professors who cure people of stammering: it is +a well-known fact that in those days there was a professor who taught +people to stammer; while, personally, I know an optician on the +Boulevard des Italians whose father made a not inconsiderable fortune by +spoiling young fellows' sights--that is, by training them, for a +twelvemonth before the drawing of lots, to wear very powerful lenses. Of +course, this had to be done gradually, and his fee was a thousand +francs. I have known him to have as many as twenty or thirty pupils at a +time. No doubt the authorities were perfectly aware of this, but they +had no power to interfere. The process for "teaching deafness" was even +a more complicated one, but it did succeed for a time in imposing upon +the experts, until, by a ministerial decree, it was resolved to draft +all these clever stammerers, and even those who were really suffering +from the complaints the others simulated, into the transport and medical +services. + +It was then that Marshal Vaillant was overwhelmed with visits from +anxious matrons who wanted to save their sons, and that the comical +interviews took place. + +"But, excellency, my son is really as deaf as a post," one would +exclaim. + +"All the better, madame: he won't be frightened at the first sound of +serious firing. Nearly all young recruits are terror-stricken at the +first whizzing of the bullets around them. I was, myself, I assure you. +He'll make an admirable soldier." + +"But he won't be able to hear the word of command." + +"Not necessary, madame; he'll only have to watch the others, and do as +they do. Besides, we'll draft him into the cavalry: it is really the +charger that obeys the signals, not the trooper. It will be an advantage +to him to be deaf in the barrack-room, for there are many things said +there that would bring a blush to his nice innocent cheeks; and, upon +the whole, it is best he should not hear them. I have the honour to wish +you good morning, madame." + +And though the woman knew that the old soldier was mercilessly chaffing +her and her milksop son, the thing was done so politely and so +apparently seriously on the marshal's part, that she was fain to take no +for an answer. + +On one occasion, it appears--for the marshal liked to tell these tales, +and he was not a bad mimic--he had just dismissed a lady similarly +afflicted with a deaf son, when another entered whose offspring suffered +from an impediment in his speech. "Madame," the marshal said, without +moving a muscle, "your son will realize the type of the soldier +immortalized by M. Scribe in 'Les Huguenots.' You know what Marcel +sings." And, striking a theatrical attitude, he trolled-- + + "'Un vieux soldat sait souffrir et se taire + Sans murmurer.' + +With this additional advantage," he went on, "that your son will be a +young one. I can, however, promise you another comfort. A lady has just +left me whose son is as deaf as a post. I'll not only see that your son +is drafted into the same company, but I'll make it my special business +to have their beds placed side by side. The young fellow can go on +stammering as long as he likes, it won't offend his comrade's hearing." + +"But my son is very short-sighted, as blind as a bat, your excellency; +he won't be able to distinguish the friend from the foe," expostulated a +third lady. + +"Don't let that trouble you, madame," was the answer; "we'll put him in +the infantry: he has only got to blaze away, he is sure to hit some one +or something." + +These were the scenes when the marshal was in an amiable mood; when he +was not, he would scarcely suffer the slightest remark; but, if the +remark was ventured upon, it had to be effectual, to be couched in +language as abrupt as his. "Soft-sawder" he hated above all things; and +even when he was wrong, he would not admit it to any one who whined or +spoke prettily. On the other hand, when the visitor or petitioner became +as violent as he was himself, he often reversed his decision. One day, +while waiting for the marshal, I met in the anteroom an individual who, +by his surly looks, was far from pleased. After striding up and down for +a while, he began to bang on the table, and to shout at the top of his +voice, calling the old soldier all kinds of names. Out came the marshal +in his shirt-sleeves--the moment the lady-visitors were gone he always +took off his coat. "Come back, monsieur," he said to the individual. In +a few moments, the latter came out of the marshal's private room, his +face beaming with joy. Then I went in, and found the marshal rubbing his +hands with glee. "A capital fellow, after all, a capital fellow," he +kept on saying. + +"He may be a capital fellow," I remarked, "but he is not very choice in +his language." + +"That's only his way; he does not like to be refused things, but he is a +capital fellow for all that, and that's why I granted his request. If he +had whined about it, I should not have done so, though I think he is +entitled to what he came for." + +Strategical skill, in the sense the Germans have taught us since to +attach to the word, Marshal Vaillant had little or none. Most of his +contemporaries, even the younger generals, were scarcely better endowed +than their official chief. They were all good soldiers when it came to +straightforward fighting, as they had been obliged to do in Africa, but +there was not a great leader, scarcely an ordinary tactician, among +them. As I have already shown, among the men most painfully aware of +this was the marshal himself; nevertheless, when he once made up his +mind to a course of action, it was almost impossible to dissuade him +from it. He had set his heart upon Marshal Niel occupying the Aland +island during the winter of '54-55, in the event of Bomarsund falling +into French hands. He did not for a moment consider that the fourteen +thousand troops were too few to hold it, if the Russians cared to +contest its possession,--too many, if they merely confined themselves to +intercepting the supplies, which they could have done without much +difficulty. A clever young diplomatist, who knew more about those parts +than the whole of the intelligence department at the Ministry for War, +at last made him abandon his decision. I came in as he went out; the +marshal was as surly as a bear with a sore head. "Clever fellow this," +he growled, "very clever fellow." And then, in short jerky sentences, he +told me the whole of the story, asking my opinion as to who was right +and who was wrong. I told him frankly that I thought that the young +diplomatist was right. "That's what I think," he spluttered; "but you'll +admit that it is d----d annoying to be wrong." + +It would be wrong to infer that the marshal, though deficient as a +strategist, was the rough-and-ready soldier, indifferent to more +cultured pursuits, as so many of his fellow-officers were. He was very +fond of certain branches of science, and rarely missed a meeting of the +scientific section of the Academie, of which he was a member. What +attracted him most, however, was astronomy; next to that came entomology +and botany. Still, though an enthusiast, and often risking a cold to +observe an astral phenomenon, he objected to wasting thousands of pounds +for a similar purpose; in fact, when it came to disbursing government +money for a scientific or other vaguely defined purpose, his economic +tendencies got the better of him. "I am a very interesting scientific +phenomenon myself," he used to say, "or, at any rate, I was; and yet no +one spent any money to come and see me." + +He was alluding to a fact which he often told me himself, and afterwards +narrated in his "memoirs." + +"For a long while, especially from 1818 to 1830, when the weather +happened to be very dry and cold, and when I returned to my grateless, +humble room, after having spent the day in heated apartments, I was both +the spectator and the medium of strange electrical phenomena. + +"The moment I had undressed and stood in my shirt, the latter began to +crackle and became absolutely luminous, emitting a lot of sparks; the +tails stuck together, and remained like that for some time." + +I asked him, on one occasion, whether he had ever communicated all this +to scientific authorities. His answer, though not a direct one to my +question, was not only very characteristic of the mental and moral +attitude of the soldiers of the Empire towards the Bourbons, but, to a +great extent, of the attitude of the Bourbons themselves towards +everybody and everything that was not absolutely in accordance with the +policy, sociology, and religious tenets of their adherents, whether +laymen or priests. + +"You must remember, my dear fellow," he replied, "the regime under which +we lived when I was subject to those electrical manifestations; you must +further remember that I had fought at Ligny and at Waterloo, and, though +not absolutely put on the retired list in 1815, I and the rest of the +Emperor's soldiers were watched, and our most innocent acts construed +into so many small attempts at conspiracy. You have not the slightest +idea what the police were like under the Restauration, let alone the +priesthood. If I couple these two, I am not speaking at random. If I had +communicated the things I told you of, to no matter what savant, he +would necessarily have published the result of his observations and +experiments, and do you know what would have happened? I should have +been tried, and perhaps condemned, for witchcraft--yes, for +witchcraft,--or else I should have been taken hold of by the priests, +not as a scientific phenomenon, but as a religious one, a kind of +_stigmatise_. They would have made it out to their satisfaction that I +was either half a saint, or a whole devil, and in either case my life +would have become a burden to me. Only those who have lived under the +Bourbons can form an idea of the terrorizing to which they lent +themselves. People may tell you that they were kind and charitable, and +this, that, and the other. There never were greater tyrants than they +were at heart; and if the Duc d'Angouleme or the Comte de Chambord had +come to the throne, France would have sunk to the intellectual level of +Spain. I would sooner see the most godless republic than a return of +that state of things, and I need not tell you that I firmly believe that +not a sparrow falls to the earth without God's will. No, I held my +tongue about my electrical sensations; if I had not, you would not now +be talking to Marshal Vaillant--I should have become a jabbering idiot, +if I had lived long enough." It is the longest speech I have ever heard +the marshal make. + +The marshal's own rooms were simply crammed with cases full of +beetles, butterflies, etc. The space not taken up by these was devoted +to herbariums; and in the midst of the most interesting +conversation--interesting to the listener especially, for the old +soldier was an inexhaustible mine of anecdote--he, the listener, would +be invited to look at a bit of withered grass or a wriggling +caterpillar. + +After the Franco-Austrian war, there was an addition to the marshal's +household--I might say family, for the old man became as fond of Brusca +as if she had been a human being. The story went that she had been +bequeathed to him at Solferino by her former master, an Austrian +general; and the marshal did not deny it. At any rate, he found Brusca +sitting by the dying man, and licking the blood oozing from his wounds. + +Brusca was not much to look at, and you might safely have defied a +committee of the most eminent authorities on canine breeds to determine +hers, but she was very intelligent, and of a most affectionate +disposition. Nevertheless, she was always more or less distant with +civilians: it took me many years to worm myself into her good graces, +and I am almost certain that I was the only _pekin_ thus favoured. The +very word made her prick up her ears, show her teeth, and straighten her +tail as far as she could. For the appendage did not lend itself readily +to the effort; it was in texture like that of a colley or Pomeranian, +and twisted like that of a pug. Curiously enough, her objection to +civilians did not extend to the female portion, but the sight of a +blouse drove her frantic with rage. On such occasions, she had to be +chained up. As a rule, however, Brusca's manifestations, whether of +pleasure or the reverse, were uttered in a minor key and unaccompanied +by any change of position on her part. She mostly lay at the marshal's +feet, if she was not perched on the back of his chair, for Brusca was +not a large dog. She accompanied the marshal in his walks and drives, +she sat by his side at table, she slept on a rug at the foot of his bed. +Now and then she took a gentle stroll through the apartment, carefully +examining the dried plants and beetles. But one day, or rather one +evening, there was a complete change in her behaviour: it was at one of +the marshal's receptions, on the occasion of Emperor Francis-Joseph's +visit to Paris. Some of the officers of his Majesty's suite had been +invited, and at the sight of the, to her, once familiar uniforms her +delight knew no bounds. She was standing at the top of the landing when +she caught sight of them, and all those present thought for a moment +that the creature was going mad. As a matter of course, Brusca was not +allowed to come into the reception-rooms, but on that night there was no +keeping her out. Locked up in the marshal's bedroom, she made the place +ring with her barks and yells, and they had to let her out. With one +bound she was in the drawing-rooms, and for three hours she did not +leave the side of the Austrian officers. When they took their +departure, Brusca was perfectly ready, nay eager, to abandon her home +and her fond master for their sake, and had to be forcibly prevented +from doing so. The marshal did not know whether to cry or to laugh, but +in the end he felt ready to forgive Brusca for her contemplated +desertion of him in favour of her countrymen. Some one who objected to +the term got the snub direct. "Je maintiens ce que j'ai dit, +compatriotes; et je serais rudement fier d'avoir une compatriote comme +elle." + +If possible, Brusca from that moment rose in the marshal's estimation; +she was a perfect paragon. "Cette chienne n'a pas seulement toutes les +qualites de son genre, elle n'a meme pas les vices de son sexe. Elle +m'aime tellement bien qu'elle ne veut etre distraite par aucun autre +amour. Elle vit dans le plus rigoureux celibat. La malheureuse," he said +every now and then, "elle a failli se compromettre." + +In spite of the marshal's boast about Brusca's morals, he was one day +compelled to admit a faux pas on her part, and for some weeks the "vet" +had an anxious time for it. "Elle a mal tourne, mais que voulez-vous, je +ne vais pas l'abandonner." And when the crisis was over: "Son incartade +ne lui a pas porte bonheur. Esperons que la lecon lui profitera." + +Brusca had her portrait painted by the "Michael-Angelo of dogs," Jadin, +and when it was finished the visitors were given an opportunity of +admiring it in the drawing-room, where it was on view for several +consecutive Tuesdays. After that, a great many of the marshal's +familiars, supposed to be capable of doing justice to Brusca's character +in verse, were appealed to, to write her panegyric, but though several +Academicians tried their hands, their lucubrations were not deemed +worthy to be inscribed on the frame of Brusca's portrait, albeit that +one or two--the first in Greek--were engrossed on vellum, and adorned +the drawing-room table. The effusion that did eventually adorn the frame +was by an anonymous author--it was shrewdly suspected that it was by the +marshal himself, and ran as follows:-- + + "Si je suis pres de lui, c'est que je le merite. + Revez mon sort brilliant; revez, ambitieux! + Du bien de mon maitre en ami je profite, + J'aimerais son pain noir s'il etait malheureux." + +Another peculiarity of Marshal Vaillant was never to accept a letter not +prepaid or insufficiently paid. The rule was so strictly enforced, both +in his private and official capacity, that many a valuable report was +ruthlessly refused, and had to be traced afterwards through the various +post-offices of Europe. + +Seven times out of ten the marshal, when travelling by himself, missed +his train. This would lead one to infer that he was unpunctual; on the +contrary, he was the spirit of punctuality. Unfortunately, he over-did +the thing. He generally reached the station half an hour or +three-quarters before the time, seated himself down in a corner, dozed +off, and did not wake up until it was too late. The marshal was a native +of Dyon; and at Nuits, situated between the former town and Beaune, +there lived a middle-aged spinster cousin whom he often went to visit. +He nearly always returned by the last train to Dyon, where he had his +quarters at the Hotel de la Cloche; and although often in the midst of a +pleasant family party, insisted upon leaving long before it was +necessary. As a matter of course, the station was in semi-darkness--for +Nuits is not a large place--and the booking-office was not open. One +night, it being very warm, he stretched himself leisurely on a grass +plot, instead of on the hard seat, and there he was found at six in the +morning; several trains had come and gone, but no one had dared to wake +him. "Mais, monsieur le marechal, on aurait cru vous manquer de respect +en vous eveillant. Apres tout, vous n'etes pas tout le monde, il y des +distinctions," said the stationmaster apologetically. "La mort et le +sommeil, monsieur," was the answer, "font table rase de toute +distinction." It was a French version of our "Death levels all:" the +marshal was fond of paraphrasing quotations, especially from the +English, of which he had a very fair knowledge, having translated some +military works many years before. However, from that day forth, +instructions were given to take no heed of his rank, and to awaken him +like any other mortal, rather than have him miss his train. + +In fact, the marshal did not like to be constantly reminded of his rank; +if anything, he was rather proud of his very humble origin, and, instead +of hiding his pedigree like a good many parvenus, he took delight in +publishing it. I have seen a letter of his to some one who inquired on +the subject, not from sheer curiosity. "My grandfather was a silkmercer +in a small way on the place St. Vincent, at Dyon. His father had been a +coppersmith. I am unable to trace back further than that; my quarters of +nobility stop there. Let me add, at the same time, that there is no more +silly proverb than the one 'Like father like son.' My father died poor, +and respected by every one. I do not believe that he had a single enemy. +His friends called him Christ, he was so good and kind to everybody. I +am not the least like him. He was short and slim, I am rather tall and +stout; he was gentle, and people say that I am abrupt and harsh. In +short, he had as many virtues as I am supposed to have faults, and I am +afraid the world is not at all mistaken in that respect." + +I, who knew him as well as most people, am afraid that the world was +very much mistaken. As a matter of course, the old soldier had many +faults, but his good qualities far outweighed the latter. He was modest +to a degree, and the flatteries to which men in his position are +naturally exposed produced not the slightest effect upon him. When in an +amiable mood, he used to cut them short with a "Oui, oui; le marechal +Vaillant est un grand homme, il n'y a pas de doute; tout le monde est +d'accord sur ce chapitre la, donc, n'en parlons plus." When not in an +amiable mood, he showed them the door, saying, "Monsieur, si je suis +aussi grand homme que vous le dites, je suis trop grand pour m'occuper +de vos petites affaires. J'ai l'honneur de vous saluer." + +He was fond of his native town, one of whose streets bore or still bears +his name, though, according to all authorities, it never smelt sweet by +whatsoever appellation it went. But he objected to being lionized, so he +never stayed with the prefect, the maire, or the general commanding the +district, and simply took up his quarters at the hotel, insisting on +being treated like any other visitor. The maire respected his wishes; +the population did not, which was a sore point with the marshal. +Nevertheless, when, in 1858, during their Exhibition, they wanted him to +distribute the prizes, he consented to do so, on condition that his +reception should be of the simplest. The Dyonnais promised, and to a +certain extent kept their word. Next morning the prefect, accompanied by +the authorities, fetched him in his carriage. The ceremony was to take +place in the park itself, and at the entrance was posted General Picard, +accompanied by his staff, and at the head of several battalions. The +moment the marshal set foot to the ground, the general saluted, the +drums rolled, and the bands played. The marshal felt wroth, and at the +conclusion of the distribution sent for the general, whom, not to mince +matters, he roundly bullied. + +General Picard did not interrupt him. "Have you finished, monsieur le +marechal?" he asked at last. + +"Of course, I have finished." + +"Very well; the next time you come out as a simple bourgeois, you had +better leave the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour at home. If I had +not saluted you as I did, I should have had the reprimand of the +minister of war, and of the chancellor of the Legion of Honour. After +all, I prefer yours." + +"But I am the minister for war." + +"I know nothing about that. I only saw an old gentleman with the grand +cordon. If you are the minister for war, perhaps you will be good enough +to tell Marechal Vaillant, when you see him, that he must not tempt old +soldiers like myself to forget their duty." + +"You are right, general. But what a hot fiery lot these Dyonnais are, +aren't they?" Picard was a native of Dyon also. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + The Franco-German War -- Friday, July 15, 1870, 6 p.m. -- My + friends "confident of France being able to chastise the insolence + of the King of Prussia" -- I do not share their confidence; but + do not expect a crushing defeat -- Napoleon III.'s presence + aggravated the disasters; his absence would not have averted them + -- He himself had no illusions about the efficiency of the army, + did not suspect the rottenness of it -- His previous endeavours + at reorganization -- The real drift of his proposed inquiries -- + His plan meant also compulsory service for every one -- Why the + legislature opposed it -- The makeshift proposed by it -- + Napoleon weary, body and soul -- His physical condition -- A + great consultation and the upshot of it -- Dr. Ricord and what he + told me -- I am determined to see and hear, though not to speak + -- I sally forth -- The streets on the evening of Friday, the + 15th of July -- The illuminations -- Patriotism or Chauvinism -- + The announcement of a bookseller -- What Moltke thought of it -- + The opinion of a dramatist on the war -- The people; no + horse-play -- No work done on Saturday and Sunday -- Cabmen -- "A + man does not pay for his own funeral, monsieur" -- The northern + station on Sunday -- The departing Germans -- The Emperor's + particular instructions with regard to them -- Alfred de Musset's + "Rhin Allemand" -- Prevost-Paradol and the news of his suicide -- + The probable cause of it -- A chat with a superior officer -- The + Emperor's Sunday receptions at the Tuileries -- Promotions in the + army, upon what basis -- Good and bad officers -- The officers' + mess does not exist -- Another general officer gives his opinion + -- Marshal Niel and Leboeuf -- The plan of campaign suddenly + altered -- The reason -- The Emperor leaves St. Cloud -- His + confidence shaken before then -- Some telegrams from the + commanders of divisions -- Thiers is appealed to, to stem the + tide of retrenchment; afterwards to take the portfolio of war -- + The Emperor's opinion persistently disregarded at the Tuileries + -- Trochu -- The dancing colonels at the Tuileries. + + +After the lapse of thirteen years, it is difficult to put the exact hour +and date to each exciting incident of a period which was absolutely +phenomenal throughout. I kept no diary, only a few rough notes, because +at that time I never thought of committing my recollections to paper, +and have, therefore, to trust almost wholly to my memory; nevertheless I +am positive as to main facts, whether witnessed by myself or +communicated to me by friends and acquaintances. I remember, for +instance, that, immediately after the declaration of war, I was warned +by my friends not to go abroad more than I could help, to keep away as +much as possible from crowds. "You are a foreigner," said one, "and that +will be sufficient for any ragamuffin, who wants to do you a bad turn, +to draw attention to you. By the time you have satisfactorily proved +your nationality you will be beaten black and blue, if not worse." + +The advice was given on Friday, the 15th of July, about six in the +afternoon; that is, a few hours after the news of the scenes in the +Chamber of Deputies and the Senate had spread, and when the centre of +Paris was getting gradually congested with the inhabitants of the +faubourgs. My friends were men of culture and education, and not at all +likely to be carried away by the delirium which, on that same night and +for the next week, converted Paris into one vast lunatic asylum, whose +inmates had managed to throw off the control of their keepers; yet there +was not a single civilian among them who had a doubt about the eventual +victory of France, about her ability "to chastise the arrogance of the +King of Prussia," to put the matter in their own words. + +"To try to be wise after the event" is a thing I particularly detest, +but I can honestly affirm that I did not share their confidence, +although I did not suspect for a moment that the defeat would be so +crushing as it was. I remembered many incidents that had happened during +the previous four years of which they seemed conveniently oblivious; I +was also aware, perhaps, of certain matters of which they were either +profoundly ignorant, or professed to be; but, above all, I took to heart +the advice, tendered in the shape of, "You are a foreigner;" and though +I feared no violence or even verbal recrimination on their part, I chose +to hold my tongue. + +I hold no brief for the late Emperor, but I sincerely believe that he +was utterly averse to the war. I, moreover, think that if he had +consented to remain in Paris or at St. Cloud, the disaster would have +happened all the same. He had no illusions about the efficiency of his +armies, though he may not have been cognizant of the thorough rottenness +of the whole. But to have said so at any time, especially during the +last four years, would have been simply to sign the death-warrant of his +dynasty. He endeavoured to remedy the defects in a roundabout way as +early as October, '66, by appointing a commission to draw up a plan for +the reorganization of the army. Apparently, Napoleon wanted larger +contingents; in reality, he hoped that the inquiry would lay bare such +evidence of corruption as would justify him in dismissing several of +the men surrounding him from their high commands. But both those who +only saw the apparent drift as well as those who guessed at the real one +were equally determined in their opposition. It was the majority in the +Legislature which first uttered the cry, immediately taken up by the +adversaries of the regime, "If this bill becomes law there will be an +end of favourable numbers." In fact, the bill meant compulsory service +for every one, and the consent of the deputies to it would at once have +forfeited their position with their electors, especially with the +peasantry, to whom to apply the word "patriotism" at any time is +tantamount to the vilest prostitution of it. + +Of the makeshift for that law I need say little or nothing. Without a +single spy in France, without a single attache in the Rue de Lille, +Bismarck was enabled by that only to determine beforehand the effects of +one serious military defeat on the dynasty of the Emperor; he was +enabled to calculate the exact strength of the chain of defence which +would be offered subsequently. The French army was like the Scotch lad's +porridge, "sour, burnt, gritty, cold, and, ---- it, there was not enough +of it." It is not underrating Bismarck's genius to say that a man of far +inferior abilities than he would have plainly seen the course to pursue. + +Was Napoleon III. steeped in such crass ignorance as not to have had an +inkling of all this? Certainly not; but he was weary, body and soul, +and, but for his wife and son, he would, perhaps willingly, have +abdicated. He had been suffering for years from one of the most +excruciating diseases, and a fortnight before the declaration of war the +symptoms had become so alarming that a great consultation was held +between MM. Nelaton, Ricord, Fauvel, G. See, and Corvisart. The result +was the unanimous conclusion of those eminent medical men that an +immediate operation was absolutely necessary. Curiously enough, however, +the report embodying this decision was only signed by one, and not +communicated to the Empress at all. It may be taken for granted that, +had she known of her husband's condition, she would not have agitated in +favour of the war, as she undoubtedly did. + +It was only after the Emperor's death at Chislehurst that the document +in question was found, but I happened to know Dr. Ricord intimately, and +most of the facts, besides those stated above, were known to me on that +memorable Friday, the 15th of July, 1870. As I have said already, I +thought it wiser to hold my tongue. + +But though determined _not to speak_--knowing that it would do no +earthly good--I was equally determined _to see and to hear_; so, at +about eight, I sallied forth. The heat was positively stifling, and it +was still daylight, but, in their eagerness to show their joy, the +Parisians would not wait for darkness to set in, and, as I went along, I +saw several matrons of the better classes, aided by their maids, make +preparations on the balcony for illuminating the moment the last rays of +the sun should set behind the horizon. I distinctly say matrons of the +better classes, because my way lay through the Chaussee d'Antin, where +the tenancy of an apartment on the first, second, or third floor implied +a more than average income. I was, and am, aware that neither refinement +nor good sense should be measured by the money at one's command, but +under similar circumstances it is impossible to apply any other valid +test. In the streets there was one closely wedged-in, seething mass, and +the noise was deafening; nevertheless, at the sight of one of those +matrons thus engaged there was a momentary lull, followed immediately by +vociferous applause and the cry of "Les meres de la patrie." From a +cursory glance upward, I came to the conclusion that the progeny of +these ladies, if they were blessed with any, could as yet contribute but +very little to the glory of the nation; still, I reflected, at the same +time, that they had probably brothers and husbands who, within a few +hours, might be called to the front, "nevermore to return;" that, +therefore, the outburst of patriotism could not be called an altogether +cheap one. In fact, none but the thoroughly irreclaimable sceptic could +fail to be struck with the genuine outburst of national resentment +against a whole nation on the part of another nation, which, as I take +it, means something different from unalloyed patriotism. It was a +mixture of hatred and chauvinism, rather than the latter and more +elevated sentiment. The "sacred soil of France"--though why more sacred +than any other soil, I have never been able to make out--was not +threatened in this instance by Prussia; carefully considered, it was not +even a question of national honour offended for which Paris professed +itself ready as one man to draw the sword, and yet the thousands in the +street that night behaved as if each of them had a personal quarrel to +settle, not with one or two Germans, but with every son and daughter of +the Fatherland. + +It was, perhaps, a quarter after eight when I found myself in the +Chaussee d'Antin, and the distance to the Boulevard des Italiens was +certainly not more than two hundred and fifty yards; nevertheless, it +took me more than half an hour to get over it, for immediately on my +emerging into the main thoroughfare I looked at a clock which pointed to +nine. Two things stand out vividly in my memory: the first, the +preparations of several business houses to illuminate on a grand scale, +there and then; _i. e._ the putting up of the elaborate crystal devices +used by them on the 15th of August, the Emperor's fete-day. It was +exactly a month before that date, and a neighbour of an enthusiastic +tradesman remarked upon the fact. "I know," was the answer; "I'll leave +it there till the 14th of next month, and then I'll add two bigger ones +to it." On the day proposed, not only were there none added, but the +original one had also disappeared, for by that time the Second Empire +was virtually in the throes of death. The second thing I remember was +the enormous strip of calico outside a bookseller's shop, with the +announcement, "Dictionnaire Francais-Allemand a l'usage des Francais a +Berlin." In less than two months I read the following; it was an extract +from the interview between Bismarck and Moltke on the one side and +General de Wimpffen on the other, on the eve of the capitulation of +Sedan: "You do not know the topography of the environs of Sedan," +replied General von Moltke; "and, seeing that we are on the subject, let +me give you a small instance which thoroughly shows the presumption, the +want of method, of your nation. At the beginning of the campaign, you +provided your officers with maps of Germany, when they utterly lacked +the means of studying the geography of their own country, seeing that +you had no maps of your own territory." I could not help thinking of the +bookseller, and wondering how many dictionaries he sold during those +first few days. + +I did not get very far that night, only as far as the Maison d'Or, where +I was perforce obliged to stop and look on. I stood for nearly an hour +and a half, for there was no possibility of getting a seat, and during +that time I only heard one opinion adverse to the war. It was that of a +justly celebrated dramatist, who is by no means hostile to either the +Emperor or the Empire, albeit that he had declined several years ago to +be presented to Napoleon when Princess Mathilde offered him to do so. He +positively hates the Germans, but his hatred did not blind him to their +great intellectual qualities and to their powers of organization. "It is +all very fine to shout 'A Berlin!'" he said; "and it is very probable +that some of these bellowers (braillards) will get there, though not in +the order of procession they expect; they will be in front, and the +Germans at their backs." He spoke very low, and begged me not to repeat +what he had said. "If I am mistaken, I do not want to be twitted with +having thrown cold water on the martial ardour of my countrymen; if I am +right, I will willingly forego the honour of having prophesied the +humiliation of my countrymen." That is why I suppress his name here, but +I have often thought of his words since; and when people, Englishmen +especially, have accused him of having contributed to the corruption of +the Second Empire by his stage works, I have smiled to myself. With the +exception of one, he has never written a play that did not teach a +valuable moral lesson; but he is an excellent husband, father, and son, +though he is perhaps not over generous with his money. + +I am bound to say that, though the noise on the Boulevards was terrific, +and the crowds the densest I have ever seen in Paris or anywhere, they +refrained from that horse-play so objectionable in England under similar +circumstances. Of course there were exceptions; such as, for instance, +the demonstration at the Prussian Embassy: but, in the main, the +behaviour was orderly throughout. I do not know what might have been the +result of any foreigners--German or otherwise--showing themselves +conspicuously, but they were either altogether absent, or else concealed +their nationality as much as possible by keeping commendably silent. + +Nevertheless, the Parisian shopkeeper, who is the most arrant coward on +the face of the earth where a crowd is concerned, put up his shutters +during the whole of Saturday and Sunday, except those who professed for +cater for the inner man. I doubt whether, on the first-named day, there +was a single stroke of work done by the three or four hundred thousand +of Parisian artisans. I exclude cabmen, railway porters, and the like. +They had their hands full, because the exodus began before the war news +was four and twenty hours old. Our own countrymen seemed in the greatest +hurry to put the Channel between themselves and France. If the enemy had +been already at the gates of Paris their retreat could have been +scarcely more sudden. The words "bouches inutiles" had as yet not been +pronounced or invented officially; but I have a notion that a cabman +suggested them first, in a conversation with a brother Jehu. "Voila des +bouches utiles qui s'en vont, mon vieux," he said, while waiting on the +Place Vendome to take passengers to the railway. Until then I had never +heard the word used in that sense. + +Apropos of cabmen, I heard a story that day for the truth of which I +will, however, not vouch. There was a cab-stand near the Prussian +Embassy, and most of the drivers knew every one of the attaches, the +latter being frequent customers. On the Saturday morning, a cab was +called from the rank to take a young attache to the eastern railway +station. He was going to join his regiment. On alighting from the cab, +the attache was about to pay his fare; the driver refused the money. "A +man does not pay for his own funeral, monsieur; and you may take it that +I have performed that office for you. Adieu, monsieur." With that he +drove off. True or not, the mere invention of the tale would prove that, +at any rate, the lower middle classes were cocksure of the utter +annihilation of the Germans. + +I happened to have occasion to go to the northern station on the Sunday, +to see some one off by the mail. That large, cold, bare hall, which does +duty as a waiting-room, was crowded, and a number of young Germans were +among the passengers; respectable, stalwart fellows who, to judge by +their dress, had occupied good commercial positions in the French +capital. Most of them were accompanied by friends or relations. They +seemed by no means elated at the prospect before them, and scarcely +spoke to one another. As a matter of course, they were scattered all +over the place, in groups of three and four. I noticed that there was an +exceedingly strong contingent of sergents de ville, and several couples +of officiers de paix--what in England we should call superintendents of +police. The latter had evidently received particular instructions, for +they had posted, as much as possible, a sergent de ville close to every +group. At first I mistook the drift of the supervision, but it was soon +explained to me when one of the officiers de paix came up to a group +somewhat larger than the others. "Messieurs," he said very politely, +"vous etes Allemands, et je vous prierai de vous mettre ensemble, afin +de pouvoir vous proteger, s'il y a besoin." I heard afterwards that, +amidst all his weighty occupations, the Emperor himself had given orders +to have the Germans especially protected, as he feared some violence on +the part of the Parisians. + +During the next week the excitement did not abate, but, save for some +minor incidents, it was the same thing over and over again: impromptu +processions along the main thoroughfares to the singing of the +"Marseillaise" and the "Chant du Depart," until the crowds had got by +heart Alfred de Musset's "Rhin Allemand," of which, until then, not one +in a thousand had ever heard. + +Meanwhile the news had spread of the suicide of Prevost-Paradol, the +newly appointed French ambassador at Washington, and the republicans +were trying to make capital out of it. According to them, it was +political shame and remorse at having deserted his colours, despair at +the turn events were taking, that prompted the step. These falsehoods +have been repeated until they became legends connected with the fall of +the Second Empire. To the majority of Englishmen, Prevost-Paradol is not +even a name; talented as he was, Frenchmen would have scarcely known +more about him if some politicians, for purposes of their own, had not +chosen to convert him into a self-immolated martyr to the Imperialist +cause--or, rather, to that part of the cause which aimed at the recovery +of the left banks of the Rhine. I knew Prevost-Paradol, and he was only +distinguished from hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen in that his +"France Nouvelle" was a magnificent attempt to spur his countrymen's +ambition in that direction; but this very fact is an additional argument +against the alleged cause of his self-destruction. He shot himself +during the night of the 10th and 11th of July, when not the most +pessimistically inclined could foresee the certainty of a war, and, +least of all, the disastrous result of it to France. Those who would +know the real cause of Prevost-Paradol's suicide had better read a short +tale that appeared anonymously in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ of +February, 1860. The hero of "Madame de Marcay" is none other than the +brilliant journalist himself, and the germs of suicidal mania were so +plainly discernible in him, as to make those who knew the writer wonder +that he had not killed himself long before he did. + +I have already said that the excitement did not abate, but the more +serious-minded began to look critical, and, among the latter, curiously +enough, there were a good many superior officers in the army. They were +too loyal to express openly their want of confidence in their leaders, +but it was evident enough to the careful listener that that want of +confidence did exist. I had a conversation during that week with one of +the former, whose name, for obvious reasons, I must suppress; and this +is, as far as I can remember, what he said, knowing that he could trust +me. "There is not a single properly drawn ordnance map of France at the +War Office; and if there were, there is not a single man in power there +who would know how to use it. I doubt whether there is a settled plan of +campaign; they'll endeavour to conduct this war as they conducted the +Crimean, Italian, and Mexican wars--that is, on the principle which +stood them in such good stead in Algeria, though they ought to know by +this time how very risky those experiments turned out, especially in +'59; and I have no need to tell you that we are going to confront a +different army from that of the Austrians or the Russians, Todleben +notwithstanding. The African school of warfare ought to be played out by +now, but it is not. To a certain extent, the Emperor is to blame for +this. You remember what his uncle said: 'There is not a single general +of whose draught I am not aware. Some will go up to their waists; others +up to their necks; others, again, to over their heads; but the latter +number is infinitely small, I assure you.' The Emperor is not in the +same position with regard to the capacity of his generals, let alone of +his officers." + +"But he ought to be," I objected; "he interviews a great many of them on +Sunday mornings." I was alluding to the informal levee held at the +Tuileries every week, to which the generals and the general officers by +sea and by land were admitted. + +"You are right--he ought to be," was the answer; "and if a great deal of +conscientious trouble on his part could have put him in possession of +such knowledge, he would have had it by this time. Of course, you have +never been present at such a reception; for all civilians, with the +exception of a few ministers, are rigorously excluded. I repeat, the +intention is a good one, but it is not carried out properly. The very +fact that at the outset it met with the most strenuous opposition from +nearly all the ministers and high dignitaries of the Imperial household +ought to have shown his Majesty the necessity of interviewing these +officers alone, without as much as a chambellan in waiting. As it is, do +you know what happens? I will tell you. The Emperor passes before these +officers as they are standing around the room, stops before nearly every +one to ask a question, inviting him, at the same time, to lodge a +protest if necessary against any standing abuse or to suggest a measure +of reform. But the chambellan is close at his heels; the minister for +war, the marshal commanding the Imperial Guard, the military governor of +Paris, are standing but a few steps away. The officer to whom the +question is addressed feels himself tongue-tied; he knows that all these +can hear every word he says, and, rather than be marked by his superiors +as a tiresome meddler, he prefers to hold his tongue altogether--that +is, if he be comparatively honest. Call it cowardice if you like, but +most men will tell you that such cowardice exists in all administrations +whether civil or military. Consequently, the Emperor, though he may know +a good many officers by name and by sight, in reality knows nothing of +their capacities. I may safely say that, for the last fifteen or sixteen +years, there have not been a dozen important promotions, either in the +army or the navy, justified by the 'record of service' of the officer +promoted. Divisions--nay, whole army corps--have been confided to men +who, in the hour of need, will, no doubt, prove very dashing and very +plucky, but who have no more notion of handling large masses of men than +an ordinary drill-sergeant. To use a more striking metaphor--they have +selected the most desperate punters at baccarat to work out complicated +chess problems. What the result will be with such a champion as Von +Moltke, Heaven only knows. There are men at the head of our cavalry +forces who can scarcely hold themselves on horseback; there are others +commanding divisions and even corps-d'armee who know all about bridges, +pontoons, artillery, and so forth, but who could no more execute a +regularly organized retreat or advance than a child. The theory is that +their dash and courage, their reckless, happy-go-lucky, but frequently +successful African system, will make up for their ignorance of tactics +and strategy. Naturally this is an implied rather than an expressed +opinion, for many of those favourites believe themselves to be the +equals in these latter sciences of Jomini and Napoleon, perhaps of +Moltke also. Do not misunderstand me; there are a number of officers in +the French army who have made a careful study of the science of war, and +who, in that respect, would favourably compare with an equal number of +the best instructed German officers, but they have by this time resigned +themselves to keep in the background, because any attempt on their part +to raise the standard of military knowledge has for years been +systematically discountenanced by those nearest to the throne. On the +other hand, the men thus kept at arm's length have not been altogether +satisfied to suffer in silence. I do not mean to say that they have +given vent to their grievances openly; they have done worse, perhaps, +from the point of view of maintaining the discipline of the army. They +have adopted a semi-critical, semi-hostile attitude towards their +superiors. The officers' mess, such as it exists in England, is +virtually unknown on the Continent, and least of all in France. The +unmarried officer takes his daily meals at the table d'hote of an hotel, +and he does talk 'shop' now and then in the presence of civilians. The +criticisms he utters do find their way to the barrack-room, so that by +now the private has become sceptical with regard to the capabilities of +the generals and marshals. The soldier who begins to question the +fitness of his chiefs is like the priest who begins to question the +infallibility of the pope; he is a danger to the institution to which he +belongs." + +In reality, my informant told me little that was new, though he perhaps +did not suspect that I was so well informed. I had heard most of all +this, and a great deal besides, from a connection of mine by marriage, +whose strictures in the same direction came with additional force, +seeing that he was a frequent and welcome guest at the Tuileries. He was +a general officer, but, with a frankness that bordered on the cynical, +maintained that but for his capital voice and skill at leading "the +cotillon" he would probably have never risen beyond the rank of captain; +"for there are a thousand captains that know a great deal more than I +do, a couple of thousand that know as much as I do, and very few who +know less, none of whom have ever been promoted, and never will be, +unless they earn their promotion at the point of the sword." According +to him, the "records of service" were not as much as looked into at the +periods of general promotions. "A clever answer to one of the Emperor's +questions, a handsome face and pleasing manners, are sufficient to +establish a reputation at the Chateau. The ministers for war take +particular care not to rectify those impulsive judgments of the Emperor +and Empress, because they rightly think that careful inquiries into the +candidates' merits would hurt their own proteges, and those of their +fellow-ministers. This happy-go-lucky system--for a system it has +become--founded upon the most barefaced nepotism, is condoned, by those +who ought to have opposed it with all their might and main at the very +outset, on the theory that Frenchmen's courage is sure to make up in the +end for all shortcomings, which theory in itself is a piece of +impertinence, or at any rate of overweening conceit, seeing that it +implies the absence of such courage in the officers of other nations. +But there is something else. All these favourites are jealous of one +another, and, mark my words, this jealousy will in this instance lead to +disastrous results, because the Emperor will find it as difficult to +comply with as to refuse their individual extravagant demands. The time +is gone by for radical reforms. 'You cannot swap horses while crossing a +stream,' said Abraham Lincoln; and we are crossing a dangerous stream. +The Emperor has, besides, a horror of new faces around him, and to +extirpate the evil radically he would have to make a clean sweep of his +military household." + +I must preface the following notes by a personal remark. For private +reasons, which I cannot and must not mention, I have decided not to put +my name to these jottings, whether they are published before or after my +death. I am aware that by doing this I diminish their value; because, +although I never played a political or even a social part in France, I +am sufficiently well known to inspire the reader with confidence. As it +is, he must take it for granted that I was probably the only foreigner +whom Frenchmen had agreed not to consider an enemy in disguise. + +While my relative was giving me the above resume, I was already aware +that there existed in the French War Office a scheme of mobilization and +a plan of campaign elaborated by Marshal Niel, the immediate predecessor +of Marshal Leboeuf. I knew, moreover, that this plan provided for the +formation of three armies, under the respective commands of Marshals +MacMahon, Bazaine, and Canrobert, and that the disposition of these +three armies had been the basis of negotiations for a Franco-Austrian +alliance which had been started six weeks previous to the declaration of +war by General Lebrun in Vienna. Up till the 22nd or 23rd of July the +preparations were carried out in accordance with that original project; +the respective staffs that had been appointed, the various regiments and +brigades distributed long ago, were already hurrying to the front, when +all of a sudden the whole of this plan was modified; the three armies +were to be fused into one, to be called "l'armee du Rhin," under the +sole and exclusive command of the Emperor. + +Whence this sudden change? The historians, with their usual contempt for +small causes, have endeavoured to explain it in various ways. According +to some, the change was decided upon in order to afford the Emperor the +opportunity of distinguishing himself; the "armee du Rhin" was to revive +the glories of the "grande armee;" there was to be a second edition of +the Napoleonic epic. After the first startling successes, the Emperor +was to return to the capital, and Marshal Niel's plan was, if +practicable, to be taken up once more,--that is, the French troops, +having established a foothold in the enemy's country, were to be divided +again under so many Klebers, Soults, and Neys. + +According to others, the Emperor, who until then had been living in a +fool's paradise with regard to the quantity, if not with regard to the +quality, of the forces at his disposal, suddenly had his eyes opened to +the real state of affairs. The six hundred and fifty thousand troops +supposed to be at his disposal had their existence mainly on paper: the +available reality did not amount to more than a third; _i. e._ to about +two hundred and fifteen thousand troops of all arms. + +The facts advanced by these historians are true, but they did not +determine the change referred to--at any rate, not so far as the +assumption of the supreme command by the Emperor himself was concerned. +Anxious as the latter may have been, in the interest of his dynasty, to +reap the glory of one or two successful battles fought under his +immediate supervision, he was fully aware of his unfitness for such a +task, especially in his actual state of health. Louis-Napoleon believed +in his star, but he was not an idiot who counted upon luck to decide the +fate of battles. If he had ever fostered such illusions, the campaign of +1859 must have given a rude shock to them, for there he was, more than +once, within an ace of defeat; and no one knew this better than he did. +The fusing of the three armies into one was due, first, to the +difficulty, if not impossibility, of constituting three armies with +considerably less than three hundred thousand troops; secondly, to the +inveterate jealousy of his marshals of one another. Napoleon feared, and +justly, that if those three armies went forth under three separate +commands, there would be a repetition of the quarrels that had occurred +during the Austro-Franco war, when Niel accused Canrobert of not having +properly supported him at the right time, and so forth. It will be +remembered that the Emperor himself had to intervene to heal those +quarrels. Under those circumstances, the Emperor thought it better to +risk it, and to take the whole responsibility upon himself. + +The Emperor left St. Cloud on the 28th of July. It is very certain that, +even before his departure, his confidence in the late Marshal Niel as an +organizer must have been considerably shaken, and that the words of +Leboeuf, "We are ready, more than ready," sounded already a hollow +mockery to his ear. Here are some of the telegrams which, after the 4th +of September, were found among the papers at the Tuileries. They were +probably copies of the originals, though I am by no means certain that +they were forwarded to St. Cloud at the time of their reception. It +would have been better, perhaps, if they had been. + +"Metz, 20 July, 1870, 9.50 a.m. From Chief of Commissariat Department to +General Blondeau, War Office, Paris. There is at Metz neither sugar, +coffee, rice, brandy, nor salt. We have but little bacon and biscuit. +Despatch, at least, a million rations to Thionville." + +"General Ducrot to War Office, Paris. Strasburg, 20 July, 1870, 8.30 +p.m. By to-morrow there will be scarcely fifty men left to guard +Neuf-Brisach; Fort-Mortier, Schlestadt, la Petite-Pierre, and +Lichtenberg are equally deserted. It is the result of the orders we are +carrying out. The Garde Mobile and local National Guards might easily be +made available for garrison duty, but I am reluctant to adopt such +measures, seeing that your excellency has granted me no power to that +effect. It appears certain that the Prussians are already masters of all +the passes of the Black Forest." + +"From the General commanding the 2nd Army Corps to War Office, Paris. +Saint-Avold, 21 July, 1870, 8.55 a.m. The depot sends enormous parcels +of maps, which are absolutely useless for the moment. We have not a +single map of the French frontier. It would be better to send greater +quantities of what would be more useful, and which are absolutely +wanting at this moment." + +"From General Michael to War Office, Paris. Belfort, 21 July, 1870, 7.30 +a.m. Have arrived at Belfort; did not find my brigade, did not find a +general of division. What am I to do? Do not know where are my +regiments." + +"From General commanding 4th Army Corps to Major-General, Paris. +Thionville, 21 July, 9.12 a.m. The 4th Corps has as yet neither +canteens, ambulances, nor baggage-waggons, either for the troops or the +staff. There is an utter lack of everything." + +I need quote no further; there were about two hundred missives in all, +all dated within the week following the official declaration of war. It +would be difficult to determine how many of these the Emperor was +permitted to see, but there is no doubt that he had a pretty correct +idea of the state of affairs, for here is a fact which I have not seen +stated anywhere, but for the truth of which I can vouch. For full two +years before the outbreak of hostilities, the Legislature seemed bent +upon advocating all kinds of retrenchment in the war budget. During the +first six months of 1870, the thing had almost become a mania with them, +and the Emperor appealed to M. Thiers, through the intermediary of +Marshal Leboeuf himself, to help him stem the tide of this +pseudo-economy. Thiers promised his support, and faithfully kept his +word; but his aid came too late. The Emperor, however, felt grateful to +him, and, only thirty-six hours before his departure for the seat of +war, he offered him the portfolio of war, again through the intermediary +of Marshal Leboeuf. The offer was respectfully declined, but what must +have been the state of mind of Louis-Napoleon with regard to his +officers, to prefer to them a civilian at such a critical moment? I may +state here that it was always the height of M. Thiers' ambition to be +considered a great strategist and tactician, and also a military +engineer. "Jomini was a civilian," he frequently exclaimed. Those who +were competent to judge, have often declared that Thiers' pretensions in +that direction were, to a certain extent, justified by his talents. +Curiously enough, M. de Freycinet is affected by a similar mania. + +Here is a certain correlative to the above-mentioned fact. When, a few +months after the Commune, things were getting ship-shape in Paris, a +large bundle of printed matter was unearthed in the erstwhile Imperial +(then National) Printing Works. It contained, amongst others, a circular +drawn up by the Emperor himself, entitled "A Bad Piece of Economy;" it +was addressed to the deputies, and dated May, 1870; it showed the +presumptive strength of the army of the North-German Confederation as +compared with that of France, and wound up with the following sentence: +"If we compare the military condition of North-Germany with ours, we +shall be able to judge how far those who would still further reduce our +national forces are sufficiently enlightened as to our real interests." + +It has always been a mystery to me, and to those who were aware of its +existence, why this circular was not distributed at the proper time; +though, by the light of subsequent events, one fails to see what good it +could have done then. Were these events foreseen at the Tuileries as +early as May? I think not. The majority of the Emperor's entourage were +confident that war with Germany was only a matter of time; very few +considered it to be so imminent. One cannot for a moment imagine that +the suppression of this circular was due to accidental or premeditated +neglect; for the sovereign, though ailing and low-spirited, was still +too mindful of his prerogatives not to have visited such neglect of his +wishes, whether intentional or not, with severe displeasure. Nor can one +for a moment admit that the Emperor was hoodwinked into the belief that +the circular had been distributed. His so-called advisers probably +prevailed upon him to forego the distribution of the document, lest it +should open the eyes of the nation to the inferiority of France's +armaments. The only man who had dared to point out that inferiority, +three years previously, was General Trochu, and his book, "l'Armee +Francaise," had the effect of ostracizing him from the Tuileries. The +smart and swaggering colonels who surrounded the Empress did not scruple +to spread the most ridiculous slanders with regard to its author; but +the Emperor, though aware that Trochu was systematically opposed to his +dynasty, also knew that he was an able, perhaps the ablest soldier in +the country. The subsequent failure of Trochu does not invalidate that +judgment. "I know what Trochu could and would do if he were unhampered; +but I need not concern myself with that, seeing that he will be +hampered," said Von Moltke at the beginning of the siege. Colonel +Stoffel, the French military attache at Berlin, was severely reprimanded +by Marshal Niel and by Leboeuf afterwards for his constant endeavours to +acquaint the Emperor with the magnificent state of efficiency of the +Prussian army and its auxiliaries. Ostensibly, it was because he had +been guilty of a breach of diplomatic and military etiquette; in +reality, because the minister for war and his "festive" coadjutors +objected to being constantly harassed in their pleasures by the +sovereign's suspicions of their mental nakedness. "Nous l'avons eu, +votre Rhin allemand.... Ou le pere a passe, passera bien l'enfant," was +their credo; and they continued to dance, and to flirt, and to intrigue +for places, which, in their hands, became fat sinecures. They would have +laughed to scorn the dictum of the first Napoleon, that "there are no +bad regiments, only bad colonels;" in their opinion, there were no bad +colonels, except those perhaps who did not constantly jingle their spurs +on the carpeted floors of the Empress's boudoir, and the parqueted arena +of the Empress's ball-room. The Emperor was too much of a dreamer and a +philosopher for them; he could not emancipate himself from his German +education. The best thing to do was to let him write and print whatever +he liked, and then prevail upon him at the last moment not to publish, +lest it might offend national vanity. Contemptuous as they were of the +German spirit of plodding, they had, nevertheless, taken a leaf from an +eminent German's book. "Let them say and write what they like, as long +as they let me do what I like," exclaimed Frederick the Great, on one +occasion. They slightly reversed the sentence. "Let the Emperor say and +write what he likes, as long as he lets us do what we like; and one +thing we will take care to do, namely, not to let him publish his +writings." They had forgotten, if ever they knew them--for their +ignorance was as startling as their conceit--the magnificent lines of +the founder of the dynasty which they had systematically undermined for +years by their dissipation, frivolity, and corruption: "The general is +the head, the all in all of the army. It was not the Roman army that +conquered Gaul, but Caesar; it was not the Carthaginian army that made +the republican army tremble at the very gates of Rome, but Hannibal; it +was not the Macedonian army that penetrated to the Indus, but Alexander; +it was not the French army which carried the war as far as the Weser and +the Inn, but Turenne; it was not the Prussian army which defended, +during seven years, Prussia against the three greatest powers in Europe, +but Frederick the Great." + +And she who aspired to play the role of a Maria-Theresa, when she was +not even a Marie-Antoinette, and far more harmful than even a +Marie-Louise, applauded the vapourings of those misguided men. "Le +courage fait tout," had been the motto for nearly a score of years at +the Tuileries. It did a good deal in the comedies a la Marivaux, in the +Boccacian charades that had been enacted there during that time; she had +yet to learn that it would avail little or nothing in the Homeric +struggle which was impending. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + The war -- Reaction before the Emperor's departure -- The moral + effects of the publication of the draft treaty -- "Bismarck has + done the Emperor" -- The Parisians did not like the Empress -- + The latter always anxious to assume the regency -- A retrospect + -- Crimean war -- The Empress and Queen Victoria -- Solferino -- + The regency of '65 -- Bismarck's millinery bills -- Lord Lyons -- + Bismarck and the Duc de Gramont -- Lord Lyons does not foresee + war -- The republicans and the war -- The Empress -- Two + ministerial councils and their consequences -- Mr. + Prescott-Hewett sent for -- Joseph Ferrari, the Italian + philosopher -- The Empress -- The ferment in Paris -- "Too much + prologue to 'The Taming of the German Shrew'" -- The first + engagement -- The "Marseillaise" -- An infant performer -- The + "Marseillaise" at the Comedie-Francaise -- The "Marseillaise" by + command of the Emperor -- A patriotic ballet -- The courtesy of + the French at Fontenoy -- The Cafe de la Paix -- General Beaufort + d'Hautpoul and Moltke -- Newspaper correspondents -- Edmond About + tells a story about one of his colleagues -- News supplied by the + Government -- What it amounted to -- The information it gave to + the enemy -- Bazaine, "the glorious" one -- Palikao -- The fall + of the Empire does not date from Sedan, but from Woerth and + Speicheren -- Those who dealt it the heaviest blow -- The + Empress, the Empress, and no one but the Empress. + + +Even before the Emperor started for the seat of war it was very evident, +to those who kept their eyes open, that a reaction had set in among the +better classes. They were no longer confident about France's ability to +chastise the arrogance of the King of Prussia. The publication of the +famous "draft treaty" had convinced them "que Bismarck avait roule +l'empereur,"--_anglice_, "that the Emperor had been bone;" and, +notwithstanding their repeated assertions of being able to dispense with +the moral support of Europe, they felt not altogether resigned about the +animosity which the revelation of that document had provoked. Honestly +speaking, I do not think that they regretted the duplicity of +Louis-Napoleon in having tried to steal a march upon the co-signatories +of the treaty guaranteeing the protection of Belgium; but it wounded +their pride that he should have been found out to no purpose. The word +"imbecile" began to circulate freely; and when it became known that he +had conferred the regency upon the Empress, the expression of contempt +and disapproval became stronger still. In spite of everything that has +been said to the contrary, the Parisians did not like the Empress. I +have already noted elsewhere that those frankly hostile to her did not +scruple to apply the word "l'Espagnole" in a depreciating sense; those +whose animosity did not go so far merely considered her "une femme a la +mode," and by no means fitted to take the reins of government, +especially under circumstances so grave as the present ones. On the +other hand, the Empress always showed herself exceedingly anxious to +exercise the functions of regent. The flatterers and courtiers around +her had imbued her with the idea that she was a kind of Elizabeth and a +Catherine in one, and the clerical element in her entourage was not the +least blamable in that respect. + +During the Crimean war, Lord Clarendon had already been compelled to +combat the project, though he could not do so openly. Napoleon III. had +several times expressed his intention of taking the command of the army. +His ministers, and especially MM. Troplong and Baroche, begged of him +not to do so. Even Queen Victoria, to whom the idea was broached while +on her visit to Paris, threw cold water upon it as far as was possible. +But the Empress encouraged it to her utmost. "I fail to see," she said +to our sovereign, "that he would be exposed to greater dangers there +than elsewhere." It was the prospect of the regency, not of the glory +that might possibly accrue to her consort, that appealed to the Empress; +for in reality she had not the least sympathy with the object of that +war, any more than with that of 1859. Russia was ostensibly fighting for +the custody of the Holy Sepulchre; and the defeat of Austria, she had +been told by the priests, would entail the ruin of the temporal power of +the pope. And Empress Eugenie never attained to anything more than +parrot knowledge in the way of politics. + +However, in 1859 she had her wish, and, before the opening of the +campaign, she declared to the Corps Legislatif that "she had perfect +faith in the moderation of the Emperor when the right moment for peace +should have arrived." Her ladies-in-waiting and the male butterflies +around her openly discounted the political effects of every engagement +on the field of battle. The Emperor, according to them, would make peace +with Austria with very few sacrifices on the latter's part, for it was a +Conservative and Catholic power, which could not be humiliated to the +bitter end, while Italy was, after all, but a hotbed of conspiracy, +revolutionary, anti-Catholic, and so forth. + +And I know, for a positive fact, that the Emperor was, as it were, +compelled to suspend operations after Solferino, because the Minister +for War had ceased to send troops and ammunitions "by order of the +regent." The Minister for Foreign Affairs endeavoured by all means in +his power to alarm his sovereign. + +Nevertheless, in 1865, when he went to Algeria to seek some relief from +his acute physical sufferings, Napoleon III. was badgered into confiding +the regency once more to his wife. There is no other word, because there +was no necessity for such a measure, seeing that he did not leave French +territory. We have an inveterate habit of laughing at the "henpecked +husband," and no essayist has been bold enough as yet to devote a +chapter to him from a purely historical point of view. The materials are +not only at hand in France, but in England, Germany, and Russia also; +above all, in the latter country. He, the essayist, might safely leave +Catherine de Medici out of the question. He need not go back as far. He +might begin with Marie de Medici and her daughter, Henrietta-Maria. +Sometimes the "henpecking" turns out to be for the world's benefit, as +when Sophie-Dorothea worries her spouse to let her first boy wear a +heavy christening dress and crown, which eventually kill the infant, who +makes room for Frederick the Great. But one could have very well spared +the servant-wench who henpecked Peter the Great, and Scarron's widow who +henpecked Louis XIV., and Marie-Antoinette and the rest. + +The regency of '65, though perhaps not disastrous in itself, was fraught +with the most disastrous consequences for the future. It gave the +Empress the political importance which she had been coveting for years; +henceforth she made it a habit to be present at the councils of +ministers, who in their turn informed her personally of events which +ought to have remained strictly between them and the chief of the State. +This went on until M. Emile Ollivier came into power, January 2, 1870. +The Italian and Austrian ambassadors, however, continued to flatter her +vanity by constantly appealing to her; the part they played on the 4th +of September shows plainly enough how they profited in the interest of +their governments by these seemingly diplomatic indiscretions on their +own part. + +As for Bismarck, as some one who was very much behind the political +scenes in Berlin once said, "His policy consisted in paying milliners' +and dressmakers' bills in Paris for ladies to whose personal adornment +and appearance he was profoundly indifferent." I am bound to say that +Lord Lyons courteously but steadfastly refused to be drawn out +"diplomatically" by the Empress. While paying due homage to the woman +and to the sovereign, he tacitly declined to consider her a pawn in the +political game, and, though always extremely guarded in his language, +could scarcely refrain from showing his contempt for those who did. I do +not know whether Lord Lyons will leave behind any "memoirs;" if he do, +we shall probably get not only nothing but the truth, but the whole +truth, with regard to the share of the Empress in determining the war; +and we shall find that that war was not decided upon between the +Imperial couple between the 14th and 15th of July, '70, but between the +5th and 6th of July. Meanwhile, without presuming to anticipate such +revelations on the part of our ambassador, I may note here my own +recollections on the subject. + +On Tuesday, the 5th of July, about 2.30 p.m., I was walking along the +Faubourg Saint-Honore, when, just in front of the Embassy, I was brought +to a standstill by Lord Lyons' carriage turning into the courtyard from +the street. His lordship was inside. We were on very good terms, I may +say on very friendly terms, and he beckoned me to come in. I was at the +short flight of steps leading to the hall almost as soon as the +carriage, and we went inside together. I do not suppose I was in his +private room for more than ten minutes, but I brought away the +impression that, although the Duc de Gramont and M. Emile Ollivier might +think it necessary to adopt a bellicose tone in face of the Hohenzollern +candidature, there was little or no fear of war, because the Emperor was +_decidedly_ inclined to peace. I remember this the more distinctly, +seeing that Lord Lyons told me that he had just returned from an +interview with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I am not certain of the +exact words used by his lordship, but positive as to the drift of one of +his remarks; namely, that the Duc de Gramont was the last person who +ought to conduct the negotiations. "There is too much personal animosity +between him and Bismarck, owing mainly to the latter having laughed his +pretensions to scorn as a diplomatist while the duke was at Vienna." I +am certain the words were to that effect. Then he added, "I can +understand though I fail to approve De Gramont's personal irritation, +but cannot account for Ollivier's, and he seems as pugnacious as the +other. Nevertheless, I repeat, the whole of this will blow over: William +is too wise a man to go to war on such a pretext, and the Emperor is too +ill not to want peace. I wish the Empress would leave him alone. I am +going to Ollivier's to-night, and I'll know more about it by to-morrow +morning." + +It is very evident from this that the historians were subsequently +wrongly informed as to M. Emile Ollivier's attitude at that moment, +which they have described as exactly the reverse from what Lord Lyons +found it. I knew little or nothing of M. Ollivier, still he did not give +me the impression of being likely to adopt a hectoring tone just in +order to please the gallery, the gallery being in this instance the +clientele of the opposition, whom the Emperor feared more than any one +else. From all I have been able to gather since, Louis-Napoleon seemed +racked with anxiety, but, as one of my informants, who was scarcely away +from his side at the time, said afterwards, he was not pondering over +the consequences of war which he fancied he was able to prevent, he was +pondering the consequences of peace. Translated into plain language, it +meant that the republican minority, with its recent accession of +representatives in the chambers and its still more unscrupulous +adherents outside, were striving with might and main, not to goad the +Emperor into a war, but to make him keep a peace which, if they had had +the chance, they would have denounced as humiliating to France. + +Unfortunately for France, they found an unexpected ally in the Empress. +The latter urged on the war with Prussia, in order to secure to her son +the imperial crown which was shaking on the head of her husband; the +former were playing the game known colloquially as "Heads, I win; tails, +you lose." Peace preserved by means of diplomatic negotiations would +give them the opportunity of holding up the Empire to scorn as being too +weak to safeguard the national honour; war would give them the +opportunity of airing their platitudes about the iniquity of standing +armies and the sacrifice of human life, etc. I go further still, and +unhesitatingly affirm that, if any party was aware of the corruption in +the army, it was the republican one. The plebiscite of May, with its +thousands of votes adverse to the Imperial regime--among which votes +there were those of a great many officers--had not only given them a +chance of counting their numbers, but of obtaining information, not +available to their adversaries in power. This is tantamount to an +indictment of having deliberately contributed to the temporary ruin of +their country for political purposes, and such I intend it to be. I am +not speaking without good grounds. + +On the day I met Lord Lyons, two ministerial councils were held at +Saint-Cloud, both presided over by the Emperor. Between the first and +the second, the peaceful sentiments of the chief of the State underwent +no change. So little did the Emperor foresee or desire war, that on the +evening of that same day, while the second council of ministers was +being held, he sent one of his aides-de-camp to my house for the exact +address of Mr. Prescott-Hewett, the eminent English surgeon. I was not +at home, and on my return, an hour later, sent the address by telegraph +to Saint-Cloud. I have since learnt that, on the same night, a telegram +was despatched to London, inquiring of Mr. Hewett when it would be +convenient for him to hold a consultation in Paris. An appointment was +made, but Mr. Hewett eventually went in August, to the seat of war, to +see his illustrious patient. I believe, but am not certain, that he saw +him at Chalons. + +On the 6th of July, there was a third council of ministers at +Saint-Cloud, at ten o'clock in the morning, in order to draw up the +answer to M. Cochery's interpellation on the Hohenzollern candidature. +The latter was supposed to have been inspired by M. Thiers, but I will +only state what I know positively with regard to the Emperor. At a +little after two that afternoon, I happened to be at the Cafe de la +Paix, when my old friend, Joseph Ferrari, came up to me.[77] He was a +great friend of Adolphe and Elysee, the brothers of Emile Ollivier. He +looked positively crestfallen, and, knowing him to be a sincere advocate +of peace, I had no need to ask him for the nature of the news he +brought. I could see at a glance that it was bad. He, however, left me +no time to put a question. + + [Footnote 77: Joseph Ferrari was an Italian by birth, but spent + a great part of his time in France. He is best known by his + "Philosophes Salaries," and died in Rome, 1876.--EDITOR.] + +"It's all over," he said at once, "and, unless a miracle happens, we'll +have war in less than a fortnight." He immediately went on. "Wait for +another hour, and then you'll see the effect of De Gramont's answer to +Cochery's interpellation in the Chamber. Not only the Prussians, but the +smallest nation in Europe would not stand it." + +"But," I remarked, "about this time yesterday I was positively assured, +and on the best authority, that the Emperor was absolutely opposed to +any but a pacific remonstrance." + +"Your informant was perfectly correct," was the answer; "and as late as +ten o'clock last night, at the termination of the second council of +ministers, his sentiments underwent no change. Immediately after that, +the Empress had a conversation with the Emperor, which I know for +certain lasted till one o'clock in the morning. The result of this +conversation is the answer, the text of which you will see directly, and +which is tantamount to a challenge to Prussia. Mark my words, the +Empress will not cease from troubling until she has driven France into a +war with the only great Protestant power on the Continent. That power +defeated, she will endeavour to destroy the rising unity of Italy. She +little knows that Victor-Emanuel will not wait until then, and that, at +the first success of the French on the Rhine, he will cross the Alps at +a sign of Prussia; that at the first success of Prussia, the Italian +troops will start on their march to Rome. Nay, I repeat, it is the +Empress who will prove the ruin of France." + +That playful cry of the Empress, which she was so fond of uttering in +the beginning of her married life, "As for myself, I am a Legitimist," +without understanding, or endeavouring to understand its import, had +gradually grafted itself on her mind, although it had ceased to be on +her lips. Impatient of contradiction, self-willed and tyrannical, both +by nature and training, her sudden and marvellous elevation to one of +the proudest positions in Europe could not fail to strengthen those +defects of character. Superstitious, like most Spaniards, she was firmly +convinced that the gipsy who foretold her future greatness was a Divine +messenger, and from that to the conviction that she occupied the throne +by a right as Divine as that claimed by the Bourbons there was but one +short step. A corollary to Divine right meant, to her, personal and +irresponsible government. That was her idea of legitimism. Though by no +means endowed with high intellectual gifts, she perceived well enough, +in the beginning, that the Second Empire was not a very stable edifice, +either with regard to its foundations or superstructure, and, until +England propped it up by an alliance, and a State visit from our +sovereign, she kept commendably coy. But from that moment she aspired to +be something more than the arbiter of fashion. As I have already said, +she failed in prevailing upon the Emperor to go to the Crimea. In '59 +she was more successful, in '65 she was more successful still. In the +former year, she laid the foundation of what was called the Empress's +party; in the latter, the scaffolding was removed from the structure, +henceforth the work was done inside. She, no more than her surroundings, +had the remotest idea that France was gradually undergoing a political +change, that she was recovering her constitutional rights. Her party was +like the hare in the fable that used the wrong end of the opera-glass, +and lived in a fool's paradise with regard to the distance that divided +them from the sportsman, until he was fairly upon them, in the shape of +the liberal ministry of the 2nd of January, 1870. + +M. Emile Ollivier, to his credit be it said, refused to be guided by his +predecessors. He studiously avoided informing the Empress of the affairs +of State, let alone discussing them with her. Apart from the small fry +of the Imperial party, he made two powerful enemies--the Empress +herself, and Rouher, who saw in this refusal to follow precedent an +implied censure upon himself. Rouher, I repeat once more, was honest to +the backbone, but fond of personal power. The Empire to him meant +nothing but the Emperor, the Empress, and the heir to the throne; just +as Germany meant nothing to Bismarck but the Hohenzollern dynasty. He +was one of the first to proclaim, loudly and openly, that the plebiscite +of the 8th of May meant an overwhelming manifestation, not in favour of +the liberal Empire, but in favour of the Emperor; and when the latter, +to do him justice, declined to look at it in that light, he deserted him +for the side of his wife. It is an open secret that the first use the +Empress meant to make of her power as regent, after the first signal +victory of French arms, was to sweep away the cabinet of the 2nd of +January. The Imperial decree conferring the regency upon her, "during +the absence of the Emperor at the head of his army," and dated the 22nd +of July, invested her with very limited power. + +Meanwhile, pending the departure of the Emperor, Paris was in a +ferment, but, to the careful observer, it was no longer the unalloyed +enthusiasm of the first few days. There were just as many people in the +streets; the shouts of "A Berlin!" though, perhaps, not so sustained, +were just as loud every now and then; the troops leaving for the front +received tremendous ovations, and more substantial proofs of the +people's goodwill; the man who dared to pronounce the word "peace" ran a +great risk of being rent to pieces by the crowds--a thing which almost +happened one night in front of the Cafe de Madrid, on the Boulevard +Montmartre: still, the enthusiasm was not the same. "There seems to be a +great deal of prologue to 'The Taming of that German Shrew,'" said a +French friend, who was pretty familiar with Shakespeare; and he was not +far wrong, for the Christopher Sly abounded. The bivouacs of the troops +about to take their departure reminded one somewhat more forcibly of +operatic scenes and equestrian dramas of the circus type than of the +preparations for the stern necessities of war--with this difference, +that the contents of the goblet were real, and the viands not made of +cardboard. "They are like badly made cannons, these soldiers," said some +one else: "they are crammed up to the muzzle, and they do not go off." +In short, the more sensible of the Paris population began to conclude +that a little less intoning of patriotic strophes and a good deal more +of juxtaposition with the German troops was becoming advisable. The +reports of the few preliminary skirmishes that had taken place were no +doubt favourable to the French; at the same time, there was no denying +the fact that they had taken place on French and not on German +territory, which was not quite in accordance with the spirit of the +oft-repeated cry of "A Berlin!" In accordance with the programme of +which that cry was the initial quotation, the French ought, by this +time, to have been already half on their way to the Prussian capital. +That is what sensible, nay, clever people expressed openly. +Nevertheless, the cry continued, nor was there any escape from the +"Marseillaise," either by day or night. Every now and then a more than +usually dense group might be seen at a street corner. The centre of the +group was composed of a woman, with a baby in her arms; the little one +could scarcely speak, but its tiny voice reproduced more or less +accurately the air of the "Marseillaise:" a deep silence prevailed +during the performance in order to give the infant a fair chance; +deafening applause greeted the termination of the solo, and a shower of +coppers fell into the real or pseudo mother's lap. On the 18th of July, +the day of the official declaration of war in Paris, the +Comedie-Francaise performed "Le Lion Amoureux" of Ponsard.[78] At the +end of the second act, the public clamoured for the "Marseillaise." +There was not a single member of the company capable of complying with +the request, "so the stage manager for the week" had to come forward and +ask for a two-days' adjournment, during which some one might study it. +Of course, _the honour_ of singing the revolutionary hymn was to devolve +upon a woman, according to the precedent established in '48, when Rachel +had intoned it. From what I learnt a few days afterwards, the candidates +for the _distinguished task_ were not many, in spite of the tacit +consent of the Government. The ladies of the company, most of whom, like +their fellow-actors, had been always very cordially treated by the +Emperor on the occasion of their professional visits to Saint-Cloud, +Compiegne, and Fontainebleau, instinctively guessed the pain the +concession must have caused the chief of the State, and under some +pretext declined. Mdlle. Agar accepted, and sang the "Marseillaise," in +all forty-four times, from the 20th of July to the 17th of September, +the day of the final investment of the capital by the German armies. + + [Footnote 78: I believe there exists an English version of the + play, entitled "A Son of the Soil." I am not certain of the + title.--EDITOR.] + +It must not be supposed, though, that the Government had waited until +the day of the official declaration of war to sanction the performance +of the "Marseillaise" in places of public resort. I remember crossing +the Gardens of the Tuileries in the afternoon of Sunday, the 17th of +July. One of the military bands was performing a selection of music. The +custom of doing so during the summer months has prevailed for many +years, both in the capital and in the principal garrison towns of the +provinces. All at once they struck up the "Marseillaise." I looked with +surprise at my companion, a member of the Emperor's household. He caught +the drift of my look. + +"It is by the Emperor's express command," he said. "It is the national +war-song. In fact, it is that much more than a revolutionary hymn." + +"But war has not been declared," I objected. + +"It will be to-morrow," was the answer. + +The public, which in this instance was mainly composed of the better +classes, apparently refused to consider the "Marseillaise" a national +war-song, and applause at its termination was but very lukewarm. + +I have already spoken of the scene I witnessed in connection with the +departure of the Germans on that same Sunday early in the morning, and +have also noted the demonstration in front of the German Embassy on the +previous Friday night. I will not be equally positive with regard to the +exact dates of the succeeding exhibitions of bad taste on the part of +the Parisians, but I remember a very striking one which happened between +the official declaration of war and the end of July. It was brought +under my notice, not by a foreigner, but by a Frenchman, who was +absolutely disgusted with it. We were sitting one evening outside the +Cafe de la Paix, which, being the resort of some noted Imperialists, I +had begun to visit more frequently than I had done hitherto. There was a +terrible din on the Boulevards: the evening papers had just published a +very circumstantial account of that insignificant skirmish which cost +Lieutenant Winslow his life, and in which the French had taken a couple +of prisoners. "They" (the prisoners), suggested an able editor, "ought +to be brought to Paris and publicly exhibited as an example." "And, what +is more," said my friend who had read the paragraph to me, "he means +what he says. These are the descendants of a nation who prides herself +on having said at Fontenoy, 'Messieurs, les Anglais tirez les premiers,' +which, by-the-by, they did not say.[79] If you care to come with me, +I'll show you what would be the probable fate of such prisoners if the +writer of that paragraph had his will." + + [Footnote 79: It was, in fact, an English officer who shouted, + "Messieurs des gardes francaises, tirez;" to which the French + replied, "Messieurs, nous ne tirons jamais les premiers; tirez + vous memes." But it was not politeness that dictated the reply; + it was the expression of the acknowledged and constantly + inculcated doctrine that all infantry troops which fired the + first were indubitably beaten. We find the doctrine clearly + stated in the infantry instructions of 1672, and subsequently + in the following order of Louis XIV. to his troops: "The + soldier shall be taught not to fire the first, and to stand the + fire of the enemy, seeing that an enemy who has fired is + assuredly beaten when his adversary has his powder left." At + the battle of Dettingen, consequently, two years before + Fontenoy, the theory had been carried _beyond_ the absurd by + expressly forbidding the Gardes to fire, though they were raked + down by the enemy's bullets. Maurice de Saxe makes it a point + to praise the wisdom of a colonel who, in order to prevent his + troops from firing, constantly made them shoulder their + muskets.--EDITOR.] + +So said; so done. In about a quarter of an hour we were seated at the +Cafe de l'Horloge, in the Champs Elysees, and my friend was holding out +five francs fifty centimes in payment for two small glasses of so-called +"Fine Champagne," _plus_ the waiter's tip. The admission was gratis; and +the difference between those who went in and those who remained outside +was that the latter could hear the whole of the performance without +seeing it, and without disbursing a farthing; while the former could see +the whole of the performance without hearing a note, for the din there +was also infernal. Shortly after our arrival, the band struck up the +inevitable "Marseillaise," but the audience neither listened nor +applauded. + +This was, after all, but the overture to the entertainment to which my +friend had invited me, and which consisted of a spectacular pantomime +representing an engagement between a regiment or a battalion of Zouaves +and Germans. As a matter of course, the latter had the worst of it; and, +at the termination, a couple of them were brought in and compelled to +sue for mercy on their knees. I am bound to say that the thing hung fire +altogether, and that, but for the remarkable selection of handsome legs +of the Zouaves, not even the hare-brained young fellows with which the +audience was largely besprinkled would have paid any attention. + +In the whole of Paris there was no surer centre of information of the +state of affairs at the front than the Cafe de la Paix. It was the +principal resort of the Bonapartists. There were Pietri, the prefect of +police, Sampierro, Abatucci, and a score or two of others; all +cultivating excellent relations with the Chateau. There was also the +General Beaufort d'Hautpoul, to whom Bismarck subsequently, through the +pen of Dr. Moritz Busch, did the greatest injury a man can do to a +soldier, in accusing him of drunkenness when he came to settle some of +the military conditions of the armistice at Versailles. He was, as far +as I remember, one of the two superior French officers who estimated at +its true value the strategic genius of Von Moltke. The other was Colonel +Stoffel. But General d'Hautpoul was even better enabled to judge; he had +seen Moltke at work in Syria more than thirty years before. He was in +reality the Solomon Eagle of the campaign, before a single shot had been +fired. "I know our army, and I know Helmuth von Moltke," he said, +shaking his head despondingly. "If every one of our officers were his +equal in strategy, the chance would then only be equal. Moltke has the +gift of the great billiard-player; he knows beforehand the exact results +of a shock between two bodies at a certain angle. We are a doomed +nation." + +As a matter of course, his friends were very wroth at what they called +"his unpatriotic language," and when the news of the engagement at +Saarbruck arrived they crowed over him; but he stuck to his text. "It is +simply a feint on Moltke's part, and proves nothing at all. In two or +three days we'll get the news of a battle that will decide, not only the +fate of the whole campaign, but the fate of the Empire also." + +Two days afterwards, I met him near the Rue Saint-Florentin; he looked +absolutely crestfallen. "We have suffered a terrible defeat near +Wissembourg, but do not breathe a word of it to any one. The Government +is waiting for a victory on some other point, and then it will publish +the two accounts together." + +The Government was reckoning without the newspapers, French and foreign. +The latter might be confiscated, and in fact were, such as the _Times_ +and _l'Independance Belge_; but the French, notwithstanding the +temporary law of M. Emile Ollivier, were more difficult to deal with. I +am inclined to think that if they had foreseen the terrible fate that +was to befall the French armies they would have been more amenable, but +in the beginning they anticipated nothing but startling victories, and, +as such, looked upon the campaign in the light of a series of brilliant +spectacular performances, glowing accounts of which were essentially +calculated to increase their circulation. When MM. Cardon and +Chabrillat, respectively of the _Gaulois_ and _Figaro_, were released by +the Prussians, they told many amusing stories to that effect, +unconsciously confirming the opinion I have already expressed; but the +following, which I had from the lips of Edmond About himself, is better +than any I can remember. + +A correspondent of one of the best Paris newspapers, on his arrival at +the head-quarters of "the army of the Rhine," applied to the +aide-major-general for permission to follow the operations. He had a +good many credentials of more or less weight; nevertheless the +aide-major-general, in view of the formal orders of the Emperor and +Marshal Leboeuf, felt bound to refuse the request. The journalist, on +the other hand, declined to take "no" for an answer. "I have come with +the decided intention to do justice, and more than justice, perhaps, to +your talent and courage, and it would be a pity indeed if I were not +given the opportunity," he said. + +"I am very sorry," was the reply; "but I cannot depart from the rules +for any one." + +"But our paper has a very large circulation." + +"All the more reason to refuse you the authorization to follow the +staff." + +The journalist would not look at matters in that light. He felt that he +was conferring a favour, just as he would have felt in offering the +advantage of a cleverly written puff of a premiere to a theatrical +manager. Seeing that his arguments were of no avail, he delivered his +parting shot. + +"This, then, general, is your final decision. I am afraid you'll have +cause to regret this, for we, on our side, are determined not to give +this war the benefit of publicity in our columns." + +M. Emile Ollivier's original decision was the right one, but, instead of +embodying it in a temporary and exceptional order, he ought to have made +it a permanent law in times of peace as well as war. On Saturday, the +16th of July, Count Culemburg, the Prussian Minister of the Interior, +addressed a circular to the German papers, recommending them to abstain +from giving any news, however insignificant, with regard to the +movements of the troops. As far as I remember, the German editors +neither protested, nor endeavoured to shirk the order; they raised no +outcry against "the muzzling of the press." Five days later, the French +minister was attacked by nearly every paper in France for attempting to +do a similar thing, and, rather than weather that storm in a teacup, he +consented to a compromise, and condescended to ask where he might have +commanded. In addition to this, he undertook that the Government itself +should be the purveyor of war-news to the papers. Every editor of +standing in Paris knew that this meant garbled, if not altogether +mythical, accounts of events, and that even these would be held back +until they could be held back no longer. In a few days their worst +apprehensions in that respect were confirmed. While Paris was still +ignorant of the terrible disaster at Wissembourg, the whole of Europe +rang with the tidings. Then came the false report of a brilliant victory +from the Government agency. It made the Parisians frantic with joy, but +the frenzy changed into one of anger when the truth became known through +the maudlin and lachrymose despatches from the Imperial head-quarters, +albeit that they by no means revealed the whole extent of the defeats +suffered at Woerth and Spicheren. + +Nevertheless, the _agency_ continued the even--or rather uneven--tenor +of its way up to the last. The Republicans subsequently adopted the +tactics of the Imperial Government, the Communists adhered to the system +of those they had temporarily ousted. In the present note, I will deal +only with events up to the 4th of September. Patent as it must have been +to the merest civilian, that the commanders were simply committing +blunder after blunder, the movements of Bazaine were represented by the +_agency_ as the result of a masterly and profound calculation. Even such +a pessimist as General Beaufort d'Hautpoul was taken in by those +representations. He considered the "masterly inactivity" of Bazaine as +an inspiration of genius. "He is keeping two hundred thousand German +troops round Metz," he said several times. "These two hundred thousand +men are rendered absolutely useless while we are recruiting our armies +and reorganizing our forces." He seemed altogether oblivious of the fact +that these two hundred thousand Germans were virtually the gaolers of +France's best army. + +I am unable to say whether General d'Hautpoul was in direct or indirect +communication with the _agency_, or whether some ingenious scribe +belonging to it had overheard his expressions of admiration and wilfully +adopted them; certain it is that the _agency_ was the first to inspire +the reporters of those papers who took their cue from it with the +flattering epithet of "glorious Bazaine." + +It was the same with regard to Palikao. His sententious commonplaces +were reported as so many oracular revelations dragged reluctantly from +him. Had they been more familiar with Shakespeare than they were, or +are, the scribes would have made Palikao exclaim with Macbeth, "The +greatest is behind." And all the while the troops were marching and +countermarching at haphazard, without a preconceived plan, jeering at +their leaders, and openly insulting the "phantom" Emperor, as they did +at Chalons, for he was already no more than that. The fall of the Empire +does not date from Sedan, but from Woerth and Spicheren; and those most +pertinently aware of it were not the men who dealt it the final blow +less than a month later, but the immediate entourage of the Empress at +the Tuileries. + +For from that moment (the 6th or 7th of August) the entourage of the +Empress began to think of saving the Empire by sacrificing, if needs be, +the Emperor. "There is only one thing that can avert the ruin of the +dynasty," said a lady-in-waiting on the Empress, to a near relative of +mine; "and that is the death of the Emperor at the head of his troops. +That death would be considered an heroic one, and would benefit the +Prince Imperial." + +I do not pretend to determine how far the Empress shared that opinion, +but here are some facts not generally known, even to this day, and for +the truth of which I can unhesitatingly vouch. + +The Empress did not know of the consultation that had taken place on the +1st of July, and to which I have already referred. But she did know that +the Emperor was suffering from a very serious complaint, and that the +disease had been aggravated since his departure through his constantly +being on horseback. M. Franceschini Pietri, the private secretary of the +Emperor, had informed her to that effect on the 7th of August, when +Forbach and Woerth had been fought. He also told her that the Emperor +was not unwilling to return to Paris, and to leave the command-in-chief +to Bazaine, but that his conscience and his pride forbade him to do so, +unless some pressure were brought to bear upon him. I repeat, I can +vouch for this, because I had it from the lips of M. Pietri, who was +prefect of police until the 4th of September. + +Meanwhile, others, besides M. Franceschini Pietri, had noticed the +evident moral and mental depression of the Emperor, increased, no doubt, +by his acute physical sufferings, which were patent to almost every one +with whom he came in immediate contact; for an eye-witness wrote to me +on the 4th of August: "The Emperor is in a very bad state; after +Saarbruck, Lebrun and Leboeuf had virtually to lift him off his horse. +The young prince, who, as you have probably heard already, was by his +side all the time, looked very distressed, for his father had scarcely +spoken to him during the engagement. But after they got into the +carriage, which was waiting about a dozen yards away, the Emperor put +his arm round his neck and kissed him on the cheeks, while two large +tears rolled down his now. I noticed that the Emperor had scarcely +strength to walk that dozen yards." + +Leboeuf, who, like a great many more, has suffered to a certain extent +for the faults of Marshal Niel, perceived well enough that something had +to be done to cheer the Emperor in his misfortunes. It was he who +proposed that the latter should return to Paris, accompanied by him, +while the corps d'armee of Frossard, which had effected its retreat in +good order, and several other divisions that had not been under fire as +yet, should endeavour to retrieve matters by attacking the armies of Von +Steinmetz and Frederick-Charles, which at that identical moment were +only in "course of formation." But Louis-Napoleon, while admitting the +wisdom of the plan, sadly shook his head, and declared that he could not +relinquish the chief command in view of the double defeat the army had +suffered under his leadership. + +What had happened, then, during the twenty-four hours immediately +following the telegram of M. Franceschini Pietri? Simply this: not only +had the Empress refused to exercise the pressure which would have +afforded her husband an excuse for his return, but she had thrown cold +water on the idea of that return by a despatch virtually +discountenancing that return. The cabinet had not been consulted in this +instance. + +Nay, more; the cabinet on the 7th of August despatched, in secret, M. +Maurice Richard, Minister of Arts, which at that time was distinct from +the Ministry of Public Instruction, to inquire into the state of health +of the Emperor and the degree of confidence with which he inspired the +troops. That was on the 7th of August. He went by special train to Metz. +Two hours after he was gone, Adolphe Ollivier told me and Ferrari at the +Cafe de la Paix. A few hours after his return next day, he told us the +result of those inquiries. M. Richard had brought back the worst +possible news. + +At a council of ministers, held early on the 9th, M. Emile Ollivier, in +view of the communication made to him by his colleague, proposed the +immediate return of the Emperor, fully expecting M. Richard to support +him. The Empress energetically opposed the plan, and when M. Ollivier +turned, as it were, to M. Richard, the latter kept ominously silent. Not +to mince matters, he had been tampered with. M. Ollivier found himself +absolutely powerless. + +A day or so before that--I will not be positive as to the date--M. +Ollivier telegraphed officially to the head-quarters at Metz, to request +the return of the Prince Imperial, in accordance with the generally +expressed wish of the Paris papers. M. Pietri told me that same day that +the minister's telegram had been followed by one in the Empress's +private cipher, expressing her wish that the Prince Imperial should +remain in the army. She did not explain why. She merely recommended the +Emperor to make the promise required, and then to pay no further heed to +it. + +The regent had no power to summon parliament, nevertheless she did so, +mainly in order to overthrow the Ollivier ministry. I am perfectly +certain that the Emperor never forgave her for it. If those who were at +Chislehurst are alive when these notes appear, they will probably bear +me out. + +What, in fact, could a parliament summoned under such circumstances be +but a council of war, every one of whose decisions was canvassed in +public and made the enemy still wiser than he was before? Of course, the +Empress felt certain that she would be able to dismiss it as easily as +it had been summoned; she evidently did not remember the fable of the +horse which had invited the man to get on his back in order to fight the +stag. There is not the slightest doubt that, as I have already remarked, +the Empress's main purpose was the overthrow of the Ollivier +administration; if proof were wanted, the evidence of the men who +overthrew the Empire would be sufficient to establish the fact, and not +one, but half a dozen, have openly stated that the defeat of the +Ollivier ministry was accomplished with the tacit approval of the court +party: _read_, "the party of the Empress," to which I have referred +before. + +The list of the Empress's blunders, involuntary or the reverse, is too +long to be transcribed in detail here; I return to my impressions of men +and things after my meeting with General Beaufort d'Hautpoul in the Rue +de Rivoli. + +I do not suppose that in the whole of Paris there were a dozen sensible +men who still cherished any illusions with regard to the possibility of +retrieving the disasters by a dash into the enemy's country. The cry of +"A Berlin!" had been finally abandoned even by the most chauvinistic. +But the hope still remained that the Prussians would be thrust back from +the "sacred soil of France" by some brilliant coup de main, although I +am positive that the Empire would have been doomed just the same if +that hope had been realized. Among those who had faith in the coup de +main were M. Paul de Cassagnac and, curiously enough, General Beaufort +d'Hautpoul. He had suddenly conceived great hopes with regard to +Bazaine. M. de Cassagnac seriously contemplated enlisting in the +Zouaves. Strange to relate, M. Paul de Cassagnac, in spite of his +well-known attachment to the Imperialist cause, was looked upon, by the +most determined opponents of that cause among the masses, as a man to be +trusted and consulted in a non-official way. I remember being on the +Boulevard one evening after the affair at Beaumont, when the rage of the +population was even stronger than after the defeats at Woerth and +Forbach. All of a sudden we perceived a dense group swaying towards +us--we were between the Rues Laffite and Le Peletier--and in the centre +towered the tall figure of M. de Cassagnac. For a moment we were afraid +that some mischief was being contemplated, the more that we had noticed +several leaders of the revolutionary party--or, to speak by the card, of +the Blanqui party--hovering near the Cafe Riche. But the demonstration +was not a hostile one; on the contrary, it had a friendly tendency, and +showed a tacit acknowledgment that, whosoever else might hide the truth +from them, M. de Cassagnac would not do so. "What about rifles, M. +Paul?" was the cry; "are there sufficient for us all?" It must be +remembered that the _levee en masse_ had been decreed. M. de Cassagnac +could not tell the truth, and would not tell a lie. He frankly said, "I +don't know." We noticed also that at his approach the Blanquists slunk +away. The Empire had been tottering on its base until then; after +Beaumont it was virtually doomed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + The 4th of September -- A comic, not a tragic revolution -- A + burlesque Harold and a burlesque Boadicea -- The news of Sedan + only known publicly on the 3rd of September -- Grief and + consternation, but no rage -- The latter feeling imported by the + bands of Delescluze, Blanqui, and Felix Pyat -- Blanqui, Pyat, & + Co. _versus_ Favre, Gambetta, & Co. -- The former want their + share of the spoil, and only get it some years afterwards -- + Ramail goes to the Palais-Bourbon -- His report -- Paris spends + the night outdoors -- Thiers a second-rate Talleyrand -- His + journey to the different courts of Europe -- His interview with + Lord Granville -- The 4th of September -- The Imperial eagles + disappear -- The joyousness of the crowd -- The Place de la + Concorde -- The gardens of the Tuileries -- The crowds in the Rue + de Rivoli scarcely pay attention to the Tuileries -- The soldiers + fraternizing with the people, and proclaiming the republic from + the barracks' windows -- A serious procession -- Sampierro Gavini + gives his opinion -- The "heroic struggles" of an Empress, and + the crownless coronation of "le Roi Petaud" -- Ramail at the + Tuileries -- How M. Sardou saved the palace from being burned and + sacked -- The republic proclaimed -- Illuminations as after a + victory. + + +Only those who were at a distance from Paris on the 4th of September, +1870, can be deluded into the belief that the scenes enacted there on +that day partook of a dramatic character. Carefully and scrupulously +dovetailed, they constitute one vast burlesque of a revolution. It is +not because the overthrow of the Second Empire was accomplished without +bloodshed that I say this. Bloodshed would have only made the burlesque +more gruesome, but it could have never converted it into a tragedy, the +recollection of which would have made men think and shudder even after +the lapse of many years. As it is, the recollection of the 4th of +September can only make the independent witness smile. On the one hand, +a burlesque Harold driven off to Wilhelmshoehe in a landau, surrounded by +a troop of Uhlans; and a burlesque Boadicea slinking off in a hackney +cab, _minus_ the necessary handkerchiefs for the cold in her +head,--"fleeing when no one pursueth," instead of poisoning herself: on +the other, "ceux qui prennent la parole pour autrui," _i. e._ the +lawyers, prenant le pouvoir pour eux-memes. Really, the only chronicler +capable of dealing with the situation in the right spirit is our old +and valued friend, Mr. Punch. Personally, from the Saturday afternoon +until the early hours on Monday, I saw scarcely one incident worthy of +being treated seriously; nor did the accounts supplied to me by others +tend to modify my impressions. + +Though the defeat at Sedan was virtually complete on Thursday the 1st at +nine p.m., not the faintest rumour of it reached Paris before Friday +evening at an advanced hour, and the real truth was not known generally +until the Saturday at the hour just named. There was grief and +consternation on many faces, but no expression of fury or anger. That +sentiment, at any rate in its outward manifestations, had to be supplied +from the heights of Belleville and Montmartre, Montrouge and +Montparnasse, when, later on, a good many of the inhabitants of those +delightful regions came down like an avalanche on the heart of the city. +They were the lambs of Blanqui, Delescluze, Felix Pyat, and Milliere. +They were dispersed on reaching the Boulevard Montmartre, and we saw +nothing of them from where we were seated, at the Cafe de la Paix. By +the time they rallied in the side streets and had marched to the +Palais-Bourbon, they found their competitors, Favre, Gambetta, & Co., +trying to oust the ministers of the Empire. But for that unfortunate +delay we might have had the Commune on the 4th of September instead of +on the 18th of March following. Blanqui, Pyat, & Co. never forgave +Favre, Gambetta, & Co. for having forestalled them, and, above all, for +not having shared the proceeds of the spoil. This is so true that, even +after many years of lording it, the successors of, and co-founders with, +the firm of Favre, Gambetta, & Co. have been obliged, not only to grant +an amnesty to those whom they cheated at the beginning, but to admit +them to some of the benefits of the undertaking; Meline, Tirard, Ranc, +Alphonse Humbert, Camille Barrere, and a hundred others more or less +implicated in the Commune, are all occupying fat posts at the hour I +write. + +A friend of ours, whose impartiality was beyond suspicion, and who had +more strength and inclination to battle with crowds than any of us, +offered to go and see how the land lay at the Palais-Bourbon. He +returned in about an hour, and told us that Gambetta, perched on a +chair, had been addressing the crowd from behind the railings, exhorting +them to patience and moderation. "Clever trick that," said our +informant; "it's the confidence-trick of housebreakers when two separate +gangs have designs upon the same 'crib;' while the first arrivals +'crack' it, they send one endowed with the 'gift of the gab' to pacify +the others." + +One thing is certain--Gambetta and his crew did not want to pursue the +war, they wanted a Constituent Assembly which would have left them to +enjoy in peace the fruits of their usurpation; for theirs was as much +usurpation as was the Coup d'Etat. Their subsequent "Not an inch of our +territory, not a stone of our fortresses," was an afterthought, when +they found that Bismarck would not grant them as good a peace as he +would have granted Napoleon at Donchery the morning after Sedan. + +At about ten on Saturday night everybody knew that there would be a +night sitting, and I doubt whether one-fourth of the adult male +population of Paris went to bed at all, even if they retired to their +own homes. + +Our friend returned to the Palais-Bourbon, but failed to get a +trustworthy account of what had happened during the twenty-five minutes +the deputies had been assembled. All he knew was that nominally the +Empire was still standing, though virtually it had ceased to exist; a +bill for its deposition having been laid on the table. On his way back +to the Boulevards he saw the carriage of Thiers surrounded, and an +attempt to take out the horses. He called Thiers "le receleur des vols +commis au prejudice des monarchies."[80] + + [Footnote 80: "The receiver of the goods stolen from + monarchies."--EDITOR.] + +Let me look for a moment at that second-rate Talleyrand, who has been +grandiloquently termed the "liberator of the soil" because he happened +to do what any intelligent bank manager could have done as well; let me +endeavour to establish his share in the 4th of September. I am speaking +on the authority of men who were behind the political scenes for many +years, and whose contempt for nearly all the actors was equally great. +Thiers refused his aid and counsel to the Empress, who solicited it +through the intermediary of Prince Metternich and M. Prosper Merimee, +but he also refused to accept the power offered to him by Gambetta, +Favre, Jules Simon, etc., in the afternoon of the 4th of September. +Nevertheless, he was here, there, and everywhere; offering advice, but +careful not to take any responsibility. Afterwards he took a journey to +the various courts of Europe. I only know the particulars of one +interview--that with Lord Granville--but I can vouch for their truth. +After having held forth for two hours without giving his lordship a +chance of edging in a word sideways, he stopped; and five minutes later, +while Lord Granville was enumerating the reasons why the cabinet of St. +James's could not interfere, he (Thiers) was fast asleep. When the +conditions of peace were being discussed, Thiers was in favour of giving +up Belfort rather than pay another milliard of francs. "A city you may +recover, a milliard of francs you never get back," he said. +Nevertheless, historians will tell one that Thiers made superhuman +efforts to save Belfort. I did not like M. Thiers, and, being conscious +of my dislike, I have throughout these notes endeavoured to say as +little as possible of him. + +The sun rose radiantly over Paris on the 4th of September, and I was up +betimes, though I had not gone to bed until 3 a.m. There was a dense +crowd all along the Rue Royale and the Place de la Concorde, and several +hours before the Chamber had begun to discuss the deposition of the +Bonapartes (which was never formally voted), volunteer-workmen were +destroying or hauling down the Imperial eagles. The mob cheered them +vociferously, and when one of these workmen hurt himself severely, they +carried him away in triumph. Nevertheless, there was a good deal of +hooting as several well-known members of the Chamber elbowed their way +through the serried masses. Though they were well known, I argued myself +unknown in not knowing them. I was under the impression that they were +Imperialists; they turned out to be Republicans. The marks of +disapproval proceeded from compact groups of what were apparently +workmen. As I knew that no workmen devoted to the Empire would have +dared to gather in that way, even if their numbers had been sufficient, +and as I felt reluctant to inquire, I came to the natural conclusion +that the hooters were the supporters of Blanqui, Pyat, & Co. The Commune +was foreshadowed on the Place de la Concorde on that day. + +My experience of the 24th of February, 1848, told me that the Chamber +would be invaded before long. In 1848 there was no more danger for a +foreigner to mix with the rabble than for a Frenchman. I felt not quite +so sure about my safety on the 4th of September. My adventure in the +Avenue de Clichy, which I will relate anon, had not happened then, and +I was not as careful as I became afterwards, still I remembered in time +the advice of the prudent Frenchman--"When in doubt, abstain;" and I +prepared to retrace my steps to the Boulevards, where, I knew, there +would be no mistake about my identity. At the same time, I am bound to +say that no such accident as I dreaded, occurred during that day, as far +as I am aware. There may or may not have been at that hour half a +hundred spies of Bismarck in the city, but no one was molested. The +Parisians were so evidently overjoyed at getting rid of the Empire, that +for four and twenty hours, at any rate, they forgot all about the hated +Germans and their march upon the capital. They were shaking hands with, +and congratulating one another, as if some great piece of good fortune +had befallen them. Years before that, I had seen my wife behave in a +similarly joyous manner after having dismissed at a moment's notice a +cook who had shamefully robbed us: the wife knew very well that, on the +morrow, the tradesmen, the amount of whose bills the dishonest servant +had pocketed for months, would be sending in their claims upon us. +"Perhaps they will take into consideration that we dismissed her," she +said, "and not hold us responsible." The Latin race, and especially the +French, are the females of the human race. + +I noticed that the gates of the Tuileries gardens on the Place de la +Concorde were still open, and that the gardens themselves were black +with people. It must have been about half-past ten or eleven. I did not +go back by the Rue Royale, but by the Rue de Rivoli. The people were +absolutely streaming down the street. There was not a single threatening +gesture on their part; they merely looked at the flag still floating +over the Tuileries, and passed on. When I got back to the Boulevards, I +sat down outside the Cafe de la Paix determined not to stir if possible. +I knew that whatever happened the news of it would soon be brought +thither. I was not mistaken. + +The first news we had was that the National Guards had replaced the +regulars inside and around the Palais-Bourbon, which was either a sign +that the latter could be no longer depended upon, or that the +Republicans in the Chamber had carried that measure in their own +interest. I am bound to admit that I would always sooner take the word +of a French officer than that of a deputy, of no matter what shade; and +I heard afterwards that the troops at the Napoleon barracks and +elsewhere had begun to fraternize with the people as early as eight in +the morning, by shouting, from the windows of their rooms, "Vive la +Republique!" The Chamber was invaded, nevertheless; it is as well to +state that this invasion gave Jules Favre & Co. a chance of repairing in +hot haste to the Hotel de Ville, where the Government of the National +Defence was proclaimed. + +To return to my vantage-post at the Cafe de la Paix. The crowds on the +Place de la Concorde, apparently stationed there since early morning, +did not seem to me to have been brought thither at the instance of a +leader or in obedience to a watchword. I except, of course, the groups +of which I have already spoken, and which jeered at the republican +deputies. The streams of people I met on my return in the Rue de Rivoli +seemed impelled by their own curiosity to the Chamber of Deputies. Not +so the procession which hove in sight almost the moment I had sat down +at the Cafe. It wheeled to the left when reaching the Rue de la Paix. It +was composed of National Guards with and without their muskets, each +company preceded by its own officers,--the armed ones infinitely more +numerous than the unarmed, but all marching in good order and in utter +silence; in fact, so silently as to bode mischief. Behind and before +there strode large contingents of ordinary citizens, and I noticed two +things: that few of them wore blouses, and that a good many wore kepis, +apparently quite new. The wearers, though equally undemonstrative, gave +one the impression of being the leaders. Most of those around me shook +their heads ominously as they passed; their silence did not impose upon +them. I am free to confess that I did not share their opinion. To me, +the whole looked like stern determined manifestors; not like turbulent +revolutionaries. I had seen nothing like them in '48. Nevertheless, it +was I who was mistaken, for, according to M. Sampierro Gavini, who, +unlike his brother Denis, belonged to the opposition during the Empire, +it was they who invaded the Chamber. I may add that M. Sampierro Gavini, +though in the opposition, had little or no sympathy with those who +overthrew the Empire or established the Commune. He had an almost +idealistic faith in constitutional means, and a somewhat exaggerated +reverence for the name of Bonaparte. He was a Corsican. + +For several hours nothing occurred worthy of record. The accounts +brought to us by eye-witnesses of events going on simultaneously at the +Tuileries and the Palais-Bourbon showed plainly that there was no +intention on the mob's part to exalt the Empress into a +Marie-Antoinette. Our friend who had given us the news of the Chamber on +the previous night, and who was a relative of the celebrated Dr. Yvan, +an habitue of the Cafe de la Paix, had made up his mind in the morning +that "it would be more interesting to watch the" last heroic struggles +of an Empress against iron fortune than the "crownless coronation of a +half-score of 'rois Petauds.'"[81] As such, he had taken up his station +in the gardens of the Tuileries, close to the gate dividing the private +from the public gardens. It was he who gave us the particulars of the +scenes preceding and succeeding the Empress's flight, the exact moment +of which no one seemed to know. The account of these scenes was so +exceedingly graphic, that I have no difficulty whatsoever in remembering +them. Moreover, I put down at the time several of his own expressions. I +do not know what has become of him. He went to New-Zealand on account of +some unhappy love-affair, and was never heard of any more. Though +scarcely thirty then, he was a promising young doctor. His name was +Ramail, but I do not know in what relation he stood to Dr. Yvan; who, +however, always called him cousin. + + [Footnote 81: In olden times, every community, corporation, and + guild in France elected annually a king;--even the mendicants, + whose ruler took the title of King Petaud, from the Latin + _peto_, I ask. The latter's court, as a matter of course, was a + perfect bear-garden, in which every one did as he liked, in + which every one was as much sovereign as the titular one. The + expression, "the Court of King Petaud," became a synonym for + everything that was disorderly, ridiculous, and disgusting. + + "Oui, je sors de chez vous fort mal edifiee; + Dans toutes mes lecons j'y suis contrariee; + On n'y respecte rien, chacun y parle haut, + Et c'est tout justement la cour du roi Petaud." + + (MOLIERE, "Tartuffe," Act i. Sc. 1.)--EDITOR.] + +Young Ramail had been in the Tuileries gardens since noon. The crowd was +already very large at that hour, but it seemed altogether engrossed in +the doings of an individual who was knocking down a gilded eagle on the +top of the gate. "Mind," said Ramail, "that was at twelve o'clock, or +somewhere thereabouts; and I do not think that the sitting at the +Chamber began until at least an hour later. If the Republicans say, in +days to come, that the Empire was virtually condemned before they voted +its overthrow, they will, at any rate, have the semblance of truth on +their side, because there were at least two thousand persons looking on +without trying to prevent the destruction of the eagles by word or deed; +and two thousand persons, if they happen to agree with them, are to the +Republicans the whole of France; while two millions, if they happen to +differ from them, are only a corrupt and unintelligent majority. + +"But I was wondering," he went on, "at the utter ingratitude of the +lower and lower-middle classes. I feel certain that among those who +stood staring there, half owned their prosperous condition to the +eighteen years of Imperialism; yet I heard not a single expression of +regret at the brutal sweeping away of it. + +"I may have stood there for about an hour, a score of steps away from +the gate before the swing bridge, when, all at once, I felt myself +carried forward with the crowd; and before I had time to look round, I +found myself inside that other gate. There were about five hundred +persons who had entered with me, but in what manner the gate gave way or +was opened I have not the vaguest idea. We went no further; we stopped +as suddenly as we had advanced. I turned round with difficulty, and +looked over the heads of those behind me; sure enough, the gates were +wide open and the crowd at the rear was much denser than it had been ten +minutes before. Still they stood perfectly still, without bringing any +pressure to bear upon us. Then I turned round again, and saw the cause +of their reluctance to move. The Imperial Guard was being massed in +front of the principal door leading from the private gardens into the +palace. 'My dear Ramail,' I said to myself, 'you stand a very good +chance of having a bullet through your head before you are ten minutes +older; because, at the slightest move of the crowd among which you now +stand, the guard will fire.' I own that I was scarcely prepared to face +death for such a trivial cause as this; and I was quietly edging my way +out of the crowd, which was beginning to utter low ominous growls, when +a voice, ringing clear upon the air, shouted, 'Citoyens!' I stopped, +turned round once more, and stood on tiptoe. + +"The speaker was a tall, handsome fellow, young to all appearance, and +with a voice like a bell. He looked a gentleman, but I have never seen +him before to my knowledge. His companion I knew at once; it was +Victorien Sardou. There is no mistaking that face. I have heard some +people say that it is not a bit like that of the great Napoleon, while +others maintain that, placing the living man and the portrait of the +dead one side by side, one could not tell the difference. I'll undertake +to say this, that if M. Sardou had donned a uniform, such as the +lieutenant of artillery wore at Arcola, for instance, he might have +taken the Empress by the hand and led her out safely among the people, +who would have believed in some miraculous resurrection. + +"To come back to my story. 'Citoyens,' repeated M. Sardou's companion, +'I do not wonder at your surprise that the garden should not be open to +you and its ingress forbidden by soldiers. The Tuileries belong to the +people, now that the Empire is gone; for gone it is by this time, in +spite of the Imperial Guard massed before yonder door. Consequently, my +friend and I propose to go and ask for the withdrawal of these soldiers. +But, in order to do this, you must give us your promise not to budge; +for the slightest attempt on your part to do so before our return may +lead to bloodshed, and I am convinced that you are as anxious as we are +to avoid such a calamity.' + +"If that young fellow is not an actor, he ought to be. Every word he +said could be heard distinctly and produced its effect. The crowd +cheered him and promised unanimously to wait. Then we saw him and M. +Sardou take out their handkerchiefs and tie them to the end of their +sticks. Perhaps it was well they did, for as I saw them boldly walk up +the central avenue, I was not at all convinced that their lives were not +in danger. My sight is excellent, and I noticed a decidedly hostile +movement on the part of the troops ranged in front of the principal +door, and an officer of Mobiles was evidently of my opinion, for, though +he followed them at a distance, he kept prudently behind the trees, +sheltering himself as much as possible. I do not pretend to be wiser +than most of my fellow-men, but I doubt whether many among those who +watched M. Sardou and his companion suspected the true drift of their +self-imposed mission. They merely wished to save the Tuileries from +being pillaged and burnt down. I do not wish to libel the Imperial Guard +or their officers, but I should feel much surprised if that noble idea +ever entered their heads. What was the magnificent pile to them, now +that one of their idols had left it, probably for ever, and the other +was about to do the same? At any rate, the suspicious movement was +there. I have forgotten to tell you that the inner gate was closed and I +saw M. Sardou parley through its bars with one of the guardians. Then a +superior officer, accompanied by a civilian, came out; but by this time, +the crowd, which had kept back, was beginning to move also, I among +them. All of a sudden, the general, who turned out to be General +Mellinet, gets on a chair, while his companion, who turns out to be M. +de Lesseps, stands by him. The Imperial Guard disappears, seeing which, +the crowd, no longer apprehensive of being shot down, advances rapidly +to within a few steps of the gate. Then there is a cheer, for the +Imperial flag is hauled down from the roof. 'Gentlemen,' says the +general, 'the Tuileries are empty, the Empress is gone. But it is my +duty to guard the palace, and I count upon you to help me.' He says a +great deal more, but the crowd are pressing forward all the same. I feel +that the crucial moment has arrived, and that the palace will be +invaded, in spite of the general's speechifying, when lo, the Gardes +Mobiles issue from the front door, and range themselves in two rows. The +gates are opened, the crowd rushes in, but the Mobiles are there to +prevent them making any excursions, either upstairs or into the +apartments, and in a few minutes we find ourselves in the Place du +Carrousel. The palace has been virtually saved by M. Sardou." + +Half an hour later, we receive the news that the Government of the +National Defence has been proclaimed at the Hotel de Ville, and that +night Paris is illuminated as after a victory. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + The siege -- The Parisians convinced that the Germans will not + invest Paris -- Paris becomes a vast drill-ground, nevertheless + -- The Parisians leave off singing, but listen to itinerant + performers, though the latter no longer sing the "Marseillaise" + -- The theatres closed -- The Comedie-Francaise and the Opera -- + Influx of the Gardes Mobiles -- The Parisian no longer chaffs the + provincial, but does the honours of the city to him -- The + stolid, gaunt Breton and the astute and cynical Normand -- The + gardens of the Tuileries an artillery park -- The mitrailleuse + still commands confidence -- The papers try to be comic -- Food + may fail, drink will not -- My visit to the wine depot at Bercy + -- An official's information -- Cattle in the public squares and + on the outer Boulevards -- Fear with regard to them -- Every man + carries a rifle -- The woods in the suburbs are set on fire -- + The statue of Strasburg on the Place de la Concorde -- M. + Prudhomme to his sons -- The men who do not spout -- The French + shopkeeper and bourgeois -- A story of his greed -- He reveals + the whereabouts of the cable laid on the bed of the Seine -- + Obscure heroes -- Would-be Ravaillacs and Balthazar Gerards -- + Inventors of schemes for the instant annihilation of all the + Germans -- A musical mitrailleuse -- An exhibition and lecture at + the Alcazar -- The last train -- Trains converted into dwellings + for the suburban poor -- Interior of a railway station -- The spy + mania -- Where the Parisians ought to have looked for spies -- I + am arrested as a spy -- A chat with the officer in charge -- A + terrible-looking knife. + + +In spite of the frequent reports from the provinces that the Germans +were marching on Paris, there were thousands of people in the capital +who seriously maintained that they, the Germans, would not dare to +invest, let alone, shell it. But it must not be inferred, as many +English writers have done, that this confidence was due to a mistaken +view of the Germans' pluck, or their reluctance to beard the "lion" in +his den. Not at all. The Parisians simply credited their foes with the +superstitious love and reverence for "the centre of light and +civilization" which they themselves felt. They did not take their cue +from Victor Hugo's "highfalutin'" remonstrance to King William; on the +contrary, it was the poet who translated their sentiments. It was not a +case of "one fool making many;" but of many mute inglorious visionaries +inspiring a still greater one, who had the gift of eloquence, which +eloquence, in this instance, bordered very closely on sublimated drivel. + +Nevertheless, the whole of Paris became suddenly transformed into one +vast drill-ground, and the clang of arms resounded through the city day +and night. For the time being, the crowds left off singing, albeit that +they listened now and then devoutly and reverently to itinerant +performers, male and female, who had paraphrased the patriotic airs of +certain operas for the occasion. The "Pars beau mousquetaire," etc., of +Halevy, became "Pars beau volontaire;" the "Guerre aux tyrans," of the +same composer, "Guerre aux all'mands,"[82] and so forth. + + [Footnote 82: The first from "Les Mousquetaires de la Reine;" + the second from "Charles VI."--EDITOR.] + +All the theatres had closed their doors by this time, the +Comedie-Francaise being last, I believe; though, almost immediately +afterward, it threw open its portals once more for at least two +performances a week, and often a third time, in aid of the victims of +the siege. Meanwhile, several rooms were being got ready for the +reception of the wounded; the new opera-house, still unfinished, was +made into a commissariat and partly into a barracks, for the provincial +Gardes Mobiles were flocking by thousands to the capital, and the camps +could not hold them all. For once in a way the Parisian forgot to chaff +the provincial who came to pay him a visit; and considering that, even +under such circumstances, all drill and no play would make Jacques a +dull boy, he not only received him very cordially, but showed him some +of the lions of the capital, at which the long-haired gaunt and stolid +Breton stared without moving a muscle, only muttering an unintelligible +gibberish, which might be an invocation to his ancient pagan gods, or a +tribute of admiration; while the more astute and cynical, though +scarcely more impressionable Normand, ten thousand of which had come +from the banks of the Marne, showed the thought underlying all his daily +actions, in one sentence: "C'est _ben_ beau, mais ca a coute beaucoup +d'argent; fallait mieux le garder en poche." Even at this supreme +moment, he remembered, with a kind of bitterness, that he had been made +to pay for part of all this glorious architecture. + +The Cirques Napoleon and de l'Imperatrice--the Republic had not had time +to change their names--had become a kind of left-luggage office for +these human cargoes, taken thither at their arrival, which happened +generally during the night. In the morning they were transferred to +their permanent encampments, and their military education was proceeded +with at once. I am afraid I am not competent to judge of the merits of +the method adopted, but I was by no means powerfully impressed with the +knowledge displayed by the instructors. + +The gardens of the Tuileries had been closed to the public, who had to +be satisfied with admiring the ordnance and long rows of horses parked +there from a distance. Did the latter lend enchantment to the view? +Apparently, for they were never tired of gazing with ecstasy on the +mitrailleuses. The gunners in charge treated the foremost of the gazers +now and then to a lecture on artillery practice, through the railings of +the gates. In whatsoever else they had lost faith, those murderous +engines of war evidently still commanded their confidence. + +The frightful din that marked the first weeks of the war had ceased, but +Paris did by no means look crestfallen. The gas burned brightly still, +the cafes were full of people, the restaurants had all their tables +occupied; for we were not "invested" yet, and the idea of scarcity, let +alone of famine, though a much-discussed contingency, was not a staring, +stubborn fact. "It will never become one," said and thought many, "and +all that talk about doling out rations already is so much nonsense." The +papers waxed positively comic on the subject. They also waxed comic over +the telegrams of the King of Prussia to his Consort; but they left off +harping on that string, for very shame' sake. + +One thing was certain from the beginning of the siege--whatever else +might fail, there was enough wine and to spare to cheer the hearts of +men who professed to do and dare more than men. Though the best part of +my life had been spent in Paris, I had, curiously enough, never seen the +wine and spirit depots at Bercy; in fact, I was profoundly ignorant of +that, as well as of other matters connected with the food-supply of +Paris. So I wrote to a member of the firm which had supplied me for many +years with wine and spirits, and he took me thither. + +I should think that the "entrepot-general," as it is called, occupied, +at that time, not less than sixty acres of ground, which meant more than +treble that area as far as storage was concerned; for there was not only +the cellarage, but the buildings above ground, rising, in many +instances, to three and four stories. The entrepot consisted, and +consists still, I believe, of three distinct parts: one for wines; +another for what the French call "alcohols," and we "spirits;" a third, +much smaller, for potable, or, rather, edible oils. The latter wing +contains the cellarage of the general administration of the hospitals. +The spirit-cellars were absolutely empty at the time of my visit; their +contents had been removed to a bomb and shell proof cellarage hard by. + +Though I had come to see, I felt very little wiser after leaving the +cellars than before; for, truth to tell, I was absolutely bewildered. I +had no more idea of the quantity of wine stored there than a child. My +guide laughed. + +"We'll soon make the matter clear to you," he said, shaking hands with a +gentleman who turned out to be one of the principal employes. "This +gentleman will tell you almost to a hectolitre the quantity of ordinary +wine in store. You know pretty well the number of inhabitants of the +capital, and though it has considerably increased during the last few +days, and is not unlikely to decrease during the siege, if siege there +be, the influx does not amount to a hundred thousand. Now, monsieur, +will you tell this gentleman what you have in stock?" + +"We have got at the present moment 1,600,000 hectolitres of ordinary +wine in our cellars. Ten days ago we had nearly one hundred thousand +more, but the wine-shops and others have laid in large provisions since +then. The more expensive wines I need not mention, because the quantity +is very considerably less, and, moreover, they are not likely to be +wanted; though, if they were wanted, they would keep us going for many, +many weeks. At a rough guess, the number of 'souls' within the +fortifications is about 1,700,000, with the recent increase 1,800,000; +consequently, with what the 'liquoristes' have recently bought, one +hundred litres for every man, woman, and child. I do not reckon the +contents of private cellars, nor those of the wine-merchants, apart from +their recent purchases. Nor is ordinary wine much dearer than it was in +years of great plenty; it is, in fact, less by twenty-five francs or +thirty francs than in the middle of the fifties. I am comparing prices +for quarter pipes, containing from two hundred and ten to two hundred +and thirty litres. There is no fear of regrating here, nor the +likelihood of our having to drink water for some time." + +On our homeward journey, we noticed bullocks, pigs, and sheep littered +down in some of the public squares and on the outer boulevards. The +stunted grass in the former had already entirely disappeared, and it was +evident that, with the utmost care, the cattle would deteriorate under +the existing circumstances; for fodder would probably be the first +commodity to fail; as it was, it had already risen to more than twice +its former price. Moreover, the competent judges feared that, in the +event of a rainy autumn, the cattle penned in such small spaces would be +more subject to epidemic diseases, which would absolutely render them +unfit for human food. In view of such a contingency, the learned members +of the Academie des Sciences were beginning to put their heads together, +but the results of their deliberations were not known as yet. + +We returned on foot as we had come; private carriages had entirely +disappeared, and though the omnibuses and cabs were plying as usual, +their progress was seriously impeded by long lines of vans, heavily +laden with neat deal boxes, evidently containing tinned provisions. Very +few female passengers in the public conveyances, and scarcely a man +without a rifle. They were the future defenders of the capital, who had +been to Vincennes, where the distribution of arms was going on from +early morn till late at night. In fact, the sight of a working-man not +provided with a rifle, a mattock, a spade, or a pickaxe was becoming a +rarity, for a great many had been engaged to aid the engineers in +digging trenches, spiking the ground, etc. + +I did not, and do not, feel competent to judge of the utility of all +these means of defense; one of them, however, seemed to be conceived in +the wrong spirit: I allude to the firing of the woods around Paris. With +the results of Forbach and Woerth to guide them, the generals entrusted +with the defence of Paris could not leave the woods to stand; but was +there any necessity to destroy them in the way they did? In spite of the +activity displayed, there were still thousands of idle hands anxious to +be employed. Why were not the trees cut down and transported to Paris, +for fuel for the coming winter? At that moment there were lots of horses +available, and such a measure would have given us the double advantage +of saving coals for the manufacture of gas, and of protecting from the +rigours of the coming winter hundreds whose sufferings would have been +mitigated by light and heat. Personally, I did not suffer much. From +what I have seen during the siege, I have come to the conclusion that +shortcomings in the way of food are far less hard to bear, nay, are +almost cheerfully borne, in a warm room and with a lamp brightly +burning. I leave out of the question the quantities of mineral oil +wasted in the attempt to set fire to the woods, because in many +instances the attempt failed utterly. + +Meanwhile, patriotism was kept at the boiling point, by glowing reports +of the heroic defence of General Uhrich at Strasburg. The statue, +representing the capital of Alsace on the Place de la Concorde, became +the goal of a reverent pilgrimage on the part of the Parisians, though +the effect of it was spoiled too frequently by M. Prudhomme holding +forth sententiously, to his sons apparently, to the crowd in reality. +These discourses reminded one too much of Heine's sneer, that "all +Frenchmen are actors, and the worse are generally on the stage." In this +instance, however, the amateurs ran the professional very hard. The +crowds were not hypercritical, though, and they applauded the speaker, +who departed, accompanied by his offspring, with the proud consciousness +that he was a born orator, and that he had done his duty to his country +by spouting platitudes. It is not difficult to give the general sequel +to that amateur performance. Next morning there is a line in some +obscure paper, and M. Prudhomme, beside himself with joy, leaves his +card on the journalist who wrote it; the journalist leaves his in +return, and for the next six months the latter has his knife and fork +laid at M. Prudhomme's table. The acquaintance generally terminates on +M. Prudhomme's discovery that Madame Prudhomme carried her friendship +too far by looking after the domestic concerns of the scribe, at the +scribe's bachelor quarters. + +The men who did not spout were the Duruys, the Meissoniers, and a +hundred others I could mention. The eminent historian and grand-master +of the University, though sixty, donned the simple uniform of a National +Guard, and performed his garrison duties like the humblest artisan, only +distinguished from the latter by his star of grand-officer of the Legion +d'Honneur; the great painter did the same. The French shopkeeping +bourgeois is, as a rule, a silly, pompous creature; very frequently, he +is mean and contemptible besides. + +Here is a story for the truth of which I can vouch, and which shows him +in his true light. In the skirmish in which Lieutenant Winslow was +killed, some damage had been done to the inn at Schirlenhoff, where the +Baden officers were at breakfast when they were surprised by General de +Bernis and his men. The general had his foot already in the stirrup, and +was about to remove his prisoners, when Boniface made his appearance, +coolly asking to whom he was to present the bill for the breakage. The +general burst out laughing: "The losing party pays the damage as a +rule," he said, "but France is sufficiently rich to reverse the rule. +Here is double the amount of your bill." + +A second story, equally authentic. A cable had been secretly laid on the +bed of the Seine between Paris and Havre, shortly before the siege. Two +small shopkeepers of St. Germain revealed the fact for a consideration +to the Germans, who had but very vague suspicions of it, and who +certainly did not know the land-bearings; one of the scoundrels was +caught after the siege, the other escaped. The one who was tried pleaded +poverty, and received a ridiculously small sentence. It transpired +afterwards that he was exceedingly well paid for his treachery, and that +he cheated his fellow-informer out of his share. + +The contrast is more pleasant to dwell upon. There were hundreds of +obscure heroes, by which I do not mean those prepared to shed their +blood on the battle-field, but men with a sublime indifference to life, +courting the fate of a Ravaillac and a Balthazar Gerard. History would +have called them regicides, and perhaps ranked them with paid assassins +had they accomplished their purpose, would have held them up to the +scorn of posterity as bloodthirsty fanatics,--and history, for once in a +way, would have been wrong. In their reprehensible folly, they were more +estimable than the Jules Favres, the Gambettas who played at being the +saviours of the country, and who were only the saviours of their needy, +fellow political adventurers. + +Apart from the former, there were the inventors of impossible schemes +for the instantaneous annihilation of the three hundred thousand Germans +around Paris,--inventors who supply the comic note in the otherwise +terrible drama,--inventors, who day by day besiege the Ministry for War, +and to whom, after all, the minister's collaborateurs are compelled to +listen "on the chance of there being something in their schemes." + +"I am asking myself, every now and then, whether I am a staff-officer or +one of the doctors at Charenton," said Prince Bibesca, one evening. + +"Since yesterday morning," he went on, "I have been interviewed by a +dozen inventors, every one of whom wanted to see General Trochu or +General Schmitz, and would scarcely be persuaded that I would do as +well. The first one simply took the breath out of me. I had no energy +left to resist the others, or to bow them out politely; if they had +chosen to keep on talking for four and twenty hours, I should have been +compelled to listen. He was a little man, about the height of M. Thiers. +His opening speech was in proportion to his height; it consisted of one +line. 'Monsieur, I annihilate the Germans with one blow,' he said. I was +thrown off my guard in spite of myself, for etiquette demands that I +should keep serious in spite of myself; and I replied, 'Let me fill my +pipe before you do it.' + +"Meanwhile, my visitor spread out a large roll of paper on the table. 'I +am not an inventor,' he said; 'I merely adapt the lessons of ancient +history to the present circumstances. I merely modify the trick of the +horse of Troy. Here is Paris with its ninety-six bastions, its forts, +etc. I draw three lines: along the first I send twenty-five thousand men +pretending to attack the northern positions of the enemy; along the +second line I send a similar number, apparently bent on a similar +attempt to the south; my fifty thousand troops are perfectly visible to +the Germans, for they commence their march an hour or so before dusk. +Meanwhile darkness sets in, and that is the moment I choose to despatch +a hundred and fifty thousand troops, screened and entirely concealed by +a movable wall of sheet iron, blackened by smoke. My inventive powers +have gone no further than this. My hundred and fifty thousand men behind +their wall penetrate unhindered as far as the Prussian lines, where a +hundred thousand fall on their backs, taking aim over the wall, while +fifty thousand keep moving it forward slowly. Twelve shots for every man +make twelve hundred thousand shots--more than sufficient to cause a +panic among the Germans, who do not know whence the firing proceeds, +because my wall is as dark as night itself. Supposing, however, that +those who have been left in the camp defend themselves, their +projectiles will glance off against the sheet iron of the wall, which, +if necessary, can be thrown down finally by our own men, who will finish +their business with the bayonet and the sword.' + +"My second visitor had something not less formidable to propose; +namely, a sledge-hammer, fifteen miles in circumference, and weighing +ten millions of tons. It was to be lifted up to a certain altitude by +means of balloons. A favourable wind had to be waited for, which would +send the balloons in the direction of Versailles, where the ropes +confining the hammer would be cut. In its fall it would crush and bury +the head-quarters and the bulk of the German army. + +"The third showed me the plan of a musical mitrailleuse, which would +deal death and destruction while playing Wagner, Schubert, and +Mendelssohn, the former by preference. 'The Germans,' he remarked, 'are +too fond of music to be able to resist the temptation of listening. They +are sure to draw near in thousands when my mitrailleuses are set +playing. We have got them at our mercy.' I asked him to send me a small +one as a sample: he promised to do so." + +Another evening I was induced to go to the Alcazar. I had been there +once before, to hear Theresa. This time it was to see an "Exhibition of +Engines of War," and to listen to a practical lecture thereon. The +audience was as jolly as if the Germans were a thousand miles +away--jollier, perhaps, than when they listened to "Rien n'est sacre +pour un sapeur;" because they were virtually taking part in the +performance. The lecturer began by an exhibition of bullet-proof pads, +by means of which the soldier might fearlessly advance towards the +enemy; "because they render that part of the body on which they are worn +invulnerable." A wag among the spectators made a remark about +"retreating soldiers," which I cannot transcribe; but the exhibitor, an +Italian or Spanish major, to judge by his accent, was in no way +disconcerted. He placed his pad against an upright board in the shape of +a target and began firing at it with a revolver at a distance of four or +five paces. The material, though singed, was not pierced, but the +spectators seemed by no means convinced. "You wear the pad, and let me +have a shot at you," exclaimed one; at which offer the major made a long +face. "Have you ever tried the experiment on a living animal?" asks +another. "Perfectly," replied the major; "I tried it on my clerk," which +admission was hailed with shouts of laughter. There were cries for the +clerk, who did not appear. A corporal of the National Guards proposed to +try an experiment on the major and the pad with the bayonet fastened to +a chassepot; thereupon major and pad suddenly disappeared behind the +wings. + +The next inventor exhibits a fire-extinguisher; the audience require +more than a verbal explanation; some of them propose to set the Alcazar +on fire. A small panic, checked in time; and the various demonstrations +are proceeded with amidst shouts, and laughter, and jokes. They yield no +practical results, but they kill time. They are voted the next best +thing to the theatre. + +By this time we were shut off from the outer world. On the 17th of +September, at night, the last train of the Orleans Railway Company had +left Paris. The others had ceased working a day or so before, and placed +their rolling stock in safety. Not the whole of it, though. A great many +of the third-class carriages have had their seats taken out, the luggage +and goods vans have been washed, the cattle trucks boarded in, and all +these transformed into temporary dwellings for the suburban poor who +have been obliged to seek shelter within the walls of the capital. The +interiors of the principal railway stations present scenes that would +rejoice the hearts of genre-painters on a large scale. The washing and +cooking of all these squatters is done on the various platforms, the +carriages have become parlor and bedroom in one, and there has even been +some ingenuity displayed in their decoration. The womankind rarely stir +from their improvised homes; the men are on the fortifications or +roaming the streets of Paris. Part of the household gods has been stowed +inside the trucks, the rest is piled up in front. The domestic pets, +such as cats and dogs, have, as yet, not been killed for food, and the +former have a particularly good time of it, for mice and rats abound, +especially in the goods-sheds. Here and there a goat gravely stalking +along, happily unconscious of its impending doom; and chanticleer +surrounded by a small harem trying to make the best of things. + +Of course, the sudden and enormous influx of human beings could not be +housed altogether in that way, but care has been taken that none of them +shall be shelterless. All the tenantless apartments, from the most +palatial in the Faubourg St. Honore and Champs-Elysees to the humblest +in the popular quarters, have been utilized, and the pot-au-feu simmers +in marble fireplaces, while Gallic Hodge sees his face reflected in +gigantic mirrors the like of which he never saw before. The dwellings +that have been merely vacated by their tenants who have flitted to +Homburg and Baden-Baden, to Nice and elsewhere, are as yet not called +into requisition by the authorities. + +From the moment we were cut off from the outer world, the spy mania, +which had been raging fiercely enough before, became positively +contagious. There is not the slightest doubt that there were spies in +Paris, but I feel perfectly certain that they were not prowling about +the streets, and that to have caught them one would have had to look +among the personnel of the ministries. For a foreigner, unless he spoke +French without the slightest accent, to have accepted such a mission, +would have been akin to madness; and there were and are still few +foreigners, however well they may know French, who do not betray their +origin now and then by imperfect pronunciation. Besides, there was +nothing to spy in the streets; nevertheless, the spy mania, as I have +already said, had reached an acute crisis. The majority of the National +Guard seemed to have no other occupation than to look for spies. A poor +Spanish priest was arrested because he had been three times in the same +afternoon to the cobbler for the only serviceable pair of shoes he +possessed. Woe to the man or woman who was ill-advised enough to take +out his pocket-book in the streets. If you happened to be of studious +habits, or merely inclined to sit up late, the lights peeping through +the carelessly drawn curtains exposed you to a sudden visit from half a +dozen ill-mannered, swaggering National Guards, your concierge was +called out of his bed, while you were taken to the nearest commissary of +police to explain; or, what was worse still, to the nearest military +post, where the lieutenant in command made it a point to be altogether +soldier-like--according to his ideas, _i. e._ brutal, rude, disgustingly +familiar. You might get an apology from the police-official for having +been disturbed and dragged through the streets for no earthly reason; +the quasi-military man would have considered it beneath his dignity to +offer one. + +Of course, every now and then, one happened to meet with a gentleman who +was only too anxious to atone for the imbecile "goings-on" of his men, +and I was fortunate enough to do so one night. It was on the 20th of +September, when the feelings of the Parisians had already been +embittered by their first and not very creditable defeat under their own +walls. I do not suppose there were more than a score of Englishmen in +Paris, besides the Irishmen engaged in salting beef at the +slaughter-house of La Villette, when, but for that gentleman, I should +have been in a sore strait. Among the English, there was a groom who, at +the time of the general exodus, was so dangerously ill that the doctor +absolutely forbade his removal, even to a hospital. The case had been +brought under my notice, and as the poor fellow was very respectable and +had been hard-working, as he had a wife and a young family besides, we +not only did all we could for him, but I went to see him personally two +or three times to cheer him up a bit. He was on the mend, but slowly, +very slowly. He lived in one of the side streets of the Avenue de +Clichy, and had lived there a good while, and the concierge of the house +had her mind perfectly at rest with regard to his nationality, albeit +that the fact of being an Englishman was not always a sufficient +guarantee against the suspicion of being a spy on the part of the lower +classes. Moreover, they would not always take the fact for granted; they +were unable to distinguish an English from a German or any other accent, +and, with them, to be a foreigner was necessarily to be a German, and a +German could not be anything but a spy. However, in this instance, I +felt no anxiety for my protege. + +Unfortunately, a few days before the closing of Paris, the concierge +herself fell ill, and another one took her place. The successor was a +man, and not by any means a pleasant man. There was a scowl on his face, +as, in answer to his summons, I told him whither I was going; and he +cast a suspicious look at a box I was carrying under my arm, which +happened to contain nothing more formidable than a surgical appliance. I +took no notice, however, and mounted the stairs. + +My visit may have lasted between twenty minutes and half an hour. When I +came out, a considerable crowd had assembled on the footway and in the +road, and a dozen National Guards were ranged in a semicircle in front +of the door. + +The first cry that greeted me was "Le voila," and then a corporal +advanced. "Your name, citizen," he said, in a hectoring tone, "and what +brings you to this house?" I kept very cool, and told him that I would +neither give him my name nor an explanation of my visit, but that if he +would take me to his lieutenant or captain, I should be pleased to give +both to the latter. But he would not be satisfied. "Where is the box you +had in your hand? what did it contain? and what have you done with it?" +he insisted. I knew that it would be useless to try and enlighten him, +so I stuck to my text. Meanwhile the crowd had become very excited, so I +simply repeated my request to be taken to the post. + +The crowd would have willingly judged me there and then; that is, strung +me up to the nearest lamp-post. If they had, not a single one among them +would have been prosecuted for murder, and by the end of the siege the +British Government would have considered it too late to move in the +matter; besides, a great many of my countrymen would have opined that +"it served me right" for remaining in Paris, when I might have made +myself so comfortable in London or elsewhere. So I felt very thankful +when the corporal, though very ungraciously, ordered his men to close +around me and "to march." I have, since then, been twice to the Avenue +de Clichy on pleasure bent; that is, to breakfast at the celebrated +establishment of "le pere Lathuille," and the sight of the lamp-posts +there sent a cold shudder down my back. + +The journey to the military post did not take long. It had been +established in a former ball-room or music-hall, for at the far end of +the room there was a stage, representing, as far as I can remember, an +antique palace. The floor of it was littered with straw, on which a +score or so of civic warriors were lazily stretched out; while others +were sitting at the small wooden tables, that had, not long ago, borne +the festive "saladier de petit bleu." Some of the ladles with which that +decoction had been stirred were still hanging from the walls; for in +those neighbourhoods the love of portable property on the part of the +patrons is quite Wemmickian, and the proprietors made and make it a rule +to throw as little temptation as possible in the way of the former. The +place looked quite sombre, though the gas was alight. There was an +intolerable smell of damp straw and stale tobacco smoke. + +Part of the crowd succeeded in making their way inside, notwithstanding +the efforts of the National Guards. My appearance caused a certain stir +among the occupants of the room; but in a few moments the captain, +summoned from an apartment at the back, came upon the scene, and my +preliminary trial was proceeded with at once. + +The indictment of the corporal who had arrested me was brief and to the +point. "This man is a foreigner who pays constant visits to another +foreigner, supposed to be sick. This evening he arrived with a box under +his arm which he left with his friend. The concierge has reason to +suppose that there is something wrong, for he does not believe in the +man's illness. He is supposed to be poor, and still he and his family +are living on the fat of the land. My prisoner refused to give me his +name and address, or an explanation of his visit." + +"What have you to say, monsieur?" asked the captain, a man of about +thirty-five, evidently belonging to the better classes. I found out +afterwards that his name was Garnier or Garmier, and that he was a +cashier in one of the large commercial establishments in the Rue St. +Martin. He was killed in the last sortie of the Parisians. + +It was the first time I had been addressed that evening as "monsieur." I +simply took a card from my pocket-book and gave it to him. "If that is +not sufficient, some of your men can accompany me home and ascertain for +themselves that I have not given a false name or address," I said. + +He looked at it for a moment. "It is quite unnecessary. I know your name +very well, though I have not the honour of knowing you personally. I +have seen your portrait at my relatives' establishment"--he named a +celebrated picture-dealer in the Rue de la Paix,--"and I ought to have +recognized you at once, for it is a very striking likeness, but it is so +dark here." Then he turned to his men and to the crowd: "I will answer +for this gentleman. I wish we had a thousand or so of foreign spies like +him in Paris. France has no better friend than he." + +I was almost as much afraid of the captain's praise as I had been of the +corporal's blame, because the crowd wanted to give me an ovation; seeing +which, M. Garmier invited me to stay with him a little while, until the +latter should have dispersed. It was while sitting in his own room that +he told me the following story. + +"My principal duty, monsieur, seems to consist, not in killing Germans, +but in preventing perfectly honest Frenchmen and foreigners from being +killed or maimed. Not later than the night before last, three men were +brought in. They were all very powerful fellows; there was no doubt +about their being Frenchmen. They did not take their arrest as a matter +of course at all, but to every question I put they simply sent me to the +devil. It was not the behaviour of the presumed spy, who, as a rule, is +very soft spoken and conciliating until he sees that the game is up, +when he becomes insulting. Still, I reflected that the violence of the +three men might be a clever bit of acting also, the more that I could +see for myself that they were abominably, though not speechlessly, +drunk. Their offence was that they had been seen loitering in a field +very close to the fortifications, with their noses almost to the ground. +Do what I would, an explanation I could not get, and at last the most +powerful of the trio made a movement as if to draw a knife. With great +difficulty a dozen of my men succeeded in getting his coat off; and +there, between his waistcoat and his shirt, was a murderously looking +blade, a formidable weapon indeed. + +"'He is a Prussian spy, sure enough!' exclaimed the roomful of guards. + +"I examined the knife carefully, tried to find the name of the maker, +and all at once put it to my nose. Then I took up a candle and looked +more carefully still at the prisoners. 'They are simply drunk,' I said, +'and the best thing you can do is to take them home.' + +"'But the knife?' insisted the sergeant. + +"'The knife is all right,' I answered. + +"'I should think it is all right,' said the owner, 'seeing that I am +cutting provisions all day with it for those confounded Parisians.' + +"But the guards were not satisfied with the explanation. They began to +surround me. 'That was surely a sign you made to the fellow when you +lifted the blade to your face, captain,' said the sergeant. + +"'Not at all, friend; I was simply smelling it. And it smelt abominably +of onions.' That will give you an idea, monsieur, of the life they lead +me also. Still, I would ask you, as a particular favour, monsieur, not +to mention your mishap to any one. As you are aware, I am not to blame; +but we are in bad odour enough as it is at the Ministry of War, and we +do not wish to increase our somewhat justified reputation for +irresponsible rowdyism and lack of discipline." + +I gave him my promise to that effect, and have not mentioned the matter +until this day. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + The siege -- The food-supply of Paris -- How and what the + Parisians eat and drink -- Bread, meat, and wine -- Alcoholism -- + The waste among the London poor -- The French take a lesson from + the alien -- The Irish at La Villette -- A whisper of the horses + being doomed -- M. Gagne -- The various attempts to introduce + horseflesh -- The journals deliver their opinions -- The supply + of horseflesh as it stood in '70 -- The Academie des Sciences -- + Gelatine -- Kitchen gardens on the balcony -- M. Lockroy's + experiment -- M. Pierre Joigneux and the Englishman -- if + cabbages, why not mushrooms? -- There is still a kitchen garden + left -- Cream cheese from the moon, to be fetched by Gambetta -- + His departure in a balloon -- Nadar and Napoleon III. -- + Carrier-pigeons -- An aerial telegraph -- Offers to cross the + Prussian lines -- The theatres -- A performance at the Cirque + National -- "Le Roi s'amuse," at the Theatre de Montmartre -- A + dejeuner at Durand's -- Weber and Beethoven -- Long winter nights + without fuel or gas -- The price of provisions -- The Parisian's + good-humour -- His wit -- The greed of the shopkeeper -- Culinary + literature -- More's "Utopia" -- An ex-lieutenant of the Foreign + Legion -- He gives us a breakfast -- He delivers a lecture on + food -- Joseph, his servant -- Milk -- The slender resources of + the poor -- I interview an employe of the State Pawnshop -- + Statistics -- Hidden provisions -- Bread -- Prices of provisions + -- New Year's Day, and New Year's dinners -- The bombardment -- + No more bread -- The end of the siege. + + +I am not a soldier, nor in the least like one; hence, I have, almost +naturally, neglected to note any of the strategic and military problems +involved in the campaign and the siege. But, ignorant as I am in these +matters, and notwithstanding the repeated failures of General Trochu's +troops to break through the lines of investment, I feel certain, on the +other hand, that the Germans would have never taken Paris by storming +it. Years before, Von Moltke had expressed his opinion to that effect in +his correspondence, not exactly with regard to the French capital, but +with regard to any fortified centre of more than a hundred thousand +inhabitants. Such an agglomeration, even if severely left alone, and +only shut off from the rest of the world, falls by itself. I am giving +the spirit and not the substance of his words. + +Consequently, there is no need to say, that, to the mere social +observer, the problems raised by the food-supply were perhaps the most +interesting. Even under normal conditions, the average Parisian in his +method of feeding is worth studying; he is supposed to be one of the +most abstemious creatures on the civilized globe. And yet, I do not +think that he consumes less alcohol than the average Englishman or +German. The Frenchman's alcohol is more diluted; that is all. A drunken +woman is a very rare sight, either in Paris or in the provinces; +nevertheless, there is, probably, not one in a thousand women among the +lower classes who drinks less than her half a bottle of wine per day; +while ladies of high degree generally partake of one if not two glasses +of chartreuse with their coffee, after each of the two principal meals. +_Un grog Americain_ is as often ordered for the lady as for the +gentleman, during the evening visits to the cafe. I am speaking of +gentlewomen by birth and education, and of the spouses of the well-to-do +men, not of the members of the demi-monde and of those below them. + +So far, the question of drink, which, after my visit to the wine-depots +at Bercy, assumed an altogether different aspect to my mind. I began to +wonder whether the plethora of wine would not do as much harm as the +expected scarcity of food. My fears were not groundless. + +Frenchmen, especially Parisians, not only eat a great quantity of bread, +but they are very particular as to its quality. I have a note showing +that, during the years 1868-69, the consumption per head for every man, +woman, and child amounted to a little more than an English pound per +day, and that very little of this was of "second quality," though the +latter was as good as that sold at many a London baker's as first. I +tasted it myself, because the municipality had made a great point of +introducing it to the lower classes at twopence per quartern less than +the first quality. Nevertheless, the French workman would have none of +it.[83] + + [Footnote 83: Goethe, in his journey through France, noticed + that the peasants who drove his carriage invariably refused to + eat the soldiers' bread, which he found to his taste.--EDITOR.] + +Even in the humblest restaurants, the bread supplied to customers is of +a superior quality; the ordinary household bread (pain de menage) is +only to be had by specially asking for it; the roll with the +cafe-au-lait in the morning is an institution except with the very poor. + +As for meat, I have an idea, in spite of all the doubts thrown upon the +question by English writers, that the Parisian workman in 1870 consumed +as much as his London fellow. The fact of the former having two square +meals a day instead of one, is not sufficiently taken into account by +the casual observer. There are few English artisans whose supper, except +on Sundays, consists of anything more substantial than bread and cheese. +The Frenchman eats meat at twelve a.m. and at six p.m. The nourishment +contained in the scraps, the bones, etc., is generally lost to the +Englishman: not a particle of it is wasted in France. Be that as it may, +the statistics for 1858 show a consumption of close upon eight ounces +(English) of fresh meat per day for every head of the population. Be it +remembered that these statistics are absolutely correct, because a +town-due of over a halfpenny per English pound is paid on the meat +leaving the public slaughter-houses, and killed meat is taxed similarly +at the city gates. Private slaughter-houses there are virtually none. + +Allowing for all this, it will be seen that Paris was not much better +off than other capitals would have been if threatened with a siege, +except, perhaps, for the ingenuity of even the humblest French housewife +in making much out of little by means of vegetables, fruit, and +cunningly prepared sauces, for which, nevertheless, butter, milk, lard, +etc., were wanted, which commodities were as likely to fail as all other +things. Nor must one forget to mention the ingenuity displayed in the +public slaughter-houses themselves, in utilizing every possible scrap of +the slaughtered animals for human food. I had occasion, not very long +ago (1883), to go frequently, and for several weeks running, to one of +the poorest quarters in London. I often made the journey on foot, for I +am ashamed to say that, until then, the East End was far more unknown to +me than many an obscure town in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. The +clever remark of a French sociologist that "the battle of life is fought +below the belt," holds especially good with regard to the lower classes. +Well, I may unhesitatingly say that in no country are the poor left in +greater ignorance with regard to cheap and nourishing food than in +England, if I am to judge by London. The French, the German, the +Italian, the Spanish poor, have a dozen inexpensive and succulent dishes +of which the English poor know absolutely nothing; and still those very +dishes figure on the tables of the well-to-do, and of fashionable +restaurants, as entrees under more or less fantastic names. Is the +English working man so utterly devoid of thrift and of common sense, is +his contempt for the foreigner so great as to make him refuse to take a +lesson from the latter? I think not. I fancy it will depend much on the +manner in which the lesson is conveyed. A little less board-school work +and Sunday-school teaching, fewer Bible classes, and a good many +practical cooking-classes would probably meet the case. + +The French, though aware of their incontestable superiority in the way +of preparing food, did not disdain to take a lesson from the alien. They +clearly foresaw the fate in store for the cattle penned in the squares +and public gardens, if compelled to remain there under existing +conditions, and with the inclement season close at hand; consequently, +the authorities enlisted the services of Mr. Wilson, an Irish gentleman +who had been residing in Paris for a number of years, and whose +experience in the salted-provision trade seemed to them very likely to +yield most satisfactory results. Up till then, only thirty head of +cattle had been submitted to his process, from that moment the number is +considerably increased, and it becomes apparent that, in a short while, +there will be few live oxen, sheep, or pigs left in Paris, though, as +yet we are only in the beginning of October. Under Mr. Wilson's able +management, half a hundred Irishmen are at work for many, many hours a +day at the slaughter-house in La Villete, whither flock the Parisians, +at any rate the privileged ones, to watch the preliminaries to the +regime of salt-junk which is staring them in the face. The fodder thus +economized will go to the horses, although there is a whisper in the air +that one eminent savant has recommended their immediate slaughter and +salting also. Of course, such as are wanted for military purposes will +be exempted from this holocaust on the altar of patriotism. M. Gagne, +who has already provided the Parisians with amusement for years, in his +capacity as a perpetual candidate for parliamentary honours, does not +stop at hippophagy; he seriously proposes anthropophagy. "A human being +over sixty is neither useful nor ornamental," he exclaimed at a public +meeting; "and to prove that I mean what I say, I am willing to give +myself as food to my sublime and suffering townsmen." Poor fellow! as +mad as a March hare, but a man of education and with an infinite fund of +sympathy for humanity. He was but moderately provided for at the best of +times; his income was derived from some property in the provinces, and, +as a matter of course, the investment of Paris stopped his supplies of +funds from that quarter. He was of no earthly use in the besieged city, +but he refused to go. He had a small but very valuable collection of +family plate, which went bit by bit to the Mint, not to feed himself but +to feed others, for he was never weary of well-doing. He reminded one +irresistibly of Balzac's hero, "le Pere Goriot," parting with his +treasures to supply his ungrateful daughters, for the Parisians were +ungrateful to him. Mad as he was, no man in possession of all his mental +faculties could have been more sublime. + +Whatever the question of human flesh as food may have been to the +Parisians, that of horseflesh was by no means new to them. Since '66, +various attempts had been made to introduce it on a large scale, but, +for once in a way, they were logical in their objections to it. "It is +all very well," wrote a paper, devoted to the improvement of the humbler +classes,--"it is all very well for a few savants to sit round a +well-appointed table to feast upon the succulent parts of a young, +tender, and perfectly healthy horse, especially if the steaks are 'aux +truffes,' and the kidneys stewed in 'Madeira;' but that young, tender, +and perfectly healthy horse would cost more than an equally tender, +young, and perfectly healthy bullock or cow. So, where is the advantage? +In order to obtain that advantage, horses only fit for the knacker's +yard, not fit for human food, would have to be killed, and the +hard-working artisan with his non-vitiated taste, who does not even care +for venison or game when it happens to be 'high,' would certainly not +care for a superannuated charger to be set before him. You might just as +well ask an unsophisticated cannibal to feast upon an invalid. The best +part of 'the warrior on the shelf' is his wooden leg or his wooden arm; +the best part of the superannuated charger is his skin or his hoof, with +or without the shoe; and no human being, whether cannibal or not, can be +expected to make a timber-yard, a tanner's yard, or an old-iron and rag +store of his stomach, even to please faddists." + +As a consequence, only two millions of pounds of horseflesh were +"produced" during the first three years succeeding the publication of +that article (1866-69); but it is more than doubtful whether a sixteenth +part of it was consumed as human food--with a knowledge on the part of +the consumers. And during those three years, as if to prove the +writer's words, the public were being constantly fortified in their +dislike with official reports of the seizure of diseased horses on their +way to the four specially appointed slaughter-houses. I remember, that +in one week, twenty-four animals were thus confiscated by the sanitary +inspectors, "the flesh of which," added the _Moniteur_, "would have +probably found its way to the tables of the better class Parisians, in +the shape of Arles, Lorraine, or German sausages. These commodities," it +went on, "are never offered by the manufacturer to the experienced +proprietors of the ham and beef shops (charcutiers), but to fruiterers, +grocers, vendors of so-called dainties, and dealers in preserved +provisions." The article had the effect of arousing the suspicion of the +better classes as well as of the poorer. + +The number of "horse-butchers" had decreased by four during the four +years that had elapsed since their first establishment with the +Government's sanction, and the remaining eighteen were not very +prosperous when the siege brought the question to the fore once more. +The public could not afford to be positively hostile to the scheme, but +the assertion of the rare advocates of the system, that they were +enthusiastic, is altogether beside the truth. They had to make the best +of a bad game, that was all. It is a very curious, but positive fact, +nevertheless, that I have heard Parisians speak favourably afterwards of +dog's and cat's flesh, even of rats baked in a pie; I have heard them +say that, for once in a way, even under ordinary circumstances, they +would not mind partaking of those dishes: I have never heard them +express the same good will toward horseflesh. Of course, I am alluding +to those who affected no partisanship, either one way or the other. One +thing is very certain, though: at the end of the siege the sight of a +cat or dog was a rarity in Paris, while by the official reports there +were thirty thousand horses left. + +Meanwhile, the Academie de Sciences is attracting notice by the reports +of its sittings, in which the question of food is the only subject +discussed. Professor Dorderone reads a paper on the utilization of beef +and mutton fat; and he communicates a new process with regard to kidney +fat, which, up till then, had withstood the attempts of the most +celebrated chefs for culinary purposes. He professes to have discovered +the means of doing away with the unpleasant taste and smell which have +hitherto militated against its use, he undertakes to give it the +flavour and aroma of the best butter from Brittany and Normandy. M. +Richard, the maire of La Villette, attempts similar experiments with +animal offal, which M. Dumas, the great savant, declares highly +satisfactory. M. Riche, one of the superior officials of the Mint, +transforms bullock's blood into black puddings, which are voted superior +to those hitherto made with pig's blood. The nourishing properties of +gelatine are demonstrated in an equally scientific manner, and the +Academie des Sciences gradually becomes the rendezvous of the fair ones +of Paris, who come to take lessons in the culinary art. + +"Mais, monsieur," says one, "maintenant que nous avons du beurre, +veuillez nous dire d'ou viendront nos epinards?"[84] + + [Footnote 84: "Mettre du beurre dans ses epinards," means, + figuratively, to increase one's comforts.--EDITOR.] + +"Don't let that trouble you, madame," is the answer; "if you will honour +us with your presence next week, one of our learned friends from the +Jardin des Plantes will tell you how to grow salads, and perhaps +asparagus, on your balcony and in front of your windows, in less than a +fortnight." + +The learned professor is not trying to mystify his charming +interlocutor; he honestly believes in what he says: and, a week later, +when "the friend from the Jardin des Plantes" has spoken, there is a +wonderful run on all the seed-shops near the Chatelet, every one tries +to borrow flower-pots from his neighbours, and barrow-loads of mould are +being trundled in long lines into Paris. Wherever one goes, the eye +meets careful housewives bending over wooden boxes on the balconies; M. +Philippe Lockroy, the eminent actor and dramatist, the father of M. +Edouard Lockroy, the future minister of the Third Republic, asks +seriously why we should not revive the hanging gardens of Semiramis, and +sets the example by converting his fifth floor balcony into a market +garden, to the discomfiture of his son, who finds his erstwhile bedroom +converted into a storehouse for tools and less agreeable matter. I may +mention that M. Lockroy did not abandon his project after a mere +fleeting attempt, nor when the necessity for it had disappeared, but +that at the hour I write (1883) he has taken a prize for pears grown on +that same balcony. + +The mania spreads, and every one becomes, for the time being, a +market-gardener in chambers. Even M. Pierre Joigneux, the well-known +horticulturist, and equally clever writer, is bitten with it. That the +thing was perfectly feasible, was proved subsequently by M. Lockroy, but +the latter did not imitate the nigger who dug up the potatoes an hour +after he had planted them, to see if they were growing. That thoroughly +inexperienced persons should have indulged in such wild fancies is +perhaps not to be wondered at; but M. Joigneux was not one of these, yet +he provided an Englishman, who had come to propose the experiment to +him, with all the necessary funds. "I was perfectly certain that I +should never see him again," he said afterwards; but, with all due +deference, we may take this as a shamefaced denial of his credulity. +"Contrary to my expectations," M. Joigneux went on, when he told us the +tale a few nights afterwards at the Cafe de la Paix--he lived in the Rue +du 4 Septembre,--"my Englishman did come back, accompanied by a porter +who carried the requisite material. I did not interfere with him in the +least, but merely watched him. I knew that in England they did produce +'greenstuff' in that way; though I was also aware of the difference +between a few blades and a serious crop." + +Others, more ingenious still, began to argue that if it was possible to +produce vegetables in a fortnight by means of light and a few handfuls +of mould, it could not be difficult to produce mushrooms with a much +thicker layer of mould and in the darkness of a cellar. + +Fortunately there is, as yet, a very decent kitchen-garden to fall back +upon. It lies between the fortifications and the forts; it has been +somewhat pillaged at first, but the authorities have organized several +companies of labourers from among those whom they have not been able to +provide with arms, and those who do not dig or delve keep watch against +depredation. They have a very simple uniform--a black kepi with crimson +piping, and a crimson belt round their waists. They are exposed to a +certain danger, for every now and then a stray German bullet lays one of +them low, but, upon the whole, their lot is not a hard one. + +"We have still nearly everything we want," writes a facetious +journalist; "and now that good and obliging fellow, Gambetta, is going +to fetch us some cream cheese from the moon for our dessert." + +In fact, during the last few days, we have been informed of the Minister +of the Interior's impending departure for Tours by balloon on the 7th of +October, and by twelve o'clock on that day the little Place St. Pierre, +right on the heights of Montmartre, is simply black with people. "The +great statesman," the "hero who is to rouse the provinces to unheard-of +efforts for the deliverance of the sacred soil of France from the +polluting presence of the Teutonic barbarian," has not arrived yet when +I edge my way through the crowd, accompanied by an officer on General +Vinoy's staff, who is a near relative of mine. With the recollection of +my adventure in the Avenue de Clichy fresh upon me, I would not have +ventured to come by myself. There is a military post on the Place St. +Pierre, and I am wondering whether it will turn out to pay honours to +"the great statesman;" and whether Nadar, the famous Nadar, whom I can +see towering above the crowd, and giving instructions, will treat +Gambetta with the same scant courtesy he once treated Louis-Napoleon, +when the latter went to see the ascent of his balloon, "Le Geant," from +the Champ-de-Mars. Nadar's behaviour on that occasion reminds one of +Elizabeth's with the wife of Bishop Parker. "'Madam,'" said the queen, +"I may not call you, and 'mistress' I am loth to call you." Nadar was +too fervent a republican to call Louis-Napoleon "Majesty;" he was too +well-bred to insult his guest by addressing him as "Monsieur:" so, when +he saw the sovereign advancing, he backed towards his car, and, before +he could come up with him, gave orders to "let go." + +I do not know whether Gambetta came in a carriage. It did not make its +appearance on the Place St. Pierre; he probably left it, like meaner +mortals, at the foot of the very steep hill. The cheering was immense, +and he took it as if to the manner born. He was accompanied by M. +Spuller, who was to take the journey with him, and who, even at that +time, bore a curious likeness to Mr. Spurgeon. M. Spuller did not appear +to claim any of the cheers for himself, for he kept perfectly stolid. +Gambetta, on the other hand, bowed repeatedly, at which Nadar grinned. +Nadar was always honest, if outspoken. He did not seem particularly +pleased with the business in hand, and was evidently determined to get +it over as soon as possible. Gambetta was still standing up, bowing and +waving his hands, when Nadar gave the order to "let go" the ropes, and +the dictator fell back into the lap of his companion. The balloon rose +rather quickly, and about nine that same night we had the news that the +balloon had safely landed in the Department of the Oise, about twelve +miles from Clermont. + +From that moment, the ascent of a balloon with its car containing one or +two, sometimes three, wicker cages of carrier-pigeons, becomes a +favourite spectacle with the Parisians, who would willingly see the +departure of a dozen per day. For each departure means not only the +conveyance of a budget of news from the besieged city to the provinces, +it means the return of the winged messengers with perhaps hopeful +tidings that the provinces are marching to the rescue. I am bound to +say, at the same time, that the terrible anxiety for such rescue did not +arise solely from a wish to escape further physical sufferings and +privations. Three-fourths of the Parisians would have been willing to +put up with worse for the sake of one terrible defeat inflicted upon the +Germans by their levies or by those in the provinces. + +But though the gas companies did wonders, fifty-two balloons having been +inflated by them during the siege, they could do no more. Nevertheless, +the experiments continue: the brothers Goddard have established their +head-quarters at the Orleans Railway; MM. Dartois and Yon at the +Northern; Admiral Labrousse, who has already invented an ingenious +gun-carriage, is now busy upon a navigable balloon; the Government +grants a subsidy of forty thousand francs to M. Dupuy de Lome to assist +him in his research; and at the Grande Hotel there is a permanent +exhibition of appliances for navigating the air under the direction of +MM. Horeau and Saint-Felix. The public flock to them, and for a moment +there is the hope that if we ourselves cannot come and go as free as +birds, there will be at least a means of permanent communication with +the outer world that way. M. Granier has proposed to make an aerial +telegraph without the support of poles. The wire is to be enclosed in a +gutta-percha tube filled with hydrogen gas, which will enable it to keep +its altitude a thousand or fifteen hundred meters above the earth. The +cable is to be paid out by balloons. M. Gaston Tissandier, a well-known +authority in such matters, looks favourably upon the experiment; but, +alas, it comes to nothing, and we have to fall back upon less ingenious, +more commonplace means. + +In other words, we are offering tempting fees to plucky individuals who +will attempt to cross the Prussian lines. Several do make the attempt, +and for a week or so the newspapers and the walls swarm with +advertisements of a private firm who will forward and receive despatches +at the rate of ten francs per letter. A good many messengers depart; a +good many return almost at once, finding the task impossible; those that +do not return have presumably been shot by the Prussians, for not a +single one reached his destination. + +Then we begin to turn our thoughts to the sheep-dog as a carrier of +messengers, or rather to the smuggler's dog, thousands of which are +known to exist on the Belgian and Swiss frontiers. The postal +authorities go even so far as to promise two hundred francs for every +batch of despatches if delivered within twenty-four hours of the +animal's departure from his starting-place, and fifty francs less for +every twenty-four hours' delay; but the animals fall a prey to the +Prussian sentries, not one of them succeeds in reaching the French +outposts. The carrier-pigeon is all we have left. + +Still, we are not discouraged; and in less than a month after the +investment, the Parisians begin to clamour for their favourite +amusement--the theatre. There are, of course, many divergencies of +opinion with regard to the fitness of the measure, and we get some +capital articles on the subject, studded with witty sentences and +relieved by historical anecdotes, showing that, whatever they may not +know, French journalists have an inexhaustible fund of parallels when it +becomes a question of the playhouse. "In '92 the Lillois went peacefully +to the theatre while the shells were pouring into the devoted city. Why +should we be less courageous and less cheerful than they?" writes one. +"Nero was fiddling while Rome was burning," writes another, "but Paris +is not on fire yet; and, if it were, the Nero who might be blamed for +the catastrophe is at Wilhelmshoehe, where, we may be sure, he will not +eat a mouthful less for our pangs of hunger. If he does not fiddle, it +is because, like his famous uncle, he has no ear for music." + +"Whatever may happen," writes M. Francisque Sarcey in the _Gaulois_, +"art should be considered superior to all things; the theatre is not a +more unseemly pleasure under the circumstances than the perusal of a +good book; and it is just in the darkest and saddest hours of his life +that a man needs a diversion which will, for a little while, at least, +prevent him from brooding upon his sufferings." + +To which "Thomas Grimm," of _Le Petit Journal_, who is on the opposite +side, replies: "If I may be allowed to intervene in so grave a question, +I have no hesitation in saying that the time for singing and amusing +ourselves has not arrived. It seems to me very doubtful whether the +spectators would not be constantly thinking of scenes enacted in other +spots than behind the footlights. And in such moments, when they might +concentrate the whole of their attention on the pleasant fiction enacted +before them, the sound of the cannon thundering in the distance would +more than once recall them to the reality." + +The ice was virtually broken, and on Sunday, the 23rd of October, the +Cirque National opened its doors for a concert. During the last five +years, as my readers will perceive by the almost involuntary break in +these notes, I had not been so assiduous a frequenter of the theatre and +the concert hall as I used to be, and though I was during the siege +overburdened with business, on the nature of which I need not dwell +here, I felt that I wanted some amusement. The evenings were becoming +chilly, one of my cherished companions was doing his duty with General +Vinoy, and, though I had practically unlimited means at my command for +my necessities, and am by no means sparing of money at any time, I +grudged the price of fuel. As yet, wood only cost six francs the +hundredweight, but it was such wood! If the ancient proverb-coiner had +been seated in front of the hearth in which it was trying to burn, he +might have hesitated to write that "there is no smoke without a fire." +The friendly chats by the fireside, which I had enjoyed for many years, +had almost entirely ceased. Nearly all my familiars were "on duty," and +the few hours they could snatch were either spent in bed, to rest from +the fatigue and discomforts of the night, or else at the cafes and +restaurants, where the news, mostly of an anecdotal kind, was +circulating freely. In fact, the cafes and restaurants, as long as there +was fuel and light, were more amusing during the siege than I had known +them to be at any time. Perhaps the most amusing feature of these +nightly gatherings was the presentation of the bill after dinner. The +prices charged at the Cafe de Paris in its palmiest days were child's +play compared to the actual ones. I have preserved the note of a +breakfast for two at Durand's. + + frs. + Hors d'Oeuvres (Radishes and Sausage) 10 + Entree (Navarin aux Pommes) 18 + Filet de Boeuf aux Champignons 24 + Omelette Sucree (3 oeufs) 12 + Cafe 1 + 1 Bouteille de Macon 6 + -- + Total frs. 71 + +The bread and butter were included in the hors-d'oeuvres, and I may +remark that the entree and the filet de boeuf were only for one. +Durand's was the cheapest of the five restaurants which still retained +their ordinary clientele. Bignon, Voisin, the Cafes de la Paix and +Anglais were much dearer. The latter gave its patrons white bread as +late as the 16th of December. + +I made up my mind, then, to go to that concert at the Cirque National, +and to as many of the entertainments as might be offered. I have rarely +seen such a crowd outside a theatre; and I doubt whether the fact of the +performance being for a charitable purpose had much to do with it, +because, if so, those who were denied admission might have handed their +money at the box-office, but they did not, they only gave the reverse of +their blessing. If charity it was, it did not want to end at home that +afternoon. + +The entertainment began with a charity sermon by the Abbe Duquesnay, a +hard-working priest in one of the thickly populated quarters of Paris. I +would willingly give another ten francs to hear a similar sermon. I am +positive that the Abbe had taken Laurence Sterne for his model. I have +never heard anything so brilliant in my life. Not the slightest attempt +at thrusting religion down one's throat. A good many quotations on the +advantages of well-doing, notably that of Shakespeare, admirably +translated, probably by the speaker himself. Then the following to wind +up with: "I do not know of a single curmudgeon who has ever been +converted into what I should call 'a genuine almsgiver,' by myself, or +by my fellow-priests. When he did give, he looked upon the gift as a +loan to the Lord in virtue of that gospel precept which you all know. +Now, my good friends, allow me to give you my view of that sentence: God +is just, and no doubt He will repay the loan with interest, but after He +has settled the account, He will indict the lender before the Highest +tribunal for usury. Consequently, if you have an idea of placing your +money in that way with God as a security, you had better keep it in your +purses." + +After this, the orchestra, nine-tenths of whose members are in uniform, +performs the overture to "La Muette de Portici" (Masaniello); Pasdeloup +conducting. Pasdeloup is a naturalized German, whose real name is +Wolfgang, but, in this instance, the public do not seem to mind it; nor +is there any protest against the names of two other Germans on the +programme, Weber's and Beethoven's. On the contrary, the latter's +composition is frantically encored. I believe it is the symphony in _C +Minor_, for it has been wedded to Victor Hugo's words, and it is Madame +Ugalde who sings the stirring hymn "Patria." + +There is a story connected with this hymn, which is not generally known. +I give it as it was told to me a day or so afterwards by Auber, who had +it from the lips of Joseph Dartigues, who, at the time of its +occurrence, was the musical critic of the _Journal des Debats_. + +Hugo was very young then, and one night he went to the Theatre de +Madame, which has since become the Gymnase. The piece was one of +Scribe's--"La Chatte metamorphosee en Femme;" and Jenny Vertpre, whom +our grandfathers applauded at the St. James Theatre in the thirties, was +to play the principal part. Still, our poet was not particularly struck +with the plot, dialogue, or lyrics; but, all at once, he sat upright in +his seat, at the strains of a "Hindoo invocation." When the music +ceased, Hugo left the house, humming the notes to himself. He was very +fond of music, though he could never reconcile himself to have his +dramas appropriated by the librettists, and gave his consent but very +reluctantly. Next morning, he met Dartigues on the Boulevard des +Italiens, then the Boulevard de Gand. He told him what he had heard, and +recommended the critic to go and judge for himself. "It is so utterly +different from the idiotic stuff one generally hears." Dartigues acted +upon the recommendation. A few days later, they met once more. "Did you +go and hear that music, at the Theatre de Madame?" asked Hugo. + +"Yes," was the reply. "I am not surprised at your liking it; it is +Beethoven's." + +Curious to relate, Hugo had not as much as heard the name of the great +German composer. The acquaintance with classical music was very limited +in the France of those days. But Hugo never forgot the symphony, and, +later on, in his exile, he wrote the words I had just heard. + +The impulse has been given, and from that moment the walls of Paris +display as many bills of theatrical and musical entertainments as if the +Germans were not at the gates. I go to nearly all, and, to my great +regret, hear a great many actors and actresses who have received favours +and honours at the hand of Louis-Napoleon vie with one another in +casting obloquy upon him and his reign. One of the few honourable +exceptions is M. Got, who, being invited to recite Hugo's "Chatiments," +emphatically refuses "to kick a man when he is down." + +At the Theatre-Francais, there is a special box--the erstwhile Imperial +box--for the convalescents, who are being tended in the theatre itself. + +But though I went to hear Melchisedec and Taillade, Caron and +Berthelier, there is one performance that stands out vividly from the +rest in my memory. It was a representation of Hugo's "Le Roi s'amuse" +("The Fool's Revenge"), at the theatre at Montmartre. Under ordinary +circumstances, I should probably not have gone so far afield to see any +piece, not even that which was reputed to be _the masterpiece_ of Victor +Hugo, but, in this instance, the temptation was too great. The play had +only been performed in Paris once--on the 22nd of November, 1832; next +day it was suspended by order of the Government. Alexandre Dumas the +elder, Theophile Gautier, Nestor Roqueplan, all of whom were present on +that memorable night, had spoken to me of its beauties. I had often +promised myself to read it, and had never done so. If I had, I should +probably not have gone to Montmartre that night, lest my illusions +should be disturbed. The performance was intended as a tribute to the +genius of the poet, but also as an act of defiance on the part of the +young Republic to the preceding regimes; though why it was not revived +during the Second Republic I have never been able to make out clearly. + +My companion and I toiled up the steep Rue des Martyrs, and it was +evident to us, when we got to the Place du Theatre, that something +unusual was going on, for the little square was absolutely black with +people. We managed, however, to elbow our way through, and to get two +stalls. The house was dimly lighted by gas, the deficiency made up, as +far I could see, by lamps in the auditorium, by candles on the stage. +There was not an empty seat anywhere. The overture, consisting of +snatches from "Rigoletto," was received with deafening applause, and +then the curtain rose upon the magnificent hall in the Louvre of +Francois I., with the king surrounded by his courtiers and his +favourites. By his side hobbled Triboulet, his evil genius, as Hugo has +represented him. + +My disappointment was great. I had come to admire, not expecting +magnificent scenery, gorgeous costumes, or transcendent acting, but a +spirit of reverence for the immortal creation of a great poet. At that +time I was not sufficiently familiar with provincial art in England to +be able to picture a performance of Shakespeare except under conditions +such as prevail in the best of London theatres. I had read accounts, +however, of strolling companies and their doings, but I doubt whether +the humblest would have been guilty of such utter iconoclasm in the +spirit as well as in the letter as I witnessed that night. It was not +comic, it was absolutely painful. It was not the glazed calico doing +duty for brocade, that made me wince; it was not the anti-macassar +replacing lace that made me gasp for breath: it was the miserable +failure of those behind the footlights, as well as of those in front, to +grasp the meaning of the simplest line. They had been told that this +play was an indictment, not against a libertine king, but against +generations and generations of rulers to whom debauch was as the air +they breathed. And, in order to make the lesson more striking, +Saint-Vallier was represented as an old dotard, Triboulet as a pander, +the king as an amorous Bill Sykes, and Triboulet's daughter as an +hysterical young woman who virtually gloried in her dishonour. I had +seen "Orphee aux Enfers," "La Belle Helene," and "La Grande Duchesse;" I +had heard Schneider at her best and at her worst; I had heard women of +birth and breeding titter, and gentlemen roar, at allusions which would +make a London coalheaver blush;--I had never seen anything so downright +degrading as this performance. And when, at last, the _dramatis personae_ +gathered round a bust of Hippocrates--the best substitute for one of +Victor Hugo they could find,--and one of them recited "Les Chatiments," +I left, hoping that I should never see such an exhibition again. It was +one of the first deliberately planned lessons in "king-hatred" I had +heard. The disciples looked to me very promising, and the Commune, when +it came, was not such a surprise to me, after all. Before then, I had +come to the conclusion that the _barbarians_ outside the gates of Paris +were less to be feared than those inside--the former, at any rate, +believed in a chief; the motto of the others was, "Ni Dieu, ni maitre." + +Meanwhile, the long winter nights have come. The stock of gas is pretty +well exhausted, or tantamount to it; wood, similar to that I have +described already, has risen to seven francs fifty centimes the +hundredweight. Beef and mutton have entirely disappeared from the +butchers' stalls. Rats are beginning to be sold at one franc apiece, and +eggs cost thirty francs a dozen. Butter has risen to fifty francs the +half-kilogramme (about seventeen ozs., English). Carrots and potatoes +fetch, the first, forty francs, the second, twenty francs, the peck +(English). I am being told that milk is still to be had, but I have +neither tasted nor seen any for ten days. Personally, I do not feel the +want of it; but in my visits to some of the poor in my neighbourhood I +am confronted by the fact of little ones, between two and three years of +age, being fed on bread soaked in wine, and suffering from various +ailments in consequence. + +I am pursuing some inquiries at the various mairies, and find that the +death-rate for October has reached nearly three thousand above the +corresponding month of the previous year. I am furthermore told that not +a third of this increase is due to the direct results of the siege--that +is, to death on the battle-field, or resulting from wounds received +there; typhus and low fever, anaemia, etc., are beginning to ravage the +inhabitants. Worse than all, the authorities have made a mistake with +regard to the influx of strangers. The seventy-five thousand aliens and +Parisians who have left at the beginning of the siege have been replaced +by three times that number, so that Paris has virtually one hundred and +fifty thousand more mouths to feed than it counted upon. "All the women, +children, and old men," says one of my informants, "ought to have been +removed to some provincial centre; it would have cost no more, and would +have left those who remained free for a more energetic defence. And you +will scarcely believe it, monsieur, but here is the register to prove +it; there have been nearly four hundred marriages celebrated during the +past month. It looks to me like tying the Gordian knot with a +vengeance." + +One thing I cannot help remarking amidst all this suffering; the +Parisian never ceases to be witty. Among my pensioners there was the +wife of a hard-working, frugal upholsterer, whose trade was absolutely +at a standstill. He was doing his duty on the fortifications; she was +keeping the home together on the meagre pittance allowed to her husband +by the Government, and the rations doled out to her every morning. The +youngest of her three children was barely four weeks old. One morning, +to my great surprise, I found two infants in her lap. "C'est comme ca, +monsieur," she said, with a wan smile. "Andre found it on a doorstep in +the Rue Mogador, and he brought it home, saying, 'It won't make much +difference; Nature laid the table for two infants.'" + +The Parisian is a born lounger. Balzac had said, "Flaner est une +science, c'est la gastronomie de l'oeil." Seeing that it is the only +gastronomy they can enjoy under the circumstances, the Parisians take to +it with a vengeance during those months of October and November, and +their favourite halting-places are the rare provision-shops that have +still a fowl, or a goose, or a pigeon in their windows. The sight of a +turkey causes an obstruction, and the would-be purchaser of a rabbit is +mobbed like the winner of a great prize in the lottery. Nine times out +of ten the negotiations do not go beyond the preliminary stage of +inquiring the price, because vendors are obstinate, though polite. + +"How much for the rabbit?" says the supposed Nabob, for the very fact of +inquiring implies wealth. + +"Forty-five francs, monsieur." + +"You are joking. Forty-five francs! It's simply ridiculous," protests +the other one. + +"I am not joking, monsieur; and I cannot take a farthing less." + +The would-be diner goes away; but he has scarcely gone a few steps, when +the dealer calls him back. "Listen, monsieur," he cries. + +Hope revives in the other's breast. His fancy conjures up a savoury +rabbit-stew, and he leaps rather than walks the distance that separates +him from the stall. + +"Ventre affame a des oreilles pour sur," says a bystander.[85] + + [Footnote 85: The proverb is, "Ventre affame n'a pas + d'oreilles."--EDITOR.] + +"Well, how much are you going to take off?" + +"I am not going to take off a penny, but I thought I might tell you that +this rabbit plays the drum." + +Some of the jokes, though, were not equally innocent, and revealed a +callousness on the part of the perpetrators which it is not pleasant to +have to record. True, they did not affect the very poor, whose poverty +was, as it were, a guarantee against them; but it is a moot point +whether the well-to-do should be shamelessly robbed by the well-to-do +tradesmen for no other reason than to increase the latter's hoard. +Greed, that abominable feature in the character of the French +middle-classes, showed itself again and again under circumstances which +ought to have suspended its manifestations for the time being. + +I have already noted that one member of the Academie des Sciences had +insisted upon the benefits to be derived from the extraction of gelatine +from bones. A great number of equally learned men simply scouted the +idea as preposterous, notably Dr. Gannal, the well-known authority on +embalming. His opposition went so far as to prompt him to submit his +family and himself to the "ordeal," as he called it. At the end of a +week, all of them were reduced to mere skeletons; and then, but then +only, Dr. Gannal sent for his learned colleagues to attest the effects. +The drowning man will proverbially cling to a straw; consequently, some +Parisians took to gelatine, undeterred by the clever lampoons, one of +which I quote: + + "L'inventeur de la gelatine, + A la chair preferant les os, + Veut desormais que chacun dine + Avec un jeu of dominos." + +They, however, did so with their eyes open, and as a last resource; not +so those who were imposed upon, and induced to part with their money for +cleverly imitated calves' heads, which, as a matter of course, merely +left a gluish substance at the bottom of the saucepan, to the +indignation of anxious housewives and irate cooks, one of whom took her +revenge one day by clapping the saucepan and its contents on the head of +the fraudulent dealer, and, while the latter was in an utterly +defenceless state, triumphantly stalking away with two very respectable +fowls. The shopkeeper had the impudence to seek redress in a court of +law. The judge would not so much as listen to him. + +Another curious feature of the siege was the sudden passion developed by +cooks for what I must be permitted to call culinary literature. As a +rule, the French cordon-bleu, and even her less accomplished sisters, +do not go for their recipes to cookery-books; theirs is knowledge gained +from actual experience: but at that period such works as, "Le Livre de +Cuisine de Mademoiselle Marguerite," "La Cuisiniere Pratique," etc., +were to be found on every kitchen table. The cooks had simply taken to +them in despair, not believing a single word of their contents, but on +the chance of finding a hint that might lend itself to the provisions +placed at their disposal. I refrain from giving their criticisms on the +authors: the forcibleness of their language could only be done justice +to by such masters of realism as M. Zola. I have spoken before now of +the uniform good temper of the Parisians under the most trying +circumstances; I beg to append a rider, excluding cooks, but especially +female ones. "C'est comme si on essayait d'enseigner le patinage a la +femme aux jambes de bois du boulevard," said the ministering angel to +one of my bachelor friends. One day, to my great surprise, on calling on +him I found him reading. He was not much given to poring over books, +though his education had been a very good one. + +"What are you doing?" I asked. + +"I am reading More's 'Utopia,'" he said, putting down the volume. + +"What do you mean?" I remarked, pointing to the cover, displaying a +young woman bending over stew-pans. + +"This is More's 'Utopia,' to me at present. It speaks of things which +will never be realized; supreme de volaille, tournedos a la poivrade, +and so forth. The book wants another chapter," he went on, "a chapter +treating of the food of besieged cities. The Dutch might have written it +centuries ago: at Leyden they were on the point of eating their left +arms, while defending themselves with their right; they could have told +us how to stew the former. If one could add a chapter to that effect, +the book might go through a hundred new editions, and the writer might +make a fortune. It would not do him much good, for he would be expected +to live up to his precepts, and not touch a morsel of that beautiful +kangaroo or elephant I saw yesterday on the Boulevard Haussmann." + +At that moment a mutual acquaintance came in. He had been a lieutenant +in the Foreign Legion, and lost his right foot before Constantine. +Noticing our host's doleful looks, he inquired the cause, and we got +another spoken essay on the difficulties of the situation as connected +with the food supply. I may add that, wherever a few men were gathered +together, this became invariably the absorbing topic of conversation. + +The ex-lieutenant laughed outright. "You are altogether labouring under +a mistake; there is plenty of food of a kind left, though I admit with +you that the Parisian does not know how to prepare it." + +"Will you teach them?" was the query. + +"I will not, because they would simply sneer at me. Feeding is simply a +matter of prejudice; and, to prove it to you, I will give you a +breakfast to-morrow morning which you will appreciate. But I am not +going to tell you of what it consists, nor will I do so until two days +after the entertainment." + +We accepted the invitation, though I must confess that I was not eager +about it. Nevertheless, next day, about one, we were seated at the +hospitable board of our ex-lieutenant, who, three weeks before, had +dismissed his female servant and was waited upon by an old trooper, with +one arm. Though perfectly respectful, Joseph received us with a broad +grin, which, as the repast progressed, was contracted into a proud +smile. He had evidently co-operated with his master in the concoction of +the dishes, all of which, I am bound to say, were very savoury. In fact, +I was like that new tenant of the house haunted by a laughing ghost. But +for the knowledge that there was something uncanny about it, I would +have been intensely gratified and amused. Our host told us, with great +glee, that Joseph had been up since a quarter-past four that morning; +and that before five he was at the Halles. As we could distinctly taste +the onions in the stew that served as an entree, and as the potatoes +round the next dish were visible to the naked eye, we concluded that the +old trooper had got up so early to buy vegetables, and were +correspondingly grateful. There was no mystery whatsoever about the +fish, and about the entremets. The first was dry cod--but with a sauce +such as I had never tasted before or have since. The latter was a +delicious dish of sweet macaroni, fit to set before a prince. I repeat, +but for my knowledge that there was something uncanny about that meal, I +would have asked permission to come every day. Yet I felt almost equally +convinced that, with regard to one dish, we had been doubly +mystified--that they were larks, which our host had managed to procure +somehow, though I missed the bones. + +True to his word, our Amphitryon revealed the real ingredients of the +menu forty-eight hours after. The entree had been composed of very small +mice--field-mice, I think we call them in England; the second dish was +rat. Not a single ounce of butter or lard had been used in the sauces or +for the macaroni. The dried cod was still plentiful enough to be had at +any grocer's or salted provision shop. Instead of butter, Joseph used +horse-marrow. The horse-butchers sold the bones ridiculously cheap, not +having the slightest idea what to do with them. The mice, Joseph caught +round about the fortifications, whither he went almost every day. The +rats he caught in the cellarage of the Halles. He had a cousin there in +a large way of business, and access to the underground part of the +market was never refused to him. + +"From what you have tasted at my rooms," concluded the ex-lieutenant, +"you will easily see that our vaunted superiority as cooks is so much +humbug. The dish of cod I gave you, and which you liked so much, may be +seen on the table of the poorest household in Holland and Flanders at +least once, sometimes twice, a week, especially in North-Brabant, where +the good Catholics scarcely ever eat anything else on Fridays. The +sauce, which they call a mustard-sauce, would naturally be better if +made with butter, but you could not taste the difference if the cook +takes care to sprinkle a little saffron in her fat or marrow. Saffron is +a great thing in cooking, and still our best chefs know little or +nothing about it. But for the saffron, you would have detected a slight +odour of musk in the entree you took to be larks. You may almost +disguise anything with saffron, except dog's-flesh. Listen to what I +tell you, and in a month or so, perhaps before, you'll admit the truth +of my words. The moment horseflesh fails, the Parisians will fall back +upon dogs, turning up their noses at cats and rats, though both are a +thousand times superior to the latter. In saying this, I am virtually +libelling the cat and the rat; for 'the friend of man,' be he cooked in +ever so grand a way, is always a detestable dish. His flesh is oily and +flabby; stew him, fry him, do what you will, there is always a flavour +of castor oil about him. The only way to minimize that flavour, to make +him palatable, is to salt, or rather to pepper him; that is, to cut him +up in slices, and leave them for a fortnight, bestrewing them very +liberally with pepper-corns. Then, before 'accommodating' them finally, +put them into boiling water for a while, and throw the water away. + +"No such compromises are necessary with 'the fauna of the tiles,' who, +with his larger-sized victim, the rat, has been the most misprized and +misjudged of all animals, from the culinary point of view. Stewed puss +is by far more delicious than stewed rabbit. The flesh of the former +tastes less pungent than that of the latter, and is more tender. As for +the prejudice against cat, well, the Germans have the same prejudice +against rabbit, and while I was in the Foreign Legion there was a +Wurtemberger, a lieutenant, who would not touch bunny, but who would +devour grimalkin. Those who have not tasted couscoussou of cat, prepared +according to the Arabian recipe--though the Arabs won't touch it--have +never tasted anything."[86] + + [Footnote 86: The Arab _kuskus_ generally consists of a piece + of mutton baked in a paste with the vegetables of the season, + flavoured with herbs; and the addition of half a dozen + hard-boiled eggs. The whole of the flesh is boned.--EDITOR.] + +Our friend said much more, notably with regard to rat and horseflesh; +and then he wound up: "But what is the good? Those who might benefit by +my advice are not here, and, if they were, they would probably scorn it; +I mean the very poor. The only item of animal food which cannot be +adequately replaced by something else yielding as much or nearly as much +nourishment is milk. But, unless an adult be in delicate health or +suffering from ailments to the alleviation and cure of which milk is +absolutely necessary, he may very well go without it for six months. Not +so children. I am only showing you that the poor, with their slender +resources--and Heaven knows they are slender enough--might do better +than they are doing, for cats and rats must still be very plentiful, +only they won't touch them." + +The reference to the very poor and their slender resources recurred more +than once that evening, but I knew that the authorities were trying to +do all they could in the way of relieving general and individual +distress, and that they were admirably seconded by private charity, +which not only placed comparatively large sums at their disposal, but +bestirred itself by means of specially appointed committees and +visitors. The rations of meat (horsemeat) and bread distributed were not +sufficient. The first had already fallen to forty-five grammes per day +per head, the second to three hundred and fifty grammes;[87] they were +to fall much lower. Tickets were also distributed for set meals, with +and without meat. There was, furthermore, a distribution of fuel, albeit +that there was really no more fuel to distribute. All the wooden seats +in the public thoroughfares, the scaffoldings before the half-finished +buildings had disappeared. At one of my friend's apartments there was +none but the outer door left, all the others had been replaced by +curtains. They had been chopped up to keep his family warm. The fear of +the terrible landlord may have prevented the poor from imitating this +proceeding. At any rate, I noticed no absent doors in my visits to any +of them. A further supply of meat or bread, even if they had the money, +was out of the question for them; because, though some shops remained +open and their owners were compelled to sell according to the tariff set +forth by the municipality, they had nothing to sell. I remember being in +the Rue Lafayette one morning, near one of those shops, when I saw the +whole of the crowd, that had been waiting there for hours probably, turn +away disappointed. The assistant had just told them that "this morning +we have nothing to sell but preserved truffles." + + [Footnote 87: Five hundred French grammes make seventeen ounces + English, and a fraction.--EDITOR.] + +At the same time, I am bound to note the fact that, at the slightest +rumours of peace, the usually empty windows became filled with +artistically arranged pyramids of "canned" provisions, at prices +considerably below those charged twenty-four hours before, and even +below those mentioned in the municipal tariff. Frequent attempts were +made by the police to discover the hiding-places for this stock, but +they failed in every instance. Those hiding-places were far away from +the shops, and the shopkeepers themselves were too wary to be caught +napping. A stranger might have safely gone in and offered a hundred +francs for half a dozen tins of their wares. They would have looked a +perfect blank, and told him they had none to sell: and no wonder; their +detection would have meant certain death; no earthly power could have +saved them from the legitimate fury of the populace. And even those who +bought the hidden food at abnormal prices were compelled to preserve +silence, at the risk of seeing their supplies cut off. One thing is +certain, and I can unhesitatingly vouch for it. My name had become known +in connection with several committees for the relief of the poor. On the +25th of January, at 11 a.m., when the negotiations between Bismarck and +M. Jules Favre could have been but in the preliminary stage, I received +a note, brought by hand, from a grocer in the Faubourg Montmartre, +asking me to call personally, as he had something to communicate which +might be to the advantage of my proteges. An hour later, I was at his +establishment, and he offered to sell me five hundred tins of various +provisions and two hundred and fifty boxes of sardines at two francs +each. It was something like double the ordinary price. A little more +than three weeks before that date, I had sent a letter to the same man, +asking him for a similar quantity of goods, which I intended to +distribute as New Year's gifts. The reply was, that he had none, but +that he might _possibly_ procure them at the rate of five francs a tin +and box. I found out afterwards, that the excellent grocer had a son at +the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. I need not point out the logical +deduction. + +I am equally certain that there were large quantities of horseflesh, +salted or fresh, hidden somewhere; for, as I have already noted, it was +officially, or at any rate semi-officially stated, that, on the day of +the conclusion of the armistice, there were thirty thousand live horses +in Paris, and the greater part of these would have been slaughtered by +order of the Government, if the measure had been thought expedient, for +there is scarcely any need to say that the pretext of their being wanted +for military purposes would not hold water. A sixth part of them, or +less, would have been amply sufficient for that. In reality, M. Favre +and his colleagues were, by this time, fully convinced that all further +resistance was useless, but they had not the courage to say so frankly, +and they wished to convert the advocates of "resistance to death" to +their side by aggravating the scarcity of the food supply, as if it were +not bad enough already. The horses confiscated by the Government for +food were paid for by them at the rate of between one and two francs per +pound, yet there was no possibility of buying a single pound of +horseflesh, beyond what was distributed at the municipal canteens, for +less than seven or eight francs. Whence this difference? + +Butter could be bought for thirty to thirty-five francs per pound, but +such butter! Anything worth eating commanded sixty francs. There was a +kind of grease that fetched two francs per pound, but even the poorest +shrank from it, and preferred to eat dry bread, which was composed as +follows:-- + + (FOR A LOAF OF 300 GRAMMES.) + + 75 grammes of wheat. + 15 " rye, barley, or peas. + 60 " rice. + 90 " oats. + 30 " chopped straw mixed with starch. + 30 " bran. + +As for the rest, here are some of the prices--at which, however, things +were not always to be had:-- + + frs. + A dog or a cat 20 + A rat, crow, or sparrow 3 or 4 + 1 lb. of bear's flesh 12 + 1 lb. of venison 14 + 1 lb. of wolf's flesh, or porcupine's 8 + A rabbit 40 + A fowl 40 + A pigeon 25 + A goose 80 + A turkey 100 + 1 lb. of ham (very rare) 10 + 1 lb. of bacon (not so rare) 6 + Eggs (each) 5 + Haricot beans (per litre) 8 + Cabbages (each) 16 + Leeks (each) 1 + Bushel of carrots (2-3/4 gallons) 75 + Bushel of potatoes 35 + Bushel of onions 80 + +Still, until the very last, there occurred, as far as I know, no case of +actual starvation, and I was pretty well posted up in that respect. The +very young and very old suffered most: for the milk that was sold at two +francs per litre was simply disgraceful, three-fourths of it was water; +and beef-tea, or that worthy of the name, was not to be had at any +price. Both commodities were distributed to the poor at the municipal +canteens, on the certificate of a doctor; but the latter, though by no +means hard-hearted, and thoroughly sympathetic with the ills he was +scarcely able to alleviate, had to draw the line somewhere. Of bedding, +bed-linen, and warm underclothing there was little or no lack; but the +cold, for several days, at frequent intervals was severe to a degree. + +Our ex-lieutenant's reference to the poor and their slender resources +recurred frequently to my mind for several days after the scene +described above, and set me wondering how far the poor had parted, +finally or temporarily, with their household goods and small valuables +in order to obtain some of the quasi-luxuries I have just enumerated. In +order to get at the truth of the matter, I determined to pay a visit to +the central pawnbroking office in the Rue des Blancs Manteaux. I +provided myself with a letter of introduction to the director, who +placed an official at my disposal. This was towards the latter end of +December. + +I transcribe my informant's statement in brief and from memory, but I am +positive as to main facts. Up till the end of August the transactions at +the central office, which virtually include those of the whole of the +capital, presented nothing abnormal, but the moment the investment +became an almost foregone conclusion, there was a positive run on the +Mont-de-Piete. The applicants for loans, however, were by no means of +the poorest or even of the lower-middle class, but the well-to-do +people, whose chief aim was to place their valuables in safety, and who +looked upon the 9-1/2 per cent. interest they had to pay on the advances +received as a premium for warehousing and insurance. They knew that +nothing could be more secure than the fire and burglar proof receptacles +of the Mont-de-Piete, and that, come what might, the State would be +responsible for the value of the articles deposited. + +This run ceased when the investment was an accomplished fact, but, as a +matter of course, the financial resources had been put to a severe test, +and, at the time my informant spoke to me, they had dwindled from nearly +eight millions of francs, at which they were computed in the beginning +of August, to about three-quarters of a million. The order of the mayor +of Paris, intended to prevent this, had come too late. The decree of +1863, limiting the maximum of a loan to ten thousand francs at the chief +office, and to five hundred francs at any of the auxiliary ones, had +been suspended in favour of a decision that, during the investment, no +loan should exceed fifty francs.[88] From the 19th of September to the +end of October, the cessation from _all_ labour, and, consequently, the +non-receipt of wages throughout the capital, had to be faced in the +acceptance of thousands of pledges, consisting of household goods, +apparel, etc.; but, curiously enough, workmen's tools and implements +formed but a small proportion of these. At present, the whole of the +business was at a standstill; there was no redemption of pledges, and +few were offered.[89] + + [Footnote 88: A similar measure had been decided upon in 1814, + under analogous circumstances, but the maximum was twenty + francs instead of fifty francs.--EDITOR.] + + [Footnote 89: A curious feature in connection with the pledging + of tools and implements may be recorded here. At the + termination of the siege, a committee in London transmitted + 20,000 francs (L800) for the express purpose of redeeming + these. The Paris committee entrusted with the task, while + grateful for the solicitude shown, rightly considered that it + would not _go_ very far, considering that, at the time, the + Mont-de-Piete held a total of 1,708,549 articles, representing + loans to the amount of 37,502,743 francs. The authorities took + particular pains to publish the receipt of the 20,000 francs, + and the purposes thereof. Within a given time, they returned + 6,430 francs to the committee. Only 2,383 tools (or sets of + tools) had been redeemed, representing a lent value of 13,570 + francs.] + +Meanwhile, Christmas and the New Year were at hand, and not a single +sortie had led to any practical modification of the situation. The cold +was intense. Coal and coke could be obtained for neither money nor love. +The street lamps had not been lighted for nearly a month; up till the +end of October, one had been lighted here and there; then there had been +an attempt to supply the absence of gas by paraffin in the public +thoroughfares, but the stock of mineral oil was also getting lower. Most +of the shops were closed, but, at the advent of the festive season, a +few took down their shutters and made a feeble display of bonbons in +sugar and chocolate, and even of marrons glaces. I doubt whether these +articles found many purchasers. The toy-shops never took the trouble of +exhibiting at all. They were wise in their abstention, for even the most +ignorant Parisian was aware that nine-tenths of the wares in these +establishments hailed from Germany, and he would assuredly have smashed +the windows if they had been offered for sale. Nay, the booths that make +their appearance on the Boulevards at that time of the year displayed +few toys, except of a military kind. It was very touching, in after +years, to hear the lads and lassies refer to the 1st of January, 1871, +as _the New Year's Day without the New Year's gifts_. + +Nevertheless, it must not be thought that Paris was given over to +melancholy on these two days. Crowds perambulated the streets and sat in +the cafes. In spite of all that has been said by ultra-patriotic +writers, I am inclined to think that the Parisians no longer cherished +any illusions about the possibility of retrieving their disasters, +though many may have thought that the besiegers would abstain, at the +last moment, from shelling the city. The Government--whether with the +intention of cheering the besieged or for the purpose of exhausting +their stock of provisions as quickly as possible, in order to capitulate +with better grace--had made the city a magnificent New Year's gift of + + 104,000 kilogrammes of preserved beef, + 52,000 " " dried haricot beans, + 52,000 " " olive oil, + 52,000 " " coffee (not roasted), + 52,000 " " chocolate; + +which gift elicited the reply of a group of artists and litterateurs +that, though thankful for their more epicurean brethren and sisters, +they, the litterateurs and artists, had fared very well on Christmas Day +and would meet again on New Year's Day to discuss the following menu:-- + + "Consomme de Cheval au millet. + Brochettes de Foie de Chien a la Maitre d'Hotel. + Emince de Rable de Chat, Sauce Mayonnaise. + Epaules et Filets de Chien braises a la Sauce Tomate. + Civet de Chat aux Champignons. + Cotelettes de Chien aux Champignons. + Gigots de Chien flanques de Ratons. + Sauce Poivrade. + Begonias au Jus. + Plum-pudding au Rhum et a la Moelle de Cheval." + +Simultaneously with the publication of the menu, a dealer in the St. +Germain Market put up a new signboard:-- + + "RESISTANCE A OUTRANCE. + + "GRANDE BOUCHERIE CANINE ET FELINE. + + "L'heroique Paris brave les Prussiens; + Il ne sera jamais vaincu par la famine! + Quand il aura mange la race chevaline + Il mangera ses rats, et ses chats, et ses chiens." + +The proprietor of a cookshop in the Rue de Rome had confined himself to +prose, but prose which, to those who could read it aright, was much +cleverer than the poetry of his transpontine fellow-tradesman. + + "VIN A DIX-HUIT SOUS ET EAU-DESSUS, + Rosse Beef. + Rat Gout de Mouton."[90] + + [Footnote 90: Here are the two English readings, as far as I am + able to give them:-- + + "WINE AT EIGHTEEN SOUS THE LITRE AND UPWARDS. + Roast Beef. + Ragout of Mutton." + + "WINE AT EIGHTEEN SOUS THE LITRE AND WATER ATOP. + Old Crock's Flesh. + Rat Tasting of Mutton."--EDITOR.] + +Personally, I have eaten the flesh of elephants, wolves, cassowaries, +porcupines, bears, kangaroos, rats, cats, and horses. I did not touch +dog's-flesh knowingly after I had been warned by our ex-lieutenant. The +proprietor of the English butcher-shop, M. Debos, who was not an +Englishman at all, supplied most of these strange dishes; for he bought +nearly all the animals from the Zoological Gardens at tremendous prices. +These were only the animals from the Jardin d'Acclimatation in the Bois, +which had been sent as guests to the Jardin des Plantes. The elephants +belonged to the latter establishment, and were sold to M. Debos for +twenty-seven thousand francs. In January I was elected a member of the +Jockey Club, but I had dined there once before by special invitation. I +give the menu as far as I remember:-- + + "Soupe au Poireau. + Aloyau de Boeuf. + Poule au Riz. + Flageolets aux Jus. + Biscuits de Reims glaces. + Charlotte aux Pommes." + +In spite of the hope that Paris would escape being shelled, minute +instructions how to act, in the event of such a calamity, had been +posted on the walls. In fact, if speechifying and the promulgation of +decrees could have saved the city, Trochu first, and the rest +afterwards, would have so saved it. But I have solemnly promised myself +at the outset of these notes not to be betrayed into any criticism of +the military operations, and I will endeavour to keep my promise to +myself. + +The first and foremost result of those directions on the part of the +Government was a display of water-butts, filled to the brim, in the +passage, and of sand-heaps in the yard of every building. As the months +went by, and there was no sign of a bombardment, the contents of the +casks became so much solid ice, and the sand-heaps disappeared beneath +the accumulated snow, to be converted into slush and mire at the first +thaw, which gave us, at the same time, a kind of miniature deluge, +because, as a matter of course, the barrels had sprung leaks which were +not attended to at the time. + +And when, early on the 5th of January, the first projectiles crashed +down upon some houses in the south of Paris, the people were simply +astonished, but still deluded themselves into the belief that it was a +mistake, that the "trajectory" had been miscalculated, and the shells +had carried farther than was intended. To a certain extent they had good +grounds for their supposition. They had heard the big cannon boom and +roar at frequent intervals ever since the morning of the 27th of +December, and been given to understand that it was merely a big +artillery duel for the possession of the plateau d'Avron, between the +positions of Noisy-le-Grand and Gournay on the enemy's side, and the +forts of Nogent, Rosny, and Noisy on that of the French. They were, +furthermore, under the impression that the shelling of the city would be +preceded by a final summons to surrender: they had got that notion +mostly from their military dramas and popular histories. But there were +men, better informed than the majority of the masses, who made sure +that, if not the Parisians themselves, the foreign consuls and the +aliens under their charge would receive a sufficiently timely notice, in +order to leave the city if they felt so minded. + +The 5th of January was a bitterly cold day; it had been freezing hard +during the whole of the night, and, as I wended my way across the Seine, +about noon, the mist, which had been hanging over the river, was slowly +rising in banked and jagged masses, with only a rift here and there for +the pitilessly glacial sun to peer through and mock at our shivering +condition. When I got to the Boulevard Montparnasse, I met several +stretchers, bearing sentries who had been absolutely frozen to within an +ace of death. + +I know nothing of the military import of a bombardment, but have been +told that even the greatest strategists only count upon the moral effect +it produces upon the besieged inhabitants. I can only say this: if +Marshal von Moltke took the "moral effect" of his projectiles into his +calculations to accelerate the surrender of Paris, he might have gone on +shelling Paris for a twelvemonth without being one whit nearer his aim; +that is, if I am to judge by the scene I witnessed on that January +morning, before familiarity with the destruction-dealing shells could +have produced the proverbial contempt. At the risk of offending all the +sensation-mongers, foreign and native, with pen or with pencil, I can +honestly say that a broken-down omnibus and a couple of prostrate horses +would have excited as much curiosity as did the sight of the battered +tenements at Vaugirard, Montrouge, and Vanves. On the Chaussee du Maine, +the roadway had been ploughed up for a distance of about half a dozen +yards by a shell; in another spot, a shell had gone clean through the +roof and killed a woman by the side of her husband; in a third, a shell +had carried away part of the wall of a one-storied cottage, and the +whole of the opposite wall: in short, there was more than sufficient +evidence that life was no longer safe within the fortifications, and yet +there was no wailing, no wringing of hands, no heart-rending frenzied +look of despair, either pent up or endeavouring to find vent in shrieks +and yells, nay, not even on the part of the women. There was merely a +kind of undemonstrative contempt--very unlike the usual French way of +manifesting it--blended with a considerable dash of _badauderie_,--for +which word I cannot find an English equivalent, because the Parisian +loafer or idler is unlike any of his European congeners. To grasp the +difference between the former and the latter, one must have had the good +fortune to see the same incident in the streets of Paris, London, +Madrid, Florence, and Rome, Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, not to +mention Brussels, the Hague, Amsterdam, Munich, and Dresden. The +"Monsieur Prudhomme" of Charles Monnier shows but one facet of the Paris +badaud's character. The nearest approach to him is the middle-class +English tourist on the Continent, who endeavours to explain to his wife +and companions things he does not know himself, and blesses his stars +aloud for having made him an Englishman. + +But even the Paris badaud, who is not unlike his Roman predecessor in +his craving for circuses, must have bread; and when the cry arises, a +fortnight later, that "there is no more bread," the siege is virtually +at an end. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Some men of the Commune -- Cluseret -- His opinion of Rossel -- + His opinion of Bergeret -- What Cluseret was fighting for -- + Thiers and Abraham Lincoln -- Raoul Rigault on horseback -- + Theophile Ferre -- Ferre and Gil-Peres, the actor -- The comic + men of the Commune -- Gambon -- Jourde, one of the most valuable + of the lot -- His financial abilities -- His endeavours to save + -- Jourde at Godillot's -- Colonel Maxime Lisbonne -- The + Editor's recollections of him -- General Dombrowski and General + la Cecilia -- A soiree at the Tuileries -- A gala-performance at + the Opera Comique -- The death-knell of the Commune. + + +I have before now spoken of a young medical student in whose company I +spent several evenings at a cafe on the Boulevard St. Michel, during the +Empire. He, like myself, remained in Paris during the siege, and refused +to stir at the advent of the Commune. As a matter of course, whenever we +met, while the latter lasted, we rarely spoke of anything else. He +sympathized, to a certain extent, with the principle, though not with +the would-be expounders of it. I knew few, if any, of the leaders even +by sight, though I had heard of some, such as, for instance, Jules +Valles, in connection with their literary work. My admiration was +strictly confined to those performances, and I often said so to my +friend. "You are mistaken in your estimate of them," he invariably +replied. "There are men of undoubted talent among them, for instance, +Cluseret; but most of them are like square pegs in round holes. Come +with me to-night, and you will be able to judge for yourself; for he is +sure to be at the Brasserie Saint-Severin." + +I had never been to the Brasserie Saint-Severin, though I had paid two +or three visits several years before to the cafe de la Renaissance +opposite the Fontaine Saint-Michel, at which establishment the Commune +may be said to have been hatched. It was there that, in 1866, Raoul +Rigault, Longuet, the brothers Levraud, Dacosta, Genton, Protot, and a +dozen more were arrested by the Commissary of Police, M. Clement. + +That night, about eight o'clock, we crossed the Pont Saint-Michel, and, +in a minute or so, found ourselves amidst some of the shining lights of +the Commune. + +Save on review days I had never seen so many brilliant uniforms gathered +together. As far as I can recollect, there was only one civilian in the +group pointed out to me. He looked a mere skeleton, was misshapen, and +one of the ugliest men I have ever met. I asked his name, and was told +it was Tridon. The name was perfectly familiar to me as belonging to one +of the most remarkable polemists during the late regime. A little while +afterwards, Cluseret came in. + +My friend introduced me, and we sat talking for more than two hours; and +I have rarely been more interested than I was that night. Cluseret spoke +English very well, for he had been in America several years, and our +conversation was carried on in that language. I have already remarked +that I had no intention, at that time, to jot down my recollections, +still I was so impressed with what I had heard that I made some rough +memoranda when I got home. They are among the papers I have preserved. + +Cluseret fostered no illusions as to the final upshot of the Commune. +"If every man were as devoted to the cause as Kossuth and Garibaldi were +to theirs, we should not be able to establish a permanent Commune; but +this is by no means the case. Most of the leaders, even those who are +not self-seekers, are too visionary in their aims; they will not abate +one jot of their ideal. The others think of nothing but their own +aggrandisement, and though many are no doubt capable to a degree, they +are absolutely useless for the posts they have chosen for themselves. +There are certainly exceptions; such as, for instance, Rossel. His +technical knowledge is very considerable. If I had to describe him in +two words, I should call him Lothario-Cromwell. For, notwithstanding his +military aptitudes and his Puritan stiffness in many things, he has too +many petticoats about him. In addition to this, he is overbearing and +absolutely eaten up with ambition; he is a republican who despises the +proletariat; he would fain imitate the axiom of Napoleon I., 'The tools +to those who can use them;' but he forgets that it will not do for a +socialistic regime such as we would establish, because it is exactly +those that cannot use the tools who wish to be treated as if they could. +If they had intelligence enough to use the tools, they would have lifted +themselves out of their humble, unsatisfactory positions without any +aid. Rossel is no doubt a better strategist than I am, and I do not in +the least mind his letting me know it, but if Dombrowski or Bergeret was +'Delegate for War,' Rossel would have been in prison or shot a fortnight +ago." + +"For," continued Cluseret, "Bergeret especially thinks himself a +heaven-born general. He shows well on horseback, because, I believe, he +began life as a stable-lad: so did Michel Ney; but then, Michel Ney +served his apprenticeship at fighting, while Bergeret became a +compositor, a chef-de-claque, a proof-reader, and, finally, a traveller +for a publishing firm. All these are, no doubt, very honourable +occupations, but they are scarcely calculated to make a good general. +Still, you should see him: he wears his sash as your officers wear +theirs when on duty; he would like the people to mistake it for the +grand-cordon of the Legion d'Honneur; and his staff is more numerous +than that of the late Emperor. You should go and dine at the +head-quarters of the military governor of Paris; I am sure you would be +very welcome. Marast at the Palais-Bourbon in '48 was nothing to it. If +the Commune lasts another three months there will be servants in livery, +gold lace, and powder, like in your country. At present, Bergeret has to +put up with attendants in faultless black. + +"Personally," he went on, "I am not fighting for Communism, but for +Communalism, which, I need not tell you, is quite a different thing. I +fail to see why Paris and Lyons should be judged incapable of managing +their own municipal affairs without the interference of the State, while +other great provincial centres are considered capable of doing so. The +English Government does not interfere with the municipal affairs of +London on the plea that it is the capital, with those of Manchester on +the plea that it has inaugurated a policy of its own, any more than it +interferes with those of Liverpool, Leeds, or Bristol. Your +lord-lieutenants of counties are virtually decorative officials, +something different from our prefects and our sub-prefects, and your +Home Secretary has not a hundredth part of the power of our Minister of +the Interior. We wish to go a step further than you, without, however, +shirking the financial obligations imposed by a federation. What you +would call imperial taxes, we are willing to pay in kind as well as +money. This is one of the things we do want; what we do not want is the +resuscitation of the Empire. I am not speaking at random when I tell +you that there are rumours about traitors in our camp, and that, +according to these rumours, the struggle against the Versaillese troops +would be a mere pretext to sweep the deck for the unopposed entry of an +imperial army into Paris. Whence would that army be recruited? From +among the prisoners going to leave Germany, who have been worked all the +while in the interest of the Napoleonic dynasty. After all, we have as +much right to overthrow the Government of Versailles as the Government +of Versailles had the right to upset the Empire. Their powers are by no +means more valid by virtue of the recent elections, than was the power +of Louis-Napoleon by virtue of the plebiscite of 1870. Does M. Thiers +really think that he is a better or greater man than Abraham Lincoln, +who treated the Southerns as belligerents, not as insurgents?" + +So far Cluseret. I am not prepared to say that he was a strictly +honourable man, but he was a very intelligent one, probably the most +intelligent among the leaders of the Commune. At any rate, his +conversation made me anxious to get a nearer sight of some of the +latter, and, as they had evidently made the Brasserie Saint-Severin +their principal resort of an evening, I returned thither several times. + +A few nights afterwards, I was just in time to witness the arrival of +Raoul Rigault, on horseback, accompanied by a staff running by the side +of his animal. The whole reminded me irresistibly of Decamp's picture, +"La Patrouille Turque." The Prefect of Police was scarcely less +magnificently attired than the rest of his fellow-dignitaries. His +uniform, if I remember rightly, was blue with red facings, but it is +impossible to say, because it was covered everywhere with gold lace. His +myrmidons hustled the crowd in order to make room for their chief, and +some one laughed: "Mais il n'y a rien de change; c'est absolument comme +sous l'Empire." For a moment Rigault sat quite still, surveying the +crowd and ogling the women through his double eye-glasses. Then he +alighted, and caught sight of my friend and myself standing on the +threshold. "Quels sont ces citoyens?" he inquired, taking us in from top +to toe, and stroking his long beard all the while. Some one told him our +names, at which he made a wry face, the more that mine must have been +familiar to him, seeing that a very near relative of mine, bearing the +same, had been a special favourite with General Vinoy. He did not think +fit to molest us; had he done so, it might have fared badly with us, +for by the time Lord Lyons could have interfered, we might have been +shot. + +Ever since, my friend and I have been under the impression that we owed +our lives to a dark, ugly little man who, at that moment, whispered +something to him, and who, my friend told me, immediately afterwards, +was the right hand of Raoul Rigault, Theophile Ferre. That name was also +familiar to me, as it was to most Parisians, previous to the outbreak of +the war, because Ferre was implicated in the plot against +Louis-Napoleon's life, and was tried in the early part of '70 at Blois. +Every one knew how he insulted the President, how he refused to answer, +and finally exclaimed, "Yes, I am an anarchist, a socialist, an atheist, +and woe to you when our turn comes." He kept his word; he was a fiend, +and looked one. Whenever there was anything cruel and bloodthirsty going +on, he made it a point to be present. He was, though ugly, not half so +ugly as Tridon, but one involuntarily recoiled from him. + +Curiously enough, this very Theophile Ferre, whom I then saw for the +first time, had been the subject of a conversation I had with Gil-Peres, +the actor of the Palais-Royal, on the 25th or 26th of March. I had known +Gil-Peres from the moment he made his mark in "La Dame aux Camelias" as +Gaudens. To my great surprise, a day or two after the proclamation of +the Commune, I heard that he had been cruelly maltreated in the Rue +Drouot, that he had narrowly escaped being killed. Two days later, I +paid him a visit in his lodgings at Montmartre; for he had been +severely, though not dangerously hurt, and was unable to leave his bed. + +"I am very sorry for your mishap," I said; "but what, in Heaven's name, +induced you to meddle with politics?" + +He burst out laughing, in that peculiar laugh of his which I have never +heard before or since, on or off the stage. The nearest approach to it +was that of Grassot, but the latter's was like a discharge of artillery, +while Gil-Peres was like that of a musketry volley. + +"I did not meddle with politics," he replied; "but you know how fond I +am of going among crowds to study character. This day last week, I was +passing along the Rue Drouot, when I saw a large group in front of the +Mairie. I had left home early in the morning, I knew nothing of what was +going on in my neighbourhood, so you may imagine my surprise when I +heard them calmly discussing the death of Clement Thomas and Lecomte. +My hair stood positively on end, and I must have pushed a bit in order +to get nearer the speakers. I had a long black coat on, and they mistook +me for a cure. I did all I could to tell them my name, but, before I +could utter a word, I was down, and they began trampling on me. Some +one, God alone knows who, saved me, by telling them my name. I knew +nothing more, for I was brought home unconscious. And to think," he +added, "that I might have been a member of the Commune myself, if I had +liked." + +"What do you mean?" I said, for I began to think that he was out of his +mind. + +"Well, you know that during the siege I tried to do my duty as a +National Guard, and in my battalion was this Theophile Ferre of whom you +have already heard. A most intelligent creature, but poor as Job and +ferocious to a degree. He was a study to me, and, of late, he frequently +came to see me in the morning. I generally asked him to stay to +breakfast, for I liked to hear him talk of the future Commune, though I +had not the slightest faith in his visions. I considered him a downright +lunatic. About two or three days before this outbreak, he came, one +morning, looking as pale as a ghost, but evidently very much excited. +Before I had time to ask him the cause of his emotion, he exclaimed, +'This time there is no mistake about it; we are the masters.' I suppose +my face must have looked a perfect blank, for he proceeded to explain. +'In two days we'll hold our sittings at the Hotel-de-Ville, and the +Commune will be proclaimed. And now,' he added, 'what can I do for you, +citoyen Gil-Peres? You have always been very kind to me, and I am not +likely to forget it when I am at the top of the tree.' + +"I told him that I'd feel much obliged to him if he could induce Sardou +or Dumas to write me a good part, like the latter had done before, +because I wanted to be something more than a comic actor. But I saw that +he was getting angry. + +"'Do you mean to tell me,' he almost hissed, 'that you do not want to +belong to the Commune?' + +"'I haven't the slightest ambition that way,' I replied. 'People would +only make fun of me, and they would be perfectly right.' + +"'Why should people make fun of you?' + +"'Because, because----' I stammered. + +"He left me no time to finish. 'Because you are a small man,' he said. +'Well, I am a small man, too, and an ugly one into the bargain. I can +assure you that the world will hear as much of me before long as if I +had been an Adonis and a Hercules.' With this he disappeared, and I have +not seen him since." + +My purpose in reporting this conversation is to show that the Commune, +with all its evils, might have been prevented by the so-called +government of Versailles, if its members had been a little less eager to +get their snug berths comfortably settled. + +To return for a moment to Ferre and his companions, who, without +exception, were sober to a degree, though many were probably fond of +good cheer. The English writers, often very insufficiently informed, +have generally maintained the contrary, but I know for a fact that, +among the leaders of the movement, drunkenness was unknown. Ferre +himself was among the soberest of the lot: the few evenings I saw him he +drank either cold coffee or some cordial diluted with water. +Nevertheless, it was he who was directly responsible for the death of +Archbishop Darboy, whom he could and might have saved. + +In every modern tragedy there is a comic element, and in that of the +Commune the comic parts were, to a certain extent, sustained by Gambon, +Jourde, and a few others whom it is not necessary to mention. Gambon was +one of the mildest of creatures, and somewhat of a "communard malgre +lui." He would have willingly "left the settlement of all these vexed +questions to moral force," and he proposed once or twice a mission to +Versailles to that effect. He was about fifty, and a fine specimen of a +robust, healthy farmer. His love of "peaceful settlement" arose from an +experiment he had made in that way during the Empire, though it is very +doubtful whether strictly logical reasoners would have looked upon it as +"peaceful." Gambon had been a magistrate and a member of the National +Assembly during the Second Republic, and voted with the conservative +side. The advent of the Empire made an end of his parliamentary career, +and, in order to mark his disapproval of the Coup-d'Etat and its sequel, +Gambon refused to pay his taxes. The authorities seized one of his cows, +and were proceeding to sell it by auction, when Gambon, accompanied by a +good many of his former constituents, appeared on the scene. "This cow," +he shouts, "has been stolen from me by the Imperial fisc, and whosoever +buys it is nothing more than a thief himself." Result: not a single bid +for the cow, and the auctioneer was compelled to adjourn the sale for a +week. The auctioneer deemed it prudent to transport the cow to a +neighbouring commune, but Gambon had got wind of the affair, and adopted +the same expedient of moral persuasion. For nearly three months the +auctioneer transported the cow from one commune to another, and Gambon +followed him everywhere, until they reached the limits of the +department. Gambon apprehended that moral persuasion would have no +effect among strangers, and he let things take their course. The cost of +selling the cow amounted to about ten times its worth. As a matter of +course, the whole affair was revived by "les journaux bien pensants" at +the advent of the Commune, and Gambon was elected a member by the 10th +Arrondissement. Gambon managed to escape into Switzerland; but when the +amnesty was proclaimed, he returned, and solicited once more the +suffrages of his former constituents. At the Brasserie Saint-Severin, +Gambon was generally to be found at the ladies' table, about the +occupants of which I cannot speak, seeing that I was not introduced to +them. + +Jourde was one of two "financial delegates" of the Commune. He had been +a superior employe at the Bank of France, and was considered an +authority on financial affairs. It was he to whom the Marquis de Ploeuc, +the governor of the Bank, had handed the first million for the use of +the Commune. My friend, the doctor, had known him in his former +capacity, and often invited him to our table, to which invitation the +"paymaster-general" always eagerly responded. One evening, the +conversation turned upon the events which had preceded the request for +funds. "On the second day of the Commune," he said, "the want of money +began to be horribly felt. Eudes proposed that I should go and fetch +some from the Bank of France. To be perfectly candid, I did not care +about it. Had I been a soldier, I might have invaded the Bank at the +head of a regiment; but, to go and ask my former chief for a million or +so as a matter of course, was a different thing, and I had not the moral +courage. The director of the Bank of France is very little short of a +god to his subordinates, and, in spite of our boasted 'Liberty, +Fraternity, and Equality,' there is no nation so ready to bow down +before its governors as the French. Seeing that I hung back, Eudes +proposed to go himself, and did, refusing to take a single soldier with +him. But he did not want the responsibility of handling the million of +francs the governor placed at our disposal, so I was, after all, obliged +to beard my former chief in his own den. He was very polite, and called +me 'Monsieur le delegue aux finances,' but I would have preferred his +calling me all the names in the world, for I caught sight of a very +ironical smile at the corners of his mouth when, on taking leave of him, +he said, 'You may be my successor one day, Monsieur le delegue, and I +hope you will profit by the lessons I have always endeavoured to teach +my subordinates: obedience to the powers that be.'" + +Jourde was by no means a fool or a braggart; he was a very good +administrator, and exceedingly conscientious. Like most men who have had +the constant handling of important sums of money, he was absolutely +indifferent to it; and I feel certain that he did not feather his own +nest during the two months he had the chance. But he vainly endeavoured +to impress upon the others the necessity for economy. Every now and then +he tore his red hair and beard at the waste going on at the +Hotel-de-Ville, where, in the beginning, Assi was keeping open table. +Not that they were feasting, but every one who had a mind could sit +down, and, though the sum charged by the steward was moderate, two +francs for breakfast and two francs fifty centimes for dinner, the +number of self-invited guests increased day by day, and the +paymaster-general was at his wits' end to keep pace with the expenses. +The Central-Committee put a stop to this indiscriminate hospitality by +simply arresting Assi, whom I never saw. + +When the Commune decreed the demolition of the Vendome column, Jourde +was still more angry and in despair. He was, first of all, opposed to +its destruction, from a patriotic and common-sense point of view: +secondly, he objected to the waste of money that destruction entailed; +he endeavoured to cut the Gordian knot by stopping the workmen's pay. +Though three or four of his fellow "delegates" were absolutely of the +same opinion, the rest sent him a polite intimation that if the +necessary funds were not disbursed voluntarily they would send for them, +and take the opportunity, at the same time, to "put him against the +wall," and make an end of him. That night, Courbet, the painter, who had +been the prime mover in this work of destruction, came to the Brasserie +Saint-Severin from the Brasserie Andler, hard by, to taste the sweets of +his victory. His friend, Chaudey, of the _Siecle_, was no longer with +him. Like Mgr. Darboy, the Abbes Lagarde, Crozes, and Deguerry, he had +been arrested by Raoul Rigault as a hostage, in virtue of a decree by +the Commune, setting forth that every execution of a prisoner of war, +taken by the Versaillais, would be followed by the execution of three +hostages to be drawn by lot. + +Jourde did not wear a uniform; at any rate, I never saw him in one. I +happened to remark upon it one evening, and he then gave me a partial +explanation why the others did wear them in so ostentatious a manner. + +"It is really done to please the National Guards; they mistrust those +who remain 'in mufti;' they attribute their reluctance to don the +uniform to the fear of being compromised, to the wish to escape +unnoticed if things should go wrong. I grant you that all this does not +warrant the uniforms most of my colleagues do wear, but to the Latin +races the wisdom of Solomon lies in his magnificence, and they trace the +elevation of Joseph to its primary cause--his coat of many colours. I am +not only 'delegate of finances' and paymaster-general, but head cook and +bottle-washer in all that concerns monetary matters to the +Central-Committee. I have very few clerks to assist me in my work, and +fewer still upon whose honesty I can depend; consequently, I am +compelled to do a good deal of drudgery myself. Yesterday I received the +fortnightly accounts of Godillot,[91] the military tailors and +accoutrement manufacturers. They seemed to me simply monstrous, not so +much in respect of the prices charged for each uniform, as in respect of +the number of uniforms supplied. To have sent one of my clerks would +have been of no earthly use; there is an old Normand saying about +sending the cat to Rome and his coming back mewing; the clerk would have +simply come back mewing, saying that there was no mistake, so I went +myself. I saw the chief manager. + + [Footnote 91: The word "Godillot" has passed into the French + language, and, at present, means the soldier's shoes.--EDITOR.] + +"'I am positive there is no mistake, monsieur,' he said, 'though I may +tell you at once that I made the same remark when I passed the accounts; +the number of uniforms seemed to me inordinately large; mais il faut se +rendre a l'evidence, and I ticketed off every item by its corresponding +voucher. Still I felt that there is a terrible waste somewhere, and said +so to the head of the retail department. "If you will remain downstairs +for one hour," was the answer, "you will have the explanation." I can +only say the same to you, Monsieur le delegue.' + +"I did remain on that ground-floor for one hour," Jourde went on, "and, +during that time, no fewer than eight young fellows came in with +vouchers for complete uniforms of lieutenants or captains of the staff. +Most of them looked to me as if they had never handled a sword or rifle +in their lives--yardsticks seemed more in their line; and the airs they +gave themselves positively disgusted me; but I do not want another +reminder of the Central-Committee about my cheeseparing, so I'll let +things take their course. Look, here is a sample of how we deck +ourselves out quand nous allons en guerre." + +I looked in the direction pointed out to me, and beheld a somewhat dark +individual with lank, black hair, of ordinary height, or a little below +perhaps, dressed in a most extraordinary costume. He wore a blue Zouave +jacket, large baggy crimson breeches tucked into a pair of quasi-hessian +boots, a crimson sash, and a black sombrero hat with a red feather. A +long cavalry sabre completed the costume. Upon the whole, he carried +himself well, though there was a kind of swashbuckler air about him +which smacked of the stage. I was not mistaken; the scent or the smell +of the footlights was over it all. + +"This is Colonel Maxime Lisbonne, an actor by profession, who has taken +to soldiering with a vengeance," said Jourde. "There is no doubt about +his bravery, but he is as fit to be a colonel as I am to be a general. +It does not seem to strike my colleagues that, in no matter what +profession, one has to serve an apprenticeship, and, most of all, in the +science of soldiering; Maxime Lisbonne said he would be a colonel, so +they, without more ado, made him one.[92] He never moves without that +Turco at his heels." + + [Footnote 92: During my stay in Paris, 1881-86, as the + correspondent of a London evening paper, I had occasion to see + a great deal of M. Maxime Lisbonne, who is a prominent figure + at nearly every social function, such as premieres, the + unveiling of monuments, the opening of public buildings, etc. + The reason of this prominence has never been very clear to me, + unless it be on the assumption that the Paris journalists, even + the foremost of whom he treats on the footing of equality, + consider him "good copy." Only as late as a few years ago, he + made a considerable sensation in the Paris press by appearing + at one of M. Carnot's receptions in evening dress, redolent of + benzine, "because the dress had been lying _perdu_ for so many + years." It was he who started the famous "taverne du bagne," on + the Boulevard Rochechouart, to which "all Paris" flocked. + Previous to this, he had been the lessee of the Bouffes du + Nord, at which theatre he brought out Louise Michel's "Nadine." + Though by no means an educated man, he can, on occasions, + behave himself very well, and truth compels me to state that he + is very good-natured and obliging. One day, on the occasion of + an important murder trial, I failed to see Commandant Lunel at + the Palais de Justice, and was turning away disconsolately, + when, at a sign from M. Lisbonne, the sergeant of the Gardes de + Paris, who had refused to admit me on the presentation of my + card, relented. That same afternoon, at the mere expression of + his wish, the manager of the Jardin de Paris, which had just + been opened, presented me with a season ticket, or, to speak + correctly, placed my name on the permanent free list. In short, + I could mention a score of instances of a similar nature; all + tending to show that M. Maxime Lisbonne's "participation in the + events of the Commune" has had the effect of investing him with + a kind of social halo.--EDITOR.] + +On another occasion I saw the famous General Dombrowski, and the no less +famous Colonel or General la Cecilia. I only exchanged a few words with +the former, but I sat talking for a whole evening to the latter. He was +a short, spare, fidgety man, strongly pitted with small-pox, with a few +straggling hairs on the upper lip and chin. He was terribly +near-sighted, and wore a pair of thick spectacles. Nervous and restless +to a degree, but a voice of remarkable sweetness. His English was +faultless, with scarcely any accent, and I was told that he spoke every +European language and several Oriental ones with the same accuracy. He +was the only Frenchman who could converse with Dombrowski and the other +Poles in their native language. He was a clever mathematician, and, that +evening, he endeavoured to prove mathematically that Von Moltke had +committed several blunders, both at Sadowa and Sedan. "That kind of +thing," said Jourde, after he was gone, "was sure to 'fetch' the +Central-Committee; he always reminds me of the doctors in Moliere trying +to prove that one of their confreres had cured a patient contrary to the +principles of medicine. Mind, do not imagine that La Cecilia is not a +good soldier. He got all his grades in the Italian army, on the +battle-fields of '59-'60, and, during the late war, he directed the +brilliant defence of Alencon. But between a good soldier and a great +general there is a vast difference." + +Physically, Dombrowski was almost the counterpart of La Cecilia, with +the exception of the glasses and the small-pox. But while the +Frenchman--for Cecilia was a Frenchman notwithstanding his Italian +name--was modest though critical, the Pole was a braggart, though by no +means devoid of courage. Up to the very end, he sent in reports of his +victories, all of which were purely imaginary. Even as late as the 21st +of May, when the Versailles troops were carrying everything before them, +the newspaper-boys were shouting, "Brilliant victory of General +Dombrowski." Dombrowski had been invested with his high command under +the pretext that he had fought under Garibaldi and in the Polish +struggle against Russia. It transpired afterwards that he had never seen +Garibaldi nor Garibaldi him, and that, so far from having aided his own +countrymen, he had been a simple private in the Russian army. Still, he +was a better man than his countryman Wrobleski, who showed his courage +by going to bed while the Versaillais were shelling Vanves. + + * * * * * + +Among my papers I find a torn programme of a concert at the Tuileries +during the Commune. It reads as follows:-- + + COMMUNE DE PARIS, + + PALAIS DES TUILERIES + + Servant pour LA PREMIERE FOIS a une oeuvre patriotique + + GRAND CONCERT + + Au Profit des Veuves et Orphelins de la Republique. + ---- + _Sous le Patronage de la Commune et du Citoyen Dr. Rousselle._ + ---- + Tout porteur de billet pris a l'avance pourra sans retribution, visiter + le Palais des Tuileries. + +The rest is missing, but I remember that among the artists who gave +their services were Mesdames Agar and Bordas; MM. Coquelin cadet, and +Francis Thome, the pianist. + +I did not take my ticket beforehand, consequently was not entitled to a +stroll through the Palace previous to the concert. When I entered the +Salle des Marechaux, where the concert was to take place, I felt +thankful that the trial had been spared to me, and I mentally ejaculated +a wish that I might never see that glorious apartment under similar +circumstances. The traces of neglect were too painful to behold, though +I am bound to say that I could detect no proofs of wilful damage. My +wish was gratified with a vengeance. A little more than a month +afterwards, the building was in flames, and, at the hour I write, it is +being razed to the ground. + +I did not stay long; I heard Madame Agar, dressed in deep mourning, +declaim "the Marseillaise," and M. Thome execute a fantasia on +well-known operatic airs. Some of the reserved seats were occupied by +the minor dignitaries of the Commune, but the greater part of the place +was filled by working men and their spouses and the very _petite +bourgeoisie_. The latter seemed to be in doubt whether to enjoy +themselves or not; but the former were very vociferous, and had +evidently made up their minds that the Commune was the best of all +possible regimes, seeing that it enabled them to listen to a concert in +a palace for a mere trifle. "That's equality, as I understand it, +monsieur," said a workman in a very clean blouse to me, at the same time +making room for me on the seat next to him. He and his companion +beguiled the time between the first and second number on the programme +by sucking barley-sugar. + +About a month later--on Wednesday, May 17th, but I will not be +certain--I was present at the first gala-performance organized by the +Commune, although the Versailles troops were within gunshot of the +fortifications. This time I had taken a ticket beforehand. The +performance was to take place at the Opera-Comique, and long before the +appointed hour the Boulevards and the streets adjoining the theatre were +crowded with idlers, anxious to watch the arrival of the bigwigs under +whose immediate patronage the entertainment was to be given. The papers +had been full of it for days and days beforehand; the posters on the +walls had set forth its many attractions. In accordance with traditional +usage on such occasions, the programme was a miscellaneous one, and the +wags did not fail to remark that the Commune ought to have struck out +something original instead of blindly following the precedents of +tyrants; but in reality the Commune had no choice. Few of the principal +artists of the subsidized theatres were available, and there was an +evident reluctance to co-operate among some of those who were; hence it +was decided to give fragments of such operas or comedies, calculated to +stimulate still further the patriotic and republican sentiments with +which the majority of the spectators were credited. There had been less +difficulty in recruiting the orchestra, and a very fair band was got +together. A great many invitations had been issued; few of the seats, +especially in the better parts, were paid for. + +All the entrances had been thrown open, and around every one there was a +considerable gathering, almost exclusively composed of National Guards +in uniform, and women of the working classes, who enthusiastically +cheered each known personage on his arrival. The latter were too +magnificent for words, the clanking sabres, resplendent uniforms, and +waving plumes only paled in contrast with the toilettes of their female +companions who hung proudly on their arms. For them, at any rate, "le +jour de gloire etait arrive." + +The crowd, especially the fairer portion of it, was decidedly +enthusiastic, perhaps somewhat too enthusiastic, in their ultra-cordial +greetings and recognition of the ladies, so suddenly promoted in the +social scale. Melanie and Clarisse would have been satisfied with a less +literal interpretation of "Auld Lang Syne," as they stepped out of the +carriages, the horses of which belied the boast that at the end of the +siege there were 30,000 serviceable animals of that kind left. + +The performance had been timed for half-past seven; at half-past eight, +the principal box set apart for the chiefs of the new regime was still +empty. As I have already said, disquieting rumours had been afloat for +the last few days with regard to the approach of the Versailles troops, +the guns had been thundering all day long, and, what was worse, for the +last forty-eight hours no "startling victory" had been announced either +on the walls of Paris or in the papers. Some of the "great men," among +the audience in the stalls and dress-circle, and easily to be +distinguished from the ruck of ordinary mortals, professed themselves +unable to supply authentic information, but as the performance had not +been countermanded, they suggested that things were not so bad as they +looked. + +The theatre was crammed from floor to ceiling, and the din was something +terrible. The heat was oppressive; luckily the gas was burning low +because the companies were as yet unable to provide a full supply. There +were few people out of uniform in either stalls or dress-circle, but the +upper parts were occupied by blouses with a fair sprinkling of cloth +coats. The women seemed to me to make the most infernal noise. The two +stage-boxes were still empty; in the others there were a good many +journalists and ladies who had come to criticize the appearance and +demeanour of the "dames de nos nouveaux gouvernants." There was one box +which attracted particular attention; one of its occupants, evidently a +"dame du monde," was in evening dress, wearing some magnificent +diamonds, while it was very patent that those of her own social status +had made it a point to dress as simply as possible. I have never been +able to find out the name of the lady; I had not seen her before, I have +not seen her since. + +At about a quarter to nine the doors of the stage-boxes were flung back, +and the guests of the evening appeared. But alas, they were not the +chief members of the Commune, only the secondary characters. It is +doubtful, though, whether the former could have been more magnificently +attired than were the latter. Their uniforms were positively hidden +beneath the gold lace. + +Immediately, the band struck up the inevitable "Marseillaise;" the +spectators in the upper galleries joined in the chorus; the building +shook to its foundations, and, amidst the terrible din, one could +distinctly hear the crowds on the Boulevards re-echoing the strains. The +occupants of the state boxes gave the signal for the applause, then the +curtain rose, and Mdlle. Agar, in peplos and cothurnus, recited the +strophes once more. When the curtain fell, the audience rushed to the +foyer or out into the open air; at any rate, the former was not +inconveniently crowded. Among those strolling up and down I noticed the +lady of the diamonds, on the arm of a rather common-looking individual +in a gorgeous uniform. I believe I caught sight of the American +Minister, but I will not be certain. + +This time the curtain rose upon an act of a comedy; the spectators, +however, did not seem to be vastly interested; they were evidently +waiting for the duo to be sung by Madame Ugalde and a tenor whose name I +do not remember. He was, I heard, an amateur of great promise. + +Scarcely had Madame Ugalde uttered her first notes, when a bugler of the +franc-tireurs of the Commune stepped in front of an empty box and +sounded the charge. The effect was startling. The audience rose to a +man, and rushed to the exits. In less than five minutes the building was +empty. I had let the human avalanche pass by. When I came outside I was +told that it was a false alarm, or, rather, a practical joke; but no +one re-entered the theatre. Thus ended the gala-performance of the +Commune, and a careful observer would have had no difficulty in +foreseeing the end of the latter. The bugler had, unconsciously perhaps, +sounded its death-knell. + + +THE END. + + + + +D. APPLETON & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. + + +[Illustration: Christopher Columbus.] + +_THE STORY OF COLUMBUS._ + +By ELIZABETH EGGLESTON SEELYE; edited by Dr. EDWARD EGGLESTON. With 100 +Illustrations by Allegra Eggleston. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75. + + +[Illustration: Caravel.] + +This book is the result of most extensive investigations, which have +been carefully verified by the eminent historian and novelist, Dr. +Eggleston. It is not too much to say that the whole world has been drawn +upon for material by the author and the artist. The fruits of these +investigations are presented in a popular, readable, always entertaining +form. While the book contains all the results of modern inquiry offered +in the bulkiest biographies, the story is here condensed and the +material selected with a view to an always interesting narrative. To a +considerable extent the plan of both text and illustrations is like that +of Eggleston's "Household History of the United States." It is hardly +necessary to say more regarding the fitness of this volume for a place +in every American private, public, and school library. + +[Illustration: Catapult.] + + "The purpose of the writer of this book has been to relate the + life of the greatest of discoverers in a manner interesting and + delightful to the general reader, while producing a narrative + strictly conformed to the facts as given by the best ancient + authorities and developed by the latest researches of scholars. + There is here no attempt to discuss the _pros_ and _cons_ of + debated points in Columbian history. Such investigators as + Navarrete, Mr. Harrisse, Signor Staglieno, and our own learned + Mr. Justin Winsor, have wrought abundantly and with large results + upon these problems. It is the purpose of the present work to + tell the story as understood through the labors of these + scholars, leaving aside ponderous discussions which in a book + intended for general reading would tire without enlightening. + +[Illustration: Image found at Santo Domingo.] + + "Though disclaiming original investigation beyond the careful use + of the leading authorities, Mrs. Seelye has been at much pains + not to give the reader the discredited myths used by the old + school of biographers. It is a poor service to relate as history + an interesting story that is not true, or to lift an historical + figure into a heroism far from his real character. To give the + facts as we know them, and to show Columbus as he really was, has + been the sincere endeavor of the writer of this book. The story + is wonderful enough without the embellishment of fiction; the man + is interesting enough when painted in his real colors."--_From + the Introduction, by Edward Eggleston._ + + + + +[Illustration: Brer Rabbit Preaches.] + +_ON THE PLANTATION._ + +By JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS, author of "Uncle Remus." With 23 Illustrations +by E. W. KEMBLE, and Portrait of the Author. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. + + +The most personal and in some respects the most important work which Mr. +Harris has published since "Uncle Remus." Many will read between the +lines and see the autobiography of the author. In addition to the +stirring incidents which appear in the story, the author presents a +graphic picture of certain phases of Southern life which have not +appeared in his books before. There are also new examples of the +folk-lore of the negroes, which became classic when presented to the +public in the pages of "Uncle Remus." + + "The book is in the characteristic vein which has made the author + so famous and popular as an interpreter of plantation + character."--_Rochester Union and Advertiser._ + + "Those who never tire of Uncle Remus and his stories--with whom + we would be accounted--will delight in Joe Maxwell and his + exploits."--_London Saturday Review._ + + "Altogether a most charming book."--_Chicago Times._ + + "Really a valuable, if modest, contribution to the history of the + civil war within the Confederate lines, particularly on the eve + of the catastrophe. While Mr. Harris, in his preface, professes + to have lost the power to distinguish between what is true and + what is imaginative in his episodical narrative, the reader + readily finds the clew. Two or three new animal fables are + introduced with effect; but the history of the plantation, the + printing-office, the black runaways, and white deserters, of whom + the impending break-up made the community tolerant, the coon and + fox hunting, forms the serious purpose of the book, and holds the + reader's interest from beginning to end. Like 'Daddy Jake,' this + is a good anti-slavery tract in disguise, and does credit to Mr. + Harris's humanity. There are amusing illustrations by E. W. + Kemble."--_New York Evening Post._ + + "A charming little book, tastefully gotten up.... Its simplicity, + humor, and individuality would be very welcome to any one who was + weary of the pretentiousness and the dull obviousness of the + average three-volume novel."--_London Chronicle._ + + "The mirage of war vanishes and reappears like an ominous shadow + on the horizon, but the stay-at-home whites of the Southern + Confederacy were likewise threatened by fears of a servile + insurrection. This dark dread exerts its influence on a narration + which is otherwise cheery with boyhood's fortunate freedom from + anxiety, and sublime disregard for what the morrow may bring + forth. The simple chronicle of old times 'on the plantation' + concludes all too soon; the fire burns low and the tale is ended + just as the reader becomes acclimated to the mid-Georgian + village, and feels thoroughly at home with Joe and Mink. The 'Owl + and the Birds,' 'Old Zip Coon,' the 'Big Injun and the Buzzard,' + are joyous echoes of the plantation-lore that first delighted us + in 'Uncle Remus.' Kemble's illustrations, evidently studied from + life, are interspersed in these pages of a book of consummate + charm."--_Philadelphia Ledger._ + + +New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS*** + + +******* This file should be named 32343.txt or 32343.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/3/4/32343 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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